United States AI Solar System (2)

Thank-you Eartheart. I was out of town for a couple of days -- and when I returned, I found rat-poison in one of my shoes. Do you see the true-character of those who oppose me?? Let me just say that I now authorize whatever means necessary and appropriate, to deal with such activities. This includes dealing with those who wish me harm (in any way, shape, or form -- in-body or out-of-body -- in planning, ordering, or carry-out stages). I have been extremely tactful and discrete. My internet-activities have been a rather quiet back-channel for those in the know. It was never intended for those I come in contact-with in my local-community -- yet someone alerted them to my "madness". It's SO Obvious. I haven't been fooled -- and I'm not fooled -- even though I am a "completely ignorant fool". It stinks when people stick their noses in other people's business. I'm going silent -- not because I've been threatened and harassed -- but because no one has properly discussed my concerns with me over the past seven years of internet posting (and I'm not necessarily referring to forum-members). At this point -- I have no sympathy or mercy -- regarding the worst of the worst. None whatsoever.

I have come to the conclusion that I am finished -- and that I will be very harshly punished for attempting to make things better for everyone -- everywhere. The creation of Male and Female Human Physicality was probably heresy and rebellion in this universe. Freedom (even Responsible Freedom) is probably heresy and rebellion in this universe. I have never felt more helpless and desperate than I feel presently. Ethics seem to be of no consequence in this universe. Absolute Obedience seems to be EVERYTHING in this universe. I hope everyone is happy with what's coming -- and I hope someone remembers me -- because I don't think I'll be part of what's coming -- whether I wish to be, or not. I think my fate is sealed -- and that it's not a good one. But none of you seem to give a damn about any of this.

I have observed (even in myself) that the Creation v Evolution debate is often Closed-Minded Pseudo-Intellectual Trench-Warfare -- rather than being Eclectic, Open-Minded, and Multi-Disciplinary. What if Darwin's Theory mostly applies to that which preceded the Human Being? What if most everything evolved over billions of years -- and that a product of this ancient evolutionary process (some form of humanoid) created the Human Being -- and that this creation (or genetic engineering) might've been an Illegal Innovation? Think about it.

Imagine a Pre-Human Reptilian-Theocracy led by a Reptilian-Queen who expected Absolute-Obedience. This Hypothetical-Queen might've been the Benchmark of Everything. The 'Law of God' might've been every word that proceedeth out of the 'Mouth of God'. There might've been no Written 'Word of God'. There might've been no Constitution and Bill of Rights. There might've been no Governmental Body of any sort. Everything might've revolved around this Hypothetical Reptilian-Queen. Perhaps this state of affairs existed for millions, or even billions, of years. But what if an ambitious and clever underling decided to create the Human-Race and Responsible-Freedom -- clearly in defiance of the Reigning Queen? That would mean war, wouldn't it? War in Heaven, perhaps? What if the Humans eventually lost the war? What if the Humans have been punished, tortured, enslaved, taxed, lied-to, etc, etc, etc -- for tens of thousands of years -- by the Hypothetical Reptilian Empire -- to send a clear message to the entire universe -- to never, ever attempt anything similar to the Human-Rebellion? Is Humanity on the Verge of Extermination? Will Humanity revert to a Reptilian Theocracy? Status Quo Ante Bellum? Think about it.

Some of you need to think very, very deeply about an Ancient One-Race, One-Religion, One-Government, One-God Theocratic Universe -- AND the Advent of Someone With a 'Better Idea' -- who Created a New-Race, New-Religion, New-Government, Poly-Theistic Solar System -- and the Reaction of the Galactic Powers That Be. I'm very, very, very , very serious about this. The problems connected with all of this are UNIMAGINABLE -- from the Innovation and the Status-Quo points of view. I will elaborate later --  but I am so upset, I can hardly type. Once again, are we about to experience 'Status Quo Ante Bellum'? Think about it.

You just keep ignoring me, and writing me off -- AT YOUR OWN PERIL. Some of you are guilty of GROSS NEGLIGENCE. YOU KNOW BETTER -- YET YOU DO NOTHING AND SAY NOTHING.

Mercuriel wrote:

Lets go even further...

INRI = Inanna - Nimrod - Marduk Ra or just Ra at that time - And Isis...

Moses with Horns

> Horns signifying both Genetic Lineage to the Anuks and "Right to Rule" as the gODS had 'em in abundance due to Them being Master Geneticists...

For instance - Enlil was known as the Bull and Marduk was known as the Ram...

Da Vinci was trying to tell Us something here and most have missed It.





Interesting eh ?

And nope - You're not finished just yet anyways. Almost - But not yet...

Is the United States of the Solar System a Representative-Republic or a Representative-Theocracy? Is the 'Separation of Church and State' intended to keep a Good God or a Bad God out of government and governance? Think about it. Is the 'God of This World' a Good God or a Bad God? As blasphemous and irreligious as this sounds, what if Washington D.C. were superimposed onto Vatican City -- with 10,000 PhD Representatives -- a Ceremonial and Ambassadorial PhD King and PhD Queen of the United States of the Solar System -- and a Very Human, Very Visible, and Very Imperfect Ceremonial, Ambassadorial (and Authority of Last Resort) PhD 'God' (making sure that things didn't spiral out of control -- but not micromanaging or manipulating)???!!! What if half of the PhD Representatives resided in Italy -- and participated in daily legislative sessions within Vatican City? What if the other half of the PhD Representatives were spread throughout the Solar System -- communicating and voting via the InterPlaNet???!!! If Fox News broadcast this proposal -- can you imagine being one of the people answering the angry and livid calls from the General Public???!!! Can you imagine the Official Statements from the Political and Religious Leaders of the World???!!! Can you imagine the responses from Sirius and Orion???!!! Would we suffer a Drac-Attack???!!! Would a Solar System 'God' be the Real Deal -- or just a Propped-Up Puppet Who Agreed to Sell-Out the Human Race??? Would a Solar System God be the God of the Universe -- or just a Local God?? Would there be a Human God and a Reptilian God? Does Michael-Horus-Jesus have Dual-Citizenship?? This 'God Issue' could be EXTREMELY complex and problematic -- in the context of a hypothetical Reptilian v Human Galactic Civil War. Sherri Shriner says that Aliens Are Not Our Friends. But what if Aliens Are Our Relatives???!!! Just think of that Hundred Mile-Long Alien-Spacecraft as being a Bad@$$teroid Mother-In-Law Ship!!!! There's a reason why some of us lead -- and why some of us are merely internet warriors!!! What continues to REALLY worry me -- is whether the Human Race is capable of properly debating and discussing this sort of thing???!!! Is there a critical mass of people who are REALLY doing their homework regarding Politics and Theology in a New Solar System and Brave New Universe???!!! I know there are certain individuals who read my tripe -- completely understand it -- and are capable of intelligently discussing everything in this thread -- yet choose to remain silent or mostly silent. This makes me EXTREMELY apprehensive. I am keeping this tempest in a teapot safely within the confines of this website -- but a proper conversation is NOT occurring. I had hoped that this could be a Mostly Private Back-Channel -- with some meaningful discussions -- even with Alphabet Agency Interns -- but this isn't happening. It seems as if everyone is watching gleefully as I continue to post Provocative Non-PC Speculations and Proposals -- which can and will be (and probably already have been) used against me. I will be MOST interested to learn who said what about me. What did YOU say -- and when did you say it??? I came in peace. Shall I leave you to your own devices -- or will ET simply leave us in pieces???

I continue to conceptualize the possibility of the historical and contemporary existence of an Orion-Sirius-Egyptian-Roman Empire, administered in this solar system by a hypothetical Reincarnating Osiris-Isis-Horus-Set Royal Family -- wherein the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church would be a highly important and relevant piece of this puzzle. I can't prove this -- and I don't even have a lot of evidence -- but it is part of my ongoing science-fiction series, which I am sharing with the very few of you who bother to read my tripe. I continue to think that Theology is a HUGE part of Politics -- regardless of any problems with texts, history, personalities, ethics, whoever, and whatever. It's still important. My Goal is a New Reformation of the City-States, which retains the best and discards the worst. Once again, I do not wish to start from scratch, or to reinvent the wheel. God and the way God runs the Universe, is a HUGE part of properly understanding Solar System Governance -- especially regarding whether the United States of the Solar System has more than a snowball's chance in hell of being established, and of surviving for more than a generation. I've been told that 'in 20 years, you'll be working for us' and that, in essence, my bad-side would manifest itself. I don't wish to elaborate. The Mind, Character, Personality, Nature, and Government of God are HUGE ISSUES. We should take off our shoes -- because the ground upon which we are standing is HOLY GROUND. Please listen to this previously posted link, for a very balanced theological conversation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBjkZ5WzBfc Note especially the material in the second hour.

I keep trying to imagine a peaceful and happy solar system, with highly ethical and competent leadership, and without a lot of negative drama. Solar System Governance should be somewhat boring and uneventful. I envision continuing doing what I'm doing right now, but in a much more sophisticated and refined manner. I'm really not joking when I speak of a 600 square-foot office-apartment, a Cray, and a Fisk! I am joking when I speak of a Personal Sport-Model Bad@$$teroid and Six Goddesses! One more time, the 'God' portion of the hypothetical New Solar System is VERY important. Perhaps Male and Female Human Physicality -- combined with Responsible Freedom -- are a Rebellious-Invention in a Theocratic Hermaphrodite-Reptilian Universe. I don't know that this is the case, and I am VERY, VERY, VERY sorry for any disrespect or irreverence, especially if this hypothesis is completely in error. However, if this theory is even partially correct, it is VERY important to determine how we might bring that which exists in this solar system -- into harmony with the rest of the universe -- or how to conduct business in a manner which does not cause the rest of the universe to seek to exterminate ALL of us. When I say that I feel as if I am in conflict with Myself, Divinity, and Humanity -- I do not imply hostility or hatred -- but rather a fundamental idealistic struggle -- which seeks to overcome all obstacles to the achievement of a Genuinely Heavenly Universe. A New Solar System must be considered in harmony with a Brave New Universe. The way things have been run throughout the universe, for billions and trillions of years, may not change anytime soon, and perhaps for good-reason -- but where does that leave the Human Race, in this little solar system? Was our punishment and extermination decided upon Hundreds of Thousands of Years Ago? "We can change!!" might be irrelevant. "The decision is made"? I would encourage all of you to study the Bible, even if you don't believe a word in it, and even if you don't believe in God (with an upper or lower case 'g'). We need the mental and spiritual discipline and exercise connected with serious Bible-study. I have made some study suggestions below, and I didn't pull them out of an anatomical black-hole. Something is VERY wrong with me, on a physical, mental, and spiritual level, but I still have enough sense to point you in productive areas of research. I feel VERY attacked, and I might not get better anytime soon. However, I don't think I'll get worse anytime soon. I think I'm pretty much stuck in the muck, right where I am. I am not leadership-material in the real-world, but I am a serious force to deal with in the theoretical-world. I mean absolutely no harm, and I completely agree with the Hippocratic Oath "First, Do No Harm". Don't stop thinking about the Idealistic Integration of Theoretical-Theology, Theoretical-Governance, and Science-Fiction. Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, and "V" are only the beginning. Alex Collier is absolutely right when he says that Hollywood is really "clued-in" regarding all of the esoteric stuff. I simply have a HUGE problem with the regressive-influences in Hollywood. I don't even want to begin to think about how nasty the closed-door meetings get in Hollywood, New-York, Washington, DC, London, and Rome. Some of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. The horror.

Siriusly, people in the 'know' have known a lot of damning things about a lot of things and people for a very long time -- but a censoring power rules above them which wishes to keep sweeping everything under the rug. I discovered this and that about this and that -- but I simply had to move on -- rather than involving myself in pointless trench-warfare with the BTB (Bastards That Be). I still wonder what sort of Galactic Arrangement this Solar System and the Human Race exist under??!! I suspect that it's NOT a nice one. Attempted reforms might be pointless. Resistance might really be futile. This is the major reason I keep harping on Solar System Governance -- like a broken CD. This is the thread that never ends. It just goes on and on, my friends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_47KVJV8DU "End the Thread! End the Thread! End the Thread!"

I recently joked about the Solar System being ruled from Pluto -- by a bunch of Plutocrats!! But seriously, it might be fun to think about a United States of the Solar System Plutocracy! Consider the United States of the Solar System as being completely human (or mostly human) -- and Nibiru basically being an Ellis Island of the Galaxy for Freedom-Seeking Reptilians and Greys -- in a Circular Orbit, Safely Beyond the Orbit of Pluto! I'm assuming that this Solar System is a Human Island in a Reptilian Universe (for modeling purposes). I'm having a very difficult time transitioning from my stupid and useless real world life -- to my exciting and important out of this world imaginary life. I'm not sure if I actually crave this sort of life -- or if my insecurity DRIVES me to think about this sort of thing. I suspect that current Solar System Governance is an absolute nightmare -- especially if one really had clear vision and compassion. The view from the top might REALLY suck. I keep imagining myself being on the Moon -- looking at Earth -- and weeping and weeping and weeping. I kid you not. As you well know, my conceptual modeling is quite strange and somewhat insane -- and I'm REALLY pulling my punches and restraining myself. I really am. I'm also probably completely discrediting myself, and possibly ruining whatever future I might've had. This whole thing seems like a complete loss and a complete waste of time -- yet I keep on keeping on -- but WHY? It takes all kinds -- but WHY? The show must go on -- but WHY?

I wish to make it clear that I support the individuality of various races, nations, and religions -- but I do not support Uber-Alles Nationalism. Once again -- what is the proper definition and role of 'God' in Solar System Governance? This might very well be the trickiest and stickiest part of this whole 'Governance' subject. A lot of this probably is dependent upon how this universe really works. It might not be up to us locals. I am supportive of the human race -- yet I don't know the whole story regarding the origins, nature, history, and destiny of humanity. I continue to fly-blind -- just like most everyone else. I have no inside contacts. I don't do regression-hypnosis -- or anything supernatural and creepy. I just passively research and reflect. That's all. I belong to no secret societies or think-tanks (other than participating in this website). This thread continues to be merely a Study-Guide -- although I am quite committed to the concept of Responsible-Freedom. I have made certain proposals in rather definite ways (one in particular) -- yet I desire that these proposals be highly refined. I consider them to be 'diamonds in the rough'. My strange speculations are intended to make all of us think in ways which might result in the 'Eureka Phenomenon'. A lot of this is up to YOU. I can lead a horse to water -- but I can't make it pee. Is that how it goes? Siriusly -- what if Archangel Michael was (and is) NOT like Max Von Sydow -- but rather more like Dr. Who -- Alaya in 'Dr. Who' -- Anna in 'V' -- or Vala Mal Doran??? One more thing. What if Popes and Queens were elected by at least the Priests and Aristocrats -- in a televised electoral process? What if they served ten-year terms -- and then became Popes and Queens Emeritus? This question is especially relevant if Popes and Queens rule the world -- with or without the Queen of Heaven and God of This World. What if the United States of the Solar System ruled the Solar System -- as an Open Secret Government -- with the Pope of Rome and the Queen of England serving as the Ceremonial King and Queen of the United States of the Solar System (especially if they were openly-elected and non-bloodline -- with 10 year terms)? What if the Roman Catholic Church Joined the Anglican Communion???!!! OMG!!! What if the current and hidden God of This World and Queen of Heaven retired -- and advised a New and Open Solar System Administrator? How might such a hypothetical administrator be chosen or elected? What would Orion and Sirius say? I'm presently thinking of various 'prophecies' (including Biblical prophecy) as being a Scripted Punishing Sentence Against Humanity -- rather than being a Pre-Cognitive History of the Future). How would YOU set up Church and State in a New Solar System -- with a Clean-Sheet of Paper and No Historical Baggage??? Think about it.

I can't begin to tell you how much it hurts to try to deal with all of this. I come from a conservative Christian background -- and I am trying to stay as close to the original path as possible -- but every post of mine is full of heresy and even blasphemy -- but I really have absolutely no hatred or feelings of ill-will toward anyone. I'm simply trying to consider possibilities which are not widely considered. I think DiVinci and Michelangelo are extremely interesting. I think they both knew a helluva lot -- but that they had to be very careful -- because of potentially nasty Powers That Be -- human and otherwise. Same goes for the Bible. I'll be VERY interested to see where the Quest of the Historical Jesus ultimately leads. I continue to like the Teachings Attributed to Jesus -- but the REAL story concerning Jesus might be more disorienting and upsetting than most of us can imagine. My inner thoughts are MOST upsetting. I think the religious world (all religions) are going to go NUTS as the REAL TRUTH emerges. I'm trying to be as traditional and respectful as possible -- but I see nothing but trouble for the next few decades -- and possibly for the rest of the 21st century. The chickens, greys, reptilians, and who-knows-what, are coming home to roost, and probably to do some heavy-duty @$$-kicking. Go easy on me guys. I'm quite sensitive -- and I can't stand the sight of blood. I've been recently joking about living in an old decommissioned missile-silo! Unfortunately, if the excrement really contacts the refrigeration-system, I doubt that there is any place to hide, anywhere in the solar system. Anyway, I presently feel as if I have very little to lose, so here goes another speculative what-if episode.

To recap -- what if the Roman Catholic Church joined the Anglican Communion? What if the new Anglo-Catholic Church were headquartered in Vatican City? What if the United States of the Solar System were headquartered in Vatican City? What if the Monarchy and the Papacy united to become the King and Queen of the United States of the Solar System -- doing double duty as the King and Queen of the Anglo-Catholic Church? What if the King and Queen both had PhD's in Solar System Studies and Governance? What if they were non-bloodline positions -- with 10 year terms? What if they were elected by the 10,000 Representatives? What if the sacred and secular governance aspects were handled by the United States of the Solar System? What if the sacred and secular ceremonial aspects were distinctly Anglican? What if theological issues were debated and decided by the United States of the Solar System? What if the 10,000 Representatives of the United States of the Solar System all had PhD's in Solar System Studies and Governance? What if the hypothetical and hidden Queen of Heaven and God of This World were replaced by a visible, but largely observational, ceremonial, and ambassadorial Solar System Administrator(s) -- who might be an Authority of Last Resort? What if most sessions occurred within the relatively new and large building next to St. Peter's? What if special sessions and ceremonies occurred within St. Peter's? What if the Secret Government and the United Nations were effectively replaced by the United States of the Solar System? What if that 1875 Cavaille-Coll Pipe-Organ (by Fisk or Reiger perhaps) were installed as originally designed and intended in St. Peter's? Have I caused enough trouble for one post already??? You City-State and Moon People (and Other Than People) must just LOVE me!!! I hear that the Jesuits hate me!!! But guys -- instead of the poison-cup -- could you just buy me a Ducati 1098R -- and give me a couple of weeks -- if you know what I mean??? Mind you, I just keep forcing this sort of thing into cyberspace to make all of us think. I'm not saying that this is the way things should be. I'm not saying 'my way, or the highway'. Can you imagine the anger, confusion, and running in the streets if my ideas were implemented? But really, I tend to think that we're somewhat screwed no matter what we do. The problems which confront us are that bad. The Horror. Enough for Now. More Later. This is getting way too scary for me. I need to stop.


My posting regarding how things work and how things should work in the solar system has been going on for several years now -- with very little response or conversation. Is it because I'm getting it wrong -- getting it right -- no one gets it -- or no one cares??? I feel very shut out. I feel way out of any sort of loop. Is this too simple? Is this too hard? Should I beg? Should I kneel? Should I shout? What should I do? What should I not do? Should I do anything at all? I didn't do much for decades because I sensed that what has happened over the past couple of years would indeed be the case -- and I was right. I tried to reason with people from time to time -- but to no avail. It seemed pointless then -- and it seems pointless now. Perhaps my work is done. Perhaps the task I came into this life to perform was an impossible job. My teeth are ground-down and I feel horrible 24/7. I sense that Humanity Can Do Nothing Right in the Eyes of the Galactic Powers That Be. I'm feeling no love. I sense that I have promoted love -- lifetime after lifetime -- but that love is not the way things work in this universe. I have more recently been promoting the concept of Responsibility -- with Love, Freedom, and Response-Ability orbiting this central concept. So far there seems to be very little interest in this innovation -- which shouldn't surprise me, at this late date. Even the Teachings of Jesus seem to have been largely ignored for 2,000 years -- and thousands of Horrible Images of Jesus Christ as a Human Sacrifice continue to be paraded and displayed throughout the world -- without anyone seeming to notice the problems connected with this. So why should I be surprised when my tripe is trodden under foot??? Is this the End of Humanity? Is the Decision Made? "Stupid Latter-Day Luddite Me for Liking the 'Bach B-Minor Mass'!!"

It might be interesting if Bill and Kerry commented on this website in general -- and this thread in particular!! BTW -- What is Anchor doing these days?? I think I know -- but I don't want to talk about it. I try to remain comfortably numb and neutral. I sidestep SO much. Imagine a debate between LORD TRANCOSO and LORD DRACO (Moderated by Bill Ryan and Kerry Cassidy -- with Kerry Constantly Interrupting, and Asking Most of the Questions)!!! How about having orthodoxymoron with his three devoted robots from Mystery Science Theater 3000 sitting on the front row (talking out-loud throughout the debate)??!! How about having a MST3K Reunion -- with scathing sarcasm directed toward old Project Camelot and Project Avalon interviews???!!!

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6N39yy083E 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQUMJNXrW6U 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US0uaINEpys 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCqU9iTms14 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKUyznbgJzA 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NWVvZu71kA 7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJHcq85IlQE 8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIbMWzeGORQ 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcAa2pRoV6E 10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvakEBJk8dw 11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itxqtFjT40w 12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiHn6M6_UFM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Science_Theater_3000 Mystery Science Theater 3000, often abbreviated MST3K, is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc.. The show premiered on KTMA in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 24, 1988. It later aired on the The Comedy Channel (later Comedy Central) for another six seasons until its cancellation in 1997. The show was then picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel and aired for another three seasons until its final cancellation in August 1999.

The show mainly features a man and his robot sidekicks who are imprisoned on a space station by an evil scientist and forced to watch a selection of bad movies as part of a psychological experiment, often, but not limited to, science fiction B-movies, and frequently preceded by short public domain educational films. To stay sane, the man and his robots provide a running commentary on each film, making fun of its flaws and wisecracking their way through each reel in the style of a movie-theater peanut gallery. Each film is presented with a superimposition of the man and robots' silhouettes along the bottom of the screen. The film is interspersed with skits tied in the theme of the film or episode.

Hodgson originally played the stranded man, Joel Robinson, for four and a half seasons. When Hodgson left in 1993, series head writer Michael J. Nelson replaced him as new victim Mike Nelson, and continued in the role for the rest of the show's run. The robots, Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, and Gypsy, are puppets created from a variety of household objects, manipulated and voiced by other cast members that rotated over the course of the show's run.

During its eleven years, 197 episodes and one feature film, MST3K attained critical acclaim. The series won a Peabody Award in 1993, was nominated for two Emmy Awards (in the category of Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program) in 1994 and 1995,[1] and was nominated for a CableACE Award. In 2007, James Poniewozik listed Mystery Science Theater 3000 as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time."[2]

Premise

Set in the "not too distant future," two mad scientists, Dr. Clayton Forrester, played by Trace Beaulieu, and his sidekick Dr. Laurence Erhardt, played by Josh Weinstein, launch Joel Robinson (Hodgson), a janitor working for Gizmonic Institute, into space and force him to watch truly horrible B-movies in order to measure how much bad movie watching it takes to drive a person crazy, and to pinpoint the perfect B-movie to use as a weapon in Dr. Forrester's scheme of world domination. The sycophantic TV's Frank, played by Frank Conniff, replaced Dr. Erhardt in the second season premiere on the Comedy Channel, following Weinstein's departure from the series. Trapped on board the ship, named the Satellite of Love, Joel builds four sentient robots: Tom Servo (voiced first by J. Elvis Weinstein, then by Kevin Murphy beginning in Season 2), Crow T. Robot (voiced first by Trace Beaulieu, then by Bill Corbett beginning in Season , Gypsy (voiced first by Weinstein, then by Jim Mallon and later by Patrick Brantseg, both using a falsetto voice), who steers the ship, and Cambot, the recorder of the experiments who is visible only in a mirror during the opening credits and occasionally interacts with the others. Also making intermittent "appearances" in the show's early years is Magic Voice (Mary Jo Pehl), a disembodied female voice whose primary role is to announce the start of the first commercial break in each episode.

Joel has no control over when the movies start, because he utilized the parts that would've allowed him to do so to build the robots. He must enter the theater when the Mads send the movie, because Dr. Forrester (and in later seasons, his evil mother Pearl) has numerous ways to punish Joel/Mike for non-compliance, including shutting off the oxygen supply to the rest of the ship, and electric shocks. As the movies play, the silhouettes of Joel/Mike, Tom, and Crow are visible at the bottom of the screen, wisecracking and mocking the movie (a practice they often referred to as "riffing") in order to prevent themselves from going mad.

Several times during each movie (about every half-hour when shown with commercials), Joel (and later Mike) and the bots perform skits, songs, or other short sketch pieces (called "host segments") that are usually related to the movie they are watching. These segments sometimes even feature "visits" by prominent characters from a shown movie.

Many episodes without movies long enough to fill the show's runtime also include screenings of unintentionally humorous short films or "shorts," including educational films and training videos. Shorts became less common as the series progressed and were nonexistent in the first Sci-Fi Channel season, due to a combination of longer films and host segments, and shorts requiring a science fiction element. The restriction was lifted for the final two seasons, which featured three shorts.

Background and history

Although MST3K was arguably the most successful television series to satirize the B movie genre, it was not the first. Prior to MST3K's 1988 debut, the nationally syndicated TV series Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection and The Canned Film Festival featured many of the same movies but each lasted for only a single season in 1985 and 1986 respectively.

Hodgson is credited for coming up with the concept for the show (as well as the title, Mystery Science Theater;[3] the "3000" suffix was added later to sound like a version number, as in "HAL 9000"). Drawing partly on his own comedy act (which he was performing in the area at the time), the show's format was to showcase Hodgson. These initial episodes were recorded at the now defunct Paragon Cable studios and customer service center in Hopkins, Minnesota. Hodgson credits Silent Running, a 1972 sci-fi film directed by Douglas Trumbull, as being perhaps the biggest direct influence on the show's concept. The film is set in the future and centers on a human, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), who is the last crew member of a spaceship containing Earth's last surviving forests. His remaining companions consist only of three robot drones (the third robot is destroyed in the beginning of the movie), though they are not able to converse with him. MST3K and the Joel Robinson character also occasionally reflected Lowell's "hippie"-like nature.[4] Hodgson also cites Beany and Cecil as having likely been a subconscious childhood influence. The 1960s Bob Clampett cartoon series centered on a boy and his sea serpent friend. In an interview, Hodgson made loose retrospective comparisons to elements between the two shows, such as the ship (the Leakin' Lena, to the S.O.L.), and the characters of Beany (to Joel), Cecil (to Gypsy), Huffenpuff (to Tom Servo), Crowy (to Crow), and Dishonest John (to Dr. Forrester). Another childhood influence was the CBS Children's Film Festival, a 1970s live-action program which starred Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Burr Tillstrom's puppet troupe which was made famous during television's early days in the 1940s and 1950s. The characters consisted of a human (played by Fran Allison) and her two puppet friends (both performed by Tillstrom). Each episode of Film Festival featured an international children's film, with Kukla, Fran and Ollie serving as hosts. Fran would lead discussions of the film as the episode went on, in similar fashion to MST3K's host segments.

The show's ship, the Satellite of Love, is a reference to the Lou Reed song, the show's main protagonist, Joel Robinson, is a reference to the 1960s television series Lost in Space (as well as The Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe), the show's main antagonist, Dr. Clayton Forrester, is named after the main character in The War of the Worlds), and the signature silhouetted movie seats were partially inspired by several Looney Tunes shorts in which an on-screen character would interact with a "theater audience member" who could only be seen in silhouette.

KTMA era

In September 1988, Hodgson enlisted Twin Cities-area comedians Trace Beaulieu and Josh Weinstein, and producer Jim Mallon, to help him shoot a pilot for the show. The robots and the set, in their crudest format, were built by Hodgson in an all-nighter (this led to his sleepy demeanor while filming the pilot afterward, which he decided to incorporate into the character).[citation needed] The next morning, shooting commenced, and a 30-minute pilot was produced, in which selections from the 1969 science-fiction film, The Green Slime, were the test subject film. Joel watched the movie by himself, and was aided during the host segments by his robots, Crow (Beaulieu), Beeper, and Gypsum (Mallon). Camera work was by Kevin Murphy, who worked at television station KTMA and also created the first "doorway sequence" and theater seat design.

Mallon met with KTMA station manager Donald O'Conner the next month and managed to get signed up for thirteen consecutive episodes. The show had some slight alterations — the set was lit differently, the robots (now Crow, Servo and Gypsy) joined Joel in the theater, and a new doorway countdown sequence between the host segments and the theater segments was shot. The back story was also altered from the pilot; In the pilot episode it is explained that Joel Hodgson (not yet using his character name of Robinson) had built the Satellite of Love and launched himself into space (according to an interview with Hodgson on StarWars.com, it was set in a post-apocalyptic future).[5] Once the series was picked up this was changed, with Joel now having been a janitor at a "satellite loading bay", who was launched into space against his will by his evil "mad scientist" bosses. Joel's captors (played by Beaulieu and Weinstein) did not actually appear outside of the opening theme until several episodes later.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 premiered at 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1988 with its first episode, Invaders from the Deep, followed by a second episode, Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars at 8:00 p.m. Initially, the show's response was unknown, until Mallon set up a phone line for viewers to call in. Response was so great that the initial run of 13 episodes was extended to 21, with the show running to May 1989. During this time a fan club was set up and the show held its first live show at Scott Hansen's Comedy Gallery in Minneapolis, to a crowd of over 600. Despite the success, the station's overall declining fortunes forced it to cancel MST3K.

Comedy Central era

Just as its run at KTMA was ending, the creators of MST3K used a short "best-of" reel to pitch the concept to executives at the Comedy Channel, a relatively new national cable channel. It became one of the first two shows picked up. New sets were built, the robots were retooled, and a new doorway sequence was shot. Another major change was the show's writing format: instead of ad-lib riffs in the theater, each show was carefully scripted ahead of time, with Mike Nelson serving as head writer. Writer and performer Weinstein left the show after the first Comedy Channel season completed. Murphy replaced Weinstein as the voice of Tom Servo. The Dr. Erhardt character was replaced by Conniff's "TV's Frank" (who showed Joel and the bots a milk carton with Erhardt on it to explain he was "missing"). Despite being a lackey and not a "mad scientist", Forrester and Frank were collectively referred to as "The Mads".

After the second season, The Comedy Channel and rival comedy cable network HA! merged to become Comedy Central. During this period, MST3K became the cable channel's signature series, expanding from 13 to 24 episodes a year, a rate which would continue until its seventh national season, as the show gradually fell out of favor with the network's new management at the time. To take advantage of the show's status, Comedy Central ran a 30-hour marathon of previous MST3K episodes during Thanksgiving, 1991, including special promos and a "making of" show (This Is MST3K, hosted by Penn Jillette) that featured a behind the scenes look at episode scripting, filming, voicing, and puppet construction.

Show creator Hodgson decided to leave the series halfway through season five. He chose to quit due to his dislike of being on-camera, as well as his disagreements with producer Jim Mallon for creative control of the program.[6][7] Hodgson later told an interviewer: "If I had the presence of mind to try and work it out, I would rather have stayed. 'Cause I didn't want to go, it just seemed like I needed to."[8] In his final episode, Joel was forced to sit through the Joe Don Baker movie Mitchell; he escaped the S.O.L. and returned to Earth with the help of Gypsy and Mike Nelson (a temp worker, played by head writer Nelson, hired by Forrester to help prepare for an audit from the Fraternal Order of Mad Science), after the two discovered an escape pod (fittingly named the Deus ex Machina) in a box marked "Hamdingers". To replace Joel, Dr. Forrester sent Mike up in his place, where he remained as the show's host until the end of its run.

Conniff left the show after season six, with Frank being taken to "Second Banana Heaven" by Torgo of Manos: The Hands of Fate (another movie previously viewed in their theater) played by Mike Nelson. Season seven saw the addition of Forrester's mother, Pearl (played by writer Mary Jo Pehl). In the last show of the seventh season, Laserblast, Dr. Forrester detaches the SOL from Deep 13 after his funding runs out, casting the satellite adrift in space. Eventually they reach the edge of the Universe and become entities of pure consciousness.

The show's run coincided with the growth of the Internet and numerous fans' (MSTies) Web sites devoted to the series.[9] There were two official fan conventions in Minneapolis, run by the series' production company itself (called "ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama" (1994) and "ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama 2: Electric Bugaloo" (1996), the second being a dual reference to the movie Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo and the children's TV series The Bugaloos).

Sci-Fi Channel era

When Comedy Central dropped the show after a six-episode seventh season, MST3K's Internet fan base staged a write-in campaign to keep the show alive. One contributor to the campaign was Biography host Jack Perkins, whom Nelson had impersonated for the syndicated version of MST3K, known as The Mystery Science Theater Hour.[citation needed] This effort led the Sci-Fi Channel to pick up the series, where it resumed with some cast changes and ran for three more seasons.

Trace Beaulieu, who had played Dr. Forrester and Crow, had already departed the series at the end of its Comedy Central run (with Forrester ultimately becoming a star child in a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey). Mary Jo Pehl took over the antagonist role as Forrester's mother, Pearl, who had been featured as a regular in season seven. Her sidekicks were the idiotic, Planet of the Apes-inspired Professor Bobo (played by Murphy) and the highly evolved, supposedly omniscient, yet equally idiotic Observer (a.k.a. "Brain Guy"), played by writer Bill Corbett. In addition, Corbett took over Crow's voice and puppetry. With this replacement, the series' entire central cast had changed from the original KTMA / Comedy Central cast. In the middle of the first season on the Sci-Fi Channel (the eighth national season overall), Mallon handed over the voice and puppetry work for Gypsy to BBI staffer Patrick Brantseg.[10]

The move to the Sci-Fi Channel posed additional challenges. First, Sci-Fi was reluctant to show films without a clear science-fiction, fantasy or horror theme,[citation needed] limiting the range of films; The Girl In Gold Boots and Final Justice were the only exceptions. Sci-Fi also required an ongoing plot in the host segments,[citation needed] which BBI attempted to provide with the narrative of Pearl chasing the Satellite of Love across the galaxy.

Cancellation

The series finale, Danger: Diabolik, premiered on August 8, 1999, although a "lost" episode produced earlier in the season, Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, was the last new episode of MST3K, broadcast on September 12, 1999. Reruns continued to air on the Sci Fi Channel for several years, ending with The Screaming Skull on January 31, 2004. Another campaign to save the show was mounted, including several MST3K fans taking contributions for a full-page ad in the television trade publication Daily Variety magazine. The campaign was unsuccessful, but the show lives on through post-projects such as RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic.

Cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000

Character KTMA "Season 0"
(1988–89) Comedy Channel / Comedy Central seasons (1989–1996) The Movie
(1996) SCI FI seasons (1997–99) Flash series
(2007–2008) Giant Gila Monster
sketch (2008) [11]
             
Joel Robinson
"Joel Hodgson" during season 0, "Joel" (no last name) during Season 1 Joel Hodgson  Joel Hodgson1  Joel Hodgson
Mike Nelson  Michael J. Nelson  
Crow T. Robot Trace Beaulieu Bill Corbett Paul Chaplin Trace Beaulieu
Tom Servo Josh Weinstein Kevin Murphy James Moore Frank Conniff
Gypsy Josh Weinstein Jim Mallon Patrick Brantseg Jim Mallon  
Cambot Kevin Murphy2  
Magic Voice various, usually Jann Johnson or Alexandra Carr Mary Jo Pehl  Beth "Beez" McKeever  
Dr. Clayton Forrester Trace Beaulieu  Trace Beaulieu
Dr. Laurence "Larry" Erhardt Josh Weinstein  
TV's Frank
simply "Frank" pre-season 4  Frank Conniff  Frank Conniff1  Frank Conniff
Pearl Forrester  Mary Jo Pehl1 Mary Jo Pehl  Mary Jo Pehl  
Professor Bobo  Kevin Murphy  
Observer ("Brain Guy")  Bill Corbett  
1. Guest/cameo appearance only.
2. Normally a non-speaking role.

Characteristic elements

Several elements of Mystery Science Theater 3000 provide a unique feel to the show, and were featured in many (if not all) episodes.

Host segments

Guest characters

The MST3K cast was occasionally augmented by "guest stars" from the films — characters so memorable that they made interesting visitors to the Mads' lairs or the Satellite of Love. These film characters were always portrayed by Best Brains staffers (commonly head writer Michael J. Nelson), giving some screen time to behind-the-camera workers. Other "guests" were real-life people portrayed by MST3K cast and crew. MST3K has only had two non-staffers make guest appearances on the show: Minnesota Vikings running back Robert Smith appeared as "Howard", a "gift" to Pearl from her ape worshipers, in a season eight episode;[12] and film critic Leonard Maltin, who had been mercilessly mocked for some of his ratings of MSTied films, appeared as himself in episode 909, "Gorgo".[13][14][15]

Hexfield Viewscreen (HVS)

The HVS was, as its name implies, a hexagonally shaped opening on the SOL's bridge that served as a kind of monitor, through which the inhabitants of the SOL could interact with a wide and diverse range of visitors, often characters taken directly from whatever movie they were watching at the moment (Gamera, Jan-in-the-Pan, etc.), and sometimes not (Yakov Smirnoff, rowdy redneck neighbors, etc.). While an ostensible viewscreen, it was actually a small stage area, covered with a dark fabric screen with an "iris" mechanical door in front of it; and was often "deactivated" by simply turning off its lighting at the end of a transmission, as the door moves rather slowly. The HVS was used more frequently during the Comedy Central years. During the SciFi Channel era, it was used on a few occasions, such as during the season-eight send up of "The Mole People" and during season 10 in episodes "Soultaker", "Final Justice", & "Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders". The Hexfield Viewscreen premiered in episode 201 ("Rocketship X-M") and was originally manually operated with a hardware store bought window shade before episode 205 when the more familiar iris mechanism and frame backlight were installed. The HVS frame had different backlight colors through the years. It had a blue light from mid-season two to early season three, white lighting in mid-season three, then yellow lighting in late season three, and finally blue again from seasons four through ten.

Invention exchange

The Hodgson era of the show (as well as the first five episodes of the Nelson era) featured the "invention exchange". This was always in the host segment which followed the first commercial break. Joel and the bots would present their latest idea for a new invention to the Mads (often ending with the line "Whaddaya think, sirs?") and vice versa. Hodgson's premise behind the segment was that as fellow Gizmonic Institute employees, the invention exchange served as a sort of company greeting. In reality, the segment was essentially a carryover from Hodgson's earlier prop comedy performances. The inventions ranged from a karaoke machine that only played public domain music (to avoid royalties) to a machine that converted fun gifts into mundane, practical gifts. The final invention exchange occurred in episode 519, "Outlaw" (the seventh show featuring Nelson as the host), wherein the Mads presented "the first really real time machine" opposite Mike and the bots' "instant Fabio kit". The invention exchanges were ultimately discontinued because, according to Murphy in The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, "Joel was the gizmocrat, the one who brought that invention exchange spirit on board," adding that "Mike is many things, but he is not a tinkerer". Despite this, Dr. Forrester and Frank continued to present new inventions and experiments throughout seasons five and six, usually sending them to Mike and the bots to test them out.

Letter readings and Info Club

A common feature on the show was the reading of fan mail during the closing segment of the show. Usually, only one letter was read per episode, although up to four letters have been read in some episodes. During the beginning of each letter, Cambot has the note up on "still store" so that the audience can see the text (or fan art, if any). This began during the KTMA season of the show, though early episodes had Joel only playing phone messages from fans – the tradition did not evolve to letter-reading until about halfway through the inaugural season. One piece of fan art, featured in episode 402, The Giant Gila Monster, showed Joel and the Bots, but inexplicably labeled Crow as "Art". Joel and the Bots were clearly puzzled by this, and it led to a running joke of characters on the show occasionally addressing Crow as Art. (The artist, a young child, had presumably seen a sketch in an earlier episode in which Joel introduced the 'bots in the manner of Jackie Gleason introducing the cast of The Jackie Gleason Show; in the sketch, Joel introduced Crow as "Art Crow," a reference to Gleason Show cast member Art Carney.)

MST3K also boasted an "Info Club", a system where viewers could write in to the specified address (the same one used to collect fan mail) and receive newsletters about events and information related to the show. The address would appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen twice during the theater segments, and again in conjunction with the letter readings. The letter reading ended mid-season seven, with the last episode to feature letter readings being episode 705, "Escape 2000".

Light/button signs

During the host segments, a set of three spinning lights are located on the table (to the viewer's left) and above the door to the theater.
The leftmost light was red and would light to indicate that the Mads were calling; Mike discovered in episode 517 (Beginning of the End) that the button could be pressed to contact Deep 13, but commented after seeing the Mads in an uncomfortable domestic scene, "So, I guess we can call the Mads... You know what, I don't think we should do that again."[16]
The middle light was purple (green from episodes 201–324) and would light to indicate a visitor in the Hexfield Viewscreen (this occurred only during the Comedy Central episodes—except in episode 802, when it was lit parallel to Mike trying to 'start' the Satellite of Love). While one of the characters would usually touch the flashing light to "execute" it, there were never any consequences for failing to do so.
The rightmost was yellow ("commercial sign") and would light to indicate that the show had to cut to a commercial break.
When all three lights flashed, it indicated "movie sign". When this happened the camera would shake, a buzzer would sound, and everyone currently on the bridge would scatter while yelling "We've got movie sign!" or "Movie time!".

The lights were absent from the early episodes of the series, and did not appear until halfway through the first season of the Comedy Central era. Before the lights appeared Joel would simply slap the table instead. During season one, the color order of the light buttons were different than from later seasons. The green and red buttons were reversed. Green was used for commercial sign and yellow was for the Mads. Red was only used with the others during "movie sign". The rotating strobe lights above the doors did not appear until the set was revamped for season two. Beginning with season four, the center door strobe light and center desk button were changed from green to purple. When the S.O.L set was again revamped for the Sci-Fi channel era in season eight, the rotating strobe lights were replaced with blinking square shaped lights and the color and order of color above the doors were changed. A blue light was on the left, yellow in the middle and red on the right. However, the desk lights retained the same color and order from the Comedy Central era red, purple, yellow.

Musical numbers

The host segments of many episodes (almost every episode in the Joel era, less often in the Mike era) feature a musical number written by Michael J. Nelson. The songs usually mock the movie that's being watched (the "Sidehacking" song from "Sidehackers") or one of the people involved with production ("The Sandy Frank Song" from "Time of the Apes"). Several of these songs make up the majority of the archive material on MST3K.com.

Rocket Number Nine

Sometimes Joel/Mike and the Bots would become aware of something happening outside the ship, and would instruct Cambot to "give [them] Rocket Number Nine". Once they did this, they were provided with an external view of the ship and whatever was nearby. This is an oblique reference to the Sun Ra composition Rocket Number Nine, featured on the 1973 album Space is the Place.[17] This became a running gag; every external shot of the ship, no matter what angle or element of the ship was shown, was from "Rocket Number Nine", or one occasion (episode 913, Quest of the Delta Knights), "Rocket Number Eleven Minus Two".

The button

At the end of each episode during the "Frank" years (seasons 2–6), Dr. Forrester would instruct Frank to push "the button", which was located on a computer keyboard. When this was done, the image would shrink and leave a black screen to make way for the end credit roll. "Push the button, Frank" has since become one of the show's more recognizable lines among fans. (Some believe that the line is a reference to a running gag of "Push the button, Max!" in the film The Great Race). Occasionally there were variations of this custom, as in Daddy-O where "the button" malfunctioned and would repeatedly interrupt the credit roll to switch the show back to the Mads in Deep 13.

Theater segments

Door sequence

Featured in most transitions between the theater segments and "host" segments is a camera tracking through a tunnel, leading from the bridge of the Satellite of Love into the theater or vice versa. Access to the tunnel from the bridge is through a hexagonal doorway, originally decorated with a large, stylized pinion gear shaped "G" (for Gizmonic Institute, the original lair of the Mads). In the middle of season five, upon Joel's departure, the main bridge door's stylized Gizmonic "G" logo was removed and altered to resemble a full pinion gear wheel/hub design for the Mike Nelson episodes (season 5 to 7). This change was made per Joel Hodgson's request that all references and logos to Gizmonic be removed upon his leaving the show. In the Sci-Fi Channel era, the main bridge door was redecorated again, with a profile shape of the Satellite Of Love locking hinge-and-planet design. This replaced the "gear wheel" design.[5] As the camera (implicitly Cambot) moved through the opening doorway, a countdown of hatches, decorated with unusual artifacts and numbered "6" through "2" (in the style of a film leader countdown), moves out of its way, finally opening on the theater and the film. The doorway sequence was changed three times during the series' duration. The first one was used for the KTMA season, and a more colorful and elaborate one was built and recorded for season one on Comedy Central which would remain in place until Joel left in episode 512. Beginning with episode 513, a newer, more sophisticated doorway sequence was built and recorded, keeping up with the show's art direction at the time, which now included more dark-grey colors, more props and a more proportionally shaped hexagonal tunnel. This doorway sequence would remain for the duration of the series. The original door sequence is known amongst fans as the "Joel Doors" and the latter sequence is known as the "Mike Doors." In Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Best Brains acquired props to use an actual door sequence instead of recording one.[18] The film's renditions of the doors also featured a plaster casting of the face of TV's Frank from the Joel-era seasons on Door #2, as an homage to the former cast member.

Theater silhouette

The theater silhouette, trademarked as "Shadowrama" (sometimes "Shadowramma") — a row of chair tops with Tom Servo, Joel or Mike, and Crow sitting at the right side — is a simple row of rounded shapes cut from black painted foamcore board. The host would be dressed in black, while the puppeteers would be seated on low chairs hidden below the foam seats. The robots used for filming these scenes would be spray painted black. When shot from behind against a white wall, this setup presented the illusion that the characters were sitting in a movie theater. A simple digital replacement of the white screen with the movie completed the effect. A photograph of this process appears in the book The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, depicting Mike Nelson with a script on his lap and puppeteers Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy working their respective robot puppets in front of the theater seat cutout.[19] This characteristic appearance has been used in several works, often as an homage to the show. In some cases, Joel or Mike would use their silhouette to "interact" with the movie as if helping the actors with a prop or the like as part of a joke; when the show featured 1985's City Limits, the silhouettes were used to censor a brief nude scene.[20] Occasionally, when a close-up would place the image of a movie character's lips within Tom Servo's range, his silhouette would rise up and "kiss" the oversized lips on screen. The silhouette "interactions" are used more predominantly in Cinematic Titanic. In the initial DVD releases, a polyvinyl silhouette was included, which could be affixed to a TV screen via static electricity to allow viewers to create their own MST3K experience with any feature at home.

Midwestern references

Many of the riffs and cultural references made by the humans and bots in the show are specific to the Minneapolis – St. Paul area, reflecting the origin of the show (recorded throughout its eleven seasons in this area) and the Best Brains staff's Midwestern roots.[21] For example, in episode 422 (featuring The Day the Earth Froze), Crow T. Robot remarks how Scandinavia resembles southern Wisconsin with the crack: "It's the Swedish Dells!" He then says in a heavy Swedish accent: "The Dooks! Ride the dooks!" (that is, the 'Ducks', an amphibious tour vehicle). There is also an episode where they reference former U.S. Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis. In the fan-favorite episode 424, "Manos: The Hands of Fate", one scene is accompanied by the exclamation "filmed on location in Spooner, WI." The character of Mike Nelson is also from Little Chute, Wisconsin and in episode 810, The Giant Spider Invasion, which is set in Wisconsin, the crew accordingly mocks riotous mobs by shouting variations of "Packers won the Super Bowl!!" (Hodgson is a native of Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin and Packers fan. However, some members of the cast and crew are ardent fans of the arch-rival Minnesota Vikings, even having Vikings running back Robert Smith in a dialogue-less cameo in one episode). References to the Twin Cities suburbs such as Maplewood and Edina are also common, e.g., "Featuring Music normally heard at the Days Inn lounge in Columbia Heights". Mary Jo Pehl's home town of Circle Pines, Minnesota is also mentioned in a number of episodes. Actual directions off of the Beltline in Madison, WI, have also been given on the show. Other Midwestern areas referenced at various times in the series include Episode 801, "Revenge of the Creature," when during a view of the waterfront, Mike says in a Sinatra-esque voice, "It's Duluth, baby!". Other references include Chicago (writer/performer Kevin Murphy is from Illinois, and the film from episode 517, "Beginning of the End" is set in Illinois; WGN is referenced several times, particularly its late-1980s commercial bumpers for movie broadcasts), Iowa (in "Outlaw of Gor," a wideshot showing a large grassy expanse causes Crow to exclaim: "Wha-It's Iowa!"), and Michigan (at one point in episode 512, "Mitchell", Joel uses the name of a henchman to reference Benton Harbor, Michigan).

Stinger

A brief (generally, three to five seconds) clip from that episode's movie (or occasionally the accompanying short) which played following the end credits of the show. The clip generally highlighted a moment or line of dialogue that the show's writers found to be particularly amusing. The tradition started with the season-two episode that features Rocket Attack U.S.A., with a shot of a blind man walking down the street, then suddenly stopping to exclaim "Help me!" The stinger was replaced for three episodes of season eight with images of the Observers, and for a fourth with a shot of Bobo after a disastrous fall. Best Brains' copyright notice was shown during the stinger.

Episodes

The first three KTMA episodes are considered to be the "missing MST3K episodes". No fan copy is known to exist.[22] (Jim Mallon had once mentioned that Best Brains' master copies are stored in a vault.)[23] The long lost episodes are K01 ("Invaders from the Deep"), K02 ("Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars"), and K03 ("Star Force: Fugitive Alien II"), with K03 being redone in season 3. "Episode" K00, "The Green Slime", is often counted among those missing shows, but is actually only a never-broadcast, half-hour sample from the film used to sell the MST3K concept to KTMA.[22]

Several of the movies used in the MST3K series have consistently made the Internet Movie Database list of the Bottom 100 movies over time, including Hobgoblins (1987) (episode 907), Monster a Go-Go (1965) (episode 421), Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) (episode 424), Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1995) (episode 1003), The Incredible Melting Man (1977) (episode 704), and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) (episode 321).[24]

Video releases

In 1993, the show's staff selected 30 episodes to split into 60 one-hour segments called The Mystery Science Theater Hour, hosted by Mike Nelson in his "Jack Perkins" persona. The repackaged series' first-run airings of these half-shows ran from November 1993 to July 1994. Reruns continued through December 1994, and it was syndicated to local stations from September 1995 to September 1996.[25][26][27]

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie

In 1996, Universal Studios released Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, a film adaptation in which Mike and the bots riffed This Island Earth. The film was released on DVD in the United States by Image Entertainment. Universal Pictures re-released the film on DVD on May 6, 2008, with a new anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix, and the film's original trailer.[28]

Book

In 1996, the book, The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide (written by some MST3K cast members), was released, which contained a synopsis for every episode from seasons 1 through 6, and even included some behind-the-scene stories as well. In it, Kevin Murphy related two tales about celebrity reactions he encountered. In one, the cast went to a taping of Dennis Miller's eponymous show; when they were brought backstage to meet Miller, the comedian proceeded to criticize the MST3K cast for their choice of movie to mock in the then-recent episode "Space Travelers" (a re-branded version of the Oscar-winning film Marooned).[29] He also discussed how he met Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., one of his literary heroes. When he had mentioned the show and its premise to Vonnegut, the author suggested that even people who work hard on bad films deserve some respect. Murphy then invited Vonnegut to dine with his group, which Vonnegut declined, claiming that he had other plans. When Murphy and friends ate later that night, he saw Vonnegut dining alone in the same restaurant, and remarked that he had been "faced... but nicely faced" by one of his literary heroes.[30]

Other appearances

In 1996, during promotion for Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Mike and the bots were interviewed in-character on MTV, and seen in silhouettes heckling footage from MTV News. Also that year, Joel Hodgson was a featured guest on Cartoon Network's Space Ghost Coast to Coast (Mike Nelson and Tom Servo, in character, were also interviewed in a later episode, but the segment was never completed). In 1997, the E! network's Talk Soup show, starring John Henson, featured guest appearances from Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo. Also that year, a replica of Servo made a brief appearance as a stolen droid in the Star Wars / Cops parody, Troops.

In 1997, the videogame magazine PlayStation Underground (Volume 2, Number 1) included a Best Brains-produced MST3K short on one of their promotional discs. The video opened with a host segment of Mike and the Bots playing some PlayStation games, only to go into the theater to riff on some videos from the magazine's past. The feature is about seven minutes long. An Easter egg on the disc has some behind-the-scenes footage of Best Brains filming the sequences.[31] Also that year, a new online animated web series, referred to as "The Bots Are Back!", was produced by Jim Mallon. The series planned to feature weekly adventure based solely around Crow, Tom Servo and Gypsy, with Mallon reprising his role as Gypsy and Paul Chaplin as Crow. However, only a handful of episodes were released, and the series was abandoned due to budget issues. The internet response to the webisodes was largely negative.[9]

Reception

In 2004, the show was listed as #11 in a featured TV Guide article, "25 Top Cult Shows Ever!", and included a sidebar which read, "Mike Nelson, writer and star (replacing creator Joel Hodgson), recently addressed a college audience: "There was nobody over the age of 25. I had to ask, 'Where are you seeing this show?' I guess we have some sort of timeless quality."[32] Three years later, TV Guide rewrote the article, and bumped MST3K to #13. [33] In 2007, the show was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."[2] In 2012, the show was listed as #3 in a featured Entertainment Weekly article, "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years," with the comment that "MST3K taught us that snarky commentary can be way more entertaining than the actual media."[34]

The show also enjoyed a number of celebrity fans, including Frank Zappa, whose long-standing enjoyment of substandard B-movies had been documented in songs such as "Cheepnis" (as heard on Roxy & Elsewhere); Zappa went so far as to telephone Best Brains and became a friend of the show, and following his death episode 523 was dedicated to him.

The reactions of those parodied by MST3K has been mixed. Sandy Frank, who held the rights to several Gamera films parodied on the show, was "intensely displeased" by the mockery directed at him. (The crew once sang the "Sandy Frank Song", which said that Frank was "the source of all our pain", "thinks that people come from trees", Steven Spielberg "won't return his calls", and implied that he was too lazy to make his own films). Because of this, Frank reportedly refused to allow the shows to be rebroadcast once MST3K's rights ran out.[35] However, this may in fact be a rumor, as other rumors indicate that the Gamera films distribution rights prices were increased beyond what BBI could afford as a result of the show's success. According to Shout! Factory, the Japanese movie studio Kadokawa Pictures were so horrified with MST3K's treatment of 5 Gamera films that they refused to let Shout! release the episodes on home video. Brian Ward (one of the members of Shout! Factory) explained to fans on the forums of the official Shout! Factory website that they tried their best to convince them, but the Japanese take their Gamera films very seriously and don't appreciate their being mocked. However, eventually Shout! was able to clear the episodes for a special 2011 release due to the rights in North America shifting away from the Japanese to another, North American entity that had no such qualms.[36] In another post on the Shout! Factory message boards, Ward explained that the Godzilla films faced the same obstacle as Gamera, and explained that unless the rights shifted the way the Gamera rights have, these films would remain unreleased. [37] Kevin Murphy had said that Joe Don Baker wanted to beat up the writers of the show for attacking him during Mitchell.[38][39] Murphy later said Baker likely meant it in a joking manner, although Nelson said he deliberately avoided Baker while the two were staying at the same hotel.[40] Director Rick Sloane was shocked at his treatment at the conclusion of Hobgoblins.[41] In a recent interview, however, Sloane clarified his comments, saying that "I laughed through the entire MST3K episode, until the very end. I wasn't expecting the humor to suddenly be at my own expense. I was mortified when they dragged out the cardboard cutout and pretended to do an interview with me. I was caught off guard. I had never seen them rip apart any other director before on the show." He also credits the success of the MST3K episode with inspiring him to make a sequel to Hobgoblins, released in 2009.[42] Jeff Lieberman, director of Squirm, was also quite angry at the MST3K treatment of his film.[43] Author Bill Warren, during an audio commentary for The War of the Worlds with director Joe Dante and film historian Bob Burns III said, "I don't like that show", after Dante pointed out that MST3K's "head scientist" is named after the film's leading character, Dr. Clayton Forrester.

Others have been more positive: Robert Fiveson and Myrl Schriebman, producers of Parts: The Clonus Horror, said they were "flattered" to see the film appear on MST3K.[44] Actor Miles O'Keeffe, the star of the film Cave Dwellers, called Best Brains and personally requested a copy of the MST3K treatment of the film,[40] saying he enjoyed their skewering of what he had considered to be a surreal experience (the film was shot in Italy). In the form of an essay and E. E. Cummings-esque poem, Mike Nelson paid tribute to O'Keeffe with a humorous mix of adulation and fear.[45] Actor Adam West, star of the 1960s Batman TV series, co-starred in Zombie Nightmare, another film MST3K mocked. West apparently held no grudges, as he hosted the 1994 "Turkey Day" marathon in which the episode featuring Zombie Nightmare had its broadcast premiere. Mamie van Doren (who appeared in episode 112, Untamed Youth, and episode 601, Girls Town), Robert Vaughn (star of episode 315, Teenage Cave Man, which he called the worst movie ever made) and Beverly Garland (who'd appeared in many MST3K-featured Roger Corman films) also hosted. Rex Reason, star of This Island Earth, has also appeared at several MST3K events and credits MST3K with introducing the film to a new generation. The crew of Time Chasers held a party the night the MST3K treatment of their film aired and, while reactions were mixed, director David Giancola said, "Most of us were fans and knew what to expect and we roared with laughter and drank way too much. I had a blast, never laughed so hard in my life."[46]

Awards

In 1993, MST3K won a Peabody Award for "producing an ingenious eclectic series": "With references to everything from Proust to 'Gilligan's Island,' 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' fuses superb, clever writing with wonderfully terrible B-grade movies".[47] In 1994 and 1995, the show was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program, but lost both times to Dennis Miller Live.[1] Every year from 1992 to 1997, it was also nominated for CableACE Awards. Its DVD releases have been nominated for Saturn Awards in 2004, 2006 and 2007.

Influence

In 2003, the television series, Deadly Cinema, starring Jami Deadly, debuted, which featured the cast making fun of bad movies, MST3K-style. In 2004, the ESPN Classic series, Cheap Seats, debuted, which featured two brothers making fun of clips of old sporting events, MST3K-style, and is noteworthy for containing an episode in which MST3K cast members briefly appeared in a cameo to make fun of the hosts' own skits. In 2008, the internet and direct-to-DVD comedy series, Incognito Cinema Warriors XP, debuted, which used the same "host segment-movie segment" format the show established, while featuring completely original characters and plot. ICWXP has gained a similar cult following, even earning the praises of former MST3K host, Michael J. Nelson.[48] In 2010, the television series This Movie Sucks! (and its predecessor Ed's Nite In), starring Ed the Sock and co-hosts Liana K and Ron Sparks, debuted, which featured the cast making fun of bad movies; however, creator Steven Kerzner was quick to point out that MST3K was not "the creator of this kind of format, they’re just the most recent and most well-known."[49]

In 2011, the theater silhouette motif was parodied by golf commentator and talk show host David Feherty in an episode of Feherty. He is shown sitting in front of a large screen and "riffing" while viewing footage of golfer Johnny Miller and is joined in the theater by his stuffed rooster (Frank) and his gnome statue (Costas).

Public performances of live riffing have been hosted by various groups in different cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Cineprov (Atlanta, Georgia), Master Pancake Theater (Austin, TX), Counterclockwise Comedy (Kansas City, Missouri), FilmRoasters (Richmond, Virginia), Moxie Skinny Theatre 3000 (Springfield, Missouri), Riff Raff Theatre (Iowa City, Iowa), Twisted Flicks (Seattle, Washington), and Turkey Shoot (Metro Cinema at the Garneau, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada).[50][51][52] Canadian sketch comedy group Loading Ready Run produces the show Unskippable for The Escapist website, which applies the MST3K premise to video game cut scenes.

Usenet groups

rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc and rec.arts.tv.mst3k.announce were Usenet newsgroups established in the mid-1990s for announcements and discussions related to the show.[53][54][55] The newsgroup had been created in April 1995 by renaming the existing unmoderated newsgroup rec.arts.tv.mst3k at the same time as the creation of the moderated general announcement group rec.arts.tv.mst3k.announce.[56]

Post-projects

Mystery Science Theater 3000s Mike Nelson (left) and Kevin Murphy, at "Exoticon 1" convention panel in Metairie, Louisiana, November 1998
In 2000, most of the cast of the Sci-Fi era of the show collaborated on a humour website called Timmy Big Hands. It was closed down in 2001.

In 2001, Mike Nelson, Patrick Brantseg, Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy and Paul Chaplin created The Adventures of Edward the Less, an animated parody of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and others in the fantasy genre (w/ additional vocals by Mary Jo Pehl and Mike Dodge) for the Sci Fi Channel website.[57]

In 2006, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett debuted RiffTrax, a web-based series which allowed customers to purchase riff-only audio tracks that they can sync up with dozens of popular film titles. Guest commentators such as "Weird Al" Yankovic and Neil Patrick Harris have been featured guest riffers, and, under the RiffTrax banner, the three principal riffers have made occasional live appearances which have been broadcast to theaters nationwide, starting with the 50th anniversary edition of a colorized Plan 9 from Outer Space in 2009.[58] In addition, the three riffers also occasionally provide commentary to movies during a summer series at the Stone Brewing Company in Escondido, California.[59]

In 2007, Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Josh Weinstein, Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl debuted Cinematic Titanic, direct-to-DVD releases which riffed on older films with a shadowrama effect. Also that year, the three principal Rifftrax crew debuted The Film Crew, direct-to-DVD releases which riffed on old movies in a different setting. Cinematic Titanic continues to release new titles, while The Film Crew discontinued after only four titles. Also that year, Frank Conniff and animation historian Jerry Beck debuted Cartoon Dump,[60] a series of classically bad cartoons, which are also occasionally performed live.[61]

In 2008, Bill Corbett and fellow writer Rob Greenberg wrote the screenplay for Meet Dave, a family comedy starring Eddie Murphy about a tiny Star Trek-like crew operating a spaceship that looks like a man. The captain of the crew and the spaceship were both played by Murphy. Originally conceived as a series called Starship Dave for SciFi.com, it was dropped in favor of Edward the Less. The script (along with the title) were changed drastically by studio executives and other writers, although Corbett and Greenberg received sole screenwriter credit.[62]

In 2010, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Joel Hodgson, Mary Jo Pehl, Josh Weinstein, Beth McKeever and Clive Robertson voiced characters for Darkstar: The Interactive Movie, a computer game created by J. Allen Williams.[63]

Reunion

In 2008, to commemorate the show's 20th anniversary, the principal cast and crew from all eras of the show reunited for a panel discussion at the San Diego Comic-Con International, which was hosted by actor-comedian Patton Oswalt. The event was recorded and included as a bonus feature on the 20th Anniversary DVD release via Shout! Factory. Also that year, several original MST3K members (including Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff) reunited to shoot a brief sketch to be included on the web-exclusive DVD release of The Giant Gila Monster.[11] The new disc was added to Volume 10 of the "MST3K Collection" DVD boxed set series, replacing the Godzilla vs. Megalon disc which could no longer be sold due to copyright conflicts. The new package was sold under the name "Volume 10.2", and the sketch was presented as a seminar to instruct consumers on how to "upgrade" their DVD set, which merely consists of "disposing" the old disc and inserting the new one.

In 2013, Joel Hodgson and Trace Beaulieu reprised their roles as Joel Robinson and Crow T. Robot for cameo appearances in the fourth season of Arrested Development.[64]

Notes

1.^ a b "Mystery Science Theater 3000". emmys. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
2.^ a b Poniewozik, James (2007-09-06). "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time". Time (Time.com). Retrieved March 4, 2010.
3.^ "Ouch, Minutiae! #1: What do we know about the MST3K Pilot and missing episodes?". Tom's Temple of MST3K Stuff. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
4.^ http://www.mst3kinfo.com/satnews/brains/20q.html
5.^ a b "A Guy Named AJ : Launching Cinematic Titanic". StarWars.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-02. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
6.^ Henry, Brian. "MST3K FAQ -- West Brains: Aliens in L.A.". MST3K Info Club. Archived from the original on 2007-04-14. Retrieved 2007-05-24.
7.^ Phipps, Keith (1999-04-21). "Joel Hodgson". The Onion A.V. Club. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
8.^ http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/the_mystery_science_theater/3
9.^ a b MSNBC article: "Ex ‘MST3K’ stars, writers fill hole left by show". webcitation archive link
10.^ http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/patrick-brantseg/214587
11.^ a b "Joel & The 'Bots Return for Brief DVD Reunion". Wired: Underwire blog. 2008-01-30. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
12.^ Mystery Science Theater 3000, "The Mole People" [803], closing segment.
13.^ MST3K, "Laserblast" [706]. During the film's closing credits, Mike and the bots ruthlessly compare Maltin's other ratings to what they consider his inexplicable favoring of Laserblast with 2½ stars.
14.^ MST3K, "The Undead" [806], closing segment. Tom Servo forces Mike to costume himself as Maltin and read an outrageous apology for "his" Undead rating.
15.^ MST3K, "Gorgo" [909], intro and closing segments. Maltin gamely appeared as himself in season 9, in a good-humored attempt to help Pearl torture the SOL captives with Gorgo, another film of arguable quality which he claimed he liked.
16.^ Episode 517 partial transcript
17.^ "Empty Love Stories #2". Funny Valentine Press. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
18.^ Noël, Tom. ""Ouch, Minutiae! #9" (doorway changes)". Tom's Temple of MST3K Stuff. Retrieved 2006-08-30.
19.^ Best Brains (1996). The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide (1st ed.). Bantam. p. 145. ISBN 0-553-37783-3.
20.^ http://www.mst3kinfo.com/?p=304
21.^ "Interview with Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy", 0:06:44ff, Disc 2, The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 5 DVD set (2004), Rhino Entertainment, ISBN 1-56605-906-2. Murphy: "I think staying in the Midwest was crucial to the fact that the show did so well…" Nelson: "… the point of view is so Midwestern…".
22.^ a b "Season 'Zero': KTMA-TV Channel 23 1988-1989". Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Unofficial Episode Guide. Satellite News. Retrieved 2007-01-26.
23.^ "Jim Mallon interview". Satellite News Interview of Jim Mallon. Satellite News. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
24.^ "IMDb Bottom 100". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2006-08-17.
25.^ "The Mystery Science Theater Hour: Summary". TV.com. Retrieved 2006-08-17.
26.^ "The Mystery Science Theater Hour: Episode List". TV.com. Retrieved 2006-08-17.
27.^ Beaulieu, Trace; et al. (1996). ""The Mystery Science Theater Hour"". The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. New York: Bantam Books. p. 111. ISBN 0-553-37783-3.
28.^ Lambert, David, ed. (January 22, 2008). "New DVD Release for MST3K: The Movie...at last!". "DVD News" (column), TV Guide. Archived from the original on June 3, 2009. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
29.^ Beaulieu, Trace; et al. (1996). The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. New York: Bantam Books. p. 64. ISBN 0-553-37783-3.
30.^ Beaulieu, Trace; et al. (1996). "Forward About Kurt Vonnegut". The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. New York: Bantam Books. pp. xi–xiii. ISBN 0-553-37783-3.
31.^ "PlayStation Perfect Guide". Game Rave. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
32.^ "25 Top Cult Shows Ever!". TV Guide (May 30 – June 5, 2004): 32. ISSN 0039-8543.
33.^ "TV Guide Names the Top Cult Shows Ever". June 29, 2007. Retrieved August 24, 2007.
34.^ "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years." Entertainment Weekly. August 3, 2012, p. 37.
35.^ "Part 14: Battles on Many Fronts (1996)". The Almost but Still Not Quite Complete History of MST3K. Satellite News. Retrieved 2006-08-17.
36.^ Cornell, Chris (2010-11-25). "Turkey Day Surprise from Shout". Retrieved 2011-01-17.
37.^ Ward, Brian (2010-11-29). "Shout Factory Community". Retrieved 2011-01-17.
38.^ Finley, Stephen F. (June 25, 1999). "512 - Mitchell". Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt. Satellite News. Retrieved 2006-08-17.
39.^ Chandler, Rick. "MST3K Touches Down For Good". Impression Magazine. Reprinted by MSTies Anonymous. Archived from the original on 2006-06-18. Retrieved 2006-08-17.
40.^ a b Cavanaugh, Maureen (2006-08-30). "Host of Mystery Science Theater 3000 moves to San Diego" (MP3). These Days. KPBS-FM. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
41.^ Sloane, Rick (2006). Interview with Jonah Falcon. The Jonah Falcon Show. MNN. New York City.
42.^ Borntreger, Andrew (February 2, 2008). "Interview with Rick Sloane". BadMovies.org. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
43.^ Jeff Lieberman, director. (1976). "Director's Commentary", Squirm (NTSC) [DVD], MGM. Released August 26, 2003.
44.^ "An Interview with Fiveson & Schriebman". The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Review. Retrieved 2006-08-17. Original discussion was started under the thread "Interview with Robert Fiveson" on Proboards on July 29, 2005.
45.^ Beaulieu, Trace; et al. (1996). "Miles O'Keefe: A Tribute". The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. New York: Bantam Books. p. 37. ISBN 0-553-37783-3.
46.^ "An Interview With David Giancola". The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Review. c. May 22, 2005. Retrieved 2006-08-17. Date is based on information on the discussion thread "David Giancola Interview".
47.^ "The Peabody Awards". Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Archived from the original on 2007-07-08. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
48.^ Rikk Wolf on How Incognito Cinema Warriors makes Terrible Movies Better
49.^ Mohawk students help bring Ed back to TV Hamilton MountainNews, May 27, 2010 (Article by Gord Bowes)
50.^ Raspberry Brothers and the Many Spawn of MST3K
51.^ FilmRoasters Fry at the Byrd
52.^ The Sensational Saga of Mr. Sinus
53.^ Godes, David; Dina Mayzlin (August 2003). "Using Online Conversations to Study Word of Mouth Communication". pp. 10–11. Retrieved 15 September 2010. "We found 169 different groups that contained messages about the shows in our sample ... Table 3 ... 20 Top Newsgroups in the Sample ... rec.arts.tv 9,649 ... rec.arts.tv.mst3k.mis 578"
54.^ Lieck, Ken (July 14, 1995). "The Information Dirt Road Marketing Your Band on the Net". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 15 September 2010. "groups where obsessos of all types get together and exchange information about their favorite TV shows (news:alt.tv.brady-bunch, news:rec.arts.tv.mst3k)"
55.^ Werts, Diane (May 14, 1996). "A MSTie Farewell to Mike, The 'Bots and Bad Flicks". Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.). pp. B.53. "new MST feature flick which just ended its NYC run and should hit the burbs soon check the Internet newsgroup rec.arts.tv.mst3k"
56.^ "Moderation Replacement Announcement rec.arts.tv.mst3k.announce". The Big-8 Management Board. 2007-09-20. Retrieved 15 September 2010. "rec.arts.tv.mst3k.announce was created in April 1995. At the same time the unmoderated newsgroup rec.arts.tv.mst3k was renamed to rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc"
57.^ Murphy, Kevin. "Edward the Less Video Interview, Part 1." SciFi.com, 2001. Retrieved on 2009-02-02.
58.^ http://www.amazon.com/RiffTrax-Nashville-Mystery-Science-Theater/dp/B0030VBGJU
59.^ http://www.stoneworldbistro.com/movies/
60.^ Cartoondump.com
61.^ http://steveallentheater.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=425089
62.^ Corbett, Bill. "Meat, Dave?", Rifftrax.com, July 10, 2008. Retrieved on 2009-02-02.
63.^ Darkstar on IMDB
64.^ MST3K Pops Up in Arrested Development

Reference: Best Brains (1996). The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide (1st ed.). Bantam. pp. 173 pages. ISBN 0-553-37783-3.

I have been accused of not being "Whole-Bible". Well then -- please read the Holy-Bible (KJV) from cover to cover -- Genesis through Revelation -- straight-through -- over and over -- with Strict Grammatical-Historical Hermeneutics. I have suggested various contrarian concepts and studies to MAKE YOU THINK -- and to Properly Understand the "Whole-Bible".

THEeXchanger wrote:It may just be a coincidence, but interestingly, in recent years key foes of Israel have been destroyed by the US and UK on dates that coincide with the Jewish Festivity of Purim that falls every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar.  Based on the Old Testament Book of Esther, Purim celebrates the slaughter of 75,000 enemies of the Jews throughout the Persia Empire (modern Iran, of all places!)

Purim falls on a different date each year in our Western calendar: in 1991 it fell on 1st March (actually it started at sunset on 28th February) which was the exact day the Bush I administration called victory in Iraq.  In 2003, Purim fell on 19th March which is when Bush II invaded Iraq.  Last year it again fell on 19th March, marking the first massive NATO attack on Libya.

This year Purim falls on 8th March.   Will Israel and the US go into War Mode this week?

Thank-you eXchanger. Celebrating Slaughter seems so wrong on so many levels. You make a valid and interesting point. Fukushima occurred on March 11 (which was close to Purim). March seems to be a blood-month of sorts. Iraq = Babylon = Persia. Persia is supposedly behind Bohemian Grove. Consider Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Consider Enlil and Lilith. Consider the possibility of Archangel Gabriel assisting Enlil in teaching Lilith and Humanity a lesson -- with the Universe watching -- and learning to never, ever again attempt Responsible-Freedom and Human-Physicality. With Humanity and Freedom exterminated -- perhaps the Beings of the Universe Will Bask in a Purified Universe -- with Sin and Sinners Removed Forevermore. Perhaps then they will say 'We Are All One Once More'. It seems as if the Solar System Rulers Follow a Punishment and Extermination Script -- Which Often Masquerades as Biblical Prophecy. History might be more Divinely Directed (and not in a good way) than we can possibly imagine. Just more speculation. I mean no careless disrespect -- but I continue to think that we should consider ALL of the possibilities regarding the most important subjects imaginable -- before it is too late. Think about it -- and PLEASE strain yourselves.

What if the high-ranking souls in the Secret Government have access to more than one body? What if there is an Avatar and Soul-Transference Program? What if certain souls never sleep? What if they simply change bodies when they get tired. I spoke with someone who said that they didn't have to sleep -- ever. I guessed it -- and they confirmed it. I've heard that Obama has more than one body! The Secret Government, Underground Bases, and Secret Space Program might be a helluva lot more sophisticated than we think. I'm frankly trying to conceptually live within a purified and ethical version of this realm -- 24/7 -- without actually living within this realm. I hope that my version will become a reality in the near future -- but I doubt that it exists presently. Is this really a three-way contest between Enlil, Lilith, and Gabriel? Has Lilith been disempowered and out of the loop for thousands of years? Have Enlil and Gabriel been punishing Lilith and Humanity for thousands of years? At some point, did Gabriel turn on Enlil -- and 'want it all'? Are Enlil and Gabriel presently cornered, and in deep trouble? Is Lilith still clueless -- yet beginning to wake-up and remember? Leave no stone unturned. I have a feeling that things are about to get REALLY interesting -- in both good and bad ways. Where did this scar on Obama's head come from? Was the hood opened for some fine-tuning? Is Obama an Obot? Damned if I know. http://www.rense.com/general93/obbrain.htm Have the round-ups started? Just because I'm crazy and paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get us! I am NOT Anti-Obama!! I just can't resist reposting some of the stuff they put on the internet!!


I have fond live steam memories. Real Elites and Whistle-Blowers Belong to Live Steam Clubs. I really think there are both good and bad elites -- and I think some basically good people got deceived by some basically bad other than people. My dream-home might be something like this (with a live-steam track circling the house)! http://www.missilebases.com/properties What would David and Seymour say? I'm dedicating this thread to a very special person. Let's just leave it at that. Enjoy the pictures -- and if you get the chance -- participate in a local live steam club. It beats the heck out of arguing about aliens. BTW -- I have a Virgin Atlantic -- and I love to do the Locomotion! But that linked silo-home is probably way too upscale for me -- but it's still cool to think about. I think about a lot of things. If I placed a pipe-organ or an artificial-organ in that missile launch-tube -- I could turn it into a church -- and call it 'Orthodoxymoron and the Temple of Doom'. Imagine a restored G. Donald Harrison Aeolean Skinner Pipe-Organ in the Launch-Tube!!!


I could preach sermons to myself about 'The End of the World' or 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Orthodoxymoron'! See how sick I am???!!! Or that launch-tube could be used to garage a Sport-Model UFO!!! I could put a Formula One Ferrari in the garage!!! Or at least a 1098cc Ducati!!! I could zip up and down that landing-strip at 175 mph!!! I need to stop. I really do. Siriusly. Can you guess what I'm going to REALLY be doing when I go silent in a few days???  

That was an inside look at the Secret Steam Program (at an undisclosed location). Does anyone know why the tubes in the boiler of this steamboat were a mess? Do some research -- and you'll discover that I'm not blowing smoke. Also, consider the broken-wire and runaway-train phenomenon. What does all of the above have in common? There's a very interesting name connected with all of the above -- with a very interesting history. Do some research -- and you might be amazed. The Boat Below (Das Boot) is a big clue. Amaze your friends.

I really wonder where someone would end-up if they studied this thread (including all included links and books) -- and really took all of it very seriously -- for a full year??!! Has anyone done this yet??!! I feel as if I have simply defined the territory and named the game. I'm just getting started myself -- and I feel as if there are millions of people who are more qualified than I am -- to properly research and play this game. I seem to have way too much baggage to properly engage the enemy in this tempest in a teapot!! My computers are fighting with me -- as everything in my life continues to worsen. Plus, the viewcount has virtually stopped. Something seems to have changed within the past couple of months -- and not in ways beneficial to myself or to my tentative point of view. Perhaps my walk down Memory Lane has turned my very few observers away from this thread. But really, the points raised in my past posts continue to be ignored -- so why shouldn't I attempt to gain insights by reposting the best of the past??!! Unfortunately, one computer will not function at all, and the other barely functions. I suspect foul-play, but I can't prove it. I keep feeling as if I'm nearing the end of my present journey (whatever the hell that means). I hope the last post wasn't too graphic or upsetting. I'm really not like that -- and I was merely repeating some of the more colorful aspects of my internet escapades. Another thing. What if Adam dumped (or murdered?) Lilith -- and ran away with Eve??!! What if Adam was the real villian in the Garden of Eden??!! Just a thought!! Remember to keep considering ALL of the possibilities. Never stop studying the Bible -- but never stop questioning the Bible!!

I'm about half an hour into this 'Solomon' movie right now. I just wanted to note that King David was played by Max Von Sydow. Max also played Jesus Christ in 'The Greatest Story Ever Told'. Was Hollywood trying to tell us something? What if King David and Jesus Christ were the same soul -- if not the same person? I continue to toy with my Reincarnating Archangel Hypothesis -- and my Recent Renegade Human Race as a Subset of an Ancient and Traditional Reptilian Race Theory. Again, this continues to be my version of Political and Theological Science Fiction. I just think that Esoteric Researchers need to be Biblical Scholars of the First Order. Leave the churches if you must (I have) but never stop thinking about theology. I left so that I might see things from everyone's perspective, rather than being primarily molded (and corrupted?) by the church. I've spent more time in churches than most religious people spend in churches, mosques, and synagogues -- in their entire lives. Really. My internet posting is a real Pastoral Potpourri. BTW -- check out the other movies linked on the right side of the 'Solomon' movie. Unfortunately, the burn-out and discomfort factors seem to make it impossible for me to properly deal with the mass of information I willingly subject myself to. BTW -- if the Jesus Old Soul showed-up in this present world -- he (she?) might simply piss everyone off by stepping on everyone's toes and questioning everything!! I once spoke with an attorney/writer/speaker who told me that the church wouldn't know what to do with Jesus if he showed-up!! All the churches and organizations would undoubtedly try to recreate Jesus in THEIR image, and after THEIR likeness.

Consider this! www.space.com/15043-small-asteroids-earth-close-shave.html I've recently fantasized and written about living on a small asteroid in Earth Orbit. Didn't Alex Collier say something about Phobos and/or Deimos moving from Mars Orbit to Earth Orbit? Believe it or not, someone told me that they like me on Phobos!! If true -- would that be a good-thing or a bad-thing? I worry constantly about Asteroid-Attacks and Drac-Attacks. I really do. Didn't Bill Cooper refer to 'Intelligently-Guided Asteroids in Geosynchronous Orbit' around 1950 (in his famous 1989 MUFON lecture)? Perhaps the Beings of the Universe move throughout the universe in hollowed-out asteroid-spacecraft -- using the familiar disks and cigar-shaped craft when they arrive at their desired destination. You'd 'simply' need internal life-support and propulsion systems to turn an asteroid into a Bad-Asteroid Queen-Ship. Once again, I'm thinking of Humanity as being a Recent Subset of an Ancient Reptilian Race -- but even if I'm wrong -- what intelligent races might've predated the human race? I suspect a single Ancient and Traditional Race (with a multitude of variations on this central theme) -- with a renegade faction being responsible for the creation of the Human Race. What if our problems connected with Sex, Politics, and Religion are directly related to the Reptilian and Human differences regarding Physicality, Sexuality, Politics, and Religion??!! Could this be the key to interpreting the Bible??!! Anyway, I'm digressing -- and I still don't know if Reptilians really exist. I really don't.

Wouldn't this be a really cool location for a Galactic Rand Corporation??!! http://www.missilebases.com/properties Imagine a dozen unconventional scholars and a Cray supercomputer (with twelve terminals) -- solving solar system problems 24/7!! Or -- would this sort of thing create problems??!! Would the participants spy on each other and leak sensitive information to various factions??!! As fun as this sort of thing sounds, it might be a living hell for the participants. The problems might be THAT bad. I suspect that they are -- but I'd still like to be involved in such an enterprise -- even if it did me in. I will continue to think in terms of a Perfected Humanity Living in a Perfected Solar System -- Constructively Interacting with the Beings of the Universe -- Without Star Wars. Hope Springs Eternal. Someone might wish to consider buying all of the linked property at a fire-sale price -- and using it for something similar to what I've suggested. I like the idea of really, really bright people solving monumental problems -- without being creepy, corrupt, or violent. Why is this so hard??!! Does anyone see what I'm hinting at??!! I know I'm crazy -- but I'm crazy in a good way!! One more thing. If I'm one of the 'Chosen Twelve' -- could the other eleven be really smart and really beautiful females??!! Pretty Please!!! http://www.google.com/search?q=adirondack+silo+home+images&hl=en&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4RNRN_enUS423US424&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=D4ZzT4ScN4bUiALRnPiVCw&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQsAQ&biw=1440&bih=737

Carol wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDBGL5u4Yl4
26 Mile Galactic Federation of Light mothership in our Solar System (Dr Steven M Greer)

Published on May 13, 2013
Many "Galactic Federation of Light" & "Ashtar Galactic Command" mother ships are parked on out side ring of our Solar System. all the smaller vessel mother ships and larger scout craft are within our solar system. and all the smaller scout crafts in our skies come from these mother ships hangers, readying for mass First Contact with Earth when the Illuminati are arrested and out of the way, so it's safe to do so.

www.GalacticFederationofLight.info
www.GalacticFederationofLightl.com
www.AshtarGalacticCommand.com
www.CitizenHearing.com
www.SiriusDisclosure.com
www.DisclosureProject.org
www.cseti.org
www.eceti.org
www.paoweb.com

This report should make your day Oxy. It's called the "good" news.

enemyofNWO wrote:

orthodoxymoron wrote:I really hate to think-it and say-it -- but what if there really needs to be a Secret-Government and a Secret Space Program?? What if this basic concept simply needs to be conducted in a proper manner?? What if the solar system really needs to be run as a big-business?? I've tried to think about this in an idealistic manner -- but what if this solar system will NEVER be Idealistic?? What if this solar system really must be run by a Mean-Queen with a Titanium-Fist?? My disillusionment is beyond description -- but what makes this exponentially worse is the sinking-feeling that a lot of what presently exists has to be the way it is. It hurts like hell to think this way -- so much so -- that I don't want to think about it anymore.

Ortho .
Please do not write any more "hate to think-it and say-it -- but what if there really needs to be a Secret-Government and a Secret Space Program? "   It is certain that there was a over-national secret research program to solve the problem of antigravity ,

Former Black Ops - Stan Deyo & Anti Gravity Technology

How UFO work and the nature of antigravity . Fantastic presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=12&v=aaxo1Aq-9mU
http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t7537-antigravity

In the program, according to Dejo worked scientist of different nationality . Even the famous Soviet scientist Andrei Zakharov worked for a while . So as we heard many times by other whistle blowers mankind has the technology to take home ET . Unfortunately the major powers that without doubt have military bases on Moon and Mars , keep those facts secret because the  taxpayer must be kept ignorant of what really goes on .

I've attempted to be Open and Honest -- and this is the sort of response I receive -- if I am even lucky enough to get any response whatsoever. You got it. I won't write any more. PERIOD. I'm finishing a re-posting project -- which will be completed within a couple of weeks. Then I won't write any more (especially on this website). Your wish will be granted. Thanks for making the transition that much easier. It will also make it easier when the excrement contacts the air-conditioning.

enemyofNWO wrote:

orthodoxymoron wrote:

enemyofNWO wrote:

orthodoxymoron wrote:I really hate to think-it and say-it -- but what if there really needs to be a Secret-Government and a Secret Space Program?? What if this basic concept simply needs to be conducted in a proper manner?? What if the solar system really needs to be run as a big-business?? I've tried to think about this in an idealistic manner -- but what if this solar system will NEVER be Idealistic?? What if this solar system really must be run by a Mean-Queen with a Titanium-Fist?? My disillusionment is beyond description -- but what makes this exponentially worse is the sinking-feeling that a lot of what presently exists has to be the way it is. It hurts like hell to think this way -- so much so -- that I don't want to think about it anymore.

Ortho .
Please do not write any more "hate to think-it and say-it -- but what if there really needs to be a Secret-Government and a Secret Space Program? "   It is certain that there was a over-national secret research program to solve the problem of antigravity ,

Former Black Ops - Stan Deyo & Anti Gravity Technology

How UFO work and the nature of antigravity . Fantastic presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=12&v=aaxo1Aq-9mU
http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t7537-antigravity

In the program, according to Dejo worked scientist of different nationality . Even the famous Soviet scientist Andrei Zakharov worked for a while . So as we heard many times by other whistle blowers mankind has the technology to take home ET . Unfortunately the major powers that without doubt have military bases on Moon and Mars , keep those facts secret because the  taxpayer must be kept ignorant of what really goes on .

I've attempted to be Open and Honest -- and this is the sort of response I receive -- if I am even lucky enough to get any response whatsoever. You got it. I won't write any more. PERIOD. I'm finishing a re-posting project -- which will be completed within a couple of weeks. Then I won't write any more (especially on this website). Your wish will be granted. Thanks for making the transition that much easier. It will also make it easier when the excrement contacts the air-conditioning.

Ortho ,
My comment was not intended to offend you in any way . My comment was pointing out to the fact that there is longer a need to speculate on the need for a secret space program . It was done in  the past without our knowledge .
you say " Then I won't write any more  "  . You will take the ball home ?
So you complain "I am even lucky enough to get any response whatsoever " and then when there is a comment you take offence ?  
Please reconsider ! I appreciated your posting .

orthodoxymoron wrote:Sorry eNWO. I found rat-poison in one of my shoes (inside my house) -- and then, fifteen minutes later, I saw your comment. I'm simply trying to understand all-sides. What scares me is the possibility that when the Illuminati (and company) get kicked-out -- there might be a much nastier group waiting to get the chance to exploit and abuse humanity. The problem is that I don't think we know who we're really dealing with. Plus -- when out of power "good-guys" gain absolute-power -- they might become corrupt and nasty -- rather quickly. I always get a horrible and creepy sick-feeling whenever I think about being close to the center of how things "really-work" in this solar system. The "Top-Dog" might have a horrible moral track-record -- but what if any one of us had been in their shoes?? I keep leaning toward "Knowing Without Doing". But knowing just a tiny bit is almost completely destroying me -- and now they're putting rat-poison in my shoes!! That reminds me. Didn't they have a plan to put some nasty substance in Fidel Castro's shoes which would "Eat His Feet"??!! Can't We All Just Get Along?? Obviously Not!! One more thing. Imagine a Billionaire-Father who has an Opportunistic-Son who just can't wait for his Father to die -- so he can take-over the Family-Business. Then -- imagine the Father making it very tempting and easy for his Son to murder "Dear Old Dad". Imagine the Father faking his own murder!! Imagine the Father moving to a distant town -- and having private-investigators documenting every move of the Murderous-Son!! Finally -- imagine the Father reappearing twenty-years later -- and completely exposing the Disloyal-Son!! What if something similar to that is occurring within this very solar system?? Think long and hard about the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy-Spirit. Note very-carefully each instance in the Bible wherein the Father, Son, and Holy-Spirit are specifically-mentioned. "Know ye not that I must be about my Father's Business??" That's all I'm going to say about that. BTW -- while I was out of town -- I encountered a man with an angel on the back of his shirt -- who asked me a lot of strange questions -- followed by him saying "we need to check you out".

Carol wrote:Oxy, I stopped worrying about the "what ifs" years ago and just plunge ahead dealing with "what ever", if any, consequences that may arise at the time.

From all I'm reading from the contactees most of their reports are positive. Even the good Ets can't let us run amuck without some type of intervention as earth is a valuable resource to them and our messing around with nuclear / atomic bombs and CERN is a big concern to them.

"That's all I'm going to say about that. BTW -- while I was out of town -- I encountered a man with an angel on the back of his shirt -- who asked me a lot of strange questions -- followed by him saying "we need to check you out."

hmm... are you being visited or was he schizophrenic?

Carol wrote:

Art Bell / Dr Steven Greer: Alien Lifeforms

orthodoxymoron wrote:Carol, I have been reduced to mostly asking "what if??" I wish I had more confidence in what I think I know -- but I don't. I honestly don't know (with any significant degree of certainty) much of anything about the most important topics imaginable. I just received a copy of the complete works of Flavius Josephus. Mastering just that one volume would take a lifetime (for a very intelligent person). In the irreverent movie Religulous Bill Maher speaks of belonging to "The Church of I Don't Know". I identify with that. The True-Believers are SO Sure of the Themselves. The True-Atheists are SO Sure of Themselves. There is a legitimate point to showing-up once a week, and participating in some sort of a Common and Universal Ritual (such as the Mass) -- and then thinking and doing whatever makes sense throughout the week. I presently have lots of problems with the existing Religious-Rituals -- but I see the legitimacy of the basic concept. It's sort of agreeing to "get along" for one hour a week!! The "Ancient Egyptian Deity" spoke of the "Regressives" fighting with each-other year-round -- except for Christmas Day!!!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the next few posts -- other than applying the Scientific-Method to Law, Politics, Religion, Journalism, and Conspiracy-Theories. This should be interesting. What is the difference between a Lawyer, Politician, Theologian, Preacher, Journalist, Conspiracy-Theorist -- and a Scientist? Is derisively calling a person a "Conspiracy-Theorist" sort of like calling an African-American the "N" Word??? Here is the Wikipedia link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.[1] To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.[2] The Oxford English Dictionary says that scientific method is: "a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses."[3]

The chief characteristic which distinguishes a scientific method of inquiry from other methods of acquiring knowledge is that scientists seek to let reality speak for itself, and contradict their theories about it when those theories are incorrect,[4] i. e., falsifiability. Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features distinguish scientific inquiry from other methods of obtaining knowledge. Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses via predictions which can be derived from them. These steps must be repeatable, to guard against mistake or confusion in any particular experimenter. Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many independently derived hypotheses together in a coherent, supportive structure. Theories, in turn, may help form new hypotheses or place groups of hypotheses into context.

Scientific inquiry is generally intended to be as objective as possible, to reduce biased interpretations of results. Another basic expectation is to document, archive and share all data and methodology so they are available for careful scrutiny by other scientists, giving them the opportunity to verify results by attempting to reproduce them. This practice, called full disclosure, also allows statistical measures of the reliability of these data to be established.

See also: History of scientific method and Timeline of the history of scientific method

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), 965–1039 Iraq. The Arab scholar who lived during the Islamic golden age is considered by some to be the father of modern scientific methodology.[5]

"Modern science owes its present flourishing state to a new scientific method which was fashioned by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)" —Morris Kline[6]

Johannes Kepler (1571–1630). "Kepler shows his keen logical sense in detailing the whole process by which he finally arrived at the true orbit. This is the greatest piece of Retroductive reasoning ever performed." —C. S. Peirce, circa 1896, on Kepler's reasoning through explanatory hypotheses[7]
Scientific methodology has been practiced in some form for at least one thousand years.[5] There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method, however. As William Whewell (1794–1866) noted in his History of Inductive Science (1837) and in Philosophy of Inductive Science (1840), "invention, sagacity, genius" are required at every step in scientific method. It is not enough to base scientific method on experience alone;[8] multiple steps are needed in scientific method, ranging from our experience to our imagination, back and forth.

In the 20th century, a hypothetico-deductive model[9] for scientific method was formulated (for a more formal discussion, see below):

1. Use your experience: Consider the problem and try to make sense of it. Look for previous explanations. If this is a new problem to you, then move to step 2.
2. Form a conjecture: When nothing else is yet known, try to state an explanation, to someone else, or to your notebook.
3. Deduce a prediction from that explanation: If you assume 2 is true, what consequences follow?
4. Test: Look for the opposite of each consequence in order to disprove 2. It is a logical error to seek 3 directly as proof of 2. This error is called affirming the consequent.[10]
This model underlies the scientific revolution. One thousand years ago, Alhazen demonstrated the importance of steps 1 and 4.[11] Galileo 1638 also showed the importance of step 4 (also called Experiment) in Two New Sciences.[12] One possible sequence in this model would be 1, 2, 3, 4. If the outcome of 4 holds, and 3 is not yet disproven, you may continue with 3, 4, 1, and so forth; but if the outcome of 4 shows 3 to be false, you will have to go back to 2 and try to invent a new 2, deduce a new 3, look for 4, and so forth.

Note that this method can never absolutely verify (prove the truth of) 2. It can only falsify 2.[13] (This is what Einstein meant when he said, "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."[14]) However, as pointed out by Carl Hempel (1905–1997) this simple view of scientific method is incomplete; the formulation of the conjecture might itself be the result of inductive reasoning. Thus the likelihood of the prior observation being true is statistical in nature[15] and would strictly require a Bayesian analysis. To overcome this uncertainty, experimental scientists must formulate a crucial experiment,[16] in order for it to corroborate a more likely hypothesis.

In the 20th century, Ludwik Fleck (1896–1961) and others argued that scientists need to consider their experiences more carefully, because their experience may be biased, and that they need to be more exact when describing their experiences.[17]

DNA example Four basic elements of scientific method are illustrated by the following example from the discovery of the structure of DNA:
DNA characterization: Although DNA had been identified as at least one and possibly the only genetic substance by Avery, Macleod and McCarty at the Rockefeller Institute in 1944, the mechanism was still unclear to anyone in 1950.
DNA hypotheses: Crick and Watson hypothesized that the genetic material had a physical basis that was helical.[18]
DNA prediction: From earlier work on tobacco mosaic virus,[19] Watson was aware of the significance of Crick's formulation of the transform of a helix.[20] Thus he was primed to recognize the significance of the X-shape in photo 51, the remarkable photograph of the X-ray diffraction image of DNA taken by Rosalind Franklin.
DNA experiment: Watson saw photo 51.[21]

The examples are continued in "Evaluations and iterations" with DNA-iterations.[22]

Main article: Truth
In the same way that Alhazen sought truth during his pioneering studies in optics 1000 years ago, arriving at the truth is the goal of a scientific inquiry.[23]

Beliefs and biases
Flying gallop falsified; see image below.Belief can alter observation; human confirmation bias is a heuristic that leads a person with a particular belief to see things as reinforcing their belief, even if another observer might disagree. Researchers have often noted that first observations are often somewhat imprecise, whereas the second and third were "adjusted to the facts". Eventually, factors such as openness to experience, self-esteem, time, and comfort can produce a readiness for new perception.[24]

Needham's Science and Civilization in China uses the 'flying gallop' image as an example of observation bias:[25] In these images, the legs of a galloping horse are shown splayed, while the first stop-action pictures of a horse's gallop by Eadweard Muybridge showed this to be false. In a horse's gallop, at the moment that no hoof touches the ground, a horse's legs are gathered together—not splayed. Earlier paintings show an incorrect flying gallop observation.

This image illustrates Ludwik Fleck's suggestion that people be cautious lest they observe what is not so; people often observe what they expect to observe. Until shown otherwise; their beliefs affect their observations (and, therefore, any subsequent actions which depend on those observations, in a self-fulfilling prophecy). This is one of the reasons (mistake, confusion, inadequate instruments, etc. are others) why scientific methodology directs that hypotheses be tested in controlled conditions which can be reproduced by others. The scientific community's pursuit of experimental control and reproducibility, diminishes the effects of cognitive biases.

Any scientific theory is closely tied to empirical findings, and always remains subject to falsification if new experimental observation incompatible with it is found. That is, no theory can ever be seriously considered certain as new evidence falsifying it can be discovered. Most scientific theories don't result in large changes in human understanding. Improvements in theoretical scientific understanding is usually the result of a gradual synthesis of the results of different experiments, by various researchers, across different domains of science.[26] Theories vary in the extent to which they have been experimentally tested and for how long, and in their acceptance in the scientific community.

In contrast to the always-provisional status of scientific theory, a myth can be believed and acted upon, or depended upon, irrespective of its truth.[27] Imre Lakatos has noted that once a narrative is constructed its elements become easier to believe (this is called the narrative fallacy).[28][29] That is, theories become accepted by a scientific community as evidence for the theory is presented, and as presumptions that are inconsistent with the evidence are falsified. -- The difference between a theory and a myth reflects a preference for a posteriori versus a priori knowledge. --[citation needed]

Thomas Brody notes that confirmed theories are subject to subsumption by other theories, as special cases of a more general theory. For example, thousands of years of scientific observations of the planets were explained by Newton's laws. Thus the body of independent, unconnected, scientific observation can diminish.[30] Yet there is a preference in the scientific community for new, surprising statements, and the search for evidence that the new is true.[1] Goldhaber & Nieto 2010, p. 941 additionally state that "If many closely neighboring subjects are described by connecting theoretical concepts, then a theoretical structure acquires a robustness which makes it increasingly hard —though certainly never impossible— to overturn."

There are different ways of outlining the basic method used for scientific inquiry. The scientific community and philosophers of science generally agree on the following classification of method components. These methodological elements and organization of procedures tend to be more characteristic of natural sciences than social sciences. Nonetheless, the cycle of formulating hypotheses, testing and analyzing the results, and formulating new hypotheses, will resemble the cycle described below.

Four essential elements[31][32][33] of a scientific method[34] are iterations,[35][36] recursions,[37] interleavings, or orderings of the following:
Characterizations (observations,[38] definitions, and measurements of the subject of inquiry)
Hypotheses[39][40] (theoretical, hypothetical explanations of observations and measurements of the subject)[41]
Predictions (reasoning including logical deduction[42] from the hypothesis or theory)
Experiments[43] (tests of all of the above)
Each element of a scientific method is subject to peer review for possible mistakes. These activities do not describe all that scientists do (see below) but apply mostly to experimental sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry, and biology). The elements above are often taught in the educational system as "the scientific method".[44]

The scientific method is not a single recipe: it requires intelligence, imagination, and creativity.[45] In this sense, it is not a mindless set of standards and procedures to follow, but is rather an ongoing cycle, constantly developing more useful, accurate and comprehensive models and methods. For example, when Einstein developed the Special and General Theories of Relativity, he did not in any way refute or discount Newton's Principia. On the contrary, if the astronomically large, the vanishingly small, and the extremely fast are removed from Einstein's theories — all phenomena Newton could not have observed — Newton's equations are what remain. Einstein's theories are expansions and refinements of Newton's theories and, thus, increase our confidence in Newton's work.

A linearized, pragmatic scheme of the four points above is sometimes offered as a guideline for proceeding:[46]

Define a question
Gather information and resources (observe)
Form an explanatory hypothesis
Test the hypothesis by performing an experiment and collecting data in a reproducible manner
Analyze the data
Interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
Publish results
Retest (frequently done by other scientists)
The iterative cycle inherent in this step-by-step methodology goes from point 3 to 6 back to 3 again.

While this schema outlines a typical hypothesis/testing method,[47] it should also be noted that a number of philosophers, historians and sociologists of science (perhaps most notably Paul Feyerabend) claim that such descriptions of scientific method have little relation to the ways science is actually practiced.

The "operational" paradigm combines the concepts of operational definition, instrumentalism, and utility:

The essential elements of a scientific method are operations, observations, models, and a utility function for evaluating models.[48][not in citation given]

Operation - Some action done to the system being investigated
Observation - What happens when the operation is done to the system
Model - A fact, hypothesis, theory, or the phenomenon itself at a certain moment
Utility Function - A measure of the usefulness of the model to explain, predict, and control, and of the cost of use of it. One of the elements of any scientific utility function is the refutability of the model. Another is its simplicity, on the Principle of Parsimony more commonly known as Occam's Razor.

Scientific method depends upon increasingly sophisticated characterizations of the subjects of investigation. (The subjects can also be called unsolved problems or the unknowns.) For example, Benjamin Franklin conjectured, correctly, that St. Elmo's fire was electrical in nature, but it has taken a long series of experiments and theoretical changes to establish this. While seeking the pertinent properties of the subjects, careful thought may also entail some definitions and observations; the observations often demand careful measurements and/or counting.

The systematic, careful collection of measurements or counts of relevant quantities is often the critical difference between pseudo-sciences, such as alchemy, and science, such as chemistry or biology. Scientific measurements are usually tabulated, graphed, or mapped, and statistical manipulations, such as correlation and regression, performed on them. The measurements might be made in a controlled setting, such as a laboratory, or made on more or less inaccessible or unmanipulatable objects such as stars or human populations. The measurements often require specialized scientific instruments such as thermometers, spectroscopes, particle accelerators, or voltmeters, and the progress of a scientific field is usually intimately tied to their invention and improvement.

"I am not accustomed to saying anything with certainty after only one or two observations."—Andreas Vesalius (1546) [49]

Measurements in scientific work are also usually accompanied by estimates of their uncertainty. The uncertainty is often estimated by making repeated measurements of the desired quantity. Uncertainties may also be calculated by consideration of the uncertainties of the individual underlying quantities used. Counts of things, such as the number of people in a nation at a particular time, may also have an uncertainty due to data collection limitations. Or counts may represent a sample of desired quantities, with an uncertainty that depends upon the sampling method used and the number of samples taken.

Measurements demand the use of operational definitions of relevant quantities. That is, a scientific quantity is described or defined by how it is measured, as opposed to some more vague, inexact or "idealized" definition. For example, electrical current, measured in amperes, may be operationally defined in terms of the mass of silver deposited in a certain time on an electrode in an electrochemical device that is described in some detail. The operational definition of a thing often relies on comparisons with standards: the operational definition of "mass" ultimately relies on the use of an artifact, such as a particular kilogram of platinum-iridium kept in a laboratory in France.

The scientific definition of a term sometimes differs substantially from its natural language usage. For example, mass and weight overlap in meaning in common discourse, but have distinct meanings in mechanics. Scientific quantities are often characterized by their units of measure which can later be described in terms of conventional physical units when communicating the work.

New theories are sometimes developed after realizing certain terms have not previously been sufficiently clearly defined. For example, Albert Einstein's first paper on relativity begins by defining simultaneity and the means for determining length. These ideas were skipped over by Isaac Newton with, "I do not define time, space, place and motion, as being well known to all." Einstein's paper then demonstrates that they (viz., absolute time and length independent of motion) were approximations. Francis Crick cautions us that when characterizing a subject, however, it can be premature to define something when it remains ill-understood.[50] In Crick's study of consciousness, he actually found it easier to study awareness in the visual system, rather than to study free will, for example. His cautionary example was the gene; the gene was much more poorly understood before Watson and Crick's pioneering discovery of the structure of DNA; it would have been counterproductive to spend much time on the definition of the gene, before them.

The history of the discovery of the structure of DNA is a classic example of the elements of scientific method: in 1950 it was known that genetic inheritance had a mathematical description, starting with the studies of Gregor Mendel, and that DNA contained genetic information (Oswald Avery's transforming principle).[51] But the mechanism of storing genetic information (i.e., genes) in DNA was unclear. Researchers in Bragg's laboratory at Cambridge University made X-ray diffraction pictures of various molecules, starting with crystals of salt, and proceeding to more complicated substances. Using clues painstakingly assembled over decades, beginning with its chemical composition, it was determined that it should be possible to characterize the physical structure of DNA, and the X-ray images would be the vehicle.[52] ..2. DNA-hypotheses

Another example: precession of Mercury
Precession of the perihelion (exaggerated)The characterization element can require extended and extensive study, even centuries. It took thousands of years of measurements, from the Chaldean, Indian, Persian, Greek, Arabic and European astronomers, to fully record the motion of planet Earth. Newton was able to include those measurements into consequences of his laws of motion. But the perihelion of the planet Mercury's orbit exhibits a precession that cannot be fully explained by Newton's laws of motion (see diagram to the right), though it took quite some time to realize this. The observed difference for Mercury's precession between Newtonian theory and observation was one of the things that occurred to Einstein as a possible early test of his theory of General Relativity. His relativistic calculations matched observation much more closely than did Newtonian theory (the difference is approximately 43 arc-seconds per century), .

Main article: Hypothesis formation
A hypothesis is a suggested explanation of a phenomenon, or alternately a reasoned proposal suggesting a possible correlation between or among a set of phenomena.

Normally hypotheses have the form of a mathematical model. Sometimes, but not always, they can also be formulated as existential statements, stating that some particular instance of the phenomenon being studied has some characteristic and causal explanations, which have the general form of universal statements, stating that every instance of the phenomenon has a particular characteristic.

Scientists are free to use whatever resources they have — their own creativity, ideas from other fields, induction, Bayesian inference, and so on — to imagine possible explanations for a phenomenon under study. Charles Sanders Peirce, borrowing a page from Aristotle (Prior Analytics, 2.25) described the incipient stages of inquiry, instigated by the "irritation of doubt" to venture a plausible guess, as abductive reasoning. The history of science is filled with stories of scientists claiming a "flash of inspiration", or a hunch, which then motivated them to look for evidence to support or refute their idea. Michael Polanyi made such creativity the centerpiece of his discussion of methodology.

William Glen observes that the success of a hypothesis, or its service to science, lies not simply in its perceived "truth", or power to displace, subsume or reduce a predecessor idea, but perhaps more in its ability to stimulate the research that will illuminate … bald suppositions and areas of vagueness.[53]

In general scientists tend to look for theories that are "elegant" or "beautiful". In contrast to the usual English use of these terms, they here refer to a theory in accordance with the known facts, which is nevertheless relatively simple and easy to handle. Occam's Razor serves as a rule of thumb for choosing the most desirable amongst a group of equally explanatory hypotheses.

DNA-hypothesesLinus Pauling proposed that DNA might be a triple helix.[54] This hypothesis was also considered by Francis Crick and James D. Watson but discarded. When Watson and Crick learned of Pauling's hypothesis, they understood from existing data that Pauling was wrong[55] and that Pauling would soon admit his difficulties with that structure. So, the race was on to figure out the correct structure (except that Pauling did not realize at the time that he was in a race—see section on "DNA-predictions" below)

Main article: Prediction in science
Any useful hypothesis will enable predictions, by reasoning including deductive reasoning. It might predict the outcome of an experiment in a laboratory setting or the observation of a phenomenon in nature. The prediction can also be statistical and deal only with probabilities.

It is essential that the outcome testing such a prediction be currently unknown. Only in this case does the eventuation increase the probability that the hypothesis be true. If the outcome is already known, it's called a consequence and should have already been considered while formulating the hypothesis.

If the predictions are not accessible by observation or experience, the hypothesis is not yet testable and so will remain to that extent unscientific in a strict sense. A new technology or theory might make the necessary experiments feasible. Thus, much scientifically based speculation might convince one (or many) that the hypothesis that other intelligent species exist is true, but there being not experiment now known which can test this hypothesis, science itself can have little to say about the possibility. In future, some new technique might lead to an experimental test and the speculation become part of accepted science.

James D. Watson, Francis Crick, and others hypothesized that DNA had a helical structure. This implied that DNA's X-ray diffraction pattern would be 'x shaped'.[56][57] This prediction followed from the work of Cochran, Crick and Vand[20] (and independently by Stokes). The Cochran-Crick-Vand-Stokes theorem provided a mathematical explanation for the empirical observation that diffraction from helical structures produces x shaped patterns.

In their first paper, Watson and Crick also noted that the double helix structure they proposed provided a simple mechanism for DNA replication, writing "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material".[58] ..4. DNA-experiments

Another example: general relativity
Einstein's prediction (1907): Light bends in a gravitational fieldEinstein's theory of General Relativity makes several specific predictions about the observable structure of space-time, such as that light bends in a gravitational field, and that the amount of bending depends in a precise way on the strength of that gravitational field. Arthur Eddington's observations made during a 1919 solar eclipse supported General Relativity rather than Newtonian gravitation.[59]

Main article: Experiment
Once predictions are made, they can be sought by experiments. If test results contradict the predictions, the hypotheses which made them are called into question and become less tenable. Sometimes experiments are conducted incorrectly and are not very useful. If the results confirm the predictions, then the hypotheses are considered more likely to be correct, but might still be wrong and continue to be subject to further testing. The experimental control is a technique for dealing with observational error. This technique uses the contrast between multiple samples (or observations) under differing conditions to see what varies or what remains the same. We vary the conditions for each measurement, to help isolate what has changed. Mill's canons can then help us figure out what the important factor is.[60] Factor analysis is one technique for discovering the important factor in an effect.

Depending on the predictions, the experiments can have different shapes. It could be a classical experiment in a laboratory setting, a double-blind study or an archaeological excavation. Even taking a plane from New York to Paris is an experiment which tests the aerodynamical hypotheses used for constructing the plane.

Scientists assume an attitude of openness and accountability on the part of those conducting an experiment. Detailed record keeping is essential, to aid in recording and reporting on the experimental results, and supports the effectiveness and integrity of the procedure. They will also assist in reproducing the experimental results, likely by others. Traces of this approach can be seen in the work of Hipparchus (190-120 BCE), when determining a value for the precession of the Earth, while controlled experiments can be seen in the works of Jābir ibn Hayyān (721-815 CE), al-Battani (853–929) and Alhazen (965-1039).[61]

Watson and Crick showed an initial (and incorrect) proposal for the structure of DNA to a team from Kings College - Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, and Raymond Gosling. Franklin immediately spotted the flaws which concerned the water content. Later Watson saw Franklin's detailed X-ray diffraction images which showed an X-shape and was able to confirm the structure was helical.[21][62] This rekindled Watson and Crick's model building and led to the correct structure. ..1. DNA-characterizations

The scientific process is iterative. At any stage it is possible to refine its accuracy and precision, so that some consideration will lead the scientist to repeat an earlier part of the process. Failure to develop an interesting hypothesis may lead a scientist to re-define the subject under consideration. Failure of a hypothesis to produce interesting and testable predictions may lead to reconsideration of the hypothesis or of the definition of the subject. Failure of an experiment to produce interesting results may lead a scientist to reconsider the experimental method, the hypothesis, or the definition of the subject.

Other scientists may start their own research and enter the process at any stage. They might adopt the characterization and formulate their own hypothesis, or they might adopt the hypothesis and deduce their own predictions. Often the experiment is not done by the person who made the prediction, and the characterization is based on experiments done by someone else. Published results of experiments can also serve as a hypothesis predicting their own reproducibility.

After considerable fruitless experimentation, being discouraged by their superior from continuing, and numerous false starts,[63][64][65] Watson and Crick were able to infer the essential structure of DNA by concrete modeling of the physical shapes of the nucleotides which comprise it.[22][66] They were guided by the bond lengths which had been deduced by Linus Pauling and by Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction images. ..DNA Example

Science is a social enterprise, and scientific work tends to be accepted by the scientific community when it has been confirmed. Crucially, experimental and theoretical results must be reproduced by others within the scientific community. Researchers have given their lives for this vision; Georg Wilhelm Richmann was killed by ball lightning (1753) when attempting to replicate the 1752 kite-flying experiment of Benjamin Franklin.[67]

To protect against bad science and fraudulent data, government research-granting agencies such as the National Science Foundation, and science journals including Nature and Science, have a policy that researchers must archive their data and methods so other researchers can test the data and methods and build on the research that has gone before. Scientific data archiving can be done at a number of national archives in the U.S. or in the World Data Center.

Main article: Models of scientific inquiry
The classical model of scientific inquiry derives from Aristotle,[68] who distinguished the forms of approximate and exact reasoning, set out the threefold scheme of abductive, deductive, and inductive inference, and also treated the compound forms such as reasoning by analogy.

See also: Pragmatic theory of truth
In 1877,[69] Charles Sanders Peirce ( /ˈpɜrs/ like "purse"; 1839–1914) characterized inquiry in general not as the pursuit of truth per se but as the struggle to move from irritating, inhibitory doubts born of surprises, disagreements, and the like, and to reach a secure belief, belief being that on which one is prepared to act. He framed scientific inquiry as part of a broader spectrum and as spurred, like inquiry generally, by actual doubt, not mere verbal or hyperbolic doubt, which he held to be fruitless.[70] He outlined four methods of settling opinion, ordered from least to most successful:

The method of tenacity (policy of sticking to initial belief) — which brings comforts and decisiveness but leads to trying to ignore contrary information and others' views as if truth were intrinsically private, not public. It goes against the social impulse and easily falters since one may well notice when another's opinion is as good as one's own initial opinion. Its successes can shine but tend to be transitory.

The method of authority — which overcomes disagreements but sometimes brutally. Its successes can be majestic and long-lived, but it cannot operate thoroughly enough to suppress doubts indefinitely, especially when people learn of other societies present and past.
The method of congruity or the a priori or the dilettante or "what is agreeable to reason" — which promotes conformity less brutally but depends on taste and fashion in paradigms and can go in circles over time, along with barren disputation. It is more intellectual and respectable but, like the first two methods, sustains accidental and capricious beliefs, destining some minds to doubts. The scientific method — the method wherein inquiry regards itself as fallible and purposely tests itself and criticizes, corrects, and improves itself.

Peirce held that slow, stumbling ratiocination can be dangerously inferior to instinct and traditional sentiment in practical matters, and that the scientific method is best suited to theoretical research,[71] which in turn should not be trammeled by the other methods and practical ends; reason's "first rule" is that, in order to learn, one must desire to learn and, as a corollary, must not block the way of inquiry.[72] The scientific method excels the others by being deliberately designed to arrive — eventually — at the most secure beliefs, upon which the most successful practices can be based. Starting from the idea that people seek not truth per se but instead to subdue irritating, inhibitory doubt, Peirce showed how, through the struggle, some can come to submit to truth for the sake of belief's integrity, seek as truth the guidance of potential practice correctly to its given goal, and wed themselves to the scientific method.[69][73]

For Peirce, rational inquiry implies presuppositions about truth and the real; to reason is to presuppose (and at least to hope), as a principle of the reasoner's self-regulation, that the real is discoverable and independent of our vagaries of opinion. In that vein he defined truth as the correspondence of a sign (in particular, a proposition) to its object and, pragmatically, not as actual consensus of some definite, finite community (such that to inquire would be to poll the experts), but instead as that final opinion which all investigators would reach sooner or later but still inevitably, if they were to push investigation far enough, even when they start from different points.[74] In tandem he defined the real as a true sign's object (be that object a possibility or quality, or an actuality or brute fact, or a necessity or norm or law), which is what it is independently of any finite community's opinion and, pragmatically, depends only on the final opinion destined in a sufficient investigation. That is a destination as far, or near, as the truth itself to you or me or the given finite community. Thus his theory of inquiry boils down to "Do the science." Those conceptions of truth and the real involve the idea of a community both without definite limits (and thus potentially self-correcting as far as needed) and capable of definite increase of knowledge.[75] As inference, "logic is rooted in the social principle" since it depends on a standpoint that is, in a sense, unlimited.[76]

Paying special attention to the generation of explanations, Peirce outlined scientific method as a coordination of three kinds of inference in a purposeful cycle aimed at settling doubts, as follows (in §III–IV in "A Neglected Argument"[77] except as otherwise noted):

1. Abduction (or retroduction). Guessing, inference to explanatory hypotheses for selection of those best worth trying. From abduction, Peirce distinguishes induction as inferring, on the basis of tests, the proportion of truth in the hypothesis. Every inquiry, whether into ideas, brute facts, or norms and laws, arises from surprising observations in one or more of those realms (and for example at any stage of an inquiry already underway). All explanatory content of theories comes from abduction, which guesses a new or outside idea so as to account in a simple, economical way for a surprising or complicative phenomenon. Oftenest, even a well-prepared mind guesses wrong. But the modicum of success of our guesses far exceeds that of sheer luck and seems born of attunement to nature by instincts developed or inherent, especially insofar as best guesses are optimally plausible and simple in the sense, said Peirce, of the "facile and natural", as by Galileo's natural light of reason and as distinct from "logical simplicity". Abduction is the most fertile but least secure mode of inference. Its general rationale is inductive: it succeeds often enough and, without it, there is no hope of sufficiently expediting inquiry (often multi-generational) toward new truths.[78] Coordinative method leads from abducing a plausible hypothesis to judging it for its testability[79] and for how its trial would economize inquiry itself.[80] Peirce calls his pragmatism "the logic of abduction".[81] His pragmatic maxim is: "Consider what effects that might conceivably have practical bearings you conceive the objects of your conception to have. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object".[74] His pragmatism is a method of reducing conceptual confusions fruitfully by equating the meaning of any conception with the conceivable practical implications of its object's conceived effects — a method of experimentational mental reflection hospitable to forming hypotheses and conducive to testing them. It favors efficiency. The hypothesis, being insecure, needs to have practical implications leading at least to mental tests and, in science, lending themselves to scientific tests. A simple but unlikely guess, if uncostly to test for falsity, may belong first in line for testing. A guess is intrinsically worth testing if it has instinctive plausibility or reasoned objective probability, while subjective likelihood, though reasoned, can be misleadingly seductive. Guesses can be chosen for trial strategically, for their caution (for which Peirce gave as example the game of Twenty Questions), breadth, and incomplexity.[82] One can hope to discover only that which time would reveal through a learner's sufficient experience anyway, so the point is to expedite it; the economy of research is what demands the leap, so to speak, of abduction and governs its art.[80]

2. Deduction. Two stages:

i. Explication. Unclearly premissed, but deductive, analysis of the hypothesis in order to render its parts as clear as possible.
ii. Demonstration: Deductive Argumentation, Euclidean in procedure. Explicit deduction of hypothesis's consequences as predictions, for induction to test, about evidence to be found. Corollarial or, if needed, Theorematic.
3. Induction. The long-run validity of the rule of induction is deducible from the principle (presuppositional to reasoning in general[74]) that the real is only the object of the final opinion to which adequate investigation would lead;[83] anything to which no such process would ever lead would not be real. Induction involving ongoing tests or observations follows a method which, sufficiently persisted in, will diminish its error below any predesignate degree. Three stages:

i. Classification. Unclearly premissed, but inductive, classing of objects of experience under general ideas.
ii. Probation: direct Inductive Argumentation. Crude (the enumeration of instances) or Gradual (new estimate of proportion of truth in the hypothesis after each test). Gradual Induction is Qualitative or Quantitative; if Qualitative, then dependent on weightings of qualities or characters;[84] if Quantitative, then dependent on measurements, or on statistics, or on countings.
iii. Sentential Induction. "...which, by Inductive reasonings, appraises the different Probations singly, then their combinations, then makes self-appraisal of these very appraisals themselves, and passes final judgment on the whole result".
Computational approachesMany subspecialties of applied logic and computer science, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, computational learning theory, inferential statistics, and knowledge representation, are concerned with setting out computational, logical, and statistical frameworks for the various types of inference involved in scientific inquiry. In particular, they contribute hypothesis formation, logical deduction, and empirical testing. Some of these applications draw on measures of complexity from algorithmic information theory to guide the making of predictions from prior distributions of experience, for example, see the complexity measure called the speed prior from which a computable strategy for optimal inductive reasoning can be derived.

Frequently a scientific method is employed not only by a single person, but also by several people cooperating directly or indirectly. Such cooperation can be regarded as one of the defining elements of a scientific community. Various techniques have been developed to ensure the integrity of that scientific method within such an environment.

Scientific journals use a process of peer review, in which scientists' manuscripts are submitted by editors of scientific journals to (usually one to three) fellow (usually anonymous) scientists familiar with the field for evaluation. The referees may or may not recommend publication, publication with suggested modifications, or, sometimes, publication in another journal. This serves to keep the scientific literature free of unscientific or pseudoscientific work, to help cut down on obvious errors, and generally otherwise to improve the quality of the material. The peer review process can have limitations when considering research outside the conventional scientific paradigm: problems of "groupthink" can interfere with open and fair deliberation of some new research.[85]

Main article: Reproducibility
Sometimes experimenters may make systematic errors during their experiments, unconsciously veer from a scientific method (Pathological science) for various reasons, or, in rare cases, deliberately report false results. Consequently, it is a common practice for other scientists to attempt to repeat the experiments in order to duplicate the results, thus further validating the hypothesis.

As a result, researchers are expected to practice scientific data archiving in compliance with the policies of government funding agencies and scientific journals. Detailed records of their experimental procedures, raw data, statistical analyses and source code are preserved in order to provide evidence of the effectiveness and integrity of the procedure and assist in reproduction. These procedural records may also assist in the conception of new experiments to test the hypothesis, and may prove useful to engineers who might examine the potential practical applications of a discovery.

When additional information is needed before a study can be reproduced, the author of the study is expected to provide it promptly. If the author refuses to share data, appeals can be made to the journal editors who published the study or to the institution which funded the research.

Since it is impossible for a scientist to record everything that took place in an experiment, facts selected for their apparent relevance are reported. This may lead, unavoidably, to problems later if some supposedly irrelevant feature is questioned. For example, Heinrich Hertz did not report the size of the room used to test Maxwell's equations, which later turned out to account for a small deviation in the results. The problem is that parts of the theory itself need to be assumed in order to select and report the experimental conditions. The observations are hence sometimes described as being 'theory-laden'.

Dimensions of practiceFurther information: Rhetoric of science
The primary constraints on contemporary western science are:

Publication, i.e. Peer review
Resources (mostly funding)
It has not always been like this: in the old days of the "gentleman scientist" funding (and to a lesser extent publication) were far weaker constraints.

Both of these constraints indirectly bring in a scientific method — work that too obviously violates the constraints will be difficult to publish and difficult to get funded. Journals do not require submitted papers to conform to anything more specific than "good scientific practice" and this is mostly enforced by peer review. Originality, importance and interest are more important - see for example the author guidelines for Nature.

Philosophy and sociology of scienceMain articles: Philosophy of science and Sociology of science
Philosophy of science looks at the underpinning logic of the scientific method, at what separates science from non-science, and the ethic that is implicit in science. There are basic assumptions derived from philosophy that form the base of the scientific method - namely, that reality is objective and consistent, that humans have the capacity to perceive reality accurately, and that rational explanations exist for elements of the real world. These assumptions from methodological naturalism form the basis on which science is grounded. Logical Positivist, empiricist, falsificationist, and other theories have claimed to give a definitive account of the logic of science, but each has in turn been criticized.

Thomas Kuhn examined the history of science in his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and found that the actual method used by scientists differed dramatically from the then-espoused method. His observations of science practice are essentially sociological and do not speak to how science is or can be practiced in other times and other cultures.

Norwood Russell Hanson, Imre Lakatos and Thomas Kuhn have done extensive work on the "theory laden" character of observation. Hanson (1958) first coined the term for the idea that all observation is dependent on the conceptual framework of the observer, using the concept of gestalt to show how preconceptions can affect both observation and description.[86] He opens Chapter 1 with a discussion of the Golgi bodies and their initial rejection as an artefact of staining technique, and a discussion of Brahe and Kepler observing the dawn and seeing a "different" sun rise despite the same physiological phenomenon. Kuhn [87] and Feyerabend [88] acknowledge the pioneering significance of his work.

Kuhn (1961) said the scientist generally has a theory in mind before designing and undertaking experiments so as to make empirical observations, and that the "route from theory to measurement can almost never be traveled backward". This implies that the way in which theory is tested is dictated by the nature of the theory itself, which led Kuhn (1961, p. 166) to argue that "once it has been adopted by a profession ... no theory is recognized to be testable by any quantitative tests that it has not already passed".[89]

Paul Feyerabend similarly examined the history of science, and was led to deny that science is genuinely a methodological process. In his book Against Method he argues that scientific progress is not the result of applying any particular method. In essence, he says that for any specific method or norm of science, one can find a historic episode where violating it has contributed to the progress of science. Thus, if believers in a scientific method wish to express a single universally valid rule, Feyerabend jokingly suggests, it should be 'anything goes'.[90] Criticisms such as his led to the strong programme, a radical approach to the sociology of science.

Highly controlled experimentation allows researchers to catch their mistakes, but it also makes anomalies (which no one knew to look for) easier to seeIn his 1958 book, Personal Knowledge, chemist and philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891–1976) criticized the common view that the scientific method is purely objective and generates objective knowledge. Polanyi cast this view as a misunderstanding of the scientific method and of the nature of scientific inquiry, generally. He argued that scientists do and must follow personal passions in appraising facts and in determining which scientific questions to investigate. He concluded that a structure of liberty is essential for the advancement of science - that the freedom to pursue science for its own sake is a prerequisite for the production of knowledge through peer review and the scientific method.

The postmodernist critiques of science have themselves been the subject of intense controversy. This ongoing debate, known as the science wars, is the result of conflicting values and assumptions between the postmodernist and realist camps. Whereas postmodernists assert that scientific knowledge is simply another discourse (note that this term has special meaning in this context) and not representative of any form of fundamental truth, realists in the scientific community maintain that scientific knowledge does reveal real and fundamental truths about reality. Many books have been written by scientists which take on this problem and challenge the assertions of the postmodernists while defending science as a legitimate method of deriving truth.[91]

Somewhere between 33% and 50% of all scientific discoveries are estimated to have been stumbled upon, rather than sought out. This may explain why scientists so often express that they were lucky.[92] Louis Pasteur is credited with the famous saying that "Luck favours the prepared mind", but some psychologists have begun to study what it means to be 'prepared for luck' in the scientific context. Research is showing that scientists are taught various heuristics that tend to harness chance and the unexpected.[92][93] This is what professor of economics Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls "Anti-fragility"; while some systems of investigation are fragile in the face of human error, human bias, and randomness, the scientific method is more than resistant or tough - it actually benefits from such randomness in many ways (it is anti-fragile). Taleb believes that the more anti-fragile the system, the more it will flourish in the real world.[94]

Psychologist Kevin Dunbar says the process of discovery often starts with researchers finding bugs in their experiments. These unexpected results lead researchers to try and fix what they think is an error in their methodology. Eventually, the researcher decides the error is too persistent and systematic to be a coincidence. The highly controlled, cautious and curious aspects of the scientific method are thus what make it well suited for identifying such persistent systematic errors. At this point, the researcher will begin to think of theoretical explanations for the error, often seeking the help of colleagues across different domains of expertise.[92][93]

Once upon a time -- I listened to the Chamberlains (of A Cry in the Dark fame) tell their story in person. This was long before the movie was made. Remember the story about the parents claiming that a Dingo killed their infant-daughter Azaria near Ayers Rock in Australia?? This sad story involved religious misunderstandings -- an unfair press -- and a reactionary public. Please watch the movie -- if you haven't already. This movie might offer some clues regarding what might occur during a so-called "Disclosure-Event".


I think I might move to the mountains -- and have a contractor build me a 600 square-foot shallow-underground office-apartment!! This wouldn't be a survivalist-thing. I just think it would be cool!! I might not even have a car, computer, or phone. I might generate electricity with some sort of an exercycle-generator!! A Post-Office Box might be my only link to the outside-world!! I might just write Stupid-Books with Absolutely No Point!! I hear there's a significant market for that sort of thing!! I hear there's absolutely no market for that which I am doing presently!! "Give Them What They Want!! Tell Them What They Want to Hear!! Laugh All the Way to the Bank!!"


One more time -- consider reading the following Ellen White books straight-through -- over and over -- as a mental and spiritual exercise -- even if these books turn out to be plagiarized historical-fiction:


I guess I'm trying to be on the sides of BOTH the PTB and the Conspiracy-Theorists. I never speak of the "Elite-Scum!!" for example -- yet I realize that corruption and arrogance are rampant. If 'they' come to 'get' me -- I'll probably offer to make them a fresh pot of coffee (without poison!) before we head for Camp FEMA. All of this really is a game to me. A very serious game. I like an interdisciplinary approach -- hence the title of this thread. I plan to examine the Scientific-Method -- and then apply it individually to Law, Politics, Religion, Journalism, and Conspiracy-Theories. I'd make a very poor rabble-rouser, debater, or interview subject -- although I think I might possibly be useful as an interviewer -- and I feel as if I might've already done some of this unwittingly in recent months and years. This website is sort of a 'Galactic Rand Corporation' for me. I'd never get hired-on to such an enterprise -- so this is the next best thing -- and it might actually be BETTER than some formal group meeting in an underground base somewhere. Such a situation would probably be unbelieveably controlled. Just a guess. I've signed nothing. I get paid nothing. I know everything I type and say is recorded -- and can and will be used against me in some damn kangaroo court. Unfortunately, this seems to be the cost of doing business. I'm frankly a burned-out and over-the-hill Pseudointellectual Political and Theological Science-Fiction Writer who will probably never, ever get a book published -- and who will probably die deeply in debt. When Raven called me a 'Completely Ignorant Fool' some time ago -- I agreed that this was quite accurate -- and it remains accurate. Unfortunately, this is reality, and it sucks to be me. I hate my life. We all have our crosses to bear. Someone is pounding on my door. Perhaps I should make the coffee. The horror.


Aristotle, 384 BC–322 BC. "As regards his method, Aristotle is recognized as the inventor of scientific method because of his refined analysis of logical implications contained in demonstrative discourse, which goes well beyond natural logic and does not owe anything to the ones who philosophized before him."—Riccardo Pozzo[95]The development of the scientific method is inseparable from the history of science itself. Ancient Egyptian documents describe empirical methods in astronomy,[96] mathematics,[97] and medicine.[98] The ancient Greek philosopher Thales in the 6th century BC refused to accept supernatural, religious or mythological explanations for natural phenomena, proclaiming that every event had a natural cause. The development of deductive reasoning by Plato was an important step towards the scientific method. Empiricism seems to have been formalized by Aristotle, who believed that universal truths could be reached via induction.

There are hints of experimental methods from the Classical world (e.g., those reported by Archimedes in a report recovered early in the 20th century CE from an overwritten manuscript), but the first clear instances of an experimental scientific method seem to have been developed by Islamic scientists who introduced the use of experimentation and quantification within a generally empirical orientation. For example, Alhazen performed optical and physiological experiments, reported in his manifold works, the most famous being Book of Optics (1021).[99][unreliable source?] The modern scientific method crystallized no later than in the 17th and 18th centuries. In his work Novum Organum (1620) — a reference to Aristotle's Organon — Francis Bacon outlined a new system of logic to improve upon the old philosophical process of syllogism.[100] Then, in 1637, René Descartes established the framework for a scientific method's guiding principles in his treatise, Discourse on Method. The writings of Alhazen, Bacon and Descartes are considered critical in the historical development of the modern scientific method, as are those of John Stuart Mill.[101]

Grosseteste was "the principal figure" in bringing about "a more adequate method of scientific inquiry" by which "medieval scientists were able eventually to outstrip their ancient European and Muslim teachers" (Dales 1973:62). ... His thinking influenced Roger Bacon, who spread Grosseteste's ideas from Oxford to the University of Paris during a visit there in the 1240s. From the prestigious universities in Oxford and Paris, the new experimental science spread rapidly throughout the medieval universities: "And so it went to Galileo, William Gilbert, Francis Bacon, William Harvey, Descartes, Robert Hooke, Newton, Leibniz, and the world of the seventeenth century" (Crombie 1962:15). So it went to us also.
— Hugh G. Gauch, 2003.[102]

Roger Bacon (c.1214–1294) is sometimes credited as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method inspired by the works of Aristotle.[103]In the late 19th century, Charles Sanders Peirce proposed a schema that would turn out to have considerable influence in the development of current scientific method generally. Peirce accelerated the progress on several fronts. Firstly, speaking in broader context in "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878), Peirce outlined an objectively verifiable method to test the truth of putative knowledge on a way that goes beyond mere foundational alternatives, focusing upon both deduction and induction. He thus placed induction and deduction in a complementary rather than competitive context (the latter of which had been the primary trend at least since David Hume, who wrote in the mid-to-late 18th century). Secondly, and of more direct importance to modern method, Peirce put forth the basic schema for hypothesis/testing that continues to prevail today. Extracting the theory of inquiry from its raw materials in classical logic, he refined it in parallel with the early development of symbolic logic to address the then-current problems in scientific reasoning. Peirce examined and articulated the three fundamental modes of reasoning that, as discussed above in this article, play a role in inquiry today, the processes that are currently known as abductive, deductive, and inductive inference. Thirdly, he played a major role in the progress of symbolic logic itself — indeed this was his primary specialty.

Beginning in the 1930s, Karl Popper argued that there is no such thing as inductive reasoning.[104] All inferences ever made, including in science, are purely[105] deductive according to this view. Accordingly, he claimed that the empirical character of science has nothing to do with induction—but with the deductive property of falsifiability that scientific hypotheses have. Contrasting his views with inductivism and positivism, he even denied the existence of scientific method: "(1) There is no method of discovering a scientific theory (2) There is no method for ascertaining the truth of a scientific hypothesis, i.e., no method of verification; (3) There is no method for ascertaining whether a hypothesis is 'probable', or probably true".[106] Instead, he held that there is only one universal method, a method not particular to science: The negative method of criticism, or colloquially termed trial and error. It covers not only all products of the human mind, including science, mathematics, philosophy, art and so on, but also the evolution of life. Following Peirce and others, Popper argued that science is fallible and has no authority.[106] In contrast to empiricist-inductivist views, he welcomed metaphysics and philosophical discussion and even gave qualified support to myths[107] and pseudosciences.[108] Popper's view has become known as critical rationalism.

Relationship with mathematicsScience is the process of gathering, comparing, and evaluating proposed models against observables. A model can be a simulation, mathematical or chemical formula, or set of proposed steps. Science is like mathematics in that researchers in both disciplines can clearly distinguish what is known from what is unknown at each stage of discovery. Models, in both science and mathematics, need to be internally consistent and also ought to be falsifiable (capable of disproof). In mathematics, a statement need not yet be proven; at such a stage, that statement would be called a conjecture. But when a statement has attained mathematical proof, that statement gains a kind of immortality which is highly prized by mathematicians, and for which some mathematicians devote their lives.[109]

Mathematical work and scientific work can inspire each other.[110] For example, the technical concept of time arose in science, and timelessness was a hallmark of a mathematical topic. But today, the Poincaré conjecture has been proven using time as a mathematical concept in which objects can flow (see Ricci flow).

Nevertheless, the connection between mathematics and reality (and so science to the extent it describes reality) remains obscure. Eugene Wigner's paper, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, is a very well known account of the issue from a Nobel Prize physicist. In fact, some observers (including some well known mathematicians such as Gregory Chaitin, and others such as Lakoff and Núñez) have suggested that mathematics is the result of practitioner bias and human limitation (including cultural ones), somewhat like the post-modernist view of science.

George Pólya's work on problem solving,[111] the construction of mathematical proofs, and heuristic[112][113] show that the mathematical method and the scientific method differ in detail, while nevertheless resembling each other in using iterative or recursive steps.

Mathematical method Scientific method
1 Understanding Characterization from experience and observation
2 Analysis Hypothesis: a proposed explanation
3 Synthesis Deduction: prediction from the hypothesis
4 Review/Extend Test and experiment

In Pólya's view, understanding involves restating unfamiliar definitions in your own words, resorting to geometrical figures, and questioning what we know and do not know already; analysis, which Pólya takes from Pappus,[114] involves free and heuristic construction of plausible arguments, working backward from the goal, and devising a plan for constructing the proof; synthesis is the strict Euclidean exposition of step-by-step details[115] of the proof; review involves reconsidering and re-examining the result and the path taken to it.

Gauss, when asked how he came about his theorems, once replied "durch planmässiges Tattonieren" (through systematic palpable experimentation).[116]

Imre Lakatos argued that mathematicians actually use contradiction, criticism and revision as principles for improving their work.[117]

See alsoConfirmability
Contingency
Falsifiability
Hypothesis
Hypothesis testing
Inquiry
Information theory
Logic
Abductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning
Inference
Tautology
Methodology
Baconian method
Empirical method
Historical method
Philosophical method
Phronetic method
Scholarly method
Strong inference
Mathematics
OGHET
Operationalization
Quantitative research
Reproducibility
Research
Social research
Statistics
Testability
Theory
Verification and Validation

Problems and issuesInduction
Problem of induction
Occam's razor
Skeptical hypotheses
Poverty of the stimulus
Reference class problem
Underdetermination
Demarcation problem
Holistic science
Junk science
Pseudoscience
Scientific misconduct

History, philosophy, sociologyEpistemology
Epistemic truth
History of science
History of scientific method
Instrumentalism
Mertonian norms (Cudos)
Philosophy of science
Science studies
Sociology of scientific knowledge
Timeline of scientific method

Notes^ a b Goldhaber & Nieto 2010, p. 940
^ "[4] Rules for the study of natural philosophy", Newton 1999, pp. 794–6, from Book 3, The System of the World.
^ Oxford English Dictionary - entry for scientific.
^ Gauch 2003, p. 35
^ a b "Truth is sought for its own sake. And those who are engaged upon the quest for anything for its own sake are not interested in other things. Finding the truth is difficult, and the road to it is rough."—Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham 965-c.1040) Critique of Ptolemy, translated by S. Pines, Actes X Congrès internationale d'histoire des sciences, Vol I Ithaca 1962, as quoted in Sambursky 1974, p. 139. (This quotation is from Alhazen's critique of Ptolemy's books Almagest, Planetary Hypotheses, and Optics as translated into English by A. Mark Smith.)
^ Morris Kline (1985) Mathematics for the nonmathematician. Courier Dover Publications. p. 284. ISBN 0-486-24823-2
^ Peirce, C. S., Collected Papers v. 1, paragraph 74.
^ "...the statement of a law—A depends on B—always transcends experience." —Born 1949, p. 6
^ Godfrey-Smith 2003 p. 236.
^ Taleb 2007 e.g., p. 58, devotes his chapter 5 to the error of confirmation.
^ "How does light travel through transparent bodies? Light travels through transparent bodies in straight lines only.... We have explained this exhaustively in our Book of Optics. But let us now mention something to prove this convincingly: the fact that light travels in straight lines is clearly observed in the lights which enter into dark rooms through holes.... [T]he entering light will be clearly observable in the dust which fills the air. —Alhazen, translated into English from German by M. Schwarz, from "Abhandlung über das Licht", J. Baarmann (ed. 1882) Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft Vol 36 as quoted in Sambursky 1974, p. 136.
The conjecture that "light travels through transparent bodies in straight lines only" was corroborated by Alhazen only after years of effort. His demonstration of the conjecture was to place a straight stick or a taut thread next to the light beam, as quoted in Sambursky 1974, p. 136 to prove that light travels in a straight line.
David Hockney, (2001, 2006) in Secret Knowledge: rediscovering the lost techniques of the old masters ISBN 0-14-200512-6 (expanded edition) cites Alhazen several times as the likely source for the portraiture technique using the camera obscura, which Hockney rediscovered with the aid of an optical suggestion from Charles M. Falco. Kitab al-Manazir, which is Alhazen's Book of Optics, at that time denoted Opticae Thesaurus, Alhazen Arabis, was translated from Arabic into Latin for European use as early as 1270. Hockney cites Friedrich Risner's 1572 Basle edition of Opticae Thesaurus. Hockney quotes Alhazen as the first clear description of the camera obscura in Hockney, p. 240.
^ Galilei, Galileo (M.D.C.XXXVIII), Discorsi e Dimonstrazioni Matematiche, intorno a due nuoue scienze, Leida: Apresso gli Elsevirri, ISBN 0-486-60099-8 , Dover reprint of the 1914 Macmillan translation by Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio of Two New Sciences, Galileo Galilei Linceo (1638). Additional publication information is from the collection of first editions of the Library of Congress surveyed by Bruno 1989, pp. 261–264.
^ "I believe that we do not know anything for certain, but everything probably." —Christiaan Huygens, Letter to Pierre Perrault, 'Sur la préface de M. Perrault de son traité del'Origine des fontaines' [1763], Oeuvres Complétes de Christiaan Huygens (1897), Vol. 7, 298. Quoted in Jacques Roger, The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought, ed. Keith R. Benson and trans. Robert Ellrich (1997), 163. Quotation selected by Bynum & Porter 2005, p. 317 Huygens 317#4.
^ As noted by Alice Calaprice (ed. 2005) The New Quotable Einstein Princeton University Press and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ISBN 0-691-12074-9 p. 291. Calaprice denotes this not as an exact quotation, but as a paraphrase of a translation of A. Einstein's "Induction and Deduction". Collected Papers of Albert Einstein 7 Document 28. Volume 7 is The Berlin Years: Writings, 1918-1921. A. Einstein; M. Janssen, R. Schulmann, et al., eds.
^ Murzi, Mauro (2001, 2008), "Carl Gustav Hempel (1905—1997)", Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^ Poincaré 1905 p.142 notes that Francis Bacon introduced the term; on a related note, Ørsted introduced the term 'thought experiment'; of course, Galileo, a contemporary of Bacon, had previously made liberal use of these concepts in his writings centuries earlier than Poincaré or Ørsted.
^ Fleck 1979, pp. xxvii-xxviii
^ October, 1951. as noted in McElheny 2004, p. 40:"That's what a helix should look like!" Crick exclaimed in delight (This is the Cochran-Crick-Vand&Stokes theory of the transform of a helix).
^ June, 1952. as noted in McElheny 2004, p. 43: Watson had succeeded in getting X-ray pictures of TMV showing a helical structure
^ a b Cochran W, Crick FHC and Vand V. (1952) "The Structure of Synthetic Polypeptides. I. The Transform of Atoms on a Helix", Acta Cryst., 5, 581-586.
^ a b Friday, January 30, 1953. Tea time. as noted in McElheny 2004, p. 52: Franklin confronts Watson and his paper - "Of course it [Pauling's pre-print] is wrong. DNA is not a helix." Watson ran away from Franklin and into Wilkins; in Wilkins' office, Watson saw photo 51. Watson immediately recognizes the diffraction pattern of a helical structure.
^ a b Saturday, February 28, 1953, as noted in McElheny 2004, pp. 57–59: Watson found the base pairing mechanism which explained Chargaff's rules using his cardboard models.
^ "People start off with a belief and a prejudice—we all do. And the job of science is to set that aside to get to the truth." —Simon Singh, as quoted in Wired (August 30, 2010) interview by Robert Capps
^ "Observation and experiment are subject to a very popular myth. ... The knower is seen as a ... Julius Caesar winning his battles according to ... formula. Even research workers will admit that the first observation may have been a little imprecise, whereas the second and third were 'adjusted to the facts' ... until tradition, education, and familiarity have produced a readiness for stylized (that is directed and restricted) perception and action; until an answer becomes largely pre-formed in the question, and a decision confined merely to 'yes' or 'no' or perhaps to a numerical determination; until methods and apparatus automatically carry out the greatest part of the mental work for us." Ludwik Fleck labels this thought style(Denkstil). Fleck 1979, p. 84.
^ Needham & Wang 1954 p.166 shows how the 'flying gallop' image propagated from China to the West.
^ Stanovich, Keith E. (2007). How to Think Straight About Psychology. Boston: Pearson Education. pg 123
^ "A myth is a belief given uncritical acceptance by members of a group ..." —Weiss, Business Ethics p. 15, as cited by Ronald R. Sims (2003) Ethics and corporate social responsibility: why giants fall p.21
^ Imre Lakatos (1976), Proofs and Refutations. Taleb 2007, p. 72 lists ways to avoid narrative fallacy and confirmation bias.
^ For more on the narrative fallacy, see also Fleck 1979, p. 27: "Words and ideas are originally phonetic and mental equivalences of the experiences coinciding with them. ... Such proto-ideas are at first always too broad and insufficiently specialized. ... Once a structurally complete and closed system of opinions consisting of many details and relations has been formed, it offers enduring resistance to anything that contradicts it."
^ Brody 1993, pp. 44–45
^ See the hypothethico-deductive method, for example, Godfrey-Smith 2003, p. 236.
^ Jevons 1874, pp. 265–6.
^ pp.65,73,92,398 —Andrew J. Galambos, Sic Itur ad Astra ISBN 0-88078-004-5(AJG learned scientific method from Felix Ehrenhaft
^ Galileo 1638, pp. v-xii,1–300
^ Brody 1993, pp. 10–24 calls this the "epistemic cycle": "The epistemic cycle starts from an initial model; iterations of the cycle then improve the model until an adequate fit is achieved."
^ Iteration example: Chaldean astronomers such as Kidinnu compiled astronomical data. Hipparchus was to use this data to calculate the precession of the Earth's axis. Fifteen hundred years after Kidinnu, Al-Batani, born in what is now Turkey, would use the collected data and improve Hipparchus' value for the precession of the Earth's axis. Al-Batani's value, 54.5 arc-seconds per year, compares well to the current value of 49.8 arc-seconds per year (26,000 years for Earth's axis to round the circle of nutation).
^ Recursion example: the Earth is itself a magnet, with its own North and South Poles William Gilbert (in Latin 1600) De Magnete, or On Magnetism and Magnetic Bodies. Translated from Latin to English, selection by Moulton & Schifferes 1960, pp. 113–117. Gilbert created a terrella, a lodestone ground into a spherical shape, which served as Gilbert's model for the Earth itself, as noted in Bruno 1989, p. 277.
^ "The foundation of general physics ... is experience. These ... everyday experiences we do not discover without deliberately directing our attention to them. Collecting information about these is observation." —Hans Christian Ørsted("First Introduction to General Physics" ¶13, part of a series of public lectures at the University of Copenhagen. Copenhagen 1811, in Danish, printed by Johan Frederik Schulz. In Kirstine Meyer's 1920 edition of Ørsted's works, vol.III pp. 151-190. ) "First Introduction to Physics: the Spirit, Meaning, and Goal of Natural Science". Reprinted in German in 1822, Schweigger's Journal für Chemie und Physik 36, pp.458-488, as translated in Ørsted 1997, p. 292
^ "When it is not clear under which law of nature an effect or class of effect belongs, we try to fill this gap by means of a guess. Such guesses have been given the name conjectures or hypotheses." —Hans Christian Ørsted(1811) "First Introduction to General Physics" as translated in Ørsted 1997, p. 297.
^ "In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. ...", —Feynman 1965, p. 156
^ "... the statement of a law - A depends on B - always transcends experience."—Born 1949, p. 6
^ "The student of nature ... regards as his property the experiences which the mathematician can only borrow. This is why he deduces theorems directly from the nature of an effect while the mathematician only arrives at them circuitously." —Hans Christian Ørsted(1811) "First Introduction to General Physics" ¶17. as translated in Ørsted 1997, p. 297.
^ Salviati speaks: "I greatly doubt that Aristotle ever tested by experiment whether it be true that two stones, one weighing ten times as much as the other, if allowed to fall, at the same instant, from a height of, say, 100 cubits, would so differ in speed that when the heavier had reached the ground, the other would not have fallen more than 10 cubits." Two New Sciences (1638) —Galileo 1638, pp. 61–62. A more extended quotation is referenced by Moulton & Schifferes 1960, pp. 80–81.
^ In the inquiry-based education paradigm, the stage of "characterization, observation, definition, …" is more briefly summed up under the rubric of a Question
^ "To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science." —Einstein & Infeld 1938, p. 92.
^ Crawford S, Stucki L (1990), "Peer review and the changing research record", "J Am Soc Info Science", vol. 41, pp 223-228
^ See, e.g., Gauch 2003, esp. chapters 5-8
^ Cartwright, Nancy (1983), How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-824704-4
^ Andreas Vesalius, Epistola, Rationem, Modumque Propinandi Radicis Chynae Decocti (1546), 141. Quoted and translated in C.D. O'Malley, Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, (1964), 116. As quoted by Bynum & Porter 2005, p. 597: Andreas Vesalius,597#1.
^ Crick, Francis (1994), The Astonishing Hypothesis ISBN 0-684-19431-7 p.20
^ McCarty1985
^ McElheny 2004 p.34
^ Glen 1994, pp. 37–38.
^ "The structure that we propose is a three-chain structure, each chain being a helix" — Linus Pauling, as quoted on p. 157 by Horace Freeland Judson (1979), The Eighth Day of Creation ISBN 0-671-22540-5
^ McElheny 2004, pp. 49–50: January 28, 1953 - Watson read Pauling's pre-print, and realized that in Pauling's model, DNA's phosphate groups had to be un-ionized. But DNA is an acid, which contradicts Pauling's model.
^ June, 1952. as noted in McElheny 2004, p. 43: Watson had succeeded in getting X-ray pictures of TMV showing a diffraction pattern consistent with the transform of a helix.
^ Watson did enough work on Tobacco mosaic virus to produce the diffraction pattern for a helix, per Crick's work on the transform of a helix. pp. 137-138, Horace Freeland Judson (1979) The Eighth Day of Creation ISBN 0-671-22540-5
^ McElheny 2004 p.68: Nature April 25, 1953.
^ In March 1917, the Royal Astronomical Society announced that on May 29, 1919, the occasion of a total eclipse of the sun would afford favorable conditions for testing Einstein's General theory of relativity. One expedition, to Sobral, Ceará, Brazil, and Eddington's expedition to the island of Principe yielded a set of photographs, which, when compared to photographs taken at Sobral and at Greenwich Observatory showed that the deviation of light was measured to be 1.69 arc-seconds, as compared to Einstein's desk prediction of 1.75 arc-seconds. — Antonina Vallentin (1954), Einstein, as quoted by Samuel Rapport and Helen Wright (1965), Physics, New York: Washington Square Press, pp 294-295.
^ Mill, John Stuart, "A System of Logic", University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu, 2002, ISBN 1-4102-0252-6.
^ al-Battani, De Motu Stellarum translation from Arabic to Latin in 1116, as cited by "Battani, al-" (c.858-929) Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th. ed. Al-Battani is known for his accurate observations at al-Raqqah in Syria, beginning in 877. His work includes measurement of the annual precession of the equinoxes.
^ "The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." —Watson 1968, p. 167 Page 168 shows the X-shaped pattern of the B-form of DNA, clearly indicating crucial details of its helical structure to Watson and Crick.
McElheny 2004 p.52 dates the Franklin-Watson confrontation as Friday, January 30, 1953. Later that evening, Watson urges Wilkins to begin model-building immediately. But Wilkins agrees to do so only after Franklin's departure.
^ McElheny 2004 p.53: The weekend (January 31-February 1) after seeing photo 51, Watson informed Bragg of the X-ray diffraction image of DNA in B form. Bragg gave them permission to restart their research on DNA (that is, model building).
^ McElheny 2004 p.54: On Sunday February 8, 1953, Maurice Wilkes gave Watson and Crick permission to work on models, as Wilkes would not be building models until Franklin left DNA research.
^ McElheny 2004 p.56: Jerry Donohue, on sabbatical from Pauling's lab and visiting Cambridge, advises Watson that textbook form of the base pairs was incorrect for DNA base pairs; rather, the keto form of the base pairs should be used instead. This form allowed the bases' hydrogen bonds to pair 'unlike' with 'unlike', rather than to pair 'like' with 'like', as Watson was inclined to model, on the basis of the textbook statements. On February 27, 1953, Watson was convinced enough to make cardboard models of the nucleotides in their keto form.
^ "Suddenly I became aware that an adenine-thymine pair held together by two hydrogen bonds was identical in shape to a guanine-cytosine pair held together by at least two hydrogen bonds. ..." —Watson 1968, pp. 194–197.
McElheny 2004 p.57 Saturday, February 28, 1953, Watson tried 'like with like' and admited these base pairs didn't have hydrogen bonds that line up. But after trying 'unlike with unlike', and getting Jerry Donohue's approval, the base pairs turned out to be identical in shape (as Watson stated above in his 1968 Double Helix memoir quoted above). Watson now felt confident enough to inform Crick. (Of course, 'unlike with unlike' increases the number of possible codons, if this scheme were a genetic code.)
^ See, e.g., Physics Today, 59(1), p42. Richmann electrocuted in St. Petersburg (1753)
^ Aristotle, "Prior Analytics", Hugh Tredennick (trans.), pp. 181-531 in Aristotle, Volume 1, Loeb Classical Library, William Heinemann, London, UK, 1938.
^ a b Peirce (1877), "The Fixation of Belief", Popular Science Monthly, v. 12, pp. 1–15. Reprinted often, including (Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce v. 5, paragraphs 358–87), (The Essential Peirce, v. 1, pp. 109–23). Peirce.org Eprint. Wikisource Eprint.
^ "What one does not in the least doubt one should not pretend to doubt; but a man should train himself to doubt," said Peirce in a brief intellectual autobiography; see Ketner, Kenneth Laine (2009) "Charles Sanders Peirce: Interdisciplinary Scientist" in The Logic of Interdisciplinarity). Peirce held that actual, genuine doubt originates externally, usually in surprise, but also that it is to be sought and cultivated, "provided only that it be the weighty and noble metal itself, and no counterfeit nor paper substitute"; in "Issues of Pragmaticism", The Monist, v. XV, n. 4, pp. 481-99, see p. 484, and p. 491. (Reprinted in Collected Papers v. 5, paragraphs 438-63, see 443 and 451).
^ Peirce (1898), "Philosophy and the Conduct of Life", Lecture 1 of the Cambridge (MA) Conferences Lectures, published in Collected Papers v. 1, paragraphs 616-48 in part and in Reasoning and the Logic of Things, Ketner (ed., intro.) and Putnam (intro., comm.), pp. 105-22, reprinted in Essential Peirce v. 2, pp. 27-41.
^ Peirce (1899), "F.R.L." [First Rule of Logic], Collected Papers v. 1, paragraphs 135-40, Eprint
^ Collected Papers v. 5, in paragraph 582, from 1898:
... [rational] inquiry of every type, fully carried out, has the vital power of self-correction and of growth. This is a property so deeply saturating its inmost nature that it may truly be said that there is but one thing needful for learning the truth, and that is a hearty and active desire to learn what is true.
^ a b c Peirce (1877), "How to Make Our Ideas Clear", Popular Science Monthly, v. 12, pp. 286–302. Reprinted often, including Collected Papers v. 5, paragraphs 388–410, Essential Peirce v. 1, pp. 124–41. ArisbeEprint. Wikisource Eprint.
^ Peirce (1868), "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities", Journal of Speculative Philosophy v. 2, n. 3, pp. 140–57. Reprinted Collected Papers v. 5, paragraphs 264–317, The Essential Peirce v. 1, pp. 28–55, and elsewhere. Arisbe Eprint
^ Peirce (1878), "The Doctrine of Chances", Popular Science Monthly v. 12, pp. 604-15, see pp. 610-11 via Internet Archive. Reprinted Collected Papers v. 2, paragraphs 645-68, Essential Peirce v. 1, pp. 142-54. "...death makes the number of our risks, the number of our inferences, finite, and so makes their mean result uncertain. The very idea of probability and of reasoning rests on the assumption that this number is indefinitely great. .... ...logicality inexorably requires that our interests shall not be limited. .... Logic is rooted in the social principle."
^ Peirce (1908), "A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God", Hibbert Journal v. 7, pp. 90-112. s:A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God with added notes. Reprinted with previously unpublished part, Collected Papers v. 6, paragraphs 452-85, The Essential Peirce v. 2, pp. 434-50, and elsewhere.
^ Peirce (c. 1906), "PAP (Prolegomena for an Apology to Pragmatism)" (Manuscript 293, not the like-named article), The New Elements of Mathematics (NEM) 4:319-320, see first quote under "Abduction" at Commens Dictionary of Peirce's Terms.
^ Peirce, Carnegie application (L75, 1902), New Elements of Mathematics v. 4, pp. 37-38:
For it is not sufficient that a hypothesis should be a justifiable one. Any hypothesis which explains the facts is justified critically. But among justifiable hypotheses we have to select that one which is suitable for being tested by experiment.
^ a b Peirce (1902), Carnegie application, see MS L75.329-330, from Draft D of Memoir 27:
Consequently, to discover is simply to expedite an event that would occur sooner or later, if we had not troubled ourselves to make the discovery. Consequently, the art of discovery is purely a question of economics. The economics of research is, so far as logic is concerned, the leading doctrine with reference to the art of discovery. Consequently, the conduct of abduction, which is chiefly a question of heuretic and is the first question of heuretic, is to be governed by economical considerations.
^ Peirce (1903), "Pragmatism — The Logic of Abduction", Collected Papers v. 5, paragraphs 195-205, especially 196. Eprint.
^ Peirce, "On the Logic of Drawing Ancient History from Documents", Essential Peirce v. 2, see pp. 107-9. On Twenty Questions, p. 109:
Thus, twenty skillful hypotheses will ascertain what 200,000 stupid ones might fail to do.
^ Peirce (1878), "The Probability of Induction", Popular Science Monthly, v. 12, pp. 705-18, see 718 Google Books; 718 via Internet Archive. Reprinted often, including (Collected Papers v. 2, paragraphs 669-93), (The Essential Peirce v. 1, pp. 155-69).
^ Peirce (1905 draft "G" of "A Neglected Argument"), "Crude, Quantitative, and Qualitative Induction", Collected Papers v. 2, paragraphs 755–760, see 759. Find under "Induction" at Commens Dictionary of Peirce's Terms.
^ . Brown, C. (2005) Overcoming Barriers to Use of Promising Research Among Elite Middle East Policy Groups, Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, Select Press.
^ Hanson, Norwood (1958), Patterns of Discovery, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-05197-5  
^ Kuhn 1962, p. 113 ISBN 978-1443255448
^ Feyerabend, Paul K (1960) "Patterns of Discovery" The Philosophical Review (1960) vol. 69 (2) pp. 247-252
^ Kuhn, Thomas S., "The Function of Measurement in Modern Physical Science", ISIS 52(2), 161–193, 1961.
^ Feyerabend, Paul K., Against Method, Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge, 1st published, 1975. Reprinted, Verso, London, UK, 1978.
^
Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997
Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science, Picador; 1st Picador USA Pbk. Ed edition, 1999
The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook the Academy, University of Nebraska Press, 2000 ISBN 0-8032-7995-7
A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science, Oxford University Press, 2000
Intellectual Impostures, Economist Books, 2003
^ a b c Dunbar, K., & Fugelsang, J. (2005). Causal thinking in science: How scientists and students interpret the unexpected. In M. E. Gorman, R. D. Tweney, D. Gooding & A. Kincannon (Eds.), Scientific and Technical Thinking (pp. 57-79). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
^ a b Oliver, J.E. (1991) Ch2. of The incomplete guide to the art of discovery. New York:NY, Columbia University Press.
^ Talib contributes a brief description of anti-fragility, http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_3.html
^ Riccardo Pozzo (2004) The impact of Aristotelianism on modern philosophy. CUA Press. p.41. ISBN 0813213479
^ The ancient Egyptians observed that heliacal rising of a certain star, Sothis (Greek for Sopdet (Egyptian), known to the West as Sirius), marked the annual flooding of the Nile river. See Neugebauer, Otto (1969) [1957], The Exact Sciences in Antiquity (2 ed.), Dover Publications, ISBN 978-048622332-2, http://books.google.com/?id=JVhTtVA2zr8C , p.82, and also the 1911 Britannica, "Egypt".
^ The Rhind papyrus lists practical examples in arithmetic and geometry —1911 Britannica, "Egypt".
^ The Ebers papyrus lists some of the 'mysteries of the physician', as cited in the 1911 Britannica, "Egypt"
^ Rosanna Gorini (2003), "Al-Haytham the Man of Experience, First Steps in the Science of Vision", International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine, Institute of Neurosciences, Laboratory of Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology, Rome, Italy:
"According to the majority of the historians al-Haytham was the pioneer of the modern scientific method. With his book he changed the meaning of the term optics and established experiments as the norm of proof in the field. His investigations are based not on abstract theories, but on experimental evidences and his experiments were systematic and repeatable."
^ Bacon, Francis Novum Organum (The New Organon), 1620. Bacon's work described many of the accepted principles, underscoring the importance of theory, empirical results, data gathering, experiment, and independent corroboration.
^ "John Stuart Mill (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)". plato.stanford.edu. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/#SciMet. Retrieved 2009-07-31.  
^ Gauch 2003, pp. 52–53
^ George Sampson (1970). The concise Cambridge history of English literature. Cambridge University Press. p.174. ISBN 0521095816
^ Logik der Forschung, new appendices *XVII–*XIX (not yet available in the English edition Logic of scientific discovery)
^ Logic of Scientific discovery, p. 20
^ a b Karl Popper: On the non-existence of scientific method. Realism and the Aim of Science (1983)
^ Karl Popper: Science: Conjectures and Refutations. Conjectures and Refuations, section VII
^ Karl Popper: On knowledge. In search of a better world, section II
^ "When we are working intensively, we feel keenly the progress of our work; we are elated when our progress is rapid, we are depressed when it is slow." — the mathematician Pólya 1957, p. 131 in the section on 'Modern heuristic'.
^ "Philosophy [i.e., physics] is written in this grand book--I mean the universe--which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a dark labyrinth." —Galileo Galilei, Il Saggiatore (The Assayer, 1623), as translated by Stillman Drake (1957), Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo pp. 237-8, as quoted by di Francia 1981, p. 10.
^ Pólya 1957 2nd ed.
^ George Pólya (1954), Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning Volume I: Induction and Analogy in Mathematics,
^ George Pólya (1954), Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning Volume II: Patterns of Plausible Reasoning.
^ Pólya 1957, p. 142
^ Pólya 1957, p. 144
^ Mackay 1991 p.100
^ See the development, by generations of mathematicians, of Euler's formula for polyhedra as documented by Lakatos, Imre (1976), Proofs and refutations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29038-4  
ReferencesBorn, Max (1949), Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance, Peter Smith , also published by Dover, 1964. From the Waynflete Lectures, 1948. On the web. N.B.: the web version does not have the 3 addenda by Born, 1950, 1964, in which he notes that all knowledge is subjective. Born then proposes a solution in Appendix 3 (1964)
Brody, Thomas A. (1993), The Philosophy Behind Physics, Springer Verlag, ISBN 0-387-55914-0 . (Luis De La Peña and Peter E. Hodgson, eds.)
Bruno, Leonard C. (1989), The Landmarks of Science, ISBN 0-8160-2137-6  
Bynum, W.F.; Porter, Roy (2005), Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-858409-1 .
di Francia, G. Toraldo (1981), The Investigation of the Physical World, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29925-X .
Einstein, Albert; Infeld, Leopold (1938), The Evolution of Physics: from early concepts to relativity and quanta, New York: Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0-671-20156-5  
Feynman, Richard (1965), The Character of Physical Law, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, ISBN 0-262-56003-8 .
Fleck, Ludwik (1979), Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, Univ. of Chicago, ISBN 0-226-25325-2 . (written in German, 1935, Entstehung und Entwickelung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache: Einführung in die Lehre vom Denkstil und Denkkollectiv) English translation, 1979
Galileo (1638), Two New Sciences, Leiden: Lodewijk Elzevir, ISBN 0-486-60099-8  Translated from Italian to English in 1914 by Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio. Introduction by Antonio Favaro. xxv+300 pages, index. New York: Macmillan, with later reprintings by Dover.
Gauch, Hugh G., Jr. (2003), Scientific Method in Practice, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-01708-4, http://books.google.com/?id=iVkugqNG9dAC  435 pages
Glen, William (ed.) (1994), The Mass-Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-2285-4 .
Godfrey-Smith, Peter (2003), Theory and Reality: An introduction to the philosophy of science, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-30063-3 .
Goldhaber, Alfred Scharff; Nieto, Michael Martin (January–March 2010), "Photon and graviton mass limits", Rev. Mod. Phys. (American Physical Society) 82: 939, doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.82.939 . pages 939-979.
Jevons, William Stanley (1874), The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method, Dover Publications, ISBN 1430487755 . 1877, 1879. Reprinted with a foreword by Ernst Nagel, New York, NY, 1958.
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press . 2nd edition 1970. 3rd edition 1996.
Mackay, Alan L. (ed.) (1991), Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, London: IOP Publishing Ltd, ISBN 0-7503-0106-6  
McElheny, Victor K. (2004), Watson & DNA: Making a scientific revolution, Basic Books, ISBN 0-7382-0866-3 .
Moulton, Forest Ray; Schifferes, Justus J. (eds., Second Edition) (1960), The Autobiography of Science, Doubleday .
Needham, Joseph; Wang, Ling (王玲) (1954), Science and Civilisation in China, 1 Introductory Orientations, Cambridge University Press  
Newton, Isaac (1687, 1713, 1726), Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-08817-4 , Third edition. From I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman's 1999 translation, 974 pages.
Ørsted, Hans Christian (1997), Selected Scientific Works of Hans Christian Ørsted, Princeton, ISBN 0-691-04334-5 . Translated to English by Karen Jelved, Andrew D. Jackson, and Ole Knudsen, (translators 1997).
Peirce, C. S. — see Charles Sanders Peirce bibliography.
Poincaré, Henri (1905), Science and Hypothesis  Eprint
Pólya, George (1957), How to Solve It, Princeton University Press, ISBN -691-08097-6  
Popper, Karl R., The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1934, 1959.
Sambursky, Shmuel (ed.) (1974), Physical Thought from the Presocratics to the Quantum Physicists, Pica Press, ISBN 0-87663-712-8 .
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2007), The Black Swan, Random House, ISBN 978-1-4000-6351-2  
Watson, James D. (1968), The Double Helix, New York: Atheneum, Library of Congress card number 68-16217 .
Further readingBauer, Henry H., Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method, University of Illinois Press, Champaign, IL, 1992
Beveridge, William I. B., The Art of Scientific Investigation, Heinemann, Melbourne, Australia, 1950.
Bernstein, Richard J., Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1983.
Brody, Baruch A. and Capaldi, Nicholas, Science: Men, Methods, Goals: A Reader: Methods of Physical Science, W. A. Benjamin, 1968
Brody, Baruch A., and Grandy, Richard E., Readings in the Philosophy of Science, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.
Burks, Arthur W., Chance, Cause, Reason — An Inquiry into the Nature of Scientific Evidence, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1977.
Alan Chalmers. What is this thing called science?. Queensland University Press and Open University Press, 1976.
Crick, Francis (1988), What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery, New York: Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-09137-7 .
Dewey, John, How We Think, D.C. Heath, Lexington, MA, 1910. Reprinted, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY, 1991.
Earman, John (ed.), Inference, Explanation, and Other Frustrations: Essays in the Philosophy of Science, University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA, 1992.
Fraassen, Bas C. van, The Scientific Image, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1980.
Franklin, James (2009), What Science Knows: And How It Knows It, New York: Encounter Books, ISBN 1594032076 .
Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Reason in the Age of Science, Frederick G. Lawrence (trans.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1981.
Giere, Ronald N. (ed.), Cognitive Models of Science, vol. 15 in 'Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science', University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1992.
Hacking, Ian, Representing and Intervening, Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1983.
Heisenberg, Werner, Physics and Beyond, Encounters and Conversations, A.J. Pomerans (trans.), Harper and Row, New York, NY 1971, pp. 63–64.
Holton, Gerald, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought, Kepler to Einstein, 1st edition 1973, revised edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1988.
Kuhn, Thomas S., The Essential Tension, Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1977.
Latour, Bruno, Science in Action, How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987.
Losee, John, A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1972. 2nd edition, 1980.
Maxwell, Nicholas, The Comprehensibility of the Universe: A New Conception of Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998. Paperback 2003.
McCarty, Maclyn (1985), The Transforming Principle: Discovering that genes are made of DNA, New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 252  , ISBN 0-393-30450-7 . Memoir of a researcher in the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment.
McComas, William F., ed. The Principal Elements of the Nature of Science: Dispelling the MythsPDF (189 KB), from The Nature of Science in Science Education, pp53–70, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands 1998.
Misak, Cheryl J., Truth and the End of Inquiry, A Peircean Account of Truth, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1991.
Piattelli-Palmarini, Massimo (ed.), Language and Learning, The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980.
Popper, Karl R., Unended Quest, An Intellectual Autobiography, Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1982.
Putnam, Hilary, Renewing Philosophy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992.
Rorty, Richard, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1979.
Salmon, Wesley C., Four Decades of Scientific Explanation, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1990.
Shimony, Abner, Search for a Naturalistic World View: Vol. 1, Scientific Method and Epistemology, Vol. 2, Natural Science and Metaphysics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1993.
Thagard, Paul, Conceptual Revolutions, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1992.
Ziman, John (2000). Real Science: what it is, and what it means. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.


The following is a short section from the previous post. The most interesting parts to me, are in bold print. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the fictional beings in Battlestar Galactica. For related meanings, see Cylon.

A model of a new series Cylon Centurion. The Cylons are a cybernetic civilization at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity in the Battlestar Galactica science fiction franchise, in the original 1978 and 1980 series, the 2003 reimagining, as well as the spin-off prequel series, Caprica. In the 1978 series, the Cylons is also the name of the race (Reptilians?) who created the robot Cylons (Greys, Hybrids, PLF'S?).

The nature and origins of Cylons differ greatly between the two Galacticas. However both series feature Cylon Raiders, Cylon Basestars and Cylon Centurions. The prequel series, Caprica, focuses on the creation of the Cylons, which differs from all the previous Battlestar Galactica series.

The Cylons of the 1978/1980 series are not the mechanical foils seen throughout the series, but an advanced reptilian race who created the robots (who were referred to as Cylons within the show) to serve them, maintain their vast empire and to man their military forces in the face of a sudden population drop that eventually led to the Cylons' extinction — seemingly overnight. This fact is briefly mentioned in the 1978 movie-length premier of the series (near the end of episode 2 in syndication) when Apollo relates the Cylons' origin to Boxey. In the episode "War of the Gods", during Count Iblis's private discourse with Count Baltar, Baltar mentions that he recognizes Iblis's voice, referring to Patrick Macnee's voicing of the Imperious Leader in the opening episode/theatrical movie (Macnee also played Iblis), with Iblis countering that if that was true it must have been "transcribed" over a thousand yahren (years) ago and programmed into the mechanical body of the Imperious Leader.

The follow-up series Galactica 1980 had a two-episode arc entitled "The Night the Cylons Landed" that featured a humanoid Cylon, though unlike its successors in the post-millennial reimagining, it was not organic, but a complex mechanical construct.

The Cylons of the 2003 miniseries and 2004 Battlestar Galactica series are fundamentally different from the Cylons of the original 1978/1980 series. In the new version, the Cylons were created by humans as cybernetic workers and soldiers. As in the original series, the Cylons destroy almost the entire human civilization, chasing a few ship-borne survivors into deep space. Unlike the original series, however, the reimagined series includes twelve Cylon models that are nearly indistinguishable from human beings. Although these human-form Cylons are the focus of the series, alongside the humanoid models there are also Centurions similar to those in the original series. Much of the Cylons' technology is based heavily on bioengineering and/or synthetic biology rather than conventional robotics. Humans often derisively refer to Cylons as "toasters," due to the resemblance of the Cylon centurions from the first Human/Cylon war (the design of which is based on that of the centurions from the original series) to "walking chrome toasters", as described by Gaius Baltar in the miniseries. The humanoid models are referred to as "skin-jobs" to differentiate the two variants.

In contrast to the reason for the original Cylons' genocidal mission, religion is the primary motivation of the Cylon race in the re-imagined series. They consider humans to be sinful and flawed creations who therefore do not deserve to survive. In the original series the Cylons, an aggressively expanding empire, declared war on Humanity because they intervened on behalf of a race of beings called the Hasaris who had been enslaved by the Cylons and who had sought the aid of the Colonials.

I continue to speculate that the Human Race was somehow an illegal creation -- by conceptualization and/or implementation. I also continue to see Three Key Archangels (Interdimensional-Reptilian Queens?) lurking in the shadows. Are we essentially dealing with Three 'Annas' in fundamental conflict with each other? Is there one distinctly Draconian-Reptilian 'Anna'? Is there one Hybrid 'Anna' (with a very high level of Reptile Genetics)? Is there one 'Anna' who is Mostly Human (with a very low level of Reptile Genetics)? Is this 'Human Anna' the one in the middle? Stuck in the Middle with You (with clipped-wings)? I don't know -- and I'm not sure I want to know. What I do know is that I am VERY afraid -- for legion reasons. What were we before we became human? It might fighten us. What will we be after we are no longer human? This might frighten us even more. Just more conjecture, to make us think. The horror.


Was (and is?) the Ark of the Covenant a "Graven-Image"?? Is a Crucifix a "Graven-Image"?? Think About It. The attitudes of just about everyone lead me to believe that goodness, reason, and responsibility are punished in this universe. I think I might've tried to change this modus operandi (lifetime after lifetime), and I think I might pay dearly and finally for doing so -- and I frankly doubt that anyone will REALLY give a damn for more than five-minutes -- before stepping on my cold carcass -- and moving on to bigger and better things -- in a universe without orthodoxymoron and without compassion. "Ding Dong! The Ding Dong's Gone!" Right??? No further questions??? I hope you all find that which you seek. But for now -- I have more questions. Just because I ask questions, doesn't mean I haven't found the truth. Just try to answer a few of my many questions. Give it your best shot! Should I be thinking in terms of a clean-sheet of paper approach to Law, Government, and Religion? Perhaps I've spent more than enough time attempting to pour new-wine into old-wineskins! Perhaps I need to delete all of my threads -- and begin again with the word 'Responsibility' -- and create something new and exciting! Do I need to create a new legal system? Do I need to create a new governmental system? Do I need to create a new religion? Do I need to integrate Law, Government, and Religion into a Unified-Whole Based Upon Responsibility? Tell me what you think. I'll give it some serious thought, and get back to you.  

OK, I'm thinking that the focus should be on a Solar System Legal System Based Upon Responsibility -- which would also be the Governmental and Religious System! I know that sounds dangerous, but I like to live dangerously! Perhaps I need to take a closer look at Cannon Law. Is there a past or present legal system which also serves as a governmental and religious system? I feel creepy and sick when I consider such things. My chills are colder than usual when I think such thoughts. I feel completely at sea right now. I feel like a lost soul. Where do I look for a proper legal model which is also governmental and religious in nature? Should I look for a book on Comparative Legal Systems? Should I speak with a Cannon Lawyer? Should I speak with a Constitutional Lawyer? Perhaps I should begin by reading a dictionary, and applying responsibility to each and every word. What is the Moral Foundation of Law? What is Natural Law? Should I read a Business Law Textbook? Given the existing legal systems throughout the world -- what is the common denominator? Could a legal system be devised which would work well throughout the solar system? Should I read the 'Annals of Air and Space Law'? What about the '1967 Outer Space Treaty'? Does the United Nations have a Legal System which the member nations have signed-off on? What would the people at the Vatican tell me if they could really speak freely and honestly? What would a Vatican and Responsibility Based Solar System Legal System look like??!! Now that's getting REALLY scary!! You have to understand my religious background to understand how scary that really is!! Once again, I think we need to consider as many possibilities as possible before rendering a verdict in this matter -- or any matter -- for that matter!!! I think I may need to read a 'Black's Legal Dictionary'. http://blackslawdictionary.org/ What about the Law in Romans? What about the Law in Galatians? What is the relationship between Law and Grace? What are the legal implications and ramifications of the Substitutionary Atonement -- especially pertaining to Responsibility and Freedom? Should the Responsible be Free -- and the Irresponsible be Imprisoned? Who should define 'Responsibility'? Some say that we cannot legislate morality -- but what is law -- other than legislating morality? Think about it! Another thing. Consider relistening to Bill Cooper's 1989 MUFON lecture on UFO's and the Secret Government. That one always makes my hair stand on-end!!! What is the Galactic Legal System? What about Reptilian Law? Don't laugh! There might be a helluva lot to these last two questions -- and they might have everything to do with Solar System Law.

Do the 'Ten Commandments' apply equally to ALL beings in the universe -- including God? Do they apply only to Earth Humans? Do they apply equally to yesterday, today, and forever? What would the world be like if the 'Ten Commandments' were strictly enforced today -- by force of law -- throughout the world? Do any of you keep the 'Ten Commandments'? Why don't Christians keep the Seventh-Day Sabbath -- from Sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday? I have recently proposed that Every Day Should be a Sabbath-Day -- with Most Every Activity Being Considered Sacred -- with a Sabbath-Attitude existing throughout the world 24/7 -- and church attendance being highly-recommended, but not required. Have you really thought through what Sabbath-Keeping really entails? If I long for the sun to set, so I can watch a ball-game in progress -- is that Sabbath-Breaking which could cause me to lose out on Heaven, and die eternally -- physically and soul-wise? Are there any excuses for sinning? Why does God appear to sin in the Old Testament? Why all the contradictions, confusion, and absurdities? Is this on purpose? Is this part of our punishment for who knows what Ancient Transgressions? Should one day of the week be more holy than any other day of the week? Was Earth and it's inhabitants really created in Six Literal Days -- with God Resting on the Seventh-Day Sabbath? I Value a Very High Ethical Standard -- Very Highly -- But is This Very High Ethical Standard Found in the 66 Books of the Canonical Scriptures aka God's Word, the Holy Bible? Should we construct a Responsibility-Based Ethical System? What is the proper role of the Sacred Scriptures and Apocalyptic Literature? What about the Book of Enoch? Do we really live in a Retribution, Annihilation, and Utter Destruction Universe -- Ruled by Vengeful Deities who expect Absolute Obedience -- No Matter How Cruel and Unusual the Orders Might Be??? Is 'Just Following Orders' a valid defense? Finally, I wish to make it clear that a lot of what I post is pragmatic in nature -- and it is intended to incrementally make things better for everyone. I faithfully kept the Seventh-Day Sabbath for decades -- but I finally realized that converting the world to this plan wasn't going to happen -- and that the best scriptural principles and concepts probably needed to be applied to modern society -- in new and innovative ways. I just haven't seen my way clear to effect such idealism in a rebellious and irresponsible world. I'm simply not willing that any should perish in a Final Judgment and Apocalypse. Now -- or Later. On the other hand -- at some point -- will a certain individual have to say 'Let Him That is Righteous be Righteous Still -- and Him That is Filthy be Filthy Still'? Will the curtain have to be closed with terrible finality? You still don't get this -- do you? Namaste and Have a Nice Day!

I continue to be fascinated by Rachel Constantine -- Vala Mal Doran -- Delenn -- Cleopatra -- the Queen of Sheba -- Ellen White -- Dr. Elizabeth Trent -- Dr. Josephine Mataros -- Sherry Shriner -- and Lilly (in Star Trek: First Contact) -- just to name a few. If you've followed my threads -- you might know what I keep hinting-at. I'm pretty indirect -- and I could say a whole lot more -- but I'd rather not. I just beat around the Burning Truth-Bush. The rest is up to you. Remove your shoes. They might be sabotaged. I'm honestly too ignorant and fatigued to be of much scholarly use -- and if I were ever granted significant power (token or otherwise) I think I'd delegate most of it rather quickly -- but I'd watch like a hawk!! Failure would NOT be tolerated!!! I'd love to continue -- but I've been infiltrated and subverted by You Know Who with the Poison-Shoe. One more thing. I've posted this before BUT here is a select portion of the Wikipedia entry for the small moon-asteroid Dactyl which orbits 243-Ida. Doesn't this section strongly hint at the existence of a Piloted-Asteroid?? Doesn't this sound similar to the asteroid I described in my short-story some time ago?? I wasn't aware of the content of the Wikipedia article -- and I didn't have Dactyl in mind!! Honest!! Yet another coincidence??

Dactyl's orbit around Ida is not precisely known. Galileo was in the plane of Dactyl's orbit when most of the images were taken, which made determining its exact orbit difficult.[35] Dactyl orbits in the prograde direction[80] and is inclined about 8° to Ida's equator.[72] Based on computer simulations, Dactyl's pericenter must be more than about 65 km (40 mi) from Ida for it to remain in a stable orbit.[81] The range of orbits generated by the simulations was narrowed down by the necessity of having the orbits pass through points at which Galileo observed Dactyl to be at 16:52:05 UT on 28 August 1993, about 90 km (56 mi) from Ida at longitude 85°.[82][83] On 26 April 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope observed Ida for eight hours and was unable to spot Dactyl. It would have been able to observe it if it were more than about 700 km (430 mi) from Ida.[35]

Seashore wrote:From spherebeingalliance.com:

The Upcoming Offworld Conferences

by Corey/GoodETxSG
01 Jun 2015 : 15:53

As I stated prior, I was informed that I would be brought up to what I am told will be 3 conferences in the first week (or 10 days) of June.

Hello Everyone,

As I stated prior, I was informed that I would be brought up to what I am told will be 3 conferences in the first week (or 10 days) of June. There have been recent developments within the SSP Alliance as well as another major UN Like “Super Federation Conference” of aligned human-like ET’s. This is as much information as I have been given so far other than one of them will be with another of the opposition groups of the SSP Alliance (not the Draco Alliance leadership this time however). I am told the time and logistics are being negotiated for this meeting where I will be a delegate from the Sphere Alliance and the SSP Alliance Council has insisted on their own high ranking representative to be present along with the support team. If I receive any details that can be shared I will do so. Otherwise I will share what I can of these conferences after being debriefed. It was not pleasant sharing some of the more disturbing details in my recent article with Dr. Salla that will be a part of “Full Disclosure”.

Since sharing this information I have had very disturbing flashback memories and dreams that are directly related to the information. I was told that chatter was intercepted and that opposition groups have discussed that that we have gone too far in releasing information that no one was ever supposed to find out about. If anyone were to attempt to release a book or movie with this information in them they would have been quashed by "the powers that be". Since you cannot put the genie back in the bottle it appears that some of these groups will attempt to go the rout of discrediting the information and causing drama between “truthers” as much as possible. I think the release of some of this recent information will make for an interesting meeting with them in the next week or so. There is more information coming in from the “Earth Alliance” that will we will be briefed on about the financial, political, military operations going on as well as further intelligence on what is occurring below the surface of the planet with recent skirmishes and uses of earthquake/weather-modification weapons to mention a few topics.

Once fully debriefed I hope to have some new information that I am cleared to release to the public. With things moving so rapidly right now I have been asked to stay available and prepared to disclose further information when the timing is right. The disinformation war is ramping up even more in June it appears as these negative groups have many leaks to plug and a lot of disclosed information to cover up and discredit (from multiple sources). Now is a time for extreme discernment and not to be drawn in by false prophets, false “Christ’s” (Several are being reported, a few being deceptive ET’s/Blue Skinned and Ancient Breakaway Humans), or self-appointed or mislead “Guru’s”. We need to remember we have the power within to free ourselves and the answers to spreading our wings and taking flight on these waves of changing energy/vibration is focusing on raising our own consciousness/vibrations and becoming more loving/STO’s and forgiving (breaking the wheel of karma). I will begin to pick up the pace on answering the questions that have built up in the Q&A “FAQs” section of this website.


Thank you,
Corey/GoodETxSG

http://spherebeingalliance.com/blog/the-upcoming-offworld-conferences.html

Psalm 27:1  A Psalm of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?   2  When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell.   3  Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war should rise against me, In this I will be confident.   4  One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.   5  For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.   6  And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.   7  Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.   8  When You said, "Seek My face," My heart said to You, "Your face, Lord, I will seek."   9  Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.   10  When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.   11  Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.   12  Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence.   13  I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.   14  Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!

I wanted to give Space Law some quality time. Here are some links to get the ball rolling, so to speak. I've been playing softball -- but now it's time to play hardball. Why haven't I explored this field previously??? I could never, ever get accepted into a Space Law program -- and in light of my current and strange multidisciplinary activities, I doubt that I could graduate from such a program. However, I think I need to read as many Space Law books and papers as I possibly can -- and I need to watch as many recorded lectures and court proceedings as possible. OMG!! I think this might be the Motherload of Solar System Governance Studies. I'd like to study Space Law, Constitutional Law, and Cannon Law -- just for the hell of it. Some Reptilian Religious Studies and Reptilian Anatomy and Physiology would be sort of cool too!! But then, I should probably study Mothership Propulsion and Weapon Systems -- just to balance things out. Intergalactic Banking might come in handy as well! Regarding the 2011 Outer Space Treaty -- What do we know about the Weaponization of the Galaxy and Universe? If we live in a Galaxy and Universe which is hostile to Humanity -- how might we defend ourselves if we do not weaponize the Solar System? Also, I'm not real keen on the United Nations and the U.N. Charter -- especially if it trumps the U.S. Constitution and Congress.

1. United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/index.html

2. The Space Review http://www.thespacereview.com/article/381/1

3. Air University http://www.au.af.mil/au/

4. International Institute of Space Law http://www.iislweb.org/

5. Island One Society http://www.islandone.org/

6. International Air and Space Law Association http://www.spacemoot.org/

7. Space Law Probe http://spacelawprobe.blogspot.com/

8. Space Academy http://www.spaceacademy.net.au/spacelaw/splawguide.htm

9. University of Wisconsin--Madison http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/FALL97/LEC39/lecture39.html

10. Studies in International Space Law (Book) http://www.amazon.com/Studies-International-Space-Law-Cheng/dp/0198257309

11. Space Law on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=space+law&oq=space+law&aq=f&aqi=g5g-m4&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=9236l14992l0l31169l9l9l0l1l1l0l187l1060l1.7l8l0

12. Wikipedia Space Law Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law

Space law is an area of the law that encompasses national and international law governing activities in outer space. International lawyers have been unable to agree on a uniform definition of the term "outer space," although most lawyers agree that outer space generally begins at the lowest altitude above sea level at which objects can orbit the Earth, approximately 100 km (62 mi).

The inception of the field of space law began with the launch of the world's first artificial satellite by the Soviet Union in October 1957. Named Sputnik 1, the satellite was launched as part of the International Geophysical Year. Since that time, space law has evolved and assumed more importance as mankind has increasingly come to use and rely on space-based resources.

Beginning in 1957, nations began discussing systems to ensure the peaceful use of outer space.[1][2] Bilateral discussions between the United States and USSR in 1958 resulted in the presentation of issues to the UN for debate.[1][3][4] In 1959, the UN created the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).[5] COPUOS in turn created two subcommittees, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee. The COPUOS Legal Subcommittee has been a primary forum for discussion and negotiation of international agreements relating to outer space.

Five international treaties have been negotiated and drafted in the COPUOS:

The 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the "Outer Space Treaty").
The 1968 Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space (the "Rescue Agreement").
The 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (the "Liability Convention").
The 1975 Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space (the "Registration Convention").
The 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the "Moon Treaty").
The outer space treaty is the most widely-adopted treaty, with 100 parties. [6] The rescue agreement, the liability convention and the registration convention all elaborate on provisions of the outer space treaty. UN delegates apparently intended[according to whom?] that the moon treaty serve as a new comprehensive treaty which would supersede or supplement the outer space treaty, most notably by elaborating upon the outer space treaty's provisions regarding resource appropriation and prohibition of territorial sovereignty. [7] The moon treaty has only 13 parties, and many consider it to be a failed treaty due to its limited acceptance. [8] India is the only nation that has both signed the moon treaty and declared itself interested in going to the moon. India has not ratified the treaty; an analysis of India's treaty law is required to understand how this affects India legally. [9]

In addition, the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water ("Partial Test Ban Treaty") banned the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space.

The five treaties and agreements of international space law cover "non-appropriation of outer space by any one country, arms control, the freedom of exploration, liability for damage caused by space objects, the safety and rescue of spacecraft and astronauts, the prevention of harmful interference with space activities and the environment, the notification and registration of space activities, scientific investigation and the exploitation of natural resources in outer space and the settlement of disputes." [10]

The United Nations General Assembly adopted five declarations and legal principles which encourage exercising the international laws, as well as unified communication between countries. The five declarations and principles are:

The Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Uses of Outer Space (1963)
All space exploration will be done with good intentions and is equally open to all States that comply with international law. No one nation may claim ownership of outer space or any celestial body. Activities carried out in space must abide by the international law and the nations undergoing these said activities must accept responsibility for the governmental or non-governmental agency involved. Objects launched into space are subject to their nation of belonging, including people. Objects, parts, and components discovered outside the jurisdiction of a nation will be returned upon identification. If a nation launches an object into space, they are responsible for any damages that occur internationally.

The Principles Governing the Use by States of Artificial Earth Satellites for International Direct Television Broadcasting (1982)
Activities of this nature must be transpire in accordance with the sovereign rights of States. Said activities should "promote the free dissemination and mutual exchange of information and knowledge in cultural and scientific fields, assist in educational, social and economic development, particularly in the developing countries, enhance the qualities of life of all peoples and provide recreation with due respect to the political and cultural integrity of States." All States have equal rights to pursue these activities and must maintain responsibility for anything carried out under their boundaries of authority. States planning activities need to contact the Secretary-General of the United Nations with details of the undergoing activities.
The Principles Relating to Remote Sensing of the Earth from Outer Space (1986)
Fifteen principles are stated under this category. The basic understanding comes from these descriptions given by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs:

(a) The term "remote sensing" means the sensing of the Earth's surface from space by making use of the properties of electromagnetic waves emitted, reflected or :diffracted by the sensed objects, for the purpose of improving natural resources management, land use and the protection of the environment;
(b) The term "primary data" means those raw data that are acquired by remote sensors borne by a space object and that are transmitted or delivered to the ground :from space by telemetry in the form of electromagnetic signals, by photographic film, magnetic tape or any other means;
(c) The term "processed data" means the products resulting from the processing of the primary data, needed to make such data usable;
(d) The term "analysed information" means the information resulting from the interpretation of processed data, inputs of data and knowledge from other sources;
(e) The term "remote sensing activities" means the operation of remote sensing space systems, primary data collection and storage stations, and activities in :processing, interpreting and disseminating the processed data.[11]
The Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space (1992)
"States launching space objects with nuclear power sources on board shall endeavour to protect individuals, populations and the biosphere against radiological hazards. The design and use of space objects with nuclear power sources on board shall ensure, with a high degree of confidence, that the hazards, in foreseeable operational or accidental circumstances, are kept below acceptable levels..."

The Declaration on International Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for the Benefit and in the Interest of All States, Taking into Particular Account the Needs of Developing Countries (1996)
"States are free to determine all aspects of their participation in international cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space on an equitable and mutually acceptable basis. All States, particularly those with relevant space capabilities and with programmes for the exploration and use of outer space, should contribute to promoting and fostering international cooperation on an equitable and mutually acceptable basis. In this context, particular attention should be given to the benefit for and the interests of developing countries and countries with incipient space programmes stemming from such international cooperation conducted with countries with more advanced space capabilities.International cooperation should be conducted in the modes that are considered most effective and appropriate by the countries concerned, including, inter alia, governmental and non-governmental; commercial and non-commercial; global, multilateral, regional or bilateral; and international cooperation among countries in all levels of development."

The COPUOS operates on the basis of consensus, i.e. all committee and subcommittee delegates must agree on treaty language before it can be included in the final version of a treaty, and the committees cannot place new items on their agendas unless all member nations agree. One reason that the U.N. space treaties lack definitions and are unclear in other respects, is because it is easier to achieve consensus when language and terms are vague. In recent years, the COPUOS Legal Subcommittee has been unable to achieve consensus on discussion of a new comprehensive space agreement. It is also unlikely that the Subcommittee will be able to agree to amend the Outer Space Treaty in the foreseeable future. Many space faring nations seem to believe that discussing a new space agreement or amendment of the Outer Space Treaty would be futile and time consuming, because entrenched differences regarding resource appropriation, property rights and other issues relating to commercial activity make consensus unlikely.

In addition to the international treaties that have been negotiated at the United Nations, the nations participating in the International Space Station have entered into the 1998 Agreement among the governments of Canada, Member States of the European Space Agency, Japan, Russian Federation, and the United States of America concerning cooperation on the Civil International Space Station (the "Space Station Agreement"). This Agreement provides, among other things, that NASA is the lead agency in coordinating the member states' contributions to and activities on the space station, and that each nation has jurisdiction over its own module(s). The Agreement also provides for protection of intellectual property and procedures for criminal prosecution. This Agreement may very well serve as a model for future agreements regarding international cooperation in facilities on the Moon and Mars, where the first off-world colonies and scientific/industrial bases are likely to be established. [12]

Space law also encompasses national laws, and many countries have passed national space legislation in recent years. The Outer Space Treaty requires parties to authorize and supervise national space activities, including the activities of non-governmental entities such as commercial and non-profit organizations. The Outer Space Treaty also incorporates the UN Charter by reference, and requires parties to ensure that activities are conducted in accordance with other forms of international law such as customary international law (the custom and practice of states).

The advent of commercial space activities beyond the scope of the satellite communications industry, and the development of many commercial spaceports, is leading many countries[which?] to consider how to regulate private space activities. [13] The challenge is to regulate these activities in a manner that does not hinder or preclude investment, while still ensuring that commercial activities comply with international law. The developing nations are concerned that the space faring nations will monopolize space resources. [14]

Satellites in geostationary orbit must all occupy a single ring above the equator, approximately 35,800 km into space. The requirement to space these satellites apart means that there is a limited number of orbital "slots" available, thus only a limited number of satellites can be placed in geostationary orbit. This has led to conflict between different countries wishing access to the same orbital slots (countries at the same longitude but differing latitudes). These disputes are addressed through the ITU allocation mechanism.[15] Countries located at the Earth's equator have also asserted their legal claim to control the use of space above their territory,[16] notably in 1976, when many countries located at the Earth's equator created the Bogota Declaration, in which they asserted their legal claim to control the use of space above their territory.[17]

While this field of the law is still in its infancy, it is in an era of rapid change and development. Arguably the resources of space are infinite, and limited only by our ability to use them in a manner that is fair and equitable to all nations and which is environmentally ethical. If commercial space transportation becomes widely available, with substantially lower launch costs, then all countries will be able to directly reap the benefits of space resources. In that situation, it seems likely that consensus will be much easier to achieve with respect to commercial development and human settlement of outer space. High costs are not the only factor preventing the economic exploitation of space: it is argued that space should be considered as a pristine environment worthy of protection and conservation, and that the legal regime for space should further protect it from being used as a resource for Earth's needs.[18][19] Debate is also focused on whether space should continue to be legally defined as part of the “common heritage of man,” and therefore unavailable for national claims, or whether its legal definition should be changed to allow private property in space.[20][18][21]

Michael Dodge, of Long Beach, Mississippi, is the first law school graduate to receive a space law certificate in the United States.[22][23] Dodge graduated from the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law in 2008.[24][25]

The University of Sunderland is the first UK University to offer a space law module as part of its LLB programme.[citation needed] [26]

The University of Nebraska College of Law offers the U.S.’s first and only LL.M. in space and telecommunications law.[27] Professor Frans von der Dunk, former Director of space law research at Leiden University joined the program in 2007. In addition to the LL.M., students can earn a J.D. at Nebraska Law with an emphasis in space and telecommunications law. The program also hosts three space and telecommunications conferences each year [28][Full citation needed]

From more than 10 years, the University Paris-Sud with the Institute of Space and Telecommunications Law offer a Master's degree in Space Activities and Telecommunications Law. This Master is supported by numerous companies of space and telecommunications sectors.[29]

Space archaeology, the law as related to preserving cultural heritage from space sites
Metalaw
Andrew G. Haley
Ernst Fasan
Space policy
Space policy of the United States
Institute of Space and Telecommunications Law
[edit] References^ a b inesap.org Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and International Law.
^ UN website UN Resolution 1148 (XII).
^ Google books Nuclear Weapons and Contemporary International Law N.Singh, E. WcWhinney (p.289)
^ UN website UN Resolution 1348 (XIII).
^ "United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space". United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/COPUOS/copuos.html.  
^ "ADL Legal". http://www.dllegal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=157.  
^ "Journal of Space Law". Journal of Space Law 2. 1974. http://www.spacelaw.olemiss.edu/JSL/Back_issues/JSL%202.pdf.  
^ "ADL Legal". http://www.dllegal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=157.  
^ "Space Law". http://www.scribd.com/doc/49688551/International-Law.  
^ United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. ""United Nations Treaties and Principles on Space Law."". http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/en/SpaceLaw/treaties.html. Retrieved 16 February 2011.  
^ "United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs". http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/en/SpaceLaw/gares/html/gares_51_0122.html.  
^ "Space Law and Space Resources". http://www.nss.org/settlement/nasa/spaceresvol4/spacelaw.html.  
^ "Space Law". http://www.dllegal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=157.  
^ "Space Law". http://www.dllegal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99&Itemid=157.  
^ http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/conferences/seminars/mexico-2001/docs/06-procedure-mechanism.doc
^ ESA - ECSL European Centre for Space Law - Geostationary Orbit. Legal issues
^ Thompson, J. (1996) Space for rent: the International Telecommunications Union, space law, and orbit/spectrum leasing, Journal of Air Law and Commerce, 62, 279-311
^ a b Billings, L. (2006) To the Moon, Mars, and beyond: culture, law, and ethics in space-faring societies, Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 26(5), 430-437
^ Lee, K. (1994) Awe and humility: intrinsic value in nature – beyond an earthbound environmental ethics, in: Attfield, R. & Belsey, A. Philosophy and the Natural Environment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 89-101
^ Fountain, L. (2003) Creating the momentum in Space: ending the paralysis produced by the “Common a Heritage of Man” doctrine, Connecticut Law Review, 35(4), 1753-1787
^ Pop, Virgiliu (2009). Who Owns the Moon?: Extraterrestrial Aspects of Land and Mineral Resources Ownership. Space Regulations Library. Springer. ISBN 978-1402091346.  
^ The Daily Mississippian: UM space law only of its kind
^ "Deccan Herald: Beyond the blue yonder". Archived from the original on 2009-05-07. http://74.125.93.132/search?hl=en&safe=off&num=100&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.deccanherald.com%2FCONTENT%2FDec302008%2Fsnt20081229109474.asp&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=.  
^ Space.com: First Space Lawyer Graduates - Posted May 8, 2008; Accessed May 13, 2008
^ Law Graduation Includes First-Time Certificate in Space Law, Newswise, May 8, 2008
^ "A Space Odyssey to the University Of Sunderland". http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/newsevents/news/news/index.php?nid=862.  
^ http://spacelawprobe.blogspot.com/2007/09/nebraska-space-law-program-to-liftoff.html
^ http://spaceandtelecomlaw.unl.edu
^ http://www.idest-paris.org/content/view/235/112/


Do we need some sort of a "God" to keep us from enslaving and exterminating each other -- or would some sort of a "God" save us the trouble by enslaving and exterminating us without human intervention? Should a "Solar System God" be separate and distinct from the "Really Big and Powerful God"? Is "God" a "Committee"? If not, should "God" be a "Committee"? Do we need checks and balances? Does "God" need checks and balances? Is international, interplanetary, and intergalactic warfare inevitable? As I continue to contemplate Solar System Governance -- I'm seeing nothing but problems regarding all of the above. Why are "Technology and Money" often reverenced like some sort of a "New Age God"? What if we all lived in a Peaceful and Happy Low-Tech Solar System? Do we really need all of the fancy technology and weaponry? Do we really need to be capable of exterminating ourselves with the click of a mouse? When is enough really enough regarding technology? When will we have enough weapons of mass destruction? Should all states and countries have nuclear weapons? Should we weaponize space? Have we already weaponized space? Do we need to defend ourselves against ET -- or do we simply have to defend ourselves from each other? We seem to be very skilled at allowing things to spiral out of control. I've been somewhat critical of a hypothetical "Queen of Heaven" and "God of This World" -- but do we really need some sort of "Queen of Heaven" and "God of This World"? How and When Will We Achieve a Proper Balance of Power in This Solar System?

My life is quite miserable  -- mostly because I keep thinking about all of the above. I do most of this to myself -- yet I think unseen entities 'assist' me as I descend into madness. I've placed quite a bit of 'new food for thought' on the table in the past few days -- and no one is 'biting' -- as usual. Frankly, the only one who has REALLY spoken with me in any real depth regarding "My Quest" was that Ancient Egyptian Deity I keep fleetingly referring to -- who I spoke to over several months -- several months ago. Unfortunately, we seemed to be somewhat in conflict with each other -- but in a very polite and cordial manner. This 'contact' or 'close encounter' is NOT ongoing -- for better or for worse -- I know not. It was sort of cool in one way -- yet it scared the hell out of me. They told me that in the past, "We Fought Side by Side" -- and that we were somehow related. They also seemed to be quite interested in the 'Nazi Phenomenon' and indicated that I should probably be researching it. This really frightened me -- for a variety of reasons. The bottom-line is that I continue to think that we are in more trouble than we can possibly imagine. I will NOT sell my soul to You Know Who to obtain a Seat at the Table. The Immoral Minority screwed-up BIG TIME trying to get their damned 'Seat'. Idiots.

I see that the view-count for this thread has stopped in it's tracks. There never was much commenting -- yet there seemed to be a lot of viewers (or at least a lot of repeat viewers). All activity connected with this thread (other than mine) seems to have dried up completely. Perhaps I should just watch and take notes, at this point -- rather than continuing to delude myself into thinking that I might be able to change things in some small way. Perhaps that time has passed (if it ever existed at all). I've said way too much already -- and I suspect that if I had said these kinds of things in public meetings -- with the force and charisma I know I am capable of -- I doubt that I'd be alive today. I have purposely kept this thing low key. I will continue to keep mostly silent about all of this madness -- at least until a somewhat reformed version of the PTB decides to do something with it -- but I won't hold my breath waiting for something exciting to happen. But be very, very careful to guard against poison-pills, aimed-asteroids, and a scorched-earth policy. Focusing upon Principles and Concepts -- rather than Triumphalist Transitions -- might be wise is so many ways. I simply wish for things to work out well for All Concerned. I simply wish to Move On to Bigger and Better Things. Think on these things. I continue to point toward areas of study -- mostly as mental and spiritual treadmills. I am constantly adding disclaimers and warnings. There are so many slippery-slopes and so many completely-ignorant-fools to slide down them -- and then sue!! The 'Sovereignty of God' is a slippery-slope case-in-point. If one embraces the concept, one might become a Pious-Zombie who might Commit Mass Murder in God's Name. On the other hand, if one rejects the same concept, one might become a Self-Styled System-Lord -- in Rebellion Against Peace and Righteousness. I have recently sought to solve this problem by Simultaneously Accepting and Rejecting the 'Sovereignty of God'. And yes, the Devil is in the Details.

I just think something went very wrong in the Garden of Eden (however one defines  it). 'The God's of Eden' by William Bramley, 'Rule by Secrecy' by Jim Marrs, and 'The Great Controversy' by Ellen White -- are very interesting and chilling -- to me anyway. I continue to think of Earth as being a 'Prison Planet in Rebellion' with a Key Prosecuting-Attorney as an 'Angel of Satan' to buffet us, reign us in, and bring us back into the fold, so to speak. Most of the universe inhabitants might be forbidden to have contact with us -- with a few exceptions. Perhaps we are being 'taught a lesson' or left to 'stew in our own juice'. "You all made your bed -- so sleep in it -- and see how you like it -- while the rest of us watch!!!" I don't know what's been going on, but I suspect that it's been very, very bad and horrific. This horror seems to be ongoing. I value serious Bible-Study -- yet the Bible story might be a very truncated and distorted account. I continue to expose myself to all manner of madness and speculation -- to attempt to achieve at least a fleeting view of the way things REALLY are. So far, I don't like what I'm seeing -- even though the chase has been somewhat thrilling.

What if the United Nations adopted a very refined and properly adapted version of the U.S. Constitution -- to replace the U.N. Charter? What if the General Assembly gained power? What if the Security Council relinquished power? What if the United Nations continued meeting in its present location? What if the U.N. managed the cooperation of nations on Planet Earth? What if the United States of the Solar System were headquartered in San Francisco, at St. Mary's Cathedral? What if the U.S.S.S. (with a highly refined and properly adapted version of the U.S. Constitution) managed interplanetary and intergalactic cooperation? What if the University of Solar System Studies and Governance were headquartered at the University of California at Berkeley? What if the Monarchy and Papacy became less geopolitical? I continue to fly-blind in all of this -- so take me seriously -- but not too seriously. I'm not necessarily looking for a 'seat at the table' (especially if it's the 'Seat of Satan') -- just 'access to everyone and everything of importance, a live-feed to all proceedings of any siginificance, and the serious consideration of my questions and proposals'. What if the 'Secret Government' were absorbed into the United States of the Solar System? What if the United Nations became much more transparent -- with a 'live podcast' of most (or all) proceedings? One more time -- I'm not Anti-Other-Than-Human. I'm simply trying to help clean up the mess in this solar system. The ancient conflicts and deals might have EVERYTHING to do with resolving the madness (or with making satisfactory resolutions impossible). I would not have a problem with meeting with the other-than-human beings portrayed in the drawings seen on the internet (if they really exist). I wouldn't even have a problem travelling throughout the galaxy with them on one of their spaceships. I simply do not wish to be messed-with or eaten. I don't know who I am reincarnationally -- or of what fundamental race and rank I might be -- and this scares the hell out of me -- in more ways than you can imagine. Thinking about this has turned my life into a living-hell. Really.

I heard a story from a reliable source that someone expressed sympathy to a priest regarding their being celebate -- to which the priest supposedly replied "I have lots of wives!" I spoke with a woman who suffered priestly sexual abuse. She is no longer Catholic. She is no longer religious. Period. I agree with Malachi Martin that the church is shot as an organization. Still, if the church is not properly purified and reformed, the human race is doomed. I still think there is a good-side and a bad-side to the Egyptian-Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church -- and I think that top-ranking Catholics know more about what's really going on than 99.99% of humanity. But this doesn't mean that I like them, believe their public statements, or desire to join the church. I'm presently overexposing myself to the Bach B-Minor Mass as I research this and that. I'm presently thinking that the Bach B-Minor Mass might be a very cool 'standard' mass -- without the human sacrificial aspects -- yet retaining the glory, grandeur, reverence, and awe of the traditional Latin Mass. The Bach B-Minor Mass is my preferred Latin Mass. I often prefer Sung Latin and Spoken English. I realize that I'm meddling -- but someone has to do it. Somehow the Egyptian-Roman Model of Politics and Religion seems to have been hijacked by beings (human and otherwise) who don't like humanity. Just more speculation.

I'm presently very interested in the Monarchy, Papacy, Presidency, Queen of Heaven, God of This World, United Nations, Constitutional Law, Cannon Law, and Space Law. That should probably keep me busy, wouldn't you say??!! One more thing -- I just might decide to finish that Steamy Space Book -- after all, I'm single, and have no love life whatsoever -- so what do I have to lose? So what if no one approves or cares? Frankly my dears, I don't give a damn. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some important matters to consider. What if the United States of the Solar System sessions were something similar to the following Moot Court session? Notice especially the 'Responsibility Arguments'. Imagine the proceedings occurring in a deconsecrated St. Mary's Cathedral, in San Francisco -- with robed participants. Think about it. BTW -- why not install a certain local 'organ for sale' (if it hasn't already been sold) as an 'Antiphonal Organ' at St. Mary's -- complementing the Trompettes En Chamade? I don't know if that would work -- but I think it would be a helluva lot of fun!!! It would be a Blast from the Past!!! What Would Dr. Soderlund Say? What Would Dr. Kraft-Cross Say? What Would Richard Purvis Say? What Would Monseigneur Bowe Say? Think about it. May LaForce '64 Be With You. What Would Fred Swann Say? Think about it.

Once again, this thread is mostly intended to make all of us think. A much more formal version of this madness might very well emerge at a later date. Sometimes, to undo, one must overdo. Think about it. After watching Moot Court, consider watching this interview in 'Judges Chambers'. What if the United States of the Solar System operated as a Galactic Moot Court for a couple of years -- before going authoritatively live??? I've been warned to not attempt to implement my ideas on too large of a scale. How big is too big? Was the Tower of Babel too big? Think about it.

mudra wrote:

TRUNEWS 4/22/15: PATRICK WOOD "TECHNOCRACY RISING"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PXFzSbMqQo

Patrick Wood is an author and lecturer who has studied elite globalization policies since the late 1970’s, when he partnered with the late Antony C. Sutton to co-author Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II. He remains a leading expert on the elitist Tri­lateral Commission, their policies and achievements in creating their self-proclaimed “New International Eco­nomic Order.”

An economist by education, a financial analyst and writer by profession and an Amer­ican Constitutionalist by choice, Wood maintains a Biblical world view and has deep historical insights into the modern attacks on sovereignty, property rights and personal freedom. Such attacks are epitomized by the implementation of U.N. policies such as Agenda 21, Sustainable Development, Smart Growth and in education, the widespread adoption of Common Core State Standards.

Wood is a frequent speaker and guest on radio shows around the nation. His cur­rent research builds on Trilateral Commission hegemony, focusing on Technocracy, Transhumanism and Scientism, and how these are transforming global economics, politics and religion. The endgame, if ignored, will result in Scientific Dictatorship.

Wood is also editor of the online journal, The August Forecast & Review.

Love Always
mudra

orthodoxymoron wrote:Thank-you for posting this, mudra. I haven't watched the video yet, but from the description, this guy sounds a bit like me (except he's much more advanced). I keep thinking in terms of positively-reinforcing that which presently exists (including the best of the past -- and the best futuristic conceptualizations). I also keep thinking that a malevolent solar system might be unsettlingly similar to a benevolent solar system. The basic organizational structure might have to be somewhat similar. The differences might have a lot to do with whether the overall system operates as Purgatory Incorporated OR Paradise Incorporated. Perhaps this solar system was originally set-up as Paradise Incorporated -- and then got taken-over and turned into Purgatory Incorporated -- with most of the original conceptualizations and technologies retained. This is HIGHLY Frightening to me. A God-Operated Paradise Incorporated could conceivably be somewhat easily turned into a Satan-Operated Purgatory Incorporated. The General-Public might not even know that the change had occurred. This is Very Scary Stuff!!! I keep thinking that this solar system (including the systems many of us love to hate) is a Corrupted-Version of an Idealistic-Plan. I continue to lean toward the idea that this solar system has been (and continues to be) a One Solar System Government -- with ALL of the Governments and Religions ultimately answering to the Same Boss. If this is the case -- perhaps there are legitimate reasons why this state of affairs exists. The institution of a New World Order might simply be a cover-story for what's really been going-on. We might've been living under a New World Order for thousands of years!! A Technocracy might be somewhat inevitable -- but the nature of that Technocracy might be up for grabs. Around 1990 -- Malachi Martin (in The Keys of This Blood) wrote about a three-way struggle for the control of the New World Order -- between the Soviet Union -- the West -- and the Roman Catholic Church. But really -- could all three really cumulatively-constitute Pagan and Papal Rome?? Do we really live in a Roman Solar System -- going way, way, way back?? That wouldn't surprise me. In Star-Wars -- wouldn't the conquerors take-over the Whole Solar System (rather than just one planet)?? But what if this Solar System was a Galactic Rat-Trap??!! What if the original tenants of this solar system knew that conquerors were on the way -- so they set up a fake-resistance -- and allowed the invaders to win -- while maneuvering to ultimately control and exploit the "conquering-aliens"??!! Along similar lines -- did the Nazis really win World War II?? Some say they did. The horror.

mudra wrote:

Thank you Oxy I hope you had the time to listen to that video by now. Patrick Wood is quite a good researcher I found.

The Trilateral Commission and Technocracy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHWrceNajf4


Love Always
mudra

orthodoxymoron wrote:I'm watching the videos this afternoon. I keep wondering if a Human-Collective combined with a Computer-Network will ultimately administer this solar system?! If so -- would there be a place for a God (local and/or universal) in such a system?! Would there be a place for a Solar System King and Queen?! Things are SO up-for-grabs and moving SO quickly -- that all any one individual can probably do is attempt to keep-up (rather than leading). An Individual of Interest told me that someone would attempt to rule humanity -- but they would fail -- and that this failure would be followed by an extermination. Art Bell's concept of "The Quickening" seems to apply here. The Bible speaks of "Knowledge Increasing" and "Men Running To and Fro" -- followed by "The End". Even if one does not believe in God and Prophecy -- consider all of the conflicting governments, religions, philosophies, and agendas -- combined with unimaginable Weapons of Mass Destruction!! Then look at the past few thousand years of violent history in this solar system!! I keep thinking we live in a Purgatory which could quickly become Heaven or Hell -- with the probabilities favoring the "Hell" end of the spectrum. I'm very serious about living in a small-basement in the mountains -- with no computer, phone, or car -- and just reading books and looking through a small telescope -- with very little contact with anyone...

Law seems to be at the Center of Everything. What about relating everything we examine on this website to LAW? Obviously, from my perspective, the Foundation of Law should be RESPONSIBILITY. I'm staking EVERYTHING on RESPONSIBILITY. Unfortunately, I continue to be somewhat irresponsible, but I'd rather not talk about that! Moving on, consider watching all of the lectures on the following linked page. Please talk to me. Why are you ignoring me? Was it something I said? Was it something I did? Is it who I am? What the hell is going on here??? My SDA background often pointed to the Law of God as being at the center of theology -- and Adventists often caught flack regarding "Legalism" -- but were SDA's on the right track in this regard? I have concluded that SDA's often had "The Truth" -- yet implemented and communicated the truth in an abominable manner. Sorry, but I will continue to call things as I see them.


What if the entire universe is essentially lawless? What if the entire universe is 'out of control'? What if God is not in control? What if Satan is not in control? What if Lucifer is not in control? What if Jesus (or any equivalent names such as Sananda) is not in control? What if the God of This World is not in control? What if the Queen of Heaven is not in control? What if the Pope is not in control? What if the Queen is not in control? What if the Illuminati are not in control? What if no one is in control? What if we are dealing with an infinite number of factions fighting for survival and power? What if a Supercomputer the Size of Jupiter is Possessed by Trillions of Trillions of Interdimensional Reptilian Souls -- and what if this represents the most formidable power in the universe? Most of us wish to feel as if we are somehow in control of the situation we're in. We don't want to be aboard a plane without a pilot -- do we? What if the PTB placed YOU in control of the Solar System? Would you celebrate -- or would you begin weeping, wailing, gnashing your teeth, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, and craving death as a sweet release? Is attempting to control things a fatal mistake? I've resigned myself to just keep doing what I'm doing -- no matter how good or how bad things get. If I were placed in charge of the solar system -- I would simply shrug my shoulders and keep doing what I'm doing right now -- except that I'd probably want to start using some sort of a supercomputer to expedite things -- and move to a more secure location. But other than that -- forces beyond my comprehension would probably continue to function in nefarious ways -- beyond the control of anyone. I am assuming that things really suck throughout the universe, and that we will be locked in an unbelievable struggle for survival for a very long time -- assuming that we survive for a very long time. Sorry for the doom and gloom -- but shouldn't we contemplate worst-case scenarios each and every day??? Remember the 'Empathy Test' in the "V" Remake? Perhaps one would need to be both ethical and emotionless to properly deal with the madness. Such an individual might not seem to care. They might joke about serious and tragic subjects and events -- and the yoke might be on you. Do you see my point? I didn't think so.

What if the Solar System were considered to be One Country Under One Particular Comprehensive Law Book? There might be various states within this One Country -- with a Wide Cultural and Religious Diversity -- yet the Laws Governing Just About Everything would be uniform and contained within the One Particular Comprehensive Law Book. The various states would be properly respresented in the hypothetical United States of the Solar System -- yet there might not be dozens of different law books -- with thousands of interpretations. Do you see my point? At what point does Freedom become Confusion and Confrontation? I'd still like to know about ALL of the races and civilizations within this solar system. I'd also like to know about ALL unseen entities which exist within this solar system. I know there are those within this solar system who could tell me way more than I desire to know -- yet there seems to be a brick wall of silence in place -- and probably for legitimate reasons. Still, I'd prefer a somewhat uniform yet free solar system at peace -- rather than a solar system at war -- with death and environmental destruction everywhere. Do we need a Representative Theocracy of some sort? Would a United States of the Solar System have to operate as a Representative Theocracy in order to gain Galactic Approval? I really want this solar system to be peaceful and pristine. I do not want this solar system to be a chaotic war-zone and industrial waste-site. Should a United States of the Solar System be superimposed upon every governmental structure which presently exists in the solar system -- rather than eliminating or significantly changing any of them? Would changes on a micro-level need to be voluntarily implemented by member states -- in their own way, and in their own time? How would we assure that things would not spiral out of control? Would this require some sort of strong and ethical central leadership? Or would this precipitate destructive rebellion? Would we need an Idealistic and Ethical Version of Anna (in 'V') to preside over this new solar system? Once again, how do we achieve a proper Balace of Solar System Power? How does this NOT become a nasty power struggle -- where no one loves or trusts anyone? Is the human race so unstable, that we really cannot rule ourselves? Do we really need ET to rule us with a Titanium Fist??? Will we all end-up kneeling before ET with contrite submission and absolute obedience -- after screwing-up our one chance at Responsible-Freedom and Self-Governance???? I have a sinking feeling that this thing is going to get really nasty -- no matter what we do -- and no matter what ET does. Just speculation.

I have made some references to the possibility of a Representative Theocracy in connection with the United States of the Solar System -- even though I know this is playing with rattlesnakes. Here is one reporter's opinion concerning 'Representative Theocracy'. http://www.daylightatheism.org/2010/01/representative-theocracy.html

Representative Theocracy
By Sarah Braasch

Representative Bart Stupak from Michigan was paraphrased in a recent New York Times interview as saying that his resolve to defeat the healthcare reform bill, unless the bill includes his anti-abortion amendment language, is a straightforward matter of Roman Catholic faith. The article states that Representative Stupak said that he actually urged the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to toughen its stance on the legislation. Representative Stupak is also quoted as saying: "It's not the end of the world if it goes down."

What?!?! Let me say that again. WTF?!?!

I don't understand how something like this goes unnoticed and unmentioned.

How does he get a free pass on saying something like that in his capacity as a US Representative? How does he not get called out on that?

He just proclaimed to the press that he holds religious law in higher esteem than the US Constitution. He just stated, unequivocally, that he intends to impose religious law upon the American citizenry. He just asserted that he intends to defeat healthcare reform unless religious law is deemed the supreme law of the land, usurping the position of the US Constitution.

I am trying to imagine the reaction if Representative Keith Ellison from Minnesota were to say something similar. Keith Ellison is the first Muslim member of the US Congress. I am trying to imagine the resulting tumult and uproar if he were to defy his Democratic Party and vote in opposition to its platform, all the while maintaining that he was doing so as a straightforward matter of his Islamic faith, because he holds the tenets of Islam in higher esteem than the US Constitution, because the Quran and the Hadith demand that he impose Sharia (Islamic Law) upon American citizens, as a matter of principle and conscience. Does anyone honestly believe that a comment like that would go unnoticed in a New York Times interview?

Representative Stupak took an oath to support and defend the US Constitution. He is openly admitting to violating the Establishment Clause of the Constitution by attempting to establish religious law as US Federal Law. He may not seek recourse under the Free Exercise or Free Speech Clauses, because federal congressional legislation is textbook government speech. He is not acting as a private individual citizen when he acts in his capacity as a US Representative in Congress.

Is there something about the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution, which Representative Stupak fails to understand? I find it fairly straightforward myself. In case you had forgotten, I am including our glorious First Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

There is no religious test for public office, but there should be a competency test for public office, to determine if one is capable of maintaining the separation between church and state, if one is capable of NOT violating the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution, if one is capable of comprehending the difference between government speech and the private speech of an individual citizen.

If immigrants desiring citizenship must take a test that demonstrates their knowledge of the United States Constitution, then maybe we should require the same of our Representatives and Senators, since they are also being asked to take an oath or affirmation to support and defend the Constitution and all.

For the record, I am not Catholic. I reject Roman Catholicism. And, I am deeply and personally offended that Mr. Stupak would abuse his position as a US Congressman by attempting to force me to kneel to Roman Catholic doctrine as a matter of US Federal Law in direct violation of our Constitution.

And, even if I were Catholic, what entitles Representative Stupak to interpret the tenets of Roman Catholicism on my behalf? I didn't realize we had a Theologian Laureate in the United States of America. Thank God for Representative Stupak from Michigan. Thank God we have Representative Stupak to interpret Catholic doctrine and then legislate accordingly on our behalf.

I can sleep easy now. Congress is looking after my spiritual wellbeing. Congress is looking after my soul.

Of course Representative Stupak doesn't care if healthcare reform passes or no. Of course he doesn't care how many American citizens continue to die unnecessarily. He isn't interested in saving our lives. He's interested in saving our souls. For Jesus. Nothing unconstitutional about that.

Perhaps we should take a closer look at the term 'Theocracy'. Are there good and bad varieties of 'Theocracy'? Are we heading toward a V-ocracy? Here is the Wikikpedia Link for 'Theocracy'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theocracy

Theocracy is a form of government in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion.[1][2][3]

From the perspective of the theocratic government, "God himself is recognized as the head" of the state, [4] hence the term theocracy, from the Greek θεοκρατια "rule of God", a term used by Josephus for the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.[5]

A theocracy may have an administrative hierarchy of the government identical with the administrative hierarchy of the religion, or it may have two 'arms,' but with the state administrative hierarchy subordinate to the religious hierarchy.

Theocracy should be distinguished from other, secular, forms of government that have a state religion, or are merely influenced by theological or moral concepts, and monarchies held "By the Grace of God".

The word theocracy originates from the Greek θεοκρατία, meaning "the rule of God". This in turn derives from the Greek words θεός (theos), meaning "god", and κρατεῖν (kratein), meaning "to rule." Thus the meaning of the word in Greek was "rule by god(s)" or human incarnation(s) of god(s).

It was first coined by Josephus Flavius in the first century A.D. to describe the characteristic government for Jews. Josephus argued that while the Greeks recognized three types of government: monarchy, aristocracy, and anarchy, the Jews were unique in that they had a system of government that did not fit into those categories. Josephus understood theocracy as a fourth form of government in which only God and his law is sovereign. Josephus' definition was widely accepted until the Enlightenment era, when the term started to collect more universalistic[clarification needed] and negative connotations, especially in Hegel's hands.

The first recorded English use was in 1622, with the meaning "sacerdotal government under divine inspiration" (as in Biblical Israel before the rise of kings); the meaning "priestly or religious body wielding political and civil power" is recorded from 1825.

The word has been mostly used to label certain politically unpopular societies as less rational or developed. The concept is used in sociology and other social sciences, but the term is often used inaccurately, especially in popular rhetoric.

In the most common usage of the term theocracy, some civil rulers are leaders of the dominant religion (e.g., the Byzantine emperor as patron of the head of the official Church); the government claims to rule on behalf of God or a higher power, as specified by the local religion, and divine approval of government institutions and laws. These characteristics apply also to a caesaropapist regime. The Byzantine Empire however was not theocratic since the patriarch answered to the emperor, not vice versa; similarly in Tudor England the crown forced the church to break away from Rome so the royal (and, especially later, parliamentary) power could assume full control of the now Anglican hierarchy and confiscate most church property and income.

Taken literally or strictly, theocracy means rule by God or gods and refers primarily to an internal "rule of the heart", especially in its biblical application. The common, generic use of the term, as defined above in terms of rule by a church or analogous religious leadership, would be more accurately described as an ecclesiocracy.[6]

In a pure theocracy, the civil leader is believed to have a direct personal connection with God. For example, a prophet like Moses led the Israelites, and the prophet Muhammad ruled the early Muslims. Law proclaimed by the ruler is also considered a divine revelation, and hence the law of God. An ecclesiocracy, on the other hand, is a situation where the religious leaders assume a leading role in the state, but do not claim that they are instruments of divine revelation. For example, the prince-bishops of the European Middle Ages, where the bishop was also the temporal ruler. The papacy in the Papal States occupied a middle ground between theocracy and ecclesiocracy, since the pope did not claim he is a prophet who receives revelation from God, but merely the (in rare cases infallible) interpreter of already-received revelation. Religiously endorsed monarchies fall between these two poles, according to the relative strengths of the religious and political organs.

The example which Flavius gave for theocracy, the rule of the Temple of Jerusalem's High Priest, would under the present definition be an Ecclesiocracy, since these (often worldly) priests did not claim to have any revelation or direct connection with God.[citation needed]

Secular governments can also coexist with a state religion or delegate some aspects of civil law to religious communities. For example, in Israel marriage is governed by officially recognized religious bodies who each provide marriage services for their respected adherents, yet no form of civil marriage (free of religion, for atheists, for example) exists nor mariage by non recognized minority religions. India similarly delegates control of marriage and some other civil matters to the religious communities, in large part as a way of accommodating its Muslim minority. Egypt was run in both a monarchic and theocratic fashion in which the pharaoh was the head priest...

An Islamic state is a state that has adopted Islam, specifically Sharia, as its foundations for political institutions, or laws, exclusively, and has implemented the Islamic ruling system khilafah (Arabic: خلافة), and is therefore a theocracy. Although there is much debate as to which states or groups operate strictly according to Islamic Law, Sharia is the official basis for state laws in the following countries: Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Oman and Iran. In Nigeria, the constitution provides that states may elect to use Shari'a laws and courts, though non-Muslims are not required in any state to submit to Shari'a jurisdiction and adherence varies by state.[7]

Saudi Arabia maintains religious courts for all aspects of law and has religious police to maintain social compliance. Also Iran maintains religious courts for all aspects of law and has religious police to maintain social compliance, while its government is described as a "theocratic republic".[8] Iran's head of state, or Supreme Leader, is appointed for life by an elected body called Assembly of Experts.[8] The Council of Guardians, considered part of the executive branch of government, is responsible for determining if legislation is in line with Islamic law and customs (the Sharia), and can bar candidates from elections, and greenlight or ban investigations into the election process.[8] Pakistan has Islam as its only official religion and its Federal Shariat Court has the duty of striking down any law not complying with the Sharia code of Islamic law; however, ruling falls upon legal scholars who, while required to be Muslim, are not religious clergy.

Following the unification of Italy, Vatican City became the last surviving territory of the former Papal States.[9] In 1929, the State of Vatican City was formally recognized as an independent state through treaties with the Italian government.[9] The head of state of the Vatican is the pope, elected by the College of Cardinals, an assembly of Senatorial-princes of the Church, who are usually clerics, appointed as Ordinaries, but in the past have also included men who were not bishops nor clerics.[9] A pope is elected for life, and voting is limited to cardinals under 80 years of age.[9] A Secretary for Relations with States, directly responsible for international relations, is appointed by the pope. The Vatican legal system is rooted in canon law but ultimately is decided by the pope; the Bishop of Rome as the Supreme Pontiff, "has the fullness of legislative, executive and judicial powers."[10] The government of the Vatican can also be considered an ecclesiocracy (ruled by the Church)

The Central Tibetan Administration, colloquially known as the Tibetan government in exile, is a Tibetan exile organisation with a state-like internal structure. According to its charter, the position of head of state of the Central Tibetan Administration belongs ex officio to the current Dalai Lama, a religious hierarch. In this respect, it continues the traditions of the former government of Tibet, which was ruled by the Dalai Lamas and their ministers, with a specific role reserved for a class of monk officials.

On March 14, 2011, at the 14th Dalai Lama's suggestion, the parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration began considering a proposal to remove the Dalai Lama's role as head of state in favor of an elected leader.

Though having a state religion is not sufficient to be a theocracy, it is a theocratic aspect. Many countries have a state religion without government directly deriving its powers from a divine authority. The following states, for example, recognize some form of Christianity as their state or official religion (by denomination):

Theocracy is “a form of government in which God or another deity is recognized as the supreme ruler, having their laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities [11],” or essentially the higher power makes the laws. Theocracy is an aspect of government that deals with the creation of governing rules by following the direction of God or a deity.

Those who follow the formatted government of theocracy include: Jurisdictions which recognize Roman Catholicism as their state or official religion:

Costa Rica[12]
Liechtenstein[13]
Malta[14]
Monaco[15]
Some cantons of Switzerland (state religion):
Appenzell Innerrhoden (declared "religion of the people of Appenzell Innerrhoden")
Aargau
Basel-Country
Berne
Glarus
Graubünden
Nidwalden
Schwyz
Thurgau
Uri

Throughout history there have been different countries that have leaned towards the idea of theocracy. Europe is one of the first regions documented that became familiarized with theocracy as they sent their citizens away to spread the idea of Christianity as an absolute form of government[16].

Pope John Paul II was quoted saying: The notion of freedom and personal autonomy is superficially attractive, endorsed by individuals, the media, legislature, and the courts.... Yet it ultimately destroys the personal good of individuals and the common good of society.... The Church is preserved in the truth and it is her duty to give utterance to and authoritatively to teach that truth. [17]

Potential problems of having a theocracy is that in a country not everyone believes in the same God or deity. Having such a dilemma may break out into unfit government officials, raids, and lack of governmental control [18]. A potential benefit of having a theocracy is that there is no one person in control of the people. Having a more open form of government would allow for citizens to make freer choices, similar to the background of having an anarchy government as there would be no real form of government; this leads to a potential problem because there would be no responsible party for creating and enforcing rules which would lead to more chaos. Chaos would be reached in such a scenario because people would want to dictate their own rules to each other, becoming their own governing official, similar in fashion to anarchy (lack of government) or an ochlocracy (mob rule government).

A number of countries, including Andorra, Argentina,[19] Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Italy,[20] Indonesia, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay,[21] Peru,[22] Philippines, Poland,[23] Portugal[citation needed], Slovakia, and Spain,[24] give a special recognition to Catholicism in their constitution despite not making it the state religion.

Jurisdictions which recognize one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches as their state religion:

Greece (Church of Greece)[25]
Finland: Finnish Orthodox Church has a special relationship with the Finnish state.[26] The internal structure of the church is described in the Orthodox Church Act. The church has a power to tax its members and corporations if a majority of shareholders are members. The church does not consider itself a state church, as the state does not have the authority to affect its internal workings or theology.

Jurisdictions which recognize a Lutheran church as their state religion:

Denmark (Church of Denmark)[27]
Iceland (Church of Iceland)[28]
Norway (Church of Norway)[29]
Finland: Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has a special relationship with the Finnish state, its internal structure being described in a special law, the Church Act.[26] The Church Act can be amended only by a decision of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and subsequent ratification by the parliament. The Church Act is protected by the Finnish constitution, and the state can not change the Church Act without changing the constitution. The church has a power to tax its members and all corporations unless a majority of shareholders are members of the Finnish Orthodox Church. The state collects these taxes for the church, for a fee. On the other hand, the church is required to give a burial place for everyone in its graveyards.[30] The Finnish president also decides the themes for the intercession days. The church does not consider itself a state church, as the Finnish state does not have the power to influence its internal workings or its theology, although it has a veto in those changes of the internal structure which require changing the Church Act. Neither does the Finnish state accord any precedence to Lutherans or the Lutheran faith in its own acts.
Jurisdictions that recognise an Anglican church as their state religion:

England (Church of England): In England the Monarch is both head of state and head of the church. The rest of the UK is however not Anglican (although Anglican minorities exist within the other three constituent countries) and the Act of Union demands that the Monarch sit only as an ordinary member of the National Presbyterian Church of Scotland when in Scotland and not interfere with the affairs of the church.

Jurisdictions which recognize a Reformed church as their state religion:

Tuvalu (Church of Tuvalu)
The largest and best known theocracies in history were the Umayyad and early Abassid Caliphate, and the Papal States. And as with any other state or empire, pragmatism was part of the politics of these de jure theocracies.

Further information: Imperial cult, State church of the Roman Empire, and Israelites
The imperial cults in Ancient Egypt and elsewhere deified the ruling monarch, so that the state religion was dedicated to the worship of the ruler as a deity, or the incarnation of a deity.

Early Israel was ruled by Judges before instituting a monarchy. The Judges were believed to be representatives of YWH or Jehovah God.

In ancient and medieval Christianity, Caesaropapism is the doctrine where a head of state is at the same time the head of the church.

Geneva, during the period of John Calvin's greatest influence and the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the "Puritans" had many characteristics of Protestant theocracies.

During the short reign (1494–1498) of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican priest, the city of Florence could have been considered a theocracy. During his rule, un-Christian books, statues, poetry, and other items were burned (in the Bonfire of the Vanities), sodomy was made a capital offense, and other Christian practices became law.

Although having a lay ruler (the King of Jerusalem) the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1299) is considered to have some theocratic influences.

Also the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector is also considered to have a considerable amount of theocratic influence.

Another ecclesiocracy was the administration of the short-lived State of Deseret, an independent entity briefly organized in the American West by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its original borders stretched from western Colorado to the southern California coast. When the Mormons arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847, the Great Basin was still a part of Mexico and had no secular government. As a result, Brigham Young administered the region both spiritually and temporally through the highly organized and centralized Melchizedek Priesthood. This original organization was based upon a concept called theodemocracy, a governmental system combining Biblical theocracy with mid-19th-century American political ideals, including heavy reliance upon the U.S. Constitution.

The treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo resulted in the Mexican Cession by which Deseret was incorporated into the United States. In 1849, the Saints organized a secular government in Utah, although many ecclesiatical leaders maintained their positions of secular power. The Mormons also petitioned Congress to have Deseret admitted into the Union as a state. However, under the Compromise of 1850, Utah Territory was created and Brigham Young was appointed governor. In this situation, Young still stood as head of the LDS Church as well as Utah's secular government.

After the abortive Utah War of 1857–1858, the replacement of Young by an outside Federal Territorial Governor, the eventual resolution of controversies regarding plural marriage, and accession by Utah to statehood, the apparent temporal aspects of LDS theodemocracy receded markedly. However, — like many Christians, Jews, and Muslims — Latter-day Saints regard some form of theocracy with God as the head (king) of a chiliastic world government to be the true political ideal. But, until the Second Coming of Christ, the Mormons teach in their 12th Article of Faith: submission to the powers that be. But true to their beliefs in individual liberty and moral accountability, they exhibit a strong preference for democratic-republican, representative government as embodied in the Constitution of the United States.

Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro offers a singular example of monarchs willingly turning their power to ecclesiastic authority (Montenegrin Orthodox), as the last of the House of Crnojević (styled Grand Voivode, not sovereign princes) did, in order to preserve national unity before the Ottoman onslaught as a separate millet under an autochthonous ethnarch. When Montenegro re-established secular dynastic succession by the proclamation of princedom in 1851, it did so in favor of the last Prince-bishop, who changed his style from Vladika i upravitelj Crne Gore i Brde "Vladika (Bishop) and Ruler of Montenegro and Brda" to Po Bozjoj milosti knjaz i gospodar Crne Gore i Brde "By the grace of God Prince and Sovereign of Montenegro and Brda", thus rendering his de facto dynasty (the Petrović-Njegoš family since 1696) a hereditary one.

The period when Medina was ruled by the Islamic prophet Muhammad is occasionally classed as a theocracy. By 630, Muhammad had established a theocracy in Makkah. Most Sunni Muslims believe that only the Prophet Muhammad was able to be both a governmental as well as religious leader. Other plausible examples of Islamic theocracy might be Mahdist Sudan and the Taliban state in Afghanistan (1996–2001). Also the governing is also done by a Caliphate with smaller levels of governing done by Qazi also known as Qadi. Most irregular was the non-permanent rule of the Akhoonds (imams) in the later princely state of Swat, a valley in (first British India's, later Pakistan's) North-West Frontier Province. Theocratic movements arose in the Arab world in the 1970s.

Unified religious rule in Tibet began in 1642, when the Fifth Dalai Lama allied with the military power of the Mongol Gushri Khan to consolidate the political power and center control around his office as head of the Gelug school.[31] This form of government is known as the dual system of government. Prior to 1642, particular monasteries and monks had held considerable power throughout Tibet, but had not achieved anything approaching complete control, though power continued to be held in a diffuse, feudal system after the ascension of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Power in Tibet was held by a number of traditional elites, including members of the nobility, the heads of the major Buddhist sects (including their various tulkus), and various large and influential monastic communities.[32] As the modern Chinese propaganda describes it, Tibet during this period existed as a feudal theocracy, with a large class of serfs (consisting largely of non-noble Buddhist laymen) working on estates owned by monastic leaders and members of the secular aristocracy.[33]

Political power was sometimes used by monastic leaders to suppress rival religious schools through the confiscation of property and direct violence.[31][33] Social mobility was somewhat possible through the attainment of a monastic education, or recognition as a reincarnated teacher, but such institutions were dominated by the traditional elites and governed by political intrigue.[32] Non-Buddhists in Tibet were members of an outcast underclass.[32]

The Bogd Khaanate period of Mongolia (1911-1919) is also cited as a former Buddhist theocracy.

Depictions of a fictional society dominated by a theocracy recur in science fiction, speculative fiction and fantasy. Such depictions are mostly dystopian, and in some cases humorous or satirical.

The Earthquake in Chile, By Heinrich von Kleist (1807)
Voyagers VI The Return, By Ben Bova
If This Goes On—/Revolt in 2100 by Robert Heinlein (1940, revised and expanded 1953)
Gather, Darkness by Fritz Leiber (1943)
The Lovers by Philip Jose Farmer (1952 novella, expanded to full length 1961, revised 1977) [1]
A Woman a Day (also "Moth and Rust" and "The Day of Timestop") by Philip Jose Farmer (1953 novella, expanded to full length 1960, same universe as "The Lovers")
Messiah by Gore Vidal (1954) ISBN 0-14-118039-0
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny (1967)
The Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd (1968)
The Goblin Tower by L. Sprague de Camp (1968) (episode set in the theocratic city-state of Tarxia)
The Stork Factor by Zach Hughes (1975)
Run, Come See Jerusalem! by Richard C. Meredith (1976)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985). See Republic of Gilead.
Candle by John Barnes (2000) . New York: Tor. ISBN 0-8125-8968-8.
The Sky So Big and Black by John Barnes (2003) . New York: Tor. ISBN 0-7653-4222-7
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman (2007)
In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Pontifex Mansel leads the Theocracy of Rausten.
The alien alliance known as "the Covenant" in the Halo series.
Atlantis in Age of Mythology is supposed to be governed by a theocrat. The politics are not explored however, and it is not stated how the theocrat kept himself in power when the gods abandoned the civilisation in the expansion pack's campaign.
The Amarr Empire in EVE Online
In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Begnion is a theocracy worshipping the goddess Ashera. It is ruled by Apostle Sanaki.

Christian:

Christian Reconstructionism
Divine Right of Kings
Dominionism
Falange
National Catholicism
Organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses
Rexism
Theonomy
Ustaše

Islamic:

Iranian Revolution
Islamic banking
Islamic republic
Islamic state
Islamism
Political aspects of Islam
Religious police
Qutbism
Taliban
Wahhabi
Other:

Khalistan
Unification Church and political involvement
References^ "Theocracy; Dictionary – Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com. 2007-04-25. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theocracy. Retrieved 2009-08-10.  
^ http://www.ethosofliberty.com/deliquo.htm "Theocracy - The rule of law is derived from religious doctrine and its decrees are absolute. This type of government is evidenced by a strict Islamic state (a rule of law under the religious code of the Islamic religion)."
^ http://www.reasoned.org/glossary.htm "theocracy - Rule by religion. A government that is based on theistic beliefs. Iran is a theocracy. As well was ancient India, in some forms of Hinduism."
^ Catholic Encyclopedia "A form of civil government in which God himself is recognized as the head."
^ English form the 17th century (OED). The Greek term is explicitly coined by Josephus and isn't attested elsewhere in Ancient Greek; Josephus marks it as a nonce coinage by calling it a "strained expression". W. Whiston tr. Josephus, Against Apion ii. §17 (1814) IV. 340: "He [Moses] ordained our government to be what, by a strained expression, may be termed a Theocracy", translating ὡς δ'ἄν τίς εἴποι, βιασάμενος τὸν λόγον, θεοκρατίαν.
^ Stephen Palmquist, Biblical Theocracy: A vision of the biblical foundations for a Christian political philosophy (Hong Kong: Philopsychy Press, 1993), introduced these more precise uses of the terms in arguing that theocracy (in this pure sense) is the only political system defended in the Bible. While Palmquist defends theocracy in this pure form as a viable (though "non-political" political system, he warns that what normally goes by this name is actually ecclesiocracy, the most dangerous of all political systems.
^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71318.htm
^ a b c "CIA World Factbook – Iran". Cia.gov. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html. Retrieved 2009-08-10.  
^ a b c d "CIA World Factbook – Holy See". Cia.gov. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vt.html. Retrieved 2009-08-10.  
^ Fundamental Law of Vatican City State, Art. 1 §1
^ "Theocracy". Dictionary.com, LLC. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theocracy. Retrieved 1/26/2012.  
^ The Constitution of Costa Rica, Title VI: Religion, CostaRicaLaw.com.
^ Constitution of the Principality of Liechtenstein: Article 37(2), digital Liechtenstein.
^ Malta – Constitution, Constitutional Law, Section 2 [State Religion].
^ (French) Constitution de la Principauté: Art. 9., Principaute De Monaco: Ministère d'Etat.
^ "GOVERNMENT AND THEOCRACY". Vine and Fig Tree. http://vftonline.org/TestOath/08theocracy.htm. Retrieved 1/20/2012.  
^ Swomley, J.M.. "Twenty-five Years of Theocratic Influence - repeated attempts by the Catholic Church to influence the US government in issues involving abortion, various medical technologies, and homosexuality.". CBS Business Library. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_4_60/ai_63257726/. Retrieved 1/17/2012.  
^ Kjaer, A.M. (2004). Governance. Cambridge: Polity Press. pp. 1-35.  
^ Argentina Constitution: Section 2, Constitutional Law.
^ "The Constitution of the Italian Republic". http://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/istituzione/costituzione_inglese.pdf. "The State and the Catholic Church are independent and sovereign, each within its own sphere. Their relations are regulated by the Lateran pacts. Amendments to such Pacts which are accepted by both parties shall not require the procedure of constitutional amendments. [...] Denominations other than Catholicism have the right to self-organisation according to their own statutes, provided these do not conflict with Italian law. Their relations with the State are regulated by law, based on agreements with their respective representatives."  
^ "Constitution of the Republic of Paraguay". http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/pa00000_.html. "The role played by the Catholic Church in the historical and cultural formation of the Republic is hereby recognized."  
^ "Constitution of the Republic of Peru". http://www.congreso.gob.pe/_ingles/CONSTITUTION_29_08_08.pdf. "Within an independent and autonomous system, the State recognizes the Catholic Church as an important element in the historical, cultural, and moral formation of Peru and lends it its cooperation. The State respects other denominations and may establish forms of collaboration with them."  
^ "The Constitution of the Republic of Poland". 1997-04-02. http://sejm.gov.pl/prawo/konst/angielski/kon1.htm. "The relations between the Republic of Poland and the Roman Catholic Church shall be determined by international treaty concluded with the Holy See, and by statute. The relations between the Republic of Poland and other churches and religious organizations shall be determined by statutes adopted pursuant to agreements concluded between their appropriate representatives and the Council of Ministers."  
^ "Spanish Constitution". http://www.congreso.es/portal/page/portal/Congreso/Congreso/Informacion/Normas/const_espa_texto_ingles_0.pdf. "The public authorities shall take into account the religious beliefs of Spanish society and shall consequently maintain appropriate cooperation relations with the Catholic Church and other confessions."  
^ The Constitution of Greece: Section II Relations of Church and State, Hellenic Resources network.
^ a b Finland – Constitution, Section 76 The Church Act, Servat.unibe.ch
^ Denmark – Constitution: Section 4 [State Church], Constitutional Law.
^ Constitution of the Republic of Iceland: Article 62, Government of Iceland.
^ Norway – Constitution: Article 2 [Religion, State Religion], Constitutional Law.
^ "Status of the Finnish State Church in 2007—Privileges of the State Church". eroakirkosta.fi. 7 October 2007. http://www.eroakirkosta.fi/media/english/status_of_the_finnish_state_church_in_2007.html#privileges. Retrieved 2007-10-23  
^ a b Davidson, Ronald M. (2004). "Tibet". In Buswell, Jr., Robert E.. Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism. USA: Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 851–859. ISBN 0-02-865910-4  
^ a b c Lopez, Donald S. (1998). Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 9. ISBN 0-226-49311-3  
^ a b "Friendly Feudalism – The Tibet Myth". Michaelparenti.org. http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html. Retrieved 2009-08-10.  
Further readingAnkerl, Guy (2000). Global communication without universal civilization. INU societal research, vol. 1: Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva: INU Press. ISBN 2-88155-004-5.  
Hirschl, Ran. Constitutional Theocracy. Harvard University Press, 2010. ISBN 0-674-04819-9, 978-0-674-04819-5.

Mercuriel wrote:

Lets go even further...

INRI = Inanna - Nimrod - Marduk Ra or just Ra at that time - And Isis...

Moses with Horns

> Horns signifying both Genetic Lineage to the Anuks and "Right to Rule" as the gODS had 'em in abundance due to Them being Master Geneticists...

For instance - Enlil was known as the Bull and Marduk was known as the Ram...

Da Vinci was trying to tell Us something here and most have missed It.





Interesting eh ?

And nope - You're not finished just yet anyways. Almost - But not yet...

When I spoke of 'finished' -- I meant that in terms of a 'final judgment'. In what sense did you mean 'finished'? What if most of the Ancient Egyptian Deities and Pharaohs were Annunaki? What if most of the Old Testament Leaders were Annunaki? What if most of the Old Testament Leaders were Ancient Egyptian Deities and Pharaohs? I continue to think that we 'see through a glass darkly' regarding most of our history -- recent and ancient. The nastiness and deception seems to be endless. I'm generally pretty understanding regarding circumstances -- and I truly do not wish to be judgmental -- but I really would like to know the ACCURATE and COMPLETE history of at least this solar system -- going back at least a billion years. Seriously.

Didn't Bill Cooper refer to 'Intelligently-Guided Asteroids in Geosynchronous Orbit' around 1950 (in his famous 1989 MUFON lecture)? Perhaps the Beings of the Universe move throughout the universe in hollowed-out asteroid-spacecraft -- using the familiar disks and cigar-shaped craft when they arrive at their desired destination. You'd 'simply' need internal life-support and propulsion systems to turn an asteroid into a Bad-Asteroid Queen-Ship. I'm still thinking of Humanity as being a Recent Subset of an Ancient Reptilian Race -- but even if I'm wrong -- what intelligent races might've predated the human race? I suspect a single Ancient and Traditional Race (with a multitude of variations on this central theme) -- with a renegade faction being responsible for the creation of the Human Race. Anyway, I'm digressing...

Even though I have touched upon this previously, what if Washington D.C. were superimposed upon Vatican City -- or at least the City of London? You know -- the American System -- but with a helluva lot more pomp and circumstance. Could there be such a thing as a Theocratic Representative Republic -- wherein the prime theocratic function would be to properly maintain a proper Representative Republic? Does anyone understand what I'm hinting at?

One more time -- what if the Roman Catholic Church became part of the Anglican Communion -- or at least became virtually identical to the Anglican Communion? I'm not saying this is the way things should be -- but I think we should continue to consider all of the political and theological possibilities -- in the privacy of a small and obscure website. I continue to not wish to make a big-deal about most of what I post on the internet.

Take a look at this Council on Foreign Relations link regarding Sharia Law. http://www.cfr.org/religion/islam-governing-under-sharia/p8034 What if the world were under Sharia Law? Once again, please consider all of the possibilities. Here is a CFR video on 'The Case for Space'. I really should subscribe to 'Foreign Affairs' -- as I attempt to dance on a tightrope between David Rockefeller and Alex Jones!!! Can't we just all get along???

I certainly need to do some cleaning, trimming, mowing, and renovation -- in preparation for getting out of Dodge on a Ducati -- or perhaps in a FIZU! Anyway, I continue to feel as if I'm fighting an Internal World War Four -- without knowing who or what I'm fighting. BTW -- How does one learn if they are considered to be a 'problem' regarding their internet posting? I never know if I'm helping or hurting the 'good-guys'. I don't even know if I'm a 'good-guy'. I really don't.

I may repeat this, but I just wanted to get it on the record: I think everyone should read the Holy Bible in the King James Version from Cover to Cover -- Over and Over -- and be Completely Honest with Every Word, Sentence, Paragraph, Chapter, Book, and Testament -- But Do NOT Study the Bible in a Vacuum. Read It In the Context of Life, the Universe, and Everything. There are HUGE Problems with the Bible -- and I Know It -- but there are HUGE Lessons to be Learned -- Both Good and Bad.

Regarding United States of the Solar System Representatives: What if one had to become a Lawyer and a Flight-Surgeon as prerequisites to attending the University of Solar System Studies and Governance (to obtain a PhD)??!! What if all of the above were prerequisites to becoming one of the 5,000 United States of the Solar System Representatives?? What if, upon retirement, one were then qualified to seek to become one of the 5,000 United States of the Solar System Supreme Court Justices??!! This is just one more brainstorm (or brain-fart??)!! Take what I say seriously -- but not too seriously. Do you think this thread reflects the 'real-me'? Do you think it's merely a 'red-herring'? Is this a test? Do you think it might be all of the above?

Anyway, if you think you understand Watergate -- consider reading 'The Secret Plot to Make Ted Kennedy President' by Geoff Shepard, 'Family of Secrets' by Russ Baker -- and then rewatching 'All the President's Men', 'The Pelican Brief', and 'State of Play'. Have fun! We're all sort of turning into Paranoid Pseudo-Agents -- aren't we? Is this by design -- or is there simply too much information and danger out there? BTW -- someone who should know, told me that the Bush Clan sold out rather quickly -- but I personally do not know this to be a fact. Joe Kennedy and Prescott Bush are persons of interest -- at least to me! Also, Nicola Tesla is a VERY interesting person! I should stop. Is it constructive to think about how things REALLY work -- or is this inherently destructive and destabilizing? Should we simply leave that sort of thing for the 'experts' to sort out?? My personal feeling is that the general public should attempt to inform themselves -- but that they should not become obsessed with intrigue. I have to force myself to think about the dark side of life -- and I've frankly had more than enough. I get the general picture -- but I certainly do not wish to know too much!! I'm more paranoid than James Jesus Angleton!! That mole!!

Consider studying the subject of 'Royalty' relative to this thread. Consider consulting your 'Inner King and Queen' as your 'Higher-Selves'!! We are fond of this practice!! I continue to like a combination of the Royal-Model and the Servant-Model regarding Solar System Governance. My guess is that this thread is probably a decade ahead of its time!! See if I'm right!! I just wished to get a select core of humans and other-than-humans thinking about the subject -- in the manner in which I've presented it -- so as to influence what is sure to be a future major issue. I'd still like to talk to a City-State or United Nations insider about this sort of thing. Actually, I'd like to talk to the Mists of Avalon Members about this sort of thing. I've been trying to do just that -- but I think I've really pissed-off a lot of individuals with my posting -- so I guess I shouldn't expect much conversation -- and maybe that's just as well -- for now anyway. I get the feeling that God is watching me from a distance. I really mean no harm -- and my irreverence should actually be taken as being keen interest -- rather than disrespect. I'm simply trying to figure-out why this world is such a mess -- and I continue to think that Politics and Religion are at the center of the problems -- but I'm not sure exactly how and why. Perhaps I should post a commandment by commandment analysis of the Ten-Commandments. What if the Ten-Commandments became the Law -- and were enforced by Civil Authorities???!!! Can you even begin to imagine the riots and running in the streets???!!! Please give 'The Law of God' some serious and deep thought. This subject might be more important than any of us think. I frankly wouldn't have a problem with observing the Seventh-Day Saturday-Sabbath in that proposed Galactic Rand Corporation. I'm simply having huge issues regarding how 'Holy Days' relate to modernity on a macro-level -- which is why I have been toying with the 'Every-Day a Sabbath-Day' and 'All of Life is Sacred' concepts. I don't desire less sprituality. I desire more spirituality. But I desire the right-type of spirituality. This is tricky territory -- to say the least.

Have any of you read a dictionary from cover to cover? What if one read all manner of dictionaries as a hobby? You know -- antique dictionaries, medical dictionaries, law dictionaries, business dictionaries, etc, etc, etc. This might be a very beneficial mental exercise!! I'm presently reading a 'Star Wars' Dictionary and a Business Dictionary. I'm attempting to broaden my horizons!

Does anyone have any ideas regarding where I can properly discuss the information in my threads? Many might not get what I'm getting at -- and those who do get it might be VERY opposed to my thinking. There just hasn't been a proper conversation -- in at least three years of posting. Please refer to the previous post regarding a Galactic Rand Corporation. Is this a possibility? How would this become a reality, without becoming corrupt and creepy? You know -- the road to hell being paved with good intentions, and all. Consider the linked silo -- and the possibility of turning that launch-shaft into an underground highrise!! But consider devoting one room (with a very high ceiling) to being a music-room (complete with a small pipe-organ)! I like to dream. It's all I can really do. Everything else has turned to ashes, as we seem to be on the brink of extinction. I really am reduced to an internal and personal debate. Perhaps this is the way it will always be. Perhaps this is the way it's been for me for millions of years. This wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Regarding the 2011 Outer Space Treaty -- What do we know about the Weaponization of the Galaxy and Universe? If we live in a Galaxy and Universe which is hostile to Humanity -- how might we defend ourselves if we do not weaponize the Solar System? Also, I'm not real keen on the United Nations and the U.N. Charter -- especially if it trumps the U.S. Constitution and Congress. We would need to know the true state of affairs throughout the universe before intelligently crafting and signing any Outer Space Treaties -- wouldn't you say??? Carol Rosin seems to feel as if ALL ET's are good. Should we be so certain??? How might we define 'good'? How might the Dracs define 'good'? How might the Greys define 'good'? How might Hybrids define 'good'? How do Humans define 'good'? How might each of these groups view the weaponization of space -- especially pertaining to this solar system? What if Nibiru is presently in a circular orbit -- safely beyond the orbit of Pluto? Should they be included in any U.N. Outer-Space Treaties? What if Mars is filled with Planet-Busting WMD's? What if we are dealing with Battlestar Moon???!!! What if the Hypothetical Orion-Sirius-Egyptian-Roman Empire is REALLY pissed-off at the idea of a United States of the Solar System -- and what if they are threatening to strike back if a U.S.S.S. is established???!!! This Solar System Governance Stuff (SSGS) could be unimaginably complex and nasty. Who knows what evil lurks throughout this Galaxy???!!!

One more time -- I don't really care if people (and other than people) agree with me on much of anything -- but I would very much appreciate people (and other than people) properly studying the material in this thread -- in both a devotional and scholarly manner. I think this is VERY important. Somewhat relatedly, I think people should study the Bible and Theology -- even if they don't believe in any sort of deity (major or minor). This is all about mental and spiritual exercise. I desire that the civilization in this solar system become VERY advanced and refined -- but I certainly don't have the methodology all figured-out. I simply sense that we can do a helluva lot better. We'd better become highly refined -- with all of the destructive technology -- before we exterminate ourselves -- and before the universe orders us out of the gene-pool. I kid you not.

My quest has given me a greater appreciation and contempt regarding the REAL Solar System Powers That Be. Changing the Guard might not really change much of anything. Circumstances might determine most everything -- and even the PTB might be relatively powerless to redirect certain trends and events. Some things might simply have to 'play-out' -- whether anyone likes it or not. I am more convinced than ever, that this thread is worthy of serious study -- yet I have never been more contemptuous regarding myself. Once again, I feel as if I am in profound and intense conflict with Divinity, Humanity, and Myself. I frankly don't see a Happy Ending and Living Happily Everafter. I see this madness grinding forward in a rather messy manner -- going forward for thousands of years. I continue to be a mixture of Incurable Optimism and Unyielding Despair. I would NOT expect any future involvement with Solar System Governance to make me (or anyone else) happy. The Honeymoon Period would probably rock -- but once the novelty wore off, and reality set in, it might really suck!! The Current PTB might hate their jobs!! Who knows??!!

What if there were a Solar System King, Solar System Vice-King, Solar System Queen, and Solar System Vice-Queen? What if they ruled in a Minimalist-Palace on the Moon? What if they worked 12 hour shifts (12 on -- 12 off -- each and every day)? What if they primarily oversaw the proper operation of the United States of the Solar System? What if their roles were primarily observational, ambassadorial, ceremonial, and public-relational? Just keep thinking in terms of a Minimalist Theocratic United States of the Solar System -- even though this is somewhat tricky and dangerous. What if there were a 'King A', 'King B', 'Queen A' and 'Queen B'??!! "Queen B is on the Throne!!" "Queen B is on the Throne!!" "Long Live Queen B!!" "Long Live Queen B!!" "So Say We All!!" "So Say We All!!"

What if the Biblical Chronology concerning a 6,000 year-old Earth is descriptive of the 6,000 year history of 'Modern Man' and 'Modern Civilization'? Consider reading the works of Zechariah Sitchin and William Bramley -- side by side. I'm presently reading 'The Twelth Planet' while re-reading 'The Gods of Eden'. I'm also reading 'Foxe's Annals of the Martyrs' and 'Jesus: Last of the Pharaohs'. All of the above seem to fit together in a somewhat upsetting manner. The theme of a Problematic Divinity (singular or plural -- upper-case 'd' or lower-case 'd') continues to interest me. What if there is an unhappy medium between Idealistic Fundamentalist Theology -- and Hardcore Atheism? What if no one really wishes to properly deal with God?? I've been trying -- but I think I might have to step away from all of this, and let everything settle. Perhaps I need to heal my spirit with massive doses of positive-thinking and a change of scenery. Please take the torch, and run with it, and see how much progress you can make!!! It's a nasty job -- but somebody's gotta do it!!!

My home computers are dead -- and my internet connection no longer exists -- so I am limited to the library computer -- one hour a day -- six days a week. I've seen the view counts on my threads virtually stop over the past month -- so I'm thinking my self-styled 'mission' might be over. I've stopped writing my book, since my computers are dead -- and my book thus far is probably lost -- so I'm really trying to move on -- as I await Armageddon. I've decided to read the complete works of William Shakespeare (with a special emphasis on 'Antony and Cleopatra') -- in addition to the stack of books I'm presently working on. I'm very disillusioned by the electronic, human, other than human, and unseen supernatural surveillance -- so I'm trying to not talk -- not even when alone in my own home. I have recently been told, to my face, that 'I'm going crazy' and that 'I'm talking to the voices in my head'. These comments would not have been made if those who made them hadn't been aware of my internet activities -- and I have communicated none of this to those who I come in contact with in 'Real-Life'. You 'Secret Agents' aren't so secret -- and I am not oblivious to your 'Behind My Back Activities'. I know a helluva lot more than you think. Is there a 'Mole in Your Midst'? I think this world might be on the brink of some sort of a 'God-Off' -- and I doubt that it will be pretty. Anyway, that's my sad version of why things are so quiet around here.

Remember that I said right from the beginning (and throughout my short posting career) that most of my posting activity is highly-speculative and science-fictional in nature??!! Did some of you fail to comprehend what I meant by that??? I'm fatigued, disillusioned, and disgusted -- but I really don't think I'm crazy -- and I certainly don't hear voices in my head -- let alone talk to them or obey them. Unfortunately, I think that some of my spies and critics will really and truly go completely insane as the real facts of the matter emerge -- but I so hope that I'm wrong.

Consider reading the 'Holy Bible' (KJV) and the 'Federalist Papers' from cover to cover -- a dozen times -- side by side -- before December 21, 2012 -- as a mental and spiritual excercise -- in preparation for what might transpire in the near future. Consider especially the relationship between Responsibility and Freedom -- relative to Divinity and Humanity. This might be Supremely Important.

Consider a sophisticated composite of Diana and Anna ("V"), Adria and Vala Mal Doran ("Stargate SG-1"), Rachael Constantine ("Contact"), Alaya and Restik ("Dr. Who") and Amen Ra ("Stargate") -- in both Good and Evil forms. Good Anna v Bad Anna??? Would a Solar System Administrator need to be a Good AND Bad Anna -- simultaneously and continuously? Idealism tempered with Pragmatism? Think about it.

History is a Very Interesting Mess. I continue to like the idea of Political and Theological Science Fiction -- Past, Present, and Future. However, my computers are dead, and I am close to brain-dead, so my options are somewhat limited at the moment. I wish to make it clear that I don't hate Roman Catholics. I just think that studying the Roman Catholic Church is an extremely important aspect of any esoteric journey. Unfortunately, there are a lot of skeletons in the confessionals -- and a lot of historical problems are coming to the attention of the general public -- via the internet. I certainly do not envy the priests these days. Priests in the Hands of Angry Parishioners!! What Would Monseigneur Bowe Say?

Anyway, I am learning a lot by rereading 'The Gods of Eden' by William Bramley -- 'Rule by Secrecy' by Jim Marrs -- 'The Keys of This Blood' by Malachi Martin -- 'The Great Controversy' by Ellen White -- 'Behold a Pale Horse' by Bill Cooper -- 'The Twelth Planet' by Zechariah Sitchin -- 'SS Brotherhood of the Bell' by Joseph Farrell -- and 'The Holy Bible' in the King James Version. Now I'm going to start going through both 'Red Pill' threads by Brooke. This stuff all fits together -- but the BIG PICTURE is most upsetting and disorienting -- to me anyway. I can only imagine how bad the InfoWar is going to get in the coming years. I'm having to back off of a lot of this madness -- so that I am able to have half a chance of responding responsibly -- in my own time and way. I'm going to be spending a lot of time reading through the 'Red Pill' thread. http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t791-egyptian-folklore-and-the-red-pill-part-1?highlight=red+pill I'm also going to be spending some quality time on a particular religious site http://spectrummagazine.org/search/node/orthodoxymoron -- but I won't be posting -- although I have posted in the past. Notice especially the 'Good News Tour' thread. http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/08/21/good-news-tour-bringing-maxwell-back-llu The following excerpts are examples of my participation some years ago.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 08/26/2008 - 06:27
I enjoyed attending Graham Maxwell's Sabbath School class at LLU. His emphasis on seeing God's love in all 66 books of the Bible was especially helpful. I once suggested to Dr. Maxwell that the SDA interpretation and application of Christianity was a 'Religion of Responsibility.' He approved.

I love the picture of Jesus and Bin Laden. I placed it on the wall of my office at an Episcopal church. No one objected.

Did God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit require the sanctuary service? Or was it Satan who required the sanctuary service? The sanctuary service involved sacrifice(killing) and ultimately human sacrifice. When we hear about heathens sacrificing their children, we cringe in horror(I do). But isn’t traditional Christianity centered in God the Father sacrificing his child? Is there a problem here? Does the sanctuary service involve a sort of appeasement of ‘the gods’?

It seems to me that Satan had more to do with the sanctuary service than God. Jesus did away with the sanctuary service. It further seems that Satan claimed ownership of the human race, and required worship, and that God had to literally strike a deal with the Devil to liberate us. Jesus waged spiritual warfare with all the forces of hell and won, thus opening the door for our liberation. The death of Christ on the cross was symbolic of a victory which had already occured. The spike that was driven through Christ’s heel continued through the serpent’s head. Unfortunately the serpent is still writhing and will continue to do so until human beings win a spriritual warfare with the forces of hell in a manner similar to that of Christ. Jesus showed the way, but he has had few true followers for nearly 2,000 years now. Ellen White tried to rally the troops, but few seemed to grasp the full implications of her ministry. So this thing keeps dragging on and on. A concerted spiritual warfare might well culminate in what is refered to as Armageddon. Satan and his cohorts will not give this earth up without a huge fight.

The substitutionary atonement was not to satisfy a bloodthirsty God…but rather to silence the demons infesting this earth. The crucifixion of Christ was the first payment, and when a critical mass of human beings do what Jesus said to do, the 2nd and final payment will be made. Might this be the final application of the atonement that Adventists catch so much flack over? Does Satan, rather than God, require the so called Investigative Judgement? Isn’t Satan the ultimate legalist?

Forensic-only justification is legalistic. It is simplistic legalism(Ford's better idea) offered as the solution to complex legalism(historic Adventism). Responsibility is the real solution....being responsible caretakers of our world, ourselves, and each other...by exercising personal responsibility. Being right with God and others...by being right with God and others...not simply being declared to be right. But perfection is not required...because God is not a legalist. We can always do better...but we should not have a nervous breakdown trying to be 'perfect'. There should be Kaizen(continual improvement)...without ever 'arriving'. We don't have to be 'perfect' to be 'good enough' for God. An Adventist school I attended had the motto 'where only the best is good enough'.

Furthermore, does Revelation teach a 'Final Solution' which involves killing all 'undesirables'? In other words, human beings being killed by a God of Love for rejecting a God of Love. I have stated this very bluntly...but is this a misrepresentation?

For those who choose to follow Satan...would it be ethical and appropriate to allow them to follow and worship their leader on a distant 'Devil's Island' planet for all eternity...rather than being tortured or killed by God?

This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 08/26/2008 - 10:04
Tom: This is obviously heresy. Go ahead...burn me! It is simply my attempt to make sense out of salvation history...to help to explain the delayed return of Christ...and to deal with concepts which have drawn fire from Adventist critics for more than a century.

The Great Commission has been at the back of the bus for 2,000 years. "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and TEACHING THEM TO OBEY EVERYTHING I HAVE COMMANDED YOU. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."---Matthew 28:18-20(NIV).

Have Christians been busy doing this for 2,000 years...or doing everything but this? Is this the Great Omission? I'm guilty too. I'm no poster child. By the way, why does Jesus say 'all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me?' Given to him by whom, and when? Did he win this authority away from Satan during his earthly ministry? Is this the first part of the deal with the Devil(Holy Place phase)? Is doing what Jesus told us to do the second and final part of this deal(Most Holy Place phase)? Is this where the Investigative Judgment comes in? If people don't do what Jesus said to do...the salvation of the human race is not a done-deal. Some might even call it insubordination.

I have problems with the scriptural(Dan. 8:14, Heb. 9;12) and numerical aspects(2300 days/years, 1844) of the Investigative Judgment...as well as that it is something which God needs or requires(the Lord knows them that are his). But if it is something which Satan requires as a part of a legalistic, lawyer-like, celestial courtroom, universal power struggle, legal wrangling regarding the souls of men and the fate of the human race at the end of this present darkness...then I am all ears. It can help to explain why 2,000 years after Jesus paid it all, and saved the human race...things are worse than ever. Does anyone know how many people have been tortured, injured, or killed in wars since Ellen White died in 1915? So what went wrong? We can't say everything is fine when it obviously is not. I don't think Ellen White was kidding when she wrote, 'Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then shall the Lord come to claim them as His own.'--Christ's Object Lessons, pg 69. Try taking the teachings of Jesus seriously, and start talking about them and implementing them at the local church or conference level...and see how much trouble you get into. How about the 28 Fundamental Teachings of Jesus Christ? How about Teachings of Jesus Seminars? This applies to all Christian churches. Christianity is a religion about Jesus...not the religion of the teachings of Jesus. Who needs the Anti-Christ? To answer Des Ford's question, 'Investigative Judgment: Theological Milestone or Historical Necessity?' The answer is both. The early Adventist/Millerite mistakes should be freely admitted...but the Investigative Judgment should be promoted and defended on a conceptual level...extrapolating from the issues involved in the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan in the Conflict of the Ages. This isn't a fairy-tale.

I have a hunch that Herb Douglas would not agree with me. I think I believe in a sort of ‘harvest eschatology’…but certainly with a very different flavor than that which is found in ‘Why Jesus Waits’ or in ‘Jesus: Benchmark of Humanity’. To me, the U.S. Constitution and the Red Letter Teachings of Jesus are much more important than the 28 Fundamentals. I’m probably more on the wavelength of the following:

“Not many people of moderate persuasion have much sway in the church any more. I was reminded why recently when the Episcopal Church did two important things: It elected a woman bishop to head the denomination, and it backtracked on appointing gay bishops. The first move seems Christian. Women deserve to hold church office as much as political office (one diocese, however, was so incensed that it voted to leave the church, and worldwide there are still Anglican movements that do not permit women to be bishops or ordained priests). The second move was an act of cowardice because it did not reflect the ideals of love in Christianity and was motivated by reactionaries in the Episcopal denomination. Countering a long tradition of laissez-faire tolerance, the reactionaries have gotten tough and threatened to form their own church if gays are promoted in the priesthood. The worldwide Anglicans are more intolerant, upholding that homosexuality is forbidden, unnatural, wrong or an outright sin, depending on who is doing the disapproving. You'd think that someone would stand up and ask a simple question: Who are we to condemn gays if Christ didn't? In fact, who are we to condemn any sinner, since Christ didn't? Christianity is about forgiveness, and for the past two decades, as fundamentalism swept through every Protestant denomination, moderates and liberals have been driven out, and were roundly condemned as they left. Along with them went tolerance and forgiveness, not to mention love. Did Christ teach love or is that just a liberal bias? In the current climate, it's hard to remember, but one thing is certain: Once a tight cabal of fundamentalists takes over any denomination, Christ's teachings go out the window. The reversal of Christianity from a religion of love to a religion of hate is the greatest religious tragedy of our time. Those of us who haven't been swept up in worldwide fundamentalism, which has corrupted Islam, Hinduism and Judaism as well, have been caught in a double bind. We can't join any sect that preaches intolerance, yet we can't fight it, either, because by definition fighting is a form of intolerance. To escape this double bind, moderates have stayed silent and stayed home. But that tactic failed. As healthy as it is to nourish your own devotion and faith, it's disastrous to allow extremists to take over the church, because the statehouse, the board of education, the Congress, and eventually the presidency are next. Perhaps civil society will solve the problem of religious extremism. So far it hasn't. America finds itself in the sad plight of being the world's most prominent secular society hijacked by sectarians. One can only hope that the church comes to its senses and regains its moral center. If that doesn't occur, the core teachings of Christ will be lost, for all intents and purposes, to this generation.” --- Deepak Chopra. (Deepak Chopra is the author "Peace is the Way," which won the Quill Award in 2005 as well as 41 other books.  He is also the founder and president of the Alliance for a New Humanity, an international network of people from all walks of life who are networking together to see a positive change take place in the world. This article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006.)

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 08/26/2008 - 13:17
When Jesus 'paid it all' on the cross...who or what got paid? Wasn't that enough? And why didn't heaven begin right at that moment...or at least at the resurrection? Something seems to be missing here...a missing-link, if you will. What is Jesus waiting for? Do the teachings of Jesus support salvation by grace through faith? Do they support character-related salvation? What about Matthew 25:31-46? If salvation is character-related...then perhaps the realization of heaven, and the end of Satan's reign of terror, is also character-related. It's not over till it's over...and this mess obviously isn't over by a long-shot. My suspicion is that Satan won't let go until he or she absolutely has to. We seem to be hostages...and until all conditions of release have been met...we will remain in this prison-like situation.

”When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another.” Thus Christ on the Mount of Olives pictured to His disciples the scene of the great judgment day. And He represented its decision as turning upon one point. When the nations are gathered before Him, there will be but two classes, and their eternal destiny will be determined by what they have done or have neglected to do for Him in the person of the poor and the suffering. In that day Christ does not present before men the great work He has done for them in giving His life for their redemption. He presents the faithful work they have done for Him. To those whom He sets upon His right hand He will say, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” But those whom Christ commends know not that they have been ministering unto Him. To their perplexed inquiries He answers, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them. Even among the heathen are those who have cherished the spirit of kindness; before the words of life had fallen upon their ears, they have befriended the missionaries, even ministering to them at the peril of their own lives. Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God. How surprised and gladdened will be the lowly among the nations, and among the heathen, to hear from the lips of the Saviour, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” How glad will be the heart of Infinite Love as His followers look up with surprise and joy at His words of approval!’—Desire of Ages pgs. 685 & 686 (Home Library Edition)

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 08/27/2008 - 14:21
'The church's one foundation 'tis Jesus Christ her Lord' Are the Teachings of Jesus first and foremost in your church? If not, why not? Who's church is it, anyway? Are most, if not all, sermons preached from the words of Christ? If not, why not? Ask the hard questions. Get to the bottom of this thing. The answer seems to be blowing in the wind…judging from all of the hot air you are likely to encounter…

It’s sort of like inviting a living President of the United States to a meeting of “supporters” and then seating him at the rear of the auditorium, and having other people give their speeches praising the name of the President, but without asking the President to be the keynote speaker. The name of Jesus gets praised to highest heaven, but the words of Jesus are often figuratively seated at the back of the church. How rude! Was it something He said?

Is Christianity the Teachings of Jesus believed and lived…or is it a ritualized religion about Jesus…paying little attention to what the Second Person of the Trinity actually said?! I have sometimes gotten the impression that Christians feel that Christ's place is on the cross on the wall of the church...but that the important business of doctrine is best left to Moses, Paul and the theologians. Jesus is expected to be seen, but not heard, and certainly not obeyed. In fact, Jesus is supposed to obey US when we pray for something!

Every sermon should be preached from the Teachings of Jesus. But context is important. The Old Testament is contextual, but not normative. Acts to Revelation is likewise contextual, but does not have veto power over the words of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul is not the Fourth Person of the Godhead. Sorry Paul...

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 08/28/2008 - 05:18
The life and sacrifice of Christ are viewed as perfect and all sufficient. But unfortunately, believing what Jesus said, and doing what Jesus told us to do, is viewed as imperfect and insufficient. We need Paul. Perhaps we should call Christianity...Paulianity. I have decided to follow Jesus. Though none go with me...still I will follow.

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 08/29/2008 - 05:36
I say: "The life and sacrifice of Christ are viewed as perfect and all sufficient. But unfortunately, believing what Jesus said, and doing what Jesus told us to do, is viewed as imperfect and insufficient."

You say: No oxy...what Jesus said and what he told you to do are not imperfect...you and I are.

I say: If the Teachings of Jesus are perfect, and Jesus is God...why are they not considered to be a notch higher in authority than the sermonizing of a mere mortal?

He said: When Paul's writings are not considered on par with the red letter quotes, then you're coming against a brick wall.

You say: Yes...matter of fact Frank, you are coming against a brick wall and waste our time when one with whom we converse does not see the scriptures to be divinely inspired and the final authority for faith and practice.

I say: There is a difference between divinely inspired and supremely authoritative. I consider all 66 books to be divinely inspired. I consider the words of Jesus, the Divine One, to be supremely authoritative. Did God or humans select the 66 books which were included in the canon? Why wasn't it 65 books or 67 books? Did Paul write and preach about everything which Jesus commanded? This is what Jesus said to do in the Great Commission. Is there expository preaching with exegesis of the teachings of Jesus in the Pauline Epistles? Do you consider Leviticus 20 and 21 to be part of 'the final authority for faith and practice' for us today? What is your interpretation of Matthew 25:31-46? How readest U2?

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/09/2008 - 05:32
What did Jesus have to say about the 3 angels messages? Are they part of the Great Commission? Does Revelation describe a violent 'final solution' of destroying heretics with fire? Is the 'Father' who Jesus refered to, the Old Testament 'Father' or a different 'Father'? Ellen White probably has so many of the theories of the atonement because scripture itself has several different approaches to this subject. This is one reason why I prefer to rely primarily on the words of Christ. Jesus describes a non-legalistic, non-perfectionistic, character-related, relational method of salvation for human beings...while His life and crucifixion pays off the legalistic, beady snake-eyed Satan.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/02/2008 - 15:08
Faith and Doubt need to counterbalance each other to maintain spiritual, emotional, and intellectual balance. This takes a lot of work...and often pain. As Des said at the end of his Forum lecture, 'you can have truth or repose...you can have one or the other...but you can't have both.'

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 09/08/2008 - 05:12
I have a huge problem with the God of the Old Testament and Revelation. I have no problem with Jesus, who is God. When we see Jesus, we see the Father. I do not see Jesus in the God of the Old Testament and Revelation. Someone please show me Jesus in Leviticus 20 and 21. Is this the 'god of this world' instead? Doesn't Satan misrepresent the character of God...indeed the character of Christ? Are many church members unwittingly involved in Satan-worship? What if Satan controls the Occult, Paganism, Atheism...and Christianity? Why wouldn't Satan play all sides to control the human race?

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/09/2008 - 05:39
Was that Mary Richards? As I remember, she was very cheerful and enthusiastic. The following video features H.M.S. Richards, Sr. describing his eye-witness account of the preaching and praying of Ellen White: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0AZBWLq4BU

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/10/2008 - 13:53
Graham Maxwell once told his SS class about being in the library at the University of Chicago, and overhearing two students who were about to graduate with doctorates in religion, whispering, "We don't believe this @#$!!%?!! stuff...so how are we going to teach it??"

Steven Speilberg's Jewish step-mother used to regularly attend Graham Maxwell's SS class at LLU. She was very bright and charming.

How about universalism/compartmentalization? Separate the good guys and gals from the bad guys and gals and put them on different planets, and post guards to keep the wicked on their Devil's Island Prison Planet. Hey...what if we are all the bad guys and gals...and this IS the Devil's Island Prison Planet?? Uh Oh! Oh No!!

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/10/2008 - 21:42
Life is sacred...mortal or immortal. We are so quick and glib to cut our fellow humans lose...and watch them burn in our mind's eye...perhaps even with some satisfaction.

If we can rationalize the behavior of God in the Old Testament(I don't believe that Jesus/God perpetrated the OT atrocities), then we should be able to rationalize the Crusades, the Inquisition(the Holy Office), as well as the Nazi atrocities. We are so superior and moral(we keep the 10 Commandments)...so why can't we call sin by it's right name wherever it's found? Our moral compass is broken. Perhaps end-time atrocities can be justified as 'helping God' get rid of sin and sinners(those who don't believe and behave as we do...or who refuse to submit to a corrupt New World Order theocracy).

I have had discussions with Alden Thompson. I have read Alden Thompson's book...and I'm still afraid of the Old Testament God. Call me paranoid...but that doesn't mean he or she is not out to get us. By the way...where is Satan in the Old Testament? He or she may be hiding in the texts. We need to read between the lines.

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 09/13/2008 - 07:51
When God kills people...what do we call it? Demonstrating Love? Execution? Murder One? Self Defense? Mercy Killing? Genocide? When God tells people to kill people...what do we call it? Teaching Love? Conspiracy to Commit Murder? When God tells people to take other people's land(and kill all men, women, and children)...what do we call it? Teaching Stealing? Compassion In Action? Invading a Sovereign Nation?

Why don't we call it SIN?? And I don't believe that Jesus/God is a sinner...so who does that leave? What if we kicked God out of the Garden of Eden(ancient earth) instead of God kicking us out? We seem to have liked the glorified snakes better than God...so maybe we got glorified snakes for our God...the 'god of this world.' Take another look at the temptation of Christ, and all of the implications and ramifications.

Perhaps Jesus tried to set us free...but we still preferred the glorified snakes(hidden of course). Are they still in charge? Is this why the Teachings of Jesus seem to gain so little traction? What if the Second Coming is really the Third Coming of Christ? 1. Eden(ancient pure earth). 2. 2,000 years ago. 3. At the end of this present age. Perhaps our world needs an exorcism(Harvest-Exorcism Eschatology). Barf bags anyone?

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 09/25/2008 - 10:57
Posted by Nic Samojluk 15 September 2008 at 9:58:

orthodoxymoron, You lost me with your reference to "the third coming of Christ" in your 13 September 2008 at 3:51 posting. Can you elaborate? I have never heard anything like that before! Is this based on one of the Jehovah Witness doctrines perhaps?

My answer:

First Coming: Jesus communing with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they chose Satan and kicked Jesus out.

Second Coming: Jesus living and dying for us 2,000 years ago...trying to free us from Satanic rule.

Third Coming: Jesus communing with us on the New Earth after we do what Jesus said to do...and kick Satan out.

This is based on conjecture and human reason. In other words...I made it up!

I continue to think that Fukushima was deliberately inflicted -- and that it might be the beginning of the end. Is it really too far-fetched to consider the possibility of a Problematic-Divinity (in conflict with itself) In Conflict With a Problematic-Humanity (in conflict with itself)??? I strongly lean toward peaceful resolutions -- but I guess we'll get what we get -- whether we like it or not. Does 'Purification' really have to involve 'Mass-Murder'?

Here are some additional examples of my past internet adventures. http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/09/10/describing-desmond-fords-faith

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/10/2008 - 12:10
Des Ford has always been a model of preparation. His public presentations are hard to beat. Another well prepared speaker who I have watched is Robert H. Schuller(senior). The more I reflected on these two men, I recognized some similarities. Both use catch phrases and one liners. Both make their subjects easy for all to understand. Both are mostly positive. Both speak as though they cannot be controverted. Both present flawlessly. And both use contrast effectively to make their points.

Schuller contrasts pride with shame, or self-exaltation with self-degradation. Ford contrasts simple legalism with complex legalism, or Reformation Theology with Historic Adventism.

Schuller's theology(which Walter Martin described to me as a corrupt theology) is not biblical, even though there is much to be learned and emulated in his presentations and ministry. Self-exaltation is not the answer to self-degradation. Self centeredness is the problem, and a focus on responsibility rather than self is the answer. Chronic positive thinking is not the answer to chronic negative thinking. Isn't "I am God" the epitome of positive thinking and self-esteem? Realistic thinking and responsibility are the answer.

In some ways, Ford reminds me of Bishop Fulton Sheen, regarding presentation. Sheen won an Emmy Award for his television program, accepting the acknowledgment by saying, "I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." Ford's theology is biblical in a Pauline-limited sense. Ford equates the substitutionary atonement with the totality of salvation, rather than salvation being multi-faceted. Accepting his teaching in total moves one away from many principles and concepts which receive a unique emphasis and presentation in Adventism. The substitutionary atonement is a Satanic necessity...something not required by God. But to receive the benefits of the substitutionary atonement requires being in harmony with the teachings and character of Christ...rather than being insubordinate to them. To be right with God...we need to be right with God...not simply declared to be right with God...while still at war with God. Simplistic legalism is not the answer to complex legalism. Ford's statement of the problem is articulate and compelling. His solution(Ford's better idea) is a step in the right direction...but it is not the final destination.

I just finished re-reading 'Facing Life's Record' in 'The Great Controversy' concerning the investigative judgment. I don't see eye to eye with Ellen White on this subject, but I think she is on to something which is genuinely a theological milestone. The sanctuary service, substitutionary atonement, investigative judgment, and possibly the eucharistic liturgy...are Satanic requirements...and are not required by God. God requires that we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God(Micah 6:.

Christianity needs to repent, and turn it's eyes upon Jesus and His teachings. The central principle is responsibility. Responsibility to God, self, and others. The religion of Jesus is a religion of responsibility. Salvation, in a comprehensive sense, is character-related. The proof? The teachings of Christ.

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/10/2008 - 09:40
orthodoxymoron said:
"I just finished re-reading 'Facing Life's Record' in 'The Great Controversy' concerning the investigative judgment. I don't see eye to eye with Ellen White on this subject, but I think she is on to something which is genuinely a theological milestone. The sanctuary service, substitutionary atonement, investigative judgment, and possibly the eucharistic liturgy...are Satanic requirements...and are not required by God. God requires that we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God(Micah 6:."

rc said:
"I would be interested in knowing what quotes from the chapter give rise to the idea that those things are Satanic requirements."

orthodoxymoron says:
Read Leviticus 21 regarding requirements pertaining to the sanctuary service. Is this chapter Christ-like in nature? Sacrifice(including human sacrifice) is found in Pagan religions and rituals. Were these religions inspired by Christ? Do we serve a blood-thirsty God? Does God require death and blood? If not...then who does? The sanctuary service and substitutionary atonement are all about death and blood...as is the eucharistic liturgy...especially if one includes the doctrine of transubstantiation. There is no body of evidence to substantiate transubstantiation. Christ hanging(bleeding and mostly naked) from the walls of churches around the world is sick. Isn't this a bit like placing pictures of the Kennedy assassination in government buildings throughout the US? Did Jesus tell us to build churches, and conduct rituals centered in death and blood? If He didn't...who did?

The investigative judgment is an extrapolation from the sanctuary service and the substitutionary atonement. It only makes sense if it is a Satanic requirement, rather than a Divine requirement. Desmond Ford is correct in saying that God doesn't need an investigative judgment. God already knows them that are His. It is a courtroom scene with Christ and Satan going head to head in a custody case...with the future of the human race hanging in the balance. Satan is the legalist...not God. I can almost hear Christ exclaming, "They're mine...I bought them with my life, death, and blood! Give them to me, and then go to hell!" To which Satan shrieks, "They're mine as long as they do what I tell them to do! Do they follow your teachings, and do what you told them to do??!! They don't, do they?! And they won't!! They haven't for 2,000 years, have they??!!"

QED. Case closed.

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 09/11/2008 - 06:46
Are Leviticus and Romans equally authoritative for us today? Did Paul follow the Great Commission...or create a New Theology? I would love to know all of the behind the scenes details of how and why the various books of the Bible were written. I perceive that all of the Bible writers were inspired...but that they wrote what was possible and expedient in their particular circumstances. I'm trying to read between the lines...rather than taking the Bible as a set of gold plates inscribed by God...intended for us to take very literally today. This goes for the writings of Ellen White as well.

The unfortunate part of religious debates is that a lot of people get caught in the crossfire...and lose their faith. One night at PUC, I overheard a female student crying that the Bible was not the word of God. A pastor authoritatively countered that the Bible was the word of God. The student was weeping.

I have repeatedly noticed a Christophobia among Christians. They prefer Paul. Some Adventists seem to prefer Ellen White over Jesus or Paul. Some prefer Desmond Ford. Is there a Christian Constitution? The U.S. Constitution is simple and concise...yet comprehensive. This is to avoid confusion. Don't we see legion theologies in Christendom? Historically, doctrinal purity has been obtained through dogmatic assertions, persecution, and execution. Wouldn't it be better to do what Jesus told us to do?

I sometimes wonder if the next few years will be a contest between Jesus/Constitution and Pope/Vatican. Why can't there be an integration, rather than a stand-off? I'm not fatalistic regarding the future of our world. I'm hoping for a happy ending(or beginning). I know I'm a naive dreamer. Go naive dreamers!

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 09/12/2008 - 01:02
The Great Commission: "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and TEACHING THEM TO OBEY EVERYTHING I HAVE COMMANDED YOU. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."---Matthew 28:18-20(NIV).

In which New Testament passages does Paul teach everything which Jesus commanded? In which passages does Paul teach Matthew 25:31-46? The following is an example of teaching based upon the words of Christ:

‘”When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another.” Thus Christ on the Mount of Olives pictured to His disciples the scene of the great judgment day. And He represented its decision as turning upon one point. When the nations are gathered before Him, there will be but two classes, and their eternal destiny will be determined by what they have done or have neglected to do for Him in the person of the poor and the suffering. In that day Christ does not present before men the great work He has done for them in giving His life for their redemption. He presents the faithful work they have done for Him. To those whom He sets upon His right hand He will say, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” But those whom Christ commends know not that they have been ministering unto Him. To their perplexed inquiries He answers, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them. Even among the heathen are those who have cherished the spirit of kindness; before the words of life had fallen upon their ears, they have befriended the missionaries, even ministering to them at the peril of their own lives. Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God. How surprised and gladdened will be the lowly among the nations, and among the heathen, to hear from the lips of the Saviour, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” How glad will be the heart of Infinite Love as His followers look up with surprise and joy at His words of approval!’—Desire of Ages pgs. 685 & 686 (Home Library Edition)

How does this square with accepting the finished work of Christ on the cross plus nothing as our basis of salvation?

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 09/12/2008 - 23:59
Authoritarianism and Power Worship seem to be major culprits in the Nazi mess. It is very dangerous to unquestioningly submit to the powerful, or to those who promise power. It is probably equally dangerous to unquestioningly submit to rebellious leaders seeking to overthrow the existing 'powers that be'. One seems to play off the other...resulting in conflict escalation...rather than conflict resolution. Some have suggested that Neo-Conservatism is a case-study in authoritarianism and power-worship(including John Dean in 'Conservatives Without Conscience').

Do many prefer to worship a God of Power and Might...rather than commune with, and cooperate with, a God who became human? Might this preference play into the hands of those who wish to rule the world with a global theocracy? Did this happen in Germany? Could it happen right here in the United States of America? Some, such as Naomi Wolf, have suggested that the U.S. is sliding toward fascism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc.

One rather slanted view of the role of religion in Nazi Germany is found in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9zBX4gt0eo. At the time, the participants probably thought they were doing the right thing.

The rest of the universe must be truly amazed at how badly we get it wrong...century after century.

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 09/13/2008 - 09:51
Beth said: And just to stir the pot a little more, didn't Jesus tell his disciples that he was giving them the authority to forgive sins? How in the world does that fit into any atonement metaphor? I don't even have any idea what that means - giving human beings the power to forgive sins.

I say: We simply need to be good. Not narrowly following a short-list(or a long-list) of rules and rituals...and then becoming spiritually proud, vindictive, and scornful toward those who don't jump through the same hoops that we do. We should try to be better people, and to try to make the world a better place, every day...with progress...not perfection.

Now to the question of humans forgiving sins: Jesus was clear about final reckonings based upon righteousness involving responsibility toward those around us. Could the disciples forgive a real jerk...and then have this precedent get this jerk, and a whole lot of other jerks, off the hook in the final reckoning? I don't think so.

There is a bumper-sticker which reads(edited version): 'Jesus Loves You! But Everyone Else Thinks You're a Jerk!'

So what is Jesus talking about? Perhaps Des Ford's faith offers a clue. He has indicated that SDA's are insecure about their salvation...and that the IJ is responsible for a lot of that. The goal, I think, is to get rid of chronic, debilitating guilt and insecurity...and replace it with a healthy striving for excellence which is not perfectionistic or retentive in nature. Jesus was giving his disciples the tools to help people be better people. But fools can abuse these tools. Sorry. The absolution near the beginning of a traditional liturgy may be an application of this reference. Also, the 'Lord's Prayer' may be helpful: 'Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.' Maybe Jesus was speaking of Micro-Forgiveness as contrasted with Macro-Forgiveness. Inaugurated Forgiveness contrasted with Consumated Forgiveness? If all else fails...use the Apotelesmatic Principle!

orthodoxymoron - Sun, 09/14/2008 - 11:12
'In my father's house are many mansions.' Could these mansions have different price-tags? That is, different spiritual and moral levels required for entry? A single, all-inclusive heaven, would be one heck of a place!

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/16/2008 - 09:55
Do 'works' primarily refer to ritual observances? A form of godliness, but without the character and power of Christ? Does strict Sabbath-keeping and church attendance apply here? Is trying to be good...bad? Do we simply let go...and let God?

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/16/2008 - 14:12
If I am saved, and I know that I am saved...can I cheat on my wife and on my taxes and still be saved...saved by faith alone in the finished work of the crucified Christ? And saved from whom or what? Saved from the vengeful wrath of God? Saved from the legalistic, perfectionistic Satan? Who or what is going to torture and kill me if I don't believe? Dictators torture and kill people if they don't go along with the program. If you can't convince 'em...kill 'em.

Parading anything before God is the epitome of stupidity. But didn't Jesus say that unless we were better than corrupt religious leaders...that we would be on the outside, looking in? Isn't a system of rewards and punishments a good thing, and necessary for any successful society? Students receive excellent grades for excellent work. Is this model problematic? Shouldn't we feel good about ourselves when we are, in fact, good?

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 09/19/2008 - 12:51
A debate that has raged for centuries is between those who say Jesus was just like us, and those who say He had an advantage over us. Both views state that Jesus perfectly obeyed the law of God from birth to death, and thus secured our salvation, by doing that which we could not do, and that by believing in Christ and His sacrifice, we are accepted by God as though we had not sinned, and saved for all eternity.

If Jesus was just like us, some believe that the substitutionary atonement is just the beginning, and that we can overcome sin just as Christ overcame sin…and indeed we must do this at the end of time, just before the return of Christ, in order to be saved. That we must stand before God without a mediator. They believe that if Jesus had an advantage over us, that the substitutionary atonement would not be valid. That it would be a hollow victory! They also believe that there is no excuse for sin, and that if there is, then the Devil is right and God is wrong.

Those who believe that Christ had an advantage over us state that Christ is the second Adam, and that He succeeded where Adam failed, and thus secured our salvation. And that there was no taint of sin whatsoever in Christ, both physically and spiritually. Further, that we, with our fallen sinful natures, can never, ever, live sinless lives until Christ returns and gives us new bodies and minds. That it is only by laying hold of the merits of the crucified Christ that we are accepted by God as though we had never sinned, and saved for all eternity.

The first option tends to lead toward legalistic perfectionism. The second option tends to lead toward irresponsibility. Decisions, decisions!

I'm going to go way, way out on a limb, and say that these two views are delusion v delusion. They both turn the old, old story of Jesus and His love into a fairy tale. They imply that God is a legalistic-perfectionistic, blood-thirsty monster who doesn't think we're good enough for Him. They are both sort of logical, when isolated from the realities of every day life, but they are utterly illogical when reality is clearly faced without distortion or rationalization.

I believe that Jesus was just like us, but that He was very, very spiritually refined and developed, and that He demonstrated to the human race, the true character of God, and what we humans are capable of achieving, and indeed must achieve, to usher in a great awakening…a true renaissance…which will bring peace to the world. By His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus made the bloody Old Testament sacrificial system obsolete, and made a new and living way to be right with God available to all, by following His Teachings and example of loving neighbor as self in a non-legalistic and non-pefectionistic way.

To be right with God, we need to be right with God. Not just declared right with God. Regarding the substitutionary atonement...this symbolic and representational demonstration did not require perfection. God does not require perfection from us…and God did not require perfection from Jesus. This may be heresy…but at least it makes sense. Nothing changed between God and us. When we see Jesus, we see the Father. Christ-like Divinity is found from Genesis to Revelation. You just have to look a little harder in the Old Testament! Human perceptions of God changed from Old to New Testaments. That's all!

We must be in harmony with the character of Christ...and we must be decidedly part of the solution. We must not be in rebellion with the character of Christ...and we must not be decidedly part of the problem. We need to be very good, but not perfect! This is an ongoing process of cooperation between humanity and Divinity. We need God…and God needs us!

This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? But please don't gnash your teeth. Crowns or implants are very expensive! Weeping and wailing is probably ok, I guess. And please...put down those stones!

By the way...who is Desmond Ford, SJ?

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/24/2008 - 07:01
Posted by Bob Helm on 23 September 2008: "But scripture pictures God as totally other. He created the universe, and He transcends the universe. He is above and beyond the universe. Furthermore, this view of God is affirmed by the findings of modern science. (Yes, science and scripture are often on the same side!) According to astro-physics, matter-energy and space-time were created in the big bang. They had an absolute beginning. So if God is the Creator, then He created the space-time manifold. Therefore, He must reside outside the space-time manifold. He is the eternal "I AM" Who is beyond space and time as we understand them. And if this is the case, then He can view all of space and all of time in one glance. He really is all-knowing, and He can see everything that will occur in the future. But all this is quite contrary to process theology."

I write: Do we really have God this figured out? Do we really know that God created the universe rather than God being a product of the universe? If God created the universe...who created God? Did God create exploding stars, uninhabitable planets, and scorpions? If God has absolute fore-knowledge, how can there be freedom? Can we choose to do something different than what God has divinely and absolutely fore-seen? If we can't...are we free? When Jesus cried, "It is finished"... was this a foregone conclusion? If God has seen everything that will ever happen...wouldn't God be really bored? Perhaps this is why God was so cranky in the Old Testament. A sinister view of prophecy is that it is a script to be followed rather than a history of the future. If one believes that prophecy is absolute...wouldn't this lead to a fatalistic acceptance of the evil in the world? What's going to happen is going to happen...so why try to make the world a better place...when we know that it's going to burn...and most of the people are going to burn with it?

Last night as I lay sleeping, there came a dream so fair. I stood in Salt Lake City (I'm actually not sure about the location -- but I really did dream of this close-encounter!!), beside Obama there. Then my dream was changed -- and I dreamed about flying with Michele and Barack Obama on a cargo plane!! Holy Bullshit!! Ra just drove by in a Taurus!! He flipped me off -- through his sun-roof -- like an erect obelisk!! That does it!! Where did I put my Solar-Ray Gun??!! My Sun-Gun is Missing!! Amnesia sucks!! I think I created something -- but I can't remember what it was!! World Without End. Amen.

Special Note: Please remember that this thread was intended to make YOU think -- and that some literary devices have been employed which I do not personally feel comfortable with. I don't particularly like this thread or myself -- but I think you should study my tripe on a very deep level -- in an attempt to peacefully extricate all of us from a very serious and deadly situation. Unfortunately, attempting to solve our problems is not fun or easy. Sorry for any emotional and spiritual distress. Really. Many people (and other than people) won't even talk to me. This is sad.

What is the definitive understanding of the Major Prophets?? You know -- Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel?? I've frankly given-up trying to win-friends and influence-people -- especially regarding Contrarian-Eschatology!! I think the real heavy-lifting will occur when I'm no longer posting on the internet. What's sad about that is I won't be talking or writing about my insights. I will be a secret-society of ONE. The biggest challenge facing me is learning how to think quickly and deeply in a multidisciplinary manner -- without moving my lips!! What if I've somehow played a part in holding back the "Four Winds of Strife"?! Sherry Shriner keeps talking about "Delays". I keep thinking that a Changeling-Game might be played in the near-future as a lot of nefarious activities and individuals are exposed and deposed. Blame-Shifting is a Shameless-Game (or is it a Shameful-Game??)!!

There seems to be a lot of "all or nothing" thinking regarding God and the Bible. Either "everything's fine" or "it's all bullshit". But what about people who consider all the possibilities regarding God and the Bible on an ongoing basis?? They might be the "best-friends" and "worst enemies" of believers and unbelievers!! What understandings might emerge if one read Isaiah through Daniel (KJV) straight-through -- over and over?? How many people (throughout history) have actually done this?? How many people are doing this presently?? Or -- what about reading the Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel -- straight-through -- over and over?? What can one find regarding the Law of God -- the Substitutionary-Atonement -- Christology -- Soteriology -- and Eschatology -- in the Wisdom-Books and Major-Prophets?? What if this is the most important part of the Bible?? How many people really care about what I've said thus far in this post?? Is this stuff just for the feeble-minded and emotionally-unstable?? Are the "movers and shakers" too busy seeking fame, fortune, and power -- to be bothered with a bunch of ancient mumbo-jumbo??

I've joked about living in exotic locations -- but I'll probably just stay right where I am for the rest of my life. I really am going to cease and desist regarding posting on the internet. I doubt that I'll ever write a book -- but if I do -- it will probably be nothing like what I've posted on this website. This has been an experiment -- and the experiment has failed miserably. What if one read Job through Daniel (KJV) straight-through -- over and over -- year after year -- without talking about it (directly, at least)?? I think that very few people (believers and unbelievers) are able to properly and honestly think about God, Religion, and the Bible. So much so-called "thinking" is "knee-jerk reactionary-reflex". We often seem to be mere reflectors of the thoughts of others -- rather than being truly deep and independent thinkers and researchers. I aspire to think -- without thinking I have to make others think like I do!! Perhaps the worst thing I could do would be to write a book!! Perhaps I really should keep my thoughts to myself. Perhaps I shouldn't cast my pearls before the swine!! Sorry -- I couldn't resist!!

Carol wrote:

Pig Arrested, Defecates in Police Car and Looks Rather Happy About It

Notice the irony there.
A pig takes a dump in a pigs car.
And his smirk of vengance in the backseat.
If I were the owner of that pig I'd give it a medal of honor.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/pig-arrested-defecates-in-police-car-and-looks-rather-happy-about-it/ar-BBkAoqU?ocid=mailsignoutmd

A pig who was arrested for causing mischief showed his distaste of the police by defecating all over the back seat of their cop car. The porker, named only as "Pig", was allegedly acting aggressively towards a woman and chased her around her garden after escaping from its rightful home. The terrified woman ran to call the police while the animal was distracted by a lawn ornament. Police later arrived and apprehended the angry swine. Officers from Shelby Township Police Department put the porker in the back of their car, ready to return it back to its owners. But before long Pig decided to protest against his imprisonment by pooping. Everywhere. "Just when you think after 25 years in the business you’ve seen it all, you get a call from a shift commander telling you that we have corralled a pig," Deputy Chief Mark Coil said. "Officers responded and were able to detain the pig and get him in the back seat of the patrol car." "It became a biohazard relatively quickly," he added. "Luckily for the department and the officers the owner volunteered and cleaned the car for us." Pig is now back home with his owner Brian Davis, who is happy to have not received a porking ticket.

Carol wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luy6J5lYcww
Nassim Haramein admits to being in contact with ET's

Published on Mar 15, 2015
Jack Smith explaining a radio show he heard with famous scientist Nassim Haramein admitting to being in contact with over 100 species of ET's and being transported on a small spaceship to a larger mothership.

orthodoxymoron wrote:I keep thinking that a breakaway-civilization with ancient-technology uses front-men and front-organizations to do their bidding. The 100 varieties of ET might simply be the product of ancient and/or modern genetic-engineering -- rather than being new-arrivals from distant galaxies and/or solar systems. We all might've come from afar in antiquity -- and then we might've gotten into nasty civil-wars among soul-relatives. Perhaps various spokespersons are given scripts. Didn't Alex Collier speak of being given information to reveal to the public?? If I had been more cooperative with the "Ancient Egyptian Deity" I got the feeling that I might've been given various "opportunities" -- but I suspect that the price would've been very high. You all probably think I'm crazy -- and I probably am -- but I am completely honest. I think that might've been the biggest problem for the AED. I would've just kept blurting things out -- as I continued to figure things out. I'm doing that anyway -- but probably at a much slower pace. They asked me if I would go on a UFO -- and I think I said I didn't know. Once -- as we talked on the phone -- I thought I heard an other-than-human being in the background. I asked the AED about that -- and they neither confirmed or denied it -- but I told them to "say hello". The phone-connection sounded very unusual -- so who knows where they were calling from?! That's all I'm going to say about that.

I think the following quoted-material (from a couple of years ago) might be extremely significant. Notice the statement regarding the Bull and the Ram. The "Ancient Egyptian Deity" said "I Am Ra". "Aquaries 1111" called me "Ram" a couple of years ago. The "Ancient Egyptian Deity" called me "Michael" about four years ago. They also said that "Serqet" had a lot to do with explaining our relationship. The AED said we had "fought side by side". They seemed somewhat fixated on the NAZI's -- and they knew a lot about Hitler. They seemed to be supportive of Theocracy -- Socialism -- and Other-Than-Human Physicality. When I made a rather benign comment concerning "Tall Long-Nosed Greys" they called me a "Commoner". They said that saving humanity would be a mistake. They said that humanity was "screwed". They said that I had changed my thinking -- but they didn't say how. They said I supported aggressive Bible-Study -- and that I had supported "Love" up to that point anyway. They asked me if I was ready to "run things" -- and I replied that things were too complicated. They said "in twenty-years you'll be working for us". They said I would "manifest my bad-side". They said that another individual of interest had changed their mind -- but they didn't say regarding what. They said I was one of two human-friends (with the rest being "minions"). They said that all was not well with someone close to me. They said I needed to have my own child (I have step-children). I asked them if they were "God" -- and they replied "No. But I'm very close to God". They treated me with a combination of Respect and Contempt. They said I was "lucky to be alive" and that they were "tired of keeping me alive". When I suggested that they were setting me up for something bad -- they retorted "Are you kidding?! I could snap my fingers -- and you'd be dead!!" They said they were a highly-trained warrior. They occasionally lied -- and sometimes got things majorly wrong. For an AED -- they seemed to be aggravated by petty concerns which should've been of little or no concern. When I mentioned that Moses must've had a horrible time with the Israelites in the desert -- the AED replied "Did He??" They once quietly breathed the name "Lucifer" -- but I'm not sure if they were saying that's who they were -- or if that's who they were loyal to -- or if they were referring to me (as crazy as THAT would be)!! Again -- I think the Bull and the Ram are extremely significant -- going way back into ancient Babylon and/or Egypt. Think about Mithraism and the Bull. They said they liked the Latin-Mass -- but that they didn't like Christians. They also didn't like homosexuals. Once again -- the images of Moses with the Horns are supposedly "Jupiter". Might this have some application to "Jupiter Ascending"?? What if "Jupiter Jones" was really a "Black-Woman"?? The AED spoke of a "woman hidden in a man". Think about the "hospital-scene" near the end of "Dogma". That's enough for now.

Mercuriel wrote:

Lets go even further...

INRI = Inanna - Nimrod - Marduk Ra or just Ra at that time - And Isis...

Moses with Horns

> Horns signifying both Genetic Lineage to the Anuks and "Right to Rule" as the gODS had 'em in abundance due to Them being Master Geneticists...

For instance - Enlil was known as the Bull and Marduk was known as the Ram...

Da Vinci was trying to tell Us something here and most have missed It.





Interesting eh ?

And nope - You're not finished just yet anyways. Almost - But not yet...

What Would an Apostle Paul and Ellen White treatment of Job through Daniel look-like?? Why isn't the New Testament largely a commentary and application of Job through Daniel?? Is Jesus: The Model Man really a Greek-Concept?? Please remember that a lot of my threads are hypothetical -- and I don't plan to do anything -- other than possibly writing a very benign book to pay my bills relative to existing in relative isolation. I have repeatedly mentioned Prophets and Kings combined with Acts of the Apostles (both by Ellen White) as possibly being a productive approach to understanding Christ -- and not necessarily via the "Historical-Jesus". Desire of Ages (by Ellen White) offers a "Historical-Jesus" approach. Albert Schweitzer seemed to be highly-critical of the "Historical-Jesus" -- yet he was highly-supportive of the Teachings of Jesus -- and the Christ revealed by the Apostle Paul. What's going on here?? Paul's Epistles came before the Gospels -- yet the Gospels are not Pauline -- and Paul does not say much about the actual Life and Teachings of Jesus!! In the Gospels -- the Old-Testament "Messianic-Prophecies" often seem to be taken out of context -- and applied in an often questionable manner. What's going on here?? What Would Flavius Josephus Say?? What Would Arrius Piso Say?? Here's some more historical internet fun! http://spectrummagazine.org/review/2008/08/28/review-sake-gospel-des-ford

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 08/29/2008 - 05:09
I enjoyed attending Des Ford's Sabbath School class in the Science Complex at PUC. I also enjoyed taking classes from Erwin R. Gane. These two Australians did not see eye to eye on much of anything! I recall Dr. Gane laughing at Geoffery Paxton's 'Shaking of Adventism' reference to his view of justification as being 'Roman Catholic'. I attended the infamous Oct. 27, 1979 Forum lecture in Irwin Hall titled 'Investigative Judgment: Theological Milestone or Historical Necessity?'


What impressed me about Ford was how much he could remember and how fast he could think and speak. He could make people look and sound like idiots...even when they were right! But then he had a doctorate in rhetoric(in the writings of Paul)! He articulated the problems quite well...but I mostly disagreed with his proposed 'solutions'. I think Ford meant well...but if someone was trying to throw a monkey-wrench into the Adventist machine...I don't think they could have done it any better than Des. And the church did a hatchet-job on Des in a Kangaroo Court. Two wrongs did not make a right...it made a horrible mess.

Jillian is quite a scholar. Has anyone read 'The Soteriological Implications of the Human Nature of Christ'? I wonder how much of Des's thinking can be traced to Gill? Did Des ever publish a book on the Teachings of Jesus? If such a book exists, I would imagine that he would use the grammatical-historical method...and that he would be careful to exegete...rather than just simply homelitically applying passages. Dr. Ford's mentor at the University of Manchester, F.F. Bruce, wrote an interesting book, 'The Hard Sayings of Jesus'.

In the final analysis, Ford proposed simplistic legalism as the remedy for complex legalism. It's sort of like proposing self-exaltation as the remedy for self-degradation. Neither one works. The 'Desire of Ages' read from cover to cover seems to be a good place to find the solution to the tussle over Eschatology, Christology and Soteriology in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 08/29/2008 - 07:52
After Dr. Ford's Investigative Judgment presentation, what if the bretheren had taken him out of the classroom and pulpit, without firing or defrocking him, and given him a two-year project to work with the religion department at PUC, to come up with a book similar to 'Questions On Doctrine' to deal constructively with the difficulties raised in his presentation? Des could have kept his office, salary, and home. I doubt that there would have been a media circus, or that so many people would have been fired or would have left the church. At the end of this two-year period, he could have resumed teaching and preaching...and promoting his new book. But wait...that would have made sense.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/02/2008 - 07:21
What bothered me most about the Ford debacle was the reactionary response of the church(both laity and leadership). The church was in trouble long before Ford spoke out. Ford was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. I don't know if there is a good solution to all of this...just look at church history! The above comments have been a good example of how to carry on a rational discussion of troublesome and controversial topics. By the way...at Ford's Forum lecture, Wayne Judd referred to not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Also Eric Syme(did you ever see how fast he could drive that Triumph of his?!) referred to Bernard Shaw's opinion that Christianity was unethical because of the Atonement, with the innocent taking the place of the guilty.


I have stated the following elsewhere in this site, but I'm interested in any responses in the current context. I'm very sorry for the length of this post. It seemed to be necessary in order to connect the jots and tittles:

Did God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit require the sanctuary service? Or was it Satan who required the sanctuary service? The sanctuary service involved sacrifice(killing) and ultimately human sacrifice. When we hear about heathens sacrificing their children, we cringe in horror(I do). But isn’t traditional Christianity centered in God the Father sacrificing his child? Is there a problem here? Does the sanctuary service involve a sort of appeasement of ‘the gods’?

It seems to me that Satan had more to do with the sanctuary service than God. Jesus did away with the sanctuary service. It further seems that Satan claimed ownership of the human race, and required worship, and that God had to literally strike a deal with the Devil to liberate us. Jesus waged spiritual warfare with all the forces of hell and won, thus opening the door for our liberation. The death of Christ on the cross was symbolic of a victory which had already occurred. The spike that was driven through Christ’s heel continued through the serpent’s head. Unfortunately the serpent is still writhing and will continue to do so until human beings win a spriritual warfare with the forces of hell in a manner similar to that of Christ. Jesus showed the way, but he has had few true followers for nearly 2,000 years now. Ellen White tried to rally the troops, but few seemed to grasp the full implications of her ministry. So this thing keeps dragging on and on. A concerted spiritual warfare might well culminate in what is refered to as Armageddon. Satan and his cohorts will not give this earth up without a huge fight.

The substitutionary atonement was not to satisfy a bloodthirsty God…but rather to silence the demons infesting this earth. The crucifixion of Christ was the first payment, and when a critical mass of human beings do what Jesus said to do, the 2nd and final payment will be made. Might this be the final application of the atonement that Adventists catch so much flack over? Does Satan, rather than God, require the so called Investigative Judgment? Isn’t Satan the ultimate legalist?

I guess I see the Sanctuary Service, the Substitutionary Atonement, and the Investigative Judgment as being required to silence Satan and to kick him(or her) out of our world...permanently(God/Jesus dealing with Satan). But a harmonious relationship with Christ and His Teachings is required to bring about, and participate in, the Kingdom of God...and to obtain the benefits of the Atonement.

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ‘A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die, except for a close relative, such as his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother, or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband–for her he may make himself unclean. He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage, and so defile himself. “‘Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies. They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they present the offerings made to the Lord by fire, the food of their God, they are to be holy. “‘They must not marry women defiled by prostitution or divorced from their husbands, because priests are holy to their God. Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy–I who make you holy. “‘If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire. “‘The high priest, the one among his brothers who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair become unkempt or tear his clothes. He must not enter a place where there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother, nor leave the sanctuary of his God or desecrate it, because he has been dedicated by the anointing oil of his God. I am the Lord. “‘The woman he marries must be a virgin. He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution, but only a virgin from his own people, so he will not defile his offspring among his people. I am the Lord, who makes him holy.’” The Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand, or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the offerings made to the Lord by fire. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’” So Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.—Leviticus 21:1-24 (New International Version)

“When the loud cry, ‘It is finished!’ came from the lips of Christ, the priests were officiating in the temple. It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb representing Christ had been brought to be slain. Clothed in his significant and beautiful dress, the priest stood with lifted knife, as did Abraham when he was about to slay his son. With intense intrest the people were looking on. But the earth trembles and quakes; for the Lord Himself draws near. With a rending noise the inner veil of the temple is torn from top to bottom by an unseen hand, throwing open to the gaze of the multitude a place once filled with the presence of God. In this place the Shekinah had dwelt. Here God had manifested His glory above the mercy seat. No one but the hight priest ever lifted the veil separating this apartment from the rest of the temple. He entered in once a year to make an atonement for the sins of the people. But lo, this veil is rent in twain. The most holy place of the earthly sanctuary is no longer sacred. All is terror and confusion. The priest is about to slay the victim; but the knife drops from his nerveless hand, and the lamb escapes. Type has met antitype inthe death of God’s Son. The great sacrifice has been made. The way into the holiest is laid open. A new and living way is prepared for all. No longer need sinful, sorrowing humanity await the coming of the high priest. Henceforth the Saviour was to officiate a priest and advocate in the heaven of heavens. It was as if a living voice had spoken to the worshipers: There is now an end to all sacrifices and offerings for sin. The Son of God is come according to His word, ‘Behold, I have come-in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,-to do Your will, O God.’ ‘With His own blood’ He entered in ‘the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.’ Heb. 10:7; 9:12.”—Desire of Ages p. 807-808(Home Library Edition)

‘”When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another.” Thus Christ on the Mount of Olives pictured to His disciples the scene of the great judgment day. And He represented its decision as turning upon one point. When the nations are gathered before Him, there will be but two classes, and their eternal destiny will be determined by what they have done or have neglected to do for Him in the person of the poor and the suffering. In that day Christ does not present before men the great work He has done for them in giving His life for their redemption. He presents the faithful work they have done for Him. To those whom He sets upon His right hand He will say, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” But those whom Christ commends know not that they have been ministering unto Him. To their perplexed inquiries He answers, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them. Even among the heathen are those who have cherished the spirit of kindness; before the words of life had fallen upon their ears, they have befriended the missionaries, even ministering to them at the peril of their own lives. Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God. How surprised and gladdened will be the lowly among the nations, and among the heathen, to hear from the lips of the Saviour, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” How glad will be the heart of Infinite Love as His followers look up with surprise and joy at His words of approval!’—Desire of Ages pgs. 685 & 686 (Home Library Edition)

Forensic-only justification is legalistic. It is simplistic legalism(Ford's better idea) offered as the solution to complex legalism(historic Adventism). Responsibility is the real solution....being responsible caretakers of our world, ourselves, and each other...by exercising personal responsibility. Being right with God and others...by being right with God and others...not simply being declared to be right. But perfection is not required...because God is not a legalist. We can always do better...but we should not have a nervous breakdown trying to be 'perfect'. There should be Kaizen(continual improvement)...without ever 'arriving'. We don't have to be 'perfect' to be 'good enough' for God. An Adventist school I attended had the motto 'where only the best is good enough'.

Furthermore, does Revelation teach a 'Final Solution' which involves killing all 'undesirables'? In other words, human beings being killed by a God of Love for rejecting a God of Love. I have stated this very bluntly...but is this a misrepresentation?

For those who choose to follow Satan...would it be ethical and appropriate to allow them to follow and worship their leader on a distant 'Devil's Island' planet for all eternity...rather than being tortured or killed by God?

The Great Commission: "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."---Matthew 28:18-20(NIV).

Have Christians been busy doing this for 2,000 years...or doing everything but this? Is this the Great Omission? I'm guilty too. I'm no poster child. By the way, why does Jesus say 'all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me?' Given to him by whom, and when? Did he win this authority away from Satan during his earthly ministry? Is this the first part of the deal with the Devil(Holy Place phase)? Is doing what Jesus told us to do the second and final part of this deal(Most Holy Place phase)? Is this where the Investigative Judgment comes in?

I have problems with the scriptural(Dan. 8:14, Heb. 9;12) and numerical aspects(2300 days/years, 1844) of the Investigative Judgment...as well as that it is something which God needs or requires(the Lord knows them that are his). But if it is something which Satan requires as a part of a legalistic, lawyer-like, celestial courtroom, universal power struggle, legal wrangling regarding the souls of men and the fate of the human race at the end of this present darkness...then I am all ears. It can help to explain why 2,000 years after Jesus paid it all, and saved the human race...things are worse than ever. Does anyone know how many people have been tortured, injured, or killed in wars since Ellen White died in 1915? So what went wrong? We can't say everything is fine when it obviously is not. I don't think Ellen White was kidding when she wrote, 'Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then shall the Lord come to claim them as His own.'--Christ's Object Lessons, pg 69. Try taking the teachings of Jesus seriously, and start talking about them and implementing them at the local church or conference level...and see how much trouble you get into(more trouble than Des?). How about the 28 Fundamental Teachings of Jesus Christ? How about Teachings of Jesus Seminars? This applies to all Christian churches. Christianity is a religion about Jesus...not the religion of the teachings of Jesus. Who needs the Anti-Christ? To answer Des Ford's question, 'Investigative Judgment: Theological Milestone or Historical Necessity?' The answer is both. The early Adventist/Millerite mistakes should be freely admitted...but the Investigative Judgment should be promoted and defended on a conceptual level...extrapolating from the issues involved in the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan in the Conflict of the Ages. This isn't a fairy-tale.

I have a hunch that Herb Douglas(or Des Ford!) would not agree with me. I think I believe in a sort of ‘harvest eschatology’…but certainly with a very different flavor than that which is found in ‘Why Jesus Waits’ or in ‘Jesus: Benchmark of Humanity’. To me, the U.S. Constitution and the Red Letter Teachings of Jesus are much more important than the 28 Fundamentals. I’m probably more on the wavelength of the following:

“Not many people of moderate persuasion have much sway in the church any more. I was reminded why recently when the Episcopal Church did two important things: It elected a woman bishop to head the denomination, and it backtracked on appointing gay bishops. The first move seems Christian. Women deserve to hold church office as much as political office (one diocese, however, was so incensed that it voted to leave the church, and worldwide there are still Anglican movements that do not permit women to be bishops or ordained priests). The second move was an act of cowardice because it did not reflect the ideals of love in Christianity and was motivated by reactionaries in the Episcopal denomination. Countering a long tradition of laissez-faire tolerance, the reactionaries have gotten tough and threatened to form their own church if gays are promoted in the priesthood. The worldwide Anglicans are more intolerant, upholding that homosexuality is forbidden, unnatural, wrong or an outright sin, depending on who is doing the disapproving. You'd think that someone would stand up and ask a simple question: Who are we to condemn gays if Christ didn't? In fact, who are we to condemn any sinner, since Christ didn't? Christianity is about forgiveness, and for the past two decades, as fundamentalism swept through every Protestant denomination, moderates and liberals have been driven out, and were roundly condemned as they left. Along with them went tolerance and forgiveness, not to mention love. Did Christ teach love or is that just a liberal bias? In the current climate, it's hard to remember, but one thing is certain: Once a tight cabal of fundamentalists takes over any denomination, Christ's teachings go out the window. The reversal of Christianity from a religion of love to a religion of hate is the greatest religious tragedy of our time. Those of us who haven't been swept up in worldwide fundamentalism, which has corrupted Islam, Hinduism and Judaism as well, have been caught in a double bind. We can't join any sect that preaches intolerance, yet we can't fight it, either, because by definition fighting is a form of intolerance. To escape this double bind, moderates have stayed silent and stayed home. But that tactic failed. As healthy as it is to nourish your own devotion and faith, it's disastrous to allow extremists to take over the church, because the statehouse, the board of education, the Congress, and eventually the presidency are next. Perhaps civil society will solve the problem of religious extremism. So far it hasn't. America finds itself in the sad plight of being the world's most prominent secular society hijacked by sectarians. One can only hope that the church comes to its senses and regains its moral center. If that doesn't occur, the core teachings of Christ will be lost, for all intents and purposes, to this generation.” --- Deepak Chopra

Again...sorry for the length of this post. I promise(sort of)...I won't do it again. I have decided to follow Jesus. Though none go with me...still I will follow. No turning back.

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/03/2008 - 02:18
Aubyn: I hope you don't mind me saying this...but I remember you proclaiming that it was a 'dark day' when Ronald Reagan was elected President! Was that mixing Adventist eschatology with politics? And wasn't it 'fun' to listen to Kevin Paulson debate the 'New Theology'? I had many conversations with Mark Martin, who agreed completely with Dr. Ford, and who now pastors a huge Calvary Chapel megachurch in Phoenix, Arizona. Just before the Forum lecture, he told me that it was going to be as big as Jones and Waggoner in 1888. It seems that he was right.

To all: Where are the teachings of Jesus in all of this madness? This question applies to both the liberal and conservative sides of this explosive issue. Do the teachings of Jesus support either side? When I meet Jesus face to face, I doubt that He will discuss 1844. I have a feeling that He will discuss whether or not I did what He told me to do in His teachings. Time will tell...

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 09/05/2008 - 12:26
I hope everyone has a blessed time with Dr. Ford. I enjoyed watching and listening to Des Ford every Sabbath at PUC. I also enjoyed taking classes from Erwin Gane, who was very opposed to Ford's views. The debates in the dorms were something to behold! Isn't this what academia should be like? I didn't want either one of them to be thrown out. I also enjoyed singing at the Yountville Veterans Home each week with Roy Gane. And I know the administrators wanted us to think...alike! During his lecture, Ford said that if you treat people like children...they are going to act like children. The church members sure acted like children when confronted with something they had never thought of before.

Those songs were irreverent, but I actually sang some of them...and occasionally, I still sing some of them. It's all because of Eric and Wayne! The one I liked best was 'Dare to be a Daniel! Dare to stand alone! Dare to think of something new! Dare to make it known!' Then there was 'Rust and Obey...for there's no other way...to avoid unemployment...but to rust and obey.' Or 'the church's one foundation...the Ellen White Estate.' Sorry. People are so reactionary...especially when they KNOW that they are right, and have EVERYTHING figured out...and are spiritually proud and triumphalistic! But to treat everything as though it were all a big joke is equally destructive. There was a lot of both at PUC. Like a pastor friend of mine said at the time, '$7,000 a year is a lot of money to pay for cynicism.' Perhaps there should be classes in how to always have a constructive attitude, and how to deal with controversial/upsetting people and ideas without going nuts. I hope no one goes nuts this weekend...

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 09/05/2008 - 03:03
The following is a response(the final phase?) I received from another continent regarding a focus on the red-letter teachings of Jesus:

"Thank-you for your observations. You could have added that in the creeds of the Church, starting with the Apostle’s Creed, the only mention of the historical Jesus is that he died. Zero reference to anything he taught. We need the teaching of the man and not all this rubbish taught about the man. Your suggestion is so simple, so powerful. Do it!"

I just might.

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 09/06/2008 - 09:31
Once upon a time, I regularly attended Walter Martin's Sunday-School class in Costa Mesa, California. In private conversation, he asked me if I thought he had been too hard on William Johnson on the John Ankerberg Show?! I politely answered, 'no'. He said that he thought the church leaders were defending 1844/IJ because they were afraid of losing the 'whole thing'. He didn't have a problem with SDA's attending church on Saturday(he thought any day would be fine), but his problem was that SDA's had made such a big deal about it.

Mike: I love Reiger pipe-organs, and I am a tracker-backer. Especially when they are located high in the rear balcony of an acoustically live and reverberant church.

In this prophetic discussion...what about Richard Rice and 'The Openness of God'? When we speak of prophecy, are we implying absolute fore-knowledge? If so...doesn't freedom go out the window? Why do we have to play numbers games?

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 09/06/2008 - 13:19
Mike: I found a picture of the organ(it's beautiful and well located), and the following description: The Organ in the western choir gallery, completed in 1961. It is a tracker instrument of three manuals and four divisions. The console is positioned between the Positif mounted over the gallery rail (lower manual), and the Grand Orgue (Great division, second manual) and Choeur (Choir division, third manual) which stand against the west wall. The Pedale division flanks the gallery on each side. A foot-activated bellows permits playing during power outages. The panels which enclose the Positif and the Grande Orgue divisions are painted by Jasmin Joseph. The floral design of the Pedale division was painted by Adam Leontus, completed in 1963.

Acoustics are much more important than the organ. PUC Reiger + Grace Cathedral = Paradise! I love the Casavant at LLU and the Reiger at PUC...but the architechture and acoustics are mediocre, at best. Someday...

I am really torn between the desire to see the teachings of Jesus, with no churches(the teachings infused into all of society, but not formalized into the confines of buildings, and ruled with ecclesiastical authority)...and my love of cathedral pipe-organs and choirs, with pomp and circumstace. Read Great Controversy pg. 566(Liberty of Conscience Threatened). Can 'big-church' exist without corruption, abuse, and atrocity?

I sometimes wonder if making music is more productive than fighting about theology?! No matter how hard we try...we never seem to really get it right, or are able to agree on much of anything for any length of time.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/09/2008 - 05:55
Nic: The papal apology was a step in the right direction. Abortion in SDA hospitals is a step in the wrong direction. But take a long, hard look at the Vatican/Nazi connection. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD_lBstvptE&feature=related. Even if current leaders try to do the right thing...there are hundreds and thousands of years of momentum in doing the wrong thing to overcome. I don't envy them.

Sorry to hear about the Cavaille-Coll. I hope they can restore it. My favorite church/organ is the Cavaille-Coll at Saint Sulpice in Paris, France. Albert Schweitzer took lessons from Charles Marie Widor on this fine instrument. This is also where Silas broke up the floor in the Da Vinci Code. If you ever go to Saint Sulpice...watch out for Silas! They faked his death in the movie!


But nature is better than any church/organ in the world...and it's absolutely free! Salvation may be free...but the church costs us an arm and a leg...and maybe even our souls! Jesus didn't ask for money or tell us to build churches, did he? He told us to pray privately and to give to the poor. Was Jesus telling us not to go to church? Maybe someday people will use churches as sacred concert halls, rather than as a required part of being a Christian in good and regular standing. I don't know. I'm conflicted.

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 09/27/2008 - 11:58
Spectrum people are probably 'Progressive Adventists'. Several years ago at the Greenlake Church, in Seattle, there was a Forum meeting titled, 'Progressive Adventism: Oxymoron or Wave of the Future?' So which is it...or is it both? Des Ford, in his PUC Forum talk said that 'unless some new thing arises within Adventism...we'll be a forgotten sect by the turn of the century, or not long after.' I'm on the fringe or fence on just about everything. Did you know that fence-riders form splinter groups? And I talk to myself. I tell myself what I want to hear. I call it positive self-talk. It's easier that way.

Just because the church keeps going, doesn't mean that it's right. If that's the test, then we should all join the Roman Catholic church. That's the biggest 'we never change' church in the history of the world. There is, however, something to be said for continuity, and not constructing a new foundation every few years. Too bad that the teachings of Jesus weren't made the foundation of Churchianity(I mean Christianity). But Jesus threatened State Churchianity...which may be the major reason they murdered Him. Then, State Churchianity kept right on rolling. Jesus was just a bump in the road, as far as they were concerned.

Don't knock the ageing fringe. Haven't you heard of 'Righteousness by Senility'?

Here's more! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/10/02/watch-and-comment-vp-debate-live

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 10/02/2008 - 14:06
Could a US President issue an executive order suspending the US Constitution, and replacing it with a UN Constitution, on an indefinite basis, due to an international state of emergency?

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/09/18/anglican-apology-darwin-example-adventists

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 09/19/2008 - 22:47
Life, the Universe, and Everything: A Ten Part Play

1. Evolution of Life, the Universe, and Everything(Including God).
2. Genetic Engineering by God aka Creation.
3. Divine/Human Cooperation.
4. Temptation by Reptillian(Satan tempting Eve).
5. Humanity Kicking Divinity Out of the Garden of Eden(Ancient Earth).
6. Genetic Engineering by Satan(Resulting in Rattlesnakes and Scorpions, Etc).
7. Secret Reptillian(Satanic) Domination of Humanity.
8. Battle to rid the Earth of Reptillian(Satanic) Domination(Battle of Armageddon).
9. Humanity/Divinity Finally Kicking the Snakes Out(Go Straight to Hell).
10.Divine/Human Cooperation in the New Earth.

Fiction or Non-Fiction?

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 09/19/2008 - 23:50
Regarding science and religion, YouTube contains a zoo of theories and conspiracies related to what is really going on in the universe. The following two-part video is perhaps an extreme example of what I am referring to(viewer discretion strongly advised, as it contains upsetting material): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJfc63rCnWE. I am not promoting or endorsing this video, but it makes me wonder what we may have to encounter, in an eschatalogical sense, as knowledge increases, and men(and women) run to and fro? It's getting crazy out there folks. Ellen White had something to say about Orion, didn't she? I suspect that Ellen White knew a lot more than she placed in print. She worked in the prison of her circumstances. The Vatican has recently made some interesting public statements regarding the universe and it's inhabitants. It may be later than we think...

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 09/20/2008 - 09:34
I think there is a version of the Investigative Judgment, Final Generation, Character Related Eschatology, Harvest Principle, etc. which actually makes sense and works, and indeed, is absolutely necessary for this mess we are in to get cleaned up. Some of our moderate theologians should work overtime on these subjects. The old treatments don't work IMO, but I think Satan is terrified by these issues. When we finally get it right, it may well be GAME OVER.

orthodoxymoron - Sun, 09/21/2008 - 00:40
The Investigative Judgment may be a cosmic custody case where the fitness of the kids are in question...not the fitness of the parents. The fitness of the parents was clearly determined thousands...if not millions of years ago. The jury is still out on the fitness of the kids. Harmonizing with the character and teachings of Christ is the goal...not achieving retentive legalistic exclusivistic-triumphalistic perfectionism, which is more in harmony with the character of Satan than the character of Christ. The IJ may be more about the salvation of the human race than it is about individual salvation. There is no such thing as absolute perfection. One can always do better. I would say that this applies to God as well. Imagine that...God is probably not perfect...and doesn't expect us to be either. Jesus mediates between us and Satan...not between us and God. If not for the mediation of Christ...we would undoubtedly be torn to shreds by the demonic forces which surround us.

orthodoxymoron - Sun, 09/21/2008 - 00:33
I once witnessed a sermon in a mega-church, delivered by the son of the founder. It was mediocre, at best. When it was finished, the person sitting next to me whispered that he had never heard so many profound ideas delivered so stupidly. I didn't comment.

I sometimes wonder if the Adventist version of Christianity, as intended by Ellen White, is so profound that most of us don't really get it, including me. And that the most sensational and unique aspects get over-emphasized and presented in non-profound, and even stupid ways. I suspect that this produces neurotics, pious zombies, nervous break-downs, and maybe even some suicides.

I don't have too much of a problem with Ellen White...but I have a huge problem with what has been done with her writings. I guess this is why I have narrowed my Ellen White collection to Desire of Ages and Great Controversy. I read these devotionally, and then think and do what makes sense to me...even if it is opposite what Ellen White wrote or what the church teaches. I strive to be enlightened...but not enslaved.

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 09/22/2008 - 06:02
Confession time. I have a problem with atheistic evolution and with fundamentalist creation. I think that the truth of our origins is an all of the above and more proposition. I don't think we really know! We think we do, but I think it is a grand mystery. Is that a cop-out? Probably. But the complexity and myriad possibilities should make all of us very, very humble. Including those with Doctor of Divinity or Doctor of Philosophy degrees.

The fossil record seems to indicate very long periods of evolution. The complexity and specialization of the human body is beyond comprehension, and seems to indicate creation or intelligent design. Consider the human head thou skeptic!

Charles Darwin, of all people, was also conflicted. “I am conscious that I am in an utterly hopeless muddle,” Darwin confessed. “I cannot think that the world, as we see it, is the result of chance; and yet I cannot look at each separate thing as the result of design.” See www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-2998.html

There are two Genesis accounts of creation…and there is a Babylonian Genesis also. Are these stories simplified versions of a much more complex process? I think this is part of the answer. Is the rest of the story something which is hidden from our view for a reason? Perhaps. Maybe the whole truth is something we are not prepared to handle, even now.

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/24/2008 - 07:34
The copy I have is actually titled, 'Babylonian Genesis'. I don't consider Genesis to be a scientific text...but rather an ancient history book which seems to be written in code, or in a manner which tells one part of the story...but not the rest of the story.

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/24/2008 - 11:39
The 'fall' was Satan's takeover of our world. Satan is still in charge...which is why every day and in every way...we are not getting better and better...despite what Emile Coue told us. Jesus tried to set us free...but few have listened or obeyed for 2,000 years now. Advantage Satan.

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 09/27/2008 - 11:44
Tom,

Totally unrelated to this thread...you have some wonderful candid stories. Have you written them down, and published them in a book? If not...you should. Include all of them...even(and especially) the ones which are revealing(both positive and negative).

By the way, I mostly agree with what you have recently said regarding science.

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 09/29/2008 - 07:36
Go Theistic Evolution! Evolution and Intelligent Design...not one or the other. I can't imagine God watching billions of years of evolution without doing some genetic engineering. Is it possible for a God to evolve who would be capable of creating life on earth as we know it? If life, the universe, and everything could evolve...why not consider the possibility of the evolution of a Creator/God? I know that unseen intelligent beings exist...from personal experience...not faith. What is the hypothetical mechanism of spiritual evolution? And what is the pathway from OOZE to OOH LA LA!? Where is the Road to Utopia? Did we miss a turn? As for the accidental-eye...I can't see it. The answer to Harold Coffin's question, 'Creation: Accident or Design?' is Both. Of course, if God designed evolution...then God created an accident. In other words, in the beginning God said, 'Did I make a mistake?' Or...in the beginning God said, 'You'll get a bang out of this!' --- Simplicio.

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 09/29/2008 - 08:03
It's about time to hear directly from God.

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 10/02/2008 - 05:48
Bob wrote:

Dear orthodoxymoron: Are you aware that the concept of an evolving Creator/God continues to be proclaimed with gusto by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons)? If such theology tickles your fancy, this Utah-based organization is waiting to welcome you with open arms. And should you also wish to keep the seventh day Sabbath, there is a small Mormon offshoot group (the Strangites), with headquarters in Wisconsin, that keeps Saturday as the Sabbath.
But as for me, I prefer the theology Malachi to that of Joseph Smith. Malachi told us plainly that God doesn't change. (See Malachi 3:6.)

I write:

I am aware...and thanks but no thanks. 'No Man Knows My History' by Fawn Brodie cured me of any propensity toward Mormonism. Holy Joe, Gold Plates, and Special Underwear do not tickle my fancy. Although...polygamy in the Playboy Mansion would be a tempting proposition that would tickle my fancy. Forensic-only salvation is looking better all the time. No...I just got the victory. Jesus clearly taught against polygamy in Luke 16:13 when He said, "No servant can serve two masters." Mitt Romney was quoted as saying, "Where I come from...we believe that marriage is between a man and a woman...and a woman...and a woman...and a woman." 'Strangites' seems to be an appropriate name.

If God did not evolve...where did God come from? Was God created? Perhaps God created God. A changeless God sounds like a boring God. God seems to have changed between Malachi and Matthew...unless we are dealing with two different Gods.

Can you point me toward a church which teaches the Teachings of Jesus? That would tickle my fancy. Is there a church which would welcome Jesus and His Teachings with open arms?

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 10/03/2008 - 04:10
What did Jesus say about the Virgin Birth? What did Jesus say about the Biblical Canon? What if the Teachings of Jesus were written down before Jesus began His public ministry? What if they were preserved by the Essenes? What if they were harder to redact because of this? What if a theological bias surrounded the composition of the black letters in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament which was very different from the red-letter words of Christ? Why have the Dead Sea Scrolls been so reluctantly and slowly released? What materials might possibly still be unavailale to the public? Has anyone studied the work of John Strugnell? He worked for years on the Dead Sea Scrolls and became very critical and shrill. What materials might be hidden from view in the Vatican?

I believe demons exist...and probably control our world. I've had a couple of experiences which involved something unseen, yet intelligent and able to exert physical force. I suspect that this was demonic in nature. I suspect that 95% of all supernatural occurances and experiences are demonic in nature. I further suspect that this will be the case until the human race decides to follow Jesus instead of Satan. This is probably why Ellen White was so pointed about avoiding Spiritualism. Be careful who you pray to.

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/article/column/2008/07/03/are-%E2%80%9Csabbathers%E2%80%9D-jews-or-christians

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/08/2008 - 06:05
The biggest tragedy in 2,000 years of Christianity...is the rejection or ignoring of the red-letter teachings of Jesus Christ. The second biggest tragedy in Christian history...is that Martin Luther did not base the Reformation on the red-letter teachings of Jesus Christ. The third biggest tragedy in Christian history...is that in 2008, Christianity is not solidly based upon the red-letter teachings of Jesus Christ. With 2,000 years of Churchianity...who needs the Anti-Christ? Churchianity is hopelessly laced with astrology, paganism, and sun-worship. Indeed, the god of 2,000 years of Churchianity has often resembled Satan more than Jesus. Has Churchianity been suckered into a subtle, but deadly, Satan-worship? I don't sound bitter...do I?

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/08/2008 - 14:05
I got so worked up that I didn't finish my previous rant! I've taken my medicine, and things are better now.

Many years ago, I spoke with Dr. Walter Martin about SDA's and the Saturday Sabbath. He didn't have a problem with Adventists going to church on Saturday. His problem was that 'they made such a big deal about the Sabbath.' He asked me if I thought that he had been too hard on William Johnson, on the John Ankerberg Show?! I timidly and politely told him, 'no.' I didn't have the courage to tell him that he came on stronger than a junkyard dog!

Jesus went to church on Saturday. But He went to church on a lot of other days too. Sabbath observance was not one of Christ's teachings. The Sabbath is more Jewish than Christian. The best in Old Testament morality was repeated and promoted by Jesus. The Old Testament rituals and observances were not repeated and promoted by Jesus.

Adventist have been correct in denouncing Sun-day sacredness. But I fear that we have been wrong in promoting Saturday Sabbath sacredness, especially in an exclusive manner. As stated in another post, the Mark of the Beast may be rejecting the U.S. Constitution, and accepting a dictatorial 'New World Order' theocracy, which requires Sun-day observance and destroys religious freedom. Saturday Sabbath observance may be a protest against this corrupt system. Persecution may result. So, we may be both right and wrong about the Sabbath. I just pray that we can admit it if we are wrong.

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 07/10/2008 - 00:58
What would Luke Ford say? I'm quite ignorant regarding the Jewish people, both historically and presently. I know that there are a lot of secular Jews, who associate with other Jewish people, and go through the motions of the Jewish religion, yet are agnostic, at best.

Especially in light of the Holocaust and centuries of persecution...what do Jewish people, in general, think about the Old Testament atrocities? I can understand respecting and protecting one's roots, yet honesty regarding unethical aspects of history is important, so as to avoid future inequites and atrocities.

Accepting the spirit and principles of Christ seems to determine destiny, more than a formal acceptance of the Christian religion, which often does not reflect the character and teachings of Christ. I have a hunch that Jewish people reject Christianity and Christians more than they reject Christ. Is the post-John 21 New Testament and subsequent Constantinian Churchianity the real stumbling-block for the Jews?

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 07/10/2008 - 01:12
Afterthought: Is there a common thread through the ancient Summarian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Astrological, Sun-worshipping, Pagan, and Jewish religions...and the Roman Catholic manifestation of Christianity. Was Jesus just a bump in the road? Is this getting close to the heart of the 'Great Controversy'?

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 07/10/2008 - 03:30
Frank,

Call me a moron...I do misunderstand many, if not most, things. But in this case I misstated rather than misunderstood. I intended 'post John 21' to mean Acts-Revelation.

My comment: 'Accepting the spirit and principles of Christ seems to determine destiny, more than a formal acceptance of the Christian religion, which often does not reflect the character and teachings of Christ. I have a hunch that Jewish people reject Christianity and Christians more than they reject Christ. Is the post-John 21 New Testament and subsequent Constantinian Churchianity the real stumbling-block for the Jews?'

Your comment: 'To tie everything in the NT outside the gospels to Constintinian Churchianity, as you put it, just seems to discount the organic interplay of the NT as a whole.'

Follow up comment: My question was, and is, 'do Jewish people reject the teachings of Jesus...or the professed followers of Jesus...the majority of whom, historically and presently have been members of the Roman Catholic Church...or Constantinian Churchianity,' as I put it?

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 07/10/2008 - 15:10
David: Your comment: 'A third example is that this past 4th of July, which was Sabbath Eve, some thought that for them it was OK to go see the fireworks display. Others thought this was not an appropriate thing to do on Sabbath (me).'

My comment: Shouldn't Sabbath be a combination of rest/remembrance/recreation/celebration? I think watching July 4 fireworks would be a fine Sabbath activity. But come to think of it...I recently wandered through 'Sin City' aka Las Vegas late on a Friday night(confronting the evil in the world)...and ended up listening to a classic rock group(Phoenix) at New York New York! I'm sure the recording angels highlighted that one! Ah! Confession is good for the soul!

Pat: Your question: "...oxymoron"---you state,ask or suggest, "My question was, and is, 'do Jewish people reject the teachings of Jesus...or the professed followers of Jesus." On what basis can you show that they accept Him as Messiah...period. Was Christ Christian enough to show a good example? I have met a lot of Christians I don't like but that doesn't keep me or excuse me from the reading of the Bible to see who Jesus is.

My response: I don't have a copy of a press release stating that Jews worldwide now accept Jesus as the Messiah. However, the Ebionites are an interesting Jewish group who think highly of Yeshua(I think I got that right), or Jesus. Actually, I'm not sure that I can show that Christians fully accept and follow the teachings of Jesus. Have Christians rejected Jesus as the Messiah too?

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 07/11/2008 - 01:36
I agree with Elaine. Communion(I prefer the term communion rather than worship) options should probably be available 7 days/week. There are many Roman Catholics who literally go to church every day of the week. There are masses every day(often morning and evening). I have musically participated in many masses(Infiltrator!-Adventist Jesuit!-Cursed Judas!). I once heard a priest repeatedly equate Saturday with Sabbath during a homily. I didn't notice any shuffling or raised eyebrows by the parishioners.

To me, there is no problem in faithfully observing the seventh-day Sabbath. Keep the churches open. To me, there is a problem in making it a royal pain...or insisting that God requires Sabbath observance(salvation related or otherwise). I prefer the concept of making every day a Sabbath day. There should be proper, ethical behavior every day. There should be sufficient devotional and rest time every day.

I didn't mean to come on so strong with my hell-fire comment(or did I?). And regarding Hitler...he had 'helpers' who may have been more wicked than he. To pin WW2 and the Holocaust on Adolph is simplistic and too easy. There is a lot more to this story...some of it occult and religious.

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 07/16/2008 - 11:16
One last point from me: In the Book of Common Prayer there is a catechism. It applies the Ten Commandments to Christians as follows(notice especially re: the 4th. that it does not name a specific day): Q. What is our duty to God? A. Our duty is to believe and trust in God; I. To love and obey God and to bring others to know him; II. To put nothing in the place of God; III. To show God respect in thought, word, and deed; IV. And to set aside regular times for worship, prayer, and the study of God's ways. Q. What is our duty to our neighbors? A. Our duty to our neighbors is to love them as ourselves, and to do to other people as we wish them to do to us; V. To love, honor, and help our parents and family; to honor those in authority, and to meet their just demands; VI. To show respect for the life God has given us; to work and pray for peace; to bear no malice, prejudice, or hatred in our hearts; and to be kind to all the creatures of God; VII. To use all our bodily desires as God intended; VIII. To be honest and fair in our dealings; to seek justice, freedom, and the necessities of life for all people; and to use our talents and possessions as ones who must answer for them to God; IX. To speak the truth, and not to mislead others by our silence; X. To resist temptations to envy, greed, and jealousy; to rejoice in other people's gifts and graces; and to do our duty for the love of God, who has called us into fellowship with him. Q. What is the purpose of the Ten Commandments? A. The Ten Commandments were given to define our relationship with God and our neighbors. Q. Since we do not fully obey them, are they useful at all? A. Since we do not fully obey them, we see more clearly our sin and our need for redemption.

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/article/column/2008/10/06/survivalist-eschatology

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 10/06/2008 - 13:34
Perhaps international bankers are more of a threat than the dreaded papacy. Perhaps Satan tells the international bankers what to do...and they tell Popes and Presidents what to do. The subversion of the Teachings of Jesus and the U.S. Constitution are much more important than a Sunday law. Do we have a 'deer in the headlights mentality' where we just huddle and wait for all the bad things to happen to us...rather than actively attempting to right the wrongs in this messed up world?

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 10/07/2008 - 08:13
Alexander asked: 'A question I'd like to explore is the roots of the very white Protestant American fear still in the 21st century of paying income taxes and central banking. Yeah, I like my money too, but it's just weird to see grown men carrying on and whining that the big plan is to abandon the dollar for something called the "amero."'

What upsets me is how upset people get about politics, religion, and money. Can't we just get along?

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 10/07/2008 - 12:52
Alexander,

Thank-you for your corrective response. I am amazed that you critiqued a 3.5 hour video ("The Money Masters") so effectively after reflecting upon it for just over an hour. I am chastened and contrite. I thought the video was quite good and relevant to the current international banking crisis, and that it helped to answer your question. Live and learn.

Could you provide us with links to superior videos on the subjects of International Banking, Fractional Reserve Banking, the History of the Federal Reserve and Central Banking? Also, could you provide us with links to audits of the Federal Reserve and audits of Fort Knox Gold over the past 20 years. Finally, could you provide us with a link to the law which requires Americans to pay a Federal Income Tax?

I eagerly await your reply. There is so much disinformation out there to mislead simple white folks, such as myself.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 10/07/2008 - 12:43
Thank-you Alexander. But where did I attack you? Wasn't it the other way around? I waved the white flag as I headed for the library.

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/09/30/seventh-day-adventists-united-against-wall-street-bailout

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/30/2008 - 10:54
What's the matter, David? You don't believe in trickle-down economics or voodoo economics? Do you have a problem with Reaganomics (Reagan Hood: steal from the poor and give to the rich)? Actually I liked Ronald Reagan, and recently purchased a book of Reagan speeches. I'm a Paleo-Conservative. Although...I know of one person who considers the 'nasty little horn' to be Ronald Reagan...not Antiochus Epiphanes.

How about tying a national debt reduction program to the Wall Street Bailout? How about ending the Iraq Crusade? How about doubling the size and authority of the GAO and the SEC? How about a thorough audit of the Fed? Where is our gold? How about sound money that we don't have to pay interest on?

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 10/01/2008 - 05:49
Final Scene(smoke-filled room filled with politicians): "First, we'll nationalize the finance industry. Next, we'll get everyone RFID chipped. Without the chip, they won't be able to buy or sell. If they don't go along with the New World Order...we'll just turn off their chip, and see how they like it! Then, all we need is another terrorist event...and they'll be begging for a world government...with no stupid constitution to get in our way." Fiction or Non-Fiction?

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 10/02/2008 - 14:31
Sometimes I think that leverage should be eliminated in the markets. It should require $10,000 cash to purchase $10,000 worth of Microsoft stock. Sometimes I think that day-trading should be eliminated. Perhaps a security should have to be held at least overnight(to keep it warm...in a Security Blanket). Sometimes I think that there should be no short selling. Period. Naked or otherwise...everyone should cover their shorts. Finally, sometimes I think derivatives are a black-hole for money which should probably be eliminated. Has anyone derived the Schroedinger Wave Equation? These steps might help to stabilize the markets. Of course, a lot of people profit obscenely from the volatility. Unfortunately, a lot of people lose their retirement money in the chaos of this volatility. No trader should ever be able to become a rogue-trader and lose 7 billion dollars for a Societe Generale, or bring down a Barings Bank...single handedly.

But what do I know? If I was smart...I'd be rich.

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 10/03/2008 - 08:38
The Iraq Crusade is creating terrorists faster than we can kill them. We are spending money faster than we can print it. Support our troops...and our economy. Bring the troops home.

How about being Pro-Choice prior to brainwaves and heartbeats...and then being Pro-Life thereafter? People are declared 'Dead' when brainwaves and heartbeats cease. Why not declare a baby to be 'Alive' when brainwaves and heartbeats commence? Anyone causing brainwaves and heartbeats to cease would be charged with Murder in the First Degree. This would make both sides angry...which is probably an indication that it makes sense.

There is a haunting song by Seals and Crofts about abortion from the perspective of the unborn baby. Abortion truly is an unseen Holocaust. It is the pre-meditated, systematic, and efficient extermination of the undesirables.


orthodoxymoron - Fri, 10/03/2008 - 08:59
So...this is a bailout for the international bankers? I think we just dug a deeper hole for ourselves...as opposed to getting out of the hole and filling it so we don't fall into it again. Research international banking history. It isn't pretty. Start by examining the history of the Rothschilds. Perhaps this is all about internationalizing the financial system. The World Bank: 'You can't leave home without us'.

orthodoxymoron - Sun, 10/05/2008 - 01:04
Please watch the following video to get a better perspective on the financial history of the United States, and how we got to where we are today. You might want to take some tranquilizers before you watch it ("The Money Masters").

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 10/04/2008 - 00:36
Those who worship power and blindly submit to authority may very well be the ones to watch out for. It matters not whether they are liberal or conservative, Catholic or Protestant.

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 10/06/2008 - 00:52

Is the current banking crisis a Financial 9/11? It seems as though, figuratively speaking, the first tower has been hit, and the second tower is about to be hit. The firemen have arrived in the form of the bailout. But no one knows how bad things are really going to get...except those who planned it, that is. Then, a terrorist event of biblical proportions could theoretically bring everything crashing down in a controlled demolition of the world economy and governments. A counterfeit second coming of Christ might be next...staged by the demons who are already here...to bring order out of chaos. Then, the actual second coming of Christ might be viewed as an attack!? The final movements will be rapid ones. I don't sound paranoid, do I? I forgot to take my medicine again. Sorry.

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/07/15/loma-linda-university-medical-center-expands

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 07/19/2008 - 11:37
Rumor has it that a group of SDA researchers are trying to find the Missing Loma Linda Link. They operate secretly because they don't want to be labeled. Funding for the project is reportedly being furnished by an anonymous supporter who is also financing a group of SDA Raiders of the Lost Ark. Members of both groups were laughing as they entered a local bank...

orthodoxymoron - Sun, 07/20/2008 - 02:34
My comment: Rumor has it that a group of SDA researchers are trying to find the Missing Loma Linda Link. They operate secretly because they don't want to be labeled. Funding for the project is reportedly being furnished by an anonymous supporter who is also financing a group of SDA Raiders of the Lost Ark. Members of both groups were laughing as they entered a local bank...

Tom's comment: If the news blog was intended as a joke it was a very poor one. One does not play games with the lives and health of people.

My response: I thought laughter was the best medicine. Live and learn.

What percentage of the total health care expenditures in the United States is devoted to prevention? The pathetic answer to this question is the real playing of games with the lives and health of people. Isn't this the game of how much fame, fortune, and power can be achieved? Isn't it time to get serious about prevention?

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 07/21/2008 - 12:24
Comments:

It is not the medical profession standing in the way of prevention. It is the manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, marketers, and the taste buds they have created. Most preventatives are diet and lifestyle related. So we tax and spend on treatment.

As long as sin abounds therapy will also have to abound.

P.S. laughter is good medicine as long it is not at the expense of someone else. Butt jokes are not fun or funny.

If you didn't agree you would use your real name.

Response:

It sounds as though Satan and his fellow snakes have the upper hand, and no one dares do too much about it. Aren't we supposed to fight evil? I thought we were in the pro-responsibility, anti-irresponsibility business. Why isn't this a theological, political, and legal issue? If a company is complicit in harming and destroying the American public and the environment...why aren't they put in the hot-seat...and out of business? Anyone for a boycott? Are we content to be Iniquity Janitorial, LLC? And basically clean up after the Devil, put band-aids on his victims, and charge exorbitant rates to do so?

I'm sorry for my retentive-hate jokes. The Missing Loma Linda Link Research Team(MLLLRT) and the SDA Raiders of the Lost Ark(SDARLA) are threatening legal action. The proctololgists are after me too. This is in addition to the Jesuits and Opus Dei(including Silas). Black helicopters from the 7th floor heliport are circling my house.

I use the name orthodoxymoron because I'm paranoid. And just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me. I like orthodoxymoron so much that I'm considering changing my name. I'm proud to be known as orthodoxymoron...it's sort of like being...Super Blogger! I am somebody!

Is Earth-Management really "up for grabs"?? Is Solar-System-Management really "up for grabs"?? Is Galactic-Management really "up for grabs"?? Is Universe-Management really "up for grabs"?? Classical-Theology would answer in the negative -- but what is the true state of affairs regarding all of the above?? I frankly have no idea. If the universe is filled with warring-factions fighting various and sundry "Star-Wars" -- these management questions might be quite complex. On the other hand -- a "Real-Deal God" might operate quietly in the background (regardless of legion power-struggles). That frankly wouldn't surprise me. I continue to wonder how any of us can really know anything about anything -- with a significant degree of certainty?! I've been modeling a particular approach to Solar System Governance -- which involves attempting to understand the Local-Situation relative to the Universe-Situation -- but it's nearly impossible to really know much of anything for certain -- which is extremely disorienting and frustrating to me. I wish to be a Loyal Citizen of the Universe -- but I have to ask the most horrible questions in order to attempt to determine if we have Legitimate-Administrators in this Solar-System -- or not!! How would we EVER Know the True-History of This Solar-System with Absolute-Certainty??!!

Does Faith = Loyalty?? Does Faith = Stupidity?? Does Ignorance = Virtue?? Does Knowledge = Sin?? I continue to seek a Dynamic-Equilibrium between the Sovereignty of God -- and Human Responsible Freedom. What is the relationship between the Sovereignty of God -- God's Prerogative -- and the Law of God?? Is God "Above the Law"?? What if God must be both Good and Bad?? What if it Sucks to be God?? What Would Happen if God Quit??!! Could God Ever Be Fired??!! Does Each Solar System have a "Sun-God"?? What Would "Star-Lord" Say?? Do most of us wish to "Take-Over" in various ways, shapes, and forms?? Are Pride, Individuality, War, Fame, Fortune, Power, and Pleasure ALL SINS??!! I've talked with very-fine Christians who will not speak against the Mass Torture and Murder described in the Book of Revelation!! I suspect that shooting someone in the head would be objectionable to them -- yet pulling the plug on an entire civilization and/or race seems to somehow be OK!! I keep leaning toward "Law and Order" rather than "Fire and Brimstone". Is That a Sin?? I hate thinking about this stuff SO Much that when I end this thread in the near-future I really would rather not think about this sort of thing anymore. A somewhat famous organist once told me that they didn't think about theology anymore. It's just too painful for a lot of people.

A former site of mine www.redletterchurch.net was mysteriously taken from me some years ago -- and even more mysteriously completely removed from the internet. 'The Address Which Never Was'. You can read the contents of that Forbidden Thread right here in the Mists! http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t1040-red-letter-church I was too frightened and paranoid to investigate. Ignorance is Bliss. So why am I not happy -- being a 'Completely Ignorant Fool' and such??!!

I continue to favor properly maintaining the church-buildings which already exist -- but mostly refraining from new construction. I favor an intertwining of the royal-model and servant-model in church and state -- but I don't know how to properly implement this concept. It might be interesting to study the 1928 'Book of Common Prayer', 'The Desire of Ages', 'The Federalist Papers', and Sacred Classical Music -- within the confines of Vatican City -- interacting with various Princes of the Church on a daily basis!!!! Can you imagine participating in such a project for one full year???!!! I'm a little different, aren't I???!!!

Somewhat unrelatedly, consider reading 'Daniel 8:14, the Day of Atonement, and the Investigative Judgment' by Dr. Desmond Ford. It often reads like a mystery novel!!! Imagine this theological battle from the context of Gizeh Intelligence!!!! My copy is in tatters -- with at least half of the pages missing!! I need a new copy!! Notice that I take very few firm theological positions. I encourage STUDY more than I encourage ORTHODOXY. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B002VIBJ7W/ref=sr_1_15_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1334873916&sr=8-15&condition=used

Consider the possibility of Temples, Dracs, the Ark of the Covenant, a Sanctuary Service, and Three Key Archangels (Ark-Angels?) in Ancient Sirius, Eden, Babylon, Egypt, etc!!! Was Jesus one of the Archangels??? Should Christianity focus upon Ancient Babylon and Egypt??? Was the Jewish emphasis really a rewrite of history -- possibly to gloss-over a VERY problematic history??? Consider reading 'Jesus: Last of the Pharaohs' by Ralph Ellis, 'The Gods of Eden' by William Bramley, and 'The Twelth Planet' by Zechariah Sitchin. I am NOT endorsing any of them -- but I am suggesting that the topics covered in these volumes should be given VERY careful consideration.

The more I study, the less I know -- or so it seems. I have gravitated toward my own brand of Political and Theological Science Fiction -- which I mostly keep within the confines of my mind. Materials such as 'The Holy Tablets' reflect POSSIBILITIES to me -- rather than my considering them to be FACTUAL. I have no way of knowing what is REALLY the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Regardless of the validity of 'The Holy Tablets' I think that Black History and Spirituality should not be neglected -- especially regarding Ancient North Africa.

Here is some more of my ancient internet posting! http://spectrummagazine.org/review/2008/07/16/open-thread-what-have-you-been-watching

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 07/16/2008 - 09:39
I'm hopelessly addicted to YouTube. I need a support group. My television quit half a year ago...and I have no plans to replace it. I rarely go to the movie theater. I recently rewatched the Da Vinci Code and the old movie 'V'. Could 'V' be in our future? I hope not. I much prefer Desire of Ages to Amazing Facts. Do any SDA evangelists give 'Desire of Ages based' presentations? Speaking of movies...Steven Speilberg's step-mother used to attend Graham Maxwell's Sabbath School class at LLU. I recommended Desire of Ages to her and wished out loud that 'someone' would make a first-rate motion picture based on DA. Without a doubt, I have no clout...

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 07/16/2008 - 12:07
If you want to smile and cry...click this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY Be sure to click 'watch in high quality' and to click the little box to enlarge the video. Also, watch the 'Outtakes' video. Does our theology make people want to dance? Why can't we make the world into one big party...instead of a war zone? Is this the 'Kingdom of God' that Jesus talked about?

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/09/24/atheist-ethics

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/30/2008 - 07:28
Have atheists simply rejected organized religion and the Old Testament God? Didn't Jesus do the same? Speaking of atheists...has anyone heard of Pat Condell? He is an English atheist who is an ex-Catholic. He is sort of mean...but he makes some good points. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4mWiqkGy-Y.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/30/2008 - 09:10
Carlitas,

I'm a closet Condell fan. Pat's version of 'religious freedom' is 'freedom from religion'. A gay atheist had better say a prayer(just in case) before coming out.

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/07/19/prophetic-short-sermon-series-literalism-vs-fundamentalism

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 07/21/2008 - 06:37
How about a fundamentalism which considers the teachings of Jesus to be fundamental...with the rest of scripture being contextual and historical...but not fundamentally authoritative? To be a Christian, by definition, is to be a follower of Jesus. Shouldn't the teachings of Jesus be the Christian Constitution in the same way that the U.S. Constitution is fundamentally authoritative in the United States of America? The Federalist Papers are contextual and explanatory...but not authoritative.

By the way, has anyone attended a Westar meeting? Did you wear a trench-coat and dark glasses?

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/22/2008 - 08:06
The words which are printed in red letters in a red letter edition of the Bible are fundamental. This, I suppose, is a more refined fundamentalism of sorts, but without all the negative baggage. When the word “fundamentalism” is used, many people think of militants marching in the streets shouting slogans, waving flags, and brandishing grenade launchers! One gets the picture that a fundamentalist is interested only in teaching and enforcing…not reasoning and learning.

On the other hand, isn’t it important to have a basic formulation of truth, including psychology, ethics, and spirituality? It is impossible to properly play a baseball game without rules and referees. It is also impossible to properly live life without a basic system of psychology, ethics, and spirituality. Ideally, the standard should be historical, include the essentials, and exclude the non-essentials.

The Constitution of the United States is a very simple and concise document. In fact, it is mostly structural and procedural in nature. On the other hand, the Christian Constitution, if you will, has historically consisted of all 66 canonical books of the Bible, with all words carrying equal weight and importance. This has created legion numbers of theologies and churches. It has been a Weapon of Mass Confusion! A real Loose Canon! Excathedra proclamations have been necessary to maintain ecclesiastical law and order. Atrocities have even been perpetrated against those with differing convictions. Evangelism has been conducted with the torch and the sword, in God‘s name. If you can’t convince them…torture and kill them...

Liberalism has sought to abort these exegetical monstrosities and diabolical administrative practices, but all too often destroys the mother instead. The whole Bible is often mockingly rejected privately, while being publicly damned with faint praise. It is reminiscent of drilling a hole in your own lifeboat!

Fundamentalist Christians and Evangelicals have labored valiantly to maintain the doctrinal integrity of all 66 books in a harmonious unity. This only works if there are strong, charismatic leaders who accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, get rid of Mr. In-Between, and all those who dare question the authority of the church hierarchy and it‘s interpretations and applications of scripture!

Put bluntly, I believe that the Red Letter Teachings of Jesus Christ are fundamental, and that the rest of scripture is important, but NOT fundamental. It is contextual and illuminating, but not authoritative. Is that heresy? To Churchianity…yes. To Jesus Christ…no. Who’s side are you on? I have decided to follow Jesus. Choose you this day who you will serve.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/22/2008 - 13:24
When commenting on several topics, I have indicated a red-letter bias. There has been almost no response regarding this important issue. But I have been repeatedly taken to task for being a smart-alec.

Mea Culpa! I can't help it. I've tried to change. I've even prayed about it. Nothing works. Guess I was born that way. And Jesus loves me anyway! But everyone else thinks I'm an...never mind...

Seriously, isn't John Dominic Crossan taking a red-letter theological position in this video? He obviously has a problem with the God in the Old Testament and Revelation.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/22/2008 - 14:19
Alex:

I'm reading 'Red Letter Christians' by Tony Campolo. It's a 'citizen's guide to faith and politics'. It's mostly a political book. I generally agree with Tony, but the book contains very few of the actual words of Jesus. Also, Tony does a pretty good job of clobbering people who disagree with him. He has a take no prisoners approach. I guess I'm looking for an exegetical and pastoral approach.

It looks like the link is to the Sojourners web-site. Jim Wallis is associated with this. They are good folks, I think...but Desire of Ages, Christ's Object Lessons, and Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing have spoiled me! Do these works get presented in evangelistic meetings?

I'm kind of venturing forward with fear and trembling. It's so easy to get on a high-horse and become dogmatic. Of course, if you don't stand for something...you tend to fall for anything...

It's tempting just to say, 'this is what I think.' But there has to be a historical/theological/philosophical/ethical foundation which also happens to be true and that actually works. Otherwise it's just a free-for-all of opinions and egos. Mostly delusion v delusion. And I really believe that there is a great controversy between Christ and Satan, and that we are in the middle of this bloody(literally) battle...and that the historical aspects of this universal power struggle are extremely important.

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 07/23/2008 - 15:21
Douglas,

I just took off my coat and put my brass knuckles on!

A minimal amount of violence would probably be necessary in even an 'ideal' world. Self defense is an obvious example. But this stupid world has been filled with violence and atrocity for thousands of years. Often, this violence and atrocity has been connected with some kind of religion. There even seems to be a Vatican connection with Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany.

The God of the Old Testament and Revelation is extremely ill-tempered and violent. I thought that Satan was the ill-tempered and violent one? Have many, if not most Christians, been worshipping and serving the wrong God, both historically, and in modernity? Is this a subtle, but deadly, Satan worship? Is this a major reason why this world is so violent and screwed-up? Satan doesn't want a peaceful, non-violent world, does he?

The words of Jesus are very different. If Jesus was perfect...then shouldn't His words be viewed as being supremely authoritative for Christians? But Christians blew the Great Commission. Maybe many of them thought Jesus was just kidding. He belongs on the cross, right? Everyone else knows better than the second person of the Holy Trinity, right?

I'm ranting in a generic sense, and not at you personally, Douglas. This is sort of a closed-door debating society of sorts, and probably most of the participants have pretty thick skin(and thick skulls in some cases--just kidding!).

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/07/06/material-church

Orthodoxy - Mon, 07/07/2008 - 06:53
I'm having an identity crisis, and changed my name from ***** to Orthodoxy(not verified).

The small local Lego church pictured at the beginning of the article is cute. But for those of you who think bigger is better...check out the Mega-Lego church. This church illustrates a rear balcony organ installation. The floor is constructed of Legos, of course...but this church doesn't have a theological Lego to stand on. They just 'Lego...and let God!'

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/08/2008 - 05:34
My spiritual identity crisis is deepening. Orthodoxy is now orthodoxymoron. The idea is to be orthodox and unorthodox simultaneously. Some will undoubtedly think this is moronic(not verified).

Regarding the material church: Where does Jesus tell us to build churches and go to church? Didn't Jesus tell us to pray secretly? I have concluded that church attendance is optional...but highly recommended. I consider church to be a necessary evil, wherein the Kingdom of God is established in ways not possible on an individual basis. But it is easy for the material church to supercede the spiritual church, and to become counterintuitive and counterproductive. Centralized passive collectivism is vastly inferior to decentralized rugged individualism. But in the material world which we live...we probably need the material church. Just beware of Salvation4Sale signs...

I believe that Ellen White is right on so many things(especially in principle and concept), but one must read between the lines, with massive doses of reasoning and critical thinking. Rejection must be counterbalanced with acceptance on an ongoing basis and in a prayerful devotional context. This isn't a task for whimps!

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/08/2008 - 22:05
Randy:

I'm sorry for the bewilderment and confusion. My post arises from my own bewilderment and confusion with the legion theologies of Christendom...all claiming Biblical authority. I am a Red Letter Christian. I have decided to follow Jesus. The teachings of Jesus are very different than the rest of scripture, although Jesus can be seen from Genesis to Revelation. I have a problem with the Old Testament, especially. Mostly regarding ethics, atrocities, rules, attitudes...and the absence of Satan. The following are two references...one from Leviticus and the other from the Desire of Ages(which contains scripture). Mine is a radical and heretical view...but it seems to make sense...and I am not employed by a church...so I don't have to worry about being fired...which I most certainly would be! I don't get paid to be good...I'm good for nothing!

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/08/2008 - 22:19
Sorry, I didn't finish, Randy. Please re-read the post you found bewildering and confusing. The big questions are...2,000 years after Jesus died on the cross...why are we still here, and why is the world so messed-up? My answer is that humans have not done what Jesus said to do. They still serve Satan. Very few humans have decided to follow Jesus...historically or presently. Satan still controls this world.

My main point is that Satan is the legalistic, beady-eyed, kill-joy...not God! The substitutionary atonement was to pay-off Satan...not to satisfy God. To be right with God...we need to be right with God...not simply declared to be right with God. But being right with God does not imply perfection. We can always do better. It's like the Japanese term, 'Kaizen', which means continual improvement. You never, ever 'arrive'. This was Des Ford's point...but his solutions didn't work. He proposed simplistic legalism in place of complex legalism. They are two sides of the same stupid coin...

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 07/11/2008 - 06:41
One last item: The following video illustrates one of my material church weaknesses(vices?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU61ii6h6_o This is my favorite material church. It is Saint Sulpice Roman Catholic Church in Paris, France. When it comes to 'big church' sometimes mother knows best...

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 07/11/2008 - 07:08
I lied...one more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mHOfP4MEfc&feature=related This one makes me cry every time I watch it. This is the part of Catholicism that I like. The music, church, and organist are all Roman Catholic. Fox's Book of Martyrs, the Great Controversy, the Crusades, and the Inquistion are parts of the ultimate material church that I despise. Can these Siamese Twins be separated without destroying the organization? I have not written these people off. In fact, my hope for a better world involves a thoroughly reformed and purified Roman Catholic Church. This view gets me in trouble with everyone...

orthodoxymoron - Sun, 07/13/2008 - 14:03
Just an afterthought: Was John Harvey Kellogg's 'The Living Temple' a protest against the 'material church'? Has anyone read this book?

I suspect the above is not a part of the Adventist spectrum, to any significant degree. Is it a significant part of the spectrum of any Christian church? Maybe this is why I don't go to church very often. When I do go, it is to an ultra-liberal, non-invasive, Episcopal church. Odd man out. Game over.

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/article/sabbath-school/2008/09/29/god%E2%80%99s-nature-basis-atonement

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 10/03/2008 - 12:15
Has anyone studied the concept of atonement in 'pagan' or 'heathen' religions...especially those which utilized human sacrifices? Jesus made the atonement, but evidently He didn't know what the atonement meant...or at least He didn't explain Himself very well. Thank God for Paul! He cleared everything up!

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/09/09/scientific-subjectivity-bias-evolution-and-astrophysics

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 09/11/2008 - 07:05
What if life, the universe, and everything(including God) evolved...and then God genetically modified primitive forms of life into the complex forms we see today? Wouldn't this unify the Godless atheistic evolutionists with the fundamentalist God-fearing creationists? Also, is it possible that Satan has tried his or her hand(hoof?) at genetic engineering? Who made scorpions and rattlesnakes?

If I'm strictly the result of a random collocation of atoms, as I think Bertrand Russell puts it, why am I not a cyclops, with a single eye? The whole business of two very complex eyes moving together, and the crossing over of the optic nerves, and the complex processing which an even more complex brain must accomplish to produce in-focus, stereoscopic vision, gets very, very complex. But it's all just a big accident, you know. But...if this is too complex to have 'just happened'...and required creation by God...then who made this God who is much more complex than His or Her creation?

I believe...I believe I'm going to have another drink. Oh...I forgot...SDA's don't drink...or do they? Was Jesus accused of being a grape-juice drinker? Come on...

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 09/16/2008 - 10:01
A slimy amoeba in the deep blue sea...was the great grand-dad of you and me. Then I was a monkey...swinging in a tree. Now I'm a teacher...I've got my PhD. See what science has done for me?!

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/17/2008 - 05:30
Wasn't it Einstein who said that he wanted to 'think God's thoughts after him' and 'God does not play dice with the universe'? I like the idea of 'devotional science' which involves meditating and praying in nature, as well as working with proton accelerators and scanning electron microscopes. Truth is truth, whether it is taught by a church or not.

My favorite shirt is the one which reads, 'In the Beginning God Said "[Schroedinger Wave Equation]!" And There Was Light!'

Go Jesuit scholars! That is if they could all just renounce that wretched 'Jesuit Oath'.

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/17/2008 - 07:50
Discovery must be managed with responsibility. We have fantastic space-age technology...yet we often seem to exhibit cave-man ethics. We are so smart and creative...that now we can exterminate ourselves.

Could this have something to do with source material? Imagine using a science text, which is thousands of years old, to teach graduate students. Why does science use current texts while religion uses ancient texts? Perhaps religion has some catching-up to do.

How about incorporating the concept of responsibility into just about everything, including science and religion? Jesus incorporated the concept of responsibility into just about everything he said and did.

Pursue pure science with child-like curiosity, and then apply science responsibly for the betterment of humanity. And be nice to the lab animals!

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/24/2008 - 06:19
Bob wrote: "Actually, Tom, the value of the Hubble Constant has finally been measured, and it looks like we live in an open universe that will never collapse."

I write: Thank-God! I was starting to get kinda worried and nervous. Now I can relax a bit. Thanks Bob, that took the edge off!

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/article/sabbath-school/2008/07/21/son-god-among-us

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/22/2008 - 10:43
What if Jesus never existed? I believe he did. But what if I'm wrong? Would this mean that there is no God, no life beyond this present physical life, no absolute ethical standard, and no hope?

I have an answer...but I'm interested to read what others think about this question.

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 07/23/2008 - 07:59
As I have been reading the comments(including my own) on this site during the past couple of weeks...I have wondered what an 'outsider' might think about all of the conflicting points of view. Would they be inspired? Would they want to join in? Would they be amused? We seem to do a pretty good job of eating each other alive. And it's kinda fun, isn't it?! I frankly enjoy it...but I wonder if the 'perishing' world out there really give a rat's patootie about what we debate...

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 07/23/2008 - 09:15
Pat,

I'm shy, paranoid, and spineless...that's why I use the pseudonym...orthodoxymoron. I have no integrity or courage. By the way...I like parties where people wear masks...and everyone tries to figure out who everyone is. I like to keep people guessing. My hat(mask) goes off to people who care enough to reveal their true identities. I don't like risks. I'm a better safe than sorry kind of person. I guess I'll have to derive your views from the responses you give to real people with real names. Actually I'm a ficticious person with a ficticious name. I'm the blogger who never was. The blogs are fake. They're holograms...

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 07/24/2008 - 01:04
Comments about me: Wear all the masks you want, you are still accountable. Choose your works wisely for eternity. Spectrum can be fun, it it should not be a joke. Some bee must have stung you badly years ago, but it is time to get over it. Loma Linda is going to get a Childrren's Hospital not another health food store. Try the farmer's market down in good old L.A. They have great stuff--edible also. Tom

Response: Get over it? I'm just getting warmed-up! My father worked next to the Farmer's Market, at CBS. He used to speak with George Vandeman when he taped It Is Written at CBS. George liked the stage to be kept quite cold. Every Friday my father would bring me cashews from the Farmer's Market.

Regarding accountability: Have I written anything which lacks responsibility or accountability? Have I been mean to anyone? You seem to not like me. You are telling me to change. You are not simply disagreeing with me. You seem to be making it personal.

Should I follow your example and say things such as:

The Loma Linda expansion may become the greatest fiscal mistake the Church has made since they made Neal Wislon President of the General Conference.

Mr Straight Contradiction: Soory you are in a mid life crisis. I hope you handle it manly. But I do detect a hint of hot flashes also--check you library on preventive care--help must be on the way. Tom

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 07/24/2008 - 01:21
Frank,

I am one depraved human being who enjoys heated debate, which to some, may appear to be 'eating each other alive'. This is only one of my many non-endearing traits. The upside is that other people tend to feel better about themselves after coming in contact with me.

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/article/column/2008/07/17/our-biggest-north-american-division-crisis-isn%E2%80%99t-theological

orthodoxymoron - Thu, 07/17/2008 - 13:46
I once sang in a mega-church choir, and every Sunday we had celebrity guests and soloists. One Sunday, after a celebrity soloist got a standing ovation, the pompous and supercilious preacher exclaimed, 'try doing that in your little local church!' A staffer sitting next to me whispered, 'Oooooooh!' Needless to say, that put-down did not appear on their up-beat TV 'show'. I called it Celebrity Churchianity.

The very small churches probably don't need pastors. The members can duke it out in someone's living room, rented hall, or Sunday church. There probably needs to be a critical mass(a Catholic problem!) of people to properly 'do church'...if church really needs to be done. We don't have to have fast-food. We can stay home and cook. We don't have to have church to commune with God. We can stay home and do that too. We shouldn't just 'play church'.

Close a lot of the very small churches and build solid programs at well designed and built churches of at least 200 members(on the books). But we don't need mega-churches which worship Fame, Fortune, and Power more than Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And which cater to 'felt needs'.

A highly 'theologized' church like the SDA church, which is whole-Bible, Ellen White, eschatalogical, behavior-related soteriology, evangelist based...creates a lot of strong emotions, fear, convictions, and conflicts. In a small church, there is no place to hide. A liberal, non-invasive, liturgical church is much more relaxed. Some might say too relaxed. You do the ritual and go home, or wherever.

To live in heaven with the saints...oh that will be glory. To live on earth among the saints...well that's another story. There is no good answer to religious and church problems. We just have to do the best we can, and not worry too much about it.

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 07/18/2008 - 13:12
My comment: To live in heaven with the saints...oh that will be glory. To live on earth among the saints...well that's another story. There is no good answer to religious and church problems. We just have to do the best we can, and not worry too much about it.

Frank's comment: I just cannot accept that we should just do the best we can, as has been suggested, because there's no good answer to church problems. That's not the church I read about in Acts. Nor will it help us fufill the mandate that I believe we are to carry out as the Body of Christ. "We're doing the best we can," has often become a euphemism for continuing a status-quo that is just not working.

My defense: Don't sweat the small stuff. Everything is small stuff. No matter how you package a theology or a church...there are still going to be problems. This is not the New Jerusalem. The best we can do is the best we can do. Playing the blame-game or engaging in self-flagellation won't help(unless you are Silas or belong to Opus Dei). I attended a model mega-church, where people came from all over the world to learn how to do it right. If you discounted the visitors...they had very few regularly attending members. Many of these members felt disenfranchised. I kid you not. The two services of 3,000 filled seats was not the true story of what was happening to the local congregation. Everyone has a bright idea for what the church needs. And many think that if everyone agreed with them, and did it their way...everything would be great. Unfortunately, we are all different. Actually it's fortunate that we are all different. I'm so confused! Leaders want us to think...alike! Sometimes we are deluded with conflicting delusions...and no one is right.

Come to think of it...what did Jesus say about church? Did he say anything about how to make a church work? Did he tell people to go to church? Did he build a church building, and ask for money? Did he have his own church? What did he say when the disciples were admiring a church? Didn't he tell people to pray in secret? Was he saying, 'don't go to church'? Is church part of the solution...part of the problem...or both?

Many SDA evangelistic efforts focus on the sensational…which mobilizes the paranoid members of the community…and creates new church members. Then the paranoia becomes focused on other church members…and the church is in turmoil. This is a very loose paraphrase of the experience of Dr. Arthur Beitz(the golden voice of Adventism) who later became a banker with a Rolls Royce parked in a carpeted garage. And some think Adventists are boring…the bland leading the bland. Do I have an answer? Are you kidding? Just beware of extreme liberals and extreme conservatives, historians…and especially Red Letter Christians! They are especially pernicious!

orthodoxymoron - Fri, 07/18/2008 - 13:45
Don Rhoads:

I like the term Seventh-day Anglican. I'm probably close to this designation. But I think I might be closer to being a Red Letter Anglican. I like a liturgical approach to church. However, I would like to see a Desire of Ages version of the Book of Common Prayer...and a red-letter lectionary. The Psalms are included in their entirety, but not the Gospels...or the words of Christ. This seems very odd to me. I prefer the 1928 Book of Common Prayer to the current version. The 'Emergent Church' is interesting...but again I prefer the Desire of Ages to Marcus Borg or Brian McClaren.

Have you read 'Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail --Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church' by Robert Webber? There is a chapter containing the experience of former Adventists, David and LaVonne Neff.

What a tangled web some of us weave on our spiritual quests. For some of us, this is a painful, lonely, and rocky road.

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 07/19/2008 - 14:08
Harlen:

You are so right. I once loaned a copy of 'The Great Controversy' to a liberal Harvard-educated Episcopal rector. I tried to be cool, and told him about the plagarism and theological controversies connected with the book and Ellen White. He returned the book a week later, and had only praise for it...not criticism...and he was one who could criticize very trenchantly and convincingly.

I have a feeling that Christianity at large will be shaken harder than we have been. The comment, "A lot of us think the Adventists have it correct, theologically. When the shaking time comes, we wonder if you'll be ready for us." is very revealing. A liturgical emphasis should not be viewed as running back into the arms of mother church...but rather as a protest to the historical corruption, atrocity, and theological subversion of the teachings of Jesus. We need to be a comfortable refuge for those who are dissillusioned with 'big church'.

It's ironic that Geoffery Paxton, the author of 'The Shaking of Adventism' was Anglican, and that Desmond Ford is a former Anglican, who knew about the problems connected with Hebrews 9:12 before he joined the SDA church. Australian Anglicans, no less!

I think there are many holes in our system, and that we are taking on water...but I don't think we will sink. Rather, we will become a life-boat for millions of Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Again, the question is, will we be ready...or will someone else have to combine our best ideas with the best of liturgical communion, and be that life-boat? The Episcopal church may be that someone else...

orthodoxymoron - Sat, 07/19/2008 - 23:03
Frank,

I appreciated your liturgical observations. I am schizophrenic about the subject, and talk out of both sides of my mouth. It's a love-hate sort of thing. It can be very dry, repetitive, and dead. Or there can be a royal dignity, order, reverence and awe. I love Bach, and I mostly go for baroque. I love well done traditional hymns, especially during a processional or recessional, with robed participants actually processing or recessing. I also love contemporary music...but usually in a more relaxed or secular environment. I guess it's whatever works. If the church went liturgical, I would probably then want it to become praise church oriented. I would occasionally attend the Vineyard in Anaheim. It was a converted warehouse. But it was full of enthusiastic young people. I wasn't a big John Wimber fan...but obviously something was working.

I would like to see paid Ministers of Music in our churches. And not just lawn mowing or paper route pay. They should be theologically, psychologically, and musically trained...and perform a pastoral, as well as a musical role. This would make them more well rounded, and could help to justify a living wage. This is important work, and should be treated and rewarded as such.

Finally, I like listening to www.gracecathedral.org to hear the services at Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco.

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 07/21/2008 - 00:15
Do you ever have the feeling that the text you just heard in church was not appropriate, not helpful, and probably not the word of the Lord? I have! And while I believe that all scripture is inspired by God, I also believe that there is a time and a place for everything. Vast portions of scripture are probably best left to the classroom or to private study. Church is a place where we come to be inspired and lifted up! We come to have our faith made stronger, not weaker! We need a concise moral and inspirational foundation which is also historical. The words of Jesus should be central, as always.

I wish to propose that a Red Letter Lectionary be composed as follows:

Old Testament Reading: Selected from Proverbs.

Psalm: Duh!

New Testament Reading: Selected from Acts, or the non red letter portions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Gospel: Selected from the red letter portions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And further, that the sermon or homily always be based on the words of Christ. This may be called picking and choosing. It may also be called Dalmatian Theology. But I call it kicking Satan where it counts!

The Psalms and Proverbs provide the best of the Old Testament moral, inspirational, and devotional material. They also set the stage for the appearance of Jesus. The book of Acts chronicles the Ascension, Pentecost, and the progress of the early Christian church. The non red letter portions of the Gospels provide a context for the words of Christ. And finally, the words of Jesus are the foundation of the Christian church.

I do not wish to imply that the left out portions of scripture are unimportant. No portion of scripture should be neglected. It's just that church is a very, very special occasion, and that the Psalms, Proverbs, Gospels and Acts are central to the singing, praying, theological and moral instruction of Christians. So many books in the Bible, and so little time! The goal is to be appropriate, and simple, yet comprehensive. And to deal with that portion of the historical which is readily adaptable to the contemporary. To avoid exasperating and confusing the faithful and the reasonable.

This is a hard saying! Who can hear it?! Put down the stones and pitch-forks! Extinguish the torches!

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/07/20/satire-3abn-add-three-new-shows

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 07/21/2008 - 13:42
Did anyone see the cartoon years ago of kangaroos in a courtroom with the judge saying, "and now...about the matter of Desmond Ford..."?

Or how about the cartoon showing a man pointing at a prophecy chart, as the second coming is occuring, and exclaiming, "You're Early!"?

Some angry church members were caught singing, "The church's one foundation, the Ellen White Estate!" And "Dare to be a Daniel! Dare to stand alone! Dare to think of something new! Dare to make it known!" The instigators called it catharsis, but they still got in a lot of trouble, and rightfully so.

Straight guys(conference men or otherwise) can probably learn something from the sensitivity which gays exhibit. But guys don't have to be gay to be sensitive and refined. By the way, did you ever see a conference man smile or laugh?

orthodoxymoron - Mon, 07/21/2008 - 13:45
Tom,

I really hope this isn't serious. You will be in my prayers. One plus is that you won't have orthodoxymoron to kick around for a while. God bless.

orthodoxymoron - Tue, 07/22/2008 - 13:47
Tom:

I'm glad things turned out ok medically.

Your story leaves me conflicted. You posted a freedom version of the Ten Commandments, but I'm having problems with the final four:

VII. Free From Ruling Passions (love not lust rules)---Problem is...people love to lust...was it a sin to look?

VIII. Free to Share (giving rather than taking)---Problem is...the young lady was giving and not taking...was that wrong?

IX. Free Face the Truth. (The No Spin Zone)---Problem is...would the priest have been less sinful if he had just faced the truth...and stared, without trying(lying) to look pious?

X. Free From Selfishness. (Rejoicing in another's good fortune.)---Problem is...shouldn't the people on the bus have just rejoiced in the priest's good fortune...instead of judging him?

More! http://spectrummagazine.org/review/2008/09/19/review-marvin-moore%E2%80%99s-challenges-remnant

orthodoxymoron - Wed, 09/24/2008 - 12:25
Aren't Protestant churches derivatives of the Roman Catholic Church(including Adventism)? They didn't really make a 'clean' break with Rome, did they? The teachings of Christ are not the foundation of the church of Christ...Protestant or Catholic.

Is it possible for the Roman Catholic Church to change at it's deepest levels? Is it too big, too old, and too committed to never changing? What happened to Pope John Paul I when he was about to implement sweeping changes? Was Vatican II a deep and fundamental change...or was it a superficial change?

Has anyone seen the movie, 'Brides of Christ'? Here is a sample: 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPm-YqtBq9k&feature=related 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhkivB85tHY&feature=related 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQgHCQh2sJE. It is an excellent movie, featuring a Catholic school in Australia in the 1960's, and the challenges of understanding and implementing the changes made during Vatican II. I honesty cried while watching it.

I have tried to not be a 'knee-jerk' anti-Catholic. I have participated in dozens of Catholic Masses, and found them to be quite inspiring. I have had numerous brief conversations with Catholic priests. Historically, it seems, that Adventism has had a 'knee-jerk' anti-Catholicism, without walking in the shoes of Catholics, and evaluating each issue on a case by case basis in an unbiased manner.

There are similarities in the two organizations. In fact, during the Mary Kay v Pacific Press case, the hierarchical structure of the Adventist Chruch was compared with that of the Catholic Church, and used as an Adventist defense in the case.

The bigger and older an organization becomes, the harder it is to avoid corruption and abuse. If the SDA Church was as large and old as the Catholic Church, I would expect similar levels of corruption and abuse. This is why it is important to maintain a competitive environment in the area of religion and politics, as well as in business. Competition(as long as it is constructive) helps keep everyone a lot more honest and above board.

If the 'Separated Bretheren' return to 'Mother Church'...the checks and balances will be gone. There will be no barrier to corruption, abuse, persecution...and worse. We need to love each other...but we need to constuctively compete with each other for everyone's benefit...including Roman Catholics.

Ellen White wrote directly and sometimes harshly regarding the Roman Catholic Church. Adventism has assumed that the Catholic Church cannot and will not change. I try to be optimistic. I am not fatalistic. I do not believe in absolute fore-knowledge. I believe that there can be a happy ending.

High-level conversations and agreements should not be entered into before all historical ethical deviations are thoroughly examined and discussed, with all of their implications and ramifications. The Teachings of Jesus and the U.S. Constitution should be the basis of globalism...rather than a New World Order Theocracy. Go ahead...burn me. Well hello Silas...what are you doing here?

The library computers won't produce sound through my headphones, so I'm presently limited to reading internet material. Perhaps that's a blessing in disguise. This is helping me to back away from a lot of esoteric material. I'm seriously considering going back to sleep. Waking-up is so overrated. I continue to imagine that Humanity is a Recent Renegade Subset of an Ancient Reptilian Race -- and that Humanity is on the Brink of Extinction. My United States of the Solar System rambling has been my feeble attempt to save the human race -- if it deserves to be saved. How are we supposed to responsibly proceed, without an exhaustively honest and comprehensive account of Human History and the History of the Solar System?? I'm REALLY sick and tired of the guessing-game -- and of being mostly ignored. I have a stack of books which I intend to read over and over again -- so that the contents really sink in. I really do need to learn to research without moving my lips and without posting on the internet. Will 'they' eventually remove my name from the 'Red List'??? I doubt it.

I continue to think in terms of Retaining the Best Aspects (and Discarding the Worst Aspects) of the Presidency, Monarchy, Papacy, United Nations, and the Secret Government. I simply wish for the creepy, corrupt, and violent aspects of all of the above to go away. However, I continue to remain on the outside, attempting to look inside -- so I have no idea what's REALLY going on in this world, solar-system, galaxy, and universe. Knowing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth -- might completely change my present biases. I'm simply doing the best I can -- with what little I have to work with -- as an Angry Old Fool. "Orthodoxymoron and the Temple of Doom: Sinners in the Hands of a Completely Ignorant Fool!!!" The Horror.

Consider watching (or rewatching) the following:

1. 'The Last Temptation of Christ'.
2. 'Legion'.
3. 'Brides of Christ'.
4. 'Stargate'.
5. 'Stargate Continuum'.
6. 'Day the Earth Stood Still'.
7. The Old and New 'V'.
8. The Complete 'Stargate SG-1'.
9. The Complete 'Dr. Who'.
10. The Complete 'Star Wars'.
11. The Complete 'Battlestar Galactica'.
12. 'Dogma'.
13. 'Oh God!'.
14. '2012'.
15. 'Avatar'.
16. 'Contact'.
17. 'East of Eden'.
18. 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.
19. 'Ghost Busters'.
20. '2001: A Space Odyssey'.
21. 'The Divinci Code'.
22. 'Angels and Demons'.

I can't watch them, because my electronic situation is dismal and desperate -- but please watch all of the above -- with this thread clearly in mind. Once again, I am encouraging STUDY rather than ORTHODOXY. I continue to be somewhat brain-dead -- yet I continue to think that many of my insights are potentially profound. Unfortunately, I lack follow-through. Some of this is on-purpose, because I'd rather have YOU figure things out for yourselves!! Some of this deadness seems to have a lot to do with spiritual oppression (not possession!) due to my challenging the 'way things are' in this solar system. I often wonder if we live in the Earth-Division of Orion Incorporated? I often wonder if this world is BIG BUSINESS? I often wonder if my ideas would cut into the bottom-line of this hypothetical galactic business? Mind you, I am not opposed to Intergalactic Business -- but I have HUGE problems with human-sacrifice, human-abuse, slave-labor, intergalactic-taxation without representation, terrorism and war for profit and retribution, creepy rituals, out of control laboratories, etc, etc, etc. Once again, I desire a Perfected Humanity Living in a Perfected Solar System. But really, I have no idea what the true situation is throughout the universe -- but lately I have been thinking in terms of worst-case scenarios -- including the judgment, punishment, and extermination of the human-race. I am VERY afraid. Would instituting the United States of the Solar System be similar to trying to get out of the Mafia???!!! "Whaddaya Mean Ya Wanna Leave???!!! Whaddaya Mean Ya Wanna Back Out of Our Deal???!!! You're Real Funny!!! We Got Some Nice New Cement Shoes and a One-Way Plane Ticket to Lake Tahoe for You, Wise-Guy!!!" (Hacking Laughter in a Smoke-Filled UFO!)

Once again, I'm reading (or re-reading) the following (among others):

1. 'Jesus: Last of the Pharaohs' by Ralph Ellis.
2. 'The Desire of Ages' by Ellen White.
3. 'The Great Controversy' by Ellen White.
4. 'The Holy Bible' in the King James Version.
5. 'The Gods of Eden' by William Bramley.
6. 'The Twelth Planet' by Zechariah Sitchin.
7. The 1928 'Book of Common Prayer'.
8. 'Antony and Cleopatra' by William Shakespeare (aka Francis Bacon??!!)
9. 'The Federalist Papers'.
10. 'Rule by Secrecy' by Jim Marrs.
11. 'The United States of the Solar System' Thread.
12. 'The Red Pill' Threads.

Good-luck figuring everything out!! I've been listening to the local classical music station round the clock -- even when I'm sleeping -- and I let it play while I'm away! Combining nature, research, and classical-music is a winning combination! I've REALLY hit a wall. I'm trying to think everything through -- but I seem to be having a VERY difficult time thinking. Period. I continue to seem to NOT resonate with anyone. I am VERY lonely, troubled, and fearful. I'm VERY worried about the possibility of an extinction-level cataclysm -- via US, ET, or Who Knows Who and/or What?! Once again, I am merely defining certain areas of study, and making certain speculations. I am NOT an insider! Not in this lifetime anyway! I suspect that I have had much more interesting past-lives -- but I will NEVER do regression hypnosis, or anything even remotely creepy -- including joining secret societies. So, I will probably continue to Fly-Blind -- which might be for the best. I probably can't handle the truth. Perhaps none of us can. All of this madness seems to have overwhelmed me. I Feel Really Dazed and Confused Today. I think I could adapt to Underground Base life -- but I'd probably keep to myself and read books while listening to classical music. I doubt that I'd be much help. I am existing in a very strange space presently. I sort of like it, because of the insights, but I feel pretty useless as far as mainstream society is concerned. I am VERY apprehensive concerning my next life (if I even have a next life). I have no idea what sort of Karmic Debt I might have accumulated throughout the eons. It might be staggering. I am VERY afraid.

I continue to imagine that the Gods are mad at each other -- and mad at us. I so hope that I'm wrong. But please read the first five books of the Old Testament, and the last book of the New Testament, with unbiased eyes -- and see what you think about the God presented therein. How readest thou? Is it possible and/or proper to divorce the Decalogue from the Pentateuch, the Hebrews, and Amen Ra? Was the God in the Wilderness different than the 'Father in Heaven' which Jesus referred to in the Gospels? Are we dealing with Three Local Orion-Sirius-Egyptian Minor-Deities and One Orion-Sirius Major-Deity in Heaven? Think about it. I think about it all the time -- and it makes me tremble -- wondering how I might fit into the reincarnational madness. I am VERY frightened.

"While Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag (We Three Archangelic Queens?) went to Earth and made their home upon it, their father Anu (Our Father, Who Art in Heaven?) remained in the Heavenly Abode as its ruler. Not only occasional references in various texts but also detailed 'god lists' actually named twenty-one divine couples of the dynasty that preceded Anu on the throne of the 'pure place'. Anu himself reigned over a court of great splendor and extent. As Gilgamesh reported (and the Book of Ezekiel confirmed), it was a place with an artificial garden sculpted wholly of semiprecious stones. There Anu resided with his official consort Antu and six concubines, eighty offspring (of which fourteen were by Antu), one Prime Minister, three Commanders in charge of the Mu's (rocket ships), two Commanders of the Weapons, two Great Masters of Written Knowledge, one Minister of the Purse, two Chief Justices, two 'who with sound impress,' and two Chief Scribes, with five Assistant Scribes. Mesopotamian texts refer frequently to the magnificence of the abode of Anu and the gods and weapons that guarded its gateway. The tale of Adapa reports that the god Enki, having provided Adapa with a shem,

Made him take the road to Heaven,
and to Heaven he went up.
When he had ascended to Heaven,
he approached the Gate of Anu.
Tammuz and Gizzida were standing guard
at the Gate of Anu.

Guarded by the divine weapons SHAR.GAZ ('royal killer'), the throne room of Anu was the place of the Assembly of the Gods. On such occasions a strict protocol governed the order of entering and seating:

Enlil enters the throne room of Anu,
seats himself at the place of the right tiara,
on the right of Anu.
Ea enters [the throne room of Anu],
seats himself at the place of the sacred tiara,
on the left of Anu.

The Gods of Heaven and Earth of the ancient Near East not only originated in the heavens but could also return to the Heavenly Abode. Anu occasionally came down to Earth on state visits; Ishtar went up to Anu at least twice. Enlil's center in Nippur was equipped as a 'bond heaven-earth.' Shamash was in charge of the Eagles and the launching place of the rocket ships. Gilgamesh went up to the Place of Eternity and returned to Uruk; Adapa, too, made the trip and came back to tell about it; so did the biblical king of Tyre. A number of Mesopotamian texts deal with the 'Apkallus,' an Akkadian term stemming from the Sumerian AB.GAL ('great one who leads,' or 'master who points the way'). A study by Gustav Guterbock ascertained that these were the 'bird-men' depicted as the 'Eagles' that we have already shown. The texts that spoke of their feats said of one that he 'brought down Inanna from Heaven, to the E-Anna temple made her descend.' This and other references indicate that these Apkallu were the pilots of the spaceships of the Nefilim. Two-way travel was not only possible but actually contemplated to begin with, for we are told that, having decided to establish in Sumer the Gateway of the Gods (Babili), the leader of the gods explained:

When to the Primeval Source
for assembly you shall ascend,
There shall be a restplace for the night
to receive you all.
When from the Heavens
for assembly you shall descend,
There shall be a restplace for the night
to receive you all.

Realizing that such two-way travel between Earth and the Heavenly Abode was both contemplated and practiced, the people of Sumer did not exile their gods to distant galaxies. The Abode of the Gods, their legacy discloses, was within our own solar system." -- 'The Twelth Planet' pgs. 173-5.

Was Jesus a Demoted Orion-Sirius-Egyptian Minor Deity? Why didn't Jesus Christ simply live a perfect life in a Palace, and then be sacrificed within the Sanctuary, in a solemn sacred ceremony -- as both Priest and Victim? Why the nastiness, torture, and butchery???!!! Why all of the grotesque crucifixes everywhere? I keep getting the feeling that Jesus is a Galactic Personna Non Grata at the Head of a Renegade Human Race. Am I right or wrong?

Brook, thank-you for both of the 'Red Pill' threads. http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t791-egyptian-folklore-and-the-red-pill-part-1?highlight=red+pill I'm presently going through both of them -- in addition to the 'Amen Ra' thread on Project Avalon -- which is really your thread. There have been nearly 26,000 views so far! http://www.projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18223&highlight=orthodoxymoron+threads I really haven't had a proper foundation, so as to properly absorb this material, before now. 'The Twelth Planet' by Zechariah Sitchin, 'The Gods of Eden' by William Bramley, 'Rule by Secrecy' by Jim Marrs, 'Jesus: Last of the Pharaohs' by Ralph Ellis, and 'The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ' by Gerald Massey -- plus my internet research and speculation -- have helped to provide a proper introduction to your material. A proper context is essential. Just reading your threads without some significant background, really does not work -- not for me anyway. I wasn't ignoring your work. I simply had to build my base, before moving on. I have recently been considering the relationship between Ancient Egypt and Ancient Israel -- especially regarding the 'Temple' or 'Sanctuary' -- the Ark of the Covenant -- Ritual Sacrifice (Animal and Human) -- and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I'm increasingly centering Christianity and Judaism in Ancient Egypt.

Has anyone taken the time and effort to internalize the contents of this thread -- and to then generate their own Political and Theological Science Fiction? Once again, this thread is not intended to give you what you want, or to tell you what you wish to hear. It is intended to make you face yourself and think. Someone please talk to me about all of this madness. Once again, I'm not trying to tell anyone what to think. I'm not sure what I think. I simply wish for everyone to think. It's VERY difficult to pin-down the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth -- about life, the universe, and everything. However, the possibilities and probabilities are scaring the hell out of me. I tend to think that things are very dangerous and chaotic -- and that the future will be even more dangerous and chaotic -- regardless of who is deposed and arrested -- and regardless of which individuals and factions take their places. I have recently expressed concerns that we might be facing a post-apocalyptic theocracy of some sort. Problem. Reaction. Solution.

I'm not real big on 'alternate timelines' but perhaps the secret-government has a multitude of scenarios worked-out and modeled in excruciating detail. Perhaps Presidential Speeches are being written decades in advance???!!! Some of this sort of thing would make sense, wouldn't it?? What I object to is the corrupt and violent aspects seemingly associated with the secret government. It seems like an out of control version of a basically good idea. I keep thinking that an Ancient Grand Plan for Planet Earth got hijacked and corrupted -- which is why I keep leaning toward a reformation and refinement of everything -- rather than junking everything, and starting from scratch.

Imagine being within a 200 kilometer bad-asteroid-mother-in-law ship with a central cathedral which might dwarf St. Peter's. Then, imagine this cathedral filled with Draconian-Reptilians laying prostrate before a Reptilian-Queen. Was this part of our past? Will this be part of our future? Just something to brighten-up your day! Is this an example of my insanity -- or might this be reality?? What REALLY pre-existed the advent of humanity? Was this new creation a welcome addition to the universal family -- or did the PTB proceed to seek to exterminate the 'Primitive Apes'? I continue to think in terms of a nasty past, present, and future. Again, I so hope that I'm wrong. I simply take everything in -- without getting too upset about anything -- including Russian vehicles in L.A. Who knows? We might have Drac, Grey, Anunnaki, Chinese, Russian, NATO, and UN Troops in the United States in the near future. I wouldn't be surprised by much of anything, at this point. I regularly listen to Sherry Shriner on www.thewatcherfiles.com or www.sherrytalkradio.com or http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sherrytalkradio/2012/05/10/aliens-in-the-news -- and she talks about this sort of thing all the time. I don't necessarily believe her or agree with her -- but she seems to have an insiders perspective -- and I like to selectively expose myself to upsetting and disorienting information as sort of a conditioning or training process -- so that I can better evaluate and respond to what MIGHT be in our future. I worry about the BTB (Bastards That Be) messing with the tectonic-plates (with who-knows-what technologies). I think I'm going to rewatch '2012' -- just to sink a bit deeper into unyielding-despair. Sometimes I'm sort of eschatologically-masochistic. I keep getting the impression that the USA is screwed -- and that once the USA goes down, the whole damn world will go down. What if 'Earth-Changes' are a cover for nasty secret-government factional-fighting? As you can tell, I've become quite cynical regarding a peaceful and happy universe -- especially within this solar system. It seems like all of us -- in all factions -- will be fighting with each other for all eternity -- but I so hope that I'm wrong. I often wonder about the true sources of nuclear technology -- and the true purposes of nuclear technology. Is this ancient other-than-human technology which has been inappropriately and irresponsibly resurrected from secret repositories of forbidden knowledge -- with sinister motives?? I often wonder if all of the nuclear programs of the world are under the control of one central authority??!! I often wonder if a lot of things are under the control of one central authority??!! Have nukes been transported off-world to attack other worlds??!! I continue to imagine that Fukushima was deliberately inflicted -- and that it might simply be a down-payment for the controlled-demolition of the human-race. Was there ever a plan to detonate all nuclear weapons simultaneously to exterminate humanity??!! I will continue to speculate and model the unthinkable in the hope that the worst-case scenarios can be avoided.

Many years ago, I discussed Theology with someone with the last-name 'Ballard' -- virtually in the shadow of Mt. Shasta! I later spoke with someone who looked a helluva lot like St. Germain! I kid you not! These are just a couple of more strange coincidences in my strange life. Unrelatedly, what might Cecil Rhodes have thought about my 'United States of the Solar System' -- especially if the whole operation were centered in London??!! What might the Mormon church think of the U.S.S.S. -- especially if the whole operation were centered in Salt Lake City??!! What might the Vatican think of the U.S.S.S. -- especially if the whole operation were centered in Vatican City? What might the United States of America think of the U.S.S.S. -- especially if the whole operation were centered in Washington D.C.??!! What might the United Nations think of the U.S.S.S. -- especially if the whole operation were centered in New York City??!! What might the Secret Government think of the U.S.S.S. -- especially if the whole operation were centered on the Dark-Side of the Moon? What if the best aspects of the Papacy, Monarchy, Presidency, United Nations, and the Secret Government were incorporated into a United States of the Solar System??!!

I am beginning to think about how to effectively deal with an infiltrated, subverted, and corrupted United States of the Solar System. You know this is what would happen, don't you?? Whatever gets set-up will get screwed-up. Just look at history!! Think this thing through regarding the next couple of thousand years of a U.S.S.S. This could be Heaven -- or this could be Hell. Just look at what has happened to the Teachings of Jesus over the past couple of thousand years!! This is a deceptive and nasty game!! Perhaps I really need to wage a moot-war against this thread -- and try to expose the weak-points -- and I'm sure there are hundreds of them! I'm still waiting for a scholarly critique of this thread -- and I have requested this many times. I sense huge fangs and sacks of venom behind the silence -- and I expect to be mercilessly attacked and bitten in the near future -- regardless of any sort of blissful honeymoon.

I continue to stand by my suggestion that the human population in this solar system be limited to 8 billion - with 4 billion residing on Earth (half underground -- or at least half of the 'buildings' located underground) -- and 4 billion residing throughout the rest of the solar system (mostly sub-surface). This would be for environmental and survival reasons. Magneto-Leviton Trains and Uncoventional-Spacecraft would be part of the deal. Are we really dealing with Archangelic Factional Fighting and Power Struggling? If so, how many factions are there -- and what is the nature of each? I keep speculating -- but I know that I don't know what's really going on. My activities on this website are just practice for what I think might be in our future.

What are the responsibilities and relationships of the following???

1. The Universal God(s).
2. The Galactic God(s).
3. The Local God(s).
4. The Secret Government(s).
5. The Elected Representatives.
6. The General Public.

Consider the possibility of Responsibility in Everything:

1. Responsibility-Based Ethics.
2. Responsibility-Based Law.
3. Responsibility-Based Religion.
4. Responsibility-Based Government.
5. Responsibility-Based Business.
6. Responsibility-Based Education.
7. Responsibility-Based Fame.
8. Responsibility-Based Fortune.
9. Responsibility-Based Power.
10. Responsibility-Based Pleasure.

I repeatedly requested assistance regarding U.S.S.S. Representative Voting relative to the Will of the People expressed in Daily Internet Voting. Unfortunately, I have received no responses whatsoever. I suggested that there should be some sort of modality to harmonize the two -- as the offspring of a Representative-Republic and a Direct-Democracy -- under God -- of course. Why will no one discuss this important topic with me???? Is it too complex???? Should a Sovereign and Righteous God delegate as much responsibility as possible -- or should they just issue orders -- and order executions for failure and insubordination????

I'm thinking about designing Bad-Asteroid Queen-Ships!! I kid you not!! One design calls for the equivalent of the Hubble Telescope in the 'nose' of a ten-kilometer asteroid-spacecraft -- complete with multiple bridges -- a central cathedral -- and multiple remote-controlled micro-asteroids (Smart-Asteroids) launched through asteroid-holes!! I think I might've designed anti-gravity craft in previous lives -- but I won't bore you with why I think that might be the case!! I've tried to be nice -- and no one seems to wish to positively respond to 'nice' -- but do you really want it the other way???

In a sense, one doesn't really need to be an 'insider' to think about 'insider-type subjects'. The truth really does seem to be out there -- but we still seem to have to connect the dots. Even 'official' sources contain a helluva lot of 'good-stuff'. Check this out!! http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/index.cfm BTW -- I think I saw another UFO a couple of days ago -- even though I don't look for them. I suspect that the solar system is full of them. I actually try not to think about them, because of Star Wars -- which I suspect might be ongoing -- here -- and throughout the universe. My world-view and universe-view is much darker than it used to be. I long for my childhood idealism. I prefer a 'Harry Anderson' and 'Uncle Arthur' world-view and universe-view. Does anyone know what I'm talking about??? Anyone at all???

I keep wondering if Renegade Reptilian Archangels genetically engineered the Human-Being -- against the will of the Universal Reptilian Powers That Be???!!! If this is true (or partially true) I wonder if this 'New-Creation' has been handled in an irresponsible manner by both Divinity and Humanity???!!! Has this been at the center of the Original and Unpardonable Sin -- and the War in Heaven -- complete with the expulsion and/or exodus from the Garden of Eden? What if the archangelic-precursor of Jesus Christ was crucified and/or sacrificed as punishment for their part in the conspiracy/creation of the Human-Race???!!! What if the Extermination of the Human-Race is considered to be the Ultimate Final-Solution to the Sin-Problem -- as a Final Atonement-Sacrifice-Punishment for Sin???!!! Is it expedient that one race perish -- so the universe might be cleansed of sin, conflict, and duality???!!! In the latest version of 'V' the 'Visitors' presented themselves as being the friends and saviours of mankind -- when in reality, they were just the opposite. The series had a religious undercurrent, which I bet got ABC into a lot of hot-water. 'V' was cancelled after two seasons. On the other hand, I keep thinking about the possibility of three Archangelic-Annas in conflict with each-other -- and with humanity -- with one of these Annas being decidedly on the side of humanity (while still being profoundly troubled with the often problematic realities of humanity).

What if the 'Protocols of the Wise-Men of Zion' is really a Reptilian Strategy for the Management and Exploitation of the Human-Race -- rather than being 'Jewish'? Bill Cooper included the 'Protocols' in his book 'Behold a Pale Horse' -- but Bill considered the 'Alien Presence' to be at the center of the 'Secret Government' -- rather than any one human group (such as the Catholics, the Jews, the Communists, et al) being behind a conspiracy to rule the world. Ruling the world is probably a Royal Pain in the @$$!!! Are a handful of useful-idiots presently being offered-up as sacrificial-lambs -- while new useful-idiots are being recruited??? Would a 'regime-change' merely be a 'puppet-change' -- while the puppet-masters remain in place??? Even if some of my bright-ideas were implemented, I would still be very wary regarding behind the scenes manipulation and rule by secrecy. How about 'Rule by Fool'???

I continue to have absolutely zero animosity toward any individuals, groups, or races (human and otherwise). On the other hand I am often very frustrated by the spirit of the age, and by things in general. I am simply attempting to understand the madness -- so as to help resolve the difficulties (which I might've played a part in anciently and in modernity). I continue to be VERY frightened by all of this. All of my joking is probably my attempt to lighten-up some very dark subjects. In a way, I'm sort of glad that no one seems to pay much attention to my internet activities. This is probably a back-channel between me and a couple of NSA interns!!! It's probably easier that way!! My grand strategy is to 'think everything -- and do nothing -- other than posting a bit of this and that on the internet'.

I would like to see Las Vegas and Area 51 reformed -- but not removed. I think it might be cool to live around Las Vegas and work at Area 51 -- but only if the creepy, corrupt, and disgusting aspects were removed. What if the Vegas Games were based upon skill, rather than chance? What if there were windows and skylights in the casinos? What if there were no teens clicking call-girl (prostitute) cards? What if Vegas were turned into a high-class affordable-luxury for families??? What if there were no malevolent entities and beings connected with Area 51? What if there were public tours of Area 51 (with none of the 'good-stuff' hidden)? I created a 'Kali' thread -- and made many speculations, and I feel as if I have spoken with Kali -- or at least a representative of Kali. I don't wish to be more specific. I also spoke with someone who claimed to have built Las Vegas with 'Bugsy'. The crazy thing is -- I believed them. Again, I don't wish to be more specific.

I continue to think that the problem is not with that which exists -- but rather with the misuse and abuse of that which exists. The priorities and price-tags seem to be all wrong. I am conflicted regarding competition, cooperation, capitalism, communism, socialism, etc. I think that everything has its place -- and that our mistake is that we let things get out of control. I once attended several lectures by a Czech professor, who believed in 'Socialistic-Democracy'. I'd simply like to get rid of war, destitute-poverty, and the non-compassionate use of accumulated-wealth.

How can we really know anything for certain -- especially regarding the BIG issues about Life, the Universe, and Everything??? I have been attempting to engage in a sort of Political and Theological Science Fiction -- which takes in all of the conspiracy-theories and little-green-men stories -- yet which remains mostly undecided regarding just about everything. Unfortunately, despite my best intentions, I seem to have burned myself rather badly with all of this madness. At this point, I'm not sure exactly how to proceed. Perhaps simply working-hard and playing-hard might be the way for me to go -- and this might be the best way for most people to live. I have attempted to converse with the people who frequent this site regarding aliens and the end of the world -- but I do not talk to people I meet every day about any of this madness. I have purposely kept a low-profile because of the volatile and upsetting nature of the subject-matter -- and because of the difficulty in proving any of it. Still, I really would like to figure out a lot of the hidden aspects of life, the universe, and everything -- even if it puts me in the poor-house, the nut-house, and ultimately in Camp FEMA.

My computer does not play youtube videos well at all, so I can barely watch any of them. I have found 'The Gods of Eden' by William Bramley, 'Jesus: Last of the Pharaohs' by Ralph Ellis, and 'The Twelth Planet' by Zechariah Sitchin to be VERY interesting regarding our history -- especially regarding Biblical history. Also, the video 'The Ring of Power' aka 'Empire of the City' opened my eyes to a lot of things. Unfortunately, I never know what to believe -- so I just take it all in, and consider all of it to be possibilities -- and nothing more. I don't have a problem with the Old Testament as history. I think it should be studied by everyone. However, I do not think that the Old Testament should rule every aspect of our lives in modernity. I lean toward the Teachings of Jesus as being a general theological and ethical guide -- yet I lean even harder toward interdisciplinary research for arriving at truth -- and for deciding how to live today.

Consider buying a copy of the 1928 'Book of Common Prayer' http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9/183-5878814-4656932?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=1928+book+of+common+prayer&sprefix=1928+book%2Cstripbooks%2C841 -- and reading it while attending sacred and secular classical music concerts -- as I recently did -- without looking like a 'Bible-Thumper'! Actually, perhaps I should stick to Jesus Studies, Egyptology, Astronomy, and Sacred Classical Music! Think long and hard about that combination! I just started reading 'A Myth of Innocence' by Burton Mack! http://www.amazon.com/MYTH-INNOCENCE-Foundations-Facets-Series/dp/0800625498

I actively campaigned for Ron Paul last time around -- but my internet activities have led me into the sci-fi realm -- and away from real-time politics. I really think that millions of people should research everything written and spoken by Ron Paul -- rather than focusing on the person of Ron Paul. Somewhat unrelatedly, I suggest the same thing regarding Dr. Robert H. Schuller. I'm tending to be more principle and concept centered these days -- rather than following the leader (who might stumble and fall at any moment).

Please don't take this paragraph too seriously. I mean absolutely no harm. I am simply attempting to think about antiquity is some imaginative ways. Imagine the Traditional Latin Mass -- in the context of Solomon's Temple (complete with the Ark of the Covenant, and a Pipe-Organ!) -- in the context of Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, Babylon, Sirius, and Orion -- with Anunnaki, Dracs, and Greys in attendance -- with a priest (or some sort of deity) dressed like Ra (in Stargate) -- complete with sun-disk headgear! Is this completely delusional -- or is there some substance to this fantasy??? Think about the 'temple-court' in the 'Cold Blood' episode of 'Dr. Who'!! Notice the size and shape of this temple, the one in 'Stargate' (complete with strange humanoids), and Solomon's Temple. Also notice the academic-robe worn by the Draconian-Reptilian Elder-Statesman (in 'Cold Blood')! Notice the attitudes of the 'Drac-Queens'!! Notice that there were two of them -- or was Dr. Who the third -- on a reincarnational level??!! We Three Archangelic Queens??!! Remember Dr. Who telling the little boy that the scary creatures were afraid of him (Dr. Who)??!! What if Dr. Who is Anu??!! Who?? Notice what Richard Hoagland said in 'Dark Mission' regarding a 'Communion Service' performed on the lunar surface (in a 19.5 degree relation to Sirius) exactly 33 minutes after the Eagle landed!! There is some interesting Egyptology in 'Dark Mission'. What would you think if I told you that I observed and discussed the star 'Sirius' with an Ancient Egyptian Deity while we drove down the highway (after having coffee at Starbucks)? What would you think if I told you that they called me a 'Commoner' after I made a comment about 'Tall, Long-Nosed Greys'? What would you think -- Oh Never Mind...

There are too many unknowns connected with the contents of this thread. I have attempted to help all concerned -- but I feel as if I have simply made everyone angry at me -- without anything being made better. I even fear that I've made things worse. I would really like to know what the hell has been going on during the past couple of years in connection with me and my internet posting. I know that some of you know -- but no one seems to wish to be honest with me. Consequently, I'm leaning toward simply studying astronomy while listening to classical music. Would that get me off the Red-List? I am very disillusioned by my efforts to 'help'.

Think of a 50 pound Torah being used for the Old-Testament Reading in an Anglican or Catholic Liturgy!! Imagine the Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel being read from a Gutenburg Bible!! I haven't spoken much about a lot of races, countries, and religions -- because I consider the City-State, United-Nations, and Secret-Government issues to be some of the most pressing topics imaginable -- but I am NOT in bed with ANYONE (other than my dog 'Jake Sully')!!

Things will probably get worse -- before they get better -- if they get better. Things might have to destabilize to a certain level -- before an effective reorganization for the better can properly occur -- but I don't think that any of this madness should be deliberately inflicted. This sad scenario will probably occur all by itself. The negative momentum is too massive to stop in its tracks. I am not anti-technology -- but I am very afraid that we are going to exterminate ourselves -- if ET doesn't exterminate us first. If there isn't a deliberate apocalypse -- there is likely to be some damn accident or screw-up. Sorry -- I try to be idealistic -- but I keep gravitating toward what I just said. Timing will be EVERYTHING in this crazy game!

The loud high-pitched 'ringing' in my ears continues 24/7. My spiritual war continues -- with my mind and soul in a vice or head-lock of some type -- but I've pretty much accepted my fate -- and I'm doing more book-reading -- and less internet research and posting. I'm not complaining when I say that I have been extremely miserable throughout my life -- and that this did NOT arise by making 'bad' choices -- as some of you have sanctimoniously claimed. My mostly private war is becoming a lot more private -- and it's morphing into something I'd rather not talk about -- in both good and bad ways. Thank-you everyone for your insights and patience.

You spooks (human and otherwise) should be more careful regarding watching me, entering my house, and talking about me among yourselves. I've had some unfortunate experiences lately (which I'd rather not mention). It should be enough to simply monitor my internet posting and telephone conversations. I have promised 'no surprises' -- and I meant it. BTW -- I intend to spend a lot less time and energy on 'important' things -- and a lot more time and energy cleaning and fixing my house. I might even smile and be more friendly if I stop thinking about innovative ways to 'save the world' -- and get some new teeth (at very great expense).

It's interesting to me that Dr. Who and I both favor the artist Thomas Gainsborough ('The Blue Boy' is my favorite painting). I also find it interesting that Dr. Who has official papers from the King of Sweden. (What Would King Ring Say?) Dr. Who also seems to have been part of some sort of a genocide (against reptilians of some type?). Dr. Who is also referred to as 'Your Holiness'. Dr. Who seems to be not entirely human (with two hearts). Dr. Who is involved in human affairs -- lifetime after lifetime -- doctor after doctor. Rewatch the fifth-series of 'Dr. Who' for these, and other clues. Notice 'who rules' in one of the episodes (she's dressed in red).

I am VERY troubled by the human carnage and environmental destruction of the past two-hundred years -- and with the potential human carnage and environmental destruction of the next twenty years -- which could make the past two hundred years of madness seem like a walk in the park. A big problem with 'waking-up' is depression and anger. My personal 'solution' has been to do Pseudo-Intellectual Political and Theological Science-Fiction -- which touches upon the horrors of our past, present, and future -- yet which doesn't get caught-up in a lot of the personalized negativity and nastiness. I find that I have to live partly in the 'Real-World' and partly in a 'Dream-World'. I'm finding myself thinking increasingly in terms of a Post-Apocalyptic Representative-Theocracy. This does not reflect what I want -- but I am very afraid that we might be heading in that direction. Angry Gods, Vengeful Deities, and Irresponsible People are a VERY bad combination. I will continue to be a mixture of Incurable Optimism and Unyielding Despair. We might be living on the Wrong Side of the Tracks in this Galaxy. This might be the Wild West -- and we might be headed for a VERY wild and nasty ride -- but I so hope that I'm wrong. Speaking of a wild and nasty ride -- take a look at THIS!!! http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2012/04/man-sues-bmw-for-persistent-erection-after-bike-ride/1?csp=obnetwork

I continue to wonder what a 'Heaven' should be?! Think long and hard regarding the subject of 'Heaven' -- especially in relation to Earth and Humanity. This is more of a complex and problematic topic than most of you think. Think particularly about the possible differences between a 'Other-Than-Human Heaven-Above' (possibly in Orion or Sirius) and a 'Human Heaven-On-Earth'. I really and truly need some of you to study this thread in great detail -- and think through that which I have placed on the table. Think about it as if our survival depended upon it -- because it just might. I continue to think that Earth-Humanity and the Earth-Condition is such that we really are on the brink of extinction -- from multiple threats and for a variety of reasons. We really need to think about politics and religion in some very unconventional ways. This is more difficult to do than most of you imagine. Don't just think you 'know it all' or that religion is 'just a bunch of BS'. Just because there are seemingly absurd and counterintuitive aspects of religion and theology doesn't mean that this isn't the way things are in the 'Real-Universe'.

I continue to wonder if this Earth is a 'Laboratory in Lockdown' -- with very powerful beings considering whether to press the 'Fail-Safe Button' -- and completely destroy the 'Experiment Gone Bad' -- before the 'Virus of Humanity and Rebellion' has a chance to spread beyond this solar system -- and contaminate the rest of the universe. The true state of affairs regarding Earth, Humanity, and Other Worlds and Races -- might be stranger and more deadly than we are capable of comprehending. Is 'The Most High' too patient and gentle toward Humanity?? Should Humanity be 'cracked-down-upon' with righteous and merciless judgment??? Will the real solutions to our predicament cause 99% of the Human-Race to become very angry?? Will the 'true-solutions' satisfy no one?? Will everyone hate their 'Saviour'?? 'Save Us From Our Saviour'?? I continue to be VERY worried about the future of the Human-Race.

I think I get labeled as being 'crazy' because I think about things which most other people wouldn't dream of. I continue to refer to my tripe as 'Political and Theological Science-Fiction'. Does calling it such, remove me from the 'nut-house'? Is it really a sin to attempt to solve the Solar System's Problems by modeling a wide variety of seemingly insane scenarios? I'll bet there are those with advanced-degrees and fancy-badges who get paid big-bucks to model worst-case scenarios. World War III gets modeled each and every day. I know that for a fact. Perhaps Kalinin should've done some more modeling before he built this monstrosity. He was ordered executed by that 'nice' man, Joseph Stalin, when the K-7 crashed after only 11 flights. Remember the model-plane engineer in 'Flight of the Phoenix'?!


This is the Day That God Has Made! Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad In It! When Faced With a Mountain, We Will Not Quit! We Will Keep On Striving Until We Climb Over, Find a Pass Through, Tunnel Underneath -- Or Simply Stay, and Turn the Mountain Into a Gold-Mine -- With God's Help! In the Name of Jesus Christ, and With the Power of the Holy-Spirit, We Choose to Do That Which is Right -- as Namaste-Constitutional-Responsible-Freedom United States of the Solar System Orion-Roman-Soldiers -- Competing Without Ceasing With Positive Response Ability -- As Composites of Everyone and Everything -- In Our Going Out -- In Our Coming In -- In Our Laying Down -- In Our Rising Up -- In Our Labor -- In Our Lesiure -- In Our Laughter -- And In Our Tears -- Until We Come to Stand Before Jesus In That Day In Which There is No Sunset and No Dawning! Namaste and Godspeed! -- The Orthodoxymoron Creed (With Special Thanks to Dr. Robert H. Schuller) Note: I'm not exactly sure why I wrote "Orion-Roman-Soldiers" -- but it seemed to convey a certain sense of Galactic Authority which I thought sounded sort of cool!

I am deeply troubled regarding the lack of information and certainty pertaining to the most important aspects of history. How can anyone make proper decisions today, without proper information about yesterday?? I am also deeply troubled that very few seem to wish to properly discuss this with me. I feel that it is improper to post as I have done -- yet I also feel that it is improper to arrive at important decisions without properly exploring all of the possibilities, regardless of how absurd they might appear to the casual observer. I don't really know about reptilians, greys, gods, godesses, vengeful-deities, et al -- but it might be important to properly research these subjects -- and then think about them in the context of a science-fictional format. I have done some of this, mostly because the standard answers don't seem to work anymore. Everything seems haywire. The real truth seems to be hidden and protected by the most powerful forces imaginable -- and perhaps for legitimate reasons -- yet I am highly frustrated by this. I think I have come into contact -- both online and in-person -- with those who could've properly discussed everything with me, and answered my questions -- but this has not occurred. I think that it started to happen, but that something went wrong. Perhaps I pushed too hard, or perhaps I was too shrill -- but now I am pretty much on my own -- and I am experiencing VERY bad vibes from a wide variety of sources -- each and every day of my life. This has caused me to become a bit bitter -- and I don't feel particularly positive and warm toward Divinity or Humanity. I despise myself -- yet it seems as if I'm supposed to be doing something of some importance -- but no one will tell me just what that might be. I keep feeling as if I'm hanging myself by attempting to make things better for everyone.

One more time -- and perhaps one last time -- this thread was an unconventional experiment. I wished to explore uncharted territory -- to test all of us -- especially myself. I am NOT comfortable with a lot of the posts I made -- but I felt they were necessary to stimulate a certain level of thinking. Unfortunately, I suspect that everything I have included in this thread will be used against me in some rather nefarious and sinister ways. I suspect that this has already occurred -- and that it is probably ongoing. I keep wondering if anyone in the solar system has attempted a similar approach??!! I tend to doubt it!!! I'm actually a lot more conservative than you might think. Really.

Has anyone been granted a PhD in 'Comparative Conspiracy Theories'? What if there were a 'University of Conspiracy Theories'? The phenomenon should be seriously studied, shouldn't it? What is the relationship between Conspiracy Theories and the Scientific Method? Perhaps all of the present conspiracy theories are just the few visible cockroaches -- which might ultimately lead to the Big Kahuna of All Conspiracy Theories -- hidden in some Mutant-Cockroach-Infested Wall of a Deep Underground Military Base!!! The Horror!!!

I wish to reiterate that I consider 1. Nature 2. Research 3. Classical-Music -- to be a winning combination -- and I mean all varieties of research -- not just esoteric-research and conspiracy-theories. I support a Multidisciplinary Approach to Life, the Universe, and Everything. I continue to hope for a Peaceful and Happy Solution. I rest my case. Here I Sit.

"It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies." -- Thomas Huxley

ApocaLipStick: Apply liberally, just prior to kissing your @$$ goodbye! "No Virginia! Not your husband!" "No Virginia! Your @$$ is not too big! Not anymore!" "No Virginia! Please don't kill me!" WWLD? (What Would Loki Do?)

Nibiru has supposedly been diverted, but supposedly the moon Mimas, from Saturn, will arrive soon (May 20?) and will block out the sun for at least three days. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sherrytalkradio/2012/05/17/aliens-in-the-news Supposedly Mimas has some sort of 'death-ray' which could potentially destroy us. Who knows? Quite a while ago, I half-jokingly and half-seriously suggested that Nibiru take up a circular orbit safely beyond the obit of Pluto, and become part of the United States of the Solar System. Supposedly there are GIANTS on Nibiru, so perhaps my suggestion might not be a good idea. I don't know. I never know. Perhaps Mimas might go turncoat, and join the U.S.S.S. as well!! I obviously don't intend to open the stargates of the solar system to all varieties of Trojan Horses -- but I wish to disempower the 'bad guys and gals' -- and convince everyone to start 'doing the right thing'. 'What's wrong with it?' 'Everyone's doing it!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimas_(moon) Supposedly Mimas is the real-life version of the 'Death Star' in 'Star Wars'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_star

Mimas is a moon of Saturn which was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel.[8] It is named after Mimas, a son of Gaia in Greek mythology, and is also designated Saturn I.

With a diameter of 396 kilometres (246 mi) it is the twentieth-largest moon in the Solar System and is the smallest known astronomical body that is rounded in shape due to self-gravitation.

Mimas was discovered by the astronomer William Herschel on 17 September 1789. He recorded his discovery as follows: "The great light of my forty-foot telescope was so useful that on the 17th of September, 1789, I remarked the seventh satellite, then situated at its greatest western elongation."[9]

Mimas is named after one of the Titans in Greek mythology, Mimas. The names of all seven then-known satellites of Saturn, including Mimas, were suggested by William Herschel's son John in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope.[10][11] He named them after Titans specifically because Saturn (the Roman equivalent of Kronos in Greek mythology), was the leader of the Titans and ruler of the world for some time.

The adjectival form of Mimas is Mimantean or Mimantian,[12][13] and this is accepted by the Cassini mission at JPL.[14]

For more details on this topic, see List of geological features on Mimas.

Cassini view of Mimas's trailing hemisphere, showing craters up to 6 km deep and 1-km-deep chasmata (grooves). The large crater near center is Morgan; Arthur is close to the lower right limb. Pelion Chasma is faintly visible as a horizontal trough left of Arthur and below Morgan.

The low density of Mimas, 1.15 g/cm³, indicates that it is composed mostly of water ice with only a small amount of rock. Due to the tidal forces acting on it, the moon is not perfectly spherical; its longest axis is about 10% longer than the shortest. The ellipsoid shape of Mimas is especially noticeable in recent images from the Cassini probe.

Mimas's most distinctive feature is a colossal impact crater 130 kilometres (81 mi) across, named Herschel after the moon's discoverer. Herschel's diameter is almost a third of the moon's own diameter; its walls are approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) high, parts of its floor measure 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) deep, and its central peak rises 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) above the crater floor. If there were a crater of an equivalent scale on Earth it would be over 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) in diameter, wider than Australia. The impact that made this crater must have nearly shattered Mimas: fractures can be seen on the opposite side of Mimas that may have been created by shock waves from the impact travelling through the moon's body.[15]

The Mimantean surface is saturated with smaller impact craters, but no others are anywhere near the size of Herschel. Although Mimas is heavily cratered, the cratering is not uniform. Most of the surface is covered with craters greater than 40 kilometres (25 mi) in diameter, but in the south polar region, craters greater than 20 kilometres (12 mi) are generally lacking.

Three types of geological features are officially recognized on Mimas: craters, chasmata (chasms) and catenae (crater chains).

A number of features in Saturn's rings are related to resonances with Mimas. Mimas is responsible for clearing the material from the Cassini Division, the gap between Saturn's two widest rings, the A Ring and B Ring. Particles in the Huygens Gap at the inner edge of the Cassini division are in a 2:1 resonance with Mimas. They orbit twice for each orbit of Mimas. The repeated pulls by Mimas on the Cassini division particles, always in the same direction in space, force them into new orbits outside the gap. The boundary between the C and B ring is in a 3:1 resonance with Mimas. Recently, the G Ring was found to be in a 7:6 co-rotation eccentricity resonance with Mimas; the ring's inner edge is about 15,000 kilometres (9,300 mi) inside Mimas's orbit.[citation needed]

Mimas is also in a 2:1 mean motion resonance with the larger moon Tethys, and in a 2:3 resonance with the outer F Ring shepherd moonlet, Pandora.

Pioneer 11 flew by Saturn in 1979, and its closest approach to Mimas was 104,263 km on September 1, 1979.[16] Voyager 1 flew by in 1980, and Voyager 2 in 1981.

Mimas has been imaged several times by the Cassini orbiter, which entered into orbit around Saturn in 2004. A close flyby occurred on February 13, 2010, when Cassini passed by Mimas at 9,500 km (5,900 mi).

When seen from certain angles, Mimas closely resembles the Death Star, a fictional space station known from the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which is said to be roughly 140 kilometres in diameter. This resemblance stems from the fact that Herschel can appear in Mimas's northern hemisphere, much like the concave disc of the Death Star's "superlaser". This is purely coincidental, as the first film was made three years before the first close-up photographs of Mimas were taken.[17]

In 2010, NASA revealed a temperature map of Mimas, using images obtained by Cassini. The warmest regions, which are along one edge of the moon, create a shape similar to the video game character Pac-Man, with Herschel Crater assuming the role of an "edible dot" known from Pac-Man gameplay.[18][19][20]

1.^ "Imago Mundi: La Découverte des satellites de Saturne" (in French).
2.^ Harvey, Samantha (April 11, 2007). "NASA: Solar System Exploration: Planets: Saturn: Moons: Mimas: Facts & Figures". NASA. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
3.^ a b c Roatsch, T.; Jaumann, R.; Stephan, K.; Thomas, P. C. (2009). "Cartographic Mapping of the Icy Satellites Using ISS and VIMS Data". Saturn from Cassini-Huygens. pp. 763–781. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-9217-6_24. ISBN 978-1-4020-9216-9. edit
4.^ Jacobson, R.A.; Antreasian, P.G.; Bordi, J.J.; Criddle, K.E.; Ionasescu, R.; Jones, J.B.; MacKenzie, R.A.; Meek, M.C. et al (December 2006). "The Gravity Field of the Saturnian System from Satellite Observations and Spacecraft Tracking Data". The Astronomical Journal 132 (6): 2520–2526. Bibcode 2006AJ....132.2520J. doi:10.1086/508812. edit
5.^ Jacobson, R. A.; Spitale, J. et al (2005). "The GM values of Mimas and Tethys and the libration of Methone". Astronomical Journal 132 (2): 711. Bibcode 2006AJ....132..711J. doi:10.1086/505209.
6.^ Verbiscer, A.; French, R.; Showalter, M.; Helfenstein, P. (9 February 2007). "Enceladus: Cosmic Graffiti Artist Caught in the Act". Science 315 (5813): 815. doi:10.1126/science.1134681. PMID 17289992. Retrieved 20 December 2011. (supporting online material, table S1) edit
7.^ Observatorio ARVAL (April 15, 2007). "Classic Satellites of the Solar System". Observatorio ARVAL. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
8.^ Herschel, W. (1790). "Account of the Discovery of a Sixth and Seventh Satellite of the Planet Saturn; With Remarks on the Construction of Its Ring, Its Atmosphere, Its Rotation on an Axis, and Its Spheroidical Figure". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 80 (0): 1–20. doi:10.1098/rstl.1790.0001.
9.^ Herschel, William Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 80, reported by Arago, M. (1871). "Herschel". Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 198–223. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
10.^ As reported by William Lassell, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 42–43 (January 14, 1848)
11.^ Lassell, William (1848). "Satellites of Saturn: Observations of Mimas, the closest and most interior Satellite of Saturn". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 8: 42. Bibcode 1848MNRAS...8...42L. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
12.^ Jane Ellen Harrison (1908) Prolegomena to the study of Greek religion‎
13.^ The nt comes from the Latin genitive case Mimantis, from Greek Μῑμάντος; the old form of the name had been Mimans Μίμανς (Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon)
14.^ "Cassini Equinox Mission: Mimas". Saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. 2005-08-02. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
15.^ Elkins-Tanton, Linda E. (2006). Jupiter and Saturn. Infobase Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 9781438107257.
16.^ "Pioneer 11 Full Mission Timeline". Dmuller.net. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
17.^ Young, Kelly (2005-02-11). "Saturn's moon is Death Star's twin". New Scientist. Retrieved 2008-08-21. "Saturn's diminutive moon, Mimas, poses as the Death Star – the planet-destroying space station from the movie Star Wars – in an image recently captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft."
18.^ Cook, Jia-Rui C. (2010-03-29). "1980s Video Icon Glows on Saturn Moon". NASA. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
19.^ "Bizarre Temperatures on Mimas". NASA. 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
20.^ "Saturn moon looks like Pac-Man in image taken by Nasa spacecraft". The Daily Telegraph. 2010-03-30. Retrieved 2010-04-02.

The Death Star is a fictional moon-sized space station and superweapon appearing in the Star Wars movies and expanded universe. It is capable of destroying a planet with a single destructive energy beam.

Origin and design

Although particular details, such as the superlaser's location, shifted between different concept models during production of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the notion of the Death Star being a large, spherical space station was consistent in all of them.[1] The buzzing sound counting down to the Death Star firing its superlaser comes from the Flash Gordon serials.[2] Portraying an incomplete yet powerful space station posed a problem for Industrial Light & Magic's modelmakers for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.[3] Only the front side of the 137-centimeter model was completed, and the image was flipped horizontally for the final film.[3] Both Death Stars were depicted by a combination of complete and sectional models and matte paintings.[1][3]

Depiction

The second Death Star under construction in Return of the Jedi Films

The original Death Star first appears in its completed form in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Commanded by Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), it is the Galactic Empire's "ultimate weapon", a space station capable of destroying a planet with one shot of its superlaser. The film opens with Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) transporting the station's schematics to the Rebel Alliance to aid them in destroying the Death Star. Tarkin orders the Death Star to destroy Leia's home world of Alderaan in an attempt to pressure her into giving him the location of the secret Rebel base; she gives them a (false) location, but Tarkin has the planet destroyed anyway. Later, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) boards the station with his friends and rescues her; in the film's climactic battle scene, he uses his power in the Force to help him destroy the station.

In Return of the Jedi, set four years later, the Empire is building a new Death Star; it is half-finished throughout the film. Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) and Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) send the Rebels false information that the station's weapons systems are not operational in order to lure them into a trap, and bring Skywalker on board to turn him to the dark side of the Force. In the film's climax, Vader throws Palpatine down the station's reactor core, killing him, and is mortally wounded in the process. Skywalker escapes with Vader's body moments before the Rebels destroy the station.

The first Death Star also appears in the Star Wars prequel trilogy: its schematics are visible in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and the end of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith shows the Death Star early in its construction.

The Death Star explosions featured in the special edition of A New Hope and in Return of the Jedi are rendered with a Praxis effect, wherein a flat ring of matter erupts from the explosion.

Expanded Universe

Both Death Stars appear throughout the Star Wars Expanded Universe. The first Death Star's construction is the subject of Michael Reaves and Steve Perry's novel Death Star. In LucasArts' Star Wars: Battlefront II, the player participates in a mission to secure crystals used in the Death Star's superlaser. The first Death Star under construction acts as the final stage in the video game, The Force Unleashed. Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy introduces the Maw Cluster of black holes that protect a laboratory where the Death Star prototype was built (consisting of the super structure, power core, and Super Laser.) National Public Radio's A New Hope adaptation portrays Leia (Ann Sachs) and Bail Organa's (Stephen Elliott) discovery of the Death Star's existence and Leia's mission to steal the space station's schematics. The first level of LucasArts' Dark Forces gives the player a supporting role in Leia's mission, while a mission in Battlefront II tasks the player with acting as a stormtrooper or Darth Vader in an attempt to recover the plans and capture Leia. Steve Perry's novel Shadows of the Empire describes a mission that leads to the Rebels learning of the second Death Star's existence, and that mission is playable in LucasArts' X-Wing Alliance combat flight simulator. Numerous LucasArts titles recreate the movies' attacks on the Death Stars, and the Death Star itself is a controllable weapon in the Rebellion and Empire at War strategy game. A Death Star variation appears in Kevin J. Anderson's novel Darksaber.

The first Death Star is depicted in various sources of having a crew of 265,675, as well as 52,276 gunners, 607,360 troops, 30,984 stormtroopers, 42,782 ship support staff, and 180,216 pilots and support crew.[4] Its hangars contain assault shuttles, blastboats, Strike cruisers, land vehicles, support ships, and 7,293 TIE fighters.[5] It is also protected by 10,000 turbolaser batteries, 2,600 ion cannons, and at least 768 tractor beam projectors.[5] Various sources state the first Death Star has a diameter approximately 140 kilometers.[4][6] There is a broader range of figures for the second Death Star's diameter, ranging from 160 to 900 kilometers.[7][8] In the Disney attraction, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, guests can travel inside an uncompleted Death Star during one of the randomized ride sequences.

Other uses of the term

A few astronomers sometimes use the term "Death Star" to describe Nemesis, a hypothetical star postulated in 1984 to be responsible for gravitationally forcing comets and asteroids from the Oort cloud toward Earth.[9]

Enron labeled one of the false companies used in its fraudulent manipulation of the California power grid "Death Star".[10]

ILM's principal render farm is named Death Star. The effects house is extremely secretive about the computing power the AMD-powered Death Star possesses, but it is estimated that at one time it employed close to 1500 processors in 750 nodes.

IBM's line of Deskstar hard drives (and to a lesser extent Hitachi's) are colloquially referred to as "Deathstars", especially the very unreliable 60GXP and 75GXP models. [11][12]

Cultural impact

The Death Star is one of the better-known concepts from the Star Wars universe and is widely recognizable outside of that context.

In The Fairly Odd Parents, Dark Laser (a pun off of Darth Vader) planned to build a space station, known as the "Death Ball", a space station with Laser's face on it. It is also known as the World's Largest Disco Ball in the series.

The Saturnian moon Mimas, photographed by the Cassini probe in 2005. The large crater in the center (Herschel) gives it a resemblance to the Death Star.
In 1981, following the Voyager spacecraft's flight past Saturn, scientists noticed a resemblance between one of the planet's moons, Mimas, and the Death Star.[13]

The video games Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles contain plotlines centered around the "Death Egg", a space station resembling the Death Star, though altered to feature the face of series villain Doctor Robotnik. The Death Egg is built as a destructive superweapon; the story revolves around destroying this object. A similar superweapon, the Space Colony ARK (with the Eclipse Cannon), appears in Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog.

The Death Star placed ninth in a 2008 20th Century Fox poll of the most popular movie weapons.[14]

In the US, networks that compete with Fox refer to American Idol as the Death Star due to its destructive effects on their schedules and ratings.[15][16]

In Canada, the term "death stars" was used to describe U.S. Direct Broadcast Satellites capable of broadcasting signals into Canada that were not regulated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.[17]

The Creative Artists Agency's headquarters has been nicknamed the "Death Star" by the entertainment media.[18]

RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands is nicknamed "Death Star" due to its confusing layout.[19]

KTCK (SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket) in Dallas were the first to use the term "Death Star" to describe the new mammoth Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The term has since spread to local media and is generally accepted as a proper nickname for the stadium.[20]

In February 2012, students from Lehigh University of Pennsylvania published a blog post that priced the Death Star based on the cost of steel to produce it. The students believed that in today's economy, it would cost $852,000,000,000,000,000 assuming that the diameter of the Death Star was 140 kilometres but that it would take 833,315 years to produce enough steel to begin work.[21]

Kenner and AMT created a playset and a model, respectively, of the first Death Star.[22][23] In 2005 and 2008, Lego released models of Death Star II and Death Star I, respectively.[24][25] Palitoy created a heavy card version of the Death Star as a playset for the vintage range of action figures in 1979 in the UK, Australia and Canada. Both Death Stars are part of different Micro Machines three-packs.[26][27] The Death Stars and locations in them are cards in Decipher, Inc.'s and Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Customizable Card Game and Star Wars Trading Card Game, respectively.[28] Hasbro released a Death Star model that transforms into a Darth Vader mech.[29] Estes Industries released a flying model rocket version.[30]

References

1.^ a b "Death Star (Behind the Scenes)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
2.^ Rinzler, J. W. (2010-09-01). The Sounds of Star Wars. Chronicle Books. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8118-7546-2.
3.^ a b c "Death Star II (Behind the Scenes)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
4.^ a b "Death Star (Expanded Universe)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
5.^ a b Slavicsek, Bill (1991-06-01). Death Star Technical Companion. West End Games.
6.^ Reynolds, David (1998-10-05). Incredible Cross-Sections of Star Wars, Episodes IV, V & VI: The Ultimate Guide to Star Wars Vehicles and Spacecraft. DK Children. ISBN 0-7894-3480-6.
7.^ "Death Star II (Expanded Universe)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
8.^ Inside the Worlds of Star Wars, Episodes IV, V, & VI: The Complete Guide to the Incredible Locations. DK Children. 2004-08-16. ISBN 0-7566-0307-2.
9.^ Britt, Robert Roy (2001-04-03). "Nemesis: Does the Sun Have a 'Companion'?". Space.com. Retrieved 2008-08-21. "Any one of them could be the Death Star, as Nemesis has come to be called by some."
10.^ Kranhold, Kathryn; Bryan Lee and Mitchel Benson (2002-05-07). "New Documents Show Enron Traders Manipulated California Energy Costs". Free Preview. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
11.^ http://www.pcworld.com/article/59943/users_complain_about_ibms_crashing_drives.html
12.^ http://www.pcworld.com/article/125772-5/the_25_worst_tech_products_of_all_time.html
13.^ Young (2005-02-11). "Saturn's moon is Death Star's twin". New Scientistfirst=Kelly. Retrieved 2008-08-21. "Saturn's diminutive moon, Mimas, poses as the Death Star — the planet-destroying space station from the movie Star Wars — in an image recently captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft."
14.^ Sophie Borland (2008-01-21). "Lightsabre wins the battle of movie weapons". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-01-26.
15.^ Carter, Bill (2007-02-20). "For Fox’s Rivals, ‘American Idol’ Remains a ‘Schoolyard Bully’". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-03-13. "If any of Fox’s rivals had hopes that this year might signal some hint that the monster — NBC favors the term Death Star — would finally betray some sign of weakness, those hopes were dispelled in just a week."
16.^ Bauder, David (2007-01-30). "'Idol' Attracts More Than 32M Viewers". The Associated Press. Retrieved 2008-03-13. "Rival television executives not-so-fondly refer to Fox's American Idol as the "death star.""
17.^ Hoskins, Colin; Stuart McFadyen and Adam Finn (1994). "The Environment in which Cultural Industries Operate and Some Implications". Canadian Journal of Communication. Retrieved 2007-09-09. "Their strategy has been to paint a doom-and-gloom scenario with respect to the effect of expected U.S. DBS services, dubbing the satellites "death stars.""
18.^ "Agents: A Big Week for CAA!". Defamer. Gawker Media. 2007-03-16. Retrieved 2007-09-09. "We're told that most of the agency is away on a weekend retreat in Ojai, leaving the Death Star defended solely by some call-rolling drones"
19.^ Clench, James (May 17, 2010). "Falklands 'Death Star' job for Wills". The Sun. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
20.^ ["http://www.theunticket.com/the-new-death-star-stadium-texas-stadium/ "The New Death Star Stadium – Texas Stadium"]. theunticket.com.
21.^ "How Much Would it Cost to build the Death Star?". Centives. Feb 15, 2012. Retrieved 2011-04-12.
22.^ "Death Star Space Station". SirStevesGuide.com Photo Gallery. Steve Sansweet. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
23.^ "Death Star". SirStevesGuide.com Photo Gallery. Steve Sansweet. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
24.^ "LEGO Death Star". Star Wars Cargo Bay. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
25.^ "3,800-Piece Death Star Diorama Is Coolest Star Wars Lego Ever". Gizmodo. 2008-06-19. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
26.^ "#X: T-16 Skyhopper, Lars Family Landspeeder, Death Star II (1996)". Star Wars Cargo Bay. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
27.^ "#XIV: Landing Craft, Death Star, Speeder Swoop (1998)". Star Wars Cargo Bay. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
28.^ "Star Wars Customizable Card Game Complete Card List" (PDF). Decipher, Inc.. 2001-08-23. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
29.^ "Star Wars TRANSFORMERS Darth Vader Death Star". Hasbro. Archived from the original on 2007-12-21. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
30.^ "ESTES INDUSTRIES INC. Model Rockets and Engines". Retrieved 2008-08-21.


Who controls the destiny of our souls??? Who determines who we reincarnate as??? When a Rockefeller or Rothschild dies -- who do they reincarnate as??? Do rich people reincarnate as rich people? Do poor people reincarnate as poor people??? Do humans sometimes reincarnate as reptilians or greys??? Do reptilians and greys sometimes reincarnate as humans??? OR -- is there a great reincarnational gulf fixed between the races??? Could this be the source of a lot of the problems between the races??? The nature of the soul -- and the reincarnational realities -- might be at the center of our perplexities.

I am attempting to review my own material. I have not mastered my own thread. This thread is really my 'to do' list. I am presently rewatching the first season of 'V' while interpreting it, based upon this thread. I plan to get the second season DVD's -- and then watch the series over and over -- to infuse it with deeper meaning -- if that makes any sense. What would a completely benevolent 'V' series look like??? What if Anna were promoting a 'United States of the Solar System'??!! I keep thinking in terms of three Archangelic-Annas in conflict with each other -- while the universe watches.

What would it be like to live on the 20 solar system moons -- on a rotating basis??? What if Pluto were moved much closer to the sun??? What would it be like to live within Mercury, Pluto, Venus, or Mars??? What if Mercury were moved further away from the Sun? What if all of the 20 moons were orbiting Venus, Earth, and Mars? How would moving the moons, Mercury, and Pluto affect the other planets -- especially Earth??!! Is colonizing the solar system a good or bad idea??? What arrangement of the human population would maximize our chances of long-term survival???

If it were up to me, it would be highly illegal for humans to hurt or kill animals (except for rare and extenuating circumstances). I realize that nature can be a mother -- but We the People of Earth should not make things worse. I have HUGE problems with suffering and killing. Why are the most obvious things so difficult to grasp???

Our planet is how we plan-it, yet I still see a problematic 'other than human' component to our challenges and troubles. I am not endorsing William Bramley as a person. I simply found his book 'The Gods of Eden' to be absolutely fascinating. Also, take a close look at the God of the Old Testament. This God seems to be both sophisticated and harsh. The Roman and Jewish Leaders, at the time of Christ, appeared to mirror this sophistication and harshness -- and Jesus seemed to be at war with this 'sophisticated harshness'. Paul seemed to ignore what Christ taught -- and the 2,000 years of 'Christian' history has often reflected the same 'sophisticated harshness' manifested by the Old Testament God. Is it really too far-fetched to imagine Several Problematic Archangels in Conflict with Each Other -- Ruling a Problematic Humanity in Conflict with Itself??? I continue to see a complex and nasty past, present, and future. I support Idealistic-Theology -- yet I continue to see Problematic Theological Realities. I think that 'The Gods of Eden' might simply reveal one small part of a Very Ancient and Violent Universe -- in which We the People of Earth are doing the best we can with what we have to work with. Take another look at the 'Amen Ra' thread on the original Project Avalon site. Then study the two 'Red Pill' threads on this site. I simply think that the Galactic Problems might be beyond our comprehension -- and that a Search for a Useable Future might be an Impossible Dream. I am conflicted regarding 'Leaving Everything in the Lord's Hands' because I sense that Divinity and Humanity have had a very strained relationship for thousands of years. Is 'Questioning Authority' a good or bad idea??? Is Unquestioned Absolute Power a good or bad idea??? I am not opposed to the concept of 'God' -- but I think that potential problems should be thought out very carefully.

I continue to be stunned by the tendency for just about everything to spiral out of control -- even the best of things. Someone mentioned the possibility of people throwing urine-filled balloons, and clowns protesting, at the NATO Summit -- and then things spiralled out of control. I just couldn't stop myself.


I sense a perfect-storm in the making -- with all of the alien stories, conspiracy theories, political debate, and theological controversy. I support interdisciplinary research -- but are we in the process of destroying our civilization with all of this madness?? Researching and thinking about little green guys and gals hasn't seemed to make me a better or happier person. In many respects, just the opposite has occurred -- which makes me very apprehensive regarding 'waking people up' -- which is why I mostly just mumble to myself on this little website. I like the 'exopolitical' approach to all of this. I keep intending to spend some quality time on www.exopolitics.org -- but I always end-up doing something else -- so I decided to focus my attention in that direction within this thread. Here is the wikipedia information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Salla

Michael Emin Salla (September 25, 1958) is an international politics scholar who in 2001 became interested in the study of exopolitics and subsequently embarked on a personal effort to disseminate his exopolitical beliefs and hypotheses via the mediums of the internet, UFO and News conferences and radio appearances. Salla's most recent academic position was in Washington at American University, Center for Global Peace. The Center did not sanction his ufological research, and emphasizes that it is personal.[1] Controversy eventually led to Salla's dismissal from the university.

His unconventional views have made his work the subject of considerable controversy and criticism within both the ufological and mainstream academic communities. Much of the testimony he uses to support his position is controversial due to a lack of empirical evidence to substantiate many of the claims. While many of Salla's sources are considered to be credible by adherents to the UFO Disclosure movement who cite a variety of supporting documents and credentials, critics argue these sources have been discredited for a variety of reasons; among these the dissemination of patent falsehoods in the content of claims made, and the misrepresentation of credentials.

In 1983, Salla received a BSc degree from the University of Melbourne. In 1984 he received a GradDipEd from Melbourne College of Advanced Education. In 1987 he received a BA degree from the University of Melbourne. In 1990 he received a MA degree in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. In 1993, he received a PhD degree in Government from the University of Queensland.

In his early academic career in the 1990s Salla specialized in conflict resolution. He researched ethnic conflicts in Kosovo, East Timor, and Sri Lanka and worked to stop them occurring.[1][2] He led a series of workshops bringing together East Timorese and Indonesian intellectuals to develop a power sharing document to resolve the East Timor conflict. The resulting document was incorporated into the 1999 U.N. supervised referendum voted upon by the East Timorese. On September 1998 in Boston, Salla was one of three panelists who took part in the first American Political Science Association (APSA) discussion on negotiation of global violence and conflict.[3]

From 1996 to 2004, he was an Assistant Professor/Researcher in Residence at the School of International Service at American University.[4][5] In 2003 he founded American University's Peace Ambassador Program, which, at that time, was described on American University's School of International Service website as a program that "combines study, meditative practices, and prayer ceremonies at selected Washington DC sites aimed at promoting individual self-empowerment and Divine Governance in Washington DC." [1]

A feature article on his suggestion that a visit to the dentist by President Eisenhower in 1954 was actually a meeting with extraterrestrials was published in the Washington Post on February 19, 2004.[1] This created tension with the Center for Global Peace that did not wish to be publicly associated with his "new direction in research".[6] In April 2004, he participated at the X-Conference which led to more public prominence and further threatened his university position.[7] On May 13, 2004, Abdul Aziz Said, Director of American University's Center for Global Peace, sent a letter [8] of dismissal to Salla, citing unauthorized changes Salla had made to the Peace Ambassador Program as the primary reason for Salla's dismissal. The letter also stated that Salla's formal affiliation with American University would not be rescinded, but neither would it be renewed upon its expiration in August 2004.

On April 7, 2005, Salla founded the Exopolitics Institute (ExoInst), a UFO research organization that is currently headquartered in Kealakekua, Hawaii. On June 4, 2006, Al Jazeera published an article discussing a letter Salla had sent them informing them about the possibility of alien intervention in order to prevent a nuclear attack on Iran by the United States of America.[9] From June 9–11, 2006, he assembled and took part in the Hawaii Conference on World Peace and Extraterrestrial Civilizations.[4][9]

His current exopolitical interests have led him to assert that the undisclosed presence of extraterrestrials is one of the primary forces behind international conflict. He further states that the claims of various "whistleblowers" (informants) suggest that as many as sixteen different extraterrestrial civilizations are currently interacting with the human race while a number of other extraterrestrial races monitor Earth affairs, while avoiding contact. Most of his claims are derived from whistleblowers (informants) or 'experiencers' (individuals who claim to have contacted extraterrestrials) who, while arousing much debate in the UFO field, are alleged by Salla to be primary sources of reliable information. In conversation with the Washington Post, Salla pointed to evidence widely available on the internet as a source for his research on extraterrestrial visitation: "There's a lot of stuff on the Internet, and I just went around and pieced it together."[1

ISBN 978-1-893302-56-3 Exopolitics: Political Implications of Extraterrestrial Presence. Dandelion Books (paperback, 2004)
ISBN 978-0-275-97373-5 The Hero's Journey Toward a Second American Century. Praeger (hardcover, 2002)
Reviewed in CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries Sept 2002 v40 i1 p184(1) "Salla's work is a good choice for students of US foreign policy, US diplomatic history, and psychoanalysis." and: Reference & Research Book News Feb 2002 v17 p44 ISBN 978-0-313-29569-0 Why the Cold War Ended: A Range of Interpretations Westport (Greenwood) (hardcover, 1995)
Reviewed in American Political Science Review June 1996 v90 n2 p471(1) "This is an interesting and valuable, albeit somewhat vexing, book." ISBN 978-0-908140-99-2 Essays on peace: Paradigms for global order. Central Queensland University Press (paperback, 1995)

Safespace - Fastwalkers - Winter 2006

Radio Interviews
Exopolitics Radio - March 31, 2007
Exopolitics Radio - March 17, 2007
As You Wish - May 27, 2006
Dolphinville Radio - September 2, 2004
Jerry Pippin - April 15, 2004

Awarded a US$150,000 research grant by the Ford Foundation to organize a conflict resolution workshop for East Timor (1999)
Selected as panelist for United States Institute of Peace Solicited Grants Panel (February 1999)
Awarded two grants by the United States Institute of Peace for conflict resolution workshops on the East Timor conflict (1998 & 1987)
Selected for United States Institute of Peace Faculty and College Seminar (July 1997)
Promoted from Lecturer (level A) to Lecturer (level B), Faculty of Arts, Australian National University (1996)
Associate of the Centre for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies (1994–1996)
Australian Postgraduate Research Award (1991–1992)

Michael Salla elaborated in the area of exopolitics. The concept of "exo-politics", i.e., political relations within the scope of the universe, was discussed as early as in 1977 by Timothy Leary. [10]

Salla authored a book on exopolitics in which he claims that a 1954 dentist appointment by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a cover for a secret meeting with extraterrestrials.[11] Salla claims that President Eisenhower "met with two ETs with white hair, pale blue eyes and colorless lips," referred to by alien enthusiasts as "Nordics." He told the Washington Post that "The "Nordics" offered to share their superior technology and their spiritual wisdom with Ike if he would agree to eliminate America's nuclear weapons." Salla says the President declined the offer.[11] He also told the newspaper that President Eisenhower had agreed with another race of aliens that they could take livestock and humans with them for the purposes of experiments. He estimated that those aliens had taken "millions" of humans.

Salla admitted to the Washington Post that the evidence supporting his claims about the existence of aliens was found by him "on the internet." [11]

Advocates for exopolitics and the idea that extraterrestrials exist and have visited Earth have speculated about establishing relations with extraterrestrials and taking advantage of their presumed knowledge of sustainable energy sources and other matters of global importance.[12] Former Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer joined three fringe groups in urging the Canadian parliament to hold public hearings on exopolitics in 2005.[13]

The fifth X-Conference event was attended by 400 people at a hotel's banquet hall in suburban Maryland.[14] Its attendees included 2008 Utah Congressional Candidate Joseph Buchman, hypnotherapist Rebecca Hardcastle, Terri Donovan Mansfield, Alfred Webre, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, US Air Force pilot Milton Tores and Salla himself. The conference included lectures on document disclosure, discussions of black budgets and quantum cosmology, and the sale of books such as Exopolitics: How Does One Speak to a Ball of Light?.[14] Advocates of exopolitics want mankind to deal with "rule of law in outer space, the sharing of technology between civilisations, and the physics of one-on-one interaction with ETs".[14] According to proponents, "exoconsciousness" is the process of reframing the mind for interstellar relations and interdimensional experiences.[15] An exopolitics conference was also held in June 2009 in Leeds with the Starchild skull featured as its star attraction.[16]

1.^ a b c d e Carlson, Peter (February 19, 2004). "Ike and the Alien Ambassadors". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
2.^ Salla, Michael. "Private Peacemaking USIP-Assisted Peacemaking Projects of Nonprofit Organizations". United States Institute of Peace. Archived from the original on 2007-03-19. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
3.^ "U.S. Institute of Peace Peace Watch Online - October 1998 issue". United States Institute of Peace. Archived from the original on 2007-03-19. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
4.^ a b "Bio". Coast to Coast AM. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
5.^ Kamen, Al (June 9, 2006). "A Capital Start for Interior Secretary". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
6.^ Salla, Michael (August 4, 2004). "TIME LINE OF CORRESPONDENCE & EVENTS". Exopolitics. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
7.^ "X-Conference 2005 Press Release" (Press release). Paradigm Research Group. February 3, 2005.
8.^ Said, Abdul Aziz (May 13, 2004). "PA-Termination-Letter" (PDF). American University, official correspondence. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
9.^ a b El Amraoui, Ahmed (June 4, 2006). "US-Iran: The truth is way out there". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
10.^ Timothy Leary, "Changing my mind, among others: lifetime writings", a collection of eassays, Prentice-Hall, 1982, ISBN 0-13-127829-0
11.^ a b c Ike and the Alien Ambassadors: The Whole Tooth About the President's Extraterrestrial Encounter by Peter Carlson February 19, 2004 Washington Post Page C01
12.^ Ex-defence minister joins search for aliens, A new group is pushing for full disclosure about extra-terrestrials, and they've enlisted a former Canadian cabinet minister to help make their case by Joanna Smith Oct 27, 2007 Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/article/270984
13.^ Former defense chief urges UFO hearings December 6, 2005 Vermont Guardian http://www.vermontguardian.com/dailies/122005/1206.shtml
14.^ a b c Dan Zak Politics goes galactic at gathering of UFO believers Thursday, April 23, 2009 Irish Times
15.^ Zak, Dan, Washington Post, April 20, 2009, The Exo Files: Cosmic Politics? To Believers, No Idea Is Alien, April 21, 2009.
16.^ Aisha Iqbal 'Alien skull' star attraction at Leeds extra-terrestrial conference 27 June 2009 Yorkshire Evening Post

I'm warming to the idea of staying right where I am -- writing books that have very little to do with my threads -- and just living a life of neo-minimalist quiet-desperation. I might remodel my house into some sort of a moon-base (on the inside) with solar-panels and orgone-blasters (on the outside)!! I might buy a Prius!! I might buy a top of the line PC with fast-internet (just for the coolness of it)!! I might build a small observatory onto my house (with a 16 inch Dobsonian) to look for UFO's!! I think I really need to master detailed and extensive research -- without saying, typing, or doing anything whatsoever!! But in the meantime -- consider yet another variation on previously-posted study-lists!!

1. Job through Malachi (KJV).
2. Luke through Jude (KJV).
3. Prophets and Kings (E.G. White).
4. Believe in the God Who Believes in You (R.H. Schuller).
5. 1928 Book of Common Prayer (and Liturgy).
6. Federalist Papers (and U.S. Constitution).
7. Sacred Classical Music.
8. King--Queen--Warrior--Banker--Judge Theme.
9. Medical--Military--Money Complex.
10. Prevention--Peace--Philanthropy Complex.

What if the "Real-Deal" invented "Almighty-God" to throw everyone off??!! What if "Almighty-God" is simply a "Sun-God Support-Group"??!! I am SO glad that I'm almost finished with my little reposting and editing project. It's going to be really nice to think -- without anyone knowing what I'm thinking -- because I won't be blurting out this and that brainstorm or intuition (and being hated for the effort). Who are you going to hate when I go silent?? You gotta hate someone -- don't you??? Will we attempt to assuage our existence-dissatisfaction with mutual-slaughter??!! You know -- the usual "to go to heaven we have to kill everyone who disagrees with us!!" Will this absurd-theater generate mutual-slaughter -- or will we just kill all the smart-people (who 'know too much')?? I'm going to immerse myself in the following material (which I have a rather difficult time sticking with for any length of time):

1. The 'Amen Ra' thread from the original and now closed Project Avalon site.
2. The two 'Red Pill' threads on this site.
3. The Courtney Brown free e-books on his site.
4. The Alex Collier free e-books.
5. The 'Holy Tablets'.
6. Various Egyptology books and sites.

In many respects, I really do not want to do this. There seems to be a HUGE mental-block. Could this be because of reincarnational-baggage or because various and sundry entities don't want me to exhaustively study this material? I have to exercise an extreme amount of discipline to try to deal with all of this. Perhaps there are some things I should simply leave alone. Perhaps there are some legitimate reasons why the societies are secret. My level of discomfort has been unbearable for most of my life -- and the materials listed above seem to make things a lot worse -- but I feel compelled to consider all of the possibilities -- regardless of the source -- and regardless of whether they make me (or anyone else) feel good about ourselves, or not. Unfortunately, I seem to ultimately make everyone (including me) hate me. I was told a very long time ago that 'giving people what they want, and telling them what they want to hear, is the way to go'. Perhaps this is why humanity has seemingly been ruled by secrecy and deception for thousands of years. Wasn't it Helena Blavatsky who said 'What is one to do, when to rule men, it is necessary to deceive them?!" Do we demand deception -- or do we gladly take the red pill? Here are some interesting posts by Brook and Lionhawk on the first 'Red Pill' thread. They are sequential, but might be separated by dozens of posts. They should write a book together. Siriusly.

Brook: "For those of you afraid to take the red pill...you might want to stop reading and participating in this thread now... as I've found from personal experience, that it will activate within you, if you let it...certain "knowings” that will surface at any given time. And in that knowledge, you may find it will not be everything you wanted to know. But then again remember...the truth will set you free. And in knowing the truth...remember you have free will...and can make choices accordingly.

That being said, I will start by recommending a thread that was started by Orthodoxymoron, who I might add was brilliant in his deduction from AV1, and as it progressed I believe it brought to light some things that will stimulate your way of thinking about the “Egyptian” folklore of the “gods” they worshiped, and the symbols now being currently used in the Illuminati scheme of things.

http://www.projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18223&highlight=aman

Some would think that it is not necessary to delve into the past, as one member had mentioned. However to understand what might possible be the truth to much of what we deal with today..the symbolism in our faces daily if you look around.... It might be good to know what it all means...in the face of taking the red pill that is.

If you dig deep enough you might even see where our own DNA may possibly have been tampered with, and fragmented our sense of self and way of life as we know it now.

So I'd like to continue where some of the key points that triggered in me some “knowing” and see what input you all may have in these aspects of history and how it might have an effect on how we live today in the shadow of some of the great secrets that still to this day haunt us and most likely won't ever be known until we reach ascension and see the truth...or then again...you can take the red pill and dive in...see what you come up with …

so lets start off with one of the posts from that thread and look at Ptah....

Ptah

The origin of Ptah's name is unclear, though some believe it to mean 'opener' or 'sculptor'. As a god of craftsmen, the later is probably correct. He was a patron of the arts, protector of stone cutters, sculptors, blacksmiths, architects, boat builders, artists and craftsmen.

It was believed that Ptah created the heavens and the earth.

Ptah created the giant metal plate that was believed to be the floor of heaven and the roof of the sky, he also created the struts that upheld it. He created the universe by speaking words through his Tongue (linked to the god Thoth) and by thoughts coming from his Heart.

There came into being as the heart and there came into being as the tongue ...The mighty Great One is Ptah, who transmitted life to all gods, as well as to their kas... Thus it happened that the heart and tongue gained control over every other member of the body, by teaching that he, Ptah... is in every body and in every mouth of all gods, all men,and every thing that lives, by thinking and commanding everything that he wishes.

Thus the ka-spirits were made... by this speech... Thus were made all work and all crafts, the action of the arms, the movement of the legs, and the activity of every member, in conformance with this command which the heart thought, which came forth through the tongue, and which gives value to everything.

Ptah was a creator god, the third highest god in Egypt. He was the god presiding over the Second Egyptian month. From a local god of craftsmen to the deity who crafted the universe and the other deities, Ptah was only overshadowed by the sun god Ra, and the hidden god Amen. He fashioned the universe through words of power and by thought, as well as creating different parts by hand. He helped the dead on their travels through the afterlife, allowing them to transform into his divine figure, or by building the boats on which they could travel. He was the one who allowed the dead to be like the living after death

Sounds like a pretty powerful guy to me...in all of this legend and metaphor.

As on member brought to my attention in post number 277
http://www.projectavalon.net/forum/showpost.php?p=220944&postcount=277

What did the Masons know? It is clearly worship of Ptah....but was he really such a good “God”? He is clearly worshiped in Egyptian folklore as a “God of Creation” ….stressing the word “creation”....what exactly did he create that should be worshiped in such “glory” for the Masons to revere? Then you clearly have a statue of Ptah with scales...

And what about the Merkaba.....
Mer... meant a kind of light that rotated within itself

Ka ....meant spirit, in this case referring to the human spirit

Ba.... meant the human body — though it also could mean the concept of Reality that spirit holds

And so the entire word in ancient Egypt referred to a rotating light that would take the spirit and the body from one world into another.....

Then you have Thoth...that's one for the records.....and if you read the Emerald Tablets...you see sparks of truth....also sparks of manipulation to a way of thinking that sounds very much like much of the “new wave” line of hypnosis....not to say there is not truth there...but in reading the Emerald tablets that are published....you might find yourself getting a slight to moderate headache....triggering something of a remembrance....or could it be a trigger to forget.....but of what? It certainly triggered me....and opened up a flood gate of things that seemed to fit into a neat little conspiracy in and of itself. More questions then answers from the Egyptian “history” that we seem to get.
There are still many “secrets” out there left to be uncovered...and on a global scale, I think if enough people got “triggered” in their own “knowing” of what the truth is...it may just astound you...and set the history books a blaze.

So for now have a look at some of the information on that thread..and soon enough I will add more. I really wish ODM was here to add...as he was very in tune with it..but we all have a past here to look at the truth. And many of you hold a “key” of knowing...so let the triggers begin. Namaste."

lindabaker: "Lionhawk: Forgive me if I am repeating a question that has been asked of you in previous forums. Tell us how you know all of this very interesting information, if you don't mind doing so. Are you an immortal who can remember a lot, or are you someone who has access to historical records previously unknown to most earth people? If the discs are not gold, what is their composition? By duplicates, do you mean discs that also work, kind of like burning another music cd? Why do the discs I see in my dreams look to be the size of large oranges? When will the information on the discs be revealed, and by whom, and where? What will the reaction be, do you think? Which Star family are you aligned with? Is your alignment with the Christ Energy, and if not, which alignment best describes your position?"

Lionhawk: "Calling me out, eh? No worries. When I look back on Av1 and Av2, I guess what I got hammered with most was where did I get my training. Simply because I think I scared some individuals with what I had revealed. How was I able to penetrate the secrets of those who had hidden agendas that participated on those forums? I never did answer the question simply because I felt it was a trap to do so. Plus, they wouldn't understand the answer even if I gave it to them. All I can say is I am who I am because I chose to be. Now that might sound like an egotistical statement, but without my ego I would be a blank. I am like the many who seek the real truth and will expose it when everything is in such alignment to do so. I also use what is in my toolbox by that I mean what spiritual tools I do have. Copy and paste is not a spiritual tool.

Where I get my information in regards to Egypt is not from the Internet. It is so packed full of lies, that if I did use that information, I would be caught red handed in seconds and probably burned at a stake somewhere.

Let me just say that I am from the Orion sector. My star lineage is the Family of An. Pronounced "on." It is the middle Star of Orion's Belt. EL-AN-RA. I am an Angelic in the Warrior Cast from that sector. Mother Mary, as far as lineages go, is my Mother. She has many sons and daughters and I am simply one of them. She informed me of this 2 years ago at my house in Florida in the kitchen. She said I was one of her Royal sons and wondered what had happened to me. I also know as of this moment why she stated that. Till very recently, her visit troubled me and I couldn't figure out why. Then she visited me once again and it was a very sad visit, as she had apparently gone to find out what had happened to me and why I was off her radar for so long, after her first visit. It all fits now as I have so much recall as to what had occurred and why she said what she said. Yes, Jesus is my brother. I am very proud to have a brother who has accomplished so much and who continues to serve in his present capacity. He is one of the commanders of the real Galactic Federation. Also let us not confuse him with a replica provided by the darkside called Lord Sananda, who serves as their version of Jesus of their copy and pasted Galactic Federation. You know the one where all the channeled messages come from.

How this recall occurred, is also an interesting story. As it turns out I had done it to myself and did such a good job at it. Somewhere, I had taken half of myself and gave it amnesia. There was a very important reason to do so. Reminds me of Claudia Black that did something similar to serve on a mission on the SG-1 series. Don't remember the episode. Of course there was a trigger word that would snap me out of it. That word was spoken to me on February 11th of this year by my mate. Everything changed at that moment. It was my name back in those Egyptian days. Mind you I didn't say I was Egyptian.

In any regard, I discovered that I had married into the Feline Race. That's how I ended up and why I have a current affiliation with them in the present. The marriage came about from two life streams from two separate countries, where both got involved with each other because of these discs. That involvement grew and became a sacred union as in such a way that had never been experienced before on the Earth. It was so profound as that sacred union also represented the unconditional love they had for each other and for the entire Earth and all of her people to such an extent that the Creator took notice and said that this sacred union would be used as a template in this Universe to go by in terms of unconditional love. This was a wonderful occasion where the Mother Mary linage and the Feline lineage came together in oneness. It was also sounded across the Universe so it is well known by other races as well. So if there is anyone out there who has any doubts as to what I have thus far written, feel free to get off your chair and find the answers. If you are all that connected to these other races that is.

These two life streams were obviously killed by the corrupt Draconian figure heads of those distant times in Egypt. Not necessarily for what they did to create a new universal template, but for defying the power elite's will. If they could not use you, consider yourself dead. That thought pattern still exists today. But when it all went down, these Bastards found out that they couldn't use everybody.

In the present, I am now living with a whole remembered heart. I am fully activated in the physical. I pay attention to many things now that I use to take for granted. For instance two butterflies flying through the air at incredible speeds, never extending more than a few inches from each other as they are flying through an area full of birds and predatory insects, celebrating their union with each other in flight. Also no fear. The one I married back then is the one I am with now. We are still married as we never allowed our love to be compromised by anyone or anything, even though they may have killed us at different times. William Wallace you say.....or did I say that? hahahhahhaa!!


The above Coat of Arms is where the trail jumped from Egypt to Scotland. Talk about triggers from Egypt. And you may wonder how it has anything to do with William Wallace. To be brief, these two love birds incarnated into this time line. My name was Alexander MacDougall and although I was married and had a castle, I also had a mistress, hidden in the hillside. This mistress was my sacred love. Her name was Isadora and she originated from Norway. She was murdered by some reptilian thugs. 4 of them attacked her while on route to help my son, John. Thus, her death started my new career in head loping. Talk about getting on a Karmic bicycle. I was also allied at this time with William Wallace against Robert the Brus. Also notice in the coats of arms, the lions and the ships. In other coat of arms you will also find the dragons. Again, it comes down to the conflict of the lions vs. the dragons.

Not to get out of topic here, but this thread is also about triggers. And if you were to look in your present life in the past, you will see things that came up and said here I am for a split second. As in how you might be drawn to an image or something that was said that ringed something within you. All these little rings bounced around for years and I never found an explanation for them until Feb. 11th 2010. All these little reminders fell into place. The little things that made you curious in that moment that you couldn't explain as to why it rang something inside you. Like maybe why you might had a curiosity about a certain figure in history but couldn't explain it.

All I can say is that I had thought my life to have been blessed before and now I look upon it as miraculous. It has taken a lot of inner work to get here but it has been worth it. Granted the inner work never seems to stop but I can relax a little bit now as I know things will be slightly easier. If you do the work you will find that your story is an amazing one. Also make note that I am not trying to put myself on any kind of stage here. I am just sharing it and I left a lot out. So for the ones that might have pithy comments, spare me. It isn't because I am the one who is insecure. I say what I just said so that I don't have to deal with your insecurities and I am sure there are others out there who are sick of that old record as well. I think we should spend more time celebrating those who are getting there instead of the bashing from those who are either jealous or just lack, period. You have to earn it, for yourself.

So I leave this here. I hope I answered more than you questioned Linda."

orthodoxymoron: "Wow Lionhawk! Your posts always floor me! Can you tell me if Reptilian Beings have Human Souls? OR -- do Human Beings have Reptilian Souls? Are we all Human/Reptilian Hybrids --- with various percentage differentials? Are Greys really Reptilians? Do Humans, Reptilians, and Greys have more in common than we think? Is most of this madness homegrown --- going back thousands of years --- right here on Earth --- mostly in North Africa and the Southwestern United States? Is the U.S. really the 'Head of the Snake'? Do the Underground Bases and the City States constitute the Biblical Babylon? Is Lucifer the Whore of Babylon? 'What fate Omoroca?' (Stargate SG-1 'Fire and Water') Nuff said!"

Lionhawk: "There he is! Good to see you old friend! Always wondered where you went. I know many disappeared for awhile and justly so. Often thought as to what you found in your digging of the truth. You have been missed. Again, great to see you once again.  

As far as flooring you, I will humbly take that as a compliment. But I'm not out here trying to floor anyone. Personally I think we are all basically truth seekers and we all have an individual way about going about it. Of course the cheap version of the truth is the copy and pasted version. Using only materials that someone researched and wrote out without doing any footwork to support their point of view.

The better version is finding an idea and pursuing it and then write down what you found. The process of proving it out in real time. How many books have we read where someone just took pieces of information and just pieced a book together? Without any experience being applied or melded in the book. Originality is the best way to go about sharing ideas and working out the puzzles that comprise the truth.

As to your questions, I will say I am no expert or an authority of other factions soul make ups. In my opinion however, I think the soul is of the same stuff across the board and it is whether how much light is allowed to shine by the free will of that soul or the choices that soul has made, regardless of the species it represents. Or the polarity.

What is most disturbing is how these Dracs have cheated DEATH. Most systems that I am aware of have a death cycle or a transition cycle. Usually there is a station where the soul goes back to and gets debriefed and adjustments are made and new lessons are given and the soul starts again on another quest. These Dracs have found a way to by pass that and have their own place or station as it were, to re spawn with full memory of who or what they were previously. In part, the technology in Egypt was used to do this. Now I also know there are other aliens who have done this but most of them know of a higher consciousness is present and honor the processes in an alignment with a God presence. The Dracs only honor their own presence. Everything and every life form is considered below them. So when I hear that there are good reptilians out there, I always end up asking where.

The greys are even a mystery. I think the government has a limited view point on them as well. Simply because they want to compartmentalize these beings. From what I have gathered, there are at least 20 species of this form out there. Not just the 4 types that have been revealed by government sources.

I have already given you in the past what has happened to Lucifer. That wasn't something made up. It also hasn't changed as to what he chose for himself. It's a done deal. One that I was allowed to witness. That event just amazed me as to the Creator's level of grace that he/she exercises. It is unlimited. It also showed me how deep the Creator's love goes for all of his/her creations no matter what they have experienced in this Universe, good or bad. No matter what polarity or frequency, these souls have chosen to experience.

This thread is a prime example of what I have mentioned in the above. Or the contents there of. And please don't feel like I dissed you by not answering all of your questions as some of those questions could apply in another thread and not here. I say that out of respect for what Brook is trying to accomplish in this thread.

Glad you are here ODM!"

Brook: "....spreading light on "dark secrets" is what I plan on doing with this post. You will not find this information in history books, or on the internet in the form of revealed "secrets" of the PTB. Some light has been shed on speculation of such...but the true nature of exactly what happened has virtually been erased....as was the continent of Atlantis, and Lumaria. All that is left is what some might tap into, and how much of that was filtered? Oh for sure there is truth in many of the stories of these kinds....and the puzzle is being slowly put together. So I will provide a piece of that puzzle here now. The role played by some key characters...and what the truth is about the story's they put forth...to get you to believe in something quite different.

One small but rather important piece that only the players themselves would be able to share...but as of yet have not....mainly because...the lies have overshadowed the truth. I have tapped into that truth.....and as such would be labeled a "loon" by the very ones that would see this story remain undiscovered. And for a very long time, I was afraid to share this....for the reason of safety...a fear program.......and because my emotional body was not ready to deal with such exposure, and the nature of the very concepts it surrounds. I have since overcome that emotion...and can now share what it is I have to reveal.....a small portion of the truth that you all have the right to know. And the role of the "players"...and where they stood in all of this. So lets start with some "key" players.....

Thoth...lineage..pure reptilian...Annunaki

Ptah...lineage...pure reptilian...Annunaki

Osiris....lineage....hybrid....Annunaki, feline....of the "royal" bloodline, earth based

Set...lineage....hybrid....annunaki, feline....of the "royal" bloodline, earth based

Isis.....lineage....hybrid....feline, earth based ...of direct decent...mother Sekhemt...of the royal lineage....and direct genetic coding to the discs and "throne"

Ra.....lineage.....sirian.....hybird.....of "Sun" decent....NOT ANNUNAKI....and in charge of operations here on earth, to oversee the Sirian feline earth based seeding.

So a marriage...to create a royal blood line....with direct connection to the "Discs", and the "throne"....between Osiris and Isis....set up by Ptah...who is now in control of operations.....a very bad marriage at that. Not the wonderful one painted in history. In fact..the so called "sister" of Isis....was nothing more than a story...she was actually a mistress to Osiris...and Isis had take her under her wing....to protect her. It also gave Isis the relief of having to be with Osiris...who she detested. Isis had no such sister....but took on Nephthys as a sister...and taught her how to do many things...one of which was how to tolerate Osiris.

As the story would have you believe.....Isis gathered together the pieces of Osiris with her "sister"...leaving out one piece...very appropriate....the phallus. She claimed the fish ate it......Now that's a fish story! and then she created the "book of the dead". to resurrect Osiris...and created a phallus of "sand" and impregnated herself with his seed to create Horus.

Oh boy...here goes....the truth is this.....in that tomb of Osiris...a meeting took place. Sekhemt, Ra and Isis.....the egg of Sekhmet the sperm of Ra were joined and Isis was made a surrogate of a "royal bloodline"...not of the Osiris, Hybrid....reptilian line but the feline sun lineage....and was made to be the watcher for Ra...the "eye of Horus" was a symbol of Ra...also know as the "Eye of Ra".....and Sekhmet...to watch over the goings on from the direct meddling of the Annunaki. And to carry on the line of those who were directly involved in the technology that had been stolen, and used to create for lack of a better term..."abominations"...of what should have been our direct connection to mother earth, and our universal lineage. Rather then fragmenting us and creating a "slave race"...to be multiplied and used for the purposes that you now hear of..that many have tapped into that truth and are now seeing...but few know how it came about...the actual deeds that created this time line...not the one that source intended.

Have you all stopped yet to think...what became of Isis? How did she die? did she really carry on to give all of these so call "channeling s" that are so prevalent on the internet and in the "new age" community? And if so....why don't you hear this story? And how come you don't hear of her "passing" as you do of Osiris? And what of this story that Horus is Jesus?....Isis is Mary?.....not hardly.

There is however a connection to that story. Another surrogate....Mary...named after the Mother Mary lineage.....surrogate to Jesus.....brought here to tell some truth....through a similar fashion as Horus. Propagated by the felines....but Jesus is not Feline.....the only connection is the cooperation of the geneticists...the Felines that helped with his birth. And the link..is the Star of Sirius.....cooperation to recreate where Horus failed...because Horus was found out...and challenged by his brother Set. Brother Set you say????? Wait....Set was the brother of Osiris......Caught them in another lie didn't we? Set the one that murdered Osiris...now after Horus.....a power hungry one he was....And Osiris...the brother of Isis?...........only in the sense that the lineage of a hybrid brought that in true form.....Remember...Osiris..hybrid....reptilian, feline..and earth based being......but not the sister of Isis in any form...other then the feline lineage that they wanted to keep in line with the genetic coding

And what of Isis? Where did she disappear to? Death ...at the hands of Ptah....who was furious with her, for reasons I will not share here..just yet anyway. But when one does not cooperate with a reptilian....at that time....it's death in a snake pit...and that was her end.....only to be remembered by those who had stories to tell of here visits..to such places as Greece. and with her she would bring the most extraordinary gifts.

Now you are probably wondering how I can relate such a story...and where the information came from. did I channel it?....not really.....but that is something I will not share on a forum. However, I will tell you I have validation.....and that I will not share on a forum either.

There are many more parts to this story....this is only a small but significant part. There are the Discs....and other factions involved...and this story would make "Gone with the Wind"...look like a child's book."

Consider reading 1. 'The Gods of Eden' by William Bramley. 2. 'Rule by Secrecy' by Jim Marrs. 3. 'The Great Controversy' by Ellen White. 4. Behold a Pale Horse' by Bill Cooper. Try reading them side by side. I don't place a lot of faith in any one source, but I have been passively exposing myself to a lot of 'fringe' material, and then attempting to approximate hidden-realities with Political and Theological Science-Fiction. I continue to think that the universe is full of dark and absurd realities. I don't think the universe is a 'nice' place. I used to think that the problems were isolated within this Prison Planet in Rebellion, filled with Fallen Human Beings (contaminated with Original Sin) -- but I have been considering a lot of dark possibilities and probabilities beyond this little world -- and they are frankly scaring the hell out of me. I really think we might be on the brink of extinction (from a variety of sources -- including ourselves). I listen to people like L. Ron Hubbard with a Boatload of Salt -- but I still listen -- for bits and pieces of the puzzle. I would never become a Scientologist -- and I no longer attend any church -- but this doesn't mean that I stopped thinking about Gods, Angels, and Demons. 'Aliens' might include all three. We really don't know much about life, the universe, and everything -- with absolute certainty. I simply think we should consider as many possibilities and possible -- with open yet critical minds.

I spend an excessive amount of time in nature -- and in researching and reflecting -- with absolutely nothing to show for it. I'm simply attempting to think about life, the universe, and everything -- in some rather unconventional ways -- while posting bits and pieces of this madness on the internet -- without making a big-deal about it. I tend to think that more people should do this -- but that they should be prepared to experience profound disillusionment and emotional-spiritual trauma. This is probably the cost of doing business. I have been considering a lot of dark possibilities and idealistic solutions -- yet I don't know much of anything for certain. Therefore, I don't shout my thoughts from the peaks of the 'Seven Hills of Rome' -- although I bet some Vatican types secretly laugh at my strange humor...

I keep getting the feeling that the Real PTB can cause just about anything to happen (or not happen). If they wish to save someone -- they can do it -- no matter how bad that person is. If they wish to crucify someone -- they can do it -- regardless of how innocent that person is. If they're out to get you -- anything you say and/or do can (and will) be used against you. Things can be slanted in any direction if one has the money, power, and personnel to manipulate and maneuver things. I've tried to be a "Possibility-Thinker" -- but I think some have misrepresented this approach as being "Indecisive". I also get the feeling that I have been misrepresented as being some sort of an "Evil-Being". I have no idea if the shoe fits in previous-lives -- but I am simply a crazy, mixed-up, completely-ignorant fool in this incarnation. I have suggested some revolting possibilities -- but I have no idea what the ultimate truth is concerning life, the universe, and everything. I'm not a "True-Believer". I'm not an "Atheist or Agnostic". I'm a "Possibility-Thinker" (which involves considering some of the most upsetting and ridiculous possibilities). This is simply "Intellectual-Honesty". But this approach leaves one wide-open to all sorts of nasty and nefarious attacks and harangues. I would be an absolute and complete disaster in a debate or press-conference. I still think I could attend the most upsetting meetings without going nuts or causing a scene. I really just want to disappear (without being harmed). Please remember that most of my internet-posting was a speculative-fantasy -- and that none of it should be taken too seriously -- regardless of whether the speculations and suggestions approximated reality or not. Just treat all of it as Pseudo-Intellectual Religious and Political Science-Fiction.

I wish for society to be reformed -- but I do NOT wish for bad-things to happen to people and/or property. But once again -- I get the sinking-feeling that everything I say and do (good or bad) can (and will) be used against me. I keep getting the horrible-feeling that governance and salvation are at stake -- but I certainly don't know the details. I simply suspect that there is no "right-answer". I do NOT wish to be a pawn in some sick Armageddon-Scenario. I desire some sort of a "Solar-System Trial" -- but I do NOT desire a "Final Holy-War". Once again -- I am NOT a "Fire and Brimstone Kind of Guy". I am a "Law and Order Kind of Guy". A "One-Thousand Law Solar-System Law-Book" might be an excellent place to begin -- but I certainly wouldn't know how to go about formulating such a monumental-document. I'm NOT a fan of current Cannon-Law -- but I think that the basic-idea has merit. Such a law-book might ultimately be called "The Perfect Laws of the Lord". Wouldn't THAT just chap everyone's @$$??!! Too Bad. How many laws presently exist within this solar-system?? Is the Torah temporary and local -- or everlasting and universal?? If one carefully reads Job through Malachi -- how much of Genesis through Esther -- and Matthew through Revelation -- are legitimized, substantiated, prophesied, or otherwise required?? Do we really need to seek a Clean-Sheet of Stone Solar-System Standard?? I tend to think so. However -- I think that Sacred-Scripture should be carefully and prayerfully studied by all-concerned -- but I question applying Ancient-Scripture directly to Modernity. I think Dr. A. Graham Maxwell was correct in suggesting that the Holy-Bible be read from Genesis through Revelation -- straight-through -- over and over -- to be properly understood -- rather than relying upon the "Proof-Text" Method of "Here a Little -- There a Little -- to Make It Say Whatever We Want". Anyway -- Jade Helm could be made to be just about anything the Real PTB want it to be. These Guys and Gals leave very little to chance -- and they play for keeps. Don't underestimate them -- especially if they are "cornered" as the world gets smaller and smaller -- faster and faster. I continue to think that EVERYONE might get left in the dust by the changes taking place in this solar-system at this time. I mostly just wish to listen, watch, and attempt to keep-up. Hope Springs Eternal. Namaste and Godspeed.

Sometimes I wonder if a lot of the 'insiders' and 'whistle-blowers' are fed a combination of truth and lies -- to simultaneously reveal forbidden-truth and to discredit themselves. I wonder if L. Ron Hubbard was fed a lot of information for all of 'his' books. The process of conditioning and transforming the public (for better or for worse, I know not) might be quite complex. Click this L. Ron Hubbard link for an absolutely sickening description of abusing the masses for personal gain and aggrandizement. L. Ron Hubbard was connected with Naval Intelligence, wasn't he? Don't they have a lot to do with handling the 'Alien Presence'? Don't Area 51 workers get their checks from the Navy? Who knows? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard (and often referred to by his initials, LRH), was an American pulp fiction author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a self-help system called Dianetics which was first published in May 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and rituals as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation.

Although many aspects of Hubbard's life story are disputed, there is general agreement about its basic outline.[2] Born in Tilden, Nebraska, he spent much of his childhood in Helena, Montana. He traveled in Asia and the South Pacific in the late 1920s after his father, an officer in the United States Navy, was posted to the U.S. naval base on Guam. He attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C. at the start of the 1930s before beginning a career as a prolific writer of pulp fiction stories. He served briefly in the Marine Reserves and later in the U.S. Navy during World War II, briefly holding command of 2 different vessels, the USS YP-422 and USS PC-815. He was removed from his position both times when superiors found him unsuitable for command.[3] He ended the war hospitalized for an acute duodenal ulcer.[3]. Later he developed Dianetics, "the modern science of mental health". He founded Scientology in 1952 and oversaw the growth of the Church of Scientology into a worldwide organization. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he spent much of his time at sea aboard his personal fleet of ships as Commodore of the Sea Organization, an elite inner group of Scientologists. However, his expedition came to an early close. Britain, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Venezuela all closed their ports to his fleet. At one point, a court in Australia revoked the church's status as a religion. Similarly, a high court in France convicted Hubbard of fraud in absentia. He returned to the United States in 1975 and subsequently went into seclusion in the California desert. In 1983 L. Ron Hubbard was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an international information infiltration and theft project called "Operation Snow White". He spent the remaining years of his life secluded to a ranch near Creston, California, where he died in January 1986.

The Church of Scientology describes Hubbard in hagiographic terms,[4] and he portrayed himself as a pioneering explorer, world traveler and nuclear physicist with expertise in a wide range of disciplines including photography, art, poetry and philosophy. His critics have characterized him as a liar, a charlatan and a madman. Though many of his autobiographical statements have been proven to be fictitious,[5] the Church itself rejects any suggestion that its account of Hubbard's life is anything other than historical fact.[6][7]

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911, in Tilden, Nebraska.[8] He was the only child of Harry Ross Hubbard, a former United States Navy sailor, and Ledora May (née Waterbury), who had originally trained as a teacher.[9][10] After moving to Kalispell, Montana, the family settled in 1913 in the city of Helena.[10] Hubbard's father re-enlisted in the Navy in April 1917, while his mother Ledora May worked as a clerk for the state government.[11]

Biographical accounts published by the Church of Scientology describe Hubbard as "a child prodigy of sorts" who rode a horse before he could walk and was able to read and write by the age of four.[12] A Scientology profile says that he was brought up on his grandfather's "large cattle ranch in Montana"[13] where he spent his days "riding, breaking broncos, hunting coyote and taking his first steps as an explorer".[14] His grandfather is described as a "wealthy Western cattleman" from whom Hubbard "inherited his fortune and family interests in America, Southern Africa, etc."[15] Scientology claims that Hubbard became a "blood brother" of the Native American Blackfeet tribe at the age of six through his friendship with a Blackfeet medicine man.[10][16]

Contemporary records state that his grandfather, Lafe Waterbury, was a veterinarian, not a rancher, and was not wealthy. Hubbard was raised in a townhouse in the center of Helena.[17] According to his aunt, his family did not own a ranch but had one cow and four or five horses on a few acres of land outside Helena.[14] Hubbard lived over a hundred miles from the Blackfeet reservation. The tribe did not practice blood brotherhood and no evidence has been found that he had ever been a Blackfeet blood brother.[18]

During the 1920s the Hubbards repeatedly relocated around the United States and overseas. After Hubbard's father Harry rejoined the Navy, his posting aboard the USS Oklahoma in 1921 required the family to relocate to the ship's home ports, first San Diego, then Seattle.[19] During a journey to Washington, D.C. in 1923 Hubbard learned of Freudian psychology from Commander Joseph "Snake" Thompson, a U.S. Navy psychoanalyst and medic.[19][20] Scientology biographies describe this encounter as giving Hubbard training in a particular scientific approach to the mind, which he found unsatisfying.[21] Hubbard was active in the Boy Scouts in Washington, DC and earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1924, two weeks after his 13th birthday. In his diary, Hubbard claimed he was the youngest Eagle Scout in the US.[22]

The following year, Harry Ross Hubbard was posted to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington.[23] His son was enrolled at Union High School, Bremerton,[23] and later studied at Queen Anne High School in Seattle.[24] In 1927 Hubbard's father was sent to the U.S. Naval Station on Guam in the Mariana Islands of the South Pacific. Although Hubbard's mother also went to Guam, Hubbard himself did not accompany them but was placed in his grandparents' care in Helena, Montana to complete his schooling.[24]

Between 1927 and 1929 Hubbard traveled to Japan, China, the Philippines and Guam. Scientology texts present this period in his life as a time when he was intensely curious for answers to human suffering and explored ancient Eastern philosophies for answers, but found them lacking.[25] He is described as traveling to China "at a time when few Westerners could enter"[26] and according to Scientology, spent his time questioning Buddhist lamas and meeting old Chinese magicians.[25] According to church materials, his travels were funded by his "wealthy grandfather".[27]

Hubbard's unofficial biographers present a very different account of his travels in Asia. Hubbard's diaries recorded two trips to the east coast of China. The first was made in the company of his mother while traveling from the United States to Guam in 1927. It consisted of a brief stop-over in a couple of Chinese ports before traveling on to Guam, where he stayed for six weeks before returning home. He recorded his impressions of the places he visited and disdained the poverty of the inhabitants of Japan and China, whom he described as "gooks" and "lazy [and] ignorant". His second visit was a family holiday which took Hubbard and his parents to China via the Philippines in 1928.[28][29]

After his return to the United States in September 1927, Hubbard enrolled at Helena High School but earned only poor grades.[30] He abandoned school the following May and went back west to stay with his aunt and uncle in Seattle. He joined his parents in Guam in June 1928. His mother took over his education in the hope of putting him forward for the entrance examination to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.

Between October and December 1928 a number of naval families, including Hubbard's, traveled from Guam to China aboard the USS Gold Star. The ship stopped at Manila in the Philippines before traveling on to Qingdao (Tsingtao) in China. Hubbard and his parents made a side trip to Beijing before sailing on to Shanghai and Hong Kong, from where they returned to Guam.[31] Scientology accounts present a different version of events, saying that Hubbard "made his way deep into Manchuria's Western Hills and beyond—to break bread with Mongolian bandits, share campfires with Siberian shamans and befriend the last in the line of magicians from the court of Kublai Khan."[32]

However, Hubbard did not record these events in his diary.[33] He remained unimpressed with China and the Chinese, writing: "A Chinaman can not live up to a thing, he always drags it down." He characterized the sights of Beijing as "rubberneck stations" for tourists and described the palaces of the Forbidden City as "very trashy-looking" and "not worth mentioning". He was impressed by the Great Wall of China near Beijing[34] but concluded of the Chinese: "They smell of all the baths they didn't take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here."[35]

Back on Guam, Hubbard spent much of his time writing dozens of short stories and essays[36] and failed the Naval Academy entrance examination. In September 1929 Hubbard was enrolled at the Swavely Preparatory School in Manassas, Virginia, to prepare him for a second attempt at the examination.[37] However, he was ruled out of consideration due to his near-sightedness.[38] He was instead sent to Woodward School for Boys in Washington, D.C. to qualify for admission to George Washington University. He successfully graduated from the school in June 1930 and entered the university the following September.[39]

Hubbard studied civil engineering during his two years at George Washington University at the behest of his father, who "decreed that I should study engineering and mathematics."[40] While he did not graduate from George Washington, his time there subsequently became important because, as George Malko puts it, "many of his researches and published conclusions have been supported by his claims to be not only a graduate engineer, but 'a member of the first United States course in formal education in what is called today nuclear physics.'"[41] However, a Church of Scientology biography describes him as "never noted for being in class" and says that he "thoroughly detest[ed] his subjects."[42] He earned poor grades, was placed on probation in September 1931 and dropped out altogether in the fall of 1932.[41][43]

Scientology accounts say that he "studied nuclear physics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., before he started his studies about the mind, spirit and life"[44] and Hubbard himself stated that he "set out to find out from nuclear physics a knowledge of the physical universe, something entirely lacking in Asian philosophy."[42] His university records indicate that his exposure to "nuclear physics" consisted of one class in "atomic and molecular phenomena" for which he earned an "F" grade.[45]

Scientologists claim he was more interested in extracurricular activities, particularly writing and flying. According to church materials, "he earned his wings as a pioneering barnstormer at the dawn of American aviation"[16] and "[he was] recognized as one of the country's most outstanding pilots. With virtually no training time, he takes up powered flight and barnstorms throughout the Midwest."[46] His pilot's license, however, records that he only qualified to fly gliders rather than powered aircraft and gave up his license when he could not afford the renewal fee.[47]

During Hubbard's final semester he organized an expedition to the Caribbean for "fifty young gentleman rovers" aboard the schooner Doris Hamlin commencing in June 1932. The aims of the "Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition" were stated as being to explore and film the pirate "strongholds and bivouacs of the Spanish Main" and to "collect whatever one collects for exhibits in museums".[48] It ran into trouble even before it left the port of Baltimore: ten participants quit and storms blew the ship far off course to Bermuda. Eleven more members of the expedition quit there and more left when the ship arrived at Martinique.[49] With the expedition running critically short of money, the ship's owners ordered it to return to Baltimore.[50]

Hubbard blamed the expedition's problems on the captain: "the ship's dour Captain Garfield proved himself far less than a Captain Courageous, requiring Ron Hubbard's hand at both the helm and the charts."[51] Specimens and photographs collected by the expedition are said by Scientology accounts to have been acquired by the University of Michigan, the U.S. Hydrographic Office, an unspecified national museum and the New York Times,[51][52] though none of those institutions have any record of this.[53] Hubbard later wrote that the expedition "was a crazy idea at best, and I knew it, but I went ahead anyway, chartered a four-masted schooner and embarked with some fifty luckless souls who haven't stopped their cursings yet."[54] He called it "a two-bit expedition and financial bust,"[55] which resulted in some of its participants making legal claims against him for refunds.[56]

After leaving university Hubbard traveled to Puerto Rico on what the Church of Scientology calls the "Puerto Rican Mineralogical Expedition".[57] Scientologists claim he "made the first complete mineralogical survey of Puerto Rico"[52] as a means of "augmenting his [father's] pay with a mining venture", during which he "sluiced inland rivers and crisscrossed the island in search of elusive gold" as well as carrying out "much ethnological work amongst the interior villages and native hillsmen".[57] Hubbard's unofficial biographer Russell Miller writes that neither the United States Geological Survey nor the Puerto Rican Department of Natural Resources have any record of any such expedition.[53]

According to Miller, Hubbard traveled to Puerto Rico in November 1932 after his father volunteered him for the Red Cross relief effort following the devastating 1932 San Ciprian hurricane.[53] In a 1957 lecture Hubbard said that he had been "a field executive with the American Red Cross in the Puerto Rico hurricane disaster."[58] According to his own account, Hubbard spent much of his time prospecting unsuccessfully for gold. Towards the end of his stay on Puerto Rico he appears to have done some work for a Washington D.C. firm called West Indies Minerals Incorporated, accompanying a surveyor in an investigation of a small property near the town of Luquillo, Puerto Rico.[56] The survey was unsuccessful. A few years later, Hubbard wrote:

Harboring the thought that the Conquistadores might have left some gold behind, I determined to find it ... Gold prospecting in the wake of the Conquistadores, on the hunting grounds of the pirates in the islands which still reek of Columbus is romantic, and I do not begrudge the sweat which splashed in muddy rivers, and the bits of khaki which have probably blown away from the thorn bushes long ago ... After a half year or more of intensive search, after wearing my palms thin wielding a sample pack, after assaying a few hundred sacks of ore, I came back, a failure.[54]

Hubbard became a well-known and prolific writer for pulp fiction magazines during the 1930s. Scientology texts describe him as becoming "well established as an essayist" even before he had concluded college. Scientology claims he "solved his finances, and his desire to travel by writing anything that came to hand"[42] and to have earned an "astronomical" rate of pay for the times.[60]

His literary career began with contributions to the George Washington University student newspaper, The University Hatchet, as a reporter for a few months in 1931.[39] Six of his pieces were published commercially during 1932 to 1933.[47] The going rate for freelance writers at the time was only a cent a word, so Hubbard's total earnings from these articles would have been less than $100.[61] The pulp magazine Thrilling Adventure became the first to publish one of his short stories, in February 1934.[62] Over the next six years, pulp magazines published around 140 of his short stories[63] under a variety of pen names, including Winchester Remington Colt, Kurt von Rachen, René Lafayette, Joe Blitz and Legionnaire 148.[64]

Although he was best known for his fantasy and science fiction stories, Hubbard wrote in a wide variety of genres, including adventure fiction, aviation, travel, mysteries, westerns and even romance.[65] Hubbard knew and associated with writers such as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp and A. E. van Vogt.[66] His first full-length novel, Buckskin Brigades, was published in 1937.[67] He became a "highly idiosyncratic" writer of science fiction after being taken under the wing of editor John W. Campbell,[68] who published many of Hubbard's short stories and also serialized a number of well-received novelettes that Hubbard wrote for Campbell's magazines Unknown and Astounding. These included Fear, Final Blackout and Typewriter in the Sky.[69]

According to the Church of Scientology, Hubbard was "called to Hollywood" to work on film scripts in the mid-1930s, although Scientology accounts differ as to exactly when this was (whether 1935,[70] 1936[42] or 1937[46]). He wrote the script for The Secret of Treasure Island, a 1938 Columbia Pictures movie serial.[71] The Church of Scientology claims he also worked on the Columbia serials The Mysterious Pilot (1937), The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1938) and The Spider Returns (1941),[46] though his name does not appear on the credits. Hubbard also claimed to have written Dive Bomber (1941),[72][73] Cecil B. DeMille's The Plainsman (1936) and John Ford's Stagecoach (1939).[74]

Hubbard's literary earnings helped him to support his new wife, Margaret "Polly" Grubb. She was already pregnant when they married on April 13, 1933, but she had a spontaneous abortion shortly afterwards; a few months later, she became pregnant again.[75] On May 7, 1934, she gave birth prematurely to a son who was named Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, Jr. and the nickname "His Nibs", invariably shortened to "Nibs".[76] Their second child, Katherine May, was born on January 15, 1936.[77] The Hubbards lived for a while in Laytonsville, Maryland, but were chronically short of money.[78]

In the spring of 1936 they moved to Bremerton, Washington. They lived there for a time with Hubbard's aunts and grandmother before finding a place of their own at nearby South Colby. According to one of his friends at the time, Robert MacDonald Ford, the Hubbards were "in fairly dire straits for money" but sustained themselves on the income from Hubbard's writing.[79] Hubbard spent an increasing amount of time in New York City,[80] working out of a hotel room where his wife suspected him of carrying on affairs with other women.[81][82]

Hubbard's authorship in mid-1938 of a still-unpublished manuscript called Excalibur is highlighted by the Church of Scientology as a key step in developing the principles of Scientology and Dianetics. The manuscript is said by scientologists to have outlined "the basic principles of human existence"[42] and to have been the culmination of twenty years of research into "twenty-one races and cultures including Pacific Northwest Indian tribes, Philippine Tagalogs and, as he was wont to joke, the people of the Bronx."[83]

According to Arthur J. Cox, a contributor to John W. Campbell's Astounding magazine, Hubbard told a 1948 convention of science fiction fans that Excalibur's inspiration came during an operation in which he "died" for eight minutes.[84] (Gerry Armstrong, Hubbard's archivist, explains this as a dental extraction performed under nitrous oxide, a chemical known for its hallucinogenic effects[85]):

Hubbard realized that, while he was dead, he had received a tremendous inspiration, a great Message which he must impart to others. He sat at his typewriter for six days and nights and nothing came out. Then, Excalibur emerged.[86]

Arthur J. Burks, the President of the American Fiction Guild, wrote that an excited Hubbard called him and said: "I want to see you right away. I have written THE book." Hubbard believed that Excalibur would "revolutionize everything" and that "it was somewhat more important, and would have a greater impact upon people, than the Bible."[87] It proposed that all human behavior could be explained in terms of survival and that to understand survival was to understand life.[88] As Hubbard biographer Jon Atack notes, "the notion that everything that exists is trying to survive became the basis of Dianetics and Scientology."[85]

According to Burks, Hubbard "was so sure he had something 'away out and beyond' anything else that he had sent telegrams to several book publishers, telling them that he had written "THE book" and that they were to meet him at Penn Station, and he would discuss it with them and go with whomever gave him the best offer." However, nobody bought the manuscript.[87] Forrest J Ackerman, later Hubbard's literary agent, recalled that Hubbard told him "whoever read it either went insane or committed suicide. And he said that the last time he had shown it to a publisher in New York, he walked into the office to find out what the reaction was, the publisher called for the reader, the reader came in with the manuscript, threw it on the table and threw himself out of the skyscraper window."[89] Hubbard's failure to sell Excalibur depressed him; he told his wife in an October 1938 letter: "Writing action pulp doesn't have much agreement with what I want to do because it retards my progress by demanding incessant attention and, further, actually weakens my name. So you see I've got to do something about it and at the same time strengthen the old financial position."[90] He went on:


Sooner or later Excalibur will be published and I may have a chance to get some name recognition out of it so as to pave the way to articles and comments which are my ideas of writing heaven ... Foolishly perhaps, but determined none the less, I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form even if all books are destroyed. That goal is the real goal as far as I am concerned.[90]

The manuscript later became part of Scientology mythology.[85] An early 1950s Scientology publication offered signed "gold-bound and locked" copies for the sum of $1,500 apiece (equivalent to about $29,000 now). It warned that "four of the first fifteen people who read it went insane" and that it would be "[r]eleased only on sworn statement not to permit other readers to read it. Contains data not to be released during Mr. Hubbard's stay on earth."[91]

Hubbard joined The Explorers Club in February 1940 on the strength of his claimed explorations in the Caribbean and survey flights in the United States.[92] He persuaded the club to let him carry its flag on an "Alaskan Radio-Experimental Expedition" to update the U.S. Coast Pilot guide to the coastlines of Alaska and British Columbia and investigate new methods of radio position-finding.[93] The expedition consisted of Hubbard and his wife—the children were left at South Colby—aboard his ketch Magician.[94]

Scientology accounts of the expedition describe "Hubbard's recharting of an especially treacherous Inside Passage, and his ethnological study of indigenous Aleuts and Haidas" and tell of how "along the way, he not only roped a Kodiak Bear, but braved seventy-mile-an-hour winds and commensurate seas off the Aleutian Islands."[95] They are divided about how far Hubbard's expedition actually traveled, whether 700 miles (1,100 km)[46] or 2,000 miles (3,200 km).[95]

Hubbard told the Seattle Star in a November 1940 letter that the expedition was plagued by problems and did not get any further than Ketchikan near the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle, far from the Aleutian Islands.[96] Magician's engine broke down only two days after setting off in July 1940. The Hubbards reached Ketchikan on August 30, 1940, after many delays following repeated engine breakdowns. The Ketchikan Chronicle reported—making no mention of the expedition—that Hubbard's purpose in coming to Alaska "was two-fold, one to win a bet and another to gather material for a novel of Alaskan salmon fishing."[94] Having underestimated the cost of the trip, he did not have enough money to repair the broken engine. He raised money by writing stories and contributing to the local radio station[97] and eventually earned enough to fix the engine,[92] making it back to Puget Sound on December 27, 1940.[97]

He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers.

After returning from Alaska, Hubbard applied to join the United States Navy. His Congressman, Warren G. Magnuson, wrote to President Roosevelt to recommend Hubbard as "a gentleman of reputation" who was "a respected explorer" and had "marine masters papers for more types of vessels than any other man in the United States". Hubbard was described as "a key figure" in writing organizations, "making him politically potent nationally". The Congressman concluded: "Anything you can do for Mr Hubbard will be appreciated." His friend Robert MacDonald Ford, by now a State Representative for Washington, sent a letter of recommendation describing Hubbard as "one of the most brilliant men I have ever known". Hubbard was said by Scientologists to be "a powerful influence" in the Northwest and to be "well known in many parts of the world and has considerable influence in the Caribbean and Alaska." The letter declared that "for courage and ability I cannot too strongly recommend him." Ford later said that Hubbard had written the letter himself: "I don't know why Ron wanted a letter. I just gave him a letter-head and said, 'Hell, you're the writer, you write it!'"[98]

Hubbard was commissioned as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the U.S. Naval Reserve on July 19, 1941. His military service forms a major element of his public persona as portrayed by Scientologists.[99] The Church of Scientology presents him as a "much-decorated war hero who commanded a corvette and during hostilities was crippled and wounded."[100] Scientology publications say he served as a "Commodore of Corvette squadrons" in "all five theaters of World War II" and was awarded "twenty-one medals and palms" for his service.[101] He was "severely wounded and was taken crippled and blinded" to a military hospital, where he "worked his way back to fitness, strength and full perception in less than two years, using only what he knew and could determine about Man and his relationship to the universe."[70] He claimed to have seen combat repeatedly, telling A. E. van Vogt that he had once sailed his ship "right into the harbor of a Japanese occupied island in the Dutch East Indies. His attitude was that if you took your flag down the Japanese would not know one boat from another, so he tied up at the dock, went ashore and wandered around by himself for three days."[102]

Hubbard's official Navy service records indicate that "his military performance was, at times, substandard" and he received only four campaign medals rather than twenty-one. He was never recorded as being injured or wounded in combat and so never received a Purple Heart.[14] Most of his military service was spent ashore in the continental United States on administrative or training duties. He served for a short time in Australia but was sent home after quarreling with his superiors. He briefly commanded two anti-submarine vessels, the USS YP-422 and USS PC-815, in coastal waters off Massachusetts, Oregon and California in 1942 and 1943 respectively.[14]

After Hubbard reported that the PC-815 had attacked and crippled or sunk two Japanese submarines off Oregon in May 1943, his claim was rejected by the commander of the Northwest Sea Frontier.[14] Hubbard and Thomas Moulton, his second in command on the PC-815, later said the Navy wanted to avoid panic on the mainland.[103] A month later Hubbard unwittingly sailed the PC-815 into Mexican territorial waters and conducted gunnery practice off the Coronado Islands, in the belief that they were uninhabited and belonged to the United States. The Mexican government complained and Hubbard was relieved of command. A fitness report written after the incident rated Hubbard as unsuitable for independent duties and "lacking in the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation."[104] He served for a while as the Navigation and Training Officer for the USS Algol while it was based at Portland. A fitness report from this period recommended promotion, describing him as "a capable and energetic officer, [but] very temperamental", and an "above average navigator".[105] However, he never held another command and did not serve aboard another ship after the Algol.

Hubbard's war service has great significance in the history and mythology of the Church of Scientology, as he is said to have cured himself through techniques that would later underpin Scientology and Dianetics. According to Moulton, Hubbard told him that he had been machine-gunned in the back near the Dutch East Indies. Hubbard asserted that his eyes had been damaged as well, either "by the flash of a large-caliber gun" or when he had "a bomb go off in my face".[14] Scientology texts say that he returned from the war "[b]linded with injured optic nerves, and lame with physical injuries to hip and back" and was twice pronounced dead.[7]

His medical records state that he was hospitalized with an acute duodenal ulcer rather than a war injury. He told his doctors that he was suffering from lameness caused by a hip infection[14] and he told Look magazine in December 1950 that he had suffered from "ulcers, conjunctivitis, deteriorating eyesight, bursitis and something wrong with my feet."[55] He was still complaining in 1951 of eye problems and stomach pains, which had given him "continuous trouble" for eight years, especially when "under nervous stress." This came well after Hubbard had promised that Dianetics would provide "a cure for the very ailments that plagued the author himself then and throughout his life, including allergies, arthritis, ulcers and heart problems."[14]

The Church of Scientology says that Hubbard's key breakthrough in the development of Dianetics was made at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. According to the Church,

In early 1945, while recovering from war injuries at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, Mr. Hubbard conducts a series of tests and experiments dealing with the endocrine system. He discovers that, contrary to long-standing beliefs, function monitors structure. With this revolutionary advance, he begins to apply his theories to the field of the mind and thereby to improve the conditions of others.[106]

An October 1945 Naval Board found that Hubbard was "considered physically qualified to perform duty ashore, preferably within the continental United States".[107] He was discharged from hospital on December 4, 1945, and transferred to inactive duty on February 17, 1946. He resigned his commission with effect from October 30, 1950.[108] The Church of Scientology says he quit because the U.S. Navy "attempted to monopolize all his researches and force him to work on a project 'to make man more suggestible' and when he was unwilling, tried to blackmail him by ordering him back to active duty to perform this function. Having many friends he was able to instantly resign from the Navy and escape this trap."[109] The Navy said in a statement in 1980: "There is no evidence on record of an attempt to recall him to active duty."[108]

The Church disputes the official record of Hubbard's naval career. It asserts that the records are incomplete and perhaps falsified "to conceal Hubbard's secret activities as an intelligence officer."[14] In 1990 the Church provided the Los Angeles Times with a document that was said to be a copy of Hubbard's official record of service. The U.S. Navy told the Times that "its contents are not supported by Hubbard's personnel record."[14] The New Yorker reported in February 2011 that the Scientology document was considered to be a forgery.[7]

Hubbard's life underwent a turbulent period immediately after the war. According to his own account, he "was abandoned by family and friends as a supposedly hopeless cripple and a probable burden upon them for the rest of my days".[110] His daughter Katherine presented a rather different version: his wife had refused to uproot their children from their home in Bremerton, Washington, to join him in California. Their marriage was by now in terminal difficulties and he chose to stay in California.[111]

In August 1945 Hubbard moved into the Pasadena mansion of John "Jack" Whiteside Parsons. A leading rocket propulsion researcher at the California Institute of Technology and a founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Parsons led a double life as an avid occultist and Thelemite, follower of the English ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley and leader of a lodge of Crowley's magical order, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO).[7][112] He let rooms in the house only to tenants who he specified should be "atheists and those of a Bohemian disposition".[113]

Hubbard befriended Parsons and soon became sexually involved with Parsons's 21-year-old girlfriend, Sara "Betty" Northrup.[114] Despite this Parsons was very impressed with Hubbard and reported to Crowley:

[Hubbard] is a gentleman; he has red hair, green eyes, is honest and intelligent, and we have become great friends. He moved in with me about two months ago, and although Betty and I are still friendly, she has transferred her sexual affection to Ron. Although he has no formal training in Magick, he has an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. From some of his experiences I deduced that he is in direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly his Guardian Angel. He describes his Angel as a beautiful winged woman with red hair whom he calls the Empress and who has guided him through his life and saved him many times. He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete accord with our own principles.[115]

Parsons and Hubbard collaborated on the "Babalon Working", a sex magic ritual intended to summon an incarnation of Babalon, the Mother of Abominations. It was undertaken over several nights in February and March 1946 in order to summon an "elemental" who would participate in further sex magic.[116] As Richard Metzger describes it,

Parsons used his "magical wand" to whip up a vortex of energy so the elemental would be summoned. Translated into plain English, Parsons jerked off in the name of spiritual advancement whilst Hubbard (referred to as "The Scribe" in the diary of the event) scanned the astral plane for signs and visions.[117]

The "elemental" arrived a few days later in the form of Marjorie Cameron, who agreed to participate in Parsons' rites.[116] Soon afterwards, Parsons, Hubbard and Sara agreed to set up a business partnership, "Allied Enterprises", in which they invested nearly their entire savings—the vast majority contributed by Parsons. The plan was for Hubbard and Sara to buy yachts in Miami and sail them to the West Coast to sell for a profit. Hubbard had a different idea; he wrote to the U.S. Navy requesting permission to leave the country "to visit Central & South America & China" for the purposes of "collecting writing material"—in other words, undertaking a world cruise.[118] Aleister Crowley strongly criticized Parsons's actions, writing: "Suspect Ron playing confidence trick—Jack Parsons weak fool—obvious victim prowling swindlers." Parsons attempted to recover his money by obtaining an injunction to prevent Hubbard and Sara leaving the country or disposing of the remnants of his assets.[119] They attempted to sail anyway but were forced back to port by a storm. A week later, Allied Enterprises was dissolved. Parsons received only a $2,900 promissory note from Hubbard and returned home "shattered". He had to sell his mansion to developers soon afterwards to recoup his losses.[120]

Hubbard's fellow writers were well aware of what had happened between him and Parsons. L. Sprague de Camp wrote to Isaac Asimov on August 27, 1946, to tell him:

The more complete story of Hubbard is that he is now in Fla. living on his yacht with a man-eating tigress named Betty-alias-Sarah, another of the same kind ... He will probably soon thereafter arrive in these parts with Betty-Sarah, broke, working the poor-wounded-veteran racket for all its worth, and looking for another easy mark. Don't say you haven't been warned. Bob [Robert Heinlein] thinks Ron went to pieces morally as a result of the war. I think that's fertilizer, that he always was that way, but when he wanted to conciliate or get something from somebody he could put on a good charm act. What the war did was to wear him down to where he no longer bothers with the act.[121]

Scientology accounts do not mention Hubbard's involvement in occultism. He is instead described as "continu[ing] to write to help support his research" during this period into "the development of a means to better the condition of man."[122] The Church of Scientology has nonetheless acknowledged Hubbard's involvement with the OTO; a 1969 statement, written by Hubbard himself,[123] said:

Hubbard broke up black magic in America ... L. Ron Hubbard was still an officer of the U.S. Navy, because he was well known as a writer and a philosopher and had friends amongst the physicists, he was sent in to handle the situation. He went to live at the house and investigated the black magic rites and the general situation and found them very bad. ... Hubbard's mission was successful far beyond anyone's expectations. The house was torn down. Hubbard rescued a girl they were using. The black magic group was dispersed and destroyed and has never recovered.[124]

The Church of Scientology says Hubbard was "sent in" by his fellow science fiction author Robert Heinlein, "who was running off-book intelligence operations for naval intelligence at the time." However, Heinlein's authorized biographer has said that he looked into the matter at the suggestion of Scientologists but found nothing to corroborate claims that Heinlein had been involved, and his biography of Heinlein makes no mention of the matter.[7]

On August 10, 1946, Hubbard bigamously married Sara, while still married to Polly. It was not until 1947 that his first wife learned that he had remarried. Hubbard agreed to divorce Polly in June that year and the marriage was dissolved shortly afterwards, with Polly given custody of the children.[125]

After Hubbard's wedding to Sara, the couple settled at Laguna Beach, California, where Hubbard took a short-term job looking after a friend's yacht[126] before resuming his fiction writing to supplement the small disability allowance that he was receiving as a war veteran.[127] Working from a trailer in a run-down area of North Hollywood,[125] Hubbard sold a number of science fiction stories that included his Ole Doc Methuselah series and the serialized novels The End Is Not Yet and To the Stars.[68] However, he remained short of money and repeatedly wrote to the Veterans Administration (VA) asking for an increase in his war pension. In October 1947 he wrote:

After trying and failing for two years to regain my equilibrium in civil life, I am utterly unable to approach anything like my own competence. My last physician informed me that it might be very helpful if I were to be examined and perhaps treated psychiatrically or even by a psychoanalyst. Toward the end of my service I avoided out of pride any mental examinations, hoping that time would balance a mind which I had every reason to suppose was seriously affected. I cannot account for nor rise above long periods of moroseness and suicidal inclinations, and have newly come to realize that I must first triumph above this before I can hope to rehabilitate myself at all.[128]

The VA eventually did increase his pension,[129] but his money problems continued. On August 31, 1948, he was arrested in San Luis Obispo, California, and subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of petty theft, for which he was ordered to pay a $25 fine.[130] According to the Church of Scientology, around this time he "accept[ed] an appointment as a Special Police Officer with the Los Angeles Police Department and uses the position to study society's criminal elements"[46] and also "worked with neurotics from the Hollywood film community".[131]

In late 1948 Hubbard and Sara moved to Savannah, Georgia.[132] Here, Scientology sources say, he "volunteer[ed] his time in hospitals and mental wards, saving the lives of patients with his counseling techniques."[133] Hubbard began to make the first public mentions of what was to become Dianetics. He wrote in January 1949 that he was working on a "book of psychology" about "the cause and cure of nervous tension", which he was going to call The Dark Sword, Excalibur or Science of the Mind.[134] In April 1949, Hubbard wrote to several professional organizations to offer his research.[135] None were interested, so he turned to his editor John W. Campbell, who was more receptive due to a long-standing fascination with fringe psychologies and psychic powers ("psionics") that "permeated both his fiction and non-fiction."[136]

Campbell invited Hubbard and Sara to move into a cottage at Bay Head, New Jersey, not far from his own home at Plainfield. In July 1949 Campbell recruited an acquaintance, Dr. Joseph Winter, to help to develop Hubbard's new therapy of "Dianetics". Campbell told Winter:

With cooperation from some institutions, some psychiatrists, [Hubbard] has worked on all types of cases. Institutionalized schizophrenics, apathies, manics, depressives, perverts, stuttering, neuroses—in all, nearly 1000 cases. But just a brief sampling of each type; he doesn't have proper statistics in the usual sense. But he has one statistic. He has cured every patient he worked with. He has cured ulcers, arthritis, asthma.[137]

Hubbard collaborated with Campbell and Winter to refine his techniques,[138] testing them on science fiction fans recruited by Campbell.[139] The basic principle of Dianetics was that the brain recorded every experience and event in a person's life, even when unconscious. Bad or painful experiences were stored as "engrams" in a "reactive mind". These could be triggered later in life, causing emotional and physical problems. By carrying out a process called "auditing", a person could be regressed through his engrams to re-experiencing past experiences. This enabled engrams to be "cleared". The subject, who would now be in a state of "Clear", would have a perfectly functioning mind with an improved IQ and photographic memory.[140] The "Clear" would be cured of physical ailments ranging from poor eyesight to the common cold,[141] which Hubbard asserted were purely psychosomatic.[142]

Winter submitted a paper on Dianetics to the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Psychiatry but both journals rejected it.[143] Hubbard and his collaborators decided to announce Dianetics in Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction instead. In an editorial, Campbell said: "Its power is almost unbelievable; it proves the mind not only can but does rule the body completely; following the sharply defined basic laws set forth, physical ills such as ulcers, asthma and arthritis can be cured, as can all other psychosomatic ills."[144] The birth of Hubbard's second daughter Alexis Valerie, delivered by Winter on March 8, 1950, came in the middle of the preparations to launch Dianetics.[137] A "Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation" was established in April 1950 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with Hubbard, Sara, Winter and Campbell on the board of directors. Dianetics was duly launched in Astounding's May 1950 issue and on May 9, Hubbard's companion book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published.[145]

Hubbard called Dianetics "a milestone for man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his invention of the wheel and the arch". It was an immediate commercial success and sparked what Martin Gardner calls "a nation-wide cult of incredible proportions".[146] By August 1950, Hubbard's book had sold 55,000 copies, was selling at the rate of 4,000 a week and was being translated into French, German and Japanese. Five hundred Dianetic auditing groups had been set up across the United States.[147]

Dianetics was poorly received by the press and the scientific and medical professions.[147] The American Psychological Association criticized Hubbard's claims as "not supported by empirical evidence".[55] Scientific American said that Hubbard's book contained "more promises and less evidence per page than any publication since the invention of printing",[148] while The New Republic called it a "bold and immodest mixture of complete nonsense and perfectly reasonable common sense, taken from long acknowledged findings and disguised and distorted by a crazy, newly invented terminology".[149] Some of Hubbard's fellow science fiction writers also criticized it; Isaac Asimov considered it "gibberish"[66] while Jack Williamson called it "a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology".[150]

Several famous individuals became involved with Dianetics. Aldous Huxley received auditing from Hubbard himself,[151] the poet Jean Toomer[152] and the science fiction writers Theodore Sturgeon[153] and A. E. van Vogt became trained Dianetics auditors. Van Vogt temporarily abandoned writing and became the head of the newly established Los Angeles branch of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation. Other branches were established in New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, and Honolulu.[154][155]

Although Dianetics was not cheap, a great many people were nonetheless willing to pay; van Vogt later recalled "doing little but tear open envelopes and pull out $500 checks from people who wanted to take an auditor's course."[154] Financial controls were lax. Hubbard himself withdrew large sums with no explanation of what he was doing with it. On one occasion, van Vogt saw Hubbard taking a lump sum of $56,000 (equivalent to $0.5 million at 2010 prices) out of the Los Angeles Foundation's proceeds.[154] One of Hubbard's employees, Helen O'Brien, commented that at the Elizabeth, N.J. branch of the Foundation the books showed that "a month's income of $90,000 is listed, with only $20,000 accounted for."[156]

Hubbard played a very active role in the Dianetics boom, writing, lecturing and training auditors. Many of those who knew him spoke of being impressed by his personal charisma. Jack Horner, who became a Dianetics auditor in 1950, later said: "He was very impressive, dedicated and amusing. The man had tremendous charisma; you just wanted to hear every word he had to say and listen for any pearl of wisdom."[157] Isaac Asimov recalled in his autobiography how at a dinner party he, Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp and their wives "all sat as quietly as pussycats and listened to Hubbard. He told tales with perfect aplomb and in complete paragraphs."[66] As Atack comments, he was "a charismatic figure who compelled the devotion of those around him."[158] Christopher Evans described the personal qualities that Hubbard brought to Dianetics and Scientology:

He undoubtedly has charisma, a magnetic lure of an indefinable kind which makes him the centre of attraction in any kind of gathering. He is also a compulsive talker and pontificator ... His restless energy keeps him on the go throughout a long day—he is a poor sleeper and rises very early—and provides part of the drive which has allowed him to found and propagate a major international organization.[159]

Hubbard's supporters soon began to have doubts about Dianetics. Winter became disillusioned and wrote that he had never seen a single convincing Clear: "I have seen some individuals who are supposed to have been 'clear,' but their behavior does not conform to the definition of the state. Moreover, an individual supposed to have been 'clear' has undergone a relapse into conduct which suggests an incipient psychosis."[160] He also deplored the Foundation's omission of any serious scientific research.[161] Dianetics lost public credibility in August 1950 when a presentation by Hubbard before an audience of 6,000 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles failed disastrously.[162] He introduced a Clear named Sonya Bianca and told the audience that as a result of undergoing Dianetic therapy she now possessed perfect recall. However, Gardner writes, "in the demonstration that followed, she failed to remember a single formula in physics (the subject in which she was majoring) or the color of Hubbard's tie when his back was turned. At this point, a large part of the audience got up and left."[163]

Hubbard also faced other practitioners moving into leadership positions within the Dianetics community. It was structured as an open, public practice in which others were free to pursue their own lines of research and claim that their approaches to auditing produced better results than Hubbard's.[164] The community rapidly splintered and its members mingled Hubbard's ideas with a wide variety of esoteric and even occult practices.[165] By late 1950, the Elizabeth, N.J. Foundation was in financial crisis and the Los Angeles Foundation was more than $200,000 in debt.[166] Winter and Art Ceppos, the publisher of Hubbard's book, resigned in acrimonious circumstances.[151] Campbell also resigned, criticizing Hubbard for being impossible to work with, and blamed him for the disorganization and financial ruin of the Foundations.[167] By the summer of 1951, the Elizabeth, N.J. Foundation and all of its branches had closed.[156]

The collapse of Hubbard's marriage to Sara created yet more problems. He had begun an affair with his 20-year-old public relations assistant in late 1950, while Sara started a relationship with Dianetics auditor Miles Hollister.[168] Hubbard secretly denounced the couple to the FBI in March 1951, portraying them in a letter as communist infiltrators. According to Hubbard, Sara was "currently intimate with [communists] but evidently under coercion. Drug addiction set in fall 1950. Nothing of this known to me until a few weeks ago." Hollister was described as having a "sharp chin, broad forehead, rather Slavic". He was said to be the "center of most turbulence in our organization" and "active and dangerous".[169] The FBI did not take Hubbard seriously: an agent annotated his correspondence with the comment, "Appears mental".[170]

Three weeks later, Hubbard and two Foundation staff seized Sara and his year-old daughter Alexis and forcibly took them to San Bernardino, California, where he attempted unsuccessfully to find a doctor to examine Sara and declare her insane.[171] He let Sara go but took Alexis to Havana, Cuba. Sara filed a divorce suit on April 23, 1951, that accused him of marrying her bigamously and subjecting her to sleep deprivation, beatings, strangulation, kidnapping and exhortations to commit suicide.[172] The case led to newspaper headlines such as "Ron Hubbard Insane, Says His Wife."[173] Sara finally secured the return of her daughter in June 1951 by agreeing to a settlement with her husband in which she signed a statement, written by him, declaring:

The things I have said about L. Ron Hubbard in courts and the public prints have been grossly exaggerated or entirely false. I have not at any time believed otherwise than that L. Ron Hubbard is a fine and brilliant man.[174]

Dianetics appeared to be on the edge of total collapse. However, it was saved by Don Purcell, a millionaire businessman and Dianeticist who agreed to support a new Foundation in Wichita, Kansas. Their collaboration ended after less than a year when they fell out over the future direction of Dianetics.[175] The Wichita Foundation became financially unviable after a court ruled that it was liable for the unpaid debts of its defunct predecessor in Elizabeth, N.J. The ruling prompted Purcell and the other directors of the Wichita Foundation to file for voluntary bankruptcy in February 1952.[168] Hubbard resigned immediately and accused Purcell of having been bribed by the American Medical Association to destroy Dianetics.[175] Hubbard established a "Hubbard College" on the other side of town where he continued to promote Dianetics while fighting Purcell in the courts over the Foundation's intellectual property.[176]

Only six weeks after setting up the Hubbard College and marrying a staff member, 18-year-old Mary Sue Whipp, Hubbard closed it down and moved with his new bride to Phoenix, Arizona. He established a Hubbard Association of Scientologists International to promote his new "Science of Certainty"—Scientology.[177]

Hubbard established an "Academy of Scientology" at this Northwest, Washington, D.C. building in 1955. It is now the L. Ron Hubbard House museum. The Church of Scientology attributes its genesis to Hubbard's discovery of "a new line of research", first set out in his book Science of Survival—"that man is most fundamentally a spiritual being".[178] Non-Scientologist writers have suggested alternative motives: that he aimed "to reassert control over his creation",[165] that he believed "he was about to lose control of Dianetics",[175] or that he wanted to ensure "he would be able to stay in business even if the courts eventually awarded control of Dianetics and its valuable copyrights to ... the hated Don Purcell."[179]

Hubbard expanded upon the basics of Dianetics to construct a spiritually oriented (though at this stage not religious) doctrine based on the concept that the true self of a person was a thetan—an immortal, omniscient and potentially omnipotent entity.[180] Hubbard taught that the thetans, having created the material universe, had forgotten their god-like powers and become trapped in physical bodies.[181] Scientology aimed to "rehabilitate" each person's thetan to restore its original capacities and become once again an "Operating Thetan".[179][180] Hubbard insisted humanity was imperiled by the forces of "aberration", which were the result of engrams carried by the immortal thetans for billions of years.[175]

Hubbard introduced a device called an E-meter that he presented as having, as Miller puts it, "an almost mystical power to reveal an individual's innermost thoughts."[182] He promulgated Scientology through a series of lectures, bulletins and books such as A History of Man ("a cold-blooded and factual account of your last sixty trillion years")[182] and Scientology: 8-8008 ("With this book, the ability to make one's body old or young at will, the ability to heal the ill without physical contact, the ability to cure the insane and the incapacitated, is set forth for the physician, the layman, the mathematician and the physicist.")[183]

Scientology was organized in a very different way to the decentralized Dianetics movement. The Hubbard Association of Scientologists (HAS) was the only official Scientology organization. Training procedures and doctrines were standardized and promoted through HAS publications, and administrators and auditors were not permitted to deviate from Hubbard's approach.[165] Branches or "orgs" were organized as franchises, rather like a fast food restaurant chain. Each franchise holder was required to pay ten per cent of income to Hubbard's central organization. They were expected to find new recruits, known as "raw meat", but were restricted to providing only basic services. Costlier higher-level auditing was only provided by Hubbard's central organization.[184]

Although this model would eventually be extremely successful, Scientology was a very small-scale movement at first. Hubbard started off with only a few dozen followers, generally dedicated Dianeticists; a seventy-hour series of lectures in Philadelphia in December 1952 was attended by just 38 people.[185] Hubbard was joined in Phoenix by his 18-year-old son Nibs, who had been unable to settle down in high school.[186] Nibs had decided to become a Scientologist, moved into his father's home and went on to become a Scientology staff member and "professor".[187] Hubbard also traveled to the United Kingdom to establish his control over a Dianetics group in London. It was very much a shoestring operation; as Helen O'Brien later recalled, "there was an atmosphere of extreme poverty and undertones of a grim conspiracy over all. At 163 Holland Park Avenue was an ill-lit lecture room and a bare-boarded and poky office some eight by ten feet—mainly infested by long haired men and short haired and tatty women."[188] On September 24, 1952, only a few weeks after arriving in London, Hubbard's wife Mary Sue gave birth to her first child, a daughter whom they named Diana Meredith de Wolfe Hubbard.[189]

In February 1953, Hubbard acquired a doctorate from Sequoia University. According to a Scientology biography, this was "given in recognition of his outstanding work on Dianetics" and "as an inspiration to the many people ... who had been inspired by him to take up advanced studies in this field...""[109] The British government concluded in the 1970s that Sequoia University was a "degree mill" operated by Joseph Hough, a Los Angeles chiropractor.[190] Miller cites a telegram sent by Hubbard on February 27, 1953, in which he instructed Scientologist Richard de Mille to procure him a Ph.D from Hough urgently—"FOR GOSH SAKES EXPEDITE. WORK HERE UTTERLY DEPENDANT ON IT."[191] Hough's "university" was closed down by the Californian authorities in 1971. British government officials noted in a report written in 1977: "It has not and never had any authority whatsoever to issue diplomas or degrees and the dean is sought by the authorities 'for questioning'."[190]

A few weeks after becoming "Dr." Hubbard, he wrote to Helen O'Brien—who had taken over the day-to-day management of Scientology in the United States—proposing that Scientology should be transformed into a religion.[192] As membership declined and finances grew tighter, Hubbard had reversed the hostility to religion he voiced in Dianetics.[193] His letter to O'Brien discussed the legal and financial benefits of religious status.[193] The idea may not have been new; Hubbard has been quoted as telling an authors' convention in 1948, "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion."[170][194][195] The Church of Scientology has denied that Hubbard said this and insists that it is a misattributed quote that was said instead by George Orwell, although they offer no proof of this claim.[196] Hubbard outlined plans for setting up a chain of "Spiritual Guidance Centers" charging customers $500 for twenty-four hours of auditing ("That is real money... Charge enough and we'd be swamped."). He wrote:

I await your reaction on the religion angle. In my opinion, we couldn't get worse public opinion than we have had or have less customers with what we've got to sell. A religious charter would be necessary in Pennsylvania or NJ to make it stick. But I sure could make it stick.[197]

O'Brien was not enthusiastic and resigned the following September, worn out by work.[198] She criticized Hubbard for creating "a temperate zone voodoo, in its inelasticity, unexplainable procedures, and mindless group euphoria."[199] He nonetheless pressed ahead and on December 18, 1953, he incorporated the Church of Scientology, Church of American Science and Church of Spiritual Engineering in Camden, New Jersey.[200] Hubbard, his wife Mary Sue and his secretary John Galusha became the trustees of all three corporations.[201] Hubbard later denied founding the Church of Scientology and to this day, Scientologists maintain that the "founding church" was actually the Church of Scientology of California, established on February 18, 1954, by Scientologist Burton Farber.[202] The reason for Scientology's religious transformation was explained by officials of the HAS:

[T]here is little doubt but what [sic] this stroke will remove Scientology from the target area of overt and covert attacks by the medical profession, who see their pills, scalpels, and appendix-studded incomes threatened ... [Scientologists] can avoid the recent fiasco in which a Pasadena practitioner is reported to have spent 10 days in that city's torture chamber for "practicing medicine without a license".[203]

You are all WAY too smart and sophisticated for a completely ignorant fool, such as myself. You don't need me. You really don't. You've had top-people in charge of things for thousands of years -- and look how well things have gone!! Why mess with success??!! There's no problem!! Everything is FINE!! Continuation of the Previous Post:

Scientology franchises became Churches of Scientology and some auditors began dressing as clergymen, complete with clerical collars. If they were arrested in the course of their activities, Hubbard advised, they should sue for massive damages for molesting "a Man of God going about his business."[200] A few years later he told Scientologists: "If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace ... Don't ever defend, always attack."[204] Any individual breaking away from Scientology and setting up his own group was to be shut down:

The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.[205]

The 1950s saw Scientology growing steadily. Hubbard finally achieved victory over Don Purcell in 1954 when the latter, worn out by constant litigation, handed the copyrights of Dianetics back to Hubbard.[206] Most of the formerly independent Scientology and Dianetics groups were either driven out of business or were absorbed into Hubbard's organizations.[207] Hubbard marketed Scientology through medical claims, such as attracting polio sufferers by presenting the Church of Scientology as a scientific research foundation investigating polio cases.[208] One advertisement during this period stated:

Plagued by illness? We'll make you able to have good health. Get processed by the finest capable auditors in the world today [...] Personally coached and monitored by L. Ron Hubbard.[209]

Scientology became a highly profitable enterprise for Hubbard.[210] He implemented a scheme under which he was paid a percentage of the Church of Scientology's gross income and by 1957 he was being paid about $250,000 annually—equivalent to $1.9 million at 2010 prices.[211] His family grew, too, with Mary Sue giving birth to three more children—Geoffrey Quentin McCaully on January 6, 1954;[198] Mary Suzette Rochelle on February 13, 1955;[212] and Arthur Ronald Conway on June 6, 1958.[213] In the spring of 1959, he used his newfound wealth to purchase Saint Hill Manor, an 18th century country house in Sussex formerly owned by Sawai Man Singh II, the Maharaja of Jaipur. The house became Hubbard's permanent residence and an international training center for Scientologists.[208]

By the start of the 1960s, Hubbard was the leader of a worldwide movement with thousands of followers. A decade later, however, he had left Saint Hill Manor and moved aboard his own private fleet of ships as the Church of Scientology faced worldwide controversy.

The Church of Scientology says that the problems of this period were due to "vicious, covert international attacks" by the United States government, "all of which were proven false and baseless, which were to last 27 years and finally culminated in the Government being sued for 750 million dollars for conspiracy."[109] Behind the attacks, claimed Hubbard, lay a vast conspiracy of "psychiatric front groups" secretly controlling governments: "Every single lie, false charge and attack on Scientology has been traced directly to this group's members. They have sought at great expense for nineteen years to crush and eradicate any new development in the field of the mind. They are actively preventing any effectiveness in this field."[214]

Hubbard believed that Scientology was being infiltrated by saboteurs and spies and introduced "security checking"[204] to identify those he termed "potential trouble sources" and "suppressive persons". Members of the Church of Scientology were interrogated with the aid of E-meters and were asked questions such as "Have you ever practiced homosexuality?" and "Have you ever had unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard?"[215] For a time, Scientologists were even interrogated about crimes committed in past lives: "Have you ever destroyed a culture?" "Did you come to Earth for evil purposes?" "Have you ever zapped anyone?"[216]

He also sought to exert political influence, advising Scientologists to vote against Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election and establishing a Department of Government Affairs "to bring government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology." This, he said, "is done by high-level ability to control and in its absence by a low-level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies."[217]

The U.S. Government was already well aware of Hubbard's activities. The FBI had a lengthy file on him, including a 1951 interview with an agent who considered him a "mental case".[167] Police forces in a number of jurisdictions began exchanging information about Scientology through the auspices of Interpol, which eventually led to prosecutions.[218] In 1958, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service withdrew the Washington, D.C. Church of Scientology's tax exemption after it found that Hubbard and his family were profiting unreasonably from Scientology's ostensibly non-profit income.[210] The Food and Drug Administration took action against Scientology's medical claims, seizing thousands of pills being marketed as "radiation cures"[219] as well as publications and E-meters. The Church of Scientology was required to label them as being "ineffective in the diagnosis or treatment of disease."[220]

Following the FDA's actions, Scientology attracted increasingly unfavorable publicity across the English-speaking world.[221] It faced particularly hostile scrutiny in Victoria, Australia, where it was accused of brainwashing, blackmail, extortion and damaging the mental health of its members.[222] The Victorian state government established a Board of Inquiry into Scientology in November 1963.[223] Its report, published in October 1965, condemned every aspect of Scientology and Hubbard himself. He was described as being of doubtful sanity, having a persecution complex and displaying strong indications of paranoid schizophrenia with delusions of grandeur. His writings were characterized as nonsensical, abounding in "self-glorification and grandiosity, replete with histrionics and hysterical, incontinent outbursts".[224] Sociologist Roy Wallis comments that the report drastically changed public perceptions of Scientology:

The former conception of the movement as a relatively harmless, if cranky, health and self-improvement cult, was transformed into one which portrayed it as evil, dangerous, a form of hypnosis (with all the overtones of Svengali in the layman's mind), and brainwashing.[222]

The report led to Scientology being banned in Victoria,[225] Western Australia and South Australia,[226] and led to more negative publicity around the world. Newspapers and politicians in the UK pressed the British government for action against Scientology. In July 1968, the British Minister of Health, Kenneth Robinson, announced that foreign Scientologists would no longer be permitted to enter the UK and Hubbard himself was excluded from the country as an "undesirable alien."[227] Further inquiries were launched in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.[226]

Hubbard took three major new initiatives in the face of these challenges. "Ethics Technology" was introduced to tighten internal discipline within Scientology. It required Scientologists to "disconnect" from any organization or individual—including family members—deemed to be disruptive or "suppressive".[228] Scientologists were also required to write "Knowledge Reports" on each other, reporting transgressions or misapplications of Scientology methods. Hubbard promulgated a long list of punishable "Misdemeanors," "Crimes" and "High Crimes".[229] The "Fair Game" policy was introduced, which was applicable to anyone deemed an "enemy" of Scientology: "May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."[230][231]

At the start of March 1966, Hubbard created the Guardian's Office (GO), a new agency within the Church of Scientology that was headed by his wife Mary Sue.[232] It dealt with Scientology's external affairs, including public relations, legal actions and the gathering of intelligence on perceived threats.[233] As Scientology faced increasingly negative media attention, the GO retaliated with hundreds of writs for libel and slander; it issued more than forty on a single day.[234] Hubbard ordered his staff to find "lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence [sic] on [Scientology's] attackers."[235]

Finally, at the end of 1966, Hubbard acquired his own fleet of ships.[7] He established the "Hubbard Explorational Company Ltd" which purchased three ships—the Enchanter, a forty-ton schooner,[236] the Avon River, an old trawler,[237] and the Royal Scotman [sic], a former Irish Sea cattle ferry that he made his home and flagship.[238] The ships were crewed by the Sea Organization or "Sea Org," a group of Scientologist volunteers, with the support of a couple of professional seamen.[7][239]

After Hubbard created the Sea Org "fleet", in early 1967 it began an eight-year voyage, sailing from port to port in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern North Atlantic. The fleet traveled as far as Corfu in the eastern Mediterranean and Dakar and the Azores in the Atlantic, but rarely stayed anywhere for longer than six weeks. Ken Urquhart, Hubbard's personal assistant at the time, later recalled:

[Hubbard] said we had to keep moving because there were so many people after him. If they caught up with him they would cause him so much trouble that he would be unable to continue his work, Scientology would not get into the world and there would be social and economic chaos, if not a nuclear holocaust.[240]

When Hubbard established the Sea Org he publicly declared that he had relinquished his management responsibilities. According to Miller, this was not true. He received daily telex messages from Scientology organizations around the world reporting their statistics and income. The Church of Scientology sent him $15,000 a week and millions of dollars were transferred to his bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.[241] Couriers arrived regularly, conveying luxury food for Hubbard and his family[242] or cash that had been smuggled from England to avoid currency export restrictions.[243]

Along the way, Hubbard sought to establish a safe haven in "a friendly little country where Scientology would be allowed to prosper," as Miller puts it.[244] The fleet stayed at Corfu for several months in 1968–69. Hubbard renamed the ships after Greek gods—the Royal Scotman was rechristened Apollo—and he praised the recently established military dictatorship.[243] The Sea Org was represented as "Professor Hubbard's Philosophy School" in a telegram to the Greek government.[245] In March 1969, however, Hubbard and his ships were ordered to leave.[246] In mid-1972, Hubbard tried again in Morocco, establishing contacts with the country's secret police and training senior policemen and intelligence agents in techniques for detecting subversives.[247] The program ended in failure when it became caught up in internal Moroccan politics, and Hubbard left the country hastily in December 1972.[248]

At the same time, Hubbard was still developing Scientology's doctrines. A Scientology biography states that "free of organizational duties and aided by the first Sea Org members, L. Ron Hubbard now had the time and facilities to confirm in the physical universe some of the events and places he had encountered in his journeys down the track of time."[52] In 1965, he designated several existing Scientology courses as confidential, repackaging them as the first of the esoteric "OT levels".[249] Two years later he announced the release of OT3, the "Wall of Fire", revealing the secrets of an immense disaster that had occurred "on this planet, and on the other seventy-five planets which form this Confederacy, seventy-five million years ago."[250] Scientologists were required to undertake the first two OT levels before learning how Xenu, the leader of the Galactic Confederacy, had shipped billions of people to Earth and blown them up with hydrogen bombs, following which their traumatized spirits were stuck together at "implant stations", brainwashed with false memories and eventually became contained within human beings.[251] The discovery of OT3 was said to have taken a major physical toll on Hubbard, who announced that he had broken a knee, an arm, and his back during the course of his research.[252] A year later, in 1968, he unveiled OT levels 4 to 6 and began delivering OT training courses to Scientologists aboard the Royal Scotman.[253]

Scientologists around the world were presented with a glamorous picture of life in the Sea Org and many applied to join Hubbard aboard the fleet.[253] What they found was rather different from the image. Most of those joining had no nautical experience at all.[253] Mechanical difficulties and blunders by the crews led to a series of embarrassing incidents and near-disasters. Following one incident in which the rudder of the Royal Scotman was damaged during a storm, Hubbard ordered the ship's entire crew to be reduced to a "condition of liability" and wear gray rags tied to their arms.[254] The ship itself was treated the same way, with dirty tarpaulins tied around its funnel to symbolize its lower status. According to those aboard, conditions were appalling; the crew was worked to the point of exhaustion, given meagre rations and forbidden to wash or change their clothes for several weeks.[255] Hubbard maintained a harsh disciplinary regime aboard the fleet, punishing mistakes by confining people in the Royal Scotman's bilge tanks without toilet facilities and with food provided in buckets.[256] At other times erring crew members were thrown overboard with Hubbard looking on and, occasionally, filming.[257] David Mayo, a Sea Org member at the time, later recalled:

We tried not to think too hard about his behavior. It was not rational much of the time, but to even consider such a thing was a discreditable thought and you couldn't allow yourself to have a discreditable thought. One of the questions in a sec[curity] check was, "Have you ever had any unkind thoughts about LRH?" and you could get into very serious trouble if you had. So you tried hard not to.[258]

From about 1970, Hubbard was attended aboard ship by the children of Sea Org members, organized as the Commodore's Messenger Organization (CMO). They were mainly young girls dressed in hot pants and halter tops, who were responsible for running errands for Hubbard such as lighting his cigarettes, dressing him or relaying his verbal commands to other members of the crew.[259][260] In addition to his wife Mary Sue, he was accompanied by all four of his children by her, though not his first son Nibs, who had defected from Scientology in late 1959.[261] The younger Hubbards were all members of the Sea Org and shared its rigors, though Quentin Hubbard reportedly found it difficult to adjust and attempted suicide in mid-1974.[262]

The Internal Revenue Service building in Washington D.C. was one of the targets of Hubbard's "Snow White Program". During the 1970s, Hubbard faced an increasing number of legal threats. French prosecutors charged him and the French Church of Scientology with fraud and customs violations in 1972. He was advised that he was at risk of being extradited to France.[263] Hubbard left the Sea Org fleet temporarily at the end of 1972, living incognito in Queens, New York,[264] until he returned to his flagship in September 1973 when the threat of extradition had abated.[265] Scientology sources say that he carried out "a sociological study in and around New York City."[266]

Hubbard's health deteriorated significantly during this period. A chain-smoker, he also suffered from bursitis and excessive weight, and had a prominent growth on his forehead.[267] He suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident in 1973 and had a heart attack in 1975 that required him to take anticoagulant drugs for the next year.[268] In September 1978, Hubbard had a pulmonary embolism, falling into a coma, but recovered.[269]

He remained active in managing and developing Scientology, establishing the controversial Rehabilitation Project Force in 1974[270] and issuing policy and doctrinal bulletins.[271] However, the Sea Org's voyages were coming to an end. The Apollo was banned from several Spanish ports[271] and was expelled from Curaçao in October 1975.[270] The Sea Org came to be suspected of being a CIA operation, leading to a riot in Funchal, Madeira, when the Apollo docked there. Hubbard decided to relocate back to the United States to establish a "land base" for the Sea Org in Florida.[272] The Church of Scientology attributes this decision to the activities on the Apollo having "outgrow[n] the ship's capacity."[266]

In October 1975, Hubbard moved into a hotel suite in Daytona Beach. The Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, was secretly acquired as the location for the "land base".[272] On December 5, 1975, Hubbard and his wife Mary Sue moved into a condominium complex in nearby Dunedin.[273] Their presence was meant to be a closely guarded secret but was accidentally compromised the following month.[274] Hubbard immediately left Dunedin and moved to Georgetown, Washington D.C., accompanied by a handful of aides and messengers, but not his wife.[275] Six months later, following another security alert in July 1976, Hubbard moved to another safe house in Culver City, California. He lived there for only about three months, relocating in October to the more private confines of the Olive Tree Ranch near La Quinta.[276] His second son Quentin committed suicide a few weeks later in Las Vegas.[277][278]

Throughout this period, Hubbard was heavily involved in directing the activities of the Guardian's Office (GO), the legal bureau/intelligence agency that he had established in 1966. He believed that Scientology was being attacked by an international Nazi conspiracy, which he termed the "Tenyaka Memorial", through a network of drug companies, banks and psychiatrists in a bid to take over the world.[279] In 1973, he instigated the "Snow White Program" and directed the GO to remove negative reports about Scientology from government files and track down their sources.[280] The GO was ordered to "get all false and secret files on Scientology, LRH ... that cannot be obtained legally, by all possible lines of approach ... i.e., job penetration, janitor penetration, suitable guises utilizing covers." His involvement in the GO's operations was concealed through the use of codenames. The GO carried out covert campaigns on his behalf such as Operation Bulldozer Leak, intended "to effectively spread the rumor that will lead Government, media, and individual [Suppressive Persons] to conclude that LRH has no control of the C of S and no legal liability for Church activity." He was kept informed of GO operations, such as the theft of medical records from a hospital, harassment of psychiatrists and infiltrations of organizations that had been critical of Scientology at various times, such as the Better Business Bureau, the American Medical Association, and American Psychiatric Association.[281]

Members of the GO infiltrated and burglarized numerous government organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service.[282] After two GO agents were caught in the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the IRS, the FBI carried out simultaneous raids on GO offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. on July 7, 1977. They retrieved wiretap equipment, burglary tools and some 90,000 pages of incriminating documents. Hubbard was not prosecuted, though he was labeled an "unindicted co-conspirator" by government prosecutors. His wife Mary Sue was indicted and subsequently convicted of conspiracy. She was sent to a federal prison along with ten other Scientologists.[283]

Hubbard's troubles increased in February 1978 when a French court convicted him in absentia for obtaining money under false pretenses. He was sentenced to four years in prison and a 35,000FF ($7,000) fine.[284] He went into hiding in April 1979, moving to an apartment in Hemet, California, where his only contact with the outside world was via ten trusted Messengers. He cut contact with everyone else, even his wife, whom he saw for the last time in August 1979.[285] Hubbard faced a possible indictment for his role in Operation Freakout, the GO's campaign against New York journalist Paulette Cooper, and in February 1980 he disappeared into deep cover in the company of two trusted Messengers, Pat and Anne Broeker.[286][287]

For the first few years of the 1980s, Hubbard and the Broekers lived on the move, touring the Pacific Northwest in a recreational vehicle and living for a while in apartments in Newport Beach and Los Angeles.[288] Hubbard used his time in hiding to write his first new works of science fiction for nearly thirty years—Battlefield Earth (1982) and Mission Earth, a ten-volume series published between 1985 and 1987.[289] They received mixed responses; as writer Jeff Walker puts it, they were "treated derisively by most critics but greatly admired by followers."[290] Hubbard also wrote and composed music for three of his albums, which were produced by the Church of Scientology. The book soundtrack Space Jazz was released in 1982.[291] Mission Earth and The Road to Freedom were released posthumously in 1986.[292]

In Hubbard's absence, members of the Sea Org staged a takeover of the Church of Scientology and purged many veteran Scientologists. A young Messenger, David Miscavige, became Scientology's de facto leader. Mary Sue Hubbard was forced to resign her position and her daughter Suzette became Miscavige's personal maid.[293]

For the last two years of his life, Hubbard lived in a luxury Blue Bird motorhome on Whispering Winds, a 160-acre ranch near Creston, California. He remained in deep hiding while controversy raged in the outside world about whether he was still alive and if so, where. According to a spokesperson, he spent his time "writing and researching", pursuing photography and music, overseeing construction work and checking on his animals.[294] He repeatedly redesigned the property, spending millions of dollars remodeling the ranch house—which went virtually uninhabited—and building a quarter-mile horse-racing track with an observation tower, which reportedly was never used.[288]

He was still closely involved in managing the Church of Scientology via secretly delivered orders[288] and continued to receive large amounts of money, of which Forbes magazine estimated "at least $200 million [was] gathered in Hubbard's name through 1982". In September 1985, the IRS notified the Church that it was considering indicting Hubbard for tax fraud.[295]

Hubbard suffered further ill-health, including chronic pancreatitis, during his residence at Whispering Winds. He suffered a stroke on January 17, 1986, and died a week later.[283] The body was cremated following an autopsy and the ashes were scattered at sea.[296] Scientology leaders announced that his body had become an impediment to his work and that he had decided to "drop his body" to continue his research on another planet,[297] having "learned how to do it without a body".[298]

Hubbard was survived by his wife Mary Sue and all of his children except his second son Quentin. His will provided a trust fund to support Mary Sue; her children Arthur, Diana and Suzette; and Katherine, the daughter of his first wife Polly.[299] He disinherited two of his other children.[300] L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. had become estranged, changed his name to "Ronald DeWolf" and, in 1982, sued unsuccessfully for control of his father's estate.[301] Alexis Valerie, Hubbard's daughter by his second wife Sara, had attempted to contact her father in 1971. She was rebuffed with the implied claim that her real father was Jack Parsons rather than Hubbard, and that her mother had been a Nazi spy during the war.[302] Both later accepted settlements when litigation was threatened.[300] In 2001, Diana and Suzette were reported to still be Church members, while Arthur had left and become an artist. Hubbard's great-grandson, Jamie DeWolf, is a noted slam poet.[303]

The copyrights of his works and much of his estate and wealth were willed to the Church of Scientology.[304] In a bulletin dated May 5, 1980, Hubbard told his followers to preserve his teachings until an eventual reincarnation when he would return "not as a religious leader but as a political one".[5] The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), a sister organization of the Church of Scientology, has engraved Hubbard's entire corpus of Scientology and Dianetics texts on steel tablets stored in titanium containers. They are buried at the Trementina Base in a vault under a mountain near Trementina, New Mexico, on top of which the CST's logo has been bulldozed on such a gigantic scale that it is visible from space.[305]

Hubbard is the Guinness World Record holder for the most published author, with 1,084 works,[306] most translated book (70 languages for The Way to Happiness)[307] and most audiobooks (185 as of April 2009).[308] According to Galaxy Press, Hubbard's Battlefield Earth has sold over 6 million copies and Mission Earth a further 7 million, with each of its ten volumes becoming New York Times bestsellers on their release.[26] However, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1990 that Hubbard's followers had been buying large numbers of the books and re-issuing them to stores to boost sales.[309] Opinions are divided about his literary legacy. Scientologists have written of their desire to "make Ron the most acclaimed and widely known author of all time".[309] The sociologist William Sims Bainbridge writes that even at his peak in the late 1930s Hubbard was regarded by readers of Astounding Science Fiction as merely "a passable, familiar author but not one of the best", while by the late 1970s "the [science fiction] subculture wishes it could forget him" and fans gave him a worse rating than any other of the "Golden Age" writers.[310]

In 2004, eighteen years after Hubbard's death, the Church claimed eight million followers worldwide. According to religious scholar J. Gordon Melton, this is an overestimate, counting as Scientologists people who had merely bought a book.[311] The City University of New York's American Religious Identification Survey found that by 2009 only 25,000 Americans identified as Scientologists.[312] Hubbard's presence still pervades Scientology. Every Church of Scientology maintains an office reserved for Hubbard, with a desk, chair and writing equipment, ready to be used.[304] Lonnie D. Kliever notes that Hubbard was "the only source of the religion, and he has no successor". Hubbard is referred to simply as "Source" within Scientology and the theological acceptability of any Scientology-related activity is determined by how closely it adheres to Hubbard's doctrines.[313] Hubbard's name and signature are official trademarks of the Religious Technology Center, established in 1982 to control and oversee the use of Hubbard's works and Scientology's trademarks and copyrights. The RTC is the central organization within Scientology's complex corporate hierarchy and has put much effort into re-checking the accuracy of all Scientology publications to "ensur[e] the availability of the pure unadulterated writings of Mr. Hubbard to the coming generations"[313]

The Danish historian of religions Mikael Rothstein describes Scientology as "a movement focused on the figure of Hubbard." He comments: "The fact that [Hubbard's] life is mythologized is as obvious as in the cases of Jesus, Muhammad or Siddartha Gotama. This is how religion works. Scientology, however, rejects this analysis altogether, and goes to great lengths to defend every detail of Hubbard's amazing and fantastic life as plain historical fact." Hubbard is presented as "the master of a multitude of disciplines" who performed extraordinary feats as a photographer, composer, scientist, therapist, explorer, navigator, philosopher, poet, artist, humanitarian, adventurer, soldier, scout, musician and many other fields of endeavor.[6] The Church of Scientology portrays Hubbard's life and work as having proceeded seamlessly, "as if they were a continuous set of predetermined events and discoveries that unfolded through his lifelong research" even up to and beyond his death.[2]

According to Rothstein's assessment of Hubbard's legacy, Scientology consciously aims to transfer the charismatic authority of Hubbard to institutionalize his authority over the organization, even after his death. Hubbard is presented as a virtually superhuman religious ideal just as Scientology itself is presented as the most important development in human history.[314] As Rothstein puts it, "reverence for Scientology's scripture is reverence for Hubbard, the man who in the Scientological perspective single-handedly brought salvation to all human beings."[6] David G. Bromley of the University of Virginia comments that the real Hubbard has been transformed into a "prophetic persona", "LRH", which acts as the basis for his prophetic authority within Scientology and transcends his biographical history.[2]

Gerry Armstrong, formerly Hubbard's official biographical researcher, disclosed many details of Hubbard's life. The Church of Scientology has not yet published a comprehensive official biography of Hubbard.[315] During his lifetime, a number of brief biographical sketches were published in his Scientology books. The Church of Scientology issued "the only authorized LRH Biography" in October 1977.[109] His life was illustrated in print in What Is Scientology?, a glossy publication published in 1978 with paintings of Hubbard's life contributed by his son Arthur.[316]

Following Hubbard's death, Bridge Publications has published several stand-alone biographical accounts of his life, notably The Ron Series, dedicated to various aspects of Hubbard's life and work. Marco Frenschkowski notes that "non-Scientologist readers immediately recognize some parts of Hubbard's life are here systematically left out: no information whatsoever is given about his private life (his marriages, divorces, children), his legal affairs and so on."[65] The Church maintains an extensive website presenting the official version of Hubbard's life.[317] It also owns a number of properties dedicated to Hubbard including the Los Angeles-based L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition, a presentation of Hubbard's life, and the Author Services Center, dedicated to Hubbard's writings,[318] and the L. Ron Hubbard House in Washington, D.C.

In the late 1970s two men began to assemble a very different picture of Hubbard's life. Michael Linn Shannon, a resident of Portland, Oregon, became interested in Hubbard's life story after an encounter with a Scientology recruiter. Over the next four years he collected previously undisclosed records and documents. He intended to write an exposé of Hubbard and sent a copy of his findings and key records to a number of contacts but was unable to find a publisher.[319]

Shannon's findings were acquired by Gerry Armstrong, a Scientologist who had been appointed Hubbard's official archivist.[319] He had been given the job of assembling documents relating to Hubbard's life for the purpose of helping Omar V. Garrison, a non-Scientologist who had written two books sympathetic to Scientology, to write an official biography. However, the documents that he uncovered convinced both Armstrong and Garrison that Hubbard had systematically misrepresented his life. Garrison refused to write a "puff piece" and declared that he would not "repeat all the falsehoods they [the Church of Scientology] had perpetuated over the years." He wrote a "warts and all" biography while Armstrong quit Scientology, taking five boxes of papers with him. The Church of Scientology and Mary Sue Hubbard sued for the return of the documents while settling out of court with Garrison, requiring him to turn over the nearly completed manuscript of the biography.[320] In October 1984 Judge Paul G. Breckenridge ruled in Armstrong's favor, saying:

The evidence portrays a man who has been virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his history, background and achievements. The writings and documents in evidence additionally reflect his egoism, greed, avarice, lust for power, and vindictiveness and aggressiveness against persons perceived by him to be disloyal or hostile. At the same time it appears that he is charismatic and highly capable of motivating, organizing, controlling, manipulating and inspiring his adherents. He has been referred to during the trial as a "genius", a "revered person", a man who was "viewed by his followers in awe". Obviously, he is and has been a very complex person and that complexity is further reflected in his alter ego, the Church of Scientology.[321]

In November 1987, the British journalist and writer Russell Miller published Bare-faced Messiah, the first full-length biography of L. Ron Hubbard. He drew on Armstrong's papers, official records and interviews with those who had known Hubbard including ex-Scientologists and family members. The book was well-received by reviewers but the Church of Scientology sought unsuccessfully to prohibit its publication on the grounds of copyright infringement.[322] Other critical biographical accounts are found in Bent Corydon's L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman? (1987) and Jon Atack's A Piece of Blue Sky (1990).

According to the Church of Scientology, Hubbard produced some 65 million words on Dianetics and Scientology, contained in about 500,000 pages of written material, 3,000 recorded lectures and 100 films. His works of fiction included some 500 novels and short stories.[305]

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305.^ a b Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, Michael. African Diaspora Traditions and Other American Innovations, p. 172; vol 5 of Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. ISBN 978-0-275-98717-6
306.^ "Most published works by one author". GuinnessWorldRecords.com. Guinness World Records. Retrieved February 12, 2011.
307.^ "Most translated author, same book". GuinnessWorldRecords.com. Guinness World Records. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
308.^ "Most audio books published for one author". GuinnessWorldRecords.com. Guinness World Records. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
309.^ a b Sappell, Joel; Welkos, Robert W. (June 28, 1990). "Costly Strategy Continues to Turn Out Bestsellers". Los Angeles Times, retrieved February 15, 2011.
310.^ Bainbridge, William Sims. "Science and Religion: The Case of Scientology", in Bromley, David G.; Hammond, Phillip E. (eds). The Future of new religious movements, p. 63. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-86554-238-9
311.^ Jarvik, Elaine (September 20, 2004). "Scientology: Church now claims more than 8 million members". Deseret Morning News. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
312.^ Associated Press. "Defections, court fights test Scientology". MSNBC.com, November 1, 2009, retrieved February 14, 2011
313.^ a b Rothstein, p. 24
314.^ Rothstein, p. 20
315.^ Gallagher, Eugene V. The new religious movements experience in America, p. 216. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. ISBN 978-0-313-32807-7
316.^ Miller, p. 350
317.^ Available at www.lronhubbard.org
318.^ Cowan, Douglas E.; Bromley, David G. Cults and new religions: a brief history, p. 30. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008. ISBN 20089781405161282
319.^ a b Atack, p. 46
320.^ Shelor, George-Wayne. "Writer tells of Hubbard's 'faked past'". Clearwater Sun, May 10, 1984
321.^ Breckenridge Jr., Paul G. (October 24, 1984). Memorandum of Intended Decision, Church of Scientology of California vs. Gerald Armstrong. Quoted by Miller, pp. 370-71
322.^ Murtagh, Peter (October 10, 1987). "Scientologists fail to suppress book about church's founder." The Guardian.

References

Atack, Jon. A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics, and L. Ron Hubbard exposed. Carol Publishing Group, 1990. ISBN 978-0-8184-0499-3, OCLC 20934706
Behar, Richard Pushing Beyond the U.S.: Scientology makes its presence felt in Europe and Canada
Bromley, David G. "Making Sense of Scientology: Prophetic, Contractual Religion", in Lewis, James R. (ed.), Scientology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-533149-3 OCLC 232786014
Christensen, Dorthe Refslund. "Inventing L. Ron Hubbard: On the Construction and Maintenance of the Hagiographic Mythology of Scientology's Founder", pp. 227–258 in Lewis, James R.; Petersen, Jesper Aagaard: Controversial new religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-515683-6, OCLC 53398162, available through Oxford Scholarship Online, doi:10.1093/019515682X.003.0011
Evans, Christopher. Cults of Unreason. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974. ISBN 0-374-13324-7, OCLC 863421
Gardner, Martin. Fads and fallacies in the name of science. New York: Courier Dover Publications, 1957. ISBN 978-0-486-20394-2, OCLC 18598918
Jacobsen, Jeff Day, Robert RJ. What the Church of Scientology Doesn't Want You To Know
Lamont, Stewart. Religion, Inc.: the Church of Scientology. London: Harrap, 1986. ISBN 978-0-245-54334-0, OCLC 23079677
Malko, George. Scientology: The Now Religion. New York: Delacorte Press, 1970. OCLC 115065
Melton, J. Gordon. Encyclopedic handbook of cults in America. Taylor & Francis; 1992. ISBN 978-0-8153-1140-9
Miller, Russell. Bare-faced Messiah: the true story of L. Ron Hubbard. London: Joseph, 1987. ISBN 0-7181-2764-1, OCLC 17481843
O'Brien, Helen. Dianetics in Limbo: A Documentary About Immortality. Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing, 1966. OCLC 4797460
Pendle, George. Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons. Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006. ISBN 978-0-15-603179-0, OCLC 55149255
Reitman, Janet. "Inside Scientology", pp. 305–348 of American Society of Magazine Editors (Ed.) The Best American Magazine Writing 2007. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-231-14391-2, OCLC 154711228
Rolph, Cecil Hewitt Believe What You Like: what happened between the Scientologists and the National Association for Mental Health. London: Deutsch, 1973. ISBN 978-0-233-96375-4, OCLC 815558
Rothstein, Mikael. "Scientology, scripture and sacred traditions", in Lewis, James R.; Hammer, Olav (eds.): The invention of sacred tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-86479-4, OCLC 154706390
Streeter, Michael. Behind closed doors: the power and influence of secret societies. London: New Holland Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84537-937-7, OCLC 231589690
Streissguth, Thomas. Charismatic cult leaders. Minneapolis: The Oliver Press, 1995. ISBN 978-1-881508-18-2, OCLC 30892074
Tucker, Ruth A. Another Gospel: Cults, Alternative Religions, and the New Age Movement. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004. ISBN 978-0-310-25937-4, OCLC 19354219
Wallis, Roy. The road to total freedom: a sociological analysis of Scientology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977. ISBN 978-0-231-04200-0, OCLC 2373469
Whitehead, Harriet. Renunciation and reformulation: a study of conversion in an American sect. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-8014-1849-5, OCLC 14002616
Winter, Joseph A. A Doctor's Report on Dianetics: Theory and Therapy. New York: Julian Press, 1951. OCLC 1572759

I include a little-bit of everything in my threads. This is by design -- rather than accident. I include the "fake-me" -- the "real-me" -- the "good" -- the "bad" -- and the "ugly". You really need to study the threads as a whole -- rather than just looking at the "scary-pictures" and the "bad-words". L. Ron Hubbard said that starting a religion is MUCH more profitable than writing science-fiction!! Should I start a religion -- instead of writing science-fiction?? If I did start a religion -- it would probably be based upon Job through Malachi (KJV) -- without much input from me. I would allow the texts to speak for themselves. On the other hand -- I might encourage people (and other-than-people) to study Job through Malachi in the context of Science-Fiction!! But don't worry -- I'm NOT going to start a religion. There's way too many already!! Just study the United States of the Solar System threads -- and then think and do whatever makes sense to YOU!! Also -- my choice of Job through Malachi does NOT exclude the rest of the Bible. I simply think that these 22 books should be properly understood -- before moving-on. What if Joshua through Malachi were focused-upon?? How much of the Torah is discussed in Joshua through Malachi?? Is the theology found in Genesis through Deuteronomy the same as that found in Joshua through Malachi?? Once again -- I am NOT Sherry Shriner -- and I am NOT a Disciple of Sherry Shriner. I simply think that Sherry might be a VERY Important Part of the Puzzle. That's All I'm Going to Say...

devakas wrote:

orthodoxymoron wrote:Devakas, it is interesting that you mention 'fighting Kali'. I created a 'Kali' thread -- and made many speculations. .............
........... I'm looking forward to reading that book!

Namaste

 YOU OXY will write this book!!


Namaste

study yugas for help and you will get help as it will be correct service (hare)in many many ways. and for humanity. You will get help!

devakas

just dont think about yourself or others, think about humanity!!

Thank-you devakas. I get nervous when I think about writing books. That places things on an entirely different level. I really just wanted to discuss various topics with the right humans (and other than humans) on the internet. This hasn't happened to any significant degree. The right kind of conversation has not occurred. This whole thing seems increasingly insane. I am very disillusioned and discouraged at this point. Focusing upon humanity is key. Doing that which is in everyone's best-interest is essential.

What if there were:

1. No Stock-Market?
2. No Federal Reserve?
3. No IRS?
4. No Fractional-Reserve Banking?
5. No Debt Whatsoever?

What if one had to become part-owner of a company to invest in it? What if one had to deal directly with the company to invest in it? What if we paid all of our taxes via 'Point of Sale'? What if we paid cash for everything? What One Does With Their Money Should Probably Be More Ethically-Precise Than the Process of Making Money. This might be somewhat hypocritical -- but think this through with excruciating detail and insight. If the bad guys and gals keep winning in the marketplace -- the good guys and gals will not have the resources to create a better world. Think about it. Robin Hood probably had the right idea (stealing from the rich, and giving to the poor). What did you think about Reagan Hood (stealing from the poor, and giving to the rich)??!! Consider the Karmic-Debt. Crime Does Not Pay on Judgment-Day. I admire those who are capable of winning in the marketplace -- while maintaining the highest ethical standards -- who live rather modestly -- and who give liberally to worthy charities. I'm not a big fan of class warfare -- but I would prefer that there be a stratified middle-class -- with very few destitute-poor or obscenely-wealthy. I would like to refine the existing system -- without destroying it, and starting over. I'm for refining and reforming just about everything. I'm for 'Responsible-Enterprise' rather than 'Laissez-Faire Capitalism'. BTW -- I don't endorse stealing -- I liked Ronald Reagan -- but I wasn't so fond of 'Poppy'. I simply don't want nice guys and gals to finish last. I wish to reward responsibility and punish irresponsibility. I think there is a place for Constructive Competition -- but no place for Destructive Greed -- which is really Irresponsible Competition. These distinctions are subtle -- yet extremely important.


For several years, I've been requesting a detailed critique of my internet posting (especially regarding this 'United States of the Solar System' thread) -- but this has not occurred. For several years, I've been requesting some detailed conversation concerning Solar System Governance -- but this has not occurred. Perhaps there are legitimate reasons why. I've been really passive about all of this. My research has not been aggressive at all. I don't have a staff. I don't meet with insiders (I used to meet with an Ancient Egyptian Deity -- but I think they hate me -- going way back -- and we're not talking) -- so I'm really out of the loop. Reading 'Defending Sacred Ground' by Alex Collier, or listening to Sherry Shriner, is about as 'insider' as things get for me. But I really think that some of those who frequent this site know a helluva lot -- but the conversation has been very restrained -- with mostly silence. Again, perhaps there are legitimate reasons why. I'm trying to play in the big-leagues (conceptually speaking) without knowing what the hell is really going on. This is very frustrating (and potentially dangerous). I'm trying to help -- but I suspect that I might be doing just the opposite.

What if there is another Human Earth somewhere -- with an operational United States of the Solar System??? What if there is more to this thread than my diseased and fevered imagination??? I continue to wonder what I've done, and where I've been, in previous lives. This life has been unproductive-misery -- but perhaps there is a reincarnational reason why this is the case! What if I've been involved with a United States of the Solar System -- in a distant solar system???!!! Surprisingly, this wouldn't surprise me in the least -- and I mean it. I continue to wonder if the Dracs and Greys like me or hate me??!! I've been told that I am liked on Phobos (but I have no idea if this is true -- or whether it might be a good thing). I've also been told that the Jesuits don't like me (and historically, that often was a bad thing for the despised and persecuted -- to say the least).

I'm not depending on anyone -- but I'm trying to not burn my bridges with anyone -- including other than humans. I'm thinking that the true roots of the Nazi phenomenon go way back into Babylon, Egypt, Rome -- and possibly Sirius, Aldebaran, and Orion. I'm increasingly thinking in Ancient, Occult, and Off-World terms. I'm also thinking increasingly that some sort of an Ancient Master Plan got hijacked and corrupted. I guess I'm trying to hijack this Hypothetical Plan -- and then purify and refine it -- as crazy as that sounds.

I wonder how many of the moons and asteroids in this solar system are populated and piloted?? I keep thinking that the number is astronomical. We seem to be facing some sort of a nasty galactic showdown. I continue to be fascinated by the Easter-Table in my 1928 'Book of Common Prayer'. The last Easter in the table is 'Easter 2013'. Was someone trying to tell us something? Were the included printed texts intended to tell us something significant? I wonder.

I continue to recommend this thread as a mental and spiritual work-out -- rather than being some sort of an exclusive claim to the 'truth'. I do not have a 'Monopoly on God'. I might have a mild case of the 'Messiah Complex' -- but that's about it. Most of this has to do with attempting to 'Think God's Thoughts After Him and/or Her'. This modeling process is somewhat dangerous, in my opinion. It's a nasty job, but someone has to do it. The clergy probably do this all the time -- but I'm just less tactful and reserved. I just blurt out my thoughts about this and that -- including various irreverent speculations concerning God (with an upper or lower case 'g'). I continue to think that we should consider ALL of the possibilities about the most important topics imaginable. I simply had to move away from thinking about 9/11. I had to move on. Perhaps 9/11 is just the tip of a HUGE iceberg -- and when the inter-connected dark-truth REALLY starts to come-out -- it could potentially destroy our civilization. This whole thing might be a 'Damned If We Do -- And Damned If We Don't' situation. How do we save the world, without killing the planet???

Regardless of the truth or error of my pseudo-intellectual ways -- the nature of the human-soul -- and what life and circumstances pre-existed the human-being -- are vital bits of information. I continue to think that this might have something to do with the 'Biggest-Secret'. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to read some more 'Defending Sacred Ground' by Alex Collier. I don't believe everything Alex says, but his material makes me think deeply about a lot of difficult subjects. He wrote that the Summarian definition of 'SIN' is 'Genetic Defect' -- which provides some support for my 'The Genetic-Engineering of the Human-Being was the Original (and Unpardonable?) Sin -- and that We the People are 'Born into Sin' simply because we are a Renegade Race' Theory.

"I think we're property. I should say we belong to something: That once upon a time, this earth was No-Man's Land, that other worlds explored and colonized here, and fought among themselves for possession, but that now it's owned by something: That something owns this earth -- all other warned off."-- from 'The Book of the Damned' by Charles Fort

What if we live in a predominantly Reptilian universe??? What if the Universal Church is a Reptilian Theocracy??? I don't mean to be mean. I simply wish to know what we're dealing with. I continue to wonder if Earth Humanity is a Renegade Reptilian Faction in Human-Form??!! If this is true -- and if the general public were told about this -- how might they react??? Many believe that we came from the monkeys -- so would it be that much worse if they thought that we came from the snakes and the monkeys???

"in the final time of crisis,
the Serpent Goddess will shake herself loose from her deep exiled sleep
in the earth's belly.
Perhaps the serpent of life's flowing energy
will begin to rise again,
all luminous and of the earth,
and the children of our Great Mother will rise up with it,
and the universe will be our home again, as before.
This flight is not an escape, but a return.
The only way for humans to survive the end is
to return to the beginning."
---From "The Great Cosmic Mother"

Here is an interesting excerpt from 'Defending Sacred Ground' -- Chapter 5 -- with Alex Collier and Val Valarian:

Val Valarian: You noted that 'we are all to become teachers' when the Earth passes from the fourth density to the fifth. Are you able to elaborate on that?

Alex Collier: Yes. Essentially, what is supposed to happen is that when we move into fifth density, many of us, for some reason, are going to find us back where we started, with our extraterrestrial origin.

Val Valarian: In alien humanoid bodies from whence we came, before we occupied bodies here?

Alex Collier: Exactly, and with all the experiences here. According to Moraney, they will all be recognized as teachers and as a group that has gone through a 'first ever' transformation.

Is this what we were before we were human? Is this what we will be after we are no longer human? I have no idea -- but as you well know -- I am attempting to think way outside of the box.


I have come to a somewhat painful realization that my particular journey will probably have to be a solitary journey. Solitude may be my Best Friend. I have attempted to be social -- but my True-Self is too different to resonate with those I have encountered. Perhaps I should not be frustrated by this. Perhaps I should simply 'Be Me Privately'. Perhaps it's easier that way. I will be periodically reposting -- to reinforce certain topics, principles, and concepts. Repetition, Theme and Variation -- are an important part of properly utilizing this thread. Here's some more love, light, and joy from Sherry Shriner. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sherrytalkradio/2012/05/22/monday-night-with-sherry-shriner I continue to have a very 'mixed' reaction to Sherry. I do a lot of 'reading between the lines' when I listen to her show. I don't take anything at face-value. I have a hunch who Sherry really is -- but I won't elaborate.

I am VERY-WARY about getting on a UFO, and going to a distant planet. I am attempting to contemplate fixing things right here in this solar system, and constructively interacting with the various beings of the universe. I would have to know a helluva lot more before I ever get on a UFO. I have been asked by someone who I think might travel regularly on UFO's, if I would board a UFO -- and I told them that I would be very hesitant to do so -- and that I probably wouldn't. I think we're playing a very dangerous game. We need to ask a helluva lot of questions -- and analyze the answers very carefully. On the other hand, if I absolutely knew that I wouldn't be kidnapped, harmed, or eaten -- I wouldn't mind traveling through the galaxy aboard a Mother-Ship full of Dracs and Greys. Their appearance, belief-system, behavior, etc. would not cause me to hate them, or to be hostile toward them. I simply wish to be safe and secure -- and I desire that this be the case for all beings throughout the universe. BTW, I lean strongly toward the Joseph Farrell approach regarding studying the esoteric and the unknown.

When I speak of the 1928 'Book of Common Prayer' and the 'Desire of Ages' (in connection with a Solar System Council of Churches) I am intending this as a starting-point or a point of reference -- not as a 'religious test'. This is intended to give structure and character to a skeletal plan. Was this too confusing for some of you? I'd love to continue, but my computer is fighting with me. You Spooks wouldn't have anything to do with this, would you? Just remember that you are being watched more closely than you are watching me. Think long and hard about who you are REALLY working for. You might be surprised. I don't mean to be mean or shrill. I'm simply quite paranoid, and I'm very worried about what might really be going on throughout the universe. I keep trying to think 'happy-thoughts' -- but it just isn't happening for me.

I frankly don't care whether there were planes, holograms, cruise-missiles, ufo's, etc. The fact is that three skyscrapers were leveled and 3,000 people died -- plus we got two stupid wars, and draconian security measures, with the deal. But really, wouldn't one real plane into one tower -- with no controlled-demolition -- have been sufficient to enact all of the bullshit we got stuck with??? 9/11 seems to have been a case-study in blundering-complexity. The sophistication was amazing -- but there were so many HUGE holes and shortcomings in the plan. It turned out to be a 'Disneyland for Conspiracy-Theorists'. One more thing -- I was told that 'God was trying to get our attention'. I think I'm going to re-read '102 Minutes'. It's a helluva good book -- in a bad-way. I guess there's a movie too -- but my computer won't let me watch it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/102_Minutes_That_Changed_America#References I guess I'll have to get the DVD. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=102+minutes


I am contemplating a 'United States of the Solar System' -- with or without aliens -- and with or without God. I often wonder if a lot of the mythologies, theologies, philosophies, etc. -- are merely sugar-coated versions of much more complex and troubling realities. Once again, this thread is intended as 'practice' for the 'real-deal' or the 'main-event'. This is only the beginning. BTW -- watch that final scene in the 'V' episode 'It's Only the Beginning' over and over again -- and think and think and think. I am attempting to consider all of the possibilities relative to 'Solar System Governance' -- which is really somewhat of a 'Grey-Area'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_aliens

Grey aliens (or "Greys") are extraterrestrial beings whose existence is promoted in ufological, paranormal, and New Age communities, named for their skin color.

Paranormal claims involving Greys vary in every respect including their nature (ETs, extradimensionals, demons, or machines), origins, moral dispositions, intentions, and physical appearances (even varying in their eponymous skin color). A composite description derived from overlap in claims would have Greys as small-bodied sexless beings with smooth grey skin, enlarged head and large black eyes. The origin of the idea of the Grey is commonly associated with the Betty and Barney Hill abduction claim, although skeptics see precursors in science fiction and earlier paranormal claims.

Greys are typically depicted as gray-skinned diminutive humanoid beings that possess reduced forms of, or completely lack, external human organs such as noses, ears or sex organs.[1] Their bodies are usually depicted as being elongated, having a small chest, and lacking in muscular definition and visible skeletal structure. Their legs are shorter and jointed differently from what one would expect in a human. Their limbs are often depicted as proportionally different from a human's; their humerus and thighs are the same lengths as their forearms and shins, respectively.[1]

Greys are depicted as having unusually large heads in proportion to their bodies. They are depicted as having no hair anywhere on the body, including the face, and no noticeable outer ears or noses, but only small openings or orifices for ears and nostrils. They are depicted as having very small mouths, and very large opaque black eyes with no discernible iris or pupil. Sometimes Greys are alternately depicted as having no noticeable nostrils or mouths.

Among reports of supposed alien encounters, Greys make up approximately 50 percent in Australia, 43 percent in the United States, 90 percent in Canada, 67 percent in Brazil, 20 percent in Continental Europe, and around 12 percent in the United Kingdom.[3]

The science fiction writer H. G. Wells, in the article "Man of the Year Million" in 1893, describes humanity transformed into a race of grey-skinned beings, stunted and with big heads. In his 1901 book The First Men in the Moon, Selenites, or natives of the Moon, are described as having grey skin, big heads, large black eyes and wasp stings. He also briefly describes aliens resembling Greys brought down to Earth as food by the antagonists of his more popular novel The War of the Worlds.

In 1933, the Swedish novelist Gustav Sandgren, using the pen name Gabriel Linde, published a science fiction novel called Den okända faran (The Unknown Danger), where he describes a race of extraterrestrials: "[...] the creatures did not resemble any race of humans. They were short, shorter than the average Japanese, and their heads were big and bald, with strong, square foreheads, and very small noses and mouths, and weak chins. What was most extraordinary about them were the eyes – large, dark, gleaming, with a sharp gaze. They wore clothes made of soft grey fabric, and their limbs seemed to be similar to those of humans." The novel was aimed at young readers, and it included illustrations of the aliens.

In 1965, newspaper reports of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction brought Greys to international attention. The alleged abductees, Betty and Barney Hill, claimed to have been abducted by alien beings and taken to a saucer-shaped spaceship in 1961. The term "Greys" did not come into usage until many years later, but the alleged beings described by Betty and Barney Hill generally fit many of the common traits of what we now call Greys. From a star chart reported by Betty Hill, Marjorie Fish, an elementary school teacher and amateur astronomer, concluded that the home planet of these beings was located in the Zeta Reticuli star system (their home planet is alleged to be the fourth planet of the second star of Reticulum). The Greys are therefore sometimes known as Zeta Reticulans.

During the early 1980s Greys were linked in popular culture to the alleged crash landing of a flying saucer in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, by a number of publications which contained statements from individuals who claimed to have seen the U.S. military handling a number of unusually proportioned, bald, child-sized beings. These individuals claimed that the beings had over-sized heads and slanted eyes—but scant other facial features—during and after the incident.[4]

In 1987, popular novelist Whitley Strieber published the book Communion, in which he describes a number of close encounters he purports to have experienced with Greys and other extraterrestrial beings. The book became a New York Times bestseller, and a film adaption starring Christopher Walken was released in 1989.

During the 1990s, popular culture began to increasingly link Greys to a number of military-industrial complex/New World Order conspiracy theories.[5]

A well-known example of this was the FOX television series The X-Files, which first aired in 1993. It combined the quest to find proof of the existence of Grey-like extraterrestrials with a number of UFO conspiracy theory subplots, in order to form its primary story arc. Other notable examples include Dark Skies, first broadcast in 1996, which expanded upon the MJ-12 conspiracy, and Stargate SG-1, which in the 1998 episode "Thor's Chariot" introduced the Asgard, a race of beneficent Greys who visited ancient Earth masquerading as characters from Norse Mythology.

In 1995, filmmaker Ray Santilli claimed to have obtained 22 reels of 16 mm film that depicted the autopsy of a "real" Grey that was said to have been recovered from the site of the 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico.[6][7] However, in 2006 Santilli announced that the film was not original, but was instead a "reconstruction" created after the original film was found to have degraded. He maintained that a real Grey had been found and autopsied on camera in 1947, and that the footage released to the public contained a percentage of that original footage, but he was unable to say what that percentage was. This incident became the subject of the British comedy film Alien Autopsy, starring television presenters Ant & Dec.[8][9]

Greys, referred to as 'visitors', also appear in South Park as important characters in the first and the hundredth episode, as well as many cameos throughout the series, mostly in the backgrounds of scenes. The comedy film Scary Movie 3 also includes Greys as the main extraterrestrials. They are also frequently depicted on the TV series Robot Chicken.

Roger Smith, a regular character on the animated comedy series American Dad! since its debut in 2005, is a Grey-like alien.

Paul, from the 2011 film Paul, is a Grey, and attributes their frequent presence in science-fiction pop culture to his secretive influence while being held captive by the US government.

The design of the creatures of the Silence was partially based on Greys.[10]

Greys are commonly included in alien abduction claims and are a focus of ufology, with attributes that may differ from those described above. These claims include two distinct groups of Greys that differ in height.[1] Abductees say that they recognize the leader of their abductors by its "demeanor."[1] Some ufologists and abduction researchers believe that taller Greys, with their reported increased authority and apparently more complex psychology, may be the only Grey type to be biologically alive and that the shorter form could be their artificially constructed robot or cyborg servants.[1]

Some alien abduction reports have depicted variant skin colors such as blue-grey, green-grey, or purple-grey and sometimes not grey at all. The skin is typically described as being extremely smooth, almost as if made of an artificial material like rubber or plastic.[1]

Abduction claims are often described as extremely traumatic, similar to an abduction by humans or even a sexual assault in the level of trauma and distress. (Research has shown that emotional impact of perceived abduction can be as great as or even greater than that of combat, sexual abuse, and other traumatic events.)[11]

The eyes are often a focus of abduction claims. They are said to not move or focus in any observable way from the naked eye. Claims often describe a Grey staring into the eyes of an abductee when conducting mental procedures.[1] This staring is claimed to induce hallucinogenic states or directly provoke different emotions.[12] Although abduction claimants often say that the Grey was only inches from their face during the staring mindscan procedure, they often do not subsequently claim feeling breath or seeing the Grey's chest move from breathing.[1]

Neurologist Dr. Steven Novella argues that the idea is a byproduct of the human imagination, with the Greys' most distinctive features representing everything that modern humans traditionally link with intelligence. "The aliens, however, do not just appear as humans, they appear like humans with those traits we psychologically associate with intelligence."[13]

In 2005, Frederick V. Malmstrom, writing in Skeptic magazine, vol. 11 issue 4, presents his hypothesis that Greys are actually residual memories of early childhood development. Malmstrom reconstructs the face of a Grey through transformation of a mother's face based on our best understanding of early childhood sensation and perception. Malmstrom's study offers a possible alternative to the existence of Greys, the intense instinctive response many people experience when presented an image of a Grey, and the ease of regression hypnosis and recovered memory therapy in "recovering" memories of alien abduction experiences, along with their common themes.[14]

According to English reproductive biologist Jack Cohen, the typical image of a Grey, given that it would have evolved on a world with different environmental and ecological conditions from Earth, is too physiologically similar to a human to be credible as a representation of an alien. Their physical structure has been sometimes viewed as supporting the Panspermia theory of origins, although the "parallel evolution" required is not scientifically plausible. The "parallel evolution" concept is utilized as a plot device by Star Trek writers Gene Roddenberry and Gene Coon and referred to as "Hodgkins Law of Parallel Planet Development". However, even this fictional theory does not explain such remarkable Grey-human similarities as the facial geometry, the apparent sternal-xiphoidal process, the evident pectoral-trapezial architecture, and the number of toes per foot.[15]

One theory that could explain such seemingly impossible coincidences is the idea that extraterrestrial beings had some influence on the evolution of life on Earth in the distant past, specifically that extraterrestrials were directly involved in the evolution of primates, including humans. This was supposedly done by genetic engineering, cross-breeding, or a combination of both. This idea may have first gained widespread exposure with the 1968 publication of Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken and has since been the source of much controversy, inspiring numerous other books with various related theories.

Proponents of this theory of alien genetic/evolutionary intervention on Earth argue that if the Greys (or similar beings) were performing genetic manipulations and/or experiments with pre-human life forms on Earth, then it would be logical, and perhaps almost expected, that these alleged aliens may have attempted to influence the evolution of life forms here in a direction consistent with their own genetic makeup, and similar to their own physiology and general physical structure, since genetically that is what they would presumably be most familiar with.

Since there is no evidence of what types of life or physiology might evolve on other habitable planets, no way to accurately gauge the likelihood or unlikelihood of coincidences in evolution on two separate planets, and no conclusive evidence of any alleged past extraterrestrial genetic manipulation in our own evolution, the debate over the evolutionary feasibility of the Greys (or any other bipedal, humanoid extraterrestrial species) is ultimately nothing more than speculation on both sides.

Some conspiracy theorists believe that Greys represent part of a government-led disinformation or plausible deniability campaign,[16] or that they are a product of government mind control experiments.[17][18] Dr. Steven Greer, founder of the Disclosure Project, head of CSETI, and a prominent UFO conspiracy theorist, claims to have over 400 "government, military, and intelligence community witnesses" that have offered testimony to the existence of aliens and UFOs and/or efforts to cover up their existence and who have stated that they would be willing to defend their claims under oath.[19]

See Also:

Alien autopsy
Abduction phenomenon
Budd Hopkins
Chupacabra
David Michael Jacobs
Demons
Exopolitics
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
Fallen angel
Insectoid humanoids
John Edward Mack
List of alleged extraterrestrial beings
Little green men
Men in Black
Nephilim
Nordic aliens
Reptilians

References

1.^ a b c d e f g h Jacobs, David M. "Aliens and Hybrids." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press. Pp. 86-90.
2.^ Hall, Richard. "Are UFO Abductions a Universal or a Culturally Dependant Phenomenon." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press. Pp. 191-193.
3.^ Bryan, C.D.B (1995). Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-679-42975-1. ISBN B000I1AFBA.
4.^ Berlitz, Charles; Moore William (1980). The Roswell Incident (1st ed.). Grosset & Dunlap. ISBN 0-448-21199-8.
5.^ Grey Aliens Bite The Dust
6.^ Wingfield, George (1995). "The "Roswell" Film Footage". Flying Saucer Review 20 (2).
7.^ Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?) at the Internet Movie Database
8.^ "Eamonn Investigates: Alien Autopsy". British Sky Broadcasting. 2006-04-04.
9.^ Clarke, David; Roberts, Andy (2006-06-01). "Alien Autopsy". Fortean Times (Dennis Publishing Ltd) (210). ISSN 0308-5899.
10.^ Hickman, Clayton (2011). The Brilliant Book 2012. BBC Books. pp. 32. ISBN 1-84990-230-5.
11.^ William J. Cromie (2003-02-20). "Alien abduction claims examined: Signs of trauma found". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
12.^ Jacobs, David M. "Subsequent Procedures." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press. pp. 64-68.
13.^ Novella, Dr. Steven (2000-10). "UFOs: The Psychocultural Hypothesis". The New England Skeptical Society. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
14.^ Malmstrom, Frederick (2005). "Close Encounters of the Facial Kind: Are UFO Alien Faces an Inborn Facial Recognition Template?". Skeptic. The Skeptics Society. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
15.^ Cohen, Jack; Stewart, Ian (2002-02-07). Evolving the Alien (1st ed.). Ebury Press. ISBN 0-09-187927-2.
16.^ Clary, David A (2000). Before and After Roswell. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 0-7388-4106-4.
17.^ Cannon, Martin. The Controllers. ISBN 0-922915-32-6.
18.^ Constantine, Alex (1995). Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A.. Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-28-8.
19.^ "The Disclosure Project main page". The Disclosure Project Homepage. Retrieved 2011-04-13.

Please remember that this is a provocative and upsetting mental and spiritual exercise -- as sort of a Galactic Boot Camp -- and does not necessarily reflect my true thoughts, beliefs, and ideals. The following is an example of 'Jesus Studies' -- which has been known to cause 'the faithful' to 'lose their faith'. However, I support both a devotional and a scholarly approach to religion and biblical-studies. Once again, I value 'research' above 'orthodoxy' -- as the orthodoxymoron I am.

"Mark's narrative of the passion had combined Pauline traditions of the kerygma of the Christ and the supper of the Lord. By situating the account of the supper in his story as he did, by linking the supper to the crucifixion at the level of narrative sense, and by portraying Jesus as the savior who presided over his own symbolic enactment of his own forthcoming death, Mark created the myth that eventually was read as script for ritual reenactment in medieval Christianity. The gospel now became the church's myth and ritual text. Mark's climax to the story of Jesus as God's Son surfaced finally in yet another nuance to position the symbol of radical transformation right at the heart of a monumental construction of cosmic vision and social reality.

Two symbols of the death of Christ were displayed within the church, the table and the cross. The cross recalled the gospel account of the crucifixion, the table the story of the last supper. Liturgically, however, the two symbols collapsed in the moment of transformation that happened at the table, the moment that celebrated the climax of Mark's story. When the gospel became a script for reenactment, the priest took the place of Jesus presiding over the supper. It was then that the symbolism of the supper turned the table into an altar and the meal became a sacrifice. The mass was a symbolic reenactment, not only of the supper, but of the crucifixion as well. Thus Mark's fiction of the passion, contrary to his own intentions, provided inadvertently the text for a marvelous ritual system designed to enact in the present those events at the beginning that marked the origination of the church.

The exception taken to this system by the reformers did not destroy the core construct of Christian myth and ritual. It is true that the reformers were restive about the church's sacrificial theologies, its authorities, institutions, and the traditions upon which Christendom was based. They sought to reposition the Christ at the center of another view of the world, a view of the world in its vastness that had awakened the spirit of renaissance. But the image of the Christ was available mainly in the icons and the scriptures of the church, not in the natural orders. The reformers could leave the icons behind, but not the scriptures. When they ventured forth to explore the vistas coming into view, they took the gospel with them." -- 'A Myth of Innocence' pages 363-4 -- by Burton Mack.

I really hesitate to state this, but imagine completely non-sinister versions of Anna ("V"), Adria, or Vala Mal Doran ("Stargate SG-1") speaking the following (in the context of a spaceship)!!! There's a rather serious (Sirius?) reason why I'm suggesting this. Some of you might know why...

""The Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." 1 Cor. 11:23-26.

Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages.

The Passover was ordained as a commemoration of the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. God had directed that, year by year, as the children should ask the meaning of this ordinance, the history should be repeated. Thus the wonderful deliverance was to be kept fresh in the minds of all. The ordinance of the Lord's Supper was given to commemorate the great deliverance wrought out as the result of the death of Christ. Till He shall come the second time in power and glory, this ordinance is to be celebrated. It is the means by which His great work for us is to be kept fresh in our minds.
At the time of their deliverance from Egypt, the children of Israel ate the Passover supper standing, with their loins girded, and with their staves in their hands, ready for their journey. The manner in which they celebrated this ordinance harmonized with their condition; for they were about to be thrust out of the land of Egypt, and were to begin a painful and difficult journey through the wilderness. But in Christ's time the condition of things had changed. They were not now about to be thrust out of a strange country, but were dwellers in their own land. In harmony with the rest that had been given them, the people then partook of the Passover supper in a reclining position. Couches were placed about the table, and the guests lay upon them, resting upon the left arm, and having the right hand free for use in eating. In this position a guest could lay his head upon the breast of the one who sat next above him. And the feet, being at the outer edge of the couch, could be washed by one passing around the outside of the circle.

Christ is still at the table on which the paschal supper has been spread. The unleavened cakes used at the Passover season are before Him. The Passover wine, untouched by fermentation, is on the table. These emblems Christ employs to represent His own unblemished sacrifice. Nothing corrupted by fermentation, the symbol of sin and death, could represent the "Lamb without blemish and without spot." 1 Peter 1:19.

"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."

Judas the betrayer was present at the sacramental service. He received from Jesus the emblems of His broken body and His spilled blood. He heard the words, "This do in remembrance of Me." And sitting there in the very presence of the Lamb of God, the betrayer brooded upon his own dark purposes, and cherished his sullen, revengeful thoughts.

At the feet washing, Christ had given convincing proof that He understood the character of Judas. "Ye are not all clean" (John 13:11), He said. These words convinced the false disciple that Christ read his secret purpose. Now Christ spoke out more plainly. As they were seated at the table He said, looking upon His disciples, "I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me."

Even now the disciples did not suspect Judas. But they saw that Christ appeared greatly troubled. A cloud settled over them all, a premonition of some dreadful calamity, the nature of which they did not understand. As they ate in silence, Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me." At these words amazement and consternation seized them. They could not comprehend how any one of them could deal treacherously with their divine Teacher. For what cause could they betray Him? and to whom? Whose heart could give birth to such a design? Surely not one of the favored twelve, who had been privileged above all others to hear His teachings, who had shared His wonderful love, and for whom He had shown such great regard by bringing them into close communion with Himself!

As they realized the import of His words, and remembered how true His sayings were, fear and self-distrust seized them. They began to search their own hearts to see if one thought against their Master were harbored there. With the most painful emotion, one after another inquired, "Lord, is it I?" But Judas sat silent. John in deep distress at last inquired, "Lord, who is it?" And Jesus answered, "He that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the same shall betray Me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of Him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born." The disciples had searched one another's faces closely as they asked, "Lord, is it I?" And now the silence of Judas drew all eyes to him. Amid the confusion of questions and expressions of astonishment, Judas had not heard the words of Jesus in answer to John's question. But now, to escape the scrutiny of the disciples, he asked as they had done, "Master, is it I?" Jesus solemnly replied, "Thou hast said."

In surprise and confusion at the exposure of his purpose, Judas rose hastily to leave the room. "Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. . . . He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night." Night it was to the traitor as he turned away from Christ into the outer darkness.

Until this step was taken, Judas had not passed beyond the possibility of repentance. But when he left the presence of his Lord and his fellow disciples, the final decision had been made. He had passed the boundary line. Wonderful had been the long-suffering of Jesus in His dealing with this tempted soul. Nothing that could be done to save Judas had been left undone. After he had twice covenanted to betray his Lord, Jesus still gave him opportunity for repentance. By reading the secret purpose of the traitor's heart, Christ gave to Judas the final, convincing evidence of His divinity. This was to the false disciple the last call to repentance. No appeal that the divine-human heart of Christ could make had been spared. The waves of mercy, beaten back by stubborn pride, returned in a stronger tide of subduing love. But although surprised and alarmed at the discovery of his guilt, Judas became only the more determined. From the sacramental supper he went out to complete the work of betrayal.

In pronouncing the woe upon Judas, Christ also had a purpose of mercy toward His disciples. He thus gave them the crowning evidence of His Messiahship. "I tell you before it come," He said, "that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I AM." Had Jesus remained silent, in apparent ignorance of what was to come upon Him, the disciples might have thought that their Master had not divine foresight, and had been surprised and betrayed into the hands of the murderous mob. A year before, Jesus had told the disciples that He had chosen twelve, and that one was a devil. Now His words to Judas, showing that his treachery was fully known to his Master, would strengthen the faith of Christ's true followers during His humiliation. And when Judas should have come to his dreadful end, they would remember the woe that Jesus had pronounced upon the betrayer.

And the Saviour had still another purpose. He had not withheld His ministry from him whom He knew to be a traitor. The disciples did not understand His words when He said at the feet washing, "Ye are not all clean," nor yet when at the table He declared, "He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me." John 13:11, 18. But afterward, when His meaning was made plain, they had something to consider as to the patience and mercy of God toward the most grievously erring.

Though Jesus knew Judas from the beginning, He washed his feet. And the betrayer was privileged to unite with Christ in partaking of the sacrament. A long-suffering Saviour held out every inducement for the sinner to receive Him, to repent, and to be cleansed from the defilement of sin. This example is for us. When we suppose one to be in error and sin, we are not to divorce ourselves from him. By no careless separation are we to leave him a prey to temptation, or drive him upon Satan's battleground. This is not Christ's method. It was because the disciples were erring and faulty that He washed their feet, and all but one of the twelve were thus brought to repentance. Christ's example forbids exclusiveness at the Lord's Supper. It is true that open sin excludes the guilty. This the Holy Spirit plainly teaches. 1 Cor. 5:11. But beyond this none are to pass judgment. God has not left it with men to say who shall present themselves on these occasions. For who can read the heart? Who can distinguish the tares from the wheat? "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." For "whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." 1 Cor. 11:28, 27, 29.

When believers assemble to celebrate the ordinances, there are present messengers unseen by human eyes. There may be a Judas in the company, and if so, messengers from the prince of darkness are there, for they attend all who refuse to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Heavenly angels also are present. These unseen visitants are present on every such occasion. There may come into the company persons who are not in heart servants of truth and holiness, but who may wish to take part in the service. They should not be forbidden. There are witnesses present who were present when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and of Judas. More than human eyes beheld the scene.

Christ by the Holy Spirit is there to set the seal to His own ordinance. He is there to convict and soften the heart. Not a look, not a thought of contrition, escapes His notice. For the repentant, brokenhearted one He is waiting. All things are ready for that soul's reception. He who washed the feet of Judas longs to wash every heart from the stain of sin.

None should exclude themselves from the Communion because some who are unworthy may be present. Every disciple is called upon to participate publicly, and thus bear witness that he accepts Christ as a personal Saviour. It is at these, His own appointments, that Christ meets His people, and energizes them by His presence. Hearts and hands that are unworthy may even administer the ordinance, yet Christ is there to minister to His children. All who come with their faith fixed upon Him will be greatly blessed. All who neglect these seasons of divine privilege will suffer loss. Of them it may appropriately be said, "Ye are not all clean."

In partaking with His disciples of the bread and wine, Christ pledged Himself to them as their Redeemer. He committed to them the new covenant, by which all who receive Him become children of God, and joint heirs with Christ. By this covenant every blessing that heaven could bestow for this life and the life to come was theirs. This covenant deed was to be ratified with the blood of Christ. And the administration of the Sacrament was to keep before the disciples the infinite sacrifice made for each of them individually as a part of the great whole of fallen humanity. But the Communion service was not to be a season of sorrowing. This was not its purpose. As the Lord's disciples gather about His table, they are not to remember and lament their shortcomings. They are not to dwell upon their past religious experience, whether that experience has been elevating or depressing. They are not to recall the differences between them and their brethren. The preparatory service has embraced all this. The self-examination, the confession of sin, the reconciling of differences, has all been done. Now they come to meet with Christ. They are not to stand in the shadow of the cross, but in its saving light. They are to open the soul to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. With hearts cleansed by Christ's most precious blood, in full consciousness of His presence, although unseen, they are to hear His words, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." John 14:27.

Our Lord says, Under conviction of sin, remember that I died for you. When oppressed and persecuted and afflicted for My sake and the gospel's, remember My love, so great that for you I gave My life. When your duties appear stern and severe, and your burdens too heavy to bear, remember that for your sake I endured the cross, despising the shame. When your heart shrinks from the trying ordeal, remember that your Redeemer liveth to make intercession for you.

The Communion service points to Christ's second coming. It was designed to keep this hope vivid in the minds of the disciples. Whenever they met together to commemorate His death, they recounted how "He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." In their tribulation they found comfort in the hope of their Lord's return. Unspeakably precious to them was the thought, "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." 1 Cor. 11:26.

These are the things we are never to forget. The love of Jesus, with its constraining power, is to be kept fresh in our memory. Christ has instituted this service that it may speak to our senses of the love of God that has been expressed in our behalf. There can be no union between our souls and God except through Christ. The union and love between brother and brother must be cemented and rendered eternal by the love of Jesus. And nothing less than the death of Christ could make His love efficacious for us. It is only because of His death that we can look with joy to His second coming. His sacrifice is the center of our hope. Upon this we must fix our faith.

The ordinances that point to our Lord's humiliation and suffering are regarded too much as a form. They were instituted for a purpose. Our senses need to be quickened to lay hold of the mystery of godliness. It is the privilege of all to comprehend, far more than we do, the expiatory sufferings of Christ. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," even so has the Son of man been lifted up, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:14, 15. To the cross of Calvary, bearing a dying Saviour, we must look. Our eternal interests demand that we show faith in Christ.

Our Lord has said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. . . . For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed." John 6:53-55. This is true of our physical nature. To the death of Christ we owe even this earthly life. The bread we eat is the purchase of His broken body. The water we drink is bought by His spilled blood. Never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food, but he is nourished by the body and the blood of Christ. The cross of Calvary is stamped on every loaf. It is reflected in every water spring. All this Christ has taught in appointing the emblems of His great sacrifice. The light shining from that Communion service in the upper chamber makes sacred the provisions for our daily life. The family board becomes as the table of the Lord, and every meal a sacrament.

And how much more are Christ's words true of our spiritual nature. He declares, "Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life." It is by receiving the life for us poured out on Calvary's cross, that we can live the life of holiness. And this life we receive by receiving His word, by doing those things which He has commanded. Thus we become one with Him. "He that eateth My flesh," He says, "and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me." John 6:54, 56, 57. To the holy Communion this scripture in a special sense applies. As faith contemplates our Lord's great sacrifice, the soul assimilates the spiritual life of Christ. That soul will receive spiritual strength from every Communion. The service forms a living connection by which the believer is bound up with Christ, and thus bound up with the Father. In a special sense it forms a connection between dependent human beings and God. As we receive the bread and wine symbolizing Christ's broken body and spilled blood, we in imagination join in the scene of Communion in the upper chamber. We seem to be passing through the garden consecrated by the agony of Him who bore the sins of the world. We witness the struggle by which our reconciliation with God was obtained. Christ is set forth crucified among us.

Looking upon the crucified Redeemer, we more fully comprehend the magnitude and meaning of the sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven. The plan of salvation is glorified before us, and the thought of Calvary awakens living and sacred emotions in our hearts. Praise to God and the Lamb will be in our hearts and on our lips; for pride and self-worship cannot flourish in the soul that keeps fresh in memory the scenes of Calvary.

He who beholds the Saviour's matchless love will be elevated in thought, purified in heart, transformed in character. He will go forth to be a light to the world, to reflect in some degree this mysterious love. The more we contemplate the cross of Christ, the more fully shall we adopt the language of the apostle when he said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Gal. 6:14." -- "In Remembrance of Me" from 'The Desire of Ages' by Ellen White [This chapter (72) is based on Matt. 26:20-29; Mark 14:17-25; Luke 22:14-23; John 13:18-30.]

Here is yet another exciting episode of 'Sherry Shriner'. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sherrytalkradio/2012/05/24/aliens-in-the-news As you know, this thread is very eclectic, and sometimes contradictory. Again, I am attempting to create a Political and Theological Science-Fictional Experience for those of you who are diligent and brave enough to go the extra-mile with me on this thread. You really must experience it as a whole, rather than as a truncated cone. Do any of you know how to determine the volume of a truncated cone?? What Would Reimann Say??

I have huge problems with killing. Period. I know that animals kill animals -- and that there is suffering in nature -- without the 'help' of humans -- but I think killing is just wrong. I have problems with Old Testament Killing. I have problems with the Book of Revelation Killing. I have problems with ALL of the wars throughout history (even if I were involved in, or responsible for, some of them on a reincarnational basis). I don't know about Original Sin or the Alien Presence -- but I think that killing should STOP -- unless I am presented with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I really do not relish millions of years of Star Wars with any race or races. I favor Freedom for the Responsible -- and Incarceration for the Irresponsible.

I tend to think that human beings are considered to be 'fallen angels' by other than humans -- and possibly by humans who might live in other parts of the galaxy. We the People of Earth seem to be in a HUGE amount of trouble -- for a variety of reasons -- seemingly going back thousands, or even millions, of years. I am leaning toward a Focus on Responsibility as being the biggest part of the solution -- but this is much easier said than done. I still don't know if Reptilians really exist -- but I am considering the possibility that they do -- and that Humans might be related to Reptilians in some way. I really don't know. I've been reading a lot of Alex Collier's work lately -- and it's fascinating -- even if it's not entirely true. I still worry about the possible extermination or extinction of the human race. That's the theory I am presently modeling. I'm considering a lot of worst-case scenarios -- and it's making me quite sad and miserable. I still don't know a lot about Kali -- but it seems as if one had better not make Kali angry!

Just give me a badge that gets me unlimited-access to the City-States, the United Nations, the Underground-Bases, the Secret Space Program, the Secret Government, and the Darkside of the Moon. I'm easy. The problem is that I probably wouldn't know what the hell to do with what I encountered. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. It's probably hell to deal with all of the above on an intimate and regular basis. When one 'rises' to the top -- they might not like the view...

I've never felt more upset and troubled than I feel right now. Nothing ever really resolves. The standard answers don't work -- but the alternative answers don't seem to work either. I think I might be on the right track -- but my ideas are largely undeveloped -- and I lack follow-through. Also, I doubt that anyone has really studied this thread in a devotional and scholarly manner. Frankly, I haven't really done that myself! I think I'd like to see some sort of a movie or series containing the best of this thread. I can visualize a helluva lot more than I can express...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897 – November 3, 1957) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry. He was the author of several notable books, including The Mass Psychology of Fascism and Character Analysis, both published in 1933.[1]

Reich worked with Sigmund Freud in the 1920s and was a respected analyst for much of his life, focusing on character structure rather than on individual neurotic symptoms.[2] He tried to reconcile Marxism and psychoanalysis, arguing that neurosis is rooted in the physical, sexual, economic, and social conditions of the patient, and promoted adolescent sexuality, the availability of contraceptives, abortion, and divorce, and the importance for women of economic independence. His work influenced a generation of intellectuals, including Saul Bellow, William S. Burroughs, Paul Edwards, Norman Mailer, and A. S. Neill, and shaped innovations such as Fritz Perls's Gestalt therapy, Alexander Lowen's bioenergetic analysis, and Arthur Janov's primal therapy.[3]

Later in life he became a controversial figure who was both adored and condemned. He began to violate some of the key taboos of psychoanalysis, developing body psychotherapy, using touch during sessions, and treating patients in their underwear to improve their "orgastic potency." He said he had discovered a primordial cosmic energy, which he said others called "God" and that he called "orgone." He built orgone energy accumulators that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about sex boxes that cured cancer.[4]

Reich was living in Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. On March 2 that year the Nazi newspaper,Völkischer Beobachter, published an attack on one of Reich's pamphlets, The Sexual Struggle of Youth.[5] He left immediately for Vienna, then Scandinavia, moving to the United States in 1939. In 1947, following a series of articles about orgone in The New Republic and Harper's, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) obtained an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators.[6] Charged with contempt for violating it, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved asking the judge to read his books and arguing that a court was no place to decide matters of science. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and in August 1956 several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA, one of the most notable examples of censorship in the history of the United States.[2] He died in jail of heart failure just over a year later, days before he was due to apply for parole.[7]

Reich was born the first of two sons to Leon Reich, a prosperous farmer, and Cecilia Roniger, in Dobrzanica, a village in Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was by all accounts strict, cold, and jealous. He was Jewish, but Reich was later at pains to point out that his father had moved away from Judaism and had not raised his children as Jews; Reich wasn't even allowed to play with Yiddish-speaking children.[8] As an adult, Reich corrected anyone who referred to him as a Jew. His biographer, Myron Sharaf, writes that this was in part because of his rejection of what he called "Jewish chauvinism," in part because he disliked being forced into any position he had not chosen for himself, and in part because he never wanted to be an outsider.[9]

Shortly after his birth, the family moved south to a farm in Jujinetz, near Chernivtsi, Bukovina, where Reich's father took control of a cattle farm owned by his mother's uncle, Josef Blum. Reich attributed his later interest in the study of sex and the biological basis of the emotions to his upbringing on the farm where, as he later put it, the natural life functions were never hidden from him.[10] He also spoke of having witnessed the family maid having intercourse with her boyfriend, and asking her later if he could "play" the part of the lover. He said that, by the time he was four years old, there were no secrets about sex for him;[8] in his early memoirs, Passion of Youth, he writes that he had intercourse for the first time at the age of 11½, though elsewhere said that he was 13.[11]

'I had read somewhere that lovers get rid of any intruder, so with wild fantasies in my brain I slipped back to my bed, my joy of life shattered, torn apart in my inmost being for my whole life!' — Wilhelm Reich.[12]

He was taught at home until he was 12, when his mother committed suicide after she was discovered having an affair with Reich's tutor, who lived with the family. Her death was particularly brutal: she drank a common household cleaner, which left her in great pain for days before she died.[13][14]

Reich wrote in 1920 about how deeply his mother's affair had affected him. Night after night he followed her as she crept to the tutor's bedroom. He stood outside listening, feeling ashamed, angry, and jealous. He wondered if they would kill him if they found out, and briefly thought of forcing her to have sex with him too. Torn between wanting to protect her, but also to tell his father, he later blamed himself for her death, waking in the night overwhelmed by the thought that he had killed her. The tutor was sent away, leaving Reich without a mother or a teacher, and with a powerful sense of guilt.[13]

He was sent to the all-male Czernowitz gymnasium, excelling at Latin, Greek, and the natural sciences. It appears to have been during this period that a skin condition developed that plagued him for the rest of his life. When it began is unclear, but it was diagnosed as psoriasis; Sharaf speculates that it may have been triggered by his mother's suicide. He was given medication that contained arsenic, now known to make psoriasis worse.

His father was devastated by his wife's suicide.[15] In or around 1914, he took out a life insurance policy, then stood for hours in a cold pond, apparently fishing, but in fact intending to commit slow suicide, according to Reich and his brother, Robert.[16] He contracted pneumonia and tuberculosis, and died in 1914. Despite the insurance policy, no money was forthcoming.[16]

Reich managed the farm and continued with his studies, graduating in 1915 mit Stimmeneinhelligkeit (unanimous approval). In the summer of that year, the Russians invaded Bukovina and the Reich brothers fled to Vienna, losing everything. In his Passion of Youth, Reich wrote: "I never saw either my homeland or my possessions again. Of a well-to-do past, nothing was left."

Reich joined the Austro-Hungarian Army after school, serving from 1915–18, for the last two years as a lieutenant. When the war ended in 1918, he entered the medical school at the University of Vienna. As an undergraduate, he was drawn to the work of Sigmund Freud. The men first met in 1919 when Reich visited Freud to obtain literature for a seminar on sexology, Freud making a strong impression on him. He became one of Freud's favorite students.[17] Freud allowed him to start seeing analytic patients in 1920, when Reich was accepted as a guest member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association, becoming a regular member in October that year at the age of 23.[18] He was allowed to complete his six-year medical degree in four years because he was a war veteran, and received his M.D. in July 1922.[19]

Reich worked in internal medicine at University Hospital, Vienna, and studied neuropsychiatry from 1922-24 at the Neurological and Psychiatric Clinic under Professor Julius Wagner-Jauregg. In 1922, he set up private practice as a psychoanalyst, and became a clinical assistant, and later deputy director of Freud's Psychoanalytic Polyclinic. He joined the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Institute in Vienna in 1924, conducted research into the social causes of neurosis, and became Deputy Director of Training.[17]

It was in Vienna that he met Annie Pink, a medical student who came to him for analysis, and who later became an analyst herself. They married on March 17, 1922, when she was 20 and Reich one week short of 25, with Otto Fenichel as a witness.[20] The marriage produced two daughters, Eva in 1924 and Lore in 1928.[21] They moved to Berlin in 1930, where he set up clinics in working-class areas, taught sex education, and published pamphlets. He joined the Communist Party of Germany, and his book, The Sexual Revolution, was published in Vienna, but he became too outspoken for the communists, and was expelled from the German party in 1933 and a year later from its Danish counterpart. He was also expelled from the International Psychoanalytical Association in 1934 for political militancy.[22]

Reich had several affairs during his marriage, including one with his wife's friend, Lia Lasky, in 1927. He and his wife finally separated in 1933 after he began a serious relationship in May 1932 with Elsa Lindenburg, a choreographer and dance therapist, trained in Laban movement analysis, and a pupil of Elsa Gindler. He and Lindenburg were living in Germany when Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933. On March 2, the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter published an attack on Reich's Der Sexuale Kampf der Jugend (The Sexual Struggle of Youth).[5] He was derided as a womanizer, a communist, and a Jew who advocated free love. He and Lindenburg left for Vienna the next day. They moved to Scandinavia, first to Denmark where Reich was accused of corrupting Danish youth with German sexology, then to Sweden, and in the Fall of 1934 to Norway.[23]

Reich's home in Drammensveien near Olaf Kyrres plass at Frogner, Oslo. A blue plaque reads: "The physician and psychoanalyst WILHELM REICH (1897-1957) lived and worked here 1935–39. Developed character analysis and the body-oriented therapy."
Reich stayed in Norway for five years, working under the auspices of Professor Schjelderup of the Psychological Institute at the University of Oslo. He first presented the principles of his vegetotherapy in a paper called "Psychic contact and vegetative current" in August 1934 at the 13th International Congress of Psychoanalysis at Lucerne, Switzerland, and went on to develop the technique between 1935 and 1940. Vegetotherapy involves the patient physically simulating the effects of certain emotions in the hope of triggering them. Reich argued that the ability to feel sexual love depended on a physical ability to have sexual intercourse with what he called "orgastic potency." He tried to measure the male orgasm, noting that four distinct phases occurred physiologically: first, the psycho-sexual buildup or tension; second, the tumescence of the penis, with an accompanying electrical charge that Reich measured; third, an electrical discharge at the moment of orgasm; and fourth, the relaxation of the penis. He believed the force that he measured was a distinct type of energy present in all life forms.[24]

He was a prolific writer for psychoanalytic journals in Europe. Originally, psychoanalysis was focused on the treatment of neurotic symptoms. Reich's Character Analysis was a major step in the development of what today is called ego psychology. In Reich's view, a person's entire character, not only individual symptoms, could be looked at and treated as a neurotic phenomenon. The book also introduced his theory of body armoring. Reich argued that unreleased psycho-sexual energy could produce actual physical blocks within muscles and organs, and that these blocks act as a body armor preventing the release of the energy. An orgasm was one way to break through the armor. These ideas developed into a general theory of the importance of a healthy sex life to overall well-being, a theory compatible with Freud's views. His idea was that the orgasm was not simply a device to aid procreation, but was the body's emotional energy regulator. The better the orgasm, the more energy was released, meaning that less was available to create neurotic states. Reich called the ability to release sufficient energy during orgasm "orgastic potency," something that very few individuals could achieve, he argued, because of society's sexual oppression. A man or woman without orgastic potency was in a constant state of tension, developing a body armor to keep it in. The outer rigidity and inner anxiety is the state of neurosis, leading to hate, sadism, greed, fascism and antisemitism.[23]

He agreed with Freud that sexual development was the origin of mental illness. They both believed that most psychological states were dictated by unconscious processes, that infant sexuality develops early but is repressed, and that this repression has important consequences for mental health. At that time a Marxist (see Freudo-Marxism), Reich argued that the source of sexual repression was bourgeois morality and the socio-economic structures that produced it. As sexual repression was the cause of the neuroses, the best cure was an active, guilt-free sex life. He argued that such a liberation could come about only through a morality not imposed by a repressive economic structure.[25] In 1928, he joined the Austrian Communist Party and founded the Socialist Association for Sexual Counseling and Research, which organized counseling centers for workers.

From 1934-39, Reich conducted experiments looking at vegetative energy in the body, especially the Galvanic skin response, which became research into the origins of life. These he called the "Bion Experiments." He examined protozoa, single-celled creatures with nuclei. He grew cultured vesicles using grass, sand, iron, and animal tissue, boiling them, and adding potassium and gelatin. Having heated the materials to incandescence with a heat-torch, he noted bright, glowing, blue vesicles, which, he said, could be cultured, and which gave off an observable radiant energy. He named the vesicles "bions" and believed they were a rudimentary form of life, halfway between life and non-life. When he poured the cooled mixture onto growth media, bacteria were born, he said, dismissing the idea that the bacteria were already present in the air or on other materials.[26]

In 1936, Reich wrote that "[s]ince everything is antithetically arranged, there must be two different types of single-celled organisms: (a) life-destroying organisms or organisms that form through organic decay, (b) life-promoting organisms that form from inorganic material that comes to life."[27] This idea of spontaneous generation led him to believe he had found the cause of cancer. He called the life-destroying organisms "T-bacilli," with the T standing for Tod, German for death. He described in The Cancer Biopathy how he had found them in a culture of rotting cancerous tissue obtained from a local hospital. He wrote that T-bacilli were formed from the disintegration of protein; they were 0.2 to 0.5 micrometer in length, shaped like lancets, and when injected into mice, they caused inflammation and cancer. He concluded that, when orgone energy diminishes in cells through aging or injury, the cells undergo "bionous degeneration," or death. At some point, the deadly T-bacilli start to form in the cells. Death from cancer, he believed, was caused by an overwhelming growth of the T-bacilli.

From 1930 onwards, Reich became more interested in his patients' physical responses during therapy sessions, and toward the late 1930s, he began to treat patients outside the limits of psychoanalysis's restrictions, though well within the scope of general medicine. He began to sit next to his patients, rather than behind them, in order to make stronger 'contact.' He started touching them, to both increase awareness of tension and contraction and to relieve it directly. He would ask his male patients to undress down to their shorts, and sometimes to undress entirely, and his female patients down to their underclothes. He began talking to them, answering their questions, rather than the stock, "Why do you ask?" analyst's response.[28]

From a psychoanalytic point of view, this undermined the position of neutrality. The analyst is meant to be a blank screen onto which the patient projects his old desires, loves, hates, and neurosis—a process known as transference. Reich wrote that the psychoanalytic taboos reinforced the neurotic taboos of the patient. He slowly broke away from them, writing that he wanted his patients to see him as human.[29] He would press hard on their "body armor," his thumb or the palm of his hand pressing on their jaws, necks, chests, backs, or thighs, aiming to dissolve their muscular, and thereby characterological, rigidity.[30] He wanted to see their movements soften, their breathing ease. This dissolution of the "body armor" also brought back the repressed memory of the childhood situation that had caused the repression, he wrote. If the session worked as intended, he wrote that he could see waves of pleasure move through their bodies, a series of spontaneous, involuntary movements. Reich called these the "orgasm reflex." The two goals of Reichian therapy became the attainment of this orgasm reflex during therapy, and orgastic potency during intercourse. Reich called the flow of energy that he said he observed in his patients' bodies, "bio-electricity," and considered calling his therapy "orgasmotherapy," but thought better of it for political reasons.[31]

Scientists in Oslo reacted strongly to his work on bions, deriding it as nonsense. Tidens Tegn, a leading liberal newspaper, launched a campaign against him in 1937, supported by scientists and other newspapers.[23] Between September 1937 and the fall of 1938, over 100 articles denouncing him appeared in the main Oslo newspapers.[32]

In 1937, Leiv Kreyberg, the country's top cancer specialist, was allowed to examine one of Reich's bion preparations under the microscope. Kreyberg wrote that the broth Reich had used as his culture medium was indeed sterile, but that the bacteria were ordinary staphylococci. He concluded that Reich's control measures to prevent infection from airborne bacteria were not as foolproof as Reich believed. Kreyberg accused Reich of being ignorant of basic bacteriological and anatomical facts, while Reich accused Kreyberg of having failed to recognize living cancer cells under magnification. Thus, Sharaf writes, an opportunity for scientific exchange degenerated into name-calling.[26]

Reich sent a sample of the bacteria to another Norwegian biologist, Professor Thjötta of the Oslo Bacteriological Institute, who also said they resulted from air infection. Kreyberg and Thjötta had their views published in Aftenposten on April 19 and 21, 1938, Kreyberg referring to him as "Mr. Reich," alleging that Reich knew less about bacteria and anatomy than a first-year medical student. When Reich requested a detailed control study, Kreyberg responded that his work did not merit it.[26]

Reich's The Bion Experiments on the Origin of Life was published in 1938, leading to attacks by the scientific and lay press that he was a "Jew pornographer," who was daring to meddle with the origins of life. Alan Cantwell writes that Reich's detractors focused on one paragraph in which Reich wrote that his research had "proved particularly fruitful for an understanding of cancer," which led to the claim that he was promoting a quack cancer cure.[24]

By February 1938, his visa had expired. Several Norwegian scientists argued against an extension, Kreyberg saying, "If it is a question of handing Dr. Reich over to the Gestapo, then I will fight that, but if one could get rid of him in a decent manner, that would be the best." The writer Sigurd Hoel wondered when it had become a crime to perform amateurish biological experiments. "When did it become a reason for deportation that one looked in a microscope when one was not a trained biologist?" Reich received influential support from overseas, first from Bronisław Malinowski, who wrote to the Norwegian press in March 1938 that Reich's sociological work was a "distinct and valuable contribution to science," and from A.S. Neill, founder of Summerhill in England, a progressive school known throughout the world. Neill also wrote to the Norwegian press, arguing that "the campaign against Reich seems largely ignorant and uncivilized, more like fascism than democracy ..." Norway was proud of its intellectual tolerance, so the "Reich affair" put the government on the spot. A compromise was therefore found. Reich was given his visa, but a royal decree was issued stipulating that anyone wanting to practice psychoanalysis needed a licence, and it was widely understood that Reich would not be given one. Throughout the affair, Reich issued just one public statement, when he asked for a commission to replicate his bion experiments. Sharaf writes that the scientific opposition to his work affected his personality and relationships. He was angered and humiliated by the notoriety he had inadvertently achieved. His self-confidence undermined, he felt like a marked man, hunted and tormented, no longer comfortable in public, and seething with bitterness against the researchers who had denounced him.[32]

Sharaf writes that, at a personal level, 1934–1937 was the happiest period of Reich's life. His relationship with Elsa Lindenberg was good and he considered marrying her. When she became pregnant in 1935, they were initially overjoyed, buying clothes and furniture for the child, but doubts developed for Reich, who felt the future was too unsettled. Sharaf writes that, to Elsa's great distress, Reich insisted on an abortion, at that time illegal. They went to Berlin, where Edith Jacobson, a psychoanalyst, helped to arrange it.[33]

In 1937, Reich began an affair with a female patient, an actress who was the ex-wife of a colleague. She had entered therapy with the explicit intention of seducing him, which he told her was impossible, but she succeeded. The analysis stopped because of the relationship, then the relationship ended and the analysis began again. She eventually threatened to go to the press, but was persuaded that it would harm her at least as much as him. When a colleague asked him why he had behaved this way, he replied, "A man must do foolish things sometimes."[34] He also had an affair with Gerd Bergersen, a 25-year-old Norwegian textile designer.[35]

During the same period, as the newspaper campaign against him gained pace, he suddenly developed intense jealousy toward Elsa, demanding that she share his work with him, and not have a separate life of any kind. He even physically assaulted a composer she was working with on some choreography. Elsa briefly considered calling the police but decided Reich couldn't afford another scandal. His behavior took its toll on their relationship, and when Reich asked her to accompany him to the U.S., she said no, writing later that it was the hardest "no" she had ever had to say.[36]

In March 1938, Hitler annexed Austria. Reich's ex-wife and daughters had already left Austria for the U.S. Later that year, an American psychiatrist at Columbia Medical School, Theodore P. Wolfe, traveled to Norway to study under Reich. Wolfe offered to help Reich settle in the U.S., and managed to arrange an official invitation from The New School in New York. Wolfe and Walter Briehl, an old student of Reich's, put up several thousand dollars to guarantee Reich's salary. Wolfe also pulled strings with Adolph Berle, an official in the U.S. State Department. He finally received his visa in August 1939, and sailed out of Norway on August 19 on the Stavenger Fjord, the last boat to leave for the States before the war began on September 3.[37]

He began teaching at The New School, where he remained for two years, living first at 75-02 Kessel Street, Forest Hills, Queens, then settling into a two-story brick house at 9906 69th Avenue in the same area. It had a basement that he used for animal experiments, a large room on the first floor that served as an office, dining room, living room, and a place for his seminar students every other week. The dining room became his laboratory. Two bedrooms on the top floor were shared by his maid and his secretary, Gertrud Gaasland, and three rooms on the second floor became Reich's bedroom and therapy rooms.[38]

It was Gertrud Gaasland who introduced him to Ilse Ollendorf, 29 years old at the time. Reich was still in love with Elsa, but Ilse threw herself into organizing Reich's life for him, taking over the secretarial and bookkeeping tasks, learning laboratory techniques, and showing herself willing to mold herself completely to his lifestyle, something Elsa had been unwilling to do. They began living together on Christmas Day 1939, and she began to work for him on January 2, 1940. They had a son, Peter, in 1944, and were married in 1946.[39][40]

Reich's personality changed after the onslaught of the press in Oslo. He became socially isolated, and decided to keep his distance even from old friends and his ex-wife. He told a friend he was going to follow the "remarkable law": be distant, even a little haughty, withhold love, and then people will respect you. His students in the U.S. came to know him as a man that no colleague, no matter how close, called by his first name. He wrote to Elsa in January 1940 breaking off their relationship once and for all, telling her that he was in despair, and that he believed he would end up dying like a dog.[41]

Rumors had been rife since the late 1920s that he was mentally ill in some way, and had even been hospitalized, though Sharaf writes that he had not. He was seen as paranoid, remote, belligerent, and fanatical. Sharaf writes that psychoanalysts have had a tendency to dismiss as ill anyone from within the fold who has digressed, and that never was this done so relentlessly or destructively as with Reich. His work was split into the pre-psychotic "good" Reich, and the post-psychotic "bad," the date of the illness's onset depending on which parts of his work a speaker disliked. Psychoanalysts wanted to see him as sane in the 1920s because of his solid work on character; political radicals regarded him as sane during the 1930s because of his Marxist-oriented psychology research.[42]

Freud had argued that there was a sexual energy called libido, which he initially described as "something which is capable of increase, decrease, displacement and discharge, and which extends itself over the memory traces of an idea like an electric charge over the surface of the body," but by 1925 he had rejected the idea that it was a physical energy.[19] Reich took the idea further, arguing that he had discovered a primordial cosmic energy. He called it "orgone," and the study of it "orgonomy."

Orgone is blue in color, he wrote, omnipresent, can be seen with the naked eye, and is responsible for such things as weather, the color of the sky, gravity, the formation of galaxies, and the biological expressions of emotion and sexuality. He argued that St. Elmo's Fire is a manifestation of it, as is the blue color of sexually excited frogs. Red corpuscles, plant chlorophyll, gonadal cells, protozoa, and cancer cells are all charged with orgone, he said.[23]

He argued that humankind had previously split its knowledge of orgone in two: "ether" for its mechanistic, physical aspects, and "God" for the spiritual, the subjective.[43] He wrote that, "God-Father is the basic cosmic energy from which all being stems, and which streams through (the) body as through anything else in existence."[44]

In 1940, he built boxes called "orgone accumulators" to concentrate atmospheric orgone. Some of the boxes were for lab animals, and some were large enough for a human being to sit inside. Composed of alternating layers of ferrous metals and organic insulators with a high dielectric constant, the accumulators had the appearance of a large, hollow capacitor. Based on experiments with them, he argued that orgone energy was a negatively-entropic force in nature responsible for concentrating and organizing matter. The construction of the boxes caught the attention of the press, leading to wild rumors that they were "sex boxes" that caused uncontrollable erections.[24]

According to Reich's theory, illness was primarily caused by depletion or blockages of the orgone energy within the body. He conducted clinical tests of the orgone accumulator on people suffering from a variety of illnesses. The patient would sit within the accumulator and absorb the "concentrated orgone energy." He built smaller, more portable accumulator-blankets of the same layered construction for application to parts of the body. The effects observed were said to boost the immune system, even to the point of destroying certain types of tumors, though Reich was hesitant to claim this constituted a cure. The orgone accumulator was also tested on mice with cancer, and on plant-growth, the results convincing Reich that the benefits of orgone therapy could not be attributed to a placebo effect.[citation needed] He had, he believed, developed a grand unified theory of physical and mental health, a claim regarded by the psychoanalytic community as quackery.[45]

In December 1944, Reich began the 20th (Roman numeral XX) in his series of bion experiments.[46] He filtered all the earth out of an earth bion preparation so that all that remained was clear yellow water, then buried the test tube outdoors in the frozen ground. When he retrieved it three weeks later and examined it under a microscope, he saw pulsating plasmatic flakes. Since the yellow water had not contained visible particulates before it had been frozen, Reich concluded that free orgone energy had condensed out to form the lifelike flakes. This experiment formed the basis for Reich's later theory that all matter in the universe had derived from orgone energy via cosmic superimposition.[47]

Reich posited a conjugate, life-annulling energy in opposition to orgone, which he dubbed Deadly Orgone Radiation or DOR. He wrote that accumulations of DOR played a role in desertification, and he designed a "cloudbuster" with which he said he could manipulate streams of orgone energy in the atmosphere to induce rain by forcing clouds to form and disperse. It was a set of hollow metal pipes and cables inserted into water, which Reich argued created a stronger orgone energy field than was in the atmosphere, the water drawing the atmospheric orgone through the pipes.[19]

Reich conducted dozens of experiments with the cloudbuster[citation needed], calling the research "Cosmic Orgone Engineering." In 1953, a drought threatened Maine's blueberry crop, and several farmers offered to pay Reich if he could make it rain. The weather bureau had reportedly forecast no rain for several days when Reich began the experiment at 10 a.m. on July 6, 1953. The Bangor Daily News reported on July 24:

Dr. Reich and three assistants set up their "rain-making" device off the shore of Grand Lake, near the Bangor hydro-electric dam ... The device, a set of hollow tubes, suspended over a small cylinder, connected by a cable, conducted a "drawing" operation for about an hour and ten minutes ...

According to a reliable source in Ellsworth the following climactic changes took place in that city on the night of July 6 and the early morning of July 7: "Rain began to fall shortly after ten o'clock Monday evening, first as a drizzle and then by midnight as a gentle, steady rain. Rain continued throughout the night, and a rainfall of 0.24 inches was recorded in Ellsworth the following morning."

A puzzled witness to the "rain-making" process said: "The queerest looking clouds you ever saw began to form soon after they got the thing rolling." And later the same witness said the scientists were able to change the course of the wind by manipulation of the device.[48]

The blueberry crop survived, the farmers declared themselves satisfied, and Reich received his fee.[19]

Reich discussed orgone accumulators with Albert Einstein in 1941. On December 30, 1940, Reich wrote to Albert Einstein saying he had a scientific discovery he wanted to discuss, and on January 13, 1941 went to visit Einstein in Princeton. They talked for five hours, and Einstein agreed to test an orgone accumulator, which Reich had constructed out of a Faraday cage made of galvanized steel and insulated by wood and paper on the outside.[49] Einstein agreed that if, as Reich suggested, an object's temperature could be raised without an apparent heating source, it would be a "bombshell" in physics.[50]

Reich supplied Einstein with a small accumulator during their second meeting, and Einstein performed the experiment in his basement, which involved taking the temperature atop, inside, and near the device. He also stripped the device down to its Faraday cage to compare temperatures. In his attempt to replicate Reich's findings, Einstein observed a rise in temperature,[51] which Reich argued was caused by the orgone energy that had accumulated inside the Faraday cage.[52] However, one of Einstein's assistants pointed out that the temperature was lower on the floor than on the ceiling.[53] Following that remark, Einstein modified the experiment and, as a result, concluded that the effect was simply due to the temperature gradient inside the room.[54] He wrote back to Reich, describing his experiments and expressing the hope that Reich would develop a more skeptical approach.[55]

Reich responded with a 25-page letter to Einstein, expressing concern that "convection from the ceiling" would join "air germs" and "Brownian movement" to explain away new findings.[52] The correspondence between Reich and Einstein was published by Reich's press as The Einstein Affair in 1953, possibly without Einstein's permission.[56]

On December 12, 1941, five days after Pearl Harbor, Reich was arrested at his home at 2 a.m. by the FBI, and taken to Ellis Island, where he was held for over three weeks, because he was an immigrant with a communist background. He was furious, and blamed his first wife, with whom he had a very poor relationship, for having reported him in some way, though there is no evidence that she was involved. His psoriasis erupted, and his doctor persuaded the authorities to transfer him to the hospital ward, where Ilse was allowed to visit him twice a week. Wolfe and a lawyer did their best to find out what the charge was, Wolfe traveling several times to Washington to protest, but it was not until December 26 that a hearing was held, and still it remained unclear why he had been picked up. He was questioned about several books the FBI had found in his home, including Hitler's Mein Kampf, Trotsky's My Life, and a Russian alphabet book for children. Eventually Reich threatened to go on hunger strike, and he was released on January 5, 1942. The FBI released 789 pages of its files on Reich in 2000, which said:

This German immigrant described himself as the Associate Professor of Medical Psychology, Director of the Orgone Institute, President and research physician of the Wilhelm Reich Foundation and discoverer of biological or life energy. A 1940 security investigation was begun to determine the extent of Reich's communist commitments. A board of Alien Enemy Hearing judged that Dr. Reich was not a threat to the security of the U.S.[57]

Using money from his income as a therapist, and contributions from students, Reich purchased an old farm near Dodge Pond, Maine in November 1942. He called the 160 acres (0.65 km²) of fields, forests, and hills "Orgonon". He built a laboratory there in 1945, and in 1948 began construction of the Orgone Energy Observatory, which included another laboratory, a library, and observation decks to study atmospheric orgone.[19]

Until 1947, Reich enjoyed a largely uncritical press in the U.S. His psychotherapy practice was flourishing, his psychoanalytic theories were taught in universities and discussed in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Psychiatry. He was listed in American Men of Science, and The Nation gave his writing positive reviews. Only one science journal, Psychosomatic Medicine, had criticized him, calling his ideas about orgone a "surrealist creation."[23]

His reputation took a sudden downturn in May 1947. On May 26, an article by freelance writer Mildred Edie Brady appeared in The New Republic, entitled "The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich", with the subhead, "The man who blames both neuroses and cancer on unsatisfactory sexual activities has been repudiated by only one scientific journal."[23] Brady wrote: "Orgone, named after the sexual orgasm, is, according to Reich, a cosmic energy. It is, in fact, the cosmic energy. Reich has not only discovered it; he has seen it, demonstrated it and named a town—Orgonon, Maine—after it. Here he builds accumulators of it, which are rented out to patients, who presumably derive 'orgastic potency' from it."[23] Sharaf writes that the implication was clear: the accumulators gave orgastic potency, the lack of which causes cancer. Therefore, the claim for the accumulators was that they cured cancer. Brady argued that the "growing Reich cult" had to be dealt with.[58]

The regulation and advertising of medical devices is shared and coordinated by the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration. On July 23, Dr. J.J. Durrett, director of the Medical Advisory Division of the Federal Trade Commission, wrote to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking them to look into Reich's claims about the health benefits of orgone.[59] The FDA assigned an investigator to the case, who learned that Reich had built 250 accumulators; the FDA concluded that they were dealing with a "fraud of the first magnitude."[60] Sharaf writes that the FDA suspected a sexual racket of some kind; questions were asked about the women associated with orgonomy and "what was done with them."[61]

'I would like to plead for my right to investigate natural phenomena without having guns pointed at me. I also ask for the right to be wrong without being hanged for it.' — Wilhelm Reich, November 1947[62]

In November, Reich wrote in Conspiracy. An Emotional Chain Reaction: "I would like to plead for my right to investigate natural phenomena without having guns pointed at me. I also ask for the right to be wrong without being hanged for it ... I am angry because smearing can do anything and truth can do so little to prevail, as it seems at the moment."[63] Sharaf writes that Reich came to believe that Brady was a Stalinist acting under orders from the Communist Party, a "communist sniper," as Reich called her.[64]

Over the years, the FDA interviewed physicians, Reich's students, and his patients, asking about Reich's use of orgone accumulators. On July 29, 1952, an unannounced inspection was conducted at Orgonon. One inspector was a regular FDA inspector, another an FDA medical expert, and a third an FDA device expert. Reich was known to abhor unannounced visitors; he had once chased some people away with a gun just for looking at an adjacent property. He shouted at the FDA men, told them they had to read his writings before he would interact with them, and ordered them to leave.[65]

The visit began a period of investigation by the FDA, triggering belligerent responses from Reich, who called them "HIGS," hoodlums in government, and the tools of red fascists. He developed a delusion that he had powerful friends in government, including President Eisenhower, who he believed would protect him, and that the U.S. Air Force was flying over Orgonon to make sure that he was all right.[65]

On February 10, 1954, the U.S. Attorney for District of Maine filed a complaint seeking a permanent injunction under Sections 301 and 302 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, to prevent interstate shipment of orgone accumulators and to ban some of Reich's writing promoting and advertising the devices.[66] Reich refused to appear in court, arguing that no court was in a position to evaluate his work. In a long letter to Judge Clifford, he wrote:

My factual position in the case as well as in the world of science of today does not permit me to enter the case against the Food and Drug Administration, since such action would, in my mind, imply admission of the authority of this special branch of the government to pass judgment on primordial, pre-atomic cosmic orgone energy. I, therefore, rest the case in full confidence in your hands.[67]

The United States was granted the injunction by default on March 19, 1954.[68] The judge's ruling was more extensive than the original complaint. He ordered that all accumulators and their parts were to be destroyed. All written material of promotional information and instructions for use (labeling) on the accumulators was also to be destroyed. This included ten of Reich's books that mentioned orgone energy, until such time as references to orgone were deleted; the list included Character Analysis and The Mass Psychology of Fascism.[69]

In May 1956, Reich traveled to Arizona to experiment with the cloudbuster. In his absence, and without his knowledge, one of his students, Dr. Michael Silvert,[70] moved some accumulators and books from Rangeley, Maine to New York, in violation of the injunction.[19] Reich and Silvert were both charged with contempt of court. Once again, he refused to arrange a legal defense. Representing himself, he admitted to the violation and, in his defense, arranged for the judge to be sent copies of his books. He was found guilty of contempt of court on May 7, 1956, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Silvert was sentenced to a year and a day. The Wilhelm Reich Foundation, which Reich's students and friends had set up in 1949, was fined $10,000.[19]

Dr. Morton Herskowitz, a fellow psychiatrist and friend of Reich's, wrote of the trial: "Because he viewed himself as a historical figure, he was making a historical point, and to make that point he had conducted the trial that way. If I had been in his shoes, I would have wanted to escape jail, I would have wanted to be free, etc. I would have conducted the trial on a strictly legal basis because the lawyers had said, 'We can win this case for you. Their case is so weak, so when you let us do our thing we can get you off.' But he wouldn't do it."[71] Reich appealed in October 1956, but the Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's decision on December 11. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which decided on February 25, 1957 not to review the lower courts' decisions. Reich and Silvert then asked for a suspension or reduction of their sentences; a hearing was set for March 11, to be followed by jail if the request did not succeed. The judge later wrote to the U.S. Board of Parole that he had been inclined to suspend or reduce the sentence, but the government established that Reich would not discontinue promoting the orgone accumulator. Reich then appealed to the President, to no avail.[72]

On June 5, 1956, as Reich was arranging his first appeal, two FDA officials traveled to Orgonon to supervise the destruction of Reich's accumulators. Most of them had been sold at that point, and another 50 were with Silvert in New York. Only three were at Orgonon. The FDA agents were not allowed to destroy them, only to supervise the destruction, so Reich's friends, and his son Peter, chopped them up with axes as the agents watched. On June 26, the agents returned to supervise the destruction of the promotional material, including some of his books. On July 9, the American Civil Liberties Union issued a press release criticizing the book burning, although coverage of the release was poor, and Reich ended up asking them not to help him because he was annoyed that they failed to criticize the destruction of the accumulators. In England, a letter of protest signed by A.S. Neill and Herbert Read also failed to find a publisher. On July 23, the remaining accumulators in New York were destroyed by S.A. Collins and Sons, who had built them.[73]

On August 23, six tons of his books, journals, and papers were burned in the 25th Street public incinerator in New York's lower east side, the Gansevoort incinerator.[74] Among the material destroyed were titles that were supposed only to be banned, including 12,189 copies of the Orgone Energy Bulletin, 6,261 copies of the International Journal of Sex Economy and Orgone Research, 2,900 copies of Emotional Plague Versus Orgone Biophysics, 2,976 copies of Annals of the Orgone Institute, and hardcover copies of several of his books, including The Sexual Revolution, Character Analysis, and The Mass Psychology of Fascism.[19] This action has been cited as one of the worst examples of censorship in U.S. history.[2]

As with the accumulators, the FDA was supposed only to observe the destruction, while his colleagues carried it out. One of them, Victor Sobey, wrote: "All the expenses and labor had to be provided by the [Orgone Institute] Press. A huge truck with three to help was hired. I felt like people who, when they are to be executed, are made to dig their own graves first and are then shot and thrown in. We carried box after box of the literature."[75]

On February 10, 1957, Reich signed his last will, naming his daughter, Eva, as his executrix.[76] On March 12, he was sent to Danbury Federal Prison, where Richard C. Hubbard, a psychiatrist who admired Reich, examined him, recording paranoia manifested by delusions of grandiosity, persecution, and ideas of reference:

The patient feels that he has made outstanding discoveries. Gradually over a period of many years he has explained the failure of his ideas in becoming universally accepted by the elaboration of psychotic thinking. "The Rockerfellows (sic) are against me." (Delusion of grandiosity.) "The airplanes flying over prison are sent by the Air Force to encourage me." (Ideas of reference and grandiosity.)[77]

On March 22, he was transferred to the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where there were better psychiatric facilities, and was examined again. This tded that he was mentally competent, and that his personality appeared intact, though he might become psychotic under stress.[77] Two days later, on his 60th birthday, he wrote to his son, Peter, then 13:

I am in Lewisburg. I am calm, certain in my thoughts, and doing mathematics most of the time. I am kind of "above things," fully aware of what is up. Do not worry too much about me, though anything might happen. I know, Pete, that you are strong and decent. At first I thought that you should not visit me here. I do not know. With the world in turmoil I now feel that a boy your age should experience what is coming his way—fully digest it without getting a "belly ache," so to speak, nor getting off the right track of truth, fact, honesty, fair play, and being above board—never a sneak. ...[78]

Peter did visit him at Lewisburg several times. Reich told him that he cried a lot, and wanted Peter to let himself cry too, believing that tears are the "great softener." His last letter to his son was on October 22, when he said he was in good spirits, and looking forward to being released on November 10, when he would have served one third of his sentence; a parole hearing had been scheduled for just a few days before. He wrote that he and Peter had a date for a meal at the Howard Johnson restaurant near Peter's school.[7]

Reich failed to appear for morning roll call on November 3, and was found dead in his bed at 7 a.m., fully clothed but for his shoes. The prison physician said he had died during the night of "myocardial insufficiency with sudden heart failure."[7] He was buried in a plot of land he had chosen in the woods at Orgonon, in a coffin he had bought a year earlier from a Maine craftsman. He had left instructions that there was to be no religious ceremony, but that a record should be played of Schubert's "Ave Maria" sung by Marian Anderson, and that his granite headstone should read simply: "Wilhelm Reich, Born March 24, 1897, Died ..." Dr. Elsworth F. Baker, a physician friend, said at his funeral, "Once in a thousand years, nay once in two thousand years, such a man comes upon this earth to change the destiny of the human race. As with all great men, distortion, falsehood, and persecution followed him. He met them all, until organized conspiracy sent him to prison and then killed him."[79] A replica of a cloudbuster stands next to his grave, and the building that housed his laboratory is now the Wilhelm Reich Museum.

None of the psychiatric and established scientific journals carried an obituary. Time magazine wrote on November 18, 1957:

Died. Wilhelm Reich, 60, once-famed psychoanalyst, associate and follower of Sigmund Freud, founder of the Wilhelm Reich Foundation, lately better known for unorthodox sex and energy theories; of a heart attack; in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, Pa; where he was serving a two-year term for distributing his invention, the "orgone energy accumulator" (in violation of the Food and Drug Act), a telephone-booth-size device that supposedly gathered energy from the atmosphere, and could cure, while the patient sat inside, common colds, cancer, and impotence.[80]

Sherry Shriner talks a lot about orgone -- which supposedly causes UFO's to crash -- and also supposedly burns and kills aliens. I have never had anything to do with orgone -- and I'm pretty much neutral about the subject. This thread is sort of a rambling shotgun-approach to pseudointellectual-research. This is just intended to get you started -- but with some rather unique components, which you probably won't find elsewhere. I think this thread is quite unique -- as far as I know -- but I have no idea how close to the mark I've gotten. I've frankly tried to NOT be too frank, so as to remain alive and well -- living the dream for at least a few more days in paradise. Here is the continuation of the previous post:

The study of Reich's work has been hampered by the instruction he left that his unpublished papers were to be stored for 50 years after his death, "to secure their safety from destruction and falsification," which meant researchers were not able to access them until 2007.[81]

Nearly all his publications have been reprinted, apart from his research journals, which are available as photocopies from the Wilhelm Reich Museum. The first editions are not available: Reich continuously amended his books throughout his life, and the owners of Reich's copyright only allow the latest revised versions to be reprinted. In the late 1960s, Farrar, Straus & Giroux republished all his major works.[82]

New research journals devoted to his work began to appear in the 1960s. Physicians and natural scientists with an interest in Reich organized small study groups and institutes, and new research efforts were undertaken, though the mainstream scientific community has shown minimal interest in his ideas. The Orgone Biophysical Research Lab, founded in 1978 by Dr. James DeMeo, continues to investigate Reich's orgone research, and hosts international conferences and an occasional research journal.[83] DeMeo undertook studies on Reich's cloudbuster device at the University of Kansas in 1979, and wrote that he had confirmed many of the effects claimed by Reich.[84] A double-blind, controlled study of the effects of the orgone accumulator was carried out by Stefan Müschenich and Rainer Gebauer at the University of Marburg in 1987, and appeared to validate some of Reich's claims.[85] The study was later reproduced by Günter Hebenstreit at the University of Vienna.[86]

DeMeo conducted a number of other studies into Reich's work at the University of Kansas, including a global cross-cultural study, "Saharasia," to test the validity of Reich's sex-economic theory in the origins of human violence.[87] He undertook controlled studies on Reich's controversial thermal anomaly experiment,[88] and in 2011 wrote that orgone-charged water has a higher UV absorption in the 240-280 nm range, as compared to control samples.[89] He has also published studies showing statistically significant increases in plant growth when charged inside orgone accumulators, as compared to controls.[90] He argues that Reich's orgone energy is functionally similar to the older concept of the cosmological ether of space, and bears a similarity to the modern concepts of dark matter and the interstellar medium.[91]

Reich's influence is felt in modern psychotherapy. In 1978, the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, wrote that the impact of Reich's critique of sexual repression was substantial.[92] William Steig, Robert Anton Wilson, Norman Mailer, Jerome D. Salinger and Orson Bean have all undergone Reich's orgone therapy, and there is some use of orgone accumulators by psychotherapists in Europe, particularly in Germany.[93] Reich was a pioneer of body psychotherapy and several emotions-based psychotherapies, influencing Fritz Perls's Gestalt therapy and Arthur Janov's primal therapy. His pupil Alexander Lowen, the founder of bioenergetic analysis, and Charles Kelley, the founder of Radix therapy, ensure that his research receives widespread attention. Many practising psychoanalysts give credence to his theory of character, as outlined in Character Analysis (1933, enlarged 1949). The American College of Orgonomy, founded by Dr. Elsworth Baker, and the Institute for Orgonomic Science, led by Dr. Morton Herskowitz, still use Reich's original therapeutic methods.

In popular culture

The cover of "Cloudbusting" by Kate Bush, released in October 1985. In the video accompanying the single, Donald Sutherland plays Reich.
Reich continues to influence popular culture, with references to orgone and cloudbusting found in songs by Clutch, Hawkwind, Pop Will Eat Itself, Turbonegro, Bob Dylan, and Patti Smith ("Birdland" on Horses).
He is a character in the opera Marilyn (1979) by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero.
Kate Bush's song "Cloudbusting" describes Reich's arrest and incarceration through the eyes of Reich's son, Peter, who wrote his father's story in A Book of Dreams, published in 1973. The video for the song was directed by Julian Doyle, conceived by Terry Gilliam and Bush, and has Donald Sutherland as Reich, and Bush as Peter.[94]
An article about the female orgasm by Reich provided the inspiration for "Little Man Within" by Welsh singer/songwriter Karl Wallinger of World Party.
Author Robert Anton Wilson wrote a play, Wilhelm Reich in Hell, partly based on Reich's life; it was also published as a book in 1987. Wilson frequently referred to Reich and Reich's works in both his fiction and non-fiction. Notably, one character in Wilson's Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy is a witness to the 1957 book-burning.

Reich's work is described in Italian writer Valerio Evangelisti's novel Il mistero dell'inquisitore Eymerich ("The mystery of Inquisitor Eymerich"), in which Reich is described as a visionary whose ideas were ahead of his time.
A film about his teachings called W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism was made in 1971 by Yugoslavian director Dušan Makavejev, and was listed by film critic Roger Ebert in his "Great Movie" series in 2007.
A short drama film about Reich by Jon East, called "It can be done," was nominated for a Silver Lion at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.
The superhero "Orgone Lad", a member of the League of Infinity is Wilhelm Reich, Supreme by Alan Moore(2000).
"He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzsche and Wilhelm Reich"—from the song "Joey" on the album Desire by Bob Dylan.
In Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel On the Road, written in 1951, Old Bull Lee (modelled on William Burroughs) extols the benefits of the orgone accumulator he owns and considers how it may be improved by building it from "more organic" wood. Burroughs makes several references to Orgone energy in his own novels and essays.
The final episode of series 5 of British TV series Peep Show featured two main characters becoming enamoured of a religious cult that expounded Reich's orgone theory.
Reich is the subject, along with real estate developer Del Webb, of the 2008 documentary Wasteland Utopias by filmmaker David Sherman.
The Australian product designer Marc Newson has produced several 'Orgone' items of furniture, most famously his 'Orgone Chair.'
The post punk band Devo credited Mayan technology and Reich as the sources of inspiration for their 'energy dome' hats in an interview with Stephen Colbert on June 16, 2010.

German-language books Der triebhafte Charakter : Eine psychoanalytische Studie zur Pathologie des Ich, 1925
Die Funktion des Orgasmus : Zur Psychopathologie und zur Soziologie des Geschlechtslebens, 1927
Dialektischer Materialismus und Psychoanalyse, 1929
Geschlechtsreife, Enthaltsamkeit, Ehemoral : Eine Kritik der bürgerlichen Sexualreform, 1930
Der Einbruch der Sexualmoral : Zur Geschichte der sexuellen Ökonomie, 1932
Charakteranalyse : Technik und Grundlagen für studierende und praktizierende Analytiker, 1933
Massenpsychologie des Faschismus, 1933 (original Marxist edition, banned by the Nazis and the Communists)
Was ist Klassenbewußtsein? : Über die Neuformierung der Arbeiterbewegung, 1934
Psychischer Kontakt und vegetative Strömung, 1935
Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf : Zur sozialistischen Umstrukturierung des Menschen, 1936
Die Bione : Zur Entstehung des vegetativen Lebens, 1938
Rede an den kleinen Mann, 1945
English-language books American Odyssey: Letters and Journals 1940-1947 (posthumous)
Beyond Psychology: Letters and Journals 1934-1939 (posthumous)
The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety
The Bion Experiments: On the Origins of Life
The Function of the Orgasm, 1942, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe
The Cancer Biopathy (1948)
Character Analysis (translation of the enlarged version of Charakteranalyse from 1933, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe)

Children of the Future: On the Prevention of Sexual Pathology
Contact With Space: Oranur Second Report (1957)
Cosmic Superimposition: Man's Orgonotic Roots in Nature (1951)
"Concerning Specific Forms of Masturbation" (essay)
Ether, God and Devil (1949)
Genitality in the Theory and Therapy of Neuroses (translation of the original, unrevised version of Die Funktion des Orgasmus from 1927)
The Invasion of Compulsory Sex-Morality (translation of the revised and enlarged version of Der Einbruch der Sexualmoral from 1932)
Listen, Little Man! (1948, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe)
The Mass Psychology of Fascism (translation of the revised and enlarged version of Massenpsychologie des Faschismus from 1933, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe)
The Murder of Christ (1953)
The Oranur Experiment
The Orgone Energy Accumulator, Its Scientific and Medical Use (1948)
Passion of Youth: An Autobiography, 1897-1922 (posthumous)
People in Trouble (1953)
Record of a Friendship: The Correspondence of Wilhelm Reich and A.S. Neill (1936–1957)
Reich Speaks of Freud (Interview by Kurt R. Eissler, letters, documents)
Selected Writings: An Introduction to Orgonomy
Sexpol. Essays 1929-1934 (ed. Lee Baxandall)
The Sexual Revolution (translation of Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf from 1936, translated by Theodore P. Wolfe)
The Einstein Affair (1953)

See also

Ernst Simmel
Phallic narcissism

Notes

1.^ For the view that he was one of the most radical figures in psychiatry, see Sheppard, R.Z. "A family affair", Time, May 14, 1973.
2.^ a b c "Wilhelm Reich," Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
3.^ Sharaf, Myron (1994). Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich. Da Capo Press, pp. 4–5.
4.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 4, 8. Also see Obituary notice for Wilhelm Reich, Time Magazine, November 18, 1957.

5.^ a b Sharaf 1994, p. 170.
6.^ For the articles, see Wertham, Fredric. Calling all Couriers, The New Republic, Dec 2, 1946.
Brady, Mildred Edie. The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich, The New Republic, May 26, 1947.
Brady, Mildred Edie. The New Cult of Sex and Anarchy, Harper's, April 1947.
"The New Coast of Bohemia" (editorial), Saturday Review of Literature, August 16, 1947, and
Henderson, Harry and Shaw, Sam. "Greenwich Village: Tourist Trap," Collier's, December 6, 1947.

7.^ a b c Sharaf 1994, p. 477.
8.^ a b Sharaf 1994, p. 39.
9.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 463.
10.^ Reich, Wilhelm. "Background and scientific development of Wilhelm Reich," Orgone Energy Bulletin V, 1953, p. 6, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 40 and p. 488, footnote 10.
11.^ Reich , Wilhelm. Passion of Youth, Paragon House, New York, 1990, p. 25; also see Sharaf, p. 49.
12.^ Reich, Wilhelm. "Über einen Fall von Durchbruch der Inzestschranke in der Pubertät," Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft, VII, 1920, 222-223, cited in and translated by Sharaf 1994, p. 43 and p. 448, footnote 12.
13.^ a b Sharaf 1994, pp. 42–46.
14.^ In his book Passion of Youth (p. 36-37) Reich says that his mother died by the end of September 1910. She took an unknown poison on a Monday, which corresponds to September 26. Based on his further comments one easily concludes that she died three days later, on September 29, 1910, at 2.00 AM Her first suicide attempt, with ingestion of Lysol (the afore mentioned household cleaner) had occurred in January 1910, the same evening Leon Reich came to know about the adultery (Reich, idem, p. 31).
15.^ Reich, Wilhelm. Über einen Fall von Durchbruch der Inzestschranke in der Pubertät, op cit, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 47 and p. 489, footnote 21.
16.^ a b Sharaf 1994, p. 48.
17.^ a b Blumenfeld, Robert. Tools and techniques for character interpretation. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006, p. 135.
18.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 58.
19.^ a b c d e f g h Biography, The Wilhelm Reich Museum. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
20.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 108–109.
21.^ Biographical notes on his family: Annie Pink, born April 2, 1902, Vienna, died January 5, 1971, New York. Eva Reich became a doctor and applied orgonomical techniques to the care of newborns. Lore Reich Rubin became a doctor and psychoanalyst.
22.^ According to his daughter Lore Reich, Anna Freud and Ernest Jones were behind the expulsion.
23.^ a b c d e f g Brady, Mildred. The Strange case of Wilhelm Reich", The New Republic, May 26, 1947, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 360. "In this state of outer rigidity (expressed in muscular tensions) and inner anxiety he becomes “sadistic, “ “masochistic,” “anti-Semitic, “ “fascistic, “ “reactionary,” “hateful,” “submissive,” “authoritarian,” “greedy,” “power-motivated” and “perverse.”"
24.^ a b c Cantwell, Alan. Dr. Wilhelm Reich", New Dawn Magazine, 2004. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
25.^ D'Aloia, Alessandro. "Marxism and Psychoanalysis: Notes on Wilhelm Reich’s Life and Works", Marxist.com. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
26.^ a b c Sharaf 1994, p. 228.
27.^ Reich, Wilhelm. Beyond Psychology: Letters and Journals 1934-1939. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1994, p. 66
28.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 234–235, 242.
29.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 242.
30.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 234–235.
31.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 238–241, 243.
32.^ a b Sharaf 1994, pp. 230–233.
33.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 245–246.
34.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 253.
35.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 255.
36.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 254.
37.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 257–259.
38.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 263.
39.^ Sharaf 1944, pp. 264–265.
40.^ Elkind, David. "Wilhelm Reich -- The Psychoanalyst as Revolutionary; Wilhelm Reich", The New York Times, April 18, 1971. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
41.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 274.
42.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 8.
43.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 352.
44.^ Reich, Wilhelm. Murder of Christ. Orgone Institute Press 1953, p. 41.
45.^ Klee, Gerald D. "What ever happened to orgone therapy?", The Maryland Psychiatric Society, Summer 2001; Vol. 28, No. 1; Pg 13-15, retrieved January 7, 2011; Grossinger, Richard. Planet Medicine: From Stone Age Shamanism to Post-industrial Healing, Taylor & Francis, 1982, p. 293.
46.^ Reich, Wilhelm. The Cancer Biopathy, chapter II, section 6. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (January 1, 1974).
47.^ Reich, Wilhelm. Ether, God & Devil & Cosmic Superimposition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (January 1, 1972)
48.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 379–380.
49.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 285.
50.^ Brian, Denis (1996). Einstein: A Life. John Wiley & Sons, p. 326.
51.^ "I have now investigated your apparatus ... In the beginning I made enough readings without any changes in your arrangements. The box-thermometer showed regularly a temperature of about 0.3-0.4 higher than the one suspended freely," Einstein's letter to Reich, February 7, 1941, English translation, in The Einstein Affair, Orgone Institute Press, 1953
52.^ a b Sharaf 1994, p. 286.
53.^ "One of my assistants now drew my attention to the fact that in the room ... the temperature on the floor is always lower than the one on the ceiling," Einstein to Reich, February 7, 1941, op.cit.
54.^ "Through these experiments I regard the matter as completely solved," Einstein to Reich, February 7, 1941, op.cit.
55.^ "Ich hoffe, dass dies ihre Skepsis entwickeln wird, dass Sie sich nicht durch eine an sich verständliche Illusion trügen lassen," ("I hope that this will sharpen your skepticism so that you're not taken in by one of these understandable illusions"), Einstein to Reich, February 7, 1941, op.cit.
56.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 288.
57.^ "FBI adds new subjects to electronic reading room", U.S. State Department, March 2, 2000.
58.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 361.
59.^ FDA file on Reich, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 363 and footnote 6, p. 513.
60.^ FDA file on Reich, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 364 and footnote 11, p. 513.
61.^ Greenfield, Jerome. Wilhelm Reich Vs. the U.S.A.. W.W. Norton, 1974, p. 69, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 364 and footnote 13, p. 513.
62.^ Reich, Wilhelm. Conspiracy. An Emotional Chain Reaction, item 386A, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 367 and footnote 14, p. 513.
63.^ Reich, Wilhelm. Conspiracy. An Emotional Chain Reaction, item 386A, cited in Sharaf 1994, p. 367 and footnote 14, p. 513.
64.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 367.
65.^ a b Sharaf 1994, pp. 410–413.
66.^ Complaint for injunction by FDA, Feb 10, 1954, part1, USA vs WILHELM REICH 1954-1957.
67.^ "Wilhelm Reich's Response to FDA's Complaint for Injunction", February 25, 1954, posted on orgone.org.
68.^ DECREE OF INJUNCTION ORDER (USA vs Wilhelm Reich) by JUDGE CLIFFORD MARCH 19, 1954 - USA vs WILHELM REICH 1954-1957.
69.^ Wilhelm Reich: Man's Right to Know, Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust, retrieved January 15, 2012
70.^ Michael Silvert (1906-1958), born Meyer Silverzweig in Poland. He was arrested with Reich and committed suicide in 1958 when he was released from prison.[1]
71.^ Herskowitz, Morton. The Trial, The Institute for Orgonomic Science. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
72.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 458, 465, 466, 473.
73.^ Sharaf 1994, pp. 458–461.
74.^ Reich, Wilhelm (1897-1957), International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis
75.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 461.
76.^ There is some discrepancy between the sources on this. Myron Sharaf writes that Reich signed his last will on February 10, 1957, naming his daughter Eva as executrix, which meant she controlled the publication and republication of his work. The Wilhelm Reich Museum writes that his last will was on March 8, 1957, naming the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund as the entity charged with running Orgonon as the Wilhelm Reich Museum, transmitting his legacy, and housing his archives. See Sharaf 1994, p. 465 and Biography, The Wilhelm Reich Museum. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
77.^ a b Sharaf 1994, pp. 469–470.
78.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 476.
79.^ Sharaf 1994. p. 5.
80.^ Obituary notice for Wilhelm Reich, Time Magazine, November 18, 1957.
81.^ Sharaf 1994, p. 6.
82.^ A good overview of Reich's work is Wilhelm Reich: The evolution of his work by David Boadella. A bibliography on orgonomy gives full citations to university dissertations, and to controlled experiments replicating Reich's work on bions, the orgone accumulator, and the cloudbuster.
83.^ Orgone Biophysical Research Lab, Ashland, Oregon.
84.^ DeMeo, James: "Preliminary Analysis of Changes in Kansas Weather Coincidental to Experimental Operations with a Reich Cloudbuster," 1979 University of Kansas Dept. of Geography, republished as a book by the Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory, 2010.
85.^ Müschenich, Stefan & Gebauer, Rainer: Der Reich'sche Orgonakkumulator. Naturwissenschaftliche Diskussion, praktische Anwendung, experimentelle Untersuchung. Frankfurt/Main: Nexus-Verlag 1987
86.^ Hebenstreit, Günter: Der Orgonakkumulator nach Wilhelm Reich. Eine experimentelle Untersuchung zur Spannungs-Ladungs-Formel. Univ. Wien, Dipl.-Arbeit, 1995
87.^ DeMeo, James: "Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child-Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence in the Deserts of the Old World", Natural Energy Works, Ashland, Oregon, 1998.
88.^ DeMeo, James: "Experimental Confirmation of the Reich Orgone Accumulator Thermal Anomaly", Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine 20(3):1-16, 2010.
89.^ DeMeo, James. "Water as a Resonant Medium for Unusual External Environmental Factors", Water: A Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 2011, pp. 1-47.
90.^ DeMeo, James: "Report on Orgone Accumulator Stimulation of Sprouting Mung Beans", Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine, 21(2):51-62, 2011.
91.^ DeMeo, James: "Dayton C. Miller Revisited", in Should the Laws of Gravitation Be Reconsidered? Hector A. Munera, Editor, 2011, pp. 285-315. Also see: "A Dynamic and Substantive Cosmological Ether", Proceedings of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, Cynthia Whitney, Editor, Vol.1, No.1, Spring 2004, pp. 15-20.

92.^ Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction. Vintage Books, 1978, p. 131.
93.^ For example: Kavouras, Jorgos: Heilen mit Orgonenergie: Die Medizinische Orgonomie, Turm Verlag, Bietigheim, Germany, 2005; Lassek, Heiko. Orgon-Therapie: Heilen mit der reinen Lebensenergie, Scherz Verlag, 1997, München, Germany; Müschenich, Stefan: Der Gesundheitsbegriff im Werk des Arztes Wilhelm Reich (The Concept of Health in the Works of Wilhelm Reich, MD), med. Diss., Marburg, Görich & Weiershauser, 1995.
94.^ "Cloudbusting", YouTube. Retrieved July 26, 2009.

Further reading

Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust, accessed March 28, 2012.
Reich's FBI file (also see here).
Los Orgones, Argentinian site of Orgonomy
Bibliography on Orgonomy, a full listing of scholarly works on Wilhelm Reich
Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory
PORE, Public Orgonomic Research Exchange (includes biography and timeline)
The American College of Orgonomy
Wilhelm Reich Gesellschaft
Wilhelm Reich Orgon Institut Deutschland
Wilhelm Reich Akademie
Reichian therapy.
Wilhelm Reich at Find a Grave
Books Baker, Elsworth F., Man In The Trap. Macmillan, 1967.
Bean, Orson, Me And The Orgone/ St. Martin's Press, 1971.
Boadella, David. Wilhelm Reich, The Evolution Of His Work, Henry Regnery, 1973.
Boadella, David (ed.). In The Wake Of Reich, Coventure, 1976.
Corrington, Robert S. Wilhelm Reich: Psychoanalyst and Radical Naturalist. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003/
Greenfield, Jerome (1974). Wilhelm Reich Vs. The USA, W.W. Norton, NY, 1974.
Guillon, Claude (1978). Pour en finir avec Reich, Alternative diffusion, 1978.
Herskowitz, Morton (1998). Emotional Armoring: An Introduction to Psychiatric Orgone Therapy, Transactions Press.
Mann, Edward (1973). Orgone. Reich And Eros: Wilhelm Reich's Theory Of The Life Energy, Simon & Schuster.
Mann, Edward & Hoffman (ed.) (1980). The Man Who Dreamed Of Tomorrow: A Conceptual Biography Of Wilhelm Reich, J.P. Tarcher, 1980.
Martin, Jim (2000). Wilhelm Reich and the Cold War, Flatland Books.
Meyerowitz, Jacob (1994). Before the Beginning of Time, rRp Publishers.
Ollendorff, Ilse. (1969). Wilhelm Reich: A Personal Biography, St. Martin's Press.
Raknes, Ola (1970). Wilhelm Reich And Orgonomy, St. Martin's Press.
Reich, Peter (1973). A Book Of Dreams, Harper & Row.
Ritter, Paul (ed.) (1958). Wilhelm Reich Memorial Volume, Ritter Press.
Senf, Bernd (1996). Die Wiederentdeckung des Lebendigen (The Rediscovery of the Living), Zweitausendeins Verlag.
Wilson, Robert Anton (1998). Wilhelm Reich in Hell, Aires Press.
Wyckoff, James (1973). Wilhelm Reich: Life Force Explorer, Fawcett.
Articles D'Aloia, Alessandro. Marxism and Psychoanalysis: Notes on Wilhelm Reich's life and work, first published in FalceMartello, International Marxist Tendency, October 15, 2004.
DeMeo, James. The Orgone Accumulator Handbook: Construction Plans, Experimental Use and Protection Against Toxic Energy, Natural Energy Works, 1989.
DeMeo, James. Response to Martin Gardner's Attack on Reich and Orgone Research in the Skeptical Inquirer, 1989.
DeMeo, James (ed). "On Wilhelm Reich And Orgonomy", Pulse of the Planet, No. 4, Natural Energy Works, 1993.
DeMeo, James & Senf, Bernd (eds). Nach Reich: Neue Forschungen zur Orgonomie: Sexualokonomie, Die Entdeckung Der Orgonenergie (After Reich: New Research in Orgonomy: Sex-Economy, Discovery of the Orgone Energy), Zweitausendeins Verlag, Frankfurt, 1998.
Kendrick, William (1983). “The Analyst as Outsider”, a review of Myron Sharaf's Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich, The New York Times, April 3, 1983.
Laska, Bernd A. (1981). "Sigmund Freud contra Wilhelm Reich", Wilhelm Reich. Bildmonographie. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1981, 1999.
The Einstein experiments The Einstein Affair, Orgone Institute Press, 1953.
Aspden, H. "Gravity and its thermal anomaly: was the Reich-Einstein experiment evidence of energy inflow from the aether?," Infinite Energy, 2011, 41:61.
Bearden, T. "Energy from the vacuum," Cheniere Press, 2002, pp. 333–337.
Brian, Denis. Einstein: A Life, John Wiley & Sons, 1996. Reich is discussed on pp. 325–327, 382, 399.
Clark, Ronald W. Einstein: The Life and Times, Avon, 1971. Reich is on pp. 689–690 of the paperback edition.
Correa, P and Correa, A. "The thermal anomaly in ORACs and the Reich-Einstein experiment: implications for blackbody theory," Akronos Publishing, 1998.
Correa P and Correa A. "The reproducible thermal anomaly of the Reich-Einstein experiment under limit conditions," Infinite Energy, 2001, 37:12.
Mallove, E. "Breaking Through: A Bombshell in Science," Infinite Energy, 2001, 37:6.
Mallove, E. "Breaking Through: Aether Science and Technology," Infinite Energy, 2001, 39:6.

Should God be fired just because they might be having a Bad-Millennium?? Is there One Universe God -- or Millions of Sun Gods?? Is an Archangel a Sun God?? Should ALL Solar Systems be run in exactly the same manner?? How does one prevent Star Wars?? Does a Pluralistic Universe prevent (or ensure) Star Wars?? Should the Entire Universe be based upon ONE LAW BOOK?? What if Micro-Competition and Macro-Cooperation is a Match Made in Heaven?? Think long and hard about Freedom and Responsibility -- Competition and Cooperation. Should there be a reasonable amount of censorship within this solar system?? Should ANYTHING Go?? What is the Foundation of Morality?? Who says we can't legislate morality?? We do it all the time!! Even speed-limits are a form of legislating morality!! Think About It!! What Would Joseph Fletcher Say?? If one constructed a List of Laws derived from Job through Malachi -- what would they be?? How many laws would there be?? What would the system of rewards and punishments look like?? SDA's have 28 Fundamental Beliefs. What would 28 Fundamental Beliefs Based Upon Job Through Malachi look like??!! The Torah might've been absolutely necessary in antiquity -- but should it be normative in modernity?? The Protestant Reformation might've been absolutely necessary -- but are Luther's Works the Gold Standard of Faith and Works?? What if the Whole World were like a Reformed England (with significant modifications based upon the Best of Rome, the United States, and the United Nations)?? I'm not necessarily Pro-England. I'm just wondering. What Would Cecil Rhodes Say?? Will this solar system ultimately be run by a Collective-Humanity communicating and voting through a Computer-Network?? Would a Solar System God, King, and Queen serve as Authorities of Last Resort -- rather than being Annoying Angry and Jealous Micro-Managers??!! Should We Properly Think These Things Through -- Or Should We Just Mumble Mumbo-Jumbo On Our Knees??!!

Once again, I have attempted to be private, discrete, nice, and funny -- but this seems to have not worked out very well. Would you prefer having a nasty public ideological battle with me, or with someone who understands my basic views, but who is much more skilled at public debate than I am??? I hear that some sort of a regime-change is in the works, but I have no idea if this is true, or even if it would be a change for the better. We might have to undergo several regime changes before we 'get it right'. I just don't know. There are too many unknowns and uncertainties.

BTW -- I still like my 'Fisk' ideas (both of them -- or is it three of them?) -- but the 'Organ Transplants' might be bad ideas (too disruptive and bombastic), even though they were fun to think about. I like the Bach 'B-Minor Mass' -- but I'm sorry that the link I posted no longer works. Why does this keep happening?? I use a link for months or years -- then I post it on this thread -- and it stops working in a very short while. Why? Consider converting Marcel Dupre's 'Cortege and Litanie' into a choral work (with organ and orchestral accompaniment). Same for the 'Resurrection' movement of his 'Passion Symphonie'. Same for Bach's 'Passacaglia and Fugue in C-Minor'. How about an integration of Bach's 'B-Minor Mass' with the 1928 'Book of Common Prayer'??? But then, you guys don't appreciate suggestions, now do you??? I don't hate 'you guys'. I'm just very sad, frustrated, and fatigued.

I continue to be fascinated by the hidden realities within our solar system -- but something sinister and terrifying seems to be lurking in the shadows. I am very concerned when I hear about the 'conjuring-up of ufo's' via specific protocols -- and the phenomenon described by Whitley Strieber, in 'Communion', is very creepy. I have seen ufo's, and I might be some sort of a 'contactee', but I do not actively seek this sort of thing -- other than researching and reflecting in very passive and non-creepy ways. I continue to lean toward nature, interdisciplinary-research, and classical-music. Ask a lot of questions -- especially hard and unsettling questions. I have tried to do this within this site -- but I think I'm just scratching the surface. Have fun -- but be careful. The Truth is Out There. Namaste and Godspeed.

Carol wrote:    Good one Threecaster.

I think there are several issues floating around.

There are those who believe in population control.  Birth control and annihilation of those already on the planet.  Thrown into the mix is control of what type of human is to be created via genetics and who is worthy to pro-create.  Good luck with any of this because this is not the way to deal with the problem at hand.

First there needs to be a means for those who exist to care for themselves and each other.  Next, there are many woman who would like to not have children and more men who do as seen by the statistics of men who impregnate multiple women.  I mean, sterilization of all men would be a whole lot easier then sterilizing all the woman - wouldn't it?  But again something like this would not really solve the problem, would it?  Because what needs to happen is the evolution of humankind as a whole so that there is a responsible attitude toward reproduction across the board.  Then there is the whole issue of sex.  Try and stuff that one back into the box.  Unless all males are fed salt peter their whole lives and women's hormones are turned off this isn't viable either.

Next, we have those with pretty much the majority of everything wanting to rid the planet of those who have next to nothing so that those with everything get all that's left.  Well, that's not going over with those in the know who don't control the world's wealth and some of those folks are already in uprisings across the planet.

Personally, I've always thought the solutions was to give everyone a means to have a self-sustaining productive life which would include free energy, vertical aquaponic gardens where they grown their own food, clean water, clean air and shelter.  Shelter comes in many forms and I lean more towards straw bale or hobbit types of dwellings in climates with temperature extremes and high winds.  Tropical climates need a different type of shelter and there are many ways to accomplish this without it costing an arm and leg.  I suppose the one biggest distractor is the mind-numbing, mind control TV programing that so many are addicted to.

Anyway, the big question is "Who is really running this world"  Who is calling the shots?  Aliens or humans?  Or humans under alien control?  Perhaps it's the clones of themselves that some aliens left behind who are completely amoral and into living out the seven deadly sins.  Or is it just really intelligent humans addicted to the seven deadly sins. The Seven Deadly Sins are those transgressions fatal to spiritual progress. These are pride, envy, gluttony, use, anger, greed and sloth ( the avoidance of physical or spiritual work). http://deadlysins.com/sins/index.htm

So what we have here are more questions then answers.  There are those individuals who are caught up in a Thanatos type of life style creating all types of nasty karma for themselves and who certainly appear to outnumber those devoted to the 7 heavenly virtues.  The way I view this is that these first types are just younger souls who have a ways to go before realizing participation of the 7 deadly seven sins is literally the road to hell.  And not hell in the biblical sense but hell in the spiritual sense where they distance themselves from the Divine creator source of love, compassion and acceptance.

So what are we do to as a mere human given the overwhelming odds of being manipulated by external elements along with internal negative conditioning.

Well that's a story told in hundreds, if not thousands, of epic tales in various cultures.  Do we take a stand against the 'madness' or surrender to a very unpleasant fate.  Perhaps the story of Arjuna in Krishna illustrates this best in the Bhagavad Gita . Arjun plies Krishna with reasons why he wanted to quit the war, but confused by it all, asks Krishna for guidance. During the dialogue, Arjuna was sitting in the middle part of the chariot. Krishna was sitting at the front, talking to Arjuna. The aim is Krishna-Arjuna Samvada, the dialogue between man and God. It is the direct confrontation by man of the eternity and the infinity that is before it. Krishna represents the God within us all who is always waiting patiently to guide one toward inner transformation.

I think in the end it doesn't matter who is in control at the external level but who takes control at the internal level.  Does one take on the task of becoming true to oneself and thus consciously choose to walk upon a spiritual path that eventually manifests the 7 heavenly virtues of:

Chastity - Abstaining from sexual conduct according to one's state in life; the practice of courtly love and romantic friendship. Cleanliness through cultivated good health and hygiene, and maintained by refraining from intoxicants. To be honest with oneself, one's family, one's friends, and to all of humanity. Embracing of moral wholesomeness and achieving purity of thought-through education and betterment. The ability to refrain from being distracted and influenced by hostility, temptation or corruption.

Temperance - Restraint - justice. Constant mindfulness of others and one's surroundings; practicing self-control, abstention, moderation, zero-sum and deferred gratification.

Charity - Generosity, self-sacrifice; the term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving. In Christian theology, charity—or love (agäpé) -- is the greatest of the three theological virtues.

Diligence - A zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work; decisive work ethic, steadfastness in belief, fortitude, and the capability of not giving up. Budgeting one's time; monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness. Upholding one's convictions at all times, especially when no one else is watching.)

Patience - Forbearance and endurance through moderation. Resolving conflicts and injustice peacefully, as opposed to resorting to violence. Accepting the grace to forgive;[2] to show mercy to sinners. Creating a sense of peaceful stability and community rather than suffering, hostility, and antagonism.

Kindness - Charity, compassion and friendship for its own sake. Empathy and trust without prejudice or resentment. Unselfish love and voluntary kindness without bias or spite. Having positive outlooks and cheerful demeanor; to inspire kindness in others.

Humility - Modest behavior, selflessness, and the giving of respect. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less. It is a spirit of self-examination; a hermeneutic of suspicion toward yourself and charity toward people you disagree with. The courage of the heart necessary to undertake tasks which are difficult, tedious or unglamorous, and to graciously accept the sacrifices involved. Reverence for those who have wisdom and those who selflessly teach in love. Giving credit where credit is due; not unfairly glorifying one's own self. Being faithful to promises, no matter how big or small they may be. Refraining from despair and the ability to confront fear and uncertainty, or intimidation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_virtues#Seven_heavenly_virtues

So I guess everything else is a spiritual test.  Because in the end one just keeps coming back (reincarnating) until transformation is the desired outcome and all the rest of those 7 deadly sins just falls away.

I've gone over this before -- but here I go again. What if what we are mostly dealing with in this solar-system are Three Archangelic Reptilian Queens -- in conflict with each other -- going back thousands, millions, or even billions, of years? What Would Occam Say (WWOS)? Consider the following groups of three:

1. Michael, Gabriel, Lucifer.
2. Ptah, Thoth, Ra.
3. Isis, Horus, Set.
4. Father, Son, Holy-Spirit.
5. Reptilians, Greys, Humans.
6. Vatican, City of London, Washington D.C.
7. The 'Trilateral Commission'.
8. '666'.
9. Three Dragons in the City of London Logo.
10. The 'Three Angel's Messages' in the Book of Revelation.

Is it useful to think of Three Archangelic Anna's? Might all of the theologies and mythologies have arisen from these three? Might all of these three be hidden within the theologies and mythologies? What if all three are a mixture of good and evil -- sanity and insanity? What if all three have done the best they could -- under the circumstances? What if it might be nearly impossible for the general-public to comprehend the real truth about all of the above? I keep thinking about the City of London logo -- in light of all of the above.


London is the seat of one faction of reptilian power on this planet. This has already been pointed out in the past by a number of astute observers. The "City of London", which is sometimes referred to as the "Corporation of London", is a one square mile region of business and commerce which is at the heart of financial operations on this planet.

This article will discuss the emblem of the rebel reptilian faction. This emblem is of a winged reptilian holding a shield whose face is painted white, with a red cross spanning the length and width of the face of the shield (see photos below). This red cross with the white background is known as "St George's Cross". On the 23rd of April each year, the UK celebrates St George's day. Why is this particular reptilian faction referred to as the "rebel reptilian faction" and who is this "St George"? In order to obtain answers for these questions, one must look back in history to the time of a historical character called "George of Lydda/Lydia" who is well known in the story "St George and the Dragon". In this story St George is meant to have killed the (reptilian) dragon.  

The significance of this story is that the slayed dragon represents the original reptilian royalty of Europe, supported by the Vatican. The Templar knights who adopted the white shield with the red cross did so because after their order was destroyed by French monarch "Philip the Fair" they left France (their old base) and sought refuge on the British Isles. The French monarch rounded up and effectively destroyed the Templar order on Friday the 13th of October, 1307. The last grand master of the Templar order, Jacque de Molay, was burnt at the stake seven years later, in 1314. The Templar order escaped first to Scotland and then to York and now they are firmly in charge of London. What the Templar shield, the shield of "St George" behind which a winged reptilian stands means is that the Templar order have the support of the reptilian overlords on the British isles.

When you enter the "City of London", that one square-mile block of finance, from whichever direction (north, south, east, west) you find these statues of winged reptilians holding the shield of St George. This is the emblem of the rebel reptilian group, those that rebelled against the main European (reptilian) royalty. Their rebellion had off-world implications as well. The rebels changed their allegiance from the main Orion queen (reptilian monarch) to the female reptilian power that has influence in this part of the galaxy.

The Templar influence survives in London. Their Orion slave technology (the debt/monetary system) that the Templar knights institutionalized on the European continent was brought to the British Isles. They have the backing and protection of the reptilian overlords on these Isles. These reptilians have declared their stand for all to see. They are standing behind and holding the shield of "St George", the one who slew the dragon (Drakon/Draco-n).

Beren wrote:My first time in London was kinda awkward since I felt this gloomy energy all around and I didn`t like it...
Later on I saw that it isn`t all around the city itself ,on particular places-yes.

Thank-you for responding, Beren. Jordan Maxwell spoke of feeling an 'Occult Power' when he visited the Vatican. I continue to theorize that the Vatican, the City of London, Washington D.C., the United Nations, and the 'Secret Government' -- contain some of the most serious problems in the world -- as well as having the potential to 'save the world' if they were properly reformed. I'm trying to conceptualize this by pretending to be an 'Insider-Outsider' -- as both friend and foe. I recently joked about being issued a badge to give me unlimited access to all of the above -- so as to observe how things 'really work' and to then write daily reports and recommendations -- which would have to be taken seriously!! I'm sure they're sweating in the City-States!! I've got them on the run now!!

What if the Washington National Cathedral were the Ceremonial Headquarters of the Hypothetical 'United States of the Solar System'? What if the best aspects of the Monarchy, Papacy, Presidency, United-Nations, and Secret-Government were incorporated into a U.S.S.S.?? I like to think idealistically -- yet I suspect that even the best plans would be immediately infiltrated, subverted, and corrupted. I simply see nothing but conflict in my 'crystal-ball'. Just look at history -- but now we have bigger bombs -- so as to create even greater carnage.

Once again, just as a mental and spiritual excercise, consider an integration of:

1. The 1898 'Desire of Ages' by Ellen White.
2. The 1928 'Book of Common Prayer'.
3. The 'Federalist Papers'.
4. The Music of J.S. Bach.

Does anyone see my point? Is this an excercise in futility? I'm trying to be eclectic-ecumenical -- minimalist-traditionalist -- and evolutionary-transformationalist. Thinking about this integration might help to prepare us to achieve a significant progressive solution. I certainly don't have everything figured-out. I don't know it all. Without being an insider, I can't possibly know what's 'really going on'. However, I continue to be terrified by what I think might be going on. I sense that this entire solar system could go up in smoke at any moment -- and that we really are on the brink of extinction -- deliberately-inflicted or otherwise. How do we put the Genie Back in the Bottle? How do we reverse the madness? How do we bring light to this present darkness? I fear that it might already be too late -- but I so hope that I'm wrong.

What about having the United States of the Solar System -- and the Solar System Council of Churches -- based at Camp David -- with special ceremonies and events held at the Washington National Cathedral? I hope you all understand that I'm trying to stimulate thinking relative to Solar System Governance. I think the 'Good-Stuff' will result from extrapolating from this thread (or other discussions of solar system governance). This thread is just to get the ball rolling. I'm trying to morph into a United States of the Solar System Representative -- but I know this is largely an entertaining excercise in futility. I'm serious when I speak of access to the City-States, the United Nations, the Secret Government, the Underground Bases, and the Secret Government -- as an Observer and Inside Reporter of Sorts -- but the more I think about all of this, the more frightened and disoriented I become. Actually, that 600 square-foot office-apartment with a Cray and a Fisk -- with access to live-feeds of everything interesting -- would probably cover 95% of the territory. Probably being an 'Insider' will take on less and less significance in a United States of the Solar System -- with more and more openness -- with fewer and fewer secrets. Everyone might have the opportunity to access the 'good-stuff'. We might simply be limited by time and comprehension. Badges and access might not make much difference. There's really more than enough information presently available on the internet -- and the challenge is to properly process everything in a productive manner. In many respects, access might not get me where I presently envision that it might. The grass is always greener somewhere else -- although I think it might be cool to sit in on important meetings, and occasionally travel into space -- but once the novelty wore off, it might get boring -- or the material covered in the meetings and briefings might be so upsetting, that I'd wish to get as far away from the center of things, as possible. Still, it's fun to dream. I just wish there were others to share the dream with. This thread continues to be mostly ignored -- or at least not commented upon.

I keep feeling attacked. I keep feeling as if I'm failing at doing what I was supposed to do. Unfortunately, no one will tell me who I really am, or what I was supposed to do. I keep trying to help -- but very few will even talk to me. I feel as if I am existing within another dimension 24/7. I feel like I'm fighting 24/7. I am fatigued, disillusioned, frustrated, and miserable 24/7. There are many who are aware of my predicament, who know all about what I struggle with, who could clear-up all of my confusion, yet refuse to do so. I seem to have been deliberately left to twist slowly, slowly in the wind. Something creepy occurred right when the original Project Avalon site was shut-down. There was a very strange Close Encounter several months later. There was a mysterious death I was told of, right around Christmas 2010. Then came Fukushima. Then, something really strange happened in the Summer of 2011. Also, there is something strange and ongoing, which I do not wish to speak of. What the hell is going on?? Why is all of this a mysterious and creepy secret? I keep feeling as if I screwed-up big-time -- yet I don't know exactly how. I feel like the dog who gets kicked -- without knowing why they got kicked -- for something they did wrong -- five years previously. I feel like a Goody-Goody Rebel Gone-Bad. I feel a bit like Anakin (in 'Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith'). I've told you a lot in this thread -- in very round-about ways -- and I could tell you a lot more -- but why go to the trouble -- when no one really seems to understand, or give a damn??? It's almost enough to make a man turn to the Dark Side of the Force. Was that the Last Temptation of Christ? Will this be the Last Temptation for All of Us?? The Test Must Come to Every Soul.


I just wanted to say that Carol, Mercuriel, Brook, and Lionhawk make this site extremely interesting and worthwhile. Thank-you for your insights. I seem to have to deal with a lot of second-hand information. I don't have a title or a badge -- and I won't do anything even remotely creepy -- so I seem to be reduced to doing what I'm doing on this site. I'm not happy about my plight in life -- but unfortunately, this is my reality -- and it's not a nice one. I think I'd be much better-off not thinking about any of this fringe and esoteric stuff. I should've followed-through in becoming a Medical Doctor -- kept going to church -- and kept believing the lies. Waking-up (or attempting to wake-up) is so overrated. On the other hand -- perhaps I should've accepted that invitation to join the Masons -- even though I hear that a lot of the high-ranking Masons are perfectly-possessed. Would that count as being a First-Hand-Experiencer?? What Would Poppy Say?? What Would Magog Do??

Mercuriel wrote:

miii wrote:Job very well done here, oxy. Thank you.

magamud wrote:

In sura Al-Kahf ("The Cave", 18:83–98) of the Quran (early 7th century AD), a mysterious individual called Dhul-Qarnayn ("The Two-horned One") journeys to a distant land in a pass between two mountains where he finds people who are suffering from the mischief of Gog and Magog. Dhul-Qarnayn then makes a wall of copper and iron to keep Gog and Magog out, but warns that it will be removed in the Last Age.[4] In sura 21, Al-Anbiyā (The Prophets), the wall is mentioned again: there Allah tells his Prophet (Mohammed) that there is a "prohibition upon [the people of] a city which We have destroyed that they will [ever] return, until [the dam of] Gog and Magog has been opened and thou shall see them, from every higher ground, descending."[5] According to Islamic tradition (in Saḥīḥ al-Bukhāri), Gog and Magog are human beings, and the city mentioned in sura 21 is Jerusalem.[6] wrote: