Take this link for the PDF of the new Bizarre Bazaar Catalog #51.
Take this link for the PDF of the new Bizarre Bazaar Catalog #51.
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OR IS IT ALL A PROJECTED HOLOGRAM?
By Sean Casteel
It doesn’t matter really matter – the truth is “out there” somewhere regardless of if you are a “true believer” in all things spiritual and religious, an infrequent churchgoer, or even a full-fledged atheist.
If you are reading this, you may be wondering what could be the connection between UFOs, the Scriptures and the Signs, Symbols and Wonders of Biblical proportions that appear to be manifesting all over the world in what many see as “very troubled times.”
Are we to accept at face value the phantasmagorical stories told by those who claim to have been “taken up” (to where, one wonders?) – such as Whitley Strieber, Betty Andreasson Luca, and contactees like Orfeo Angelucci and George Van Tassel?
In a new book just out, as one of the authors, I ask, is a genuine religious experience the kind of thing that can be expressed in human language at all, or to a degree that a fellow individual, regardless of his religious persuasion can fully – or even halfway – understand it? And do the supernatural elements of UFOs and alien encounters constitute authentic contact with God or possibly His angelic messengers?
What is the difference between claiming to have seen religious miracles and simple, garden-variety madness? Is one a witness to the divine or a simple victim of mental disturbance?
Those are among the many questions grappled with in a recent offering from Tim Beckley’s Inner Light Publications. The complete title is “Sean Casteel’s UFOs, Armageddon, and Biblical Revelations: Signs, Symbols and “Wonders” – The Whole Truth.” Beckley has placed my name at the very top, but I can assure you that it is purely in an honorary sense, given the fact that there are nearly ten other contributors, including Beckley himself.
The book is the product of many years of experiences with and research into the paranormal, most specifically UFOs, their alien occupants and the often religious-spiritual overtones to contact between the aliens and ourselves. As some of the contributors to this book believe, the nature of genuine religious experience and encounters with extraterrestrials may be inseparable, may in fact be one and the same though called by different names and seen in vastly different contexts.
None of which is new, of course. From its very beginnings in the mid-20th century, the UFOs (at times dubbed “flying saucers”) of the modern era have been compared to angelic appearances in the Bible and seen as the driving force responsible for miracles attributed to all faiths throughout recorded history. What we have attempted to do here is to offer a survey of the religious implications of UFOs and the countless varied forms those phenomena take when they manifest in our all-too-limited physical dimension.
Along with some fresh approaches to the familiar ancient alien accounts, we have also provided an overview of Marian visions, which are much more frequent and well-documented than you may have realized. UFOs sightings in modern-day Israel are also included, as well as an analysis of why sightings in the Holy Land are so important to the entire world.
In an effort to be fair, the demonic take on the UFO phenomenon is the subject of a Q and A with prolific British author Nick Redfern, who believes there is a secret government group searching for ways to do battle with the demons bedeviling the U.S.
The religious and prophetic implications of UFOs and other forms of the paranormal are complicated, and we have provided no easy answers here. Is it even possible that there is only one single, perfect way of understanding? I think I can safely say, along with all the contributors to this book, that the answer to that question is a resounding, tantalizing, frustrating “No.”
VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF THE LADY IN WHITE AS FIRST REVEALED IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Beckley provides some historical background on the subject of Marian apparitions, or appearances by “Mother Mary” down through the ages.
“She goes by various names in various cultures,” Beckley begins. “She is known as ‘The Woman of the Apocalypse’ or the ‘Lady of the Sun.’ (Rev 12:1-6) The apparition of a beautiful woman adorned in white is first thought to have been seen in a series of visions early in the Twentieth Century, and we have come to associate her with three shepherd children and the town of Fatima, Portugal. But the truth is ‘she’ has been appearing throughout history. In fact, the Book of Revelation identifies her in prophetic terms as being in association with a ‘great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns.’ In Biblical days, as now, visions of this lady are often a precursor to an ‘act of God’ and eventually to the end of all time, the destruction of humanity by godless forces who will roam the Earth.”
The verses from Revelation that Beckley refers to are these: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the Earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.” (Rev 12:1-6)
WHAT AND WHERE IS FATIMA?
Beckley then shifts his attention from an ancient era to times closer to our own.
He writes: “Fatima is a small city in central Portugal where the landscape is dry and rocky. For centuries, people made their living there raising sheep and other animals. In May 1917, three shepherd children — two girls and a boy — claimed they saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The children described Mary as “a lady dressed all in white, more brilliant than the sun.” Mary told the children that praying the rosary would end what was then called The Great War — World War I — which left 17 million dead.
“According to the children,” Beckley continues, “Mary appeared to them six times that year. In one appearance, Mary said a miracle would occur on Oct. 13, 1917. Initially the children were scolded and even threatened with death for spreading what were considered baseless stories. But pilgrims from all over the world gathered in Fatima on that date and awaited Mary’s appearance. In what came to be called the ‘Miracle of the Sun,’ many reported seeing visions in the sky while others reported miracles of healing. A newspaper of the day reported: ‘Before their dazzled eyes, the sun trembled, the sun made unusual and brusque movements, defying all the laws of the cosmos, and, according to the typical expression of the peasants, “the sun danced.”
After much contemplation, in 1930, the Catholic Church declared the events at Fatima “worthy of belief,” and chapels, sanctuaries, shrines and other memorials to the events popped up.
WHY HAS FATIMA BECOME SUCH AN ATTRACTION?
When the church declared the Fatima apparitions worthy of acceptance, it is said pilgrims who travel there could obtain a special blessing as well as pray for healing and spiritual guidance. Today it is one of the most popular shrines in the world. The largest numbers come dutifully on May 13 — the anniversary of the first apparitions.
What is not well known is that Marian apparitions, as they have become popularly known, are not just historical events of monumental proportions, but a growing phenomenon that has swept the world during the course of the decades since the three young shepherds bore witness to this series of ongoing events. Their experience pitted them and those who held fast in their beliefs against a rigid communist dictatorship who had officially declared themselves an atheistic state.
Truly, there can be little doubt in anyone’s mind upon reading through the maze of available literature that something utterly profound happened at Fatima, Portugal, on October 13th, 1917, when thousands gathered for a miracle which had been promised by three local children. Peering up into the dark, cloud-filled sky, the throng witnessed a spectacle that has deservedly gone down in history as one of the greatest spiritual events of modern times.
Even the most religiously conservative of the flock can see the obvious connection between the apparitions at Fatima, combined with the anomalous spinning “sun,” as having a likely relation to the appearance of UFOs, “spacemen” and “spacewomen” and other paranormal occurrences.
It is now an established fact that sightings and interactions with the Lady have come from all over the world and from individuals of all faiths and backgrounds. The Holy Mother has been seen in virtually every country in the world, regardless of that nation’s religious or political beliefs. Apparently, she appears before us not to make converts, but to awaken us to the fact that time may be running out.
JACQUES VALLEE’S POSITION
For many years, French-born Jacques Vallee has been at the forefront of UFO and paranormal research. He is highly credentialed, trained in science, and author of a good number of books and papers on unexplained phenomena. While the majority of UFO researchers have been out chasing “UFOs from Mars,” Dr. Vallee sees the phenomena as being more “homegrown,” more “earthbound,” much more of a conditioning influence by an outside force yet to be determined.
Vallée has contributed to the investigation of the Miracle at Fatima and Marian apparitions. His work has been used to support the Fatima UFO Hypothesis. Vallée is one of the first people to speculate publicly about the possibility that the “solar dance” at Fatima was a UFO. The idea of UFOs was not unknown in 1917, but most of the people in attendance at the Fatima apparitions would not have attributed the claimed phenomena there to UFOs, let alone to extraterrestrials. Vallée has also speculated about the possibility that other religious apparitions may have been the result of UFO activity, including Our Lady of Lourdes and the revelations to Joseph Smith. Vallée and other researchers have advocated further study of unusual phenomena in the academic community. They feel that this should not be handled solely by theologians.
One concept entertained by numerous UFO researchers is that the many visions associated with the appearance of the Madonna and Jesus in the clouds could simply be a holographic projection, created by the CIA, elements of a supposed “New World Order,” or some other “power” (possibly even extraterrestrial) in an attempt to manipulate followers of certain religious and cultural belief systems. In conspiracy theorist circles, this is known as “Project Blue Beam,” and is part of a long established pattern of “false flags,” created for purposes of propaganda and disinformation. Hispanic researcher Scott Corrales, the author of “Alien Blood Lust,” has collected anecdotes of a series of what seem to be holographic projections, mostly over the island of Cuba, where some residents have come to believe that such aerial manifestations are part of a secret program to bring the people back to “God” and turn them against communism.
WAYS MARY PRESENTS HERSELF
A Methodist clergyman in Haines City, Florida, Reverend B. W. Palmer, has spent years collecting hundreds of contemporary visions of the Holy Mother. His research on the subject indicates that there are at least 24 methods the Virgin uses to manifest herself. There may be as many as fifty ways, but we list here the 24 most commonly manifested.
1. The skies appear to open up and Mary with a band of angels appears to descend.
2. In the presence of a viewer, Mary appears to descend in a shaft of light.
3. The Virgin appears or disappears through a solid object such as a door or a wall.
4. A viewer may hear footsteps outside his house. Then a knock on the door. When he opens it he sees the Holy Mother.
5. The Virgin can also appear as though she is in a picture on the wall.
6. A witness may awake because he feels a spiritual presence in the room, or may feel someone’s touch. When he opens his eyes he sees the Holy Figure bending over him.
7. An angel or the spirit of a deceased person may appear to the witness first, then lead him to the materialization of the Holy Mother.
8. The witness may see the face of the Virgin or Jesus Christ appear above the person who is desperately in need of help.
9. The witness may hear a voice which tells him or her to go to a certain place and do a certain thing. When he complies, he sees the Virgin Mary.
10. The figure of the Virgin Mary appears in the sky, but greatly magnified.
11. The viewer may be awakened by the light of a very bright moon. At that moment he sees the Holy Mother.
12. Clouds play a part in visions. The Virgin often appears out of a cloud moving toward a person, and she also uses the cloud to make her departure.
13. A cloud or heavy mist may materialize in the viewer’s room. And out of the mist the Virgin will appear.
14. During the Fatima miracle, the Holy Mother appeared to the three children in exactly the same way. All three gave the same description of what they saw. In many cases the Virgin appears to several persons at the same time, but each witness gave a different description of what he or she saw. To one witness, the Holy Mother may appear as a ball of light; to another, a flash of lightning; to another, a disembodied voice.
15. The Virgin may appear in a room occupied by several people. But only one person will see her. The others may see the spirits of the dead.
16. The Virgin may also appear in the dreams of a witness. A manifestation like this is usually associated with healing or cures.
17. The Holy Mother may vanish suddenly, or fade away slowly, slipping into a cloud, through the ceiling, doors or walls. She may walk away, fading from view as she gets further and further away from the witness.
18. In most visions of the Holy Mother, only the witness singled out for communications may see her even though there are a lot of people present. This was so in the Fatima miracle in which thousands of people saw the three children talking to an entity they could not see.
19. In many of the visions collected by Rev. Palmer, the Virgin appears in a strange light, one that illuminates the witness as well. In some of these cases, the light appeared first, then the Holy Figure.
20. In some visions, the witnesses said they saw no figures at all, but were aware of the Holy Presences through the supernatural light and the voices that came to them.
21. Those who have experienced out-of-body incidents have reported seeing the Holy Mother, but that the vision disappeared once the out-of-body experience ended.
22. In other out-of-body experiences, people have claimed to travel through space to visit friends and relatives, and on such excursions have usually seen a Holy Figure, that is, the Holy Mother, a saint, an angel, or other Holy Entities.
23. In still other out-of-body travels, people have claimed to have seen the lower spirit worlds where good spirits attempt to help the lower spirits. In some instances during these lower-plane visits, the travelers have seen Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary.
24. During near-death experiences, people said they saw Jesus or Mary for a brief moment when their bodies were physically dead.
THE REVEREND BARRY DOWNING, A PIONEER OF THE UFOS/BIBLE CONNECTION
Science and religion could end up complementing each other. New – more “radical” – trends in physics point to the existence of parallel universes and other dimensions which could assist in explaining many Biblical mysteries and miracles, at least according to one Protestant minister who has spent more than a half century pondering the reality of UFOs and extraterrestrials and their possible connection to the seemingly bizarre and unexplainable tales of the Old and New Testaments.
The Reverend Barry Downing was among the first to see that it wasn’t a given that the “Good Book” was in conflict with the lore of the flying saucer and the possibility that our universe might be constructed of a bit more than just physical matter. He posited that heaven could be a real place – if not in our timeline then perhaps in a parallel existence just beyond our reach. Could that other dimension possibly be accessible through the guidance of Godly ultra-terrestrial beings and their vehicles? What we think of as spaceships could, in some cases, be divine.
Downing has been preaching the gospel of “UFO angels” for more than 50 years now, since the publication of his 1968 book, “The Bible and Flying Saucers.” Downing has recently released a new book called “Biblical UFO Revelations” that incorporates hard won wisdom and perspectives gleaned in the intervening years as he steadfastly continues to make his case for his particular take on Christianity and the aliens.
Downing is not just an ordained minister and a religious expert, he is also well-versed in physics, having earned his bachelor’s degree in the field. So he is uniquely qualified to analyze Biblical miracles like the parting of the Red Sea from the Exodus both scientifically and as a man of faith. In “UFOs, Armageddon and Biblical Revelations,” one can read more about Downing’s analysis of the “environmental impact” that the pillar of cloud and fire exerted for the sake of the fleeing Israelites.
How does one approach the extreme levels of fear experienced by witnesses to angels in the Bible? Is the fear a UFO witness experiences an example of that same kind of fear? Are we actually wise to approach the two phenomena in abject terror and trembling? At what point does a heavenly love enter the picture and cast out all fear? Downing provides answers to these questions and others equally as difficult.
GARY STEARMAN AND THE CHARIOTS OF WONDER
Gary Stearman is a well-known author and former co-host, with his partner, the late Dr. J.R. Church, of a television program called “Prophecy in the News.” Stearman now hosts his own program, “Prophecy Watchers,” broadcast on satellite, cable and the Internet. .
In an interview with Stearman conducted specifically for this book, the theological and prophetic aspects of the modern UFO phenomenon and its interaction with the modern state of Israel are given a thorough examination.
“The fact about UFOs,” Stearman began, “is that they seem to correspond in many ways to what human beings have associated for centuries with spiritual events. There seems to be a spiritual quality within the UFO world and, specifically, it can be seen as part of perhaps a spiritual struggle.
“And with that in mind,” he continued, “it’s very useful to compare UFOs, the history of UFOs in the modern era, with the occurrences of UFOs in various parts of the world. First of all, the Bible speaks of fiery chariots. The chariot in Hebrew is called the merkavah. It has been suggested, in fact, several modern Israelis have suggested, that UFOs in the Hebrew be called merkavah mophtim. And mophtim means ‘wonder.’ So what you have in the Hebrew would be ‘chariots of wonder,’ or vehicles of wonder.
“And the vehicles of wonder have been seen in the Middle East literally for centuries. But in the modern era, particularly late 1947 through 1948 in Israel, they were seen not only in the United States and Europe, but also throughout the Middle East. They were reported as disc-shaped, sometimes cigar-shaped. Sometimes they were suspected of being Russian secret weapons. At other times, invasions from another planet. But they were nevertheless seen at the time.”
THE TIMING OF THE UFO FLAPS
Stearman explained the pattern of how UFO sightings flaps were timed around crucial events in Israel. “UFOs made their first dramatic appearance, really dramatic appearance, in 1947 and 1948. That would be the Jewish year 5708, or 47-48 in the Christian calendar. Of course, that was the year of the rebirth of Israel. And these were years when great battles were being fought by human beings in Israel, but the idea is that perhaps someone else was taking notice of this on a higher plane.
“Just about ten years later, in early October of 1956, during the great Sinai Campaign of Israel against Egypt, there were great numbers of sightings of UFOs. It was quite commonly reported in the newspapers of the Middle East, particularly the Israeli newspapers.
“And then again, in the Jewish year 5727, which of course was timed with late spring of 1967, the Six Day War erupted. When the Six Day War came to pass, there was a great UFO flap throughout the world. Then, during September and October of 1973, when the Yom Kippur War against Israel took place, sightings were again very common.
“So when you lay this out,” Stearman said, “you have the years 1948, the date of Israel’s statehood, and 1956, the Sinai Campaign, as well as 1961, when another massive anti-Israeli movement was begun, of Arabs against the Israelis, 1967, the Six Day War, and 1973, the Yom Kippur War. All of those were the dates of historic UFO flaps. So that’s sort of the beginning thesis that leads us to other ideas.”
ANOTHER RELEVANT SIGHTINGS WAVE
Stearman made another connection between a major UFO sightings wave and the modern state of Israel, with the surprising year being 1897.
“The beginning of the state of Israel,” Stearman explained, “was in the year 1897. That was the great year of the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. And in 1897, the world experienced, and I’m talking about the entire world – and it’s heavily reported in all the UFO literature – the world experienced a flap of UFO sightings. But they were not called UFOs. They were called airships.
“I believe that the 1897 flap was timed with the rebirth of Israel. From 1897 to 1947 of course is precisely 50 years, and the two great UFO flaps happened in those years.”
Stearman related a familiar anecdote from the 1897 flap. “There was the famous case of Alexander Hamilton of Leroy, Kansas. April 21, 1897. An unidentified airship was sailing low over his farm and it lowered a rope and trapped one of his cattle. A two-year-old heifer, bawling and jumping, was lassoed and hauled up into this airship. And it flew away. Well, there is an affidavit published in a number of the UFO publications from Alexander Hamilton. It was signed by the local sheriff, the town banker, and the registrar of deeds, attesting that this really happened. And there are, just as you know, dozens if not hundreds of reports from 1897. 1 link those to the first Zionist Congress, which essentially was the meeting that established the Zionist Movement and the state of Israel.”
BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
After Stearman had explained the timing of major UFO sightings waves with events in Israel, the question then became, “What does it all mean? What are the UFO occupants trying to say about their relationship to Israel?”
“Well,” Stearman replied, “this takes us back to the fact that these are merkavaim, plural, and that’s what the Bible calls them. The Bible speaks of the fiery chariots being like heavenly ambassadors, or sometimes they’re called heavenly messengers, or angels. You can call them beings from another dimension. They’re commonly called aliens. But the prophets of ancient Israel said that these were the watchmen watching over Israel. And they were acting on behalf of the people of Israel, according to the will of God. Now, that’s what the Bible specifically says.”
So did Stearman feel that the UFOs are making a show of force, letting the world know that they intend to protect Israel?
“Yeah, I do,” he answered. “Or perhaps there is a battle, an ultra-dimensional battle, shall we say, a battle behind the scenes, taking place between those who favor one side or the other. You can state it any way you want to, but there’s an earthly battle going on and there appears to be an ultra-dimensional battle going on, too.”
Did Stearman mean something like the War In Heaven spoken of in the Bible’s Book of Revelation? “The War In Heaven, yeah,” he said. “And it seems that every time Israel is threatened, the War In Heaven also seems to accelerate so that it becomes visible in this dimension as UFO and strange creature reports.”
“And so every time that Israel is threatened,” Stearman said, “the battle becomes pitched and becomes more visible to human eyes. And I believe that, Biblically speaking, you can make a strong defense for this because in the Old Testament, one of the titles of the Lord is ‘Lord of Hosts,’ or ‘Jehovah of Hosts,’ as he is called. And that title essentially is a military title. It’s like being the General of the Heavenly Army.
“Of course, one of the major Bible themes is that the Lord fights on behalf of his people. In fact, one of the meanings of the name Israel is ‘for whom God fights.’ And so it can be very well said that the hosts of heaven are fighting on behalf of Israel and that each time Israel is in peril, what we call UFOs, but what really are probably better termed merkeva mophlim, these vehicles of wonder, these fiery chariots, roll into action on behalf of Israel.”
WHAT IS TRUTH?
“Indeed, what is the fundamental truth about all things Biblical?” Beckley asks in his introduction. “And how do we interpret what the Good Book actually says about the Second Coming and the End Times as forecast in the Book of Revelation? I hope our fellow journeymen can offer up a bit of hope for humanity. Some think God is a vengeful God and we get what we deserve. Others believe in the mercy of the Savior. It’s a toss-up as far as I am concerned, but that’s why I offer you text that lies just beyond my Introduction.
“The scriptures,” Beckley adds, “and all wise men, have made it known that we have the free will to accept – or NOT to accept – all that is and may be. ‘UFOs, Armageddon and Biblical Revelations: Signs, Symbols and “Wonders” – The Whole Truth’ gives us the tools to conduct our search for the true nature of things mysterious and unknown. But, in the end, our heart holds the key. Also, thanks to our comrades: Reverend Virginia Brasington, Reverend Barry Downing, Gary Stearman, Nick Redfern, Dr. Frank E. Stranges, Tim Swartz, Barry Chamish, Arthur Crockett, Professor G. Cope Schellhorn, William Kern, and the blond Goddess of the Woods, Diane Tessman.
“Good luck in your search for the truth, be you a true believer, a heretic, or somewhere on the path in-between.”
SUGGESTED READING
SEAN CASTEEL’S UFOS, ARMAGEDDON AND BIBLICAL REVELATIONS
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT AND OTHER SECRET WEAPONS OF THE ANCIENTS by Tim Beckley
PSYCHIC AND UFO REVELATIONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
BIBLICAL UFO REVELATIONS by Dr. Barry Downing
Our YouTube channel – “Mr. UFO’s Secret Files,” where over 400 interviews await you.
By Sean Casteel
* * *
Weird Winged Wonders – The Twilight World of Cryptid Creatures
Who among us hasn’t wished to spread their wings and fly? To cease to be earthbound and soar to the heavens?
But perhaps, in real-world terms, a person with wings might not be such a pleasant, liberating thing. “Weird Winged Wonders: The Twilight World of Cryptid Creatures” from Timothy Green Beckley’s Global Communications/Inner Light publishing house, offers important new insights into flying humanoids. The reader should understand that we’re not dealing with the classic images of winged angels as portrayed by artists down through the centuries. The book is about something much stranger, more “alien” and frightening.
A case in point would be the mysterious Mothman, popularized in recent years by the 2002 movie “The Mothman Prophecies,” which was based on a book of the same title by legendary paranormal researcher and author John Keel.
The book and movie tell a fascinating story of the appearance of the winged creature which is most frequently described as a human-looking figure with wings and two giant red eyes. The creature is reported as being six to eight feet tall; his wings are bat-like and sometimes folded against his back. After more than a year of scattered sightings by locals in the area around Point Pleasant, West Virginia that began in autumn of 1966, a tragic accident occurred. The Silver Bridge, vital to commuters in the area, collapsed during rush hour traffic in December 1967, killing dozens of people. Residents soon began to wonder if there was a connection between the Mothman’s many appearances and the massive bridge disaster. Did the winged man consciously function as a harbinger of death?
MORE RECENT SIGHTINGS OF THE MOTHMAN
A photo of Mothman perched atop the Silver Bridge before its collapse.
In the years since the frightening events in Point Pleasant, the Mothman has continued his sporadic appearances around the world. But in 2017, in Chicago, a new and massive wave of Mothman sightings began that has as yet shown no signs abating.
Beginning in late March 2017, UFO and paranormal researcher and author Lon Strickler found himself tasked with receiving reports of Mothman sightings in the Chicago area. He quickly amassed 40 up-to-the-minute reports and wrote a book about his work, entitled “Mothman Dynasty: Chicago’s Winged Humanoids.”
Strickler admits up front that he is still a long way from answering the lingering questions he shares with the people who reported their experiences.
“Mothman” was seen in the Point Pleasant, WV area starting around 1966.
“What is it?” Strickler asks. “Where is it coming from? Why now? Is there a reason why the sightings are occurring in the general Chicago metro area? This current group of winged humanoid sightings is probably the largest since the Mothman encounters in the vicinity of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, during 1966-67. Those sightings have become legendary, namely because the Mothman was seen as a harbinger of catastrophe after the collapse of the Silver Bridge on the evening of December 15, 1967. The bridge spanned the Ohio River between Point Pleasant and Gallipolis, Ohio, and the disaster took the lives of 46 people.”
Strickler quite naturally connected the dots between the Point Pleasant and Chicago sightings.
“There are many opinions as to why these new sightings are occurring,” he told a website called “Mysterious Universe,” “including a general feeling that unfortunate events may be in the city’s future. The witnesses have been very steadfast with what they’ve seen and refuse to embellish on their initial descriptions. Each witness has had a feeling of dread and foreboding, which I believe translates into a warning of some type.”
Interestingly, Strickler says he somewhat regrets making that speculative statement before all the facts were in. While the quote may one day prove to be true, he now feels it is better to let the data and evidence determine what the winged humanoids really are.
“The presence of unknown winged beings,” Strickler writes, “is probably as old as the human imagination. But after reading and listening to hundreds of eyewitness accounts over the past four decades, I have concluded that these beings are much more than fantasy. We’re determined to find the truth.”
BRAD STEIGER ON THE THUNDERBIRD LEGENDS
Brad Steiger
The renowned journalist of the paranormal, Brad Steiger, is the prolific author of numerous books, such as “Real Visitors, Voices From Beyond and Parallel Dimensions,” as well as the upcoming “Haunted: Malevolent Ghosts, Night Terrors and Threatening Phantoms,” which is due out in September 2018 and is available now for pre-order on Amazon.com. Steiger contributes a pair of chapters to “Weird Winged Wonders,” including one that recounts some of the Thunderbird legends that are a part of Native American culture.
“The Chippewa tribe has a tradition,” Steiger writes, “that, in the time-before-time-began, there existed a bird of supreme majesty that descended to Earth, which was then only a vast expanse of water. The bird’s eyes were fire; its glance was lightning; and the motion of its wings rippled the air with thunder. When its talons touched the water, the Earth Mother arose from the deep waters, bringing with her to the surface all manner of animals.
“Many other Native American tribes,” he continues, “have traditions that tell of birds as agents of creation, and the winged giants became objects of religious ceremony among many of the native people. The journal of an early Roman Catholic priest records that the first time the tribal members of the California mission that he served saw the representation of a dove over the altar, they asked if it was the Christian thunderbird.”
Native Americans tell stories of a variety of huge winged creatures known to disturb their peoples.
Steiger writes further that for hundreds of years thunderbirds were seen by not only Native Americans but also frontiersmen and settlers. Eventually newspapers began to take these accounts seriously enough to report them.
One example offered by Steiger was from a Bedford, Iowa newspaper in 1887. A man named Lee Corder encountered a flying serpent writhing and twisting, with protruding eyes and a forked tongue. Great scales, which glistened in the sunlight, covered its huge body, which appeared to be flat and nearly a foot in width.
The newspaper account described Corder as a man of “unimpeachable veracity,” and goes on to say that he, and those with him, watched the flying serpent with “awe and astonishment” as the creature landed in a cornfield a few rods distant with a dull thud. The witnesses professed to be so frightened that none of them wished to block its path. It was permitted to pass on its way “unmolested,” and no one attempted to halt its wish to return to the sky.
Three years later, in another Iowa town, Independence, citizens reported seeing a monster with wings, a monstrous head with horns, and a mouth like an alligator’s. Its body was greenish in color and covered with shiny scales; its eyes glared like an electric arc light; and it yelled in a tone that sounded like a combination of the roar of a lion and the scream of a wildcat.
WINGED DRAGONS FROM ANCIENT TIMES
Inspirational artist Carol Ann Rodriguez depicts a fire breathing dragon as seen throughout history — right up until today!
Another author in Timothy Green Beckley’s impressive stable of writers is Tim Swartz, who has authored numerous books for Beckley as well as being featured on the History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens” series. For “Weird Winged Wonders,” Swartz has contributed a chapter on Winged Dragons and Other Airborne Oddities.
“Dragons throughout history have both fascinated and terrified people,” Swartz writes. “They are among the most popular and enduring of the world’s mythological creatures. Dragons have a long and rich tradition that continues through to modern times in books, films and television. The dragons in ‘Game of Thrones’ are a good example of how these ancient beasts have thrived in modern pop culture. Scientists say that dragons never existed, yet there are numerous reports of interaction with dragons that cannot be ignored.”
Dragon allegedly filmed flying over China.
Swartz explains that it’s not clear when or where dragons first emerged. Some scholars speculate that the discovery of fossilized dinosaur bones may have been the genesis of ancient dragon lore. What is known is that practically every society had them in their mythologies. For much of human history, dragons were thought of as being real as well as either useful and protective or harmful and dangerous.
The King James Version of the Old Testament contains at least twenty-two citations for dragons, Swartz informs us. The majority of Old Testament references to dragons are derived from the Hebrew word ‘tanniym’ or ‘tannim.’ This word can mean a jackal, serpent, sea serpent or even a land or sea monster.
Swartz then quotes from the Book of Isaiah, 30:6, which reads, “The burden against the beasts of the South, Through a land of trouble and anguish, From which came the lioness and the lion, The VIPER AND FLYING SERPENT, They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people who shall not profit.”
Another Old Testament verse, Deuteronomy 32:33, declares that “Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.”
“I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls,” reads Job 30:29.
The Biblical references to winged reptiles depict primarily negative creatures, but there have been more positive interpretations. An ancient apocryphal document called “The Apocalypse of Abraham,” found only in the Slavonic language and dated to the First Century C.E., clearly depicts the serpent which tempted Eve as a winged dragon.
“The Apocalypse of Abraham,” found only in the Slavonic language and dated to the First Century C.E., clearly depicts the serpent which tempted Eve as a winged dragon.
“And they were standing under a tree in Eden,” the document reads, “and the fruit of the tree was like the appearance of a bunch of grapes on the vine. And behind the tree, standing something like a dragon in form, but having hands and feet, just like a man’s, and ON HIS BACK SIX WINGS ON THE RIGHT AND SIX ON THE LEFT. He was holding the grapes of the tree and feeding them to the two I saw entwined with each other.”
Swartz then discusses the idea that flying serpents or dragons are found in the cultures of people throughout history and are usually considered to be benevolent creatures and in some cases are the ancestors of man.
“This is why the European view of the dragon as evil is unique,” Swartz writes. “The evil nature of dragons is prevalent in Jewish literature such as the Mishnah, the part of the Talmud which is the commentary on ethical behavior. Images of dragons are especially frowned upon according to the ancient rules.”
Another scholar of ancient mythology, this time of the Greek persuasion, is writer Hercules Invictus, who provides an excellent overview of winged humanoids who existed among the gods and demigods of Olympus. Creatures in the Greek traditions whose supernatural powers include the ability to take flight on their own enormous wings are more numerous than you might expect and Hercules does an excellent job of cataloging them in “Weird Winged Wonders.”
WEIRD WINGED WONDERS AS COVERED BY A WEALTH OF WRITERS
The Jersey Devil is a legendary winged creature said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey.
Timothy Green Beckley has again assembled a wealth of writers, this time to cover various aspects of winged wonders down through history and into our present day. Beckley writes the book’s introductory chapter as well as pieces on the Jersey Devil and winged cats. He also presents the work of several contributors who examine the subject of weird winged wonders from many different angles and present dozens of case histories of winged phenomena, both good and evil.
This article would not be complete without listing them all. They are the aforementioned Tim Swartz, Lon Strickler, Brad Steiger and Hercules Invictus. Also included are Jonathan Whitcomb, Allen Greenfield, Steve Ward, Nomar Slevik, Scott Corrales, Albert Rosales, Paul Dale Roberts and Paul Eno. In the interest of full disclosure, I myself have written a chapter on the Chicago Mothman sightings and the work of Lon Strickler that is included in the book.
“Weird Winged Wonders” is a welcome addition to the literature of the paranormal. The subject of winged creatures in ancient myth and modern folklore is fascinating but often overlooked, and Beckley’s unique ability to carve out a piece of supernatural territory that deserves wider coverage is again on display here. You should avail yourself of the opportunity to educate yourself on the legends of gods and demons who take flight on the wings of mystery.
SUGGESTED READING:
Available from Amazon.com or Amazon.UK or directly from the publisher – mrufo8@hotmail.com
WEIRD WINGED WONDERS: THE TWILIGHT WORLD OF CRYPTID CREATURES
CRYPTID CREATURES FROM DARK DOMAINS
DRAGONS AND UNICORNS: FACT? FICTION?
MYTHICAL, MAGICAL BEASTS AND BEINGS
YouTube Channel – Mr. UFO’s Secret Files
By Milton Grover
Authors note: Although the information contained in this article can be applied worldwide, for the sake of brevity I have for the most part concentrated on what has emerged from the USA. Therefore, bearing this in mind I have confined my observations to what is acknowledged by many researchers as being at least within the realms of what is possible, you have to, because one you start to go down this extremely slippery rabbit hole, all sorts of unexpected side avenues open up and some of them are probably best left unexplored.
I am reminded of a saying by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, ‘Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you’, the emphasis is mine, and believe me the subject of Ufology is indeed a deep, dark abyss and once you start looking, and I do mean really looking, the psychological fallout can be genuinely unsettling and have terrifying spiritual connections.
A word of warning though, keep in mind some of what follows is derived from fundamentalist thinking and theology, which tends to base its opinions on a fairly unique interpretation of scripture. I would like to express my thanks to Tim Green Beckley and Tim Schwartz from Conspiracy Journal and also John J. Ventre the multi-state director of MUFON, for their help and suggestions in preparing this article. As a final comment, please be aware that I wrote this very recently after coming across a new piece in the UFO jigsaw and I have no views or opinions one way or another on what follows. I have written it based on the information to hand and I have supplied sources that anyone who is interested can follow up and make their own judgment on whether it is valid or not.
Ufology and The Collins Elite
The “Extraterrestrial Hypothesis” (ETH) theorizes that UFOs are spaceships from other planets with a technology so advanced that it can be indistinguishable from magick.
Since its inception in the 1940’s, modern Ufology has been beset by various ideas and opinions about what UFOs are, where they originate and who (or what) they contain. According to the most commonly accepted belief, UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft originating in far-off star systems that visit our planet for a whole host of reasons. Some of the reasons are entirely altruistic and benign and some considerably less so, but at the core of this particular subset of opinion called the extra terrestrial hypothesis (ETH), lies the conviction that all UFOs, irrespective of their point of origin, are nuts and bolts machines piloted by beings that seem to be more or less humanoid in appearance. This is fair enough, but seems to largely ignore many other aspects of the phenomenon. For example: these objects (and their assumed occupants) appear and disappear at will, pass through solid walls, can manifest to individuals in a group yet remain invisible to other group members and a whole host of other attributes that seem to owe more to ghosts and other spiritual beings than anything else.
However, those who subscribe to the ETH claim that this is due to vastly superior technology rather than any paranormal attributes: and that said it is arguable that any display of some aspects of an unfamiliar technology (as the late Arthur C Clarke rightly pointed out) might well be viewed as either paranormal or even magick. On the other hand there are a small number of groups who, as we shall see, insist, rightly or wrongly, that UFOs and their occupants are not physical in any accepted sense at all, but are in fact manifestations of Satan and his minions. The purpose of these UFOs is the ultimate perdition (spiritual ruin) of the human race and those who promote this concept claim that their ideas stem from what they believe is the ultimate source of all truth, i.e. the Holy Bible, which they quote to substantiate their claims.
The book of Enoch describes “The Watchers”, a group of angels sent to Earth to watch over humans. 200 of those angels committed transgression by having sex with humans, creating a hybrid race of giants called the Nephilim.
This also ties into the supposed corruption of the human race eons ago by fallen angels (more ET’s perhaps)? as mentioned in Genesis 6:4; Jude 1:6 and then progresses into the future and the endtimes. Once we go down this route we encounter a race of ancient hybrids, i.e. the ‘Nephilim’ who were allegedly the mutant offspring of human women and the fallen angels. It is thought that these are the giants mentioned in the bible. This is the mindset that also readily embraces concepts such as the machinations of the New World Order (NWO) and the Illuminati, as with the UFO phenomenon in general it is open season for any idea one wishes to attach to it.
In addition there is an even less well known schism of belief from a similar source, saying that UFOs, while still spiritual, are created and crewed by angels, so you pretty much pays your money and takes your choice. From this it is obvious that, while UFOs and Ufology may be relatively marginalised belief systems, there is sufficient scope within them for various strands of belief to grow and develop. I say this because based on what we have just seen; some years ago I was in conversation (via a medium) with an entity that claimed to be extraterrestrial and said it came from where, quote, ‘souls were created’.
There is not a great deal one can say to that, except that having worked with this particular medium during many investigations I had faith in her abilities; so despite some reservations far be it for me to pass judgment. Besides, there is always the nagging doubt that this entity, whatever it was, was not necessarily telling the truth and this is something that has previously been commented on by other serious and open-minded UFO researchers. I say this because within the UFO community there is a surprisingly high level of intolerance to any thoughts or opinions that fail to stay within the narrow ETH mindset.
The Intelligence Agenda
Starting in 2008, the Pentagon quietly set up a $22 million program to investigate reports of UFOs.
Although officially denied, ridiculed and rejected by most governments and intelligence agencies, this ridicule conceals a very deep rooted concern that UFOs and what they represent may in fact have more basis in reality than they care to admit. This has been seen in the various governmental attempts to prove or disprove the phenomena one way or another, especially in the USA. In the USA, projects like ‘Grudge’ and ‘Blue Book’, the formation of the Robertson Panel and the Condon Report etc, etc are all examples of this and it has been argued that what emerged from these groups was nothing more than propaganda using disinformation, misinformation, spin and barefaced lies. Even the much vaunted book, the so-called ‘smoking gun’, i.e. ‘The Day After Roswell’, is a prime example of this bare-faced subterfuge. Government files on the UFO enigma continue to surface, one of the more recent examples was the release of formerly classified information from the UK intelligence services in the Ministry of Defence (MOD), but nowhere in the files is there any evidence that they are extraterrestrial. Even stonewall cases like the Rendlesham Forest incident of the 1980’s despite the witness evidence being pretty much positive and overwhelming are brushed off using varying specious excuses.
All that these reports were able to say was, officially at least and despite the fact that the intelligence agencies regularly used Ufology as a screen to conceal their own agendas, there was no truth in any of it and the UFO phenomenon lay entirely in the minds of the general public. It was founded on little more than overactive imaginations and mistaken identity compounded with a desire for some mystery and intrigue. It is possible that some of this subterfuge might have stemmed from a real fear that to admit that we really were visited by non-human races originating outside our solar system might create widespread fear, panic and civil disorder. It is also likely to have caused many people to question the authority and moral certainty of the churches, something that would serve to further exacerbate an increasingly unstable situation.
The Collins Elite Emerges
However, despite the artifice and denials there is the nagging suspicion that their investigations revealed that at least some UFOs might be genuine and this knowledge could somehow be harnessed for military advantage. This is probably true, because given the ultra-pragmatic way in which intelligence agencies operate (especially the CIA), obtaining anything they think will be of use to their country militarily becomes imperative, so how and where they obtain this information is secondary to the methods used; i.e. the end invariably justifies the means. Since any information would have to be properly evaluated, monitored and thought through in a dispassionate manner, a steering group was formed comprising representatives of all interested parties.
In the USA, since all branches of the military plus the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) were obviously involved anyway, it was a relatively simple matter to draft in representatives under the stewardship of, initially, the FBI then the omnipresent CIA and eventually perhaps the NSA as well. This semi-official subgroup which was created in July 1952 allegedly became nicknamed by those involved, ‘The Collins Elite’. Although it starting out evaluating the threat of UFOs as one based on actual machines, given the makeup and views held by some influential members of this group, this changed dramatically and the first question to ask is how much truth is in what they said and could the CIA have accepted this and allowed it to develop?
Attitudes Harden
According to a book, ‘Final Events’, written by author and researcher Nick Redfern, a British citizen currently residing in the USA, the answer is yes, they could. For many years the CIA was not only out of control, it was beyond control and functioned more or less autonomously as a separate government that was a law entirely unto itself, something greatly helped by its lavish and often unaccountable funding. Even their notional boss, the President of the USA, had no idea what was going on and given some of the shady and frequently murderous operations they instigated and sometimes funded, this was probably just as well; it is a process called ‘plausible deniability’, a term first used by the CIA during the Kennedy administration. Regarding the way in which the CIA operated, it has been stated that when Area 51 was first created it was handed to the CIA to operate rather than the Navy or the Air Force and in 1958 the then President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had made the mistake of allowing the base to function without Presidential oversight, was flatly denied both access to the base and information regarding what was going on there. In retaliation the President promptly threatened to send in an army group from Colorado to dismantle the place. In response to this tactic he was grudgingly given the information he requested, but he never did wrest control of the base back from the CIA.
It has been suggested that the UFO phenomena could be supernatural and/or demonic instead of nuts and bolts spaceships from other planets.
Redfern goes on to state that the findings of the Collins Elite strongly infer that the ET presence was not just the result of visits by nuts and bolts flying machines and their occupants, instead it was probably demonic/satanic nature instead. In fact it went as far as say categorically that there was never any contact between extraterrestrials and humans, it has always been supernatural and/or demonic. We should remember that this covert unit, although it started out with a fairly specific remit, rapidly became increasingly influenced by some of its more single-minded members who may themselves have been implementing an agenda directed from outside the group.
Strangely enough this opinion chimes with comments made by the late ethno-botanist and psychonaught Dr. Terence McKenna, who once said that, ‘We are part of a symbiotic relationship with something which disguises itself as an extra-terrestrial invasion so as not to alarm us.’ He never did elaborate on what he meant by that, but it probably refers to the entities, sometimes called ‘machine-elves’ frequently seen by people who use substances like dimethyltryptamine (DMT) the active ingredient of the traditional and powerful hallucinogen Ayahuasca. This would certainly fit with the observations made by members of The Collins Elite and this kind of thinking is surprisingly common in some areas of the UFO community who see the phenomenon as more akin to the occult that anything physical.
It is a view also shared by members of the fundamentalist Christian right-wing of American politics and in some cases they have claimed that UFOs were piloted, not by demons, but by angels as an adjunct to the much prophesied ‘end times’. However, the astute observation made by Dr McKenna fits exactly with a statement allegedly made by The Collins Elite to the effect that, “We have in our midst a cold-hearted and sinister intelligence of demonic origins that masquerades as alien.” Although the wording is slightly different, the meaning is identical. Before we examine The Collins Elite in a little more detail, we should consider some of the background and this involves looking at other, less well-known projects undertaken by the CIA and the other US intelligence agencies.
As well as investigating the possibility that the earth was being visited more or less at will by non-human entities, they were also extremely interested in highly controversial occult experiments being carried out by an pioneering rocket scientist and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Jack Parsons and Ron Hubbard in the days before Hubbard decided to make money by inventing the cultish quasi-religion of Scientology. Hubbard spent the last years of his life on the run, keeping the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) off his back. The IRS wanted the tax due on the money in the Scientology bank accounts. However Hubbard, who considered his creation a religion, would not pay it. Eventually the Scientologists, after the death of Hubbard and now being run by David Miscavige, managed to effectively blackmail the IRS into granting them religious status allowing them to avoid paying tax.
The Connection with Magick
The Ahnenerbe Symbol.
In a way this unlikely connection between the military and magick is not all that surprising and resonates with claims made a couple of decades earlier about the Nazi High Command during the Second World War and the possibility that they too were involved in magical rituals based on esoteric research into the origins of the Aryan race conducted by covert, quasi-scientific groups like the Ahnenerbe, which was founded in 1935 by SS chief Heinrich Himmler and others. Whether or not any of this information was used as part of the Nazi master-plan for victory in WWII is open to debate, but there is no doubt that Himmler et all did have some really bizarre ideas about how this knowledge might be ‘weaponised’.
This ties into similar claims made in the book, ‘The Spear of Destiny’ by Trevor Ravenscroft, an extremely controversial publication first released in 1972, that the lance that pierced the side of Christ on the cross in St John’s account of the crucifixion, was eventually appropriated by Adolph Hitler in an attempt to use its supposed immense latent power using some unspecified method, in his plan for world domination. It may be that given the reputation of the spear just having it in his possession might enable his scheme, however according to the legend losing the spear resulted in the death of whoever had it, something that seems to have been fulfilled when Hitler finally shot himself in the head with a pistol.
Under the influence of both mescaline and hashish, Aleister Crowley conducted an ancient ritual and encountered a creature that called itself Lam.
In the case of the aforementioned Parsons and Hubbard, in 1946/47 they attempted to create a magickal dimensional portal to allow a divine feminine archetype, in fact the goddess Babylon, access to our reality. Other opinions hold that it was not any goddess, but some kind of demonic child. They did this using the ‘Babalon Working’, which was a variation on a ritual that had been attempted nearly fifty years previously by the noted late Victorian British occultist and eccentric Aleister Crowley, when he used a ritual called the Alamantra Working. It may be relevant that Crowley manifested an entity he called ‘Lam’ while undertaking this project (he drew a picture of it) and there is no question that Lam looks remarkably like an alien ‘Grey’ and it was after this that these (and other) beings started to be seen on a regular basis when alleged contact with ET’s took place.
Crowley was well aware of what the two men were attempting and warned Parsons about his deep mistrust of Hubbard and his motives; something that proved remarkably prescient when Hubbard absconded shortly after with a large sum of cash taken from the bank account he shared with Parsons, plus Parson’s current mistress in tow. Unsurprisingly, Scientologists fail to find room to mention any of this in their sickly hagiographies of Hubbard. In fact Crowley had a great fondness for Parsons, who he regarded as a kind of standard-bearer of his brand of magick, it would be closer to the truth to say that he thought of Jack Parsons as the son he never had. In a strange example of possible synchronicity, Parsons died at home in 1952 when a mysterious explosion in his garage ended his life. It has been suggested that the explosion was due to his experiments with highly volatile chemicals involved in making rocket fuel, (this was after all what he did for a living) either that or, as has also been implied, he was trying to create a ‘homunculus’ or artificial being and his experiments went badly wrong, either way he died.
Is Any of This Feasible?
Again we should pause to consider whether or not any of this is feasible, because if fractures in the nature of reality can be brought about by the use of words, symbols and rituals, this may find a resonance with the arcane symbols and formulae used by quantum physicists in the present day. Examples of this can be found in the laboratories where such strange, albeit cutting edge experiments are carried out, because it has been found that what the participants in these experiments think about what is being attempted can directly affect the outcome. It’s called the ‘observer effect’ and much to the chagrin of the hard-line rationalists it is proven to occur and there is no obvious answer why, or at least not one that they find acceptable.
This by any measure indicates that the ‘observer effect’ is a form of magick, the very thing that physicists would reject out of hand, but how else to explain it? Actually Aleister Crowley seems to have summed this up pretty well several decades earlier when he defined magick as “The Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will”, in effect the ability to edit reality. Once again it seems surprising that the intelligence agencies should involve themselves in such arcane practices, because one would imagine that as the hard headed realists they have to be they would dismiss this as sheer fantasy, but not so.
Is it possible that factions within military and intelligence agencies were/are involved with occult and magical practices that contacted entities from beyond this reality?
One can easily cite the ‘Stargate Project’ which involved, among other things, remote viewing and other psychically inspired attempts to gain an advantage over a perceived enemy as examples of the lengths they will go to. However, it is at this point we find ourselves slipping into other parallel claims of mind-bending experiments allegedly conducted at places like Montauk and we have to be careful before dismissing this as sheer conjecture and nonsense, if, for no other reason than there was a military base at Montauk and its remains are still to there to this day and, some people say, also the unintentional remnants and residue of the experiments supposedly conducted there. These experiments seem to interlink closely with certain occult and magical practices involving time-travel amongst other claims and contact with entities that did not originate in this reality. So, how does the Collins Elite tie into this?
If we consider that this group was set up to see if any military advantage could be gleaned from contact with extraterrestrials and came to the conclusion that these entities were not ET but demonic, we can also assume that they were prepared to do whatever it took to make this work. Among the projects bordering on the magickal being undertaken was the development of such devices as ‘psychotronic weapons’, which could allow the remote influencing of how individuals operate and think, plus a range of other technologies that at first sight seem impossible. By our standards they are and that includes various spin-offs from work already being conducted on other types of electromagnetic weapons, but once you enter into the dark world of magick then literally anything becomes possible. As an adjunct to this, there was another sinister CIA funded mind control project called MK-OFTEN (an adjunct to the better known and equally notorious MK-ULTRA). For MK-OFTEN, the CIA employed the services of Satanists, witches, psychics and other occultists as part of their efforts in MK-ULTRA at establishing a reliable and effective method of mind control. This being the case then it is entirely feasible that they would plumb any depths in their search for a military advantage.
The Vatican
The Catholic church has been pondering over whether there are more technologically and intellectually advanced sentient beings elsewhere in the universe.
As if this was not enough, there are claims by Catholic researchers that the Vatican has, or at least had, plans afoot to prepare its flock for the arrival of an extraterrestrial saviour, which seems to resonate with the idea that Jesus was an ET. Again we have this odd, synchronistic link between aliens and angels and the notion that the human race is the result of extraterrestrial DNA splicing. It seems logical that an organisation as powerful and influential as the Vatican must have some sort of plan in place to deal with the possibility that if there is life on other planets and that life has no concept of a creator God, what happens then? It has been seriously mooted by the Curia that in that case it is the duty of the Church to make them aware of God and bring them salvation: good luck with that. Again, much of this, although it may have elements of fact, is also based on hearsay. It’s rather like the so-called ‘evidence’ for the reality of UFOs and especially secret underground bases that comes from ‘high ranking’, but almost always unnamed service personnel who dare not reveal their identities for fear of deadly reprisals.
This evidence might as well not be quoted for it cannot be checked; in truth it is evidence of nothing except speculation, but for now that will have to do. However it is a fact that Pope John Paul on the 23rd of October, 1996, while speaking to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences plenary session at the Vatican, stated that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was a reality and in doing so reduced the biblical accounts of how we got here to nothing more than myth. How this will play out in the years to come will remain to be seen, but as a word of caution; according to the prophecies of the Irish St Malachi the Pope coming after Pope Benedict i.e. Pope Francis, will be the last one and what comes after that is anyone’s guess, but according to Malachi it is the ‘end times’…again!
From what we have seen it may be likely that the Collins Elite is real and still exists and their task was to monitor any attempts at making contact with whatever exists on the other side of reality, be it extraterrestrial, ultra-dimensional, supernatural or whatever form it takes. If that is the case then they would have been extremely interested in what the likes of Jack Parsons and Ron Hubbard (and others) were trying to do. As already stated, it would have mattered naught where this information came from or how it was obtained, as long as they could harness and make effective use of it. One of the papers purportedly coming from this group was entitled ‘Deception and UFOs: What we Believe and Why’ emerged in 1998 and in it there is a distillation of their findings since their inception in 1952. What is basically says is that the earth is being prepared for Armageddon and that human beings are little more that containers for souls that can be harvested in the service of Satan. The only way to salvation is, apparently, to embrace Christ as your redeemer and all will be well.
One of the strangest aspects of what came under their oversight was the possibility that a project was underway driven by these non-humans to create hybrids of humans and aliens to serve the antichrist and Satan during the endtimes, the time of Armageddon in fact. Never forget that fundamentalist Christians we encountered earlier fully believe this, along with the ‘rapture’, can and will happen and even the ultra-rational realm of science has its fair share of them. So yes, the Collins Elite probably are real, and seem to be still in existence, for in the murky world of intelligence gathering anything that works, however distasteful can and will be used, although this knowledge is seldom on public display; it is how ‘black projects’ work. Time as always will tell.
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This article comes courtesy of Phenomena Magazine.
Recognized as the leading online magazine of its kind, now distributed worldwide, “Phenomena Magazine” is a FREE monthly publication produced by MAPIT (Manchester’s Association of Paranormal Investigation & Training). Phenomena Magazine looks into the whole realm of the Strange, Profound, Unknown and Unexplained, delving into subjects of the Paranormal, Ufological, Cryptozoological, Parapsychological and Fortean Events.
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Slow Train Coming: The Continuing Religious/UFO Odyssey of Dr. Barry Downing
By Sean Casteel
Science and religion could end up complementing each other. New – more “radical” – trends in physics point to the existence of parallel universes and other dimensions which could assist in explaining many Biblical mysteries and miracles, at least according to one Protestant minister who has spent a half century pondering the reality of UFOs and extraterrestrials and their possible connection to the seemingly bizarre and unexplainable tales of the Old and New Testaments.
Reverend Barry Downing, who resides in upstate New York, was among the first to see that it wasn’t a given that the “good book” was in conflict with the lore of the flying saucer and the possibility that our universe might be constructed of a bit more than just physical matter. He posited that heaven could be a real place – if not in our timeline then perhaps in a parallel existence just beyond our reach. Could that other dimension possibly be accessible through the guidance of Godly ultra-terrestrial beings and their vehicles? What we think of as spaceships could, in some cases, be divine.
Rev. Barry H. Downing
*** Reverend Barry Downing has been preaching the gospel of “UFO angels” for nearly 50 years now, since the publication of his 1968 book, “The Bible and Flying Saucers.” Downing has recently released a new book called “Biblical UFO Revelations” that incorporates hard won wisdom and perspectives gleaned in the intervening years as he steadfastly continues to make his case for his particular take on Christianity and the aliens.
*** Downing is not just an ordained minister and a religious expert, he is also well-versed in physics, having earned his bachelor’s degree in the field. So he is uniquely qualified to analyze Biblical miracles like the parting of the Red Sea from the Exodus both scientifically and as a man of faith. Read more about the “environmental impact” that the pillar of cloud and fire exerted for the sake of the fleeing Israelites.
*** How does one approach the extreme levels of fear experienced by witnesses to angels in the Bible? Is the fear a UFO witness experiences an example of that same kind of fear? Are we actually wise to approach the two phenomena in abject terror and trembling? At what point does a heavenly love enter the picture and cast out all fear?
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I was on the air this past summer with Timothy Green Beckley and Tim Swartz, the hosts of the KCOR podcast “Exploring the Bizarre,” with their special guest, the Presbyterian minister Dr. Barry Downing. In a commercial break, during which we all chatted but the audience could not hear us, Downing informed us that he had sufficient new material for a physical/print book.
Thinking quickly on his feet, Tim Beckley wasted no time in offering to publish Downing’s more recent writings through Beckley’s company Global Communications/Inner Light. And so the process began for “Biblical UFO Revelations,” a book that is a long overdue reprise from an important pioneer in the ancient aliens school of UFO interpretation.
Biblical UFO Revelations By Rev. Barry Downing
Downing made his initial entry into the UFO community in 1968 with his groundbreaking tome “The Bible and Flying Saucers.” The book explored the possibility of extraterrestrial influence in the development of the Old and New Testaments, with particular emphasis on the notion that one can equate the “angels” of the Bible with the “aliens” of our modern era. Which, at the time, was fairly new and unfamiliar territory for the relatively young field of UFO research.
Before writing that first book, Downing had already earned a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburg in Scotland. His dissertation, called “Eschatological Implications of the Understanding of Time and Space in the Thought of Isaac Newton,” combined the religious, the philosophical and the scientific into the kind of whole that would serve Downing well in his years spent researching and writing about UFOs.
When Downing returned from Scotland in May of 1966, he set up shop in his in-laws’ basement and wrote his book while he awaited his first church assignment as a newly ordained minister. He finished the writing one week before taking a job at the Northminster Presbyterian Church in Endwell, New York, in February 1967, and the book came out the following year.
“I was hopeful that conservative Christians would be more positive than liberal Christians,” Downing told me by email. “It turned out to be the case that neither liberals nor conservatives liked my book. So in a sense I was treated ‘fairly’ by both sides.”
THE ‘ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT’ OF A UFO
The parting of the Red Sea is particularly interesting to Downing, and he gives it 20 pages of examination in “The Bible and Flying Saucers” and devotes a chapter to it in the new book, “Biblical UFO Revelations.”
Did an extraterrestrial space ship use its propulsion system to part the waters of the Red Sea?
“My argument is that the Exodus UFO, the pillar of cloud and fire,” he explained, “which appeared cloud-like during the day and glowed in the dark, used its propulsion system to split the waters of the Red Sea and save Israel from the Egyptians. The reason the parting of the Red Sea is so important is that it tells us in detail the environmental impact of the UFO presence. Modern researchers go to landing spots with Geiger counters and all kinds of equipment in order to study the environmental impact of a flying saucer landing. Exodus 14:19-30 is a very detailed environmental impact statement.”
Downing says he differs from the standard biblical interpretation that a “strong wind” was used to part the sea, because a wind strong enough to do that would also have blown Moses and the Israelites into the sky. The biblical text says the ground was dry when the Israelites crossed over, but since the escape was taking place at night, it could not have been dried by the sun. Downing suggests that some kind of microwave effect may have been involved.
“I believe the best explanation for the parting of the Red Sea,” he said, “is that the pillar of cloud and fire was some type of spaceship, and those in charge of the spaceship planned the parting of the sea well in advance, to save Israel from the Egyptians and to keep Israel from going back to Egypt, once the Jews discovered that the whole Exodus process was not a walk in the park.”
THE NEW PHYSICS: WHAT THE YEARS HAVE TAUGHT DOWNING
Downing has kept up with the worlds of UFOlogy and physics. His bachelor’s degree is in physics, which he earned while on scholarship at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York.
“When I published ‘The Bible and Flying Saucers’ in 1968,” Downing writes in “Biblical UFO Revelations,” “I had one major concern about connecting UFOs to biblical angels. The biblical view of angels was they were eternal beings, they had eternal life. My understanding of the scientific worldview at that time was that we live in a ‘running down universe,’ meaning that at some time in the future the universe will run out of energy and die. If this were true, then no one living in this universe could be eternal.
Dr. Downing contends that Biblical angels could have been of extraterrestrial origin or perhaps from another realm or dimension.
“I began to explore the possibility,’ he continues, “that there might be more than one universe, that there might be a way to escape from the space-time continuum of our universe into a world that did not decay, did not run down. I thought Einstein’s Theory of Relativity offered us the freedom to explore some possibilities within the framework of the as yet unfinished science of advanced physics. With that in mind, I began to look at the New Testament ideas of the angelic world, looking for ‘some way out’ of our universe, and looked for the possibility that UFOs did not come from our universe, but rather from another dimension.”
These ideas are a large part of chapter five of the first book. Downing’s optimistic search for a dimension that is truly eternal was met by the typical scorn his work receives from mainstream Christianity.
“The Christianity Today review of my book,” Downing writes, “was predictably negative about Chapter Five. ‘Space does not permit a complete account of the scientific distortions contained in the book. In the preface, Downing states that he is not an authority on Einstein or on heaven. This does not deter him, however, from devoting a chapter to the question, “Where Is Heaven?” He admits that his discussion reads very much like science fiction and is not necessarily true, but it may, he says, “help to set our minds free from the somewhat depressing agnosticism we now find ourselves in when we even begin to entertain the idea that we might live eternally – as part of God’s plan.” He then proceeds, with complete abandon, to do violence to both Einstein and heaven with over 20 pages of pure speculation.’”
[The review, which was published in the June 21, 1968, issue of Christianity Today, was written by Albert L. Hedrich and entitled “Flying Saucers in the Bible?”]
Was the Star of Bethlehem a possible UFO that led the Wise Men to Jesus’s birth place?
In that same section of “Biblical UFO Revelations,” Downing summarizes the liberal and conservative objections to his work.
“Liberals do not want me to take stories like the parting of the Red Sea literally,” Downing writes, “they want it to be poetry, mythology. They want to keep science out of the Bible. Religion is not about reality. It is about something that we make up in our heads, much like music and poetry. Religion may have a beauty about it, it may represent human psychological longings, but it has nothing to do with the physical world.
“The issue with conservatives is quite different,” he goes on. “It has been around 50 years since the publication of my book and I still can’t understand the conservative attack on my work. The conservative Christian mentality seems to be this: the church is a fort, the fort protects the basic treasure we have, which is the gospel, and the task of Christians is to attack all enemies who are trying to destroy the fort. They might be atheists (or other non-Christian religions, New Age mysticism, etc.) or they might be false prophets, or, as Gary Bates says of me, ‘former believers who have fallen away.’ Within this assumption, everyone has to be tested to see if he or she is a true believer or an enemy.”
Downing says it is obvious that the point of view of people like Hedrich is that Downing is the enemy, having done violence to both Einstein and heaven. Downing’s speculation amounts to bombs being dropped on the Christian fort.
“Does Hedrich know where heaven is?” Downing asks. “If he does, he does not tell us in his review. Apparently he thinks it is sinful even to wonder about it. Since when is being full of wonder a sin? Since when is it a sin to believe that ‘with God all things are possible?’” (Matthew 19:26)
The church is not a fort built to defend the gospel, according to Downing. God himself is our fort. We are not called to live in a fort, we are called to live in the wilderness with God, on a journey where we are moving toward the kingdom of God.
“If you hole up in a fort, you will not arrive at the kingdom of heaven,” Downing cautions. “The incarnation of Christ means this journey through the wilderness is so important to God that God became human in Jesus, and lived, and died, on the journey with us. On this trip, we look for signs of buried treasure.” (Matthew 13:44)
THE UFO PHENOMENON AS ‘BURIED TREASURE’
UFOs appear in the sky in many religious frescos – they seem to symbolize it as representative of “the others” in our skies.
For around 50 years now, Downing has been pointing at UFOs and saying, “This may be buried treasure hidden for us to find.”
The UFOs are not buried in dirt, of course.
“They’re buried by the greed and lust for power of the military-industrial complex,” he writes, “which decided years ago that UFO truth needed to be kept from us. Our modern Pharaohs are no different from the Pharaoh who challenged the God of Moses. I suspect that many world leaders did not want us to even think about the possibility that the angels of God are not only watching us, but are, on occasion, shutting down our nuclear missile sites.
“And I suspect that for many conservative Christians, defending fortress America and fortress Gospel are so similar, that seeing UFOs as demons, rather than angels, enemies of both America’s military power, and enemies of the Gospel, was a very natural way to interpret the UFO mystery. This is my best understanding of why I am not only the enemy of liberal Protestants, but also conservative Protestants. By and large, it is Roman Catholics who have not demonized me.”
THE ROLE FEAR PLAYS IN THE UFO DRAMA
When I interviewed Downing by email for an introduction to “Biblical UFO Revelations,” I asked him about how fear often plays a major role in the UFO drama, especially in terms of the alien abduction experience.
“We are inclined to think fear is a bad thing,” he replied, “and in a sense it is. If God in His essence is love, then ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.’ (1 John 4:18) At the same time, we are called, according to Paul, ‘to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.’ (Philippians 2:12) The biblical view is, the closer we come to knowing God’s love, the less we will fear. Nevertheless, inclined as we are to sin, to pride, to jealousy, we need to live our lives in fear and trembling, aware that we are never more than a bad thought away from offending God and hurting the divine love bond.
“Fear is very much a dimension of our modern UFO story,” he continued. “One reason for governments of the world keeping UFO information secret is that release of the information would lead to panic, the stock market would crash, the world economy would be destroyed.”
Downing also offered an interesting analogy.
“If a stranger walks into my house and points a gun at me, fear will be my response, and it is a very appropriate response. I may die if I do not fear the intruder; I may die even if I do fear the intruder. But fear in this situation gives me a survival edge, a better chance of not being killed. I will treat the stranger with the gun with respect. The basic idea of God is that He is the one with the gun. He has the power to take our life, or save it, even to raise us from the dead. So fear of God as a sign of respect is an appropriate response.”
Downing even theorizes that Jesus could have been taken off the planet in a “spaceship” following his having risen from the dead.
When the angels appeared to the shepherds in the fields, Downing said, fear was the understandable response of the shepherds. “The angel said to the shepherds, ‘Be not afraid, for behold, I bring you news of great joy.’ (Luke 2:10) Fear of angels when they appear is a frequent response reported in the Bible. An angel of God descended from the sky and rolled back the tomb where Jesus was buried. ‘And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men.’ (Matthew 28:4)
“Whenever we meet a strange power greater than ourselves, fear is a natural response. It is a frequent response for by those who have a UFO encounter, or have an abduction experience, or have a bedroom visitation from an alien. Fear of aliens is no more proof they are evil than fear of angels proves THEY are evil.”
Downing also commented on the abduction experiences of Betty Andreasson Luca and Whitley Strieber, calling their stories “mini forms of disclosure.”
“They are not disclosure at a political level,” Downing said, “that is, landing on the White House lawn and saying ‘Take me to your leader.’ But modern UFO abductions are a limited form of disclosure, examples of what I call ‘targeted intervention.’ The Second Coming of Christ, according to Christian hope, would be a form of an angelic army invasion. At the same time, the biblical story of the angel at the tomb of Jesus, or the conversion of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, represent forms of ‘targeted intervention.’
“The story of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt seems to be something like a major invasion,” he continued, “but the ‘pillar of cloud and fire’ keeps its distance from both Pharaoh and the Jewish people. And the Jewish story has spiritual and moral power in human culture to this day – proof that targeted intervention can have consequences for human culture for thousands of years.
“The work of the pillar of cloud and fire during the Exodus should make us aware that, even if modern UFOs are working for our good, they represent a power of judgment over us such that ‘fear and trembling’ may be a very wise response to the UFO presence.”
Sean Casteel
SUGGESTED READING:
BIBLICAL UFO REVELATIONS, by Dr. Barry Downing
UFOS, PROPHECY AND THE END OF TIME, by Sean Casteel
SIGNS AND SYMBOLS OF THE SECOND COMING, by Sean Casteel
THE EXCLUDED BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, by Sean Casteel
UFOs: ARE THEY YOUR PASSPORT TO HEAVEN? by Diane Tessman and Timothy Beckley
SUGGESTED VIEWING:
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By Sean Casteel
*** Sometimes it seems like the “U” in “UFO” should stand for “ubiquitous,” meaning they can show up anywhere and anytime. They make frequent appearances in our time, but their presence is also undeniably spread across the sweep of human history – including among the Knights Templar. The medieval chivalric group’s many mysteries remain nearly as hidden as that of the flying saucer occupants, ultra-terrestrials who may have guided the Templars to their wealth and also stood guard over it down through the centuries.
*** Is there such a thing as uncountable, unknowable wealth? Does our concept of what it means to be rich simply collapse when talking about the medieval warrior-monks called the Knights Templar?
*** The Knights Templar enjoyed the blessings of the popes and European monarchs of their time – at least until they were accused of spitting on crucifixes and sacrificing babies to demons. Was it Satan who granted them their great wealth, as some of their critics claimed?
*** There is some evidence to indicate that the Knights Templar crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached North America many years before Christopher Columbus. Oak Island in Nova Scotia is alleged to be where they buried some portion of their incalculable treasures. Will modern technology ever break through the many booby-traps and snares the Templars left behind to guard their trove on that spit of land in Canada?
******
The hidden treasures of the Knights Templar cannot be estimated in terms that are realistic or that we could readily understand. Today, we speak in terms of the Rockefeller Dynasty, the Rothschild banking family, Goldman Sachs, the Clinton Foundation . . . but, even if you merged all the vast wealth of these and many more conglomerates, you would get nowhere near the vast fortune of the Knights Templar.
Not only are we talking about tons of gold and silver and kingly jewels, but unimaginable treasures, such as the Holy Grail as well as the Ark of the Covenant. The Templars also organized the first banking system and many of their depositors were fabulously wealthy beyond one’s wildest dreams. They put their monetary weight behind kings, queens, and assorted nobility. They are also known to have sacked Greece and Rome of vast fortunes.
The newly released book from Timothy Green Beckley’s Inner Light-Global Communications, “Hidden Treasures of the Knights Templar: Secrets of Rennes-les-Chateau, Rosslyn Chapel, Oak Island and the Masonic Order” examines many questions concerning the whereabouts of their unique treasure trove and how it found its way to the New World long before Columbus or other explorers had set sail.
The new “Hidden Treasures” book is, like most books from Inner Light-Global Communications, very much a group effort. Beckley and I contributed chapters along with Scotsman Brian Allan, who has done hands-on research into the legendary Rosslyn Chapel in his native country for many years.
Author and television producer Rene Barnett writes about her visits to another house of worship with a mystical reputation, the Rennes-le-Chateau church in southwest France. Sometime in the late 1800s, the parish priest there became “inexplicably and suddenly wealthy” and set about making expensive improvements to the church. Was he the lucky finder of Templar treasure?
Hercules Invictus is a scholar of Greek mythology who goes by the adopted name of one of the great Olympian heroes. For the book, he takes on the Herculean task of connecting the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (commonly known for saying “God is dead), the Holy Grail and the long tradition of heroism that includes the Knights Templar.
WHO WERE THESE FABULOUSLY WEALTHY KNIGHTS?
The Templars were revered by some, despised by others. Politics hasn’t changed much in the centuries since.
The Knights Templar are one of those historical mysteries that has kept historians, conspiracy theorists and religious adepts looking for answers down through the many centuries since the order was allegedly dissolved by an angry pope.
In a book called “Knights Templar Encyclopedia,” by Karen Ralls, Ph.D., one reads that, “The Knights Templar – the famed ‘warrior monks’ of the late Middle Ages – still resonate in our memory today, some 700 years after their sudden arrests on Friday, October 13, 1307. Arguably the largest and most influential organization the medieval Western world had ever known, the Order of the Temple (1119-1312) was the first military-religious Order of the Western Church, a ‘new knighthood.’ Its members were not only powerful monastic warriors, but also international banking experts, agricultural land owners and developers, seasoned diplomats, businessmen, advisors to popes and kings, guardians of assets, ship owners and much more.”
But Ralls also laments the fact that “there is so much conflicting information available today” and that what we do know has been partially lost to history in the aftermath of the destruction in 1571 of the Templar archive when the Turks attacked Cyprus.
“This devastating loss to scholars,” Ralls writes, “has left a gap in history, which has often led to much speculation.”
Nevertheless, enough information has survived to give us a general idea of what the Knights Templar were all about – their origin, mission and later downfall.
THE EARLY BEGINNINGS OF THE TEMPLARS
As bestselling paranormal authors Brad and Sherry Steiger explain, in their book “Conspiracies and Secret Societies,” the Knights Templar were part of a longer tradition of “religious-chivalric” orders, being preceded by the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who later became the Knights of Malta. The combination of monasticism with military chivalry permitted the vow of religion and the vow of war to be united in a single effort – to free the Holy Land from the Muslims.
Two French knights, Hugues de Payens and Geoffrey of Saint-Omer, “had observed the hardships endured by Christian pilgrims en route to Jerusalem and decided to serve as guides and protectors for the defenseless travelers.”
The two Frenchmen had only one horse between them, but soon gained some notoriety for their service to helpless wayfarers, which inspired seven other nights to join them. The group was then known as the “Poor Soldiers of the Holy City,” having bound themselves to the traditional vows of obedience, chastity and poverty. They added oaths to defend the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and to protect the pilgrims who journeyed there.
“Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, granted the humble knights quarters on the site of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem,” the Steigers write, “and it was because of this location that they became known as the Knights of the Temple of Solomon and later as the Knights Templar or the Knights of the Red Cross. According to tradition, it was also amidst the ruins of Solomon’s Temple that the knights uncovered the holy relics that would transform their order of poverty and humility into one of the wealthiest and most powerful organizations in Europe.”
THE DECAPITATED JESUS SPEAKS
It is claimed that the Templars, while being sheltered in Jerusalem, unearthed the Holy Grail of the Last Supper along with ancient documents proving that, prior to the crucifixion, Jesus and Mary Magdalene were husband and wife.
Even stranger is this story: the Templars excavated an underground chamber that contained the head of Jesus. According to legend, because of the virtue and bravery of the Templars in defending Christian pilgrims, the head spoke and prophesied to them. There are differing versions of this “severed head” legend; some claim that the Templars spoke to the head of John the Baptist, who was in fact beheaded by King Herod in the Gospel narrative.
According to legend, because of the virtue and bravery of the Templars in defending Christian pilgrims, the head of Jesus spoke and prophesied to them.
The Templars eventually achieved a wealth and overall power that had come to rival that of the current monarch, King Philip of France, who greedily maneuvered to take their riches for himself. The king sought the help of Pope Clement V, who was reluctant at first to move against the Templars. The Knights had been under the wing of papal blessings for a long time.
But charges against the Templars were made. They were accused by the mysterious Esquire de Floyran, who claimed to have been a member, of having degenerated into a monstrous blood cult who worshiped the three-headed demon of a heretical Muslim sect.
“De Floyran swore that he had seen initiates in the order spitting upon crucifixes,” the Steigers write, “participating in vile rites, even sacrificing babies to demons.”
Clement bowed to pressure and gave his approval for a judicial inquiry, and the knights were charged with heresy and immorality. In 1307, 900 knights were arrested and their properties and holdings seized. The prosecution was often forced to use torture to obtain confessions. The grand master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, pleaded the innocence of the order against all charges but was nevertheless tortured, along with 140 other knights, by the rack, the thumbscrew, the pincers, the branding iron and fire. Thirty-six died under torture without speaking while the remainder confessed to every charge leveled against them.
As the Steigers report: “In 1314, as he was being burned to death on a scaffold erected for the occasion in front of Notre Dame, Jacques de Molay recanted the confession he had given under torture and proclaimed his innocence to Pope Clement V and King Philip – and he invited them to meet him at heaven’s gate. When both dignitaries died soon after de Molay’s execution, it seemed to the public at large that the grand master and the Knights Templar had been innocent of the charges of heresy.”
Meanwhile, in todays’ “politically correct” climate, the Templars are still sometimes demonized for:
*** The death and destruction they caused in the Crusades.
*** Supposedly occult or pagan rituals (based on hearsay from anti-Templar material promulgated by the Catholic Church as it sought to bring the Templars “to heel,” fearing that their power and the respect in which they were held by the populace would ultimately bring down the papacy.)
*** Confessions made by Templars, given while being tortured, or the later “revealed” confessions made public by the Inquisition.
*** The complete and total disappearance without a trace of the medieval organization, which fuels speculation and conspiracy theories, still rampant some 700 years later, that assume the organization had a huge membership, unlike the reality of barely a couple of hundred.
ROSSLYN CHAPEL AND THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
When studying subjects like UFOs and occult phenomena, one tends to continually rediscover the interrelatedness of things. For instance, a modern gray alien is closely related to ancient descriptions of both angels and demons, and all three types of those paranormal entities often spill over into encounters with ghosts and other manifestations of communication from the departed. Some researchers, like Raymond Fowler and Dr. Kenneth Ring, make a definite connection between alien abduction and Near-Death-Experiences, arguing that the same otherworldly beings are present in both kinds of encounters and represent contact with creatures that exert a hopefully benevolent power over our very souls.
So it is with sacred sites as well. Some locations on this planet seem to radiate a kind of energy that transcends the limits of space and time and opens doorways for discerning mortals to step through into planes of existence that vibrate at a much higher frequency than everyday life on this planet allows for. It’s similar to that familiar catchphrase from real estate: Location, location, location.
Rosslyn Chapel is a majestic sight after all these years, attracting tourists from all over the world who come in search of religious truth.
In this instance, we take up the study of Rosslyn Chapel, located in the Midlothia section of Scotland. Longtime paranormal researcher Brian J. Allan, in his book “Rosslyn Chapel: Occult Secrets and Esoteric Treasures Revealed,” published by Global Communications, offers his conclusions after many years of inquiry. If ever a particular place on Earth served as a “hot contact” with the strange, Rosslyn Chapel should certainly qualify.
“Over the years, especially in recent times” Allan writes, “much as been written about this small, ornate, 15th century place of worship, some of it justified and some not. It has been described as various things, e.g. a place of piety and worship, the retro-choir of a cathedral that was never built, a spiritual machine of sorts, the hiding placed of a dimensional portal, a stone library of Masonic secrets and also an enduring tribute to the iconic warrior monks, The Knights Templar. There is some legitimacy to all these claims, even the dimensional portal aspect, because the means to unlock this strange artefact (a set of frequencies) are also said to be displayed in the stonework, almost literally hidden in plain sight.
An expert on the Rosslyn Chapel, Brian Allan is also the editor of the online “Phenomena Magazine.”
“Unfortunately,” he continues, “the guides who take parties of visitors round the building pointing out its many unique features are unlikely to mention this, simply because it is not in their frame of reference. Why? Because besides risking ridicule from mainstream media, the implications of this revelation are staggering and might even start to unpick the legitimacy of the religion the Chapel apparently venerates. It is easier to take one of the other, perhaps more acceptable connections associated with the building, and that is the claimed link of the Sinclair family with the Knights Templar, although even this has been disputed. The link came about through the political and religious affiliations of Sir William Sinclair, who paid for the construction of the building, which was originally called the Collegiate Church of St Matthew,
“The Sinclair family were assumed to have had strong links with the Templars,” Allan goes on, “and built the chapel, not as a place of worship, but to honor them and their cause. There is certainly a considerable amount of Templar and other mystical imagery carved into the decoration. In fact, it is claimed that the Chapel vaults contain, along with the Ark of the Covenant, the treasures of the Temple of Solomon that were taken by the Templars during their time in the Holy Lands. However, none of this is proven. That said, there is little doubt that the chapel has powerful resonances with Templar traditions. It has also been claimed that, rather than the Knights Templar, the Sinclair’s connection originated in the possibility that they helped found Scottish Freemasonry and the Templar orders associated with that. Whatever the truth, it can never be denied that this beautiful building will continue to hide its secrets from the profane, which was probably the original intention.”
THE GHOST AND FLYING SAUCER CONNECTION
In what has become his persistent theme, publisher and author Timothy Green Beckley continues to argue for a paradigm of the paranormal that brings everything together into a cohesive whole.
“Somewhere along the twisting path of the paranormal,” Beckley writes, “I discovered that UFOs and ghosts seemed to be attracted to buried treasure – either to guard it or lead to its discovery. Both phenomena have supposedly led prospectors directly to the proverbial ‘motherlode,’ or hovered so damn near it as to be beyond mere coincidence. I guess you could say they functioned as a sort of sign as to where to dig or dive – if the ultimate prize is underwater. Other times you better get your pistol or pick axe ready to protect yourself from the walking dead, though, come to think of it, neither instrument can wound or kill something that has already turned to dust. So it’s better to hope you’re light on your feet and can hightail it a safe distance away.
“I have no statistics on any of these paranormal declamations,” he continues, “but I’ve heard an assortment of rumors. Now, in the case of UFOs, we’re not talking about spaceships with humanoid pilots on board, but more likely ornery spook or ghost lights that seem to be under ‘intelligent control’ but not piloted by ‘aliens’ as we’ve come to imagine them – at least that is what I would assume.
“Though I must say that one scribe pointed out to me that if the ancient astronauts known as the Anunnaki were really coming here from Planet X thousands of years ago to create human slaves in order to mine for gold, perhaps they are still searching for this valuable substance – or perchance the slaves themselves are returning from the realm of spirits to haunt these particular locales as a form of retribution to their slave owners. It’s all assuredly conjuncture. Pure speculation. But something uncommonly bizarre does seem to be going on that connects some lost treasures with the eerie sector of the phantasmal.”
UFOS, GHOSTS AND THE DREADED CURSE OF OAK ISLAND – WHAT ROLE DID THE TEMPLARS PLAY?
Oak Island is located between Nova Scotia’s UFO hot spots, Peggy’s Cove and Shag Harbour. But is there really a connection?
As is true of most paranormal researchers, years of study have left Beckley with far more questions than answers. For example, he asks, “Is it possible the Knights Templar buried their vast treasures and Biblical memorabilia, including the Holy Grail, in the swampy waters of Oak Island? Has that legendary hoard been kept hidden by an underground series of booby traps that prevents anyone from getting near the treasure?”
Beckley also seeks answers to these Oak Island-related questions: Did the lights of low-hanging flying saucers lead a teenage boy to the possible location of one of the world’s richest buried treasure troves over two hundreds ago? And are apparitions of one type or another “camping out” to make sure no one is successful in finding whatever is buried on this isolated, windswept locale? And, furthermore, did this same supernatural force at play here put a curse on that treasure that has doomed so many seekers after its hidden hoard?
“Oak Island,” Beckley writes, “is a 140-acre tree-covered spit of an island on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, one of over 350 islands in Mahone Bay. Rising to a height of only 36 feet above sea level, it is situated 660 feet from shore and connected to the mainland by a modern causeway. It is currently privately owned, though several teams of treasure hunters make their home there, trying to figure out ingenious ways to get to the source of all this drama, which has become known as North America’s most infamous treasure trove.
Explorer and seafarer Henry Sinclair: Did he make it to the New World long before Columbus and the Vikings?
“Some say it’s a conventional swashbuckler’s horde,” Beckley recounts. “Others insist the Knights Templar sailed the mighty seas to bury the likes of gold crosses, spectacular jewels, and perhaps even the Holy Grail and/or the mighty Ark of the Covenant. And if that isn’t enough to blow your ever-loving treasure-hunting mind, some proclaim that Shakespeare’s ‘lost sonnets’ could be sealed in a vault deep underground.
[Of course, in this account, Shakespeare isn’t really Shakespeare but the likes of Francis Bacon, First Viscount of Saint Alban, who was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. And since the Bard was really illiterate and could only just about sign his name, someone else had to be responsible for his penmanship. But that’s another story, one which we have covered previously in our published tract by Sean Casteel, called “Shakespeare’s Confidential Dossier: To Be Or Not To Be?”]
“Regardless of what is buried on Oak Island,” Beckley adds, “it has to be more valuable than the Queen’s Jewels as no one in their right bloody mind would go to the extreme efforts that were made to render the treasure inaccessible by an elaborate series of booby traps that have kept the treasure out of the hands of dozens and dozens of treasure seekers and killed a half dozen individuals in the process.”
Templar cross embedded in stone on Oak Island. What is it doing there if the Templars didn’t bury their vast treasure in the infamous “Money Pit”?
But what exactly is the story behind the curse of Oak Island?
“It all started one dark night way back in 1795 when a teenage boy named Daniel McGinnis witnessed ethereal nocturnal lights winding their way amongst the trees on a little island across the water from his family’s home in Nova Scotia. His interest aroused, he rowed out to the island the next day to try to figure out the source of the lights,” says a posting on “The Witching Hour” website.
McGinnis most likely never found out the mystery of what we might today identify as “spook lights” or “ghost lights,” but he did find a circular impression in the ground about a dozen feet across. One’s first thought is that the circular impression might have been the familiar landing traces sometimes left behind by a UFO, but the mystery is a little different here.
It was generally known that pirates in the 1600s often chose the scantily populated shores of eastern Canada to hide their illicit treasures. With that idea in mind, McGinnis and some friends began to dig on Oak Island, becoming the first people seduced by the location’s lure of gold and whatever other riches might lie beneath their feet.
The mystery of Oak Island and its Templar connection has been promoted on the History Channel’s ongoing series, “The Curse of Oak Island.”
But was the fabled hidden hoard really left behind by the Knights Templar, who deposited incalculable wealth at the bottom of a sophisticated, multiple booby-trapped hiding place that even our modern technology has still never managed to penetrate in order to get to the actual loot? Beckley is quite the fan of the History Channel’s long-running program “Curse of Oak Island,” and he awaits the answer to the mystery along with his fellow viewers.
And if the truth they uncover leads us all back to the Knights Templar and their slippery path through human history, we shouldn’t be too surprised.
Sean Casteel
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AMERICA’S STRANGE AND SUPERNATURAL HISTORY, INCLUDES PROPHECIES OF THE PRESIDENTS
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