Health and Healing
The Brain and What the Bleep: Malleable, Capable, Vulnerable
Finding Peace in a Stress-Filled Day
Prayer, Healing And The Energy Arts
The Secret of Happiness
Stop Pharmaceutical Companies Limiting Access to Vitamins and Supplements!
Cayenne Pepper: #1 Herb for Today's Illnesses
Metaphysical/Spiritual
Does God Answer Prayer?
Mass UFO Sighting in Colorado and New Mexico
The Scottish Lord with the elixir of life
I've found God, says man who cracked the genome
Power Prayer - Unlock Your Spiritual Strength
Children with Psychic Powers
Police baffled by paranormal activity in British pub
Praying Away the Bird Flu - Marianne Williamson
Scientists to check Nepal Buddha boy
We Are One!
The Global Healing Missions of The Aetherius Society
Secrets of the Energy of Love
Peace of the Worlds
Dr. George King - Western Master of Yoga
What does the tsunami in S.E. Asia mean to us?
Tibetan Monks Predict Future
Nature/The World
Total Lunar Eclipse
Sun's Atmosphere Sings
Starlings recognize grammar pattern in songs
Dragons Over Tibet
Prayers for London
Energy Conservation
The ONE Campaign
There Is No Tomorrow
How Highly Conscious Elephants Became Supermen and Superwomen
During the Tsunami in Thailand
Unknown Energy Surges Continue To Hit Earth
Dolphins Prevent NZ Shark Attack
Parrot's Oratory Stuns Scientists
Iceland wants to become world's first hydrogen-powered economy
Lake Methane Could Power Entire Nation
UFOs/the Planets
'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot
In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?
Alien art revealed?
Click here for the UFO Zone
Science
Taking Nature's Cue For Cheaper Solar Power
Earth's Crust Missing in mid-Atlantic
Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough
Accidental Invention Could Reduce U.S. energy consumption for Lighting by 29%
Quantum Computers? What next!
Can This Black Box See Into the Future?
Mystical Experiences
Chrissie's Red Heart Story - May 2002
Pam's Experience - January 2003
Connie's True Ghost Story - May 2003
Dream Relationship - May 2007
Thoughts on Love and Peace
Belief Divides, Love Unites by Chrissie Blaze
Enthusiasm is Caring by Chrissie Blaze
Living Love by Mark Tassi
Cyanocitta Cristata by Mark Tassi
Concentration by Swami Sivananda
Garden of Virtue by Swami Sivenanda
The Peace of Fear by Swami Sivenanda
Threat to Peace by The Dalai Lama
Be Spiritually Active by Dave Davies, Founder/Member "The Kinks," international Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Essay on Love by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Words on Love and Peace by Katrina Ure
Now is the Time for Love and Peace by Dave Davies
Love and Peace by Dr. Richard Lawrence, international best-selling author and Britain's leading mind-body-spirit expert.
Peace on Earth by Chrissie Blaze
The War Prayer by Mark Twain
Taking Nature's Cue For Cheaper Solar Power
Dr Wayne Campbell and researchers in the centre have developed a range of coloured dyes for use in dye-sensitised solar cells.
The synthetic dyes are made from simple organic compounds closely related to those found in nature. The green dye Dr Campbell (pictured) is synthetic chlorophyll derived from the light-harvesting pigment plants use for photosynthesis.
Other dyes being tested in the cells are based on haemoglobin, the compound that give blood its colour.
Dr Campbell says that unlike the silicon-based solar cells currently on the market, the 10x10cm green demonstration cells generate enough electricity to run a small fan in low-light conditions - making them ideal for cloudy climates. The dyes can also be incorporated into tinted windows that trap to generate electricity.
He says the green solar cells are more environmentally friendly than silicon-based cells as they are made from titanium dioxide - a plentiful, renewable and non-toxic white mineral obtained from New Zealand's black sand. Titanium dioxide is already used in consumer products such as toothpaste, white paints and cosmetics.
"The refining of pure silicon, although a very abundant mineral, is energy-hungry and very expensive. And whereas silicon cells need direct sunlight to operate efficiently, these cells will work efficiently in low diffuse light conditions," Dr Campbell says.
"The expected cost is one 10th of the price of a silicon-based solar panel, making them more attractive and accessible to home-owners."
The Centre's new director, Professor Ashton Partridge, says they now have the most efficient porphyrin dye in the world and aim to optimise and improve the cell construction and performance before developing the cells commercially.
"The next step is to take these dyes and incorporate them into roofing materials or wall panels. We have had many expressions of interest from New Zealand companies," Professor Partridge says.
He says the ultimate aim of using nanotechnology to develop a better solar cell is to convert as much sunlight to electricity as possible.
"The energy that reaches earth from sunlight in one hour is more than that used by all human activities in one year."
The solar cells are the product of more than 10 years research funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Massey University.
For information about another type of Nature's energy used in New Zealand -
Spiritual energy - visit http://www.innerpotential.co.nz
Earth's Crust Missing in mid-Atlantic
Scientists have discovered a large area thousands of square kilometres in extent in the middle of the Atlantic where the Earth&Mac226;s crust appears to be missing. Instead, the mantle - the deep interior of the Earth, normally covered by crust many kilometres thick - is exposed on the seafloor, 3000m below the surface.
Marine geologist Dr Chris MacLeod, School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences said: "This discovery is like an open wound on the surface of the Earth. Was the crust never there? Was it once there but then torn away on huge geological faults? If so, then how and why?"
To answer some of these questions Dr MacLeod with a team of scientists, led by marine geophysicist Professor Roger Searle, Durham University, will travel to the area which lies mid-way between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean.
The expedition will be the inaugural research cruise of a new UK research ship RRS James Cook. The team intends to use sonars to image the seafloor and then take rock cores using a robotic seabed drill. The samples will provide a rare opportunity to gain insights into the workings of the mantle deep below the surface of the Earth.
Progress of the cruise can be monitored via a live web link to the ship:
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@sea/JC007/
TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE - AUGUST 28
On Aug. 28, skywatchers across much of North America can watch as the Moon crosses into the Earth's shadow and will undergo its second total eclipse in 2007.
West Coast viewers will get the best show. The entire eclipse will be visible from start to finish in the early morning hours of that Tuesday.
In eastern Asia and Australia, the event will occur on the same date but in the evening, since for this part of the world it will coincide with moonrise.
What will happen
The Moon will track across the southern portion of the Earth's shadow, and will be completely immersed for one-hour and 30 minutes, making this a much-longer than normal totality.
Because some of the sunlight that strikes our Earth is diffused and scattered by our atmosphere, its shadow is not completely dark; enough of this light reaches the Moon to give it an eerie coppery glow even when it's totally eclipsed. It is anticipated that during the upcoming total eclipse the Moon will glow brightest across its lower portion, while its upper part (closest to the center of the shadow) will appear a deep shade of brown or gray.
For easterners, the eclipse will begin around dawn and will still be in progress when the Sun rises and the Moon sets, two events that happen almost simultaneously on a lunar eclipse night.
Joe Rao
Space.com
'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot
The Daily Mail, 28 June 2007
One of the largest UFOs ever seen has been observed by the crew and passengers of an airliner over the Channel Islands.
An official air-miss report on the incident several weeks ago appears in Pilot magazine.
Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as "a cigar-shaped brilliant white light".
Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, described what he thought to be a UFO as 'a cigar-shaped brilliant white light'.
As the plane got closer the captain viewed it through binoculars and said: "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area.
"It was 2,000ft up and stationary. I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a [Boeing] 737.
"But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide."
Continuing his approach to Guernsey, Bowyer then spied a "second identical object further to the west".
He said: "It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can't explain it. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes.
"I'm certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."
The sightings were confirmed by passengers Kate and John Russell. John, 74, said: "I saw an orange light. It was like an elongated oval."
The sightings were also confirmed by an unnamed pilot with the Blue Islands airline.
The Civil Aviation Authority safety notice states that a Tri-Lander aircraft flying close to Alderney spotted the object.
For more information about UFOs and their reasons for visiting Earth, please visit http://www.aetherius.org.
The Brain and What the Bleep: Malleable, Capable, Vulnerable
By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D.
In bookstores, the science aisle generally lies well away from the self-help section, with hard reality on one set of shelves and wishful thinking on the other. But Norman Doidge's fascinating synopsis of the current revolution in neuroscience straddles this gap: the age-old distinction between the brain and the mind is crumbling fast as the power of positive thinking finally gains scientific credibility.
The credo of this revolution is neuroplasticity - the discovery that the human brain is as malleable as a lump of wet clay not only in infancy, as scientists have long known, but well into hoary old age. In classical neuroscience, the adult brain was considered an immutable machine, as wonderfully precise as a clock in a locked case. Every part had a specific purpose, none could be replaced or repaired, and the machine was destined to tick in unchanging rhythm until its gears corroded with age.
Now sophisticated experimental techniques suggest the brain is more like a Disney-esque animated sea creature. Constantly oozing in various directions, it is apparently able to respond to injury with striking functional reorganization, and can at times actually think itself into a new anatomic configuration, in a kind of word-made-flesh outcome far more characteristic of Lourdes than the National Institutes of Health.
So it is forgivable that Dr. Doidge, a Canadian psychiatrist and award-winning science writer, recounts the accomplishments of the "neuroplasticians," as he calls the neuroscientists involved in these new studies, with breathless reverence. Their work is indeed mind-bending, miracle-making, reality-busting stuff, with implications, as Dr. Doidge notes, not only for individual patients with neurologic disease but for all human beings, not to mention human culture, human learning and human history.
And all this from the fact that the electronic circuits in a small lump of grayish tissue are perfectly accessible, it turns out, to any passing handyman with the right tools.
For patients with brain injury, the revolution brings only good news, as Dr. Doidge describes in numerous examples. A woman with damage to the inner ear's vestibular system, where the sense of balance resides, feels as if she is in constant free fall, tumbling through space like an ocean bather pulled under by the surf. Sitting in a neuroscience lab, she puts a set of electrodes on the surface of her tongue, a wired-up hard hat on her head, and the feel of falling stops. The apparatus connects to a computer to create an external vestibular system, replacing her damaged one by sending the proper signals to her brain via her tongue.
But that's not all. After a year of sessions with the device, she no longer needs it: her brain has rewired itself to bypass the damaged vestibular system with a new circuit.
A surgeon in his 50s suffers an incapacitating stroke. He is one of the first patients to enroll in a rehabilitation clinic guided by principles of neuroplasticity: his good arm and hand are immobilized, and he is set cleaning tables. At first the task is impossible, then slowly the bad arm remembers its skills. He learns to write again, he plays tennis again: the functions of the brain areas killed in the stroke have transferred themselves to healthy regions.
An amputee has a bizarre itch in his missing hand: unscratchable, it torments him. A neuroscientist finds that the brain cells that once received input from the hand are now devoted to the man's face; a good scratch on the cheek relieves the itch. Another amputee has 10 years of excruciating "phantom" pain in his missing elbow. When he puts his good arm into a box lined with mirrors he seems to recognize his missing arm, and he can finally stretch the cramped elbow out. Within a month his brain reorganizes its damaged circuits, and the illusion of the arm and its pain vanish.
Research into the malleability of the normal brain has been no less amazing. Subjects who learn to play a sequence of notes on the piano develop characteristic changes in the brain's electric activity; when other subjects sit in front of a piano and just think about playing the same notes, the same changes occur. It is the virtual made real, a solid quantification of the power of thought. From this still relatively primitive experimental data, theories can be constructed for the entirety of human experience: creativity and love, addiction and obsession, anger and grief - all, presumably, are the products of distinct electrical associations that may be manipulated by the brain itself, and by the brains of others, for better or worse.
For neuroplasticity may prove a curse as well. The brain can think itself into ruts, with electrical habits as difficult to eradicate as if it were, in fact, the immutable machine of yore.
Sometimes "roadblocks" can be created to help steer its activity back in the desired direction (like bandaging the stroke patient's good arm). Sometimes rewiring the circuits requires hard cerebral work instead; Dr. Doidge cites the successful Freudian analysis of one of his patients. And, of course, the implications for external re-engineering of the human brain are ominous, for if the brain is malleable it is also endlessly vulnerable, not only to its own mistakes but also to the ambitions and excesses of others, whether they are misguided parents, well-meaning cultural trendsetters or despotic national leaders.
The new science of the brain may still be in its infancy, but already, as Dr. Doidge makes quite clear, the scientific minds are leaping ahead.
Does God Answer Prayer?
Feb. 23, 2007- Arizona State University
David R. Hodge, an assistant professor of social work in the College of Human Services at Arizona State University's West campus, has conducted an exhaustive meta-analysis on the effects of intercessory prayer among people with psychological or medical problems.
In other words, does God - or some other type of transcendent entity - answer prayer for healing?
According to Hodge's study, 'A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature on Intercessory Prayer,' the answer is 'Yes.'
'There have been a number of studies on intercessory prayer, or prayer offered for the benefit of another person,' said Hodge, a leading expert on spirituality and religion. 'Some have found positive results for prayer. Others have found no effect. Conducting a meta-analysis takes into account the entire body of empirical research on intercessory prayer. Using this procedure, we find that prayer offered on behalf of another yields positive results.'
Hodge's work will be featured in the March, 2007, issue of Research on Social Work Practice, a disciplinary journal devoted to the publication of empirical research on practice outcomes. It is widely recognized as one of the most prestigious journals in the field of social work.
Hodge noted that his study is important because it is a compilation of available studies and is not a single work with a single conclusion. His 'Systematic Review' takes into account the findings of 17 studies that used intercessory prayer as a treatment in practice settings.
'Some people feel Benson and associates' study from last year, which is the most recent and showed no positive effects for intercessory prayer, is the final word,' said Hodge, referring to a 2006 article by Dr. Herbert Benson of the Harvard Medical School that measured the therapeutic effect of intercessory prayer in cardiac bypass patients. 'But, this research suggests otherwise. This study enables us to look at the big picture. When the effects of prayer are averaged across all 17 studies, controlling for differences in sample sizes, a net positive effect for the prayer group is produced.
'This is the most thorough and all-inclusive study of its kind on this controversial subject that I am aware of,' said Hodge. 'It suggests that more research on the topic may be warranted, and that praying for people with psychological or medical problems may help them recover.'
The use of prayer as a therapeutic intervention is controversial. Yet, Hodge notes that survey research indicates that many people use intercessory prayer as an intervention to aid healing, which raises questions about its effectiveness as an intervention strategy.
'Overall, the meta-analysis indicates that prayer is effective. Is it effective enough to meet the standards of the American Psychological Association's Division 12 for empirically validated interventions? No. Thus, we should not be treating clients suffering with depression, for example, only with prayer. To treat depression, standard treatments, such as cognitive therapy, should be used as the primary method of treatment.'
For more studies on prayer, see Chrissie and Gary Blaze's book "Power Prayer".
Sun's Atmosphere Sings
By Jeanna Bryne, Space.com
23 April, 2007
Astronomers have recorded heavenly music bellowed out by the Sun's atmosphere.
Snagging orchestra seats for this solar symphony would be fruitless, however, as the frequency of the sound waves is below the human hearing threshold. While humans can make out sounds between 20 and 20,000 hertz, the solar sound waves are on the order of milli-hertz - a thousandth of a hertz.
The study, presented this week at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Lancashire, England, reveals that the looping magnetic fields along the Sun's outer regions, called the corona, carry magnetic sound waves in a similar manner to musical instruments such as guitars or pipe organs.
Making music
Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen and Youra Taroyan, both of the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Center at the University of Sheffield, and their colleagues combined information gleaned from sun-orbiting satellites with theoretical models of solar processes, such as coronal mass ejections.
They found that explosive events at the Sun's surface appear to trigger acoustic waves that bounce back and forth between both ends of the loops, a phenomenon known as a standing wave.
"These magnetic loops are analogous to a simple guitar string," von Fay-Siebenburgen explained. "If you pluck a guitar string, you will hear the music."
In the cosmic equivalent of a guitar pick, so-called microflares at the base of loops could be plucking the magnetic loops and setting the sound waves in motion, the researchers speculate. While solar flares are the largest explosions in the solar system, microflares are a million times smaller but much more frequent; both phenomena are now thought to funnel heat into the Sun's outer atmosphere.
The acoustic waves can be extremely energetic, reaching heights of tens of miles, and can travel at rapid speeds of 45,000 to 90,000 miles per hour. "These [explosions] release energy equivalent to millions of hydrogen bombs," von Fay-Siebenburgen said.
"These energies are plucking these magnetic strings or standing pipes, which set up standing waves - exactly the same waves you see on a guitar string," von Fay-Siebenburgen told SPACE.com. The "sound booms" decay to silence in less than an hour, dissipating in the hot solar corona.
Solar physics
The musical finding could help explain why the Sun's corona is so hot.
While the Sun's surface is a steamy 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,538 degrees Celsius), plasma gas in the corona soars to more than 100 times hotter.
"How can the atmosphere above the surface of the Sun be hotter if nuclear fusion happens inside the Sun?" von Fay-Siebenburgen said. If astronomers can get a clearer picture of what's going on inside these magnetic loops in the Sun's atmosphere, they have a better chance of finding the answer.
Another recent study using images from Hinode's telescope revealed twisted magnetic fields along the Sun's surface, which store huge amounts of energy. The magnetic fields can snap like a rubber band; when they do, they might release energy that could heat up the corona or power solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections, the researchers say.
In the sky! A bird? A plane? A ... UFO?
Published January 1, 2007
The Chicago Tribune
Jon Hilkevitch
It sounds like a tired joke--but a group of airline employees insist they are in earnest, and they are upset that neither their bosses nor the government will take them seriously.
A flying saucerlike object hovered low over O'Hare International Airport for several minutes before bolting through thick clouds with such intense energy that it left an eerie hole in overcast skies, said some United Airlines employees who observed the phenomenon.
Was it an alien spaceship? A weather balloon lost in the airspace over the world's second-busiest airport? A top-secret military craft? Or simply a reflection from lights that played a trick on the eyes?
Officials at United professed no knowledge of the Nov. 7 event--which was reported to the airline by as many as a dozen of its own workers--when the Tribune started asking questions recently. But the Federal Aviation Administration said its air traffic control tower at O'Hare did receive a call from a United supervisor asking if controllers had spotted a mysterious elliptical-shaped craft sitting motionless over Concourse C of the United terminal.
No controllers saw the object, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.
The FAA is not conducting a further investigation, Cory said. The theory is the sighting was caused by a "weather phenomenon," she said.
The UFO report has sparked some chuckles among controllers in O'Hare tower.
"To fly 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable," said O'Hare controller and union official Craig Burzych.
Some of the witnesses, interviewed by the Tribune, said they are upset that neither the government nor the airline is probing the incident.
Whatever the object was, it could have interfered with O'Hare's radar and other equipment, and even created a collision risk, they said.
The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (the term that extraterrestrial-watchers nowadays prefer over Unidentified Flying Object) was first seen by a United ramp worker who was directing back a United plane at Gate C17, according to an account the worker provided to the National UFO Reporting Center.
The sighting occurred during daylight, about 4:30 p.m., just before sunset.
All the witnesses said the object was dark gray and well defined in the overcast skies. They said the craft, estimated by different accounts to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter, did not display any lights.
Some said it looked like a rotating Frisbee, while others said it did not appear to be spinning. All agreed the object made no noise and it was at a fixed position in the sky, just below the 1,900-foot cloud deck, until shooting off into the clouds.
Witnesses shaken by sighting
"I tend to be scientific by nature, and I don't understand why aliens would hover over a busy airport," said a United mechanic who was in the cockpit of a Boeing 777 that he was taxiing to a maintenance hangar when he observed the metallic-looking object above Gate C17.
"But I know that what I saw and what a lot of other people saw stood out very clearly, and it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft," the mechanic said.
One United employee appeared emotionally shaken by the sighting and "experienced some religious issues" over it, one co-worker said.
A United manager said he ran outside his office in Concourse B after hearing the report about the sighting on an internal airline radio frequency.
"I stood outside in the gate area not knowing what to think, just trying to figure out what it was," he said. "I knew no one would make a false call like that. But if somebody was bouncing a weather balloon or something else over O'Hare, we had to stop it because it was in very close proximity to our flight operations." Some joke, others research
The databases of various UFO-watching groups are full of accounts filed by pilots about sightings of unknown aircraft and anomalies that affected navigational equipment onboard planes.
Whether any of the UFO incidents are real or merely the result of individual perceptions, some experts say the events pose a potential safety risk to pilots and their passengers.
"There have been documented cases where safety appears to have been implicated, and more and more we are coming to the point of view that we are dealing with an intelligent phenomenon," said Richard Haines, science director at the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, a private agency.
"We must be proactive before an aircraft goes down," said Haines, a former chief of the Space Human Factors Office at NASA's Ames Research Center.
Haines is investigating the O'Hare incident. He said he has determined that no weather balloons were launched in the vicinity of O'Hare on Nov. 7.
"It's absurd that the military would be conducting aerial test flights" near the airport, Haines said.
All the witnesses to the O'Hare event, who included at least several pilots, said they are certain based on the disc's appearance and flight characteristics that it was not an airplane, helicopter, weather balloon or any other craft known to man.
United denies UFO report
They're not sure what was hanging out for several minutes in the restricted airspace, but they are upset that no one in power has taken the matter seriously.
A United spokeswoman said there is no record of the UFO report. She said United officials do not recall discussion of any such incident.
"There's nothing in the duty manager log, which is used to report unusual incidents," said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. "I checked around. There's no record of anything."
The pilots of the United plane being directed back from Gate C17 also were notified by United personnel of the sighting, and one of the pilots reportedly opened a windscreen in the cockpit to get a better view of the object estimated to be hovering 1,500 feet above the ground.
The object was seen to suddenly accelerate straight up through the solid overcast skies, which the FAA reported had 1,900-foot cloud ceilings at the time.
"It was like somebody punched a hole in the sky," said one United employee.
Witnesses said they had a hard time visually tracking the object as it streaked through the dense clouds.
It left behind an open hole of clear air in the cloud layer, the witnesses said, adding that the hole disappeared within a few minutes.
The United employees interviewed by the Tribune spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some said they were interviewed by United officials and instructed to write reports and draw pictures of what they observed, and that they were advised by United officials to refrain from speaking about what they saw.
Federal agency backtracks
Like United, the FAA originally told the Tribune that it had no information on the alleged UFO sighting. But the federal agency quickly reversed its position after the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
An internal FAA review of air-traffic communications tapes, a step toward complying with the Tribune request, turned up the call by the United supervisor to an FAA manager in the airport tower, Cory said.
Cory said the weather might have factored into what the witnesses thought they saw.
"Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon," she said. "That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low [cloud] ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things. That's our take on it."
Contact Getting Around at jhilkevitch@tribune.com or c/o the Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Read recent columns here.
The Scottish Lord with the elixir of life
The Scotsman, November, 2006, Ian Lundy.
Sir Simon Loccard of the Lee had an impressive family history even before he distinguished himself as one of Robert the Bruce's most loyal followers. His grandfather, Stephen Loccard, had the town of Stevenson in Ayrshire named after him and his father, also Simon, gave his name to the village of Symington.
But Loccard's prolific involvement in a crusade against the Saracens in 1329 not only boosted the reputation of his family, it also provided them with a new name. In addition he returned from the fields of southern Spain with an amulet which contained mysterious healing qualities. It became known as the Lee Penny and has been an object of superstition and fascination for more than six centuries.
The band of Scots who embarked on the crusade was led by Sir James Douglas. He carried the heart of Robert the Bruce in a casket, of which Loccard held the key. When Douglas was killed at the Battle of Teba in Spain, and the party returned to Scotland, Loccard's family name was changed to Lockheart, shortened to Lockhart. The family motto includes the words Corda Serrata Pando - I open locked hearts.
It was, however, Loccard's capture of a Moorish emir - one of the Saracens of Granada - that yielded what was to become the Lee Penny. The prince's mother offered the Scottish knight a large sum of money in return for his freedom. She dropped what looked like a pebble, but Loccard could tell by her haste in picking it up that it was a valuable gem and demanded it as part of the ransom.
The woman not only agreed but proceeded to tell Loccard the story of its healing powers and how they should be administered. It could, she said, cure all diseases known to man and beast. The stone had to be dipped into water, with no words of incantation uttered, while the affected or diseased part was washed. No money was to be taken from those afflicted and seeking cure.
On Loccard's return to his home at Lee, near Lanark, the stone attracted huge interest from the superstitious country folk. They flocked to Lee for its curative powers and watched transfixed as the stone was held by a chain and dipped twice into pure spring water then given one swirl, a practice that became known as "twa dips and a swirl".
The Lee Penny appeared to be an especially worthwhile remedy in cases of hydrophobia or rabies. When the plague visited Newcastle in the early 17th century the city borrowed the amulet, putting down a deposit of £6,000 for its safe return.
A member of the Edinburgh gentry, Lady Baird of Sauchtonhall, was bitten by a mad dog and began to show signs of rabies. Her husband was loaned the penny and the woman, after drinking and bathing in the medicated water, recovered her health. The Bairds considered it a "miracle" and entertained the Laird of Lee in a "sumptuous manner" for years afterwards.
In 1638 an attempt was made by strict Presbyterians to charge Sir James Lockhart with sorcery but it was thrown out by the Synod of the Church of Scotland on the grounds that no magical words were used while the process was carried out.
Gradually, however, the belief in the powers of the Lee Penny waned and there has been no instance of it being used since the middle of the 19th century. Sir Walter Scott based his book The Talisman on the story of the penny and it remains in the Lockhart family to this day, kept in a gold and enamel snuffbox given to Sir James Lockhart by Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, in 1789.
Despite its name it is not a penny at all, but a dark red, semi-transparent, triangular gemstone set in a groat - or fourpenny coin - dating from the reign of Edward I of England. It remains a precious family heirloom and the most famous and mysterious amulet of its kind in Scottish history.
Mass UFO Sighting in Colorado and New Mexico - October 1, 2006
A very strange event occurred on the night of October 1st 2006 an event that caused nearly one hundred people to report strange events to the National UFO Reporting Centre. In my view this Mass Sighting is a huge event that needs a lot of research and investigation. Unfortunately the attention of the media has not been grabbed instead it has been dismissed as simply a meteor without any scientific analysis or investigation involved. The first report of any unusual activity began at 21:35 in Colorado. The events were spread across mostly New Mexico and Colorado state to begin with I will focus on the Colorado events. Tin Cup Colorado was the location of the first event when a local resident noticed what he explained as "four tightly packed objects glowing green". As the strange lights passed over at an approx speed of 140MPH the lights spread out slightly and became equal spaced out from one another. The man and his wife were inside at the time and the lights were seen from inside the house for around 10 seconds.
This first report was then quickly followed by another two the first in Cuchara. The resident living in Cuchara reported seeing "six bright objects" he recalled the direction of movement as being west to east he also remembered the objects were travelling horizontally in a completely straight line, the end object seemed to have a trail of some sort.
This was reported by a wave of five other UFO events around the entire state of Colorado these events took place at 23:15 however the witnesses are most probably wrong by maybe a few minutes or even seconds. This is very possible because most of the UFO's seen the night of October 1st 2006 were reported as going at a speed of 140MPH and even above. One of the most exciting and credible reports of this time frame and also the entire date came from an Aircraft captain who was in flight above Denver, Colorado at the time. The NUFORC reports that this man has a total of 17,000 flying hours over a 40 year period. He is the captain of a major airline and is a retired USAFR Lt. Colonel Fighter.
Yet another report then surfaced from Hartsel, Colorado when a witness reported a total of 8 or 10 objects of multiple colour (yellow, red, orange) flying in roughly a straight line and single file formation. He reported the objects moving south to north with a glow affect. He recalled that a few objects diverted away from the group at one stage as the objects went out of view he noticed that the lead object began to flash blue and then white over and over again he explained he was like a small child on the 4th of July waiting in awe for more.
Perhaps one of the most interesting and most credible reports of that night came from a well experienced pilot. He explained what he saw as "Unlike anything I have ever seen" here is his full eyewitness account of events - "While flying westbound at FL380 (38,000') my First Officer and I saw a very bright, white light at our 9 o'clock high position. The object was just east of Denver at what seemed to be 40 to 50 thousand feet and was moving north to northeast. 4 to 5 smaller lights appeared behind the main object at even spacing, and maintained the same altitude and speed as the lead object. I asked Denver Centre (Air Traffic Control) if they had traffic at my 9 o'clock high. They replied negative. I said "maybe it's space junk burning up" but another airliner on frequency said no, it was moving too horizontal and did not have a trail of burning debris. I agreed. The lights went out as they moved off to the north and east. I've seen many meteors while flying and this was not a meteor. It was not a conventional aircraft as it had no position, strobe, or anti-collision lights."
Amazingly during this time there were other reports of white lights it is more than possible that these white lights were the exact same as those witnessed by the Captain. One of these white light incidents took place extremely close to Denver in Boulder, Colorado were four or five lights (unsure on number) were spotted. The witness stated the following - I was watching TV. The lights were out the window shades were open. I noticed a white movement out the window. I jumped out of bed saying "What it that?" "What isss that?" My husband stirred. It looked like 4-5 very large thin oval shapes, directly in a line, low in the sky heading east, I was looking south. The movement was just slightly south/east. There were long thing clouds in the sky, it was clear. It seemed bright- mostly from the not full moon but also from the light. There was no sound. I said, "look, oh wait you missed it" (the items had just disappeared behind the silhouette of a tree. "Wait, look to the left of the tree you will see it come out"...nothing did. I couldn't believe it. I described this to my husband. The next few days I could not let it go. I went to a UFO sightings website (something I had never done before)and looked for sightings. Several people described seeing something similar at about the same time and day. I did not report my sighting. But then, Saturday, I read the Friday Colorado Daily newspaper, where there was an article about a man who is a meteor hunter. It stated he searched for marble-size rocks in a 50-mile strip of Colorado. There was a picture of him holding a piece of the meteorite that occurred on Oct. 1, 2006. One of the brightest meteors reported in recent years slow-danced across Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Apparently landing south of Colorado Springs. And he was holding a piece of it that looked about the size of a coconut.
Before or after this event there was yet another sighting this time in McCoy, Colorado were again four white lights were witnessed flying over a home. The details were quite consistent with those of the witness in Boulder. Here is the eyewitness statement - Four lights came over the horizon. My husband saw them through our window while we were watching TV. He jumped up to look and called for me to look. I saw them as well. We ran outside to see them, but they were gone. They flew faster than a jet but slower than a meteor. There were jet planes in the sky much higher that we could hear, but there was no sound from the four lights which were much lower. They did not move in a straight line, which ruled out meteors in our mind. In 1997 I was outside and witnessed the same thing about the same time of night in this same place but only one light.
At the same time as all these sightings (23:15) a strange incident occurred involving a number of orange lights in the skies above Fairplay, Colorado. The six orange objects were observed by three people and kept a both a constant speed and also altitude. The witness stated the following - B's report At about 11:15 PM on Sunday, October 1st, 2006, my wife saw unusual lights crossing the night sky outside our home. She called me to quickly come out on the deck to see them. I did so. (Our home sits on a hill facing to the southeast, overlooking the South Park region of the central Colorado Rockies.) There were six yellowish orange (light orange) lights visible at roughly equal intervals, positioned fairly closely together in a 'follow-the-leader' fashion, moving from South to North, at an estimated distance of roughly one mile away from our observation point, low in the sky- (likely less than half a mile above the ground) They were moving at a constant speed and altitude, and no sound was able to be heard. The single light on each object appeared to be emitted form the front of each, relative to the direction of their travel; as they passed and were moving away, the lights began to be blocked progressively by the bulk of each object, so that they were obstructed progressively until they were no longer visible when they were past us by 45 to 50 degrees. The lights were visible for less than 30 seconds. The witness also added that the very next day his brother saw the same light formation pass over.
Amazingly only two minutes after this sighting (23:17) a total of eight orange lights were seen over Cascade, Colorado. The objects reportedly flew from North to South the witness said that he saw the lights enter a cloud but saw only two of the eight lights come out the other side they proceeded off to the distance until they were no longer visible.
After the first wave of sightings yet another wave of amazing encounters would spread across Colorado. A total of four UFO's were reported between 23:20 and 23:25. One incident occurred at Grand Junction, Colorado and involved a total of six lights again these lights were white in color.
Either after or before this event six white lights were also seen over Silverthorne, Colorado the witness recalled the white lights came toward the house in a completely straight line. The witness was with her husband and they both watched the lights float over a mountain range to the east of their home. They both reported that the end lights suddenly turned red and disappeared right before their eyes.
As well as white lights a report came in from Sedalia, Colorado of a group of 5 extremely bright yellow lights. Two people on a walk witnessed this strange event and reported it to the NUFORC as follows - "A friend and I were walking in a mostly southerly direction along a trail which follows Trout Creek, approximately 4 miles South of Deckers, CO. I was looking towards the moon, which was mostly covered by clouds at the time, when I saw a bright yellowish light which disappeared almost immediately upon my sighting it, my first instinct was that it was a meteor or very large "falling star" and remember saying WOW and then when it disappeared (into a cloud probably?), was starting to ask "did you see that?" when it reappeared followed by 4 additional, equally spaced, equally sized lights moving extremely fast from the Northwest towards the Southeast. My friend also saw the lights after they reappeared and we watched until they disappeared over the Rampart Range. We did disagree about 2 things when we compared remembered details. I thought the lights were in a sort of chevron pattern with 4 lights making up one leg and 1 light down from the point making up the other, he thought it was a straight line. I remember joking at the time that maybe "our" geese had headlights cause I didn't know what we really did see. The other detail we differed on was that I thought the lights were yellowish to white and steady, while he thought they were more yellowish red also steady. We commented on the total silence during the entire event, and both noticed there were no other planes visible until approximately 10 minutes after the lights were out of our view. We were in a valley where any type of jet or plane can be heard long before it is visible. We also agreed that there was no visible craft, we merely saw lights, far below the normal jet space and moving far too rapidly to be small planes or helicopters-that we know of. I'm fairly sure it's an unrelated coincidence, but approximately 40 seconds after we lost sight of the lights, we heard 2 rather muffled rumbles, maybe 2 seconds apart. It was probably thunder, but if so it was the only thunder we heard. That, too, is not terribly unusual in that area."
Another different color sighting occurred in Boulder, Colorado as around the same time, seconds before or possibly seconds after because of how quick the UFO's are reported as flying it is very hard to put these sightings into chronological order. The event in Boulder involved four lights one of them was green and the others a sort of red or orange colour. The witness stated that the lights were going at a high speed in linear series beginning from near the ground (the mountains) moving almost in a straight upward.
But after all these events more were still to hit the state the first came with the white lights still out in force a total of four white lights were sighted over Monument Colorado. And were explained as being "star like" in appearance. The witness also recalled the lights being at a high altitude and going at a very high rate of speed travelling in a straight line one behind the other. The witness also stated that at first there were only three lights but seconds after the initial sighting the fourth trailed on behind the first three.
This is the last known event to have taken place in the state of Colorado on the night of October 1st 2006 unless another witness comes forward and reports an event. There were many strange events in Colorado maybe one of the most exciting details of all is the fact that there were seven reports of a collection of white lights it is very possible that the collections of white lights were the same on every report. It is interesting to note that as time went on it seems that the number of white lights seen decreased.
Meanwhile the state of New Mexico was also alive with UFO Activity. The events began with a total of two UFO Sightings between 23:00 and 23:15. One of them took place in Glorieta, New Mexico a resident there witnessed one single large "meteor type" white light. The eyewitness said the following - "I saw a round object through my west-facing living room window at approx 11:00 Sunday evening (Oct 1). My immediate, knee-jerk response was that it was a shooting star, but the object was good-sized (round, white though not overly bright, shaped something like a small but distant moon) and didn't disintegrate, but kept moving intact across the window. I was sitting on the sofa with a friend, saw the object at first out of the corner of my eye, and ran immediately to the deck on the west side to try to see more of it. I live in the mountains in the Santa Fe Nat'l Forest and so what I saw on the deck was through several trees. The object was moving north, into the forest, and by the time I reached my deck it was no longer a pale round object but was something bright, elongated (rectangular like a train with segmented/lighted windows), and it seemed quite close. My friend also saw this (though she did not see the round object through the window because she was sitting with her back to it). I want to add that I am one of the most rational people on the planet, have never given much credence to UFO stories or sightings (though I contingently acknowledge that given the size of the universe, there cannot but be intelligent life somewhere other than here--that's if you take the current situation on this planet as created by "intelligent" life--so I tried to explain the light I saw from my deck: a plane (flying that close and headed directly into a forest? not likely)? a helicopter (there was absolutely no sound)? So I was and am left totally mystified by what this was. I was so curious, in fact, that I convinced my friend to come with me and drive out into the forest in the direction it was headed. We drove for probably ten miles or so on the forest road but saw nothing at all. The next morning I saw on the morning news that other people had reported seeing something which the Los Alamos Lab said was probably a meteor, though it had not registered on their radar (the person interviewed! said this at this might be due to the fact that there was not enough light radiating for the radar to pick up the object--this couldn't possibly be the cause since this object was quite large for a meteor). No one reported seeing anything elongated, such as the object I saw from my deck. I've been watching for more reports about this but have seen nothing else. I'm very curious about any other sightings on that night. Just a note, re. the Colorado sightings on Oct 1--I did not see numerous coloured lights."
The second event occurred in Silver City, New Mexico with the sighting of a glowing blue and white craft the witness stated that the craft was definitely not a meteor or aircraft that he had ever seen before. He reported that the craft was at a very low altitude, made no sound and thought he did not see this event he believes that once out of view the object actually landed somewhere nearby. The witness added the following information to his report - "The next morning, KOAT TV reported that there were sightings of lights in Albuquerque and last night, Art Bell said that he was receiving reports of some kind of lights seen in Washington state." So the events were reported on TV but it seems they did not go very far after that.
After the first two initial reports a total of six reports were triggered between 23:15 and 23:30 the most noted detail of this set of sightings should be the formations of yellow lights that were seen. Both of these reports came from Raton, New Mexico and detail how a large "Golden Star" broke into three and then into seven UFO's here is the report from a resident in Raton - "I have been a resident of New Mexico for almost 11 years and have seen a few unusual things in our skies, but nothing like what I saw tonight...nothing I've wanted to report. My daughter and I were outside having a smoke break when she said, "Look!" I turned around and noticed a bright light in the west, moving NE. My first thought was "meteor," although I've never seen a meteor that size. As I watched, the light that appeared as a huge, gold star split into 3, then into 7 smaller "stars." They moved quickly and without sound, travelling in a straight line. We watched them until we could no longer see them."
After this encounter yet another vigilant resident of Raton, New Mexico encountered these yellow lights the witness reported seeing seven yellow lights it is more than likely that these seven yellow lights were the same lights seen by the witness above. The second witness in Raton reported the following to the NUFORC - "At 11:20, I had stepped outside on my deck and caught something out of the corner of my eye. I turned and saw 7 bright lights gliding silently in a northeast direction. There was no blinking lights, no tails like meteors. Just bright yellow lights that were bigger than stars and closer to earth. I watched them for about 30 seconds and they faded away into the clouds. They were travelling in a straight line. I have seen some strange objects over the years, but none as spectular as this. I felt that this was something I should report."
If you recall earlier on in this article we mentioned that there was also a report of a formation of yellow lights over Colorado. Meanwhile in Cripple Creek, New Mexico a witness sitting out on the decking at the front of his/her house saw a fireball that seemed to drop small pieces - "On the night of 1 Oct. 2006, at approximately 11:20 pm, I was outside on my deck looking in a West/South-westerly direction when I observed a large "fireball" type of object travelling from (approximately) west to east. As I live in the mountains, away from city lights, I am able to see meteorites very regularly. This object was considerably larger, and slower, than any meteorite that I have seen. It appeared to be burning, as something would entering the atmosphere, with a whitish, and briefly green "light" as it progressed through its trajectory. Roughly 5 to 10 seconds after it appeared, it seemed to be break up and shed burning pieces of itself," dropping" them along its flight path. I was able to observe this object's trajectory until it disappeared from view behind the upper story of my house. I ran to the other end of the deck, but it was no longer visible. At no time did I hear any sound. The object seemed to be at a relatively low altitude ( though it is difficult for me to guess it's altitude with any real accuracy, I would guess it was less than 20,000 feet, and perhaps much lower ) had a very flat trajectory, and did not appear to be descending . My object size estimate relative to the moon, given each objects respective distance to me, would be that the object was 1/15th to 1/20th of the moon size."
Before these amazing encounters a sighting of a white object was reported in Sante Fe, New Mexico at around 23:15 the witness noticed a white object out of the bathroom window the object then suddenly turned blue and moved away from the window.
Reports were flying in from all around New Mexico but that was not the end of the UFO events of October 1st 2006 more was still to come. Two more reports occurred in the state the first concerning a green UFO took place in Farmington, New Mexico the witness recalled seeing one green lights with green trail going at a high rate of speed suddenly there was an explosion and the green object split into separate objects of the same size and same distance away from on another. Then the light continued on and broke into 4 separate objects of the same size and the same distance away from each other. In the report the witness along with one other who was with the witness at the time said they would like a proper explanation for the events.
The final events of the night took place in San Antonio, New Mexico a man and his wife were traveling in their car when the man suddenly noticed a large white object out the drivers side of the car. The light then proceeded to shoot along to the passenger side in the space of only 4 seconds this move dazzled the man and he noticed a "burner effect" like on a fighter yet he quickly woke his wife who also noticed the "burner effect" The man then brought the car to a complete stop and they both witnessed a huge blast of fire come from the object and shoot out 5 individual orbs of white light that he described as "like a string of pears" he recalled that the sky was lit up for around 5 seconds. The man and his wife say it is an encounter they will never forget. sam@alienationsam.com
Source and References - Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Centre
Sam Willey - www.alienationsam.com
I've found God, says man who cracked the genome
by Steven Swinford
The Sunday Times June 11, 2006
THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real.
Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man "closer to God".
His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. "One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war," said Collins, 56.
"I don't see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years."
For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to "glimpse at the workings of God".
"When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it," he said. "But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along.
"When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can't survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can't help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God's mind."
Collins joins a line of scientists whose research deepened their belief in God. Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the laws of gravity reshaped our understanding of the universe, said: "This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being."
Although Einstein revolutionised our thinking about time, gravity and the conversion of matter to energy, he believed the universe had a creator. "I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details," he said. However Galileo was famously questioned by the inquisition and put on trial in 1633 for the "heresy" of claiming that the earth moved around the sun.
Among Collins's most controversial beliefs is that of "theistic evolution", which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man. In his version of the theory, he argues that man will not evolve further.
"I see God's hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way," he says.
"Scientifically, the forces of evolution by natural selection have been profoundly affected for humankind by the changes in culture and environment and the expansion of the human species to 6 billion members. So what you see is pretty much what you get."
Collins was an atheist until the age of 27, when as a young doctor he was impressed by the strength that faith gave to some of his most critical patients.
"They had terrible diseases from which they were probably not going to escape, and yet instead of railing at God they seemed to lean on their faith as a source of great comfort and reassurance," he said. "That was interesting, puzzling and unsettling."
He decided to visit a Methodist minister and was given a copy of C S Lewis's Mere Christianity, which argues that God is a rational possibility. The book transformed his life. "It was an argument I was not prepared to hear," he said. "I was very happy with the idea that God didn't exist, and had no interest in me. And yet at the same time, I could not turn away."
His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. He said: "It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I felt, I cannot resist this another moment."
Collins believes that science cannot be used to refute the existence of God because it is confined to the "natural" world. In this light he believes miracles are a real possibility. "If one is willing to accept the existence of God or some supernatural force outside nature then it is not a logical problem to admit that, occasionally, a supernatural force might stage an invasion," he says.
Power Prayer
Unlock Your Spiritual Strength
My husband, Gary, and I returned from speaking at two Conferences in London, England in 2003, organized by international bestselling author of The Field: the Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe by Lynne McTaggart. We were invited by Lynne to speak about the power of prayer and directed intention to over 2,000 people, alongside frontier scientists including Gary Schwartz, Larry Dossey, M.D., Fritz Albert-Popp, Roger Nelson, Rupert Sheldrake, Steven Shwartz, Dr. Mario Varvoglis, and others.
One thing we learned through the theories of "Zero Point Field" (known as "The Field") was that these leading scientists were now proving what mystics have been saying for decades: that we all have control over our world, a capacity to heal ourselves and our loved ones and, indeed the world. Also, that the existence of The Field provides a plausible explanation for many unexplained phenomena, such as past lives or life after death, for many of the world-famous speakers presented evidence that consciousness is not encased in the brain and never dies.
Potentially, the power of prayer or human intention can affect every technology on the planet. This is what Gary and I have been teaching for years through our lectures and workshops and through our latest book Power Prayer. These groundbreaking conferences, where scientists and mystics shared a common forum, were truly a foundation stone for New Age consciousness. Here we worked with scientists to teach man's formidable powers for global good through understanding The Field, and mixing it with our caring and our love for the planet, so that it forms an immense power for transformation.
Love is the secret elixir of life. This is not a new thought. This truth is engraved on the Sphinx, it is in the caves of the Anchorites near Mount Sinai, and on the great rock near Deir, Petraea, we are told: "The Torch of life is fed by the oil of Love."
Just as love is the oil, intentional prayer is the tool that can draw upon the field - the universal supply of energy - and join this with the elixir of love, so that it becomes an alchemical force, to inspire ourselves and others. We can draw upon this vast universal field, mix it with the magical elixir, and use the results to transform our personal and global world.
We heard from one scientist at the Field Conference that there was enough energy in the room to boil all the oceans of the world. It is difficult to envision this type of immense transformative power. While we don't want to boil all the oceans, we have found that, when we learn to "plug in" to this universal supply, other so-called miracles can occur. As Marianne Williamson said in her brilliant Foreword to Power Prayer 1 : "While we are used to looking to all manner of external powers to "fix" us - from medicine to technology to money, etc. - there is today a resurgence of inner knowing that the powers of the spirit surpass the powers of the world."
Power Prayer includes exercises, techniques, prayers and meditations designed to plug us in quickly to this vast energy field. Then we can achieve miracles of healing of ourselves and others, as well as psychic, psychological, and spiritual breakthroughs. These can take the form of inspiration, intuition, closer contact with the other realms, the nature spirits and devic kingdom, changes of weather patterns and even helping in global disasters.
The following is a suggested prayer you may wish to use to begin this prayerful journey. For greatest effect, say the prayer out loud with all your heartfelt feeling, keep your hands raised up, palms facing outwards, and visualize energy flowing through you as a brilliant, white stream of light. This is energy from the field, conditioned by your love and by the intention of your prayer. By raising your hands in this way, you are allowing spiritual energy to flow freely through your heart center (also known as chakra) situated in your aura just in front of the breastbone, and through the psychic centers in the palms of each hand.
Oh mighty God
I offer my heartfelt prayer in thankfulness to you,
And ask that I may be a channel for your peace and love
So that this may flow through me now to all life.
To humanity, in all its diversity of race and creed
People, plants, animals and even the rocks beneath our feet
So that we may know we are One planetary family
Dwelling within Thy Great Heart.
On wondrous Parabrahma
May your divine and infinite power flow now -
At this very moment - in an everlasting stream of light
To bring peace and freedom to our world.
Oh, Eternal Creator, Provider and Sustainer of All Life.
Great Peace, Great Peace, Great Peace
May Thy will be done.
© Chrissie Blaze 2006
For more about Power Prayer, please click here.
Alien art revealed?
THE universal language of, well, the universe, is art, and to say hello, aliens have apparently already sent us their artwork. The work will be exhibited at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, California, from 30 July.
"Aliens have already sent us their artwork, and it is to be exhibited in a museum." Thank artist Jonathon Keats for this. He was the first to consider that aliens will not send us Pythagoras's theorem or mathematical symbols. "If I were [ET] trying to communicate with beings elsewhere in the universe...I'd try to express something about myself in the most universal language I could imagine: I'd send art," he writes.
And aliens, it seems, have done just that. Keats says he "decoded" the artwork from a radio signal that came from somewhere between the constellations Aries and Pisces. The signal, detected by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, was previously dismissed as meaningless (New Scientist, 4 September 2004, p 6).
Keats says the display rights a historic wrong: "Our culture has ignored extraterrestrial artistic expression. This is the ultimate outsider art."
From issue 2562 of New Scientist magazine, 29 July 2006, page 5
Children with Psychic Powers
ABC News
July 24, 2006 - Sandie Bershad says she's always felt different than other kids and generally prefers the company of adults.
At age 12, Sandie, now 17, says she went into a deep, two-year depression because she felt that no one understood her.
She was treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with medication, but as she grew up, she said, she realized that she had special gifts and abilities, including the ability to see angels and hear voices.
"I see dead people. I see my grandmother. She visits me all the time," Sandie said. "I have always been visited by spirits. For the past two years, I have been on a spiritual path, and I have come to help a lot of people with my psychic abilities."
Sandie is one of the so-called "indigo children" -- named for the blue aura some say they see surrounding them.
Indigo children are described as highly accomplished, deeply spiritual, and gifted with psychic abilities.
As with most paranormal experiences, this is more about faith than science. For parents Tammy and Aaren Glover, their children are the proof.
"All three of the older children remember vividly previous lifetimes that they have had," Tammy Glover said. "And Maielaya, for example, lives in lucid, vivid memory of being my mother."
They often talk about speaking with God, angels, or people who have died. Believers say indigo children are often rebellious to authority, nonconformist, extremely emotional, and sometimes physically sensitive or fragile.
"No rigorous scientific tests have proven the existence of these so-called paranormal gifts," said psychology professor David Stein.
However, Marjie Bershad, Sandie's mother, says she knew her daughter was different "in utero."
"There was always something different about her -- more adult, more focused," Marjie Bershad said.
"She was a force to be reckoned with," said Sandie's father, Tom Bershad.
"She never acted like a child. She was sophisticated and in charge. It's the same with other indigo kids."
When Sandie was 2, she told her mother that she had chosen her and her father to be her parents.
About 10 years later, Sandie told her mother that before she was born, her maternal grandfather, who had died when Marjie was 1, had helped her choose her parents.
Sandie said her most memorable experience was when her friend's recently deceased father appeared to her.
"I called my friend and she was crying -- had no idea this could have happened to her and her father. I described what he looked like and she's like, 'Oh, my God. That's my dad,' Sandie said. "He contacted me so I could give messages to her family and her friends."
Sandie said that the father had revealed some private things to her that no one could know about his marriage. "I had to keep that back for a while because I didn't want to say anything when he first died," she said.
Sandie says she can do an accurate reading of a person and tell what is troubling them and often advise them on how to fix it.
"I feel totally surrounded by their feelings, embodied by them," she said. "It's kind of like a trance. I zero in on only the person and myself. Sometimes it's very intense because the person will develop an attachment to me because they feel like I'm the only person who truly understands them. They ask me for advice, so I'll offer options and choices rather than just tell them what to do."
She has even helped her father with problems he has had at work.
"I talked to Sandie about it, and she was able to give me real insight into the situation," he said. "She also told me about an employee doing something not quite right, and I was able to handle the problem."
Some say as many as 90 percent of all children have indigo traits. Sandie believes that all people share her ability and can unlock it if they are open to being mentored by an indigo.
She is happy that she has discovered her gift, after being misunderstood for so long.
"A new world opened up to me," she said. "I felt someone finally understood me and helped open other spiritual realms for me and develop my gifts. I started channeling other people. I felt really in tune."
Police baffled by paranormal activity in British pub
Tue Apr 25, 02:10 PM EST
LONDON (AP) - British police responding to a call about a possible break-in at a pub in northern England Monday found themselves in the middle of a ghoulish riddle.
Officers arrived at the Low Valley Arms pub near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, 400 kilometres north of London, after being told the alarm had been set off, but instead of finding any signs of a robbery, they were faced with a shaken landlord convinced he had encountered a ghost with half a face missing in the ladies washroom.
Although they saw no ghoul-described as a woman in flowing white gown-officers were shocked to find toilets flushing themselves, said Insp. John Bowler of South Yorkshire Police.
Pub landlord Roger Froggat, 55, and his wife Kathryn, 49, moved in a year ago and said they had seen nothing before, despite rumours of a resident spectre.
"I heard the alarm go off for a second time, went into the pub and all the television screens had turned on," the pub owner said.
"I went to check the rest of the pub and standing in the women's lavatories was a woman with half her face missing. I was petrified."
Officers found no signs of forced entry and were left quite scared, Bowler added.
Since the ghost story became public, the pub has become the talk of the town, attracting everyone from mediums to a national television film crew determined to catch a glimpse of the mystery woman should she appear again.
Despite their shock, the Froggats said they have no plans to leave their village pub.
Starlings recognize grammar pattern in songs
Apr 26, 2006 - LONDON - European starlings are not just exceptional songbirds and mimics they also recognize a grammar in their songs in a way that was thought to be unique to humans.
Scientists in the United States have discovered that the birds can be taught to identify different patterns of organizing sounds used to communicate.
"We show that European starlings accurately recognize acoustic patterns defined by a recursive, self-embedding, context-free grammar," said Timothy Gentner of the University of California San Diego (UCSD), in the journal Nature.
Recursive grammar, in which words and clauses are inserted into sentences to create new meaning, is found in all human languages. It was considered a type of linguistic boundary that separated humans from other creatures.
"Now we find that we have been joined on this side of the boundary by the starling. It should no longer be considered an insult to be called a bird-brain," said Daniel Margoliash of the University of Chicago, a co-author of the study.
While humans change a sentence from "the bird sang" to "the bird the cat chased sang" by inserting words, starlings combine chirps, warbles, trills, whistles and rattling sounds.
The scientists discovered their ability by recording eight different starling sounds and combining them to make 16 artificial songs, some more complex than others, which had different grammars or patterning rules.
After teaching the birds to recognize the different sets of songs, nine out of 11 birds could distinguish the patterns and grammatical rules.
"These birds are a lot smarter than you might think," said Margoliash. "They have innate abilities. They solve interesting problems and learn difficult tasks."
Scientists to check Nepal Buddha boy
By Navin Singh Khadka
BBC News, Kathmandu
A meditating teenage boy in south-central Nepal is drawing the attention of scientists after attracting huge crowds in the past six months and earning himself the name Buddha-reincarnate. They are mulling over how to examine him without disturbing his meditation.
Ram Bahadur Bamjan's friends, relatives and managers say he has been meditating without drinking water for six months now and that he will carry on for another six years until he gains enlightenment - as did the Buddha some 250km (160 miles) away in Lumbini in western Nepal. Siddartha Gautam, who later attained Mahanirvana and became the Buddha, was born in 560 BC.
Word spread quickly about the teenager and people around Ratanapuri village in Bara district began to visit Bamjan, 15, who has been sitting cross-legged in a traditional Buddha posture under a peepal tree. Bamjan's eyes are closed and his body firm, encased in a whitish shawl.
His hair has grown long and has almost covered his eyes. Villagers say he has grown weak.
His picture has been appearing regularly in newspapers and people now look for updates on him. Many around Bara worship him as the reincarnation of the Buddha. The tree is festooned and the air has the smell of incense sticks. The dramatically increased movement of people has generated economic opportunities. Makeshift shops have sprung up and offerings in cash and kind are on the rise.
"Almost 500,000 rupees ($7,000) have been deposited in the bank by devotees," says Prajapati Koirala, a senior government administrator in the area. That is apart from the donations visitors make on the spot. Local people have formed a committee to make sure Bamjan gets the right environment to meditate and to manage the influx of visitors and the
offerings they make.
The most frequently asked questions: Does he remain seated like that and meditate even at night? Does he not eat or drink at all? Some say he has eaten nothing since he began his meditation, others that he used to take a milk-like liquid from the roots of the peepal tree at the beginning.
Most people can live without food for several weeks, with the body drawing on its fat and protein stores. But the average human can survive for only three to four days without water.
Followers of holy men and ascetics have often ascribed extraordinary powers to them, but such powers are seldom subject to scientific inspection. But the number of people seeking real evidence here is increasing. Under pressure, locals have asked the administration to find out the truth. "We have agreed to conduct a scientific examination on him," said the local
administrator, Mr Koirala. The challenge is to do so without touching him.
Mr Koirala said scientists from the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology were due to arrive to conduct the examination. It remains unclear how they will do it. "At least the scientists will be able to see whether he meditates the whole night or not," said Deekpal Chaudhary, who sells incense sticks to visitors. Monastery tour Bamjan's family members say they have no idea what is going on. His mother fainted when she found out her son had undertaken an indefinite meditation.
Many worship Ram Bahadur Bamjan as the reincarnation of Buddha "I sometimes go to see him but he does not talk to me," said Maya Devi Tamang. "I don't know what will happen to him but I know that god will help him." The name of Buddha's mother was also Maya Devi, a point Bamjan's devotees have stressed. The family said Bamjan was different from his four brothers. They said he did not speak much and stayed aloof.
"He never touched alcohol," said his primary education teacher, Salden Lama. Relatives and neighbours said Bamjan undertook meditation when he returned from a tour of Lumbini, where Buddha was born, and monasteries in Pokhara in Nepal and Dehradun in India. Friend and cousin Prem Lama remembers Bamjan saying that he did not want people to call him Buddha as he had only reached primary enlightenment.
Bamjan has spoken only a few times since he began the meditation, according
to Prem Lama. He said the first time Bamjan spoke was when a snake bit him around a month ago. Bamjan took the incident as his second test, which he must overcome, Prem Lama said. In the first test he was also bitten by a snake - three months after he began the meditation. The second snake-bite episode led to increased curiosity. After being bitten, Bamjan was said to have asked his aides to put a curtain around him. "In less than a week he asked us to take the curtain away," Prem Lama said. Now another curtain is to be drawn around Bamjan - for the scientific examination.
Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough
by Stefan Lovgren
Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day.
The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains the first solar cells able to harness the sun's invisible, infrared rays. The breakthrough has led theorists to predict that plastic solar cells could one day become five times more efficient than current solar cell technology.
Like paint, the composite can be sprayed onto other materials and used as portable electricity. A sweater coated in the material could power a cell phone or other wireless devices. A hydrogen-
powered car painted with the film could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car's battery.
The researchers envision that one day "solar farms" consisting of the plastic material could be rolled across deserts to generate enough clean energy to supply the entire planet's power needs.
"The sun that reaches the Earth's surface delivers 10,000 times more energy than we consume," said Ted Sargent, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Toronto.
Sargent is one of the inventors of the new plastic material.
"If we could cover 0.1 percent of the Earth's surface with [very efficient] large-area solar cells," he said, "we could in principle replace all of our energy habits with a source of power which is clean and renewable."
Infrared Power
Plastic solar cells are not new. But existing materials are only able to harness the sun's visible light. While half of the sun's power lies in the visible spectrum, the other half lies in the infrared spectrum.
The new material is the first plastic composite that is able to harness the infrared portion.
"Everything that's warm gives off some heat. Even people and animals give off heat," Sargent said. "So there actually is some power remaining in the infrared [spectrum], even when it appears to us to be dark outside."
The researchers combined specially designed nano particles called quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy in the infrared.
With further advances, the new plastic "could allow up to 30 percent of the sun's radiant energy to be harnessed, compared to 6 percent in today's best plastic solar cells," said Peter Peumans, a Stanford University electrical engineering professor, who studied the work.
Electrical Sweaters
The new material could make technology truly wireless.
"We have this expectation that we don't have to plug into a phone jack anymore to talk on the phone, but we're resigned to the fact that we have to plug into an electrical outlet to recharge the batteries," Sargent said. "That's only communications wireless, not power wireless."
He said the plastic coating could be woven into a shirt or sweater and used to charge an item like a cell phone.
"A sweater is already absorbing all sorts of light both in the infrared and the visible," said Sargent. "Instead of just turning that into heat, as it currently does, imagine if it were to turn
that into electricity."
Other possibilities include energy-saving plastic sheeting that could be unfurled onto a rooftop to supply heating needs, or solar cell window coating that could let in enough infrared light to power home appliances.
Cost-Effectiveness
Ultimately, a large amount of the sun's energy could be harnessed through "solar farms" and used to power all our energy needs, the researchers predict.
"This could potentially displace other sources of electrical production that produce greenhouse gases, such as coal," Sargent said.
In Japan, the world's largest solar-power market, the government expects that 50 percent of residential power supply will come from solar power by 2030, up from a fraction of a percent today.
The biggest hurdle facing solar power is cost-effectiveness.
At a current cost of 25 to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour, solar power is significantly more expensive than conventional electrical power for residences. Average U.S. residential power prices are less than ten cents per kilowatt-hour, according to experts.
But that could change with the new material.
"Flexible, roller-processed solar cells have the potential to turn the sun's power into a clean, green, convenient source of energy," said John Wolfe, a nanotechnology venture capital investor at Lux Capital in New York City.
National Geographic News, January 2005
Accidental Invention Could Reduce U.S. energy consumption for Lighting by 29%
By Bjorn Carey
LiveScience Staff Writer
21 October 2005
The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.
An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The miniature breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention obsolete.
LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.
Happy accident
Michael Bowers, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. That's less than 1/1000th the width of a human hair.
Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bower's particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.
When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened.
"I was surprised when a white glow covered the table," Bowers said. "The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow."
Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix. The lumpy bulb wasn't pretty, but it produced white light similar to a regular light bulb.
White light from Bowers' lumpy new bulb.
Credit: Vanderbilt University
The new device gives off a warm, yellowish-white light that shines twice as bright and lasts 50 times longer than the standard 60 watt light bulb.
This work is published online in the Oct. 18 edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Better than bulbs
Until the last decade, LEDs could only produce green, red, and yellow light, which limited their use. Then came blue LEDs, which have since been altered to emit white light with a light-blue hue.
LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60 watt bulb and burn for over 50,000 hours. The Department of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U.S. energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent by 2025. LEDs don't emit heat, so they're also more energy efficient. And they're much harder to break.
Other scientists have said they expect LEDs to eventually replace standard incandescent bulbs as well as fluorescent and sodium vapor lights.
If the new process can be developed into commercial production, light won't come just from newfangled bulbs. Quantum dot mixtures could be painted on just about anything and electrically excited to produce a rainbow of colors, including white.
One big question remains: When a brilliant idea pops into your mind in the future, what will appear over your head?
Quantum Computers? What next!
United Press International 2005
Physicists in Australia have slowed a speeding laser pulse and captured it in a crystal, a feat that could be instrumental in creating quantum computers.
The scientists slowed the laser light pulse from 300,000 kilometers per second to just several hundred meters per second, allowing them to capture the pulse for about a second.
The accomplishment marks a new world record, but the scientists are more thrilled that they were able to store and recall light, an important step toward quantum computing.
"What we've done here is create a quantum memory," said Dr. Matthew Sellars of the Laser Physics Centre at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.
Slowing down light allows scientists to map information onto it. The information is then transferred from the light to the crystal, Sellars said. Then when the scientists release the light, the information is transferred back onto the beam.
"Digital information can be expressed with pulses of light," Sellars said. "If we can store the light pulses for a very long time, we have a memory that operates on a quantum scale."
To slow down the light, the researchers used a silicate crystal doped with a rare-earth element called praseodymium. Laser light pulses fired at the crystal are normally absorbed and don't pass through, Sellars said. But when a secondary laser was directed at the crystal, it became transparent, allowing light from the first laser to move through.
To store the light, the secondary laser was switched off, so the original light pulse was trapped. The secondary laser was directed onto the crystal once again to release the pulse.
Scientists can map information onto light beams using photons, which, like all elementary particles, have "spin." Spin gives them a natural orientation, similar to a compass needle. The spin can be oriented up or down, representing a one or zero. Flipping from up to down has the same effect as switching a tiny transistor on or off.
In the spooky world of quantum mechanics, particles like photons behave in mind-bending fashion, and can actually be oriented up and down simultaneously, until they are observed or measured. This arrangement is known as quantum superposition, and results in a unit of information known as a qubit (quantum bit), instead of the traditional bit.
The processing power of a quantum system -- and it is formidable -- is a direct result of the superposition state. Since the qubit can represent several values at once, a quantum system is exponentially more efficient than its classical counterparts. Just 40 qubits would equal the power of today's supercomputers.
"We're at the borderline from going from a few qubits to many more," said Raymond LaFlamme, director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. "But from a conceptual point of view, we're learning a new force of nature."
Quantum computers will exploit quantum mechanics to perform complex mathematical operations -- like cracking the most complex codes cryptography can dream up -- at blistering speed.
"The process of decryption and modifying information security will be a large application," said LaFlamme. "Entities such as the National Security Agency are very interested in building a quantum machine."
While acknowledging that quantum technology is still in its infancy, LaFlamme described the success of ANU's quantum memory experiment as "a milestone," and envisions steady progress in the future.
"The 19th century was the Industrial Age," he said. "The 20th century was hailed as the Information Age. I believe the 21st century will be the Quantum Age."
March 14, 2006
Praying Away t
