Monday, August 10, 2009

Did the ancient Maya achieve their astronomical insights through “remote viewing”?

Several people—including Judith, Mattie and Henry—have raised some interesting issues which I will address at the end of this blog. In the meantime, however, JTCapa has suggested that the Maya might have achieved some of their spectacular insights through “remote viewing.” Thanks, JT. That’s a very significant observation.

In fact, I should have thought that one up. I’m a full-time book editor in my so-called real life, and I once signed up a book on remote viewing. I know the phenomenon exists, and, yes, JT, I think the Maya, Toltecs, et. Al. probably used it.

One way to describe remote viewing is that the observer stares at some imperceptible object or event and that his or her astral spirit leaves the body and goes to that phenomenon and observes it, while the spirit is outside the viewer’s corporeal self. Some remote viewers have gazed on distant phenomena or on concealed objects in this manner.

I have experienced remote viewing myself. I went to seminar conducted by the writer and retired military officer, Paul Smith, who conducted remote viewing study programs for both the military and the CIA. At the seminar he ran slides which documented amazing examples of successful remote viewing. One such example involved the remote viewing of an attack on a US naval vessel which occurred a few days later, just as the remote viewer predicted and depicted.

A former US Defense Secretary told me people were in awe of the results the military’s remote viewing program produced.

After the seminar Paul Smith handed out paper and pencil stubs. He had four opaque envelopes, one of which contained a photograph no one in the audience had seen. Approximately 30 people were in attendance. Even though I’ve been accused of having psychic abilities in the past, I wasn’t going to even consider trying the exercise. Among other things I draw badly. Almost as soon as Paul handed me the pencil stub and paper, I began drawing without even thinking. I had no idea what I’d drawn. When Paul opened the envelope and showed us the photo, I was the only one in the audience who’d drawn it.

I signed the author up for a book, based on his experiences with the military’s remote viewing program. Paul Smith’s book was titled READING THE ENEMY’S MIND.

As for my own alleged psychic prowess, I refuse to gamble because I win with frightening frequency—so much so it genuinely scares me. (My refusal to gamble infuriates my friends who would like to bet with me and always try to nag me into gambling with them.) I’m also considered a shockingly perceptive tarot card reader. The host of a psychic TV program once offered me a regular tarot-reading spot on her show, which I declined on the grounds that I was too busy. The truth is I don’t read tarot for money. I don’t know what happens when I read the cards, but I see taking money for the readings them as bad karma . . . at least for me. I can’t comment on other people’s karma.

My mother claimed I was born under “the sign of the apocalypse.” The night she gave me birth, she’d asked my father to take her dancing. A warm summer night, he took her to an outdoor dance place overlooking Lake Michigan. She danced, drank and smoked—as pregnant women often did in those days—then broke her water on the dance floor.

My father took her to the hospital, and she said she had a long, difficult delivery—until 2:00 AM, that is, when the city was hit by a hurricane of walnut-size hailstones. They hammered the town like shrapnel, breaking windows and streetlights all over Michigan City, Indiana, including some of the hospital windows. This holocaust of hailstones was so frightening my mother said I burst out of her like the ET monster, which exploded out of the guy’s chest in the movie, ALIEN.

I have a town newspaper documenting that disaster.

I guess my interest in 2012 comes naturally. As my mother said, I was born under “the sign of the apocalypse.”

Thanks, JTCapa, for your remarks about remote viewing. I know a fair amount about the subject, have experienced it myself, and should have had that insight. Anyone interested in the subject should get Paul Smith’s READING THE ENEMY’S MIND.

Judith also emailed me privately, raising that eternal question, “What should we think?” I will address that question in some detail down the road. The short answer is that our species is notoriously self-destructive—and no more so when facing the specter of possible extinction. Life on earth has endured over twenty extinction events, will do so again, and we’re looking several in the obsidian eye right now. We have to face up to that fact and determine what we can do to confront these cataclysms. Many of these apocalyptic catastrophes are preventable. Instead of facing up to these threats, however, humanity blithely ignores them. In fact, we invent new ways of annihilating ourselves, thus exacerbating the threat of global extirpation.

The threat of being exterminated on 2012 however could have one positive consequence. It has the potential to “wonderfully concentrate the mind”, and if it does, maybe we will start to evaluate those extinction threats and devise ways of countering them. In other words, Judith, your question is simple but transcendently important.

By the way, could you please email me the title of your own book? It sounds fascinating.

Henry, regarding your question about Celtic influences in Mayan culture, I’d recommend you contact randyeickhoff.com and discuss the subject with him. He’s a genuine Irish scholar who has translated most of THE TAIN for me—Ireland’s ILIAD and ODYESSY. (He also translated THE ODYSSEY for me as well.) Your insights will fascinate him, and he knows far more about the Celts than I do.

Mattie, don’t ask me why Indiana University referred to my undergraduate degree as an AB instead of a BA, but they did. I often hear the degree described a BA myself. In Latin, however, it’s called an “artium baccalaureus,” so perhaps AB is more literal. However, a Bachelor of Science is BS, and I hear an AB more often called a BA.

7 comments:

  1. Remote Viewing sounds like the answer as to why the Maya and the Egyptians have so much in commom -- pyramids, feathered serpent god, hieroglyphics, invention of paper, etc.

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  2. If the remote viewing is the reason the Egyptians and the Maya have so much in common, then I have to ask who was viewing who?

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  3. A quick check of Wikipedia indicates that the great pyramid at Giza was built around 4500 years ago, the big pyramids in ancient Mexico at Cholula and Teotihuacan are only about 2000 years old, so it would appear that it was the Maya who were remote viewing the Egyptians.

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  4. I love the concept that waiting to be hanged concentrates the mind. It is an accurate statement about how we humans tend to deal with disasters, even those that are world shattering. A good example is how unprepared we were for World War II despite the fact that it had been going on for over two years before Pearl Harbor was bombed. At least in those days disasters seem to come at a slower pace and if it was something from the sky, there was nothing that could be done. Now we have the where with all to deal with even rogue asteroids and we should concentrate our minds before that noose tightens around the neck of Mother Earth.

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  5. Well, obviously, this bloody thing is having a time working as I wrote a long comment in regard to some of the questions implied in this section of Bob's blog. So, I'm going to try and recreate it and hope that this time it will go through.

    In regard to the question about Celtic remote viewing and whether the Celts had anything like this, the answer is "yes" they did. We can find evidence of this in the Book of Leinster and the Yellow Book of Lecan through interpolation of some of the stories. (And, I might add, in some instances, more straight-forward) We can see, for example that Ireland's national hero, Cuchullain, underwent several instances of remote viewing in some of the accounts of his feats such as The Waning Jealousy of Emer where Cuchullain is taken to the Otherworld (caps is correct) where he must fight the great evil-doers who are set to totally destroy the Irish pantheon. This is a cosmic story in that it is apocalyptic in nature. If the Fomorians managed to destroy the Irish pantheon, then that would have been tantamount to total destruction of the known world. Now, surprisingly, we can trace a link of this story (and others) back to Ancient Greece through the stories presented in which the Irish race, as we know it, came from Ancient Greece, bringing with them several "supernatural" weapons. To make this a quick explanation, I would like to point out that we have several similar instances that show a link between all of the stories concerning an apocalyptic ending dating back to the Epic of Gilgamesh which predates the Bible. Yes, dear hearts, the famous Book of Genesis, the earliest known account thereof, is predated by Gilgamesh. Now, since all of these apocalyptic accounts are similar in structure and form, it suggests that all of them came from one central myth. The Mayan account is too similar to the Celtic account to the Ancient Greek account---all the way back to Gilgamesh which is the earliest known account of an apocalyptic ending. That includes the suggestion that is evident in the Bahagavad Gita and even in North American Indian myths as well. Thus, a central myth is implied.

    By the way, A.B. is actually the correct abbreviation for that degree as is Ph.D. for a Doctor of Philosophy and A.D. for Doctor of Arts.

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  6. I'm sorry, folks, but I forgot to explain the concept of a central myth although I suspect that all here are fully aware of such things.

    When I acquired by A.D. (Doctor of Arts in Theology) after my Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy in Classics) I wrote my A.D. dissertation on the famous (or infamous) question of the "Q" Document that suggests all of the Gospels (all of them, not just the synoptic gospels) came from one central source. For those of you who are not aware there are well over a 100 gospels recorded and others that exist piecemeal. This is a hotly contested subject, as you can well imagine, but the concept of one central myth or account governing all is, indeed, possible. That includes, I believe, apocalyptic studies as well. I hope this clears some questions that may arise considering my previous posting.

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  7. Randy, thanks for commenting. Anyone who hasn't read Randy's books should check RandyEickhoff.com. Randy is a bon-a-fide expert on the classics, Irish literature, the American West, is a genuine war hero and many other things.
    --Robert Gleason

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