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Ancient Mysteries, T he Unexplained, and Future Science
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N OV./DEC. 2010 #8 4

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TH E N EW CR YSTAL SKU LL EN IGM A IP AD U SER S Download Go o d R ea d er App IN TH IS ISSU E ALTER N ATIVE SCIEN CE What Lies Beneath BY F R AN K JOSEPH M olecular M achines that Defy Darwin BY CASEY LU SKIN AN CIEN T M YSTER IES The N ew Crystal Skull Enigma BY PH ILIP COPPEN S H all of R ecords Coverup? BY DR . GR EG LITTLE Egypt in Illinois BY STEVEN SOR A ATLAN TOLOGY Putting Atlantis in its Place BY WILLIAM B. STOECKER CLASSIC ASTR OLOGY Beyond Sun Signs BY JU LIE LOAR CON SCIOU SN ESS Prayer Power BY PATR ICK M AR SOLEK EAR LY R AYS N ews M ore N ews The M itchell-H edges Is N o Longer U nique! BY PH ILIP COPPEN S With the 2008 release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the featured artifact attained a far higher level of exposure than ever before. Prior to that, crystal skulls had become somewhat famous only in the 198 0s, primarily in N ew Age circles. Today, there are hundreds of crystal skulls, almost all of them of modern fabrication (most made in China) and used in various N ew Age-type seminars. Only a handful are suspected of having ancient origins including the most notorious of all, the M itchell-H edges crystal skull. The movie makes scant reference to the M itchell-H edges skull; yet, that particular s kull stands alone as, by far, the most complex and the only one with a detachable jaw, meaning that whoever made it was a master in carving crystalable to achieve something that modern artisans cannot. Gerald Leandro De Souza, a master skull carver from Brazil with 25 years of experience, notes that the process of cutting the jaw from a skull causes the jaw to break and is almost impossible for any skull carvers to accomplish. Still, skeptics, principally led by Jane Walsh, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian N ational M useum of N atural H istory, attempt to argue that all these skulls are of modern fabrications. So far, none of the claims made by Walsh and company have been substantiated by any actual evidence. Specifically, Walsh tries to point the finger to Germany and the town of Idar-Oberstein, arguing most of these skulls were carved there by the resident artists. H owever, no records of skull carving have ever been found there; there are no records of any carver of this kind in the middle of the 19th century, when some are said to have been made. In short, Walshs theories remain totally unsubstantiated not very scientific! (Contributor, David Childress, gave the history of the Mitchell-Hedges skull in Enigma of the Crystal Skulls in Atlantis Rising, #83.Ed.) The M itchell-H edges crystal skull has a Central American origin. M itchell-H edges daughter Anna says it was found in the ruins of Lubaantuun on her 17th birthday in 1924. U ntil now, the famous skullby dint of its complexityhas been the most celebrated, the most debated, and most unique crystal skull. Today, however, it no longer remains so unique: on August 6, 2009, former Alaskan fisherman Joe Bennett, purchased from a California import shop, another crystal skull, with a detachable jaw, which he soon named Compassion, thus possibly ushering in a new era in crystal skull research.

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Even M ore N ews Still M ore N ews GR EATER DIM EN SION S Chess After Death BY M ICH AEL E. TYM N H OLISTIC H EALTH Living Long BY JOH N CH AM BER S IN TER N ET N EWS iN ews JEAN E M AN N IN G N ew Theories Point to Energy Abundance BY JEAN E M AN N IN G LOST H ISTOR Y Politics and Psychic M anipulation in R omania BY R OBER T M . SCH OCH , Ph.D. M ICH AEL CR EM O Aircraft and R obots in an Ancient Indian Text By M ichael Cremo PU BLISH ER 'S LETTER R escuing Order from Chaos BY J. DOU GLAS KEN YON R EADER F OR U M Directions for Seekers VIDEO & DVD Science Versus Spirit BY M AR SH A OAKS ADVER TISM EN TS

Adult-human-sized Compassion consists of clear quartz, 5.5 tall, 5.5 wide, and 8 inches long, weighing 11 poundsvery similar in dimensions to the M itchell-H edges. The mouth has 28 teeth. Little is known of its origins, but it is known to have been stored in the U nited States for the five years previous to Bennetts purchase. Before that, it had spent 22 years in a warehouse in Africa. The African owners name is not a matter of public record, but initial analysis has shown that the skull does not come from Brazil. Gerald Leandro De Souza argues that, indeed, the quartz probably is from Africa. The likeliest origin is N amibia, a well-known quartz crystal source. Whereas the M itchell-H edges is crystal clear, Compassionmade out of three distinct layersis more like the skull known as M AX which has five such layers. The largest, frontal part, however, is made of the clearest quartz. Behind the top of the forehead is a softer section of less translucent crystal. Behind that is the third layer, separated from the others by a small fissure of iron oxide, which can be easily seen from the back. The possibility that the material inside the fissure is iron oxide was first suggest ed by crystal carver James Z iegler, who added that the material at the bottom of the fissure was feldspar, a conclusion confirmed when the skull was examined by Dr. R ay Corbett, Associate Curator of Archaeology at the N atural H istory M useum in Santa Barbara and Geologist Dr. John M inch on M arch 30, 2010. M inch confirmed that the fissure was filled with iron oxide. These experts, furthermore, accepted that its grinding had been done by hand, and not machine. Discernible pie-shaped areas would be kept by a carver but would be smoothed out by a grinding wheel. Other aspects of the skull, related to a lack of left-right symmetry, show that the work was indeed done by human hands. Corbett and M inch also showed that the natural growth of the crystal aligns with upward pointing teeth. This means that the iron oxide layer was at the bottom of the axis with the face layer on top being the clearest. The carver would have to work against the grain and skip over these fractures, a task which modern crystal carvers say is extremely difficult and well beyond their expertise. A fingernail run along the top reveals the fractures between the layersevidence, says M inch, that the maker would have had to work very slowly. If the quartz were to get hot, it would shatterfurther indicating that the use of machine tools is unlikely. During testing, M inch also noted an air bubble. When the skull is rocked, the bubble moves over half the thickness (about 1mm) up and down in a solution believed to be water, which, somehow, made its way into the skull trapping the air bubble. Bennett has speculated that this air bubble could be interpreted as representing the pineal gland, a part of the brain often referred to as the third eye, and thus heavily imbued with esoteric meaning. R en Descartes even labelled it the seat of the soul, echoing a belief going back thousands of years. M inch also found golden rutile in both skull and jaw. R utile is a major ore of titanium, and is found as microscopic inclusions in quartz and other precious gemstones. It is responsible for many of the light effects that one sees within these objects. Scientists have a hard time admitting that the detachable jaw of the M itchell-H edges crystal skull is made from crystal (it is) and is from the same crystal as the rest of the skull (it is). But no such doubt can arise in the case of Compassion: its right cheek has a foil in the crystal running from the right cheek into the jaw, hence clearly showing that both the main part of the skull and the jaw are from the same crystal. H owever impressive, though, Compassions face is not symmetrical. With its detachable jaw placed underneath the teeth, Compassion looks, and is, symmetrical; but with the jaw removed, it becomes clear that the skull is off-center with its teeth skewed to the right. The only polishing marks visible to t he human eye are under the maxilla. This area was not finely polished, maybe to illustrate that it was hand carved. The rest of the skull does not show any of these marks. Indeed, Compassion leads us to an interesting conclusion: It is clearly made by human hands; but whoever made it had an expertise in working with quartz crystal exceeding that of anyone alive today. In short, an entire lost science of working with quartz crystal is on display. F inally, when we gaze into its eyes, we see that both are not identical; the left is far clearer. Bennett and his wife said they felt it looked sad. H is wife thought it showed compassion and a name was born. Both also felt it held a feminine energy. Bennett has photographed the skull extensively. Some close-ups have revealed a number of interesting subliminal images that Compassion seems to conjure up. When placed on a light box, the skull provided one image which appeared to be an enigmatic head with the outline of a horses head nearby. The key question is whether Compassion can ever be proven to be ancient. As mentioned, the likes of Jane Walsh from the Smithsonian have gone out of their wayabandoning the scientific process altogetherto argue that all skulls are of modern origin. Such bias was apparent during the testing of the M itchell-H edges crystal skull in 2008 , when one member of the team straightforwardly proclaimed that the detachable jaw clearly was and could only be glass. When soon after it was found out not to be glass, the expert exclaimed this did not mean it was crystal even though previous testing by H ewlett-Packard had clearly shown that the jaw was indeed crystal. The problem is that crystal is impossible to date by standard methods, so any dating needs to be by other means. Tool marks, especially from the wheel, have been put forward as key indicators that the skull must be modern (after

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Columbus). This argument, however, cannot apply to a skull coming from Africanever an isolated continent and believed to have witnessed the origins of M ankind aeons ago. The argument only works if we see crystal skulls as a purely American phenomenon, where the wheel is assumed to have been introduced with the arrival of Western Europeans. Of course, the skulls presence in Africa for a number of decades does not mean it was always there. Similarly, the origins of Central American civilization itself remains a mystery. The Olmec dates back to at least 1200 BC, and some have argued for African origin for that civilization. Still, the quartz of which the skull is madehaving N amibia as its likeliest originmeans it must have had an African connection wherever it was carved or used. Whereas there are M ayan legends of how skulls with removable jaws could sing and talk during certain religious ceremonies that were performed in the many M ayan sanctuaries, the question is which African cultures also held crystal skulls dear. Seeing that Compassions existence has only been known for a year, most discoveries about it are likely still to come. If we were to assume that it is indeed of African origins, then we are confronted with crystal skulls on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, bearing great similarities. Are they evidence of pre-Columbian contact between the two continents, in which case the Olmecs are the likeliest candidate, or should we look at much older origins, including the fabled lost civilization of Atlantis? Within M ayan creation mythology, there is a special role for skulls. Ancient temple complexes like Chichen Itza are three-dimensional renderings of the M ayan creation myth. N ear the famous pyramid and ball court is an unimpressive Platform of the Skull. In the creation myth, when playing ball, the Twin M aize Gods disturbed the lords of Xibalba, the M ayan underworld. The Xibalbans summoned the M aize Gods to the underworld to ans wer for their dis respectful behavior. There, they subjected them to a series of trials. When they failed these tests, they were killed and buried in the ball court of Xibalba. The eldest twin was decapitated, his head hung in the tree next to the ball court, as a warning to anyone who might repeat the offense. This was visualized on the Platform of the Skull. There is no archaeological evidence for what type of skull hung there; but seeing that it was a divine skull which spoke and spat, a crystal skull with a detachable jaw could certainly have impressed all visitorsin a way that no other type of skull could have accomplished. Crystal balls are also used for scrying. Is it possible that Compassion was used f or scrying? The various images that people have seen inside of her would thus be parts of the scrying process. Extended staring into the skull might have placed the person in a trance. U sers of Compassion are sometimes transported to another reality, for example, by staring into its eyesespecially the left one. In the 198 0s, when the Central American crystal skulls came to prominence, various atrocious crimes were committed against the M ayan population there. In countries like Guatemala, an oppressive regime slaughtered hundreds of thousands of M ayan people. It took years before the news of this Silent H olocaus t became known; throughout the genocide, Western governments supported the Guatemalan government. Only able to rely on themselves, the M ayan people began to organizebecoming terrorists or freedom fighters, depending on your perspectiveand they began to use key dates from the M ayan calendar for their campaigns, hoping to shake the M ayan people awake and get them to embrace their true origins and common heritageone that transcended modern borders created by world powers. Sociologists have labeled it the M ayan R enaissance. Today, three decades later, the world is very much aware of the M ayan calendarespecially its key date, December 21, 2012and millions visit the various M ayan monuments of Central America. At this moment in time, Compassions existence has already changed the entire crys tal skull debate, showing that the M itchell-H edges skull is not unique in its complexity and that Central America is unlikely to be the only source of crystal skulls. The question as to the origins of the crystal skulls has t herefore been redefined: did various ancient cultures have them? Did an African civilization bring them to the American continent? Or do we need to delve further back in time to a lost civilization, like Atlantis, from which these skulls originated? A new dawn in crystal skull research may have just broken by admin - N ovember 1st, 2010. F iled under: Ancient M ysteries , Stories. O n e C o m m en ts to T h e N ew C rys ta l Sku ll En ig m a 1. World Spinner says: December 10, 2010 at 8 :11 am T h e N ew C rys ta l Sku ll En ig m a Atla n tis R is in g M a g a zin e H ere at World Spinner we are debating the same thing

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