The Tenth Planet

It seems that Caltech may have discovered a TENTH planet in the solar system (Pluto is a planet and always will be*). Gravitational disturbances within the Kuiper Belt have led to a number of researchers hypothesising the existence of a massive planet very very far from the Sun. This planet, if it exists, is estimated to be 10 times as massive as the Earth and is at a distance of 700 AU, and it takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to complete one orbit (90 times longer than Neptune). It may well be the long hypothesised fifth gas giant.



The planet has not yet been directly observed, only its gravitational effects on other bodies. This is exactly how Neptune was discovered.



[Mike] Brown
notes that the putative ninth planet—at 5,000 times the mass of
Pluto—is sufficiently large that there should be no debate about whether
it is a true planet. Unlike the class of smaller objects now known as
dwarf planets, Planet Nine gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of
the solar system. In fact, it dominates a region larger than any of the
other known planets—a fact that Brown says makes it "the most planet-y
of the planets in the whole solar system." 



One key prediction of the planet hypothesis is that a group of Kuiper objects should be detected inclined perpendicular to the ecliptic, and five such objects were discovered. Unlike global warming, the computer models for the tenth planet actually match the observed data. This is how to do real science, not political science.



Making visual observations of this new planet, if it exists, will be difficult. It should be quite dim, and no one knows exactly how far away it is. It is not known where to look, but at least there is good evidence that there is something out there to look for.









* The International Astronomical Union, a good ol' boy's club for elite astronomers, decided to cancel Pluto's membership in the planet club. They took a vote. But a vote isn’t exactly a rigorous scientific argument, so to give its decision the flavor of science, the IAU came up with a definition of "planet" so convoluted it seemed entirely arbitrary.



To qualify as a planet, a body must orbit the sun and be large enough to be at least roughly spherical, two rules that make sense. But it must also have gravitationally "cleared its neighborhood" of other bodies, meaning it has its orbital traffic lane all to itself, which Pluto doesn’t, at least during the most remote portion of its journey around the sun. The rule seemed carefully crafted so that "dwarf planets" like Pluto, Eris and the asteroid Ceres didn’t make the cut.



But that's not the half of it. If the Earth were placed where Pluto is it would not have enough mass to "clear its neighborhood", and so the Earth would not be a planet! That's right. An earth-sized object situated between 30 and 40 AU from the Sun would not have enough mass to qualify as a planet. The farther from the Sun the more area must be dominated by the object's mass, so it gets harder and harder the farther away you get for a large spherical object to qualify as a planet.



But the Earth IS a planet where it is in space, meaning the third criterion doesn't signify anything intrinsic about the body itself! The definition of what is and is not a planet should not rest on some factor independent of the planet itself.



Until someone can come up with a compelling, intrinsic reason (a reason that would not disqualify the Earth!) why Pluto should not be a planet, then I am considering it a planet.

Stuart Hameroff and Deepak Chopra

Did Stuart Hameroff just explain what is vibrating when spiritualists have spoken of spirits existing on different vibrations? At 18 minutes he discusses the different resonance frequencies of the microtubules of the brain. I've watched this four times now and I don't fully understand it, but the the different frequencies of the microtubules corresponds to something that has to do with quantum gravity, and that makes it possible to have different worlds (physical, etheric, astral, etc.) all superimposed in the same physical space. A mind vibrating at 80 hz would be aware of one world (ours), while a mind vibrating at 8000 hz would be aware of a different world, and a mind at 80,000 hz would be aware of a different world, but they would all be in the same place, just at different frequencies, and an observer in one would not be aware of any others. The smaller the scale, from our scale to the Planck scale, the lower the energy but the greater the information processing capacity. That means the higher planes described in channeled messages are actually microscopic in size!



Also in this dialogue is a discussion of zombies, near death experiences, reincarnation, and quantum holography. Runs 33 minutes.

Ancient Versus Modern Views of Religion

"I'M GOD! WHO THE HELL ELSE WOULD I BE?!"



Ancient people were not stupid. Did the Greeks really believe the gods were people who sat on Mount Olympos doing all the crazy stuff in the myths? Probably very few did, but most were smart enough to see the truth of the stories. They were written as a way to get a point across about very complicated subjects in way that was easy to assimilate and remember. The gods are so obviously anthropomorphized versions of abstract qualities. Aries is unchecked rage and Athena is the rational mind that takes over in warfare, the two primary ways in which people fight. These are psychological qualities that are represented as people as a form of shorthand.



It's just like, where did the idea that the Christian God is Zeus + Santa Claus come from? Maybe people, possibly idiots, would look at woodcuts from the middle ages and see images of a bearded God, but those are just a form of short hand. They're like using G to stand for the gravitational constant. When a physicist today writes G in an equation, or draws a diagram of electrons orbiting an atom like mini planets that's not meant to be taken literally, it's just an easy to remember reference. No physicist thinks electrons are little balls circling around the nucleus just like no medieval theologian thought God looked like an old man in the clouds (nor did the Bible writers). And where does the idea that God shoots lightning bolts come from?



Judaism and Islam both have strict prohibition against any depiction of God, and Christianity was like that for a long time too. Jesus had taken human form, so there's nothing wrong there, but God the Father is formless, and everybody knew that for a thousand years. At most artists would depict a hand reaching out from the clouds as a representation of God's interaction with the world, but no one believed God really had hands or lived in the clouds. It was not until much later that restrictions were relaxed and then a bunch of people who probably didn't believe in God all that strongly began experimenting with art and started to depict God in human form.



When losers and defeatists within the naytheist and the "new age" community always bring up the idea of God as Santa + Zeus living in the clouds, this is either a symptom of extreme laziness or is a deliberate malicious presentation of a cartoon version of God that no one believes in so as to mock religion. "I believe in 'god' (Gaia, The Force, whatever bullshit extremely watered-down abstraction "new age" people like to use) but I don't believe in 'god' as an old man in the clouds." Well, neither does anyone. Neither HAS anyone, ever, believed God was an old man in the clouds. It's an artistic representation, not meant to be taken as literal. Don't be stupid. The "new age" person implicitly continues in the original statement "I believe in a god that is my own ego, that permits me to do whatever I want and makes me happy without imposing any restrictions, because restrictions are meanness, not like recommendations from a doctor or a therapist 'if you want to improve X aspect of your life, here's a list of activities you should do. If you want to run a four minute mile, here's a workout regiment, if you want to know Truth, here's a method for looking into the deepest aspects of your mind.'"



Don't be stupid. The purpose of religion is not to stroke your ego, the purpose of religion is to completely and permanently destroy your ego. You're not supposed to like it. You're not supposed to like the restrictions placed on your animal nature. Religion is not a social club, it's not dancing or sticking your ass into the air on a vinyl mat or detoxing with green coffee enemas after a night of anonymous sex and heroin use.



That's why I can't stand the three main groups of people engaged in the whole religion issue, because they're all profoundly misinformed and anti-intellectual.



You have the naytheists who go to revival meetings where they bray about how they don't believe in God and worship "science" which makes as much sense as worshiping algebra. "Science" is nothing, can do nothing, has done nothing. Individual scientists - causal agents - are responsible for all the discoveries of "science". These people read the inner flap of Dick-to-the-Dawk-to-the-PhD's book and then know-it-all-ism takes place. They think a re-packaged argument that the Scholastics refuted a thousand years ago is the be all end all of religion and then they act like douchebag teenagers.



You have "new age" or "spiritual but not religious" people who are suffused with holier than thou mentality because they're not Christian and they worship the cultural zeitgeist of postmodern cultural marxism. That's what being "spiritual but not religious" means: Cultural Marxism + belief in The Force from Star Wars. If the TV comedian tells you to believe something about religion or politics or anything, that's what you believe in coupled with literal belief in The Force. You dare not say God, because that's masculinist. You'll worship gaya or divine vagina or midichlorians because it's softer and not judgmental of deviant behaviour, it's just super duper judgmental of the values that built Western culture and invented everything you use on a daily basis.



Then you have the super duper throwback Lutherians. I think they are called Evangelicals, but they worship the perversion of Christianity invented by Martin Luther, the most Devil obsessed man in the history of the world. The Catholic Church had, and still has, a tremendous intellectual tradition. Most of the great Western universities began as Catholic seminaries. The Church preserved the Graeco-Roman world while books were being burned everywhere else for firewood. Then Luther came along and decided to do the exact opposite of everything Jesus actually said and invented a religion out of it. If Jesus said sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and not to worry about life, God will provide for you, Luther believed to work from the moment you open your eyes until the moment you pass out at night, never have a moment of fun, and hoard all your money like a miser, never spending a cent. Poor? The poor don't deserve charity, they should start a business. Intellectual tradition? One book is sufficient. Read the Bible and throw everything else out, including the newspaper. These people worship ignorance. The more ignorant they are the prouder they are. It's the same worship of ignorance and reliance of a single book that makes Islam the scourge of God. These people are the anti-naytheists. Naytheists worship "science", Luther's followers don't believe science exists. It's witchcraft. The Church a thousand years ago said witches are fake and the world is not demon haunted. It was a much later development, of Luther's followers, who invented the idea of witches and demons having unlimited power. UFOs are demons! They want to challenge your ignorance of one book! Ghosts are demons! Never mind that the Bible mentions genuine encounter with deceased spirits and says they were who they said they were, with Saul contacting Samuel, not a demon impersonating Samuel, and Jesus brought Moses and Elijah's spirits on the mountain, not demons impersonating them to test your faith. That voice you hear on the telephone is a demon! Medicine is a trick by demons! These people are obsessed with demons. That's all they ever think about. Everything is a demon to them.



And that's very nearly all the people you'll find on the Internet, and probably in real life too. Douchebag teenagers who "know" God doesn't exist because Newton can predict the gravitational constant, Cultural Marxists who worship deviancy, and demon obsessed hillbilly Christians who are proud of ignorance. And how far have I deviated from the original topic?

Sri Ramana Maharshi Full Life Story

A 17 minute biography of Ramana Maharshi, the greatest realised sage of the past thousand years.

A Letter from Michael

A letter from a young Marine named Michael who was wounded during the Korean War. Runs 10 minutes. Transcript below.






Merry Christmas everybody! My name is Lee Allan, and the story you are
about to hear has become a Christmas tradition. It's been broadcast for
over 25 years on radio stations all over America. The story was given
to me by Ed Harding, news director of a radio station much like this
one. It was a copy of a letter, written by a young Marine named
Michael, who was hospitalised after being wounded on a Korean
battlefield. The letter was written home to his mother, but it was
first seen and read by a Navy Chaplin. In the letter, Michael describes
what happened to him on that lonely, frozen battlefield. When the
Chaplin first saw the letter, he talked with the boy's mother, the
sergeant in charge of the boy's patrol, and the patrolled members
themselves. Privately, they will all still tell you that what you are
about to hear is a true story. Recently read the letter at Christmas
time and let it stand on its own merit. The sergeant, the patrol
members, and Michael are real people. The story is a letter, a copy of
the original. A letter from Michael.





Dear Mom,





I wouldn't dare write this letter to anyone but you because no one else
will believe it. Maybe even you will find it hard. But I've got to
tell somebody. First off, I'm in a hospital. Now don't worry. You
hear me? Don't…don't worry. I…I was wounded, but I'm okay. You
understand? Okay. The doctor says I'll be up and around in a month,
but that isn't what I want to tell you. Remember when I joined the
Marines last year? Remember when I left, how you told me to say a
prayer to St. Michael everyday? You really didn't have to tell me that.
Ever since I can remember, you always told me to pray to St. Michael
the Arc Angel. You even named me after him. Well I always have. When I
got to Korea, I prayed even harder. Remember the prayer you taught me?
"Michael, Michael of the morning. Fresh court of heaven adorning."
You know the rest of it. Well I said it everyday. Sometimes when I was
marching. Sometimes, resting. But always before I went to sleep. I
even got some of the other fellas to say it. Well, one day I was with
an advance detail, way up forward, in the front lines. I was plotting
along, in the bitter cold. My breath was like cigar smoke. I thought I
knew every guy on the patrol, but along side of me comes another Marine
I had never met before. He was bigger than any Marine I had ever seen.
He must have been six foot four, and built in proportion. It gave me a
feeling of security to have such a buddy near. Anyway, there we were,
trudging along, rest of the patrol spread out. Just to start a
conversation I said, "Cold! Ain't it?" And then I laughed. Here I was,
with a good chance of getting killed any minute, and I'm talking about
the weather. My companion seemed to understand. I heard him laugh
softly. I looked at him. "I've never seen you before. I thought I
knew every man in the outfit." "I just joined at the last minute," he
replied. "The name is Michael." "Is that so?" I said. "That's my
name, too." "I know," he said. "And then we're on, "Michael, Michael
of the morning." I was too amazed to say anything for a minute. How
did he know my name? And the prayer that you had taught me. Then I
smiled to myself. "Heh". Every guy in the outfit knew about me. Hadn't
I taught the prayer to anyone who'd listen? Why now and then, they
even referred to me as St. Michael. Neither of us spoke for a time, and
then he broke the silence. "We're gonna have some trouble up ahead.
He must have been in some fine physical shape, for he was breathing so
lightly, I couldn't see his breath. Mine poured out in grape clouds.
There was no smile on his face now. Trouble ahead, I thought to myself.
Well, with the enemy all around us, that's no great revelation. Snow
began to fall, in great thick globs. In a brief moment, the whole
countryside was blotted out and I was marching in a white fog of wet,
sticky particles. My companion disappeared. "Michael!" I shouted in
sudden alarm. I felt his hand on my arm. His voice was rich and
strong. "This will stop shortly." His prophecy proved to be correct.
In a few moments the snow stopped as abruptly as it had begun. The sun
was a hard shining disc. I looked back for the rest of the patrol.
There was no one in sight. We lost them in that heavy fall of snow. I
looked ahead as we came over a little rise. Mom, my heart stopped.
There were seven of them and their padded pants and jackets and funny
little hats, only there wasn't anything funny about them now. Seven
rifles were aimed at us. "Down Michael!" I screamed and hit the frozen
earth. I heard those rifles fire almost as one. I heard the bullets.
But there was Michael. Still standing. Mom, those guys couldn’t have
missed. Not at that range. I expected to see him literally blown to
bits. But there he stood, making no effort to fire himself. He was
paralysed with fear. It happens sometimes, mom, even to the very
bravest. He was…he was like a bird, fascinated by a snick. At least,
that's what I thought then. I jumped up to pull him down, and felt a
sudden flame in my chest. I often wondered what it felt like to be hit.
Now I know. I remember feeling strong arms above me. Arms that laid
me, ever so gently, on a pillow of snow. I opened my eyes for one last
look. I was dying. Maybe I was even dead. I remember thinking well,
this isn't so bad. Maybe I was looking into the sun. Maybe I was in
shock. But it seemed I saw Michael standing erect again, only this
time, his face was shining with terrible splendour. As I say, maybe it
was the sun in my eyes, but he seemed to change as I watched him; he
grew, bigger. His arms stretched out wide. Maybe it was the snow
falling again, but there was a brightness around him; like the wings of
an angel. In his hand was a sword. A sword that flashed with a million
lights. And that’s the last thing I remember until the rest of the
fellas came up and found me. I don't know how much time had passed, but
now and then, I had a moment's respite from the pain. I remember
telling them that the enemy was just ahead. "Where's Michael?" I asked.
I saw them look at one another. "Where's who?" asked one. "Michael".
"Michael, that big Marine that I was walking with just before that big
snow squall hit us". "Kid," said the sergeant. "You weren't walking
with anyone. I had my eyes on you the whole time. You were getting too
far out. I was just gonna call you in when you disappeared in the
snow." He looked at me, curiously. "How'd you do it kid?" "How'd I do
what?" I asked, half angry, despite my wound. "This big Marine named
Michael and I were just…" "Son," said the sergeant kindly. "I picked
this outfit out myself, and there just ain't another Michael in it.
You’re the only Mike in it." He paused for a moment. "Just how'd you
do it, kid? We heard shots. There hasn't been a shot fired from your
rifle. And there isn't a bit of lead in them seven bodies over the hill
there. I didn't say anything. What could I say? I could only look,
open-mouthed, with amazement. It was then the sergeant spoke again.
"Kid," he said gently. "Every one of those seven bodies over the hill
there was killed, by a sword stroke." That's all I could tell you mom.
As I say, it may have been the sun in my eyes. It may have been the
cold, or the pain. But that’s what happened.





Love,

Michael

Is Peace on Earth Possible?

Kriyananda explains why the yuga cycle gives him hope that peace on Earth is possible in the future.



Now, Kriyananda is not some up in the air "crazy wisdom" guru who uses religion to disguise socialism. He does not go out and promote hedonism under the guise of tantra, though he has made a number of gross errors in his life sexually. He has stated that government spending is responsible for collapsing the economy, he has built several successful communities around the world that have thrived for decades, he is not a cultural Marxist or an economic Marxist, but he does understand the value of community and working together rather than competing.



How can we get peace on Earth? The realist answer is that the old guard of super rich super greedy New World Order elite need to die out. People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and the Coca Cola Brothers and Mark Suckerface. People for whom there is not enough money in the universe. People who would sell their own mother for a penny and commit treason to get a no-bid contract. Then the younger people can learn from the example of Ananda and move toward communal living.

The Pyramid Deception

There is a lie that is oft perpetuated by archaeologists who are members of the scientistic magisterium. It is claimed that prior to the invention of modern building techniques and materials the ONLY way to build tall structures was to build a pyramid, and that's why pyramids were built by many ancient civilisations. This is a lie on its face.



It was entirely possible to build tall towers with straight walls. Below I provide numerous examples. It is important to address a small issue right away before proceeding. Many towers do have tapering sides. That does not negate my thesis for two reasons.



1. The taller a structure rises the more it must deal with wind resistance, as winds are stronger the higher up you go. The best solution, as seen in modern buildings such as the Burj Khalifa, is to taper the building as you go up. No one would claim that a tower like the Burj Khalifa or the Empire State Building are pyramids, but they do taper to reduce the surface area that is being bombarded by heavy winds.



2. Reducing the thickness of the walls as you go up allows you to build much taller. The base of any structure can only support a finite weight before collapsing. If you taper the structure you can make it taller than if you kept the walls a uniform thickness.



Since I intend to demonstrate that it was possible to build tall towers using pre-modern construction techniques and materials, I will only list pre-modern structures, those built before 1500.



When people think of pyramids they probably think of the Great Pyramid, and who knows how that thing was built? Maybe it was aliens. Probably not, but if ancient aliens didn't exist then how did they build everything? What people don't know is that most pyramids are nowhere near that impressive. Pyramids, for the most part, are just heaps of rubble and earth faced with stone. This is how the pyramids of the Americas were built. It's not all that difficult to create a big heap of dirt and put stones on top. While the Great Pyramid is 455 feet tall, the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico only stands at 216 feet. Pyramids throughout southern Egypt and Sudan are usually no taller than 60 feet.



The Minaret of Jam

In 1190 in central Afghanistan the Ghurid kings built a brick minaret 203 feet tall. Before anyone says "Bricks? Bricks are modern, build it out of stone!" I will point out that the ziggurats of Babylon, some of the earliest pyramids in the world, were built not of stone, but of fired bricks.  The minaret is composed of five sections, each smaller than the other, but each section itself has very straight sides.



The Qutub Minar

1220. The Sultan of Delhi, taking inspiration from the Minaret of Jam, dismantled several Hindu temples to make a 240 foot tall victory minaret. This tower does taper quite a bit, but it is far from a pyramid. It is a tower much like a lighthouse, also with five sections, built without steam power or steel cranes.



The Towers of the Himalaya

Throughout eastern Tibet and south-western China, there are hundreds of stone towers built, it is thought, within a 400 year period around 1400. It is believed they were built by numerous different civilisations for different purposes, family pride, signal towers, protection from Mongol invasions, etc. Most are between 100 and 200 feet tall, with straight sides, and either rectilinear or star-shaped bases.



The Towers of Bologna

The rich families of Bologna, in terror of vendettas, built tall towers to spy on one another. Of the hundred or more towers in the city, the most famous are known as the Two Towers. Built of stone, brick, and wood, the towers are believed to have been built on average over ten years. The shorter Garisenda Tower stands at 159 feet and leans heavily to one side. It was much taller, but the top had to be removed to prevent collapse. The taller Asinelli Tower is 323 feet and overlooks its shorter neighbor. Both were built between 1109 to 1185.



Lincoln Cathedral

The medieval cathedrals were built over many centuries, using man-powered cranes and often had to be rebuilt numerous times due to collapse. There are a few very tall cathedrals, some even taller than the Great Pyramid, but, while most were started centuries ago, most were not finished until the late 19th century. This disqualifies them from this list. One very prominent exception is Lincoln Cathedral. Built in 1311, the central spire rose to 525 feet high, towering over the Great Pyramid even at its greatest, before erosion and thieves stole some of its height. A heavy storm tore down the spire in 1549, but the parts of the tower still remaining stood at 271 feet high. With dead straight walls, it is impossible to claim that the only means of reaching fantastic heights was to build pyramids.



So far all these examples have been from the ADs, a good three thousand years after the Great Pyramid was built. This might turn some people off. "We want ANCIENT towers, not merely pre-modern towers! It was IMPOSSIBLE! Pyramids were inevitable!!!!1"



I've saved the best for last.



The Lighthouse of Alexandria

The original Seventh Wonder of the World. Built in 280 BC, the lighthouse stood at Alexandria Harbor, the gateway to the greatest city in the world, built by Alexander the Great himself and governed by his general Ptolemy. Built in three sections, with very gently sloping walls, the lighthouse rose to at least 400 feet high, almost as tall as the Great Pyramid itself! The tower stood until 1480, only 12 years before Columbus' history altering voyage, when it was dismantled to built the fort at Qaitbay by the Sultan of Egypt.








People were capable of building tall towers before modern construction, they were not required to build pyramids. There was nothing to stop ancient people from building perfect vertical walls, yet many decided to still build pyramids. Why? We don't know. The ubiquity of pyramids all over the world is a truly unexplained mystery.



It is interesting that the same people who say that to suggest a lost civilisation such as Atlantis or alien intervention is to insult the intelligence of the brown people who made these monuments, themselves insult the intelligence of ancient peoples by suggesting that the ONLY way to build tall structures was to build pyramids. It is another sign of the hypocrisy of these people.



You can't explain away why ancient people all over the world built
pyramids. Why did people all over the world build pyramids? Say it with
me, it's my favourite phrase: "WE DO NOT KNOW." We do not know. I am not here to propose an alternate hypothesis, merely to disprove the predominant hypothesis that pyramids exist all over the world because people were too stupid to build straight sided towers. I have provided you with six examples of ancient towers, now you can let the pyramid deception die.