kisma Johnson's blog: "Life science"

The earth may be in the firing line when one of the sky's most beautiful objects explodes, a Sydney astronomy expert claims. University of Sydney astronomer Peter Tuthill discovered the elegant rotating pinwheel system, named WR104, eight years ago in the constellation Sagittarius. It includes a highly unstable star known as a Wolf-Rayet, widely regarded by astronomers as ticking bombs - the last stop in a star's life before a cataclysmic supernova explosion. "When it finally explodes as a supernova, it could emit an intense beam of gamma rays coming our way", says Dr Tuthill, whose work is published in the latest edition of the Astrophysical Journal. In the article Dr Tuthill reveals stunning new images of WR 104 taken with the Keck Telescope in Hawaii, showing a glowing plume of hot dust and gas flung out into a whirling spiral as the two stars at the centre of the system orbit one another every eight months. But something odd about the images caught the attention of Dr Tuthill and his team: "Viewed from Earth, the rotating tail appears to be laid out on the sky in an almost perfect spiral. It could only appear like that if we are looking nearly exactly down on the axis of the binary system." Dr Tuthill and his team worry this box-seat view might put us in the firing line when the system finally explodes. "Sometimes, supernovae like the one that will one day destroy WR104, focus their energy into a narrow beam of very destructive gamma-ray radiation along the axis of the system. If such a `gamma-ray burst' happens, we really do not want Earth to be in the way. " warns Dr Tuthill. At only 8000 light years distance, WR104 is just down the road in galactic terms, only ¼ of the way to the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy. "Earlier research has suggested that a gamma-ray burst - if we are unfortunate enough to be caught in the beam - could be harmful to life on Earth out to these distances. Scientists have speculated that, eons ago, a gamma-ray burst from a distant star could explain mass extinctions seen in the fossil record," he said.

We have all asked questions like: Who am I? How did I get here? What is my purpose in life? How did this body come together with this mind, perception and awareness? Most of us allow these heavy, seemingly unanswerable questions to glide by while we stay busy living our lives. But for some seekers, the pursuit of greater knowledge becomes a lifelong quest. It has been a decade since The Way of the Explorer was first published, and the rush of civilization toward a tipping point has not abated. A major problematic event that will occur due to our unsustainable growth is peak oil. Peak oil is the point in time at which the discoveries of new petroleum reserves will be less than world consumption. Running out of oil is projected to be imminent by many petroleum geologists. In 1972, during a speech at an International Rotary Convention in Lausanne, Switzerland, shortly after my epiphany in space, I raised concern about the finite supply of fossil fuels, and its role in sustainability. We are overwhelming our planet’s renewable resources with our numbers and consumption patterns. It is my hope that reaching peak oil will cause citizens of the world to awaken to the larger issues. As the twenty-first century begins to unfold, we find significant increases in violence and lawlessness in the world, which detracts from the critical need to protect the environment and the larger issue of the sustainability of our civilization. We humans are not as civilized as we would like to think. The world population more than doubled since 1975 to over six billion people. We are consuming Earth’s natural resources at an alarming rate. Our global natural resource base cannot support a population of more than two billion persons consuming at the level of Western cultures. Clearly, major changes in thinking and lifestyles are required as developing nations naturally aspire to the consumption of the West. Yet our political system is now punishing dissent, freedom of inquiry and efforts at preservation, tactics certain to worsen the drive toward sustainability. The issue of sustainability, simply put, is illustrated by charting measures of human activity. Beginning noticeably in the twentieth century, all measures display exponential growth. It is obvious that exponential growth cannot continue indefinitely. Many things must be changed. Obviously population growth is the engine driving the system, and addiction to the Western consumption model is not far behind as the major issue. In Plan B 2.0 (W.W. Norton & Co. 2003), Lester Brown discusses the fundamental areas of consumption and behavior that we as a species must address and modify in order to assure our descendents a reasonably satisfactory lifestyle. The days when we can ignore what our individual decisions and lifestyles are doing to the planet have now passed. Personal responsibility for the greater good must become the mark of an informed and conscious people, then instilled rapidly into those yet unaware. “Raising consciousness” has been a motto of the new age through several decades of civil rights, feminine rights and minority rights activism. Though that phrase sounds trite, even passé, to many ears, the concept of setting aside prejudice and bias in order to support a greater good, and a larger view, is vital to our collective well-being in the near future. These issues of “sustainability” are too critical and pressing to be ignored. The problem is not simple; it includes many of the deeply embedded concepts of modern lifestyles, traditions and thinking. Untrammeled consumption and growth in all areas of life must be re-examined and subjected to critical thought. Material goods are certainly necessary for sustaining life, but just where does success turn into excess? Those are the fundamental ideas we humans must now address. The scientific and technological genius exhibited beginning in the twentieth century has cracked open the lid of the proverbial Pandora’s Box, and released upon the world the very seeds of our destruction. We must act rapidly to bring our viewing of material abundance as a panacea for happiness under control. The greatest philosophic and religious teachings have been ignored and perverted with regards to this issue. May our descendants forgive us these errors as we struggle to bring our fragile planet Earth back into balance.

I’m not going to delve into the ‘machanics’ of a sixth sense such as telepathy or clairvoyance here. Rather, I want to discuss one of the main complaints from the sceptical community. Namely, what is the point of paranormal talents such as cairvoyance? The point is valid. Unfortunately, they only ask the question and then move on, without waiting for an answer. Yet if we think about it, an answer is there to be found - and an answer that IS valid. A case study. GONE FISHING James Clarke went on a fishing trip to Colorado in August 1978. Moving from campsite to campsite, as he went to the Dolores River area he began to feel a foreboding. One particular night it was so strong that he described it as feeling a ‘malevolent force.’ Spending most of the night awake, he eventually went to the nearest town. There, he found out that five dangerous criminals had escaped from Arizona State Prison a fortnight earlier. Killing everyone in their path, including a family of four, the possessions of a young couple who they also murdered were eventually found close to where Clarke had been that night. Episodes such as the above are many. They remain unexplained, but undeniable in terms of experience. It is as if a form of real extrasensory perception seems to be occuring. And such an ability can be placed within scientific feasibility. EXTRAORDINARY SURVIVAL Many scientists would disagree with this, but when we attach the term, survival value, it gives an evolutionary slant to the ability. As with instinct - a definite species trait - there could well be a need for such a talent. This is the thing with science. As well as a phenomenon existing, it must also have purpose. Of course, this misses the obvious problem that, often, a ‘purpose’ is someting devised by the person asking the question. In effect, ‘purpose’ can be a subjective quality, only shared if there is a consensus that such a purpose is useful. And in terms of the paranormal, this could well apply. For instance, this case study could be useful. JIM CORBETT Consider the case of Jim Corbett, a tiger hunter in India who found himself developing a form of sixth sense he called ‘jungle sensitivity.’ Many times he claimed an intuition, often unconscious, had saved his life. For instance one evening he noticed a strange red dust on his feet. Thinking back to where it came from, he recalled passing a culvert and, for some reason, walking to the other side, where the red dust was. Why he did it, he didn’t know, so he decided to retrace his steps the next day. He found a tiger’s paw mark in the culvert. He would have walked straight into the beast if he hadn’t diverted. BEING STARED AT The above suggests a definite ’survival’ ability within this form of sixth sense. As such, although it may not be needed as much today, the ability does have an evolutionary purpose. Indeed, some researchers claim it is still an extensive talent. Researcher Rupert Sheldrake has devised a number of tests to see if such a Sixth Sense exists. Using members of the public, his tests check whether a person can tell if they are being stared at. With over 5,000 case studies behind him, a typical test is for a group of friends to stare at another with a blindfold on, the person advising when he feels he is being stared at. Some groups have had up to 60% success in guessing correctly. Indeed, Sheldrake advises that about 80% of those questioned said they had sensed they have been stared at on average once a month. SIXTH SENSE Writing in an April 2004 issue of New Scientist, Dr Ronald Rensink of the University of British Columbia claims we have evolved, over millenia, an ability to be alerted to wild animals approaching. Coining the term ‘Mindsight’, we still retain this instinctual ability to intuit things. We don’t realise we hear or see these things. We just ‘feel’ them. If such a survival ability exists, then there is no reason why we couldn’t use such an ability when we truly had a need to do so. Writer Colin Wilson has regularly narrated two examples of such mindreach abilities. One morning he was driving in the country roads close to his home. When he was about to take a sharp turn into his drive, he thought about the post van. He slowed down, and a moment later the post van braked an inch from his bumper. On another occasion he was visiting Los Angeles and told his family he would meet them in Disneyland. Only when he arrived there and saw its size did he wish he had been more specific. Eventually, he decided to relax his mind and simply walk where his feet took him. He walked straight to his wife and two children. RESIDUE OF A TALENT We can clearly see in the above that, whilst we no longer need a definite form of intuition for day-to-day survival within raw nature, a residue of this talent still seems to be available at certain times - and can still be a life saver. Hence, the talent qualifies in scientific terms in that it has ‘purpose’, aids ’survival’ and fits into an evolutionary paradigm. And whilst this may say nothing for the ‘mechanisms’ involved, it is incorrect for science to dismiss the talent as purposeless. Such an ability - a form of ultra-mind - could well be a reality. BY Anthony North, February 2008

Teleportation using man-made technology was made famous in the "Star Trek" TV series. Now, a new movie called JUMPER explores teleportation that occurs without using external technology. Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Lane and the rest of the cast and crew present a story not about teleportation technology, but about a "natural" ability that character David Rice (Christensen) spontaneously discovers after nearly drowning. JUMPER director Doug Liman also directed THE BOURNE IDENTITY and MR. AND MRS. SMITH. In JUMPER, some of the main characters have discovered this ability and proceed to use it during the adventures and danger they encounter. In the 1994 movie STARGATE starring Kurt Russell and James Spader, and the spin off TV series "Stargate SG-1" with Richard Dean Anderson, an ancient object is discovered that government scientists are able to activate. In the movie and series, Russell and Anderson portrayed military officers commanding a special team that teleports to far-away planets and dimensions using this stargate device. Other TV series such as "Babylon 5" portrayed "jumpgate technology" used in teleportation. The very popular TV series "Quantum Leap," which ran from 1989 to 1993, featured Scott Bakula playing a scientist who jumped or leaped not only through space, but also into various times. WEIRD SCIENCE In real life, it has been rumored in some circles that the U.S. Government already has jumpgate technologies and "jump rooms" that can teleport personnel great distances virtually instantaneously. In a 2004 research report commissioned by the U.S. Air Force titled "Teleportation Physics Study," the principal investigator of the study, Eric W. Davis, Ph.D., explored scientific aspects of the potential of teleportation. Davis also looked at the ability of humans to teleport using the natural characteristics of physics, as we understand them. That is, the potential of humans to teleport themselves without external technologies. Teleportation using non-technological means has been reported throughout history, including in several religious traditions. In some alleged historical cases, teleportation incidents were unplanned and very surprising to the persons who suddenly found themselves in an entirely different location long distances from where they had just been a moment ago. Physicists are discovering that the deeper they go into the sub-atomic and quantum levels that are underlying matter and energy in our natural world, the more possible things like teleportation seem to be. They have found that certain quantum behavior seems to support the idea of teleportation. We are told that this is just theoretical and scientists can make a tiny photon teleport, but that's the extent of it. At least this is what the public is being told. Is there more to the story? And how does this understanding relate to the physics and engineering of technologies such as advanced spacecraft? Does the U.S. military have craft that can also travel much faster than we are led to believe? And, if so, did we develop the technology on our own, or did we learn things from others? Have American personnel traveled on non-U.S.-made craft as passengers with pilots and crew who are visitors from elsewhere? This, too, has been rumored.

You could argue that any rational person will decide that conspiracy theories are bunkum. Whilst the US government and other organisations have indulged repeatedly in conspiracies - Bay of Pigs and Watergate come to mind - it is unrealistic to think that a large organisation could get away with even credible ones, never mind the alien and satanic conspiracies. Basically, big organisations leak like a sieve. So why do we believe so much in conspiracies? US CONSTITUTION Maybe because SOME conspiracies are more real than we realise. Take, for instance, the US Constitution. In the mid-1800s, the ultra-individualist Lysander Spooner argued that the American Constitution was dead, and deservedly so. His argument was simple. A document that guaranteed freedom and happiness could not hold people together under a federal government. Spooner was not believed. But in the mid-20th century, a whole group of conspiriologists began to argue this was, indeed, the case. Their argument rested on the belief that, on 9 March 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt’s declaration of national emergency was never nullified. Just the slightest whiff of a ‘clear and present danger’ allows the US President to automatically suspend rights to anyone he wishes. Further, bit by bit, dictatorial powers have been passed to the President, to the point that he can now do anything he pleases. He can seize property, send troops to battle, restrict travel and tap all forms of communication without any other authority, allowing presidents to strut the world stage like Roman emperors. OM With such a reality - a reality becoming starkly clear following US government powers following 9/11 - it is easy to feel that the US Constitution isn’t worth the paper it is written on. This feeling of conspiratorial powers is given equal credence by one of the most seemingly ridiculous conspiracy theories ever put forward - that of ‘OM’. Based around the persistent belief in the East that the universe was created out of Chaos by the sound of ‘Om’, the word has become the most popular mantra. But it has crept into western conspiriology as OM, an acronym for Operation Mindf***.’ The most virulent of supernatural conspiracies, whenever something weird happens, it is OM behind it. Eventually, we began to understand the process with Surrealism and Postmodernism, intellectual pursuits that make the world chaotic and ridiculous. In the modern world, it is often impossible to distinguish what is OM and what is not, so absurd has much of the world become. The conspiracy of OM undoubtedly came out of Discordianism, thought by some to be the first true religion, based on the worship of the goddess of Chaos. It offers true reality of religion as a joke. The founder of Forteana, Charles Fort, that irrepressible collector of weird tales and happenings, put the strangeness of the world down to a being known as the Cosmic Joker, and such events generally require a degree of passivity, due to our non-understanding. This passivity is the purpose of the force to mess with our minds. Indeed, Dlscordians cope with this stupidity with mantras such as: ‘We Discordians must stick apart.’ This is the beauty of postmodernism, an idea and way of life with no purpose, no meaning, no identity. And within this swirl of negativity and seemingly over-powering forces, we all become conspiriologists of sorts. And even more important to the conspiriologist’s trade is the simple fact that, in less media invasive days, conspiracies DID occur. Consider, for instance, the conspiratorial history of Britain. DEMOCRACY Modern, democratic government can find its roots way back in early Anglo-Saxon Britain. In order to rule, a king had to have a council usually made up of local leaders and bishops to discuss issues and assist him in ruling. As the centuries rolled on, this became known as the Witan, meaning ‘moot’, or meeting. Dealing with such things as land grants, defence and taxation policy, the Witan soon discovered that it could prize authority from a king by refusing to collect taxes. This form of justifiable blackmail is conspiracy. One king who often abused his power was King John. In order to bring him into line, a conspiracy was hatched by some barons. This conspiracy led to the signing of the Magna Carta on 15 June 1215, guaranteeing a council of 25 barons to watch the monarch, and guaranteeing human rights that form the basis of a free society. Lauded as a great moment in history, the Magna Carta was nonetheless the product of conspiracy. THE TUDORS By the time of Henry VIII, Europe had settled down to centuries long turmoil where the power of Catholic Rome was under threat as Protestantism allowed the first stirring of national government. Under the excuse of divorcing his first wife, Henry severed links with Rome, creating the Church of England, and formulating a national government in England free of Catholic interference. In other words, he was the leading player in a huge conspiracy that reversed for ever the centre of power in England. By the reign of his daughter, Elizabeth I, the battle was to seize England back for the Catholics. With the English defeat of the Catholic Scots, their Queen, Mary, Queen of Scots, threw herself on the mercy of Elizabeth, who had her confined. However, this did not stop Mary attempting to conspire against Elizabeth through the now famous Babington Plot and others, leading to her execution. THE STUARTS With no Tudor heir, Mary’s son took the throne following Elizabeth for the Stuarts, with, of course, their Catholic leanings. However, James I was obviously not Catholic enough for the Gunpowder Plotters. Led by Robert Catesby, they hatched a plot to blow up king and Parliament during the State Opening of 5 November 1605. The barrels were discovered in the cellars below the House of Lords before the gunpowder could be ignited, and today 5 November is celebrated as a famous conspiracy with bonfire, fireworks and burning the effigy of the conspirator, Guy Fawkes. Charles I WAS more Catholic in his leanings, and constantly conspired to subvert the Protestant integrity of England. To counter this conspiracy, Oliver Cromwell and other Parliamentarians conspired against HIM, resulting in the English Civil War and eventual beheading of the king. This immense period of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy eventually led to the Barebones Parliament at the beginning of a brief flirtation with Republicanism. Throughout this Parliament, its members conspired to erode English freedoms by imposing a dictatorial Puritan ethic upon the population. Eventually, Cromwell conspired against his own Parliament and assumed dictatorial control himself. END GAME By 1660 the Stuart dynasty had been restored, providing a rich source of conspiracy as Parliamentarians conspired to retain their power, and the monarch conspired to take it away. And, yes, return the country to Catholicism. In particular, at one stage James II had a newborn baby placed in his chamber, declaring it the rightful heir. This obvious attempt at conspiracy to guarantee a Catholic line of succession led to a number of Parliamentarians writing to the Dutch Stadholder, William of Orange (husband of James’s Protestant daughter, Mary) offering him the throne of England. Wllllam wasn’t particularly interested in the throne, but he DID require the English army in order to guarantee victory in his latest war. And thus, through conspiracy built upon conspiracy, did the Glorious Revolution of 1688 come about, guaranteeing human rights through the Bill of Rights, and, with William and Mary on the throne, instituting the modern democratic form of government we know today. CONSPIRACY We can see from the above that conspiracy is endemic to democracy, and did, infact, lead to modern western freedoms. So where does this leave the conspiracy theorist? Does it give credence to his imaginings? Sadly, not at all. Conspiracy DOES occur. All governments do, in one form or another, conspire against their electorate. But this is nothing special, and certainly nothing sensational. Indeed, we don’t even call it conspiracy any more. Rather, it is called, simply, politics. But it is a fact of life that, being endemic to the society we class as free, we will continue to have conspiracy theorists to tell us it is far worse than this. The politicians actually like them - they divert us from looking at what is really going on. Indeed, if conspiracy theorists didn’t exist, governments would have to invent them. By Anthony North, February 2008

For anyone thinking we are being too hard on our illegals, JUST READ THIS!!! American working in Mexico From the other side of the fence... Received the following from Tom O'Malley, who was a Director with S.W. BELL in Mexico City: "I spent five years working in Mexico. I worked under a tourist Visa for three months and could legally renew it for three more months. After that you were working Illegally. I was technically illegal for three weeks waiting on the FM3 approval. "During that six months our Mexican and U.S. attorneys were working to secure a permanent work visa called a 'FM3'. It was in addition to my U.S. passport that I had to show each time I entered and left the country. Barbara's was the same, except hers did not permit her to work. "To apply for the FM3, I needed to submit the following notarized originals (not copies): 1. Birth certificate for Barbara and me. 2. Marriage certificate. 3. High school transcripts and proof of graduation. 4. College transcripts for every college I attended and proof of graduation. 5. Two letters of recommendation from supervisors I had worked for at least one year. 6. A letter from the St. Louis Chief of Police indicating that I had no arrest record in the U.S. and no outstanding warrants and, was "a citizen in good standing. 7. "Finally, I had to write a letter about myself that clearly stated why there was no Mexican citizen with my skills and why my skills were important to Mexico. We called it our 'I am the greatest person on Earth' letter. It was fun to write. "All of the above were in English that had to be translated into Spanish and be certified as legal translations, and our signatures notarized. It produced a folder about 1.5 inches thick with English on the left side and Spanish on the right. "Once they were completed Barbara and I spent about five hours, accompanied by a Mexican attorney, touring Mexican government office locations and being photographed and fingerprinted at least three times at each location, and we remember at least four locations where we were instructed on Mexican tax, labor, housing, and criminal law and that we were required to obey their laws or face the consequences. We could not protest any of the government's actions or we would be committing a felony. We paid out four thousand dollars in fees and bribes to complete the process. When this was done we could legally bring in our household goods that were held by U.S. Customs in Laredo, Texas. This meant we had rented furniture in Mexico while awaiting our goods. There were extensive fees involved here that the company paid. "We could not buy a home and were required to rent at very high rates and under contract and compliance with Mexican law. "We were required to get a Mexican driver's license. This was an amazing process. The company arranged for the licensing agency to come to our headquarters location with their photography and fingerprint equipment and the laminating machine. We showed ourU.S. license, were photographed and fingerprinted again and issued the license instantly after paying out a six dollar fee. We did not take a written or driving test and never received instructions on the rules of the road. Our only instruction was to never give a policeman your license if stopped and asked. We were instructed to hold it against the inside window away from his grasp. If he got his hands on it you would have to pay ransom to get it back. "We then had to pay and file Mexican income tax annually using the number of our FM3 as our ID number. The company's Mexican accountants did this for us and we just signed what they prepared. I twas about twenty legal size pages annually. "The FM3 was good for three years and renewable for two more after paying more fees. "Leaving the country meant turning in the FM3 and certifying we were leaving no debts behind and no outstanding legal affairs (warrants, tickets or liens) before our household goods were released to customs." "It was a real adventure and if any of our Senators or Congressmen went through it once they would have a different attitude towardMexico. "The Mexican government uses its vast military and police forces to keep its citizens intimidated and compliant. They never protest at their capitol or government offices, but do protest daily in front of the United States Embassy. The U.S. Embassy looks like a strongly reinforced fortress and during most protests the Mexican military surrounds the block with their men standing shoulder to shoulder in full riot gear to protect the Embassy. These protests are never shown on U.S. or Mexican TV. There is a large public park across the street where they do their protesting. Anything can cause a protest such as proposed law changes in California or Texas." Please feel free to share this with everyone who thinks we are being hard on the illegals.

We use words such as premonition and precognition with certain belief systems attached. These belief systems come in two forms. First, that they imply foreseeing the future; and second, that they are a specific type of phenomena. I dislike these approaches. Rather, I feel that often an answer can be found in the present; and they do, infact, cover a multidude of possible causes. In this essay I will explore just one of many possible explanations, found in the present. ABERFAN On 21 October 1966 a slag heap slithered down a hillside and buried a school at Aberfan, South Wales. Over a hundred children and adults were killed. However, following the tragedy, John Barker recorded over seventy premonitions in the two weeks prior to the event, leading him to set up the British Premonitions Bureau. One girl who lived in Aberfan dreamt of ’something black’ falling on the school. Another dreamt that on arriving at the school all she found was a big black hole. Further afield from the village a woman from Sidcup in Kent dreamt of coal rushing down a hillside onto a mining village. Whilst two days before the disaster a woman from Aylesbury had a dream in which she was smothered in blackness. STATISTICAL PROBABILITY When looking at such premonitions, 1 feel we make a mistake by considering the events in terms of individuality. If we look, instead, at a species level, statistics make it very clear that premonitions are bound to happen. For instance, often there is a subtle subject abroad in the media. This may not be fully appreciated by a person if they are not interested in the subject, but it will still filter into the mind at some level. Hence, a person is more predisposed to experience a nightmare taking this factor into account. Agreed, this is not a full survey of this area of premonition - it is a subject I will return to in a later essay. However, there are other factors we can bring into the debate. A COUPLE OF CASES Vaunda Johnson from Arkansas woke up one night, got out of bed, went into her two daughters’ bedroom and removed one from the bottom bunk, taking her to her own bed. Moments later, the other daughter screamed. The bunk beds had collapsed. If she hadn’t removed the one daughter she would have been crushed. Helen Tillotson from Philadelphia woke up one night to answer the door, being shocked to discover her mother, asking why Helen had been knocking at HER door. This was impossible. Helen had been asleep. Moments later, the mother’s flat exploded due to a gas leak. UNCONSCIOUS PERCEPTION The above species explanation falls down in these cases. Similarly, it is not feasible for many premonitions in Aberfan itself to be answered by chance. There were simply too many. So how do we explain such incidences? A hint is given with the fact that much of the information we receive is received unconsciously. The unconscious mind seems to survey the world about us just as much, if not more, than the conscious mind. The fact that we can receive subliminal messages is testimony to this fact. The usual term we use for evidence of this ability is ‘cryptomnesia’, where facts we didn’t know we had can rise from the unconscious. Often used to explain information during reincarnation, information has been traced back to books, films, etc, that the person had forgotten - in some cases, didn’t even realise - they had seen. Bearing this in mind, we must ask, is it feasible for the unconscious mind to continue gathering information from the outside world whilst the person is asleep? This is almost definite, as a loud noise still wakes us up. THE INNER MESSAGE Which prompts the asking of a couple of simple questions. For instance, could a slag heap have simply fallen down a hill without prior movement over the previous days, no matter how slight? Could bunk beds simply collapse without prior creaks and strains? Could gas ignite without the prior smell of a gas leak? The logical answer to these questions is no. It is almost certain that prior subliminal signals would have been given in the form of tiny movements and almost inaudible noises and smells. Inaudible, that is, to the conscious mind. But, as with subliminal messages, could the unconscious have perceived them? Almost certainly yes - and as dreaming is in the realm of the unconscious, it is equally feasible to argue that the unconscious could communicate this fact through dream, prompting the person to wake up and act accordingly. In the above we have a speculative answer to many cases of premonition without having to involve a definite future. Rather, information received in the present can answer them adequately. By Anthony North, January 2008

We are well aware of the idea that life constantly evolves. But how far does this process of evolution go? Does it stop at life, or could it be argued that evolution is a property of the cosmos? For instance, if the universe began from a Big Bang, and has constantly changed from this point, does this show the property of evolution? And could a similar argument be laid down for known, and constant, change upon planet Earth? LIFE AND EARTH The fundamental problem with the idea that planet Earth evolves concerns the place of life within the evolutionary process. Does life evolve separate to the planet, or is life - including mankind - part of the process of Earth’s evolutionary mechanism? To accept the latter holds severe problems for science. It not only removes us from the top of the evolutionary tree, but would suggest a form of co-ordinated intelligence invested in planet Earth which is guiding us along. There are, in fact, many indicators that this is, indeed, the case. One of the absolutes of evolution is the idea that evolution only evolves what is required for survival. There is no surplus. However, the massive explosion in the size of the human brain goes way ahead of our ability to use it. Our brain capacity is far greater than is required by this evolutionary law. Yet if seen as part of an evolving requirement of planet Earth, our brain size could fall into the evolutionary pattern. COLLECTIVE PHILOSOPHIES French philosopher Henri Bergson would have had no problem with this idea. He believed that nature had an urge to create - a principle he called the ‘elan vital’. Such an urge would be above an individual species, placing all of nature within an evolutionary concept which could easily be seen as part of the evolution of planet Earth. British physicist Peter Russell could have placed our big brain within this format. He theorized upon a growing planetary level of consciousness called the ‘Gaiafield’ - a self-reflective consciousness of all minds, forming a social super organism. In a way this is similar to psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s idea of a collective unconscious lying under the personal mind. But instead of being a species super mind, Russell would invest the property on a planetary level. THE QUANTUM EFFECT A big stumbling block to such ideas concerns the extent to which consciousness exists in nature. The suggestion is made that consciousness is a fundamental property of, not only nature, but the universe at large - in effect, a higher intelligence exists. Yet quantum theory seems to be hinting that such a consciousness may well be out there. For instance, quantum reality is probabilistic. In its natural state, a particle can be said to be in any position possible. An exact reality is only known through observation by an intelligence capable of understanding it. Hence, for a reality to exist, it must be created through observation. Hence, a form of consciousness must exist for reality to come into existence. And seeing the reality of a physical universe existed before life entered the cosmos, consciousness must be a property of that cosmos. UNIVERSAL MIND If such an evolving universal intelligence does exist, then it is fair to say that the investing of consciousness in life is a recent development of consciousness. As such, human consciousness can be seen to be towards the lower level of consciousness. But placed in terms of an evolving cosmos, it can equally be argued that it is our place to evolve into a more universal mind. Such an idea was proposed by Catholic mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. To him, life evolved towards an Omega Point, or completion. When life had evolved to this point, the Omega Point would move forwards. Hence, we constantly evolve in stages. The Omega Point presently lies at the creation of the ‘noosphere’, which can be described as a planetisation of the mind. This would cause ‘noogenesis’, and the creation of a planetary consciousness. WORLD IN HARMONY To achieve such a planetary mind, life and the physical characteristics of the planet would have to work in unison. And such an idea was put forward in 1958 by theorist Alfred Redfield, who noted that the chemical composition of the atmosphere and oceans seemed to be biologically controlled. However, it wasn’t until 1979, and the publication of ‘Gaia: A New Look At Life On Earth’, that James Lovelock took the idea to its ultimate expression. Lovelock, a British biologist, formulated the Gaia Hypothesis whilst working on equipment designed to find life on Mars for NASA. Gaia, a survival of the ancient Mother Goddess, was adopted by the ancient Greeks, and was the mother of Zeus, who was allowed to rule only on her consent. Hence, it was the perfect name to give to what in effect became an Earth entity. For to Lovelock, Earth is an overall biosphere organism, where life on Earth makes a contribution to the regulation of the planet. The atmosphere and the biosphere (life) conspire in a form of symbiosis to produce a self-regulatory mechanism which makes life possible, with even the oceans and crust falling into evolutionary line. The obvious continuation of the Gala Hypothesis is to argue that planet Earth is conscious, and in seeing itself through our space cameras it has become aware. But of course there is no way of testing such ideas, for to test a system, it must be tested from outside. And at present, we cannot do this. THE BIG STORY In a philosophical sense, we can argue the validity of the hypothesis. Knowledge throughout history has been the product of culture. Within the scope of knowledge we place the hopes and aspirations of the people. This was easily identified within religious knowledge, where knowledge of deities was very much an expression of the social mood. It is not so easy to identify in science, but it is still there, for science is an expression of our belief in our superior intellect. It does not matter whether planetary consciousness exists or not. What is important is to see if such consciousness can be seen as analogous to our history, our present, and where we see the future as going. American historian Thomas Berry understood this point. Every culture has to have a spiritual ethic in order to bring people together and make them whole. And this requirement still exists, even in an apparently secular world. And Berry realized that we need, in effect, a ‘new story’; a form of creation myth for the planet, imbued with meaning and expression. Mythologist Joseph Campbell thought likewise. In an increasingly connected global village, a new planetary mythology would be needed, seeing the world as a whole, and above nations and their cultures. So can such a mythology be constructed to take all these points into account? Perhaps it can. LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION One vital point of evolution is that every lifeform evolved the ability to communicate. To what degree of sophistication this goes on we are not sure, but there is no doubt that purposive communication takes place. Man also communicates - and without the need for words. We have an instinctual language we can all understand. Fear, love, hunger, happiness and the need for procreation can all be communicated through mannerisms and subliminal means. And the strange thing is, this is the only language we need for survival. The spoken word is surplus to evolution. Complex spoken language seems to be an idiosyncracy of a species that routinely deals in abstracts which have no intrinsic survival value. Yet, if evolution has any validity, our species drive to complex communicative skill must have some purpose. Applying the rules of evolution, it is possible to argue that it is the evolutionary purpose of mankind to consciously understand the purpose and mechanics of communication. And this can certainly be seen in our impulse towards high technology, which is primarily geared towards communicative skills. We are presently, and increasingly, talking to ourselves, other species and the stars. We are, in effect, becoming global chatterboxes. And interestingly, communication causes abstracts, and abstract ideas require increasingly complex information-processing equipment to understand them. And nothing is more complex for this purpose than our evolved big brain. Evolution has given us the most complex information-processing equipment available, suggesting we are evolving ever more complex communicative skills for an evolutionary purpose. ONE ORGANISM If this process continues, the day is not far away when, through us, the whole planet will speak as a single voice. Indeed, all that stands between us and its realisation are the dying dreams of Empire and the violence they engender. Basically, our present technological impulses are leading us to bring the planet together as a single communicative organism with man as its mouthpiece. And in increasing our communicative skills we are also realising our interdependence with the whole ecology of planet Earth. Basically, the ecological movement is leading us back to symbiosis. Man, nature, and the planet we all inhabit are coming together, and coming together through our custodianship. THE END OF FRAGMENTATION? Unconsciously this coming together has been gaining ground throughout our recent history. Of course, many would argue that this is wrong. Rather, recent history has been the epitome of violent fragmentation. Even now ethnic and national minorities seem to be striving to return mankind to tribalism. However, could this be part of a process that will inevitably result in planetary consciousness? Just look a little closer at what has been happening. In the past, despots have risen and imposed themselves upon the world with little or no opposition. Empire builders have still risen in modern history, but are increasingly unlikely to get away with it. As soon as a despot tries to export hIs despotism outside his own country, free nations are increasingly likely to band together to say no. This was the reality of the two world wars, of Korea, of the Falklands, and of the original 1990 Gulf War, leading logically to the armed forces as peacekeeper in nations such as Bosnia. This is where an increasing amount of violence within modern warfare has come from - not to conquer, but to liberate - no matter how ill defined and poorly understood those motives might have been at the time. Certainly there are still problems - we are a long way from being perfect - but the principle is there are gaining ground. A BRAVE NEW WORLD Increasingly, and perhaps unconsciously, our species is coming together to uphold individual and group freedoms in the species and in nature in a way unthought of in preceding centuries. In the future, I suggest, this principle of denying despotism - of whatever kind - the facility to freely operate will grow until despots will be unable to rise to power at all. And in conjunction with a growing ecological consciousness that is teaching us that planet Earth is one and an interdependent life support system, the principle outlined could well be the first indication that we are leaving our barbaric past behind and moving towards a true planetary consciousness. But where will this leave us? As far as we are aware, we are the only lifeform on planet Earth that has so far attempted communication beyond the planet. But to do so we had to evolve the hard way, learning to understand barbarism and the need for possessions. It was possessions that grounded our advancement in the physical and the material; it was barbarism and fragmentation that eventually led to the impulse to communicate to bring ourselves together again. And the two evolved towards the ‘physical’ need to communicate. And our advancement to the attainment of high technology communicative skills is suddenly the answer to the question posed by philosophers down the centuries - why are we here? We are here to aid planet Earth in its attempt to become cosmically conscious. But then again, perhaps more than even this. DESTINATION, THE STARS Man has begun to learn the value of ecological co-operation at the same time that his technology has reached the stage of seriously contemplating the idea of space travel. Already systems are on the drawing board that could transport us to the stars. Certainly it would not be travel as seen in Star Trek, but ideas concerning generation starships and the Ramscoop, not to mention the ion drive, take star travel away from science fiction and place it in the realms of scientific possibility. Except for one problem. Evolution evolves only what is required. There is no surplus. And it is now becoming apparent to those who envisage star travel that nothing less than the entire resources and co-operation of mankind would be required to turn it into a real possibility. The coming together of so many factors can be seen as the root of a new mythology for the Space Age, combining the past, present and future into a new meaning and direction for mankind. Ecological awareness, realization of the errors of our barbarism, increasing high technology communicative abilities and the realization of star travel are all coming upon us together, shaping our destiny for the future. Perhaps we do have purpose after all; and that purpose is to aid planet Earth in becoming a conscious organism and exporting awareness to the stars. And is it not strange that this is only achieveable by man coming together in co-operation with each other and nature? Basically, to export ourselves, we can only do it when we come to peace with ourselves. And if this is so, we can look forward to a beautiful, exciting and rewarding future. By Anthony North, January 2008

To meet them today you would imagine that they had known each other all their lives. They share an easy intimacy that belies the fact that identical twins Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein spent their first 35 years in total ignorance of the other's existence. They were given up for adoption to separate families as part of an experiment in the US to discover how identical twins would react to being raised in different family backgrounds. Neither set of adoptive parents knew the babies were part of a study or that they had been born twins. The research project took place under the guidance of a leading US child psychologist with the co-operation of prestigious New York adoption agency Louise Wise Services. It wasn't until Elyse Schein contacted the agency in 2003 to find out more details about her birth that the truth began to emerge. "I received a letter that said: 'You were born on 9th October 1968 at 12.51 pm, the younger of twin girls.' It was unbelievable. Suddenly another element of my identity was revealed to me. Suddenly I was a twin." When the agency contacted Elyse's newly discovered older sister Paula, the two women were quite quickly in touch and arranged to meet in a cafe in New York. First meeting: "Walking every step to that cafe felt momentous," says Paula. "I felt like this is it. From now on my life will forever be different." When Paula saw Elyse for the first time, she was pleased to see that as similar as they looked, each was unique. Elyse had just returned from working in Paris. "She looked very European," says Paula. "She had dark glasses on and was smoking a cigarette. She looked ultra cool. She was an alternative version of me. "It was a relief I think for both of us that we were not carbon copies.

It was a sorry end. Cut down in his prime, the cunning thief lay on the slab, his cold body offering pathologist Brett Gartrell no outward sign of how he had met his maker. Once Gartrell had wielded his scalpel, however, the cause became clear: a belly stuffed with sticky brown gunk. Diagnosis? Death by chocolate. Divine - yes. Delicious - absolutely. But deadly? For some it certainly is. The corpse on Gartrell's slab belonged not to a human but to a kea, an endangered New Zealand parrot. Like many animals, keas are acutely sensitive to chemicals in chocolate that are harmless to humans in all but huge doses. Scientists are now studying these chemicals, along with other substances in cocoa, hoping to exploit their toxic effects to control pests or microbes. If you're reading this after scoffing your fifteenth chocolate Santa, don't panic: we humans have been safely enjoying the beans of the cacao plant, Theobroma cacao, for millennia. Theobroma is Greek for "food of the gods", reflecting the Mayan belief that cocoa had divine origins. Every April, they sacrificed a dog with cacao-coloured markings in honour of Ek Chuah, the god of cacao. Knife-wielding priests aside, chocolate is still bad news for many animals. Cocoa beans are naturally rich in caffeine and its chemical relatives theobromine and theophylline, collectively called methylxanthines. To humans these are little more than benign stimulants, but to a number of animals they are highly toxic. Just 240 grams of unsweetened dark chocolate contains enough methylxanthines to kill a 40-kilogram dog, about the size of a German shepherd. It was methylxanthines that did for the kea too. Gartrell, a wildlife pathologist at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, is wearily familiar with keas' propensity to poison themselves. Besides being arguably the world's smartest birds, keas are extraordinarily inquisitive foragers, using their beaks to rip open tents and backpacks, open garbage bins and even pry pieces off cars in their quest for food.