Book Review: The Exodus Reality by Scott Alan Roberts and John Richard Ward

The Exodus Reality: Unearthing the Real History of Moses, Identifying the Pharaohs, and Examining the Exodus from Egypt

This is a fascinating piece of work. The authors, who hold different views on the subject of Moses and the Exodus, have interwoven their theories in this book. They both have compelling ideas, and both make good cases. At the core of this, is their attempt to discover if there is an actual historical component to the Exodus story in the Old Testament. There is no direct evidence of its reality, so Scotty and John look for secondary evidence. Did someone exist in Egypt who may have fit the profile of Moses. Who were the people he supposingly led to freedom? They attempt to decipher the faith from the facts, to see what the real story beneath may have been. John reveals a story of cataclysm and a fight for survival, while Scotty takes, what seems like a more, literal, path. They do not spend much time tackling the miracles involved, and write it off as a matter of faith. Their main focus is to see if there is any historical personage that could have been Moses. They have found two. We may never know if they are right, but it is a compelling read.

Book Review: Whitley Strieber "Communion" 1987

Communion: A True Story was one of the two books back in the late 80's that brought the face of the grey alien into popular culture. Strieber took a lot of heat for his story, from both sides of the tracks. Believers in the Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis attacked him for claiming that he didn't believe that was necessarily the answer, and, of course, the closed minded skeptical community attacked him for suggesting that something like this may be real. 

For the record. I believe his story. I believe he is telling the truth as he knows it. I read this originally back when it came out, and felt that after 20 years, I should re-read it and see how I felt about it from my current perspective. My feelings haven't changed. This was an important book. It made people more comfortable about talking about their own experiences. Whitley approaches this with common sense and skepticism. He spends a lot of time trying to see if his experiences were somehow caused by hallucinations or medical issues, like temporal lobe epilepsy, which they were not. Even at this early point, though, he realizes that dealing with the UFO Phenomenon, literally challenges our view on what reality is. As I read this, I got the feeling of someone painting a painting, representing their normal life, while all the while another painting was being painted underneath, and only a crack reveals it's existence. And as that crack is widened, more of the painting underneath, this hidden world, comes into awareness. It was always there, and we have no idea how it got there without us knowing. It's disturbing. And enlightening. If you are interested in the paranormal and have never read this classic piece of work, you should. It is as valid today as when it was published. It is pure, straight to the point, and free of any kind of agenda. As Whitley takes your through his awaking into what happened to him, you can feel what an impact it had on him. As strange as it all may sound, I am sure it was 1000 times worse for him. 

I do plan on reading, at very least, Transformation again as well, as I think that had even more of an impact on me than this did. Hopefully, I will also eventually have Whitley on my new radio show, Where Did the Road Go?, which, if you are reading this blog, you should really be checking out.

Worlds in Collision and The Velikovsky Heresies

Many years ago I picked up a couple of beat up copies of books by Immanuel Velikovsky at a used book store. I knew the name, but not much else. I figured maybe one day I would read them. Over the last year or so, I have become very interested in The Electric Universe theory and thunderbolts.info has become a favorite site of mine. They often mention Velikovsky, enough so that I finally sat down and read "Worlds in Collision". 

The main gist of Velikovsky's theory is that Venus started life as a comet, and within historical times. It was ejected from Jupiter around 1600 B.C. when a larger mass collided with the gas giant, and it had close encounters with both Earth and Mars before settling into it's current location. Velikovsky was a Russian born psychoanalyst, and a friend and contemporary of Einstein. When this book was published in 1950 it ignited a huge controversy. First of all, he was writing outside of his field. Second, he was contradicting accepted science at the time. Third, he was using ancient texts to support his theory, especially the Bible. None of this sat well with the scientific establishment of the time. It got worse, when various predictions he made, Venus would be hot, not cold as mainstream science believed, for example, turned out to be correct. In fact, the majority of what Velikovsky predicted seems to have been accurate. The attacks on him are astonishing, and have been covered in many other books. Carl Sagan made a special point of trying to take down Velikovsky, and many feel that he was successful. However a clear, unbiased look at what Sagan did, reveals that he actually failed to disprove Immanuel's theory, and that it was more of a hit job than anything else. Back to the book. It is a fascinating read. It was a best seller when it came out, and has held it's own for a long time after. It is well written, and detailed. And, yes, he does take passages from the bible to support his theory. However, he finds equating passages from other parts of the world to substantiate this. If one text says the sun stood still in the sky, he looks for, and finds, other texts from the same time period, from other parts of the world, that say the same thing. He shows that Venus is not mentioned by any cultures prior to a certain point, approximately 1600 B.C. He shows that it flew erratically around the heavens, and was a fearsome thing in the sky. He shows that it had a comet's tail, and was often referred to as comet's were. It is a stunning piece of work. I was pretty blown away when I got done. This book, however, was published in 1950. What I wanted to know was, has anything in our current understanding of science and history been found that soundly defeats Velikovsky's work? It seemed like a massive undertaking. Enter Laird Scranton...


Just about the time I was asking these questions, Laird Scranton published The Velikovsky Heresies, and hey, guess what, it is a book that answers that very question about how the theory has held up. From interviews I have heard with Laird, he went into this book with no bias one way or another. He did the research, took the main parts of Velikovsky's theory and searched to find out whether they stand or fall. For the most part, the theory has been more vindicated than debunked. Of course, when dealing with events of the distant past, it is hard to ever know for certain, but Laird, step by step, takes apart Velikovsky's theory and shows the current science that seems to support it (for example, we now know that Venus seems to still have the remnants of what seems to be a comet's tail!). It is a brilliant piece of work by it's own right, and my only complaint would be that I managed to read through it in about a day. There is a lot packed into the 130+ pages that make up this book, however. No theory is ever completely right, and of course that very much applies to Velikovsky, but Laird shows how much of the theory has held up over the 62 years since it was first published. It is impressive. You can easily read Laird's book without ever reading World's in Collision. I would, however, recommend reading both to get a more complete understanding of a theory that one day may completely change the way we look at our own solar system and planetary origins. 

What I am Reading Right Now...

I have some book reviews to do, but until I get around to that, I felt like sharing what I am digesting right now. 

LightQuest: Your Guide to Seeing and Interacting with UFOs, Mystery Lights and Plasma Intelligences by Andrew Collins. Collins is by far one of my favorite authors. This actually is similar, but different, to my blog entry from back in May about rethinking reality. Where I focus more on the role of DMT, he focuses on plasma. Where we meet is around Paul Devereux and his Earth Light work. Anyways, Andrew starts with Roswell, and moves on to Marfa and then the English Countryside. Slowly and clearly making the case against physical nuts and bolts ET's and for something very different. He does an amazing job, bringing things to light that have not be published elsewhere. I find that every time I read one of his books, I learn a good number of things I had never heard about before. This is not always the case, and for him to do such consistent work in the fields he writes about is impressive. Being about halfway through this book, I would highly recommend it.

The Omega Project: Near-Death Experiences, Ufo Encounters, and Mind at Large by Kenneth Ring, PH.D. This is a re-read. Granted the first time I read it was about 20 years ago, and it has always stuck with me as a phenomenal and groundbreaking piece of work. I decided to see if a re-read would hold up, and what I am finding is that I am even more impressed by this work than I was originally. Ken started out just working on Near Death Experiences, but has expanded here to include UFO Encounters. When I first read this, I was sold on the 'nuts and bolts' ET hypothesis of UFO's, partly because of the rather good work of Budd Hopkins. As Dr. Ring shows that there are a lot of similar factors to people who have NDE's and UFO encounters, it pushes against the purely physical idea, and the first time I read this, it really hurt my brain trying to figure these connections out. Now, they make a lot of sense, and I see from this perspective that he was way ahead of the curve. A definite must read for anyone serious about this phenomenon.

Lost Star of Myth and Time by Walter Cruttenden. Also a re-read, although from a much more recent time. I started to re-read this to prepare for the interview I did with Walter at the end of September. That interview can be found here. I didn't get through the whole thing in time for the interview, but  I am greatly enjoying the re-read. In short, it deals with the cyclic nature of time, a rise from a dark age, to a golden age, and back again, the evidence for this, as well as the common belief in so many cultures of this cycle, it's connection to the precession of the equinox, and the theory that we may be in a binary star system that drives said cycle. Awesome book, and I was very happy with the interview we did.

Lost Cities of Africa and Arabia (The Lost City Series) by David Hatcher Childress. Haven't gotten too far into this one yet, but like all of David's work, this one is entertaining from the beginning. It records his travels around Africa in search of lost cities and legends. This series has a nice balance of fact with legend with travel stories. David has no problem going off on wild speculation, and in this case, it's usually entertaining. He does a good job differentiating the facts from theory and speculation. 

Earth in Upheaval by Immanuel Velikovsky. After finishing Worlds in Collision a short while ago (full review will be up eventually) I immediately starting reading this. Velikovsky will clearly be proven wrong on some points, but overall he seems to be more right than wrong. The scientific establishment doesn't like that at all. To this day, over 50 years later, they still seek to distance any new discoveries that support his theories with a buffer that makes him sound wrong, even if he wasn't. This one is more geological than Worlds, since he was criticized for referring to myths in that volume. Haven't made it very far yet, but I have high expectations. 

Gateway to Atlantis: The Search for the Source of a Lost Civilization by Andrew Collins. Yup, I am reading 2 Andrew Collins books currently. Three actually, but I haven't picked up The Cygnus Mystery: Unlocking the Ancient Secret of Life's Origins in the Cosmos in a while, so that doesn't count right now. I will get back to it eventually. This is Collins attempt to find atlantis based on information in ancient maps, legends, and, of course, Plato's writings. His end result is that it was in Cuba to some extent. A good piece of work I am about halfway through. All his evidence is well supported and fleshed out in great detail. Anyone with an interest in Atlantis, as well as lost civilizations, should find this a damned interesting read.

Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld by Patrick Harpur. This is also a re-read, because as blown away by it as I was the first time through, I failed to remember it in any detail.  Harpur approaches the paranormal by shifting how we view reality. It is an impressive piece of work. Comprehensive as well, and he is likely, to some degree, right about how we interact with this phenomenon. Highly recommended. 

The Way Toward Health: A Seth Book by Jane Roberts. As much as I tend to be VERY skeptical of channeling, Seth has always been an exception. Detailed and specific, and when we look at what we have learned scientifically in the last few decades, and how Seth claimed things worked, he seems to have been accurate. Jane was always skeptical of her channeling, and as to whether or not Seth was really what he claimed to be or if it was just a part of her own mind somehow. I think the wealth of information, though, speaks for itself. This is not all light and love like a lot of New Age channels. This is very real and down to earth. However, this is by no means their best work. This was actually dictated while Jane was dying in the hospital. A good portion of the book is her husband Robert's notes about her condition and such, with short little spurts of dictation. The quality of material is still there despite Jane's state. If you have read most of the other work, this is interesting, if a little sad. You can really feel for what Robert is going through watching Jane deteriorate. If you are not familiar with Jane's work, go read something else, like Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul, which is a good place to start...

The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography. Yet another re-read. I first read this over 20 years ago, and found so much that I loved about Crowley. Re-reading it I find myself feeling the same level of respect all over again. This book had a HUGE effect on me, and Crowley's work and view on things has always been a inspiration to me. He was such a unique individual, and had such a huge effect on our culture, not that most people realize it. In fact, most people have no idea what Crowley was really all about, and if you are one of those people that thinks he was just some evil, black magician or Satanist, you really need to read this book and understand just how fully wrong that idea is.  What is also remarkable is how relevant some of what he has to say is to today's world...

Last one for now, and yes, I know, I read a LOT of stuff at the same time. I tend to bounce back and forth depending on my mood and what I feel like learning about.

Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America by Russ Baker. The man behind the WhoWhatWhy.com website, this book is awesome. Russ started working on it after hearing Bush Sr. say that he had no idea where he was during the assassination of JFK. Russ finds out just where he was, why he doesn't want anyone to know, and builds from there to show just how much influence the Bush's have had over our history, going back to WWII and beyond. Everything is notated and you can find every bit of information he refers to. There is little speculation, just following the facts. Russ Baker is what a news reporter should be. His website and this book both attest to that. You will find here information about the JFK assassination that you have never heard about before. You will see how interconnected the Bush family has been to our government for longer than most of us have been alive. It's actually a bit disturbing...

Ok, that is the mass of stuff I am working my way through right now. I have Velikovsky's book to review eventually as well as Laird Scranton's The Velikovsky Heresies: Worlds in Collision and Ancient Catastrophes Revisited, which I can say right now, I recommend if you have read any of Velikovsky's work. 

Book Review: DMT - The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman, M.D.

DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Rick Strassman M.D.

There are people who feel that science and the paranormal cannot co-exist, usually forgetting that many things were paranormal until explained by science. In today's world, talk of things like Alien Abductions and Near Death Experiences often get one ridiculed by people who are more, scientific. In DMT, The Spirit Molecule, Dr. Strassman proceeds in a completely scientific manor to investigate the effects of DMT on various volunteers. The results though, may help to identify certain mechanisms that may be involved in such ridiculed events such as Alien Abductions. Make no mistake, this is not a New Age book. Dr. Strassman is an accredited and peer reviewed scientist, who did not set out to deal with the subjects that he eventually did. Like any good scientist, he followed the data. It led him to very surprising places.

DMT Experiences, although often unique, also have certain common qualities to them. One of them is meeting ‘beings’, and experiencing some of what happens in an Alien Abduction. Dr. Strassman, as much as he seems to have resisted it, eventually had to admit that the experiences did not bear the markings of being just an hallucination. The fact that DMT occurs naturally in the body, being secreted by the Pineal Gland, makes it even more interesting. The book itself is very well, written, very scientific, and quite enjoyable. Just reading about all the hoops he had to jump through to get to do the research in the first place is amazing.

It has made me wonder about paranormal experiences in new ways. For example, anyone who studies UFO’s seriously will point out that DMT can’t explain multiple witness sightings, radar tracking, and physical traces. But what if we are dealing with two different things. What if the only connection between the odd lights in the sky and the alien abduction scenario is that whatever causes the ‘physical’ UFO, sets off a release of DMT in the observer, who then has an internal experience? I think this could be a potential breakthrough in the study of UFO’s. It doesn’t explain what causes the lights, but if whatever does, affects people in the right way, it may lead to an encounter that is not ‘of’ those lights. Like a heavy wind blowing open a door you didn’t know was there. The wind and the room beyond may not be directly related, but one unlocked the other. It could also be that the beings that are contacted via DMT are also trying to come here, and they do so in what appear to us as UFO’s (and possibly other unexplained phenomena).

I have never been sure what to make of implants in UFO abduction cases, but people in DMT studies receive implants. There is no physical implant in these people, but plenty of abductees have claimed to have found physical implants right where they say they were implanted. Some of these implants, when removed, seem to be, at the very least, odd. Now, as I said, I am not sure what to make of this. There isn’t enough conclusive evidence one way or another, but I would say that Dr. Strassman’s research into DMT may be a very important clue in understanding the UFO Phenomenon, as well as consciousness and the human condition in general.

If any of this even vaguely interests you, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book. You can look at it as DMT causing hallucinations or as DMT tapping into another realm, either way, the book is very interesting and opens up all new avenues of questions. Personally, I believe that it retunes us to another world. How much so probably depends on the situation and amount of DMT received, either naturally or by design. Dr. Strassman uses the analogy of the brain as a television, tuned by default to ‘channel normal’. DMT tunes it to other wavelengths.

I would like to thank Dr. Rick Strassman for the courage to see this study through and the strength it took him to actually get to do it. If you read this, you will understand what I mean. His research may have broken new ground in various fields, but only time will tell.

Book Review: Graham Hancock "Supernatural"

Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock never ceases to impress me. That is not an easy task, and Supernatural, again, does the trick. I wasn't sure what I was getting into with this book, I had read very little about it, but knew that it had little to do with his previous works. One of the things that I admire about Graham is that he approaches things so open, with respect and wisdom. A sense of wonder is always present. He never gets so caught up on a theory that he starts losing his balance, he is very aware that he may change his mind further on down the road as more information comes to light. This is what is lacking in so much paranormal and fringe work. This piece starts off a bit slow, working its way through the various cave art around Africa and Europe, and discussing the various theories on what they mean. Where he goes from there is fantastic. I have always held that there are strong connections between the fairy faiths, UFO’s, angels and demons, etc., as well as occult experiences. However, I had never thought to add into that Shamanic and trance experiences. Graham manages to strip back yet more of the disguise, and show the connections between them all (not so much on the occult side of things, though). It expands on the ideas of researchers like Jacques Vallee, and manages to tie in even more of the puzzle. At no point does he, however, present you with a set theory or idea. He is not someone to push things, and that continues here. Graham explores the various ideas and research conducted on altered states of consciousness, and pokes around in some DNA theories, and tries to show, more than anything, the connections, and possible correlations between what seem like widely separated subjects. Also, not one to sit by and use other people’s work as a substitute for direct experience, he travels to see said cave paintings, just as he dove on undersea ruins, and traveled to lost cities for past books. He also experiments with various mind altering drugs, in order to really understand what he is writing about. His experiences and conclusions make it all the more valuable. Once again, he antagonizes the dogmatic, however unintentional, in an honest and open exploration of ideas. It’s something that science as a whole could benefit from. You don’t have to agree with anything he concludes here, or anywhere else, but he pursues his course with honesty and integrity. He is open minded and logical. He doesn’t shun science, but isn’t afraid to speculate, either. Well worth the hefty read. You may walk away with a new way of looking at the world...

Book Review: Alien Energy: UFO's, Ritual Landscapes, and the Human Mind by Andrew Collins

Alien Energy: UFOs, Ritual Landscapes and the Human Mind
by Andrew Collins

This is actually an early book from Andrew Collins, re-released a few years ago. Overall, WELL worth the read. We'll start with the negatives, though. The typeset in the book is horrible. The font is tiny, and there is a lot of extra space. The photos, which play such a part in the research also look pretty bad. Finally, being that so much of it is recounting details of research, you can find yourself getting a bit tired of drudging through some of the text.

As for positives, however, the material is fantastic. He starts off talking about William Reich's Orgone Energy Theory, and the various experiments conducted. This ties in to some of their experiments later on. He follows that we fascinating research on Crop Circles. At this point, most Crop Circles are fakes, but there are some that are not known to be fake, and he goes back on the history of the subject, all the way back to the middle ages. The thing that he finds most interesting is the unusual effects that are experiences inside the crop circles, whether that be increased radiation traces, or physical symptoms that even the most skeptical people can suffer.

He poses a theory. That there is something in the field of energy of the earth, which in certain locations, can be a sort of window area, where other dimensions can overlap. He suggests that certain areas where crop circles are made are prone to this type of bleed through, and that somehow the crop circle amplifies it.

Beyond that, he then reviews Paul Devereux's Earth Lights research, which shows a correlation between fault lines and paranormal or UFO encounters. When he overlays this data with Crop Circles, he sees more possible correlations. And finally, he explores the nature of the earth below various ancient sites, to see of there is something they share, that may, again, enhance this energy.

After working through these various pieces, they then conduct 2 experiments based on these theories, using a lot of sensitive instruments, Geiger counters, IR Photography, and various other tools. They combine that with various locations, and ancient sights, orgone accumulators, and a host of meditations. This is the part of the book that drags the most. And it doesn't help that there is nothing that definitively proves or disproves anything. Collins is a good researcher, he doesn't jump at any anomaly and claim it proof. He looks for patterns, and they do find some intriguing ones to be present. There are also some really interesting personal experiences that he relates from the experiments.

I believe, not just based on his research, but also on my personal experiences, that he may be on to something. This has brought light unto some very strange things that have happened to me over the years, as Collins seems to do with many of his books. His work suggests that what we see as UFO's and mysterious lights in the sky, may not only be real, but far stranger than most people imagine. As with John Keel, his work leans towards an Ultra-Terrestrial explanation for these things. Collins admits to being an ardent believer in the nuts and bolts UFO theory for many years, but now has seen enough to suspect that our conscious minds play as much a part in their manifestation as the beings themselves.

If you want an open minded and original piece of work, this is it. But, as I said, it is a bit of a chore to work your way through. If you are serious about exploring these connections, though, read this.