2016
Madhya
Pradesh Trip
Tent
auditorium for the Living the Right Way Conference
Earlier this year, I was
invited by Shivraj Singh Chouhan,the
chief minister of Madhya Pradesh,
a state
in India, to participate in a conference held in connection with a
spiritual
festival that was taking place in the town of Ujjain. The name of the festival
(mela) is Simhastha Kumbha Mela.
Simha means "lion." Simhastha refers
to Jupiter being in the sign of Leo (the lion). Kumbha means "pot",
and it refers to a celestial pot of nectar. Long ago the demigods and
demons
fought over this pot for twelve years. On four successive occasions
during
those twelve years, a drop of nectar fell to earth from the celestial
pot. The
four places on earth where the drops of nectar fell were Prayag, Hardwar,
Nasik, and Ujjain.
Millions of people gather at these four cities every twelve
years to celebrate the Kumbha Mela, especially by bathing in sacred
rivers. The
Kumbha Mela at Prayag, at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna
Rivers, draws
worldwide attention. During the Simhastha Kumbha Mela in Ujjain, which
takes
place when Jupiter is in Leo, millions of people take bath in the Shipra River
there. Huge tent cities spring up, as if by magic, to house and feed
the huge
numbers of pilgrims. Why was the conference held? Chief Minister
Chouhan
explained, "In keeping with the age old tradition of holding
deliberations
during Simhastha on matters relevant to humankind, the Government of
Madhya
Pradesh organized an international conference on Living the Right Way from 12th
May to 14th May, 2016."
Chouhan acknowledged the inspiration and support
of the Prime Minister of India,
Narendra Modi, who came and spoke at the
conference. Some of the topics for the conference were science and
spirituality, sustainable agriculture, climate change, and cottage
industry.
Why was I invited to
speak at the conference held in connection with
the
festival? I suppose it is because I have written books that provide
scientific
evidence in support of the ideas about human origins and antiquity
found in the
ancient Sanskrit writings of India. It was a honor to be invited. I was
provided with air transportation from Los Angeles to Indore, the
nearest
airport to Ujjain. I was met at the Indore airport by a government
officer, who
served as my guide during my entire visit. A driver was also
provided. I was
taken from the Indore airport to a nice hotel in Indore, where the
international conference delegates were housed. The next morning I was
taken to
the conference venue near Ujjain. The conference was held in a large
temporary
auditorium. Such temporary structures are called pandals, and in India
they are
very expert at constructing them. Sometimes they are done on a small
scale,
with a bamboo superstructure covered by cloth. But the conference
auditorium,
which accommodated over five thousand specially invited guests
(government
officials, educators, media, swamis, etc.), was on a more elaborate
palatial
scale, with air conditioning, which kept the temperature inside at a
comfortable 75 degrees Fahrenheit, while outside the temperature
reached 105 degrees
and more.
I spoke on the first day of the Living the Right Way conference. I was
part of
a session that included other scholars of Western birth who were
through their
work promoting various aspects of India's Vedic culture. The session
organizer,
in introducing me, mentioned my work in documenting archeological
evidence
consistent with the accounts of extreme human antiquity found in the
historical
writings of ancient India. I will here summarize my remarks. I first
paid my
respects to my guru, His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Then I said to live in the right way, you have to know the answers to
two
important questions: "Who am I?" and "Where am I?" Modern
science says we are machines made of molecules living in an accidental
universe.
But Vedanta does not say "aham molecules" ("I am
molecules"). Vedanta says "aham brahmasmi" ("I am
spirit"). And according to the Upanishads, we do not live in an
accidental
universe. The Upanishads say ishavasyam idam sarvam ("Everything is
God's
property"). We are living in a universe that is created by God.
Modern
science also says we have come from apes. They say the first humans
appeared
less than 200,000 years ago. But the Vedas and Puranas say humans have
always
existed on earth. For example the Bhagavata Purana tells about
Dhruva,
who lived during the Svayambhuva Manvantara almost 2 billion years ago.
There
are many sacred places all over India dedicated to the memory of
personalities
who existed millions of years ago. There is evidence for this kind of
human
antiquity in my book Forbidden Archeology. So the main point is
we have
to know who we are and where we are. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord
Krishna
says that we are eternal spirit souls who find ourselves now in the
world of
matter. Our purpose is to go to the spiritual level of reality. Asato
ma,
sad gama. We have to go from the temporary to the eternal.
One afternoon my guide and driver took me into Ujjain to see the Shipra
River,
the bathing pilgrims, the campsites, and the Mahakaleshwar temple (this Shiva
temple is one of the main temples in Ujjain). On the last day of the
conference, some concluding resolutions were published. Some of the
resolutions
were about science and spirituality. For example, "Human existence is
not
merely physical. Its consciousness and perception has infinite
dimensions which
permeate the animate and inanimate worlds." And, "Science and
spiritualism complement each other." And, "Educational curricula
should include study of spiritualism." Other resolutions were about
ecology. "Excessive consumerism has to be curbed to protect the
ecology." Others were about the need to preserve village life and
cottage
industries.
World Archeological Congress in Kyoto, Japan
Himeji Castle
From August 28 to September 2, 2016
I was in Kyoto, Japan, where I
presented a
paper at a meeting of the World
Archaeological Congress, one of the world's
largest organizations of archeologists. The WAC holds its congresses
every four
years in a different country. My paper was about my research into
archeological evidence in
museums
that is consistent with the accounts of extreme human
antiquity found in the Puranas, the historical writings of ancient
India. Most
archeologists believe humans like us first appeared less than 200,000
years
ago. The Puranas contain histories of a human presence going back
millions of
years. The hotel I stayed in was just across the street from the old
imperial
palace and gardens. In the early mornings, before the conference
sessions, I
would go there to meditate on the Hare Krishna mantra. Luckily the
restaurant
at my hotel had some dishes that were suitable for my vegetarian diet
(no meat,
no fish, no eggs). One day of the conference was dedicated to
tours. I
went on a tour to an ancient burial mound in Kobe, an archeological
museum for
Hyogo prefecture, and the Himeji
Castle from samurai times (see photo). The
tower of the castle is actually all constructed of wood, although the
outside
is covered with a white plaster. It is amazing that such a huge
structure was
built only with wood, using huge wooden pillars and beams.
Trip to India and United Kingdom
In early October I flew
from Los Angeles to New Delhi.
On October 8 and October
9, 2016, I attended the 10th
All India Student Conference on Science and
Spiritual Quest, organized by the Bhaktivedanta Institute of Kolkata
at the Hindustan College of
Science and Technology near Mathura,
India. I was one of
the keynote speakers. My paper was titled Puranic Time and the
Archeological
Record, with Some Thoughts on Knowledge Filtration. The Puranas,
the historical
and cosmological texts of ancient India, present a cyclical concept of
time.
Human populations are present throughout these time cycles, going back
many
millions of years. The Puranic accounts therefore differ from the
modern
scientific consensus that humans like us first appeared less than
200,000 years
ago. However, a detailed study of the scientific literature reveals
many
reports of discoveries of human bones, human footprints, and human
artifacts
that are far older than 200,000 years—in some cases going back millions
of
years. This evidence is consistent with the Puranic accounts of extreme
human
antiquity. The absence of these reports from current scientific
discourse may
be explained by a process of knowledge filtration that operates in the
world of
science. This knowledge filtration can be seen as related to the
accounts of
the influence of paradigms in science given by Thomas Kuhn in his book The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Also speaking at the
conference was Chandra Wickramsinghe,
a British/Sri Lankan astrophysicist. He is favorable to
the idea that life comes from life, not from chemicals.
After the conference,
on October 10, the
organizers took the participants on a tour of sacred
places in Vrindavan, where Lord Krishna appeared five thousand
years ago. I
enjoyed the tour. On October 11,
I attended the dedication of the samadhi
(final resting place) of Bhaktisvarupa
Damodara Swami (Dr. Thoudam Damodar
Singh), founding director of the Bhaktivedanta Institute. Dr.
Singh, was, like
me, a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
(ISKCON)
and a disciple of His Divine Grace A.
C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. His
samadhi is located in the back couttyard of a small temple on the banks
of Radhakunda,
one of the most sacred places in Vrindavan. On October 12, I came
to New Delhi, where I stayed at the ISKCON temple in Punjabi Bagh,
giving
lectures about my work to groups of students and professionals. While
in Delhi,
I visited a small Radha Krishna temple in the narrow lanes of the
Chippiwada
district of Old Delhi. In the early 1960s, my guru Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada stayed there, while preparing to come to the United States.
He was
finishing his translation of the Bhagavata
Purana and arranging for its
printing. The Bhagavata Purana, or
Shrimad Bhagavatam,
is the main inspiration
for my work. So it was very meaningful for me to visit the Chippiwada
temple.
On October 16, I traveled by
train from New Delhi north to the town of Roorkee.
On October 17, I gave a
lecture (Revisiting Human Origins: Archeological
Evidence for Extreme Human Antiquity) at the Indian Institute of Technology in
Roorkee. The auditorium was full, with students sitting in the aisles.
While I
was in Roorkee, my hosts took me to Hardwar,
to bathe in the sacred waters of
the Ganges. Hardwar is in the foothills of the Himalayas. After bathing
in the
Ganges, I felt spiritually refreshed.
Pilgrims bathing in
the Ganges at Hardwar
On the morning of October 19, I
flew from New Delhi to London.
From London's
Heathrow airport, I traveled to Oxford.
I had made a request to examine some
stone tools in the Pitt Rivers Museum.
The stone tools were collected in the
early 20th century by the Belgian geologist A. Rutot at a place called
Boncelles, Belgium. What interests me most about Rutot's Boncelles
tools is
their age. They were found in Oligocene formations. The Oligocene is
the
geological period that goes from about 23 million to 33 million years
ago--impossibly old for most scientists today. Some years ago, I had
seen some
of the Boncelles artifacts in the archeology department of the Royal
Belgian
Institute of Natural Sciences. On October
24, I returned to London for my
flight back to Los Angeles.
2017
A Visit to India
With faculty at Maharaja
Agrasena Institute of Technology
On February 6, 2017, I flew
from Los Angeles to Dubai on Emirates Airline,
arriving the morning of February 8.
I then took a connecting flight to
Kolkata,
India. From the airport, I took a taxi to Mayapur, West Bengal. Mayapur is a
sacred place on the banks of the Ganges River. About 531 years ago, an
avatar
of God called Shri Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu, appeared there. His mission was to
spread the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra to every town and
village. In
Mayapur, I stayed at the center of the International
Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON), of which I am a member. I am a disciple
of the
Society's founding guru, His Divine
Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
In Mayapur I attended some meetings. Some of the meetings were
connected with
the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP),
currently being constructed there.
I am part of a committee responsible for planning exhibits that will be
housed
in the museum wing of the TOVP. The exhibits will be related to the
Vedic conception of the origin and nature of life and the universe. On February 16, I
flew from Kolkata to New Delhi,
where I stayed at the ISKCON center in the
Punjabhi Bagh district. While in New Delhi, I gave lectures about my
book Forbidden
Archeology at the Maharaja
Agrasena Institute of Technology and the Guru Govind Singh
University. Both lectures were well attended. I like speaking
about my work in India, which is the source of many of my ideas. My
book Forbidden Archeology
documents archeological evidence for extreme human
antiquity. Modern science says humans like us appeared less than
200,000 years
ago. But the Puranas, the
historical texts of ancient India, inform us that
humans like us have existed for millions of years. There is some
archeological
evidence consistent with this. One of the principal Puranas is the Bhagavata
Purana, or the Shrimad
Bhagavatam. The Shrimad
Bhagavatam is the record of a
conversation that took place five thousand years ago beneath a banyan
tree, in which the great sage Shukadeva Goswami
answered questions put to him by King Parikshit. One of the topics was
human
history, which according to the Shrimad
Bhagavatam, goes back millions of years.
During my time in New Delhi, I took a trip to the spot where the
conversation
between Shukadeva Goswami and King Parikshit took place. It is called
Shukratal, and is located about 120 miles north of New Delhi. There is
a large
banyan tree there, and also a small temple. It was very meaningful for
me to
visit this holy place. On February 21,
I flew from New Delhi back to Los
Angeles.
Panel presentation
facilitated by Sean David Morton at 5D Conference
At the
5D
"They Are Among Us" Conference
On March 10, 2017, I gave on
lecture titled "Forbidden Archeology
and the
Extraterrestrial Intervention Hypothesis" at a conference held
at the LAX
Holiday Inn in Los Angeles. My ideas on this topic are inspired by my
studies
in the ancient Sanskrit writings of India, especially the Puranas,
which deal
with cosmology and history. Some extraterrestrial researchers believe
that life
evolved on earth as most scientists now say it happened. They say the
first
single celled organisms self-organized from chemicals a couple of
billion years
ago. Then came multicellular organisms, first in the ocean, then on
land.
Gradually the first apes came into existence, then, a few million years
ago,
the first apemen (hominins). Around 400,000 years ago, there was the
apeman, Homo erectus.
Some ET researchers believe that at this point, some
extraterrestrials came and manipulated the genes of Homo erectus, thus
forming
humans like us, Homo sapiens.
I disagree with this. Archeological evidence, as
documented in my book Forbidden Archeology,
shows that humans like us have been
present on earth for tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of
years,
going all the way back to the very beginning of life on this planet. It
is
crucial to understand that a human being, or any other living thing, is
not
just a machine made of molecules. The human body, or any other body, is
a
vehicle for a conscious self, a soul. This conscious self is not
produced by
molecules in the brain. It exists independently from matter. It is
never
created, never destroyed. The conscious self comes from a higher,
timeless
level of reality. So in that sense, as conscious selves, we are all
extraterrestrials. We are not from this planet. We are from a higher
level or
reality, to which we should strive to return. As conscious beings, we
have not
evolved up from matter, but have devolved, or come down from a higher
realm. I
have explained this in more detail in my book Human Devolution: A
Vedic
Alternative to Darwin's Theory.
Speaking
Tree
When I was in New Delhi,
India, in February 2017, I was interviewed by the editor of The
Speaking Tree,
a publication of The Times of India. The interview has now been
published. Here
is the link http://www.speakingtree.in/article/matter-or-spirit
Lecturing at Free
Your Mind Conference in Philadelphia
Free
Your Mind
April 7-9, 2017 I attended
the Free Your Mind Conference
in Bucks County, Pennsylvania,
just north of Philadelphia. I participated in a panel
discussion and spoke about my book Forbidden Archeology to
an audience of
hundreds. During the
conference many people bought copies of my books.
Mt. Shasta
Lectures
On
Thursday July 6, 2017, I
flew from Los
Angeles to Medford, Oregon, and from there went to Mt. Shasta, California, to
check into my hotel. Snow-covered Mt. Shasta dominates the skyline
across the
whole region. I was in the Mt. Shasta area to give some lectures at the
Gaia
Symposium, at which some of the other speakers were Bruce Lipton and Tricia
McCannon. My first talk was on Friday night. It was about
psychic archeology. I
told how a famous archeologist (J. T.
Robinson) used a Theosophist psychic
(Geoffrey Hodson) to assist him
in his research on the fossils of the apeman Australopithecus
he excavated in the Sterkfontein Cave
in South Africa.
Robinson took Hodson into the cave, where Hodson lay on his back on the
cave
floor, in trance. Robinson would put a fossil of Australopithecus on Hodson's
forehead, and Hodson would see how the creature looked and acted when
it was
alive. This psychic aspect of Robinson's research is not mentioned in
textbooks. Then I discussed cases from 16th century India, where
saintly
devotees of Krishna would use information from dreams and visions to
excavate
lost sacred images. On Saturday I gave a talk on Forbidden Archeology,
archeological evidence for extreme human antiquity. These lectures were
given in
the auditorium of the College of the
Siskiyous in Weed, California. On Tuesday,
in Mt. Shasta, I gave a workshop presentation, comparing the
Tlingit
Indian cosmology with the Vedic cosmology of India, focusing on common
features
like reincarnation. After the workshop, I went to the airport in
Medford,
Oregon to get my flight back to Los Angeles. As I was boarding I handed
my
boarding pass to the gate attendant. As he scanned my boarding pass, I
saw his
computer screen suddenly turn red, and a message started
flashing--Boarding
Denied! I was surprised. But then he just said, "You've been upgraded
to
first class," and handed me a new boarding pass. This was my first time
in
the Mt. Shasta area, and I am looking forward to going again sometime.
A rushing mountain
stream in the Mt. Shasta area
Lecture in Indiana
On
Friday, September 22, 2017, I spoke on my book Forbidden Archeology
at a
meeting organized by the Bhakti Yoga Society at the University of Indiana at
Bloomington. I have been a practitioner of bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion,
since 1973. One of the principles of bhakti yoga is to use your talents
and
abilities in the service of the divine. So I regard my forbidden
archeology
research, writing, and speaking as part of by practice of bhakti yoga.
My work
is inspired by my studies in the Puranas, the Vedic historical
writings, which
tell us that humans like us have existed on earth for millions of
years, going
right back to the beginnings of life on earth. We are not just an
accident of
evolution. We have been put here for a purpose. By my work, I try to
draw the
attention of students to the Vedic literature as a source of knowledge
about
our origins and purpose. The questions and discussion after my talk led
from
archeological evidence for extreme human antiquity to the nature and
purpose of
human existence.
Lecturing at Bloomington, Indiana
AAPS Meeting,
Harris, Michigan
On Friday October 6, 2017, I gave a
talk (Forbidden
Archeology: Evidence for Extreme Human Antiquity in the Americas) at
the
meeting of the Ancient Artifact
Preservation Society (AAPS) in Harris Michigan. One of the more
recent
cases I talked about was the case of the incised mastodon bones found
in San
Diego. An official scientific report was published this year, giving
the cut
bones an age of a bit over 100,000 years, but I pointed out that the
bones were
originally discovered in 1992 and that a private report submitted to
the
California Department of Transportation gave the bones an age of about
300,000
years. I also reviewed some of the classic cases of archeological
evidence for
extreme human antiquity in the Americas, such as the 19th century
California
gold mine discoveries, which go back about 50 million years. My talk
was well
received. I was also part of a panel of speakers, where the audience
had a
chance to ask questions. Many of the questions were directed to me. One
person
asked if I had considered possible geological phenomena that could
explain how
human bones or artifacts, apparently of extreme antiquity, were
actually quite
recent. I replied that, yes, I had considered such possibilities. But
just
because something is "possible" does not mean it is actually true.
For example, it might be possible that a stone tool slipped through a
crevice
or fissure from some higher, more recent level, into some very ancient
level.
But unless the person proposing that could show that in the particular
location
in question, there really was such a fissure, and that there were
really stone
tools of the right kind at the top of the fissure, this objection is
not
convincing. Actually, one could dismiss any archeological discovery by
proposing some imaginary possible counterexplanation.
I related how once, in response to a similar
question put to me
by an archeologist at one of my lectures, I had replied by telling the
archeologist, "Yes, anything is possible, but it does not mean it is
true.
It is possible, for example, that you are a holographic projection from
Mars." The conference venue was in an isolated part of the Upper
Peninsula
of Michigan, in the Island Resort hotel/casino/convention center
operated by an
Indian tribe.. A few years ago I spoke for the AAPS, again in the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan there are
ancient
copper mines. Some researchers believe the copper was exported to
Europe during
the Bronze Age. During the last AAPS conference, we went on an
excursion to see
a massive piece of pure copper, weighing many tons. It was resting in a
park.
I was surprised to learn from Glenn DeVlaminck, the president of the
AAPS, that
the huge mass of copper is now in China, having been acquired by the
owners of
a Chinese mineral company. Many people purchased copies of my books,
and I had
some interesting conversations with them at my book table.
AAPS Panel Discussion
|
Origins Conference
On Wednesday, November
1, 2017, I flew from Los Angeles to London's Heathrow
Airport, arriving Thursday afternoon. I traveled from Heathrow by the
Underground into London on the Picadilly line to Picadilly Circus,
changing
there to the Bakerloo line, which I took north to the Baker Street
station.
From there I walked to my hotel. I was in London to speak at the Origins Conference, organized by Hugh Newman and Andrew Collins. After getting
settled
in my hotel, I took the Underground from Baker Street to Oxford Circus.
I
walked along very crowded Oxford Street to Soho Square. There I had
dinner at
Govinda's Restaurant, on the ground floor of the Radha-Krishna temple
of the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness, of which I am a
member. I had
a vegetarian lasagna, salad, and cheesecake for desert. Then it was
back to the
hotel. On Friday morning, I had breakfast at the hotel (whole wheat
toast with
butter and jam, yogurt, an apple, hot chocolate). Then I went for a
japa
meditation walk in nearby Regents Park. Japa is the quiet chanting of
the Hare
Krishna mantra on beads. I do this every morning. Returning to the
hotel, I met
with Ryan Bissett, a biologist, member of the Hare Krishna movement,
and member
of the Science and Philosophy
Initiative (www.s-pi.org). He was interested in
my work, and I was also interested in his. Later we went to Govinda's
Restaurant and had a late lunch and long meeting with Akhandadhi Dasa,
a BBC
broadcaster, member of the Hare Krishna movement, and president of the
Science
and Philosophy Initiative. Then I returned to my hotel, where I ran
into author
Hugh Newman, who was just arriving with his partner J.J. and author Jim
Vieira,
host of the History Channel series Search
for the Lost Giants. Hugh and Jim are
coauthors of the book Giants on Record.
We all went out for dinner to a sushi
place on Baker Street. The next day, Saturday, was the day of the
Origins
Conference, which was held in the Rudolf Steiner House.
I was the keynote speaker that evening. I
spoke
about my forbidden archeology work, presenting new developments along
with some
of the classic cases of archeological evidence for extreme human
antiquity.
After the conference, the organizers and speakers had dinner at an
Indian
restaurant called Mumtaz. The next day, Sunday, Andrew Collins led a
tour of
the British Museum. One of the highlights for me was the Sutton Hoo
treasures,
from the 7th century AD, which include a famous gold helmet and mask.
The
treasures were excavated from a mound on the estate of a British lady,
who had
visions about a funeral procession of an ancient king. She employed an
archeologist to dig at the place that had been revealed to her. So
there was a
paranormal element to the discovery. On Sunday evening, Hugh Newman and
J.J.
drove me to their house near Stonehenge. Actually, the cottage-like
house, with
its thatched roof, had once been the residence of some of the
caretakers at Stonehenge.
On Monday, Hugh took me on a tour of Stonehenge. His friend, Simon
Barton, a Stonehenge expert, served as our guide. That evening Hugh
took me to
dinner at a pub near Stonehenge, where I had a vegetarian version of a
pub
classic--sausage, mashed potatoes, gravy, and peas. On Tuesday it was
back to
Heathrow for my British Airways flight to LA.
Touring Stonehenge
with Hugh Newman and Simon Barton
2018
South Africa lectures
On Monday April 9,
2018 I took an overnight flight from Los Angeles to Zurich,
Switzerland. From there I took another overnight flight to Johannesburg, South
Africa, arriving the morning of Wednesday,
April 11. I was going to South Africa
to give a talk at the Ubuntu Festival,
organized by Michael Tellinger,
who has
done archeological research showing there was an advanced human
presence in
South Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago. Ubuntu is a Bantu word
that
refers to the universal bond of sharing that connects all
humanity.
Several speakers and
musicians who would be participating in
the conference were arriving that morning at the airport. We were met
by Emma,
Michael Tellinger's fiance. Emma took me to the veranda of the airport
hotel,
where I hung out with other speakers and musicians, conversing until we
had all
arrived. Then we piled into a chartered small bus, about 20 of us, for
the four
hour ride to Mbombela, the
town where the Ubuntu Festival was held, at a sports
stadium. The festival featured
music on a stage, vendor booths, and
lectures in meeting rooms. My lecture was titled Human Antiquity, Origins, and
Purpose. In the first part of the lecture, I presented
archeological evidence
for extreme human antiquity, as documented in my book Forbidden
Archeology.
This evidence, which shows humans like us existed millions of years
ago, going
back to the very beginnings of life on earth, is consistent with the
accounts of extreme human antiquity
found in the Puranas, the
historical writings of ancient India. The evidence
suggests the need for a new explanation of human origins, which I
presented in
the second part of my talk. Briefly, we are not machines made of
matter.
Originally we are beings of pure consciousness, from a higher level of
reality. We did not evolve up from
matter; instead we have devolved, or come down from the level of pure
consciousness. Matter does not produce consciousness, but consciousness
can
become associated with matter. I presented some of the scientific
evidence for
this, from my book Human
Devolution. In the third part of my talk, I proposed
that the real purpose of human life is to restore consciousness to its
original
pure state, while satisfying our material needs in the most simple,
efficient,
and fair way possible.
It was good meeting some
of the other researchers, such as Sam
Osmanagic,
head of the Bosnian pyramid project, and Robert Salas, a former
United States Air Force officer, who, while serving as part of a launch
crew
for several nuclear missiles, experienced a UFO incident that
temporarily
disabled the missiles.
On Monday April 16 it was
time for me
to get on
another chartered bus with a group of conference speakers and musicians
for the
ride back to Johannesburg and my return flight, by way of Zurich, to
LA.
Seattle Visit
Speaking at the
Phinney Center in Seattle
On August 24, 2018 I gave
a talk about my book
My Science, My Religion at the Phinney Community Center in Seattle, Washington. My Science, My
Religion is a collection of 24 papers I
have presented about my work at major international scientific
conferences. In these
papers I integrate my spirituality, rooted in the philosophy and
cosmology of
ancient India, with my research into the science of human origins and
antiquity. Some people, who are convinced that science and religion
must be
kept completely separate, are surprised I have been able to do this.
Most of the
papers are related to archeological evidence for extreme human
antiquity. Most
scientists believe humans like us first appeared about 200,000 years
ago. But
the Puranas,
the historical writings of ancient India, say that humans have
existed for many millions of years, going back to the very beginnings
of life
on earth. The event began with some bhajan (singing of mantras to
musical
accompaniment). Beforehand, I met with some local supporters at Cafe
Flora, a
Seattle vegan restaurant. I always like coming to Seattle. I gave one
of my
very first public lectures on my work at the Seattle Metaphysical Library.
Lectures in the St. Louis Area
On
Tuesday September
11, 2018, I flew from Los
Angeles to St. Louis. During my visit, I stayed at the center of the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), of
which I am a
member. My main purpose in St. Louis was to give lectures at
universities on my
book Forbidden
Archeology, which documents archeological evidence for extreme
human antiquity. This evidence consists of scientific reports of
discoveries of
human bones, human artifacts, and human footprints older than allowed
by the
now dominant evolutionary conceptions. This evidence is consistent with
the
Puranas, the historical writings of ancient India, which contain
accounts of
humans existing in the distant past, many millions of years ago. I
spoke at Southern Illinois University
at Edwardsville, the Southern Illinois University
in Carbondale, and the Washington
University in St. Louis. I also spoke about Forbidden Archeology
at the Hindu Temple of St. Louis. During my stay, I
gave some talks on the philosophy of Bhagavad-Gita at
the ISKCON center in St.
Louis. I lectured there on the occasion of Radhastami, a festival
marking the appearance of Radha. According to the spiritual tradition
to which
I belong, God exists with both a male (Krishna) and female aspect
(Radha).
Radha is considered to be the personification of love for God. On Monday
September 17, I flew back to Los Angeles.
2019
Consciousness in Science Conference
In January
2019, I went to the conference “Consciousness
in
Science” in Gainesville,
Florida. The conference was organized by the Bhaktivedanta
Institute for Higher Studies. The conference opened on the
evening of January 18, with
lectures by consciousness researchers Stuart
Hameroff and Brenda Dunne,
in the auditorium of the Harn Museum
at the University of Florida.
I spoke on January
20, about how my work on archeological
evidence for extreme human antiquity relates to consciousness studies.
If, as
the archeological evidence documented in my book Forbidden Archeology
suggests,
humans like us have existed for many millions of years, going all the
way back
to the very beginnings of life on earth, this contradicts the currently
dominant theory of human origins in the scientific world. We therefore
need to
consider alternative explanations for human origins. But before we ask
the
question “what is the origin of human beings?” we should first ask
“what is a
human being?”
Today, many scientists will say that a human
being, or any
other living thing, is just a machine made of molecules. As far as
consciousness is concerned, they say it is produced by molecules in the
brain. I do not accept that. I accept
the view expressed in the Puranas, the
cosmological texts of ancient India,
that the conscious self always exists—it has no beginning, no end.
There are
several kinds of scientific evidence consistent with the idea that the
conscious self exists independently from matter. I have reviewed that
evidence
in my book Human
Devolution.
In my Gainesville talk, I explained how I
have been able to
communicate these ideas at mainstream scientific conferences and in
scientific
publications. Examples can be found in my book My Science, My Religion,
which
is a collection of 24 papers I have presented at mainstream academic
and
scientific conferences.
Later on January 20, I gave a talk about the
exhibits being
planned (by a committee of which I am a member) for the museum wing of
the Temple of the Vedic
Planetarium, currently under construction in Mayapur, West
Bengal, India. The exhibits will present various aspects of the
consciousness-based Vedic cosmology.
On the evening of January 20, I was invited
to a dinner at
the home of one of the Gainesville conference organizers. There I met
Brenda
Dunne, who was manager of the Princeton
Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR)
laboratory, set up in 1979 by Robert
Jahn, dean of the engineering department
of Princeton University. PEAR
(dissolved in 2007) is most well known
for a series of experiments on the effect of conscious intention on
random
number generators. Dunne and Jahn found
that subjects were able, by conscious intention, to influence the
output of the
random number generators to a statistically significant degree. This is
evidence for psychokinesis (PK), i.e., that consciousness can operate
on matter
in ways not explained by our current understanding of physics. PEAR
also did
experiments in remote viewing. I told Dunne I had included her research
in my book
Human Devolution.
The
conference was a good
opportunity to meet like-minded researchers.
Ratha Yatra
parade
at Venables Valley - Sharanagati, British Columbia
Northwest Visit
On
Thursday June 27,
2019, I arrived at the Seattle
airport. That evening
I gave a
lecture on the Vedic time cycles for the Seattle Bhakti Yoga Circle at
the West
Seattle Public Library. The basic point is that in different
cycles,
different
processes of self-realization are recommended. In the present cycle,
the Kali
Yuga, the congregational chanting of the names of God is the
recommended
process. Over the weekend I attended the Rathayatra Festival at the
Sharanagati
rural community of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
in
British Columbia.
On Saturday night I gave a talk at my host's house. I
spoke
about the exhibit plans for the Temple
of the Vedic Planetarium now
being
constructed in Mayapur, (West Bengal) India. The exhibits will focus on
key
aspects of the Vedic cosmology, giving us a true picture of who we are,
where
we are, and where we should be going. Essentially, we are spirit souls
who now
find ourselves in the world of matter. And we have two choices: we can
remain
in the world of matter, in the cycle of birth and death, or we can
qualify
ourselves to enter the eternal spiritual world. On Sunday, I
participated in
the Rathayatra festival. In this festival deities of Lord Jagannatha
are taken
in procession on a canopied chariot. After the procession I gave a talk
on the
history of the festival, which goes back to very remote times. My guru,
His
Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, would enact
the
festival
during his childhood in India, and when he came to the West in the
1960s, he
asked his followers to introduce Rathayatra in the west, starting in
San
Francisco.
Wales
Consultation
On Thursday July 10, I flew from Los Angeles to
London, arriving Friday morning. I spent Friday night at Bhaktivedanta
Manor, which was donated to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
by George Harrison in the 1970s. On Saturday morning I was taken by car to
Buckland Hall, a retreat center in the hills of Wales. I attended a meeting of
young scientists connected with the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness. In India, the Society is constructing
the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) at Mayapur, West Bengal, which will include a museum wing,
with exhibits related to Vedic ideas about the origin of life and the universe.
The TOVP Exhibits committee, of which I am a member, had arranged the Buckland
Hall meeting to receive scientific advice on exhibits.
Bern EAA, Princeton, New
Jersey Lecture and New England Field Trip
On September 28, 2019, I gave a talk (titled Human Origins and Antiquity: A Vedic
Perspective) at a meeting organized by the International Consciousness Research
Laboratories (ICRL) in Princeton, New Jersey. The ICRL, headed by Brenda Dunne,
is a successor to the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) group,
which had been set up at Princeton University by Robert Jahn, head of the
engineering department at Princeton, and Brenda Dunne. The PEAR group did
groundbreaking research showing that mind can influence matter in ways that
cannot be explained by our current laws of physics. For example, they did
extensive experiments with random number generators (RNGs). These devices
generate a random series of zeroes and ones. If you let the devices run by
themselves, they generate 50 percent zeroes, 50 percent ones. But Jahn and
Dunne had students and other subjects sit in front of the devices, and will,
mentally, that they produce more ones than zeroes, or more zeroes than ones.
They found that they were able to do it. They were able to cause the output of
the random number generators to deviate, to a statistically significant degree,
from the expected 50 percent zeroes, 50 percent ones. After some years, the
PEAR group was closed down by the university.
So Jahn and Dunne set up the ICRL to continue their research. After Jahn
died, Dunne has carried on.
Speaking at ICRL in Princeton
In January of 2019, I met Brenda Dunne at a conference on
consciousness studies organized by the Bhaktivedanta Institute of Higher
Studies in Gainesville, Florida. I told her that I had included the work done
by her and Robert Jahn in my book Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative to
Darwin's Theory. The basic idea of the book is that there is archeological
evidence showing that humans like us existed many millions of years ago. This
evidence contradicts the modern evolutionary ideas about human origins. This
suggests the need for new explanations for human origins. I proposed that
before we even ask, "How did humans come into existence?" we should
first ask, "What is a human being?". Most modern scientists say we
are just a combination of the material elements. But to me the evidence
suggests that we are composed of three things: gross matter, a subtle material
mind element, and nonmaterial conscious self, which can exist independently,
apart from matter and mind. Matter does not produce consciousness, but
consciousness can come into association with matter. In other words, as
conscious selves, we do not evolve up from matter; we devolve, or come down,
from the realm of pure consciousness. In Florida, Dunne invited me to speak for
her group in Princeton. I happily agreed to do it, and the lecture was
scheduled for September 28.
In early September, a couple of weeks before my Princeton
lecture, I was in Bern, Switzerland, where I spoke at a meeting of the European
Association of Archaeologists (EAA), in a session organized by the EAA's
president. Early in the twentieth century, Albert Einstein lived in Bern, where
he was working in the customs department of the government. I visited the
Einstein House in Bern, where Einstein was living when he wrote his famous
papers establishing his theory of relativity. Later he accepted a scientific
position in Germany, but when the Nazis rose to power, he emigrated to the
United States, spending many years in Princeton, New Jersey, at the Institute
for Advanced Studies. On the day of my Princeton lecture, one of the ICRL
people drove me from my hotel to the lecture venue. In the car, I mentioned
that my last event had been in Bern, where Einstein had lived, and now my next
event was in Princeton, where Einstein had also lived. My driver said she could
take me see the house where Einstein lived and the Institute where he worked.
These places were right on the way to the lecture venue. So we stopped by those
places.
At the lecture hall, I met Brenda Dunne. I gave my talk,
beginning with archeological evidence for extreme human antiquity, and moving
on to the scientific evidence showing that the conscious self exists apart from
matter, and can act on matter in ways modern science cannot explain. In that
connection, I spoke about the relevance of the work done by Robert Jahn and
Brenda Dunne, which I found to be compatible with the Vedic ideas that inspire
my work. The lecture was well attended, and there were lots of questions after
the talk.
Investigating an anomalous megalithic rock formation in New England
After the Princeton
lecture, I went on an archeological field trip in Connecticut. Over the
past couple of years, my research assistant has been in touch with an
alternative archeology researcher there, Geoffrey Whittam. He has
extensive knowledge of mysterious dolmens, standing stones, stone walls, stone
chambers, and stacked stones all over Connecticut and other places in New
England. He regards them as evidence for a lost civilization, preceding the
European settlers and native American tribes. My research assistant, who
attended the Princeton lecture, along with a film producer friend, suggested
that the three us should take up Geoffrey's offer to show us some of his finds.
So we spent a day with Geoffrey, driving all over the state of Connecticut, and
hiking deep into forests, up and down hills, to view the standing stones, etc.,
at many different sites. Although skeptics will certainly have explanations for
some of these objects, I am keeping an open mind about them. Certainly, I
accept the idea that humans have existed in the Americas for much longer
periods of time than those accepted by modern science (about 30,000 years). In
my book Forbidden Archeology, I have documented archeological evidence
showing that humans have existed for millions of years in the Americas. One of
the questions I have about the New England objects, if they are accepted as the
work of humans, is "how old are they?"
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