2017
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
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.
St Louis
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.
Krishna and Radha
2019
Consciousness in Science Conference
In January 2019 I went to the Consciousness in
Science Conference 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?' 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 inscientific 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?"
2021
Great Kiva Heritage Site in the Four Corners Region
From September 17 to September 24, I traveled to Montezuma
County, in the southwest corner of Colorado, to meet with Dave Edwards, one of
my correspondents, and filmmaker Robert Dakota. Dave had started writing to me
late last year (2020). He told me about a site he had discovered on his
property in rural Colorado. At this site, he had found large pieces of stone
that he thought represented people and animals. He linked his site with the
local Native American people, the Hopi, and thought the site had a spiritual
facet to it, in that it contained portals to other dimensions of reality. He
wanted me to come and see the site, so I agreed to do it, even though I did
have some doubts about it. I figured I should give Dave a fair hearing and
experience his discovery firsthand. After all, that's what I ask archeologists
to do in connection with my work, give it a fair hearing and have a look at the
evidence . I spent a few days, visiting the site and some local Native American
archeological sites. One of the days was the fall equinox, and Dave held a
ritual ceremony, based on Native American practices, at his site. Part of the
ritual involved an attempt to experience the portal aspect of the site. I
participated and experienced a strong sensation of immortality. Robert filmed
some of my evaluations of the site, and an excerpt can be seen at this link:
https://youtu.be/5D6z9QRIrBI
On October 12th I flew into Boulder to do some interviews
for the Ancient Civilization series of video programs produced by Gaia TV. I spent the following afternoon at the studio doing the interview, and the next
day flew back to LA.
Picnic lunch with some of the EO IV presenters & attendees at the Red Rocks Trailhead
The next morning, October 14th, I left LA for Sedona, Arizona,
to give a talk at the Earth Origins IV conference. Sedona, with its red
rock canyons, mesas, and towering
formations, is a magical place. My talk was titled Native Americans, Time, and
Archeology. The Native American scholar Vine Deloria, Jr., quoted extensively
from my book in his book Forbidden ArcheologyRed Earth, White Lies. Like him,
many Native American people do not accept that humans evolved from apes or that
the Native American people first entered the Americas less than 20,000 years
ago. I have documented archeological
evidence that supports these ideas, and because Vine Deloria, Jr., himself a
Native American, had endorsed my work, I felt
comfortable in presenting it to an audience that included Hopi and Zuni
elders, who later bought some of my books. I returned to LA a day later than I
planned because high winds delayed my flight from Flagstaff to Phoenix, causing
me to miss my connecting flight to LA. So the airline put me up for a night in
a Phoenix hotel, and rebooked me on a flight to LA the next morning.
2022
Living Truth Summit
On March 31, I traveled from Los Angeles to Mt. Shasta in
northern California. The snow covered peak of this extinct volcano dominates
the surrounding area. For the local Native American tribes, the mountain
remains a place for sacred rituals. Some come to experience the natural
beauty of the place. And others claim to have encountered ascended masters,
extraterrestial beings, and refugees from lost civilizations such as Lemurians.
Such beings are said to reside in a crystal city within Mt. Shasta.
Ami played music at the conference and showed me Mt. Shasta
At Mt. Shasta I was a speaker at a conference called the
Living Truth Summit. My talk was titled “Excavating the Eternal: Psychic
Archeology in India.”
Today archeology is
mostly a science of the dead, fixating on bones and stones. But some
archeologists have shaken things up using psychic techniques to explore
nonmaterial dimensions of the past. This use of psychic techniques has a long
history. Hundreds of years ago in India, many saints, mystics, and yogis used
information from dreams and visions to excavate and recover long lost sacred
objects and sacred sites that open portals to the eternal. The talk was well attended and favorably received. The final
part of the conference was a ceremony at Mount Shasta. It was held at a private
park at the base of the mountain, called the Michael Mary Mandala. Several
stone circles reminiscent of ancient stone circles in Europe have been erected
on the site, including circles representing the seven chakras, or energy
centers, of the human body. The ceremony was for the activation of a crystal
within Mount Shasta. It was good spending time at the mountain. The atmosphere
was Himalayan. I was reminded of the accounts in the Bhagavata Purana, also
called the Shrimad Bhagavatam, of sages gathering in the Naimisharanya Forest
to contemplate what they could do for the spiritual welfare of people in the
darkness of this present age.
Site of the Tetrahedron at the Michael Mary Mandala
Science of
Consciousness Conference
Summer
2022
Using ox power to make hay at Krishna Valley
On June 29 I went to
the Los Angeles airport to board a British Airways (BA) flight to Heathrow
airport in London, connecting the next day to a flight to Prague. I was going
to Prague to attend a meeting of the World Archaeological Congress. The BA
flight out of LA was delayed several hours so I missed my connecting flight to
Prague. BA booked me on standby for the next flight (the last one) the evening
of June 30. I did not get a seat on that flight. I went to BA customer service.
They said the next flight to Prague would be two days later. Normally, they
would have given me a hotel room for the two nights. But they had run through
their supply. I had to book my own hotel room. They said I could be reimbursed.
Yeah, sure, I thought. So now it is pretty late. I try the hotel in the
terminal. It’s full. I try on my phone to get a room in hotels near the
airport. They are all 700 dollars or more a night. Finally I find a room in a
hotel in Farnsborough, a little outside London, for 130 dollars a night. But a
taxi out there is 120 dollars, and 2 days later the same amount to return to
the airport. Eventually, I did get reimbursed for all of my expenses. In
addition I received substantial compensation. To do all this, I had to make a
claim online, submitting all receipts, etc. It was time consuming, but I wasn't
going to let this go. So I got to Prague the night before the conference
opened. I presented a paper about my work with the museum and planetarium
exhibits in a project in India called The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium. This
presentation was an attempt to preserve and pass on to the future the cosmology
of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition in India.
After the conference, I traveled by train from Prague to
Budapest, in Hungary. I visited some friends, members of the Hare Krishna
movement there. I visited the movement’s eco village (called Krishna Valley) in
southern Hungary. It is off the grid, and is self sustaining, producing its own
fruits, vegetables, grains, and milk products. Especially interesting was a
project to have oxen turn a wheel that transmits mechanical power through
transmission gears to power machines for cutting wood, grinding grain, etc. I
gave a talk about my presentation in Prague at Krishna Valley. I gave a similar
talk at the Budapest Hare Krishna center. I also met with faculty members of
the Bhaktivedanta College in Budapest. After I returned to Los Angeles, I went
to Seattle, where I lectured on meditation and the soul at Heart Center for Awakening yoga studio, and
met with friends and supporters.
Vedic
cosmology conference at Govardhan Eco Village
Govardhan Eco Village
On October
31, 2022, I flew from Los Angeles to Mumbai, India (via JFK airport in New
York, and Doha in Qatar) to take part in a conference on Puranic and Siddhantic
cosmology. The Puranas and the Siddhantas are the two main sources of knowledge
about the Vedic cosmology of India. The Siddhantas present information needed
to calculate the observable movements of celestial bodies. It is in many
respects similar to modern astronomy. The Puranas present a wider cosmological
vision, incorporating features not observable by ordinary human sense
perception. I was invited to this conference because I am a member of a
committee working on the development of exhibits for a museum in the Temple of
the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) in Mayapur, West Bengal. My exposition was about
presenting the TOVP cosmology museum as a cultural heritage project, designed
to preserve for future generations the Vedic cosmology, which promotes values
that can be helpful in solving the environmental crisis.
The
conference was held at the Govardhan Eco Village, about 3 hours by car north of
Mumbai. Imagine an eco friendly resort and learning center superimposed on a
sustainable agriculture project in the forested, hilly countryside of
Maharastra's Govardhan Eco Village, a project of the International Society
for Krishna Consciousness. I enjoyed my weeklong stay there, especially my tour
through the replica of the Vrindavan region of India, revered as the place
where Lord Krishna appeared.
On November 7, I traveled to the Mumbai airport
to begin my return journey to LA (via New Delhi and New York).
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