Cygnus X-3

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Cosmic rays from the Cygnus constellation influenced human evolution in early history and affected human behavior and caused germ-like mutations over a longer period. A planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco, which is next door to Cygnus. an examination of the levels of Beryllium-10, which is a bi-product of cosmic rays hitting the upper atmosphere and changing oxygen and nitrogen into the secondary element of beryllium. Which falls to the earth and is retained within sea levels and ice cores, and measurements of this can determine the level of cosmic rays. There’s no question that towards the end of the paleolithic era the level of cosmic rays hitting the earth had doubled. So to suggest that this may have been involved in mutations leading in changes to human evolution is not a mad idea. The whole matter of subtle mutations, reinforcing environmental pressures, aiding or provoking jumps in culture, coinciding with extraordinary periods of extra-solar or cosmic radiation bore deeper examination. Scientific support was sparse, but my intuitive thinking about some kind of mutation-driven, speeded-up intellectual evolution between say 80,000 and 30,000 years ago remained active. The logic seemed overpowering, but the physical data seemed to be wisps of cobwebs floating just outside my reach, brushing at my fingertips.

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From; http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_cygnus.htm
Cosmic rays from a binary star known as Cygnus X-3 helped accelerate human evolution during the last Ice Age . The veneration of Cygnus as a bird associated with cosmic life and death goes back 17,000 years to when the constellation occupied pole position in the northern night sky . Cygnus is at the root of all the world's religions The origins of astronomy, literature, ancient cosmologies, even transoceanic sea voyages all occurred some 17,000 years ago Traces the very DNA of life from shamanic art in Paleolithic caves to the foundations of the Great Pyramid, from psychedelic journeys in the Peruvian Amazon to Francis Crick's discovery of the double helix Reveals that our ancestors knew what science is now telling us - that life on Earth originated among the stars, a fact known and accepted by our ancestors

Contents
Cosmic Rays And The Cygnus Mystery Cygnus Mystery Cygnus X-3 and The Cosmic Ray Question The ―Cygnus Event‖ - The Probable Effects Of Cosmic Radiation The Cygnus-Giza Correlation - The Facts And Alignments In Pictorial Form The Cygnus Mystery Additional Information Is the Supposed Correspondence Between Orion‘s Belt and the Three Pyramids of Giza Genuine? The Last Vestiges of a Tradition Thousands of Years Old What Is Meonia? - Its Philosophy And Role In Psychic Questing
A suspected black hole in Cygnus constellation thought to be source of cosmic rays that changed evolution and kickstarted religion

Cosmic Rays And The Cygnus Mystery
Excerpts from Editor: Let’s talk a little more about your upcoming book The Cygnus Mystery.

An Interview with Andrew Collins by Brent Raynes

Andrew Collins: Right. My current project is The Cygnus Mystery. Cosmic rays from the Cygnus constellation influenced human evolution in early history and affected human behavior and caused germ-like mutations over a longer period of time, probably about 2000 years. Now this might seem a whacky idea but as I was writing the book I discovered that a scientific think tank, known as the Meinel Institute of Las Vegas announced that they also now believe that something similar was going on in paleolithic times. Their candidate is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco, which is next door to Cygnus. Very, very close. This they worked out through an examination of the levels of Beryllium-10, which is a bi-product of cosmic rays hitting the upper atmosphere and changing oxygen and nitrogen into the secondary element of beryllium. Which falls to the earth and is retained within sea levels and ice cores, and measurements of this can determine the level of cosmic rays. There’s no question that towards the end of the paleolithic era the level of cosmic rays hitting the earth had doubled. So to suggest that this may have been involved in mutations leading in changes to human evolution is not a mad idea. Plus I found out that as early as 1972, Carl Sagan, the great scientific writer, spoke about exactly the same thing, the idea of cosmic rays influencing human evolution, in his book The Cosmic Connection.

He went back to the subject in 1977 in his book The Dragons of Eden. It’s something that I believe influenced the foundations of world religions as well. You will find this Cygnus link within Christianity, within Islam, within Hinduism, within Near Eastern religions like Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, the Sabians, the Chaldeans of the Bible, even certain Shiite Islamic groups strongly related to this. It’s behind the whole concept that heaven was in the north and that we come from the sky and that we return there in death. Somehow this is all mixed up with this whole idea of cosmic rays influencing human evolution, influencing human intelligence, but mixed up with the whole idea of panspermia as well. This connection with the cosmos. Something which is very, very important, and I think that as we go on we will begin to realize that it is more and more important.

Since the discovery in the 1920s that all types of radiation can cause gene mutations, scientists have wondered what role high energy cosmic rays might have played in human evolution. However, it was an idea destined never to find favour among geneticists, who could determine no hard evidence that the background flux of cosmic rays might have had any noticeable effect on human cells. All this is about to change, as an examination of ice cores extracted from sites in Antarctica and Greenland provides new information on the level of cosmic rays reaching Earth in past ages. When so-called ‗primary‘ cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere they generally break up to produce a plethora of ‗secondary‘ particles that form isotopes, which fall to Earth and are preserved each year in layers of ice. One such isotope is beryllium 10, which provides clear evidence that on three occasions over the past 100,000 years – around 60,000 years ago, 40,000 years ago and 17,000 years ago - there have been extremely intense periods of cosmic ray activity lasting up to 2,000 years at a time. Although the cyclic nature of these spikes of activity perhaps indicate a connection with longterm solar cycles, other factors might have been behind the sudden increase in cosmic rays during Palaeolithic times, when our earliest ancestors made huge jumps in evolution that led eventually to the rise of civilization. Catastrophists propose that a close supernova explosion might have sent a barrage of cosmic particles in our direction, dramatically increasing cloud formation, thus preventing the sun from penetrating through the atmosphere and leading quickly to an ice age and mass extinctions on the ground. Thus it is possible that close supernova might account for the high levels of beryllium found in the ice cores. An altogether different scenario is that the true source of cosmic rays affecting the evolution of life are black holes or neutron stars, a theory first proposed in 1973 by world-renowned astronomer Carl Sagan. Curiously, in the 1980s particle physicists in Europe and the USA unexpectedly detected the presence deep underground of incoming cosmic rays that had penetrated the solid rock to great depths, suggesting that they had come from an extremely powerful cosmic ray accelerator somewhere in deep space. These unique cosmic rays were found to have been produced by a binary star system containing either a black hole or neutron star in the northern constellation of Cygnus, the swan. Known as Cygnus X-3, it was classified as recently as 2000 as the galaxy‘s first ‗blazar‘, meaning that it produces jets of plasma, or ionized gas, that direct cosmic particles towards the Earth at close to the speed of light, something it has been doing for anything up to 700,000 years. The recorded bursts of cosmic radiation from deep space on at least three occasions in human history could suggest that Cygnus X-3 is the key to solving the mystery of the cosmic rays.

Had the Palaeolithic cave artists and shamans responsible for the cave art at Lascaux, and other similar caves across Western Europe, become aware of incoming cosmic rays, which are unique in being able to penetrate deep underground? Did these cygnets, as Cygnus X-3‘s strange particles became known, cause gene mutations, leading eventually to the development of a complex mindset, including symbolic art and the first organized societies towards the end of the last Ice Age? Cygnus is the oldest known constellation represented in art, appearing as a bird on a pole in the famous cave of Lascaux in southern France, c.17,000 years ago. What is more, all around the world there was once a great reverence of this constellation, known also as the Northern Cross.

From the bird effigy mounds of North America to the Olmec centers of Mexico, the Incan sacred city of Cuzco, the Egyptian Pyramids of Giza, the Hindu temples of India to Avebury, the largest stone circle in Europe - all reflect an age-old interest in Cygnus, which features also in religious symbolism and beliefs, at the heart of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, as well as shamanic practices worldwide. All of this indicates that Cygnus X-3, as our galaxy‘s sole blazar, is the best candidate by far for at least a percentage of the cosmic radiation that continues to reach Earth and may well have catalyzed mutations leading in the past to sudden advances in human evolution. Cygnus Mystery

From; http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_cygnus06.htm
Why exactly the cult of the swan might have existed in megalithic Ireland, and indeed among several other key Neolithic stone monuments in the British Isles, is not clear. Avebury, Wayland Smithy long barrow and Callanish are all aligned towards either the rising or setting of key stars

in the celestial swan, which since Palaeolithic times has been seen as a primary symbol of the cult of dead and rebirth across Europe and Asia. Indeed, as a psychopomp (Greek for 'soul-carrier'), the celestial bird was universally considered the vehicle by which the dead were able to reach a northerly placed heaven 'north beyond the north wind', a belief that prevailed in the Scottish Western Isles until very recently. Moreover, such beliefs in Europe go back at least to 4800 BC, since a Mesolithic burial unearthed recently in Denmark was found to contain a woman and her young child, who had been laid to rest on a giant swan's wing. Indeed, it moved prehistorian and Palaeolithic expert Steven Mithen to comment: Among the nineteenth-century Saami people of northern Europe, swans and wildfowl were the messengers of the gods. Such birds could, after all, walk on the land, swim on the water and fly in the air - adept at moving between different worlds. Perhaps the Mesolithic people had similarly revered their swans and let one fly that poor child away to their afterworld where he could have the life denied to him on earth.
(Mithen, AFTER THE ICE, pp.181-2)

The cult of Cygnus is integrally related to the shamanic process of entering the sky-world (heaven if you like) via a perceived sky-pole that terminates in something known to mythologists as the cosmic axis, synonymous with the north celestial pole. This is marked in the night sky by the Pole Star, or North Star, currently Polaris in Ursa Minor, although this is simply the latest in a series of pole stars which feature during the Earth's 26,000-year precessional cycle.

As the perceived guardian of the entrance to the sky-world, Cygnus as the cosmic bird, positioned at the most northerly extent of the Milky Way, is at the heart of ancient cosmologies and religions worldwide. It has been a major influence on the design and orientation of sacred architecture, which, in addition to the megalithic monuments of Britain and Ireland, includes the Pyramids of Giza, the ancient effigy mounds of the United States, as well as various ancient temples in Mexico, Peru and India. Cygnus is also at the root of Christianity's use of the Crucifix as a symbol of death and redemption, as well as the veneration of the

north as the direction of the Primal Cause, God himself. This belief is found within the religions of various Middle Eastern sects descended from the star-worshipping Sabians of Harran (known as the Chaldeans in the Bible). They include the angel-worshipping Yezidi of Syria and Upper Iraq, the Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, and the Shi'i Muslim sect called the Brethren of Purity. Cygnus X-3 and The Cosmic Ray Question From; http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_cygnus01.htm by Andrew B Collins
from AndrewCollins Website Andrew B Collins is the author of THE CYGNUS MYSTERY, which features the mysteries of Cygnus X-3 and its role as a cosmic accelerator.

Photograph of Cygnus X-3 taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory in November 2000. The horizontal line is thought to be an artefact of the image(Pic: (Credit: NASA/SRON/MPE).

Abstract
Cygnus X-3 is a high mass X-ray binary and microquasar, with a compact star, either a neutron star or a black hole, and a companion star, most probably a Wolf-Rayet (WN7 or 8) with huge mass loss and powerful stellar wind. First observed in 1966 (Giacconi, et al, 1967), Cygnus X-3 has been monitored across multiple frequencies, from radio, infrared, optical, X-ray to gammarays.

It is one of the brightest galactic X-ray sources, and is the outright brightest during the production of bright radio flares, which can reach 20 Jy. Criticisms regarding Cygnus X-3 being a source of cosmic rays up to PeV (Meinels, personal communication, 11 July 2006) will necessitate a review of findings and theories since 1985. I will review recent evidence of Cygnus X-3's production of relativistic jets, as well as speculation that its core might be a source of strange quark matter, producing exotic primary particles, with the H being a possible candidate.

1 - Introduction
Cygnus X-3 (RA 307.6 dec 40.8) has been identified as a source of ultra high energy (UHE) gamma-rays of an extremely energetic nature. Indeed, their initial discovery in the 1970s was responsible for a complete reassessment of particle acceleration in compact stars. As early as 1973 the SAS-2 satellite reported gamma-radiation with a narrow phase interval of 4.8 h, noted separately in connection with x-ray and infrared observations of Cygnus X-3, estimated to be at 10 kiloparsecs (kpc, about 30,000 light years). This periodicity is most likely caused by the eclipsing of the compact star by its companion (Hillas, 1984), since jet precession is now calculated to be in the range of 5 days (Miller-Jones, et al 2004). Cygnus X-3 is also thought to be a sporadic 12.6 ms pulsar (Chadwick, 1985) with gamma-rays produced at or near the maximum (phase 0.6) in the 4.8 h X-ray cycle (Bowden et al, 1992).

2 - Cygnus X-3 as a gamma-ray source
The gamma-ray emissions in association with Cygnus X-3 are known to range between 35 and 200 MeV, although the COS-B satellite between 1975 and 1982 reported no radiation between 70 and 5000 MeV with the point-source signature of 4.8 h (Cordova, 1986). Yet up to 1986 more than a dozen groups had reported the detection of gamma-rays from Cygnus X-3 with energies of at least 1011 eV. Gamma-rays in the higher range E> 1014 ev were subsequently reported and verified by ground-based collaborations in Germany, England, the United States, India and Italy (Cordova, 1986, and sources quoted). The extremely energetic gamma-rays from Cygnus X-3 were early considered to be 'the products of interactions between even more energetic particles within the source, mainly protons', leading to speculation that Cygnus X-3 was 'the first astronomical object to be identified with reasonable certainty as a source of cosmic rays', i.e. any cosmic radiation above 108 eV (Cordova, 1986), or, indeed, a 'cosmic accelerator' (Dar, 1986). Moreover, gamma-rays from Cygnus X-3 indicated that 'only a very small number of sources of like nature would be required to produce most of the observed high-energy cosmic rays.' (Cordova, 1986). Among the suspected method of production of gamma-rays were two popular models. Either they were protons accelerated by the electric field induced in the accretion disk held in the magnetic field of the compact star, or they were accelerated by shocks in the matter accreted on to a neutron star or black hole.

3 - Characteristics of Cygnet Primaries
Between 1983 and 30 October 1985 various ground-based air shower arrays, including Kiel (Samorski and Stamm, 1983a, 1983b) and Fly's Eye (the latter from 1981 through till 1988) reported extensive air showers with the direction and periodicity of Cygnus X-3 (See Marshak et al, 1985; Cassiday et al, 1989). In Kiel's case, particles were detected in the 1016 eV range (initially assumed to be gamma-rays).

This was later confirmed (Lloyd-Evans et al, 1983) with the pulse being narrow (duty cycle 2%) and occurring at a phase 0.25 after the X-ray maximum. Thus it was concluded that Cygnus X-3 accelerated particles to at least 1016 eV, and that if these were electrons, then protons might reach a higher level still (Hillas, 1984). Indeed, at Kiel the EAS reached energies of > 1018 eV (Cassiday et al, 1989; Sommer and Elbert, 1990). At the same time two underground nucleon-decay detectors set up originally to observe proton decay, Soudon (Marshak et al, 1985) and NUSEX (Battistoni, 1985, Baym, 1985), reported excessive muon fluxes either with a time modulation of the 4.8-h period of Cygnus X-3, or coincident to its daily transit. The flux from single-muon events was greater than several orders than that expected from high energy photon flux, suggesting most probably either a primary of unique characteristics, dubbed the 'cygnet', or a new mechanism for very efficient muon production in high energy photon-initiated air cascades (Dar, 1986).

3.1 - Production of Muon Flux Deep Underground
Excess muon quanta reported deep underground (at a depth equivalent of 2 to 5 kilometers of water) produced an angular spread highly suggestive of the primaries interacting in the rock overhang down to a depth of a few hundred meters (Kolb, 1985, Ruddick, 1986). This was confirmed by the differences in flux between the Soudon and NUSEX detectors, with the latter's flux being ten times less than the former, leading to the conclusion that this effect 'can only be explained by attenuation of the cygnet beam in the rock' (Ruddick, 1986). It also explained the zenith angles of the muons, which were similar to the background flux produced by EAS. Furthermore, the underground muon energy measurements predicted a characteristic variation of the quanta according to depth, with detectors on the surface only being able to detect them at near the horizontal, due to the large interaction length of the primaries. This meant 'such detectors would have to be very large to detect a signal' (Ruddick, 1986).

4 - Cygnet Identification
Identification of the relativistic primaries (Ruddick, 1986) responsible for these signal events has proved extremely difficult, highly controversial and even questionable (Thomsen, 1986). The enhanced muon flux recorded, particularly by the Soudon I group, was far too high for them to be gamma-rays, which produced a mere 1/300 of the muons (µ-mesons) characteristic of the reported muon excess (Baym, 1986). Their 4.8-hour periodicity meant that they had to have travelled in a more or less straight line at relativistic speeds, otherwise a spread of lower velocities would have washed out the signal. Clearly, the path of the cygnets was not curved by the galactic magnetic field, otherwise this would have randomized or deflected their arrival directions (Dar, Lord and Wilkes, 1986). The fact that the cygnets produced excessive muon (µ-mesons) quanta, implied that they acted to produce hadron-induced cascades. In other words, they were strongly-interacting particles, rather than electromagnetic particles, like gamma-rays or weak particles such as neutrinos (Dar, Lord and Wilkes, 1986). Further evidence against them being neutrinos was the fact that the cygnet-produced muon flux increased when Cygnus X-3 was overhead, and faded when it was not in view, the so-called 'horizon effect'. This is not a characteristic of neutrinos, which do not interact in this manner.

Thus the conclusion was that cygnet primaries, either measured in ground-based air shower arrays or in underground detectors, were long-lived neutral particles with energies anything up to at least PeV (Kolb, 1985; Maiani, 1985; Berezinsky, Ellis and Ioffe, 1986; Cordova, 1986; Ruddick, 1986; Cassiday et al, 1989; Czapek et al, 1990). However, the only obvious candidate was the neutron, which is unstable to beta decay and has a half-life of approximately 10-15 minutes. Thus the only way that they could have reached the earth was by travelling at relativistic speeds. Quashing this possibility was the fact that it would require neutrons with 100 times the energy of the monitored cygnet events. Neutral atoms could be eliminated since their electrons would 2 have been stripped away by the 5g per cm interstellar hydrogen, causing their decay long before they ever reached the Earth. This is unless they had an incredibly high energy in the 18 range of 10 eV (Baym, 1986). As already noted, the Kiel collaboration did indeed register EAS 18 with energies >10 eV. Initial findings strongly indicated that the cygnet primary bore the following characteristics: 1) no electric charge 2) no magnetic charge 3) a rest mass estimated to be between zero and 1/20 of a proton mass, and less than its 4 energy by a factor of around 10 (Baym, 1986; Ruddick, 1986) 4) it was strongly interacting, in that it was hadron-inducing 5) it possessed a half-life relative to its assumed passage at relativistic speed. Protons, neutrons, nuclei, atoms, and micrograins of ordinary matter could all be ruled out The cygnets were not charged cosmic particles since they are affected by the galactic magnetic field which randomizes their directional flow and ruins any chances of ascertaining their astronomical source, which can only be determined if they correlate with activity in other frequencies that might contain a known periodicity or direction. Since neutral primaries arrive directly from source without being affected by the galactic magnetic field, they are crucial to determining the original trajectory of any cosmic ray. Gammarays are neutral, and so can also arrive directly from source, why we can trace the astronomical source of GRBs. Thus in order to determine point sources of cosmic rays it is better to examine neutral particles, which retain their primary trajectory across the galaxy and when travelling at relativistic speeds will also retain their unique signature, which has been the case with Cygnus X-3 and Hercules X-1. Indeed, as long ago as 1983 it was suggested that 'since the galactic magnetic field seems sufficient to randomize all charged particles during their long flights through space, pristine cosmic rays may not be charged particles at all.' (See Hecht and Torrey, 1983). A study of the five strongest recorded UHE cosmic ray events (E>10 eV) by Farrar and Torrey (1998) led to the conclusion that their trajectory pointed back to extra-galactic QSOs (quasar stellar objects) with a margin of error of 0.005. In order that the primaries do not violate the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff for distance travel of a photon or nuclei, they saw them as long-living, neutral hadrons of a possible exotic nature (Farrar, et al, 1998).
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5 - Cygnets and Strange Quark Matter
As far back as the mid 1980s it was proposed that cygnets were exotic hadrons resulting from strange quarks produced in strange quark matter in the core of Cygnus X-3. Maiani (1985), for instance, noted the observation of 'very energetic particles' arriving from Cygnus X-3, with

estimated energies up to 10 TeV, as well as the observation underground of high energy muons correlated with a 4.8h modulation. He also accepted that poorer statistics might have been behind why other collaborations failed to register these increased muon fluxes underground, such as FREJUS and HPW. The primaries, he suggested, could be photons, which produce high energy showers in the atmosphere, and might well explain underground muon fluxes like those observed by Soudon and NUSEX. Yet results from these collaborations showed an increased muon flux too high for photons to be the simple answer (Dar, 1986). In contrast to Kolb and Ruddick, Maiani saw an anticorrelation in the reported muon flux versus the depth of the traversed rock, and the fact that NUSEX results were less than Soudon I. This was evidence, he felt, merely of the 'absorption effect' (Maiani, 1985).

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6 - Strange Matter
Kolb (1985) asserted that quark nuggets might lead to an enhancement in muon production over normal nuclear matter, yet even then only by a factor of two. He additionally considered the R-odd particle from super-symmetry and also the H-particle, after Jaffe. This last cited he saw as having a lifetime long enough to reach the earth, because of its double beta decay. Moreover, it bears four of the main characteristics of the proposed cygnet, although whether it can produce the enhanced muon flux depended upon its method of production. Despite this, the mass of the H, might not be low enough, something that only experimentation could determine. Even if the mass was close to that of the cygnet, the muon flux would be smaller than that reported. Moreover, the H cannot account for the angular spread of the underground muon flux. For instance, the NUSEX signal was seen coming from a 10 degree by 10 degree window in celestial coordinates, larger than the 0.5 degrees expected for an angular resolution. Baym (1986) likewise proposed that the cygnet primary was the theorized H particle. Should its 16 mass be less than that of the lambda (?) (1.1 GeV) plus that of the neutron (0.938 GeV), then it was possible that the lifetime of the H could be sufficiently long for it to be the cygnet primary, since it would not undergo the rapid decay into a single lambda or neutron. Wilk and Wlodarczyk (1996) acknowledged 'anomalous cosmic ray bursts from Cygnus X-3' as the result of strange quark matter existing in its presumed neutron star (Wilk and Wlodarczyk, 1996). This supposition was explored further by Rybczynski, Wlodarczyk and Wilk (2004). In similar to Kolb and Baym, Weber (2005) saw further support for the existence of strange matter in Cygnus X-3, which he speculates produces cosmic rays that to arrive as point-source signal events means that they have to be 'electrically neutral', like the cygnet primaries. Acknowledging their main characteristics, he confirms also that to survive the trip from Cygnus X-3 such particles are 'long-lived'. In his opinion, the 'only known particle which can quantitatively satisfy this constraint is the photon'. This is despite the fact that, as he states, they would only produce air showers with a 'small muon component'. Weber goes on to predict that the 'natural candidate' for the cygnet is the H particle. Their potentially long lifetime means that they 'may be present as components of existing neutral particle beams' (Weber, 2005). Yet in order to give it long life, it would need to have 'mass below single weak decay stability'. Furthermore, in order to generate enough H particles, the source would have to be a strange star. Weber admits that the problem with Cygnus X-3 is that,

'it is accreting mass and thus has a crust, such that there is no exposed strange matter surface where small strangelets could be produced and subsequently accelerated electrodynamically to high energies into the atmosphere of the companion star where H particles were created via spallation reactions.' (Weber, 2005) Yet other evidence of strangelets in balloon-borne counter experiments, air-shower arrays and large emulsion chambers has convinced Weber that, 'some primary cosmic rays may contain non-nucleus components which generate extended air showers that contain both a large number of muons as well as very high energetic photons', with Cygnus X-3 being a unique candidate.

7 - Cygnets, Neutrons and Relativistic Flow
The idea that cygnet primaries are the result of exotic nuclei within Cygnus X-3's compact star being accelerated towards the earth is based on the view that they interact as hadrons to induce cascades uncommon to the normal production of muons in the atmosphere. However, should it be shown that the particles travel at relativistic speeds and thus contain considerably higher energies than previously reported, then they might be explainable in more conventional terms. Soudon reported that the muon excess from Cygnus X-3 was coincident to major radio flares (from 0.1 mJy up to 20Jy), which have themselves occurred coincident with X-ray and infrared observations (Baym, 1986). Moreover, gamma-rays with the 4.8 h periodicity of Cygnus X-3 monitored by ground-based air arrays have also coincided with considerable excess muon flux underground as mentioned earlier. Sommers and Elbert (1989) examined the evidence for EeV neutrons and/or photons from Cygnus X-3, based on the Fly's Eye data, and stated that 'because of synchroton radiation losses, EeV particle acceleration cannot occur gradually while a particle orbits in a strong magnetic field.' As a consequence, Sommers and Elbert suspected that 'if particles are accelerated in a neutron star's magnetosphere, some type of linear accelerator must be responsible (my italics)'. Accepting that the cosmic rays from Cygnus X-3 are neutral, since charged particles would be dispersed by the galactic magnetic field at EeV energies, the question remains of how neutral particles might be produced by accelerated charged particles. According to Sommers and Elbert, the range of possible models for the production of EeV neutral particles 'is greater than 15 the range considered for the production of 10 eV neutral particles from Cyg X-3. This is partly because the EeV neutral particles can be neutrons as well as gamma-rays' (Sommers and Elbert, 1989). Crucially, Sommers and Elbert go on to state that 'although free neutrons decay with a mean proper lifetime of 898 seconds', time dilation allows some neutrons at these energies to travel the distance from Cyg X-3. On this basis, the energy threshold (0.5 EeV) for the data used in the Fly's Eye analysis suggests that the reported increased muon flux could be neutrons, even though the collaboration was at the time unable to distinguish between a neutron-initiated shower and a gamma-ray shower (Sommers and Elbert, 1989). In final conclusion, they stated that 'Cyg X-3 is a strong source of EeV cosmic rays'. The significance of Sommers and Elbert's proposal is that with a relativistic linear acceleration through jet production, the view that cygnets are exotic strange quark particles becomes unnecessary. The neutral particles might indeed be neutrons, reliant on a new model based upon synchrotron radiation loss through relativistic flow.

Cygnus X-3 during its major radio flare in September 2001 (after Miller Jones, et al, 2004).

A one-side relativistic jet was observed in association with radio flare activity in Cygnus X-3 by Mioduszewski, et al (2001) using the VLBA in February 1997. It was estimated to have an opening angle of 12 degrees, and a small inclination angle of > 12 degrees towards the Earth, leading to the conclusion that it constituted the galaxy's first blazar. A precessional phase of 30 days with an anticlockwise movement was also noted in association with jet production. These parameters were comparable with those obtained during the observation in September 2001 of a separate major radio flare by Miller-Jones, et al. (2004) using the VLBA over a period of six days following a peak outburst. The southern jet was estimated to be moving within 10.5 degrees to the line of sight, with a precessional phase in a clockwise motion of 5.3 days. The northern jet was weakly observed. Clearly, the implication was that both the precession cycle and the direction of the jets had shifted between 1997 and 2001. Through extrapolation of the jet motion back to source MillerJones estimated that the jets were ejected about 2.5 days after the radio brightness of Cygnus X-3 began to increase. Overall the parameters of the southern jet have been found to be consistent with what Mioduszewski et al. had previously observed. Bipolar jets were also observed in October-November 2000 using the VLA and examined by the NRAO (Marti, et al, 2002), although whether or not these were a separate mechanism to the observed north-south orientated jets observed in 2001 has still to be decided. The speed of Cygnus X-3's suspected one-sided jet was originally estimated at 0.35c (Cordova, 1986). More recent assessments of the relativistic jets following the 1997 VLBA observations by Mioduszewski, et al (2001), provided a revised speed up to 0.81c, while Miller Jones, et al, following the 2001 observations concluded that the rate was 0.63c. Yet they accepted that faster speeds could precede the observable appearance of the series of bead-like knots marking the whereabouts of the jets; see also Hannikainen, et al (2003, poster) for further discussion on this subject. Such speeds might be enough to enable short-lived neutrons to reach the Earth, indicating a realistic process for the arrival of low-mass neutral particles, and the possible production of increased air showers and underground muon quanta from Cygnus X-3.

It has been pointed out that an observed velocity of Cygnus X-3s jet at a maximum of 0.81c would be too slow to compress time so that neutrons might have time to decay into protons (Meinel, private communication, 11 July 2006). The 0.81c for the speed of Cygnus X-3s southern jet for the February 1997 observations (Mioduszewski et al, 2001) is based on estimates of jet motion in radio flaring, and does not necessarily relate to the initial velocity of ejecta on all frequencies. Moreover, it is clear that the speed of the jets change, as is seen in the 2001 observations, where a velocity of just 0.63c was deduced (Miller-Jones, 2004). Earlier estimates of jet speed were even lower. Moreover, the bipolar jets monitored by the NRAO using the VLA in 2000 (Marti, et al, 2001) determined that they had an infrared speed of just 0.48c, which is much slower than the higher speed radio flares. Thus there is no reason why UHE and HE cosmic rays and gamma-rays from Cygnus X-3, or indeed any point source, might not exceed the velocity speed of radio flares. Signal events from Cygnus X-3 which feature the arrival of GeV gamma-ray emissions and hadron-like neutral particles have coincided with intense bursts of energies across multiple frequencies during the production of jets. For instance, this occurred in October 1985 when an increased muon flux at PeV levels coincided with intense bursts of radio emissions (Berenzinsky, 1988). In addition to this, there was a correlation between the excess muon flux recorded by the Soudon II deep underground experiment between 1991 and 2000 and Cygnus X-3's production of large or intermediate radio flares (Thomson, 1991; Marshak, 2000; Allison, 1999). Thus there is every reason to conclude that the production of gamma-rays and long-lived neutral particles in Cygnus X-3 might well be the result of narrow, magnetically driven relativistic jets within a small angle of the Earth.

NRAO image showing the production of bipolar jets by Cygnus X-3 in October-November 2000 (pic: NRAO/AUI) .

8 - Some Criticisms of Cygnus X-3 as a Cosmic Accelerator
It has been suggested that the cone angle of Cygnus X-3 poses a problem regarding any working model for it being a cosmic accelerator in its role as a blazar. In order to send cosmic

rays in the Earth's direction with the solar region being significantly inside the limit to the probability distribution has been estimated to be about 0.5 radian (Meinel, private communication, 11 July 2006). Work has yet to be undertaken on this level, and the recorded data from both particle physics and astrophysics needs careful evaluation in this respect. Much of the findings cited from the 1980s of long lasting neutral particles from Cygnus X-3 has largely been ignored. This is a shame, for it clearly suggests that Cygnus X-3 possesses an extraordinary acceleration mechanism for the production of cosmic rays. As we have seen , their appearance correlates well with radio flaring and hard X-ray outbursts. Nothing has so far been published on any possible correlations between cygnets and major radio flaring during the years 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2006. The question with regards Cygnus X-3 is not whether it can accelerate out cosmic rays and UHE gamma-rays, but how exactly they might be produced. In my opinion, it is the production of relativistic jets, or shock waves in association with their production, that remain the best mechanism for their production, something predicted by Sommers and Elbert as far back as 1989. What is important about this and other similar conclusions during the 1980s is that there was no hard data available then suggesting that Cygnus X-3 might be a blazar. This came only through the February 1997 observations (see Mioduszewski, et al, 2001), and confirmed during the 2001 observations (Miller-Jones, et al, 2004). In other words, working models for the acceleration process of cosmic rays from Cygnus X-3 were shown to be correct, making the evidence of long-lasting neutral particles originating from here an extremely likely possibility. What is more, they have continued to be reported. Soudon II, announced in 1999 that in its first ten years of operation the collaboration had regularly tracked excess muon events in the Tev range or above from the direction of Cygnus X-3, and again in 2000 (Marshak, 2000). There is every likelihood that cygnets are accelerated from source during jet production, and that at such energies only stable, neutral particles can travel the 10 kpc distance from Cygnus X-3 to the earth 'along trajectories which point back to the source' (Allison, 1999). Moreover, the Soudon II collaboration conclude that since known stable neutral particles photons and neutrinos - have only small probabilities of producing detectable muons 'Tev muons associated with Cygnus X-3 requires either exotic interactions of known primaries, exotic primaries or very large fluxes of neutrinos or photons' (Allison, 1999).

9 - Conclusions
Despite the Soudon and NUSEX observations of an increased muon flux underground during the 1980s remaining controversial, there exists good evidence for the existence of long-lived, low-mass, strongly-interacting neutral primaries from Cygnus X-3. Exotic primaries have been proposed to explain the reported EAS and increased muon flux underground, with strange quark matter from a strange matter compact star, most likely a neutron star, being currently the most popular model. However, with the introduction of a relativistic flow for the acceleration of the neutral primaries, it is possible that cygnet primaries are simply neutrons. Regardless of this, the idea of them being produced within neutron stars by strange matter remains an attractive theory, and exploration into this area of astrophysics is to be encouraged. It is ironic that the absence of a well-defined mechanism of production of these neutral primaries, along with their erratic data, has diminished the impact of these extremely important

findings, which arguably hold the key to determining the first confirmed point source of galactic cosmic rays.

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN - SEASHORE MAN AND AFRICAN EVE A Search for the Origins and Evolution of Humankind in Africa 2006 from DenisMontgomery Website

There is a magic that continually emerges around the period of about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. There had to be a particularly significant global event at about that time, lasting several thousand years perhaps. The flowering of creative aesthetics touching all of mankind‘s activities began then, exemplified in the rock-art, jewellery and decorated tools they have left us. It is the usual order of time that I use to define the beginning of the African Late Stone Age in which this artistic creativity was developed. That is also when the Neanderthals of Europe and the Middle East disappeared from the fossil record. For many years in my reading and thinking, and listening to archaeologists talking, 35,000 to 40,000 years ago kept cropping up as a kind of evolutionary watershed. I knew that something extraordinary happened about then. The universal culture jump to the Late Stone Age everywhere and the extinction of the Neanderthals could not have been coincidence. By then, Neanderthals had weathered several ice-ages. So climate does not seem to have been a major factor. But, other mammals had also been affected and some subspecies disappeared although there was no mass extinction. Indeed, it seemed that some species had seized opportunities. As the ‗out-of-Africa‘ scenario was proposed in scientific circles during the 1980s, I was comforted that my reasoning was being demonstrated by a growing volume of evidence. However, no clear explanation was available. Increasingly I thought about some strange worldwide mutation or genetic imperative but could not imagine what it was. And then, on 21st December 1991, I was astonished to read a report by Adrian Berry in the London Daily Telegraph and I quote it in full: The ozone layer was destroyed 35,000 years ago in a disaster which lasted 2,000 years. At that time, people were nomadic hunters, and it helped rather than slowed human evolution. The cause was the closest supernova explosion in known history - the disruption of a star 150 light-years away - which ripped away the ozone layer and bombarded Earth with violent shock waves of cosmic rays. Evidence comes from the discovery of the element beryllium-10 in the

Greenland and Antarctic ice caps. Prof Grant Kocharov, vice-chairman of the Cosmic Ray Council of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, said: ―The explosion must have unleashed violent showers of cosmic rays which smashed into nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere, producing beryllium-10.‖ He and colleagues at Arizona University found beryllium-10 in ice that formed about 35,000 years ago. Dr Paul Damon of the University said: ―From the density of the beryllium we have calculated that the supernova must have been within 163 a distance of 150 light-years, a number in miles of only 900 million million.‖ Mr Ian Ridpath, editor of the British journal Popular Astronomy, said: ―For several months, the exploding star would have been brighter than the full Moon. It would have been painful to the eye to look at. It would have cast shadows and turned night into day.‖ Dr Paul Murdin, director of the Royal Observatory at Edinburgh, said: ―It is possible that the surviving relics of the explosion may have formed what is now one of the most beautiful objects in the sky, the Veil Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus.‖ The physical effects on our ancestors would have been cataclysmic. ―In successive shock-waves that would have lasted for more than 100 human generations, the Earth would have been bombarded both by cosmic rays and by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun as the ozone layer was ripped away,‖ he said. ―Those who were prone to cancer would have died prematurely, but descendants of the survivors would have developed immune defences.‖ I spoke to Adrian Berry who told me that he had detailed conversations with the scientists concerned from which he had summarized his brief quotes. I looked for some confirmation elsewhere of a close supernova in astronomically recent time and was pleased to find it from a study of radio waves. I.S.Shklovskii and Carl Sagan in Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966) wrote: There is one other curious circumstance which may be related to supernovae. For a decade, an unexplained detail has remained in our picture of the distribution in the sky of cosmic radio noise. ... A hypothesis of the English radio astronomer Hanbury Brown and his colleagues concerning the nature of this anomaly [a ‗tongue‘ of isophotes, of similar luminosity, in our Milky Way galaxy] deserves special attention. They believe that it may be the radio envelope of a supernova which exploded very close to our solar system several tens of thousands of years ago..... I was much excited by this. It seemed that an extraordinary cosmic event had occurred which could have precipitated major changes to life on Earth about that magical watershed of time.

Dr. Paul Murdin, quoted in 1991, was correct in suggesting the Veil Nebula was the remnant of a supernova, but subsequent observations with the Hubble Telescope and instruments designed to observe specific radiation have given better information. The Veil Nebula is indeed the remnant of a supernova, but it has been determined that it occurred at about 15,000 years ago and was about 2,500 light years away. This is very far in terms of an effect on life on our planet. This supernova is generally known as the Cygnus Loop. But it is interesting that the constellation of Cygnus was noted for a number of large stars which usually terminate in supernovae and in 2001, F. Mavromatakis and R.G.Strom published their proposal that there were two supernova remnants in Cygnus Loop. Uyamker, Reich, Yar, Kothes and Fürst published a paper, Is the Cygnus Loop two supernova Remnants?, in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2002.

There seemed to be no indication available of age or distance of this possible second stellar explosion and there may have been no connection with the event which concerned me. I was now beset by doubts, but there was the evidence of the beryllium. Something strange and apparently random had occurred which had caused the surge in cosmic radiation, first brought to my attention by Adrian Berry‘s article. Regarding beryllium, much work with deep ice cores in Greenland and the Antarctic continued after 1991, and research is intense. The focus of investigation into evidence provided by icecores is these days finely tuned to the problem of global warming which is politicized and for which funding is available. Beryllium 10 is an important marker in this particular research because its existence in precipitation has correlation to sunspot activity, which in turn is related to the power output of the sun and its warming effect on the Earth. From time to time I trawled through the Internet seeking references and found the paper, A tentative chronology for the EPICA Dome Concordia ice core by Jakob Schwander and others in Geophysical Research Letters v.28 no.22 of 2001. Although the examination was principally concerned with recent observations of various types to establish the accuracy of dating in ice cores, one of the bench-marks used was the ‗high peak‘ of beryllium 10 deposition dated to 41,000 BP. Elsewhere, I found a date of about 40,000 BP with variation of 2,000 years noted. I found an older report from the American Geophysical Union‘s Earth in Space in November 1995 which was useful though vague confirmation, briefly stating: Beyond their use as dating tools, ice cores convey specific geochemical information. Variations in 10Be concentrations are caused by factors other than accumulation changes. The existence of peaks in 10Be around 35 and 60 kyr B.P. have been attributed to increased production of 10Be. The additional reference to a peak of Beryllium 10 at ± 60,000 BP, which indicated an unusual event could have had relevance to earlier advances in creative thinking and expression on which the revolution of 40-35,000 years ago was based. If this earlier peak was evidence of an event with a wider ‗footprint‘, then it could also have had relevance to the very beginning of creative activity at about 70,000 BP as shown by the Blombos cave site. The whole matter of subtle mutations, reinforcing environmental pressures, aiding or provoking jumps in culture, coinciding with extraordinary periods of extra-solar or cosmic radiation bore deeper examination. Scientific support was sparse, but my intuitive thinking about some kind of mutation-driven, speeded-up intellectual evolution between say 80,000 and 30,000 years ago remained active. The logic seemed overpowering, but the physical data seemed to be wisps of cobwebs floating just outside my reach, brushing at my fingertips. A severe blast of extra-solar or solar radiation would have caused extinctions amongst marginal species throughout the range of life. Hairless humans would have suffered and those who lived outside the tropics, the ones who were ‗white‘, would have suffered most from strange solar peaks, if not catastrophically. The demise of the Neanderthals could have been accelerated quite simply because they were pale-skinned. Dark-skinned races of Africa, tropical Asia and Australasia would have been least at risk from unrestrained ultraviolet radiation, but those bursts of cosmic radiation must have caused random mutation in all lifeforms. If the Cro-Magnons had not yet become ‗white‘ 165 they would survive when Neanderthals succumbed. Intense, unobstructed ultraviolet light killed those Neanderthals most subject to it and there would have been genetic defects affecting subsequent generations. The species was weakened and unable to withstand the challenges of the colonizing CroMagnons, or combat new parasitic diseases.

It was also reasonable to speculate on the effect of a cosmic event on the Sun. Perhaps the cosmic ray or particle bombardment in some kind of shockwave upset the Sun‘s own surface nuclear reactions, electro magnetism and gravitic balance, creating a chaos of minor cycles which was sufficient to affect our climate and surface stability. Cosmic dust entering our solar system has extraordinary effects on our sun; increasing its energy output, changing the wavelength of its radiation and provoking great flares. Probable drastic climatic surges, caused by extraordinary seismic activity from rapidly melting glaciers and icecaps, inter-acting with the cosmic onslaught, some very short-lived as the atmosphere sought stability, no doubt resulted in the disturbance of many species. Ice core analysis shows that the end of the last ice-age about 12,000 years ago was extraordinarily abrupt, probably taking place in a matter of decades. There were more detected coincidental extinctions amongst larger mammals at the end of the last Ice-age than at any time during the two million years of the Pleistocene. The demise of larger variants of common species (such as mammoths, rhinoceros and cats in the northern hemisphere, the giant horse in Africa and a giant kangaroo in Australia) and the widespread expiration of herd herbivores in Eurasia and the Americas were undoubtedly caused by these sharp geographical shocks to a greater extent than any increased hunting by expanding Late Stone Age human populations. Late Stone Age people, and their predecessors, had been hunting these prey animals for many millennia before their sudden disappearance at about 12,000 years ago. If hunting caused their extinction, then there must have been a most extraordinary increase of human populations! Elephants and plains antelopes in Africa survived in vast quantities until the invention of the breech-loading rifle and the motor vehicle. I have never believed the popular conventional explanation held by anthropologists, lacking knowledge or proper understanding of the effects of abrupt climate change, that hunting caused their extinction. The London Daily Telegraph gave me another piece of information which was relevant to extrasolar radiation. Robert Uhlig in late 1996 wrote an article based on interviews with Prof. Aman Dar of the Space Research Institute of the Technikon University in Haifa and Dr. David Schramm of the University of Chicago. Following the apparently cyclical reoccurrence of disasters resulting in mass extinctions, they had investigated probable local phenomena which could be the cause. Rather than subscribe to the idea of a regular invasion of comets or meteors, such as the one at Chicxulub in Mexico which must have been the final straw for the demise of the dinosaurs, they thought that supernovae, or the collision of binary stars, close to us may have been a cause of a number of extinctions. The merging of stars or nearby supernovae explosions would not account for all the extinction events, of course, but could be the cause of some. Robert Uhlig went on to write: Prof. Dar said this theory [meteor crash] did not explain the great leap in biodiversity following the mass extinctions. He argued that the vast amount of radiation produced by a neutron star collision explained why 166 the number of animal and plant species increased so quickly after mass extinctions. Dr. Schramm said of Prof Dar‘s theory on the probable effect of star explosions and their influence on Earth: ―We do know that there is at least one known pair of neutron stars [near Earth] which are spiralling closer together and will indeed collide.‖ I would say that the ‗great leap‘ in biodiversity also happened as the natural result of nature abhorring a vacuum, but an increase in biodiversity may result from accelerating mutations caused by external radiation. There is no doubt that our small and insignificant planet is

occasionally buffeted by extraneous radiant forces, randomly, that enhance or retard evolution of life. Other reports from deep drilling in ocean floors were concerned with the discovery of layers of iron isotopes which show evidence of there being a close supernova or other cosmic event sometime in the last 5M years, perhaps at the beginning of the Pleistocene, 2M years ago. The lack of time definition is typical of the problems scientists still encountered in pinpointing past events of this kind. Although I am discussing another context here, it is notable that it is at the beginning of the Pleistocene that the Homo range of hominids first appeared and the Australopithecines began fading away to extinction. Other estimates place the supernova which caused the iron isotope deposits to have been only 100 light-years away which could have caused massive extinctions and mutations and suggest that if it occurred at 5M years ago it could explain the extinction of some hominid species and the emergence of new variants. I also took note of other work on the effect of sunspot activity on mammal genetic mutations through the effect of changing electro-magnetic fields in the sun, which in turn create fluctuations in radiation into nearby space, which in turn create responses in the electro-magnetic structure of our planet. The effect of electro-magnetic change and cyclical fluctuation of solar radiation on foetuses, and particularly on the delicate genetic activity occurring at the moment of fusion of a mammalian sperm and ovum, is a fascinating study. However, it is not yet known precisely what effects the Earth‘s magnetism has on higher lifeforms. The Earth‘s magnetic polarity has reversed several times in the past and observations detect a weakening at the present time which is presumed to be leading towards a reversal. Maurice M.Cotterell in The Mayan Chronicles (1995), co-authored with Adrian G.Gilbert, explored unconventional and ‗alternative‘ research into the effects of solar radiation and solar magnetic influences. Using Mayan mathematics and their complex calendar, Cotterell explored research carried out by a number of scholars on the cyclical activities of the sun and Earth and their correlation to known climatic and population changes in the recent ten thousand years.

The last ice-age came to an end about 12,000 years ago. Massive flooding (and the advent of the ‗wet‘) resulted from the extraordinarily rapid melting of the vast glaciers and ice-caps. Ocean levels rose hundreds of feet within a few years. No doubt, the flood myths that every old culture retained were stimulated by these comparatively recent disasters. This period of change was not different to many others in the last two million years of the Pleistocene, but its effects were being imposed on a different kind of mankind. No wonder the last 35,000 years have been the most eventful in our descent, if already anatomically modern mankind 167 had been bombarded by cosmic radiation. The mutations had not changed the skeletons and general anatomy of humans, but it had affected their brains. Inside their brains lurked a different kind of mind. Many speculations about these millennia could be sharpened into focus. In recent years, Professor Richard G. Klein of Stanford University had been a lone voice amongst scientific authorities proposing mutation for the cultural revolution exemplified by the explosive flowering of rock-art and other aesthetic developments. He used the example of computers to explain this evolution, explaining that Late Stone Age people‘s brains had somehow become ―re-wired‖ or re-programmed, or its operating system had been upgraded, while the hardware remained the same. I like this simile.

His arguments have been attacked and his thesis had been muddied by ‗creationists‘ seizing on the concept as being further evidence of intervention by a Supreme Being. But, Klein has been unable to give an explanation for this mutation and the ―re-wiring‖ of brains, and his hypothesis has been seen as a lame duck. The ‘Cygnus Event‘, or similar, provided the possible explanation he needed. I contacted Prof. Klein and his colleague, Prof. John Parkington of the University of Cape Town, an authority on the Late Stone Age, but was unable to get their attention to my ideas. The ozone layer gradually re-established itself, of course, because Earth‘s lifeforms were not catastrophically damaged and Gaia repaired the ravages of the radiation. It was a jolt, but not as serious as the cosmic super-events, or conjunction of several events relatively close to each other, which caused mass-extinctions like that of the dinosaurs. All of this was, of course, of great importance to my proposal for a mutation in mammals and the extraordinary cultural revolution to the African Late Stone Age at about 35 - 40,000 years ago. But, the proposal had to remain speculation until clear evidence became available. I was unable to find more published information and my attention was diverted elsewhere.

In late 2005, on a whim, I contacted Adrian Berry whose article in the London Daily Telegraph had started me off on this speculative track away back in 1991. He had become a muchpublished scientific writer and author and had a regular column in the journal, Astronomy Now. His interest was stirred and he wrote a follow-up piece in Astronomy Now of March 2006. From this article I received an email from Andrew Collins, another successful scientific author with wide-ranging interests. He generously gave me much information he had acquired during his own researches and directed me to important sources. We met and talked in 2006. My enthusiasm for my proposals was abruptly re-awakened. Firstly, as I had already discovered, Collins pointed out that the supernova in the Cygnus Loop had been shown to be recent and too far away to have had any effect on Earth. There may have been another supernova in that part of space, but there was no firm evidence. Technical advances, the Hubble Space Telescope, other satellites designed for observing cosmic radiation and terrestrial observations from several different observatories had made a great difference between the often ill-defined information available in the 1970s and 80s and current published knowledge. No doubt, there was even more advanced information available and not yet published, and there would surely be more to come. The increasing awareness of artificially induced global warming was enabling much greater resources of funds and personnel to be devoted to the exploration of ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica, and the huge capital 168 investment in telescopes of different types around the world and above it demanded that they be properly used for advanced research. Now, is an exciting time. That a supernova in the Cygnus Loop could not have caused the coincidental mutation in humans and other mammals at ± 35,000 years ago was a disappointment, but other more important and specific alternatives were immediately presented. My proposal was more valid than before. Three scenarios as important as my original proposal were available. Not only that, but the possibility of a more general hypothesis emerged to engage the strange coincidence of universal cultural ‗jumps‘ all around the world.

Cygnus X-3

Andrew Collins generously gave me the draft of a paper he had prepared, and provided numerous references. Whereas a supernova has to be very close (within probably 150 light years or less, as discussed earlier) to provide sufficiently powerful cosmic radiation to affect the molecules of the genes in sperms or ova, and thus cause mutation, other possible sources have been discovered and identified. Close supernovae are extremely rare and their peak of radiation lasts a short time in the region of months. But other extraordinarily powerful sources radiate gamma waves and particles at speeds approaching that of light. These sources may be neutron stars or black holes in a close binary relationship with red supergiants or the massive and hot Wolf-Rayet stars which generate clouds of gas particles and radiation. These clouds are collected and projected in a concentrated narrow jet of enormous energy by the neutron star or black hole partner at right angles to its rotation plane, and they are active in varying strength for hundreds of thousands of years. They are increasingly identified in our own galaxy and others throughout the near universe. As our galaxy ponderously rotates and its spiral arms change shape, in a time-scale of tens of millions of years, the jets from neutron- and black hole- binary systems swing achingly slowly in relation to our own solar system. It has been determined that Cygnus X-3 is one of these binary systems in our own galaxy which lies at a distance of 30,000 light years. The power of its ‗blazar jet‘ touches Earth. Andrew Collins prepared a paper in 2006 explaining his support of Cygnus X-3 as a critical source of cosmic radiation affecting Earth. He refers to a number of scientific observations and enters into discussion of astrophysics, some of which I have omitted. I quote from a portion of it: Cygnus X-3 is today known to be a high mass X-ray binary, consisting of a compact star, either a neutron star or a black hole, and a companion star, most probably a Wolf-Rayet with huge weight loss. Discovered in 1967, Cygnus X-3 has been monitored across the electro-magnetic spectrum, from X-ray to infrared, radio, optical, gamma (ã)-rays and cosmic rays. It is one of the brightest galactic X-ray sources, and is the outright brightest during radio flares associated with the production of relativistic jets. ... Cygnus X-3 (RA 307.6 dec 40.8) has been identified as a source of highenergy ã-rays of an extremely energetic nature. Indeed, their initial discovery in the 1970s was responsible for a complete reassessment of particle acceleration in compact stars. As early as 1973 the SAS-2 satellite reported ã-radiation with a narrow phase interval of 4.8 h, noted separately in connection with x-ray and infrared observations of Cygnus X-3, estimated to be at 11.6 kpc. This periodicity is caused either by the eclipsing of the compact star by its companion, or the precession of a relativistic jet (Hillas, 1984). Cygnus X-3 is also thought to be a sporadic 169 12.6 ms pulsar (Chadwick, 1985) with ã-rays produced at or near the maximum (phase 0.6) in the 4.8 h X-ray cycle (Bowden et al, 1992). ... ... The extremely energetic ã-rays from Cygnus X-3 were early considered to be ‗the products of interactions between even more energetic particles within the source, mainly protons‘, leading astrophysicists to conclude that Cygnus X-3 was ‗the first astronomical object to be identified with reasonable certainty as a source of cosmic rays‘, i.e. any cosmic radiation above 10 ev (Cordova, 1986), or, 8 indeed, a ‗cosmic accelerator‘ (Dar, 1986). Moreover, ã rays from Cygnus X-3 indicated that ‗only a very small number of sources of like nature would be required to produce most of the observed high-energy cosmic rays.‘(Cordova, 1986). Among the suspected method of production of ã-rays were two popular models. Either they

were protons accelerated by the electric field induced in the accretion disk held in the magnetic field of the neutron star, or they were accelerated by shocks in the matter accreted on to a neutron star or black hole. ... ... it was concluded that Cygnus X-3 accelerated particles to at least 1016 eV (i.e. PeV and over), and that if these were electrons, then protons might reach a higher level still (Hillas, 1984). Indeed, at Kiel the EAS reached energies near 1018 eV (Cassiday et al, 1989; Sommer and Elbert, 1990). At the same time two underground nucleon-decay detectors set up originally to observe proton decays, Soudon (Marshak et al, 1985) and NUSEX (Battistoni, 1985, Baym, 1985), reported excessive muon fluxes either with a time modulation of the 4.8-h period of Cygnus X-3, or coincident to its daily transits. The flux from single-muon events was greater than several orders than that expected from high energy photon flux, suggesting most probably either a primary of unique characteristics, dubbed the ‗cygnet‘, or a new mechanism for very efficient muon production in high energy photon-initiated air cascades (Dar, 1986). ... There seems little doubt that Cygnus X-3 is an exceptional source of cosmic radiation both of the range which is well understood, but of a new type, the ‗cygnets‘, which demand further study. Perhaps there are more kinds of electro-magnetic forces and sub-atomic particles which have yet to be identified and which bombard Earth from enormously powerful sources. Collins and others point out that Cygnus X-3 is not in any way unique. A number of similar binary systems have been recorded. The relevance of Cygnus X-3 is that its blazar jet happens to be aimed directly at us. (The term ‗blazar‘ applies to a stellar source with a jet pointing our way.) Andrew Collins dramatically described it to me as: ―Looking down the muzzle of a gun!‖ It has to be remembered that there are other sources of cosmic radiation including that produced by intergalactic gas and dust and, most obviously, from our own cosmic source, the Sun. The Sun is itself influenced by strange gravity forces, cosmic radiation and intergalactic gas and dust. There is nothing at all simple about the constituents of the Universe; it is its laws that are simple Nevertheless, knowing that my ‗Cygnus Event‘ was not a near supernova, but perhaps something of even greater significance, does not end my quest for a solution to the enigma of ± 35,000 BP. Indeed, new doors were opened, for the bombardment from Cygnus X-3 did not occur during a short and specific time, as would that from a supernova, but has been going on for a long time, maybe as long as 700,000 years, with fluctuations caused by its own position in the galaxy and the effects of other activity on it. We concern ourselves these days with the ‗wholeness‘ of life on Earth and the validity of the Gaia Theory when worrying about global warming. We tend to ignore the fact that the ‗whole‘ of our home galaxy and thence to the outer limits of the Universe is interactive. Andrew Collins has spent years investigating alternative hypotheses for important events in human pre-history. His work is described on his website, www.andrewcollins.com, and he is publishing a comprehensive examination of the significance of the Cygnus constellation in his book The Cygnus Mystery in October 2006.

Beryllium isotopes
At the beginning of this chapter, and this train of investigation, beryllium was the isotope which was important to discovery 10 y of cosmic radiation effects in Greenland and Antarctic ice-cores. Other isotopes, such as beryllium 7.8 , are also used to detect them. Andrew Collins directed my attention to a paper presented by Professor Aden Meinel of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, during the TAG Conference at Sheffield University in December 2005.

Prof. Meinel and his colleagues had been researching several relevant avenues and in his paper he published several graphs illustrating results from ice-cores. He showed, for example, that the cores confirm the fluctuations of temperature which have caused the warm interglacials and severe ice-ages between the generally cool state of the Earth during the Pleistocene. His graph taken from the Vostok site in Antarctica very roughly shows warm peaks at about 430,000BP, 320,000BP, 130,000BP and 15,000 BP, and cold troughs at about 330,000BP, 260,000BP, 135,000BP, 110,000BP, 80,000BP, 56,000BP and 22,000BP. These approximate dates estimated from a small graph more-or-less coincided with those known for some years from ocean sediment and other particular data. [see the details in Appendix 1 .] What Meinel‘s graph showed, however, is that the average planetary temperature proceeds in a series of irregular jumps downwards after each high peak and that every warm period starts with an abrupt upwards leap. All the jumps both up and down appear abrupt and there are no long periods of stability. Of course, one is dealing here in thousands of years and my use of ‗sudden‘ and ‗abrupt‘ must be interpreted accordingly. Elsewhere I have commented on evidence that severe icy conditions have begun with great abruptness which were caused by random terrestrial events such as massive volcanic explosions (e.g. Toba at 74,000BP) and the impact of large meteors and comets (e.g. Chicxulub at 65M years ago). There are two sources of temperature change: random catastrophes such as volcanoes or meteors and change in the quantity of energy received from the sun. The abrupt melting of ice at the beginning of the present warm interglacial has been detected at the end of the last Iceage, but it was several thousands of years before the climate changed and the Sahara dried. Catastrophic floods resulted from the melting, but the Earth has great inertia and the force which causes acute atmospheric temperature change is followed by the expenditure of energy in warming or freezing ice-caps, stabilizing the ocean currents and climatic structures of winds and rainfall in the atmosphere. An event which instantly freezes mammoths in Siberia or melts the northern hemisphere glaciers in decades must be followed by a sustained increase or reduction of energy for centuries and millennia for a generally warm or cold period to follow. This inertia of the Earth creates what seems to be endlessly long periods of stability to humanity with a life-span of a mere seventy years. If it were otherwise, our core-ancestry would not have survived, but it also explains that the principal of ‗survival of the fittest‘ has validity in the most basic behaviours of our planet. There has to be sufficient time for this evolutionary process to work on many generations in lifeforms. In passing, it may be remarked that the changes in average atmospheric temperature recorded as being caused by artificial global warming at the present may seem quite trivial when compared to the changes of up to 10ºC illustrated in the ice-core data between warm peaks and cold troughs. But there is a mighty difference between the culture and economy of Late Stone Age people 15,000 years ago and our 21st century urban civilization. A rise or fall in ocean levels of a hundred meters and the desertification of savannah in a hundred years is accommodated by a hundred million nomadic hunter-gatherers with not inconsiderable loss of life, but it is sustainable. For the 6.5 billion people on Earth today, 80% close to oceans and seas, half of them in cities and most dependent on mechanized industrial agriculture for survival, it would be true disaster.

Professor Meinel‘s paper proceeded to discussion on detailed analysis of the ice-cores and the importance of beryllium isotopes. He wrote: It was during this work [ research on intrinsic luminosity of the sun ] that we became aware of something in the archives that caught our attention and that led us to today‘s topic. What caught our attention were two additional data archives. 1) the data on the annual variations flux of cosmogenic beryllium during the last 200,000 years 2) the data on the annual accumulation of ice, both measured at the same depth in the ice core Meinel correlated beryllium deposits, which is a measure of cosmic radiation, and temperature evidence and found no agreement. Cosmic radiation and atmospheric temperature variation were not precisely related. He wrote: There is no apparent correlation between cosmic rays and the course of temperature. There are many gaps in the cosmic ray data archives where a core segment simply was not measured for its beryllium content, especially where a sampling showed nothing interesting was happening. ... [ but ] There are two separate epochs in the cosmic ray record. The flux remains essentially constant until about 80,000 years ago whereupon the nature of the curve dramatically changes. Sinusoidal oscillations begin. ... It immediately looked to us like something was precessing. Could it be the source - or could it be the Earth? We measured the oscillation period as 22,000 years and immediately recognized that oscillations had the same period as the precession of the Earth. But what about the lack of any effect of the Earth‘s precession on the curve earlier than 80,000 years ago? ... The encounter [ with a cosmic radiation source ] began about 80,000 years ago and apparently ended only 11,000 years ago. The graphs that he created to illustrate these statements show that cosmic radiation fluctuations increased above a ‗normal‘ level at 80,000 years ago with a sudden peak, experienced a more sustained peak at about 60,000 years ago and a substantial one at 40,000 years ago. They tapered off at about 11,000 years ago. It will be recalled that in references I obtained in earlier years and quoted in the first part of this chapter, the periods of excessive radiation around 60,000 and 40, 000 years ago have been known for some time, but no 172 professional scientist had apparently seen their significance in relation to changes in human culture. This directly concerned my thesis regarding the planet-wide flowering of rock-art and decoration of artifacts from about 35,000 years ago. It also raised another important question: is there evidence of cultural change following the periods of 80,000 and 60,000 years ago? And the answer is clear. At about the 80,000 years ago event, the out-of-Africa migration of modern people began, as shown by the genetic evidence. Critics of the theory have asked why it was that modern mankind began moving so purposefully about the planet at that time. The reason that I had to accept was that there was population growth following good times in eastern Africa and climatic change; a dry period in the northeast around the Horn, precipitated a nomadic thrust. I have referred to Stephen Oppenheiner and his book Out of Eden (2003) and Christopher Springer & Robin McKie in African Exodus (1996) in previous discussion on this particular problem. But, the promotion of this behaviour may have been precipitated or facilitated by subtle mutation in their brains caused by cosmic radiation. 74,000 years ago the Toba volcanic explosion caused disaster to populations across the northern edge of the tropical belt of Eurasia and a hiatus to human development and movement. At 60,000 years ago, I see a new surge beginning: migrants crossed the seas to Australia and explored far beyond the apparent previous limits of about 45ºN latitude in Eurasia. It is most probable that island-hopping and coastal migration began from northeast Siberia to the

northwest coast of North America so that people reached Mexico, near Puebla, 40,000 years ago, as has been recently demonstrated. There is considerable evidence of Homo sapiens in the Americas with, for example, Pedra Furada in Brazil and Orogrande in New Mexico revealing dates between 50-20,000 years ago. There were warm periods within the general glacial period from about 110,000 to 12,000 years ago when it may have been practical for people and other large mammals to migrate across the Canadian plains, but I am satisfied that it was not necessary for Alaska and Canada to be icefree. Coastal migration is the pattern that I believe has always been the most natural route for all pioneering movements since the emergence of the earliest Homo erectus. This is central to my hypothesis. The last severe ice-age which ended about 12,000 years ago did not inhibit human migrations. No doubt populations were savagely decimated by the ‗Biblical‘ flooding and other catastrophic effects, but wherever it was possible to find food, populations expanded and humanity spread to all parts of Earth. As the ice retreated, people followed, living successfully at the very edge of summertime limits. Neolithic Homo sapiens was confident in its mastery of the planet. I am examining the last 100,000 years, specifically the last 80,000 during the significant rise of cosmic radiation illustrated by Aden Meinel, but the importance of this concept has to be taken backwards into far reaches of time. I am confident in speculating that the major jumps in evolution which have resulted in modern mankind, apparently inexplicable by conventional science, may have been the result of similar cosmic ray bombardments. Significant increases in cosmic radiation over a fairly prolonged period of tens or hundreds of thousands of years will not have been the sole cause of evolutionary jumps. That could be absurd. But the combination of climate change forcing great environmental alterations, which in turn forced migration and changes in diet and nutrition, especially prolonged seashore living and seafood eating, and combined 173 with periodic mutations in soft tissue caused by cosmic ray bombardment, all coincidentally acting with feedback through natural selection on a vulnerable hominid with vertical stance, may have been the magical combination of ingredients we have been seeking. Meinel‘s paper then proceeded to examine mutation. He wrote: During our JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] days we encountered this issue concerning whether astronauts could sustain genetic damage from cosmic rays during long space missions. Astronauts had reported seeing bright streaks of light whether their eyes were open or closed. This was concluded to be caused by cosmic rays. ... ... these various reports were limited to opinions from medical experts. But there was insufficient medical data to hazard more than a best guess how cosmic rays might cause DNA fragments within the ova or sperm. They also needed to know how these fragments could recombine to create new genes, whether these changed genes are inheritable, remain silent, or are lethal. When considering mutations caused by cosmic radiation, this principle must be always before one‘s eyes. Genes may be changed by radiation, and the greatest concern is that they then develop into cancers. Research on male airline pilots in Canada and the United Kingdom and on female staff in Scandinavia show increased rates of prostate and breast cancer among them. But, those malevolent changes are within a living entity and do not survive their death. For mutations to succeed in changing the genes of a population, they have to occur in reproductive cells before conception, and the resulting offspring must survive to reproduce itself, and so on.

It is evident that many authorities disregard the probability of major genetic change through the action of cosmic radiation simply because the possibility of many similar mutations in sperms and ova in large populations seems remote with normal levels of radiation. However, we are considering in this chapter recent evidence of extraordinary levels of radiation, particularly those strange peaks at times coincident to worldwide change in human behaviour. These high levels of radiation were also coincident to the extinction of the Neanderthals. Aden Meinel goes on : If there were genetic changes induced by that surge of cosmic rays [at 40,000 years ago] they should have become evident relatively soon after the 40 Ky event. Thus we noted with interest the frequent appearance of 40 Ky BP in connection with the new species, as reported in recent issues of Science and Nature. He then proceeds to speculate on possible scenarios resulting from probable mutation. He suggests: ... The transformation would be imperceptively slow, yet accomplish physiological and mental changes to yield the capabilities of modern humans. It could have been so gradual that it neither induced social stress nor heightened the normal level of inter-group hostility. Life simply went on as though nothing was happening. Here, for the first time, I was reading material from an academic scientist with much experience in astronomical disciplines which linked proven bursts of exceptional cosmic radiation to possible evolutionary mutation. It is interesting that in his paper Prof Meinel proposed that the source of cosmic radiation he was investigating came from the Cat‘s Eye nebula. As I understand it, he was not dismissing Cygnus X-3, but was suggesting an alternative or additional source. It is notable that the Cat’s Eye nebula lies in the Draco constellation and is close to Cygnus X-3.

Dr. Paul LaViolette and his theses
Stimulated by Andrew Collins‘ material and casting about on the Internet, I found Dr. LaViolette‘s website and discovered that he has been researching cosmic radiation for many years. He is Director of an independent research institute in the U.S. LaViolette is the author of an alternative theory of the origin of galactic energy sources and therefore his research may be viewed with skepticism by many scientists, but it is his work on cosmic radiation effects on Earth with which I am concerned here. His thesis is that massive blasts of gamma radiation originate from the region of the centre of the galaxy caused by the continual production of energy at that location. He asserts that this is true of all galaxies and so-called nebulae. The physics argument for this is beyond the scope of this chapter. As part of this phenomenon, these gamma ray bursts are preceded by a gravity wave which propels gas and dust particles outwards from the galaxy centre. The local effect of these events are that, firstly, gas and dust particles are blown into our solar system and a principal result is that the sun‘s surface is activated causing unusual solar flares and increased activity which can extend as far as the orbit of Earth. Gas and dust intrusions interfere with the magnetic fields of the planets and the solar system as a whole. Interference with the sun increases its radiance and its solar flares can ‗scorch‘ nearby bodies. The spectrum of the sun‘s radiation is shifted towards both infra-red and ultra-violet during different phases of activity and both have major effects on our climate and the health and

survival of animals. Visible light may be ‗dimmed‘ by these spectrum shifts. The phenomenon of extreme solar flares is generally accepted and is not particular to LaViolette‘s thesis. The arrival of a massive burst of gamma and other cosmic radiation has less obvious results. Normally, gamma radiation is mostly absorbed by our atmosphere. However, when LaViolette‘s postulated bursts arrive, they are hugely in excess of any ‗normal‘ background radiation and when coincident with other anomalies resulting from the gravity wave and dust intrusions overwhelm Earth‘s defenses. The searing effect of gamma radiation itself may be lifethreatening and cause mutations and extinctions. LaViolette is certain that a particular ‗starburst‘ event with a gravity superwave and intense gamma radiation occurred, maybe several times, at the end of the last ice-age. Relating such an event to our present time, LaViolette predicts the complete shutdown of electronic devices, damage to power systems and widespread disruption and chaos to our civilization. In the abstract to his paper, Evidence for a Global Warming at the Termination I Boundary and Its Possible Cosmic Dust Cause, he wrote: A comparison of northern and southern hemispheric paleotemperature profiles suggests that the Bölling-Alleröd Interstadial, Younger Dryas stadial, and subsequent Preboreal warming which occurred at the end of the last ice-age were characterized by temperatures that changed synchronously in various parts of the world, implying that these climatic 175 oscillations were produced by significant changes in the Earth‘s energy balance. These globally coordinated oscillations are not easily explained by ocean current mechanisms such as bistable flipping of ocean deep-water production or regional temperature changes involving the NW/SE migration of the North Atlantic polar front. They also are not accounted for by Earth orbital changes in seasonality or by increases in 2 atmospheric CO or CH. On the other hand, evidence of an elevated cosmic ray flux and of a major interstellar dust incursion around 15,800 years B.P. suggest that a cosmic ray wind driven incursion of interstellar dust and gas may have played a key role through its activation of the Sun and alteration of light transmission through the interplanetary medium. This is a long and comprehensive paper and, together with much other material, it is available on the Starburst Foundation website. Amongst the conclusions, he wrote: ... the Sun was unusually active during the global warming period at the end of the last ice-age from about 16,000 to 11,000 years BP. It is likely that the Sun was also particularly active at earlier times, particularly during interstadial periods (e.g., 36 - 31 kyrs BP) and during the termination of the previous ice-age (136 - 128 kyrs BP). However since data is lacking on the degree of solar activity during these periods, the data has been adjusted only for the period ending the last ice-age. ... There is great detail in this paper which is an extended scientific description of the mechanism of the last ice-age. Several tables showing ice-core readings and cosmic radiation calculations correlating to known glacial and interglacial periods are included. The list of references seems equally exhaustive. He wrote at the end : Ice Core Chronology and the Assumption of Synchronous Climatic Change The [above] ice core chronologies are derived by correlating climatic boundaries seen in the Byrd and Vostok ice core oxygen isotope profiles with those seen in the well-dated GRIP ice core from Summit, Greenland (Johnsen, et al., 1992). In correlating the ice core isotope profiles, we have assumed that major changes in climate occur contemporaneously in both the northern and southern hemispheres and hence that distinct climatic change boundaries evident in the GRIP ice core may be matched up with similar boundaries in the Byrd Station and Vostok ice cores.

The assumption that the Earth‘s climate warmed and cooled in a globally synchronous manner at the end of the last ice-age is supported by evidence from dated land, sea, and ice climate profiles which show that the Bölling/Alleröd/Younger Dryas oscillation occurred synchronously in both northern and southern latitudes. This evidence has been reviewed above ... . The chronology adopted here for the Byrd core is consistent with that of Beer et al. (1992) which was obtained by correlating distinctive 10Be concentration peaks found in both the Byrd Station, Antarctica and Camp Century, Greenland isotope records, some peaks dating as early as 12 – 20 kyrs BP. The Camp Century isotope profile, in turn, has been accurately dated through correlation with the annual layer dated Summit, Greenland isotope profile. Dr Paul LaViolette‘s book, Earth Under Fire (1997, revised 2005) is useful reading for those who wish to explore greater details of the accumulating information from many disciplines and their research resources on the effect of cosmic radiation, gravity shock-waves and intergalactic dust and gas clouds. His scholarship and synthesis is impressive. [Also see Appendix 1 for detail of cold and warm periods.] The fact that LaViolette savours relating real cosmic events to flood and disaster myths and legends from around the Earth, which have long excited scholars of ancient literature, should not put off those with an interest solely in the science. The connection between the science and the universal legends and the birth of astrology is an objective in his book. The veracity of legend is being shown by starting with the scientific evidence, rather than speculating on events from the base of legend, as often in the past through lack of evidence. An article in Science in August 2006 by Govert Schilling, Do Gamma Ray Bursts Always Line Up with Galaxies?, spotlights continuing problems with conclusions from astronomical observation of cosmic radiation. It would seem that the dust-penetrating capability of radiation from massive Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in distant galaxies is different from that emanating from quasars. Schilling reports on a paper by Gabriel Prochter of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and wrote: Dust absorption in the foreground galaxies might be different for quasars and GRBs, in ways that obscure more quasars. Large-scale gravitational lensing by the intervening galaxies might boost the brightness of GRBs and so make them easier to detect. There is apparently an insufficient number of GRBs coming from distant galaxies available for study, and explanations for anomalies are wanting. LaViolette‘s hypotheses may have greater attention when more is known.

Whereas I seemed to have been unable to access the information I desired about cosmic radiation and extraneous interference with the workings of the solar system and our planet for many years, I now seemed to have an excess. It seems clear to me that the general and often obscure insights I was pondering fifteen years ago and more, and proposed when this book was first put on the Internet in 1999, have increasingly valid support. The evolution of life, and mankind in particular, on Earth is an amazingly complex process. What seemed a simple theorem when first described so comprehensively by Charles Darwin is now demonstrated to be enormously complicated with any number of different factors, mostly outside the control, and maybe even the understanding, of the most enlightened scientific intellects possessed by Homo sapiens sapiens. Our skeletal structure did not change between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago and our skulls are the same. It is what goes on inside those skulls which is different. Palaeontology and anatomical

studies of skulls cannot provide proof of a mutation within our soft tissues. It is the evidence of abrupt efflorescence of culture and behavioural change, exemplified in the worldwide explosion of rockart from 35,000 years ago, which is the potent signpost. Another extraordinary efflorescence occurred at about 10,000 years ago with the rapid development of agriculture and urban society in the Middle East. Andrew Collins in exploratory conversations asked me why I had concluded that cosmic radiation, from whatever source, had contributed to the development of the African Late Stone Age at about 35,000 years ago. I replied along these lines: ―Knowing perfectly well that it is an obvious circular argument, I could not stop thinking that there had to be something beyond climatic or other factors which could trigger such a tremendous change in culture all over the world inhabited by people at that time. We are what we are. And the demise of the Neanderthals by Cro-Magnon impact also seemed too easy and slipshod as an explanation. There had to be some extra-terrestrial event, but I could not think of what it would be. It had worried at me for years. ―And then I had come across that brief article by Adrian Berry in 1991, purely by chance. How many pages of daily newspapers do you skim through without picking up a small column? Berry‘s story had been a revelation. ―A burst of cosmic radiation at the right period, which had seemed to eminent scientists specializing in the relevant disciplines to be sufficiently powerful to blow away the ozone layer and cause extinctions and mutations, was so strikingly obvious. And if it happened in 35,000BP, what about the other milestones in behavioural evolution? What about the first hominids, what about the first discovery of stone tool-making from chunks of rock and the taming of fire; amazing developments which require forethought and imagination? The first migrations of early Homo erectus, the second major out-of-Africa migration of later Homo erectus associated with mitochondrial Eve, the first tentative steps to art and decoration and the coincidental out-of-Africa migration of homo sapiens? The development of cities? What about those other milestones? ―Climate and environment, and most especially seafood nutrition for long periods, were always dominating driving forces in our evolution performing relatively gradual mutation of our genes, working with natural selection. But surely it is bursts of cosmic radiation with strongly induced mutation which were the triggering mechanisms. ―It‘s the combination of forces, coming together at crucial times.‖ Prof. Michael Crawford in a personal communication in August 2006 reiterated the importance of environment when considering the effect of mutation by radiation. If we have a radiation shock at some time point, then good if it has survival value. To survive it has to be compatible with the environment and nutrition. I made the point in What we Eat Today [1972] that there would be a massive survival advantage to an antelope or buffalo if it could see in the night and so see the big cats hunting them down and escape. However, it never happened. Why? Well, the answer in my book is that their food chain and growth velocity deprived them of the brain and vision specific nutrients that would have made that eye possible. So even if the gene map changed by random mutation or some other mutational force to give the codes for night vision they would be unable to do it because they would not have had the building materials for such an apparatus. It follows that seashore-living early hominids, and later homo erectus and homo sapiens, had the necessary nutritional regime with epigenetic activity at work to be affected by mutation from a cosmic radiation burst. Chimps and the other great apes did not have that nutritional advantage, and they were living in tropical forests where they were in any case shielded from

less penetrative radiation such as ultra-violet or weak gamma rays.

Andrew Collins drew my attention to an article in the New York Times of 24 March 2004. Elsewhere, in discussing the transition from Australopithecus to Homo erectus, I have quoted from this article which draws together themes on which I have been speculating for many years in the earlier versions of this book. The synthesis of information on mutations caused by various bursts of cosmic radiation, in their different forms, the transition of species and the extinction of some while others burgeoned, the physical environment and finally the coincidentally critical effect of seafood diet is occurring quite rapidly now. I quote the whole of the article from the New York Times here, which is somehow fitting since my association of cosmic radiation with evolution began with Adrian Berry‘s article in the London Daily Telegraph fifteen years ago, quoted at the beginning of this chapter.

Mutation Cited in Evolution
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
March 24, 2004

At a pivotal time in human evolution, around 2.4 million years ago, a muscle gene underwent a disabling alteration. And scientists say this could have made all the difference, leading to the enlarged brains of the lineage that evolved into modern humans. Researchers who made the discovery said this might be the first recognized functional genetic difference between humans and the apes that can be correlated with anatomical changes in the fossil record. As they said, the gene mutation may represent the beginning of the ancestral triumph of brain over brawn. At the least, scientists said, the small mutated gene probably accounts for the more graceful human jaw, in contrast to the protruding ape jaw and facial ridges. The discovery was made by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and will be published Thursday in the journal Nature. They also described the findings in interviews last week. ―We‘re not suggesting that that mutation alone buys you Homo sapiens,‖ said Dr. Hansell H. Stedman, leader of the research team. ―But it lifted a constraint that leads to brain growth.‖ Evolutionary scientists and paleoanthropologists not involved in the project said the interpretation of the findings was intriguing and provocative. A ―seductive hypothesis,‖ one of them said, while others cautioned that the explanation probably oversimplified the causes behind the significant brain expansion that marked the emergence of the Homo lineage out of the more apelike Australopithecus species. Even so, the findings were expected to encourage other scientists to investigate a whole range of other genes that have decisive roles in making us distinctively human. This could enable molecular biologists to establish the chronology of important steps in human evolution with greater precision. The Penn scientists were searching for remaining genes that govern myosin, a protein that makes up muscle tissue, when they came across a piece of the human genome sequence that had been overlooked. The gene, MYH16, had apparently gone unrecognized because of a small mutation that had rendered it inactive for producing some jaw muscles for chewing and biting. The scientists found that this myosin gene is still intact in other primates today, such as chimpanzees and macaques. They have correspondingly strong jaw muscles. An analysis of DNA samples showed the gene-inactivating mutation to be present in all modern humans worldwide. The analysis further traced the mutation‘s occurrence to between 2.1 million and 2.7 million years ago, probably 2.4 million.

That happened to be just prior to the appearance of major evolutionary changes in hominid fossils, the research team noted in the journal article. Some hominids with protruding jaws and small brain were soon to evolve into the first species of the genus Homo, with significantly smaller jaws, larger brains and a modern human body size. After two million years, Homo erectus was able to strike out for lands far beyond Africa. ―The mutation very possibly initiated an evolutionary cascade,‖ said Dr. Nancy Minugh-Purvis, a paleoanthropologist involved in the project. Dr. Stedman‘s group concluded that the findings ―raise the intriguing possibility that the decrement in masticatory muscle size removed an evolutionary constraint on encephalization.‖ In short, as the strong, stoutly buttressed jaw muscles declined, this allowed the skull to develop a new shape and structure, giving the brain room to grow. In an accompanying critique, Dr. Pete Currie, a developmental biologist in Sydney, Australia, who called the hypothesis seductive, wrote that the Penn researchers presented ―convincing arguments as to how the mutation could have been responsible‖ for the acquisition of more humanlike traits by ancestral hominids. ―I‘m amazed at what they came up with,‖ said Dr. John Fleagle, a palaeanthropologist at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. ―But I‘d be surprised if the interpretation is that simple.‖ Dr. Alan Walker, an anatomist who specializes in human evolution at Pennsylvania State University, said, ―The mutation is a very interesting finding, but what it means is a different matter.‖ Dr. Walker and others questioned the idea that jaw muscles of the more apelike hominids were a major factor in constraining brain size. ―An extremely unlikely proposition,‖ he said. Dr. Stedman said the cause of the mutation was unknown and probably unknowable: damage from cosmic rays perhaps, ingested toxins or other environmental exposures. Other contemporary hominid species could have been exposed to the same conditions, but for some reason, escaped with their myosin gene unaltered < and their jaws as formidable as ever. These robust but smallbrain species continued to live in Africa until their line became extinct about one million years ago. Dr. Minugh-Purvis said it was unclear how the mutation could have become fixed in the species, considering its potentially deleterious effects on survival. Perhaps other agents of change were already at work, like the transition to a richer protein diet of meat. The heavier jaws were required for grinding the mainstays, nuts and plants, in their diets. Dr. Ken Weiss, a geneticist at Penn State, said the new research is one of a number of recent investigations into the roles of single genes in significant changes in human evolution. He agreed that the mutation could have led to some differences in the muscle structure of hominids, but other changes were already in progress that contributed to the traits that set the genus Homo apart from its predecessors. Although he doubted the myosin gene will be a Rosetta stone of evolution, Dr. Philip Rightmire, a palaeanthropologist at the State University of New York, 180 Binghamton, said it was intriguing that the timing of the mutation ―is just bang on the mark for the emergence of genus Homo.‖ Scraps of fossils in East Africa suggest that the first Homo species evolved about 2.3 million years ago. The evidence for them becomes more prevalent a few hundred thousand years later. Dr. Ian Tattersall, a palaeanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, said the gene mutation ―could certainly be a link in a larger chain of cause and effect, but probably not the whole story.‖

What was needed to understand more of the story was to study the effects of seafood nutrition, and the difference of exposure to cosmic rays between living along seashores and within the rainforest. The Cygnus-Giza Correlation - The Facts And Alignments In Pictorial Form by Andrew Collins
from AndrewCollins Website

The three main Giza pyramids, as viewed from the edge of the Maadi Formation southwest of the Third Pyramid, taken in May 2005

When I wrote THE CYGNUS MYSTERY, I knew that among the many incredible claims it would make, one alone would court fierce criticism, and this was the apparent connection between Giza and the Cygnus constellation. Over the years I have seen how other new theories concerning the hidden mysteries of the plateau have been ripped to shreds by detractors, and then dissected piece by piece until nothing is left intact. It started with the theories contained in Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert's seminal classic THE ORION MYSTERY back in 1994, and has continued ever since with any theory that veers even slightly away from the straight and narrow path of orthodoxy Egyptology. Yet strangely, it is not usually the Egyptologists who start the carnage, but other researchers and writers in the fields of either revisionist history or archaeoastronomy, neither of which are accepted as mainstream subjects. So by suggesting that the three main pyramids at Giza, as well as the plateau as a whole, reflect sight lines targeting the rising and setting of Cygnus, associated by the Ancient Egyptians with the falcon-headed celestial figure dwn-'nwy, was never going to be taken lying down by the critics. Thus when my friend and colleague Rodney Hale rung me excitedly one morning in January 2005 to say that he had superimposed the three 'wing' or 'cross' stars of Cygnus (Gienah, aka epsilon Cygni; Sadr, aka gamma Cygni, and delta Cygni) with the Giza pyramids and it was a perfect match, I knew then that if this were ever to reach publication then it was going to cause a furore that would eclipse anything I had ever written before about Ancient Egypt.

THE CYGNUS-GIZA CORRELATION
Rodney had decided to compare the stars of Cygnus with the Giza pyramids after the idea

came to him in a flash of inspiration as he lay in bed one night unable to sleep. Yet it must also have stemmed from the fact that when THE ORION MYSTERY was first published Rodney, having embracing such new ideas regarding the astronomy of the Ancient Egyptians, became disappointed when in 1995 he attempted to superimpose Orion's 'belt' stars over the Giza pyramids, with the following results:

Relative positions of the three 'belt' stars of Orion as overlaid upon the Giza pyramids as done by Rodney Hale in 1995, using both a photograph of the stars and as they appear in the Skyglobe program 3.5

They simply do not match, with the star corresponding to the Third Pyramid, Mintaka (delta Orionis), falling towards the southwest edge of the monument. Of course, the whole thing could simply have been a symbolic gesture on the part of the Ancient Egyptians, and thus was not meant to be precise. Yet still, it was a shame that the correlation was not exact. Even more despair came for Rodney, a technical engineer by trade, when he attempted to match the remaining stars of Orion with other pyramid fields, as is proposed by Bauval and Gilbert in THE ORION MYSTERY.

Map of the Orion constellation

Unfortunately, Saiph ('sword', kappa Orionis), which as Orion's right knee is south of the belt stars, fell short of its predicted target - the ruined pyramid of Djedefre of Abu Rawash, while

Bellatrix (gamma Orionis), the left shoulder of Orion, is situated some distance away from its target - the so-called 'Unfinished Pyramid' at Zawiyat al-Aryan. Even more confusing was that Orion's two brightest stars Rigel (beta Orionis) and Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis) do not mark an ancient monument of any kind. Once again, the correlation might not have needed to be precise, but it was a shame that the theory was not as tight as he might have liked it to be. Proposals of this kind need precision for the soul to take them seriously.

Orion superimposed (upside down) on 1927 map of Cairo, showing the relevant pyramid fields

So now it seemed that for Rodney the 'wing' stars of Cygnus, linked to the plateau through its associations with the cult of Sokar - a falcon-headed god of the dead who presided over Rostau, ancient Giza, and was the earthly counterpart of the celestial sky falcon god dwn-'nwy could be superimposed over the three main pyramids. Was this simply coincidence? Had it been by grand design, created by the great architect of the Great Pyramid, or was the cosmic joker at work here? The simple answer is that neither of us could be sure. However, I decided to publish these controversial findings in THE CYGNUS MYSTERY. Naturally, there was a certain amount of hesitation, but I wanted for the Cygnus-Giza ground-sky alignment to speak for itself. Strangely, Adriano Forgione the editor of Italy's HERA magazine told me that a while back a young reader had written to the letters' page asking whether it was possible that the stars of Cygnus created a better ground-sky match than those of Orion's belt. Why exactly this person should have suggested this is unclear, and Adriano is unable now to find his name. Still, it was a sign that I was doing something right.

Ground-sky overlay using the stars of Cygnus on a modern map of the Giza plateau. The Cygnus stars are in red, with those of Orion's belt in green. Actual photograph of the stars were used for this purpose

MOUND OF CREATION
What was also more attractive about the Cygnus-Giza correlation is that because the constellation's 'wing' stars are wider apart than those of Orion's belt, it means that, pro-rata, all its other main stars superimpose nicely on the plateau, highlighting other potentially interesting features. For instance, Albireo (beta Cygni), the 'beak' star falls in the area of Gebel Ghibli (Arabic for 'southern hill'), a curious rock formation a few hundred meters to the south of the Great Sphinx. Robert Bauval and Simon Cox in the former's book THE SECRET CHAMBER (1999) proposed that Gebel Ghibli might have acted as a physical representation of a mythological primeval hill, or Mound of Creation. Cox had already investigated this strange hillock, after it had been highlighted as significant in the remarkable landscape geometry of David Ritchie. Cox sensed that it held the key to locating the lost Shetayet shrine of Sokar, said to have been somewhere in the area. Ritchie had felt that it was a 'gateway' into Giza's hidden dimensions. The previous year, 1998, in my own book GODS OF EDEN, I had suggested that just such a Mound, or Island, of Creation once existed on or close to the plateau, since one is mentioned in the enigmatic Edfu Building Texts, which describe a primordial world that thrived in the vicinity of Memphis/Giza in pre-dynastic times. Since these texts also referred to a well-like structure as being on the 'Island', which led down into an underworld-duat realm (whether real or symbolic), I predicted that a significant well would also be found on this symbolic Mound of creation. Just such a well structure was discovered by myself in May 2005 amid the modern Islamic cemetery just north of Gebel Ghibli. Known as Beer el-Samman, it is protected by sacred

sycamore fig trees - descendants of those mentioned in the Inventory Stela and in the Ancient Egyptian story of Sinuhe. It is dedicated to a holy man named Hammad el-Samman, said to have once occupied the well in some bygone age. According to a little known tradition still held by the village elders of Nazlet el-Samman (named after the saint), Hammad el-Samman guarded the entrance to an underground city or palace located beneath Nazlet el-Samman, which is due east of the Great Sphinx (where Edgar Cayce predicted that the Egyptians Hall of Records would be found). Thus to find that the Cygnus star Albireo, the mouth or gullet or the celestial bird, fell nearby, albeit beyond the long linear stone structure known as the Wall of Crows (see below), was interesting indeed, and worthy of further investigation.

THE FURORE BEGINS
THE CYGNUS MYSTERY was published, finally, in November 2006, and instantly the furore began. Hundreds of postings on phorums such as The Hall of Maat and the Graham Hancock website fueled the Cygnus vs. Orion debate beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Strangely, most posts were fairly positive, especially after able researchers went away and did their own Cygnus-Giza overlay, and saw that it was accurate. Others, however, would not even accept that Cygnus was known to the Ancient Egyptians, never mind it being linked with the plateau.

THE DENEB SPOT
One question which did crop up was: What on the plateau mark's Deneb (alpha Cygni), the brightest star in Cygnus? The answer is that it falls northwest of the Second Pyramid on the edge of the so-called Western Cemetery, which lies west of the Great Pyramid. This is made up of dozens of mastaba tombs from the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, which belong to those nobles and their families connected with the royal royal dynasties. They were built for priests, priestesses, prophets, tradesmen and arguably even the architect of the Great Pyramid. The Deneb spot covers a fairly large mastaba designated LG14, after the numbering of German Egyptologist Carl Richard Lepsius (1810-1884), who surveyed the plateau, and produced an impressive map dated 1842 (see below).

The Lepsius map of 1842 showing the Cygnus stars overlaid in red. Note the Deneb spot obscuring mastaba LG14 on the edge of the Western Cemetery

Lepsius found the tomb to be devoid of any artifacts or inscriptions, and thus it was simply catalogued and forgotten about. Nothing more is currently known about LG14, and there is every chance that, if not pillaged in ancient times, it was built but never used. As such, no further light can be thrown on the Deneb spot, as we refer to it. Deleted section Whether any of this has anything to do with the proximity, not far away of the Deneb spot, must remain speculation, and in my opinion, if the Cygnus-Giza correlation is meaningful, then I suspect that the Deneb spot played an altogether different role to that of the three 'wing' stars that correspond to the three main Giza pyramids. Perhaps what we are looking for here is underground, or it is simply the position of a sight line overlooking the rest of the plateau. Either way, the Cygnus-Giza correlation should not be dismissed simply because Deneb does not hit anything obviously important, especially since Orion's own brightest stars, Rigel and Betelgeuse, fail themselves to mark any ancient monument.

The John Perring's 1837 map of the Giza plateau. The Cygnus stars are in red. Note also the 'well' (Beer el-Samman) and 'sycamores' marked between the Great Sphinx and Gebel Ghibli. Note also the proximity of the 'beak star' Albireo (beta Cygni).

THE PROPER MOTION OF STARS
One serious criticism of the Cygnus-Giza correlation related to the idea of a star's proper motion. This is the slow drift of extra-galactic stars against the background of other stars caused either by its movement in relation to its own galaxy, or because of earlier near collisions with other stars or stellar objects. It was a valid point, and so a check on the proper motion of Cygnus's key stars produced the following slow movements in any one year against the stellar background: Alpha Cygni RA: 0.003 arcsec/a or mas/yr DEC: 0.002 Beta Cygni RA: 0.002 DEC: -0.002 Delta Cygni RA: 0.053 DEC: 0.047 Gamma Cygni RA: 0,004 DEC: 0 Epsilon Cygni RA: 356.16 DEC: 330.28 When this data is translated on to a map of the Cygnus constellation, the following takes place over the 4,000 year period from 2000 BC to AD 2000:

The proper motion of the principal stars of Cygnus over a period of 4,000 years, from 2000 AD back to 2000 BC, using the Home Planet program

Now all this might look confusing, but what it says is that, as Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock have said in connection with the 'belt' stars of Orion, there is no significant shift in the relative positions of the stars over this time. Only one star in Cygnus is moving faster than the rest, and this is Gienah (epsilon Cygni), which does shift slightly with respect to the Cygnus-Giza overlay, as is shown below.

The relative shift of the star Gienah (epsilon Cygni) with respect to its position in relation to the Third Pyramid over a period of 4,000 years

As is plain to see, the shift is minimal, and does in no way change anything regarding the original proposal of the Cygnus-Giza correlation. The other two Cygnus 'wing' stars, delta Cygni, corresponding with the Great Pyramid, and Sadr (gamma Cygni), corresponding with the Second Pyramid, move so little that it is unnoticeable on a small scale map of the pyramid field. We are, however, not leaving the matter here. Rodney Hale and I shall continue to examine other astronomical programs that provide the proper motion of stars, and check to see whether they correspond with the shifts in position offered here.

THE RIGHT MAP
Another criticism of the Cygnus-Giza correlation was the suggestion that Rodney Hale and I had not used an accurate map of the plateau when creating the superimposition. In order to counter this argument, Rodney superimposed the 'wing' stars of Cygnus and the 'belt' stars of Orion over four different maps of the plateau, and then brought them together in one diagram (seen below).

The variations of pyramid positions relative to the stars of both Cygnus (in red) and Orion (in green) using four different maps

This shows the width of variations of pyramid positions relative to the stars of both Cygnus and Orion. As we can see, there is very little difference in the positions of the pyramids from one map to the next, making no difference whatsoever to the relative positions of either the Cygnus or Orion stars when superimposed on the plateau. Without any question, the Cygnus stars align much better than those of Orion. Once again, such ground-sky correlations, if meaningful, might be symbolic alone, and not need to be actual, allowing still for the possibility that the three pyramids represent Orion and not Cygnus. However, visually Cygnus wins hands down. Rodney Hale and I will continue to consider other maps or photographs of the plateau with regards to the Cygnus-Giza correlation.

THE HOLY WELL BEER EL-SAMMAN
The final criticism of the Cygnus-Giza correlation among the posts on the various online phorums was that the holy well Beer el-Samman never existed, or that it was irrelevant to the debate. These are quite clearly ridiculous observations. Not only does the well appear on the Perring map of 1837, which shows its location prior to the siting of the modern Islamic cemetery, but it also appears on the Lepsius map of 1842 (see below):

The well Beer el-Samman marked as a dot between two palm trees and two sycamore fig trees. On the left (south) we see the rock outcrop Gebel Ghibli (Arabic for 'southern hill'), and on the right the Great Sphinx. At the left-hand base is the end of the linear feature known as the Wall of the Crow

There seems little question that this holy well would have played a function in Ancient Egyptian geomythics, especially since it falls inside the plateau, being placed as it is on the northside of the so-called Wall of the Crow, a linear stone feature made of cyclopean blocks which dates to the late Fourth Dynasty and is thought to be part of the plateau's southern boundary wall. I consider it possible that Beer el-Samman is the structure referred to in the Edfu Building Texts as bw-hmn, which the Egyptologist EAE Reymond interpreted as 'place of the well' (THE ORIGINS OF THE EGYPTIAN TEMPLE, 181,200). I suspect it was in magical rites associated with Hathor, possibly a female patron of the plateau, and possibly Nut, the sky-goddess, whom Dr Robin Wells identifies with the Milky Way. It might equally have some connection with the cult of Sokar, who was guardian of underworld realms, which were forever in darkness. Beer el-Samman corresponds with the Ain Shams (Eye of the Sun) holy spring that lies beneath an ancient sycamore fig at El Matariyeh, which once formed part of the ancient city of Heliopolis. This particular spring in Coptic Christian tradition is said to have sprung up miraculously when the Holy Family stopped here in need of water during the Flight through Egypt. However, it is more likely to date back to dynastic times, particularly as its accompanying sycamore is perhaps a descendent of one said to have existed in Heliopolis. It was sacred to the goddess Nut, who was occasionally shown in Ancient Egyptian art as standing in a sycamore tree pouring either water or wine from a jar on to a human-headed bird, representing the ba, or soul, of a deceased person. At its base was depicted just such a holy well, or spring. Often Hathor replaced Nut in this scene, showing the relationship between the two goddesses, who have much in common.

The dual placement of the two holy springs, one at Giza and the other at Heliopolis, one dedicated most probably to Hathor and the other to Nut, provides credence to the belief that a sight line existed between these two places. Between 3000-2500 BC this Giza-Matariyeh sight line targeted the rising of Deneb, the brightest star in Cygnus, which would have become visible on the northeast horizon somewhere between azimuth 46.5-47.5 degrees. As to the present day existence of Beer el-Samman, this is proved by one of a number of photographs Sue Collins and I took of it in May 2005, after risking our freedom to enter the Islamic cemetery, which is strictly out of bounds to non-Muslims. As you can see it is a regular artesian well, stone lined, which taps into the water table beneath the plateau.

Beer el-Samman as it appears today in the Islamic cemetery, shaded by a sycamore fig tree. Its proximity to Gebel Ghibli should be noted

I doubt very much whether it leads directly to a lost underworld domain, although it is interesting that the lowest level of the so-called 'Tomb of Osiris', discovered in the 1920s beneath the causeway to the Second Pyramid by Egyptologist Salim Hassan, possesses a pit thought to lead into an unexplored tunnel now beneath the present water table, this being high enough to fill the existing chamber to a depth of at least 1.5 meters. Could the story of the holy man Hamman el-Samman guarding the entrance to an underground palace or city be the memory of real passages that permeate the living rock beneath the plateau's water line?

Conclusions
One one question remains: does the Cygnus-Giza correlation work? In the knowledge that Dr Robin Wells, following an examination of the astronomical orientation of the causeway of Sahure's sun temple at Abu Ghourab, south of the Giza plateau, concluded that this king, who opened the Fifth Dynasty, singled out Deneb, Cygnus's brightest star, as in some way special, then I think the answer is going to be 'yes'.

Yes, in that such superimpositions, whether involving the stars of Orion or Cygnus, put into perspective the hidden dimensions of places such as the Giza plateau. Part of me wants to dismiss the Cygnus-Giza correlation as the actions of the wily Cosmic Joker having his fun. Yet then again, if I had dismissed the correlation then I would probably never have found Beer elSamman, or turned up the information on the strange bird catacomb beyond the northwestern edge of the plateau, which Vyse and Perring wrote contained 'bird mummies', as well as 'part of a large bird '. Thus in conclusion, I consider that the Cygnus-Giza correlation has not hindered my investigations on the plateau in the least. In fact, it has given it an entirely new dimension that I now intend exploring to its fullest. My thanks go out to Rodney Hale, Nigel Skinner Simpson, and Sue Collins who helped in the preparation of this article. Is the Supposed Correspondence Between Orion‘s Belt and the Three Pyramids of Giza Genuine? by Dr. Greg Little
from MysteriousAmerica Website

Last issue of Alternate Perceptions, I wrote a brief article on one of Andrew Collins‘ stunning new ideas put forth in his latest book The Cygnus Mystery. The article‘s long title, ―Has Andrew Collins Found the Entrance to the Hall of Records at Giza? Are The Three Pyramids at Giza Aligned to Orion or Cygnus?" expressed the fist of what is actually one of the less important aspects of The Cygnus Mystery. With a more-than-casual interest in Edgar Cayce‘s many pronouncements about ancient Egypt, I found the well entrance Andrew found at Giza intriguing and even more-so when I understood how the main stars of Cygnus corresponded with the three large pyramids and the well. The more critical aspects of The Cygnus Mystery include alignments of the constellation of Cygnus to a vast multitude of other important ancient sites including Newark‘s Great Circle earthwork (Ohio), Cuzco, LaVenta and Maya sites, Avebury, Newgrange, sites in India, and many, many others. Not only is the astronomical alignment to Cygnus present at countless ancient sites, but evidence of a cult of the dead that viewed a northern celestial bird as the carrier of souls is present across cultures. Cygnus was venerated by the ancients as the place of prime importance—the primal cause. In addition, The Cygnus Mystery shows conclusive scientific evidence that powerful cosmic rays from Cygnus have been showering the earth for hundreds of thousands of years. Collins asserts that these cosmic rays served as a pivotal force that created several leaps in human evolution before 70,000 BC, 45,000 BC, and 17,000 BC. Collins‘ idea is that the cosmic rays altered human DNA by mutating several parts of the links comprising the genetic code. Mainstream physics and genetics completely accept that cosmic rays alter DNA (they are radiation) and even Carl Sagan stated such in 1973. Of course, there are many more details in the overall idea, and the fact that Cygnus fits over the three main pyramids at Giza, even better than Orion‘s Belt has been alleged to fit, is a minor point of interest in the totality of the theory. I was surprised to learn that as a result of my article a lengthy dialogue was taking place on two message boards, the most relevant of which was on Graham Hancock’s site. I first noted that Andrew was being attacked on Hancock’s board partly because an illustration of Giza that I had

produced to depict Cygnus was supposedly slightly inaccurate. Plus, many people were attacking the idea from several positions that had already been completely explained and addressed in the book. For example, several people mentioned that Cygnus wasn‘t discussed in ancient Egyptian texts and that Egyptian astronomy didn‘t have a swan as a constellation. But Cygnus was in Egyptian astronomy — they didn‘t call it ―Cygnus‖ and it wasn‘t described as a swan — it was depicted as another prominent Egyptian figure. (The Native Americans didn‘t call Cygnus, either, but it was an important constellation of stars to them nonetheless.) Andrew Collins began participation on the Hancock message board trying to answer all the questions and criticisms, but it seemed to me that he would have to reprint the entire 350-page book on the board to answer the sometimes quibbling questions. None of the individuals slinging criticism at the book had read it. Another individual wrote that he had been to Giza and hadn‘t seen a well, so he questioned if it even existed. He wanted to see a picture of it. Of course, a color photo of the well is in the book and it is described as being in a closed and secured Muslim cemetery. It isn‘t open to the public. I immediately noticed a prominent link to a ―review‖ of The Cygnus Mystery in one of the first messages on Hancock‘s message board. The review was by an individual who likes to call himself ―Marduk‖ (Marduk had been banned by the Hancock message board). Yet there was a link to a nasty and totally inaccurate ―review‖ by Marduk. I responded on Hancock‘s board taking full responsibility for any inaccuracies of the Giza illustration with Cygnus depicted on it. I also addressed three specific things in the Marduk review of The Cygnus Mystery because the link to it featured so prominently on Hancock‘s message board. Marduk‘s review stated that Collins goes, ―on and on about the Sumerian Anunnaki being aliens,‖ the ―idea that Cygnus particles were responsible for human evolution at a set point in our history is just laughable,‖ and ―Mr Collins was recently hired by the Edgar Cayce Foundation to assist them in their search for Atlantis in the Bahamas.‖ First, there is no mention whatsoever of aliens in The Cygnus Mystery. An equivalent would be reviewing Hancock‘s Underworld book and saying that ―Hancock‘s proposal that aliens from Saturn built all the archaeological sites on earth is laughable.‖ (Of course, nothing of the sort is in Underworld, which is a great book.) Secondly, the assertion that cosmic rays alter DNA is totally accepted in science and many prominent scientists now assert that cosmic rays from Cygnus probably did alter DNA. Third, while the assertion that Collins was ―hired by the Edgar Cayce‖ group has nothing whatsoever to do with his book, it is an out-and-out fabrication by Marduk. (And I, more than anyone, know precisely what happened since I was the key individual involved in Collins‘ trip to the US.) It was apparent Marduk had not actually read any of the book. Curiously, as soon as I posted my brief comments on Hancock‘s board, another message agreeing with me appeared. But suddenly, my message and the positive reply simply disappeared and I received an official email from Hancock‘s board manager stating that it had been removed essentially because Marduk couldn’t defend himself. (He had been banned from posting there.) Yet the link to the fabricated negative review of The Cygnus Mystery by a banned person was interesting.

The Giza Pyramid Alignment: Orion, Cygnus, or coincidence?
There is no doubt that the constellation of Orion, in particular Orion‘s Belt, has a connection to the three pyramids of Giza. One of the stars of the Belt is targeted by an ―air‖ shaft of the Great Pyramid. The major issue, however, is whether the three main pyramids at Giza were built to reflect the three stars of Orion‘s Belt? In Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert‘s 1994 book, The Orion Mystery, the story is told how in 1983 Bauval was awake on a sand dune in Saudi Arabia when a friend explained to him how the three stars of Orion‘s Belt weren‘t ―perfectly aligned‖ in a straight line. This lead to the instant realization by Bauval that the three pyramids at Giza were built to reflect Orion‘s Belt. It was supposedly heaven on earth. This ―Eureka!‖ experience is the basis for a host of books, lectures, and documentaries. I recall seeing Hancock and Bauval at the (Cayce organization) ARE‘s Ancient Egypt Conferences (renamed Annual Ancient Mysteries Conference) using the supposedly highly accurate Skyglobe computer program and showing how the three pyramids were perfectly aligned to reflect Orion‘s Belt. The Edgar Cayce readings stated that astronomical alignments were present at Giza and since the important date that was being put forth by the British authors touting Orion was 10,450 BC— virtually the same date given in Cayce readings as the construction of the Atlantean Hall of Records and the Great Pyramid—it caused a great deal of excitement. In short, the idea has been about as completely accepted as fact in the ARE as it could be. But Cayce, of course, did not state that Orion’s Belt was the key. In an Appendix in The Orion Mystery, Bauval wrote that the Skyglobe program was ―quite accurate for the work described in The Orion Mystery.‖ (p. 247) But that has turned out to not actually be the case, at least in the sense of a ―perfect match.‖ As the proposal about Giza and Orion became known in scientific circles, attacks were soon mounted on the idea. One of the arguments was that the ―perfect placement‖ of the three stars of Orion onto the three pyramids was far from perfect. This argument had little effect on the multitude of people who immediately accepted the Bauval proposal. Significantly, it never took hold within the scientific community, but that hasn‘t deterred believers—myself included. Bauval now admits that Skyglobe, ―does not take into account the proper motion of the stars (nor any other factor such as nutation, aberration, refraction) but merely accounts for the circular motion of precession.‖ In short, what this means is that the Orion Skyglobe shows in 10,500 BC is based on the Orion seen in the present—only the precession (the Earth‘s wobble) is adjusted for. In fact, Bauval has stated that the key Orion‘s Belt measurement in 10,500 BC from his Skyglobe program is 11.5 degrees. But the actual measurement is almost 9 degrees. It might not seem like much, but his original 11.5 degrees is 28% higher than it should have been. In terms of a ―perfect fit‖ of Orion‘s Belt on top of the three pyramids at Giza, the net result is that there really isn‘t a good fit. It might be close, but it couldn‘t be described as perfect, near perfect, or perhaps even good. This seems to have been first pointed out by astronomers examining the Orion claims. For example, in a 1999 article in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomer Tony Fairall wrote: ―Bauval claims that going back to 10500 BC gives ‗a perfect match‘.

Or does it? My own investigation showed that, while the line of the two outer pyramids is set 38 degrees from north, the angle of Orion's Belt to north in 10500 BC is close on 50 degrees! Hardy an exact match. I calculate that circular precessional motion would give 47 degrees, whereas including nutational terms makes it slightly higher. Measurements in the planetarium agree.‖ Since The Orion Mystery was published in 1994, a long series of book have been published by Bauval, Hancock, and others utilizing the supposed correspondence between Orion and Giza. These include: Keepers of the Genesis, The Secret Chamber, The Message of the Sphinx, Heaven's Mirror, Fingerprints of the Gods, and The Egypt Code. The latter book, recently published, is essentially completely based on the idea that Giza was built to represent Orion’s Belt. The key thing to grasp here is that the lack of a good fit between Orion in 10,500 BC with the three pyramids at Giza hasn‘t really stopped the writing of books that completely rely on the (non-existent) perfect fit. But such scientific arguments against Orion are beyond most peoples‘ grasp. And I confess that it was a bit too difficult for me to try to do the calculations myself, besides, I liked the idea of Orion. When I first read a draft of The Cygnus Mystery over 6 months ago, it became immediately apparent to me that a massive ―fly was in the ‗Orion Correspondence‘ ointment.‖ Not only did the three main stars of Cygnus fit onto the three pyramids at Giza at the conventionally accepted date of 2600 BC, they actually fit better than the three stars of Orion‘s Belt—in either 2600 BC or the 10,500 BC date. In addition, the other stars of Cygnus fell into key places at Giza—unlike Orion. This was truly impressive. I immediately wondered if the ARE—and countless believers in Bauval and Hancock’s 12-year-long, frequently made assertion—had been seduced by an overly simplified and inaccurate astronomical alignment. It seemed to me, with substantial training and qualifications in psychology, that the Orion correspondence was pleasing to believers in an unrecognized Egyptian history (myself included). The lack of a real fit didn‘t matter once so many believers jumped onto the Orion bandwagon. But it also was apparent that the nonbelievers only argument was that it didn‘t fit perfectly. (They had their own misguided bandwagon touting ―coincidence.‖) As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, the Cygnus-Giza correspondence is only a minor point in The Cygnus Mystery. In The Cygnus Mystery, Collins briefly discusses the correspondence between the three stars of Cygnus with Giza stating it was an ―unexpected insight.‖ (p. 154) It is related that engineer Rodney Hale had utilized the Skyglobe program in vain to see the highly touted correspondence between Orion‘s Belt and the three pyramids. Nor could he see the supposed correspondence between the Orion constellation with other pyramids and Egyptian sites alleged to exist. It was frustrating for Hale. In January 2005 Hale decided to see if Cygnus might show some correspondence to Giza. He found, to his amazement, that Skyglobe showed the three inner stars of Cygnus fit perfectly onto the three pyramids. Much to his credit, Collins wrote that it is possible the correspondence is only coincidence. In short, he did not want to enter the Orion debate as the fundamental points of his book were far larger than the simplistic Giza alignment. And he has steadfastly maintained that he really doesn‘t know if the Cygnus or Orion alignments are coincidence or not.

But because of the definite correspondence between Cygnus and Giza, Collins theorizes that Giza possibly reflects Sokar, ―ancient Egypt‘s oldest funeral deity.‖ (p. 161) In brief, Sokar is a carrier of the soul, exactly as other ancient cultures believed about Cygnus.

Back To The Giza Alignments
On Hancock‘s message board as well as on a skeptical message board, I noted that everything depicting Giza—maps, surveys, photos from the air and satellites, and illustrations—was characterized as being unusable (each has certain flaws) as an actual template to try to fit any stars onto. In addition, the Skyglobe program being used was unacceptable as a computer program that could give accurate and precise placements of stars far back in time. The reason is simple. Recall Bauval‘s statement that Skyglobe doesn’t account for “proper motion” of stars. To understand what this means, all you have to do is remember when you were told that the universe is expanding. Everything in the universe is moving, but not in the exact same direction at the exact same speed. Over time, the actual position of one star in relation to another changes. The greater the time, the greater the change tends to be. The program Starry Night Pro supposedly adjusts for proper motion. In truth, I doubt it, because that would mean that every visible star has been measured in speed and direction and the program has embedded code that adjusts for each star. On the other hand, major stars or important stars could be more accurate. At least I hope so. With these two thoughts in mind, I decided to make—as accurate as possible—a comparison between how well Orion and Cygnus fit onto the pyramids. I utilized Starry Night Pro and calculated Cygnus at 2600 BC (as seen from Giza) as well as Orion‘s Belt at both 2600 BC and 10,500 BC. The Giza map I utilized was from the 1990s-2000‘s Giza Mapping Project, considered to be the most accurate survey of the plateau and pyramids ever made. Rather than measuring the constellation stars on the screen (which is also derided in many commentaries) I actually took the constellation star ―picture‖ from Starry Night Pro and overlaid it so that the center star of both Cygnus and Orion‘s Belt would lay at the center of the middle pyramid. I placed colored dots on the key stars as they fell onto the Giza survey map. The alignment of Cygnus in 2600 BC to the pyramids at Giza and the rest of Giza is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1—The primary stars of Cygnus as they appeared in 2600 BC as they fit onto the Giza plateau.

As can be seen, two of the crossbar stars of Cygnus fit perfectly onto two pyramids with the third star offset somewhat, but still on the Great Pyramid itself. Interestingly, the Cygnus star that was described as near the well in the Muslim cemetery is actually much closer to the well than the less precise earlier calculation. I found that the 10,500 BC alignment of Orion‘s Belt fit much more poorly onto the three pyramids than did the 2600 BC alignment. (Actually, the closer you get to present time, the better Orion seems to fit, but it‘s only a slight difference.) Figure 2 shows a comparison of the 2600 BC alignments of Orion‘s Belt and Cygnus as they fit onto the three pyramids. (Orion is in blue.)

Figure 2—Comparison between Orion's Belt stars (in blue) and Cygnus (red) as they appeared in 2600 BC as they fit onto the Giza plateau.

As can be seen, Orion‘s Belt has two stars that don‘t fit well, although both of these still fall onto a pyramid. It is clear that Cygnus, although it isn‘t a ―perfect fit,‖ is a much better fit than is Orion. I‘m sure that someone will fault my method, perhaps the placement of the colored dots where the stars fall, but when every method has flaws, one does the best that can be done. However, after this article was published, Andrew Collins and several others presented additional evidence that Cygnus did, in fact fit Giza perfectly—far better than Orion.

Is The Alleged Orion Correspondence To Giza Genuine?
Obviously there is a lot of appeal in a star pattern correspondence at Giza to many people. Knowing more of Native American archaeoastronomy, I am certain that stars and constellations played an important role in how many mound sites were constructed. I am drawn to the idea that Giza had some sort of star pattern in mind by its builders. It is an intuitively satisfying idea—at least to me. But the truth is that Cygnus fits the three pyramids at Giza far better than Orion does. Does that mean that Cygnus is correct? No, not really. It means that there is a lot more investigation has to be done. It also means that we may never know. I‘m sure that somewhere in the night sky there are three stars that can be fit rather precisely onto Giza. The key thing involved in finding the correct correspondence (assuming it exists) is in a good match as well as other evidence supporting the match. But what Collins has done in The

Cygnus Mystery is what all good authors should do: Dig into what‘s known and dig in places where no one else has; Challenge the status quo when evidence to the contrary emerges. And Collins has done his work in making a massive and impressive case that Cygnus was extremely important to the ancients for many, many reasons. The Orion-Giza correspondence became the status quo among the masses almost as soon as it was proposed. It was a new and interesting idea that resulted from an ―Eureka!‖ on a Saudi desert. It sounded good and the desert scene certainly was intriguing. But some ―eurekas‖ are simply wrong, no matter if they come in a great backdrop and get good press. The weight of the star alignment evidence clearly tells us the Orion correspondence is wrong. But so many have so much invested into it. Thousands of websites tout the Orion-Giza "fit" as precise and exact. Yet it isn't so. That‘s the underlying psychology of the situation, and that is unlikely to go away or ever be addressed by the Orion proponents. So what is left is for individuals to make their own choices. Some will choose based on preconceived ideas and professional commitments—whether it is to choose Orion or to decide it is coincidence as skeptics have done. On the other hand, there is the choice to let the cards fall where they will—and seek the truth—no matter how badly one wishes to be right about an idea. No matter where one falls on this, Andrew Collins deserves a lot of credit for saying that it all might be a coincidence. The Last Vestiges of a Tradition Thousands of Years Old by Andrew Collins
from AndrewCollins Website

The Swan-upping flotilla reaches Goring Lock, Oxfordshire, on 20 July 2006 (Pic: Andrew Collins)

Thursday, 20 July. I travelled to Oxford and Berkshire in pursuit of one of the River Thames's oldest traditions, the Swan-upping ceremony, whereby all cygnet swans are weighed and marked during a colourful journey that takes place over five days in July each summer. The whole thing is conducted by members of two of London's oldest livery companies, the Vintners and Dyers, who, along with the monarch's swan-warden, gradually make their way from Sunbury, Middlesex, to Abingdon in Oxfordshire, capturing any young bird they might come across. It is a truly royal ceremony, as the reigning monarch is deemed protector of all swans in Britain. On the Thames itself, only the Vintners and Dyers are granted the right to own swans,

this being in honour of their annual contribution to the Swan-upping ceremony. Swan-upping appertains not only to the 'upping' out of the water of the cygnets, but also to the up-river journey itself. In many ways, it is like a symbolic journey to the source of the waters of life, something that I am convinced has being going on here on the Thames for thousands of years. Officially, Swan-upping began only in the fifteenth century, but the Royal Windsor website speaks of it going back as far as the thirteenth century, and I argue in THE CYGNUS MYSTERY that it is an echo of something much more ancient, when the city's vintners came under the jurisdiction of the Roman temple of Isis, the inventor of wine, whose avataristic forms included the swan and goose. Moreover, the Vintners' Martinmas feasts held each year in honour of the swan resonate with pre-Christian traditions that saw this bird as the carrier of souls into the next world. Our own journey began around midday on one of the hottest days of the year, when we caught up with the Swan-upping flotilla as it waited patiently for the gates to open in Mapledurham Lock, near Reading in Berkshire. Long wooden skiffs bearing either the blue flag of the Dyers or the red flag of the Vintners (both decorated with an image of the swan), carried white attired rowers (their blazers removed), while another bore the Queen's ensign. Accompanying the flotilla was a fleet of boats in all shapes and sizes. Some were full of the uppers' families and friends sipping champagne, drinking cocktails and looking like they were having a fine time. Others vessels were filled with swan enthusiasts, and still more contained people out on special day trips that follow the progress of the flotilla.

Swan-upping flotilla awaits the opening of Mapledurham Lock

The swan-marker for the the Vintners Company at Maplestead Lock

Standing around smiling and looking proud was the swan-marker of the Dyers sporting a royal blue blazer, white trousers and a peaked cap bearing a long swan's feather. His counterpart in the Vintners wore exactly the same, although his blazer was in blazing red. Suddenly, the lock's gates opened allowing the flotilla to pass through into the open river. Quite by chance a pair of adult swans led the way in front of them as the poor birds attempted to get out of the way of the fast moving skiffs. It was a truly magical sight, like something out of a Wagnerian epic. Very quickly the whole armada was trailing away into the distance on their way now to Goring Lock, the Thames oldest crossing point. The two swans were still present, moving gracefully through the water in front of us, when unexpectedly one of them reared up its wings, stuck out its serpentine neck and head, and began making an awful cacophony. I thought it was having a fit, but then all saw as it ejected a large white feather, before settling back down again. As quick as a flash, we were on the bank attempting to will the long white feather in our direction, drawing it too us finally with a long stick. What a fine gift for the day - a feather straight from the back of one of the swans that had led the Swan-uppers out of the lock. It was an act that in the past would have been seen as particularly fortuitous by those belonging to a shamanic based society. I stuck it in my hat, and with the sun shining we moved on to the next site.

Two swans lead out the Swan-upping flotilla from Mapledurham Lock

Sue holds the feather disgorged from the back of a swan at Mapledurham Lock

We had meant to catch up with the Swan-upping flotilla in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, but passing a riverside pub, appropriately named The Swan, in Pangbourne, Berkshire, I suddenly noticed the blue and red flags of the Dyers and Vintners, and realized that they had stopped for a much needed pint and some lunch. This was odd as Sue and I had come across this pub in January, and thought then that it would be a great place to await the Swan-upping flotilla. Now they were here, and so we ordered our own food and drinks, and absorbed the vibrant atmosphere. I talked to the Clerk of the Vintners Company about THE CYGNUS MYSTERY, and chatted to one man whose father had a very unique job in the Swan-upping process. He rides ahead of the skiffs on a bike looking for any cygnets. When he finds one he keeps watch over it until the flotilla arrives. Then, suddenly, the Swan-upping party headed back to their boats, and the armada left for Goring Lock, which we reached by car shortly before five o'clock. The Swan-uppers arrived 30 minutes later as a large crowd watched on, and as I took picture after picture I looked at the swan-markers, with their feathers, and saw in them the last surviving remnant of a tradition associated with the magical potency of the swan that went back over 17,000 years to when the Palaeolithic cave artists of Western Europe first depicted the Cygnus constellation in the form of a bird.

What was once a coat of skin and swans' feathers worn by the shaman was today the decorative dress of the swan-wardens and swan-markers. Yet still the ceremonial world surrounding the swan persists here on the River Thames, and hopefully it will do so for many millennia to come, even if the cygnet count is now the lowest it has ever been. It is a tradition that embodies far more than simply a journey to the source of the waters of life, for it is also an expression of archaic swan shamanism that must never be lost to the world.

The Swan-marker for the Dyers Company sits in his skiff at Goring Lock, the flags of both livery companies clearly in view

We arrived home late, and just as we got out of the car Sue said that to make the day complete it would be great to see one of the Alpha Cygnids, meteors that appear to come from Deneb, the brightest star in Cygnus. They reach their maximum number per hour on 18 July, which has always made this astronomical firework display strangely coincident to the Swan-upping ceremony on the Thames each year. At that very moment a bright streak emerged from Cygnus and shot northwards, a perfect end to a wonder day. For further information on Swan-upping, go to the Royal Windsor website. See also the website of the London Vintners' Company for more information. What Is Meonia? - Its Philosophy And Role In Psychic Questing by Andrew Collins
from AndrewCollins Website

'This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth: As below, so above; and as above so below. With this knowledge alone you may work miracles. And since all things exist in and emanate from the ONE Who is the ultimate Cause, so all things are born after their kind from this ONE.' The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus
(as translated by the elusive alchemist Fulcanelli)

Contents
i. ii. iii. iv. v. 'I am One' The Coming of the Green Stone The St George's Parry The Knights Hill Pool 'Meonia fore Marye'

vi. vii. viii. ix. x. xi. xii. xiii. xiv. xv. xvi. xvii. xviii. xix. xx. xxi. xxii.

The Quest for the Green Stone Resumes The Swan's Neck Discovered The Rosicrucian Enlightenment The Catholic Cause in England The Swan in the Tower The Green Stone Found Independent Verification of the Green Stone Story Lady Mary Yate and the Martyr of Harvington The Rebirth of Psychic Questing Meonia and Iona The Lights of Knowledge The Seven Swords of Meonia A New Star in Cygnus The Influences of Venus Bride-Bridget - the White Swan The Cygnus Mystery Meonia.com BookList Return

i. I am One
The name of the Andrew Collins-Questing Conference website, and everything that it entails, is MEONIA (pronounced mê as in knee, ô as in gô, nia, as in wire). It is an anagram of 'I am One', with One being the name given to the Supreme Being, the creative force of the universe, in various religions from the Hermetic mysteries of Egypt ('all things exist in and emanate from the ONE'), through to Hebraism ('Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is One', Deut. vi, 4, Hebrew Bible) and Islam ('He is God, the One, God the eternal', Sura cxii). The One might be seen as the expression of the macrocosm as a whole, reflected in microcosm within nature, within ourselves and within our every action in life. One effects the other, and vice versa, leading to the above Hermetic axiom of: 'As above, so below'. MEONIA as a word was first revealed by my friend and colleague Graham Phillips under hypnosis during the late afternoon of Wednesday, 17 October 1979. We shared a house in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, which doubled up as the headquarters for the newsstand magazine STRANGE PHENOMENA, to which at the time we had both dedicated our lives. I arrived home from a meeting with the printers to find him in an agitated state. He felt that something was trying to 'get through', so I offered to put him under hypnosis to see what might occur. After some discomfort, Graham relaxed, and I found myself speaking to a secondary personality who answered to the name of 'Joanna' (supposedly a living person - an old friend of his from his time at Exeter Art College). MEONIA was offered by 'Joanna' as a name for the Philosopher's Stone, the material substance

sought by medieval alchemists to achieve a state of spiritual completion and perfection, cloaked under the guise of the transmutation of base metal into gold. There is no question that the ancients saw the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus as an expression of this stone, looked on as a vehicle that enabled the practitioner to achieve oneness with the Supreme Being, the Hermetic concept of the One. In this way, the statement 'I am One', encoded in the word MEONIA, makes sense of its apparent connection not only with the Philosopher's Stone, but also the Emerald Tablet itself.

ii. The Coming of the Green Stone
That the enigmatic 'tablet' of Hermes, the 'thrice great', was described as 'emerald', a term used in the Graeco-Egyptian language to refer to green-coloured stone in general (such as green granites, green jasper and even green glass) was fortuitous, for 'Joanna' claimed that MEONIA was the name of a fabled green stone glimpsed in mind only that morning by an acquaintance a talented psychic, named Alan Beard, who lived in Alsager, Cheshire. Unexpectedly, an image had appeared in his head of an oval stone the 'size of a sixpence' suspended in midair. It was green in colour with an unearthly radiance, and around it stood a group of people gazing up at this wondrous object. Speaking to me on the telephone that morning, Alan admitted that he had no idea what this image meant. However, he linked the green stone with an earlier vision experienced just two days earlier on Monday, 15 October, in which he had seen in his mind's eye the same or a similar object, without any colour on that occasion. It had appeared initially the size of a loaf of bread before shrinking down to the size and shape of an egg, before finally it became an ovalshaped stone, a cabochon, worn in a ring by a woman. Accompanying this imagery, which had occurred whilst on the telephone to me, had been the sight of a stone plinth or table-like slab, recalling, as we were much later to realize, the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. Indeed, there had been no reason whatsoever why Alan should have been glimpsing the strange green stone before 'Joanna' had implied, quite unexpectedly, that it was a real object that we now had to find using whatever means were at our disposal.

iii. The St George's Parry
We were told to start our quest by visiting Harvington Hall, the moated medieval and Elizabethan home of Sir Humphrey Packington. He was a recusant, a Catholic subject to legal and social penalties through refusing to convert to Protestantism, who was around in 1605 when the sons of several local Catholic families lost their lives in the ill-conceived and ill-fated Gunpowder Plot. Packington had apparently taken possession of the Meonia Stone around the time of the arrest of the main conspirators, hiding it somewhere that no one would find it.

Andrew Collins & Graham Phillips outside Harvington Hall

This information led us to note potential clues among the remaining murals in a first-floor corridor of the hall which portrayed the Nine Worthies, nine great heroes of history (usually three biblical, three legendary and three historical). They drew us to consider the importance of a distinctive sword stance displayed by at least two of the 'worthies', the strong man Samson and the giant-slayer David. Known as the St George's Parry (where the weapon is held horizontally above the head to block an attack), it persuaded us to research the possible relevance of knighthood, chivalry and the saga of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to the Green Stone story. We even felt that the St George's Parry might be a clue pointing towards the importance of the familiar image of King Arthur's sword Excalibur held in a horizontal position by the Lady of the Lake. Perhaps we were looking for a concealment place on an island in the middle of a lake, somewhere in the Worcestershire landscape.

iv. Knights Hill Pool
Our historical detective work led Graham and I to focus our attentions on an isolated pool on the estate of the Earl of Coventry, beneath Knights Hill, near Severn Stoke in Worcestershire. About to inspect the site first-hand, believing that the Green Stone (as it became known) was to be found there, Alan unexpectedly rang. We had not spoken to him for some days, and he knew nothing about the latest developments. Without saying a word of what had been happening, he spoke of experiencing another vision, the first since glimpsing the Green Stone. He now felt that we were looking not for the stone at this time, but an 'indicator' that would eventually lead us to the stone, and this would be a sword. This baffled us, as prior to this time there had been no indication that anything else other than the Green Stone was on offer here. However, we took on board what he said, and headed immediately out to the Knights Hill Pool, a journey of about an hour from Wolverhampton.

v. Meonia for Marye

The Knights Hill Pool

The date was Monday, 23 October 1979, and that night, after some effort, Graham and I retrieved a short steel sword from behind an age-old dry stone wall holding up the bank next to a small brick footbridge at one end of the pool. It was covered in ivy and protected by thick undergrowth, making it extremely difficult to access. There is no way that anyone had been there for a very long time indeed. The sword was found in a small cavity, behind the ninth stone down and along from the bridge (nine was a recurring number in the quest). It was hermetically sealed in a thick bobbly layer of brown-green resin, which on removal revealed a pristine sword with an inscription along the blade that read 'Meonia fore Marye'. The 'Marye' implied in the inscription was thought to be Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic monarch imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth after being accused of plotting against her. For the remainder of her troubled life, Mary Stuart was frequently moved between castles in the north and Midlands of England, until finally she reached Fotheringhay in Northants, where she was executed in 1587. 'Joanna' claimed that Mary possessed the Meonia Stone, wearing it on a ring, before passing it on to a young Robert Catesby (1573-1605), the leader of the Gunpowder Plot. Apparently, he had been taken to see her with his father Sir William Catesby, himself a recusant, when she was imprisoned in the neighbouring county of Staffordshire two years before her death. Following the collapse of the Gunpowder Plot, Catesby supposedly gave the stone into the care of Lady Gertrude Wintour, the wife of Robert Wyntour of Huddington, another of the leading conspirators. She in turn has passed it on to Humphrey Packington at Harvington Hall, who was not implicated in the plot, and thus could be trusted with the stone.

vi. The Quest for the Green Stone Resumes
So just six days after the name MEONIA had first been revealed, its independent existence was confirmed through the discovery of the sword, but the quest did not end there. Following four straight days delivering thousands of copies of STRANGE PHENOMENA's second issue, Graham and I returned to Wolverhampton and resumed the quest, which 'Joanna' implied had to be completed by 31st October, now just four days away. One day was wasted in the proximity of Meon Hill, a mysterious location associated in the past with a gruesome witchcraft-linked killing, drawn principally by its tantalising place-name. 'Meon' had seemed to imply MEONIA, but we were being drawn away from the true quest.

We had forgotten that Alan Beard had said that the sword would be used as an 'indicator' to find the stone, and so during the mid evening, about to spend a night in a hotel at Moreton-onthe-Marsh in the Cotswolds, we were convinced by a friend named Marion Sunderland, who lived in Flint, North Wales, and her teenage daughter Gaynor, a high profile UFO contactee, that we should return as soon as possible to the Knight's Hill Pool, where they would help us find the illusive stone. So this is what happened the next day, Monday, 29 October. Standing on the footbridge next to where the sword was found, Gaynor used the ceremonial weapon (found to be of nineteenth century manufacture) as a divining instrument, rotating it clockwise until she felt drawn to a particular direction. Here, she said, some 'two miles' away, we would find a 'ruined building', an 'abbey' perhaps, which held an important clue to the quest. Sure enough, there was a 'ruin' exactly where she had indicated. It was located at a place called Dunstall Common. Yet it turned out to be not an 'abbey', but a sham castle, built in the eighteenth century by the landscape architect Capability Brown as part of the estate of the Earl of Coventry. The folly bore impressive square and round towers, one of which was accessible, enabling Graham, Gaynor and I to climb its spiral staircase. We trod carefully in the partial darkness, but then became concerned by the sound of beating wings above us. It was accompanied by the fall of loose debris which came cascading downwards on to our heads. Assuming that a large bird blocked our way to the top, we turned back and headed out of the mysterious tower (it was probably only pigeons!).

vii. The Swan's Neck Discovered
That night, at Marion and Gaynor's home, a small group gathered around an OS map of the Worcestershire landscape looking for further clues to the quest, feeling like our luck was finally running out. Fred Sunderland, Marion's husband, narrowed down the search by ringing an area that included those sites already singled out as important in some way. It was here that we should concentrate our efforts to find a location, he suggested. About to give up, Marion flicked through a book on Mary Queen of Scots and noticed how the Catholic monarch embroidered pictures of waterfowl (she said 'swans'), with their necks in an unusual U-shaped position. Marion mentioned this out aloud, at which Graham's eyes fell upon a bend on the River Avon called the Swan's Neck located firmly within our designated search area. Stabbing the map he exclaimed that he had found 'it', and now felt sick inside. We all looked and saw the Swan's Neck marked. It was important not simply because of the tangential link with Mary Queen of Scots, but because a new star (actually a supernova) that had appeared in the year 1600 within Cygnus, the celestial swan, was seen by those awaiting a new age of enlightenment as a divine sign of its imminent arrival.

viii. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
As ill-conceived as the Gunpowder Plot might seem today, it sprang from the vented anger and

frustration of suppressed English Catholics, who were being fined and penalized simply for refusing to recant the faith of their ancestors. They expected emancipation when Mary Queen of Scots's son James I (James VI of Scotland) succeeded Queen Elizabeth to the throne in 1603. Yet not only did this not happen, but James became even more fanatical than Elizabeth, tightening his grip on the Catholics and initiating terrible witch persecutions up and down the country. He even wrote a much-reviled book on how to find out whether a person was a witch, or in touch with demons, devils and spirit familiars. It was a dark time, and the swan became the symbol of a hoped for new age not only among free-thinking Protestants, united under the mystical symbol of the Rose upon the Cross, but perhaps also the Catholics of England, Scotland and Ireland, who now looked towards James's eldest daughter Elizabeth Stuart as their only hope of salvation. At the time of the Gunpowder Plot she was staying at Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire, and the conspirators had hoped to place her on the throne of England and Scotland following the murder of her father.

Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and Princess Elizabeth Stuart, who became the Winter King and Queen of Bohemia.

The Catholics imagined that, if coached by the right tutor, Elizabeth Stuart would become like her grandmother, tolerant towards both Catholics and Protestants, embodying the spirit of the divine, seen by them in terms of the Virgin Mary, the Catholic intermediary between God and Earth. None of these ideals ever came to anything, and the Catholic dream of emancipation would have to wait for another two centuries (it came finally in 1829). However, Elizabeth's special place in history would be realized when in 1613, just eight years after the failed Gunpowder Plot, she married Frederick, elector of the Bavarian province of Palatine, and earned the title 'Queen of Hearts'. In 1619 Frederick was offered and accepted the crown of Bohemia, and together he and Elizabeth reigned as the Winter King and Queen of Bohemia. Frederick and Elizabeth's court at Heidelberg in Germany became a centre for like-minded mystics, alchemists, artists, poets and free-thinkers who saw the royal couple as the fulfillment of a deeply mystical tract known as 'The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz', anonymously written and printed in 1616.

This recognized the union of the ideal king and queen, i.e. Frederick and Elizabeth, bringing forth the anticipated new age of enlightenment, marked, according to another 'Rosicrucian' (i.e. adherents of the Rose upon the Cross) tract entitled 'Fama Fraternitatis' (1614), by the appearance of two new stars, the one in Cygnus and another, which had appeared in 1604 (Kepler's Star), in Ophiuchus, the serpent holder. The Rosicrucians practiced a magical philosophy based very much on the Hermetic teachings, including the Emerald Tablet, which, as we have seen, speaks of the One as the Supreme Being.

The Invisible College of the Rose Cross Fraternity from the 17th Century showing the new stars in Cygnus and Ophiuchus.

ix. The Catholic Cause in England
Graham and I strongly suspected that even though Rosicrucianism was primarily Protestant in religious persuasion, in England prior to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 it contained elements of Catholicism, an assumption borne out by the fact that some of the earliest Freemason lodges, particularly those in Yorkshire, where Guy Fawkes hailed from, were strongly Catholic in nature. Remember, during this age it was the Catholics of England, Scotland and Ireland who kept alive an interest not only in the Grail mysteries, but also in ancient and sacred places, such as wells, hills, shrines and chapels, through their devotion to the saints and saints' days, something that was gradually being stamped out by fundamental Protestants known as Puritans, who were tightening their political and religious grip on the country during James' reign. Both the English Catholics and the more liberal-minded Protestants recognized what was going on, and so their individual aims in the British Isles were not exclusive to each other. It was during the reign of James' second son, Charles I, that the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarian Government would finally bring the country to its knees and decimate all surviving beliefs and practices associated with more traditional forms of Christian worship, including the celebration of Christmas and other annual festivals, such as May Day. Only with

the death of Cromwell in 1658 and the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles I's son, Charles II, would all of these religious beliefs and practices reappear in Britain. Charles and his circle of friends and colleagues were unquestionably responsible for Britain's real age of enlightenment, which was heavily supported by free-thinking Protestants, Rosicrucian apologists and loyal Freemasons, united up until this time under the name of the Invisible College, or the Philosophical College. In 1662 it became the Royal Society of London, which went on to pave the way for the age of scientific reason, with great thinkers such as Sir Robert Boyle, Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Isaac Newton at its helm. Unconfirmed psychic information has suggested that Sir Isaac Newton was a member of a Meonia-linked secret society, and played a major role in crystallizing Meonia's inner philosophies concerning the nature of the universe. Indeed, it has been implied on more than one occasion that he employed the term 'Meonia' to refer to the highest principle of the transmutation process. In the knowledge that Newton was a practicing alchemist with a great interest in unorthodox religious ideas, such an idea remains a possibility. With the gradual placing of his alchemical diaries online over the next couple of years, perhaps the matter can be resolved one way or another.

x. The Swan in the Tower

Dunstall Castle, nears Knights Hill Pool, subject of Gaynor's swan in the tower dream.

The following day, Tuesday, 30 October 1979, Graham left early to find out what he could about the Swan's Neck from the Worcester County Records Office, and as I waited patiently to hear from him at the Wolverhampton flat with Alan Beard and another friend Terry Shotton, who had arrived that morning, Marion Sunderland called. She said that Gaynor, who had retired to bed early, and so was not privy to the latest information regarding the Swan's Neck, had experienced a powerful dream overnight. Putting her on the line, Gaynor explained how she had seen Graham, her and I ascending the tower at Dunstall Castle once more.

Again, we had heard the sound of beating wings above us, but this time instead of making a hasty retreat we had continued on up and come face to face with a mighty swan, its wings outstretched as if in a defensive position. Around its neck was a pouch held in place by a cord that Gaynor was convinced contained the Green Stone. As it took flight, we had run back down the spiral staircase, with the bird in pursuit, and after exiting the tower the swan had continued its flight across the landscape to a location by running water, 'and this,' she said, 'is where you will find the stone, on the neck of the swan'. It was information that made sense of earlier psychic thoughts from both Marion and Gaynor. Marion, for example, on holding the Meonia Sword following its discovery, had seen an avenue of popular trees close to running water, feeling that this might be where the stone was concealed, while Gaynor had seen a figure in seventeenth-century style clothes running across open country towards a bridge over a river or stream. Around his neck was a pouch, the one now worn by the swan, out of which he had removed a casket containing the stone ready for burial nearby. Quite separately, both Alan and Terry had drawn pictures of an arch-topped casket in which they believed the stone would be found.

xi. The Green Stone Found
Graham, still unaware of Gaynor's dream, was worried that a large group of people tramping across open farmland towards a location on the River Avon, was going to attract adverse attention. So he made a difficult decision. He travelled out to the Swan's Neck, where after walking on foot from nearby Eckington Bridge he saw that on the approach to the bend was an avenue of poplars, like those seen in mind by Marion. Realizing that this was indeed the right location, he deduced a suitable place of concealment and began digging. With only a hole to show for his efforts, he moved on to another location nearby, but this also produced nothing. Finally, he dug at the summit of a low knoll out in a nearby field and at no great depth Graham said he came across a casket, inside which was a small green cabochon stone, close in size and appearance to the one seen in vision by Alan Beard just thirteen days beforehand. The casket, caked in earth, was found to be made of brass, and matched the descriptions of the stone's predicted container as drawn by Alan and Terry. Its appearance with arched lid and conical-shaped legs was suggestive of a style popular during the second half of the seventeenth century, although this was never confirmed. The Green Stone is thought to be made of agate. Its age cannot be estimated, even though it looks to have been hand polished. Whether or not it is linked with the Philosopher's Stone of the alchemists is open to speculation. Following the completion of the quest, both the stone and casket were given into the care of Marion Sunderland, who championed the Green Stone story throughout her life. Sadly, following her death in 2005, Gaynor inherited the items and sold them to an unknown bidder. Their whereabouts today are unknown.

Graham Phillips with the sword and casket

xii. Independent Verification of the Green Stone Story
Several years after these events I was put in touch with an elderly couple who came from Eckington, Worcestershire. They lived in a cottage just a few hundreds yards away from the Swan's Neck. In a letter (which I still have), the gentleman claimed that his father had farmed the land adjacent to the Swan's Neck (although on the opposite bank to the location associated with the Green Stone), and one day, whilst out helping him in the fields, he was told the story of the Green Stone.

The Meonia Stone

It had been owned by a Catholic martyr attached to Harvington Hall who was put to death for refusing to reveal its whereabouts. Apparently, this priest had been protected by a member of the family, who placed geese on the hall's long drive so that whenever the Sheriff of Worcester's troops came to search the house the birds' commotion would provide the household with

enough time to hide the priest in one of its many priest-holes. I interviewed the elderly man, by then aged 90, at his home. He was completely blind, and had only come to hear of our interest in the Green Stone from his wife, who read an account of its discovery in a local paper. He was actually quite incensed that we had distorted the story told to him all those years beforehand.

xiii. Lady Mary Yate and the Martyr of Harvington
Historical research indicated that the Catholic priest and martyr in question was John Wall (1620-79), 'the martyr of Harvington'. He regularly stayed at Harvington whilst ministering locally. Wall was finally arrested, tried and executed at Worcester for practicing his faith. Indeed, he became the last Catholic martyr in England. His patron was Humphrey Packington's daughter Lady Mary Yate (nee Packington), wife of Sir John Yate of Buckland, who inherited Harvington in 1631. Like her father, she remained loyal to the Catholic faith, and went out of her way to harbor John Wall, who is commemorated in a stained glass window at the hall. Lady Yate died in 1696, the same year that she founded the Harvington Secular Clergy, which by the mid-eighteenth century already contained over 1,700 items on Catholic recusants. After her death, the estate passed into the hands of the Throckmortons of Coughton Court, a family intimately associated with both the Catholic cause and the Gunpowder Plot. If the elderly couple's story about John Wall was authentic, then there seemed every likelihood that the real Green Stone was indeed attached to Harvington Hall in Worcestershire. However, it was not Humphrey Packington who concealed it, but most probably his daughter Lady Mary Yate, perhaps with the help of John Wall. Whatever the reality of the story, it verified once and for all that the Green Stone saga was not, as some might think, simply the creation of a few individuals during the autumn of 1979. What is more, it seemed definitely to be linked with Harvington Hall, a place first revealed by 'Joanna' just hours after Alan Beard experienced his initial vision of the Green Stone.

xiv. The Rebirth of Psychic Questing
The writing up of these events in my book THE SWORD AND THE STONE (1982), as well as within Graham Phillips' own book THE GREEN STONE (1983), caused such a furore among the earth mysteries and paranormal communities, that it single-handedly catalysed the commencement of the modern-day revival in what I term psychic questing. This describes the spontaneous quest for answers to mysteries presented through either dreams or more obvious psychic means, such as automatic writing, meditations, mediumship or visionary experiences. It is nothing new. Tibetan Buddhists had a complete magical system in place for finding hidden religious artifacts called termas, using similar processes. It was practiced mostly by the red-hatted Nyingma-pa monks and taught as part of the mystical teachings known as Dzogchen. Derived most likely from the pre-Buddhist, shamanic based

Bon-po religion of Tibet, terma hunting probably survives today in places such as Nepal, North India and Mongolia. Yet we know that psychic questing was once popular more closer to home. There are plenty of accounts of Christian holy men or women being led to retrieve relics through dreams and visions. Among them are Peter Bartholomew, the visionary monk of the First Crusade who found the Spear of Christ following the siege of Acre Joan of Arc, the French Maid of Orleans who was led by St Catherine to find the sword of French folk hero Charles Martel Mormon founder Joseph Smith, who was instructed by the angel Moroni to retrieve gold tablets from an Indian mound. It was also a practice found among the alchemists and mystics of the Middle Ages, who would invoke spirits to tell them where objects were buried, Elizabethan magus and scholar Dr John Dee and his sidekick the alchemist and medium Edward Kelly being obvious examples. In Glastonbury, they were led by spirits to a local churchyard where they apparently retrieved phials containing the red and white tinctures used in the alchemical process, as well as a handwritten work on alchemy penned by a tenth-century abbot and saint named Dunstan. Also at Glastonbury, at the beginning of the twentieth century, new age pioneer and mystic Wellesley Tudor Pole received a vision suggesting that a holy vessel was to be found in a local holy well, which was subsequently searched by his daughter and a friend. Here they came across a sapphire-blue glass bowl of Venetian or Arabian manufacture. Strangely, it transpired that the item had been deliberately placed in the well only shortly beforehand by a man who claimed that he was compelled by spirits to conceal it there so that someone else might retrieve it. Staying with Glastonbury, we must not overlook the psychic archaeology of architectural historian Frederick Bligh Bond, who whilst excavating the abbey during the 1910s and 1920s employed the services of mediums who believed they could communicate with long dead monks. They instructed Tudor Pole on where to dig in order to uncover previously unknown extensions of the medieval building, including its lost Edgar Chapel and Loretto Chapel. All of this is psychic questing, and it continues today. Aside from our own website, check out psychicquesting.com for the latest news and information, as well as detailed discussions on the subject.

xv. Meonia and Iona
MEONIA was used by us as a catch-all terms to describe those people of the past whom unconfirmed psychic information suggested formed part of a 'heritage' involving interlinked groups and individuals connected in some way with either the Green Stone of the Meonia Sword. It is an incredible story spanning nearly 3,500 years, and is outlined in our books. The term MEONIA has also been applied to groups and individuals who have come together over the years in order to further our knowledge of those involved in MEONIA's past; indeed, we see it as carrying on from where they left off. It has become like a banner, a flag of recognition, and embraces everything from historical and field research to psychic questing, meditation groups, and public events.

MEONIA thrives today with a core group, made up of people who have had first hand experience in psychic questing activities over the years.

Sun setting off the coast of Iona, May Day 1980, as seen from Dun Bhuriag, with the Meonia Sword in view.

Interestingly, MEONIA was found to be the Latin for Møn, or Mona, an island off the coast of Denmark (a merchant ship was named 'Meonia' in honour of this particular island in 1927). More significant is the fact that both Anglesey in North Wales and Iona in Scotland were once called Mona (and thus bore the Latin name Meonia). As you will see below, the holy island of Iona plays a special role in the Green Stone story. Early in 1980, Graham and I worked out that MEONIA was an anagram of 'I am One', and that it could further be broken up into two components ME, as in I, and ONIA, which is an anagram of IONA. The single letter 'I' was also an ancient Celtic name for the holy island. Moreover, the founding saint of Iona's famous abbey, St Columba (AD 521-97) was originally known as the Swan (Gaelic eala), even though his name actually means 'dove'. It was with such information that the first modern-day Meonia group visited Iona for May Day 1980, conducting a two-part meditation at sunrise and sunset in the name of St Michael the archangel of fire in the belief that we were somehow activating the Green Stone.

xvi. The Lights of Knowledge
As a consequence of this perceived activation process, the stone was employed in January and February 1981 on a two part psychic quest in an attempt to understand the wisdom of the megalithic peoples of Britain, who built the stone circles, long barrows and standing stones. This involved a monumental trip along a line of ancient and sacred sites from Dorchester in Oxfordshire to the Hurlers double stone circle on Bodmin Moor. We subsequently came to realize that many of the sites we had been guided to visit on the Lights of Knowledge quest, as it was known, resonated with the Michael Line (after St Michael). First highlighted in the late 1960s by earth mysteries writer John Michell, it features an avenue or corridor of sacred and ancient sites, many of which are dedicated to the dragon-slaying saint. They fall on a straight line between Hopton-on-Sea on the Norfolk coast and St Michael's Mount in Cornwall.

This fact was made apparent following the publication in 1989 of a key book on the Michael Line entitled THE SUN AND THE SERPENT by Paul Broadhurst and Hamish Miller.

xvii. The Seven Swords of Meonia
Beyond the Meonia story told thus far is the fact that in August 1985 a practicing Mormon named Colin Paddon started to receive vivid dreams in which he saw an angel enshrouded by a blue haze who stood in a wooded clearing (Joseph Smith's Moroni?). In its hands were two identical swords, held by their blades point downwards. After the dream had recurred a couple of times, Colin finally felt he recognized the woodland in question as Brickhill Woods, near Woburn Sands in Bedfordshire (where my biological mother lived when I was conceived back in 1956). Following a meditation at the Buddhist pagoda on Willen Lake, just outside of Milton Keynes, Colin travelled out to Brickhill Woods one Sunday afternoon with his family, which consisted of his wife Angela and their two children, along with another family of two adults and two children. In an attempt to locate the clearing seen in his dream, Colin asked each of the adults to choose an azimuth bearing between 0 and 360 degrees. One of the four angles was then followed until it brought them to an obstacle.

Colin Paddon in Brickhill Woods holding the two swords as shown to him in a dream.

Another angle was then chosen and followed until the same thing happened again. This continued until finally, whilst following the fourth and final trajectory, the party broke through knee-high bracken and found themselves inside an untouched clearing, recognized by Colin as the one from his dream. In the centre, they removed the thick carpet of moss and immediately saw two shiny sword pommels. On pulling at these, two untarnished steel swords were slid out, much to the party's jubilation. They were identical to each other, and the same as the same short swords seen in the hands of the angel featured in Colin's recurring dream.

Only the following year did they realize that these were identical to the one found by Graham and I at the Knights Hill Pool back in 1979 (indeed, they had never even heard of the Green Stone story until the Meonia Sword was featured on a BBC documentary about the Glastonbury zodiac, a subject very much associated with psychic questing activities). As Colin had touched the two swords for the first time, he felt that others existed, seven in all, and that one day they would be brought together for a very special purpose. And this was indeed what happened. Four more swords, all identical to those already described, would eventually be found in England under mysterious circumstances. It is the search for the seventh and final sword that became the subject of my book THE SEVENTH SWORD, published in 1991.

Marion Sunderland (centre) holds the Green Stone, in the company of Colin and Angela Paddon with their two swords.

xviii. A New Star in Cygnus
Even after this time we discovered that the new star which had appeared in Cygnus, the swan, back in 1600, heralding for some an impending new age of enlightenment, appeared in the neck of the swan. When its position in relation to the rest of the celestial swan was overlaid on to a map of the Swan's Neck, where Graham said the Green Stone was found, the two positions corresponded perfectly. Not only did this connect the stone with the influence of Cygnus, but it also indicated that there was a relationship between its place of concealment and the new star of 1600. This was a startling revelation which made me recall Gaynor Sunderland's remarkable dream about the swan in the tower, experienced during the Green Stone quest.

xix. The Influences of Venus
The planetary influence of Venus, expressed in alchemy by the metal copper and the colour green, governs Cygnus, the swan, which is located centrally on the celestial river known as the Milky Way. Venus features in alchemical philosophy, where her symbolic marriage to the alchemist as Mercury, or Hermes, creates the androgynous Mercurius, the culmination of the magical art.

All this suggests that those behind the Green Stone's concealment were familiar not only with alchemical ideals, but that the stone reflected the green influence of Venus, connected with the sphere of Netzach in the Tree of Life, the mystical religious system of the Hebrews adopted by the Rosicrucians. A second cabochon stone, an orange-red carnelian known as the Eye of Fire (or Red Stone), was found subsequently in 1982 by Graham and his friends (the quest occurred after I had withdrawn from the group), and this unquestionably reflected the influence of Mercury, the sphere of Hod on the Cabbalistic Tree of Life. Venus and Mercury, Netzach and Hod, green and red, are equal and opposites in alchemical philosophy, creating a cosmic balance, reflected in dualistic symbols such as the swan and the dragon, the bird and the serpent, intelligence and matter, order and chaos, light and dark, God and the devil, Cygnus and Draco. These are basic dualistic principles still acknowledged today by those active in the psychic questing community.

xx. Bride-Bridget - the White Swan and Black Serpent
East of the Swan's Neck is Bredon Hill, a gigantic elevated plateau that was once very likely the site of a British Iron Age (c.700 BC-AD 43) cult of the dead. This conclusion comes from the gruesome discovery there of a whole series of skulls thought to have been placed on spikes over an entrance gateway. It takes its name from the suffix '-don', from the Old English dun, meaning 'hill', and the prefix 'bre-', from the Welsh bre, also meaning 'hill'. However, this same word root gives us Bride, Bridget, Brig, or Bree, the name of an ancient British and Irish goddess, worshipped under the name Brigantia by the Brigantes, a powerful warrior tribe who at the time of the Roman conquest inhabited much of northern Britain from Hadrians Wall in the north down to Staffordshire's Peak District in the south. So powerful was Bride-Bridget as a pagan deity that even with the arrival in Britain and Ireland of the earliest Christian missionaries in the fifth century her cult could not be quelled, and so instead of ignoring her, the pagan goddess was transformed into a saint with a life of devotion to Christ. One of Bride-Bridget's greatest totems is the white swan, and around the time of her feast day, 1 February, an observer standing on the hill's summit looking west will see a swan in flight formed by the inundation of pastures around the Swan's Neck bend on the River Avon. Such naturalistic phenomena would unquestionably have been important to the geomythic beliefs of our ancestors, and expresses once more the significance of the swan to the events surrounding the story of Meonia.

The Philosopher's Egg of the Rosicrucians.

As late as the seventeenth century in Cornwall and the nineteenth century in Scotland, offerings of eggs, swan's down feathers and even whole birds were made in the name of Bride-Bridget, and so it is intriguing to find that the swan is renowned for laying green eggs. Once again, we are reminded of Alan Beard's original vision of the stone shrinking in size from that of a loaf of bread to an egg, before becoming a ring stone worn on the hand of a woman. The egg was also an important symbol in alchemy and Rosicrucian philosophy, with one picture showing a man in armour about to cut open a giant egg with his sword. It represents a form of the Philosopher's Stone, known as the Philosopher's Egg. Bride-Bridget's other main totem is the snake, which in Scottish folklore was said to rise annually out of its hollow hill on the feast of St Bride. Thus within her is the perfect balance between the swan and the serpent, the green and the red, light and darkness. In many ways, she is a patron of psychic questing in Britain. Bride-Bridget can be pictured holding a casket in which are two stones, one green and the other red. The rising energies from these stones combine to form a double spiral in green and red, like the DNA double helix, one of the most powerful symbols of human evolution. Bridget, as Brigantia, might be seen in her warrior aspect with long, flame red hair, wearing a green smock-like dress and holding a bronze sword and shield. In psychic questing lore, Brigantia is equated with a mythical Bronze Age warrior queen named Gwevaraugh (pronounced gwev, as in kevin, a(r), as in car, and raugh, as in martha) the prefix of whose name derives from gwen, 'bright', the same as brig, or bric, the root behind the name Bride-Bridget (Gwevaraugh can also linked with the name Gwenhwyfar, or Guinevere, King Arthur's wife and consort in Welsh and medieval tradition). Unconfirmed psychic information offered by 'Joanna' in October 1979 indicated that Gwevaraugh ruled the Midlands of England around 900 BC from a fort called Bury Ring near the town of Stafford. It was later implied during the Eye of Fire quest of 1982 that Gwevaraugh possessed a magical sword on the hilt of which the Green Stone and Red Stone (i.e. the Eye of Fire) were affixed, creating a cosmic balance between the green and the red. The stones are said to have been removed from the sword at a place called the Dovedales, an isolated valley in the Peak District, noted for the appearance of mysterious lights and other strange happenings. In many ways, Gwevaraugh has become synonymous with Brigantia, the goddess of the Brigantes, who although an Iron Age tribe, probably amalgamated with an existing Bronze Age ruling family.

xxi. The Cygnus Mystery
Much has happened since the naïve days of 1979, which unquestionably inspired the prolific writing careers of both Graham Phillips and myself. It is therefore not strange that the Cygnus constellation should become the focus of my book THE CYGNUS MYSTERY, released by Watkins Publishing in autumn 2006. Even though this is strictly a scholarly work, the main basis for the research project came from a single, extremely weird night on 5/6 June 2004, following my recent return from southeast Turkey, where I visited not only the oldest temple in the world, which dates to 9500 BC, but also the remains of Harran. This ancient city of the star-worshipping Sabians is celebrated as the birthplace of Hermetica, the philosophy based on the Graeco-Egyptian writings of Hermes Trismegistus, such as the text of the Emerald Tablet. For nearly four hours that night I scribbled down inspired thoughts and ideas, and those which have not inspired THE CYGNUS MYSTERY are to be found in a mystical tract I wrote at the time entitled THE CIRCLE OF CYGNUS. Its contents relate to the MEONIA story, and I hope to publish this book in due course. In THE CYGNUS MYSTERY I propose that cosmic rays from a binary star system called Cygnus X-3 effected human evolution, catalyzing the emergence of the first universal religion and cosmology as early as 15,000 BC, and arguably earlier still. I suspect very much that our Palaeolithic ancestors were aware of Cygnus's influence on their lives, and even attempted to enhance this through cyclic initiations and ceremonies in caves deep underground, where its signal is clearer. It is an influence that came to be personified in the heavens as a cosmic bird of creation, variously seen as a swan, vulture, hawk, dove, heron, magpie, eagle or bird of paradise. It was the basis behind concepts of the Supreme Being, such as God, Yahweh, Allah, the One, etc, as well as Cosmic Mothers, such as Nut (or Nu-it), Hathor, Saraswati, Allat, al-Uzza, Venus, and Bride-Bridget. There is something very special about the influence of the Cygnus constellation on the human mindset. It was seen in the past as the source of cosmic life and death. Our most distant ancestors actually believed that life came from this region of space, and that the souls of the righteous would return there in death. In many ways it was the first location of heaven. Its counter-balance and rival in the night sky is Draco, the celestial dragon, which symbolizes the abysmal realms of deep space, the void, or abyss, seen in some ancient mythologies as a place where souls can be lost forever. As Cygnus is the green ray, Draco signifies the red ray and together they form a necessary cosmic balance in our own perspective of the universe.

xxii. Meonia.com
Cygnus exudes the influence of MEONIA more than any other stellar source in the night sky. It is therefore not surprising that echoes of its greater importance found their way into the discoveries of 1979. Somehow, we were drawn intuitively to the Swan's Neck, where the Green Stone was supposedly buried by Catholic sympathizers in the seventeenth century, and an elderly man of ninety years of age was told the story of the fabled stone in his youth.

Whatever people might think about the reality of these events, no one can deny the strange manner in which they all came together, and no better word than MEONIA expresses them, the reason why I have chosen to honour the site with this name.

The Seven Swords of Meonia brought together at Whiteleafed Oak on the borders of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire in August 1992.

Booklist
Modern books dealing with psychic questing: Carey, Grace, Web Quest (1996) Collins, Andrew, The Sword and the Stone (1982); The Black Alchemist (1988); The Seventh Sword (1992); The Second Coming (1993) and The Twenty-First Century Grail (2004) Gale, Jack, The Circle and the Square (1997) Langstone, Alex, Bega and The Sacred Ring (1992) Phillips, Graham, and Martin Keatman, The Green Stone (1984); The Eye of Fire Smith, Michael, The Sun and the Moon: The Hill and the Well (1997)

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