Issue 129 -- WHAT COULD THE MOON BE HIDING FROM US? PDF Download

To say that Earth's moon is 'strange' is an understatement. In fact, the more we learn about our glowing satellite, the stranger and more mysterious it becomes. Relative to the size of the planet it orbits, Earth, it is the largest moon in the Solar System. It is the second densest, after Jupiter's Io. Moreover, our moon is in synchronous rotation around Earth, meaning that it always presents the same face to us. Prior to the space program, the far side was often referred to as the "dark side," not because it is dark (any spot on our Moon, save for the polar regions, experiences roughly two weeks of daylight, alternating with about two weeks of night) but because we never see it.

UNSUNG HEROES
JOHN ANTHONY WEST: 1932 - 2018
BY ROBERT M. SCHOCH, Ph.D.
I had been expecting the news for a year, while also holding out hope that he would somehow miraculously recover--but still, despite the mental preparations, it hit me hard when I received word that my longtime colleague and close personal friend, John Anthony West, passed away on the sixth of February, 2018, in a hospital in Albany, New York, at the age of 85 (he was born in New York on July 9, 1932). I cried, and sadness overwhelmed me as I pondered his life and work. (A note regarding names: From the day we first met, we referred to each other by our surnames. I called him "West" and he called me "Schoch." This was not a matter of formality but, rather, informality and personal affection. For convenience here, I will primarily refer to him by his initials. Some people actually took to verbalizing "Jaw" or "Jaws" as a nickname, but I did not.)

THE GLACIAL MELTING REVELATIONS
Evidence for a Bronze Age Apocalypse
BY FRANK JOSEPH
While many of us may be alarmed by the shrinking effects of rising global temperatures on Arctic conditions at both polar regions, archaeologists could not be more delighted. They are thrilled with cultural revelations laid bare with the retreat of melting ice sheets that have blanketed northern Scandinavia for the past millennia. Previously frigid environments not only obscured innumerable human artifacts but preserved them over the last six thousand years. High above the tree line in Norway's highest mountains, Neolithic arrows, scraps of clothing from the Bronze Age, and skis from Viking Age traders are coming to light for the first time since they were lost.

ANCIENT MYSTERIES
THE MEGALITHS OF CALABRIA
Immense 'Neolithic' Structures in Southern Italy Are Older than Stonehenge
BY STVEN SORA
Historians have a tendency to ignore modern discoveries, which makes it easier to understand how recent discoveries, of Stonehenge-like structures in Italy have failed to attract much attention. Not only is the Italian construction more complex, it is older; and, moreover, its builders apparently possessed advanced astronomical knowledge long before the builders of Stonehenge.

THE UNEXPLAINED
WHEN THE SPRITS WRITE
The Automatic-Writing Phenomenon--Benign or Ill?
BY MICHAEL E. TYMN
When my brother-in-law told me that his mother, Hazel, had penned part of a  mysterious novel, I was naturally curious.  When I saw Hazel at a Christmas party, I asked her about the book and she somewhat reluctantly explained that around 1981, while watching television, she had a sudden urge to start writing a story--a story having to do with outer space.  She had had no real interest in the subject and had no prior interest in creative writing.  "But I felt compelled to write," Hazel stressed. 

ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE
THE CRYSTAL CONNECTION
The Many Faceted Search for an Ancient Power Grid
BY MARTIN RUGGLES
Earth's magnetic field is powered by 'Quartz' crystals at its core. That is the conclusion of researchers at the Earth Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (ELSI). The recent study of laser-heated diamonds under extreme pressures, like those believed to exist at the earth's core, is part of a study published in the journal Nature in 2017. The Japanese scientists appear to be challenging the established view regarding the chemical composition of the core, and to be corroborating a view long held by many in the alternative science community, that our planet is at its heart, a 'great crystal.'

ANCIENT MYSTERIES
SONG OF THE STONES
The Subtle Harmonies of Neolithic Construction
BY RICHARD HEATH
Plato proposed a World Soul that took the form of a musical octave--having been given that form by the Demiurge, a creator god--bringing harmony to the earth's surroundings. The octave is so named because in modal music there are only eight tones, and the beginning and ending tones differ in frequency by a factor of exactly 2. In the act of creation there were two further tones within the octave--mirror images of each other. This mirroring, called symmetry, is crucial within all created octaves as tones arise that are reciprocal to each other and to both ends of the octave, like twins.

THE NEW ARCHAEOLOGIST
ATLANTIS BENEATH THE JAVA SEA?
Recent Indonesian Discoveries and the Reinterpretation of Plato
BY JONATHON PERRIN
A verdant land of mountains, abundant wildlife, including elephants, and rich mineral resources. A volatile land prone to violent geological outbursts, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and flooding. A land "larger than Libya and Asia Minor," with a huge fertile plain that now lies inundated under the ocean, washed away 11,500 years ago. You might think I'm speaking of Plato's sunken land of Atlantis, but I'm actually talking about the country of Indonesia. This vast archipelago of 18,000 islands is all that remains after sea levels rose at the end of the last Ice Age, wiping out a huge landmass larger than Alaska.

FORGOTTEN GIANTS
WILLIAM BLAKE'S ATLANTIS
Might His Visions Still Reveal Something?
BY JOHN CHAMBERS
Those of us who know anything at all about the great English romantic poet/engraver/painter William Blake (1757-1827) usually only know that he produced a number of short lyric poems that rank among the greatest in the language, including the famous lines: "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/ In the forests of the night, / What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"


ANCIENT WISDOM
THE MAGICAL FOREST
Where Indigenous Understanding and Science Converge
BY ROBERT MENDEL
In an era dominated by scientific innovation based on an exploration of Nature, we see, from time to time, the rediscovery of ancient wisdom preserved by indigenous peoples. This convergence ultimately speaks to the necessity for a sane and holistic view of our natural resources as part of the larger web of life.

THE FORBIDDEN ARCHAEOLOGIST
REPLY TO A CRITIC IN INDIA
BY MICHAEL CREMO
In the Indian magazine "Swarajya (December 2017)," author Aaravindan Neelakandan politely criticizes me for supporting the accounts of extreme human antiquity found in the Puranas, the historical and cosmological texts of India's Sanskrit literature. This is somewhat ironic, given that Swarajya is the Hindi word for "independence." Although India gained political independence from Great Britain in 1947, many of its intelligentsia remain under the influence of British, or Western, ideas. India has yet to achieve intellectual independence.

ASTROLOGY
ANCIENT TEMPLE OF THE STARS
Gobekli Tepe and the Forgotten Resurrection of Civilization
BY JULIE LOAR
Around 12,900 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene period, which corresponds to the end of the Paleolithic Age, temperatures had been steadily rising and ice caps had been melting for 10,000 years. Then, Earth suddenly and dramatically dipped into a mysterious mini ice age. The Northern Hemisphere saw temperatures nearly as cold as the peak of the Glacial Maximum. The change was relatively sudden, taking place in decades, and resulted in the extinction of most of the large mammoths and saw the rapid demise of the North American Clovis culture. In Europe, the period was characterized by advancing glaciers and a vegetation shift to cold-tolerant plants. Called the Younger Dryas, named after an alpine tundra wildflower that flourishes in cold conditions, the mini ice age lasted for about 1,200 years from 12,900 -11,700 BP before the climate warmed again.

PUBLISHER'S LETTER
THE STRUGGLE TO RECOVER LOST KNOWLEDGE
BY J. DOUGLAS KENYON
When this writer and a few friends launched Atlantis Rising Magazine in 1994, we wanted to do something about what we saw as a near universal amnesia regarding humanity's ancient past. A few years earlier I had written a screenplay called The Atlantis Dimension about how ancient human actions could have set forces in motion that continue to operate, even now. The movie was never produced, but the idea took root to look at civilization like a psychoanalyst considering negative adult behavior as a consequence of forgotten childhood experience. Just because events are no longer consciously recalled, does not mean they do not affect the way we now act. As with individuals, the psychological healing of the human race may require the painful recollection of experiences from long ago.

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