Some two thousand years ago a group of men entered a boat on the edge of an inland sea and set sail for the farther shore. It had been a tiring day, and as they sailed the leader of the group fell asleep. As they made their way across the lake a hot wind began to stir, causing the waves to slap against the timbers of the boat. The gusts of wind increased in strength and the waves became more turbulent.
Soon water began to pour over the shallow sides of the vessel as it heaved and plunged in the angry sea. Fearing for their lives the group turned to their leader in alarm, begging him to save them. The man awoke from his slumber and asked them why they were so afraid. Then turning to the raging sea and the wind he rebuked them. The storm was immediately stilled and a great calm settled on the waters of the lake.
For the disciples who witnessed this miracle on the Sea of Galilee, the quelling of the storm seemed further proof of the divine nature of Jesus and of his God-like powers. What they had just seen seemed clearly beyond the power of any normal human being. Anyone who could tame nature in such a dramatic fashion surely had to be divine. The attitude of those early disciples continues to prevail to this day. We still believe that we are powerless in the face of the overwhelming forces of nature.
Yet as we have seen from the previous instalment, the New Physics as described by Quantum Mechanics makes it clear that everything that we see and experience in nature is actually a product of our minds, and not of some outward force. The American physicist Fritjof Capra sums up this view of the New Physics:
“Physicists have come to see that all their theories about natural phenomena, including the “laws” they describe, are creations of the human mind; properties of our conceptual map of reality, rather than of reality itself.” (The Tao of Physics)
The 20th century Indian sage Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj continually stressed to his followers that the world that appears so real to us, and that appears to exist outside of ourselves, is actually a subjective phenomenon that is created by the mind, and is tailored to the mind of each individual observer. As we find recorded in his answers to questioners in his book I Am That:
“You create the world in your imagination like a dream. As you cannot separate the dream from yourself, so you cannot have an outer world separate from yourself.”
“The mind and the world are not separate. Do understand that what you think to be the world is your own mind”.
“As long as the mind is there, your body and your world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind.”
Because the world we see around us, including the world of nature, is mind-made, it can always be remade by any individual who has the knowledge and the power to do so. And this is what Jesus did when he rebuked the wind and the waves and stilled the raging storm. But the power that enabled Jesus to do what he did resides within every human being, and every person alive today has the potential power to do the same.
But we who have been schooled within the classical tradition of science find it almost impossible to deny the validity of our senses. We argue, like the skeptic who once confronted another 20th century Indian sage Ramana Maharshi, that the world must have an objective reality because it continues to exist for others even when we ourselves are asleep. In response Ramana replied:
“Such a world mocks you for knowing it without knowing yourself. The world is the result of your mind. Know your mind. Then see the world. You will realize that it is not different from the Self.” (Talks With Ramana Maharshi)
The power to control the weather has been exhibited by numerous other sages. One day Paramahansa Yoganada was asked by his Guru Sri Yukteswar Giri to lead his disciples on a parade across the beach at Puri, on the eastern shore of India. It was a scorching day and the disciples would have to walk barefoot over the fiery sands. Yoganada appealed to Yukteswar to intercede. As he later wrote in his autobiography:
“No sooner had we left the hermitage than the sky became filled with clouds as though by magic. To the accompaniment of astonished ejaculations from all observers, a light shower fell, cooling the city streets and the scorching seashore. The soothing drops descended during the two hours of the parade. The exact instant at which our group returned to the ashram, the clouds and rain disappeared”. (Autobiography of a Yogi)
The revered Muslim saint Sai Baba of Shirdi was also known for his power to influence the weather. On one occasion fierce monsoon rains lashed the village of Shirdi flooding the streets with incessant rain. Prayers to to the local Hindu deities to stop the downpour were in vain. Finally the villagers gathered around the mosque where Sai Baba lived and implored him to intervene.
Sai Baba commanded the wind and the rain to cease. Immediately the storm abated and the air was filled with a tranquil sweetness. (Sai Baba: The Saint of Shirdi)
Allan, Weather Wizards, September 2, 2010, 12:25 pm
Since the purpose of this Blog is to validate the prophecies contained in the book “The Last Days of Tolemac“, some readers have asked what relevance recent posts on such subjects as The Mystery of Consciousness and The Power of Thought have to do with the subject of prophecy. The answer is that because we have misunderstood the nature of the universe we see and sense around us, we are unaware of the part we play in the creation of the circumstances that arise in the context of our daily lives.
When we explored the latest findings of Quantum Physics we found that the conclusion to which leading scientists were led was that there was no actual universe that existed as an outward reality in space. Furthermore, even if there was such a thing as an external universe, science could say nothing about it because all the empirical data they had acquired in their laboratory experiments ultimately resolved itself into impressions in consciousness.
Modern physics has thus confirmed the teachings of the ancient Rishis and mystics, who taught that the universe is nothing more or less than a projection of consciousness. And because each one of us is a conscious sentient being, everyone who is alive on earth today is not only a witness to the world we see around us, but is actually a co-creator of this world in consciousness.
The outer world that appears to exist outside of ourselves is an illusion which the ancient Hindu mystics referred to as Maya. It is a reflection in consciousness of our inner thoughts and beliefs. We have been conditioned since birth into believing that everything we see and sense inside our minds exists as an outward reality in space. And because we believe that we are small and puny compared to the infinite size of the universe, we have been conditioned into believing that we have little control over the events that dominate our world.
In reality, each one of us is a point of consciousness operating within an overall matrix called Supreme Awareness. For as long as we choose to operate as a single point of consciousness we are limited in what we do and what we can achieve. But if we choose to align our consciousness with that of Supreme Awareness, then the very forces of the universe are ours to command.
What this means is that each one of us not only has the potential power to control the events that occur in our daily lives, but we also have the inherent power to control the forces of nature, including the weather. The lives of the great Avatars throughout history have borne testimony to this truth. It is our ignorance of our true nature and of the world that we have projected upon ourselves that makes us refute our noble heritage.
We simply cannot bring ourselves to believe this fundamental truth. When a visitor to the 20th century Rishi Nisargadatta Maharaj was confronted with this possibility of the mind he exclaimed incredulously:
Visitor: “The world is so rich and complex – how could I create it?
Maharaj: Do you know yourself enough to know what you can and cannot do? You do not know your own powers. You never investigated. Begin with yourself.” (I Am That)
Those who are convinced of the existence of, and necessity for, a personal God, and who find their lives comforted and guided accordingly, do not need to give up this belief. But it remains a belief, a limit which prevents them from understanding their true prowess. For as the American pioneer into the nature of consciousness John Lilly has affirmed, every form of belief, no matter how lofty or noble, serves only to limit the free expression of our lives.
“In the province of the mind, what is believed to be true is true or becomes true, within limits to be found experientially or experimentally. These limits are further limits to be transcended. In the province of the mind, there are no limits.” (The Center of the Cyclone)
Unless the limits of these beliefs are transcended, we will never come to know our unlimited potential.
Those people who believe implicitly in the existence of a personal God will find evidence in their lives to verify this belief. This is not proof of the reality of God, but of the efficacy of their own belief. As the mystics have revealed, the phenomenon of belief is self-serving. We experience in life what we expect to experience, as well as what we have been conditioned to believe. The universe is merely a mirror to our inward thoughts and beliefs, and this varies from person to person.
For as Nisargadatta Maharaj has pointed out: “God is only an idea in your mind. The fact is you. The only thing you know for sure is: ‘here and now I am’. Remove the ‘here and now’ the ‘I am” remains unassailable. The world exists in memory, memory comes into consciousness; consciousness exists in awareness and awareness is the reflection of the light on the waters of existence.” (I Am That)
All that we see around us, from the stirrings of primal life beneath our feet to the pulsing beat of cosmic quasars in distant space, remains a picture painted in consciousness by our thoughts. The atom and the galaxy both describe our inherent nature. If we seem to inhabit a universe born of divine decree, its creator is that divine principle that resides within the heart of every one of us.
Allan, Weather Wizards, August 12, 2010, 11:42 am
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, this Podcast is another in the series “Signs of the Times”, and is titled “Arabian Entropy”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. It’s great to chat to you again.
Scott: Allan, I notice that in recent Podcasts you have been focusing on Iran and their attempts to develop nuclear weapons. Why is that?
Well Scott, the reason I have been talking so much about Iran lately is because I believe that, according to Bible prophecy, they are the trigger for what is about to happen in the Middle East.
Scott: Why do you say that Allan?
Well let me just recap how we got onto the subject of Iran in the first place.
You will remember that in my earlier Podcast entitled “The Invasion of Israel”, I pointed out that according to the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, there would be an attack on Israel during the end times leading up to the return of the Christ.
This attack would be undertaken by a coalition of Islamic nations, and would include countries like Persia, Ethiopia and Libya. Because Ezekiel specifically singled out Persia, or to give it its modern name Iran, I indicated that it is to Iran that we should look if we are to understand the true measure of our times.
In that Podcast, I outlined the different countries that would be involved, and explained why they would choose to undertake a land invasion of Israel, rather than an indiscriminate attack on Israeli territory by means of aircraft, missiles and rockets.
Scott: So Allan, are you saying that various Arab nations, together with Iran, are planning a land invasion of Israel?
Well Scott, up until a few years ago, I would have said that the possibility of such a thing happening was extremely remote. But over the course of the last two years there have been dramatic changes throughout the Arab world.
We are now witnessing a process of change that I have chosen to call “Arabian Entropy”. And I am convinced that, as a result of these changes, the process that is under way in the Middle East will soon lead to the exact scenario predicted by Ezekiel.
It may seem strange to use a word like “entropy” in this context, but the association does seem to me to be singularly apt. Entropy is of course a scientific term referring to a process of change from order to disorder. In fact one of ways that entropy can be defined is “a steady deterioration of a system or society”.
It is evident that this deterioration of Arab society, which has been growing steadily in country after country throughout the Islamic world, began some two and a half years ago with the events that have come to be described as the “Arab Spring”.
When a young Tunisian street vendor set himself ablaze in December 2010, in a protest against police corruption and oppression, he started a chain of events that has shaken the entire Arab world to its core.
Prior to this event, all the countries of North Africa and the Middle East were ruled by leaders who had been entrenched in power for the better part of a generation.
Yet since that time, the Governments of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen have all been overthrown, and insurrection has broken out in countries like Algeria, Lebanon, Iraq and Morocco. Even Western backed countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Bahrain have not been immune from these protests.
And of course, during the last two years a civil war has broken out in Syria that now threatens to destabilize the entire region, as well as draw in the major powers of the East and West in a potential conflagration.
This convulsion of change has not made any of the Arab countries involved demonstrably stronger or more united, but has instead fragmented them into opposing factions that now have the motivation and the ability to settle their differences at the point of a gun.
Another significant change that has taken place within each of these countries has been the move towards a more militant Islamic style of government, which has tended to be fundamentalist, autocratic and repressive. And of course none of this bodes well for future peace in the region.
So we now find ourselves in a far more dangerous world than before, and one in which extremists everywhere have become empowered to pursue their ideological aims, and to do so with ever increasing amounts of firepower.
So Scott, there are two things that have become apparent over the last few years as a result of this growing Arabian entropy. The first is that all of the countries that have been affected by these changes have become more volatile, and therefore more unpredictable in terms of their future course of actions.
And the second significant change in the Middle East today is that these countries have become significantly more hostile towards Israel which has, as a result, become more isolated throughout the region.
Scott: So Allan, what role do you think Iran will play in the future?
Well Scott, the reason why Iran began their romance with nuclear weapons in the first place was out of fear. They were afraid that the United States would invade their own country in the same way that they had previously invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
Iran reasoned that if they could develop nuclear weapons, this would provide them with a powerful deterrent against outside aggression. And as we have seen recently in the case of North Korea, the success of having a nuclear threat as a deterrent has been validated.
And notwithstanding the recent election of Hassan Rossani as the new President of Iran, there is little reason to suppose that there will be any change in Iran’s policy regarding the development of nuclear weapons, especially as Rossani has already gone on record to stress that there will be no change under his watch.
In any event, Iranian nuclear policy is and always has been the sole decision of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. So what this means is that Iran will continue to enrich uranium until they have accumulated sufficient fissile material to detonate a nuclear device.
And as I have mentioned previously, when President Obama visited Israel recently, he announced that the United States would never allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. The reason being that this would spark nuclear proliferation throughout the region, involving countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey.
So as you can see Scott, if Iran continues to pursue its nuclear dream, and the United States insists that it will deny them the fruition of that dream, then both countries are on a collision course that can only end in conflict. It is just a matter of when.
Scott: And do you think that Israel will also attack Iran?
That’s a good question Scott. In recent discussions on the subject of Iran, Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel reserves the right to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
And when asked whether Israel had received the “green light” from the United States to initiate a military strike against Iran, Netanyahu’s response was: “Israel’s right to defend its existence is not subject to a traffic light”.
In fact a number of people close to him have remarked that stopping Iran from getting an atom bomb has now become Netanyahu’s main mission in life. And this should come as no surprise to anybody, for he has been saying the same thing himself ever since he was elected Premier.
Of course it is still an open question as to whether Israel actually has the capability to knock out Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facilities, even if it wanted to. We know that back in 2009 the US supplied Israel with 55 bunker-busting bombs.
But these bombs were 5,000 pound Laser guided bombs that were designed to be fired from F-15 fighter jets, and it is doubtful whether these bombs could penetrate the Iranian underground facilities at Fordow outside the city of Qom.
The US has since developed larger bunker-busting bombs, including the recently tested 30,000 pound version called M.O.P. (Massive-Ordinance-Penetrator) which could certainly do the job.
However, the only aircraft capable of carrying a bomb of this size that possesses the stealth qualities necessary to avoid Iranian defensive surface to air missiles, are the American B-2 bombers based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
But ultimately Scott, I don’t think it matters much whether Israel is involved or not. If the Iranian nuclear facilities are attacked, whether by the U.S. or Israel, or both, there is little doubt that Israel will be the country that will bear the brunt of Arab fury.
And the reason for this will not necessarily be for their involvement in an attack on Iran, but because of their perceived intransigence in their negotiations over the future of Palestine.
Scott: How does Palestine fit in with all this?
To answer that Scott, we really need to go back in time to the end of the 19th century. Because there had been widespread persecution of the Jews throughout Europe at that time, there was a feeling among the international community that a homeland should be set aside for the Jewish people.
At the end of the first World War, when the British conquered Syria, a new state was established that was given the name of Palestine. In 1922, under a mandate issued by the League of Nations, the British were formally given the authority to govern the region.
This British Mandate, as it was called at the time, continued up to the end of the second World War, when the British Government announced that it wanted to terminate this mandate.
So in 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution dividing the land of Palestine into two states. One state was to be reserved for the Jews, with the other state to be set aside for the Arabs, while the city of Jerusalem was to be under the direct control of the United Nations.
The unfortunate part about this arrangement was that the population of Jews and Arabs at that time were intermingled together throughout the land, and there were no clear lines of demarcation between the two states.
This was clearly an unworkable arrangement, and it is hardly surprising that a civil war broke out immediately. The outcome of that war was that the Jews took over most of the territory, leaving the Arabs to settle in two areas where they continue to live today, namely the West Bank of the Jordan river and the Gaza strip.
And in the meantime, as a result of subsequent wars, more and more Israeli settlements have been built in the areas originally set aside for the Arabs. Not only that, but the Israeli army fought for control of the city of Jerusalem in 1967, and Jerusalem is now the declared capital of Israel.
So the net result of the last 65 years has been that while the Jews now have a land of their own, including their own capital city in Jerusalem, the Arabs have little to show. They have no state of their own with borders that have been recognised by the world community, nor do they have an official capital city.
Palestinians not only continue to live in the same two widely separated areas, Gaza and the West Bank, but in their day-to-day lives they find themselves dominated to a large extent by the state of Israel in what they can and cannot do.
So what we have here Scott is a social, political and economic cauldron that grows ever more critical, and is waiting to explode.
Scott: So what are the United Nations doing about this?
Well here’s the rub Scott. The United Nations aren’t really doing anything about it at all at this time. Although they were responsible for the original Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, they have pretty much left it up to the Jews and the Arabs to sort out who lives where.
And here’s the fundamental problem that stands in the way of a solution. The West Bank is dominated by the political faction of Fatah, and is currently ruled by the leader of the Palestine National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
The Gaza strip meanwhile is under the control of Hamas, which overthrew the Fatah forces in 2007. Since Hamas refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the state of Israel, the United States, Canada and the European Union have branded Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
So in recent years, all attempts to negotiate some sort of agreement between the Palestinians and the Jews have ended in failure. But the differences between these two sides go much deeper than that, since both of them lay claim to Jerusalem as the sole capital of their respective states. And two into one doesn’t go.
At present, the American Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to get both sides to the bargaining table, but so far with little success. The Palestinians insist that their state must be based on pre-1967 borders, while the Israelis are equally insistent that these preconditions make a return to negotiations impossible .
Then there is the testy matter of Jewish housing. The Palestinians say that Israel must first stop all construction of new houses on land that it wants for a future state, while Israel says that this issue can only be resolved through face to face negotiations – a catch 22 situation.
The danger of this impasse Scott, is that if the Arabs are blocked at every turn in their efforts to negotiaite a Palestinian state, they are bound to look for other ways of doing so. And one doesn’t have to be an Old Testament prophet to figure out what they might decide to do next.
So there you have it Scott. The situation in the Middle East boils down to this. Over the last two years the entire region has become more militant and more volatile, as a result of the process I have called Arabian Entropy.
Then there is Iran’s obsession with acquiring nuclear weapons, contrasted with Israeli and United States insistence that they will never be allowed to do so, under threat of a military attack which now seems inevitable.
And when such an attack does take place, it will unleash an enormous backlash, not just against the United States, but against Israel in particular. Islamic nations everywhere will unite against the Jews.
Then add to this mix the growing sense of Arab futility that they will ever be able to negotiate a Palestinian state with the Israelis, and you have an perilous situation that only needs a spark to explode into war.
So Scott, will the Arabs come to launch a land invasion of Israel as the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel has predicted? You can almost see the dominoes lining up as we speak.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast in our series called “Signs of the Times”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 20, 2010, 9:28 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, this Podcast is another in the series “Signs of the Times”, and is titled “Nuclear Showdown”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. It’s good to be with you again.
Scott: Allan, in your last Podcast you talked about Iran, and how it is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Before you go into further detail, perhaps you could start off by telling listeners what it takes to build a nuclear bomb in the first place.
That’s a good point Scott. Well in theory, building a nuclear bomb is fairly straight forward. Just get the necessary ingredients and then put them together in the right way. However in practice things are not quite so simple. And to understand why we need to go back to Albert Einstein.
As you know Scott, Einstein came up with probably the most famous equation in all of science, and that is E = MC2. What that means in reality is that all matter is simply a form of energy. In fact, incredibly large amounts of it. Just to give you an example, there is enough energy locked up inside a single airplane ticket to fly a plane around the world several times.
So the trick to making a nuclear bomb is to find a way to unlock this energy, and then unleash it in the form of a bomb. Now as we were taught in school, every atom has a nucleus, or centre. Inside this nucleus are varying amounts of protons and neutrons. And the heavier the atom is, the more protons and neutrons it has.
Scott: So how do you go about unlocking this energy?
Well Scott, the problem is that most elements in Nature are stable. And because the nuclear force that binds protons and neutrons together inside the atom is so strong, it is extremely hard to get atoms to break apart. In fact, when the United States finally succeeded in doing this in 1945, there were only two ways of doing so. And basically, the same is true today.
The challenge is to find an atom that is large enough to be unstable, and then find a way to cause the nucleus of this atom to break apart. This process of splitting the atom is called nuclear fission. Another important point is that there has to be enough nuclear material available to create what is known as “critical mass” for an explosion to take place.
In a bomb, an initial explosive charge causes more and more neutrons to be released. These neutrons then cause other atoms to break up, causing a chain reaction. So when they break apart, they cause other atoms alongside them to break up as well. And this chain reaction then keeps going until there is so much energy that the bomb explodes.
Scott: So what materials do you need to make a bomb?
So far only two elements have been found to be capable of causing the chain reaction needed to make a bomb. One element is Uranium, and the other is Plutonium. What makes them suitable for nuclear weapons is that both of these elements have very large nuclei, containing large numbers of protons and neutrons.
Uranium has 238 protons and neutrons, while Plutonium has 239. But what makes it so difficult to build a nuclear bomb in practice, is that neither Uranium or Plutonium are easy to come by.
The reason is that the Uranium ore usually found in nature is a stable element, and is therefore unable to trigger a chain reaction. So to cause an explosion, this ore has to be changed into Uranium 235. It has to be artificially enriched until it is in an unstable state. This is a long process requiring highly specialised equipment known as centrifuges.
Plutonium on the other hand, doesn’t exist in Nature at all, so it has to be made artificially. And the only way to do this is inside a nuclear reactor. So the problem for Iran, as I explained in my last Podcast, is that once they made the decision to build nuclear weapons, they first had to acquire a regular supply of either enriched Uranium or Plutonium, or both.
Scott: And what did they have to do after that?
They also had to find a way to hide this from the eyes of the world, and from the Inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Because Iran needed time to develop the fissile material needed to make nuclear weapons, they needed to con the Western world into believing that all they were after was to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
And so began a carefully choreographed series of negotiations that were designed to go nowhere. And in this they have been brilliantly successful. These negotiations first began in 2003, and they have been consistently going nowhere for the last ten years. The latest round of negotiations were held just two weeks ago in the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan.
Despite two days of intensive negotiations, the EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton announced that these talks had also been fruitless. There can be little doubt that this news would have been warmly received in Iran, and their chief negotiator Saeed Jalili would have been highly praised.
Scott: Why do you say that, Allan?
Well Scott, since the entire purpose of these negotiations has been to keep the Western nations talking, so that they would not have a reason to make good on their military threats, these successive delays have provided Iran with the breathing room needed to acquire the necessary fissile material for making nuclear weapons.
But although Inspectors for the Atomic Energy Agency have so far been unable to visit the various nuclear sites in Iran, they have issued reports which give outsiders a pretty shrewd idea of what has been going on behind the scenes over the last few years.
As I pointed out in my last Podcast, the main locations used by Iran to enrich Uranium are in underground installations located at Natanz and at Fordow. You can also add another one to this, and that is the heavy water reactor in Arak, which is used for the production of Plutonium.
Using Plutonium to generate a nuclear explosion is not new. Although the original atomic bomb that was dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima used Uranium, the next one that was dropped on Nagasaki was a Plutonium-implosion design bomb. The main advantage of using Plutonium in the manufacture of a bomb is that it is a lot easier to create and control the chain reaction process.
And as a matter of interest Scott, all the nuclear bombs belonging to India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea use Plutonium as a fuel source. So it is easy to see why this would appeal to Iran as well.
Scott: So does Iran have supplies of both Uranium and Plutonium?
Yes Scott, they do. In fact a recent report in the British newspaper “The Telegraph” indicated that clouds of steam were recently photographed being emitted from forced air coolers at the Arak plant, indicating that the plant was in full operation.
This is further evidence that the Iranian regime has been pursuing more than one way to build a nuclear weapon. All they have to do now is to enrich the quantities they have already stockpiled to the level needed to create the chain reaction in a bomb. However they do have one final hurdle to overcome.
They have to develop the trigger mechanism necessary to create the first explosive charge within the confined space of the bomb. And this is what they have been doing at their military explosives facility at Parchin, just outside of Tehran, which has also been off limits to nuclear inspectors in recent years.
Scott: So tell me Allan, do you think that recent events in North Korea have had an influence on Iran?
Absolutely Scott. In fact the two most interested spectators in the whole drama that has been taking place between North and South Korea and the United States have been Israel and Iran – and for totally different reasons.
Iran has been watching the unfolding saga in North Korea very closely, to see how the United States would react if it was challenged by a country that possessed nuclear weapons. And based on what we have seen up to this point, the answer is “very carefully”, so as not to provoke a nuclear showdown.
Israel, by contrast, is watching events in North Korea with increasing alarm. For the way that North Korea has been acting lately is exactly how they have been warning that Iran would behave if they ever acquired nuclear weapons. In other words, Iran would be quick to challenge their enemies and threaten them with thermo-nuclear war.
Scott: So where do you think all this will end Allan?
Well Scott, my own personal view is that it will end exactly where the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel said it would end. In previous Podcasts, I have quoted from the prophecies of Ezekiel, and his prediction that there would be a coalition of Islamic nations that would launch a land invasion on Israel.
Scott: What makes you say that?
Well Scott, we need look no further than what the Iranians themselves have been saying. Speaking recently to a group of Iranian war veterans, President Ali Khamenei said that Israel would disappear from the (and I quote) “landscape of geography”, and that the country would soon be returned to the Palestinians.
This is only the latest in a long war of words in which Iran has threatened to destroy the land of Israel. And of course the leader of Israel, Benyamin Netanyahu, is a man who does not take these threats lightly.
After all, he grew up with the memory of the Jewish Holocaust still fresh in his mind. He learned from the hard school of history that when a despotic leader announces to the world beforehand that he plans to destroy the Jews, as Hitler did in his book entitled Mein Kampf, then it would be wise to take these threats seriously.
And he certainly is in the forefront of those warning of the threat posed by a nuclear Iran. Another spokesman for this view is Ehud Barak, who was until recently the Israeli Minister of Defence. Speaking in an interview with the Washington Post, Barak said, and I quote:
“A nuclear Iran will be the end of the nonproliferation regime. Saudi Arabia will turn nuclear immediately, Turkey within several years, and probably the new Egypt will start moving to do it. Not to mention the potential of weapons-grade material leaking into the hands of terrorist groups from Iran.”
We also need to remember that Israel is not Iran’s number one enemy. The Islamic world has for many years now been split along sectarian lines. One group follows the Shi’ite sect of Islam, and this faction is led by Iran. The other group consists of Sunni Moslems, and is dominated by Saudi Arabia.
So as Ehud Barak has pointed out, if Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, there would be an immediate rush by surrounding countries to do the same, and this would inevitably lead to a much more terrifying threat to world peace, quite apart from the danger to the continued existence of the state of Israel.
Scott: So Allan, if Iran is poised to become a nuclear power, what can the rest of the world do to stop it?
Well Scott, this is where the rubber meets the road. Since it is clear that sanctions alone will not stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and since North Korea has already shown that a country that has nuclear weapons can effectively thumb its nose at the rest of the world, then the choices facing the West are stark indeed.
During his recent visit to Jerusalem, President Obama made it clear that while he believed that there was still time for diplomacy to work in negotiations with Iran, if these negotiations were to fail, then the United States would (quote) “do what is necessary”.
I leave it to listeners to decide for themselves what Obama means by this. But if the words of Obama are not a sufficient deterrent, then the response by the Government of Israel should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind. If the United States is not prepared to bomb the nuclear facilities in Iran, then Israel will do so on its own.
So the 64,000 dollar question is this. How long will it take for Iran to explode its first nuclear device? It may be a matter of weeks, or it may be a matter of months. But I personally feel that it will be sometime before the end of this year.
And if this is the case, then the entire Middle East will be plunged into crisis. For you can imagine that if their nuclear sites are successfully attacked, then Iran will do everything in its power to retaliate, and a number of different countries will be in their cross-hairs.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be another in the series called “Signs of the Times”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 19, 2010, 9:28 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, this Podcast is another in the series “Signs of the Times”, and is titled “Iran’s Nuclear Blunders”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. Always a pleasure to talk to you again.
Scott: Allan, in your last Podcast you talked about modern Iran, and how it would come to play an important part in future events prophesied in the Bible. How do you think this will come about?
Well Scott, as I mentioned earlier, what has taken place in Iran over the last few years has not only brought the country to the brink of disaster, but as a result of their nuclear blunders, they have brought the world closer to the very scenario predicted by Ezekiel.
The situation in Iran right now is that the entire country is in a state of crisis, largely as a result of international sanctions imposed by Western countries, in response to Iran’s intransigence, and its apparent efforts to produce nuclear weapons.
Scott: What sort of crisis are they facing?
A short while ago, Shamseddin Hosseini, who is the Minister of the Economy in Iran, reported that the country was facing a 50% drop in oil revenues as a result of these sanctions.
In addition, many of the country’s imports, such as food and consumer goods, have been drastically reduced. For example, the number of container ships visiting Iran dropped from 378 in 2010, to a little over one hundred in 2012.
And the number of dry bulk ships carrying food, as well as necessary commodities like coal and iron ore, has dropped by 75% over the last two years. Only eight refrigerated cargo vessels carrying fresh produce called in at Iranian ports during the first ten months of 2012. And only five fishing trawlers docked in the same period, down from 20 two years before.
In October the Government announced that traders would no longer be able to export goods like wheat, flour, sugar and red meat, in order to conserve dwindling supplies at home. And two weeks later, Iran’s Oil Minister announced plans to ration the supply of diesel fuel, in a bid to curb the rampant smuggling of scarce fuel to neighbouring countries.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the Rial, which is the main currency of Iran, has lost about 40% of its value against the American dollar since August. And while the official rate of inflation is given as 25%, many economists believe that it is actually closer to 75%.
This reduction in the value of their currency has brought severe economic hardship to citizens throughout Iran. And this has led to the first signs of social unrest, as street protests have broken out recently in various parts of the country.
And in a rare public confession that the Government was struggling under the weight of these international sanctions, the Ayatollah Khamanei was quoted as saying: “These sanctions are barbaric. This is a war against a nation“. And in a predictable show of defiance, he went on to add: “But the Iranian nation will defeat them.”
All of these problems have been brought about by Iran’s biggest blunder, and that is their decision to build nuclear weapons in the first place.
Scott: But don’t the Iranians say that their nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes only?
Correct. In fact they have been saying that repeatedly to anyone who would listen, ever since their nuclear program began. But not many countries believe that today. Europe and the United States don’t. Neither do other Arab states. And Israel certainly doesn’t.
The very fact that Iran has been willing to undergo such hardships, and for so long, has sent a clear message to the world that they are determined to develop nuclear weapons as soon as possible, no matter how many sanctions they have to endure along the way.
The ironic thing about their present situation Scott, is that if they had wanted to, they could have succeeded in developing nuclear weapons long ago, soon after they came to power in 1979. The fact that they chose not to do so at that time, has subsequently proved to be yet another in a long series of political and strategic blunders by the religious leaders of Iran.
Back in the 1950’s, at a time when the Shah was the leader of Iran, he launched a nuclear program with the help of the United States that was part of an Atoms for Peace program. Under this program, the Shah approved plans to build up to 23 nuclear power stations by the year 2000.
As part of this program, President Gerald Ford signed a directive in 1976 offering Tehran the chance to buy and operate a US built reprocessing facility for extracting plutonium from nuclear reactor fuel – the very thing that Iran is now trying so desperately hard to achieve.
However, when the regime of the Shah was toppled by the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the new leader of the country, the Ayatollah Khomeini, cancelled the entire program, saying that it was incompatible with Islamic law.
And following the death of Khomeini in 1989, his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei went even further. He issued a “Fatwa” – or religious edict – saying that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons was forbidden under Islamic law.
Scott: So Allan, when do you think Iran decided to go ahead with the development of nuclear weapons?
Well Scott, it is evident that the attitude of the rulers of Iran changed dramatically after 9-1-1. As you will no doubt recall, the response by George Bush to the attack on the World Trade Center, was to launch a full scale invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.
And if that didn’t cause the Iranians to reconsider the need for nuclear weapons, then the events of March 19th, 2003, certainly did. For it was on that night, as the world looked on, that CNN broadcast live coverage of the US attack on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad.
This destructive display of aerial firepower came to be known by the phrase “Shock and Awe”. There is little doubt that those who were most shocked and awed by this ferocious display of firepower, were the rulers in Tehran.
For in the space of just nineteen months, they had come to witness both countries on either side of them being attacked by the US. And in each of these cases, the aerial attacks were followed by land invasions, as part of George Bush’s global war on terror.
For a country that had captured US diplomats in the past, and held them hostage for over a year, all the while referring to America as the “Great Satan”, this should surely have caused the rulers in Tehran to ask themselves the question: how long it would be before they were next.
So the impetus to gain nuclear weapons would have gone into overdrive from that moment on. And the reason for doing so was, as I explained in my last Podcast, that no country that has successfully developed nuclear weapons in the past, has ever been attacked by any other state.
The perfect example of this is North Korea. Despite openly flaunting the West, including the United States, and continually threatening to destabilize the area, no nation has been willing to confront them, simply because they are known to have a small stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Scott: So what has been happening in Iran over the last ten years?
Well Scott, the leaders of Iran were now confronted with an enormous challenge. They not only had to acquire the materials and equipment necessary for the enrichment of uranium, as well as the facilities needed to house them, but they also had to find a way to do so without the rest of the world finding out about it.
And over the last ten years, this has been a saga that would have done justice to any James Bond novel.
The first thing that Iran needed to do was to create an elaborate smokescreen, designed to fool other countries into thinking that all they were doing was enriching uranium to the level consistent with that needed to fuel a civilian nuclear power plant, which is about 5%.
Secondly, they needed to make sure that the facilities designed to enrich uranium to the level needed to make atomic weapons, were hidden from the prying eyes of the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
As part of their strategy of stalling for time, Iran first entered into a series of long drawn out negotiations with the international community, over whether they should undertake this enrichment process themselves, or whether they should simply import enriched uranium from other designated countries like Russia or the United States.
When these negotiations inevitably failed, Iran announced that they would now have no choice but to build the enrichment facilities themselves. However, in place of the accepted standard of uranium enrichment needed for civilian nuclear power stations, which was 5%, they announced that they intended to raise the enrichment level to 20%.
When the international community refused to go along with this, and enacted a series of sanctions against them, the President of Iran announced that it was their “inalienable right” to do this. He branded the sanctions as “illegal actions imposed by arrogant powers”.
Scott: So where does Iran have their enrichment facilities?
Well Scott, Iran now has seventeen sites that are known to be involved in various aspects of their nuclear program. Of these, two are the most important, because they are the ones that contain the centrifuges that do the actual enrichment of uranium.
The biggest of these facilities is known as Fordow, located outside the holy city of Qom, about a hundred miles to the south of Tehran. The other is at Natanz, roughly midway between Qom and the city of Isfahan.
Both of these facilities are underground. The Fordow site is located about 300 feet below the ground, and has been excavated from the inside of a mountain. Fordow is considered to have about 3,000 centrifuges at this time.
Natanz is a hardened Fuel Enrichment plant that is built about 25 feet underground, that is protected by a layer of concrete some two and a half feet thick, as well as another 70 feet of compacted earth on top of that. There are currently about 7,000 centrifuges installed at Natanz.
The other key location is Parchin. This is a military complex about 12 miles from downtown Tehran. Although Parchin is officially described as a facility for the testing and manufacturing of explosives, there have been reports that it has also been involved in nuclear weapons research.
But although inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency claimed in November 2011 that they had credible information that the Parchin facility had been used for implosion testing, their repeated attempts to visit this site have so far been blocked by Iran.
So as you can see Scott, this is not the sort of behaviour that would encourage the belief that the Iranian authorities are simply engaged in peaceful research, especially in countries like Israel and the United States.
Scott: So what has the rest of the world been doing about this?
Well Scott, Western countries have been relying for some years now on an escalating series of sanctions, to try to force Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. But as we have already seen from the response I quoted earlier by the Ayatollah Khamanei, these sanctions only seem to have made Iran even more determined to succeed.
But behind the scenes, almost every kind of covert operation that you can think of has been tried at one time or another, especially by Israel and the United States. And that is why I compare this covert operation to the sort of thing you might read in a James Bond novel.
One of the strategies used was to attack the centrifuges themselves by means of cyber warfare. In June 2010, a computer worm was discovered that came to be known as Stuxnet. Although no one has ever admitted to creating Stuxnet, it is believed to have been a joint creation of Israel and the US.
Stuxnet was the first system of malware designed to target industrial systems, specifically the Siemens software and equipment used by Iran in their enrichment process. Stuxnet was believed to have rendered hundreds of centrifuges inoperable.
Two years later, another source of computer malware emerged, that also targeted Iranian computers. This one was called Flame. Flame was designed to record audio, screenshots, network traffic and keyboard activity.
This information was then relayed to command and control servers scattered around the world. The Flame virus could also spread to other computer systems over Local Area Networks, or by way of USB sticks, and it is thought to have been responsible for infecting thousands of centrifuges.
But this covert campaign has not been limited to cyber warfare. During the years 2010 and 2011, at least five Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed by unknown attackers. Their favourite MO has been to approach on motorcycles and then plant magnetic bombs on the outside of the cars in which these scientists were travelling.
I have even read stories about specially designed pens containing Radio Frequency ID chips, that have been given to Iranian scientists by visiting dignitaries, that could send radio signals to overhead drones to signal their locations. As I say Scott, we would probably be amazed if we knew the full extent of this covert operation targeting the Iranian nuclear program. And this is where I feel the Iranians have been guilty of another huge strategic blunder.
Scott: Why do you say that, Allan?
Well Scott, if their purpose in developing nuclear weapons was designed to protect them from outside attack, then their nuclear enrichment program of the last ten years has been an unmitigated disaster.
Not only has the country been brought to its knees economically, as a result of the severe sanctions that have been applied by the West to all the countries that do business with Iran, but it seems ever more likely that they will invite the very attack that they fear.
I fully expect an aerial attack on Iranian nuclear facilities by either Israel or the United States, or both, before the end of this year. And when that happens, it will set in motion a chain of events that will lead to the very scenario predicted by the prophet Ezekiel.
It still amazes me Scott, that in spite of the fact that we live in such a sophisticated world, with supposedly wise heads governing the affairs of nations, that a situation could arise that exactly matches the words of an old Hebrew man who lived more than 2,600 years ago.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be another in the series called “Signs of the Times”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 18, 2010, 9:27 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, this Podcast is another in the series “Signs of the Times”, and is titled “Persia Reborn”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. It’s a pleasure to be with you again.
Scott: So Allan, I see that the title of today’s talk is called “Persia Reborn”. What exactly do you mean by that?
Well Scott, you will recall that in earlier Podcasts I explained that the ancient prophets predicted that our present world age would end in a series of cataclysms brought on by a close encounter with a comet.
Because of the catastrophes that would afflict the earth at that time, and the devastation caused by the global earthquakes and Tsunamis that would follow, the ancient prophets referred to this event as “The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.”
According to the prophet Ezekiel, this Terrible Day of the Lord would happen after the Jews had returned to the lands of their fore-fathers, and Israel had become a nation state once more. As I pointed out in my last Podcast, this occurred on May 14, 1948.
In chapter 38 of his Biblical book of prophecy, Ezekiel went on to say that after Israel had once again become a nation, it would be threatened by many nations, and that the armies of these nations would surround Israel on every side.
Now if this prediction proves to be correct, in the same way that his prediction about the creation of the state of Israel was correct, then Ezekiel gives us a clear timeline as to when this comet will appear.
So what this means Scott, is that because we now know what to look for, we can study world events and see if they unfold in the way that Ezekiel predicted they would. And that is what I plan to do in succeeding Podcasts.
Scott: So Allan, how does this relate to Persia?
Well Scott, according to Ezekiel, the great coalition of armies that would march on Israel would come from, and I quote, “the north parts”, and from countries like “Persia, Libya and Ethiopia”.
Of particular interest here, and what I want to talk about today, is Ezekiel’s reference to the land of Persia. What I find significant, Scott, is that if Ezekiel’s words do prove to be correct, then the old foes of Persia and Israel will once again confront one another, just as they did in Biblical times.
Scott: So Allan, does that mean we about to see a replay of the Bible conflicts of the past?
Well Scott, yes and no. For while the modern state of Israel is slightly less than 65 years old, and is similar in many ways to what it was in Biblical times, the ancient empire of Persia has been completely transformed.
For starters, the Persia of old no longer exists. The old empire has been replaced by a new country called the Islamic Republic of Iran. This new republic officially came into being on April 1st, 1979, so modern Iran is just over 33 years old.
It certainly wasn’t like that in Biblical times. For the Persia of old was one of the great empires of the world. Its history stretched back to before the Iron Age, to a time when the western nations of today didn’t even exist.
Ancient Persia has been home to some of the world’s oldest civilizations, with urban settlements dating back to about 4000 years BC. At the height of its golden age, it ruled an area extending from Libya and Spain in the west, to the coast of India in the east.
Over the centuries, Persia was ruled by a succession of dynasties, beginning with the Medes, who unified the nation in 625 BC. However, it was later conquered by the invading armies of the Greeks under Alexander, followed by the Arabs, the Turks and the Mongols.
The turning point in Persian history happened between 633 and 656 AD, when the country was invaded by Moslem Arabs. This was the time when their ancient religion based on the teachings of the Prophet Zoroaster, was replaced by the religion of Islam.
After many years of foreign occupation by various invading armies, Persia was once again unified as an independent state in the year 1501, under Islamic rulers known as the Safavids.
But whereas up until that time, most of the population of Persia were Sunni Moslems, under the Safavids they were forced to become Shi’ites, and from then on Shi’a Islam became the official religion of Persia.
Another significant change introduced by the Safavids, was that Persia became a monarchy, and was ruled either by an emperor or a Shah. This system of government continued until up until 1979, when the Shah Reza Pahlavi was driven from power.
Scott: Wasn’t that the time of the American hostage crisis?
Yes Scott, it was. The revolution actually began in January 1978, when street riots broke out against the increasingly authoritarian rule of the Shah. These disturbances continued throughout that year until, in January 1979, the Shah fled after strikes and demonstrations had effectively paralyzed the country.
On February 1st, 1979, one of the instigators of the revolution, a cleric by the name of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returned from exile in Paris to become the Supreme Leader of the country.
The Shah meanwhile had been diagnosed with cancer, and he traveled to the United States for treatment. This was the pretext used by the Ayatollah to organize students to storm the American embassy in Tehran.
Fifty two embassy personnel were captured when students poured into the embassy compound, and they were held hostage in Iran for 444 days. They were finally released in January 1981, on the day that President Ronald Reagan took office.
Incidentally, it was also at this time that Khomeini began referring to America as the “Great Satan”. However, this ideological slogan proved to have serious consequences for Iran, as it unleashed a powerful anti-Iranian backlash throughout the West that still continues to this day.
And this is where the destinies of Israel and Iran became intertwined once again. For no sooner had Iran become a nation state in 1979, than it became embroiled in civil war, just like the state of Israel had been some 30 years before.
At the time that Israel became a state, the United Nations called for the land of Palestine to be partitioned into two parts. One part was to consist of an independent Arab state, while the other part was to become an independent Jewish state.
The UN also decided that the city of Jerusalem would not belong to either the Jews or the Arabs, but would instead be ruled by an International Trustee System, administered by the United Nations themselves.
Well as you can imagine Scott, this was pretty much a recipe for disaster, and there could have been little surprise when civil war broke out between the Jews and the Arabs the very next day.
Scott: So Allan, how does this compare with the situation in Iran?
The situation in Iran was slightly different. In their case, the civil war didn’t break out between Iranians and non-Iranians, but between the Iranians themselves. The revolution was between supporters of the Shah, and those who aligned themselves with the Ayatollah.
The revolution itself was relatively short-lived, as the Pahlavi dynasty of the Shah collapsed when the military declared its neutrality a short while later. And the country officially became an Islamic Republic when the people approved a national referendum on April 1, 1979.
But this didn’t bring an end to the fighting. Soon after, Marxist guerillas joined rebels in various parts of the country, engaging in fierce fighting with government forces. The most violent of these revolts was the Kurdish uprising, which led to thousands of casualties.
It was while Iranian Government forces were embroiled in defeating their internal enemies, that Saddam Hussein tried to take advantage of the ongoing political and social crisis, by launching a full scale assault on Iran.
On September 22, 1980, the Iraqi army invaded Iran at Khuzestan, which took the leadership of Iran completely by surprise. This was the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war which was to last for six years, and cause almost a million casualties in Iran.
And it was out of this conflict that the seeds were planted that would lead, some thirty years later, to the armed confrontation that now exists between the states of Israel and Iran.
And this unfolding saga has proved to be as devious, twisted and malign as the plot of any fiction novel.
Scott: I sense that you’re about to take us on a James Bond type ride. Am I right?
That’s a good analogy Scott, because the intrigue associated with the Iranian manoeuvres over the last few years would easily rival any spy story.
But to go back to the time of the Iran-Iraq war which finally ended in 1988, Iran’s neighbor Afghanistan was embroiled in a battle of its own, with US backed mujahadeen fighting Soviet forces in a conflict that ultimately cost the Afghans over a million lives.
And having just emerged from a costly war of its own, both in terms of casualties and resources, the overriding concern of the Iranian leadership at that time was to find a way to avoid being over-run by either of these two superpowers.
This fear was undoubtedly reinforced some years later when the Americans attacked Iraq, and destroyed the forces of Saddam Hussein. So in short order, the leadership in Iran saw both of their neighboring countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, being invaded by American troops.
So Iran now found itself in the same position that Israel had been some thirty years earlier. And their response to their predicament was to do exactly what the Israelis did. I suspect you can probably guess what that was Scott.
Scott: Well Allan, my guess would be that they decided to build an atom bomb.
Pretty shrewd Scott. You’re right. As history has now shown, both nations decided to adopt the same strategy to protect themselves from the forces ranged against them. They decided to develop nuclear weapons.
And the reason they did this was simple. Iran realised, just like Israel had learned before them, that those countries that had their own nuclear capability were safe from attack, both from the West and from the East.
Outside of the main nuclear nations of the West, allied with China and Russia, only four countries have developed the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. These four are India and Pakistan, along with Israel and North Korea.
Of these four nations, only Israel has never publicly admitted to having nuclear weapons, choosing instead to follow a policy of ambiguity. Under this policy, Israel neither admits or denies that it has nuclear weapons, even though this is now taken for granted by its enemies.
From a defensive standpoint, perhaps the best example of the protective power of nuclear technology, is the country of North Korea. Ever since they exploded a small nuclear device in October 2006, North Korea has been safe from outside attack.
This despite some of the most provocative behaviour by any nation, and despite continuing threats to the people of South Korea. The fact that North Korea could effectively do whatever they liked, and thumb their noses at the rest of the world, has not been lost upon the leaders of Iran.
And if there were any doubts about the effectiveness of this strategy, they have surely been laid to rest by the recent overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Shortly after Gaddafi seized power in a military coup in 1969, he tried to obtain nuclear technology.
Although his initial efforts met with failure, over the years he managed to acquire both the expertise and the fissionable material needed to succeed.
However, shortly after the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, Gaddafi surprised everyone by announcing that he had decided voluntarily to eliminate his stock of chemical weapons, and to stop the production of nuclear material.
This later proved to have been a critical mistake, because if he hadn’t done this, it is unlikely that NATO would have risked intervening in the Libyan crisis that led to his death, and the collapse of his authoritarian regime.
Scott: So Allan, how does this tie in with what happened in Iran?
Well Scott, Like Gaddafi, the Ayatollah Khomeini no doubt saw the value of having nuclear weapons. But partly as a result of his religious dogma, and partly because of an amazing sequence of strategic blunders, Iran has stumbled from crisis to crisis.
As I suggested earlier, what has taken place in Iran over the last few years would surely rival any James Bond novel for deception, mystery and intrigue.
In following Podcasts, I want to talk about some of these blunders and explain firstly, why the present strategy in Iran has brought the country to the brink of disaster, and secondly, how this will likely lead to the precise scenario predicted by Ezekiel.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be another in the series called “Signs of the Times”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 17, 2010, 9:26 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is another in the series titled “Signs of the Times”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you.
Scott: So Allan, what do you plan to talk about today?
Well Scott, you will recall that in my earlier Podcasts I explained that the ancient prophets predicted that our present world age would end in a series of cataclysms brought on by a close encounter with a comet.
Because of the catastrophes that would afflict the earth at that time, and the devastation caused by the global earthquakes and Tsunamis that would follow, the ancient prophets referred to this event as “The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.”
According to these prophets, this Terrible Day of the Lord would be followed by a seven year period of terror and destruction that would end in the return to earth of the long-awaited Saviour, who would lead the world into a new Golden Age of peace, that is predicted to last for a thousand years.
Scott: So Allan, do we have any idea when this close encounter with the comet will take place?
Yes Scott, we do. Thanks to the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, we have a pretty good idea when this will occur.
Scott: So are we talking about the distant future, or is this something that will happen in our own lifetimes?
Good question Scott. Based on my interpretation of the prophecies that I quote from in my book, I believe these events will happen in our lifetime. In fact I will go further. Based on the signs of the times in which we are now living, I believe that this close encounter with a comet is now only a few years away.
Scott: Wow! That is a bold prediction Allan. Why do you think this will happen so soon?
As I say, Scott, I base this on the words of the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel lived around the end of the seventh century BC, at a time when the Jews were living in exile in Babylon.
In Chapter 37 of his book of prophecy recorded in the Old Testament, Ezekiel predicted that a series of events would occur in the “latter days”, a term used by Ezekiel as well as other prophets to denote the times leading up to the return of the saviour.
Ezekiel predicted that a time would come when the scattered tribes of Israel would return to the land of their fore-fathers, and would become a nation once more. As he wrote:
“And say unto them, thus saith the Lord God: behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them up on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel.”
And as you probably know, Scott, this actually happened on May 14, 1948, when the state of Israel came into being, following the adoption of a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly.
So Scott, as you can see from this particular prophecy, it is clear that Ezekiel was referring to events taking place in our own times. But Ezekiel did not stop there. He went on to make even more dramatic predictions.
Scott: What else did he have to say?
He said that soon after this time, the land of Israel would be threatened by many nations, and that the armies of these nations would surround Israel on every side. This great coalition of armies would come from, and I quote, “the north parts”, and from countries like “Persia, Libya and Ethiopia”.
As Ezekiel writes in Chapter 38:
“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, thus saith the Lord God; in that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army.”
“And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.”
According to Ezekiel, this vast mechanized army would assemble on the borders to the north, south and east of Israel. Their goal would be to wipe out the Jewish nation once and for all, and to take over their land. The Jews would be powerless to stop the mighty forces that would be arrayed against them on every side.
But just when all hope seemed to be lost, and the entire nation seemed to be doomed, the Jews would be saved by a supernatural event. For a comet would suddenly appear in the skies of earth. It would cause earthquakes throughout the land, and would rain “hailstones, fire and brimstone” down on their enemies.
For as Ezekiel goes on to say:
“And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel.”
“So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence.”
“And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.”
Scott: So what will happen to the armies surrounding Israel at that time?
According to Ezekiel, the armies that are gathered on the borders of Israel will be caught on the open plains. They will be defenceless, and will be exposed to the full fury of the meteorites and the fiery hail that will descend on them from the sky.
As Ezekiel writes:
“And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.”
As a result of the earthquakes on the land, and the aerial bombardment from the skies, the armies that had gathered on the borders of Israel will be decimated. Those few who survive these disasters will either be unable, or unwilling, to pursue their assault.
Ezekiel writes that only “a sixth part” of the invading armies will survive the onslaught of the comet.
“Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, thus saith the Lord God; behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee.”
“And I will smite the bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beast of the field to be devoured.”
Ezekiel goes on to write that, after the comet has passed, the countryside will be littered with the wreckage of the armaments and the bodies of the dead. So many people will die on the open plains that it will take the Israelis seven months to bury them all.
During that time the stench of rotting flesh will fill the air. Wild beasts and birds of prey will feed on the carcases of the dead. As Ezekiel concludes:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude.”
So Scott, Ezekiel paints here a graphic picture of a failed military campaign against the state of Israel, and of the devastating losses incurred by the invading armies, as a result of the timely intervention of a comet.
Scott: So how do you think this relates to the events of our times?
Well Scott, the prophecies of Ezekiel that I have outlined here, as well as those of other Hebrew prophets that I include in my book, make it plain that the arrival of the comet will coincide with an attack on Israel.
This attack will be drawn from a coalition of forces, and will comprise armies from places like Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Iran, as well as those emanating from what Ezekiel calls “the north parts”.
They will also be joined by forces from places quoted by Ezekiel, such as Meshech and Tubal, as well as Gomer and the house of Togarmah, all of which form part of modern Turkey.
Over the years Biblical scholars have devoted reams of space dissecting what countries Ezekiel was referring to, and where exactly these invading armies would be coming from. But for the purposes of this Podcast, it is sufficient to say that it will be an Islamic alliance, linked with forces drawn from various Russian republics.
But whatever the source of these invading armies might happen to be, the rationale behind their invasion would seem to be obvious. Instead of destroying the land of Israel and its inhabitants, its mission would be to rid the land of all the Jews.
This would allow those Arabs presently living in Israel to have a home of their own at last, and to create a new Islamic nation with Jerusalem as its capital, centred around the sacred sites of the Islamic religion.
These would be the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem, which is now the site of the holy Dome of the Rock, from where Mohammed is said to have ascended into heaven, as well as the Al Aqsa mosque, considered to be the third holiest site in Islam.
By choosing a land invasion, as opposed to an aerial attack by rockets and other armaments, this Islamic coalition would be sure that none of their sacred monuments would be damaged, and that the existing Islamic population in the area would be spared.
So the invasion that Ezekiel has predicted Scott, makes a lot of military sense. For in the eyes of the Arabs, as well as in other hostile Islamic countries, such a strategy would solve once and for all the problems of the Middle East.
With the Jews gone, all of the countries of the region would be united under Islam, and their dream of taking full control of Jerusalem would finally become a reality.
Scott: So Allan, are there any calls among Arab states today, to set up an Islamic nation with Jerusalem as its capital?
Yes Scott, there are. In fact the Saudi-owned news channel “Al Arabiya”, which is based in Dubai, issued the following news bulletin on October 11, 2012. It reported that the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Sheikh Mohammed Badie, had called for a Jihad (or holy war) designed to liberate Jerusalem from Israeli rule.
According to the news report, Sheikh Badie had this to say in his weekly address to his followers:
“Jerusalem is Islamic .. and nobody is entitled to make any concessions about the fate of the city.” He then went on to say: “The Jihad for the recovery of Jerusalem is a duty for all Muslims“, adding that “the liberation of the Holy City will not be done through negotiations, or at the United Nations.”
Another prominent campaigner for the conquest of Jerusalem, has been the Egyptian Imam and television preacher by the name of Safwat Hegazi. Hegazi is certainly no lover of the Jews, having announced in 2008: “Dispatch those sons of apes and pigs to the Hellfire on the wings of Qassam rockets“.
Hegazi, who has been banned from entering the United Kingdom for stirring up hatred, was recorded as saying at an Egyptian presidential campaign rally in June: “Our capital shall not be in Cairo, Mecca or Medina. It shall be Jerusalem with God’s will.”
And to a crowd of supporters on the Gaza Strip he said: “The United States of the Arabs will be restored. The capital of the Muslim Caliphate will be Jerusalem with God’s will. Our chants shall be: millions of martyrs will march towards Jerusalem.”
And just in case there was any doubt, he concluded with these words: “Yes, we will either pray in Jerusalem or we will be martyred there.”
I leave it to listeners to decide for themselves whether these are in fact the new rallying cries of our times.
In my next Podcast, I will be dealing with the biggest threat to the state of Israel at this time, and that is Persia, or to give it its modern name, Iran.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be another in the series titled “Signs of the Times”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 16, 2010, 9:26 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the fifteenth in the series, and is titled ” What Should We Do ?”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. It’s good to talk to you again.
Scott: So Allan, what do you plan to talk about today?
Well Scott, I’d like to wrap up the topic of “The Chosen Ones” by posing the question “What should we do?” And for those folks who may have missed my last Podcast, perhaps I should start off by giving a brief summary of what exactly I am talking about.
As I have mentioned in my book, as well as on my Blog, the ancient prophets predict that our present world age will end in a series of cataclysms brought on by a close encounter with a comet, at which time the earth will also be struck by an asteroid.
Because of the catastrophes that will afflict the earth at that time, and the devastation caused by the global earthquakes and Tsunamis that will follow, the ancient prophets referred to this event as “The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.”
According to these prophets, this Terrible Day of the Lord will be followed by a seven year period of terror and destruction that will end in the return to earth of the long-awaited Saviour, who will lead the world into a new Golden Age of peace, that is predicted to last for a thousand years.
Although billions of people will die on that Terrible Day of the Lord, the prophets predict that one group of people will be spared. They will be miraculously taken out of their bodies, and will not have to endure the disasters that are coming. These people are what the Bible calls the “Chosen Ones.”
In earlier Podcasts, I explained who these Chosen Ones were, and why they would be chosen. And this brings me to the subject of today’s discussion. If these disasters really are about to happen on the earth, then what SHOULD we do about it?
Notice here that I am not posing the question that most people would no doubt like an answer to, which is the question “What CAN we do about it.” And that is because it is more important right now to learn what we SHOULD do about it.
Scott: Why is that Allan?
The reason is that these two questions deal with diametrically opposite aspects of our lives.
If we ask the question “What CAN we do about it?”, the answer obviously is “Plenty”. For there are literally hundreds of things we could decide to do if a comet was heading our way. And this is something I will definitely deal with closer to the time.
But whatever we did decide to do, these decisions would undoubtedly deal with our outward lives, and would involve things like our physical bodies, our possessions, our jobs, homes, families and the like.
Whereas the question “What SHOULD we do about it” deals with the spiritual aspect of our lives.
For Jesus made it plain that when the events of the Last Days began, it would be our spiritual condition that would matter most, rather than how much money we had, or how many possessions we had acquired, and so on.
In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is recorded as saying:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”
So based on these words of Jesus, when the events of the Last Days arrive, what we SHOULD be doing is focusing on our Souls, rather than on our physical bodies. And just to emphasize this fact, Jesus goes on to say in that same Sermon on the Mount:
“Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”
“But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and of His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Scott: So Allan, are you saying that there is no point in doing anything practical beforehand, because we are all going to die?
Definitely not Scott. Although I have no doubt that everyone would take action if they knew for certain that a comet was bearing down on the earth, there really would be little point in doing ANYTHING beforehand, if we are all doomed to die anyway.
But that is what this series of Podcasts is all about. We are not ALL doomed. For as I indicated in Part One of The Chosen Ones, some people WILL be spared. They are the people the Bible calls “The Chosen Ones”.
And the reason they will be spared is because of their Spiritual qualities, rather than in how much money they have, or how many possessions, and so on. You will recall that in Part One of this series, Scott, I listed what sort of qualities these people would have.
And here I should clarify what I said earlier about spiritual qualities. I didn’t mean that we’re all going to be judged by a shopping list of items. Instead, the determining factor in deciding who will be saved will be the motivations that people have in their hearts.
So the qualities that will decide who will be saved, and who will not, will be the FRUITS of the spiritual path, rather than the path itself.
Scott: I’m not sure I understand what you mean.
What I mean Scott, is that the qualities that we think of as being spiritual, are the FRUITS of spiritual progress, and they occur naturally, just like the fruit that grows on a tree. In fact, Jesus used this analogy himself when he talked about the Last Days in his Sermon on the Mount.
As St Matthew writes in chapter 7 of his gospel:
“You shall know them by their fruits. Every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. Every tree that brings evil fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits shall ye know them.”
So to recap, when the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord arrives, we don’t know who exactly will be saved and who will be doomed. What the Bible tells us is simply that those who will be spared will be the “Chosen Ones”.
Jesus said that at the time of the end, people would be divided into two groups. One group would consist of those who listened to his warning and acted accordingly, while the other group would consist of those who ignored these warnings.
Those who ignored his warnings would simply carry on living as they had before. And, as Jesus pointed out, they would make up the vast majority of people alive at that time. Those who acted on his warnings would be the wise ones.
In fact, Jesus ended his Sermon on the Mount with the following words:
“Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house upon a rock; And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock.”
Scott: So did Jesus give any explicit advice about what people should do at this time?
Yes Scott, he did. He urged his followers to be watchful, and to be prepared. He also told them to pray that they would be spared from the plagues of the Great Tribulation. In the 21st chapter of the gospel of St Luke, Jesus tells the people:
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come on you unawares.”
“For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the son of Man.”
So Scott, his message to us today is to watch – and pray. And I would urge all listeners to take these words of Jesus to their hearts. For there is no limit to the power of prayer in transforming a contrite heart.
So no matter what we may have thought or done in the past, if we are truly sorry for our misdeeds, and are committed to changing our ways, then our prayers will be heard, and we will be saved, even at this late stage.
However, I should also emphasize that not all those who will be saved will be among the Chosen Ones.
Scott: Once again, Allan, I’m not sure I understand what you mean.
According to the Bible, about one third of all the people who are alive on earth at the time of the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, will die in the disasters that will happen on that day.
And as I have indicated previously, this will be followed by a period of seven years in which the forces of darkness will dominate the earth, leading up to the final battle between Goodness and Evil that will culminate in the return to earth of the Great Redeemer, who will usher in the thousand years of peace.
And according to the Book of Revelation, about one quarter of those who are left upon the earth will be killed by means of what have come to be known as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. In verse 8 of the 7th chapter, St John writes:
“And I looked and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
So Scott, there will still be many people who still be alive on the earth to confront these terrors. But even they are not all doomed, for there will be some who will be purified as a result of their experiences, and they will join the Chosen Ones when the Great Redeemer returns to the earth.
For as we read in the 13th chapter of the Old Testament prophet Zechariah:
“And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, it is my people: and they shall say, the Lord is my God“.
And according to the 12th chapter of the book of the prophet Daniel:
“Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried: but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”
So I want to emphasize again Scott, that even though they may not be among the Chosen Ones who will be spared these disasters, there will still be many who will triumph in the end, having been purified by their experiences during the seven year period of terror.
Scott: So does this mean that there will be two groups of people who will be saved. The Chosen Ones at the beginning of the seven year period, and others at the end when the Saviour comes?”
Exactly Scott. I couldn’t have put it better myself. But obviously those who are saved at the beginning will be spared the horrors that lie ahead. And that is the reason Jesus warned his followers to be prepared.
And, as the Oracle of Tolemac says in my book:
“Let those who would be saved continue to watch and pray. For no matter how advanced a person may seem to be upon the Path of Returning to Everlasting Light, they do not know if they will be able to withstand the fire of the Great Initiation. Pray that you will be given guidance in the days that are to come.”
And that pretty much sums up the situation Scott. None of us can be sure we will be included among the Chosen Ones. All we can do is to pray that we will be spared, and do the best we can in the meantime to live according to our faith, and our inner guide.
Meanwhile, the other thing we all need to do is to watch out for the signs. And these signs refer to the events that are unfolding in the world today. And that is what I plan to talk about in my next Podcast, which will be another in the series “Signs of the Times”.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be another in the series titled “Signs of the Times”.
Allan, AUDIO, The Chosen Ones, July 15, 2010, 9:25 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the fourteenth in the series, and is titled “Answering the Call”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. It’s good to talk to you again.
Scott: For those listeners who might have missed your last Podcast, perhaps you could start off by giving a brief summary of what you talked about in Part One of “The Chosen Ones”.
Certainly Scott. In my last Podcast, I said that the ancient prophets predicted that our present world age would end in a series of cataclysms brought on by a close encounter with a comet, at which time the earth would be struck by an asteroid.
Because of the catastrophes that would befall the earth, and the devastation that would be caused by the world-wide earthquakes and Tsunamis that would follow, the ancient prophets referred to this day as “The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.”
This Terrible Day of the Lord would be followed by a seven year period of terror and destruction that would end in the return to earth of the long-awaited Saviour, who would lead the world into a new Golden Age of peace, that is predicted to last for a thousand years.
Although billions of people will die on that terrible day of the Lord, the prophets predict that one group of people will be spared. They will be miraculously taken out of their bodies, and will not have to endure the disasters that are coming. These people are what the Bible calls “the Chosen Ones.”
I also referred to the words of Jesus who said that many would be called, but that few would be chosen. I then went on to explain who these Chosen Ones were, and why they would be chosen. And now I’d like to spend the rest of this Podcast dealing with the topic: “Answering the Call”.
Scott: What exactly do you mean by answering the call?
Well Scott. The call I am talking about is the call of prophecy. As I have explained on my Blog, and in earlier Podcasts, all prophecy serves a purpose. And that purpose is to warn people about the events that are coming.
And the reason why these warnings are given, is so that those who listen to these warnings can do something about it. While they may not be able to change the events that are coming, they can certainly change themselves.
And that is where change really counts. For the call of the spirit is always an inner call. It always comes from inside of ourselves, from the deepest recesses of the heart. And when it calls, it is up to each one of us to decide whether we choose to answer it or not.
In other words, each one of us has the freedom to decide whether we want to be guided by the warnings given by Jesus, as well as the prophets of old.
Scott: What did Jesus say?
Jesus told his disciples that the Day of the Lord would come like a thief in the night. It would be sudden and unexpected. It would come at a time when people would be too busy with their daily affairs to notice what was about to happen.
Jesus said it would be like the time of Noah before the floods came. As we read in the Gospel of St Matthew, Chapter 24, Verses 37-39:
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the Ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away.”
Those who ignore the words of prophecy will be the people who will be caught unprepared on that terrible day. So the way to avoid the reign of terror that is coming, is to watch for the warning signs outlined in prophecy, and to be prepared.
Yet despite this warning of Jesus, the world is once again sleeping. Once again the people of the world are caught up in the events of their personal lives, their businesses, their problems and their pains. They are too busy to notice the time. But time doesn’t wait for them. It moves remorselessly on to its appointed climax.
Scott: So Allan, how does one answer the call?
Well Scott, answering the call is always a personal decision. It is never done in groups. For, as the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “Souls are not saved in bundles”.
Every person has to decide for himself, or herself, whether to take the words of prophecy seriously. But what I find interesting, Scott, is that most people who come to that decision, have tended to follow a similar path.
There appear to be six distinct stages in the process of answering the call of prophecy. I call the first stage REJECTION. Then comes VOCATION. This is followed by INVESTIGATION. Then comes CONVICTION, followed by CONVERSION. And finally there comes the stage that I call IMMERSION.
Scott: What do these different stages involve?
The process begins with what I call rejection. When people first come across the words of prophecy, they invariable reject them. And there are many reasons why they do this.
The first and most common reason is that they are simply too busy with their lives to worry about warnings about the future. For such people, the challenges involved in living their lives, in raising a family, of performing a full-time job, or of running a business, are too time consuming to worry about such things.
These people usually pride themselves on being hard-nosed realists, who devote their lives to the practical challenges of their daily existence. They generally don’t read much, or if they do, they tend to prefer escapist literature that helps them to relax, or take their minds off their daily problems.
Or else they devote their spare time to reading technical, scientific or financial journals that help them keep abreast of what is going on in the world in their particular areas of interest.
In all of these cases, people crowd their minds with thoughts and emotions related to the responsibilities of their daily lives. They seldom allow themselves the luxury of time to think about the events of our times, or what they might mean for the wider world of humanity.
But even when they do, they tend to be dogmatic, rejecting anything that conflicts with their accepted point of view. Furthermore, they are generally quick to point out the fallacies and failures that surround the whole subject of prophecy.
In previous Podcasts, I have gone into considerable detail about the problem of false prophets, and those well-meaning individuals who have misled people in the past.
The reason I did this was to illustrate just how much they have muddied the waters, and how they have made fools of those gullible souls who believed in their predictions.
But as I said before, and want to emphasize again, the failures of false prophets in the past, can never invalidate the message of the true prophets who have stood the test of time. And here I am talking about the sources of prophecy that I have used in the pages of my book.
Scott: So what is the next stage in this process, Allan?
Scott, the next stage in this process is what I call VOCATION. What I mean by this is that the individual concerned receives an inner call. The form that this inner call takes tends to vary from person to person.
It may come in the form of the words of a book, through a conversation with a friend, in hearing a song, by watching a program on TV, or even by listening to the message of a Podcast like this.
But most often it comes in the form of a deep personal experience. And this experience is often generated by misfortune, pain, disease or loss. Something happens to the individual that causes them to question themselves, and their role or purpose in life.
Because this call always comes from within, there may at first be little or no outward sign of this inner transformation. But as time passes, it begins to reveal itself in a change in attitude and perception, and a questioning of all that has gone before.
Those people who are called may be slow to recognize this initially, because their lives tend to carry on pretty much as they did before. But there is one noticeable inner change. They tend to look at life in a new way. They find themselves drawn to what I call INVESTIGATION.
Scott: What do they investigate?
They begin to look at their lives in a different light. And without necessarily being aware of any deliberate change in outlook, they begin to find themselves drawn towards the subject of prophecy.
They find that things begin to happen in their lives that draw them to this subject. They experience events that the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung called “synchronistic”. That is, events that seem to happen by chance, but later turn out to have a purpose and meaning behind them.
For example, they might happen to read a book that they might previously have ignored. And this may be followed by a chance encounter with a friend that relates to what they just read, and which then points them towards something else.
The variations are endless, and are invariably tailored to the particular interests and activities of the person concerned. But the most common feature of this phase, is that the process speeds up. The interest grows more intense.
And as they learn more about the subject of prophecy, they reach a point in their lives that I call CONVICTION. As the word suggests, this is the point in their researches where speculation turns to certainty.
As the individual studies, and learns more and more about prophecy, and begins to view the circumstances of the world in the light of these prophecies, there comes a time when they no longer need to be convinced.
They reach a point in their inner belief where doubt disappears, and is replaced by a growing sense of conviction. But while many may think of this as a good thing, it is usually the beginning of the worst stage of this entire process.
This is the stage of CONVERSION.
Scott: So Allan, what do you mean by conversion, and why do you regard this as the worst part of the process of answering the call?
Well Scott, the reason why this the most difficult stage of the entire process, is that the person changes from a Researcher into an Activist. Once they have become convinced of the truth of prophecy in their own lives, they instinctively want to convince others.
And the first people they usually try to convince are their inner circle of family and friends. And this is entirely predictable, because once they are convinced that our world is in peril, and that cataclysmic disasters are coming, they naturally want to save their loved ones as well.
And this is where the process can turn ugly.
For while it may have taken years for that person to go from the stage of scepticism to complete conviction, they now become imbued with religious fervour to convert those around them to their way of thinking – which is that our world is facing dire consequences for its evil actions in the past.
However, these well-meaning folk fail to consider one crucial fact. What do you think that is Scott?
Scott: Well, Allan, I would guess that these loved ones are likely to reject what they have to say.
Exactly. Well done Scott. Yes, despite the best of intentions, these people forget that they themselves started off by rejecting what others had to say, for all the reasons I gave earlier.
Their friends and family will say they are too busy, or they don’t have time, or that they are not interested in the subject. Besides, they will say that nobody takes prophecies seriously anymore because so many of them have proven to be wrong in the past.
They may also go on to say that nobody can predict the future, and that anybody who says they can is deluded. They may even point to the words of Jesus, who is recorded in the Bible as saying: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only“. (Matthew Chapter 24 Verse 36)
And so on, and so on, and so on. The excuses never end. So the new recruit to the world of prophecy is confronted by a sad discovery, and that is that the truth that they sought for so long and so hard to find, is now rejected by those they love the most.
What activists who have reached this stage of the process fail to realize, is that other people don’t change their outlook in life as a result of intellectual arguments. If that were the case, then our world would be a garden of delight, and there would be no need for prophecies to warn people of the consequences of their actions.
But as I said before, people have to be called from within. And until a person responds to that inner call, it is generally not possible to convert them to a new understanding of life, and of the need for change.
And it doesn’t end there. Not only do family and friends reject what they have to say, but they are also likely to scorn them for their gullibility. This is a sad day in the life of any prophetic activist, particularly those who speak of dark days to come.
And my response to all this is: Tell me about it. I have been down that road many times, and I know its bitter taste all too well. But the difference is that I have moved on. And in due course, others do as well.
And the reason they do, is that they come to embrace the final stage of this process, which I call IMMERSION.
Scott: What do you mean by Immersion?
Immersion is the stage when people come to understand what is really happening in the world, and why it is happening. They understand the cyclical nature of life, and why catastrophes continue to occur from age to age.
They realize not only why such things happen in the course of our evolution on earth, but they also see the necessity for such things to happen, as well as the beauty and the justice that lies behind the plan that is now unfolding on the earth and in the heavens.
They understand the Truth, and are at peace – not only with the world, but also with themselves. They finally come to realize that they are not responsible for saving others, even if they belong to their immediate family, until they are ready to be saved.
And the choice must always be left to the individual concerned. They first have to hear the inner call. And then they have to answer that call. Until that happens, it is better to leave them to follow the path in life that they have chosen.
For as St John wrote in the last chapter of his Book of Revelation:
“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.”
In other words, if people aren’t ready to respond, then it is wiser to leave them in peace. Let them continue to live their lives according to their own inner light, whether this be for good, or for ill.
I will be continuing this topic of the Chosen Ones in my next Podcast, which will deal with the question: “What Should We Do?”.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, Part Three of “The Chosen Ones”.
Allan, AUDIO, The Chosen Ones, July 14, 2010, 9:25 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the thirteenth in the series, and is titled “The Chosen Ones”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. Good to be with you again.
Scott: In our last Podcast, titled “Signs of the Times”, you ended by posing the question: If the ancient prophets are correct, and our modern world is about to be destroyed, then are we all about to die?
I did Scott. In fact I called it the key question of our times, because sooner or later, everyone who is really serious about the subject of prophecy has to deal with the implications of this question.
What I said in my last Podcast was that the ancient prophets predict that there will be a new earth and a new heaven. Our existing world will be destroyed, and will be replaced by a new one that has been cleansed by the catastrophes that are coming.
According to the prophecies that I explain in my book “The Last Days of Tolemac”, our present world age will end in a series of cataclysms brought on by a close encounter with a comet. These catastrophes will begin on a day that the ancient prophets called “The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.”
This Terrible Day of the Lord will be the start of a seven year period of terror and destruction. It will end in the return to earth of the long-awaited Savior, who will lead the world into a new Golden Age of peace that is predicted to last for a thousand years.
Scott: So, to get back to your original question. Are we all going to die in the catastrophes that have been predicted?
Well Scott, my answer to this question is: No, we are not all going to die.
However, when the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord arrives, many of us will. In fact, out of the seven billion or so people who are alive on the planet today, I fully expect one third, or about two and a half billion people, will lose their lives within the first 24 hours.
After all, when you consider the damage that will be inflicted upon the earth, even that number may prove to be conservative. For when the asteroid strikes the earth, or to be more accurate, when it strikes the ocean, several things are going to happen.
Firstly, the shock wave generated by its impact will reverberate around the planet causing tectonic plates all over the world to buckle. These convulsions throughout the earth will spawn nation-wide earthquakes with magnitudes of 10 or more on the Richter scale.
Secondly, tsunamis created by the asteroid impact will surge around the world, with wave crests hundreds of feet high, that will swamp the coastlines of every continent, and devastate coastal cities everywhere.
This will be a time when humanity will once again relive the words of the Biblical Psalms. The Psalms of the Bible tell of past cataclysms that have happened within the recorded memory of humanity. For example, in Psalm 18, we read:
“Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them; And he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, And the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord,
Again in Psalm 97
“The Lord reigneth; Clouds and darkness are round about him: Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: The earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord.”
And in the 114th Psalm we read:
“When Israel went out of Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
As you can appreciate Scott, world-wide catastrophes that cause mountains to melt like wax and hills to skip like young lambs are not the sort of things that are taught in our school history and geography classes today.
Devastation on that scale would require forces far greater than normal earthquakes or tidal waves, fearful though these may be. What the Psalms have recorded are the consequences of earth’s past encounters with comets and asteroids.
Scott: It all sounds pretty terrible to me.
It certainly does, Scott. But many people will survive. For as I have already pointed out in earlier Podcasts, this is not the first time that the earth has experienced an extinction level event.
As has happened in the past, there will be those who will find ways to survive the horrors of that initial day of terror. Yet these survivors may well be regarded as the unlucky ones. For they will have to deal with undreamed of challenges just in order to survive.
For they will have to confront what the Book of Revelation calls the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They will have to face the spectre of famine, disease, war and death.
And they will have to do so in a world that has been wrecked by earthquakes and swamped by Tsunamis. They will also have to deal with a world stripped of law and order, where marauding bands scour the land looking for anything they can find to survive.
And from what researchers like Velikovsky have uncovered, it was equally terrible for those few who were trying to survive earlier extinction level events. However, this time things will be different.
They will be different because instead of having to deal with long centuries of disintegration and decay, as they did after past catastrophes, those who ultimately survive will inherit the greatest period of peace and happiness in the history of our tormented world.
It will be a time of wonder and joy beyond anything that we can presently imagine. But, before anyone can inherit the coming Golden Age, they will have to prove that they are worthy. They will have to pass the tests of the Spiritual Graduation day that is coming for all humanity.
But there is one group of people who will be spared. They will be miraculously taken out of their bodies, and will not have to endure the disasters that are coming. They are what the Bible refers to as the “Chosen Ones”
In fact, on several occasions, we read that Jesus told his disciples that many would be called, but that few would be chosen, such as in Verse 14 of the 22nd Chapter of the Gospel of St Matthew.
Scott: Who are the Chosen Ones?
Well Scott, this is something that has confused a lot Biblical scholars. They have assumed that the people who will be saved from these catastrophes, will be a certain chosen few who will be specially selected by God when the time comes.
But these scholars have misunderstood what Jesus was saying. What he was pointing out to his disciples was that many people would be called, but that relatively few of these would actually choose to follow his teachings.
However, those who did so would be among those who would be saved during the end times. Again, they would not be people who paid lip service to his teachings, but those who actually followed his commandments.
In Chapter 7 Verses 21-23 of his Gospel, St Matthew writes:
“Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out many devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
And in Chapter 18 of his Book of Revelation, St John writes:
“And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying: Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of their plagues.”
This makes it clear Scott, that those who will be spared the wrath of God on that Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, will be those who possess the Fruits of the Spirit, and who have avoided the Sins of the Flesh.
Scott: What are these Fruits of the Spirit and the Sins of the Flesh?
In the 5th Chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians, St Paul describes the Fruits of the Spirit in the following way:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance“.
Against such, says St Paul, there is no law, meaning that they will be spared the punishment that awaits the remainder. However, those who succumb to the Sins of the Flesh will be the victims of the plagues that are coming. He describes these sins as follows:
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, and they are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, quarrelling, rivalry, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like.”
For those people guilty of such behavior, St Paul goes on to say:
“About these things I tell you again, as I have told you in times past, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Scott: So does this mean that only Christians will be saved?
No Scott, it doesn’t. Those Christians who are found worthy on that great and terrible day, will be among those who will be spared from these catastrophes, and will be taken from the earth.
But just as Jesus came to earth to share his message of love with all people, so those who are taken from the earth will be drawn from all the peoples of the world. It will not matter what faith people profess, or do not profess.
There will be Buddhists, Hindus, Moslems, Christians and all manner of other beliefs included among those who will be spared. There will even be some who profess no faith at all.
The test that will decide whether or not people qualify will be the character they display, rather than the extent of their education, status, wealth or possessions. In fact, in my book, the Oracle of Tolemac describes the qualities of the people who will be saved.
“The people who will be saved are the peacemakers of this world. They are patient. They are slow to show anger. They do not judge others. When any harm is done to them by others they are quick to forgive. They do not harbor thoughts of revenge.
“They do not make a show of the good works that they do. They do not push themselves ahead of others. They do not seek to be first. They do not search for fame. They do not make a show of their talents. They have simple needs. They are satisfied with whatever comes their way.
“These people lead considerate, sober, thoughtful and dedicated lives. They care for others, especially the poor and the neglected in life. They place the needs of others before their own. In times of hardship they are courageous, resourceful and optimistic.
“They seek the best in all things. They are not daunted by difficulty. They are not motivated by material gain. They do not seek to acquire great personal wealth. They are motivated by the desire to gain a deeper understanding of life.
“They strive to be of service to all those who turn to them for help. They are strong in faith. They are humble. They are meek. Their apparent outward weakness hides their inner strength. They are at peace with themselves and with the world.
“They share what they have with others without thought of whether they will be repaid. They are considerate of the needs of other creatures that share life with them. They do not oppress the weak or exploit the gullible.
“They do not trample on the rights of others. They allow others the freedom to live their lives as they think best. They are not easily misled. They do not indulge in excess. They do not search after empty pleasures. They do not shirk pain or seek to escape the realities of life.”
I will be continuing this topic of the Chosen Ones in my next Podcast, which will deal with the subject of “Answering The Call”.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be Part Two of “The Chosen Ones”.
Allan, AUDIO, The Chosen Ones, July 13, 2010, 9:24 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the twelfth in the series, and is titled “Signs of the Times”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. It’s always a pleasure.
Scott: So what do you plan to talk about today?
Well Scott, now that we’ve reached the 12th program in the series, I thought this might be a good time to do a brief recap of earlier Podcasts, and explain how they fit together.
Scott: That sounds like a great idea.
You will recall that I started off by giving a summary of my book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. I then went on to explain how I came to write the book in the first place, and why I used the word Tolemac in the title.
Because my book deals with prophecy, or to be more correct the interpretation of prophecy, I discussed the purpose of prophecy, as well as the difference between prophecy and prediction. I also listed the sources of prophecy that I used in my book.
I then turned to the problem of bogus predictions. Because so many predictions that have been made in the past have turned out to be wrong, I devoted the next three Podcasts to the subject of false prophecies.
And since 2012 has been a banner year with all sorts of doom-laden predictions, I devoted the Podcast titled “The Doomsday Prophecies” to dealing with these predictions, and explaining why I believe that all of these predictions will also turn out to be false.
And because so many people have been caught up in the rumours surrounding Planet X, as a result of the many books written by Zecharia Sitchin, I devoted Podcast No 6 to explaining why Planet X is not a threat to earth, and why it is considered to be a literary hoax.
Podcast # 7 was devoted to the Maya and their Long Count calendar. I discussed how this Long Count calendar came about, as well as the various predictions associated with its supposed end on December 21, 2012.
I then went on to explain why I believe that all of these predictions associated with the Mayan calendar will also turn out to be false.
Scott: I must say I was relieved to hear you say that none of these predictions were likely to happen, and that we don’t have anything to worry about at this time.
Well, that’s not exactly true, Scott. What I said was we don’t have anything to fear from those specific prophecies, especially the ones related to the year 2012.
However, in my book “The Last Days of Tolemac“, I refer to specific predictions that have been made by ancient prophets about the future of our planet, and I go on to explain why I believe that these particular prophecies will soon come to pass, exactly as the ancients said they would.
Several of my previous Podcasts have been titled “Signs of the Times”. The purpose of these Podcasts is to draw people’s attention to events that are happening in our world at this time, that I believe are precursors to the disasters that have been foretold.
You may remember that in my previous Podcast in this series, Scott, I referred to certain statements made by Richard Leakey.
Scott: I do. Wasn’t he the scientist from Kenya who has spent his life researching the origins of mankind through the study of ancient fossils?
That’s exactly right Scott. And it is worth repeating what he said at a recent press conference. This is what he said:
“If you look at the fossil record, the thing that strikes you is that extinction is the most common phenomenon. Extinction is always driven by environmental change, and environmental change is always driven by climate change.”
So what Richard Leakey is saying Scott, is that many species that previously existed on the earth have been wiped out in past disasters, and their fossils bear testimony to ancient cataclysmic events.
You will recall that my last three Podcasts were devoted to the life and works of Immanuel Velikovsky. In these Podcasts I pointed out that Velikovsky spent ten years researching the records, legends and myths of the ancient world.
And just like Richard Leakey, Velikovsky found that the evidence of the geological and fossil record indicates that the extinction of many species has occurred catastrophically, rather than in a gradual way as Darwin would have us believe.
He also found that some of these catastrophes have occurred within the recorded memory of humanity, and that these events have been preserved in myths and legends in all the ancient cultures and civilizations of the world.
In the course of his research, Velikovsky found numerous references to different world ages in the past history of our planet. And the idea that the earth has undergone a series of catastrophic upheavals did not begin with the Maya.
Legends, myths and stories of these devastating events can also be found throughout the ancient world. They tell of times when entire cultures were destroyed and the earth was convulsed by natural disasters that had their origin in space.
Scott: So Allan, do you think that the earth will soon experience another extinction level event?
Yes Scott, I do. In my last Podcast, I pointed out that the descriptions given by St John in his Book of Revelation in the Bible, about the events that will occur during the end times, sound strikingly similar to the plagues that descended on Egypt at the time of Moses.
Not only that, but it is clear from other Biblical prophecies that the catastrophes that are about to afflict the earth will come suddenly, or as Jesus said: “like a thief in the night”. And these catastrophes will be accompanied by signs in the earth, as well as signs in the heavens.
The Old Testament prophets refer to specific disasters that will befall the earth in what they call “the latter days”, meaning the days relating to the end of our current world age. These disasters will begin on what they call “the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord”.
I quote extensively from these prophecies in my book, but for those listeners who may be not be familiar with my work, I will just offer a few quotations here. As St Luke writes in chapter 21 of his gospel:
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.”
“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” (Joel: chapter 2, verses 30-31.)
“For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up.” (Malachi: chapter 4, verse 1)
And as I explain in my book, the prophecies of the ancients say that our present world will be destroyed, and will be followed by a new Golden Age of peace and prosperity.
So the world itself will continue, Scott, but in a totally new form. According to the Book of Revelation, there will be a new earth and a new heaven. The old world will be obliterated, and will be replaced by a new one that has been cleansed by the catastrophes that are coming.
Scott: Well Allan, the idea of a new Golden Age is certainly good news. But if our present world is about to be destroyed, then what are the warning signs that we should be looking out for ?
When the disciples of Jesus asked him this same question, he said that the time of his return would be identified by wars and rumours of wars, by changes in the weather, and by an increase in natural disasters.
And although this description could probably apply to almost any century during the last two thousand years, it is particularly true today, as anyone can see by simply following the daily news.
And this is where people like Richard Leakey really have their fingers on the pulse of our times. For if extinction events are preceded by environmental change, and if environmental change really is driven by climate change, then surely all the warnings we need can already be seen in our daily newspapers.
Just look at the dramatic increase in extreme weather related events that have occurred since the beginning of this year. There has been practically no country on the planet that has escaped the havoc caused by these events.
After experiencing one of the warmest winters on record, the continental United States is now baking in conditions of extreme heat that have broken thousands of local records in cities everywhere.
Nowhere has this been more evident than in the so-called “corn belt”, which is now reeling under one of the worst droughts in history CNN reported that July was the hottest single month on record for the continental United States.
These high temperatures have contributed to a rapid expansion of drought across the central plains. In fact the Department of Agriculture recently announced that over half of all the Counties in the United States have now been labelled natural disaster areas.
This extreme heat has not only devastated crops, leading to food shortages and increased prices, but in states like Colorado and Oklahoma, it has led to the worst outbreaks of forest fires ever recorded.
Then there have been sudden extreme weather events in different parts of the country, such as the storms that downed trees in the North East, leaving millions of people without power. And Chicago was struck by similar storms just a few weeks ago.
In June, parts of Florida were almost drowned by unprecedented amounts of rainfall caused by tropical storm Debby. And similar torrential downpours have taken place recently in places like Great Britain, Brazil, China, India, the Philippines, Russia and North Korea.
So the key point here Scott, is not that extreme weather events are happening all over the earth, but the fact that they are happening with increasing frequency, and with increasing ferocity. These are the signs that drastic changes lie ahead for our planet.
And, as the ancients have predicted, these changes will culminate in the cataclysmic events of “the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord”. But our weather is not the only sign that the end times are near. There is also the matter of “wars and rumours of wars”.
Scott: What do you mean by that?
As I have explained in my book Scott, the trigger for the events predicted for the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord are to be found in the Middle East. Already we can see that this area of the world is in ferment.
Most of the attention at this time is directed towards the dire events in Syria, where a sectarian civil war is under way between the Alawite sect of President Bashar al Assad, and the Sunni majority.
And no matter what the final outcome of this conflict may happen to be, it is clear that, as a result of the constant shelling and aerial bombardment of rebel positions, the nation’s infrastructure will be in ruins, and Syria will remain a hotbed of revolution for years to come.
Bur Syria is only a minor player in the end-time drama that is unfolding. According to the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets, the vital clue to the onset of these catastrophes will involve the land of Israel and its enemies.
In my book I outline the events that will lead up to this event. And what we need to be watching right now is the stand-off between Israel and Iran, especially regarding their development of nuclear weapons.
And from announcements made recently by leading figures in Israel and the United States, I believe that we are only months away from a strike on the Iranian underground facilities which will have a profound impact on all the nations of the region.
I also believe that this military strike will be the beginning of the end times spoken of in the Bible. But I will have much more to say about all this in my next Podcast in the series “Signs of the Times” in about a month from now.
Meanwhile, I will be devoting the next three Podcasts to the key question of our times. The key question is this:
If what these ancient prophets are saying proves to be correct, and our modern world is about to be destroyed, then are we all going to die? I plan to call these next three instalments: “The Chosen Ones”.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “The Chosen Ones”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 12, 2010, 9:23 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the eleventh in the series, and is titled “Velikovsky: His Impact on Prophecy”. Hello Allan and welcome.
Thanks Scott, it’s good to chat to you again.
Scott: Allan, in our last Podcast you talked about the works of Velikovsky, and his research into global catastrophes that have happened in the past. Why do you think his work is important in understanding prophecy?
Well Scott, there is an old Occult axiom that says the past is the key to understanding the future. So if we want to understand future prophecy, we need to know what has happened in the past.
And this is where Velikovsky has played such a crucial role. For his books have allowed us to interpret the myths and legends of ancient cultures in the light of modern science, and in so doing, have allowed us to get a glimpse into our own future.
I should make it clear that Velikovsky spent his life delving into the events of the past. As far as I know, he never spent any time considering the prophecies of the future. Which seems a pity, because if he had, I think he would have been able to decipher the mysteries of the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
Scott: Why do you say that?
Being a Jew, Velikovsky was well aware of the history of the Jewish people, and especially the Bible story of how God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, as described in the Book of Exodus.
According to the Bible story, Moses confronted Pharaoh and demanded that he let his people go. But Pharaoh was unmoved. As we read in the Bible, the Lord hardened his heart against Moses, and refused to release the Israelites.
In response, God brought a series of plagues against the people of Egypt. And if you will just bear with me Scott, I would like to list these plagues in the order in which they are presented in the Bible.
The first plague caused the waters and rivers to be turned into blood, killing the fish and polluting the drinking water. This was followed by an outbreak of frogs, lice and flies. Then came the “murrain”, an infectious disease that killed the livestock.
The next plague was a strange dust that caused boils and blisters to break out on the skin of people and animals. Then came thunder and hail, and fire that ran along the ground, destroying crops in the field.
This was followed by a vast swarm of locusts that destroyed the remainder of the crops that had survived the hail. Then there came a strange darkness that fell over the land of Egypt. This darkness not only blackened the sky, but was a darkness that could be felt as well.
Most Bible scholars interpret the story of the plagues of Egypt as a series of miracles, performed by Moses, and authorised by God, as part of his plan to deliver the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt.
These scholars probably never considered for a moment, the possibility that the plagues that descended on Egypt might not have been supernatural miracles at all, but rather the predictable consequences of a close encounter between the earth and a large comet.
That is, until Velikovsky came along.
Scott: What did Velikovsky have to say?
Velikovsky explained that when a comet approaches the sun, its core or nucleus becomes heated, releasing streams of gas and dust particles. This luminous tail can extend for millions of miles into space, depending on the size of the comet.
On its journey towards the sun, the tail of the comet always points away from the sun, blown by the forces of radiation and the solar wind. But once a comet has passed around the sun and is heading back into space, instead of being behind the comet, the tail now goes in front of the comet.
Velikovsky theorized that if, at the time of Moses, the earth had happened to cross the path of a large comet, as it headed away from the sun, then the first sign that the people on earth would see would be a stream of very fine dust particles entering the atmosphere.
And if the nucleus of the comet contained iron, these dust particles would be red. As these red dust particles fell on the surface of the water, they would turn the seas, rivers and lakes a blood red colour.
These particles would also pollute the water, making it unfit to drink. This contaminated water would then cause the fish to die, and their dead carcases would soon begin to decompose, causing the rivers to give off a foul odour.
In order to escape, the frogs would abandon the rivers and make their way into the houses of the Egyptians. As the earth continued to pass through the tail of the comet, the red dust now coating the land would cause an infestation of lice, followed by immense swarms of flies.
This dust would also be likely to cause a variety of skin infections, boils and blisters, that would afflict men and animals alike. The lice and flies would also lead to outbreaks of disease among the livestock of the Egyptians.
As the earth plunged deeper into the tail of the comet, the particles of reddish dust would give way to gravel particles. These superheated particles would then fall to earth in the form of fiery hailstones that would run along the ground.
These flaming meteorites would not only strike people and animals caught in the open, but would set fire to the crops in the field as well. And any crops left standing would likely be destroyed by the vast swarms of locusts that would follow.
As the earth moved closer to the nucleus of the comet, there would come an inky blackness so intense that light could not penetrate it. This would be a darkness that could be felt, for the very air would seem to stick in the throat.
So as you can see, Scott, Velikovsky brought a completely new interpretation of Biblical history relating to the events that occurred in Egypt at the time of the Exodus.
Scott: So how does this relate to the prophecies in the Book of Revelation?
As I’m sure you know Scott, while the disciple John was living in exile on the Greek island of Patmos, he had a series of revelatory visions about a future time when Jesus would return in triumph to the earth.
In his book of Revelation John described in dramatic fashion the sequence of events that would unfold at that time. This book has since become one of the most enigmatic books of the Bible, and religious scholars still cannot agree on exactly what it was that John was describing.
We also have to remember, that if John really did foresee events that would happen on the earth several thousands of years in the future, he would hardly have been able to describe those events in words that would be understandable to us today.
He would also be forced to use symbols for things he didn’t understand or recognize. Perhaps I could give examples of what I am talking about?
Scott: Certainly, Allan. Please carry on.
For example, in Chapter 8 of his Book of Revelation John writes about seven angels who were given seven trumpets. As each angel sounded their trumpet, so the earth was assailed by a specific disaster. This is how John describes what will happen when these trumpets sound.
I should mention here that I am quoting from the King James version of the Bible.
“The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up.
“And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
“And the name of the star is called Wormwood; and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.”
For most readers of the Bible, these descriptions will probably seem mystifying enough. But just to complicate matters, John went on to describe seven more angels, who had each been given Vials of the Wrath of God to pour upon the earth. This is what John wrote:
“And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
“And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea“.
“And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
“And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given to him to scorch men with fire”.
“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness: and they gnawed their tongues for pain“.
Scott: So Allan, don’t you think these verses remind you of what happened at the time of Moses?
That is exactly the point I wanted to make Scott. These verses would probably have held little meaning for the people who were living when John wrote these words. But because of the explanation given to us by Velikovsky, in explaining the various plagues that happened at the time of Moses, we have been given an insight into the apocalyptic events that John was trying to describe.
If he were still alive today, this is what I believe Velikovsky might say. Suppose a large comet was to pass in orbit around the sun. As it sped away from the sun back into the dark void of space, its luminous tail of particles would travel ahead of it, blown by the force of solar radiation.
If the earth should happen to lie in the path of this comet after its perihelion (or closest approach to the sun), then our world would first come into contact with the tail of the comet, which would extend ahead of it in space for many millions of miles.
If the dust particles in the tail of the comet were ferruginous (containing iron oxide or rust), then the earth would be showered by particles of fine, red dust. As this cosmic dust began to fall from the sky, it would settle on the skin of people and animals causing irritation and infection.
The presence in the atmosphere of these tiny particles of dust would also spawn torrential downpours of rain, which would be characterised by a blood-red color. As the earth continued to be showered by poisonous dust this bloody rain would soon contaminate the rivers and the seas, causing them to become blood-red in appearance. Those who drank from these toxic waters would die.
As the earth drew closer to the nucleus of the comet, larger particles in the comet’s tail would fall as blazing meteorites. This torment of fiery hail would then set fire to large portions of the land. Entire forests and countrysides would be engulfed in blazing infernos that would destroy crops, which would later lead to widespread famine.
Should a part of the comet, or even the nucleus itself plunge into the sea, this flaming asteroid would create unparalleled havoc, not just to those creatures in the sea, but also to those craft which happened to be travelling upon it. Coastal cities would be ravaged by tumultuous tidal waves. Hundreds of millions of people would die in a matter of minutes.
The resulting collision would devastate the land and decimate all forms of life on the planet. A cloud of dust and debris would soon circle the earth, blotting out in places the light of the sun, the moon and the stars. Such a close encounter with a large comet would severely jolt the earth, perhaps even causing it to tilt on its axis, and even change the alignment of its poles.
One final note to those listeners who would like to understand the physics behind Velikovsky’s ideas. Go to YouTube, and type in Thunderbolts of the Gods. Look for the 64 minute video associated with the Electric Universe.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be another in the series titled “Signs of the Times.”
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, Velikovsky, July 11, 2010, 9:23 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the tenth in the series, and is titled “The Works of Velikovsky”. Hello Allan and welcome.
Thanks Scott. It’s a pleasure to be with you again.
Scott: So Allan, in our last Podcast you talked about the life of Velikovsky. You then went on to explain that he was treated as an outcast by the scientific community in America. Why did they react the way they did?
Well Scott, as I explained in my previous Podcast, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Velikovsky and his wife moved to New York. And it was while he was there that something happened that was to change the course of his life.
Scott: What happened?
He was researching early Israelite history in the Bible, when he came across the following passage in the tenth chapter of the Book of Joshua.
“Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: ‘Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.”
“And the sun stood and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hastened not to go down for about a whole day.”
It was while he was reading this passage that the thought occurred to Velikovsky: What if Joshua was describing something that had actually happened at the time? Because If this was the case, it would suggest that either the earth’s rotation had stopped briefly, or else the earth had tilted on its axis.
Either way, Velikovsky reasoned, if this event had actually happened, there should be similar legends elsewhere. And on the other side of the earth there would have been an extended period of darkness, when the sun failed to rise at its regular time.
So he set about looking to see if other cultures had similar stories in the past. And the more he looked, the more stories he found. He found them in ancient documents from pre-Columbian America, from China, India, Persia, Babylon, Iceland, Finland, Greece and Rome.
He was helped in this effort by his talent for languages, and his brilliant academic career. For he was able to delve into records that were not only written in English, but also in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, French, Italian and Spanish.
In fact it was his vast intellectual capacity that was so daunting to his critics, for most of them lacked the ability to read his sources in their original languages, and the hierarchy of American scientists at the time ignored anything that wasn’t written in English.
And so began a ten year period of research, that culminated in the publication of his great trilogy. His first book was published in 1950, and was called “Worlds in Collision”. This was followed in 1952 by “Ages in Chaos”, and in 1955 by “Earth in Upheaval”.
Scott: What did these books have to say?
As I mentioned previously, to do justice to his work would need vastly more time than I have here, and to do so would take us away from the subject of prophecy. But I can give you a very brief summary.
According to Velikovsky, sometime within the last 4,000 years, an enormous convulsion took place on the planet Jupiter. As a result of this convulsion, a proto-planet the size of earth was ejected from Jupiter.
And although Velikovsky never said this himself, I am happy to go on record as saying that the most prominent feature associated with the planet Jupiter, its giant red spot, is actually a remnant of that primordial explosion that still persists to this day.
According to the legends that Velikovsky discovered in the course of his research, the object that was ejected from Jupiter ended up as the planet Venus.
So, according to Velikovsky, Venus is a very young planet, less than 4,000 years old. And in the course of its erratic orbit around the sun, it began to have close encounters with other planets, particularly Mars and the earth.
In his book “Worlds in Collision”, Velikovsky provides a vast amount of evidence indicating that Venus had a close encounter with the earth around the 15th century BC, and that it threatened the earth again some 52 years later.
The gravitational effects of these encounters forced Venus into a new orbit which then brought it into a collision path with Mars. These close encounters led to Mars being thrown into a new orbit, where it began to threaten the earth.
A series of disastrous encounters then took place between earth and Mars, after which Mars settled into its present orbit around the sun. Venus, meanwhile, had become an inner planet with a new orbit between Mercury and the earth.
So to summarise, “Worlds in Collision” dealt with the encounters between Venus and the earth, and then between the earth and Mars.
His book “Ages in Chaos” dealt with the problems of ancient chronology as a result of these catastrophes, and provided a reconciliation between Biblical history and mainstream archeology.
In his third book titled “Earth in Upheaval”, Velikovsky dealt with the geological evidence for these global catastrophes that can be found on the earth today.
So you can imagine Scott, these three books created an enormous furore within the scientific community at the time.
Scott: I certainly can Allan. I was taught that all the planets in our solar system are in stable orbits, and have never collided with one another in the past.
Naturally Scott. I was taught that too. And that’s because we live in a society still dominated by the Judeo-Christian tradition, which is that civilization began some five thousand years ago in Mesopotamia.
Our scientists don’t have any connection with ancient prehistory like other cultures do. They believe that our solar system has remained unchanged for eons, and that the planets we see in the sky today are the same as those that were set in place at the beginning.
As I mentioned in our last Podcast, the science of today is founded upon the theory of uniformitarianism, which is the idea that the agents of change that we see in the world today, are the same as those that have existed in the past.
There is no room in this theory for catastrophic events that could have wiped out humanity in ages past, because the scientists of today don’t believe that humanity was around in ages past.
Scott: How do the ideas of Velikovsky compare with the works of Zecharia Sitchin and his Planet X?
I’m glad you brought that up Scott. First of all there is no comparison between Velikovsky and Sitchin when it comes to their academic credentials. Velikovsky was a graduate of Moscow University who was trained in a variety of scientific disciplines, and was conversant with multiple languages.
Sitchin on the other hand was a self-taught amateur. And it shows in their books. Whereas Sitchin simply presented his ideas without reference to any other scholars, Velikovsky’s books included detailed references from thousands of literary sources.
The amount of evidence presented by Velikovsky in support of his central thesis is quite mind-boggling, and it is no surprise that his critics never took up the challenge of trying to invalidate all of this material.
And along the way, Velikovsky gave fascinating insights on a host of different topics, from the nature of the food called manna in the Bible, to the reason why the Israelites had to wander in darkness for forty years after being led out of Egypt by Moses.
He even explained how the Red Sea got its name, and how all the oil and gas that can be found under the ground as well as under the sea, came to be there in such vast quantities.
Scott: So how do the works of Velikovsky tie in with prophecy?
Why I consider Velikovsky to be the key to understanding prophecy, is because he was the first scholar to study the legends of the past, and then interpret them from a scientific point of view.
What the books written by Velikovsky tell us is this:
• The earth has suffered natural catastrophes on a global scale both before, as well as during historical times, and that these will likely happen again in the future
• The evidence of the geological and fossil record indicates that the extinction of many species has occurred catastrophically, rather than in a gradual way as Darwin would have us believe
• The catastrophes that have occurred within the memory of humanity, have been preserved in myths, legends and written history, in all the ancient cultures and civilizations of the world
• The causes of these natural catastrophes were the result of intervention from space, in the form of comets, asteroids and other bodies within our solar system
Furthermore, as Velikovsky points out, we need to understand what is meant by the word collision. This doesn’t mean one planet literally colliding with another, as in the case of an asteroid slamming into the earth.
Velikovsky went to great pains to point out that the existing science of orbital mechanics was deficient. Which means in essence that it was wrong.
In the classical world of science, space was regarded as empty, and the planets were simply blobs of matter orbiting the sun according to the laws of motion set out by Isaac Newton, and the law of gravity as explained by Albert Einstein.
Velikovsky was the first to realize that electromagnetic forces were essential to understanding the true nature of orbital mechanics. Every object in space had an electro-magnetic component, and close encounters between these bodies invariably led to electro-magnetic discharges.
So planets never actually collided with one another. Instead they became temporarily locked together in an electro-magnetic embrace, before parting and continuing their separate ways.
Scott: And how does this tie in with different earth ages?
The idea that the earth has undergone a succession of catastrophic upheavals as a result of cosmic events can be found throughout the ancient world, and Velikovsky quoted from these sources at great length in his books.
The Chinese recorded that ten different world ages had passed up to the time of Confucius. The Hindus called these past ages Kalpas or Yugas, and referred to four previous ages that had ended in catastrophe.
Similar references can be found in Buddhist scriptures, as well as in the Zend-Avesta, the sacred book of the Persians. The early Greek philosophers also referred to past world ages in their writings. For example, the Greek poet Hesiod vividly described the end of one of these ages in his book titled Theogony.
But perhaps the best example of this can be found in Timaeus, an essay written by Plato. In this piece Plato refers to a conversation between the great Athenian lawgiver Solon and an old Egyptian priest:
“Oh Solon, Solon” said the priest. “You Greeks are all children, and there is no such thing as an old Greek.” “What do you mean by that?” asked Solon. The priest replied:
“You are all young in mind. You have no belief rooted in old tradition, and no knowledge hoary with age. And the reason is this. There have been, and will be, many different calamities to destroy mankind. The greatest of them by fire and water, and lesser ones by countless other means.”
“Your own story of Phaeton, child of the sun, harnessed his father’s chariot, but was unable to guide it along his father’s course, and so burnt up things on earth and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt, is a mythical version of the truth that there is, at long intervals, a variation in the course of the heavenly bodies, and a consequent widespread destruction by fire of things on the earth.”
So here we have an indisputable source pointing out that there have been many different catastrophes in the past history of the earth, and that these have been caused by “a variation in the course of heavenly bodies“.
This is pretty graphic stuff, Scott. But sadly this truth has been lost on those who claim to be in the vanguard of science today.
Instead, we are fed the same old dogma, that these accounts of past destruction taken from ancient cultures are exactly that, simple stories, myths and legends designed to entertain, but not to enlighten people today about what really happened in the past.
Well, the prophets of old tell a different story. They say that what has happened in the past, is about to happen again. And we are the generation that will live to experience this for ourselves.
In the final instalment in this series, I want to talk about the impact that Velikovsky has had upon prophecy, by helping us to understand the meaning of the words of these ancient prophets.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast in this series, titled “Velikovsky: His Impact on Prophecy”
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, Velikovsky, July 10, 2010, 9:22 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the ninth in the series, and is titled “Velikovsky: The Man”. Hello Allan and welcome.
Hello Scott. It’s good to chat to you again.
Scott: I see from the title that you plan to talk about Velikovsky. For people like me who don’t know much about him, who was he and why is he important to prophecy?
Well Scott, in order to do justice to the man and his work, I need to devote several Podcasts to him. So I intend to divide this into three parts. I have titled this Podcast “Velikovsky: The Man”. The next will be called “The Works of Velikovsky”, and the final Podcast in this series will be “Velikovsky: His Impact on Prophecy”
Scott: It sounds like Velikovsky was an important man.
He certainly was Scott, but to understand why, I’d like to start off with an anecdote.
The late Middle Ages were a dangerous time to be alive in Western Europe. The Catholic Church of Rome was the established guardian of thought, and anyone who challenged their ideas was branded as a heretic, and liable to be burned at the stake.
It was into this world of closed thought that an Italian astronomer by the name of Galileo published a treatise, announcing that the earth was not the centre of the universe, but actually travelled around the sun. In support of this revolutionary thesis, Galileo presented evidence provided by his telescope, an instrument that he had himself invented in 1609, at the age of 45.
He invited the Cardinals of the Church to look through his telescope, and see the truth for themselves. The Cardinals were outraged. “We won’t look through your telescope“, they cried, “because we already know the truth. We already know how the universe is ordered, and if your telescope were to show us anything different, it would be an instrument of the Devil.”
Galileo was accused of heresy, and ordered to stand trial before the Court of the Inquisition. But he was lucky, because he was spared from being burned at the stake. However, he was ordered to make a public confession, and was sentenced to a life in isolation, by spending the remainder of his days under house arrest at his villa at Arcetri in Italy, where visitors were forbidden.
For the courage of his convictions, and his defiance of authority at the risk of his own life, Galileo is considered today to be one of the founding fathers of science, and a supreme example of the quest for scientific truth in the face of official dogma.
Scott: So what does this have to do with Velikovsky?
The reason why I mention this anecdote Scott, is because the way the Cardinals of the Church of Rome responded to Galileo, is exactly the way the scientists of the 20th century reacted to Velikovsky.
Like Galileo, Velikovsky came up with a revolutionary theory that turned the neatly ordered world of astronomy on its head, by introducing new concepts that radically challenged the accepted scientific view of the universe of that time.
But instead of examining the detailed evidence provided by Velikovsky, according to the protocols of science initiated by men like Galileo, the Hierarchy of Scientific thought at that time responded in hysterical fashion.
Professor Harlow Shapley, then Director of Harvard College observatory, exploded by saying: “If Dr Velikovsky is right, then the rest of us are crazy”.
And Dean McLaughlin, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Michigan denounced Velikovsky for – and I quote – “the promulgation of such lies, yes lies, as are contained in wholesale lots in his book “Worlds in Collision.”
Yet the amazing fact was that neither man had actually bothered to read Velikovsky’s book. In fact, both of them boasted that they would never do so. But their opposition to Velikovsky’s ideas didn’t stop at insult and character assassination.
They joined other critics in forming an academic pressure group that succeeded in getting the original publisher to drop his book. They did this by threatening to block its lucrative textbook business.
Velikovsky was branded as a heretic, and his ideas were denounced in official scientific journals. For most of the 1950s and early 1960s, Velikovsky was forbidden to appear on college and university campuses.
Leading scientific journals of the time were filled with inflammatory articles of derision and denial, yet when Velikovsky tried to answer his critics and rebut their accusations, these same scientific journals denied him the chance to respond.
It was a case of Galileo versus the Catholic Church all over again.
Scott: You make it sound like a modern witch hunt.
It was a witch hunt Scott. A witch hunt on a scale unlike anything that had happened previously among the scientific community. The Velikovsky affair remains to this day one of the greatest scandals in the history of science, and by far the greatest stain on the face of the so-called objective quest for scientific truth.
But what galvanised this witch hunt at the time, and which still continues to this day, was the fact that Velikovsky had the audacity to make pronouncements about other areas of science than those in which he was originally trained.
According to Carl Sagan, a leading astronomer of the time, this was the hallmark of the quack, the charlatan who believes he knows more than his peers, as well as thousands of others who have devoted their entire lives to one single subject.
Or as Dean McLaughlin wrote at the time: “No man today can hope to correct the mistakes in any more than a small sub-field of science. And yet Velikovsky claims to be able to dispute the basic principle of several sciences. These are indeed delusions of grandeur“.
Yet despite this haughty denunciation of his work, it is likely that Velikovsky will one day be recognized as one of the greatest multi-disciplinary minds since Leonardo da Vinci. His work challenged the accepted ideas of the time in a wide range of scientific disciplines, from history and geography, to geology and astronomy, and even cosmology.
In fact Velikovsky can be regarded as one of the pioneers in the field of Astrophysics, by being the first to point out the existence of the magnetosphere around the earth, and the electromagnetic properties of comets.
And if that wasn’t enough, he even managed to turn the world of Biology upside down by proposing a new theory of Evolution to replace that of Charles Darwin. The profound impact that his work has had on the world of science can be summarised in another amusing anecdote.
Shortly before his death in 1955, Albert Einstein, who had been a long time friend of Velikovsky, said to him, “Of all the many disciplines that have been affected by your work, I am glad that you have left the science of mathematics intact“.
Scott: So what do we know about Velikovsky’s life?
Velikovsky was born into a prosperous Jewish family in 1895, in the town of Vitebsk, which is now a part of the country of Belarus.
By any standards Velikovsky proved to be an unusual man. He learned several European languages while he was still a child. He was educated in Moscow, where he distinguished himself in the subjects of Russian and Mathematics, and graduated with a gold medal.
He then travelled to various countries in Europe, and also visited Palestine. This was of course long before Israel became a nation. When he returned to Russia before the outbreak of the first World War, he enrolled at the University of Moscow where he received a Medical degree at the age of 26.
He then left Russia for Berlin where, with the financial help of his father, he edited and published two volumes of scientific papers in Hebrew. It was while he was in Berlin that he enlisted the aid of Albert Einstein in preparing a volume dealing with Mathematics and Physics.
Shortly after his marriage in 1923, he and his wife moved back to Palestine, where he began a successful practice in psychoanalysis, which he had studied while he was in Vienna. He was also instrumental with Einstein in setting up the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
With the prospect of another World War looming, Velikovsky travelled with his family to New York, where they remained until the end of the war. It was during this period in New York that Velikovsky began his research into the ideas that were to dominate the rest of his life.
After the war, when several of his books had already been published, he moved from Manhattan to Princeton, New Jersey, where he lived for many years. Then, towards the end of his life he moved again to the West coast, where, suffering from Diabetes, he died in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 84.
Scott: So what caused him to be rejected by the world of science?
The reason why Velikovsky was treated so badly by the scientific community, was that he had the audacity to challenge the very basis of the entire scientific paradigm of that time. His work challenged one of the basic principles of Geology, and of Darwinian evolution. And that was the principle of Uniformitarianism.
According to scientists like James Hutton and Charles Lyell, uniformitarianism was the belief that the natural laws and processes that operated in the past, were the same as those operating today, and that these processes took place gradually over many thousands of years.
Well, the publication of Velikovsky’s first book, which he called “Worlds in Collision”, arrived with the force of an atomic bomb, for it shattered the very idea of uniformitarianism into tiny pieces.
But what made this book even worse from an academic standpoint, was that Velikovsky chose to ignore the traditional form of scientific writing, which used sober academic prose that was devoid of emotional language. Instead, he wrote in a dramatic style that rivalled the best fiction writers of his time.
Scott: Can you give us an example?
You can see what I mean from the following passage taken from his book “Worlds in Collision”.
“Global cataclysms fundamentally altered the face of our planet more than once in historical times. The terrestrial axis shifted. Earth fled from its established orbit. The magnetic poles reversed.
“In great convulsions, the seas emptied onto continents, the planet’s crust folded, and volcanoes erupted into mountain chains. Lava flows up to a mile thick spilled out over vast areas of the earth’s surface.
“Climates changed suddenly, ice settling over lush vegetation, while green meadows and forests were transformed into deserts.
“In a few awful moments, civilizations collapsed. Species were exterminated in continental sweeps of mud, rock and sea. Tidal waves crushed even the largest beasts, tossing their bones into tangled heaps in the valleys and rock fissures, preserved beneath mountains of sediment.
“Surviving generations recorded these events by every means available: in myths and legends, temples and monuments to the planetary gods, precise charts of the heavens, sacrificial rites, astrological canons, detailed records of planetary movements, and tragic lamentations amid fallen cities and destroyed institutions.”
Scott: I see what you mean. Powerful words indeed.
Anyway Scott, I was lucky enough to attend a lecture which Velikovsky gave some years before he died. The title of the lecture was “Mankind in Amnesia”, which also happened to be the title of his final book.
In this lecture Velikovsky explained that, just as an individual is able to block out the memory of a prior traumatic event, so too humanity itself was capable of generating a similar response, by choosing to block out memories of cataclysmic events that had happened on the earth in the past.
He argued that this was the real reason why his theories had been rejected by the scientific community, and why they had generated such an emotional response on the part of people who should have known and behaved better.
It was because the events that he wrote about were still fresh in the subconscious mind of humanity, and that his books stirred up traumatic memories that mankind was still trying to forget.
It is a measure of his stature as a man that, despite the fact that he had been treated as an outcast by his peers, Velikovsky was able to examine this experience through the lens of psychoanalysis.
It would be the task of later generations to re-evaluate his work in the light of this understanding, and finally accord him the honour he was due. As I said earlier, you can find out more about all this on my Blog.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “The Works of Velikovsky”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, Velikovsky, July 9, 2010, 9:21 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the eighth in the series, and is titled “Signs of the Times”. Hello Allan and welcome. So what do you plan to talk about today?
Thanks Scott, it is good to talk to you again. I should start off by mentioning to listeners who may be new to this series, that from time to time I devote a Podcast to events that are happening in the world today, and how they relate to prophecy. I call each of these Podcasts “Signs of the Times”.
As you may recall, in Podcast No 4 you asked me the question: How do we know that the ancient prophecies refer to the present time, and not to sometime in the past, or in the distant future?
My response to this was to detail a litany of facts that show our world is facing a very serious environmental crisis. To highlight this point, I quoted Richard Leakey, the world renowned paleoanthropologist from Kenya.
Leakey has dedicated his life to unearthing the origins of mankind through the study of ancient fossils, and in recent interview he had this to say about climate change.
“If you look at the fossil record, the thing that strikes you is that extinction is the most common phenomena. Extinction is always driven by environmental change, and environmental change is always driven by climate change.”
He then went on to say that the challenge of our times is not whether the cheetah survives or the elephant survives, but whether the human race itself will survive. And this point has been emphasized in a report by the Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that was published recently in the journal “Nature”.
Scott: What did the report have to say?
It said that this year has seen the warmest spring in the United States since record keeping began in 1895. It went on to warn that our planet is approaching a critical tipping point because of climate change and other factors.
The report noted that the average U.S. temperature between March and May of this year was 5.2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the long term average for the whole of the twentieth century. What this means, the report said, is that if present trends continue, then by the year 2070 the average temperature on earth will be higher than it has been at any time since the human species evolved.
But that is not all. The report predicted that climate change will inevitably lead to social change, and that this will have unpredictable results for the whole of humanity. As 22 scientists from five different countries noted in this report:
“Rampant population growth and changes to the environment caused by humans, including the burning of fossil fuels and the conversion of nearly 43% of the planet’s land to farms or cities, threaten to cause an abrupt and unpredictable shift in the global ecosystem.”
The Nature article said that such shifts in weather patterns and human-induced changes could have sudden and unpredictable effects on the global ecosystem, including the collapse of food supplies and other problems.
So what these scientists are saying Scott, is that humanity is challenged today by two colliding forces that threaten our very existence here on earth.
Scott: What sort of forces are they referring to?
Well on the one hand Scott, you have a population explosion that is growing at a faster rate than ever before, and on the other hand you have a planet undergoing a drastic change in climate that is affecting its ability to sustain these people.
As I pointed out in our last discussion, in order to feed and clothe and house the people who are already alive on this planet, we are outstripping earth’s capacity to provide these resources by 50%. In other words, just to meet the needs of the world’s existing population, it takes the planet 1.5 years to restore what humanity uses up in one year.
But each year the population of the earth continues to grow, and this year alone will see an increase of 80 million people, which is equivalent to the current population of Germany.
According to Anthony Barnosky, who is professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California in Berkeley:
“People have become a geological force in their own right, and are changing the planet in ways every bit as dramatic as major geological events. We are becoming much more dominant organisms in Earth by our sheer numbers and the way we use natural resources.”
So I think you can see Scott why scientists say that our present world is in crisis. And of course our problems are multiplied by the new Zeitgeist – or spirit of the age.
Scott: What do you mean by that?
Well Scott, you don’t need to be a student of history to see that a profound change has occurred in society in all regions of the earth. It is as if a new spirit has infused the population of the world. The most dramatic example of this has been the so-called Arab Spring. But this new spirit can also be seen in Western societies as well.
What has happened that is so different from the past is that common people are no longer content to be ruled by autocratic leaders. And young people everywhere are finding the courage to challenge established institutions and government.
This revolutionary movement, instigated as I say by the young, is being felt in all levels of society, and in all parts of the world. We have Arab citizens rising up against their autocratic rulers, and overthrowing them, as they have done in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and are now trying to do in Syria.
There have also been uprisings in different parts of the Middle East, leading to sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in places like Bahrain, Yemen and Iraq. We have seen citizens rising up in opposition to their leaders in traditionally autocratic countries like Russia and China. And this has been rivaled by similar movements in the West.
Scott: Can you give us some examples?
I am thinking here of the democracies of Western Europe as well as in the United States. Probably not many people are aware that in the last eight elections that have taken place in western Europe, in every case the ruling president or ruler has been voted out of office.
What rank and file voters have been saying to their leaders is that they no longer trust their judgment when it comes to the decisions they have been making, and they are using their democratic right to vote them out of power.
It seems equally likely that in the next elections in places like Germany and the United States, this pattern will be repeated. In other words, voters will likely hold Angela Merkel and Barack Obama responsible for all the difficulties they now face, and vote them out of office.
Practically all the democracies of the West now have governments that are either gridlocked by radically opposing parties, or are held together by a razor thin majority in a coalition of power.
And so, given the challenge which the world faces between burgeoning population on the one hand, and shrinking resources on the other, the political standoff between leaders and their followers can only result in widespread social disruption in the coming years.
And when you add to this equation a world undergoing dramatic environmental change, involving more and more extreme climatic events, you hardly need to turn to ancient prophecy to tell that we are facing what Richard Leakey is thinking about when he talks about extinction events.
The world is in trouble Scott, and we no longer trust our leaders to be able to get us out of this mess.
Scott: So what does ancient prophecy have to say about all this?
Ancient prophecy has a lot to say, Scott, as I have pointed out in the pages of my book. Those people who want to know more about this are encouraged to read it, or to refer to my Blog. As I explain on my Blog, “The Last Days of Tolemac” is a book about prophecy. It deals with events that are happening in the world today and shows how they fulfill prophecies that were made many centuries ago.
The book is set out in a series of questions and answers, and explains in detail: • What is about to happen to our planet • Why these events are happening at this time • What places on earth will be affected • What the new world will be like • What we can do to prepare
As the book explains, our world is about to be transformed. We are about to experience “a new heaven and a new earth” where there will be no more suffering and no more pain. However all of us are faced with a choice. Do we wish to inherit the new world that is coming? Or will we fall victim to the catastrophes that will herald its arrival?
What we need to do to survive is explained in the pages of this book. According to these ancient prophecies, our world is facing destruction on a scale that is almost unimaginable, with entire landmasses sinking below the sea, while the earth is wracked by devastating earthquakes and gigantic tidal waves.
Scott: Then it sounds like we are all doomed !
Yes and no, Scott. Some of us are, and some of us aren’t. And that is why the subject of prophecy is so important, and why the decisions that we make today will make the difference between disaster and survival.
As I mentioned earlier, this new Zeitgeist or Spirit of the Age has already begun to infuse people everywhere with the knowledge of what is really happening on the earth. You can see this in the modern phenomenon of “preppers”, or survivalists.
They don’t need Podcasts from people like me to convince them that the world is in peril, and that their lives are at risk. They already know, and they are already taking action. Survivalists (or “preppers” as they are often called today), are people who are actively preparing for emergencies or disruptions of society.
They often have emergency medical supplies, as well as stockpiles of food and water to help them to survive, and keep these in underground shelters and in other types of survival retreats. They even have their own Television series, called “Doomsday Preppers”, broadcast on the National Geographic Channel.
As the Producers of this show point out, it explores the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. It shows what they are doing to ensure their survival, and their efforts are then rated by experts about their chances of succeeding.
Unfortunately, despite their good intentions, most of the efforts of these Preppers are likely to be doomed to failure, largely because they have ignored the warnings of ancient prophecy.
Scott: What sort of warnings?
The prophets of old warned that those who continued to make the same mistakes that led to the destruction of other ancient societies in the past, would themselves be doomed in similar catastrophes that would happen in the future.
You see Scott, what is about to happen on the earth isn’t new. It has happened before. In fact it has happened many times. Unfortunately, our so-called men and women of wisdom, who are ensconced in the academic world of science and scholarship, have chosen to ignore this ancient truth.
And when, quite unexpectedly, there came a man of profound insight who laid bare the disasters of the past, he was rejected and cast out, as I will explain in my next Podcast, which will be titled “Velikovsky: The Man”
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will titled “Velikovsky: The Man”.
Allan, AUDIO, Doomsday, Signs of the Times, July 8, 2010, 9:21 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the seventh in the series, and is titled “2012 and the Mayan Calendar ” Hello Allan and welcome.
Thanks Scott. It’s a pleasure chatting to you again.
Scott: Allan, as you know, many people believe that the Mayan calendar will end on December 21, 2012, and that when it does, all sorts of disasters will happen to the world. Do you believe this?
No Scott, I don’t.
Scott: Well that’s encouraging. Why not?
Several reasons. The first is that the Maya don’t believe it themselves. And the second is that those scholars who have spent years studying Maya inscriptions say that it won’t.
Scott: So what do the Maya say about this?
In 2009, the Mayan elder Apolinario Pixtun said that he was tired of being bombarded with questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly running out on Dec. 21, 2012. “After all“, he said, “it’s not the end of the world. I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with all this stuff.”
Pixtun insists that the end of the world is a Western idea based on Biblical teaching, and has nothing to do with Mayan beliefs. He also says that the idea of an apocalypse has been foisted on the Maya by Westerners who have their own agendas.
Jesus Gomez, who is head of the Guatemalan confederation of Maya priests and spiritual guides, confirms this when he says: “There is no concept of apocalypse in Mayan culture.”
And Jose Huchim, a Mayan archaeologist in the Yucatan has stated: “If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen at the end of 2012, they wouldn’t have any idea. That the world is going to end? They wouldn’t believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain”.
Scott: So how did this idea get started in the first place?
Like many theories that have captured the public imagination, the idea that the end of the Mayan calendar is linked with catastrophe has a long history. Its roots can be traced back as far back as Christopher Columbus. Columbus compiled a work called “Libro de las Profecias” in the year 1502.
In it he said that he felt that his arrival on an island off the coast of Honduras was the fulfilment of prophecy, and that it foretold the coming of the apocalypse. We need to remember that end-time fears were widespread during the early years of the Spanish conquest.
In the early 1900s, a German scholar by the name of Ernst Forstemann was studying the Dresden Codex, a Mayan book believed to have been written in the 11th or 12th century. He claimed that the last page of this book made reference to the end of the world by way of a cataclysmic flood. His ideas were then repeated by an archaeologist by the name of Sylvanus Morley.
In Morley’s book titled “The Ancient Maya” he wrote: “Finally, on the last page of the manuscript, is depicted the destruction of the world. Here indeed is portrayed with a graphic touch the final all-engulfing cataclysm.”
So as you can see Scott, the idea of an apocalyptic event associated with the Mayan calendar goes back over five hundred years.
Scott: What about recently?
In 1966, an American archaeologist by the name of Michael Coe, who was a graduate of Yale University, wrote a book called “The Maya”.
In it he wrote: “There is a suggestion that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the 13th Baktun. Thus our present universe would be annihilated in December 2012 when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion. ”
Well, coming from a trained scholar who was an expert in Maya writing, this was all that non-Maya scholars needed to weigh in on the subject. Soon other Western writers were climbing on the bandwagon, all with their own ideas of what would happen when the Mayan calendar ended on December 21, 2012.
People like Jose Arguellas, Terence McKenna, Frank Waters and John Major Jenkins that we talked about in Podcast No 5. The problem with all this Scott is that the Mayan Long Count calendar was no longer being used by the Maya when the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez arrived on the shores of Mexico in 1519.
Scott: Why did the Maya stop using it?
They stopped using it because it was no longer accurate. To understand this conundrum, it really helps if you are a serious Maya scholar. You see, the Maya had many calendars. And even trained scholars today have difficulty understanding why they had so many, and what they used them for.
Actually, I go into this in great detail on my Blog, so those listeners who would like to know more about this are welcome to read my article “2012 and the Maya Calendar“. I’ll tell you how to access it at the end of this Podcast.
But to simplify things, the Maya had a short term calendar to measure short periods of time (in fact they had several of them), and they also had a long term calendar to measure very long periods of time. It is this long term calendar, which scholars refer to as the Long Count calendar, that lies at the root of the problem.
And it is also the reason why so many people have been misled over the years. Scott, do you mind if I go back to the beginning here ? It may help to clarify matters.
Scott: No, not at all. Please carry on.
Thanks. The Mayan civilization had its origin some 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. Over the years they developed an advanced culture that spread over much of Central America, including modern countries like Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as the Yucatan peninsula and the highlands of Mexico.
Modern scholars consider that the Mayan cities reached their highest level of development during the “classic” period, from the years 250 to 900 AD. What distinguished the Maya from other pre-Columbian societies was that they had a sophisticated system of writing, as well as a unique system for measuring time.
Just like the modern calendar that we use today in the West, the Maya had a calendar to record the length of the year. But they also used another calendar to measure longer periods of time. It was this other linear system that has come to be called the “Long Count” calendar.
The Long Count calendar of the Maya was open-ended. That meant that, while they measured time by means of an ever increasing system of chronological units, there was no ”end date” to the calendar itself. So just as we can set a date for a time far in the future (say 2610 AD), so too could the Maya.
But what was significant about their Long Count calendar was that it began on a specific date.
Scott: What date was that?
The date was August 11, 3114 BC.
Scott: Why did they choose that date?
They chose that date Scott because that was the day they believed the present world age began.
Although much of Mayan writing was destroyed by the Spanish conquerors, what little remains can be found in libraries in such places as Dresden, Paris and Madrid. From these writings modern scholars have learned that the Maya had a strong tradition of “world ages”.
They were not alone in this, as similar references to successive world ages have also been found in the ancient literature of countries like India and China. According to the Popul-Vuh, a Mayan classic that included their creation myths, four “worlds” had already been created by their Gods.
These previous worlds had long since passed into history, and had been replaced by the fifth world, which is the age in which we are now living. The Long Count calendar began on the date when the fourth world ended (3114 BC). And this is where the association with the year 2012 begins.
Scott: How does this relate to 2012 ?
The Maya believed that the fourth world age lasted for exactly thirteen Baktuns. One Baktun was slightly less than 395 years, so 13 Baktuns represented a period of about 5,125 years.
Although there is nothing in the written Mayan record to support this, some Western writers (such as Graham Hancock and Michael Coe) have suggested that this fifth world will last for the same length of time as the fourth world.
This would mean that our current world age would end exactly thirteen Baktuns after it began. According to the Long Count calendar, this date would be December 21, 2012. And all of this would make perfect sense, except that it makes no sense to the Maya who are alive today.
The reason is that the present-day Maya don’t use the Long Count calendar. In fact many have never even heard of it, because it was used exclusively during the “classic” period up to the year 900 AD. Which is another reason why trained Maya scholars reject all this hoopla about December 21, 2012.
Scott: What do the Maya scholars have to say?
Mayan scholars like Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, point out that there is no record, or knowledge, that the Maya predicted that their fifth world would come to an end in 2012.
They say that there is also no record that the Maya believed that their fifth world would end after precisely thirteen Baktuns.
The Maya of today attach no special meaning to the end of the thirteenth Baktun. They believe that the end of the thirteenth Baktun will simply be followed by the beginning of the fourteenth Baktun with no special fanfare or significance.
We know this because Mayan stelae (which are stone carvings) such as those found on the west panel at the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque, have been found with calendar dates far beyond the end of the thirteenth Baktun.
And if there was any doubt about this, it was dispelled just a few weeks ago by the discovery in Xultan in northern Guatemala. This discovery was widely reported in the media at the time.
Scott: What did they find?
They found ancient inscriptions on the walls of a house in the Guatemalan jungle. Explorers came across these writings while they were excavating a room buried under a collapsed building that was overgrown with rainforest vegetation.
The inscriptions they found are the oldest astronomical charts ever recorded from the Mayan civilization. The hieroglyphs date to about 814 AD, making them considerably older than the Dresden codex, an 11th- or 12th-century Mayan book written on bark paper, which found its way to the Royal Library at Dresden in 1739.
One wall was covered with hundreds of small red and black symbols that tracked the phases of the moon, while others were thought to represent the Mayan ceremonial calendar, and cycles of the sun, Mars and Venus.
William Saturno, an archaeologist at Boston University who was the leader of the expedition, reported in the journal “Science”, that some calculations predicted astronomical events 7,000 years into the future. Contrary to some theories, he said, there was no sign that the Mayan calendar ended abruptly in 2012.
So Scott, here we have further evidence, if more evidence is needed, that the Maya never expected the current world age to end on December 21, 2012.
So I’d like to say to those people who are alarmed at the prospect of an imminent Apocalypse, you can rest easy. You have nothing to fear in December this year. At least nothing that can be blamed on the Maya , or their calendar.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be another in the series titled “Signs of the Times”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 7, 2010, 9:20 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the sixth in the series, and is titled “Planet X – Fact or Fiction?” Hello Allan and welcome.
Thanks Scott. It’s good to talk to you again.
Scott: So what exactly is Planet X?
So… Planet X….. What exactly is it? Good question Well to give you a straight answer Scott, Planet X is a creation of the mind. And the person whose mind created it, was an American author by the name of Zecharia Sitchin.
Sitchin was an interesting man. He was born in 1920 in Azerbaijan, one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics. He died in New York on October 9, 2010. During his lifetime, Sitchin became famous for a series of books proposing a novel explanation for the origin of humans, which he attributed to ancient astronauts.
So you could say that he followed in the footsteps of another famous author who also advanced the idea of ancient astronauts, and that was the Swiss author Erich von Daniken.
Although Sitchin was born in what was then the Soviet Union, he was raised in Palestine. He received a degree in economics from the University of London, and was an editor and journalist in Israel, before moving to New York in 1952.
It was while he was working as an executive for a shipping company that he had the chance to visit various archaeological sites in southern Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq. He was so fascinated by the ancient Sumerian culture, that he taught himself how to read their writing.
Scott: What do we know about Sumerian writing?
The Sumerian language was the earliest known written language, and spanned a period of about five hundred years, from about 3,500 to 3,000 BC. The Sumerians used a wedge-shaped tool that was pressed into wet clay, and it was this technique which gave rise to the name Cuneiform – meaning wedge- shaped.
Once they dried, these Cuneiform tablets were preserved, and some of them survived up to the present day, allowing scholars to decipher them.
Like von Daniken, who was actually a Hotelier by profession, Sitchin was not a trained scholar. He was a layman who taught himself how to interpret these clay tablets. And once he had satisfied himself that he understood what they were saying, he began to write a series of books about the Sumerians and their times
He published his first book in 1976. It was called “The 12th Planet”, and in it Sitchin came up with an amazing theory. In fact this theory has proved to be far more sensational than anything dreamed up previously by von Daniken.
Scott: What was his theory?
According to Sitchin, there exists in our solar system a planet that the Sumerians called Nibiru. In the distant past this planet collided catastrophically with another planet which the Sumerians called Tiamat.
Sitchin explained that Tiamat was located between Mars and Jupiter, and that Tiamat was struck by one of Nibiru’s moons, causing the planet to split into two parts.
Sitchin wrote that in its next orbit around the sun, one of the moons of Nibiru struck one of the two halves that remained of Tiamat, and that this collision created the asteroid belt that exists between Mars and Jupiter today, as well as the Oort cloud that has spawned so many comets throughout our recorded history.
But this was not all, Sitchin stated that the other part of the original planet Tiamat was pushed into a new orbit, and became today’s planet earth.
Scott: So how did the ancient Sumerians know about all this?
Good question Scott. And this is where Sitchin really launched his amazing theory. For according to Sitchin, the planet Nibiru (which Sitchin called the 12th Planet) was the home of a technologically advanced human-like extra-terrestrial race called the Annunaki.
Sitchin claimed that, based on his interpretation of the ancient Cuneiform tablets, the Annunaki arrived on earth from Nibiru around 450,000 years ago. He said they were looking for minerals, especially gold, which they were able to find and mine in Africa.
Sitchin said that the Gods of antiquity were actually the rank-and-file workers of a colonial expedition sent to earth from the planet Nibiru. But because these Annunaki were dissatisfied with their working conditions here on earth, they rebelled. So they decided to create a race of primitive workers who would do the mining work for them.
They did this by means of genetic engineering, by crossing extra-terrestrial genes with those of primitive man. It was this cross breed, Sitchin claimed, that was the origin of the human species that scientists today refer to as Homo Sapiens.
So according to Sitchin, modern humans are the descendants of slaves who were created for the express purpose of serving their colonial masters from the planet Nibiru.
Scott: Do people actually believe this?
Whether there is any truth to this is uncertain. What is certain is that people all over the world have been buying Sitchin’s books by the millions. Since the release of his first book in 1976, Sitchin went on to write seven other books, as part of a series he called “Earth Chronicles”.
These books have now been published in more than 25 languages, and have even been translated into Braille.
But however provocative his ideas, Sitchin now has a devoted following of readers. Even his critics admit that he has been the most ardent supporter of the ancient astronaut theory for the last 25 years.
Prior to his death, he was awarded a life-time achievement award, and his work is considered to have influenced various Hollywood productions, such as the 1994 movie Stargate, as well as the villains in the film Cowboys and Aliens.
Scott: What do academic scholars have to say about Sitchin?
They have had a lot to say Scott, and as you can imagine, none of it is very complimentary. As you would expect, highly trained scholars do not take kindly to laymen who claim to see things in ancient clay tablets that they cannot find.
Chief among Sitchin’s academic critics is the ancient language scholar Michael Heiser. Heiser is an established authority on Sumerian Cuneiform scripts, and is highly critical of Sitchin because of his flagrant errors. Heiser has even gone as far as to create his own website, which he calls SitchinIsWrong.com.
On this website Heiser analyses Sitchin’s claims, and then demolishes them one by one. Not content with his own research, Heiser invites visitors to his website to find out the facts for themselves, by showing them exactly how and where to do this.
He also challenges Sitchin, or any of his followers, to produce a single line of cuneiform text that supports his ideas about the Anunnaki. As he says:
“I just want to see one line of one text that says things like the Anunnaki inhabit a planet called Nibiru, or that the term Anunnaki means “people of the fiery rockets”, that sort of thing.” So far nobody has.
Another vocal critic is the American cultural critic William Thompson who complains that what Sitchin sees in the clay tablets is exactly what he needs to support his theory.
He writes, and I quote:
“Sitchin has constructed what appears to be a convincing argument, but when he gets close to single images on ancient tablets, he falls back into the literalism of ‘Here is an image of the gods in rockets’.
“Ancient Sumer is made to look like a movie set. The gods can cross galactic distances, but by the time they get to earth they need launching pads for their rocket ships. This literalization of the imagination doesn’t make any sense, but every time it doesn’t, you hear Sitchin say ‘There can be no doubt, but…”
Scott: And what do astronomers have to say about all this?
Astronomers of today have little time for Sitchin’s theory of rogue planets careering through the solar system, creating and destroying other planets as they do so.
Since the well researched and documented theories of Immanual Velikovsky have been rejected by science, there is little hope that the poorly researched and even wilder theories of Sitchin would receive any attention in serious scientific journals.
One of the most prolific critics of his work is Leroy Ellenberger. Ellenberger points out that the idea of an ancient civilization developing on a planet that spends over 99% of its time in deep space beyond Pluto is patently absurd.
And the explanation proposed by Sitchin, that the planet Nibiru could be heated from within through a process of radioactive decay is equally absurd, and doesn’t address the obvious problem of total darkness in deep space.
But the aspect of Sitchin’s work that attracts the most criticism from astronomers, is his contention that the Planet Nibiru continues to orbit around our sun, and that it takes 3,600 years to complete a single orbit.
For starters, astronomers say that no planet with such an irregular orbit could maintain that orbit for very long. It would either be flung out of the solar system altogether, or become an inner planet.
“The scenario outlined by Sitchin, (says one astronomer) with Nibiru returning to the inner solar system regularly every 3,600 years, implies an orbit extending twelve times farther beyond the sun than Pluto.
“Elementary perturbation theory indicates that, under the most favorable circumstances of avoiding close encounters with other planets, no body with such an eccentric orbit would keep the same period for two consecutive passages.
“Within twelve orbits the object would be either ejected or converted to a short period object. Thus, the failed search for a trans-Plutonian planet by Tom Van Flandern of the U.S. Naval Observatory, which Sitchin uses to bolster his thesis, is no support at all..”
Scott: So, Allan, how does this relate to prophecy?
Well Scott, there are a growing number of people who think that Sitchin’s planet Nibiru is about to make another pass around the sun in December 2012. And when it does, it will cause catastrophic damage to the earth.
And because this mysterious planet has continued to defy persistent efforts to observe it, it has come to be referred to as Planet X – with X being the unknown object.
This was a question that Sitchin himself was continually being asked while he was alive. In fact, on his website (www.sitchin.com), which is still maintained by his nephew, the following item has been posted.
“A number of Zecharia Sitchin’s fans have been asking about the date December 21, 2012, and what it might signify in relation to his writings. If Zecharia had been asked this question, he would have answered “read my book” entitled “The End of Days“.
His nephew goes on to say:
“It is gratifying that Wikipedia lists one of the possible reasons for the significance of the date as the passing of Nibiru, a planet that would not be named without Zecharia’s work.
“However, since I’m not Zecharia, I’ll give away a bit of the puzzle and say that neither cataclysmic events on December 21, 2012, nor Niburu, come into play as a concern in 2012. For more details read the book.”
Scott: Do we know what the book says?
Yes Scott we do. In his book “The End of Days” Sitchin writes:
“If that is what happened, it would explain the “early”tes) arrival of Niburu in 556 BC – and suggest that its next arrival will be AD 2,900″.
And here is the clincher…
“For those who associate the prophesied cataclysmic events with the return of Niburu – (Planet X to some) – the time is not at hand.”
While he undoubtedly created the furore which now surrounds Planet X, by coming up with the notion of Niburu in the first place, at least Sitchin did not support the hysteria that now surrounds the possible re-appearance of Niburu in December of this year.
So, to sum up then, there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of Niburu, or Planet X, or of any other planet with an eccentric orbit extending far beyond Pluto. And as we have seen, Sitchin has clearly written that Niburu is not about to come anywhere near earth at this time.
So we can rest assured that, whatever else may happen this year, we do not need to concern ourselves with a close encounter from this rogue planet.
I would just like to end this Podcast by reminding listeners that in my book “The Last Days of Tolemac”, I outline where our world is headed, and what we really do need to worry about in the coming years.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “2012 and the Mayan Calendar”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 6, 2010, 9:19 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the fifth in the series, and is titled “The Doomsday Prophecies”. Hello Allan and welcome. The title of today’s Podcast sounds ominous.
Hello Scott. Actually it is not quite as bad as it sounds. But what I want to discuss today goes to the root of prophecy, and the reason why there are so many sceptics in the world.
The reason why so many people no longer believe in prophecy these days is because they invariably predict bad things. First of all, people don’t like hearing bad news. And secondly, they don’t like being taken for a ride.
So when somebody comes along who predicts a future disaster, or something like “the end of the world”, the response of most people is to say, “Oh no, not again”. They are not willing to believe because so many other people who have predicted similar things in the past have turned out to be wrong.
Scott: Has this happened recently?
Certainly. It was only last year that a California preacher by the name of Harold Camping announced that God’s Day of Judgement would be on May 21, 2011, starting with a worldwide earthquake.
He also predicted that this would be the day Jesus Christ would return to the earth to save all true Christian believers, and that those who were left behind would suffer a series of catastrophes, that would end in the world being destroyed by a fireball.
But when May 21st came and went, and there were no catastrophic earthquakes, and Jesus did not return to claim the souls of the faithful, Camping was unrepentant. He simply came up with a new date, this time October 21st 2011, saying, and I quote:
“We don’t always hit the nail on the head the first time. All I am is a humble teacher. I search the Bible“.
Scott: And I’m sure he wasn’t the first person to get it wrong.
He certainly wasn’t Scott. People have been predicting the end of the world and the return of Jesus, ever since he was crucified. And in almost every century since that time, sincere people have come forward to predict a new date. And so far they have all turned out to be wrong.
But this sad record of failure has not stopped others from announcing their own prophecies of doom. In fact, the year 2012 has been a watershed year for predictions of bad things that will happen to us, and to the world.
For example, according to some, the year 2012 will see the fulfillment of an ancient Maya prediction that the world as we know it will end on the date of the mid-winter solstice, on December 21, 2012. This is the date on which the so-called “Long Count” calendar of the Maya is supposed to end.
Others say that 2012 will be the year that will see the return of Planet X, or Niburu as it is often called. Others say that the earth will be hit by a (quote) “killshot” in the form of a radiation blast from the sun.
But, as I pointed out last week, we already have enough real problems to worry about on this planet, and we don’t need more – especially if – like the prophecies of Harold Camping – these other ones also turn out to be wrong.
So I would like to devote the rest of this Podcast, as well as the next two Podcasts, to looking at some of the things that have been predicted for this year.
Scott: Well Allan, I’m curious to know what you think.
As I said before, Scott, there have been numerous predictions associated with the year 2012. Here are some of the most popular.
In 1975, an American author by the name Frank Waters published a book called “Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth Age of Consciousness”. In this book Waters suggested that the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar would coincide with a shift in the global consciousness of humanity.
This idea found an echo in the works of other writers like Jose Arguellas (in a book titled “The Transformative Vision”) and Terence McKenna (who wrote “The Invisible Landscape”). All of these authors are now deceased.
Another American author, by the name of John Major Jenkins, has attracted a vast following as a result of a series of books linking the year 2012 to a unique astronomical alignment. In these books Jenkins explains that the Maya intended to end their Long Count calendar on December 21, 2012, because this would be the day that the earth would be at a point in space which Jenkins called the ”Galactic Alignment”.
Scott: What does a Galactic Alignment mean?
Well according to Jenkins, this would be the date when the Sun and the planets would be precisely aligned with the galactic equator.
He also claimed that, as a result of shamanistic insights gained from hallucinogenic plants, the Maya knew about this conjunction, and predicted that it would lead to a profound spiritual awakening of mankind.
However, critics of Jenkins theory have argued that the galactic equator is a completely arbitrary line that can never be known precisely, because it is impossible to know the exact boundaries of the Milky Way.
In any event, using the calculations for the line of the galactic equator which Jenkins himself had given, scientists found that the most precise convergence with the center of the Sun had already happened in 1998.
Furthermore, other Maya scholars argue that there is little archaeological or historical evidence that the Maya placed any importance on the Milky Way, especially since there is no glyph in their writing system to represent it, and no astronomical or chronological table that is linked to it.
So these scholars believe that the idea of a Galactic Alignment happening on December 21, 2012, is an idea that Jenkins made up, and has nothing to do with the Maya or their calendar.
But this has not made these ideas any less popular, and Jenkins books continue to fly off the shelves. His ideas have also inspired all sorts of other predictions associated with this so-called Galactic Alignment.
Scott: Such as?
Some people claim that this alignment will somehow create a combined gravitational effect between the sun and a black hole at the centre of our galaxy, which will create havoc on earth.
In response scientists say that the sun’s apparent path through the zodiac, as seen from the earth, does not take it anywhere near to the true center of the galaxy in 2012. And even if it did, our solar system would have to be millions of miles closer for it to cause any gravitational disruption to the earth.
So I think we can safely discount that prediction. However, there have been other threats that have been associated with a Galactic Alignment. Some people believe that it is linked to a pattern of mass extinctions of species on the earth, as shown by the fossil record.
According to them, these extinction patterns are not random. Instead they happen at regular periods in the history of earth, and that the year 2012 happens to coincide with another mass extinction event.
Other doomsday predictions suggest that on the 21st of December this year there will be a unique alignment of planets which will cause great destruction on the earth.
In response, scientists point out that similar planetary alignments happened in the years 2000 and 2010, without anything seriously damaging the earth.
Scott: Weren’t there also predictions involving Pole Shifts?
Yes Scott there were. In fact many people believe that the earth is about to experience a Pole Shift, possibly triggered by a massive burst of radiation from the sun.
The reasons given for this is that the earth’s magnetic field is weakening, and that this could be a sign that the earth’s South and North magnetic poles are about to switch. However, critics of these ideas point out that geomagnetic reversals take many thousands of years to occur, and do not simply happen on one specific date.
The year 2012 has also been linked with numerous other astronomical events, including threats of solar flares and CMEs, or Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun.
This idea has been popularised by movies like the 2009 science fiction film “Knowing” starring Nicolas Cage, as well as the Box-office hit “2012″, which also included references to the Maya and their Long Count calendar.
Of course scientists have long known that the Sun has a cycle of sunspots. Each cycle normally lasts about eleven years. During this period the number of sunspots vary, as do the number and size of flares and coronal emissions associated with them.
But because the Sun is believed to be due to reach a maximum (called the solar max) in its 11 year cycle around the years 2011 or 2012, certain sensationalist writers have suggested that the earth will be exposed to life-threatening solar flares at the time of the winter solstice in 2012.
While our Sun is unpredictable and can certainly eject a massive burst of radiation towards the earth at any time, regardless of the sunspot cycle, it is worth remembering that periods of intense solar radiation have occurred on numerous occasions in the past, without this being a threat to the existence of humanity.
The annual threat from solar activity to people on earth is small, and the worst that generally happens is a disruption in power or communications.
Now it is certainly possible that a very powerful CME directed at the earth could knock out orbiting satellites if they were not shielded from solar radiation. However, most of them already are.
Scott: What about Planet X and the Mayan Calendar?
Once again you have hit the mark, Scott. There are thousands of people today who are worried that some type of cataclysmic event will happen at the end of this year. What this event will be tends to vary from one set of believers to another.
Some are convinced that the earth will have a close encounter with a planet- like object. This object is often referred to as Nibiru, or Planet X.
Others are convinced that the Mayan Long Count calendar will end on December 21st, 2012, and that the world will end with it. These predictions may make gripping reading, and conjure up sensational scenarios of spiritual enlightenment or impending doom.
However my own belief is that none of these dire predictions are likely to happen during the remainder of this year. And the reason for this is that all of these theories are invariably based on flimsy logic and slipshod research.
Certainly, none of them can be attributed to the Maya or their calendar, as I will explain in a future Podcast.
Scott: So where does that leave us?
There is no doubt that public interest, even hysteria, will grow as we approach the winter solstice on December 21st of this year. In my view, the rest of this year is likely to be little changed from last year, and the warnings of these “doomsday prophets” are equally likely to be false.
This is not to say that we will be free from trouble. There will certainly be continuing strife, particularly among Islamic nations, as more and more people resist their autocratic masters.
And just like last year the world will experience yet more natural disasters. There will be more tornados and hurricanes. There will be more earthquakes, firestorms, floods, droughts and so on.
But the end is not yet. For as Jesus explained to his disciples:
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all of these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
In my book “The Last Days of Tolemac”, I outline where our world is headed, and what we really do have to worry about in the coming years. But I will have more to say about this in my next Podcast, which will be titled “Planet X – Fact or Fiction?.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “Planet X – Fact or Fiction?”.
Allan, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 5, 2010, 9:18 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the fourth in the series, and is titled “Our Environmental Crisis”. Hello Allan and welcome. So what do you plan to talk about today?
Thanks Scott, In our last Podcast you asked me the question, how do we know that the ancient prophecies refer to the present time, and not to some other time in the past or in the distant future?
Well in my book I go to into the timeline of events outlined in these prophecies, and explain when and where they will begin.But in today’s Podcast I want to deal with this from a different point of view.
You may be too young to remember Scott, but many years ago there was a popular TV series called “Dragnet”.
Scott: Actually I do remember. Wasn’t it written by Jack Webb, who also played the part of Joe Friday?
Well done Scott. You are quite right. Well the leading character used to start each show with the words: “My name is Friday….I’m a cop”. The show also became famous for the line “Just the facts Ma’am”. Don’t bother me with your opinions, just give me the facts.
So that’s what I am going to do today. Most people today are too busy going about their daily lives to stop and take stock of what is really happening on this planet. So instead of referring to ancient prophecies as I do in my book, I want to take a look at the facts, and let people make up their own minds.
It is probable that at no other time in the history of our planet has so much information been available to so many people on so many different subjects. Yet it is clear that despite this avalanche of information, there has never been as much ignorance about what is really happening in the world as there is now.
It is as if the more we know the less we see, and instead of becoming more enlightened, our minds have become fogged with too much detail. Our entire world is in crisis. Surely we don’t need any prophets to tell us that.
Anyone who takes the trouble to follow world affairs must surely realize that we are rapidly plunging towards catastrophe.
Scott: What sort of crisis are we facing?
The omens of this impending disaster can be seen every day in the media, whether it is on television, in the news or on the Internet. Even those who limit their interest to their own local communities can hardly miss the warning signs.
The statistics alone are daunting. I am quoting here from the website (www.worldometers.info) According to latest estimates there are over seven billion people now living on the planet. And every day brings some 250,000 more!
Despite all those who die annually from war, natural disaster, old age, malnutrition and disease, there will still be an increase of about 80 million people this year. That is equivalent to the entire population of Germany, which is already the most populous country in Western Europe. And these figures continue to rise every year.
But every child born into the world is not simply a new mouth to feed. In due course they also have to be cared for, and provided with the necessary housing, education, employment and recreation if they are to become healthy and contributing members of society.
And if this is to happen, there needs to be a similar increase in the amount of new resources necessary to meet these needs. That means more food, water, energy, building materials and so on than we have now.
But instead of helping the earth to provide these additional resources, we are actually damaging our planet, and hampering its ability to sustain and regulate itself.
Scott: Can you give us some examples?
According to Global Forest Resources, some 5 million hectares (that’s over 19,000 square miles) of virgin forest will be destroyed in 2012. Added to this, the amount of agricultural land available for food production continues to shrink every year.
About 7 million hectares of land will no longer be arable due to soil erosion, and around 12 million more hectares will be lost due to desertification. Just to get a better idea, it means that fertile land about the size of the American state of Kentucky is turning into desert every year.
But it doesn’t stop there. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, it is estimated that about ten million tons of toxic chemicals will be released into the environment this year, as well as uncounted amounts contaminating the oceans of the world.
This is in addition to the 33 billion tons of carbon dioxide that are expected to be released into the atmosphere this year. In order to meet the needs of its economy, which is growing at an annual rate of about 7%, China is building two new coal fired power stations every week.
Last year these power stations produced 375 tonnes of coal ash that is the main source of air pollution in China. Unfortunately, this air pollution does not stay in China. Jet stream winds carry it across the Pacific to the United States, and ultimately around the world.
Our global biodiversity index is bad, and is getting worse, according to a report issued last week by the World Wildlife Fund.
Scott: What did the report say?
It said we are using the earth’s natural resources faster than we can replenish them. As the Director of Conservation Science at WWF wrote:
“We’re emptying the fridge, we’re not really taking care of the lawn, we’re not weeding the flower beds and we’re certainly not taking out the garbage. Humanity is essentially in debt to Mother Earth.”
The world’s biodiversity is down 30 percent since the 1970s, according to this report, And unless humanity can find a way to change this, the picture will get even bleaker. As of 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, humans were outstripping Earth’s biocapacity by 50 percent.
Biocapacity is the amount of renewable resources, land, and waste absorption (such as sinks for carbon dioxide) that the Earth can provide. In other words, it takes the planet one and a half years to restore what humanity burns through in a year.
Scott: So what does this mean?
It means that that we cannot keep plundering these resources at the present rate, because by doing so, we are actually threatening other life forms on the planet. All of this resource use is taking a toll.
The Living Planet report issued by the World Wildlife Fund also tracks biodiversity and species populations across the globe. This year’s report details a startling loss of biodiversity around the world: They reported a 30 percent decrease in biodiversity on average, meaning a major decline in the number of different species of plants, animals and other organisms.
Temperate species are doing relatively well, but tropical species have declined by 60 percent since the 1970s. Freshwater tropical species are the hardest-hit, having declined by 70 percent in that same time period.
Scott: Did the report have anything to say about climate change?
No Scott, they were not focusing on that. But everyone must surely be aware that our weather is changing, and for the worse. You have only to watch the daily news to see examples of extreme weather all over the planet.
Again let me quote the facts, this time taken from National Geographic’s website.
Average temperatures around the world have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (or 0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880. This rate of warming is increasing. The last two decades of the 20th Century were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia.
And the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the warmest since 1850. The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average.
Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the loss of sea-ice.
Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana’s Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, compared to 150 back in 1910. Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching – or die-off in response to stress – ever recorded in 1998.
Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise. An increase in the number of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, tornadoes, heat waves and hurricanes are also attributed to climate change by many scientists.
Scott: What about things like drought?
The Journal “Nature” recently reported that severe drought is the most pressing problem caused by climate change.
They consider that the challenge of feeding some 9 billion people by mid century, in the face of a rapidly worsening climate, is the biggest challenge that the human race has ever had to face.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research reported that their studies showed widespread drying over Africa, Eastern and Southern Asia, as well as other areas over the last 60 years, and that most of this drying is due to recent warming.
Severe drought has afflicted numerous regions around the world in recent years, especially places like the American South West, Mexico, Argentina and Peru in the Western hemisphere, and places like Portugal, Syria, Australia, India and China in the East.
Richard Leakey, the world renowned paleoanthropologist from Kenya, who has dedicated his life to unearthing the origins of mankind through the study of ancient fossils, has this to say about climate change.
“If you look at the fossil record, the thing that strikes you is that extinction is the most common phenomena. Extinction is always driven by environmental change, and environmental change is always driven by climate change.”
In a recent interview, Leakey said he is less optimistic about the future. “We may be on the cusp of some very real disasters that have nothing to do with whether the elephant survives, or a cheetah survives, but if we survive.”
Scott: So what is the world doing about all this?
Well that’s the key question Scott. The difficulty is that the world is far from united on the subject of climate change, and every country is pretty much left to deal with these problems on their own.
We need to remember that there are now 225 different countries that are now recognized by the United Nations. Each of these countries has a mixture of cultures with a host of differing languages, customs, ideological and religious beliefs.
The task of dealing with these challenges has been made even more difficult because the Political systems of many of these countries are themselves in chaos. Again, anyone watching the news must surely be aware of this by now.
And even the United Nations is unable to get different countries to agree on the cause of these problems, let alone on their solutions.
So Scott, based on the facts I have just given, even the most sceptical observer must surely realize that humanity is in a perilous position. How long will it be before we are all plunged into disaster?
The prophets predict that a global disaster is coming. And it is coming soon. Exactly what it is that is coming is described in the pages of my book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. But I will have more to say about this in my next Podcast, which will be titled “The Doomsday Prophecies”.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “The Doomsday Prophecies”.
Allan, An Inconvenient Truth, AUDIO, Signs of the Times, July 4, 2010, 9:17 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s Podcast is the third in the series, and is titled “The Purpose of Prophecy”. Welcome to the Podcast Allan.
Hello Scott, It’s good to be with you again.
Scott: You say that your book deals with prophecy. What exactly do you mean by the word prophecy?
Well Scott, I think it is important to start off by looking at the meaning of word itself. I have noticed that most people today use the word prophecy in a very general way.
What I mean by this is that they tend to regard prophecy as anything that is predicted to happen in the future, no matter what the source. However I treat prophecy and prediction as two completely different things.
In my book when I use the word prophecy, I am not talking about predictions.
Scott: What is the difference between them?
I consider prediction to be something that is the product of the intellect. Prediction is something that it is the result of the analytical powers of the mind. We look at what is happening now, or has happened in the past, and then by applying our intellect, we decide what is going to happen in the future. That is prediction.
Prophecy is something that happens beyond the intellect. Most often, it happens in the form of a vision, or something that is not the result of rational thinking. True prophecy always comes from a higher level of mind than the intellect.
However, there is also the question of psychic ability, such as for example Precognition or Clairvoyance.
Scott: Can you explain what they are?
Precognition – which means knowing something in advance – is something that falls within the category of Psi phenomena, or extra-sensory perception.
Over the years many people have had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, such as the death of a loved one, or some type of accident or disaster. This knowledge may come to them in the form of a dream or vision. And if it does, it is referred to as clairvoyance. Clairvoyance literally means “clear vision”.
Scott: What do scientists say about all this?
The reality of any form of Psi phenomena is a topic that has been hotly debated by scientists over the years. While some support the possibility of paranormal abilities, others reject the idea completely. However, the fact is that some people do have precognitive abilities, and many of their predictions do actually come true. Unfortunately the opposite is also true.
Many predictions based on visions or dreams do not turn out to be accurate. The fact that these results happen to be unreliable does not constitute proof that precognition itself is invalid. But absence of proof is not proof of absence, and a single verified case is enough to prove that precognition is possible.
But I need to make it clear that whether or not Precognition or Clairvoyance turns out to be real, when I refer to Prophecy, I am not talking about psychic phenomena. That is because psychics who make predictions are notoriously unreliable.
For every one that turns out to be correct, there are so many more that turn out to be wrong. The prophecies that I use as the basis of my book, are those few that I described in my first Podcast.
Scott: What is the test of prophecy?
When it comes to our day to day affairs, we tend to judge people who make predictions about the future by their professional qualifications, and by their track record of success. Those people who are highly qualified in any particular field, and who have the highest degree of success, attract the most followers. This is also true for those who prophesy about the future.
In the course of human history there have been people in every generation who have predicted future events. We only tend to remember those whose words proved to be accurate. When someone new comes along, who is previously unknown to the world, there is bound to be initial skepticism as to whether what this person says can be believed. This skepticism is natural and to be expected.
Scott: Can you give us an example?
The world of science continually produces young men and women who challenge the accepted view, and make predictions based on revolutionary theories about nature and the universe. When Albert Einstein first published his revolutionary work on gravity and quantum mechanics, his ideas were initially greeted with disbelief and scorn. But Einstein didn’t simply present his theory of relativity and then expect people to believe it.
He followed this up by proposing a series of tests which, he claimed, would prove that his theory was correct. When scientists undertook these tests, they found that they got results that matched his predictions.
So those who initially doubted Einstein’s theory were forced to admit that his new view of the universe was correct. In other words, Einstein’s credibility grew from the fact that his predictions were correct. As it is in science, so it is in the world of religion and in the life sciences.
Scott: How does this relate to your book?
In the same way, this will be the true test of the validity of the words of the Oracle contained in “The Last Days of Tolemac”.
For if the events that are predicted to unfold upon the earth in the coming years actually do happen, and if they happen according to the time-line set out in the book, then the authenticity of the Oracle of Tolemac will have been established.
Much of what is described in the book already rests on solid evidence. But the ultimate test of the credibility of the source, will not be whether the events that are described in the book are possible, or believable.
They will be judged by whether they actually happen as predicted. It is the events themselves that will be the final judge of the authenticity of this book.
Scott: So what is the purpose of prophecy?
Throughout history certain men and women have acquired fame, or notoriety, by claiming to be able to predict future events. This has especially been true within the various religions of the world. Various individuals have come to be regarded as divinely inspired, and their predictions have been accepted as the ordained will of God.
And throughout the ages, men and women of every generation have tried to find out what would happen in the future, in the hope that they would be better prepared, and so have an advantage over others.
Scott: But does prophecy really matter?
Many people have asked me the same question Scott. They want to know if it is wise, or even possible, to know what will happen in the future?
Most people today seem to believe that life unfolds according to chance, based on forces that can never be understood, let alone predicted. They believe that any attempt to try to predict future events is sheer folly. These people are content to take each day as it comes.
But prophecy is not simple prediction, and those who claim to be prophets do not do so merely to inform. They are not just telling an interesting story. All true prophecy stands as a warning. And those who study and learn from these warnings, may not only become the guardians of wisdom. They may in time become beacons for the transformation of society.
Scott: Why is it necessary to warn people?
The Buddha taught his disciples that those who were unaware of the meaning of their times had (and I quote) “much dust in their eyes.” These people would have to acquire understanding by living through the consequences of their actions.
They would have to travel along the path of suffering. So the purpose of all true prophecy is to inspire understanding, and to reduce suffering. And this is the crucial point we need to understand.
For if we can learn to understand prophecy, and take the necessary action beforehand, then we can save ourselves from future suffering. This is the purpose and the goal of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac“.
It is designed to remove the dust from our eyes, and allow us to see the events of our times through the eye of understanding, rather than through the veil of ignorance.
Scott: Are there similar warnings in the Bible?
Jesus told his disciples that before his return, there would come a time of great tribulation on the earth:
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be”. He also warned his disciples to be ready, because this tribulation would come suddenly, “like a thief in the night”.
“Therefore be ye also ready. For in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh”.
Unfortunately, the majority of the people who live in the world today are not ready. They remain completely unaware of the cataclysmic events that will shortly come to pass. They will be the ones who will be the witnesses to terror, and the victims of the catastrophes that are coming.
And when these things do start to happen, they will be the first ones who will say, why didn’t anyone warn us?
Scott: How do we know that ancient prophecies refer to the present time, and not to some time in the distant future?
Great question Scott. This is of course the 64,000 dollar question when it comes to prophecy. There have been any number of books that have been written about prophecy over the years.
And while many of these books agree about WHAT will happen in the future, they all tend to have their own timetable about WHEN these things will happen. Some say these prophesied events have already happened in the past.
Others say they will happen soon, or that they won’t happen for many years to come. After all, there have been so many would-be prophets who have been proven wrong in the past. But that is exactly my point, and the reason why I believe that the interpretations in my book are different. I have not tried to come up with a timeline that is the result of intellectual analysis, either of my own or of anyone else.
I have been guided by the words of Jesus, when he explained the secret to understanding the true timeline of prophecy.
Scott: What did Jesus say?
In Chapter 24 of St Matthew’s gospel, Jesus said: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.”
So the key to understanding when these things will happen, is to follow the SEQUENCE of events that are given in the Bible, as well as in other prophecies. Once one thing happens, then you look for the next thing. And when that happens, you know what to look for next. And this is what “The Last Days of Tolemac” does.
It outlines WHAT will happen, and the ORDER in which these events will happen. So although no actual dates are given, the timeline can easily be predicted once the first event happens.
As readers of my book will know, the cast of characters has now been assembled, and the action is about to begin. And when it does, it will begin in the land of Israel.
But I will have more to say about this in my next Podcast, which will be called “Our Environmental Crisis”.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “Our Environmental Crisis”.
Allan, AUDIO, Recapitulation, Signs of the Times, July 3, 2010, 9:15 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, this Podcast is the second in our series, and is titled “Why Tolemac”. Hello Allan and welcome.
Hello Scott. It’s great to talk to you again.
Scott: Allan, your book is called “The Last Days of Tolemac”. So tell me, what does the word Tolemac mean?
Well Scott, a lot of people have asked me about the name Tolemac. They want to know what the word means and why I used it in the title of the book. Tolemac is an interesting word, and as many people have already figured out, the name Tolemac is actually CAMELOT spelt backwards.
CAMELOT has all sorts of associations linked with its name, especially that of the legendary King Arthur and his lost kingdom of the knights of the Round Table. So the word Tolemac (or CAMELOT spelled backwards) is both a symbol of a forgotten time, and of a kingdom that once accomplished great things.
The name Tolemac also brings to mind the legendary peoples of Central America called the TOLTECS.
Scott: Who were the Toltecs?
The Toltecs were a mysterious people who lived in Central America several thousand years ago. The Aztecs who came later considered the Toltecs to be the highest form of civilization to have existed before them. The Toltecs were renowned for their architecture, particularly their imposing avenues flanked by soaring pyramids.
An example of their enormous structures can still be seen today just outside of Mexico City at the ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacan. So the word TOLEMAC seemed to me an appropriate symbol of an ancient culture that had once risen to great heights, only to be destroyed in a series of cataclysms, and sink below the surface of the sea.
Scott: So does the word Tolemac represent a sunken civilization?
Yes it does. In fact I use the word Tolemac to identify the ancient culture that once lived in that area, but was destroyed and sank below the ocean. Researchers today continue to find ruins of advanced civilizations that once thrived, but now rest under the sea.
Examples of these can be found off the coasts of Japan, such as the underwater pyramids of Yonaguni near the island of Okinawa. Also off the coast of India where the ruins are similar to the vanished culture of Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Also in Egypt where underwater ruins have been found off the coast of Alexandria.
And In July 2000, a team of Canadian and Cuban explorers recently discovered the ruins of what appeared to be an ancient city submerged in the deep ocean waters off the western coast of Cuba. The Canadian team consisted of the Soviet-born Canadian ocean engineer Paulina Zelitsky and her husband Dr Paul Weinzweig.
They belonged to the Advanced Digital Communications Group based in British Columbia. They used a miniature submarine with sophisticated side-scan sonar equipment to probe the sea floor. And what they found was not only unexpected. It seemed to defy the accepted history of human culture in the region.
Scott: What did they find?
They found mysterious stone structures at a depth of around 2,100 feet below sea level. These megalithic structures were laid out like an underwater city, complete with roads, buildings and pyramids. When he was interviewed later, Dr Weinzweig said that they appeared to have been built by an unknown human civilization thousands of years ago.
Quoting from this interview, he said: “They were like what you’d find at Stonehenge or Easter Island. Some of the structures within the complex may be as long as 400 meters wide and as high as 40 meters. Some are sitting on top of each other. They show very distinct shapes and symmetrical designs of a non-natural kind. We’ve shown them to scientists in Cuba, the U.S. and elsewhere, and nobody has suggested they are natural”.
Dr. Weinzweig went on to mention that these stone structures bore a remarkable resemblance to the pyramids of the Mayan and Aztec temples in Mexico. Furthermore, the photos taken from the videotape appeared to show “symbols and inscriptions” in a language that has yet to be deciphered.
Scott: Were there any other ruins in the area?
Yes there were. Other underwater ruins have also been found neighboring areas such as the Bay of Batabanó. When Dr Weinzweig was asked if there was any geological evidence to suggest that the islands that exist in the Caribbean today might actually be the mountain tops and high ground of a landmass that sank beneath the sea as a result of cataclysms in ancient times, he said:
“Yes, geologists tell us that the Yucatan, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico were all connected at one time. There is still much to learn about the geological history of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.”
The fact that ancient underwater ruins of a previously unknown origin have now been found off the coast of Cuba, seem to confirm the legends of past destruction as a result of cataclysmic earth changes taking place at the time. This is also beginning to be accepted by mainstream science.
A National Geographic News report dated May 28, 2002, had this to say about the ancient flood myths:
“Ancient stories of massive floods pass from generation to generation and in many places in the world are integral to a people’s spoken history. The tales differ by locale, but commonly feature either torrential rains or a hugely destructive wall of water bursting into a valley, destroying everything in its path.
“In many cases, the flooding is an act of retribution by displeased gods. Scientists, historians, and archaeologists view many of these enduring tales as myth, legend, or allegoric tales meant to illustrate moral principles. Recent findings however, indicate that at least a few of them could be based on real floods that caused destruction on an enormous scale.”
Commenting on this undersea discovery off the coast of Cuba and its link with the local legends, Andrew Collins ( who was the author of the book “Gateway to Atlantis”) wrote in a Special Report:
“Myths and legends told by the indigenous peoples of the Bahaman and Caribbean archipelagos, when the Spanish first reached the New World, spoke of just such a cataclysm. They said that the waters suddenly rushed in and drowned the great landmass, breaking it up into the individual islands seen today.”
Collins went on to point out that this discovery would also have profound implications for the prehistory of the region.
“If Paulina Zelitsky and her oceanographic colleagues are right in their belief that ‘pyramids, roads and buildings’ do lie off Cuba’s western coastline, then it is clear that the prehistory of the Caribbean, and its influence on the rise of Mesoamerican civilisation, will have to be revised dramatically. Moreover, it could well be that at long last the mystery of Atlantis, mankind’s greatest historical enigma, is about to unfold in a most spectacular fashion.”
These sunken ruins could also provide the key to the origin of the mysterious structure of Teotihuacán in central Mexico. According to Collins:
“The Teotihuacán culture, which thrived in Central Mexico from around 400 BC through until around AD 500, remains an enigma to archaeologists. Its origin is unclear. What we do know is that legends once told by the Totonac peoples of eastern Mexico spoke of the founders of its sacred city of Teotihuacán, with its mighty Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, as having arrived on the Gulf coast from an island homeland which lay beyond the sea.”
There is an eerie similarity between the description of the ruins of the undersea city (roads, buildings and pyramids) given by Paulina Zelitsky, and the enigmatic remains of Teotihuacán that can be seen today.
Scott: Why are these undersea ruins important?
Well Scott, if undersea ruins have been found under the ocean off the coast of Cuba, as well as in other places around the world, then they form a powerful confirmation that the ancient legends about cataclysmic disasters followed by the destruction of entire civilizations are true.
And if such things have happened in the past, then they can certainly happen in the future. And as my book points out, this is exactly what all the ancient prophecies say. They say that ours is the civilization that is about to be destroyed, and that most of the places where people now live are about to sink below the sea.
And if this is true, then it is we who are the real inhabitants of Tolemac, for it is our civilization that is in peril, and we are all at risk in the destruction that is coming. In my next Podcast I will be talking about the nature and purpose of prophecy.
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “The Purpose of Prophecy”.
Allan, AUDIO, Recapitulation, Signs of the Times, July 2, 2010, 9:10 pm
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, this Podcast is the first in our series, and is titled “The Last Days of Tolemac”.
Hello Allan and welcome.
Hello Scott. It’s a pleasure to be with you today.
Scott: Allan, your book is called “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Perhaps we could begin this series by asking you to explain what this book is about.
Certainly Scott. “The Last Days of Tolemac” is a book about prophecy. In fact its subtitle is “Secrets of Ancient Prophecies Revealed”. Actually I should point out that it is an eBook that can be purchased here.
People who buy this eBook also get TWO free Bonus Books – which can be digitally downloaded at the same time. The first Bonus book is titled “Nostradamus: His Life and Prophecies” – and the second is called “The Papal Prophecies”. This deals with prophecies relating to the future of the Catholic Church.
All of these books were written by me, Allan Colston, although I should point out that these are my two middle names.
“The Last Days of Tolemac” is divided into EIGHT chapters. They are:
1) The Last Days of Tolemac 2) The Hidden Past of your Planet 3) The Return of the Comet 4) A New Earth and a New Heaven 5) One Shall be Taken 6) The Reign of the Beast 7) Countdown to Armageddon 8) The Great Initiation
The book itself is set out in the form of a series of Questions and Answers. Each answer in this eBook is attributed to the “Oracle of Tolemac”. Now many people have asked me who this Oracle is, and whether the book is the result of channelling or automatic writing.
I need to stress here that the Oracle of Tolemac does not exist as a separate entity. The reason I used this format is the same as that used by Neale Donald Walsch, who wrote the popular series “Conversations with God”.
As Walsch has explained to his own readers: “My books are not channelled, but rather they are inspired by God . They are written in the form of conversations in order to help people relate to God from a modern perspective”.
In the same way, the answers that I have attributed to the Oracle have been inspired by my own intuitive interpretations. They are based on over fifty years of research into various prophetic traditions over the last three thousand years.
This has been a personal quest that has taken me around the world, travelling to such places as South America, India and Tibet. It has also involved numerous conversations with people who have given me valuable insights, as well as people who had amazing stories to tell.
The book is based on the following prophecies:
1) The writings of the Old Testament Prophets.
2) The words of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament. I should mention here that all quotations have been taken from the King James version of the Bible. I did this because I feel that later versions of the Bible have not always been reliable translations when it comes to prophecy.
3) The Book of Revelation – which is based on the visions of St John while he was in exile on the island of Patmos.
4) The visions of the French Seer Michele de Nostredame, who later came to be known as “Nostradamus”.
5) The visions of St Malachy – who was the first Irish Priest to be canonized as a Saint.
6) The Trance Readings of the American Psychic Edgar Cayce.
7) A series of visions experienced by the American psychic Jeanne Dixon in 1962.
8) The visions at Fatima in Portugal in 1917, experienced by three young shepherd children
The reason why I focused on these particular Prophecies is that – except for the words of Jesus – they are all essentially based on visions. Why I consider this to be important is that they are not based on the intellect, which has all too often proven to be fallible. Instead they have their source in another realm of the mind.
Of course every reader has to decide for themselves whether these visions come from a Divine Source.
Scott: So Allan, what caused you to write this book?
Well Scott, the reason why I was motivated to write this book in the first place was the realization that all these different prophecies have an internal consistency of their own. What I mean by this is that all these different prophecies seem to be describing the same sequence of events, even though they use very different language.
It is important to point out that because some of these visions occurred many thousands of years ago, they were described in symbolic language that is totally different from the words we would use today. Modern technology like rockets and helicopters, together with concepts such as iPhones and the Internet would hardly have been understandable at the time these visions were experienced.
So the Old Testament prophets used words and symbols drawn from their own life experience at the time to describe what they saw. And the problem faced by anyone who tries to interpret these prophecies today, is to decide what these symbols actually mean.
Because there are about as many different interpretations of these prophecies as there have been interpreters, most people who try to understand these prophecies today have become hopelessly confused.
And this is where “The Last Days of Tolemac” is different from other books. It presents the original quotations from these various sources of prophecies. Then, in clear and simple language that is easy for everyone to understand, It goes on to reveal:
THIS IS WHAT THE PROPHECIES SAY : AND THIS IS WHAT THESE PROPHECIES MEAN.
There is no fudging of the issues, or writing in generalities, or leaving the reader confused. The prophecies are explained as directly as if you are watching the evening news. I then leave it to the individual reader to decide whether my interpretations make sense to them.
In my next Podcast I will be dealing with the question “Why Tolemac”? In other words, what does the word Tolemac mean?
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will be titled “Why Tolemac”.
Allan, AUDIO, Recapitulation, Signs of the Times, July 1, 2010, 2:52 pm
Thought is the creative force of the universe. In fact the universe is nothing more than energy (Prana) manifesting as form shaped by the underlying power of thought. The ancient Rishis, along with the modern Masters, have all demonstrated the creative power of thought through various “miraculous” feats. Of course these feats were not miraculous at all, because thought itself is unlimited and can never be bound by so-called laws of nature or of science.
Whenever the situation calls for it, these Masters have the power to conjure forth whatever is needed, in order to demonstrate the power of the mind to overcome obstacles or the vicissitudes of life. When the disciple Peter was confronted by tax officials in Capernaum, demanding to know whether they would be paying the customary tribute, he went to Jesus asking what they should do. Jesus responded by saying that they owed nothing to the kings of this world. Nevertheless, he went on to say:
“Notwithstanding lest we should offend them, go thou unto the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” (Matthew: 17:27)
Materialising a coin inside a fish is a modest example of the of power of the mind to manipulate energy into form. When the renowned Rishi Lahiri Mahasaya received his initiation from his Guru Babaji high in the Himalayan mountains, the Master prepared for his disciple a materialisation of truly stupendous proportions.
As Paramahansa Yoganada described in his book “Autobiography of a Yogi“, after a lengthy march along a narrow track that wound its way through towering trees, Lahiri and his companion were suddenly confronted by a stunning sight.
“Before us stood a vast palace of dazzling gold. Ornamented with countless jewels, set amid landscaped gardens, reflected in tranquil pools – a spectacle of unparallelled grandeur! Towering archways were intricately laid with great diamonds, sapphires and emeralds. Men of angelic countenance were stationed by gates redly resplendent with rubies.”
Lahiri Mahasaya was speechless at the magnificence of the panorama that lay before him, and imagined that the long mountain climb had caused him to hallucinate this amazing palace. Seeing the look of disbelief on Lahiri’s face, the disciple who had led him to this place in the mountains explained:
“In tune with the infinite all-accomplishing will, Babaji is able to command the elemental atoms to combine and manifest themselves in any form. This golden palace, instantaneously brought into being, is real in the same sense that the earth is real.”
Lahiri and his companion made their way through archways inlaid with precious jewels, past groups of chanting devotees, until they reached an immense hall. At the end of this hall they saw Babaji himself seated on a golden throne. It was in this lavish palace, situated in the middle of the high Himalayas, that Lahiri Mahasaya received his yogic initiation. Later, when the ceremony was complete, Babaji asked Lahiri to close his eyes.
“When I reopened them, the enchanting palace and its gardens had disappeared. My own body and the forms of Babaji and his disciples were all now seated on the bare ground at the exact site of the vanished palace, not far from the sunlit entrance of the rocky grottos. Although stunned, I looked trustingly at my guru. I knew not what to expect on this day of miracles.”
“The purpose for which this palace was created has now been served” said Babaji. He then lifted up an earthen vessel from the ground. “Put your hand there and receive whatever food you desire.” Lahiri touched the broad, empty bowl. As he did so, hot buttered luchis, curry and sweetmeats appeared. Lahiri noticed that no matter how much he ate, the bowl continued to remain full. Finally, when he had finished eating, the food vanished leaving nothing but the empty bowl in his hand.
The entire manifestation that we call our waking world is thought-formed, just like the palace created to serve the needs of Babaji. The energy that makes up our outer universe is shaped by thought, and is sustained for as long as the thought persists. As soon as we cease to sustain the energising thoughts that make it up, the outer form vanishes, and the energy subsides into the substratum of the Void, that physicists of today call the Quantum Field.
Allan, Power of Thought, June 18, 2010, 8:27 pm
Our ability to get what we want in life depends on our ability to frame our thoughts clearly, so that our personal energy can be focused on the achievement of these desires. If we do not focus our minds clearly on our objectives they remain hazy and ill-defined. These thoughts therefore cannot manifest effectively in the physical world.
When we concentrate on a single thought, to the total exclusion of all other conflicting thoughts, they become a powerful force for change. The more clearly we hold an image in our minds, the more power we direct towards the attainment of that image. As we repeat this process the mind becomes more concentrated, and so gains strength. In the case of Sages and those who have cultivated perfect concentration, thoughts are able to manifest instantaneously, without any intervening delay.
The power of the individual mind is limited by the personal power of the individual concerned. This power varies from person to person. It increases with robust health and diminishes with illness. It is vital and effective in youth and fades, unless carefully cultivated, with advancing age. But however much power a person may possess, that power can be made more effective by practice.
When the 20th century Indian Sage Sri Ramana Maharshi was asked what was meant by strength of mind, he replied that it was the ability to concentrate on one particular thought without being distracted. When asked how this could be achieved, he said: “By practice“.
He went on to add: “The wavering of the mind is a weakness arising from the dissipation of its energy in the shape of thoughts. When one makes the mind stick to one thought the energy is conserved, and the mind becomes stronger”. (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)
Any desire can be achieved if the mind is steadfastly focused upon it. However our ability to manifest what we desire is undermined by negative thoughts such as doubts and fears. These contradictory thoughts negate the power of the original thought. The more we allow the mind to focus on these negative thoughts, the more its power will be dissipated. For as the ancient Sage Dattatreya explained to his pupil Parasurama:
“The will conceives effectively or ineffectively according as it is broken up by indecision. One should forget the old associations in order to make one’s new conception effective and this endures only so long as it is not obstructed by the old one. A conception is forceful unless obstructed by an antecedent one and thus destroyed. It is effective only when forceful; in that way even great things may be achieved.” (Tripura Rahasya)
Our most common error in life is to fritter away our energies pursuing conflicting objectives, and to allow our most heart-felt desires to be haunted by debilitating doubts. We hold briefly to one goal, only to drop it and then move quickly on to the next. One objective gives way to another in quick succession, and our reservoir of personal power is quickly depleted, as is evidenced by the words of the English poet William Wordsworth:
“The world is too much with us, late and soon. Getting and spending we lay waste our powers.” (Personal Talk)
At every moment of our lives we create anew our image of ourselves and of our world, in the shape of our thoughts and desires. Yet we remain unconscious of the role played by the mind as it spins its web of circumstance around us. We would rather believe that we are victims of a fate or destiny which allocates pain, defeat and suffering according to some random plan.
What we call destiny is nothing more than the loosely knit pattern of events that we have woven around us. Being blind to the role which our mind has played in the creation of these events, we are easily misled into believing that we are held in the thrall of an iron fate. But the fate that appears to binds us is the product of thoughts that we ourselves have woven, and these can be undone and woven again according to new desires. Destiny has its firmest grip on those who are convinced of its immutable power.
Another 20th century Indian Sage Sri Nisargadhatta Maharaj scoffs at these shallow fears: “Steady faith is stronger than destiny. Destiny is the result of causes mostly accidental and is therefore loosely woven. Confidence and good hope will overcome it easily.”
And to those who claim that the world outside of them is completely beyond their power to control he adds: “On the contrary, a world of which you are the only source and ground is fully within your power to change. What is created can always be uncreated, and recreated. All will happen as you want it, provided you really want it.” (I Am That)
Sri Ramana Maharshi answers in similar fashion to those who are convinced that they are trapped by by an unyielding fate. To a questioner who asked him whether he could overcome the limitations of his present life he replied:
“Yes. Many have done so. Believe it! They did so because they believed they could.” (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)
We are reminded again of the words of Jesus: “For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20)
Allan, Power of Thought, June 12, 2010, 4:57 am
According to the Biblical book of John, Jesus responded to the Jews by saying:”And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free“. (John 8:32) Although this is one of the most widely quoted passages in the Bible, it is likely that only a handful of people alive today understand the full meaning of these words. For Jesus was not talking about the freedom of the body, he was referring to freedom from the body.
The freedom that Jesus was talking about is the inherent destiny of every person who is alive today. For it is our latent destiny to finally come to know who we really are. And in that culminating moment of revelation, each one of us will discover the truth that we are not the limited bodies that we believe ourselves to be. We are in fact Immortal Beings, ever free from the limitations of matter, energy, space and time. We will never die, because in truth we were never born.
The reward of this Supreme Truth is everlasting freedom. Just as a ripened fruit falls from the tree, never to return, so the enlightened soul escapes forever from the limitations of the body and of the mind. With this freedom comes the power to change the world. For the universe itself waits on those who have gained the keys to the kingdom of life and an understanding of the true nature of mind.
As we have seen in the last instalment, our world is mind-made, and mind is nothing more or less than the sum total of our thoughts. The universe is not some giant cosmic stage that exists outside of ourselves and upon which we play out our puny lives. Nor is it a vast creation that runs according to the whims of some Supreme Being. Because the universe is actually a projection of the mind which consists of thoughts, then as these thoughts change, so the universe changes as well.
The corollary is equally valid. If we wish to change the universe, we need only change our thoughts! For as the sage Sri Dattatreya has pointed out in the Hindu classic Tripura Rahasya, “The world becomes for one whatever one is accustomed to think of it“. These words are echoed in the opening stanza of the Dhammapada, the summation of the teachings of the Buddha: “What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind“.
Everything that happens to us in our lives is ultimately the result of what we ourselves have thought. Our thoughts are projected in the form of an outer universe, which then interacts with us in the form of events that happen to us. The link between this interaction of thought and circumstance is known as desire. Desire is the chain which binds the observer to that which is observed. It is the cause of the entire manifestation of the universe.
This power of desire is both mysterious and miraculous. As Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj explains: “Your mind projects a structure and you identify yourself with it. It is the nature of desire to prompt the mind to create a world for its fulfilment. Even a small desire can start a long line of action; what about a strong desire? A desire can produce a universe; its powers are miraculous“. (I Am That)
Life is nothing more or less than the universal pageant created by the desire to experience. The universe dances to the cosmic sound expressed within each individual soul. Within the universe, which is the arena we have built for the realization of our desires, we are free to desire anything we can imagine. Whatever we wish for can be achieved. Anything in life is possible if we desire it strongly enough. The universe automatically works to manifest it for us.
The plain fact, to which sages of every generation have attested, is that there is no limit to what we may desire, just as there is no limit to the ability of the universe to grant us our desire. We truly are the Gods of our own creation. Through the miracle of creative thought we are free to stamp our wills upon the cosmos. We are not pawns ground remorselessly down by an uncaring universe.
The universe is alive, and it dances to the melody of our pipes. We are free to dance the cosmic dance, and to drink deeply from the cup of desire, until at last we grow weary of its charms. We have the assurance of Maharaj that we can attain whatever our hearts desire.
“When you work for something whole-heartedly and steadily, it happens, for it is the function of the mind to make things happen“. (I Am That)
Allan, Power of Thought, June 4, 2010, 9:28 pm
According to the teachings of the ancient Rishis, all life manifests consciousness. What this means is that every creature in nature, whether it be human, animal, bird, tree, plant or even viruses and bacteria possesses consciousness. Even stones are conscious, albeit at a very low level. For as Jesus answered the Pharisees who called on him to rebuke his disciples who were publicly attesting to his glory: “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out”. (Luke: 19:40)
Materially minded critics may scoff at such ideas, but they remain the bedrock of mystical truth as taught by the ancient Rishis. Whenever the basic energy of the universe (Prana) coalesces into form, that form becomes imbued with consciousness. That consciousness is characterised by a sense of personal identity which then permeates that form as the feeling “I am”. This sense of personal identity remains for as long as that form exists, and ends when that particular form “dies”.
Our lives consist of a series of thoughts, feelings, images and events that occur within consciousness. These sensations are associated with a sense of individual identity, and they make up the content of our personal lives. These conscious impressions are considered to be the product of a phenomenon called mind. The mind is thought to be a function of the human brain, which is considered to be the seat of consciousness itself.
But as we have seen in previous instalments, the idea of the brain giving birth to consciousness which then functions as mind does not stand up to critical analysis. The verdict of the sages confirms that it is the body and the brain that are the products of consciousness, and not the other way around. The entire universe is reflected in the mind. But what exactly is this phenomenon that we call the mind?
When the 20th century sage Ramana Maharshi was asked about the nature of the mind, he replied that there was no such thing as mind. He explained that what we have come to call “the mind” is nothing more than a collection of thoughts and feelings that exist within consciousness. What we call mind is actually a cloud of thoughts which cover the sun of Pure Awareness, or Reality.
The mind is simply a collective term for a variety of thoughts and feelings, all of which have their source in consciousness. And because each one of us associates our sense of individual identity with these thoughts and feelings, we believe that they are our thoughts and feelings. Yet if we search for the source of our individual identity, this personal ego disappears into consciousness itself.
As the Maharshi remarks: “The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is a thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the same. The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise.” (Talks with Ramana Maharshi)
Once the root-thought of the “I” appears, all other thoughts emerge in relation to this “I”. The individual personality is thus the sum total of all the thoughts and feelings which have come to be associated with that “I” thought. The things that we associate with the outside world are also images in consciousness, and do not exist outside of ourselves. In this way each one of us constructs a sense of individual personality as well as an outer universe in which we function.
The two, ego and world, are thus inextricably intertwined. They are born of the same source, and both derive their meaning from the other. The ego exists in terms of its thought relationships with the outer world, while the world is the product of inner images projected by the mind. There can be no world without the ego, and no ego without a world to interact with. The Indian sage Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj puts it this way:
“As long as the mind is there, your body and your world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on a thread of memory.” (I Am That)
The universe is simply a collection of thoughts. This has not only been the teaching of mystics both ancient and modern, but it has also been the central core of the wisdom of the ages. As Ramana Maharshi has pointed out: “The thoughts are the content of the mind, and they shape the universe”. (Talks with Ramana Maharshi)
As we shall see in the following instalment, this is the crucial conclusion towards which all the previous entries have led. Once we truly understand the meaning of these words, then we shall come to understand our unique destiny. No matter whether we be rich or poor, educated or not, of whatever race, color or creed, each one of us alive today shares an inalienable right.
Each one of us has the power to shape the universe.
Allan, The Mystery of Consciousness, May 28, 2010, 9:40 pm
As we have seen from previous instalments, all matter ultimately resolves itself into energy. But this energy is not static. It is always in motion. Physicists have found furthermore, that the patterns of energy that take the form of particles do not exist as permanent formations. They constantly flash into existence and out of existence again, much as a firefly twinkles in the night.
The universe that we see and sense around us is actually a phenomenon that is constantly being created and destroyed, and particles of matter are simply perturbations of a uniform and underlying field of energy. Physicists have called this basic field of energy the quantum field, since it is the source out of which the tiniest particles (or quanta) have been created, and into which they are dissolved again.
As Albert Einstein has pointed out, it is the field that is the only reality. “We may therefore regard matter as being constituted by the regions of space in which the field is extremely intense….there is no place in this new kind of physics both for the field and matter, for the field is the only reality.”
Mystics have known about this field for thousands of years. By an interesting coincidence, this ultimate source of all matter was also referred to as “the field” more than three thousand years ago in the sacred Hindu classic Bhagavad Gita: “This body is called the Field. Know me also to be in all fields. The knowledge of the Field and of the Knower of the Field I deem to be true knowledge.” (Chapter 13: Verses 1-2)
This field is the source of everything that we experience as our outer universe. All matter and created form are derived from this substratum of Reality. The nature of this Reality is hidden by a dark veil. This mysterious dark cavern is the source of all created life. This veil of darkness is referred to by mystics as the Void. All conscious life appears out of this Void and ultimately disappears into it again.
This Void is a brooding pregnant darkness. It possesses unlimited potential for the creation of manifested form. The German mystic Jacob Boehme described this Void as “The Dark”. He called it the Ungrund or “ungrounded”. According to Boehme, this Ungrund is the primal source, the unconditioned freedom, the uncreated root of all. It has no attributes, yet it is the inexpressible source of both God and all creation. From this dark, feminine creative source all life emerges.
The ancient Rishis claimed that all life emerged out of a sea of energy called Prana (referred to as Qi in China, and as Ki in Japan). According to these Rishis, this energy was not only the source from which all matter is derived, but it is also the intelligent principle which vitalizes all organic life. As the Indian Yogi Gopi Krishna wrote: “In its cosmic form prana is a highly diffused intelligent energy spread everywhere.”
Paramahansa Yoganada referred to prana as the “creative lifetronic force”. It is spread throughout the entire universe and is immanent in all manifested forms. Being a dynamic form of energy, prana is always in motion. It is in constant ebb and flow. It is the medium through which the entire cosmic dance of the universe unfolds. As the ancient Rishis explained, prana is not an inert form of energy, it is the secret to undertanding life itself.
For prana is not only an intelligent form of energy, it is the source of consciousness itself. As the 20th century master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj noted: “Consciousness as such is the subtle counterpart of matter. You may consider it in a way as a form of very subtle energy. Whenever matter organizes itself into a stable organism, consciousness appears spontaneously. With the destruction of the organism consciousness disappears.” (I Am That)
As we can see from the above, consciousness is inextricably linked with form. There can be no consciousness without an accompanying form, nor can there exist in nature a form that is not vitalized by consciousness. The character of consciousness varies with form however, and as forms become more complex, so the levels of consciousness associated with these forms change accordingly.
Whenever the energy of prana manifests as a particular form, consciousness arises automatically in that form. This consciousness is always associated with a sense of identity. This identity is characterized with the sense of the individual “I am”, which then associates itself with that form. This sense of “I am” therefore exists within all forms of matter. It follows that all creatures existing in the universe possess consciousness, as Nisargadatta Maharaj has pointed out:
“This knowledge “I am” is the same, whether it is an insect, worm, human being, or an avatar (being of the highest order); the basic consciousness is the same in all of these. In order to manifest itself the consciousness needs a frame, a particular construct in which it can oocur. That form can be anything, but it needs a form, and it lasts only as long as that particular form remains.” (I Am That)
So the mystery of the source of consciousness, which has so far eluded the best minds of our scientists, stands revealed in the teachings of mystics, both ancient and modern. Consciousness does not arise inside the brain, as most psychologists today believe, and as modern scientists are still trying to prove. It is an integral part of the energy that makes up, not only our own bodies, but all of created life.
Allan, The Mystery of Consciousness, May 21, 2010, 11:40 am
As we have seen from the previous instalment, despite four hundred years of painstaking scientific experimentation, investigation and analysis, we are faced with an inescapable conclusion to the riddle of consciousness. The fact is that we simply do not know how it is that we are able to see, or hear, or smell, taste or touch!
If we trace the process of vision to its source, we can see how the energy of light is converted through chemical and molecular interaction into neurological signals that ultimately lead to the visual centre of the cerebral cortex of the brain. And as it is with sight, so it is with all the other senses. But this is where scientific knowledge ends and speculation begins, for scientists have still been unable to explain exactly how a mental image occurs in our minds.
It is obvious that no image can appear in our minds unless there exists something in which, or on which, this image can appear. This base, or substratum, is consciousness itself. When we say that we see something, what we are saying is that an image of that something registers upon our consciousness. If it did not, we could never be aware of it. But the enigma of how it is that we come to see or sense something is preceded by an even greater mystery.
Not only has science so far been unable to explain exactly how a mental image comes to appear in consciousness, but it has also been unable to say how consciousness itself arises. For if consciousness is regarded as the outcome of a series of physical processes within the brain, as psychologists maintain, then some part of the brain must obviously be responsible for its creation.
So far, however, no evidence of any source of consciousness has yet been found to exist within the brain, nor has any accepted explanation been produced to account for its appearance. The fact that scientists have thus far been unable to explain how consciousness arises has not deterred them from believing that it does take place, although in some as yet unexplained manner. Until it is explained, however, the idea that consciousness arises inside the brain remains an article of faith. It is nothing more than an unsubstantiated belief.
This conclusion has now been corroborated by the latest findings of quantum physics, as has been pointed out in previous instalments. It is also supported by the vast body of evidence contained in dreams, hallucinations, and other “alternate” states. For as Dr Charles Muses has pointed out: “A salient fact of modern brain research should be stated here: The brain is not the source of its own motivational impulses“.
The mystery of consciousness also conflicts with accepted evolutionary theory, which is held to be an inviolable pillar of modern scientific thought. According to the principles of neo-Darwinism, life on earth has evolved through a series of changes in form from the simple to the complex, as can be seen from the fossil record. Simple life forms like algae and plants emerged first, to be followed by more complex life forms like fishes, birds, animals and primates, leading up to the emergence of human beings (Homo Sapiens).
All scientists agree that human beings possess consciousness. However, they are not prepared to accept that consciousness exists in primitive forms of life, such as bacteria or plants. But the conundrum of consciousness is this. If all life forms are the product of natural selection, as Darwin claimed, and that complex life forms have evolved over vast eons of time from these simple origins, then when exactly did consciousness first appear within the hierarchy of life forms, and what caused it to come about.
While modern science has nothing to say on this point, the solution to this mystery has been known for thousands of years. It has in fact been taught over the centuries by mystics and Rishis, and has been revealed in their holy books. The secret to the understanding of the mystery of consciousness, lies in the true understanding of energy itself.
We have seen how quantum physicists have come to recognise that all matter ultimately resolves itself into energy. As Fritjof Capra has pointed out: “Atoms consist of particles, and these particles are not made of any material stuff. When we observe them, we never see any substance, what we observe are dynamic patterns continually changing into one another – a constant dance of energy.” (The Tao of Physics)
This conclusion is echoed by Gary Zukav. “The search for the ultimate stuff of the universe ends with the discovery that there isn’t any. If there is any ultimate stuff of the universe, it is pure energy, but subatomic particles are not ‘made of’ energy, they are energy“. (Original emphasis) (The Dancing Wu Li Masters)
If we are ever to understand the true origin and nature of consciousness, we need to investigate what this energy is, and what its properties are. This investigation will not only explain what consciousness is, but how it came about, and how it empowers us to change the universe that we see and sense around us. The following instalment will reveal what the ancient Rishis have had to say about it.
Allan, The Mystery of Consciousness, May 14, 2010, 8:59 pm
As we have seen from previous instalments, the scientific quest to discover the fundamental building blocks of the universe led quantum physicists to the inescapable conclusion that there was no outward physical universe at all, and that all of our sensory impressions of what appears to be “out there” in space are in fact impressions that are registered upon our consciousness “within”. This conclusion led inevitably to the search for the nature and origin of consciousness itself.
Because scientists had previously operated on the belief that the universe did exist outwardly in space as our senses suggested, it was natural for them to assume that the source of consciousness was to be found within the human body. It was assumed that consciousness itself was somehow generated inside the human brain. Yet it soon became apparent that the source of consciousness was not as easy to locate as scientists had imagined.
It was the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung who noted that the mind was capable of producing scenarios which involved an entire range of sensory responses. These mental pageants could arise in dreams, but they could also be derived from a variety of stimuli such as alcohol, chemical or psychedelic agents. They could also arise as a result of stress or trauma. These illusions appeared to be every bit as veridical as the events that were witnessed in waking consciousness.
What troubled Jung was the fact that the mind was capable of projecting these illusions whether the percipient was conscious or not, and regardless of whether the brain was damaged or intact. As he noted in his book “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” published in 1961:
“There are certain astonishing observations in cases of profound syncope after acute injuries to the brain and in severe states of collapse. In both situations, total loss of consciousness can be accompanied by perceptions of the outside world and vivid dream experiences. Since the cerebral cortex, the seat of consciousness, is not functioning at these times, there is as yet no explanation for such phenomena.”
Jung’s mystification is easy to understand. For if the world exists as a three dimensional reality outside of ourselves, and if the function of the senses is simply to convey messages to the brain reflecting the content of this world, then how is it possible for impressions of the world to continue to be experienced when the brain is severely damaged, and the body is physically unconscious?”
The solution to this mystery, which Jung along with many leading scientists to this day have still refused to accept, lies in the fact that the cerebral cortex is not the seat of human consciousness, as mystics have been pointing out for millennia. The reason why people continue to experience hallucinations even when they are unconscious, or suffer from severe brain damage, is because the brain, the body and the entire world exist within consciousness, and not the other way around.
Consciousness is not created by the brain, nor does it have its source within the body. Because consciousness is not dependent on the brain, it is not affected by the physical condition of the human body. Projections of the mind can continue to occur, albeit on a different level from that of normal waking experience, even when the brain is severely damaged and the body is totally unconscious.
We remain convinced that our senses are merely windows to an outer world that exists outside of ourselves. So if we see an oak tree in a meadow, we believe that it is our brain that creates this image of the oak tree in our minds, and that it is also our brain that creates our state of inner consciousness that allows us to witness it in the first place. As it is with our eyes, so we believe a similar operation occurs with each of our other senses.
But when we trace the network of nerve signals from our senses to their ultimate destination within the brain, we discover that the cells that are apparently responsible for our ability to see or to smell or to hear, are not the most wonderful and complex cells within the human body, but are no different from any other nerve cells in the body. Our exquisitely complex function of sight or touch or taste appears to be the product of of the most elementary forms of cellular life.
As Dr Charles A. Muses wrote in “Paraphysics: A New View of Ourselves and the Cosmos“:
“Even in the hypothalamus, often thought of as a prime ‘center’, what we have is not a source but only a concentrated bundle of fibres. When impulses have been traced further than even concentrated bundles, we end up with specific neurons. But these are specialised amoebas, and by accepted evolutionary theory, protozoan sensibility cannot be regarded as the executive suite of human intelligence!”
Scientists have therefore been confronted with a mystifying riddle. How is it that these simple nerve cells, which have been found to comprise the visual centre of the cerebral cortex, are able to perform the stupefying trick of creating images in consciousness, as well as the thoughts that are associated with them? In spite of its accumulation of knowledge over a span of four hundred years, science has still been unable to solve this riddle.
Allan, The Mystery of Consciousness, May 7, 2010, 8:46 pm
Almost every person alive today believes that the universe that they see and sense around them exists outside of themselves as a real physical phenomenon. They believe with utter conviction that the universe began many billions of years before they were born, and will continue to manifest many billions of years after they are dead. This sense of outward reality seems so patently obvious to them that they never stop to question whether this belief is actually correct.
Yet when physicists in the 20th century attempted to explain exactly what matter really was, they were led away from the outward world of physical “things” towards subjective states of consciousness. In short, the outer world that we all take to be “real” was found to be “unreal”, or at least dependent upon the state of mind of the observer. And this observer was found to be an integral part of whatever it was that was observed.
According to the latest findings of quantum mechanics, scientists have concluded that there is no such thing as a created universe that exists independently of ourselves. As we have seen in the previous instalment, physicists like Henry Stapp have unequivocally stated: “The conclusion here is not the weak conclusion that there may not be a substantive physical world, but rather that there definitely is not a substantive physical world.”
As physicist John Wheeler has confirmed: “Nothing is more important about the quantum principle than this, that it destroys the concept of the world as ‘sitting out there'”. Or, as the British physicist Sir James Jeans explained: “Objective realities exist, because certain things affect your consciousness and mine in the same way, but we are assuming something we have no right to assume if we label them as either ‘real’ or ‘ideal'”.
But this is exactly what the ancient Rishis and other enlightened Masters have been saying for thousands of years. In the words of the 20th century sage Sri Ramana Maharshi: “Those who have realized the Self by direct and immediate experience clearly perceive beyond all doubt that the phenomenal world as an objective, independent reality is wholly nonexistent.” We find its echo in the teachings of the Buddha: “The Buddha said to Subhuti, ‘All that has form is an illusive existence. When it is perceived that all form is no form, the Tathagata is recognized'”.
In his epic work The Crest Jewel of Wisdom the 8th century sage Sankara wrote: “With the emergence of the mind everything arises and with its subsidence everything ceases. In the dream state, in which there are no objects, the mind creates its dream world of enjoyers and others by its powers. Similarly, all that it perceives in the waking state is its own display.”
As the 20th century Rishi Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj has explained: “The main point to grasp is that you have projected onto your self a world of your own imagination, based on memories, on desires and fears, and that you have imprisoned yourself in it.” He goes on to add: “You create the world in your imagination like a dream. As you cannot separate the dream from yourself, so you cannot have an outer world independent of yourself.”
Again, he is merely repeating the ancient wisdom taught by the Rishis of old. As recorded in the Ashtavakra Gita written more than three thousand years ago: “The universe is merely a mode of mind; in reality it has no existence”. And as we find in the ancient Hindu classic Advaita Bodha Deepika: “Both the dream world and the waking world are only mental and illusory. There can be no doubt of this. Only the waking world is a long drawn out illusion and the dream is a short one. This is the only difference and nothing more.”
The findings of quantum physicists have thus come to echo the ancient teachings of the Rishis. As Fritjof Capra wrote in The Tao of Physics: “Modern physics has confirmed most dramatically one of the basic ideas of Eastern mysticism; that all the concepts we use to describe nature are limited, that they are not features of reality, as we tend to believe, but creations of the mind.”
When Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj remarks: “The consciousness and the world appear and disappear together, hence they are two aspects of the same state”, we can compare this with the words of the American physicist Henry Margenau: “Consciousness is the primary medium of all reality. Even the external world is initially a posit, a projection of consciousness.”
The ultimate essence of this quest into the true nature of the universe rests upon the phenomenon of consciousness. What exactly is consciousness? What is its nature? What is its source? Does it emerge from the brain as many modern researchers claim? Or does it have its origin in some more ethereal realm? The answers to these questions will form the subject of the following instalments.
Allan, Quest for Reality, April 16, 2010, 10:42 pm
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