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Volume 23, Number 19 – 10/1/20

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FUTURE FACTS – FROM THINK LINKS

DID YOU KNOW THAT–

  • In the complete absence of oxygen, trapping light and arsenic was once a viable mode of photosynthesis in the Precambrian period.
  • Researchers at the University of Queensland have determined mathematically that a time traveler could make changes, but the original outcome would still find a way to happen — maybe not the same way it happened in the first timeline but close enough that no significant outcome would be altered.
  • The Body Shop will buy 600 tons of waste plastic next year.
  • A jet suit for paramedics which would see people who have accidents in wooded areas reached in minutes has been tested in the UK.

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Our Mysterious Human Origins:
Regina Meredith in Berkeley Springs, October 17th

Always riveting, Regina’s talk brings an alternative view of human origin that touches upon the polarized nature of being Human.

Regina Meredith will discuss an alternative view of human origin that touches upon the polarized nature of being Human. We will explore the subject from a pre-historic vantage point, from the point where highly aware and creative non-physical beings blended with the best version of animal man on the earth in an unintended experiment.

There are hints of Edgar Cayce’s transmissions in this story but it is further fleshed out. This will lead into the implications of how our multi-dimensional mind functions within the 3D context and explains how Humans can be so easily influenced mentally and emotionally.

I spoke with Regina the other day about what she’s been up to and what she will be discussing with us in Berkeley Springs. Click below to watch.

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If you can’t make it in person you may enjoy the livestream option. You will also have access to a replay that will be available for two weeks following the event! Click below for full information.



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issuu-graphic.jpg TRANSITION TALKS MAGAZINE



THINK LINKS


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Magically Morphing Masks – (Real Climate Science – September 18, 2020)
This video clip presents evidence for the uselessness of face masks, at best, and quotes Dr. Fauci and a statement from the CDC (in May, 2020) and the World Health Organization (in March, 2020) to support its points. Contrary to US practice, Sweden achieved herd immunity without mandating masks and without lock downs. And having younger people get the virus is “a very good thing” since they represent a low risk community and this would speed the country reaching herd immunity.


Covid-19: Do Many People Have Pre-existing Immunity?- (BMJ/British Medical Journal – September 17, 2020)
With public health responses around the world predicated on the assumption that the virus entered the human population with no pre-existing immunity before the pandemic, serosurvey data are leading many to conclude that the virus has, as Mike Ryan, WHO’s head of emergencies, put it, “a long way to burn.” Yet a stream of studies that have documented SARS-CoV-2 reactive T cells in people without exposure to the virus are raising questions about just how new the pandemic virus really is, with many implications. At least six studies have reported T cell reactivity against SARS-CoV-2 in 20% to 50% of people with no known exposure to the virus. In a study of donor blood specimens obtained in the US between 2015 and 2018, 50% displayed various forms of T cell reactivity to SARS-CoV-2. A similar study that used specimens from the Netherlands reported T cell reactivity in two of 10 people who had not been exposed to the virus. In Germany reactive T cells were detected in a third of SARS-CoV-2 seronegative healthy donors (23 of 68). In Singapore a team analyzed specimens taken from people with no contact or personal history of SARS or covid-19; 12 of 26 specimens taken before July 2019 showed reactivity to SARS-CoV-2, as did seven of 11 from people who were seronegative against the virus. Reactivity was also discovered in the UK and Sweden. Though these studies are small and do not yet provide precise estimates of pre-existing immunological responses to SARS-CoV-2, they are hard to dismiss, with several being published in Cell and Nature. Researchers are also confident that they have made solid inroads into ascertaining the origins of the immune responses. “Our hypothesis, of course, was that it’s so called ‘common cold’ coronaviruses, because they’re closely related,” said Daniela Weiskopf, senior author of a paper in Science that confirmed this hypothesis. “We have really shown that this is a true immune memory and it is derived in part from common cold viruses.” This growing body of research documenting pre-existing immunological responses to SARS-CoV-2 may force pandemic planners to revisit some of their foundational assumptions about how to measure population susceptibility and monitor the extent of epidemic spread.


Battle Rages Inside US Hospitals over How Covid-19 Strikes and Kills – (Guardian – September 23, 2020)
If you have been wondering why there was so much flap over the CDC announcement – and then very rapid retraction – about Covid-19 aerosol spread when most people have been pretty much assuming it for some time, here finally is the answer: money. Frontline healthcare workers are locked in a heated dispute with many infection control specialists and hospital administrators over how the novel coronavirus is spread – and therefore, what level of protective gear is appropriate. At issue is the degree to which the virus is airborne – capable of spreading through tiny particles lingering in the air – or primarily transmitted through large, faster-falling droplets from, say, a sneeze or cough. This wonky, seemingly semantic debate has a real-world impact on what sort of protective measures healthcare companies need to take to protect patients and their workers. The topic has been deeply divisive within hospitals, largely because the question of whether an illness spreads by droplets or aerosols drives two conflicting sets of protective practices, touching on everything from airflow within hospital wards to patient isolation to choices of protective gear. Enhanced protections would be expensive and disruptive to a number of industries, but particularly to hospitals, which have fought to keep lower-level “droplet” protections in place. Occupational safety experts, aerosol scientists, frontline healthcare workers and their unions argue that the science suggests that high-quality, and costlier, N95 respirators should be required for routine Covid-19 patient care. “Bottom line is, there’s much more aerosol [transmission] than we thought,” Fauci said. But both sides can point to plenty of research supporting their positions. (Editor’s note: Also possibly figuring into this discussion is the fact that there is a still a shortage of N95 masks in the US and, therefore, those that are available are even more than usually expensive.)


Algorithm Spots COVID-19 Cases from Eye Images – (The Scientist – September 21, 2020)
Scientists have devised a potential screening method for COVID-19 based on eye images analyzed by artificial intelligence. Scanning a set of images from several hundred individuals with and without COVID-19, the tool accurately diagnosed coronavirus infections more than 90% of the time, the developers reported in a preprint posted to medRxiv. “Our model is quite fast,” said Yanwei Fu, a computer scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, who led the study. “In less than a second it can check results.” But the investigation by Fu’s team is preliminary and both ophthalmologists and AI specialists say they’d want to see much more information on the technique—and its performance—before being convinced it could work. Daniel Ting, ophthalmologist at the Singapore National Eye Center, cautions that the sample size of 303 patients and 136 healthy individuals in the Shanghai study is too small to draw strong conclusions. “To develop a good deep learning system to automatically detect some unique features from any medical imaging requires more patients,” he says. “In order to increase the reliability of this study, the same size would need to be multiplied by at least ten times, so, thousands of patients.” Fu has started down this road, increasing the number of participants and broadening the types of subjects. Ophthalmologist Alastair Denniston, the director of the Health Data Research Hub for Eye Health in Birmingham, UK, recently reviewed more than 20,000 AI studies on detecting disease from medical imaging, but found that less than 1% were sufficiently robust in their design and reporting that independent reviewers had high confidence in their claims. This led him to convene a group of experts to define the international standards for the design and reporting of clinical trials of AI systems.


Internet Search Results Predict US COVID-19 Hotspots Weeks Later, Study Reveals – (Science Alert – September 14, 2020)
In a recent study, researchers measured the popularity of medical symptom searches on Google and discovered that the volume of such searches can subsequently help predict the incidence of COVID-19 cases arising weeks later in the area. While the most common symptoms associated with coronavirus might be things like cough, fever, and difficulty breathing, in this case, researchers wanted to examine whether there was correlation between COVID-19 cases and surges in searches for a more distinct subset of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms caused by the disease, such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. While this is an important and potentially helpful insight, it’s not an entirely surprising link. For several years, it’s been well known that search engine queries can help alert us to things like influenza outbreaks. So the main takeaway here is that the same technique can also help inform us on the spread of COVID-19, potentially signaling which suburbs might be about to become hotspots. The hope is that, with elevated access to search interest and trends for more than 400 medical symptoms, signs, and conditions, it will be easier for health professionals to visualize and forecast ahead of time likely areas of coronavirus impact in the US.


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New Mathematical Model Proves Time Travel Could Happen Without Paradox – (Science Times – September 28, 2020)
Countless science fiction tales have explored the paradox of what would happen if you went back in time and did something in the past that endangered the future. One variation of this is known as the “grandfather paradox” — in which a time traveler kills their own grandfather, in the process preventing the time traveler’s birth. The logical paradox has given researchers a headache, in part because according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, “closed timelike curves” are possible, theoretically allowing an observer to travel back in time and interact with their past self — potentially endangering their own existence. But according to Germain Tobar and Fabio Costa, researchers at the University of Queensland, non-random deterministic processes can influence an arbitrary number of areas in the spacetime continuum. Moreover, closed time-like curves in Einstein’s theory of general relativity could fit in with the rules of free will. The researchers combined Kurt Godel’s theory of closed time-like curves, Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and their mathematical model to prove that time travel will happen without any inconsistencies. In their paper, they explained that combining quantum physics and general relativity could lead spacetime to lose its classical properties, which leads to indefinite causal structures, and spacetime will adjust itself. “Say you traveled in time in an attempt to stop COVID-19’s patient zero from being exposed to the virus,” Costa said. “You might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so, you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would,” co-author Germain Tobar said. In other words, a time traveler could make changes, but the original outcome would still find a way to happen — maybe not the same way it happened in the first timeline but close enough so that the time traveler would still exist and would still be motivated to go back in time. “No matter what you did, the salient events would just recalibrate around you.” The paper, “Reversible dynamics with closed time-like curves and freedom of choice,” was published in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity. The findings seem consistent with another time travel study published this summer in the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Letters. That study found that changes made in the past won’t drastically alter the future.


Discovery of a New Mass Extinction – (PhysOrg – September 16, 2020)
An international team has identified a major extinction of life 233 million years ago that triggered the dinosaur takeover of the world. The crisis has been called the Carnian Pluvial Episode. The team of 17 researchers, led by Jacopo Dal Corso of the China University of Geosciences at Wuhan and Mike Benton of the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, reviewed all the geological and palaeontological evidence and determined what had happened. The cause was most likely massive volcanic eruptions in the Wrangellia Province of western Canada, where huge volumes of volcanic basalt was poured out and forms much of the western coast of North America. The eruptions were so huge, they pumped vast amounts of greenhouse gases and there were spikes of global warming”. The warming was associated with increased rainfall, and this had been detected back in the 1980s by geologists Mike Simms and Alastair Ruffell as a humid episode lasting about 1 million years in all. The climate change caused major biodiversity loss in the ocean and on land, but just after the extinction event new groups took over, forming more modern-like ecosystems. The shifts in climate encouraged growth of plant life, and the expansion of modern conifer forests. “The new floras probably provided slim pickings for the surviving herbivorous reptiles,” said Professor Mike Benton. “I had noted a floral switch and ecological catastrophe among the herbivores back in 1983 when I completed my Ph.D. We now know that dinosaurs originated some 20 million years before this event, but they remained quite rare and unimportant until the Carnian Pluvial Episode hit. It was the sudden arid conditions after the humid episode that gave dinosaurs their chance.” It wasn’t just dinosaurs, but also many modern groups of plants and animals also appeared at this time, including some of the first turtles, crocodiles, lizards, and the first mammals.


120,000-year-old Footprints Mark Oldest Evidence of Humans in Arabia – (New Atlas – September 23, 2020)
Archeologists have discovered fossilized human footprints in Saudi Arabia that help fill in the story of the early migration of our species. Dating back 120,000 years, the tracks are the oldest evidence of the presence of modern humans on the Arabian Peninsula. The footprints were discovered in the south-western region of the Nefud Desert, on the site of what was once semi-arid grasslands dotted with lakes. The team identified 376 prints made by an assortment of creatures, including humans. “Of those, elephants and camels were the most abundant, yet there was also buffalo and horses in the area at that time,” says Julien Louys, an author of the study. “It was only the presence of freshwater lakes in the region that made the area so habitable for such a diverse community of elephants, camels, oryx, horses, buffaloes and humans.” The team was even able to pinpoint that the human prints were made by two or three individuals walking together. They seemed to have been following the footprints of the other animals, and their visit appeared to be transient – they were likely stopping by the area to drink and forage before moving on. To figure out how old the prints were, the researchers used a dating technique called Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). Quartz grains were extracted from within the sample, then hit with light. The specific way they glow can be measured and interpreted to determine when the grains were last exposed to sunlight.


We May Finally Know What Life on Earth Breathed Before There Was Oxygen – (LiveScience – September 27, 2020)
Billions of years ago, long before oxygen was readily available, the notorious poison arsenic could have been the compound that breathed new life into our planet. In Chile’s Atacama Desert, in a place called Laguna La Brava, scientists have been studying a purple ribbon of photosynthetic microbes living in a hypersaline lake that’s permanently free of oxygen. “I have been working with microbial mats for about 35 years or so,” says geoscientist Pieter Visscher from the University of Connecticut. Microbial mats, which fossilize into stromatolites, have been abundant on Earth for at least 3.5 billion years, and yet for the first billion years of their existence, there was no oxygen for photosynthesis. How these life forms survived in such extreme conditions is still unknown, but examining stromatolites and extremophiles living today, researchers have figured out a handful of possibilities. While iron, sulphur, and hydrogen have long been proposed as possible replacements for oxygen, it wasn’t until the discovery of ‘arsenotrophy’ in California’s hypersaline Searles Lake and Mono Lake that arsenic also became a contender. Since then, stromatolites from the Tumbiana Formation in Western Australia have revealed that trapping light and arsenic was once a valid mode of photosynthesis in the Precambrian. The same couldn’t be said of iron or sulphur. Just last year, researchers discovered an abundant life form in the Pacific Ocean that also breathes arsenic. If the team is right, then we might need to expand our search for life forms elsewhere.


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Gene-edited Livestock ‘Surrogate Sires’ Successfully Made Fertile – (PhysOrg – September 14, 2020)
Scientists have been searching for a way to create surrogate sires for decades to overcome the limitations of selective breeding and artificial insemination, tools which require either animal proximity or strict control of their movement—and in many cases, both. Artificial insemination is common in dairy cattle who are often confined so their reproductive behavior is relatively easy to control, but the procedure is rarely used with beef cattle who need to roam freely to feed. For pigs, the procedure still requires the animals be nearby as pig sperm does not survive freezing well. In goats, artificial insemination is quite challenging and could require a surgical procedure. The surrogate sire technology could solve those problems since the surrogates deliver the donor genetic material through normal reproduction. This enables ranchers and herders to let their animals interact normally on the range or field. Donors and surrogates do not need to be near each other since either frozen donor sperm or the surrogate animal itself can be shipped to different places. A research team led by Jon Oatley, a reproductive biologist with WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, used the gene-editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9, to knock out a gene specific to male fertility in the animal embryos that would be raised to become surrogate sires. The male animals were then born sterile but began producing sperm after researchers transplanted stem cells from donor animals into their testes. The sperm the surrogate sires produced held only the genetic material of the selected donor animals.


Is Aging a Disease You Can Reverse? A Look at the Science Behind the Longevity Movement – (Vogue – September 22, 2020)
Research shows that most people are ill with disease for five to eight years before they die. Must they be? A wave of scientists are saying no. They maintain that aging is a disease—one that can be targeted, treated, and perhaps even reversed. When it comes to health span, Nir Barzilai, M.D., founding director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, says genetics account for only some 20%. The rest is environment and lifestyle. Barzilai does a 16-hour life-lengthening daily fast. Along with his fasts and exercise, Barzilai takes a daily dose of metformin. An inexpensive diabetes medication that’s been around since the 1950s, metformin is thought to mimic the calorie restriction of fasting by limiting the amount of sugar the body absorbs (side effects are generally mild, among them abdominal pain, nausea, and loss of appetite). A 2017 study of more than 41,000 male metformin users found that it reduced—by a significant amount—the likelihood of dementia, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. A growing number of doctors are prescribing it off-¬label, but Barzilai wants the medication to be FDA-sanctioned for every elder adult. He’s also about to undertake a six-year national trial (called TAME, for “Targeting Aging With Metformin”), partially and anonymously funded by a noted tech billionaire. If fasting is not exactly your speed, diet is still tremendously important. As for what you should eat, the gold standard remains the Mediterranean diet.


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Life as One of the Last Fire Lookouts – (Outside – September 23, 2020)
In the early 1900s, more than 9,000 fire lookouts spanned the US. Today, only 60 remain staffed. From director Lindsey Hegan and cinematographer Chris Naum, Ode to Desolation (13 minute film, link embedded in article) introduces Jim Henterly, a naturalist, illustrator, and fire lookout. In an effort to preserve the human narrative, Henterly is dedicated to holding his post as the eyes and ears of Washington’s historic Desolation Peak Fire Lookout, while contemplating the dwindling days of fire lookouts in North America, as the influence of technology and artificial intelligence threatens to make the role obsolete. Give yourself a treat: watch this short film and remember (or discover) the vistas of wilderness. Those vistas are treasures that we need to keep safe.


“Out of the Blue” – Evidence That Sea Ice Triggered the Little Ice Age – (SciTech Daily – September 20, 2020)
A new study finds a trigger for the Little Ice Age that cooled Europe from the 1300s through mid-1800s, and supports surprising model results suggesting that under the right conditions sudden climate changes can occur spontaneously, without external forcing. The study, published in Science Advances, reports a comprehensive reconstruction of sea ice transported from the Arctic Ocean through the Fram Strait, by Greenland, and into the North Atlantic Ocean over the last 1400 years. The reconstruction suggests that the Little Ice Age—which was not a true ice age but a regional cooling centered on Europe—was triggered by an exceptionally large outflow of sea ice from the Arctic Ocean into the North Atlantic in the 1300s. While previous experiments using numerical climate models showed that increased sea ice was necessary to explain long-lasting climate anomalies like the Little Ice Age, physical evidence was missing. This study digs into the geological record for confirmation of model results.


Plastic Pollution: Washed Clothing’s Synthetic Mountain of ‘Fluff’ – (BBC News – September 16, 2020)
About 14% of all plastic is used to make synthetic fibers, principally for clothing. When those garments are washed, they will shed tiny strands that are much thinner than a human hair. When you add it up, the total amount of synthetic microfibers going into the wider environment as we wash our clothes is an astonishing number. US scientists estimate it to be 5.6 million tonnes (6.17 million tons) since we first started wearing those polyester and nylon garments in a big way in the 1950s. Just over half this mass – 2.9 million tonnes (3.2 million tons) – has likely ended up in our rivers and seas. That’s the equivalent of seven billion fleece jackets, the researchers say. But while we fret about water pollution, and rightly so, increasingly this synthetic “fluff” issue is one that affects the land. The University of California, Santa Barbara, team which did the calculations found that emission to the terrestrial environment has now overtaken that to water bodies – some 176,500 tonnes a year versus 167,000 tonnes. The reason? Wastewater treatment works have become very good at catching the fibers lost from washing machines. What’s happening is those captured fibers, along with biosolid sludge, are then being applied to cropland or simply buried in landfills. “I hear people say that the synthetic microfiber problem from apparel washing will take care of itself as wastewater treatment works become more widespread around the world and more efficient. But really what we’re doing is just moving the problem from one environmental compartment to another,” Roland Geyer, from UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, told BBC News.


The Body Shop Will Buy 600 Tons of Waste Plastic Next Year, and Wants Competitors to Follow – (CNBC – September 24, 2020)
Plastic pollution is a massive problem: more than a billion tons of plastic waste will end up in oceans or in landfill by 2040. The beauty industry is one of many contributors to plastic waste, but it’s a complex issue that doesn’t have a simple solution. One option is to treat plastic trash as a raw material, explains Mark Davis, who runs the Community Fair Trade program at beauty company The Body Shop. The program is an ethical sourcing initiative that was founded in 1987 and now makes up around 25% of the company’s ingredients budget, where the company procures ingredients like shea butter from Ghana and items such as paper gift boxes from Nepal. The program has now started to source waste plastic from Bangalore, India, to use in its packaging. Waste-pickers in some developing countries make a living by trading trash in an informal industry that can be dangerous and dirty. The Body Shop is working with sourcing company Plastics For Change to help it procure plastic, while providing better conditions for workers. Sourcing plastic like this is an initiative that has taken a while to come to fruition: it took five years to build the supply chain and get to the point where the raw material met The Body Shop’s needs, before it could be turned into plastic granules and made into packaging. ″(Waste pickers) needed to have lots of support around business training. So how do you then build a scaled-up business? How do you manage the cash flow through it? They had to have support around … environmental and social certifications (and make sure) they had decent working conditions,” Davis said.


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Microsoft’s Underwater Data Center Rises From the Seafloor a Grimy Success – (GizModo – September 14, 2020)
Microsoft’s underwater Northern Isles data center has risen again from the ocean depth and it is remarkably intact other than being covered in sea scum. The data center—which Microsoft sunk under 117 feet of water off the coast of Scotland’s Orkney Islands in 2018—resembles a large, airtight fuel tank. After two years on the seafloor, it is now blanketed in algae, barnacles, and cantaloupe-sized sea anemones. But Microsoft Special Projects researcher Spencer Fowers said in the announcement the company was “pretty impressed” at the lack of “hardened marine growth.” Inside, 864 servers with a collective 27.6 petabytes of storage and cooling infrastructure braved the elements in an atmosphere of inert gas—Microsoft noted that conditions at the European Marine Energy Centre test site can include nine mile per hour tidal currents and 60-foot waves during storms. In fact, Microsoft claimed the equipment fared better than land-based systems. Project Natick leader Ben Cutler said in the blog post that Northern Isles experienced failure rates just one-eighth what would have been expected in a traditional data center and that it ran “really well” on the region’s energy grid, which is 100% wind and solar. That vindicates the hypothesis the seafloor is preferable for server farms to topside environments where gear can be damaged by corrosion from oxygen and humidity, constant temperature changes, and physical movement during maintenance. Putting data centers underwater may also enable closer placement to customers and obviously makes cooling far easier, and Microsoft has previously suggested they could be powered by tidal generators. The units are also portable and could be easily scaled into larger operations.


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Nestbox Is a Modular Trunk Extension That Turns SUVs into Campers – (Dezeen – August 4, 2020)
Czech firm Studio 519 has designed a plywood module called Nestbox, which fits neatly into the trunk of an SUV and can be expanded into a double bed and fully fitted kitchen for camping. The unit, created for local company Egoé, comes in four sizes to suit a range of cars and can be customised with modules such as a cooker, mini-fridge, sink and camping shower attachment. During transport these different elements are neatly compacted into a steel-backed mainframe which, at its largest, measures just over one meter long and half a meter wide and tall. But on arrival, a system of integrated, space-saving drawers and fold-away attachments allow the Nestbox to be turned into a complete sleeping and cooking set-up in a matter of minutes.


The Age of Electric Cars Is Dawning Ahead of Schedule – (New York Times – September 20, 2020)
As car sales collapsed in Europe because of the pandemic, one category grew rapidly: electric vehicles. One reason is that purchase prices in Europe are coming tantalizingly close to the prices for cars with gasoline or diesel engines. At the moment this near parity is possible only with government subsidies that, depending on the country, can cut more than $10,000 from the final price. Electric vehicles are not yet as popular in the United States, largely because government incentives are less generous. As electric cars become more mainstream, the automobile industry is rapidly approaching the tipping point when, even without subsidies, it will be as cheap, and maybe cheaper, to own a plug-in vehicle than one that burns fossil fuels. The carmaker that reaches price parity first may be positioned to dominate the segment. A few years ago, industry experts expected 2025 would be the turning point. But technology is advancing faster than expected, and could be poised for a quantum leap. The balance of power in the auto industry may depend on which carmaker, electronics company or start-up succeeds in squeezing the most power per pound into a battery, what’s known as energy density. A battery with high energy density is inherently cheaper because it requires fewer raw materials and less weight to deliver the same range. This transition will probably arrive at different times for different segments of the market. High-end electric vehicles are pretty close to parity already. The Tesla Model 3 and the gas-powered BMW 3 Series both sell for about $41,000 in the United States. The holy grail in the electric vehicle industry has been to push the cost of battery packs — the rechargeable system that stores energy — below $100 per kilowatt-hour, the standard measure of battery power. That is the point, more or less, at which propelling a vehicle with electricity will be as cheap as it is with gasoline.


Engineers Test Jetliner Where You Ride in the Wings – (Futurism – September 4, 2020)
For the first time, a scale model of the Flying-V, an experimental jetliner that seats passengers inside its wings, took flight during an uncrewed test. The scale model weighs 22.5kg, has a wing span of 3.06m and a length of 2.76m. It was controlled via radio link, with TU Delft PhD candidate Nando van Arnhem as the drone pilot. The results of a Flying-V test have been long awaited. The plane’s unusual design makes it 20 percent more fuel efficient than the most advanced planes on the market. But, as with any unusual experimental design, it remains unclear how well it would actually work in practice. In its fully realized form, the Flying V aircraft would feature a cabin, cargo hold and fuel tanks integrated into its V-shaped wing structure, which would have a wingspan equal to that of an Airbus A350. This would enable the Flying V to take off and land using existing airport infrastructure, with enough space on board for the same amount of cargo and human passengers, with 314 seats in the standard configuration. See this article for the best photo of this every unusually shaped aircraft and some additional details.


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A 12-storey Pig Farm: Has China Found the Way to Tackle Animal Disease? – (Guardian – September 18, 2020)
The buildings are huge grey concrete blocks, many stories high, which stand side by side in the middle of what might look like a quarry, a “hole” of red earth dug in the heart of a mountain. This is the tallest pig farm in the world; units up to nine stories high housing thousands of pigs, with construction of a 12-story pig unit under way. “On each floor we can breed 1,270 pigs,” says Yuanfei Gao, vice-president of Yangxiang, the company that built the farm. “But in the future with the design of the new buildings we plan to have 1,300 pigs per floor.” Yangxiang is one of the Chinese giants of the pork industry, producing about 2 million pigs a year in a dozen farms throughout China. The Yaji mountain site is its largest and most advanced multistory farming system, and will have the capacity to produce around 840,000 pigs a year when construction is finished. Over the past two years African swine fever (ASF) has led to as many as 200 million pig deaths in a year; and a highly pathogenic foot-and-mouth disease, also in pigs, that vets now say is endemic. Over the past two years Chinese farmers and consumers have been rocked by pandemic after pandemic. Covid-19; an H1N1 swine flu that is now slowly spreading to farm workers; African swine fever (ASF), which has led to as many as 200 million pig deaths in a year; and a highly pathogenic foot-and-mouth disease, also in pigs, that vets now say is endemic. China is not the only country facing challenges from emerging zoonotic diseases, but it has become clear that the country faces bureaucratic, societal and ecological factors that magnify them into global threats. Peter Daszak, a zoologist and president of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit focused on global health issues, notes, “You’ve got this incredible population density, which is expanding, and you’ve got incredible encroachment into wild areas.” But here are sky-high standards of biosecurity and sophisticated cleaning and disposal systems. Is this, some hope, the answer?


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The CIA’s Assassination of Rene Schneider – (Future of Freedom Foundation – September 18, 2020)
It is commonly believed by many Americans that the CIA would never forcibly remove an American president from office even if he posed a grave threat to national security. But one thing is undeniable: the CIA would not hesitate to remove a foreign leader from office if he posed a threat to U.S. national security. Ever since the CIA was established in 1947, it has wielded the ultimate power to kill people with impunity, making a mockery, of course, of the notion that the U.S. government is a “limited” government. Rene Schneider was the commanding general of Chile’s armed forces under Salvador Allende, the socialist who was democratically elected president of Chile 50 years ago. The CIA and President Richard Nixon concluded that Allende posed a grave threat to U.S. “national security” and decided to remove him from office. Instead of assassination, the CIA chose to initiate a domestic military coup against Allende, one that would violently remove him from office and replace him with a conservative unelected military general. There was one big problem, however, with the U.S. coup scheme. That was Rene Schneider, as overall commander of Chile’s armed forces, stood firmly against the U.S. plans for a coup. He said that the Chilean constitution did not call for a coup as a way for removing a democratically elected president of the country. It only permitted impeachment or the next election to accomplish that. Obviously, a coup without the support of the overall commander of the Chilean armed forces was a problem. Solution: remove Schneider from office in order to remove Allende from office. When the CIA’s conspiracy to kidnap and murder Schneider came to light, there was never a U.S. criminal prosecution against the CIA or the actual CIA officials who were engaged in the kidnapping conspiracy. It became understood, especially after the Kennedy assassination, that the CIA wielded omnipotent power to assassinate anyone, including Americans, so long as it was done to protect “national security.” Today, fifty years after the Schneider assassination and some 55 years after the Kennedy assassination and other assassination plots on the part of the CIA (e.g., Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, etc.), the CIA has become a permanent part of America’s governmental structure. Moreover, its power of assassination is no longer concealed. It’s out in the open, despite the fact that nothing in the Constitution authorizes the federal government to assassinate people.


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Flynn Case Agent: Mueller Used Prosecution as Means to ‘Get Trump’ – (Epoch Times – September 27, 2020)
An FBI agent assigned to the investigation of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn wanted to be taken off the case, he recently told FBI investigators, saying the prosecution of Flynn was being used as a means to “get Trump.” FBI agent William Barnett was assigned to the Flynn case shortly after it was opened in August 2016, as part of the FBI’s probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which was dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane.” But the case was “opaque,” lacking much detail of specific evidence of any crimes, Barnett told FBI and DOJ investigators. The case theory was “supposition on supposition,” he said. After Trump won the election, Barnett discussed with others on the case what the “end game” was and proposed an interview with Flynn under the pretext of a standard procedure before Flynn assumed the role of national security adviser. The request was denied. Barnett said the Mueller lawyers, most of them Democrats, approached the probe with the conviction that there was “something criminal there” and competed to uncover it because they wanted to be part of something “big.” It seems like there was always someone claiming to have a lead that would prove collusion only for it to be a dead end, he said. He and some others even quipped the probe could be turned into a “Collusion Clue” game. (Editor’s note: This article follows many of the twists and turns of this very much inside-the-beltway case. If you’re up for those details, check it out.)


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British Ambassador Craig Murray Exposes the Corrupt and Censored Assange Extradition Hearing – (Paul Craig Roberts – September 25, 2020)
Ambassador Murray is upfront: “I strongly expect the final decision was made in this case even before opening arguments were received.” Although the hearing is being conducted in a British court, the US government has controlled the hearing and has determined what evidence could be presented: “The plan of the US Government throughout has been to limit the information available to the public and limit the effective access to a wider public of what information is available. Thus we have seen the extreme restrictions on both physical and video access. A complicit mainstream media has ensured that those of us who know what is happening are very few in the wider population.” Even Ambassador Murray’s reports on the hearing are censored by social media: “Even my blog has never been so systematically subject to shadowbanning from Twitter and Facebook as now. Normally about 50% of my blog readers arrive from Twitter and 40% from Facebook. During the trial it has been 3% from Twitter and 9% from Facebook.” Ambassador Murray believes that the misconduct of the judge and prosecution, serving as Washington’s agents, has destroyed the legal principles on which British justice rests: “I fear that all over London a very hard rain is now falling on those who for a lifetime have worked within institutions of liberal democracy that at least broadly and usually used to operate within the governance of their own professed principles. . . . I have again and again reported to you that, where rulings have to be made, she [Judge Baraitser] has brought them into court pre-written, before hearing the arguments before her.” In Stalin’s show trials all rulings were pre-written before arguments in court were heard. It is obvious from the behavior of the British court that the extradition hearing is orchestrated to set Assange up as guilty of whatever false charges Washington wishes to make. See also: The US is using the Guardian to justify jailing Assange for life. Why is the paper so silent?


Her Husband Abused Her. But Getting a Divorce Was an Ordeal. – (New York Times – September 16, 2020)
Ms. Liu’s case (described in detail in the article) has set off a nationwide debate about two of the biggest issues facing women in China: the prevalence of domestic violence and the difficulties of getting justice in a legal system stacked against them. A survey conducted by the All-China Women’s Federation in 2011 showed that about one in four women had suffered physical or verbal abuse, or had their freedoms restricted by their partners. But activists, citing interviews with abused women, estimate the numbers are far higher, especially after millions were placed under lockdown during the pandemic. Though China introduced an anti-domestic violence law in 2016, penalties are minimal. Marital rape is still legal, and women say restraining orders are rarely enforced. Even divorce is becoming harder, with the government imposing a 30-day “cooling off period” on couples seeking to separate starting next year. Legislators alarmed by China’s rising divorce rate argue the new law will prevent couples from splitting up rashly, but women’s rights advocates say it will keep people trapped in abusive marriages for a longer time. It was only in recent years that domestic violence came to be seen as a significant problem in China, where laws are largely made and enforced by men, and families are discouraged from airing their problems in public. Several high-profile cases have drawn attention to the issue, and one city in eastern China recently began allowing people to check if their partners have a history of abuse before marrying them. But victims often meet resistance in the legal system, which can discourage them from seeking help. Though China’s marriage law specifies that domestic violence is sufficient grounds for divorce, many courts encourage couples to try reconciling in the name of social and family harmony. From March 2016, when the law took effect, to December 2018, Chinese courts received only 5,860 applications for restraining orders and approved fewer than two-thirds of them, according to Equality, a women’s rights organization in Beijing. At the root of the problem, according to activists, is a notion among police officers and the courts that divorce is bad and that marriage is the bedrock of society.


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World’s First Reality Show in Space Plans to Send One Winner on a 10-day Trip to the Space Station, Filming the Whole Time – (Business Insider –September 19, 2020)
Space Hero Inc., a US-based media production company, is developing a TV series that could be the first filmed in space. The show, also called “Space Hero,” would send the winner of a worldwide contest on a trip to the International Space Station. The production company’s plan is to first pick a group of space-loving individuals from around the world. The show would follow them as they go through grueling astronaut training, and the competition would culminate in a live episode in which viewers could vote on their favorite contestant. Once the show declares a winner, that contestant would launch on a 10-day trip to the ISS alongside NASA astronauts; the show would chronicle that person’s journey from liftoff to landing. The “Space Hero” producers have already secured a seat on an actual mission to the space station. The winning contestant is slated to fly to space on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2023. To book that seat and plan the mission, Space Hero Inc. is working with Axiom Space, a private space company led by a former ISS program manager. Axiom is also helping the production company nail down other logistics, like training the would-be space travelers. Separately, Axiom is also building its own module for private space travelers, which it plans to attach to the ISS in 2024. It hopes to send its first paying customers to space next year via SpaceX. (Editor’s note: A seat on a craft that will take you to the ISS is estimated to cost between $50 million and $90 million depending on which vehicle you opt for. We assume that Space Hero, Inc. had to book 2 or even 3 seats – winner plus camera crew. Maybe they got a multi-person booking discount.)


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We Finally Know How Much Radiation There Is on the Moon, and It’s Not Great News – (Science Alert – September 26, 2020)
As the US prepares to return humans to the Moon this decade, one of the biggest dangers future astronauts will face is space radiation that can cause lasting health effects, from cataracts to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Though the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s proved it was safe for people to spend a few days on the lunar surface, NASA did not take daily radiation measurements that would help scientists quantify just how long crews could stay. This question was resolved Friday after a Chinese-German team published in the journal Science Advances the results of an experiment carried out by China’s Chang’E 4 lander in 2019. “The radiation of the Moon is between two and three times higher than what you have on the ISS (International Space Station),” co-author Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber, an astrophysicist at the University of Kiel told AFP. “So that limits your stay to approximately two months on the surface of the Moon,” he added, once the radiation exposure from the roughly week-long journey there, and week back, is taken into account. “The radiation levels we measured on the Moon are about 200 times higher than on the surface of the Earth and five to 10 times higher than on a flight from New York to Frankfurt,” added Wimmer-Schweingruber.”


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Three-quarters of Americans Know Only a Few People Who Support the Candidate They Themselves Oppose – (Washington Post – September 18, 2020)
Here’s new data from Pew Research Center. The pollsters asked Americans who they supported in the 2020 contest, Trump or former vice president Joe Biden, and then how many of their friends supported either the same candidate or the other. Nearly 9-in-10 Trump and Biden supporters said that a lot or some of their friends supported the same candidate as they did. About three-quarters said that they knew at most a few people who supported the candidate that they didn’t — and about 40% of each group knew no one at all who supported the other candidate. (Editor’s note: Don’t these people have extended families? Every family we know of has a few outliers.) After the 2016 election, The Washington Post and its partners at the Schar School asked voters how many people in their social circles voted for the presidential candidate they themselves had opposed. Seven-in-10 supporters of both Trump and Hillary Clinton said that a lot of their friends voted for the same candidate. Three-in-10 Clinton voters and a quarter of Trump voters said they knew no one who’d supported the other candidate. What was particularly interesting in the wake of the 2016 election was to look at how people actually voted. Precinct-level data showed that, on average, a quarter of voters in each state lived in a precinct where one candidate or the other won by 50 percentage points, in other words, the voting public was very nearly equal on their preferences. But in most places, a substantial portion of the electorate lived in broadly homogenous political bubbles. Why? In part because of the tension partisanship introduces. More than 9-in-10 respondents in another Pew poll identified the conflict between the two parties as strong or very strong — more than any other demographic divide in American culture. It makes that 10-plus percent of Trump and Biden supporters in Pew’s new poll whose friends mostly support the other candidate all the more remarkable.


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New Brain-Computer Interface Transforms Thoughts to Images – (Psychology Today – September 27, 2020)
Achieving the next level of brain-computer interface (BCI) advancement, researchers at the University of Helsinki used artificial intelligence (AI) to create a system that uses signals from the brain to generate novel images of what the user is thinking. The University of Helsinki researchers used a combination of a generative neural network with neuroadaptive brain interfacing to create a new BCI paradigm. Neuroadaptive generative modeling is the estimation of a person’s intentions via adapting a generative model to neural activity. To expand capabilities and not be limited to pre-defined categories, the researchers based the solution on a generative adversarial network (GAN) to generate novel information from a latent representation of an input space. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to use neural activity to adapt a generative computer model and produce new information matching a human operator’s intention,” wrote the Finnish team of researchers.


Jet Suit Paramedic Could Save Lives – (BBC News – September 29, 2020)
A jet suit for paramedics which would see patients reached in minutes by a “flying” medic has been tested by the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) in the UK. Andy Mawson, director of operations at GNAAS, came up with the idea and described seeing it as “awesome”. He said it meant a paramedic could “fly” to a hill top in 90 seconds rather than taking 30 minutes on foot. Mr Mawson said the exercise had demonstrated the huge potential of using jet suits to deliver critical care services. The test flight was carried out by Richard Browning, founder of Gravity Industries and maker of the equipment. He said the suits had two mini engines on each arm and one on the back allowing the paramedic to control their movement just by moving their hands. Mr Mawson said, “If the idea takes off, the flying paramedic will be armed with a medical kit, with strong pain relief for walkers who may have suffered fractures, and a defibrillator for those who may have suffered a heart attack.”


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Billionaire Investor Ray Dalio on Capitalism’s Crisis: The World Is Going to Change ‘In Shocking Ways’ In the Next Five Years – (Market Watch – September 18, 2020)
Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, which has made him a billionaire. So it’s not surprising that he champions capitalism as a proven way to expand economic growth and living standards. But capitalists don’t divide the economic pie very well, he says, and so today the capitalist system, the foundation of the U.S. economy, is not working efficiently and effectively enough for all. Dalio has written and spoken about three big domestic and international problems facing the U.S. over the next five to 10 years and how a failure to address these challenges could threaten America’s standing in the world. He adds that the three problems are coming together, so it’s important to understand them individually and how they collectively make a bigger problem. They are: a money and credit cycle problem, a wealth and values gap problem, and an emerging great power challenging the existing dominant power problem. What’s going on is an economic downturn together with a large wealth gap and the rising power of China challenging the existing power of the United States. The United States is a 75-year-old empire and it is exhibiting signs of decline. If you want to extend your life, there are clear things you can do, but it means doing things that you don’t want to do. (Editor’s note: We recommend this article for its clear-eyed truth telling.)


Over 60% of Businesses that Closed Will not Reopen – (Armstrong Economics – September 17, 2020)
I seriously doubt that people realize the extent of the economic damage caused by this HOAX instigated but a group of Oligarchs & Academics drunk on their own power and ignorance of how the real world even functions. When I met Kalus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, my impression was clearly one of academic arrogance. The people behind this bold attempt to alter the world economy do not fraternize with the little people they consider the great unwashed. CNN notes that “[a]bout 60% of businesses that have closed during the coronavirus pandemic will never reopen, and restaurants have suffered the most, according to new data from Yelp.” In the meantime, we have a similar arrogance among market pundits who think a vaccine will save the economy and everything will recover as if nothing ever took place. What has been unleashed with masks and social distancing will leave a stain in the minds of so many who will forever look at others as a threat to their life transporting some disease. Civilizations collapse when they (1) turn against their people, and (2) allow one class to oppress another. This is why Marxism is so dangerous. The more we move toward a socialist state means the state must suppress those that produce. Civilization no longer provides equal protection and thus it has lost its benefit for all.


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Are Humans Still Evolving? Scientists Weigh In – (Science Alert – September 20, 2020)
We asked 12 experts whether humans are still evolving. The expert consensus is unanimously ‘yes’, however scientists say we might have the wrong idea of what evolution actually is. Evolution is often used interchangeable with the phrases ‘survival of the fittest’ or ‘natural selection’. Actually, these are not quite the same thing. ‘Evolution’ simply means the gradual change of a population over time. ‘Natural selection’ is a mechanism by which evolution can occur. Our Stone Age ancestors who were faster runners avoided being trampled by mammoths and were more likely to have children. That is ‘natural selection’. Overtime, the human population became faster at running. That’s evolution. But even without selection pressures, experts say evolution still occurs by other mechanisms. Dr. Alywyn Scally, an expert in evolution and genetics from the University of Cambridge, explains: “As long as human reproduction involves randomness and genetic mutation (and the laws of the Universe pretty much guarantee that this will always be the case at some level), there will continue to be differences from one generation to the next, meaning that the process of evolution can never be truly halted.”


Amharic, Uighur, Catalan, Guyanese Creole, Twi, and English – (A Counting – no date)
Those are some of the 600-800 languages spoken in NYC alone; there are at least 1,300 in the US. Ekene Ijeoma, the founder of Poetic Justice at MIT’s Media Lab, has launched an intriguing “voice portrait of America” called A Counting. People call in and count to 100 in their native tongue. Software mixes their voices in an ever-changing blend, from 1 on up. A single loop from 1-100 takes 3 1/2 minutes. Listening to every iteration for New York? 34 days, 5 hours. There are variations for Houston and Omaha, as well.


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Foul-Mouthed Parrots Removed from Wildlife Park for Swearing at Visitors – (Newsweek – September 29, 2020)
A group of parrots had to be removed from an English wildlife park for swearing at the guests. The five parrots were adopted and brought to the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park on August 15 and had quarantined together in the same room, where they had apparently taught each other curse words. Steve Nichols, the park’s chief executive, said: “Every now and then you’ll get one that swears and it’s always funny.” But it became an issue, he said, once the parrots learned to laugh and encouraged each other to swear as a result. The parrots had to be put on a time out away from the park’s guests, but within 20 minutes of being back on display, the parrots had sworn at a guest and had directed obscene language at a group of people.


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Mailing Letters Under the Sea, to the Highest Post Office in the World – (YouTube – August 13, 2020)
“Great Big Story” is a CNN offshoot that creates micro-documentaries, in this recent case about letters – that people write by hand. It includes a man in the Netherlands who collects letters in bottles –who knew people were tossing so many in the sea? Then there’s the Japanese postmaster who created the world’s first underwater letter box and the women in Verona who handle letters to Juliet. And in Hikkim, India, you can meet the postmaster of the world’s highest post office.


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If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.
― Lyndon B. Johnson, US president

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A special thanks to: Chas Freeman, Ursula Freer, Diane Petersen Gary Sycalik, Steve Ujvarosy and all of you who have sent us interesting links in the past. If you see something we should know about, do send it along – thanks.

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johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org



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Edited by John L. Petersen
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Joni Patry

Joni Patry is one of the most recognized teachers and Vedic astrologers in the world. She was a faculty member for ACVA, CVA and Instructor for online certification programs, published many books, journals and appeared on national and international television shows. As the keynote speaker for international conferences, she has a Japanese website, and teaches in Austria, Turkey and India. She has been awarded the 2015 Jyotish Star of the year and Dr B. V. Raman’s Janma Shatamanothsava Award Jyotisha Choodamani. She publishes an online astrological magazine, Astrologic Magazine http://astrologicmagazine.com/ and has an online University for certification, the University of Vedic Astrology. http://universityofvedicastrology.com

William Henry

William Henry is a Nashville-based author, investigative mythologist, art historian, and TV presenter. He is an internationally recognized authority on human spiritual potential, transformation and ascension. He has a unique ability to incorporate historical, religious, spiritual, scientific, archaeological and other forms of such knowledge into factually-based theories and conclusions that provide the layperson with a more in-depth understanding of the profound shift we are actually experiencing in our lifetime.

The spiritual voice and Consulting Producer of the global hit History Channel program, Ancient Aliens, and host of the Gaia TV series The Awakened Soul: The Lost Science of Ascension, and Arcanum, along with his wife, Clare, William Henry is your guide into the transformative sacred science of human ascension. By bringing to life the ancient stories of ascension through art and gnostic texts, he teaches the secrets of soul transfiguration or metamorphosis and connects people to one another across cultures, time and space. With over 30 years of research distilled into 18 books and numerous video presentations, William’s work will guide you to next level of human consciousness and our expanding reality.

William’s present work has taken him into the area of transhumanism, which he first began writing about in his 2002 bestseller, Cloak of the Illuminati. His latest book, The Singularity Is Near: The Next Human, the Perfect Rainbow Light Body and the Technology of Human Transcendence is a primer and a warning for the looming potential transformation of humanity as we speed closer to meshing computer technology with human flesh. William discusses transhumanism as the fulfillment of an ancient impulse to transcend our human bodies. His work has propelled him into the role of human rights activist and advisor on the biopolitics of human enhancement as he informs audiences of the unparalleled perils and potentials of Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism.

Pierre Dubois

Pierre Richard Dubois is Registered Architect and holds two advanced degrees from Columbia University. He has been on a life quest to satisfy his inner and intuitive knowing about consciousness-expanding technologies and wisdom. He is an author, life coach, healer, ascension teacher, and a minister. Pierre has travelled the world and studied many religions and belief systems and found that we are all seeking the same thing: merger back with the uncreated Source of all. An insightful listener and counselor, Pierre deeply aspires to share with others his wisdom and has helped countless people on their journey of healing, expansion, and ascension over the past 20 years.

Frank DeMarco

FRANK DeMARCO has been reporting on his conversations with non-physical beings for more than two decades, in magazine articles, talks, and in a dozen non-fiction books and two novels.

FRANK DeMARCO is the author of 14 books rooted in more than 25 years of psychic exploration, including It’s All One World, Awakening from the 3D World, Rita’s World (two volumes), The Cosmic Internet, The Sphere and the Hologram, and Imagine Yourself Well. Since 2005, he has been actively engaged in an on-going series of conversations with various non-physical beings, including historical individuals, “past lives,” aspects of personal guidance, and a generalized group he calls “the guys upstairs.”

He is also the author of three novels, Messenger, That Phenomenal Background (originally published as Babe in the Woods) and Dark Fire.

William Buhlman

William Buhlman is a recognized expert on the subject of out-of-body experiences. The author’s forty years of extensive personal out-of-body explorations give him a unique and thought provoking insight into this subject. His first book, Adventures beyond the Body chronicles his personal journey of self-discovery through out-of-body travel, and provides the reader with the preparation and techniques that can be used for their own adventure. He has conducted an international out-of-body experience survey that includes over 16,000 participants from forty-two countries. The provocative results of this survey are presented in his book, The Secret of the Soul. This cutting edge book explores the unique opportunities for personal growth and profound spiritual awakenings that are reported during out-of-body experiences.

Over the past two decades William has developed an effective system to experience safe, self initiated out-of-body adventures. He conducts an in-depth six-day workshop titled, Out-of-Body Exploration Intensive at the renowned Monroe Institute in Virginia. As a certified hypnotherapist, William incorporates various methods, including hypnosis, visualization and meditation techniques in his workshops to explore the profound nature of out-of-body experiences and the benefits of accelerated personal development. Through lectures, workshops and his books the author teaches the preparation and techniques of astral projection and spiritual exploration.

The author brings a refreshing look to how we can use out-of-body experiences to explore our spiritual identity and enhance our intellectual and physical lives. William is best known for his ability to teach people how to have profound spiritual adventures through the use of out-of-body experiences. In addition, he has developed an extensive series of audio programs that are designed to expand awareness and assist in the exploration of consciousness. William has appeared on numerous television and radio shows worldwide. William’s books are currently available in twelve languages. The author lives in Delaware, USA. For more information visit his web site, www.astralinfo.org.

Joe McMoneagle

Joe was the longest operational psychic spy in the US government’s very highly classified Stargate program where they used psychics and intuitives to look into installations and people around the world that were of interest to government intelligence agencies. They called the process remote viewing.

As it turned out, the remote viewers discovered that they were – not limited by either time or space and produced drawings and assessments that could not have been obtained in any other way. The Soviets had an active remote viewing program at the same time and it is rumored that Russia, China and the U.S. still have initiatives of this kind that are operational.

Joe’s stories are fascinating, like the time he mentally got inside a Chinese nuclear weapon and saw how the triggering mechanism worked . . . and then went out and bought the parts at Radio Shack to show the scientists in the intelligence agency exactly how it was done. The remote viewers could find submarines at the bottom of the ocean and crashed aircraft in the middle of African jungles.

Dr. Joe Dispenza

Dr Joe Dispenza is an international lecturer, researcher, corporate consultant, author, and educator who has been invited to speak in more than 33 countries on six continents. As a lecturer and educator, he is driven by the conviction that each of us has the potential for greatness and unlimited abilities. In his easy-to-understand, encouraging, and compassionate style, he has educated thousands of people, detailing how they can rewire their brains and recondition their bodies to make lasting changes.

Dr. Joe is also a faculty member at Quantum University in Honolulu, Hawaii; the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York; and Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He’s also an invited chair of the research committee at Life University in Atlanta, Georgia.

As a researcher, Dr. Joe’s passion can be found at the intersection of the latest findings from the fields of neuroscience, epigenetics, and quantum physics to explore the science behind spontaneous remissions. He uses that knowledge to help people heal themselves of illnesses, chronic conditions, and even terminal diseases so they can enjoy a more fulfilled and happy life, as well as evolve their consciousness. At his advanced workshops around the world, he has partnered with other scientists to perform extensive research on the effects of meditation, including epigenetic testing, brain mapping with electroencephalograms (EEGs), and individual energy field testing with a gas discharge visualization (GDV) machine. His research also includes measuring both heart coherence with HeartMath monitors and the energy present in the workshop environment before, during, and after events with a GDV Sputnik sensor.

As a NY Times best-selling author, Dr. Joe has written Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon(Hay House, 2017), which draws on research conducted at his advanced workshops since 2012 to explore how common people are doing the uncommon to transform themselves and their lives; You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter (Hay House, 2014), which explores our ability to heal without drugs or surgery, but rather by thought alone; Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One (Hay House, 2012) and Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind (2007), both of which detail the neuroscience of change and epigenetics. His film appearances include Transcendence: Live Life Beyond the Ordinary (2018); HEAL (2017); E-Motion (2014); Sacred Journey of the Heart (2012); People v. the State of Illusion (2011); What IF – The Movie (2010); Unleashing Creativity (2009); and What the #$*! Do We Know? & Down the Rabbit Hole, extended DVD version (2005).

Dr. Todd Ovokaitys

After two years at Northwestern, he was accepted into an accelerated combined graduate/undergraduate program at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, which conferred both B.A. and M.D. degrees. Advanced training was at Georgetown University Hospital, with a Residency and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine followed by a Fellowship in Pulmonary and Intensive Care Medicine.

During his Pulmonary Fellowship, the specialty that concerns the lungs, Dr. Todd began his research with cells of the immune system. Many procedures were done on AIDS patients to diagnose their lung problems. Observing this dire disease firsthand and the toxic results of early medical treatments, Dr. Todd developed a passion for finding better solutions. Towards the end of his Fellowship, he became aware of the benefits of Holistic Medicine for improving the function of the immune system while building rather than impairing the function of other systems.

Inspired to learn more, he moved to Southern California to study with practitioners of Complementary Medicine. In the context of these studies, he had an experience so radical that the course of his life and work were forever transformed.

During a meditation class in the summer of 1989, Dr. Todd paired with another student for an exercise. The process was profound and they took turns, one in the process while the other scribed to record any breakthroughs of awareness. Much as in the Jodie Foster movie “Contact,” the usual anchor points dissolved with the feeling of instant transport to a different dimension of being. There was a doorway or portal to traverse, with a message of the responsibility taken on through the choice to go further.

Instantly upon walking through this doorway, a living form was seen that filled a room – and had the shape of a DNA strand enlarged millions of times. This form communicated that science only partly understood how DNA worked. The linear understanding of DNA as an enormous data string was correct but incomplete. In addition, DNA was a structure of coils within coils in an environment of moving charges that permitted DNA to send electromagnetic signals much as a radio transmitter. Further, DNA could receive and be conditioned by electromagnetic signals. Most significantly, if it were possible to determine and transmit the correct resonant signals, that it was possible to switch the activity of a sick cell to that of a healthy cell, an old cell to that of a young cell.

This experience brought with it a certainty that solutions were possible. After intensive review of the previous work showing the effects of electromagnetic energy patterns on cellular health and function, Dr. Todd located a colleague with the technical expertise to build the desired invention.

Mary Rodwell

Mary Rodwell is a professional counsellor, hypnotherapist, researcher, metaphysician, and founder and principal of ACERN (Australian Close Encounter Resource Network). She is internationally known for her work with ET experiencers and star children. She offers regressions and support for contactees and has organized a buddy system to help those who have had close encounters. Mary has spoken at conferences in Australia, USA, UK, Scandinavia, Hawaii and New Zealand. She is a regular guest on international radio and online shows and writes article for international publications like the UFO Truth Magazine. Mary is co-founder of FREE, a non-profit organization aimed at researching close encounters.

She is the author of, Awakening – How extra-terrestrial contact can transform your life. Mary is working on her second book, The New Human, due for release this year.

Freddy Silva

Freddy Silva is a best-selling author, and leading researcher of ancient civilizations, restricted history, sacred sites and their interaction with consciousness. He has published six books in six languages, and produced eleven documentaries. Described by one CEO as “perhaps the best metaphysical speaker in the world right now,” for two decades he has been an international keynote speaker, with notable appearances at the International Science and Consciousness Conference, the International Society For The Study Of Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine, and the Association for Research and Enlightenment, in addition to appearances on Gaia TV, History Channel, BBC, and radio shows such as Coast To Coast. He also leads private sell-out tours to ancient temples worldwide. www.invisibletemple.com

Dr. Larry Dossey

Dr. Larry Dossey is a physician of internal medicine and former Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital. He received his M. D. degree from Southwestern Medical School (Dallas), and trained in internal medicine at Parkland and the VA hospitals in Dallas. Dossey has lectured at medical schools and hospitals throughout the United States and abroad. In 1988 he delivered the annual Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, India, the only physician ever invited to do so. He is the author of twelve books dealing with consciousness, spirituality, and healing, including the New York Times bestseller HEALING WORDS: THE POWER OF PRAYER AND THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE, and most recently One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters. His books have been translated into languages around the world. Dr. Dossey is the former co-chairman of the Panel on Mind/Body Interventions, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health. He is the executive editor of the peer-reviewed journal EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing. Dr. Dossey lectures around the world. He lives in Santa Fe with his wife Barbara, a nurse-consultant and the author of several award-winning books.

Sharry Edwards

Sharry Edwards has been accused of being too scientific by some, too esoteric by others. In actuality, she is a bridge between both fields of inquiry. Sharry is the acknowledged pioneer in the emerging field of Vocal Profiling using BioAcoustic Biology. For many years she has provided the leading-edge research to show the voice as a holographic representation of the body that can be used to change the face of medicine.

Sharry asks that we imagine a future in which we can be individually identified and maintained through the use of frequency based biomarkers that keep us healthy and emotionally balanced. Her work at the Institute of BioAcoustic Biology has shown that we can each have dominion over those frequencies by individual mind management or a simple remote control that is completely programmable. Using the unique techniques of Vocal Profiling and evaluation, emotional as well as physiological issues can be revealed and addressed.

Her work with the human voice reveals that people who share similar traumas, stresses, diseases, toxicities…share similar, if not identical, vocal anomalies. She brings together ancient knowledge with modern ideas of harmonics and frequency relationship theories to show that math can be used as a form of predictive, diagnostic and curative foundation for wellness. Through entrainment of the frequency grids of the brain, the body can be programmed to support its own optimal form and function.

Dr. Carrie Hempel & Brian Sanderoff

Integrative Physician Dr. Carrie Hempel and Holistic Pharmacist Brian Sanderoffare both experts in the medicinal use of cannabis in Maryland.

Dr. Hempel is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2002. As an Osteopathic Physician, she has embraced a holistic approach to patient care, providing loving attention to the relationship between mind, body, and spirit. For the past 11 years she has received specialist training, Board Certification and expertise in several fields including Internal Medicine, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, and Hospice & Palliative Medicine, along with many Integrative modalities. She is a member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, the Association of Cannabis Specialists, and is registered with the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission.

Over the course of her career she has seen the consistent struggle of patients dealing with chronic, progressive, debilitating illness, and witnessed the challenges and limitations of the current pharmaceutical options for pain and symptom managment. Her passion for this population has grown, along with her desire to advocate for patients to have access to non-opioid, holistic options to enhance quality of life and optimize function.

Trained as a pharmacist, Brian Sanderoff has integrated 25 years of experience with his traditional medical training and herbalism, nutrition and numerous other holistic modalities to help clients devise practical, common-sense, safe solutions to most any health issue.

His clients appreciate how he embraces a complementary approach to health and how his holistic “compass” brings them new solutions to their unique health concerns – especially chronic diseases.

Mary Rodwell

Mary Rodwell is a professional counsellor, hypnotherapist, researcher, metaphysician, and founder and principal of ACERN (Australian Close Encounter Resource Network). She is internationally known for her work with ET experiencers and star children. She offers regressions and support for contactees and has organised a buddy system to help those who have had close encounters. Mary has spoken at conferences in Australia, USA, UK, Scandinavia, Hawaii and New Zealand. She is a regular guest on international radio and online shows and writes article for international publications like the UFO Truth Magazine. Mary is co-founder of FREE, a non-profit organisation aimed at researching close encounters.

Steve McDonald

Steve McDonald is an extraordinary Australian thinker and researcher who arguably knows as much about the structure of the global planetary transition that we are experiencing as anyone on the planet. He draws coherent pictures from the deep insights of Clair W. Graves and paints clear, explanatory images of not only how humanity has evolved to this point, but what is inevitably on our horizon . . . and how this epic transition will continue to play out.

He is currently writing a book about the global paradigm shift that’s taking us beyond the scientific-industrial era. Steve served with the Australian Army for 15 years, including war service as an infantry company commander in Somalia, 1993. He is also a qualified military helicopter pilot and on leaving the army he flew a rescue helicopter in the tropical Mackay-Whitsunday region of Queensland. Building upon his extensive experience in unpredictable environments, after retiring from flying Steve specialized as a change management consultant. He consequently studied the developmental psychology research of Dr Clare W Graves and became one of the first Australians qualified to teach Dr Graves’ theory under the banner of Spiral Dynamics Integral. A long-term struggle with posttraumatic stress has driven Steve’s deep interest in human nature and consciousness. He is a founder of Psychedelic Research in Science & Medicine, an Australian non-profit association. He is also a founder of AADII, a non-profit company created to support worldwide transformational change.

Robert Coxon

Although Robert Coxon had been studying and composing music for many years, it was after taking the Silva Mind Control course that he realized how powerful sound could be in relaxing the body and opening the consciousness. He then decided to write his first album.

Cristal Silence quickly became a major hit throughout Canada, staying on top of the charts for many years. This was the beginning of his continuing phenomenal success as composer and solo artist. For the last 29 years he has performed only his original compositions in concert. Robert has been nominated four times for the prestigious “Felix” award (French Canada equivalent to the Grammy), and became Canada’s best-selling New Age artist. His international breakthrough came after composing The Silent Path in 1995. This album was an instant hit in Canada, the USA and France. After hearing The Silent Path, Lee Carroll, internationally renowned author of 15 bestselling Kryon and Indigo books, contacted Robert and asked him to join his team on tour. Through the years this has given Robert the opportunity to experience different cultures and inspires him to write music honoring these many countries he performs in.

Robert offers us nine albums, the latest three being The Infinite, essence of life, Goddess -The Power of Woman and Passion Compassion Alegeria.

Joe Dispenza

needs bio…

Gary Sycalik

Gary Sycalik has been described as an entrepreneur, businessman, project developer/manager, consultant/advisor, organizational troubleshooter, strategic planner, facilitator, futurist, business and social architect, complex problematic game designer (policy, strategic, tactic levels) and writer. Gary brings a robust horizontal and vertical functional capability to any project from the conceptual to operational stage.

Kingsley L. Dennis Phd.

Kingsley L. Dennis, PhD, is a sociologist, researcher, and writer. He previously worked in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, UK. Kingsley is the author of numerous articles on social futures; technology and new media communications; global affairs; and conscious evolution. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books including Healing the Wounded Mind, The Sacred Revival, The Phoenix Generation, New Consciousness for a New World, Struggle for Your Mind, After the Car, and the celebrated Dawn of the Akashic Age (with Ervin Laszlo). He has traveled extensively and lived in various countries. He currently lives in Andalusia, Spain.

 

His homepage is www.kingsleydennis.com

Dr. John McMichael

John McMichael, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Beach Tree Labs, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and early development of new therapeutic agents targeting unmet medical needs. These disorders range from herpes infections to chronic fatigue syndrome to urinary incontinence. His PhD is in virology and immunology from Oregon State University. He headed up the labs at one of the largest private veterinary research practices in the country, was a college professor for more than a decade, and now works out of a small lab on his form in New York state and a larger, more sophisticated lab in Providence, Rhode Island. He holds over 200 patents, has published in books and peer-reviewed journals, and is currently working with his team to begin formal FDA trials for product candidates for chronic traumatic brain injury and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes.

Good health is dependent on the appropriate transfer of information within and between cells. The informational and molecular disharmonies associated with disease can be reversed using appropriate therapeutic signals that stimulate the return to the normal state without adverse effects. One such signal molecule, SLO, has demonstrated clinical utility in a broad spectrum of indications that would at first glance appear to be unrelated. The underlying common thread that links these disorders is representative of the targets to which resonant molecular signals are directed.

Chris Robinson

Chris Robinson’s amazing ability to dream about the future in terms that can be reliably translated into people, times, places, and activities has been the subject of books, major university scientific studies, films, articles, TV shows, and just about all forms of media. He has taught many people how to dream about the future and, through his advanced intuitive capabilities, helped thousands to understand how to deal with seemingly impossible personal situations. He is also a healer, having on numerous occasions led people with supposedly terminal conditions to eliminate those issues and return to a healthy life. There is no one else in the world that has Chris’s fascinating background (undercover police work, etc.), coupled with these amazing personal gifts.

Thomas Drake

Thomas Drake is a former senior executive at the National Security Agency where he blew the whistle on massive multi-billion dollar fraud, waste and abuse; the widespread violations of the rights of citizens through secret mass surveillance programs after 9/11; and critical 9/11 intelligence failures. He is the recipient of the 2011 Ridenhour Truth Telling Prize, a joint recipient with Jesselyn Radack of the 2011 Sam Adams Associates Integrity in Intelligence Award and the 2012 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. He is now dedicated to the defense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

Robert David Steele

Robert David Steele, former spy, former Marine Corps officer, a proponent of Open Source Everything, Presidential candidate in 2012 and perhaps again in 2024, recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 will integrate his life’s experience with his lessons from the works of others to explore love versus fear as a foundation for politics; liberty under natural law versus predatory fascism as we now have in the USA; and the possibilities for cosmic awakening very soon, in a full-on defeat of the Deep State and its Archon masters.

Lee Carrol a.k.a. Kryon

Lee Carroll, Ph.D. has channeled Kryon for 25 years worldwide and is the author of the Kryon Series of 16 books in 24 languages. Well known in metaphysics, Kryon books have made the top seller’s list within months of their release. Having presented seven times at the United Nations in New York, as well as in 33 different countries overseas, Lee attracts audiences in the thousands.

Good health is dependent on the appropriate transfer of information within and between cells. The informational and molecular disharmonies associated with disease can be reversed using appropriate therapeutic signals that stimulate the return to the normal state without adverse effects. One such signal molecule, SLO, has demonstrated clinical utility in a broad spectrum of indications that would at first glance appear to be unrelated. The underlying common thread that links these disorders is representative of the targets to which resonant molecular signals are directed.

Dennis McKenna

Dennis McKenna’s research has focused on the interdisciplinary study of Amazonian ethnopharmacology and plant hallucinogens. His doctoral research (University of British Columbia, 1984) focused on the ethnopharmacology of ayahuasca and oo-koo-he, two tryptamine-based hallucinogens used by indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. Dr. McKenna is author or co-author of 4 books and over 50 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Paul H. Smith

Paul H. Smith is the longest-serving controlled remote viewing (CRV) teacher active today, having begun his career as an instructor in 1984. He served for seven years in the government’s Star Gate remote viewing program at Ft. Meade, MD (from September 1983 to August 1990). Starting 1984, he became one of only five Star Gate personnel to be personally trained as remote viewers by the legendary founders of remote viewing, Ingo Swann and Dr. Harold E. Puthoff at SRI-International.

Raymon Grace

Raymon Grace, one of the world’s most extraordinary dowsers, travels the world teaching and demonstrating how dowsing can be used by most anyone to change themselves and the world around them. His down-home, direct approach is sought out by many thousands of searchers who are looking for bettering their lives and dealing with the extraordinary change that the world is experiencing.

Charles Eisenstein

Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. His on-line writings have generated a vast following; he speaks frequently at conferences and other events and gives numerous interviews on radio and podcasts.

Jim McCarty

In 1980, Jim McCarty joined L/L Research where Don Elkins and Carla L. Rueckert were researching the field of the paranormal in general, and contact with extraterrestrial intelligence in particular. Soon later the Ra Contact began, producing 106 sessions with the social memory complex of Ra. Five books of The Law of One series were published documenting this contact.

Joey Korn

Joey Korn is one of the most accomplished dowsers in the world. Known internationally for an extraordinary ability to change and manipulate energy at all levels, he brings a deep, practical understanding of how to balance these energies . . . and change the way that they influence humans and their lives.

Michael Waters

Michael Waters is an advanced technology consultant, researcher, inventor, and sustainable recovery strategist. His automated disaster recovery and library preservation systems are used worldwide. Michael has researched cutting edge science and technologies that redefine current understandings in mainstream physics. He is currently on the board of a number of organizations involved in advanced energy, mining, agriculture, and finance.

Alain Nu

Las Vegas headliner, Alain Nu – “The Man Who Knows”, brings us his mind-bending mental and metaphysical abilities. His highly entertaining and most provocative show intermingles feats of mind-reading and spoon bending with other baffling demonstrations that defy explanation.

Joni Patry

Joni Patry is one of the most recognized teachers and Vedic astrologers in the world. She was a faculty member for ACVA, CVA and Instructor for online certification programs, published many books, journals and appeared on national and international television shows. As the keynote speaker for international conferences, she has a Japanese website, and teaches in Austria, Turkey and India. She has been awarded the 2015 Jyotish Star of the year and Dr B. V. Raman’s Janma Shatamanothsava Award Jyotisha Choodamani. She publishes an online astrological magazine, Astrologic Magazine http://astrologicmagazine.com/ and has an online University for certification, the University of Vedic Astrology. http://universityofvedicastrology.com

Regina Meredith

As Regina’s career progressed, so did her decades long exploration into the world of esoteric and hidden sciences – the reality beyond the 5 sense world. Guidance from these realms suggested it was time to bring her skill set to the world of video/televised media, so in late 2004, along with her husband Scott, she co-created ‘Conscious Media Network’, the first online network to feature full length original video interviews with authors and experts in the realms of the meta-physical, healing arts and alternative theories, opening up a world that many had experienced but never had access to on this scale.

Gaia: In 2012, Conscious Media Network merged with Gaiam TV in 2012, with Regina serving as anchor in their new media division on Open Minds and Healing Matrix. The demand for Regina’s unique perspective on a variety of subjects has drawn attention from conference organizers, moving her into the public as a presenter at conferences. In addition, Regina offers retreats and workshops for those who wish to ‘Dive Deep’ into a new understanding of the nature of reality and life itself. In this venue she shares her exclusive approach to meditation and regression work for a greater understanding of life’s challenges and identifying the innate joys.

Dr. Harold Puthoff

Although nominated for a Nobel Prize in physics for his breakthrough theoretical work on zero-point energy, Dr. Harold Puthoff, is most recognized for having been a co-founder of the secret US government “remote viewing” program that successfully used psychics to spy on the Soviet Union and China.

Now a principal and science advisor in a leading-edge effort by former senior military and intelligence managers to disclose the many decades of interest that the US has had in UFOs, he comes to Berkeley Springs on the 8th of February to give a TransitionTalk about his work in making sense out of the UFO phenomena.

Dr. Puthoff’s presentation will include a summary of his current activities with To The Stars Academy, which is on the forefront of bringing into the open formerly highly classified efforts by the government to track, record and understand the meaning of hundreds of encounters that the military has had with UFOs over the past years.

This is an extraordinary opportunity to learn from and question one of the foremost thinkers and leaders of the rapidly accelerating global effort to both make the public aware of what was previously unacknowledged about UFO and alien interaction with humans and also to address the deep questions about what is happening and what it might mean for the future of humanity.

Gregg Braden

Gregg Braden is a five-time New York Times best-selling author, and is internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science, spirituality and human potential! His discoveries have led to 12 award-winning books now published in over 40 languages. The UK’s Watkins Journal lists Gregg among the top 100 of “the world’s most spiritually influential living people” for the 5th consecutive year, and he is a 2017 nominee for the prestigious Templeton Award.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Rosemary Ellen Guiley is a leading expert on the paranormal and supernatural. With more than 50 books – including 10 encyclopedias – and hundreds of articles in print on a wide range of paranormal, spiritual and mystical topics, she possesses exceptional knowledge of the field. Her present work focuses on inter-dimensional entity contact experiences and communication.

John L. Petersen

John L. Petersen is considered by many to be one of the most informed futurists in the world. He is best-known for writing and thinking about high impact surprises (wild cards) and the process of surprise anticipation. His current professional involvements include the development of sophisticated tools for anticipatory analysis and surprise anticipation, long-range strategic planning and helping leadership design new approaches for dealing with the future.

 

He has led national non-profit organizations, worked in sales, manufacturing, real estate development, and marketing and advertising, mostly for companies he founded. A graduate electrical engineer, he has also promoted rock concerts; produced conventions; and worked as a disc jockey, among other things.

Mr. Petersens government and political experience include stints at the National War College, the Institute for National Security Studies, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council staff at the White House. He was a naval flight officer in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve and is a decorated veteran of both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. He has served in senior positions for a number of presidential political campaigns and was an elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1984. He was twice the runner-up to be Secretary of the Navy.

In 1989, Petersen founded The Arlington Institute (TAI), a non-profit, future-oriented research institute. TAI operates on the premise that effective thinking about the future is impossible without casting a very wide net. The “think tank” serves as a global agent for change by developing new concepts, processes and tools for anticipating the future and translating that knowledge into better present-day decisions. Using advanced information technology, a core group of bright thinkers and an international network of exceptionally curious people along with simulations, modeling, scenario building, polling and analysis, Arlington helps equip leaders and organizations from many disciplines with tools and actionable perspectives for dealing with uncertain times.

An award-winning writer, Petersens first book, The Road to 2015: Profiles of the Future was awarded Outstanding Academic Book of 1995 by CHOICE Academic Review, and remained on The World Future Societys best-seller list for more than a year. His Out of the Blue: How to Anticipate Wild Cards and Big Future Surprises book was also a WFS best-seller. His latest book is a Vision of 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change. His coauthored article, (The Year 2000: Social Chaos or Social Transformation?) was one of the most highly acclaimed writings on Y2K. His 1988 book-length report (The Diffusion of Power: An Era of Realignment) was used at the highest levels of American government as a basis for strategic planning. He has also written papers on the future of national security and the military, the future of energy and the future of the media.

Petersen is a past board member of the World Future Society, writes on the future of aviation for Professional Pilot magazine and is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation. He is a former network member of the Global Business Network and a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. A provocative public speaker, he addresses a wide array of audiences around the world on a variety of future subjects. When he is not writing or speaking, Petersen invests in and develops resources for large, international projects and advanced technology start-up companies. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. Speaking Inquiries: Email johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org

Penny Kelly

Penny Kelly is an author, teacher, speaker, publisher, personal and spiritual consultant, and Naturopathic physician. She travels, lectures, and teaches a variety of classes and workshops, and maintains a large consulting practice. She has been involved in scientific research and investigations into consciousness at Pinelandia Laboratory near Ann Arbor, MI.