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News & Comment
by John Anthony West
January 20, 2000
B. New Magical Egypt Trips with John Anthony West
D. Fox Special: Opening the Lost Tombs
F. Atlantis Rising: a Ten Part Documentary TV Series
G. The Cairo Debate: September 23-October 1, 1999
H. The Temple of Man by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz
B. Magical Egypt Tour with John Anthony West
For those interested in traveling to Egypt with me, dates for upcoming trips in the year 2000 are:
February
13th - February 29th
March
5th - March 21st
October 22nd - November 7th
The above dates are firm and short of some act of the gods, or major incident officially forbidding travel to Egypt, these two trips will run.
For some time now considerable interest has been shown in a proposed ten part TV series devoted to the whole subject of the 'Lost Civilization' -- the legacy of its doctrine, its implications for the upcoming Age of Aquarius and the extraordinary correspondences shown between ancient esotericism and leading edge contemporary physics and cosmology.
On several occasions already, it looked like a contract was shortly forthcoming, and I sent out warnings that if this became a reality, my Magical Egypt trips would be severely curtailed or stopped completely for at least a few years. So far the promised contracts have failed to materialize and the trips are still running as usual, 4 or 5 times a year. But the media interest is real (anyway as real as anything can be in the unreal/surreal world of TV/Hollywood) and it is therefore worth repeating that future trips could be curtailed with little warning if a contract is signed.
Potential travelers to Egypt take note and act accordingly. Remember that (in my opinion of course!) if you're not getting Symbolist Egypt when you go there, you're not getting Egypt at all. Until or unless I am able to train up the few qualified potential teachers around to take over my Magical Egypt Trips, I remain, unfortunately, the only Symbolist wheel in town.
Itinerary and price changes. After years of holding to a firm price, airfare increases, hotel and ticket price increases in Egypt oblige a commensurate rise in prices. The price has been increased from $3,995 to $4,395. However, this price now includes the voluntary/obligatory $150 baksheesh (tips) kitty that used to be a surcharge on top of the $3,995. All else on the Itinerary remains the same.
I have reported previously on the thaw in relations between the Egyptological authorities in Egypt (chiefly with Zahi Hawass, still in charge of the Giza Plateau but recently promoted to a higher position within the bureaucracy), myself and my colleagues (principally Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval).
In a country as hot as Egypt, it's hard to imagine a 'thaw' in relations -- come to think of it, it's probably more accurate to say that what was a bitter personal and media hot war has now cooled off to refreshing warmth (indeed, sometimes it verges on the cuddly) on the personal level, yet no less entrenched and opposed on the academic/scholarly/ scientific level. But it's now dialogue, not war, and it is my intention to keep it that way.
Exactly what has been responsible for this reversal, I am not sure. A number of people take single-handed credit for bringing it about; others think that it is a directive from top Egyptian government levels dismayed at the bad press intemperate opposition and our spirited counterattack brought down on Egypt; still others think it is a face-saving calculated plan designed to defuse an upcoming revelation of important discoveries, long held 'secret'. (When I get around to completing my long-delayed multi-volume autobiographical work: UNRIDDLING THE SPHINX: Notes from a Heretic's Journal) I may speculate at some length on the above questions.
Here, let me be brief, if not terribly helpful and/or informative. (1) I think a number of people did play significant roles in easing the long-standing tension, but no one person is in a position to take the credit. (2) I think it just possible that someone high in government might have suggested a more temperate approach to deflect negative publicity, but there is no way to know this. (3) I emphatically DO NOT believe (though I did initially) that discoveries have been made that are being kept secret.
The reason for my altered position on items (2) and (3) is very simply Zahi Hawass. Zahi wears his emotions openly. When he's your enemy you know it. Unmistakably! When he's being friendly, (e.g. at the end of a convivial dinner last time in Egypt with my last big group, inviting me afterwards to smoke the shisha with him) it is impossible to imagine him doing it because he's been told by superiors to be friendly.
Moreover, I think that if significant discoveries vis-a-vis the 'lost civilization' theory had been made, they would be difficult to conceal in the first place (with dozens of people invariably involved in any sort of excavation). And I also believe that if major discoveries were made, Zahi would follow the standard procedure: involving a period of careful observation and study, and then an official publication, with the press notified at some point during the process. It's possible that if something turned up that appeared to seriously compromise orthodoxy, the press might be called in later rather than sooner. But the discovery would be made public. For all Zahi's opposition to our ideas, he acknowledges that the Sphinx theory has brought Egypt more publicity than anything since Tutankhamen's tomb. New discoveries would up the publicity ante. And the more publicity, the better for tourism, and tourism is Egypt's largest single source of revenue. Zahi Hawass is well aware of the economic implications of the theory. I don't think he'd sit on anything really exciting just to keep his Egyptological colleagues snug in their cozy paradigm.
Therefore, my personal conviction is that no credence whatever should be paid to the widely disseminated, wild-eyed and largely illiterate foolishness put out (mainly over the net) by an assortment of fools and charlatans claiming to have access to 'secret' information -- all obtained from the local camel-drivers and temple guards who, despite their humble stations and broken English are smart enough and imaginative enough to tell these deluded, disruptive souls what they want to hear for a few Egyptian pounds.
'The Hall of Records'
It would appear the everyone in the world wants to know when drilling in front of the Sphinx will commence and reveal to the world 'The Hall of Records'. For the record, I would like to point out that the notion of the Hall of Records comes from one source and one source only, and that is Edgar Cayce. While Cayce seems to have been amazingly accurate in his remote medical diagnoses, the same cannot be said for his post WWII prophecies. I was lecturing at the ARE Foundation last August (Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass were also there) and had dinner with Cayce's surviving son, who admitted the prophetic track record was not what Cayce admirers would like to see. Since there is no mention in any Egyptian text of a 'Hall of Records' I, for one, would not place too much reliance on its existence. On the other hand, our seismographs certainly show what appears to be a large void (chamber?) beneath the left paw of the Sphinx. Zahi Hawass, however, does not trust the technology. And since the Sphinx is, arguably, politically the most sensitive archaeological site on the planet, he does not want to drill there unless he is absolutely convinced of the chamber's existence. However, he says that if he can be convinced the readings are reliable, (via further seismographic studies and drilling in less sensitive areas around the plateau) he will consider drilling down in front of the Sphinx. If we can obtain permission to continue with our research in Egypt, we will try to satisfy his conditions.
Meanwhile, in this prevailing détente atmosphere, I now have very sanguine hopes that --if we can get the right sort of academic sponsorship-- we can get a proposal accepted that allows us to get back to Egypt with geologists and archaeologists, seismographs and ground penetrating radar to follow our initial research where it leads us. We are presently working on this, via my colleague Robert M. Schoch. Moreover, there are now at least two orthodox Egyptologists willing to stand before their colleagues and argue, not necessarily that they are convinced we are right, but that the opposing arguments put forward to date do not refute our evidence. This constitutes a major breakthrough from our point of view.
Along the same lines, one of Zahi's favorite public arguments over the years has been that Robert Schoch is the only geologist who believes in our theory. Actually, this is not true to begin with. At our initial presentation at the Geological Society of America's convention in 1991, attending geologists unanimously agreed, on the basis of the extensive photographic evidence presented, that the Sphinx was indeed water weathered. Zahi's response to that has been that none of these geologists has studied the evidence in the field, in Egypt -- not altogether an illegitimate objection. Photographs can indeed be misleading. But dismissing the theory on the grounds that Schoch is the only geologist to support it is an illegitimate objection. In 1600 Galileo was the only astronomer who believed the earth went around the sun. He happened to be right.
Anyway, we've learned recently that David Coxill, (an English geologist, unknown to either of us, but author of a number of research papers and several books) went to Egypt in 1997 specifically to check out our work for himself.
In InScription: Journal of Ancient Egypt #5 (a journal previously unknown to us, but apparently not an 'official' academic publication) he describes his findings. His independent survey of the evidence corroborates our own work without reservation. A survivor of the massacre at Luxor Temple, Coxill (in a letter in the same issue of InScription recounting that experience) also tells of sitting next to an Egyptian geologist on the plane from Cairo to Aswan, and discussing the geology of the Sphinx with him: 'He, like many geologists, thinks that the excavated pit in which the Sphnx lies, shows rainwater weathering features.'
So now there are now at least two known geologists (and one unknown geologist) with hands-on experience in Egypt, convinced that the Sphinx was carved at a much earlier date -- forcing, in turn, at the very least, a revision of that particular objection.
Note: though atrociously produced, InScription proves to be a mine of valuable Egyptological information. Written for the most part by orthodox Egyptologists, it publishes articles -written for the lay enthusiast- that would not appear in the largely impenetrable 'official' journals. For further info:
email 113567.1530@compuserve.com
website http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulBadham
There is also at least one eminent archaeo-astronomer, Dr. Archie Roy, formerly of Glasgow University, who finds Robert Bauval's Orion/pyramid correlation intriguing. He will be debating the negative conclusions reached by Dr. E.C. Krupp at the upcoming Cairo Debate (see below) in September, 1999
So, slowly but surely, we attract credentialed support from within the Establishment itself.
Moreover, a handful of discoveries/observations made by myself and others over the past couple of years further support the theory. The nature of these discoveries is such that they do not look very spectacular to untrained eyes. Therefore scanning photos onto this website update that take forever to download would tell readers very little. At the same time, describing them well enough to make the point clear would take more words than I want to write, and, without intimate knowledge of the individual sites involved (which few reading this website will have) would also serve little purpose -I'm not trying to be secretive.
It is enough for readers to know that there is now a body of new evidence supporting the initial theory. The essential is to get impartial geologists and archaeologists on site to see if this evidence can be explained in such a way that the standard chronology stands. If it cannot be, and the new evidence is corroborated by independent credentialed scientists, it will no longer be possible to deny that Egypt's history goes thousands of years further back into the past -as the dynastic Egyptians themselves always claimed.
This in turn must finally oblige that total rewrite of ancient history, and with it, a reconsideration of the level of knowledge available to humanity at a time when, by orthodox beliefs, we were still hunter-gatherers.
So: stay tuned.
hosted by Maury Povich, March 2, 1999.
This Fox Network 2 hour special was widely viewed but the reaction --judging from my own email-- by people with a keen interest in, and some knowledge of, Egypt was rarely positive. No one believed that the tombs were really opened for the first time (they weren't) and everyone was disappointed that us heretics (Bauval, Hancock, myself) were accorded so little time, while Richard Hoagland was given rather more time (to make a variety of unwarranted, utterly hypothetical Mars/Giza connections) as were the Cayce prophecies.
Fox had ample interesting footage to draw upon, including a spirited debate on various elements of the 'lost civilization' theory between Zahi Hawass, Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval and myself, picturesquely recorded at an ancient coffee shop in the camera-friendly Khan-el-Khalili bazaar. Presumably (and wrongly) reckoning that its audience couldn't handle the intellectual content of the debate, all of it was edited out at some point, as was most of the other footage Fox had shot earlier in individual interviews with us. On the upside, no lasting damage was done, Fox was pleased with the high ratings the show logged, which reinforces the accurate network perception that ancient Egypt = high ratings, which in turn paves the way for other, less intellectually barren projects.
As a follow-up to our dive off the coast of the Yonaguni island in 1997, Robert Schoch returned there in late summer of 1998 to continue his research. Bad weather severely hampered the diving, but in examining the major underwater formation again, as well as several other sites, Schoch found no reason to alter his/our earlier negative conclusions. However spectacular the sites may appear in the photos, he remains convinced that they are entirely natural, and can be wholly explained in terms of the nature of the rock when subjected to the long term action of ocean currents, tides, and typhoons. We'd both like it to be otherwise, but at the moment Schoch has found no evidence that would suggest working by human hands.
Those following the 'Lost Civilization' controversy will be interested in Robert Schoch's new book, Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes & Ancient Civilizations. Schoch meticulously and critically examines the evidence for and against the various explanations that have been put forward to explain the cause of the acknowledged catastrophe that brought on the demise of the last ice age. This book is a state of the art statement on catastrophe theory. It will be published in May, 1999 by Harmony Books.
A Ten Part Documentary Series for Television.
Written by myself and my colleague Paul William Roberts, this ambitious project looks at all aspects of the 'Lost civilization' controversy, studies its implications for our view of history , draws the parallels between the ancient metaphysical doctrines and the latest discoveries in leading edge cosmology that look unmistakably like the ancient doctrine expressed in contemporary scientific language and speculates on the impact all of this will have in the next couple of decades as The Church of Progress loses its grip on the world mind and is gradually replaced by a new, sound, and constructive doctrine, nothing less than a true Renaissance.
The project has come very close to contract signing over the past couple of years. Initially, Disney wanted to do it (as a four part series) but as everyone in the industry knows, Mickey Mouse is really Wally Wolf in mouse clothing. We were disinclined to hand over our life's work for a minimum wage return, just to have Mickey on the logo and so turned down the deal. Several other offers from other independent producers were also deemed unacceptable, but a new production company has recently expressed keen interest in getting behind it. We have high hopes that this time it will happen and will be ready to celebrate the New Millennium not so very long after the clock strikes 2000.
Initially scheduled for February 1999, rescheduled for May 8-16th, 1999, and, (as this written), again postponed and re-rescheduled for Sept 23-Oct. 1, 1999 this unique event (if it happens!) will pit the main proponents of the Lost civilization school (myself, Robert Bauval, Graham and Robert Schoch, along with Egyptologist Dr. Edmund Meltzer and archeo-astronomer Dr. Archie Roy) against Dr. Zahi Hawass, astronomer Ed Krupp (author of Ancient Skies and many other books on ancient astronomy) and other orthodox scholars. The week-long event will be devoted to open debate, and to on-site examination of the evidence and counter evidence as well as excursions to the Cairo Museum, Sakkara and other local areas of major interest.
For further information contact:Visions Travel: Tel (US) 1-800-888-5509, or 310-568-0138; e-mail VISIONSTVL@aol.com.
R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz's masterwork, The Temple of Man, finally appears in English in an inspired two volume translation by Deborah Lawlor and an equally inspired production job by the publishers. This book is, in my opinion, the most important single work of scholarship of this, or any other century. It is a work of pure genius; the more you study it, the more it seems impossible for a single man to have accomplished. Starting with a single revelatory observation in Egypt in 1937, Schwaller de Lubicz, over the course of some 20 years, was able to piece together the sacred science of the ancients and present it in rigorously documented fashion.
This is not bedtime reading, but readers willing to put in the effort to study it in depth will finally understand why ancient Egypt was regarded by the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome as the source of all wisdom. Because it was! Readers will come to understand why it has been opposed so virulently by the priesthood of our own Church of Progress and they will also learn to appreciate the manner in which civilized human beings once comported themselves; why Egypt, even in ruins, remains a magnet for travelers; why its temples, tombs and pyramids still, and rightfully, provoke our awe and wonder.
The Temple of Man, by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, tr. by Deborah Lawlor, Inner Traditions International, $195 -- but available steeply discounted through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major discount book chains.
I. Books, Websites, Items of Interest
You may want to check out 'Sekhmet Speaks' on Kynthia's website
Worthwhile Books:
(some of them not all that new but under-publicized):
Beyond the Big Bang: Ancient Cosmology and the Science of Continuous Creation, Paul LaViolette, Inner Traditions.
A systems theorist, astronomer and mathematician, Laviolette does a very good job exposing another reigning scientific superstition, The Big Bang, and then goes on to show how cutting edge contemporary cosmology finds its reflected image in the symbolism of ancient mythology, in particular that of the tarot and astrology.
Also by Paul LaViolette, Earth Under Fire, Starlane Publications.
Laviolette provides still another explanation for the ancient cataclysm scenario; (one that did not find it's way into Schoch's book.) Intriguing, solidly researched and presented, but perhaps even more difficult to 'prove' than the competing scenarios.
Shattering the Myths of Darwinism, Richard Milton, Inner Traditions.
Science writer Milton adroitly hammers still more nails into the coffin of the superstition that refuses to die: Darwinian evolution, The Cargo Cult of the West (that is to say, Evolution as an accidental process). Because this theory, (the only one in the world less scientific than the Immaculate Conception), is absolutely central and essential to the catechism of the Church of Progress, the overwhelming evidence already accumulated against it cannot be accepted by the academic/scientific Vatican. But it is important for people with their rational and emotional faculties functioning more or less normally to understand that evidence. Milton's book both summarizes the evidence and adds many new angles and pieces along the line. Again, the level of scientific/academic vituperation greeting Milton's book comes close to proof that something about it must be right.
Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes & Ancient Civilizations, Robert Schoch, Harmony Books
Schoch's state-of-the art statement on contemporary 'catastrophe' theories. See above.
The Death Ship, The Story of an American Sailor, B. Traven, Lawrence Hill and Co. $14.95
This extraordinary novel by the author of The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, was first published in 1933. It is one of the most powerful novels of the 20th Century, a scathing denunciation of the Church of Progress and all it stands for. The current edition has a forward by me which first appeared as an essay in The New York Times Book Review.
Feasts of Light: Celebrations for the Seasons of Life based on the Egyptian Goddess Mysteries, Normandi Ellis, Quest Books, $22.95
With her unique, characteristic blend of scholarship, passion and poetry Normandi Ellis brings the sacred ancient festivals and ceremonies to light and to life, and provides instructions for modern-day participation in them. Also, see Normandi's earlier books, Awakening Osiris , her magickal translation/evocation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and her autobiographical/Egyptological Dreams of Isis: A Woman's Spiritual Journey.
Hathor Rising: The Serpent Power of Ancient Egypt, Alison Roberts, Northgate, $19.95
An orthodox Egyptologist treads on 'symbolist' ground in this extremely interesting and illuminating discussion of the Divine Feminine in ancient Egypt.
The Secret of the Incas: Myth, Astronomy and the War Against Time, William Sullivan, Crown, $181
A compelling case for the commanding role played by astrological interpretation of astronomical events in the formulation of Inca mythology. The virulence of the attack launched against this book by classical archaeologists is a good indication of both its validity and its importance. Again, we see that myth is not a consequence of the maundering 'primitive' mind, but rather profound cosmology couched in literary terminology.
The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries, Mark Lehner, Thames & Hudson, $39.95
Mark Lehner's 'solution' for the geological questions surrounding the age of the Sphinx is to fail to mention them at all; other thorny questions (building techniques, astronomical considerations, Frank Domingo's forensic work) are handled with commensurate aplomb and meticulousness. There is, nevertheless, enough useful information along with excellent diagrams and photos to make this otherwise woefully incomplete Complete book worth owning.
The Secrets of the Sphinx: Restoration Past and Present, Zahi Hawass, American University of Cairo Press, $9.95 at AMAZON
Zahi's little book is a good summary of classical Sphinx information and includes an extensive, careful and refreshingly uninflammatory rebuttal of our geological work. This is a useful summary. By setting out the orthodox game plan as it were, we are able to better plan our own campaign of rebuttal.
TRENDS 2000 by Gerald Celente, Warner Books, $14.99
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