This is a day when, once again, things will not be as they seem. It is important to see what happens for what it really is,. There are those out there who are attempting to put a rosy glow on things in order to win you over to their side. You always have the choice, but it is important to be informed. Your best bet is to put things off until tomorrow. There is nothing wrong with gathering enough information to be able to see an issue from all sides. Emotionally today, you can find yourself somewhat up and down. Also, there will be little messages coming from your body that you might just want to pay attention to. If you are hungry, eat. If you are tired, sleep. And then your intuition also will be active. It you get the feeling that it is not the best idea to take a certain byway, pay attention. Many things are happening today on many levels. Focus is a good idea.
If you enjoy a dramatic spectacle in the sky, you have probably heard about Comet ISON, currently streaking toward the sun. (If you haven’t heard about it, bear with me—I’ll try to make it worth your while.) But the media coverage has been downright confusing. The first reports described it as a “comet of the century,” possibly as bright as the full moon. Then came some whipsaw downbeat news stories suggesting that the comet was fizzling and might have already begun to disintegrate.
Comet ISON as seen by the Hubble telescope on October 9, when it was 177 million miles from Earth. (Credit: NASA/ ESA/Hubble Heritage Team)
No wonder DISCOVER readers have been sending in a steady stream of inquiries: What will Comet ISON really look like? When will it be visible? Where can I see it? Good questions. Time for some answers—and I’ll have a lot more to say about the science of the comet itself in an upcoming blog post.
What it will look like Almost all of the forecasts about Comet ISON contain huge uncertainties. As comet hunter David H. Levy is fond of saying, “Comets are like cats; they have tails and they do precisely what they want.” The Comet ISON Observing Campaign has put together a set of scenarios that explore the staggering range of possibilities.
It now seems almost certain that Comet ISON will fall short of the early, optimistic assessments (truth be told, it was never going to light up the night like the full moon, since peak brightness will happen while it is less than one degree from the sun…in the middle of the day). The dire predictions that the comet has fizzled are simply wrong, however. Recent Hubble images show it beautifully intact.
A recent study by Jian-Yang Li of the Planetary Science Institute gives additional reason for hope. Comet ISON is oriented such that one side has remained shadowed so far. When the comet whips around the sun on November 28, the comet’s night side will suddenly emerge into daylight and be hit with an intense blast of solar heat. That could potentially lead to a spectacular eruption of gas and dust.
The upshot is that Comet ISON is sure to be a pretty sight through binoculars or a wide-field telescope, and it still has plenty of potential to be an exciting addition to the visible sky after Thanksgiving.
When and where to look I created a quick reference guide about when and where to look for Comet ISON. It appears in my Urban Skygazer column in the November issue of DISCOVER, and you can read it here. A viewing skychart is available from my colleagues at Astronomy magazine.
There are two crucial things to know about looking for Comet ISON.
Projected brightness of Comet ISON, with actual measurements in orange, shows how rapidly it will peak at closest approach to the sun on November 3. (Credit: NASA CIOC/Matthew Knight)
First, it is a peaky comet (full details here if you want to take a deep dive). It will brighten rapidly in the days just before Thanksgiving, so don’t even try looking for it with your naked eyes right now—it’s far too faint. Probably it will become visible from dark skies by mid-November, but may be tricky to see on its way in. The best viewing should come in the couple weeks after November 28, when the comet is heading away from the sun but toward the Earth. Because of the shifting geometry, Comet ISON will probably fade quite a bit more slowly than it brightened. Even so it may be lost to the naked eye well before it makes its closest approach to Earth on Christmas day.
Second, you will need dark skies and an unobstructed horizon to get the best view. At its brightest, Comet ISON will be close to the sun and hence close to the horizon just before sunrise. In the first half of December the comet will get higher in the sky and (depending on how it behaves) may have a ghostly tail stretching up to a quarter the way across the sky. To appreciate its full extent, though, you will need to get far away from urban light pollution. And as you may have already picked up, you need to wake up early in the morning, just as dawn is breaking.
OK, so will it be worth the effort? Nature doesn’t always make things easy or convenient. The payoff is that you will get to see something rare and wonderful: A primeval ball of ices and dust grains, frozen since the time of Earth’s formation 4.5 billion years ago, vaporizing and spreading out into space. It’s also amazing to recall how small the actual comet is. Its tail may stretch millions or even tens of millions of miles across, but the solid body creating that whole spectacle is just a couple miles across!
If you get an exceptionally good look at Comet ISON’s tail you may be able to see that comets actually sprout two kinds of tail–an ion tail (composed of individual, electrically charged gas atoms) and a dust tail (composed of larger particles). Both tails are affected by both the solar wind and by light pressure from the sun, but they react in different ways. The ion tail always points straight away from the sun. The dust tail lags behind a bit as the comet orbits around the sun. The result is that the two tails typically show up separately, often with distinctive structures, shapes, and colors.
So when you view a comet you get to see the invisible interplanetary dynamics of the solar system, as well as a relic from a time when Earth was just a lifeless ball of molten rock. Worth getting up early for, I think.
COMET LINEAR X1: The sun isn’t the only thing exploding. Almost 450 million km from Earth, Comet C/2012 X1 (LINEAR) is having its own outburst. On Oct. 20th, amateur astronomers realized that the comet’s brightness had increased 100-fold and its morphology resembled that of exploding Comet 17P/Holmes in 2007. Follow-up images in recent nights seem to show jet-like structures in Comet LINEAR X1’s expanding atmosphere. Amateur astronomer Nick James of Chelmsford, UK, obtained these data on Oct. 26th:
Another set of images taken by James shows the comet’s atmosphere or “coma” expanding over a period of two days. “The coma’s diameter is increasing at a rate of 30 arcseconds per day,” says James. “At a distance of 2.95 AU this corresponds to 65,000 km/day or a little less than 1 km/s.” He made these observations using an 11-inch Celestron telescope.
Located in the constellation Coma Berenices, Comet LINEAR X1 rises in the east about an hour before the sun. The low altitude of the comet in morning twilight is a challenge, but because the comet is fairly bright, magnitude +8.5, it is still a relatively easy target for backyard telescopes equipped with digital cameras. Monitoring is encouraged! Resources:3D orbit, ephemeris, sky map.
X2-FLARE BLASTS EARTH’S IONOSPHERE: Electromagnetic radiation from the X2-class solar flare of Oct. 25th had a significant effect on Earth’s upper atmosphere. As a wave of ionization swept across the dayside of the planet, the normal propagation of shortwave radio signals was scrambled. In Alachua, Florida, electrical engineer Wes Greenman recorded the effects using his own shortwave radio telescope. Click on the frequency-time plot to view an animation:
During the time that terrestrial shortwave transmissions were blacked out, the sun filled in the gap with a loud radio burst of its own. In New Mexico, amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft recorded the sounds. “This radio burst was a strong one and might be too intense for headphones,” cautions Ashcraft.
Solar radio bursts are caused by strong shock waves moving through the sun’s atmosphere. (Electrons accelerated by the shock front excite plasma instabilities which, in turn, produce shortwave static.) They are usually a sign that a CME is emerging from the blast site–and indeed this flare produced a very bright CME.
You will be aware today of many undercurrents, many hums, many themes, many distractions. This is a great time to go within and center, ground, and open to the mind of the Universal Consciousness’. By connecting, you have the perspective to see things for what they are, to sort out all the confusion strands of stuff and information that is coming your way, and to revel beneath it all the theme that is at its heart. This is a special time for connection. First, however you need to know that that is what you are looking for. Take time today in this swirling energy to find within your self that golden thread that does truly connect you to your community, your family, your future, and guides you along your path. There are so many hints out there today. The pattern continues to fall into place.
THE LIVING WORK ~ RE-CONNECTING WITH THE FEMININE ENERGY ~
It’s coming around again, as such cycles always do. For a number of years I have been talking (amongst other people) about the new consciousness emerging – or rather unfolding – over these years. However, the focus so far has been largely upon the consequences of this new ‘energy consciousness’ rather than on the qualities of the incoming energy itself. For example, I have discussed how this unfolding energy is shifting human social systems – how we do things – from a vertical to a horizontal pattern. That is, from hierarchical structures to networks and connectivity. Recently though I have been turning my focus upon the shift from the older values of Competition ~ Conflict ~ Control ~ Censorship – to the new values of Connection ~ Communication ~ Consciousness ~ Compassion. So what does this tell us about the new energy unfolding upon the Earth and permeating through humankind?
It tells us that the new energy is relational, not mechanical nor isolated. That is, it does not thrive upon self-sufficiency but upon contact and receptivity through others. It flows and works through organic, non-hierarchical systems: through networks and webs – through the threads that weave the wholeness of life together. This energy no longer thrives through top-down power structures; it no longer seeks one-to-one encounters – it flows like life itself.
Realizing this reminds me of how during the 16th-18th centuries Europe witnessed the witch hunts that put to death tens of thousands of women accused of being witches. The executioners were predominantly men who represented the church hierarchy. This was a masculine energy that for millennia had been parading and swinging its heavy paternal axe of hierarchical power. And the witches were yet another manifestation of female power that the ecclesiastical authorities could not tolerate. Many of these so-called ‘witches’ were women who knew about herbs; how to heal and nurture people; and how to listen to nature (others were purely innocent victims of gossip!). Yet one of the things they were accused of, amongst many, was of gathering and conspiring together. How did they gather? They gathered in witches’ circles… Here we have the energy of hierarchical power against the energy of circular, relational flow. It was the fear of a ‘magical presence’ within the female that fuelled a deep repression over the centuries that has become a pattern – the denial of the subtle, the integral, the nurturing.
Our modern educational systems and institutions have also been in great denial of this integral energy and thus geared for the masculine mind. Our school curriculums were initially created by men so that young minds could be shaped to think in masculine ways; in other words, conditioned to manifest a masculine energy and consciousness. The feminine relational understanding was pushed aside to be replaced with the linear thinking patterns of the masculine mind. For some it was like trying to fit square shapes through a round hole – or through a circle where water should flow. Yet the insistence upon the masculine mind has intimidated the feminine consciousness. It has pushed it into retreat, undermining the true expression of this much needed energy. The over-bearing masculine mind has insisted that women mimic its attributes, play its games, and thus suppress its own presence.
The masculine consciousness is also behind the image of a divinity that belongs to the heavens. From ‘up there’, the dominance of a masculine god has made it permissible to develop a science that would ‘torture Nature’s secrets from her’[1] and thus take control over our environment. In this way humanity has succeeded in largely divorcing itself from the sacred interdependence of creation. Our current commercialized material ‘modern’ cultures reflect this sense of alienation and individualism represented by the separateness of a masculine god. Humanity no longer understands – or remembers? – that it is an essential integral part of the great wholeness of life. As a species and as a civilization we have arrived at the point where this dominant masculine consciousness can proceed no further alone…if we are to have a viable long-term future upon this planet. It is at this critical stage that there are signs that the energy is now turning; or rather, it is shifting as new permutations are emerging in the world. It is the feminine energy that seeks the flow, the networks, the connectivity…and it is coming around again.
Traditionally feminine consciousness has honoured all life as sacred; as such it manifests a reciprocity that reflects the inter-connectedness of life. Relationships with others become more important than the isolation of the self. The value of the community stands above the pursuit of individual achievement. The process of being takes precedence over the need to achieve through doing. And multi-tasking is more appropriate than being fixated upon a single end goal. Now which aspects sound more suitable for a globally inter-connected world that communicates through multiple networks simultaneously? So let us ask: which energy and consciousness may be more aligned with the way the world is re-structuring and re-calibrating itself? Answers on a postcard please to your local ‘Working Mans Association.’
Welcome to the 21st century where global communications have opened up the world to the masses. The Internet, let us be honest, represents aspects of the feminine energy and consciousness. The Internet connects people into multiple relations; it is responsible for nurturing rising empathy across the world; and shares stories, needs, and reaches out to many people and communities. Sure, it has its negative aspects too – yet that is the nature of a world of duality. Focusing on the constructive changes we see how individuals, communities, businesses, systems, etc, are re-calibrating across the world to be aligned with the new interconnectivity that symbolizes the world we are moving into. The current manifestation of feminine energy needs new pathways in order to enter and permeate our material world. Our physical structures are responding to this call by shifting from top-down structures to distributed and decentralized networks. Yet we also need to assist this re-calibration by changing the ways we think as altering the ways we do things will not gain permanence until human consciousness changes. In order to allow the new incoming consciousness to flow into the world we need to allow it to flow through us. That is, to manifest the qualities, attitudes, and our presence in the world that will most effectively receive, hold, and transmit this consciousness. This responsibility is our living work now.
The days of working in seclusion are over – the new energy does not support monasticism. The flow must connect between inner and outer events and states. The new living work is not a monastic endeavour but must exist within the active folds, avenues, and marketplace of life. High castles, priestly enclaves, guru sanctuaries, etc, are edifices of the past where a different energy was contained. The new energy – which shows aspects of the feminine consciousness – is a nurturing one that comes alive through people. Whereas the previous masculine-orientated energy wished to stand visible and powerful like the tower on the hill; the feminine energy is more subtle, and flows through the appreciative touch, the supportive word, the reassuring glance that filters through each one of us as we wend our way through life. That which was once hidden can now be made manifest through us – this is the living work.
Love has no power structures or hierarchies; it is not for sale. It passes freely from heart to heart along the web of oneness that connects us all.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
[1] A reference to Sir Francis Bacon whose scientific method became the foundations for modern empirical science.
The map below comes from the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Center. It shows that radiation levels at radiation monitoring stations all over the country are elevated. As you will notice, this is particularly true along the west coast of the United States. Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean. That means that the total amount of radioactive material released from Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in our food chain.
Ultimately, all of this nuclear radiation will outlive all of us by a very wide margin. They are saying that it could take up to 40 years to clean up the Fukushima disaster, and meanwhile countless innocent people will develop cancer and other health problems as a result of exposure to high levels of nuclear radiation. We are talking about a nuclear disaster that is absolutely unprecedented, and it is constantly getting worse. The following are 28 signs that the west coast of North America is being absolutely fried with nuclear radiation from Fukushima…
1. Polar bears, seals and walruses along the Alaska coastline are suffering from fur loss and open sores…
Wildlife experts are studying whether fur loss and open sores detected in nine polar bears in recent weeks is widespread and related to similar incidents among seals and walruses.
The bears were among 33 spotted near Barrow, Alaska, during routine survey work along the Arctic coastline. Tests showed they had “alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement.
At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 percent of the pups born in June have died, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die. It’s gotten so bad in the past two weeks that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event.”
3. Along the Pacific coast of Canada and the Alaska coastline, the population of sockeye salmon is at a historic low. Many are blaming Fukushima.
5. A vast field of radioactive debris from Fukushima that is approximately the size of California has crossed the Pacific Ocean and is starting to collide with the west coast.
6. It is being projected that the radioactivity of coastal waters off the U.S. west coast could double over the next five to six years.
7. Experts have found very high levels of cesium-137 in plankton living in the waters of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the west coast.
8. One test in California found that 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna were contaminated with radiation from Fukushima.
9. Back in 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada…
• 73 percent of mackerel tested
Some fish samples tested to date have had very high levels of radiation: one sea bass sample collected in July, for example, had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.
“Look at what’s going on now: They’re dumping huge amounts of radioactivity into the ocean — no one expected that in 2011,” Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California-Santa Cruz, told Global Security Newswire. “We could have large numbers of cancer from ingestion of fish.”
12. BBC News recently reported that radiation levels around Fukushima are “18 times higher” than previously believed.
13. An EU-funded study concluded that Fukushima released up to 210 quadrillion becquerels of cesium-137 into the atmosphere.
14. Atmospheric radiation from Fukushima reached the west coast of the United States within a few days back in 2011.
15. At this point, 300 tons of contaminated water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.
16. A senior researcher of marine chemistry at the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Meteorological Research Institute says that “30 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium and 30 billion becquerels of radioactive strontium” are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.
18. According to a professor at Tokyo University, 3 gigabecquerels of cesium-137 are flowing into the port at Fukushima Daiichi every single day.
19. It has been estimated that up to 100 times as much nuclear radiation has been released into the ocean from Fukushima than was released during the entire Chernobyl disaster.
20. One recent study concluded that a very large plume of cesium-137 from the Fukushima disaster will start flowing into U.S. coastal waters early next year…
Ocean simulations showed that the plume of radioactive cesium-137 released by the Fukushima disaster in 2011 could begin flowing into U.S. coastal waters starting in early 2014 and peak in 2016.
21. It is being projected that significant levels of cesium-137 will reach every corner of the Pacific Ocean by the year 2020.
22. It is being projected that the entire Pacific Ocean will soon “have cesium levels 5 to 10 times higher” than what we witnessed during the era of heavy atomic bomb testing in the Pacific many decades ago.
23. The immense amounts of nuclear radiation getting into the water in the Pacific Ocean has caused environmental activist Joe Martino to issue the following warning…
Your days of eating Pacific Ocean fish are over.
24. The Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 that are constantly coming from Fukushima are going to affect the health of those living the the northern hemisphere for a very, very long time. Just consider what Harvey Wasserman had to say about this…
Iodine-131, for example, can be ingested into the thyroid, where it emits beta particles (electrons) that damage tissue. A plague of damaged thyroids has already been reported among as many as 40 percent of the children in the Fukushima area. That percentage can only go higher. In developing youngsters, it can stunt both physical and mental growth. Among adults it causes a very wide range of ancillary ailments, including cancer.
Strontium-90’s half-life is around 29 years. It mimics calcium and goes to our bones.
25. According to a recent Planet Infowars report, the California coastline is being transformed into “a dead zone”…
The California coastline is becoming like a dead zone.
If you haven’t been to a California beach lately, you probably don’t know that the rocks are unnaturally CLEAN – there’s hardly any kelp, barnacles, sea urchins, etc. anymore and the tide pools are similarly eerily devoid of crabs, snails and other scurrying signs of life… and especially as compared to 10 – 15 years ago when one was wise to wear tennis shoes on a trip to the beach in order to avoid cutting one’s feet on all the STUFF of life – broken shells, bones, glass, driftwood, etc.
There are also days when I am hard-pressed to find even a half dozen seagulls and/or terns on the county beach.
You can still find a few gulls trolling the picnic areas and some of the restaurants (with outdoor seating areas) for food, of course, but, when I think back to 10 – 15 years ago, the skies and ALL the beaches were literally filled with seagulls and the haunting sound of their cries both day and night…
NOW it’s unnaturally quiet.
26. A study conducted last year came to the conclusion that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster could negatively affect human life along the west coast of North America from Mexico to Alaska “for decades”.
27. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is being projected that the cleanup of Fukushima could take up to 40 years to complete.
28. Yale Professor Charles Perrow is warning that if the cleanup of Fukushima is not handled with 100% precision that humanity could be threatened “for thousands of years“…
Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.
Are you starting to understand why so many people are so deeply concerned about what is going on at Fukushima?
INTERCONNECTED SOLAR ACTIVITY: The X1-flare of Oct. 25th was remarkable not only for its strength, but also for its interconnectedness. The flare was bracketed by two erupting magnetic filaments, each located hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the instigating sunspot AR1882. The whole episoide, shown in this SDO movie, was reminiscent of the famous global eruption of August 2010.
Today, Oct. 26th, it happened again. Click on this image of the sun’s southwestern quadrant and watch a sequence of flare activity around sunspots AR1875 and AR1877 followed by a filament eruption off the SW limb:
Instead of being a sequence of unrelated events, these flares and eruptions are likely connected by magnetic fields, which thread through the whole broad region. Like dominoes falling, one explosion triggers another as shock waves follow magnetic fields from blast site to blast site.
The filament punctuated the sequence by hurling a part of itself into space. SOHO has observed a CME emerging from the blast site, but it is too soon to say whether it is heading for Earth.
With Halloween coming, you might just want to create your own Zombie. Check out this article:
How to Make a Zombie (Seriously)
By Marc Lallanilla, Assistant Editor | October 24, 2013 04:30pm ET
Most rational people scoff at the suggestion that zombies are real, but a number of respected medical experts and academic journals have presented evidence that zombies are, in fact, real.
Credit: Vietrov Dmytro | Shutterstock
The slouching, flesh-eating zombie has become one of the most in-vogue creatures in current TV and movie offerings, appearing in films like “World War Z” and in the AMC series “The Walking Dead.”
Most rational people scoff at the suggestion that zombies are real, but a number of respected medical experts and academic journals have presented evidence that zombies are, in fact, real.
To understand the zombie phenomenon and its Haitian roots, an appreciation of the practice of vodou (sometimes spelled voodoo or vodun) is needed. A religion based in West Africa, voodou is still practiced in varying forms throughout the Caribbean, Brazil, the American South and other places with a strong African heritage.
Vodou spirituality has a rich tradition of fetish objects, including the so-called “voodoo doll.” Practitioners of vodou also place a particular importance on herbal remedies and other concoctions that may include animal parts, such as bones and hair, dried plants, shells, minerals or other ingredients.
Toads, worms and human remains
Vodou priests known as bokor create a white, powdery compound called coupe poudre, according to numerous reports. The ingredients in this powder allegedly can turn a person into a zombie. In the 1980s, Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis traveled to Haiti to investigate zombies and “zombie powder.”
A residential neighborhood near downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital and largest city in Haiti.
Credit: arindambanerjee / Shutterstock.com
Though different bokor used different ingredients in their powders, Davis found that “there are five constant animal ingredients: burned and ground-up human remains [usually bone], a small tree frog, a polychaete [segmented] worm, a large New World toad, and one or more species of pufferfish. The most potent ingredients are the pufferfish, which contain deadly nerve toxins known as tetrodotoxin,” Davis wrote in Harper’s Magazine.
Some in the scientific community have criticized Davis’ research — his investigation was published in 1983 in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology — but his identification of tetrodotoxin as the active ingredient in zombie powder has considerable scientific merit.
Euphoria, then death
Several animals contain tetrodotoxin in their tissues; the liver, eyes and ovaries of the pufferfish (genus Takifugu) have especially high amounts of the lethal nerve toxin. Though regarded as a delicacy in Japan, the fish and some of its organs (especially the liver) are banned as food items in many places because of the dangers.
In small amounts, tetrodotoxin causes numbness, tingling and a not-unpleasant sensation of floating — even euphoria — according to reports from brave gourmands who have sampled carefully prepared pufferfish. High levels of the toxin, however, can cause death within minutes due to respiratory failure.
But at sublethal doses, the toxin can leave a victim in a state of suspended animation: Breathing is subdued and barely perceptible by observers, the heart rate is near zero, but the person remains conscious and aware (though unable to speak).
Zombie slavery
This toxin, then, may form the basis of the zombie phenomenon. According to Davis and other observers, a person who is exposed to a certain amount of zombie powder containing tetrodotoxin can slip into a vegetative state resembling death. Shortly after the person is buried, their body is exhumed by a bokor.
Though the exhumed zombie usually suffers from apoxia (oxygen deprivation) caused by breathing the limited amount of air inside a coffin, the bokor wields control over the person by continually administering a second drug, a psychoactive compound derived from the jimson weed (Datura stramonium). This second drug causes delirium and disorientation, rendering the person incapable of normal functioning.
The British medical journal The Lancet published three accounts of “zombification” in 1997. In one case, a woman who was presumed dead and was buried in a family tomb reappeared three years later — she was positively identified by several family members and townspeople. “After a local court authorized the opening of her tomb, which was full of stones, her parents were undecided whether to take her home, and she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital in Port-au-Prince,” the authors wrote.
Because death certificates and other official niceties are rare in rural Haiti, and because burial generally occurs within a day of death, “it is not implausible for a retrieved person to be alive,” the authors added. “The use of Datura stramonium to revive them, and its possible repeated administration during the period of zombie slavery, could produce a state of extreme psychological passivity.”
The legal status of zombies
A well-known report of a zombie comes from the pages of ChemMatters, the publication of the American Chemical Society. In 1962, a man named Clairvius Narcisse was admitted to Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Port-au-Prince with severe respiratory problems. After slipping into a coma, Narcisse was later declared dead by two hospital doctors and was buried shortly thereafter.
Eighteen years later, in 1980, a man shuffled up to Angelina Narcisse in a village marketplace and identified himself as her brother. He related a story of being buried alive, dug up and enslaved on a distant sugar plantation. Doctors who examined Narcisse — and dozens of villagers and family members — positively identified him as the man who was buried in 1962.
But if you’re tempted to make a zombie slave of your own, be aware that the zombie phenomenon is considered so real in Haiti that it’s specifically outlawed.
Article 249 of the Haitian penal code states, “It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be made against any person [using] substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person had been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows.”
Change is in the air today, but it can come in unexpected ways. It can leave you totally confused, with your head whirling, and with things in chaos all around you. So what is this all about? There are a number of items related to the levels of energetic process that are hitting the Earth today, and these things are basically incompatible although, with some revision and adjustment, they can be made to work together. Whether they will or not will depend upon the various situations they encounter. If you are feeling that you are getting out of control of things, know that you have the power to make it all change. To access your power, you need to go within, ground, trust, and allow. You can be amazed at how things will change if you allow yourself to take hold of the situation. Along with the craziness, there are some very important lessons for you today and many revolve around what you can do when you are working from within your core.
