'Da Vinci Code' and Fear of Death

Da Vinci's "The Last Supper," key to some of the theories.

A new study finds that people who are anxious about death are more likely to believe in the conspiracy theories outlined in Dan Brown's 2003 book, The Da Vinci Code. The author contended in the best-seller that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children, leaving living descendents behind. Plus, he says the Catholic Church covered up this fact, while a secret society called The Priory of Sion was formed to keep Jesus' descendents safe.

"It's difficult to change people's beliefs in these theories because they tend to be very fundamental to the way they view the world," study researcher Anna Newheiser, a doctoral student in social psychology at Yale University, told LiveScience.com.

The researchers gathered college students who had read the book and conducted two studies. In the first, they asked 144 students to rate their agreement with Da Vinci conspiracy beliefs, such as, "The church has burned witches and other 'heretics' to keep the truth about Jesus hidden." The students also filled out questionnaires about their religiosity, biblical knowledge, enjoyment of The Da Vinci Code novel or movie, and their fear of death. 

 The students most likely to believe the conspiracies in Brown's novel were those who enjoyed the book the most, expressed the most New Age beliefs, and felt the most anxiety about dying. People who were religious, knowledgeable about the Bible and desiring of social approval, on the other hand, tended not to buy into the Da Vinci conspiracy.  

Next, the researchers called 50 of the original students back and presented them with historical evidence that the Da Vinci conspiracy is false. They found that among the most religious participants, this counterevidence lessened the belief in the conspiracy. Nonreligious participants, however, did not budge. 

Conspiracy theories "can alleviate people's sense of loss of control by giving them a reason that things happen," Newheiser said. "In this case, it's particularly interesting because it might help people who are nonreligious or non-Christian to understand the events related to early Christian history."

Click here for the complete article.

Edgar Mitchell Reasserts Belief in UFO Cover-Up

Former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell asserted again yesterday at the National Press Club that the US and other governments are concealing the fact that extraterrestrial life exists.

Mitchell, of course, has long contended there is life on other planets and that earth has been visited. As part of the Apollo 14 mission, he was the sixth man to walk on the moon.

Asked if we’re alone in the universe, Mitchell told CNN, “No, we’re not alone.”

"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is to become a part of the planetary community,” Mitchell said. “We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."

According to today’s CNN article:

Mitchell grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which some UFO believers maintain was the site of a UFO crash in 1947. He said residents of his hometown "had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities." They had been warned of "dire consequences" if they did so.

But, he claimed, they "didn't want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story."

Roughly 10 years ago, Mitchell claimed, he was finally given an appointment at the Pentagon to discuss what he had been told. An unnamed admiral working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff promised to uncover the truth behind the Roswell story, Mitchell said. The stories of a UFO crash "were confirmed," but the admiral was then denied access when he "tried to get into the inner workings of that process."

The same admiral, Mitchell claimed, now denies the story.

"I urge those who are doubtful to read the books, read the lore, start to understand what has really been going on. Because there really is no doubt we are being visited," Mitchell said yesterday. "The universe that we live in is much more wondrous, exciting, complex and far-reaching than we were ever able to know up to this point in time."

Click here for the CNN article.

Is There Something Behind These Current Events?

Some conspiracy theories intrigue me and others I reject outright as just silly. However, the "world dominion" and "new world order" theories I put in the first category ~ intriguing ~ because so much has occurred during my lifetime to reinforce the concept. Some level of substantiation surfaces whenever I spend much time watching cable news.

The current economic and monetary crisis carries overtones of new-world-order thinking. The prominence of the Federal Reserve in developing our much-needed "solutions." The whispers already being heard of the need for a worldwide currency to "stabilize" international monetary problems. The presumed "socialist" governmental support of failing industries, when actually the Federal Reserve, through its unprecedented control over fiscal policy, actually is the body pulling the strings.

With all of that in mind, I offer this 10-minute video. Perhaps it's exaggerated or just silly, but you can't deny the ongoing references to "new world order" we've heard for decades, the paternalistic approach government and world leaders have exhibited toward their mass populations, and ~ worst of all, in my estimation ~ the numbing and dumbing of the populace who listens passively as they absorb world-domination messages from the inanity of the mass media.

So here it is. I hope you can spare at least a minute or two to get the idea.

Shock 'n Awe ~ AKA Shekinah

Painting entitled "Shekinah" can be found on several right-wing Christian blogs and MySpace pages. Photos below show real "shock and awe" in Baghdad, 2003, courtesy of the Bush Administration.

I admit that in early 2003, during the run-up to the war in Iraq, I was perplexed by the phrase “shock and awe.” We all heard Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney use it to describe the coming technologically blistering attack with which the U.S. planned to blow Saddam Hussein and his follows to kingdom come.

It struck me at the time as a colorful phrase, yet decidedly odd. Now, some five years after the fact, I learn that the term “shock and awe” sounds suspiciously like “Shekinah.”

Shekinah is an ancient Hebrew word – in ancient script written as SHKNH – with various meanings, but all dealing with divine forces protective of the Israelites.

Of course conspiracy theorists and anti-Zionists have made a point of this for years. I just learned of it when I stumbled across a blog post this morning about German historian Wolfgang Eggert’s current attempts to monitor cults of far-right Christian and Zionist zealots who lust for an Armageddon-like war so Jesus will come back to Earth, or they can go to Heaven, or something like that.

But back to SHKNH/Shock and awe:

From Gregory Reid's Youthfire: In the Hebrew traditions, there is a word that is used to define the cloud of God's glory: It is roughly translated as “Shekinah” but the Hebrew mystics wrote it as “SHKNH”. Shock and awe. It is highly probable that the strategists in the Psychological Warfare division of the army, who have a flair for the dramatic as well as the mystic and sometimes occultic, knew full well that the entire middle east would understand perfectly what “Shock and Awe” meant.

From Matthew Delooze's Voice from the Edge: “Shock and Awe” can easily sound like Shekinah and in ancient rituals it is the sound vibration that matters not spelling. SHEKINAH -Shakinah -Shakan. The return of the Shekinah is ancient prophecy. The word Shekinah is derived from the word Shakan. The return of the Shekinah is the “Mystical Presence in the Tabernacle.” The Shekinah is to guide and protect Israel.

As for the supposed U.S. military origins, from Wikipedia:

"Shock and awe, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States in 1996.

"Rapid dominance is defined by its authors, Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade, as attempting "to affect the will, perception, and understanding of the adversary to fit or respond to our strategic policy ends through imposing a regime of Shock and Awe."

"Introducing the doctrine in a report to the United States' National Defense University in 1996, Ullman and Wade describe it as an attempt to develop a post-Cold War military doctrine for the United States. Rapid dominance and shock and awe, they write, may become a "revolutionary change" as the United States military is reduced in size and information technology is increasingly integrated into warfare."

If you want to learn more, look at this Google search on "shock and awe" and "shekinah."

No wonder conspiracy theories are sounding less and less theoretical these days.

Did She Know of bin Laden's Murder?

I confess to being a conspiracy theorist when it comes to Osama bin Laden. I remember a Christmas lunch in 2001 when I announced to a group of coworkers that bin Laden was dead. They looked at me in momentary stunned silence and then went back to the standard office gossip.

• I figured he’d been killed in the Battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan earlier in December of that year when U.S. and British special forces blasted the cave-entrenched al-Qaeda headquarters to smithereens. 
  
• And I figured bin Laden would be more useful to the Bush administration dead rather than alive, and that his death would therefore remain a secret. (The subject of an upcoming post.)

There have been rumors and speculation about his death for nearly seven years now, coming from multiple sources. The fact that he has not been seen, that his video appearances are highly suspect, and that his audio tapes also are doubtful only add to the speculation. Yes, we all know the CIA has confirmed his voice print on a couple of audio tapes, but I’m with most of the world in believing the CIA’s integrity is seriously compromised.


Now another voice has been added to the chorus regarding bin Laden’s death – this one carrying considerable political weight.

This past November 2, Benazir Bhutto, in an interview with David Frost on BBC, described Omar Sheikh as “the man who murdered Osama bin Laden.” Of course on December 27 Bhutto – head of the Pakistan Peoples Party and two-term Pakistani prime minister - was herself brutally assassinated.

During the interview, Bhutto was answering one of Frost’s questions regarding the identities of people who had previously attempted to assassinate her. She made the statement regarding Omar Sheikh as bin Laden’s murderer, and she and Frost just continued the interview without further clarification. Afterward the BBC re-ran the interview but edited out Bhutto’s statement about bin Laden. There was an uproar and the BBC later apologized and again re-ran the interview, this time with her statement restored. Most curious.

Yes, it’s entirely possible that Bhutto misspoke. Some think she may have meant journalist Daniel Pearl (although she mentioned Pearl moments earlier in the interview) instead of bin Laden. She also was quoted in October that she would help the U.S. military find bin Laden. But view for yourself the YouTube clip above and observe her tone as she makes the statement.