NEW FINDINGS CHANGE VIEWS OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS

New archaeological evidence is raising more questions about the conventional interpretation linking the desolate ruins of an ancient settlement known as Qumran with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in nearby caves in one of the sensational discoveries of the last century.

After early excavations at the site, on a promontory above the western shore of the Dead Sea, scholars concluded that members of a strict Jewish sect, the Essenes, had lived there in a monastery and presumably wrote the scrolls in the first centuries B.C. and A.D. Many of the texts describe religious practices and doctrine in ancient Israel.

But two Israeli archaeologists who have excavated the site on and off for more than 10 years now assert that Qumran had nothing to do with the Essenes or a monastery or the scrolls. It had been a pottery factory.

The archaeologists, Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, reported in a book and a related magazine article that their extensive excavations turned up pottery kilns, whole vessels, production rejects and thousands of clay fragments. Derelict water reservoirs held thick deposits of fine potters' clay.

Magen and Peleg said that, indeed, the elaborate water system at Qumran appeared to be designed to bring the clay-laced water into the site for the purposes of the pottery industry. No other site in the region has been found to have such a water system.

By the time the Romans destroyed Qumran in A.D. 68 in the Jewish revolt, the archaeologists concluded, the settlement had been a center of the pottery industry for at least a century. Before that, the site apparently was an outpost in a chain of fortresses along the Israelites' eastern frontier.

"The association between Qumran, the caves and the scrolls is, thus, a hypothesis lacking any factual archaeological basis," Magen said in an article in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He and Peleg wrote a more detailed report of their research in "The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates," published this year.

This is by no means the first challenge to the Essene hypothesis originally advanced by Roland de Vaux, a French priest and archaeologist who was an early interpreter of the scrolls after their discovery almost 60 years ago. Other scholars have suggested that Qumran was a fortified manor house or a villa, possibly an agricultural community or a commercial entrepôt.

Norman Golb, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilization at the University of Chicago who is a longtime critic of the Essene link, said he was impressed by the new findings and the pottery-factory interpretation.

"Magen's a very seasoned archaeologist and scholar, and many of his views are cogent," Golb said in a telephone interview. "A pottery factory? That could well be the case."

Golb said that, of course, Qumran could have been both a monastery and a pottery factory. Yet, he added: "There is not an iota of evidence that it was a monastery. We have come to see it as a secular site, not one of pronounced religious orientation."

For years, Golb has argued that the multiplicity of Jewish religious ideas and practices recorded in the scrolls made it unlikely that they were the work of a single sect like the Essenes.

The scrolls in the caves were probably written by many different groups, Golb surmised, and were removed from Jerusalem libraries by refugees in the Roman war. Fleeing to the east, the refugees may well have deposited the scrolls for safekeeping in the many caves near Qumran.

The new research appears to support this view. As Magen noted, Qumran in those days was at a major crossroads of traffic to and from Jerusalem and along the Dead Sea.

Magen also cited documents showing that refugees in another revolt against the Romans in the next century had fled to the same caves. He said they were "the last spot they could hide the scrolls before descending to the shore" of the Dead Sea.

In the magazine article, Magen said the jars in which most of the scrolls were stored had probably come from the pottery factory. If so, this may prove to be the only established connection between the Qumran settlement and the scrolls.


New archaeological evidence is raising more questions about the conventional interpretation linking the desolate ruins of an ancient settlement known as Qumran with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in nearby caves in one of the sensational discoveries of the last century.

After early excavations at the site, on a promontory above the western shore of the Dead Sea, scholars concluded that members of a strict Jewish sect, the Essenes, had lived there in a monastery and presumably wrote the scrolls in the first centuries B.C. and A.D. Many of the texts describe religious practices and doctrine in ancient Israel.

But two Israeli archaeologists who have excavated the site on and off for more than 10 years now assert that Qumran had nothing to do with the Essenes or a monastery or the scrolls. It had been a pottery factory.

The archaeologists, Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, reported in a book and a related magazine article that their extensive excavations turned up pottery kilns, whole vessels, production rejects and thousands of clay fragments. Derelict water reservoirs held thick deposits of fine potters' clay.

Magen and Peleg said that, indeed, the elaborate water system at Qumran appeared to be designed to bring the clay-laced water into the site for the purposes of the pottery industry. No other site in the region has been found to have such a water system.

By the time the Romans destroyed Qumran in A.D. 68 in the Jewish revolt, the archaeologists concluded, the settlement had been a center of the pottery industry for at least a century. Before that, the site apparently was an outpost in a chain of fortresses along the Israelites' eastern frontier.

"The association between Qumran, the caves and the scrolls is, thus, a hypothesis lacking any factual archaeological basis," Magen said in an article in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He and Peleg wrote a more detailed report of their research in "The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates," published this year.

This is by no means the first challenge to the Essene hypothesis originally advanced by Roland de Vaux, a French priest and archaeologist who was an early interpreter of the scrolls after their discovery almost 60 years ago. Other scholars have suggested that Qumran was a fortified manor house or a villa, possibly an agricultural community or a commercial entrepôt.

Norman Golb, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilization at the University of Chicago who is a longtime critic of the Essene link, said he was impressed by the new findings and the pottery-factory interpretation.

"Magen's a very seasoned archaeologist and scholar, and many of his views are cogent," Golb said in a telephone interview. "A pottery factory? That could well be the case."

Golb said that, of course, Qumran could have been both a monastery and a pottery factory. Yet, he added: "There is not an iota of evidence that it was a monastery. We have come to see it as a secular site, not one of pronounced religious orientation."

For years, Golb has argued that the multiplicity of Jewish religious ideas and practices recorded in the scrolls made it unlikely that they were the work of a single sect like the Essenes.

The scrolls in the caves were probably written by many different groups, Golb surmised, and were removed from Jerusalem libraries by refugees in the Roman war. Fleeing to the east, the refugees may well have deposited the scrolls for safekeeping in the many caves near Qumran.

The new research appears to support this view. As Magen noted, Qumran in those days was at a major crossroads of traffic to and from Jerusalem and along the Dead Sea.

Magen also cited documents showing that refugees in another revolt against the Romans in the next century had fled to the same caves. He said they were "the last spot they could hide the scrolls before descending to the shore" of the Dead Sea.

In the magazine article, Magen said the jars in which most of the scrolls were stored had probably come from the pottery factory. If so, this may prove to be the only established connection between the Qumran settlement and the scrolls.


New archaeological evidence is raising more questions about the conventional interpretation linking the desolate ruins of an ancient settlement known as Qumran with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in nearby caves in one of the sensational discoveries of the last century.

After early excavations at the site, on a promontory above the western shore of the Dead Sea, scholars concluded that members of a strict Jewish sect, the Essenes, had lived there in a monastery and presumably wrote the scrolls in the first centuries B.C. and A.D. Many of the texts describe religious practices and doctrine in ancient Israel.

But two Israeli archaeologists who have excavated the site on and off for more than 10 years now assert that Qumran had nothing to do with the Essenes or a monastery or the scrolls. It had been a pottery factory.

The archaeologists, Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, reported in a book and a related magazine article that their extensive excavations turned up pottery kilns, whole vessels, production rejects and thousands of clay fragments. Derelict water reservoirs held thick deposits of fine potters' clay.

Magen and Peleg said that, indeed, the elaborate water system at Qumran appeared to be designed to bring the clay-laced water into the site for the purposes of the pottery industry. No other site in the region has been found to have such a water system.

By the time the Romans destroyed Qumran in A.D. 68 in the Jewish revolt, the archaeologists concluded, the settlement had been a center of the pottery industry for at least a century. Before that, the site apparently was an outpost in a chain of fortresses along the Israelites' eastern frontier.

"The association between Qumran, the caves and the scrolls is, thus, a hypothesis lacking any factual archaeological basis," Magen said in an article in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He and Peleg wrote a more detailed report of their research in "The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates," published this year.

This is by no means the first challenge to the Essene hypothesis originally advanced by Roland de Vaux, a French priest and archaeologist who was an early interpreter of the scrolls after their discovery almost 60 years ago. Other scholars have suggested that Qumran was a fortified manor house or a villa, possibly an agricultural community or a commercial entrepôt.

Norman Golb, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilization at the University of Chicago who is a longtime critic of the Essene link, said he was impressed by the new findings and the pottery-factory interpretation.

"Magen's a very seasoned archaeologist and scholar, and many of his views are cogent," Golb said in a telephone interview. "A pottery factory? That could well be the case."

Golb said that, of course, Qumran could have been both a monastery and a pottery factory. Yet, he added: "There is not an iota of evidence that it was a monastery. We have come to see it as a secular site, not one of pronounced religious orientation."

For years, Golb has argued that the multiplicity of Jewish religious ideas and practices recorded in the scrolls made it unlikely that they were the work of a single sect like the Essenes.

The scrolls in the caves were probably written by many different groups, Golb surmised, and were removed from Jerusalem libraries by refugees in the Roman war. Fleeing to the east, the refugees may well have deposited the scrolls for safekeeping in the many caves near Qumran.

The new research appears to support this view. As Magen noted, Qumran in those days was at a major crossroads of traffic to and from Jerusalem and along the Dead Sea.

Magen also cited documents showing that refugees in another revolt against the Romans in the next century had fled to the same caves. He said they were "the last spot they could hide the scrolls before descending to the shore" of the Dead Sea.

In the magazine article, Magen said the jars in which most of the scrolls were stored had probably come from the pottery factory. If so, this may prove to be the only established connection between the Qumran settlement and the scrolls.

Reprinted from the International Herald Tribune by John Noble Wilford, The New York Times

Published: August 16, 2006

Shriners Behaving Badly, Pt. 7

(*Once again we see the good old boys doin what they do best in this saga of corruption and greed. Sandy has done a remarkable job connecting all the dots! Darren)

Unanswered Questions -
Shriners: Part 7
By Cassandra 'Sandy' Frost
8-15-6


This story began unfolding four months ago, after Vernon Hill, a
Shriners whistleblower, tried to find an investigative journalist willing to
look into his allegations that the top echelon of the Shriners
Hospitals for Children, a 501c3 non profit charitable group, was corrupt. To
date, six investigative articles have been written. Here is Part 7.

What Does "Non-Profit" Mean?

Imagine if you will, a box labeled "Fraternal, 501c10, Shriners
Temples" and another box labeled "Charitable 501c3, Shriners Hospitals for
Children." The first group oversees the individual temples of which
Shriners are members and, according to their articles of incorporation,
oversees and controls the second group, the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Both have very distinct non profit classifications per the IRS. As
such, each group is supposed to function separate from the other, though in
this case, it appears that the fraternal controls the charitable.

Non profit status confers the following benefits on both groups:

(1) exemption from federal and state income tax (2) ability of certain
non-profits to make purchases without paying state sales tax (3)
ability for certain non-profits to receive tax-deductible contributions

Non profit groups have strict disclosure guidelines, especially when it
comes to their taxes. Certain questions on the IRS non profit 990 tax
return forms provide important indications of how a group is doing. Or
tell who the group is affiliated with. Or answer if they lobbied or if
they had real estate transactions between the corporation and directors,
officers or employees. Or if they amended their governing documents.

Article Highlights

Here are the highlights of the previous six articles. A comparison of
similar questions asked by this writer, the General Accounting Office
(GAO) and Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Committee on
Finance, follows.

1) A series of investigative articles published by the Orlando Sentinel
in 1986 reported that in 1985 the Shriners kept 71 percent of the $21.7
million raised to pay for clubhouse expenses, including the upkeep of
private bars, restaurants, golf courses, conventions, travel,
entertainment and fund raising. Less than 2 percent, or $346,251, went to the
medical care of the children.

2) Shriners whistleblower, Vernon Hill, has worked with a former IRS
agent and accountant, Paul Dolnier, for the past year and a half. They
ordered and analyzed thousands of pages of Shriners tax returns which led
to Dolnier presenting evidence of alleged charity fraud to the chief
investigator, auditor and counsel for Pennsylvania's Charitable Special
Investigation unit during a six hour meeting in spring of 2006.

3) Non profit watchdogs like Give.org (non profit arm of the Better
Business Bureau) and American Institute of Philanthropy are howling about
how the Shriners Hospitals for Children seem to be "hoarding" money
that could be used on the medical needs of more sick children. The
Shriners control over $9.5 billion dollars, which is eleven times their
current operating budget.

4) After corporate corruption cases like Enron and Worldcom, business
experts emphasize the importance of conflict of interest policies for a
corporation's board of directors, officers and trustees. In the case of
the Shriners, there have been years of 100% overlap between those on
both the Shriners' 501c10 fraternal board also sitting on the Shriners'
501c3 charitable board. There have also been years when hospital
officers sat on both boards.

5) The lack of disclosure on the Shriners' tax returns of real estate
transactions involving Lewis Molnar, recently retired CEO of Shriners
Hospitals for Children, Charles Cumpstone, recently retired executive
vice president and Donald W. Peirce, a recently deceased employee. The
last real estate transaction took place in 2003 and was not reported to
the IRS.

6) On October 17, 2000, a Resolution was filed with the Polk County
Clerk, Florida, that grants the Shriners' top echelon unlimited power to
execute all types of financial transactions without accountability to or
oversight by internal governance committees. This change in governing
documents was not reported to the IRS.

7) In 1998, the Shriners had a beginning cash balance of $354 million.
By the end of the year, they lost over $351 million or 99.1% of what
they started with. In 2001, they lost $614 million in investments. And in
2002, the Shriners lost nearly 16% of their investments, down by $1+
billion dollars or $1,045,760,830.

8) Fraternal Articles of Incorporation state that "The objects and
purposes of this corporation and business to be transacted by it areto
maintain, control, conduct and superintend any and all charities,
benevolences and hospitals now established, maintained and controlled by the
Imperial council and to create and maintain a charitable and educational
fundfor the purchase, erection, operation and maintenance of Shriners
Hospitals for Children." This does not match what the fraternal
organization states as their purpose on their tax returns.

9) Over the past three years, Hill and others have asked Shriners
leaders questions like "Where does all the money go?" Instead of receiving
any answers, these Shriners have been ignored, kicked out, removed from
committees and in the case of Hill, sent a "cease and desist" email
from Shriners corporate attorney. Is there further punishment for such
actions? According to Shriners ritual, the punishment is "In willful
violation whereof may I incur the fearful penalty of having my eyeballs
pierced to the centre with a three-edged blade, my feet flayed, and I be
forced to walk the hot sands upon the sterile shores of the Red Sea until
the flaming sun shall strike me with livid plague, and may Allah, the
god of Arab, Moslem and Mohammedan, the god of our fathers, support me
to the entire fulfillment of the same. Amen. Amen. Amen." (1)

10) It appears that the "Cease and desist" email sent by the Shriners
corporate attorney to Hill violated the "Whistle blower Protection"
provided by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In July, 2003, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
was signed into law after corporations like Enron were caught illegally
pursuing annual profits rather than maintaining sound business
practices. The law calls for new standards for governance, financial
transactions and audit procedures. It calls for the establishment of an
independent audit committee, policies that address insider trading and conflicts
of interest, spells out the responsibilities of auditors, requires
certified financial statements, mandates the disclosure of tax returns in
an "easily accessible way," provides whistle blower protection and
addresses document destruction so as to prevent criminal obstruction.


Unanswered Questions

Two sets of questions have been emailed to the Shriners Director of
Public Relations; the first sent on 7/11/06, over a month ago and the
second sent on 7/28/06, nearly three weeks ago. To date, both remain
unanswered.

The first email asked about the Shriners hiring a lobbyist named
Hershel Gober, former Director of Veterans Affairs for the Clinton
administration. These questions included "Why was this relationship reported to
the U.S. Senate but not disclosed on the 2005 tax returns?" and "Why
would Gober, as confirmed by Gober himself, lobby against the
Sarbanes-Oxley act on behalf of the Shriners Hospitals for Children?" Other
questions include:

1) Specifically, what are the points of Sarbanes-Oxley that the
Shriners lobbied against? 2) What did the Shriners hope to accomplish by
lobbying against Sarbanes-Oxley? 3) Who was involved with the meetings set
up by Mr. Gober? 4) Who is currently lobbying on behalf of the Shriners?
5) Are the Shriners still lobbying against Sarbanes-Oxley?

Are these issues that address non profit transparency and
accountability important? The General Accounting Office and Senator Chuck Grassley,
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, seem to think so. The
second email sent to the Shriners asked questions similar to those asked by
a July 28, 2006 General Accounting Office (GAO) survey and by Senator
Grassley.

According to the GAO survey cover letter:

"As a part of Congress's continuing efforts to oversee the activities
of the nonprofit sector, you asked us to review executive compensation
issues at selected private, nonprofit hospital systems to gain an
understanding of the policies and practices related to the salaries,
benefits, travel, gifts, and entertainment expenses paid by these hospital
systems. Our study's key questions were as follows:

· What corporate governance structure do selected hospital systems
report as having in place over executive compensation?

· What is the basis for the compensation and benefits earned by,
awarded to, or paid to the executives as reported by selected hospital
systems?

· What internal controls do selected hospital systems report as having
in place over the approval, payment, and monitoring of executive travel
and entertainment expenses, gifts, and other perquisites?"

Senator Grassley had this to say about the study:

"We need to insure that charitable assets benefit those who need them
most rather than those who need them leastIn my experience reviewing
charities that have failed their mission, poor board governance unites
them all. When the board members fail to understand the gravity of the
task before them, charities sufferIn 17 percent of the cases, the CEO or
other top paid executives were voting members of the executive
compensation body. In essence, they were voting to give themselves their
salaries and benefits. Critical audits of personal entertainment expenses,
spousal travel, automobile expenses, and social club dues are not being
performed on a regular basis"

On May 25, 2005, Senator Grassley sent out his own set of questions,
asking non profit hospitals to account for activities related to their
non profit status. "The Congress is considering the issues of tax-exempt
organizations and particularly the duties and requirements of public
charities in relation to the billions of dollars in tax benefits that
tax-exempt organizations receive at the federal, state and local level,"
he wrote.

Here are some of the unanswered questions emailed to Shriners Hospitals
for Children. Those in common with the GAO and/or Senator Grassley are
marked as such.

1) Is there a conflict of interest policy or other disclosure mechanism
for Board Members, Officers, Trustees and others in high level
positions for both the fraternal and charitable organizations to disclose any
investments or others interests in companies or organizations who have
patent licenses/agreements/contracts with Shriners Hospitals or that are
the result of research done at any of the Shriners Hospitals or on
behalf of Shriners Hospitals or by anyone associated with Shriners
Hospitals? (Q7, Grassley)

2) None of the tax returns list expenses or expense accounts for any of
the Officers, Directors, Trustees or Key Employees for either the
charitable or fraternal organizations. Please provide the last three years
of expense reports or other accounting information for these
individuals. (Q21, Grassley. Q36, Q37, GAO)

3) Are there annual performance audits of the Board members, Trustees
and Officers of both the charitable and fraternal organizations? (Q18,
GAO)

4) When the officers, Directors and trustees serve on both the
charitable and fraternal boards, are their expenses paid for in both
capacities? (Q36, GAO)

5) Will you please provide a list of the board meetings for the past
three years for both the fraternal and charitable organizations, to
include date, location, who attended as well as expense reports or
accounting for each of those who attended as well as for costs paid for by both
organizations? (Q36, Q41, GAO)

Here are some of the unanswered questions raised in previous articles
that were also asked by the GAO.

1) Does your hospital system make loans to its CEO or any of the other
top four executives? (Q30, GAO)

2) Since January 1, 2004, has your hospital system made loans to its
CEO or any of the other top four executives for the following purposes,
specifically real estate? (Q 31, GAO)

On Monday, July 31, a call was placed to Shriners Headquarters to
determine if Alicia Argiz-Lyons, the Shriners Corporate Director of Public
Relations had received the emailed questions. She answered the phone and
confirmed that the emailed questions had been received.

When asked about the conflicts of interest of real estate transactions
between Shriners Hospitals for Children and Lewis Molnar (recently
retired hospital CEO), Donald Peirce (IT employee who recently died) and
Charles Cumpstone (recently retired executive vice president),
Argiz-Lyons answered "One is dead and the two others are not here any more. And
besides, they happened when the Shriners moved their headquarters."

I then suggested that Argiz-Lyons answer did not negate the fact that
these transactions happened and I suggested that she search the public
records to locate the real estate records in question. I told her that
the real estate transactions had not been reported to the IRS.
Argiz-Lyons said that the IRS had "been down there for 18 months and found
nothing wrong."

She then asked me if I'd been to a Shriners Hospital for Children? I
said no, I had not and certainly, the good that was being done on behalf
of the sick and crippled children was commendable.

She then said "If you really want to help the children, you'll stop
spending all your time asking questions."

As a professional courtesy and as the "fact checking" process I've used
for the past five years, an email was sent to Argiz-Lyons on Friday,
August 4, to provide her the opportunity to confirm or deny what had been
said during our July, 31 conversation. To date, this, and the previous
two emails, remains unanswered.

These unanswered emails seem to follow the Shriners Hospitals for
Children pattern of stonewalling questions about their finances. The
questions that need to be asked now are "Why do they refuse to answer the
questions?" and "What might they be hiding?"

(1) The Encyclopedia of Fraternities, by Albert Stevens

All copies of material reprinted or duplicated from "by Sandy Frost"
must include the following credit line: From
http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com/ Copyright © 2006 by Sandy Frost. Used
by permission.

Visit me at:

http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com/
http://thecassandrafrostcollection.blogspot.com/

Was Cancer "Cured In the 1930's??!!

Royal Raymond Rife

Imagine, for a moment, that you have spent more than two decades in painfully laborious research-- that you have discovered an incredibly simple, electronic approach to curing literally every disease on the planet caused by viruses and bacteria . Indeed, it is a discovery that would end the pain and suffering of countless millions and change life on Earth forever. Certainly, the medical world would rush to embrace you with every imaginable accolade and financial reward imaginable. You would think so, wouldnt you?

Unfortunately, arguably the greatest medical genius in all recorded history suffered a fate literally the opposite of the foregoing logical scenario. In fact, the history of medicine is replete with stories of genius betrayed by backward thought and jealously, but most pathetically, by greed and money.

In the nineteenth century, Semmelweiss struggled mightily to convince surgeons that it was a good idea to sterilize their instruments and use sterile surgical procedures. Pasteur was ridiculed for years for his theory that germs could cause disease.
Scores of other medical visionaries went through hell for simply challenging the medical status quo of day, including such legends as Roentgen and his X-rays, Morton for promoting the 'absurd' idea of anaesthesia, Harvey for his theory of the circulation of blood, and many others in recent decades including: W.F. Koch, Revici, Burzynski, Naessens, Priore, Livingston-Wheeler, and Hoxsey.

Orthodox big-money medicine resents and seeks to neutralize and/or destroy those who challenge its beliefs. Often, the visionary who challenges it pays a heavy price for his 'heresy.'

So, you have just discovered a new therapy which can eradicate any microbial disease but, so far, you and your amazing cure aren't very popular. What do you do next? Well, certainly the research foundations and teaching institutions would welcome news of your astounding discovery. Won't they be thrilled to learn you have a cure for the very same diseases they are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars per year to investigate? Maybe not, if it means the end of the gravy train. These people have mortgages to pay and families to support. On second thought, forget the research foundations.

Perhaps you should take your discovery to the pharmaceutical industry; certainly it would be of great interest to those protectors of humanity, right? But remember, you have developed a universal cure which makes drugs obsolete, so the pharmaceutical industry just might be less than thrilled to hear about your work. In fact, the bigshots might even make it certain that your human disease-ending technology never sees the light of day, by preventing it from becoming licensed by the regulatory agencies.

Now, assuming your amazing cure is an electronic instrument, the only cost of using it is electricity. And it is absolutely harmless to patients, who can recover without losing their hair, the family home, and their life savings. So, with your technology, there is no longer any reason for people with cancer to pay over $300,000 per patient -- to become deathly ill from chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and the mutilation of surgery. It sounds like you won't find many friends and support among practicing oncologists, radiologists, and surgeons, doesnt it?

You might try the hospitals and big clinics. But how thrilled are they going to be about a therapy administered in any doctor's office; which reverses illness before the patient has to be hospitalized? Thanks to you, the staffs of these institutions will essentially be out of work.

Well then, how about the insurance companies? Surely, they would be delighted to save the expense of hospitalization - at least the companies which haven't invested in hospitals, where the staff is now sitting around waiting for someone to break a leg or be in a car accident...and the ones who don't lose policyholders as a result of your invention...and the companies which aren't trying to divest their pharmaceutical stock. Oh well, forget the insurance companies, too.

It looks like you just might have a little problem with the medical establishment, no?

Probably the only friends you'll have will be the patients and those progressive doctors who see change as an opportunity, rather than a threat to their established money-making monopoly. Those people will love you. But they don't call the shots.

What follows, now, is the story of exactly such a sensational therapy and what happened to it. In one of the blackest episodes in recorded history, this remarkable electronic therapy was sabotaged and buried by a ruthless group of men. It has re-emerged in the underground medical/alternative health world only since the mid-80's. This is the story of Royal Raymond Rife and his fabulous discoveries and electronic instruments.

If you have never heard of Rife before, prepare to be angered and incredulous at what this great man achieved for all of us only to have it practically driven from the face of the planet. But, reserve your final judgement and decision until after you have read this.

Of course, some may regard this as just an amusing piece of fiction. However, for those who are willing to do some investigating on their own, there will be mentioned several highly-respected doctors and medical authorities who worked with Rife as well as some of the remarkable technical aspects of his creation.

However, in the final analysis, the only real way to determine if such a revolutionary therapy exists is to experience it yourself. The medical literature is full of rigged 'double-blind' clinical research tests, the results of which are often determined in advance by the vested corporate interests involved.

If FDA and other regulatory and licensing procedures and guidelines are observed, it is your privilege to experiment with this harmless therapy. So let's now turn to the story of the most amazing medical pioneer of our century.

Royal Raymond Rife was a brilliant scientist born in 1888 and died in 1971. After studying at Johns Hopkins, Rife developed technology which is still commonly used today in the fields of optics, electronics, radiochemistry, biochemistry, ballistics, and aviation. It is a fair statement that Rife practically developed bioelectric medicine himself.

He received 14 major awards and honors and was given an honorary Doctorate by the University of Heidelberg for his work. During the 66 years that Rife spent designing and building medical instruments, he worked for Zeiss Optics, the U.S. Government, and several private benefactors. Most notable was millionaire Henry Timkin, of Timkin roller bearing fame.

Because Rife was self-educated in so many different fields, he intuitively looked for his answers in areas beyond the rigid scientific structure of his day. He had mastered so many different disciplines that he literally had, at his intellectual disposal, the skills and knowledge of an entire team of scientists and technicians from a number of different scientific fields. So, whenever new technology was needed to perform a new task, Rife simply invented and then built it himself.

Rife's inventions include a heterodyning ultraviolet microscope, a microdissector, and a micromanipulator. When you thoroughly understand Rife's achievements, you may well decide that he has the most gifted, versatile, scientific mind in human history.

By 1920, Rife had finished building the world's first virus microscope. By 1933, he had perfected that technology and had constructed the incredibly complex Universal Microscope, which had nearly 6,000 different parts and was capable of magnifying objects 60,000 times their normal size. With this incredible microscope, Rife became the first human being to actually see a live virus, and until quite recently, the Universal Microscope was the only one which was able view live viruses.

Modern electron microscopes instantly kill everything beneath them, viewing only the mummified remains and debris. What the Rife microscope can see is the bustling activity of living viruses as they change form to accommodate changes in environment, replicate rapidly in response to carcinogens, and transform normal cells into tumor cells.

But how was Rife able to accomplish this, in an age when electronics and medicine were still just evolving? Here are a few technical details to placate the skeptics...
Rife painstakingly identified the individual spectroscopic signature of each microbe, using a slit spectroscope attachment. Then, he slowly rotated block quartz prisms to focus light of a single wavelength upon the microorganism he was examining. This wavelength was selected because it resonated with the spectroscopic signature frequency of the microbe based on the now-established fact that every molecule oscillates at its own distinct frequency.

The atoms that come together to form a molecule are held together in that molecular configuration with a covalent energy bond which both emits and absorbs its own specific electromagnetic frequency. No two species of molecule have the same electromagnetic oscillations or energetic signature. Resonance amplifies light in the same way two ocean waves intensify each other when they merge together.

The result of using a resonant wavelength is that micro-organisms which are invisible in white light suddenly become visible in a brilliant flash of light when they are exposed to the color frequency that resonates with their own distinct spectroscopic signature. Rife was thus able to see these otherwise invisible organisms and watch them actively invading tissues cultures. Rife's discovery enabled him to view organisms that no one else could see with ordinary microscopes.




More than 75% of the organisms Rife could see with his Universal Microscope are only visible with ultra-violet light. But ultraviolet light is outside the range of human vision, it is 'invisible' to us. Rife's brilliance allowed him to overcome this limitation by heterodyning, a technique which became popular in early radio broadcasting. He illuminated the microbe (usually a virus or bacteria) with two different wavelengths of the same ultraviolet light frequency which resonated with the spectral signature of the microbe. These two wavelengths produced interference where they merged. This interference was, in effect, a third, longer wave which fell into the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This was how Rife made invisible microbes visible without killing them, a feat which today's electron microscopes cannot duplicate.

By this time, Rife was so far ahead of his colleagues of the 1930's(!), that they could not comprehend what he was doing without actually traveling to San Diego to Rife's laboratory to look through his Virus Microscope for themselves. And many did exactly that.

One was Virginia Livingston. She eventually moved from New Jersey to Rife's Point Loma (San Diego) neighborhood and became a frequent visitor to his lab. Virginia Livingston is now often given the credit for identifying the organism which causes human cancer, beginning with research papers she began publishing in 1948.

In reality, Royal Rife had identified the human cancer virus first...in 1920! Rife then made over 20,000 unsuccessful attempts to transform normal cells into tumor cells. He finally succeeded when he irradiated the cancer virus, passed it through a cell-catching ultra-fine porcelain filter, and injected it into lab animals. Not content to prove this virus would cause one tumor, Rife then created 400 tumors in succession from the same culture. He documented everything with film, photographs, and meticulous records. He named the cancer virus 'Cryptocides primordiales.'

Virginia Livingston, in her papers, renamed it Progenitor Cryptocides. Royal Rife was never even mentioned in her papers. In fact, Rife seldom got credit for his monumental discoveries. He was a quiet, unassuming scientist, dedicated to expanding his discoveries rather than to ambition, fame, and glory. His distaste for medical politics (which he could afford to ignore thanks to generous trusts set up by private benefactors) left him at a disadvantage later, when powerful forces attacked him. Coupled with the influence of the pharmaceutical industry in purging his papers from medical journals, it is hardly surprising that few heave heard of Rife today.

Meanwhile, debate raged between those who had seen viruses changing into different forms beneath Rife's microscopes, and those who had not. Those who condemned without investigation, such as the influential Dr. Thomas Rivers, claimed these forms didn't exist.
Because his microscope did not reveal them, Rivers argued that there was "no logical basis for belief in this theory." The same argument is used today in evaluating many other 'alternative' medical treatments; if there is no precedent, then it must not be valid. Nothing can convince a closed mind. Most had never actually looked though the San Diego microscopes...air travel in the 1930's was uncomfortable, primitive, and rather risky. So, the debate about the life cycle of viruses was resolved in favor of those who never saw it (even modern electron microscopes show frozen images, not the life cycle of viruses in process).

Nevertheless, many scientists and doctors have since confirmed Rife's discovery of the cancer virus and its pleomorphic nature, using darkfield techniques, the Naessens microscope, and laboratory experiments. Rife also worked with the top scientists and doctors of his day who also confirmed or endorsed various areas of his work. They included: E.C. Rosenow, Sr. (longtime Chief of Bacteriology, Mayo Clinic); Arthur Kendall (Director, Northwestern Medical School); Dr. George Dock (internationally-renowned); Alvin Foord (famous pathologist); Rufus Klein-Schmidt (President of USC); R.T. Hamer (Superintendent, Paradise Valley Sanitarium; Dr. Milbank Johnson (Director of the Southern California AMA); Whalen Morrison (Chief Surgeon, Santa Fe Railway); George Fischer (Childrens Hospital, N.Y.); Edward Kopps (Metabolic Clinic, La Jolla); Karl Meyer (Hooper Foundation, S.F.); M. Zite (Chicago University); and many others.

Rife ignored the debate, preferring to concentrate on refining his method of destroying these tiny killer viruses. He used the same principle to kill them, which made them visible: resonance.

By increasing the intensity of a frequency which resonated naturally with these microbes, Rife increased their natural oscillations until they distorted and disintegrated from structural stresses. Rife called this frequency 'the mortal oscillatory rate,' or 'MOR', and it did no harm whatsoever to the surrounding tissues.

Today's Rife instruments use harmonics of the frequencies shown on the display screen. The wavelength of the actual frequency shown (770hz, 880hz, etc.) is too long to do the job.

This principle can be illustrated by using an intense musical note to shatter a wine glass: the molecules of the glass are already oscillating at some harmonic (multiple) of that musical note; they are in resonance with it. Because everything else has a different resonant frequency, nothing but the glass is destroyed. There are literally hundreds of trillions of different resonant frequencies, and every species and molecule has its very own.

It took Rife many years, working 48 hours at a time, until he discovered the frequencies which specifically destroyed herpes, polio, spinal meningitis, tetanus, influenza, and an immense number of other dangerous disease organisms.

In 1934, the University of Southern California appointed a Special Medical Research Committee to bring terminal cancer patients from Pasadena County Hospital to Rife's San Diego Laboratory and clinic for treatment. The team included doctors and pathologists assigned to examine the patients - if still alive - in 90 days.

After the 90 days of treatment, the Committee concluded that 86.5% of the patients had been completely cured. The treatment was then adjusted and the remaining 13.5% of the patients also responded within the next four weeks. The total recovery rate using Rife's technology was 100%.

On November 20, 1931, forty-four of the nation's most respected medical authorities honored Royal Rife with a banquet billed as The End To All Diseases at the Pasadena estate of Dr. Milbank Johnson.

But by 1939, almost all of these distinguished doctors and scientists were denying that they had ever met Rife. What happened to make so many brilliant men have complete memory lapses? It seems that news of Rife's miracles with terminal patients had reached other ears. Remember our hypothetical question at the beginning of this report: What would happen if you discovered a cure for everything? You are now about to find out....

At first, a token attempt was made to buy out Rife. Morris Fishbein, who had acquired the entire stock of the American Medical Association by 1934, sent an attorney to Rife with 'an offer you can't refuse.' Rife refused. We many never know the exact terms of this offer. But we do know the terms of the offer Fishbein made to Harry Hoxsey for control of his herbal cancer remedy. Fishbein's associates would receive all profits for nine years and Hoxey would receive nothing. Then, if they were satisfied that it worked, Hoxsey would begin to receive 10% of the profits. Hoxsey decided that he would rather continue to make all the profits himself. When Hoxsey turned Fishbein down, Fishbein used his immensely powerful political connections to have Hoxsey arrested 125 times in a period of 16 months. The charges (based on practice without a license) were always thrown out of court, but the harassment drove Hoxsey insane.

But Fishbein must have realized that this strategy would backfire with Rife. First, Rife could not be arrested like Hoxsey for practising without a license. A trial on trumped-up charges would mean that testimony supporting Rife would be introduced by prominent medical authorities working with Rife. And the defense would undoubtedly take the opportunity to introduce evidence such as the 1934 medical study done with USC. The last thing in the world that the pharmaceutical industry wanted was a public trial about a painless therapy that cured 100% of the terminal cancer patients and cost nothing to use but a little electricity. It might give people the idea that they didn't need drugs.

And finally, Rife had spent decades accumulating meticulous evidence of his work, including film and stop-motion photographs. No, different tactics were needed...

The first incident was the gradual pilfering of components, photographs, film, and written records from Rife's lab. The culprit was never caught.

Then, while Rife struggled to reproduce his missing data (in a day when photocopies and computers were not available), someone vandalized his precious virus microscopes. Pieces of the 5,682 piece Universal microscope were stolen. Earlier, an arson fire had destroyed the multi-million dollar Burnett Lab in New Jersey, just as the scientists there were preparing to announce confirmation of Rife's work. But the final blow came later, when police illegally confiscated the remainder of Rife's 50 years of research.

Then in 1939, agents of a family which controlled the drug industry assisted Philip Hoyland in a frivolous lawsuit against his own partners in the Beam Ray Corporation. This was the only company manufacturing Rife's frequency instruments (Rife was not a partner). Hoyland lost, but his assisted legal assault had the desired effect: the company was bankrupted by legal expenses. And during the Great Depression, this meant that commercial production of Rife's frequency instruments ceased completely.

And remember what a universal cure meant to hospitals and research foundations? Doctors who tried to defend Rife lost their foundations grants and hospital privileges.

On the other hand, big money was spent ensuring that doctors who had seen Rife's therapy would forget what they saw. Almost no price was too much to suppress it. Remember that, today, treatment of a single cancer patient averages over $300,000. It's BIG business.

Thus, Arthur Kendall, the Director of the Northwestern School of Medicine who worked with Rife on the cancer virus, accepted almost a quarter of a million dollars to suddenly 'retire' in Mexico. That was an exorbitant amount of money in the Depression.
Dr. George Dock, another prominent figure who collaborated with Rife, was silenced with an enormous grant, along with the highest honors the AMA could bestow. Between the carrots and the sticks, everyone except Dr. Couche and Dr. Milbank Johnson gave up Rife's work and went back to prescribing drugs.

To finish the job, the medical journals, support almost entirely by drug company revenues and controlled by the AMA, refused to publish any paper by anyone on Rife's therapy. Therefore, an entire generation of medical students graduated into practice without ever once hearing of Rife's breakthroughs in medicine.

The magnitude of such an insane crime eclipses every mass murder in history. Cancer picks us off quietly...but by 1960 the casualties from this tiny virus exceeded the carnage of all the wars America ever fought. In 1989, it was estimated that 40% of us will experience cancer at some time in our lives.

In Rife's lifetime, he had witnessed the progress of civilization from horse-and-buggy travel to jet planes. In that same time, he saw the epidemic of cancer increase from 1 in 24 Americans in 1905 to 1 in 3 in 1971 when Rife died.

He also witnessed the phenomenal growth of the American Cancer Society, the Salk Foundation, and many others collecting hundreds of millions of dollars for diseases that were cured long before in his own San Diego laboratories. In one period, 176,500 cancer drugs were submitted for approval. Any that showed 'favorable' results in only one-sixth of one percent of the cases being studied could be licensed. Some of these drugs had a mortality rate of 14-17%. When death came from the drug, not the cancer, the case was recorded as a 'complete' or 'partial remission' because the patient didn't actually die from the cancer. In reality, it was a race to see which would kill the patient first: the drug or the disease.

The inevitable conclusion reached by Rife was that his life-long labor and discoveries had not only been ignored but probably would be buried with him. At that point, he ceased to produce much of anything and spent the last third of his life seeking oblivion in alcohol. It dulled the pain and his acute awareness of half a century of wasted effort - ignored - while the unnecessary suffering of millions continued so that a vested few might profit. And profit they did, and profit they do.

In 1971, Royal Rife died from a combination of valium and alcohol at the age of 83. Perhaps his continual exposure to his own Rife frequencies helped his body endure abuse for so many years.

Fortunately, his death was not the end of his electronic therapy. A few humanitarian doctors and engineers reconstructed his frequency instruments and kept his genius alive. Rife technology became public knowledge again in 1986 with the publication of The Cancer Cure That Worked, by Barry Lynes, and other material about Royal Rife and his monumental work.

There is wide variation in the cost, design, and quality of the modern portable Rife frequency research instruments available. Costs vary from about $1200 to $3600 with price being no legitimate indicator of the technical competence in the design of the instrument or performance of the instruent. Some of the most expensive units have serious technical limitations and are essentially a waste of money. At the other extreme, some researchers do get crude results from inexpensive simple, unmodified frequency generators, but this is just as misguided as spending too much money. Without the proper modifications, the basic frequency generator gives only minimal and inconsistent results. Please recall that the actual destruction of the viruses and bacteria, etc. is not accomplished by the frequency displayed on these cheap generators, but by certain shorter harmonics of that particular frequency which are often blocked by the crudity of a cheap and rudimentary instrument itself.

This very problem led Rife to ultimately abandon the 'ray tube' design in favor of today's version. The newer technology applies the frequencies and their harmonics to the body through the use of hand-held, footplate, or stick-on electrodes. Proper frequency exposure and flushing of the body with large amounts of clean, pure water is critical to achieve the kind of results Rife got. These procedures are fully explained in the manuals of the best units on the market.

So, unless you would be satisfied with sporadic results for minor conditions, it is suggested you use only the highest quality equipment and only the proper, proven procedures in your personal research. If you do, you may discover that nothing can approach what can be achieved through the application of these safe, time-tested frequencies (many for over 65 years)- and all without drugs, surgery, or radiation.

One day, the name of Royal Raymond Rife may ascend to its rightful place as the giant of modern medical science. Until that time, his fabulous technology remains available only to the people who have the interest to seek it out. While perfectly legal for veterinarians to use to save the lives of animals, Rife's brilliant frequency therapy remains taboo to orthodox mainstream medicine because of the continuing threat it poses to the international pharmaceutical medical monopoly that controls the lives - and deaths - of the vast majority of the people on this planet.


This story can be found at : www.rense.com

What Is God? What is Religion?

This EXCELLENT post was found on TUBALCAIN420 and I just had to post it here! Thanks to the folks at Tubalcain420 for letting me do so!

Until now we have fought the popular idea concerning the Divinity, but we have not yet said what God is, and if we were asked, we should say that the word represents to us an Infinite Being, of whom one of his attributes is to be a substance of extent and consequently eternal and infinite. The extent or the quantity not being finite or divisible, it may be imagined that the matter was everywhere the same, our understanding not distinguishing parts. For example, water, as much as water is imagined, is divisible, and its parts separable from one another, though as much as a corporeal substance it is nether separable nor divisible. [So of water, however, it may be subject to generation and corruption, as long as it is substance it is not subject to separation and division.] Thus neither matter or quantity have anything unworthy of God, for if all is God, and all comes surely from his essence, it follows quite absolutely that He is all that he contains, since it is incomprehensible that Beings quite material should be contained in a Being who is not. That we may not think that this is a new opinion, Terlullian, one of the foremost men among the Christians, has pronounced against Apelles, that, "that which is not matter is nothing," and against Praxias, that "all substance is matter," without having this doctrine condemned in the four first Councils of the Christian Church, ecumenical and general. [The four first Councils were 1. That of Nice in the year 345, under the Emperor Constantine the Great, and under Pope Sylvester I.; 2. That of Constantinople in the year 381, under the Emperors Gratian, Valentinian and Theodore and the Pope Damase I.; 3. That of Ephesus in the year 431, under the Emperor Theodore, the younger, and Valentinian and under the Pope Celestin; 4. That of Chalcedon in the year 451, under Valentinian and Martian, and under Pope Leo I.]

These sentiments are plain and the only ones that good and sound judgment can form of God. However, there are but few who are satisfied with such simplicity. Boorish people, who are accustomed to adulation of opinion, demand a God who resembles earthly kings. The pomp and circumstance surrounding them so fascinates, that to take away all hope of going after death to increase the number of heavenly courtiers enjoying the same pleasure which attaches to the Court of Kings, is to take away the consolation and the only things which prevent them from going to despair over the miseries of life. They want a just and avenging God, who rewards and punishes after the manner of kings, a God susceptible of all human passions and weaknesses. They give him feet, hands, and ears, and yet they do not regard a God so constituted as material. They say that man is his masterpiece, and even his own image, but do not allow that the copy is like the original. In a word, the God of the people of today is subject to as many forms as Jupiter of the Pagans, and what is still more strange, these follies contradict each other and shock good sense. The vulgar reverence them because they firmly believe what the Prophets have said, although these visionaries among the Hebrews, were the same as the augurs and the diviners among the pagans. [These, among us, are the Astrologers and Fanatics.] They consult the Bible as if God or nature was therein expounded to them in a special manner, however this book is only a rhapsody of fragments, gathered at various times, selected by several persons, and given to the people according to the fancy of the Robbins, who did not publish them until after approving some, and rejecting others, and seeing if they were conformable or opposed to the Law of Moses. [the Talmud remarks that the Robbins deliberated whether they should omit the Book of Proverbs and that of Ecclesiastes from the number of canonicals, and would have done so had they not found in several places that they eulogized the Mosaic law. They would have done the same with the prophecies of Ezekiel had not a certain Chananias undertook to harmonize them with the same law.] Yes, such is the malice and stupidity of men that they prefer to pass their lives disputing with one another, and worshipping a book received from ignorant people; a book with little order or method, which everyone admits as confused and badly conceived, only serving to foment divisions.

Christians would rather adore this phantom than listen to the law of Nature which God -- that is to say, Nature, which is the active principle -- has written in the heart of man. All other laws are but human fictions, and pure illusions forged, not by Demons or evil spirits, which are fanciful ideas, but by the skill of Princes and Ecclesiastics to give the former more warrant for their authority, and to enrich the latter by the traffic in an infinity of chimeras which sell to the ignorant at a good price.

All other laws are not supported save on the authority of the Bible, in the original of which appear a thousand instances of extraordinary and impossible things, [The versions that we have differ greatly in a thousand places, one with another, until the end of the book.] and which speaks only of recompenses or punishments for good or bad actions, but which are wisely deferred for a future life, relying that the trick will not be discovered in this, no one having returned from the other to tell the news. Thus, men kept ever wavering between hope and fear, are held to their duty by the belief they aver that God has created man only to render him eternally happy or unhappy, and which has given rise to the infinity of religions which are about to be discussed.

WHAT THE WORD RELIGION SIGNIFIES, AND HOW AND WHY SUCH A GREAT NUMBER HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED IN THE WORLD.

Before the word Religion was introduced in the world mankind was only obliged to follow natural laws and to conform to common sense. This instinct alone was the tie by which men were united, and so very simple was this bond of unity, that nothing among them was more rare than dissensions. But when fear created a suspicion that there were Gods, and invisible powers, they raised altars to these imaginary beings, so that in putting off the yoke of Nature and Reason, which are the sources of true life, they subjected themselves by vain ceremonies and superstitious worship to frivolous phantoms of the imagination, and that is whence arose this word Religion which makes so much noise in the world.

Men having admitted invisible forces which were all-powerful over them, they worshipped them to appease them, and further imagined that Nature was a being subordinate to this power, thence they had the idea that it was a great mace that threatened, or a slave that acted only by the order that such power gave him. Since this false idea had broken their will they had only scorn for Nature, and respect only for those pretended beings that they called their Gods. Thence came the ignorance in which mankind was plunged, and from which the well-informed, however deep the abyss, could have rescued them, if their zeal had not been extinguished by those who led them blindly, and who lived by imposture. But though there was but little appearance of success in the enterprise, it was not necessary to abandon the party of truth, and only in consideration of those who were afflicted with the symptoms of so great an evil, were generous souls available to represent matters as they were.

Fear which created Gods, made also Religion, and when men imbibed the notion that there were invisible agencies which were the cause of their good and bad fortune, they lost their good sense and reason substituting for their chimeras so many Divinities who had care of their conduct.

After having forged these Gods they were curious to know of what matter they consisted, and finally imagined that they should be of the same substance as the soul. Then being persuaded that the latter resembled the shadows which appear in a mirror, or during sleep, they believed that some Gods were real substances but so thin and subtle that to distinguish them from bodies they called them Spirits. So that bodies and spirits were in effect the same thing, and differed neither more nor less, and to be both corporeal and incorporeal is a most incomprehensible thing. The reason given is that each spirit has a proper form, and is included within some limit, that is to say that it has some boundaries, and consequently must be a body however thin and subtle it might be. [See Tertullian ante, also Hobbes' Leviathan, C. 12, p. 56.]

The ignorant, that is, the greater part of mankind having settled in this manner the substance of their Gods, tried also to determine by what methods these invisible powers produced their effects. Not being able to do this definitely by reason of their ignorance, they put faith in their conjectures, blindly judging the future by the past, while seeing neither cohesion nor dependence.

In all that they undertook they saw but the past, and foretold good or evil for the future according as the same enterprise had at another time turned out either good or bad. Phormion having defeated the Lacedemonians at the battle of Naupacte, the Athenians, after his death, chose another general of the same name: Hannibal having succumbed to the arms of Scipio Africanus, the Romans, remembering this great success, sent another Scipio to the same country against Caesar, which acts gained nothing for either the Athenians or the Romans. So after two or three experiences, good or bad fortune is made synonymous with certain names or places; others make use of certain words called enchantments, which they believe to be efficacious; some cause trees to speak, create man from a morsel of bread, and transform anything that may appear before them. (Hobbes' Leviatlian de homine. Cap. 12, p. 56-57.)

Invisible powers being established in this way, straightway men revere them only as they do their rulers, that is to say, by tokens of submission and respect, as witness offerings, prayers, and similar things, I say at first, for nature has not yet learned to use on such occasions sacrifices of blood, which have only been instituted for the benefit of the sacrificers and the ministers called to the service of these beautiful Gods.

These causes of Religion, that is, Hope and Fear, leaving out the passions, judgments and various resolutions of mankind, have produced the great number of extravagant beliefs which have caused so much evil, and the many revolutions which have convulsed the nations.

The honor and revenue which attaches to the priesthood, and which has since been accorded to the ministry of the Gods, and those having ecclesiastical charges, inflame the ambition and the avarice of cunning individuals who profit by the stupidity of the people, who readily submit in their weakness, and we know how insensibly is caused the easy habit of encouraging falsehood and hating truth.

The empire of falsehood being established, and the ambitious ones encouraged by the advantage of being above their fellows, the latter endeavor to gain repute by a pretense of being friendly with the invisible Gods whom the vulgar fear. For better success, each schemes in his own way, and multiplies deities so that they are met at every turn.

The formless matter of the world they term the god Chaos, and the same honor is accorded to heaven, earth, the sea, the wind, and the planets, and they are made both male and female. Further on we find birds, reptiles, the crocodile, the calf, the dog, the lamb, the serpent, the hog, and in fact all kinds of animals and plants constitute the better part. Each river and fountain bears the name of a God, each house had its own, each man his genius; in fact all space above and beneath the earth was occupied by spirits, shades and demons. It was not sufficient to maintain a Divinity in all imaginable places, but they feared to offend time, day, night, concord, love, peace, victory, contention, mildew, honor, virtue, fever, and health, or to insult these charming divinities whom they always imagined ready to discharge lightning on the heads of men, provided temples and altars were not erected to them.

As a sequel, man commenced to fear his own special genius, whom some invoked under the name of Muses, and others under the name of Fortune adored their own ignorance. The latter sanctified their debauches in the name of Cupid, their rage in the name of Furies, and their natural parts under the name of Priapus, in a word, there was nothing which did not bear the name of a God or a Demon. (Hobbes' de homine, Chap. 12, p. 58.)

The founders of Religion having based their impostures on the ignorance of the people, took great care to maintain them by the adoration of images which they pretended were inhabited by the Gods, and this caused a flood of gold and benefactions called holy things, to pour into the coffers of the priests. These gifts were regarded as sacred, and designed for the use of these holy ministers, and none were so audacious as to pretend to their office, or even to touch them. To allure the people more successfully, these priests made prophecies and pretended to penetrate the future by the commerce which they boasted of having with the Gods. There is nothing so natural as to know destiny. These impostors were too well informed to omit any circumstance so advantageous for their designs. Some were established at Delos, others at Delphos and elsewhere, where by ambiguous oracles they replied to the demands made of them. Women even were engaged in these impostures, and the Romans in their great Calamities had recourse to the Sibylline books; fools and lunatics passed for enthusiasts, and those who pretended to converse with the dead were called necromancers.

Others read the future by the flight of birds, or by the entrails of beasts. Indeed the eyes, the hands, the face, or an extraordinary object, all seemed to them to possess a good or bad omen, so it is true that the ignorant will receive any desired impression when the secret of their wish is found. (Hobbes' de homine, Chap. 12, pp. 58-59.)

Second Communication from Newly Elected UGLA GM

For Immediate Release

Grand Master’s Statement

To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe and under the auspices of the United Grand Lodge of America, greetings from the Grand East.

The Bill of Rights of the United Grand Lodge, as modified at our Annual Grand Lodge Communication on the 5th day of the month of August 2006 is posted below.

Fraternally,

S. Aaron Peavy

Grand Master

United Grand Lodge of America


Grand Lodge Bill of Rights


I. The Grand Lodge shall have the power to collect per-capita fees from the Lodges for its normal operations. The Grand Lodge shall provide financial statements of its activities at its regular communications.

II. The Grand Lodge shall return all unused funding back to the Lodges on a per-capita basis for the previous year after the collection of per-capita taxes.

III. The Grand Lodge is prohibited from owning, leasing or acquiring real estate.

IV. The Grand Lodge is prohibited from receiving or acquiring any monies or assets except through the collection of its annual per-capita fees.

V. No Grand Lodge Officer or any Representative from any of the Lodges shall receive any compensation for their services, other than reimbursable expenses covered by the Tax Code of the United States of America.

VI. No Free-Mason or close relation of a Free-Mason shall be hired by the Grand Lodge to provide any product or service to the Grand Lodge.

VII. The Grand Lodge shall be the sole authority over all Masonic Rites and Appendant Bodies and no Rite or Appendant Body shall form independent governing Bodies.

VIII. The various Masonic Rites will provide the educational curriculum relevant to their specific Order.

IX. The Grand Master is prohibited from issuing Edicts.

X. The Grand Master has the power and authority to temporarily suspend the Charter of any Lodge or any member, but only when the action is necessitated by an action of the Government or a Criminal Court.

XI. Any elected representative of a Lodge (Master or Warden) can introduce new legislation before the Grand Lodge, and the Grand Lodge shall not pass any law prohibiting this nor causing the same to be subject to the approval of any person or persons.

XII. Any elected representative of a Lodge (Master or Warden) can speak before the Grand Lodge about any issue concerning Free-Masonry, and the Grand Lodge shall not pass any law prohibiting this nor causing the same to be subject to the approval of any person or persons.

As amended by the members of the United Grand Lodge of America on 08/05/06
Attested by the Grand Secretary

G. David Cooksey

United Grand Lodge of America

UGLA Grand Master's Statement

S. Aaron Peavy
UGLA Grand Master

Grand Master’s Statement





To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe and under the auspices of the United Grand Lodge of America, greetings from the East.



August 5, 2006 was a momentous day for Modern Free-Masons worldwide. The United Grand Lodge of America met to form its governing Grand Lodge body. Many items were discussed at length and many resolutions and items of great importance were completed. The three principle officers were elected and a complement of Grand Lodge officers was appointed.



The cornerstone of our Grand Lodge was set into place at this meeting and we are now heading towards the ultimate goal of our basic principles:

1. Brotherhood of Humankind under the all-seeing eye of Deity

2. All Masons are on the same level



Thanks goes to Free-Masons from across the nation who met in Peace, Virtue, Truth, Brotherhood, and Fraternal union at our first Grand Lodge Communication. I will be issuing our plans for the future of our Brotherhood as Free-Masonry has been forged for the next generation. Let this new Grand Lodge be a beacon of the universal Light that was and always will be Free-Masonry.



Fraternally,



Aaron Peavy

Grand Master

United Grand Lodge of America

EVENT OF HISTORIC SIGNIFIGANCE

Multi-State Council of Delegates at the United Grand Lodge of America Headquarters
in Atlanta, Georgia
Photo Credits: The Burning Taper Blog

This just in! An event of historic signifigance has just taken place! All Grand Lodges of Freemasonry are advised of the following:

____________________________________________________________

New Grand Lodge Formation

To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe and under the auspices of the United Grand Lodge of America. The Brethren assembled on the 5th day of the month of August in the year 2006. met in the city of Atlanta in the state of Georgia, under the sun where Peace, Virtue, Truth, Brotherhood and Fraternal Union prevailed.

The Brethren Met for the purpose of forming a regular Grand Lodge and to elect Grand Lodge Officers;

To that end the Brethren assembled voted in their first election of officers who are as follows:

S. Aaron Peavy- Grand Master
G. David Cooksey- Grand Secretary
Brian P. Roper- Grand Treasurer

Other officers are appointed by the Grand Master


Grand Secretary
G. David Cooksey
United Grand Lodge of America

Anti-Masonic Disinformation & HOAXES

The folks over at the Anti-Masonry, conspiracy theory, whacko website:

http://freemasonrywatch.org/royalorderofjesters.html

are at it again! They've posted a story that looks genuine and if it were true, it would be a damning expose on severe corruption in the SR in Texas.

Well, thanks to some good watchdogs at some of the blogs we link to... I can say with confidence that this story is an outright hoax!

This is just par for the course for sites run by people who have a lot of fear and way too much time on their hands. They post stories sent to them by folks who are either disaffected former masons or fundamentalist Christians with an axe to grind. The bottom text at their page says it all:

Our MasonStoppers Line
Send us in confidence details of cases where you think
Organized Freemasonry has personally hurt yourself,
family, friends, aquaintances, or community. We would
also appreciate any additional background information,
links, and references on Freemasonry and the Occult.
Help us take a bite out of Freemasonry.

As I have no love for the Shrine or the Scottish Rite in general...I posted the story here just a few minutes ago. That was when I was gently reminded to check my sources. I was doing, in essence, what these folks do all the time. Post uncorraborated material in the hopes of getting enough momentum to effect social outrage. My thanks to my comrades in arms at the Burning Taper.

Folks will stop at nothing to discredit fine institutions of learning and progress if they feel like they are being left out of the fun, or if they just live in fear of what they don't comprehend. These people don't care to comprehend either! They just sit in their bedrooms and hammer out whatever they think will bring more people over to their side so they will feel less lonely.

If you take a look at their website, the folks at "Freemasonry Watch" see conspiracy and evil lurking behind every corner. Their website is full of the typical conspiracy theory rubbish that is the staple of so many of these types of sites. Anything that is kept secret is automatically evil and sinister by default. They quote John F. Kennedy when he said that, "The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings." This is all just fodder and these sites have become the "National Enquirer" of the internet. I have taken some time to look through this site and my only regret is that it was not printed on paper; for it would make a good, absorbent cat litter. It's amazing the reaches that some people will make to try to malign things they think are evil. They don't understand the symbology, which is good because they are not meant to understand the symbology. So, they draw their own opinions and publish it as fact! What a hoax they are perpetrating upon the public! This is the kind of stuff that former Roswell UFO chroniclers do when they find that public interest has waned and they can no longer amass an audience for their government cover up theories and "chupacabra" (literally- "Goat-sucker") sightings reports. It's ALL utter rubbish!!!

Here's a suggestion. If you're into conspiracy theories and such...Go to Art Bell's site or Coast To Coast AM with George Noory. Far more interesting and there's the chance that at least some of it could be factual! :)

Thanks!

Darren