Re: psychoceramics: Book Report: "5/5/2000: Ice, the Ultimate Disaster"

[acb @ cs.monash.edu.au (Andrew C. Bulhak)]

[Bruce Ediger]
> 
> "5/5/2000: Ice, The Ultimate Disaster", Richard W. Noone, Harmony
> Books, ISBN 0-517-56142-5.  Apparently this is a reissue of a book
> originally published in 1982, with an additional foreward.  358
> pages, lavishly illustrated with about 1 photo, drawing, diagram
> or print per page.  The copy I have is a trade paperback, and it
> looks like it was typeset using some lesser grade of desktop
> publishing package.  The cover of this book appears in Donna Kossy's
> "Kooks" in the chapter on The Stelle Group.  Some of the information
> Noone presents is also part of The Stelle Group's beliefs.
> 
> It's a little hard to summarize this book, as it is literally all over
> the map.  Noone attempts to draw on an amazing variety of sources,
> using everything from Col. James Churchward's "Mu" books, to the
> Christian Bible, the Book of Mormon, Velikovsky's works, Richard
> Kieninger's "The Ultimate Frontier" and US Coast and Geodetic Survey
> plate tectonics maps.
> 
> Needless to say, there are several statements about the odd nature
> of the book with respect to mainstream science.  In the preface, Noone
> writes:  "Now, fifteen years later in 1995, much of my research,
> which seemed so preposterous to many scientists in 1980, has been
> confirmed."  In the foreward, he writes, "There are, however,
> entrenched powers which oppose human yearnings for perfection at
> every turn."  "Pressures still exist today which cause men of genius
> to be very careful about what they share with the world...".  There
> is a particularly bitter footnote on page 219:
> 
>   "Researching our history is like wading through a snake-infested swamp
>    barefoot.  If you make it to the other side of the swamp, human snakes
>    appear to say venomously that you could not have walked barefoot
>    through a snake-infested swamp.  You must have used a boat, they cry.
>    Or there were no snakes at all.  What you report must be a lie because,
>    if there were snakes you would not have made it.  It is always those who
>    have never walked barefoot through a swamp who cry most vehemently and
>    and boastfully."
> 
> There's an underlying current of Conspiracy, since Noone believes
> that the current-day Freemasons are the heirs, and Keepers of the
> Secret Knowledge of a civilization that arose at the end of the
> last ice age, about 10,000 years ago.  The usual list of US Presidents
> that are/were Freemasons makes an appearance, as do two prints of
> George Washington depicted as a Freemason.  Many of the other prints
> in the book are said to depict Masonic Symbols in Ancient Egyptian
> Temples, Masonic Symbols in a Bas-Relief from the Mayan city of
> Palenque and Masonic Symbols found in the ruins of Chichen Itza.
> 
> Noone also tries to tie together all pyramid-related pseudo-sciences.
> Numerology based on the Egyptian pyramids measurements and layout
> gets related to Masonry and modern-day astronomical occurances.
> The dubious connection of Pre-Columbian Mayan and Aztec pyramids
> to the Egyptian pyramids is pointed out as a sort of proof that
> Masonic Knowledge spread across the globe.  "Pyramid energy", shown
> in "modified" Kirlian photos of model pyramids, gets linked to the
> survival of dinosaurs into Classical times, and to a pulsar known
> as "Vela X", believed to be the remnant of a supernova that occured
> in 4000 BC.  There's also an incoherent attempt to show that the
> chambers of the Great Pyramid might have been some sort of
> electricity-based life extension technology used by the Pharoahs.

Speaking of outlandish Masonic conspiracy theories, there's a new book
in the bookshop here titled _The Hiram Key_.  This book appears to be
from a reputable publisher, or at least doesn't have the appearance
of a self-published crackpot tract.  From what I've gathered, the 
subject matter is wild speculation, in some ways like _Holy Blood, Holy 
Grail_.  Apparently, the corpse of Hiram, the architect of the Pyramids
and founder of Freemasonry, was found recently; this they connect not
only to Freemasonry, but to the life of Jesus Christ, the Knights 
Templar and a lot of other things.

Unfortunately, I have only seen the book in hardcover, so I probably
will not be buying it in the near future.

-- 
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