The 'God with the Upraised-Arm' in Near Eastern Mythology:
An Astronomical Archetype?

(This essay was originally posted to The Daily Grail in 1999. I'm reposting it for those that may have missed it first time around.)

In the depictions of mythological scenes on Near Eastern archaeological monuments and artefacts, a number of 'archetypal images' are apparent. One of the most intriguing of these is the 'God with the Upraised-Arm', which can be found in scenes from Egypt, right through the fertile-crescent to Anatolia. In Egypt it is apparent from the time of unification onwards, seen in identical depictions which capture the pharaoh in the act of smiting his enemies. This common image can be linked within a mythological context to the contendings of the gods Horus and Seth, with the king identified as Horus and the enemy Seth. Further, it would also appear that the 'smiting pose' was considered by the Egyptians to be visible as a constellation in their sky. The constellation of Orion presents itself as the most convincing candidate, although previous studies will have to be considered before accepting this identification. If correct, this would suggest that some of Horus' characteristics were due to the use of Orion as a seasonal marker. This becomes even more apparent when we shift our gaze to other parts of the Near East, where the 'God with the Upraised Arm' can be found in abundance. His context remains the same: either as the adversary of chaos, or as the bringer of rain and fertility. The common depiction and mythological treatment of this god across a range of cultures and time-periods suggests that it must be have been based upon an important and archetypal image. It is impossible to say for certain whether this image was Orion; nonetheless, this identification provides a comprehensive explanation for certain characteristics of the 'God with the Upraised Arm'.

The Narmer Palette (Figure 1) is often seen as a historical depiction of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The image of King Narmer, wearing the white crown of the south and smiting an enemy commonly held to be a northerner, is often cited as evidence that he was the unifier of the two lands (Grimal 1992, p. 37). This became a standard picture of the king throughout the history of Egypt (see Figures 2 and 3), whether the king holds a mace, a spear or even a bowstring in his right hand. Frankfort (1948, pp. 7-9) sees this as not only a scene showing a decisive historical battle, but also as a representation of the king as the divine ruler.

He asserts that the real meaning of the scene is that the king's victory represents the 'reduction of chaos to order', an important pre-occupation with the ancient Egyptians. Chaos assumed many forms: death, drought, invading enemies; these were all seen as manifestations of Seth (Frankfort 1948, p. 183). It was the king's job, as the earthly incarnation of Horus, to overpower Seth/chaos and maintain the established order. This is obvious from ancient Egyptian texts. For example, in the Cosmology of Abydos we find the following passage describing the triumph of Horus over Seth: 'Dignity has been set in place, honesty has been established through his laws, evil has departed, wickedness is gone, the land is at peace under its lord' (Colless 1994, p. 23). If the Narmer Palette scene is thus considered a symbolic representation of Horus defeating Seth, we would expect to see similar representations explicitly showing these gods battling. There is ample evidence of this and, importantly, certain elements such as the 'upraised arm' seem to hold great significance.

At the Temple of Edfu there is an abundance of imagery concerning the contendings of Horus and Seth. On approaching the temple one is immediately met by huge images on the pylons of the king in 'smiting pose' in the presence of Horus (Figure 4). Inside the temple is found the dramatic text 'The Triumph of Horus' with associated scenes. Dated to approximately 110 BCE, its antecedents would appear to be in feasts and texts from the earliest dynasties (Fairman 1974, p. 34). The drama concerns the harpooning of Seth by Horus (10 times, a symbolic detail which perhaps shares a common origin with the 10 decapitated bodies on the Narmer Palette), after which Horus is crowned the King of Upper and Lower Egypt. Fairman (1974, p. 32) points out that this was not just the re-enactment of myth, but also a means by which the success of the king was ensured each year. Again, Horus is depicted with his arm raised (Figure 5), this time harpooning Seth (represented by a hippopotamus).

That this pose is not simply incidental is confirmed by the naming of Horus in the text as 'Him-with-the-upraised-arm' (Fairman 1974, pp. 106, 117). This was originally the epithet of Min, the god of rain and fertility, for obvious reasons (see Figure 6): he is pictured with an upraised arm holding what is thought to be a thunderbolt. Horus and Min became increasingly identified as one and the same during the Middle Kingdom, although Min was already associated with the Pharaoh at least as early as the 4th Dynasty. On the verso of the Stela of Sobek-iry is found the Hymn to Min, which includes the verse 'I worship Min, I extol arm-raising Horus' (Lichtheim 1973, p. 204). The overall impression is that the upraised arm of Min-Horus was considered to be a characteristic pose of vital importance.

Another crucial point to emerge from the 'Triumph of Horus' is that Horus was the 'Great God, Lord of the Sky' (Fairman 1974, p. 90), a quote which is followed by the passage 'we grant strength to thine arm'. There are numerous other references implying that Horus is to be looked for in the sky; for example 'the gods of the sky are in terror of Horus' (Fairman 1974, p. 102). Significantly, Min in pre-Dynastic times was a sky-god called the 'Chief of Heaven' (Arnold 1999). This raises the question of whether the archetypal image has its origin in the sky. A look at the astronomical ceilings of Senmut and Seti I confirms this. On Senmut's ceiling (Figure 7) there is an almost identical depiction of Horus as at Edfu, with the arm upraised in the act of harpooning Seth (this time represented as the constellation Meskhetiu). There is also an unidentified individual in the same pose amongst the group of constellations at the lower part of the image, this time harpooning a crocodile (another incarnation of Seth). He appears almost identically on the Seti I ceiling (Figure 8). Thus the 'God with the Upraised Arm' can be considered a constellation recognisable by the ancient Egyptians. The obvious question therefore, is which one?

The outstanding candidate to fit the description is the constellation of Orion (Figure 9), at the very least on sheer resemblance. This constellation was well known to the Egyptians, mentioned in the Pyramid Texts in connection with the stellar destiny of the 'resurrected pharaoh'. For example, in Utterance 442 we find 'Lo, Osiris has come as Orion' (Lichtheim 1973, p. 45). That Osiris is seen as Orion is not considered a problem to the thesis currently under discussion; he was also thought to be incarnate in the Moon and the Nile, and ancient Egyptian cosmologies often contain seemingly contradictory concepts (Frankfort et al. 1946, p. 47).

Turning our attention to Horus, we find evidence in Plutarch's Isis and Osiris (1927, p. 53) of a connection with Orion: 'the soul of Isis is called Sothis (Sirius), the soul of Horus is called Orion, and the soul of Typhon (Seth) the Bear'. Plutarch may be thought of as slightly unreliable in regards to the recording of Egyptian culture, however, considering the correct attribution of Isis and Seth to their respective constellations the conflation of Horus and Orion should be taken seriously. More circumstantial is the story recorded on the Metternich Stela in which the young Horus is stung by a scorpion, a mythological motif suggesting the setting of Orion as Scorpius rises (Krupp 1991, p. 137). It should be taken into account as well that Horus was said to have been placed upon the 'seat of his father Osiris', perhaps an indication that they were both identified with Orion.

One of the arguments against this identification could well be that the constellations on this section of the 'astronomical ceilings' are all supposed to be north of the ecliptic (Parker 1974, p.60). It is pertinent to note that Parker actually says 'we are reasonably sure they are all north of the ecliptic'. Neugebauer (1957, p.89) names them as the northern constellations directly after mentioning that 'artistic principles determined the arrangement of astronomical ceiling decorations'. Also, in describing the northern constellations on the Denderah Zodiac, Parker (1974, p. 63) mentions that these are 'presumably all north of the ecliptic but none is depicted in the usual group of northern constellations'. Interestingly Plutarch (1927, p. 93) mentions that the Egyptians hold the lion in honour because the Nile overflows when the sun comes into conjunction with Leo, which is on the ecliptic (Leo and Sirius rise almost together in Egypt). This suggests that the 'Lion' constellation on the astronomical ceilings may in fact be Leo (contrary to current thought). Lastly, to illustrate that the Egyptian conception of the sky was perhaps completely different to ours, consider the following passage from a tomb at Luxor, describing the movements of the ship of Re: 'Once the constellation of Masheti (Meskhetiu) has been passed, they reach shelter in the centre of the sky on the side south of Sah-Orion, and they turn towards the western horizon' (Zinner 1957, p. 28). From this account of the east-west passage of the sun, the ancient Egyptians' conception of the heavens appears to be more complex than usually thought. Another argument against the Horus-Orion link may be that the figure with the upraised arm is sometimes reversed, however, the same is true of the northern constellation of the hippopotamus on the Denderah circular zodiac. Probably the most difficult problem is that on the decanal list on the Senmut ceiling Isis is illustrated with her arm upraised, the significance of which is not clear. However, accepting a link between Horus and Orion has the strong point of explaining the attributes of the god, especially once Orion's role as a seasonal marker is understood.

Using stars and constellations as seasonal markers was commonplace in the ancient world. The heliacal rising of Sirius in July was considered by the Romans to be the reason for the sultry weather (Krupp 1991, p. 222). To the Egyptians this same event signalled the beginning of the Nile flood and thus the New Year. The heliacal rising of a star or constellation was seen as its resurrection after being 'dead' for a period of time. This is due to the apparent motion of the sun through different portions of the sky (a result of the actual motion of the Earth around the sun). When the sun moved into the vicinity of a certain star or constellation it would only be seen late in the west just after the setting of the sun, and after a time would eventually 'disappear' (when the sun was in direct conjunction with it). Once the sun moved further still the star/constellation would then appear in the morning sky in the east just before dawn: this was its heliacal rising. Sirius and Orion both 'died' for approximately 70 days, which could well be the origin of the embalming time for Egyptian mummies (Neugebauer 1957, p. 87).

In the time of the ancient Egyptians, Orion was 'dead' from around the spring equinox through to mid-summer. Interestingly, Frankfort et al (1946, p. 35) note that in Egypt the prevailing wind is from the north, which gives relief from the heat of the sun and makes life much more comfortable. However, late spring (at the time of Orion's 'death') was the season of hot dry winds bringing 'sandstorms and a brittle heat out of Africa to the south'. It was from this period until
Sirius' heliacal rising that the Nile was at its lowest ebb also. Plutarch (1927, pp. 93-99) states that Seth was considered the power of drought and the south wind, while Horus was the north wind, the 'seasonal tempering of the surrounding air'. He asserts that the story of their battles is actually an allegory for the seasonal changes: so as Horus 'dies' in spring, Seth gains the upper hand until the reappearance of the rightful king. Thus Orion, connected with Horus, seems to have been used as a seasonal marker indicating the return of 'orderly' weather. As Krupp (1979, p. 189) says, the 'apparent connection between celestial and terrestrial phenomena greatly affected the Egyptian view of the world'. This is just as evident when we turn our gaze to other parts of the Near East.

The 'God with the Upraised Arm' was present in many cultures and across a wide
timeframe in the Near East. The gods Teshub, Adad, Baal and the unnamed Hittite weather god (Figures 10 - 13) all had similar appearances and mythological contexts and could be considered incarnations of this one god (Krupp 1997, p. 147). A common motif in the depiction of all of these is the upraised arm wielding a mace or lightning. Also sometimes present is a vertical object in the left hand such as a spear or lightning, which has a parallel in the depictions of the Egyptian pharaohs in their smiting pose (see Figure 2). The god is also often presented as riding on two mountain gods, or some sort of animal (another parallel with Horus standing upon the hippopotamus).

All of these characteristics are indicative of the constellation Orion (see Figure 14 which is an Islamic depiction of Orion, portrayed from outside the celestial globe, hence it is reversed), although it far from proves the case. Treating the Ugaritic god Baal as representative of this group of gods may prove illuminating however.

The myths concerning Baal have two major themes, which are very similar to the
mythic themes surrounding Horus. The first is Baal's battle with Yamm, which personifies the battle of order against chaos. The other is Baal's death at the hand of Mot, and subsequent resurrection. This myth clearly suggests the yearly cycle, and also that Baal may well be a constellation. In a direct parallel to the Horus-Seth confrontation, Baal finds out that he is to be swallowed by Mot, the god of death and drought. His descent suggests that he is a sky-god: he is to be 'numbered with those who descend into the earth' and set his face 'to go to the mountains where [the sun sets]' (Colless 1994, pp. 166-167). Also, after his death Athtar (who is identified with Venus) tries to take Baal's throne, but he cannot reach it (Gray 1969, p. 75). In his absence 'Shapash (the Sun) the luminary of the gods glowed hot, the heavens languished under the hand of Mot (drought)...the days passed into months' (Colless 1994, p. 169), a clear indication of the heat of summer. Baal's return heralds the return of the rain, for he was believed to be manifest in the storms of late autumn and winter (Gray 1969, p. 81). While acknowledging that cultivation was of the utmost importance to these early civilisations, it is difficult to subscribe to the common opinion that this is a 'vegetation myth' (Ringren 1973, p. 134). Certainly this is part of it, but it encompasses more than this. For the result of the weather gods' disappearance is not restricted to the suffering of vegetation; every aspect of life is affected (Deighton 1982, p. 71). This indicates an allegory for seasonal change. And the seasonal marker par excellence of the Mediterranean was Orion. His heliacal rising indicated summer, and the time of threshing; his evening appearance the approach of winter and its attendant storms (Allen 1963, p.306). Even taking into account the precession of the equinoxes, this attribute of Orion would have been reasonably constant for the time period concerning ancient civilisation in the Near East.

The similarity in depictions of this god across the Near East argues for its importance. Deighton (1982, p. 29) mentions that 'certain types of scene are repeated time and time again...the wealth of meaning which must have lain behind the monuments...was so alive to those who produced them that they did not require any explanatory notes'. Also the common mythological motifs: Baal goes into the earth, the Hittite weather god is deemed to have withdrawn into a hole; Horus' victory marks the return of the cooling north wind, Marduk's vanquishing of Tiamat results in the 'bringing of rain and coolness' (Colless 1994, p. 102). The acceptance of this 'God with the Upraised Arm' as Orion, and as seasonal marker, fits the pictorial and textual evidence well. Needless to say, restricting any definition of these gods to one particular manifestation is unwise. The significance of the ancient gods was manifold to their respective cultures, the many aspects of Osiris being good evidence of this. But the archetypal model upon which the 'God with the Upraised Arm' was based is quite probably the constellation Orion, in both depiction and 'nature'. Describing these mythological concepts as agricultural in nature only covers part of the territory, as agriculture depends upon the celestial cycles. The importance of these cycles to ancient people cannot be underestimated. It is a proven fact that they recognised significant 'markers' within this cycle, and it is only natural that one of most important of these should be the constellation of Orion. To paraphrase Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough (1922, p. 506): in the course of our enquiry it has, I trust, been made clear that there is another natural phenomenon to which the conception of death and resurrection is as applicable as to the agricultural cycle. This phenomenon is the yearly death and resurrection of the constellation of Orion, as represented in the mythic themes concerning the various incarnations of the 'God with the Upraised Arm'.

References

Aldred, Cyril, 1965. Egypt to the End of the Old Kingdom. Thames and Hudson,
London.

Allen, Richard Hinckley, 1963. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning. Dover
Publications, New York.

Arnold, April 1999 'Min', Ancient Egypt: The Mythology,
http://www.ixpres.com/netjert/min.htm.

Colless, Brian, 1994. Hieroglyph and Cuneiform: Ancient religious writings.

Deighton, Hilary J. 1982. The 'Weather-God' in Hittite Anatolia: An
Examination of the Archaeological and Textual Sources. Biblical Archaeology
Review, Oxford.

Fairman, H. W. (ed.), 1974. The Triumph of Horus: An Ancient Egyptian Sacred
Drama. B. T. Batsford Ltd, London.

Frankfort, H. and H. A., Wilson, John A., Jacobsen, Thorkild, Irwin, William
A., 1946. The Intellectual Adventure of Early Man. The University of Chicago
Press, Chicago.

Frankfort, H., 1948. Kingship and the Gods. University of Chicago Press,
Chicago

Frazer, Sir James George, 1922. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and
Religion (Abridged edition). Macmillan Press Ltd., London.

Gray, John. 1969. Near Eastern Mythology. Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd.,
Sydney.

Grimal, Nicolas, 1988. A History of Ancient Egypt, trans. Ian Shaw, Blackwell,
Oxford.

Guirand, Felix, 1996. The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, trans Richard
Aldrington and Delano Ames, Chancellor Press, London.

Krupp, E. C. 1979. In Search of Ancient Astronomies. Chatto and Windus,
London.

Krupp, E. C. 1991. Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and Legends of the
Sun,
Moon, Stars and Planets. Harper Collins, New York.

Krupp, E. C. 1997. Skywatchers, Shamans and Kings: Astronomy and the
Archaeology of Power. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York.

Lichtheim, Miriam. 1973. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and
Middle Kingdom. University of California Press, Los Angeles.

Neugebauer, O. 1957. The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. Brown University Press,
Providence, Rhode Island.

Parker, Richard A., 'Ancient Egyptian Astronomy', in The Place of Astronomy in
the Ancient World, ed. F. R. Hodson, Oxford University Press, London.

Plutarch, 1927. Plutarch's Moralia, trans. Frank Cole Babbit, William
Heinemann Ltd., London.

Ringren, Helmer, 1973. Religions of the Ancient Near East, trans. John Sturdy,
S.P.C.K, London.

Sidgwick, J. B., 1951. Introducing Astronomy, Faber & Faber Ltd., London.

Santillana, Georgio and Von Dechend, Hertha, 1969. Hamlet's Mill: An essay
investigating
the origins of human knowledge and its transmission through myth. David R.
Godine, New Hampshire.

Zinner, Ernst, 1957. The Stars Above Us. George Allen & Unwin, London.

Text is copyright © 1999 to Greg Taylor. Published on the internet on
4th November 1999, at the "Daily Grail" website (http://www.dailygrail.com/)

This article is excerpted from Darklore Volume 2, which is available for sale from Amazon US and Amazon UK. The Darklore anthology series features the best writing and research on paranormal, Fortean and hidden history topics, by the most respected names in the field: Robert Bauval, Nick Redfern, Loren Coleman, Jon Downes and Daniel Pinchbeck, to name just a few. Darklore's aim is to support quality researchers, so it makes sense to support Darklore.

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Occult Rock
by Greg Taylor

Few guitarists have been as influential as the legendary Delta Bluesman, Robert Johnson. His recordings have inspired fellow blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, song-writing genius Bob Dylan, formative rock gods The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton (who labelled Johnson “the most important Blues musician who ever lived”) - who in turn have influenced subsequent generations of musicians.

However, rumours swirled about Johnson’s involvement with the occult even before his premature death – aged just 27 – in 1938. His seemingly instantaneous mastery of the Blues gave rise to legends that he had made a deal with the Devil, who had given Johnson his skills in return for his everlasting soul. Tales circulated of the young black musician from Mississippi who had taken his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery’s plantation at midnight, and met there with a large man who took the guitar and tuned it, and gave Johnson mastery of the instrument in a Faustian bargain. Within a year of this fabled meeting, Johnson was recognised as one of the greatest Delta Blues musicians…but within two more years, he had met his end – and, we suppose, delivered on his side of the contract.

Johnson’s song titles provide a vivid reflection of his occult ties. “Hellhound on my Trail”, “Me and the Devil Blues”, and the narrative of “Crossroad Blues” (“Went down to the crossroads, bent down on my knees”) all add colour to the myths surrounding this seminal musician. But as Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh point out in their book The Elixir and the Stone, these allusions to the occult world are a fundamental part of the Blues, not least due to its origins in the music of Voodoo:

The following is an exerpt from Greg Taylor's newly released book The Guide to Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, available now from Amazon.com. Greg correctly predicted many of the locations and themes in Dan Brown's latest book five years ago, and in this guide presents deeper insights into Freemasonry, the hidden history of America, the sacred landscape of Washington, D.C., Noetic Science, and the secret traditions which are at the heart of Robert Langdon's journey in The Lost Symbol.

This chapter excerpt looks at the concept of 'the Lost Word', and how through it Dan Brown has once again challenged 'orthodox religion'. As a warning to those who haven't read the book yet: there are some minor plot spoilers.

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Quest for the Lost Word

Dan Brown certainly packed a lot into the 500-plus pages of The Lost Symbol. But perhaps the key element to the story is the search for the ‘Lost Word’, and – in the final pages – Robert Langdon’s discovery as to what that actually means. In the early chapters, Langdon explains to Sato that the Lost Word was “one of Freemasonry’s most enduring symbols”…

…a single word, written in an arcane language that man could no longer decipher. The Word, like the Mysteries themselves, promised to unveil its hidden power only to those enlightened enough to decrypt it. “It is said,” Langdon concluded, “that if you can possess and understand the Lost Word . . . then the Ancient Mysteries will become clear to you.”

Later, when Langdon is incredulous at Peter Solomon’s insistence that the ‘treasure’ buried in Washington, D.C. is the Bible, he is counseled that powerful secrets are hidden within its pages: “a vast collection of untapped wisdom waiting to be unveiled.” This seems a quantum leap: the ‘Lost Word’ has jumped from legendary Masonic treasure, to being hidden Biblical wisdom. What is Dan Brown getting at?

The answer lies in one of Brown’s major sources for his previous novel: the ‘Gnostic Gospels’, a collection of early writings about the teachings of Jesus which are not part of the Biblical canon of mainstream Christianity.

This article is excerpted from Darklore Volume 4, which is now available for sale. The Darklore anthology series features the best writing and research on paranormal, Fortean and hidden history topics, by the most respected names in the field: Robert Bauval, Nick Redfern, Loren Coleman, Jon Downes and Daniel Pinchbeck, to name just a few. Darklore's aim is to support quality researchers, so it makes sense to support Darklore. Here's the links to purchase from Amazon:

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Silently surveying the rural lands surrounding them, the giant stones impose themselves upon the grassy landscape. Raised by human hands, but dwarfing any man, they are neatly aligned to various celestial phenomena, such as the rising and setting of the Sun at the Solstices and the hitching post of the heavens, the North Star Polaris. Their designers are unknown; they remain a mystery to us – but the Stones give voice to their inner thoughts. Some see in their construction a guiding wisdom for humanity, whilst others feel threatened by the overt pagan overtones and, paradoxically, stark scientific simplicity, of the megaliths and their message.

Far from being the work of an ancient people though, this monument was raised just three decades ago by a group of stonemasons – in the literal sense of the word – from the South of the United States of America. Unlike that other famous megalithic site, Stonehenge, we know exactly how the stones were quarried, how they were finished, and then assembled into one interlocking marvel. And yet, the Georgia Guidestones remain a modern mystery.

Their story begins with the arrival of a neatly-dressed gray-haired gentleman at Elberton Granite Finishing Company on a Friday afternoon in June, 1979. ... Read More »

The following article is excerpted from our recently released anthology Darklore Volume 3. Titled "Death Before Life After Life", it's my look at accounts of 'near-death experiences' (NDEs) before they came into the public consciousness through Raymond Moody's 1975 book Life After Life. Darklore is chock full of fascinating articles from big names in the alternative field such as Robert Bauval, Nick Redfern and Robert Schoch. Profit from the series goes straight back to the contributors, and to keeping The Daily Grail up and running. So please do support our efforts if you find the article interesting! Here's the Amazon links:

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In December 1943, as World War II raged across the European continent, Private George Ritchie lay perilously close to death in a Texas military hospital suffering from a severe case of pneumonia. The twenty-year-old had recently completed his basic training, and was booked on the next day’s train to Richmond to study as a doctor at the Medical College of Virginia. However, as a fever took hold, his body temperature soared above 106 degrees. On the cold winter’s night of December 20 1943, Private Ritchie left on another, far stranger journey:

I heard a click and a whirr. The whirr went on and on. It was getting louder. The whirr was inside my head and my knees were made of rubber. They were bending and I was falling and all the time the whirr grew louder. I sat up with a start. What time was it? I looked at the bedside table but they’d taken the clock away. In fact, where was any of my stuff? I jumped out of bed in alarm, looking for my clothes. My uniform wasn’t on the chair. I turned around, then froze. Someone was lying in that bed.

Private Ritchie didn’t stop to think any further, assuming that he had slept through the night and was now late for his Virginia-bound train. He rushed out into the corridor and attempted to gain the attention of an approaching sergeant. However, the sergeant appeared not to see him and brushed past without the slightest acknowledgement.

The young private decided to take matters into his own hands, and dashed down the corridor toward the exit, a pair of swinging metal doors. Suddenly he found himself flying through the air faster than he’d ever travelled before. When he finally came to a halt, Private Ritchie realised with amazement that he had traveled to his desired destination, Richmond – “one hundred times faster than any train could.” Despite still wearing his army-issue hospital pyjamas, he approached a civilian stranger to ask for some bearings, but realised to his distress that this man didn’t appear to see him either. While that fact disturbed Private Ritchie, what followed left him gaping. Reaching out his left hand to tap the man on the shoulder, he found to his astonishment that his hand passed straight through the stranger’s body.

At this point, Private George Ritchie realised that he was dead:

And suddenly I remembered the young man I had seen in the bed in that little hospital room. What if that had been … me? Or anyhow, the material, concrete part of myself that in some unexplainable way I’d gotten separated from. What if the form which I had left lying in the hospital room in Texas was my own?
And if it were, how could I get back to it again?

Within an instant of this thought he found himself rushing back to the army hospital, where he desperately searched ward after ward for his physical body. Scanning the faces of sleeping soldiers, Private Ritchie was at wit’s end when he finally came aross a body covered with a sheet. Noticing the onyx and gold fraternity ring on the middle finger of the cadaver’s hand, he was, not surprisingly, only slightly relieved to realise that this corpse was his own body.

Suddenly the room got much brighter, and a ‘being of light’ appeared to Private Ritchie. Suddenly, the episodes of his life played out before him – “everything that had ever happened to me was simply there, in full view, contemporary and current, all seemingly taking place at the same time” – while ‘the Light’ asked one simple question: “What did you do with your life?” It is important to note however, that at no time did Ritchie feel that he was being judged by the being. After this review of his life, the being – whom the newly dead man surmised was Jesus – then took him on a tour of both earthly and heavenly realms. To Private Ritchie’s surprise, the being then gave him orders to return to the human realm.

If anybody was more surprised at his return to life than George Ritchie, it was probably the army physician who had just signed the young soldier’s death certificate. An orderly had noticed some movement as he prepared the corpse for the morgue, and summoned the doctor who quickly administered a shot of adrenaline straight into the dead man’s heart. Private Ritchie returned to life with a burning throat and a crushing feeling in his chest – a full nine minutes after he had appeared to have taken his last breath. ... Read More »

Over recent months, it has become plain that an odd alliance has been created between the ultra-skeptical organisation CSICOP (the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) - since renamed CSI - and the leaders in SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The SETI Institute's weekly radio program "Are We Alone" is now heavily flavoured toward skeptical subjects and guests (even to the point of having a 'Skeptical Sunday' feature), and their website proclaims outright that the show is produced in partnership with CSICOP and other skeptical organisations such as CFI (the Center For Inquiry). This has even led to some of the subject matter discussed not even being related to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (such as investigation of psychics).

Conversely, regular CSICOP commentators such as James Randi (no longer affiliated with the organisation, for reasons too detailed to explain here) have long advocated SETI and participation in the distributed computing effort SETI@home. 'Bad Astronomy' critic Phil Plait has a regular spot with SETI radio. Skeptical Inquirer has recently featured a critical article by Peter Schenkel regarding the search, which allowed no less than three responses to the critique by individuals such as SETI luminary Jill Tarter and astrobiologist David Darling. While the balance of articles suggests that there is some tension within CSICOP as to the validity of SETI, it also is astounding in comparison to the one-sided attacks (with no responses) on other topics that are usually seen in the magazine.

Why does James Randi not offer a million dollar prize for SETI to prove that there is truly an alien intelligence out there, with criticism of the funding that has been provided to them? Simply because he thinks it likely that there is 'someone' out there. Parapsychology research has provided far more positive results than SETI (see the Dean Radin interview in this issue), with as huge implications for our paradigm, but he regularly savages anyone who dares to ask the question of whether psi effects exist, and finds the idea of funding such studies outrageous.

CSICOP's collaboration with SETI, and accompanying lack of criticism (apart from Schenkel's article), stands in contrast to other critical views gaining momentum. Historian George Basalla, in his book Civilized Life in the Universe, takes SETI to task for fifty years of failure. In his view, SETI is popular because of its quasi-religious features; perhaps there are benevolent 'beings' out there, more advanced than us, who have wondrous things to show us (it's interesting to note the lack of concern in SETI circles about the dangers posed by contacting an alien civilisation). He also notes the cultural assumptions we have made at various points throughout history about possible alien races, and uses this as a mirror to point out the ethnocentric blindness through which today's SETI scientists "believe that extraterrestrial civilizations construct radio telescopes."

Basalla's point has been well made previously by Terence McKenna, who noted that "to search expectantly for a radio signal from an extraterrestrial source is probably as culture bound a presumption as to search the galaxy for a good Italian restaurant." SETI's Seth Shostak has made the highly positive analogy that in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, we are like Columbus sailing into uncharted waters. Perhaps, considering current search strategies, we are more akin to Columbus standing on the coast of Europe throwing pebbles into the ocean, waiting for Native Americans to see the ripples and answer back via the same method.

In ABC's 2005 feature "Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs - Seeing is Believing", both Jill Tarter and Seth Shostak provided a skeptical counterpoint to ufology (Tarter is a CSICOP fellow). "If we claim something, there will be data to back it up," Tarter says in the program. Ironically, Tarter –- the current director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute, and one of the pioneers of research in the area - was the 'model' for the character of astronomer Ellie Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (and played in the movie version by Jodie Foster). Those familiar with the story will remember that it ends with a twist, in which the rationalist atheist character of Arroway is placed in the position of believing in something for which she has no empirical evidence – alien contact – based solely on her own totally convincing experience.

This is a worthwhile sidenote to keep in mind. Turning once again to Terence McKenna, we should remember to avoid anthropocentric thinking, and keep our minds open (while obviously thinking critically) to other methods of contact from ‘intelligences’. SETI, says McKenna, has been “chosen as the avenue by which it is assumed contact is likely to occur. Meanwhile, there are people all over the world - psychics, shamans, mystics, schizophrenics - whose heads are filled with information, but it has been ruled a priori irrelevant, incoherent, or mad. Only that which is validated through consensus via certain sanctioned instrumentalities will be accepted as a signal.”

So should we abolish SETI? I don’t think so; actually I’m actually a fan. It’s ideal is a worthwhile one, reaching out beyond our isolation to communicate with anyone else who might be out there. Remembering what the acronym actually stands for, my only suggestion would be that SETI stop lying down with close-minded inquisitors, and start broadening their horizons by entering into a dialogue with scientists out there who share SETI’s ethos, but are willing to look outside the paradigm for answers.

This article originally appeared in Issue 5 of Sub Rosa magazine (free PDF download).

TDG has reported previously about controversies surrounding the 'afterlife research' conducted by Dr Gary Schwartz at the University of Arizona. Late last year, Dr Schwartz was at the centre of some bizarre accusations - including 'preying' (financially) on a man whose son had recently died - in a segment aired on Fox, hosted by Geraldo (Dr Schwartz responded here).

This debacle had followed a split between Dr Schwartz and some of his most high-profile research subjects: Allison Dubois (of Medium fame) and Laurie Campbell (who also appeared on the Geraldo segment). Both mediums suggested that Dr Schwartz had improperly disclosed their names and names of close family, without their permission, and Dubois claimed that Dr Schwartz was riding on the coat-tails of her success. Talking to Geraldo, Laurie Campbell said "I think with my resignation it kind of shows in 2005 that I felt he was highly unethical and I can no longer be connected to his program or the university."

These alleged ethical breaches were investigated by the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The investigation is mapped out in the following three 'Determination Letters': June 2007, December 2007, and May 2008 (PDF files) - the final letter being the most informative, as the others were part of the continuing investigation. The main findings are set out below.

Firstly, the OHRP found that Dr Schwartz had failed to protect the privacy of his research subjects, though they considered the matter resolved by an internal reprimand by the University of Arizona:

We determined that the principal investigator for the above-referenced research initiated changes to the research without institutional review board (IRB) review and approval, and as a result, failed to protect the privacy of subjects and to maintain the confidentiality of data...

...We acknowledge your statement that the Vice President for Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development at the University of Arizona (UA) will issue a letter of reprimand to the principal investigator... This corrective action adequately addresses our determination.

Though the wording is obscure, the following passage seems to address the Geraldo segment's claims (or at least, a similar situation) of Dr Schwartz seeking funding from vulnerable 'research subjects'. In this case the OHRP considered the allegation 'unproven':

One complainant alleged that one of the purposes of the research was fund-raising for Dr. Schwartz but that this was not disclosed to subjects, in contravention of HHS regulations at 45 CFR 46.116(a)(1). You stated that the UA investigative panel found no evidence of funding irregularities or of Dr. Schwartz’s solicitation of funds from research subjects. We therefore determine that the allegation is unproven.

There are additional findings which I won't quote here at length, but which may be of interest to readers, so I suggest that you read through the PDFs for a complete picture. These include concerns about a 'cooling off' period after the death of a loved one, before engaging a 'sitter', and a complaint about personal information being lost in the post (finding: "not a violation of HHS regulations").

In light of these findings, I contacted Gary Schwartz for his take on the investigation. Dr Schwartz was kind enough to give a detailed reply - I quote it in full below, as it offers some clarification of the events in question (admittedly, from Dr Schwartz's personal perspective), which tended to get lost in the 'sterile' HHS letters:

The purpose and spirit of federal rules concerning the use of human subjects is for subject protection (e.g. protecting their anonymity) and safety. Our laboratory closely follows these rules. Much of our research - for example, the studies reported in my latest book THE ENERGY HEALING EXPERIMENTS (which recently won a Nautilus Gold Book Award) - is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH funded research strictly follows the University implementation of the federal rules. However, none of our afterlife research has ever been funded by federal sources.

Moreover, our very early research - the targeted experiments of concern in the HHS investigation - were primarily supported by the media. The 1999 HBO special LIFE AFTERLIFE is a case in point (discussed in detail in my book THE AFTERLIFE EXPERIMENTS). This was a public demonstration experiment - meaning, the subjects (mediums and sitters) choose not to be anonymous - and the experiment was designed for complete public awareness. The subjects (as well as the experimenters) signed legally binding consent forms provided by the media, indicating their agreement to use their names publicly. Since the research was explicitly designed for public education, and signed consents were used, we did not submit this research to the University (i.e. subjects were volunteering and choosing to have their participation in this demonstration research be public). As the Veritas.arizona.edu web site explains in detail, save for this early public research, the majority of our afterlife research went through the formal University human subjects approval process.

The HHS investigation was initiated by a few disgruntled subjects (sitters and mediums) who sought any means possible to denigrate the laboratory. Most of their complaints were found to be invalid. HHS was correct that the early research did not use federally sanctioned human consent forms (though they did use legally binding media human consent forms). Moreover, although I received various written and aural requests by various mediums to use their names in subsequent media presentations and publications, the laboratory initiated formal legally binding written documents (approved by the University) a few years ago to insure that potential future disgruntled individuals could not find legal loop holes to denigrate the laboratory.

I applaud the HHS and University in fulfilling their important responsibility to investigate potential human subject violations, whether the complaints are valid or not, and regardless of the motives of the complainants. HHS and the University recognize that I and my laboratory are committed to following both the procedures and spirit of subject (both human and animal) protection and safety.

My thanks to Dr Schwartz for responding to my request for comment - I am open to posting the opinions of others involved, if they wish to contact me. However, I'm hopeful that the completed HHS investigation draws the curtain on this controversy, so that we can return to answering the important question - is there evidence for afterlife survival? There is no place for ego and personal squabbles in such a vital investigation, and I don't think the topic has been served well at all by this particular controversy.

For ten years, the modern skeptical movement has wielded a cudgel against claims of the paranormal: the James Randi Million Dollar Challenge. In many debates over the possibility of psi abilities, the Challenge provides a final word for one side..."has so-and-so applied for the Challenge?" The financial reward offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation is seen by many skeptics as providing an irresistible motivation for anybody with paranormal ability - after all, if someone could genuinely exhibit such powers, surely they would step forward to take the million?

However, after ten years, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) says nobody has even got past their preliminary testing. Furthermore, none of the 'big fish' - medium John Edward, spoon-bender Uri Geller, psychic Sylvia Browne - have applied (although Sylvia Browne did accept James Randi's direct challenge on Larry King Live, without going any further). And now, perhaps as a result of that fact, James Randi has announced that the Challenge will come to an end in two years, on March 6th, 2010.

But does the challenge really make a statement about the existence of the paranormal and/or psi abilities?

A new Associated Press story doing the rounds attempts to debunk some of the hype and conspiracy theories which surround (literally, see the image!) the Great Seal of the United States. I wrote about the seal in my book The Guide to Dan Brown's The Solomon Key, as Dan Brown had indicated that the emblem would be a part of the plotline of his next book. For those interested, I've excerpted some of it beneath...just a small part of a lot of fascinating 'hidden history' of the United States which you'll find in my book (which you can pick up from Amazon US and Amazon UK):

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HISTORY OF THE GREAT SEAL

Before adjourning on the ground-breaking day of July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution that a committee be formed to design a seal for the newly independent United States. The members of that committee were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson – three of the five men who worked on the Declaration of Independence, two of whom would go on to become President. However, it would take another six years before the Great Seal of the United States came into being, with two more committees and fourteen men eventually employed to establish the icon.

The first committee of Franklin, Adams and Jefferson initially worked on Biblical and classical themes, including the ‘Children of Israel in the Wilderness’, but with little success. They then employed the talents of French portrait artist, Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, who had some experience in designing seals. However, the du Simitiere-influenced design was rejected by Congress on August 20th 1776, although a couple of the features later became a part of the official seal – the infamous Eye of Providence within a triangle, and the motto E Pluribus Unum

Certainly, the story of this week has been James Cameron and his Jesus bone box. Here's an almost complete summary of the story, to get you up to speed with what is sure to be an ongoing saga this year:

The flurry of publicity this week (see a Reuters slide-show) is actually a little surprising, given that the 'bone boxes' (properly known as ossuaries) were unearthed at an Israeli construction site in 1980, and there has been comment about them previously over the years (including a 1996 BBC documentary which made similar claims). The recent hype comes about because of a 90 minute documentary which will be shown on Discovery Channel this Sunday (4th March, 2007), produced by Titanic and Terminator director James Cameron, titled "The Lost Tomb of Jesus".

The ossuaries are said to bear inscriptions matching those of the immediate family of Jesus the Christ, as well as Mary Magdalene (of course suggesting the Dan Brown meme that the couple were married), and also a son of Jesus and Mary, Judah (said to be confirmed by DNA tests).

Jane Root, president of Discovery Channel, says "The evidence is compelling...the consequences are enormous." However, Amos Kloner, the Bar Ilan University professor who led the excavation in the 1980s, dismissed the claim: "They [say they] are 'discovering' things. But they haven't discovered anything. They haven't found anything. Everything had already been published. And there is no basis on which to make a story out of this or to identify this as the family of Jesus."

Lawrence E. Stager, the Dorot professor of archaeology of Israel at Harvard, commented that the documentary "is exploiting the whole trend that caught on with ‘The Da Vinci Code'", despite not having seen the documentary. However, James Cameron refuted claims of riding Dan Brown's coat-tails. “I think this is the biggest archaeological story of the century,” he said. “It’s absolutely not a publicity stunt. It’s part of a very well-considered plan to reveal this information to the world in a way that makes sense, with proper documentation.”

The makers of the Bloodline documentary released an email update in which they said they...

...think it's a good thing that the debate continues over the historical Jesus and the origins of Christianity. Of course, we feel that it's much more likely that, in the climate of the time, Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their family came to France and are buried there.

Sporting their own biblical scholar, they quoted Professor Robert Eisenman (of Dead Sea Scrolls fame) as commenting about Cameron's discovery, that "it should be obvious that names of the kind found in the ' Jesus Burial Cave' were so widespread at the time that finding a family tomb with ossuaries inscribed with them proves nothing at all."

Meanwhile, it's interesting to note the manner in which the discovery is being treated by the Christian base as an assault upon Christianity. From viewing various forums around the Intarweb, this seems to be a common feeling amongst Christians - that this is just the next attempt to discredit their religion, in a similar vein to The Da Vinci Code. This perception obviously arises out of the suggestion that Jesus was married, and that the discovery of his mortal remains argues against his ascension. R. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the film is a "made-for-television hoax", while Catholic sources were very skeptical of the documentary.

Beyond the James Cameron versus Christianity debate though, there is another controversy which seems to have been brewing for some time. Some have noted the allegedly fraudulent 'James Ossuary' as being a bone of contention (no pun intended) between Christians and Jews, with the Israeli Archaeological Authority (IAA) going up against Christian supporters of the alleged Biblical relic and most notably Hershel Shanks and his Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS). There is a similarity in that case with the new finds - Israeli archaeologists debunking claims of 'Christian' discoveries - although with the twist this time that many Christians will be siding with the Israelis.

But wait, a further twist: some have made a claim for the authenticity of the James Ossuary because it is rumoured to have come from the same dig as the new ossuaries, with Cameron's team identifying the same patina on their ossuaries as on the James Ossuary (see Archaeology.org's cynical coverage, which also has some excellent images of the press conference). However, just last week photos were submitted in the forgery case against antiquities dealer Oled Golan, suggesting it had been held since 1976. Ironically, though these images are supposed to validate Golan's claims for authenticity of the James Ossuary, the photos may invalidate any suggestion that the ossuary was part of the Jesus ossuary collection (although it could be claimed that it was looted before the 'official' discovery of the tomb).

Interestingly, just to muddy already murky waters, one of the scholars present at the James Cameron press conference was James Tabor, author of The Jesus Dynasty. As the Archaeology.org coverage notes, in his book Tabor suggests that Jesus was actually the son of a Roman soldier named Pantera, "a conclusion obviously at odds with the Cameron and Jacobovici's interpretation of the cave and its find." Another, Shimon Gibson - who was a member of the team that originally excavated the tomb - confessed to being skeptical about the claim...though he did urge keeping an open mind about the possibility.

And perhaps that is the best advice. Certainly, there is reason for skepticism. But every argument deserves to be heard, as I'm sure they will over the coming weeks and months.