"science advances one funeral at a time"
- Max Planck
I noted some encouraging news in the last couple of weeks, especially regarding the ongoing social and scientific paradigm shifts. One of these primarily involved learning of new research endeavors that are going on out there. People are taking action in the right direction. Specifically, I learned of a couple of efforts now underway - not publicized yet as the organization is still in its early stages - to do some very solid Atlantis research. I won't say any more because this is so preliminary, and so tentative. Not sure how much those involved would want me to say, but the thoughts were intriguing - and very encouraging.
Another idea is not part of the expedition proposal I heard about, but I have often wondered what we would find if we could take a sidescan sonar profile of the continental shelves off the east coast of the USA, at about 350 to 400 foot depth. If we followed that depth contour, especially focusing on locations that would have been natural harbors and estuaries about 12,000 years ago. That was the time at the close of the last ice age, and just before the Younger Dryas, a time of environmental catastrophe associated with sudden sea level rise, radical climate change and according to many, the close of the Atlantean age. If one could put together a privately-funded expedition, with absolute scientific rigor, to survey the ancient coastline, my bet is that some amazing paleo-archaeological finds would result.
Ultimately, I think some of the current work will converge on this. More and more tantalizing clues will emerge of things to be discovered, a vast underwater treasury of knowledge just under the surface of the sea. Eventually, the idea will become acceptable to conduct a thorough survey of the continental shelves in the hunt for our own distant, forgotten past.
I also was encouraged by what I read in other areas of science. Some of this was about organizations like the 100 Year Starship, the Tau-Zero foundation and other similar efforts. It tells me that there is serious and credible work being done on the idea of interstellar travel. When I heard Eric Davis speak at the MUFON conference last year on this topic, I was quite encouraged. Again, while we're not there yet by any means, people are doing things to move us in the right direction.
The biggest take-away from this, and other endeavors in physics, complimentary/alternative medicine (CAM), parapsychology, UFO/CE4 studies, etc., are that people are doing serious scientific research in spite of the official poo-poo'ing. There is solid research being conducted that is not part of, and therefore not controlled by, the scientific mainstream.
I suspect that the old guard of scientists in particular disciplines will ultimately be overcome by an end run around their field. In this case, Frank Joseph had a lot of non-positive things to say about the modern-day archaeological community in the USA. Specifically, the arch-conservatism of the field prevents any meaningful research into pre-columbian archaeology - as if somehow life began in 1492. Agree with this - otherwise you lose your tenure... (a rough paraphrase of Frank Joseph's words).
A lot of researchers outside of the field - including "amateurs" that have nothing to lose from the academic inquisition - might be the ones to make headway. The necessary caveat, of course, is that we need to maintain the solid scientific rigor to make sure the results are valid.
At the vanguard of this was Dr. Roger Leir, who unfortunately passed away this week. He was just beginning to do some fascinating work on alien implants - or, more conservatively worded, medical extraction of anomalous foreign bodies. I think we need to keep our own conclusions very conservative, and several researchers objected to his conclusion that some of the material was 'extraterrestrial' in origin. Yet he did build a good case for that conclusion.
Whether his conclusions turn out to be right remains to be seen. Unfortunately, he died suddenly and unexpectedly, just as he was beginning a new phase of his research.
Where will this go? Will there be breakthroughs in the study of paleo-archaeology, medically anomalous foreign bodies, threshold physics, etc.? I certainly don't know. In many cases, work may lead nowhere - at least at first. But the end result can only be an increase in knowledge, the true aim of science. In spite of the resistance of the conservative old guard, people are doing something to find the answers anyway.
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