Nexus - 0221 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

came almost 2,000 years ago.” In my mind's eye, the words of our Bible came almost unbidden and the whole story unfolded in my mind. To think I had remembered so much from the supposedly forgotten Sunday school lessons of my childhood! Why I hadn't thought of such things for years and yet, now, there they were, as Clear as when I first heard them! Verses flowed out of my memory, telling of His compassion and love and of the promise that even though He would die on the cross for our sins, He would come again at the end of the age. I told of the resurrection and His appearances and then of His ascension into the clouds and what the angels had told the saddened crowd. I also told of the prophecies He had made, and how many felt we were now on the edge of the Latter Days. I paused at last and a great silence fell upon the room; even the flashing lights stilled for a moment. At last, the machine again spoke. "Leave this place at once. Do not touch the treasure, for that is a gift left to the King when He comes. Take instead the artifact which lies to the right of the hand- print. Then go in peace and quickly." I must say I obeyed immediately, grab- bing up the object that lay on the podium to the right of the handprint and fled that place with alacrity, hardly bothering to even glance in the direction of the chest as I sped by. I ran down the corridor and leaped gladly into the sunlight, breathing deeply of the sweet cold air. The stone slab had followed close upon my heels and slammed into place with a loud crash that echoed and re-echoed among the surround- ing ice-clad peaks. I gathered up my camp; Archer and I left within the hour, pausing at the top of the valley only for a brief salute before Archer carried me swiftly back down the trail of three crosses and back to the outside world." Sometimes while sitting before a roaring fire in the studio fireplace or standing out- side watching the stars, I can’t help won- dering. Did they all die at the last, or did a small remnant survive? Did they rebuild their civilisation following a different path, staying out there among the stars rather than return to a then-devastated Earth? Are they still out there, the great ships still trav- elling among the worlds? Have they ever visited their old home? Lately we have noticed the light pulses more quickly than before. What that means, we don't know. Perhaps, some day, we will find out. (Source: Venture Inward, May-June 1993) Co-editor Bob Rickard explained: “We couldn't tell whether there was actually an increase in phenomena or an increase in reportings,” but said he liked to think the © list "could be useful in some sort of way." Certainly, it gives insights into FT read- ers, but also draws attention to the fact that truly bizarre events happen regularly all around the world. What Mr Rickard does find really amaz- ing is the scientific establishment's lack of interest in trying to explain these strange phenomena: “The first confrontation ‘with a new fact or a new theory is seen as a threat to the status quo.” (Sources: Fortean Times #73, February- March 1994; The Los Angeles Times, 6 June » 1994) WORLD GETS 3.5% WEIRDER! » 1994) Sure it's a weird world, but it's getting weirder if the Fortean Times Strangeness UNSIGHTLY SEA MONSTER SEEN Index for 1993 is anything to go by. Vancouver, Canada — Two university The magazine conducted a reader survey _ students have claimed to have seen a snort- in mid-1993, and from this data and the ing, six-metre-long ‘sea monster’ off a editors’ own study of subject matter traffic beach in Victoria, British Columbia, on the flow, concluded that 1993 was 3.5 percent Pacific coast. stranger than 1992, The creature was described by 18-year- To compute their index, the editors com- old Ryan Green as rocky-faced, with twin piled a list under four key headings— ani- humps and a round body. mal, human, natural and paranormal Ryan Green was sitting on a rock with a worlds—with 34 topics in total ranging friend, Damian Grant, when they both from animal attacks to UFOs. sighted the ‘monster’ about 15 metres away They established a baseline year, 1992, as it swam across Telegraph Bay. They and gave each topic an arbitrary value of saw the heavy-breathing creature surface 100—thus the baseline value for the index _ twice before it dived into the calm waters. is set at 3400. Increases in traffic are noted “All of a sudden, this head comes up, as a +10 or -10 movement. The weirdness like a whale with no spray, said Green. index for 1993 worked out at 3520—indi- “And then this hump, the size of an inner’ cating an overall increase of 3.5 per cent. tube in diameter. And then another hump. Though 19 topics recorded a rise, seven It's nothing I've ever seen before." recorded a fall and eight no change at all. The youths were contacted by Mr Ed a Every once in a while Grandfather brings out the old sketches and we go through them, remembering. He shows me the object he had picked up—a small square of shining golden metal, thin as a wafer. On the front is a huge smoky topaz, and below that, carved deeply, are three crosses. In the centre of the middle cross, a bright green light pulses like a heartbeat, on and on, never once pausing during all the years that have followed. NEXUS¢61 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1994