Superstorm Sandy Dictates a New Approach to Atlantic Coastal Development - 2012

 

Superstorm Sandy Dictates a New Approach to Atlantic Coastal Development

In March 2011, I wrote a four-part article on the implications of Atlantis on our current culture. Using my vortexual theory of history, I compared the concept of Atlantean-elite thinking to our treatment of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Without repeating all that I said about New Orleans being the new Atlantis, I can now update those concepts with new information. When Superstorm Sandy barreled up the East Coast of the United States, she trailed a banner reading, “Here I come. Are you ready for the New Atlantis?”

The myth of Atlantis is a cautionary tale. It is about a proud, arrogant elite dominating a culture and denying the changes to its own climate and its own mortality. As the Atlantean culture sank beneath the ocean waves, the elites denied their problem until it was too late. Like Atlantis, the lessons of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans remain obscure. Now, with Superstorm Sandy fresh on our minds, we have another chance to learn from disaster. If we learn our lessons, we may chart a better course for the future of the Mid-Atlantic region.

For now, I will leave it to others to judge whether the initial search, recovery and disaster relief efforts were well planned and executed. Here in the West, the impact of Superstorm Sandy has been minimal. Media reports only hint at the deprivation and discomfort that many still feel. While writing this article, I stopped to send the text message “Redcross” to 90999. With that action, I donated $10 to relief efforts in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

In the aftermath of Katrina, disorganization, waste, fraud, graft and corruption drained away assets and energy from legitimate hurricane relief. Although it was obvious to many that New Orleans would never return to its pre-Katrina size, shape and population, our collective consciousness demanded otherwise. In the ensuing years, we saw formaldehyde-laced trailers brought in for displaced families. Actor Brad Pitt's architecturalcompetition attempted to create homes that could withstand Katrina type flooding. Like monuments to old energy thinking, a few Brad Pitt Houses now stand, waiting for their test in the next big hurricane.

When Hurricane Katrina led to collapse of levees around New Orleans, the flooding was quick and deep. Residents caught in the flood either found their way to attics and roofs, or drowned in their own homes. Wind did not cause most of the damage, but rather it was the onslaught of deep water. Now, over seven years later, we hear of people trapped in their homes on Staten Island and other low-lying places near the shore. This time, wind-driven storm surge multiplied the effects of an astronomical high tide. Unlike New Orleans under Katrina, huge waves pummeled the mid-Atlantic shoreline.

After Katrina, roofs of intact houses poked above the floodwater. Along the beaches of New Jersey, wave action and tidal surge ripped homes off their foundations. Water and wind sent them inland, battering against their defenseless neighbors. After Sandy, near the shoreline, many houses no longer exist. Soon enough, the focus will turn to “rebuilding” homes and neighborhoods. To that, I ask the question, “Rebuilding what, where and how?”

Many yearn for the nostalgia of the old coastline, with its cottages, piers and amusement parks. Sentimental people will want to rebuild the old communities exactly as they were. Politicians will pander to those desires. With sufficient political pressure, Congress will authorize billions of dollars to rebuild shoreline housing. Climate Change deniers will deem Superstorm Sandy an anomaly, unrelated to human-caused degradation of the Earth’s atmosphere. With reconstruction funds available, the profit motive will once again try to dominate legitimate environmental concerns.

In my 2011 Atlantis articles, I advocated for an apolitical, environment-first approach to disaster recovery. By then, it was too late to bring rational thinking to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Soon after Superstorm Sandy is the best time to discuss our long-term response and recovery plans. Stakeholders include homeowners, local, state and federal governments, plus all U.S. citizens. After all, we the taxpayers will ultimately pay most of the bill for both cleanup and rebuilding. Here I propose a new solution for rebuilding residential properties most vulnerable to mid-Atlantic storm surge.

First, we need a complete review of the federal flood insurance program for the affected area. No one in the new floodplain should rebuild under existing flood insurance programs. The flood maps were inadequate and the potential for future destruction in those areas is high. If anyone rebuilds in a Sandy-flooded area, it should be at his or her own expense and risk, not at the risk of all.

Second, new flood maps must include more than the area flooded by Superstorm Sandy. In 2012, most of what remained of the Greenland ice cap melted away. In the next few years, both polar ice caps may be gone. New flood maps for the mid-Atlantic region should include the consequent sea level rise. With a realistic flood map, we can begin the redevelopment of residential properties not deemed in imminent peril.

Third, we need to demand new structures that make sense to build and insure. As the beaches of New Jersey now show us, rebuilding with wood-frame houses is out of the question. Built on piles, a Brad Pitt House is still vulnerable to high winds. The best way to rebuild would be with rapidly relocatable or mobile housing. Although new standards for durability, insulation and storm worthiness would be necessary, the following is what I propose.

As in Paris under Napoleon, authorities would need to cut new access roads wide enough for manufactured homes to travel inland. Similar to those in an RV A residential lot would feature a concrete pad to support the home and utility service connections. The utilities would need to withstand wind, rain and salt-water immersion. To avoid the threat of fire, both natural gas and electrical services should have smart meters that feature remote shut-off capabilities. The actual housing could be of several different types.

For the most vulnerable lots, housing should be highly mobile. In most cases, a Class-A motorhome would suffice. Likewise, a fifth-wheel motorhome would work on vulnerable lots, but a pickup truck capable of towing the fifth wheel would have to be on scene. Monthly road tests should be required. If a storm appeared, the owner could disconnect from the water, gas and electric in less than an hour. Within two hours, the mobile summer cottage could be well inland and out of harm’s way.

For those who want a more substantial dwelling, an axle and wheel-mounted manufactured home would suffice. The recreational vehicle (RV) industry designates many such dwellings as “park models”. Since these dwellings would move only in the event of an emergency, attention to hitch-type and wheel/tire durability would be essential. If planned properly, any over-the-road tractor could tow these manufactured homes to safety. For these larger units, turning radius, ground clearance and inland storage locations would be important. In case of emergency, regional plans for towing these larger units to safety would need to be in place.

The alternative to creating mobile seaside villages would be to rebuild with vulnerable permanent structures or forgo rebuilding entirely. During the recent presidential campaign, both sides talked about bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. The best way to do so is by upgrading the factory-built home and RV industries. In the U.S., RV's and manufactured homes have no foreign competition. To redevelop mid-Atlantic shoreline housing with anything but relocatable dwellings and weather-resistant infrastructure would be sheer folly.

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By James McGillis at 10:12 AM | Environment | Comments (1) | Link

New Orleans - The Lessons of Atlantis Begin to Sink In - 2011

 

 

New Orleans - The Lessons of Atlantis Begin to Sink In

In the early 1980s, then President Ronald Reagan endorsed the idea of creating an International Space Station (ISS). At the time, it appeared to be a make-work project designed to keep the aerospace industry alive during a period of relative peace. As early as 1969, during the Apollo Program, Americans had walked on the Moon, 238,000 miles from Earth. With a planned orbit of only 173 miles above the Earth, the ISS had no such lofty goals. Instead, the solar-powered pressure-vessels of the ISS offered only slow and steady progress toward long-term human habitation in space. Commensurate with its low-key goals, was a bargain price, estimated at less than $10 billion. A lot has changed over the past thirty years. At a current running cost of $150+ billion, the ISS is now the most expensive human engineered structure, either on or above the Earth.

 

As it passes overhead 15.7 times each day, most Americans think little about the ISS mission or its cost. If they knew more about it, many would say, “Who needs an ISS?” All these years later, I now believe that the ISS program is worth its cost. Even though its useful life may be less than ten more years, the ISS serves us as a microcosmic reflection of Earth. There, on a human-created, Earth-orbiting satellite, the ever-rotating crew conducts experiments in biology, chemistry, human biology, astronomy and meteorology.

 

Back on Earth, we find the Mississippi River available for similar, if unplanned experiments. Looking 135 nautical miles upriver from New Orleans, Louisiana, we find the Old River Control Structure. Only the static backpressure of its levees and control gates maintains a precarious balance of life downstream in New Orleans. In allegorical fashion, joints and fasteners connect the various ISS modules. Stressed by the unrelenting vacuum of space, gas leaks on the ISS are potentially deadly to the crew. While the ISS relies on constant atmospheric pressure within its structure, the Old River Control Structure relies on gravity and friction to hold back the kinetic energy of the Mississippi River. Both structures experience unrelenting energy, while entropy assures their ultimate demise and destruction.

 

As Katrina approached the Louisiana coast in August 2005, the hasty evacuation of New Orleans was a debacle. At the time, each city, state and federal official assumed that someone else had called for buses to provide evacuation of a poor and vulnerable population. The public evacuation plan turned out to be a myth. Hundreds of unused school buses later sat ruined by the flood. As affluent and able citizens evacuated structures to the North, a monumental traffic jam ensued. If each bus had carried a full load that day, more people could have evacuated in far less time. As it was, no one remained to assist the most vulnerable and helpless residents. Leaving the sickest in their beds, a hospital physician may have ordered lethal injections for forty-five non-ambulatory patients, prior to abandonment of the hospital.

 

One major difference between the International Space Station and New Orleans is that NASA and the ISS crew cannot afford to employ mythical thinking. If they ran the ISS in similar fashion to pre-Katrina New Orleans, something as simple as a coolant-pump failure could result in loss of both the crew and their quarters. Effective engineering, planning and resupply are essential to maintaining human habitation in space. New Orleans, on the other hand, currently sits in a dry bowl, free from flooding. Since simulations do not work well on a grand scale, we cannot properly assess the efficacy of defenses at New Orleans. Instead, we must wait for the next great storm in order to find out. By then it might be too late for both New Orleans and the federal deficit. Yet today, we maintain the fiction that New Orleans can continue its long-term defiance of the laws of Nature.

 

NASA provided the ISS with spare coolant pumps beyond the number of anticipated failures. Will their planning be sufficient? I believe that the ISS has a better chance of surviving intact for the next ten years than does the City of New Orleans. If New Orleans, Louisiana were to flood again, the cost to revive the city would easily surpass the estimated $160 billion lifetime cost of the ISS.

 

This is not a personal prediction of death, doom and despair, but floods, fire an famine are not out of the question. Humankind has the ability use both its collective memory and its collective consciousness. If we allow a shift in consciousness, newly awakened humankind could change the future of Planet Earth. With both the profit motive and politics at play, it is hard to determine if our current plans are sound. If each stakeholder could reflect upon our overall relationship with the laws of Nature, they might see themselves as part of a larger whole. With a touch of gnost, we can understand Nature and help guide humanity’s relationship with Gaia, our Mother Earth.

 

Centuries ago, at a bend in the Mississippi River, settlers created New Orleans. From that time, forward, humans continued to build structures there with little regard for attendant environmental consequences. As hard and fast as many stakeholder positions seem to be, Nature can lift those stakes and carry them away like driftwood, to the Gulf of Mexico. Since Earth is the only permanent habitat known to humans, it behooves us to acknowledge and accommodate the laws of Nature as supreme to any laws of our own making.

 

Taking the laws of Nature into account, we should study alternate weather and flood scenarios for New Orleans and its environs. Without regard for corporate profits, property values or political gain, independent studies and their recommendations should again see the light of day. Once we understand the likelihood of various weather events, we can then proceed with plans to protect only that which is reasonable to protect. If the hubris and ignorance of our ancestors continues in New Orleans, we risk human-aided devastation and destruction unlike any seen on Earth since the last days of Atlantis.

 

 

 

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By James McGillis at 11:38 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link

Sea of Atlantis - The Future City of New Orleans - 2011

 

 

Sea of Atlantis

The Future City of New Orleans 

A characteristic lesson from the fall of Atlantis is that humans can manipulate matter. Furthermore, humans can appear to bend Nature to their needs. However, neither the Atlantean culture nor our own can control the laws of Nature.

 

To demonstrate that human control of nature is an illusion, look no further than the perceived permanence of the Old River Control Structure, 135 miles upriver from New Orleans, Louisiana. Atlantean elite labels and slogans are often so audacious, that their unrealistic goals sound heroic or mythical. Imagine the audacity of using poles stuck in the mud to control the largest river in North America. In anticipation that their designated mounds of earth would stay where expected, the Army Core of Engineers (COE) named it a “river control structure”. Prefacing that moniker, should be the word “temporary”.

 

After the experiences of Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 flooding in Pakistan, it is reasonable to believe that New Orleans might yet experience simultaneous floods of each type. The scenario goes like this:

 

• When a Katrinaesque hurricane makes landfall at New Orleans, resultant storm surge and overflow from Lake Pontchartrain floods much of the city.
• As the storm travels north, it stalls and dumps unprecedented rainfall on the Middle and Upper Mississippi River Valleys.
• When the resulting flood crests at the Old River Control Structure, catastrophic failure ensues, sending one uncontrolled torrent down the Mississippi River Channel and another down the Atchafalaya River.
• As an unprecedented flow reaches New Orleans, the city floods yet again, only this time there are few if any levees still standing to protect it.

 

In the aftermath of a simultaneous Katrina-style storm surge and a Pakistan-style river flood, New Orleans could well be unsalvageable. After such a super flood, the Mississippi River Channel through New Orleans would become a silt-clogged riverbed, rather than the deep channel of today. Unless stakeholders plan now for decreased reliance on river and port traffic for economic vitality, New Orleans faces the possibility of a flood-induced economic collapse.

 

Have we learned our Atlantean lessons? For the most part, the answer is, “No”. We prefer the nostalgia of the French Quarter; a streetcar named Desire and a wonderful cultural history to prudent post-Atlantean and post-Katrina planning. Mythical thinking will not end global warming, higher sea levels or stronger storm surges. Regardless of who or what caused global warming, reputable scientists agree that future weather trends include higher average surface temperatures. From Venice, Italy to Bangladesh, to the Seychelles Islands, the accelerated pace of coastal and island flooding worldwide shows no signs of abating. If the Greenland ice shelf melts away, we may not be discussing the prospects of saving any of those places, as they may already be slipping beneath the waves.

 

Since Katrina in 2005, the federal government has spent an estimated $125 billion in and around New Orleans. As a citizenry, we should now determine how much we plan to spend on any flood prone region. More important, what we wish to accomplish with those funds? As long as the option for rebuilding a full-sized, old style New Orleans is on the table, the cost may well be too high to bear. Currently, few of the local, state or federal stakeholders are willing to downscale their ambitions. Instead, they attempt to resolve the issue with public proclamations, featuring new and soon to be inadequate levees. Dubbed “The Great Wall”, one new storm surge barrier reminds me of the original Great Wall of China. Astronauts report that the original Great Wall is the only manmade structure easily visible from the International Space Station. History showed that those massive bulwarks did little to prevent nomadic groups from entering the Chinese Empire. Likewise, the new Great Walls will not fully protect New Orleans from category-five hurricanes.

 

Extensive dredging and reworking of the watercourses throughout the Mississippi River Delta have made defending New Orleans more difficult. After it snakes through the city, the Mississippi River deposits almost none of its silt in shallow water. Instead, the river rushes past New Orleans on a fast trip to the Gulf of Mexico. Bypassing any remaining wetlands, the silt plunges deep into the Gulf. On its descent to the seafloor, the silt releases a toxic mixture of fertilizer and chemicals. Suspended in the water column above the silt beds is a vast hypoxic dead zone. Not even bacteria can survive in its oxygen-depleted environment.

 

In June 2010, the federal government dedicated over $14 billion to rehabilitation of Louisiana wetlands. At the same time, rumor had it that President Obama supported a redirection of the Mississippi River as a mechanism for providing silt to those wetlands. To accomplish that goal, he might order the COE to flip-flop the water delivery ratios at the Old River Control Structure. New Orleans would henceforth receive huge amounts of silt, but far less water. Concurrently, the Atchafalaya River would take its place as the terminal distributary of the Mississippi River. Upon settling downstream from New Orleans, the newly redirected silt would naturally rebuild fisheries, bayous and marshes. In turn, the larger wetlands would form a natural storm surge barrier for the city.

 

Only the Mississippi River can discharge the silt volume required to rebuild the wetlands. If humans or Nature can slow the velocity of the river, soils from more than a dozen states might begin to precipitate out near New Orleans. Only then would the river become a useful tool for rebuilding the wetlands of the Mississippi River Delta. If ever there was a good argument for letting Nature take her course, this may be it.

 

As a cultural landmark and a great historical city, I love New Orleans. Sadly, it has now become a poster child for Atlantean mythical thinking. As a society, we must be willing to create an infrastructure and investment strategy for New Orleans that has finite goals and limits. What budgetary amount we agree upon is less important than being realistic about our attempts to control Nature. Once realism returns to the process, scientists and engineers can combine efforts and create appropriate defenses for core locations and critical functions throughout the region.

 

Although almost no one wants to hear it, New Orleans should utilize its lowest lying and most vulnerable areas as storm surge basins. After relocating low-income residents to safer areas, the city could afford to sacrifice low-lying areas to flooding, while protecting and preserving a more defensible city core. Ultimately, it will be less expensive to provide a Brad Pitt House in a new neighborhood for each low-lying family than to leave entire neighborhoods in peril. Once the lowest lying residents move out, those areas could become parks or urban farms. With no fulltime residents in harm’s way, the cost of future flood protection and reconstruction would be far lower.

 

Any legitimate plan for New Orleans must recognize the near inevitability of storm surge and river related flooding. Even with a pragmatic plan, rather than a political one, there is no guarantee that a great flood will not inundate New Orleans. The strategy that I suggest would allow a smaller city to survive longer than the current “full city” strategy, while saving both money and the environment in the process.

 

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By James McGillis at 01:43 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link

The Story of Atlantis - Myth or Fact? - 2011

 

The Story of Atlantis - Myth or Fact?

Chapter One

What do the Lost City of Atlantis, the Space Shuttle Atlantis and New Orleans, Louisiana have in common?” In this series of four articles, we shall discover how each of their stories intertwines with our own.

Soon to be retired from service, the Space Shuttle Atlantis completed its penultimate mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2010. During that mission, Atlantis delivered a nine-ton Russian habitation module. That new section added cooling capacity and expanded living space within the existing Russian module.  

In July 2010, an ammonia-coolant pump attached to the outside of the ISS failed. The loss of that pump cut cooling capacity inside the U.S. module by half. If necessary, the improved Russian module could have provided life-sustaining shelter for the crew. In order to escape that fate, the crew powered-down all nonessential services. During three spacewalks, conducted over several weeks, two crew members attempted to replace the critical assembly. Not including preparation and recovery time, the third and final spacewalk lasted over seven hours. 

While conducting an earlier spacewalk, ISS astronauts had encountered leaky coolant connections. Upon reentering the vehicle, frozen ammonia crystals adhering to their spacesuits vaporized, creating a poison gas. During the 2010 pump replacement, astronauts observed ammonia crystals emanating like snowflakes from coolant quick-disconnects. In the vacuum of space, the astronauts became gravitational bodies massive enough to attract those tiny crystals. After the earlier contamination event, NASA put new procedures in place. Spacewalkers must now remain outside until sunshine evaporates any adhered ammonia crystals. At the rate of 15.7 orbits of Earth each day, the crew never waits long for another sunrise at the ISS. 

After 2006, a limited number of shuttle missions remained before retirement of the fleet. Using prudent planning, that year mission planners positioned four replacement coolant pumps on board the ISS. After shuttle missions conclude in late 2011, only Russian, or contracted rockets will visit the ISS for at least the following four years. Adequate spares on-board were an appropriate hedge against the need for a resupply via disposable rocket.  

On the third spacewalk of August 2010, the crew successfully replaced the failed pump. If the other functional pump had failed in the interim, heat damage to the ISS was a significant risk. Now we realize that NASA was a single failed-pump away from ordering evacuation of the U.S. Module. Later, calm-voiced NASA’s spokespeople belied the seriousness of the situation, discussing the pump replacement as if it were routine.

With electrical power and cooling capacity reduced for over two weeks, the ISS environment became warmer and darker. Not ironically, that is also happening here on Earth. With a steady increase in human-created carbon emissions floating in our atmosphere, particulate haze further darkens Earth's now warmer sky.

With crew safety uppermost in their minds, NASA and its international partners endeavor to keep the ISS functioning. Unlike the level of public interest during the Space Race, few of us today follow ISS news with regularity. As astounding as spacewalks may be, activities on the ISS appear to happen in slow motion. If we look past the disarming calm of weightlessness, human activity in space provides excellent parallels for our lives on Earth.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis shares its name with the lost or mythical City of Atlantis. Those who believe that Atlantis once existed, call it “lost”. Those who believe that Atlantis was only a story, call it a “myth”. After studying the subject for myself, I believe that the Atlantean culture existed on Earth, ending about 12,000 years ago. During their prominence, the Atlantean elite developed an advanced understanding of crystals as power sources. Lost in the Atlantean deluge, some ancient scientific principles we only now rediscover, as aspects of new energy.

As it happened, hubris and greed were the seeds of Atlantean destruction. In ancient Atlantis, energy often behaved differently than it does on Earth today. After many generations of transcending the effects of friction and heat, the Atlantean elite did not believe that mechanical or thermal failure were possible. Therefore, they expected their mechanical and electrical devices to operate indefinitely. 

Ignored by the elite, rapid-onset global warming had changed the underlying energy principles here on Earth. Like wax melting down the inside of a candle jar, large areas of Atlantis slowly slipped beneath the ocean waves. As the oceans rose around them, the Atlantean elite paid little attention. Possessing both arrogance and supreme self-confidence, they believed that they controlled Nature, not the other way around.

For a while, pumps protected what parts of Atlantean culture remained. However, a relentless period of global warming had overstressed their environment. As Earth energies became hotter and denser, the laws of thermodynamics came fully into play. One by one, water pumps that had worked for millennia began to fail. Similar to the cooling pump failure on Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2010, each Atlantean pump that failed put additional stress on those remaining. Eventually, a cascade of failures brought all Atlantean pumps to a halt. Soon thereafter, the advanced civilization known as Atlantis vanished beneath ocean waves.  

Clinging to both their gold and old energy thinking, most of the Atlantean elite perished in the flood. The few surviving elite embedded knowledge in their DNA regarding their failures. Also embedded was their old addiction to power, with which they had controlled the Atlantean citizenry. In a balancing of fate, an almost equal number of non-elite citizens survived the fall of Atlantis. Although non-elite survivors carried no exploitation gene, they embedded genetic knowledge regarding human-caused disasters. Their progeny held an unspoken desire to avoid catastrophe. Their approach to life on Earth featured forethought and planning.  

Most humans alive today are descendants of Atlantean seed. Therefore, we have a natural predilection towards ‘elite think’, ‘citizen think’ or a combination of both. Both ancient and current elite thinkers exhibit hubris, greed and indifference toward their fellow humans. During World War II, the Nazi elite learned to disguise their message through doublespeak and inflammatory obfuscation, often dressed as entertainment. Through media promotion of their causes, the elite may try to confound, confuse or sedate us. However, each of us retains the ability to detect the ratios of Atlantean elite or Atlantean citizen energies present at any given time and place.  

While reading mass consciousness, we may compare current levels of greed and hubris with those of hope or caring. Where we fall along that scale, ranging from self-serving to selfless indicates how far we have traveled toward enlightenment. When critical systems on the ISS include plans for routine maintenance or replacement, it appears that we have learned our Atlantean lessons. When we observe inadequate planning, testing and operation of critical life-support systems on Earth, we see that Atlantean-elite thinking remains present in our culture. 

Each time we hear, “It can't happen here”, “failsafe” or “unsinkable”, we know that Atlantean elite-thinking is involved. By ignoring safety precautions, one tacitly accepts as truth the magical thinking of the Atlantean elite. By purposefully ignoring salient facts, humans continue to employ Atlantean elite-thinking in a self-serving way.  

On April 15, 2012, the unsinkable steamship Titanic will pass its one hundredth anniversary lying at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. In the 1958 Hollywood production of 'A Night to Remember', Eric Ambler’s screenplay alluded to the horror of death by drowning. In James Cameron’s top-grossing 1998 production of ‘Titanic’, an attractive young star freezes to death before our eyes. Fifty years from now, will yet another filmmaker refloat the Titanic and its Atlantean tale of folly?

More recently, greed and hubris caught up with the owners and operators of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Oil producer BP p.l.c. and its partners came to believe that they were immune to the laws of thermodynamics. In April 2010, while drilling off the coast of Louisiana, uncontrolled venting of hydrocarbon gas from a well resulted in an explosion and fire. Less than two days later, the twisted remains of the rig toppled to the seafloor. In addition to eleven deaths and many injuries that night, an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil poured into gulf waters before operators could seal the well.  

No single person understood how all of the safety systems on the Deepwater Horizon platform worked. Before the explosion, undocumented modifications to on-board safety systems had precipitated numerous false alarms. After extensive undocumented modifications, no one knew if the systems still worked in concert with each other. Even so, top executives in both the owning and the leasing corporations had faith that their machines would not fail. Besides, if a failure occurred, the blowout preventer was there to save the day. Contented that no real emergency might occur, rig operators silenced many of the alarms. Later that night, everyone on-board received a rude awakening. Imagine being the individual who silenced those gas alarms, later to find a nightmare of explosive reality threatening all on-board.  

The Atlantean-elite thinking prevalent on both the Titanic and the Deepwater Horizon resulted in epic sea disasters. Over the energy bridges of time and space, we can almost hear the calls of the few citizens of Atlantis who survived. After triggering as many phantom alarms as they could, our Atlantean citizen ancestors fell silent once again. 

Along with the fall of Atlantis, there was a world population crash. With slow rates of recovery, it was millennia before another advanced civilization arose on Earth. Post Atlantis, only cultures that embraced the “profit motive” could qualify as advanced civilizations. Since that time, Atlantean-elite thinking has combined with the profit motive to create countless scenes of human war, death and destruction. In the tradition of Atlantis, today’s old energy elites hide their real motives, including their lust for both power and profit. 

Read Chapter Two

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By James McGillis at 06:15 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (0) | Link

Ascension Made Easy - We Are Already Gone - 2008

 

Ascension Made Easy - We Are Already Gone

In winter, the Southern California Sun shines warm across the land and sea.  Until the next rain, each sunny day seems more beautiful than the previous.  When the Sun is out, our backyard becomes a garden paradise, where we find the keys to fulfillment of our dreams. 

 

Directing one’s own ascension is a simple process.  If you are unfamiliar with the tenets of new energy, the Crimson Circle Channel Library is a good place to start.  Click on the current series to find Geoffrey Hoppe’s latest channelings of Adamus Saint-Germain.

 

Another Source of new energy information is Esther Hicks, channeling a group of non-physical entities called Abraham.  The Teachings of Abraham website is free to all. 

 

“The Daily Motivator”, from Ralph Marston, links to a multimedia slideshow that is focused on new energy.  Six days each week, Ralph publishes a short story of hope and inspiration. A full year's subscription is still only fifteen dollars. 

 

Eckhart Tolle’s classic, “The Power of Now” is a compelling read.  After completing that book, read Tolle’s “A New Earth”.  Although Tolle is human, he writes in The Masters’ voice. 

 

While reading or listening to the voices of Abraham, Marston, Tobias or Tolle, we access an evolving new consciousness.  Is it time for new energy to resonate within each of us? 

 

As human beings, we are artistic in Nature.  As we reach out with our dreams, do they manifest as expected?  That is a trick question, for the answer is always, “Yes”.  If we expect the worst, that is what we will get.  If we halfheartedly believe in our dreams, our hearts create a netherworld, without love or fulfillment.  In that sense, we are the creators of our own destinies. 

 

The artist’s role is to allow the artistic self to flourish in this life.  If we stifle human feelings and desires, our Jungian “Shadow Self” will step forward as the artist.  Law of Attraction tells us that what we think about most, consciously or not, shall manifest.  Not unlike an Ancient Greek carving that shows a snake swallowing its own tail, the protests of an “anti-artist” human become, intrinsically, artistic expression.

 

As children in the 1950s, we heard news that Watson & Crick had parsed out human DNA.  Suddenly, everyone was talking about genes.  As our inner child grew up, we assumed that human DNA was immutable.  Charles Darwin's theory of evolution reinforced what geneticists told us.  At conception, they said, chance ruled the recombination of our parental DNA.  Except for the effects of mutagens, such as radioactivity, scientists said that we would live and die with our selfsame personal genome.

 

Also in the 1950s, scientists told us that the average human utilizes only ten percent of his or her brain.  That pessimistic assessment embarrassed us into thinking that we suffered from deficient minds.  Since we manifest what we think about most, humanity’s acceptance of diminished mental capacity created for us a spiritual glass ceiling.  We started at ten percent brain-function and we expected to die at that same paltry level.

 

Since it takes only three percent of our DNA to constitute a functioning human body, scientists once considered ninety-seven percent of our DNA to be "junk".  Intuitively, it makes no sense that human DNA should waste so much of our genetic makeup.  With Her penchant for economical modeling of life forms, Nature would not carry a load that is 97% junk.  Still, most humans believe that DNA transmutation is as unlikely as increasing our brainpower.

 

Whether or not we choose our parents at conception, we arrived in our current time-space reality with a limited component of expressed DNA.  Group consciousness, which we refer to as “They”, told us that fertilization of the human egg had locked in our DNA before birth.  “They”, however, were ignorant of new energy potentials.  As we raise human consciousness, each of us may express our DNA as desired. 

 

As you read this passage, stop for a moment and gently clasp your hands over your head; then stretch your arms back to the limits of your comfort range.  Did something inside you feel good?  That indescribable feeling coincides with DNA activation, and a sympathetic release of new energy. 

 

Now, take a several deep breaths.  What, if anything, did you feel this time?  Was your incremental release of new energy higher or lower during the second exercise?  If your energy level rose, that demonstrates the optimism with which you face the future.  If your energy diminished, or if you stubbornly refused to breathe, you may still have room to improve your outlook on life. 

 

Our desire is to allow a lifting of our personal energy state.  Each day, we start wherever our point of attraction may be, then quest upward towards optimism, bliss and eternal happiness.  When we are optimistic, the artistic or Shadow Self shall flourish.  If we allow optimism, we realize that better-feeling thoughts are always available to us.  With a little practice, we begin to create patterns in our lives that lead us toward our dreams. 

 

One way to bring about change is by offering gratitude to All that Is.  As our emotions well up, and then effervesce, we open an energy bridge to the universe.  Since our effervescent agent is oxygen, conscious breathing provides fuel for our ascension process.  To access new energy, all that we need do is gently stretch our muscles, sit quietly and then breathe.  As we “still our minds”, our hearts become free to create in unending love for All that Is.  In accordance with the Law of Attraction, the universe reflects the love of All that Is back to us.

 

Whether taking a deep breath or stretching one’s muscles, there are several reasons that we feel our well-being.  Rhythmic breathing, combined with stretching allows our DNA to express itself within our physical, emotional and spiritual bodies.  Our vortex of expressed DNA then opens a portal to higher consciousness. 

 

As we surrender, we allow our DNA to express itself towards our fate or destiny.  Law of Attraction says that our dominant energy state, conscious or not, becomes our point of attraction.  By allowing our DNA to change “at will”, we evolve in support of our most prevalent thoughts.  Once a thought is “thought upon”, it becomes part of the universal library of thought.  The artist’s role is to venture beyond current consciousness, discovering the magic of the "now moment".  When the artist shares that moment, the cycle is complete. 

 

If the number of artists seeking change is equal to, or greater than the square root of one percent of a total population, consciousness will move towards that new mode of thought.  Enlightened thoughts carry with them a higher level of vibrational energy than do “negative thoughts”.  Because of their vibrational signature, only positive or enlightened thoughts express themselves as new energy. 

 

As more humans accept the concept of new energy, desire for positive change leads to ever-faster manifestation.  In September 2007, an energy shift created a Quantum Leap of energy on Earth.  A small number of like minded and optimistic individuals had requested that positive change.  In so doing, their individual and collective energy created a potential for change.  Since all humans are coequal co-creators on Earth, it was appropriate for that small group to lead humanity toward new energy and a New Earth. 

Watson and Crick gave us the language of DNA, with its tri-nucleotide codons, designated by the letters AGCT.  In so doing, they helped open a new field of human research.  The past fifty years of genetic science coincided with a spiritual reawakening on Earth.  On many subjects, scientific experimentation and spiritual thought converged.  Self-activation of DNA became possible for the first time since the fall of Atlantis.  No longer were we restricted to our birth-complement of DNA.  Through conscious thought, we may now experience evolution in this lifetime.

 

As we saw with the 2007 Quantum Leap, even a miniscule sample of a given population can precipitate a population-wide shift in consciousness.  Belief in the transmutability of DNA has proceeded beyond the tipping-point, thus allowing a shift in human consciousness.  As “They” say, this free-DNA information will soon become common knowledge. 

 

Credits: Sacred Geometry images are from the Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck, by artist Francene Hart.  Celestial Images are from the Astronomy Picture of The Day website.  All other photographs are by the author. 

 

This is Part 2 of the Theory of Everything. Return to Part 1 or go forward to Part 3 of this four-part story.

 

In Love, light and Life.

Email James McGillis 

By James McGillis at 10:27 AM | Personal Articles | Comments (0) | Link

Visit Atlantis During The Fall - 2008

 

Visit Atlantis During The Fall

Before we begin, there is time for each of us to take a deep breath, so please do so.

 

Did you find yourself consciously breathing, as we requested?  If so, please read on, as there may be something of interest here for you.  If not, we suggest that you move to another topic, as this information may not be timely.

 

Is it a cliché to say that we live in a time of change?  In the 1960s, young people embraced the concept of change.  With their sheer force of numbers, the baby boomers expected change.  One by one, the boomers’ heroes and leaders departed, leaving us on our own for almost forty years. 

 

Picture, if you will, a curved “energy bridge”, stretching from the 1960s to the present day.  In our imagination, the bridge looks something like Rainbow Natural Bridge, in Southeastern Utah.  If we could convert energy into an arch of solid stone, the flow pattern would follow a similar curve.  With our bridge, the complimentary curve of energy hidden beneath the Earth’s surface is its “shadow”.  As the human mind joins both halves of the energy bridge, a fossilized torus appears, half-buried in the Earth. 

 

Do extraterrestrials arrive on Earth in UFOs?  Advanced, high-vibrational entities visiting Earth for the first time would more likely arrive here as energy objects, spilling from one dimension into another.  Why waste the time to manifest as physical entities, except to let humanity know that they are here? 

 

For most humans, seeing is the first step toward believing.  In times of need, the universe sends comets, asteroids, meteoroids and even human-made satellite parts to Earth.  For example, as the Moon set in the predawn sky on February 23, 2009, it formed a remarkable conjunction with Mercury, Jupiter and Mars.  The next night, Saturn and Comet Lulin converged in the constellation Leo, separated by only two degrees of arc.  At the same time that Comet Lulin made its closest approach to Earth (38 million miles), four of Saturn's moons transited the disk of the ringed planet. 

 

On March 2, 2009, newly discovered Asteroid 2009 DD45 came to within 72,000 km of Earth.  That is only twice the height of a geostationary communications satellite.  The asteroid measured 30 to 40 meters across, similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908.  When The Ancients spoke about “seeing the light”, the light always shone from above, enlightening any seers gazing up from Earth.

 

When such celestial events occur in rapid succession, fearful humans often refer to end-of-days scenarios.  They believe that a wrathful God is about to put an end to the experimental greenhouse known as Earth.  A cataclysmic end may indeed be waiting for them, but such an outcome is not preordained for all of humanity.  If some wish to redeploy their spirits in a blaze of glory, such a fate is theirs to choose.  All we ask is that they depart on their own, rather than demanding that we go with them.  For reasons related to Law of Attraction, a relative few will choose to go.  Watch your local TV news for details regarding unconscious humans trying to kill both themselves and those they once called "loved ones". 

 

Returning to our stone arch torus, we see that it represents the energy signature of an ancient comet, half-buried in the surface of the Earth.  In the time of Atlantis, requests of critical importance emanated from humans on Earth.  Both then and Now, human consciousness asked for help with the future viability of terrestrial life.  As Atlantis teetered on the brink, cometary visitations coincided with a shift in human consciousness.

 

Intuition tells us that in the time of Atlantis, human-made changes threatened Gaia, our Mother Earth.  In the run-up to the demise of Atlantis, there were earthquakes, fires, famine and finally, a great flood.  The Atlantean elite, unchecked by the overall population, influenced or precipitated each of those calamities. 

 

Acting in a way that defined the word “hubris”, the elite believed that they controlled both their own destiny and the destiny of the Earth.  As they expanded their powers, Atlantian-elite belief systems challenged Gaia’s role as protector, nurturer and spiritual mother to all life on Earth.  Neglecting their feelings in favor of their overdeveloped brainpower, the smug, self-righteous elite believed that they controlled Source Energy.

 

If Galileo’s telescope had then existed, Atlantians could have seen that both Venus and Mars had once exhibited thriving physical life forms.  As the elite attempted to disrupt or re-channel energy flow on Earth, they remained ignorant of earlier cataclysms on both Mars and Venus. 

 

The sheer terror emanating from Atlantis at its time of destruction created an enduring, humanity-wide amnesia.  The Earth itself survived, but the exercise of unbridled power had destroyed Atlantis, then the world’s most advanced civilization. 

 

As the veil between dimensions now thins, we see that current human activities again risk the destruction of life on Earth.  Will our consciousness allow us to learn a lesson from what science tells us is a mythical Atlantis?  In this lifetime, most of us will participate in and witness the answer to that question.

 

Although energy has shifted and consciousness has evolved since the days of Atlantis, humans still tend toward self-delusion.  If the ongoing burning of fossil fuels will destroy our reproductive viability, why do we still discuss our choices in terms of least-cost analysis?  As the Atlantians discovered, there is only one measure of cost, and that is the cost of our human lives.

 

Today, most humans see money as both their security and their salvation.  In their unrelenting quest for more, humans injure all life on Earth.  Students of Earth sciences believe that the planet may now be at the tipping-point of its viability. 

 

Until quite recently, biodiversity mattered little to humankind.  As long as we could dominate all other species, we thought that we were safe.  Has the real endgame yet begun?  Most Atlantians believed that they too were in their halcyon days.  Their lust for power over all dominions precipitated surges of energy like none ever seen, before or after that time.  As energy bridges disintegrated under the strain, terrestrial events took over and destroyed Atlantis, casting its remnants asunder.

 

Near the end, a few Atlantians offered Gaia a heartfelt cry of love.  In response to those poignant yearning, comets rained down upon the Earth, carrying within their ethereal bodies both new water and new life forms.  Gaia engulfed Atlantis, subducting it and composting it into the very fossil fuels we now burn.  The scant amount of human genetic material that survived the flood was scattered to other parts of the world.

 

The deluge of Atlantis is a classic case of new energy arriving on Earth encapsulated in life-giving water.  Until then, the land area and the ocean's surface area were nearly equal in size.  After the cometary deluge, water covered most of the Earth’s surface, including much of Pangaea, where Atlantis once stood.  Today, time and the Atlantic Ocean hide any trace of its earlier namesake, Atlantis.  After the breakup of Pangaea, entire continents floated away on beds of magma, creating what we now call the seven seas.

 

As recently as the 1960s, scientists distrusted the concept of Plate Tectonics.  They clung to their beliefs, despite the fact that any school child could see that the landforms on either side of the Atlantic fit together like puzzle pieces.  Such an anomaly was mere coincidence, most scientists said.  Helping to perpetuate humankind’s collective amnesia, scientists again reminded us that Atlantis was myth, not history. 

 

In the twentieth century, humanity asked for resolution to the riddle of Atlantis and its connection, if any, to the newly discovered Mid-Atlantic Rift.  The rift is a geological feature, running north and south along the “separation zone”, between Old and New World plates.  It is also the child’s intuitive line of demarcation between the same landmasses. 

 

Answers regarding the origin of the rift and its activities came only after deployment of the underwater magnetometer; an electronic instrument that measures magnetic fields within the mantle of the Earth.  When the magnetometer matched energy-flow patterns embedded in rocks on both shores of the South Atlantic, it proved that Africa and South America shared a common heritage.  Thereafter, the concept of Plate Tectonics quickly achieved scientific acceptance.

 

At an intuitive level, a solution to the riddle of Atlantis came me.  Energy bridges may stand in counterpoint to human perception of linear time.  In early 2009, researchers found human-like footprints in Africa that are 1.5 million years old.  Stone tools from the Ethiopian Rift Valley date early human presence to 195,000 years ago.  What accounts for the 1.3 million year gap between those first stone tools and the earlier human-like footprints? 

 

During that hiatus, Atlantis disappeared, along with most other traces of ancient human activity.  After its cataclysmic destruction, Atlantis left no visible trace on Earth.  In their attempt to control Gaia, Atlantians precipitated energy surges that hastened the breakup of super-continent Pangaea.  Since the Earth’s crust is continuously recycled back into the mantle through a widening Mid-Atlantic Rift and a corresponding subduction zone in the Pacific Ocean, the energy fluxes at breakup accelerated Earth's natural recycling process. 

 

As Atlantis quickly slipped beneath the waves, the elite clung to their precious objects, in the vain hope that their rarity could buy salvation.  Holding their gold in a rising sea turned out not to be a fruitful path toward ascension.  To this day, Atlantis often feels far from our reach.  Because evidence of Atlantis is scarce and often contradictory, we treat the subject as a fable, similar to the concept of intelligent life on Venus or Mars.  Group consciousness claims that all three were false.  New consciousness knows that all three were real.

 

When Atlantis dematerialized, the Earth did not disappear along with it.  Through a process that Charles Darwin later identified as natural selection, a relative few Atlantians survived.  Taking advantage of an unprecedented influx of new energy, the survivors evolved in situ.  Since there was little time before the final sinking of Atlantis, only the more evolved individuals could adjust their DNA quickly enough to avoid physical drowning in the sea. 

 

Those, with sufficiently evolved ascension energies possessed equal measure of physical and non-physical traits.  With no apparent gap in their 3D time-space reality, they dematerialized in Atlantis, only to re-materialize in Ancient Egypt, the Himalayas, the Indus Valley and Mesoamerica, among other places.  Perhaps because of their unexpected and inexplicable materialization, they gained recognition as “The Masters”.

 

Why did The Masters survive the deluge of Atlantis, when the elite did not?  In Atlantis, The Masters had led humanity’s cry for salvation, and in so doing, they attracted new energy to Earth.  Their mastery was unique in human experience; slipping away from Earth’s time-space reality, and then rematerializing elsewhere.  The arriving comets opened energy bridges to their chosen destinations.  Large doses of new energy infused their beings, allowing them to become role models for humanity.  The visible arc of their cometary benefactors led to their other moniker, The Archangels. 

 

The Masters arrived in their new cultures manifest in what the Abrahamic Religions call an angelic state of being.  As such, their enlightened spirits outshone their physical forms.  In order to integrate with their new societies, The Masters quickly shed most of their non-physical attributes.  As generations passed, humanity forgot that a large part of its genetic makeup expressed itself as non-physical energy.

 

Within an energy bridge, there are no physical impediments or time limits.  For example, consciousness from the 1960s finds its way to our present day, manifesting as new energy.  Likewise, new energy found its way from Atlantis to Ancient Egypt.  As we approach another crossroads for humanity, we call upon the Masters in each of us.  As descendents of the original Masters, our human DNA still contains the code for inter-dimensionality, time travel and the full expression of our souls. 

 

Beware of any “Master” who wishes to sell you a new belief system.  If your salvation costs money, you are dealing with a commercial religion, set up to arbitrate the relationship between you and Source.  As we know, there is no separation between you and Source, so association with such a group will not guarantee ascension or salvation.

 

It is not that new energy and money are anathema.  In fact, new energy can spawn an abundance of ideas, any one of which could “make money” while simultaneously serving All that Is.  Although cash may change hands in the process, it does so as a two-way gift, honoring both buyer and seller.

 

As humanity creates new consciousness, we spontaneously emit requests for divine inspiration.  As descendents of The Masters, we are inheritors of the ability to disassociate from the time-space continuum.  In order to discover our own potential, all we need do is to formulate, then ask our questions.  The poignancy of our questions determines how strongly they will lead toward manifestation.  Through this process, we shall receive necessary guidance to live, love and prosper on Earth. 

 

Credits: Sacred Geometry images are from the Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck, by artist Francene Hart.  Celestial Images are from the Astronomy Picture of The Day website.  All other photographs are by the author.

 

This is Part 1 of the Theory of Everything. Read Part 2 of this four-part story.

In Love, light and Life.

Email James McGillis

By James McGillis at 03:53 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (0) | Link