Unseen Bampton... and Beyond by nikstanbridge

Unseen Bampton... and Beyond

A look at what’s hidden, yet surrounds us every day

Grant aided by WODC

C o mm ty

Ba mp

uni

by Jane Wallis

c hive

A Bampton Archive Publication

£12

Unseen Bampton... and Beyond A look at whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hidden, yet surrounds us every day

C o mm ty

Ba mp

uni

by Jane Wallis

c hive Grant aided by WODC

A Bampton Archive Publication

t Ba mp

C o mm uni

c hive

A Bampton Archive Publication

Please visit www.bamptonarchive.org to view the extensive list of archive video and audio recordings, publications and exhibition catalogues. The website also features a large searchable archive of documents, photographs and artefacts relating to Bampton going back thousands of years. April 2018

Grant aided by WODC

The author acknowledges the respective copyright owners for the images and photographs used.

BCA-45/A April 2018

Unseen Bampton... and Beyond A look at whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hidden, yet surrounds us every day

Based on a Bampton Community Archive exhibition held in the Vesey Room of the Bampton Library in April 2018

Unseen Bampton

odern industrialised people don’t have a comfortable relationship with the ‘unseen’. If ‘unseen forces’ are mentioned they are usually labelled ‘paranormal’, meaning over and above ‘normal’ - perhaps some are, but the overwhelming majority are natural and vital parts of our home planet. As our present ‘normal’ is decided by common sense, our five senses and what the media tell us, most topics in this exhibition do not fit into that definition. And to paraphrase Jane Austin: it is a truth, universally acknowledged that anyone who would wish to examine such topics must be in want of having their head examined. But remember how we laughed at school when told of those silly people who refused to look into Galileo’s telescope as they thought it was ‘Magic’ or those stupid people who didn’t know that the Earth was round. But now, it seems to preserve our ‘five’ and ‘common sense’, materialist and reductionist, current ‘world view’, we are forced to view our planet as soulless matter, and to avoid looking into the ‘telescope’ at all costs. Since Newton, and especially Darwin, humans believe they are the pinnacle of evolution, ‘we know everything, and what we say goes’. A look at the present problems in the world might cast doubt on this, but we are good at ignoring inconvenient truths as we push on regardless. But Einstein reminds us that those who set themselves up as “... judge of truth and knowledge are shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods’. The laughter of ridicule plays a part in this; we don’t want to appear stupid by believing in something that doesn’t fit with the current viewpoint; we need to make sure it is not us caught ‘seeing’ the ‘king’s new clothes’. But unless we actually involve ourselves with the evidence, we keep ourselves stupid by not wanting to appear stupid, as to quote Einstein again, “Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance”. We know the media’s ‘world view’ is suspect - think of all those owners, shareholders, politicians and advertisers that need to be accommodated, yet nevertheless, they are great persuaders of what goes; but what about the subjects they never feature? How do we decide the truth of something that is excluded from us, or at least only mentioned to be ridiculed? This exhibition will provide a very brief introduction to some of these ‘unseen’ areas and show that most are operating in Bampton and beyond.

Planetary Grids The Earth is crisscrossed with many unseen energy grids and lines, just as in a human body. This is not surprising because as Einstein said “Everything is energy and that is all there is to it.” before adding “This is not philosophy. This is physics”. Two of the better-known ones are the Curry and Hartmann grids, regular intersecting lines of energy forming two grid patterns that cover the entire globe. The Hartmann Grid, discovered by Ernst Hartmann in 1954, is associated with the Earth’s magnetic field and the ground grid pattern is about 2.5m by 2m, depending on geographical and compass location. The Curry Grid, believed to originate from cosmic radiation, is named after Manfred Curry, who published Wittmann’s earlier findings in 1952. This grid pattern is 3.5 m square and runs diagonally to the poles and the Hartmann Grid. 7

The Curry and Hartmann Grids of Earth Energy Humans perceive most of these EM frequencies indirectly, by their effects, rather than the frequencies themselves, so it is not surprising when the locations of ancient religious sites across the world are mapped, they are found to match some of the Earth’s grid patterns. Thereby showing humans have detected these energy lines and built on them for their most sacred places.

Those Old Straight Roads In Britain, it was Alfred Watkins who first brought attention to such ancient landscape alignments. In the ‘The Old Straight Road’ published in 1925, he outlined visible alignments consisting of both natural landscape features, such as hilltops and unusual rock formations, and human-made hillforts, churches and temples. As these linked many pre-historic sites Watkins felt it must have been part of a system that aided travel. Archaeologists dismissed this notion, arguing that if any line were drawn on the landscape, it would automatically clip many such features, and also that it would be a strange system that guided people over hilltops and not around them. So from the onset, in ancient knowledge researcher Robin Heath’s words, to them “leys were a mixture of a mare’s nest, a can of worms and a dog’s breakfast”. But the subject did not disappear just, unfortunately, came to a dead end as far as most academic archaeologists were concerned, but all manner of other disciplines such as engineers, landscape, and earth researchers continued with their investigations, and produced the body of knowledge that exists today. Further understanding came from cultures who still worked with the Earth’s energy, especially China and their ‘Dragon Lines’. Tapping into such ancient knowledge systems definitely proved humans had been aware of these energies and had built accordingly; and indeed still do so today, as that is what Feng Shui is all about. So it appeared only the West had lost this important knowledge of the workings of their home planet.

The St Michael Line John Michell, one of the most respected researchers in ancient and lost knowledge, said “certain powerful currents, lines of magnetism run invisibly over the surface of the Earth’, and it is “a ‘Geomancer’s’ task to detect these currents and interpret the influence they have on the land through which they pass”. And it was Michell who first envisioned the ‘St Michael’ Line. This long distance line follows the route of the ancient ‘Icknield Way’. One of the four ‘Royal Roads’ examined in Robert Plot’s ‘Natural History of Oxfordshire’ in 1677. He believed this road had been named for the Iceni tribe, but Robin Heath believes it is more likely to come from the Greek word ‘Ichnos’, meaning a trackway or the footprint of a traveller. The ‘Icknield Way’ takes the longest 8

diagonal path possible across the country from Hopton in Norfolk to just near St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, and it is aligned to both the ‘Beltane’ sunrise on May Day, and ‘Orion’s Belt’ in the sky.

The St Michael and St Mary Line Around the same time as Michell’s work, James Lovelock’s ‘Gaia’ theory was published, and many believed they were connected. Lovelock named his theory after the ancient Greek ‘Earth goddess’, but believed that modern science shows the planet to be a huge complex interconnected and selfregulating system. And furthermore, all living organisms on the Earth are part of this, in his words “ The Earth is more than a home, it is a living system, and we are part of it”.

Dowsing and Landscape Lines Certain people are sensitive and so strongly feel the energy in these lines, but they are mainly investigated by dowsing. Since the early 16th century when Martin Luther declared dowsing to be the ‘Devil’s work’ it has been viewed with suspicion, but it is a skill that has been used by humans as a means of extending their natural senses since the earliest of times. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus described the use of dowsing to find water in Scythia, and a silver coin struck in 936 AD shows a dowser in action over tin mines. Elizabeth I imported German dowsers to find metal resources in Britain and according to the late master dowser, Hamish Miller, Charles II demanded to know everything about the operation of the ‘Baguette Divinitoire’, which as he says, is a ‘splendid name for a dowsing rod’. And it is still extensively used today, not just by ‘New Agers’ but by many who make their living from the skill, as well as some of the biggest multinational corporations on the planet, including the petrochemical and utility industries. An article in The Guardian in November 2017 both proved this but also showed why companies prefer to keep quiet about its use, as the water companies involved were accused of allowing their 9

workers to use “medieval witchcraft practices”. Dean Burnett, editor of the ‘Guardian Science Blog’ wrote that dowsing is part of a “world awash with misinformation and bogus belief taking precedence over established fact”.

‘Mary’ is discovered and she meets her partner at ‘Node’ Points When Hamish Miller and landscape researcher Paul Broadhurst began investigating the ‘St Michael Line’, to their surprise, they found it was not a single line of energy, but just as in any modern electrical cable there was a ‘positive’ or ‘male’, and a ‘negative’ or ‘female’ charge. And they discovered these two lines ran along a kind of corridor in the general direction of the line. But as the energies moved through the land, they formed a kind of ‘Caduceus’: the ancient symbol of healing where two snakes weave around a central staff.

Caduceus Symbol Miller and Broadhurst also discovered, what they called ‘Node Points’, on the original line or ‘staff’. Places where the two (negative and positive) energies joined together before separating again. After each meeting, both energies had gained in strength, which gradually waned, until they reunited again to seemingly recharge themselves. ‘Dragon Hill’, near the ‘White Horse’ at Uffington, is a local node point on the ‘St Michael Line’.

‘Ying and Yang’ And just as in ‘Feng Shui’, which is based on the ancient Taoist belief that, although all things are essentially one, they are divided into the two polarities of Yin and Yang. It was found that each of the lines had their own defined territories, with the male ‘yang’ line travelling through the high places, such as hills and forts; and the female ‘yin’ line following the lower more hidden places such wells, springs and streams. 10

Taoist ‘Yin Yang’ symbol Miller and Broadhurst now realised they were rediscovering ancient lost knowledge. Our ancestors had to have known about these lines as they had dedicated churches to the male and female aspects accordingly, and often marked the entry or passage of the energy through the building by an ‘out of place’ carving of foliage or a ‘Green Man’ symbol.

Farming Energy Lines? We are getting used to seeing the Sun’s energies being ‘farmed’ by fields of hundreds of solar panels and people in the past ‘farmed’ these landscape energies. As Miller and Broadhurst followed the lines through the landscape they discovered the energies were attracted to hollow objects - sometimes something as small as sheep’s skull lying on a hillside would attract one of the lines. This led to the understanding that large hollow buildings in the proximity of these lines would do the same. Buildings like the ‘follies’ that were so popular with the 17th and 18th century aristocratic gentlemen.

That’s no folly! It seems they were not ‘follies’ at all. Others called them that, as it was deemed a ‘folly’ to waste so much money on vanity projects. But it was not vanity, but the direction and farming of energy into their houses and estates. Later follies became fashionable so it cannot be said that they all were built to attract energy, but enough are positioned on energy lines to show that not everyone had forgotten this ancient knowledge. And considering the expense involved, they must have thought it was worth their while.

‘That hill is in need of a tower!’ Our local ‘Faringdon Folly’ didn’t seem to fit as it was only opened in 1935, and the hill was bare before it was built, but according to the eccentric Lord Berners, it was ‘in need of a tower’. But it has always been an important site; a believed defensive position in the Iron Age, a castle in the first Civil War between Stephen and Matilda and ‘Cromwell’s Battery’ in the second. However, these follies perhaps explain many other confusing ancient buildings all over the world, including those strange round towers in Ireland where there are no sensible access places. 11

Timahoe Round Tower, Ireland

Geometry in the Landscape Things got more interesting when researchers discovered that some single landscape lines proved to be part of much wider geometrical patterns. For example, part of the ‘Michael and Mary Line’ defines part of the huge ‘Wessex Astrum’ (or star) recently discovered by Peter Knight.

The ‘Wessex Astrum’

‘House of the Queen’ David Wood’s 1984 discovery of huge geometric patterns in south-east France also showed other counties were involved. The pattern around Rennes Le Chateau, merged pentagonal and hexagonal symmetry, but the starting point had been an almost perfect pentagram of natural peaks, which had been made into a vast geometric landscape temple measuring over six miles. This fitted with other surveys showing how natural and built features had been modified into huge geometric patterns by human intervention. But for what purpose? A clue came from one of the youngest countries, as the city of Washington DC was found to be laid out in a similar way, and this time the architect was known.

Geometric Forms around Rennes Le Chateau, France

Geometric Forms in the layout of Washington DC, USA

Symbols of Power For this study it is interesting to note that this architect, Major Pierre Charles l’Enfant was a prominent Freemason, as were many of the founding fathers of the USA, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Symbols of nationhood are very important, and the United States has retained its Masonic symbolism (a pyramid, with a raised capstone, containing the ‘all seeing eye’) on every dollar bill. In contrast to Britain which has largely discontinued depicting ‘Britannia’ our ‘presiding spirit’, on our money. Although, as shown by these two coins, by 1797 our nation’s goddess had already been issued with a trident and conscripted into the Navy, and by 1933 her olive branch had gone, and she had been given a splendid martial helmet instead.

British 1797 ‘Cartwheel Penny’

British 1933 Penny

A further clue was that ancient ‘megalithic’ measurements had been used in the layout and architecture of key buildings in Washington DC. And it is believed this knowledge had come to the Masons via their links to the Knights Templars.

Knights Templar The ‘The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon’ better known as the ‘Templars’ originated in France in the 12th century, around the time of the first ‘Crusade’. The first members of this chivalric order were recruited from monks released from their monasteries, and their name refers to their main headquarters being close to the Temple of Jerusalem along with their work in the ‘Temple’ itself. The members of the order wore distinctive white or black surcoats emblazoned with the red cross of St George, usually in the Maltese cross form. There is an individual Templar link to Bampton, as a stone grave cover in St Mary’s is considered to be of Templar origin.

A Knight Templar

Protecting Pilgrims The order was founded with the declared aim of protecting pilgrims as they journeyed to the Holy Land, and although the individual knights maintained their vows of poverty, the order became very wealthy and therefore powerful. Indeed the first steps of the modern banking system largely grew out of their ‘bills of promise’, which allowed pilgrims to travel carrying ‘Templar Promissory Notes’ rather than money. This wealth and power are said to have been one reason why Philip IV of France, (who also owed them a considerable amount of money), outlawed and disbanded the order in 1307. Another charge was heresy, as amongst other things, they were accused of including the goddess ‘Sophia’, in their worship. But could wealth and heresy have been a convenient cover for their brutal suppression?

Friday the Thirteenth Philip used stealth to attack all the Knights in a single day, branding Friday 13th as unlucky for all time in the process. And as the Knights were tortured before being burned at the stake, he definitely wanted to find out what they knew, as well as get rid of them all. It is said that Philip was after information about the great treasure they were rumoured to have discovered in, or under, the Temple of Jerusalem. Could this treasure have been ancient knowledge, rather than actual treasure; in particular the secret art of manipulating power in the land. Especially as at that time ‘Sophia’ held a similar role as a goddess of ‘Earth Wisdom’ as ‘Gaia’ holds today. If so Philip would not have been happy to allow this to continue in his realm.

Rulers Certainly, in ancient China, where it seems they knew about such things, only the Emperor was allowed to build straight lines for his palace and environs. And there seems to be a clue to the linking of power and straight lines by the use of the word, ‘ruler’, for both. Perhaps the Templar’s were secretly ‘ruling’ Philip’s land, and he didn’t like it?

British Templars In Britain, the order was not disbanded until 1312, and they were not treated so brutally as the monks were just sent to various monasteries. These extra years would have allowed time for secret knowledge to be passed to other groups such as the ‘Masons’. That British Templars were in possession of the same landscape secrets can be seen by the use of local energy lines, and the geometric patterns around their land holdings, as in Temple Bruer, Lincolnshire.

Geometric shapes around Temple Bruer, Lincolnshire

Another ‘Temple’ is Revealed Further evidence that knowledge could have been the Templar’s treasure comes from John Michell’s surveying work on Jerusalem. He discovered the ‘Temple of Jerusalem’ need not refer to a single building, but to a huge ‘geometric landscape temple’ superimposed over the whole Holy City, which incorporated all the holy sites of the three main world religions. This would make sense of the rumours that it was ‘under the Temple’, where the Templar’s treasure was discovered.

John Michell’s Geometric Overlay over Jerusalem, from ‘Twelve Tribe Nations’ 2008 16

‘New Jerusalem’ Interestingly William Blake, the 18th-century artist, poet and visionary, who like Lovelock saw the Earth as a living entity (“Every rock is deluged with divinity”) referred to London as the ‘New Jerusalem’, as described by the vision by St John in the Bible’s Book of Revelation. And landscape researcher Christopher Street has discovered that London, just as Jerusalem, is also covered by a vast landscape temple covering over four hundred square miles.

‘Earth Star Temple’ This ‘Temple’ consists of many geometric shapes, but Street found the main features, of what he called London’s ‘Earth Star Temple’, to be two huge thirty pointed stars, set out on both natural and man-made features. When this ‘temple’ was first established is not known, but as later building continued to fit the pattern, it suggested that once established, it somehow became self-perpetuating. This sort of ‘strange attraction’ has been found in other areas, one example being the siting of power stations. Robin Heath found, almost without exception, modern power stations are sited on these energy lines, Didcot, on the St Michael Line, being a local example.

Christopher Street ‘London City of Revelation’

Christopher Wren But some people could have been in the know, as Christopher Wren, a notable Mason, was definitely a man with a mission with regard to the rebuilding work after the Great Fire of 1666. Records show Wren’s plans often differed markedly to what the Mayor and the Corporation of London wanted, and he often refused to be moved. This obstinacy went as far as actually hiding what he was doing during the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral. Perhaps Street’s discovery shows this was more than artistic vanity? But if true, that he was being thwarted by the City authorities implies the mercantile classes were not in possession of this secret knowledge at that time. 17

Very Ancient Knowledge When and where this knowledge first came from is not known, but the layout of Stonehenge shows that it was already in use in Britain over 5,000 years ago. This is well before the Druids, the priestly rulers of this country, are known to have existed. So even though Plato is reported as saying that ‘everything goes back to the Druids’, it seems it must have originated from even more ancient people.

Stonehenge ‘Outer Pentagonal Geometry’ Definitely, the Druids were keepers of this knowledge, but it was feared all lost when they were murdered by the Romans, especially as they only taught by rote, and kept no written records. But it seems some Druidic knowledge did survive to resurface later, or maybe there was another separate source of knowledge.

Inigo Jones Interestingly, the first written record of a geometric template overlaying Stonehenge comes from the architect Inigo Jones in 1655. A favourite of the aristocracy, Jones is also considered to be the first architect to have returned to the classical Greek and Roman rules of proportion and symmetry - which all contain the same principals of sacred geometry as Stonehenge. Could he have gained his knowledge from aristocratic families that had earlier sent members on Crusade, or perhaps his clients were Masons?

Gobekli Tepe Unfortunately, this sort of information is ignored by academic historians and archaeologists. And furthermore, they continue to hold what can only be described as a racist attitude towards our ancient ancestors. They refuse to consider them as other than skin wearing barbarians leading short and brutal lives. That certainly may have been the case for most, but the growing body of evidence, 18

especially around landscape surveying, proves that was not the case for all. But entrenched views are difficult to change, and in this subject, all evidence to the contrary (along with those who attempt to present it) are dismissed out of hand. But new evidence concerning the achievements of ancient people continues to emerge. Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is such a case. It is scientifically dated as 12,000 years old, making it a staggering 7,000 years older than Stonehenge. As usual, the site was first dismissed as a medieval graveyard, then dismissed again, as what was being unearthed did not fit the prevailing narrative that ancient humans were not capable of such things. But in this case, repeated scientific dating couldn’t be ignored, and this has forced back the historical time frame of human achievements.

Standing stone with relief carving from Gobekli Tepe, Turkey

Alexander Thom In Britain It fell to a professor of engineering, not archaeology, Alexander Thom, to force revised ideas about Stone Age people. Between the 1930‘s and 1970‘s he surveyed over 600 stone circles and other sites and found firstly, they were not true circles; and secondly, the layout of each site had been organised by precise geometry, involving Pythagorean 3,4,5, right angles (although that Greek postdated the sites by a millennium) and thirdly they all exhibited a single system of measurement, which Thom called the Megalithic Yard.

Ancient Surveying Skills - and More! Heath and Michell later showed that this use of the ‘megalithic yard’, of 2.72 feet, not only proved ancient people were using sophisticated measuring and surveying skills, but it also proved that they knew the measurements of the Earth, as these are encoded within this measure. Thom single-handedly changed the status of these sites from mere ‘sun worshipping temples’, to accurately surveyed and constructed working devices that charted and calculated the seasons and what was occurring in the heavens. Very important information for a subsistence farming economy. 19

Again this re-evaluation left blood on the floor, as Thom’s ideas were first ridiculed and denied, and his work checked by the renowned statisticians Broadbent and Hammersley and in Heath’s words ‘that most ferocious of mathematicians David George Kendal’. But his work stood up, and today the new area of study of ‘astro-archaeology’ exists. Unfortunately, with regard to the positioning of the stone circles in relation to earth energies, it is still the usual ‘motley crew’ of researchers of lost knowledge who are investigating the evidence and taking the usual ridicule for their pains.

First Avebury... Further work by John Michell on the siting of Avebury and Stonehenge built on Thom’s work, as (amongst many other things) he showed how the great British landscape temple of Avebury was first surveyed and sited and then sometime later Stonehenge was built in relation to it. He says Avebury’s siting was first ‘national’, being positioned almost halfway on the main axis of southern England, on the ‘Icknield Way’, (and ‘St Michael Line’) but secondly ‘International’ as it was ‘geodetic’ - to do with surveying and measuring the Earth”. He shows how the central enclosure of Avebury: “runs through the line of latitude that marks 1/7 of the Earth’s meridian or circumference through the Poles, starting at the equator”. In other words, he says “Avebury is at latitude 360/7, and its significance is therefore universal. It is the key site in Britain and the pivot of the geodetic system in which Stonehenge is a satellite”. Furthermore, Michell showed “the line of latitude passing through Avebury not only divides the earth’s meridian by its seventh part but also divides the 52nd degree of latitude in the proportion of 3 to 4. Or he says “to put it another way Avebury stands three-sevenths of the distance from the 51st to the 52nd parallel”.

John Michell’s diagram showing the 3 to 4 relationship of Avebury within the 51st and the 52nd Parallels (from The Measure of Albion, Heath and Michell, 2004) 20

...then Stonehenge Sometime later Stonehenge was carefully positioned at latitude 51 degrees and almost 11 minutes, which “means the distance due north to the line of latitude of 360/7 degrees is 15 minutes or one quarter of a degree or 17.27 miles”. Therefore Michell’s figures relating to the siting of Avebury and Stonehenge and the measurement of the earth’s polar radius are: 39,497142857 miles = the distance from latitude 360/7 to latitude 52 3,949.7142857 miles = earth’s polar radius.”

The Universal Language of Measurement Michell says: ”The key to Stonehenge is in its measures. As a universal temple, it was designed after the pattern of creation, combining in its structure the numbers, ratio, and harmonies by which the world was made. Also combined and made symmetrical within its plan are the movements of sun and moon and chronological records over ages”. One example Michell gives is how the diameter of the ‘Sarsen Stone Ring’ in Stonehenge, (as accurately measured by Flinders Petrie in 1778), is 28 Royal Yards, which can also be given as two royal Egyptian Cubits, or 96 Greek Yards, or 100 Roman Feet (the latter being an Etrurian and Cyclopean unit originally derived from Egypt). This not only shows there were many systems of ancient measurement all over the world but that they all have a single basis - the measurement of the Earth. Michell shows how a Royal Yard represents one sixth-millionth part of the Earth’s polar radius. And he says the Royal Cubit measuring system was used by Eratosthenes (the librarian at Alexandra in the third century BC) when he measured the circumference of the earth as 252,000 stades, with a stade measuring 500 feet”. And it is known that he had been building on work done in the 6th century BC by Thales of Miletos, who said the world was a sphere. So our ancestor’s surveying and measuring skills go back a very long way.

The Metre misses the mark and loses the link We retained our link with the dimensions of our planet until very recently. According to Michell, the previous British (or Roman Imperial) measure, of the foot and mile are “basic units in the systemic code of measures whose relics are the traditional units of length in every part of the world”. Unfortunately, we have now lost this link with the use of the modern metric system. It was supposed to be linked to our planet, by measuring a four-millionth part of the Earth’s circumference through the poles, but somehow the French survey got the numbers wrong and produced a metre that is too short. Since then it has been adapted several times with the result that Europe and the USA now have their own versions. Perhaps our intended breaking of links with Europe might allow us to return to our old Imperial system, or correct the French sums and have a new ‘British’ metre, but it might be going a bit too far to return to the old Druid system of counting in base 12. This too brief synopsis has probably confused more than clarified, but complete details and full explanations are given in Heath & Michell’s book ‘The Measure of Albion - the Lost Science of Prehistoric Britain’, published in 2004.

Lunation Triangles There are other geometric patterns from the Stonehenge site that are linked to the wider landscape. Robin Heath discovered the site is ‘precisely and ideally related’ to a spot at the centre of Lundy island. And “a right angle at Lundy, generates a line that passes due north over the sacred island of Caldey and continues to the Preseli district (where the bluestones came from), and a line from there to Stonehenge completes a Pythagorean triangle with sides of 5,12 & 13”.

Stonehenge, Lundy & ‘Bluestone’ Site from ‘The Measure of Albion, Heath & Michell, 2004

‘Station Stones’ triangle within Stonehenge, from ‘The Measure of Albion, Heath & Michell, 2004 22

Heath explains this is a lunation triangle, as is the triangle formed by the rectangle formed from the Station Stones inside Stonehenge. Heath then explains what these ‘Lunation’ triangles are all about and explains how to make an easy ‘Astronomy on a Rope’ tool that will allow you to predict the dates of full and new moons as well as eclipses.

‘The Lunation Triangle’ from The Measure of Albion, by Heath and Michell pub.2004

Why on earth did they lug those stones so far? The energetic piezoelectric nature of the bluestones and Heath’s discovery of this lunation triangle marking the bluestone site makes better sense than the usual: “80 bluestones were lugged to Wiltshire from high in the South Wales mountains, we don’t know why the builders undertook such a huge challenge; presumably the stones or their place of origin were of some great religious importance”. Ironically this comes from Jo Marchant’s 2008 book on ‘Decoding the Heavens’ about the finding of a different kind of lost knowledge via the decoding of the Antikythera machine; a clockwork computer that was a calendar, astrolabe and planetarium rolled into one. This machine also pushes back the boundaries of human endeavour, being reliability dated, to the first century BC.

Sacred Geometry - the ‘Unseen’ geometry supporting our Material World Street adds that the ‘Stonehenge Station Stones’ also form a perfect Golden Mean rectangle … “and only at Stonehenge’s precise latitude would these alignments create this exact geometric shape”. So it seems our ancestors knew what they were doing. This is unseen ‘Sacred Geometry’ at work, which as we have seen, Stonehenge has in abundance, and this geometry underpins everything. As Street says it “ represents recurring fundamental patterns upon which the structure of the Universe and the material world is built, and it can be found everywhere from the sub-atomic scale to the galactic”. It is the study of how these forces of nature shape the world”.

The Pentagram Sacred Geometry is too large and complex a subject to go into detail, but one example of the geometric building blocks of creation is the pentagram, which also happens to be the best expression of the ‘Golden Mean’, as the intersecting lines divide each other in perfect Golden Mean proportions. Human proportions fit into a pentagram as da Vinci’s famous 1490 (redrawing of the first century BC) Vitruvian man shows.

‘Vitruvian Man’ redrawn by da Vinci’s with an overlay of a pentagram 24

Pythagoras used a pentagram as the symbol of his school in 500BC and had ‘God is a Geometer’ as the school’s working tenet. And Plato wrote ‘Let none ignorant of geometry enter here” for his school. And of course, any ‘Witchfinder’ knew that the sacred energy contained within a pentagram was capable of being directed. Maybe this explains that pentagonal geometry surrounding the White House, and that flags of many countries, including the USA and China, contain pentagrams Street explains how “architects of all ages and cultures employed the general principals of sacred geometry to provide a hidden foundation for the external form of all kinds of religious monuments” He says “Egyptian, Roman and Greek temples, thousands of years and miles apart, all demonstrate the proportions of the Golden Mean in their design. But all three primary energy patterns of the hexagram, the pentagram, and the octagon were also utilised ...master masons were well aware of the geometric circuitry of divine powers”. Our ancient ancestors understood and used this knowledge. It would seem they first created openair landscape temples, then geometric ground plans for ‘built’ sacred buildings, such as Stonehenge, which continued to our ancient churches and great cathedrals. And it seems the Templars may have played their part by rediscovering some of this ‘lost’ knowledge and putting it to work once again.

Written Evidence That our ancestors were capable of such things is often dismissed, but there is written evidence. Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de bello Gallico of 51BC recorded that the Druids “discuss and teach youths about the heavenly bodies and their motions, the dimensions of the world and countries, natural science, and the immortal gods”. And he also recorded that the shape of the main British island was triangular and listed its dimensions as given to him by “the natives”. No wonder Plato says all things go back to the Druids.

Wars and Invasions Create all Manner of Destruction Unfortunately, Caesar’s survey paved the way for the later Roman invasion, which destroyed so much ancient knowledge, not only in Britain but wherever their empire extended. Luckily the Islamic Arab world saved much, and as records show the Templars early ‘billet’ had been the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and not the Jewish Temple, in Jerusalem, which may account for their re-discovery of this knowledge. Whatever the nature of the knowledge, it would have been difficult for the Templars to acknowledge, as after all, the Crusades were all about the destruction of these so-called ‘infidels’ - not to recognise the importance of their record-keeping and scholarship. But they seem to recognise the link in their buildings, such as the circular western nave they added to their headquarter church in London. And it is interesting that links with ‘Temples’ remain, as the Templars headquarters of 1185 is the present home of the ‘Inner’ and ‘Middle’ Temples of Law. It would seem more of this ‘lost’ knowledge emerged later to kick-start the European Renaissance with that word meaning ‘re-birth’ - therefore a ‘re-birth of old knowledge.

The Belinus and Elen Line What has all this to do with ‘Unseen Bampton’? Well, Bampton didn’t have to build a huge tower or folly, to attract Earth energy, it is directly placed on the important ‘Belinus’ long-distance energy line Gary Biltcliffe rediscovered this long distance energy line, and with his partner, Caroline Hoare spent many years dowsing its entire length. They felt Belinus was an apt name as this 5th century 25

BC, British king continued the construction of British roads which his father King Molmutius had initiated. These ancient British Kings are often dismissed as myths such as King Arthur, but Molmutius passedlaws that protected travellers on these roads and these still form the basis of English Common law today. Their survival largely due to Gildas translating them into Welsh and then King Alfred translating them into Anglo Saxon, to allow him to incorporate them into his own laws.

The Spine of Albion, from The Spine of Albion, Biltcliffe and Hoare, 2012 26

There were several ‘surveyed’ long distance roads in Britain before the Roman invasion, including the already mentioned four ‘Royal’ roads of Watling Street, Fosse Way, Ermine Street and Icknield Way. The Romans just adapted these and others already in existence, as well as building others. Biltcliffe named the female aspect, Elen, who amongst other things, is still remembered for the roads her father King Cole, (another one of those kings!) built linking one fortress to another. These roads are still called ‘sarn Elen’ or ‘roads of Elen’ in Wales today. The first evidence Biltcliffe had of the Belinus line was when he was visiting a stone circle in the north of England, and at the exact moment of the Summer Solstice, he noticed a flash of energy and a ‘scorch’ line heading out of the circle and into the landscape beyond.

Recharging the Energy Lines in France and Bampton It is well documented that Winter and Summer Solstices ‘charge up’ energy lines in the landscape. Howard Crowhurst, who has spent many years investigating the standing stones of Carnac in France, recalled something similar during the making of a documentary. He said the ‘charge’ at the exact moment of the Solstice flattened all the batteries, including the spares, of what had previously been a very bored and disinterested camera crew! Something similar happened during a family stroll in Bampton just after the Winter Solstice in 2013. Our ‘city’ daughter suddenly cried out as ‘something terrible was happening to her legs’. For once she was relieved to hear that it was just the ‘lively’ energy lines due to the Solstice. She was further reassured when we dowsed the edges of the line for her (grown from the usual three to six feet), so she could ‘jump’ in and out to feel the effects for herself. Unseen Bampton at work, but no wonder our ancestors made much of the solstices, yet today they largely pass unnoticed.

Belinus meets Bampton Before their research on the Belineas Line was published, Biltcliffe gave a lecture at the ‘Megalithamania Conference’ in Glastonbury (a term coined by John Michell as “relatively harmless but quite incurable”) where he mentioned the line ‘crossed the Thames at Tadpole Bridge’. Questioned later he confirmed that this was the Tadpole Bridge near Bampton. And he reported ‘the male branch of the line travelled through Bampton’, and ‘the female aspect travelled through Kelmscott’, the Summer home of William Morris, (which seems apt given the preoccupation of the Pre-Raphaelites and their group portraying the Virgin Mary). And yes, he did confirm the male line travelled through Faringdon Folly on the way, so Lord Berner’s remark at the planning subcommittee that ‘The great point of the tower is that it will be entirely useless’ was not correct, whether he knew it or not.

What does Belinus visit? Faringdon folly.

Further details of the route had to wait until 2012 and the publication of Biltcliffe and Hoare’s work. This showed the male line came into Bampton via ‘Ham Court’, before visiting 27

St Mary’s (previously dedicated to the male St John the Baptist) taking in two very old worn ‘green men’ images on its way as it passed through the South Door towards the tower and out the North Door. Then a tumulus in Lew, a moat at Caswell Farm, Nr Curbridge, and then on to Minster Lovell, and the Rollrights. Later additional map dowsing showed that after St Mary’s, Belinus follows a line that crosses Queen St, before passing through the Beam area. Which is interesting as work by Dr John Blair showed how four religious buildings: ‘the Deanery’, (containing an early Chapel); ‘a lost chapel’ in Queen (previously Catte) Street, and ‘Beam Cottage’, which had previously been a Chapel dedicated to St Andrew (described later as a Hermitage) create the same East-West axis across the village.

Elen’s Route

The Belinus Line in the Bampton area from ‘Spine of Albion, 2012

The female line passes through Little Coxwell, Great Coxwell Barn, Kelmscott, Longford, Kencot, Shilton, Burford, Shipton under Wychwood and up to Little Rollright, before joining the male at a node point just by the Rollright Stones.

Dr Blair’s plan showing the East-West Axis of religious buildings in Bampton 28

Humans Recharging the Lines That Bampton is situated on a very active energy line goes a long way towards explaining why Bampton is the ‘energetic’ and lively place it is. However, Bampton people, also magnify the effect of the energy, as these energy lines don’t just respond to planetary happenings but also to human consciousness and activity. Dowsing shows if humans add their energy to the lines, they respond, even as far as creating interesting landscape patterns where such activity has taken place. And the more coherent and focused the energy the better. So, teams of men, all focussed on dancing on the Earth, at various places in the village, on one particular day a year - would seem to fit the bill very nicely. And in the grounds of the big houses too! Just what is needed to beef up the natural energies at the start of the growing season.

Bampton Morris Men in action, photo courtesy of Bampton Archive

Its all about Fertility! Many a joke has been made that Morris dancing is all about fertility, and this certainly appears to be correct in relation to the land, as the natural energy is activated and increased by human intervention. And considering all the ancients did to get this energy into their lands, it seems likely that it would lead to increased fertility. What it did for the dancer’s fertility is another matter, perhaps that is why traditionally only men were allowed to dance - they didn’t want their women getting a gleam in their eyes. Perhaps Bampton’s old baptism records should be checked the next Spring to find out, but then again maybe all that beer the ‘Toffs’ provided probably saved the situation.

That sustenance had to be provided for the dancers is well known, (who would allow that kind of thing to be forgotten) and it is even written into the deeds of at least one local house. The owners are instructed that breakfast (with beer no doubt) must be provided for the dancers. Which seems to show that the village was intent on this tradition continuing but making sure the costs were shared.

More ‘Exciting’ Recharging! But as the male and female lines increase after they ‘couple’ at each node point, perhaps the inevitable outcome of the beer and general junketing was the intended outcome. There is a Roman tradition that the master and his wife had to feign ‘lying’ in the fields to increase the fertility of the land. Given the cold climate and prevailing mud, perhaps this didn’t catch on in this outpost of the empire much easier to provide the means and encourage all those lusty lads and lasses. There are certainly a lot of ancient British customs around May Day that all seem designed to raise the sap!

Other Recharging customs Another ancient ‘focussed’ communal custom was ‘Beating the Bounds’ which entailed walking round the perimeter of a village and (usually) beating stones at various places, would also build up a responding change in the energies of the land. Especially if the stones in question contained quartz which would give off a continued piezoelectric charge, just like the bluestones in Stonehenge. The properties of quartz are well known to us now because of their use in computers.

Preparing to Beat the Bounds in South Kennington

Religious recharging Bampton’s St Beornwald also played his part. Pilgrim routes, because of all that focussed intention, also charged up the energies of the land. And we know from Dr Blair’s work that the Shrine of St Beornwald’s, and the Holy Well of St Frideswide, near Ham Court, brought pilgrims to Bampton sometimes on their hands and knees! 30

Pole Dancing recharging Maypole dancing is another tradition that would produce the same coherent enhanced energies, but this could also hark back to yet another ancient method of working with the energies of the land.

Woodcut of a traditional maypole in Oxford, the ribbons came later Traditional maypoles were rough-cut trunks of any tall, straight tree decorated with flowers and leaves, and people simply danced around the tree, ‘sometimes holding hands, sometimes kissing in passing’. Which could explain why the Puritan Parliament of 1644 banned them, although their stated complaints were that they were ‘heathenish and linked to superstition. Whatever their reasons, it could be an indicator of who was in the ‘know’ about lost or hidden knowledge. But then, it would have been the aristocratic Cavaliers, whose ancestors probably went on ‘Crusade’, who would have been more likely to know about such knowledge.

Earth Acupuncture? But could the May ‘pole’ have also been involved in Earth geomancy as well? Tom Graves in ‘Needles of Stone’ suggests some megaliths act as ‘Earth Acupuncture’ needles. He felt they were positioned to regulate Earth energy, just as acupuncture needles manipulate the energy in a human body (another Chinese energy practice) and it was the ‘geomancer’s’ role to perform this work on the energy lines or ‘dragon paths’.

Taming the Dragon We know that to ‘Tame the Dragon’ was to drive a stake (or Beam?) into the ground where energy required modifying. And China is not the only country to refer to underground energy as dragons or serpents; it is a shorthand used almost everywhere. This ‘taming’ practice could account for the legends of the Christian ‘dragon slaying’ saints: St Michael, St George and St Margaret. Instead of a real fire-breathing dragon that a maiden needed 31

rescuing from, could there have been a barren (maiden) area, due to a ‘dragon’ that had ‘captured’ her life energy? But by the insertion of a sword, or a sharply pointed stake, into the land, accompanied by focussed prayer, the ‘fertility’ of the ‘maiden’ was restored. This stained glass window depicts St George, the same saint the Templars honoured on their surcoats by his ‘cross’. And the Templars also revered St John the Divine, who is usually depicted holding a chalice containing a dragon.

Our Beam? Does this background provide any more ideas about the role of the ‘Beam’ in Bampton? Could it have been a ‘beam’ marking an important ‘energy’ place in the village that later became sacred? We now know it is situated on an energy line, so it could fit. Or could it have been more than this, perhaps the ‘beam’ marked the centre of an open landscape temple set out on geometric lines? We will never know, but certainly, the creation of such temples started with planting a central beam or ‘omphalos’ stone, to serve as the ‘world-axis’ relative to the local landscape. Street says establishing a central cosmic axis of power was the basis of geomantic systems throughout Europe. And Michell shows in ‘Twelve Tribe Nations’ that such sacred sites were also used in a wider sense to create ritual land divisions. Such centres can still be found in Ireland today. If the Beam had previously been a place of pagan worship that would seem to fit with the later Christianising of the site by the erection of the now lost St Andrew’s Chapel. As it is known Pope Gregory instructed the early clergy in this country to ‘utilise the sites of the country’s pagan temples for Christian purposes where possible’. Stained Glass Window depicting St George in action, unknown location

According to Dr Blair the dedication to St Andrew is quite rare, so could this Saint have been chosen for his distinctive diagonal cross, as seen in the Scottish ‘Saltire’ today? Did it echo something already laid out on the ground that needed to be Christianised? If so Bampton could still sit in a landscape ‘star temple’ waiting to be discovered - which again might account for the energy of the place. Street’s research found other star patterns on the land in parts of Oxfordshire, although unfortunately, he doesn’t name them, and Dr Blair’s work shows that distinct East-West line of Christian buildings in Bampton. Were these all once pagan sites that originally created one arm of an energetic geometric matrix that includes Bampton and beyond? Certainly, the Beam area is a very potent place. A few years ago a Dowsing Society came to see what they could find in the village, and they all detected increased energies in the Beam area. One dowser pointed towards the closed Beam Cottage gates and said there “has to be an energy sub-station or something behind there, as the natural energy that goes in there is magnified several times over by the time it comes out”. Perhaps that was why Dor Thompson’s Organic Market Garden looks so fertile?

Beam Cottage surrounded by Dor Thompson’s market garden

Beam-tune & Beam-ton = Bampton Whatever the Beam was marking, doing, or part of, it was certainly the main focus of the place, as we became known as the ‘Beam-ton’ or Beam-village. And Biltcliffe suggests a Celtic, rather than Saxon origin, as he says the first written records show ‘Beam-tune; in line with the Indo-European word ‘tune’, similar to the Gaelic ‘toon’ rather than the Saxon ‘Ton’. This Celtic link would fit other possible place name links, as ‘Lew’ could be linked to ‘Lugh’ (pronounced Lew), one of the Celtic solar deities and this could even explain how the ‘Mount Owen Road got its name. During the ‘Enclosure’ process, the clergy, including the Rev. Hugh Owen of Bampton, were allotted land in lieu of receiving ‘tithes’ for their upkeep. This Church land allotment bordered what the enclosure surveyors called ‘The Beam Road’ which was the road to Lew. Giles in his ‘History of the Town and Parish of Bampton’, published in 1848, writes that in one of Bampton’s Parish Registers, it records that John Neal, an eccentric shoemaker, upon hearing of this allocation, said that the road must now be called ‘Mount Owen Road’. Why did he say this, and considering that he was eccentric, why did anyone take any notice of him, because they did, as the present name of the road proves. Had it been ‘Mount Lew (Lugh) Road’ at that time, or even ‘Mound Lew Road’ as the god Lugh is linked to ‘Mounds’ and Lew can’t really be described as a “mount’. And ‘Belinus’ does visit that tumulus, or ‘mound’, in Lew. Was John Neal making a point about Christianity taking over an area of the village that was still associated with an older religion - especially as the vicar’s name ‘Hugh’ echoes ‘Lugh’? It could have been nothing more than a play on the two names sounding similar, although that would surely have made it ‘Mount Hugh Road’. But Neal’s occupation is recorded, and the traditional sign shoemakers displayed above their premises in preliterate days was an image of the god Lugh, the patron god of shoemakers - and Bampton knew a lot about working with leather, in fact, it was renowned for those skills. And if that East-West axis of religious locations (the direction the sun rises and then sets therefore so important to ‘solar’ religions) is continued it leads to Brighthampton, once connected to Bampton. Place names carrying the word Bright usually carry connections to the goddess ‘Brid’ or ‘Bride’ (later Britannia), who is the presiding ‘goddess of sovereignty’ of our islands. Julius Caesar recorded that we were ‘Bridains’, meaning followers of ‘Brid’, and such was her importance, that even today every 33

woman who marries retains a connection to her - by taking her name first, before her new husband’s, on that special day. The Bampton tradition of ‘Garlands’ that children make and carry around the village each year could be further echoes of this old religion. Bride is said to be represented on her day, 1st February, by a doll, usually a corn dolly, and young girls dressed in white processed around carrying this dolly. And Lugh, whose day was 31st July, is linked to flowers. Legends say that as his mother put a spell on him, his uncle and great-uncle had to fashion a wife for him from flowers. Did the ‘dolly’ and the ‘flowers’ somehow unite into the ‘Garland’ tradition that traditionally took place on Beltane or May Day in Bampton? Traditions do get adapted, we can’t think of maypoles without ribbons now, but it was only in 1881 that John Ruskin introduced ribbons, via the syllabus of his teaching college in London, and the new teachers spread the practice far and wide.

Casting Musical Spells inside Geometric Shapes Bampton was certainly located inside a vast ancient geometric landscape pattern of ‘Perpetual Choirs’. Michell, starting from sources mentioning Glastonbury as a location where a constant liturgy was recited, later found references to three other ‘Perpetual Choir’ sites in ‘Morganwg’s ‘Triads of Britain’. These were given as Stonehenge, Llantwit Major in South Wales and Goring on Thames. And Morganwg recorded that “in each of these three choirs there were 24,000 saints; that is, there were a hundred for every hour of the day and the night in rotation, perpetuating the praise and service of God without rest or intermission”. Michell says “These choirs were a Celtic institution, from pagan into early Christian times”, and their function was what he called the ‘Enchantment of Britain’ “achieved by holding everyone under the same musical spell that maintained harmony in their relationships and surroundings”. As these four sites centred on the ‘White Leafed Oak’ a former Druid Grove, on the borders of the three counties of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester, (the same three counties who hold an annual ‘Three Choirs’ festival today). Michell was able to complete the huge landscape decagon and find the other sites. Which were at, or near, Stony Stratford, Leicester, Uttoxeter, Ellesmere, Carno in Montgomery, and Llandovery’. Being close to Goring on Thames (‘Gor-ting’ means ‘meeting place of choirs) Bampton was inside this ‘enchantment’. And it seems there may have been a second overlapping decagon of choirs, creating a Vesica Piscis, or ‘fish eye‘ shape with the first. This being the geometric form used by the early Christians as a secret symbol of their faith. If so, as one of the sites was present day Blenheim, Bampton would have been close to double enchantment. The Perpetual Choir decagon sides are 316.8 furlongs in length, and Street found the decagon that formed part of the London ‘Earthstar’ to be exactly 5 miles or 316,800 ins, which is the same number of miles in the Earth’s mean diameter - showing in Streets words “proportional harmony resonant with planetary dimensions”. The four ‘Perpetual Choir’ sites mentioned in the ‘Triads of Britain.

Pattern, Human Energy and Sound Michell says Britain is “an entire country overlaid with a series of geometric patterns, linking its geographical extremities with landmarks and monuments and at the same time expressing astronomical data and the intervals of music”. This ancient linking of pattern and sound is not surprising as music is really sacred geometry in sound form. Tom Graves, in common with many other dowsers reports “that standing stones and other megalithic monuments consistently exhibit seven different energy bands, arranged vertically up the stone with the lower two levels underground”. And he also adds “Light separates into a spectrum of seven individual colours that humans are able to see, and an octave in music is seven notes, in spite of its misleading name, the eighth being a higher repetition of the first”. The energy system of the human body also has seven distinct energy levels arranged vertically, linked to the same visible colours of the spectrum. Usually referred to as Chakras, from the Indian/ Tibetan tradition, they are considered to be the spiritual energy centres of the body. Points where the divine forces enter and sustain the life flow in the human body. Traditionally these chakras also contain sacred geometry, starting with a square at the 1st, a hexagon at the 2nd, pentagram at the 3rd, before various star shapes with eight to 972 points or petals for the higher ones.

Electromagnetic energy humans see as visible light, the rest is ‘Unseen’

Landscape Zodiacs Another landscape mystery is Landscape Zodiacs, where roads, rivers and field boundaries seem to organise themselves into a map of the stars on a huge scale in various different locations in this country and abroad. The best known is the Glastonbury Zodiac ‘envisioned’ in the early 1920’s by Katherine Maltwood, a Canadian artist who could afford to undertake early aircraft flights as she was married to the man who had made his millions from the OXO cube. Her ‘vision’, and others concerning these zodiacs have always been controversial as it is felt that any shape could be made in the landscape. Which makes sense, but there are still some strange coincidences, such as the shape of the ‘The Girt Dog of Langport, in Somerset, which had long been the subject of an old Wassailing Carol - and the village of ‘Wag’ is situated on its tail!

‘The Girt (great) Dog of Longport’

Romany Lore Anthony Thorley, a retired psychiatrist, identified over fifty such ‘Landscape Zodiacs’ and researched the subject in depth. During a 2010 talk, he explained that his interest had been aroused in the subject after talking to a Romany woman in Glastonbury. She told him her people had traditionally travelled around the country following twelve of these zodiacs, moving on when one zodiac period passed to the next. Perhaps this was a method of knowing where her people were at any given time. There is no mention of an Oxfordshire Zodiac but the ‘Romany’ in Bampton attests to Romany people regularly travelling through the village, perhaps Bampton was a staging place on the route to the next sign?

Zodiacs and Games Thorley has no idea how these zodiacs arrive, but he suggests that there ‘may be an acausal relationship between the consciousness of humanity and the landscape’ - that Gaia principle at work again. Certainly, he was astonished to discover that when he charted the exact centre of the twelve zodiacs traditionally used by the Romany people he found it to be Stratford in London, which at that time had just been announced as the site for the 2012 Olympics. And even more bizarre, records showed it to be the location where ‘games’ had traditionally been held in honour of ‘Bel’, another of those solar gods of Celtic Britain. Many places continue the practice of Games and other physical activities at ‘Beltane’ (‘Bel’-time) or the first of May, Bampton included before the fixed bank holidays changed the date of the dancing. And as ‘Bel’, the deity that King Belinus had been named after, was the ‘bright and shining one’, it seems fitting that Morris dancers still traditionally wear his colour of white and wear bells (or maybe Bel’s) on their legs!

Effects of Focussed thought

Image of a ‘solar sun god’ 36

Lasers prove how ‘coherence’ magnifies the effect of light, and another powerful method of producing coherent energy is by focussed meditation. Experiments prove that when people meditate together, their brainwaves become synchronised.

Colin Bloy also found something happens to the land when a person meditates, as by dowsing, he had been able to chart energy patterns going onto the earth around the meditator. This was why, in the sixties, when Brighton was blighted by gangs of warring teenagers, he suggested meditation might help. He felt that if he could get a proportion of the inhabitants of Brighton to concentrate their minds for a few minutes every day by focusing on the old fountain in the centre of Brighton, it would help solve this problem. He was proved correct; records show that as soon as this group meditation got underway, the published crime rates fell and people living in the town also reported a greater sense of well being. His experiment appears to chime with the assertion by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, (responsible for bringing Transcendental Meditation to the west) that if only 2% of the population meditated it would change the world.

The Silent Minute Churchill used something similar during the Second World War. Hitler’s interest in and use of ancient knowledge, including the use of sun symbols, was well known. The Nazi Swastika flag was based on an ancient sun god symbol and SS officers also wore the ‘sun’ rune sign on their collars. It is less well known that Churchill organised coherent thought energy as a weapon against him. The strategy originated with Major Wellesley Tudor Pole, and Churchill implemented it on the 10th November 1941, by instructing the BBC to start the evening news with just the sound of the chimes of ‘Big Ben’ striking nine, and during this time he invited everyone to focus on peace. It is only hearsay evidence but Michael Brine reported that when a British Army Officer asked a member of the Gestapo why he thought they had lost the war, he replied “You had a weapon we could not beat, you called it the ‘Silent Minute’”. Original Hindu symbol distorted by Hitler into the Swastika

Ghosts Bampton has its share of Ghost stories, Wood House, Queen Street, and the ‘Cowlease - Black Bourton crossroads are all places of reported sightings of ghosts or strange occurrences. The latter could have got its reputation by suicides being traditionally buried at a crossroads. Giles, in his history of Bampton, certainly believed there were lots of hauntings at this place, as in wonderful gothic prose he writes, “All memory of these unhallowed corpses which have mouldered would have long since perished if it were not for the troubled spirits ......” So it seems fair to suggest that something was happening, but could these sightings be linked to the earth energies in Bampton? It is known that where such energies are strong, strange atmospheric anomalies occur. Strange lights and mists, especially after a pint or two in the ‘Elephant and Castle’, could have been seen as supernatural events. But it would be wrong to dismiss all such sightings, as it is also known, that powerful landscape energies also assist the appearance of apparitions. The repeated sightings of the famous ‘Black Dog’ that guards the Rollright Stones, being an example, and the last recorded sighting of a fairy in 37

England comes from the same location. Although Biltcliffe doesn’t mention the dog, he does suggest the geological fault line next to the stones could account for the fairy, as shining balls of light are known to be associated with fault lines.

Apparitions of the Virgin Mary Areas where reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary appear, such as Lourdes and Fatima, are also noted for their powerful landscape energies, and there have been a lot of apparitions reported - over 21,000 recorded sightings during the last forty years.

Other ‘White Ladies’ It could also be a combination of the energies and the sensitivity of the individuals involved. The poet Robert Graves reported repeated apparitions of a ‘White Goddess’ who he believed to be his muse. And although Chris Street was hesitant to admit it, as this sort of thing doesn’t help to get this kind of information accepted, but it was apparitions of a ‘White Lady’ that first started him on his discoveries of the vast geometric landscape temple of London.

Statue of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes

Coincidence also played a part, as the initial trigger had been his desire to discover the history of a local ‘Camelot’ place name, which was where he saw his ‘lady’, and he later discovered the name ‘Gwenevere’, literally means ‘White Spirit’ or ‘White Breath’. But Street freely admits, had he been religious, he would have considered the figure he saw, dressed in white with outstretched arms, to have been the Virgin Mary.

There are other Arthurian connections with this subject as Wolfram van Eschenbach, in the 12th century referred to the Templars as Grail Knights, and the Grail they sought is generally recognised as a symbol for the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Temporary Temples

The ‘Spider’

Further mysteries about landscape lines and ancient sacred sites are the many crop circles or formations that arrive on or close by them. So precise are their locations that many lost sacred sites have been rediscovered due to them. And as ‘genuine’ formations contain the same sacred geometry found in temples and other ancient sacred sites, as can be seen from ‘The Spider’ and the ‘Swallows’ formations, they have been likened to ‘Temporary Temples’ imprinted on the landscape.

Don’t worry, Doug and Dave made them all!

Hidden geometry in the ‘Spider’

There is much hilarity about these formations from those who have never experienced the phenomena at first hand. But there is still no explanation as to how they are made, or their source. For most people, the whole debate was settled years ago when it was widely reported that two old men, Doug and Dave, had admitted that they had produced them all using planks and rope. This was comforting news to many, as their world view could remain undisturbed, but it still left many questions, such as who produced the circles before Doug or Dave was born, and who are still producing them now after their demise? And what about the ones produced in other countries, often on the same nights? Were they really ‘Batman and Robin’ in disguise?

‘Swallows’ 39

‘Swallows’ Hidden Geometry

‘Photograph from the Press Campaign that showed ‘Doug and Dave’ considering their designs’

The Devil at Work? Certainly some, maybe many, are made by humans using mechanical means, but these don’t solve the anomalies of the unexplained ones that arrive annually. The first recorded report of a Crop Circle or formation seems to have been in 1678 as the cover of ‘The Mowing Devil’ pamphlet shows.

Many different crops imprinted And formations are found in many different growing crops apart from the usual wheat. They have been found in: oats barley, flax, trees, maize (sweetcorn), potatoes, borage, peas, beans and oilseed rape as the formation near Stonehenge in 2010 shows.

‘The Mowing Devil’ or strange news out of Hartford-shire’ published 1678

One of the many formations found next to Stonehenge, this time in Oilseed Rape, 2010

Different Kind of Ghost Whatever the action is that creates them sometimes changes the composition of the earth under the crop; which can cause the next year’s seed growth to be either accelerated or retarded. This creates 41

Ghosts at Avebury Henge

Snow ghosts a ‘ghost’ of the old formation as the new crop grows, even though the crop that originally held the design has been harvested and the land ploughed and reseeded. Other ‘Ghosts’ are sometimes seen in snowy conditions where there is no growing crop. It appears the affected earth is either retaining or losing heat faster than the surrounding earth.

Changes to the Crops When formations are flattened by boards, the stems of the plants are crushed and broken, and they stay flat on the ground. Neither happens in a genuine formation, as whatever the action is, and it is thought to be some kind of microwave action, only gently bends the stems. The plants continue to grow, and if time permits before harvesting, they become upright again. Although this ‘bending’ process leaves lasting changes to the crop, as stems are left with strange

Image of ‘blown’ nodes, Haselhoff, E, 2001 ‘elongated nodes’. And these ‘nodes’ often contain ‘expulsion cavities’, where it seems too powerful a heat source has caused a hole to be blown through the plant wall.

Expert Opinion Due to the general ridicule about crop circles, it is difficult to get expert scientific testing. Although when samples were sent to biophysicist William Levengood’s lab in Michigan, USA, without divulging their origin, he verified these changes to the crop. Luckily when later told where the samples came from, his scientific interest was piqued, and he continued testing. In 1994 he published in Physiologia Plantarum, the international journal of the European Societies of Plant Physiology, that his data showed that “plants from crop circles display anatomical alterations which cannot be explained by assuming the formations are hoaxes.” And he defined a genuine formation as one “produced by external forces independent of human influence”. Levengood also found that seeds germinated in the lab showed significant alterations in growth when compared with controls. He said that these effects varied from seeds that were barren, to seeds with a massively increased growth rate, which extended to future generations. (why aren’t we breeding

Germination anomalies & Expanded Node Lengths, Haselhoff, E, 2001

Expanded Node Lengths

from these seeds rather than GM ones?) He explained these anomalies were also found in tufts of standing plants inside the circles, so they were not caused by mechanical flattening, and because of these effects, he concluded that some kind of natural, but unknown force was at work.

Those ‘BOLs’ again!

‘Foo Fighters’ Dutch Physicist Eltjo Haselhoff found the same growth anomalies. And he published research linking the effects to something like the strange ‘balls of light’ that are often caught by camera and videos around geographical fault lines and crop circles. These balls seem to be about the size of a football and are bright and fluorescent in nature. Something similar was seen during the Second World War. The pilots who experienced them called them ‘Foo Fighters’ after a comic strip cartoon. Sometimes these ‘bols’ are visible to the human eye as they weave around the crops, while in other cases they are found later on digital video and photographs. This is because digital cameras sense a broader spectrum of wavelengths than a human eye, 100 to 1,000nm versus 400 to 700nm. Dr Haselhoff proved that the variations of crop growth in a crop circle are consistent with a burst of energy from something like a ball of light. As yet no other physicist has come forward to add to his work, although requests have gone on the web calling for scientists to come forward to ‘debunk his findings’. Although out of context, Galileo’s words seem to chime, “It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved’.

Dr Hasselhoff’s work linking ‘bols’ to growth variations in crop circles, Haselhoff, E., 2001

‘15 minutes to create a huge pattern in a field of wheat - starting now!’ Certainly whatever force forms the circles creates them very quickly. Pilots are usually the first to report new circles, especially as they don’t like flying over them due to several recorded problems with instrument failure, and they repeatedly report how quickly they arrive. A well-known example is a formation that arrived next to Stonehenge in 1996. A pilot ended one sightseeing flight with nothing in the field next to the monument, yet when he arrived with his next customers, about 15 minutes later, the formation was fully formed. Yet it was so big and impressive that it couldn’t have been missed by him or his last passengers - or the many visitors around Stonehenge - or the drivers on the busy A303. Yet no activity had been seen in the field, especially no gangs of people with planks.

Stonehenge formation, Wiltshire,1996

The ‘Milk Hill’ Challenge! Ten thousand pounds is still on the table for any group of human circle makers who can recreate the famous ‘Milk Hill Spiral’ that arrived during the few hours of Summer darkness in 2001. But this is not surprising as it covered 900 feet and contained 409 separate circles arranged in a beautiful galaxy design, so it would be a pretty hard task to accurately survey and ‘plank’ in the dark. Perhaps the burned thistle discovered inside the formation is a better clue to how it was created?

‘Galaxy’ Formation, Milk Hill, Alton Barnes, Wiltshire 2001

No Stakes needed Sceptics say formations are started by placing a stake in the centre and using a rope to obtain the circle if that is the case how are formations formed that have no visible centre? Especially as this one recreated a scientific photograph of human DNA, containing complicated mathematics.

‘Weaving crops - no problem” And how are weaving effects, such as this circle from Bishop Cannings 46

‘DNA’ Crop Circle, Crooked Soley, Berkshire, 2002

in 1999 created with planks?

Did Doug and Dave study Higher Mathematics?

‘Basket Weaving’ on a large scale In the 16th century, Galileo said “The universe cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures...”. And mathematical concepts and sacred geometry features are hidden in the patterns but sometimes they are the subject matter itself, such as the ‘Pi’ and ‘Euler’s Identity’ formations show. The ‘Pi’ formation, utilised a clever ratchet system and the one showing ‘Euler’s Identity’ used ‘ASCII code’’ which is a method of representing written language in zeros and ones, suitable for a computer. The equation was correct except for ‘Hi’ in place of ‘Pi’ - was that a mistake or a greeting?

Very big Sunflower The ‘Golden Mean’, or its near mathematical equivalent, the ‘Fibonacci Series’, are often seen in crop circles, just as in nature. The relative size of the formation can be judged by the people shown in the centre.

‘Pi’ Crop Formation at Barbury Castle 2008 47

‘Euler’s Identity’ at Wilton Windmill 2010

Sacred Symbols created by Sacred Geometry And many of the World’s religious symbols appear, including Christian and Jewish symbols - as well as that original Hindu holy sun symbol

Picked Hill, ‘Sunflower’ Crop circle, 2000, showing the Golden Mean spiral communally referred to as ‘Phi’ 48

Physical Changes For many years, researcher Lucy Pringle has undertaken medical tests on volunteers, before and after, they visited crop circles. Her results show there are often definite, and measurable, differences relating to the effects of genuine ones. For example, some circles produced increased levels of Dopamine in

Three of the many Religious Symbols found in crop circles. ‘Crucifix’ Etchilhampton, Wiltshire, 2008, ‘Menorah’ Chiseldon, NrSwindon, 1999, ‘Hindu Sun sign’ Beckhampton, Wiltshire 2016 Physical Changes the volunteer’s brains, which she found interesting as it fitted with reports by Parkinson’s sufferers that they could get about three days relief from their tremors after visiting some circles. Pringle, shown below with the actor Mark Rylance, is presently collaborating with an NHS consultant to see how this could be transferred to a medical context. However, the circles have aided her own health. As a life-long sufferer of migraines, she now carries an image of a particular crop-circle in her handbag instead of medication - and she says this works just as effectively.

And the winner is... we wish we knew! Who, or what, makes the circles seems to have a good sense of humour. A few years ago Erik von Daniken booked Jay Gouldner, a noted Austrian crop circle researcher to mount an exhibition

Researcher and formation photographer Lucy Pringle on crop circles at his centre in Switzerland. Against Gouldner’s expressed wishes, von Daniken organised a crop circle design competition, where the winner would create their design in a field next to the exhibition centre - but the night before the winner was announced a genuine formation arrived in the field!

Circles in Oxfordshire Crop circles arrive in many countries although England, and Wiltshire in particular, receive the majority. But Oxfordshire receives many fine examples every year, especially near the ‘Rollright Stones’, Wayland’s Smithy, and the White Horse at Uffington; all places on the St Michael Line. But the Belinus line is not forgotten, a few years ago a formation arrived in the field on the Bampton side of the Buckland Road, just next to the busy A40. Should you wish to check what other crop circles arrive near Bampton, the ‘Crop Circle Connector’ website records all formations that arrive each season.

Homoeopathy It is often said that the ‘circle makers’ are practising Homeopathy on the population, as the seeds in the crop circles are harvested and mixed in with the rest of the grains, so we must all be getting minute doses of these energetic crops in our biscuits. The system of bringing the body back to 50

Wayland’s Smithy Crop Circle, 2005

health by applying ‘like with like’ is a very ancient idea. But homeopathy takes this further. If a homoeopathic tablet of, say, Belladonna, is scientifically examined, no Belladonna material will be found. The tablet, apart from the sucrose carrier, will contain only the unseen vibration of the energy of the plant. Meaning when a patient takes a ‘Belladonna’ remedy, it is only the vibration of the poisonous plant correcting the imbalance of energy causing the illness. Therefore there is no danger from the plant itself and no side effects.

Quackery As can be imagined, this does not fit well with the common sense view or the wider scientific community. Meaning no matter how effective homoeopathy is it is often attacked as quackery. But homoeopathy works because water has ‘memory’, indeed it can retain the ‘unseen’ vibration of everything it comes into contact with. Dean Burnett, the one who got so upset by the water companies use of dowsing says, “The ‘memory of water’ alleged as an explanation of homoeopathy is only a pseudo-scientific veneer for the long-standing ideas of water’s healing power - which continues to support a quack industry of bizarrely treated bottled waters”. Yet this ‘Quack Industry’ holds Royal Warrants from both the Queen and the Prince of Wales, and previously from the Queen Mother until the time of her death. And the general health and longevity of the Royal Family, apart from hardened smokers such as the Queen’s father and sister, seems to be excellent.

A very good memory The memory of water means that if water is contaminated by a chemical, the chemical can be removed and the water examined under a microscope to make sure all the material has been removed - but the water will still retain the vibration of the chemical. And just as in homoeopathy, that vibration will affect our body.

Water makes our bodies have a good memory too

Royal Warrants displayed on ‘Ainsworth’s products

Because we are 73% water, if we are ‘contaminated’ by a chemical the vibration will also remain in our bodies. So the manufactured perfume of your fabric conditioner may be doing more to you than just making your clothes smell nice?

Vladimir Voeikov of Moscow State University found this effect extended to all living organisms that have a water content. Food for thought when pesticides are considered. As it must follow that however well you wash your vegetables, the vibration of the chemical will remain and will be transferred to your body when you eat the produce. But that is not all, because every cell of a human being is also a transmitter (as well as a receiver) of energy, so all the people who picked, stored, transported and sold the vegetables, as well as the plastic they are stored in, and the vibrations of all the people in the supermarket, could all be in there as well. So it is a good job we can ‘consciously’ clean the vibration. Just as the Morris Dancers alter the vibration and energy of the land, we can use our individual consciousness to replace lower vibrations 51

in our food with health-giving higher vibrations. And we can extend this to ourselves and others as well. Something that is called healing!

Frozen Emotions The Japanese researcher Dr Emoto showed how easy this is to do. He subjected small amounts of water to positive emotions such as ‘love’ and ‘gratitude’ and then froze them, and the water produced beautiful fully formed crystals. But if emotions of ‘hate’ and ‘fear’ were projected into the water, and the same procedure followed, the crystals did not form properly and were ugly and misshapen. He even found the same effect occurred when he just added labels with the words love, or hate written on them; the water still picked up the vibrations and reacted in the same way. And he also discovered that water prefers classical music to discordant music, such as heavy metal!

‘Good, Good, Good, Good Vibrations... We need to consciously bring in those ‘good vibrations’ that the Beach Boys sang about to overwrite the negative ones. And we can do this as easily as blessing our food or just being grateful for it.

Dr Emoto’s work with the ‘memory’ of water But cheating, such as blessing your food by rote, like you used to do at school, won’t help. It is the intention, not words, that upgrades the vibration. So you can use any words you want, or no words at all - feelings of love and gratitude will work just the same. But think of all the ‘unseen’ vibrations people are getting from the Shillbrook, and more importantly from the gravel beds beneath us. We in Bampton spend our lives on top of water and it is interesting that the presence of underground water appears to be the only known common thread connecting all crop circle locations. And all this water is affected by our thoughts and emotions, as well as the thoughts and emotions of people who previously lived in the village, especially if they suffered extreme emotion. Such as the fear experienced during that Civil War skirmish at Ham Court; the fear felt during the Second World War, and even the fear we feel today as we listen to the news. These vibrations of ‘fear’ are transferred to the water beneath our houses via our consciousness. To clear these, along with many other negative vibrations is the role of a ‘House Healer’, but anyone can clear this old energy out, by intent. Just intend to upgrade the energy in your house, and it will happen. 52

‘Astroturfing’ Unfortunately, none of this kind of thing makes any profits for the big corporations - the ones that make the fabric conditioner or the medicines, or anything else. But it may be why they spend millions on PR companies to ridicule the information, and in the old tradition of ‘shooting the messenger’, also the people who try to bring it to public attention. Just as the internet has made it easier to bypass the traditional road blocks of information, it has also made it much easier for big corporations to hire the very best PR firms to engage in attacking and ‘astroturfing’, a shorthand term for putting out false grass-root information. To find out more just type ‘TED’ and ‘Astroturfing’ into your search engine and you will get up a brief ten-minute talk given by Sharyl Attkisson, an award-winning journalist. She says the output of these PR companies can usually be identified by the ferocity of their output. It is not known if the Guardian ‘science bloggers’ quoted are linked to a PR firm, but their vehemence and use of terms such as quackery for homoeopathy, and witchcraft for dowsing, strongly suggests the case.

Big Business and openness don’t make a good mix This may help to explain why it was discovered in 1812, that ‘unseen’ electrical stimulation of bones helps them to heal, and rediscovered in 1860, and then rediscovered yet again in the 1980‘s, but still today it is not completely integrated into fracture clinics. And when scientist and inventor Harry Oldfield, in collaboration with an NHS Consultant, developed a screening system for cancer, it was refused. Cancer affects the entire electrical system of the body, as the biochemical difference between normal healthy cells and cancer cells correspond to the difference in the electrical proportions of each. So all Oldfield’s screening process required was for a patient’s fingertip to be placed on a sensitive pad to immediately show if that person had cancer somewhere in their body. This would have made a very quick and cheap method of first-line screening, but that seems to have been the problem; little would be made from its use, especially when placed against what would be lost if the present screening and scanning systems were made redundant. The government may make such decisions, but it is on public record that the biggest donors, to all political parties, are the multinational companies.

Bampton plants are talking to you The work of the great Indian scientist Sir J C Bose, followed by the American inventor of the Polygraph machine, or lie detector, Cleve Backster, proved that there is much that is ‘unseen’ about the plants that surround us in Bampton. The

Oldfield fingertip scans of a patient with cancer on the left, and an arthritis sufferer on the right, from ‘The Dark Side of the Brain’, Oldfield, H. & Coghill, R., 1988 53

story is well known how one evening Backster decided to test how quickly water would get to the leaves of his Dracaena Fig plant, so he wired it up to a Polygraph machine, just as he would a human suspect. He first got what Bose had discovered seventy years earlier, that plants don’t like cold water - they go into shock, and the ‘Lie Detector’ showed this. Amazed by this response Backster thought he would try and further stress the plant to see what happened, and he thought about burning a leaf. But as he was searching for his lighter, he noticed the polygraph machine was charting extreme movements. At this point he had not burned the plant, only thought about it, but the plant had reacted in extreme fear to his thoughts. Meaning that Backster’s intent had been caught on the chart by his plant’s reaction. More surprises came after Backster left his plant permanently ‘wired’. He used a stopwatch to time his movements and thoughts while at home miles away, and when he returned to his office he found his plant had reacted accordingly. Reacting positively, for example, when he thought about going into the office early - meaning he must have given up all thoughts of torture by this time. Backster was ridiculed about his findings for over thirty years as it was said that they could not be

Cleve Backster’s intent to hurt his fig plant shown on the Polygraph Chart replicated, (which is the usual story) although strangely Soviet scientists, where no private industry existed at that time, had no difficulty replicating them from the start.

Unseen Energy Fields Revealed Harry Oldfield, by his invention of ‘Pip’ or ‘Polycontrast Interference Photography’ has revealed many unseen things about plant energies. The two images show the energy of a ‘living’ leaf, and a leaf shortly after it had been cut from the plant. It can be seen the energy has reduced markedly, but a framework of energy can still be seen surrounding the cut leaf, even though it is now separated from the plant. Oldfield was able to show this remaining energetic framework around the leaf remains intact, even when part of the leaf is torn away. This could explain the ‘Phantom Pain’ suffered by some human amputees, the arm or leg may have gone, but the human energy field remains around the lost limb.

You are what you eat Oldfield’s work is also important to show the effect of plant energy on the human body via diet. 54

Below are two hand-prints showing the energetic difference between two subjects: one who largely ate a ‘fast food’ or ‘junk’ food diet, and one who ate a diet rich in plant energy. If you look hard enough you will see some energy on the left-hand side, but nothing like on the left.

Energy of a growing leaf and a cut leaf shown by Oldfield’s ‘Pip’ photography, from ‘The Dark Side of the Brain’, Oldfield, H. & Coghill, R., 1988

‘I was just taking my Aura for a walk...’ Eastern philosophy has always stressed the importance of the energy fields or ‘Aura’ for the individual. But ‘Auras’, just like Chakras, are part of the repertoire of any comedian’s jokes. But again Oldfield’s ‘Pip’ photography shows these unseen energy fields exist. To deny them would seem tantamount to dismissing the whole basis of germ theory, as germs are also invisible without the aid of a scientific instrument.

Hand prints showing the ‘energetic’ difference between ‘junk food’ and a ‘whole food’ diet, from ‘The Dark Side of the Brain’, Oldfield, H. & Coghill, R.,1988

The photo, taken with Oldfield’s ‘Pip’ photography, clearly shows the human energy field and how it is being affected by the microwave energy from a mobile phone. So maybe the telecommunications industries are pleased Oldfield’s work never makes it into our media. Although it would be good to be able to see the ‘Industry Safety Standard’ shown in pictures as it is certainly a mystery how they can vary so much from one country to another.

We are complete beings, not ‘mechanical’ bits Reducing the body to ‘parts’ is part of a much wider problem about how we see the world, largely due to most of the mainstream science that affects us coming from a mechanistic or reductionist stand-

Oldfield’s ‘Pip’ photography showing the effect of a mobile phone on human energy fields point. Quantum theory has started to change this in physics, although at present that field of study seems to have divided into two competing paradigms of how the world works. In Biology, it is still widely held that a human being is composed of parts that can usually be seen to exit - cells, bones, organs etc., but the energy that underpins all of these is never considered. Thus it was felt that mapping the human genome would explain everything there was to know about a human. This was a truly brilliant and amazing scientific feat, but the outcome was not what was expected; such as humans having around 25,000 genes and a rice plant over 38,000. And that there is not a lot of difference ‘genewise’ between us and a Fruit Fly.

How to get rid of knowledge you don’t agree with - burn it Unfortunately the row that erupted over the British biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s book ‘A New Science of Life’ published in 1981, is still typical of what happens when new theories challenge existing ideas. 56

Sheldrake’s work, based on the earlier hypothesis of morphogenetic fields and morphic resonance, suggests that humans draw upon collective memory fields; rather like Jung‘s idea of a ‘Collective Unconscious’ in psychology. Sheldrake proposed that these ‘fields’ could provide an explanation why, amongst others things, your dog pricks up his ears when you think about taking it for a walk, and why your cat disappears just as you search for the box to take it to the Vet’s - and why you know when you are being stared at. He further suggested these information fields could mean that once something was learned in one place, it would become easier for others to learn the same skill, in different parts of the world. Just like the old ‘Hundredth Monkey’ spiritual idea of the integration of human knowledge. Sheldrake’s work was branded unscientific, but is it unscientific to study the instincts of the animal kingdom and try to explain how a bird knows how to build its nest? Specific Information fields could explain how the bird is drawing on the unconscious field of its own species for this knowledge?

Dowsing is not witchcraft, I am just retrieving information from the ‘Cloud’... sorry I mean ‘Field’ An information field, which we can all access, could certainly explain a lot of what is either ridiculed or labelled as ‘witchcraft’ today. It would explain dowsing, telepathy, intuition, Cleve Baxter’s plant and remote viewing. The latter being a skill some humans have that allows them to ‘remotely view’ what is happening at other places in the world. As can be imagined this again causes great hilarity, but unfortunately, that doesn’t stop the military and other secret organisations employing such people. There was even a Hollywood film about the subject, ‘The Men that Stare at Goats’, probably the worst film of George Clooney’s career, but at least it brought the subject to wider attention.

The more you practice, the luckier you get If such fields exist, we would all be able to access them, however, just as for every other human skill, from football to composing music, there will be the ‘Beckhams’ and the ‘Beethovens’, humans who are more gifted than others in certain areas. But we ordinary souls can learn a new skill by repeated practice, and this is certainly true for energy work. When first attempting to feel human energy when studying Shiatsu or acupuncture, one is convinced there is nothing there, and it is just one big made up story, but by repeated practice one starts to not only feel its presence but even detect its different strands.

Heresy! But Sheldrake’s work was too much for Sir John Maddox, the then Editor of the influential ‘Nature’ magazine, who in a front-page editorial under the heading “A Book for Burning’, wrote that ‘this infuriating tract has been widely hailed by newspapers and popular science magazines as the ‘answer’ to materialistic science, and is now well on its way to becoming a point of reference for the motley crew of creationists, anti-reductionists .. and the rest…. His book is the best candidate for burning there has been for many a year”. And he dismissed proposals for future experiments as ‘impractical in the sense that no self-respecting grant-making agency will take the proposal seriously. ’Thirteen years later he had not changed his views saying in a BBC programme that “Sheldrake is putting forward magic instead of science... it is heresy”. Edward Lorenz, the founder of Chaos Theory, suffered a similar fate as his work was initially refused publication in the important peer-reviewed Science Journals. One editor later admitted that his 57

actions had delayed work on this important discovery, but just like Maddox, he was still unrepentant several years later.

You expect to be given money to study what? Unfortunately, those ‘self-respecting grant bodies’ almost entirely control what is studied by scientists today. Many have links to large corporations, and they can sift out any applications for research that do not fit what they feel will be of practical application or indeed might harm their existing interests, such as seemed to happen with Oldfield’s scanning system for cancer.

“A Book for Burning”: ‘A New Science of Life’ by Sheldrake, R., 1981

And a system that largely relies on business providing the majority of research money seems to fit the Roman’s practical take on knowledge. They would use the conquered Greek’s scientific work where it was practical, but they were definitely not into knowledge for knowledge sake.

‘Brutal Owners or Careful Caretakers?’ This brief survey has touched on some of the many planetary and personal ‘Unseen’ forces at work in Bampton and beyond. Does it matter that all mainstream media and many scientists and academics believe these to be wild imaginings of deluded minds? If we care about our planet, the answer must be ‘yes’. Human history shows it was after we lost the idea of the Earth as sacred that we began to see ourselves as owners of our planet, with the right to plunder at will, rather than caretakers of a planet, that is alive and full of miracles that should be handed to future generations in good order. But the channels of information are biased, and nobody is going to listen to a ‘motley crew’ of New Agers, so science holds out our best hope.

Quantum Physics completes the Circle Quantum physics is proving what our ancestors knew, that the world is not as our common and five senses (and modern media) tell us. As Erwin Schrodinger says, this science “reveals a basic oneness of the Universe” and Max Planck continues “all matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this “minute universe together”. 58

Or more simply put by Einstein “Everything in life is vibration”. And that means it is the unseen that underpins everything - everything that we can see, touch, feel, smell and taste. And if that, to paraphrase another quantum scientist, Neils Bohr, “...hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet”. But time is of the essence: the major discoveries of quantum physics have been around for about a century, and the amount of damage we are doing increases daily. It seems we need to grow up, or at least drink up, as according to yet another leading quantum physicist, Werner Heisenberg, “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you”, or whatever you believe to be sacred. And genuine mysteries such as crop circles ‘debunk’ our arrogant ‘know it all’ attitude, and can, just like the crumbs scattered by Hansel and Gretel, lead us back to the wonder and mystery of life in our universe.

About the author Jane’s background involves the study of both ‘evidence and energy’. After graduating, she became a teacher of history, ending her educational career as Head of History in a large comprehensive school. She then took an MA and became a museum curator, looking after the fine art collections in a city museum. Alongside her professional work, she studied Shiatsu, trained as a healer, and as a house-healer, and had the privilege of working with various teachers in neditation, Shamanism, and other forms of ‘Energy Work’. She is very grateful for the cancer that brought her to Bampton 13 years ago, which allowed her to put into practical use much of the knowledge she had been studying - as well as bringing her to a wonderful place to live.

Sources and Further Reading Attkisson, S, Astroturf and the Manipulation of Media, TED Talk, Reno, USA Biltcliffe, G. & Hoare, C., The Spine of Albion, 2012 Broadhurst, P. & Miller, H., The Sun and the Serpent, 1989 Broadhurst, P. & Miller, H., The Dance of the Dragon, 2003 Brown, A. & Mitchell, J., Crooked Soley, a Crop Circle Revelation, 2008 Burnett, D., Guardian Science Blog on Dowsing, 21st November 20017 Campbell, T., My Big Toe - A Theory of Everything, 2003 Emoto, M., The Hidden Messages of Water, 2005 Giles, History of the Town and Parish of Bampton, 1848 Graves, T., Needles of Stone, 2008 Hancock, G., The War on Consciousness, TEDx Talk (banned) Hasselhoff, E., The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles, 2001 Heath, R. & Michell, J., The Measure of Albion, 2004 Heath, R., Powerpoints, 2005 Knight, P. & Perrott, T., The Wessex Astrum, 2008 Marchant, J., Decoding the Heavens, 2008 Michell, J., The New View over Atlantis, republished 2001 Michell, J., The Dimensions of Paradise, 2008 Michell, J., The Sacred Centre, 1994 Michell, J., How the World is Made - Sacred Geometry, 2009 Michell, J. & Rhone, C., Twelve-Tribe Nations, 2008 Miller, H., Dowsing, 2002 Miller, H. & Brailsford, B., In Search of the Southern Serpent, 2006 Newman, H., Earth Grids, 2008 Oldfield, H. & Coghill, R., The Dark Side of the Brain, 1985

Sheldrake, R., A New Science of Life, 3rd Ed. 2009 Sheldrake, R., The Science Delusion, TEDx Talk (banned) Silverstone, M., Blinded by Science, 2011 Solomon, J. & Solomon, G., Harry Oldfield’s Invisible Universe, 1998 Street, C.E., Earthstars, 1990 Street, C.E., London City of Revelation, 2010 Sullivan, D, ‘Leys’ 2000

C o mm ty

Ba mp

uni

Grant aided by WODC

c hive

A Bampton Archive Publication www.bamptonarchive.org

69 PLU