The Terrorist with a Demon Core

     Ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there have been fears of 'terrorists' obtaining fissile material (plutonium or enriched uranium) and making a nuclear bomb. Getting their hands on enough of this type of radioactive material for a bomb is likely very difficult however. Some have speculated that a 'dirty bomb' could be developed, one which would not necessarily cause a nuclear explosion but which would spread radioactive contamination. Both these devices however (nuclear bomb and dirty bomb) require a delivery system (missile or large suitcase) as well as a 'trigger' (in the case of a 'suitcase' bomb) for detonation.

Terrorist Attack-World Trade Center

     But to create terror, the terrorist doesn't necessarily have to kill or even injure his victims. What better terrorist device is there, than one which simply disseminates terror?

     A relatively small amount of fissile material might be just what the terrorist needs for this purpose. A small amount of plutonium (in a backpack or in a 'suicide' vest) that is made to reach 'criticality' would have a dramatic effect, cause local injury and death and 'terrorize' the targets who would not know how much real damage was inflicted at the time nor what the future truly held for them.

     The nuclear weapons and the nuclear energy industries are subject to the normal range of accidents, from vehicle wrecks to falls from a height but there is one type of accident which is unique to these sectors, the criticality accident. This is an event where an amount of fissile material accidentally comes together into a supercritical amount. There is a sudden release of energy and deadly radiation.

The Atom

     It is all about the number of neutrons which are released. By definition, criticality is reached when conditions in a nuclear reactor are such that the fissionable material can sustain a chain reaction by itself. In effect, criticality is reached if each fission event causes, on average, exactly one other, resulting in a self-sustaining fission chain reaction (see post: Would You Prefer Plutonium or Uranium in Your Nuclear Weapon?).
     When a uranium-235 atom undergoes fission, it releases 2-3 neutrons (average 2.4). Therefore, criticality is reached if every released neutron has a 1/2.4 = 0.42 = 42% probability of causing another fission event as opposed to either being absorbed by a non-fission capture event or escaping from the fissile core.
     The criticality of a system can be calculated by comparing the rate at which neutrons are produced to the rate at which they are lost through absorption (boron-containing absorbing rods) and leakage out of the reactor core.

     A properly functioning nuclear reactor is a system that controls this criticality or balance of neutrons. When a reactor is said to have 'gone critical', it means it is in a stable configuration producing a constant power.

     'Subcritical' refers to a system where the loss rate of neutrons is greater than the production rate of neutrons and therefore the number of neutrons decreases as time goes on. During shutdown, the nuclear reactor is placed in a 'subcritical' configuration so that the neutron population and power decreases.

     'Supercritical' refers to a system where the production rate of neutrons is greater than the loss rate of neutrons and therefore the neutron population increases.

     It is when the neutron population remains constant that there is a perfect balance between production rate and loss rate, and the nuclear system is said to be 'critical'. The criticality of a system can be calculated by comparing the rate at which neutrons are produced, from fission and other sources, to the rate at which they are lost through absorption and leakage out of the reactor core. A nuclear reactor is a system that controls this criticality or balance of neutrons.

     A criticality accident is an unintentional increase of nuclear chain reactions (in enriched uranium or plutonium), releasing a surge of neutron radiation into the surroundings. Criticality accidents cannot reproduce the same conditions of an atomic bomb, so a nuclear explosion does not occur. The nuclear reaction however, does create heat which causes the fissile material to expand, so that, within a few seconds, the nuclear reaction becomes subcritical again.

     Since uses of atomic power were developed, at least 60 criticality accidents have occurred between 1945 and 2011 in collections of fissile materials many in facilities outside nuclear reactors. Many of these accidents related to nuclear weapons research conducted after the bombings of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). Some of these accidents have resulted in death through radiation exposure of those close to the event. Other people further away from the source of radiation have suffered long-term effects and development of cancer years later.

Reactor-Idaho National Laboratory

     The SL-1 accident at the National Reactor Testing Station near Idaho Falls, USA on January 3, 1961 was a criticality accident that took place inside a military facility reactor (see post: Man-Made and Natural Nuclear Accidents).

     In the former Soviet Union, at the Mayak nuclear fuel processing center in central Russia an experiment with plutonium purification techniques was planned on December 10, 1968. Two operators apparently placed plutonium organic solution into an 'improvised' container. After most of the solution had been poured out, there was a flash of light and heat. The operator panicked, dropped the bottle and ran from the room.

Mayak Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Center

     The complex was evacuated then the supervisor and radiation control supervisor re-entered the building. The shift supervisor then deceived the radiation control supervisor and entered the room of the incident and possibly attempted to pour the solution down a floor drain, causing a large nuclear reaction that irradiated the shift supervisor with a fatal dose of radiation.

      Mayak is located in the closed nuclear town of Ozersk, is still operational today and is Russia’s only operational facility for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from VVER-440 type reactors and spent fuel from nuclear submarines, as well as fuel imported from other countries. Decades of spilling radioactive poison into the nearby Techa River Cascade and Lake Karachai have earned the site the moniker of being the most radioactively contaminated place on earth.

     On September 23, 1983, an operator at the RA-2 research reactor in Centro Atomico Constituyentes, Buenos Aires, Argentina died from a fatal radiation dose of 3700 rads (37 Gy) while changing the fuel rod configuration with moderating water in the reactor. Two other workers were injured.

Centro Atomico Constituyentes, Beunos Aires

     On September 30, 1999, at the Japanese uranium reprocessing facility in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, workers put a mixture of uranyl nitrate solution into a precipitation tank which was not designed to dissolve this type of solution and caused an eventual critical mass to be formed, and resulted in two workers dying from radiation poisoning.

     There have been many more criticality accidents but the most infamous cases of criticality accidents occurred at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico while scientists worked with the 'demon core'. This type of investigation aimed at  creating a temporarily critical mass of fissionable material by sliding a slug of uranium-235 hydride through a larger mass of the same substance. They called it the 'Dragon Experiment'. These manual experiments continued with the hemispheres of plutonium used in the Trinity bomb, the first test of an atomic weapon (July 16, 1945), the Fatman, and the bombs used at Operation Crossroads in 1946.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

     Along with the successful tests, there were numerous criticality accidents with run-away output of energy and radiation. Within a year of the Trinity test, accidents would claim the lives of two members of the team that assembled the plutonium core at Trinity.

     It became known as the demon core, the 14 pound (6.2 kilogram) mass of plutonium which went critical in two separate events at the Los Alamos laboratory, New Mexico, the first in 1945 and the second in 1946. This same core was used in an atomic bomb test in 1946, five weeks after the second fatal accident. The explosion proved in practice to have a slightly increased yield over other cores which had not been subjected to criticality excursions.

The Trinity (Test) Detonation

    Harry Daghlian was a physicist who made a mistake while working alone performing neutron reflection experiments on the (demon) core. On the night of August 21, 1945, Daghlian was working alone but accompanied by a guard sitting 12 feet away making critical mass studies and measurements, stacking blocks of tamper material (tungsten carbide bricks) around the mass of fissionable material. The assembly was close to a critical configuration and Daghlian was lifting one last heavy piece of tamper material. As this piece approached the set-up, instruments warned that fission multiplication was imminent. He moved the block in hand to set it further from the pile and accidently let it slip, dropping it directly on top of the set-up.

Harry K. Daghlian

     There was a sudden 'blue glow' and Daghlian quickly disassembled the critical material and its tamper. Harry Daghlian absorbed huge doses of radiation, resulting in acute radiation poisoning and died less than 28 days later. The guard, sitting 12 feet away, suffered no obvious injury at the time. His estimated exposure was 0.31 Gy. He died of acute myelogenous leukemia 33 years later, age 62.

   
     Louis Slotin was a Canadian physicist from Manitoba working as a senior scientist at the Los Alamos Laboratory. On May 21, 1946, Slotin had already become the local expert, performing the same test almost a dozen separate times before, often in his trademark bluejeans and cowboy boots, in front of a roomful of observers.

Louis Slotin

     On this occasion, Slotin and seven other scientists were conducting the experiment to verify the exact point at which a subcritical mass of fissile material could be made critical by the positioning of neutron reflectors. The test was risky and known as 'tickling the dragon's tail'.

     Enrico Fermi had told Slotin and others that they would be 'dead within a year' if they continued performing it.

     The technique involved bringing a hollow hemisphere of beryllium (the neutron reflector) around a mass of fissionable material which was resting in a similar lower hollow hemisphere. The system was checked with two one-inch spacers between the upper hemisphere and the lower shell which contained the fissionable material; the system was subcritical at this time.

'Tickling the Dragon's Tail'

     The experiment required the operator to place the two half-spheres of beryllium around the core, manually lowering the top reflector over the core via a thumb hole on the top. As the reflectors were manually moved closer and farther away from each other, counters would measure the relative activity from the core. Allowing them to close completely would result in the instantaneous formation of a critical mass and a lethal power excursion.

     Spacers between the shells were removed so that one edge of the upper hemisphere rested on the lower shell while the other edge of the upper hemisphere was supported by a screwdriver.

Partially Reflected Plutonium Sphere

     Under Slotin's unapproved protocol, the only thing preventing the energy surge was the blade of the standard flat-head screwdriver. This upper shell edge was permitted to approach the lower shell slowly. While one hand held the screwdriver, the other hand was holding the upper shell with the thumb placed in the opening at the polar point.

     Then the screwdriver slipped and the upper shell fell into position around the fissionable material. Of the eight people in the room, two were directly engaged in the work leading to this incident. The blue glow filled the room, a heat wave felt by all.

Exposure Victims in Slotin Criticality Event

     Realizing what had happened, Slotin knocked the two halves apart, stopping the chain reaction and likely saving the lives of the other men in the laboratory. His body positioning over the apparatus also shielded the others from much of the neutron radiation.

     Slotin received a lethal dose in under a second and died nine days later from acute radiation poisoning. The nearest physicist to Slotin, Alvin Graves, was watching over Slotin's shoulder and was thus partially shielded by him, receiving a high but non-lethal dose of radiation.

     Graves was hospitalized for several weeks with severe radiation poisoning, developed chronic neurological and vision problems as a result of the exposure, suffered a significant shortening of his lifespan and died of a radiation-induced heart attack 20 years later.

     The other six people in the room were far enough away from the assembly to avoid fatal injury, but they all suffered other complications as a result of the accident. Two suffered severe shortening of their lives and died years later from radiation-induced complications -  leukemia at age 42 for one observer (18 years after the accident) and the second died from aplastic anemia.

     The same demon core was later put to use in an atomic explosion  July 1, 1946, demonstrating that the criticality experiments of Daghlian and Slotin had increased the efficiency of the weapon.

Blue Glow of Criticality?

     Blue glow and heat are two sensory effects of a criticality accident.  Electric sparks in the air (lightening is an example) will often appear blue. This effect occurs due to the energy emission of excited molecules or atoms (mostly nitrogen and oxygen) falling back to their unexcited state.

     The cause of the heat effect experienced in a criticality accident is uncertain. It is either due to the realization by the observer of the terrible event which just took place (and its consequences) or possibly due to non-thermal stimulation of heat-sensing skin nerves by the energy of the radiation or by a true heat flux produced by the event. One other possible cause of this heat sensation is non-thermal damage done to tissue on the cellular level by the ionization and production of free radicals (see post: Low Dose Radiation and Its Effects) caused by exposure to intense radiation.

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

     There may also be relationship between the blue glow and the heat effect itself. Over 30% of the blue glow emissions are in the ultraviolet range, and about 45% are in the infrared range while only 25% are in the visible range. The skin feels infrared light directly as heat, and ultraviolet light is a cause of sunburn. Together, these phenomena can explain the heat wave observations.

     There is a characteristic blue glow associated with nuclear reactors called 'Cherenkov radiation'. This blue colour is due to electromagnetic radiation which is emitted when an electron or other charged particle passes through a medium such as water at a speed greater than the velocity of light usually seen in that medium. The charged particles polarize the molecules of the water which then turn back to their ground state, emitting radiation (the blue glow) in the process.

Cherenkov Radiation

     So, what if a terrorist did have a sphere of plutonium, 28 pounds (13 kilograms), a real demon core? If a portable setup could be developed where the sphere could be surrounded by a neutron reflector, the mass of plutonium required could be much less, perhaps as little as 11 pounds (5 kilograms).

     Thirteen kilograms or 5 kilograms...it's still not much to carry, under a vest or in a back pack. If there were a technique, a mechanism whereby the demon core could be brought to the edge of criticality, expose everyone within twenty feet to deadly doses of radiation, then settle back down, a terrorizing effect would be realized.

     The suicide wearer of the vest/back pack could wander the crowded city of New York or London, triggering the plutonium core towards criticality again and again until his exposure brings him to the edge of death.

     Exhausted, the terrorist could hand off the demon core to an associate who could continue the process, exposing hundreds, perhaps thousands to lethal radiation and maybe millions to the longer term effects of radiation exposure (leukemia, heart disease, other cancers).

     The only clue that anything might be amiss, would be the sensation of 'heat' pulses next to the terrorist and an intermittent, pale, 'divine' blue glow (see post: The Colors of Faith), signs that death, an unpleasant death, will soon upon you.

     Click on the link below to watch a dramatization of a fictionalized (but based on fact) Los Alamos criticality event.

Tickling the Dragon

     *The risks of radiation: subject of research for the novel Whip the Dogs - Amazon Kindle

Sacred Places of Death and Destruction

     Mankind has always recognized certain landscapes and architecture as special, sacred, spiritual or divine. On every inhabited continent, humans have built structures that honor the land around them, the sky above or allow them to climb higher to try to touch the hand of God. But, for many, these monuments were not places of worship or meditation but simply a place of death.

Chichen Itza 

     The Temple of Kukulkan in Chichen Itza (see post: Temples to Watch the Sun) is a magnificent construct that reaches towards the heavens, a tribute to the Mayan gods but an altar of execution for the human sacrifices that took place at the top of the temple.

     Burial within Egyptian pyramids in the earlier dynasties often involved not just the Pharoah but also consorts and servants.

     In the Middle East, the hilltop fortress of Masada was witness to the suicide and killing of hundreds of Zealot Jews, resisters to Roman occupation.

   

Masada

     In 415, a rabid Christian mob murdered Hypatia, the famous scientist-mathematician of Alexandria, by skinning her alive in the Christianized Caesareum.

     Dispersed in the fields around Stonehenge (see post: Temples to Watch the Sun), buried human remains have been found - ritual burials or sacrificial executions?

     During one of the first crusades, with rabble gangs of eager Christian soldiers on their way to liberate the Holy Land, the cathedral in the German city of Trier (once home to a large Jewish population), was the site of temporary protection for the Jewish citizenry by the bishop but the wretched fugitives were soon given over to the marauding Christian Crusaders.

Cathedral of Trier

     The Hindu temple at Somnath was destroyed by Muslim (Arab) invaders in 725, 1024 and in 1296 when 'fifty thousand infidels were dispatched to hell by the sword'. Rebuilt once again, it was destroyed again in 1375, 1451 and 1701.

     More recently, the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party perpetrated the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodha in 1992. This resulted in fundamentalists on both Hindu and Muslim sides carrying out murders across India.

Hindu Temple at Somnath

     Throughout the Indian subcontinent, there has been a history of conflict between religious groups including Muslim-Christian, Muslim-Sikh, Muslim-Buddhist and Hindu-Sikh (Amritsar-1984, killing nearly 300 people).

      Zoroastrianism, the major religion of Iran for centuries has been marginalised since the Muslim takeover in the 7th century with many killed and most driven out of the country.

Zoroastrian Temple

     In modern times, sectarian violence has seized Iraq and many other countries in that region resulting in murder by followers of opposing Sunni and Shi'ite sects of Islam.

   
     *Religious holy sites: subjects of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

Sacred Geometry

     The term 'geometry' means 'measure of the earth', a Greek word inherited from ancient Egypt. The yearly flooding of the Nile caused chaos in the fields and each year, after the waters had receded, 'geometry', the redefining and re-establishment of boundaries, was carried out. It was the re-establishment of the principle of order and law on the planet.

Thoth

     This 'measurement of the earth' evolved into the basis for a science of natural law, embodying the archetypal forms of square, circle and triangle. This led to the belief that 'God created the universe according to a geometric pattern': Plato: 'God geometrizes continually'; Gauss: 'God arithmetizes.' And, in a way, this is true.

     Nature is geometric, often symmetric from the 'simplest' snowflake to the most beautiful flower. In ancient Egypt, it was the god Thoth (Djehuti) to whom were attributed many aspects including science, religion, philosophy, magic and the mediating power between good and evil; responsible for the calculations that made the heavens, stars and earth.

The Geometry of
a Snowflake

   
     Note that, in English, the spelling of the name 'Thoth' is itself near-symmetric. The Greeks adopted this deity and added to his attributes, the science of mathematics and geometry among others.

     Thoth, the 'ibis (sometimes baboon)-headed' deity (see post: What Did They See?) became especially known for magic, writing, judgement of the dead and the development of science. The 'golden ratio' is a ratio studied since ancient Greece and first remarked upon because of its frequency in nature.

     A 'golden ratio' is present, in arts and mathematics, when the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one; a ratio of approximately 3:2. Within this, there is a certain appealing beauty that is caught by the eye.

Kolam-South India

     The mathematics of the 'golden ratio' are intimately related to the Fibonacci (named after Leonardo of Pisa-a.k.a. Fibonacci) sequence, a number theorem.

Christ with Compass

     The Fibonacci sequence appears to be a 'rhythm' that is inherent in nature. It is seen in ancient Indian mathematics as well as in Sanskrit poetry. In many cultures, geometric patterns are still considered sacred, powdered onto the doorstep each morning (kolam).

   
     By definition, in the Fibonacci sequence, each number is the sum of the previous two. It is a sequence that appears throughout nature, such as in the the arrangement of leaves on a stem, the branching of a tree; and is applicable to computer algorithms, graphs, data structure.

The Golden Ratio

     'Sacred Geometry', the 'Golden ratio', the 'Fibonacci Sequence'...It's beautiful, it's natural, it's everywhere. It's all one more way to have 'Fun with Numbers' (see posts: Fun With Numbers and Geomatria-Fun With Numbers Again).

The Geometry of a Low Pressure
Weather System

     To create symmetry, to create a perfect geometry that reflects the natural world, mankind created tools that allowed him to build pyramids, castles, spaceships.

     These tools were the magical implements of the builder, the architect, the engineer: the compass, the planer and the set-square.

   
     *Sacred geometry: subject of research for the novel The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle

The Reverend Jim Jones

     James Warren Jones is remembered for one thing and one thing only - the deaths by suicide of 913 men, woman and children through the ingestion of cyanide-laced soft drink, in the compound of Jonestown, Guyana November 18, 1978. The story of Jim Jones is the story of the demagogue who tried to attain power and influence riding 'on the coat-tails of God'.

Jonestown

     It would probably be misleading to say that all of these 'false messiahs' had strange upbringings and troubled childhoods but this theme certainly can be applied to the founder and leader of the 'People's Temple'.
     As a child, Jones was obsessed with religion and death (usually a bad sign, as far as I can tell). He was bright and well-read, studying the works of Stalin, Marx, Mao Zedong, Ghandi and Hitler (this reading list was probably another bad sign). At the age of 27, Jones became a member of the Communist party and spoke out against American and UN intervention following the invasion of the south by forces of  the northern regime on the Korean Peninsula.

Jones and his 'The Peoples' Temple Christian Church Full Gospel'

     He drew 'inspiration' from a faith-healing service in a Baptist Church and realized that there was money to be made and power to be gained leading gullible flocks astray. Within a few years, Jones was the leader of his own church with the somewhat cumbersome name of  'The Peoples' Temple Christian Church Full Gospel', more affectionately known simply as the 'People's Temple'. Multiple sites were opened and membership blossomed but, like so many other 'religious' leaders, Jim Jones was obsessed with the end of the world (see post: Doomsday in Modern Culture).
     He predicted a nuclear holocaust for July 15, 1967 and moved his main base to Northern California. As time passed, the media and politicians began to question Jones' methods and membership in the 'People's Temple' started to weaken. It was time for Jones and those who still followed him to seek sanctuary from the interference of the American government and the probing eyes of the media. Jones started his project in Guyana in the early 1970s and, moved there with his followers in 1977 amid the pressure of alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse by disaffected former members.

   

Jerry Brown

     By that time, drug abuse by the leader had also been alleged and Jones' religious devotion was also in question (a factor which, if proven to be correct, would have disallowed any tax-free status his institution had been enjoying in America).
     Members stated that Jones 'used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion' (shades of Karl Marx? - see post: The Demagogues Who Usurp Religious Belief) and that once, in a fit of rage, Jones slammed the Bible onto a tabletop and declared, "I have to destroy this paper idol." Jim Jones had turned into a devout communist and atheist rather than a religious zealot. During his 'learning years' in California, Jim Jones made political connections with politicians such as Jerry Brown (governor of California), Harvey Milk (gay activist and popular San Francisco City politician), Walter Mondale (vice-presidential candidate) and the wife of president Jimmy Carter. Despite being far away in South America, Jones' cult still affected the American psyche with most of his followers in Guyana having close relatives back home on the US mainland.

   

Congressman Leo Ryan

     With pressure mounting on the federal government, Congressman Leo Ryan led a fact-finding mission to Jonestown with the goal of investigating alleged abuses. The congressman was killed (along with four other)s as he was boarding a plane to leave by members of  Jones' armed guards called the 'Red Brigade' (reading too much communist literature?).

     Later that day, anticipating that the 'gig was over', Jim Jones led his nearly 1000 followers to their deaths. Jones had once mentioned that, with death, souls are taken away by  UFO to a higher realm (see post: Stranger than Fiction).

     Was this man's story a tale of drug abuse (barbiturates and LSD were found in Jones' body at autopsy) and mental illness compounded by the isolation in South America, harassment by government and media officials and his fear of the 'End of the World'?

     Or was this man simply  the 'darkness trying to shut out the light' (see post: The Good and the Evil ). Watch the PBS documentary below:

     Jim Jones Jonestown Nightmare in Paradise. - YouTube

      *Religious personality cults: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

Death Cults

     "We're all ready to go. If you tell us we have to give our lives, we're ready. All the rest of the sisters and brothers are with me."-Reverend Jim Jones, 1978...Then nearly 1000 people drank cyanide-laced Kool-aid.

Reverend Jim Jones

     Suicide or death cults seem to be a twentieth century phenomenon: the Charles Manson 'ritual murders' in 1969; Jim Jones and his followers-Jonestown, Guyana in 1978; David Koresh and the 'Branch Davidians' at Waco, Texas in 1993; Shoko Asahara and his 'Aum' cult-Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, 1995; the 'Heaven's Gate' mass suicide in 1997.

     Charles Milles Manson was born in 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio to a 16-year-old unmarried teenage.  He believed his murders would help precipitate an apocalyptic race war. At the time the 'Manson Family' began to form, Manson was an unemployed ex-convict, in and out of prison and had spent half of his life in correctional institutions for a number of offences.

Charles Manson

     He had been a singer-songwriter on the fringe of the Los Angeles music industry, which perhaps explains, in part, his interest in the Beatles' song Helter Skelter, a term which he adopted and used in reference to his anticipated apocalypse.

    On July 25, 1969, Manson sent  Family member Bobby Beausoleil to the house of acquaintance Gary Hinman, to persuade him to turn over money Manson thought Hinman had inherited. That turned into the first (known) murder by the 'family' and was 'immortalised' when Beausoleil used Hinman’s blood to write 'Political piggy' on the wall. the murder of Hollywood actress. The destiny of Manson's group culminated with the murder of pregnant Hollywood actress, Sharon Tate, the wife of film director Roman Polanski along with a number of other victims. 

Robert (Bobby) Beausoleil

     On the night of August 8, 1969, Manson directed four family members to go to 'that house where Melcher used to live and totally destroy everyone in [it], as gruesome as you can'. Manson had told one of the women to 'leave a sign... something witchy'. As instructed, one of the Manson family members used the towel that had bound one of the victim's hands, and wrote 'pig' on the house’s front door, in Tate's blood. In April 2012, still in prison, Charles Manson requested parole and, at the age of 77 years was denied. His next chance for request for parole will be at the age of 92.

Jonestown, 1978

     The Reverend Jim Jones took his flock of over nine hundred on a mission to found their own secure piece of paradise in South America, where in November 1978, he made them all - men, women and children - drink cyanide-laced fruit drink (see post: The Reverend Jim Jones).

     David Koresh (1959 –  1993), born Vernon Wayne Howell, was the leader of a Branch Davidian religious sect, a group which were shismatics from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Koresh believed himself to be the group's final 'prophet'. Like Manson, Koresh was the product of a teenage pregnancy.

David Koresh

     He established their headquarters at a ranch about 10 miles out of Waco, Texas which they called the Mount Carmel Center. Allegations of child abuse and confinement led to assault of the complex by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) on February 28, 1993 then by the F.B.I., resulting in a fire. Barricaded in their building, seventy-six Branch Davidians, including Koresh, did not survive that fire.

     Shoko Asahara was born Chizuo Matsumoto on March 2, 1955. He is a founder of the Japanese religious group group Aum Shinrikyo. Asahara was the mastermind the 1995 sarin gas (nerve gas) on the Tokyo subway, an assault  which killed thirteen people and resulted in side effects in thousands more. He faced 27 murder counts in 13 separate indictments and was sentenced to hang in  February, 2004.

Mount Carmel Center, Waco, Texas

     Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religion, based in California, founded by Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1928–1985). On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group who had committed suicide in order to reach an alien space craft which they believed was following the Comet Hale-Bopp, which was at its brightest. Heaven's Gate members believed that Earth was about to be 'recycled' (wiped clean, renewed, refurbished and rejuvenated), and that the only chance to survive was to leave it immediately.

     There have been many more, including groups in Africa and Australia but this bent towards self-destruction isn't a recent phenomenon in human history: the 'Thugees' of the Kali sect in India, date as far back as the 8th century AD; the 'Assassins' of the 11th century in what is now modern-day Iran; the 'Skoptsy' of 18th century Russia (see post: Stranger Than Fiction)

"We're all going to heaven if we just do it right!" Jim Jones.

"What fools these mortals be."-Puck, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Kali

     Click on the link below for 'Heaven's Gate Cult Initiation' tape-Part One.

Initiation into Heaven's Gate

   
     *Apocalypse: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

Hunab Ku

     'Hunab Ku', the name of the supreme Mayan god translates into English as the 'Sole God', the 'Only God'. But whether Hunab Ku was a real Mesoamerican diety or rather a transformative figure (established by Spanish missionaries, 'invented' by Franciscan friars) from the pantheon of Mayan deities to a monotheistic, more 'Christian' form of worship is unclear. Hunab Ku, like the Judeo-Christian 'Yahweh' was said to be without form, incorporeal, invisible (see post: Invisible/Hidden Gods).

Altered Symbol of Hunab Ku

     Hunab Ku, in some writings, is associated with the Mayan 'creator' god, Itzamna, this possibly being another attempt to draw a resemblance between Hunab Ku and the one Christian 'creator' god. Perhaps what makes the background of this god less than clear is the fact that there have been no sculptures or paintings of Hunab Ku, either before or after the Spanish conquest (after all, Hunab Ku was alleged to be an 'invisible god').

     There exist only symbols that represent the deity, much like there are symbols that represent the god(s) of the sun. These symbols of Hunab Ku, however, have been altered and changed over time and even used in reference to other native cultures (ex Hopi) that did not have the concept of monotheistic creation.

Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel

     The first mention of 'Hunab Ku' is in the sixteenth century

'Diccionari de Motul' and in the 'Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel' (17th and 18th centuries).
     Other researchers state that Hunab Ku was 'the god of gods' who rebuilt the world after the three deluges and that the god Itzamna was his son. Several new age beliefs have latched onto the concept of Hunab Ku associating the deity with symbols of

     Freemasonry, monotheism, other symbols such as a 'square within a circle' or a 'circle within a square' and the expression: 'You are my other I'. The term Hunab Ku has been 'translated' by some as meaning 'all of the Consciousness that ever existed in the Galaxy'.

'New Age' Hunab Ku Symbol

     It seems that with the destruction of most of the original copies of the Mayan holy book, the 'Popol Vuh', the glyphs and other possible references to a pre-Hispanic Hunab Ku cannot be firmly established.

     Spanish translations of the 'Popol Vuh' by the overly zealous Franciscan clergy (the same group that destroyed the originals), are thought by many to be unreliable, omitting much and adding when 'needed'.

The Popol Vuh

     We will likely never know whether Hunab Ku was a real deity within the Mayan pantheon or whether he was simply a mechanism invented by the missionaries to 'ease' them into Christianity.

     *Mayan religion and the apocalypse: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

Radiation from the Sun

     In the event of a coronal mass ejection (CME), the earth

coronal mass ejection

is hit by 'solar energetic particles' (protons, electrons, heavy ionized particles). The initial wave of the strike creates a 'geomagnetic storm' warping the planet's protective magnetosphere, essentially thinning it on the side receiving the brunt of the blast. Extreme auroral events are triggered and 'electrification' of the atmosphere occurs (see post: The Carrington Event).

     But this, alone, with exploding electrical transformers and disruption of navigation and communication systems may be a relatively minor problem for human-kind. This non-ionizing form of radiation (which includes visible light, thermal radiation, radio waves) is not powerful enough to 'knock out' electrons from atoms or molecules (thus, non-ionizing).

Electromagnetic Spectrum

     But the geomagnetic storm is not the entire punch of a CME. The more threatening tempest associated with a CME event occurs in areas where life forms are unprotected. Astronauts in orbit or populations on 'day-time' areas of the planet (the surface where the magnetic shield has been thinned or stripped) face the full force of the 'second' phase of the assault, the plasma eruption from the sun.
     Within the sun's ejectile are high-energy particles including protons, resulting in ionizing radiation (a 'solar proton event'), knocking out electrons from the atoms of their targets. This can destroy electronic circuits and, being an electrically-charged particle mass, will also cause extreme auroras. But it is the effect on living tissue by this ionizing radiation that is most dangerous - DNA changes, breakdown of cell-wall integrity, all leading to 'radiation poisoning' and rapid death or the triggering of cancerous transformation. This results in the destruction of ALL living things in its path - plants, animals, microbes. Nothing to eat. Only radio-active water to drink.
     X-rays, gamma-rays and neutrons (other forms of ionizing radiation, some more penetrating than others) all make up the plasma that our star can spew towards the earth during a coronal mass ejection.

     It would take a large coronal mass ejection and probably one that would have to be a direct hit on the planet for complete stripping of our magnetic shield and penetration of the ionizing particles down to the planet's surface.
     But what if this does occur? What do you do? Where do you hide? What do you eat? How do you survive?

   
     *Solar radiation: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

You Have Been Warned

     Our society today has grown dependent on its communication systems, its guidance/navigation systems, its electronically-monitored economic system...The list goes on and on.
   

Coronal Mass Ejection

     One effect of a direct hit by a CME (coronal mass ejection) would be similar to the blast of a nuclear bomb in the lower atmosphere, causing electro-magnetic disruption of power supplies that would pull down land-line as well as mobile phone systems, internet and cable communications. The complex electronics of orbiting communications satellites would be destroyed, resulting in malfunctioning or complete shut down of global positioning and aircraft navigation systems. The orbit of satellites would begin to degrade, eventually leading to their re-entry into and 'burning up' in the atmosphere.

   

     High altitude air travel (such as most long distance commercial flights) would result in significantly increased exposure of passengers and crew to ionizing radiation, especially if the flight were to cross over either of the earth's poles where the magnetosphere (part of earth's radiation shield) has been thinned, warped or even removed by the pulse of the CME.

     Any astronaut unfortunate enough to be in orbit (even within the spaceship or space station) would be exposed to even more radiation, likely a lethal dose.

     On the ground, the electrical grid would see transmission relays explode, spontaneous ignition of flammable material (ex telephone poles) and melting of metal wiring.

Disruption of the Magnetosphere by a CME

     Another perhaps more far-fetched result of a direct hit by a CME is the 'flipping' of earth's own magnetic poles and the triggering of wide-spread volcanic eruption throughout the world.
   

     The pulse of the coronal mass ejection would not be felt on the side of the earth facing away from the sun (that is, the night side of the planet). But the exposed side of the globe, if the blast is strong enough to (temporarily) sweep the magnetosphere aside, would receive extreme doses of ionizing radiation, destroying the membranes of cell bodies and disrupting DNA, killing any and all unprotected living thing that may be in its path.

     *Solar radiation: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

When the Sun Grows Angry

     The 'solar cycle' reflects magnetic changes in our star, seen in the change of position as well as magnetic polarity of sunspots. It was discovered and first described by German astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe in 1843. This cycle waxes and wanes every 11 (earth) years. The last solar cycle (cycle 23, by human count) peaked in 2000-2002 then decayed to its low in 2008. A new cycle (solar cycle 24) began in that year. The 'solar maximum' is expected to occur sometime in 2012 (2013?).
   

Samuel Heinrich Schwabe

     A 'solar maximum' implies increased solar magnetic activity - more sunspot changes, more solar flares and possibly a 'solar storm'. To what degree a solar storm affects our planet depends on the severity of the storm itself as well as whether the storm on the sun takes place on an area that directly faces the earth or at an angle, either resulting in a 'direct hit' of our planet or simply a glancing blow.

   
     In early 2012, a mild solar storm hit our planet resulting in brilliant auroras at both poles - electromagnetic radiation of a benign nature that showed us once again the beauty of nature (see post: Fire in the Sky).

   
   

Solar  Flares ('Storms')

     Solar storms launch energy into space in three pulses: 1. electromagnetic radiation (much like an atmospheric nuclear blast) that results in effects on the earth's magnetosphere causing remarkable auroras and, in more extreme cases, warping or thinning of our protective shield. 2. proton (ionizing) radiation from deeper inside the sun. Space-bound astronauts, unprotected by our atmosphere may be at risk of exposure to these 'deadly rays'. 3. 'Coronal Mass Ejection' (CME) - expulsion of the sun's plasma that strikes our planet.

   

'Coronal Mass Ejection' (CME)

     These pulses can travel at speeds of up to 4 million miles per hour. With the earth only 93 million miles from its star, that gives us less than 25 minutes once a first pulse is launched!
     In the year 2012, our planet was hit by severe solar storms. During the week of March 5, 2012, the earth was witness to increased solar 'rage'. But a big one? Has our lonely blue planet ever been struck by a large CME? A direct hit? What happened?

       

     *Solar radiation: subject of research for the novel The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.