Archive for the ‘Consciousness’ Category

Look Who’s Talking in Wilbur: The Other Intelligence Chimes In on Crop Circle Alignments

Sunday, October 7th, 2012

Photo courtesy of Larry Doty

Wilbur 2012 as seen from ultralight aircraft. Photo courtesy of Larry Doty

Two crop circles have appeared in the United States since my alignments map was posted in July, and each independently reveals a connection to the Other Intelligence.  Both the Wilbur and Chillicothe circles, in fact, can even be read as deliberate replies to that map explication.  Indeed, what other form would such a reply take?

Speculation aside about exactly how the circle came to appear in the field, consider the evidence pointing to the involvement of the Other Intelligence in Wilbur’s design and geographic placement.  Through the interpretive keys of shape, synchronicity and alignment, what understanding might we derive from these new circles?  Are map alignments a litmus test for communication with the Other Intelligence?

Shape and Synchronicity “Where the Lightning Strikes”

Wilbur 2012 appeared almost like a comment written in wheat a few days after I published The Sum of Its Parts:  Finding Emergent Meaning in Crop Circle Maps. The diagram was immediately and intensely hypnotic; something about it drew me in completely.  I found the formation’s threefold geometry graceful and balanced, echoing the triangular alignments map.

Looking past the relatively-simple outer borders of the formation we see a dynamic inner triangle in the wheat, created by the floor pattern.  The triangle’s luminous zigzag border is comprised of three lightning bolts joined to form a triangle shining up from the circle’s floor.  For clarity, I’ve outlined it in the photo here.  What could it mean?

One book used in my research for the alignments map explication was Where the Lightning Strikes:  The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places, by Peter Nabokov.   Weeks earlier, the book had been central to a smallish synchronicity when I had first opened the it randomly to the page dedicated to Bear Butte.  The zigzag feature of the Wilbur 2012 crop circle seems to be saying, “Look!  Here is where the lightning strikes.”

And then there was the time lightning from a clear blue sky struck very near me in Kansas, in the utter absence of any storm – an event without mundane explanation.  I associate the errant lightning with the UFO sightings and apparent ET encounters involving electricity that I was experiencing fairly frequently at the time, contact which reached a peak with the arrival of crop circles in my life in 1995.

Might electricity itself be a clue from the Other Intelligence?   I just now looked online and found a brief 1985 article in The New York Times titled “Electricity May Play Role in Plant Growth.”  The article reports that researchers had shown that, depending on the direction of the current, plant growth was either accelerated or stunted by the application of electricity.  The premise that electricity can be applied to affect plant growth is demonstrated in my own living room, where a 4-foot tall hibiscus tree stands near the television, and the branches directly over the back of the TV set have leaves twice or three times the size of the other leaves.  I wonder if the Herington, Kansas crop circle, which showed a full range of accelerated and decelerated growth while in the field, may have carried information about the potential applications of the circlemaking energy, which may be electric in nature.  I haven’t yet explored possible alignment map correspondences with the Herington formation, but with this new insight in mind, another article may be in the offing.

A Path to the Pleiades Via Crop Circle Alignments

When we actively seek to interpret the messages carried by crop circles, we find that shape alone barely scratches the surface.  Synchronicities help refine the unique meaning we derive from a given formation, which may in turn assist us in deciphering universal messages as well.  Map placement, especially with a predictive quality, has been offered as a possible indicator of the Other Intelligence, since many of the alignments I’ve found thus far suggest an omniscient presence working behind the scenes.  So naturally, the next step in deciphering Wilbur 2012 involves plugging it in to the existing alignments map.

As I anticipated, Wilbur created a new and especially pertinent alignment:  The 860-mile long direct line between myself and the Wilbur circle is lengthened by only two miles if we factor in a slight detour to the Teton circle.

Once this line was established, I noticed that if extended beyond Wilbur, the line continued on through the mountainous region of northern Washington.  Wouldn’t it take the cake if it led directly to the Pleiades Mountain summit in the North Cascades?  I was disappointed when I found the line didn’t match up, but I was compelled, nonentheless, to see if Pleiades summit showed up via any other alignments on the map.  The importance of the Pleiades star system to the creation stories of the Lakota and other cultures can’t be overstated, and I’ve shared in great detail how the Pleiades infused my crop circle initiation in 1995.  Because of these correspondences, I felt absolutely certain that Pleiades summit would play some role here, so I dug deeper.

Where to look next?  In 1995, when all the Pleiadean connections came flooding to me in the weeks just prior to the Inman crop circle, I was living in Emporia, Kansas.  That had to be it!  I placed my home near 15th and West Street in Emporia on the map, extended a line from there directly to the Pleiades summit 1458 miles away, and voila!  The line breezes past Wilbur 2012.  My understanding of this?  The crop circles, the Other Intelligence and the Pleiades are all interconnected – and by virtue of our participation we realise we are an integral part of the web of connection too.

With the addition of Wilbur and the Pleiades summit to the alignments map, it seems there is no end to the correspondences that continue to arise by intuitively exploring the encoded information.  The next installment of map additions and explications is coming soon, with additional power spots and several latitude/longitude synchronicities added.  Next we’ll see what happens when we factor in the location of the Hopewell Mounds crop circle near Chillicothe, Ohio.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are new to Flat-Map Alignments, please see FMAs: FAQs.

STACE TUSSEL COLLIGAN

Click to explore Interactive Maps!
View Crop Circle Alignments (Original Map) in an Interactive Map
View Boulder-Teton-Wilbur Line in an Interactive Map
View Emporia to Pleiades Direct in an Interactive Map
View All-in-One Crop Circle Alignments Map in an Interactive Map (overview of the current established alignments I’m in the process of explicating)

The Sum of Its Parts: Finding Emergent Meaning in Crop Circle Maps

Monday, July 16th, 2012

Crop circle communication is a process replete with symbols, riddles, and metaphor.  Multiple possible meanings radiate from the shape and context of each circle, as well as through synchronicities of events, locations, and even unspoken thoughts.

By mapping seemingly-isolated formations and their associated synchronicities, the resultant geographies bring out meanings previously hidden in uncharted territory, affording us radical new insights into the language of the crop circles – and thereby the true nature of the phenomenon.

The map I’ll be explicating here is infused with evidence of what I call the Other Intelligence.

As Crop Circles Speak, the Map Speaks

We apply filters to just about everything we perceive.   A cacophony of many voices falls away, for instance, when we hear our name spoken in a crowd; similarly, the meaning we derive from a crop circle is ours uniquely.   But curiously, the alignments map instead met me with an agenda of its own – no external filter needed.

That a map like this would fall together in this way is unlikely, so acknowledging the alternative – that these elements have been shared with us this way, on purpose, by an intelligence we’ve yet to identify – is critical.  With that acknowledgement comes the responsibility to listen.  Listen.

The interpretation of the signal is, of course, a subjective task: I present it as I see it, and I encourage others to explore the territory by clicking on interactive map and reading the articles linked in the narrative. But again, at the most basic level, simply listen and the clues themselves will highlight messages encoded in the transmission.

The Origin of the Alignments Map

View Crop Circle Alignments (Original Map) in a larger map

The Topeka-Inman-Plevna line tipped me off about the Other Intelligence:  the Inman formation appeared when wished for, and on a line that would eventually connect to the location where I later learned about it.   In short, the place points on the TIP line are out of time-order, speaking to the relatively omniscient nature of the Other Intelligence.

Some measure of choice is necessary, both to provide a context and to help guide interpretation.   I select Inman KS, Langdon ND, and Teton ID to anchor this map specifically because of each formation’s relative importance to me personally.   The resulting triangle, along with the parallel TIP line, provides a visual hook – an element of design that resonates with the pleasing geometries of the crop circles themselves.  Surely this map similarly contains messages awaiting discovery; I’m drawn in and begin exploring.

The triangle’s center highlights a vast and beautiful landscape, the Badlands of South Dakota, sacred to the indigenous people of the region.  Specifically, the center is over Stronghold Table, or Onagazi – site of the the Lakota Ghost Dance in 1890 that eventually led to the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

As I look closer, a Native American theme continues to emerge.  I learn that Teton is another word for Lakota – as in Lakota Sioux, who have especially strong ties to the Badlands.

I find Bear Butte on the line from the Inman circle through the center of the triangle (the Inman-Center line). Bear Butte rises almost a quarter of a mile above the surrounding plains.  Here the Lakota and other tribes commune with Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, the central spiritual link connecting us with all of nature.

Black Elk said Wakan Tanka hears us even when we speak softly, which corresponds directly to crop circle phenomena, where private wishes and questions often elicit a response from the Other Intelligence.  Bear Butte thus echoes an important theme of this map: “Communication with an Other Intelligence.”

The Teton-Center line eventually arrives at Spirit Lake, Iowa, site of an 1857 massacre in which white settlers were killed by a band of Santee Sioux in a backlash against the theft of their native land and broken treaties.  In a double synchronicity, the Langdon-Center line also crosses the Spirit Lake Sioux reservation on the southern shores of Devils Lake.  I’m hearing, “Beware of the modern materialistic life that severs our link with the natural world.”

The Watertown SD crop circle of 1996, reached by extending a line from a point 1/4 of the way from Teton to Inman through the center of the triangle, virtually shouts intentional design embedded in the map.  Specific elements built into the complex visual form of this crop circle refer to Kokopelli, a trickster figure associated with fertility and agriculture.  The trickster is a shapeshifter who enchants and encourages us – just as crop circles themselves do.  Here the message reads, “Pay attention, and have fun.”

As the import of the Lakota theme was reinforced time and time again, I experienced an epiphany relating to the cloud circle of 1998, which presented my friend Ron and me with an immediate, direct, and lucid response to a private conversation. Grandfather Sky is Wakan Tanka, is the Great Spirit, and is indeed responsive to our very thoughts and wishes, as Black Elk reminded us. I have yet to explore any clues that may arise from the cloud circle’s place point on the map, but that experience is now quite clearly a resonant thread in the map’s theme. I am reminded of the co-creative nature of crop circles.

Other ties to the tribal theme are found in associated synchronicities that I’ve not detailed here yet, including one related to the discovery of the remains of a medicine wheel in central Kansas during a plane flight in search of crop circles. I’m also researching a Lakota connection to the star people of the Pleiades, and a possible tie with the numerous Pleiadean-themed synchronicities that accompanied my first crop circle experience.

More Alignments and Number Synchronicities

Aside from the Lakota theme, other clues and insights inform the map.  Synchronicities and alignments are deftly interwoven here, each one turning up the volume of this conversation with the Other Intelligence:

· In a close correspondence, the total area of Kansas (82,282 square miles), my home state and the place I was introduced to crop circles at the Inman crop circle in 1995, comprise almost precisely 1/3 of the total area of the triangle (246,815 square miles).  The 31 square mile discrepancy is negligible in the overall dimensions of the map.  I take note of “one-third” as a potential message here.

· In another very close correspondence, on the Topeka-Inman-Plevna line, the Inman crop circle appears 39.86 miles from Plevna – almost exactly 1/4 of the 159 miles from Plevna to Topeka.  Add “one-fourth” to the clues.

· Plevna, Montana, sharing a rare place name with Plevna, Kansas of the T-I-P line, appears in the vicinity of where the Inman-Center line connects with the Langdon-Teton line.  This synchronicity, though of a smaller magnitude than the others described here, undoubtedly adds resonance to the map.  Here I’m reading, “Home,” as Plevna is where I spent a good many years of my youth, and is still where I go home to when I visit Kansas.

· The Inman-Teton line passes fellow UFO and ET experiencer Mike Clelland’s residence at a distance of less than two miles – which is a doubly remarkable coincidence since Mike, like myself and many others, desired a crop circle encounter and directly received a formation in response.  The message here once again echoes Black Elk’s reminder that the Great Spirit hears and responds even to our whispers.

· And if all of that were not enough, the Langdon-Center line eventually skirts the western edge of Boulder, Colorado – where I currently reside.  I’m hearing two things here: “Culmination,” and “Be here now.”  With this correspondence, I sense that the alignments map and all within it have come full circle, so to speak, and reflects the tribal wisdom that all things are created in a circle.  While I’m grounded in Boulder, I’m being called to explore the Badlands, climb Bear Butte, and meet with the Lakota.

What Does All of This Mean?

The facts of the map speak for themselves, and it’s up to us to interpret what is being said.

Since the map’s order and meaning arise directly from the overlay of meaningful correspondences tied to relevant points widely separated in time and space, I can only conclude that this map’s designer possesses a relative omniscience.  The Other Intelligence wants to speak with us, and it’s no small talk – this is important stuff, and it’s ours to explore.  Ultimately, the communication is what we make of it.

To me, the importance of honouring tribal wisdom is integral to the meaning of the alignments map. The Lakota and other indigenous peoples have honoured Earth and all creation through a way of life that’s deeply reverent of nature and spirit.  The fragmentation of a people starts and ends with conformity to a way of life devoid of nature and short on respect, such as we see resulting from modern technologies that disconnect us from one another and from our life source. Wholeness can be regained by deliberately reconnecting with the natural and the spirit world through time-honoured ritual, respect, reverence, and gratitude – all of which are missing or minimised in the modern lifestyle.

The original Lakota way of life, now in jeopardy, is in alignment with the crop circle phenomenon, where meanings aren’t dictated by force or violence, but rather are communicated through patient guidance, a respect for individuality, and an emphasis on the natural world. Crop circles aren’t imposing anything; they aren’t out to hurt anyone or pollute the environment.

With gratitude to the Other Intelligence, I carry on this conversation.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are new to Flat-Map Alignments, please see FMAs: FAQs.

STACE TUSSEL COLLIGAN

Thoughts on Crop Circles, June 2012

Saturday, June 16th, 2012

An explication of the Crop Circle Alignments described in my last post is about ready to share, but it needs a bit more fine-tuning before it goes up. In honour of the anniversary of the arrival of the Inman, Kansas crop circle on 16 June 1995, here are a few thoughts that almost made it into the article.

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Crop circles have taken a bad rap in recent years. With many eye-popping formations still being crafted by humans, the original crop circles and the Other Intelligence associated with them have largely been forgotten.

Maybe these human circlemakers really are somehow inspired by the Other Intelligence – I don’t know, and I haven’t been to England in 15 years, so I can’t say I have much of an opinion about it. But what I’m discussing here is based on the premise that crop circles and crop art, while related in certain ways, are not one and the same phenomenon.

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When we pursue interaction with the Other Intelligence, the crop circles’ labyrinthine world opens up to spectacular insights. Simply listen to the voice of the circles and follow the clues wherever they lead.

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Geometry is a conduit through which the Other Intelligence may reveal itself, evidenced both in the shape of the crop circles and in the overall alignments between and among them. The accompanying synchronicities serve a dual purpose as well, supplying interpretive aids and verifying the existence of the mostly hidden, but absolutely pervasive, intelligence that’s woven into the fabric of reality.

Like activators of invisible ink allow hidden words to be seen, geometry and synchronicities can help us to more deeply perceive what is being said. Crop circles carry subtle meaning that may be missed in a cursory overview of a single formation.

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STACE TUSSEL-COLLIGAN

The Layered Language of Crop Circles: Connecting the Dots in Extraordinary Phenomena Research

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Please access the interactive maps via links accompanying the photos, as they will allow you to explore the alignments discussed here.

Map created with help from Mike Clelland.  Visit Mike’s site Hidden Experience for more insights into synchronicity, ET contacts, and other curious topics.

Crop circles, UFOs, and synchronicities are clues to our connection with a largely-unseen web of reality.  Our interactions with these phenomena demonstrate that we aren’t isolated packets of consciousness, but that we are transmitters and receivers of meaning through language.

We find that where these extraordinary phenomena occur in conjunction with one another and are then plotted on a map, a brilliant and always-evolving syntax emerges.  As we wish, we are given to explore a language that has nothing to do with the describing the mundane and everything to do with navigating the fringes of reality.

In this first of two posts, I’ll lay the framework for an upcoming report detailing my ongoing exploration of what these alignments may mean.  Of course, like all the great mysteries of life, our understanding of this elusive level of reality is ultimately subjective, so I invite you to draw your own conclusions.

ONE: The Topeka-Inman Line.  This straight alignment in Kansas is comprised of three interrelated locations: 1) the place where I privately wished for a crop circle, 2) the place where I learned about the requested crop circle five days later, and 3) the location of the crop circle itself.  This discovery confirmed the extraordinary nature of my crop circle initiation in 1995.  View Stace Tussel – Inman Crop Circle Alignment in a larger map

TWO: The Triangle. Plotting the locations of three key crop circle locations in my research of US formations from 1995 through 2002 creates a near-equilateral triangle enclosing 246,792 square miles, referencing Kansas at 82,282 square miles, tripled, which equals 246,846 square miles – a difference of just 54 square miles, which is roughly the size of the overlapped triangle in the middle of the large one (apparently an artefact of the mapping process, possibly having a connection to satellite techniques and Earth curvature, since the centre of a triangle should be a point, and not another triangle).  View Stace Tussel – Crop Circle Alignments in a larger map

THREE: Parallel Lines.  The overlay of maps one and two elicited another alignment speaking to the connectedness of all the phenomena.  From a direct E-W (equatorial) line, the Inman formation appeared at an angle of 29 degrees, and the line between Langdon and Teton runs on the same parallel angle of 29 degrees.  View Stace Tussel – Parallel Lines in a larger map

STACE TUSSEL COLLIGAN

NOTE:  As mentioned, the potential significance of these alignments will be explored in more detail in an upcoming post.

Significant Alaska Earthquake Accompanies Solar Storm Warning

Friday, June 24th, 2011

A 7.4 quake struck the Aleutian Islands of Alaska a few hours ago, boosting evidence that links intense solar weather with seismic activity.   It was centered nearly 40 miles below Earth’s surface, and there are no early reports of significant damage or injury.

Having been quiet for weeks, Alaska has been due for a big quake.  Solar wind from a large coronal hole on the Sun and an incoming particle stream from a big CME from the solstice flare on the 21st are both stirring up the magnetosphere, providing a trigger for the unleashing of tectonic stresses.

What other vulnerable spots may be in the line of fire this time – or next?

STACE TUSSEL-COLLIGAN

Pre-Sensing the Tragedy in Japan

Monday, April 25th, 2011

What I experienced a couple of days before the mega-earthquake in Japan was a confluence of precognitive, remote, and deeply empathic sensing so troubling that I’ve had difficulty processing and writing about it.  As the disaster continues to radiate from the quake’s ground zero, however, I need to share what happened:

On the evening of 8 March I was surprised by a vague sense of uneasiness followed by a sudden urge to open my bookmarked link to a list of 2011’s Large and Deadly Earthquakes.  A mag 7.3 had struck just moments before in Japan.  I broke into tears as images filled my mind:  cries of panic in the midst of falling debris and dust; buildings crashing down everywhere; flood waters sweeping people away.

I sought more information.  I told myself that perhaps I’d simply overreacted to the news of the 7.3.  I was somewhat consoled when I learned no casualties had been reported.

Unfortunately, that sense of relief was to be short-lived.

On Friday the 11th, I woke to a changed world:  the massive Japanese earthquake and tsunami were all over the media.  History had been altered in a big way, yet the extent of the devastation eluded perspective.  The cascading visions I’d had a couple days prior were now manifest.

The cataclysm had instantly swallowed up 28,000 human lives in Japan; weeks later, the fallout is proving to be worse than first imagined.  Radiation from Fukushima’s crippled nuclear reactors has poisoned air, food, and water supplies around the world.  At the same time, the Pacific Northwest and Yellowstone remind us of our planet’s light slumber.  Even Canada and Australia, two countries which rarely experience earthquakes, have logged notable temblors in the past couple of weeks.

Earth’s denizens are only a few pages into this new chapter of history.  Unfortunately, it seems my terrifying visions may have only hinted at the insidious threat triggered with the Japan megaquake.

STACE TUSSEL-COLLIGAN

What Sparked Today’s Surprise Solar Storm?

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Today’s solar storm apparently arrived out of the blue, accompanied by Arkansas’ most powerful earthquake since 1969 and a number of other notable temblors around the US, including a mag-4.5 just 75 miles north of San Francisco.

Hours later I’ve not found a single reference to the cause of today’s unexpected stormy space weather.  Apparently the talking heads are being tight-lipped – or they simply don’t know the source of the storm. Neither scenario is preferable.

Take a look at the depiction of the rather angry-looking auroral oval posted on spaceweather.com’s website this morning:

The source of the storm remains an enigma.  Other than a powerful M-class solar flare that erupted just a few days ago and which was downplayed in possible misinterpretation at the time (“…Earth was little affected. Plasma clouds produced by the blast did not come our way…”), clues about the source of today’s surprise, big geomagnetic disturbance and the accompanying remarkable quake activity haven’t surfaced.

While I’m busily working on upcoming articles about remote viewing and synchronistic crop circle alignments, I welcome your thoughts about the source of today’s mysterious solar storm.

STACE TUSSEL

Quick Start to 2011’s Strong Earthquakes

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

With five mag 7+ earthquakes in less than a month, here’s another look at correlations between an active Sun and seismicity here on Earth:

The current auroral oval is bright and lopsided.  Image from Spaceweather.

Large earthquakes of magnitude 7 and above have been increasing dramatically since the Haiti quake of 12 January 2010, with three occurring in just the first couple of weeks of 2011.  While I don’t believe these large quakes will continue at the current rate, early indications suggest we could be on target to see record numbers as the year progresses.

(Update 18 January 2011:  Today’s quake in Pakistan, which again just precedes the incoming solar wind due to arrive on the 19th or 20th, brings us to 4 mag 7+ quakes in 2011, and 6 in less than a month. )

A list of yearly magnitude-7+ earthquakes since the last solar minimum in 1996 can be found in the article More Links Among the Sun, Earthquakes, and Mine Explosions.  As predicted in that article, published 17 June, we were on target to see more than 20 quakes in excess of mag 7 by the end of the year.  In fact, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), 22 mag 7+ quakes were recorded during 2010.

Today’s quake in the Loyalty Islands, variously reported at between mag 7 and 7.3, directly precedes the solar wind that is set to hit Earth in the next day or so.  I’ve noted before that that incoming solar wind effects geomagnetic changes, often resulting in earthquakes, when it impacts our planet’s magnetosphere just prior to the wind’s actual arrival on Earth.

Each earthquake is different and may be precipitated by any number of factors aside from solar activity; however, evidence for a causal relationship between the Sun and some seismic activity continues to emerge.  Aside from large coronal holes and solar eruptions, other indicators I monitor at the Spaceweather website include:  1) solar wind, which tends toward high speed and low density just before and during many seismically-active days, and 2) the auroral oval, which is often thick and strongly-lopsided on approach of solar wind and CMEs, predicting geomagnetic disturbances.

STACE TUSSEL

NOTE:  Depictions of the auroral oval from several key earthquake dates in 2010 are currently missing, for unknown reasons, from the Spaceweather archives.

More Questions Around Unexplained Bird Deaths

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

An example of the beautiful red-winged blackbird.

Something fishy is going on with bird deaths.  If it were just the Beebe, Arkansas event, the news would have come and gone much like the report of the thousands of dead starlings that spooked a town in New Jersey a couple of years ago – but Beebe was only the beginning.

In just the past five days large numbers of dead birds have been found, inexplicably deceased, in concentrated areas where they fell in the US states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas, and Tennessee.  Hundreds of fallen turtle doves were also reported today in a small town in Sweden.  Downed power lines, stormy weather, poison, disease, and even fireworks-induced stress have all been put forth as possible conventional suspects in the bird deaths.

We haven’t yet heard that weather balloons or swamp gas might have been the culprit in these bird kills, but as the reports stack up, more fringe speculation is creeping into the conversation.  Could HAARP or some kind of particle beam weapon be engaging in target practice on these creatures?  Are UFOs slamming into the flocks, perhaps unwittingly?  Did the crack in Earth’s magnetosphere that occurred on the 28th of December – which was quickly followed by 2011’s first two mag-7+ earthquakes – have some heretofore unknown impact?

In the most recent of an eerie string of reports, over 100 dead black birds were reported found along a busy stretch of highway just north of Lebanon, Tennessee.  As seen on Nashville’s WSMV Channel 4 News, a spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said, “The birds have definitely been dead 5 or 6 days.”  If the Tennessee birds were dead for nearly a week, why were they only reported Tuesday and investigated today?  One would think that with all the news coverage in the US and internationally, something like this would be noticed and reported right away.  And why might the bird carcasses apparently repel rather than attract coyotes and other scavengers?

Also, why are we seeing increasing numbers of reports in a specific region of the United States?  In each case, why have the birds been found grouped together in a small area?  If fireworks – which have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years – are really to blame, why haven’t mass bird deaths been reported in conjunction with them before now?  Considering the fact that each reported case in the recent wave has been found in plain sight in a populated area, how many of these sudden bird deaths may be occurring away from view?

Until some real answers are uncovered, the questions – like the bird deaths – continue to pile up.

STACE TUSSEL

Possible DMT Release Observed at End of Life

Monday, December 20th, 2010
Chloe, in the week before her death

Chloe, in the week before her death

In Endogenous DMT Release in Near-NDEs? I described our elderly cat Chloe, who last year seemed to be experiencing possible “mini-trips” that I suspected may have been occurring during near-NDEs.  She was at the beginning of a significant downturn then, having been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and kidney disease.  Chloe was allergic to the thyroid medicine and too frail to undergo surgery.  As she deteriorated, she may have been producing associated chemical compounds – possibly including DMT.

This past year she grew weaker and weaker, and lost more weight.  At 17-1/2 years old, Chloe was down to 4 pounds just a few weeks ago, and due to sudden difficulties walking, finally in late November we made arrangements to have her euthanised.  However, on the day before her scheduled last visit to the vet, Chloe was suddenly walking better and had a bit more spring in her step.  We cancelled the appointment, which was for Friday morning, the 3rd of December.  Although we’d been through a series of tough questions while pondering choices, we saw improvement and just couldn’t feel completely certain it was time to go through with the euthanasia.  Even so, Chloe wasn’t well.  We decided to wait and see what the next week held.

But Chloe’s day had come.  That same evening, we heard a very odd, guttural sound coming from the other room.  Upon checking to see what was going on, we were horrified to see our yellow tabby standing in the doorway, over Chloe’s stretched out body on the floor.  Chloe was dying.  Her eyes were open but unresponsive; her pupils were so huge that no iris could be seen at all.  Her body appeared to be paralysed, except for her face: without moving much, she was making slight coughing noises every few seconds, and the muscles in her face were all quivering and spasming.  All I could do was to pet her gently and to say, “It’s okay, Chloe…Oh Chloe….” through my tears.  My heart was broken.  Chloe was rigid even as her facial muscles continued to quiver; the movement of her fur reminded me of wheatfields blowing in the wind.

Then she suddenly stopped moving and it was all over.  I was stunned and anguished beyond words.  Neither my partner nor I had ever witnessed the death of a loved one, whether person or companion animal, and the ordeal thoroughly shook us up.  We let our other cat examine Chloe briefly – they’d been companions for over 13 years since Tiger was born – then wrapped her body in a fleece blanket in preparation to deliver it to the pet crematorium the following morning.

Only five days earlier, on Sunday the 28th of November, while doing the NY Times crossword, I’d been halfway listening to an interview with Dr Martin Ball, an entheogenicist.  Most of what he was saying I was already familiar with, but one thing stood out:  Ball mentioned that while on DMT, his facial muscles would quiver.  Why I held on to that bit of information, and that bit only, is beyond me; perhaps it was so that I could perhaps understand a little more about what Chloe would be going through when she made her transition.  I still wonder, but cannot know: was her facial quivering accompanying a DMT rush at her death?   As Rick Strassman and others have speculated, I also wonder… could DMT somehow ease the transition – in some way open the door for the spirit?

It’s been two and a half weeks since Chloe passed on.  We miss her, but I think Tiger misses her the most; he’s been a bit lethargic, yet more talkative than usual, and seems to be remembering Chloe.  Most notably, the morning after Chloe’s death, Tiger was sitting near me at almost the exact spot where Chloe had taken her last breath, and he looked up at the ceiling intently for about ten seconds – much like I’d seen Chloe do in the months prior to her death.  In the absence of a spider or wasp, I’d never seen him do that.  I can only guess, but it seemed to me that he was looking at something that I couldn’t see – perhaps the spirit of Chloe – or what remained, say, floating DMT molecules (a stretch, but possible) – hadn’t entirely left the room yet, and he was sensing a disembodied presence in a way only cats can.

STACE TUSSEL