I wrote an article for Lew Rockwell on the fallacy of black holes and discussed Electric Universe proponents’ explanation for the phenomenon entitled Black Heart; recently legacy corporate news outlets ran stories about alleged photographic proof of black holes. At least one article did provide the often unrevealed truth that Albert Einstein himself thought such an entity impossible:

The concept that explains black holes was so radical, in fact, that Einstein, himself, had strong misgivings. He concluded in a 1939 paper in the Annals of Mathematics that the idea was “not convincing” and the phenomena did not exist “in the real world.”

The Thunderbolts site issued their rebuttal also with the title Black Heart; the salient point made by the author Stephen Smith:

It has long been said that “seeing is believing”. However, it should not be surprising that “believing is seeing” appears to be more apt. When there is no inner experience, such as a theory, outer realities remain invisible. Such is the case with cosmic electric fields and the flow of electric charge through the Universe.

As an author, I find the godless concept of black holes demonic—all devouring, inescapable, inevitable, infinitely destructive—and ludicrous at the same time; in fact, there was a science fiction-horror film exploring that concept of the black hole as gateway to hell entitled Event Horizon.

What I write about now, however, is not astronomical phenomenon that serves a nihilistic cultural agenda but the blessed phenomenon of human consciousness, also using information provided by Electric Universe proponents from the Thunderbolts team. Readers of LewRockwell.com know that orthodox opinions and pronouncements by the dominant establishment on economics, politics, history, and many other matters are flagrantly false. Yet we don’t often think that science too is subject to corruption, becoming more an ideology than a search for facts, a search for truth. This video by Thunderbolts discusses Scientific “Correctness” vs. Scientific Progress. “Think of the scientific method as the application of human cognitive abilities.”

The video demonstrates the limitations of establishment science; if not dissembling, it doesn’t like findings that challenge conventional wisdom. In fact, a recent review of At Our Wit’s End: Why We’re Becoming Less Intelligent and What it Means for the Future F. Roger Devlin writing on Unz.com that in a “Politically Correct” or “Social Justice” environment: Surprised by Joy: The ... Lewis, C. S. Best Price: $6.29 Buy New $9.94 (as of 07:00 UTC - Details)

Such institutions do not grant appointments to men like Isaac Newton:

They will appoint what [Edward] Dutton and [Bruce] Charlton [in their book, Genius Famine] call the “head girl” (at UK schools)—quite intelligent, socially skilled, conscientious, but absolutely not a genius. This person will be excellent at playing the academic game and will make a great colleague. But they won’t innovate; won’t rock the boat.

Once this stage is reached, academic conformity to an ideological model is easily imposed.

And that too explains why ideas promulgated by Electric Universe advocates are rejected out of hand by NASA and the Astronomy establishment.

Not too long ago, Thunderbolts posted a video of author Mark Gober’s book An End to Upside Down Thinking, subtitled Dispelling the Myth That the Brain Produces Consciousness and the Implications for Everyday Life. Gober describes the philosophy of materialism: matter interacts with matter, which is chemistry. Theory then states “with enough random chemicals reactions, chance tells us we are bound to get a chemical that can replicate itself, like DNA…which leads to biology, like a human being, which then develops a brain, and from the brain comes out consciousness. And by consciousness I mean our inner, subjective experience of being alive…Materialism says that matter leads to or creates consciousness through the brain…Then what happens when our brain dies?…What I concluded is there is no meaning under the Materialist view, because once one is dead, there are no memories, there are no feelings anymore.”

The error Gober discusses is that “correlation is not causality.” And Gober’s research leads him to the conclusion that matter is not primary to the universe; consciousness is, and his explanations are of course discussed in depth in his book.

The second part of Gober’s Presentation is described as follows:

A major focus of this evidential summary is the amazing abundance of scientific studies, dating back more than half a century, into psychic phenomena, such as telepathy, ESP and precognition. A parallel field of investigation is survival of consciousness – that is the study of near-death experiences and even purported communications with the dead by so-called mediums. While The Thunderbolts Project takes no position on these issues, in the past we have presented for your consideration interviews and public presentations by such noted scientists as Dr. Rupert Sheldrake and Dr. Dean Radian, both of whose scientific research into consciousness Mark outlines in his book. Today, Mark offers a brief yet comprehensive overview of compelling evidence that the locus and source of consciousness is non-material.

An End to Upside Down ... Mark Gober Best Price: $3.58 Buy New $5.50 (as of 07:50 UTC - Details) (Rupert Sheldrake, a Christian, described in Gober’s book the extreme hostility and prejudice towards his research and himself to the point of defamation by Wikipedia editors, with a detailed discussion on his website here and here. Please see his Infogalactic encyclopedia entry here, which can be compared by the interested reader to Wikipedia’s. Dr. Sheldrake himself has written a book entitled The Science Delusion, a rebuttal to materialists like Richard Dawkins.)

I hope that interested readers who decide to explore the videos and the book Upside Down Thinking learn that materialism does not truly explain consciousness; other paradigms do. And with that in mind and Easter almost upon us, I also want to discuss “Holy Fire,” a phenomenon that also has been researched by scientists. It is discussed in this article on the website Russian Faith and below is an excerpt:

The Miracle

The large round Rotunda surrounding the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is packed wall to wall with expectant throngs of pilgrims holding torches made of bundled candles. They have traveled from all over the world to see with their own eyes what generations upon generations of Christians before them have also witnessed on Holy Saturday in Jerusalem. The sound of drums reverberates in the energized atmosphere as Christians in red shirts, riding on the shoulders of the strongest among them, exuberantly proclaim “We are the Christians, we have been Christians for centuries, and we shall be forever and ever. Amen!” The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem enters the Rotunda and processes toward the Holy Sepulchre. He is led by an entourage carrying banners with iconographic depictions of Christ, the Holy Apostles, and New Testament miracles. The Patriarch’s entourage is protected by Israeli security personnel. It is about noon. The joyful tension builds as the Patriarch arrives just outside the doors to the tomb of Christ, prays, removes most of his vestments, is searched for any means of ignition, and prepares to enter the Holy Sepulchre. Before entering, a wax seal is removed from the door. This seal verifies that the tomb has also been thoroughly secured and searched for means of ignition or deception.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1980 to 2000 was Patriarch Diodoros. Many times, he has received the Holy Fire on behalf of Christendom. His experience is as follows: “I enter the tomb and kneel in holy fear in front of the place where Christ lay after His death and where He rose again from the dead. I find my way through the darkness towards the inner chamber in which I fall on my knees. Here I say certain prayers that have been handed down to us through the centuries and, having said them, I wait. Sometimes I may wait a few minutes, but normally the miracle happens immediately after I have said the prayers. From the core of the very stone on which Jesus lay an indefinable light pours forth. It usually has a blue tint, but the color may change and take many different hues. It cannot be described in human terms. The light rises out of the stone as mist may rise out of a lake – it almost looks as if the stone is covered by a moist cloud, but it is light. This light each year behaves differently. Sometimes it covers just the stone, while other times it gives light to the whole Sepulchre, so that people who stand outside the tomb and look into it will see it filled with light. The light does not burn – I have never had my beard burnt in all the sixteen years I have been Patriarch in Jerusalem and have received the Holy Fire. The light is of a different consistency than normal fire that burns in an oil lamp . . . At a certain point the light rises and forms a column in which the fire is of a different nature, so that I am able to light my candles from it. When I thus have received the flame on my candles, I go out and give the fire first to the Armenian Patriarch and then to the Coptic. Hereafter I give the flame to all people present in the Church.”

Something amazing is also happening among the pilgrims anxiously waiting outside the Sepulchre at the very moment that the Patriarch is receiving the Holy Fire inside. Blueish white flashes fill the Rotunda like lightning. The blue light flashes do not cast shadows, nor do they affect the existing shadows already present from the natural light. Individual candles suddenly illuminate. The crowd roars in celebration as the bells begin to chime. The Holy fire is passed from person to person until anyone with a candle or a lamp is personally experiencing this spectacle before their very eyes. The fire will not burn for at least the first 20 minutes. Those who attend attest that no recording of the event can possibly even begin to convey the spiritual and visual miracles that are taking place amongst the pilgrims. This incredible gift from Heaven takes place at the exact location where the greatest miracle in history, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, happened 2000 years ago.

Scientific Analysis

In 2008, Russian physicist and Associate Professor in Mechanics of Materials, Andrey Volkov, headed a scientific mission to investigate the phenomenon of the Holy Fire. He was allowed to set up instrumentation and equipment to scientifically analyze this miracle at the exact moment of its occurrence. The results of his analysis were published in the April 2012 edition of the Russian Journal of Science and Religion under the article titled “The Miracle of the Holy Fire”. The article was written by Volkov and four other Russian scientists. The article describes “a strong radio pulse…at the moment of the Holy Fire’s descent” and calls the event “majestic”. Their scientific analysis ruled out the possibility of any hoax or fraud. They determined the Holy Fire to be the result of “electrical discharge” and stated, “the nature of such phenomenon is much more complex than a simple “lightning” during a storm . . .” They were unable to assign a practical human source for such an electrical discharge, especially given that it happened in the absence of a storm, indoors, and on a reoccurring date.

There are more details of the scientific findings in this report: The scientific measurements of Russian physicist Andrey Volkov on Holy Saturday 2008. I am copying an excerpt, although reading the full text is worthwhile, because the physicist interprets the phenomenon as a plasma phenomenon and as an “electrical discharge” event: Romans- Everyman&rsquo... Johnson, Alan F. Best Price: $4.99 Buy New $8.99 (as of 06:05 UTC - Details)

According to the Russian physicist, the plasma phenomenon, which is believed to take place in the interior of the church, is entirely inexplicable and without justification from a scientific standpoint. The high point for his measurements came when the Holy Fire appeared while the patriarch was enclosed in the Sepulchre interior. The unexpected measurement was recorded at 14:04 Jerusalem time (15:04 Russian time). Approximately two minutes later, the patriarch came out with the Holy Fire. Volkov continues in his interview:

– “It had been a while since the patriarch of Jerusalem had entered the Aedicule and the ritual had begun… And suddenly – there it was! It recorded a change in the radiation phase because of an unknown signal. This happened at 15:04. One fluctuation – and nothing else that was similar. And soon the Patriarch of Jerusalem came out holding a lit candle.”
– “What was this fluctuation?”
– “Electrical load. What it is, where it came from, I do not know. Later, having already returned to Russia, I worked on decoding the recorded radio signals. The process [of the measurements] lasted six hours and thirty minutes. One measurement includes approximately one thousand “frames.” Quite a trying task. But it confirmed the following: prior to the appearance of the Fire there was electrical discharge… I cannot give you details at this point, because I am committed to the creator of the documentary. The chart with the measurements will be presented in detail there. But, the most important thing is what I have already mentioned: there was an electrical discharge… Why is this important? You see, here a complete picture is formed. I already told you about the plasma phenomena – which are a miracle on their own, since at the church there are no conditions whatsoever for their development. The second inexplicable event is the electrical charge of the air which is apparent even without the equipment – many feel that during the coming of the Holy Fire the hairs on their arms stand up. This is possible only under a very large difference of electrical potential, let’s say, between the roof of a house and the main floor. And this, if the house is made of pure quartz and there is a storm outside. But at Easter time at Jerusalem, as a rule, there are no storms, the weather is clear. And the Church of the Resurrection is made of various materials – marble, calcium rock, and wood. It has been built without a uniform plan and has a multitude of various auxiliary spaces. This is why the suspicion that a huge transformer necessary for the accumulation of electrical load and its subsequent discharge had initially been placed inside the church is simply unrealistic. However, the difference of electrical potential despite this develops! And most notably at a specific time: at Easter after the prayers inside the Aedicule. And then there is the last aspect we discovered – the appearance of the Fire is accompanied by electrical discharge. This means that the appearance of the Fire is an integral part of all of the incredible, entirely inexplicable phenomena that have an electrical nature. Is this not a confirmation of its miraculous nature?”³

The Thunderbolts site has discussions of electrical discharge phenomenon; see here on tornadoes, which might bring to mind the proverbial Biblical whirlwind: Tornadoes As Electric Discharge.

What is the cause of Holy Fire? Is it proof that faith and human consciousness have real power over the universe? Is that credible given the perspective that consciousness may be central to the cosmos, not matter? And for believers, Who is the origin of consciousness? Yes, perhaps one could be satisfied that mind and consciousness are immaterial, natural phenomenon inherent in the universe, as I suspect is Gober’s ultimate thesis in his book: the soul without God. But as C.S. Lewis writes in his work on his path from atheism to Christianity, Surprised by Joy:

We maintained that abstract thought (if obedient to logical rules) gave indisputable truth, that our moral judgement was “valid,” and our aesthetic experience not merely pleasing but “valuable.”

…If thought were purely a subjective event, these claims for it would have to be abandoned. If one kept (as rock-bottom reality) the universe of the senses, aided by instruments and co-ordinated so as to form “science,” then one would have to go much further—as many have since gone—and adopt a Behavioristic theory of logic, ethics, and aesthetics. But such a theory was, and is, unbelievable to me. I am using the word “unbelievable,” which many use to mean “improbable” or even “undesirable,” in a quite literal sense…I wanted Nature to be quite independent of our observation; something other, indifferent, self-existing…But now, it seemed to me I had to give that up. Unless I were to accept an unbelievable alternative, I must admit that mind was no late-come epiphenomenon; that the whole universe was, in the last resort, mental; that our logic was participation in a cosmic Logos.

My purpose in writing this piece is not to evangelize but to bring awareness to the fact that the dogma of Materialism is flawed and that consciousness is integral to the cosmos; and then it is not too big a leap for those who are able to see clearly and fearlessly, as Lewis ultimately did, that consciousness, if primal, cannot exist without Mind being its source, the “cosmic Logos.” Today, there are so many attacks on those who believe in God yet so much evidence that can be found if sought. Science, by its very method and limitations, as discussed above, cannot prove the existence of God, nor would I be so callow as to think so. However, science can shed light, as I hope I have shown, on nature. It is up to individuals to decide if the evidence is clearly pointing to the Transcendent. The Science Delusion: ... Rupert Sheldrake Best Price: $8.84 Buy New $11.29 (as of 07:00 UTC - Details)

Saint Paul discussed humanity’s unwillingness to recognize the fact of God’s existence that is made manifest in the created order. From the New International Version:

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

In his commentary to Romans, Alan F. Johnson explains; he defines the Greek word translated as “suppress” as “hold back” or “resist”:

But why is God’s wrath [judgment] directed towards me? Because I in my “godlessness and wickedness” suppress the truth…because of our refusal to acknowledge the truth of God implicit in creation…

What is manifested…and thus known to every person everywhere is God’s “eternal power and divine nature” (v.20)—that is, that God is God and not man. We perceive in the created existence not only our own finiteness, but because of God’s revelation to us we are aware of our creatureliness. We know that we are not the autonomous (independent) center of our lives and world, but that God as Creator and Lord stands infinitely above us as the Source and Goal of our created life. Therefore Paul can say of all of us: “So that men are without excuse.” Without excuse because we have turned our devotion to idols rather than the Creator.

Johnson then discusses the consequences from our separation from God, the separation that Jesus came to end, to reconcile humanity to God:

Today’s culture everywhere reflects the loneliness, despair, fragmentation, and loss of personal identity that result from the perceived loss of God in the culture. To many, God is dead but so are we. Our culture is increasingly characterized by relativism and pluralism, which teaches that all values are personal, shifting opinions; there is no objective truth or right; one moral view is as acceptable as another. Nowhere is the tendency to try to relativize absolutes more evident than the erosion of conscience in the moral realm. One characteristic of our day is nihilism, the determined effort to destroy everything…every abiding norm. Nihilism begins with the abandonment of God. Without a true knowledge of God there are no abiding truths, lasting principles or norms, and humanity is cast upon a sea of speculation and skepticism and attempted self-salvation.

Note that Johnson states “true knowledge of God” and I would say implicit in that is consequently true knowledge of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Hence I am dismayed, and perhaps nonbelievers are repulsed, by “Christians” or should I use the term “Churchians” such as Pat Robertson, who appears like a grotesque refugee from a J.K. Rowling film, calling in this video for American “hellfire” missiles to drone Venezuela’s President Maduro. “Love thy enemies” never once entered his, or Pompeo’s, or Pence’s mind.

To me, Holy Fire is not at its most powerful solely on Easter, although it is an important reminder. Holy Fire exists when human beings seek out God, no longer rebellious and isolated, but with humility; when we overcome our baser natures and speak truth, especially speaking truth to power; when we stand up for the weak and the helpless, when we show compassion, kindness and goodness in our daily lives; when we are meek and humble in the service of God, no matter our flaws and yes, our sins—those acts we do that separate us from God. On this website, thanks to the work of Lew Rockwell, you may discover and listen to many such voices of conscience, and perhaps choose to join yours with them.

I wish all believers a happy, holy and blessed Easter.

Eastern Orthodox Christians take part in Holy Fire ceremony in Jerusalem 2019

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