Hampton Roads Publishing Company Blog

The ever-interesting Schwartzreport carried a story about a poll conducted in various countries that showed how little the United States is trusted to act responsibly on the world stage. Well that’s a big surprise! However, a closer look at the data as reported indicates a more hopeful trend. Look at these two items:

“The survey also finds that majorities in most countries want the U.S. to do its share in multilateral efforts to address world problems and do not want it to withdraw from world affairs.”

“Americans agreed with the rest of the world, that the U.S. should not remain the world’s preeminent leader. Instead, they prefer that it play a more cooperative role. They also believe U.S. plays the role of world policeman more than it should.”

To my mind, these are the two facts that the article should have concentrated on, because here, in a nutshell, is the outline of a responsible and sustainable foreign policy for the United States if it ever gets over its post-September 11, 2001 nervous breakdown. Neither isolationism nor unilateral hegemony, but cooperation among peers.

Would that be so hard?

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The prestigious and important society ISSSEEM — which stands for the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine — will feature Hampton Roads authors at its annual meeting June 21-27 in Boulder Colorado, whose theme is “The Science of the Miraculous.”

Sunday’s keynote address will be offered by Freddie Silva, author of Secrets in the Fields. Described as one of the world’s leading experts on sacred space, crop circles and consciousness, Silva will talk about “how and why sacred spaces alter human consciousness.” Silva, a lifelong student of Earth mysteries and ancient systems of knowledge, and a leading researcher into the interaction between temples and subtle energies, directed the documentary “Stairways to Heaven: the Practical Magic of Sacred Space.”

Amit Goswami, Ph.D., offers a post conference intensive on “Quantum Healing and the Awakening of the Chakras.” Dr. Goswami is author of two Hampton Roads books: Physics of the Soul and The Quantum Doctor. He is described as a pioneer of the new paradigm of science called science within consciousness, and you may remember him as having appeared in the What the Bleep” film.

Of interest to me, and perhaps to you, Harry Oldfield and Brian Daliey will present a full day in elective workshop on “the energy field and multidimensional reality.” Harry is a homeopath, Brian an M. D.

Brian is an old friend via the Monroe Institute. Some months ago, he introduced me to Harry and Harry’s wonderful computer program that renders the energy field visible, and allows you to see changes in it in real time. The description of their presentation in the organization’s brochure says that they will discuss their findings on the warping of time and space, their experiences in areas of consciousness beyond physical reality, and will offer during the workshop pictorial evidence and experimental case studies. Harry and Brian say further, “We will introduce people to images not only of their own living energy fields but perhaps glimpses into the multidimensional realms of consciousness in which they also simultaneously exist. We hope to image the energy links that occur between members of the group, and possibly other multidimensional beings, during the experiments we propose in group consciousness.”

This is science at the cutting edge, science that recognizes consciousness as primary, not as epiphenomenon. It ought to be a fascinating conference.

I wonder how many other people had the same reaction I did to the story about New Jersey Governor Corzine’s accident. Of course one’s first reaction is compassion. But in my case it was swiftly followed by two others, neither of them very charitable.

First I thought, what kind of idiot rides shotgun in a car doing 90 miles an hour — without a seat belt?

My father would never wear a seat belt, considering it, I think, an imposition on his freedom. I knew there was no point in arguing with him, but it made no sense to me to be driving 60 miles an hour as if I were sitting on a sofa. It was clear to me that in an emergency, it would be a good thing for me as a driver to have my hips restrained so that I would not be thrown around and be forced to use the steering wheel for support, rather than being able to manipulate the steering wheel from a stable place. Beyond that, I couldn’t see the sense in being prepared, as a passenger, to be hurtled through the windshield under certain circumstances. I remember well the arguments people used to make about people’s lives being saved by not wearing their seatbelts and being thrown clear of a destroyed automobile. No doubt, it happens. People get hit by meteorites, too.

Second thought: doesn’t this little incident well illustrate how far we as a people have come from being rulers to being subjects?

New Jersey law requires drivers and passengers to use seat belts. It also imposes speed limits. But these rules apply only to taxpayers, not to officials. Governor Corzine was being driven by a state trooper in a car traveling 30 miles above the speed limit. You know as well as I do that the police make their own rules, politicians make their own rules, judges make their own rules, the military makes its own rules — and the only time any of them get in trouble is when another of these privileged classes interferes. How far do you think you would get, making a citizen’s arrest of the governor?

A generation ago, Senator William Fulbright introduced the phrase “the arrogance of power.” Arrogance is not conducive to making intelligent decisions. Power is not conducive to reducing or restraining arrogance.

This story from the Philadelphia Inquirer carefully asks a couple of good rhetorical questions.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20070419_Corzines_driver_had_legal_leeway.html

Corzine’s driver had legal leeway

Troopers can speed as they see necessary.

By Troy Graham, Jennifer Moroz and Sam Wood

Inquirer Staff Writers

Gov. Corzine’s state police driver could go as fast as he wanted, use his emergency lights at his discretion, and generally ignore most traffic laws with impunity because he’s not bound by normal laws or guidelines.

That’s hardly surprising to anyone familiar with executive protection and the dirty little secrets of public office.

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This is from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Schwarzenegger’s guiltless green
He touts keeping muscle cars, but filling up on biofuel

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Thursday, April 12, 2007

(04-12) 04:00 PDT Washington — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged environmentalists to shed their past image as “serious tree huggers” and begin a new movement that doesn’t make people feel guilty for driving their SUVs, but instead focuses on building more fuel-efficient SUVs.

“For too long the environmental movement has been powered by guilt,” Schwarzenegger said in a keynote speech Wednesday at a global warming conference at Georgetown University.

“You know the kind of guilt I’m talking about: Smokestacks belching pollution and powering our Jacuzzis and our big-screen TVs and, in my case, powering my private airplanes. It’s too bad for us that we can’t live the lives of Buddhist monks in Tibet, but you know something, it doesn’t happen.”

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Dana Redfield (1944-2007)

Long-time Hampton Roads author and sometime Hampton Roads employee Dana Redfield died Saturday, April 14, 2007. She was a true free spirit, a deeply spiritual person, a writer of great talent and a great joy as a friend.

These few pictures, taken when a couple of friends and I visited her at her home in Utah in 2005, express Dana the Westerner, which was an important part of her identity. She loved and understood the west, particularly the desert, and never could adjust living in the east, even Charlottesville.

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Wow!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070409.html

It has been over 10 years since mysterious lights were sighted over Phoenix, and people still dispute their origins.

When moving lights were originally sighted in the sky over Phoenix (visible from Nevada to the edge of Tucson), Arizona Governor Fife Symington III ridiculed claims of extraterrestrial activity, going so far as to hold a press conference where one of his staff members dressed as an alien and claimed to be the culprit. Ten years later, he’s not so sure that the matter should be taken lightly.

Dr. Lynne Kitei wrote a book about the Phoenix Lights, which is a skeptic’s account of her discovery that we are not alone. She’ll be discussing her book on Tuesday, April 17, on the News for the Soul radio program.

I thought I’d better pass this notice on. Joseph McMoneagle, Remote Viewer 001 and author of four books for Hampton Roads, will appear on Shirley MacLaine’s Radio internet IE (Independent Expression) Radio Show Sunday, April 15th at 6:00 p.m. Pacific, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

You can keep up to date with such events by checking out his blog, http://blog.mceagle.com.

From Shirley MacLaine’s website,

http://www.shirleymaclaine.com/iecommunity/ieradio.php

Joseph McMoneagle
MEMOIRS OF A PSYCHIC SPY

JOSEPH MCMONEAGLE
For over 19 years, Mr. McMoneagle, known as Remote Viewer #1, never missed one nuclear target and his record for intelligence gathering was never surpassed.

Maureen Caudill will be on the nationally syndicated talk show “Coast to Coast AM with George Noory” next week to discuss her book, Suddenly Psychic. I am told that “Coast to Coast AM” is broadcast in throughout the states, Canada, and Guam, and airs in 48 of the top 50 Nielsen radio markets, so this is good news for Maureen.

If you have a chance to listen to this, I recommend it. I edited Maureen’s book, and I know how good it is. (Of course it always helps to have a good editor!)

Her story is one that I think will become more common with time. She was a scientist, raised in the stupidly materialist paradigm that so often distorts science in our day. But a “vacation” week at the Monroe Institute, where she did Gateway, blew the doors off that mindset as it does for so many, so often.

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George Beahm’s latest book, Caribbean Pirates: A Treasure Chest of Fact, Fiction, and Folklore is now available! From the flap copy:

Is a pirate’s life for you? Here’s how to live the life of a Caribbean pirate!

Think you know everything there is to know about pirates, do you? Well me bucko, you’ve got a lot to learn, and here’s where you can drink your fill!

I’m “Scurvy Dog” George Beahm and, along with “Long John” Tim Kirk (a former Disney artist), we’re here to take you on a pirate cruise to the Caribbean, where you can shoot, scoot, and loot to your plundering heart’s content. We’ll show you how to find your sea legs and get you ship-shape so you can sail the high seas and pillage the New World with the most ferocious cutthroats that ever hoisted the Jolly Roger! Well, “arrr” you ready?

With artwork commissioned especially for this book from artist Tim Kirk, and illustrated with 145 full-color photos, this book tells you everything you’d want to know about Caribbean pirates! How to talk, dress, and live like a pirate on cruises and at pirate festivals. Where to find the best pirate museums in the world. A quiz to test your pirate knowledge. And, best of all, a no-holds-barred look at pirate history through the lens of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Were pirates really hung? Who was Davy Jones? Were there cannibals in the Caribbean? Find out in this fun and fact-filled book!

George Beahm is the author of more than 20 pop culture books including The Whimsic Alley Book of Spells, Muggles and Magic, and Fact, Fiction, and Folklore in Harry Potter’s World. He lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Tim Kirk is a five-time Hugo Award winning illustrator who has worked for Disney’s famed Imagineering division. He lives in Long Beach, California.

Britton McDaniel is a freelance artist. Her recent credits include interior art for Fact, Fiction, and Folklore in Harry Potter’s World and a cover design for The Truth about Medium. She lives in Mechanicsville, Virginia.