Ruined by the Ruins

We´ve been in Yucatan for only a week and have already visited the three most important ancient ceremonial centers for the Maya´s creator god, Izamna. That was one of my goals for this trip. The ceremonial centers are 1. Chichen Itza, which almost everyone knows, 2. Isla Cozumel, which, if anyone has heard of it, knows it most likely as a diving and snorkelling location and 3. a place most people have never heard of, Izamal.

Izamal is a little place fairly sizzling with spiritual energy since Bishop Frey Diego of Landa, who was infamous for burning the Mayan codices with Inquisition zeal, also tore down a huge pyramid in Izamal. Bishop de Landa used the pyramid’s stones to make a gorgeous convent where, not surprisingly since it was a sacred Mayan site, an apparition of the Virgin Mary occurred. Pope John Paul II (Juan Pablo II in Spanish) made a pilgrimmage to the site.

We were there last weekend when Mexico celebrates the Izamal Virgin of the Yucatan. There were carnival rides, trinket stands, and tons and tons of people pouring in – 300,000 by some estimates. Unfortunately, the downtown streets happened to be torn up this year to update the infrastructure.

What chaos! While driving through town trying to find a certain pyramid to photograph and videotape, John asked a local fellow how to get to the pyramid. Either the man did not understand John´s Spanglish or John did not understand the man´s Spanish or most likely both. In any case, we made a wrong turn and ended up on a dusty street full of mounds of dirt with a huge ditch for drainage and sewer pipes two feet away from my car door. Then we got hemmed in by the hordes of people in town for the celebration looking for places to park on the narrow streets now that the construction crews had gone home for the day. John somehow managed to get us out of that situation without driving into the ditch. This is the kind of excitement you don’t want!

This morning we planned to spend about two hours photographing the huge Olmec heads displayed in a downtown tropical park in Villahermosa. However, it was so gorgeous that we stayed five whole hours. I had to video tape each head from many angles but what took the most time was surprise encounters with little long-tailed raccoon-like creatures called coatimundis.

Families of them swarmed around us. Cute little baby coatis snuffled in the leaves on the jungle floor looking for, I assume, ants and grubs. While videotaping one family group, another adult came up behind me. I squealed when I felt a soft little hand on my thigh. He had stood on his hind legs and reached up at me, I assume, hoping for a handout. I felt bad because my squeal frightened him. He jumped and ran away. The next time a little paw touched me, I got him on tape. I wore the dusty paw print on my pants all day!

After five hours with Olmec heads and a week of ruins, John and I felt totally ruined by the ruins. There is an interesting ruin near Villahermosa called Colacmalco where the ancient Maya made kiln-fired bricks to construct their pyramids since, in this swampy land, there were no stones to be found.

However, instead of going to see yet another ruin, John and I elected instead to visit a chocolate hacienda. Our main goal was to taste test all the cacao products, which we did. Yum, yum! Do you know that chocolate comes from a light-colored fruit about the size of a squash which sticks out from the sides of a low-growing tree´s trunk? The cacao bean is purple in color. After it is roasted, it is pure strong bitter chocolate.

A delightful young man of Castilian Spanish blood whose grandparents came to the area in 1914 gave us a tour of his family´s organic cacao plantation. It is right next to the archeological site and was originally farmed by the ancient Maya, then Franciscan monks. Howler monkeys roared and leapt in the tree canopy above us stopping only to munch on leaves.

Again, translation problems arose because the young man tried to explain to us that even though the monkeys also eat some of the cacao fruit they are important because of Chip and Dales. Not sure what male exotic dancers had to do with a chocolate plantation, I tried to clarify the young man´s meaning. He made pawing motions in the air which further baffled me.

Everytime I tried some English translation such as that the monkeys somehow aid in the reproduction of the cacoa fruit, the young man shook his head. When the young man made a shaking motion as if it was important that the monkeys shake the tree tops, John volunteered that perhaps it had something to do the monkeys digesting the seeds so they could germinate more easily. We were getting no forwarder.

Our young guide had a solution. He called a friend who spoke English better than he did on the cell phone. With the phone on speaker, the friend explained to us that the howler monkeys were good for the cacao plantation because they helped to keep squirrels at bay. I would have rather liked it to be about male exotic dancers.

Tomorrow we go to the magical mysterious ruins at Palenque. Because I don´t know if I will find another computer and internet connection, it may be a while before I write again but as soon as I can, I will.

Love, Light and blessings,

Carol Chapman

Charting Unknown Territory in Villahermosa

We had breakfast at a restaurant on the city square in Campeche a gorgeous Colonial town on the Gulf of Mexico unknown to many tourists. Because I’m making a Yucatan travel movie, I put the camcorder on its little 12 inch tripod on the breakfast table and pointed it toward the city center square through the open windows of the restaurant. Then, I sat in front of camcorder and started to talk with the camera recording the view looking over my shoulder at the cathedral and the cars cruising on the cobblestone streets.

Unbeknownst to me, a street vendor hat salesman sauntered up and peeked into the restaurant from behind me through the open window. All this was going on without me knowing he was there. He started holding up hats for John to consider buying. Eventually, I noticed him. It made an entertaining tableau.

As it turned out, John had lost the hatband from the hat he bought in Campeche´s square in January. This guy had a bandanna for only 10 pesos for a replacement, a satisfying encounter for all. The guy got his money, John got his bandanna, and I got an entertaining video clip.

We´re charting new territory in Villahermosa. This is our first time in Tabasco. In contrast to the Yucatan, which is almost totally devoid of surface water – they get their water from underground rivers and sinkholes – in Villahermosa, we are surrounded by lakes and swamps. We drove on a causeway that felt reminiscent of the Florida Keys, a natural habitat of saw palmetto and palmtrees. There was water, water everywhere. The land is barely two feet above sea level on the causeway.

Tomorrow we go to see Olmec heads, those six-foot tall stone sculptures of Mexico’s first civilization, the Omecs. They have facial features similar to Egyptians or Polynesians. What are they doing in Central America! Very interesting. The Egyptian influence in the Yucatan according to Edgar Cayce? Or descendants from the lost continent of Lemuria Mu?

Tonight we´re going to make a spiritual pilgrimmage. In this land of supermercados, roadside stands and street vendors, it is a delight to find a place to shop that is similar to home. There´s a Wal-Mart across a busy road from our hotel. John needs safety pins to hold his new hatband on his straw hat. I need insect repellent because the Olmec heads are in a jungle and tropical plant setting with possibly howler monkeys and likely many mosquitoes.

Also, our hotel is on a lagoon. Very picturesque but we had to come in from the outdoor patio during dinner because of mosquitoes. I´m glad I´m taking chloroquinine.

Carol Chapman

In Campeche, the Coconut Shrimp Capital of the Universe!

Finally, I have found an internet cafe that is working! It turns out that here in Yucatan, most hotels now have wifi. I should have brought a laptop.

In any case, we are now in Campeche, a lovely Colonial city that is often used by Mexican movie production companies to make historical movies. It has cobbled streets and a lovely town square with a magnificent cathedral. It used to be hounded by pirates until a thick stone wall plus baluartes (bastions) and two forts overlooking the Gulf of Mexico were erected.

We are surrounded by Maya people who come out to the town square on the weekend to listen to free concerts. The whole family is there – all age groups. I enjoy being surrounded by all age groups, balloon and snack vendors.

Talking about a carnival atmosphere, we just left one of my favorite places – Izamal, the home of Izamna the legendary creator god of the Maya. It is another lovely Colonial town which is one of the few places containing pyramids that have not been abandoned. The city flows all around the structures which include the largest pyramid in the Yucatan. My legs are so sore from climbing it!

Izamal is also the site of an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Pope John Paul II (Juan Pablo II in Spanish) made a pilgrimmage here in 1993. This weekend happens to be the great celebration of the Virgin of the Yucatan. There were carnival rides, trinket stands, a tons and tons of people pouring in – 300,000 by some estimates plus, the downtown streets are torn up to update the infrastructure. What chaos! We made a wrong turn and ended up on a street torn up with a huge ditch for underground electric wiring and mounds of dirt. This is the kind of excitement you don’t want!

Well, my hour is about up at the internet cafe!

Blessings,
Carol Chapman

“Hola” from Yucatan

We are on Isla Cozumel, an amazingly sacred spot for the ancient Maya. It is the place where their legendary religious leader Izamna arrived and departed from. He travelled on a serpent boat.

I wonder, was Izamna actually from Atlantis – he came from the East – and was the serpent boat actually travel by flying serpent as I experienced in my memories of Atlantis?

Izamna is the Christ-like personnage for the ancient Maya. He is both a person and also a god.

Carol Chapman

Feedback on "Is 2012 the Correct Date?"

I received emails in reply to yesterday’s post. Following please find summaries:

• A man wrote to say that vibrational energies have been building since the 1600s and “slowly increasing the frequency of the planet and all life forces to physically speed up” so that around 2012 we might have the energy we need to pop out of the 3-4 dimension into the 5-6 dimension
• A woman wrote to say that  whatever the official date, she has already been feeling changes in vibration
• A man asked me if the Maya people I talked with were actually Maya because, as he understood it, many of the indigenous people had moved “when the stars and planets alignments deem them to move.” I know that one of the men I talked to about his family’s handed down prophecies of the end times had to translate from Mayan to English as we talked. He lived in Uxmal far from the resorts of Cancun and the Mayan Riviera.

Carol Chapman —

Is 2012 the Correct Date?

Because I’m a person who tends to look with fear at predictions – my own and others’- I like to do research to find the rational core behind prophecies and to dispel the sensationalism created by commercial interests. So, let’s take a look at 2012 and the research of the eminent author on indigenous peoples of the Americas, Frank Waters.

Frank Waters, 1902 – 1995, is probably best known for his monumental work, The Book of the Hopi, which is considered by many to be the definitive collection of stories, language, rituals and photographs of the Hopi. Waters wrote this book in 1963 aided by thirty-two Hopi elders. It is a wonderful record because, since that time, some of the Hopi traditions have not been carried forward to the next generation.

In 1970, Waters was given a Rockefeller Foundation grant to research the pre-Columbian culture and religion of the Toltecs, Aztecs, and Maya in Mexico and Guatemala. From this came his book Mexico Mystique: the Coming Sixth World of Consciousness, published in 1975.

In Mexico Mystique, Waters discusses the date for the beginning of our present world, the fifth, on August 12, 3113 B.C. He shows the great difficulty in correlating with our calendar the Mayan date of 13.0.0.0.0 for the beginning of the fifth world. Over the years of scholarly translation the date has gone from August 29, 3511 B.C. to October 14, 3373 B.C. to 3340 B.C. to 2853 B.C. to  finally 3113 B.C.

Do you get my point? Who knows what the beginning date of the fifth world really is! This date is important because, from it, the beginning of the next world, the sixth, was calculated by the ancient Maya. If our correlation of the beginning date of the fifth world is wrong, the beginning date of the sixth world will be wrong also.

Based on the understanding of scholars prior to 1975 when Waters’ Mexico Mystique came out, the beginning of the next world – the sixth – would be on . . . (are you ready for this?) . . .  December 24, 2011! That’s’ right, 2011. And, December 24, not 21. One year earlier than the present prediction of 2012! Who knows, with further scholarly research, what that date may become in the near future? For all we know, it may have already passed.

When I interviewed Maya people during my visit to Yucatan in January 2008 and asked them, “What do you know about December 21, 2012?” they replied that this was a date that white people had told them based on translations of ancient Mayan texts. Basically, the ancient traditions have not continued to the present generation of Maya, or anyway, not to ordinary people going about ordinary lives.

There’s a chance that shamans may keep the tradition going, but in no way is 2012 common knowledge among the Maya as was the millennium to many people throughout the earth.

I find it comforting to know that among everyday Maya there is no panic about 2012.

Carol Chapman —

How to Connect with Past Life Memories without Hypnosis

Because my memories of Atlantis surfaced during past life regression, it seems as if the main way a person can access their past life memories is through hypnosis. However, I have also remembered certain past lives through vivid dreams and through feelings of familiarity with certain people or or the desire to travel to certain countries.

Following, please find a list of 10 clues that can alert you to your past lives. It’s a list put together by Dr. Georgina Cannon, a hypnotherapist who has regressed 1000’s of individuals. 

These 10 Clues Can Reveal Our Past Life Identity:

1. A deep attraction to certain subjects in school?
2. A feeling as a child of being from somewhere else?
3. An attraction to certain games such as model planes, playing war, teacher, cowboys and Indians?
4. A deep attraction to a certain period of history?
5. A natural skill that came from early on in life?
6. An early awareness of pre-destined life path?
7. Unexplained fears of water, heights or other?
8. An instant affinity with someone that seemed to come out of nowhere?
9. An instant repulsion to certain cultures or people?
10. A strong pull to travel to a certain country?

How to Discover the Interlife Through Hypnosis | Think Article

Australian UFOs

 It turns out Australia has its share of UFO sightings. That would make sense since Australia, as I understand it, has vast stretches of desert and uninhabited areas. Nonetheless, the UFOs in this story occur where many people observe them.

UFO hot spot

BY VANESSA HANDLEY

27/11/2008 4:00:00 AM

A SPATE of UFO sightings on the Central Coast has attracted the attention of the UFO and Paranormal Research Society of Australia

UFO hot spot – Local News – News – General – The Sun Weekly

Prairie Specters: What are Orbs? by Dave Juliano

This is a great article on Orbs. It not only offers an unusual theory explaining orbs, but it also describes experiments that dispel the contention that orbs are caused by the type of camera used plus it includes a photograph containing orbs. I found it very interesting and comprehensive.

What are these balls of transparent light we find in photos taken in allegedly haunted places? I won’t tell you I know the answer to this question. No one has the true answer to this question yet, but that’s part of the job of researchers and investigator.
One of the leading theories concerning what orbs are and the one that I lean towards the most is that they are not the spirit at all. The orb is the energy being transferred from a source (i.e. powerlines, heat energy, batteries, people, etc) to the spirit so they can manifest. This may not even be a conscious thing the spirit is doing, just a natural way they get their energy. This would explain why the orbs are round balls. According to the laws of Physics energy being transferring like that would assume is natural shape of a sphere. This theory can also be tied into the EMF readings we get during spirit activity.
I always approach things with a bit of skepticism, so when I saw all these websites start showing off these photos as ghosts, I was just as weary as most of you. I just had to try it for myself. I took a 35mm camera that I had used regularly for 6 years in all types of lighting and weather and had never gotten an orb or other unexplainable photo before and went out with a few seasoned field investigators on a cemetery investigation. One of the investigators was psychic and she pointed out a few areas we should take photos, so I did. I also had ghost footsteps walkup behind me twice and I turned around quickly and took photos of the empty air. When I got my photos developed, I had these orbs and fog in those photos that I was told to take, as well as the footstep ones. All my other photos were normal. Coincidence?
Since we do not know what orbs truly are, just that they seem to be found mainly in areas where there is ghost activity, I will tell you what they are not. On a normal investigation there are about 10 people using 10 different cameras, 35mm and digital, and many speeds and brands of film. They all get their film developed at separate places. Let’s say only half of these investigators get some orb photos. Are these water spots or dirt on the lens? That would mean that 5 people all had similar dirt on their lens and all 5 did not clean their lens either. Are these orbs film processing errors? Well the 35mm cameras all had their film developed in different locations and used different film so that is very unlikely. The digital cameras can’t have film-processing errors.
I am aware that some people feel that the orbs on a digital camera are an error in the digital processing of the image. When that error does occur in digital photos, the objects tend to be square in nature, not round and they cannot be semi-transparent, the pixel behind would have to be corrupted also. I will not even address the precipitation theory, no legitimate researchers takes photos in any form of precipitation. What about dust and dirt being stirred up? Can that be the cause of the orbs? If that were the case, I would think that there would not be normal photos in a sequence of photos from the same camera and location. All of the shots in a sequence should have the dust or dirt in it. We find that most orb photos do not appear in consecutive photos. All photographers present should get orbs if it is dust being stirred up as well.
These are just a few things for the skeptics to think of when they are condemning an orb photo as a fake or fraud and some things for investigators to consider when checking their photos for positives.

Prairie Specters: What are Orbs? by Dave Juliano

Company’s plane sparked UFO reports – UPI.com

 Here’s a new twist. Usually UFO reports describe interviews with the people who saw the UFO. In this article, a tire store’s aerial advertising company dispels any conjecture that anyone saw a UFO admitting that it was their plane, with blinking lights, that , to some people, looked like an alien spacecraft.

ROSEVILLE, Calif., Nov. 25 (UPI) — An aerial advertising firm said one of its planes was the cause of reported UFO sightings over Roseville, Calif.

American Air Lights of Concord, Calif., said the plane, which was advertising the grand opening of a tire store, created the blinking lights that many residents identified Friday night as a UFO, KXTV, Sacramento, reported Tuesday.

“From a distance it looks unidentified, lights are blinking,” said Jason Frost, owner of American Air Lights. “You can’t read the words unless you’re in the target audience (below the plane).”

He said the free publicity from the incident is beneficial to his company.

“It’s good for us,” he said of the exposure.

Company’s plane sparked UFO reports – UPI.com