I had never ever heard of the name Tunguska before… until I bought a PC game (for the kids) called Secret files: Tunguska. Then I became enlightened to an extremely fascinating and equally mysterious event which occurred 101 years ago in Central Siberia.

In the Tunguska region at 7:17am on 30 June 1908 something of apocalyptic proportions occurred. This ‘happening’ flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 2,000 square km. The blast (if that was what it was) was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and generated a shock wave that knocked people unconscious 60km from the epicentre. In the following weeks, night skies over Europe and western Russia glowed brightly enough for people to read by. Mysteriously, there was no crater or any other clear evidence for what exploded.

The first report of the explosion was in the Irkutsk paper dated July 2, 1908, published two days after the explosion:

The peasants saw a body shining very brightly (too bright for the naked eye) with a bluish-white light… The body was in the form of ‘a pipe’, i.e. cylindrical. The sky was cloudless, except that low down on the horizon, in the direction in which this glowing body was observed, a small dark cloud was noticed. It was hot and dry and when the shining body approached the ground (which was covered with forest at this point) it seemed to be pulverized, and in its place a loud crash, not like thunder, but as if from the fall of large stones or from gunfire was heard. All the buildings shook and at the same time a forked tongue of flames broke through the cloud. All the inhabitants of the village ran out into the street in panic. The old women wept, everyone thought that the end of the world was approaching.

S.B. Semenov, an eyewitness in the village of Vanovara about 60 km south of the explosion site, gave the following report…

I was sitting in the porch of the house at the trading station of Vanovara at breakfast time… when suddenly the sky was split in two and high above the forest the whole northern part of the sky appeared to be covered with fire. At that moment I felt great heat as if my shirt had caught fire; this heat came from the north side. I wanted to pull off my shirt and throw it away, but at that moment there was a bang in the sky, and a mighty crash was heard. I was thrown to the ground… and for a moment I lost consciousness… The crash was followed by noise like stones falling from the sky, or guns firing. The earth trembled, and when I lay on the ground I covered my head because I was afraid that stones might hit it.

The most accepted explanations as to what caused the Tunguska event are:

But I ask you, could a comet cause the following enigmatic effects that were recorded at the site?

Not surprisingly there are many learned people who disagree with the ‘accepted’ explanation. Among the more ‘exotic’ theories are…

I agree that most of the theories listed above sound utterly ridiculous… but the event itself simply cannot be adequately explained using natural reasoning. Even now, 101 years later Russian scientists are still struggling to get a clearer understanding of what really happened that day.

What is disturbing is that if the Tunguska event occurred 4 hours and 47 seconds later, it would have hit the Russian Capitol.

(For an intriguing look at the Nikola Tesla hypothesis click here.)

I was a zealous (and somewhat tactless) Bible College student at the time, and had just finished writing a study on Aliens from a Christian Worldview. So armed with my Bible… (yes, I took my NIV Study Bible to a UFO cult meeting – told you I was tactless ;-), a wad of my UFO studies, and my 6’4″ friend (you can never be too careful), I made my way into the venue, past the freaky door greeter (who had a crystal the size of a tennis ball around his neck) and sat down with about ten other people.

For the next hour, two Atherius reps spoke about what they believe in. This is it in a nutshell…

George King was born in England in 1919. He dedicated his life to the practice of Eastern Mysticism. One day he he heard a loud voice saying…

“Prepare yourself! You are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament.”

Apparently, the voice belonged to one of the ‘Cosmic Masters of the Solar System’ and George King became their ‘Primary Terrestrial Mental Channel’, bringing their message to Earth.

At this point I would like to include an except from the UFO study (soon to be posted on this site)…

Some people claim that by putting themselves into a hypnotic trance they are acting as a channelling device in which extra-terrestrial beings speak through them. The same general message permeates over 90% of the words received by millions of people over the world while they are channelling. The following is an actual example:

We come from the Interplanetary Configuration of solar systems, and our purpose is to aid our brother man on the earth as the new age dawns. The teacher that was known to you as Jesus was able to use many more of the abilities than the people of this planet. Unfortunately, man upon planet earth has misinterpreted the meaning of this mans life. He was no different than any of you; he was simply able to remember certain principles. These principles may be realised by any one of you at any time, it is only necessary that you avail yourself to our contact through meditation in order to begin to realise that which is rightfully yours, the truth of the creation and the truth of your position in it. Know ye not that ye are gods? We have been puzzled at times by the inability of the people in general of this planet to be awakened to this truth. We find the state of hypnoses, brought about by the evolution of thought by the people of this planet is so great, that it is necessary for him to maintain a constant awareness of his spiritual nature by meditation.

I might add that there are absolutely no reports of any alien ever proclaiming that Jesus is the only way to find salvation.

This is from the Aetherius site…

At this significant point in the history of mankind, the Cosmic Masters have chosen to release a new level of understanding and wisdom to those who are ready on Earth. This wisdom in no way invalidates or replaces the wisdom given to mankind in the past by the great teachers such as Shri Krishna, Lord Buddha and the Master Jesus. These beings and several more, were also Cosmic Masters from advanced worlds sent to Earth to help mankind in the best way possible when they came.

I always find it amusing how so many New Age religions claim that Jesus Christ is ‘a way’, when Jesus Christ Himself said that He was ‘The Way’ (John 14:6). There’s a very big difference between ‘a’ and ‘the’.

Anyway, back to the story… At the conclusion of the night the well-meaning reps asked if anyone had any questions. It was then that I stood up and asked them to explain what the Bible meant when it talked about end-time deception and doctrines of demons (I even read out the relevant verses). As you can imagine, it didn’t go down too well. One of them said that it was easily explained in Revelation chapter 23 and asked me to turn there. Problem was, there is no Revelation chapter 23. And so the evening ended, much to the relief of the hosts, and I handed out the studies to the folk leaving the building ;-)

I sometimes think back to that time and wonder what on earth I was thinking. Did I do the right thing in my challenging confrontation? Did I exhibit the love of Jesus or push the people further away from Him? Would I do the same today? Lord, help me to be zealous… with knowledge.

To visit Wikipedia’s page on UFO cults click here. ]]> http://www.symondrake.com/my-close-encounter-with-a-ufo-cult/feed/ 4 http://www.symondrake.com/we-see-what-we-want-to-see/ http://www.symondrake.com/we-see-what-we-want-to-see/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:08:00 +0000 Symon http://www.symondrake.com/?p=151 My sons reckoned they saw a UFO today (I was quick to remind my eldest that the last UFO he saw turned out to be a seagull). Like father like son.

Ever since I watched ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’ as a kid, I’ve been fascinated by UFO phenomena. As a Christian, I definitely believe there is something out there, but I don’t suspect they come from other worlds… more like the demonic realm. I have an essay that I’ll post here one day, and might even tell the story of the time I gate-crashed a UFO cult meeting when I was ‘zealous without knowledge’ and told them quite impolitely exactly what I thought of their beliefs ;-).

But for now I would like to prove that we generally see what we want to see. If we see something that looks like an alien craft, we’ll probably believe it is.

Check out the first clip below.

Quite convincing isn’t it (especially with the X-Files theme included). The Chilean air force released a press-statement claiming that the lights were from their training aircraft flying in formation. Surely those lights couldn’t possibly be training planes? Surely it must be a cover-up. Well… no.

Watch the following clip to understand what I mean about seeing what we want to see.
]]> http://www.symondrake.com/we-see-what-we-want-to-see/feed/ 4 http://www.symondrake.com/revenge-of-the-mair-park-ghost/ http://www.symondrake.com/revenge-of-the-mair-park-ghost/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:10:00 +0000 Symon http://www.symondrake.com/?p=48

Read the post here: The Mair Park Ghost.

DW and I thought it would be an entertaining read for the local paper, and emailed them a copy.

To cut a long story short, the newspaper turned the story into a weekend article, and I became ‘a ghost hunter (who apparently doesn’t believe in life after death) who has an obsession to solve the 50-year old mystery, and is desperate for people to come forward with information about the phantom.’