In2-MeC

Wroclaw, Poland
19 September 2004

Wroclaw ISKCON Temple
Friday, 17 September

 

Saturday, 18 September

 

 

Sunday, 19 September

 

 

 

21 September is
Srimati Radharani's Appearance Day!
(Radhastami)

 

Srila Prabhupada's Radhastami lecture, Calcutta 1974

Prabhupada: So our request is. . . Everyone who is present here. . . Today is Radhastami. So pray to Radharani. And She is hare, hara. This hare, this word, is Radharani. Hara, Radharani. Radha or hara, the same thing. So Hare Krsna. So we are praying to Radharani, "My Mother, Radharani, and Krsna. " Hare Krsna. �O Krsna, O the Lord. � Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, the same thing, repetition. �O Radharani, O Krsna. " "O Radha-Krsna. " "Radha-Krsna" or "Hare Krsna", the same thing. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare. Again addressing, "O Krsna, O Krsna, O Radharani. " Hare Rama. The same thing, again. Hare Rama. Rama is also Krsna. Rama is Rama, Rama is Balarama. They are all Krsna. Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. So this repetition of addressing Radha and Krsna or Hare Krsna is to pray, "My dear Lord, the, and the energy, the spiritual energy of the Lord, kindly engage me in Your service. " That�s all. "I am now embarrassed with this material service. Please engage me in Your service. "

This is good sense. We are servants here. We are engaged in so many services. But it is not giving us comfort. The service which we are rendering to others, they are not satisfied, I am not satisfied. This is material service. But if you give service to Krsna, a little service can save you from the greatest danger. This is the formula.

Just like Ajamila. Ajamila, in his boyhood, he was brahmana. He was giving service to Visnu. But in young age he became a victim of a prostitute, and he fell down. But at the end, when Yamaduta was coming and were so fearful, he did not know whom to take shelter, but he was attached to his youngest son, whose name was Narayana. So he thought, "This Narayana would give me protection. " So he asked him, "Narayana!" But at the same time he remembered that "That Narayana, oh, hm, I sometimes gave service. " So immediately Narayana saved him.

So it is our duty therefore. . . That is the duty of human life, to become Krsna conscious. And that is stated here. It is not that one or two. Many. Jnana-tapasya. Jnana. That is required, knowledge and tapasya. That is human life. If, if we remain just like cats and dogs, eat, sleep and have sex life, beget children and die someday, this is cats' and dogs' life. This is not human life. Human life is different. To become purified by knowledge and tapasya. Tapo divyam yena suddhyet sattvam. That is the statement of Rsabhadeva. Everywhere. We have to purify our existence, and get out of this repetition of birth and death. That is success of life.

So we shall pray to Radharani. . . What is Radharani? Radharani is the pleasure potency of Krsna. Pleasure potency. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. The Supreme Lord has many potencies. Na tasya karyam karana ca vidyate. Therefore He has nothing to do. He has got so many potencies. Just like big man, a rich man. He�s sitting. But his energies, his potencies, are working. Big, big factory. And he knows everything. Similarly, He has got many multi-potencies. One of them is this pleasure potency. Pleasure potency. . . He also wants pleasure. So when Krsna wants. . . Krsna is Parabrahman. He cannot enjoy anything material. He has to create the source of enjoyment by His own spiritual potency. That is Radharani.

So Radharani is described in the sastra:

radha-krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini-saktir asmad. That is Krsna�s hladini-sakti. She gives pleasure to Krsna. So She is very kind. And today is Radhastami. If we pray to Srimati Radharani. . . Therefore in Vrndavana you�ll see. They are first of all glorifying, "Jaya Radhe!" Everywhere you�ll hear. "Jaya Radhe. "

Guest: Jaya Radhe.

Prabhupada: To glorify Srimati Radharani. So if Radharani�s pleased, he�ll be able to approach Krsna very easily. And that is the goal of our life. That is the goal of life. Vita-raga-bhaya-krodha man-maya mam upasritam. Mam upasritam means you have to take. . . You cannot take shelter of Krsna directly. You have to take shelter of His potency. Krsna is therefore trying to help us. Guru-krsna-krpaya paya bhakti-lata-bija. He is within. He is called caitya-guru. If you are purified. . . Krsna. . . Buddhi-yoga dadami tam. He�ll directly speak you. And so long you cannot, then He sends His representative, the spiritual master, the guru. You can ask through the spiritual master about Krsna. Yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasada.

So in this way we have to be absorbed in the thought of Krsna. We have to take shelter of Krsna. Then. . . If you take shelter of Krsna, this jnana. . .

vasudeve bhagavati
bhakti-yogah prayojitah
janayaty asu vairagyam
jnanam ca yad ahaitukam

The same thing. Krsna will speak. Krsna is within you. Simply you have to take shelter of Krsna, always thinking of Krsna, chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama. . .

Guests: Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Prabhupada: Thank you very much. That�s all.

(23 September 1974, class on BG 4. 10, Srimati Radharani's Appearance day, Calcutta. )

Srila Prabhupada's Radhastami lecture, Montreal 1968

Now today is our Radhastami ceremony. I must speak now something about Radharani, and then I shall go up, reach my apartment at twelve. In the meantime, you can observe the ceremonies. So, so far Radharani, Radharani, today is the birthday of Srimati Radharani. Radharani is the pleasure potency of Krsna. Krsna is the Supreme Brahman. Just try to understand. Krsna is the Supreme Brahman. Param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan. So when Parambrahma wants to enjoy. . . That enjoying spirit is there in the Parambrahman. Otherwise we cannot have this enjoying spirit. Because we are part and parcel, therefore we have got that enjoying spirit; but that is materially contaminated. But the fact is there, because Krsna, He is enjoying, this enjoying spirit we have got also, but I do not know how to enjoy. We are trying to enjoy in the matter, in the dull matter. That is spiritual. So Brahman, brahma sukhanubhrtya. People are trying to feel what is brahma-sukha, pleasure of brahmanubhava.

That is not material pleasure. So many yogis, they have given up their family life, their kingdom, and meditating to achieve that Brahman pleasure. Actually, the idea is Brahman pleasure. So many brahmacaris, so many sannyasis, they are trying to achieve that Brahman pleasure, and in order to achieve that Brahman pleasure they are neglecting, they are kicking off all this material pleasure. Do you think that Brahman pleasure is ordinary, this material pleasure? To achieve a portion of Brahman pleasure, if they are kicking off all this material pleasure. . . Don�t talk of ourselves. We are ordinary men. In the history we have got instances, that of Bharata Maharaja. Bharata Maharaja, under whose name this planet is called Bharatavarsa. That Bharata Maharaja was the emperor of the whole world. And as emperor he had his beautiful wife, young children. But at the age of twenty-four years, just young man, he gave up everything. All right. This is very old story, of course, but you know Lord Buddha. He was also a prince. He was also prince, not ordinary man, and he was ksatriya, and he was always enjoying with beautiful women. That is the palace pleasure accustomed in every, in Oriental countries, that in the palace there are many beautiful girls, they�re always dancing and giving pleasure to the kings and the prince. So Lord Buddha was also in such pleasure, but he gave up everything and began to meditate.

There are many hundreds of instances in Indian history that to realize the Brahman pleasure they gave up everything. They gave up everything. That is the way. Tapasya means voluntarily accepting something severe for realizing the supreme pleasure. That is called tapasya. So if, for tasting a little Brahman pleasure, all materialistic pleasures are to be given up, do you think that the Supreme Brahman, Lord Krsna, is enjoying this material pleasure? Is it very reasonable? This Krsna, He�s enjoying laksmi-sahasra-sata-sambhrama-sevyamanam. Hundreds and thousands of goddess of fortune are engaged in His service. Do you think these Laksmis are material women? How Krsna can take pleasure in the material women? No. This is mistake.

Ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhavitabhis tabhir ya eva nija-rupataya kalabhih. In the Brahma-samhita you�ll find that He expands His ananda-cinmaya-rasa, the mellow of transcendental pleasure potency. And these gopis are expansion of His pleasure potency. And Radharani is the center. Radharani is the center. So Radharani is not. . . Don�t take that Radharani is an ordinary woman like we have our wife or sister or mother. No. She is the pleasure potency. And the birth of Radharani was not from the womb of any human being. She was found by her father in the field. While father was plowing, he saw one little nice child is lying there, and he had no children, so he caught it and presented to the queen, "Oh, here we have got a very nice child. " "How you got?" "Oh, in the field. " Just see. Radharani's janma is like that. So this janma is today and Radha, this name is sometimes not found in Bhagavata. So the atheistic class of men protest this Radharani�s name is not in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. How this name came, Radharani? But they do not know how to see it. There is anayaradhyate. There are many gopis, but there is mention that by this particular gopi He is served more pleasingly. Krsna accepts this gopi�s service more gladly. Anayaradhyate. Aradhyate. This aradhate, this word, aradhyate means worshiping. From this word aradhyate, Radha has come. But Radha�s name are there in other Puranas. So this is the origin.

So Radha, so Radha and Krsna. Krsna is the enjoyer and He wants to enjoy. So He�s the Supreme Brahman. He cannot enjoy anything, atmarama, He can enjoy it in Himself. Therefore Radharani is the expansion of His pleasure potency. Krsna hasn�t got to seek external things for His pleasure. No. He is in Himself full, atmarama. So Radharani is expansion of Krsna. Krsna is the energetic, and Radharani is the energy. Just like energy and energetic, you cannot separate. Fire and the heat you cannot separate. Wherever there is fire there is heat, and wherever there is heat there is fire. Similarly, wherever there is Krsna there is Radha. And wherever there is Radha there is Krsna. They are inseparable. But He is enjoying. So Svarupa Damodara Gosvami has described this intricate philosophy of Radha and Krsna in one verse, very nice verse. Radha krsna-pranaya-vikrtir hladini-saktir asmad ekatmanav api bhuvi pura deha-bhedam gatau tau. So Radha and Krsna is the one Supreme, but in order to enjoy, They have divided into two. Again Lord Caitanya joined the two into one. Caitanyakhyam prakatam adhuna. That one means Krsna in the ecstasy of Radha. Sometimes Krsna is in ecstasy of Radha. Sometimes Radha is in ecstasy of Krsna. This is going on. But the whole thing is Radha and Krsna means the one, the Supreme.

So Radha-Krsna philosophy is a very great philosophy. It is to be understood in the liberated stage. Radha-Krsna philosophy is not to be understood in the conditioned stage. But when we worship Radha-Krsna in our conditional stage, actually we worship Laksmi-Narayana. You have seen that picture, this viddhi-marga and raga-marga. Radha-Krsna worship is on the platform of pure love, and Laksmi-Narayana worship is on the regulative principles. So long we do not develop our pure love, we have to worship on the regulative principles. One has to become a brahmacari, one has to become a sannyasi, one has to perform the worship in this way, in the morning he has to rise, he has to offer. So many rules and regulations. There are at least sixty-four rules and regulations. So we shall introduce them gradually as you develop. So in the viddhi-marga, when you have no love for God or Krsna, we have to follow the regulative principles and automatically. . . , there is practice. When practicing. Just like you practice this mrdanga playing. In the beginning it is not in order, but when you become well versed in the practice, the sound will come so nice. Similarly, when we are engaged by regulative principles in the worship of Radha-Krsna, that is called viddhi-marga. And actually when you are on the love platform, then that is called raga-marga. So without viddhi-marga, if anyone wants to learn the raga-marga immediately, that is foolishness. That is foolishness. Nobody can pass M. A. examination without going through the regulative principles of primary schools and colleges. So therefore I do not, I mean to say, indulge in the discussions of Radha and Krsna so easily. Rather go on with the regulative principle at the present moment. Gradually, as you become purified, as you become on the transcendental platform, you�ll understand what is Radha-Krsna. Don�t try to understand Radha-Krsna very quickly. It is a very big subject. If we want to understand Radha-Krsna very quickly, then there will be so many prakrta-sahajiyas.

In India there are prakrta-sahajiyas. Just like Radha-Krsna dancing. Radha-Krsna has become a plaything. The painting Radha-Krsna, Krsna is kissing Radha, Radha is kissing. These are all nonsense. Radha-Krsna philosophy has to be understood by the liberated person, not by the conditioned soul. So we shall await for the fortunate moment when we are liberated, then we shall understand radha-krsna-pranaya-vikrtir. Because Krsna and Radha, They are not on the material field. Try to understand. This is Jiva Gosvami�s analysis, that Krsna is the Supreme Brahman. The Supreme Brahman cannot accept anything material. So Radha is not in the material field.

Now there is a very nice song. I shall sing if you can play on the harmonium. Yes. This is a Rupa Gosvami�s song. (sings)

radhe jaya jaya m�dhava-dayite
gokula-tarumi-mandala-mahite

damodara-rati-vardhana-vese
hari-niskuta-vrnda-vipinese

vrsabhanudadhi-nava-sasi-lekhe
lalita-sakhi gu�a-ramita-visakhe

karun� kuru mayi karu�a-bharite
sanaka-sanatana-varnita-carite

radhe jaya jaya madhava-dayite

This song was sung by Rupa Gosvami. He is the real person, actual person, to understand Radha and Krsna. So he says, "All glories to Radharani. " Radhe jaya jaya madhava-dayite. "She�s so dear to Krsna. " Krsna, everyone is trying to love Krsna, but Krsna is trying to love somebody. Now how great She is. Just try to understand. Everyone, the whole world, the whole universe, all living entities, they are trying to love Krsna. Krsna-prema. Lord Caitanya describes, prema-pumartho mahan. And Rupa Gosvami described that "You are distributing krsna-prema. " So krsna-prema is so valuable, but Krsna is after Radharani. Just see how Radharani is great. Just try to understand the greatness of Radharani. Therefore She is so great, and we have to offer our respect. Radhe jaya jaya madhava-dayite. How She is? Gokula-taruni-mandala-mahite. Taruni, taruni means young girls. You�ll see the pictures, they are all young girls. But of all the young girls, She is the most beautiful. She is enchanting to the young girls also. She is so beautiful. Gokula-taruni-mandala-mahite.

Damodara-rati-vardhana-vese. And She always dresses Her so nicely that Damodara, Krsna, becomes attracted by Her beauty. Hari-niskuta-vrnda-vipinese. And She is the only lovable object of Krsna, and She is the queen of Vrdnavana. This queen of Vrndavana. . . You�ll find in Vrndavana, if you go to Vrndavana, everyone is worshiping Radharani. Radha means queen. They are always speaking, "Jaya Radhe!" Radharani. All the devotees in Vrndavana, they are worshiper of Radharani. Hari-niskuta-vrnda-vipinese. Vrsabhanudadhi-nava-sasi-lekhe. And She appeared as the daughter of King Vrsabhanu, and Her companion, Lalita-sakhi and Visakha-sakhi, and the devotees. . . So on behalf of the pure devotees of Krsna, Rupa Gosvami is praying, karun� kuru mayi karuna-bharite. "Oh, my worshipable Radharani, You are full of mercy. So I am begging of Your mercy because You are so merciful, very easily You offer, bestow Your mercy. So I am begging Your mercy. " Karuna kuru mayi karuna-bharite, sanaka-sanatana-varnita-carite. Now somebody may say, "Oh, you are so great, learned scholar, you are so great saintly person, and you are begging mercy from an ordinary girl? How is that?" Therefore Rupa Gosvami says, "Oh, this is not ordinary girl. " Sanaka-sanatana-varnita-carite. "This girl�s description is possible to be made by great saintly persons like Sanaka-Sanatana. She is not ordinary. "

So the lesson is that we should not treat Radharani as ordinary girl, or Krsna as ordinary man. They are the Supreme Absolute Truth. But in the Absolute Truth, there is the pleasure potency, and that is exhibited in the dealings of Radha and Krsna. And Radha�s expansion all the gopis, and Krsna is the Supreme Lord.

Thank you very much. Chant Hare Krsna. You can chant? Can you chant? Janardana? All right, you can chant. What is that? No, I have explained that one sloka from this Rama-carita-manasa. Chant Hare Krsna. (30 August 1968, Srimati Radharani's Appearance Day, Montreal. )

 

The real X-Files?

The following article is from www.steamshovelpress.com/latestword14.html.

Strange Secrets: An Interview With Author Nick Redfern

by Kenn Thomas, Editor of Steamshovel Press

Nick Redfern emigrated to the USA to live in 2001. Nick's new book, Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown (co-written with British author Andy Roberts), is just about to be published by Simon & Schuster. We speak with him about the book and its revelations linking the world of British, American and Russian Intelligence with that of the unexplained.

Q: What, broadly, is Strange Secrets about?

A: Essentially, the book is an examination of official files created from the 19th Century to the present day and shows the way in which various Intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, MI5, the US Defence Intelligence Agency and former KGB--among numerous others--have investigated unexplained phenomena and unsolved mysteries and have collated what might be termed real-life X-Files.

Q: Can you give the readers a few examples of the information that appears in the book?

A: Sure. The first thing I would want to stress to anyone reading this interview and who is contemplating buying the book, is that it does not rely on questionable or anonymous sources or unverifiable data. Even though some of the subject matter might be considered bizarre, the book is based solely on an examination of official documents that have surfaced via the US Government's Freedom of Information Act or the British Government's Thirty Year Ruling. I guess that perhaps one of the strangest revelations is the fact that both British and US Intelligence have investigated the so-called Crop Circle mystery. Practically everyone who reads UFO Magazine, I am sure, has heard of Crop Circles and has seen photographs of the various formations--or pictograms-- that appear throughout England and the world each year. But less well known is what has been learned about the subject at an official level. For more than a decade rumours have circulated to the effect that the British Government has undertaken covert investigations of Crop Circles. To an extent, at least, that is true. At the Public Record Office at Kew there exists an intriguing file prepared at the height of the Second World War by none other than MI5 and that was declassified in 2001. The file deals with the way in which MI5 suspected that Nazi sympathisers and Fifth Columnists in the UK were sending messages to--and communicating with--the enemy. Interestingly, MI5 learned that in Poland, Holland, France and Belgium, this included 'the cutting of cornfields into guiding marks for aircraft'. To illustrate how closely this parallels today's Crop Circles, the official file refers to enemy sympathisers 'beating out signs twenty metres in diameter on harrowed fields or mowing such signs on meadows or cornfields'. Crop circles in other words! Interestingly, MI5 investigated a number of such formations that appeared in various British fields from 1940-1943 to determine if any of those same formations were some form of coded message intended for German pilots flying overhead.

Q: Have British authorities been involved in investigating other, similar mysteries, too?

A: Yes, and particularly during the Second World War. One perfect example is contained in a chapter we title 'The Dowsing Detectives. ' This is a look at a fascinating and never-before-seen file on a piece of wartime history that reveals the way in which elements of the British Police Force used people with dowsing abilities to locate dead bodies buried under the rubble created by Hitler's forces. As with many controversial subjects, the Police file reveals that there were as many believers in the ability of the dowser as there were those who thought that the subject should be ignored. But what is perhaps most interesting is that it was police personnel themselves that were doing the dowsing. And they had some startling successes too in locating dead bodies purely by water divining-means. And these events attracted the keen attention of the British Government, with the files and reports reaching the wartime Ministry of Home Security, which took a close interest in the way in which the controversy developed.

Q: What is the oldest file you have in the book?

A: This would have to be a series of documents that we found in the files of the British Admiralty that are held at the Public Record Office at Kew. Contained in these documents are various accounts of sightings by naval personnel of what can only be described as Sea Serpents. Let me quote to you the text of one such report, written in 1830 by Captain James Stockdale of the ship the Rob Roy, who had an amazing encounter near the island of St. Helena on Sunday, May 9 of that year. Stockdale wrote: 'About five p. m. all at once while I was walking on the poop my attention was drawn to the water on the port bow by a scuffling noise. Judge my amazement when what should stare us all in the face as if not knowing whether to come over the deck or to go around the stern--but the great thundering big sea snake! My ship is 171 feet long overall--and the foremast is 42 feet from the stern which would make the monster about 129 feet long. The brute was so close I could even smell his nasty fishy smell. ' This is just a small extract from Stockdale's account and it makes for bizarre and illuminating reading. And this is just one of a number of such accounts held in the British Admiralty's Sea Serpent File.

Q: The Press Release for the book also talks about British Government files on Foo Fighter sightings during the Second World War.

A: Yes. As many readers will know, the Foo Fighters were essentially a precursor to what would later become known as Flying Saucers and UFOs. All credit to finding these Air Ministry and Royal Air Force files must go to my co-author Andy Roberts and Dr. David Clarke. Throughout much of the war, military pilots--both Allied and Axis--reported close encounters with strange aerial phenomena that became known as Foo Fighters and that were described as being like small balls of light or globes of light that would approach military aircraft at high speed, fly alongside them and then usually streak away at high speed without exhibiting any outward hostility. The Air Ministry's files from the War reveal the details of a number of such cases and the way in which they were investigated at an official level, along with the theories that the Foo Fighters were possibly some sort of German secret weapon. But one report in particular falls into a classic UFO category and refers to the sighting by a Royal Air Force crew taking part in a raid on Turin in 1942 of a 2-300 foot long object seen flying at an estimated speed of 500 MPH.

Q: The book contains several other chapters that have a UFO connection to them.

A: Yes. We also include an extensive chapter on FBI files on the so-called Cattle Mutilation mystery that has afflicted much of the USA for decades. On numerous occasions dating back to at least the 1960s, ranchers across the USA have reported finding their cattle dead with blood drained from their bodies and organs removed with what looks like surgical precision. Unmarked helicopters are often seen in the vicinity of the mutilations, as are unusual and unidentified aerial lights. Again, for the sceptical, I would stress that this is all corroborated in the FBI's own officially released records that are reproduced in the book. Various theories have been put forward that these mutilations are linked with UFOs or Satanic cults. However, I dug very deeply into this mystery and located at the National Archives in Maryland various formerly Top Secret files from the late 1940s showing that the US Government's Research and Development Board was very concerned that a hostile nation would attempt to cripple the US food chain by deliberately infecting the cattle herd with a lethal biological agent. Moreover, it was stated at the time that US authorities should keep a regular check on the cattle herd to determine if someone had successfully infected it with lethal and dangerous viruses. Personally, I'm now convinced that many of the so-called Cattle Mutilations are the work of covert military units that periodically and randomly carry out stealthy checks on the US cattle herd to determine the presence of these emerging viruses and diseases that might have been introduced deliberately by foreign and unfriendly nations and maybe, today, even by terrorist-type groups.

Q: Strange Secrets also addresses the way in which the US Government and the Nazis attempted to build Flying Saucer-like aircraft. Can you expand on this?

A: Yes. There have been long-standing rumours to the effect that the Nazis developed prototype aircraft in the latter stages of the Second World War that would broadly fit the classic description of a UFO or a Flying Saucer. Several such reports exist in the files of the FBI in the form of interviews with former Luftwaffe personnel, for example. Similarly, the FBI's records reveal that as far back as 1947, a number of FBI agents were personally convinced that UFOs were the product of a secret US programme that was designing and building Flying Saucer-like craft based on captured German technology brought to the US at the close of the Second World War and in conjunction with the Paperclip operation that secured the use of numerous German scientists for postwar research. But perhaps most eye-opening are the files we reproduce in the book from the US Air Force that show as far back as 1962, studies were being undertaken to try and build and deploy a fleet of battle-ready and fully armed Flying Saucer-style spacecraft that would orbit the Earth at a height of 300 miles for up to six weeks! We also show the way in which the CIA carefully exploited the UFO mystery as a cover for its covert U-2 flights at the height of the Cold War.

Q: In terms of content, what would you say is the strangest official file that appears in the book?

A: That would have to be the FBI's file on the Contactees. These, as I'm sure you're aware, were people who, in the 1950s and 1960s, claimed to be in contact with human-like aliens who wanted us to disarm our nuclear arsenals and live in peace. Many of the accounts are of an outrageous, bizarre nature and are very cult-like. And as strange as it seems, the FBI collated extensive files on many of these people who claimed alien contact. However, the Freedom of Information Act shows that the foremost reason for the FBI's interest and concern in these people was not because of the alien aspect of their stories per se. Rather, it was because several of the Contactees, such as the notorious George Adamski, were claiming that their alleged alien friends had a Communist style of government! Today this aspect of the FBI's investigations might seem totally unbelievable and unwarranted; but 50 years ago, at the height of the Cold War, J. Edgar Hoover dispatched agents to uncover anyone that might have Communist leanings; and this included the so-called Contactees. Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.

Q: The book also focuses on religion, too.

A: That's correct. We have a chapter in there on the CIA's file on Noah's Ark. There have been stories quietly told for many years that in the late 1940s and 1950s the CIA carried out a covert search for the remains of the legendary Ark of Noah that, according to the Bible, came to rest on Mount Ararat, Turkey. There are references to satellite and aircraft imagery of the Ark and even tales of remnants of the Ark having been recovered by US Intelligence. The files that the CIA has released via the Freedom of Information Act add valuable and intriguing data to this story. Within the CIA, the Ark--or what some suspected to be the Ark--became known as The Ararat Anomaly.

Q: It's been a long-standing and acknowledged fact that US Intelligence has spent a lot of time delving into the world of Remote Viewing or what might be termed Psychic Spying.

A: That's right. Our book includes a whole section titled Mind Games that includes 5 chapters on the way that research into the power of the mind as a potential tool of espionage has been studied in both Russia and the USA. Maybe strangest of all was the research that both the US Department of Defence and the Russian military carried out to determine if Extra-Sensory Perception--or ESP--existed in the Animal Kingdom. Their conclusions--reached entirely independently--suggested it probably did exist in some form in higher animals such as dogs. The US DoD report also focuses on the possibility of an afterlife in the animal kingdom and discusses various experiments that had been undertaken to try and ascertain this. We also show that in 1952 the US Department of Defense was briefed on the way in which extrasensory perception could be used as a tool of psychological warfare. On this later subject of psychological warfare, we also reveal the way in which the US Army exploited legends of Vampires, Werewolves, Witchcraft and Sorcery to terrify superstitious enemy troops on various battlefields in the Philippines and in Vietnam.

Q: Having conducted all of this research, what are your conclusions about the way in which the worlds of officialdom and the unexplained have crossed paths?

A: Well, it's quite clear from examining the files on ESP and Psychic Spying that this research was carried out purely to determine if, at the height of the Cold War, there was a chance that the phenomena could be used as a tool of espionage. Similarly, the FBI's files on the Contactees had deep Cold War overtones and related directly to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's concerns about Communism and the very real Soviet threat that existed at the time. And it can be argued that the British Government files on Crop Circles, Dowsing and the Foo Fighters were created largely as a result of the Nazi threat of the 1940s. And of course, the issue of lethal viruses and biological warfare as it relates to the Cattle Mutilation issue is one that is very relevant in today's post-9-11 world. But there are files in the book that are more problematic in terms of the motive for their creation--such as the CIA files on Noah's Ark.

Q: Briefly and finally, does the book focus on any other areas?

A: Yes. We have chapters on the Royal Air Force's files on sightings of the Loch Ness Monster; FBI records on so-called Spontaneous Human Combustion; official records on encounters with real-life Men in Black; US Government files on rare weather phenomena such as Ball-Lightning; British Government records on sightings of large, predatory cats seen roaming the countryside--such as pumas and panthers and much more.

Q: Can we expect to see any other titles from you in the future and what are you doing in the US now?

A: I'm doing a lot of work with Ryan Wood, of http://www.majesticdocuments.com/ on the whole MJ12 controversy. Andy Roberts and I have a book coming out next year on an alleged UFO crash incident in Wales in 1974 and that coincides with the 30th anniversary of the case, and I also have another book out next year on another big interest of mine--cryptozoology, or the search for unknown animals.

Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown by Nick Redfern & Andy Roberts is published by Simon & Schuster's division, Paraview Pocket Books in May 2003. ISBN: 0-7434-6976-3.

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