Light and Life - Issues and Archives

This month, our writers cover some hot contemporary issues that have a spiritual dimension. Our environment is our spiritual trust. Political issues hinge on spiritual integrity. Extraterrestrial contact will impact spiritual beliefs.

Since moral corruption is the root of the diseases that afflict all of our institutions, we will be dealing with it as a spiritual question. The world's rampant dishonesty in pursuit of wealth and power is poison to growth and progress on our planet.

This issue also introduces you to new initiatives: the Children of the New Earth magazine and the Indigo Children links, the Global Oneness Celebration anchored in Sweden, and ALL FOR PEACE Internet radio, seeking peace in the Middle East. There are large numbers of progressive networks and organizations, and we are interested in all of them.

Our explorations this month include the Atlantis-Garden of Eden expedition and its remote viewing phenomena responders; a spiritual dimension to the Presidential race; a broadside attack on Bush Administration environmental policies; and leading edge ET contact information from Dr. Steven Greer and the Disclosure Project.

Expedition Seeks to Find Atlantis/Garden of Eden
By Byron Belitsos, Publisher and Author, Origin Press

As many of you know, Robert (Behzad) Sarmast has been researching the mythology, history, and geology of Eden through the lens of The Urantia Book for over a decade. The Urantia Book's teachings about Eden (see 73:3, "The Garden Site") were crucial in guiding his historical and empirical work, leading him to engage in leading-edge research into the characteristics of the underwater region near Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.

In the last four years, with funding from a UB reader, Sarmast was able to obtain the best existing scientific data about this sunken land and to the carry out sophisticated 3D computer modeling of its topography. The results of this pioneering empirical research--and much more-appear in a new, and may I say highly readable book, that includes over 50 illustrations.

As his publisher, I am happy to announce that his book Discovery of Atlantis: The Startling Case for the Island of Cyprus (Origin Press: October 2003) is now available. You may now obtain it at a 30 percent discount at: www.originpress.com/atlantis

Read on for an exclusive look at the connection of Sarmast's thesis to Plato's account of Atlantis, and how this research ties back to the Urantia Book's story of Eden.

UB readers know that the sunken land examined in Sarmast's book was once, as the UB says, "a long narrow peninsula--almost an island--projecting westward from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea" and that this landmass was the site of the first Garden. But it has not been necessary for Sarmast to reveal much about the UB's link to his research, at least not yet. What is perhaps most exciting about this book is that the author's extensive mythological and historical research has culminated with the conclusion that Plato's story of Atlantis and the UB's account of the Garden of Eden refer to the same historic reality.

Armed with this correlation of literary source materials that includes (1) the world's leading ancient philosopher and (2) the Fifth Epochal Revelation, Sarmast was confident in basing his public argument solely on a straightforward analysis of Plato's story. Further, in presenting his conclusion that the region of Cyprus was the location of the long-lost civilization of Atlantis, Sarmast is able to make a compelling case that there is an archeological treasure that lies off the coast of Cyprus that is ripe for an underwater expedition. All that is needed in the meantime is reference to Plato's famed account of

Atlantis, an analysis of ancient mythology, and Sarmast's proprietary underwater bathymetric maps. But the UB was crucial in helping Sarmast to "sort and censor" the evolutionary data.

Plato provided nearly 50 physical clues about Atlantis in his famous dialogue Critias--the original account of the story of Atlantis. Robert Sarmast's new book demonstrates how simple facts about the eastern Mediterranean region and the island of Cyprus provide a near-perfect match with Plato's detailed narrative. In a single footnote, he indicates that the Urantia Book's story of Eden correlates with his findings. And in a future book, Sarmast may unveil more about the Urantia Book connection to his work.

There is a definite date for the start of the scientific expedition to find vestiges of Plato's Atlantis/UB's Garden of Eden. See the latest news at author Sarmast's website, www.discoveryofatlantis.com.

"The hour has come. The expedition vessel, sonar and ROV have been secured and the contracts are being finalized. The date is set for mid-October, and the Atlantis team will be mobilized during the second week of the month. The round-the-clock operation will last four to six days at sea and will utilize some of the best specialists and equipment available in the world."

"CNN World Report will air the interview with Robert Sarmast and Colin Wilson sometime before October 11."

Check the website for Aquatec-Innerspace Operations, Ltd. for additional details, as well as updated photos of the Atlantis Team: www.aquatec-innerspace.com

Remote Viewer Describes Ancient Civilization
By Jean Christou - Cyprus Mail 7-18-04

A Paphos-based organization that investigates paranormal phenomena is challenging American author Robert Sarmast's assertion that the lost city of Atlantis lies off Cyprus. The group says they have conducted a remote viewing experiment with the participation of a former US military "psychic spy'.

John Knowles, who runs Psychognosia with his wife Linda Leblanc, recently engaged Sarmast, the author of Discovery of Atlantis: The Startling Case for the Island of Cyprus, in a friendly debate on Paphos TV, challenging his claims based on history and on the accounts of Plato, which is the main source of Sarmast's theory on the location of Atlantis.

Following the TV debate, Leblanc said that it seemed like an ideal opportunity to display the skills of what she called one of the one of the world's most talented "remote viewers" and one of the top US military former "psychic spies", Joseph McMoneagle.

It is known that the US and Russian military have over the years conducted extensive research in the use of extra-sensory perception (ESP) to obtain intelligence information. The practice is known as remote viewing and McMoneagle has written four books about his experiences working for the US Defense Department. Following his retirement from the military, he established a company that conducts remote viewing under contract with private individuals and companies "Using only the map co-ordinates of Sarmast, we commissioned Joseph McMoneagle to report what he found at this location before Sarmast conducts his underwater exploration," said Leblanc.

"As is McMoneagle's usual protocol, he did not know we were the contractor. All he had was the co-ordinates that Sarmast proposes to use, in a sealed envelope, with general questions we provided, on the outside of the envelope. There was no mention of "Atlantis" or Cyprus, either by us or in McMoneagle's three-page report.

McMoneagle was asked to describe what he saw within a two-mile radius of the coordinates both 10,000 years ago and at the present time. His report said he perceived what appeared to be 10,000 years ago a generally elongated island running approximately east-northeast to west-southwest, approximately 235 kilometers in length and 65-75 kilometers wide at its widest with two moderately tall mountains at either end of the island.

He said there was a predominant city on the island with a system of buildings, which seemed to represent homes "for lack of a better word". "These appear to be apartments or clusters of homes that are interconnected with streets that run in lines outward from the central core of the city that sits at the foot of the mountain bluff," the report said. "The city is crowded but orderly. It is also filled with many canals and rivers running throughout, and a multitude of hanging gardens, also filled with water. There are many gardens filled with produce-producing plants. Lots of greenery and multi-colored plants indicating flowering plants of various natures. I have a strong feeling and sense that there are many aromas filling the streets and airs here."

He said he also saw art everywhere: statues, artwork on buildings, mosaics, paintings, decorative stonework, carvings, woodwork and the like. "It is a place that is filled with the types of things one would find in a culture with much available leisure time and the kinds of highly valued crafts to fill it," the report said. "I do not get a sense of much violence. I do not get a sense of much in the way of military or a requirement for security or guards. There is however a sense that there is a great deal of orderliness, cleanliness, refinement."

McMoneagle said the weather was around 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, mild with very little humidity and soft breezes from the south-east with the city and island surrounded by what appeared to be huge multiple lakes as far as the eye can see.

"It is a wonderland of nothing but water. It is a world of water. I see ships and boats of every description. They are of every size imaginable. This is a seafaring nation. They are a very rich nation, both culturally as well as from a trading standpoint. They survive on what they take from the sea and what they reach out and trade in. Their ships are exquisite. They are both delicate and appear to be very modern in construction and strength, capable of cross ocean sailing both ancient and modern at the same time."

Describing the inhabitants McMoneagle said they looked like modern man, at approximately five feet, five to five feet nine in height. "The men and women mostly have soft brown hair, with green to hazel eyes. Some have blue eyes, but it's a rarity. They speak a language which appears to be somewhat like Sumerian but probably predates it. Their written language is probably older than Sumerian. It is a fluid script like nothing I've ever seen before. It has no vowels, which are assumed. Their math is quite similar to our own, except that it excludes zero," his report said. He said the ancient inhabitants of the island had complex surgery, but preferred to use natural healing methods, or relieve pain and allow someone to die with grace and dignity. The natural length of life, he said, was approximately 100 years of age for both sexes, and the normal size of a family was four. Religion was Monotheistic, centering on a Prime Energy. "They are non-violent. They do not believe in capital punishment. There are no locked doors. Formal teaching takes place within temple/schools from age five until age nine, and then there is a form of apprenticeship that takes place over a number of years according to the skill set chosen.

"All those over age sixty are honored as historians, except the infirm, who are cared for as infirm. The form of currency is family honor and consistency. Dishonor breaks the bonds of feed and support, exiling the family from the city forever."

In response to the question of what he saw now at the same coordinates, McMoneagle said there was nothing but water as far as his eye can see. Under the water McMoneagle perceived some ruins buried in muck and mud, but these are hard to recognize against the remains of the mountain, which was also restructured by the collapse of a significant portion of the island during the upheaval that took place during the great flood, he said. McMoneagle classed the ancient city as pre-Sumerian. This would date it prior to 3,500 BC.

Knowles told the Cyprus Mail that it was very likely that Sarmast would in fact uncover an ancient city where his expedition will take place but he said he was concerned that this would be presented as Atlantis, when in fact the likelihood is remote.

"The bottom of the Mediterranean is littered with civilizations so I would not be surprised if some evidence of one is dredged up but they must know in their hearts that it is not Atlantis," Knowles said.

Sarmast who is still in the preparatory stage of his expedition told the Cyprus Mail yesterday he had no opinion on Psychognosia's experiment. "We are using solid historical and scientific evidence and I would prefer not to mix this with other domains," he said.

An Open Letter of Conscience and Choice To All
Spiritual, Metaphysical, Yoga, and Meditation Communities
by Robert Rabbin, John Robbins, John Friend, Stephen Mitchell, Rabbi, Michael Lerner, Dan Millman, Riane Eisler, Tom Hayden, Steve Bhaerman, et al.

There are times in life when we must act. And when those moments come, we must act with our truest heart, our clearest mind, and our noblest intentions.

November 2 is such a time. On that day, we will take in hand one of the tools for social transformation. We will exercise our right to vote and our responsibility to voice our values and conscience. We will choose a new president and vice president. We, the signers of this letter, after full consideration, careful study, and deep reflection, endorse and recommend John Kerry and John Edwards for these offices. We urge all of you to vote for them. This is a matter of great importance and urgency.

The Kerry/Edwards ticket is not perfect, and we have many serious disagreements with them, especially in the area of militarism and defense spending. But Howard Dean rightfully cautions us to not let perfection become the enemy of the good. In this election, we have two clear choices. By any standard or measure--policy, ideology, humanity, truthfulness--Kerry is better by far than George W. Bush, and Edwards is better by far than Dick Cheney. We believe their cabinet selections and their many other

appointments, including to the Supreme Court, will be better by far than those of George W. Bush. We urge you to register and vote for John Kerry and John Edwards.

There are many reasons to not vote: cynicism, apathy, distrust of candidates, or the conviction that spirit transcends politics and we dare not risk our spiritual brightness by descending into the murky depths of political darkness and intrigue. But these are not legitimate reasons. It is an inappropriate spiritual response to our times to be socially aloof and politically uninvolved. The Dalai Lama encourages us, "Sometimes we look down on politics, criticizing it as dirty. However, if you look at it properly, politics in itself is not wrong. With good motivation--sincerity and honesty--politics becomes an instrument in the service of society."

The self-evident fact of inter-dependence will not allow us to stand on the sidelines of life, to ignore what is happening in our own backyards. We live in society, and society lives in us. This awareness requires responsibility. This awareness requires participation. This awareness requires expression.

We all know from our studies, practice, and experience that the inner and the outer are more than mirror images of each other: they are each other. There is no separation, no difference, no distance between them. This is why the philosopher J. Krishnamurti said, " The crisis is not out there in the world; it is in our own consciousness." A flower is not separate from its fragrance.

We have been refining our inner consciousness. We have been purifying our inner consciousness. We have been liberating our inner consciousness from the stranglehold of limiting and hurtful beliefs and images and concepts. For years, we have taken this "hero's journey" to inner truth, freedom, and wisdom in order to become whole and free. But we have not taken this journey for ourselves alone; we have also taken this journey for others and for our world.

It is not just for ourselves that we love wisdom and practice compassion, not just for ourselves that we pursue truth instead of falsehood, not just for ourselves that we ask those fearsome questions that lead to knowledge of the soul. No, it is not just for ourselves that we do this. We do it equally for others. Our very quest for wholeness of being is at its core a service to others. The Kabbalah reminds us, "First we receive the light, then we impart the light. Thus we repair the world." And now it is time to begin healing this world, our world, in the same way we have sought to heal ourselves from the diseases of hatred, violence, and greed; in the same way we have sought to heal our own hearts of anger born of fear, and fear born of separation.

Voting for John Kerry and John Edwards is a positive step towards this social healing. To be sure, it is just one step in a long journey, but one we should all take on November 2.

Robert Rabbin, writer, speaker, creator of www.TruthForPresident.org
John Robbins, author of Diet For A New America, founder of EarthSave
International ... and many others listed on statement.

THE DESTROYER: George W. Bush vs. The Environment
By Graydon Carter
The Guardian - Wednesday, September 1, 2004

'Prosperity will mean little," declared George W Bush while on the stump as presidential candidate, "if we leave to future generations a world of polluted air, toxic lakes and rivers, and vanished forests." By the time Bush departed his job as governor of Texas in December 2000, Texas had -- according to a report from within the ranks of his own party -- become the number-one state in the nation in manufacturing-plant emissions of toxic chemicals, in the release of industrial airborne toxins, in violations of clean water discharge standards and the release of toxic waste into underground wells. Under Bush's governorship, Houston had even passed Los Angeles to become the city with the worst air quality in America. The Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) study could find not a single initiative by Bush during his term as governor that sought to improve either the state's air or its water. What would he do as president?

On January 20 2001 -- Bush's first day in office -- he called in the chief of staff, Andrew Card, and told him to send directives to every executive department with authority over environmental issues, ordering them to put on hold more than a dozen regulations left over from the Clinton administration. The regulations covered everything from lowering arsenic levels in drinking water to reducing releases of raw sewage.

Big Republican donors expected a return on their investment following the 2000 presidential election, and Bush was more than willing to deliver. Bush convened his National Energy Policy Development Group nine days after taking office. This was the panel that came to be known as the vice president's Energy Task Force. For four months, Dick Cheney, energy secretary Abraham, other cabinet secretaries and their deputies formulated the nation's energy policy behind the closed doors of the vice president's office and the cabinet room. Eighteen of the Republicans' top 25 donors from the energy industry were invited in and asked to contribute to the plan.

Kenneth Lay of Enron, who had loaned Bush his company jet during his presidential campaign, met the group numerous times. Executives from such companies and organizations as Chevron, ExxonMobil, the Nuclear Energy Institute, Westinghouse, Edison Electric Institute and the American Petroleum Institute consulted with the committee between six and 19 times. Upwards of 400 executives from 150 corporations and trade associations met with the taskforce from February to May 2001.

The Cheney group did not speak to a single environmentalist during the hearings. Abraham said he didn't have time to meet them, and Cheney's office denied their requests for inclusion.

Cheney and his colleagues emerged with a National Energy Plan in May 2001, which included 100 proposals and led to a massive energy bill with tax breaks for US energy interests estimated by Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation at $23.5bn (=A313bn) -- a pretty good return on the $44m (=A324.5b=n) it had donated to the Republicans during the previous year's election.

There wasn't a single line in the energy bill requiring an increase in the fuel efficiency of the nation's 204m passenger vehicles. (Nor, for that matter, was there any mention of global warming.) The plan did include proposals that would have a new power plant built every week for the next 20 years, however. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who joined the Democrats in eventually getting the legislation watered down, called the

bill the "Leave-No-Lobbyist-Behind Act". After its passage, McCain said: "With a half-trillion dollar deficit, we're giving tax credits, for, guess who, the [oil] industry in America, which last time I checked was doing really well."

The Bush White House has produced its assault on the environment with little in the way of public scrutiny, which is especially remarkable considering the devastating effects its initiatives will have on America's land, air and water for generations to come. Reports or programs that the administration must by law announce, but would rather go unnoticed, it gives to low-level officials to deliver.

Environmental enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has plunged under Bush. Since 2001, monthly violation notices -- the most important tool against polluters -- are down 58% compared with Clinton's monthly average.

Partly as a result, three decades after the passage of the Clean Air Act, almost one in three Americans still breathe air filled with nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, coal dust, mercury, and hundreds of other toxic pollutants. The pollution comes from myriad sources, but within the energy business, the prime culprit is coal, which powers half of the US's electricity and causes 90% of the electric power industry's pollution. Two years after Bush took office, the rollbacks of pollution regulations meant that dirty coal plants that upgraded their facilities would not necessarily have also to upgrade their pollution-control equipment.

This easing of controls has been calculated to cause the release of an additional 1.4m tonnes of air pollution. The National Academy of Sciences estimates that the change in the law will result in 30,000 American deaths.

In December 2002, an alliance of attorneys general from 24 states and attorneys from 30 cities and municipalities sued the EPA, arguing that the new rules would violate the Clean Air Act. A year later, the DC circuit court agreed, for now, and issued a temporary injunction preventing the EPA from implementing the new laws until the case is settled.

Undeterred, Bush announced in 2002 that his Clear Skies initiative would lower most power plant emissions by 70% by the year 2018. In fact, environmental groups all say that Clear Skies targets are dramatically lower than those of the existing Clean Air Act. The EPA produced its own program for reducing power plant emissions that was much tougher than the White House's plan. The White House rejected this proposal. And Congress rejected the Bush administration's plan. The Clear Skies legislation remains stalled in Congress.

The other major source of air pollution, of course, is motor vehicles. The US has 5% of the world's population and uses between 25% and 30% of the world's oil. (The UK, by comparison, has less than 2% of the world's population and uses 2% of the world's oil.) The US imports 63% of that oil, and more than two-thirds of that foreign oil is burned as transportation fuel. Incredibly, overall fuel economy ratings in the US are worse now than

in 1988. By comparison, in Europe, petrol mileage in 1998 was already close to 30 miles per gallon, and now averages almost 35mpg. Japan, by 2002, was averaging more than 34mpg, fast approaching its 2010 goal of 35.5 mpg. Even the Republican-controlled EPA estimates that a three-mile per gallon increase in overall fuel efficiency standards would save Americans $25bn a year in oil costs and reduce annual CO2emissions by 140m tons. Why is America so far behind? Simple: the 2.5m SUVs sold every year.

SUVs produce almost 45% more air pollution than average cars. The federal government sets fuel economy standards for new passenger cars at 27.5mpg. But this excludes SUVs, which are not even categorized as "cars"; they are on the books as "light trucks" and therefore only have to average 20.7 mpg. Because of the complexities of the regulations, it is technically possible for SUVs to have fuel efficiency standards as low as 12mpg.

Not only did the White House energy bill not set fuel standards for SUVs, the Republican-led Congress maintained a bill offering a tax benefit that encourages the purchase of the largest, least-efficient brands. If you're in the 35% tax bracket, and you buy a $106,000 Hummer for "business" use, the IRS gives you a refund of $35,000 on the purchase in the first year.

Another of Bush's first-day-in-office moves was to order a moratorium on Clinton-era Clean Water Act regulations controlling the discharge of raw sewage from what the waste industry likes to call "sanitary sewers". By November 2003, the administration took the moratorium a step further when the EPA announced a plan to allow sewage treatment plants to release biologically untreated waste into rivers and other waterways. But only on rainy days.

Clean water has been under systematic attack by the Bush administration, whose policies have sought to remove protection from 20m acres of wetlands and allow mountaintop mining companies to dump their waste directly into waterways.

The Clean Water Act, passed by Congress over Nixon's veto, was established in 1972 not only to regulate the nation's drinking water, but to protect its rivers and lakes for activities such as fishing, swimming and other water sports. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 30 years later, 75% of Americans live within 10 miles of a polluted river, lake or coastal water.

With water safety standards declining, the administration, ever mindful of the next election, was faced with two options: make water cleaner, or just tell the public its water was cleaner. The Bush White House being the Bush White House, it chose the latter. In early 2004, the EPA's own Office of the Inspector General issued a report that said the agency had repeatedly made false and misleading statements about the purity of the nation's drinking

water. In 2002, the EPA claimed that 91% of Americans were drinking safe tap water. In 2003, it upped the number to 94%. According to the NRDC, scientists within the EPA say the percentage of Americans drinking safe tap water can be estimated at only 81%.

Much of this pollution is due to insufficiently regulated industrial activity. By the 1980s, mining interests had pretty much given up on traditional coalmines, and had come up with a new technique that involved literally blasting the top off a mountain and then digging straight down. In the Appalachia region of Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia, millions of tons of mountaintop waste has buried 1,200 miles of streams.

A September 2003 EPA report finds nearly 300 Clean Water Act violations by the mountaintop mining industry. How does the Bush administration react? It moves to change the law by establishing the Mountaintop Mining Self-Reporting Program, which would allow the industry to police itself and issue small fines for violations. The mining industry donated $3.3m to the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign and other Republican candidates.

The despoliation of Appalachia is but a portent of things to come if the Bush administration gets its way. Three months after taking office, Bush announced that all public lands, including wilderness areas and national monuments, would be considered for oil and gas drilling. The industry, by the way, donated $46,620,134 to Bush-Cheney, the Republican National Committee and other Republican candidates in the 2000 and 2002 elections, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics.

In order to prevent hundreds of thousands of acres from being placed under the protection of the Wilderness Act, the Bush administration is allowing the gas industry to stockpile leases and drilling permits on 34m acres of public lands in the Rockies, even though oil and gas is being produced on less than one-third of that land. Once an oil and gas company puts a road on a leased parcel, the land can no longer be protected by the Wilderness Act.

It is something of a mystery, however, why the administration has been so fixated on giving up the 19m-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with its 1.5m-acre coastal plain, to oil interests, since 95% of Alaska's North Slope is already open to drilling. Deputy interior secretary Griles has said that opening it up is his "greatest wish". Naturalists have called the ANWR, which is teeming with all manner of vegetation and wildlife, "America's Serengeti". Interior secretary Gale Norton calls it "a flat, white nothingness".

Proponents of drilling in the ANWR coastal plain claim it "may" contain between 6bn and 16bn barrels of recoverable oil. The Geological Survey estimated that the coastal plain could profitably produce 3.2bn barrels of oil -- enough for six months' worth of US consumption. In the end, even the Republican-led Senate felt the administration had overreached. It blocked all the White House's proposals for drilling in the ANWR. Bush vowed to keep

on trying. Bush's attitude can be seen in the favors he has done to the logging firms, which donated $6,854,321 to the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republicans in 2000, and which gave a further $3,617,921 in the 2002 election cycle. Almost a third of the US is covered in forest -- some 737m acres. Only around 6% of that is protected by federal law. According to the NRDC, there are already over 380,000 miles of roads that cut through national forests -- eight times more than the entire interstate highway system.

The Clinton administration, under the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, sought to protect a third of the true wilderness national forest area from further road-building. In its first month in office, the Bush administration set in motion a program to reverse that plan. Henceforth, the industry would get logging and road-building permits whenever it asked for them.

And the Bush administration has taken its reckless approach to the environment far beyond American shores, not only causing damage to global ecosystems, but also further eroding the US's already spotty reputation as a responsible superpower. In its first three years in office, the Bush White House has rejected, undercut or ignored many of the world's international environmental treaties.

On February 14 2002, the day Bush announced his Clear Skies proposal, he laid out his plans for tackling global warming. "My administration is committed to cutting our nation's greenhouse gas intensity -- how much we emit per unit of economic activity -- by 18% over the next 10 years." In fact, the proposal's wording and its accounting would allow emissions actually to increase by 14% over the next decade, according to the NRDC -- exactly the rate of increase for the previous decade.

The Bush White House inherited an environment that had been all but saved by the Clean Air and Clean Water acts of the 1970s. The administration thus turned its back on more than 30 years' worth of advances in environmental legislation and global treaties in order to reward its campaign backers from the oil and gas industries -- from whose ranks of executives so many important government posts have been filled. As with the environment, so it is for everything else: it is difficult to point to a single element of American society which comes under federal jurisdiction that is not worse off than it was an administration ago. One can only hope that this is not to be the story of our times, a terrible dream from which we will one day awake only to realize what we've lost.

Article from the NHNE News List:
Published by NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
eMail: nhne@nhne.com

At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual - later discovered to be a public school teacher - was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a slide rule, and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft disclosed that he believes the man to be a member of the notorious al-gebra movement. He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. "Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," Ashcroft declared.

"They seek average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute value. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns,' but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country."

"As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to argue, there are three sides to every triangle," Ashcroft said.

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush stated, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes. I am gratified that our government has shown us a sine that It is intent on protracting us from these math-dogs, who are willing to disintegrate us with calculus disregard. Murky statisticians love to inflict plane on every sphere of influence," the President asserted, adding: "Under the circumferences, we must differentiate their root, make our point, and draw the line."

President Bush warned, "These weapons of math instruction have the potential to decimal everything in their math on a scalene never before seen, unless we become exponents of a Higher Power and begin to factor in random facts of vertex."

Attorney General Ashcroft concluded, "As our Great Leader would say, read my ellipse. Here is one principle he is certain of: though they continue to multiply, their days are numbered as our hypotenoose tightens."

Light and Life Introduces
Paula Peterson
EARTHCODE & INNER LIGHT INTERNATIONAL NETWORK With LEADING EDGE ET NEWS

The topic of UFO's, Star Visitors, and new energy technologies are some of the most controversial, yet fascinating topics of discussion in the world today. Dr. Steven Greer - an emergency room medical doctor - is one of the most highly credible leaders in this field and you may find the following interview to be quite enlightening.

Most folks know by now that our government has kept us in the dark regarding new energy technologies as well as contacts with other-world civilizations, even though our own military has had scores of documented encounters since the 1940's.

Not only that, the Vatican in Rome is knowledgeable and supportive of the reality of Star Visitors and the fact that we have been visited by intelligent civilizations from other worlds since ancient times (the document written by Vatican Theologian, Monsignor Balducci, that clarifies visitors from other worlds will be posted on my website in the near future ~ courtesy of Dr. Richard Boylan).

Through the courageous, pioneering efforts of Dr. Steven Greer, powerful political, military and religious leaders - as well as millions of lay people throughout the world - have been enlightened to the truth about new energy technologies, visitors from the stars, and how and why this has all been kept secret for over half a century.

There is a wide variety of folks on my network - some are quite knowledgeable when it comes to Ufology and new energy technologies and what Dr. Greer says here may not be new to you. Others on my network will find much of this to be rather surprising. Regardless of which category you fall into, Dr. Greer always has something profound and thought provoking to say. The article includes a link to his web sites so that you can find out more about the new technologies as well as his work in the field of extraterrestrial intelligence.

I recently interviewed Dr. Greer, of which the following is a version of that intriguing conversation. If you want to read the actual dialog that took place - as well as view several other fascinating articles on this topic - then please visit Drunvalo Melchezedek's website at Spirit of Ma'at: www.SpiritOfMaat.com

(**Steven Greer, MD, is director and founder of The Disclosure Project, CSETI Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the newly formed SEAS Space Energy Access Systems. He is also the maker of the widely acclaimed and impressive Disclosure Video. Contact info is at the end of this article)

Steven's interest in extraterrestrial intelligence began when he was at a very young age in 1963 when he saw a space craft one afternoon at close range in North Carolina. It was a silent, hovering object and he knew immediately that it was not a normal airplane.

He continued to have sightings throughout his late teenage years and early adult hood: during which time he discovered how to make contact with these spacecrafts. Even though it all began at a very young age, his interest continued throughout his career as a medical emergency doctor.

The Center for the Study of ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) project started in 1990 when he formulized his efforts into a protocol based on very advanced states of consciousness used to establish contact with extraterrestrial spacecraft. The program grew worldwide which eventually captured the attention of a number of important people including Admiral James Woolsey, the CIA director under President Bill Clinton.

His world-wide experiences with extraterrestrial intelligence have run the gamut. Beginning as early as 1991 his team in Belgium experienced an encounter with a massive triangular shaped craft. It vibrated the whole car and everyone in it as it hovered overhead at close range while interacting with them.

Another team experienced the landing of a huge disk in England that was over one hundred foot in diameter. At the volcano Popocatepet outside of Mexico City, multiple close encounters with space craft and their occupants were not only witnessed by his group, but also by the villagers nearby.

CSETI's interplanetary, diplomatic efforts have produced extraordinary results all over the world. Their goal is to continue training people in these protocols in how to achieve contact with extraterrestrial intelligence within the context of universal peace.

One of Dr. Greer's deep concerns and why he rarely gives interviews to UFO or New Age connected efforts is the "tabloidization" of the subject, which often promote viewpoints that keep the public in fear.

Admiral Morton, the five star admiral who was for years the head of the Administration of Defense said, "It's a shame that this subject is the target of the rubbishing in the tabloids when it should be taken up by the most serious institutions, the media focus, and universities in the land."

When the whole matter of UFO's and extraterrestrial contact gets slung into the gutter of fearsome images of violent and abusive alien abduction scenarios, it's the sort of tabloid rubbish that demonizes all things regarding intelligent life in outer space.

Promoting the fear of alien visitors plays directly into the agenda that Werner Von Braun warned us about: that there would be an attempt to hoax a threat from outer space so that trillions of dollars could be spent in putting weapons out there. Dr. Greer believes that this is precisely what has been happening on a psychological warfare and propaganda basis within the Ufology field for over 40 years. Now it has seeped into the mainstream sub-culture.

It's important to ask ourselves, to what extent have we all been manipulated into thinking this way? And to also realize how those beliefs and attitudes can be translated into subconscious action where we create a future based on conflict rather than on universal peace. We cannot go forward as a civilization at all if we become a "united earth" standing against other worlds.

In a conversation with Dr. Greer, Monsignor Balducci of the Vatican said of the Star Visitors, "We should regard them as children of God just as we are."

This is the goal of CSETI: to bring teams of people together - lay people from all walks of life - and teach them about the nature of extraterrestrial reality, their technologies, and also what the diplomatic protocol should be. In this way, we may safely view these other intelligent life forms so that we as humans are saved from our predilections toward prejudice, warfare and a tribalism mentality of us versus them.

Dr. Greer has been able to reach some of the most powerful leaders in our country with the results of CSETI and now with his impressive Disclosure Project campaign. He went on to say that in reality, important people everywhere have always been interested in this matter. By approaching the topic in an intelligent way that is also constructive, significant dialogs on this topic can take place with powerful people.

That's the work that Dr. Greer has been doing since the early 90's: meeting with senior political and military figures on the issues of UFO and extraterrestrial intelligence. As an example, he was the first to brief the Clinton Administration as well as the CIA on this subject.

It's amazing that there are still people who firmly believe that we Earthlings are the only intelligent life form in the whole universe and will even laugh at the suggestion of intelligent life existing elsewhere. More people would likely talk about these matters if they knew they would not be laughed at.

However, when highly academically credentialed medical doctors along with scientists and top secret, high ranking military personnel walk into a meeting with a senator or a member of congress and put it all out on the table, no one is laughing at all. It's taken very seriously.

But even though high officials are taking an interest in the subject, it doesn't mean they have the courage to do anything about it. Since they are focused on their own protection, they're own safety - and in some instances, their own investment, ambition and self-aggrandizement - they don't want to step out and be the front for something as powerful as this.

Even when they take the matter under advisement, the question for any of these people becomes are they willing to do anything about it? Are they willing to solve the problem of illegal secrecy and the suppression of technologies - which in lacking these technologies have kept the world in an oil-dependant state of feudalism, world wars, geo-political instability, environmental decay, and in massive poverty?

Doing something about it takes an enormous amount of courage. It is plain to see why Dr. Greer and others like him who speak out on these matters are taking huge risks.

As recently as this summer one of Greer's military witnesses - a brigadier general - was approached by a three star general who said, "You should tell Dr. Greer that he should be checking under his vehicle for explosives because he's stepping on so many big toes." Greer has heard statements like this since he began this work.

Not only is there reticence among powerful people, there is also a horrifying paucity of leadership and spiritual courage on the part of the citizen - the good people - to take action.

When good people don't do what they need to be doing, then those who have an orientation toward fascism, domination or aggression seize the day. In the vacuum created by the relative apathy of basically good and average people these rapacious wolves come marching in and take over.

It's very similar to what happened in Hitler's Germany. At age 22 when Greer lived in Israel and shared his apartment with a number of holocaust survivors, he found that they were not surprised at the monstrous nature of the Nazis. What really horrified them was the good, average, middle-class German citizen who looked the other way and did nothing while their children were being stuffed into boxcars going to Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

This is precisely what happened in the post World War II era when the UFO issue became very important and was classified Above Top Secret. The folks that saw the value of the information - as well as the technology they were studying - grabbed it, ran with it, and there was no one there to "stand them down" as they say in the military.

This is why we have lost fifty years of human evolution on earth. We could have had a world without poverty and without environmental decay. We could have had a stable world civilization going out into space using advanced anti-gravity type propulsion systems that would have enabled us to take our place among the stars with other civilizations that are out there.

All of that could have and should have happened in the mid-1900's. Needless to say, it did not happen because those oriented toward domination, centralized control and certain fascist and elitist tendencies helped sway the outcome of events.

Due to the secrecy most good people did not even know this was going on. And the ones who did know didn't do enough to stop it - or they were left twisting in the wind alone because other good people would not join and support them in the task.

Effective action has not been forthcoming from our leaders and this is why it will likely be the common people who make the changes happen.

Dr. Greer states that the secrecy was sustained not because it was feared that people would panic if they found that there is life in outer space. The reasons for the secrecy has more to do with keeping the multi-trillion dollar oil-gas-coal, internal-combustion-engine, and transportation systems in their status quo and in the geo-political state. This is the real reason for the secrecy not only around UFO's but also around the breakthroughs in new energy technologies since the 40's and 50's involving electro-gravitic and anti-gravity propulsion systems.

As it stands, there is some seventy percent of the public that already accepts that there is intelligence life out there, and over fifty percent of the public believe that the government is keeping secrets about UFO's and that they are hiding something. So, sustaining the secrecy has nothing to do with protecting the people from panic.

According to Greer, there is an inter-dimensional component regarding extraterrestrial contact that considers the spiritual levels of consciousness - and it relates to these technologies since they interface with mind and thought. On the other hand, there are significant and rather serious three dimensional energy propulsion technologies that can serve humanity right now that are being suppressed. And this will have to change.

These are technologies which would enable humanity to be freed from its addiction to oil. However, this would drastically change the geo-political structure and would also change the central financial systems that presently exist in the world today and de-centralize it almost to a village level.

For this reason Dr. Greer and his group have recently formed an operation known as Space Energy Access Systems (SEAS), to promote these critical technologies to replace fossil fuels and bring it out to the public in the coming months and years. Although, again, this is a risky operation since many people have been imprisoned or murdered for such efforts. Greer feels that he and his organization have enough high profile and enough powerful people who want to see this whole situation turned around to give their efforts the protection they need to proceed.

The more people know the truth about these issues and get involved the more change we will see.

To make these changes more mainstream, people of substance and stature are needed to take an interest and to put out the information in an intelligent way and in a language that has meaning for the culture, the ethos of the scientific community, the mainstream political community, and the mainstream media. This is the commitment of The Disclosure Project: to get this information out to the public in just such a manner.

The very good news in all of this is that while there may not be much action from officialdom yet, says Greer, officialdom has been briefed and they have the information. We will now begin to see the coming out of this information as well as the coming out of these new technologies. It will then be up to the people to not only help to bring it out but to protect it. When there are hundreds of millions of people who have the knowledge, it cannot be suppressed.

So, these projects need to move very quickly now. Greer is glad to have this information being put out to be networked - to generate awareness of not only UFO related matters but also because in the last few weeks a singular breakthrough has occurred involving technology that is one of the most astounding technologies that he has ever witnessed.

It's not important for a person to have seen a UFO or have contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence to gain an understanding of the immensity of these issues. Whether or not a person ever sees a UFO is quite immaterial. The real action is on the level of consciousness which is, of course, a universal field of resonance that affects the outcome in ways that we can never begin to imagine.

We're in a new millennium and it's critical to view this matter in a much more enlightened way. The Disclosure Project, the CSETI training program, and now the SEAS project are ways to achieve this.

Certainly, Dr. Greer's courage has shone through in stellar fashion. As we came to a close in our conversation, I was curious as to what motivates him, considering the major risks he takes in being so boldly public with this information.

Greer responded by stating that on a personal level, it's been catastrophic. He gave up a quarter of a million dollars per year as an emergency medical doctor to do this work. So, financially and professionally it's been disastrous. And in dealing with the media, it's been ruinous; it's a topic where one opens himself up to every kind of slander and defamation of ones character.

He has also seen far too few people willing to take action. So, from a selfish point of view one could never endure the challenges. What keeps Greer motivated, however, is that it is an unselfish endeavor.

Greer has a deeply spiritual connection to God and he is quite convinced that we're in a time of which the hallmark is universal peace. And for those of us who are working together to create this all over the world - whether or not they are connected to his group - understand when he says that this is a purpose that transcends one's selfish interests.

To help establish a stable humanity on earth that can co-exist peacefully with civilizations from space is the greatest challenge of the time in which
we live. And whatever God-given gifts that each of us has should be
brought forward to achieve that end. That's why Greer has given up his medical practice for now to do this work.

Aside from that, Greer admits that there are rewards: to be out on a remote desert landscape with his team and have the experience of contact with an advanced civilization hovering above in a spacecraft has been fascinating and astounding.

The other rewards have been in working with many wonderful people, the core of which are completely pure hearted and deeply spiritual. For example: two of the closest friends of the Dalai Llama are on his advisory team.

Greer says, "On the balance, one has to view this effort almost like the path of a bodhisattva where you are willing to sacrifice personal interests because - lets' face it - unless you're willing to state publicly that you were just molested by aliens there is no money in this field. If I were to make such statements, I would have hundreds of millions of dollars being thrown at me by the intelligence community, which is why the alien abduction sub-culture is so lucrative and financially well-put.

"But if you're doing anything meaningful, there is absolutely no monetary return - nothing at all. And that's one of the sad realities that most people have no knowledge of and one in which I don't normally speak about. But since you asked, that's the truth of it."

We've entered into a whole new period of human evolution, of which there is much more to come. We are witnessing the ending of one era and the beginning of another. And great turmoil always precedes great change.

Greer adds, "When we look at the course of human evolution over hundreds of thousands of years to the present development of consciousness, it's breath-taking. And that's the time we're living in. Unlike the past where humanity has risen up and then fallen back down into a dark age, we're now on a path of ascendancy that will herald an unbroken period of peace for thousands of years."

It's an extraordinary vision and one that Greer wants to share with people so they don't get so bogged down with all the ugly turmoil of what he calls the last "death-gasps" of this era.

Listening to Dr. Greer was inspiring, as always. I have heard him speak many times at conferences and have viewed the highly recommended and impressive Disclosure Video. Yet, being on a one-to-one basis with him was quite stirring: his conviction, courage, and dedication shines through at a level of awesome power that elicits great respect. What shines through, as well, is his great heart, vision, and kindness. He is truly one of the most important pioneers that we have on the planet today. When I thanked him for the courageous and visionary work he has done, Greer remarked in closing:

"It's not just me. It's everyone who joins with us. When we all pull together, it will happen. It could have happened a hundred years ago. But the timing isn't relevant now; it's the conscious effort of humans that's relevant. Our intention and consciousness will have to be put into action to make it so - and if we make it so, it will be so. That's how we need to view it in order to make it happen. The potential for it is now - like a ripe fruit ready to fall into our hands."

For more information on Steven Greer, MD, training programs through CSETI, to purchase the impressive Disclosure Video, books, CDs, and other related materials, please visit The Disclosure Project at: www.disclosureproject.org

For more information about exciting new energy technological breakthroughs please visit Space Energy Access Systems (SEAS) at: www.seaspower.com

EARTHCODE & INNER LIGHT
INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
New Heaven New Earth
PO Box 3395
Santa Cruz, CA 95063 USA
http://PaulaPeterson.com
831-454-1440

Light and Life Introduces:
First Palestinian-Israeli Internet Radio Station
"All For Peace" is ON THE AIR at www.allforpeace.org

BROADCASTING TO THE WORLD ALL DAY, EVERY DAY
Talk shows in Arabic and Hebrew at 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon, and again at 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. Jerusalem Time. Musical programs are in Hebrew, Arabic, and Hebrew.

PURPOSE
This historic, shared Internet radio station broadcasting daily in Hebrew, Arabic and English is aimed at a wide audience amongst both peoples to provide messages of peace, cooperation, mutual understanding, coexistence and hope.

These groups maintain a long-standing, good and egalitarian working relationship, and are partners in the youth-written magazine, Crossing Borders, on the Web at: www.crossingborders.org

Send them your ideas about interviews, music, and other programming in Arabic, English and Hebrew that increase:

A central aspect of the conflict between the two peoples arises from the distance and alienation between them. Common sense dictates that the more we know each other the less we will hate, be angry at and fear each other. A large portion of each of the two populations does not know the other side at all, except for what they learn through the local media, which do not always paint a picture truly reflecting the other side. In fact, the media generally emphasize only the negative aspects. Showing the true face of each side will assist in grappling with these obstacles, which have been built up over the years of the conflict, and will assist in opening hearts towards the better days to come.

One of the items most lacking in the Middle East is hope. The loss of hope is also the greatest threat to both peoples. Both populations have undergone periods almost impossible to bear in recent years, and many people have ceased believing that the situation can change. The existence of a sane voice, which invites its listeners to become part of an involved group of citizens who are not willing to forgo a better future, can assist by serving as the ray of light at the end of the tunnel.

Even if today, at the height of the bloody conflict between the two peoples, it seems as if the current reality will never change, we must not forget the possibility of another alternative - a more optimistic one, which sees the possibility of an end to the conflict. Therefore, it would be most proper to prepare both peoples for the morning after the conflict. After all, genuine peace will be achieved and based on a strong bond between both peoples and not their leaders - and this bond must be established and strengthened already today.

In addition, the station objective is to become financially independent, while broadcasting with the participation of the young people trained by our activities in the fields of radio and coexistence.

"All For Peace" Internet Radio in Arabic, Hebrew, and English ON THE AIR at www.allforpeace.org

Light and Life introduces:
The Global Oneness Commitment:
Co-creating a Happy World

The Global Oneness Commitment is an eight-year project with the goal of uniting people around the globe to mutual actions in order to not only save what we have, but to transform the planet thru an increase in spiritual awareness - a new consciousness creating a joyful home for all its inhabitants and sincere respect for all forms of life. The project is synchronised with the twin Venus Transits of 2004 and 2012. It starts with the first Venus transit of June 8th 2004 and ends with the second Transit June 6th 2012. The eight-year project is initiated by the Global Oneness Foundation based in Stockholm, Sweden, in association with the Times Foundation based in Delhi, India.

The world is not in need of a new religion or a new philosophy but in need of spiritual rejuvenation. All knowledge and wisdom needed to bring the world into a new era of inner and outer prosperity is already here and have been since ancient times. Lets face the fact

that we are all dependent on each other and that we all has an individual responsibility for the well being of the planet. We are all one and if one part of humanity is suffering - the whole humanity will be reached by its consequences. This is not anything new. It has been known in ancient spiritual traditions all over our planet. By entering this well of wisdom we will see that we have always had much more uniting us than dividing us. The main objectives are to:

Co-create a vision of oneness, encouraging individuals, networks and organizations in their work for a happy world. Support the preservation and restoration of ancient spiritual wisdoms and sciences residing in all cultures around the world. Support all sorts of initiatives that unite people in mutual actions and projects aiming at creating global oneness.

The Global Oneness Commitment is one of the topics in focus at www.globaloneness.com. To understand more about this website as a resource for spiritual seekers please visit:

Are today's kids biologically different?
Are we witnessing evolutionary changes in our children?

Light and Life introduces you to:
A New Magazine That Explores this Astounding New Phenomenon Known as...
CHILDREN OF THE NEW EARTH
The First Magazine Devoted Exclusively to the Evolving Needs of the New Generation of Children

"For years, many have asked and asked where to find one place where they can get information about today's new and changing children. Finally it's here..."Children of the New Earth". It's a much needed and expected resource that fulfills a vast need of parents, educators and health workers. t's about time!"

--Lee Carroll, best selling, co-author, The Indigo Children and An Indigo Celebration

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA (June 19, 2003) -- Mystifying behavioral, psychological and physical changes are being witnessed in today's children. This phenomenon is reflected in the myriad books on the market documenting these new "evolutionary" differences. Often referred to as Indigo Kids or Crystal Children, a new magazine has been launched to help explore and investigate this trend .Children of the New Earth (New Earth Publications), a full color, cutting edge publication that gives a voice to the expanding international community of educators, physicians, psychologists and parents who are acknowledging and documenting this astounding new breed of children.

According to CNE Co-Publisher Sandra Sedgbeer, "There is an alarming increase in the incidences of autism, ADD, Dyslexia, Asthma and Celiac disease, not to mention the higher incidences of expanded consciousness, giftedness and psychic abilities being seen inchildren". She adds, "I think our entire biology is undergoing some fundamental change far more rapidly than we can keep pace with. And, of course, there is also a spiritual component to all the changes we are witnessing". Sedgbeer believes this new expanding consciousness in children necessitates a paradigm shift and more holistic approach in the way society feeds, nurtures, educates and relates to the children of the 21st century.

Launched Spring 2003, Children of the New Earth magazine is devoted to revealing the latest information, advancements and trends to educate, support and assist concerned parents, teachers and caregivers worldwide. It is the definitive source on every topic that impacts the physical, emotional, mental, psychological development and spiritual well being of children. Experts and pioneers in the fields of health, education, medicine and spirituality bring forth the latest information, advice and resources and an international advisory panel and team of contributing editors will be reporting on the latest developments and initiatives in these fields.

The premiere issue of CNE magazine covers such issues as: Spiritual Parenting; The Nutritional Connection between Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and ADHD; Flower Remedies for Children; The Bittersweet Truth about Aspartame, and How to Find Out if Your Child is a Hidden Brilliant Learner. It even offers recipes for guilt-free ways to satisfy your child's sweet tooth, and a comprehensive Resource Guide for parents, which includes: information on alternative schools, books, Websites and much more.

CLIMATE TALKS SHIFT FOCUS TO HOW TO DEAL WITH CHANGES
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
New York Times
Sunday, November 3, 2002

The global climate is changing in big ways, probably because of human actions, and it is time to focus on adapting to the impacts instead of just fighting to limit the warming. That, in a nutshell, was the idea that dominated the latest round of international climate talks ended in New Delhi.

While many scientists have long held this view, it was a striking departure for the policy makers at the talks -- the industry lobbyists, environmental activists and government officials. For more than a decade, their single focus had been the fight over whether to cut smokestack and tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Many environmentalists had long avoided discussing adaptation for fear it would smack of defeatism.

Experts espousing the views of industry were thrilled with the shift in New Delhi.

"By building capabilities to deal with climate change, we'll be much better off than by just paying attention to global warming," said Myron Ebell, who directs climate policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a private group that opposes regulatory approaches to environmental problems.

Although they conceded its importance, environmental campaigners said an approach that focused on adapting to climate change rather than preventing it would inevitably fail, because the impact of unfettered emissions would eventually exceed people's ability to adjust.

Moreover, many said, coral reefs, alpine forests and other fragile ecosystems -- without the resiliency of human societies -- would simply be unable to cope with fast-changing conditions.

The change in attitude, expressed in the negotiations and in a formal declaration adopted Friday, has been partly driven by unusual weather this year -- record floods in Europe, landslides in the Himalayas, searing drought in southern Asia and Africa.

No single weather event can be linked to human-caused warming. But as the costs of weather-related disasters rise, unease about climate change rises, too. So far this year, unusual weather is blamed for 9,400 deaths and $56 billion in damage, according to the United Nations and insurers, and deaths and costs have been rising for years.

Another impetus is the rising realization that many significant shifts have already been set in motion by a century-long accumulation of warming gases.

Even if emissions stopped today, some experts say, the volume of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere would slowly raise sea levels for a century or two as warmed water expands and terrestrial ice melts. The result would be coastal erosion and salt water intrusion into water supplies.

The new focus suits the agendas of the Bush administration and many developing countries, which for different reasons want to avoid cutting emissions of the warming gases. But some environmental campaigners say the shift will discourage efforts to cut dependence on fossil fuels like coal and oil, the main source of the offending gases, in favor of building dikes, designing hardier crops or other engineering fixes.

"Adaptation is like the `wear sunglasses and a hat' theory of fighting ozone depletion," said Kert Davies, the research director for Greenpeace, referring to the Reagan-era debate over chemicals that were weakening the earth's atmospheric shield against harmful radiation.

In that case, the offending synthetic chemicals were banned under a 1987 treaty, but only because damage to the ozone layer had become vividly apparent in satellite images -- and because industry had come up with alternatives.

But no ready substitutes exist for cheap, plentiful fossil fuels. Many experts say the use of coal and oil is bound to keep rising for decades, particularly as poor countries climb the economic ladder from bicycles and water buckets to cars and washing machines.

Conservative policy analysts said proposed curbs on fuel use were thus unrealistic and unjustified, while making countries more resilient to extremes of weather made sense for many reasons. One goal, Mr. Ebell said, should be to enable low-lying countries like Bangladesh to respond to typhoons the way Florida responds to hurricanes.

There are also ways to foster development in poor countries that limit harm from climate change. Experts say that in semi-arid zones in Africa and Asia, agricultural assistance could improve farmers' ability to endure heat and drought.

In some areas, adaptation is already under way. In the Himalayas, some communities, with the help of the United Nations, are installing alarm systems to warn of flash floods as expanding lakes of glacial meltwater grow to the bursting point in the next decade.

Low-lying island nations, like the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, have been watching the slow rise of the seas for decades and have not only been planning to build storm barriers, but possibly to evacuate entirely at some point.

The emphasis on adapting is a profound turnabout from the course set a decade ago after President George Bush and other world leaders signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Though that treaty and subsequent addenda contained vague commitments by industrial nations to help vulnerable countries adapt, the emphasis was always about curbing emissions to prevent dangerous changes in the climate system.

Adaptation got support in New Delhi because it suits both the current Bush administration, which has tried to shift debate away from emissions reductions, and developing countries, which have expressed frustration at the developed world's inertia in limiting its own emissions and its delays in pledged aid.

At the meeting, poorer countries did not quite say it was their turn to pollute but, led by the host country, they did demand the right to grow out of destitution, a path that will require vast use of existing fuel reserves -- mainly coal.

Opening the plenary session last Wednesday, India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said per capita use of such fuels by the world's poorest populations was a fraction of that of people in the industrial powers. Mitigating fuel use, he said, "will bring additional strain to the already fragile economies of the developing countries."

The adaptation issue also got support from a new scientific analysis, published Friday, suggesting that the only way to safely stabilize greenhouse gases by mid-century was with a hugely ambitious Apollo-size research program on fusion, solar power, and other nonpolluting energy sources.

The lead authors of that study echoed other experts in saying it was nearly inconceivable that the Bush administration or Congress would finance such a costly crash program.

They also said that modest emission reductions called for under the Kyoto Protocol, a climate treaty supported by Europe and Japan, would not be enough to spur governments and businesses to seek the necessary technological shift. The protocol, an addendum to the 1992 climate convention, is moving toward taking legal force sometime next year, when

Russia is expected to ratify it. But President Bush has rejected it, and without the adherence of the United States, the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases, the Kyoto pact's impact on climate will be negligible, scientists and treaty experts say.

Still, some experts said Kyoto's significance should not be discounted. "Your first trip to the gym doesn't improve your health, but you've got to get into a regular habit," said David D. Doniger, the director of climate policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private group. "Kyoto is that first trip. It provides a structure to build on."

Mr. Doniger and other veterans of the climate wars with varying perspectives said the best -- and perhaps only -- hope lay in a blend of all of the above: a mix of finding ways to improve energy efficiency now; to protect the most vulnerable countries and ecosystems from accelerating change; and to push the technological frontier to determine if any far-flung solutions can come to the rescue.

Dr. Martin I. Hoffert, the New York University physicist who led the new clean-energy study, said he was confident that technology held an eventual solution. "We started World War II with biplanes, and seven years later had jets," he said.

But he and other climate experts acknowledged that wartime innovations emerged in crisis, not ahead of a slow-moving environmental shift.

CLOSING INSPIRATION:
BEINGS WITH US
By Jim Cleveland (from The Celestial Songbook)

Be with us Father in
this day of special wonder
a sense of which makes us ponder
the depth, the very essence, the very peak of ecstatic
inner discovery
out yonder

Be with us Mother to nurture us in our tears
a sense of peace above the fears
the depth, the very essence, the inner peace of vibrating
Mother love
deep in here

Be with us all ye Sons of service from yore and beyond
a sense of wonder unfolding like a frond
the depth, the very essence of exploration
into new universes of new legends
to behold the One

Be with us brothers and sisters of place and time
in a sense of tattered wonder we stand sublime
the depth, the very essence of human experience
will mold us into Light
sometime.

Send your writing to consider for our periodicals or site pages: jamescleveland@tds.net

WE CAN BE: A Celebration of Spiritual Unity, produced for the Association for Light and Life. Buy it at the SpiritWorks store at www.associationforlightandlife.org

AN EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY, 161 images by Jim Cleveland
Now Open in the Art Galleries at www.lightandlife.com