Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Totally Irresponsible Rumors of the Apocalypse

I've heard some spicy rumors about the coming apocalypse that can't possibly be true, and therefore must be spread like wildfire throughout the internet as quickly as possible. I know I'm doing my part.

A good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, has a friend who is apparently an internationally renowned doctor, who shall also remain nameless, who has worked with and has contacts within some of our national security agencies, which will themselves remain nameless, who have told this doctor some highly disturbing stories about what the near future holds for this semi-precious little world of ours.

To establish this doctor's contacts' bonafides, my friend told me that the doctor had been warned shortly before 9/11 to stay out of New York on or around that day. At first, this seemed a red flag for crackpot theorism, for which I have only marginal tastes. It sounded as if the inference was that this fellow's contacts in the government were in on the 9/11 attacks, which I consider a true sign of crackpot mentality, and I was inclined to dismiss entirely anything related to such notions. However, in talking with other friends of mine this information could have a much more rational explanation. Namely, it has been established through the 9/11 commission and the accounts of people like Richard Clarke that the US intelligence agencies did indeed have advance warning through foreign channels of the general danger of some kind of terrorist attack, likely in New York, and likely right around the 9/11 date. That was part of the scandal - that such warnings were known of within the government, but not taken seriously enough to prevent the attacks. So it's possible that this doctor's contacts were merely basing their warnings to him on this insider information, rather than from knowledge of some kind of nefarious plot within the government to create a faux attack on the US.

All of which is simply a long way of saying that maybe there's a tiny bit of credibility to what was passed along to me. But maybe not.

So what's the message? Oh, nothing short of a warning that a major biological attack is on its way, related to the possibility of an Avian flue pandemic in the offing. This doctor has apparently been told by his contacts in the security agencies, the same ones who warned him about 9/11, that there is an unnamed group of individuals, associated with an unnamed government, who have developed a lethal biological weapon which they are set to deploy in the relatively near future. According to these people, the warnings about the potential for Avian flu mutating to a human transmission vector and causing a worldwide pandemic is merely a smoke screen for the real threat, which will be a humanly design bioweapon which will cause even more widespread death and mayhem than Avian flu could be expected to account for. The message is that the Avian flu is itself some kind of artificially induced infection that is not likely, in itself, to become a serious disease, but which will give cover for the real threat that will be unleashed on the world. In other words, when this greater pathogen is released, people will think it is Avian flu, and not suspect that it is actually of human origin. All of which is so that people will not realize who is behind this Dr. Evil plot and take action against them.

And who are these people? Not named. The usual suspects could be trotted out: some secret division of maniacs within our own intelligence agencies, Al Qaeda, the Iranians, crazed apocalyptic Saudi billionaires, Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton, fiendish Nazi scientists, fiendish North Korean scientists, fiendish Fijian Gurus resembling Marlon Brando, you name them.

The idea is absurd, the rumor utterly irresponsible for me to repeat, but this is of course the internet, so what better place to report the absurdly irresponsible? It's not like anyone is going to fact check me. I don't give it much credibility at all, but then again I'm in a perfect situation to survive just such a plague - living in a remote area of Northen California far from the maddening crowds. Others are not so fortunate. Nonetheless, one of my children goes to college at Berkeley, about as major a disease vector as one can find, and another is going to UC Santa Cruz in the fall, and I'm not planning on changing those plans. However, let's just say that if I hear that some major disease outbreak is reported somewhere in Asia anytime soon, I will probably have them come up here for a while just to be safe. And maybe invite a few friend to stay as well.

As it also happens, there are similar rumors travelling around the Adidam community. Not about this disease idea specifically, but apparently Adi Da himself has been recently warning his devotees that a major readjustment in the world is coming down the pike over the next few years, and that people should move out of major metropolitan areas and head for rural areas, particularly, as it happens, the Humboldt County area where I now live. At present there's only a tiny Adidam community in this area, but apparently that may change soon. A minor invasion may be in the works. Or so I hear. Could get amusing around these parts.

10 comments:

Mike said...

As a somewhat cranky skeptic
about many of the ufo related stuff (including
various conspiracies), I've
had to relax my anger about
the ton of bs in that field
(so as to not to aggravate
a recent spike in my BP) and
just relegate a lot of what's communicated within
that otherwise legitimate
field of study to "entertainment".

For a perfect example of
the dynamic of "sources" revealing dramatic bs, see
http://www.serpo.org

Conrad, when I first got
involved in Adidam, early
in 1974 (as a correspondent
member), I was a student
at Humboldt State. Recently
(after doing house/pet sitting jobs at Point Arena
and Sea Ranch), I contemplated moving up to
Eureka (where I was raised).
I went to Reno, NV instead.
I think I will email you in
the near future about life up there in Humboldt County, as I'm not sure where I will eventually settle down at. I'd be curious to know what it's like up there nowadays. (It's been decades since I've been up there.)

Anonymous said...

Hi there Conrad. Frank is no one to go by as far as disasters are concerned, from what I can remember. Remember Y2K for one?

Then again, neither am I anyone to go by, or a lot of our generation. I've been in disaster mode since the early seventies and moved to the country with my family back then, back to the land, self sufficient and all, and then disaster never struck, darn it.

There was, of course, the nuclear threat and there were warnings of financial collapse, over-population, environmental collapse and so on. Meanwhile all the other 'nitwits' who ignored the warnings and simply got on with their lives and advancing their careers all thrived. I wonder if I half hoped there would be a disaster, to change what I saw as a world that needed to be changed.

In any case, we all do what is necessary to save our skins and those who we love but, at the risk of sounding way out there, one of the really great things about the primary 'religious' insight that was initiated for me is that, ultimately, nothing matters, or put more positively, all is well.

Not that we don't play the game as if it matters or run the race to win but if we lose, we know that, ultimately, all is not lost. Everyone we love is always OK.

So that's just a message to remind you of something I'm sure you are perfectly aware of but which is easy to forget when we're in the heat of 'running the race'. Just a reminder to not get yourself, or the rest of us, TOO stressed out. In the end, all is well.

Anonymous said...

Hey Conrad...remember me from the old Daism forum? Long time no chat...My hunch about a future nasty circumstance is about an energy shortage, ie, 'Peak Oil'. If you haven't heard about it, google it. At best, the people most affected (in the US, at any rate) will be people who commute long distances. IOW, suburbies. At worst? Oh, let's see...lack of food, heat... lack of literally everything, (something that has not been experienced by Americans since WWII)...resource wars...kinda like Mad Max
movies without the costumes...What may be interesting is that as long the lights stay on, we'll still have communications, the internet. So, while people may starve, at least they'll be able to surf...

But seriously, are you familiar with this possible scenario? Do you
you know how to grow your own?...Vegetables, I mean...

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Anonymous said...

It's ironic that this has been your last blog entry for some time. In the face of the Apocalypse, Adidam certainly won't amount to a hill of beans - although they'd probably intrepret it as some sort of validation of Da's message. ;-) Until then, despite your abundant disclaimers, I'm afraid that this post may appear so far off the wall that it will cause new readers to think you're a little bit flaky, and thus have the effect of undermining your many on-target criticisms of Adidam. A lion at the gate?

Best wishes to you.

Mike said...

Hi Anonymous,

How is it flakey to critique
(and even satirize) all the
rumors of the apocalypse?

Are you sure you read him
clearly?

Mike Jamieson

Mike said...

Hi rogrrr,

If this Mad Max reality
manifests, a whole lot of
softies are going to die fast.
(We should have taken
JFK's 50 mile hike seriously....
few people, especially the
young, seem to be in shape
nowadays.)

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike...long time...As horrific as it might be to contemplate, the elderly, the weak and children will be the most vulnerable- Nature's Rules. My feeling is that it won't be sudden, it'll be gradual. Even so, $10 a gallon gas is hard to imagine. Worse, even if you can afford it, gas/diesel will probably be rationed in order to keep the transportation sector functioning. Of course, a black market will ensue: "Pssst...Wanna buy some Sweet
Venezealan Crude?" If you've got a bicycle, stock up on 3-in-1 oil!

Anonymous said...

Conrad, I'm sorry you brought up 9/11 controversies. Hey, you're starting a trend, now Charlie Sheen's asking about it: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/U.S._actor_Charlie_Sheen_questions_9/11_theories

I try to rely on good-old-fashioned common sense as much as possible, but I still haven't found a good explanation for why the U.S. air force couldn't catch up with two passenger jets an hour or two after they were hijacked, or why the WTC fell straight down (and without resistance-- just like a free-fall) to collect into a neat pile of small pieces at the base. I mean wtf?

Anonymous said...

Check out loosechange911.com for an excellent documentary on 9/11.