Big Mysteries

You only live once, and there are a lot of puzzles lingering from ancient times, and a few modern ones that also need solving. So I spend a fair bit of my time trying to determine answers.

I genuinely feel that these are the best solutions to date (and AFAIK they are original ideas), but clearly I am biased, so make up your own mind.

Still pondering:

Rainbow Prepping – My Thoughts

Rainbow Prepping is an article by Prof Jem Bendell, the originator of the Deep Adaptation concept – which in a nutshell is that climate change cannot be stopped, and we need to start adapting to it now.

The article lists 15 ways we should be approaching this damned future, practically. I’m writing this as I read it. Writing helps me understand my own thoughts on things, having to put it in words instead of just general feelings.

Residence resilience – actively choose where to live, based on future climate change.
I did this, moving to rural Victoria, 550m above sea level, far from the coast and the big city. On a hill that cannot be flooded. Winters dip below zero C so they might end up being mild. If you are serious, then you take such a step. Now.

Amusement sustainability – basically you need a community willing to enjoy life, or a big enough extended family or perhaps a co-op. Think of all the entertainment that does not require electricity. Because you will want that come the day.
Essentially don’t be too isolated, and have community – ideally with artistic types.

Income diversification – your job might go. Your savings might go. Consider what is tradeable in a post-money society. And get something going that you can trade. A talent, a skill, produce, a huge stockpile of batteries or condoms.
My intention is a hobby farm. Reality is that in Australia they are very expensive!

Neighbourhood involvement.
This is critical.
Know your neighbours well. Even if they aren’t “your cuppa tea”.
Be active in the community. Form friendships. Actively help out with things.
Don’t mention end times. When the time comes, you will be trusted and part of the solution.

Business localisation – you are in or near a small town (ideally). Typically things are produced locally. Be a consumer of local goods and services. It will benefit everyone even if the doom never arrives. It will expand the survivability if it does.
Dismiss any nagging ideas that it costs more. It doesn’t in the big picture. Give it a whirl and see.

Orthobiotic living – Jem says ” attention to mobility, cardiovascular fitness, deep rest, sleep, metabolic health, nutrition, gut health, disease vigilance, and complementary therapeutics, including herbs. “
Simply put, if you are unhealthy, in a collapse, your chances are exponentially more difficult. Me personally, I push the limits of food hygiene, so I am more in the direction of a 3rd world country. I have never gotten sick in countries I should. I can handle things being a bit off.

Water and food security – water is everything. If you don’t have a Plan B for water, your survival location is not suitable. For food, learn what can be eaten that grows wild. Practice it.

Practical skill acquisition – ideally something in this list from Jem resonates with you – “carpentry, plumbing, electrics, sewing, bicycle maintenance, fermentation, bee keeping, fire making, fire fighting, massage, holistic therapies, conflict resolution, group facilitation and non-violent self defence. Adopt an attitude of repair, towards clothing, electronics, furniture and appliances. “

Relocation readiness – the future is uncertain. All sorts of things can go sideways at your location, including bad people turning up with guns and whatnot. But also weather. Have somewhere else up your sleeve, far away. Know how to get there, and exactly what you will do when you do get there.
Ultimately, as my book How and Where to Survive a Global Cataclysm points out, if at all possible, have a stash of supplies somewhere distant (less than a tank of fuel) on the way to that place. Redundancy!

Ecological stewardship – a healthier local environment will work better for you

Psychological wholeness – being at one with the potentials now will make it easier if it happens

Political engagement – “You can try to influence how politicians and officials realise the levels of destruction, the causes, and how to prepare for, and respond to, specific disruptions and breakdowns.”
I wouldn’t bother unless you seriously believe you can affect change. You probably need to be “somebody” in academia, business, organisations or politics.

Information and interaction sovereignty – basically every non-tech form you can think of. For example, printed maps and walkie talkies.

Needs simplification – live as simply as possible – fewer things, fewer needs – and the transition won’t hurt so much.

Gumption promotion – don’t be a sheeple

Robert Bast – About Him

I used Perplex-ity to generate this, for the LOLz. It did an excellent job, so here it is:

Robert Bast is an Australian-based author and internet figure best known for popularising the idea of a 2012 “doomsday” tied to the end of the Maya Long Count calendar, and for building a large prepper community around it.[en.wikipedia][en.wikipedia][vice]

Who he is

  • Robert Bast is a New Zealander who has lived in Melbourne, Australia, and worked in internet marketing.[money.cnn][voanews]
  • In the late 1990s he read Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods, which mentions the Maya calendar’s 2012 end date and the idea of a cataclysm, and that sparked his long-term focus on 2012.[vice]
  • In 2001 he began publishing some of the first online articles specifically framing 2012 as a possible doomsday scenario, helping to seed what later became known as the “2012 phenomenon”.[en.wikipedia][en.wikipedia]

His role in the 2012 doomsday hype

Bast didn’t invent the Maya calendar date (scholars already recognised 21 December 2012 as the end of a 5,125‑year cycle), but he was pivotal in turning it into a survivalist narrative online.[en.wikipedia][en.wikipedia]

  • He created and ran Survive2012.com, a website and forum that aggregated disaster theories (solar storms, pandemics, asteroid impacts, pole shifts, etc.) and gave practical advice on how to prepare and survive.[vice][money.cnn][robertbast]
  • He wrote the book Survive 2012: A Handbook for Doomsday Preppers, marketed as a guide to where and how to be safe from a “global cataclysm”.[robertbast][amazon.com][bol]
  • He also managed a 2012 directory, wiki, and social network, becoming a central node for the global community of “2012ers”, especially those focused on physical preparedness rather than purely spiritual transformation.[vice][robertbast]

Media outlets frequently quoted him in the lead‑up to December 2012, often as a representative voice of the prepper side of the phenomenon.[voanews][robertbast]

What he actually believed would happen

Unlike some 2012 proponents who spoke of mystical awakening or alien contact, Bast’s public stance was more pragmatic and disaster‑oriented:

  • He said the most likely scenario was a major solar storm that could cripple power grids and infrastructure, leading to long‑term societal breakdown rather than instant extinction.[voanews]
  • He also highlighted other plausible catastrophes (pandemics, asteroid/comet impacts, geomagnetic pole shifts) and argued that some large-scale disaster in our lifetimes was statistically likely, with 2012 serving as a symbolic deadline to motivate preparation.[money.cnn][voanews]
  • In interviews close to the date, he acknowledged that nothing specific might happen on 21 December itself, but maintained that the preparations people made would still be useful for future crises.[vice][voanews]

Personal preparations and costs

Bast became a high‑profile example of how far some people went in preparing:

  • By 2012, he reported spending over A$350,000 on doomsday preparations.[money.cnn]
  • This included:
    • About A$5,000 on food and water stockpiles.
    • Around A$11,000 on equipment like generators, solar power, water purifiers, and gas cookers.
    • Roughly A$330,000 on land, a house, and a bunker about 75 minutes from Melbourne, sited 1,500 feet above sea level to avoid floods/tsunamis.
    • About A$10,000 on a Toyota HiLux to reach the safe site.[money.cnn]
  • He funded this through years of saving from his internet marketing job and by taking out a second mortgage.[money.cnn]

After 2012: what happened to him and his views

When 21 December 2012 passed without any apocalypse:

  • Bast said he was calmer than expected, partly because in the lead‑up he found himself reassuring others that a specific-day catastrophe was unlikely.[vice]
  • He publicly acknowledged he was wrong about a 2012‑specific event, calling it “a good thing” that the world didn’t end.[vice]
  • However, he maintained that his broader concern about large-scale disasters remained valid, arguing that the date had simply been a useful excuse to get people to prepare for inevitable future crises.[vice]
  • His website and related projects continued in some form, reframed more around general preparedness than a single prophesied date.[vice][robertbast]

Why he matters in the 2012 story

  • Historians of the 2012 phenomenon credit Bast with writing some of the first online articles explicitly linking the Maya calendar end date to doomsday scenarios, helping to catalyse the internet-driven hype cycle.[en.wikipedia][en.wikipedia]
  • He represents the survivalist/prepper strand of 2012 belief, distinct from the more spiritual or “consciousness shift” narratives promoted by others like José Argüelles.[en.wikipedia][vice]
  • His Melbourne base and heavy media presence also made him one of the most visible 2012 figures in the English‑speaking world, especially in Australia.[money.cnn][voanews][robertbast]

Vale David Wilcock

According to news reports, Wilcock has suicided with a firearm, days after commenting about all the scientists who have mysteriously died recently. Wilcock was not a scientist. He did write books that included lots of science, but that science was misrepresented to suit his ideas about aliens and the nature of the universe. For example he’d use dodgy studies from Cold War USSR without disclosing the greater picture.

I found him appealing. I went to one of his all-day talks, and he is good at keeping the audience engaged (just like David Icke), and I bought a few of his book because they promised some exciting answers. As a critical thinker, I found them empty of any real insights or knowledge.

What bugger me the most is that he regularly said he had inside knowledge of either UFO disclosures or alien invasions that were imminent, and none of course ever happened. So I think fraud is a good word to use. Examples:

Key Predicted Dates

  • Mid-2025: In presentations and videos, Wilcock referenced prophecies stating that by mid-2025, the Sun would “open” into a new form, triggering an ET-guided solar system transformation and mass disclosure of non-human intelligence.
  • 2025 overall: Multiple sources from his content, including live streams and bundles like “Sacred Science,” pinpointed 2025 as the year for a “Great Revealing,” “First Wave of Ascension,” mass ET contact, and release of forbidden technologies.
  • November 27, 2009: He anticipated a White House announcement by Obama on this exact date, aired globally as a two-hour TV address revealing UFO/ET truths.
  • 2012: Early prophecies originally slated a major solar event and disclosure for this year, later postponed to 2025.
  • 2005–2006: Older readings hinted at mass boarding events or pole shifts around mid-2005 or 2006

Gaia Distributed Consciousness

To be conscious requires memory and enough intelligence to make informed decisions based on the past, and predictions of the future. Basically that’s the nuts and bolts, but some people might want to involve spiritual angles as well.

The Internet is a major part, now, of everyone’s memory. It is not conscious itself, it is a not a “being” – it is simply a repository. Even so, it is entwined with our collective human consciousness.

According to Rupert Sheldrake somewhere in the aether is morphic resonance, where species store shared experiences and are informed by them. A memory of a species. That repository, just like the Internet, is not conscious, but it is entwined.

In subtle ways human consciousness has changed and adjusted because of the memory the Internet provides us, just like if each of us somehow got better at remembering things personally. It is the same machine, but different inputs means different outputs.

Like books before it.

Wikipedia might be the closest to a man-designed morphic resonance, because we (some of us anyway) contribute to it, and many of us feed from it.

Morphic resonance is an unconscious Wikipedia, that we feed into and pull from without knowing it. But it binds us together as a species. And because each species uses the same system, it is like each species has their own page on Facebook – alone and together.

Gaia itself is not conscious. But we are more than just individual consciousnesses – we have shared information that we give and take from, share memories, shared decisions – we are all one, all living things, deep down. We just need to start recognising it.

The Mushroom That Gives You Elves

I have been very fascinated by DMT, by how people taking it can seem to have interactions with actual alien beings, and how the experiences are far more consistent than any other hallucinogen. It seems to be the closest we have found to connecting with entities from another dimension.

Now we have a very new mushroom (in terms of identification and studies) that seems to have similar properties, across multiple cultures. So far, from limited information, we know the following about Lanmaoa asiatica.

  • It is used as food in China, with chefs knowing it has to be cooked for 15 minutes or else it can be bad news
  • A trip can take many days and land people in hospital, which scares people away from trying to use it recreationally
  • The “hallucinations” have a primary aspect, seeing little people!

They can be seen in the real world, or with eyes closed.

The patients come with a strikingly odd symptom: visions of pint-sized, elf-like figures – marching under doors, crawling up walls and clinging to furniture.

…The patients saw these figures “moving about everywhere”, the researchers wrote – usually, there were more than ten tiny beings on the scene. “They saw them on their clothes when they were dressing and saw them on their dishes when eating,” the researchers added. The visions “were even more vivid when their eyes were closed”.    

This has also happened in non-mushroom scenarios, called  “lilliputian hallucinations“.

It appears to be a totally new compound, unrelated to other psychedelics.

We hay have found another path to interacting with our inter-dimensional friends, for any psychonauts up for the challenge.

Where to Hide from AI Evil Overlord?

It is a legitimate fear that a “conscious” AI will take over the planet and destroy anything and anyone that gets in its way.

There are two aspects of being safe from this, and the same rules apply to alien takeovers or invasion from another country.

  1. Be far away from the action. The further away from society and harder to find you are, the more effort it will take the bad guys to find you. Furthermore, try to control access to your property, such as a fallen tree or a bridge that is out. It is human nature to look for lower-hanging fruit that are not in the too-hard basket.
  2. Don’t have anything they want. Extensive cropping or ideal pastures can be seen from above, so keep your operations small, not easy to spot, and preferably scattered. Have your shelter under the overstory of trees. Don’t be in an area where mining might happen, or trees are harvested.

It goes without saying that you need to be self-sufficient, and not rely on anything modern from the outside world.

Causewayed Enclosures, Stone Circles and Magick

A number of locations in the UK have long barrows (for burying the dead), causewayed enclosures (no certainty of purpose) and stone circles (no certainty of purpose. They arrived in that order, and were preceded by simpler burials for the dead, such as cairns.

A common theme is defined areas, via causeways, enclosures, henges and stone circles. I am thinking that being inside the defined area is what matters most.

When long barrows were built, they typically had ditches alongside them, the result of digging up building material. At the same time, presumably, burials started to become ceremonial, and may have incorporated aspects of what would become pagan magick ritual.

My idea is that being inside the ditches was considered to be safe from whatever those people feared, possibly something like demons or bad spirits. Combined with now appreciating how people could adjust the landscape to their needs, this led to the development of enclosures. Those enclosures could have had differing functions, maybe a temporary village, maybe pens for animals, or a marketplace. The point is that the demarkation of the enclosure was not to keep anything physical out, just the spiritual.

Then when the pagan magick developed further, it was decided that a safe space just for magickal ceremonies would be good to have, so they developed henges and stone circles. The henge for protection.

And today, pagans still “cast a circle” to perform ritual inside of. The broom was part of that, the concept of sweeping anything bad from the circle. The demonising of witchcraft in more recent times could be why they switched from permanent circles to temporary ones.

Protection magick is perhaps the oldest of all magick, and exists in every ancient culture. And in the UK they protected parts of the landscape by digging and shifting the land.

Solo Squad

Needs an explanation catchphrase, something about we are all on our own, but together we are stronger…

Australia doesn’t have militia. Primarily because Australia doesn’t have guns.

I am envisaging a concept the combines the following:

  • A members only shooting range, fully compliant with firearm licenses. Basically a prepper-friendly version of a gun club. Push what a “shooting range” is to the limits.
  • A prepping club. Not too different to the Country Women’s Association. Open to all but will become, essentially, a place for trad wives to hang out
  • A farm, provided by a benefactor. Staffed by WWOOFers and Squad volunteers. One week of volunteering is “well regarded”
  • Members are squaddies or squaddettes.
  • A food co-op.
  • Discounted solar power etc
  • Business networking.
  • Monthly retreats.
  • Serious survivalist courses. Perhaps 20. It is unspoken but everyone wants to complete the lot

Each chapter is based in a regional city of 20K+ people. Membership fees are minimal, say $100/yr per family. Everything else is cost only. Outreach, school visits, merch, sponsoring local sports clubs are all possible. Not secretive!

At every entrance it will say “No Politics, No Religion”. That is set in stone.

The big picture is a framework that encourages prepping, and being outdoors, and self-sufficient, and networking with like-minded others = maybe when the SHTF, the bonds created can help everyone involved.

Dark Energy vs Timescape Cosmology

I can’t believe I have only just now stumbled upon this – evidence for an alternative to the mysterious dark matter and dark energy. They might not be needed to solve anything!

Long story short, there are voids in space where time goes faster, because time is connected to matter and gravity.

The problem is that this model uses a simplified equation that assumes the whole Universe is smooth, and expands at the same speed everywhere. But it’s far from smooth out there: we see a colossal cosmic web, criss-crossed by filaments of galaxies separated by vast voids emptier than we can comprehend.

Timescape cosmology takes that ‘lumpiness’ into account. More matter means stronger gravity, which means slower time – in fact, an atomic clock located in a galaxy could tick up to a third slower than the same clock in the middle of a void.

When you stretch that over the huge lifespan of the Universe, billions more years may have passed in the voids than in the matter-dense areas. A mind-boggling implication of that is that it no longer makes sense to say that the Universe has a single unified age of 13.8 billion years. Instead, different regions would have different ages.

And since so much more time has passed in the voids, more cosmological expansion has taken place there. Therefore, if you look at an object on the far side of a void, it would appear to be moving away from you much faster than something on this side of the void. Over time, these voids take up a larger proportion of the Universe, creating the illusion of an accelerating expansion, without needing to conjure up any dark energy.

Less Governance = More Self-Reliance

Mexico and the US are dismantling government roles at a great pace, based on the idea that a “balanced budget” is necessary. It isn’t – look into Modern Monetary Theory.

But it sounds right, like balancing your household budget. Except the US “household” gets to print money when it needs it.

Regardless, we are heading towards a scenario of less governance, which means a lean towards anarchy and self-reliance. That mindset should be amenable to any attempts to promote self-reliance. For example, no restrictions on pasteurised milk, or gathering rainwater. Potentially fewer codes regarding the home you build, or what you do on your own land.

As much as I am against Trump et al, this is an opportunity for the the adventurous to get more rights and fewer restrictions. For example, in Australia a bedroom must have windows – that doesn’t make it easy to build a bunker…