• The Time of Revelation, by the Master —
• Questions and answers
• Letters to the Editor
• The star heralding Maitreya’s emergence
• Signs
• Letters to the editor about the 'star'
• Faith - excerpts of compilation
• Water Sound Images
• We must rise against the injustice in Palestine
• Tackling the Global Financial and Economic Crisis
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The Master's article for
Share International magazine, July / August 2009

The Time of Revelation

by the Master –, through Benjamin Creme, 14 June 2009

For many years, the peoples of most countries have followed, more or less meekly, the edicts of their legislators, the politicians. This has largely been the case whether the legislative system was democratic or otherwise. This is now beginning to change. Far from quiet acceptance of unpopular laws, peoples in many countries now demonstrate and demand change. With the exception of those countries under tight military rule, the people, more and more, are demanding to be heard, to have their needs addressed, and bad laws righted. As the beneficent energies of Aquarius gain in potency, this growing power of the people will multiply and become the most powerful voice on Earth. So much is this the case, even now, that governments of all kinds are forced to take account of the peoples’ reaction to laws which deeply concern their welfare. It becomes increasingly difficult for governments to govern along strictly factional lines. Much government action is secretive and obscure, much is done ‘behind the scenes’ of which the people never hear, but generally, governments, at least in the so-called ‘democratic’ world, are careful not to rouse the ire or discontent of the people.

Major area

There is one major area in which this is assuredly not the case. For over sixty years, governments worldwide have withheld from the people the reality of ‘UFOs’ or ‘flying saucers’. Further, they have sought by all means to denigrate the occupants of these visiting craft as ‘aliens’, destructive and harmful to the people of Earth. To keep their populations under control, and to avoid ‘panic’, they have denied the experience of hundreds of thousands of intelligent, open-minded citizens. They have thus created a major myth: “‘flying saucers’ do not exist but they are dangerous and rapacious to men of Earth”! Likewise, they have taught the people to deride the notion that crop circles are a legacy from Space, yet every government has unassailable proof of the existence, creativity and superior technology of these brave and harmless visitors from the sister planets of our System. Our profound ignorance of the subtle planes of matter has allowed the major governments of the world to maintain this deception for so long.

Revelation

At last the time of revelation has arrived. For no longer will government agencies hide the truth from men of Earth: their brotherhood with the far-off planets of our Solar System. Already, the “star-like luminary”, the Herald of Maitreya’s emergence, is showing people worldwide that for years they have been deceived by their governments. You may be sure that Maitreya will reveal the truth of our relationship with the other planets, and of the co-operation which for long has continued between us. It is in truth the time of revelation.

(Read more articles by the Master)

Questions and Answers

Q. (1) Is the new ‘star’ the return of the star of Bethlehem or the “sign of the Son of Man” as prophesized by Jesus? (2) Are all the things that have been happening in the recent past, signs of Him appearing soon? (3) How do you explain the Bible’s prophecy in Matthew 24:29-31, where Jesus says He will come “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”? And the scripture that says: “And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming”, says the Lord of Hosts.” (Malachi 3:1) This is plainly talking about a real temple in Israel (to me, at least). The problem is that the Jewish people have not rebuilt the ancient temple of Solomon. This prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. (4) How do you see this happening?
A. (1) The ‘star’ is, symbolically, the sign of the Son of Man and heralds the first appearance of Maitreya, the World Teacher, on US television, interviewed not as Maitreya, but as an ordinary man. (2) Yes. (3) Maitreya descended from His retreat in the high Himalaya on 8 July 1977, stayed some days in Pakistan, then came from Karachi to London, UK, on 19 July 1977, thus “coming in the clouds” which today all can do by aeroplane. (4) The ‘temple’ referred to in this symbolic text is not a building but means humanity, to which the Son of Man returns as the oldest and highest of men.

Q. Fear still sells better than hope. This is one reason for media inhibition of the ‘star’. Fear also governs their editors. I had an experience with a nationwide paper whose editor in chief refused to publish an advert for the ‘star’. He didn’t state any reason for declining, but I guess it had been fear of something strange, peculiar and controversial. Most people would rather go on in old self-destructive ways and media as a whole are the last ones who would dare to disturb them from their sleep.
A. I totally agree.

Q. What is your opinion about the recent elections in Iran such as the electoral process and the alleged results? (1) How accurate were the stated results? (2) Which president would have been better for Iran in the long run: Ahmadinejad or Mousavi?
A. (1) I believe that the Iranian elections, like ex-President Bush’s two elections, were deeply flawed by serious ‘rigging’ by the incumbent party. The public reaction in Tehran can be well understood and justified. (2) Mr Mousavi.

Q. Is the new type of influenza caused by our wrong thoughts or environmental pollution?
A. Not so much by pollution but certainly it comes from our wrong thoughts and action. You will notice that at the end of any heightened tension or war, there will be waves of influenza epidemics, sometimes an international pandemic, sometimes restricted to a certain area. Wars put humanity under stress. The resulting tension creates conditions of disequilibrium. This affects the sub-human elemental forces, and those connected with health will affect humanity in such a way as to create epidemics.

In the same way, as we are in disequilibrium, we affect elementals whose work is to maintain weather patterns. They go out of equilibrium, and the result is the totally disturbed weather patterns in the last 20 to 30 years.

Where you have cyclones, for example, they are exaggerated, because the forces are out of equilibrium and they become massive cyclones and destroy parts of nations. Many thousands of people die in these cyclonic eruptions which are normally relat­ively safe.
Likewise, with the tectonic plates, which move in relation to each other, and as they move, create tension which is released as earthquakes. All around the Pacific is an area of earthquake activity which becomes heightened by the wrong thoughts and actions of humanity. The quakes are strengthened so that where they are strong, they become very severe. It is a distortion caused by the earth’s disequilibrium.

Humanity is inclined to think mechanistically, but the world is a unit, an organic living being. Every atom of that being is related to every other atom. So we have to learn to think in a different way, not separatively but organically. The only way to live correctly, under the Law of Cause and Effect, is to organically understand and live in this organic space, planet Earth.

Q. How great is the danger from nuclear weapons?
A. Humanity is the key. If we do not listen to Maitreya’s advice for sharing, justice, peace, and right relationship, this Earth will cease to be. We either share or we die. We now have the most powerful weapon that has ever been devised, the nuclear weapon. Japan had two atomic bombs dropped on it at the end of the Second World War. Compared with the bombs of today, those were like toys, but they killed many thousands of people. Today, it is believed that nine nations in the world have nuclear weapons. These are the official ones; there are actually 24 nations which have nuc­lear bombs, openly or otherwise. If these were used, it would be the end of life on planet Earth for millions and millions of years.

This planet is filled with pollution. Our pollution is pouring into the atmosphere, ocean, sea, river, earth, either pollution from our industrial wastes, or pollution from our atomic energy, so-called safe reactors.
Like other nations, Japan is getting ready to build more atomic power stations. Those who build atomic power stations are under the illusion that they can control nuclear energy – that they know all about it. They are living in an illusion while so many are dying from the effects of nuclear pollution. They understand only three planes of matter: solid physical, liquid physical and gaseous physical. They know nothing about the four further states of matter known to the Masters and called the etheric planes. They do not have the technology sensitive enough to recognize the etheric planes; the instruments are inadequate. People are dying needlessly from the effects of radiation on those four higher levels. We have to get rid of nuclear radiation in all its aspects as soon as we possibly can.

Q. In what way do the inhabitants of other planets help humanity? And why have there been so many UFO sightings over the Netherlands, as mentioned recently in Share International?
A. The first thing to understand is that UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects, may be unidentified by the government agencies, but they are real, they exist and they have a mission. Without their help this planet would by now be uninhabitable. All the UFOs entering our airspace come from the planets of our own solar system. The majority of them come from Mars and Venus. We are told that there is no life on Mars, and that Venus, too, is uninhabitable. This is because those ‘wise’ people who tell us these things, the governments and the scientists, do not understand anything about energy. Esotericism postulates seven physical states of matter. We have instruments to measure only solid, liquid and gaseous physical, so we assume, due to our limited technology, that there is nothing higher than gas. It is not true.
So if you went to Mars, you would see nothing unless you had etheric vision. There are actually more people on Mars, although it is a smaller planet, than on Earth. If you went to Venus you would see nothing, but there are people on Venus and all the planets of our system. The Masters of our planet are in touch with the ­Masters of the various planets. The solar system acts as a unit. The planets are not isolated but are in contact moment to moment, and they evolve together. If one falls behind, as this planet has done, it causes concern for the others.

The Beings in the UFOs, from whatever planet – mainly Mars and Venus but others too – have a tremendous task in working to eliminate, or at least reduce, pollution.

Pollution is the greatest threat to humanity. More deaths are caused by pollution than by any other cause. Pollution causes the breakdown of our immune systems and therefore opens us to all sorts of illnesses to which we would otherwise be immune.

We think we can control nuclear energy. We build nuclear power stations, but they pour into the air as part of the process, energy which the scientists who built them cannot even measure. We do not have the technology to measure above gas and those top four layers of atomic energy are the most destructive to humanity and the animal kingdom.

A vast amount of the Space Brothers’ time and energy is spent neutralizing, so far as they are allowed under Karmic Law, nuclear pollution on planet Earth. We owe them an enormous debt.
Another part of their tremendous work for planet Earth is that they are replicating, on the physical plane, the magnetic energy field around the planet. The energy field is made of flows of magnetic energy and where these flows meet and criss-cross a vortex or centre of force results. They are replicating that centre of energy on the physical plane in connection with a new technology which will give us unlimited energy direct from the sun. The relationship of sun energy and magnetic energy from our magnetic field will free humanity, and give us safe, unlimited energy for every human need.

What do you think crop circles are? They are points, vortices on this magnetic grid created by the Space Brothers. This is the new Technology of Light, which is forecast by Maitreya. These vortices are, of course, all over the world, not just where there are crop circles. The crop circles are there to draw attention to the fact that the Space Brothers are there. They are amazing constructions. They are made in seconds by the ‘ships’ of the Space Brothers. They are complex and beautiful constructions which cannot be made in any other way. They appear all over the world but the majority are in the south of England. Why? Because Maitreya is in London.

Recently, my Master talked about a ‘coming together of the Forces of Light’. He meant the coming of the Masters into the everyday world; They are the Forces of Light on our planet. But also the joining together with the Forces of Light of Mars and Venus and perhaps other planets in large numbers. Where there were one or two, there will be many. Where there were many, there will be even more. And everywhere, not only in the Netherlands, but everywhere. Increasing numbers of people are sending in reports of UFO sightings.
In London near where I live, one night recently there were 17 flying low over the ground. They were seen by many people who stopped their cars, got out, and watched this parade of UFOs flying about.
So there is a coming together of these forces. People will record more and more evidence of the ‘flying saucers’, the ‘UFOs’. They are all part of the plan of the emerging Hierarchy of our world.

Q. There were terrible bushfires in the state of Victoria, Australia, in February 2009. Around 200 people died, over 1,800 homes were destroyed, and some estimates say a million animals perished. Was the cause karmic, or the weather Deva’s being out of balance, or just a natural occurrence? 

Letters to the editor

Solidarity

Dear Editor,
On 16 May 2009, I attended a rally in London to support Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. About 3,000 demonstrators were present. There was a higher than usual interest in the homemade banner I was carrying saying ‘Sharing and justice will bring peace’, and many agreed that sharing was one of the only ways forward to gain peace. I was also carrying a huge Palestinian flag, and after the demonstration I was surprised and shocked at the amount of hatred shown by some young, white males towards Palestinians, Iraqis and Muslims in general. They hurled abuse towards the flag.
I made the return journey home, waiting with my banner at Victoria Station. Suddenly, I felt a warm, firm touch on my forearm. A tall, black Afro-Caribbean man came into view, inclining his head towards me and smiled: “All right, sister?” I nodded, smiling back. His face had extremely refined features. His brown eyes held an unusual level of loving kindness and gentleness. Once I was home, I realised that the look in this man’s eyes was reminiscent of a somewhat similar regard in the eyes of Sri Ramana Maharshi from a photograph on my desk.
Would you kindly tell me if this man was a Master?
S.P., Sussex, UK.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that the man was Maitreya.)

Fly past

Dear Editor,
On Friday evening 26 September 2008 I looked out of the window of my painter’s studio and saw with amazement and great joy a very large group of orange lights against the dark night sky. Without any noise these objects flew in certain formation at a high altitude from east to west, straight over my house. There was no wind and no noise. Everything happened very fast, I did not get a chance to count the lights. My daughter thought that the lights were Chinese lanterns let loose in the sky; I myself believe I saw a fleet of UFOs.
Because I have known my entire life that there really are UFOs in the world and because I have now seen them for the first time, I would like to ask:
(1) Did these spaceships come from Mars, Venus or somewhere else? (2) If so, do the Space Brothers know I am painting UFOs? (3) How many spaceships were there? (4) Did more people see these lights?
A.M., the Netherlands.
A. (1) They were a fleet of spacecraft from Mars. (2) No. (3) 18. (4) Yes.

By the church

Dear Editor,
On 28 December 2008, at about 1pm, there was an unusual beggar in front of the Michaeliskirche church in Hamburg, Germany.
As soon as I saw him from behind, I felt deeply moved. He stood in a dignified way, bending his head forward, holding a black wide-brimmed hat.
I went to give him some money. He looked up and the power of his eyes flooded me with love. He thanked me and said something, but I could not hear as I so deeply moved. I walked away, but continued watching this man who was not at all like a beggar.
While my family were in a shop, I returned and gave him some more money. Again I felt deeply moved by his voice and his look, but was unable to listen to what he said.
Could you please tell me who this man was?
C.H-V., Montézillon, Switzerland.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that the man was Maitreya.)

Everyone counts

Dear Editor,
A month or so ago I was asked by a Surinamese man, who looked like a homeless person and possibly a drunk, for some money. I gave him some money and we talked for a bit. He was happy and very loud.
He put his arm around my shoulders, took out his Bible, read me a passage and asked me if I knew the quote he was referring to. I’m not sure now what it was, but I think it was a reference to the coming of the Kingdom of God; it was, in any case, a prediction about the future, as I remember it. It was a familiar passage.
Then he kissed me on the cheek, said he wanted to give me something and handed me a small printed paper (it carried a familiar supermarket logo and had apparently been printed by the chain) on which the words “Your opinion counts!” were very prominent. He pointed this out.
Just before we parted he said he would like to show me something. He hauled out his old passport and showed me the photo of himself as a younger man. He was proud of how smart and fine he had been; the contrast with his appearance now made me sad.
He thanked me again, said some nice things to me, and then cheerfully and loudly went off down the road.
I was about to throw the “Your opinion counts!” paper away a day or two ago when I remembered the incident.
A friendly person in need or a Master?
F.E., Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that the man was Maitreya.)

Encouragement

Dear Editor,
On the 29 April 2009, I was to give a public lecture in Lyon on Transmission Meditation. As this is a difficult exercise for me, I had previously asked for Maitreya’s help.
Although I planned to stay at home and prepare for the lecture, I had to go out with my husband to my aunt’s funeral. On the way home, we stopped at a gas station and saw an old woman who was obviously hitchiking. She told us she wanted to go to Switzerland via the French city of Chambéry. We replied that we were living between Lyon and Chambéry, without further details about our place. She then asked us to drop her on the highway at the gas station of L’Isle d’Abeau, which happens to be a small town near our home, though we had said nothing about it. She seemed to know the place very well.

She was an old woman, with some teeth missing, and with white hair emerging from her bonnet. She was wearing a ski suit and tall boots. Her body looked robust and she carried a rucksack (about 50 kilogrammes) as easily as if she had been a youngster. Her light blue eyes were intensively luminous.

As we were driving along the highway, she said her name was Duggy. She spoke a rough French, so the conversation went on in English. She said she was a biologist and was studying flora and writing reports for the university. She explained that she was walking some 25 kilometres each day and would sometimes sleep under the stars. She also said she was practising pranayama meditation and that it was good to meditate every day.

I said I was going to give a lecture on Transmission Meditation and she said that all would be well and advised me to use simple words, not too esoteric. She added that the choice of Lyon for a conference was not the best as people in big cities are saturated with of all kinds of information, and that organizing conferences in the countryside would be more appropriate.

I went on to explain about the miraculous ‘star’ and the difficulty of drawing the attention of the public and the scientific world to the ‘star’ in our country. She replied that in France we had to be very, very, patient and not feel discouraged. The French are somewhat stubborn, she said, and she compared them to the cows, picturing horns turned downwards with her fingers. Cows are generous and nourishing, she went on, but they can also loose their temper. French people, she continued, are conservatives and attached to their ideas but, slowly, they become more open to new ideas, whereas Spanish behave more like bulls. According to her, Americans, Japanese and British are the most open-minded in the world.

She then stated that she was working upon the seven universes. She also expanded about Taoism and affirmed that these teachings are very pure.

She declared that the present political leaders have a total lack of spiritual maturity, as did their predecessors, whatever their political colour, but that a new generation of responsible and wiser men was about to enter the political scene.

At some point she expressed the wish to drink some strong coffee. We took her home and she drank two complete cups of very strong coffee. She was talking without a break and I could not even translate her words to my husband. I noticed that our cat was behaving in a crazy manner, and was running this way and that.

My words about the Masters of Wisdom, the ‘star’, and the return of the Christ did not seem to surprise her. She did not ask a single question and seemed to know all this very well.

I felt close to this person and galvanized in my heart. On leaving us, she gave me many winks and shook hands cheerfully, repeating that all would be well for my lecture.
Was this person a Master?
J. L., France.

The star that heralds Maitreya’s emergence

“In the very near future, people everywhere will have the opportunity to witness an extraordinary and significant sign, the like of which has been manifested only once before, at the birth of Jesus. Then, according to Christian teaching, a star appeared in the heavens and led three wise men from the East to the birthplace of Jesus. Soon, once again, a star-like luminary of brilliant power will be seen around the world.” (Benjamin Creme’s Master, ‘Maitreya’s first interview’, SI Jan/Feb 2009)

On 12 December 2008 Share International distributed a news release announcing that in the very near future a large, bright star would appear in the sky visible throughout the world, night and day, heralding the imminent appearance of Maitreya in His first interview on a major US television programme. Since early January 2009 sightings of the star have been reported all over the world and hundreds of sightings have been sent to Share International. We include a selection of the latest reports from the media, Share International readers, and sightings from YouTube. All are genuine sightings confirmed by Benjamin Creme’s Master to be the ‘star’.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 10 February 2009 (YouTube: outshore)

Moscow, Russia, 12 May 2009 (YouTube: olegen77)

Massachusetts, USA, 15 December 2008 (YouTube: UFOFootageArchive)

Slough, England, 2 June 2009. Sent by P. C., UK.

---

Beijing, China. Photographs taken 20 minutes apart in February 2009, sent by T. W.

“Not sure what the white thing is but if anyone has any idea, please let us know. Until then we are considering it a UFO … It’s unidentified and its hovering. At the beginning of the video it’s clearly way up over the building’s roof. When we turned the cam back toward it, it had dropped a bit and was much closer to the roof top.” (YouTube: Fire24Ice13)

“At about 9pm I spotted an orange glowing object in my back yard. I took these pictures. The object made no sound and seemed to hover for a long time in one place, then it rapidly ascended into the sky.” (YouTube: brollar)

W.P. from Hamilton, New Zealand, said: “Some of the footage is quite long but none of it is zoomed while shooting (ie it is shot at the same zoom setting). Watch how the size changes and how it pulsates periodically, and for the colour shift. It seems to just appear in the sky around 3.30am then stays until the sun gets too bright.”

Photograph taken by J-C. L. on 23 April 2009, at home in Rittershoffen, Alsace, France.

The ‘Star’ Sign – new Share International video, now on YouTube

Share International has produced a 10 minute film called The ‘Star’ Sign, which is now available on YouTube website, presenting the extraordinary phenomenon of the ‘star’ heralding Maitreya’s emergence. Since Benjamin Creme’s first announcement in December 2008, Share International has received hundreds of photographs of the ‘star’ from all over the world, and witnesses have independently posted on YouTube dozens of videos of the ‘star’ from different countries with much debate as to its meaning and purpose.

The new film contains vivid photographs, video footage and media reports from Brazil, Colombia, Sky News, and a clip from a Benjamin Creme lecture. Viewers can see how the ‘star’ moves, changes shape and emits rays of brilliant colours. It is, of course, according to Benjamin Creme’s Master, not a star per se, but one of four gigantic spacecraft, positioned so that one is visible from any part of the globe, an awesome sign to the world that an extraordinary event is about to happen – the emergence of Maitreya into public view.

Take part in this extraordinary event by looking for the ‘star’. If you photograph or film it, please report it to the media or Share International magazine and help create an open media debate about its meaning and purpose.

See ‘The ‘Star’ Sign’ at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuuMOvy1KNE

Filming the ‘Star’

Since the first sightings of the ‘star’,  P. C. from Slough, Berkshire, UK, has posted many videos of the ‘star’ on YouTube (paulchi69). He shares his experiences with Share International.

Q. You have posted many videos on YouTube. Do you look for the ‘star’ every night?
A. Not every night, no. During February/March the ‘star’ was very bright. I was looking at it each night and filming it, and then it disappeared towards the end of March. I did not look at the sky very much after that, and did not see it in April. But I noticed it briefly on 16 and again on 24 May. Instead of being in the south it was more northerly. It changed position and I just started looking at it out of the window.

Q. Have you been filming it from your house?
A. Yes, out of the front bedroom window or back bedroom window of my house in Langley, Berkshire.

Q. Do you have a special video camera?
A. The camera I use is a Sony Handycam, with a 60x optical zoom. I also have a 2.6x teleconversion lens, which attaches onto the front of the zoom and magnifies it even more.

Q. Do you have it on a windowsill or a tripod?
A. I have it on a tripod. Even with a tripod, when you zoom in, sometimes it is hard to keep it still. You know, you think it would be quite easy, but it is not.

Q. When you see it, what is it that makes you think it is not just an ordinary star?
A. It is the changing of the colours: red, green, white, yellow, blue, orange and violet. It also seems to get closer and further away without my touching the zoom. The shape of it changes, along with the intensity and brightness as it gets bigger or smaller. It is basically a change in its position, shape, and colour.

Q. How long do you watch it for?
A. Between 3 and 10 minutes.

Q. We noticed from your YouTube videos that on 16 May you saw it at 10pm, when it went from south to north?
A. Yes, it was in the south-west position and then came straight overhead – it kept going quite fast, like an orb going through the sky. There was no noise or jetstream as with a plane. I got my video camera and ran downstairs to go outside. By the time I got there it had already gone over the house. It went from south to north in three minutes. It climbed high in the sky. If I had not seen it go over the house, I would not have known to look in the north-east for future sightings, so it was like I was guided to see it happen, because up until then I had always seen it in the south-west.

Q. Then you saw it again on 24 May?
A. The film from 24 May was done with a slightly different camera, a Canon Video Camera, quite an old camera. It was early morning. That was when I first noticed it on 24 May. I had fallen asleep in my chair and then something told me to look out of the window.

Q. Have you seen it more recently?
A. I kept looking out for it after 24 May but I think it was on 2 June in the early morning I saw it again. It was not very clear, it was hard to see, and also trying to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to look at it is not easy, if you are a bit lazy like me! It was the only bright star in the sky at that time.

Q. What kind of reaction have you been having from other viewers?
A. Some have been positive, some have been negative, about 50-50 really.

Q. Have you been in touch with the media about it?
A. Yes, The Guardian, Daily Mail, The Mirror and The Sun by email, early in June. In my email I put the URL number for the YouTube links to my video footage and also to the Share International video of the ‘Star’, so that they could look at them easily. I did not get a reply except from The Guardian who said they may use it, but they required more detail, my name and address, contact number, etc. which I have sent them.
Since these sightings I have been looking out every morning in the north-east from about 4.15am, but it has been too cloudy.

The magnificent crop circles of southern England

Crop circles of extraordinary variety and complexity have been appearing very early this year, particularly in Wiltshire, southern England. Significantly the first crop circle to appear, on 23 April 2009, was in the shape of a star.
On an almost daily basis, patterns have been photographed in fields of oilseed rape, and in barley and wheat not yet ripened. Many UK newspapers have been reporting the sightings, unable to explain the phenomenon. Steve and Karen Alexander from Gosport, Hampshire, have been photographing the crop circles for many years. Karen reports that “the patterns are becoming more intricate with every find”.
We include a selection of photographs from this year’s early patterns, which Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms were all made by spacecraft from the planets Mars and Venus.

Yatesbury, Wiltshire, 12 June 2009

photo: © Steve Alexander

Little London, Wiltshire, 3 June 2009

photo: © Steve Alexander

Barbury Castle, Wiltshire, 14 June 2009

photo: © Steve Alexander

Waylands Smithy, Oxfordshire, 29 May 2009

photo: © Steve Alexander

Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire, 8 June 2009

photo: © Steve Alexander

Signs

Icon in Israel drips oil

An oil-like substance has been dripping from a religious icon in a Greek Orthodox church in Israel. Visitors to the church in the town of Ramla are calling the phenomenon a miracle. More than two dozen streaks of oil can be seen on the painting of St George, a third century Christian saint who, according to legend, killed a dragon.
The church’s priest, Father Nifon, first saw the streaks while preparing for Sunday morning services. “He kissed all the icons, and when he reached that one, he took down the picture and he cleaned it,” said Aida Abu el-Edam, a long-time member of the church. “After 20 or 25 minutes, he looked again and he saw the oil again and said: ‘This is a miracle.’”
El-Edam said that a smell emanating from the icon confirmed to her the streaks were a miracle. She said the smell reminded her of a visit she took as a teenager to a site in Ermysh, Lebanon. There, she said, the smell came from a recently deceased woman whose Christian faith was legendary. “It’s a special, holy smell,” she said. “It’s not ordinary, like olive oil. It’s something strange that comes from God.”
Another long-term church member, Edith Fanous, said of the oil dripping from the icon: “People these days, they’ve forgotten God and this is a sign to tell them, ‘I’m still here.’” (Source: Associated Press)
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that this account is of a genuine miracle manifested by the Master Jesus.)

Gravestone miracle

After discovering a gravestone, for the fourth time, lying down beside a grave, police from the village of Aalsum, Friesland, in the Netherlands, suspected desecration, and installed cameras to see what was causing it to move. However, instead of finding images of ghosts, the footage showed how the tombstone moved, by itself, almost a yard every few seconds. Police spokeswoman Yvonne Bijman saw the images herself: “You can see the tombstone move away from the grave. It doesn’t hop, it’s more a sort of skidding.” Asked for an explanation, Mrs Bijman can only confirm that it isn’t vandalism: “It might be muskrats that are stirring the ground underneath, or it could have something to do with the sun, with the stone shrinking and expanding as temperatures fluctuate.” (Source: de Volkskrant, the Netherlands)
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms the movement of the gravestone is manifested by Maitreya. It is a sign.)

Dear Editor,
This photograph (October 2005) shows my husband on a Swiss mountain at 2,000 metres up, saving two goats stuck on a rocky cliff. We heard them bleating during our hike. It was not easy to find and rescue them — it was like a miracle for us to find them and to save them. Without help from heaven it wouldn’t have been possible. We are mountaineers but not farmers. The goats were emaciated and would surely have died, because the first snowfall wasn’t far away. Did we receive any help from the Masters?
M. B., Switzerland.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that help was given by the Master Jesus.)

Letters to the editor about the 'star'

Dear Editor,
While I was on vacation at the beach in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, I felt inspired to go outside and check the night sky. It was 27 May 2009 around 9.45pm EST [Eastern Standard Time], a beautiful clear night, and the stars were too numerous to count. As I walked toward the ocean, I asked the Space Brothers if they were in the vicinity to please make visible the ‘star’ heralding Maitreya’s first interview on television. Within seconds of making my request, two stars of brilliant yellow/orange appeared like spotlights in the eastern sky directly in front of me. The stars, one larger than the other, were not perfectly round, and brilliant rays of light extended from each star in all directions. They were visible for about 30-60 seconds.
When they disappeared, I called my wife Ann to come outside. When she arrived, the stars reappeared with the same brilliance. After they disappeared once again, she called to her sisters to come outside. This time I looked to the southern sky, and the stars appeared again side-by-side but higher up. We watched the luminaries with joy and excitement. After the stars disappeared, we waited with great anticipation. The stars appeared again in the eastern sky for about 30 seconds. This time when they disappeared, we witnessed the most spectacular display of smaller white blinking stars for perhaps 10 minutes. It seemed as if there were a hundred blinking stars all around the constellation Orion. After the amazing display of blinking lights, one of the original yellow/orange stars appeared again in the eastern sky, then a second one, and a third, and finally a fourth, all side by side. Brilliant rays of golden light extended from each star and appeared for another 30-60 seconds. The four stars then disappeared. Were these stars heralding Maitreya’s first interview?
D. D., Marietta, Georgia, USA.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms these to be the four “luminaries”, giant spacecraft, heralding Maitreya’s emergence. See Share International May 2009.)

Dear Editor,
I awoke as if it was the morning (in very good shape) at 3am on Monday 30 March 2009. I felt drawn to the kitchen window and looked out at the sky. It was splendid! I saw a star which looked like a coloured sun, dancing. I felt merry and happy. I went to lie down but I couldn’t sleep again, although I usually sleep very well. Was that the ‘star’?
N. D., Marmoutier, France.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’.)

Dear Editor,
I often look at the stars over my village of Santiago de Mora. Some weeks ago, there was a very bright star in the north, not normally there. My friends also saw it over Valladolid, Murcia, Valencia and Alicante and confirmed to me they also saw it move.
Another night, at 10.30pm, talking with a neighbour, we saw passing above us a very bright light, at an altitude of about 300 meters, from west to east. It became sharper as it was above us and focused on us with a very potent light beam, not flickering. It moved very differently from a plane and there was no noise coming from it. I have seen it for five nights, almost at the same time, always passing in the same direction, but at different altitudes. Could you comment on these please?
B. G. R., Santiago de Mora, Spain.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that the “bright star” was indeed the ‘star’. The passing light was a spacecraft.)

Dear Editor,
On the evening of Saturday 9 May 2009 I was reading Share International magazine and thought: “I would like to see that star at last.” I went to my kitchen window (facing west) and saw the radiant sun. After two seconds I suddenly saw on the right side and in a horizontal line from the sun a round white ball with some pastel colours in it. And to my amazement I saw at the same distance another white ball that was dancing up and down. All in all, this whole phenomenon lasted about one hour (18.30 to 19.30pm).
I would very much like to know: (1) Those balls, what were they? (2) Were there indeed two or did this appear so because of the double-glazing window?
T. K., the Netherlands.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that there was in fact one ball and it was the ‘star’.)

Dear Editor,
On 24 April 2009 in the west-southwest sky 25 miles east of NYC, sometime around 11pm, I noticed a star of unusual brightness. It seemed to be flickering from red, to blue to green to white. Is this the ‘star’ we have been expecting?
M. T., New York, USA.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’.)

Dear Editor,
On Thursday 18 June from 11.30pm until 1am we watched a star that was easily the brightest star in the western region of the sky. It became steadily brighter as we viewed it and it appeared to change colour (mainly red, orange) and even shape. It was seen at an angle of around 50 degrees in the sky.
We are wondering if this is ‘the’ star? Or have we just seen an ‘ordinary’ star?
C. P., Edinburgh, Scotland.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’.)

Dear Editor,
On Friday 19 June 2009 I woke suddenly at 3.30am and felt compelled to look out of my bedroom window. The sky, which was totally clear, was beginning to turn lighter. High up, and straight ahead, was a very bright twinkling star. All the other stars were no longer visible in the clear sky. Was it the ‘star’?
G. F., London, UK.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that this was the ‘star’.)

Dear Editor,
On 4 March 2009 my children called me excitedly to the front window of our Amsterdam home because they saw strange orange lights in the sky. I joined them and there were still a few serenely floating northwards. At the other side of the house we saw them again, now in formation: one in front, followed by two sets of two, and again one. Then they suddenly disappeared out of sight, one after the other.
Then another three lights went over and rushing to the back of the house we saw them again. It made us so happy and we wondered if they were UFOs?
R. B., Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that they were spacecraft from Mars.)

Dear Editor,
On the evening on Thursday 8 April 2009, around 11.30pm, my husband saw, from the bathroom window, a red ‘ball’ moving past in the sky: going very fast heading east.
The next evening, around 10.30 pm, two of us saw the red ball, this time low on the western horizon and stationary. Without our really noticing, it suddenly vanished. The object was too far away to take a picture with an ordinary camera. Was it a UFO?
R.v d K., the Netherlands.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was a spacecraft from Mars.)

Dear Editor,
On the 29 April 2009, at 4.45am, in the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia, I and some relatives of mine saw in the sky an extremely beautiful, big and bright star in the cloudless sky. It seemed not to be so far away as a normal star but inside the Earth’s atmosphere. Was it the ‘star’? Thank you very much.
M. R., Bogotá, Colombia.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’.)

Dear Editor,
At the beginning of May 2009, we were travelling north on the Alicante-Valencia highway, close to Denia. It was after sunset and we were surprised to see a very bright star (the brightest star one can see in the sky) that pulsated with different colours. It was to our left, in a westerly direction, above the mountains. It was strange because it was at the horizon line and one could see it very clearly although normally at that position one could not see regular stars clearly enough. Was it the ‘star’? Thank you.
J. R. M., Valencia, Spain.

Faith – a compilation

We present a selection of quotations on the theme of ‘Faith’ from Maitreya (Messages from Maitreya the Christ, and Maitreya’s Teachings – The Laws of Life), Benjamin Creme’s Master (A Master Speaks), and Benjamin Creme’s writings.

My friends, you too can manifest Sharing in your lives; by all means should this divine principle govern. Teach Sharing to your children, to the little ones, and enable them to cultivate the Good. My task is to enlighten all men; to change ignorance into true knowledge and faith; to teach men that behind all that they see stands the One Reality, and thus to take them to God. (Maitreya, from Message No. 127)

When Maitreya makes His appearance before the world, He will herald the beginning of a New Age for men. In this coming age men will rise to heights undreamt of by those now in incarnation. New teachings will beget new knowledge, new inspiration, new illumination, and all in order and sequence. Hopes will give way to certainties, fears to faith and ignorance to wisdom. (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘The time ahead’)

To have hope is to have complete faith in life. It does not mean to say that everything is going to go smoothly. It does not mean that on the outer, physical plane you will have a life of ease, and that when you want to contact the media they will immediately respond, and when you are telephoning people they will always be there and you will never have to try again. Many people think that if everything works easily and smoothly they are somehow on the right track. Following the line of least resistance is not necessarily the right way to live one’s life. It is the art of choosing the right action in relation to the line of least, or of most, resistance which brings about the tension we call service: the fire, the ardour which true service has.
(Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s Mission Volume Two)

When the call to service sounds, it behoves each earnest disciple to grasp the opportunity presented with both hands. Seldom is the call repeated, for the Masters have little time to waste. “Many are called but few are chosen” should read: “Many are called but few respond.”
Thus it is in the Great Service; only the elect realize the blessing conferred by the opportunity to serve the Plan. Service is the sacred duty which allows the disciple to shorten by many lives his sojourn on this Earth. Many know this but balk at the lightest task. Many forget the pledge they made long ago and shrug off the inner unease. Not for nothing do the Masters sadly shake Their heads and search once more among the waiting lights.
Not all who serve realize they do so. So instinctive is their response to the soul’s or Master’s call that they plunge in boldly without a second thought. So decentralized are they that the world’s need is their only concern. They serve as they breathe, but in relation to the needs of the time they are few indeed. We on the inner side look for those who know, somewhat, the Plan, and whose priorities are sound. We search for those whose ardour is strong and whose hearts are aflame with love and sacrifice. We welcome such brave ones into Our midst and gladly present a field of service. Then We stand aside and watch. Over and again, their first glad steps slow and falter. Too often, their bright expectations turn to boredom and doubt, their lofty aspiration shrivels and dies.
The failure of faith looms large in these sad happenings. Without faith nothing lasting may be done, and for lack of this one quality many promising disciples have failed. Not for nothing, down the ages, have the teachings emphasized the need for faith, seeing it as the very heart of service. (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘The call to service’)

Never quicken the pace of consciousness. Even if you know how to quicken the consciousness of a baby, it should not be done. Let natural growth take place, and the mind will be in a state of equilibrium. There is a common and universal cry in the mind and spirit of people around the world. Conditioning is such that one tends to lose faith and trust in life. (Maitreya’s Teachings - The Laws of Life) 

Be not afraid in the midst of the chaos and tension. Fear has no place in the present situation; rather, see it as a challenge to your faith.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘Victory is assured’)

Those who would know Me must look for a simple Man indeed, a Brother and a Friend, a Teacher and a Guide, a Lover of God and men. When you see Me, you will come to know the nature of God as Light and Love and Will. May it be that these divine aspects shall reflect through you. When this is so, I may work through you. I need you. I need you all to share with Me in the reconstruction of this world, to restore to men their faith and joy, to release the wherewithal to live to the needy of this Earth, and so restore balance. My task is to show you the method; yours is to act and implement My Plan. I know I can trust and call on you. My Love embraces all. (Maitreya, from Message No. 76)

When you see Us, you will see men Who have made before you the journey back to God. You will recognize in Us divine characteristics potential in yourselves. Thus will you know your future glory. Out of the present chaos shall We inspire a new order; from the hatreds and divisions shall we create harmony and peace, while from doubt and fear shall We engender meaning, faith and joy. (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘Co-workers with God’)

Maitreya says: “Don’t lose faith. Don’t lose direction. I am with you.” (Maitreya’s Teachings - The Laws of Life) June 1991

If there is no fear there is no competition. Take away fear and we have the opposite of fear; we have love, confidence, faith. That is removed at our peril. If our parents, in raising us, remove that basic faith in life, that basic trust, love and co-operative spirit of goodwill which we are all born with but which can be fostered or replaced by fear, and therefore competition, competition becomes inbuilt in the consciousness. (Benjamin Creme, The Art of Co-operation)

When men see the Christ in person, they will quickly assume a new attitude to life and its problems. They will understand that the problems are man-made, exist in man himself, and are not the fault of an uncaring God or the result of mindless chance.
A new sense of responsibility will endow men with the impulse to act for the betterment of all. Co-operation, caring and trust will soon replace the present self-concern, and a new phase will open in the evolution of man.
The new awareness grows apace. Already, the signs are there for the discerning that humanity is growing up, taking stock of its situation and preparing to change.
Naught can hold back this tide of change when, under the inspiration of Maitreya, men begin to see themselves as One. The sense of separation will gradually recede as men face together the tasks of reconstruction and succour which call out to be done. The day draws near when all shall see the Christ. By what name they know Him matters not; His name as Love is etched deeply in the hearts of all true men. His name is Love. (Benjamin Creme’s Master, ‘His name is Love’)

The signs of Maitreya’s presence in the world will continue to increase. He is going to flood the world with such happenings that the mind can never comprehend it. The signs are there for those who need them, to strengthen our faith and to give us the necessary courage and conviction to emerge from a state of complacency in order to take on,  together, the myriad necessary tasks of salvage in the world. (Maitreya’s Teachings - The Laws of Life)

Humanity is deeply superstitious, ingrained with fear and doubt. Even many who would consider themselves able to believe such a manifestation [as Maitreya’s emergence], choose not to do so because they know it upsets the status quo and they do not want the status quo upset. So they choose to give it no energy even though they believe Maitreya is in the world.
Many people do not like the idea of faith, thinking that faith is believing in something. Faith has nothing to do with belief at all. Faith is a state of being. Faith results when you are who you are. When you are demonstrating at this level as a soul and are in constant connection with your soul, you will have faith. You cannot help but have faith because faith is a quality of the soul.
When intuitively you know that this is true, when it is not the outcome of a mental configuration of other people’s minds, ideas and hopes, but of your own inner contact with your soul, and the soul tells you: This is true – then not only can you have faith, but you do have faith. It is not a choice. Faith is not the result of choice. If there is choice in it – you chose to believe that or that – there is no faith. Faith, true faith, only exists when you go beyond the necessity of choice, when there is no this or that. Then only, in a direct experience that this is true, can faith arise. While you hold to that contact with the soul, your faith will remain steady, strong and as true as it was the moment it arose. It is not something which goes away. What does go away is belief: your belief in the Reappearance, your non-belief in the Reappearance. This can come and go and has nothing to do with faith. Belief is a product of the mind, not of the soul. That which is a product of the soul’s inner knowing and being cannot disappear. That is called faith. (Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s Mission Volume Two)

Many are the obstacles to progress on the Path but naught hinders more than fear. Fear of failure, fear of ridicule, of suffering, discipline and pain – these are the obstructions which must be surmounted on the Path to Freedom. Sure-footedness is essential on a rocky mountain path; fear contracts the Spirit and renders useless the instinct for danger. There is no obstacle like fear. It obstructs the flow of life itself. It takes away all hope and constitutes the greatest threat to well-being and health. Abjure fear and construct the mechanism of faith. Conquer fear and terminate the torment of doubt. Knowledge banishes fear. Inculcate, therefore, knowledge and trust….
Courage is needed for this monumental task. Many are the challenges which must be met. Not easy is it to change a world entirely, nor to build a new one on the ruins of the past. Have courage, therefore, and rebuild your world. Put fear aside and welcome the future with arms outstretched.
Have patience also, for the foundations of the new must be laid in stone and faith. Treasure the best of the past and restore the old signposts. Otherwise, man would lose his way.
Several times in the past man has had the opportunity to rise but failed to seize the moment. Be prepared to take hold of the future with both hands and fashion a world of beauty. Eschew despair and create with joy and love, knowing that the future stands ready for your embrace.
Allow Us to guide your footsteps towards the future which beckons you onwards. Work with Us in hope and trust and make perfect your way. Leave behind your fears. Take courage from Our example, for We, too, have known the pains and perils of the way. (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘The path to the future’)

Faith is something else again – an inner or intuitive recognition and continuous communion, and not a simple belief in this or that doctrine or dogma. (Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s Mission Volume One)

From time to time, there arises in the minds of men the concept of love. The idea of love as a natural instinct which demands expression engages men’s thought, and steps are taken, through argument and discourse, to demonstrate that this is so. Thus has it been for millennia. The notion that love is somehow central to man’s nature never fails to find adherents. This being so, is it not surprising that so little love finds expression in the day to day activity of men?
Almost without exception, men live in fear. They see the world and life as threatening, and build an armour of defence against these threats. Thus do they limit their capacity to love. Their love atrophies and dies or hides behind aggression and hate. Bereft of love, man sickens. Conscious of his inner worth, unable to call it forth, man projects his fears and hates upon his neighbours and his world.
Where love rules, harmony governs. Without that harmony, naught may proceed with confidence. Failing confidence, little can be achieved. Fear inhibits the expression of love. Love annihilates fear. Seeking to express his love but limited by fear, man loses his way. Lost in the quicksand, his struggles only serve further to entrap him.
Wherein, then, lies the remedy? In order to love, man must trust. Where trust is not, love cannot be. Love arises spontaneously in the trusting heart, for love is the true nature of man. Learn then to trust and demonstrate the love which is ever ready to shine forth. Trust is the acceptance of life in all its pain and beauty. Trust is the sure knowledge that all is working towards the good, that all is under law, and that that law is administered with justice. Learn to trust and banish fear. Banish for ever the mechanism of limitation and open wide the floodgates of love.
When man loves, he draws to himself all possibilities. The magnet of love, through identity of vibration, attracts all requirements. Thus is love the lever of evolution.
Consider a world without love; such hideousness appals the imagination. Why should this be so? Instinctively, man recognizes the need for love and soon will understand the need to love. He will come to know that love links him to all others in an endless chain. Tentatively, perhaps, at first, he will begin to trust. Step by step, he will conquer his fear. Then will he enter into that blessed state where fear has no place, where love sits calmly on its throne, bestowing its grace on all who come near.
For man, then, to live is to love. Fear, the usurper, must be eschewed and overcome. Trust engenders love and destroys that fear, revealing the god who dwells for ever within. Trust and faith are one, reflections of the inner divinity. Trust that divinity, allow it to radiate as love, and know the end of fear. (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘The need to love’)

The Gospel story is correct in its broad general outlines, but in its details purely symbolic and/or distorted. Nevertheless He was recognized from time to time by certain of the disciples. The story of Thomas putting his finger in the side is symbolic — it did not happen that way, but is given to emphasize the need for faith. (Maitreya’s Mission Volume Three) 

A mighty task awaits humanity at this turning-point in its life: to cleanse the world of the age-old habits of wrong thinking and living; to change entirely its manner of social living in such a way as to make possible a new freedom from fear: fear of want, of war, of disease and death. An enormous task, indeed, but one worth all the effort involved, for it will lead to a new livingness, a new and sweeter relationship between men, and to a world governed by the principles of justice and brotherhood, sharing and love. What finer goal could there be for humanity than to create such a world? (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘Health and healing’ part 2)

I come to take you with Me into the New Country – the Country of Love, the Country of Trust, of Beauty and Freedom. I shall take you there if you can follow Me, accept Me, let Me lead and guide. And, if this be so, together we shall build a New World: A world in which men can live without fear, without mistrust, without division; sharing together the Earth’s bounty, knowing together the bliss of union with our Source. All this can be yours. You have only to take the first steps and I may lead. Allow Me to help you. Allow Me to show you the way – forward, into a simpler life where no man lacks; where no two days are alike; where the joy of Brotherhood manifests through all men. (Maitreya, from Message No.3)

Water Sound Images

Interview with Alexander Lauterwasser
by Andrea Bistrich – an excerpt

Using water drops and sound, the German resonance researcher and photographer, Alexander Lauterwasser, creates oscillating pictures from water’s response to sound vibration. Since 1984, he has been researching morphogenesis (the origin and development of morphological characteristics) and the morphology of organic forms, based on studies of the pattern variations on the shells of tortoises – a phenomenon which he believes could be interpreted as a specialized visual language.

Share International: With the publication of your water-tone patterns, you present an impressive world of forms unknown to many. What exactly do these pictures show?
Alexander Lauterwasser: I show the dialogue between sound or music and water. Often people who have attended my concerts believe that I make tone visible. But that’s not so: I show water’s response to tone. My water-sound patterns are ‘dialogue phenomena’ between vibration and water which replies in the form of waves on its surface.

SI: How did you get involved in this special field?
AL: Since my youth I have had a passion for studying tortoises. My inquiry was mainly directed towards structures and signatures. Why does a tortoise shell have a particular pattern? Hence for many years I was occupied with morphogenesis: Where and how does form or shape develop? One day I discovered a picture of Chladnian tone figures in a Swiss cultural magazine.

SI: The tone figures that you mention date back to the researcher Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni. Napoleon is reported to have said about him: “This man makes sound visible”. What exactly is meant by the term Chladnian Tone Figures?
AL: Chladni experimented with sound and tone, and compiled his work – which is actually the foundation of acoustics – in 1787 in his leading text Discovery of the Theory of Sound. He sprinkled sand on a thin sheet of metal or glass and then caused it to vibrate, by drawing his violin bow across it. Applying a tone to the plate caused the sand to move from the vibrating nodes to the resting lines where it collected and stayed. In this way Chladni caused countless structures or patterns to form. This fascinated his contemporaries – one of whom was Goethe – to such an extent that Chladni was able to earn a living as a lecturer by giving demonstrations on the effects of sound.
One must view this in a scientific and cultural context: before Kepler it was generally believed that vibration or even music was a universal force in the world. Kepler’s entire Harmonices Mundi is based precisely on the idea that all space, all planetary orbits and heavenly bodies are saturated by harmonic law. If you study Pythagoras or Plato or the ancient Egyptians or Indians — the phenomena of sound and music are present in all their views of the world. Since Kepler’s time this view of an enlightened natural science has been ridiculed and hence forgotten. Then along came Chladni who, for the first time, proved the then unimaginable: that tone can affect, move and shape matter. Within cultural and scientific history this was a highly significant moment.
Today Chladni’s work in this connection is receiving renewed attention since ideas about tone are again under scrutiny. Interestingly, along with his studies in acoustics and instrument building, Chladni also made major pioneering advances regarding meteorites, so much so that he is considered to be one of the founders of modern day meteorite research.

SI: Chladni experimented with sand and other solids whereas, by contrast, you work with water. Why water?
AL: At some stage in my work I began to concentrate on fluids as opposed to sand. Since all embryonic formative processes in nature begin in a completely fluid medium, it occurred to me that such developmental processes were more readily recognizable than in solid materials. Water, I knew, has a strong affinity with the world of tone and is a much better medium than air for transporting sound waves.
The inspiration for these experiments with fluids, in which I try to develop a phenomenology of form processes, was the work of the Swiss doctor Hans Jenny. It was Jenny who, in the 1960s and 1970s, furthered Chladni’s research into aspects of vibrating fluid mediums. He experimented with water, oils, various fluids, milk, yogurt and many other substances and described these in his books.
The term “Kymatiks” (or Cymatics, from the Greek “to kyma” – the wave), which encompasses all wave phenomena, was coined by Jenny. It is interesting to note that before Hans Jenny applied himself to the theme of waves he was involved with form and formation processes in nature and compiled a treaty on animal types. Every plant, every blade of grass, according to Jenny’s observations, grows according to the principle which he defined as “periodicity” whereby two different organizational characteristics are always repeated: knots and lengthwise growth or concentration and expansion. In medical terms we know them as systole and diastole – the two movements of the living, pulsating heart.

SI: Considering the multiplicity and unforeseeable nature of the vibrational patterns, have you discovered universal structures in your work?
AL: From the tests one can generally say that varying frequencies create differing forms. For example, low frequencies create large waves, while high frequencies allow fine highly defined waves to emerge. This is a fundamental law. But the two fundamental directions of all three-dimensional physical forms, which are the basis of all design processes in nature, are the convex and concave – curved outwardly or inwardly. This is the basic multiplying factor of all three-dimensional forms – whether you take the Empire State Building, the physical body of an animal or an artistically formed sculpture.
My starting point and my observations are: What makes the form? My approach is always the form – the phenomena of form, and not highly complex mathematical calculations of the plate.
From trials with the metal plates, consecutively vibrated from zero to approximately 20,000 Hertz, hundreds of forms have emerged in what are called ‘modes’ or vibration structures which can be recognized as having similar characteristics.
Initially, one sees what appears to be a chaos of forms. Then with further observation one recognizes conformity with natural laws. For example, there are certain patterns that repeat themselves with slight modifications while the type of form remains constant. This, if exaggerated, means that that which is circular at 200 Hertz does not suddenly become square at 3,000 Hertz but possibly develops a new ring or new characteristic. Interestingly, with the seventh repetition the form is slightly modified, and yet still belongs to one series….

SI: So far you have spoken about frequencies and vibrations. What about music? Which sounds paint the most beautiful water patterns?
AL: Generally one cannot say that harmonious music creates beautiful patterns and heavy metal music terrible ones. That would be too simplistic. There are also water patterns from heavy metal that are fascinating. I am careful with the notion that dissonance is something bad. It has long been known that if music were always harmonious the listener would fall asleep. Dissonance is that moment that drives forward and produces tension – that then needs to be dissolved again.
As I have said, the whole thing is a phenomenon of resonance. For example, a piano, or violin played pianissimo, is seldom appropriate for these water patterns. It has nothing to do with loudness but with sound volume. The difficulty is to generate as wide as possible a frequency spectrum – whereby low tones sketch wide wave structures, and high tones fine waves.

SI: What is the significance of your findings for biology? Should we rethink nature’s evolutionary processes?
AL: The question regarding the motor behind evolution is actually one of the great questions in biology. I believe, and this is my definition of evolution, that the whole evolutionary process comes down to developing and optimizing one’s resonance ability – ability to respond. It is noteworthy that there is no life form, not even the amoeba, which has no boundary. Life begins with a boundary and can only exist by constantly going into relationship with that against which it sets boundaries. Life is not separate. Even the smallest virus must, even if it has no individual metabolism, somehow bring itself into relation to that from which it is separate. To improve this dialogue between the inner and outer, in other words raising resonant capacity, I believe to be the basic evolutionary drive that dwells within every life form; the evolution of the senses is a constant development. If you read about sense physiology today, you will notice that resonance is the decisive term.

SI: Would you classify your work as science or art?
AL: It is not a question of either/or. For the ancient Greeks science and art were not opposites. A great deal of the problems generated by our civilization today, stem from the fact that these two areas are treated as being separate. Maybe it is for this reason that science has been able to develop so many poisons and weapons that are destructive to life. The most extreme form of this type of science is the atom bomb. At the same time, the artistic aspect in man has been eliminated by making art to be something subjective and hence not to be taken seriously. Today one does not approve of scientists approaching their work artistically, meaning with the inner attitude of an artist. Yet a phenomenal-scientific approach does not exclude an artistic-aesthetic sensitivity and I believe it to be an important intention when as a living being one tries to bring these two activities into dialogue.

Information: www.wasserklangbilder.de

All the images presented here show the response of water droplets to sound frequencies between 37.9 and 60 Hz.
© Alexander Lauterwasser

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We must rise against the injustice in Palestine

“We must rise against the injustice in Palestine” – Part 1
Interview with Dries van Agt
by Erik Hutter – an excerpt

Dries van Agt was Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1977-1982 having been the Justice Minister before that (1971-1977). He has a Doctorate in Law and has also held various academic positions. After he left national politics he held several posts, such as representative of the European Union in Japan and the United States.
In August 2005 he led a European Delegation in a fact-finding mission to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The visit convinced him of the appalling conditions the Palestinians have endured for generations. Since then he has been a tireless supporter of Palestinians rights – a fact which makes him one of the few prominent Dutch public figures who openly support the Palestinians.

Erik Hutter: You are known as someone who speaks with enormous passion about the Palestinian cause. I saw you on television (Nova, a Dutch news programme), immediately after the Israeli attack on Gaza in December [2008]. I also read your website which expresses tremendous passion. What is its origin?
Dries van Agt: I’m often asked: “Why do you concern yourself so much about Palestine and the Palestinians? Why do you criticize Israel so fiercely, while we never hear you speak about Tibet, Darfur, East Congo, and so on, where the distress and misery are far more serious?”
My answer is as follows: by descent and education I have become someone with a deep interest in ‘The Holy Land’. The fact that I am a Christian is one factor that inclines me to focus on that country in particular.
I am also deeply committed to the law; it is not just a question of having gained my law degree and then being involved in all sorts of other things. I belong to that category of professionals who are devoted heart and soul to the law; and so it disturbs me greatly that the state of Israel so often and so seriously violates international law. In a globalizing world it is high time that we establish an international constitution. However, to achieve this we need to treat existing international law with care and respect. Although it is inadequate as yet it must nevertheless be protected and developed. There’s the added fact that Israel is a country that prides itself on belonging to the circle of civilized nations.

EH: Israel calls itself an “oasis of civilization” in the Middle East.
DvA: “An oasis of civilization” – yes, that’s a better way of putting it, “An oasis of civilization” in the Middle East – an example to many. And that is why I disapprove so strongly of Israel’s behaviour.
My passion also stems from the fact that I am a European. This wretched situation would probably never have come into existence without World War I, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the British Mandate. (1) Without the British involvement in the Middle East (by the way, the French enjoyed dividing up the spoils of the Ottoman Empire), things would almost certainly have taken another turn. Britain is a European country and as a European I am involved in that too. And that applies of course even more strongly to Germany and the holocaust. Without these two elements such an expansionist Israel, Zion, would never have come into existence. As a European I feel a responsibility to try to do something about it.

EH: Why do you think it is that politicians seem to treat Israel and Palestine differently?
DvA: Certainly, one of the reasons, probably the main reason, is the unresolved issue of guilt about the holocaust. This holds true for the Netherlands, but not only this country I would imagine. In the past decade we have been startled by a number of publications by historians revealing that any reasons we thought we had to be complacent and to talk about how courageous we were in 1940-1945 were unfounded. It seems that we failed substantially – the courageous ones excepted, of course – to shield the Jewish people in our midst. Denmark is often cited as being a small country where the Jews suffered less because the Danes acted more courageously than we did. That hit home and since then we have become very self-conscious in our desire to overcompensate. A distinction must be made between the Jewish people and the state of Israel; failure to do so results in support for the country – whatever its actions.

EH: What chances are there for the peace process?
DvA: That is extremely difficult. I am not alone in having to resign myself to the dreadful conclusion that without intervention or at least substantial pressure from outside there will be no reasonable outcome and therefore no just peace, by which I mean peace based on international law. It is no longer possible without pressure from outside – the reverse of what the United States has been doing so far. They have always encouraged Israel in whatever that country was doing.
Where should the new outside pressure come from? We now have Obama euphoria – that has not yet faded – but I think that with Obama, a highly interesting man, our expectations should not be high. We know that in his election campaign, in particular his address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful lobby group in the States, Obama made statements that were no less pro-Israel than those made by John McCain. [Please note that the interview took place in February 2009.]

EH: Do you think Obama meant what he said when he spoke to the AIPAC?
DvA: Yes, indeed, although that was campaign language; he could not do without those votes and the funds they have at their disposal.
But still, he did make those statements and on top of that he has surrounded himself with many top-ranking officials and associates who maintain some connection with AIPAC or similar organizations. I do not expect much improvement from Washington but if it happens, so much thebetter.
The initiative has to come from Europe. We seem to have been quite impotent, unfortunately partly due to the Netherlands. It is a well-known fact that if someone in the European Union deliberations asks: “Shouldn’t we just send a warning to Israel, to show our displeasure?” the Germans, the British and the Dutch can virtually be relied on to create problems, so that the required consensus cannot be reached. (As you may know, all foreign policy matters must be agreed unanimously.) I always make an exception for the Germans since their reactions are understandably predictable where Israel is concerned. However, the British and the Dutch – their attitude is unpardonable.

EH: There’s often a question of blame, who did what first?
DvA: What one always encounters in any discussion about Israel and Palestine is the problem of the sequence – I mean the succession of cause and effect. This was the case too with the war in Gaza; there was constant reference to so-called self-defence. “The Palestinians, Hamas, those activists keep on firing rockets at us [Israel] – it must end, we cannot tolerate this any longer.” Such acts are extremely disturbing, illegal and a violation of human rights – “So we just had to act.”
Leaving aside the issue of gross and blatant disproportionate retaliation for the rocket attacks, a fact which is omitted in almost all publications I have seen and heard in the media, it was the blockade of Gaza that sparked the use of rockets against Israel. The blockade has in fact been in existence more or less since 1993, but was intensified in 2006 immediately after the electoral victory by Hamas, almost throttling life in Gaza. And that is the real beginning of the story, not the rockets.

EH: We talked about Europe’s possible role. What could Europe do?
DvA: It is obvious what Europe can do. Our power is economic power and very substantial. That is all we have, but it is sufficient. About two-thirds of Israeli exports go to Europe. If we had the political will we could accomplish a lot on the basis of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, article 2 (2). EU behaviour recently reached the height of absurdity: in May-June 2008 Israel’s 60th anniversary was celebrated, and at that time Israel requested intensification and diversification of relations with the EU, which were already close. Their request was met with a “yes, in principle”, with details to be worked out. To my mind, this is utter insanity. The EU could not have given Israel more powerful encouragement to continue committing injustice. I do not understand this at all; I blame all the EU countries, the Netherlands included. We can do something and we do not do it, so we are accessories to that monumental injustice.

EH: You often read in the media that Hamas caused the problems by, as you just mentioned, firing rockets at Israel. Hamas is the legally elected government of Palestine. How do you see Hamas?
DvA: As you say, Hamas is the legally elected government of the Palestinians. They were chosen in elections that (a) we in the West wanted; and (b) which were carried out correctly, according to all observers. I cannot think of a more powerful advertisement against democratization than what we [the West] did, and continue to do to this day, in response to those elections.
Approximately 46 Hamas members of parliament are currently imprisoned in Israeli prisons; they were arrested soon after the elections together with a number of Hamas ministers. However, the democratic world is silent on this issue.

EH: What would happen if it were the other way around?
DvA: The world would explode with indignation! It is not true to say that Hamas is constantly sabotaging the search for peace by firing rockets and so on; rather, the reverse is true. A report in my file, compiled fastidiously by a like-minded friend, reveals that it was in fact Hamas which established truces a number of times – unilaterally, since bilateral agreements were not possible, because Israel refuses to talk to Hamas. Those truces were repeatedly broken, because Israel initiated acts of violence, such as, for instance, targeted killings during the truce, invasions of Gaza, firing at Gaza from the sea, the tragedy in Beit Hanoun, where a family of nine or ten people were shot and killed. This report contains a complete survey of the authentic events; a pattern emerges: Hamas institutes truces and Israel destroys them…. [End of excerpt]

Tackling the global financial and economic crisis

Interview with Pedro Paez Pérez
by Luc Guillory – an excerpt

Pedro Paez Pérez was the Ecuadorian Minister of Economic Co-ordination in President Correa’s government between October 2007 and December 2008. He introduced a number of reforms such as the law on hydrocarbons which enabled the government to regain partial control over the oil resources of the country, to the detriment of the multinational private oil corporations.
Mr Perez has a PhD in Economics and is a specialist in public policies for development; he has written a number of books, including Risks and challenges of the dollarization of Ecuador.
Now the plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ecuador, he was asked to join the Stiglitz Commission, which has presented recommendations on tackling the global financial and economic crisis to the General Assembly of the United Nations. The Stiglitz Commission report will be considered for the UN Conference on ‘The World Economic and Financial Crisis and Its Impact on Development’, taking place in New York on 24-26 June 2009.
Mr Perez recently represented the Stiglitz Commission at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Public Symposium in Geneva, Switzerland, in May 2009. Luc Guillory interviewed him there for Share International.

Share International: Could you first say how and why the Stiglitz Commission was formed, and what its objectives are?
Pedro Paez Pérez: In November 2008, the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Miguel D’Escoto, convened the ‘Commission of Experts of the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System’. Its remit was to report on the impact of the global economic and financial crisis on the developing nations, and potential solutions to that crisis.
Initially there were only four to six experts in the Commission, but we are now 18 members. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner and eminent figure, was chosen to be the President of the Commission.

SI: How does the Commission view the present crisis?
PPP: First of all, it is important to say that the Commission is a very heterogeneous group containing a wide spectrum of opinions, which made for very lively discussions and negotiations as we worked towards the definitive formulation of recommendations. However, there was a consensus criticising the old financial structures and critical of the neoliberal approach to the economy based on free market forces and financial deregulation. These old ideas prevail in treaties on free trade and in the negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

SI: In the light of this, what are the main recommendations of the Stiglitz Commission?
PPP: The Commission focuses on production, employment, justice and democracy. We recommend the definition of a new reserve currency, based on Special Drawing Rights (SDR, an international reserve asset). Institutions at regional level should be involved in working towards regional macroeconomic convergence and co-ordination, to create conditions of stability and exchange parity. We consider trade to be a means of development, but not along the lines of the current neoliberal view of free trade, which believes market forces to be the only way to define fair and efficient prices. On the contrary, we see trade as a means of raising resources to stimulate employment and interaction between nations.

SI: During the UNCTAD Symposium, questions were raised about a new assets reserve and the most appropriate institution to monitor this currency. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was named, but it was also argued that the UN should supervise the new system directly. What is your position on this issue?
PPP: I believe that the UN is the most representative institution in the world. The IMF may have a technical role to play in monitoring the accountancy of this reserve, for example, or in actually issuing the SDRs, but the global administration as well as the allocation of resources should fall within the competence of the United Nations. There is a hot debate on this matter as some would like the Bank for International Settlements to play the role of a world central bank. But in my view this solution would be even worse.

SI: When one considers the UN, one immediately thinks of the General Assembly, but we also know that many decisions are being blocked by the Security Council. Which UN body, do you think, should administer this new reserve?
PPP: The Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) might be the direct supervising organ, or any other ad hoc UN body, but in all cases, the General Assembly should be the regulatory authority and should control the destination of the resources, through the multilateral institutions. For example, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) should be entitled to use this reserve to fund any urgent programme whenever a risk of starvation arises. Likewise, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) should be allowed to dip into the reserve to fund programmes in favour of the least developed nations. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) might also have access to this facility for any urgent situation related to climate change.
But we also think that regional financial institutions such as the Bank of the South, in Latin America, should be entitled to create complementary funds in order to extend the SDRs locally. Such additional facilities would not make countries liable to pay taxes, as is usually the case when making use of traditional financial and monetary instruments. It would enable them to fund their development programmes; it would improve their capacity to implement countercyclical policies, and to reduce the structural imbalances between the nations of any given region.

SI: It is said that the IMF and the WTO have embraced the neoliberal ideology which brought about the present crisis, and they are often criticized for it. Do you think that these institutions should be reformed or even put under UN trusteeship?
PPP: In reality, the key issue is to know how we might act on the political decisions taken by the nations of the North, which recently granted new resources to the IMF. One way would be to create the new financial facility, exempt from the traditional “conditionality” imposed by the IMF. This financial facility should be set up and supervised by a UN authority, and not by the IMF. It would, in fact, be a relevant solution to the quarrel about the problem of world governance.

SI: The General Assembly is to meet to look into solutions to the crisis and the conclusions and recommendations of the Stiglitz Commission are to be presented to the Assembly. What are the chances that these recommendations will be considered and adopted on a long term basis?
PPP: This is a really historic opportunity. What is needed is not a G8, nor a G20, to rule on the present situation and make decisions, but a G192. We see today that the speculators, who took advantage of the last 20 to 30 years of deregulation and the really parasitic engorgement of the financial world, are now precisely those who are benefiting most from today’s crisis.
We must change this. We must change the relationship between manufacture and the financial system in order to create jobs. We must choose a different economic model, since the current system is a failure. The present economy based on competition is bankrupt. We need a new paradigm of production and consumption. We have to overcome this disastrous global experience and open up to new principles to govern our daily lives – through sharing, solidarity, brotherhood, democracy – another type of relation between the North and the South, as well as new dimensions of co-operation within the South. New priorities must be on our agenda: such as the principle of food sovereignty, the building of a critical mass of sciences and technologies beneficial to all, the protection and development of indigenous traditional knowledge; as well as a genuine cultural revolution for the expression of all people’s voice.

SI: Your answer seems to suggest that the real dimension of the crisis is not simply economic. Would you call it a crisis of civilization?
PPP: Definitely. It is not simply a crisis of production of goods and services, but a crisis of production of ‘meaning’ in the world. It is very serious. The people’s anger in the North and the South revolves around a lack of meaning in their daily life. For example, people ask: “Did I deserve to lose my job or to find myself unable to feed my children anymore?” Frustration is growing and will continue to do so in the near future, and that is extremely dangerous. The temptation to resort to violence is imminent. The international community, the academic world and leading thinkers in general are facing a major crisis of credibility, and must provide alternatives based on a superior order. We cannot afford to lapse back into barbarism and the law of the jungle; we must grasp the opportunity of this crisis to rebuild a more human and friendly civilization.

SI: Readers of Share International are accustomed to the notion of a global Marshall Plan, as a new economic paradigm. Can we say that the recommendations of the Stiglitz Commission are somewhat along the similar lines?
PPP: The requirements for the implementation of a global Marshall Plan are now met and, furthermore, the necessary resources are frequently already available locally. For example, I mentioned during the Symposium that Latin America has billions of dollars available in official reserves, but the trouble is that we cannot use them because we have to defend ourselves against the risk of speculative [financial] attacks. If, in the Third World, it were possible to raise those kinds of resources in addition to international SDRs and regional monetary funds, we could build areas of regional monetary sovereignty to develop production and job policies which would radically transform the situation in those developing countries.
But the crisis is also an opportunity to transform the economies in the North and lead them to turn towards sufficiency. The South should be entitled to obtain what it needs, whereas the challenge of the North is to confine itself to what is sufficient.

SI: In the last decade, many changes occurred in Latin America. Do you think the continent could become a model and inspire other nations to bring about all the needed changes?
PPP: Latin America’s experience is very specific, relating to its history, to various circumstances at the level of governments, popular organizations, and sociological movements such as the theory of independence and liberation theology. Schools of thought have blossomed and have led to the present situation. Without denying its value as an example, it must however be kept in mind that a number of severe limitations still exist, such as a certain degree of cultural and academic colonialism. We have now to mobilize all progressive schools of thought to offer multidimensional solutions to the crisis through an immediate and viable program….

SI: Readers of Share International know that the Masters of Wisdom say that we only have a few years in which to change the economy, and no more than some 15 years to solve the problem of climate change and pollution, and thus avoid a human disaster. What is your opinion of how much time we have to implement all the changes we have talked about, and therefore avoid what you described as a “human calamity” in your speech at the Symposium?
PPP: The time has come, without delay, to open all the doors to social, intellectual and spiritual energy, so that all voices may be heard and so that we can build new possibilities for the world. Time is short. The depth and extent of the crisis are such that we must mobilize the general participation of the populations of the North as well as those of the South – civil society, the academic world and all the institutions. If this happens we will surely succeed.

SI: Share International highlights the importance of “the people’s voice” to implement change.
PPP: The people’s voice must be heard, indeed. And this means a change in the relation between the politicians and their fellow citizens – a change built out of creativity, compromise and authenticity.

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First published April 1999,