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Last week, we wrote about pilot and author Bruce Gernon’s contention that Flight 370 might’ve encountered ‘electronic fog,’ a mysterious phenomenon linked with the Bermuda Triangle. Now Bruce has written an article expanding on his theory and describing what might’ve happened in the cockpit of the Boing 777.

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I call it Electronic Fog.  I have been researching this phenomenon since 1970.  I have communicated with over 100 people that have experienced it.  I have experienced it twice while flying my airplane.  I can relate my research and what I experienced to the disappearance of the Malaysian plane.

 The electronic fog is created in horizontal tunnels that form between thunderstorm cells.  They are usually about two miles high and last for about 5 minutes.  When they collapse they emit a puff of fog that can last for many hours after the storms have dissipated.  The fog can drift all the way down to earth and on rare occasions an updraft can lift the fog to higher altitudes.  If an aircraft flies through the electronic fog it can attach itself to the aircraft, similar to St. Elmo’s fire. 

This may have happened to the Malaysian flight 370, as I will explain.

There have been other famous flights that have had similar experiences.  In 1928 Charles Lindbergh was near Bimini when he encountered the electronic fog.  He did not tell anyone about it for 42 years so it must have had an impact on his mind.  He wrote about it in his last book just before he died because he thought it would be important for the world to know.  His compass was spinning so he wasn’t sure of his heading. 

He flew as high as he could get, trying to get above the fog with no success.  Then he flew just above the ocean trying to get under it with no success.  He flew for two hours before he was able to figure out which way was west by seeing that the right side of the fog was brighter because the sun was rising from the east.  He then turned west and flew for another two hours.  When he reached the coast of Florida the fog finally disappeared.

In 1945 five Navy bombers out of Ft. Lauderdale were flying in formation near Bimini when they encountered the electronic fog.  They radioed Ft. Lauderdale tower at 3:30 PM they were not sure of their position—something was wrong.  They were all unable to determine which way was west to head back to Florida.  They each had a compass and one electronic navigational instrument but apparently none of them were working properly.  They made a series of turns and became totally disoriented.  They kept flying for over six hours and finally ended up hundreds of miles from any land in the Atlantic Ocean where they were finally identified by radar.  A huge search team could not find any remains of them.

Exactly 25 years later, less one day, I was flying near Bimini when the electronic fog attached itself to my aircraft.  I radioed Miami radio at 3:30 PM that I wasn’t sure of my position—something was wrong.  My compass was spinning and my 3 electronic navigational instruments were mal-functioning.  I had entered a horizontal tunnel that was aiming for Miami.  It was 10,000 feet high and about ten miles long and 100 miles east of Miami.  I was in the tunnel for about 20 seconds then the electronic fog attached itself to the airplane when I exited the tunnel.  When I contacted Miami Radar Center they were unable to contact us on radar even though we had just installed a new transponder.  I slowed the plane down and maintained the same heading, never turning.   Three minutes after leaving the tunnel I reached the shore of Miami and the electronic fog electronically dissipated in about ten seconds.   I looked behind expecting to see a fog bank and there were only clear skies.   All the instruments started working again so I flew back to our home airport.  I landed 30 minutes ahead of time.  Somehow I traveled 100 miles in only three minutes and 20 seconds.

In 1986 Martin Caidin had one of the best documented encounters with electronic fog.  He was a famous science fiction author who wrote over a hundred books, including many on aviation.  He was flying a large twin engine Catalina PBY flying boat.  There were seven people on board.  All of them were professional caliber pilots.  They departed Bermuda in clear weather heading to Jacksonville.  Shortly after take off the electronic fog attached itself to them in an instant. 

All of their electronic instruments went out including their radios.  Their whiskey compass was spinning.  They tried to maintain their west heading by aiming away from the sunny side of the fog.  They climbed up to 8000 feet but couldn’t get above it.  They descended to sea level,but couldn’t get under it.  They continued for three more hours and when they got close to the Florida shore line the fog disappeared and skies were clear all around them.

 Caidin wrote about this flight on three separate occasions.  He knew they experienced something significant that could be dangerous for pilots.  He said the flying boat was enveloped by an intense electromagnetic field that dumped the instruments and blanked out the electronic equipment.  He said it was like flying inside a milk bottle. He never realized the milk bottle was attached to them.

Now for the Malaysian flight.

The first indication the airliner may have been in trouble was when the co-pilot signed off from Malaysian air traffic control.  He said, “All right, good night.”  Normally he would say something like “Malaysian 370 contacting Viet Nam at 128.4 thank you goodnight.”  Maybe the electronic fog had just attached itself to the aircraft so he cut the procedure short.  They never contacted Viet Nam airspace and strange things started happening immediately after that last call.  The fog can disable the radios.  The Boeing 777 has a glass panel cockpit.  All the panels could have turned off and turned blank.  The pilots would have no idea of their exact heading because even the whisky compass would be spinning.  They would have to rely on their mechanical backup instruments to maintain control.  They are the altimeter, the airspeed indicator and the attitude indicator. 

They made about 120 degree turn to the left apparently trying to aim for the nearest airport.  It appears they went up higher trying to get above the fog and down lower trying to get below the fog but it did not detach.  When the time came to the point where they should be able to identify the airport there was no visibility.  They may have made some more turns and that would have disoriented them to the point where they were  not sure of their heading anymore.  Pilots in the electronic fog often go through a series of turns, then became spatially disoriented, and enter what is known as a graveyard spiral, that always ends in death.

The Malaysian 370 pilots may have been able to control the autopilot, but the heading would  have to be controlled by their input.  After going through a series of turns they probably became disoriented and did something similar to Flight 19.  They just continued until they ran out of fuel.  Also, like Flight 19, they unfortunately aimed for a remote location over the ocean where they may never be found.             

It seems like every other decade there has been a significant encounter with the mysterious electronic fog.  Mainstream science has not yet recognized the existence of electronic fog so it is not even being considered as a possibility with the mystery of the Malaysian airliner.  It is a rare phenomenon and I know it is real because I have seen it and talked to others that have experienced it.  No one has been able to debunk my experience in over 43 years.

Could this be what happened to the Malaysian airliner?  Only time will tell. So far everything we know about the flight seems to point in that direction. 

People are starting to ask if this has anything to do with the Bermuda Triangle mystery.  Over the years I have worked with many scientists, many of them famous.  They all believed that the phenomenon of electronic fog is plausible.  My latest partner in research is professor David Pares.  My friend, the late great scientist and author Dr. Arthur C. Clarke, said that the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine, and the only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them, into the impossible.            

In the psst few days, I have heard about The Voice twice now. Rob and I don’t watch the show. I only knew that it was like American Idol, but supposedly better.  Then this evening I click onto Huffington Post for the latest on the missing Malaysian flight – and am treated to this stunning performance by a nun on The Voice:

And, oh wow, she floored them. She floored me.

Back in November, we met contactee Sandy, a retired veterinarian, and her husband for lunch midway across the state. She has since been on Whitley Strieber’s Dreamland, talking about her travel experiences into other dimensions and her contacts with entities she describes as inter-dimensional. She makes contact during meditation and has had numerous instances of physical contact and visual contact. The beings, whatever they are, don’t abduct her and she considers the contact benevolent, though sometimes startling. The aim of the contact seems to be related to healing and higher awareness.

At some point, we talked about doing synchronized meditations with Sandy and her husband, the Striebers, and others who wanted to join us. We’ve done two of them now, and they have yielded interesting results. We’ve had visions, similar to waking dreams, and some of Rob’s have been related to entities. In one, the beings were flying or hovering overhead, and he heard these words: “The crazy people.”

Hmm, maybe they have a sense of humor. Trish meanwhile saw a large cat, and a number of people moving about the room during that same meditation. She also saw a human form pushing up through the floor.

After that session, Sandy wrote this about her experience: “Greg and I had a quiet but enjoyable meditation. I had the usual leg rocking and body waves, then I started to buzz all over about 20 minutes into the meditation and I felt a being at my feet for only about 5 minutes. We cupped the little foam rubber brain as we held hands throughout the session and focused on Anne and Whitley. I had a vision of a man who stepped forward, dressed as a king with a deep purple satin top with gold embellishments and a thin crown wrapped around his head. His face had a nose and beard but it was just blank skin where his eyes and eyebrows would be. He just sat in front of me with a staff in his hand.”

On the day of our planned third session, we were on our way to the gym and started discussing the meditations. As we approached a traffic light, Trish was saying that she hopes something more substantial will happen, that it would be more than these dream-like images.

We stopped at the light, which was T-intersection. We had to turn either right or left. Directly across the intersection from us was a condo complex fronted by a ten-foot high ficus hedge that bordered a sidewalk. A man wearing a long-sleeved gray T-shirt was facing the hedge directly in front of us. Rob was gazing in his direction, but Trish didn’t notice him. The view of the man was partially blocked by three small diamond-shaped traffic signs, intended to keep cars from plowing straight ahead into the hedge.

Rob wasn’t paying close attention to the man until it registered that the man had seemingly faded and vanished. Rob told Trish what he’d just seen, and his first reaction was that the man, for some reason, had pushed his way through the thick hedge and disappeared on the other side. The light changed and Rob slowed the car as he turned and we inspected the hedge. There was no noticeable sign of disturbance to the hedge. But the branches most likely would have whipped back in place after someone pushed through them. The person also would’ve been scratched, because the hedge is thick.

That’s the logical explanation, of course, and we could prove or disprove it by trying to push through the hedge at that spot. But maybe that’s not the point of the experience.

Regardless of what had actually happened, what Rob saw was incredibly parallel to our conversation. Trish had said she wanted something more physical to happen, something that would prove that our meditations were somehow linked with Sandy and Greg and their meditations.

Trish’s reaction: “We’ve got to keep doing these meditations. That was my answer.”

Leonard Nimoy is 83. ‘Live long & prosper.’

A really big meditation cave

I’m working on a meditation book now, something to go along with the classes I teach on the subject. I’ve got a stack of related books next to my desk, but none of them, as far as I’ve seen, include any jokes about meditation.

Granted there probably aren’t too many such jokes. But over the years I’ve gathered…well, only two. I thought about one of them recently as I was writing a chapter called Mantras & Chants, and decided to include it as a sidebar near the end of the chapter. It deals with the question of proper pronunciation of Sanskrit mantras. Yes, a strange topic for a joke. But here goes…

A scholar studied Sanskrit and meditation practices for years. He became an expert. He practiced meditation daily. He chanted for hours. He read every book available on the subject and memorized passages from ancient texts. He was highly regarded, and thought he knew almost everything there was to know about the subject.

Then one day he heard about a hermit who had lived in a cave on an island for decades. He was supposedly a highly advanced meditator, knowledgeable and wise. So the scholar journeyed to the lake and hired a boatman to ferry him to the island for a day trip. When he arrived, he hiked along a trail through the jungle until he found the hermit’s cave.

The hermit was meditating in the candlelit cave when the scholar interrupted him. To his relief, the hermit seemed pleased to have a visitor and invited the scholar to join him in chanting a sacred mantra. The scholar knew this mantra very well and was happy to chant with the hermit.

However, after less than a minute of chanting, the scholar stopped and waved his hands. Horrified, he explained to the hermit that he had wasted all of his years on the island. He was mispronouncing the Sanskrit so his chants were meaningless and without power.

The hermit listened closely to the proper way to pronounce the words and thanked the scholar for correcting him. The scholar left, disappointed, and as the boatman rowed away from the island, the scholar told him how sorry he felt for the poor hermit.  Suddenly, the boatman looked up, pointed, and gasped.

The hermit was running across the surface of the water toward the boat. As he reached the craft, he again thanked the scholar and asked if he would repeat the proper pronunciation again. The astonished scholar was dumbfounded. “If you can do that, then you are doing fine.”

“Oh, but I want to improve myself. Please say the chant again.” The baffled scholar did so, and the hermit raced back to the island, reciting the chant, his feet barely dipping into the water.

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The meaning behind the joke, of course, is that proper pronunciation of Sanskrit mantras is not essential. In fact, no matter how hard you try, you probably won’t get it right. Except for a mere 14,000 people who consider Sanskrit their native tongue, it’s a classical language—a dead language, like ancient Greek—mainly existing in the realm of devoted scholars and yogis.

My book isn’t completed yet, but I’m calling it:  A Jewel Within a Lotus: Meditation for Busy Minds. It no doubt will be the only meditation book on the market containing two jokes about meditation, and now you’ve already heard half of them!

In the world of so-called mysteries of the unknown, crop circles tend to be a black-and-white matter. In fact, many people would not even call crop circles a mystery of the unknown, because they know that they are made by humans – crop circle artists. After all, it’s been well documented.

Then there are the believers, those who are convinced that some crop circles – the most majestic ones – are made by paranormal forces – whatever they might be. Those folks tend to call the man-made circles ‘crap circles.’

That has been the primary points of view for years. The non-believers say there is no reason to believe any other-worldly phenomena is taking place. Speculation about aliens or paranormal materializations is nonsensical. End of story.

Meanwhile, the believers point out that the most impressive crop circles – the larger ones with intricate details that literally appear out of nowhere, and often manifest in a small window of time – aren’t made by man. There aren’t any human tracks  left behind, and the designs are too complex to create in the middle of the night. Besides, balls of light have been seen moving over the fields where such circles have appeared. They’ve even been video-taped, ie. documented.

Now comes a confession of sorts by a  crop circle maker, one of a group of fellow artists who have been ‘working’ the fields in England for years. Mathew Williams is best known as the first crop circle artist convicted in the UK for violating a new law that criminalizes crop-circle making. He was fined the equivalent of $200. However, he now confesses to more than damaging crops with his artistic endeavors. There’s something else that’s he’s been talking about.

In an article in the Daily Express, Williams admits there are other forces – besides humans – at work in the fields creating the designs. He made the comment while being interviewed for the newspaper about the paucity of crop circles during the 2013 season. He was supposed to talk about the effect of the new law. But he drifted into uncharted territory – at least for circle makers. He says he has evidence that the more elaborate designs are the product of paranormal activity.

“I’ve seen small balls of light which have entered the field and chased us out on one occasion. I’ve seen them passing overhead,” Williams said. (His comments on the subject were recently re-published in Open Minds Magazine as part of a cover story on crop circles.)

Williams also noted that when he and his friends make large talismanic magical symbols, strange things happen. “On two occasions we’ve also seen black, shadowy figures. Not as clear as a person, a little more rounded but a human shape. There are so many things like that.” He added that somehow these symbols “actually have some effect on physical reality and strange things happen.”

Williams is not alone in his contentions that mysterious forces are at work in the fields of Wiltshire, the location of many of the UK’s crop circles. “All of us are very different but strangely enough, whatever angle you come into crop circles from, all the teams have had paranormal experiences while making them.”

So we wonder what the non-believers think now, when one of their own – an admitted and convicted crop circle artist – says the unthinkable, that non-human mechanisms are at play in the fields creating magic.

In the world of synchronicity, this feels like the Trickster at work. First of all, the human crop circle makers have served as tricksters with a small ‘t’,  attempting to fool us into thinking that something other than human is at play. But now that the human artists have been exposed – and even prosecuted – they are admitting that they are as puzzled by the phenomenon as anyone else. Maybe even more so.

And in the background, the Trickster is laughing. So you think you’ve got the answers about crop circles? Well, think again. It’s not all that black-and-white.

Astrology has some troubling landmarks in the years ahead and one of them is the Uranus/Pluto square that began in 2012 and continues into 2015. It  may account for why Obama is much grayer now than when he took office. It may also help explain some of the recent the news – the missing Malaysian flight, Russia’s invasion of the Crimea, the marked polarization in Congress, the strange weather this past winter.

Uranus rules the sign of Aquarius, sudden, unexpected change, inventions, innovations, individuality, genius, cutting edge trends, discoveries. It takes 7 years to move through a sign and is now transiting the cardinal sign Aries, and will continue to do so until March 2019. Pluto rules transformation, the underworld, everything that is hidden, dark, unseen, death and resurrection. Since 2008, it’s been transiting the cardinal sign of Capricorn, which it will continue to do until November 2024.

Between June 2012 and March 2015, there are seven times when these two planets are exactly square to each other, an aspect that spells conflict, tension, challenge:

• June 26th, 2012: 8 degrees
• September 19 2012: 6 degrees
• May 21 2013: 11 degrees
• November 1 2013: 9 degrees
• April 21 2014: 13 degrees
• December 15 2014: 12 degrees
• March 17 2015: 15 degrees

The lead-up to these squares and when they become exact tend to be the most stressful periods. Globally, we see its manifestations in all sorts of sudden, often violent events – uprisings, government takeovers, extreme weather, earthquakes and other disasters.

On a personal level, the Uranus/Pluto square is the itch you can’t scratch. It’s the weirdo uncle who shows up unexpectedly asking for a handout. It’s the discovery that your partner has a secret life in which he cooks meth (the TV show Breaking Bad), that he’s a power hungry conniving politician for whom power is everything (TV show House of Cards).

But this square also urges us to recognize how we are unique and how we can use this uniqueness to further our own goals and dreams. It shakes up our personal reality, urges us to let go of what no longer works in our lives – a relationship, job, habit, attitude, belief, lifestyle. It’s a perfect time to reinvent ourselves.  In fact, reinventing ourselves or some aspect of our lives is probably the best way to navigate this aspect.

The last time Uranus and Pluto were square to each other occurred between 1932 and 1934 and the global transformation was considerable – the Great Depression, the rise of Hitler, the invention of the atomic bomb.  Between 1966 and 1967, Uranus and Pluto also linked up, three times, but these aspects were conjunctions in the sign of Virgo. Conjunctions bring additional force and power to the planets involved. These conjunctions triggered global revolution and massive shifts in societal norms.

So even though we may be in for more challenging times, there are positive ways to navigate the tumult. Follow your instincts. Heed the synchros you experience.  Tap your dreaming self for information and insights on what may be headed into your life.  Embrace change. If you don’t, then change will be thrust upon you. And remember that ultimately, the Uranus/Pluto square is a conundrum, one of those riddles of the universe, a kind of trickster who laughingly whispers, Aw, c’mon, free yourself!

Synchronicities involving numbers are always interesting. Our friend Sansego sent us this one:

Today’s featured Wikipedia article is Mitt Romney. I didn’t know that it was his birthday today – March 12 – (the same day as Jack Kerouac) or that Romney was born in 1947.

The synchro on “47” hit me right away because political scientists consider his comments about the 47% who would never vote for him to be the thing that doomed / sank his presidential chances. Of course, he ended up with 47% of the vote anyway.

Even more interesting, 1847 was the year that the Mormon pioneers – Romney’s ancestors –  made the wagon train voyage from Independence MO to what is now Salt Lake City, UT.

And when Romney was 47 years old – in 1994 –  he first ran for political office in a race against Senator Ted Kennedy, giving the iconic Senator a real competitor for the first time in his long career.

And on that note, happy spring equinox!

You probably thought you’d heard all the possible theories about what happened to Malaysian Flight 730. Well, here’s a new one from pilot Bruce Gernon, who co-authored The Fog with me about his Bermuda Triangle experiences.

I sent Bruce a new list of the 10 most mysterious aircraft disappearances, which now includes Flight 730 as the top one. The Bermuda Triangle is included, which was probably why I sent him the list. Bruce has appeared on numerous cable network shows about the BT and his harrowing escape from mysterious forces is often the highlight of the shows.

He answered back that he had been following the disappearance of the 777 very closely, and so far thinks that ‘electronic fog’ could have been the cause.

Electronic fog is a term Bruce created to describe what happened to him on his flight from Andros Island to West Palm Beach when he was locked in a fog that seemingly was attached to the plane and moved with it. He came to that conclusion after puzzling over the fact that during the experience there was a continual hole in the fog below and above the plane. He could never move past it.

But at the time that was the least of his worries because all of his electronic instruments had shut down – similar to what happened on Flight 730. He had tried to escape the conditions by flying at a high altitude, also similar to the apparent actions of the pilots on the Malaysian aircraft. When Bruce realized he couldn’t fly above the cloud mass, he tried to fly under it. Again that was what the 777 did, dropping from 45,000 feet to 3,000 feet.

“If they were in the electronic fog, it disoriented the pilots and caused them to divert their course – similar to what happened to me and to Charles Lindbergh on his mysterious BT flight, and also to Flight 19.” That was the infamous case in which five Navy fighter planes vanished, setting off the Bermuda Triangle saga.

In Gernon’s case, he should’ve been near Bimini when he abruptly found himself flying over Miami Beach. It was as if he had instantly teleported 100 miles. When he finally landed in West Palm Beach, the plane had too much gas left in the tank and he’d arrived half an hour too soon, in spite of taking diversionary actions en route.

It’s all speculation of course. But at this point, it seems that Bruce Gernon’s theory is as good as any of them.

Even the Huffington Post has compared the missing commercial jet to the Bermuda Triangle saga.

There is no scientific proof that electronic fog exists, but as Gernon says to skeptics: “If you were on the flight with me, you wouldn’t dismiss the idea so quickly.”

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A possible breakthrough on the missing plane mystery, from Australia.

I usually finish my meditation classes by reciting an Irish Sun blessing, called The Longtime Sun. It’s well known and has been recorded as a chant and song many times.

It goes like this:

May the longtime Sun shine upon you,

All love surround you,

And the pure light within you

Guide your way home.

Recently, I decided to download a copy of the song from iTunes. What prompted me to do so was a different version of the blessing that included a new second line about the ‘cool moon.’ I heard it recited at the end of a yoga class and afterwards asked the instructor about the line. The class had been taught on the day of the full moon, and she had led us through several variations of the moon salutation, instead of the usual sun salutation.

So I thought that she might’ve just added the line about the moon for the purpose of the class. She laughed at that idea and assured me that the line was part of the Irish Sun Blessing, and that no, she had not made it up.

So the next day, which happened to be St. Patrick’s Day, I looked it up on iTunes, and listened to seven or eight variations. But not one of them included a line about the moon. After all, it’s a sun blessing.  I particularly liked the rendition sung by a Kundalini yogina, Snatam Kaur, who has recorded several albums of sacred music.

However, no matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t download the song. The tune was frozen, wouldn’t play, and wouldn’t download. I shrugged it off, but the next day I went back and found the same situation. The song would not download for me. So I started puzzling over the esoteric meaning of it all.

Then it hit me. Yesterday had been St. Patty’s Day, as I said. Not only had I tried to download the Irish blessing without any conscious recognition of the connection, but I had spent the entire day without wearing anything green. An inadvertent snub of the Irish, I suppose, and the freeze had been my payback.

So I’m wondering if the Trickster might have an Irish grandmother!

Fortunately, the Longtime Sun did play when I found it on YouTube after I wrote this post, as you can see above. But even then it would only appear as a URL, not an image, until Trish put it up.