Shakespeare said it best: there is more to Heaven and Earth than is dreamt of in our feeble imaginings. Established scientists typically only remain established, and in good favor, if they abandon all scientific thought which drew them to the profession in the first place; instead maintaining a closed mind towards everything except exactly what they're looking for - and only what their previous well thought out calculations have said must exist. But that's not science - that's verification, or record keeping. Therefore, it takes imagination to accept what we've been told all our lives could not possibly be true.

Only in the West do most people seriously believe that ghosts do not exist - and everyone else in the world is considered superstitious, primitive and inferior from that perspective. Most cultures worldwide have a long standing tradition of reverence toward their ancestors. But because they do not come when we call them, or appear to everybody on our slightest whim, there has yet to be any serious invention to detect the presence of those who have crossed over to the other side - or has there?

Today, parapsychologists are armed to the teeth with an assortment of gadgets designed to detect very slight and sudden temperature, humidity, and other atmospheric changes - and even exotic forms of radiation, to detect the presence of what may be disembodied souls. Ghost voices have been recorded on tape - entirely audible and discernable when played back at amazingly slow speeds. Kirlian photography, which captures auras, or the soul energy of individuals, is over a century old - and has been tested under every imaginable condition, and found to be remarkably reliable.

If such things can possibly be measured, then there must be much more to our reality than the simple three dimensional world we are able to perceive. Few primitive people were thinking along these lines, or on these terms, but the legends survive. Ghosts and Goblins, Vampires and Werewolves, Witches and Trolls, Elves and Sprites, Angels and Demons - and everyone's heard of the Boogey Man.

But if we have learned anything on our path to adulthood, it is to put things of childhood behind us - and perhaps the first thing of childhood to be cast off: is our gullibility. We have let our parents tell us there is no such thing as ghosts, because they wanted us to go to sleep, so we could get up and go to school the next morning. But there are more documented hauntings around the world in the last 30 years, than hit songs in the same period - and even at over six billion living humans currently on planet Earth, the dead surely must outnumber the living - unless, of course, you believe in reincarnation.

Some believe that the purpose of life is to rescue souls from Hell. Others hold that life is a filter, or test - straining out those souls that are unworthy of eternity, or further evolution. These New Age beliefs have their roots in the most ancient of philosophies from all over the world. Like the Naturalists and Surrealists in the world of art, Realists can be considered more political philosophers, tracing their roots back to the likes of Plato and Socrates - compared to the Existentialists of the 20th Century.

Christian Mythology derives much from Judaism in the Middle East and Paganism in Europe. Satan, for example, was never an evil figure in the Bible; just an ordinary angel in a particularly interesting story - but his image comes from Pan, a Pagan god of dance and wine and fertility; and many other things the "powers that be" very much wanted to demonize, or wanted to make as little of as possible. Even Mother Mary comes from The Goddess, and was only for political reasons placed prominently in early Catholicism. There were many such political decisions, affecting the belief system of millions of followers over the centuries - having nothing to do with the original context. In this vein, religions can be seen as living things - much like languanges, or the law. They change, or evolve, depending on the sensibilities of the people - and sometimes not fast enough.

In our modern era, people are familiar with technology - and are starting to recognize many of the images depicted in ancient religious texts, previously attributed to God or his Heavenly Messengers. The stories of Ezekiel and Abraham read like modern UFO encounters - and there are countless other examples. Angels ascending into the clouds, via fiery circular craft, and speaking directly into people's minds are not uncommon details.

Perhaps the concept of magic is much older than religion. Certainly lightning must have seemed very impressive and relatively unexplainable to early man. In historic times, for the most part, people who even claimed to be able to do such amazing things themselves, were often executed for heresy, or blasphemy, by the same religion which introduced these concepts - yet held them as the sole property of a divine creator, or his many evil enemies of temptation and deceit. While the burning of witches is attributed mostly to the Dark Ages, many areas of the Third World still summarily execute people who are rumored to exhibit special powers - areas where people are the most superstitious, and religions are most extreme. Ironically, it is often the least advanced, or most desperate of societies who tend to develop these abilities; something Communist Russia took very seriously during the Cold War - but even the CIA had an ongoing program, which still continues to this day.

As the Hippie Generation experimented with mind-altering drugs - from Magic Mushrooms to LSD - Extra-Sensory Perception, or ESP, became a household term; and secret government projects were busy delving into the deepest inner reaches of the human mind - drugs played a big part in the development phase; the famous Acid Tests being just the tip of the iceberg. Capable of far more than mere precognition, telekinesis, or even levitation; Psionic Agents practice out of body travel and Remote Viewing. However, in the realm of public opinion, any presumed benefit of natural "recreational" drugs has been cast aside; their sources dismissed as mere hallucinogens. Meanwhile, much more addictive and destructive drugs like cocaine, crack, heroin and ecstasy flood the street market.

While the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius may be thought by some to be long passed, gone the way of tie-dye shirts and psychedelic music; many astrologers place it anywhere from the mid 1980s to the early 2020s. This particular era, in which we currently live, seems to be the focus of many prophecies: centered around worldwide cultural changes; global wars with millions dead; and major, devastating, record breaking earthquakes and floods, which have recently been connected to extreme lunar activity, especially eclipses. The Maya accurately calculated eclipses millions of years in advance; a feat considered beyond the mathematical capability of any ancient people - nevertheless, they managed to intricately define Earth's history as a series of several vast ages, or Suns. Transitions between Maya Suns are always violent, the last one prominently featuring the Great Flood. The Fifth Sun is scheduled to begin with a total solar eclipse on December 23, 2012.

Modern science would like to dismiss all predictions of this sort as New Age nonsense, pop psychology or even random chance. But during the Renaissance Era, all physicians were required to be heavily schooled in Astrology. One such contemporary professional was Nostradamus, who is most famous for his prevailing work of prophecy, The Centuries - but was also schooled in many ancient and secret teachings (which brought onto him some degree of political oppression in later life). He even developed a quasi-cure/treatment for the Black Plague - made from a secret and curious assortment of local herbs, including rose petals. Despite the mindset of the day, he made a point to wash thoroughly after contact with his patients - a practice that likely saved his life on numerous occasions.

It is the arrogance of science, that we know all we need to know; that we are at the pinnacle of civilization and technology; that there is nothing within our comprehension that we haven't grasped, or rightly dismissed as folly; that is perhaps our greatest downfall. The presumption is that fields of science are completely independent from each other. But many ancient cultures, especially Chinese and Native American, take for granted that everything in the universe is interconnected. If this were true, then it is but a tiny stretch of the imagination that the Earth itself is alive - a concept considered to be a natural fact, by every civilization except the modern West.

It is hard to argue technology points with a people who invented space travel. Even the ball point pen is a marvel of modern times - but it is a collection of engineering ideas, which stand on each other's shoulders. During the oil boom of the early 20th Century, many Native Americans became instantly wealthy. They built fabulous mansions filled with every high brow trinket imaginable - but they preferred to sleep outside, on the ground, in teepees. As it turned out, the teepees really were better living quarters - with, among other things, a more efficient use of heat. Their ancestors had lived on the plains and prairies for millennia - one can safely say the science was perfected.

According to Native Americans, human beings were long ago divided into four parts, corresponding to the four elements: the red people, bound to the land; the white people, possessing fire; the yellow people, guardians of the wind; and the black people, masters of water. According to Cherokee legend, now is the time when the four elements are being brought together as one, and we will soon enter the age of the Human Being and finally become all of which we are capable. Imagine a single peaceful civilization on this planet that is master of both magic and technology.

Ley lines are subtle yet strong rays of natural energy, intersecting at various points on the surface of the Earth, called Nodes - on which, curiously enough, are nearly every imaginable ancient sacred site yet discovered. In Europe, almost all sacred sites were built over by Catholic Churches, Castles and charming villages. Those who study Ley Lines report strange and bizarre happenings in and around these special locations. Many crop circles also appear within walking distance of Ley Lines and their Nodes.

Many ancient European sites are also aligned to each other on regular lines of latitude and longitude - but corresponding to a 366� circle, coincidentally the number of days in a leap year Salt Lines run throughout Europe, and as far as anyone has yet been able to tell, surely span the entire globe. There is evidence in Africa of the Knights Templar expeditions, seeking King Solomon's Mines and the Holy Grail. The temples they left behind are on Salt Lines as well - as are many modern institutions, including Washington DC. It can't be a coincidence. The chances that all of these significant buildings were accidentally erected at regular intervals around the globe are astronomical.

One favorite explanation, the fairly obvious, is that there are politically powerful Secret Societies who are not only in charge of major world governments, but are also in possession of a vast, ancient, secret knowledge - the very same that is brought down to the level of foolishness via ridicule at every emergence. A great many historical events would explain themselves, and connections would be made, if such a civilization as Atlantis existed, and their wisdom and technology was not lost after all; but instead closely guarded by a select group of people that has since become corrupt, sometime in the last 13,000 years.

One of the reasons why Atlantis is supposed to have been destroyed is that they became too powerful for their own good. Easily passed off as merely a morality tale by students of Plato: the citizens became placid, politicians became corrupt and greedy and a magnificent power source went horribly astray. The heart of Atlantis is said to have sunk beneath the sea and many think these power sources still exist, in aberrant states, in many locations around the globe where strange unexplainable occurrences persist. The most famous of these is, of course, the Bermuda Triangle - but there are many others. The Great Lakes, the Hawaiian Islands, the Great Barrier Reef all have similar zones of death and mystery. Perhaps soon we will develop the technology, and understanding, to unravel all these mysteries - and if we are lucky, we may one day have as many strange and wonderful things around us.