I HAVE SEEN A BLINDING FLASH OF LIGHT

TIME TO MOVE ON?

While in the throes of a two-week trip, thanks to my smoking of the delightful Kerguelen Cabbage, I had some colorful insights regarding my current situation. I have started to think that it might be time for me to leave Kerguelen. I was looking at J.Marquis' blog "Are We There Yet?" and he has posted some pictures from a recent Alaska trip. The photos reminded me of how much I miss trees, flowers, songbirds and warmth. And other people! While I am a misanthrope, it helps to have real people to talk to once in a while. I'm not just thinking of myself, either. When I see Charley shivering in the cold when I take him outside so he can take a dump, I feel badly for him because he is obviously miserable. And his wheels don't do so well on the tundra-like ground.

But where would I go from here? I have already been in the South Pacific and in Central Asia. I'd like to find a place with mountains and beautiful scenery, like I have here, but where there would also be a few more people around, more vegetation, and a better climate. If you can think of any great ideas, please comment. I may go back on the Cabbage for a bit... It helped me get to this point of serious self-assessment (although the best part was getting really messed up and seeing some cool visions and shit!) Hey, Charley, pass me the pipe and the lighter!

LITTLE-KNOWN HISTORY OF KERGUELEN Part Six

First, let me say that coming down off a Kerguelen Cabbage smoking habit is hell. But I'm back.

This is the next-to-last installment of the Kerguelen history lessons, with many thanks to J.R. Mooneyham at http://www.jmooneyham.com/lost-civilization-kerguelen-2.html .

Approximately 22,000 BC: The Kerguelen completely fail to notice the alarming events taking place on Earth's southeast asian peninsula, until long after things have settled back to something nearer normal again-- which is a lucky break for humanity.

The Kerguelen fleet doesn't notice the extraordinary pace of technological development and other matters on the Southeast Asian peninsula until long after the climax of events there-- things simply happened far too fast for the fleet's normal surveillance schedule and response routines to notice (just a single century in general, with the most alarming matters ocurring in just decades). Plus, most attention towards Earth was concentrated on watching for signs of the inorganic technologies of the Kerguelen spacecraft stolen by the mutineers-- stuff decidedly different from the peninsula's primarily biotech-based or derived devices. The very short time-scale of peninsula events, and their containment to one particular region of the globe also helped shield events from Kerguelen scrutiny.

Approximately 18,000 BC- 12,000 BC: Earth is bombarded five times by heavier than usual cosmic dust concentrations from space. Earth's climate may well be effected. Some of this same dust traveling through the solar system may be spawning a new dust ring between Mars and Jupiter.

Approximately 9,500 BC- 9,000 BC: The Asvin of Earth surprise the Kerguelen fleet, and then vanish
[To see details about the Asvin civilization, please refer to What Could Have Been: A Lost Civilization in Southeast Asia, 25,125 BC- 13,875 BC]

After this shocking development, the Kerguelen elite direct the fleet to move some elements further away from Earth, while better masking others from long range detection or location via Kerguelen equivalent technologies. These measures will effectively render much Kerguelen space activity invisible to humanity until at least around the turn of the Approximately 8,000 BC+: Total world population may be somewhere between 5 and 10 millionA booming human population worldwide is driving many other large animal species extinct-- including some variants of humanity itself.

Approximately 6,000 BC - 1 AD: Sometime during this period the Earth, along with the rest of the Solar System, enters a vast cloud of interstellar gas

9,000 BC- 1,945 AD: The Kerguelen fleet maintains covert surveillance of Earth, seeking signs of the Asvin; The fleet otherwise cuts back on operations on and near Earth. The mystery of the missing Asvin, along with the surprise attack in space, haunts the Kerguelens. They watch closely for centuries, then millennia, for signs of their reappearance, only to find none. Instead, the entire planet of ape-men seems to go backwards 10,000 years in technology, in the wake of the Asvin's vanishing act.

1960 AD- 1965 AD: Multiple Russian probes launched towards Mars all meet with disaster

1,969 AD- 1973 AD: Another series of Russian missions to Mars fails to live up to expectations

1,989 AD: The sophistocated Russian Mars Phobos probes fail, with the last disappearing under puzzling circumstances. The Russian Mars Phobos probes are of a completely new design compared to earlier efforts. They also possess their own 'daughter' satellites for various missions to the Mars moon of Phobos. Both Phobos missions suffer disasterous failures. Phobos-2 does manage to limp through a fraction of its original mission, though it soon disappears. The last two months of photos it sends back to Earth seem to display various anomalous images. The very last one apparently taken two days before the probe disappears seems to show a huge, smooth object approaching the probe.

Many years later scientists will explain the strange images were essentially caused by something similar to long exposures performed with cameras on Earth, smearing or lengthening some images into weird geometries, or else by other flaws in the transmission. They also will say the Phobos missions were plagued with many sorts of problems which made them likely to fail or return erroneous results.

1,991 AD: A small and unusual object is detected near Earth, following an unlikely flightpath and exhibiting some signs of possible artifice. Is it merely an extraordinarily circumstanced natural object, or part of some super-secret spacecraft previously launched from Earth, and undisclosed to the public? Or could it even be an alien probe of some sort?

1,993 AD: NASA's Mars Observer is lost as it approaches Mars

1,995 AD: Russia loses a Mars probe during launch; it falls somewhere in the vicinity of the Andes mountains

1,998 AD: A Japanese Mars probe fails during launch

1999 AD: NASA suffers the failure of two more separate missions to Mars; humanity is realizing that the undersea Kerguelen plateau was once a dryland island continent....while they are also nearing the levels of wealth and technology necessary to explore the undersea mass......but all indications are that those with the means are far more interested in other locations, nowhere near the sunken Kerguelen continent. Thus, it could be centuries or even millennia before humanity discovers the secrets drowned there.
2000 milestone: The status of KerguelenSince the last major island of the Kerguelen island continent sank some 20 million years ago, further volcanic activity has created new islands in the chain.

The new islands however are little more than the tips of new undersea mountains poking above the waves; nothing as massive and vast as the original three Kerguelen bodies.

These mountain tops and other associated lands today form an island group, comprised of some 7000 square km of archipelago (roughly 300 islands and reefs) and lying situated in the South Indian Ocean. The largest island of the bunch is called Kerguelen. The entire group is legally considered a French possession.

In recent history the modern island of Kerguelen has seen both ice and considerable volcanic activity (Kerguelen possesses plenty of volcanoes). The above sea level remnants of Kerguelen suffer a frigid climate due to the convergence of Antarctic and Indian Ocean currents in the vicinity, and often strong winds which contribute to the chill. The winds also contribute to high waves in the area-- with 15 m heights being considered not unusual. This heavy wave action may contribute to the year-round ice-free nature of the seas around the islands. The skies of modern Kerguelen spend much of their time overcast.

Virtually the only native plant which has survived in the region from ancient times is the Kerguelen cabbage (rabbits brought in by foreigners destroyed practically all other lowland vegetation which had managed to survive the previous icy and volcanic periods).
Today a scientific research station of considerable size exists in the area, housing up to 100 scientists at a time.

2000 AD: By now humanity has explored something less than 2% of the deep oceans-- and less than 10% of the oceans overall. 50% of the surface of the Earth exists beneath 3000 to 6000 meters of ocean depth. Life in the deep ocean is at least as diverse as that in rainforests.

2001 AD: Humanity discovers a surprising contamination of near Earth space with uranium

2004 AD: A rolling robotic probe (the US Spirit rover) accidentally catches sight of a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) in the skies over Mars; a "strange" object a few miles across is detected in the vicinity of Saturn-- and there may be more like it

Just one more installment to go. We are now just about up to speed!

SORRY I HAVE BEEN GONE SO LONG!

Sorry I have been gone so long!

It seems I have lost track of time and space.


I have been on what some people might call a "bender".

I need to wake up for long enough to get back to the history lessons. As you will see, they are very important.

ANOTHER USE FOR KERGUELEN CABBAGE

I often enjoy a bit of tobacco in my pipe after a long day of fishing or walking, or during an evening of hard drinking. I've never been one to experiment with drugs, although I will confess to smoking some morning glory seeds one time back in the states. I also tried smoking some other things when I was a teenager, including an occasional joint or cigarette, but also things like maple leaves, orange pekoe tea and oregano.

This evening I am in a lighthearted mood. About an hour ago I decided to try smoking some Kerguelen cabbage leaves I have been drying for the last week or so.

Nothing seemed to happen right at first. Then, I felt a slow rush coming on that started in my stomach and proceeded throughout my chakras until my third eye was radiating a beam of light that illuminated the cabin. Charley became scared and began to whimper, but after I blew some smoke at him he seemed to mellow. I closed my eyes and felt myself traveling forward through space and time at an alarming rate. I was overtaken by vertigo when I opened my eyes, and it wasn't long before Charley was cleaning up my cod dinner, which had somehow found its way from my stomach onto the cabin floor. As the top of my head started tingling and separating itself from my skull, I frantically reached about for it as it took wing. I chased it around the room several times before cornering it by the kitchen sink. Once my head was back together, I noticed the kitchen sink faucet was swaying slightly, in time with the breathing of the walls. That experience was enough to cause me to seek further diversion, which I did by getting out my timbales and playing them hard, for several hours. During a bathroom break just a few minutes ago, I thought my pupils were about the size of saucers. As I stared at my reflection, I thought I might be Christ, but then I realized I was just starting to look like him. Blue light shimmering through the dust motes stirred by the movement of a hand through the still air. Rough winds slashing over the rooftop playing reveille against my brainpan, suggesting the remnants of one thousand mornings. Thorough examinations of the connection between my lungs and the doorknob now take place, take face, take shape. A floating of the boat of both coats. My shoes. What the fuck!? It's only the rain. It's only the driving rain, driving and thriving and arriving as my tongue turns to liquid fire. Higher and down, lower and through, sideways and up are all turned to one. The center of the mind turns in upon itself and becomes pure light as I rise. No surprises here, nothing that hasn't been known since time immemorial began a few minutes ago. There are no such things as hands and feet, no feelings for the voice that hammers in my occipital lobe, screaming through a fog of severe chop, of stretched anchor lines and rudders. Chancre lines and rubbers. Gibbers and jabber jobbers. The cod dinner shines in the light which emanates from my ribcage. High lines of fine tines, sparkle, trickle, treacle. Freakle. Fickle. Spit trickles. Ventricles. Buckles and chuckles, chiclets, piglets. Wiglets. Wiggling!! When my coat finally wears itself, and when my knees work in reverse, I will reserve the right to put my shoes on backwards and run across the water to the glowing town in my frostbitten birthday suit. The sun attempts to penetrate the fog inside the cabin and out, as I start to come down. This may take a while, but it's all beginning to make sense now. I don't know where I have been for the past few hours, but it has been a place of strange and wonderful magic! My throat is a bit sore, but I think some Southern Comfort should help with that. Charley is now sound asleep by the fire, which seems to have spread beyond the fireplace and into the main room. Time to end this missive, put out the fire, and go to bed. More soon.

Well, he's dead. I decided he wasn't Christ, but I also figured that it wasn't healthy for me to keep him around. He drank the rest of my Southern Comfort in one sitting, and that amounted to about eight bottles of the stuff. So, he died a lovable drunk. I'll have to wait another week for more Southern Comfort to come in on the supply ship...

Anyway, Charley and I had a simple burial ceremony a couple of miles north of the cabin. I didn't want Jay's grave marker to be where I would see it very often... it might have tempted me to play God and resurrect the guy. I told Annie that she could come by from time to time now that Jay is gone, but she declined the offer, instead deciding she would move to the deserted whaling station at Port Jeanne d'Arc. She was never that interested in me anyway, and I never found her to be all that attractive.

This means it's just me and Charley now.

LITTLE-KNOWN HISTORY OF KERGUELEN Part Five

As promised, the history lesson continues. The following abridged information is from the following website: http://www.jmooneyham.com/lost-civilization-kerguelen.html#section49

Approximately 28,000,000 BC- 21,000,000 BC: An advanced symbiont civilization arises on Kerguelen.
Its development has required considerably longer than later humanity's will, due to several factors. If the Kerguelens cared to, by 21 million BC they could now trace their lineage back for over 13 million years-- or twice the span which will separate 21st century humans from chimpanzees.

Approximately 25,000,000 BC: Massive volcanic eruptions may be occuring in the region of Antarctica's Ross Sea-- perhaps even affecting global climate; Kerguelen climate is surely changed somewhat by the event.
It appears that the climatic effects of eruptions in this region will more strongly affect areas in or near the same latitudes as opposed to others. Thus, despite being almost on the other side of the world from the eruptions, Kerguelen is likely affected.

Approximately 21,000,000 BC- 20,000,000 BC: The Kerguelen elite realize their world will eventually vanish, and begin a frenzied effort to insure their survival.
The general Kerguelen neglect of the environment and many scientific fields left the Kerguelen shocked and unprepared when they finally reached the realization that their entire land was slowly sinking beneath the sea.

By this time the Kerguelen possessed a rough equivalence with future 22nd/23rd century humanity in some technologies, if not all. Yes, despite their near continuous stagnation in this regard, their occasional spurts of innovation over a period of many hundreds of thousands of years had not left them utterly at the mercy of fate. On the other hand, had they progessed as quickly as humanity will later on, over this span they could have dominated a good portion of the Milky Way galaxy.

The Kerguelen would have to leave Earth. For only in space were available resources that caused the entire Earth to pale by comparison. Asteroids and comets represented wealth beyond imagining-- so long as the race did not have to worry about the objects raining atop them in miscellaneous disasters. And in space the resources were much more accessible too-- at least once one had escaped the gravity of Earth itself.

Approximately 20,000,000 BC: The last remnants of the Kerguelen island continent in the southern Indian Ocean slowly sinks to the bottom of the sea.
Twenty million years from now it will be known to submariners as part of the "Kerguelen Plateau", and lie two kilometers deep. But for millions of years previous to the present sinking it was a large piece of dry land on Earth.

Note that the previous boom in ape species two million years earlier means apes existed simultaneously with the last couple of million years of a dry Kerguelen continent. It seems that at the very least Kerguelen offered its animal residents an evolutionary environment similar to Australia/New Zealand of the same period, with perhaps some intriguing marsupial and flightless bird species and other exotic evolutionary niches all its own. Kerguelen may even have been an evolutionary paradise in some respects.

(Skipping ahead a bit...! The Kerguelen have been living away from Earth for millions of years by now.)

Approximately 3,000,000 BC- 30,000 BC: The Kerguelen fleet realizes that some distant relatives of Kerguelen primitives on Earth are starting to show signs of intelligence; The Kerguelen eventually begin to interact with the ape-men in limited ways.

The unmistakeable sounds of song and music emanating from ape gatherings first attract the attention of the Kerguelen. As time passes primitive tool use and greater cooperation among the apes becomes apparent.

Finally, widespread and purposeful use of fire by the apes begins breaking out all over the planet.

Some fleet personnel begin interacting with the apes, from time to time. Eventually they begin attempting to get the apes to team up with a smaller primate species like the Kerguelens themselves did early on. A few isolated genetic tweaks to both ape and monkey species are made in an effort to encourage such a pair-up. The fleet's efforts at combining the two species into something resembling their own ends up stymied. But the apes do continue to show progress in their own way.

Many more generations pass among the Kerguelen. Interest in the apes ebbs and flows among the fleet, as the species seems it will never evolve any further than it already has. Then, finally, the species begins to show the promise the fleet had been hoping to see for eons. The potential to become a whole new peasant/slave population for the fleet crews themselves. For in that manner might they achieve the levels of wealth and luxury up to now enjoyed only by the elite. They could also return to Earth, and enjoy the vast regions of unconstricted and hospitable space there-- wholly unlike the environments of their cramped craft quarters, and dangerous vacuum of space outside their vessels. Many fleet Kerguelen also chafed against the strict population controls of the fleet, imposed by the elite. A looser rein on free will here as compared to earlier Kerguelen history, plus more free time as well, allows the fleet Kerguelen to brood upon such matters. Upon a return to Earth such population restrictions could be ignored. There was enough space for billions of Kerguelen there.

Under these conditions the efforts to plan for a future return to Earth and subjugation of the fledgling humans there began to become somewhat organized affairs of the fleet Kerguelen. Details regarding how this might be done without interference from the elite-- or how the fleet Kerguelen might separate their own destinies from those of the elite-- are mostly neglected.
The fleet Kerguelen have no choice but to mention the continuing evolution of the apes on Earth in their reports to the randomly called elite. Fortunately, the elite take little notice.

The fleet Kerguelen increase the frequencies of their visits to Earth. They are not always as discrete as they should be. They are often sloppy because of the still primitive nature of the humans there, and the long time practice of taking little heed on the planet's surface, among merely dumb animals.

A growing argument builds among various factions of the fleet Kerguelen over how to handle the ever smarter apes-- including how much to let the apes see/know of the fleet Kerguelen themselves.

Eventually some fleet Kerguelen strike up continuing relationships with some humans. They experiment with some. Lucky ones become agents of the fleet, either among their own kind, or in secret underground or underwater bases about the planet.

Keep in mind the fleet Kerguelen must hide many of their activities regarding Earth from the elite Kerguelen. Thus, the reason for the hidden bases being constructed underground or undersea. Such bases are easier to cover up or otherwise explain as aberrations in instrument readings, than more obvious installations would be.

Despite their advanced technology, the fleet Kerguelen are also subject to very close surveillance and accounting by the elite for equipment, materials, and hours of labor utilized for any purpose. So their available resources for the construction of the hidden bases are much more limited than might be expected by observers accustommed to a freer, more private society, equipped with a similar level of technology.

Another factor to consider is the fact that certain bits of Kerguelen technology such as power sources, manufacturing equipment, and advanced materials used to build the Earth bases or installed there for other purposes would tend to make those bases be more easily found by Kerguelen instruments from space than would otherwise be the case. So even if the Kerguelen could use such items without accounting for them in inventory, the act would only increase the risk of discovery and execution (or worse) later.

This means the secret bases are almost always built and stocked only with native Earth materials and labor, and significant Kerguelen effort goes into maximizing the usefulness and flexibility of the locations while using only primitive and obsolete Kerguelen ideas and techniques adapted to contemporary Earth and human capacities and circumstances. That way, even if a refuge is discovered and investigated by elite agents of the fleet, they should find little to indicate Kerguelen involvement.

Of course, despite their worries of discovery, the fleet Kerguelen do occasionally use advanced technologies in some aspects of the construction of these bases. But it is mostly just to carve out spaces within rock where the rock is too hard or the local human labor too sparse to sculpt as quickly or in as complex a manner as the Kerguelen desire-- and during hours when the naughty Kerguelen are sure none of the other Kerguelen are in position to monitor the local vicinity. The Kerguelen also take pains to cover the clues to artificial construction with intentional sloppiness in some aspects, and sometimes orders to a local human labor force to chip away manually at new tunnel surfaces a bit to make them look more hand carved, in case of later visual inspection.

Human access to Kerguelen technologies is kept very limited, for the most part.
The fleet Kerguelen continue to 'sample' the human population and experiment with them over time. They also largely continue their slipshod manner of interacting with the planet and its inhabitants.

There will be two or three more installments in this series. After the information has been presented, I will explain some of the relevance of it to the lives of all of us here on Earth today.