Photon belt

Infobox Paranormalterms

---

Image_Caption = A Hubble Space Telescope image of the Pleiades.
Usage = Terminology
Name = Photon Belt
Origin = Paul Otto Hesse (1961) "Der Jüngste Tag"
Short =
Additional_Names = Photon Ring,
Manasic Ring,
golden nebula
Definition = An astrological ring consisting of photons, said to intersect with the Earth's orbit in 2011.
Characteristics =
Extra_Title = Status
Extra_Column = New Age belief
See_Also = wikt|photon belt

The photon belt (photon ring, manasic ring, or golden nebula) is a fringe belief largely linked to some parts of the new age movement that a belt or ring of photons is going to, depending on the source of the information, fully envelope the Earth in 2011 and possibly cause massive failure of electrical equipment with 2-3 days of total darkness or total daylight, and/or initiate a spiritual transition (usually referred to as "a shift in consciousness", "the shift of the ages", or just "the shift", with the time period leading up to the shift as "the quickening"; it has also been referred to as "zero point" and ties in to various prophecies, the Mayan calendar, extraterrestrial life, etc).

The core of the photon belt beliefs is that a an immense belt of photons exists, and orbits around the Pleiades, a star cluster some 440 light years away from Earth, composed of some 500 stars. According to some New Age beliefs, Earth will pass though this belt, resulting in either Humanity's elevation to a higher plain of existence or the end of the world. Essene and Nidel write that it represents a temporary window for spiritual transition during which time humans can reach a higher point of existence.Virginia Essene Sheldan Nidel (1994) "You are Becoming a Galactic Human", Spiritual Education Endeavors, ISBN 0937147087]

History

German writer Paul Otto Hesse described his beliefs about the belt and its impact in his 1949 book "Der Jüngste Tag" (English: "The Recent Day"). ["Der jüngste Tag" ("The recent day") by Hesse, 5th Edition, 1995, ISBN 3799902392, referenced in [http://www.holoenergetic.com/TX-trafomat.htm "Die Transformation der Materie"] , Edwin Zimmerli ( [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.holoenergetic.com/TX-trafomat.htm English translation] ). ] The concept was further progressed in 1977 by Samael Aun Weor (Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez), his lecture "The Rings of Alcyone" at the "Conferencia Sobre Alcione" ("Conference on Alcyone"), in which he cites mentions Hess ["sic"] who predicts that if the Earth enters the belt first, a "great fire in the skies, or pyrotechnic lights" would occur"; but if the sun enters first, "the radiation released would interfere with the solar rays and darkness would reign for 110 hours, after which everything would return to normal. "Weor refers to the photon belt as "Alcyone's rings" (or "the rings of Alcyone"), Alcyone, Weor claims, is the principal sun (star) of the Pleiades 7-star cluster, of which our sun, according to Weor, "It has been said that the sun which illuminates us is the seventh sun that circles Alcyone" and "Alcyone is, precisely, the principal sun of the Pleiades and in its orbit gravitate seven suns, our sun being the seventh which circles Alcyone". Alcyone has rings made of "radiation" caused by the "splitting of the electron" which is released as energy by which Weor refers to as "manasic", a Sanskrit term for the mind that "is in some way related to the inferior manas (inferior mind), or to the superior manas (superior mind)" [of the subtle body] . The electrons, Weor purports, "release a type of unknown energy".:"Thereabout, in the year of 1974, three astronauts who were circling the Earth reported a type of radiation, or a type of unknown energy, unsuspected by official science. Obviously, since 1962, specifically since the 4th of February of that year, our planet Earth, and in general, the whole solar system, has been on the verge of entering the terrible rings of Alcyone. ... These rings extend for some light years; they are instantly enormous. Nevertheless, at any given moment, our solar system will enter Alcyone’s rings. [http://digitalseance.wordpress.com/collection/the-photon-belt-alcyone-saga/the-photon-belt-alcyone-saga-part-two/ transcript of "The Rings of Alcyone" from Digital Seance: "The Photon Belt Alcyone Saga: Part Two"] , [http://www.gnosticweb.com/documents/EN_The_Rings_of_Alcyone.pdf "The Rings of Alcyone"] , Samael Aun Weor, 1977 (listed on [http://www.gnosticweb.com/index.php?PageID=112 Gnostic Web: Last Works of Samael Aun Weor] )]

In August 1981, an Australian UFO magazine called "Australian International UFO Flying Saucer Research Magazine" #12 in an article called "The Photon Belt Alcyone Saga" by Shirley Kemp also mentions the photon belt (but does not mention Rodriquez but does mention Josep Comas Solá, Freidrich Wilhelm Bessel. Isaac Asimov, Edmund Halley, Paul Otto Hesse, and Erich Von Däniken). [ [http://digitalseance.wordpress.com/collection/the-photon-belt-alcyone-saga/ Digital Seance: "The Photon Belt Alcyone Saga"] ] It was reprinted in the Australian Nexus magazine in February 1991 as "The Photon Belt Story", page 6. [ [http://www.nexusmagazine.com/backissues/0202.conts.html NEXUS Magazine: Back Issues: Contents: Volume 2, Number 2 February-March 1991] ] [ [http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/8148/pleiades.html "Visitors from the Pleiades and the Photon Belt"] by Bob Laidlaw] [ [http://beyond-the-illusion.com/files/Orvotron/Newsletters/92marapr.txt Orvatron Bimonthly Newsletter, MarchApril, 1992] , archived on [http://beyond-the-illusion.com/ BeYoND THe iLLuSioN] ]

On May 5 and June 23, 1992 the "Phoenix Liberator" mentions the photon belt. [ [http://www.phoenixarchives.com/liberator/index-1992.html The Phoenix Archives -- The Phoenix Liberators - 1992] [http://www.phoenixarchives.com/liberator/1992/0592/050592.pdf Volume 19, Number 3: "Earth To Pass Through Photon Belt"] , [http://www.phoenixarchives.com/liberator/1992/0692/062392.pdf Volume 19, Number 10: "Both Warnings And Deceptions Accellerate As We Near The Photon Belt"] ] The photon belt is also mentioned in a few "Phoenix Journal"s (years unknown but seems to be from the mid-1990s). [ [http://www.phoenixarchives.com/Journals/Published.php The Phoenix Archives -- Phoenix Journal Online] #s 50, 51, 52, 74, 95--all by Gyeorgos Ceres (appended with "Hatonn" or "Hatonn-Aton") and [http://www.phoenixarchives.com/Journals/UnPublished/185.pdf unpublished Phoenix Journal 185] ( [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:cLEhvuLi59UJ:www.phoenixarchives.com/Journals/UnPublished/185.pdf view as HTML] )]

On June 8, 1992, the photon belt appears on Usenet in the newsgroup sci.astro. [ [http://groups.google.com/group/sci.astro/browse_thread/thread/40d174154b3f6294/57d291c8e8e415d1 Google Groups: sci.astro: "Galactic Radiation Belt", June 8, 1992] ]

In November 1992, in the channelled newsletter, "Revelations of Awareness", the photon belt is mentioned in the section "The Photon Belt: "Five Days of Darkness & No Electrical Power" Claims the Phoenix Liberator: This to Occur July 25, 1992". [ [http://www.transactual.com/cac/Back_Issues_1992.txt Cosmic Awareness Communications: Revelations of Awareness: Back Issues Catalog -- 1992] ] The newsletter refers to the photon belt in numerous issues thereafter. [ [http://www.etext.org/Politics/Conspiracy/Cosmic.Awareness/1993.Issues/Issue_93-11 Revelations of Awareness 93-11] (archived at Etext.org)] ["Revelations of Awareness" 95-4, 95-4,9,10,12,13, 96-2,8, 97-1,2,3,4, 99-6,11,12 via [http://turnbows.net/cac/index.php "Revelations of Awareness" back-issue master index search engine by Jon Strongbow] ]

In 1993, in Foster Perry's book, "When Lightning Strikes a Hummingbird: The Awakening of a Healer", Barbara Hand Clow mentions the photon belt numerous times in the book's foreword. ["When Lightning Strikes a Hummingbird: The Awakening of a Healer", by Foster Perry (introduced by Barbara Hand Clow), p. 78 (also mentioned numerous times in the Foreword by Clow, pp. XV-XX), ISBN 187918110X] ]

In April 1994, the book "You are Becoming a Galactic Human" by Virginia Essene and Sheldan Nidel was published which mentions the photon belt::"1994: The photon belt, a huge torroid [sic] shaped object composed of photon light particles, was first discovered by your scientists in 1961 near the vicinity of the Pleiades by satellite instrumentation." [Essene & Nidel, pp. 27–28 (source: )] The book is an edited transcription of a series of messages channeled from "Washta", a Sirian counselor and galactic presence, channelled through Nidel, who claims he has been receiving messages from the Sirians since he was nine. [ [http://auforn.com/Morley_Legg_1.htm "TESTING THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN: A Brief Analysis Of Core Samples] by Australian UFO Researcher Morley Legg on "The Australian UFO Research Network"]

In January 1998, Noel Huntley, Ph.D. [ [http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/author.asp?authorid=5411 Xlibris Author Biography: Noel Huntley] ] wrote an article called "The Photon-Belt Encounter" which examines the origin and scientific credibility of the belt, which he refers to also as an "electromagnetic cloud". [ [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~noelh/photonbelt.htm "The Photon-Belt Encounter"] , Noel Huntley, Ph.D., January 1998]

Since 2000, the photon belt has been mentioned in other books such as "The Pleidian Agenda" by Barbara Hand Clow [ [http://www.soulhealer.com/chaninfo.htm"Channeled Information: A Political Hotspot"] by Rita Louise]

In the 2005 book "Touched by the Dragon's Breath: Conversations at Colliding Rivers" by Michael Harrington, the author mentions the photon belt numerous times [Harrington pp. 20-22,28,109,121,124,131,139-141,148-150,152,157] and, in the foreword, refers to a 1987 meeting with John Redstone at "Colliding Rivers" who, the author claims, was familiar with the photon belt, "a spectacular band of multi-dimensional light that St. Germaine had called the "Golden Nebula" and "in esoteric circles it is known as the 'Dragon's Breath'."Michael Harrington, "Touched by the Dragon's Breath: Conversations at Colliding Rivers", 2005, Susan Creek Books, Foreword p. i, ISBN 0-9748716-0-5] Harrington also refers to "a Native American prophecy that told of a dynamic wave of energy traveling through space" and that "when the earth passed through this wave great changes would occur"; "this 'great transformation' would be preceded by a time of purification." [Harrington, p. 7]

Criticism from Ufologists

In 1999, fringe physicist and ufologist Paul LaViolette, chairman of the Starburst Foundation, a scientific research institute, criticized assertions about the photon belt made by Shirley Kemp in a magazine published by the "Australian International UFO Research Society" (later reprinted in the February/March 1991 issue of "Nexus"). He disputed Kemp's assertion that the belt had been detected by satellites in 1961, holding that no records of the such satellite findings was ever released, and that it was unlikely that equipment of the period would have been able to detect a belt such as was being described. LaViolette also disputed Kemp's assertions about the movements of the belt and the solar system in relation to the star Alcyone, in the Pleiades cluster, saying that in order for Kemp's figures to be accurate the solar system would have to be traveling at 10% of the speed of light, while Alcyone itself would have to be approximately 1 billion times the mass of the sun in order to support such an orbit. [http://www.etheric.com/LaViolette/Disinformation.html "Morphogenic Resonance or a Plethora of Galactic Center Disinformation"] , Paul LaViolette ( [http://www.etheric.com/LaViolette/LaViolette.html bio] ), 1999]

A number of predictions have been made as to the date Earth's collision with the photon belt. So far, no observable effects attributable to the photon belt have been seen on those dates. Dates so far given have included 1992 and 1997, a future date was given as 2011. [ [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_042.html The Straight Dope] ]

Mainstream science and the Photon Belt

While the concept of the Photon Belt is a New Age philosophy, some parts of the story can be analyzed scientifically. There is no scientific evidence for the existence of any sort of "photon belt".

A photon is the elementary particle that makes up light. To the extent that such a thing as a "photon belt" is physically possible, it would require the gravitational pull of a black hole, with light rays being bent around the black hole near the event horizon, forming a photon sphere. [ [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html NASA article about visual distortions near a black hole] ] Barring interaction with gravity or matter, photons otherwise always travel in straight lines.

Alcyone is some 440 light-years away, and the Sun isn't even travelling in that particular direction. Thousands of stars are closer to us than Alcyone. Saying we are "approaching" Alcyone is nonsensical.

Popular culture

*In 1994, in the April-May issue of "Nexus Magazine", included is a review of a song called "Five Days in a Photon Belt" by Warp Factor Nine on Karmic Hit Records. [ [http://www.nexusmagazine.com/backissues/0219.conts.html NEXUS Magazine: Back Issues: Contents: Volume 2, Number 19 April-May 1994] ]
*In summer 1994, Art DiFuria, after having read about "a band of photonic matter" that will envelop the earth and change consciousness forever, in the astrology magazine "Welcome to Planet Earth", it seemed to Art that this explained everything and left the Lilys to form "Photon Band" and released the single, "747", on Darla Records in 1996 (and other albums since then). [ [http://www.empyreanrecords.com/artistDetail.php?artist_id=8 "Photon Band"] , Empyrean Records]
*In January 1995, the Lilys released the album "Eccsame the Photon Band". [ [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3vfoxq8hldfe Lilys: "Eccsame the Photon Band"] , Allmusic, Jason Ankeny]
*In 1998, the music group "The Photon Belt" released a CD with Frankie Death called "Soundtrack for the film 'Future Unseen" ' on Subversive Records. [ [http://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue14/fdeath.html "Frankie Death and The Photon Belt - "Soundtrack For The Film Unseen" (Subversive Records 1998, CD)] , Jerry Kranitz, "Aural Innovations" #14 (January 2001) ( [http://subversive.itgo.com/tpb.htm Subversive Records: "The Photon Belt"] )]

References

External links

* [http://www.salemctr.com/photon.html Salem New Age Center: Photon Belt]
* [http://www.skepticwiki.org/index.php/Photon_Belt SkepticWiki: Photon Belt]
* [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_042.html The Straight Dope: Skeptical commentary]
* [http://www.spiritdove.com/1_photonbelt.htm Spirit Dove: The Photon Belt] - combined information from various sources
* [http://www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/1.htm#Photon%20belt 2012: Dire Gnosis: "A Convergence of Eschatological Information..."] - more combined info