Stephen Hawking and the Extraterrestrial Janos Affair

A few days ago NASA has dropped a big public hint that the U.S. Government/Military is in contact with one or more extraterrestrial civilizations. And where does this announcement come from? From chief NASA administrator Charles Bolden, who is not only a former astronaut but also has had a highly distinguished military career. He was a test pilot with the U.S. Navy, and was a Commanding General for Operation Desert Thunder in Kuwait. From some leaks, the U.S. Navy was long ago put in charge of certain extraterrestrial programs in the U.S. Military. So if anyone in "in the know", Charles Bolden is one of them. Now here is this news item from NASA must learn to do more with less:

NASA just confirmed what sci-fi enthusiasts have known all along: There are other civilizations out there.
This bombshell was dropped Tuesday by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at the Humans 2 Mars Summit in Foggy Bottom. “Here in the Western world we think very shortsighted,” he explained. “We think about the time in which we’re going to be on this Earth, or which our kids or grandkids are going to be on this Earth. Many other civilizations think muuuuuch longer than that, and we need to start thinking that way.”
Many other civilizations! Klingons, Romulans and Vulcans?
Bolden, a former astronaut, did not say. But he spoke about being in a race to colonize other worlds before the sun burns out like other stars have.
“One of these days that’s going to be the story of our star, the sun,” he said. “And so if this species is to survive indefinitely, we need to become a multi-planet species. So one reason we need to go to Mars is so we can learn a little about living on another planet, so that when Mikaley, my granddaughter, is ready to move out of the solar system we’ll know a lot more about living away from this planet than we know today.”

The reason why this statement caught my attention was from another claimed extraterrestrial contact from a planet known as Iarga, probably from the Epsilon Eridani system.  Its one of the few where I have seen they have provided pretty good wise advice and a practical philosophy. See Extraterrestrial Contact from Iarga: their Origin and Philosophy and Extraterrestrial Contact from Epsilon Eridani and Emanuel Swedenborg. One of the main criticisms they had of human society is that we are extremely short-sighted in our planning, and are extremely wasteful and inefficient. Due to wars between nations, we do not look to long term planning, and capitalism favors wastefulness and competition. There is an old Native American Proverb:

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, but rather we borrow it from our children

I am suspecting that the advice of certain extraterrestrial parties is helping to drive the NASA agenda - specifically, colonization of Mars and intercepting an asteroid. Could it be that they have warned us of an impending disaster, and that are only hope for survival is to eventually move off of earth? Such is the plot of a program known as Alternative 3. There was another extraterrestial contact which warned of a future asteroid impact - for that see An Extraterrestrial Prophecy. And NASA is moving suspiciously fast to drive the colonization of Mars - see The Secret Space Program and Hidden Intelligence. I have seen a few leaks that indicate we may already be there, but in order to hide this leak it is covered up with some very vocal (and wacky) "disinformants" in order to discredit the thought in the eyes of the public.

Other than colonization of Mars and intercepting asteroids, if there is any government policy that I would say they would be most interested in, it would be control of nuclear weapons, and preserving the environment of the earth. The Iargan contact also stated that how advanced a society is depends on how they treat the least fortunate person of that society. But another hidden aspect of the extraterrestrial presence is how they are helping us to advance our technology at an extremely rapid pace - for that see the book The Day After Roswell by Philip Corso, from a U.S. military insider who was in charge of taking the knowledge and seeding U.S. corporations to insert the technology in our society. The danger here is we advance too far technologically and ignore our spiritual and social aspects of our development. In this area, I have seen a few high level leaks of those "in the know" who have indicated that our scientific knowledge in physics and mathematics is deficient. One of them is General Wesley Clark. From General Wesley K. Clark on UFOs:

Clark said he was a great believer in the space program and wanted a vision well beyond that of a  new shuttle or space plane.  He hoped mankind would eventually leave this planet and explore space beyond the solar system.  Clark thought such a vision could probably require a lifetime of research and development in various fields of science and technology. Then at the end of his remarks, Clark dropped a bombshell when he said the following:
       "We need to look at the realms of applied and higher mathematics.  I still believe in E = mc squared.  But I can't believe that in all of human history, we'll never ever be       able to go beyond the speed of light to reach where we want to go.  I happen to       believe that mankind can do it.  I've argued with physicists about it.  I've argued with best friends about it.  I just have to believe it.  It's my only faith-based initiative."
The mass media then mocked Clark for his remarks, claiming that Clark said he believed in "time travel."  But Clark never said any such thing, only that he believed we would one day travel faster than light.

Later at another event, David Rudiak happened to catch Wesley Clark and asked him directly about UFOs:

Q: Gen. Clark, when you were running for President, you said you thought mankind would one day fly faster than light and visit the stars. My question is, when you were in the military were you ever briefed on the subject of U.F.O.s? 
At this point Clark looked down for a moment and shook his head, perhaps somewhat chagrined at being put on the spot or thinking how he should respond, but then looked at me and answered:
A: I heard a bit. In fact, I'm going to be in Roswell, New Mexico tonight.
Q: So you were briefed? 
A: There are things going on. But we will have to work out our own mathematics.

So WHAT does THAT mean? We have to work out our own mathematics??? And I saw another high level leaker who indicated that concerning extraterrestrials and UFOs, who again mentioned the same problem: we have to work out our own mathematics. So, lets hypothetically consider the situation where perhaps they offer help and advice, but when it comes to the actual knowledge of physics and mathematics involving faster than light travel, they say we are on our own. So if you are in the U.S. military, and you are in that sort of dilemma, who would you consult? If it were me, I would consult Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist and brilliant mathematician, who is known for his work on black holes. So has Stephen Hawking been consulted? Yes. I have seen two "off the record" comments from Stephen Hawking, where somebody let him in on some information (specifically, concerning Tony Dodd, Human Extraterrestrials, and a Stranger in the Pentagon).  But "on the record", Stephen Hawking said this concerning extraterrestrials (from Hawking: Aliens may pose risks to Earth - he speaks "hypothetically" but perhaps is stating some information of what was disclosed to him:

Hawking claims in a new documentary titled "Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking" that intelligent alien life forms almost certainly exist — but warns that communicating with them could be "too risky.""We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet," Hawking said. "I imagine they might exist in massive ships ... having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”
The 68-year-old scientist said a visit by extraterrestrials to Earth might well be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas, "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."
He speculated that most extraterrestrial life would be similar to microbes, or small animals. Microbial life might exist far beneath the Martian surface, where liquid water is thought to trickle through the rock. Marine creatures might also conceivably live in huge oceans of water beneath a miles-thick layer of ice on Europa, a moon of Jupiter.
But if a scientific census could be extended beyond our solar system to the rest of the Milky Way and beyond, the odds in favor of life's existence rise dramatically, Hawking said.
"To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," he said. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."
Hawking said an attack by interstellar predators is just one of the dismaying possibilities in the search for intelligent life beyond Earth. Another possibility is that intelligence itself might be inimical to life. Hawking pointed out that humanity has put itself on the edge of its own destruction by creating nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction.
"If the same holds for intelligent aliens, then they might not last long," he said. "Perhaps they all blow themselves up soon after they discover that E=mc2. If civilizations take billions of years to evolve, only to vanish virtually overnight, then sadly we've next to no chance of hearing from them."

Note again, Stephen Hawking mentions the speed of light in the context of extraterrestrials - just as with Wesley Clark. It is a bit unfortunate that Hawkings is assuming they will be warlike and hostile like our society. So, in the above quote from Stephen Hawking, was he speaking hypothetically, or factually, concerning a civilization whose own planet was destroyed and are now wandering nomads in massive ships?

THE STORY OF THE JANOS PEOPLE

And with that preface, we are now led to this very strange extraterrestrial contact which I call the "Janos Affair." If true, it is a very sad story. It is not well known and probably forgotten by many, but before it is completely forgotten, I want to revive it, because the witnesses are probably still alive. Its a strong case as there are multiple witnesses. Here is a picture of the family who were abducted and taken on board a flying saucer while on a road trip in England in 1978:

Picture of the people involved: back left: GLORIA right - FRANCES. JOHN in the middle and left front TANIA and NATASHA right

As is typical with most extraterrestrial abductions, the memory of the event was erased from the adults. However in this particular case, they goofed up, and did not erase the memory of the children. They chose to withhold their last names to remain anonymous at the time. The research into this event is documented in the book The Janos People by Frank Johnson, who had to piece together the story through hypnosis (some through normal recall) and many hours of recorded interviews. For about one hour, they were brought aboard a flying saucer that were piloted by humans just like us. During that time, they showed a video of the last days of their planet before they escaped. Below is a quote from the book which summarizes the story of the Janos people. The story reminds me of...exactly what Stephen Hawking said. The quote is long, but I think it is interesting enough to quote in its entirety:

The Janos people are, in the literal sense of the term, extra-terrestrial: they come from another world, which they call Janos, a planet "several thousand light years" away from Earth. At the same time, they are terrestrial in origin: their remote ancestors, in the prehistoric past, lived here and originated here; the people seen in this particular incident appeared to be Europeans of a Nordic type. 
...JANOS IS THE name of a world that died. Janos (pronounced 'Jan e-oss', the first syllable stressed) was a planet, very like our own, with blue seas and lakes, green fields and hills, trees and grass; with towns, cities and quiet countryside; with ships and boats and aircraft; with pleasant single-storey homes and families of men, women and children, people very like us. People who laugh and make jokes; gentle, kindly, sensitive people of deep understanding, who abhor violence and will not make war, even to obtain that which they most desire. People who, even in extreme need, do not want to bring trouble on others. People very like us; but perhaps in all honesty we ought to say, the kind of people we would like to be, rather than the kind of people we of this planet all too often are.
Janos had two moons, both small compared with our moon. One of these, the nearer one, called Saton, (pronounced 'Zaton'; but the spelling Saton was given by the Janos people) imperceptibly slowed, millenium after millenium, by the friction of solid tides raised in its rocky crust by the gravitational field of the planet, had crept nearer and nearer to Janos, until it was too close for stability; the cohesive forces which held it together were finely balanced against tidal disruption.
The people of Janos had known for a long time of their danger. For a long time they had known that they must eventually leave the planet, as the crew and passengers of a sinking ship must take to the boats.
With a science and technology more advanced than ours, they long ago developed the art of space travel, and constructed spaceships in which they explored the worlds within reach of them, looking for a new home, to which they could go when the time came to leave Janos.
Their exploration ships ranged far and wide among the nearer stars and their attendant planetary worlds. This interstellar househunting took a long time; and the crisis crept nearer. Many planets were surveyed, and some of them would have made possible homes.
But one green, lovely world had attracted them from the first, although they knew it only by tradition; because, they tell us, it is so like Janos as it used to be. There was a feeling of home about it. They had known about Earth for a long time, from their history books; they knew where it was in the sky.
...The Janos people have known about Earth for a very long time - long before a double disaster drove them from their home world. For besides the threat of the fragmenting moon, which they had long warning of, an unsuspected danger lay in wait for them, for which they were totally unprepared; this other peril we will come to presently.
Like everyone else with long warning of the need for action, they ran it a little too long; and the rain of great rocks began before they quite expected it. They were almost ready: out in orbit, above the fragmenting moon, the great fleet lay in its gravitational anchorage, a host of mighty ships, clustered about one really stupendous ring-shaped flagship, a veritable city in space, capable between them of taking in the entire population of Janos, many millions in number, and provisioned and ready for a long interstellar voyage. They had already picked out their destination.
The big ships, built in orbit, could not embark directly from the ground; and hundreds of smaller vessels were needed to ferry the population up from planet to fleet, making endless to-and-from trips, each time carrying a full load of men, women and children, with all their stores and necessities. These smaller vessels, lens-shaped ships of the kind familiar to us as 'flying saucers', were built in huge subterranean shipyards, far below the threatened planetary surface, in vast artificial caverns whose lofty roofs were supported by massive columns cut out of the solid rock, columns which flared out trumpet-wise at the top, to meet the curving roof.
The operation of embarking a whole world of people was well advanced when, ahead of estimated time, a series of minor rockfalls gave warning that the inner moon, Saton, was about to break up. 
The English family whose story is told in this book have been shown films taken during one of these earlier rockfalls: they describe rocks "as big as houses" falling from the sky, crushing the buildings and setting them on fire. The film's sound track records the screams of people trapped in the blazing wreckage.
...The early beginning of rockfall created a complicated, fast-moving crisis. Those who were not killed outright made, if they could, for the nearest tunnel-mouth; these were entrances, of two very different sizes, to the system of tunnels which led down, far down into the planet's crust, to reach the complex of subterranean shipyards. The small tunnels were intended for workmen to come and go.
Underground, the ships which were in the shipyards and ready to fly hastily took on board as many people as they could cram in, and flew out through the great tunnels, shaped to allow a lens-shaped ship to fly through them with a little room to spare, up to the distant surface, risking the rain of rocks, any one of which would have crushed it like an egg hit by a cricket-ball, and up into orbit with the fleet. Ships returning to the ground from orbit repeatedly entered the tunnels to take on more refugees, until the battering of the rocks caused the tunnel-mouths to cave in dangerously, and the rescue operation had to be suspended until the end of rockfall, several months ahead.
We do not know how many were left underground: they should have been safe enough during the main rockfall which now began as Saton slowly disintegrated, covering the planetary surface with millions of rocks, great and small; for deep underground, the rocks could not hurt them, and they had supplies awaiting transhipment, and uncompleted ferry ships to live in.
But there was a complication, which the Janos people now admit they had completely overlooked. The world of Janos was one which used a lot of electrical power to supply its highly-automated industries and its domestic needs, more developed than ours. The main, if not the only source of energy was a network of huge nuclear power stations using uranium, scattered over the planet on the exposed surface; wisdom after the event would no doubt have put them deep underground. It had been assumed that they would be destroyed by the rockfall, like everything else, and would simply cease to operate. With the destruction of all surface industry and the abandonment of the planetary surface, electricity would not be needed: almost certainly the subterranean shipyards had independent emergency generators of low power, which would provide some lighting and ventilation for the entombed survivors.

But it was not as simple as that. The ship people showed one member of our English family pictures of what happened. She saw, first, a typical Janos power station, so sharply defined that she was later able to make a detailed drawing of it; she described it as "like a gasometer inside the Eiffel Tower" - a very apt description. It is shown in figure 19 on page 144; you will see a massive dull grey cylinder supported within a four-legged tapering pylon of shiny metal lattice-work construction.
Then, as she watched, the whole structure disintegrated in a tremendously brilliant flash. A second or two later, there was another flash, far away in the distance; then another still further away; and more and more flashes, very remote. The Janos man who showed her the picture said: "There was a chain reaction".
All the power stations of Janos exploded, one after another very quickly; as one disintegrated, we are told, it caused the nearest also to explode, and that detonated the next, and so on. What exactly went wrong in terms of nuclear engineering, we cannot explain in detail; but it seems likely that the massive protective shell, which had withstood the earlier, lighter rockfalls, was finally ruptured by the later tremendous battering, and that the control mechanism was wrecked, causing the pile to run out of control and to 'go critical'. Engineers must explain this more fully than I can.What is quite clear is that the heavy biological shielding was explosively ruptured; and that thousands of tons of intensely radioactive dust swirled around the planet with the turbulent winds created by the multiple explosions. The swirling dust clouds were seen in later pictures; and we know that a lot of this heavy, gritty dust, sucked down no doubt by ventilation machinery still operating, found its way down the tunnels into the underground shipyards, where the people left behind were still living. The entire planet, surface and underground alike, was drenched in radioactivity.
Communications between the planet and the fleet in orbit had failed with the loss of power; and the people in the ships had no idea what was happening in the shipyards. They were in orbit, waiting, for a long time; when the rockfall finally ceased, they still thought it would be possible to send rescue ships down to pick up survivors, and they sent powerful anti-gravity equipment capable of lifting heavy rocks and clearing the choked tunnel-mouths.
When the rescue ships finally penetrated to the underground shipyards, their crews were horrified to find that, although many were still alive, they were already doomed to a slow death by severe radiation poisoning. Not one could be saved. They could not be taken in by the rescue ships; it would have been dangerous, even to touch them. They had to be left to die.
The rescue ship crews did what they could to organise for the needs of the sick people, without becoming themselves contaminated. Somebody invented a new type of clothing -rather like a monk's long-skirted habit, with a deep hood or cowl over the head - to give better protection against the lethal dust. The sad routine began, of regular daily visits to collect the dead bodies, and remove them for disposal.
As the survivors became fewer in number, they were concentrated into a few localities, until finally only one shipyard-refuge still had men and women living in it. At this point, a film record was made, by a camera mounted behind the windscreen of one of the last float-vehicles to make its melancholy rounds; the film shows a half-dozen of those still able to walk, carrying a roughly-made coffin to the vehicle, where it was loaded into a cargo-space underneath. While it waited, the vehicle still hovered a few feet above the ground.
The bearers looked like very old people; they shuffled slowly and hopelessly about, "as if they had given up". Some were blind; all had lost their teeth, so that their cheeks were sunken; and their hands were deformed and claw-like, with huge lumps on the knuckles.
The ships remained in orbit until the last of the sick people died. Then the great migration fleet moved slowly out of its orbital station, leaving Janos for the last time. Gradually its speed built up, as the navigators set course for Earth's star -what we call the Sun, thousands of light-years away. They knew its galactic coordinates, and how to find it. The acceleration was maintained until the fleet was flashing across the Galaxy at a velocity close to the speed of light. In this way, a journey which, as measured by "Earth time," took many thousands of years was completed, according to the ships' clocks and calendars, in just two years.
The traumatic stress of the double disaster - especially their grief over those who were left to die - affected the Janos people deeply; but gradually, as the voyage went on, their natural buoyancy of spirit returned. Today, they show the emotional effect of all that befell them - loss of their home, the rock fall, and their shocked grief over the fate of those left behind - only when talking of these things to visitors, and showing them films, brings it all back.

So there you have it: exactly the story of Stephen Hawking, of an extraterrestrial race whose planet was destroyed and are now wandering around like nomads. The reason for the abduction of the family in 1978?  They gave them each a medical exam, to see if they could adapt to living here on Earth. I think one of the main differences between us and them is that they have a higher pulse rate. Although the author did not speculate on this, I suspect that may have been developed from a thinner atmosphere on Janos.

QUOTES FROM THE ABDUCTION ENCOUNTER

Each extraterrestrials human on the disk gave their name, and pronounced it: one odd thing is that the names look like they are all Greek names. Rather than recount the whole story I will mention some quotes from the encounter. Here are some quotes from the ship's captain named ANOUXIA:

'We are travellers - we have been travelling for a very, very long time, and we have come a very, very long way.'

'We have been watching you for a long time: we are looking at you; we are studying you, to see if we can stay here.' 

'We cannot go back.'

Here are quotes from the space pilot UXIAULIA, whose wife VURNA was killed on Janos before she could escape. The information here is significant - there is evidently another hostile extraterrestrial race, and some of the Janos people had been killed by them in a war (I will return to this later):

'You are our people, because you are the same as us; we could learn from each other.' 

'You can help us by giving us a home, friendship, a chance to live again.' 

'We must have somewhere to live: we cannot float around in space forever.' 

'Together we can conquer all space: other planets are inhabited; not all are friendly. Too far to do much harm at the moment.' 

'Some of our people have been destroyed by inhabitants of other planets: we cannot allow this to happen any more; so we only come in peace, if all agree.' 

'There must be no war: we do not want to cause any trouble.' 

'We have suffered too much sadness and sorrow; we cannot fight more wars. We would rather die in space.'

Note how they stress they do not want war. But from the way Stephen Hawking spoke, it was if he had spoken to some in the U.S. Military, who always will assume a hostile intent. Here are some other quotes from UXIAULIA:

"You seem to enjoy doing things the hard way here." 

"You should let your machines do more for you." 

"We are far more automated; we are two hundred years ahead of you."

And when they look at us, they see themselves as they once were:

"We knew about Earth from the past…." 

"We knew where it was in the sky." 

"Looking at you people and the planet, it is like stepping back into one of our own history books; to us, you are living history."

They want to live here, but they want to make sure that their presence would not cause a war. When one of the abductees was asked why they would think it would cause a war, she said: Because people want to use their knowledge to control other people. And there lies the problem. The U.S. military keeps their presence a secret, in the hopes of developing better weapons for military superiority. So on their side, it is to their advantage to remain hidden, and unknown, to avoid any panic or cause of war.

There are no photos or videos of this encounter, but it is an important one as it is one of the few that reveals the intentions of those flying these craft.  And if anyone wants to see videos, or more current witness encounters, there is just no end to them. It is happening every month now. For example, I just found this one at random - 40 minutes worth of UFO videos from the last month or so (its from Third Phase of Moon, who unfortunately do absolutely no video analysis on these - but a few of these shots look pretty good):

A CASE OF UFO ABDUCTIONS FROM ANCIENT ROME OR GREECE?

Two things caught my attention concerning this extraterrestrial contact: these human extraterrestrials claimed that they originally came from earth in ancient times, and they put a lot of stress on the spelling of their names. Now, it is highly unlikely that an advanced civilization developed here on earth. What is more likely, is that in ancient times humans were abducted to "seed" another planet. Their names also look very similar to Greek names. And we see this a lot in ancient Greek myths: a "god" looks down from heaven who falls in love with a woman and attempts to abduct or kidnap her. The children of such a union - half human, half god - are often afterwards taken up to dwell among the stars. Thus the Greeks often named their constellations after such children. In the Bible (to the horror of ministers who will debate me on this), we have two possible cases of this kind of situation in the stories of Enoch and Elijah having never died but were taken up into heaven - the case of Elijah having occurred in the same time frame of ancient Greece (9th century B.C.). As for the possible Greek connection, the author said this:

As to the possible Hellenic link (the very word Janos has a distinctively Greek ring to it; and Saton is actually a Greek word), let us remember that, while present-day Greeks conform, in general, to the Eastern Mediterranean type of European, their classical art and ancient mythology refer back to a blue-eyed fair type as an ideal - a type identical with the Janos people of today.

Here is another comment on a possible Greek connection from the author:

Of the Janos language, we know very little, but just enough to be interesting. We have, so far, thirteen proper nouns with their pronunciation: JANOS SATON SARNIA ANOUXIA UXIAULIA VURNA AKILIAS SERKILIAS COSENTIA SAUNUS VONASON FAUN and PHUSANTHEAS. The spelling in English letters was provided by the spaceship people for the first five of these; the remainder are our spelling of a spoken word, though Natasha knew that Phusantheas began with a P, and the spelling of the last four may have been given to her by Akilias.I was at once struck by the affinity of the words, taken as a sample of a language, with archaic Greek; Phusantheas has a very Greek ring, and Saton is actually an old Greek word meaning a corn measure; here it is applied to the inner moon of Janos, the one that broke up. All of the words are possible, considered as words in a language akin to old Greek. 

There is an interesting connection that the author did not make: the planet name of Janos is similar in name to the ancient Roman god of Janus, the two faced god:

And who is the god Janus? He is a bit odd. Here is a description from Wikipedia:

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus (Latin: Ianus, pronounced [ˈiaː.nus]) is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, passages, endings and time. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. The Romans named the month of January (Ianuarius) in his honor.
Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The doors of his temple were open in time of war, and closed to mark the peace. As a god of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth and to journeys and exchange, and in his association with Portunus, a similar harbor and gateway god, he was concerned with travelling, trading and shipping.

If Janus is the god of beginnings, also of travel and shipping - what better name for a new planet than JANOS? Or, perhaps it goes the other way around: ancient Romans came into contact with them, and began to worship their planet as a god. So was Janus an exclusively Roman god? Of that scholars are not so clear either. For example:

Janus-like heads of gods related to Hermes have been found in Greece, perhaps suggesting a compound god.

Hermes of course is the Greek god of Mercury, the god of travel. At this point it is very tempting to associate the extraterrestrial human race with the extraterrestrials of Mercury that Swedenborg saw in his visions - for they were also nomadic, travelling from star system to star system, described in his works Heavenly Arcana and Earths in the Universe.

Scholars are puzzled as to the actual entymology of Janus and its origin:

Another etymology proposed by Nigidius Figulus is related by Macrobius: Ianus would be Apollo and Diana Iana, by the addition of a D for the sake of euphony. This explanation has been accepted by A. B. Cook and J. G. Frazer. It supports all the assimilations of Janus to the bright sky, the sun and the moon. It supposes a former *Dianus, formed on *dia- < *dy-eð2 from Indo-European root *dey- shine represented in Latin by diesday, Diovis and Iuppiter. However the form Dianus postulated by Nigidius is not attested.

This entymology is interesting - perhaps the myth is not trying to relate a pairing of the Sun and Moon, but rather the extraterrestrial planet Janos and its moon Saton? In myth Janus is said to have accepted Saturn as a guest and shared his kingdom with him for teaching him the art of agriculture. Back in Roman times, the furthest planet they knew of was Saturn. Perhaps the extraterrestrial planet JANOS - if it was explained that it was beyond Saturn - was the actual origin of this myth?

As Janus is this "odd ball out" in terms of explaining the origin, some scholars have proposed an interesting theory where Janus originated from some far off travelers:

The uniqueness of Janus in Latium has suggested to L. Adams Holland and J. Gagé the hypothesis of a cult brought from far away by sailors and strictly linked to the amphibious life of the primitive communities living on the banks of the Tiber. In the myth of Janus the ship of Saturn as well as the myth of Carmenta and Evander are remininscent of an ancient Preroman sailing life. The elements that seem to connect Janus to sailing are presented in two articles by J. Gagé summarised here below.
1. The boat of Janus and the beliefs of the primitive sailing techniques.
a) The proximity of Janus and Portunus and the functions of the flamen Portunalis.

So are we talking about sailors here, or travelers of an extraterrestrial sort?

THE MOVIE SERIES, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

The story of the extraterrestrial Janos people reminds me of something. Does anyone remember the movie series, Battlestar Galactica?



What was the story again? Oh yes, their planet gets destroyed, and an entire armada then leaves and goes on a nomadic search for a planet they know from myth and history - earth. And they are hunted down by another hostile race. And in the story, there are 12 colonies, and some of them have Greek names - similar to the 12 Greek gods or the 12 primary Roman gods. Oh wait, that's the exact story of the Janos people...and when was this series released? The year 1978. The abductees in the Janos affair were told that the flying saucer was the one that was chosen to make first contact. And when did this contact occur? In June of 1978. At first one would think the abductees took this story from the movie. But that is impossible - the pilot episode aired in September of 1978. In Battlestar Galactica: they are hunted down by a cybernetic race known as Cylons. In the recent remake of 2004, the story of the Cylons changes dramatically - they are now known to be experts at genetic engineering, and making clones of humans....

Is there any hidden truth to this movie series?  Or is it all just a weird coincidence?  Others have noted other hidden messages in movies, and the CIA has admitted into influencing the plot lines of some of these.  So real or not, I dedicate this song from the movie Oblivion (Susanne Sundfør Extended Mix) to the Janos people:

M83 OBLIVION LYRICS (Featuring Susanne Sundfor)

Since I was young, I knew I’d find you
But our love was a song sung by a dying swan
And in the night, you hear me calling,
You hear me calling
And in your dreams you see me falling, falling

Breathe in the light
I’ll stay here in the shadow
Waiting for a sign, as the tide grows
Higher, and higher, and higher

And when the nights are long
All those stars recall your goodbye, your goodbye

And in the night you'll hear me calling,
You'll hear me calling
And in your dreams you'll see us falling, falling
And in now you'll hear me calling,
You'll hear me calling
And in your dreams you'll see us falling, falling

Breathe in the light and say goodbye
Breathe in the light and say goodbye.

Did Jesus Die to Appease an Angry God? Is Vicarious Atonement True or False?

The revelations of the New Church expose quite a few foundational errors that are taught in modern Christianity. Most people are not willing to question what they have been taught and accept it blindly, thus when an alternative understanding is given they are most likely to label it as a cult. Unfortunately, the opposite is true: many Christian Churches have become so corrupt they do not know what is true or false any more. Many are tritheistic and believe that Jesus died to appease an angry God, and Protestants keep repeating the false teaching that belief alone saves, and it does not matter what you do. The utter blindness of church theologians and pundits is shown by how far they can box in their mind by their teachings. For example, the website gotquestions.org has this to say to the question, What is Swedenborgianism? It says "is well outside of orthodox Christianity in its beliefs and can definitely be labeled as a cult."  I already addressed the "cult" issue in Was Swedenborg a Cult Leader, and is the New Church a cult? So what issues does gotquestions have?  Here they are, with some typical blather:

These writings include teachings such as: God has many names, depending on the beliefs/religion of the individual; the Holy Spirit is not God; the Trinity does not exist; Jesus Christ's death did not atone for our sin; salvation comes by practicing what you believe, whatever religion it might be; the afterlife is spiritual, but dependent on how well you lived in your physical body.
None of these teachings are compatible with biblical Christianity. The God of the Bible is the only true God (Exodus 3:13-14;Isaiah 43:10). All other gods are idols; creations of man (Exodus 20:4-5). The Holy Spirit is definitely declared to be God in the Bible (Acts 5:3-4), as is Jesus Christ (John 1:1,14) and God the Father (Philippians 1:2); the Trinity is a valid, biblical reality. The Bible is also very clear on Jesus' vicarious atonement of our sin (1 Peter 2:24;1 John 2:2), and that it is only through belief in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that salvation is possible (John 14:6;1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The after-life will be experienced in one of two places—heaven or hell—and that in a physical body (Revelation 22).
Swedenborgianism, and its churches by whatever name they might be called, are as far outside historical, biblical Christianity as a group can get. Although they might claim to base their teachings on the Bible, every teaching is tainted by heresy, confusion, and sometimes lunacy.

I am going to just skip the statement that heaven and hell will be experienced in a physical body - which Revelation 22 does NOT teach. So besides that, lets remove some typical blatant falsehoods in the above paragraph:

God has many names, depending on the beliefs/religion of the individual

This is probably got to be the most irrelevant accusation I have heard of and shows quite a bit of intolerance for other religions - as well as just plain ignorance.  Of course God has many names - even in the Bible it states by the time of Moses, they FORGOT God's name! Instead of calling him Jehovah they called him Shaddai. That does not mean they were worshiping an idol.

the Holy Spirit is not God; the Trinity does not exist

The problem with many former churches is they have no conception of God except for a tritheistic one. They have to have three beings or three persons. The Holy Spirit is simply God's spirit which flows from the body of Jesus, pure and simple. A spirit of a person is not another person. There does exist a Trinity, but it is a Trinity of soul, body and spirit in ONE PERSON, Jesus Christ. What has happened to modern Christianity actually happened long ago in ancient times, when each aspect of God was taken to be a different person - thus the origin of idolatry.

the Trinity is a valid, biblical reality

No, a trinity of three persons is only a reality that was defined in the Nicene Creed by a church council in the 4th century A.D.; later more explicitly by the Athanasian Creed of the 5th century A.D. This tritheism is completely foreign to the Bible, and has no support especially from the Old Testament. There is no statement in the New Testament that declares God is three beings or persons.

salvation comes by practicing what you believe, whatever religion it might be

Protestants churches especially have a problem with any plan of salvation outside of belief alone. The truth of the matter is God is good itself, and everyone will be judged according to the good that they did according to the truth that they knew. And in heaven, everyone will have the opportunity to learn more. Those who did good can learn better than those who were in just belief alone - in fact, those who were in belief alone were cast to hell in Matthew 25. For it is the will that survives after death more so than one's beliefs that one did not act upon. If you know the truth and do not follow it, you are much worse off than those who are in good and in no knowledge through no fault of their own. And what did Jesus say about other religions? He said this:

Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.”But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is on our side." (Mark 9:38-40)

With that out of the way, I want to concentrate on one particular point mentioned in the above paragraph: and that concerns vicarious atonement...

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS VICARIOUS ATONEMENT?

The term "vicarious atonement" is the prevailing theory of salvation in Protestant and Catholic churches, and means that somehow sins are transferred away from us and put on Jesus on the cross. While it is a foundational belief for Protestant and Catholic churches, it is not for the older Orthodox Church - see The Older Forgotten Branch of Christianity. The New Church follows a similar doctrine to the ancient Orthodox Church - that Jesus came to overcome the power of hell and sin over humanity, thereby saving all mankind. But as theologians have written endless books on this doctrine - which became widespread only in the 11th century A.D. - they are opposed to this doctrine of the New Church and will tend to label it as a cult. But the Orthodox Church does not follow it either. Does that mean the ancient Christian church was a cult? No, of course not. This label comes from the person's own mindset of what they have been taught as the truth - anything outside of the "box of truth" is declared to be a heresy. They find it inconceivable that the church they were born in might in itself be corrupt. Most people think the religion they were born in is the "absolute truth", and never question what they have been taught.

In support of vicarious atonement, the author of gotquestions.org had actually mentioned some scripture to support it, and this bears further discussion. The relevant scripture are those that mention the word translated as "propitiation."  The word propitiation appears four times in the epistles of the apostles:

being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed (Rom. 3:24-25)
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Heb. 2:17)
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

So do the above quotes prove that vicarious atonement is correct? Well no, because they do not say how propitiation was effected. The word "propitiation" is a Latin word meaning to appease a god, often by sacrifice. But what is the original word translated as propitiation? It is a translation of the Greek word hilasterion (or hilasmos in 1 Jn 2:2, 4:10). But does this Greek word have the same meaning as the Latin word propitiation? Actually there is strong evidence that it does not in these contexts. The same Greek word is used to refer to the mercy-seat cover of the ark of the covenant in Hebrews 9:5, and this follows the Septuagint which uses the word hilasterion for the Hebrew word meaning covering, often translated as "atonement."  Thus hilasterion does not necessarily mean "propitiate," but can also have the meaning of "expiation" - which is just another Latin theological word meaning to remove sin. And this definition is supported by the Septuagint, which was often quoted by the apostles. I found this interesting entry on "propitiation" in Wikipedia:

The case for translating hilasterion as "expiation" instead of "propitiation" was put forward by C. H. Dodd in 1935 and at first gained wide support. As a result, hilasterion has been translated as "expiation" in the RSV and other modern versions. Dodd argued that in pagan Greek the translation of hilasterion was indeed to propitiate, but that in the Septuagint (the oldest Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) that kapporeth (Hebrew for "atone") is often translated with words that mean "to cleanse or remove" (Dodd, "The Bible and the Greeks", p 93). This view was challenged by Leon Morris who argued that because of the focus in the book of Romans on God's wrath, that the concept of hilasterion needed to include the appeasement of God's wrath (Morris, Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, p 155). Dodd's study is also criticized by David Hill in his detailed semantic study of hilasterion, in the book Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings: Studies in the Semantics of Soteriological Terms. Hill claims that Dodd leaves out several Septuagint references to propitiation, and also cites apocryphal sources.

So which is correct? The Greek word actually has both meanings of propitiate (to appease an angry God) and expiate (to remove sin). In his own writings Swedenborg did not make the distinction between these two words, but with the word definitions we are using the correct definition is expiation (remove of sin), and the Bible translations which translate it that way are correct. Why is this? Not only from the Septuagint, but also from the following principles:

1. God is Love itself, and does not get angry. He only appears angry to those who are in sin.
2. If God does not get angry, he does not need to be appeased.
3. Moreover, there is no such thing as a trinity of three persons here. There is only one person, Jehovah, and Jesus is Jehovah incarnate.
4. As there is only one being or one person here, who is a Supreme Being of love, the whole idea of appeasing an angry God falls apart. Who is being appeased? No one. Because God himself became incarnate to save humanity out of love, not to appease another angry god.

The truth of the matter? Vicarious atonement is a concept born out of the idea of three gods. Because when you have three persons, a false theology has to be invented to give each person a different role to play.  The idea of propitiation is not only false, but it leads to a logical contradiction in theology: is God a God of love, or of anger? I will again quote from Wikipedia:

Thus the definition of Christian propitiation asserted by Calvin, Packer and Murray holds that within God there is a dichotomy of love and anger, but through propitiation love trumps anger, abolishing it. "'The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely this that God loved the objects of His wrath so much that He gave His own Son to the end that He by His blood should make provision for the removal of this wrath... (John Murray, The Atonement, p.15)

Does it make any sense? No it does not. It is illogical, and irrational. It only makes sense if one is tritheistic in one's concept of God. So who is promoting lunacy? Who is promoting moral apathy? Is it any wonder that people in church behave one way in church, and live a completely different life outside of it?

HOW ARE SINS REMOVED? BY REPENTANCE ONLY

Those theological pundits who would have you believe in vicarious atonement, would have you believe that by a mere lip confession of belief that all your sins are removed and transferred to Jesus on the cross. But this it not only false, it is illogical and irrational. It is not applicable to real life. Just from the fact no one can explain it should tell you it is a false concept. So how are sins removed? Through repentance:

John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. (Mark 1:4)And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 3:3)and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47)

Removal of sin by repentance did not change. So what changed? With the coming of Jesus, his spirit can now dwell in us and remove the evil influences encouraging us to sin. But that happens only inasmuch as we repent. So that is how Jesus removes sin - by interacting with us when we repent, for he first had to do this before he can do it for us:

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. (John 17:17-19)

It is the Divine truth - symbolized by the blood of Jesus - which cleanses us from sin, for when we acknowledge falsehood and sin to turn away from it, we acknowledge it by the truth. This puts us in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. The way salvation was effected was not through some "mysterious transfer" of sin, but by Jehovah becoming incarnate in human form and fighting against hell directly, by resisting all sin and temptation in the body he inherited from Mary. As he fought in his human against sin, so he fights for us when we repent. By becoming incarnate, Jehovah in His human launched a direct attack against hell - thus the gospels relate how Jesus kept on casting out demons - the evil influences that encourage one to sin. And this is what the Orthodox Church teaches. So the New Church is not a cult, it is literally "Orthodox." So if that's the case, who is teaching falsehoods to the masses? Does God get angry? NO:

For God so loved the world... (John 3:16)

And for those who continue to teach vicarious atonement, and a trinity of three persons, it remind me of this:

The Spiritual Meaning of Palm Sunday

As Passover approaches, I noticed an increased interest in the post The Spiritual Meaning of Passover.  A "spiritual Passover" takes place whenever one decides to remove a sinful behavior in one's life. Removal of evil is the first step on any spiritual path, and deliverance from hell. For anyone enslaved to a sinful behavior - which is symbolized by the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt - one's will is enslaved by evil spirits. For we are not truly individual beings - all of our thoughts originate from the spiritual world, and it is our choice whether we follow the heavenly world or the one from hell. This is the true origin of human free will.

As I already discussed the symbolism of the Passover ritual, what is the spiritual meaning of Palm Sunday which preceded Passover? Palm Sunday commemorates the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem:

The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: " Hosanna! ' Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!"
Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:
"Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey's colt."
His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. (John 12:12-16)

Some skeptics may just say that Jesus did this as he was well versed in scripture. However the prophecy of Zechariah is more remarkable from the statement that comes right after it:

He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth (Zech. 9:10)

The Jews of course expected a literal king to restore the kingdom of Israel, not realizing that his kingdom was spiritual - his kingdom on earth is the church. And the Christian Church honoring Jesus certainly spans from sea to sea and is found in every corner of the earth. Who could have predicted that?

Most who read this passage state that the reason why Jesus rode in on a donkey into Jerusalem was to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, and will get no further than that. If we ask questions like, WHY a donkey? And WHY honored with palm branches? No one will answer. Because hidden behind these literal historical events, and the prophecies predicting them, is a hidden spiritual symbolism. It is only when one understands the spiritual symbolism can this be applicable to everyday life.

THE SYMBOLISM OF A DONKEY

Every person, object or animal has a spiritual symbolism, signifying something about the inner psychology of the soul. There is a correspondence between every material thing with a more eternal, abstract spiritual idea. A donkey is mentioned along with an ox in the tenth commandment:

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
nor his male servant, nor his female servant,
nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. (Ex. 20:14)

The tenth and final commandment speaks concerning desire for material things - thus it is mentioned last, for the desire of material things is furthest from following God (the first commandment). In a more general sense, the tenth commandment speaks against the love of self and the world, which opposes everything in the 10 commandments. But note the pattern in the commandment: first house and wife, then male and female servant, then ox and donkey. So why such word order? Again, even the order of the words has a spiritual meaning. Things will either relate to that of the will or doing good, or it will relate to that of the thought or knowing the truth:

By house is meant all good in general, by wife all truth in general, by manservant affection for spiritual truth, by maidservant affection for spiritual good, by ox affection for natural good, and by ass affection for natural truth. These are the things which are not to be coveted, that is, which are not to be taken away from any one, and which are not to be harmed. That these things are meant in the internal sense, is because the Word in that sense is for those who are in heaven, inasmuch as those who are in heaven do not perceive the Word naturally, but spiritually, thus not house, nor wife, nor manservant, nor maidservant, nor ox, nor ass, but the spiritual things that correspond to them, which are the goods of love and the truths of faith. In a word, the external sense or the sense of the letter is for those who are in the world, but the internal sense for those who are in heaven, and also for those who are in the world so far as they are at the same time in heaven, that is, so far as they are in charity and faith. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8912).

To explain this symbolism further would entail yet further word studies on house, wife, servant, ox, and so on, which Swedenborg amply explains in Heavenly Arcana. The word order show degrees of order from highest to lowest: good and truth itself; then the spiritual affection for good and truth which are servants as these affections serve what is good and true; then finally, the natural affection for what is good and true. The natural affection is lower than the spiritual affection, and the spiritual affection is lower than that of love and truth itself. For example, everyone has a natural desire for friendship. Within this natural desire, there is hidden a spiritual affection for what is good and true inside people. Hidden within this spiritual affection, is the love of God himself, who is the origin of good and truth. The house and the wife can be said to be in the most internal sense God's dwelling in heaven and the church, for the church is the bride which teaches people the truth. Materialism, and capitalism which promotes it, destroys these spiritual affections.

The ox and the donkey are animals which represent the lowest natural desires of any person. Animals, in general, represent affections, as opposed to plants which in general represent truth. So why should it be declared that the Messiah should ride on a donkey when entering the city of Jerusalem?  The reason is: to enter the church (Jerusalem), one must subordinate one's natural desires to the Divine truth (the King on the donkey).

To ride upon an ass was a sign that the natural was made subordinate, and to ride upon a colt the son of a she-ass was a sign that the rational was made subordinate. That the son of a she-ass signified the same as a mule, has been shown above (at the passage from Gen. xlix. 11). From this their signification, and because it belonged to the highest judge and to a king to ride upon them, and at the same time that the representatives of the church might be fulfilled, it pleased the Lord to do this (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2781.8).

And this is the reason why in the Old Testament there are so many laws given concerning one's ox and donkey:

Since by an ox and an ass the natural man as to good and truth is signified, many laws were therefore given in which oxen and asses are mentioned, which laws at first sight do not appear to be worthy of mention in the Divine Word; but when unfolded as to their internal sense, the spiritual meaning in them appears to be of great moment (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2781.10).

THE SYMBOLISM OF PALM TREES

So what of the palm trees, what do those signify? Palm trees were used in rituals from ancient times. It was one of the trees to be used in the Jewish feast of tabernacles:

Ye shall take for you in the first day the fruit of a tree of honor, spathes of palm-trees, and a branch of a dense tree, and willows of the torrent; and ye shall be glad before Jehovah your God seven days (Lev. 23:40)

Moreover, it is said that King Solomon carved angelic cherubs, palm trees and flowers for decorating the temple of Jerusalem (1 Kings 6:29, 32). And palm trees were used also in Ezekiel's new temple (see Ez. 41). But that is not all, this symbol is very ancient. Here is a carving of angelic beings taking fruit from a palm tree from ancient Assyria:

Here is another example from ancient Assyria:

There are many more depictions of the sacred palm tree, which can be drawn from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. There was once a shared symbolism across the Middle East, and this was from a more ancient revelation that had preceded Abraham and Judaism. Some of these symbols, such as the palm tree, survived in Biblical scripture. But it is so ancient that all of these meanings have been lost. What does the palm tree signify? Why would it always be portrayed in the temple? Here is what Swedenborg had to say:

[the signification of "palm-trees" as being the goods of the spiritual church, which are the goods of truth; and because by "palm-trees" are signified goods, by them is also signified the affection of good, and the consequent delight, for all delight is from the affection of good. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8369)

And there is another interesting comment on the passage from Leviticus:

Ye shall take for you in the first day the fruit of a tree of honor, spathes of palm-trees, and a branch of a dense tree, and willows of the torrent; and ye shall be glad before Jehovah your God seven days (Lev. 23:40); by "the fruit of a tree of honor," is signified celestial good; by "palm-trees," spiritual good, or the good of truth; by "a branch of a dense tree," the truth of memory-knowledge; and by "willows of the torrent," the lowest truths of the natural; thus by these four are signified all goods and truths in their order. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8369)

So its beginning to make sense: first comes the subordination of the natural man, our lowest self, and bringing our selfish desires under control. Our lowest self is signified by the donkey. A spiritual affection for the truth is signified by the palm trees: this is the second step after purification or repentance from sin. And the third step? God's spirit begins to dwell within us: this is signified by Jesus riding on the donkey as he enters Jerusalem. This is something that I had described in The Three Steps of Spiritual Development. The three steps are:

1. Repentance from one's particular sins, turning away from them. This is the purification stage (represented by Passover).
2. Living by the truths that are learned (represented by Pentecost).
3. Acting out of love: love comes first instead of truth (represented by the feast of Tabernacles).

So the first act for any spiritual path is to bring the natural person under control - that is controlling one's desires, and fighting against them. If we are not willing to acknowledge a sin as a sin, and just ignore it, we are stuck outside the door. But repentance brings us into the door of the spiritual temple. Thus Jesus rides on a donkey when he enters Jerusalem. What does he do next? In the synoptic gospels, he cleanses out the temple of money changers. This is what happens to us when we cleanse our inner selves of material desires.