From: ur-valhalla!cts.com!density4 (That 4th Density Dude)
Subject: The Photon Belt Myth
Message-ID: 
Date: Sat, 04 Nov 1995 08:54:51 GMT
Got this in the mail today:
---------------------------

The following message, in two parts, concerns the February 1991
Australian Nexus magazine article "The Photon Belt Story", and
channelled predictions of dates of July 23, 1992, or July 26, 1992, of
Planet Earth's entry into the Photon Belt.


THE PLEIADES IN FACT AND FICTION.

EXPLODING THE MYTH OF THE PHOTON BELT:

Avid readers of Nexus magazine may well recall an article entitled
"The Photon Belt Story", which appeared in the February 1991 issue.

I read the article with amusement and laughed it off as a joke,
however, I have recently become aware that many people took
thisarticle seriously and that it has been the cause of some concern.

I am sorry to say that this story, as romantic as it may be, has
absolutely no basis in fact.  It appears to have become part of a
modern mythology which has sprung up around the Pleiades, an open star
cluster in the constellation of Taurus the Bull, contrary to current
scientific knowledge.  This mythology seems to be based on a heady
mixture of pseudoscience, channelled messages from alleged space
entities, biblical prophecy, ignorance and a liberal dose of naivete.
It is fuelled by a general mistrust of our scientific community and
misinterpretation of modern scientific thinking.

It is a sad reflection of the scientific education of our society that
so many people can be taken in by a story that probably started life
as a university student's prank.

For the benefit of those readers who have not read the article, the
story, in brief, goes as follows:

In 1961 satellite borne instruments discovered a PHOTON BAND in
outerspace.  This PHOTON BELT or MANASIC RING, which scientists have
not been able to reproduce in the laboratory, encircles the Pleiades
and extends the 400 light years to our solar system.  Quoting someone
called Jose Comas Sola, our sun and several other stars were said to
be part of the Pleiades System and all these stars were said to have
planets.  Our Sun was said to orbit this system in 24,000 years,
during which time we spend alternatively 10,000 years in the dark and
2,000 years in the light of the PHOTON BELT.  We were said to be about
to enter the light of the PHOTON BELT, whereupon, we would all be
transformed "in the twinkling of an eye" into Atmosphereans and night
would cease to exist, amongst other things.

A diagram accompanied the article showing 6 of the Pleiadian stars,
Merope, Atlas, Teygeta, Electra, Coeleno and our own Sun in orbit
around Alcyone, also a member of the Pleiades, encircled by the PHOTON
BELT.

Having been contacted by several members of the public with queries
about this story, I determined to sort the fact from fiction and track
the story to its' origin.

The article had been reprinted with permission from Australian
UFOFlying Saucer Research Magazine.  A phone number had been given.
The phone number proved to be that of a prominent South Australian UFO
researcher, who told me that the story had originally been written by
a university student who had been a member of his group at the time.
This student is now apparently, a physicist at a well known nuclear
facility.  The UFO researcher, however, was not clear on where the
student had obtained the information and had attempted to verify
aspects of it withan astronomer at Mount Stromlo Observatory.

I was unable to ascertain which aspects had actually been verified.

Fortunately, the astronomer concerned was known to me, so I paid him a
visit.  He vaguely recalled talking to the researcher but could not
remember the exact details of the conversation.  He assured me that he
would never have verified the existance of the PHOTON BELT but may
have given him some information on the Pleiades themselves.  He told
me that Mount Stromlo had also received queries about the PHOTON BELT
and, like me, had considered the whole thing a cruel joke.

So, what is fact and what fiction?  Well, for a start, I was unable to
find any evidence for a satellite in 1961 carrying the instruments
required to detect a PHOTON BAND as described.  Satellites of the era
were crude by today's standards and were more concerned with
telecommunications, operating principally in the radio wavelengths.

Subsequent satellites and probes, with their sophisticated
instrumentation, would certainly be capable of detecting the
PHOTONBAND, however, no such thing has ever been reported.  This is
not a case of scientists keeping secrets, it is simply because it has
never been detected.

According to other information I have received, this PHOTON BELT is
supposed to be preceded by an ELECTROMAGNETIC NULL ZONE.  This zone is
said to be an energy vacuum, completely lacking in electromagnetic
fields.  If it existed, this NULL ZONE would certainly have shown up
in the many sky surveys done over recent years on the Cosmic Microwave
Background.  This background radiation is remarkable because it is so
evenly distributed over the entire sky.  There are no gaps in its'
distribution.  The ELECTROMAGNETIC NULL ZONE does not exist!

The PHOTON BELT was also described as a MANASIC RING, a "phenomena."
I have been unable to determine the meaning of the word "manasic."  I
can only surmise that it is derived from the word MANA.

It is hardly surprising that this has not been recreated in a
laboratory as no one really seems to know what MANA is, beyond its'
dictionary definition as a mysterious power.

And so to the Pleiades themselves.  Jose Comas Sola, whoever he may
be,was either quite wrong or misquoted.  Our Sun is not part of the
Pleiades system, neither does it orbit the Pleiades every 24,000
years.

The Pleiades are approximately 125 parsecs or 407.5 light years from
our solar system.  A quick calculation shows that if our Sun were
inthis orbit, then its' orbital velocity would be 0.107C or a little
over one tenth the speed of light.  This equates to approximately
32,000Km/sec.

This velocity would be apparent, not only to astronomers, but to
everyone, as the constellations would change quite dramatically in the
course of a single lifetime if this were true.

The Pleiades is a loose cluster of approximately 100 stars with an
average age estimated at 78 million years.  These are very young
stars, much younger than our own Sun, estimated at 5 billion years
old, much younger even that our own planet, Earth.

These are very hot, bright stars of spectral type B, much hotter and
about 10 times more massive than our Sun, spectral type G.  They have
not yet moved away from the interstellar gas cloud, or nebula, from
which they formed.  Remmants of this nebula can readily be seen in
photographs of the group.  It has been suggested that this misty
nebulosity, shining with the light of the stars within, is what has
given rise to the myth of the PHOTON BELT.

Studies of the proper motions of these stars, or their movement
through space, have shown that they are in the process of dispersion.
There is no evidence that these stars orbit Alcyone as depicted in the
diagram.

It must also be said that there is no evidence of planets around any
of these stars.  It may well be that planetary systems may evolve
around some of these stars, however, it must be remembered that these
are very young stars and planetary formation may well take a lot
longer than stellar formation.  It seems unlikely that habitable
planets have had enough time to evolve there.  78 million years is a
very short period onthe cosmological or geological time scale.

It is very pleasing to think of our planet coming out of the darkness
and into the light, although I do not think our nocturnal fauna would
agree.  It is much better for each of us to seek enlightenment within
ourselves.  This enlightenment cannot be imposed by external forces.
A deluge of photons from the Pleiades will not save the planet, nor
will it transform its inhabitants into enlightened Atmosphereans.  We
will have to solve our problems ourselves.

In a previous message to Bob Fletcher in the Contactee/ Abductee echo,
I said: I think there should be no difficulty in taking this message
apart and checking each point for accuracy, using existing scientific
sources.

And I would encourage people to do that.  Also, I doubt it would be
difficult to follow up on the writer's source in Adelaide by following
the same line of enquiry.

This message quoted Agepal.txt, a file giving the scientific
references in astronomical texts for the age, distance, and star type
of the various Pleiades stars.  This provides you with the opportunity
to confirm this aspect of the Photon Belt Parts 1 and 2 material which
I posted recently.

I decided to check the remainder of this material by telephoning the
number given at the end of the Nexus article "The Photon Belt Story",
Feb/Mar 1991 issue, page 6.  I made this call yesterday evening, July
26.

Colin Norris answered, and said he was head of the Australian
International UFO Research Society, mailing address GPO Box 2004,
ADELAIDE, SA, 5001, AUSTRALIA.  The telephone number is (08) 272- 3131

I explained the situation.  Colin said that he was extremely
embarrassed by this matter.  He has had to apologise to numerous
people who rang from overseas with great anxiety.  He has received
hundreds of letters.

The original article was published in his Society's magazine in 1981,
about nine years before Duncan Roads asked permission to reprint it in
Nexus magazine.  Apparently it was co-authored by a lady, who intended
to write sensational articles, and a young university student who is
now employed as a physicist.  He does not want to embarrass these
people, or jeopardise their employment by revealing their names.

He said he did discuss the article with professional astronomers from
the Mount Stromlo observatory, and they advised him not to worry about
it..

I then spoke to the Society's Secretary, Steve Lamont, who confirmed
these details.

Colin and Steve gave permission to post this message.  They said that
the current "flap" appears to be caused by the predictions of exact
dates, such as July 23 and 27, 1992.  While these dates are now past,
and as usual nothing has happened, it is possible that later dates
have been predicted by channels in the USA, causing people further
anxiety.

---SnetMgr 0.60 [r0001]
 * Origin: snet-l@world.std.com <-> FidoNet (1:330/202)