Why not?

So there's enough LoS-type sniffers hoodling about on the yahoo and the google tonight to merit a kind of samedi soir News Roundup! Yippee-ka-yay! Yee-haw! The sound of two hands farting. Cannon balls a-roaring! Muskets ablaze, the call of the bugle! Charge!!!!

OK, calm down now. It's just three measly stories hubbled and frothed over so many times. With one pithy and probably not-so-witty remark each.

Are you Roman tonight? England's Daily Mail lobs this weird grenade into the barbecue toot sweet with a report on an "acroterion - a kind of architectural ornament often found for decoration on the corners of a sarcophagus, a stone tomb or burial chamber...."

Yup! Looks like Elvis? Darn tootin' it does. It's part of the collection of Graham Geddes and is up for auction in October. Second Century AD. Originally predicted to sell for around 30k sterling, the hubbub over the Preseleyan bouffant has pushed expectations higher.

Tim Goodman, chairman of the Bonham and Goodman auction house:

"The Elvis angle has added great humour. It is a significant piece in itself, but the resemblance to the King has added at least 100% to the price."

An strange piece and a very clever marketing strategy, to boot.

Voodoo doll doesn't sway Deltona commissioner Florida. Volusia County. Deltona. A voodoo doll found in the hedge of a town commissioner.

"The doll was stuck with many pins and included a photo of the commissioner's face pinned on the doll's head. The doll, inside a black plastic tray, was found by Denizac's husband next to a periwinkle plant near the base of her mailbox Saturday afternoon."

A periwinkle, people! Is nothind sacred anymore?

Zenaida Denizac is reported to have "'no fear' of the cloth doll."

Finally:

Edgar Mitchell: Former NASA Astronaut Claims Aliens Exist

I want to believe, as the tagline goes, but does some of the wind behind this story's wings slacken when taken in light of his apparent belief that he was healed of kidney cancer by remote healing? "I had a sonogram and MRI that was consistent with renal carcinoma." (But he never had a biopsy) After six months of remote healing the irregularities on his scans had disappeared.

What else does Mitchell believe?

Check out Quantrek:

"Promoting and accelerating the advancement of knowledge about the ultimate nature of reality utilizing the scientific method for the betterment of humankind."

In addition to Quantrek, Ed Mitchell was one of the founders of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Its history page is most interesting.

Mitchell: "The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes. . . . The knowledge came to me directly."

IONS: "(Dr Mitchell's story is told in the book The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds)."

"We invite you to join our organization and get involved as we continue to actualize Dr Mitchell's vision of deep exploration of consciousness, self, and society."

The organization has three levels of membership:

Basic Membership, the Shift in Action Program and the Circle Members Program, in which "More benefits are available as the annual gift level increases."

"When you make a donation to IONS above and beyond your regular membership or Circle membership dues, you help mobilize a global movement devoted to personal and collective transformation."

Interesting that his org has a three-level structure, perhaps influenced by his membership in Freemasonry. (Artesia LodgeNo. 28. Artesia, New Mexico)

What are Noetic Sciences? you may wonder. It seems to be more or less a kind of exploration of the inner self, of intuition and other non-rational ways of knowing. Their mission has a decidedly "New Agey" ring to it: they speak of the "inner cosmos" and the "frontiers of consciousness." There is vague talk of "energies" and a lot about "healing."

Mitchell is definitely influenced by estoeric traditions; the final stanza of his poem "Insight" demonstrates:

"A mind that is free, reaches out to destiny

Holding thoughts filled with awe and with love;

To allow Nature’s plan to unfold in every Man

For here below is just like that above."

Ahh, the old "As Above, So Below" doctrine. And what is that? The Mystica puts it best:

This phrase comes from the beginning of The Emerald Tablet and embraces the entire system of traditional and modern magic which was inscribed upon the tablet in cryptic wording by Hermes Trismegistus. The significance of this phrase is that it is believed to hold the key to all mysteries. All systems of magic are claimed to function by this formula. "'That which is above is the same as that which is below'...Macrocosmos is the same as microcosmos. The universe is the same as God, God is the same as man, man is the same as the cell, the cell is the same as the atom, the atom is the same as...and so on, ad infinitum."

IONS: "Noetic sciences explore the "inner cosmos" of the mind (consciousness, soul, spirit) and how it relates to the "outer cosmos" of the physical world. "

So. For some people, this is all part and parcel of a man open to all possibilities. An explorer of psychic and physical space whose credibility is supported by his (shared) record time walking on the moon, over 9 hours.

Other people might wonder if he's still there.