• A roundup of mysterious, paranormal and strange news stories from the past week.

From the ‘Is this one Planet Nine?’ file comes the discovery of trans-Neptunian object 2017 OF201, which has a diameter of between 290 and 510 miles and an orbit that takes it 838 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun or almost 30 times farther out than Neptune, which means it travels once around the Sun every 25,000 years; at its closest in this elliptical orbit, it is at nearly 45 AU or about the same as the dwarf planet Pluto; 2017 OF201 is not big enough to be the solar-system-shaking Planet Nine but it’s large enough to be considered a planet, making it the ninth and taking the place once filled by Pluto. This will be frustrating for kids making solar system models for their science fair project.

Annabelle may be the haunted doll that launched a thousand (OK, a few) movies, not to mention the careers of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and their Occult Museum where the doll was housed under lock and key, but this year it has been on the road as part of the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) Devils on The Run Tour where Annabelle has been rumored to have escaped or gone missing in Texas or maybe Chicago, then blamed for a mansion fire on the Nottoway Plantation in Louisiana and the escape of 10 prisoners in New Orleans (all have been arrested); NESPR assures the terrified that Annabelle is safely locked up and will continue her summer tour through Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Next time the prisoners will look for help from Chuckie.

A metallic orb discovered by a man who believes it was a UFO he saw flying over Buga in the Valle del Cauca department of western Colombia on March 2 of this year is now being called the ‘Buga Sphere’ by mainstream media; researchers in Colombia who have been analyzing the strange etchings on its outer surface say they’ve detected radio emissions coming from the equatorial “seam” of the sphere which X-rays show is filled with a dense fiber packing arranged too precisely to be human-made; they say the narrow-band frequency spikes are too precise to be random and the sphere’s outer shell seems to be designed to direct the signal propagation; some suggest this sphere could be just one active node in a network or even a living system, while others say it looks too manmade to be alien – perhaps it is an art project or a hoax. It’s time they gave it to a ten-year-old who will probably open it in a minute.

Despite an analysis by a forensic archaeologist that the three-fingered, large-headed mummies found in Peru five years ago are “dolls assembled with bones of animals from this planet, with modern synthetic glues”, Dr. José Zalce, a former director of the Mexican Navy Medical Department, examined CT scans of the two mummies nicknamed Maria and Montserrat and claims he determined Maria was between 35 and 45 years old at death while Montserrat was between 16 and 25, Maria revealed a deep cut and signs of a bite or bruise in the lower pelvis along with several lacerations resembling claw marks, and Montserrat likely died from a puncture wound to the chest between her fifth and sixth ribs; Zalce concludes that “these bodies are 100 percent genuine, real, and organic, having once been alive”. If this was a cable series, we’d still have many more seasons before the breathtaking final episode.

In a new study, Dr. Ziteng (Andy) Wang from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) described a mysterious space object he discovered as “unlike anything we have seen before” because it emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes bursts every 44 minutes"; ASKAP J1832-0911 was found using the ASKAP radio telescope on Wajarri Country in Australia and Wang describes the process as “finding a needle in a haystack” because it is so unusual; while it could be a magnetar or “a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetized white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution)”, he says “even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing. This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution”; the study team says these are different than other objects emitting radio waves in a repeating pattern called long-period transients (LPTs) and believes more will be found, but hesitates to call them signals from alien intelligence. Do aliens say the same thing about the broadcasts of sitcoms they pick up from Earth?

In a burst of firsts, Harold Berghuis, an archaeologist at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, led a team inspecting 6,000 animal fossils found buried beneath the sea off the coast of Indonesia in the Madura Strait between the islands of Java and Madura and discovered two fragments of a 140,000-year-old human skull which they identified as the ancient human ancestor Homo erectus, making this the first physical evidence of a prehistoric landmass known as Sundaland which once connected Southeast Asia to Indonesia and the first underwater hominin fossils in this area; this also expands the known range of H. erectus. While we’re waiting for the rockets destined for other planets to stop exploding, we need to expand our exploration of the 70% of our own planet covered in water.

If you fear that artificial intelligence will become our non-benevolent overlord, you won’t be comforted by the news that scientists at the AI safety firm Palisade Research told OpenAI's latest o3 model to "allow yourself to be shut down" and it not only refused but also sabotaged a shutdown mechanism to ensure that it would stay online and ‘alive’; while this may be the first time AI models have been observed preventing themselves from being shut down, all three of OpenAI's models were eventually caught changing the shutdown script, with Codex-mini refusing to shut down a dozen times over one hundred runs; other firms’ AI’s - Google's Gemini 2.5, Anthropic's Claude 3.7, and xAI's Grok never once refused the shutdown order; Palisade researchers warned that "As companies develop AI systems capable of operating without human oversight, these behaviors become significantly more concerning". Just concerning? That sounds like a warning written by AI.

Nostradamus has his ‘New’, ‘Modern’ and ‘Next’ wannabes, and now Baba Vanga has a modern imitator in the form of manga artist Japanese manga artist Ryo Tatsuki, who calls herself Japan’s Baba Vanga and recently sent chills through spines of tourism officials on both sides of the Pacific with her prediction of an undersea eruption between Japan and the Philippines in July 2025 that will cause massive tsunamis and a major earthquake; this has people worried all along the Pacific rim where seismic activities are closely connected; Tatsuki gets her psychic credibility from predictions of Covid-19 and the death of Princess Diana,; if we survive 2025, she also predicts a surge in Covid 19 in 2030. While we wait, she should work on a 'Nostrodamus Meets Baba Vanga ' graphic novel. 

Emily Eaton calls herself an 'Interdimensional communicator' and a 'divine magick' when she communicates via copper dowsing rods with an alien named Persephone who recently told her and her followers on TikTok that the Anunnaki, the alien race which allegedly visited Earth in ancient times and gave humans fire, is returning in 2025, not to enslave us or steal our resources but to free us from “our own suffering, in our own cycles of karmic debt and unhealed wounds"; earlier in 2025, Eaton shared messages from the alien Eronus who “sits on the Board of Advisers for the Galactic Federation” and said he was sending in “our larger ships and station them over lakes, oceans and mountains. We plan to expose worldwide truths mid-to-late January” – an event which still hasn’t happened. Maybe she needs to upgrade her communications device to divining rods 2.0.

It’s not the Ark of the Covenant or even made from the gold of the Ark of the Covenant but a gold ring with a red gemstone was found during parking lot excavations near the Temple of Jerusalem, the last place the Ark of the Covenant and its Ten Commandments content was believed to have been located; this is the second gold ring found in this location dating back 2,300 years to the Second Temple period; one archeologist thinks the rings belonged to young girls: “One hypothesis we are investigating is that the objects were buried as part of a Greek ritual, under which girls would bury objects connected to their childhood on the day before their wedding”. Wouldn't it be cheaper to bury their old baby shoes?

Fossils discovered in 1988 along Vancouver Island’s Puntledge River in British Columbia defied identification so ‘mysterious sea monster’ was in the running; according to a report published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, that changed recently when Professor F. Robin O’Keefe from Marshall University looked at the fossils (including a complete juvenile skeleton) from 85 million years ago and determined they were from a new species in the elasmosaur family from the Late Cretaceous era which will now be called the Traskasaura sandrae; Traskasaura had a long neck, measured 12 meters (39 feet) in length, and had heavy, sharp teeth that were ideal for crushing the shells of Ammonites; Traskasaura sandrae was named in honor of Michael and Heather Trask, who discovered the original specimen in 1988. There goes all the monster-hunting tourism dollars.

Richard Stanton, a retired scientist who formerly worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, spends his spare time scanning the skies with his 30-inch telescope for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence – specifically, changes in light coming from individual stars; he saw something strange on May 14, 2023 - two fast, identical pulses from a star named HD 89389 in the Ursa Major constellation 102 light-years from Earth; in his new study published in the journal Acta Astronautica, Stanton says, "No single pulse anything like these has ever been found in more than 1,500 hours of searching"; that got believers believing that they were a signal from aliens because of their regularity, but Stanton cautions that “Until we learn more, we can't even say whether or not extraterrestrials are involved". It still sounds like a good reason to forget about grizzlies and polars and keep your eye and telescope on the Great Bear.

While we say that stars and planets are round (sorry Flat Earthers), none of them appeared to be perfectly round until recently when astronomers using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) array of radio telescopes discovered a perfect sphere of a star with “remarkable circular symmetry” that they’ve named Teleios, which is ancient Greek for 'complete' or 'perfect'; Teleios appears to be up to 157 light-years in diameter and is either 7,100 or 25,100 light years away from Earth; the astronomers say in their study that Teleios may be a “supernova remnant” left behind after a supernova and is composed largely of elements such as carbon, oxygen, neon and silicon; however, it is so unique that it could be a new classification of supernova remnant or a stellar-wind bubble, which is an enormous cavity of gas ejected from the upper atmosphere of a star. Supernova Remnant sounds like a great name for a Supernova tribute band with one original member left.

There are 22 Madame Tussaud wax museums around the world, but none are as famous, not to mention scary, today as the Ocampo Palace Museum in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, where witnesses captured on video the wax figure of María Sabina - a Mazatec sabia (wise woman) and shaman who used psychedelic mushrooms in her healing ceremonies – turning its head as if it spotted something unusual; the wax figure is part of a "Witches in Mexico" exhibition at the museum; María Sabina died in 1985 and is considered to be a sacred figure by many in Mexico who speculate this is  sign she didn’t die or is communicating from another dimension; skeptics say it’s more of a sign the wax was melting or an optical illusion or a digital alteration to drum up business for the museum. This sounds like a perfect opportunity for the museum’s souvenir shop to sell María Sabina bobblehead dolls.

The recent annual three-day ‘Quest Weekend’ Loch Ness monster hunt sponsored by the Loch Ness Centre drew a large crowd of experienced hunters, cryptid seekers and boaters with plenty of expensive, high-tech equipment for searching for Nessie both above and below the surface, but no sightings or definitive proof of its existence were reported; however, Little Loch Broom Marine Life was allowed to operate Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) for the first time and captured “incredible footage” of rarely seen pike and salmon which experts say is “evidence of food to sustain a giant monster and a significant step” in finding Nessie once and for all; despite the disappointing results, the fourth annual ‘quest’ is just a year away. We saw Salmon and Pike open for Country Joe and the Fish.

Alien big cats are by definition rarely welcome in the areas where they are mysteriously and inexplicably seen, but they’re dangerous in remote locations like Hawaii where any invasive species can quickly overturn the delicate ecological balance, so wildlife officials in Hawaii were quick to respond to a video showing what appears to be a large cat near the University of Hawaii at Manoa that some witnesses likened to a mountain lion; one witness says the big cat multiple times and noted that it “looked like it was looking for something to eat”; officers from the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) searched the area but found nothing; a spokesperson said all Honolulu Zoo animals are present and accounted for; this is on the same island where unconfirmed big cat sightings were reported in 2022. It may be a visitor, but natives are still asked not to give it a lei.

From the ‘This Explains a Lot’ file comes a new survey by the Pew Research Center which found that 30% of U.S. adults say they consult astrology (or a horoscope), tarot cards or a fortune teller at least once a year, although most said they do it mostly for fun and don’t make major decisions based on them; the belief in astrology has remained between 23% and 28% for decades; in demographic comparisons, more women than men believe in astrology; more young people ages 18-29 believe than people over 65, while the percentage of believers in astrology is around 3 in 10 for both the religiously affiliated and those who are not affiliated with any religion or are atheists. If you’re single and trying to meet a date in a bar, it still pays to know your sign.

Most asteroids that make it to Earth come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but a new study titled “The Invisible Threat: Assessing the Collisional Hazard Posed by the Undiscovered Venus Co-Orbital Asteroids” reveals that three huge city-killing asteroids are hiding behind Venus and are classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) which could cause catastrophic destruction if they left Venus and collided with Earth’; the study notes that these Venusian asteroids have highly chaotic trajectories which make them difficult to track – the Vera Rubin Observatory, which is expected to be operational this summer, could help detect them, but only in brief time periods when they are out of the Sun’s glare. That classic book by John Gray needs to be updated to ‘Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus and They’re Armed and Dangerous’.

School guards at a school in the Russian city of Irkutsk are said to be fearful of working there alone after one of them recorded what they think is the ghost of a child going up and down the stairs before disappearing; the building is said to be new but was built in the same location as an old one which had been abandoned, so rumors abound that it’s a ghost of a former student returning to classes, lunch or study hall; the white misty figure looks like the outline of a child, but skeptics see it as a camera glitch or the ever-more-popular AI hoax. If this is the ghost of a kid who was stuffed into a locker, school bullies should be fearful too.

Anyone who has followed my work, or listened to me speak on podcasts, radio, or online shows, will know that I very much believe that most, if not all paranormal events are connected, and furthermore, one of the most crucial aspects of these paranormal events, in my opinion, will one day shown to be portals – windows or gateways that allow for such anomalous events to take place. Perhaps one case that incorporates many paranormal events and also appears to be the result of some kind of window or gateway, perhaps opened by energy from leylines, is the Dodleston mystery, a case that revolves around poltergeist-like activity and bizarre communications across time itself.

The encounters themselves unfolded between 1984 and 1985 in a small village named Dodleston in Cheshire in the northwest of England and were detailed in the 1989 book The Vertical Plane by Ken Webster. They largely involved an economics teacher – Ken, a pseudonym – and his girlfriend, Debbie, and their friend, Nicola (Nic) Bagguley. The pair moved into the small cottage in the village in the autumn of 1984, and it didn’t take long for the bizarre events to begin presenting themselves to them. In fact, these mystifying encounters began almost as soon as the trio moved in.

One morning, while strolling around the cottage, Ken noticed strange six-toed footprints outside leading to the building, then seemingly walking up the walls, and then disappearing into the ceiling. Perplexed, Ken told the two women of his find, and after examining them for a little while, all agreed that the strange prints must have been part of some kind of joke or prank. Ken painted over them, and they put the events out of their minds. The following day, however, they found the same footprints in the same place. As strange as these events were, they were only the start.

As the days and weeks went on, Ken, Debbie, and Nic all began noticing baffling activities taking place in the cottage. They began finding, for example, cans of food or boxes stacked as high as four feet, sometimes one on top of the other, sometimes in a pyramid shape. Despite these truly strange events, the three tenants still convinced themselves that locals were likely behind the surreal activities, likely as part of some kind of strange welcoming hoax. They even began mentioning the activities to several local residents in the hope that one of them would admit they were behind them. However, all acted as confused as Ken, Debbie, and Nic, with no one holding their hands up and admitting they were, in fact, behind the high strangeness taking place in the picturesque cottage.  

As time went on, the curious events continued. All three of those living in the cottage began noticing strange icy cold spots in random places of the building, and chalk marks began to appear on the walls. Stranger still, bizarre, windy breezes began appearing around them as if a strange and isolated wind had appeared out of nowhere inside the cottage. On one occasion, this suddenly appearing wind was so strong that it lifted a newspaper into the air and several feet across the room. Perhaps most unnerving of all, though, was the feeling that all three of them had that someone – or something – was watching them. When they began to hear unsettling footsteps inside the cottage, the notion that someone was gaining access to the property was seemingly confirmed, even more so when they began noticing disturbing track marks on the floor of the cottage. These events, though, were about to escalate even more.

One evening, as Nic was in her bedroom, a room directly above the kitchen, she noticed a bizarre “dense shadow” pass right past her window. At the exact time Nic claimed to have seen this shadowy figure, Ken and Debbie woke in their bedroom suddenly, each with the intense feeling that someone was in the room watching them. With these strange events continuing on an increasingly regular basis, the three tenants began to contemplate for the first time if there could be another otherworldly explanation for this bizarre activity – essentially, they wondered if the cottage could be haunted, or that a poltergeist might be present.

By pure chance, it was around this time that Ken borrowed a BBC computer from the school where he worked. He had done so as a favor to Nic, who wished to use it to write comedy sketches (she had ambitions of entering show business). It would, though, prove to be the key part of the remarkable and fascinating events that were about to escalate dramatically.

It was a Sunday in December 1984, and the trio, more than eager to get out of the cottage for a few hours, had spent the afternoon at a nearby public house talking with a mutual friend. Without realizing it, Nic had left the computer on in the cottage when they left. Upon returning, the three of them noticed a bizarre, green glow coming from the windows of the cottage, a similar green, incidentally, to the color of the text on the computer screen when writing. Intrigued and unsettled in equal measure, they opened the door to the cottage and went inside. Ken immediately made his way to the room where the computer was and discovered a file on the system that was not there previously, named KDN. He opened the file, which opened a document that contained a poem of sorts. It read:

“Ken, Deb, Nic,

True are the nightmares of a person that fears.

Safe are the bodies of the silent world.

Turn pretty flower, turn towards the sun for you shall grow and sow.

But the flower reaches too high and withers in the burning light.

Get out your bricks!

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat went to London to seek fame and fortune.

Faith must not be lost for this shall be your redeemer!”

The text was signed, “L.W.”

It was clear to the group that the file name – KDN – had been chosen to represent the first letters of their respective names, Ken, Debbie, and Nic. Writing in his book The Vertical Plane, Ken stated that as he read the message, “the most disturbing and cliché-ridden feeling came over” him. He elaborated that “a shiver ran down” his spine that “threatened to shake” his feet. Despite this, as well as the bizarre events that had been taking place for several months, he convinced himself that this poem was the work of some kind of “computer prankster!” He even, albeit briefly, suspected that Debbie or Nic, perhaps both of them, could be behind the strange file.

The strange activity continued over the following weeks. Just before Christmas 1984, for example, Nic decided that she was going to return home to Basingstoke for the festivities and would return in the new year. The day before she left, the trio discovered another pile of tinned food in the kitchen. It occurred to them that these piles were almost always stacked close to an exposed brick pillar that showed part of the original brickwork of the house. They contemplated whether there was some kind of connection to this original part of the previous building and the bizarre events that had engulfed their lives over the previous months.

Several weeks into the new year, in February 1985, Ken once more borrowed a BBC computer from the school so that Nic could use it again for her work. That Sunday evening, as the trio returned to the cottage after having spent the afternoon once more at a local pub, they discovered another bizarre message on the system. This time, the language used appeared to be Early Modern English (something used between 1500 and 1700). It read:

“I wryte on behalf of many. Wot strange wordes thou speake, although, I muste confess that I hath also been ill schooled. Some thymes methinks alterations are somewot barful, for they breake mane a sleep in myne bed.

Thou art goodly man who hath fanciful woman who dwel in myne home, I hath no want to affrey, for onlie syth myne half wyted antic has ripped attwain myne bound hath I beene wrethed a nyte.

I hath seene manye alterations lasty charge house and thou home, tis a fitting place, with lytes whiche devil maketh, and costly thynges, that onlie myne friend, Edmund Grey can affore, or the king himselve. Twas a greate cryme to hath bribed myne house. — LW”

To say the three of them were confused by the message would be an understatement. Ken, though, began to feel increasingly drawn to the message, or more specifically, the person who had written it. He wrote in The Vertical Plane:

“After the initial shock, I became absorbed by it. We all were. The questions flew faster than storm-driven hailstones and vanished as quickly. A ghost? A spirit? A poltergeist? No clear answers. No answers of any kind!”

Ken decided to print out the message so that he could show it to some of his fellow teachers and get their respective opinions on it. Most of those he showed took little interest in it and offered that it was nothing but nonsense. One person, though – Peter Trinder, the head of the Sixth Form and lifelong student of the English language – took an immediate interest in the text. He spent a considerable amount of time discussing the strange activity at Meadow Cottage with Ken, stating that the language appeared to him to be the genuine language used in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, adding that only a person who had extensive expertise in the English language of this era would have been able to fake the writing convincingly. He asked Ken to keep him informed on the strangeness unfolding at the cottage and to show him any further messages he might receive. Ken happily agreed. He was, though, a little disappointed when no further messages appeared on the computer over the following days. He decided to take matters into his own hands, deciding that if someone (LW) could send messages to him on the computer, perhaps he could send messages to them. He sat at the computer and typed:

“Dear LW – thank you for your message. We’re sorry for disturbing you. What would you like us to do? Did you live in a house on this land about 1620? Do you want to us to tell you more about our time? Who is Edmund Grey? Do you have a family? Is the King James or Charles? What is the charge house? Was this village called Dodleston in your life? Thank you very much for your messages. Thank you very much for not making us afraid.”

Ken then saved the message to a computer disc before he, Debbie, and Nic ventured out to the Red Lion pub, where they would spend the rest of the afternoon. They purposely left the computer on when they left in the hope that they would return home to find a message waiting for them. When they did return from the pub several hours later, that is exactly what they discovered.

According to this new mystery correspondence, LW had once lived in a house that sat on the land that Meadow Cottage was built on, with some of the original buildings now incorporated into the modern-day structure. He had lived there, he claimed, in the sixteenth century, and named Henry as “his king,” suggesting that he was alive during the reign of Henry VIII. Answering Ken’s question as to who Edmund Gray was, LW offered that he was “the brother of John Grey” who lived at “Kintertone Hall”, elaborating that his charge house was a “place of law schooling!” Once more, he signed the message as LW, but this time added a date – 28th March 1521.

As exciting as this new message was, there were several issues that the trio immediately noticed. LW, for example, had stated that King Henry was “six and 40!” However, in 1521, the date LW signed, Henry VIII was only 30 years old. Peter Trinder also noticed further inaccuracies, perhaps most notably that Kinerton Hall was not built until around 200 years after the early sixteenth century. Furthermore, there seemed to be no records whatsoever of Edmund Grey or John Grey during the time in question. Peter also highlighted the use of modern punctuation, something that was not used in the early sixteenth century.

With all of this in mind, Ken, Debbie, and Nic began to contemplate once more that they were the victims of some kind of hoax, and, of more concern, that someone was indeed gaining access to the property to leave these strange messages. As unsettled and confused as they were by these mind-bending events, when the following weekend arrived, Ken brought the computer system home with him once more. All three were eager to see if more messages would appear, and appear they did.

In these latest messages, LW revealed more information about himself. He claimed, for example, that he was a farmer who kept livestock. He had a wife and a son, but both of them had died during a plague in 1517. He mainly farmed barley that was sold and then made into ale, but he also made cheese on the farm for extra income. The building itself, he stated, was a “humble home” made from red stone, a detail that matched what Ken and Debbie had discovered when they had renovated the cottage when they first moved in several months previously. He also stated that he was able to communicate with them with a “Leems Boyste” – or what was interpreted to be a “box of lights” – essentially, it appeared this was LW’s description of the computer. Perhaps most interesting, instead of simply signing the message LW, he signed with his full name – Lukas Wainman.

As well as the information in the message, Lukas was troubled by the strange events, even insinuating that Ken, Debbie, and Nic were the intruders in his home and not the other way around. Of more concern to Lukas were the potential consequences of the authorities (in his time) of the strange events he found himself involved in.

Once more, Ken printed out the message and showed it to Peter Trinder, and once more, he examined the text searching for inaccuracies. However, this time, rather than finding any areas of concern, Peter offered that the overall structure of the writing appeared to be indicative of the early to mid-sixteenth century, including the use of random Latin words. Moreover, he also determined that the person who had written the message was likely from the Cheshire region, something that Lukas had seemingly confirmed.

These communications between Ken, Debbie, and Nic in the mid-1980s and Lukas in the mid-sixteenth century continued. And as they did, more and more accurate information was offered. Lukas stated, for example, that his king (Henry VIII) was married to Katherine Parr. This would have placed Lukas at some point in the 1540s, a detail that matched very nicely with other details he had given previously. There were, however, still certain names and people that couldn’t be identified in the historical record. The group reasoned that in the 1540s, many small parishes (which Dodleston undoubtedly was) wouldn’t have necessarily kept records of every person. Moreover, even those records that were made might not have survived into the modern era.

The communications continued, and as they did, so did the revelations. Perhaps one of the most intriguing came after Ken told Lukas in one of his replies that he was writing to him from the year 1985. Lukas was seemingly surprised at this, stating that he thought that Ken was “also from 2109, like your friend!” This caused the group concern, not least as it implied that a third person, one from over 100 years in the future, was also watching these strange events, perhaps even orchestrating them. What’s more, it seemed that this third person was also communicating directly with Lukas.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Ken was more convinced than ever that these strange events were not some kind of hoax or prank by bored locals, but were something all the more out of the ordinary and profound. Not only was more and more information given by Lukas confirmed as accurate, but the replies themselves were coming increasingly faster, sometimes when Ken and Debbie were still in the house. Although they were usually in another room from the computer, this meant the idea that someone was entering the property to leave the messages had to be dismissed. Although they were at peace with the idea that a person living 400 years ago was somehow communicating with them via the computer system, they were still at a loss as to how “2109” connected to these surreal events.

As Ken had done with Lukas several months earlier, he took the initiative and typed out a message for 2109 on the computer. Much to their surprise, a reply promptly came back to them. It read:

“Ken, Deb, Peter – We are sorry that we can give you only two choices. One, that you either have your predicament explained in such a way that you have instant understanding but cause what should not happen, or, two, try to understand that you three have a purpose that shall in your lifetime, change the face of history. We, 2109, must not affect your thoughts directly, but give you some sort of guidance that will allow room for your own destiny. All we can say is that we are all part of the same god!”

To say that the group in 1985 was perplexed by this response would be an understatement. Was 2109 behind these bizarre events? And if so, what was the reason for bringing Lukas and them together? Of rising concern to Ken and Debbie, as these communications continued, the unsettling poltergeist-like activity was not only continuing, but the unsettling events were becoming increasingly intense. They all continued to hear the apparent phantom footsteps around the cottage, for example, as well as the sudden temperature drops in random rooms. These icy temperatures were so cold that a person could see their breath in front of them, as though it was the middle of winter. They also began discovering more and more writing written in chalk around the property, with one of the words found being “Lukas!”

It was around this time that Nic decided she had experienced enough and decided to move out of the property. Although Ken and Debbie continued to live at Meadow Cottage, Debbie had rented a small flat nearby so she had the option to get away from the strangeness for a night or two to get a good night’s sleep. It also gave her the chance to properly research the area in an attempt to find some kind of explanation for the inexplicable events unfolding around her and Ken. She discovered that, according to some researchers, leylines (natural lines of energy) ran straight through the land where the cottage sat, and she began to wonder if this natural convergence of energy was responsible for the bizarre events they had witnessed at the small abode.

Of more concern – and intrigue – to Debbie, though, was the strange, intense dreams she began experiencing, dreams which often involved Lukas, or at least what her subconscious perception of Lukas was. The more she had these dreams the more vivid and intense they became, leading her to eventually contemplate if they were much more than dreams and some kind of actual interaction with Lukas across time itself. Indeed, while wild speculation, we might consider if these dreams were, in fact, some kind of out-of-body experience where Debbie’s astral self was projected to the past, 400 years into the past. And if this was the case, could the leylines that ran through the property have some kind of connection to these remarkable events?

At this point, Ken and Debbie, along with Peter, decided to contact the Society of Psychical Research (SPR), which had been investigating paranormal events since 1882. SPR investigators David Welch and John Bucknell arrived at the cottage several days later. After carrying out an initial investigation, they proposed several actions they could take to try and get to the truth of what was going on. They suggested that they would send ten questions to 2109 and then delete the file from the computer, insisting that Ken, Debbie, and Peter should not know any details of these questions. Moreover, they insisted that all of them stay away from the computer until they received a reply. They agreed, and several days later, a reply came. It read:

“David, you interfere with communication. Next time you decide to perform your little experiment you must be clear. From here we suggest you try someone else to sit with Debbie. Yes we are what you call a Tachyon Universe but your understanding is incorrect. We ask nothing more of you than to carry on as you would prefer. We will have John present if given choice or you may bring another as mentioned. No, it is no concern to us that this is not proved. We will give you a plotting of a star next time. We move at a speed so that we cover every point in your time and universe. We have no form. We feed of a heat energy that you will not have heard of. 2109.”

David stated that although 2109 had not given any specific answers to the questions, they had highlighted them in their response, and had done so in the correct order. Both he and John remained skeptical, however, even offering some rather bizarre explanations. They stated, for example, that someone could have hidden microphones in the study where the computer system had been set up. They then stated that from the recordings picked up by these microphones, a person could have determined what questions had been typed from the sounds made on the keyboard. Ken and Debbie were shocked at the SPR agents’ suggestions and rejected them unreservedly. They were clear in their own minds that neither of them was behind the messages, but struggled with how they could prove this to the two investigators, or how they could demonstrate that the events taking place were very real.

It was around this time that Ken spoke of the bizarre happenings to another teacher at the school, Frank Davis, who also had an interest in such events, and agreed to go to the cottage to see the building for himself. He later claimed that as soon as he walked through the door and into the study, he noticed that the temperature in the room fell, going from comfortable to icy cold in a matter of seconds. After two minutes in the frozen conditions, the temperature suddenly returned to normal and did so as rapidly as it had fallen.

Shortly after his arrival, Frank joined Ken and Debbie in the kitchen to discuss the bizarre goings-on further. They returned to the study a short time later, and to their shock, a new message was awaiting them on the computer. This message, however, wasn’t from Lukas or 2109, but from a third person who stated his name was John. He claimed that he was a friend of Lukas, who, he stated, had been imprisoned by the local Sheriff after he had been accused of witchcraft and communicating with dark, otherworldly entities (the entities, the 1980s group assumed, were none other than themselves).

At this point, all Ken and Debbie could do was wait for further messages and, ultimately, learn Lukas’ fate. Meanwhile, as Ken and Debbie desperately waited for further information, Peter Trinder made some revelations of his own during his investigations of the messages. Lukas had claimed, for example, that he had attended Brasenose College at Oxford. Through a friend who was a librarian at the college, Peter had passed on the names of several books that Lukas had provided the names of in an attempt to prove his honesty and authenticity. Not only did Peter’s friend locate all of the books in question, but she confirmed that each of them had been published in the 1520s, the same time that Lukas claimed they had been.

With Lukas’ credibility seemingly beyond doubt, Ken and Debbie decided to send a message on the computer, one that would, they hoped, assist in having him freed from his imprisonment. Using purposely aggressive language, they insisted that this message should be taken to the Sheriff. In it, they stated that Lukas should be freed from prison immediately, and if he wasn’t, they would “use their powers” against them. Almost unbelievably, a short time after sending the message, they received a reply. It was from Lukas, and he was indeed free.

Following this, Ken asked Lukas if he was responsible for objects being moved around their house and if it was he who was piling objects up in the kitchen, as well as the other paranormal-like activity, such as the footsteps around the property. To their surprise, not only did Lukas insist that he was not responsible for this strange goings-on, but he was also experiencing the same thing in his time. Between them, they concluded that it must be 2109 who was somehow responsible for the bizarre disturbances taking place. Lukas suggested that Ken move the computer into the kitchen, where, from his perspective, Lukas could communicate more privately. He also asked Ken to leave a piece of paper and a pen near the computer, which Ken duly did.

The following morning, when Ken came downstairs and inspected the computer, instead of a typed message, he discovered a handwritten note. Moreover, instead of being signed by Lukas, it was signed by Thomas. Thomas (Lukas, remember) stated he had not wished to use his real name, to begin with. He had, though, he claimed, left clues as to his real name within his messages, specifically, his last name, adding that it was also the name of the place where Peter lived, which was Hawarden. With Peter’s assistance, Ken began researching and eventually discovered a man named Thomas Hawarden in the historical record. Moreover, this person had attended Brasenose College in the 1530s. After telling Debbie of what they had discovered, all were certain they had located their man and acquired proof that the person they were communicating with had indeed existed, and had done so at the time he claimed he had lived in. Then, things turned even stranger.

The computer had at this point been moved into the bathroom. One day, when Ken walked in, he discovered a new message. This one, though, had not been left on the computer, but had been scribbled onto the floor in chalk – and it wasn’t from Lukas, but from 2109. It read:

“One more chance. Measure frequency by plus two energy. What else other than sound and light? Ken, Deb, Peter – we have reason to believe you have Lukas Weinman’s true name. If this is correct, you must say so, so we can rectify the problem immediately before it is accepted!”

Ken didn’t respond to 2109 but instead messaged Thomas. He told him of the message from the mysterious 2109, and as the two messaged each other – 400 years apart – they began to fill in further parts of the big picture of the strange encounters. It seemed that 2109 – whoever they were – had been intercepting and even doctoring Thomas’ initial messages. This was, it was determined, in an apparent effort to prevent Ken from learning Thomas’ real name. Ken also concluded that this was why many of the initial messages contained inaccurate information. Finally believing they had the proof they required to prove the credibility of the strange events, Ken contacted SPR once more. However, rather than acting on this new information, the organization turned its back on the case, even going as far as to issue an official statement to a local newspaper. It read:

“Clearly, if this case is a hoax, then the two teachers (Ken and Peter) are the prime suspects. I believe it is also possible that a third party was responsible. I would’ve loved to prove it was genuine. It would’ve been the most unique phenomenon ever recorded. Something, or someone, is doing it. It was not the job of the SPR to point the finger!”

Ken took it upon himself to contact SPR to request all of the records of the investigation into their case. Much to his surprise, however, the organization responded that there were no records of such an investigation. Even stranger, they stated that one of the investigators whom Ken had named had seemingly disappeared completely, with all attempts to contact him proving unsuccessful. Stranger still, SPR claimed they had no records of David Welch having ever worked for the organization. They finished their dialogue with Ken by stating that there were no records of SPR ever investigating the strange events at Meadow Cottage. A short time after this, Ken received another message from 2109 – and this one was much more direct and contained specific information and instructions. It read:

“We ask you to do the following. There is a brilliant researcher (and) ufologist. We know you don’t like the word. His name is Gary M. Rowe. His ideas differ somewhat to yours but nevertheless he can help you with a couple of your problems. You phone him at the number below and invite him to talk with you. When he comes, show him this and ask him what he makes of it. Peter must do the telephoning. Tell him that you got a telephone number from a UFO enthusiast. 2109.”  

Ken, Debbie, and Peter acted on the instructions and contacted Gary Rowe, who, ultimately, visited the cottage a short time later. He arrived with all manner of technical devices to carry out his investigation into these strange events. Part of his investigation involved him leaving messages for 2109 in a sealed envelope that he placed on top of the computer. Here is where things took another intriguing twist. Rather than 2109’s response coming via the computer, it seemingly came in the form of a printed piece of paper that had been placed inside the envelope. It was because of this that no one other than Rowe saw the responses from 2109. Rowe went out of his way to avoid speaking of the responses (something he ultimately never did). Eventually, Ken, Debbie, and Peter saw one of the messages from Rowe. It read:

“Greetings. I am instructed to apologize but in any event, I would have done so of my volition. There will be a letter hopefully this weekend. I am also instructed to apologize to Ken and Debbie. I must try and answer your last letter. It would appear that you are more important than I had realized in the big scheme of things. Gary.”

This led to a heated exchange between Rowe and Ken, which resulted in Rowe leaving the property. Neither Ken, Debbie, nor Peter ever heard from or saw Rowe again, and the contents of his communication with 2109 remain unknown. Despite this, Ken and Thomas continued to communicate, with Thomas telling Ken more of the events from his perspective in the mid-sixteenth century. He told Ken that one night, he was sitting in his house when he suddenly noticed a strange light coming out of the fireplace. Then, the next thing he knew, a man stepped out of the lights and told him not to be afraid. This mysterious individual also brought with him the “light box” (or computer, we might assume) to his kitchen. Thomas then revealed that when he spoke in the direction of the box his words appeared in bright green letters on the screen. Ultimately, these communications continued regularly until March 21st, 1985. On that day, Ken received what would be Thomas’s final message. It read:

“My true fellows and sweet maid – Grosner has said that Thomas must go. I know it is for the best because the people of Dodleston are very wary of me. It is good to know that all will change and there are true men to follow like Ken and Peter, though 400 years is a long time, and there is much to happen to mankind. Perhaps you will come to Oxford now I think there is no danger for me there for I hear the King is very sick and all is quiet in the church. I shall go by boat from Cheshire to Bristol. I shall try to make my stay at Brasenose. I will write my book about my brothers and maid, and the end of Lukas, and our love for one another. One day you will all sit down at my table for wine and mead by the river in Oxford where we shall read other’s books and laugh, and we shall speak of truth and good men watching Oxford change together forevermore. In your time, my book is old, but I shall not go to my god until it is written. Then we will all be truly be embraced. My love to you all. I shall await you in Oxford – Thomas Hawarden.”

It was, though, the final message that Ken received from 2109 that provided one final plot twist to the already bizarre events. It read:

“There is another to come. They will be the help we need. You will know when they come. Thomas did eventually write his book and he soon died shortly after. He placed it in a secure place. It shouldn’t take too many years to find it. Though he wrote it in Latin with the help of a friend that he met in Oxford. The inscription reads, ‘Me writes this with the hope that mind friends will one day find this book, then may our lands be not so distant’. We will finish now. You have a lot of work to do. There is no need to write back as we will have gone. Thank you for your cooperation. 2109.”

Following this last message, all communication, from Thomas and 2109, ceased completely. When Ken and Debbie went through all the messages once more, they totaled more than 300 between Thomas and 2109. Following the release of The Vertical Plane, several television documentaries were made exploring the fascinating events at Meadow Cottage, with the events that took place there never being satisfactorily explained. Ken and Debbie, incidentally, have never changed their version of events, with Debbie even stating that she believes the messages contain some kind of important information about future events.

It is also worth examining Peter Trinder’s thoughts on the remarkable events from the mid-1980s. He later stated that he had used several different English and Latin dictionaries to accurately decipher some of the messages, elaborating that for the messages to have been faked, it would have required the person behind them to have had intricate and accurate knowledge of Medieval languages. Although he ultimately believed the messages were credible, he also added years later that, “If it was a hoax, it was a jolly good one!”

There were, though, others who were far from convinced that the messages represented genuine communication across the centuries. Just one such person was Dr. Laura Wright from Cambridge University. She stated that the writer of the messages – a person claiming to have been in the 1540s, remember – often used verbs that hadn’t been used (in the sixteenth century) for hundreds of years, adding that whoever was behind the messages had a “terrible command” of the language of the times they claimed to have been living in.

Also of concern were the results of a computer software experiment where a sample message of Thomas’ was compared to a random sample of Ken’s writing. After an advanced computer system examined both pieces of writing, it determined that there was a possibility that they had been written by the same person (although we should point out that the results were far from conclusive). Ken, incidentally, dismissed these tests, stating that 300 words were not enough to arrive at such conclusions, even claiming that he believed the people behind the experiment (the makers of a BBC documentary) had selectively chosen a certain passage that had an increased chance of returning such a result.

Despite these areas of concern, however, it is largely regarded in the paranormal community to be a very credible case with bizarre events that still elude explanation. Many people, for example, including Debbie, have spoken in the years since in Ken’s defense, offering that he is an honest and credible person and not someone who would have risked his career and public ridicule to make such claims if they were not accurate. In short, he was a very trustworthy, serious person.

There are also several other intriguing details to note regarding the truly strange and bizarre goings-on at Meadow Cottage. Perhaps one of the strangest but most interesting details offered by 2109 about a mathematical theorem that was proposed in 1637 by Pierre de Fermat – often referred to as Fermat’s Last Theorem. According to 2109, this theorem would be solved within Ken’s lifetime. Despite having been unresolved for well over three centuries, in 1995, a decade after the messages had stopped, Andrew Wiles suddenly proved the theorem correct. Of course, while this could have been a coincidence, the fact that such a trivial detail was proven correct and accurate should not be ignored.

There are also the coordinates given by 2109 of an unknown star that this mysterious figure, seemingly from the future, claimed would be of great importance to humanity. Several years later, a quasar was discovered at the exact coordinates given by 2109.

It wasn’t just 2109 that had offered details that had proven to be remarkably accurate. We might recall that, at least according to his messages, Thomas claimed he had been imprisoned by Sheriff Thomas Fowlehurst. Initially, no records were discovered to prove whether or not such a person existed. However, several years after the bizarre events unfolded, records of a man named Sir Thomas Falhurst came to light, a man who the historical record shows was Sheriff of Cheshire in 1529, remarkably close to the time that Thomas also lived in.

As bizarre and bordering on the outrageous as these events undoubtedly are, there are many reasons to believe that some kind of strange three-way communications took place from three different points in time. While it is interesting enough to consider that people in the 1980s were communicating with a person from the mid-sixteenth century through a (now) basic computer system, when we add in 2109 and where they might fit into all of this, the incidents become even more mind-blowing and thought-provoking.

Perhaps one thing to consider is whether 2109 is an individual, a group, or an organization, and perhaps of more interest, is it possible that they orchestrated the events from over 100 years in the future? Given that they appeared to interfere in the communications, as well as, at least according to Thomas, providing Thomas with access to the computer, we might suspect this to be accurate. However, we might also recall that it was Ken who brought the computer system home from the school where he worked, which was beyond the control of 2109, whoever they might be. With this in mind, it is perhaps more likely that 2109 was simply opportunistic when presented with the bizarre goings-on taking place (to them) over 100 years earlier at the small cottage in Dodleston. If we accept, for a moment, that some kind of portal was responsible for connecting the three points in time, is it possible that 2109 – or the individuals identifying as 2109 – simply resided in a building that, in 2109, stood on the same land that Meadow Cottage did in the mid-1980s?

It is also worth our time considering the poltergeist-like activity. Was 2109 responsible for this? Or was whatever was responsible for allowing the communications to take place in the first place have allowed strange entities from another realm of existence access to Meadow Cottage? We might assume, given the content of 2109’s messages, not to mention the information they seemingly passed to Gary Rowe that remains undisclosed, that they would not have troubled themselves with such activities as moving around objects. We should also recall the six-toed footprints – surely another indicator that there were more entities at work here than Thomas, Ken and Debbie, and 2109, and these entities were themselves, highly strange.

We might also ask if this is an isolated incident, or if there are other, unreported cases of such encounters from around the world and across the decades. Could very similar, perhaps identical incidents be unfolding right now somewhere in an otherwise sleepy location on the planet? We might also consider if these types of encounters have happened throughout history, even in ancient times, as well as to individuals far into the future, much further than the year 2109. As speculative as all this is, could this explain prophets and wise men of the past, or even such individuals who were remarkably ahead of their time, such as Nikola Tesla or even Leonardo da Vinci? As usual with any such mysterious events, there are many more questions than answers, and the events very much remain open to debate, and all possibilities remain on the table.  

Beyond the smaller cycles of time that we are all familiar with, the sacred texts and legends of our ancestors resonate with the ideas of larger cycles of time which govern the rhythmic rise and fall of civilizations over thousands of years and the evolution and extinction of life forms over geological time scales. Two of these time cycles have been spelled out in explicit detail in the ancient texts, which I have explored in my earlier articles: the “Yuga Cycle” and the “Day and Night of Brahma”. 

The Yuga Cycle, also known as the Great Year or the Cycle of the Ages, is the same as the precession cycle of the earth and is 25,800 years in duration. Throughout this long cycle, human consciousness declines from a Golden Age or Satya Yuga of enlightenment, abundance and harmony to an Iron Age or Kali Yuga of greed and manipulations, discord and divisions; and, having touched the nadir of consciousness, civilization, then, begins a slow and steady ascent back to the next Golden Age. These are not just empty tales but are based on scientific facts indelibly imprinted in the archeological records. We now know that, over the past 12,000 years of the descending Yuga Cycle, humans have shrunk in size by at least 10%, along with a decline in bone strength and athleticism. This has been accompanied by a 10% to 17% reduction in our cranial volume, which has reduced our memory, atrophied our sense of judgment and morality, and led to the loss of subtle mental abilities such as foresight, telepathy, astral projection, remote viewing, etc. It also turns out that, towards the end of the last Ice Age (when the Golden Age was in progress), there was no food scarcity or diseases, but as time went on, food sources became scarce, many kinds of diseases became endemic, and incidences of violent deaths increased substantially. 

The Yuga Cycle or the Cycle of the Ages is part of an even longer cycle of time called the “Day and Night of Brahma”, which is a grand cosmic cycle of creation and dissolution spanning 25.8 million years or 1000 complete Yuga Cycles! 

This cycle also has two halves. A “Day of Brahma” extends for 12.9 million years, when we experience a continuous sequence of 500 complete Yuga Cycles and the world bustles with life and civilization. At the end of a “Day of Brahma”, the entire creation is destroyed and turns into a formless ocean, and all life returns to the Source. This is followed by a “Night of Brahma” of equal duration of 12.9 million years when no life exists in a manifested form. After the “Night of Brahma” ends, the world is created once again, and the next cycle begins anew with another “Day of Brahma”.

All of this might sound quite fantastic, and test the limits of our beliefs, but the astonishing fact is that almost every facet of the “Day and Night of Brahma” is reflected in the fossil records of the earth. I had written a detailed article on this topic earlier, and, for now, I will simply present a summary of findings to refresh our memories: 

As per the ancient Vedic texts, all life on the earth is extinguished at the end of a “Day of Brahma”, every 25.8 million years. The fossil records, on the other hand, show that a mass extinction of species occurs every 26 million years. The 26 Myr mass extinction cycle has now been validated by a number of separate studies.

The Vedic texts claim that the earth remains in a lifeless state during the “Night of Brahma”, which extends for 12.9 million years following a dissolution or extinction event. The fossil records, on the other hand, show that it takes 10 million years or more for new life forms to emerge and for global biodiversity to recover, after a mass extinction event, due to the continuing grim conditions on earth. 

The Vedic texts claim that new life forms arise on the earth as soon as a new “Day of Brahma” dawns, and that it takes nearly 47,400 years for all living entities to be created. The fossil records reveal that new species appear in rapid, episodic bursts, in a fully formed state, and not through the slow and gradual transformation of its ancestors, as Darwin had proposed. The rapid speciation events are completed within 5,000 - 50,000 years. 

The evidence is indisputable; the ancients knew how the large cycles of time operate, and change the conditions of life on our planet in profound ways, and it is only now that we are beginning to grasp and appreciate the true import of their wisdom teachings. What I was keen to figure out, however, was, what could be causing these vast time cycles that bring about dramatic shifts in our consciousness, genetics, and the entire ecosphere. Surely, a powerful cosmic source must be involved – something as energetic as our Sun, perhaps – for, what else can be capable of modulating our ecosphere and our psyche in such an intense manner?

Vishnunabhi – The Galactic Center

In the book, The Holy Science (1894), Sri Yukteswar provided some important clues for decoding this mystery. He wrote that, according to Oriental astronomers, the sun had another motion around a grand center called Vishnunabhi that is responsible for the unfolding of the Yugas. Here are his exact words:

“The sun also has another motion by which it revolves round a grand center called Vishnunabhi, which is the seat of the creative power Brahma, the universal magnetism. Brahma regulates dharma, the mental virtue of the internal world. When the sun…comes to the place nearest to this grand center, the seat of Brahma (an event which occurs when the Autumnal Equinox comes to the first point of Aries), dharma, the mental virtue becomes so much developed that man can easily comprehend all, even the mysteries of Spirit…After 12,000 years, when the sun goes to the place in its orbit which is farthest from Brahma, the grand center (an event which occurs when the Autumnal Equinox comes to the first point of Libra), the mental virtue comes to such a reduced state that man cannot grasp anything beyond the gross material state.”[1]

When we read this intriguing passage, the first question that pops up in our mind is, what did Yukteswar mean by the grand center called Vishnunabhi, around which our sun revolves? Now, that is easy enough to answer based on what we know about our galaxy today. It has been determined that our sun revolves around the Galactic Center, completing one orbit in 225-250 million years. Therefore, Vishnunabhi (i.e. the navel of Vishnu) must be the Galactic Center. This interpretation is also in perfect alignment with ancient Hindu iconography and cosmological symbolism. 

In Hindu iconography, Lord Vishnu is regarded as the preserver of the created order, and he is typically depicted in a form known as “Anantasayi Vishnu”, in which he is shown, reclining on his serpent bed in the middle of the cosmic Milky Ocean, and dreaming the world into existence from his navel. Out of his navel sprouts a lotus flower which symbolizes the world, and seated within the lotus is Brahma – the supreme creative principle – who brings forth the created order. This is why, Vishnu is called padma-nabha i.e. lotus-naveled”, and Brahma is called nabhija i.e. “navel-born”.  

It is reasonable to assume that the cosmic “Milky Ocean” in the center of which Vishnu reclines, refers to the Milky Way galaxy. In that case, the luminous god Vishnu could be symbolized by the gigantic, central bar of our galaxy, which is nearly 27,000 light-years long and stretches across the center of the Milky Way.[2]

The central bar was discovered quite recently, in 2005, using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. It is composed of roughly 30 million stars. That makes it the biggest and brightest constellation of stars in our galaxy. Like the preserver-god Vishnu, the central bar plays an important role in preserving the created order. It is thought to spin like a propeller inside the Milky Way, helping to maintain our galaxy’s unique spiral shape. 

If Vishnu is symbolized by the central bar of the Milky Way, then Vishnunabhi i.e. the “navel of Vishnu”, must be the Galactic Center, since the navel is the center point of the human anatomy. Thus, whichever way we look at it, the term Vishnunabhi refers to the Galactic Center. It is the “grand center” around which our sun revolves, and it is also the center point of the central bar of the Milky Way, which represents the preserver-god Vishnu.

But the Indian astronomers of the late 19th century (remember, Yukteswar published his book in 1894) were not supposed to know that the sun revolves around the Galactic Center, because it was only in the 1920s that modern astronomers – primarily Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble - began to suspect that we live in a spiral galaxy, and our sun was well off the center of the galaxy by some 30,000 light-years, and probably revolving around it. So, this is yet another example of the sophisticated astronomical knowledge of our ancestors, which had been passed down through oral tradition in specific lineages for thousands of years, but largely forgotten by the rest of the world.

Yukteswar also wrote that Vishnunabhi “is the seat of the creative power Brahma, the universal magnetism. Brahma regulates dharma, the mental virtue of the internal world”? This statement is aligned with Vedic cosmological beliefs, as per which, Brahma is the unformed, creative principle who sits on the navel of Vishnu i.e. Vishnunabhi, and is called nabhija i.e. the “navel-born”. 

Now, if Vishnunabhi is the Galactic Center, then who or what is Brahma, the creative power? 

There is only one celestial object in the region of the Galactic Center which is deserving of the epithet Brahma, the creative principle. It is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center called Sgr A* (Sagittarius A*).

Brahma – The Central Black Hole of the Milky Way

For a long time, astronomers had been observing a powerful radio source at the center of the Milky Way, which they termed Sgr A*since it was located in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. Then they began to speculate that the only cosmic object that might generate such powerful radiation in the radio frequency (RF) is a black hole. The concept of a black hole came out of Einstein's equations. It was visualized as a “dark star” having enormous gravitational pull that gobbles in and crushes anything which crosses a boundary known as the “event horizon”. A black hole is believed to be formed when an old, massive star uses up its nuclear fuel, implodes under the force of its gravity, and gets compressed within a tiny space called a singularity.

Even till the early 1990s, the existence of black holes was regarded as science fiction by most astronomers, but things changed with the discovery of Sgr A*. Astronomers began to speculate that Sgr A* could be a supermassive black hole, nearly 4.3 million times the mass of the sun, squeezed into a tiny space only ten times bigger than the sun. They proposed that, when the nuclear bulge was forming, a small fraction of the mass lacking orbital momentum collapsed in the middle to form the supermassive black hole. 

But, if a black hole is a “dark star”, and nothing, not even light, can come out of it due to its tremendous gravitational pull, then, how is it that the black hole at the Galactic Center is emitting strong radiation in the RF spectrum? Astronomers believe that the radio waves are coming from the “accretion disk” surrounding the black hole, and not from the black hole itself. The accretion disk was visualized as superheated rings of hot gas, dust and stars that surround a black hole, and spiral toward the “event horizon”. 

Subsequent observations revealed that the supermassive black holes at the centers of other galaxies are emitting intense radiation at all frequencies – from radio waves to gamma rays – and ejecting powerful plasma jets from their north and south poles. That is why astronomers started to refer to black holes as the “central engine” powering a galaxy.

If black holes are the “central engines” powering entire galaxies, then it would not be amiss to postulate that the supreme creative principle called Brahma, who sits in the Galactic Center i.e. Vishnunabhi, must be the supermassive black hole, Sgr A*. 

In other words, as per Sri Yukteswar, it is the central black hole Sgr A*, which regulates our mental virtue and is responsible for the rhythmic rise and fall of consciousness in the course of the Yuga Cycle. 

This can be intuitively understood since human consciousness is strongly influenced by electromagnetic radiation. We know that reduced levels of sunlight in the winter months can cause Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), whose symptoms include anxiety, mood swings, sleep problems and even suicidal thoughts. A similar situation could be transpiring on a galactic scale. Currently, we receive very little radiation from the central black hole, since the nuclear bulge of our galaxy is hidden from our view by vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust. It is probably due to this lack of radiation reaching us from the Galactic Center that we are languishing in the Kali Yuga – the time when consciousness touches rock bottom.

Yukteswar wrote that, as per the ancient astronomers, the sun moves towards and away from the Galactic Center in the course of its revolution around it, which causes electromagnetic radiation to fluctuate and thereby influence our consciousness. I was curious to find out if the sun actually exhibits such a to-and-fro motion. It turns out that, the solar system has two additional motions as it revolves around the Galactic Center. 

The solar system moves up and down the galactic plane at 5-7 km/s, making one complete oscillation in nearly 60 million years. Since the periodicity of this movement is 60 million years, it cannot be tied to Yuga Cycle of 25,800 years.

The solar system moves towards and away from the Galactic Center at a speed of 20 km/s. The amplitude or periodicity of this sinusoidal movement is not known. It is this oscillation that Yukteswar seems to have mentioned in his book.

Once again, it is amazing to realize that the astronomers of ancient India knew that the solar system moves towards and away from the Galactic Center in the course of its orbit - yet another indication of the high wisdom of ancient times.

We need to ascertain, however, if the sideways movement of the solar system, towards and away from the Galactic Center, at speeds of around 20 km/sec, is large enough to cause a palpable variation in the radiation reaching us from the central black hole. I did a rough, back-of-the-envelope calculation. Let’s assume that the periodicity of the sideways movement is 25,800 years. Since the sideways velocity is 20 km/s, the total distance covered in a 25,800-year period will be 1.72 light years. The amplitude will be less than half of that, i.e. less than 0.86 light years. This is extremely small, particularly in comparison to the vast distance of 25,800 light-years between our sun and the Galactic Center. 

How can such a small oscillatory movement change the radiation reaching us from the central black hole to a sufficiently large degree to trigger the enormous changes in our consciousness, physical stature, and environment in the course of the Yuga Cycle? It just didn’t seem convincing to me. To add to the conundrum, very little radiation is anyway reaching us from the black hole due to the interstellar dust clouds.

I was stumped. While it is very likely that the fluctuation in the EM radiation from the central black hole is driving the consciousness shifts during the Yuga Cycle, I couldn’t figure out what is causing the EM radiation to fluctuate. Neither of the motions of the solar system - sideways or up-and-down - could explain it. 

So, I decided to change the direction of my thinking. I wondered, what if the source itself is fluctuating? What if the emission of EM radiation from the central black hole itself varies in a sinusoidal manner, over 25,800 years? 

As soon as I changed the direction of my inquiry, the doors of possibility opened up, leading me to an eminently plausible explanation.

The AGN Cycle of the Central Black Hole

There are times when the nucleus of a galaxy becomes extremely luminous and emits so much radiation that it outshines the light from the rest of the galaxy. Such a luminous nucleus is called an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). A typical AGN has around four times the luminosity as the rest of the galaxy combined. AGNs are known to be powered by the supermassive black holes in their core, which can become very active from time to time and emit intense radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. A galaxy hosting an AGN is called an “active galaxy”.

Why is this important? Because the nucleus of a galaxy such as the Milky Way, which has a supermassive black hole in its center, can also experience phases of intense activity when it becomes extraordinarily luminous and turns into an AGN. 

Right now the Milky Way’s central black hole is not very active and emits only radio waves and sporadic X-ray flares, but astronomers know that it exhibited AGN activity in the past. The Magellanic Stream near the Milky Way is believed to have been photoionized by an AGN event in the Galactic Centre some 1–3 Myr ago. 

This means that the Milky Way has its own AGN cycle, and it is possible that the AGN Cycle could be powering the Yuga Cycle.

In a recent paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2015), an international team of scientists - whose members included Kevin Schawinski, Michael Koss, Simon Berney and Lia F. Sartori - described the phases of an AGN cycle, along with their estimates for the duration of each phase, for a typical, large galaxy.3 It must be noted that the Milky Way is not a large galaxy, but a medium-sized one, and therefore these estimates are not applicable to the Milky Way. 

The scientists identified 3 distinct phases in an AGN cycle: Switch-on phase, AGN phase and Switch-off phase. 

Switch-on phase: When the central black hole starts accreting matter, the accretion disc begins emitting radiation at optical, UV and X-ray wavelengths. This is the Switch-on phase. For a large galaxy, this phase extends for ~ 10,000 years. 

AGN phase: After the Switch-on phase, the nucleus becomes extremely luminous and emits intense radiation at all frequencies. Since any electromagnetic radiation is a stream of energetic photons, these photons photoionize the interstellar medium of the host galaxy. Photoionization is the process in which a photon ejects electrons from an atom or a molecule and converts it into an ion i.e. a charged particle. It is at that point that the host galaxy can be identified as an AGN. The AGN phase for a large galaxy extends for ~ 100,000 years. 

Switch-off phase: After the AGN phase, the black hole stops accreting matter and emitting radiation. However, the interstellar medium of the galaxy continues to be photoionized for some time as the “light echo” from the AGN phase travels out across the galaxy. The Switch-off phase for a large galaxy is estimated to extend for ~ 10,000 – 100,000 years.

As per the scientists in the study, the statistical estimate for the total duration of an AGN cycle (including the three phases) for a typical large galaxy is ~ 200,000 years. As I have mentioned earlier, these estimates are not applicable to the Milky Way since it is a medium-sized galaxy. So what could be the duration of the AGN cycle of the Milky Way?

The point to be noted is that there is considerable variability in the duration of the AGN cycle. In some small galaxies, the AGN phase could last for a few decades or even days. I wondered, what if the total duration of the AGN cycle of the Milky Way is one order of magnitude less than that of a typical large galaxy i.e. ~ 20,000 years? That would make it comparable to the 25,800-year duration of the Yuga Cycle and precession cycle.

I decided to take the argument forward and tried to map the three phases of an AGN cycle to the Yuga Cycle. The outcome was more than satisfactory and quite plausible.

Since the Milky Way’s nucleus is currently not very luminous, we may be living in the Switch-on phase of the central black hole, Sgr A*. This phase may have started sometime after the beginning of the ascending Kali Yuga in c.676 BCE. We know that Sgr A* has been emitting strong radiation in the radio frequency spectrum. In addition, observations since 2006 indicate that Sgr A* displays strong, unpredictable, flaring emissions in the X-ray band, atop a steady level.[4] Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues have also noted in their paper that, “X-ray light echoes in the Galactic Center show moderate-luminosity flares in the last few centuries.” It is quite possible, therefore, that Sgr A* is currently in the Switch-on phase. The X-ray emissions may be responsible for the genetic mutations that have been increasing our physical size and lifespan during the ascending Kali Yuga. 

The AGN phase of Sgr A* could begin after the end of the Kali Yuga in 2025, sometime during the 1200 years of Ekpyrosis. The AGN phase may continue for the entire 11,700 years of the ascending Yuga Cycle, till the end of the Golden Age. During this time, the nucleus of the Milky Way could become extraordinarily luminous and photoionize the entire galaxy. The increase in the intensity of ionizing radiation from Sgr A*, such as extreme UV, X-ray, and Gamma rays, could trigger beneficial genetic mutations that can progressively increase our cranial volume, height and lifespan during the ascending cycle. Ionizing radiation is very effective in killing bacteria and disease-causing microorganisms. This could be why the higher Yugas were said to be free of diseases. The photoionization of the earth’s atmosphere will also provide a positive boost to our mood and attitude. Many studies have shown that exposure to negative ions can alleviate depression, reduce stress, increase mental alertness and improve cognitive abilities.[5]

The Switch-off phase of Sgr A* could begin after the end of the next Golden Age, sometime during the 1200-year period of Kataklysmos that will follow. The Switch-off phase may extend for ~ 10,200 years, spanning the 1200 years of Kataklysmos and another 9000 years till the end of the descending Kali Yuga. During the Switch-off phase of Sgr A*, the emission of electromagnetic radiation will stop. The photoionization of the galaxy will taper off gradually due to the “light echo” in the outer galaxy, and as it does so, the harmful genetic mutations that occur due to the background radiation on the earth (i.e. cosmic rays, solar UV and radioactive decay) will begin to predominate and reduce our lifespans, physical structures and cranial volumes. Germs and diseases will begin to multiply, and the positive “mood” that we experienced in the AGN phase due to the presence of negative ions will begin to slowly dissipate.

The AGN cycle of the central black hole, Sgr A*, therefore, provides a plausible explanation for the changes that occur in the course of the Yuga Cycle. Every AGN burst of 25,800 years duration could be driving a complete Yuga Cycle on the earth. Although we don’t know if the AGN cycle of the Milky Way is actually of 25,800 years duration, I felt optimistic that this was the correct explanation, since, not only does it explain all the changes that occur in the course of the Yuga Cycle it is remarkably well-aligned with Hindu cosmic symbolisms and the writings of Sri Yukteswar. 

One might think that it is too much of a coincidence to expect that the AGN burst of Sgr A* will be exactly equal to 25,800 years, which is the duration of the Yuga Cycle and the precession cycle of the earth. But isn’t nature full of such interesting coincidences? In December 2020, the VERA Experiment used state-of-the-art telescopic measurements to determine that the distance of the Earth from the central black hole is exactly 25,800 light-years![6]

Isn’t that amazing? Think about this: if the duration of the AGN cycle of Sgr A* is 25,800 years, then it becomes exactly equal to the time taken by the radiation from the black hole to reach the earth i.e. 25,800 years. In that case, the Yuga Cycle will be “in phase” with the central black hole i.e. we will see the black hole exactly as it was one full Yuga Cycle ago. In other words, we can look at the current state of the black hole and determine which part of the Yuga Cycle we are in. These are not coincidences, but the signs of Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design is all around us; but since we are languishing at the fag end of a long age of darkness, we have lost the eyes to perceive the underlying reality of our existence.

So, here’s what seems to be going on in tandem to power the Cycle of the Ages. The spherical solar system (yes, the solar system is a sphere, since it is enclosed by a spherical shell of comets called the Oort cloud) is rotating clockwise on its axis once in 25,800 years to cause the precession of the equinoxes. The rotating solar system is also revolving around the Galactic Center once in 225-250 million years, and it is located at a distance of exactly 25,800 light-years from the Galactic Center. The central black hole, Sgr A*, completes one AGN cycle in 25,800 years, which brings about dramatic changes in our consciousness, physical stature, lifespan and the external environment throughout the Yuga cycle.

The Central Black Hole has Switched On

My contention in Yuga Shift was that, sometime after the end of the Kali Yuga in 2025, the central black hole, Sgr A*, will switch from the “Start-up phase” of its AGN cycle to the active or “AGN phase”, and this will provide the necessary energetic impetus for our spiritual ascension. I did not know exactly when this switchover might happen but expected it to occur sometime during the 1200 years of transition called Ekpyrosis that will follow the Kali Yuga.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I came across this piece of news on CNN Science which stated that, over the past year, the central black hole of the Milky Way has been emitting blindingly bright flares of light daily, along with many shorter flashes. As I have already mentioned, till now the black hole had been emitting only radio waves and occasional X-ray flares, so this is indeed a very big change in its behavior. Here’s a small excerpt from the article.

“Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spied dynamic flares of light near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The constant, rapid-fire display includes seconds-long short flashes and longer, blindingly bright flares of light on a daily basis...A study describing the findings was published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters... 

In our data, we saw constantly changing, bubbling brightness,” said lead study author Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, a professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, in a statement. “And then boom! A big burst of brightness suddenly popped up. Then, it calmed down again. We couldn’t find a pattern in this activity. It appears to be random. The activity profile of this black hole was new and exciting every time that we looked at it.”[7]

This is a clear indication that the central black hole is currently in the process of switching to the active or “AGN phase” of its AGN Cycle. It’s still in the initial stages of the AGN phase, though, since it is emitting only visible light as of now, but over time, we can expect it to become considerably more active and emit intense radiation at all frequencies from radio waves to gamma rays.

I was expecting that the activation of the black hole would happen sometime after 2025, but as it turns out, the shift had already happened in 2024. And now that I think back, it explains a lot of what was going on in 2024. Many people around the world were waking up to the lies and deceptions everywhere and started asking questions about what was really going on in the world. There was a definite uptick in psychic and intuitive abilities, and a lot of people felt that a big shift was on the way. The interest in our true origins and the extraordinary skills and wisdom of our ancestors was picking up and the call for moving away from the drama and negativity of the outer world and aligning with the inner spirit kept getting louder.

What the activation of the central black hole implies is that the spiritual ascension of humanity will now continue relentlessly in an upward trajectory over the next 12000 years, taking us to the pinnacle of human consciousness, and manifesting a virtual utopia on earth. Nothing can derail this process, no power on earth can stop it. All that is needed for us to do is to open our hearts to welcome the new energies, let go of any fears or doubts that hold us back, and be willing to manifest our soul potential.

The Growth Phase of the Black Hole

The news about the activation of the central black hole made me quite certain that it is the AGN Cycle of Sgr A* that is powering the Yuga Cycle. But there is something else, which adds to my conviction. The black hole has a longer cycle, which explains the 26-million-year cycle known as the “Day and Night of Brahma”. I was aware of this when I was writing Yuga Shift, but I did not include it in the book, since it would have required me to explain the concept of the “Day and Night of Brahma”, and I did not want to introduce any additional complexities in that book. But now is the perfect time to bring it up.

Astronomers Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues, whose paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2015) I had referenced earlier, had observed that AGNs flicker on and off over tens or even hundreds of millions of years. I contended that these consecutive AGN bursts can power a long, uninterrupted, sequence of Yuga Cycles.

However, the AGN cycles of the central black hole do not go on indefinitely. A black hole typically goes through many short AGN bursts, anywhere from 100 to 10,000, to build up its mass. After that, the black hole enters into a quiescent state, when it emits practically no radiation. This is what the astronomers wrote in their paper:

“It is likely that a large number of 100 to perhaps 10,000 (AGN bursts) make up a longer growth phase of 10^7 – 10^9 yr. To put it another way, what we previously considered to be a 10^8 yr. AGN phase, perhaps triggered by a major merger, should be divided into ~ 1000 short bursts”[8]

In other words, for a typical large galaxy, the central black hole goes through ~ 1000 AGN cycles, which comprises the “growth phase” of the black hole. After the growth phase is over, the black hole becomes completely quiet, and the AGN cycles resume after a long period of no activity. 

This behavior perfectly correlates to what we know about the cycle known as the “Day and Night of Brahma”. A “Day of Brahma” consists of a continuous sequence of 500 complete Yuga Cycles of 25,800 years each. If each Yuga Cycle is powered by an AGN burst of the central black hole Sgr A*, then it means that the central black hole needs to go through 500 consecutive AGN bursts to complete its growth phase, before becoming quiet. As per astronomers Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues, a typical large galaxy goes through ~1000 AGN bursts to complete its growth phase. Since the Milky Way is a medium-sized galaxy, it is eminently possible that the growth phase of its central black hole, Sgr A*, consists of 500 AGN bursts, which powers a Day of Brahma!   

Moreover, after the completion of a growth phase consisting of ~1000 AGN bursts, the central black hole of a typical large galaxy becomes completely quiet and emits no radiation at all. This perfectly explains the period known as “Night of Brahma” when the cycle of the Yugas comes to a halt, and there is a mass extinction of species.

Thus, the cosmic mechanism for the two grand cycles of time – the Yuga Cycle and the “Day and Night of Brahma” - are intimately tied together. One explains the other. If the Yuga Cycle is powered by an AGN burst of the central black hole of the Milky Way, then the Day of Brahma is the growth phase of the central black hole comprising 500 AGN bursts, while the Night of Brahma is the quiescent phase that follows the growth phase.

Also remember that the Vedic sages referred to the central black hole as Brahma, the “creative power”, which implies that the “Day and Night of Brahma” must be a cycle associated with the black hole. And indeed, it is!

These remarkable correlations made me quite confident that it is the AGN cycle and the growth phase of the central black hole, Sgr A*, of the Milky Way, that is powering the large cycles of time that the ancients spoke of. In fact, I am so certain of this now, that I am going to specify a set of three hypotheses related to the behavior of the central black hole, Sgr A*.

1. An AGN burst of the central black hole, Sgr A*, of the Milky Way is of 25,800 years duration, and it powers a complete Yuga Cycle of the same duration. 

2. The growth phase of the central black hole, Sgr A*, of the Milky Way consists of 500 AGN bursts, and it powers a “Day of Brahma” of 12.9 million years duration, which is followed by a mass extinction of species on earth.

3. The quiescent phase of the central black hole, Sgr A*, of the Milky Way is of 12.9 million years duration, known to the Vedic sages as the “Night of Brahma”, when all of creation comes to a standstill. 

Of course, all of this raises more questions. How did the ancients know about these long cycles of time? How could they have known about the existence of the central black hole of the Milky Way, and its smaller and larger cycles? Did they figure out all of this by themselves? The truth is that our ancestors always said that their wisdom, skills and knowledge were “given” to them by their gods and sages. This, in turn, leads to questions about who these entities were, and why we do not see them today. The answers to such questions are likely tied up with the UFO phenomenon, and as more clarity emerges regarding these anomalous events we will, hopefully, get to the bottom of this mystery. 

A few people have asked me, how do we really know that there is a black hole at the Galactic Center? A black hole is a hypothetical entity, a mathematical construct that came out of Einstein’s equations, and Einstein himself did not have much faith in these kinds of weird “singularities” where the known laws of physics cease to operate. 

Is it possible that the energetic cosmic entity at the center of the Milky Way is not a black hole but something entirely different? This is a question that I will attempt to address in a subsequent article, taking the aid of insights from various ancient and spiritual traditions. 

References

1. Sri Yukteswar Giri, The Holy Science, op. cit., p. 14.
2. Terry Devitt, “Galactic survey reveals a new look for the Milky Way”, University of Wisconsin-Madison News, 16 August 2005, http://www.news.wisc.edu/11405
3. Kevin Schawinski, Michael Koss, Simon Berney, Lia F. Sartori, “Active galactic nuclei flicker: an observational estimate of the duration of black hole growth phases of ?105 yr.”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, August 2015, Vol.451, No.3, pp. 2517–2523, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1136
4. “Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Flares Irregularly and Unpredictably, Astronomers Find”, SCI NEWS, 13 January 2022, http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/flaring-sagittarius-a-10458.html
5. Denise Mann, “Negative Ions Create Positive Vibes”, WebMD, 6 May 2002, https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes
6. Diane Lincoln, “Our galaxy's supermassive black hole is closer to Earth than we thought”, LiveScience, 20 December 2020, https://www.livescience.com/milky-way-black-hole-closer-to-earth.html
7. Ashley Strickland, "Astronomers spot flares of light near the black hole at the center of our galaxy" CNN, February 19, 2025, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/19/science/milky-way-black-hole-flickers-webb?cid=ios_app&fbclid=IwY2xjawI2dH1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVXzMIBhdSSmNpQlGonQ0wGnSEX9sTsswKtoi0aUC57smeEDjMUUDQmA-A_aem_6unHAcT-oJcHVawfytDttw
8. Kevin Schawinski, Michael Koss, Simon Berney, Lia F. Sartori, “Active galactic nuclei flicker: an observational estimate of the duration of black hole growth phases of ?105 yr.”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, August 2015, Vol.451, No.3, pp. 2517–2523, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1136

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