666: The Number of the Beast

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Oh, how much dread this brief phrase has invoked! The phrase, from the New Testament’s [1]Book of Revelation, has provided fertile source material for [2]artists, assorted metal bands and horror blockbuster scriptwriters, and has been the source of much speculation by serious scholastic opinion at one end of the spectrum and doomsday conspiracy theorists at the other.

The number has even generated its very own medically-recognized phobia with the Scrabble-defying name of hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (no, I don’t know how to pronounce it either), which has resulted in such startling urban changes as U.S. Highway 666 being renamed Highway 491 for that specific reason.

When fear gains the upper hand then chaos reigns, and common sense goes straight out the window. But as often as not, fear is not a rational thing, and just how irrational our fear of the ‘beast’ and the number 666 really is can be realized with a better understanding of the true meaning behind the phrase. The first clue is right there in the phrase’s opening words: “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding…”. With these words we are given the clear signal that this phrase is not intended as some ghastly portent, but as containing concealed ‘wisdom’, if only we can unlock the puzzle and gain access to that inner knowledge. We are specifically told that we will need understanding – insight – to solve the puzzle, or as Jesus himself says [3]elsewhere: it is the sort of knowledge intended ‘for those who have ears to hear’.

We are further told that 666 is ‘the number of a man’. But which man? Based upon [4]gematria, candidates ranging from the [5]suitably bestial Roman emperor Nero to the [6]Pontiff and even Mohammed have been put forward. So we have a two-part puzzle to solve: the identity of this ‘man’, and why his number totals that mysterious 666. But there is another factor: we need to remember that we are reading what is in reality a translation from the Greek original. Did the author of Revelation really mean a ‘beast’? The word in English is immediately scary and emotive, suggesting all manner of misshapen horrors lurking in the shadows. But the word used in the original Greek is Θηρίον (thērion), which suggests something wild, primal and untamed. And such a force need be neither ‘good’ nor ‘evil’, but merely impartial – as neutral as an unleashed thunderstorm which, for all its display of awesome power, simply ‘is’. So our lurking beast is already looking a touch more friendly and less sinister. But what about that most notorious of numbers?

In the ancient world the sun and moon were thought of as planetary ‘spheres’ together with the other then-known [7]planets, and each of these seven spheres were assigned their own seals and [8]magic squares. And it is the magic square of the sun that provides the key to unlock our puzzle. For adding all the numbers together in the sun’s magic square produces (as you probably have now guessed) the total of 666. So it is the [9]sun which must have some special connection with this number. And surely the sun fits the job description of thērion – not a beast, but an untamed (and untameable) force of splendor and power.

But the phrase is not an isolated number. About the ‘man’, it ends: ‘and his number is 666’, which in its original Greek yields the gematria value of 2368. And this number in Greek letters spells out: Ιησούς Χριστός – ‘Jesus Christ’. I am aware that to many, the realization that the ‘man’ alluded to in this notorious passage turns out to be Jesus himself will probably either provoke an outraged rejection, or require them to sit down quietly for awhile to catch their breath. But that the number values of the text in its original Greek yield this actual name is surely beyond all coincidence. And the only way we can make sense of these findings is to press on deeper into Gnostic beliefs.

The spiritual vision of the Gnostics involved the belief that all that is visible to us in our material existence – including the life-giving sun – has a higher equivalent in the spirit. So there is a ‘spiritual’ sun beyond the actual sun – the ‘666 sun’ – which we see in the heavens, just as there is a true Christ – the Christ of the Holy Spirit – beyond the man – the son – who appeared on earth. What the phrase is telling us is that we need to seek beyond the material world – beyond what we see and experience with our senses – to reach the greater mysteries of the spirit which lie behind these outward appearances.

I cannot deny that a part of me rather regrets raining on the parade of all those growling goth metal bands and horror scriptwriters, but I would sooner press on to the heart of a mystery, wherever it might lead. And where this particular mystery leads is to realize that what this notorious phrase in the Book of Revelation describes is anything but the creature of bestial evil which our own [10]misreading of the phrase has created. It is rather a message of grace and hope, and its messenger is our own life-giving sun.

Hawkwood

Notes:

[1] The Book of Revelation 13:18

[2] Ah, mea culpa! It provided one of the key sequences for my own REVELATIONS video. Please see my post Hawkwood and Divine Retribution.

[3] This phrase is usually repeated in scriptural texts as a way of signaling that a statement has both an everyday ‘story’ meaning and a hidden spiritual message intended for an inner circle of followers.

[4] Gematria: the system of attributing numerical values to written letters in those alphabets which have no numbers. This would include both Hebrew and the Greek in which scriptural texts were written. Names and phrases then yield a numerical total which can have a further esoteric significance.

[5] Known for his persecutions of those belonging to the new faith (at this early date the term ‘Christianity’ and its doctrines had not yet been defined), Nero was said to have lit the grounds of his villa with their crucified and burning bodies. A stroke of ruthless political maneuvering also had him arranging and carrying out his mother’s murder. Desolate at the death of his first wife, he had a freed slave castrated and then married him, apparently because the slave bore an uncanny resemblance to his late wife. Facing ultimate revolt, he decided on suicide, but balked when the moment came and instead ordered his private secretary to murder him. Nero was just thirty years old when he died, which for history was probably not a day too soon.

[6] Yes, I’m aware of all the conspiracy theory websites and assorted YouTube videos which claim ‘proof’ for the alleged link between the Papal office and the beast of Revelation. But none of them as far as I am aware make the connection that were this to be so, then it would establish a pro-Gnostic, if not an actual Gnostic author for Revelation. In an increasingly hostile orthodox environment, and with their own faith coming under threat from the Church of Rome, the Gnostics would have had good reason to encode the identity of the perceived threat into scripture. As this post summarizes, I personally consider the truth to lie elsewhere, and in more positive directions – although this in itself still makes a pro-Gnostic stance for the Revelation author both likely and plausible, It is tempting to speculate about other encoded information in the text, perhaps in the form of gematria. The mere fact that there are no less than twenty one separate sets of sevens mentioned (seven candlesticks, seven seals, seven plagues, etc.) must at least give pause for thought.

[7] Outwards from the earth, the planetary spheres were believed to be: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, with beyond these seven, the sphere of the stars, and beyond the stars, the realms of the different orders of angels. 

[8] Magic squares are figures set out in a grid whose numbers create the same totals when added along all the vertical, horizontal and two principal diagonal columns. Each planet is ascribed its own magic square, and one – the magic square of Jupiter – has been adapted from the writings of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (who resurrected these figures from antiquity) by the artist Albrecht Dürer, who incorporated it into his famous masterpiece engraving known as Melencolia 1 (left). Agrippa gave his three-volume work the title Occult Philosophy – although the word ‘occult’ did not then carry our own contemporary overtones, but was used in the sense of describing ‘hidden knowledge’. The relevant page of Agrippa’s text can be viewed here: Occult Philosophy, Book 2, chapter xxii. Of the tables of the Planets, their vertues, forms, and what Divine names, Intelligencies, and Spirits are set over them.

[9] That these pre-Christian teachings of Pythagoras and Plato exist in canonical scripture is already established by the story in John’s gospel (John 21: 10-11) of the miraculous catch of 153 fishes in the net (please see my post: Vesica Piscis: The Tale of a Fish), and there are other examples which I would like to cover in future posts. I can only imagine that these examples of pre-Christian Gnosticism survived the 3rd-4th-century purges of such material to make it into the canon simply because the uncomprehending orthodox editors failed to realize their significance. But there they are in any Bible – and there is the encrypted reference to the sun in the Book of Revelation.

[10] An idea, once it has taken root, can be more resilient and more powerful than the truth. Few examples which I can think of illustrate this point so tellingly as the way in which the literal reading of the ‘number of the beast’ phrase has embedded itself in our culture. And how ironic is it that it is Gnostic insight – the very beliefs which were so ruthlessly rooted out by the early Church Fathers – which transforms this seemingly-dark phrase into a message of hope.  

Sources:

John Michell: The Dimensions of Paradise: Sacred Geometry, Ancient Science, and the Heavenly Order on Earth. The gematria calculations in this post are those of Michell’s in this title. A considerably more detailed exposition of these conclusions can be found in his book than is given here.

David Fideler: Jesus Christ, Sun of God: ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism.

Nero sesturtius coin, 54-55 CE, from: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com.
Melencolia 1, engraving by Albrecht Dürer, 1514, in the British Museum, with other original prints housed in various museums around the world. 666 'beast' and all other graphics by Hawkwood, ©David Bergen Studio. 

Vesica Piscis: The Tale of a Fish

This is the tale of a fish. This particular fish can be found swimming in the most unlikely and unexpected seas, and its territory is expansive enough to cover radically differing beliefs and worldviews. So you will realise that one thing that this fish is very good at doing is surviving. In our own 21st-century world, it frequently can be seen swimming happily along in traffic on the [1]bumper of many a car whose occupants choose to signal their allegiance to the Christian faith. It’s use as a Christian symbol is usually assumed to date back to the beginnings of that religion, and for adherents of that faith is perhaps second only to the Christian cross in symbolic significance.

The truth, as generally happens, is something different. The Christian fish stems from an anagram in Greek – the language of the Gospel texts – formed from the first letters of the phrase ‘Jesus Christ of God, Son, Savior’, which spell out the word ‘ICTHYS’, meaning ‘fish’. While this appropriately references various passages in scripture, and the written word in Greek was used by followers of the new faith, the actual use of the stylised fish symbol is absent. So the story that it was used as a secret sign among early Christians seems to be no more than that. Instead, an eight-spoked wheel was used (below), sometimes with the letters written within the spokes of the wheel. Surprisingly, the first use of the currently-familiar Christian fish formed from a double arc seems to date, not from a historical source, but from its appearance in a mid 20th-century [2]Hollywood Biblical epic, and it has gained in popularity since then.

Clearly the way in which this stylised fish is drawn must have come from somewhere. The prototype of all the various current bumper sticker and key ring fishes can be traced back to a diagram which has been known since antiquity as the Vesica piscis (literally: ‘vessel of the fish’). Formed simply-enough from two circles which overlap at their centers, this basic diagram can be expanded upon in a number of intriguing ways. In the diagram below left, a line is drawn between the centers of the two east-west larger circles (which contain six-sided hexagons). The sizes of the two smaller north-south circles are determined by this same line, but this time containing the line not six times but five, making a polygon. And now, out of the overlapping area of the two smaller circles… the fish emerges! Voila!

This involved-looking diagram can be drawn with nothing more fancy than a basic pair of compasses and a straight edge of some kind – simple tools and methods whose use has been known for millennia. Just how far back in time we can push things is seen in the image below. This time, we enclose a second Vesica piscis within the first, bounded by the overlap. Simply by using the north-south points of overlap as the apex and base, we now join the dots to construct a triangle – which, having an exact base [3]angle of 51°51', is a perfect match for the angle of slope of the Great Pyramid of Giza! And where the two inner dotted lines meet the intersecting circles, another triangle with an exact base angle of 60° is formed – which in turn gives the exact proportions of each of the pyramid’s four sides. If there is one thing that plays no role in all which the Great Pyramid involves, it is chance.

If we view the overlapping area of the Vesica piscis on it own, we now have a shape known as the [4]mandorla. The mandorla is truly ubiquitous, and can be seen in both Islamic and Christian illuminated manuscripts (below), and even in the cards of the Tarot (below center, which at its corners repeats the same four evangelical symbols seen in its Christian neighbour). As part of the Vesica piscis its form is found in [5]architecture, on Masonic symbols, and on secular city crests, and designed variations also can be seen on company logos such as those of CBS and Gucci. The Vesica piscis and its mandorla clearly are forms which speaks powerfully to the human mind.

To come to a deeper understanding of the Vesica piscis and its power, we need to reach beyond those beliefs which burden themselves with sin and guilt, and the way in which they regard the human body as something intrinsically shameful. The traditional carved figure known as a Sheela na gig (below, left), which seems to be Celtic in origin, shows a little goggle-eyed female displaying her open vulva. The vulva is in the form of a mandorla, and her goggle eyes echo this form. Over a hundred of these figures are found in churches and castles throughout Ireland, and a few scattered examples are still to be seen in England, although most were defaced by prudish minds in the intervening centuries. The meaning of these little figures is disputed, although they were possibly associated with birth and fertility, or to ward off evil. The goddess [6]Isis-Aphrodite, an early Egyptian-Greek hybrid deity (below, right), seems to radiate the secret harmonics of the Vesica piscis in her proportions.

Enclosing the mandorla of the pentagon (the same mandorla used for the ‘fish’) within the mandorla of the Vesica piscis (below) reveals a form which mirrors the female [7]vulva. The word used in Sanskrit is yoni, which is interpreted as meaning the source of life: of a divine passage, in the sense of being a passage of the soul from spirit to matter. From the yoni emerges new life – a powerful symbol for the spirit of the feminine, for the cosmic goddess, and for the journey from the womb which we all have made to come into this world.

Returning to the scriptural setting with which I began this post, in the [8]Gospel of John we read how the risen Christ asks Simon-Peter to bring his net bursting with ‘great fishes’. In what seems to be a curiously-precise detail, the Gospel tells us that there were exactly ‘an hundred and fifty and three’. Why is the specific number of the catch given? It seems irrelevant alongside the greater message of the story. But seemingly-irrelevant details often conceal greater truths within them. The number 153 relates directly to the Gnostic mystery schools and to [9]Pythagorean teachings, and the proportion known from that time as the [10]‘Measure of the Fish’.

As with Pythagoras’ famed [11]theorem, the proportions of the mandorla within the Vesica piscis are constant, and always can be measured as 265 units high by, yes… 153 units wide (that is: the length of the fish’s body). These figures express the square root of three – for millennia regarded as the sacred Trinity. All these ideas pre-date the Gospels by centuries. The Church fathers thought to expunge these secret teachings completely from scripture. The fact is that such Gnostic knowledge is so deeply embedded in scriptural texts that the only way to eradicate it completely, as the frenzied zeal of the [12]early Church fathers strived so hard to do, would be to scrap the whole Bible and start again from scratch. And this mystic number 153 apparently flew under the radar of the uncomprehending early Gospel editors to land in the orthodox canon, and in the words of Jesus himself, to be read, interpreted and understood in a mystic sacred language ‘for those with ears to hear’.

One person who apparently has ears to hear is the author Margaret Starbird. She has calculated that the numerical value of the Greek letters which spell out η Μαγδαληνή (the Magdalene) also total exactly 153 (also remembering that the lingual root of the name Mary means ‘the Sea’). This system of ascribing numerical values to letters was known as gematria: a logical practice in written languages (such as Hebrew and Greek) which had no numbers. The true role of the Magdalene is a subject which I’ll leave for another post, but Dan Brown aside, she clearly was someone considerably more than the simplistic redeemed scarlet woman, as orthodoxy would have us believe. And the true worth of the disciples’ [13]catch was clearly something more significant than the going market value of fish, otherwise stipulating such a specific number would serve no purpose.

The Vesica piscis is itself so deeply embedded in world culture that at times it appears to become a door, with the two circles representing the worlds of matter and spirit, and their mandorla becoming an opening between these, creating a portal between different realities or dimensions (above). And perhaps, having read this post, you will never see that bumper sticker fish in quite the same way again!

Hawkwood

PLEASE NOTE:

If you would like to read and see more about the Yoni and the Chalice Well and their associations with the Vesica piscis, you are welcome to visit the post on Emma's blog: The Goddess in the Well.

Notes:

[1] The now-familiar bumper sticker whose stylised form has its origins in the sacred geometry of the pre-Christian Gnostic mystery schools and in the vulva of the cosmic goddess. This sticker (left) is in the exact same proportions as the female labia of the yoni and the fish mandorla shown in my above images.

[2] Incredibly, the earliest example which I have been able to trace of the stylised fish symbol being used as a secret sign by early Christians is not a historical source, but one that was used in the 1951 Hollywood Biblical epic Quo Vadis?, in a scene (right) in which Deborah Kerr as the pagan-to-Christian convert Lygia draws the symbol in the sand. It is both startling and sobering to realize that the whole Christian bumper sticker tradition apparently began as the idea of a Hollywood scriptwriter!

[3] This angle is quoted from the text of John Michell’s book The View Over Atlantis. Other sources give the angle either as 51°50' or 52°, but chapter 2 of Michell’s book explains why the correct angle is so critical. It is difficult to over-estimate the insights which this book offers. I still have the now rather worn paperback edition which I bought thirty five years ago, and it has influenced my thinking ever since. A revised edition titled The New View Over Atlantis is currently available. Mind-bending stuff.

[4] From the Italian, meaning ‘almond’.

[5] The famous chalice well cover in the gardens below Glastonbury Abbey has done much to raise contemporary awareness of the Vesica piscis. It was designed in 1919 by Frederick Bligh Bond, and copies are now widely seen on jewellery (right) and other items. The Vesica piscis is utilized in various other philosophies and beliefs, such as the Jewish Kabbalah’s Sephirot, or Tree of Life, and the overlapping Vesica piscis circles comprising the figure known as the Flower of Life, seen in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. 

[6] Please see my post The Emperor and the Eye of Horus for more about Isis-Aphrodite and other hybrid gods and goddesses.

[7] To be clear: I am here comparing the form of the yoni with the two mandorlas of my text. The Sanskrit yoni actually has its own symbols, of which the one here (left) is a widely-used example. It could be my over-heated imagination, but does anyone else notice its (presumably coincidental) resemblance to a certain popular spaceship? J

[8] John 21:10-11. This appearance of Jesus is his fifth appearance after the resurrection.

[9] We now tend to think of Pythagoras of Samos, who lived several centuries before the events of the Gospels, primarily as a mathematician. But in his day he was seen as a profound sage and mystic. His ideas, both spiritual, philosophical and intellectual, have impacted Western thought ever since. It is possible that the term philosophy, meaning ‘lover of Sophia’ (Wisdom personified as the goddess) was actually coined by Pythagoras. The word philosophy as well has subtly changed it meaning through the ages. In ancient times it was a worldview, a way of life in which the striving after a true perception of things could lead to an experience of the divine.

[10] The number 153 in the Measure of the Fish is therefore the exact length (right) of the fish’s body. Remember: this is the identical fish which appears above on the Christian bumper sticker, whose source lies in an ancient pagan past stemming from the Gnostic mystery schools.

[11] As every schoolboy can (or should be able to) quote: ‘The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides’.   When constructed using the Vesica piscis, it gives the perfect proportions of 3:4:5 (left), and is known as the Sacred Triangle. This triangle and its measurements, as with so much that is associated with the Vesica piscis, can among other places be found not only in the proportions of the Great Pyramid, but also in the ground plans of Stonehenge and Glastonbury Abbey.

[12] Please see my posts The Gospel According to Somebody and The New Church.

[13] Of the various commentaries which I have read about the Gospel’s inclusion of this number, none mentions the apparently overlooked fact that, for a haul which the Gospel describes as so great that it was surprising that the fishermen’s net did not burst from the weight, one hundred and fifty three fish is hardly a large quantity. The number of fish caught does not match the description of the haul which, if we were not given the number, we would assume to be a catch of several hundred. The specific number given must therefore be for reasons other than mere description. And the net did not break, because it was - and is - the unbroken net of life (above), and of the cosmos itself. Like the Buddhist Indra’s Net, each pearl of water at the intersection of the weave perfectly reflects the completeness of all the other parts of the net. The net is an image of the Gnostic ‘many in One’. A net which remains mysteriously intact, the inclusion of the specific number 153, are both examples of secret Gnostic knowledge 'hidden in plain sight' in orthodox scripture. 

Sources:

John Michell: The View Over Atlantis.

Margaret Starbird: Magdalene’s Lost Legacy: Symbolic Numbers and the Sacred Union in Christianity.

David R. Fideler: Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism.

Fishermen's boat on Lake Tiberius, Galilee, from U.S. Historical Archive. Dead Sea scroll: Great Isaiah scroll from the Shrine of the Book Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Sheela na gig: replica of the original from a church in Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England. Isis-Aphrodite: a Roman statue from Egypt, 2nd-3rd-centuries, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Tarot card: Arcanum 21: The World, from the Marseille Tarot, reissued in 1930 by Paul Marteau from an earlier 18th-century deck, facsimile edition published by ©U.S. Games Systems. Millennium Falcon spaceship from Star Wars by Lucasfilms. Quo Vadis? film still from M.G.M. Photo of the bust of Pythagoras from the Science Photo Library, with the background of a Greek manuscript on Pythagorean calculations from the Vatican Library. Portrait of Mary Magdalene by Bernadino Luini, with the background of a fragment of the Gospel of Mary in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and a rosette from the 18th-century Order of the Magdalene engraved by Hugh Clark. Portal entity created with Chaoscope and Mehdi software. Thanks to my wife for the use of her chalice well pendant! All graphics and other artwork © Hawkwood.

A Night Inside the Great Pyramid

Anyone reading this who enjoys browsing around second-hand bookshops will know the satisfaction that comes with making a real find – especially when that find turns out to be a snap at the [1]price. That’s how it felt for me when in a second-hand bookstore in Rotterdam I discovered a [2]1936 edition of Paul Brunton’s A Search in Secret Egypt. Now, I already have on my bookshelf a dog-eared paperback [3]edition of this book from the early sixties, but the original hardcover edition, with its photographs by the author, was a prize indeed.

Brunton’s book is rich in vivid descriptions, both of the country and its monuments and also of his varied experiences, which include practicing the art of snake charming with Egyptian cobras. But the book’s main claim to fame rests principally with the chapter in which he describes his night spent in the King’s Chamber in the heart of the Great Pyramid of Giza; the first person to report on this since Napoleon tried the same experiment while on his Egyptian campaign in 1798 (below) – and apparently emerged the next morning from the interior gloom ashen-faced, silent, and refusing to answer questions about what he had experienced.

As far as I know, nobody has been allowed to repeat this experience since Brunton – although today’s [4]police guards stationed at the edifice are apparently not above a little palm-greasing. Locked at dusk inside the Pyramid at his own request by the obliging guards, the author resolves ‘To sit, awake and alert, for twelve hours in the King's Chamber, while the slow darkness moved across the African world'.

In the increasing cold and the all-pervading shadows of the granite-lined King's Chamber (above), the author reports a series of harrowing encounters with a virtual parade of frightening phantasms and ‘monstrous elemental creations’, after which he undergoes an initiatory experience under the guidance of apparently more benign beings. Brunton’s book as a whole convinces me that he was a man of sincerity and integrity. Indeed, he was clearly someone of a contemplative nature who valued his own personal spirituality. So what are we to make of the author’s encounter with these ancient ghosts? I personally am convinced that he certainly had some kind of an experience. But perhaps the nature of that experience was other than it seemed.

Almost by chance, on a [5]website unconnected with paranormal issues, I came across a description of the Great Pyramid that appeared to offer a possible explanation. It seems that the long galleries that run inside the Pyramid, from deep beneath its base up to the King’s Chamber (highlighted, above), act as resonators that keep the ‘background sound’ of the Pyramid vibrating at a steady 6 hertz, which is well below the audible threshold of human hearing. In other words: the Great Pyramid is virtually awash with inaudible [6]infrasound.

Infrasound is strange stuff. The naturally-occurring presence of infrasound (the signal, above) in an environment can induce in the human mind a strong sense of being in the company of an unseen (and usually threatening) 'presence' and provoke inexplicable feelings of deep unease - even outright fear. It has been detected deep underground in the stations and tunnels of subways, and at locations which have been described as ‘haunted’ – and it even has been utilized in film soundtracks as a subliminal audio signal deliberately to provoke feelings of disquiet in an audience. If you saw it in a theatre, do you remember that feeling of dread when in Jurassic Park the unseen T. rex was approaching in the dark? You were being subjected to infrasound.

This understanding of infrasound and its effects has only come long after Brunton’s day. Does it explain his experience (and indeed, whatever it was that evidently rattled Napoleon in the same circumstances) as a trick of the mind? It might. Settling down for the night in the granite-lined Chamber, Brunton describes experiencing an 'undefinable feeling of uneasiness' - which exactly fits the effects of exposure to infrasound. Sensed ghostly presences, both in ‘haunted’ houses and inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, might be no more than these mischievous low-frequency sound waves messing with our minds. The setting itself – a ‘creepy’ old house at night, or the cold and echoing gloom of the Pyramid’s interior – does the rest. But trust me: when you are actually in the situation and these things are coming straight at you, all the reassuring science goes straight out the window!

Hawkwood

Notes:
[1] The current eBay price is around €45. I bought my copy for €8!

[2] Paul Brunton: A Search in Secret Egypt. Pub. Rider, 1936.

[3] Paul Brunton: A Search in Secret Egypt. Pub. Arrow, 1962.

[4] Graham Hancock: Fingerprints of the Gods. The author describes bribing the guards to allow him to make a dangerous night ascent to the Pyramid’s summit (left, in the background). Anyone who actually believes that the Great Pyramid was ‘just’ a pharaoh’s tomb, as orthodox archaeology insists, can be helped out of their dream by reading this book. John Michell’s The View Over Atlantis is also recommended for the same reason, as is John Anthony West’s Serpent in the Sky. All three titles are now classics in their field.

[5] By the author Christopher Dunn.

[6] The audible threshold for human hearing is above 20 hertz, so any sound wave below 20 hertz is in the infrasound wave spectrum. The presence of infrasound in the Great Pyramid begs the question as to whether the infrasound there is a natural phenomenon – a side effect caused by the internal tunnels and chambers – or whether the architecture was deliberately contrived to generate the sub-audio effects. Having read the above three books, I would be totally unsurprised if it was the latter. The Great Pyramid is the most remarkable structure ever built, and as it is entirely possible that its purpose was at least in part for some sort of initiatory rituals, then these would only be enhanced by the presence of the infrasound phenomenon. 

Sources:

The top image is adapted from a period postcard in my collection dating from the 1930's. The image of the interior of the King's Chamber is adapted from a photo at CultureFocus. The 'ghost lights' in this photo are my own enhancement to suggest the atmosphere which Brunton experienced.

Thanks to T.M. Harte at M.E.S.A. for reviewing the infrasound aspects of this post for me.

A well-reasoned appraisal of the infrasound phenomenon in relation to alleged paranormal activity can be found at Shaun Underwood's Infrasound, from which the image of the infrasound signal has been adapted. This author also mentions that infrasound can cause visual hallucinations, and can be generated by such natural phenomena as thunderstorms. The feelings of apprehension which many experience during a thunderstorm (even when in a safe situation) could be due to the infrasound phenomenon.