The earth will undergo a long series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions toward the end of the millennium. The volcanoes will bring a year of darkness along the Pacific Rim, and the greatest loss of life will come from the floods and other related effects of the upheavals rather than the events themselves.
Gordon Michael Scallion (attributed) Present day
There will be severe droughts in some parts of the planet and severe flooding in others. As a result of these, water will become as precious as gold owing to contamination from salt water and the changes in the water table. Summer and spring will become one long season in the United States.
Gordon Michael Scallion (attributed)
CHAPTER 8
During our first year together, my wife questioned me about my beliefs surrounding the pole shift. I related my feelings and thoughts of what might happen. I found I was answering the same questions over and over. I became aware she wasn't getting it because my answers hinged on a bunch of ifs, ands and maybes. The question that spawned this turning point for me was: "Where would you build the boat?" "Gananoque!" I said, but I didn't feel certain about my ambiguous answer--my answer was based on intuition and speculation about that intuition.
On two occasions, I've had reason to visit the little town of Gananoque on the St. Lawrence Seaway. During both of these visits I experienced strong intuitive feelings that "someday, I would call this place home." My visits were years apart, yet the thoughts and feelings were identical. I heard those whisperings from deep within my being. The apparent knowledge was accompanied by a soothing feeling, like a homecoming. Knowing where home is after having lived a nomadic life brought me intense spiritual joy. The experiences made quite an impression on me.
I should add that calling Gananoque home contradicts my intellectual idea of where I'd like to settle. The town is small and quaint, which I like, but in the summer it has the hustle and bustle of a tourist trap. I'm not usually attracted to such places; I prefer the unbeaten path. Yet I understood and enjoyed one of the whispers in the centre of all the gift boutiques in the heart of its commercial district and at the height of their tourist season.
I remember thinking, 'What an odd feeling to have, especially here.' Fully trusting my feelings for guidance is not something I have done well thus far (You know what? I can't remember one time in my life when someone sat me down and discussed this ‘world of feeling’ with me). Although my awareness of them is ever increasing, feelings seem more of a starting point--ideas. They become like seeds planted in the field of my intellect. Perhaps this is the way our beings are supposed to work--the spirit and intellect relying on each other.
I've been in recovery for a little over eight years now and so far I really don't understand the people whose answer to everything is "turn it over to God". So much so that, at one point I developed a bit of an inferiority complex around the spirituality part of the program. Of course I get the 'let go of things that are not within our control part; and put our energy into the things we can control.' But I see people who claim to have found salvation from the stress of our earthly existence by eliminating themselves from their own existence. I get confused because they speak of this omnipotent force as something separate and outside of themselves--when I'm convinced our only way to connect with spirituality is to follow the path of feeling, or sensing or knowing inward.
The difference is comparable to our perspective of time and the ancient Greeks’ perspective of time. The ancient Greeks thought of the future as something that came upon them from behind their backs with the past receding away before their eyes. Our turned around perspective turns our backs on the past and offers us a view of something we can't see. It isolates us. It seems to me if you are looking outward for God then you don't realize you are already connected and that connection exists within you. That spirituality comes to you from within--through our souls.
Furthermore, those same people seem to have become best friends with an entity beyond our ability to comprehend. It's too idealistic for me. I balk when asked to understand the Unknown-Unknown--to believe in something without question. If I don't question, whose answers am I latching on to?
A friend shared an experience of a workshop he’d been to where a full-time priest and part-time magician named Father Mac gave a lecture. Mac placed three bottles of different size and shape on the table. One was full of water. He started pouring the water back and forth between the bottles. He said, imagine the bottles are religions and the water is spirituality. Yes, it's possible to have religion and not have spirituality; and, it is possible to have spirituality and not have a religion. I like this analogy, the bottles are vessels that define and shape the water making it easier to handle. They serve the same purpose as doctrine in that; doctrine defines the illusive world of spirituality. I think that an important point is missed if we don't consider that there isn't a big enough bottle to hold all the water there is. The same holds true for spirituality when we try to define it we leave out more than we capture. I think I'll continue to allow my spirit and intellect to work together and willingly accept my intellect's share of responsibility for the course of my life.
The significant part of my turning point was the desire to turn my vague assumptions into ideas based in fact, or at least somewhat more tangible within the realm of common sense. It would take research to clearly answer my wife's questions and satisfy both our curiosities. Up to this point the theory was just something I wondered about--a sound idea. I needed more information. I wanted to clarify my intended plan of action. The best way to do this was to commit to my beliefs--to own them. I decided to approach my research from a viewpoint that the pole shift is indeed imminent.
I decided not to limit my search to the area of Gananoque even though I believed there was something significant to what I was feeling about 'Gan.' But first, I needed to confirm my suspicion that it was crucial the boat be pointed in the right direction. I wanted to learn about the dynamics of tsunamis.
I pictured myself finding a numeric formula that would give credibility to my vision. My skill with numbers is reflected by my math grades from school; if memory serves me correctly I was usually a perfect 'D' student, and one year ended up with a well-deserved 'F.' Why I thought I'd recognize my theory being proven in an equation I don't know. At the library I found a book entitled The Great Waves, Tsunami by Douglas Myles.
I guess whatever is guiding me knows my limitations and put into words what I was looking for. I have said something is guiding me and I believe it. Very powerful feelings motivate me into action. Almost always, these feelings put me at the right place at the right time in proper sequential order to understand the next significant piece of information. They guide me to the next piece of the puzzle when I am ready.
In this case, while thumbing through Myles's book, my attention was drawn to a four-paragraph true story that Myles narrates with drama and eloquence. I wanted to quote word-for-word the four-paragraph narrative but a letter to his publisher failed to put us in contact, so I'll have to put it into my own words.
At the age of four months and sleeping soundly in my crib a mere 500 miles away in Kitimat, British Columbia, where I was born, I could not yet dream of the real-life horror playing itself out. The story takes place in Lituya Bay, Alaska on July 9, 1958, at 10:17 p.m. In the bay, three boats had anchored for the night, three boats all about the same size. The Ulriches, father and son, were on a forty-foot fishing boat.
The Ulriches went up to the upper deck because the boat had begun to pitch violently. Suddenly there was an ear splitting crack. They would later find out that forty million cubic yards of rock had avalanched from the Mount Fairweather Range, dropping three thousand feet into Gilbert Inlet. What they saw immediately was a one-hundred-foot wall of water bearing down on them with terrific speed.
Of the three boats, one, the Swansons’, was carried out to sea and sunk; yet the Swansons managed to save themselves in a dingy. Another tried to outrun the wave using their motor; it turned out to be a grave mistake to present their stern to the oncoming tidal wave. Only the Ulrich boat survived and this was purely by chance. Their vessel clearly demonstrated how an ark could survive the violence of a liquid assault.
The Ulrich's boat happened to be bow-on toward the oncoming tidal wave. Their anchor cable also pointed into the wall of water. As the wave approached, scouring the sides of the bay clean down to the native rock, it swept with ease over Cenotaph Island in the centre of the bay. In seconds the wave was onto them; the anchor cable acted like the string of a kite.
They were virtually catapulted almost vertically up the face of the wave. The cable snapped but not before they had cleaved the crest of the wave. The water on the other side of the cleaved crest flattened out beneath them. They had survived without being swept overboard.
As I read, my pulse quickened. Before this, I had thought a boat with the watertight integrity of a submarine might pierce a wave if held firmly in place, then rise to the surface via the air trapped within like a sealed bottle. I hadn't stopped to figure it out yet, but there was a thought in my head I was suppressing; I'm pretty sure I knew that entering the wall of a tidal wave might not be as easy as I hoped.
But now it's so clear that the ark will survive because it's gonna fly right up the face of the wave; anchors will see to it. Anchors, their cables and a rush of water will perform like a slingshot. The Ulrich's experience translated Dave Fasold's quotation of the Babylonian account of the deluge quite visually. "There is no crossing death's waters without the stone things." I can see it. The ark will use the water like an arrow through the air; taking the path of least resistance it will rest when the energy runs out. The stress on the boat will be minimal provided the cable is long enough.
The Ulrich's survival proves to me it is possible to prepare for and survive a cataclysm. The Swanson's survival proves to me some will survive purely by chance. What I perceived as possible in a world cataclysm has been demonstrated in this smaller localized cataclysm.
I have no doubt everyone in that bay at some point in the evening, over dinner perhaps, looked up to admire the beauty and peaceful surroundings, wondering what they had done so right to deserve such a blessing from their God. Alaska in the summertime is majestic. They were awed twice that night. Do we need to probe further into God's involvement in the events of that night? Are we supposed to believe innocent people aren't taken out in natural disasters? I think not.
I am surprised a wave the size of a ten-story building left more survivors than people killed. They were fortunate to be on boats; on land, they wouldn't have stood a chance. Here is documented proof a forty-foot fishing boat can climb an almost vertical eighty-foot wall of water. Does that mean a five-hundred-foot boat could climb a thousand-foot killer wave? If it had the right amount of cable holding the ark in place, I believe it could climb a mile high tsunami!
Building the ark well inland from the ocean was an easy decision for me. I felt safe in assuming building an ark on a coastline would turn into a deadly mistake. Coastlines are too close to the action: water could approach from three different directions. Confidently pointing the boat would be difficult--like playing Russian roulette with four loaded chambers in the pistol.
Being much closer to one coast than the other provides a best guess from which direction the water will approach. Being inland will also allow a little time for the flow of water to become consistent; far enough inland that any water that reached there would have sustaining waves behind it. I've worried the boat might be smashed if it entered the wrong body of water: a weak onslaught might peter out and land the heavy vessel hard onto the ground, breaking its hull. A wave that is too big for short cables will not allow the ark to reach the top before the forward momentum snaps the cables and pitches the boat forward. In the Ulrich's experience we learned that, as the wave passed over Cenotaph Island, it dropped twenty percent. I think the farther inland the water comes, the tamer it will get.
Next I decided to look into the structure of the Seaway. It made sense during a cataclysmic event that one would want to be perched on the most structurally sound piece of land. Of course, as the earth's crust begins to rip and tear, we cannot know for certain where it is safe and where it is not. I found myself looking for a best guess once again; hopefully enough best guesses will culminate in the best chance for survival.
By studying fault lines I could discern strong land from weaker land. I decided to put my experience with the astronomer and astro-geophysicist on the back burner and try another group of scientists--geologists. Off I went to the Geophysics Division of Energy, Mines and Resources because they've made a geological survey of Canada. My preliminary inquiries directed me to the seismology branch.
Once in the right department, I was told they could isolate southeastern Canada and northeastern United States from a digital map of world faults. Instead of being handed a map and sent on my merry way, I like to think Providence bought me some time with a particularly helpful geologist. Their color printer was acting up; the geologist was very apologetic for the delay, but I recognized the delay for the blessing it was. Of the two of us, only I knew I had "more time than money."
While waiting, I seized the opportunity to pick the mind of this friendly geologist. He conceded magnetic pole shifts had occurred in the past and therefore are likely to occur again in the future. However, a magnetic pole shift is not necessarily the kind of pole shift I believe in.
Physical evidence proves magnetic north has changed; yet how it changed is still a mystery for scientists. The geologist shared his community's commonly agreed-upon hypothesis in a rather blasé manner. His lack of excitement regarding my hypothesis rubbed me the wrong way and I found myself resenting the guy.
In my mind I knocked him down a few pegs by considering the man's vocation. Here is a man whose life is dedicated to recording seismic events after they've happened. "Whoopi!" I thought rather sarcastically. I realize in every field there are individuals who excel at their craft and there are those who simply put in their time while heading toward their exalted pensions. I did realize my fragile ego was causing me to resent and judge this guy, a mediocre geologist (I am not as yet above, or more appropriately 'below' that kind of behaviour).
Despite the differences I was conjuring up against this man, I was not going to let him hand me a picture of fault lines and send me home to decipher its contents. After all, he had sat in those classes putting in his time to earn the degree that got him this job. I kept pumping him for information. I was determined to unlock the secret this man possessed without his even knowing it.
I do have to admire the man's tolerance with a stubborn layperson. I reiterated the correlation with Noah, this time telling him these were my beliefs and not just a story line for a novel. I traded my vulnerability for a need for accurate information. I told him I needed to know the safest place possible to build an ark.
Suddenly a spark lit up the geologist's eyes; he beckoned me to follow. He led me to a map of Canada showing all recorded seismic events. The map was littered with little red circles. It became immediately apparent that, where there were circles, there were lots of circles. Then came the realization there was a huge portion of the map with hardly any circles. From somewhere in my memory I recognized the area with very few circles as the Canadian Shield. The geologist explained that, along with fault lines, I should examine rock formations, specifically the oldest rock on earth.
He pointed to a small inset map in the upper left hand corner of the bigger seismic map. It detailed the tectonic and geologic features of Canada and the northern United States. There was an orange-pink colored belt wrapping itself around Hudson Bay in the centre of the country; when compared to the map of recorded seismic events, it was clear this land was more stable.
The Canadian Shield is two million square miles of billions-of-years-old rock. The Precambrian rock mass has existed for a long time and is very thick and solid. More solid and most stable were exactly what I was looking for to hedge my bet.
I felt myself mesmerized by the map! I visually consumed all it had to offer. My eyes darted back and forth between the maps making comparisons. The geologist stepped back out of my way trying to answer the flurry of questions erupting from me. I was bubbling with excitement.
Suddenly I was awestruck! The little tourist town of Gananoque, which beckoned me to call it home, was perfectly positioned in the centre of what I later learned is called the Frontenac Axis. The Frontenac Axis is the only part of the Canadian Shield that crosses over the St. Lawrence River, reaching down into the United States for about a hundred kilometres.
On the seismic map, the rest of the river looks relatively soft and soggy with lots of red circles running down its banks (I thought it ironic that the most densely populated areas of the country are situated within the clusters of red circles). Satisfied with the rock strata around Gananoque, my concern became whether there were any major faults in the area. The geologist suggested he could forward me a color copy of the fault-line map if for now I'd be happy with a black-and-white copy he could provide right away. I nodded, and moments later the black-and-white map was in my hands. It showed that the faults within the Frontenac Axis were relatively minor.
What generated those feelings on the two occasions I visited Gananoque, I don't know, but from somewhere came what is obviously genuine wisdom. Some may say the knowledge came from somewhere in my subconscious. I'd say to them they give me too much credit. Why was the color copier broken? Why didn't the guy offer me the black and white copy and send me on my way before showing me the significance of the Canadian Shield?
I believe the information and circumstances were provided by my guiding influence, the same source that has all but electrocuted me with the theory shocks. In retrospect, going to the Geophysics Division of Energy, Mines and Resources was an act of desperation, a need for intellectually sound knowledge of where to build the ark; and I was provided it.
When knowledge and intuition unite, there is validation that creates a strong sense the correct answer has indeed been found. Sometimes this euphoria can last for days. I was very excited and couldn't wait to get home to share my newfound knowledge.
For the next couple of years after this discovery I was fixated with Gananoque as the place I needed to build the Ark. However, when I began to make inquiries into what land was available, I found that the land around Gan has all been designated either residential or agricultural. "Designations which will not be overturned in my lifetime," said the real estate agent with whom I spoke. Her beliefs did not allow that the rules and regulations of humankind are as fragile as my beliefs allow.
Mind you, she is probably correct that I stand no chance of building 'Noah's Park' in or around Gananoque before a cataclysm happens. When dealing with people whose thoughts are rooted in the present reality--like an ostrich with it's head buried in the sand--I tread very carefully. I describe my plans to build a theme park around a full-scale version of Noah's Ark. As I describe my tentative business plan, I carefully resist any temptation to discuss the real reason I want to build the ark.
After this discovery my fixation shifted. I still recognize the wisdom of the voice and feelings that guided me to look so closely at Gananoque. It was an important place to guide me to look at because nowhere else in Canada would the safety of building the ark on the Canadian Shield have been so obvious. Indeed it makes sense to me now that the farther into the Canadian Shield I build the ark, the stronger the rock formation will be because it will be farther away from the edges. It also creates distance from where the water assault will originate, thus allowing more time and space for the assault to become somewhat less violent and more consistent.
Another bit of information I learned that makes me nervous is from Gordon-Michael Scallion's future map of North America. He is a man who had an accident and then became clairvoyant. I once watched a show about him on The Learning Channel and found he has a very impressive track record. He is the guy who heads up the Matrix Institute and puts out the Earth Changes Report.
His future map of North America is a map of what he foresees the world will look like after all the earth changes are complete. The map can be seen and ordered on his web site at http://matrixinstitute.com/fmnl.htm. In his map we can see that about half of the Canadian Shield has vanished into the sea. It's not the half that I am likely to build on, but if he's correct, it opens another direction for the water to approach my awaiting ark.
The direction could be dangerous if I point the boat towards the southeast coast. For example, towards Boston, which is the closest angle from here to the Atlantic tectonic plate that's going to butt heads with the North American plate, the same direction water may approach from the land mass predicted to rise in the Atlantic, and then water actually approached from Hudson's Bay in the north, I'll likely get swamped. If half the Canadian Shield sunk all at once, it is very likely the vacuum would be filled by a wall of water that isn't likely to stop at the new beach. Indeed, when combined with all of the tsunamis created by all of the other geological disturbances going on around the world, the scenario seems very unpredictable. Suddenly my best guess has fallen prey to that game of Russian roulette with the overloaded gun.
The concept of half the Canadian Shield ripping away and sinking opened my eyes to the awesome strength of what I am forecasting. It reminds me of a time when two friends and I went white-water rafting. We went over a waterfall or, more appropriately, three small water drops--a three-foot, five-foot and ten-foot. Coming off the five-footer we were sideways. The ten-footer took advantage of our compromised position and flipped us over. I went under the water where it rolls like the tumbling action of a dryer. My two hundred pound muscular frame was at the mercy of this 'speck' within nature's majesty. I flipped over head to toe countless times. I felt absolutely weightless. The power of it was off the scale from any previous experience in my life. I was so in awe of its power, I forgot to panic. When it finally spit me out, I had developed a new respect for the strength within nature. Facing a life or death situation has great power over us. It turned out to be one of those too few days in my life when my ego state of being was replaced by tolerance and inner serenity, which can happen when we've been truly humbled.
From an intellectually created ego state of consciousness, we can tolerate someone who is actually pissing us off. However we gain true tolerance with others when our ego is not there to separate us from them--when we feel connected to everything. I have experienced this state of being a few times. I am going to give you another life experience that triggered it for me--I really want people to understand the feeling, the state of being that I am attempting to do justice to with words. Perhaps one more example of how I've come to experience this wonderful state will trigger a memory for someone else.
The longest I've managed to stay in this state was for five days. The experience was triggered in me by an incident at 'our' marriage counsellor's office. Quite suddenly my wife went into a regression; she became six years old. She threw a little tantrum and tried to hurt herself and then interacting with the counsellor, not like a six year old, but rather somehow she was back to being six years old. Looking at my twenty-eight year old wife, yet recognizing that at that moment she was someone different, challenged my 'idea' of rational reality. Everything I have learned was called into question. Who I thought I was and how I fit into what I have learned was also challenged. This is what I mean when I say deflated ego. Who we think we are doesn't exist at that time. The happy housewives who abruptly found themselves headed for divorce court from the Oprah show I discussed in Chapter 1 would be able to relate.
Our intellects aren't free to judge situations because the parameters are obscured; the boundaries of rational reality are gone. I think we become reliant on our back-up system--that other part of our being--our soul. We connect to everyone and our circumstances from our central feeling system--our spirits. I'm thinking this could be the state of enlightenment--at least that's the way I expect it should feel. In the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Persig tells of a Sanskrit doctrine, Tat tuam asi. It translates to Thou art that, which asserts "that everything you think you are and everything you think you perceive are undivided. To realize fully this lack of division is to become enlightened." It is the basis of all eastern philosophy. Persig also says, "philosophical mysticism, the idea that truth is indefinable and can be apprehended only by nonrational means, has been with us since the beginning of history. It's the basis of Zen practice." This sounds to me like another way to get away from ego-generated isolation of self. Have you ever noticed how clubs exclude more people than they include? They are used to snub. They are based on prejudice and continue the existence in fear. An inflated ego (and I don't mean an egotist's over-inflated ego) is the most exclusive club there can be.
On the day of the pole shift, all of the survivors will have experienced an even farther off the scale version of the power within nature than I did while tumbling in the rapids. All of the survivors will face a life or death situation all at once. This should produce a collective humbling. In other words, it is possible we may achieve this sought after state of enlightenment all at once. Being enlightened and living in an enlightened world is something few souls will experience on earth. This state is what I think the references to a thousand years of God's kingdom on earth refer to. Without the present state of rational reality there to bring us crashing back into the fearful stressed out environment our intellects have created, we might stay there awhile. Have you ever noticed how, when you are experiencing a terrific high in your life and you share it with someone, they tend to say something designed to get your feet back on the ground? They try to reindoctrinate us into the club. Don'tcha just hate that?
Albeit extraordinary, the sinking of half the Canadian Shield is not outside the realm of possibility. I fully believe that a natural event the size of a pole shift is without precedent in showing us these things are possible. The resulting effect on survivors undoubtedly will be profound.
During a different show on The Learning Channel, I learned more about how tsunamis work. I forget the name of the show but it was one of those disaster programs that seem so abundant in TLC's programming line-up that I find so fascinating. In the show an expert on tsunamis describes what happens. First comes a terrific wind. Then we can expect several relatively small waves to push across the land. These waves are indeed part of the tsunami and are quite destructive. In many cases they are believed to be the destructive wave.
Tsunami waves are not like the cresting, curling waves that hit a reef at the edge of their traverse. They are actually the displaced water from a tremendous geological movement. The water is moved at violent speeds. As it moves, it shocks the water ahead of it--each shock creates another and so on. These shock waves travel ahead of the original displaced water, much like the air shock waves of a nuclear explosion, which do so much damage before the ground zero explosion reaches the already devastated area. Many tsunami shock-waves will arrive well in advance of what will be many times bigger and have much more energy than these first swells.
People can be fooled when viewing their first tsunami. While the tsunami expert spoke of the dynamics, they had film of an actual tsunami. What people did after the wind and first waves struck was gauge their safety-zone by the boundary of those first waves. They rushed to the water's edge to begin rescuing the casualties of the first waves. There was quite a gap of time between the first swells and what was to come. Very suddenly they realized their mistake. The swell rose out of the water like Godzilla. I imagine it was like staring up at an apartment building for those poor would be heroes.
The reason for such little warning was because tsunamis don't travel above the water. They race along horizontally. As they approach shallow water, only then does the energy get forced upward. What are the boundaries of a tsunami? Its only boundary is when it runs out of energy. The bigger the geological disturbance, the more power that is transferred to the water. In recent history, an Alaskan 7.9 earthquake (actually within 24 hours of the Ulrichs' experience) set in motion a tsunami that travelled three thousand miles and still devastated Japan's coastline. I think that during a pole shift this recorded incident--as tragic as it was--might take on the appearance of little more than a hiccup, the difference being the height that is reached and the distance inland the tsunamis travel.
However devastating those first shock waves of a tsunami can be, in my mind they might be my ark's saving grace. They will remove some of the ammunition from my Russian roulette analogy. Laying drogue stones from the boat's bow in the directions a tsunami can approach are the ark's keys to surviving. Anchors with ropes can be placed better than ninety degrees off each side of the bow to form a one-hundred-eighty degree-plus arch. The first shock waves will hopefully lift the ark. Once lifted, yet tethered to its drogue stones, further incoming baby shock waves could relatively gently push the ark into a perfect trajectory to meet the mother swell. Thus positioned, the stones will hold the craft and essentially pull the ark up and over the menacing wave. Being tethered to the stones throughout the whole pole-shift event will keep the ark down wind (so to speak). All of the tsunamis produced in a pole shift should produce a dominant current with their shock waves and properly reposition the ark each time. Ideally when it's all over the ark will come to rest softly and evenly as the waters abate.
Today I am not fixated on Gananoque, yet I am thankful for the experience because of the peace of mind that comes with understanding. I have my eyes peeled and am listening for more guidance for where to build the ark. Given the one-hundred-million-square-mile area of possible building sites on half the Canadian Shield, I will not have a hard time finding an empty piece of land.
