Theresa Crater

Mystery writer Steve Berry puts a section at the end of his books that talks about what’s real and what’s made up. Yes, mystery and fantasy  writers do research and use it in their novels. What we do with that research is sometimes made-up, but it’s the mix of the real and the imagined that makes for a compelling read.

In Beneath the Hallowed Hill, Megan attends an Emergence Ceremony at the age of thirteen to discover her place in Atlantean society. She travels with her parents to the Temple of the Oracle where she consults with a circle of crystal skulls.

Crystal skulls do exist. Crystal skull researcher Nick Nocerino classified three types of crystal skulls:  contemporary (less than 100 years old), old (more than 100 years old), and ancient (more than 1,000 years old). There are thousands of contemporary crystal skulls carved in Latin America and China predominantly.

But why? After all, the skull and cross bones is used to label poison. We think of them as representing evil. Mexican and Latin cultures use these skulls on the Day of the Dead and to meditate on death, but the Maya see these skulls as images of enlightenment.

Why enlightenment? Next time you’re in a crowd of people, look around at all the faces. Notice how different everyone is. Yes, we have two eyes, one nose and mouth, etc. (for the most part), but we all have particular features and are each different from the other. But imagine the bone beneath the face. Imagine the skull. They all look alike.

The skull represents this underlying sameness. It represents Divine Consciousness, that I Am presence that we all are at our very foundation.

Are there really ancient crystal skulls? We’ll talk about that in another post.

Max, the Texas skull. Picture taken by Stephen Mehler.

At the end of Under the Stone Paw, the characters who are carrying crystal keys go into the temple beneath the Sphinx and they all slip into a higher state of consciousness. I describe it this way: “Just as a river surrenders to the sea, all their limitations simply washed away. A door opened in their unified mind, an ancient door containing certain knowledge.”

At the beginning of Beneath the Hallowed Hill, Michael asks Anne if she misses being in that state of consciousness:  “In the temple, when we all merged, that moment of—” he searched for the right word, “—illumination.” Anne turned back to the road. Now they were driving through a tunnel of trees. “It was real, then.” Michael nodded.

All the spiritual traditions agree with Michael. Humans can experience enlightenment. When I was studying to become a meditation teacher, I learned a simple way to describe different states of consciousness in terms of the objective measurements of the physiology and the subjective
human experience. In other words, a physiologist could read our measurements in another room and know which state of consciousness we are likely experiencing.

Let’s start with the ones we’re most familiar with. In waking state, the brain expressed beta waves, our blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen consumption is at an active rate. Objectively, we experience what we call the real world, external reality.

In the sleeping state of consciousness, the brain goes into theta and delta waves. The heart rate slows, along with blood pressure and oxygen consumption. Objectively, we are not aware of anything. During dreams, the brain goes into alpha and the heart rate and other measurements can rise. We also experience rapid eye movement. Subjectively, we experience our own private movie. Humans don’t call this the real world, but
think of dreams as messages from our deeper selves. Of course, this can be more complicated, but for now, that’s enough.

Maharishi, my meditation teacher, talked about other states of awareness, starting with transcendental consciousness. This is that state we sometimes reach in mediation or listening to music or sitting in nature where the mind quiets down completely and merges with the larger divine consciousness that we are all an expression of. In this state, our brain waves are synchronous across the hemispheres, a very rare occurrence, and we experience alpha and theta waves. Our body’s activity slows to a deep state of rest. The breath rate slows and breathing is shallow. The heart beats very slowly. Yet subjectively, we are cmpletely awake, but the mind is quiet. We are not aware of anything. We become Awareness itself.

The purpose of meditation, contemplative prayer, and other spiritual practices is to reach a state in which this connection with the root  awareness of the universe is constantly there. We do not lose touch with it again. Our individual awareness floats like a small boat on top of the ocean of universal consciousness. Subjectively, we feel whole. What we need to know is delivered to us through that universal awareness. Our actions are in harmony with the laws of nature. Maharishi called this Cosmic Consciousness.

Many spiritual traditions discuss this state of consciousness. Rumi and the Sufis call the Divine Consciousness the Beloved and writes eloquently and poignantly of the human yearning to unite with the Divine Beloved. “A craftsman pulled a reed from the reedbed, cut holes in it, and called it a human being. Since then it has been wailing a tender agony of parting, never mentioning the skill that gave it life as a flute.” We yearn to reconnect.

Christ said, ‎”Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” Western metaphysics speaks of the individual consciousness climbing the Tree of Life like a snake (kundalini) and finally resting its head just beneath the Crown, the great I Am presence.

The spiritual traditions agree. Enlightenment is your birthright. That’s why I love exploring higher states of consciousness in ordinary humans in my novels.

In Under the Stone Paw, one of the theories that I researched came from Ab’del Hakim Awyan, who was an Egyptologist and tour guide for many years. He lived a block from the Sphinx and woke up every morning to look at her face. When Stephen Mehler, his student and fellow tour guide, first met Hakim, Stephen had accepted the idea that the high civilization and technology had been imported from Atlantis. This is what most western metaphysical schools teach. Hakim rejected this idea, saying that it smacked of racial supremacy. It suggested the indigenous Africans of Egypt couldn’t have built the pyramids themselves.

Stephen then asked Hakim if he supported the Nile School of Egyptology, which claims all Egyptians were black and that black Africans were the first to develop a high civilization. Hakim said no to this theory, too. So, who were the Egyptians, Stephen asked him.

All races was his answer. Hakim taught that Ancient Khemit, predynastic Egypt, was much larger than the Egypt we know today. He claimed it was the Ib, the heart of the huge continent that then broke up into Africa, Europe and Asia. He even would take it back to when the Americas were attached. Of course, most scientists would say humans weren’t around then. Some anomalous evidence does suggest human civilization is older than western civilization is willing to admit, but this could also be attributed to mythology.

Hakim claimed that Egyptians were all colors. Stephen used to point to the people on the walls of the temples and their various facial types. He’d point out people in Egypt with red hair and blue eyes, whose families had lived there for centuries. Hakim claimed Akhenaten’s teacher, Amenhotep, son of Hopi, was Asian. But now there’s more evidence.

According to DNA testing, the Pharaoh Tutankhamen, King Tut’s genes are predominantly European. So that means Akhenaten and Amenhotep III, Tut’s father and grandfather, were also largely European. Read about the DNA tests here.