The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls

In one of the tests the skull was submersed in a glass chamber containing Benzyl alcohol of exactly the same density and refractive index as pure quartz. As the skull was lowered into the tank it seemed to disappear (see plate 36 (#litres_trial_promo)). This proved that it was made of the most incredibly pure type of quartz. But not only was it pure, it was also natural. Polarized light was directed at the skull in its chamber and vague shadows or ‘veils’ then appeared, which showed that the skull was of natural origin. These shadows, tiny variations in the growth pattern of the crystal, somewhat akin to the rings on a tree, are removed in the precisely controlled environment of manufactured quartz. So the skull was not made from any type of plastic or glass, nor was it made from modern synthetic crystal. It was definitely natural rock crystal supplied by the Earth.

The presence of the veils also revealed something else quite remarkable about the crystal skull. Given its size, unusually large for a natural piece of quartz, some had suspected that the skull had been made from several pieces of crystal carefully pieced together. But the polarized light test proved beyond doubt not only that the main cranium was made from only one piece of crystal, but also that the detachable jaw-bone was carved from exactly the same piece of rock. At some stage the crystal skull had been one solid block of rock crystal.

The investigating team was absolutely astonished by this. For pure quartz crystal is one of the hardest materials in the world. On the Mohs scale of hardness, used by gemologists, it is only slightly softer than diamond. This makes rock crystal an incredibly difficult material to carve, particularly given that it is also somewhat brittle and has a tendency to shatter. The workmanship on the skull was so exquisite the team estimated that even if the carvers had used today’s electrically powered tools with diamond tips, it would have taken at least a year to carve such an incredible object. But the team concluded something even more surprising than this. They felt that it would have been almost impossible to make such an exquisitely carved object using any known type of modern diamond-tipped power tool. This is because the vibration, heat and friction produced by such tools on such a delicate object as the lower jaw would actually have caused the skull to shatter – a fact which apparently led one member of the team to comment, ‘This skull shouldn’t even exist!’

But the original investigating team’s belief that the skull had not been made with modern tools was more than just a hunch. It was borne out by further tests. Even under extreme magnification of the surface of the skull there was no evidence of modern tool markings, no evidence of the usual tool ‘chatter’ or of the tell-tale pattern of repetitive parallel scratch marks. Given that any such markings would have been extremely difficult to remove, these findings seemed to confirm what the team had already begun to suspect – that the crystal skull had actually been made by hand!

This was phenomenal, as the only hand-carving techniques for crystal currently known take an incredible length of time. The scientists could only assume that the skull had been carved by slowly and patiently rubbing the original block of quartz down by hand, probably using a mixture of river sand and water. Even with the use of copper rods or hand-held carving ‘bows’, the team concluded that the crystal skull must have taken several generations of effort to carve! Whilst the precise length of time this had taken was impossible to confirm, the Hewlett-Packard staff magazine Measure put the nearest estimate at ‘300 man-years of effort’!

As Jack and Charles explained, whoever made the skull would have had to have started with a huge chunk of angular quartz crystal around three times the size of the finished skull, and when they first started carving they would have had no way of knowing whether the inside was pure or full of fractures and holes. They would have had to carefully grade the sand by the size of each of its grains, starting with the largest grains to rough out the overall shape and gradually reducing their size as the work became more detailed, right down to a microscopically fine grain size, like powder, to finish off the final smooth polish. What is more, if they had made a mistake at any point, they would have had to start again from scratch. If even a single grain that was too large had fallen onto the surface on which they were working as they neared completion of the skull, they would have had to start again. This must have been a truly formidable task.

I explained that I had heard the rather outlandish theory, suggested by the ancient legend and also by many of those who had spent considerable time with the skull, that the skull might actually have been made by extra-terrestrials. After all, if it could not even have been made with modern tools, then how could it possibly have been made by hand? But the scientists from Hewlett-Packard, perhaps understandably, dismissed this theory. As Jack Kusters said:

‘Being a scientist, I find it very hard to believe that people, pardon me, creatures, from other universes came and dropped things off here and then disappeared and never bothered us again. These other alternatives are simply not within the realm of possibility. I do not believe in the existence of aliens, so I have to conclude that it was made by human hand.’

This finding was of course incredible enough itself. But it was one that Frederick Mitchell-Hedges had already suspected:

‘It must have taken over 150 years, generation after generation working all the days of their lives, patiently rubbing down withsand an immense block of rock crystal until finally the perfect skull emerged.’

Likewise, in the 1936 study in Man, Adrian Digby of the British Museum had already observed that ‘Mr Burney’s [presumably Mr Mitchell-Hedges’] skull bears no traces of recent (metal age) workmanship.’

Here, though, was what appeared to be proof positive, using the latest scientific techniques, that the skull had been made entirely by hand and without the use of any kind of modern metal age tools.

However, it was absolutely impossible for the scientists to tell exactly when this had been done. For, as Jack and Charles explained, quartz crystal does not age. It does not corrode, erode, decay or change in any way with time. This is actually one of the many unusual properties of quartz that makes it so vital to the modern electronics industry, but it also makes it impossible even to carbon date. With other materials, even if there are no visible signs of ageing, as in the case of the crystal skull, scientists can usually work out very accurately both the age of the original material and any workmanship thereon by measuring the degree of radioactive decay in the carbon atoms of which it is comprised. When you are dealing with quartz crystal, however, this is just not possible.

So, for all the team’s scientific knowledge, up-to-the-minute technology and specialist expertise, there was absolutely no way of knowing how old the crystal skull really was. It could have been hundreds or even billions of years old. For all the scientists knew it could be as old as the Earth itself, or even older. It could even date back to the very beginning of time.

But the scientists at Hewlett-Packard were able to uncover one more potential clue to the mystery of the crystal skull. Other tests showed that the skull was not only made from a single piece of natural quartz, but from ‘piezo-electric’ silicon dioxide, precisely the type of naturally occurring quartz that is so widely used in modern electronics.

As Jack explained, the piezo-electric properties of some kinds of quartz were only discovered towards the end of the nineteenth century by Marie Curie’s husband and brother-in-law, Pierre and Jacques Curie. Piezo is Greek, meaning ‘to squeeze’, and electrose means ‘to get a charge from’. The fact that the crystal skull is made from this type of quartz means that it actually has a positive and negative polarity, just like a battery. It also means that if you apply pressure to the skull, or ‘squeeze’ it, it is actually capable of generating electricity! Alternatively, if you apply an electric charge to the crystal skull it actually changes its shape, without in any way affecting its mass or density.

But, like all piezo-electric quartz, the crystal skull is anisotropic in this as well as every other respect, which is to say that all of its properties, other than its mass, are different in every direction. In the case of its electrical properties, its precise orientation is defined by its X–Y axis, in other words, it can carry an electric current, but only in six particular directions relative to this X-Y axis. In any other direction it acts as an insulator.

In the case of the crystal skull, the scientists found that it was ‘vertically piezo-electrically oriented’, which is to say that its X-Y axis runs directly through the centre of the skull, from top to bottom. This means that if you apply an electric charge to the top of the crystal skull, not only does its shape change in the process, but also the electric current passes from the very top of the skull’s head straight down to the Earth below. In the case of squeezing the skull to generate electricity, strangely enough, if you reverse the direction of pressure, the direction of electrical polarity in the crystal also reverses.

The Hewlett-Packard team also examined the skull’s unusual optical properties, such as its ability to channel light from below, so that it is focused out through the eye sockets. Apparently, this is only possible on account of the orientation of the skull’s optical axis, as quartz crystal has an optical as well as an electronic axis. What this means is that light actually travels quicker through the skull in one direction than another. Jack explained that not only was the skull able to perform these incredible tricks with normal multi-directional light, but also that if you shine directional, or polarized, light at the skull, not only does the light pass along its optical axis quicker than in any other direction, but the skull also actually rotates that light as it travels along its axis!

Another characteristic of the skull is that it is incredibly environmentally stable. This is another of the properties of piezo-electric silicon dioxide that makes it so invaluable for use in modern electronics. What it means is that the crystal skull is highly resistant to changes in the environment. It is particularly resistant to chemical changes. Most similar natural materials are slowly attacked by various chemicals, whether acids or even just plain water. The crystal skull, on the other hand, is resistant to chemicals. As Jack explained,

‘Quartz crystal is highly stable, physically, chemically and temperately, and whilst it does respond to light and to electricity, this is precisely what makes it so useful in electronics.’

For modern science has also established that one of the particularly unusual properties of piezo-electric quartz is that it can function as an excellent oscillator or resonator. Jack explained this as follows:

‘If a thin slice of crystal is cut parallel to its electronic axis and subjected to an alternating current, the crystal can be made to vibrate. The dimensions of the cut crystal are such that it will vibrate most strongly at the a.c. frequency that corresponds most closely to its own natural frequency. At this frequency, the mechanical motion of the crystal will reinforce the a.c. voltage.’

In other words, crystal, unlike other materials, has an amazing ability to hold electrical energy under control and to oscillate at a constant and precise frequency. This means that, in theory at least, the crystal skull may actually be able to hold electrical energy, potentially a form of information, and send out electrical impulses, or vibrating waves of information.

This ability to oscillate is yet another of the many unusual properties of this type of quartz that makes it so invaluable to the modern electronics industry. Its use in oscillator circuits for example, makes it vital to any piece of equipment where extremely accurate control of electronic frequencies is required. It is particularly important in precision electronics, especially in those instruments used for time-keeping. Indeed, quartz crystal is now found in almost every piece of precision time-keeping equipment from wristwatches to clocks. It is even used in the atomic clock, which is the most accurate clock in the world, the one by which all others are now measured. It is accurate to three seconds every million years (although its manufacturers only guarantee it for the first three years!) Quartz crystal is at the very forefront of scientific advance in this and every other respect. The atomic clock, for example, has been used to test Einstein’s theory that time actually travels more slowly as the speed of light is approached. This clock is also vital to research into measuring seismic (or earthquake) activity on distant planets. And the whole device is based on a simple quartz crystal.

But quartz is not only found in the most advanced time-keeping instrumentation, it is also vital to the fields of information technology, telecommunications and mass communication, not to mention navigational equipment, radar and sonar systems, and the latest medical and ultrasonic technology. Its incredible electrical properties mean that it is now found in all manner of electronic devices, from radios to computers, from terrestrial television systems to even the most advanced telecommunication satellites that now orbit the Earth in space. All of these use quartz crystals in one form or another. Even the vast information superhighway has only been possible thanks to recent developments in the field of crystal research and technology.

So the crystal today is at the very forefront of scientific advance. It lies at the very heart of the modern computer, electronics, telecommunications and mass communications industries. Indeed, the power of crystal has quite literally changed the face of society. We now live in a world where electronically-based information and communications are an everyday part of life, a world where even the time of day is determined electronically. We are able to communicate instantaneously with people maybe thousands of miles away and to store and retrieve vast quantities of information from all over the world quite literally at the touch of a button. Crystal has been at the core of probably one of the greatest technological revolutions the world has ever seen. We have become so dependent on all the devices containing quartz crystals that it is now even vital to our civilization.

Why had the crystal skull been made from precisely the type of quartz whose properties and potential we have only just begun to recognize?

6. THE ANCIENT COMPUTER (#ulink_392e82f6-3f0a-5d1d-8166-ab768d644890)

Only since the beginning of the twentieth century have scientists begun to harness the incredible power of quartz crystal. So how was it that our ‘simple’ and ‘primitive’ ancestors had known to make the skull from precisely this type of material? Was it mere coincidence or could it be that they knew something we didn’t?

Could it be that the crystal skull really was some sort of store of information, just as the ancient legend had said? Could it really contain an important message from our ancestors? At first, this seemed very far-fetched. It was almost unbelievable that a simple lump of rock could contain the great secrets of our forefathers from way back in the mists of time. But, despite our initial scepticism, after our trip to Hewlett-Packard we began to take this idea more seriously.

We spoke to Dr John Pohl, Mesoamerican specialist at UCLA, who explained that on his various trips to Central America he had heard that descendants of the ancient Maya today recognize the distinctive qualities of quartz crystal and ‘liken crystal to some sort of ancient radio, television or computer device, a device for communicating “between the worlds,” a sort of doorway into other dimensions, a means of communicating with the world of the spirits and the ancestors’.

We were also struck by the words of Dr Joseph Alioto in a book he had contributed to, Holy Ice, written by crystal researcher Frank Dorland, following the Hewlett-Packard tests. Dr Alioto pointed out that, less than 100 years ago, if you had described to anyone:

‘…an invisible energy force that pervades all their surroundings, an energy force that would allow them to see and hear other people all over the world instantaneously, they [would have thought] you were either a great sorcerer or a great liar. Furthermore, if you were to suggest that they could capture these sounds and images through the use of a specially constructed box containing an assemblage of various pieces of metal and crystals, you would probably create quite a stir. ‘Well, of course, what has just been described is something we [now] take for granted in our daily lives – television. Yet, it was only a few short decades ago that this idea was relegated to the category of fantasy and science fiction.’

This had been our initial reaction to the idea that the crystal skulls might contain information. But, as we had just discovered from Charles Adams and Jack Kusters at Hewlett-Packard, the heart of the modern computer, where all the information is stored, is actually a tiny silicon crystal chip. The cells of this chip, or ‘silicon integrated circuit’, are effectively the brain cells, or memory, of the computer. This tiny crystalline chip, with its incredible storage capacity, now lies at the very heart of our information age. This chip uses the unique properties of crystal to store information. So it now occurred to us that if a silicon crystal chip can store vast amounts of information inside our modern computers, then why not the natural quartz crystal inside a crystal skull?

Indeed, as Charles Adams had informed us, in theory at least, a piece of raw quartz such as a crystal skull is perfectly capable of storing in-formation. Due to the unique properties of crystal, a natural piece of piezo-electric silicon dioxide has information storage capacities, just like a silicon crystal chip. In fact it transpired that some early experiments had been done in this area. So, after our meeting with the scientists at Hewlett-Packard the idea that a raw quartz crystal skull might be capable of storing information began to seem more plausible. The problem, as Charles put it, is that no scientist has yet been able to figure out a way of successfully inputting information and retrieving it again from a piece of raw quartz. But, as he was also quick to point out, this was not to say it could never be done.

Indeed, there are many who believe it can already be done. Some, such as crystal researcher Frank Dorland, believe that the way to extract information from a piece of natural quartz such as the crystal skull actually lies in some form of direct communication with the human mind. Whilst this idea, too, at first struck us as rather farfetched, we discovered that some early experiments had also been done in this area, using computers.

Professor Giles Brindley of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Middlesex saw the potential for physically paralysed subjects to be able to communicate directly with a computer by means of direct electronic links to their brains. Early results indicate that it might well be possible for subjects to use the power of their thoughts alone to communicate directly with a computer. These experiments suggest that one day it may be possible to have direct communication between the human mind and the computer without the need for bulky keyboards and other electronic paraphernalia in between. Whether or not this is what the future really holds, these early experiments certainly suggest that it is possible for the human mind to communicate more directly with a silicon crystal chip than at present. So could similar possibilities exist for direct mental communication with a crystal skull?

But if there really is information stored inside the crystal skulls, what might that information be, how might it be stored and how might we be able to retrieve it? In an attempt to find out we began to look at how information is stored inside our modern computers. What we discovered was that ‘information’ as it is spoken of today, is not a ‘thing’, but a ‘process’. It is neither solid nor static, nor literally ‘stored’ in a tangible form; it is not lying around in a filing cabinet somewhere. Whilst we may talk about information being ‘stored on a silicon chip inside a computer’, the information itself has no obvious physical form. You cannot touch, see or hear it except through the process of retrieving it from the system electronically.

In the case of the computer we have managed to work out a way of inputting and retrieving the information ‘stored within it’ through the process of electronics. But what of any information inside a crystal skull? We may not yet know the correct way to input and retrieve any information stored within it, but that does not necessarily mean that the information is not there. The analogy that comes to mind is of a Stone Age man or woman finding a computer and being told that it contains great knowledge and information. Without the necessary understanding of electronics and the appropriate passwords and commands, they would simply not believe it. Could we be in a similar situation with the crystal skulls? It may be that the information they contain is in a form that we simply do not yet comprehend. For it is only when we are able to interact properly with any information storage system that the knowledge stored within it comes into a form of existence that we can understand.

I know this from first-hand experience. When I first started working with computers there were many occasions when I found it almost impossible to retrieve information. There was many a time when I began to doubt that what I was looking for really existed at all – that is, until I was lucky enough to stumble upon the proper way of retrieving it from the system. So it may be with the crystal skulls.

Some, such as Frank Dorland, do believe that direct communication between quartz crystal and the human mind is already possible and that we can in fact retrieve the information stored within a crystal skull. The mechanism through which this works is both complex and remarkably subtle. Dorland suggests that a piece of raw piezo-electric quartz crystal, such as a crystal skull, is already capable of interacting with the human body and mind, but in a way of which we are not normally consciously aware.

Frank Dorland spent over six years researching the Mitchell-Hedges skull and even accompanied it to the Hewlett-Packard laboratories for its scientific testing. Though he was now too old and infirm for us to meet him, we were able to read about his controversial theories in his book, Holy Ice, written as a result of the original discoveries about the crystal skull which were made at Hewlett-Packard.

Frank Dorland believes that ‘the Communication Age’ in which we now live ought really to be called ‘the Crystal Age’ and that we are really just at the dawning of this new era. He is of the view that there is more to the electronic properties of crystal, and to the crystal skull, than we currently understand, and that more great discoveries are yet to come. In his opinion, natural quartz crystal has the ability to affect our own state of consciousness, to bring our own subconscious or unconscious thoughts to full conscious awareness, to boost vague intuitions and to enable us to recover forgotten knowledge from the distant past. He also believes quartz crystal can help us to heal our own bodies.

Dorland’s theory is based on the idea that both the human body and natural quartz are constantly broadcasting electro-magnetic signals on an unheard wavelength. Here Dorland asks us to bear in mind that there is more going on in the invisible world around us than we usually imagine. At all times, we are surrounded by a ‘sea of electronic energy waves’, constantly bombarded by naturally occurring electro-magnetic rays that we are simply unable to detect. The sun, for example, produces a complex range of radiant energies of which we humans are only aware of two parts: the infra-red, which produces warmth, and normal light, which is visible to the eye. Likewise most man-made electro-magnetic energy waves, such as radio, television and microwave signals, cannot be detected by our normal senses. In fact, as Dorland points out:

‘Human detection capabilities in the average person are currently estimated to be less than 2 per cent of the known wavelength spectrum. This means that most of us are not aware of over 98 per cent of the currently known events that surround us at all times.’

Indeed, it is likely that there are many other energy frequencies around us, as yet undiscovered by science.

Dorland suggests that we think of the human body and mind as a radio system that can both transmit and receive these as yet undetected electro-magnetic energy waves:

‘The body, with its complex electrical and chemical network of nerves and high moisture content, is [not only] the power source [and transmitter but also] a sensitive antenna system capable of receiving signals from an uncountable variety of sources.’

What happens, he says, when we come into contact with a piezo-electric quartz crystal such as the crystal skull is that the electro-magnetic energy waves we produce are received by the quartz. The crystal then starts oscillating and amplifying these signals and rebroadcasts them, in modified form, back out into the atmosphere, where they are picked up again by the cells of the body. In effect, the quartz crystal modifies and amplifies our own electro-magnetic energy waves and relays them back to us. So, in the process, these waves of ‘energy information’ become stronger and clearer. As we had just discovered, raw piezo-electric quartz is certainly renowned as a natural electronic oscillator, or resonator, and amplifier.