The Earth is Alive and Running Out Of Breath By Joan Price   (Published in the book The Sacred Landscape by Frederic Lehrman, 1988) For years Hopi leaders have warned that draining underground water reserves in their lands would upset the natural balances across the planet, but their statements were ignored. Now science is starting to recognize the validity of their claims as a new, more unified picture of the globe emerges from recent research. Studies of electromagnetic force fields in the atmosphere and underground water caverns reveal a meaningful pattern that links critical points on the map with the health of all life on earth. One of these key points is the Hopi area. Often called the Four Corners Area, the Colorado Plateau, where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet, is roughly circular and approximately 350 miles wide. The Colorado Plateau sits within a ring of volcanic mountains which experience an extraordinary concentration of lightning activity. The Hopi and other indigenous people claim that this region is a "spot of power", one of several particularly sacred places on the planet. The direction of recent scientific studies increasingly corroborates the knowledge of peoples indigenous to the Plateau. Indigenous spokesman Rolling Thunder observes, "Professors teach so much about the atom and of different sources of energy, but they have forgotten about the lightning-the source of life energy. They still have to discover just how lightning is formed and transferred to the Earth and about certain rocks that hold that energy, and that all life has some of the lightning in it. Everything that has life also has an electrical force. The flow of energy has to be in certain directions, and if it gets upset or unbalanced it can affect our bodies in such a way that we might become ill or even paralyzed. This energy flow in the human body is very important." And the flow of energy in specific directions is no less important to the earth and atmosphere than to the human body. Wilderness protector, layman, scientist, or whatever, there exists a factor which quite literally unites every individual, opinionated or not, within a common circle of experience. That factor is the exquisite quality of air unique to the Southwest created by environmental forces of such precision as to be unnoticed and taken for granted until now. Nearly thirty years of scientific study by Dr. Albert Krueger at the University of California, Berkley, indicate how important electricity in the air can be for our state of physical and mental health. Lightning pulses are evidence of the dynamics between either atmospheric fields of positively or negatively charged tiny air particles, or between these charged fields and the negatively charged earth. There is a critical minimum number of ions that are essential to proper and healthy growth of plants, insects, and mammals particularly. Ideally, the ions should be present in a ratio of four "neg-ions" to five "pos-ions" Excess pos-ions cause increased production of serotonin, a powerful and versatile neurohormone governing the transmission of nerve impulses. Pos-ion overload leads to respiratory ailments, stress, traffic accidents, and even suicide. Conversely, a high concentration of neg-ions is a significant factor in healing, facilitating proper oxygen metabolism and a sense of well-being. The main sources of positive and negative ions are solar radiation, rushing water, and radioactive minerals; all of these particularly concentrated in the Southwest. The Colorado Plateau receives one of the highest amounts of daily sunlight on the continent and in the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. The Colorado Plateau also harbors approximately one third of all available uranium, usually within coal beds that naturally filter and diffuse its radiance. Great quantities of molybdenum, copper, and other vibrant mineral deposits are also found here; their vibrance, (measured in ultrahigh gamma frequencies) knocks electrons off air molecules, thereby ionizing them into negatively and positively charged particles.  As for rushing water, phenomenal amounts are found underneath the desert, a subject we will return to in greater depth. A significant percentage of contemporary diseases and deaths have been correlated to anxiety and stress; the Colorado Plateau has the nation’s lowest death rate per thousand inhabitants. Stress has also been shown to significantly increase the difficulty in giving birth; the Colorado Plateau leads the nation in live births per thousand inhabitants. The remarkable alignments to mountains embodied in the architecture of the numerous ruin sites in this region suggest that ancient cultures built the cities here for reasons of spiritual balance. These are cultures that rated lightning as the Lord of the Elements, and whose word for "spirit" or "soul" was "breath" or "wind". In fact, in the language of every ancient culture, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Greek, Mayan, Egyptian, and Indo-Egyptian, to name a few, breath is equated with spirit. At least seven Native American "Sacred Breathing Mountains" have cave systems associated with volcanic mountains, a significant factor in the ionization cycles on the Plateau. Dr. Doyne Sartor of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) investigated Wupatki National Monument at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, one of the Sacred Breathing Mountains. Within the ruins are a number of surface "blowholes" into which air rushes at the rate of up to thirty miles an hour for approximately six hours; then it rushes out again for six hours, in constantly repeating cycles. Sartor deposited fluorescent particles in one blowhole and collected them from another one located twenty-four miles away. He estimated that seven billion cubic feet of underground waterways and caverns exist in that area. Evidently, the pos-ion count of the dry desert air is reversed as it rushes into the cool cavern system and is blended with foaming underground streams where it is recharged with neg-ions. Then the air surges to the surface and vitalizes the life of the area. Connected to this network of caves is an enormous caldera (underground basin) of water, located in the middle of the Colorado Plateau, called the Black Mesa Aquifer. At the far eastern side of the Plateau, at the base of the volcanic San Juan and Sangre de Cristos mountain ranges, is the underground caldera called the San Juan Aquifer which is so deep that drilling has not reached the bottom. These two known subsurface water collections and the underground river system have a profound influence on direction of current flows and on the ion balance crucial for healthy bioelectric states in the biosphere. Moreover, in the "Sacred Lands" of the South Dakota Sioux are found the same dynamics-concentration of uranium and other vibrant minerals, with an extensive underground cavern and water system. Small wonder that these people have resisted acculturation and development of the vital land for so long. In spiritual traditions, mountains are holy places often termed "gateways" to deeper dimensions of awareness of universal truths. Mountains are a key geophysical feature in the global circulation of atmospheric electric currents. Dr. Ray Roble of NCAR calls high mountain peaks "generators" of the global circuit. Just as in the general circulation models of global wind and water currents, the global electric circuit is complex and highly sensitive to change. There is always energy transfer in one part of the system in response to energy shifts in another. Increased wind speeds in one region are balanced by increased calm in another; increased lightning in the Four Corners leads to a decrease elsewhere (and consequent rainfall patterns). The Oriental system of acupuncture points in the human body is mirrored in the planetary body. Thus, a blocking of energy leads to imbalance and disease such as droughts, floods, extremes in climate, and attendant human struggles to adjust.   IONSPHERIC SHELLS Pottery designs representing the world anticipate the flow patterns discovered by Dr. Matsushuita, also of NCAR, by several hundred years.  Matsushuita of the NCAR offers an intriguing theory to explain this wind and water cycle. A solar magnetic "shell" and a lunar magnetic "shell" envelop the entire planet. These shells remain stationary while the earth rotates. The lunar magnetic shell lies 110 kilometers above the surface of the earth; it forms four fields in the four quadrants of the Northern Hemisphere. Within one quadrant, a lunar magnetic current flows in a clockwise direction, while in the neighboring quadrant the flow is counter-clockwise. The clockwise direction yields a positive charge of energy, while the counter-clockwise direction yields a negative charge. The solar magnetic shell is located 120 kilometers above the earth and it contains two magnetic fields, one of which flows in a clockwise direction while the other is counter-clockwise. The center of each current-whether solar or lunar, positive or negative-is termed the Focus and is the quietest area of the current. It has a diameter of approximately 350 miles, which is the same size of the Colorado Plateau passing underneath. This width of 350 miles defines a band of influence falling between 20° and 40° longitude on the Northern Hemisphere within which bioelectric activity is unique in several ways-e.g., it has the highest concentration of summertime lightning activity on the surface of the earth. Let us follow the Four Corners length of this band starting with the land in position underneath a Focus. Looking into a Focus is like being at the end of a tunnel to outer space through which both solar sunspot activity and cosmic rays can easily enter; both of these are known to influence lightning frequency and intensity. Then for the next few hours, as the plateau moves under a current flow and its associated charge, pos-ions and neg-ions are separated into fields. The magnetic pull of these charged fields affects air and water movements, creating tides. This tidal pull moves underground lakes into cavern systems, mixing with the inhaled desert air to produce healing neg-ions. Meanwhile, overhead on the surface of the land, there is momentary stillness and then outward motion into the opposite pull of the next electromagnetic current. Caves breathe out and underground water volumes shift, rushing to other "lungs" and networks miles away. And so it goes, on to the next current and its opposite pull, and then into another Focus of stillness, locking 350 mile diameter to 350 mile diameter, an unobstructed tunnel into space, never-ending. The primeval quality of this amazing land is like a pendulum. It is an endless, swaying, oscillating movement of air, water, breath and spirit-a band of atmosphere circling the Northern globe within which is found the sources of ancient culture. The Four Corners area passes directly under the focus of the solar fields at the fall equinox while Teotiahuacan, Mexico is passing under the focus of the lunar fields. From that time of year until the winter solstice both foci move north; the solar focus reaches its northernmost position of 45° latitude over the Sacred Breathing area of the Black Hills in South Dakota. Then they begin moving south again to equinox positions and then down to their southernmost positions at the summer solstice. When the solar focus is over Teotiahuacan, the lunar focus is over an ancient sacred cave system at Palenque, Mexico. Several factors, such as the variable influence of solar flares, combine to affect this simplified picture. Theoretically, the focus is a specific point while practically speaking, focus influence has a diameter of roughly 350 miles, spanning thousands of square miles across 7° in latitude and 3° in longitude. Located inside this band of electric oscillations circling the northern globe are all the sources of ancient culture: Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus River valley, the Hindu Kush, Tibet, central China, the Japanese Kanto, Hawaii, and Hopi land. At certain times of the year, as the Four Corners area passes under the Focus of the clockwise solar current, Tibet (opposite to it on the Northern Hemisphere) is passing under the Focus of the counter-clockwise solar current. Twelve hours later, the effects are reversed for the two land masses. Thus, while the Four Corners passes slowly under the Focus of a clockwise lunar current, Tibet is also going through a clockwise lunar current. At the same time, 90° away, Jerusalem (with its near neighbor the Great Pyramid at Giza) on one side of the globe and the Sacred Breathing Mountains of the Hawaiian natives on the opposite side of the globe are passing through the Focus of the counter-clockwise lunar currents. Six hours later, the lands have shifted approximately 90° to the next set of lunar currents. The sacred areas in this band of Focus activity comprise key points in a global energy grid recently outlined by a team of Russian archaeologists. Dr. David Zinc sums it succinctly, "The presence of such elements reflect the idea that the cosmic temple was a living organism with the capacity to resonate with all other living systems." Each of these four "spiritual" nodes plays a vital role in global climate balance. Plotting sites of all known ancient cultures on the planet and connecting these sites with straight lines, the Russians came up with pattern of energy nodes; the lines of the grid pattern coincide with weather patterns (including hurricane), mid-oceanic ridges, and the edges of continental plates.   CHLADNI FIGURES The work of the German physicist Ernst Chladni and the late Hans Jenny of Zurich offers a model to explain the vibrational nature underlying all these correlations between energy nodes and physical features. These two conducted a series of experiments on patterns in sand spread over a large circular steel disc suspended from its center. When one tone from a violin or a tuning fork was sounded, the sand accumulated in a characteristic pattern around the central point. The thin layer of sand tended to vacate the areas of greater vibration, called nodes, and to collect in the less agitated areas, called anti-nodes. Changing the amplitude of the frequency resulted in new, characteristic patterns. Analagous to this model of sand forming significant patterns in response to sound vibrations, the earth’s water atmospheric currents, and magnetized particles are also subject to repeatable arrangement under vibrational pulses. One can envision the Colorado Plateau and other ancient sites around the world as Chladni figures set within a global grid pattern of energy. We see repeating patterns involving underground water networks, atmospheric currents, charged ion fields, and a seasonal cycle of lightning pulses. It may take many years to fully understand and document this phenomenon with adequate data. In the meantime one can respect the fact that for centuries the traditional peoples of North America have maintained a seasonal, ceremonial cycle in phase with the harmony of all land and life. The Navajo phrase "to walk in beauty" refers to this breathing web of immense and rhythmic waveforms. THE SITUATION TODAY Modern civilization, in exploiting electricity, has unwittingly created a planetary grid of seething and pulsing megalopolitan centres connected by ultrahigh power transmission lines and invisible pathways in the sky. This artificial network is out of phase with the natural grid, whose energy flow and direction are constantly being upset and put out of balance by it. Unaware of the significance of the Colorado Plateau as a "place of power," the National Academy of Science, in 1974, declared that the Southwest may have to become a "national sacrifice area" to supply the growing energy demands of the country. The Hopi, who have lived for centuries in the center of the Four Corners Area, however, had issued this statement is 1968: Everything depends upon the proper balance being maintained. The water under the ground acts like a magnet attracting rain from the clouds; and the rain in the clouds also acts as a magnet raising the water table under the ground to the roots of our crops and plants. Drawing huge amounts of water from beneath Black Mesa in connection with the stripmining will destroy the harmony, throw everything we have strived to maintain out of kilter. Should this happen, our lands will shake like the Hopi rattle; land will sink, land will dry up. Rains will be barred by unseen forces because we Hopis have failed to protect the land given us, as we were instructed. Plants will not grow; our corn will not yield and animals will die. When the corn will not grow, we will die; not only the Hopi, but all will disintegrate to nothing…time is short. Today the situation at Black Mesa is degenerating. Mountainous piles of dynamited earth border newly-cut seams of coal. The overburden burns and smokes, and the smell is foul. Since 1968 a pump has been sucking water at a rate of 2,700 gallons a minute from the aquifer at Black Mesa; the San Juan aquifer is next in line. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), southeast Arizona has sunk 12 feet since 1952 as a result of underground water withdrawl. The plume of particulate emissions from the Four Corners Power Plant in northwest New Mexico is the most visible feature of satellite photography. These particulates decisively interfere with natural ion fields. The ion environment has not been taken into account in modern architectural designs or construction materials and, as a result, severely depleted neg-ion levels have led to increased anxiety, disease, social unrest, malaise, and general negativity. In addition, frequencies generated by artificial lighting, high power transmission lines and unshielded radioactive dumps lead to physiological stress such a s changes in the electrical polarity of the cell membrane and disturbances of resonances of protein molecules. Curiously, the major superpowers have chosen to locate their atomic testing sites within the 350-mile-wide band between 20° and 40° longitude. Within this narrow strip of earth, specifically in the Four Corners Area and in an area quite close to Tibet, America and China have conducted their above and below ground nuclear weapons explosions. The electromagnetic law of induction states that a current flowing in one direction in the atmosphere will induce a current flowing in the opposite direction in the earth. Underground atomic tests devastate the delicate balance of these magnetic currents. Prior to 1977, Matsushuita became deeply alarmed at the total disruption of the solar and lunar patterns enveloping our planet from underground nuclear tests. The response of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission was to deny him access to data for two weeks after each blast. Project Earth, an independent research program, is looking at energy (heat) transfer systems from inside the earth out to the crust through resonant layers. The tests destroy this transfer process and internal heat build up can eventually explode as volcanic eruptions, or earthquakes. Over the last thirty years, scientists have also been carrying out weather modification experiments, including lightning suppression, cloudseeding, and general manipulation of the water cycle. These experiments, under research grants from the Departments of Interior and Defense, also threaten to destroy the biosphere developed over tens of millions of years of evolution. Author Hugh Gardner warns: Two new technologies powerful enough to change the destiny of the planet, have come along since the Second World War. One, of course is nuclear fission. The other, weather modification, involves even greater amounts of energy. Compared to the incalculably powerful heat engine that drives our global weather, all the nuclear devices in the world are just so many fire crackers. Even a small thunderstorm has the energy of a hydrogen bomb. What began as a murmur by the Hopi and other traditional people is now becoming an organized protest against the ignorance and greed that, if unchecked, will destroy our planet’s delicate bioelectric balance and our own bioelectric responses. Each of us has the responsibility to protect sacred land and life in every country of the world, in whatever way he or she can. We must remember that lightning and wind are not controlled by human boundaries. A sacred breath unifies the divine web of life. Any part that is broken affects us all. May you walk in balance.