Tomb Secrets from Egyptologist Kara Cooney

IMG_3584The dead tell no tales, which is why history oftentimes omits some very interesting details. I did a little digging for dirt during a recent meeting with well-known Archeologist and Egyptologist, Kara Cooney, author of The Woman Who Would Be King, about the rise to power of the Egyptian Pharaoh-Queen Hatshepsut. It’s a great read, but somehow we strayed from the book to the topic of tomb plundering, which was even more fascinating.

Cooney, a 6-foot tall, modern Lara Croft-type figure, spends her time amidst the mummies while specializing in ancient coffin identification. You would think it wouldn’t be a problem figuring out who is sealed up in which coffin with all the sepulchre inscriptions and markings, but it appears royal mummies were often removed from their original nesting coffins, which were multiple coffins within coffins much like those Russian Matryoshka dolls. Some mummies were buried in three to as many as eight internal coffins (as was King Tutankhamen). This multiple coffin practice was part of the process that linked them to their ancestors. But when tombs were plundered, the mummies were often tossed aside and the coffins were re-sold or recycled for other mummies. Who was buried where and in which coffin became a dilemma for later identification purposes. This is where Cooney’s expertise is often called in. mummy-coffins_082313

Tomb robbery has been going on since the earliest of times. Old Kingdom inscriptions contained warnings that robbers would be judged by the gods in the hereafter. Severe punishments awaited them in their current life as well, if a curse didn’t get them first. Sometimes safeguards were built-in to thwart the robber. The burial chamber in the tomb of Senwosret at Lisht was protected by a series of stone slabs, the first of which, once lowered, could not be forced upwards again because metal or wooden bolts were released from holes in the lateral grooves in the slab, effectively locking it.

But there were times when undertakers and cemetery guardians took advantage and stole precious belongings of the royals and elite during the very time of burial. A tomb could later be found to have entrance blockings still intact, yet the valuables had already been removed from the body. Objects and jewelry of gold, precious stones, alabaster and faience, which had been placed within the tombs for the use of the kings in the afterlife, as well as gold masks, would all be stripped off.

Even large stone sarcophagi could not always prevent theft, since the thieves would lever off the lids or even tunnel through the sides or floors of the sarcophagi. Today only a handful of bodies remain in their tombs, and even fewer are still as they were when interred.

375px-Louvre_egyptologie_22But was this all the work of common thieves, or was there a higher order at work in the looting process? Cooney says much of the more extensive looting was actually done by the High Priests of Amun, in cooperation with the government treasury, in order to save the Egyptian economy.

After the death of Ramses III, during the New Kingdom’s Twentieth Dynasty, Egypt fell apart due to constant foreign invasions and the heavy cost of war. Drought may have also played a factor towards economic collapse. The Egyptian treasury was close to empty. To keep the government going it called for drastic measures. Gold was needed, and needed fast. Those in power knew where the gold was hidden and which pharaoh’s tombs had an abundance.

The high priests would open the tombs and, unlike the common tomb robbers, they would carefully unwrap the bodies and strip them of the golden pectoral hawks and scarabs which had been placed on their body for protection. Rings, jewelry, furniture, and anything else made of gold, which could replenish an empty treasury, was confiscated. The priests would then see to it that the tapes, the outer sheet, and the Osiris sheets were neatly and carefully folded on the bodies and stitched up the back. When the mummies found in later years were unwrapped, the black resin marks from where the gold necklaces had once been placed, could still be seen.

The priests back then were an unholy lot. They did not take vows of poverty nor chastity. Power and influence went hand and hand with accumulated wealth, and because of it they were a powerful force to be reckoned with throughout Ancient Egypt. Some might liken them to the Vatican today, which wields substantial political influence. It’s treasury contains more wealth than many countries combined.

Even after all these centuries, some things still have not changed. It’s still all about who has and controls the most Gold.

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Dr. Kathy Forti is a clinical psychologist, inventor of the Trinfinity8 technology, and author of the book, Fractals of God

Egos Clash Behind Stall in Search for Nefertiti’s Tomb

British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, director of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project, claimed last year that the tomb of King Tutankhamun holds a hidden doorway that leads to the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, the stepmother of Tutankhamun. Additional scans by radar technologist Hirokatsu Watanabe seem to also confirm there are two hidden chambers based on structural anomalies.

Yet, Live Science, recently released the news that National Geographic Society’s radar scans of King Tutankhamun’s tomb show no hidden chambers behind the walls. Dean Goodman, a geophysicist at GPR-Slice software, which conducted the scans for National Geographic and issued the definitive word, said he was barred from commenting on his findings. Disappointment reigned throughout the Egyptology world except, perhaps, for one man—Dr. Zahi Hawass.

Hawass, a former minister of Egyptian antiquities, who was ousted  due to accusations of corruption and Image: Zahi Hawass illegally selling antiquities in 2011, has vehemently been saying since day one that there are no hidden chambers, and that Nefertiti will not be found behind the walls, because he already found her mummy several years ago, which was aired on a TV show, one of many he has hosted for the History Channel, National Geographic and others. He points to DNA testing to confirm the legitimacy of his discovery.

Seasoned Egyptologists will readily admit that DNA testing on any mummy is inconclusive. The pharaohs and queens all inter-married within the royal family to protect sovereign blood lines, so any mummy found within a cache or “family” of mummies, would have similar DNA, rendering positive identification almost impossible.

Royal mummies were often moved from their initial burial site, sometimes put in used coffins, stripped of identification (and jewels), as was the case with the unknown mummy Hawass claims is his Nefertiti. In Egypt, as everywhere else in the world, DNA analysis is not a perfect science. Consequently, many questioned Hawass’ stance that he had actually found the real Nefertiti. But to challenge him, while he was still minister, was considered professional suicide.

The problem with Hawass is that he hates to be proven wrong. He also doesn’t like to watch from the sidelines while another Egyptologist, especially a foreign one such as Nicholas Reeves, might get credit for what could turn out to be the discovery of the century. It is no secret Hawass has openly challenged and ridiculed Reeves every step of the way, threatening that Reeves “would never be allowed to test his theory.”

Many authored Egyptologists, often allude in their books to Hawass dismissing their initial findings, sometimes even shutting down their digs or denying them further access, only to come back at a later time, when everyone is gone, and take credit for their discovery. Access to ancient sites, meant pandering to Hawass. Is it any wonder the man has made plenty of enemies over the years, resulting in his swift ouster during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising and regime change. Many Egyptologists say that while Hawass has done much to preserve ancient history during his reign as antiquities minister, he also did much to suppress important findings.

After his fall from professional grace, Hawass vowed to make a comeback. Towards this end, insiders currently believe he has been working behind the scenes to sow seeds of doubt and dissension between all parties, including the current minister of antiquities Khaled El-Enany, and the recently replaced minster, Mamdouh Eldamaty, who declared he was “90 percent” certain that such hidden chambers exist. Hawass may have been ousted from direct power, but he still seems to think he wields a mighty sword of influence behind the scenes. He may be right.

No one is sure why National Geographic abruptly pulled the plug, claiming nothing is there, when others have found evidence to the contrary, but insiders allege that Hawass might somehow be behind it.  Hawass’ relationship with the National Geographic Society goes way back. In fact, it was because of some of the contracts he illegally made with National Geographic, without required Egyptian government authorization, which contributed to him being accused of corruption charges for personal profit. Insiders theorize that Hawass may, once again, have his own agenda and timeline for this potential new discovery.

Archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered King Tut’s untouched tomb hidden under another tomb in 1922, may not have thought to look any further in his tomb search. In 1998, when the Amarna Royal Tombs Project was granted permission to search for new tombs in the Valley of the Kings, Nicholas Reeves recalled the information once given by Egypt’s infamous seer Om Sety. In the book, Om Sety’s Egypt – A Story of Ancient Mysteries, Secret Lives, and the Lost History of the Pharaohs, by Hanny el Zeini and Catherine Dees, Om Sety talked about Nefertiti’s tomb:

Chapter 18, “She Who Waits: Finding Nefertiti (p. 265). “Now, about the tomb of Nefertiti”, [Omm Sety] continued, sounding a bit hesitant. “I did once ask His Majesty where it was, and he told me. He said, `Why do you want to know?` I said I would like to have it excavated, and he said, `No, you must not. We don`t want anything more of this family known`. But he did (p. 266) tell me where it was, and I can tell you this much. It`s in the Valley of the Kings, and it`s quite near to the Tutankhamun tomb. But it`s in a place where nobody would ever think of looking for it,” she laughed. “And apparently it is still intact.”

Debate continues to rage, as witnessed at this past weekend’s Second Annual Tutankhamun Grand Egyptian Museum Conference in Cairo. Over a hundred people watched the two former government ministers, Hawass and Eldamaty, sit onstage and angrily accuse each other of trying to drill holes into World Heritage Sites without proper permission.

The quarter-size hole needed in Tut’s tomb to put speculation to rest, would be drilled near the floor of the unpainted North wall (believed to be a false wall), and a small fiber optics camera would be inserted. No one is threatening to drill without permission. Permission to do so is what this entire drama is all about. They drilled holes even bigger in the hidden door found in the shaft of the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid during Hawass’ time. So this is really a power struggle between ego and politics.

Right now there are two different radar scans showing contradictory evidence. In Reeves’s theory, these doorways present several clues suggesting that the tomb was originally built for another ruler—Nefertiti, the principal wife of Akhenaten. It is not certain whether she is the biological mother of Tutankhamen,  or if he is a stepson by another of Akhenaten’s wives. But if she is buried in the hidden chamber next to him, it would certainly support a maternal theory.

Nefertiti died suddenly in year three of Tutankhamun’s reign (1331 BC) and apparently vanished without a trace. When Tutankhamun himself died shortly into his rulership, at age 19, in all likelihood he was hurriedly buried in someone else’s finished tomb—someone with rank who had a tomb befitting a king. Tut’s current tomb is considered quite small, the size of a royal’s antechamber, not a full tomb. This is considered quite unusual for a king, even for one that had an uneventful and short reign. This would lead to the theory that it might be a partitioned double tomb. Perhaps, Om Sety was correct in saying that Nefertiti was buried close to Tutankhamun” where nobody would think to look,” (at least for centuries, that is).

I’m sure before long, we will all know the truth about Nefertiti’s final resting place. That should be the treasure of all treasures.

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Dr. Kathy Forti is a clinical psychologist, inventor of the Trinfinity8 technology, and author of the book, Fractals of God

iPhone’s Siri Sends Messages from Beyond

SiriListeningWho hasn’t heard a story of someone getting a strange phone call in the middle of the night from a deceased loved one attempting to contact them? Many report hearing static on the line, or a distant familiar voice. The call always seems to originate from some non-existent phone number like 000-000-0000 or even 999-999-9999. Unnerving? Definitely.

Those who have passed beyond have often found a myriad of ways to contact loved ones still on this Earth plane. In my last blog, I addressed how some who have died have been able to impress messages on film media to let us know they are still with us.

Due to technology progressing so fast, it appears the spirit world has now moved from landline communication to cell phone messages—even working through Apple phone’s virtual assistant, “Siri.” Quite a number of people have some amazing tales of how Siri has affected their lives in the realm of after-death communication.

Kellee White, a well-respected medium and licensed psychotherapist in Beverly Hills, California, read my blog and felt compelled to tell me of her recent story involving Siri. Let me preface by saying that Kellee is a good friend. She is able to see the dead and works as a bridge between the two worlds. In fact, her special gift has proven to be very helpful in moving her clients through grief and any unfinished business with a loved one.

Kellee prays every day before seeing clients. She always asks for guidance to best help her clients with whatever they need. One morning, after a particularly difficult psychotherapy session, her phone, which was turned off and on SILENT, suddenly came to life. The Siri screen spoke:

“I AM TRYING TO HELP YOU KELLEE.”

Kellee reports that she hadn’t voiced any words for HELP. In fact, she hadn’t spoken at all. While this experience was quite incredible as a single event, clearly validating she was indeed connected to divine guidance in her work, it then happened again on another occassion. Kellee had been working in mediumship mode with a client whose deceased father had come through. At the end of the session, the client’s phone, which was also on silent mode, came on and Siri delivered the voice message:

“I HAVE TO GO NOW. KISS KISS. I LOVE YOU.”

Kelly’s communication is not an isolated one. Others report similar experiences. One 35-year-old woman reported that shortly after her mother died she had a disturbing experience around 2am:

“I was lying in bed, trying to get to sleep. Just as I was about to drop off, I heard a familiar double beep sound spring from my iPad. I opened my eyes to see the screen suddenly light up and, for some reason, ‘Siri’ had been triggered to ‘On’. After a moment, it double beeped again, and I saw the screen change. I reluctantly climbed out of my bed and strode over to the chair. The iPad displayed a list of suggested things to say to ‘Siri’ to warrant a response. In the top right hand corner, it displayed the word that had been said: ‘HELP’

“Had I not been so tired I perhaps would have gotten worried, but at this point I just wanted to sleep. I clicked the iPad off and reasoned that it must be faulty. Climbing back into bed, I heard it come back on and double beep again. After a few seconds and the next double beep, it spoke: ‘TALK TO SIRI.’

I was about to get up when it beeped again. After a few short seconds and two more beeps, it spoke: ‘I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS’ followed by ‘YOU CAN’T?’ This was creeping me out now and I hadn’t spoken a word the entire time. Double beep again, and then: ‘WHY CAN’T SHE SEE IT?’ followed by ‘HMM… LET ME THINK.’

It did a word search on ‘WHY CAN’T SHE SEE IT?’ That was enough. Clearly there was a bug in the software. I got up and picked the iPad off the chair. I almost didn’t read the conversation, figuring it would just freak me out. I wish I hadn’t now. I turned my iPad off and buried it under some clothes in the wardrobe. I don’t want to look at that thing again. It wasn’t a software bug, it can’t be. It’s too coincidental. My mum had died in a car crash. She lost both of her legs.”

It should come as no surprise that, more and more people are reporting that their siriwishcell phones are being used as a means through which the dead can communicate. Voice and visual text messages appear to be the communication of choice these days. After all, unlike landline phones, cell phones have a whole word dictionary at hand to make clearer communication possible. Static phone messages from beyond are now probably an outdated thing of the past.

In another case, a woman had come into possession of her mother’s iPhone upon her mother’s recent death. Because she had no need for the phone, she allowed her young daughter to have it as a toy. One night, after her husband had put their daughter to bed, the young girl came into their room and said that the phone was making weird noises. The phone was not on a data plan and had never been connected to a wireless WiFi router. The father took the girl back to bed and checked the phone. The noise the young girl had been hearing was a text message alert. There was three messages on the phone. “STILL THERE” “LOVE” “BEAUTIFUL GIRL” The messages came across with a three-minute pause between each message. The text message was received by a phone number made up of all nines.

A study by Tesco Mobile, in conjunction with Paranormal Research UK, revealed  a 70 percent upsurge in paranormal evidence in the last year due to people using their cell phones. Phil Hayes, a spectre investigator with Paranormal Research UK, believes a third of all spirit communication is now through mobile phones. That’s an astounding statistic.

The technology that powers our smart phone devices is one of the fastest advancing technologies ever. Yet, even spirits have to master a new learning curve. It was recently announced that Siri is on the verge of becoming obsolete. “Viv” is now the latest artificial intelligence bot from Siri’s creators, which they say can do even more. Siri today; Viv tomorrow. Communication from beyond should soon become even more interesting!

CONTACT INFO: Kellee White, LMFT, Both Sides Now Radio Host or Facebook

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Dr. Kathy Forti is a clinical psychologist, inventor of the Trinfinity8 technology, and author of the book, Fractals of God

Capturing Images on Film from Another Dimension

sydneys-story-21296736Sometimes I think the universe and all its many dimensions likes to have fun with us. Perhaps even weird us out occasionally to keep us either questioning or in complete awe—like seeing one’s dead dog on a recently shot film after it had been dead for years.

I have some very dear and well-known friends who see dead people and professionally communicate with spirits all the time. But back in 1982 I didn’t know them, and what happened to me even had some psychic research experts scratching their heads.

For some reason, I found my detailed notes on the experience this past week, hidden away in a forgotten book. The story was just begging to be retold.

Back in January 1982, I was living in Kansas with my then psychologist boyfriend. A few weeks earlier, I had returned from spending the Christmas holidays in Chicago where I had shot footage on my Super 8mm movie camera of my family snowmobiling. Earlier that day I had picked up the processed film from the local Photomat and when I got home wasted no time threading it onto my projector to see what I had.

Immediately I saw a chest of drawers, which shouldn’t have been there. I had the split second thought this must be someone else’s film. Then what I saw next sent me into a state of semi-shock. Running across the screen, as clear as could be, was my schnauzer dog, Winnie, who had died seven years earlier in 1976, a long time before I even owned a movie camera. No movie film of her existed.

It was one of those “OH.MY.GOD.” moments, where your brain can formulate no other words. My screaming brought my boyfriend running, thinking I had encountered a dead rat. Together we re-played the film several times and tried to make sequential sense of what we were seeing.

The film opened on a lopsided shot from the floor tilting up, showing a chest of drawers that I faceinshadowsrecognized as being in my little brother’s old bedroom. Next was a short black blip on the film which, upon closer examination using a light box, looked like a woman’s face in the shadows whose identity was unrecognizable. She was wearing a white sweater and what was either a dark-colored head scarf or shoulder length brown hair. I had no idea who she was.

Immediately the film returned to the bedroom chest of drawers where Winnie ran across the screen with the camera going in for a close-up of the dog’s face so there would be no mistaking the animal’s identity. Winnie looked like she had just been given a haircut, which she had just prior to her death, and her ears were unclipped, just like we had left them. I kept asking myself—just who is operating this camera?

The scene on the film suddenly shifted to my parent’s Chicago living room where Christmas decorations, stockings and our holiday tree were all missing. This was not December time. Placement of certain objects and furniture in the room told me it had to have been during a time when Winnie was still alive. Some of the objects were no longer there in 1982. The phantom camera operator panned the living room back and forth, with no other apparent reason than to show things clearly. Suddenly the film went to WHITE and then the film returned to 1982 and my family snowmobiling scenes that should have taken up the entire film.

I distinctly recalled that when I started shooting the snowmobiling, I had to unwrap new film and load the camera. The opening shots of the frozen lake were gone, now replaced with the strange Winnie footage. At the time I shot the film it was very cold outside and I recall looking at my footage meter and noticing that the indicator was not moving as accurately as normal. I attributed it to the cold temperatures and nothing else. One has to wonder when the transference took place. Was it already impressed upon the film before I started shooting, or after? I had purchased the new film roll and others only a few weeks earlier.

To make things even stranger, that Christmas my mother had given me the paperback book, Voices on the Tapes, not knowing I had just bought a book at the airport, titled, Phone Calls from the Dead. Coincidence? I think not. As Albert Einstein said, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.” I was being set up for another unexplainable experience, like others I would continue to have in my life.

My psychologist boyfriend referred the strange experience to the The Menninger Institute, a psychiatric institution in Topeka, Kansas, where they were studying altered brain states as well as psychic phenomenon (among other things). Dr. Elmer Green, the Director of Menninger’s, contacted psychiatrists Dr. Stuart Twemlow, MD and Dr. Glen Gabbard, MD to meet with me and discuss the film.

Both doctors were interested in how intent, during altered states of awareness, might affect physical matter. They were curious to see if I could consciously affect film to bring about strange manifestations. They hooked me up to a deep focus state audiotape and let my movie camera run.

While I found it an interesting experiment, I’m sure they were sadly disappointed to find the results extremely boring. Not surprising for me, the film showed nothing. I never thought it was me influencing it, but rather a random message of awe from the universe.

On the other hand, Twemlow and Gabbard had expressed interest in the possibility of officially documenting the case and perhaps presenting the unusual phenomena at the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City. I guess somethings happen only once—at least in my case. Thankfully, I was not destined to be a psychic guinea pig.

The footnote to this story is that my “Winnie” film was authenticated by Kodak Labs, where it was sent to verify it had not been tampered with through editing. Along the side of the film are sequential symbols marking frames and the year the film roll was manufactured. What they found stamped on my “Winnie” film roll was the code symbol for the year 1976. I submitted another film roll to the lab which I had purchased at the same time. The code symbol for this roll showed 1981. While this made events even more bizarre, it immediately made my film undocumentable. Someone could always claim I had saved film I shot from that year when the dog was still alive—even though neither my parents or I ever owned a Super 8 camera back then. So this strange story just remains another strange story without explanation. Life is often like that.

I have no idea where the Winnie film is today. It might be packed away somewhere in a box or I might have accidentally tossed it years ago when I sold my old equipment and went to digital.

Today, things are different—not even as shockingly strange as years ago. Due to the Internet, we DO hear of cases where people consistently pick up other-worldly images on film. For some people, it doesn’t matter whose camera they are using. The results are always the same, as seen in this interesting 8-minute video below. It will forever leave you wondering…

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Dr. Kathy Forti is a clinical psychologist, inventor of the Trinfinity8 technology, and author of the book, Fractals of God