SOS Meteors! Part 1: Extra-terrestrial visits in Perillos?

 

From Heaven

The Chronodrome experience, which occurs yearly on the slopes of the plateau of Salveterra, invites our descendents to return to the past – our present – and meet and greet us. Of course, for this to be accomplished, it means that our descendents, within the next 50,000 years, are able to unlock the problem of time travel, which is not a given.
Others might argue that the time barrier might not be broken, but that other intelligences – extraterrestrials – might make contact with us. The past decades have seen several “alien landing strips” built in various places of the globe – and, no, we are not suggesting that another one should be built in Perillos – though a somewhat imaginative conclusion of one author did speculate that whatever lay in the “Tomb of Christ” – and he obviously assumed it was a tomb, rather than “merely” an indication of a site – was an extraterrestrial being!

But let us be bold and suggest that extraterrestrials have visited, landed, and even crash-landed in Perillos. Stunned? Disbelieving? Do read on: we are merely suggesting that extraterrestrial bodies have crashlanded here, and that their bodies have indeed been recovered. But no, we are not talking about little green, grey or otherwise coloured men; we are talking about meteors.
Is that all, you might say. Well, yes, and no. First of all, it is well worth underlining how intriguing meteors are. For example, the encyclopaedia tells us that no less than 1012 kg of interplanetary material ends up within the Earth’s atmosphere… per day! Most of it is dust, but the total mass also contains meteors. Indeed, it is said that between 200 and 300 meteors enter the Earth’s atmosphere each day! As Perillos is – last time we checked – still part of the Earth, there is nothing that should prevent meteors from crashing in Perillos too.

To Earth

One of our members related how, during a walk in Perillos – though not the village itself – he came upon a meteor. He said that previously, he had heard a whistling sound and had seen the trajectory in which the object came down and hit the ground, and thus went there, and found the site of the impact, as well as the meteor. The object he found – and we were shown – was about 3mm in diameter and 1 cm long, oval in shape. It might not seem much, but imagine this is like a bullet, which is fired from somewhere within the solar system, making quite an impact when it hits the body of the earth.
A similar incident occurred at the top of the Montaillou du Périlhou, near the radar station. This time, he stumbled upon the discovery, but, as he was doing other things, did not immediately grab the opportunity to take the object with him. Despite what some may think, the top of this hill is quite frequently visited (a guestimate would be that in summer, at least twenty people per day come here) and so, shortly afterwards, when he went back, this time with the specific purpose of taking the meteor, he was not surprised, but still disappointed, to find that the stone had been removed – even the site of impact was no longer truly visible; before, there had been a lot of crumbled stone, the result of the impact itself.
Of course, there is another possibility, which is that the impact itself was registered on the equipment of the radar installation and that it were scientists who came to inspect the area and removed the object.

The old importance of meteors

The largest meteor recovered in France, was on November 7, 1492, in the Alsace, at Ensisheim, and was a chondrite of 127 kg! It has – unsurprisingly – become one of the most famous stones of its kind and is currently on display in the Palais de la Régence in Ensisheim. In fact, today, the object is guarded by the Confraternity St Georges des Gardien de la Météorite d’Ensisheim. Each year in June, there is a special event, whereby celestial stones often change hands.

In Egypt, the cult of Heliopolis focused on the famous benben stone. Alas, at some point, the stone disappeared into the mists of history, so we cannot validate of what specific composition the stone was. Still, one hypothesis offered by Egyptologists is that this stone – conical in shape – might have been a meteor, which the Egyptians had recovered from somewhere, and then used as the symbol of the sun god. Of course, the crash of a meteor to Earth is very much like that of Lucifer falling from the skies. And we note that one type of meteors has a high iron content and is hence magnetic, making them an interesting anomaly – most everyday rocks not being magnetic. Furthermore, some researchers have noted that under certain circumstances, the iron content of these stones can help induce a trance – which hence may have set these stones apart as instruments through with the Otherworld – that of the gods – could be explored. Could this explain why our forefathers may have worshipped meteors?

The Grail

The Grail is not the Cup of Christ, thus speaketh Wolfram von Eschenbach. For him, the Grail is an exceptional stone, a magnetic and/or magic stone, which creates an effect – attracting water that comes in its proximity! Though very interesting, it is not “impossible”. For example, we know that the position of the moon influences the tides; the moon “attracts” water. So in theory, it is possible. In practice, of course, that’s a headbreaker – but if it was not a unique stone, of course, Wolfram would never have made so much of it! Let us also note that the word for the impact of a meteor is a “crater”… which is a Greek word that also means… Cup.
Other authors have also seen certain correspondences between the benben stone of the Egyptians, and the Grail stone of Wolfram. Some have even wondered whether the disappearance of one, and the appearance of another, and the fact that both were cult objects for kings, might mean that they are one and the same.

Baptism by fire?

In Egypt, the cult of the benben is linked with the phoenix, the magical bird that is said to be reborn from its own ashes. It is nothing else but a baptism of fire – using one of the four elements, even though it was of course the baptism by water that is prominent in the Christian tradition. Other cultures – such as the Maya – nevertheless continue to this day to practice a baptism by fire, whereby the infant is held over a fire – of course, no harm ever comes to the child. But let us note that a genuine “baptism by fire” has entered the common usage for a “difficult initiation”. Well, let us note that meteors too have a “baptism by fire” – because of the velocity of their impact, they are known to create a fire – if there is anything to burn – at the site of their impact. Could this aspect of meteors have contributed to the sacred importance of meteors?

Meteor zone?

Certain authors go even further and query whether there are certain zones where meteors are found more often than not. And whether these zones were then made into a sacred site.
First of all, whether or not certain zones are more prone to meteors than others, remains a hotly debated topic. Science cannot confirm, but definitely does not deny the possibility. In fact, it is slightly suggestive of it. Furthermore, certain areas obviously favour the recovery of meteors more so than others. And in the case of Perillos, there are some clear advantages: often bright skies; good visibility; a terrain on which few if anything grows, meaning that discovery and recovery is simple and easy. And we have the evidence of one person who alone discovered two meteors – and this over a period of a few years… who is a man who wasn’t specifically interested in meteors to begin with!

Imagine

So, if meteors were part of an ancient cult, and if meteors are more easily recovered in certain zones, one would expect a small industry – operated by priests? – to grow there. And then the question is whether Perillos might be one such location.
Some might argue there are a lot of ifs, but that’s precisely what science does: posit theories, and see whether they can be proven. The alternative would be that the meteors in Perillos just went to waste, and that no-one was ever interested in them, or that the meteors of Perillos were treated like all others in France and the world.

Sacred zone

That Perillos was a sacred zone, is in evidence by what archaeologists are uncovering in the Tautavel-Perillos zone. It is clear that for hundreds of thousands of years, this area was important for our ancestors, who wanted to be buried here. This is not our opinion: it is that of the archaeologists in charge of these excavations.
The question then is what made this site sacred; what made our ancestors think they would like to be buried here. Some might argue it is the “Tomb of Christ”, but if that was here, it would only have arrived here in ca. 50 AD or later – 399,950 years (approximately, of course) after Tautavel Man and his likes first identified the area as sacred.
The obvious suggestion is that it has something to do with the Afterlife, and we know that in the past – and largely today – this was symbolised by the night’s sky. Meteors are about the only objects that make the “transit” between heaven and earth, and even though it’s in the wrong direction from the point of view of an “ascending soul”, could they have been seen as the “fallen angels” – the messengers of the gods? Remember: their iron content might have enabled people to enter a trance.

Return

The link between Perillos and meteors was – no doubt coincidentally – illustrated on May 1, 2008, when during the Chronodrome experience, on a table, there was a stone that was claimed to be a meteor. Though there is no obvious link between the meteor in question and the Chronodrome itself, it is clear that the stone was one of the main attractions – for an experience that has, unless our descendents come to greet us, very little to show. In this case, the stone measured an impressive 700 grams, making it a very large meteor. So that makes three meteors recovered in Perillos, over a short period of time.

Another stone

Meteors, it seems, are like buses: they all arrive at the same time. For soon after the stone of 700 grams came to our attention, another one arrived. This one weighs in at 1125 grams, and was measured as such on June 6, 2008. We do not need to give too much of a description, as we have several photographs to do so; as well as a video clip that shows its magnetic qualities.

We were told that the meteor on display at the Chronodrome had been investigated by the Museum of Tautavel, so we contacted them, asking whether they would investigate this specimen too. After some initial confusion, there was more confusion, for we were told in no uncertain terms that the museum had no record of this previous investigation. However, the person in question did relate that there had been a number of other meteor crashes in the sector of Narbonne, which were of great interest, and which had been investigated. It is then that this scientist argued that in her opinion, the area which she covered was rich in meteors. She believed that the region had – for thousands of years – been subjected to intense “meteor showers”. So could this region indeed be a “meteor zone”?

Science fiction?

Science has not yet gone into the zone we need to enter, but this and other scientists have speculated – for that is all that they can do at the moment, until science itself advances. For them, it is possible that a certain cataclysmic event occurred in the distant past, which has left certain geological anomalies in this area. It may be why the area was sacred – and why, for example, some planes mysteriously crash (noting that some of these planes had problems with their compasses, which is of course precisely the instrument affected by meteors, because of their magnetic content). Scientists also speculate that a certain geological make-up attracts meteors more than what just logic might argue for. And hence, the question is whether the iron-rich geology of the area, might contribute to the “meteor phenomenon”.
At the moment, we can only posit it as a possibility. Time will tell. And perhaps our descendents from the future will arrive and have the answers we are looking for?

André Douzet & Filip Coppens