Thanks Plasmatic and Matt.
Having noted Peratt's independent work, I might mention for those who are not aware of the story a key turning point in the research.
As of the year 2000, certain phases of the Polar Configuration seemed entirely beyond experimental data available to us. Particularly elusive was a form I had called “the chain of arrows"--a series of embedded cones stretching up the axis between Mars and Venus. In the mythical expression of this theme an ancestral warrior or hero launches arrows toward the sky, and each arrow or arrowhead embeds itself in the one above it. The chain of arrows then becomes a ladder by which the hero ascends to heaven.
In the Kathlamet legend of a hero named "Many Swans," this great ancestor launches a stream of arrows heavenward, these forming a ladder of ascent to the sky. Numerous examples will be found in the Americas alone, but corollaries occur from Africa and India to the South Pacific. In the Hindu
Ramayana the arrows of Arjuna form a chain capable of carrying the mighty Hanuman, the traveler between worlds. But the Greek tale of giants assaulting heaven, stacking one mountain peak upon another, presents the same basic form.
The global theme mocks every attempt of comparative mythologists to understand it. But it was clear to me that the "arrow chain" formed not just the "ladder of heaven" or a stack of mountain peaks. Gathered around these motifs in texts and art are numerous other themes, including: backbone of the sky, tower of heaven, flared skirt of the mother goddess, pyramid or steps of ascent, bound serpent or dragon, severed limbs of the serpent or dragon, and more. In the course of assimilating this material, it became clear to me that a simple evolutionary sequence explained the full range of symbolic connections, if one allows for the three-dimensional perspective of an observer on earth.
(Sometime in the next few weeks I expect to have the time to summarize the converging lines of evidence.)
Despite my confidence in the reconstruction of this unique form, I could find no references to such a form in plasma research, though curiously enough, Wal Thornhill and I had been discussing this just a few days in advance of a conference in September 2000. Wal had said he was sure it was a plasma discharge form and would look into it. And at that very event we were presented with an answer, one that provided a quantum leap forward.
We were in a private gathering with several pioneering scientists including astronomers Halton Arp and Tom Van Flandern--and Tony Peratt. At one point Tony drew out a plasma discharge form he had documented in the laboratory. He called it the "Christmas tree." It was precisely the form I’d puzzled over for so long.
“You just drew “the chain of arrows,” I said. He had never heard the phrase, but he asked me how it formed. I described twin filaments winding up the polar axis, dividing into embedded toroidal cones, then taking the form of a stack of toruses. It turns out that this peculiar description - which I’d reconstructed only from mythologic elements - was in fact the evolution of what is called ‘The Peratt Instability’, a high energy plasma discharge configuration documented in the laboratory by Tony Peratt himself, but almost unknown outside the advanced plasma research community.
So Tony insisted that I send him the rock art images. And the first image I sent him did the trick. This is a carving on stone found in Kayenta, Arizona:
Tony immediately recognized it as a plasma discharge form. The similarities between this carved image and the plasma form, recorded in his laboratory, were too precise to be accidental.
The Kayenta image combines two primal forms found everywhere in mythology: the ladder or backbone of heaven and another extraordinary form--the eye mask--at its base. This too I had puzzled over, but with virtually no success.
So the chain of arrows became a talking point as I was deluging Tony with rock art images. At one point I mentioned to him that an interesting variation on the chain of arrows form occurred between Mars and
Earth. In this case, a parallel series of arrow chains is indicated, well illustrated in this image from the
Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Tony said he'd never seen such a form in the laboratory and suggested that the artists may have been recording a single arrow-chain in rotational motion--not a bad suggestion. But for a variety of reasons, I expressed confidence that the parallel chains were in fact exactly what was seen in the sky.
This was a prompt for Tony, who designed an experiment using a more spherical electrode. A day or so after the experiment I received a phone message from him: "You won't believe what I got--multiple chains of arrows."
So there's a moral here. Properly assimilated, historical testimony not only counts as evidence; it must be treated in its own right, through independent principles of reasoning. Instead of theoretical science imposing the "limits of plausibility" on historical investigation, there will be times when reliable conclusions from the historical reconstruction
will alter the direction of scientific investigation. I'll always remember Tony's willingness to consider a new possibility as a symbol of the best in science.
David Talbott