[Music]
”The plague of 1348 A.D. was the greatest, most universal
and mortally devastating that ever ravaged this globe!
It never had a parallel either before or since”. Thus wrote scholar Thomas Short
in his historical scientific treatise of 1749 A.D. He remarked,
”We have a more particular history of it, than of any that preceded it;
for as it visited every inhabited corner of the Earth, so every nation or people that
understood letters, kept records”. Its spread was implacable, relentless and
devastating. Short minutely details the cataclysmic death rates that followed it
from nation to nation and town to town. Death rates varied but collective data suggests
that in the final mortality count, perhaps as much as 80 percent of the world population
perished. Hear this typical quote “In some few places it was as favorable as to leave a third
part of men alive, in others it took fifteen out of sixteen.” Compare this to one of the most
devastating of modern human infections, the Spanish flu epidemic circa 1920. In this recent event,
some 50 million perished out of a world population of around 2,000 million or around 2 percent
worldwide. The bubonic plague of 1348 A.D. where Short alludes up to 80 percent of
all peoples perished was by comparison a horrendous scenario.
More modern sources believe it was more like 30 percent
of the world perished, but the comparison is still vast. So, what made this plague,
normally attributed to the bacteria Yersinia pestis, so virulent, highly contagious and
invasive? In modern times this same bacteria is still deadly, but the death rate
is comparatively mild. Why this modern comparative lack of virulence?
We have much evidence to examine, for as Thomas Short notes,
the event is well documented. For instance, the prices of all foodstuffs,
the treatments, incubation times, localities, death tolls, spectrum, vulnerable victims
and numerous well-recorded data of let's say the obvious,
more mundane type. But what is more baffling, interesting, and highly contentious,
are the accompanying geophysical dramas. These clues, I contend, lead us to a
deeper understanding of the tragic virulence of this, and indeed other related
catastrophic, but less virulent, plagues that followed.
Let us look at some of these intriguing observations that raise questions as to how unusual
the events of that time were, compared to the relative stability of today's placid environment.
Thomas Short draws from the chronicle of Magdeburg and numerous sources, to illustrate the
accompanying phenomena, in the 1348 A.D. bubonic plague.
It began in Cathay in Asia. By reason of an igneous vapor or sulfurous fire,
breaking forth from the Earth or falling from heaven, which utterly consumed men, beasts,
houses, stones, and trees to the very ground. And stretch forward, rolling on smoking balls
of stinking pestilential fire for 60 miles of the continent, killing insects
and vermin. This plague killed men in two or three days.
In Greece and Italy earth- quakes swallowed many cities,
castles and towns. Mountains in Cyprus were thrown together as one.
Famine was everywhere with terrible floods, storms and tempests. Fearful meteors of
flames and fire in the air, succeeded by excessive drought and want
of water, with the destruction of most animals and vegetables. The fens of marshes dried up.
A great comet, called Negra, appeared, during which followed great earthquakes, tempests, great thunder
and lightning. Several towns, villages, mountains and thousands of people were swallowed up.
The courses of rivers were stopped, and great chasms in the Earth opened up,
and sent forth bloody liquids. Strangely, women spontaneously aborted in all countries.
The rivers gushed crimson, comets, meteors fire beams, and the heavens were on fire. To our
modern skeptical ears much of these lamentations seem ridiculous.
But remember, these are not from just one isolated witness, but from many
sources of many countries, and the death toll supports what one would otherwise read as
something out of Dante's inferno. However, let us take at least 50 percent of these testimonies
as valid. They strongly suggest electromagnetic phenomena that are seen even today
in volcanoes, earthquakes and tornadoes and the electric phenomena observed in dramatic weather.
However, these historical observations in 1348 A.D. suggest a grossly more vigorous scenario.
As we contemplate these extraordinary factors, let's dwell on what we can reasonably deduce
the overall controllers of weather, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are, and their
relationship to causative cosmological factors. The Sun, planets, meteors,
comets and the broad spectrum of electromagnetic wavelengths,
such as gamma rays, cosmic rays and relativistic radiation, are all
implicated as moderators of life on Earth. Least we forget, the effect of the plasma
environment in the solar system and beyond and its support of electrical
and magnetic phenomena such as Z-pinches. The rigorous foundational work of Danish
physicist Professor Henrik Svensmark at the Division of Solar System
Physics convinces us that the Sun with its CMEs, solar flares, and various radiations,
has much control over Earth's cloud cover, via their moderation of cosmic ray effects.
Svensmark comments, “There is a beautiful correlation between the number of cosmic rays
hitting the Earth and its cloud cover.” He notes, that it is apparent that the Sun moderates that by
means of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and other phenomena.
Thus the Sun directly influences Earth's weather. Noted meteorologist Paul Dorian
sums this up. “Over the long term the Sun is the main driver of weather
and climate on Earth and it is also connected to such phenomena as the Aurora Borealis. It
controls the upper atmospheric high- latitude blocking, and the influx of cosmic rays into
Earth's atmosphere. The influx of cosmic rays into the Earth's
atmosphere from outer space tends to increase dramatically during solar minimum”.
Interestingly, there is evidence that solar activity plays a role in
volcanic activity on our planet. In fact, in times of low solar activity
such as the current solar minimum, volcanic activity tends to rise. The Tambora volcanic
eruption in Indonesia during 1815 is connected to the unusually long period of low solar activity
known as the Dalton minimum, 1795-1823. The following year of 1816 was
unusually cold throughout much of the world, and it is now referred to as the year
without a summer. Yet another study suggests that the increasing cosmic rays
during times of low solar activity, actually causes an increase in volcanic activity.
Another theory suggests that solar flares may cause changes in atmospheric
circulation patterns that abruptly alter the Earth's spin. It's now recognized that earthquakes are
heavily influenced by electrical factors, whether from distortion of rocks and the
subsequent generation of electric currents, or by telluric currents
from within the Earth that are probably linked to the Solar-Earth axis. Similarly,
volcanoes have a high incidence of lightning discharge,
often explained by friction between gaseous particles, radon or, in my opinion, directly from
solar influences. The influence of electricity on living forms, and more particularly, on viruses,
molds, and bacteria and other possibly pathogenic organisms.
For instance, an atmosphere of largely positive ions encourages bacterial growth.
The influence of sunspot minima is characterized by weakening of the interplanetary
magnetic field near the Earth which allows for the entry of cosmic rays.
Additionally, Svensmark notes when galactic cosmic rays collide with the atmosphere,
they produce a cascade of secondary particles, including neutrons and muons
that continue to penetrate the atmosphere. The cascade continues until the particle
energy becomes so low and cosmic rays are effectively stopped.
This happens around the 16- to 20- kilometer mark. However, under more intense bombardment,
or lack of moderating solar influence, significant neutrons, and other electromagnetic radiation,
reach ground level and increased mutation rates along the mitochondrial axis. This could
dramatically affect the virality of any microbe, or cell for that matter.
Modern studies also reveal the carriage of bacteria, viruses and micro particles at very
high altitude vectors above the Earth, making them more vulnerable at sunspot minima
to the effects of all radiations, including X-rays as they descend back to Earth.
This combination of what I regard as electrical phenomena, lends a powerful case to its effect on
biological growth of all organisms, but not only with phenomena such as death from drought and
famine, but at a molecular level. I postulate the very large electromagnetic
influence from comets, the Sun, and extraneous electromagnetic invasions,
influenced the Earth's electric status and led to chaotic growth and virulence of the plague bacteria.
Both in 1348 A.D. and in preceding and future events, such as the little ice age
with its Wolf, Spörer and Maunder chaotic weather minimums. These were also
times of sunspot minima. These world-changing weather patterns were not only extremes
in temperature, but more particularly a collection of chaotic, as distinct from
predictable seasons. For instance, crop destroying rains at harvest time,
pollen destroying super winds, long hot droughts bringing famine and pestilence, rainy summers,
encouraging mold, destroying fungi. Nature often uses triggers
based on hard to pinpoint factors when losing its newest progeny.
We see swarms of termites loosed under precise signals, bad weather or clever triggers.
We see inexplicable mice plagues seasonal flus, wars and lotus swarms. Many and varied
are nature. But what if nature relies on electromagnetic signals and these become chaotic.
I suspect the devastating 1348 A.D. bubonic plague illustrates just such a black picture.
[Music]