Crystal skull
From The Red Pill
There are three well-known crystal skulls: the Mitchell-Hedges skull, the British Museum skull and the Paris (Museum) skull. There are nevertheless many more skulls, often in private possession. Most are of modern origin. Most modern skulls are used in Mind, Body, Spirit type of workshops.
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Mitchell-Hedges skull
Perhaps the most famous and enigmatic skull is the Mitchell-Hedges skull, named after the family that owned the skull until Anna Le Guillon Mitchell-Hedges’ death in April 2007. The current owner is Bill Homann, who lived with Anna Mitchell-Hedges in her later years.
Anna Mitchell-Hedges inherited the skull upon her father’s death. F.A. "Mike" Mitchell-Hedges spoke of the skull for the first time in his autobiography Danger My Ally (1954), though only in the UK edition – the paragraph in which he spoke of the crystal skull did not appear in the subsequent 1955 US edition.
Origins
F.A. Mitchell-Hedges said he himself would not reveal how the skull came in his possession. After his death, Anna Mitchell-Hedges stated the skull was discovered during an archaeological excavation in Lubaantuun, in British Honduras (Belize). The earliest published reference to the skull is the July 1936 issue of Man (a British anthropological journal), where it is described as being in the possession of Sydney Burney, a London art dealer, who was said to have owned it since 1933. The authors argue they have been able to trace ownership back to 1931 – only five years prior to the writing of their article.
There is documentary evidence that Mitchell-Hedges bought the skull during the October 1943 auction at Sotheby’s, which has the skull – including a photograph – listed as Lot 54. Though Sotheby’s no longer have sales record, it is believed that it was sold for £400.
Sceptics, such as Joe Nickell, have argued that this destroys the case for the skull being a genuine archaeological find. However, other researchers have pointed out that by putting the skull up for auction, under contemporary law, and the consequent sale, it meant that if there was any dispute regarding proper ownership of the skull, from the auction onwards, Mitchell-Hedges would be the legal owner.
Philip Coppens has proposed that the skull was given to Mitchell-Hedges in 1913-14, when he was in Mexico City. That Mitchell-Hedges had a crystal skull prior to 1943 is substantiated by accounts from the owner of a hotel, where the Mitchell-Hedges family stayed prior to 1943. In 1931, in The White Tiger, Mitchell-Hedges relates how the main character in the novel discovers a cave - during an initiation ceremony by local Mayan Indians - in which there are several crystal skulls.
Composition
The skull is made from a block of clear quartz (although the jaw detaches), 5 inches (13 cm) high, 7 inches (18 cm) long and 5 inches wide. It is about the size of a small human cranium, with near perfect detail.
In the 1960s, art restorer Frank Dorland was given the skull by Anna Mitchell-Hedges for further analysis. He took the skull to Hewlett-Packard Laboratories for testing. In an attempt to find out if the crystal was pure crystalline quartz and not glass or another mineral, Hewlett-Packard submerged the crystal in Benzyl alcohol, which has the same diffraction coefficient (Garvin 75). The skull became invisible inside the tank, showing that it was indeed pure crystalline quartz. By exposing the submerged skull to polarized light, the Hewlett-Packard team also showed that that the skull was made from a single left-handed growing crystal (Garvin 75-76).
Testing
The first scientific analysis of the skull was performed by the British Museum, in 1936, and published in Man.
Frank Dorland’s work at Hewlett-Packard was largely an informal co-operation/working agreement. Hewlett-Packard never produced an official report, though Dorland did. Several employees of Hewlett-Packard in later years continued their study of the object in private, some appearing on television documentaries on the subject.
As part of the Arthur C Clarke’s television series, Anna Mitchell-Hedges took the crystal skull to the British Museum in 1981. In 2007 and 2008, Jane Walsh of the Smithsonian subjected the skull to further analysis.
Early tests stated that no evidence of mechanical instruments could be found on the skull. However, more recent tests, including those by Jane Walsh, argued that some wheeled instrument was used on some of the teeth, as well as in one of the holes at the bottom of the skull.
British Museum - Paris Museum Skulls
Only two crystal skulls are in museums: the British Museum skull and the Paris Museum skull. Both are considered to be "fake". Originally, they were believed to be Aztec, but since the 1990s, they are considered to be post-Columbian.
An investigation carried out by Jane Walsh of the Smithsonian Institution in 1992 on a crystal skull provided by an anonymous source who claimed to have purchased it in Mexico City in 1960 and that it was of Aztec origin was, led to her conclusion that the skull was actually bought by Eugène Boban, a French collector of pre-Columbian artifacts and antiques dealer who ran his business in Mexico City between 1860 and 1880. According to the Smithsonian, Boban acquired the crystal skulls he sold from sources in Germany; though this theory is unsupported by factual evidence. The only evidence for this is claim made by another salesman – and hence rival of Boban – arguing that Boban was not to be trusted, and that many of his sales were modern fabrications, sourced in Germany.
The British Museum crystal skull and the one at Paris' Musée de l'Homme (half-sized) were nevertheless sold by Boban. The British Museum crystal skull transited through New York's Tiffany's, whilst the Musée de l'Homme's crystal skull was donated by a collector who had bought it from Boban.
Psychic powers
Several skulls are used for channelling – very much like the crystal balls in previous centuries. People who believe in the psychic power of crystal skulls say that the skulls are a center of radiant psychic energy, though no formal testing has ever been conducted on these. The only type of experiment and exploration of this nature was done by Frank Dorland, who coined the term “crystallography” when presenting his studies of the skull in Holy Ice.
Recent research by Karin Tag, using photon camera, suggests the crystal skulls work with photon energy.
Bibliography
- 1997, The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls, by Chris Morton and Ceri Louise Thomas, Thorsons/Harper Collins (UK) Bear & Co/Inner Traditions (USA)
- 1997, "Crystal Skulls and Other Problems". In Exhibiting Dilemmas, Issues of Representation at the Smithsonian. Amy Henderson & Adrienne Kaeppler, eds., Washington, D.C.:Smithsonian Institution Press
- 1998, "Strange Mysteries From Around the World".In The Crystal Skull Seymour Simon Beech Tree Books.
- 1973, The Crystal Skull, by Richard Garvin. Doubleday, New York.
