(Answers in Genesis) May 9, 2025: Where are the ancient ruins of North America (USA)? In Europe, they’re everywhere — castles, cathedrals, medieval cities. But in the USA, the historical attractions are all post-European arrivals. (They are all over Mexico, so let's call that part of pre-Hispanic North America "Mesoamerica" to make it seem far away and foreign).
In this video, Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson uncovers some surprising new discoveries about the ancient civilizations here in what is now the USA.
Dr. Jeanson’s book, They Had Names, is available at GetAnswers.org/new-discoveries-ancient-america
Today, Cahokia (earthworks, pyramids, mounds), Illinois, is considered the largest and most complex archeological site north of the great pre-Columbus cities in neighboring Mexico, just across the Gulf of America Mexico in places like the Yucatan Peninsula.
They Had Names: Tracing the History of the North American Indigenous People
Long before the Occupiers "Pilgrims" stormed landed at Cape Cod, what was happening in North America? Who was here? What civilizations rose and fell?
For years, the answers to these questions have been shrouded in mystery. At the time of European contact, a diverse world of Native America (indigenous, First Nations, "Indian") peoples thrived across this continent.
Who took the peaks off these pyramids?
What was their backstory? Who were the ancestors of the Sioux? Where did the Navajo come from? What about the Apache, the Comanche, the Cherokee?
They Had Names is the result of a multi-year deep dive into genetics, indigenous histories, archeology, and linguistics — an ambitious quest to uncover answers to these questions. More
ABOUT: Answers in Genesis is an apologetics (religion-defending) ministry dedicated to getting Christians to be defensive about their beliefs, faith, religion, and proclaim the good news of [Nordic] Jesus Christ effectively.
On its YouTube channel, find answers to pressing questions about key issues like creation, evolution, science, the age of the earth, and social issues. AIG desires to train believers to believe and develop a worldview based on the Bible and expose the bankruptcy of evolutionary ideas and their implications.
Hear from top teachers like Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson, Ken Ham, Bryan Osborne, Dr. Georgia Purdom, Dr. Tim Chaffey, Dr. Gabriela Haynes, Dr. Terry Mortenson, and more.
Help AIG continue to push the gospel to the world: https://AnswersinGenesis.org/give. Transcript
Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson, Answers in Genesis, May 9, 2025; Xochitl, Sheldon S., Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
(PBS Terra) Nov. 21, 2024: Overview. In its prime, Cahokia was a prosperous mega-city with a population similar to London’s.
But this sprawling Native American metropolis from the Mississippian culture vanished long before European settler-colonial invaders arrived in North America. What happened?
This Indigenous city’s enigmatic rise and fall has inspired countless theories and has long captivated the imaginations of archeologists.
[The pyramids in the U.S. were beheaded (the peaks destroyed) by arriving Catholic priests and soldiers who did not want to face up to what amazing advanced technology the Indigenous non-humans had developed with their amazing architecture and alignments, so they were tortured, killed en masse in a slow genocide that continues to this day along with cultural erasure.]
Now, cutting-edge scientific research offers a glimmer of hope in unraveling the mystery of Cahokia's disappearance.
Hosted by Joe Hanson from Be Smart, Overview uses stunning 4K drone footage to reveal the natural and human-made marvels shaping our planet -- literally from a 10,000-foot view.
Look at a map of the USA. The Gulf of Mexico is shown differently in each. Cuba is massive, as big as Florida, but is often minimized. All maps are politicized, which is odd since we now have low-flying satellites 20 miles up that can photograph and give us a real picture. But all "space photos" are manipulated CGI (computer generated images). They are warped, shrunken, expanded, enhanced, etcetera. There are 50,000-year-old pyramids underwater between the continental U.S. and the island nation. The mainland has Cahokia with its pyramid "mounds" in St. Louis, Missouri. A hop over the Gulf, Mexico has extraordinary pyramids in the Yucatan Peninsula and Veracruz.
We were all raised not paying too much attention to geography. Boring. Public school is not taught to awaken and inspire, but rather to bore and humble. Get to work. And don't ask too many questions. Keep your head down.
Not paying that much attention, still, the longest river was always obviously the great Mississippi. But that has never been. Hello, have you met the Mandela Effect? Due to changes in the timeline, consensus reality, or you're just whack, it has always been the M-i-s-s...ouri. The what? Who's even ever heard of this river, much less to make it the longest? It's not limited to Missouri, and it pours into the great Mississippi.
(TWIM - Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center) June 29, 2023. Accomplished student Delson Armstrong remembers American Theravada monk Ven. Vimalaramsi's life and reveals some amazing stories -- without indicating why and how he thinks, believes, or knows any of this.
Bhante Vimalaramsi passed just after midnight on June 27th, 2023, after everyone left his room at the nursing home at 11:00 PM.
He seemed very peaceful and uplifted.
Delson Armstrong talks about Bhante's life and reveals some untold stories of their past lives.
It is possible to attain enhanced psychic abilities by practicing tevijja (abhijñā). This is the "triple knowledge." It is the way the Buddha himself attained full awakening according to the sutra texts.
This is a self-proclaimed remembrance of alleged past lives, seeing people in other realms and seeing how they go there until finally attaining awakening.
Anyone can develop the divine eye as did the great monks Anuruddha and Moggallana. It is possible. Bhante V taught this to select students who were able to succeed in the practice -- but only the most advanced ones.
Hey, everyone, look at me! Only I understand
Bhante V background and how he claims he re-discovered the Path
(TWIM - Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center) June 26, 2010. Bhante exalts himself and dismisses other, talking about his background and the story about what happened before he left for the airport to go to Asia to become a monk. He didn't make it.
He talks about how an errant monk [Ven. Punnaji] told him to only regard the sutras [and forget about the invaluable commentarial material] and try to re-read the discourses from a different perspective.
Psychic powers sutra
"If one wants, one recollects manifold past lives [lit., 'previous homes'], that is, one birth, two births, three births, four, five, ten, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 1,000, 100,000, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion, [recollecting,] ‘There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There, too, I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.’ Thus, one remembers one’s manifold past lives in their modes and details. One can witness this right there whenever there is an opening" (dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN).
Where: Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center (dhammasukha.org) A complete guide to the meditation the way [Ven. Vimalaramsi says] the Buddha taught:
thepathtonibbana.com.
Eds., Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit (samadhi); EWTN News, May 25, 2023
What is samadhi? It is a Sanskrit term prominent in Buddhism and the philosophy behind Yoga (the ancient Vedas of the Indus Valley Civilization and modern Hinduism with its Brahmins and wandering shramans). It is key to personal spiritual purification and is present in many if not all spiritual traditions, including old-style monastic Catholicism and Eastern Christian Orthodox practices.
There are various interpretations and etymologies for this Sanskrit term, either with the root sam ("to bring together") or sama (coherent, "the same, equalized, the convergence of two distinct things").
According to Dan Lusthaus, samadhi refers to either bringing to consciousness the samskaras (tendencies, mental formations, "buried latencies"), or meditative stillness/concentration on a meditation object [14]: sam, "to bring together" + adhi, "to place on, put, to impregnate, to give, to receive" -- the bringing together of cognitive conditions," "bringing the buried latencies into full view," so "the obscure and hidden become clear objects of cognition," "the womb through which insight is born" [14].
The sama, "the same, equalized, the convergence of two distinct things based on some commonality" + adhi, "higher, better, most skillfully achieved" -- "the skillful unification of mind [subject] and object," "the mental equanimity conducive to and derived from attention perfectly focused on its object."
One-pointedness
"[S]ometimes treated as synonymous with ekacitta, 'one-focused mind,' i.e., mind (citta) completely focused on and at one (eka) with its object" [14]. [In Theravada Buddhism this is the Pali languager term ekaggata, or "one-pointedness" of mind.
"Etymologies for sam-ā-dhā include: 'sam-ā-dhā’ = 'to collect' or 'to bring together,' thus suggesting the concentration or unification of the mind," generally mistranslated [in Buddhism] as "concentration" [15]. [A much better translation is proposed by British monk in the Thai Forest Tradition Ajahn Brahm, "stillness."]
Sam-ā-dhā: "to hold together, to concentrate upon" [16]. Sam, "completely," ā, "the return towards the subject," dha, "maintaining together" = "to assemble completely," "the tension borne between two poles of existence (object and thought) is reduced to zero" [17].
Sam, "together" or "integrated," ā, "towards," dhā, "to get, to hold" = to acquire integration [coherence, integrity] or wholeness, or truth (samāpatti);
sam, "together," ā, "toward," stem of dadhati, "puts, places" = a putting [all together, coherently structuring or returning to an original structure] or joining.
Particular Hindu/yoga interpretations include:
sam, "perfect" or "complete," dhi, "consciousness" = "all distinctions between the person [subject] who is the subjective meditator, the act of meditation [bare awareness], and the object of meditation merge into oneness" (Stephen Sturgess) [18].
Sam, "with," ādhi, "lord" = Union with the Lord (Stephen Sturgess) [16]. [In yoga it might be better to render it not "union with the lord or Brahma" but "Union with Brahman," the impersonal "ultimate reality" behind all illusion (maya).]
Beginner's mind
Sama, "equanimous," dhi, "buddhi or the intellect" = equanimous intellect, non-discriminating intellect (Sadhguru) [19].
Sama, "balance," ādi, "original" = "a state that is equal to the original state, which is the state that prevailed before we came into existence," "original balance" (Kamlesh D. Patel [20]. More
Miracle? Body of Benedictine Sisters’ Foundress Wilhelmina thought to be incorrupt (except for hands)
(EWTN) May 25, 2023. When the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles, exhumed the body of their foundress earlier this month, they discovered the unexpected.
Four years after her death and burial in a simple wooden coffin, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster's body appeared remarkably well preserved. The news spread quickly on social media and now hundreds of pilgrims are flocking to the monastery in rural Missouri.
Executive Director of EWTN's ACI group Kelsey Wicks, who has been following the story from the beginning, joins to share more about who Sr. Wilhemina is. Wicks visited the monastery in rural Missouri soon after the body was exhumed. She tells us what the scene was like. Wicks discusses what has been the impact of this story on the community. This community may be well known to some viewers because of their recordings. Wicks explains more about that. She fills in on what other stories she is following.
ABOUT: EWTN News Nightly provides the latest news and analysis from a [biased] Catholic perspective. Join host Tracy Sabol, the Capitol Hill, White House, and Rome Correspondents, as well as many other diverse guests daily, to get the latest from the U.S. and the Vatican on topics regarding the Catholic faith and interests.
The body of an incorrupt Catholic nun has been found in Missouri after being deceased for four years
(Dr. Taylor Marshall) [She's Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster. She's Black, a Catholic, foundress of a Benedictine order in Missouri and, now, on her way to being canonized by the Church for being a saint with one miracle under her belt.]
Whoopi, be better! Be like Sister Wilhelmina!
[It's not too difficult to become a "saint" in the Catholic religion. The Buddha is a Catholic saint because once voted in and canonized -- particularly with no more Office of the Devil's Advocate at the Vatican -- one cannot be voted out. The Buddha was brought in by accident because in the Jataka Tales or Rebirth Stories, he was a particularly popular figure. So the Bodhisat (Bodhisatta or Bodhisattva, as the Buddha referred to himself prior to Buddhahood), was remembered as "Saint Josaphat."]
[And the Catholic Church came in to conquer an area, as they are wont to do even today, which they do with swords and flowers, often pick a popular figure to say, "Look, he was saintly." They thus accrue for themselves all popular figures to build their image as the great institution that will convert or kill you, unless you come willingly because, look, this person is actually a Catholic saint.]
[Pope John Paul II didn't like to go to a new country unless he was canonizing a local figure because the local population loves that. Everyone's in need of a patron saint, and no is better than a local.]
How can Buddhists explain this? The same way Jains, Hindus, and yogis would: samadhi(stillness, coherence, concentration) that leads to temporary moral purification. Alone it is not enough for salvation, liberation, enlightenment. Systematic practice for insight-wisdom is needed for that. But samadhi alone is enough to make one a "saint" in other religions.
(@WQ-001) Is it wrong to be reminded of the Black Jewish actress Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act? Of course, Sister Wilhelmina is the opposite of her, but as one wise person once said, "All saints have a past, and all sinners have a future." So Whoopi could learn something from Saint Lancaster's example.
(@Liam-ix8pv)
I saw her myself! It’s really amazing how well she looks! The best part is that she started that super traditional order there! It’s the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles. They are probably some of the most traditional nuns in the world in my opinion.
(@JackieArmB)
Thanks for reporting this, Dr. Marshall. I knew if I shared it with you, you would look into it. Fr. Pillari saw her. The fabric and coffin walls were disintegrated [corrupted], but her habit [nun's garb] was like new. He said you could feel the body intact (muscle or skin; bit binges) through her sleeve. Thank God for signs like this in these dark days.
(The Sun) ...And soon after [18-year-old Amish escapee Emma Gingerich] left, she found out about the sickening sexual abuse committed by her grandfather, who died in 2011, and how many of the women and girls she grew up with had been subjected to similar abuse.
A shocking new documentary recently showcased how 11-year-old girls in the Amish community were given "incest guides" and told it was their fault if they got raped.
Sins of the Amish uncovered the decades-long sexual and physical abuse of young girls living in the religious community.
The Amish are a tight-knit and secretive group, and they don’t like to deal with authorities, so it’s almost impossible to know what’s really going on inside.
But Emma Gingerich previously revealed the Amish community hide "a lot of bad things" - including incest and criminal behavior.
She said they simply "sweep it under the rug" after the culprits are forced to confess their sins at church.
Emma told The Sun Online: "I know the Amish drink; there is a drinking problem; some of them make their own wine or moonshine.
"There's a lot of sexual abuse -- which you wouldn't see from the outside. It's been going on for a very long time.
"It's a problem for children and women. Kids are sexually abused. For a long time, nobody did anything about it.
"If it does happen in the Amish community, they hide it so well.
"But now [that] there are more people leaving, they are starting to speak out, and they are starting to get law enforcement involved. There's more awareness now.
"I didn't experience it from what I can remember. I didn't know anybody had experienced it until after I left: A lot of women have come forward to me about it after they left.
"They lived in the same place as me. I was wondering, 'How could I not notice?' But they hide it so well." More
(WTVP) #1308 March 8, 2014. The remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric Native American civilization north of Mexico are preserved at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.
Within the 2,200-acre tract, located a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, lie the archeological remnants of the central section of the ancient settlement that is today known as Cahokia.
Cahokia Mounds has been recognized as a U.S. National Historic Landmark, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in 1982, designated Cahokia Mounds a World Heritage Site for its importance to our understanding of the prehistory of North America.
Cahokia Mounds is managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
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Gentle Thanksgiving:
A Pre-Meal Celebration of Turkeys 2022
There's nothing we lack when we love.
TGB is ecstatic to announce that this year -- Nov. 24, 2022, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm -- it will continue its Gentle Thanksgiving at all three Gentle Barn locations, with a twist!
All are invited, individual visitors and whole families, for delicious vegan pie, hot autumn drinks, fun music, games, crafts, and of course visiting with the majestic turkeys.
Humans are weird, but I like to hug them.
For those whose Thanksgiving tradition has been lived out here, TGB is excited to them back again after these two long, hard years. For fresh faces who visit, TGB can’t wait for all to experience the magic of this turkey celebration. Capacity is limited.
Need a hug? Feeling sad, lonely, stressed out, and scared from the last year? Come heal with TGB.
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