Guest guest Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 'Remember how some devotees were shocked when Srila Prabhupada said there was no moon-landing? So many just got up and walked away, even some gave up Krishna consciousness right then. Well here is an article that demonstrates why we should have implicit faith in the purports of His Divine Grace, his vision, conviction, his wisdom, and faith in his guru. --- ----------- Did man really walk on the Moon ???: What His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami said about "Moon Landings" etc: Article from CHAKRA (Bhaktivedanta Manor, England) - July 12, 2001: --- ----------- Did man really walk on the Moon ??? * Cover Story Did man really walk on the Moon or was it the ultimate camera trick, asks David Milne? The greater lunar lie In the early hours of May 16, 1990, after a week spent watching old video footage of man on the Moon, a thought was turning into an obsession in the mind of Ralph Rene. "How can the flag be fluttering," the 47 year old American kept asking himself, "when there's no wind on the atmosphere free Moon?" That moment was to be the beginning of an incredible Space odyssey for the self- taught engineer from New Jersey. He started investigating the Apollo Moon landings, scouring every NASA film, photo and report with a growing sense of wonder, until finally reaching an awesome conclusion: America had never put a man on the Moon. The giant leap for mankind was fake. It is of course the conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories. But Rene has now put all his findings into a startling book entitled NASA Mooned America. Published by himself, it's being sold by mail order - and is a compelling read. The story lifts off in 1961 with Russia firing Yuri Gagarin into space, leaving a panicked America trailing in the space race. At an emergency meeting of Congress, President Kennedy proposed the ultimate face saver, put a man on the Moon. With an impassioned speech he secured the plan an unbelievable 40 billion dollars. And so, says Rene (and a growing number of astro-physicists are beginning to agree with him), the great Moon hoax was born. Between1969 and 1972, seven Apollo ships headed to the Moon. Six claim to have made it, with the ill fated Apollo 13 - whose oxygen tanks apparently exploded halfway - being the only casualties. But with the exception of the known rocks, which could have been easily mocked up in a lab, the photographs and film footage are the only proof that the Eagle ever landed. And Rene believes they're fake. For a start, he says, the TV footage was hopeless. The world tuned in to watch what looked like two blurred white ghosts gambol threw rocks and dust. Part of the reason for the low quality was that, strangely, NASA provided no direct link up. So networks actually had to film "man's greatest achievement" from a TV screen in Houston - a deliberate ploy, says Rene, so that nobody could properly examine it. By contrast, the still photos were stunning. Yet that's just the problem. The astronauts took thousands of pictures, each one perfectly exposed and sharply focused. Not one was badly composed or even blurred. As Rene points out, that's not all: *The cameras had no white meters or view ponders. So the astronauts achieved this feet without being able to see what they were doing. *There film stock was unaffected by the intense peaks and powerful cosmic radiation on the Moon, conditions that should have made it useless. McGrath *They managed to adjust their cameras, change film and swap filters in pressurized clubs. It should have been almost impossible to end their fingers. Award winning British photographer David passer is convinced the pictures are fake. His astonishing findings are explained alongside the pictures on these pages, but the basic points are as follows: *The shadows could only have been created with multiple light sources and, in particular, powerful spotlights. But the only light source on the Moon was the sun. *The American flag and the words "United States" are always brightly lit, even when everything around is in shadow. *Not one still picture matches the film footage, yet NASA claims both were shot at the same time. *The pictures are so perfect, each one would have taken a slick advertising agency hours to put them together. But the astronauts managed it repeatedly. David Persey believes the mistakes were deliberate, left there by "whistle blowers", who were keen for the truth to one day get out. If Persey is right and the pictures are fake, then we've only NASA's word that man ever went to the Moon. And, asks Rene, why would anyone fake pictures of an event that actually happened? The questions don't stop there. Outer space is awash with deadly radiation that emanates from solar flares firing out from the sun. Standard astronauts orbiting earth in near space, like those who recently fixed the Hubble telescope, are protected by the earth's Van Allen belt. But the Moon is to 240,000 miles distant, way outside this safe band. And, during the Apollo flights, astronomical data shows there were no less than 1,485 such flares. John Mauldin, a physicist who works for NASA, once said shielding at least two meters thick would be needed. Yet the walls of the Lunar Landers which took astronauts from the spaceship to the moons surface were, said NASA, "about the thickness of heavy duty aluminum foil". How could that stop this deadly radiation? And if the astronauts were protected by their space suits, why didn't rescue workers use such protective gear at the Chernobyl meltdown, which released only a fraction of the dose astronauts would encounter? Not one Apollo astronaut ever contracted cancer - not even the Apollo 16 crew who were on their way to the Moon when a big flare started. "They should have been fried," says Rene. Furthermore, every Apollo mission before number 11 (the first to the Moon) was plagued with around 20,000 defects a-piece. Yet, with the exception of Apollo 13, NASA claims there wasn't one major technical problem on any of their Moon missions. Just one effect could have blown the whole thing. "The odds against these are so unlikely that God must have been the co-pilot," says Rene. Several years after NASA claimed its first Moon landing, Buzz Aldrin "the second man on the Moon" - was asked at a banquet what it felt like to step on to the lunar surface. Aldrin staggered to his feet and left the room crying uncontrollably. It would not be the last time he did this. "It strikes me he's suffering from trying to live out a very big lie," says Rene. Aldrin may also fear for his life. Virgil Grissom, a NASA astronaut who baited the Apollo program, was due to pilot Apollo 1 as part of the landings build up. In January 1967, he hung a lemon on his Apollo capsule (in the US, unroadworthy cars are called lemons) and told his wife Betty: "if there is ever a serious accident in the space program, it's likely to be me." Nobody knows what fuelled his fears, but by the end of the month he and his two co- pilots were dead, burnt to death during a test run when their capsule, pumped full of high pressure pure oxygen, exploded. Scientists couldn't believe NASA's carelessness - even a chemistry student in high school knows high pressure oxygen is extremely explosive. In fact, before the first manned Apollo fight even cleared the launch pad, a total of 11 would be astronauts were dead. Apart from the three who were incinerated, seven died in plane crashes and one in a car smash. Now this is a spectacular accident rate. "One wonders if these 'accidents' weren't NASA's way of correcting mistakes," says Rene. "Of saying that some of these men didn't have the sort of 'right stuff' they were looking for." NASA won't respond to any of these claims, their press office will only say that the Moon landings happened and the pictures are real. But a NASA public affairs officer called Julian Scheer once delighted 200 guests at a private party with footage of astronauts apparently on a landscape. It had been made on a mission film set and was identical to what NASA claimed was they real lunar landscape. "The purpose of this film," Scheer told the enthralled group, "is to indicate that you really can fake things on the ground, almost to the point of deception." He then invited his audience to "come to your own decision about whether or not man actually did walk on the Moon". A sudden attack of honesty? You bet, says Rene, who claims the only real thing about the Apollo missions were the lift offs. The astronauts simply have to be on board, he says, in case the rocket exploded. "It was the easiest way to ensure NASA wasn't left with three astronauts who ought to be dead," he claims, adding that they came down a day or so later, out of the public eye (global surveillance wasn't what it is now) and into the safe hands of NASA officials, who whisked them off to prepare for the big day a week later. And now NASA is planning another giant step - project Outreach, a 1 trillion dollar manned mission to Mars. "Think what they'll be able to mock up with today's computer graphics," says Rene Chillingly. "Special effects was in its infancy in the 60s. This time round will have no way of determining the truth." Space oddities *Apollo 14 astronaut Allen Shepard played golf on the Moon. In front of a worldwide TV audience, Mission Control teased him about slicing the ball to the right. Yet a slice is caused by uneven air flow over the ball. The Moon has no atmosphere and no air. * A camera panned upwards to catch Apollo 16's Lunar Lander liftingoff the Moon. Who did the filming? * One NASA picture from Apollo 11 is looking up at Neil Armstrong about to take his giant step for mankind. The photographer must have been lying on the planet surface. If Armstrong was the first man on the Moon, then who took the shot? * The pressure inside a space suit was greater than inside a football. The astronauts should have been puffed out like the Michelin Man, but were seen freely bending their joints. *The Moon landings took place during the Cold War. Why didn't America make a signal on the move that could be seen from earth? The PR would have been phenomenal and it could have been easily done with magnesium flares. Text from pictures in the article show Only two men walked on the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission. Yet the astronaut reflected in the visor has no camera. Who took the shot? The flags shadow goes behind the rock so doesn't match the dark line in the oreground, which looks like a line cord. So the shadow to the lower right of the spaceman must be the flag. Where is his shadow? And why is the flag fluttering? How can the flag be brightly lit when its not facing any light ? And where, in all of these shots, are the stars? The Lander weighed 17 tons yet the astronauts feet seem to have made a bigger dent in the dust. The powerful booster rocket at the base of the Lunar Lander was fired to slow descent to the moons service. Yet it has left no traces of blasting on the dust underneath. It should have created a small crater, yet the booster looks like it's never been fired. --- ----------- What His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami said about "Moon Landings" etc: Prabhupäda: So he went to purchase something from a grocer. The grocer asked him, "Why you are shaven-headed?Oh, such person has..., is now dead." Trivikrama: Sargal Singh? Prabhupäda: No, I'll come to that. So the grocer also thought, "Now I also should shave." Something saying like that. Then another man met him. He also said. He also said. Then at last, one intelligent man, he asked, "Who is this man?" Then again the news come back through the paramparä, (laughter) yes, who is this man. Then he called the man, first, who said. He was a dhobi, and his ass was dead. The ass was dead, so hearing, it has gone so far. The other men... The unintelligent persons are like that. They do not know, inquire what is the real thing. Just like twenty years ago I said, "This is all nonsense, moon-going." And now they are coming: "Oh, it is hoax." So that is the difference. Twenty years before and "This is all childish waste of money. This rascal will never be able to go to the moon." And now they are coming. That is the difference. I said from common sense. Nakñaträëäm ahaà çaçé. And we read in the Bhägavatam that to go to the moon planet, one has to execute such yajïas, karma-käëòa. We understand from çästra. And how this rascal with a machine will go there? That is a common sense. But they do not believe in the words of the çästra. Rascals, they were bluffed and they believe. Çästra-cakñus. Your eyes should be through the çästra. Yaù çästra-vidhim utsåjya vartate käma..., na siddhià sa... We believe in this. Therefore I said twenty years before. That is the difference. We take the words of çästra, words of Kåñëa, ultimate. That's all. So we have no difficulty. They do not believe in çästra. They do not believe in Kåñëa. So they were bluffed. That is the difference. We have... I started this movement. It is not manufactured by me. Take the words of authorities and spread. There is no adulteration. There is no alteration. That is... Mahäjano yena gataù... (end) (ACBSP. 1st July 1977. Conversation with devotees, Vrindavana) Svarüpa Dämodara: It also makes difficult for others to argue. Prabhupäda: (laughs) When there is argument? Nonsense, how you can argue? And therefore you are rascal. And that is also forbidden. Acintyäù khalu ye bhävä na täàs tarkeëa yojayet: "Things which are beyond your conception, don't foolishly argue, rascal." That will prove your rascaldom. Better accept what the authority says. It is beyond your conception, rascal. Why you are wasting time? That we want to say, that all of them are rascals, and they are simply wasting time by false idea. Cheating. You know, there are companies. They'll... They have got photographic studio. So they adjust their moon hoax. They'll help you. If you have got particular idea... They are going to the moon planet, Mars. Nowhere the rascals go. There is no knowledge. How they can go? Teeny, imperfect. So if we can prove that they have no knowledge of the universe, neither of the position of their... (ACBSP. 21st June 1977. Room Conversation with Swarup Damodar, Vrindavana) Prabhupäda: Vibhrama, the Sanskrit is vibhrama-milita-kriyä. The ärambha, ärambha means endeavor. Very gorgeous. The result is sand and rocks. Going to the moon planet, the ärambha was so much expensive. And the result is to bring some sand and rocks. This is hoax. And another: parvatän muñakodbhavaù. Hoax. There was a great advertisement that the Himalayan mountain is going to deliver a child. So people gathered on, to see, "Oh, such a big mountain. The child must be a very big child." So they went to see there, and they saw one rat is coming from the hole of.... A rat is coming. They expected another Himalayan mountain, and they saw from the holes, one rat is coming. This is going on. And they are satisfied. "Now the Himalaya has delivered the child." One rat. (laughs) This attempt is like Himalayas begetting a child. If some elephant would have come, it would have saved the..., not even elephant, one rat. And in English, another is, "Much ado about nothing." Hari-çauri: Shakespeare. Prabhupäda: Yes. The result is nothing. What is the meaning of "ado"? (ACBSP. 18th June 1976. Room Conversation. Toronto) Hari-çauri: When they originally started sending sputniks to the moon, they couldn't even land them properly. They would crash, they said that they were crash-landing spaceships into the moon's surface. Prabhupäda: Crashed? Hari-çauri: Crash-landing. The spaceship was supposed to just smash into the surface of the moon, like that. Prabhupäda: They have never gone. Simply propaganda. Even they have gone, what is the result? Simply with big report that it is inhabitable. (ACBSP. 2nd July 1976. Room Conversation. New Vrindavana.) Prabhupäda: Oh, in the summer. Venus is very cold? Why they have selected summer season? (laughter) [break] ...could not go to the moon, and Venus is far above moon. How they will go? Bali-mardana: They're not going to Venus, are they? Paramahaàsa: Are they going to Mars? Bali-mardana: No, they're just going around the earth, right? Ambaréña: Yeah, they're linking up in space. Devotee (3): Prabhupäda, when they said they went to the moon and they showed films of them landing and walking on the moon, was this all a bluff? Prabhupäda: Yes, here they... All laboratory work, that's all. Devotee (3): They all made it up? Prabhupäda: Yes. (ACBSP. 2nd June 1975. Morning Walk in Honolulu, Hawaii) Devotee (2): Did they actually land on the moon, Çréla Prabhupäda? Prabhupäda: No, they cannot go there. What is the question of landing? They cannot go there. It is far, far away. What you calculated? 1,600,000 miles away, up the sun planet. 1,600,000 miles above the sun. According to your calculation, the sun is away from this planet by 93,000,000 miles. And above that, 1,600,000 miles. Then you go to the moon. How it is possible? Guru kåpä: How is the moon behind the sun? Prabhupäda: Not behind, above. (ACBSP. 27th May 1975. Morning Walk in Honolulu, Hawaii.) Madhudviña: The demons are trying to go to the heavenly planets by building their skyscrapers higher and higher. Prabhupäda: Rävaëa's, Rävaëa's staircase for going to the heaven. He promised that "Oh, what is the use of austerity? I shall make a staircase directly. You can go." As their... It is the same, Rävaëa's staircase and the modern attempt to go to the moon planet, the same thing. They will never be able to go, but imagining that "We shall do it." The same process, Rävaëa's process. For how many years they are going? Since 1950? Devotee: To the moon expedition? Prabhupäda: Yes, moon expedition. Devotee: Maybe 1955. Madhudviña: 1955. Devotee: The first moon landing was 1961. Prabhupäda: That is beginning. First of all they sent dog. (laughter) Madhudviña: Space dog. Space mouse. Prabhupäda: Huh? Space mouse. Devotee: Space monkey also. Prabhupäda: So since 1955 even. So twenty years, what they have done? Devotee: Spent billions of dollars. Prabhupäda: Yes, simply they have brought little dust, that's all. Madhudviña: Now they have found that that same dust is here on the earth. Prabhupäda: Yes. Simply propaganda. They are not going. Now the Russian scientist and American scientist are combined. Because both of them thieves, so one thief is asking, "Don't expose me. I will not expose you, so that our business will go on." This is the way. "Let us combine together and cheat these rascals, and otherwise, if you expose me, then I will expose you. Then our business will stop." Devotee: They are cooperating. Prabhupäda: Cooperating. Thief, thief's cooperation. (ACBSP. 21st May 1975. Morning Walk in Melbourne, Aus.) --- ----------- CHAKRA (Bhaktivedanta Manor, England) - July 12, 2001: British television last month aired programs on Channels 4 and 5 expressing doubt about whether the Americans ever went to the moon. The programs were viewed by millions of Britons. Experts in their fields expressed their conviction that the NASA moon landing in 1969 was actually a clever hoax, a sort of American Cold War public relations stunt of huge proportions filmed, according to those on the show, somewhere in a remote desert in the United States. Did NASA fake the moon landing? A program aired on British television explored the possibility This subject matter is naturally interesting to many devotees because Srila Prabhupada himself was doubtful about the moon landing. A section of the program was dedicated to analyzing NASA photographs, which curiously depict shadows that are inconsistent with the direction of the sunlight. The program clearly proved that shadows in the photographs fall at different angles and at different lengths in the same pictures, as though illuminated by more than one light source close to the scene. Had they actually been on the moon, of course, this would have been impossible as there was no other light source other than the sun. Some photographs taken of the astronauts facing in the shadows are illuminated as if by fill-in lighting. Experts quoted on the show pointed out that the moon pictures were perfectly framed and exposed even though the cameras used had no viewfinder or exposure meter and were strapped to the astronauts' chests. According to moon landing skeptics, there are also numerous inconsistencies between the live TV record and the photographs that were published later. For example, several photographs, which were supposed to be taken on different parts of the moon's surface, have identical background landscapes. This suggests that they used the same backdrop for several photos supposedly in different areas. Some rather amusing NASA film footage includes the American flag apparently flapping in the wind, a strange phenomena given that, at least according to the modern understanding, there is no atmosphere and therefore no wind on the moon. One of the most convincing arguments used against the moon landing relates to an official NASA photograph of the Lunar Module on the moon's surface. The photograph shows that there was clearly no sign of disturbance on the soft lunar surface caused by the exhaust of the Lunar Module's powerful descent engine. A crater should have been created in the soft lunar dust. In response to these accusations, a NASA spokesman on the show said, "There are too many seeming inconsistencies for me to answer to right now. " Sadaputa das, in his book "Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy" writes on this subject in a sub-chapter entitled "Moon Flight." I will summarize it's contents: Srila Prabhupada often said that the astronauts have never actually visited the moon. His reasoning was that 1) Demigods do not allow human beings to enter the higher planets because human beings are not qualified to do so. 2) The astronauts did not experience the celestial opulences actually existing on the moon, and therefore could not have gone there. Srila Prabhupada also described the attempt of the scientists to reach the moon as being as demoniac as the attack of Rahu (SB 5. 24. 3p), and said that Indra would bar such travel. In the Srimad- Bhagavatam, Canto 6, Chapter 4, purport to text 6 and Canto 8, Chapter 5, purport to text 34, he comments that since the moon-god is the presiding deity of vegetation, there must be vegetation on the moon. Yet the scientists say it is a barren desert. Srila Prabhupada also made statements suggesting that higher- dimensional travel is needed to reach the moon and he refers to the futility of trying to use mechanical spacecraft. Finally, he indicated that to reach the moon it is first necessary to cross the Manasa Lake and Sumeru Mountain. So as ISKCON devotees we are left with various possibilities: 1) Astronauts did indeed land on the moon, but they did not perceive the world of the demigods (Candraloka) because it is invisible to gross sense perception. 2) The astronauts were deluded by the demigods at some stage in their journey and diverted to the planet Rahu. (SB 4. 29. 69p) 3) The entire moon-landing story is a complete conspiracy, which has fooled millions of people all over the world for over 30 years. (Some say that they filmed the "moon's surface" in a place in America known as Area 51, according to the TV program.) Perhaps in the near future we will never know for sure, but it is logical to suggest that at some time in the future we will. If the truth is indeed different to how NASA has been portraying it, ISKCON is in a prime position to say something about it. 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