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Greetings!

This is Stefan Kruithof reporting live from the Worldcongress (I don't know if congress is with one or two 's' so I'll keep writing it with 2 since I'm too lazy to go check)

It is now saturdaymorning and today most of the lectures will be held. Yesterday we visited the MysteryPark of Erich von Daeniken, www.mysterypark.ch .
For me this was my second visit to the park, but it is just so great...you really have to see it!

I just started this thread to say that later on I'll write a longer evalutation of the congress, I hope some of the other student researchers will post their perspective and experiences as well!

Keep this thread in mind and you'll hear from me soon

Stefan

To the reader;
I've attempted to give a largely factual overview of the AAS / AASRA meeting, but as the pure program would be rather boring I also included some personal experiences. I hope you enjoy reading this.

A.A.S. R.A. World Congress 2003 : Interlaken 
Roughly, the program was divided into two happenings : MysteryPark on friday and lectures on saturday.

Friday - morning
(I cannot tell you anything about the preliminary program on thursday, as I was only driving towards Switzerland thursdaynight and arrived fridaymorning)

That fridaymorning the World Congress started with a visit to the spectacular MysteryPark  of Erich von Däniken. For me this was my second visit to the park, but I assume most people were there for the first time.

The Park is dividen into a number of areas, with six main mysteries as subjects. There are seven pavillions, each about a mystery. The last one - Challenge - kinda falls out of the whole picture when describing MysteryPark.

Klicke auf das Bild um es in voller Grösse zu sehen

Each of the seven pavillions is attached to the central ring, through which you can reach any place in the park. In the center there is the main building, with shops, restaurants and the great landmark that makes MysteryPark : it's beautifull tower.

As the round centre building is not of interest to AASRA so far, I will describe the mysteries in a few sentences for each one.

In order, when walking the circle against the direction of a clock, the mysteries are;

• Vimana

• Orient
• Maya
• MegaStones
• Contact
• Nazca

Each pavillion is build in a fitting style, Orient for example consists of a pyramid whereas the Maya building is formed like the Chitzen Itza temple.

Vimana
At first we'll see Vimana, where is dealt with the incredible knowledge in ancient Indian texts. In Vimana's Main Show we see a young researcher visit a library in India after wondering about the round shapes on top of the temple roofs. He discovers that in ancient texts, flying vehicles and incredible weapons are described. The Main Show is a short movie.
The Side Show mainly deals with Indian knowledge about the solar system.

I think I could've done a better job if I designed Vimana, but it's quite ok

Orient
Then there is Orient, a personal favorite of mine. Overall, Main and Side Shows combined, I think Orient is definately the best of all pavillions.
First we'll look at the Main Show again, which is a documentary about the pyramids with a leading role for the Great Pyramid of Khufu...or wasn't it build by Khufu?
This documentary is very informative, and therefore quite good. The images in it are nice, the pyramids offer a beautifull sight.

Orient's Side Show is one that should be visited quite slowly, take your time. You walk inside the Pyramid where you see all kinds of strange artefacts shown. Was there electricity thousands of years ago? A strange lightbulb-like object and more similar mysteries appear to say the same...
There's also a globe with lights at all the spots in the world where Pyramids are, look at Switzerland...the MysteryPark Pyramid is there as well!

Maya
Then comes Maya, where two boys secretly sneak up to one of the Pyramids build by the Maya. There they encounter an old man who tells them an incredible story...in Maya's Main Show Erich von Däniken himself appears, which is quite cool.
The Side Show of Maya is good, with a huge replica of the Palenque stone and a marquette of the Chichen Itza pyramid.

MegaStones
At the next pavillion, MegaStones, is the perhaps best Main Show of all. This Main Show is the only one that is not a video (not that the short movies get boring!)...instead it is an incredible lasershow! It's subject is Stonehenge, and apart from being spectacular...it's also quite informative - which is really good ofcourse.
The Side Show of MegaStones shows among other things the Baalbek plateau and ley lines.

Contact
Then there is Contact...another movie, but a quite special one! This video is displayed all-round, 360 degrees. It involves the story of Ezechiël, but never does it say that the computer simulation of a landing space craft is an excact copy of the bible - which is a shame. I feel that telling everyone that this is from the bible would make a larger impact, as people could read it for themselves at home (virtually anyone has a bible).
The Contact Side Show is about Cargo Cults, the famous Bep-Kororoti god and a thing that I find intriguing : rock art.

Nazca
The last of the mysteries is Nazca, which is another special movie. One appears to be sitting in an ordinary cinema room...have the engineers ran out of ideas? Not at all! The floor in the Nazca pavillion is transparent, with another - white - floor about 20 meters below. On this lower floor, the film is projected. It's a nice video, making you feel you're flying over Nazca.

Up to now I've given a short description of the MysteryPark. It's other features, Challenge, Nautilus, the Tower...are not directly linked to the mysteries and the congress. I hope that everyone who was there friday at least saw the six mysteries.
I won't describe the rest of the MysteryPark, as it isn't that important.

Afternoon
Near the end of the day, at 16:00, the AASRA people all gathered in front of the MysteryPark.
Part one of the program (visiting the Park) had come to an end, and Part two would begin : a demonstration of experimental archeology.

From 16:00 to 17:00 this demonstration would take place. It's subject was the mysterious airplane like objects that are found in graves in Columbia...but also in Egypt! What could these small 'airplanes' have been? Were they really meant to represent airplanes...or something else? Archeologists do not know the answer.
During the demonstration excact replica's of these mysterious artefacts were flown, they had received a small engine. The demonstration showed that they are perfectly aerodynamic.
Unfortunately, some of the airplanes crashed...however this was due to engine failure, not a problem with their shape!

At about 17:00 the demonstration was over, and we all went back to our hotels in Interlaken . I stayed at the nice Backpackers hotel : Villa Sonnenhof . It's cheap but really good, the people are nice and it even includes a meditation chamber.

Evening
The evening program was from 20:00 to 22:00. First there was a lecture from eight untill nine, about ancient flying techniques. Here the Columbian artefacts were discussed, but also Vimanas and the King-Solomon-aircraft.

At 21:00 there was a short break, after which the J.A.A.S. held her speeches. First up was me It was a great honor to hold my speech there, as one of the three young speakers.
The room was completely full, at the back there were even people standing as there were not enough seats. You will not believe the nerves I felt...
I was the only one speaking in English that first night, the rest was in German.

My speech was about interstellar space travel, the other two J.A.A.S. speeches were about the architecture of Tiahuanaco and the grave of Osiris . Both very interesting, and conducted by Stefan Böckler and Theodor Boitor - both from Germany.

Coming up : Saturday

Saturday - morning & afternoon
The saturday was the day of speeches. All day long top researchers in a wide array of fields held their lectures.
Unfortunately not everyone who was on the program was actually there, Giorgio Tsoukalos - from A.A.S. R.A. - was not there so Uli had to be the only host for the day...but Uli did a great job!

At 8:15 I had the first bus from Interlaken  East to MysteryPark, the bus was very crowded as many others from the congress took the first bus as well.

Early morning in MysteryPark we immediately went to the central building where on the first floor the congress would be held. This floor is a complete circle, but multiple screens were placed so that people not sitting at the 'right' part of the circle could also see what was going on
To avoid difficulties in language, we all received a headphone on which a translation was broadcasted simultaneously from English to German and vice versa, depending on the language of the lecture ofcourse.

Not counting the official opening, first up was Dr. Thompson who discussed an accurate map of our solar system in an ancient Indian text. Amazing was that many asteroids and even the planet of Uranus fitted in the scheme.

Other lectures were about mythology, such as the main character from Tibet : Gesar. His special powers and being a son of the gods caught the attention of A.A.S. R.A. research.

One of the speakers came from Italy, Dr. di Cesare. His english was really bad, but he did have something interesting to say. Unfortunately I think most people who listened to him instead of the German translation did not quite understand...

Among the most famous speakers were Robert Bauval  and David Childress. Bauval is famous for the Orion  - Pyramids link and also the secret shafts in the Great Pyramid. Childress has published over 20 books.
Both of their speeches were really great...but the absolute best was Prof. Dr. Kaku , a teacher at the New York University. All of the people whom I've asked so far mentioned him as the best speaker, and I totally agree!

Prof. Dr. Kaku graduated from both Harvard and Berkeley, and is co-founder of the incredible superstring theory (anyone interested in physics will know about it). Apart from teaching at New York University he is a consultant for Star Trek, which made his speech not only interesting but also amusing - just like MysteryPark he had founded a perfect balance between entertainment and science.

Prof. Dr. Furduy talked about the gear of the Gods, showing many pictures of ancient drawings with helms and mysterious equipment on humanoid figures.
Another great speech was by Prof. Dr. Stadler, about our DNA. See this  side about his work.

At the end, Erich von Däniken talked about the Erich-von-Däniken-Foundation. It is a real shame that Erich did not hold a lecture

The final event was a Closing Discussion where the speakers answered submitted questions. A really good end for such a day!

Finally Uli announced where the next congress would be in...San Francisco!

Evening
That saturday night the final gala-dinner would be. The official program was allready over, but most people attended the dinner. This dinner was held in the same room of Beau Rivage as the speeches were the other night. It was really chique!

I had the opportunity to ask Prof. Dr. Kaku about VSL, a new theory in physics which says that the speed of light may not be constant. Really cool to talk to him about that, allthough it was real short...

After the dinner there was an auction, in which Uli sold donated stuff from the speakers. Among the things was Erich's helm, which he had used during building MysteryPark. That was quite cool.

Unfortunately it all came to an end...and after spending another night in my hotel, I had to leave again for Holland the next day
But there's still hope for a happy end : San Francisco 3 years from now!