Joseph Burkes MD 1993, edited 2023
Epiphany: A sudden realization about the nature or meaning of something.
Mexico February 1, 1993
We were at the base of Popocatepetl Volcano with Dr. Greer as team leader. Before midnight a faint light could be seen moving out between the two massive volcanoes to the north. The CSETI Director signaled the million-candle-power lantern towards the light, and it immediately changed direction. Now it was moving directly towards us.
Soon we could make out a massive triangular shaped object. It was totally silent and blocked out the stars as it approached our position. Our team leader signaled again as it drew closer. The unknown object responded in kind to his light work, one flash from him, one flash back from the craft, two from his lantern and we clearly received two flashes back in response. A surge of joy erupted from deep within me. One word softly came forth from my lips, “Yes!” I whispered.
THE COLD WAR WAS HEATING UP IN THE 1980s
My thoughts shot back to the previous decade. It was during the 1980s and the Cold War was heating up under the first Reagan administration. Right wing nuclear war strategists in his leadership team advocated a get-tough policy with the Russians and tensions were building. In response to the threat of nuclear war, an international disarmament movement was growing.
I was “young Dr. Burkes” back then and had just started an internal medicine practice. My wife Yael and I had two young healthy beautiful children at home. I volunteered my time in the public education campaign that was part of “International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.” This physicians organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Twice a month, I volunteered to help produce an hour-long radio show promoting nuclear disarmament and ending underground nuclear weapons testing. The show was titled “Prescription for Survival.”
A NUCLEAR END WAS MY WORST NIGHTMARE
Dr. Carl Sagan was part of a group of scientists that studied the potential effects on the planet if hundreds of cities were torched during an all-out nuclear war. Clearly civilization as we knew it would come to an end. My children would never get to grow up. There was even the possibility that smoke from such a worldwide conflagration could result in a new ice age. It was called “nuclear winter.” In such a dreadful scenario all crops would fail, forests and meadowlands would also perish. All mankind might die.
Dr. Helen Caldicott was the Australian pediatrician that headed our physicians’ movement. During her many public addresses she asked the following question. What can be said about a race of beings that are prepared to destroy this beautiful planet we call home? She speculated that perhaps the Earth is the only planet where intelligent life exists in the universe. If that were so, then we might be counted as one of God’s greatest creations. Yet by building thousands of nuclear weapons and deploying them in the air on bombers, under the sea in atomic submarines and underground in nuclear missile silos, we were preparing to destroy one of God’s greatest creations.
AN END TO ALL MEMORIES
So, what can you say about a race of beings that does such things? Dr. Caldicott told us that it bespeaks of a hatred of our planet, of our children, a hatred of all humanity and of the Creator itself. If we are alone in the universe and we destroy ourselves, we will be forgotten forever. Art, science, music, so many poems gently spoken in a thousand tongues, they would all be erased. The act of remembering, remembrance itself would be abolished.
These were my thoughts while facing the enormous black triangle that had slowed to a virtual hover just a few hundred yards from us. I realized with total certainty that we not alone in the universe. “Yes!” I whispered. “Yes!” I said it again and again. We can choose to take a deadly path. Humanity may even face a terrible end, but we will not be forgotten! We are not alone! We will be remembered.
THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH
I know it sounds rather naïve, but I actually imagined that somewhere far away, perhaps on another star system, non-human children might learn of the “late, great, planet Earth.” Stories of what we had tried to accomplish could be shared. Our hopes, successes and tragic failures might be reviewed. Perhaps “ET” children could take home the lesion of what happens to a civilization that chooses not to spiritually evolve.
Now over 30 years have passed since my first mission into the Volcanic Zone. The slow and steady growth of the contact network alongside of tens of thousands of people that are now demanding to know the truth about UFOs, gives me hope that we will continue to evolve as a race of intelligent beings. Perhaps future generations will look back and say what an adventure it was to live during these challenging times. I hope that we won’t disappoint them. I suspect that we will make them proud.
To read a more detailed report on the winter 1993 Rapid Mobilization Investigative Team’s investigation in the Volcanic Zone, click on the link below. It provides an explanation as to why no photos were obtained during the event.
To read a more detailed report on the winter 1993 Rapid Mobilization Investigative Team’s investigation in the Volcanic Zone, click on the link below. It provides an explanation as to why no photos were obtained during the event.
Contact Underground 