Jeremy Hobson: There's a billboard up on my commute to work that says the world is going to end on May 21. Apparently, the more accepted date among those who believe the end times are near is December 21, 2012. And again -- according to the true believers -- there are going to be a handful of places on earth that will be safe.
One of those, apparently, is Southern France.
And Christopher Werth reports the locals are getting ready for an influx of visitors.
Christopher Werth: The tiny, picturesque village of Bugarach takes its name from the giant, flat-topped mountain that towers above it. Population here is just 189 people.
Dominque Lemmens is one of them. As he throws feed out for his chickens, he says peculiar things happen here.
Dominique Lemmens: I see in the sky strange light.
Lemmens described a light zigzagging across the sky.
Lemmens: Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. And I'm sure it's not plane. It's not Airbus or Boeing or helicopter.
Whatever it was, alleged sightings like this are becoming more common. The village has become a magnet for new age belief groups who predict the world is going to end next year on December 21 -- some convinced the mountain will be a landing site for UFOs rescuing people from the mayhem.
The mayor, Jean-Pierre Delord, says he's seen websites imploring people to go to Bugarach.
Jean-Pierre Delord: My concerns are simple. We can't accommodate people arriving here en mass. It would disrupt the tranquility of the town.
But even the mayor admits those newcomers could be a boost for Bugarach's economy. The local B&B is getting calls about booking rooms for the apocalypse. And others have begun moving to the area to start businesses.
People like Odile Massaonnaud, who goes by her spiritual name, Omkara.
UFO-like sound
No, that's not a UFO. Omkara specializes in "sound massage." So I gave it a go.
Omkara: Christopher is in harmony.
She places a big metal bowl over my head and begins ringing it with a mallet.
Omkara: Now you let the energy coming up.
Omkara plans to open a spiritual center here for therapies like this.
Omkara: People are coming here from all over the world, but here, they are very afraid of all these people coming like this.
So afraid, the mayor says he may decide to block off the roads leading into the village next year. - publicradio
Audio Clip
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12/21/2010
The Village and the Magic Mountain
telegraph - The mayor of a picturesque French village has threatened to call in the army to seal it off from a tide of New Age fanatics and UFO watchers, who are convinced it is the only place on Earth to be spared Armageddon in 2012.
The farming village is in the region of the Cathar castles, situated on spectacular rocky outcrops. Regarded as heretics by the Catholic Church, Cathars sought refuge in these castles in the 13th century when Pope Innocent III launched a full scale crusade against them.
Made of limestone with galleries of caves beneath it, the peak is a geological oddity, since its top layers are millions of years older than its bottom ones, making it an "upside down mountain".
The peak of Bugarach has been shrouded in mystery, with various claims that it houses aliens in cavities beneath the rock.
The internet abounds with tales of the late President François Mitterrand being curiously heliported onto the peak, of mysterious digs conducted by the Nazis and later Mossad, the Israeli secret services. There is talk of the area, near to the Cathar castles, holding the Holy Grail or the treasure of the Templars. A visit to Bugarach is said to have inspired Steven Spielberg in his film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind – although the actual mountain he used is Devil's Tower in Wyoming.
Nostradamus, the French apothecary from Provence, is said to have stayed in the area and found the "vibrations" of Bugarach to be positive.
In the past few months, the quiet village has been inundated by groups of esoteric outsiders who believe the peak is an "alien garage".
According to them, extraterrestrials are quietly waiting in a massive cavity beneath the rock for the world to end, at which point they will leave, taking, it is hoped, a lucky few humans with them.
Most believe Armageddon will take place on December 21, 2012, the end date of the ancient Maya calendar, at which point they predict human civilisation will come to an end. Another favourite date mentioned is 12, December, 2012. They see Bugarach as one of perhaps several "sacred mountains" sheltered from the cataclysm.
"This is no laughing matter," Jean-Pierre Delord, the mayor, told The Daily Telegraph.
"If tomorrow 10,000 people turn up, as a village of 200 people we will not be able to cope. I have informed the regional authorities of our concerns and want the army to be at hand if necessary come December 2012."
Mr Delord said people had been coming to the village for the past 10 years or so in search of alien life following a post in an UFO review by a local man, who has since died. "He claimed he had seen aliens and heard the humming of their spacecraft under the mountain," he said.
Recently, however, interest in the site had skyrocketed, said the mayor, with online UFO websites, many in the US, advising people to seek shelter in Bugarach as the countdown to Armageddon commences.
"Many come and pray on the mountainside. I've even seen one man doing some ritual totally nude up there," said Mr Delord.
Sigrid Benard, who runs the Maison de la Nature guesthouse, said UFO tourists were taking over. "At first, my clientele was 72 per cent ramblers. Today, I have 68 per cent 'esoteric visitors'," he said.
Several "Ufologists" have bought up properties in the small hamlet of Le Linas, in the mountain's shadow for "extortionate" prices, and locals have complained they are being priced out of the market. Strange sect-like courses are held for up to €800 a week. "For this price, you are introduced to a guru, made to go on a procession, offered a christening and other rubbish, all payable in cash," said Mr Delord.
Valerie Austin, a retired Briton from Newcastle who settled in Bugarach 22 years ago who said the alien watchers were spoiling the village atmosphere.
"You can't go for a peaceful walk anymore. It's a beautiful area, but now you find people chanting lying around meditating. Everybody has the right to their own beliefs, but the place no longer feels like ours." She said alien watchers planted strange objects on the mountainside.
Recently she found a black virgin statuette cemented to the rock face.
Although she described the alien claims as "total rubbish", she said there was nevertheless something special about the place.
"It has a magnetic force in the scientific sense of the word. There is a special feeling here, but if I really believed the world were about to end, I'd have a whale of a time over the next two years" rather than look for salvation, she said.
Bugarach is in the Languedoc-Roussillon, the world's largest wine growing region.
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The Bugarach Mountain Incident - Contactees Predicted Chilean Earthquake
Near Bugarach, Aude, France on August 26 2009 at 11:30 pm local time:
The witnesses, Mr. & Mrs. Alain & Marie-France, had visited the nearby site Rennes-le-Chateau which overlooked the village of Bugarach and the nearby valley. They had a perfect view of the mountains and following the advise of a friend they begin signaling at the mountains using their flashlights. (They were curious due to the high amount of UFO activity and other phenomena in the region).
Soon the husband, Alain distinguishes strange lights over the mountains; these lights appeared to be projecting a beam over the grounds as if searching for something. The couple was intrigued since the lights did not correspond with any known natural explanation. Shortly after, Alain & Marie decide to leave their observation post and use a small country road to reach their lodgings. However, they decided to stop for one last observation and as they exited the vehicle, they suddenly saw on the roadside a “luminous entity” that seemed to move by floating above the ground.
Marie-France described the appearance of the entity as human in form and normal size. She remembered being not very ‘dense’ but instead very bright. The entity seemed to be encased in a very bright white light which was not dazzling combined with bright spots of green fluorescence. The entity’s head was conical in shape. Alain could only see an armless humanoid form within a large ball of light moving at ground level. According to the two witnesses the being was about ten yards away, it was therefore clearly visible. The observation lasted for about a minute and then the entity approached the couple and suddenly disappeared in plain sight. Marie-France noted that the disappearance of the entity coincided exactly with a strong feeling of fear she felt in seeing it approach them.
After this encounter with the luminous entity, Alain and Marie-France return to their vehicle. A little further along the road they saw three ‘discs’ of light floating in waves over a nearby field. According to Marie-France, the discs looked like ‘pancakes’ with a hole in the center, ‘like the rings of Saturn’. The ‘rings’ were flat with no apparent external structures. Alain described the ‘devices’ as oblong, bright but with shades of gray. The objects moved horizontally, in slow ‘wave’ like motions resembling the movements of ‘Manta rays”. According to the witnesses the ‘rings’ were several meters in diameter.
The third part of the testimony of Alain & Marie-France is probably the strangest.
After seeing the floating discs over the field, they both go home in a state of shock. Later that night while asleep Marie-France reports that four distinct thoughts cross her mind, “We are beings of light”, “It is dangerous for us to make direct contact with you”, “February 28 2010, there will be a disaster”, “You have to help many people in need.” Marie felt that this was some sort of telepathic message and worries about the supposed impending ‘disaster’. No specific location or extend of the disaster was given. Deeply intrigued by their experience, Marie-France and Alain decide to return the next day to the same place they had seen the luminous entity. Upon arriving at the location Alain sees numerous balls of lights of all sizes hovering on the side of the road and floating near the trees, he believes that there were at least 100 of these spheres. Shortly after he feels a ‘strong flow of energy’ that seems generated by the spheres of light that then quickly surround their vehicle. They then feel a ‘sense of movement’ and chills through their backs and kidney area, their legs are numb. The vehicle appears to be encased in some sort of ‘energy bubble’. Alain then feels that his is being ‘prodded’ and possibly undergoes a physical examination. For her part, Marie-France feels a sense of internal vibration in her body resembling that of a very mild electrical current. The phenomenon lasts a few minutes and then stops abruptly. After the encounter both Marie’s and Alain’s watches have malfunctioned. - Les Confins
NOTE: This site is well known for reporting mysterious events and anomalies. Bugarach Mountain “is suspected of sheltering within a giant lake that is the home of an alien base”. The locals frequently spot strange moving objects over the summit and military maneuvers prevent access to the south side of the mountain area. Magnetic fields are said to knock out mobile phones and laptops permanently.
A powerful earthquake struck Chile on February 27 2010 and devastated large areas and killed hundreds of people.
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The Bettex Affair
The death of the Daniel Bettex, in, on or under Bugarach, has become a local legend. Outside of France, it is known of, but details of the events are often scant or missing from the accounts. As such, it is largely unreported.
Bettex was one of those who, since 1960, were attracted to the mountain and carried out curious investigations. Various prospections of the area were carried out, often discreetly. Often, these expeditions led to rumours, sometimes to entire fabrications. In some cases, a written report was produced, but that did not mean there was no room for amazement or further questions. Some left behind sufficient evidence that opened up even more questions, though in all these cases, a clear revelation was never on the cards.
Most of the routes of these stories take us back to the Cathars, even though it is the story of Daniel Bettex, a Swiss citizen who was a security officer at Geneva airport. Bettex contacted the Cathar organisation that had been founded by Déodat Roché. In his correspondence with the organisation, he enquired about places where he could begin his research. He desired remote locations, so that he was left undisturbed. Roché thus advised him to study the sector of Bugarach, which had been little prospected by other members of his organisation, even though it was known that the Cathars referred to the mountain.
A rumour circulates all the quicker if it is known as a secret. Thus, one statement went that Mr. Bettex was searching for the Ark of the Covenant, that he had located it, as evidenced by his photographs: it was under Bugarach! It was also stated that Bettex was a member of the Rosicrucian order. This assertion is not easily verifiable, but it seems that he was indeed a member of a secret organisation – which was more discrete than the Rosicrucian movement. But the question remains whether his membership had any bearing at all on his research that he carried out in Bugarach… How he came to research Bugarach is known: Roché pointed it out to him…
Another rumour stated that General Moshe Dayan had become personally interested in Bettex’s research. With such notorious Israel officials now apparently interested in him, Bettex’s public profile went up with several points… and the rumour of the Ark of the Covenant became more and better known. It is even stated that the General had contacted Bettex personally, warning him, advising him, to stop everything if he discovered the artefact, and especially not to touch anything… Bettex must surely have been familiar with his Bible, which clearly spells out the dangers of touching the Ark… it did not require the general to point this out.
To this end, Roché also recommended to Bettex that he contacted Lucienne Julien, then secretary-general of the organisation. The latter kept up a close correspondence with Bettex, specifically as he progressed in his Bugarach research. We learned the details of Bettex’s adventures through her.
Bettex’s research progressed, filing through files while he was in Switzerland, and on the ground when he descended to the South of France during his holidays. Initially, he studied the old registers that existed on the area, which had details of mining activities and contained information on the underground resources of the local and surrounding community. Bettex was grateful to Julien, as her local standing opened many public and private archives, which she apparently opened and gratefully shared with Bettex.
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The Myth of Agartha
The legends speak of hollow ground, Agartha and traditions of an underground grid, made of natural or man-made tunnels. The story of Atlantis is never far removed from these and various legends speak of installations, either under the ocean or the land, in which certain Atlanteans were able to survive the cataclysm that was said to have ended their civilisation. At the bottom of forgotten cavities, sometimes flooded, whole or part of the secrets of this legendary civilisation were said to exist.
There are many accounts of accesses to this underground empire. One finds these legends in French provinces like the High Loire (Pradelles), Ariège (Miglos), the Pilat (Annonay), the Ardeche (St Pierreville) the Maritime Alps (Falicon), Provence (the plate of Clansaye, Baux of Provence), etc., to only quote the best known.
Though details and aspects may differ, in essence, each story follows the same structure. Normally, it is an animal or a small child that falls in the opening and is found again, sometimes days later, in perfect health. But if this befalls children, it turns out they have no memory of their adventure. Sometimes, the missing person is an adult – a hunter, a shepherd, a poacher and in one case even a magistrate – who is discovered after a missing period of time. His beard has grown, but he has no memory of what happened to him. Two accounts speak of two men who had undergone this trial, returning with entirely bleached hair! Also, the people who stumbled into the darkness of the underground were never equipped with lighting, but somehow managed to move in this darkness, even being able to find an exit. Sometimes, the entrance is said to be guarded by a creature; sometimes, it is said that there are phenomenal treasures about… finally, there is often a story present of a gigantic underground lake, or of major rivers feeding them. But it seems that they are possible to be traversed, even to follow them, without knowing where they might go.
NOTE: Please read the wonderful commentary at Jean de Rignies and the Bugarach...Lon
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