Dürer, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh were famous for self-portraits. Now add Sundara to the list— This eight-year-old Asian elephant made her imprint in just four hours while asleep. Albrecht Dürer (1493) Rembrandt (1629) Vincent van Gogh (1889) Chester Zoo Elephant (2012) Two elephants sleeping on the sand at Chester Zoo Sundara, an 8-year-old Asian elephant, made the incredible imprint where she fell asleep in the sand at Chester Zoo. The zoo staff were amazed when they ventured into the elephants' enclosure and found the perfectly-preserved impression of the animal's head in the ground. The indentation is so clear, it even shows the fine detail of the ridges on the animal's trunk, as well as its ear and eyes. Judging by the imprint, Sundara did not appear to move too much during her jumbo slumber. Elephants lie down on their sides to sleep around four hours a night and usually turn over at least once. Due to their weight, elephants are forced to switch sides during their sleep. The mass of their bodies is so much that it puts pressure on their bones, causing pain and discomfort. The animals are also very light sleepers. If there were a sudden loud noise - either in the wild or in a zoo - an elephant would quickly be on its feet. In their natural habitat, a herd of elephants would not sleep at the same time. At least one will be keeping watch. Photo Sources: Albrecht Dürer (ABC Gallery); Rembrandt (ABC Gallery); Van Gogh (ABC Gallery); Elephant (Chester Zoo); Elephants Sleeping (Daily Mail)

The second is a "mystery circle" found on the ocean floor off Japan's southern coast. Some say extra-terrestials made crop circles in wheat fields with laser-beam technology. Sand Circle on Ocean Floor off Japan's Coast Oxfordshire Crop Circle (8-13-2005) UFO Alien Making Crop Circle 1678 Mowing Devil 1998 Sketch: Spaceship Beaming Crop Circle Crop Circles are sizable patterns created by flattening fields of wheat, barley, rye, or maize. The Mowing-Devil (1678) is often cited by paranormal researchers as among the first recorded cases of crop circles. In 1686, British scientist Robert Plot reported on fairy rings in his The Natural History of Stafford-Shire, and said they could be caused by airflows from the sky. Twenty six countries reported some 10,000 crop circles in the last third of the 20th century; 90% of those were located in southern England, many near ancient monuments, such as Stonehenge. However many of the circles were created by hoaxers. There is a web site Circlemakers.org with instructions on making crop circles, and news of perpetrators. Recent report on crop circle in Mexico (9-23-2012). Photo Sources: Sand Circle (reefbuilders.com); Oxfordshire Crop Circle (8-13-2005) (paganspace.net); UFO Alien Making Crop Circle (dreamstime.com); The Mowing Devil (wikipedia.org); 1998 Sketch: Spaceship Beaming Crop Circle (wikipedia.org)

Are intra-terrestials creating these circular pattern of rippling sand that's 80 feet below sea level and 6 feet wide? Is this some 24-ridge zodiac clock? Sand Circle on Ocean Floor off Japan's Coast Inner Earth Map (Byrd) Hollow Earth (R. Bernard) Hollow Earth Gray Aliens (Shaver) After seeing the sand circle on the ocean floor, I wondered whether intra-terrestials created them. Admiral Byrd flew for 1,700 and 2,300 miles respectively across North (1926) and South Poles (1929), and said the earth is hollow. He was greeted by an advanced civilization in the Earth's interior. (Book). Skeptic's Dictionary examined the Hollow Earth theory. Nazi Bases in Antarctica tried to tap into advanced technologies. Telos is a Crystal City of Light under Mount Shasta, with underground dwellers and ancient gods (Book). Swedish scientists found 200-foot wide object under the Baltic Sea (6-19-2012) and wondered if it's an UFO (film). Photo Sources: Sand Circle (reefbuilders.com); Inner Earth (projectavalon.net); Hollow Earth (v-j-enterprises.com); Hollow Earth Grays (crystallinks.com)

Yoji Ookata went with a camera crew and was shocked to find a single puffer fish just a few inches long making the circles using only one fin. The tiny fish worked tirelessly day & night to complete the design. Cameraman Examining Sand Circle on Ocean Floor Tiny Puffer Fish on Ocean Floor Puffer Fish Sculpting Sand Circle Underwater cameras showed that the artist was a small puffer fish who, using only his flapping fin, tirelessly worked day and night to carve the circular ridges. The unlikely artist, best known in Japan as a delicacy, albeit a potentially poisonous one, even takes small shells, cracks them, and lines the inner grooves of his sculpture as if decorating his piece. Further observation revealed that this "mysterious circle" was not just there to make the ocean floor look pretty. Attracted by grooves and ridges, female puffer fish would find their way along the dark seabed to the male puffer fish where they would mate and lay eggs in the circle's center. Photo Sources: Cameraman on Ocean Floor, Tiny Puffer Fish, Puffer Fish Sculpting Sand Circle (spoon-tmago.com)

Mystery solved but more miracles open— From massive planets orbiting the stars to the tiniest electrons around atoms, this grand design— as above so below. Planets Orbiting the Sun in Solar System Electrons Spinning Around Atom Andromeda Galaxy After 50 years of underwater photography, Yoji Ookata, has never encountered such an intricate sand circle on the ocean floor. He called it the "mystery circle" that led to speculations of sea aliens making these designs. When his camera crew found it was a tiny puffer fish doing it all with one fin, he was shocked. While comparing the elephant's self-portrait to the puffer fish's sand-castle circle, I thought about planets orbiting stars and electrons spinning around atoms— the grand design from the massive to the minute— nature's miracles all around us. Some need miracles to have faith such as Christ walking on water. I like Whitman's "Miracles"— Walt Whitman's "Miracles" from Leaves of Grass (1856): Why! who makes much of a miracle? As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,... To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,... Every spear of grass— the frames, limbs, organs,   of men and women, and all that concerns them, All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles. To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim— the rocks—   the motion of the waves— the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there? Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Emerald Tablet: "As Above, So Below" The line "As above, so below" is from Hermes Trismegistus, Emerald Tablet (circa 6th century A.D.): "True, true. Without doubt. Certain. The below is as the above, and the above is the below,     to perfect the wonders of the One. And as all things came from the One, from contemplation of the One,     so all things are born from this One by adaptation." (Alexander Roob, Alchemy & Mysticism, Taschen, Köln, 1987, pp. 8-9) Photo Sources: Planets Orbiting Sun (en.wikiversity.org); Electrons Around Atom (livescience.com); Andromeda Galaxy (solstation.com); Walt Whitman (WisdomPortal); Emerald Tablet (en.wikiversity.org) Was this universe made effortlessly or with great toil? Did we not make our dream world spontaneously at night and wake up afresh to a new day after our sleep? Solar shockwaves creating planets in millions of years Sun orbits Milky Way Galaxy in 230 million years Dream World The universe is 14 billion years old with 200 billion galaxies. Our Milky Way Galaxy is 13.2 billion years old with 300 billion stars. Our nearest spiral galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy (Video) has a trillion stars. After the Big Bang, the first galaxies took 400 million years to form. With millions of years to create stars and galaxies, it seems that this universe was created with great toil and much effort. In a recent article "Shock Waves From Sun Sculpted Our Solar System" (9-28-2012), Russian scientist Tagir Abdylmyanov found that shock waves following the sun's formation created a series of debris rings that became today's planets over millions of years. The planets formed in intervals with the outer ones first (Pluto, Neptune, Uranus) and the inner ones million years later. Ramana Maharshi However, we create our dream world effortlessly and spontaneously every night while asleep. There is no toil writing scripts for the dream scenario either before we sleep or while we're dreaming. Since the dream state is made of the same mind-stuff as waking and deep (Mandukya Upanishad), perhaps this waking universe was made effortlessly by a Cosmic Mind the same way we create our dream universe with ease each night. The sage Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) expounded on dream states: "There is no difference between dream and the waking state except that the dream is short and the waking long. Both are the result of the mind. Because the waking state is long, we imagine that it is our real state. But, as a matter of fact, our real state is called turiya or the fourth state which is always as it is and knows nothing of the three states— waking, dream or sleep." (Day by Day with Bhagavan, pp. 99-100). Paul Brunton who introduced Ramana to the West, writes about the metaphysics of sleep in Wisdom of the Overself (pp. 62-76). He gives yoga exercises (pp. 242-243) on experiencing the pure Mind (turiya) in the gap between waking and sleep just before falling asleep at night. (Dream & Waking— Same Mind-Stuff: Major Chadwick/Ramana; Annapurna Sarada; Al Drucker; Michael James; Rupert Spira; Tim Conway) Photo Sources: Solar Shockwaves (theepochtimes.com); Milky Way (chandra.harvard.edu); Dream World (fanpop.com); Ramana Maharshi (WisdomPortal) — Peter Y. Chou     Mountain View, 10-4-2012

© Peter Y. Chou, Wisdom Portal P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039 email: (10-4-2012)