Colombus discovered north america, although it was already inhabitated by many indigenous tribes, such as the sioux, navajo and the apache. From 1492 to 1890 several million europeans colonised and enforced their ways upon the people of the new world. The spaniards were some of the first to invade this new land, they were not really welcomed as they looted and burned villages, also kidnapping hundreds of people to be sold as slaves in europe.

Shamanism is the worlds earliest and most widespread religous tradition , remnants of it are found across the world in places such as siberia, the united states, mexico, tibet and aboriginal australia. Shamanism can be regarded as a visionary approach to nature and the cosmos, which utilizes altered states of consciousness as a means of contacting the sprit world. A shaman is a magical practioner who through the art of will can enter into a trance and journey to the land of the gods and by visionary means identify the cause of the sickness.

In all forms of shamanism it is the notion that the universe is alive with gods and sprits, the shamans role is to identify the harmful sprits which are causing individual illness. So the shamans are entering a state of consciousness between the natural and metaphysical worlds, meeting the sprits in there own world. Shamans are often given their role because of there ancestral lineage or are called to the path through dreams and visions. Because this visionary capacity is restricted to just a few, shamans have found themselves somewhat on the edge of society.

Anthropologists have even speculated that shamans could be victims of mental illness, with which through trance training they control. Observing shamans has led westerners to look closely at the nature of different types of experience and to wonder that the trance state shamans enter is similar to which the mentally ill involuntarily wander. Many people believe the shamans discover a part of the human mind that normally remains untapped. Obviously now through the western lifestyle we have become disconnected with this ancient tradition and lost touch with an ancient way of seeing the world, a part of us thats still inside and never really acknowledged.

I have a keen interest in ancient civilizations and in my childhood grew up in the south-west of England, where we visited many pre-historic hill forts such as pilsdon pen and maiden castle. Crop circles are widely seen in the area near stone circles such as stonehenge and avebury. In particular the most puzzling is an artificial mound bulit 4,500 years ago called Silbury Hill, which is near Avebury.

It’s a vast construct, with its base covering five acres alone. Many people first thought it was a burial mound or even contained treasure. Who built these mounds is a mystery and what purpose they had is equally puzzling. Like in America many mounds existed before the arrival of columbus and were built by indians for tombs and great temples. Such as the effigy mounds in ohio which depicted pictures of birds and animals, the reason still unknown. Mysteries of the ancient world may never be solved, but we do know our ancestors existed then, so the anwsers are somewhere inside us all.

Many people believe that human life came from space, developing from viruses and bacteria brought to earth by giant comets. Sir Fred Hoyle, a professor of astronomy at cambridge was the first to identify giant dust clouds that float silently through space, swarming with the ingredients of life. He claims a comet plunged through one of these clouds 4,000 million years ago and eventually crashed into earths atmosphere, amazingly producing plants, animals and eventually humans.

It’s been a tough few weeks, with my mum being ill with cancer and undergoing and operation, it puts things in perspective when you visit a cancer ward and inspires me how people find the strength and courage to fight such an awful disease. I’ve been writing several songs and processing my experiences over the last few months. Its hard to believe in god or any belief when you see such suffering, but I can understand how it helps some people. Hopely my mum will improve, just take it day by day and my thoughts are with anyone living with the illness.

Everyone knows the pyramids of Egypt and they have become an iconic symbol of the ancient world. Alot of mystery still surrounds the pyramids and no real explanation has been agreed on how they were built and what they were used for. Many books have been written about these ancient monuments and many theories have surfaced. For example the pyramids perimeter length is 1,760 cubits and the imperial mile length is 1,760 yards, which indicates very ancient roots for the british measurement system. Stonehenge also has mathematical surprises , with the letter pi being depicted physically and mathematically at the stone circle.

What might be called the first official investigation of a UFO sighting occured in Japan in 1235. During the night of september 24th, while general Yoritsume and his army were encamped, they observed mysterious lights in the heavens. The lights were seen for many hours,swinging, circling and moving in loops. The general ordered a full scale investigation and concluded it was the wind making the stars sway.

So even in the 13th cnetury cover ups were taking place, we still don’t really know why. In the 19th century reports of UFOs were reported widely in scientific publications, such as an account written by John Stavely of hatton garden, London, after observing what he thought were meteors during a thunderstorm on august 10 1809. He explained dazzling specks of light, dancing and traipising through the clouds and increasing in size and brightness. He finished, ” as the meteors increased in size, they seemed to descend”.

Landscapes are constanly changing. Volcanoes and gigantic earth movements push up mountains, ridges and plateaus, while ice , water and wind grind them down and reshape them into valleys, plains, caves and canyons. This process has been happening for millions of years and have shaped the patterns of the oceans and continents. For example the himalyas were formed by the indian and asian plates colliding, one pushing underneath the other and forming mountains.

Also moving ice has shaped most of earths spectacular scenery, in places such as the alps, the himalyas, the rockies and englands lake district. During the pleistocene age, which ended about 10, 000 years ago , there were several ice ages, when the climate of the world was much colder. The falling snow pressed down on the layers beneath slowly turning to ice. The pressure on the rock is so high that it turns the ice into water, allowing the ice to slide over the ground beneath it. Many climbers claim that the ice can be heard moving as they scale the worlds great mountain ranges! This ice created and carved many canyons , such as the tenaya creek in californias yosemite national park.So when your out walking in the mountains and valleys remember how they were formed and still are changing to this day.

Hope everyone is keeping ok. If your reading this thankyou.Been a strange start to 2014 with my mum passing away on 11th january, it’s a great loss and my track memories is a tribute to her. It’s strange what tests confront you in life and love is the redeeming factor. My mum taught me to believe in love and stand by the discriminated and badly treated people. She instliied in me an empathy of other cultures from the native americans, to aboriginies to the palistine struggle, theres always a conscious struggle being fought, our mind is our own and nobody, NOBODY owns that.

Everyone dreams, but living in the modern world we have become dis-connected from there meaning and importance. With the constant rush of life, spritual thought is often excluded and the search inward is seen as a luxury, only available to monks and lost ancient cultures. For example the christian tradition recognises the importance of dreams, as christ himself gained strength from his dreams as he wandered for forty days and nights in the wilderness. Even satan kept a distance, as he dared not interupt the spritual trance.