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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for December 28, 2001: Open Lines - Predictions for 2002 | Lost City Near Cuba - Linda Moulton Howe

December 28, 2001: Open Lines - Predictions for 2002 | Lost City Near Cuba - Linda Moulton Howe

Dec 28, 2001
2h 49m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell welcomes Linda Moulton Howe for a surprise first-hour visit covering two major stories. Linda reports on megalithic structures discovered 2,200 feet below the ocean off Cuba's western tip by Canadian ocean engineer Paulina Zalitsky. Side-scan sonar images reveal what appear to be pyramids, streets, and buildings with 90-degree angles, and remotely operated vehicle footage shows smooth stone blocks stacked in patterns that Cuban archaeologist Dr. Gabino La Rosa considers difficult to explain naturally. ADC is building a deep water robot to drill samples at the site the following summer.

Linda then presents an interview with Dutch cardiologist Dr. Pim van Lommel, lead author of a landmark Lancet study examining 344 cardiac arrest survivors across 10 Dutch hospitals over 12 years. Of those patients, 18% reported near-death experiences, and the researchers concluded that medical factors cannot account for the phenomenon. One patient, clinically dead for over 90 minutes, later identified the nurse who removed his dentures and described the entire resuscitation in detail.

The remainder of the program continues with listener predictions for 2002, ranging from Yasser Arafat's assassination to the dead rising from their graves, a grizzly bear killing a Bigfoot in northern Canada, and a caller from New Jersey who fears her candle weather ritual caused Buffalo's record seven-foot snowfall.

Key Moments

  1. Cuba sonar update: Linda Moulton Howe reports that ocean engineer Paulina Zelitsky's side-scan sonar of a submerged plateau 2,200 feet off western Cuba shows pyramids, roads, and buildings with clear right angles, posted that night to earthfiles.com.

  2. Lancet NDE study unveiled: Howe walks through Pim van Lommel's December 15 Lancet paper, 344 cardiac arrest survivors across 10 Dutch hospitals, 18% report NDEs, with the explicit conclusion that medical, anoxic, and pharmacological factors cannot account for the experience.

  3. The dental prosthesis case: Van Lommel describes a 43-year-old man found cyanotic in the street; after recovery he recognizes the nurse who removed his denture during CPR and accurately describes the resuscitation room while clinically dead.

  4. Eight-year transformation and panoramic life review: Van Lommel reports NDE survivors lose fear of death and that the transformation grows over two and eight years, with panoramic life reviews showing them every thought and deed and the emotions felt by the people they affected.