The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: Unlocking the Secrets of the Past, Present, and Future

The book opens with one of my favorite quotes, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy" (from "Hamlet"). It approaches the crystal and skull pnenomina with good analysis from various directions, to try to prove or disprove. The writers talk to Mayan shaman, a reputable psychic in Toronto, and review scientific studies from Hewlett Packard on the skulls, to determine what can be substantiated as fact. They look into the legend of the skull, and try to determine fact from fiction of its origin and it's finding. The channeled messages from the psychic are pretty nifty, too. (Now, don't poo-poo the psychic. This one has been used by many police departments to help to solve crimes.) There are photos and drawings, explanations of Mayan, Aztec, and other cultures and their practices and time periods. Basically, these authors try to explore every opportunity to validate (or in-validate) the skulls. They even try to validate the merchants who might have acquired and sold them. There is also info explaining crystal and the liklihood or not of who made the skulls, if they could have, if it matched what period, if they were capable of making it in that period, if quartz is capable of carrying messages, etc etc etc. There is quite a bit of Aztec and Mayan history included too.For those who are seeking 2012 information, I found something else interesting. Page 206, and the area preceeding it, explains about the Great Cycles of Venus and its start date as Aug 13, 3114 BC. According to the book, the ancient Mayans believed the world started over 3 previous times and that they (and we) are in the 4th one now. The 1st was supposedly destroyed by fire from the skies (volcanic/Meteorite activity); the 2nd by the sun (possibly drought); the 3rd by water (maybe floods/Noah & the Ark). The book states "the end of each of these previous worlds coincided with the end of each of the previous Great Cycles of Venus."Anyway, they claim the end of the current "world" period ends just before sunset, Central American time, 12/21/2012. At that time, the book explains, "Venus will sink below the western horizon and at the same time the Pleiades will rise above the horizon in the east.. . and the current Great Cycle of time, lorded over by Venus, will end." So, it appears the Mayans based a lot of very accurate predictions on their studies of planetary alignments. Interesting. What does this mean to us? Who knows. But, it does provide interesting information into what they based the 2012 "thing" on and it's not because they ran out of calendar rock to chisle.By the way, the book explains that to the Mayans, the skull represented a way of connecting with their ancestros (and keeping their knowledge), their quest for visions, an intregal part of their sacred numbering system and calendar, and was linked with Mayan prophecies, the god of Venus, the god of the Earth's axis. So, the skull represented something sacred to them, not just old bones from a decaying corpse (like we view it.)This is slow reading because it is a lot of history stuff.PS-I recently found a small but powerful crystal skull for myself. It is about 2 or 3" high and quite awesome. It is from Brazil and likely NOT ancient, but that is not important to me. The shop owner had the famous "Max" skull in for a visit some time ago and this skull was one of 6 who sat with Max, so I call it "Little Max (LM)". LM is carved from a single piece of crystal with the teeth etched in, but he has some awesome looking activity in his head that looks like neurons in the brain firing along with 2 neat-looking inclusions, one in the right side of his "brain" (creative side) and one in the left side of his lower jaw. I never imagined I would own even a small crystal skull nor did I ever imagine I would find one beautiful, but I do.PPS-Bought a second skull in October 2009. "Rainbow Man" has beautiful rainbow inclusions across the entire back of his head. I have been looking at Rainbow Man for some time and one day, the price became irresistable. So, now Little Max has a brother to "talk" to. Rainbow Man was also one of the 6 who sat with Max, so they must have a lot to talk about :-)

What I liked most was just how readable this book was. I've read very few non fiction books that made me turn the pages as often. I came across this book after having a look to see what Amazon had on the Indiana Jones movies. I was keen to find out just how much fact there was to crystal skulls, having never heard of them before. Needless to say this is a very comprehensive book on the subject.As you get further and further into the book you also have to keep a very open mind as far as some of the theories and subject matter goes. While I'm not completely convinced about some of the more outlandish theories, I found the book very interesting none the less. In any case there's only a few years to one of the pivotal points of the book, the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, so if there is depth to some of the theories then we'll know soon enough!Just the other night I saw footage of one of the six astronauts to walk on the moon saying that he believes that not only are Aliens real, and have visited the earth, but that the US government has been deliberately keeping this information from the public. Now while that sounds outrageous, you have to ask why would a well respected public figure, someone that's featured in history books etc, put his reputation on the line for something that he didn't 100% believe in. I'm sure NASA aren't too pleased with him - for sure risking public humiliation isn't something that most people would have the guts to do. So maybe George Lucas's plot for the last Indiana Jones film wasn't so outrageous after all?? If the legend is correct then the 13 crystal skulls will appear in the next couple of years... so who knows. At the end of the day, what's sillier - believing in aliens or believing in religion? How can you prove that any god exists anyway? (Mind you who needs to have a reason to treat everyone and everything with the respect they deserve?)So in conclusion, if you've got an open mind then I think you might find this a very interesting book.By the way it's not a book that's suitable for young children. Some of the background information on the Aztecs etc is pretty graphic - they were a bloodthirsty lot.

I have always been interesting in ancient relics, and also crystals. I am a crystal skull keeper myself with a few smaller ones.This book is very interesting read, about the history of them and ideas as to what they might have been used for etc. I found it very easy to read and understand, and it keeps you wanting to know more!

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING TO READ IT MAKES YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT LIFE AND THINGS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD. I HAVE READ IT A FEW TIMES AND NEVER TIRE OF IT. I RECOMEND THIS BOOK

I read this 20 years ago and thourghly enjoyed it. This time a bought it for a present which was well received.

Fascinating book. So much information about crystals.

The story starts unexpectedly and travels unexpectedly. The characters are engaging and spiritually vivid and leaves you with a sense that you are learning more and being left feeling complete. Must read!