Norm offers an unconventional perspective on the destruction of the Twin Towers. He finds the 9/11 Commission Report to be frightfully inadequate. As a Swedenborgian, he cannot accept un-rational explanations for events that have shaped our foreign policy so drastically over the last ten years. -Editor.
"Thought from the eye closes the understanding but thought from the understanding opens the eye" (Divine Love and Wisdom 46).
To speak out and challenge the official findings of the 9/11 Commission Report on the events of September 11th even in a relatively free society is ventured into with some degree of trepidation. Yet openness, and a willingness to express a divergent viewpoint from the norm is essential where truth and its pursuit are fundamental to freedom and democracy.
It was for such political and religious freedom, and the declaration by the Russian government in 1872 that ended the Mennonites' exemption from military service, that my ancestors emigrated from Russia. In due course, leaving the turmoil behind that would ensue later, they left their homeland with Providence leading, soon to be studying and sharing their enthusiasm and affection for the new revelation in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Their courage and willingness to question the restrictive and dominant thought of their Mennonite religion and culture has formed the basis of my life-long affection for the truths of the New Christian Church. How to apply those truths of the New Revelation is the challenge for each of us.
Pursuit of the truth on the natural and spiritual plane and its application are central for the maintenance of freedom. In her work, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Jewish-German born philosopher Hannah Arendt shares this thought: "Evil thrives on apathy and cannot exist without it. If we turn our backs on evil, our passivity translates into approval. Silence is consent."
Seeking discernment in my study of the horrific events of 9/11, I am convinced along with growing numbers, that the events that changed the world, compromising freedom and so costly in lives, is worthy of independent scientific scrutiny to get at the truth of what actually happened, how it was done, and ultimately by whom.
In our un-regenerate states we can all attest that there have been times when we have let "thought from the eye"--Swedenborg refers to this as thought from appearances--form the basis of our understanding and even pre-mature judgment. Conditioned by repeated TV visuals of collapsing WTC Buildings supported by selected highly charged political commentary, justification for retaliation soon morphed into the protracted war in Afghanistan and other regions, ostensibly to hunt down the perpetrators of the attacks. However, with new forensic evidence emerging referred to below, the grounds on which war has been justified is increasingly suspect. It is surely time that the traumatic events of 9/11 be investigated on the basis of thought from the understanding grounded in rational thought and science.
With a growing body of professionals in their various disciplines of civil engineering, chemistry, physics, including both military and commercial pilots and their analysis of the evidence available from the site of Ground Zero, it is becoming evident that we have yet to approach September 11th from strict empirical science. Rather than thought from appearances, it is time we pressed for a new 9/11 investigation based on the principle of thought from the understanding opening the eye. It is only from this vantage point--an enlightened understanding--that we can hope to get to the truth of what actually happened on 9/11.
There are a number of professional groups and highly respected individuals pressing for a new 9/11 investigation. To name a few these include, with science as their guide: Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, 15 min video, Pilots for 9/11 Truth, and individuals such as Dr. Niels Harrit; Civil Engineer Dr. Judy Wood, author of Where Did The Towers Go?; and widely published author and academic David Ray Griffin. All are steadfast in insisting that there be a new and independent inquiry.
It is also to be noted that in a recent May 2011 Sienna Poll of New York City residents, a third of respondents were unaware of the existence and collapse of WTC Building #7, some having become aware only recently. This very strategic stand-alone building, though not impacted by a plane, plummeted to the earth in a mere 6.5 seconds allegedly due to fire ignited by the other towers. Concurrently, in the state of California, an initiative is under way for the 2012 election that would allow voters to indicate whether or not they support a new 9/11 investigation (9/11 Commission Initiative). This September 8th to 11th, Ryerson University of Toronto will be the site of a symposium of professionals, including some of those listed above, who will provide rational arguments based on science that refute the official report of the 9/11 Commission (www.wearechangetoronto.org; torontohearings.org).
Recently I watched an archived on-line ABC news story that was filmed at Ground Zero just three days after September 11th. The news anchorman reported that the engineers who had designed the 1,362 foot-high towers found it almost impossible to believe that the their great mass of solid structural materials had been reduced to a pile of rubble only one hundred feet high. Where were the substantial slabs of concrete that are always present when modern structures collapse due to forces of earthquakes or controlled demolition? Part of the news segment was an interview with a Dr. Stephen Levin, Director of Environmental Medicine at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital. He was astonished, in his words, that the bulk of the buildngs had been pulverized into dust!
Readers at this site will recognize a principle stated in the Writings that "man is to act in freedom according to reason." Holding that thought in mind, Dr. Judy Wood, Ph.D. (Civil Engineering) questions the official explanation basing her reasons on the established laws of physics and science. From her engineering discipline she rejects the theory that the towers collapsed due to fire. The reported collapse times of eight and ten seconds of the Twin Towers and pulverization of tons of structural concrete into massive pyrochlastic clouds of dust--supposedly attributable to fire and the forces of gravity--challenges the rational mind. Dr. Wood in her scholarly text eight and a half years in the writing, puts her professional career on the line in challenging the 9/11 Commission theory. It is compelling reading for anyone interested in further study.
It has been argued that it was the heat from the kerosene jet fuel that melted steel columns that triggered the ensuing tower collapse. Is this a credible theory? Outside the compression chambers of a jet engine, kerosene can only achieve temperatures of around 575 F. Steel melts at around 2,750 F and office fires burn at about 1,200 F. Inexplicably, recovery crews reported molten steel in the basements of the towers weeks later. What was the source of this heat? Dr. Wood addresses this puzzling question in her book which is beyond the scope of this article.
Dr. Niels Harrit, head of the Chemistry Department at the University of Copenhagen, along with his team of nine researchers found samples of un-reacted, high temperature nano-thermite in analyzed dust samples from Ground Zero. Dr. Harrit refers to their discovery of nano-thermite as the loaded gun for ruling out even more conclusively that any of the WTC buildings collapsed due to structural failure caused by fire.
The events of 9/11 have triggered a most destructive war, with immeasurable cost in the lives of both civilian and military personnel, and a frenzied escalation of hostilities towards those of Arabic culture. It is also linked to the growing prejudice in some Christian circles against those of Muslim faith. I am hopeful that more people of New Church persuasion will have the courage to critically examine the scientific evidence available about this elephant in the living room. On September 11th we were given a rationale for seemingly endless carnage, war, and suspicion based on fraudulent science if the people mentioned above are correct in their analysis.
I understand the scope of possible implications involved with re-investigating the events of 9/11. And I am aware of how challenging and uncomfortable these ideas are for people to consider. But I believe strongly in the value of truth, and think it is well worth our effort to pursue it, in all the uncomfortable places we may find it.
Thought from the understanding is an essential place to start in this search for the truth which is fundamental to freedom, not only spiritual but natural as well.