Miracles of the Gods: A New Look at the Supernatural (517 page)

unprepared. A vast technological infrastructure would have been needed for such a complicated undertaking as the building of interstellar communication centres - factories that could print integrated circuits and produce chemical semi-conductors, etc. None of that existed at hour '0' of the birth of our intelligence.

Even on the hypothetical assumption that the alien visitors had brought a suitable transmitting and receiving station with them, they could scarcely have deposited it on the planet earth, which was faced with earthquakes, floods and wars -after all, they weren't stupid! The passage of time alone, together with climatic changes, would have destroyed it. The cables and apparatuses the American astronauts left on the moon have already disintegrated, even though the moon has no atmosphere. The extremes of heat and cold alone were enough to do the damage.

The extraterrestrial visitors had made no mistakes in their planning! They knew that all mechanically produced and radiated transmissions were tied to the speed of light - they knew that electromagnetic waves could not reach the receiving sets over vast interstellar distances. So what was the point of a lot of senseless and useless machinery?

The visions of genuine visionaries advance mankind along the path of its development with giant strides. It is always surprising to find out the fields in which the advances are made: the spectrum of their potentialities is broad. In this connection I think it is important to realize that every brain is able to receive visions in so far as it is trained and ready to receive definite impulses through specific fixed points in the environment which influences it - in other words if it is open to communication with extraterrestrial fields of energy.

When I say that all persons trained along egocentric paths are predisposed to visions, there are the (rare) extraordinary cases where the extraterrestrial beings find the 'receivers of the millennium', the geniuses, whose brains seem to be waiting for the impulses with their grey cells vibrating. Leonardo da Vinci was one of these 'receivers of the millennium'! Born 1452, died 1519, he is generally known as a painter, architect and sculptor. Few people know that he was equally gifted as a natural scientist and technician. Da Vinci scholars have made fantastic discoveries about him in the last few years. As a painter he marked the zenith of the classical style; but as a scientist his works belong to our own age.

He was the first technologist in the history of mankind. In his book of patterns of mechanical elements he described problems of hydraulics, dynamics and static's.

He was the first inspector of fortresses under Cesare Borgia: he drew maps which are the earliest examples of modern cartography.

He was asked for advice as 'war engineer' and produced plans for diverting the Arno in order to deprive Pisa, which was waging war with Florence, with its main artery of communication.

He dissected corpses and wrote a treatise on human anatomy.

He investigated the flight of birds and the laws governing air currents, and drew plans for constructing an aircraft.