E46 Orcas, who are they?

Both Merlin and Morgan were with me. As we waited, quietly, I asked Morgan about her experience of ‘swimming with the Orcas’.

‘My pleasure. That was my most exciting change. To be effectively in an alien environment with amazing creatures for whom it is entirely natural. First of all, you need to know that their brain contains what is called a limbic system, which can be characterised as the emotional processer. They share this with humans. But we cannot readily imagine how they experience the world, or their part of it. They don’t just see the world, they hear it, echo locating and building a picture of their world based on a stream of visual and acoustic information that is all processed at the same time.?Their ability to process information is orders of magnitude faster than ours’, she says. ‘If you look at how they respond to one another when they’re in a pod or a group - there’s a seamlessness to their interaction.

In other words, they can be in sync in ways that our own brains are not wired to fathom. They can read each others’ minds. They are ‘team players’. The are also very fast learners and can adapt to changing environments, including changes induced by human behavior. In our part of the world, their favourite food is Bluefin Tuna, which is also much sought after by humans. Normally Orcas will locate Tuna and then pursue them until the Tuna are exhausted, to catch them. They work as teams. But humans are depleting the natural stocks of Tuna with line fishing. The Orcas have now taken to ‘stealing’ Tuna from the lines and they have worked out how to do this with no risk to themselves, often unseen by the fishermen, who mostly assume it is sharks.

They do not see humans as prey but rather as some strange and awkward interloper into their world, which they tolerate, just. They clearly have similar brain power to humans, more in some respects. They have language and they learn from experience. Above all, unlike us, they do not kill each other but they seem to have found a way for different pods to live with each other and respect each other. Of course, they are not a plague like human beings. They have been around much longer than homo fatuus, as I know you like to call us, but their numbers remain small. Apart from their natural prey, they do not pose a threat to any other flora or fauna.

Orcas and humans – common ancestor? Morgan responded, ‘yes, about 80 million years ago, a small land based placental mammal, a little like a modern Shrew. Hard to believe, but true.’

Merlin broke the silence. ‘You wanted to know the ‘highlight’ of my time as what you call a spirit. It is a difficult choice but I shall nominate my time with the Royal Navy, sailing out of Plymouth in 1805 to fight the French and Spanish at Trafalgar. It would make a brilliant movie!’

‘And Gawain?’

‘Gawain, as I said, took the other path after his terrestrial death and sought what you will call reincarnation. This is a complex matter involving various life forces that your scientists do not yet understand. It only works with a few people and even then is unpredictable. In the case of Gawain, it took over 1,000 years for him to return as William Herschel, born in Hannover, Germany in 1738. William Herschel later moved to London and became a famous astronomer. His son John, also an astronomer, later became a close friend of an ancestor of yours.’

I responded to this news. ‘Yes, John Sewell, and that may explain some odd events that occurred to him. I discussed it in a book I wrote.’ Life is full of connections, often not known or understood but possibly having a profound effect. One of John Herschel’s grand daughters later married John Sewell’s grandson. They set up home in a place called Padstow, in Cornwall, not far from Tintagel. Full circle. Also not far from the escape pod, in which I am now sat. They had a son, Donald, already mentioned. Donald and I are obviously related, but there is a stronger connection. A part of him is now a part of me, more than just DNA.

That night I had a string of lucid dreams. This is not unusual for me, normal even. I dream even during 10 minute naps on the recliner in the lounge. I even dream awake. Many of the dreams I have had in the past are beyond my ability to explain or understand. Way beyond. But that has changed.

In one of the dreams that night I was in a Lancaster bomber flying over Germany, targeting Cologne. The pilot and captain is Donald Sewell, my cousin. The flak is intense. The plane is hit several times but keeps flying. One engine is on fire and has to be shut down. The bombing run was complete when a further flak hit is taken, leaving the plane, and its crew, stricken. Donald was battling to maintain control but it was a lost cause, the plane was going down. The plane was in a spin. He made no attempt to bale out, it was probably impossible. Instead he looked at me, smiled. In the dream, if that is what it was, I was sure he could not see me, but something passed between us, more of a feeling than anything. I was not even born at the time. It was many years later that I learned what it was, what had passed between us.

I have a list of ‘things’ I do not understand, as I age, a list actually growing, not shrinking! It includes the likes of reality, space, time, gravity, dreams, dark matter, dark energy in no particular order. At this time the last two are purely theoretical. There are more, many more. All linked but none fully understood, or even partly. ‘Advances’ in science, since the days of Einstein (1905) and others now postulate something they call Quantum Gravity and everything in the Universe consisting of Covariant quantum fields. Interestingly I found no mention of either in the material Athena had left with me.

In another ‘dream’ I was at the Capella system, with its two Suns. I was on the artificial satellite the Grace had taken over. I met and ‘spoke’ with Athena. There was much activity, many ‘people’, hundreds. But they were not ‘people’. Any more.

Athena spoke, ‘you will recall the 20 ‘Recommendations’. Progress is good, if a little slow, remember Recommendation 13: ‘We recommend that a worldwide programme be implemented to stabilize, then reduce and maintain the human population to the level of 1900, around 1.6 billion, within 100 years.’ The question is asked, all the time, even with 100 years, how can this be done in a humane manner? The answer is a combination of methods, starting with a detailed programme of incentives to have fewer or no children, massive worldwide education programmes for women, equality for women, everywhere. Quality of life, very important. It will not be too difficult to stabilize and start reducing the numbers. Then there is Gai’a. In recent years there has been a dramatic decline in human sperm count, directly related to human activity (toxins). This is starting to have an effect, even without the measures I mentioned earlier. The decline will continue. The aim of 100 years is achievable.

Your friend Morgan enjoys her time with the Orcas. She will be pleased to know this reduction in human population will have the opposite effect on Orca population. Orcas and humans will learn to communicate, with some help from us, and will begin to cooperate in various ways. Mutually beneficial ways.

As one of only a handful of animals on the planet for which the females live many years after menopause, female killer whales have just provided new insight into the benefits of this seemingly strange reproductive strategy. Females that are past their child-bearing years go on to become group leaders with valuable survival skills. They can often live a further 40 years, providing leadership to the younger members of the pod.

Orcas are the future.’ Then I woke.

Athena did not elaborate further on the last comment. I did not ask.