NATIVE AMERICAN GHOST DANCE
- In 1886 a Paiute shaman called Wovoka underwent a visionary experience during an eclipse of the sun when he was sick and feverish. In his vision he was transported up to heaven, saw God and his ancestors, and returned to earth with the instructions to give the 'ghost dance' to his people. This was a time of great stress for the Native American people; they were being massacred and confined to reservations because they stood in the way of the white man's manifest destiny, to go from sea to shining sea. The ghost dance, if performed relentlessly for five straight days, would bring about the revival of the Native American tribes; it would cause a catastrophe that would wipe out the white people, restore the buffalo, regenerate Native American culture, and most importantly, resurrect the Indian dead. The culmination of the ghost dance revival movement was the Battle at Wounded Knee where a group of dancers resisted white troops; the result was 300 men, women, and children massacred. However, the ghost dance movement did succeed in giving the Native Americans, particularly the Sioux, something to hope for in a time of despair, much like the early Christians looked forward to the apocalypse as described in the Book of Revelations.

CARGO CULTS
- Cargo cults appeared amongst the Maori in New Zealand, the Hawaiians, and the Fijians and many other areas that felt the pressure of white expansion. Loosely defined, Cargo is the belief that the people of these islands will be given certain material goods now possessed by whites and denied to the black and brown man by white selfishness. Edward Rice, in John Frum He Come, describes how it began in the 19th century when whites began arriving on the islands in numbers. South Pacific Cargo received its greatest impetus during WWII after the arrival of American troops who landed on dozens of islands with unlimited types of western goods. The people of these islands with little or no contact with whites in the past, made the assumption that the goods were a product of magic. Indigenous messiahs arose, promising both the coming of cargo by ship or plane and an end to white domination. Authorities attempted to stop Cargo by arresting leaders and merely elevated them to the status of martyrs and made people believe the authorities were trying to prevent their discovery of the "secret" cargo.

MILLENNIALISM IN NEW AGE AMERICA
crystal corner - The New Age fascination with crystals and stones is reminiscent of the millennial vision of the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelations with its walls built of diamonds, and cities of clear glass.
UFO alert - According to the Bible, unusual phenomenon will attend the catastrophic breakup of reality that must precede the end of time and the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. One such phenomenon is the countless alleged sightings of UFOs in recent decades. In the 20th century, since investigators have begun to collect data, there has been about 14 million people who claim to have had encounters with UFOs. Contacteeism is a form of prophecy, and like Biblical prophets before them who had contact with angels, UFO contactees develop a missionary sense after their experience. Also, like the ancient prophets, UFO contactees insist that a super-human otherworldly power, a superior power and technology oversee the course of human history. Crop circles indicate to some that aliens are giving the earth a hint of the coming apocalypse. To others, the earth, Mother Gaiea, is giving signals of the End from within.

TECHNOCALYPSE NOW
term coined by Michael Grosso meaning the convergence of technology and the apocalyptic imagination
- The hypersonic transport will fly at over half the speed of a satellite and will reach any destination within two hours.(Clarke, 101)
- Technology has lead to the creations of New Worlds, ie. Biosphere 2 and Virtual Reality, a new place without a space.
- In the Bible, Daniel describes the Kingdom of God, stating that "Many shall run... to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." This resounds of modern technology's revolution in transport and information.
- Through cyberspace we can create a new virtual community that can become a model for the secular kingdom of heaven. We can also leave our bodies with electronic out-of-body-experiences. While transcending out bodies, we can enter the psyche of God, creating our surroundings to suit our whims, and devising interactions according to our fantasys.
- Techno fans of the future can expect the same feelings of indifference toward their bodies as the ascetic yogis of old. Virtual reality will become such a norm and so readily available that it would be literally indistinguishable from reality. The body would become insignificant in comparison with the quality of experience. One could live a full life just sitting 'wired' in a chair!
- The ultimate goal of technology is to release human beings from the fallibility of the flesh and the constraints of earthly time and space.

Paintings & Drawings by John Wotipka

BILBLIOGRAPHY for the MILLENIUM
Butler, Jonathan B. and Numbers, Ronald L. eds.. The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth Century. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1987. Fields, Karen E.. Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa. Princeton, New Jersy: Princeton University Press, 1985. Grosso, Michael. Millennium Myth : Love and Death at the End of Time. Wheaton, Idaho: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1995. Kawada, Louise M. ed.. The Apocalypse Anthology. Boston, Massachusettes: Rowan Tree Press, 1985. Majtabai, A.G.. Blessed Assurance: At Home with the Bomb in Amarillo, Texas. Boston, Massachusettes: Hughton Mifflin Co., 1986. Rice, Edward. John Frum He Come. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1974.

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