Posts Tagged ‘books’

JFK and the price of a free media highlighted in ‘The Orphan Conspiracies’

Posted: February 3, 2026 in The Orphan Conspiracies, Underground Knowledge
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Few journalists ever seriously challenge the Establishment. Why? Because it’s usually not in the best interests of their employers – the select few media barons who run mainstream media these days.

“No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding.” That’s a comment President John F. Kennedy made in a speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. on April 27, 1961.

We include highlights of that speech in a chapter titled ‘The price of a free media’ in our contentious book ‘The Orphan Conspiracies’.

JFK’s speech continues:

“No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed. I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers–I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: “An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.”

We resonate with Kennedy’s comments. He was a true champion of both free speech and freedom of the press – unlike other US presidents before and especially since.

In ‘The Orphan Conspiracies’ we remind readers that if media in all its forms is compromised then frankly, we’re screwed! You don’t need to be a former journalist to realize that manipulating the media is akin to poisoning a nation’s water supply; it affects all of our lives in unimaginable ways.

Journalists are the barometer of a nation’s freedom of speech. If they are threatened, gagged or otherwise silenced then who is going to ask the tough questions and keep the authorities honest?

There’s commonly held belief that here in the West we have a free press. However, one only needs to consider the standard of reporting of recent world events including the Covid-19 pandemic to know that ain’t remotely the case.

So, what’s the truth? Do we really have a free press or are our journos being dictated to and told what they can and can’t report on? Are certain topics suppressed from the public’s consciousness by those who own or greatly influence the media? Are there any free-thinking, free-speaking journos left – alive and not retired that is?

We can only repeat: Few journalists ever seriously challenge the Establishment.

The upshot of this is, while their turn of phrase may be eloquent, most journos just report on issues their masters are happy to allow to be aired publicly. This makes them little more than parrots for the Establishment. Unfortunately, few realize that.

The tragedy is major issues remain hidden and the public are continually denied access to the truth. Worse, free-speaking individuals are labeled conspiracy theorists and purveyors of misinformation. Their accusers should remember that, since 2020 at least, the difference between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact has shrunk to around six months.

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‘The Orphan Conspiracies’ is available as an audiobook courtesy of Amazon’s Audible Audiobooks initiative. (Listening time: 13hrs. 44mins.). The paperback is available from Harvard Book Store, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores, Amazon and via public libraries…

https://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-Trilogy/dp/B08BWGPM6K/

#News #JFK #FreeSpeech #FreePress #Journalists #Reporters

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Morcan novels and nonfiction books selling now via the iconic Harvard Book Store

Posted: June 19, 2025 in Books in general
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by Lance Morcan

It’s with pleasure we, my co-writer James Morcan and I, can announce that our books – fiction and nonfiction – are available now at Massachusetts’ Harvard Book Store (pictured) in Cambridge, MA. They can be viewed at https://www.harvard.com/search/site/Lance%20Morcan

Harvard Book Store is a unique and special place to shop—a locally owned, independently run Cambridge landmark since 1932. As this iconic store’s own website states: “Our bookstore is known for an extraordinary selection and thoughtful curation of new, used, and remaindered books; an award-winning author event series; wildly popular warehouse sales; and a history of innovation.”

Among our bestselling nonfiction books available at Harvard Book Store are: Debunking Holocaust Denial Theories, Vaccine Science Revisited, The Catcher in the Rye Enigma and Genius Intelligence.

Among our novels available at the store are the critically acclaimed Into the Americas, White Spirit, Silent Fear and The Ninth Orphan. My solo-authored new release historical adventure New Zealand: A Novel is also available.

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Morcan books (co-authored and solo-authored) are also available via Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and via public libraries.

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‘Vaccine Science Revisited’ highlights use of infant monkeys to assess impact of CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule

Posted: May 3, 2025 in Underground Knowledge, Vaccine Science Revisited
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There was a very interesting study published in PubMed in 2010 some 10 years after it was conducted into the CDC’s recommended childhood vaccine schedule we feel hasn’t gotten the recognition it deserves. More than two decades since the study was done, as far as we can tell, discussions about it and its results are almost non-existent.

My co-author James Morcan and I refer to this study in a chapter titled ‘Definitely maybe science’ in our book ‘VACCINE SCIENCE REVISITED: Are Childhood Immunizations as Safe as Claimed?’  

The study randomly selected 16 infant rhesus monkeys and divided them into two groups. One group of 12 monkeys received the CDC’s then-recommended childhood vaccine schedule at the same rate American children would. The remaining four infant monkeys, which comprised the control group, received placebo (saline) vaccines according to the same schedule. (It would be interesting if they added a second control group using the placebos used in vaccine safety studies today. We are very curious to know how it would compare).

This was a longitudinal study lasting from 1994 to 1999 to follow the vaccine schedule in a proper timeline. The study found the vaccinated monkeys had a much “greater total brain volume” than the average healthy brain. They also observed that the amygdala in the vaccinated monkeys didn’t mature with time as it was supposed to. The amygdala, incidentally, plays an important role in social interactions.

Maybe it’s not so surprising they also observed that in the vaccinated monkeys the opioid antagonist diprenorphine (DPN) levels never lowered throughout the study. In the placebo group, the DPN levels decreased noticeably.  One function of DPN is to block social interaction. What this means is the research showed that the social behavior of those monkeys that received the actual vaccines, where the DPN levels did not decrease, turned anti-social.

We found there was at least one more study undertaken to verify the association between DPN and social behavior. Performed in 1981, the authors of that study believe the release of opioids in the brain encourages social interactions. So, when the body fails to decrease the amount of the antagonist DPN, it not only blocks the opioids that encourage social interactions, but it blocks the desire to socially interact.

We were unable to find published studies that show a link between DPN and autism. However, we did look a little closer into DPN. Apparently, there are three different variations of opioid receptors: mu, µ; delta, δ; and kappa, κ.  We are only interested in the kappa (κ1 and κ2) receptors. There are more kappa receptors in the brain than any other opioid receptor. Not surprisingly, you’ll find these receptors in the amygdala. 

The paper states:

“The κ opioid receptors have been implicated in several clinical brain disorders, including drug abuse, epilepsy, Tourette’s syndrome, and Alzheimer’s disease.”

What DPN does is bind to the kappa receptors and that’s how it accumulates in the amygdala. So, it makes sense how DPN could cause problems when it doesn’t go away with time…

Excerpt ends.

‘VACCINE SCIENCE REVISITED’ is available via Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores, public libraries and via Amazon where it has a global review rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars. https://www.amazon.com/VACCINE-SCIENCE-REVISITED-Immunizations-Underground/dp/0473521598/

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Author John Perkins’ economic hitmen still alive and well in Africa

Posted: April 19, 2025 in Bankrupting the Third World, Underground Knowledge
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The poverty in South Sudan is too awful to behold as its people try to cope with escalating violence and a deepening humanitarian crisis. This despite the fact that the world’s youngest nation possesses an enviable variety of natural resources, including gold, diamonds, silver, various ores, water resources, luxury timber, fertile land, and diverse wildlife. Not to mention oil, its major export.

South Sudan’s story is essentially the story of Africa, which John Perkins highlights in his bestselling (must-read) book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and which we highlight in our book Bankrupting the Third World: How the Global Elite Drown Poor Nations in a Sea of Debt.

John Perkins…coined economic hitmen.

In our lesser-known book, we regrettably inform readers that the economic hit men popularized in Perkins’ 2004 bestseller are still alive and well – in Africa in particular but elsewhere as well.

Just look at the humanitarian crisis in the DRC (Congo), which possesses a vast array of natural resources, including significant mineral deposits of copper, cobalt, coltan, and diamonds, as well as substantial hydroelectric potential, fertile land, and diverse wildlife within the world’s second-largest rainforest.

We identify the cause of Africa’s woes: corrupt politicians, greedy corporates (a la the economic hitmen) and questionable aid packages provided by the likes of the World Bank, the IMF and USAID. Packages some suggest are scams designed to subjugate Third World countries.

Bankrupting the Third World is dedicated to the impoverished in forgotten places of the world. When we wrote it 21,000 people were dying from starvation every day. That’s one person every four seconds! We suspect the toll is even higher today.

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Bankrupting the Third World: How the Global Elite Drown Poor Nations in a Sea of Debt is available via Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores and public libraries and via Amazon… 

https://www.amazon.com/BANKRUPTING-THIRD-WORLD-Underground-Knowledge/dp/B08CJNJRQK/

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‘INTERNATIONAL BANKSTER$’ still very relevant in Trump era 2.0

Posted: April 14, 2025 in INTERNATIONAL BANKSTER$, Underground Knowledge
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As world stock markets reel from huge losses in Trump era 2.0, it seems much has changed and little has changed since our book INTERNATIONAL BANKSTER$ was published.

The man of the moment.

Trump’s tariffs war might have turned the markets upside down like never before, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the contents of our book’s very first chapter titled ‘Banksters on the rampage’. In it we remind readers we live in a really perverse world where we have almost unlimited military expenditure to finance wars, where our governments readily bail out privately-owned banks with multi-trillion-dollar relief packages, and yet politicians tell us there is not enough money to cover the measly costs of citizens’ basic healthcare, food, education and shelter.

The above-mentioned chapter, incidentally, includes my favorite quote of Warren Buffett’s:

“If a graduating MBA student were to ask me, ‘How do I get rich in a hurry?’ I would not respond with quotations from Ben Franklin or Horatio Alger but would instead hold my nose with one hand and point with the other toward Wall Street.”

There’s a growing awareness in the general population of large-scale financial corruption by the so-called global elite, or the 1%, if you will. Regardless of whether or not Trump’s tariffs work, I hope the 99% demand greater transparency in the way their money is being managed, and I pray the grotesque gap between the haves and the have-nots closes sooner rather than later.

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INTERNATIONAL BANKSTER$: The Global Banking Elite Exposed and the Case for Restructuring Capitalism is book 5 in our contentious Underground Knowledge Series. It’s available via Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores, public libraries and Amazon.

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‘Medical Industrial Complex’ highlights the disconnect between doctors and the role of nutrition in patients’ health

Posted: April 2, 2025 in Medical Industrial Complex, Underground Knowledge
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When did your doctor last talk to you about your diet? In MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: The $ickness Industry, Big Pharma and Suppressed Cures my co-author James Morcan and I ask this question.

Most will be aware of the old adage, You are what you eat. It seems to us, though, that many members of the medical profession aren’t aware – or, if they are, they consider it an old wives’ tale.

We suspect that more often than not doctors only deign to discuss diet when a patient dares to raise the subject. And then, if your experience is like ours, you’ll be greeted with a frosty stare or, at best, a few mumbled banalities about not over-eating or the importance of a balanced diet or cut down on fats.

Which leads to more (related) questions such as: How long do doctors-in-training spend studying nutrition at medical school, and why isn’t nutrition on the curriculum alongside biochemistry, pathology, physiology and the like?  

These questions and more are raised in a very appropriate discussion thread on the ResearchGate.net site. A random selection of comments from that thread follows:

•“We need clinicians to remember to consider nutrition when seeing/treating a patient rather than being a full nutritional expert. However, they should know basics such as basic nutritional needs and guidelines, calculating and interpreting BMI, when to give nutritional support and be aware of the importance of using nutritional screening tools to see if referral to a dietitian is required.”

•“I would be a staunch supporter of making nutrition a major field of study in a medical doctors pursuit of their degree.”

•“Before health care providers can get into…details about individual response to nutrients and talk about personal nutrition, they need to establish their nutrition knowledge and clinical skills foundation. For physicians this needs to happen in medical school and requires a serious effort.”

•“Considering the importance of nutrition for a patient’s recovery from disease and maintenance of health it is surprising that nutrition isn’t a bigger part of conventional medical school education.”

•“It should be within the core responsibilities of doctors to address nutrition in patient care and it is essential that all doctors know the appropriate time to make a dietitian referral.”

•“Why is it so hard to understand that robust familiarity with nutrition is equally or even more important (than surgery training)?”

To add some balance to the discussion, one contributor (from the University of Jordan) to the above thread observes that nutrition is “a specialized field and huge in its content.”  He adds, “Medical students (are) overwhelmed by texts, labs, and courses. It requires an evolutionary plan to incorporate nutrition with medicine curricula”.

Medical educators at least pay lip service to the importance of nutrition, and they appear to be in general agreement that there’s not enough instruction on this topic in today’s medical schools.

For example, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) addresses this via its official online site AAFP News. In one article, the writer reports that although most medical schools (in the US) offer some form of nutrition education, only one-quarter require a dedicated nutrition course.

The article continues, “In fact, the amount of nutrition education that medical students receive is so ‘inadequate’ that ‘medical school graduates feel unprepared to intervene in their patients’ care with regard to nutrition,’ according to the UNC preliminary survey results”.

A report published by the US National Library of Medicine in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health concludes that “The amount of nutrition education that medical students receive continues to be inadequate”.

That report summarizes a survey of 109 medical schools, which revealed that “most (103) required some form of nutrition education” of their students. The most disturbing revelation, however, is that “Overall, medical students received 19.6 contact hours of nutrition instruction during their medical school careers”.

The link between diet and health is well proven and, more importantly, widely acknowledged by doctors for ailments such as diabetes and heart disease but are roundly ignored by them in treating other human conditions – cancer being one of those. Indeed, mainstream (Western) medicine seems to go out of its way to discourage cancer patients from making too much of the cancer-diet connection.

The good health site HoneyColony.com neatly addresses this in an article quoting Dr. Carolyn Dean, a medical advisory board member of the nonprofit Nutritional Magnesium Association. She says, “There are many reasons why diet is not stressed in cancer treatment” and “Most of them stem from the fact that medicine does not put any emphasis on nutrition in medical school…In about 3,500 hours of typical medical school training, maybe one, two or three hours’ worth of classes are devoted to basic nutrition”.

There’s a serious disconnect between (most) doctors and the role of nutrition in their patients’ health. Whether you blame those who set the already crowded curricula at medical schools or whether you blame the tunnel vision mainstream medicine has regarding diet, the fact remains there’s a problem…

… If doctors are aware their patients are diet-conscious and if they’re constantly reminded nutrition is important to them, perhaps they’ll fall into line and give it (nutrition) the importance it deserves when it comes to treating people.

Hopefully, this chapter has provided you with some ammunition to fire their way.

Footnote: We acknowledge that the inference that doctors are not nutrition-minded or, for that matter, not supportive of alternative health measures is very much a generalization; we are aware there’s a growing number of physicians (and other health providers) in mainstream medicine who are very knowledgeable about nutrition and alternative health, and who incorporate this knowledge into their everyday practice.

Unfortunately, they are very much in the minority.

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On a lighter note… “First the doctor told me the good news: I was going to have a disease named after me.” -Steve Martin

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MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: The $ickness Industry, Big Pharma and Suppressed Cures is available via Harvard Bookstore, Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores, public libraries and via Amazon.

The book’s Amazon link is: https://www.amazon.com/MEDICAL-INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX-Suppressed-Underground/dp/B08CJR21HQ

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‘Antigravity Propulsion’ authors examine Einstein’s unified field theory

Posted: March 26, 2025 in Antigravity Propulson, Underground Knowledge
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There was a rumor going around at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study that Albert Einstein did indeed complete a version of his Unified Field Theory for Gravitation and Electricity – even though officially it remains a never-completed theory.

In a chapter titled “Einstein’s unified field theory”, we examine this in book two in our Underground Knowledge Series, ‘ANTIGRAVITY PROPULSION: Human or Alien Technologies?’

Albert Einstein…Famous theory completed?

Einstein’s theory was published in German and appeared in a few scientific journals. In his papers, the scientist called his purported mathematical proof of the connection between the forces of electromagnetism and gravity as being “highly convincing”. However, this work was withdrawn as incomplete, although no published reason is given save that Einstein suddenly grew dissatisfied with it.

British mathematician Lord Bertrand Russell considered Einstein’s Unified Field Theory complete but felt that “Man is not ready for it and shan’t be until after World War III.”

Thus the Unified Field Theory on the connection between gravity and the electromagnetic field remains unproven.

Leading scientist and former high-ranking employee of Japan’s Ministry of Defense, Dr. Takaaki Musha, published an article in the 2004, Issue 53 edition of the Infinite Energy Magazine relating to this very question. The article, which covers a unique formula Dr. Musha developed for the link between electromagnetism and gravitation, was titled The possibility of strong coupling between electricity and gravitation.

After publication of the article, Dr. Musha claims he was contacted by a scientist (name redacted) from the Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, in Bulgaria. The scientistwas already working on a similar formula to Dr. Musha’s.

According to Dr. Musha, the Bulgarian’s “formulation proves it is possible to create an unbalanced acceleration by creating intense electric and magnetic fields in a dielectric or ferromagnetic medium. These predicted coupling effects for electromagnetic and gravitational fields would be static and thus they should be able to produce a net force to propel a spaceship.”

The Bulgarian scientist wrote two papers on his formula in 1994.

“However,” Dr. Musha claims, these “papers were rejected by two well-known science journals.”

The strong implication is there was a cover-up. Either that or mainstream science was just not prepared to consider such theories on antigravity.

T. T. Brown, who discovered this electrogravitic effect first, conducted several experiments during the 1950’s and succeeded to generate thrust without the reliance on a surrounding medium, such as air, by applying high voltages to materials with high dielectric constants. Around this time, US aerospace companies also become involved in such research, but their results are mostly classified.

In the late 1990’s, Dr. Musha says he worked with the Honda Corporation Research Institute in Japan and conducted an experiment to confirm the electrogravitic effect. Astonishingly, Dr. Musha claims he and the Honda Corporation obtained a positive result.

Dr. Musha also says, “In Dr. Thomas Valone’s 1993 book Electrogravitics Systems: Reports on a New Propulsion Methodology, Dr. Paul LaViolette claimed that electrogravitic technology was developed under US Air Force black projects since late 1954, and it may now have been put to practical use in the B-2 Advanced Technology Bomber to provide an exotic auxiliary mode of propulsion.”

Dr. Musha continues, “An electrogravitic drive of B-2 could allow it to fly at a sufficiently high speed at high altitude, or even (in) space, and it could fly around the world without refueling in an antigravity mode.”

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Antigravity Propulsion is available via Amazon and public libraries.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/ANTIGRAVITY-PROPULSION-Technologies-Underground-Knowledge/dp/0473365391/

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Fellow writers – here’s one way to solve the dreaded writer’s block

Posted: March 22, 2025 in Books in general
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So, you want to write a book but don’t have the time? Here’s a tip from my book GENIUS INTELLIGENCE: Secret Techniques and Technologies to Increase IQ – one of about 35 books (fiction and nonfiction) James and I have co-authored to date. In it, speed writing is one of numerous techniques we include because we believe it may hold brain boosting potential for aspiring geniuses.

Disclaimer: to our knowledge no studies, other than our own, have been done on speed writing from the perspective of boosting the brain’s potential. This despite the fact that there are numerous books and websites devoted to writing manuscripts quickly.

Ours is simply an unusual little technique we discovered by accident and noticed it worked wonderfully on many occasions and always when we were severely time pressured. We consider this fortuitous discovery an important ingredient in our progress as published authors and feature film screenwriters.

Speed writing, like many other techniques listed in this book, relates to outrunning the conscious mind and going so fast that the superior subconscious is forced to completely take over. So, as the name suggests, you write so quickly that you don’t even know what you’re writing anymore. The goal is not to get instantly well-written text, but rather stream-of-consciousness stuff that you can revise and give clearer meaning to later.

According to our individual experiences, the resulting stream will usually have pearls within it, but a lot will need to be edited out as well.

Some of our best plot ideas or character decisions in our novels and film scripts have come using this technique. We just write super-fast and almost without thinking – maybe for five minutes or so – and more often than not what we wrote solved a major storyline issue or character problem.

It seems that certain insights can only come in this manner – or at least come more easily – as opposed to writing at regular speed. Sometimes you hit a brick wall when writing novels or screenplays. Something is missing and that something cannot be rectified with the conscious mind no matter how hard you try.

Speed writing is one way to solve the dreaded writer’s block.

Whether you use this method to add to an existing draft of a document, or whether you’re still attempting to complete a first draft, it works. We’ve proven it to our own satisfaction on numerous occasions.

Speed writing is not just for authors of course. It can be used to good effect by others – students who may be writing essays, for example, or business executives drafting reports or preparing finance proposals. It can even be used in your personal life when you’re facing a dilemma and cannot think of any solutions with your conscious mind – in this case you can speed write a list of possible options and see what your subconscious mind delivers to you.

If you want to test the method we use, try the following: put yourself under a time constraint by setting an alarm clock for 5 to 10 minutes then tell yourself you must write as much as you’d normally write in 45-60 minutes. Go! Until the alarm clock rings, don’t judge yourself or censor yourself or analyze anything – simply write as much as you can, as quickly as you can.

During the process it may feel like you’re writing utter garbage, but if our experiences are anything to go by, there will at least be some gems you can retain or use to vastly improve whatever it is you’re writing.

Our theory on why speed writing works is that you are not only forcing yourself to operate at speeds that only the subconscious mind can keep up with, but you are also not analysing, censoring or critiquing what you write as you go. (Over-analysing is another trait of the conscious mind).

The best ideas often seem ridiculous at first and this technique allows you to just get all ideas out of your head and onto paper so you can consider them later. 

Exactly how does speed writing relate to genius intelligence? Well, the connection is totally unproven, but instinct and personal experience tells us that, if done correctly (trance-like and without hesitation), you’ll tap into that great reservoir of the subconscious mind where all genius abilities come from.

A final point: when speed writing, it’s immaterial whether you write with pen in hand or use a computer keyboard. That said, we find speed writing seems to flow better when handwriting text – almost as if the pen’s a natural extension of the hand, allowing thoughts and words to flow directly from the brain onto the writing pad.

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GENIUS INTELLIGENCE: Secret Techniques and Technologies to Increase IQ is available via Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores, Amazon and public libraries. The Amazon link is: https://www.amazon.com/GENIUS-INTELLIGENCE-Techniques-Technologies-Underground/dp/0473318490/

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New historical adventure novel highlights the age of cannibalism in New Zealand

Posted: March 7, 2025 in New Zealand: A Novel
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The following excerpt from the historical adventure New Zealand: A Novel describes a Maori raid on an East Coast pa (fortified village) and reveals the victors’ lust for the flesh of their enemies. It was the age of cannibalism…

Excerpt begins:

The Te Arawa flotilla’s appearance in the bay caused considerable panic on shore. Armed warriors took up defensive positions while others prepared to launch wakas [canoes] to intercept the enemy’s flotilla. They evidently had second thoughts when they saw the size of the fleet, retreating instead behind their fortifications to await the invaders’ arrival, which could now be measured in heartbeats.

As the leading waka caught a wave and surfed the last forty yards to the beach, Apera studied the pa’s defences. He was pleased to note the stockade was in a state of disrepair, and there was no sign of the trenches, lookout towers or other defences that were a hallmark of bigger, well-defended pas like the Te Arawa’s own one at Rotorua and their allies’ pa at Maketu.

The Te Arawa raiders were among the very first outsiders to have visited Tokomaru Bay in such numbers, so remote was it, and the villagers believed their isolation kept them safely removed from the conflicts that raged elsewhere – until today. The conflict that followed was as bloody as it was brief; resistance was weak and short-lived because the villagers had little experience of war.

Apera’s raiders killed almost every villager, sparing only the rangatira Rawiri, his two wives, thirty warriors and twenty-five nubile wahines. The warriors, all big men, were considered suitable candidates for slavery while the wahines would be used by the raiders for pleasure before being enslaved or killed.

As darkness fell, flames lit up the night sky after the raiders set fire to the whares [huts] and other structures. It wasn’t long before Rawiri’s whare was the only one left standing. Warriors wandered amongst the fallen, dispatching survivors with a savage thrust of a spear or blow from a club. The larger, meatier corpses – males and females – were stacked in a pile on the marae, a communal meeting place in the middle of the pa. These would be cooked, and the flesh and organs of many would be eaten before the night was over. Uneaten flesh would be cut into strips then smoked, packed and saved for eating in the days and weeks ahead.

The cries of the wounded faded. The only sounds were the crackling of flames and the triumphant shouts of the victorious Te Arawa warriors. Those same warriors then performed an impromptu haka to celebrate their triumph. Chanting, gyrating, leaping and stamping the ground in unison, the war dance was awesome, gut-wrenching and terrifying all at the same time. Between chants, the participants poked out their tongues, a chilling reminder that those vanquished would be eaten. Warriors needed no such reminding for all were aware, regardless of which iwi they belonged to, that that was the likely fate of those killed or enslaved. Maoris believed they inherited their enemies’ strength when they ate them.

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The print versions of New Zealand: A Novel are available via Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores, Mighty Ape NZ and Amazon. Global review rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars.

The novel’s Kindle ebook link is: 

https://www.amazon.com/New-Zealand-Novel-Lance-Morcan-ebook/dp/B0DPTJTDCQ

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John Jewitt’s diary brings the First Nations people of yesteryear alive!

Posted: February 27, 2025 in Into the Americas, The Adventures of John Jewitt
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Those who share our fascination with the First Nations people of North America will surely resonate with THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN JEWITT: The true story that inspired Into the Americas (Illustrated).

It’s one of several books that faithfully duplicates a young English seaman’s diarized account of his years as a captive of Mowachaht warriors in Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, in the early 1800s.

John Jewitt’s diary was – as our book’s subtitle suggests – the inspiration for one of our bestselling novels, Into the Americas. The diary is a public domain book, so we didn’t hesitate to “borrow” some of Jewitt’s adventures and include them, albeit dramatized, in our novel.

John Jewitt…as pictured in his diary.

Jewitt was one of only two survivors when fierce Mowachahts slaughtered (decapitated) 25 crewmen aboard the brig The Boston. He and his fellow survivor had to endure more than two years as slaves of the First Nations people of Nootka.

Jewitt’s writing seems surprisingly modern, and his observations are insightful and perceptive, which makes for a very easy, interesting read. He clearly resonated with his captors and his written observations of them and their customs really bring the First Nations people of the era alive.

There are several credible versions of John Jewitt’s public domain diary available on Amazon. Whether you read our version or another, no matter. His story is highly recommended!

And for those who prefer fiction, here’s the novel Jewitt’s diary inspired…

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