Excerpted from

Paradise Found

by D.M. Murdock aka Acharya S

Author's Note of April 2008: The following is a portion of a book I completed in 1996 called Paradise Found. This fiction book has not been published, but I thought this part to be pertinent to what is happening in the world today. It is from a chapter entitled "Out of Chaso Comes Order." The true names of the locations in the story I have put into brackets. Considering that I wrote this info 12 years ago - and I have posted it here unchanged - it seems fairly prescient. Some of it - such as the Europeans implementing widespread hemp production - is obviously  and purposely optimistic, serving as a hopeful suggestion rather than providing the potential worst-case scenario, which I'm afraid might be the case in the end. For example, I did not factor in "religious strife" in Europe, which is quickly becoming a huge issue. I attempted back in the late 1990s to inform people about what was coming, but I received so much flack I gave up!

Paradise Found is a massive work that required six years to complete and was the first book I finished.

The Great Chaos

As the years progressed, the natural and manmade planetary paroxysms that many had predicted did come to pass, more or less in accordance with the prognostications, although some of what was forecast by the new oracles could be dismissed as "end of the era insanity." Nevertheless, the catastrophes and climatic changes that had in the past plagued humanity to varying degrees increased in number and scope, such that the face of Edda [Earth] was transforming at a dramatic pace. Over the decades, there had been numerous warnings of the coming calamities from a variety of individuals, including scientists, environmentalists, native spokespeople and other visionaries, so that a multitude of people had been prepared for the inevitability of these transmutations. The folks who hearkened to the call would insure that, despite the turmoil, life would continue on the planet.

As the world marched ever onward into the New Eon, the period of the Great Chaos unfolded with mounting intensity. The small but populous island of Zipangu [Japan] was rocked and nearly destroyed by terraquakes and tidal waves, and, as the inhabitants frantically rushed inland, innumerable bloody battles broke out. The country of Parsua [Persia] was leveled by terraquakes. With the runaway population growth in Synoa [China], the air, land and water there became fouled and despoiled, leaving millions without clean water, as Synoa was enduring a terrible drought and famine. The Central Armorican [Central American] water wars began, and portions of Mexitli [Mexico] had been devastated by volcanic eruptions and terraquakes. Slavia [Russia] was suffering from accelerating poverty, famine, ethnic unrest, water shortages and extreme weather. The Middle Continent [Middle East] was desperate to obtain fresh water, and skirmishes over land and resources were constant in those countries. The Evropian continent [Europe] was faced with overcrowding and food shortages, as well as environmental decay and pollution, but some of the governments there had wisely implemented procedures to arrest these crises, such as hemp production and severe chemical restrictions. Even though the economy had collapsed and it had been plagued by droughts and other natural disasters, North Armorica [North America] was at first fairly well-off in land and natural resources, compared to much of the planet, but its neighbors, such as the Mexitlans and other South Armoricans, strained at its borders, and civil war was always a threat. To the north, Kanoukland started to undergo hard fiscal times, even before its natural riches were depleted, the sales of which in part prevented the economy from utter disintegration.

The continent of Aferra [Africa] had become highly desertified, with millions starving and disease rampant. The wars there had escalated, with increasing outside interference and provocation, as all the international industrialists wanted several fingers in the Aferran pie, rich in minerals and other assets as that continent was. These greedy exploiters cared little about the inhabitants, who were expendable or utilizable as slave labor. As in that continent, race blew up into a big issue all over the globe, with foreigners in every nation being looked upon with suspicion and envy, and scapegoated or worse. The racial tensions in North Armorica had heightened to the point of endless conflicts going on in various parts of the country. The great continent "down under," Oceania [Australia], was likewise plagued by racial divisions, and the encroaching desert was pushing the inhabitants into the sea. Oceania was also being devastated by the effects of holes in the ozone layer.

The subcontinent of Arinna [India] was afflicted with horrible religious strife and environmental disasters such as water shortages, overpopulation, pollution and contamination with chemicals and toxins of all kinds. Storms also ravaged diverse regions of the country, as did topsoil depletion and flooding. Lüpah [Tibet] had its own difficulties, with the Synoese [Chinese] population overrunning the natives and the resultant resource decimation, on top of horrific blizzards that left the masses starving, snowblind and frostbitten. As the heavy snows melted, many areas were inundated, but because of its isolation, that magical land was not totally wrecked.

In South Armorica [South America], the rainforests continued to be desolated by people scrambling to survive, such that the continent started to resemble Aferra in its vast bald spots. Guerilla warfare surged on the entire continent as indigenous peoples sought to overthrow the ruling parties, who were squeezing the lifeblood out of the natives. Drug wars were an everyday event, as governments and mobs found this commodity and export the most practical means of income when their land was devitalized and the ecosystems overburdened. Some island nations, in fact, were completely overtaken by drug cartels and gangs with well-equipped armies to prevent intervention. In the southernmost spots of S. Armorica, the ozone thinning also contributed to the deaths of multitudes of humans and animals.

In spite of the events occurring in Oceania and S. Armorica, particular factions refused to heed the admonitions concerning the atmospheric degradation, with some groups and individuals even going to the point of calling the ozone-layer destruction a hoax. So, as time went on, the ozone layer globally grew ever thinner, with holes opening up everywhere, causing serious skin burns, cancers and cataracts, as well as the degradation of faunal populations and farmland. The destruction of the ozone layer was produced not only by manmade chemicals, methane and volcanic eruptions but was compounded by the above-ground detonation of nuclear devices, along with having perforations punched into it by the superfluous aerospace programs. In addition, particles of dirt and dust stirred up by the explosions, together with gases and clouds from volcanic eruptions worldwide, made the air unbreathable, and wreaked havoc with the atmosphere and the weather, causing fluctuating temperatures and areas globally to be plagued with horrendous high winds that were making everyday existence nearly impossible.

Below-ground nuclear detonations caused both disruptions along the orb's electromagnetic grid, as well as terraquakes and rifts, in sundry places. Nuclear power plants, especially those in quake-prone zones, began to rupture and leak, as did radioactive waste buried around the globe, causing widespread fouling of water, air and land, killing thousands, and weakening and mutating species. Sunken nuclear submarines also started to ooze, contaminating oceans and wiping out sea life, which was already decimated. Garbage dumps and sewage plants were leaking toxic decaying matter into groundwater and lakes, killing and poisoning wildlife. Oil spills were happening in record numbers, adding to the obliteration of wildlife and defilement of the shores. As the seas and lakes became more polluted, overfished and depleted, mass starvation ensued around the globe.

Because of the planetary warming at the onset of the tumult, the polar ice started to melt, causing the oceans to rise, flooding coastal cities and islands worldwide. As seas encroached, broad tracts of acreage also became salinized and ruined, contributing to the famine. Colossal chunks of glaciation hit South Armorica in the country of Patagonia, causing mountain-building, pulverization of land and displacement of the population and wildlife. In spite of the inundation, in many sites around the globe, water remained a serious concern, with not only shortages but increasing contamination, along with the exhaustion of wells and aquifers, and the plugging of irrigation systems and reservoirs with silt. Although various of the orb's governments and scientists had attempted to create rain, they were unable to control it, and drought struck disastrously, even in North Armorica, which was basically the world's breadbasket. Thus, famine spread even to the planet's richest nations. Where rain did fall, it was excessive, with floods that removed vast amounts of topsoil, so that even with the moisture there could be no crops. A constant barrage of snowstorms, hail, ice storms, and avalanches wrought tremendous damage in assorted areas, as did typhoons, tornadoes, cyclones and hurricanes.

As the tropical band expanded, also due to planetary warming, the world of animals and insects was going crazy, with infestations of bugs and organisms such as viruses, amoebas and bacteria, as well as other blights, destroying crops and arable acreage, and driving the inhabitants out or even killing them. Their numbers mushrooming because of all the floods, mosquitoes moved farther north and south with the equatorial expansion, generating malaria, encephalitis and other diseases in epidemic proportions. Animals around the globe began dying in enormous quantities as their environments desiccated, deluged or were toxified or deforested, and the rate of extinction skyrocketed. As their predators died off, other undesirable critters were multiplying, feeding on anything and spreading disease, as well as mutating into horrible but tenacious forms. Animals in the wild grew progressively ferocious as they were forced out of their habitats and began the frenzy for survival, moving to inhabited areas and attacking and devouring humans. Due to the disturbances in the orb's electromagnetic fields-which also had detrimental effects on the human psyche-animals were having trouble maintaining their migratory routes and were perishing in harsh winter weather. In some locales, genetic manipulations of bacteria, viruses, plants and critters by mankind had calamitous effects, as they ran amok and upset the organic order, from microbes to mammals.

As a result of the dismal environmental practices, which exacerbated or disturbed organic processes, the territory globally that was becoming desertified exceeded 100,000 square miles per year. In fact, before the tempest was over, about one-third of the planet's viable acreage would degenerate into desert. Such dryness allowed for fire and firestorms to break out everywhere, scorching the land and devastating inhabited areas. In addition, the deforestation worldwide caused by a multitude of factors, including acid rain, produced a reduction in oxygen, which contributed to deaths in all species.

As the oxygen-generating ocean algae and phytoplankton were wiped out by pollution, rising temperatures and radiation, a worsening shift in the chemical make-up of the atmosphere brought about wholesale die-offs of planetary lifeforms, disrupting the food chain and exacerbating famine globally. The temperature rise of the oceans reduced the absorption of carbon dioxide, which in turn led to greater hikes in temperature. With the warming and subsequent evaporation, the seas grew more salty, prompting further disruptions of their natural cycles and affecting the planetary weather. However, as the ice at the poles melted and storms swelled, the oceans eventually became less salty such that their cycles were altered once more, in the opposite direction. Even though these fluctuations were part of the organic cycles of weather control, during the years of the upheavals, it all began to happen at once, and the systems had gone haywire. In the past it may have required several centuries or millennia to move from one extreme to another; this time, it would take only several years, and greenhouse would become igloo almost overnight. While the equatorial region grew hotter and drier, the terrain farthest north and south consequently started to become colder, as the hot air from the equator precipitated out over the poles, dumping stupendous amounts of snow and initiating ice-age conditions.

With this sudden igloo effect, the ice at the poles rapidly built up again, so that the globe's axis began wobbling more widely, and the rotation started slowing down, leaving the planet on the verge of a dangerous polar shift, which would have triggered the most cataclysmic events yet. Fortunately, the predicted polar shifts did not occur, despite these climatic changes, which in the past had prompted such deviations. Additionally, Edda's magnetic fields began to fluctuate wildly, accompanied by strange lights, "skyquakes" and other anomalies. At one point, comets and meteors-traditional harbingers of disaster-made their way toward the planet in unprecedented numbers and threatened the very existence of the orb. The comets passed by uneventfully, and a few small meteorites did hit, but the majority of the meteors were dispatched by technological means. If the larger streaking rocks had not been thwarted, the impact would have kicked up billions of tons of dirt into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun and causing a world-killing deep freeze.

Before the commencement of the Chaos, new devices had been developed that beamed electromagnetic impulses into the atmosphere, mucking up in particular the ionosphere, which protected the orb from deadly cosmic rays. In addition, this technology had the capacity to knock out computers globally, which turned out to be a useful feature when certain countries began to engage in limited nuclear exchange. Fortunately, the launches could be prevented before the nukes could utterly obliterate the planet, but a few nukes-compact gadgets the size of suitcases that could readily be acquired on the black market-did discharge, kicking up soot and ash into the atmosphere that blocked out the sun, further decimating the ocean's phytoplankton, which were likewise killed by the disintegration of the ozone layer and the ionosphere itself. The "ionosphere heater" affected the weather as well; in fact, because of its potent energy output into the atmosphere, this apparatus would later be considered to be the last straw that set the Great Chaos in motion.

Although technology continued to move forward in select circles and fields, in the world at large there were increased airplane and train crashes as the machinery aged and broke down, with no funds to repair it. Other tragedies such as building and bridge collapses also occurred due to the economic disarray. Another major problem that contributed to the fiscal breakdown was the aging of the population and myriad illnesses, which led to runaway medical costs. On top of this were the scores of underground economies that included extensive smuggling rings, counterfeiting and a thriving black market. Many of the horrors and much of the global degradation were a result of the current monetary system, which was being overhauled by visionaries who still had the capacity and stability to implement a new fiscal formula.

During these terrible times, human behavior, already somewhat depraved, grew even more demented. The use of destructive drugs and alcohol was pervasive, as the populace grew more insane, as the food became less nourishing and few people felt well naturally, and as the pressure to produce and compete grew, such that folks felt the need to artificially stimulate or anesthetize themselves. Addiction to such drugs led to serious unravelling of the fabric of society, making individuals insensible and sociopathic. The lunacy was exacerbated by the use by various agencies of certain instruments to incite hysteria in the masses, which was growing desperately impoverished and vulnerable. In some places, greed and inequity reached high points when gangs of thugs out to make a buck corrupted the organ-donation field by kidnapping persons, especially homeless folks, and removing organs for sale. Sometimes the individuals involved were murdered and gutted; other times simply single organs such as a kidney were cut out, leaving the victim alive. People were also being abducted off the street and bled, with the stolen blood being sold to blood banks. Blood sports and fighting to the death became sickeningly popular, as did sex slavery and demonic rituals. Spousal abuse and murder, as well as incest, child abuse, molestation, pornography and labor, along with rape and prostitution in general, also exploded around the planet as the stress and derangement escalated. Suicide attempts and successes reached pandemic proportions, as mental health deteriorated to a low not seen since the Dark Eon of centuries before.

On account of all of this trauma, the masses began a mad dash towards survival, as countless locations around the sphere degenerated to a subsistence state with the resultant barbarity and lawlessness. This in turn caused a panicky mindset that propelled refugees heading for less decimated territory to crowd borders, leading to increasingly-common massacres to keep the hordes out. Incalculable portions of the sphere would be ravaged by just such frenetic behavior, with rioting and looting routine.  Since there was a shortage of oil and energy, many city streets were unlit and police cars unfueled, thus allowing for even further disorder and fear. Crimewaves globally soared as, despite the worldwide curfews and martial law, mobs of destitute, jobless, unfeeling and drug-damaged youths roamed free throughout ravaged city streets. Prison systems and mental institutions overflowed and burst at the seams, as anarchy and pandemonium ensued. Swarms of vagrants also moved through wrecked and abandoned cities, spreading disease and suffering from hunger, leading to theft, violence and widespread cannibalism. Extermination squads took it upon themselves to kill what they considered to be mutants and monsters roaming the streets. Because of a general structural breakdown worldwide, including sanitation and food production, as well as the utter ruination and demineralization of the soil, pestilence and starvation claimed hundreds of millions of lives. Due to these factors, the bodies piled up in all populated places, creating further health hazards.

In response to the mobocracy and the reduction of resources, governments became more draconian and tyrannical, as society and civilization commenced their final freefall into the abyss. In order to overthrow the governments in the first place, assorted agencies utilized mind-control techniques and instruments to brainwash people, generating "sleepers" who fomented trouble as suicide bombers and agents provocateur to destabilize administrations and terrorize the populace worldwide. These agencies also stepped up their acts of kidnapping and torturing individuals they thought were getting in the way of their plans for global domination.

As usual, the vicious religious wars that broke out all over the planet used ideology to justify committing genocide and stealing natural resources, land and possessions, as people all over the orb begged and waited for supernatural saviors of assorted races to come out of the sky to rescue them. A number of the apocalyptic visions did come to pass-in large part as self-fulfilling prophecies deliberately brought about by credolatrous fanatics who claimed that the catastrophes were needed to elicit the arrival of their specific deliverer, and thus actively worked to destroy the planet and instigate warfare. As part of this mind-game, terrorism rose to a point where it was nearly uncontrollable, and biological weapons that released anthrax and botulinum killed thousands. On top of this, huge storage depots globally that contained enormous amounts of biological and chemical weapons-some of which could kill in seconds-were leaking as well, as were the hundreds of chemical weapons that had been dumped into the oceans worldwide. Also a big problem were the tens of millions of landmines that had been placed around the planet.

As the discord descended, the human population at first rose astonishingly fast around the sphere, not just in certain countries. Yet, because of all the turmoil, the death toll likewise skyrocketed, such that the overpopulation problem eventually turned to the opposite. Additionally, as time went on, the human species started to become sterile-overtaxed, malnourished and contaminated as it was. Such was the state of humanity during the Great Chaos, as the world was in total confusion.

© 2008 D.M. Murdock and Acharya S. Excerpted from Paradise Found.