Michael D. Gershon was born on March 3, 1938 in New York, NY.  Nothing in his early life prepared him for a scientific career.  Dr. Gershon’s father was a lawyer and an accountant, did tax law, and ran the Audit Unit of the New York City Board of Education.  His mother was a high school teacher who specialized in teaching stenography to children with special needs.  After a traumatic experience at a truly awful junior high school, Dr. Gershon was offered an opportunity to join an “honors” class in Biology in high school.  His qualifications appeared to be marginal but they needed one more student to fill the class and, although it seemed to the authorities that Dr. Gershon would be hard pressed to cope with the work, they were willing to let him try if he was willing to accept the challenge.  Dr. Gershon accepted that challenge and it set his career path for life.  The Biology teacher was gifted and the subject addicted Dr. Gershon; however, the promised difficulty of the work never materialized.  He “aced” that course; work is not work when it is fun.  Sinclair Lewis’ “Arrowsmith”, read the same year, convinced Dr. Gershon that biomedical research would be his life’s work and so it has been.

Dr. Gershon received his Bachelor’s degree with distinction from Cornell University in 1958.  He went on to complete his MD degree, also at Cornell, in 1963, having taken an extra year to gain a research experience.  That year set his field as Anatomy and Cell Biology.  It also enabled him the find the right woman, Dr. Anne Gershon, to whom he has been married ever since.  After graduation, Dr. Gershon, now the father of one son, omitted clinical training and went on to do post-doctoral work, first at Cornell, and then from 1965-6, in Pharmacology, at Oxford University.  Dr. Gershon returned from Oxford to the Department of Anatomy at Cornell, where between 1964 and 1975 he rose through the academic ranks to Professor.

In December of 1975, Dr. Gershon made the crosstown move from Cornell to Columbia University where he served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology until 2006 when he stepped down as Chair, but continued his research and teaching as a Professor.  His old department was fused with the Department of Pathology and is now the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology.  From the time of his graduation to the present, the National Institutes of Health has supported Dr. Gershon, providing funding for his research and for a significant portion of his salary.  

Dr. Gershon has been called “the father of neurogastroenterology” for his explication of the ability of the enteric nervous system (ENS) to function without CNS input, the roles of serotonin in gut physiology, and for his pioneering work on ENS development.  Dr. Gershon’s major discoveries include serotonin’s actions as an ENS neurotransmitter.  Dr. Gershon was also the first to identify intraenteric primary afferent neurons that trigger peristaltic and secretory reflexes and to show that mucosal serotonin activates these neurons.  Dr. Gershon identified and characterized the gastrointestinal functions of many of the enteric receptors that respond to serotonin and he was the first to demonstrate that the serotonin transporter (SERT), which terminates mucosal and ENS serotonergic signaling, is present in enterocytes and serotonergic neurons. Dr. Gershon has also shown that mucosal serotonin is proinflammatory but that ENS serotonin is anti-inflammatory.  These observations have given rise to the concept that serotonin is “the sword and shield of the bowel” driving inflammation to protect the gut from microbial invasion while, at the same time, protecting enteric neurons from inflammatory damage.  Serotonin activates adult stem cells to give rise to new neurons and acts as a growth factor during fetal neurogenesis. Dr. Gershon discovered roles in ENS development of netrins, laminin, and many growth and transcription factors that help explain the pathogenesis of Hirschsprung’s disease and other ENS birth defects.  Drs. Michael and Anne Gershon have demonstrated that varicella zoster virus (VZV), the cause of chickenpox and shingles, infects, becomes latent, and reactivates in enteric neurons, both in an animal model and in the human gut.  These observations raise the possibility that “enteric zoster” occurs and could potentially give rise to a variety of gastrointestinal disorders, the pathogenesis of which is currently unexplained. 

Dr. Gershon has received several prominent honors.  A few of those highlights include serving as president of the Cajal Club in 1994, the Association of Chairs of Departments of Anatomy in 1986, and as president of AAA from 1995-1996.  The American Association for the Advancement of Science elected him as a fellow in 1999.  In 2000, Dr. Gershon was awarded the Henry Gray/Lippincott Williams Wilkins Scientific Achievement Award, AAA’s highest scientific honor.  He was elected as a Fellow of the AAA in 2007 and to membership in the American Clinical and Climatological Association in 2011.  Dr. Gershon’s work has been recognized and honored by the Collège de France, Mayo University, the American Physiological Association, and the American Gastroenterological Association.

Lloyd Pye is a researcher and author known for his work with the Starchild Skull and Intervention Theory. Lloyd began writing in 1975, then became a screenwriter in Hollywood in the 1980s. In 1995, he found his passion writing nonfiction in Alternative Knowledge.

Alternative Knowledge is information rooted in mainstream science, but in areas normally kept from public discussion because they cast doubt on the currently accepted paradigms and dogmas of the mainstream.

Lloyd's fields of expertise include Intervention Theory, the origins of life, of human life, of alien reality, of hominoid (bigfoot, yeti, etc.) reality, which makes him a dynamic platform speaker in about Alternative Knowledge.

I was born in Houma, Louisiana, on September 7, 1946, on the leading edge of the famous “Baby Boom,” among the first crop of offspring born to the young men and women who as children endured the Great Depression and as young adults survived World War II.

My mother endured 50 hours of labor in a small clinic before she died. As soon as she died, I was cut out of her in the hope my life could be saved. It was, but my head was so misshapen from the long labor that the doctor felt I was hopelessly brain damaged. He told my father that his wife was dead and I  would be a “vegetable.” As was acceptable at that time, Dad was asked for permission to let me "expire" along with Mom so he could start over fresh from this terrible turn of events.

Dad was wrestling with that awful decision when Mom suddenly came back to life! She had become one of those rare individuals who have gone deep into the brilliant white tunnel of death, seen and spoken to her own deceased father on "the other side," and returned by her own choice to live on. Miraculously, in a time before ultrasounds when she had no way to know the gender of her unborn child, she told the apparition of her father that she could not stay, she had a son that she needed to return to and look after. She has since survived five other near-deaths, none quite as dramatic as that first one at 19, and she is still alive in her early 80s.

I became the oldest of four siblings, an “A” student and good enough at sports to earn a football scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans. I graduated in 1968, with a B.S. in psychology. This was the height of the Viet Nam War, so to avoid being drafted and consigned to be cannon fodder in the infantry, I enlisted in the Army. After a battery of tests I was assigned to the Military Intelligence School at Fort Holabird, Maryland, and after training I was assigned to a small field office in Gainesville, Georgia. My job was carrying out background investigations for people who needed security clearances. Mine was a routine tour of duty with no time spent in Viet Nam.

Through my 20s I worked at a number of ordinary jobs, mostly sales, but none were fulfilling. I wanted to do something more interesting and challenging. I began to lean toward writing, and at 28 began to study that craft in earnest. At 31, I published a sports-based novel that I used as a calling card in Hollywood, where I labored at the edge of success for most of the 1980s. In the late 1980s I published "Mismatch," a high-tech Cold War thriller that dealt with phone phreaking, early computer hacking, and submarine warfare.

While pursuing a career writing fiction, I also indulged a deeply personal interest in hominoids (bigfoot, yeti, etc.). By 30 I was convinced they were the indigenous bipedal primates of planet earth, and that what science told us were “pre” humans were nothing of the kind. They were the ancestors of today’s living hominoids, not of today’s humans, but I had no plausible way to explain how humans had come to be here. I knew we weren’t a part of the flowchart of natural life on Earth, and that we clearly didn’t evolve here in the way mainstream science insisted, but I couldn’t find a valid way to support my position.

Finally, at 45, I read Zecharia Sitchin’s classic book about Sumerian prehistory, The Twelfth Planet, which he published in 1976 but which I didn’t find out about until 1990. His translation of Sumerian history written in cuneiform on stone tablets provided an explanation for human origins that made rational sense based on what I had learned about the reality of hominoids. I had the front end of his work and he had the back end of mine, so I knew I could combine the two and create something unique and valuable. In late 1997 I published "Everything You Know Is Wrong" (EYKIW), which became a proverbial “overnight sensation.”

Through 1998, I traveled all over the U.S. and into western Canada lecturing about it at dozens of conferences and speaking about it in many radio interviews. I then had some appearances on local TV shows. My increasing exposure brought me to the attention of Ray and Melanie Young of El Paso, Texas, who were in possession of an unusual human-like skull. They showed it to me early in 1999 and asked my opinion. I felt it was almost certainly a human deformity of some kind, but I told them it couldn’t hurt anything to be absolutely sure. They asked if I would confirm that for them, and I said I’d be happy to.

That set in motion on on-going series of events as I attempted to definitively determine the genetic heritage of their unusual relic, since dubbed the Starchild Skull. I have shepherded the Starchild through more than a decade of scientific tests, expert analysis, raised public awareness, and have published 

Whenever the Starchild case is over, I intend to refocus on my other career as a researcher of the Intervention Theory of human origins, and as a proponent of hominoid reality. I intend to continue teaching those who decide to enroll in the "Invisible College" of students who care more about establishing actual truths than they do about protecting ossified dogma.

I am currently a VIGRE postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Statistics at Stanford University. I received my Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences in August of 2007 from the University of Texas, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, with an area of focus in Biomathematics and Biostatistics. I conducted my work at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the Pharmaceutical Development Center under adviser Robert A Newman. My background is varied. Prior to my work in Texas, I obtained a BS in civil engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a masters degree in Oriental Medicine from Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Portland, OR. After obtaining my master's degree I operated an acupuncture clinic in Portland for a couple of years. In my study of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I became interested in the use of plant compounds for treating diseases, cancer in particular. This interest eventually led to the publication of two books, which were essentially summaries and syntheses of published preclinical and clinical studies. Between books I met Dr. Newman, and he later invited me to M.D. Anderson to work on a Ph.D.

My primary interest is in developing statistical and dynamic models to predict the pharmacokinetic properties of plant-derived compounds, as well their pharmacological effects on cancer cells. The approach I have taken is systematic in that rather than studying a particular compound or a small set of similar compounds, I am interested in developing larger, more complex models to predict the properties of arbitrary compounds. Accurate predictive models will be useful to efficiently screen large libraries of compounds for promising drugs. Due to synergistic interactions, combinations of compounds can sometimes be more effective than single drugs. Thus I am also interested in modeling drug interactions, which can depend upon protein-drug binding affinity and protein-protein interactions. Specific research interests include:

• Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models and other statistical models for predicting drug activity and absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion (ADME) characteristics
• Statistical learning methods, including kernel learning methods (support vector machines, for example)
• Prediction of protein-drug binding affinity and protein-protein interactions using knowledge-based approaches
• Learning methods for relational data
• Systems biology, in general
• Methods to quantify drug interactions (synergism/antagonism/additivity)

Captain Paul Watson
Founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Co-Founding Director Greenpeace Foundation

One of our greatest warriors for Planet Ocean, Captain Paul has over four decades of experience at sea, and more than two decades as Master and Commander of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society voyages to protect, defend, and conserve the Earth's wild oceans.

He earned his experience in the Norwegian and Swedish Merchant Marine in the sixties and early seventies, and served as First Officer on Greenpeace voyages between 1971 and 1976.

Since 1979, he has commanded over 200 primarily offshore voyages in storms, ice packs, through canals and treacherous currents, and dangerous confrontations without a single accident or a single injury to his crew or to anyone else. In fact, on many occasions he has commanded two ships simultaneously, relaying orders to a subordinate captain when it has been necessary to deploy two ships at once.

Captain Watson is a sea captain in the truly traditional sense - where he is the master and commander of his own ships and is not dictated to by a corporate Board. He makes the decisions and he bears the full responsibility for his actions.

In 1994, Sea Shepherd acquired a miniature submarine Mirage. A spokesperson for the Canadian Navy publicly stated that no one at Sea Shepherd knew anything about operating a submarine and it was ridiculous for Sea Shepherd to acquire one. He guaranteed that someone would be hurt.

Captain Paul Watson responded to the Canadian Naval spokesperson at the time by saying:

"Since World War II, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has boarded more ships, rammed more ships, engaged in more high seas confrontations and sunk more ships than the Canadian Navy. They are hardly in a position to presume to judge what we are competent or capable of doing."

Their record speaks for itself: All these years later - still no injuries.

I have been honored to serve the whales, dolphins, seals - and all the other creatures on this Earth. Their beauty, intelligence, strength, and spirit have inspired me. These beings have spoken to me, touched me, and I have been rewarded by friendship with many members of different species. If the whales survive and flourish, if the seals continue to live and give birth, and if I can contribute to ensuring their future prosperity, I will be forever happy."

Without a doubt, the Sea Shepherd is the most experienced marine wildlife conservation interventionist organization in the world, and Captain Watson is the single most experienced marine conservation sea captain on the high seas today.

Jude Unegbu has been a spiritual healer for over 20 years. Born in West Africa, he traveled with his Shaman grandfather, Job Unegbu, who offered healing to people afflicted with epilepsy, elemental attachments, leprosy, mental curses, depression, and other physical illnesses.

His healing education was further enhanced by the techniques he learned from another great man, His Eminence, Sir George King, founder of The Aetherius Society, whose spiritual and yoga teachings offered a strong foundation from which Jude has built a life dedicated to serving humanity and loving all things.

Combining his knowledge of African Shamanism and the King technique, Jude lectures at colleges and private institutions about health, Earth changes, and protective practices. He also teaches the Spiritual Healing technique and offers Spiritual Healing at hospitals and in his private practice.

Jude also offers Spiritual Healing to animals. He has found that dogs and cats typically respond well to this healing technique.

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Dr Jude Unegbu is a resident shaman and healer at Beneveda Medical Group in Beverly Hills, California. Jude has been a spiritual healer for more than 16 years.



Born in West Africa he trained under his shaman grandfather who healed people afflicted with a wide variety of physical illnesses. Jude's spiritual learning was enhanced by the healing techniques he learned from Sir George King, Founder of the Aetherius Society.



Combining his knowledge of African shamanism and the King techniques Jude's healing procedures utilize all of the major chakra or energy centers to fill the body with spiritual energy and to drive out illnesses. He can help with mental and emotional problems as well as physical ailments.



Some of the conditions he has successfully worked with include depression, anxiety attacks, epilepsy, leprosy, ADD, high blood pressure, back pain, body injuries, cancer, stomach problems, sleep disorders, addiction, relationship issues, job issues, and elemental attachments (popularly known as ghost attachments). Jude also finds spiritual healing is effective for a variety of childhood issues including depression, ADD, OCD, autism, epilepsy, and sleep issues. He blesses homes, offices, and animals to rid them of negative influences.



Jude lectures at colleges and private institutions about health, earth changes, and protective practices. He also teaches spiritual healing techniques and offers spiritual healing at hospitals, and in private practice.



Jude holds a PhD in christian psychology from Reform Theological Seminary.

She has been writing since high school starting with a monthly newspaper and later starting one of her own. In addition to writing articles online, she has two books for sale online. The first book The Walking Wounded is a book for women on healing the wounds from the past and walks women through healing from past abuse using information the Lord provided when she was suffering from abuse. Her second book is Prophetic Dance which is about prophetic dancing as given by the Lord and how to use it for him. She is currently writing another book on the Healing Wounded that will be for men.

Deb has been healed of migraine headaches of 21 years through her faith. During that period she lost jobs often because of the headaches. Since recovery she has become a pastor and helps others overcome hardships with spiritual healing. And counseling.

Bill Ryan has a BSc in Mathematics with Physics and Psychology (Bristol University, UK, 1974), and followed this with a brief stint in teaching. For 27 years he was a management consultant specializing in personal and team development, leadership training and executive coaching. Major long-term clients included BAe (formerly British Aerospace), Hewlett-Packard, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In November 2005 he inaugurated the Project Serpo website, the report of an alleged disclosure, in stages, of a US-alien exchange program which took place over 40 years ago. While he had been interested in UFOs, Free Energy research and alternative medicine (he is trained as a kinesiologist) for over thirty years, his first contact with the UFO community at large occurred after establishing the Serpo website. He resigned his management consultancy post in May 2006, having founded Project Camelot with Kerry Cassidy.

Please click here to read more of the history of Project Camelot - which is a topic in itself, way beyond this brief summary. Essentially Camelot was a bold (and highly successful) adventure into cutting-edge investigative alternative media research, generating over 100 full-length video interviews on a number of alternative and controversial subjects addressing some of the most important issues of our times.

Some of the subjects addressed are summarized in the two embedded videos opposite, each of them excellent summaries of Camelot's work in general - and Bill's philosophy and personality in particular.

Bill is currently based in Europe, but travels widely. Project Avalon is his new site, which he runs independently. He is dedicated to continuing the mission of Project Camelot, addressing current global problems with a spiritual focus and a proactive, practical and community-based approach.

Frank Joseph is the editor in chief of Ancient American magazine and the author of Atlantis and 2012, The Destruction of Atlantis, The Lost Civilization of Lemuria, Survivors of Atlantis, and The Lost Treasure of King Juba. He lives in Minnesota.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Collin