Martin Riches' reconstruction of the manna machine
Click on the image for a full-size picture

Illustrations from the book: Die Ewigkeits-Maschine
by Johannes and Peter Fiebag, Langen Mueller, Munich, 1998.
(The title means: The Eternity Machine)

The Holy Grail - Chalice or Manna Machine?

by Dr. Johannes Fiebag and Peter Fiebag
Translated from the German by George T. Sassoon

The Kabbalah, a body of Jewish traditional knowledge, was kept secret until the 13th Century AD, it s content was regarded from the magical-mystical point of view particularly so with respect to the Ancient of Days. This was considered to be a Jewish demi-god until in 1978 two English engineers, George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, concluded that the description of the Ancient of Days in the Zohar, one of the books of the Kabbalah, was not of an ominous god-figure, but rather a machine. A close investigation of the text convinced them that the machine produced the biblical manna which fed the Israelites during their forty-year wandering in the desert and was probably of extraterrestrial origin [1].

Othiq Yomin
The machine, called the Othiq Yomin in the Zohar, worked on the basis of the cultivation and processing of an algae-culture, probably one of the chlorella species, which was maintained by a supply of dew, or water, and of radiation from a nuclear-powered light-source.

The Zohar description is so exact that Sassoon and Dale were able to reconstruct the machine in all its details. At the top was a dew-distilling apparatus, which consisted of a curved, cooled surface. Air flowed over this, and from it water condensed. This water was the basic material for the vessel at the center, which contained the light source and the algae itself, which circulated in various pipes, permitting an exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the atmosphere and also dissipated heat. The chlorella sludge was then taken to another vessel, where the starch content was partically hydrolyzed to malt-like substances (hence the "honey and wafer" taste of the manna), and the dried matter was then finally stored in two collection containers from which it was later drawn off.

To reconstruct such a complex machine from the text of the Zohar necessitated a fresh translation of the original text, which was accomplished by Sassoon, a linguist and computer expert, as well as an electronics engineer [2]]. While the textual description of the machine is extremely detailed, it is not immediately apparent that it is a technical service manual because the parts of the Othiq Yomin (originally translated as Ancient of Days, when the "Transportable One of the Tanks" would be more accurate) are designated with the terminology in use about 1000 BC. For example, in the Zohar we read passages such as the following:

"There are three upper heads; two, and one which contains them."

At the time the Zohar was written, there were no words for "perspex dome", or "algae-cultivation-vessel", so they used "head", "skull" and very often "face", such as in the following extract:

"The dew of the white head drops into the skull of the Small-faces One and there is it stored."

To enable regeneration of the algae-culture, it was made to flow through a transparent circulation system, which is known in the Zohar as the "venerable beard", through which went the "oil of the great goodness", that is, the algal sludge. These "pipes" are discussed thusly:

"And those parts which are found in the beard, they are shaped and lead downwards in many directions."

The machine was equipped with a considerable number of control lamps, which are called "shining eyes" in the Zohar text, and which light up in various colors:

"In his lower eyes there are a left and a right eye, and these two have two colors, except when they are seen in the white light of the upper eye."

Ark of the Covenant
The complete machine was regarded as a deity or demi-deity consisting of male and female parts. It was given to the Israelites at the beginning of their wandering in the wilderness, possibly by extraterrestrials and produced the manna which enabled them to survive. By all accounts, the machine was kept in the so-called Ark of the Covenant, which served as a transport container for the nuclear-powered machine, which was easily damaged under desert conditions. In the time of David and Solomon it found its place in the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, while before that it was kept in the Holy Tent, or Tabernacle.

The last mention of the Ark in the Old Testament is in the book of Maccabees, where the prophet Jeremiah hides the Ark and the Machine on Mount Nebo. After that the Bible says no more, and nowhere in it do we find any further trace. Such was the state of knowledge about the Ancient of Days and the Ark of the Covenant after the publication of Rodney Dale and George Sassoon's book The Manna Machine.

In 1980, we began to investigate the history of the machine. We asked ourselves how it was possible for such an important and unusual object to disappear without a trace, and whether it was possible for it to have re-appeared as some "Holy Device" at some time during the course of the following 2500 years. Now, at the end of our preliminary studies on this subject, we have come to the conclusion that the Manna Machine was brought from Israel to Europe.

Our statement that the machine was re-discovered and transported is based on two pieces of evidence: first the Parsifal (Parzival) epic of the upper middle ages, and second the history of the Order of the Brotherhood of the Templars.

Parsifal
The Parsifal epic was first set down in written form around 1200 AD almost simultaneously in French and German, by the French poets Chrétien de Troyes and Robert de Boron, and by the German story-teller Wolfram von Eschenbach. In essence, it is a traditional story of a young hero who was brought up far from any contact with the knightly and courtly culture of the middle ages, and who escapes into the wide world where he has many adventures and meets King Arthur. He is dubbed a knight by the King, resumes his adventurous existence and is finally led to the castle of Munsalvatsch by the "hand of God". In this magical fortress there is a clan of nobles called the Guardians of the Grail. Their king has committed many sins which have condemned him to eternal sickness, from which he can be freed only if a God-fearing man asks him a question as to the reason for his illness. Parsifal is invited to a meal, but fails to ask the question. For many years he wanders hither and thither until he finally has another opportunity to visit Munsalvatsch. This time he asks the crucial question, the King's illness and suffering disappear, and Parsifal himself is crowned "Grail-King".

Several medievalists have already noted that the Parsifal epic consists of a conglomerate of very different texts. In fact, there existed a long time previously the so-called Peredur tradition, a Celtic myth which already contained many elements of the later legends. In it there are parts of the Arthur material, various heathen myths, Christian influences and the actual grail-tradition itself, which must be considered completely separate.

But what actually was the Grail? Authors of the middle ages carefully avoid any exact description. It is obvious that they had never seen the "holy object" themselves. The two French writers describe it simply as a "handsome vessel" or as a "metal bowl", and Robert de Boron states that it is the very chalice used at the Last Supper. It is here that the Christian influence on the Parsifal saga is most apparent. Wolfram von Eschenbach, on the other hand, is even more reticent. He writes simply:

"It was a thing, called the Grail, that gave all earthly desires in abundance."

And:

"The stone was also called the grail."

Etymologically speaking, several derivations are to be found of the Grail concept. From the middle Latin gradalis and the French gradale, meaning "bowl"; from the Provençal grazaal which corresponds to the old Catalonian gresal, which can also be translated as "bowl", "basin", or "dish", but also with the connotations of "milk-jug", "pleasure", "charity", and "bread"; and from a Nordic version of the Parsifal tradition - and this strikes us as most significant - the grail is spoken of as an object known as the gangandi greidi which can be translated as "transformer of consumable material".

Wolfram von Eschenbach speaks occasionally of a stone which he calls lapsit exillis. Philologically speaking, it has not yet been determined with certainty what is meant by this, however there is general agreement that lapsit is in fact a corruption of the word lapis, or "stone". One author emphasizes that "a contributor to the formation of lapsit is the Latin lapsus, as a word designating any sliding downward movements, fall or dive". In addition, lapsit exillis is also interpreted as lapis elixir, that is, "stone of the wise", which agrees well with the miracle-working nature of the grail. Other derive it from lapis exilii ("stone of the exile"), or lapis exulis ("the stone that is found far from home"). Finally, there is another very interesting translation: lapis lapsus ex illis stellis, that is "the stone that came down from the stars".

We now approach the point where we can make a hypothesis that the "Holy Grail" of the middle ages must have been the same as the Manna Machine of the Israelites described in the Kabbalah. This line of thinking is supported by two important factors: the principal function of the Grail and its origin. In the Zohar we find the following information about the foodstuff produced by the Manna Machine:

"And from that dew they grind the manna of the just ones for the world to come. At that time the Ancient of Days fed them from that place."

Also:

"See, I will make bread from Heaven to rain upon ye."

And further:

"God gave thee of the dew of heaven."

Thus the Israelites had at their disposal a machine, called by their priests Othiq Yomin ("The Transportable One of the Tanks") which fed them with manna - food. Wolfram von Eschenbach says exactly the same thing about the Grail:

"Now know ye this also: a hundred squires were summoned, who respectfully took bread on white linen from the Grail... They said to me, and I say it to you, that it came forth from the Grail, when ever one of them put out his hand to it... for the Grail was the fruit of the blessed ones, such a fullness of earthly sweetness, that it was like almost everything that might come from the Kingdom of Heaven."

Chrétien de Troyes describes it similarly, though with the Christian influences manifesting itself; he speaks of the bread taken from the Grail as a "host".

The correspondences between Manna Machine and Grail are astonishing: both the Othiq Yomin and the Grail were able to make "food". Just as the Zohar speaks of the manna as the food of "the just ones of the world to come", so also is the Grail, in relation to the nourishment it dispenses, referred to as the "fruit of the blessed ones."

These resembles and parallels would have little weight if it was stated in the Parsifal literature that the Grail was an earthly "object", that is, that it had come from the workshop of a goldsmith or a stonemason. In fact, the opposite is the case. As already shown the derivation of the words lapsit exillis can be interpreted as the "stone that came down from the stars". This translation would be a very appropriate description for the Manna Machine, which was probably the product of an extraterrestrial technology.

Wolfram von Eschenbach gives us an even more impressive piece of evidence which is absolutely astonishing. This is what he wrote at the beginning of the 13th Century about the origin of the Grail:

"Once upon a time it brought a troop, which flew back to the high stars, because their innocence drew them homewards."

With this, Wolfram von Eschenbach excluded any other possible interpretation: there were beings - a whole troop of them - who once brought the Grail to Earth, before they returned to their home stars.

We can now form these preliminary observations:

1. Manna Machine and Grail produced the same food.
2. Manna Machine and Grail had similar or identical properties attributed to them quite independently from each other.
3. Manna Machine and Grail are of artificial, extraterrestrial origin.

Thus we can justify the conclusion that the Manna Machine and the Grail were clearly identical; these are simply different names for the same object.

There now arises the question as to how the tradition of the Manna Machine came to be incorporated into the saga-epics of the middle ages. We would like to make it clear once again that all trace of the machine was lost in the year 587 BC, when Jeremiah hid it at Mount Nebo. But, in the Jewish world memories of it persisted.

"A mural painting on the wall of the ancient synagogue at Duras Europos,on the middle Euphrates river in Iraq. This was discovered in 1912. The town was founded in about 312 BC and abandoned in 272 AD. This mural is said to show the Ark of the Covenant being carried on a cart. The Ark is described in the Bible as a rectangular wooden box, but here it is shown as a tall cylindrical object with a rounded top, like the manna machine, and covered in drapes"      - George T. Sassoon

Shekhina
In the course of our research, we came across the remarkable Jewish concept of the Shekhina, which appears particularly often in the Talmud, a work which was compiled in early post-biblical times, about 200 AD. It comprises a body of teaching in the realm of legends, parables, sayings and prayers.

The concept of the Shekhina, as it occurs in the Talmud, means literally "that which descends", a "dwelling" or a "resting place". It is a difficult concept, and its significance changed in the course of time, but originally it meant nothing other than "God's presence among men", that is, his bodily presence. On this subject the theologian, A. Hauck, wrote: "Thus we have in the Shekhina a cover-name or nickname for God, which stands for God himself, but brings him nearer to human consciousness through his actual presence in the world."

Also according to Hauck: "The Shekhina accompanied the people of Israel everywhere that the Tabernacle was erected, until it finally after a long time found its resting-place in the Temple erected by David and Solomon."

As already noted, Shekhina denotes also God's "dwelling" among his people. Again, this dwelling relates to the interior of the Ark of the Covenant, as we can assume from Exodus 25:

"And you shall make for me a holy place, that I may dwell among you."

It could hardly be the intention of the compilers of the Pentateuch to give the impression that almighty God could be imprisoned within the Ark of the Covenant. So, whatever was inside the Ark was certainly not the creator of the universe, but some material object. On this point Hauck writes: "When Aaron performed the Temple service, the Shekhina rested on its hands. According to a legend, Simon the Righteous saw the Shekhina with his own eyes on his annual entry into the Holy of Holies."

It is most interesting that the term most used is "the face of the Shekhina". This tends to confirm the suggestion that the Shekhina and the Manna Machine were identical. Further confirmation comes from Hauck when he writes: "Sometimes the Shekhina itself is called the image."

Finally, these forms of speech are used to denote the Shekhina in a material sense: to receive the face of the Shekhina; to refresh oneself in the brilliance of the Shekhina; anyone who receives the face of the Shekhina experiences here on Earth a foretaste of eternal bliss.

We can summarize the Shekhina as follows:

1. It is not identical with God, though like the Othiq Yomin it is venerated in the same way as God, though not to be identified with Him. 2. The Shekhina is located in the Ark of the Covenant. 3. The Shekhina is a physical object which can be seen and handled. 4. It accompanies the people of Israel through the wilderness and is to be found with the other equipment in Solomon's Temple. 5. One can "receive" the Shekhina and "refresh oneself" with it.

In our opinion, all these characteristics belong to but one single object in Jewish history: to the Manna Machine! Only the machine prossesses all these properties, and only the machine can be meant by the term "Shekhina".

Is there a connection with the Holy Grail? The Jewish theologian Scholem writes about the Hebrew book of Bahir: "The Shekhina is not only the handsome vessel, it is also referred to in several places in the book Bahir itself as the precious stone or the pearl. Note that the phrase "handsome vessel" is identical to that used earlier to describe the Grail.

With this we can now make a connection. The Manna Machine, known in the Jewish secret tradition as Othiq Yomin (the Ancient of Days, or the "Transportable One of the Tanks"), becomes the Shekhina in the official Hebrew literature, and then the Holy Grail in the high middle ages. H. Kolb, writing in 1963, states: "The name grail appears to be a secret name for the Hebrew Shekhina".

"Another painting from Dura-Europos:shows the Tabernacle, the tent in which the Ark was supposedly kept, with an object inside it. Here again, instead of a rectangular wooden box we see a quite different object, the vague outline of which is similar to the manna machine reconstruction. However, two spherical objects are prominent on the lower part of this object, astonishingly similar to the two manna storage tanks manna machine, its 'testicles'.. "According to the archaeologists, these round objects are ritual vessels standing on their edges; we say: bollocks! The artist seems to be hinting that he knows the secrets."      - George T. Sassoon

There is yet another trail which could lead us to the clearing up of the mystery of the grail tradition, which we shall now follow.

Flegetanis
Let us examine the origin of the Parsifal tradition. Robert de Boron and Chrétien de Troyes, the French authors, state that they obtained their information from a "great book", in which "the sublime mysteries which are named after the grail are described". Wolfram von Eschenbach is the most explicit about this book. He says:

"Kyot, the well-known master, found at Toledo discarded (buried) in heathen script the original edition of the adventure. The meaning of the alphabet used in the work he had first to learn, also the black art (secret teaching). It helped that he was baptized, otherwise this tale would still be unknown today. No heathen cunning would help us to tell of the like of the grail, how one penetrates its mysteries."

Toledo, then, is to be the key-point four our further investigations. If we look at medieval Spain, we see that the Iberian peninsula had been occupied for a long time by the Moslems, and Toledo was in fact the scientific center of the Islamic world. It was there that the authenticator of Wolfram von Eschenbach's tale found a manuscript, possibly in Arabic, which contained the grail tradition. Writing of the original author of the text, Wolfram von Eschenbach states:

"A heathen, Flegetanis, once famous for his arts, with great knowledge of nature (a physicist?) born on his mother's side of Solomon (the tribe of Solomon), of Israelitic race. He wrote of the adventure of the grail. On his father's side he was a heathen, Flegetanis, who worshipped a calf, as if it was his God. He said, it was a thing called the grail."

Whole generations of scholars have puzzled over the question of who can have been meant here, because Moslems do not worship idols. But in fact there was at the time of Solomon a man to whom the above description applies exactly. The first book of Kings contains much information about him. On his mother's side he stemmed from the Jewish tribe of Naphtali, but his father was a Phoenician who worshipped the god, Baal, in the form of a calf. He was, the Bible says, "full of wisdom, understanding and knowledge". His name: Hiram-Abiff. His position: adviser, architect and astrologer of the King of Tyre. His life's work: the building of King Solomon's Temple!

Sometimes there are remarkable chance coincidences, but we can no longer believe that this is one. Hiram-Abiff, as the builder in particular of the Holy of Holies of the House of God, was the one and only outsider who must have known what it was all about. As a member of a sea-going race, which traveled all over the known world, a wise man, a scholar, and an astronomer, he would hardly have been satisfied to build a gigantic Temple simply to house an "empty box". Jewish tradition also confirms the assumption that he knew what was going on, for according to them he was murdered after the building work was completed. However, it seems that he was nevertheless able to send a report about the Othiq Yomin to his lord, the Phoenician King, and in this way it passed into the later Moslem world, and after the conquest of Spain it came to Toledo.

"Ancient Jewish representations of the Ark of the Covenant from Duras Europos. It is noteworthy that the Ark is not shown as a box or chest, but as a rounded object covered in cloths and decoration."      - George T. Sassoon Reference for the Dura Europos material: KRAELING C. H., The excavations at Duras Europos. Final report VIII, The Synagogue, Part I. Yale University Press, 1956.

Knights Templar
So what happened next? Unfortunately Wolfram von Eschenbach gives us no dates for his authenticator, Kyot, so we must try a different route. In the legend the Grail is guarded by a so-called "grail knighthood", which Wolfram von Eschenbach refers to as Templeisen. This name is reminiscent of the monastic knightly Order of the Templars, and in fact, because of many diverse correspondences, a connection between the two is generally taken for granted by the community of literary scholars. The Templars were officially founded in 1128 and dissolved in 1312 by command of the then-reigning French King, Philip the Fair. The question which now arises is: were the Templars in possession of the Manna Machine, were they the "guardians of the grail"?

The two principal personalities involved were Hugues, Count of Campagne, and Hugues de Payens. In 1104 these men set off for their second journey to the Holy Land, but after only a few months they returned to France, where they formed a connection with the Cistercian Order, whose monks thereupon set about a long-term study of the Old Hebrew texts. Jewish rabbis were brought in to help with the translation work - something very unusual for the time. Then in 1114 Hugues de Champagne made another short visit to Palestine. As soon as he returned, he presented the Order with the forest of Bar-sur-Aube, and instigated the foundation there of the Abbey of Clairvaux. This project was taken in hand by Bernard of Clairvaux, later Saint Bernard, and the translation work was continued under his direction.

Then in 1119, Hugues de Payens set off for Palestine yet again, with seven trusted friends. Later Hughues de Campagne joined the group. They called themselves The Poor Knights of Solomon's Temple, and rightly so, for they took up their quarters right over the ruins of the House of God built by Hiram-Abiff!

During their eight-year stay, they took part in not one single battle, but instead carried out excavations in the Temple area and ranged the length of breadth of Palestine. Then, obviously something decisive happened: two of the Templars returned to France and reported to Bernard of Clairvaux, who thereupon wrote to the Pope, to the King of France and then to the other Templars in Jerusalem, who at once left the Holy Land. On their arrival in France, the Order of the Templars was officially founded, on which occasion, Bernard wrote in the preamble of the Rules of the Order: "With God's help, the great work has been accomplished."

What actually happened in those years between 1105 and 1128? When we review the whole body of evidence, there is only one possible explanation: the Templars did not got to Palestine to fight, but to search for something particularly important, something extraordinary, something holy, something which was located in Israel and was found after years of painstaking search - the Holy Grail, the Manna Machine!

In 1312 at the proceedings brought against the Order of the Templars for its dissolution, the list of charges against it included:

"That they possessed idols in every province, which were called heads, which had sometimes three faces, and sometimes a single face.
That in their assemblies, especially in the grand chapters, they venerated the image as a God, as their savior, and stated that this head could save them.
That the idol had in its eye-sockets carbuncle-eyes, which shone with the brightness of Heaven, and they believed it was their supreme God. Its skin had half a beard in its face and the other half in its behind, which was a repugnant thing."

During the inquisition carried out against the members of the Order, not a single example of the idols was found, although the senior members of the Order did not deny its existence. In fact, most of them stressed the "beard" of the "image", many mentioned that the idol (whose name was Baphomet) was "bald-headed", and one stated that it "glittered like gilded silver".

There is little doubt that the Templars did find the Holy Grail in Jerusalem and brought it to France where it was venerated as a holy object. During the 200 year history of the Templars only the leading members of the Order had access to it; they were the real "Guardians of the Grail". Among the lower ranks, only rumors of an idol were circulated. Therefore, we can state categorically and without the slightest doubt that the "Holy Grail" was in fact the "Manna-Machine".

What, then, happened to the Manna Machine? According to a statement from Jean de Chalon, a Templar, during the night before the country-wide arrests, a convoy of wagons, loaded with heavy wooden chests, left the Temple in Paris and headed towards the coast. The question is, where to? It is known that many Templars flew to Scotland and became the founder of the later freemasons. One of them, Sir Henry Sinclair, started an expedition to America in 1398, about hundred years before Columbus reached the New World. There exists impressive proof that Sinclair and his 200 adherents constructed the mysterious labyrinth of shafts and tunnels under the surface of Oak Island, a tiny island near Nova Scotia's south shore (New Scotland, Canada) and that they hid the Idol Baphomet or the Holy Grail or the Manna Machine there. However, our investigations are continuing.

Tomorrow's grail-seekers will be equipped with metal detectors and Geiger counters. The work must go on.

"This shows an altar-type stone in a chapel at Lockenhaus Castle in the Burgenland, a province of Austria along the Hungarian border. The stone was only recently discovered when parts of the castle were cleared of junk and rubble. It is known that the Knights Templars used this chapel for a 'Cult-room', and in it there is also a cross with forked ends to the arms, a symbol used by the later Templars. There is no other Christian symbolism in the chapel. "The front of the stone bears what is clearly a simplified image of the manna machine. We have the hemispherical top, with another hemisphere inside it, and beneath that there are several other vessels one inside the other, just as described in the Zohar. In the lower part we have the two manna storage vessels. the 'testicles', also corresponding to the Zohar description. "This stone is a very strong indication that the Templars recovered the manna machine aka Ark of the Covenant from Palestine and brought it to Europe. "      - George T. Sassoon

References:

Sassoon, G. und Dale, R.: The Manna-Machine, Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1978.
Sassoon, G. und Dale, R.: The Kabbalah Decoded, Duckworth, London 1978.
Fiebag, J. und P.: Die Entdeckung des Heiligen Grals, Goldmann, München 1989.

DIE EWIGKEITS-MASCHINE
The Eternity Machine

"Astonishing! This is a book of tremendous explosive forces!"
     - Erich von Däniken

The paper above is a short summary of our book

DIE EWIGKEITS-MASCHINE Das Manna-Wunder, der Heilige Gral, die Templer und das Geheimnis von Oak Island by: Johannes Fiebag and Peter Fiebag Langen-Müller-Verlag, München 1998 400 pages, 35 photos, 48 black-and-white illustrations ISBN 3-7844-2708-1, DM 44

Currently DIE EWIGKEITS-MASCHINE is only available in German but George Sassoon is translating the book into English.

The thrust of this book is as follows:

When the Israelites were wandering in the desert after their exodus from Egypt, they were fed with the mysterious manna. Much evidence has been found that this food did not fall from the sky, as the Bible states, but came from a machine, which was kept in a tent under conditions of great secrecy (The Manna Machine by George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, London 1979).

When the Israelites entered the promised land, the manna supply ceased. The now unproductive machine was kept at Shiloh by a clan of priests.

Later, Kings David and Solomon brought the device to Jerusalem and built the Temple to house it. It remained there until the destruction of the city by the Babylonians in 587 BC, at which time the priests hid it somewhere and the location was forgotten. Solomon is said to have given the Ark to his son by the Queen of Sheba, but it is probable that this was only a wooden box, not the machine which it had been built to contain.

Memories of the machine, however, survived: in the secret Jewish traditions of the book Zohar, and also in a manuscript attributed to Hiram Abiff, architect of Solomon's Temple.

A copy of the latter manuscript was found in Spain about 1100, and its content was mingled with Christian material to form the basis of the legend of the Holy Grail. Meanwhile, St. Bernard of Clairvaux was working on the Zohar material with scholars from the school of Rashi, the famous rabbi of Troyes.

The authors of the book, brothers Peter and Johannes Fiebag, standing by the stone at Lockenhaus.

As a result of their findings, the Knights Templars were formed and sent out to look for the grail, or manna-machine. It is probable that they found it, or some part of it, which was brought back to Europe. The Templars venerated the machine as their idol Baphomet. On the dissolution of the Order in 1307, it disappeared again; there are many possible locations where it could have been hidden by the Templars (for example Rennes-le-Chateau, the valley of Bezú, some other secret places in Europe or even the mysterious Oak Island, Canada). Various groups have tried to find it, notably Himmler's SS, an organization formed in imitation of the Templars.

This book traces the evolution of the legends surrounding the mysterious device. Its properties are attributed to the Ark of the Covenant, then later also to the 'shekhina', the Jewish mystical concept of the physical presence of God, and then to the holy grail. There are astonishing similarities in the descriptions of these.

The authors conclude that the machine was of extraterrestrial origin, and that it had been given to the Israelites by the Lord, an extraterrestrial intelligent being, who was later conflated with the mystical concept of God.

The book also describes the behavior of less-developed peoples of the present day when they encounter a superior technology. This gives rise to the so-called cargo-cults. The behavior of the ancient Israelites when confronted with the space people was very similar to these modern examples. Many contemporary religious practices, both Jewish and Christian, are attributable to the manna-machine traditions.

The authors of this book have amassed a wealth of historical material, which is of great value whether or not one agrees with their conclusions.

          George Sassoon

The Fiebag brothers put together all the known facts about these mysteries, and arrive at an astonishing conclusion.

The list of dates and events here does not pretend to be comprehensive. It is merely intended to give a rough idea of the chequered history or the Grail, or the Manna-machine.

ca. 1250 BC: Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt. The manna-machine delivered, then kept in the Ark of the Covenant or the Tabernacle. After the forty years' wandering in the desert, cessation of production of nourishment and the machine kept in obscurity at Shiloh.

ca. 1040 BC: Reign of King Samuel and war against the Philistines. Ark and manna-machine taken to battle, lost to the Philistines, but quickly returned to Israel. Thereafter kept in Baala.

1000-961 BC: Reign of David; end of Philistine wars. Building of Temple started. Removal of Ark and manna-machine to Jerusalem.

961-926 BC: Reign of Solomon. Temple-building continued and completed with Phoenician help. Compilation of a report by Hiram Abiff on the manna-machine. Theft of the Ark by Solomon's son Baisa-Lekhem. Manna-machine remains in the Temple.

926 BC: Israel split into northern and southern kingdoms.

597 BC: First attack on Israel by Babylonians.

587 BC: Second attack by Babylonian armies. The Temple destroyed and Jerusalem razed to the ground. The prophet Jeremiah succeeds in hiding the manna-machine in the Abaraim mountains.

200-100 BC: Compilation of the Talmud. Identification of the shekhina with the manna-machine. The mysterious sect of the Essenes seems to have a secret knowledge about the machine.

711 AD: Muslim invasion of Spain. Cordoba and Toledo become centers of Islamic culture in Spain.

896-901 AD: Thabit ben Qorrah. He probably compiles the grail traditions in his book Felek Thani. The manuscript reaches Spain.

1058 AD: Toledo re-taken by the Christian armies in the course of the Reconquista.

1080 AD: Birth of Hugues de Payens.

1099 AD: Capture of Jerusalem by Godefroi de Bouillon. Hugues de Payens takes part in the conquest as a 19-year-old. In the same year he returns to France and enters the service of Count Hugues of Champagne.

Probably 1099-1104 AD: Kyot - Hugues de Payens or Hugues de Champagne - discovers the book Felek Thani in Toledo, and with it the original grail tradition of Hiram Abiff, architect of the Temple.

1104 AD: Hugues de Payens and Hugues de Champagne return to Palestine together, but stay only for a short time.

1105 AD: At the instigation of Hugues de Champagne, monks of the Cistercian order begin intensive study of ancient Hebrew texts. They are assisted by Jewish scholars from the famous Kabbalah-school of Rabbi Simon bar Jochai - Rashi - of Troyes.

1114 AD: Hugues de Champagne makes his second journey to the Holy Land. On his return, he renews contact with the Cistercians. The Abbey of Clairvaux is founded under Bernard de Fontaine (later St. Bernard). Continuation of the studies by the Benedictines.

1119 AD: Hugues de Payens sets off for Jerusalem with seven friends, including Bernard (his uncle) and two Cistercians. On arrival they form themselves into the Poor Knights of Solomon's Temple take up their quarters in the Temple ruins, and begin excavations.

1125 AD: Hugues de Champagne joins up with the first group of Templars in Jerusalem.

1127 AD: The grail (or manna-machine) is found. On Bernard's orders the Templars bring it back to France.

1128 AD: Official foundation of the Order of the Temple. The machine is kept in the custody of the brotherhood. Later, it is venerated as the idol Baphomet.

1174-1190 AD: Chrétien de Troyes writes his grail epic. About the same time, Robert de Boron writes his also.

1200-1210 AD: Wolfram von Eschenbach is working on his Parsifal grail-epic.

ca. 1290 AD: Rabbi Moses de Leon compiles the Zohar, which to date has only been preserved in oral form. This book includes the detailed description of the manna-machine. 12-13 Oct. 1307 AD: Arrest of all Templars in France. Shortly before this, a wagon convoy sets out from the Temple in Paris. The manna-machine is brought to safety (either to Rennes-le-Chateau, the valley of Bezú, an other secret place in Europe or - later - by John Sinclair to the mysterious Oak Island, Canada).

11 Mar. 1314 AD: Death of the last Grand Master of the Temple by burning at the stake. Final dissolution of the order of the grail guardians.

1978-1979 AD: George Sassoon and Rodney Dale set out the technical reconstruction of the manna-machine in their book, paving the way for further studies in this direction.

1981 AD: The Fiebag brothers first write the equation grail = manna-machine, and start work on the research which led to this book.

Hyperlinks

·The Ancient of Days: Deity or Manna Machine?