Marc Whitford's Experience
in Washington D.C

(At the Elestial Gallery,
Spring, 1995)







Around May 14th, I started a mailing list on Crystal Skulls through the server for our Web Site run by Bob Garth called protree.com. The name of our mailing list was CrystalSkull-l. I had no idea how this mailing would grow because most of my attempts to find new information related to the crystal skulls had not been successful (at this time). To find new members, I placed a message about this list on a few newsgroups and into the two mailing lists I was already a member of, lightworkers-l and snet-l. One of the people who joined our list, was Lori Tostado, who I had met via lightworkers-l and had a number of interesting exchanges with her. In any case, Lori posted one day, shortly after the crystal skull list started that she knew a person who had a very interesting experience with a crystal skull. His name was Marc Whitford and he lived in the Washington D.C. area.

Marc has been a frequent contributor of articles to the snet-l list as well as the lightworker-l list, and I recall reading some of his messages before. Marc had shared with Lori a story about his experience with a crystal skull that was in the Elestial Galleria in Washington D.C. So I immediately sent an e-mail to Marc asking if he would please share this experience with our group. Marc agreed and as you will see below, posted his story on May 27th.

Naturally after I read his story, being the researcher and a very curious person (not bad for an Aries), I asked Marc for the name of the gallery and phone number, which he supplied. On Monday, June 5th, I telephone the owner of the Elestial Gallery, John Raphael and we spoke for two hours. It was quite an enlightening experience. As a matter of fact, John told me that he had a copy of our crystal skull book (Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls Revealed) in the case next to the tiny contemporary crystal skulls he saw so he knew who I was.

So please find below Marc's article first, so the readers can get a better idea about this crystal skull and then following the article is a summary of some of the information I received from John. I am hoping to eventually add to this page, a picture of the crystal skull that Marc saw and we are tentatively discussing have a Crystal Skull workshop in Washington D.C., working with John and Marc, possibly in the second weekend of November. More information will be posted as a date and time is firmed up.

Enjoy the information ...... just another interesting story around the mysterious crystal skulls ...........


ILLINOIS






Marc Whitford's Experience

( posted to the crystal
skull mailing list
May 1995 )



Date: Sat, 27 May 1995 12:07:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Marc Whitford
Subject: Marc's Crystal Skull Experience
To: "Crystal Skull Group"

Per your requests (Lori & Joshua), I am writing a brief synopsis of my recent experience with a very beautiful crystal skull in Washington, DC. To give you a little background, I had read Joshua Shapiro's article posted a while back which was reposted here (on the crystal skull list) in the last week or so as one of my data points regarding crystal skulls. Also, I had several conversations with some friends of mine who were into metaphysical studies and enjoyed discussing the strange paranormal things that have been happening in my life. Yes, life is no longer totally boring for me anymore.

I am writing this report for the Crystal Skull list group, and request that if anyone is seriously interested in visiting the crystal skull in Washington DC, to contact me via private email, and I will share the address and phone number of the Elestial Gallery with you. You are free to contact the proprietor of the gallery, and verify the facts in my story yourself.

I went with a few friends to a restaurant in Washington DC, and told them that I had recently been experimenting with trying to heat up quartz crystals with my chi (life energy). I had been told I had a very powerful chi, and could, in time, develop the capability to levitate quartz crystals and possibly other objects with it. Well, of course, I was totally skeptical about this capability but was curious to see what effect I actually had on quartz.

One of the people with me at the restaurant allowed me to hold a beautiful quartz crystal the size of my pinkie finger. After a few minutes, it felt like it was starting to get really hot. I started to imagine that if I continued to meditate, I could possibly cause it "jump off my hand" even though I held my hand perfectly still. I held my elbow on the table and tried to hold my hand very still, yet it the crystal started to jiggle on my hand but it did not jump. I did not have enough energy to make it actually jump, but, had it been a little quieter, and had I done some more meditating, I felt it was possible.

As they watched, each person slowly moved their open palm over my hand to feel the heat, and each noticed that it was extremely hot, almost so hot, that one would almost feel the sensation of burning. I also felt that, had it been totally dark, that the crystal would likely have been emitting small flashes of light. It was not possible to verify that, but I felt it was possible to experience that.

That experience was so profound to one of my friends, Mia, invited me to go to a private gallery in the vicinity of Dupont Circle, in downtown Washington DC. After a few short Metro stops, we arrived at this beautiful gallery known as the ELESTIAL GALLERY. It does not have a storefront, but instead it has a small sign out front. One must climb two flights of stairs to go to the main store.

One side of the shop is a very exquisite metaphysical bookstore selling many of the books mentioned on Lightworker list (another mailing list on Internet). Also, the other side of the shop has some of the incredible natural crystals. For instance, they have some of the largest Iron Pyrite (Fools Gold) crystals I've ever seen, and there are some real gold crystals. These Fools Gold crystals are over one inch on the side as huge cubes, embedded within a black colored rock.

Nearby, are these exquisite quartz and feldspar crystals that have embedded within them the appearance of a crucifix or Jesus Christ, or the Virgin Mary within the crystalline structure. I was totally blown away by the fine detail which God has created within these beautiful crystals.

Then, I went into another room which has two of the largest natural quartz specimens in the world. Once specimen is of a three foot wide "Cathedral Quartz" which consists of a series of parallel quartz crystals of differing widths and lengths. It gets its name because it appears to be similar to the pipes of a traditional pipe organ.

Another specimen, is of the largest single quartz crystal in the U.S.. It is nearly three feet long and over a hundred pounds in weight. The owner of the shop told me a few days later that he had recently been visited by employees of the Smithsonian who offered him over $250,000 to buy that particular crystal. He declined their offer, stating that he would never sell that piece to the Smithsonian because he was sure it would never be shown in public. According to John, the owner of the Elestial Gallery, the Smithsonian has only displayed less than 10% of its collection of rare gems and minerals. This particular quartz beauty was found in a cave in Russia, and allegedly has very mystical properties on its own.

Then, my attention was drawn to the most incredible find, in a glass case where there were a number of crystal skulls. Most of these skulls were about the size of a woman's fist and some slightly larger, but what caught my attention, was a large crystal skull about the size of a small child's skull. This skull was of modern origin.

Why I was first drawn to this skull was the sheer size of it, and the fact that it was milky quartz. It was partially clear, but large portions of it had the color of what appeared like semen floating in water. This skull had a few stress cracks along the outside edges near the back of the skull. The chin and eyes were very clear however and you could see into the center part of the skull.

I noticed that when I first picked up the skull, it appeared to be cold as room temperature. As I held it, I had a certain feeling that I could speak with the skull. I wondered, if it could only listen, or could it talk back to me? As I was talking to the other people in the room, it noticed that I felt it suddenly seem to get warmer. I decided I would ask the shop keeper, if she minded if I tried a little meditation with this skull, and she said, of course, it would be alright with her for me to meditate with it.

I remembered from various books or articles that I have read stated that ancient peoples used these crystal skulls as tools to achieve visions, or focus their mind on past or future events. I chose instead to put my mind completely at ease and allow whatever images to flow naturally from my mind into the crystal skull. I eased my mind into a gentle meditation and allowed myself to clear all thoughts that were clouding my consciousness. Just as I had done that, I imagined the skull seemed to become clearer. I opened my eyes to look at the skull, and noticed that my minds vision had just manifested itself on this beautiful handiwork of God (whereas God's love created this crystal, and it took man's desire to form it in the shape of a skull) as the skull had suddenly become absolutely clear!

I announced to my friend, Mia, and the shop attendent, that I think I just witnessed a change to the skull, and perhaps they could see the difference as well. So I held the skull up in the light coming from the sun, and the skull was absolutely clear. The skull was no longer milky quartz, I could see clearly through the skull to the other side of the room and the clarity was absolutely breathtaking!

Next, I suddenly starting saying out loud, as though I was chanting an ancient incantation, that I felt as though I was visualizing a balance between the forces of good and evil, the lightness and the darkness, separation of God and Mankind, the Yin and the Yang, the balance between the left brain and the right brain. Just as soon as I said that last phrase, I noticed the skull transform once again before my eyes, and before the eyes of my two witnesses into what appeared to me to be a left and right brain.

The skull felt hotter than ever, and as I held it, I felt it vibrating within me. And then I thought (this process I had done with the skull) was responsible for causing what appeared to be a huge crack that went precisely down the middle of the crystal skull. The odd thing about this crack was that it was not formed from the outside in. That would be characteristic of a blow to the side of this crystal skull. But instead, it formed a crack from the inside out. How could that be? This crack divided the skull into a left brain and a right brain. When I looked at the skull from the right side, it looked like the crack had little "veins" similar to those of a leaf. The veins appeared to all focus down into thicker and thicker cracks, and finally each of the larger cracks focused down into one single stem that looked like a plug at the bottom of the brain. It was aimed slightly forward toward the nose.

I knew what I was looking at was familiar. I was imagining (while meditating with the skull?) what a person's brain might look like that had some type of structure or brain implant embedded into that person's brain which resulted from an alien abduction. I had subconsciously imagined what an abductees brain might look like, and right before our eyes, the skull transformed itself to create that structure.

For a moment, I thought I was observing something special, but I realized that with all the energy in my hands, I was not looking at the complete picture. I turned the skull around and looked at the left side now and imagined that I had missed the second brain implant commonly reported by abductees. This second implant is performed, as some describe, to allow the abductee with a capability to perform duplex speech communications.

Just then, I noticed a second crack which appeared, much like the one I had just seen come from the inside and it appeared to go from the vicinity of the left ear, in a plane downward toward the mouth of the skull.

At this point, I was in total wonderment, and amazement, but I was legitimately getting worried that my energy might continue to crack the skull and it would competely shatter it, making the skull totally worthless as a collector's item. How much value could there be to a skull that was cracked in half, or if a chunk of it had fallen off and it was now beyond repair? I could not afford to buy this specimen valued at $2200.

I was so totally amazed at the energy of the skull, and the heat it was now generating. I asked my witnesses to please feel the skull to confirm my observation of excessive heat. I wanted to share with them how much energy I felt the skull was giving off. Each of them said they had felt the heat and it was far greater than they would expect from something that one person was holding.

It was nearly too hot to touch. I gave the skull back to the shopkeeper, and just as soon as she took it from me, she noticed that it no longer felt hot, it cooled by at least 30 degrees in a matter of a few seconds.

She replaced it on the felt pillow that it was sitting upon in the glass case.

I felt a sense of relief that I I had not further caused more cracks in the skull, and yet, I kind of felt a little sadness because, I felt I had reawakened an ancient energy within me that felt so powerful, and yet it was so foreign in regards to my ordinary life. I was not able to explain what happened to this skull, or how as it seemed so far removed from ordinary scientific explanations. It is one thing to see something something so extraordinary and yet so real as a witness and quite another to have been the main participant in such an event. What was I to do?

Oh yes, there is another chapter to this odd story. I called the shopowner the following day and spoke to John Raphael. I introduced myself to him very anonymously to see what his reaction would be. He said to me on the phone, "Oh, you're the one who broke my crystal skull!" I denied having direct responsibility for breaking the skull, but I did claim that I was present and holding the skull when it made a miraculous transformation in my presence.

I said, I didn't know it was broken, "Was it?" No, in fact it did not crack in half, but John said he had heard what happened the previous day, and was concerned enough to go into the photo album used for insurance purposes to check this skull to see the "before" and compare it with the "after" which had occured in my presence. He said that after nearly 24 hours, the skull was no longer "milky quartz" and was in fact, now completely clear, and the insurance photograph clearly showed the difference. Also the photograph did not seem to indicate any large cracks in the middle or on the left side of the skull, and John beleived they were new. He said that this was not the first time something odd caused a transformation of crystals in his shop. He noticed that as time progressed, some of his other crystals were getting clearer, but not to this extent.

Yes, at that point I was truly convinced that I had either witnessed a miracle, or been the cause of one. I prefer to think that I just wasn't being very observant, and that when I had picked up the crystal skull, that the left and right cracks must have been there all along, and that I was just too unobservant to have noticed it at first. This is what I convinced myself of at the time of my phone call. John insisted, that there were no huge cracks in that skull. I made an appointment to come down there in a few days to prove to myself one way or another, that either I was not losing my mind or I had seen a truly amazing transformation.

When I arrived at the Elestial Gallery several days later, I met John, who did not seem angry in the least about the transformation of his skull. After examining his photographs, I became convinced of two things: Crystal skulls have amazing powers to transform themselves in the hands of someone who takes their power seriously, and two, someday, I will have to own my own amazing crystal skull.

With these conclusions, I was faced with a dilemma, should I simply forget this story, and never mention it again? Lest, I be criticized for being unscientific and just another crazy? Or should I share my story with a few carefully selected friends? I decided to share this story with LORI (another member of the Lightworker list), a dear celestial soul, who has much greater wisdom beyond her age. If anyone else out there has witnessed or experienced some very extraordinary changes with quartz crystals and crystal skulls please share them here. Also, if you are ever planning a trip to Washington DC, drop me a note, and I will provide you the name and address of the gallery. They are also in the phone book.

Here is the personal story I shared with LORI, and now I have shared it with you all.


© Marc Whitford, Washington, DC 1995
(All Rights Reserved)





Conversation with John Raphael

( with Joshua, Monday, June 5th,
some additional comments from Marc )



I spoke with John Raphael and I found him to be a very interesting man. He has had many experiences with quartz crystals and also sells contemporary crystal skulls. Mr. Raphael is a serious student of metaphysicals and seems to have quite a collection of quartz and other gemstones. He hopes to have a skull carved in emerald. He claims he has read every crystal and crystal skull book ever published and he sells our book, "Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls Revealed", in his store. John will be sponsoring a very known crystal teacher known as Melody in October of this year.

According to John, the crystal skull that Marc saw was a contemporary skull recently carved in Brazil. Since my wife is Brazilian and I have visited this country a few times, I can tell you I have found, in general, Brazilian quartz to be very clear and vibrant. The size of this skull is about half the size of a normal human adult skull. At this time, John had only had this skull in his gallery for about ten weeks and didn't really have a chance to study it very much. He said that he had another crystal skull in his store prior to this one, which he sold that was made by the same carver in Brazil, and that he had observed images appearing and moving with in this other skull. This first skull was a little bit smaller than the skull he currently has. He also stated that he didn't believe it mattered whether a crystal skull was very old (ancient) or relatively carved, that one could still have unusual experiences or phenomena around either type of skull. He has personally experienced strange phenomena happening around quartz crystal all the time, so much so, that it is a normal occurance for him.

As far as the crack or disturbance within the crystal skull, that Marc described appearing during his experience, John did acknowledge that such a formation does exist it but because he did not have time to pay close attention to the form of this crystal skull or work with it, he could not confirm if such a crack existed previously or was caused by Marc.. In some subsequent messages on the Crystal Skull mailing list which Marc sent, Marc qualfies this issue by saying the following:

I was referring to the photo that John Raphael had for insurance purposes that was taken well before I ever say the crystal skull in John Raphael's shop.

In answer to a member on our lists desire to have some type of scientific proof or evidence to substantiate Marc's claim that the skull changed, Marc said:

I agree with the need for scientific studies, and a clear logical path to understanding the unusual phenomena. But What I was referring to was the changes that I personally witnessed. I have no desire to be proven one way or another. As far as what changes might have happened to the skull, all I can say is that I saw it, and there are other witnesses to what happened. In the next few weeks I will make another visit to the Elestine Gallery and will take a new "before" picture, and then hold the skull for some time, to see if any more changes occur, and see if any more changes occur, and try to photograph them for Joshua's new book (fiction?) or some other reasons. Then if there are any changes, I will report them here first, and if anyone is so incluned, I will scan the pictures, and post them as gif, or jpgs.

I'm sure that won't be a rigorous scientific analysis, but I can't predict that anything will happen.

Marc is planning to go back to the Elestial Galleria to work with the crystal skull again, I sent him some suggestions of test he could try by email and we spoke briefly by telephone once. He promised to share with the crystalskull-l members a report of what happens.

Another member of the crystalskull-l asked Marc an interesting question:

On Wed, 7 Jun 1995, Dave Voorhis wrote:

> Is there a possibility that the skull at the Elestial Gallery is in
> fact NOT quartz, but another crystalline substance (eg. Rochelle
> salts) or a casting made of a substance that is intended to react to
> body heat, etc.?

> Dave

Glad you asked the question. If that was the case, then John Raphael could not legally sell the crystal skull as quartz. I understand why you would ask the question, but I think it is a very unlikely that it was anything other than quartz. John Raphael is an expert on crystals, and I doubt it would be easy to fool him.







Speculation on
Marc's Experiences
( by Joshua )



Through my research, I had not heard of a person having such a profound experience with a recently carved crystal skull, thus when I read Marc's experience, I thought the skull might be ancient. But one thing we need to remember is that the crystal skulls are not all powerful, they are tools which can help to awaken the inner potential within us. So, since Marc apparently has a gift to work with crystals and energy, I suspect the particular environment in the store that John Raphael has created was probably a part of this as well.

First of all, Marc was working with a skull carved with Brazilian quartz, which is a very high vibrational quartz. Next, John, being a master with crystals, has setup a special energy vortex in his store using geometries of quartz and proper positioning of the crystals in the space. A combination of Marc's gift and these other two factors I am sure could produce phenomena as Marc described.

Also, a question we could ask is: Is it possible for quartz to change its shape and patterns so quickly or even at all. My answer, based on upon working with other ancient crystal skulls is absolutely!!! I think this property of quartz, definitely shows us that matter is a form of energy that can be remolded. Apparently, our guest writer here, Mr. Whitford, has a natural gift to shift energies. I also suspect that his visit to John's store working with the crystal skull activating this gift and amplified it. He has told me that his abilities seem to be much stronger now.

Anyway, just some additional thoughts on this matter ................... Illinois





Another Message from
the CrystalSkull-L


In this section, I share another message I posted to our Crystal Skull mailing list related to the Elestial Gallery and a question that one of our members brought up related to the cracks that formed in the crystal skull at this store, that Marc said he witnessed, with two other people. Mike, is the name of this member, who views the crystal skulls from a more scientific perspective, was challenging the proof of the cracks. This was due to the fact that John Raphael could not confirm this change, since he did not closely examine the contemporary crystal skull in his store when he got it. I felt it was important to share my own research with the group related to the idea that other crystal skulls (mostly ancient ones) have been observed and recorded in showing this ability to physically change. So let's see how this message goes .............. Illinois





To: "Crystal Skull Group"
From: rjoshua@sprintmail.com (Richard Shapiro)
Subject: More with Elestial Gallery

Greetings !!!

First I want to speak to a comment made by Mike about the pictures or experience that Marc Whitford shared with us. And BTW, Mike, I am not just singling you out .... this here mailing list is a way to exchange our ideas ... not prove which person is wrong or right .... but I feel I must say something to add credibility to what Marc discussed because it comes from my own personal experience as well.

Whether a crystal skull, ancient or contemporary can have some type of physical change occur while working to a person is possible. This has happened to me on a number of occasions also including having a smoky quartz skull become more clear as I was working with it. Another possibility that exists (although Marc saids other people saw the change too) is that the person working with the skull can go into an altered state (in scientific terms alpha or beta waves) and this might make the skull appear differently or is it appearing differently? Just as our physical senses are not sensitive to radio, television or any number of other electro-magnetic waves, is it possible the crystal skull can activate one's ability to link into these other levels of consciousness where we then can perceive these hereto invisible waves, visibly?

Now, as soon as you found a possible loophole in Marc's statement, you of course used the scientific or logical approach to show how his experience was impossible from science. However, if I told you that one of the caretakers of the Smithsonian Institute, which we could say is one of the most recognized professional museums in the world, told Mr. Raphael, that he couldn't understand why when he stood in his own musuem he didn't feel the power or energy he did when he stood in John's Gallery and also that this man has attempted on a few occassions to buy various crystals from John who refuses to sell it to him because he feels they have no idea of the geometries, facets and arrangement of crystals. So even if John did not see the crack as Marc defines it, he did acknowledge to me that every day he witnesses or personally experiences strange and unusual experiences connected with his quartz.

The bottom line as I see it .... Mr. Raphael has setup or enhanced a power electro-magnetic energy shield that exists in the location of his store (also felt that many of the buildings and structures in DC were built with trying to work with the energy grid of the earth in these locations and also one wonders why a people choose a particular site for their capitol, at random or is there some unseen energies at play?) and I feel that placing the crystal skull, made from a very pure quartz of Brazil (Brazilian quartz for me -- SUD are you there? --- is very clear and energetic) into this energy field, the quartz became activated or between the energy field of the store and Marc's energy, became activated.

You might debate me on this, but I had to present this perspective from a person reaching the skulls, after hearing both Marc and John.

So again, if you ever stop by Washington DC, I think you will find Mr. Raphael's gallery an interesting place to go.

John also told me about another crystal skull he had (besides the many small ones he has (meaning marble size or slightly large, which he said he has a copy of our crystal skull book, "Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls Revealed" which is displayed in the case with the smaller contemporary skulls. This other crystal skull, contemporary, is clear quartz or smoky, again I will have to verify this with John, about half the size of a human skull (I believe about 6 lbs), comes from Brazil and John saw some holographic images appear in this skull and sold it and wants to get it back.

In any case, John and I are discussing some type of research we can do together around the crystal skulls and some of the special crystals we has and we have city how it goes.

We also discussed that there are various types of quartz that exist in the world, including clear green clear quartz which comes from Greece and also some blue quartz that comes from Russia but these type of quartz are quite rare.

In conclusion, one and all (not just Mike .... ), the world is filled with great beauty and mysteries. We each have a piece of this puzzle and through our joyous discussion and sharing, we will be able to perceive our world and the universe we enhabit. This of course, assumes, that no other type of races (ET) will be contacting us while we have this wonderful journey but I am afraid (and let's not get started on this here too!!!) that it is already too late ... they are here and I think all will know this soon (who they are is the question at hand these days and what are they doing?)


Peace & Light to one and all .... Joshua






How to Contact Elestial Gallery


Elestial Gallery
Attn: John Raphael
1635 Connecticut Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202)232-1957


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Visit to the
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( February 1996 )


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