Photo by Alex Zelenko

UPDATED 11/08/2009 -- The news from the Ukraine flu outbreak continues to be ordinary rather than dire. Total cases of pandemic swine flu in that country are now reported to be 255,000 with 15,000 in hospital and 144 deaths. Panic has been the greatest problem for most people -- medicines and protective masks are in short supply. Is there reason for that panic? At this point it still appears that the turmoil began when someone posted a false internet report about people hospitalized with symptoms similar to pneumonic plague. A radio interview with one of the presidential candidates included some remarks about pneumonic plague, lending the story undeserved credibility.

Although the flu hit hard in the Ukraine and the pandemic flu quickly spread from the western districts to the rest of the country, with these statistics available it's clear that the death rate so far is well below the normal 0.1% or less usually attributed to pandemic flu. Good medical care, hospitalization of severe cases, and prevailing good health among this modern population could all contribute to this positive result. A hundred years ago if the same illness struck, the effect could have been more serious. The death rate so far doesn't even hint at the severity of the 1918 flu, which had a death rate of 2.5% or higher.

Links:
http://blog.kievukraine.info/
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/52157/
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-0979.htm

UPDATED 11/05/2009: After the initial reports of pneumonic plague and the internet panic Ukraine Health Minister Vasyl Knyazevych made a public appeal to politicians in Ukraine to stop fueling the panic by spreading rumors, some of which involved accusations of financial misconduct within the Health Ministry. The implication was that this was as much a political situation as a health crisis.

A day later on Nov. 3, 2009, Knyazevych was reported by ZIK to have said that in addition to the known types of flu in Ukraine there was a new and lethal unidentified strain. Former Ukraine Health Minister Mykola Polishchuk was quoted in detail in this story as feeling that this was all politics and the mysterious plague would vanish after the election. Polishchuk pointed out that total deaths from flu and pneumonia this year are actually lower than last year's toll.

Today Nov. 5th, 2009, Ukrainian news page ZIK reports that Inna Bohoslovska, presidential candidate, may be prosecuted for spreading rumors about the reported new flu strain and referring to it as pneumonic plague. A second person from Chernihiv was identified by Ukrainian Secret Service as the source of the unfounded internet rumor that 174 people had been hospitalized with an illness mimicking pneumonic plague symptoms.

The story still unfolds and it demonstrates already the sort of problem remote viewers run into when interpreting what they see. Much of what I saw proved accurate, but visually there was nothing about the flu, except if I interpreted what I saw in dire terms. Which I tend to do because I'm worried about the flu. Now there are two interpretations of my visual scenario, first is that nothing's happening, second is that something could. Interesting but unimportant. I think I'd go with the nothing's happening version now, since the news doesn't include reports of some terrible illness spreading.

Anybody who knows me also knows I'm concerned about the flu. Personal reasons mostly – maybe it's my ancestry that makes me particularly susceptible. For some reason, hereditary or environmental, I get really sick when I get the flu. Takes me weeks to get over it. So I don't want it, not even the mild kind. Don't want the swine flu, the bird flu, the kind of flu you get at the grocery when somebody coughs in your face.

When I heard about the potential outbreak in Lviv I wasn't immediately concerned. Seemed like they were just getting hard hit and maybe weren't prepared for it. A day later when reports surfaced of a sudden rise in the death count and people dying of hemorrhagic lung damage reminiscent of the 1918 epidemic, I got more concerned. Suddenly it's being called pneumonic plague. Probably isn't that, but the old 1918 flu looked a bit like it. People turned purple and died.

Lots of news floating around now about Baxter International and their possible connection to the outbreak in the Ukraine, but you can believe it if you want. I think that companies are careless enough that this sort of thing doesn't have to be intentional, enough accidents happen to guarantee our eventual destruction. David Rothscum's blog gives a full account of the possible connection to Joseph Moshe's arrest in L.A. in August of this year, as well as the fascinating story of a long string of microbiologists dying in mysterious ways. That's been going on for decades now.

I feel a little like Tommy Lee Jones in M.I.B., going to the rags for the most current strange information, but if something weird does happen that's where you find it first. Reputable news vendors don't report until all the info is in. The internet yellow rags had the news up and running before AP & UPI published their first report.

Last night I was thinking about the Lviv outbreak and what might be happening there when we started our nightly meditation session. I thought I'd do a remote viewing and see if I could pick up anything interesting that isn't in the news. I hadn't seen any pictures yet, and I'm not familiar with that part of the world. I think the most I knew about the Ukraine going into this is that Major Ed Dames married a woman he met there.

I was recently chided by someone who read my Ehow article on remote viewing – it was pointed out that I'm not remote viewing in the classic military sense, as the officially trained viewers do it. And I'm not. I've tried that, and it doesn't work as well for my purposes, places too many limits on things. I've been doing this long enough that I just do it and don't worry about how it happens.

For some reason, when I got into my meditation and starting thinking about Lviv, I kept seeing a woman standing alone in a courtyard. She had short blonde hair, wore a black leather coat with a black fur collar, light blue pants that looked like fashionable jeans, and black shoes with high heels. The courtyard was paved with cobblestones, squared paving stones set close together, and the buildings around the courtyard reminded me of the architecture in the old parts of Amsterdam, or even the French Colonial buildings in old Saigon. Three or four stories tall, stone masonry, shops below and flats above, could be anyplace.

I wasn't paying attention to this because things like that come and go in meditation all the time, at least for me. I didn't connect it to Lviv or the Ukraine or the flu and had actually begun seeing this woman before I thought about remote viewing the place. When I did begin working on the RV project all that I saw was her. So finally it occurred to me that maybe I should just focus on her instead of thinking about Lviv, and I zoomed in, got a good look at her face, angular and grim, mid-30's, pinched against the cold. Looking around the area it seemed like evening just before dark. She was the only person in the square. When I “arrived” she began walking. We passed through several empty streets, along a small park with trees, turned a corner and walked down a hill toward what felt like a river although I never saw it. Abruptly she turned to the left and walked down a flight of stairs into a square tunnel. Down below, past the darkness of the entrance, I saw bright lights as though the tunnel opened up into daylight somewhere. I didn't follow her into the tunnel.

Today I did some more research online and found some info about Lviv. The architecture there matches what I saw, although it's unusual for that part of the old Soviet Union. It is similar to the odd dream I had about Vietnam recently, the one I called Radar Dreaming when I posted it here. Looking up flu news I found mention of a new outbreak of bird flu in Vietnam, so far just among the poultry, so there possibly could be a real connection here. Not a physical connection, but a coincidental one, two important things happening in different places.

My view of the woman seems accurate too, although I didn't spot her in any photos. Seems like a common fashion for woman in Lviv this year. The view of the square tunnel fits and I suppose it's a subway system, not a river.

It's not what I saw, but what I didn't see, that is bothering me tonight. Lviv should be a busy place about nightfall, people going home from work or out doing some shopping errands, and the pictures I found today do show that. I saw empty streets, no cars, and one grim woman headed determinedly to the subway. She wasn't wearing a mask.

In the remote viewing I do, the old shamanic type, I do collect information that's real enough. Some of that I've talked about here. I also get what I'd refer to as opinions or predictions, and this lack of people might be one of those. Not what we see today in Lviv, but what's coming.

Links to current Lviv photos:

http://zik.com.ua/gallery/full/gryp_7.jpg
http://zik.com.ua/gallery/full/gryp_5.jpg

Link to current Lviv news: http://zik.com.ua/en/news/2009/10/29/202374