Page 10 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Febrary/March 2020 Edition

10 Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull Hoax

F.A. Mitchell-Hedges

and Daughter Anna’s

Lies Exposed!

Continued from Page 1

Since the late 19th century, the true
nature of these Mesoamerican artifacts has been
a source of heated debate – and the most
controversial is the Mitchell-Hedges skull. The
first big question: Who made it? Theories range
from the ancient Mayans to cultures that predate
them (such as people who traveled to Central
America from the lost city of Atlantis). There are
even claims that the crystal skulls were
deposited on Earth by aliens.
F.A. Mitchell-Hedges first referred to his
as the “Skull of Doom,” the power of which he By that point (around 1970) Anna Mitchell- they were married. (She was 40 years older than
said could “kill a man.” “And even though he Hedges had had enough of scientific studies. him; he explained that they did it so that she
said he wanted to be buried with it, when he died She took a Greyhound bus to California, could be added to his health insurance plan.) For
in 1959 it became the property of his daughter, retrieved her crystal skull from Dorland, and the last eight years of Anna’s life, Homann was
Anna, and she wasn’t sure what to do with it. never let scientists near it for the rest of her life. her primary caregiver and, as he told the Illinois
“It’s a thing of evil in the wrong hands,” she said Times, “She is my mentor and spiritual leader.”
at the time. GOOD VIBRATIONS Anna died in 2007 at 100 years old. She
attributed her long life to the skull, often telling
AXIS OF POWER Mitchell-Hedges settled in Kitchener, Ontario, people, “I take care of it and it takes care of me.”

where she opened a motel and made the crystal After a brief but contentious custody battle with
In 1964 Anna Mitchell-Hedges lent the crystal skull available for viewing – for a nominal fee – the Mitchell-Hedges family, the skull was put in
skull to a San Francisco art conservator named to curiosity-seekers and spiritualists. She’d tell Homann’s care.
Frank Dorland in the hopes of finding out where her visitors that the skull was once the property
it came from. “The first time I kept the skull in of the High Priest of the Maya, that it had the SCREEN GEM
my home overnight,” Dorland told author power to “cause visions and cure cancer,” and
Richard Garvin in his book, The Crystal Skull, could even “be used to transfer knowledge of an In 2008 Homann was the subject of the Sci-Fi
“I was awakened by unusual noises. It sounded elder to a younger person.” Right before Channel documentary Mysteries of the Crystal
like a large jungle cat was prowling through the President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, she Skull. Here’s how TV Guide described it:
house, accompanied by the sound of chimes and said, the skull turned cloudy. She would invite Glimmers of ancient civilizations and lost
bells. When we got up the next morning, our her customers to touch the object, explaining worlds have forever intrigued and tantalized but
possessions were strewn all about the house. that it always has a surface temperature of 70 few ancient mysteries generate quite the fervor
Yet, all the doors and windows were still closed degrees Fahrenheit, no matter how cold or warm of the Crystal Skulls: 13 quartz crystal human
and locked from the inside.” the room was. A visiting reporter once wrote that skulls, now scattered to the four winds,
The skull spent six years in the care of the skull is “strangely luminous, reflecting a discovered the ruins of Mayan and Aztec
Dorland, who, like others who have owned it, piercing blue-white light from its eye sockets.” societies. Legend tells us that should they ever
became obsessed with it. After studying the And it wasn’t the “Skull of Doom” be united, they may unleash untold energy,
artifact in his lab, Dorland theorized that it was anymore. “That was one of my father’s jokes,” revealing secrets vital to the survival of
carved not from one but from three crystals. But said Mitchell-Hedges. He’d said it was evil in humankind.
he needed better equipment to prove it, so he the hopes of deterring would-be robbers. She The documentary, presented by NBC
took the skull to Hewlett-Packard’s crystal labs called it the “Skull of Love.” And it got a whole newsman Lester Holt, followed Homann
in Santa Clara, California. Initial tests new lease on life thanks to the burgeoning New through dense jungles to Mayan ruins, scuba
determined that it is comprised of a single Age Movement in the 1970s and ‘80s. “Peter diving and spelunking, searching for another
crystal, but that’s about the only conclusive O’Toole once sat with it for four hours,” she told crystal skull (to no avail). That was only one of
thing they were able to find. a reporter in 1966, “right over there on the carpet several documentaries that aired that year, all
• It appeared that whoever made the thing – he wanted to lie down.” Mitchell-Hedges also trying to cash in on Indiana Jones and the
did it in “total disregard to the natural crystal,” bragged that Shirley MacLaine and William Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The movie
said Dorland. If you carve against the axis, the Shatner had made the trek to her motel to bask follows Indiana Jones to the Amazon jungle in
crystal should shatter, or, as one crystallographer in its power. Science-fiction author Arthur C. Peru as he looks for a crystal skull, described as
out it, “The damn thing shouldn’t even be.” Clark called the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull, “a mind weapon, a new frontier of psychic
• The HP techs could find no microscopic “the weirdest gem in the world.” warfare.” Despite lukewarm reviews, the movie
indications of cut marks made by metal grossed nearly $800 million worldwide. All of a
instruments, so exactly how it was made sudden, crystal skulls were all over the news.
RETURN TO LUBAANTUN
remained a mystery. And then, a few months later when the hype died
• Further tests determined that the skull down, they were gone again.
In 1981, when Mitchell-Hedges was 74 year-
was probably polished by hand with sand over a Until December 2012 – that was the
old, she received a call from Bill Homann, a
period of time using “300 man-years of effort.” month the world was supposed to end, at least
fellow adventurer and a huge admirer of her
By that point (around 1970) Anna Mitchell- according to the ancient Mayan “Long Count”:
father. She and Homann became friends, and she
Hedges had had enough of scientific studies. calendar. The only thing that would keep the
later moved in with him in Indiana. In 1989 and
She took a Greyhound bus to California, planet Earth from “falling off its axis,” claimed
again in 1996, they went back to British
retrieved her crystal skull from Dorland, and the true believers, was for all 13 crystal skulls to
Honduras (now called Belize) to retrace the
never let scientists near it for the rest of her life. be reunited at a sacred Mayan site.
footsteps of the 1924 expedition. And in 2002,
(Continued on Page 11)