The first symptoms are flu-like with headache, backache, and fever. Within 48 hours, a person infected with the highly contagious, airborne Ebola Zaire virus can experience a death so horrible it seems like a scene from The Andromeda Strain or science fiction. The true story of the outbreak of this deadly "hot" virus in an animal quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia, is the subject of the current number 1 best-seller, The Hot Zone. A SWAT team of soldiers and scientists wearing biohazard space suits secretly battled the Ebola virus for 18 days, finally destroying 450 monkeys to contain it. If Ebola had escaped into the general population, thousands if not millions of Americans in the Washington, D.C. area could have died. Prior to the Reston incident, entire villages in Africa had been wiped out from Ebola. In this globe-trotting jet age, it could take only one unsuspecting person 24 hours to carry the virus from Washington to Hong Kong and start a catastrophic worldwide epidemic.

In addition to The Hot Zone, there have been other books published recently such as The Coming Plague and The Dancing Matrix: Voyages Along The Viral Frontier that predict we are on the threshold of a pandemic influenza virus to which we have no innate immunity. The most recent "killer flu" occurred in 1918 and claimed 20 million lives around the world. Furthermore, the medical community is seeing a startling rise of old diseases such as tuberculosis that once were thought under control, but are now antibiotic resistant.

One group of researchers embraces the GAIA theory (i.e. the Earth is viewed as a living organism, subject to illness, but also having self-healing abilities). GAIA, the Greek word for Earth, has become ill and is seeking revenge by striking back at humanity, the primary source of Earth's problems. Our pollution of the air, oceans and land spreads like a cancer across GAIA's surface and GAIA responds with earthquakes, floods, fires and pestilence. As we destroy the tropical wildernesses of the world, previously unknown viruses such as Ebola Zaire and Marburg are now entering human populations after living undetected in the rain forests for eons.

Mankind is destroying the tropical rain forests at the rate of 100 acres per minute or a land mass the size of Great Britain annually. The GAIA theory postulates that the Earth has organs and that the heart of GAIA is the rain forest which contains 90 percent of all life forms. By the year 2010, we will have been responsible for the extinction of 20 percent of Earth's species; in 60 years, 50 percent of the species will be gone. Is it any wonder the Earth is rebelling against mankind?

In the midst of these dire predictions, Barbara Bullard offers up hope. She believes that hidden in any crisis, whether big or small, personal or planetary, there also lies the opportunity for growth and expansion. Ancient Chinese philosophers were well aware of this concept. Their symbol and word for crisis, wei-chi, is depicted as a combination of two characters, one meaning "danger," the other, "opportunity."

Barbara Bullard will speak to The Eclectic Viewpoint about new strategies for pumping up our DNA and immune systems to combat the threat of potential world plagues. A Professor of Speech Communication at Orange Coast College, California, Barbara Bullard has been the recipient of many teaching awards for inspirational and innovative teaching. She is included in three separate categories of Who's Who and was recently presented the prestigious NISOD Teaching Excellence Award.

A dynamic speaker, Barbara Bullard is a popular guest lecturer for the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), an international organization that studies the Edgar Cayce "readings." She incorporates the principles of the readings into her research and has been a member of A.R.E. for 22 years, as well as serving on their Board of Trustees for Atlantic University.

For the past six years, Barbara Bullard has been integrating the insights from her 20-year study of the Edgar Cayce philosophy with Hemi-Sync technology based on research from the Monroe Institute. This institution, located in Virginia and founded by Robert Monroe, researches the use of sound patterns to create an identical wave form in both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously. When both the right and left brain are entrained to the same signal by using Monroe's Hemi-Sync tapes, the results are astounding. As the entire brain focuses on one goal, states of super-learning are achieved as well as relief from pain and disease. Many listeners also report peak experiences of a transcendental nature.

Barbara Bullard began working with students in her classes who were interested in changing many aspects of their lives. Everything from improving test scores to losing weight or giving up smoking was accomplished with the Hemi-Sync tapes. One student confidentially told Barbara that he had AIDS and was disturbed at his declining T-cell count. She suggested a particular tape and the student's T-cell count doubled in 3 weeks; his doctor was amazed. Since then, other AIDS patients using the tape have reported similar results. As a contributing author to the book, Using The Whole Brain, Bullard states that the bilateral synchronized brain wave state "is a significant factor in eliciting the 'trophotropic response' — the autonomic healing mechanism of the body."

Before using the Monroe Hemi-Sync tapes, Bullard says that she tried many other "audio tapes that claimed to produce a synchronized brain pattern, but ... failed to do so." In his book Megabrain: New Tools and Techniques for Brain Growth and Mind Expansion, Michael Hutchison states that he found the Hemi-Sync technology to be the best of all the tapes, techniques, and devices he has researched. On a recent Sightings TV program, the Monroe Hemi-Sync tapes were featured as an amazing tool for the control of pain during surgery.

In her presentation, Barbara Bullard will discuss many aspects of her research including DNA and techniques for stimulating the immune system so that we will be survivors of the predicted plagues and earth changes. Although millions perish during pandemic outbreaks of viruses and "super-flus," there are always those who survive. What gives them the "edge" over others? Come to this lecture and find the answer.