"Man is a mortal god, god is an immortal man"
Operation Sunray
December 6th 1990
A search for the Bulgarian emperor ‘Samuil’ of the First Bulgarian empire’s buried treasure in the mountains of the village of ‘Tsarichina’ by the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense leads to a strange discovery in the depths of a hole dug deep into the earth’s surface.
Following the quickening dissolution of the Soviet Union and Bulgaria’s economy steadily failing; they hope to sell this historic and cultural treasure to pay off their looming debt and regain their economic stability.
A mysterious man named ‘Dmitry Kekhemanov’ from the tiny village of ‘Krudetz’ comes to the ‘Phenomenon Association’ branch of the Bulgarian’s MoD claiming to have had dreams of long dead Bulgarian revolutionaries (Vasov, Rekovski, Levsky and Borov) revealing to him the location of the great and lost treasure of the Tsar Samuil. He claims he was instructed to ‘lead the Bulgars into greatness once again!’ and that he was a descendant of the historic leader imbued with cosmic intelligence to carry out his duty. He specifically seeks out the military due to his belief that they would not profit from such an excursion.
Bulgaria has a historic culture of treasure hunting and the oldest deposits of subterranean gold within the earths surface were found in Bulgaria.
‘Naplatanov’ a Colonel within the MoD is the first to take real concern with this story - appointing his daughter ‘Marina’ a self described psychic to lead and oversee the dig.
A ritual seance is carried out before the project is commenced with only certain individuals being present. What happened inside is unknown.
An expedition is carried out to search for said treasure over the course of two years costing over 16 million Lev but slowly becomes something else as both local and military appointed psychics including ‘Baba Vaga’ and ‘Elisveta Loginova’ are appointed to the project claiming to be drawn to the hole and compel the military to dig deeper.
Baba Vaga is a blind mystic from the Kozhuh mountains who claims to have powers of clairvoyance and soothsaying - she was studied extensively by Soviet officials who concluded her predictions were up to 80% accurate.
"There will come a time of miracles and a time of great discoveries in the field of the immaterial. There will also be great archaeological discoveries that will fundamentally change our understanding of the world since ancient times. So, it is predetermined”
The psychics start producing documents of automatic writing, ancient runes and maps that they describe as being messages from an entity guiding them. This no longer becomes a search for treasure.
‘Dmitry Ofkharov’ of the National Institute of Archaeology is contacted and warned not to reveal any of what he is about to see. He is given 30-40 sheets of these writings from the psychics and he tells them that he can confirm that these are texts of various ancient cultures including Cuneiform of Sumerian origin, Thracian Indo-European writing, Heiroglyphs from Egypt and North Africa, Runes of Hittite origin and other unknown writings from unconnected cultures. Over 100 repeated but unknown unique characters were indecipherable. He asks how this were possible and implies it may be some kind of proto-historic foundation for all base language and text. He notices these are all on pieces of paper and requests if he could possibly see the source texts or any further information but is told they cannot tell him any more.
During the course of the dig the colonels daughter Marina complains of intense exhaustion and headaches; to which she is ordered to stay at home and rest as the military continue the expedition. Unfortunately, she would never return as her body was found in a river near her home with her death having been ruled as a suicide.
The belief of her father is that Marina was tormented by psionic attacks and ‘sonic harassment’ through something called by the ‘Lipton weapon’ by the other psychics in collusion with his colleagues. Having been invaded by telepathic thoughts, not of her own mind - ordering her to poison herself and throw herself off buildings. Such a weapon that attacks the most sacred and untouchable - the human brain.
This leads to his removal from the project and colonel ’Menchev’ takes his place. He refuses psychiatric help and admittance. Naplatanov is later found dead under a bridge in Sofia. The other psychics deny this allegation of harassment and instead claim she was tormented by an entity known as ‘Kiki’ which misled both her and the project astray - as the true entity is from a distant star system they must follow and let guide them which they say is known as ‘Roro’.
As the dig continues, they discover an expansive cave system leading over 7,000ft into the earth’s crust. A point comes in which their tools no longer can destroy the rock they are excavating, having to resort to explosives to continue. A dry heat enveloping the workers as they toil endlessly deeper.
Baba Vaga warns the military to stop their operations and warns them of what they might find. She tells them to come back to her when they find ‘The Stairs’ and to continue no further. She tells of disturbing the balance of what keeps the earth spinning, great plumes of radiation, floods, and an ancient bacteriological life-form being reawakened within the cave walls. Asking what they will do once they find ‘it’ and what they will do when it ‘speaks to them’.
As they dug deeper higher incidences of anomalous phenomena were reported by local villagers including UFO sightings, metallic tastes, loss of memory, nightmares and having thoughts that were not their own.
Following the directions of Loginova to ignore her warnings they continue. The thrumming vibrations of the earth’s plates steadily increasing as the they come upon an opening.
An antechamber lined with an extremely polished and smooth rock is discovered which leads to a larger opening dropping a further 15 metres below - pink is the dominant colour here covered in rocks of yellow, white, red, gray, black, and orange chromatic blemishes; walls adorned with the same myriad of paradoxical writings of ancient cultures, inquisitional alchemy, astrological symbols and artistic reliefs the psychics had received in their minds eye. Seemingly carved and ornate in a temple type structure that seemed to place importance to a vastly large object in the centre of the room. A capsule, towering and made of organic material, seemingly under pressure. In the dim electric light of their lamps illuminated within the object some kind of cherry red being within the translucence of the object.
The military deemed what they found as ‘Object #001’ and all personnel exposed to the object were overcame with chronic exhaustion, vomiting, delirium, burns and sickness - causing their slow but eventual death. The psychics among the crew claim that through dreams, visions and messages that this object has always desired to be found and is an ancient progenitor of all life on earth and an androgynous embodiment of a cosmic consciousness. This object would reveal the truth of man’s past, present and future - fulfilling our every desire and the completion of the human condition before our next extinction event.
Of the crew that remains, the psychics instruct the military personnel that ‘everyone must get out and hide indoors’ as there are beings who are arriving and they are coming to the tunnel to see what they have found. They do as instructed and all that can be heard from their digging trailers on the surface is the barking of their dogs as they wait until it is safe to leave again.
Some of the military are convinced this is a hoax made up by these psychics and that much is partially true as some of the psychics are only there for nefarious purposes but others maintain their faith with no ill intention. Locals surrounding the capital of ‘Sofia’ maintain that this was a money laundering process to aid in transitions between the then communist government to a social democracy. Others believe it to be some kind of testing ground for psychotronic weapons or advanced alien technology. Villagers maintain the paranormal and spiritual connection the village has to other worlds and planes of existence, as is local superstition. The CIA are made aware of the possible extraterrestrial aspect of this project, the location’s history of UFO sightings due to the military involvement.
The question is that of human imagination, the concept of faith/belief changing our perception of experience and reality. Conspiracies, superstition, paranoia, the occult, religion, fear, the unknown and the paranormal make up the foundations of the human psyche. Existing within ourselves without an apparent reason and incapable of understanding without interpretation. Local and external biases can shape our desires to believe or dismiss as we are purely phenomenological beings.
November 9th 1992
All documents concerning the project were destroyed by the military or have gone missing, the hole suddenly filled with concrete and the site quickly abandoned. They left and never returned.
”They say that the Earth will have to be destroyed twice, once by water, and this has already happened...In the future it will be destroyed for the second time by fire”