For more blog posts: https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/ep-blog-posts 

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MYSTERY OF THE

SHROUD OF TURIN

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Neil Meyers, April 11, 2025

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With the approach of Easter, I thought it would be appropriate to write an article on the Shroud of Turin, a subject that has recently become relevant again after new verifiable evidence has emerged as to its authenticity, and therefore, the Resurrection of Jesus. Perhaps you will agree after reading this summary and watching some of the videos listed below. Interestingly, C.S. Lewis, the great Oxford Professor and author who passed away on the day of JFK's death in 1963, kept a large mural of the Shroud in his bedroom. Having abandoned atheism, it evidently evoked something within him, be it awe, reverence or wonderment. 

Unfortunately, I’m not able to post pictures of the Shroud of Turin since I've maximized the limit of images I’m permitted to store on this blog site. However, many of the video links I have listed below include plenty of pictures and other relevant content. For this post, I selected a flash of light that I had already featured in a previous blog, since, in my mind, it represents the radiant flash of light in the dark tomb.

I took this picture one night several years ago for no reason, since there was nothing in the sky but darkness. So, I was rather surprised to have captured this... whatever it is, but to me, in my imaginative mind, it even seems to pulsate with an amorphous figure in the centre. Indeed, light does exist in the darkness, as it did in the tomb 2000 years ago. Let me know in the comments at the end if this optical illusion has the same effect on you.

The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth of Jesus laid over and under the body after he was crucified by the Romans. Today, it is by far the most studied and venerated archaeological artefact in the world. Over the last fifty years, it has been studied extensively in over 100 scientific disciplines and subdisciplines, including some of the world’s leading atomic physicists. Prior to that, scientists were not given access to the Shroud, so there was little scientific evidence to prove its authenticity.

There have been hundreds of books and papers published on this, many of which can be found at www.shroud.com, a 28-year-old website, predating Google, which is so extensive it has its own search engine.

In 1978, a team of scientists traveled to Turin to study the Shroud but were permitted only five days to do their research. They brought with them a truckload of crates of the finest equipment available. It was assumed by many of these scientists that it would only take a few hours to prove the Shroud a medieval relic hoax. However, that was not to be… then or ever since.

The project was called STURP, the Shroud of Turin Research Project. The scientists were a cross-disciplinary group, including atomic specialists from the Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico. The list of the original 1978 scientists is listed on Wikipedia. All were at the top of their specialized field. To read more, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin_Research Project

Prior to beginning their research in Italy, the team spent 18 months planning and preparing for the study, as nothing like this had ever been done on the Shroud before. After the research, the team continued to intensively study the results for five more years.

I have written a brief thumbnail sketch of some of the interesting facts surrounding the Shroud. Verification of these facts is available online. My favourite video interviews are with Barry Schwortz, who founded the Shroud website and spent almost 50 years researching the data. He was on the original research team in the mid-1970s as the photographer, which provides a fascinating insight into all the intrigue behind the investigation. Here are a few such YouTube interview links with him being interviewed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpMStZ_7ikQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ8KRXDtCgI 

Barry, beloved to the whole community of scientists and Shroud researchers, passed away last June 2024. The following link is his final interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFyQVlSSo04 

Interestingly, Barry was Jewish and stated he remained in the Jewish tradition, albeit nominally. Still, after investigating the Shroud with scores of highly specialised scientists for over 50 years, there came a time when, in his mind, there could be no credible doubt that the Shroud was genuine and that God had miraculously raised Jesus from the dead.

Now that we have verified the dates of the flax-woven linen and the pollen in it, which date back to the time of Christ, there remains even more fascinating and convincing evidence for the Shroud's authenticity. Even though much of this should not have been possible, and yet credible, informed scientific research tells us the impossible happened. And so, this is where it gets really interesting.

Perhaps most significantly, the image was no ordinary photograph but a photo negative from thousands of years before such images existed. Inexplicably, when the first photograph of the Shroud was first taken by a French photographer in 1898, the image turned out to be a negative, proving that the image could not have been forged as a relic. In fact, the process can’t even be duplicated today, even with the latest and best laser technology.

Of course, this was a shocking revelation to the world. How could we get this photo-negative image on linen, or anything else for that matter, all before photography existed? No one wished to believe him, considering it was supposedly impossible. It was over 30 years before the Shroud was made available for viewing again, so it took decades before he could be vindicated after another photo was finally taken, having the same results, proving the image was a photo-negative, just as the photographer had claimed.

Further to that, we now know that the Shroud image contains 3-dimensional light code information. The 3D imagery was discovered by what's called a VP8 image analyzer developed by NASA-associated scientists for astronomical purposes. When used to analyse the Shroud, it was able to project a 3D image. If you take a picture of yourself and put it under a 3D image analyzer, it simply wouldn’t work. But when you apply it to the Shroud, it comes ‘alive.’ Again, another impossibility!

Based on this, scientists can create 3d replicas of the Shroud image. Now, AI has been able to take the information and produce startling photographic imagery of Jesus as he would have appeared in real life, although we may not yet be assured how accurate AI is in its interpretation. This AI-generated photo image can be found in some of the video links below. However, it may still be too early to be sure of their accuracy since there is more than one interpretation.

There are several other interesting, if not shocking, facts about the Shroud, a few of which I’ve outlined below. Most obviously, we know for certain the image was not made of paint… not dye, not pencil, not rubbing, not bleaching, not scorching, since no evidence of these elements exists in or on the weave. Instead, we have the spectroscopy microscope that analyses reflected light. This wide-angle X-ray scattering imaging shows that the Shroud image was likely created by radiation, which is what the 3-D effect of darker and lighter  areas on the pixilated Herringbone weave made on dehydrated flax-cellulose linen.

The depth of penetration in the fringed upper layer of the fibril is a pixilated image, only 1/16th the thickness of a hair. How deep is that? Not very: there are 200 fibrils in a single fibre, and the yellow image is on just 1% of the fibril, which is why the faint yellow image is not easy to make out unless viewed from a distance.

If that wasn’t enough, top atomic physicists have estimated that it would have taken 5.5 billion pixelations to generate the image. Not just that, but it would have required 34,000 billion watts of energy to create the image, all in a micro-nanosecond. Where did that come from? Certainly no earthly grid in or out of the tomb. 

So, how did this sudden burst of radiation occur? Obviously, with the body in the tomb, it couldn’t have been lightning from the sky. Even more amazing, the imprint did not come from without, but was made on the inside of the Shroud, where the blood stains are found, meaning the powerful, radiant light flash must have emanated from the body.

Apart from interpreting this as a miraculous intervention, there is no credible scientific explanation for how this could have happened. Some have speculated that the image was created directly from within the photon light codes within the DNA molecules of the transmuted body. These questions remain beyond religion, pointing us in the direction of quantum mechanics, fused with religion and metaphysics. We know from repeatable scientific experiments that DNA can acquire higher frequencies from other substances or individuals. This suggests that energy can be transferred through our DNA without the need for direct physical DNA injection —a most revolutionary concept.

Still, 34,000 billion watts of radiation in just a micro-nanosecond from a corpse? Who knows, whatever happened may have all occurred outside of time and space as we know it, where in this plane of existence, highly charged multi-dimensional frequencies influence and impact the DNA molecule. So, did God or some angelic beings evoke this divine metamorphosis? After all, the records say they were hanging out near the tomb to greet Mary on Sunday morning.

Further to this, the Shroud didn’t just cover the surface of the body but was wrapped all the way around in one long, seamless fourteen-foot linen sheet, so the image appears from both the front and back of the body. Again, this could only have been possible if the radiant light flash came from within the body as it was being transmuted into something much different in its resurrected form.

Interestingly, the blood on the Shroud remains red even after thousands of years have passed. Under normal conditions, blood turns dark brown or black within hours of oxidation when exposed to air. However, this blood remained red because of what’s called bilirubin, a compound made in the liver and pumped into the bloodstream under traumatic conditions of extreme pain. There is a hemolytic agent that breaks down the cell walls, releasing haemoglobin into the blood, which causes the blood to remain red, even after centuries. The composition of the blood supports evidence that the body died from asphyxiation, organ failure and severe trauma.

Scourging marks on the Shroud image line up with the shape of a Roman lead barbell flagrums at the end of the whip, designed to rip apart the flesh. The 30 bleeding sites on the head from the crown come from native Jerusalem thistle thorns, whose pollen shows up on the Shroud fabric. Also, in the photo, evidence of the lance mark on the side of the body is visible, as referred to in the Bible. Over 700 wound marks have been identified on the cloth, many of which are the result of the brutal flagellation. The Passion of the Christ (2004) was no exaggeration. Btw, the below links are to the trailer of Gibson’s resurrection movie, soon to be released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=499hi0BoR4M 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkanifQSiSo  

However, this is not the end of the story's intrigue. In 1988, ten years after the STURP study, a few carbon dating experts from England were selected to conduct carbon dating tests to verify the Shroud’s age. To the shock of the original research team, he dating results indicated the material was approximately 700 years old rather than 2,000 years.

Without further regard to the previous years of study by STURP, the test results were quickly published with great fanfare in Nature, a prestigious, world-renowned scientific magazine. And so, for the next three decades, it was widely accepted by many supposedly informed sources that the Shroud was a medieval hoax and a fake relic from southern Europe.

It seems evident that the fix was in even before tests were made. But today, the results of Carbon Dating on the Shroud of Turin have been discredited and debunked by most scientific authorities, not because the carbon dating was inaccurate, but because the sample analysed was not from the original linen cloth. Furthermore, the scientific protocol for Carbon Dating calls for six postage-sized samples. They cut just one, and rather than having a sample from the original linen Shroud, they dated a patch of cotton fabric attached to the Shroud’s edge, which had been sewn as a repair during the medieval era in Europe, around 1300 AD. The Shroud is linen, not cotton. Analysis of the material and its weave proves this. The pollen in the cotton fragment was proven to have originated in Europe, which conveniently provided the carbon tests with a medieval date.

Whether this was done intentionally or not to discredit the STURP research is unclear, but after the STURP study was completed in the early 1980s, there was significant pressure from the scientific community to disprove the Shroud's authenticity, as there was just too much to accept for it to be scientifically credible. The original intent of the STURP study was not to prove the Shroud but to disprove it. That sure didn't work out. But anyway, ten years later, the antagonists got their way with the date they wanted.

It dosn't end there, though. Things became increasingly suspicious over the decades, as no one was permitted access to the dating tests or the methods used. Despite all the meticulous work done by the STURP researchers showing evidence of the Shroud’s authenticity, the British Museum refused to release the results of the dating tests to the public. But why? There were no answers, which raised the spectre that something was afoul. 

After 27 years of denying access to the dating tests and protocol, the tide was about to turn due to the tenacity and determination of a young French researcher and lawyer. Finally, scientists were able to access the research data, albeit reluctantly. The dubious tests were exposed only because the authorities were forced to release the dating evidence in compliance with the British Freedom of Information Act.

There were several other questionable circumstances surrounding the motives of those originally involved, including a £1.5 million payoff, which I won’t go into here. (Barry Schwortz explains this in a few of the video interviews since he had first-hand evidence of what was occurring behind the scenes. Obviously, the other STURP researchers were also frustrated at being upstaged and excluded from participating in these dating tests. Another red flag.

Despite all the shenanigans, it is now generally accepted that the Shroud dates back to the time of Christ’s crucifixion, based on tests showing that the linen flax material originated from the Palestinian area, not Europe, with native pollen samples identified in the fabric. However, as we might suspect, there are many sceptics out there who, most apparently, don’t wish to acknowledge the implications of the Shroud, continuing to search for an angle to disprove the obvious.

Furthermore, there is still more astonishing information that coincides with the Shroud. The Biblical account tells us that the empty tomb had not only the bloody Shroud left behind but also a facecloth, which had been laid over the Shroud. Today, it is known as the Sudarium of Oviedo, which has been preserved in a church in Oviedo, Spain, since the 7th century. The image of the face is not found on the Sudarium (facemask) as it is on the Shroud, since the radiation would not have penetrated from the Shroud below the Sudarium. However, the blood that bled through the Shroud linen, amazingly, matches the blood stains on the portion that covered the face. Though separated for over 700 years in different countries, both would have had to somehow come from the same tomb, as stated in the Gospels.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it difficult to understand how anyone investigating all the evidence can deny that the Shroud of Turin is not the cloth represented in the New Testament. I guess we all believe what we want to believe... or not believe, regardless of the evidence. Just as Pascal, the 15th-century scientist and mystic, stated: There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition. An atheist is an atheist and so cannot accept what lies outside the scope of the prejudiced beliefs of materialism.

As a student of philosophy, I’m all for critical thinking, provided the thinker is open-minded and not determined to remain closed because the evidence doesn’t easily accommodate a narrow worldview. If interested, see my post, Are You a Skeptic?, which briefly examines the nature of skepticism, both good and sometimes… not-so-good.

https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/are-you-a-skeptic  

Though I’ve hardly scraped the surface of this topic, my objective was to identify some of the more interesting facts about this ancient Shroud. I also encouraged everyone to read the four Gospel accounts of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, which provide detailed information on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, with plenty of corroborating evidence for the Shroud.

The implications of the historical Resurrection have extremely profound consequences for our lives, requiring everyone to decide for themselves what it means for them and the world, regardless of their religious affiliation. To help with this process, I plan to post some guideline questions to help process these ominous considerations.  

If you wish to pass this article on to others, just forward this link: https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/shroud-of-turin 
Or, if you wish to view other posts on this blog site, go to https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/ep-blog-posts 

 

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For more information on the Shroud, see the links below. There are tons of YouTube videos. For a starter, here are some links with fascinating presentations and interviews.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpMStZ_7ikQ&t=367s 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0X4-WEUb-w 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT1R2kDPHFA 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB5BVueEfHg   

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4VJeIAUqGM       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ8KRXDtCgI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOdnTPl5AeY&t=38s  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNi2HoHCdSs&t=126s  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y3zKsxtAEo&t=706s 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdIodSiGuz4 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lruF4tm9nvA 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w32UGkrzviU&t=1s  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y3zKsxtAEo&t=706s 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCtwkto5kpk 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIco_KVgDwQ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFyQVlSSo04 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq5kHkoj904&t=2795s 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpMStZ_7ikQ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpHUc6nUHag&t=42s 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBxk8ESQM1g 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Io-t5xWWzU 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfKFWu_kw6U 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjMeEwWrAGM   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIUDaMatODM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt8U7f7yCdM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxc179-HIJ0 

https://shroudencounter.com/   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtOAy3iBaxI 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w32UGkrzviU 

 

Also, here are a few non-video website links that may be of interest.

https://www.shroudofturin.com/sturp.html 
https://www.shroud.com/78exam.htm 
https://www.shroudofturin.com/sturp.html 
https://www.shroud.com/schwortz.htm 

     

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SUMMARY OF ELYSIUM'S PASSAGE

 

The ELYSIUM'S PASSAGE novel series is a seven-book narration about a young British philosopher named James Phillips who finds himself living in an altered state of reality while still remaining on Earth.  

After experiencing a near-fatal fall while climbing to the summit of a remote mountain in the Andes, James awakens in a new dimension. He soon encounters two mysterious beings who provide him with a very different perspective on the nature of his existence. Over the next year, before his body recovers from the coma, he is challenged to re-examine his understanding of life’s meaning and purpose far beyond anything he previously believed or could believe.

An engaging and sometimes surreal adventure with intimations of impending romance, the narrative explores the most important questions about life, death, reality and our ultimate destiny. 

The Plains of Elysium (Champs-Élysées) was described by Homer, Hesiod, Virgil and many other poets as the paradisiac afterlife realm reserved for heroes. As the title suggests, this is about a journey through a passage that leads towards Elysium’s exciting realm of existence.

Read a sample press review at https://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/05/prweb15515775.htm   

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PENDING PUBLICATION OF ELYSIUM’S PASSAGE SERIES
 
                                    

The Ascent: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

The Summit: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

Quantum Leaps: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

Surreal Adventures: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

Mystical Romance: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

The Elixir: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

The Return: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

1. THE ASCENT is the first novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage that’s foundational to everything that happens in the following narratives, which embark on an adventure that will surprise and delight the reader like no other book.

It all begins with an extreme adventure of climbing a remote and challenging mountain somewhere in the Andes Mountains. Just as James, the protagonist, is about to reach the mountain summit, he falls into an abyss that leaves him in a coma for almost a year.

After being airlifted by a forestry helicopter and flown back to London, where his body remained for almost a year. Eventually, he learns it was not he but his body that was rescued. Several days later, without understanding what happened, he continues to climb to the summit in an alternate dimension of higher consciousness.

Fortuitously, he meets two adventurers on the summit ridge who are no longer of this world. After that, his surreal life leads him to several new adventures in the subsequent chronicles, which include a rich mix of adventure, romance, and fantasy, along with profound discussions of philosophy, spirituality, and the afterlife.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

2. THE SUMMIT, the second novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, carries on where James, the narrator and protagonist, is taught more about a multidimensional reality that he finds difficult to comprehend.

Not only does he find he’s not as clever as he imagined, but his off-world companions on the summit demonstrate that much of what he believed about life was not just parochial but wrong. At first, he finds this difficult to comprehend since their teachings are contrary to his limited understanding of non-material reality.

After being tricked into teleporting off a ledge where he was trapped, James becomes aware of a new reality that makes him capable of far more adventures than he could have ever experienced in his physical body back home.

Now, if only he would win over the only woman in this life who matters, the nurse on the other side of the veil, who continually demonstrates her unconditional love toward his healing.

This book may also open the reader’s eyes to a much vaster reality than many may be aware of. As with the other Chronicles, there are discussions of philosophy, the spiritual afterlife and what might seem like fantasy.

3. QUANTUM LEAPS is the third novel in Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, where James, the philosopher-protagonist, teleports back to London to visit his body and make contact with the special nurse taking care of it in his absence. Immediately, he feels an inexplicable spiritual bond with her for reasons he remains unaware of.

Now aroused by a renewed interest in matters of love, the beginnings of a relationship begin to emerge as he attempts to reach across the chasm of their worlds. But it’s not until the fifth novel, Mystical Romance, that he encounters her in a way that he finds difficult to believe.

However, before that can happen, there is much about his failed relationships that must be resolved before he is ready to move forward in his new life in Elysium’s Passage. It is during this time he christens his comatose body as the fall guy since it took the fall for him down the abyss so he could learn the lessons he’s now learning.

That will be the next focus of his life, where, in his next Surreal Adventures, he is given virtual lessons to release many of his past beliefs about the world and his life.

4. SURREAL ADVENTURES is the fourth novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, which finds James, the protagonist and narrator, escorted by his companions to a remote South Pacific Island, where he is left to reflect on what he’s learned.

During the next forty days, he battles the demons of his past as he works through some rather painful issues from his early youth. Here, in a tropical storm, he encounters an eerie, suspended spectre of the one he loved yet still resents for abandoning him as a child.

After this, he achieves peace of mind and is ready to return to his lodge to join his off-world companions on the Andes summit. However, just when it seemed things couldn’t get any stranger, a sixteenth-century sea captain sails his ancient ‘ghost’ ship onto the beach. Together, they sail off on a mystical ocean voyage to a couple of virtual islands supposedly in the South Pacific, where he witnesses and, at times, participates in several important life lessons.

Near the end, these encounters help prepare him for a new challenge within the interior of a mountain, where he falls deep into a dark tomb of fear. After being rescued by a mysterious stranger wielding his Excalibur, he continues on to where his life is about to be transformed in the following chronicle, Mystical Romance. 

5. MYSTICAL ROMANCE is the fifth chronicle in Elysium’s Passage, which will surprise the reader with a romantic twist of how love is expressed in higher realms. From this lofty perspective, everything about intimacy is understood as within, so without.

After escaping his tomb, James, the narrator and protagonist, makes his way through a maze of tunnels until he arrives at a large oak door, which he opens with the golden key he had been given. There, he steps into Elysium’s Passage’s Great Hall, where his life and recent achievements are celebrated now that his eyes have been opened to perceive a fascinating interior world of wonderment… and romance.

To say more might risk diminishing the multitude of delightful surprises as circumstances begin to open to The Elixir, where James is about to re-enter his earthly body’s existence. 

6. THE ELIXIR is the sixth chronicle of the Elysium’s Passage series that prepares James, the narrator-protagonist, to awaken and return to his body in London. Before that can happen, however, his off-world friend presents a mysterious equation, enshrouded within a light code frequency, that will stimulate the multidimensional DNA strands within him.

Much of this narration is centred in London, where his nurse unknowingly becomes involved in how the Elixir’s equation finds its way from a taxi cab driver to higher echelons of science. There are many twists in how she unwittingly brings the Elixir to the attention of mathematicians and physicists, after which they eventually discover how to code the equation into a laser ray to stimulate his fall-guy body into full consciousness.

Ostensibly a new Adam, he is destined to return humanity to a higher multidimensional existence. How this happens is filled with intrigue, as is his shocking return to his earthly body.

 
­­­­­7. THE RETURN is the seventh and last chronicle in the series where James, the narrator and protagonist, has re-emerged from Elysium’s Passage as he readjusts to life in the third dimension. Many of the events from the previous novels are tied together in an exciting, fast-paced, and action-packed narrative that spans several countries.

 At first, it seems all memories have been lost, with his fall guy’s brain not being aware of what happened to him while in his coma. As a consequence, it takes a while for him to be convinced he had been out of his earthly body for almost a year.

Through some unexpected events and evidence, along with his girlfriend’s urging, he comes to an awareness of what had occurred. It takes a while for his mind to catch up with the changes made in his heart during his stay in the alternate realm. But after experiencing several harsh realities, he discovers what he has become while out of his body. Gradually, he comes to understand the many challenges that lie ahead for him in fulfilling his future mission on Earth.

This book is filled with adventure, romance and personal intrigue that ties together all six previous narratives of the Elysium’s Passage series.

As a teaser to the series, the first half of this book is available to read at:

https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/THE-RETURN 

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CONTACT INFORMATION

FACEBOOK: Elysium's Passage Novel Series or my personal page, Neil Meyers

EMAIL: nmeyers@shaw.ca 

BLOG POSTINGS: https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/ep-blog-posts  or https://digitalbloggers.com/articles/elysiumspassage 

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXpzFH6VNMQLOtqOK2SrXpg 

PRESS REVIEW: https://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/05/prweb15515775.htm