Derek Clontz

Archive for January, 2008

Angel saves cancer child … and her atheist dad

In 1000 years of peace, Health, afterlife, amazing feats, angels, atheists, bible, bible prophecy, born again Christian, cancer miracle, christian prophecy, christian thought, death, gee whiz, happiness, healing miracle, health and fitness, heaven, inspirational, life, life after death, life's lessons, love, medical miracle, odd, offbeat, office talk, religion, wild world, world religions on January 25, 2008 at 3:47 am
Copyright (c) 2007 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
A CHERUBIC angel with flowing red hair saved a terminally-ill child from certain death in a hospital cancer ward with no more effort than a hug, a kiss and the tenderly-whispered words: “God wants you to get up. You are healed … ” – but that’s just half the miracle.

Within seconds of realizing what had happened, the 7-year-old girl’s father, an avowed atheist and best-selling author who once told Pope John Paul II that “God, if He exists at all, ought be shot” and called Jesus Christ “a third-rate carpenter with a first-rate lie”  fell to his knees in full view of shellshocked doctors and nurses, professing a new and undying belief in both God and Christ.

To ice the cake, Jean-Philip DeMarcourt is now preaching the gospel to anybody who will listen and openly wonders why The Man Upstairs chose to save his daughter from certain death and him from eternal damnation.

“Why us? Why did He save us?” Delacourt asked me in an telephone interview from his office in Jerusalem. ”All my life I have done everything in my power to discredit even the idea of God.

 

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“I made a mockery of the Bible. I said God was dead. I said if God weren’t dead, then He should be. And yet, He sent His angel to lift my own daughter up from death and restore her to health, not through a medical procedure, not through the handiwork of a doctor or a nurse, but through His infallible power alone. 

“I saw the miracle unfold with my own eyes. I saw the angel with my own eyes,” he continued. “God is real.”

Delacourt and his family hail from Paris but moved to Jerusalem last August while he conducted research on a book – since scrapped – that he had tentatively entitled: The REAL Father of Jesus Christ – Joseph the Philanderer.

Doctors diagnosed little Catherine Delacourt as having inoperable brain cancer in September after she suffered several blackouts at school.

On November 12, they informed Delacourt the child had just days to live. Sitting by his daughter’s bed, with privacy curtains drawn around them, Delacourt witnessed the miracle that altered his life, and his daughter’s life, forever.

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Flush out fat the witchy way on the great new Magick Diet

In Health, Satan's corner, behavior modification, blue collar, calorie restrictions, charms, coven magick, diet, diets that work, easy diets, eating for health, fitness, flush out body fat, flush out fat, folk remedies, food, from fat to slim, gastric bypass, good witches, happiness, health and fitness, healthy eating, healthy foods, home remedies, inspirational, life, life's lessons, lose weight fast, magic spell, magic spells, magickal rituals, medical miracle, mind over matter, mysticism, obesity, odd, offbeat, office talk, organic food, outrageous, overweight, psychology, religion, shed flab, slimming, trivia, weight-loss miracles, weight-loss tips, what will they think of next, wicca, wild world, witches, women, world religions on January 14, 2008 at 12:47 am

Copyright (c) 2008 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

YOU CAN flush out fat the witchy way on the ‘flabulous’ new Magick Diet. It’s fun, free and oh, so easy – you don’t even have to change the way you eat to take advantage.

All you need do is summon the awesome powers of nature to help you along the way. And you can do it quickly and easily with a no-nonsense “candle and cloth” ritual designed to:

1. Suppress your appetite naturally without dangerous drugs or stimulants.

2. Kick your fat-burning metabolism into high gear while keeping you calm and never jittery.

3. Lift you up from mild to moderate depression, a key culprit in unwanted weight gain.

4. Double, triple or even quadruple your will-power, giving you full reign over your eating habits and enabling you to make healthy choices because you want to – not because you “have to” or because you feel “guilty” about your weight.

And with seven powerful “follow-up affirmations” to repeat at intervals throughout the day, you’ll find it easier than ever to lose 5, 10, 20, 40, 60 or even 100 pounds or more without starving yourself or trying to get by on bland, boring “rabbit food.”

The “charm power” in the Magick Diet is so potent that you’ll continue to enjoy your usual array of menu choices for as long as you like, effortlessly consuming portions that are both healthful and well within a calorie range that will send unsightly flab down the toilet – where it belongs.

And that menu includes all the scrumptious “no-no” foods that ordinary, non-magickal diets forbid you to eat – treats like ice cream, chocolates, cookies, pies, cakes … even the wine, beer and after-5 cocktails that, when consumed in moderation, can enhance the quality of your social experiences, and also are good for your heart.

“The diet works like magick because it is magick – and when it comes to slimming and trimming, what could be easier than tapping into the extraordinarily positive and potent energies that drive nature herself?” world-renown “good witch” Shara Thomas told me exclusively.

“You wouldn’t hesitate to invoke magick if you wanted more love in your life, needed extra cash to pay the bills, or were fighting a serious illness that doctors couldn’t cure.

“Why should weight loss be any different, especially if fat is making you  miserable and compromising your health?

“The great thing about the Magick Diet is that you don’t have to stop eating and ‘do without’ to reap all the healthful benefits.

“That’s what makes it so attractive to people who’ve tried everything to lose weight and failed over and over again.

“I’ve been asked if the diet is ‘evil’ or ‘of the Devil,’ and once I stop chuckling, my answer is a resounding, ‘No!’

“The magick in the diet keeps us focused on success and the task at hand – finding our healthy weight. The energies that can help us are always with us, and always at our beck and call.

“Call them ‘gods’ or ‘goddesses.’ Call them ‘angels’ or ‘ancestors.’ Call them nothing at all.

“As long as you believe that the energy is something that we humans can harness for personal benefit, and that magick is real, and that the work will be done, it will be done.

“And if your belief wavers at any time during the diet, and you find yourself tempted to stop, just repeat one of my affirmations to get back on track.

“You’ll get a immediate boost from the positive energies that we have invoked to help you.

“These aren’t ‘dark powers’ that we’re using to give ourselves dominion over other humans. These are bright and positive energies — energies of goodness and light that can take us by the hand and lead us back to fitness and health.

“Evil? Dark and demonic? Not a chance.”

The Magick Diet’s ritual isn’t something you’re going see demonstrated in a doctor’s office or weight-loss clinic. But the affirmations you’ll be repeating aren’t unlike those used by physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists and life coaches to help patients and clients accomplish important goals while keeping negative thoughts and self-defeating behaviors at bay.

By saying them before meals or when you’re reaching for a snack, and when you get up in the morning, and go to bed at night, you’ll find that you are eating “better” – for energy and health, and not just to pass the time of day or stuff your face with “goodies” to forget your worries or beat the blues.

“I’ve helped hundreds of men and women from all over the world and from all walks of life trim down with this diet, and the testimonials are often heart-rending,” says Good Witch Shara.

“I’ll never, ever forget the 28-year-old woman in Texas who said she was ready to swallow a bottle of sleeping pills because she weighed over 600 pounds.

“I telephoned her and walked her through the Magick Diet ritual, and then helped her memorize the affirmations.

“That was April 17, 2005. Today, that young woman weighs 138 pounds. She has a wonderful new career, a loving husband, and a precious baby girl on the way.

“She had tried every diet, but nothing worked. She was headed for an early grave.

“I get goose bumps just thinking about it. She’s even naming her daughter after me – and this is AFTER she named a cat after me, too!”

Here is the ritual that Shara says you will perform just once to start your Magick Diet. The seven affirmations you’ll use on a daily basis to sustain your healthy-weight follow.

Commonsense advisory: Don’t forgeT to consult a healthcare professional you know and trust before embarking on any weight-loss plan or changing your diet in any significant way.

With that business taken care of, you’ll need a:

- 12-inch by 12-inch (approximate) blue cloth – blue being an appetite-suppressing color.

- Yellow candle – yellow being a color that stimulates elimination, including the elimination of unhealthy habits, bad decision-making skills, and fat.

- Snapshot or drawing of a slim trim you, either from earlier years before you gained weight, or sketched from your imagination. Even an ultra-skinny “stick man” figure will do.

- Cinnamon oil – uplifting, mood-enhancing, will-power boosting and helpful when you are making decisions about anything, including what you are going to eat.

Note: You can purchase cinnamon oil as a pure essential oil, or easily make your own by crumbling or sprinkling your herb into a cold-pressed extra virgin or extra extra virgin olive oil. It’s important that the oil be cold-pressed … if it’s been heated, it’s no longer alive with the vital energy you’ll need to make your magick will be gone.

- Red ribbon or string – red being a color that increases and stimulates fat-burning metabolism.

On a Friday during the waxing moon, assemble all your ingredients at dusk. Take the candle and rub it with your herbal oil while focusing on your flab and seeing it melt away. Picture yourself flushing your fat down the toilet, and see a slim new you slipping into sleek new clothes and admiring herself – and remember, this is YOU – in a full-length mirror, either in attractive clothes or nude.

Visualize yourself going about your business: to the office, to the grocery store, out for a night on the town. See yourself as slim and trim and ecstatically happy, just the way you’d like to look and feel, and pay close attention to your joy, striving to experience just how happy you really are at your new weight and with your new look.

Feel the smile spread across your face, until you are grinning from ear to ear. Feel the energy of your happiness, and from deep inside, notice yourself becoming healthier and stronger and more vibrant as the power of your life force grows.

Light your candle and put your photograph or drawing on the white cloth.

Fold the four corners of the cloth over the photo or drawing, twist them together, and bind them with your ribbon or string. Chant while you work:

“Cloth of white, work your will.

Ribbon do your deeds.

Photograph, do the trick,

Bring help and bring it quick”.

Repeat three times and then gaze into the candle’s flame while continuing the visualization of a slim and healthy new you. Allow the candle to burn for nine minutes. Snuff the flame – don’t blow it out. Blowing disperses the magick willy-nilly and weakens the spell.

Keep your bound photograph or drawing near you at all times, in your wallet or purse, for example, or a pocket. Touch it with your fingers and actually hold it in your hands when you repeat the affirmations below, or anytime you need a “magick boost.”

Expect all the help you need to lose weight to come – will power, reduced hunger and cravings, improved mood, help in eating only what you need for energy and health, and any other assistance that will be appropriate for you.

To keep the magick strong, repeat these seven affirmations at intervals, as noted, throughout the day, every day, while holding or touching your ribbon-bound blue cloth with the photo inside.

Affirmation 1. Arising in the morning, say: I am a success in all that I do – I have the power to control my health and wellness.

Affirmation 2. Mid-morning, say: I love and care for my body and it cares for me.

Affirmation 3. Before lunch, say: I am in control of my health, my weight and my wellness.

Affirmation 4. Mid-afternoon, say: I do not fear being unhealthy or fat because I know that I control my own body.

Affirmation 5. Before dinner, say: I am always able to maintain my ideal weight.

Affirmation 6. Mid-evening, say: I am a forgiving and loving person.

Affirmation 7. Bedtime, say: My mind is at peace.

Mother of Manson love child: Set my Charlie free

In Sex, celebrities, celebrity love children, charles manson, cult watch, fine art of seduction, freaks, hey, hippies, inspirational, life, life's lessons, litigation, lsd, male-female relations, manson, men and women, men vs women, nuns, odd, offbeat, office talk, outrageous, relationships, sex and politics, summer of love, tales from prison, trivia, wild world, women on January 10, 2008 at 1:31 am

THE MOTHER of Charles Manson’s secret love child vows to fight for the helter-skelter madman until prison officials see what she calls “the error of their ways” – and release him from prison for good!

“I won’t rest until Charles is a free man,” Sister Margaret Peers told me exclusively. The nun claims she trysted with Manson just days before his arrest in 1969 and then gave birth to a daughter while his trial for the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six other people was in full swing.

“I’m not saying he isn’t guilty,” she continued in telephone interview from her apartment in Los Angeles. “I’m saying he’s been punished enough. It’s time to let bygones be bygones.

“Even Charlie Manson deserves a chance to connect with the daughter he’s never met. She‘s a respected doctor and she very much wants to bond with her dad.”

Sister Margaret, 61, says she entered a convent five years after she sizzled with Manson, who was, she claims, the first and last man to “know” her.

She declined to identify their love child by name, but did say the accomplished young woman “has Charlie’s eyes and quick wit, lives in northern California, and will celebrate her 38th birthday in August.”

Officials at California’s Corcoran State Prison, where Manson is serving a life sentence for orchestrating the LSD-fueled murder rampage that sent five members of his devoted “family” of outcasts to prison, aren’t talking a blue streak, either.

Asked about Sister Margaret’s attempts to free Manson, one high-ranking official snapped: “The only way Charlie is leaving the big house is in a pine box with pennies on his eyes and the lid nailed shut.“

The nun’s crusade isn’t going to thrill survivors of the victims, either. They’ve argued passionately against parole for “the most dangerous man in America” since he became eligible for release in 1992.

And to hear one observer tell it, “they‘re just getting warmed up.”

“I understand their pain, but Charlie can help them find closure if they‘ll just trust God and open their hearts to love,” counters Sister Margaret, who claims to have spoken to Manson “in several letters” and insists that “he wants his freedom as much as I do.”

If that’s true, he’s certainly playing it close to the vest, refusing to respond to questions from reporters who are anxious to hear what the 68-year-old “icon of evil” he has to say about the nun, his love child – and parole.

Scuttlebutt coming from prison insiders is as conflicted and contradictory as the madman himself. Sources have alternately reported that Manson:

O Doesn’t know Sister Margaret.

O Fondly recalls their one-night stand in the back of a stolen VW bus and still has “a thing” for her.

O Doesn’t want to meet his love child under any circumstances.

O Can‘t wait to meet his love child so he can kill her.

“Charlie ain’t just crazy – he’s real crazy,“ says a fellow inmate. “He’s senile, too. And all he wants to do walk down memory lane and talk about killing people and cackle like an old hen.

“But who knows? Maybe if you let him out of prison he’ll pull himself together. He’s still a charmer when he wants to be. Maybe he could become a preacher.”
The chances of a Manson parole seem slim at best. He’s already been turned down 10 times – and his next opportunity is in the year 2009.

Meanwhile, Sister Margaret vows to fight for his freedom “to my last breath.”

“Every mother in America knows where I’m coming from,” she says. “I’m not only doing this for Charlie, I’m doing this for my child.”

Weight-loss tips for people with NO willpower – just in time for the New Year

In Beauty, amazing feats, dieting, flush out body fat, folk remedies, healthy eating, home remedies, life's lessons, medical miracle, new studies, obesity, odd, offbeat, office talk, psychology, science, shed flab, trivia, weight loss on January 9, 2008 at 3:14 pm

Copyright (c) 2007 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

DIETING DOESNT have to be painful or an exercise in futility – here are 23 super tips that can help make yours easy to start and stick with.

Just be sure to consult a health care professional you know and trust before changing your diet in any significant way. He or she can help you optimize your healthy-weight plan and reach your goals even faster.

Here you go:

1. Eat foods that make you work for your meal. Bone-in chicken and “u-peelum” boiled shrimp are great because you have to dig, pick and fight for every bite, making it a chore to stuff yourself.

2. Chow down on a delicious salad before dinner or lunch to fill up BEFORE the high-calorie entree hits your plate. Watch the dressings, though. Many  are loaded with fat and calories. Read your labels. Even better, stick with a little lemon or lime juice. Not only are they good for you, they taste great, and they’re “thermogenic,” which means they actually burn calories.

3. Drink a large glass of water immediately before each meal.

4. Snack between-meals on nourishing, unprocessed, low-cal snacks such as apples, oranges, cucumbers, carrots, celery and the like. You can destroy a full day of successful dieting with a single high-cal, high-fat snack – so be careful.

5. Eat popcorn for snacks. Served plain, it’s just 25 calories per cup.

6. Spend extra time on your appearance. You’ll feel better about yourself and your motivation to lose weight will soar.

7. Listen to cassettes or compact discs in your car rather than the radio so that you won’t hear all those tempting food commercials on the readio. Watch less TV to cut down on commercials even more.

8. Keep busy. A full and fulfilling life will keep you from getting bored and turning to food to fill the empty spaces. Cultivate an interesting hobby to give yourself something to do rather than eat. Volunteer.

9. Use plain, low-fat yogurt in recipes calling for sour cream and save yourself calories with every tablespoonful.

10. Put stews, gravies, and soups in the refrigerator for a few minutes before eating them. Fat will rise to the top and you can skim it off for a huge savings of calories.

11. Eat hard-packed ice cream instead of soft to save about 90 calories per serving.

12. Try herbals such as dandelion and Brazilian cocoa to support your healthy-weight regimen.

13. Get plenty of sleep to boost your willpower. When awake, use simple relaxation tips such as closing your eyes, relaxing your muscles and clearing your mind to cut down on stress, which can lead to eating.

14. Eat slowly and savor every bite. In the end you’ll eat less.

15. Don’t taste foods while you’re cooking them. Get somebody else to do it.

16. Eat at the same time every day. A regular schedule helps you control how much and how often you eat.

17. Instead of drinking a glass of orange juice, eat a medium orange. It will last longer and save you 35 calories. And the fiber is great for your healthy colon and digestion. One more benefit: Oranges leave you with fresh breath!

18. Don’t wear baggy clothing when you eat. Roomy clothes make you feel you can eat more. Choose clothing with a tight waist so you’ll stop eating sooner.

19. At restaurants order all items a la carte. The main dish alone usually is enough.

20: Use small plates. They make healthy portions look big.

21. Always shop for food on a full stomach so you won’t be tempted to purchase high calorie “impulse foods.” This technique really works.

22. Drink club soda with a slice of lemon instead of soda pop and save 150 calories a can.

23. Give thanks before you eat. A simple prayer or meditation will give you pause to reflect on how fortunate you are to have food at a time when billions of people in the world are going to bed hungry at night.

These reflections can help you cut down on over-eating. If it helps, think about the plants and animals that gave their lives so that you could eat and thrive. An appreciation of the life you are eating to sustain yourself really can work wonders when it comes to helping you control how much and how often you eat.

NASA probe finds heaven – or something like it – on Mars

In NASA, angels, bible, bible prophecy, end of the world, end times, heaven, heaven and hell, heaven on mars, heaven unveiled, high tech, jesus back on earth, jesus christ, judgment day, life after death, life on other planets, mars, messiah back on earth, mysticism, near death experiences, near-death experience, new age, new studies, odd, offbeat, office talk, paradise on earth, prophecy, religion, space exploration, technology, trivia, what heaven is really like, wild world, world peace, world religions on January 9, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Copyright (c) 2008 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

FAST FACT: The Hubble Space Telescope photographed what appeared to be Heaven in deep space in 1992, but after a flurry of excitement and wild speculations, “Paradise” was proved to be a simple cloud of dust and gasses left over after a star exploded 600 billion years ago.

THE DISCOVERY of pearly gates, temples and streets of gold on the otherwise barren and lifeless surface of Mars has stunned scientists and clergymen alike, many of whom believe the items are dazzling new proof that Heaven not only exists, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump from earth – on the Red Planet.

Hundreds of top-secret, black-and-white photographs beamed back to earth by NASA’s hard-working Spirit rover beginning, sources say, on Nov. 14, 2004 show architecture reminiscent of the glimmering marble structures that were common in ancient Greece and also have appeared in descriptions of Heaven by people who have died and gone there while having near-death experiences.

And in many of those same photos, gigantic “pearlescent” gates can be seen in the distance connecting to what appear to be well-worn streets of hammered gold, several of which lead to a towering stone monolith that at least one NASA analyst has said “might be a throne.”

Equally intriguing are several images of golden feathers – some the size of yardsticks – that match up with biblical mentions of those that occasionally have dropped off of angel’s wings during their visits to earth throughout history.

“But here’s the capper,” says a NASA source who is heading up one of five independent teams charged with analyzing the photographs that have not been made public to avoid what one insider calls “confusion, angst and panic”  among non-Christians.

“Spirit is equipped with sensitive on-board microphones that have been detecting noises that, though faint, are unmistakable – and nothing like the simple rush of wind and ‘tic … tic … tic’ of blowing sand that we heard almost continuously since the rover landed in 2003.

“What we’re hearing now sounds like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir accompanied by the strumming of harps. It’s faint. It comes and goes. There’s room for error. We could be wrong.

“But most of us who have heard the tapes agree that whatever’s going on up there sounds a lot like what goes on in churches here on earth.

“The only things we haven’t heard are mothers shushing their babies, fire-and-brimstone preaching and the jingle of coins dropping into a collection plate.”

NASA spokeswoman Marcia Pendergast, in the space agency’s Washington office, declines to discuss the photographs or even acknowledge they exist pending what she calls “the outcome of a continuing investigation” that she admitted “may drag on for months.”

She was equally tight-lipped about speculation the space agency has, in fact, stumbled on Heaven – or something just like it – in its exploration of the Red Planet.

“We have to proceed carefully to avoid offending non-Christians and atheists who don’t believe in God and Heaven and, as we know from numerous political and sociological polls, that’s 48 percent of the country,” says a NASA administrator who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her job.

“But the mood inside NASA is absolutely electric. There’s hardly a person here who’s seen the photographs and read the reports who doesn’t believe we’ve found Heaven.

“And I’m not just talking about scientists and bureaucrats, we’ve brought in a number of clergymen and theologians as consultants and they agree with us.

“We could explore space for a thousand years, send rockets and astronauts to the farthest reaches of the universe, and even fly forwards and backwards in time, and we’d never top this.

“Finding evidence of an afterlife … well, what else can I say? Surely this will change human behavior for the better, because now that we know there is a Heaven, surely the reverse is true – there must be a Hell.”

Rev. Dr. Paul Stack couldn’t agree more. The famed short-wave radio evangelist whose daily sermons reach an audience of millions in 73 countries believes God is using NASA and the Spirit rover as tools to warn mankind of impending doom.

“Judgment Day isn’t just near, it’s here,” he said in a telephone interview from his home in Hahnville, Louisana,. “I strongly advise every man, woman and child with ears to hear and eyes to see to get right with the Lord straight away.

“He’s shown us Heaven. What more proof do you need? Either you get down on your knees and pray for salvation right now or you accept the alternative, which is nothing less than a trap door falling out from under you at any moment – and dropping you straight into Hell.”

When – and if – NASA will go public with the pictures remains to be seen.

“The big boys want to make sure they’re right so they don’t wind up humiliating themselves,” explains a source who says NASA has always been reluctant to rush to judgment about any discovery in space.

“Can you imagine them trumpeting to the world, ‘We found Heaven! We found Heaven!’ only find find out a few months from now that all they really found were some odd rock formations and sandscapes that just happen to look like pearly gates, temples and angel feathers?

“Heads would roll and it wouldn’t be pretty – I’ll guarantee you that.”

Soul camera photographs your face but reveals the inner you, say inventors

In Beauty, Camera Gear, Camera sees the REAL you, Can this be true?, Crazy - or not?, Eerie and Weird, Gadgets & Gizmos, Hearts of Gold, Hey Mabel!, Let your inner beauty shine, New Cameras, Self Esteem, State of Photography, Tell Mama, Tokyo Attractions, Tools of Photography, Who needs men?, amazing feats, art, computer science, derek clontz, digital photography, fringe science, fringe theory, futurists, gadgets, gee whiz, gizmos, happiness, hey, high tech, human behavior, inspirational, life, life's lessons, mabel, mind over matter, new age, new inventions, novel money-making ideas, odd, offbeat, office talk, outrageous, photography, stir fry, straight poop, sure bets, technology, trade show superstar, very interesting ..., weapons against terrorism, what will they think of next, wild world on January 8, 2008 at 2:23 am

Copyright (c) 2008: Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

A JAPANESE electronics firm has unveiled a futuristic new digital camera that unveils and photographs “the inner you.”

And that means drop-dead hunks and beauties who are mean and nasty on the inside will look, in pictures taken by the camera, ”ugly and deformed” while homely  men and women with hearts of gold will photograph “like supermodels and movie stars,” a spokesman for the firm says.

“We call it the Soul Camera – and it’s long overdue,” Takiro Nakamura, of Sonaco Electronics, which introduced the camera at an international trade show in Tokyo, told me exclusively.

“Since the advent of film photography in the 19th century, unattractive men and women with wonderful and loving personalities have been made to suffer as objects of scorn because they weren’t photogenic like beautiful people who often are stupid, shallow and mean-spirited their behavior.

“The Soul Camera is the ‘great equalizer.’ Thanks to this new technology, ugly men and women who are good and decent people have a chance to be seen for what they are – beautiful on the inside.

“Of course, there are ugly people who also are ugly on the inside, but there’s nothing we can do to enhance their images short of ‘doctoring’ their photos by retouching them on a computer.

“The Soul Camera is a machine – it doesn’t know how to lie.”

Nakamura refuses to say exactly how the Soul Camera works but acknowledges that it relies on technology similar to what is used in cameras that photograph “auras” that are invisible to the naked eye.

And in a demonstration that left many trade-show visitors speechless, a dozen professional photographers outfitted with Soul Cameras invited all comers to sit for a picture.

“It’s me – it’s really me,” New York technology writer Patricia Marleson gushed before she broke into tears. “All my life people have made fun of me because I’m not pretty like other women, and I’m fat.

“But the Soul Camera shows me for what I am. Look at me in the picture. I’m beautiful.”

Not everyone was so pleased with the result. A well-built and attractive Chicago computer salesman who declined to give his name sat for his picture – and he came out looking like a skid row bum.

“This is a bunch of bull,” he fumed. “What’s this all about? This is some kind of a joke.”

Not so, says Nakamura, who cites queries from police departments, intelligence agencies and even courts and judges from around the world who are interested in using the Soul Camera to help in the evaluation of criminals and suspects, including possible terrorists.

In fact, the FBI has already placed orders for 20 of the cameras that one agent says “could change the way we gather intelligence forever.”

“These things aren’t truth detectors, but anything that can help us ‘get inside’ a  suspect’s head is a tool we want in our arsenal. Think about it. You’ve got a respected and beloved college professor who may be a terrorist, and you have no evidence that would warrant shaking him down in an arrest.

“Snap this guy’s picture with a Soul Camera and you might find out something very interesting about him. You might find him looking like Tom Cruise on the outside and Joan Rivers or Phyllis Diller on the inside.

“If that’s not enough to justify a little interrogation, I don’t know what would be.”

The cameras are available only in Japan at the moment, but Nakamura says U.S. versions will hit stores later this year. They come in three styles, including basic, deluxe and professional trims.

Suggested price for the base version will be around $6,000. Top-of-the-line models will go for at least $18,000, Nakamura says.