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LION - Through the gate
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LION - Through the gate

Seeing LION through his things

Hi, my name is Bob Greenyer and welcome to RemoteView.ICU

2nd May 2023

I was happy that I could not pick up the van hire until mid-day, since I had not slept much in the previous few days, due to unpleasant flight times and other other transport wearing me down. Moreover, I knew that later in the day I would have to be alert to drive for 6 or so hours into the late evening with a heavy load.

So after a good rest, I checked out of my accommodation at 10 am and went to a recommended local small eatery called ‘Goodfellas’ for an all-day-breakfast and some wakeup juice.

It was very good too.

After picking up the van, which was around £500 for the 2 day one-way hire, I went down to the self-storage centre where, after going through the gate I was greeted by two people I had never met and their beaming smiles!

There was Martyn, a recent follower of the MFMP who had driven down from his home town of Coventry to help, sporting a wonderful Atari retro logo shirt and Tony, a good friend of LIONs family and who was in charge of the materials and had been working to collect them all for us in preparation of this day.

Expected things

We had no time to open the very many boxes and bags in which his things had been stowed, other than to make better use of space where we could. Periodically however, things I knew that were clearly used in his LION experiments appeared, like this souvenir tea tin, typical of that which he used for holding the dental x-rays when exposing them to a cooled reactor following a run.

And just as he had said was his plan, there were little engines that might possibly be coupled to a LION reactor as a demonstration of its operation in the future. Of the things that were loose, there was a beautiful Stirling engine…

…and a little custom steam boiler. He really was serious about doing this.

Unexpected things

As the documents came out, the very first one was an article from ‘Nexus’ magazine from February / March 1994. It was about the first new finds in the Great Pyramid of Giza in 1200 years! I had no idea that LION had such a long standing interest in the Great Pyramid, but any doubt was dispelled when several annotated books on the subject were handed to me. I thought I knew him well, but there was clearly many interests he had away from the LION reactors themselves. It must have been odd for him, when I apparently randomly started discussing this last remaining wonder of the ancient world.

The only other document I found as I split a pile of papers in half, was a printout of a comment I had made on a forum, staunchly defending the privacy of a researcher the MFMP was working with who wanted anonymity by referring to himself as me356. Every firm point I made, LION had underlined. This was in 2016, it was only after this email that I was approached by LION in 2017, to analyse the first reactors he shared with the MFMP. And really, other than an interest in astronomy and space vehicle launches, this is most of what he shared with me.

He did not share for instance, a curious large natural Quartz crystal, mounted such that it could be spun by a motor, with what looks like silver strips inlayed into each long face. One could imagine that as the crystal was spun, opposite electric potentials would have been place across the crystal. What was it for? What inspired it? Perhaps a reader knows or maybe we will have to wait to see if he described its purpose somewhere in the large volume of notes, that we loaded into the van.

I was starting to see that LIONs research was much more broad than he had let on. For instance, there was a large piece of granite, this time with silver wire coils around it, with insulated connection points.

Martyn holding onto the rock

It was at this point that Martyn admitted that he was doing research similar to whatever this was for and so, without a clue of what to do with it myself, I suggested that if he wanted to, he should take it. I am again very curious to find out the thinking behind it.

Part way into the process, another lock-up owner round the corner, came with a hired mobile document shredding service van, only to find they could not get through as we blocked the way and already had a lot of material out on the tarmac. I didn’t like to ask what they were shredding.

By about 4.30 pm, we had loaded the van. It was low on its suspension and I was worried about the long drive ahead. A huge thank you to Martyn and Tony for making it possible to save LIONs work.

Of the personal things we did not take, there was a pastel drawing of LION, that I have since been given permission to share. It was I think from perhaps 35 years earlier than when I first met him. When I met him, his brow was more connected and his beard was long and bushy, perhaps you can see why I said he looked like the head on the human headed lion Assyrian gate guard I had imaged a few days prior in the British Museum.

A lovely pastel drawing of LION, and the human Head of an Assyrian lion gate guard.

The weather was fine for the long journey to Newcastle and after a coffee, I set off into the west London rush hour. Honestly, I was happy that 10-20 mph was all I could do for the first hour, as the vehicle drove like a tank pulling a barge.

As I got onto the motorway later, I had to be very aware of any imperfections in the road as even small dips would see the shock absorbers top out. I was seriously worried about a blow out and so I had to accept that Google maps expected arrival time at my destination, was going to be optimistic given the speed I was prepared to drive at.

I stopped about 60% in for more coffee and then again at around 70% as my phone was about to die and the USB in the van did not charge it. Because I would not make it to the end stop without navigation, I had to find a solution, which I did by precariously suspending my open laptop by the gear stick and charging the phone off that. It was not helping my nerves, but it worked and from that point on I convinced myself it was my destiny to arrive safely - which, as it happens, I did, at around 11:30 pm.

The volunteer who had offerred to take on the collection, greeted me with a hearty meal and some wonderful discourse. Then I went to bed, glad to be alive.


Thankyou for listening to RemoteView.ICU


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“Remote View” is a technology, philosophy and commentary newsletter and podcast by Bob Greenyer, where he ‘Looks back to the future through insight and critical fiction’.