(Original headline: Mystic crystal skull artifact pays a visit to Englewood )
When their 12-year-old daughter was given three months to live with terminal bone cancer, JoAnn Parks and her husband, Carl, turned to their family doctor for any kind of hope.
"Our family doctor in Houston introduced us to Norbu Chen, a Red Hat Tibetan Monk, in 1973," she said. "Norbu founded the Chakpori Ling Healing Foundation in Texas. He and his monks worked with our daughter at his healing center, and extended her life by another three years. That healing has been recorded and studied in Tibet."
Agreeing to the treatment that may have prolonged their daughter's life was quite the departure for the couple.
"My husband Carl and I were in the custom furniture business," Parks said, her green eyes dancing with amusement. "I had never heard of healers, Tibetan monks or crystal skulls. I am from Texas. I was raised in the typical southern Lutheran church, but I keep an open mind."
She was intrigued with the ancient healing methods and worked with Norbu for seven years. In that time, she was introduced to the mysterious Max, the crystal skull. According to an article by Debbie Smoker in "New Avenues," a Wisconsin-based New Age magazine, people have "profound visions and psychic experiences when viewing the skulls." Some believe that the skulls hold knowledge about the origin of our race and the planet Earth.
Norbu gifted Max, thought to be between 5,000 and 36,000 years old, to the Parks family upon his death. Parks brought Max to the Mystic See in Englewood to be exhibited at Saturday Night Live on Dearborn Street.
"I really didn't feel like doing much after we lost our daughter," Parks said. "I put Max in a box and kept him in the closet. I kept having these dreams where he spoke to me and said, 'My name is Max.' I said, 'Holy moley. I've got a rock in a box in my closet, and now he's talking to me.' I threw a few more pillows over him and pushed him further back in the closet."
Max's 10 years in the closet ended when Parks saw a TV segment in June 1987 on "Good Morning Houston" about the rare crystal skulls.
"'The famous Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull; so rare, no one knows how it was made,' they said. Well, I called them right up and said I had one of those skulls in my closet," Parks said. "They were very skeptical, but when they finally came out they were amazed. From there I went to the Houston Museum where I learned of several other skulls, one in a museum in France, one in London, England, and some are in private collections."
Several phone calls later, Parks was put in touch with Nick Nocerino of California, considered the world's foremost expert on crystal skull research; he had searched for Max since 1949.
There are 13 crystal skulls known to be in existence.
Nocerino, now deceased, researched the skulls and marveled that they were apparently fashioned without the aid of modern tools and against the axis of the crystal. By all modern standards of lapidary, the skulls should have shattered during their formation.
Nocerino believed Max to have been probably carved by an unknown method from a single piece of quartz weighing 40 to 50 pounds.
Parks pointed out the many occlusions, gas and water bubbles within the deeply grooved crystal.
"Max should not exist. He's a technically impossible object," she explained. "Nick Nocerino said if he was hand-sanded it would have taken 200 to 250 years to finish."
From a scooped-out indentation underneath Max, it is speculated that this was an altar skull, where it may have been worshiped as a god.
Parks ascribes mystical powers to the skull.
"My companion and I both had head and neck aches; chronic, in my case," she said. "After 15 minutes of staring into Max's oddly compelling eyes, the pain was gone, and was still gone the next day. My companion mentioned that her headache had simply vanished."
Max is known nationally and internationally. It has been presented in several documentaries worldwide,and, in 1996, was researched by the British Museum. In conjunction with the BBC and Everyman Productions, a documentary was produced for Britain and was aired on the A&E Network and the Discovery Channel. Max has been featured on the History Channel, the Travel Channel's "Top 10 Mysteries" and a show called "Strange Universe."
It has also been featured in documentaries in Japan and on the Spanish Channel.
Max and Parks tour the world, guided by what she describes as a vision of unity and peace.
"These crystal skulls symbolize man -- and we are all one," Parks said. "I believe each person focuses on Max for their individual experience. Max is a tool."
Parks will take Max to Bradenton at Om Gaia, 312 12th St. W., Sept. 15–17. Max will be back at the Mystic See at 411 W. Dearborn St. in January.
