Screengrab of the alleged sacrifice posted by The Guardian. Screengrab of the alleged sacrifice posted by The Guardian.

Human sacrifice, Lord Shiva’s statue, nuclear institute, God Particle, European laboratory in a cavern, mini black holes all makes for a heady mysterious mix.

When a creepy grainy video emerges from inside a haloed scientific institution showing a so-called ‘human sacrifice’ being committed at that global temple of learning where more than 100 nations are co-operating in Geneva called the European Organization for Nuclear Research or CERN, it spooked many.

CERN has launched an internal investigation to get to the truth of the matter while confirming the veracity of the video as having been shot within its highly secure premises, but called it a ‘fictional’ depiction. This act has riled many scientists especially in India since the ‘human sacrifice’ is shown being conducted with the backdrop of giant statue of Lord Shiva in his Nataraja pose performing the ‘tandava‘ or the cosmic dance.

The over 5-m-tall statue was gifted by the Indian government to the Geneva-based atomic research centre about a decade ago.

Also read | Fake human sacrifice to Lord Shiva conducted at CERN, investigation on

CERN is not alone to these acts of irrational behaviour by scientists it is quite common place in many countries. In USAengineers at NASA’s planetary missions control room invariably eat peanuts when a satellite is being manoeuvred into the Martian orbit since they believe it brings a good omen they believe.

The top brass of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) visit in their ‘private time’ the temple of Lord Balaji in Tirupati to seek his blessings before a rocket launch and made a habit of placing mini models of the rocket and satellite to the gods.

The fear of the unknown drives many of these irrational behaviours by otherwise highly scientifically oriented people. But, what happened at CERN is most bizarre.

Against the backdrop of a statue showing the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva a video possibly shot on a mobile phone shows about 6-7 people wearing black satanic cloaks gather in the dead of the night, then another person possibly a lady is seen lying down on a sacrificial bench in front of the Shiva statue, one of the cloaked figures draws a glistening dagger and is shown stabbing the woman.

The video is shot as if the eavesdropper was taken by surprise by the happenings they chanced upon and the clip ends with expletives. Whether the video is fictional or real is still a matter of investigation but undoubtedly it was meticulously planned and possibly rehearsed.

Clarifying the position, the spokesperson for CERN said, “This video is a work of fiction showing a contrived scene. CERN and its on-site accommodation fills up with scientists from across the world coming to CERN as part of their work. Work at CERN can take place 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with shift work and data analysis. Persons that are authorised to access the CERN site sometimes let their sense of humour go too far, and that is what has happened on this occasion. The video was filmed from an office building; strict safety systems are in place to prevent any unauthorised access to technical and experimental facilities. CERN does not condone this kind of spoof, which breaches CERN’s professional guidelines, and is currently carrying out an internal investigation.”

Jokes apart, work at CERN conjures up many horrifying images, in 2008 when the world’s largest atom smasher was being started up there was an uncalled for global scare that the Large Hadron Collider would generate black holes that could gobble up the earth.

It was a global scare but in India it peaked when a 16 year old girl from Madhya Pradesh got so scarred that she allegedly committed seeing the news reports. Obviously, the world did not die but reason did since CERN at that time failed to communicate effectively that its experimentation would not end in a doomsday scenario.

Later CERN did make an attempt to bust such myths, but today social media is ablaze with hyped accounts of non-scientific happenings inside the 27-km circular tunnel embedded deep inside the earth and straddling both Switzerland and France which houses the world’s human largest experiment.

It was here that the so called ‘God Particle’ or the Higgs Boson was discovered in 2013. The mere nick naming of the particle as ‘God Particle’ makes people believe CERN is trying to prove that god exists.

Even though CERN asserts “that it exists to understand the mystery of nature for the benefit of humankind.” That India did not erupt on what could be termed as a ‘desecration’ of venerated iconic Indian god gifted with love by Indian people and placed on an alien soil, only showed that rationality prevailed among the vast Indian masses so prone to being swayed by emotions of religion.

Indian atomic scientists involved with the gifting of the giant Chola Bronze statue were flabbergasted that such indiscretion and insensitivity could have happened within the highly secure premises where entry and exit is both highly controlled. It seems irrationality knows no national boundaries.

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