Image of the Crystal Skull,
taken from interview with Jose
on a cable show, please
excuse the poor quality.

Meeting Jose Iniquez
and his Crystal Skull

(Las Vegas, NV; 1989-1990)

Before I left for this trip, I checked my computer database of names for people who lived in Las Vegas, who had a New Age or metaphysical Interest. At this time, my book Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls Revealed, had just been released, so I thought maybe I could help promote the book and perhaps do a short presentation there. I had no idea if there was a New Age community in Las Vegas, as generally people only thinking of the gambling and casinos with this city. I even hand delivered a copy of my book to my Uncle who came to the wedding since he was an investor in the book. So I wrote a letter to a few people and Penny Sprong answered me. Penny had attended a lecture I gave at the Whole Life Expo on Crystal Skulls or UFOs and said to contact her if I was to be visiting her town.

Penny informed me about the local New Age magazine in Las Vegas, called New Dimensions, done by Darlene Sironen. I called Darlene and asked if she might be interested in reviewing our book and she said yes and also asked for an article. Also Darlene told me about the Temple of Light, out of San Diego, which was sponsoring a conference the weekend I would be in and gave me the name of the woman who was coordinating it. The Temple of Light was a New Age group headed up by two sisters who were organizing a number of spiritual conferences in California and the South West. I called this woman and inquired if she might have an interest for me to do a presentation on the Crystal Skulls at her event. She was very interested, so I was excited about the possibility to share information about the skulls and also quite proud of the new book we had just created.

In any case, I arrived in Las Vegas the day before the wedding so I went to the hotel where the conference was being held and briefly spoke to the two sisters about the presentation I would offer. At this conference I made some key contacts with various people who I would work with later when I moved to Las Vegas. Before I went into the conference room, I saw another woman sitting in front of the door to the immediately right of the conference, selling tickets to a workshop. I found out that she was the owner of a local alternative bookstore, her name was Sandra Hurst and her and her husband were the owners of a local alternative bookstore called the Mind Mint. So I actually sold to her a few copies of our books and she expressed an interest, when I returned to Las Vegas, to offer a Crystal Skull workshop at her store. I was very happy to make this contact, because as any author knows, you must go out and let people know that your book is available. Little did I know how important this contact would be.

The next day, the day when my sister had her wedding ceremony, I was able to speak about an hour on the Crystal Skulls. The people who atteneded this conference were very receiptive to all the speakers who participated so the sisters decided they would do another conference in Las Vegas in June and invited me to participate. I agreed and looked forward to returning to Las Vegas and spending more time to get to know the city. I sent a letter to Sandra at the Mind Mint, and she agreed to have me do a presentation at her store, when I returned in June.

Picture of Jose Iniquez, taken
from cable tv show interview in 1990

He told us that while his class in 1942 was examining this Mayan City, he just picked up a rather large stone, and there beneath this stone were two crystal skulls, a clear one, the one he had in his possession and an amethyst skull. He said the skull he had was small but that it had Mayan symbols carved into it. The Amethyst skull was a bit larger (not human size) and a friend of his in Mexico had this other skull. In any case, he showed his teacher what he had found and she asked him if he wanted to keep one of the skulls so of course he said yes and chose the clear one.

By trade, Jose is a professional gambler. When he needs money to pay his bills he just goes to the casinos and has his special system. He also said that he was involved in the study of metaphysics, magic, voodoo, etc .... and had been interested in these subjects all his life.

Another person who attended the lecture and came to speak with us after the talk, Arsenia Pitts, who was a local business person and had owned a New Age bookstore in southern California some years before. As it turned out, I actually went into Arsenia's store in 1983, when I was selling my first book, "Journeys of an Aquarian Age Networker". So I started to recognize her and it was interesting meeting her again around the Crystal Skulls. Arsenia had setup a non-profit Foundation in Las Vegas for Jazz and also had a company they did resumes for people seeking jobs. She was quite taken with the crystal skulls and we started to talk about maybe creating a non-profit foundation that could be involved in crystal skull research since Jose was in Las Vegas and also the laws of Nevada were a little bit easier to setup such a foundation. So, in any case, this was a very remarkable night and I received Jose's and Arsenia's number to discuss these possibilities with them at a later time. (Editor's Note: -- It is interesting to note that in 1993, Arsenia came into possession of a clear quartz skull, which she called "The Presence". She met some collectors of ancient artifacts in Sedona, who claimed this skull came from Peru.)

Through several phone calls, I reached an agreement with Jose to return to Las Vegas in August of that year, so we could do some research with his crystal skull. I suggested that we have various people I knew, (some from southern California who had attened the conference in June, and some from Las Vegas including Arsenia, who would work with his crystal skull and we would audio and video tape their session. Jose agreed to all of this, so we setup a weekend to work with Jose.

My friend Jacqualine, who is a psychic and participated in the April and June Conferences in Las Vegas, flew up to San Francisco to meet me there, and she and I drove to Las Vegas, in a new car, I just happened to buy (its maiden voyage if you will). Also at this time I took a six week leave of absence from my job with the City of Berkeley so I could travel to do more lectures and promote my crystal skull book since I had been able to save money on the side. So Jacqualine and I drove down to Las Vegas and we met Jose at Sam's, one of the Casino's in Las Vegas. We then followed him to a friend's home, where we were able to see his crystal skull.

In appearance, the skull was about a 1/3 size of a human skull, clear quartz but cloudy toward the back of the head. I could feel a powerful energy with the skull which I was surprised for a skull this size and I saw the Mayan symbols that were carved into it. On each cheekbone was two spiral symbols and on the top of the head was two concentric circles. Also I saw a person's face in the cloudy part of the skull, which I drew down later. The nose, mouth and eyes had some level of detail to them (the teeth were more defined than some of the other contemporaries skulls I had seen) but I remember feeling energy pass into my hands when I touched the skull. Jose told me in subsequent conversations the name and meaning of these Mayan symbols, but I can only recall that the one of the top of the head was the Mayan Symbol that represented "what you create in your mind, will manifest on the material level". This symbol might explain why since Jose had the skull since 1942 that everything he ever wished to have, did come into his posession. I also placed a small contemporary Amethyst Skull which I had bought in San Francisco, in its presence and when I went to lecture at the Whole Life Expo in New York in October of 1989, this skull mysteriously disappeared on me. Then we discussed with Jose about what type of things we would do in the session with the people I had invited to make sure he was ok with it. I do not recall the names of all the people who we invited (and Jose had some friends work too) but below is a summary of some of the people who attended (I apologize to those who's names I have forgotten over the years) and some of the more interesting things that occurred, to the best of my recollection:

My friend, Alexandra Kokorich, who lived in Phoenix, I invited since she and I are very close and she had seen the Mitchell-Hedges Skull prior to this as well as had done some wonderful illustrations for our book. Alexandra does spirit guide drawings and is very connected with the UFOs and Extraterrestrials.

Also, I invited Jaqualine Branch, who is a sensitive and gives readings. She felt a strong connection with the crystal skulls and my slides during the two conferences I worked at for Temple of Light, which she was also present.

Arsensia Pitts was also invited to attend this event, and during August we continued to discuss creating a New Age Foundation.

Cattel, who was the manager of the Psychic Institute of Las Vegas and also a sensitive was invited with a friend of hers, who had a strong connection with the Native American Indians (her name I do not remember).

Another person named Paula attended, who worked at the Mind Mint and was present at the lecture I did there where I met Jose. She seemed to feel a strong affinity for the skulls.

Also our friend Ed, who lived in Las Vegas, also felt a strong connection with the skulls during the second conference I did in Las Vegas, and he also was there and interested to participate.

I believe there may have been one or two other people there, who I do not remember and also the friend of Jose, who's house we met at the first time and where we did this session, sat with the skull, as well as his daughter and a friend of his daughter.

After the people had their experience with Jose's skull ( we did come up with a name for this skull based on the Mayan symbol on the top of the skull but I just don't recall what that symbol is called in Mayan ), some strange things started to happen in their lives, changes and transformations of events in particular. They yelled at me why I did not warn them about such occurrences, but one never knows what will happen when you have a chance to be in the presence of an ancient crystal skull (which we felt his skull was).

In any case, I worked with Ed to setup our audio & Video equipment to tape each session, which we permited about 10-15 minutes. Jose received all the tapes we created and I was suppose to receive a copy, which he never gave me for reasons he did not explain. So I will have to try to recall some of the more memorable experiences from memory. I have also asked Jacqualine Branch and Alexandra Kokorich if they ever had a chance to write down their experiences, it would help as well. The problem that occurs when you are around an artifact that possesses a great deal of energy is that people will have different memories of their experiences. It is almost like each person goes into their own special space where time and space do not exist.

Before we began our session with the skull, Jose spoke to us first and tried to prepare us for what we would experience. He stated that the skull will change all of our lives and that we should not discuss with each other our individual experiences for at least two weeks, as this would take away from the energy we would receive. We needed to allow a period of time for the essence of our experience to fully manifest in the physical. He also told us to be careful about what we were thinking around the skull as the skull would amplify our thought and produce these things in our lives. When we took video of the skull, we also shot all angles of the skull (all sides, top and bottom) to see if the skull changed physically (i.e. - became more clouded or if any holographic images would form) in any way. Again, since I never viewed the video, I could not see if this occurred and was recorded on tape. I did not notice in any session I personally recorded, or my own, if I noticed changes in the skull.

The most memorable experience for me was when Alexandra began to work with the skull. She felt a very close affinity with this skull and has told me on a number of occassions, since that time, if there ever was an opportunity to work with the skull again, she would love to. She started holding the skull in a certain position with her hand cupped under the jaw and holding it out. Jose was there at her session and was quite surprised because he told us that the way she was holding the skull was exactly the same procedure that was explained to him by a Mayan Shaman who told Jose how the priests worked with this skull. Also, during Alexandra's session, Jacqualine started getting intense pain and was actually screaming. So this kind of stopped Alexandra session. Alexandra seemed to have a strong link with this skull and perhaps in using the special technique to hold it, began to activate it.

Everyone seemed to feel some energy with the skull, some people would do a meditation and it appeared as if they went into a deep trance. The friend of the family who came, was having a great deal of emotional problems in her life at this time, and she actually felt bad in the presence of the skull and started crying. I also remember Cattel talking about some history of the skull, how it worked with the Mayan people but can recall no more than this.

For myself, I don't recall too much of my experience, I did experience some energy with the skull, but I felt I couldn't really pentrate into the skull itself. It seem that the energy was stronger toward the back of the skull where it was cloudy. I do recall a face of a man I saw in the cloudy part of a skull, wearing some type of hat. When I visited the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose, California, I saw this same face with the Egyptian artifacts, which was puzzling how the Mayans would link into the Egyptians. I guess for me, I just felt a great deal of energy and didn't receive many visions or images. I just recall that I was surprised how much energy this tiny skull had, it felt quite intense and I felt a pressure around my body. But I didn't sense that the skull itself was negative in anyway, just very intense, like the energy was packed tightly inside of it and ready to explode at some future time.

Some of the people told me that they were not prepared to be with an ancient crystal skull because their life started to change very quickly after this. Jacqualine and I decided to move to Las Vegas and also to be a part of creating a non-profit foundation for sharing of New Age information. I quit my job with the City of Berkeley in October and then again did some travels to lecture on the Crystal Skulls and took a trip to Peru in December, before I moved from the San Francisco area to Las Vegas on December 31st. I think that one thing that happened to me after being with the skulls, was I seemed to have no problem drawing lady friends. At this time in my life I was single and really didn't wish to be in a full time relationship. I would say that I had from August of 1989 through June of 1990 about 10-12 women I had dated or been intimated on some level. Of course, this changed when I met my wife in Brasil in June of 1990 and eventually I prepared for her coming in the United States in July of 1991. It is possible that Jose's skull was helping me to prepare to settle down to, as this was in my heart as well.

There were only two times I had a chance to physically be with Jose's skull which was during that period in August. After and just before I moved to Las Vegas, I had several meetings with Jose, where we discussed a variety of subjects and his crystal skull. Before I moved to Las Vegas, in September of 1989, I worked with Arsenia to begin our non-profit Foundation, which eventually became known as "FUND" ( Foundation for Universal Networking and Development ). We stayed in touch with Jose and in January of 1990, I went to Tuscon, Arizona, to do some lectures on the Crystal Skulls and appear on a local New Age cable TV Show with Gina Varelli, called "Let's Get Metaphysical". Jose expressed an interest to come to Tucson, to see if people would be interested in his information and crystal skull. He did not bring his skull but he did appear with me on Gina's show and at my lecture at a local New Age bookstore. The people at the lecture were quite interested in his experiences. But he saw that not many people came to the lecture, so we started to discuss about the possibility of doing a public event to share his skulls in Las Vegas. So I told him when I got back, I would talk with Jacqualine and see if we could set something up. Also, we had another interesting conversation, while eating dinner at a local restuarant in Tucson, he mentioned to me about the idea of possibly giving his skull to my Foundation. I was kind of surprised that he would be thinking in this way, but I promised when I return to Las Vegas, I would disucss this idea with my other board members and we would come up with some proposal for him.

When I returned to Las Vegas at the end of January, I started talking with Jacqualine about working with Jose and finding a location to do a presentation with Jose and his skull. We talked about doing this event in early April at the Syngery Center, another New Age center in Las Vegas. Then I started to discuss with Jose about how do we present his story to the media, since because of the way he found his skull and the paperwork he had, he didn't want to talk about the exact location where the skull was found (see the transcript of the video). I received some names of lawyers, who understood about the Laws of Antiquity, and was going to speak to them so I would have all information related to ancient artifacts. For some reason, which I still do not understand today, maybe that Mexicans think of honor in a different way, Jose, became very upset that I wanted to do this checking and from that day, he never spoke to me again. In working with guardians and owners of crystal skulls, one must work carefully. I always tried to check with Jose, how he felt on the way we would proceed. In any case, Jacqualine remained in touch with Jose and would give me some updates from time to time. However, in February of 1993, we heard that Jose had passed away, and no one knew where his crystal skull is. The cable interview in Tucson is the only recording I have of Jose.

One other last note, related to Jose, was that through Arsensia's brother Archie, FUND was introduced to James Harold and Larry Greene, who were script writers and movie producers in Hollywood. They had an interest in an idea I had proposed to create a crystal skull movie and actually wrote a first draft of a script for us. We never could come up with additional funding, so this project has been in limbo. Jose did attend one of our session, during the discussion of the script and actually gave us some good ideas. We were thinking of possibly using his skull in the movie. The planning meeting with the writers took place in my home in Las Vegas, in February of 1990.

This is all I can remind of my time and association with Jose Iniquez. We do not know where his crystal skull is at this moment. We heard that his daughter had the skull but she left Las Vegas and no one I know in Las Vegas seems to know where she went. I believe that at sometime in the future, this skull will resurface, as I do not feel my connection with the skull is complete.