The Odditorium 07.03.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Why You Might Not Realize You Are Dead - Gaia Community
Sisterhood Of The Skulls - Fortean Times
Mum With Prediction Power - Shropshire Star
Children Recall Alien Abductions - Phantoms And Monsters
UFO Signals And Whale Beachings - All News Web
Red Diamond UFO Update - Louth Today
Roswell UFO Festival This Weekend - KOB Albuquerque,NM
Third UFO Sighting In A Week - Midweek Herald
UFO Over Virginia Theme Park - Telegraph UK
Why We Believe In Bigfoot - Los Angeles Times
Remote Viewing Was Too Successful - Alternative Science
11-Yea-Old Reincarnated As Pilot - Fox8 Cleveland, OH
Sewer Monster Truth Uncovered - Ninemsn News
Alzheimer’s Symptoms Reversed - Science Daily
Terrifying Surgical Tools From The Past - Vital Signs
Eating Placenta - Time Magazine
A Landmark Investigation
Old buildings commonly come with lore about spooky happenings and a group of paranormal investigators want to find out if they’re true.
Hartford,Connecticut - TIt’s hard to stump the staffers at Connecticut’s historical landmarks - they’re pretty well versed on their buildings’ one-time occupants. But there’s one common question for which they have no adequate answer: Is this place haunted?
Very old buildings commonly come with lore about spooky happenings, but rarely does anyone really explore these tales. To that end, officials with Connecticut Landmarks have tapped the East Haven-based Connecticut Paranormal Research Investigators (CT-PRI, for short) to get to the bottom of things.
Since May, the group has been schlepping its equipment - infrared cameras, temperature gauges, audio recorders, holy water - to four of the 12 properties maintained by Connecticut Landmarks. They concluded their on-site work last week, at Hartford’s oldest building, the Butler-McCook House on Main Street. After reviewing the evidence, they’ll put together their findings.
That will be the basis for a series of presentations for the public in September and October titled, appropriately, “Is This Place Haunted?” continued
Christine Kaczynski, at right, and Jan Fortier take photographs at the
Butler-McCook House while testing for paranormal activity there
The five-member CT-PRI was founded by Christine Kaczynski, who introduces herself as “coming from a family of exorcists in Greece.” A design engineer by day (she doesn’t charge for ghost-hunting), she’s been working in the paranormal field for 35 years and formed the group five years ago. Kaczynski points out that they’re not actually looking for hauntings, which are malevolent spirits, but for spiritual presences.
Kaczynski twisted her ankle a week earlier but discounts the possibility of otherworldly menace. “Mostly they play upon your fears,” she says of evil spirits. “They’re psychological attacks a lot of the time.”
Spots That Go Cold
Connecticut Landmarks long resisted the idea of paranormal research - after all, it’s a serious organization that deals with history and facts, said Rochelle Simon, director of communications for Connecticut Landmarks. But, after years of fielding questions from the public, the group’s officials realized they also were curious. Simon says they also were impressed by CT-PRI’s professionalism.
It takes the crew about 20 minutes to set up all the wiring and install infrared cameras in four of the rooms Butler-McCook House. Cynthia Riccio, Butler-McCook’s site administrator, has said that she feels a distinctive “presence” when she’s alone in the house. She suspect’s that it’s Frances McCook, the house’s last occupant.
The investigators do some preliminary photography to get the house’s layout and set up temperature gauges to check for spots that suddenly go cold. Adam Shefts of Wallingford, who joined the group about a year ago, does most of the tech stuff. Many of the gadgets are gifts from his family, even though his father thinks it’s a waste of time. His mother, though, is a believer, and his friends think it’s a cool hobby.
“I don’t go around telling too many people because I don’t know what their reaction is going to be,” Shefts says.
Jan Forcier of Bridgeport wanders the house, extending a digital recorder in her hand and petitioning any spirits to make themselves known. She’s hoping to capture electronic voice phenomena, or EVP, in ghost-hunting argot.
“I’m here to communicate with you. Do you mind our being here?” she says to the dark. “Can you tell me your name? Is there something you would like to say?”
If any spirits take her up on the offer, Forcier won’t know until she reviews the tape later; you can rarely hear spirits with the naked ear. Even on recordings, she says, words are usually muffled, as though they’re being spoken underwater. EVP experts claim that spiritual voices are either below 30 hertz or above 28,000 hertz; human voices are mid-range.
Sometimes presences make themselves known visually in the form of silhouettes or even full human shape, Forcier says. She’s never seen this happen yet, though.
Faint Orbs Of Light
Most of the action takes place in a room downstairs as the investigators watch the monitor, split into four screens for each camera, waiting for something to happen. When something does, it’s not flying furniture or the risen form of the house’s last occupant, Frances McCook, but usually faint orbs of light. Most are dismissed as dust, but at about 10:30, an orb that appears on Screen 3 (the music room) catches Shefts’ attention.
“It’s got substance to it, and it curves. It’s an oval shape, and dust wouldn’t be oval,” he says, jotting down the time and location.
“The real important thing is that it changed shape - it went from circular to oval.” continued
Hartford’s oldest building, the Butler-McCook House
The non-investigators in the room find this curious but aren’t particularly taken aback. A short while later, a brighter light that shoots across the screen has a different effect.
“Holy crap!” says the otherwise poised Simon of Connecticut Landmarks, putting her hand to her mouth. A few weeks earlier, she described herself as something of a skeptic, but lately she has been talking of eerie happenings.
At a previous investigation at the Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry, one of the cameras went black momentarily. The investigation at the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden in Bethlehem produced both spooky orbs and EVP.
None of this surprises the staff at some of these landmarks. Ghost stories at the Hale house, for instance, go back to the early 20th century - weeping, footsteps, chains, the works. On the night of the investigation there, workers told one story after another of odd events.
Hours Of Just Waiting
But an investigation can go on for hours with nothing happening. Sometimes the crew goes home empty-handed. On-site work takes about four to five hours. Nonetheless, time moves along at Butler-McCook with lively conversation. Kaczynski holds court, remembering some of her more harrowing exorcisms.
Talk also turns to more earth-bound topics, such as the rise and fall of Krispy Kreme stock. They also talk about their favorite ghost-hunter TV shows, except for Kaczynski, who can’t stand any of them.
It’s doubtful that the Connecticut Paranormal Research Investigators would make for good TV. Watching a handful of folks stare at a monitor hardly sounds like a ratings blockbuster. But their earnestness is such that a non-believer can get caught up.
Even staunchest skeptics can admire the crew’s dedication; the job requires an astoundingly high threshold for tedium. After crew members pack up a little after midnight, they’ll go home and review hours of audio tapes.
“It’s very tiring work; you could miss something in a snap,” Forcier says. “The energy has to be just right, and the conditions have to be just right.”
Sheryl Hack, executive director of Connecticut Landmarks, says taking the paranormal approach should be a fun way to tell the histories of its properties. And, she adds, the question of whether they’re haunted is worth answering.
“We’re committed to telling the stories of these places we steward.”
The results of the paranormal tests will be presented Sept. 24.
Author: William Weir
Source - http://www.courant.com/
Odditorium 07.02.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Deathbed Visions - About Paranormal
His Heart Was Still In Ireland - Phantoms And Monsters
Michael Jackson’s Paranormal Connection - About Paranormal
They Hear Dead People - The Chronicle-Telegram
Mind Wars: A Tiger By The Tail - American Chronicle
Did Crop Circle Predict Solar Storm? - io9
Bigfoot Of Dartmoor - Still On The Track
Thermal Baby Blobsquatch - Cryptomundo
Sarah Winchester Built A Mystery - The Modesto Bee
Nostradamus The Legend - My Strange Blog
Unruly Corpse Was Queen Of The Underworld - Cabinet Of Wonders
Impending Doom Predicted By Email Patterns - New Scientist
Dinosaur Mummy Yields Its Secrets - BBC Science
Weird Sex-Related Mishaps - Spike
Lonely Man Steals Lawn Ornaments - Weird Asian News
It Give You Wings - And A Heart Attack - Stuff NZ
Supernatural Rite Of Passage
Paranormal investigators say what they heard and felt indicates that something out of the ordinary could be present at a Masonic Temple.
Fort Scott, Kansas - While a thunderstorm blew through Fort Scott on Saturday night, an investigation of the ghostly kind was underway at the Fort Scott Scottish Rite Temple.
About 9 p.m. Saturday, members of the Wichita Paranormal Research Society began investigating the Scottish Rite Temple in order to determine whether or not there is paranormal activity occurring at the Temple.
According to Scottish Rite Temple Executive Secretary Terry Claar, when he was contacted by Nancy Wimmer from the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce about allowing a paranormal investigation to be conducted at the Scottish Rite Temple, he was excited to allow the researchers access to the temple. continued below
(left) Members of the Wichita Paranormal Research Society check equipment
(right) View of the outside of the Fort Scott Scottish Rite Temple
Wimmer said the paranormal investigators were in Fort Scott in April to investigate the Chamber of Commerce building and a private home. While they were in the area, they expressed an interest in investigating the Scottish Rite Temple. After getting the okay from Claar, the investigators scheduled a day to begin the research.
According to Shane Elliott, founder of the Wichita Paranormal Research Society, the investigators brought in eight infrared cameras that were hooked up to a DVR system.
“We broke up into small two-person groups to capture things on audio and video,” Elliott said.
According to Elliott, the group of investigators research different places to either “prove or disprove” that there is paranormal activity going on. An official determination that either proves or disproves paranormal activity at the Temple has not been reached yet because the investigators are still examining the data received during their investigation.
However, research participants said they had several “personal experiences” during the investigation that could indicate paranormal activity could exist.
According to Wimmer, who was present during the investigation, all of those involved in the exploration saw, heard and felt indications that something out of the ordinary could be present at the Temple.
“We all had some personal experiences,” Wimmer said. “We were trying to go on the balcony, and we heard a piano playing on the stage. One of the girls heard a door at the back of the stage open and shut. We can’t confirm anything. It was just personal experiences.”
According to Elliott, the investigators did come away with five possible electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). However, researchers still have to examine the recordings before a determination can be made as to their source.
“When you are recording with a digital recorder and you play back and listen, you hear a voice that wasn’t there when you were talking,” Elliott said, explaining what an EVP is.
In addition to the recordings, Elliott said he too had strange personal experiences during the investigation.
“I did find bats up in the theater,” he said. “That was interesting. Two of them kept flying around my feet.”
Claar said he would not be surprised if the investigation proved the existence of paranormal activity inside the Scottish Rite Temple. The existence of a cemetery next door to the temple is one of the reasons Claar said it would not surprise him to find out there is paranormal activity going on.
Claar explained that before the building connected to the Scottish Rite Temple was built, town officials had to exhume the bodies of about 16 people who were buried in a small cemetery at that location. The bodies were re-buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, and a hotel was built on top of the very spot the cemetery once stood.
“I’m pretty much convinced that there’s forces or whatever you want to call it, especially since I found out there was a cemetery next door. The spirits don’t like to be moved around,” he said.
Claar said he believes, if the investigators prove the paranormal activity exists, that existence might be caused from a combination of the spirits from the cemetery and spirits from the Scottish Rite Temple.
“I think it’s intermingled,” he said. “I think we have our own and some of it is in the building next door. I am anxious to hear the results. We’ll wait and see what they say.”
Elliott said it usually takes about two-weeks for his team to go through and analyze all of the data collected during the investigation. He added, about 85 to 90 percent of the time he and his team are able to disprove the existence of paranormal activity.
According to Elliott, the Wichita Paranormal Research Society is the Kansas state representatives for the TAPS family, which is the same group that does the Ghost Hunters television show.
For more information about the Wichita Paranormal Research Society visit their web site.
Author: Rayma Silvers
Source - http://www.fstribune.com/
Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
No. No she isn’t.
Is France a country?
I thought Europe was a country!”
You tried to trick me.
The Odditorium 07.01.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Paranormal Request - Galena Gazette
Johnny Depp’s Gangster Ghost Visit - Monsters And Critics
Emily’s Bridge - Dread Central
Finding A Psychic Soulmate - Wigan Today
Roswell UFO Festival Lifts Off - KRQE Roswell, NM
UFO Spotted In Welwyn Garden City - Times 24
Important Developments In Intelligence Community - UFO Digest
Feds To Admit UFOs Soon - Beckley Register-Herald
UFO Spotted Hovering In Hertfordshire - Telegraph UK
UFO Lights In Sky Over Cannington - This Is Somerset
UFO Over Neverland Ranch Witnesses - All News Web
Mystery Saltwater Alligator? - Cryptomundo
Search For The Hidden - Cryptomundo
Creatures From The Sewer - Deep Sea News
Muddy Comes Out Of The Swamp - Macon Telegraph
Indian Temple Is Miracle Magnet - Cabinet Of Wonders
Witchcraft Shop Casts Its Spell - Carrollwood Tribune
America’s Top Ten Jokes - Reader’s Digest
Claims Michael Jackson Faked Death - WA Today
Famous Hollywood Hoaxes - Cinematical
Old Theater Shows Paranormal Activity
Dark moments and eerie voices are captured inside one of Oklahoma’s top haunted sites.
Pawhuska, Oklahoma - The Constantine Theater in downtown Pawhuska once having hosted Vaudeville acts, silent movies, operas and original showings of movie classics such as Gone with the Wind, is now said to host ghosts. In fact, it is one of the top haunted sites in Oklahoma.
People have reported hearing the sound of opening and closing doors, footsteps going up and down the stairs and once reported was a mist seen drifting in the crawl tunnel underneath the theater’s stage.
Because of the strange experiences at the building, it has been investigated a number of times, with some of the investigations resulting in recordings of footsteps, a gunshot followed by a gasp and laborious breathing. continued below
The Constantine Theater in downtown Pawhuska
Originally built around 1880 as the Pawhuska House Hotel, the building was purchased by Greek immigrant Charles Constantine in 1910. He then renovated the building and turned it into the theater it is today.
“The first time we came here we walked in and we go, ‘Wow!’” said Dustin, the co-founder of Northeast Oklahoma Research, speaking of the elegant Greek decor of the theater.
Dustin and his team of investigators from N.O.R.S. conducted an investigation on the theater on May 23 and from 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. took approximately 40 hours worth of video and audio recordings focusing much of the equipment on the stage where most reports of paranormal experiences seemed to have their source.
N.O.R.S. returned to the theater Saturday evening to present their findings. to the public.
“The things on the Internet have been people walking across the stage during a bar room brawl kind of setting - hear glass breaking,” he told the dozen people in attendance at the presentation. “We didn’t experience that.”
He said the team did, however, have some findings but the events didn’t seem to occur on the stage as they had anticipated. They occured around the boardroom.
“The boardroom above the lobby ended up being a very interesting place,” he said, adding he regretted focusing the most highly sensitive equipment on the stage. He said if he were to do it over, he would put it in the boardroom. “That is were we had some experiences. That is where we heard someone walking up and down the stairs. It’s not disturbing its just a little awkward.”
He said the video evidence, although capturing some dark movements and shapes was overall not so impressive, but that rather it was the audio that was especially interesting.
He played audio clips of odd whooping, whipping sounds, and then later a knocking or tapping sound.
Then he played a recording of a whisper from what sounded like a male saying, “Where is she?”
Dustin said the team members, before the investigation, agreed to speak at normal tones during the recording and if they accidentaly whispered, to tell the other team members and to log the instance so as not to mistake it as a paranormal event.
Dustin then played a clip of someone whispering, “Peter, I was right here when the store closed.”
“Nobody that was with us is named Peter or rhymes with Peter. That is what we thought what interesting,” said Dustin. “We heard Peter clearer than anything.”
He said team members debated whether the voice said “door” or “store” but the name Peter was clear. “So that was a little awkward.”
Dustin told the group at the presentation that he later learned a gentleman by the of Peter worked for Constantine from 1921-1923.
Author: Thomas Berger
Source - http://www.pawhuskajournalcapital.com/
The Spirit Of A Faithful Friend
What happens to our beloved pets when they die?
Holiday Beach, Texas - To many of us an animal is a best friend. A pet can be a valued companion and quite often they are just like a member of the family. So it is not surprising at all that we wonder what happens to our faithful friend upon their death.
Do animals have a spirit or a soul? We like to think that they do.
Anyone who shares life with a pet can see that they have intelligence and life force. Pets also have their own distinct personalities whether they are a cat or dog or a parrot.
Is it possible that animals, such as cats and dogs, may become ghosts? There have been many reports of people who have had encounters with beloved pets who had previously died. continued below
Is there an afterlife for pets?
Here is just such a story which describes how the ghost, or spirit, of a dog saved a man’s life:
Right after World War II a soldier by the name of Joe was returning to his family in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. When Joe got off the train he was still a few miles from home and had to walk.
His walk took him down a road along the river, which he had to cross to reach home.
There were two different bridges: one, which was a new bridge, and one older girder type bridge. The newer bridge was closer so naturally, he decided to take that route.
Just as he came near to the bridge Joe was met by Shep, the old family dog. He had missed the dog and evidently the dog had missed him too. He greeted the dog and played with him before continuing on.
As Joe started to enter the bridge the dog stopped, and began barking. Shep tugged on the man’s pants leg and it was obvious that he did not want him to go that way.
Of course the man wanted to take the shortest route he tried to call Shep and to get him to come along, but the dog only got more insistent. Finally, Joe decided to let the dog have his way and he went on toward the older bridge.
Eventually, Joe made it home, and called out to the family. Of course, everyone came running, and they had a tearful reunion.
Joe said, “I would have been here sooner, but Shep made me come the long way.” Everyone got a funny look on their face, and asked him what he meant, so he explained the whole story.
After a long silence and many meaningful glances, Joe’s father said, “Joe, Shep died last winter.”
The next morning, Joe learned that the river, which had been raised by spring rains, had flooded the new bridge and taken out the middle section. If he had tried to cross it in the dark that night, he would surely have been killed.
Did Shep, a faithful pet, come back from the dead to save Joe’s life?
Author: Jack Crenshaw
Source - South Texas Anomalies Investigative Network
Walking In The Track Of The Beast
An investigator looks for tracks, hair and other clues to separate hoaxes from actual Bigfoot sightings in Florida.
Land O’Lakes, Florida - Midnight, March 5. A young man drives toward U.S. 19 on Gulf Trace Boulevard in Holiday. He turns on his high beams where the road curves along some woods, just past the recreation center.
His lights catch a pair of yellowish eyes, then a broad-shouldered figure, 8 or 9 feet tall, covered in brown hair. The creature freezes before running to the tree line. It stops to look back at the car.
The young man pulls over 20 feet away. There are no other vehicles on the road. He can now see the creature from the shoulders up. The man doesn’t know why, but he thinks to yell, “Hi!” No answer. The creature disappears into the woods. Believe it?
The young man sure seemed convincing when he reported the sighting to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. It dispatched Cathy Betz, an investigator who lives in Land O’Lakes. Her job is to separate hoaxes from actual Bigfoot sightings in Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties.
She’s never seen a Bigfoot herself, but she is convinced they exist. Someday, she says, we’ll get proof.
Meanwhile, she’ll keep her day job: saving lives as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa. continued below
Cathy Betz uses training and ten years experience to investigate claims of Bigfoot sightings
Betz, 45, has believed in the cryptid ever since she was a little girl growing up in Florida and her father took her to see the 1972 docudrama The Legend of Boggy Creek.
She read up on the subject, exploring evidence, and she became convinced that something was really out there. In 2003 she joined the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.
She has been a nurse for 25 years. At first, she was reluctant to tell the other nurses at about her new hobby. She just told them her week-long absences were spent on camping trips. Eventually she let slip that she was attending training expeditions with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.
They gave her some ribbing, but she didn’t hold their agnosticism against them.
“I don’t expect anybody to believe it,” she says. “I don’t disrespect you for that.”
She enjoys the trips as a way to explore the outdoors with a group of interesting and like-minded people, she says. They sleep in tents, look around for signs of Bigfoot, and get training in tracking and hair identification.
“I never imagined myself doing this kind of thing 10 years ago,” Betz says. “But I love it.”
She has been on four expeditions in Florida and one in North Carolina, and she is now on another in Utah. It was on the North Carolina expedition in 2008 that she had her closest encounter with Sasquatch.
At least she believes it was Sasquatch. It could have been a bear. Something walked around the tent, touching the fabric and grunting.
“I can’t say with certainty what it was,” Betz said, “but it was in a place with a lot of sightings.”
She has collected animal skulls from her various outings, many of which now decorate her home at the end of a dirt road in Land O’Lakes. In her big leafy yard, another skull hangs on a cross of sticks - leftover Halloween decorations, she says.
Her bathroom is decorated with enormous exotic bugs that she bought on eBay and framed. She awakes in the morning to crowing roosters and the chirps of her pet parakeet, Skittles. continued below
A replica cast of a reported Bigfoot footprint makes
the size 8 feet of Betz’s 13-year-old nephew look small
Two days after the Holiday man said he saw a swamp monster, Betz met him at the scene. She compared his story to the version he submitted to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization online. It was consistent.
They searched for tracks but didn’t find any. He told her he was sure he had not seen a bear or a human.
Betz’s notes are secret, she says, in order to protect the witnesses. She says the young man from Holiday did not want to be identified for this article.
She considers her role to be much like what a police investigator does.
“We don’t want to be considered like a fluff organization,” she says. “In order to be taken seriously, we feel like we should separate out the stories that don’t pan out.”
As part of her investigations, she often cross-check facts, such as if the witness says it was a full moon. And she examines the area, looking for tracks, hair and other clues. She knows all about inspecting footprints for dermal ridges and mid-tarsal breaks.
“We’re really a research and science-based organization trying to get as much evidence as we can,” she says. “We don’t want people to think that we’re just throwing everything out there that we get.”
Based on reported sightings, Betz believes Bigfoot creatures are much like many other Floridians - they leave for the summer. They tend to travel in nuclear families, she says. They eat fish and berries; they kill deer by breaking their back legs, slitting them down the gut, and extracting the liver.
She estimates there are 5,000 to 10,000 of them across the continent.
Scientists doubt that.
“The scientific community is sympathetic to the possibility, but there isn’t a whole lot of concrete evidence that is causing a lot of scientists to give up their current research projects and go out looking for Bigfoot,” said David Daegling, an anthropology professor at the University of Florida and author of Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America’s Enduring Legend. “The problem with eyewitness testimony is that it can’t stand on its own from the standpoint of scientific evidence of an uncatalogued animal being out there.”
Henry Cabbage, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said Bigfoot’s existence has not been confirmed. But the agency does keep a file on the subject, which includes news clippings and letters from people requesting permits to go out and catch one.
So, feeling spurned by the scientific establishment, Bigfoot believers have developed their own systems for collecting and corroborating evidence. They have formal reports, credibility ratings, training expeditions and special investigators, like Florida’s own Cathy Betz.
When Betz completed her report on the Holiday Bigfoot, it was classified as Class A - the highest rating of credibility, meaning it was unlikely, based on the observer’s conditions, that some other animal was mistaken for a Bigfoot. The report joined the more than 3,700 others posted to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization’s Web site.
“Thousands of people for hundreds of years have been seeing something out there and are describing pretty much the same thing,” she said. “Most people don’t have anything to lose or to gain, but they’re still coming forward.”
But the physical proof is still rather scant, and Betz knows this. Photographs and videos are tenuous, and hair samples and footprints are suspect. (By contrast, there are just 100 Florida panthers, and one of them was caught on video two weeks ago.)
“It’s going to take a body,” Betz says.
Why has no one found one yet?
Betz says it’s possible that the Bigfoot bury their dead. She thinks there are bones, but they’re probably sitting unidentified in a museum somewhere.
Bears are hit by cars or shot by hunters in Florida all the time. Why not Bigfoot? Betz said there was once a Bigfoot hit by a car in the Everglades, but it escaped to the swamp.
But when a carcass is found, and Betz is confident one will be, all those people who make fun of her now will be believers, too.
She just hopes the species will be protected.
“Once it’s established that it’s out there, we’re afraid of what’s going to happen,” she said, fearing poachers or the government. “It’s going to be a circus.”
Author: Isaac Arnsdorf
Source - http://www.tampabay.com/
The Odditorium 06.30.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Ghosthunters To Investigate Village - Harwich And Manningtree Standard
Rosewood Pub Scouted For Ghosts - Ipswich News
The Ghost Lady - About Paranormal
Calling All Ghosts - Monterey County Herald
They Won’t Listen To Psychics - The West
Chile: Anomalous Beings In Araucania - Inexplicata
Spain: UFOs - Top Secret - Inexplicata
Crypto And Other Critters - Cryptomundo
The World’s Last Leg - Heckler Spray
Mystery Of The Brown Mountain Lights - Phantoms And Monsters
Darwin: Slayer Of Werewolves - Science Magazine
Phychic Contact And UFOs - All News Web
Shooting Blamed On Supernatural Forces - Express India
Mysterious Tales Of Traveling Dogs - Mental Floss
Is Michael Jackson Really Dead? - Xenophilius
Funny Wedding Pictures - The Chive
Cats In Costume - Now That’s Nifty
The Odditorium 06.29.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
What Lies Beyond The Veil? - The Paranormal Pastor
Ghost Hunter Settles In - Taiwan News
Black-Eyed Kids In Kansas - From The Shadows
The Haunting Of Penfield Lighthouse - Connecticutt Post
Psychic Foretold Bad News For Jackson - Philly Burbs
Tips From Psychics On Missing Woman - My Fox Orlando
Psychic Interviews Dead Michael Jackson - Palluxo
Pilot Spots Mile-Wide UFO - London Evening Standard
SERPO-A: The John Gannon Affair - American Chronicle
Cigar Shaped UFO Over Frodsham - Chester Chronicle
UFO Photographed Over Edgware - Harrow Observer
Indian Government To Tell Alien Truth - Cleveland Indy Media Center
UFO Seen Over Neverland Ranch - The Tech Herald
UFO Alert Over Cylinder In Sky - Express And Star
Winged Beasts And Lizard Men - The McDowell News
Scientific And Journalistic Research Into Crop Circles - News Blaze
Russian UFO Experts Investigate Crop Circles - Russia Today
The Phenomenon Of Crop Circles In England - Asian Tribune
Cronkite Bigfoot Capture Rumor - Cryptomundo
The Bridgewater Bigfoot - Cryptomundo
Group Claims To Have Bigfoot Photo - Ghost Theory
Ark Of The Covenant Will Not Be Revealed - Ethiopian News
Bermuda Triangle Sparks Imagination - The Telegram
Horrors Of Witch Lynchings - BBC News
Alien Skull Star Attraction At ET Conference - Yorkshire Evening Post
Morgellons And Carnicom Institiute - Science Blog
Tourists Attracted To Cannibalism And Death - Pravda
Top 20 Movie Monsters - Heckler Spray
6 Signs Your House Is Haunted - Weekly World News
Ancient Egyptian Michael Jackson
The Pharaoh of Pyramid Pop.
The resemblance of the nose is most incredible
Source - http://www.fieldmuseum.org/
Touched By Sasquatch
A Bigfoot researcher says he had a close-up encounter with a living Sasquatch and believes evidence will soon be found to prove they exist.
Monterey, California - The wilderness is pitch-black at night and Monterey’s Bart Cutino says he and his colleagues like it that way as they try to solve one of the enduring mysteries of folklore.
Cutino, 35, is an unabashed, unapologetic member of The Bigfoot Research Organization, a diverse group of about 200 researchers and adventurers. They wander through the deep woods for days at a time in search of a legendary creature - indeed, they believe there are thousands of them - inhabiting the forests of North America and the world.
The vast majority, they’re convinced, are in the Pacific Northwest. Cutino says there have been at least 10 sightings over the years in Monterey County, the most intriguing by a University of Southern California psychology professor who says he saw one at dusk at the Fort Hunter Liggett military base while boar hunting in 2002.
(left) Bart Cutino of Monterey, California (right) Bart Cutino
and Bigfoot Research Organization benefactor Wally Hersom
“Sometimes I’ll just drive through the forest with the headlights off, moving at about 4 mph, using a thermal-imaging unit to see every living creature. I’ll do that for seven or eight hours at a time,” Cutino, who was born and raised in Monterey, says.
Other times, he and fellow researchers will go out in pairs or small groups, watching, waiting, listening and searching in the darkness for any evidence of a mostly nocturnal animal with an eternal life-span that got its nickname from a newspaper in 1958.
The “Bigfoot” moniker, he says, makes many of his fellow researchers wince because it implies to too many people that there is only one. It is believed to be a shy, enigmatic, probably mythical creature that reveals itself for precious seconds at a time, almost always to somebody without a camera or a camcorder.
Misinformation and pranksters have further belittled the ongoing quest to find the real-life Sasquatches, believed to be wood apes.
‘It wasn’t scary’
Cutino, an associate with NCW Group Wealth Management in Monterey, believes there are actually about 6,000 to 7,000 in North America alone - and is convinced that there’s nothing mythical about them.
Indeed, on Aug. 18, 2007, he feels certain he saw one on Chinook Pass, near Naches, Wash., during an outing he took with about 14 friends, including several other Bigfoot researchers.
According to a report he filed that summer for the Bigfoot Research Organization, he was standing a short distance from his campsite around midnight when he heard the breaking of a branch. He decided to check out the sound with a hand-held thermal-imaging unit, a device that uses body heat to make living things visible in the darkness.
What he saw 50 yards down a path appeared at first to be human being peering at him from behind a large tree, peeking first around one side of the trunk, then the other.
“About 20 to 25 seconds later, it stepped out from behind the tree and dropped on all fours, knees on the ground, arms extended and did this little head rotation in my direction,” Cutino says. “At that point I knew what it was, and it was surreal. It wasn’t scary. I just couldn’t believe it was happening.”
He says the Sasquatch propped itself momentarily onto its right shoulder and inched itself forward, at which point Cutino began snapping his fingers, trying to get the attention of a colleague who was 30 yards away, near a truck containing recording equipment.
“Every time I snapped my fingers, this thing would make a full-body, convulsive-type movement - very agile, very animalistic - and it would pause-freeze every time I stopped snapping my fingers,” Cutino says. “Then it rotated back onto its right shoulder, put a hand up next to its face, and splayed out the hand so I could clearly see all five digits on the hand.”
The creature stood up, went down again, then stood again before Cutino made a decision to run in the opposite direction, toward his friend with the recording equipment. By the time his colleague got the complicated recording equipment set up and directed, the Sasquatch was gone, Cutino says.
He’s convinced
Based on measurements taken later, using a 6-foot-3, 175-pound colleague as a model in the same location, Cutino estimates that the creature stood about 7 feet tall and weighed up to 575 pounds, with the vast majority of the weight in its upper torso.
The head was relatively small and unusually round, and its arms were an astounding length, perhaps even longer than its legs.
That there is no photographic evidence is disappointing, but Cutino says it didn’t temper his exhilaration that night.
“At the time, I’d been going out there looking for one of these for about four years, and wasn’t 110 percent convinced that they really existed, even though I had talked to a lot of people who said they had seen one,” he says. “But after that night, I’d bet everything I love and I’d sit back and smile, knowing that Bigfoot is real. That’s how certain I am of what I saw out there.”
Legendary Sasquatch
Cutino hails from a well-known Monterey family. His father, Bert, is co-founder and chief operating officer of the Sardine Factory restaurant and a principal in Cannery Row Co. and Foursome Development Co.
His late uncle, Pete, was a Hall of Fame water polo coach at the University of California-Berkeley. Both of his grandfathers, first-generation Sicilian immigrants, were fishermen on Monterey Bay during the heyday of the sardine era.
“Both of my nanus - my mom’s dad and my dad’s dad - used to see our version of the Loch Ness Monster out there in the bay. All the fishermen called it ‘Bobo,’” Cutino says. “Looking back at all the reports, I’m guessing that it might have been an oar fish - a very lengthy, serpentine-like fish that looks like it has a mane.”
Those tales, plus an interest his brother, Mark, had in Bigfoot, captured Bart’s fascination when he was only 6. He began reading everything he could about the legendary Sasquatch, watching TV reports and later scouring the Internet for information. Over the past six years, he’s spent over 200 nights in the forest.
Sightings have been reported in every state except Hawaii and Rhode Island, numbering in the thousands, with Washington (465) and California (411) at the top of the list. Nine Canadian provinces, and seven other countries - led by Malaysia, with 36 - also have turned in reports.
Skeptical scientists
The vast majority of the scientific world considers the Bigfoot phenomena to be largely bunk. Scientists have expressed doubts that such a species could exist in numbers great enough to perpetuate itself, wondered how such a creature could find enough food to sustain itself and noted that nobody has ever found the remains of a Sasquatch.
They have also questioned the validity of the famous Patterson-Gimlin film, shot in Bluff Creek in 1967, that purports to show a female Sasquatch retreating from her pursuers.
But Bigfoot researchers have arguments to combat each of those concerns.
“People have a right to be skeptical, especially when you consider an evidence pile littered with hoaxes, and what a poor job we’ve collectively done presenting our case as researchers,” Cutino concedes. “However, even sifting through the debris, one will find more viable, intriguing physical evidence and eyewitness testimony than 99 percent of our court systems receive.”
Technology, he says, is finally catching up with the needs of researchers, and he believes irrefutable images of a living Sasquatch are likely to be captured in the next few years.
Until that happens, and as long as his family - including his wife and baby daughter - remains supportive, he intends to continue his quest.
“My idea of a good time might be unpopular, being a Peninsula resident, but everybody else can have their tee times,” Cutino says. “Just put me in the middle of a dark redwood forest at 3 a.m. and I’m the happiest guy in the world.”
Author: Dennis Taylor
Source - http://www.montereyherald.com/
Ghosts On The Third Floor
Ghost hunters spend a spirited weekend in an old museum.
Selma, Alabama - Ghost hunters shifted quietly on cold, white tile or slick hardwood floors.
Very rarely would anyone speak above a whisper. Their ears and eyes kept alert listening for an unexplained sound.
“Did someone do something unjust to you” one person asked.
There was no audible response because the entity being questioned was possibly one of the many ghosts that reside on the third floor of the Vaughan Smitherman Museum.
Friends of the Vaughan Smitherman Museum sponsored the Paranormal Weekend, which was held Friday and Saturday at the museum.
Though there were plenty of seasoned veteran ghost hunters, there were a couple going on their first investigation.
“This is my first time doing anything like this,” said Kathy Boothman said. “I’ve wanted to do it, but for whatever reason I haven’t until now. I’ve seen spirits of loved ones as a child and adult. I wanted to know if it is possible to hone in the gift.”
Boothman lived in Selma for a time in the 1970s when her then husband was stationed at Craig Air Force base. She said she enjoyed coming back to Selma especially to see one particular sight.
“We had a friend who lived in the old slave quarters above a house and we would go up to the widow’s peek there,” she said. “Every time we went up it was just a creepy feeling. My husband and I got to go back there today and it was really neat.”
Southern Paranormal Researchers, Montgomery, and a few other historians and paranormal investigators led the weekend. Cindy Stoudenmire told the history of the museum and Alston Fitts filled everyone in on the interesting history of Selma. Paranormal investigators gave lectures on everything from equipment and research to how paranormal and religion fit together.
Each night concluded with an investigation into an area building – Vaughan Smitherman Museum, The Foundry and Adams Grove Church and cemetery.
Saturday afternoon the group gathered to discuss their findings of the museum.
Shawn Sellers, clairvoyant and founder of Southern Paranormal Researchers, said the museum has a lot of residual energy, which is like an imprint on time.
“I always love coming to the Vaughan Smitherman Museum,” he said. “The history here lends to a lot of residual energy plus there has been a lot of personal experience in the building. This is one of my favorite places to come and I do this with the Southern Paranormal Researchers all over the United States.”
Participants of the weekend agreed that there was something paranormal in the museum. Some smelled smoke or felt a drop in temperature in certain spots in rooms.
Southern Paranormal Researchers used a ghost box to try to communicate with anyone on the other side willing to communicate. A ghost box is an instrument that produces random voltage to create raw audio from an AM tuner. It is then amplified and fed into an echo chamber. The machines create audio bits and white noise that ghosts can manipulate into forming.
Through the machine, two stories emerged, but stable communication was not established.
Though the weekend was coming to a close, many hunters looked forward to the next great pursuit, but reflected on the weekend in Selma.
“I love coming to Selma and helping out people or just doing hunts like this weekend’s,” Sellers said. “It has a lot of ghost activity. I look it as a smaller Savannah.”
Image: The Vaughan Smitherman Museum where ghosts are said to reside on the third floor
Author: Katie Nichols
Source - http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/
Government Planning UFO Arrival Party
Michael Cohen says the aliens are coming and we’re going to party like it’s 2012.
Michael Cohen of All News Web has received some intriguing information concerning a planned UFO visit, set to happen in 2012.
In his latest article he writes:
“Sydney, Australia - A few months ago I received a series of emails from someone calling herself Tina. ‘Tina’ claimed to have spent some time working within the Pentagon’s DARPA agency rewriting and relaying messages regarding possible first contact with an alien race in the year 2013. This alien race is believed to be planning an open daylight landing of a UFO on Planet Earth.
As information was very compartmentalized within the environment that ‘Tina’ worked in her knowledge of details was sketchy.
My own research has led me to believe that contrary some of the information contained in Tina’s emails, contact with aliens is not a two-way affair and does not involve unequivocal and unambiguous messages.
Rather, DARPA has interpreted somewhat cryptic signals received by UFO probes as indicating an intention to initiate open contact in the year 2013.
While I am fairly certain that ‘Tina’ is genuine I also suspect her information might be incomplete.”
I have been receiving those very same “somewhat cryptic signals” from UFO probes. My interpretation was a little different from DARPA’s. My de-coding of those messages found they were mostly ads for Fleegle’s Flying Saucer Repair and commercials for an interplanetary Arby’s.
“Tina eventually felt too nervous about divulging government secrets to a media outlet. She sent me one further email, the details of which I did not publicize in the hope of getting more information. This was the last email I received from ‘Tina.’ I doubt we will receive anything further.”
I hope that’s not the same ‘Tina’ who keeps sending me emails which say “make ten copies of this email and send to friends or you will be cursed.”
“Allegedly DARPA is toying with grand ideas for first contact that involve showcasing the best that human civilization has to offer.
The UFO welcoming party will include the heads of states of major nations, who will be given the choice of being present in the flesh or as a real-time hologram. The President of the United States and his family are expected to be present in hologram form only.
Major cultural icons will be invited to join the welcoming party. Individuals considered for this honor include Steven Spielberg, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Sir Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson (obviously no longer possible) and Tom Cruise as well Intellectual and scientific icons such as Stephen Hawkins.
IT and business figures such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin, Rupert Murdoch and Richard Branson will also be invited to the party.
It is believed that one place will be made available for a UFO researcher (Stanton Friedman?)”
That’s a rather eclectic group to include in the welcoming party. Though I’m sure if I spent the time and resources to travel millions of light years to another planet Tom Cruise would not be one of the first people I’d like to see.
“DARPA is unsure of where the arriving aliens are planning to land their UFO but it is believed it might be at a historical site such as the Greek Acropolis. Tina was aware of suggestions of some kind of 3D light show focusing on human achievement, peacefulness (yeah right) tolerance and ability to adapt.”
I always wondered why the Acropolis in Greece has a parking space designated “UFOs Only.” Also, it’s next door to an Arby’s.
“I realize many UFO researchers will find this information hard to swallow. Before they pass judgement they should ask themselves whether it stands to reason that in the event of an open landing a welcoming party would be planned. They should also ask themselves what type of party ‘the powers that be’ would plan?
In doing so they might realize that indeed reality is often rather absurd. Let’s just hope the arriving aliens approve of the party. Should they get violent, humanity might be robbed of it’s best and brightest.”
So there it is. UFOs are coming in 2012, and it’s possible the aliens, who might get violent if they don’t like the party we’ve planned for them, could zap Tom Cruise back to the future. Reality? Or the script for Mission Impossible 4?
Comments by Dean Terry
Source - http://www.allnewsweb.com/
An Affinity For Apparitions
A group of paranormal investigators seek to uncover paranormal and supernatural phenomena and offer help to clients in need.
Sacramento, California - Brad Smith entered a Stockton home recently when, all of a sudden, he felt an ice-cold grip on his left wrist. But there was nobody there to grab it.
Smith, who investigates whether ghosts exist at certain locations, said he doesn’t know what it was, but it could have been a deceased relative.
Smith, a member of a Sacramento-based organization called American Paranormal Investigations, spoke to about 40 people attending Wednesday night’s meeting of the newly formed Lodi Paranormal and Historic Anomaly Society.
Smith is what is his group calls a “debunker,” someone who searches buildings attempting to prove that they aren’t haunted.
He looks for logical reasons for funny noises, like a running air conditioner, a breeze from the window or a creaky wooden floor.
In Stockton, Smith checked for a significant amount of electric and magnetic fields in the neighborhood, which could cause something that appears to be ghostly.
“It could be anything,” Smith said.
It could be a ghost of someone who once lived in the house, it could be someone who once lived in the neighborhood.
“It may be passing through,” he said. “They may be curious just like us.”
Smith, who was a reporter for two years for the Siskiyou Daily News in Yreka beginning in 2006, said his group will return to the Stockton house for a more thorough investigation. He now writes for what he described as an “area newspaper” and does crime reporting online.
Dave Bender, who founded American Paranormal Investigations in 2001, told interested Lodians that he doesn’t use the term “ghost” when discussing possible paranormal activity. Instead, he likes to use the word “apparition,” an unusual or unexpected sight.
Bender said American Paranormal Investigations won’t come to someone’s residence strictly to look for ghosts.
“Twenty percent of the things we encounter are paranormal,” Smith said. “The other 80 percent can be easily explained.”
It’s more important to listen to people’s stories about what they think is abnormal in their house, Bender said.
“They don’t want people to think they’re crazy,” he said. “What’s important to them is to be willing to listen to their story.”
“I can teach you how to investigate,” Bender said. “I can’t teach you how to care about people. We’re here to make the family feel better.”
Describing his most unusual experience searching for ghosts, Bender recalls visiting a house in a nice Sacramento neighborhood. He didn’t notice anything unusual, but several women, including his wife, felt like they were choking.
One woman was walking in a bedroom at that home when something unexplainable bumped into her. She fell down and hurt her elbow.
“It was nasty, that’s what it was,” Bender said.
Smith said he was blown away one night in Auburn, where several people told him they saw creatures resembling “gray humanoids.”
“So we scouted the area. At the driveway, I saw this blurred humanoid shape in the air, turn and go away,” Smith said. “We tried to debunk it, but we couldn’t explain it another way.”
For more on American Paranormal Investigations, visit their website.
Image: Be careful what you seek - you just might find it
Author: Ross Farrow
Source - http://www.lodinews.com/
The Odditorium 06.26.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
I Want To Believe - I Don’t Know - Lodi News
Listening To The Paranormal - Season Of Shadows
A Ghost In The Building - From The Shadows
Angels With Fur - Lasha Seniuk
June 24, 1947 - The Arnold Sighting - A Different Perspective
The Possum People Part Two - UFO Media Matters
Weird Shaped UFO Over Liverpool - The UFO Chronicles
Roswell In The Eye Of The Beholder - UFO Mystic
Crop Circles Made By Drunken Wallabies - BBC News
Little Eagle Bigfoot - Cryptomundo
A Texas Lake Monster - Still On The Track
The Electrical Bigfoot - Blogsquatcher
Fictitious Gill Men - Cryptomundo
Knights Templar New X-Mystery - Twilight Language
Loch Ness Monster Of Vosges - Cryptomundo
The Phenomenology Of Oneness - The Heavy Stuff
The Prophecy - UFO Digest
Neverland Nevermore - Twilight Language
Ark Of The Covenant To Be Unveiled - World News Daily
Custer Outgunned - Wired Tech
Grey Hair May Protect Us From Cancer - New Scientist
Space Shuttle Provides Tunguska News - Science Daily
Flying Car 2011 Unveiling - World Latest News
Finance Company Accepts Souls For Loans - Mos News
Church Creates Graveyard Parking Lot - Daily Mail
Strip Searching Kids For Aspirin - San Francisco Chronicle
The Odditorium 06.24.2008
A compendium of Strange Things...
Paranormal Group Zeroes In On Twin Cities - The Chronicle Online
A Home Haunted By Spirits - OC Register
1940s: Humanoids in Argentina - Inexplicata
Locals Support UFO Spotters - Louth Leader
We May Never See Government UFO Disclosure - American Chronicle
UFOs: Ten Things You Never Knew - Daily Express
Bigfoot: A Search In Utah - Deseret News
Healing With Numbers - New Straits Times
2012 Through The Eye Of A Needle - Intangible Materiality
Mystery Cave Dating From 1 A.D. Found - Discovery On
The Girl Who Doe Not Age - ABC News
10 Misconceptions About Neanderthals - List Universe
The Moon: Extraterrestrial Trash Can - Fox5 Las Vegas, NV
4 Holy Women Transformed By Cheese - Neatorama
Offered A Ride On A UFO - Women On The Web
Governor Sanford’s Disappearance - Weekly World News
Punk Club Gets Ghost Busted
Spirits of the dead, or wasted souls sitting in a bar drinking? Life can be such a drag.
Torrington, Connecticutt - Is there a ghost in Snapper Magee’s? After an investigation this past weekend it is possible.
Around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, after the popular Water Street bar closed, the Northwest Connecticut Paranormal Society came in to investigate reports that the building may have a spirit inside. A team of five investigators, including a sensitive and a psychic came by from the Professional Investigations and Presentations group, equipped with an assortment of tools to conduct a proper paranormal search, said John Zontok, the director of the organization.
Word first got out that the building may be haunted after ghost hunter-types had come by Snapper Magee’s a few weeks ago, said Travis Myers, bar owner. After rumors of shadows being witnessed in photographs and different feelings from some guests, Myers said he agreed to have a paranormal team come in and investigate.
Could this be the home of ghosts?
From 2 to 5 a.m. the team remained, setting up eight infra-red night vision cameras, EVP sensors to pick up voices, and tools to measure the electro-magnetic field, Zontok said.
The result: there was a high amount of magnetic energy in the front of the bar as well as in one room on the second floor where there was no electricity at all, he said.
“Which could possibly mean there was a presence there, trying to show itself to us,” he said.
In particular, the energy in the front of the bar was peculiar, Zontok said, as it was not as heavy towards the back of the first floor nor was it detected outside near the street.
Now, after conducting the initial research, the group is scheduled to come back next Tuesday.
In the meantime, historical research will be done, to clarify rumors of the building being a brothel in the past, Zontok said, as well as a rumor that a prostitute committed suicide there.
Whether there is in fact a ghost in the building remains to be seen, he said.
As for now, Myers said he the news of a possible ghost will not hurt his business. In effect, it may help, he said.
One of his bartenders, Jessie Thomsen, said she always thought that the basement of the building was creepy even before knowing there was possible paranormal activity.
“But now it’s even more creepier,” she said.
When asked about her visits to the basement — to pick up necessary beverages for the bar — Thomsen said her visits are shortened.
Despite the five years of research into this paranormal hunt, Zontok said he is a skeptic. He said he finds it hard to believe in any type of afterlife at all.
Of the 200 residential cases that the group has been asked to investigate these past years, only 8 percent have turned out with unexplainable occurrences, he said.
“Something that happens that you actually can’t explain scientifically,” he said.
The group is made up of legitimate people, he added, including two college professors, a retired marine, nurses and college students.
“There are all walks of life in our group,” Zontok said.
In investigating these unexplainable occurrences, sometimes it is necessary to conduct methods of freeing these paranormal presences, if they are demonic, he said.
Sometimes, the group will utilize an Native American-style spirit cleansing and other times there will be a Christian or Catholic crossing ceremony, often involving prayers, crying and songs, Zontok said.
With more attention being drawn to their work, the Northwest Connecticut Paranormal Society has already been profiled on NBC30, for reports of a haunting in Barkhamsted.
Now, the group is ready to be featured on the Discovery Channel this October, around Halloween, he said.
For “evidence” of the paranormal, obtained at local haunted sites, click here.
Author: Ronald DeRosa
Source - http://www.registercitizen.com/
Eerie Tales From A Hospital’s Past
People who work inside the old Victorian style infirmary claim to have encountered World War One soldiers, vanishing matrons and poisoned chalices.
United Kingdom - Imagine staring at a woman on a security camera filming the scene just yards ahead of you. When you look up there is no-one there. Then the ghostly figure on the camera turns and walks away.
This was just one hair-raising experience of security guards at the iconic Cardiff Royal Infirmary, but there are many more.
The CRI stands in the city center with stories of more than a century of history and heroism, illness and death in its walls.
It is soon to be partly demolished and reborn as a modern medical center for the city.
But staff overseeing its later years as a largely abandoned building claim to have seen sights to make your skin crawl.
Douglas Bragg, 74, from Roath, Cardiff, said he doesn’t believe in ghosts but when he worked at the infirmary as a plumber he saw something he can’t explain.
“I had a feeling that someone was behind me,” he said.
“I turned and I saw what I thought at that time was the matron Eileen Reese. She had a grey uniform on with some sort of bonnet. Something was a bit strange about it but I turned back to what I was doing.
“Something made me turn around again and there was nothing there.
“I didn’t think much about it until the following day. I tried to find out where Eileen Reese was and she certainly wasn’t resident at the hospital that day – in fact she was on a week’s holiday. My only explanation to myself was that it was a ghost, but I don’t believe in ghosts.”
Gareth Radcliffe, 61, from Pentwyn, Cardiff, has walked the corridors of the CRI as a security officer for eight years and has heard some haunting tales.
“There are meant to be three ghosts on the main corridor – the soldier of Mametz, the grey lady and another old lady,” he said.
Gareth’s family has a longstanding connection to the building. The Radcliffe Shipping Company gave money for the infirmary chapel to be built and a ward carries their name. His mother later worked as a domestic on the Radcliffe ward.
Gareth added: “My mother died in the infirmary so it doesn’t put me off. The building doesn’t frighten me, I’ll go anywhere. I don’t think she’d let anything happen to me.”
However, other hardened medical professionals have been troubled to the point of calling in an exorcist, Gareth said.
“In pathology, they had an exorcism about eight or nine years ago,” he said. “They work in pathology so they’re not frightened of ghosts, but they called the police in for an exorcism. For them to work in pathology and not to want to go back up there they’ve got to have seen something pretty terrible.”
Father Roy Doxey, who has been vicar of nearby St German’s Church for the past 12 years, said: “A ghost comes back to try to connect to something in its life, or with something it has an affection for. The ones that do come back are mostly benign spirits, they come back for various reasons. As Christians we would want that soul to move on.” continued below
Image: The old infirmary is to be partly demolished and reborn as a modern medical center
Another security man who has had a disturbing experience is Gareth Owen, 64, from Pontypridd.
“Sometime last year I was monitoring the cameras here and something caught my eye,” he said.
“A figure went into the security office 10 to 12 yards from me. Knowing the security officer was out on patrol I thought it was a bit strange.
“Five or 10 minutes later I saw the figure coming back out of the office.
“According to the camera, that figure passed me but in front of me there was no-one. It was a lady, who wouldn’t have been in the security office in the first place.
“She was dressed very smartly, but I wouldn’t say it was in this era but from quite a few years ago.”
The mysterious woman seen by both Douglas and Gareth Owen could be a former matron, whose portrait used to hang in the infirmary.
Elizabeth Bragg, 70, who worked at CRI between 1988 and 1995 as a clerical officer based in the X-ray, casualty and MRI departments, said: “There was a painting about the size of a chimney breast and it was of a sister in the old-fashioned bonnet, the big long cape and white starched apron.
“She was tending an injured solider and judging from his uniform it was sometime around the Crimea War.
“As you walked in, there was this glorious feeling and she was just our grey lady and anyone who’s seen her I think has had a blessing.
“As long as the infirmary exists she will be there because of the way she cared.”
According to Stephen Harris, director of development at CRI, the painting was a well known oil painting of an army commander and matron at the bedside of soldier.
Author: Johana Hartwig
Source - http://www.walesonline.co.uk/
Welcoming The Dawn Of The Longest Day
A record number of revellers welcomed the dawn of the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge.
United Kingdom - The number of people attending the event caused roads in the area to become gridlocked in the hours leading up to sunrise at 0458 BST.
Druid ceremonies took place alongside music and Morris dancing, however overcast skies obscured the sun.
Police praised the crowd and said there had been only 37 arrests, for minor disorder and drugs offenses. continued below
A record number of people gathered for this years celebration of the Summer Solstice
Supt Nick Ashley said: “The celebration has been peaceful and enjoyable for the majority who were present to celebrate in a safe manner.
“It is disappointing that a small number of people chose to ignore the conditions of entry and brought with them illegal drugs but this was dealt with effectively.”
Police for the most part are wishing people a happy Solstice and so are the security guards
The event to mark the dawn of the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere has grown in popularity since a four-mile exclusion zone around the site was lifted nine years ago.
English Heritage, which manages the ancient monument, said the car park was full with 6,500 cars two hours before sunrise. Meanwhile the main route into Stonehenge, the A303, was closed due to volumes of traffic.
Peter Carson, head of Stonehenge, said: “We were expecting it to be busy this year, but we had ensured that it has been a peaceful and enjoyable solstice.
“There has been a great atmosphere and where else would you want to be on midsummer’s day?” continued below
Visitors celebrated to the sound of beating drums, chanting and dancing
Police drafted in extra officers and said there would be a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and drunkenness, with an alcohol limit of four cans of beer or a bottle of wine per person imposed by English Heritage.
Druid King Arthur Pendragon told the BBC shortly before sunrise: “It’s a very nice atmosphere and everything’s fine at the moment.
“There have been more police present this year, more security, but everything’s passed off very jovially and everyone’s in a good mood.
“And the police for the most part are wishing people a happy solstice and so are the security guards.”
English Heritage had issued an advisory note to visitors which warned: “Summer Solstice is not a good time to experiment with drugs - the crowd, the noise and the sheer size of the place are likely to make any bad reaction much, much worse.”
Meanwhile, a limit of 200 tents was set at a field near the Avebury Ring after residents complained about the number of visitors to that site in 2008.
Source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Royalty Bizarre
Some monarchs ruled countries - others were kings of weirdness.
Holiday Beach, Texas - George III of Great Britain and Ireland was being driven through Windsor Great Park when he ordered his carriage driver to stop. The King got out, walked over to an oak tree, shook hands with one of its branches and talked to it for several minutes. He thought he was talking to the King of Prussia.
Princess Alexandra of Bavaria was convinced that as a child she had swallowed a full-size grand piano. Nothing could ever shake her from this belief.
Ludwig II of Bavaria was Alexandra’s nephew. His reign was notable for his decision to reverse night and day. He had a moon painted on his bedroom ceiling and embarked on epic mountain journeys in the dead of night in a golden sleigh, accompanied by coachmen who were forced to dress in the style of Louis XIV.
Catherine the Great of Russia, discovering that she had dandruff, imprisoned her hairdresser in an iron cage for three years to stop the news spreading. Enchanted by a primrose in the royal garden, she posted a sentry to guard the plant day and night.
Queen Juana of Spain worshiped her husband Philip, who died in 1506, so much that she refused to allow him to be buried and had his coffin accompany her wherever she traveled.
Henry Christophe, King of Northern Haiti, ordered his guards to prove their loyalty to him by marching over a 200ft-high cliff. Those who obeyed plunged to their deaths; those who refused were tortured and executed. Christophe eventually ended up shooting himself.
Source - South Texas Anomalies Investigative Network
The Odditorium 06.22.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Daughter’s Paranormal Recovery - Fox9 Minneapolis, MN
Ghost Hunters Seek Mystery - Bradenton Herald
Goodbye Irene: Haunted Hotel To Close - Associated Press
Ghost Hunters Visit Jail - Standard Freeholder
Can Being In Two Places Fortell Death? - Inquirer
Psychic Helps Police In Missing Person Case - Daily News Transcript
Medicine Woman Interview - Mysterious America
Huge Glowing Orange UFO - Grantham Journal
Aliens As The World’s Policemen - Irish Times
Bigfoot Gone Loco - My Strange New Mexico
Lizard Man Witness Killed - Cryptomundo
The Batsquatch - Heckler Spray
Record Crowds At Stonehenge - Times Online
Claims Glowing Dogs Have Been Cloned - MSNBC Science
8 Film Villains Who Died By Melting - OMG Lists
13 Worst Sport Injuries (Not For The Faint Hearted) - Heckler Spray
The Odditorium 06.21.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Haunted Quaker Schoolhouse - Ghost Theory
Ghosts Of The Skirrid Mountain Inn - Strange Days
Spirits ‘Moved On’ By Ghosthunters - Evening Leader
Former Mayor’s Haunted Home - Ghost Theory
Visions At The Hour Of Death - About Paranormal
Bowler Revisited - Hirem College News
The 6 Most Famous UFO Sightings In History - Switched
Vortex UFO Over King’s Dominion - Forget Omori
Why Some See UFOs And Some Don’t - True UFO Sightings
Argentina Abduction Interrupted - Inexplicata
UFOs Are Real - I Don’t Believe In Them - Book Of Thoth
The Possum People Part One - UFO Media Matters
The Fish That Flew - Robert Barrow
Charles Hall And The Tall White Aliens - Nevada L.O.W.F.I
Top 10 Crop Circles Thus Far - Paranormal Times
Whatever Happened To Bigfoot? - Guelph Mercury
Bigfoot: Obsession And Myth - San Francisco Chronicle
Bigfoot Emitting Heat Waves - Blog Squatcher
New Mystery Ape Fossil - Cryptomundo
Rosemary’s Brother - Twilight Language
Tillamook Rock Light - Naveed’s Realm
Spook Lights - A Different Perspective
Malaysian Jumping Corpses - Cabinet Of Wonders
Ouija Boards - Automatic Writing Fears - UFO Digest
Midnight Sun: UK’s Night-Shining Clouds - Daily Mail
Scientists Capture First Image Of Memories - Phys Org
Evidence Of A Lake On Mars - Reuters Science
Study Proves Most Aliens Are Dwarfs - Weekly World News
Ganges River: Dirtiest Place In The World - Green Stijl
Top TV Dads - Woman’s Day
A Mother Of A Deception
A man impersonates his dead mother to collect her benefits.
New York, New York - Irene Prusik has been dead for six years. But in April, someone showed up at the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew her driver’s licence.
The explanation given by US prosecutors - it was her son, in a dress.
Thomas Parkin, 49, was charged in a bizarre plot to impersonate his deceased mother so he could collect $117,000 in government benefits.
He and the man accused of being his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo, pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, criminal impersonation and other charges.
Both men were ordered held on a one million dollar bail.
District Attorney Charles Hynes said the scam was “unparalleled in its scope and brazenness.’.
Parkin, who lived with his mother, was accused of hatching the scheme after she died in 2003 at age 73.
He managed to conceal the death by falsifying her death certificate, then collected $52,000 from her $700 a month benefit checks over the next six years, prosecutors said.
Authorities say Parkin also got another $65,000 in rent subsidies by falsely claiming he had a disability and that his mother was still alive and was his landlord.
Parkin used his friend Rimolo to pose as the mother’s nephew when going to cash checks and do other business, prosecutors said.
A security camera photo from the office shows a frail-looking Parkin in a wig and dark glasses, Rimolo by his side, as he fills out paperwork.
The ruse began to unravel amid a dispute over the mother’s home, which was sold at foreclosure in 2003. Parkin challenged the purchase by suing the new owner on his mother’s behalf so he wouldn’t be evicted.
As the property dispute dragged out, both sides eventually contacted the district attorney to accuse each other of fraud. By the time investigators arranged a meeting with the family in May, they already had proof Prusik was dead - a photo of her tombstone in a local cemetery.
The investigators played along as Parkin showed up for the interview “wearing a red cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an oxygen mask,” prosecutors said.
Image: Thomas Parkin was caught on CCTV at the Department of Motor Vehicles posing as his mother
Source - http://www.stuff.co.nz/
The Odditorium 06.19.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
The Haunted Conservatory - From the Shadows
Paranormal Researchers Swap Stories - Tahlequah Daily Press
Ghost Hunters Take Look At Lorain’s Moore House - Chronicle Online
Chasing Ghosts - Ironton Tribune
Paranoral Summer of ‘69 - McDowell News
Haunting Theme - Birmingham Post
Hampshire: Most Haunted County - Get Hampshire
Message From The Mirror - About Paranormal
Ghostly San Marco - Thrifter
Clooney Hires Psychic To Contact Dead Pig - Ireland Online
Something In The Future - The Sun
UFO Sightings Around Vail, CO - News Blaze
Bizarre UFO Abductions In Australia - io0
UFO Abductions Down Under - All News Web
King’s Dominion UFO - Seattle Post Intelligencer
Lincolnshire Triangle UFO Hotspot - Louth Leader
Murrow VS The Saucers - Herald Tribune
1561 UFO Battle Over Germany - Gather
UFO’s Of The 19th Century - Gather
UFO Couldn’t Save Betty And Barney Hill - The UFO Iconoclast(s)
Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found Via Crop Circles - National Geographic News
Ceremonial Complex 1,000 Yrs Older Than Stonehenge - Little About
Human Faced Missing Link Found - National Geographic News
What Happened To Jeremy Bentham? - UCL Bentham Project
The Icelandic Phallological Museum - phallus.is
Dead Man Briefly Returns To Life
A man pronounced dead comes back to life for two days.
United Kingdom - A man came back to life - like the Biblical Lazarus - half an hour after doctors told his family he had died.
Michael Wilkinson, 23, “died” in hospital of a previously undiagnosed heart condition after his mother found him collapsed in bed.
Doctors failed to revive the roofer and pronounced him dead, and he was given the last rites.
But 30 minutes later medics found a pulse and told relatives he was actually alive. continued below
30 minutes after Michael Wilkinson was pronounced dead, medics found a pulse
Mr Wilkinson, from Preston, was transferred to the intensive care unit at Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire where he survived for two days following an emergency operation. He then died on February 3rd this year.
An inquest heard that his return to life was known as Lazarus syndrome - the spontaneous return of circulation after attempts to resuscitate fail. There have only ever been 38 cases recorded worldwide.
The syndrome takes its name from the biblical story of Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus.
At time of Mr Wilkinson’s death, his mother Susan Horrigan, 44, said: “It was as if he had been taken away from me, then given back only to be taken away again.”
John Whittaker, A&E consultant, told the inquest at Preston Magistrates Court: “When we pronounce him dead that is not a small thing, you make absolutely certain.
“The decision to pronounce him dead was because we had worked on him for 15 minutes and come to the end of what we could do.
“There is a phenomenon known as Lazarus syndrome. It is incredibly rare. There have only been 38 cases of this ever in the world.”
He said Michael’s pulse restarting was probably due to the drugs he had been given.
Assistant Dept Coroner Derek Baker, addressing Mrs Horrigan, said: “You received this tragic news Michael had died then prepared yourself to deal with this tragedy.
“Then you were told a pulse had been found. How long after was that? One hour, two hours?”
She replied: “About half an hour.”
The inquest heard Mr Wilkinson died of cardiac arrest leading to organ failure. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.
A post-mortem examination carried out at the Royal Blackburn Hospital found he had an undiagnosed heart condition, in which his left ventricle had become abnormally thickened.
Mr Wilkinson had been drinking with his family in Preston the evening before he was found collapsed but tests showed alcohol was not a factor in his death. They also ruled out drug use or any physical trauma.
Speaking after the inquest, Mr Wilkinson’s grandmother Carole Bolton, 66, said: “He was lovely, people used to say he was a good-hearted lad.
“He was good-hearted and it was his heart that took him. We would like to thank staff at the Royal Preston Hospital. They could not have done more.”
Source - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Ghostly Face In The Cave
The ghostly face of a caveman.
Torquay, Devon, UK - Britain’s oldest ghost appears to have been caught on camera at the country’s most ancient inhabited site.
The ‘spook’ was snapped in a prehistoric cave at Kent’s Cavern in Torquay, Devon, looming from a wall and surrounded by an eerie mist.
In the image, taken by a tourist, the ghostly face of the caveman seems to hover in mid air staring in to the distance. continued below
Image of a ghostly apparition caught on camera at Kent’s Cavern in Torquay, Devon
For almost 200 years archaeologists have been digging up the prehistoric caves hoping to unearth evidence of our ancestors.
They’ve found lots of bones of all sorts of animals - as well as a human jawbone dated at around 40,000 years old which was when Neanderthal Man became extinct.
Now, it seems, there could be fresh evidence of the early inhabitants of the caves - but no excavations were needed for this new ‘find.’
Simon Howard took the photos during a visit to the caves, one of which he says shows the outline of a face in the rocks, and a strange mist which wasn’t there when the picture was taken.
“We were on a tour round the caves and I happened to snap a picture inside the Bear’s Den chamber while waiting for the other members of the tour to arrive.
“Later on when I took a look at the photo I saw this mist which was not visible at the time.
“I won’t say what I think I can see in the picture - I’ll let people decide for themselves.”
Kent’s Cavern worker James Hull says it’s not the first time a ghostly sighting has occurred: “There have been some strange and unexplained happenings in the caves down the years, as I’ve personally experienced on some of the paranormal investigation nights we have held here,” he said.
“But this is the first photograph taken that we’re aware of which shows what looks like a ghost.
“Everyone who has seen the photo here at the caves can see the profile of the face of a man with a large eye, long nose, small mouth and a beard, wearing what appears to be a helmet with a nose-guard, shrouded in mist.”
Kent’s Cavern is recognized as the most important stone age cave in Britain and has revealed more about palaeolithic Britain than anywhere else.
Implements found there include some that date back almost half a million years and many flints associated with the Neathderthals, while a human jawbone uncovered in 1927 is 31,000 years old, providing the oldest evidence of modern man (Homo sapiens ) in northwest Europe.
Editor’s note: I don’t get it. What I see looks like Frankenstein using a cell phone.
Source - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Family Treated Feral Girl Like An Animal
Found barking and making animal noises, a five-year-old “feral” girl was confined to a small apartment and treated like she was one of the family’s pets,
United Kingdom - According to police, the child, who has only been identified as “Natasha,” was so neglected that she had barely developed a human vocabulary, communicating instead through animal noises.
Although she lived with her father, grandparents and other relatives, Natasha was essentially treated like one of a large number of dogs and cats that shared a small flat in the isolated city of Chita. continued below
The child, Natasha Mikhailova, lived as one of many family pets
Like the other pets, she lapped at her food from a bowl on the floor and had never learned how to use cutlery.
Welfare officers, who were led to the flat by concerned neighbors, have placed Natasha in an orphanage. Although malnourished and small for her age, she appeared to be relatively healthy considering her ordeal, a police spokesman was quoted as saying.
He said the police were looking for the girl’s parents, who are believed to be divorced.
Welfare organizations say that child abuse in Russia is worsening, particularly in the Far East where traditional problems such as alcoholism and unemployment are magnified.
Last week a woman was sentenced to three-years probation by a court in Chita after her baby died of alcohol poisoning. Yelena Sinitsyna admitted to drinking a pint of pure ethanol before breast feeding her four-month-old son.
The consumption of ethanol and alcoholic byproducts such as boot polish, collectively known as “samogon” in Russia, remains common in many parts of the country. Alcohol dependence is believed to be the main cause of low male life expectancy in Russia, which, at just 58, is among the lowest in the world outside Africa.
Activists say they are concerned that domestic abuse could become an even more serious problem as a growing number of Russians lose their jobs.
In the midst of Russia’s worst economic crisis in a decade, unemployment has soared above 10 per cent, according to figures released this week which show that over 11 million people are now out of work.
Author: Adrian Blomfield
Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Child Trusted Man’s Best Friend
The dogs and cats, that a little girl was forced to live with, showed sympathy for the unfortunate child.
United Kingdom - This week, a little girl of five, called Natasha, was found by police in a squalid flat in the town of Chita in Siberia. If she has a name for herself, it may only sound like a bark. For the child was, it seems, brought up without company apart from the cats and dogs she lived with.
According to police, she has adopted the behavior of her animal companions. She “barked like a little dog” and jumped at the door like a dog when her carers left the room. And, says the police statement, she has “the clear attributes of an animal.” continued below
Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were said to have been adopted and raised by wolves
They think she was “brought up” by cats and dogs. She wore filthy rags and could understand a little Russian, but otherwise seems to have had little contact with her mother.
It should be a bleak story, but somehow it’s not. The redeeming element of this case is the animals.
If the mother was cruel, the father absent and the neighbors apparently deaf, at least it seems the child did not grow up without company and even affection. She had the dogs and cats. They may have been, God help us, her role models and, it’s probably fair to say, her friends.
She may have got the short straw in terms of her human family – she has never been outside her flat – but she had at least had a form of society in her little prison with the animals.
It’s extraordinarily powerful, this notion of the child raised by, or with, animals. It brings us right back to the idea that there’s a fundamental sympathy that binds us with brute creation.
The medieval bestiaries were squarely based on the premise that the creator endowed animals with attributes from which men could usefully learn. And there’s a potent fairy tale element in the notion that animals can shame men and women by showing greater kindness than they towards a child.
Remember that moving bit at the beginning of The Jungle Book, where the mother wolf takes in baby Mowgli? “How little! How naked, and… how bold!” said Mother Wolf softly. The baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide. “And so this is a man’s cub. Now was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man’s cub among her children?” Duly, she goes on to fight to protect the little creature. In short, she exhibits all the characteristics of a good mother.
The idea goes far further back than that. Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were said as infants to have been fostered by wolves.
There have been in modern times a few reputed examples of the same phenomenon – most famously, the Indian case of Amala and Kamala, two girls who were discovered in 1920 by the Rev. Joseph Singh, walking on all fours. They were tracked to a wolves’ lair where they had been living with a mother and her cubs.
It must be said that few if any of the cases of children raised by animals stand up to close scrutiny, but no matter. If they don’t tell us much about how animals behave, they tell us a good deal about human preoccupations.
And yet, in the last week, a scientist, Prof Marc Bekoff, from the University of Colorado, has published a book called Wild Justice, arguing that animals can exhibit something like morality, including co-operative behavior that looks to all appearances like a primal instinct for fair play. Indeed, he declares that it is hard to argue against cross-species empathy.
So there is a possibility that the cats and dogs who shared a home with the little Siberian girl felt some kind of sympathy for her.
Certainly more than the people around her.
Author: Melanie McDonagh
Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
The Odditorium 06.15.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Mystery Marks - The Paranormal Pastor
Spirits Of NYC’s West Village - Phantoms And Monsters
A Haunted History Lesson - St Joseph News
Learn To Be Psychic - The Sun
More Documents: E.T. Human Evolution - UFO Digest
Facts Prove Roswell UFO Was Real - News Blaze
The Truth About Roswell? - BBC News
UFOs Over Britains Lake District - Daily Mail
Alchemy And Demons In crop Circles - Belief Net
Bigfoot Prints Or Just Big Footprints? - Raven’s Haven
Sussex Spook Lore: Phantom Or Leopard? - Fortean Zoology
Manitoba Bigfoot: Another Look - Cryptomundo
Russian Snowman - Cryptomundo
Tibetan Medicine Cures Cancer - Times Of India
Oklahoma’s 286 Million Year Old Block Wall - Heckler Spray
Supernatural Saviours - Liverpool Echo
Alien Lifeform Wakened From 120,000 Year Sleep - The Register
Too Tall To Go To Jail - Daily Mail
Celeb Glues Herself To Bed - Daily Mail
Living Together Makes You Fat - UPI Science
The Case Of The Broken Toilet
A crabby woman complains to Judge Judy that her chubby former friend used her toilet that broke.
There are those who say Judge Judy Sheindlin is Satan’s annoying little sister. I’ve heard others tell of how she was spawned in a shallow pond before the dawn of time and is immune to cyanide.
Every day over ten million teenage black girls and middle aged white women who watch TV all day long, tune in to watch as Judge Judy castigates the bozos who bring silly lawsuits before her.
I view Judge Judy as being a cosmic super-being who uses her common sense, great powers of deduction and cutting, caustic remarks for the good of humankind.
She is an arbitrator of peace. Judge Judy’s gavel is mightier than Thor’s hammer.
And never once have I seen “stupid” written across her forehead.
Crop Circles Of The Apocalypse
Some crop circle experts now say these mysterious formations may be a warning about the end of the world.
United Kingdom - Crop circle experts believe the latest pattern to be discovered, a phoenix rising from the flames in Wiltshire, may give a warning about the end of the world.
The 400-foot design was discovered in a barley field in Yatesbury near Devizes and depicts the mythical phoenix reborn as it rises from the ashes.
This 400-foot design was discovered in a barley field in Yatesbury near Devizes
Investigators claim more formations are referencing the possibility of a cataclysmic event occurring on December 21, 2012, which coincides with the end of the ancient Mayan calendar.
The Mayan’s believed civilisation exists within a series earth cycles of 144,000 days each with the 13th expiring in December 2012, resulting in Armageddon.
Crop circle enthusiast Karen Alexander, from Gosport, Hants, said: “The phoenix is a mythical creature which symbolizes rebirth and a new era in many cultures across the world.
“Within the crop circle community many believe the designs are constantly referring to December 21 and its aftermath.
“This could be interpreted as the human race or earth rising again after a monumental event.
“The patterns are becoming more intricate with every find and it is exciting to think how they are going to evolve by the time we get to 2012.”
Recent crop circles have included giant jelly-fish and one image discovered in Wiltshire in June which experts dubbed the most “mind boggling” they had ever come across.
The formation, measuring 150ft in diameter, is apparently a coded image representing the first 10 digits, 3.141592654, of pi.
Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
A Desire To Reach Out
A diverse group of ghost hunters conduct a paranormal investigation of the world’s strangest house.
Greensboro, North Carolina - Melinda Waldrup takes a seat on the floor of the maid’s quarters at Körner’s Folly in Kernersville. She speaks into her tape recorder, noting the time: 9:15 p.m.
The lights go out. In the next room Caroline Rogers asks, “Is anybody with us tonight?”
A few seconds later, Waldrup chimes in - “What was your life like here?”
Image: SPARS members take a tour of Körner’s Folly
Some ice in a cooler trickles down. An air conditioner hums. And Rogers thinks she hears some kids playing - but there are no kids around.
Rogers and Waldrup are members of the Southern Paranormal and Anomaly Research Society, which recently extended its reach into the Piedmont Triad.
The group is affiliated with The Atlantic Paranormal Society of the Sci Fi Channel series Ghost Hunters. Its Carolinas chapter has about 30 investigators, a half-dozen of whom reside in the Triad. They study alleged ghostly activities armed with audio recorders, infrared cameras, thermometers, electromagnetic field detectors and various other types of probes.
“People that watch a lot of TV get this idea that it’s sort of just fun and games,” said investigator Deonna Kelli Sayed of Greensboro. “But it’s really a lot of work. Most of the time you’re just waiting. You don’t experience any activity. It’s tedious, but it’s really cool when you go somewhere and you ask somebody to knock, and something knocks back.”
Ghost hunters, not ghostbusters
Sayed and other members of SPARS want people to know that they are not ghostbusters. They cannot and will not promise to rid a property of any stray poltergeists.
They do not perform seances. They don’t claim to be psychics. And they do not run around screaming, “Run, dude!” or “Let’s get out of here!”
But they do encourage a good degree of skepticism.
“When we go into a place, we don’t assume it’s haunted,” Sayed said. “We actually assume it’s not haunted, and we try to find explanations for what people would call paranormal activity. And if we’re left with something we can’t explain, we will say, ‘This is possibly paranormal.’ “
Ghost Hunters, which follows Rhode Island plumbers Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson as they investigate ghostly happenings in their free time, has sparked a great deal of interest in paranormal detective work. SPARS co-founder Paula Hayes said she fields many calls from people who mistakenly believe they’ll be on the show if they take part in an investigation.
Still, what SPARS investigators do is similar to what’s seen on the show. They use much of the same type of equipment and techniques. They ask questions of any spirits that may be on the premises. And they spend a great deal of time watching live circuit feeds on their laptops.
What many viewers may not understand from watching the show, Rogers said, is that the investigations typically run eight to 10 hours. The hour-long episodes contain only the most exciting bits of an investigation.
“Many nights you’re just sitting there in the dark, talking to yourself,” she said. “So, you lose a lot of people that way. Those people are in it for the wrong reasons. They expect the hype. They expect to go and get something every time.”
Wanting to reach out
Diana Logan, a 52-year-old hairdresser from Greensboro, got interested in the paranormal about 10 years ago after her son died in a car accident.
“I started wanting to reach out,” she said. “It gives me comfort and a sense of satisfaction when we do catch something that might be from the other side.”
Hayes said many investigators have experienced what they believe to be some sort of paranormal activity in their own lives, whether it be in the form of strange noises around their homes or a message from a deceased relative.
“Some people, they get into this more or less because they have questions about whether there really is life after death,” she said. “Some people get into it because of the thrill of it, the excitement. Some people get in it for the scientific end of it. The debunking end. What causes this, what causes that?”
SPARS bumpersticker
SPARS is made up of a diverse group, including Baptists, Muslims and Wiccans. Most members have full-time jobs, and some have been performing paranormal investigations as a hobby for years.
“We have teachers, we have scientists, we have computer people, we have medical personnel, we have historians, we even have people with legal backgrounds,” Hayes said. “We teach each other. We have some that are stronger in some areas than others as far as knowledge of science or history or technical issues or whatever.”
SPARS’ Carolinas Chapter is based out of Greenville, S.C. The organization moved into the Triad last year when it absorbed a local group, Greensboro Paranormal Investigations.
Before investigating a building, the group will typically conduct a one-on-one interview with the owner to find out what’s going on. They make note of anything that might be a hazard in the dark, as well as fuse boxes, appliances and other objects that might give off an electromagnetic field that can throw off their instruments. They also research the property’s history.
The group doesn’t charge to conduct an investigation, and many members use and share their own equipment.
The world’s strangest house
The SPARS investigators gathered at Körner’s Folly during Memorial Day weekend. Setup takes several hours, as investigators run extension cords and place cameras throughout the house.
Built from 1878 to 1880 by artist and interior decorator Jule Gilmer Körner, the place dubs itself the strangest house in the world. It has 22 rooms on seven levels, and an eccentric layout with narrow passageways and ceilings as low as six feet. Körner (pronounced Kerner) used the home as a showcase for his business, so each room has a different design.
SPARS investigator Iris Carter of Summerfield said she’d always been curious about the home, and the group approached the house’s executive director Bruce Frankel about checking it out.
“I was a little surprised, but they were very professional when they called,” Frankel said. “They didn’t take this lightly, so I thought it was worth talking to them. They came, walked through the house and decided that it was worthy of investigation.”
Outside, the porch is strewn with tackleboxes, clip boards and tote bags. Group members have a sense of humor about what they do. One instrument is labeled “The Ghost Meter.” A bumper sticker reads “When Staying Dead Is Hard to Do.” One investigator, who is also a pastry chef, prepared a big ghost-shaped cake.
About 9 p.m., they break into four teams, each stationed in a different part of the house and the maid’s quarters.
Investigators turn out the lights and ask questions such as “What is your name?” - “Where are you from?”; and “If there is anybody in here, can you knock on the wall?” They hope to elicit a response in the form of electronic voice phenomena, faint speechlike sounds usually nestled in the background noise on their recordings. Hayes said analog cassette recorders work well for this task, as they don’t filter out the noise. They also use geophones, which can detect vibrations.
After about a half-hour of sitting in the maid’s quarters, Waldrup orders the lights turned back on. The investigators walk outside to see if they can find an explanation for what they heard. Behind the Körner property is a house with a large backyard but no children in sight.
Later on, Waldrup goes into the Körner sewing room. She thinks she hears something and then goes to check it out. The LEDs on her EMF (electromagnetic field) detector start pulsating.
She steps forward. It stops, but then a few seconds later it starts again.
“Look at it, it’s like a heartbeat,” she said. After about a minute, it dies out.
SPARS investigators in front of the world’s strangest house
The group will spend several weeks listening to the recordings and pouring over the data, after which they will meet with Frankel to reveal any findings.
For his part, Frankel says he has never experienced anything out of the ordinary inside the house, but staff members through the years have reported hearing unusual sounds inside. Much of that, though, can be chalked up to wind blowing through or bats, Frankel said. Still, he said he’s looking forward to seeing the results of the investigation.
And staff members said that regardless of what the SPARS detectives come up with, they’d still be leery of spending a night inside the place.
“I’ve never seen anything,” Kelli Landing, an office intern at Körner’s Folly, said. “But the house is so big. If I were in there by myself and something popped out, I’d come flying out.”
Author: Robert C. Lopez
Source - http://www.news-record.com/
The Odditorium 06.13.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Apparitions At Old Church - Phantoms And Monsters
Journey Through The Light - And Back - Mellon-Thomas
A Near-Death Experience to Die For - Gaia Community
Universal Deception - UFO Digest
Family Sees UFO - Busselton Mail
Support For Extraterrestrial Human Evolution - UFO Digest
Kansas City UFO Sightings On The Rise - Fox4 Kansas City
UFO Spotted Over Stamford - Rutland And Stamford Mercury
We Are not Alone In The Universe - Spiegel Online
Roswell UFO Festival July 2nd Through 5th - Roswell UFO Festival
UFO Sightings Spark Mystery - Bridlington Today
Opening Dialogue With Aliens - Monterey County Herald
Carolina Creature Sightings - Cryptomundo
Modern Mermaids - Cryptomundo
Lions Of North Georgia - Cryptomundo
Human Activity Found Beneath Lake Huron - My Strange Blog
Playing In A Paranormal Park - Women Of Esoterica
Black Magic Woman - Business-Standard
An Explosive Love Affair - Mos News
How Did They Kill Bill? - Twilight Language
Teen Survives Meteor Strike - Kid Glue
Home Is Where The Haunt Is
Despite a rash of spooky incidents which have occured in their house, a family vows they will continue to live there.
United Kingdom - A Dovercourt family have vowed not to move out of their house despite ghostly goings-on.
Deborah Hampton, 47, her husband Peter Hampton, and daughter Becky Rothon from Manor Road, have had fire alarms ringing when they had no battery in them, shelves falling down and chairs flipping over all by themselves.
“I won’t sleep in my bedroom anymore because it is in the loft,” said Miss Rothon, 18. “I’m too scared so I stay on the sofa or at my boyfriend’s when I can.”
Looking back over some old photos Mrs Hampton discovered strange shapes and possibly a face on the side of a now demolished steel factory that stood next door.
She was so curious about the events and the photos that she even called in paranormal experts Mysterious Britain.
“They looked at the photos we had but the results came back inconclusive.
“They originally thought it was a light reflection but they now don’t know and because the factory isn’t there they can’t check.”
The family often hear footsteps upstairs when they are in the front room and shrieks from inside the house when they are in the back garden.
But despite the daily occurences, Mrs Hampton says she won’t move out of the house, which she has lived in for six years.
“The paranormal experts asked us if we wanted to move but I’m used to it now. I’m not scared.”
The family are now researching their house’s history and think there may have been a mortuary, an asylum institute and even a monastery near by.
“I’ve seen one in the garden that looks like a monk,” said Miss Rothon. “He likes to fly around a lot.”
Image: A family says it will continue to live in their haunted house
Author: Caroline Tilley
Source - http://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/
Haunting Studies For Former Students
Three ghost hunters find evidence of the paranormal at an old cemetery.
Pomery, Ohio - Some people take up fishing as a hobby, some play Xbox 360, but for three former Meigs High School students, their hobby is ghost hunting.
Dustin Lyons of Syracuse, Brenden Black and Raven Johnson both of New Haven, W.Va., have taken their fascination with paranormal phenomena and turned it into a full-time hobby of documenting (or debunking) hauntings.
Armed with a digital camera, flashlights and a willingness to walk in a cemetery at night, the three have had some strange encounters with “the unexplained” in Meigs County.
After having spent time in cemeteries across Meigs County, from Pageville to Rutland to Middleport to Pomeroy, the three have arrived at the conclusion that Pomeroy’s Beech Grove Cemetery has the most paranormal activity.
Oddly enough, the three say one of the older parts of the cemetery (directly to the right) from the entrance is one of the “quietest” in terms of activity.
While documenting paranormal phenomena at Beech Grove Cemetery, the three have come up with photographs showing odd mists floating above graves, one of which seems to form a face, another forms what appears to be a dove.
There are several other photographs capturing white orbs at the cemetery after dark. White orbs are believed by many ghost hunters to be spirits or lingering energy from deceased entities. Orbs can appear in many different colors with white being the most common.
The three have also seen red orbs at Beech Grove Cemetery which are believed by some ghost hunters to be angry and/or demonic.
Black, Lyons and Johnson all had a recent experience at Beech Grove Cemetery where a cluster of orbs were rapidly moving through the trees at night and then clustered together.
There have also been times when the three have had their camera freeze up and flashlight batteries go dead in the cemetery only to later work when they leave. The three explained that it’s believed spirits drain the energy from batteries to manifest. Ghost hunters also believe the best time to investigate haunted places is between midnight and 3 a.m.
Other unexplained phenomena the local investigators have experienced at Beech Grove Cemetery include a dark brown figure in a dress, unexplained footsteps, figures in red and white near the back area where debris is dumped and the sound of tribal drums.
Many of these experiences convinced Johnson, who went into ghost hunting as a skeptic, that some things cannot be explained.
The three hope to eventually document and witness the manifestation of a ghost as well as do more investigating in Meigs County, including haunted buildings.
“We try to debunk the things we can’t explain,” Lyons said, such as looking for electrical lines or lights that might cause disturbances on the camera and the other possible explanations for unexplained phenomena.
However, as Black put it, sometimes the unexplained is just that, unexplainable.
The three have formed a myspace page that documents their travels in haunted Meigs County. Photos and comments about these investigations can be found by searching for unseenforces on myspace.com.
Image: (from left) Dustin Lyons, Raven Johnson and Brenden Black investigate hauntings
Author: Beth Sergent
Source - http://www.mydailysentinel.com/
The Haunted Halls Of Four Clocks
Spooked staff tell of a hazy female figure and mysterious light captured on camera in a former church building.
Crook, England - The haunted halls of a Bishop Auckland church converted into a community center have become a hotbed of paranormal activity say spooked staff.
In the past few months, staff and visitors at the Four Clock’s Center on Newgate Street have sensed spirits, captured orbs on cameras and heard mysterious footsteps in empty rooms.
The community center, which is home to several organizations including the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Bishop Auckland Town Council was opened in 2002 after a major refurbishment inside the 1914 built church.
Center coordinator Pamela Hope said: “Our CCTV camera captured what looked like a very hazy figure in the back passageway and also what looked like a circle of light moving across the floor and through the wall.
“One member of staff said she saw a woman in a hat which fits with it being an old church.
“During winter I had all the lights on and was sat at my desk when a shadow crept across my computer screen. At first I though it was somebody coming up behind me but when I turned around there was nobody there.
“There was also one night where a few of us had stayed late and we heard footsteps coming from the room upstairs.
“I was scared that there might be someone locked in who would be a bit angry but again there was nothing.”
Employee Helen White said there had been several cases of doors shutting themselves and being locked on the inside.
She said: “This church went through some dramatic changes when the center was created and you can’t help but wonder whether the building work disrupted the spirits.
Several people have said they have sensed spirits although they all say they are benign so at least we don’t have to worry about having a violent ghost.”
Ghost hunter Dean “Midas” Maynard from Crook said the building is the sort of place that would attract spirits and has offered to spend a night there. He said: “It’s a fantastic building and I have heard rumors about ghosts being there. I would love to spend a night and see what we find.
“A lot of ghosts hang around a place where they were happy in life and I think, because it was a church, it could hold some happy memories for some spirits which is why there is so much activity.
It’s got that look about it that you know there’s something going on and it’s no surprise that there is some residual energy there.”
Image: The Bishop Auckland town hall
Source - http://www.wearvalleymercury.co.uk/
The Odditorium 06.11.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Bridging The Paranormal With Spirit - Argus-Press
Illinois Haunted By Spooky Tales - Chicago Tribune
Four Haunted Sites - Chicago Tribune
Adventures In Ghostland - The Weekender
Twittering Belief In The Paranormal - ABC News
Suffold UFO Mystery Heats Up - Evening Star 24
Alien Whazzup - San Francisco Chronicle
UFO Over Burnham-On-Sea - Burnham-On-Sea
UFO Fever Sweeps The Latin World - All News Web
Photo: The Martian Skull - Bild DE
Vail Valley UFO Sightings - News Blaze
UFOs: Keeping The Belief Alive - Queensland Times
UFO Hacker Fears For His Anus - AFP
Planes Mistaken For UFOs - The Tech Herald
Captain’s Odd Encounter Makes Waves - McDowell News
Aliens Landing In A Field Near You - This Is Local London
Sightings Keeps Legend Alive - Rankin Ledger
Skepticism Turned To Belief - Times Herald
The Witches Of Pendle Hill - Nurido
Gateway To The Infinite - Guardian UK
Dead Goats Left At Church - KCRA Sacramento, CA
Multi-Color Frog God - Cabinet Of Wonders
Pre-Historic Cannibalistic Creatures - Socyberty
The World’s Oldest Tree - Fluff Rush
Weirdest Animal Babies - Environmental Graffiti
A Passion For The Truth
A group of local ghost hunters search for reasons behind mysterious sights and sounds.
Kenosha, Wisconsin - A local group is searching for hard evidence. They call themselves Wisconsin Paranormal Investigators.
Jay Bachochin and his wife founded the group. They don’t advertise their services—it’s strictly “by request” because their nine members all have “real” day jobs.
“The way we look at it is, we’re all kind of respectable people with respectable jobs,” WPI member Allen Dunski said. “We’re not just hoodlums out there, running through graveyards, destroying things while we’re doing it.”
WPI members reviewing their findings (left) Ghost hunter Jay Bachochin (right)
Bachochin said the group doesn’t charge anything for its services. “This is our passion,” he said.
Their slogan is Hunt The Truth, and they’re in prime hunting territory. They say experts believe that the Midwest is the most haunted part of the United States. “But they’re saying by square mile—if you look at square mile—the state of Wisconsin actually has the most activity,” WPI member Paul Gasper said.
When someone calls about a suspected “ghost,” WPI has to decide if it’s worth investigating.
“Anything could be possible,” Gasper said. “We’re definitely not going to think anybody’s crazy, because we know that it can exist. There can be stuff out there.”
The first thing they do is try to “debunk” a situation. They look for a reason behind any mysterious sights or sounds.
“Ninety-nine percent of the stuff is more than likely explainable—whether it be the heating ducts, the plumbing, somebody outside,” Dunski said. “There’s so many things that can naturally be explained and not be a haunting.”
“We will peel that onion until we can say, ‘It’s natural, and it’s hard to deem that being paranormal activity,” Bachochin said.
If their equipment does pick up something unusual, they work to explain that too.
“We’ll try and duplicate the situation that we were in—the exact lighting, the exact time, the exact camera, the same settings,” Dunski said. “So we go through a lot of different things to disprove what’s going on.”
WPI members search for reasons for hauntings
But some things they can’t explain. Like the time in a supposedly haunted basement, when Paul saw a form taking shape in the darkness.
“I said out loud to Jay and Keith, ‘I think there’s something down here; there’s something right in the corner,’ “ Gasper said. “ And as soon as I said that, I saw it move, come towards me. And that’s when I thought I felt like it came ‘through’ me. And I got chills, and my hair went up.”
“All of a sudden, before I could even say anything, Jay said, in the other room, that the same thing just happened to him.”
That instance was not caught on any of their special cameras or digital voice recorders, which pick up frequencies that humans can’t hear. But they have heard unexplained voices. Allen was investigating a room where a man had committed suicide.
“I asked the question, ‘So you’re the one that killed yourself?’ “ Gasper said. “And as soon as I had completed ‘yourself,’ you heard a faint ‘yeah.’ We didn’t hear it with our own ears, but when we played it back, there it was 3:22:42
On a trip to a cemetery, they recorded another eerie voice.
“As we were walking—Paul was a couple feet behind me—and I started walking right into what sounded like a laugh, real kind of low,” Bachochin said. “We didn’t see anything. We turned on the lights and there was nothing there. But it was definitely something.”
WPI members always work in teams of at least two, and they take hundreds of pictures during an investigation. Some have unexplained shadows or mists. This one in a cemetery shows what they call a ‘shooting orb’—not from a flashlight or a reflection.
Bachochin said WPI doesn’t normally use orbs as evidence, unless they appear solid.
The ghost hunters say they’ve been spooked by some situations, but not frightened to the core.
“I really think if I’m going to see face jump out at me—or someone push me down or pull me—yeah, I probably would be,” Bachochin said. But until then, no. I’m ready to take them on. I’m not going to show any fear. I’m going to be there to prove that they’re there and not be afraid of it.”
Dunski said he thinks the general consensus regarding ghosts is skeptical, but most people believe there’s “something going on.”
“What is a ghost?” Bachochin said. “That’s what we’re still trying to find out too.”
WPI is based out of the Kenosha area.
They will first ask a lot of questions over the phone to see if the person sounds like they have a legitimately strange case that’s worth investigating.
A typical investigation consists of them setting up their equipment and cameras from about 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. and staking out the place all night with at least two WPI members.
Then they go over their hundreds of pictures and listen to every second of audio tape that they recorded overnight and tell the home/business owner if they think there really is anything paranormal going on.
Source - http://www.wisn.com/
Breaking And Entering The Spirit World
There are places where ghost hunting may be dangerous - and illegal.
Goshen, New York - It took place, as always, just after dusk, in the eerie stillness of the old Salesian School near the center of the village park surrounded by the black iron fence.
At least 10 youths ranging in age from 16 to 19 were caught by police trespassing at the shuttered school, said Ed Char, the newly appointed liaison to the village police. He gave the report at a Village Board meeting the same day the incident happened.
Char spoke about the blogs and the message boards spreading the rumors.
“There are no ghosts there!” he emphasized, his words meant for other kids who might be considering breaking the law for a thrill.
Summer just wouldn’t be summer in this two-century-old village without a good ghost story, and events both real and imagined at the former Salesian property provide more than enough fodder for spooky tales.
But break-ins at the old three-story school building, the only remnant of the property’s past, have grown more dangerous with each passing year.
That hasn’t stopped kids from climbing the chain-link fence on a dare, especially when the weather gets warm.
About 20 teens have been arrested already this spring for breaking into the blocked-off property, said village police Chief Jim Watt. The high number of arrests have quickly eroded police patience.
“You will be charged,” Watt said, adding that all 20 youths have been charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.
Fueling the ghost stories are a number of Web sites that place the property among the lists of haunted buildings in the Hudson Valley, Watt said.
Ghost stories also stem from news stories, including the mysterious death of a 9-year-old boy who fell from the top of the building at night in the 1960s and the claim a few years ago by a local “ghostbuster” who said he saw and heard a spirit inside the building.
Char empathized with the young. “We’ve all been that age,” he said. But he emphasized the instability of the aging building, with its rotting beams and floors.
“God forbid anyone gets hurt in there,” he said. “It is fenced and locked for a reason.”
Image: The crumbling old school building is fenced off but youths find it irresistible
Author: John Sullivan
Source - http://www.recordonline.com/
America’s First Serial Killers
The Harp Brothers were cousins on the Kentucky and Tennessee frontier. When they traveled around murdering people, in 1799, they took their wives and children along.
Holiday Beach, Texas - We think of serial killers as a modern day phenomenon, beginning somewhere around the time of Jack the Ripper in London. But 100 years earlier on the American frontier, in Kentucky and Tennessee, two cousins who called themselves brothers terrorized the Wilderness.
Micajah “Big” Harp was the son of John Harpe, a Scottish immigrant to Orange County, North Carolina. John’s brother, William Harpe, had a son named Joshua, who became known as Wiley “Little” Harp. Together the cousins became known as The Harps, a killing team passing as brothers, who traveled the area with wives and children in tow. They are calculated to have murdered 30 people, including some of their own children.
The boys left North Carolina in 1775 for Virginia intending to be slave overseers, but the American Revolution interrupted their career. The Harps were Loyalists and with a gang of like-minded irregulars, which included Indians, went about the countryside raping and pillaging, usually with Patriots as their victims. continued below
The nefarious Harps - reputedly America’s first serial killers
Captain James Wood, a local Patriot, shot and wounded Little Harp in the course of one attempted rape of a local girl in North Carolina. In 1780, the British took these Tory irregulars into its troops and the Harps fought in several battles along the Carolinas border.
The following year, the Harps left the army and joined up with Cherokee confederates to raid such settlements as Station Bluff, now Nashville, Tennessee. They kidnapped Captain Wood’s daughter, Susan, at this time, and another local girl named Maria Davidson. Joined later by Sally Rice, the three women served as wives to the two Harp brothers.
The Harps and their family moved into Nickjack in 1781, a Cherokee-Chickamauga town in the vicinity of what is now Chattanooga, Tennessee. Along the way there, the Harps defined the brutal relationship they would have with their wives and when Moses Doss, a member of their gang objected, he was murdered.
The Harps lived at Nickjack many years participating in British-backed Indian raids on Kentucky settlers west of the Appalachians. They fought at the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782, and the attack on Bledsoe’s Lick in Tennessee.
In those years the Harp wives, Susan Wood and Maria Davidson, gave birth to two children apiece, all of whom their fathers murdered.
The Harps had early warning in 1794 that the Americans were on their way to destroy Nickjack and they escaped the night before with their wives and children. The Harps settled in a small cabin near the frontier capital of Knoxville, Tennessee. Here, in 1797 Wiley “Little” Harp took a minister’s daughter, Sally Rice, as his legal wife.
In late 1798 the Harps went on the road and the real killing began. After two killings, one in Knox County and one on the Wilderness Trail, the Harps left Tennessee in December 1798 for Kentucky, where they killed two traveling men from Maryland. The Harps’ signature was to disembowel their victims and fill the stomach cavities with rocks to weight them down so they’d sink in a river.
John Farris’s Wayside House was an inn at the edge of the Wilderness. Here travelers stopped to rest and join up with others headed in the same direction for safety in numbers. On December 12, the Harps stopped there and were offered breakfast by a kind young man named John Langford, who was traveling from Virginia to pay a visit to a friend in Crab Orchard, Kentucky.
When Langford turned up dead off Boone’s Trace in the Wilderness, innkeeper Farris pointed authorities after the Harps.
They were all arrested near Crab Orchard and jailed in Danville, Kentucky, but the two men managed to escape, leaving the women behind to fend for themselves.
The Harps fled to sparsely settled Henderson County, Kentucky and eventually reached Cave-In-The-Rock on the Illinois side of the Ohio River. Their wives, once the women were released from prison, joined them there. Cave-In-The-Rock was the nest of a large gang of river pirates headed by Samuel Mason, a Revolutionary War veteran turned pirate.
Meanwhile, the Kentucky Governor had sent out a posse after the Harps and almost caught them in a cane field in Central Kentucky.
One of the posse members called on Col. Daniel Trabue, a respected settler in Adair County, for advice on apprehending the Harps. As Col. Trabue and the posse member, Henry Skaggs, discussed the situation, Trabue’s young son out on an errand turned up dead and mutilated, bearing the Harps’ signature carving.
On April 22, 1799, the Governor issued a $300 reward on each of the Harp heads.
Moving north from Adair County, the Harps killed a man named Edmonton, a settler named Stump, and, reaching the Potts Plantation near the mouth of the Saline River, three men sitting around a campfire. Meanwhile, the posse, out after the Harps on their race across the state, hanged some dozen criminals along the way, and ran a host of outlaws out of Kentucky. They stopped just short of Cave-in-The-Rock or they might have had the Harps that day.
The favorite prey of Mason and his pirates was the slow-moving flatboats laden with produce for Natchez and New Orleans. Pretending to be local pilots guiding the boats through shallow parts of the rapidly flowing and eddy-ridden Ohio, the pirate/pilot would steer the craft onto a shoal, where Mason’s gang would pick it clean and take the goods to market themselves.
With the arrival of the Harps and their three wives and three babies, the relatively non-violent ways of the river pirates took a murderous turn. After a few Harp games of taking travelers to the top of the bluff, stripping them naked, and throwing them off, they were asked to leave.
The final stretch of slaughter took place soon after this, in July 1798, when the Harps returned to Eastern Tennessee.
A farmer named Bradbury, a man named Hardin, a boy named Coffey, William Ballard, who was cut open, filled with stones, and dumped in the Holston River, James Brassel, with his throat ripped apart on Brassel’s Knob, John Tully, father of eight. On the Marrowbone Creek in south central Kentucky, John Graves and his teenaged son, out planting crops, had their heads axed.
Moving toward Logan County, the Harps came upon a little girl, so they killed her, and a young slave on his way to the mill. Once in Logan County, near today’s Adairville, near the Whippoorwill River, they butchered an entire migrating family asleep in their camp, but for one son who survived.
They rested near Russellville on the Mud River and this is where Big Harp took one of the crying babies and brained her against the trunk of a tree.
A man named Trowbridge who’d gone for salt at Robertson’s Lick, had his torso hollowed out, loaded with stones and sunk in Highland Creek. Major William Love, an overnight guest at the Stegall home in Webster County, the Stegall’s baby and Mrs. Stegall were other victims of the murderous Harps.
The Harps, pretending to be the posse out after themselves, executed two men named Gilmore and Hudgens, whom they accused of being the Harps, just for fun.
As the Harps prepared to kill settler George Smith, near where they were living in a cave, the real posse rode in. After a chase, the posse left Big Harp’s body where it lay, took his head to a crossroads, and displayed it there for the sober contemplation of passers-by. Little Harp escaped and is thought to have rejoined the river pirates. The three captive wives lived on and so did one of their daughters.
The cave in the hillside became known as Harp’s House and the hill, Harp’s Hill, located near the Pond River in western Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Near Dixon, the road along which Big Harp’s head was displayed in 1799, was named Harp’s Head Road. The crossing itself is called Harp’s Head.
Today, few residents or travelers know these place names are in honor of America’s first known serial killers.
Source - South Texas Anomalies Investigative Network
The Odditorium 06.09.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
The Evil Little Man - From the Shadows
The Ghost Lady - About Paranormal
Cursed Restaurants - Chicago Decider
Ghost Troubles In Anderson - Palmetto Scoop
More On Anderson’s Ghost - WJBF Anderson, SC
Ghosts: Truth And Myths - News Blaze
A Haunting And A Search For Reasons - WISM Milwaukee, Wi
The Dark Thing - About Paranormal
James Van Praagh: He Sees Dead People - Colorado Daily
Air Force Declassified Uruguay UFO Files - UFODigest
UFOs And Men In Black - American Chronicle
UFO Over Norwich - Evening News 24
UFOs Over Balcombe - Mid Sussex Times
Multiple UFOs Over Hersham - Surrey Herald
UFO Sightings Across Sussex - The Argus
Amazing UFO Video From Moldova - All News Web
UFO Spotters: Delusional Or Alcoholics - Louth Leader
UFO Man Should Face UK Hacking Trial - Metro UK
Dinosaur Hunters - Cryptomundo
Southern Fried Bigfoot - Heckler Spray
New Book By Bigfoot Expert - Los Gatos Observer
Ogopogo Photos Released - Cryptomundo
Ogopogo Photos Update - Cryptomundo
The Sea Serpent of Harris - Fortean Zoology
Ruskie Crystal Mystery - Cabinet Of Wonders
Two Boys And Two Past Lives - Paranormal Review
A Curse’s Tragic Effects - Stuff NZ
Woman In Exorcism Acted Like Lion - TV NZ
Human Sacrifices From Inca Civilization - Reuters
Are Aliens Already Here? - Scientific American
A Cheap And Safe Drug That Kills Cancer - New Scientist
Dredging Up Ghosts - Helena Independent Record
Prehistoric Oddities - Neatorama
I’m A Ghost Hunter - Get Me Out Of Here
Sometimes the scary moments encountered while chasing ghosts and phantoms can be a bit too much.
Windsor, Ontario - One team member lost an hour of his life, another fainted and Michael Ferri - he’s the tough guy - ran out of the place screaming.
Looking like a chicken is one of the dangers they face, along with ghouls and ghosts, as members of the Windsor-based ghost hunting team Spectral Solutions.
Their scariest moments have happened somewhere in Essex County just outside Windsor, including Ferri’s brief but embarrassing lapse in bravery. The owners don’t want the location revealed, but the team affectionately calls it The Derelict Chapel. continued below
Spectral Solutions is comprised of members Tony Bagnarol (left) Michael Ferri and Blake St. John (right)
Ferri and fellow hunter Marla Zittlau were in the basement when the temperature dropped and he got goose bumps. Then Ferri heard a disembodied voice let out a big, ghostly sigh.
“I ran screaming out of the basement,” said Ferri, 37, a former fighter with Border City Wrestling. “I grabbed Marla, pushed her out of the way and ran out screaming.”
The eight-member team has been hunting ghosts for about a year. They had no background in it, but shared an interest in things that go bump in the night.
They did some research and bought expensive gadgets such as electro-magnetic field detectors and infrared cameras. Then they started spending spare time in spooky places most people avoid.
They say they’ve had paranormal experiences in homes and historic buildings but know a lot of people think their findings are bogus.
“They just haven’t experienced anything like that,” said Tony Bagnarol, 24, another team member.
They do it for those who do believe. If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, these are the guys to call. They even investigate for free.
“Most of us really want to see something,” said Blake St. John, 35. “And help people. I can’t imagine what it’s like to not feel safe in your own home. We want to help people to be able to live with it or help whatever it is move on.”
They’re itching for the next investigation.
“It’s cemetery season again,” said Blake. “If you’ve got nothing to do, just hang out in the cemetery, bring your gear.”
They have their best luck in the area around the town of Amherstburg, just south of Windsor on the Detroit River. A cemetery there has been good to them.
“I saw my first full-blown apparition there,” he said. “The flashlight illuminated it. It was smoky and I went ‘holy (expletive)’ and it was gone. It was billowing, it was like hair. It was enough to obscure my view of the group and scare the be-jesus out of me for a few seconds.”
The Derelict Chapel, built in the 1800s, is out that way as well.
“I lost an hour of time in the place,” said St. John. “I was completely conscious. I was with the group. They all saw. I don’t know what happened. I have no memory of it. I was mumbling incoherently.”
St. John only knows what he did because he watched the video after.
“You can see him just get drained and collapse against a wall,” said Bagnarol.
The temperature dropped 17 degrees in seconds. Team member Joline Gadal’s knees buckled and she passed out.
The team went home early that night.
Author: Trevor Wilhelm
Source - http://www.vancouversun.com/
Spirits Take Center Stage At Old Theater
A one-eyed cleaning lady and a suicidal young boy are just part of the eerie cast of characters which inhabit an old theater building.
United Kingdom - Paranormal investigators believe that they encountered a whole cast of spirits on their visit to a theater near Wrexham.
Among the ghosts who took a bow, they say, at the Stiwt in Rhos, were those of a man who helped manage the historic building in the 1920s, a one-eyed cleaner and a young man who died when he fell from the fire escape.
A seven-strong team from North Wales-based Soulsearchers spent part of the night at the grade two listed former miners’ institute.
The group, including two qualified mediums, was equipped with an array of hi-tech equipment, including infra-red cameras and ‘K2’ meters to detect signs of electrical energy.
Group spokesman Steven Pryce said: “We arrived at 8pm and even before our cameras began filming, our mediums, Eileen and Lizzy, picked up a man called Edwards.
He is connected to the theater and has previously been seen there by staff.
“We know a Mr D. Edwards was involved with the construction and first management committee of the institute in 1926.
“We also detected the presence of a cleaner called Mary with one eye who used to work at the Stiwt and is thought to be related to the present technical manager.
“A man in a white cloak was also seen by our mediums, and tragically, they also sensed a young man in his mid-20s who committed suicide from the fire escape.”
He added: “We had a number of staff members with us, including Tony Griffiths, the grandson of former Stiwt manager Bob Parry.
“A member of staff alerted us to what she said was a pair of feet in one of the stage wings. Another member of staff was touched on her arm, and grunts and groans were heard coming from the balcony area.”
Mr Pryce said that at a seance session conducted later in the evening, a 6-ft table around which people were sitting was physically shifted, taps and bangs were heard and mediums detected a presence in the upper balcony.
A glass on which people had their fingers then flew off the table and shattered on the floor, he recalled.
Mr Pryce said: “We then encountered a six-year-old boy called Bryn who had fallen from the upper balcony in the early 1960s.
“He was a very playful soul and at one point knocked the sweet I had offered him off the table.
“Later we heard a female voice say that she was Gwen Connors, and I am wondering if anyone has heard of her or knows her connection to the Stiwt.”
Soulsearchers.com members are planning an ‘encore’ investigation at the theater on June 13.
Image: In the 1920s Mr D. Edwards helped manage the building which now houses the theater
Author: Phil Robinson
Source - http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/
Real Stories Of Vampires
A couple of American filmmakers find that in Transylvania belief in Vampires still exists in the small villages of the Carpathian mountains.
Romanians have always been weary of the Vampire. A stake through the heart and decapitation of freshly deceased corpses is still accepted as a way to keep the dead from returning in the form of a strigoi. Strigoi is the Romanian word for Vampire.
Real Life Horror: The Death Of Sylvia Likens
On Oct. 26, 1965, Indianapolis police were called to a rundown house on East New York Street where they found the body of a young girl on a bare mattress in an upstairs bedroom.
Indianapolis, Indiana - Sylvia Likens parents, who operated a concession stand with a traveling carnival, left Sylvia and her sister Jenny in the care of Gertrude Baniszewski in exchange for twenty dollars a week.
Lester Likens said his girls needed some discipline and encouraged Baniszewski to “straighten them out.”
Baniszewski, described by The Indianapolis Star as a “haggard, underweight asthmatic” suffering from depression and the stress of several failed marriages. She already had seven children living in the house. The eldest, Paula, 17, was unmarried and pregnant. The youngest was an infant.
Baniszewski began taking her anger out on the Likens girls, beating them with paddles after payments from their parents failed to arrive on time. It wasn’t long before Gertrude’s resentment toward the girls began to focus on Sylvia alone. She was the outspoken one. Jenny was small and frail because of a childhood bout with polio. Sylvia was beaten for eating too much at a church dinner and kicked in the genitals after admitting she had a boyfriend in California.
Baniszewski accused Sylvia of stealing candy she had bought from a grocery store and exchanging soft drink bottles for change at a nearby grocery.
She kicked Likens in the genitals and accused her of being pregnant. Paula Baniszewski, who was in fact pregnant at the time, became enraged and knocked Likens onto the floor. Likens became convinced that she was pregnant, although a coroner’s examination proved that she was not and could not have been.
Likens was then falsely accused of spreading rumors at the high school she attended, Baniszewski claimed she had been telling other students that Stephanie and Paula were prostitutes. That supposedly prompted Stephanie’s boyfriend, Coy Hubbard, to physically attack Likens. continued below
The house, at 3850 E. New York Street, where Sylvia Likens was killed
The Baniszewski home has been described as being a “cesspool.” Mrs. Baniszewski encouraged Hubbard, and some of the neighborhood children who used the house as a hangout, to torment Likens. The abuse including, among other things, putting cigarettes out on her skin and forcing her to remove her clothes and insert a Coke bottle into her vagina.
Likens, after being beaten by Baniszewski, admitted she stole a gym suit, without which she was unable to attend gym class, Baniszewski pulled her out of school and did not allow her to leave the house.
Later, when Likens urinated in her bed, she was locked in the cellar and forbidden to use the toilet. At one point, Sylvia was forced to consume feces and urine.
Baniszewski began to carve the words “I’m a prostitute and proud of it!” into Sylvia’s stomach with a heated needle. Richard Hobbs, a neighbor boy, finished the carving when Baniszewski couldn’t.
Likens had attempted to escape, and as punishment, she was tied in the basement and given only crackers to eat.
The abuse continued until one day in October when, after multiple beatings, Sylvia Likens was noticed laying motionless on the filthy mattress where she slept.
As Stephanie Baniszewski and Richard Hobbs realized that Sylvia was not breathing, Stephanie attempted to give Sylvia mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before realizing it was a lost cause.
Sylvia Likens died Oct. 26, 1965. Cause of death was determined to be brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain and shock induced by Sylvia’s extensive skin damage. Sylvia also suffered from extreme malnutrition.
Baniszewski sent Richard Hobbs to call the police from a nearby payphone. When they arrived, she handed them a letter she had forced Sylvia to write a few days previously, addressed to her parents. This letter stated that she had agreed to have sex with a group of boys in exchange for money, they dragged her away in their car, beat her up, burned her multiple times, and carved the inscription into her skin.
Before the police left, however, Jenny Likens approached them, saying: “Get me out of here and I’ll tell you everything.”
During a highly-publicized trial, Baniszewski denied responsibility for the death, pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. She claimed that she was too distracted by her ill health and depression to control her children.
Attorneys for the young people on trial (Paula and John Baniszewski, Richard Hobbs, and Coy Hubbard) claimed that they had been pressured by Baniszewski.
When Marie Baniszewski, Gertrude’s eleven-year-old daughter, was called to the stand as a witness for the defense, she broke down and admitted that she had been forced to heat the needle with which Hobbs carved Sylvia Likens’ skin and that she had seen her mother beating and forcing Sylvia into the basement.
In his closing statement, Baniszewski’s lawyer said: “I condemn her for being a murderess… but I say she’s not responsible because she’s not all here!” and tapped his head. continued below
After serving almost 20 years in prison, Baniszewski was granted parole
On May 19, 1966, Gertrude Baniszewski was convicted of first-degree murder, but was spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison.
Her daughter Paula, who had given birth to a daughter named Gertrude during the trial, was convicted of second-degree murder and also given a life term. Richard Hobbs, Coy Hubbard, and John Baniszewski were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 2-to-21-year terms. The boys would spend two years in prison.
In 1971, Paula and Gertrude Baniszewski were granted another trial. Paula pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was released two years later.
Gertrude Baniszewski, however, was again convicted of first-degree murder. She came up for parole in 1985, and despite a public outcry and petitions against her release, the parole board took her good behavior in prison into account, and she was set free.
Gertrude Baniszewski changed her name to Nadine van Fossan and moved to Iowa, where she died of lung cancer on June 16, 1990.
Jenny Likens Wade died of a heart attack on June 23, 2004 at the age of 54. Richard Hobbs died of cancer, at age 21, four years after being released from prison. Sylvia’s parents, Lester and Betty Likens divorced and Betty died in 1998 at age 71.
The house at 3850 East New York Street that Sylvia Likens was tortured and murdered in stood vacant and run-down for many years after the murder, and was finally demolished on April 23, 2009.
Sources: Wikipedia, The Indianapolis Star
The Odditorium 06.06.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Haunted House Leads Woman To Write Book - Muskogee Phoenix
Ghostbusters In Berks - WFMZ Allentown, PA
Haunting Caught On Tape - WYFF Greenville, SC
Video Shows Ghost In City Hall - 9 NEWS
Even Golf Courses Have Ghost Stories - New Haven Register
Megan Riley Sees Dead People - Westword
Living Or Not - Is Your Pet Happy? - News OK
Psychics And Peoples Desire For Answers - The Tennessean
Alien Caught And Killed In Pakistan - Ghost Theory
More Strange Sightings In The Sky - Muswell Hill Journal
Authorities Reviewing Texas UFO Sighting - UPI
Tracking The UFO Mystery - Grimsby Telegraph
The Secret Life Of Paul Villa - UFO Digest
British Navy Amost Shot At UFO’s - MINA
UFO Reports And Lantern Theory - Cambridge News
Photos: UFOs Over Britain - Mirror UK
More UFOs Over Montgomeryshire - Powys County Times
UFO Spotted Near Plane - WCBD Charleston, SC
Crop Circles Are Back - Gadling Online
Crop Circles Good For Area Economy - UTV News
Photos: Crop Circles In Wiltshire - Guardian UK
Is Crop Circle An Alien Warning? - The Sun
First A Jellyfish Now A Dragonfly - Daily Mail
Wiltshire’s Dragonfly Crop Circle - Telegraph UK
Big Foot In Santa Cruz Mountains - KION Right Now
Something Fishy Seen In Lake Video - Plattsburgh Press Republican
The Starchild Skull - News Blaze
The Toadman Of Accrington - Cabinet Of Wonders
Urine, Fingernail-Filled Witch Bottle Found - Discovery News
Anti-Witches Brew Analyzed - Discover Magazine
If Different Species Can Get Along… - Environmental Graffiti
Unique Graves, Headstones And Tombstones - Now That’s Nifty
Things Your Body Can Do After You Die - Mental Floss
Milling Around With Ghosts
Over the past 200 years, the old mills have been the site of intrigues, accidents, deaths, floods, and disasters - events which seem to have left their imprint on the buildings.
Pawtucket, Rhode Island - When Bill Lumb visited the Slater Mill National Landmark last Friday evening, he was looking for something more than a history lesson.
The Attleboro, Massachusetts resident was hoping for the sort of encounter that sends chills down one’s spine, a meeting with a ghost, a spook, a poltergeist, or something else that goes bump in the night.
“We have family up from New Jersey, and they’re really into the ghost stuff, so we brought them here,” he said.
“I’m sure there’s something in these old buildings. After all, look how far they date back.” continued below
A tour group uses light sticks to examine the water wheel in the Wilkinson Mill
Some two dozen people were on hand expecting the same thing. Every Friday and Saturday night until July 3 - and again in the fall - guides at the Slater Mill complex are leading Mills and Mysteries tours that mix history and the paranormal.
The mills have been standing more than 200 years, and during that time they have witnessed intrigues, accidents, deaths, floods, and disasters. Which means, say the guides, there’s a good chance visitors will run into something scary.
“I developed the program as entertainment,” says Carl Johnson, who leads the tours with his brother Keith. “But lo and behold, the first time out we had a paranormal experience.”
Most of those who lined up for Friday’s tour were already true believers. Some carried recording equipment to capture what spook hunters call “electronic voice phenomenon” which are thought to be verbal outbursts by spirits that can only be heard when caught on tape or digital audio files.
At least one brought a gauss meter, an electrician’s tool that measures electro-magnetic fields. Paranormal investigators believe that a high reading could indicate ghosts are nearby.
“I’ve always wanted to explore the paranormal, but at the same time it makes me anxious,” said Renee Baskerville of Providence, Rhode Island. “I think I’m ready to try it.”
“I don’t scare easily,” added Lisa Frank of East Providence. “I want to see if this will do it.”
Not too long ago, most folks would go out of their way to avoid haunted places, but those days are long gone. According to Keith Johnson, over the past decade ghost hunting has exploded as a hobby.
“The Internet has a lot to do with it,” he said. “People can capture their encounters with electronic devices, be they cameras or audio recordings, and upload them for others to share. And there are plenty of sites where people can get in touch with each other.”
The Johnson brothers are a case in point. They work as full-time Slater Mill guides, but off the clock they’re paranormal investigators and demonologists. They’re the organizers of the New England Anomalies Research group. A few years ago they were both members of the Atlantic Paranormal Society, the organization featured on the Sci-Fi Channel reality show Ghost Hunters, but gave that up because of travel demands.
New England, of course, is the perfect hunting ground for those who want a run-in with something ectoplasmic and creepy. As the site of the first English colonies in America, the region is home to many of the country’s oldest structures.
Slater Mill, built in 1793, is a perfect example. It is the first water-powered factory built in this country, and the birthplace of New England’s textile industry. Also on the National Landmark grounds: The Wilkinson Mill, which produced bobbins and other cotton-spinning tools, and the rustic Slyvanus Brown House, the second oldest house in Pawtucket.
Throughout the tour, the rushing Blackstone River provides a constant roar. It was once the power source for many mills, and according to the Johnsons, a place of hauntings as well.
Standing on the shore, Carl Johnson told about the flood of 1955, when Hurricane Diane turned the Blackstone into a raging torrent.
Up river in Woonsocket, the river ripped through a cemetery, unearthing coffins and sending them downstream to Pawtucket and other locales.
“There’s a story about a Cumberland woman who told her husband, ‘If you ever remarry after I die, I’ll be back to haunt you,’” Carl Johnson said. “He did remarry, and sure enough, her coffin washed up on their lawn.”
In 1925 the pleasure boat Mackinac was plying the waters of Narragansett Bay when the boiler blew, claiming 55 lives. Many of the injured and dying were transported to a make-shift hospital near Slater Mill, and Johnson believes their spirits still wander the site today.
“On more than one occasion, an employee here has seen the spectral images of a man, a woman, and a child, all dressed in clothing from the 1920s. And some people have seen a little girl on the riverbank. When they yell for her to be careful, she disappears,” explains guide Carl L. Johnson.
Johnson also reported hauntings at the Sylvanus Brown House, which was moved to the National Landmark site to make way for Interstate 95. He told how the tiny structure was often a cramped dwelling in centuries past. (At one point, four adults and 18 children lived there.) And he noted that in earlier times, most people were born at home, and died their as well.
“Last year, at the end of our last tour of the season, a woman said to me, I don’t want to alarm you, but I saw a little girl looking out the upstairs window. In March of these years, I was taking a group from Long Island through the house, and we clearly heard a young girl giggling.” continued below
(left) Guide Carl L. Johnson (right) Going down the eerie stairway to the kitchen in the Sylvanus Brown House
Ghost hunters consider the Wilkinson Mill the most-haunted building on the site. The stone walls are three feet thick, to withstand the tremors of the 10-ton waterwheel. Those stones contain traces of quartz and other minerals, which can create electro-magnetic fields, something ghosts apparently love. The water splashed about by the wheel does the same.
Carl Johnson turned on the wheel, filling the air with loud clanking and grinding noises. “Try to be hyper-aware of any change in your sensations,” he told the crowd. “We’re going to try to cross over to the other side. We’re speaking to whoever worked in this mill. Were you ever hurt in this mill? Does it bother you that we’re here?”
No voice was heard, but a minute later some of the visitors experienced unexplained hot spots in the building. “I’m starting to sweat,” one woman said.
In the Slater Mill, Carl Johnson told how one evening museum officials couldn’t get the alarm system to turn on. They called the security company, and were told it wouldn’t activate because the system’s sensors detected a group of people in an upper floor. Of course, no one was there.
“When I’m in here I sometimes get the feeling I’m being watched,” Keith Johnson said. “People commonly report they feel they’ve been touched or pushed. And anomalies have shown up on photographs.”
To back their claims, the Johnsons played a tape made in the mill several weeks ago. After several minutes of creaking sounds, a visitor is heard to say “flash,” the warning used by paranormal investigators when they snap a photo in a darkened room. A deep, husky voice then shouts “NO!”
The visitors listened spellbound. When Keith Johnson turned off the tape, there was a minute of silence - and then a loud pop.
“I heard something!” someone shouted.
“Over there!” a child yelled.
With the tour at a end, some visitors were quick to share their sensations with others.
“In the Stone Mill I had some good hits on this device,” said Christopher Purro of Warwick, Rhode Island flashing his gauss meter. “I got some readings in the red.”
“I started feeling cold and hot spots in the Slater Mill,” added Dina Palazini of Woonsocket, “And when I was standing near the waterwheel, I could feel some force pushing me back and forth.”
For more on the history of the old mills visit the Slater Mill Website.
Author: John Larrabee
Source - http://www.thesunchronicle.com/
Lost Souls From Hard Times
Stories of a screaming little girl and bodies buried in the basement lure investigators back for a second time to look into otherworldly activity at an 1830’s tavern.
Winchester, Virginia - They arrived at the restaurant at dusk, carefully unloading equipment from half a dozen black satchels.
Night-vision and infrared video cameras came out. A beat-up laptop was switched on. Voice recorders and electromagnetic field readers got batteries.
“I don’t want to work here anymore if anything else happens,” said Brittany Whetstone, 18, a new hostess, as part of the crew prepared to go into the basement. “I’m not going down there.” continued below
John Allen shows Brittany Whetstone some recordings on a computer
She thought for a minute. “I’m allowed out if I want to leave, right?”
John Allen, 38, leader of the Virginia Investigators of Paranormal Studies, looked up from the laptop. The monitor’s light masked his glasses, hiding his eyes. “You’ll be all right,” he said.
Allen and five of his colleagues were at the Cork Street Tavern in Winchester for the second time to investigate otherworldly activity at the fabled city pub. Allen was eager to get started.
The first time the group provoked spirits here, he said, he was physically grabbed on the shoulder by an apparition. And of all the places he’s brought his team to, “nothing holds a candle to Cork Street.”
There’s no shortage of legends explaining how lost souls got trapped during the building’s hardscrabble past. Many tales trip over the plots of others or involve the same characters.
The tavern, at 8 W. Cork St., was built in the 1830s and took fire during the Civil War. Equally agreed upon is that it once was a brothel, or at least a speakeasy. Waitresses, cooks and barflies have heard rumors that bodies are buried in the basement.
Some of the stories “almost were a part of employee training,” said Joel Smith, a longtime co-owner who left the restaurant in 2008. Extinguished candles would frequently relight. An enormous crash in a vacant kitchen would reveal nothing out of place. Lights inexplicably would turn on. Others, too, have said they’ve been touched.
They say only the “old side” of the restaurant, which opened in 1932, is haunted. An adjoining building built about 1960 became part of the eatery in 1995.
Sightings come and go.
“If something happened to me, it might make me not so skeptical,” said Tara Rutherford, 23, a waitress. “I feel like I haven’t personally seen something, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.” continued below
John Allen sets up equipment while Brittany Whetstone, Jeremy Morgan and Sonja Ford observe
Allen, of Millwood, is just the most recent ghost hunter to poke around. Cork Street allowed him and his team to explore the restaurant after he approached them. A tool and die maker by trade, he is friendly and quick with words.
His method is simple: Cut off the lights. Ask the spirits questions, and expect answers. But most importantly, record everything. Most EVPs—electronic voice phenomena—only can be seen or heard on the recordings, he said.
“You get a lot of good responses to questions. You do get answers,” he said. “Everybody says, ‘No, I don’t believe any of that.’ But you get them one on one, everybody’s got a story to tell.”
Allen sent most of his group to the basement and took the rest to creaky upstairs offices, where he said he was grabbed.
Cameras on.
“Lights,” he said.
It got dark.
“Recording.”
He and colleague Michelle Lamica began pacing. For an hour, they loudly traded questions based on their interpretation of audio captured during the first investigation.
There were breathless moments.
“We want to know about the little girl,” Lamica said. “We heard you scream last time. Why were you screaming? Was somebody hurting you?”
Allen asked for a knock on the wall.
“Three or four times we heard the name Richard and the name Franklin,” he said. “If that is your name, please make your presence known. We mean you no disrespect.”
There was only silence. But when Allen later analyzed the tape, he said he heard someone say “get out” several times. continued below
Michelle Lamica walks in the dark with a pen flashlight and a sensor looking for readings
When he’s finished, Allen gives all the evidence to the client. His services are free, he said. But one thing his group doesn’t do is exorcisms.
“I’m not a priest,” he said. “Imaginations come and go, and people run away with them. A lot of times we can give a logical explanation for what’s happening” that doesn’t include ghosts, he said.
The group’s second visit to Cork Street was the eighth investigation he’s done this year, he said. More are piling on.
“We’re getting so busy so quick,” he said.
“Word of mouth is spreading so fast. We’re not trying to convince everybody. But then again, 300 years ago, the world was thought to be flat.”
Author: J.R. Williams
Source - http://www.nvdaily.com/
Evidence Of Ghosts At Old Farm
As soon as a group of paranormal investigators entered the 1850 farm house they knew they were not alone.
Cleveland Ohio - Three weeks ago, an Ohio team of paranormal researchers conducted a five-hour investigation at Brunswick’s Heritage Farm on Laurel Road. In addition to the main house, built in 1850, the team also hunted for spirits in the farm’s outbuildings, which include a barn, garage, corn crib, equipment shed, chicken house, milk house and granary.
The team used a variety of devices, including video cameras, digital cameras, audio recorders, K-2 meters, EMF detectors, radiation meters and ghost radios, during the investigation in an effort to capture evidence of anything paranormal. The team has spent the past three weeks analyzing that material and has revealed its findings. continued below
Brunswick’s Heritage Farm (left) and members of the Ohio Researchers of Banded Spirits
From the second they set foot inside the Heritage Farm house around dusk May 9, three psychic/sensitives and seven investigators representing the Ohio Researchers of Banded Spirits could feel that they weren’t alone.
“There’s definitely a lot of emotion going on inside there,” psychic Ashley Peshek said, pointing to the farm house. “It’s mostly calm, cozy feelings, but you can tell there was a lot of hard work that went on here, mixed with quite a bit of worry.”
Because the farm house has since been converted into a museum containing numerous artifacts from several of Brunswick’s founding families, the psychics agreed it was difficult for them to determine whether the presence they were picking up on was attached to the house itself or the objects inside.
“Either way, there’s something still here,” said sensitive Debbie Andres.
It turns out they were right—at least, according to their instruments.
After three weeks of analyzing countless hours of video and voice recordings, along with hundreds of still photographs taken during the nighttime investigation, the O.R.B.S. team has uncovered what they believe is substantial evidence proving that spirits—possibly including those of the city’s forefathers—may still be lingering at the farm.
“Actually, we’re pretty convinced that one of the farm’s original owners is still here,” said O.R.B.S. founder Chris Page, who points to a voice recording captured in the farm’s red barn.
On the audio clip, the spirit first refers to himself as “Dave,” then “David.” After conferring with Amber Dalakas, president of the Brunswick Area Historical Society, investigators believe the spirit is that of David Berdan, who purchased the original 325 acres on which the farm sits in 1818.
“We literally waited all night for that affirmation,” Page said.
Although the group did not find any video evidence to substantiate its claims that Heritage Farm is, indeed, haunted, it did gather dozens of recordings of disembodied voices—approximately 18 of which investigators call “direct responses” to comments made or questions being asked by researchers at the time.
The group also recorded unidentifiable sounds, including those of doors latching and footsteps, in places where people were not present at the time, Page said.
“We really have to be skeptical when it comes to everything we see and hear, which is why we spend so much time going over the evidence,” Page said. “We also got a lot of “yes” and “no” answers all night long, which is super common. But we also got quite a few unique comments, some that came out of thin air, and others that came about as a result of the ghost radios.”
A ghost radio, Page says, allows investigators to speak with ghosts in real time. Like a car radio’s scan button, the ghost radios continually scroll through all radio frequencies, but never stop on any channel. Doing so enables the spirits to communicate using the “white noise.”
Of the voices captured during the investigation, several requested “help,” which Page says is fairly common.
“It’s strange to think that of all the things these spirits could say, they ask for help,” Page said. “It’s a little disturbing sometimes, but at least they’re not telling us to get out.”
Other alleged spirits identified themselves, including one captured by a ghost radio in the basement of the farmhouse who referred to herself as Isabel.
After hearing the spirit’s voice, Peshek asked the spirit who Isabel was. The spirit immediately replied, “A person.”
“Does she live here?” Peshek asked.
“No,” the voice replied.
Among the more eerie conversations captured, one of the most chilling investigators presented was captured in the barn. That audio clip, which was caught with the help of the ghost radio, was the voice of a young child yelling, “Help!”
That sound was followed a few seconds later by “Please!” and then, “For me.”
“We’re not sure what it means or who it was, but it was pretty creepy,” Page said.
One of the more lengthy recordings took place in the upstairs bedroom of the farm house, which now serves as an office for the historical society. There, a two-minute conversation of mostly undistinguishable banter, took place followed by 30 seconds or so of questions between an investigator and one of the spirits.
“Are you afraid?” the investigator asked.
“No,” the voice said.
“How come you won’t talk to us then?” he asked.
“I have to,” the spirit said.
“What’s it like where you are now?” asks the investigator.
“Happy,” the voice says.
Page said that comment is one that reassures him as an investigator.
“It was sort of a weird sounding ‘happy,’ but it was good to know.”
Of the all the sound bites recorded, Page said he was amazed how several came through on the audio recordings without the assistance of a ghost radio.
Although investigators did not hear the spirit voices at the time, they were able to hear them once they reviewed the tapes with computerized software.
“These comments are particularly amazing because it takes a pretty strong spirit to pull energy out of thin air like that,” Page said.
One such clip was caught in the barn, where a investigators had just finished commenting that they hoped to stir up some paranormal activity that evening. Instantly, a whispery, drawn out voice can be heard in the background saying, “Good luck with that.”
“Even spirits can have a sense of humor sometimes,” Page joked.
Page and O.R.B.S. co-founder Karlo Zuzic say that all the evidence adds up to one conclusion—there is paranormal activity on the farm.
“The good news is this is still a very peaceful place,” Zuzic said. “This is very positive energy and these spirits are here to protect something, not to harm anyone.”
Page says he believes whatever spirit energy lingers had an incredibly strong love for the farm or one of the artifacts now preserved as part of the museum during life that it wants to protect it in death.
“I guess they want to stay behind and look out for it,” Page says. “And they’re probably glad to see this house, this land, has become a museum and will forever be preserved.”
O.R.B.S., a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Clyde, conducts free investigations on an on-call basis. The majority of its cases are residential haunts, in which the team is called in by the homeowners. For more information on the team, its members or to request an investigation, visit the O.R.B.S. Web site.
Author: Melissa Martin
Source - http://www.cleveland.com/
Spirit Doesn’t Want Others In It’s House
The owner is forced to take her daughter and flee from the house - later, another woman is attacked by an angry spirit.
Union City,Tennessee - While rumors swirled in the community about the historic house on the corner of Jeter and Maple streets in Dresden, the previous owner was searching for the truth. What she eventually found was a reason to pack up and leave the home in the care of someone whose goal is to open the doors to paranormal enthusiasts.
The events leading up to the sale of the two-story house have been shrouded in emotion for 26-year-old Nicole Williamson and her family.
It began with an unforgettable weekend while she and her youngest child were staying in the home last fall.
As a new homeowner, Williamson said she was excited at the prospect of owning such a large house at a reasonable price. continued below
The house that spirits claim as their own
Once the remodeling work began on the home, the unforgettable experiences followed and those emotions turned into hesitation after a suspected home invasion forced her and her daughter to flee from the house.
Williamson described how the sound of loud, heavy footsteps on the second floor made her grab a weapon in fear that someone was in her home.
“When I heard the footsteps in the room above my bedroom, I knew something was not right. We kept the door to that room locked and there was no way that someone would have been in that room. When I heard the footsteps coming down the stairs, I grabbed my daughter, my Bible and my keys and we left the house,” Williamson said.
A few weeks later a family member asked Williamson if she could bring some friends into the “haunted” house for a quick tour. Williamson said she took the group of people through the home stopping at the stairway.
“I don’t go up to the second floor,” Williamson explained.
Feeling brave, the group went into the room that stayed locked. While those involved were unsure of what happened after they turned the lights off, one person said the experience changed her life forever.
“I heard a loud thump and yelling. The next thing I know, they are carrying a girl down the stairs and out of the house. Her eyes turned black and she was growling. People starting praying over her body when she finally came to, not sure of what had happened,” Williamson explained.
In an interview, the female in question opted not to have her name published, but was willing to share her story.
“I don’t even go to places like the haunted farm in Medina and my husband cannot drag me into haunted houses that you have to pay to go into. I really didn’t even believe in that kind of thing,” she shared.
“Someone was telling us about the house and I told my husband that if something touched me, I will jump on his back and he will have to carry me outside. We went to the house anyway,” she added.
She confirmed what Williamson stated about turning the lights off in the room on the second floor of the home.
The group of people with her that day recounted how her back was arched off the floor once the lights were turned back on.
“They told me my back was arched off of the floor and I was growling and making gurgling sounds. I was fighting my husband tooth and nail down the stairs and he said he could not physically pick me up that day. It took four people to carry me outside of the house. My eyes turned black and rolled into the back of my head. Someone had my head was saying the Lord’s Prayer over and over again asking me to pray with her,” she said.
“The first thing I thought was that I wanted water; I was so thirsty. When we got back home, my temperature was 101.5 and I felt like I was fighting off a panic attack,” she added.
“After that I had to go and reaffirm my faith. There was a reason that happened to me – maybe I wasn’t as strong in my faith as I thought I was and it honed in on me because of that. As far as believing that something like that could happen to us, we didn’t think so. Never for any amount of money would I ever go back into that house,” she commented.
While she chose not to release her name, she said many people in the community have heard stories related to her experience. She said she chose to share her experience because “sometimes the truth gets stretched.”
“I have never had any health problems, never fainted or had seizures. I want people to know that I read my Bible every night and I am a God-fearing person. We were all there that day for a reason,” she commented.
That night, she said her husband noticed she had three scratches down both sides of her back that never broke the skin.
“I think what scares me the most is that I have no recollection of those 10 minutes of my life,” she shared.
After one mysterious circumstance after another with the home and after some soul searching, Williamson opted to consult with people who spend time searching for answers surrounding the unseen and the unknown.
That is how Williamson met J.C. Harris, a ghost hunter from west Kentucky.
Harris spent a weekend in the home with another team from Kentucky to try and shed some light on the circumstances surrounding the historic home.
Harris stated that according to his research, the house occupied at least three entities.
One was apparently a dominant force that preferred to prey on women with blonde hair, Harris explained.
“It’s going to take a long time to discover what is really going on in that house. But I don’t think there is anything demonic there, just a spirit who really doesn’t want others in the home. My goal is to find out what happened and try to help the spirits pass through,” Harris commented.
Along the way, the new homeowner said he is willing to share his experiences with others.
Harris recently bought the home from Williamson and plans to offer all-night vigils and an open house for those interested in exploring the unknown.
As an experienced ghost hunter, Harris plans to spend several weekends with strangers willing to venture into the spiritual realm sharing his knowledge and training.
Harris, fresh from the purchase of the historic home, has planned an open house.
While he expects the transition of spirits to be clouded with uncertainty and an indefinite amount of time, Harris is hoping to teach, as well as learn, lessons with others throughout the process.
He will offer ghost hunting training under the Patti Star certification. The class will feature a four-hour investigation of the house and 10 additional hours of classroom training.
Harris has set up a Web site featuring pictures of the home and plans to offer updates on the Internet about the home.
Author: Sabrina Bates
Source - http://www.nwtntoday.com/
Man Claims Credit For Montauk Monster
Someone has come forward, or at least his friend has, to claim it was all the work of him and his buddies.
Holiday Beach, Texas - One of the attention-grabbing stories last summer was about the stinking, hairless carcass which washed up on the beach in Montauk, N.Y., part of the Hamptons vacation area.
Some speculated it was an escaped mutant from a government lab. Others thought it was an alien. A few suggested it might be a dog or raccoon.
Now an “anonymous someone” has come forward to claim it was all the work of he and his buddies. He apparently confessed, and told blogger Drew Grant how the prank came about.
He told of himself, and some buddies, finding a dead raccoon in the sand on nearby Shelter Island in late June 2008.
Being young men on vacation, and using their combined intellect, they came up with the idea of putting the animal on an inflatable child’s swim duck, along with a watermelon and some other debris, setting the whole mess on fire and pushing it out to sea.
Apparently they reasoned they were honoring the dead raccoon with a “Viking funeral” (and also offering proof that evolution can go in reverse.)
The anonymous informer said this happened just before he, and his friends, were to participate in a “clothespins on your genitals” challenge.
About two weeks later, the Montauk Monster was found around the other side of Long Island’s South Fork, and the rest is cryptozoology history.
Drew Grant’s blog, ASSME, has some photos of the young men preparing the raccoon for the Viking funeral.
And I guess that about sums it up. A group of young guys who like to play with fire, and put laundry fasteners on their penises, are behind a prank that had the news media, and the internet, buzzing for a good while.
As we slowly sink into the crapper I wonder who will come forth to claim they were behind the new Montauk Monster - the one that was found recently.
My bet is on two Georgia rednecks with a gorilla raccoon costume.
Image: Man pins the Montauk Monster mystery to himself and his friends
Author: Dean Terry
Source - http://assme.org/
UFO INVASION OF EARTH IS EMMINENT!
Dramatic Breaking News from All News Web.
Sydney, Australia - In the last few weeks I have been talking incessantly about a UFO vortex exit either in the south of Brazil in Santa Catarina or in the north-east near Fortaleza. Highly credible multiple reports have shown the silvery discs that exit this vortex to cause electrical failure.
Tragically a plane has gone down killing over 200 people in one of two areas where I believe this vortex is located and many ufologists are not sure it is a coincidence.
As I write I can confirm that dozens of scientists employed by the governments of the major nations are in Fortaleza tracking down and trying to capture images of these UFOs.
In the last few days it can also be confirmed that UFO activity and the arrival of these silver, disc shaped surveillance UFOs has been unprecedented and well beyond any previous levels of activity.
NASA, enjoying the last moments of earth’s splendid isolation has gone into overdrive with its cover-up story ‘debunking’ UFO activity picked up by its satellites.
Other news outlets are busy informing us of six spy planes that are commonly mistaken for UFOs: and although undoubtedly the latter story has much truth to it one must wonder about the timing.
However it appears the horse has bolted and the hour of contact is upon us whether NASA or any government likes it or not.
South-West China as well as Siberia are areas where the vortex is tipped to move to shortly.
A report has just been filed in the US by a commercial pilot a who witnessed a similar type craft flying alongside his plane and the US government is taking this incident very seriously.
it appears a race in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy has ‘discovered’ us. These ‘unmanned’ surveillance discs have made their way home at some point and reported back on our existence. The floodgate has opened.
Let me predict: Sightings of UFOs by will be unprecedented over the next few weeks. We are at a minute to midnight in terms of ending our isolation. Open unilateral contact is months, weeks, days or even hours away.
We are about to meet our universal brethren: are you ready?
Author: Michael Cohen
Source - http://www.allnewsweb.com/
Fast Facts With Bernard Shorts
This year, Rubes® celebrates its 25th anniversary. Come take an animated journey with one of cartoonist Leigh Rubin’s characters.
A short collection of Rubes® cartoons featuring the ever-bumbling Bernard Shorts - in the wild.
The Rabbit Mother
Keeping one step ahead of her amazing deception kept this baby momma hopping.
Holiday Beach, Texas - Mary Toft, a 25-year old woman from England, managed to create a medical mystery in the 18th century when she started giving birth to rabbits.
Her tale is fascinating, to say the least, as doctors tried to unravel the mystery behind this bizarre phenomenon.
In August of 1726 Mary miscarried. It was sometime afterwards that Mary, her husband, and her mother-in-law cut up a cat, removed its innards, inserted the backbone of an eel into the cat’s intestines, and placed the creation in Mary’s reproductive tract.
Mary then sent for a neighbor, and after her arrival, complained of pains, saying she had went into labor. Suddenly, before the astonished eyes of the neighbor, Mary gave birth to a horribly misshapen ‘thing.’
The stillborn creature was taken to surgeon John Howard. Howard claimed he would be convinced that the monstrosity was an actual birth product only if the head were delivered. Mary obliged, and after a few days, she delivered the head of a rabbit.
Mary recalled that earlier, when five weeks pregnant, she was startled by a rabbit while working in the fields. Immediately she was overcome with a desperate hunger for the taste of rabbit. She claimed she had also begun to have wild and vivid dreams about rabbits.
At the time it was believed that a pregnant woman’s experiences could be imprinted directly on the fetus and cause birth defects.
According to Mary’s story, four months later she had given birth to a strange misshapen piece of flesh. She made a similar delivery some three weeks later, at which time Howard was called.
As soon as Mary Toft had delivered her first whole rabbit-headed monster, she fell into labor once again and by early November, with Howard in attendance, she was producing almost a rabbit a day.
Howard preserved the delivered products, all still births, in spirits, kept notes on the deliveries, and recorded the progress of events.
Mary’s case soon gained the attention of Nathanael St Andre, surgeon to the royal household, who took particular interest in this case. He paid a visit to John Howard, examined Mary, and witnessed her delivery of yet another rabbit.
After carefully comparing the pieces obtained from the series of stillborn deliveries, St Andre was convinced they were indeed authentic.
Mary Toft’s story soon appeared in the news publications of the day, and she quickly became the general talk of the town in London.
George I, intrigued by the reported events, dispatched another surgeon, Cyriacus Ahlers, to investigate the matter further. In the presence of Ahlers, Mary was able to deliver part of another rabbit.
But Ahlers was suspicious of what he had seen. He returned to London and reported to the king that the births were a hoax.
George I decided to send a noted London physician, Sir Richard Manningham, surgeon Phillupus van Limborch and St Andre to make a complete study of Mary’s mysterious condition, and bring her back to London.
By this time, Mary Toft had delivered a total of seventeen rabbits.
Once in London, assorted members of the medical profession gathered to watch over Mary’s next production. But although she seemed to undergo a series of violent contractions, no more rabbits came forth.
Overwhelmed by questioning and threatened with painful experiments to uncover her secret, Mary Toft confessed her trickery.
She consented to a demonstration of how she was able to fool members of the medical profession. She placed several rabbit parts inside of her and allowed them to be removed as if she was giving birth.
She was charged as a notorious and vile cheat and was sent to Bridewell prison.
Mary Toft, the woman who had committed fraud, and made a mockery of the medical profession, escaped any harsh punishment. Her stay in prison was brief, and she was later released and allowed to return home.
Image: Portrait of Mary Toft
Source - South Texas Anomalies Investigative Network
The Odditorium 06.03.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
A Haunting In South Sacramento - Ghost Theory
Spooky Moon Point Cemetery - The Times
Ghosts At The Fort - Casper Tribune
Ghost Poses For Photo With Girls - Columbia Reports
Mother And Daughter Film UFOs - Wales Online
Dozens Report Merseyside UFOs - Telegraph UK
Man And Son Spot UFO - Somerset Mercury
Detailing UK Government X-Files - FOX News
UFO Seen Over Narberth - Western Telegraph
Reverse Engineering Alien Technology - India Daily
Strange Lights Seen Over Huntingdon - Hunts Post
UFOs Spotted In Cambridgeshire - Telegraph UK
Possible Military Link To Liverpool UFOs - Liverpool Echo
UFO Sighting - 50 Lights In Sky - Cambridge Evening News
Crop Circle Found Near Newbury - Newbury Today
Unsolved: Nebraska Cryptid Photo - Cryptomundo
Nessie Caught On Sonar? - Highland News
Champ Mystery Grows - Burlington Free Press
History Of Voodoo In New Orleans - My Strange Blog
Cat People: Enemy Action? - The Copycat Effect
Man Claims Jimi Hendrix Was Murdered - Telegraph UK
She Hid Mother’s Body In Freezer For 30 Years - Daily Mail
Boy Burglar Beats On Corpse - KRQE Albuquerque NM
Aliens Helped Indians Beat Custer - Weekly World News
The Odditorium 06.02.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
The White Dove of Death - The Paranormal Pastor
A Demon In The House - From The Shadows
Legend Of Witchduck Road - The Virginian-Pilot
Cold Spots: The Edgar Allan Poe Museum - Dread Central
Spirits In Executions Pub - Wales Online
Ghostbuster To Solve Hotel Haunting - Queensland Times
A Haunting In Manitou Springs - KOAA Pueblo,CO
Dead Men Do Tell Tales After All - Daily Telegraph
Twitter Used to Test Our Psychic Abilities - Discover Magazine
UFO Believer: We’re Not The Only One - Telegraph Herald
Film Takes Closer Look At African UFO Sighting - Boston Herald
UFOs? Bah, Humbug! Probably - Shropshire Star
UFO Seen In Exmouth - Devon 24
The Tunguska Blast Explained? - Heckler Spray
Former Minister True Believer In UFOs - Ottawa Citizen
UFO Sighted Above East Herts Village - Herald 24
UFO Spotted Over Sutton Leach - St Helens Reporter
Exempt From Disclosure: The Black World Of UFOs - American Chronicle
The Truth About NASA’s UFO Videos - Popular Mechanics
Something Fishy Has Cropped Up - Telegraph UK
Breaking: New Champ Video - Cryptomundo
Yowie Exclusive: It Was Bloody Scary! - Cryptomundo
Exclusive: Yowie Attack Photos - Cryptomundo
Hunt For Yowies In Soggy SE Qld - Central Queensland News
Shipwrecks - The Thrifter
Feral Girl Found In Siberia - Yahoo News
Indian Man Has Five Kidneys - Weird Asia News
Eerie Occurrences Lead To Investigation
The ghostly inhabitants may like the old building because it’s such a comfortable place to be.
Racine, Wisconsin - For three decades in the latter 1800s, housekeeper Mary Williams faithfully served the Durand family until she died in their house at age 57.
Some people believe she never left the mansion she had lived in since age 26. They believe Williams’ spirit is just one of the ghosts that inhabit 1012 Main St., now the Masonic Center.
Wendy Spencer, the center’s event coordinator, is a believer. She says numerous people have seen and experienced ghostly phenomena there.
In April, a team of paranormal investigators came to the Masonic Center to look for ghosts and came away convinced they found some.
What follows are some of the eerie occurrences that led to that investigation.
First Occupants
Spencer’s research at the Racine Heritage Museum shows that Henry and Caroline Durand built the mansion in 1857. They had three girls, and later a fourth came along.
Williams, from Wales, had her room adjoining the Durand girls’ room and must have been their close companion. The servant stayed with the Durand family until she died in the house of consumption, 31 years after her arrival.
Meanwhile, one Durand daughter died at age 5. “We believe it was Caroline,” said Spencer.
She and her daughter Amy Messer say they think little Caroline’s spirit is still likely frolicking at the mansion which the Masons bought in 1921 and turned into their center.
Spencer tells of the time that a 12- to 14-year-old member of the Masonic boys youth group came to her, somewhat shaken.
He said: “Please don’t think I’m crazy, but I just saw a little girl upstairs, and she’s not alive.” The boy said she had just run down a staircase.
Spencer told the boy it was all right; that was just little Caroline, and she would do him no harm.
Spencer and Messer say that Messer’s daughter, Summer, has reacted to what she evidently thought were people in the Masonic Center that no one else could see.
One time, Spencer said, she was with Summer, now 4, on the third floor, where a Christmas tree was set up in the Durand daughters’ room. Summer said “hi” several times as though she was talking to someone behind the Christmas tree.
Then, Summer became frightened and asked to be picked up.
Spencer said she reacted by asking whoever was present to stop scaring her granddaughter - and Summer immediately started to laugh and giggle.
That unnerved even Spencer, who calmly talks about having ghosts at the center. They quickly left the room.
Other Sightings
Messer and Joy McClelland, who has grown up with the Masons, both say they’ve seen and felt otherworldly things at the center.
McClelland, for example, said she was once in the kitchen making lunch. “I looked up, and over by the door was a white, floating figure.” It was human-like and lasted only seconds, she said.
Spencer said her predecessor once saw a smartly attired man descend a staircase after the guests had left an event. When she turned to talk to him, he was gone.
No one who has reported seeing ghosts there has felt any menace from them, Spencer says. “People don’t feel necessarily afraid - just a little uneasy.”
About the possible ghosts, she said, “What we feel is they’re happy. Little Caroline died, and Mary didn’t want to leave because Caroline is here.”
Spencer added, “This is such a comfortable place for people to be. Maybe they just like it here.”
Image: Wendy Spencer, portraying Caroline Durand, leads people on a tour of the 152-year-old mansion
Author: Michael Burke
Source - http://www.journaltimes.com/
Somewhere Beyond Disbelief
There are tales that the dead live at the Masonic Center.
Racine, Wisconsin - As Carol Breckenfeld was touring the Masonic Center as a possible venue for her daughter’s wedding, she asked her guide an odd question: “Do you have any ghosts?”
Before long, Breckenfeld was back at 1012 Main St., doing a paranormal investigation. That’s the Lake Geneva resident’s hobby as founder and lead investigator of GSI, or Ghost Scene Investigators. Based on the Masonic Center’s size and age, she said, “I figured there was probably a presence here.”
The investigation she and others did there April 10 convinced her she was right. In this case, several Masons helped Breckenfeld and her GSI colleague Amy Tornow.
The team went off into various areas of the center carrying electromagnetic field detectors, digital sound recorders and flash cameras.
Any time they detected an electromagnetic field that was not obviously another person or electrical device, they would stop, turn on their recorder and ask a question such as, “Is somebody here?” Then they would be silent for 30 to 45 seconds.
Later, Breckenfeld put the results on her computer to look for vocal responses, called “electronic voice phenomena,” or EVPs.
“There are ghost hunters who have never gotten an EVP,” she said. But she thinks she got some that night at the Masonic Center. continued below
The H. S. Durand Residence which the Masons bought in 1921 and turned into their center
Inhuman Voices?
Breckenfeld and Turnow recently brought their findings on a laptop computer to share with the others in the ghost-hunting party. They included center events coordinator Wendy Spencer.
“Now I’m going to amplify this,” Breckenfeld said, to show them an apparent EVP obtained in a small hallway. Bob Messer had asked, “Are you a master?” a Masonic rank.
After a pause there is a low, short sound that GSI interprets as “Yes, Bob.”
“Maybe it was my dad,” Spencer said.
In another case, Bob’s wife, Amy Messer, used the word “freaky,” and GSI believes it caught a ghost repeating it like: “Freaky?’ What does that mean?”
As an investigation tool, GSI also takes flash pictures in unlit rooms, then examines the photos for anything unusual. “We figure out where to put the cameras by interviewing the people,” Breckenfeld said.
That night they got at least two photos that she thinks are clearly evidence of spirit energy. One is a bright orb of light near a table leg, which Breckenfeld calls an “energy orb.”
She showed her Masonic clients another photo, saying, “We got a really weird picture that I just cannot explain.” It shows an amorphous haziness or smoke on one side of a doorway.
“That’s like the smoke I saw in the doorway!” Amy Messer said when she saw the photo. Both she and Joy McClelland, a friend, say they’ve seen the haze there that makes no sense to them.
Don’t Sit There
Two people that night, Breckenfeld and the others said, felt a sharp poke in the back of the arm when they sat on certain chairs - as though something was not happy about it.
“There’s interactive spirits here,” Breckenfeld said.
She said about her investigations: “I use methods I learned in both of my degrees. From my years being a nurse, I use the “rule out” method. That means if for example, there is a voice in a recording, I will try first to rule out if it is one of the “living” humans on the investigation.
“Same thing for pictures. So many pictures that people think have something paranormal in them are seeing camera straps, hair or dust. I use techniques I learned in my criminal justice/police science degree in interviewing the clients. When reviewing evidence in this way, I am left with only the things that I can’t explain.”
That night there were no clear, loud EVPs, or responses recorded. But there was enough to convince Breckenfeld that they had recordings of ghosts.
She said some debunkers attribute certain recorded sounds to radio frequencies being caught.
But Breckenfeld said in the Masonic Center investigation, “They’re answering direct questions appropriately. ... It puts it beyond disbelief for me.”
Author: Michael Burke
Source - http://www.journaltimes.com/
What The Government Knows About UFOs
In this, the next installment of Michael Cohen’s disclosure of extraterrestrials and alien technology, he percolates on amazing UFO messages and recovered flying discs.
Sydney Australia - Last week I published this article summing up the current extent of government knowledge of UFOs, UFO visitations and extraterrestrials. I briefly mentioned that surveillance discs (UFO) originating from a civilization probably based in another galaxy are visiting earth.
I also mentioned that these discs are transmitting some sort of message specifically designed to inform the inhabitants of this planet and possibly others as well about the universe and its various inhabitants.
I don’t purport to be entirely clear on the technical details relating to this topic and to the best of my knowledge no government department is certain of the content of the messages.
From what I understand these audible messages can be picked up with fairly standard electronic equipment mounted on aircraft.
The messages are a complex series of pulses that seem to be an attempt to use basic numeric and linguistic principles that might be deciphered by any intelligent technological civilization.
Enormous effort has been made to decipher these UFO messages with some apparent success. In the US much of this effort center around NASA’s Ames Research division. All concepts and ideas deciphered are to some degree speculative but many researchers are in agreement of the basics.
Here is some of what the UFO messages tell us:
The alien race surveying earth is based in the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy.
They might be of similar proportions to humans and might even be related to us. They have two arms, legs, head, and two eyes. It is unknown if they have separate sexes.
They are able to achieve faster than light travel.
Their technology is about two thousand years ahead of ours at our current rate of development.
The universe teems with life and even intelligent life. What it does not teem with is highly developed technologies well beyond current human technology, although by earth standards there are a fair few of these given the vastness of the universe.
Amongst those researching this topic the term “Bio-cosmic equation” is used to describe ratios of, for instance, how many planets contain vegetation for every that holds animals. It is believed that for every ten thousand civilizations that reach our current level of development only one makes it through to the next level of advancement.
One highly advanced life-form or being has “life-or-death” power over the universe or perhaps even created the universe. The race that is contacting us is a step or two beyond our level but nowhere near the top of the tree. Nevertheless their understanding of the universe is infinitely greater than ours.
Another term often used is “Cosmic capitalism” which describes the way in which we are part of a universal struggle for survival or “rat race” we aren’t even aware of.
Evolution occurs throughout the universe although it is assumed life can be created by advanced civilizations as well.
Some sort of universal rule exists whereby it is understood that various civilizations only make contact with civilizations “one-level” below theirs, it is also speculated that in fact one can only perceive civilizations a threshold above their own.
The response to my last article was enormous and some expressed doubt regarding these claims, however many who have acquaintances that are privy to knowledge on ETs (for instance some ex-employees of NASA, The US Air Force or the Pentagon) will find that much of what is written here adds up to snippets of information they might have heard. If you are in doubt of any of this just ask any high level NASA scientist about the term “Cosmic capitalism” and wait for the reaction.
Many readers have asked if any of these UFOs or discs have been recovered. The simple answer is yes. A number of “crashed” discs have been recovered.
A few discs have been retrieved in remote areas in Brazil and Argentina and a few in remote parts of Asia. It appears the most likely region and time for a crash to occur is at the initial stages of release from the set trajectory and first moments of free flight within our atmosphere. It is also believed that most crashes are neither found nor reported at all.
It appears that the civilization visiting us has faster than light technology but this isn’t entirely safe. In the inner-sanctum of UFO research something known as the “lifespan versus risk” principle has been speculated on. That is, the longer a species is able to extend its members lifespan the less they are willing to take risks.
The key point is that when these discs impact with earth their remains are entirely unremarkable. To the human eye they seem little more than “flying saucer” shaped mounds.
They consist of ultra-light foam like substance covered or plated with a super-thin aluminum-foil like coating. This coating melts off the discs at normal temperatures only to harden again eventually. All one finds at a UFO crash site are many pieces of the foam like material and metallic dust. On closer inspection the foam is, as you might have guessed, a maze of circuitry too detailed for scientists to really make sense of.
It is speculated that some sort of nerve center exits within the discs but none has ever been found and it is believed the central control might not be of a concrete physical nature.
It is also believed that the discs are charged prior to their journey and carry no energy source of their own. They use some form of micro-gravity type technology that renders them weightless.
This underpins the reality of the disclosure issue.
What governments know is way less glamorous than many would like you to believe. The reality is that the type of information proponents of the Roswell and Betty and Barney Hill style fairy tales claim to think governments have could never be kept secret. So the absurdity snowballs with more ludicrous theories being dragged out to explain an impossible cover-up.
As a reader correctly noted, one would merely need to offer a “cover-up” insider a million dollars to sprint with their pictures of a Grey enjoying a beer and cigar with President Eisenhower to a nearby university to end the cover-up.
Possession of real alien bodies is something that so many people could never really keep secret. Much of the paranoid fantasies regarding MIBs relates to cold war secrecy and military secret operations and are true to that extent.
In conclusion, governments are not covering up what they know but what they don’t know. Disclosure would reveal masses of boring documents, the same photos hazy discs one sees on the internet and speculative interpretations of very generic messages that once one rejects the ridiculous notion that only earth harbors life are simply common sense.
Finally disclosure would reveal some visually unremarkable bits of foam and some metal dust. There might be a reconstructed model of a disc floating around as well.
Beyond that disclosure would involve the government declaring that “We are not alone” and conceding that they are as much in the dark about it as the rest of the population: something governments don’t like doing.
Which is why there is no disclosure.
To be continued....
Author: Michael Cohen
Source - http://www.allnewsweb.com/
Found Remains Resemble Loch Ness Monster
The remains of a creature that lived in the English Channel 200 million years ago have been found.
United Kingdom - Archaeologists have spent months piecing together dozens of old bones found encased in limestone on Britain’s Jurassic Coast by a fossil hunter.
After nearly completing the jigsaw-like puzzle they have disclosed that the skeleton, which is 70 per cent complete, is that of a 12ft long plesiosaur.
The marine reptile resembled the Loch Ness monster with its long thin neck and tail, four large flippers and razor-sharp teeth.
Plesiosaurs existed during the Jurassic period 150 to 200 million years ago when what is now the Channel was a shallow, tropical sea.
Detailed examination of the bones revealed teeth marks from where a predatory dinosaur would have feasted on the carcass of the “lake monster.”
Richard Edmonds, science manager for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, said: “They are rare. There are only 10 known examples of complete or even partial skeletons of this species.
“I have been doing this for 30-odd years and I have only ever found the odd bone.”
The remains were discovered by Tracey Marler under rocks on Monmouth Beach near Lyme Regis, Dorset.
She first found a single bone in limestone. She and partner Chris Moore, an expert in fossils, returned to the scene and they found four more bones.
After further excavation about 150 vertebrae bones and parts of its skull and jaw which had one tooth in it were uncovered.
“It came out in pieces but you could clearly see how it looked. The tail bone was in position,” said Mr Moore.
“Some of the back bones were completely in place where they should be and the neck bone was there as well. You could see some of the bones had actually been chewed up a bit.
“There are teeth marks and you can see how the skeleton had been torn apart by some other nasty marine reptile. continued below
Artist’s impression of a Plesiosaur
“Plesiosaurs lived in shallow, warm tropical seas. They had long necks and sharp teeth and would have chased after and eaten fish.
“Their predator would have been the ichthyosaur which was carnivorous.”
Natural England worked closely with the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site team to carefully extract the fossils.
It is hoped the skeleton will go on public display at the Lyme Regis Museum.
Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Texas Teen Eats Toxic Testicles
Jack the Ripper might not be well known today if he hadn’t attended biology class. But if he had followed the example of a modern day teenager, he might have been known as Jack the Cannibal.
Plano, Texas - Last week at Shepton High School in Plano, a ninth-grader agreed to eat parts of a fetal pig – and not just any parts – for $50.
The second-period biology class was wrapping up a third session on dissection when a couple of students proposed the dare.
“What was I eating?” the boy recalled asking.
Testicles, the students replied.
He gulped them down one at a time, he said, trying not to bite down.
“It was just like swallowing a pill,” said the 15-year-old, who is not being identified because of his age. “It wasn’t that bad.”
School officials, who declined to comment, apparently took a different view, especially because the pigs are soaked in formaldehyde, a toxic chemical used to preserve the tissue.
They called the boy’s mother, who couldn’t be reached for comment, and a trip to the hospital followed.
“She said, ‘How could you be so stupid?’ “ the boy said.
After the hospital, he said, he went home and brushed his teeth – three times.
He said he collected $40 but owes his mom $100 for the hospital visit.
“It wasn’t very smart,” the boy said.
Image: Biology class
Author: Matthew Haag
Source - http://www.dallasnews.com/
State Of The Art Dreaming
There used to be a sleepwalking nun in our town that everyone called the Roamin Catholic. But in Britain, there’s a sleepwalking nurse who creates art masterpieces while in a trance.
United Kingdom - Stumbling out of bed into the darkness, the man searches around his room with strange, hypnotic intent. Soon, he finds what he is looking for. Grasping a pencil, he begins sketching furiously on a discarded newspaper.
Oblivious to time passing, he hunches over his work for an hour as a beautiful image emerges. But, eerily, the artist seems to be in a trance, as if he is scarcely conscious.
Meet Lee Hadwin, by day a nurse, at night a sleepwalking artist who produces strange and fantastical works of art, which he has no recollection of drawing when he wakes the next morning.
Dubbed ‘Kipasso’, he says he is utterly mystified by his nocturnal talent, not least as in the daytime, he shows no interest or ability in art whatsoever.
“It is the most extraordinary feeling to wake up and find myself surrounded by artworks, and have no recollection of having drawn them,” he says.
“Often I’m genuinely amazed by what I’ve produced. What is strangest of all is that if I lift a pencil and try to draw when I’m awake, I’m unable to do even a simple sketch.
“I seem to be a medical phenomenon. I simply cannot explain where my art comes from. It’s as if another part of my brain kicks in when I am asleep.”
Hadwin, 33, from North Wales, is now to be investigated by the Edinburgh Sleep Center, which studies sleep disorders. It has pronounced his story ‘unique.’
He is also to be the subject of a forthcoming documentary, including incredible footage of him at work in a sleepwalker’s trance which has already become a hit after it was shown on the website YouTube. The video shows Hadwin drawing at great speed, but unresponsive to his name being called out by witnesses.
Lee says he has no recollection of drawing when he wakes the next morning
After an exhibition in his native Wales last year, one art lover has offered £5,000 for his work Flight Of Fancy, a detailed sketch of two nymphs.
So does he have some extraordinary gift, or is he simply an elaborate hoaxer?
Hadwin says he first started sleepwalking when he was four years old, but his parents believed it was a normal childhood phase.
When he was in his teens, he began producing art work while asleep, at first on his bedroom walls. Once, staying over at a friend’s house, he covered the kitchen walls with doodles in his sleep ? an embarrassing discovery at breakfast time the next day.
In his late teens and early 20s, the intensity of his sleepwalking increased, and Hadwin would wake to find everything in the vicinity covered in artwork.
Hoping to harness the strange ability, he started leaving artists’ materials out when he went to bed and, sure enough, when he awoke he says he would find full-blown pictures beside him.
Now, he leaves his home prepared for nocturnal wanderings, with sketchbooks and charcoal pencils scattered around the house, particularly under the stairs, a favorite venue.
Initially Lee’s drawings were of horses and human figures
Perplexingly, although he leaves colored paints and pencils out, he has never drawn in color. His sessions appear to last for between 20 minutes and an hour and a half, before he returns to bed. And when he wakes in the morning, he says he feels utterly exhausted, often suffering from a severe migraine.
“It is horrible,” he says. “I feel completely drained and nauseous, and have to lie in a dark room until I recover. I can only think that tapping into my subconscious brain is a huge strain on my body.
“It is only in the following days that I’m able to look at what I’ve produced and appreciate it. At first, I just feel terrible.
“Now I am undergoing therapy in an attempt to discover what prompts my subconscious self to draw. I want to get to the root of it.
“I find it really puzzling - obviously this art work comes from the depths of my psyche. I feel it must reveal a dark side to me, and yet I had the happiest childhood. If I had suffered traumatic experiences, I could understand where the drawings came from.”
Hadwin is now using a diary to try to pinpoint what triggers his art, some of which is surreal and some graphically lifelike.
Initially, his drawings were of horses and human figures. One depiction of Marilyn Monroe is striking in capturing the star’s mesmerising features, while a huge charcoal nude takes pride of place in his collection. There are also landscapes, and surreal montages of shapes and broken images.
More recently, he has produced strange and disturbing images of shattered fairies, their fragile wings splintering into the ether.
As he has matured, his drawings have become more complex and adept. On one occasion, he awoke to find that he had cut up a pair of his favorite jeans and incorporated them into a work of art.
Yet he claims he has had no artistic training whatsoever. Having left school at 15 to join a country and western band, he says his interest is music rather than art.
A huge charcoal nude takes pride of place in Lee’s collection
“Strange as it may seem, I’ve never actually been inside an art gallery,” he says. “The closest I’ve got is walking past the Tate Modern in London. I would love to be able to draw in my waking life.”
He finds watching video footage of his sleepwalking particularly disturbing. “I find it very odd watching myself,” he says.
“There is a feeling of embarrassment-like watching a video of yourself when drunk, because I have no control over this side of my life. It is very disturbing and unsettling.”
Some might dismiss Hadwin’s work as a cynical stunt, but he is adamant that his works are genuine products of the subconscious.
And far from dismissing him as a crank, behavioral specialists say that it would be possible for a sleepwalking person to tap into their hidden creativity.
Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Center, says: “He is a curious case, but we know that people certainly do unusual things while sleepwalking.
“I’ve seen cases of sex-somniacs, who have sex in their sleep, and night-eating syndrome, which is much more widespread, where people consume food without ever waking.”
There was also the case, three years ago, of a 15-year-old girl who managed to climb a 130ft crane in East London while sleepwalking, while other cases have been recorded of people driving, or riding horses in their sleep. So why not drawing?
Lee’s depiction of Marilyn Monroe
“People can walk around and do automated tasks,” says DrIdzikowski. “But Lee’s case sounds rather different because he is actually creating something. It could be that he is suffering from an unusual type of epilepsy.”
“We are curious about him,” he adds, “and want to investigate him further by recording these episodes and analyzing them.”
But if the science world is taking Hadwin seriously, the same cannot be said of the art world. Art critic Matt Collings dismisses Hadwin’s work as ‘rubbish.’
“Art is not something you produce as if by magic,” says Collings. “It is made from layer upon layer of experience. It isn’t just made when you are asleep. Real art comes from doing it and doing it over and again, developing and laboring over something until you create a piece of art.”
He is also dismissive of claims that Hadwin’s drawings reveal the workings of the subconscious.
“That is silly in the extreme. Everything comes from the subconscious. Any scribble comes from the subconscious. You don’t have to be sleepwalking for that to be the case.”
Hadwin takes such attacks in his stride. “Of course there are skeptics out there,” he says. “It’s frustrating because I can’t prove that I’m real, beyond showing video footage of my sleepwalking self at work. That’s one of the reasons I’m keen to be investigated by sleep experts.”
He also has the consolation of his growing fan base. He has recently moved from Wales where he worked with people who have suffered head injuries to London in order to further his art career and has received many inquiries from abroad.
He is also planning further exhibitions. Nooshkin Gale, manager of ArtSpace Galleries in London’s Mayfair, expects to exhibit Hadwin’s work in the next year, and believes it to be commercially viable.
She says: “His work is pretty interesting and different. He intends to exhibit here and in our gallery in Paris. We think his pieces could generate a lot of interest.
“I believe they could attract around £4,000-£5,000 each. But who knows People pay astronomical amounts of money for art that catches their eye, and Lee’s work is extremely interesting because it is produced in this way as well as being beautiful in its own right.”
Hokum or not, Hadwin says his greatest fear now is that his nocturnal habit will suddenly come to a halt.
“This is a talent that is completely out of my control and has apparently sprung from nowhere, so I am terrified that it could disappear just as suddenly as it arrived,” he admits.
“Each morning I wake up and see a newly-created piece of art lying beside my bed, I breathe a sigh of relief that my gift still belongs to me.”
Author: Zoe Brennan
Source - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
The Strange Legacy Of Dracula’s Bride
After being condemned as a vampire, a grisly execution, and banned from being buried in her native land, an English woman becomes a South American cult figure.
United Kingdom - According to Peruvian legend, Sarah Roberts had to be buried there as nowhere else in the world would take the casket of a woman believed to be one of the three brides of Dracula.
But historians in East Lancashire said Sarah was just a cotton weaver and that there was no substance whatsoever in the Peruvian myth.
Now her gory legend is being immortalized in a play being written by villagers from Pisco, in the south of Peru. They want to hear from any descendants of Sarah in East Lancashire.
Pisco legend says in June 1913, Sarah, of Isherwood Street, Blackburn, was sentenced to death by East Lancashire officials after she was accused of being a witch, a vampire and a murderer.
They believe as she was flung, still alive, into a lead-lined coffin, she cursed those who had consigned her to her fate and vowed to return for vengeance in 80 years – 1993.
Fear led the authorities to ban her body from their graveyards.
Drama enthusiast Racso Miro Quesada, who is turning the legend into a play, said: “Her husband J.P. Roberts traveled the world trying to find a place to bury his wife. Because of the things she was accused of, there was no place on earth where she could rest.
“No one wanted to have the remains of the person he loved. She ended up being accepted in Pisco, a small fishing town in southern Peru.”
In 1993, as Sarah was due to exact her revenge, her gravestone cracked.
Pregnant women fled in fear that Sarah’s spirit might try to reincarnate itself in their child and hundreds bought vampire kits, complete with garlic and a wooden stake, before descending on the graveyard to await the resurrection.
When she failed to appear, those who had been throwing holy water and praying said they had kept the ghoul at bay.
Peruvian television produced a documentary of the happenings in 1993.
Rasco said: “The story of this woman from Blackburn is one of the most iconic cults in Peru. It is a story of love, fear, renaissance and perseverance.
“Pisco was in the media some time ago because of a gigantic earthquake. People travel long distances to visit Sarah’s grave. It happens to be one of the only graves that survived the earthquake – something that reinforces the belief that Sarah is a powerful saint.”
However, Roger Booth, Blackburn with Darwen’s library officer for local history, said: “Sarah has gone down in history, but in reality she was just a cotton weaver.
“It is understandable people in Peru may have believed this tale in 1913 but it is hard to see how they still thought she was going to emerge from her grave in 1993.”
Local History
Sarah Ellen Gargett was born in Burnley in 1862 and was known to be living at Bolton Road, Blackburn.
She married weaver John Pryce Roberts, then of Charlotte Street, Blackburn, at St John’s Church, Blackburn, in 1892. By the time the 1901 census was taken they had two children, William and Frank.
In that year John’s brother left his job as manager of St Paul’s weaving mill, Nab Lane, to take up a similar position at a cotton mill in Lima, Peru.
Records show that both John and Sarah made trips to see him, including a visit in 1913, when Sarah died on June 9 in Pisco. In a spooky twist her death was reported in the obituary column of the Northern Daily Telegraph on Friday the 13th.
Peruvian legend said John vanished and was never seen again after burying his wife, but records show he opened a grocery shop in Johnston Street in 1922. He died in 1925 was buried at the old Blackburn cemetery.
Following numerous requests from across the world, Stephen Smith, a volunteer for local history website Cotton Town, tried to find out more about her life.
He said: “After 96 years it is hard to get a true picture of the couple. What the cause of her death was is now a mystery. There was a story that Sarah had another son while she was in Peru so perhaps she died in childbirth or might have died of disease.”
(left) Pisco’s cemetery was devastated by an earthquake in 2007 but Sarah Roberts’ grave is said to have been mysteriously unaffected (right) Sarah’s headstone
Author: Sally Henfield
Source - http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/
The Odditorium 05.31.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
The Host With The Ghost - Slough Observer
Ghostly Courthouse Secrets To Be Revealed - New Jersey On-Line
Ballplayers Say Pfister Hotel Haunted - WISN Milwaukee
Spooky Stories From Haunting New England - Hartford Courant
Haunting Evening At County Hotel - Shropshire Star
Well Done By A Rare Medium - Charleston Gazette
The Psychic - Asbarez News
UFO Sighting Baffles Campers - Denbighshire Free Press
UFO Seen By Many In Ukraine - All News Web
Italy: Extraterrestrial Bases And Contact - UFO Digest
Area’s History Of Strange Sightings - Aiken Standard
Couple Spot UFO Over Luton - Bedford Today
Aliens Saved Tunguska! - Discover Magazine
UFO Filmed Over Devon Resort - Devon 24
Actor Stunned By CUBE UFO - Muswell Hill Journal
Wiltshire’s Latest Stunning Crop Circle design - This Is Wiltshire
More On Latest Wiltshire Crop Circle - Telegraph UK
Crop Circle Researcher Dies - Romsey Advertiser
Bigfoot Not Imaginary For Inland Residents - Times-Standard
Bigfoot Hunters Find Print - Tulsa World
Witchcraft Case Takes New Twist - The Herald
Naked Woman In Botched Witchcraft Mission - Newsnet
Dead Space Monkeys And Suicidal UFOs - Discover Magazine
Ten Mystery Diseases You’ve Never Heard Of - CNN News
Long-Lost Lincoln Letter Returned - MSNBC News
The Shadows Between Two Worlds
A psychic and ghost hunter wants to share her knowledge of the spirit world with others.
Portland, Oregon - She walks through a long, dark corridor at the Oregon Caves Chateau, armed with a tape recorder and infrared thermometer.
As a wind blows around her in the rustic lodge, Madonna Merced hears something. A faint scratching and what she thinks is a whisper.
She believes she has found what she is looking for. A ghost.
“What is your name?” the Tualatin resident asks.
To some it may sound like a mere creak or some other unexplained natural noise, but not for Merced. This self-proclaimed psychic hears the response as clear as day.
“Jeremy…” the voice says to Merced.
Merced is the founder of Believers of Oregon Spirit Society (BoOSS) a paranormal investigation group that has been exploring areas of reported hauntings in Oregon since January. They have completed five trips, including one last weekend to Wolf Creek, Ore.
Her pursuit is one that she believes answers – at least in part – that long-standing question: What happens when we die?
Will we be in the eternal company of a god? Reunited with lost loved ones? Or will we simply decompose like all other natural organisms and enter into nothingness?
Merced is certain – death is not the end. Energy does not cease, so why would we?
Merced’s goal is to find answers for herself and for others. The practicing Catholic finds that with a certain knowledge that there is life after death, she has more of a desire to be good because of the potential repercussions.
“It is good to prepare for the unknown,” she said before pausing and adding. “I mean that literally.”
She says this solemnly and quietly. She feels she has to share her knowledge of spirits with a world that often moves too fast to acknowledge their existence.
Spirits in a material world
Merced’s belief in the supernatural started as early as she can remember when she was growing up in Missouri. Her dad, who died when she was 10, believed in paranormal experiences and would share them with her regularly.
It wasn’t until her teens growing up in Oregon that Merced realized this talk of ghosts was not something the family discussed in public. Starting at an early age she began to feel that she had the ability to communicate with the dead (something she says is possible for everyone) but she didn’t want the stigma that is often attached to psychics.
So she pushed it down.
Then in college she started giving psychic readings to friends. After receiving an MBA from Marylhurst University Merced decided to become a part-time medium in 1998. Along the way she has penned numerous books on paranormal subjects.
Being a psychic was never a full-on career and the money she brought in was minimal, in part because she did not have reoccurring clients. Communicating with the dead can become an addiction for some people and she said she would not play into that. Merced said she would only give information to her clients that she was certain was true, not just tell them what they wanted to hear.
But now she has moved on – replacing that slower-paced paranormal job with the high-energy ghost hunter lifestyle. This is her full-time career now, she said, even if the only pay she receives is her own validation.
Tools of the trade
In Merced’s living room is a table covered with instruments and equipment she and her team of about five use to investigate alleged hauntings.
There’s the infrared thermometer, used to measure spikes in temperature; the electromagnetic field detector; a night vision adaptor for her video camera; a wireless security system and her computer that she uses to edit her footage and share it with the world on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/boosociety).
Much of the equipment she uses can be purchased on the Internet. The same electromagnetic field detector that Merced uses, “The Ghost Meter,” can be found for $24.99 on amazon.com. Some critics point out that most things, including ordinary wires and even the human body, put out electromagnetic fields, rendering such a tool useless. But Merced is adamant that it works.
The tools she uses are common amongst paranormal investigation groups, including The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), which is featured on the SciFi channel show, Ghost Hunters. She even points to Thomas Edison as someone who attempted to create similar devices to detect spirits, although others have disputed that long-held rumor.
Merced’s chief way of proving – in her eyes – the existence of ghosts is Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP. These are recordings of voices, like the “Jeremy” tape, that are meant to prove the presence of a ghost.
“This is not a new science by any stretch of the imagination,” she said.
Hope and belief
It’s that same word, science, that draws others away from a belief in spirits and other areas of the paranormal. Skeptics have long addressed EVP’s as fantasy, a way to put simple answers to impossible questions.
Many articles have been written in skeptical magazines showing what the authors call faulty science.
One article entitled Electronic Voice Phenomena: Voices of the Dead? published in Skeptical Inquirer by James E. Alcock, PhD, proclaims that EVP’s appear to be nothing more than wishful thinking of the listener, and leave too much room for error.
“Electronic Voice Phenomena are the products of hope and expectation; the claims wither away under the light of scientific scrutiny,” wrote the psychology professor for York University in Toronto.
Merced takes skepticism to heart, realizing that everyone has different opinions. But she is still confident in what she believes. Ghosts to her are 100 percent real, just as the sky is blue and the earth is round.
As Merced plays a clip of a reported ghost talking in Portland’s Shanghai Tunnels, it sounds like scratching with a faint whooshing sound. But to Merced it sounds like a voice saying, “Let it go.”
There will be skeptics she said, but it is important for her to pursue what she believes.
“What I am doing is something that I know,” she said.
Image: Madonna Merced uses her Ghost Meter to search for electromagnetic fields which she believes tell her where ghosts are located
Author: Stover E Harger III
Source - http://www.tigardtimes.com/
The UFO Hacker’s Last Stand
Every one of us has, at one time or another, fantasized about staying up all night, smoking weed and hacking into top-secret U.S. government computers.
United Kingdom - The fate of self-confessed “bumbling computer nerd” and UFO spotter Gary McKinnon - who faces extradition to the U.S. and a possible 70-year prison sentence after hacking into 97 military and Nasa computers - hangs in the balance.
In just a few days, this softly-spoken 43-year- old, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of autism), will go to the High Court in London for a judicial review that might allow him to appeal again against his extradition.
This will be his last chance to stop the British Government sending him for trial in the U.S., where, if found guilty, he could spend what’s left of his life in a maximum security jail in New Jersey.
McKinnon’s crime was to hack into U.S. military computers in a naive attempt to unearth secrets about the existence of alien life. It was thoughtless technological vandalism, certainly.
Yet in an astonishingly heavy-handed campaign, the U.S. authorities have sought to have McKinnon extradited using an agreement to aid the prosecution of terror suspects.
His case hasn’t gone unnoticed. A bandwagon of celebrities who wouldn’t disgrace an A-list party have lined up to campaign for the cause of this Glaswegian-born geek, who has been fascinated by UFOs since the age of ten.
Sting, actress Julie Christie, Terry Waite, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Jane Asher, Peter Gabriel, Tony Benn, former Home Secretary David Blunkett - not to mention Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne and The Proclaimers - have all expressed their heartfelt sympathies. It’s astonishing that such a case has become such a cause celebre.
McKinnon is gaunt, shy and naive - a very unlikely hero.
Julie Christie has written to the Home Secretary expressing her hope that he “will not become yet another victim of the American judicial system.”
Terry Waite says “common sense” is needed because McKinnon’s mental condition made him “irrationally obsessive.”
He also asks: “Was Gary a spy? Was he attempting to bring down the mighty military force of the U.S.? As far as I know, he was not. He was simply looking for little green men.”
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has argued: “It is brutal, mad and wrong even to consider sending this man to America for trial. How can the British Government be so protoplasmic, so pathetic, so heedless of the well-being of its own people, as to sign a warrant for his extradition?”
Former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has also sung in support of McKinnon on a compilation CD and rock band Marillion have promised to play at a concert backing the hacker.
But when McKinnon finally appears on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice, his celebrity backers will mean little as he faces judgment accompanied by just his mother, Janis, and solicitor Karen Todner.
Despite the sympathy, the family are not exactly awash with financial donations from their famous supporters. Indeed, McKinnon’s “Free Gary” campaign website was financed by a family friend.
Janis is the one keeping up her frail son’s spirits.
The heartbreak of their seven-year legal battle has certainly taken its toll - McKinnon even attempted suicide, believing his parents would be better off without him.
“It’s brought the whole family to the brink of despair,” Janis says. “Gary’s life is in ruins. He has panic attacks. He jumps out of his skin when the doorbell goes - and that’s apart from his problems with Asperger’s.” continued below
Gary McKinnon in happier times with former girlfriend Tamsin
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But how did it come to this?
Caught up in his obsession with aliens - and given to smoking cannabis and staying up late into the night - McKinnon’s crime was that over a period of two years, starting in 2000, he used his home computer in North London to infiltrate, examine and, allegedly, crash parts of the U.S. military computer network, before and after the 9/11 attacks in New York.
The actions of this gentle man have been called “the biggest military computer hack of all time” - even though the U.S. is supposed to have the most sophisticated computer security systems in the world.
At one point, McKinnon was even alleged to have wiped important files at the Earle Naval Weapons Station near New Jersey, paralyzing munitions supply for the U.S. Atlantic fleet.
He’s also alleged to have shut down 2,000 Army computers for 24 hours - posting a notice on the military website saying: “Your security is crap.”
The Americans are, unsurprisingly, furious. “This was a gross intrusion into a vital military computer system at a time when we, as a nation, had to summon all our resources against further attack,” explained one Assistant U.S. Attorney.
The trouble is, McKinnon didn’t stop there. Once he’d started hacking, he couldn’t stop.
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, McKinnon went so far as to post a message on the website under his online pen name “SOLO.”
It read: “U.S. foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism these days . . . It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand-down on September 11 last year. . . I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels.”
U.S. authorities now allege that McKinnon caused £;500,000 worth of damage to their computers, a charge he fiercely denies.
Despite his denials, as one attorney put it: “There are some Americans who want to see Gary fry.”
McKinnon was caught when investigators traced software he used back to his girlfriend’s email account. The British police first knocked on his door in 2002. Initially, the authorities were laid-back about the supposed cyber-terrorist in their midst.
“Don’t worry,” police told him, “There’s no evidence that you’ve caused any damage. You’re looking at six months community service.”
“They also said that, out of all the computers they’d examined, Gary was one of the only people whose computer had no pornography on it,” his mother tells me with a faint smile.
They even suggested he might try for a job in their high-tech unit once the case was over - so great were his computer skills. continued below
Gary McKinnon hacked into the U.S. military computer network before and after the 9/11 attacks
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McKinnon has never claimed innocence - indeed, quite the opposite. “What I did was illegal and wrong, and I accept I should be punished. But I am not a member of Al-Qaeda and I am not a terrorist. The American reaction has been out of all proportion. They want to destroy me.”
The British Crown Prosecution declined to press charges against him after this first arrest - but that didn’t deter the American authorities. They started to press hard for his extradition.
In June 2005, he was re-arrested and sent to Brixton prison.
“Gary was held overnight in a cell with a Scottish murderer,” Janis tells me. “He was beside himself.”
The following morning, McKinnon was taken to court. “I could see he was terrified,” says his stepfather, Wilson Sharp. “He’s not going to survive being locked up. He’s a gentle guy. He’s a vegetarian and a pacifist - a musician. I was so relieved when he was given bail.”
But the bail was to cost McKinnon dear. One of the conditions of his freedom was that he could not use a computer to connect to the internet - a terrible blow for a man who lived with a keyboard in front of him day and night, often sitting in front of his computer in his dressing gown, drinking beer.
His notoriety also cost him his relationship with his girlfriend, Tamsin, saw him kicked out of two different flats, and lose a string of jobs. He now lives on benefits in rented accommodation.
But one good thing did come out of McKinnon’s notoriety.
In 2007, after he appeared on television to argue his case against extradition, his behavior onscreen led a string of medical experts - including Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University, one of the world’s leading authorities on autism - to contact the show’s producers to suggest that he could have Asperger’s Syndrome.
The experts pointed out that McKinnon’s monotone voice, his lack of hand expressions and his “overly literal” view of the world were all symptoms of the condition.
It all made sense to Janis. She remembered that Gary had been an introverted and sensitive child who taught himself to play the piano by the age of seven.
“One day, we came in to find him playing the Moonlight Sonata,” she recalls. “He spent all his time composing music alone in his room.”
As McKinnon grew up, so he retreated farther and farther into his obsessive world, launching a life-long obsession with aliens - joining the British UFO Research Association at the age of ten.
It was this obsession that led McKinnon to hack into the military computer systems. He was convinced that the Pentagon and Nasa had secret evidence of extra-terrestrial life.
Deluded, even a little mad you might think, but hardly the hallmark of a terrorist.
Yet American authorities clearly want to send a message to the computer hackers of the world - and are using McKinnon to do it.
McKinnon says: “I would gladly face trial in the UK now under the Computers Misuse Act. Britain is the only country in the world that will extradite its own nationals without prima facie evidence.”
His newly-discovered medical condition forms the basis of this last High Court appeal, in an attempt to establish whether his condition had an impact on his actions - and whether a lengthy period of imprisonment might damage his frail psyche.
Janis remains hopeful. “Gary’s Asperger’s doesn’t excuse what he did, because if you commit a crime, you commit a crime. But I would say to both Gordon Brown and David Cameron: you both know about having young, vulnerable sons. Should we really be extraditing our vulnerable adults and letting them serve so long abroad? Seventy years for looking for UFOs? Gary just wants to be tried in his own country.”
But right now, McKinnon is “just waiting” according to his mother.
“The only thing that is getting him through is cooking,” she says. “He loves to cook vegetarian food. He is so precise. Each mushroom has to be cut to exactly the same size. Right now, that’s what keeps him together.”
As for Janis, all she can do is spend every minute of the day campaigning for him.
“We’ve been told of stun guns and male rape in these American penitentiaries. I have awful nightmares of what will happen to Gary in one of those hell-holes.”
She now pins all her hopes on the judicial appeal.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of her son’s actions, it is heart-rending to hear the desperation in her voice as she speaks of her son’s future.
When her bewildered boy walks into the High Court, the only people who can save him from an American maximum security jail, and the possibility of life behind bars, are the judges on the bench.
Author: Geoffrey Wansell
Source - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Aliens Saved Us From Destruction
As you go about your busy schedule - searching for a cable channel that isn’t showing episodes of Law and Order or dancing naked around the Stairmaster - stop and take a moment to give thanks to some very brave little green men.
Holiday Beach, Texas - A Russian scientist, Dr Yuri Labvin, head of the impressive-sounding Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation says that an alien spacecraft deliberately crashed itself into a giant meteor, 100 years ago, thus saving all life on earth from (gasp) total annihilation.
My best friend Ugly Doug wouldn’t do that for me - even if it meant saving my life so I could pay him the $20 I owe him (betting against three aces and two queens is no way to go through life.)
But these unknown creatures from another world, who wouldn’t know me from Junior Samples, did just that for everyone and everything on the planet - making it possible for all species to survive (except for Dodo Birds, the Madagascar Narcoleptic Hedgehog, the Tennesse Tobacco Frog and maybe Polar Bears.)
A Russian scientist has claimed that an alien spaceship sacrificed itself to prevent a gigantic meteor from destroying Earth a century ago.
According to The Sun, Dr Yuri Labvin, head of the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation, has found quartz slabs with strange markings that he thinks were part of a UFO control panel.
He made the discovery near the site of the so-called “Tunguska event” - a massive and so-far unexplained explosion that devastated more than 100 square miles of Siberian forest in June 1908.
Dr Labvin claims the slabs provide evidence that a spacecraft deliberately crashed into the meteor to prevent it slamming into Earth and wiping out life on the planet.
“We don’t have any technologies that can print such kind of drawings on crystals,” he explains. “We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space.”
However, Nick Pope, a British UFOlogist who has investigated sightings on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, remains unconvinced.
While previous explanations for the explosion include a comet strike or a piece of anti-matter, he told the paper, “This new theory is the strangest yet.
“We need an analysis of the quartz slabs to be able to prove this one way or another.”
If the good doctor says the quartz slabs with strange markings are actually pieces of an alien spaceship control panel, then that’s good enough for me. You can ask Ugly Doug - I’m known for never ever argueing with noted Russian scientists.
I wonder if he found the odometer? Gotta be some bodacious mileage on that thing.
And those crazy little aliens must be pretty decent fellows, after all they did save us from extinction. Probably should honor them somehow, maybe a statue or name a sports drink after them.
But when all is said and done, I find the whole story a bit ironic - a UFO slams into a giant meteor to save mankind - and now Global Warming is going to kill us all in five years. Deal with it people!
Author: Dean Terry
Source - http://www.int.iol.co.za/
ANW Reveals Government UFO Secrets
UFO researcher Michael Cohen reveals all that he knows - or at least some of what he knows - about the UFO cover-up.
Holiday Beach, Texas - All News Web, based in Sydney, Australia, says it is the world’s leading news service that specifically collects news items from around the globe pertaining to UFOs and paranormal or supernatural phenomena. They also say they strive to make their news site entertaining for all their readers.
During my daily look around the web for news of the strange - there are always several reports from All News Web concerning UFO sightings which have taken place in some out-of-the-way place - China, Kazakhstan or the Ukraine.
To me, ANW’s stories always seem a bit on the sensational side. Usually, links to their stories are published in The Odditorium section.
However, the following story, by Michael Cohen, on what he knows about UFO Secrets kept hidden by the government, seemed worthy of front page exposure.
After all - don’t we all want to know the truth?
I have been researching the UFO phenomenon for around four years although lately it has become something of an obsession.
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Lately I have been doing a fair amount of radio interviews on the topic concentrating specifically on what I know and have discovered.
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I thought writing an article outlining my findings for All News Web readers might be a good idea.
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Firstly I would like to briefly talk about where I get my information.
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Basically the UFO cover-up isn’t what it used to be. Have you ever noticed the way every second scientist that ceases to work at NASA comes out admitting that the organization is covering-up knowledge of UFOs yet the organization itself ‘knows nothing’?
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The UFO cover-up is an ‘in-joke’ at NASA and numerous other government departments. Everyone working there on a scientific level knows UFOs exist and but also knows that the official line is ‘we know nothing.’
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These days if you are willing to take the time to develop contacts with such organizsations you will get the information you want. The agents of the ‘cover-up’ have come a long way in the last few decades: they have come to realize that as long as Barack Obama doesn’t get on TV and say ‘We are not alone’ they have little to worry about.
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All News Web constantly receives emails from various government departments asking if we have further information on the various sightings we report worldwide. One story received no less than fifteen emails from various Government departments around the world. Often we are given information regarding UFOs by the parties who send us such emails.
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My information comes largely from such emails and a good few senior-level informants within such relevant departments.
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So here is what I know:
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Unmanned surveillance discs that are about a meter in diameter are traveling to earth using some kind of vortex or set trajectory. The exit of this vortex moves around earth from time to time but currently appears to be located somewhere in Brazil’s mountainous district.
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These small silver discs are coming from a civilization located in another galaxy, they essentially function like web-bots using artificial intelligence to move around and survey our planet. They have no particular interest in planet earth and are conducting such surveys of thousands if not millions of planets.
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Governments around the world, from the US to China, are well aware of these discs and are studying them intensely.
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The discs use earthly energy sources such as electrical lines to stay afloat, essentially electro-magnetically ‘surfing’ the planet. The discs also use cloaking technology to stay invisible but this sometimes fails in the event of electrical interference.
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The discs often show up in photos, particularly digital ones and this is of great interest to governments (one of the questions we are often asked by government agencies is what type of camera a witness was using when they accidently captured a UFO image.)
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The discs communicate and send out messages which are currently being deciphered by Pentagon/NASA think-tank’s. These messages can be picked up by receiver equipment mounted on aircraft that ‘chase’ the discs.
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The messages contained have been deciphered to some extent…....
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To be continued.
Well - that certainly seems to clear up a lot of unanswered questions.
Author: Dean Terry
Source - http://www.allnewsweb.com/
Left Behind
The new owners of a former funeral home claim they got stiffed.
Gary, Indiana - Four decomposed bodies left behind in a recently sold funeral home were “definitely not” the responsibility of the business’ former director, the man said Wednesday.
“Definitely not. Definitely not. I’m almost positive,” said Darryl Cammack, the owner of the defunct Serenity Gardens Funeral Home in Gary. “I’m sure they’re not.”
The bodies were discovered Sunday by leaders of the Northlake Church of Christ after the church bought the vacant building in a tax sale. Lake County Coroner David Pastrick and his staff found one body in a bag on a table, another in a burial box and two in caskets.
The identities of the bodies have not been determined. Pastrick did not return a message seeking comment.
Cammack said he let another funeral director use the facility after the state revoked his business license in 2006. He said he doesn’t believe the bodies were left from when he ran the funeral home.
The state board that regulates funeral homes said it had no record of anyone running Serenity Gardens after Cammack’s license was revoked. Tracy Hicks, director of the state Board of Funeral and Cemetery, said Indiana law requires notification if a funeral home is sold or if a new director takes over an existing facility.
Cammack’s license was revoked after the state received at least six complaints alleging forged signatures, failure to deliver death certificates and delayed delivery of cremated remains by more than a year.
Cammack said the complaints were the results of misunderstandings. He said he lost his license after he did not fulfill some state requirements because of health problems.
He had previously lost his license in Illinois in 2003 for failing to file a death certificate promptly. Cammack said the problems there stemmed from the death of his father and the loss of paperwork when he moved his business from Illinois to Indiana.
Maggie Bey, who filed a complaint accusing Cammack of inflating her brother’s funeral cost and forging her signature, said she never saw anyone but Cammack operating Serenity Gardens. The Gary resident lives less than half a mile from the home.
“I saw him come in and out a couple of times, but as far as somebody doing business, no. That’s not true,” she said.
Cammack said he was confident the matter would be resolved quickly.
Author: Tom Coyne
Source - http://www.thedenverchannel.com/
Sad History Of An Old Mansion
Stories about the creepy old mansion can’t compare to the strange-but-true eccentricities of the man that built it.
Capitola, California - For all its claims to weirdness, Santa Cruz has nothing that can compare to the creepy strange-but-true eccentricities of Capitola’s Rispin Mansion.
To look at the history of the famous old gone-to-seed eyesore, damaged by fire on Thursday morning, is to walk a gauntlet of bizarre ironies. The rumors that the place is haunted turns out to be the least interesting part of its story.
“The actual history of it is much more intriguing than anything that has been made up about it,” said Capitola historian Carolyn Swift who may know more about the Rispin than anyone alive.
It is, for instance, named for a wealthy real-estate baron who died penniless and is buried in an unmarked “paupers” grave in San Francisco.
It is the former home of a group of hippie squatters and a convent of nuns. The nuns abandoned the place because it was too cold and too much of a curiosity to the locals.
It’s been officially vacant for half a century.
The four-story, 22-room mansion’s sad history is an eerie reflection of the sad history of the man who built it. Henry Allen Rispin, a Canadian by birth who married the daughter of a railroad tycoon, purchased the resort that is today Capitola Village in 1919, and built the ornate mansion two years later.
Rispin’s purpose was not to live there, but to use it as a show palace for those who might be interested in investing in Capitola. But, said Swift, he was a not an attentive landowner.
He neglected the water and sewage systems, and never paid for police or fire protection. Rispin slowly divested of his holdings and, 10 years later, he sold the mansion and was gone.
“He did not make friends with the locals,” said Swift. “Nobody knew anything about him.”
Swift said that many of the more outlandish rumors about Rispin - namely that he was a rum-runner in the days of prohibition and operated his illegal activities out of the mansion - may have been invented by locals irate at the landowner’s behavior.
“He fell quite a ways,” said Swift in reference to Rispin’s fortunes after he first built the Mansion. She said that Rispin was spotted just a few years later - in 1936 - asking acquaintances for money.
The Mansion fell into the hands of another Bay Area speculator, Robert Hays Smith, a former business partner of Rispin. But Smith was an absentee landowner who did nothing with the mansion either. Eventually it was sold to the Catholic order the Oblates of St. Joseph which used it as a convent until 1957.
“The nuns moved out because it was just too cold,” said Swift. “They didn’t wear shoes. They wore open-toed sandals. They had taken a vow of poverty, so they didn’t have a lot of ways to stay warm. Plus, they were upset at the fact that everyone kept looking into their windows.”
Since the convent closed, the Rispin Mansion has been an object of fascination for Capitola residents.
“It’s been a rite of teenage-hood for generations to break into the Rispin Mansion,” said Swift.
The place has been subject to everything from illegal squatting to vandalism to graffiti over the years, and it’s been the setting for many a ghost story.
However, Swift, who manages the Capitola Historical Museum, said that she had never heard a ghost story associated with the mansion until after 2000.
“I think it’s only been in the last few years that people have become increasingly interested in it in terms of the supernatural,” she said. “I’ve talked to people who flat-out insist that there are ghosts in there. Now, there have probably been a lot of bizarre things that have happened there. Who knows what the hippies did in the ‘60s? And the police had a SWAT team there doing drills. But once you open the door to stories of ghosts, then you make up just about anything.”
Images: The Rispin Mansion was built in 1921 by wealthy real-estate baron Henry Allen Rispin, who died penniless and is buried in an unmarked paupers grave in San Francisco
Author: Wallace Baine
Source - http://www.mercurynews.com/
Apparition Of A Saloon Girl
Mysterious tunnels in the basement and a 150-year-old ghost are reminders of the rough past of an old saloon.
Denver, Colorado - In a window above the entrance to the Blake Street Vault, there’s a little tableau: A mannequin dressed as an Old West party girl sits facing the street, a bottle of Jack Daniel’s close at hand on the barrel next to her.
It’s a tribute to Lydia, the ghost that’s supposedly still hanging around in the bar nearly 150 years after it was built.
The historic building has seen a lot since 1863, so it’s not too hard to believe there might be something left over from Denver’s dusty past.
The evidence is everywhere: In the basement, dark entrances lead to tunnels that long ago went under Blake Street, maybe to nearby brothels.
The huge, ancient gears of the former freight elevator are still in one corner.
During renovations, workers found century-old liquor bottles - one with bitters still inside - stashed all over the place.
So when bar manager Kyle Banks swears he’s seen Lydia out of the corner of his eye, and the hair stands up on his arms just talking about it, skepticism starts to seem a little silly.
It’s not that the bar is a cobweb-covered spookhouse. It’s actually a warmly lit, clean, pleasant space, with ‘80s rock hits playing in the bar and Snoop Dogg chattering in the kitchen.
But unlike many joints in booze-friendly LoDo, the Blake Street Vault avoids slick, modern decor and themes in favor of an old-Denver feel: The bar tables are barrels, the ceilings are pressed tin, the floors are wood. They’re reminders of a rougher, harder time in what’s now Denver’s party neighborhood.
“After looking at all the restaurants down here, it seemed like no one really emphasized the historical aspects of those buildings,” says co-owner Tim Kilgannon. “We’re a true saloon.”
He says it took 19 months to renovate the building, which started as a saloon and boarding house and spent its most recent decades as a costume shop.
“It was just such a mess,” he says. “The previous owner bought it in 1973 for $10,000. It was a nightmare to get it all up to code.”
It was during the renovation process that the building started to reveal its history. The old bottles showed up in nooks and crannies, the tunnels yawned and the building’s vault was discovered in the basement, obscured by brick and accessible only by a trapdoor.
Kilgannon says workers and visitors occasionally got strange, unpleasant feelings in the center of the main bar, including improbable gusts of ice-cold wind.
Even Kilgannon, who’s “not huge into the ghost stuff,” had a spooky experience. While in the basement with a building inspector, he - and the inspector - heard the sound of a woman’s high-heeled shoes clicking on the floor above them.
Except that the floor was still carpeted, and no one with high-heeled shoes was supposed to be in the building. Kilgannon ran upstairs and checked: Nobody there.
A group of ghost-hunters sniffed out the building, and the legend of Lydia was born. The investigators said the ghost that was knocking over glasses, appearing in the bar and generally freaking people out was the apparition of a saloon girl from the building’s early days named Lydia.
In the spirit of friendship, the colorful salute to Lydia went up in the front of the building. Banks says he greets Lydia now and again, and he’s pretty sure she likes the Blake Street Vault and the people who visit.
Drinkers enjoying themselves in the convivial main room likely have no inkling that Lydia might be lurking, but Banks offers a quick tour to those who ask. It’s more historically interesting than paranormally scary, at least until you get to the vault.
Step inside, and you’ll see it: There are scratch marks on the ceiling. More like claw marks, really. . . . Time for another drink. Upstairs.
Image: Tim Kilgannon, co-owner of the Blake Street Vault, says he has felt paranormal activity at the bar
Author: Kathleen St. John
Source - http://www.denverpost.com/
The Odditorium 05.27.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
The Haunted Rock House In Capulin - UFO Digest
On The Lookout For Davy Jones - Tampa Bay Online
Lilly E. Gray, Victim Of The Beast 666 - UFO Digest
Mysterious Liverpool UFO Sighting - Liverpool Echo
UFO Mystery Over Norwich - Norwich Evening News
Is Spalding The New Roswell? - Spalding Today
UFO YouTube Film Hits Heights - Edinburgh News
Wigan Man Wigs Out Spots UFO - Wigan Today
Roswell Debris Confirmed As Extraterrestrial - UFO Digest
Abductee Take Pictures Inside UFO - Phantoms And Monsters
UFOs Feeding On Electricity - Cabinet Of Wonders
Yowie Hunt Turns To Coast - Gold Coast News
I Was Rugby-Tackled By A Yowie - The Australian
Dimension Shifts In Yorkshire - Paranormal About
Camping Encounters With Monsters And Ghosts - Paranormal About
New Method To Find Earth-Like Planets - Phys Org
New Battery Runs On Air - The Sun
Police Arrest Hit-And-Run Clown - Weird News About
Racist Couch Offends Colored Woman - Weird Asia News
The End Of Butt Hole Road - Daily Mail
UFOs Filmed Over South Wales
Video: A group of orange and red glowing objects were captured on video by a mother and daughter in the skies above their home.
United Kingdom - Mother and daughter Fiona and Myfanwy George-Veale thinks there is something strange going on. They spotted a series of lights in the sky over their home on Sunday night and say they have yet to find a satisfactory explanation of what the glowing objects might have been.
Mum Fiona, who lives in Llandaff, Cardiff, said: “It was about 10.30pm and my daughters called me to look at the object they could see in the sky.
“They were bright orange and some of them were pulsating red.
“Obviously, I have never seen a UFO before so I don’t know what they look like, but I have also never seen anything like this before.”
Fiona and her daughter Myfanwy, 15, rushed to get a camera to take pictures and shoot a video of the suspected UFOs.
The pictures they took did not process very well but they did manage to get a short film of the lights.
“There were between eight and 12 of these orange spheres in the sky one after each other,” added Fiona, who saw the lights on Bank Holiday Sunday.
“We could see them moving off one by one in the same direction.”
Her family were so shocked by what they had seen that Mrs George-Veale called the non-emergency police number to report the sighting and try to get an explanation.
She was told it was most likely to be Chinese lanterns – a paper globe with a candle in the middle which floats through the sky.
But Mrs George-Veale disagreed, saying: “We thought if it was a Chinese lantern they would be blowing around in the wind.
“The lights we saw had a very regimented movement and all went in the same way. They didn’t seem to be floating.
“It could be nothing but we are a bit suspicious of it.”
A spokeswoman for South Wales Police said there had been no further reports of any sightings of suspicious lights on Sunday night.
Author: Tim Lewis
Source - http://www.walesonline.co.uk/
Mitcham Marked By Macabre Mysteries
From phantom children cycling on top of water to faces appearing out of walls, one resident is intent on uncovering Mitcham’s dark secrets.
United Kingdom - Mitcham is so haunted that one resident has compiled a book, website and map charting the ghoulish going-ons in the area.
From a phantom child cycling silently across the Seven Island Pond on Mitcham Common, to tales of drowned factory workers walking through walls, 39-year-old James Clark has investigated dozens of hair-raising episodes.
And now the life-long Mitcham resident has put the town’s dark history online for all to see with an interactive map showing all the different haunted locations.
But James, who is now turning his attention to the haunted history of Lambeth and Wandsworth, claims he is no great believer in the paranormal.
He says: “I’d describe myself as an opened-minded skeptic. I’m certainly no great believer but as someone once said, you should keep an open mind, just not so open that your brains fall out!”
The new website contains updated stories first published in his book Haunted Mitcham, written in 2002 and free to look at for the first time.
He says: “I spent about five years going through local newspapers, asking around and checking all the local history books I could find. Generally, the stories that are the most striking are the ones with a fair bit of local history attached.
“People are saying there are stories about where they live which they’ve never heard before. I hope this map will help people find stories that interest them. Also, I’ll be honest, I hope that when people read the summaries they’ll be inspired to buy the books!”
To view the map and find out more, log onto James Clark’s website.
Mitcham’s Haunted History
Mitcham Common: In 1990, computer operator Tony Dowe was walking home across Mitcham Common in the early hours having finished his night shift.
Out of the dark appeared the eerie apparition of a young boy riding a bicycle.
The boy and the bicycle were both entirely white and made no sound at all as they approached and then passed him, the boy turning to stare at Mr Dow with a unnaturally fixed gaze.
Still staring back at Mr Dow, the unnerving apparition cycled steadily on, closer and closer to Seven Islands pond - and then out onto the surface of the water.
Any lingering thoughts that the figure was simply a flesh-and-blood boy were dispelled when the apparition did not sink, but just continued cycling out across the surface of the water and on into the darkness beyond.
Rumour has it the figure was that of 10-year-old Leonard Lascelles who drowned in the pond 70 years ago.
Commonside East: In the early 1960s, the occupants of an old house on Commonside East were terrified by mysterious ‘faces’ which appeared on the walls.
The faces made their first appearance after some old wallpaper was taken off the living-room wall in the house. New plaster was put on the wall and as it dried, strange images became visible.
According to the occupants, Mr and Mrs Johnson, about a dozen faces - including images of cavaliers, grenadiers, women and young children - had manifested on various walls throughout the house by the beginning of February 1962.
Builders working on the house said they would not stay after one of them thought he saw his dead father’s face on a wall. Another builder and decorator was taken aback by a powerful smell of perfume apparently coming from a wall.
Mr Johnson, a lorry driver, worked nights and Mrs Johnson was so scared to be alone in the house that she left to stay with her mother in Paddington. ”The faces looked at me all the time,” she said.
Fair Green: In 321 AD, the Roman emperor Constantine decreed that Sunday was to be observed as a special day of rest and Christian worship.
Over time, it became accepted that to work on a Sunday meant sinning against God but towards the end of the 19th century there were shopkeepers in Mitcham who were quite willing to risk annoying the parish priest if it meant increasing their profit margins.
One such man was Mr Currell of Currell’s Sweet and Greengrocery Store, which used to stand facing the Fair Green.
His attitude changed dramatically one Sunday afternoon though, when a particularly strong blast of wind uprooted a tree and sent it crashing violently into his shop.
It seems that Currell interpreted this ‘Act of God’ as a divine judgement against Sunday trading and from then on he was careful to observe his weekly day of rest.
Image: James Clark has investigated dozens of hair-raising events
Author: Ben Thompson
Source - http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/
Keeping Their Spirits Up
It seems that the regular patrons aren’t the only ones who enjoy the late-night atmosphere of the local pub.
United Kingdom - A village pub is occupied by more than just the regulars, according to ghostbusters.
A team of five paranormal investigators got more than they bargained for when they carried out an investigation in a Kilmersdon pub - and one was so emotionally affected, he had to leave a room.
The Bristol-based team spent a night at the Jolliffe Arms on Saturday after landlady Glenda Dando told them regulars had reported some unexplained occurrences, including sightings of ghostly old woman and little boy.
Using high-tech equipment including night-vision cameras, temperature gauges, electromagnetic field meters and dowsing rods, the team were able to detect that the pub was home to spooks with some very sad stories.
One of the ghosthunters, Dave Cable, said: “I picked up on a father figure named Jonathan who had a ‘slow’ son who he would shut away in the attic. The boy, whose name was Thomas died from starvation in the attic at the age of seven. The time period was during the first half of the 18th century. Interestingly, during my second pendulum experiment I picked up on Thomas and for the first time ever, I had an overpowering, sad emotional sensation, so bad that I had to leave the room.”
Mrs Dando said the story of the little boy tallied with her own suspicions after she spotted her grandchildren waving at someone she couldn’t see.
But despite their findings - and his partner’s views - landlord Adrian Dando said he still believed the only spirits in the pub were the ones behind the bar.
Image: The Bristol-based team of ghost hunters had a very moving experience
Source - http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/
The Haunted Lady On The Hill
An angry spirit is said to be the cause of accidents on a deadly strip of highway.
Trinidad and Tobago - The constant witness to the car crash deaths of dozens of people near the Claxton Bay overpass is a statue perched on a hill overlooking what many consider the most deadly strip of road in the country.
And each time another person dies in that area along the Solomon Hochoy Highway, the elders turn to the lady on the hill, blaming her again, in what is one of the most enduring stories of supernatural belief in Trinidad and Tobago.
The lady, some believe, is a restless soul haunting the highway, taking lives.
This is how the story started.
Maria was the daughter of a Forres Park estate overseer who died near the highway in March 1909 while on her way to warn her lover that he was about to be killed because her parents did not approve of their love affair.
Shortly after her death, a statue of the Virgin Mary was erected near the spot where she died.
It was some years later that the statue was desecrated by a mentally impaired woman who claimed it was not responding to the questions she had asked it.
In a fit of anger, the story goes, she climbed the pedestal on which it stands and decapitated the statue.
Former workers at the Forres Park sugar estate testified to the decapitation and they also knew why the statue was erected by the overseer.
It was for Maria, the daughter of a Spanish overseer on the Forres Park sugar estate, in love with an East Indian laborer working on the estate.
Maria’s parents, especially her father, did not approve of the love affair and he was determined to stop it at all costs.
He was a very influential man, and there were laborers on the estate who were prepared to do his bidding, even to the point of getting rid of Maria’s lover.
As the love affair developed the young couple had decided to get married without the consent of her parents, according to the story.
One night the couple were seen by her father in a compromising position and he decided to end the affair.
After the young man left Maria’s home she was summoned by her father and given a sound licking with instructions that she should no longer be seen in his company.
Maria was in love with the laborer and had no intention of ending the affair.
Enraged at what he had seen the night before, the overseer summoned a few of his trusted workers and devised a plan to kill the man.
One of the workers told Maria of the plan, and she was advised to tell him to leave the area immediately because his life was in danger.
Maria then left her home in a rage and was on her way to her lover when she was bitten by a snake while walking along a footpath leading to his home.
She died there.
Overcome by the loss of his only daughter, the father decided that he would erect the statue in memory of her.
He placed it on the highest hill on the estate that he could see the Virgin Mary and continuously plead to her for forgiveness.
The estate changed ownership several times over the years but the statue was not interfered with until it was decapitated.
Harry Seedas, a former worker on the estate, was the last person to testify about the accuracy of the event.
Seedas died a few years ago leaving behind the story of a legend that has captivated the minds of many for years.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of her death and residents are planning a religious ceremony in commemoration of her death and to make every effort to have her spirit put to rest.
Author: Louis Homer
Source - http://www.trinidadexpress.com/
The Odditorium 05.24.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Miraculous Healings - The Paranormal Pastor
Spirited Read - Chronicle Live
Casper The Friendly Ghost Town - Star Tribune
Hunt For Ghosts Begins With Bang - Times-Journal
Psychic Uses Gift To Help People - Liverpool Echo
Psychic Is Of Holy Grail Bloodline - email wire
Sylvia Browne Talks About Extraterrestrials - Spirit Now
Did Kennedy Meet Extraterrestrials? - Examiner
Aliens Hinder Human Space Flight? - American Chronicle
Equality, Respect And MJ 12 - American Chronicle
Lawyer Claims To Have Evidences Of Extraterrestrials - UFO Blogger
Michigan Man Builds Flying Saucer - The Werber Patch
UFO Lands, Beings Emerge In Texas - UFOs About
Researchers To Hunt Bigfoot - Tulsa World
More Than A Shaggy Monster - Dallas News
Mystery Photograph Revealed - Cryptomundo
Does Bigfoot Have A Language? - Cryptomundo
Utah’s Mountains Of Mysteries - Standard
114-Year-Olds Health Secrets - Daily Galaxy
Project Collects Messages To The Cosmos - Space
The Body Burners - New Scientist
Old Lady Spends 23 Years Moving House - Daily Mail
Ghost Hunting Down On The Farm
Chasing spirits at a mid-19th century farm museum.
Brunswick, Ohio - Inside a dimly lit, second-story bedroom in the old Heritage Farmhouse and museum on Laurel Road, Debbie Andres places an audio recording device on the table in front of her and clears her throat.
She takes a deep breath and in a clear, calm voice asks, “Is there anybody here who would like to talk to us? All you have to do is talk into these little red lights and we’ll be able to hear you.”
On cue, Teri Bolton, sitting across from Andres, picks up a device commonly known as a K-2 meter and slowly stands up.
She begins to walk around the room, gently holding the meter a few inches in front of her, and keeps a close eye on the two small, green lights glowing near the top of the device.
As she approaches various pieces of electronic equipment, including a computer, copier and an adding machine, scattered around the room, the device begins to light up like a Christmas tree.
The two original green lights on the device are now accompanied by brighter shades of amber, yellow, orange and red.
“Don’t worry,” Bolton says. “Theoretically, if there were someone or something in the room with us, the K-2 would light up just like this. But this isn’t anything paranormal.”
Although she’s optimistic that someone from beyond the grave might be in the house with her that evening, Bolton quickly debunks the spectacle on the K-2 meter. In this instance, she says, the obvious culprit is the electromagnetic fields being generated by all of the electrical devices in the room.
A few minutes later, Bolton sits back down at the table, closes her eyes and listens to Andres as she begins to rattle off a series of questions.
“What’s your name?” Andres asks. “Did you live here? Do you like all the work that’s been done here? How old are you? Can you knock on the table like this?”
Seconds later, Bolton interrupts.
“I just heard a strange whisper in my ear about a minute ago,” Bolton, a self-proclaimed “sensitive,” says. “It was a short conversation between two men.”
Although it was hard for her to make out what was being said, Bolton says she was able to decipher what appeared to be two names—Samuel and Benjamin.
The conversation fades almost as quickly as it starts, but it’s enough to intrigue Bolton and the two other paranormal investigators in the room with her. The threesome, along with nearly a dozen other investigators, eagerly spent the next four hours in the dark—watching, waiting and trying to communicate with spirits they suspected might be lingering beyond the grave in some of the city’s oldest buildings.
Amber Dalakas, president of the Brunswick Area Historical Society, says she’s never heard any stories about Heritage Farm being haunted and has never had any personal experiences when she’s been alone inside any of its buildings.
However, when she was contacted in April by the founding members of the amateur ghost-hunting team, Ohio Researchers of Banded Spirits, she didn’t hesitate to accept the team’s request to investigate the facilities.
“Why not?” she said. “I think it will be pretty interesting.”
According to founder Christopher Page, O.R.B.S. was founded in 2000 in order to find answers to all questions paranormal.
Page, who works as a mail carrier by day, says his 18-member team is committed to organizing, documenting, verifying and debunking the paranormal, good or bad. He says O.R.B.S. has already investigated several alleged hauntings in Ohio and in adjoining states, and he says the team has the evidence, including videos, photographs and audio clips, to prove that ghosts really do exist.
Page says his team traditionally conducts its free investigations on an on-call basis and usually performs two to three investigations a month. The majority of its cases, he says, are residential haunts, in which the team is called in by the homeowners. During down times, however, he says the organization likes to schedule investigations inside some of the state’s oldest buildings, which is what drew he and the team to Heritage Farm May 9.
Located on Laurel Road between Substation and Pearl Roads, Heritage Farm is made up of an old farmhouse, which is now a museum that houses artifacts belonging to many of Brunswick’s founding families. Originally built in 1850, the house is accompanied by a barn, garage, corn crib, equipment shed, chicken house, milk house and granary, all of which were built between 1850 and 1940.
The farm, its outbuildings and the 32 acres on which it sits have been owned by the city of Brunswick since 1995. Since 2000, the site has been leased to the Brunswick Area Historical Society.
While Page admits there weren’t any specific stories that drew the crew to Brunswick, he says there was plenty of activity on the premises during the night of the investigation. Split into three four-member crews, each team was instructed to investigate a different building at a time.
In addition to setting up several cameras in an attempt to capture any sightings as they occurred, the team also employed several pieces of traditional ghost hunting equipment, ranging from K2 meters and EMF detectors to cameras, radiation meters and even ghost radios, which the investigators say allows them to have a conversation with spirits in real time.
While his teams were investigating, Page and the two other case managers took turns watching a television screen set up in a remote locations viewing the images being recorded by the cameras inside all the buildings.
Page elected not to comment on any specific activity at the farm until all the evidence is reviewed by his team over the next week or two, but says that all three teams of investigators reported the most action in the equipment shed where an old tractor that once belonged to the Waite family is stored.
Not only did all four mediums and sensitives who work with the group report having personal experiences inside the building, but Page says the radiation detector the group used inside the barn “just went crazy in there.”
Like the EMF meters, radiation detectors also measure electromagnetic fields and radio frequencies, Page says, but are not influenced by outside sources, including electronic devices, the way EMF meters are.
In addition to pinpointing radioactive energy, he says, the detectors can be an invaluable tool when it comes to locating paranormal hotspots.
The only place the radiation detector activated, Page said, was in the equipment shed and particularly near the tractor.
Dalakas, who accompanied the team on the investigation, says the radiation detector substantiated the mediums’ claims that there was activity inside the building.
“That was pretty convincing,” she says. “I can’t wait to hear what else they came up with.”
Page said he plans to present all the evidence the team collected during the investigation to Dalakas and other historical society representatives in the next few weeks.
“There are many ghost hunters or paranormal groups out there and the majority of the groups you will run across come in, set up their equipment, tell you if you have spirits and take off. And you never hear from them again,” Page said. “We give every investigation 100 percent. We try to find the five W’s—who, what, where, when and why spirits are there. Since we have members across Ohio, it may take 1-2 weeks to go completely through our evidence, but every picture, every minute of video and audio is gone through with a fine tooth comb before we contact you with any evidence we may have.”
As far as evidence goes, Bolton says she’s already found all the confirmation she needs.
Minutes after she overheard the alleged conversation between “Samuel” and “Benjamin,” she walked downstairs and into the farmhouse dining room. Nestled in a corner, she found a plaque bearing the name “Elmer Benjamin,” one of Brunswick’s first residents.
“That’s all I needed to see,” she said. “What a validation.”
Is Heritage Farm truly haunted? Stay tuned.
O.R.B.S. has promised to reveal its conclusion along with all the evidence in the next few weeks and the results of the team’s investigation will be published in an upcoming issue.
Image: Heritage Farm is a typical mid-19th century farm of the Ohio Western Reserve that has been restored and preserved
Author: Melissa Martin
Source - http://www.cleveland.com/brunswicksun/
The Odditorium 05.21.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Paranormal Pub Experience - BrainTree And Witham Times
Psychic Healing - Westmeath Independent
Psychics: Mind Over Matter - Martha’s Vineyard Times
More Sightings Of UFOs - Berwick Advertiser
Arizona UFO Was Weather Balloon - DailyTech
A Serious Search For ET Life - Philadelphia Inquirer
UFOs Over Colorado’s Vail Valley - Vail Daily News
What If SETI Has Found Something? - Naveed’s Realm
Circle Patterned Unidentified Objects - UFO Digest
ET Space Ships: Energy Crisis Rescue? - Consumer Energy Report
Evidence Of Life On Planet HD189733B? - UFO Digest
Mysteries Of Wiltshire Circles - Gazette And Herald
The Secrets Of Crop Circles - Reality Sandwich
Meet The Notzuchitokage - Cryptomundo
Spider-Man Suicide - The Copycat Effect
Have You Heard The Hum’? - BBC News
I Haven’t Had Those Visions Yet - Moultrie Observer
Gold Fingered Gardener Finds Treasure - Daily Mail
Museum Of Horrors
Phantom-like figures and something large and black in a toilet prompts the mayor to call in the ghost detectives.
United Kingdom - A night at the museum, and an evening in the chamber of horrors. Would a paranormal investigation of Newtown’s Mayor’s Chambers and the Robert Owen Museum reveal spirits still holding council.
Mayor Sue Lawson called in Newtown Paranormal after sensing an other-wordly presence.
“It’s not necessarily eerie,” she told the County Times, “but you know there’s something there. You talk to people and they say the same thing. That’s why we wanted to do a proper investigation.”
Cllr Lawson was part of a team that headed straight for the museum – and immediately felt uncomfortable.
“We went to go in there and straight away I felt I didn’t like it. I wouldn’t go in,” she said.
They conquered the fear and entered the museum. Immediately a ‘cold’ spirit made its presence felt.
“You see it on the television when they say they can feel cold,” she said, “but I’ve always thought it was just a draft – but it’s totally different. I could feel it on my right arm then I felt it go behind me and around the left side.”
She then had a similar experience in the council chamber itself.
“Rory had sensed a presence by a chair, and I said I would go and stand there myself. I could feel her, my right arm was ice cold yet my left arm was warm.”
Cllr Lawson said the cold in the museum was just ‘unbelievable.’
“Even in the day time there’s something about the place,” she said, “but at night what doesn’t help is the bust of Robert Owen which is down there. You feel like he is watching you.”
Newtown Council Chamber was built in 1902 and is Grade-II listed. Originally built as a library and meeting room, the Co-operative Union paid part of the cost in memory of social reformer Robert Owen.
The Robert Owen Museum now occupies what was the library.
In the museum hangs a door – part of Robert Owen’s old house – but a doorway to where?
The team’s report stated: “A number of light anomalies were captured, mainly in this corner. Three members of the group also had problems with their throats, sore throats or coughs, in this area.”
The door backs onto a back room of the adjoining bookmakers Corals. Shadowy figures have been seen on both sides of the door.
Corals manager Dave Campion is in no doubt there’s something lurking in the shadows. “One of my assistants, Zoe, saw a figure standing there in the recess,” he said.
“She saw a shape standing there when she was finishing up one night, a guy in a top hat and dark clothes. A former member of staff, said she saw something down the back of the shop, felt a dark presence.”
“A number of staff refuse to go in one particular toilet, particularly late at night. One member of staff saw something in there, everything went black and she felt really cold, and then suddenly it cleared,” he said. “She will not go back in there now, and she’s not the only one.”
“I’m sure there’s something here,” added Mr Campion, “I would not say it’s bad, but it is definitely there.”
The building is believed to have once been Robert Owen’s storeroom.
The group picked up a name while in the museum – William Price – who was wearing black striped trousers, a black waistcoat and a top hat. A figure fitting that description has been reported in the past.
A black-cloaked man was also picked up – with an apparent dislike of woman being in authority. Described as an aggressive spirit, tapping noises and breathing were also heard in the same area as the spirit.
Cllr Lawson said: “He didn’t have a problem with us being there, but he didn’t like the fact that a woman was in power. In the time he was around women probably just stayed in the home.”
Creaking and sounds of movement were also reported in the museum.
Most group members reported sensing a ‘presence in the room’ – but who was it? A name Sarah was attached to the female presence sensed in the council chambers – and Cllr Lawson suggested Sarah could possibly be linked to the Sarah Briscoe Trust, which operates the museum.
The name John Price was also picked up. But no significance has been attached to any names as yet.
Deputy mayor Joy Jones accompanied the team on the investigation. She said in the museum she thought she saw a shadow – but couldn’t say what she saw.
“It might have just been my eyes,” she said, “I just saw something I can’t explain but don’t know what. I wouldn’t want to use the word ghost.”
However, she added: “I have just never felt comfortable in the museum anyway.” With statues peering at the investigators in the dark, it had immediately put people on edge. “Not long after we went in the camera flash bounced off the statues. I just screamed and ran. But I had to confess it was just the statue. There was nothing there, I’d just panicked.”
The team’s scientific investigation of the museum revealed several ‘cold spots’. However, the team’s digital thermometer failed.
With all batteries charged before they started, some investigators claim that equipment failure is the spirits themselves using the energy from within.
It also revealed high electro magnetic field readings in both the conference room and council chamber.
High readings in a confined area can cause a ‘fear cage’ effect – making people feel nauseous, have headaches and hallucinate. These symptoms, if evident, disappear quickly upon leaving.
Image: Mayor Sue Lawson in the Robert Owen Museum
Author: Mark Lingard
Source - http://www.countytimes.co.uk/
Mystery Of The Fire Starters
Cases of people with the strange ability to cause fires by breathing.
Holiday Beach, Texas - In the year 1882, in Paw Paw, Michigan, Dr L. C. Woodman heard rumors of a man with a remarkable ability. It was said a 24 year-old man, named A.W. Underwood, had to take great care whenever he breathed, apparently to avoid causing fires.
At first the doctor thought the stories were mere exaggerations, but one day there was a knock on his door, and in walked A.W. Underwood himself, looking for help.
Dr. Woodman was persuaded to make tests in the presence of himself and some of his colleagues, and to their amazement Underwood performed incredible feats which they could not explain. In an article from Michigan Medical News, dated September 11, 1882, Doctor Woodman stated:
“He will take anybody’s handkerchief and hold it to his mouth rub it vigorously with his hands while breathing on it and immediately it bursts into flames and burns until consumed. He will strip and rinse out his mouth thoroughly, wash his hands and submit to the most rigid examination to preclude the possibility of any humbug, and then by his breath blown upon any paper or cloth envelop it in flame. He will, while out gunning and without matches desirous of a fire lie down after collecting dry leaves and by breathing on them start the fire.. ”
Dr. Woodman stated publicly that he was sure that Underwood’s ability was authentic.
The doctor also noticed that Underwood would hold the cloth or other material against his mouth so that he could force his breath through it, thus condensing whatever strange process it was.
The doctors washed Underwood’s mouth out with various mixtures, and obliged him to wear surgeon’s rubber gloves - but it made no difference - the phenomenon carried on as normal.
A similar case was reported In 1927, when Vice President of the U.S., Charles Dawes, personally investigated the case of a car mechanic in Memphis, Tennessee, who supposedly had the mysterious ability to set inflammable material alight merely by breathing on it.
The man took General Dawes’ handkerchief, breathed on it, and it caught fire.
No reasonable explanation could be found, but Dawes and his colleagues decided it was a genuine ability and not a trick.
If genuine, these cases are unusual in that both Underwood and the anonymous car mechanic seemed to be able to control the phenomenon and produce it at will.
Paranormal researcher Charles Fort wrote of an incident which took place at Bridgewater, Scotland, in May 1878. Mysterious fires were being started with no apparent cause, loud raps were heard and household items such as dishes and loaves of bread moved about. After a police investigation a servant girl, Ann Kidner, aged 12, was arrested, and accused of tossing lighted matches, but was released by the magistrate because of insufficient evidence.
In October 1886, a 12 year-old boy named Willie Brough, of Turlock, Madison County, California, was accused of setting things on fire ‘by his glance,’ and was expelled from Turlock School after five unexplained fires had started in his presence. His parents thought him possessed by the devil and sent him away.
References:
Frank Edwards, Strange People. London, Pan Books. 1966.
Charles Fort, The Complete Books of Charles Fort. New York, Dover, 1974.
Source - South Texas Anomalies Investigative Network
The Odditorium 05.20.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
The Ghost Goat Terror - Cabinet Of Wonders
The Haunted Cemetery - Paranormal About
The Growling Thing - From The Shadows
Ghost Hunters Of The Deep - KOAA Pueblo, CO
A Trip Alongside Ghost Hunters - WABI Bangor, ME
Psychic Helps Pets Communicate - WAVE Louisville, KY
V-Shaped Craft Over Los Angeles - The UFO Chronicles
UFOs Sighted Around Warrington - This Is Cheshire
UFO Abduction From Undersea - UFO Digest
Another UFO Filmed In Hebei Province - All News Web
UFO Mania Behind Couples Break-Up - All News Web
UFO Sightings Reported In Arizona - My Stateline
Missing Link Ida: Media Darling - Cryptomundo
Curse Of The Crystal Skull - WA Today
Lost Cities - Shunya
Missing Link Fossil Found - BBC Science
Color’s Magic Decoded - Times Of India
Famous Nefertiti Bust May Be Fake - AFP
People May Be Allergic To Cell Phones - Phys Org
9,000 Year Old Burial Mystery - Discoveryon
Neanderthals - Your Ancestors Other White Meat - Guardian UK
Teenager Sleepwalks Out Of Bedroom Window - Daily Mail
Vampire-Loving Barmaid Hits Jackpot - New York Times
Dallas Couple Finds Cheesus - CBS1 Dallas, TX
Soup Factory Worker Cooked To Death - Telegraph UK
Cars Behaving Badly
Residents on Leam Lane woke to find their cars electrical systems behaving oddly.
United Kingdom - The truth is out there! Or at least a group of baffled drivers hope it is following a morning of motoring mystery in Stockton.
Residents on Leam Lane, Bishopsgarth, woke last Wednesday to find their cars’ electrical systems behaving oddly.
And confused driver Daniel Joyce contacted the Gazette in the hope we would get to the bottom of the problem. “It was early in the morning and a lot of people were having problems starting their cars,” said Daniel, 21, who drives a Citroen Saxo.
“The central locking wouldn’t work on mine so I opened it manually but then the engine wouldn’t start.
“I ended up pushing it around the corner and as soon as I got it away from the street it would work.”
The puzzling problem is believed to have been caused by some form of radio, electric or satellite signal interfering or blocking the signal that some car keys send to the engine. Each key emits different frequencies, explaining why cars on the street were affected in different ways.
Daniel added: “It’s a bit of a strange one but it’s cost people money for tow trucks and if it’s going to happen regularly it could be a problem.”
Other drivers on the street were also affected, including Bernard Dambrosil, whose Land Rover alarm began wailing at about 6am.
He said: “I opened the car door and the alarm went off. Then I couldn’t start the car so I had to call a tow van. It’s been checked over but there’s nothing wrong with it.”
Neighbor Geoff Saysell says his Hyundai Accent was also affected by the puzzling problem.
The 53-year-old said: “The central locking on my car wouldn’t work so I had to open the door manually. The alarm went off so I had to get under the bonnet and physically disconnect it. I work at Wilton and when I got there the locking worked fine.”
And it wasn’t just cars which were affected. Val Nixon had problems when she tried to open up her newsagent’s. Val told the Gazette: “The remote wouldn’t work for my shutters - they wouldn’t go up or down.
“I had to call out an engineer and I’m expecting a bill of up to about £300. I didn’t know about the car problems until two days later.”
Some believe the problem could be connected to a change in satellites at the University Hospital of North Tees. But NHS Trust spokeswoman Claire Young denied they were the cause.
She said: “It sounds like a mystery. Obviously we need to be careful with these things ourselves because we have a lot of sensitive equipment.”
Image: Daniel Joyce - parallel parked in a diagonal universe
Author: Chris Hole
Source - http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/
The Odditorium 05.19.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
A Haunting In Ellaville - Ledger-Enquirer
Priest Fights With Devil - Daily Star
Real Life Ghost Hunt - KAAL Rochester
Mystery Figure Shocks Cameraman - BBC News
Triad Landmark Focus Of Paranormal Analysis - News14 Charlotte
Freaky Phone Calls - Paranormal About
The Exorcists - Trinidad Express
Not-So-Typical Kiwi Talks To The Dead - The Southland Times
Researchers Seek Spot’s Sixth Sense - Globe And Mail
Beware The Fair - 10News San Diego
Montauk’s Latest Monster Tale - The Insider
Buhs And The Bigfooters - Cryptomundo
Historical Wild Man Of The North Country - Mysterious-America
Nigerian Witch Children Beaten And Tortured - Livesteez
The Flying Whatsit Of Wimbledon - Londonist
UFO Delays Moscow Airport Landing - All News Web
Two UFO’s Crash Land In Kazakhstan - MINA
Back To The Future - Herald-Tribune
More UFOs Over Newtown - County Times
UFO In The Sun And Military Jets - KVI Seattle
Germany: Paderborn UFO Second Witness - All News Web
UFO Delays Moscow Shopping Mall Opening - All News Web
El Paso’s Sunday Night UFO - El Paso Times
UFO Seen By Journalist - All News Web
China: UFO Or Unlucky Bug? - All News Web
Boy Howdy - A Real Alien Abduction
A video of a supposedly “real” alien abduction. I don’t know why aliens want to abduct us - maybe rectal probing is just their way of saying “Howdy.”
The video goes like this: A TV show receives a anonymous letter with a video attached. The letter tells of a worker who appears to be abducted by aliens. The tape shows footage from a security cam. By the time the video was made public, the victim has quit his job and moved, never to be seen again. The video contains comments from someone identified as an “expert” on alien abductions.
Now, if you don’t find all this very intriguing, kindly bend over and say, “Howdy!”
Ghost Hunters Say Marsh House Is Haunted
The spirits of long ago still reside in the shadows of an 1836 antebellum home.
Chattanooga, Tennessee - After two all-night investigations and hours of taking video and audio recordings, the evidence is clear - there are ghosts at the Marsh House, a group of paranormal experts concluded.
“It is our opinion that the Marsh House is in fact haunted,” ghost hunter Rick Howard said Monday night.
More than 40 people crowded into the antebellum home Monday night to hear the results of an April investigation by the nonprofit group Ghosts and History of Southeast Tennessee, or GHOST.
Last month’s investigation was the second at the Marsh House. continued below
Certified Haunted - The Marsh House of LaFayette, Georgia
At both investigations, GHOST members took hours of audio and video recordings in an effort to explain the unexplainable. They also took photos and documented personal experiences.
After the first investigation at the home, ghost hunters identified paranormal activity, which included six audio recordings that caught unexplainable voices, which are called EVP’s or electronic voice phenomena.
Voices that cannot be heard with a human ear, but are picked up by an audio recorder are called EVPs, or electronic voice phenomena, Vice President of GHOST Jeff Holder said.
Monday night Mr. Howard showed more evidence, such as four additional audio recordings and one photo that shows a shadowy figure. Many investigators also had “personal experiences,” from hearing constant tapping to having their hair pulled, Mr. Howard said.
“We go into an investigation with a completely open mind,” he said. “How many times can I stand up here and say, ‘This is not a human voice, but it’s not a ghost?’”
Many curious residents from Northwest Georgia to Chattanooga listened to the ghost hunters’ results. Some were convinced and others weren’t.
Chattanooga resident John Parker said he has always been interested in ghosts. He said the audio recordings were convincing. “I really believe that they exist,” he said. “I think there is something beyond us.”
Sysco Torres, from Chattanooga, said he isn’t so sure. “It takes a lot for me to believe,” he said.
Despite the varying opinions, Mary Smitherman, with the Marsh House Task Force that maintains and operates the old home, said the results and the “Certified Haunted” plaque she accepted from GHOST members is “fantastic.”
Many visitors ask if the Marsh House is haunted, and now she has an official answer, she said.
“This group is very professional,” she said of the ghost hunters. “They are very credible.”
GHOST has completed about 50 investigations, and the Marsh House is just the fifth one ever classified as haunted.
Author: Chloé Morrison
Source - http://timesfreepress.com/
The Ghost In The Attic
The spectral figure of an 18th-century servant is spotted in an old English home.
United Kingdom - Is this the ghostly figure of a servant in an old English home? Or is the spooky image a trick of the light?
A photograph taken in the home of Dr Edward Jenner, the man who invented the smallpox vaccine, has stunned experts.
Seen through the doorway of the attic, it appears a portly man is sitting in a chair between two beds.
The ‘ghost’ can be seen through the doorway in the center of the picture, sitting between two beds
And in a picture taken four days later, there is just an empty space, and not even a chair, between the beds.
Staff at the house in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, believe it is the spirit of one of Dr Jenner’s servants.
The image was taken by a BBC photographer who was visiting the Jenner Birthplace Museum. The attic where the ghostly picture was taken has never before been open to the public.
Photographer Chris Sandys said: “ don’t believe in ghosts myself but this is strange.
“As soon as I’d taken the panoramic photo, I reviewed the image on the camera, and straight away noticed this strange formation of light, shaped like a figure, through the doorway in the next room.
The panoramic picture, top, of the museums’s attic which revealed the ghostly image in the left-hand doorway. The bottom image shows the attic with no ‘ghostly’ image
“Without moving I did a few takes to try and work out what had caused it but couldn’t see anything. It was so weird.”
Cynics might question the timing of the picture’s release as the museum has just launched a new exhibition called Ghosts In the Attic: From Smallpox To MMR.
But staff insist the ghostly figure is no fake. “We are truly flabbergasted by the image,” said museum curator Sarah Parker.
“We have graffiti from soldiers previously billeted in the attic rooms from the 19th and 20th centuries and perhaps this is one of them or even one of Jenner’s servants.
“We have always thought of the ‘ghosts’ as being metaphoric but maybe we need to think again…
“You can basically see through a doorway what looks like a figure reclining in a chair, only there is no chair there.
“I don’t know whether I believe in ghosts or not but I’ve never seen a ghost, certainly not in the attic.”
The museum is now planning tours of the attic, including a night-time Halloween visit.
Dr Edward Jenner, who was born in 1749, is credited with inventing vaccination.
He lived in the Grade II-listed building from 1785 until his death in 1823 and it was here that he pioneered world-changing vaccination against smallpox.
Nearby Berkeley Castle is also said to be haunted. The ghost and screams of Edward II are said to be seen and heard at night. He was tortured to death at the castle with a red-hot poker.
Source - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Ghosts In The Oven
Located in the heart of the Broadway Antique District, in Alton, Illinois, is a large old building with a long history of paranormal activity.
Alton, Illinois - Kim DeVer, manager of the old cracker factory building, had a lot on her mind after the third floor of the building collapsed - and paranormal activity wasn’t far from her thoughts.
On two occasions in the past year, Brian Lavigne of Alton and the Paranormal Researchers of Southern Illinois team conducted paranormal investigations in the old factory.
The determination that DeVer observed and the preliminary conclusion by the research group is that the building displays strong paranormal activity.
“In early December, my son, Ross DeVer, spent the night in the building,” Kim DeVer said. “He definitely thought there was some paranormal activity going on. When we were hunting, we spent most of our time in the basement and the two top floors. There are still spirits there when there was a Baptist Church present, which was before the cracker factory.”
The Kendall Cracker Factory was built in 1864 with deep arched vault-like recesses, once used as ovens. The factory was built on the site of Alton’s First Baptist Church in 1836 and utilized at least part of the basement foundation of the early church, which burned in 1860.
Ross DeVer, a 16-year-old Marquette Catholic student, spent the night in the building with friends. He was walking around filming when a friend heard a creak and a towel was yanked off the rack near them.
“We also walked by doors that were open and five minutes later they would be closed,” he said. “We went to bed about 4 in the morning and woke up at 8 in the morning. I had a hard time getting to sleep. I was afraid I would miss something. I definitely think there are spirits inside the building. On the PRoSI visit, all the walkie-talkies started making noise and we went into the room and they were all still off. That was weird. I went on both hunts.”
Lavigne works with a partner, Rob Simmons, in PRoSI. He said his team believes Broadway in Alton is unusually active in the paranormal realm because of the area’s limestone and springs.
“These materials can act as a recording device for the events, whether traumatic or festive,” he said. “These types of hauntings are residual and appear when the conditions are just right.”
The paranormal chaser said even if the old Kendall Cracker Factory is torn down, the spirits could still be there because of a theory called grounding.
He said one of the spirits he encountered when he was visiting the old factory was a young girl.
“They are suspected spirits because we have not concluded our investigation,” he said. Lavigne said his crew is proficient in using paranormal equipment such as EMF (electromagnetic field) meters, digital recorders and a variety of cameras and accompanying systems. The Alton company uses dowsing rods but does not solely rely on them because all equipment has to be backed up by evidence.
The spirit chaser said he has been working in Alton and the surrounding area for four years, probing the lore of Southern Illinois.
“We would like to go back into Kendall and try to wrap up an interesting investigation,” he said.
Image: The Home of Kendall’s old Cracker Factory. The Building has been home to several antique stores - and several ghosts
Author: Dan Brannan
Source - http://www.thetelegraph.com/
The Odditorium 05.16.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Dead Man’s Creek - The Displaced Ones - The Paranormal Pastor
The Goat With The Gold Chain - Trinidad Express
Seance Remembering Ol’ Blue Eyes - Tahoe Bonanza
Fighting Voodoo With Voodoo - Cabinet Of Wonders
FDA Classifies Cheerios As A Drug fda.gov
UFO Spotters Are A Strange Bunch Sunday Mercury
O’Hare Style UFO Filmed In Japan All News Web
Video: Massive UFO Incident In Italy All News Web
Crop Circle Or Storm Downburst? Dayton Daily News
The Odditorium 05.15.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Ghost Hunting Writer Never Felt Afraid - Sydney Morning Herald
In Bed With A Doppelganger - Paranormal About
Cold Spots: The Collingwood Arts Center - Dread Central
Mom Blames Ghosts For Daughter’s Truancy - This Is Wiltshire
Class Delves Into Paranormal Realms - Oregon Live
Ghostly Images: New Spirit-Catching Camera - Thai Indian News
331-Year-Old House Checked For Ghosts - Boston News
An Evening With A Clairvoyant -Limerick Leader
Beware The Voodoo Doll - Trinidad Express
Jamaica’s Deadly Superstitions - Jamaica Gleaner
Voodoo Science: When Mind Attacks Body - New Scientist
Mysterious Primate Skull Unearthed In Texas - Cryptomundo
Siberians Complain About Bigfoot’s Appetite - Mos News
35,000 Year Old Bigfoot? - Cryptomundo
Video: UFO Over Peru Amazes Locals - All News Web
Chasing UFOs On The River - KLAS Las Vegas
Appalachian Study: Sightings, Alien Encounters - UFO Digest
UFO Spotted Hovering Over Bristol Rooftops - Daily Mail
Possible Alien Abduction At Menlo Park - Alien Seeker News
One Man’s Early Alien Contacts In Canada - UFO Digest
Rules For Time Travelers - Discover Magazine
Out Of This World Climate Solution - New York Times
Superglue: Stone Age Humans Beat Us To It - Discover Magazine
Life’s First Spark Re-Created In Laboratory - Wired Science
World’s Most Mysterious Monuments And Ruins - Web Urbanist
Fisherman Sells Dinosaur To Restaurant - Weird Asia News
Ghostly Connections In Chaska
One woman says her ghost hunting experiences have provided her with proof of an afterlife, and given new meaning to how she thinks about death.
Chaska, Minnesota - Amidst the rich wood paneling and the floral wallpaper at Chaska’s Peacock Inn, some say a man sits quietly in a cream upholstered chair on the landing of the stairs. And though many pass by him each day, few notice his presence. Kathy Machowski is one of those few.
That’s because the man is not one of the living. He is a spirit and Machowski is a ghost hunter.
Machowski said she has had encounters with the paranormal since she was a little girl. Back then she didn’t seek out the encounters, but today, she is among a growing number of people who do.
Machowski, who lives in Jordan, started Minnesota’s Beyond the Veil to gather a group of those who, like her, were interested in delving deeper into the possibility of ghosts and using equipment to investigate strange occurrences in houses, churches, prisons, hospital and other older buildings.
Buoyed by interest in television programs like Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State, Machowski said her group is now busier than ever, fielding requests to investigate possible paranormal activity and lead ghost hunting classes.
They recently visited the Peacock Inn and Carver’s Treasure Chest Antiques after hearing that people at both businesses had been witness to unexplained phenomena.
“Ghosts are real,” said Machowski. “A lot of people co-exist with ghosts and don’t even know it.”
The Peacock Inn
Joyce Bohn has been well-aware of strange happenings at her business for years.
Guests at the Peacock Inn, located in a historic mansion off of City Square Park, have told her about rocking chairs rocking empty and cats jumping up on their beds in the middle of the night when there are no cats in the house. Flowers have fallen off of the wall for no good reason, and silverware has repeatedly gone missing at meals only to later be found back in the drawer.
“I’m a pretty logical person,” said Bohn. “But there are not logical explanations for everything.”
This spring, Joyce offered to open up the inn to Minnesota’s Beyond the Veil to see what they could uncover.
Using standard ghost-hunting equipment like cameras, tape recorders and EMF (electromagnetic fluctuation) meters, Machowski’s crew descended on the nearly 100-year-old building.
“I go in there expecting a ghost,” said Machowski. “I expect to hear a ghost, see a ghost. You have to expect the most and if you get nothing, it’s not haunted.”
A typical session includes a walk through of the building, identifying and examining paranormal hot spots. “You’re looking for things that shouldn’t be there,” said Machowski.
That can include things like unexplained levels of energy, random cold spots and anomalies on photographs. But ghost hunters also use their basic senses – listening for foot steps or watching for mists and shadows.
“Anyone can ghost hunt,” she said. “All you really need is a camera and a tape recorder.”
Machowski noted that there are several places that are now opening their doors to welcome ghost hunters. Bohn said she is considering letting in classes provided her “spirits” aren’t disturbed. Bohn would like to keep her friendly spirits in good spirits.
“I’ve been to places where you get hit with a ‘Get out!’ but here you get a welcome feeling,” Machowski said, of the Peacock Inn.
Her group got a chance to experience some of the activity Bohn and her guests have talked about. While going through the inn, the ghost hunters picked up some high EMF readings on a bed in one of the guest rooms.
“Half of the bed had a high EMF and half didn’t,” said Machowski, noting that spikes can often be explained by electrical current, but adding, “I couldn’t find an explanation for that.”
They captured some photographic anomalies downstairs – several photos taken during the investigation feature strange crescent moon-like images in unexpected places.
“I’m not going to say it’s a ghost,” said Machowski. “But it’s interesting,”
The most exciting part of their investigation took place upstairs, Machowski said, where they experienced an unexplained thump as if something had dropped. They also report picking up EVPs (electronic voice phenomena) on their tape recorders with a man’s voice telling them there were two spirits in the room and a little girl’s voice saying “yes” when asked if she liked the room.
Some of their findings didn’t make sense until after the crew had left though. During their investigation Kathy’s psychic in the group said she picked up on a man named Arthur who kept telling her that the Peacock Inn was his house and that he greeted people. Later, Bohn put two and two together as she took down a photo in the foyer of the house’s architect. His name was Arthur Klaussen.
“No one could have known that,” she said.
After reviewing all of their evidence, Machowski was able to come to a conclusion as to whether or not the Peacock Inn was haunted.
“The spirits that are connected to the house are good,” said Machowski. “They are protecting it. So I wouldn’t say it’s haunted. I would call it a spiritually protected house.”
For Bohn, that sounds just about right. “I have always felt safe and secure in that house,” she said. “And I’ve always wondered why.
“I never had answers before,” she added. “It’s nice to know why and what it is.” continued below
Treasure Chest
Dennis Vogt knows how Bohn feels. In the last nine years that he has run Treasure Chest Antiques in downtown Carver, he has also had experiences he cannot explain.
“I’ll be at work on the computer and someone will walk up behind me,” he said. “But when I turn around, no one’s there.”
Vogt also reported hearing someone sneeze when the room is empty. Others in the 141-year-old building have reported things like temperature fluctuations and hearing things rattle.
“We didn’t get that much activity there,” Machowski reported after her first visit. Her team contacted Vogt about doing an investigation and first came through with their equipment in late April.
“It was different,” Vogt said of the ghost hunter experience.
The crew noted a 20-degree temperature difference between rooms in the building and also picked up the sounds of a little girl talking on their tape recorders. But the majority of their experiences were personal ones.
“The team got chills,” Machowski said. Most notably, they had consistent problems with their equipment at the store.
“Near the staircase the cameras kept going off like the batteries dried up,” she said. “When they went away from the staircase, they worked again.”
Machowski is still analyzing the data from their visit, noting that the process can take weeks to complete.
“This is actually research,” she said. “It’s science. You’re exhausted when you’re done.”
But she hopes to return to the store for a second visit to collect more evidence of paranormal activity. “They do have spiritual activity there, but it’s not very active,” she concluded.
Proof
When asked how she reacts to people who don’t believe in ghosts or ghost hunting, Machowski offered little defense and more philosophy.
“I’ve been criticized for ghost hunting,” she acknowledged. “But I’m the one living the adventure.”
For Machowski, ghost hunting provides her with proof of an afterlife. “There’s always going to be a question of if there’s life after death,” said Machowski. “Which is exactly how it should be.”
“But there’s more to it,” she continued. “Is this heaven? Is this hell? Are these people in limbo? There’s a lot of questions. When I find the answer to one question, I open up the door to 10 more.”
“This is my proof,” she said. “I know there is life after death. I can’t convince everyone but it’s my proof. That’s what keeps me coming back.”
Vogt is still wavering on whether or not he believes in ghosts, but Bohn has come to a similar conclusion as Machowski after having the ghost hunters come through her inn.
“This really has changed how I think about death,” she said. “It gives me comfort to believe there is something more.
“Who knows, maybe when I’m dead and gone I’ll be here.”
Author: Mollee Francisco
Source - http://www.chaskaherald.com/
Smokey Spirits Of Old Station
An old fire station may still be the abode for fire fighters from long ago - as the fireman said when the church caught on fire, “Holy smoke!”
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania – Have you seen a fireman dressed in full gear standing looking out of the front glass door when passing the now closed Lee Park Fire Station on Lee Park Avenue? Well, you might have seen a ghost.
And you’re not alone; at least five other people have seen the ghostly white presence.
Hearing this piqued Mike’s interest. He’s heard stories for years that two of the township’s fire houses are haunted.
Mike and the other team members declined to release their last names because they feared people would try to call or come to their homes in the middle of the night.
Mike, who hunts ghosts in his spare time, thought this would be the perfect investigation for his team, the Luzerne County Ghost Hunters. He co-founded the organization with his mother, Marie, in December 2007.
There are no fire department personnel working at the station since its doors closed last spring as part of a fire department consolidation plan. The fire trucks once stored at the station, built in 1914, have been moved to the township’s other stations.
Luzerne County Ghost Hunters received permission from the Hanover Township Commissioners during a March board meeting after requesting to conduct intensive investigations of the Lee Park and Hanover Green fire stations. The investigations are being conducted at no-cost and no liability to the township.
Township Supervisor Jeff Lewis said he’s never experienced any paranormal activity at either station, but knows some fire department members have experienced things they can’t explain. All the township supervisors approved the request.
Armed with night-vision cameras, high-end audio recorders and continuously running video cameras, Mike and his seven associates arrived at Hanover Green Fire Station on Center Street about an hour before sunset on March 24 to set up their equipment. Team members spent the next five hours inspecting every nook and cranny looking for apparitions or other unexplained activities.
They weren’t disappointed.
After reviewing 1,400 photos and several hours of audio and video recordings, team members said they discovered the equipment recorded two figures – a man and woman – looking into a window on the station’s second floor and five audio recordings where an apparent ghost speaks responding to questions and comments from team members, according to results posted on the group’s Web site.
“We did find some evidence, but it is not the most haunted place. If it’s haunted, it is very docile and timid. It’s nothing that anybody has to be worried about if they work there,” Mike said.
The Hanover Green station is still active with firefighters and emergency response personnel working inside the building.
Marie is the “sensitive” member of the group, with the ability, she says, to sense when ghosts are present without any electronic devices. She wants to return to the Hanover Green station to communicate more with the two spirits – a woman and a man – possibly a firefighter.
The male spirit provided her with a name of Ray, she says, but the team is now trying to conduct more research to determine who this spirit might have been. Possibly a firefighter who in death feels attached to the building?
Some ghosts remain attached to a building or a site because of “unfinished business or being afraid to pass over ... afraid of what God’s judgment would be,” said Marie, adding that it’s unknown how long these ghosts have called the station home.
Spiritual presences can be around for years or decades wandering the Earth until they find someone they can communicate with, Marie said.
She noted that other investigations the team has conducted at the Huber Breaker in Ashley and the Hanover Green Cemetery are much more haunted with some ghosts being fairly mean and negative.
“As you are in life, that is how you are in death. When you are rotten in life, you are rotten in death. So people really should try to change,” she advised.
The team conducted an investigation at the Lee Park Fire Station on Lee Park Avenue in mid April. On their Web site they posted photos of unexplained events that occurred during their investigation.
They are eager to see what paranormal activity might be occurring at Lee Park station, which once housed the township’s municipal building, police department, township jail and fire department decades ago.
“There is a lot of history, so we are looking forward to that one,” Mike said.
Image: Mike of the Luzerne County Ghost Hunters uses an EMF meter to check for ghostly activity
Author: Sherry Long
Source - http://www.timesleader.com/
Looking For Oregon Hot Spots
A psychic medium who has experienced spirits and hauntings since childhood looks for ghostly phenomena in the Beaver State.
Boise, Idaho - Madonna Merced wants to make one thing clear: “I do believe in the other side,” said the full time medium and part-time ghost hunter from Tualatin.
“I am a psychic medium who channels, although I like to take a very scientific approach to all of this.”
Merced believes ghosts are as real as anything else that exists today.
As for presumed paranormal activity in Oregon, she’d heard ghosts were in rare form at the Chateau at the Oregon Caves. The rustic, Southern Oregon hotel which, along with its ghostly legends dates back to the 1930’s.
“It sounded as though there were several spirits who were available there, our goal was to interact with those spirits,” said Merced, referring to her newly formed group, “Believers of Oregon Spirit Society.”
In April, Merced and about a dozen companions headed south, for a paranormal investigation.
“The first night we were there, we all hovered near the fire place sleeping on the floor and couches together because it had already started,” said Merced. “I mean, the paranormal experiences were so intense.”
Like the experience Merced recalls her group had while investigating chateau’s dining room. She said one of the group members claims she felt a ghost push her on the shoulder.
Merced relies on an extensive paranormal arsenal while hunting ghosts.
She uses an electromagnetic field detector she said could indicate “ghost hot spots.” Merced also uses a night-vision handy cam to see beyond the darkness. Some video she shot at the hotel reveals moving shadows and floating orb-like figures. Merced believes there are than those figures than meets the eye.
“From my perspective, that is a ghost.”
Merced said she also talks to the ghosts, and they talk back. While she can’t hear them with her naked ear she said a digital recorder picks up “ghostly gab” known as electronic voice phenomenon. She said it’s how the group met the ghost “Jeremy,” on the hotel’s third floor.
“I asked, ‘what’s your name,’ and, ‘we do not mean to harm you,’ and then you will hear a very drawn out sound of ‘Jeremy,’ and then you’ll hear laughs and a shrieking sound and then ‘she’s dead,’” recalled Merced.
Merced knows not everyone believes in the kind of spirits she seeks out, but there’s one sprit she hopes everyone shares.
“A spirit of open-mindedness,” she said. “We should always question everything, always question what you believe is a reality.”
For more information on Merced and her Believers of Oregon Spirit Society, you can visit BooSpiritSociety.
Image: Members of the Believers of Oregon Spirit Society Chateau check out a bedroom at the Oregon Caves
Author: Katherine Cook
Source - http://www.ktvb.com/
Second Montauk Monster Is Found
Just in time for summer - the remains of another strange, unidentified creature has washed up on New York’s coast, sparking claims that it may be another Montauk Monster. How freaky can a rotting dead animal be?
Southold, New York - It’s back. Just in time for summer, Long Island’s latest fad-slash-biological freak show once again is in all of its bloated, pallid glory.
Reports of a Montauk Monster washing up on a Southold beach are circulating after the blog posted pictures and video last week of what looks like a beaked, four-legged animal’s carcass lying in sand - much like the pictures of the other beaked, four-legged carcass that stirred up so much controversy last summer.
Nicky Papers, 24, a culinary school student from West Islip who runs the blog, said a couple from Southold contacted him after they saw the body on the Founders Landing Park shore last Wednesday.
He and a friend drove there and saw a three-foot long animal corpse with a pointy snout and hooves lying in the surf.
“It smelled horrible,” Papers said. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I don’t think the pictures do it justice.”
The second Montauk Monster
.
Papers said the couple shoved the carcass with a stick into a white garbage bag and took it away. They later told him they’d put the carcass on ice at an undisclosed Southold location, Papers said.
Attempts to contact the Southold couple were unsuccessful, and Papers said he did not want to reveal their identity without their permission.
The tale of the original Montauk Monster gripped the East End last summer as international attention seized upon the mysterious animal body that purportedly washed up on a local beach. As the tale goes, three Montauk friends found the corpse last July on Ditch Plains Beach and snapped a picture of it.
Back then, rumors centered on stories about a dumped carcass from Plum Island’s testing labs. Some claimed there could be a shady back story: Perhaps the creature was planted to promote an independent movie?
Now, according to the Mntauk Monster blog, the latest Montauk Monster has been updated and has acquired new baggage suitable for 2009.
“I’ve thought about the possibilities that this carcass may be carrying H1N1 influenza (The Swine Flu,)” Papers writes.
But he admits he is “just as baffled as anybody else.”
Papers said he didn’t worry about skeptics and nonbelievers.
“Whether people think this is old news, there’s going to be people out there who are still going to be interested in the mysteries of science,” he said.
Author: Sophia Chang
Source - http://www.newsday.com/
The Odditorium 05.14.2009
A compendium of Strange Things...
Visits From The Dead The Paranormal Pastor
The Ouija Said She Lived Before From The Shadows
Ghostly Presence In Beaumont’s Jefferson Theatre Beaumont Enterprise
Ghost Hunters Inspect 180-Year-Old Hotel Site Associated Press
Ghost Hunters In Wisconsin Newsradio 620 Milwaukee
UFO Spotted Over Bristol Telegraph UK
Acting On Insight Builds Psychic Ability The Durango Herald
Crop Circle Season In Devizes Gazette And Herald
UFO Landing And Extraterrestrials In South Dakota All News Web
UFO Falls In Kazakhstan Russia Today
Kazakhstan UFO Crash Widely Reported All News Web
UFO Orange Lights Spotted Over Newtown Powys County Times
Embassy For Imminent UFO Visits San Francisco Sentinel
UFO Filmed In Chongqing, China All News Web
Dangers Of Dihydrogen Monoxide dhmo.org
Naked Women Obsession Dates Back 35,000 Years Yahoo News
MJ 12 And The Aviary American Chronicle
The Nazi UFO Lie The UFO Iconoclast(s)
Food For Thought
The odor from the clean up of an office fridge forced an evacuation, sent seven people to the hospital and sickened dozens more.
San Jose, California - An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill.
Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday after the fumes led someone to call 911. A hazmat team had to be called in.
What crews found was an unplugged refrigerator crammed with moldy food.
Authorities say an enterprising office worker had decided to clean it out, placing the food in a conference room while using two cleaning chemicals to scrub down the mess.
The mixture of old lunches and disinfectant caused 28 people to need treatment for vomiting and nausea.
Authorities say the worker who cleaned the fridge didn’t need treatment, she can’t smell because of allergies.
General rule for food in office fridge: Most food cannot be kept longer than the average life span of a hamster, so you should keep a hamster in your refrigerator to gauge this.
Source - http://www.cbsnews.com/
Is This The “Big One” Elizabeth?
Just in - a report of a spaceship landing in South Dakota and contact with aliens - from Businessweek.
Webster, South Dakota - A shocking revelation in the science world has been made today as we are getting reports saying an Alien spacecraft has landed in this small city in South Dakota.
Hundreds crowded a parking lot at busy factory outlet as a spherical craft descended from clear skies and made it’s landing on U.S. soil. Witnesses say power within a mile had gone out. Hand held devices, cameras and even vehicles stopped working before the craft made its landing, therefore, many witnesses could not take photographs of the craft.
The craft along with the crowd was in silence. Many people ran away in fear before the craft even landed. After a short while of watching the craft, witnesses say a part of the door on the lower portion opened up and a ramp came extended out to the ground.
Two creatures, approximately 4 feet tall with large heads, large eyes, no noses and a slip for mouth, as described by witnesses, walked down the ramp and onto Earth grounds. The beings were said to have matched the descriptions of an extra-terrestrial species we call “Greys.”
“We felt a sense of relief”, said witness, Rob Chan. “We were scared, but we couldn’t move. It was an astonishing site. It felt as if they were trying to communicate with us but we just couldn’t understand.”
The beings walked back into the craft as the ramp closed back up behind them and after a few tense moments of waitin