Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Was that your sister? Ghost Story
I have always been interested in a person's personal paranormal experiences, and have always been intrigued with "Ghosts." The personal experience I am about to share was one that just confirmed what I already suspected.
I was eleven years old when I invited my friend, Janna, to spend the night at my house. "If you do anything to scare me I promise I will call my parents to pick me up, no matter what time it is," she had told me a few hours before she came over.
We had basically spent the night talking about school and people. Nothing interesting happened until it was about 1:00 A.M. In the morning and we were in my room, still talking. I kept looking at my bedroom door because every time I would look at it, it seemed to be opening more. I didn't tell Janna about it because I thought it would freak her out, and she would leave. So a knot kept pulling tighter and tighter in my stomach until we finally fell asleep around 2:00 A.M.
My room was set up so my twin bed would be positioned almost perfectly aligned with my bedroom door. The chair Janna had insisted on sleeping on was also perfectly aligned with the door, so both of us had the perfect view of my bathroom. (Which was located across from my room.)
I woke up and looked at my clock, which read 3:18 A.M. My eyes casually looked around my room, but when they got to the front of my room, I noticed my door was wide open. The bathroom was lit up in an orange-reddish light. (We had an air-freshener that had a night lite on it.) I broke out in a cold sweat and my heart started beating so hard and fast, I was almost sure it was audible.
Coming towards my room from the bathroom was a young girl who looked about my age. She was dressed in a tattered, white night gown and had long, dark hair hanging in front of her face. (Picture the girl from the ring.) I didn't wake Janna up for two reasons. Reason number one was because I didn't want to freak her out. Reason number two was because I didn't want to move, or it was more like I couldn't move. I hid under the covers, and eventually fell asleep.
The next morning after Janna and I woke up I asked her if she saw anything unusual last night around 3:00 A.M. She looked at me and said, "Oh, I saw your sister in the bathroom. I think she was trying to scare us, but I just ignored her." The scary part was that I absolutely KNEW it wasn't my sister.
To this day I have never seen the girl again, but the next 3 nights I had a dream, the same one every night, that always resulted in me waking up at 3:18 A.M.Thursday, 11 June 2009
Some Things I Collected About Ghosts
Ghosts:
The following link is a slideshow of pictures of ghosts…I believe the majority of them are real but of-course some are not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6trH81xpko
Most people know of at least one ghost story that has been told as being true within their family. Many of us even remember living near a haunted house when we were young. As children we tend to believe these ghost stories are real, but by the time we grow up we often consider ghosts to be as mythical as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Great Pumpkin.
Humans have always been both fascinated and afraid of the unknown. Even during ancient times people experienced encounters with the paranormal and shared their stories with others.
At True Ghost Tales we delve into the supernatural with visitor submitted true ghost stories, ghost pictures, haunting articles, EVPs, poltergeists, werewolves and more paranormal topics. We have a lot of resources for ghost hunters and everyone interested in the paranormal world. The blog is updated every day with new ghost stuff. We also have an archived section of ghost stories and for those of you who like to interact with others who are into the paranormal we have a forum.
However we may explain the supernatural world, nothing prevents us from being intensely interested in real true ghost stories, haunted houses, and the realm of the supernatural.
In different stories, ghosts have been described as being benevolent, benign, or malevolent. A benevolent ghost seems to want to help or protect in some way while a malevolent spirit will seek to inflict harm. Benign ghosts are usually indifferent to, or unaware of, the living.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivdC-yIXPGY
This is the contacting ghosts through glass method…often the glass moves round really fast… Here I believe since the all move in unison it isn’t just a fake if they were all trying to pull different directions then it would be pretty obvious!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5_RpNgxptQ
This is what happened to one guy in his house…It’s called poltergeist activity when a ghost moves things around…for instance pushes something over or slams or door ect…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r03M4mRR7Bk&NR=1
Sequel to the one above…same guy same house…poor guy.
The following link is a slideshow of pictures of ghosts…I believe the majority of them are real but of-course some are not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6trH81xpko
Most people know of at least one ghost story that has been told as being true within their family. Many of us even remember living near a haunted house when we were young. As children we tend to believe these ghost stories are real, but by the time we grow up we often consider ghosts to be as mythical as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Great Pumpkin.
Humans have always been both fascinated and afraid of the unknown. Even during ancient times people experienced encounters with the paranormal and shared their stories with others.
At True Ghost Tales we delve into the supernatural with visitor submitted true ghost stories, ghost pictures, haunting articles, EVPs, poltergeists, werewolves and more paranormal topics. We have a lot of resources for ghost hunters and everyone interested in the paranormal world. The blog is updated every day with new ghost stuff. We also have an archived section of ghost stories and for those of you who like to interact with others who are into the paranormal we have a forum.
However we may explain the supernatural world, nothing prevents us from being intensely interested in real true ghost stories, haunted houses, and the realm of the supernatural.
In different stories, ghosts have been described as being benevolent, benign, or malevolent. A benevolent ghost seems to want to help or protect in some way while a malevolent spirit will seek to inflict harm. Benign ghosts are usually indifferent to, or unaware of, the living.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivdC-yIXPGY
This is the contacting ghosts through glass method…often the glass moves round really fast… Here I believe since the all move in unison it isn’t just a fake if they were all trying to pull different directions then it would be pretty obvious!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5_RpNgxptQ
This is what happened to one guy in his house…It’s called poltergeist activity when a ghost moves things around…for instance pushes something over or slams or door ect…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r03M4mRR7Bk&NR=1
Sequel to the one above…same guy same house…poor guy.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
The Guardian Crop Circle Article
Adrian Potts, landlord of the Barge Inn outside Pewsey in Wiltshire, was pretty cheerful yesterday morning. The pub, on the Avon Kennet canal, is the centre of the British crop circle industry and each year, starting in early May and running for about four months, circle fans (and circle-makers) turn up from round the world. The backroom of the pub has circles on the ceiling, news of the latest formations is posted, and the chat revolves around the images that have been appearing for more than 20 years in the fields of southern England.
Potts has sold many pints on the back of crop circles, but for the last few years the Barge has been quiet. "In the late 1990s and through to 2002, [the crop circle trade] was massive. On a sunny day we'd have people here by 10am. But it dropped off and the last few years have been dreadful. The last two summers have been terrible - both in terms of weather and of circles," he says.
There are many explanations as to why the circles barely appeared in Wiltshire. The suicide of one of the chief circle-makers in 2006 and the death of two others, as well as boredom in the ranks of pranksters, have all been cited. Mostly, though, it is thought that heavy rain and high winds have made crops hard to handle and have deterred aliens and humans alike.
But just as the demise of the peculiarly English rural tradition was predicted, the circles - which can take the shape of DNA structures, scorpions, snowflakes, helices, webs, knots and complex geometric patterns - have abruptly returned in force.
The 2009 season began in April with an unprecedented six formations. The first was a series of simple circles in a field of rape; then came a 350ft yin-yang symbol in a barley field near Devizes. Three ambitious formations were reported over the last bank holiday and on Tuesday this week a giant 600ft jellyfish was found in a barley field on Bill and Sally Ann Spence's farm near Kingston Coombes in Oxfordshire.
As of yesterday, there have been more than 20 major formations spotted. Potts, who could claim to be something of an expert on the subject, has a hunch that this will be a good summer for circles: "The crops are not true enough yet. Weather permitting, I'd say the best ones will start now. In the next two weeks there should be a burst of activity."
Francine Blake, who founded the Wiltshire crop circle study group in 1995, shares Potts's optimism. She and other self-appointed investigators identify, measure, photograph, and report on all formations. They go circle-spotting at night in likely places, send crop stalks for chemical analysis in university laboratories (yes, really), and have more than 6,000 crop circles on their database.
She was excited by the jellyfish: "It's fantastic. When we look at it, it's got seven small circles, or moon shapes. It's describing the magnetic field of Earth," she says. She too is optimistic about the summer ahead: "This year started much earlier. There's one every day now. It is very intense already. I have never seen such complex designs in rape in all my years of studying this subject. Usually, the season starts with a nice little pattern, a tri-petal flower or such like, one or maybe two in rape if we are lucky. But this year they are big, complex and numerous right from the start."
"What does this mean?" Blake asks on her blog. "It means that we have to take note that something extraordinary is happening. Crop circles are not normal occurrences, they do not fit in too well with our usual beliefs. This of course is not to everyone's liking - it is not easy to face the unknown."
From this you may gather that Blake eschews more prosaic explanations for the circles. In fact the professional circle world divides neatly. One hemisphere is occupied by questors, spiritualists and paranormalists, such as Blake; the other by makers, tricksters and artists.
The first group can tell from post-holes, foot tracks, and other clear signs that the majority are made by humans. But they argue that many crop circles - perhaps 20% - defy rational explanation. Their research suggests that "true circles" are created in a very few minutes by a blast of energy. According to some, the crop cells become swollen and are bent down at the nodes, or joints. Others say the cellular structure of the plants is affected and that the composition of the soil is altered. A few circles, they say, display a phenomenal level of complexity and would be difficult to draw on paper, let alone in a field after dark.
When they cannot explain what they see, they turn to UFOs, aliens, symbols, alchemy, ancient wisdom, sacred geometry, whirlwinds, the fingerprints of God or unknown "entities" to explain what they say are messages from extra-terrestrials or signs and portents of the times.
The second group is made up of artists and pranksters. What began in the late 1970s with two Wiltshire watercolour artists, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, going into the fields for a laugh to create simple circles to tease those who believe in UFOs, was picked up by London-based artists and sculptors in the mid-1990s.
One group, now calling themselves the Circlemakers, includes situationist artists Rod Dickinson and John Lundberg, the sculptor Gavin Turk, Rob Irving and others. They say on their website that they latched on to the circle believers, created images from reading the same books that the believers read, and that they now team up with other teams of circle-makers to create ambitious formations. Together they say they have made crop circles an essential part of our popular culture, part of the myth of the English countryside.
"We weren't pushing paint around on a canvas that sat in a sterile gallery environment; we were quite literally forming and shaping the culture that surrounded us," Lundberg said in 2004. "We are the heretics, calling their belief system into question by the mere fact that we exist and talk about our circle-making activities. Sometimes this spills over into threatening behaviour on the part of the believer. We've had potatoes stuck up our exhausts, wing mirrors ripped off of our cars, and threats of physical violence, in person, over the phone, via email and through our letterboxes."
For a long time the Circlemakers kept their identities secret but they now openly claim to have made many hundreds of circles. However, they play the game that there is some inexplicable force out there by not claiming to have made them all, and never revealing which particular ones they created.
Those in the other camp are adamant the Circlemakers are destructive. "They used to call themselves Team Satan. They live in south London and it takes them days to make them even in daylight. They have nothing to do with the phenomenon," says Blake.
The other reason why there may have been fewer circles in recent years is that leading circle-makers are growing up, and can now command big money. Formations are now regularly commissioned by multinational companies, advertising agencies and the media. Nike, Pepsi, BBC1, Greenpeace, Sky, Weetabix, Big Brother, Mitsubishi, Thompson Holidays and O2 have all paid circle-makers tens of thousands of pounds for a night's work. They have been made for pop videos, corporate parties, TV dramas and ads. The Sun paid for one to publicise its campaign to bring the Olympics to Britain.
From being genuinely intriguing, amusing and innocent folk art, the formations have become worth millions of pounds to the Wiltshire tourist industry. Farmers, too, can make thousands of pounds, either in compensation from companies wanting to have their logos plastered in their fields, or from charging people £2 each to walk in a circled field. One farmer near Stonehenge is said to have made about £30,000 by charging tourists to visit circles on his land.
The "believers" also make money from conferences, books, magazines, and calendars, lectures and sightseeing tours. "A good aerial picture of a sophisticated circle picked up by TV or the press can make tens of thousands of pounds," says the head of one picture agency, who asked not to be named. "Everyone is at it."
Of course some farmers are furious to find their crops flattened. They do tend to stand up again, however, after they've been bent over; normally this is enough to smooth most feathers. And no one is suggesting that this year's circles have been commissioned by tourist boards, or have been sponsored by corporations. But it's more than likely that someone will make money from the photographs, the field, or the design of these latest additions to the oeuvre.
Blake dismisses any idea that the phenomenon is driven by art or by money. "Something important is happening. It's raining shapes every day now. Nothing man-made could be like this. That's why people can't get their heads round it."
How to make a crop circle
• Prepare a detailed drawing. Keep it simple. Circles and triangles are relatively easy to make. Advanced curves, spirals, straight lines, fractals and pictures can take a long time to mark out and work.
• You will need helpers; decide who will do what and in what order the image needs to be constructed.
• You will need a marked rope or a 100ft measuring tape to mark out the site, and a foot-wide wooden board about 4ft long to do the flattening. The board should have ropes attached to each end so you can loop it over your neck.
• Ask permission from a farmer and be prepared to pay compensation. A crop circle can cause hundreds of pounds of damage.
• Wait for a moonlit night when it is dry. Enter the field by the tramlines, or marks left by tractors.
• Mark out the field carefully. Some circle makers use sticks or poles but these can leave tell-tale holes of human intervention.
• Put the rope round your neck, with the board on the ground in front of you; press down with your right foot, move it forward, press it down again, and so on.
• Leave the field the same way you entered.
• Hide your tracks.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Ghost Pictures And The Stories Behind Them
Taken in 1919, this picture is a group portrait of Sir Victor Goddard's squadron. In the back of Goddard, positioned on the top row, fourth from the left, can be seen the face of another man (shown in the zoom circle). It could be the face of Freddy Jackson, an air mechanic who had been accidentally killed by an airplane propeller two days earlier. This photograph was taken the day of his funeral, and members of the squadron easily recognized his face.
The Borley rectory writings on the wall is one of the most interesting manifestation of the famous Borley rectory haunting, which was probably the first case of ghost hunting in history. They believed the writings had come from a young deceased catholic woman who wanted her body to be discovered and receive a proper Christian burial ceremony. She was trying to communicate with Marianne, wife of the Reverend Lionel Foyster, the couple living in the rectory in October 1930. We can read "Marianne... please help get" and "Marianne light mass prayers". Marianne wrote that she couldn't understand some of the writings. Learn more about The Borley Rectory Hauntings.
Sybell Corbet took this photograph of the Combermere Abbey library in 1891. The figure of a man can detected in the chair to the left. It is believed to be the ghost of Lord Combermere, a British cavalry commander in the early 1800s. Lord Combermere died in 1891, having been struck and killed by a horse-drawn carriage. At the time Sybell Corbet took the above photo, Combermere's funeral was taking place!
On November 19, 1995, Wem Town Hall in Shropshire, England, an old building built in 1905, was destroyed by fire. Tony O'Rahilly, a local resident, took photos of the spectacle from across the street. One of those photos shows a small, partially transparent girl standing in the doorway. Neither O'Rahilly nor any of the other onlookers or firefighters recalled seeing the girl there. Dr. Vernon Harrison, a photographic expert and former president of the Royal Photographic Society, examined both the print and the original negative, and concluded that it was genuine.
Terry Ike Clanton took this photo of his friend at Boothill Graveyard, who wanted Old West-looking pictures of himself dressed in Clanton's 1880-period clothes. Among the gravestones, just to the right of his friend, is the image of what appears to be a thin man in a dark hat.
Monday, 8 June 2009
Crop Circles... (go to bottom for pictures and videos)
Hey everyone...this is quite a long post so i expect no-one to read it all but i just wanted to say that the first 3-4 paragraphs are what i wrote from things i read and are quite short...and the other is something from wikepida which some people may find boring and at the bottom there are pictures and videos...so enjoy
I know many of the arguments against crop circles and many for but one thing i cant get my mind around is how is it HUMANLY possible to make such intricate, beautiful amazing designs in just one single night...Im looking up more things about them right now and trying to find all the different points as not to be prejudiced to what i think...
Crop Circle Definition: Crop circles are patterns created by the flattening of crops such as wheat, barley, rapeseed (also called "canola"), rye, corn, linseed and soy.
John Lundberg was said to have created an amazing crop circle which i have seen pictures of (i will put them up later)but what i am trying to find is how long it took for him to make it, as if it took only a single night i would be condradicted and maybe forced to think otherwise...but if it took him a long while that it would be more proof that although something like that can happen it probably couldnt happen over night (i will be carefull in saying DEFINETLY)In-fact im having a little bit of a hard time figuring out how long it took so i shall go onto the other points of it and add the other information afterwoulds (believe me ill find it)
Paranormal Possiblitys:
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extraterrestrials.[26][27][28][29]
According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops.[29] Minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, which suggests a very complex delivery system. [2] Bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses too have been found, suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities. [3]
Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena, such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.[30]
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief systems incorporating crop circles, including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing.[4][29][31] New Age followers sometimes gather at crop-circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.[16]
UFOs and other lights in the sky have been reported in connection with many crop-circle sites, leading to them becoming associated with UFOs and aliens. Some people claim to have seen images of UFOs forming crop circles or overflying them, though photographs have been dismissed by skeptics as being indistinct or clear hoaxes.
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extraterrestrials.[26][27][28][29]
According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops.[29] Minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, which suggests a very complex delivery system. [2] Bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses too have been found, suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities. [3]
Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena, such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.[30]
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief systems incorporating crop circles, including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing.[4][29][31] New Age followers sometimes gather at crop-circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.[16]
UFOs and other lights in the sky have been reported in connection with many crop-circle sites, leading to them becoming associated with UFOs and aliens. Some people claim to have seen images of UFOs forming crop circles or overflying them, though photographs have been dismissed by skeptics as being indistinct or clear hoaxes
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extraterrestrials.[26][27][28][29]
According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops.[29] Minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, which suggests a very complex delivery system. [2] Bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses too have been found, suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities. [3]
Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena, such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.[30]
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief systems incorporating crop circles, including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing.[4][29][31] New Age followers sometimes gather at crop-circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.[16]
This i belive is the one Charles created....i still havent found out how long it took but i will soon.
I know many of the arguments against crop circles and many for but one thing i cant get my mind around is how is it HUMANLY possible to make such intricate, beautiful amazing designs in just one single night...Im looking up more things about them right now and trying to find all the different points as not to be prejudiced to what i think...
Crop Circle Definition: Crop circles are patterns created by the flattening of crops such as wheat, barley, rapeseed (also called "canola"), rye, corn, linseed and soy.
John Lundberg was said to have created an amazing crop circle which i have seen pictures of (i will put them up later)but what i am trying to find is how long it took for him to make it, as if it took only a single night i would be condradicted and maybe forced to think otherwise...but if it took him a long while that it would be more proof that although something like that can happen it probably couldnt happen over night (i will be carefull in saying DEFINETLY)In-fact im having a little bit of a hard time figuring out how long it took so i shall go onto the other points of it and add the other information afterwoulds (believe me ill find it)
Paranormal Possiblitys:
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extraterrestrials.[26][27][28][29]
According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops.[29] Minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, which suggests a very complex delivery system. [2] Bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses too have been found, suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities. [3]
Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena, such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.[30]
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief systems incorporating crop circles, including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing.[4][29][31] New Age followers sometimes gather at crop-circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.[16]
UFOs and other lights in the sky have been reported in connection with many crop-circle sites, leading to them becoming associated with UFOs and aliens. Some people claim to have seen images of UFOs forming crop circles or overflying them, though photographs have been dismissed by skeptics as being indistinct or clear hoaxes.
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extraterrestrials.[26][27][28][29]
According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops.[29] Minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, which suggests a very complex delivery system. [2] Bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses too have been found, suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities. [3]
Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena, such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.[30]
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief systems incorporating crop circles, including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing.[4][29][31] New Age followers sometimes gather at crop-circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.[16]
UFOs and other lights in the sky have been reported in connection with many crop-circle sites, leading to them becoming associated with UFOs and aliens. Some people claim to have seen images of UFOs forming crop circles or overflying them, though photographs have been dismissed by skeptics as being indistinct or clear hoaxes
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of various paranormal and fringe beliefs, ranging from the hypothesis that they are created by freak meteorological phenomena to the belief that they represent messages from extraterrestrials.[26][27][28][29]
According to material published by the BLT institute, anomalies found at some circle sites in England and the US are consistent with them having been created when localized columns of ionized air (dubbed plasma vortices/vortexes) form over standing crops.[29] Minuscule spheres of magnetic iron have also been found, distributed either around the perimeter of the circle or linearly, which suggests a very complex delivery system. [2] Bent or extended nodes in the stems of cereal grasses too have been found, suggesting that the crop has been subjected to a very rapid electromagnetic burst, causing the moisture inside the stems to expand, stretching or bending the nodes to almost three times their length. Holes have been found in the nodes, suggesting a rapid microwave burst, causing the moisture to turn into steam, which then forces its way out, leaving expulsion cavities. [3]
Other hypotheses attribute them to atmospheric phenomena, such as freak tornadoes or ball lightning.[30]
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led to many New Age belief systems incorporating crop circles, including the beliefs that they are formed in relation to ley lines and that they give off energy that can be detected through dowsing.[4][29][31] New Age followers sometimes gather at crop-circle sites in order to meditate, or because they believe that they can use the circle in order to contact spirits.[16]
This i belive is the one Charles created....i still havent found out how long it took but i will soon.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Ghost footage - Real or Fake...
Here is some "ghost footage"...the first time i looked at it i was really suprised and thought it was real. But then i looked at a few things...for instance the fact that the face is white and the hands are skin color, and the face looked like a halloween mask I once saw. When the door opened by itself that did in a sense freak me out as if it didnt have the actually footage of the i would have believed it all. But deicde for yourself and comment PLEASE!!! My fellow paranormal investigator (:-p) www.ghostly-unknown.blogspot.com also put this video up and said her views...check it out
Paranormal Ghosts...
Ghosts as we call them are known to be spirits which have died and are now inbetween worlds either trying to get to heaven or trying to help someone still on earth. In books hauntings are described like evil beings who try and kill everyone as they want to create suspense for the readers but for me the real suspense is when your reading something that really happened. Sometimes the thought of ghosts really scare's me but all the time my curiosity overcombs my fear wanting to know why there here? who were they? is it true? there are so many questions I ask myself about ghosts every day...but i really truly know that they are real...sometimes you can just know if there real and really feel it which is what i feel.
Yesterday me and my two friends were in my friends house...it's a big old house which nuns used to live in. As we are all fascinated by ghosts we tried to contact ghosts through the glass method in her room. We felt nothing and nothing happened... The next day we thought we would try the same thing in the attic, we put the glass down and began...we all began to feel really strange and we thought of all the things that could go wrong...the open window, the door where someone could easily lock us in the objects which could be thrown...we tried to open the door but it was jammed...we were so scared someone pushed open the door from the outside and we rushed downstairs. Although nothing really happened in there we all felt as though it had been a warning that if we tried again there would be consequences.
I've always wished to experience a ghost. I'd heard many stories and believed them but i always wanted to testify for myself. There is something about ghosts which just makes you want to know everything...makes you want to discover and read more about it so on this blog whatever i find ill post for you to see.
Ill continue this later
Yesterday me and my two friends were in my friends house...it's a big old house which nuns used to live in. As we are all fascinated by ghosts we tried to contact ghosts through the glass method in her room. We felt nothing and nothing happened... The next day we thought we would try the same thing in the attic, we put the glass down and began...we all began to feel really strange and we thought of all the things that could go wrong...the open window, the door where someone could easily lock us in the objects which could be thrown...we tried to open the door but it was jammed...we were so scared someone pushed open the door from the outside and we rushed downstairs. Although nothing really happened in there we all felt as though it had been a warning that if we tried again there would be consequences.
I've always wished to experience a ghost. I'd heard many stories and believed them but i always wanted to testify for myself. There is something about ghosts which just makes you want to know everything...makes you want to discover and read more about it so on this blog whatever i find ill post for you to see.
Ill continue this later
The Berini Hauntings
The poltergeist experiences, later named The Berini Hauntings by paranormal researchers, started shortly after Joe Berini moved his wife and two of her children from a former marriage into his ancestral New England home in the late 1970s. Unbeknownst to the family then, the home had its own history of mystery, which would unfold, benignly at first, then into horrifying experiences that would drive them from their home in search of help.
Their first otherworldly visitor was a little girl whose voice penetrated this dimension one evening in May, 1979, and declared to Rose, “Mama, mama, this is Serena.” Neither Joe nor Rose knew of any girl in the family’s past by the name of Serena—at least then. What they did come to know soon enough was that when Serena visited them, something significant was about to happen to the family, usually of dire consequences. After Serena’s first visit, their daughter Daisy went to the doctors to have her tonsils taken out, except during the operation there were complications, which resulted in her heart stopping, and she nearly perished. The timing of Serena’s visit and Daisy’s near death experience did not go unnoticed by the Berinis.
Serena’s visit to the family also coincided with the stroke of Joe’s grandmother and a night in November before the elderly woman passed away. Her connection to the family seemed strong as Joe remembers waking up to Serena’s voice to find his wife choking next to him in her sleep. After shaking her awake, she shares with him that her ex-husband was choking her in her dream.
Children seemed to be the theme early on in the Berini hauntings and though there was a lull from late 1979 to March 1981, another child made an appearance to Rose. A little boy, dressed fully in white, was roaming her upstairs hall. Like Serena, these were not frightening experiences and she described them to researchers as, “A very peaceful experience.” Unlike Serena whose mission seems to have been to warn the family of danger, this young boy seemed to be searching for an object. The boy, witnessed by Joe, was seen entering each bedroom then settled on the floor of the hallway in search of something, sight unseen. Curious, Joe later pulled up the floorboards and found a medallion of the Virgin Mary.
Through family inquiry, the Berini family learned that Joe’s father, Carlos, had two younger siblings that had died in the house. There was Serena, who had passed away at the tender age of five, and a young boy by the name of Giorgio, who was gone at eight.
What I find interesting here is that there wasn’t a family investigation into these tragedies. One child is tragic, but two is suspicious. The fact that both chose to haunt the ancestral home is very unusual. Had these children been killed? And if so, by whom? Ịt was unlikely the older brother could have done it because he was relatively young himself. The father? Joe heard the little boy say to him on one occasion, “My oldest brother is the only one who can help me.” What did he mean? Help him from what? That very sentence was the beginning of the terror. It was shortly thereafter this statement that objects started to move in unpredictable fashion with phones flying, doors slamming open and shut and objects being yanked from Rose’s hands.
This turn of events led the Berinis in search of spiritual help. They asked two priests to come and bless the house, which they did with prayers and holy oil. There was a quiet spell after the rituals but it wasn’t for long.
The entity that descended upon them shortly after seemed straight from hell, though it once proclaimed itself “A minister of God.” It was a male, hunch-backed figure with oversized feet wearing a black cape. It brought with him fury and intimidation including flying objects, bookcases being moved, and eventually physical attacks. The children were hit on several occasions but Rose took the brunt of the figure’s venom. On one occasion Rose was struck by an opened freezer door but this was mild compared to what was to come.
One evening Rose was yanked from bed at night, suspended in the air, then dropped to the floor. Another night Joe was called back from work to find their bed leaping several feet in the air and Rose cowering in the corner with a crucifix.
The final straw was a carving knife jammed into the kitchen table. The Berinis left the house and again sought spiritual help. The second exorcism seemed to work as the hauntings vanished. It was at this point the family welcomed the Psychical Research Foundation to investigate their claims.
Personal Comment: Through my research of the paranormal, and as I mentioned earlier, it is unusual for a child to haunt a dwelling, let alone two. What causes hauntings is often an attachment to the physical, sudden departure from this life or unfinished business. Something pulled these children back to the physical dimension and also opened the door to the negative entity. From the sounds of it, the grandfather (the children’s father) had already passed. Was he the cloaked figure?
Like most hauntings I guess this haunting will remain a mystery.
This is from http://www.yourghoststories.com/ so thanks for that...:D
Loch Ness
Hi there everyone, here is a quite long thing about nessie so if you dont want to bother reading all that ill tell you what i believe and what evidendce has so far been found....
Well throughout the years millions of pictures have been taken of "nessie" now obviously a lot of these would have been fake...for instance this VERY famous photo.... but in fact this has been proven fake. It is known as the "Surgeon's photo" (1934). British surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson claimed he took the top photograph while driving along the northern shore of Loch Ness. He said he noticed something moving in the water and stopped his car to take a photo. The result is the image you now see above. For decades this photo was considered to be the best evidence of the existence of a sea monster in the Loch. But Wilson himself refused to have his name associated with it. Therefore it came to be known simply as "The Surgeon's Photo."
It wasn't until 1994 that the secret of the image was revealed, when a man named Christian Spurling, shortly before his death at the age of 90, made a confession. Spurling described a plot involving Wilson, himself, and big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell (his stepfather). Wetherell, seeking revenge for having been mocked when he had previously claimed to have found Nessie tracks along the side of the Loch (the tracks turned out to have been made with a dried hippo's foot), dreamed up the hoax. He asked Spurling to make a model of a serpent. Spurling did this by attaching a serpent's head and neck to a toy submarine. T
his model was then photographed in Loch Ness, and the picture given to Wilson, whose job it was to serve as a credible front-man for the hoax.In the original version of the image (bottom) the diminutive size of the Nessie model in relationship to the Loch can be seen. (The dark band along the top of the picture is the opposite side of the Loch.) The image given to the media was cropped to hide this perspective, making the "monster" appear larger than it actually was.
his model was then photographed in Loch Ness, and the picture given to Wilson, whose job it was to serve as a credible front-man for the hoax.In the original version of the image (bottom) the diminutive size of the Nessie model in relationship to the Loch can be seen. (The dark band along the top of the picture is the opposite side of the Loch.) The image given to the media was cropped to hide this perspective, making the "monster" appear larger than it actually was.But in my opinion the evidence is to great for there to be nothing there... possibly there isnt any more but there was a few years ago...it could possilbly not exsist at all but i believe differently. Here are a few examples of people who really thought they saw the monster but it didnt turn out so well...For instance sometimes a ship/boat would go over the loch and the wake would seem create movement and small waves which occasionaly looked like humped and tourists who hadnt seen the boat would take the picture and really believe they saw Nessie. Or its possible an odd shaped log may have floated into the middle of the loch and again people would believe that it was nessie... Now those stories i got from a documentory but there are many more...but im not going to say to much because its better for me not to form opinions which i then state as fast which i wouldnt exactly put past myself:P Anyway here is a picture which i believe was taken from underwater of Nessie....
Loch Ness "monster"
The Loch Ness "monster" -- affectionately known as "Nessie" -- is an alleged plesiosaur-like creature living in Loch Ness, a long, deep lake near Inverness, Scotland. Many sightings of the "monster" have been recorded, going back at least as far as St. Columba, the Irish monk who converted most of Scotland to Christianity in the 6th century. Columba apparently converted Nessie, too; for it is said that until he went out on the waters and soothed the beast, she had been a murderess.
The modern legend of Nessie begins in 1934 with Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, who allegedly photographed a plesiosaur-like beast with a long neck emerging out of the murky waters. That photo created quite a fuss. Before the photo, Loch Ness was the stuff of legend and myth. The locals knew the ancient history of the sea serpent. But people came to the lake more to relax than to go on expeditions looking for mythical beasts. After the photo, the scientific experts were called in. First, they examined the photo itself. Could be a plesiosaur. Yes, but it could be a tree trunk, too. Or an otter. Later, there would be explorations by a submarine with high tech sensing devices. Today, we have a full-blown tourist industry said to have generated an estimated $37 million in 1993, complete with submarine rides (about one hundred bucks an hour in 1994) and a multi-media tourist center. Unfortunately, business has slowed down in recent years. In 2007, it was estimated that Nessie tourism brought in an estimated £6 million ($12.2 million) to the Highlands. Some are blaming skepticism and the fact that there have been only two sightings in the first nine months of 2007. There were only three sightings in 2006. A decade ago, ten to twenty sightings a year was common.* The decline in sightings should concern the true believers, given the ubiquity of digital cameras, camera-phones, and the presence of webcams at various places around the lake. Adrian Shine, head of the Loch Ness Project, believes that one reason for the decline in sightings is that people are more skeptical about what they see. “I think we live in a more pragmatic age, and that people are becoming more aware of the sort of illusions that can occur on water,” he said.* If so, there may be hope for our species, after all.
photos and tabloids
There have been other photographs of Nessie, as well. The tabloids will pay good money for a photo of Nessie, and some enterprising souls have camped out for years in hopes of capturing the elusive beast on film. One good photo and they can retire for life! The Smithsonian even has a WWW page on Nessie, where it advocates continued scientific investigation into the matter. According to the Smithsonian,
Even though most scientists believe the likelihood of a monster is small, they keep an open mind as scientists should and wait for concrete proof in the form of skeletal evidence or the actual capture of such a creature.
We suggest...that those individuals interested in such a phenomenon...join the International Society of Cryptozoology, a scientific organization that critically looks at issues involving unknown creatures of unexpected form and size, and subjects them to technical review.
Keep on looking! Of course, this is the same Smithsonian which, in the January 1996 issue of its monthly magazine, ran a highly uncritical article on dowsing. We have come to expect the disingenuous defense of open-mindedness from the tabloids as they exploit our love of mystery and wonder, but we thought the Smithsonian would take a higher road and present empirical studies instead of uncritical wishful thinking. It may be the case that the Smithsonian has found that in order to compete and survive it must cater to the tabloid mentality of the general public and elected officials. What's next? Bigfoot T-shirts as part of their annual membership drive?
sightings and testimonials
In addition to the photographs of Nessie, there have been numerous sightings reported in the testimonials of unquestionably reliable witnesses. How could anyone look at all this "evidence" and dismiss Nessie as a figment of people's imagination, as just another case of pareidolia (another Virgin Mary in the tortilla)? Easy. Let's start with the photographs.
In a story not nearly as fascinating or obscure as the Piltdown hoax, but at least on par with the faked fairy photos that gulled Arthur Conan Doyle, the most famous photo of Nessie as a relative of the long-extinct plesiosaurs was reported to have been faked. David Martin, a zoologist, and Alastair Boyd were members of a scientific project to find Nessie. They are credited by the London Sunday Telegraph [March, 12, 1994] as having dug up the story of the faked photo, which was staged using a toy submarine. Christian Spurling, who died in the fall of 1993, was said to have made a deathbed confession of his role in the prank. The fake photo was not taken by Wilson--his name was used to give the photo stature and integrity--but by Spurling's stepbrother, Ian Wetherell. Ian's father, Marmaduke ("Duke") Wetherell, had been hired by the London Daily Mail to find the monster. Wetherell was a filmmaker who described himself as a "big game hunter." What bigger game could there be than Nessie? Except that the big game was actually a small model of a sea serpent made of plastic wood attached to a 14-inch toy submarine! Actually, the game did get big as the little prank created such a huge fuss that the pranksters decided that the best thing for them to do would be to keep quiet.
Alastair Boyd, mentioned above as one of the researchers who uncovered the photo hoax, claims he made a genuine sighting of Nessie in 1979. His Nessie didn't look like a dinosaur, though. More like a whale, he said. It was at least 20 feet long and he says he saw it roll around in the water. Now, it's not likely that there are any 20-foot otters, but there are 20-foot logs. There are also errors in guessing at the size of things seen in the distance for a few seconds under less than ideal conditions. No matter, Boyd is convinced there are 20-foot long creatures in the loch. One would think they'd be hard to miss.
Whatever Nessie turns out to be, it is very unlikely that she is a plesiosaur. That marine reptile lived about 160 million years ago and has been extinct for 65 million years. Furthermore, Leslie Noè of the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge, UK, who has studied fossils of the long-necked creature, says that "the osteology of the neck makes it absolutely certain that the plesiosaur could not lift its head up swan-like out of the water," which is how Nessie has been described. Noè thinks that the plesiosaur used its long neck to feed on soft-bodied animals living on the sea floor.*
Is it a fish, a wake, a wave?
Since the Loch Ness monster story has been around for more than 1500 years, if there is a monster it is not likely that it is the same monster seen by St. Columba. Or, are we to believe that not only is Nessie very big, she is very old as well, a veritable Methuselah among beasts? In short, there must be more than one monster. I'll leave it to the zoologists to calculate how many monsters are necessary to maintain the species over the years. One report I read claimed that a minimum population of ten creatures would be needed to sustain the population. The same report claims that Loch Ness is incapable of sustaining a predator weighing more than about 300 kg (about 660 pounds) [The Naturalist, winter 1993/94, reported in The Daily Telegraph]. Adrian Shine once said the monster could be a Baltic sturgeon, a primitive fish with a snout and spines (actually ridges of horn-like skin) which can grow up to nine feet long and weigh in at around 450 pounds (actually they can grow much longer and weigh much more than 450 lbs.). This may sound like just another fish story to some, but there is scientific evidence that Nessie is, at best, a big fish in a big lake, or a big wake in a big lake. Shine, who has been studying the Loch Ness story for some twenty-five years, now thinks that what people see when they think they see the "monster" is actually an underwater wave. A similar view has been presented by Luigi Piccardi, an Italian geologist "who is convinced that seismic rumblings far below the famous Scottish lake cause the roiling waves, deep groans and explosive blasts that have for centuries led people to believe that a giant beast lurks below the loch's murky surface ("Mystery unlocked? A scientist says he's solved a monster controversy -- the 'beast' in Loch Ness is merely an illusion created by earthquakes," San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 2001 by Chuck Squatriglia)."*
some bare bone facts
The Naturalist reported on extensive studies of the lake's ecology that indicate that the lake is capable of supporting no more than 30 metric tons of fish. (The food chain of the lake is driven by bacteria, which break down vegetation, rather than algae like most lakes.) Estimating that a group of predators would weigh no more than 10 percent of the total weight of the fish available for them to consume, researchers arrived at the 300-kg (660-lb.) statistic. It strikes me as extremely odd that with all the sophisticated technology, the submarines, and the thousands of voyeurs that after all these years we still don't have a single specimen. We don't have a carcass; we don't even have a bone to examine. With at least ten of these huge monsters swimming around in the lake at any given time, you'd think that there would be at least one unambiguous sighting by now. You would think so, that is, unless you want to keep the hoax/myth/legend alive. I can't deny that there are good economic reasons for keeping the Loch Ness monster myth alive. It's good for tourism. And there are all those "scientific" investigations to be paid for with government funds and private donations: full employment for cryptozoologists. Then, of course, there is all that film sold to photographers in search of The Big One. But tourism grew out of the myth, not the other way around. This story would be told with or without multi-media centers and gift shops full of Nessie mementos.
Besides the photo which Mr. Boyd and others have exposed as a fake, there are many other photos of Nessie to consider. Not all photos of Nessie are fakes. Some are genuine photos of the lake. These photos are always very gray and grainy, taken of murky waters with lots of shadows and outlines. There is no question that in some of these there does appear to be a form which could be taken for a sea serpent. The form could also be taken for a log, a shadow on a wave, a wave itself, driftwood, or flotsam. Anyone who has traveled around Loch Ness will not be disappointed in the variety of forms which one will see when looking out upon the waters. The lake is very long, and on the day I was there it was very turbulent, even though the day was a rather pleasant one as far as Scottish summer days go. Obviously, since I was there for only one day, I had not come to Loch Ness to do any serious research into the monster. I'll confess that I didn't even bother to stop in Drumnadrochit to take in the Loch Ness Monster Exhibit, which, according to Fodor's guide book to Scotland, "presents the facts and the fakes."
I was on vacation, traveling with my wife, daughter, future son-in-law, and a dear friend. We headed down the B862, which affords intermittent views of the lake from the east side. It was a pleasant drive among moors and conifer spikes, but nothing spectacular in a land of glorious spectacles. The drive northward on the west bank along the A82 takes you right along the lake in many places and past the famous Urquhart castle, a "favorite monster-watching spot" (Fodor's).
Urquhart is on the tourist bus trail and gets more than its share of visitors. I had wanted to stop there and take advantage of its excellent location for monster watching but I couldn't get into the parking lot. I drove north past the castle, looking for a place to turn around, and after many miles finally found one. I drove south, past the castle again, as the parking lot guard waved me on by the castle: the lot was still full. I drove for miles looking for a place to turn around again, finally found one, and made a third pass with the same result. Was it a sign from Nessie? We had to do most of our viewing of Loch Ness from the road. While we didn't see any monsters that day, I still have a vivid memory of one of Scotland's longest (24 miles) and deepest lakes (750, 800, or 900 ft. in places, depending on which source you pick). I have no doubt that anyone who stared across those murky, wavy, shadowy waters would see many things that could be Nessie. I don't doubt that many, if not most, of the thousands of witnesses who testify to having seen Nessie are honest, decent folk who have interpreted their perceptions according to their wishes. They have come to the lakeside and they have been blessed with a visitation! They are truly special and their lives are now marked forever as unique. Best of all: they have a story to tell for the rest of their lives. In many ways they are like the young lady who declared that the highlight of her life was when she saw music icon Michael Jackson being whisked through a department store: "it was like seeing a UFO," she declared! I'll bet she'll be telling the story of her Michael Jackson sighting for years to come. Who knows to what epic proportions the young lady's tale might grow? Perhaps it will grow as big as Loch Ness itself, like the legend of Nessie.
postscript July 31, 2003
The BBC claims it has proved that Nessie the plesiosaur (a marine reptile) does not exist. What they did was use satellite navigation technology to aim 600 separate sonar beams through Loch Ness to ensure that none of the loch was missed and found no trace of the monster. The research team hoped their instruments would pick up the air in Nessie's lungs as it reflected a distorted signal back to the sonar sensors. The only signal they got was from their test buoy moored several meters below the surface.
"We went from shoreline to shoreline, top to bottom on this one, we have covered everything in this loch and we saw no signs of any large living animal in the loch," said Ian Florence, one of the specialists who carried out the survey for the BBC.* The show, called Searching For The Loch Ness Monster, was made for BBC One.
Will this end the belief in Nessie? Don't bet on it.
The Loch Ness "monster" -- affectionately known as "Nessie" -- is an alleged plesiosaur-like creature living in Loch Ness, a long, deep lake near Inverness, Scotland. Many sightings of the "monster" have been recorded, going back at least as far as St. Columba, the Irish monk who converted most of Scotland to Christianity in the 6th century. Columba apparently converted Nessie, too; for it is said that until he went out on the waters and soothed the beast, she had been a murderess.
The modern legend of Nessie begins in 1934 with Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, who allegedly photographed a plesiosaur-like beast with a long neck emerging out of the murky waters. That photo created quite a fuss. Before the photo, Loch Ness was the stuff of legend and myth. The locals knew the ancient history of the sea serpent. But people came to the lake more to relax than to go on expeditions looking for mythical beasts. After the photo, the scientific experts were called in. First, they examined the photo itself. Could be a plesiosaur. Yes, but it could be a tree trunk, too. Or an otter. Later, there would be explorations by a submarine with high tech sensing devices. Today, we have a full-blown tourist industry said to have generated an estimated $37 million in 1993, complete with submarine rides (about one hundred bucks an hour in 1994) and a multi-media tourist center. Unfortunately, business has slowed down in recent years. In 2007, it was estimated that Nessie tourism brought in an estimated £6 million ($12.2 million) to the Highlands. Some are blaming skepticism and the fact that there have been only two sightings in the first nine months of 2007. There were only three sightings in 2006. A decade ago, ten to twenty sightings a year was common.* The decline in sightings should concern the true believers, given the ubiquity of digital cameras, camera-phones, and the presence of webcams at various places around the lake. Adrian Shine, head of the Loch Ness Project, believes that one reason for the decline in sightings is that people are more skeptical about what they see. “I think we live in a more pragmatic age, and that people are becoming more aware of the sort of illusions that can occur on water,” he said.* If so, there may be hope for our species, after all.
photos and tabloids
There have been other photographs of Nessie, as well. The tabloids will pay good money for a photo of Nessie, and some enterprising souls have camped out for years in hopes of capturing the elusive beast on film. One good photo and they can retire for life! The Smithsonian even has a WWW page on Nessie, where it advocates continued scientific investigation into the matter. According to the Smithsonian,
Even though most scientists believe the likelihood of a monster is small, they keep an open mind as scientists should and wait for concrete proof in the form of skeletal evidence or the actual capture of such a creature.
We suggest...that those individuals interested in such a phenomenon...join the International Society of Cryptozoology, a scientific organization that critically looks at issues involving unknown creatures of unexpected form and size, and subjects them to technical review.
Keep on looking! Of course, this is the same Smithsonian which, in the January 1996 issue of its monthly magazine, ran a highly uncritical article on dowsing. We have come to expect the disingenuous defense of open-mindedness from the tabloids as they exploit our love of mystery and wonder, but we thought the Smithsonian would take a higher road and present empirical studies instead of uncritical wishful thinking. It may be the case that the Smithsonian has found that in order to compete and survive it must cater to the tabloid mentality of the general public and elected officials. What's next? Bigfoot T-shirts as part of their annual membership drive?
sightings and testimonials
In addition to the photographs of Nessie, there have been numerous sightings reported in the testimonials of unquestionably reliable witnesses. How could anyone look at all this "evidence" and dismiss Nessie as a figment of people's imagination, as just another case of pareidolia (another Virgin Mary in the tortilla)? Easy. Let's start with the photographs.
In a story not nearly as fascinating or obscure as the Piltdown hoax, but at least on par with the faked fairy photos that gulled Arthur Conan Doyle, the most famous photo of Nessie as a relative of the long-extinct plesiosaurs was reported to have been faked. David Martin, a zoologist, and Alastair Boyd were members of a scientific project to find Nessie. They are credited by the London Sunday Telegraph [March, 12, 1994] as having dug up the story of the faked photo, which was staged using a toy submarine. Christian Spurling, who died in the fall of 1993, was said to have made a deathbed confession of his role in the prank. The fake photo was not taken by Wilson--his name was used to give the photo stature and integrity--but by Spurling's stepbrother, Ian Wetherell. Ian's father, Marmaduke ("Duke") Wetherell, had been hired by the London Daily Mail to find the monster. Wetherell was a filmmaker who described himself as a "big game hunter." What bigger game could there be than Nessie? Except that the big game was actually a small model of a sea serpent made of plastic wood attached to a 14-inch toy submarine! Actually, the game did get big as the little prank created such a huge fuss that the pranksters decided that the best thing for them to do would be to keep quiet.
Alastair Boyd, mentioned above as one of the researchers who uncovered the photo hoax, claims he made a genuine sighting of Nessie in 1979. His Nessie didn't look like a dinosaur, though. More like a whale, he said. It was at least 20 feet long and he says he saw it roll around in the water. Now, it's not likely that there are any 20-foot otters, but there are 20-foot logs. There are also errors in guessing at the size of things seen in the distance for a few seconds under less than ideal conditions. No matter, Boyd is convinced there are 20-foot long creatures in the loch. One would think they'd be hard to miss.
Whatever Nessie turns out to be, it is very unlikely that she is a plesiosaur. That marine reptile lived about 160 million years ago and has been extinct for 65 million years. Furthermore, Leslie Noè of the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge, UK, who has studied fossils of the long-necked creature, says that "the osteology of the neck makes it absolutely certain that the plesiosaur could not lift its head up swan-like out of the water," which is how Nessie has been described. Noè thinks that the plesiosaur used its long neck to feed on soft-bodied animals living on the sea floor.*
Is it a fish, a wake, a wave?
Since the Loch Ness monster story has been around for more than 1500 years, if there is a monster it is not likely that it is the same monster seen by St. Columba. Or, are we to believe that not only is Nessie very big, she is very old as well, a veritable Methuselah among beasts? In short, there must be more than one monster. I'll leave it to the zoologists to calculate how many monsters are necessary to maintain the species over the years. One report I read claimed that a minimum population of ten creatures would be needed to sustain the population. The same report claims that Loch Ness is incapable of sustaining a predator weighing more than about 300 kg (about 660 pounds) [The Naturalist, winter 1993/94, reported in The Daily Telegraph]. Adrian Shine once said the monster could be a Baltic sturgeon, a primitive fish with a snout and spines (actually ridges of horn-like skin) which can grow up to nine feet long and weigh in at around 450 pounds (actually they can grow much longer and weigh much more than 450 lbs.). This may sound like just another fish story to some, but there is scientific evidence that Nessie is, at best, a big fish in a big lake, or a big wake in a big lake. Shine, who has been studying the Loch Ness story for some twenty-five years, now thinks that what people see when they think they see the "monster" is actually an underwater wave. A similar view has been presented by Luigi Piccardi, an Italian geologist "who is convinced that seismic rumblings far below the famous Scottish lake cause the roiling waves, deep groans and explosive blasts that have for centuries led people to believe that a giant beast lurks below the loch's murky surface ("Mystery unlocked? A scientist says he's solved a monster controversy -- the 'beast' in Loch Ness is merely an illusion created by earthquakes," San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 2001 by Chuck Squatriglia)."*
some bare bone facts
The Naturalist reported on extensive studies of the lake's ecology that indicate that the lake is capable of supporting no more than 30 metric tons of fish. (The food chain of the lake is driven by bacteria, which break down vegetation, rather than algae like most lakes.) Estimating that a group of predators would weigh no more than 10 percent of the total weight of the fish available for them to consume, researchers arrived at the 300-kg (660-lb.) statistic. It strikes me as extremely odd that with all the sophisticated technology, the submarines, and the thousands of voyeurs that after all these years we still don't have a single specimen. We don't have a carcass; we don't even have a bone to examine. With at least ten of these huge monsters swimming around in the lake at any given time, you'd think that there would be at least one unambiguous sighting by now. You would think so, that is, unless you want to keep the hoax/myth/legend alive. I can't deny that there are good economic reasons for keeping the Loch Ness monster myth alive. It's good for tourism. And there are all those "scientific" investigations to be paid for with government funds and private donations: full employment for cryptozoologists. Then, of course, there is all that film sold to photographers in search of The Big One. But tourism grew out of the myth, not the other way around. This story would be told with or without multi-media centers and gift shops full of Nessie mementos.
Besides the photo which Mr. Boyd and others have exposed as a fake, there are many other photos of Nessie to consider. Not all photos of Nessie are fakes. Some are genuine photos of the lake. These photos are always very gray and grainy, taken of murky waters with lots of shadows and outlines. There is no question that in some of these there does appear to be a form which could be taken for a sea serpent. The form could also be taken for a log, a shadow on a wave, a wave itself, driftwood, or flotsam. Anyone who has traveled around Loch Ness will not be disappointed in the variety of forms which one will see when looking out upon the waters. The lake is very long, and on the day I was there it was very turbulent, even though the day was a rather pleasant one as far as Scottish summer days go. Obviously, since I was there for only one day, I had not come to Loch Ness to do any serious research into the monster. I'll confess that I didn't even bother to stop in Drumnadrochit to take in the Loch Ness Monster Exhibit, which, according to Fodor's guide book to Scotland, "presents the facts and the fakes."
I was on vacation, traveling with my wife, daughter, future son-in-law, and a dear friend. We headed down the B862, which affords intermittent views of the lake from the east side. It was a pleasant drive among moors and conifer spikes, but nothing spectacular in a land of glorious spectacles. The drive northward on the west bank along the A82 takes you right along the lake in many places and past the famous Urquhart castle, a "favorite monster-watching spot" (Fodor's).
Urquhart is on the tourist bus trail and gets more than its share of visitors. I had wanted to stop there and take advantage of its excellent location for monster watching but I couldn't get into the parking lot. I drove north past the castle, looking for a place to turn around, and after many miles finally found one. I drove south, past the castle again, as the parking lot guard waved me on by the castle: the lot was still full. I drove for miles looking for a place to turn around again, finally found one, and made a third pass with the same result. Was it a sign from Nessie? We had to do most of our viewing of Loch Ness from the road. While we didn't see any monsters that day, I still have a vivid memory of one of Scotland's longest (24 miles) and deepest lakes (750, 800, or 900 ft. in places, depending on which source you pick). I have no doubt that anyone who stared across those murky, wavy, shadowy waters would see many things that could be Nessie. I don't doubt that many, if not most, of the thousands of witnesses who testify to having seen Nessie are honest, decent folk who have interpreted their perceptions according to their wishes. They have come to the lakeside and they have been blessed with a visitation! They are truly special and their lives are now marked forever as unique. Best of all: they have a story to tell for the rest of their lives. In many ways they are like the young lady who declared that the highlight of her life was when she saw music icon Michael Jackson being whisked through a department store: "it was like seeing a UFO," she declared! I'll bet she'll be telling the story of her Michael Jackson sighting for years to come. Who knows to what epic proportions the young lady's tale might grow? Perhaps it will grow as big as Loch Ness itself, like the legend of Nessie.
postscript July 31, 2003
The BBC claims it has proved that Nessie the plesiosaur (a marine reptile) does not exist. What they did was use satellite navigation technology to aim 600 separate sonar beams through Loch Ness to ensure that none of the loch was missed and found no trace of the monster. The research team hoped their instruments would pick up the air in Nessie's lungs as it reflected a distorted signal back to the sonar sensors. The only signal they got was from their test buoy moored several meters below the surface.
"We went from shoreline to shoreline, top to bottom on this one, we have covered everything in this loch and we saw no signs of any large living animal in the loch," said Ian Florence, one of the specialists who carried out the survey for the BBC.* The show, called Searching For The Loch Ness Monster, was made for BBC One.
Will this end the belief in Nessie? Don't bet on it.
Saturday, 6 June 2009
The Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle
The "Bermuda Triangle" or "Devil's Triangle" is an imaginary area located off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States of America, which is noted for a supposedly high incidence of unexplained disappearances of ships and aircraft. The apexes of the triangle are generally believed to be Bermuda; Miami, Florida; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The US Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name. The US Navy does not believe the Bermuda Triangle exists. It is reported that Lloyd's of London, the world's leading market for specialist insurance, does not charge higher premiums for vessels transiting this heavily traveled area.
The most famous US Navy losses which have occurred in the area popularly known as the Bermuda Triangle are USS Cyclops in March 1918 and the aircraft of Flight 19 in December 1945. The ship probably sank in an unexpected storm, and the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean -- no physical traces of them have ever been found. Another well known disappearance is the civilian tanker SS Marine Sulphur Queen carrying bulk molten sulfur which sank in February 1963. Although the wreck of Marine Sulphur Queen has not been located, a life preserver and other floating artifacts were recovered. These disappearances have been used to provide credence to the popular belief in the mystery and purported supernatural qualities of the "Bermuda Triangle."
Since the days of early civilization many thousands of ships have sunk and/or disappeared in waters around the world due to navigational and other human errors, storms, piracy, fires, and structural/mechanical failures. Aircraft are subject to the same problems, and many of them have crashed at sea around the globe. Often, there were no living witnesses to the sinking or crash, and hence the exact cause of the loss and the location of the lost ship or aircraft are unknown. A large number of pleasure boats travel the waters between Florida and the Bahamas. All too often, crossings are attempted with too small a boat, insufficient knowledge of the area's hazards, and a lack of good seamanship.
To see how common accidents are at sea, you can examine some of the recent accident reports of the National Transportation Safety Board for ships and aircraft. One of the aircraft accident reports concerns an in-flight engine failure and subsequent ditching of a Cessna aircraft near Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas on 13 July 2003. This is the type of accident that would likely have been attributed to mysterious causes in the Bermuda Triangle if there had been no survivors or other eyewitnesses of the crash.
A significant factor with regard to missing vessels in the Bermuda Triangle is a strong ocean current called the Gulf Stream. It is extremely swift and turbulent and can quickly erase evidence of a disaster. The weather also plays its role. Prior to the development of telegraph, radio and radar, sailors did not know a storm or hurricane was nearby until it appeared on the horizon. For example, the Continental Navy sloop Saratoga was lost off the Bahamas in such a storm with all her crew on 18 March 1781. Many other US Navy ships have been lost at sea in storms around the world. Sudden local thunder storms and water spouts can sometimes spell disaster for mariners and air crews. Finally, the topography of the ocean floor varies from extensive shoals around the islands to some of the deepest marine trenches in the world. With the interaction of the strong currents over the many reefs the topography of the ocean bottom is in a state of flux and the development of new navigational hazards can sometimes be swift.
It has been inaccurately claimed that the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two places on earth at which a magnetic compass points towards true north. Normally a compass will point toward magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of variation changes by as much as 60 degrees at various locations around the World. If this compass variation or error is not compensated for, navigators can find themselves far off course and in deep trouble. Although in the past this compass variation did affect the "Bermuda Triangle" region, due to fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field this has apparently not been the case since the nineteenth century.
We know of no US Government-issued maps that delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle. However, general maps as well as nautical and aviation charts of the general area are widely available in libraries and from commercial map dealers.
My opinion: Many people are saying that scientists have in a sense already found the answer....this is not entirely true. As the scientist say that it is something to do with a magnetic field which of course i believe... but this dosent explain the full reason, the fact that so many planes and ships have crashed and sunk in that section there is no full explanation...
For me it seems like the triangle dosent want its secret to be discovered because although i dont know all the facts at one point someone went over it with a bunch of other planes, boats and camera's and nothing at all happened they just went over with no difficulties so yet this mystery is undiscovered...
For me it seems like the triangle dosent want its secret to be discovered because although i dont know all the facts at one point someone went over it with a bunch of other planes, boats and camera's and nothing at all happened they just went over with no difficulties so yet this mystery is undiscovered...
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