tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18927028229167978892024-02-20T13:50:01.394+02:00The Mythical and Paranormal RealmDedicated to the world of legends, the mythical and the paranormal.Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-23090626041740196842012-12-18T20:54:00.000+02:002012-12-18T21:07:45.064+02:00The Night Marchers of Hawaii<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WqA_yD18pSg/UNC6aS7ls8I/AAAAAAAAAJM/y9PWoI0ntdY/s1600/night-marchers-hawaii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Night Marchers of Hawaii" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WqA_yD18pSg/UNC6aS7ls8I/AAAAAAAAAJM/y9PWoI0ntdY/s1600/night-marchers-hawaii.jpg" title="" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">On certain
nights at sunset and just before dawn, the ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors,
the night marchers or huakai-po, are said to rise from their burial sites and
march through the Hawaiian countryside to battles long past or other sacred
destinations. They may also appear during the day to escort a dying relative to
the spirit world.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Should you
happen across such a march, you will first hear drums in the distance and smell
a rotten stench. Then you will hear a conch shell being blown, as an announcement
of the deathly procession and a warning to get out of the way. You will see
torches that get brighter and brighter as the marchers approach.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Legend says
you must not look at the ghosts as they pass by, as seeing them and being seen
by them spells death. Instead, you must lie down on your stomach and stare at
the ground to avoid eye contact, be quiet and not move. If it is possible, the
best thing to do is to simply leave the area before the procession comes close.
However, if an ancestor of yours is among the marchers and they recognize you,
you need not worry. He or she will call out “Na’u!” (“Mine!”), and none of the
marchers will harm you. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The night marchers
are the vanguard for a sacred chief whom commoners must never lay their eyes upon
– to do so is to invite immediate death.</span></div>
Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-25291172554539702132012-07-18T22:42:00.000+03:002012-07-19T20:25:18.183+03:00Skinwalker - Yee Naaldlooshii - He Who Walks on Four Legs<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D66Spu4nfDs/UAcQ_g2nCfI/AAAAAAAAAIc/UY7FceJf6XE/s1600/skinwalker-yee-naaldlooshii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A skinwalker, or yee naaldlooshii" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D66Spu4nfDs/UAcQ_g2nCfI/AAAAAAAAAIc/UY7FceJf6XE/s1600/skinwalker-yee-naaldlooshii.jpg" title="" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">Skinwalkers
are ancient Navajo monsters who use black magic to turn into animal form and
use that ability for evil. They are men and rarely women who have gained
supernatural power by breaking a cultural taboo.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A shaman gains
the power of a skinwalker, or yee naaldlooshii in the Navajo language, by
renouncing the traditional ways of Navajo magic and adopting the teachings of
the Witchery Way. At the highest level of priesthood, he or she must then make
the final sacrifice of murdering a blood relative: a parent, a sibling, or a
child. With this destruction of their humanity, they have gained the evil power
inherent to the yee naaldlooshii.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A
skinwalker can take the form, speed and strength of any animal it wishes,
depending on what abilities it needs. Many Navajo believe it can even steal the
skin, or body, of a human being; locking eyes with a skinwalker allows it to
immerse itself into your body.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Some say
skinwalkers are easy to recognize in animal form, as they are unable to move
entirely naturally, and some Navajo describe them as distorted and mutated
forms of the animals they are emulating. Furthermore, a skinwalker’s eyes glow
like an animal’s when in human form and appear human when in the form of an
animal.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Many Navajo
can tell stories of encounters with skinwalkers. They will sometimes try to
break inside homes to attack the residents, and will often bang on the walls,
climb onto the roofs and peer inside through windows in strange, animal-like
forms. Skinwalkers are also known to attack cars and cause accidents. And that's not all; the yee naaldlooshii are also believed to be graverobbers and
necrophiliacs.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The yee
naaldlooshii can use magic to curse people and cause suffering and death. They
use a mixture called corpse powder which they blow into their victim’s face.
Soon after, the victim’s tongue turns black, they go into convulsions, and
eventually die. They can also use spit, hair and old clothes to send a curse at
a particular person. Because of this, many Navajo never spit and make sure to
destroy any hair or nail clippings.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Skinwalkers
are agile and fast enough to easily keep up with a speeding car. Some believe
they can read thoughts and make any animal or human noise they want, using
tricks like the cry of an infant to lure victims out of the safety of their
homes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Killing a
skinwalker is very difficult due to their great power. Often people attempting
to shoot one find their guns jammed, and if the rounds do fire, they have no
effect. While the Navajo have magical protections against the yee naaldlooshii,
there is only one certain way to defeat them: if you see a skinwalker and call
it by its true name, it will die.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Skinwalker
lore is no mere children’s tales to the Navajo people. The subject is not open
to discussion, even today, and the Navajo are reluctant to talk about it to
outsiders. After all, a stranger asking questions about skinwalkers just might
be one himself.</span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-47182838452239584232012-07-03T00:18:00.000+03:002012-07-03T00:23:13.806+03:00Kuchisake Onna - The Slit-Mouth Woman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nVo2fAhH7vo/T_IPyyBKmPI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/0G-2IzXq4bg/s1600/kuchisake-onna-slit-mouth-woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kuchisake Onna, or the Slit-Mouth Woman" border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nVo2fAhH7vo/T_IPyyBKmPI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/0G-2IzXq4bg/s320/kuchisake-onna-slit-mouth-woman.jpg" title="" width="240" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB">A long time
ago in Japan, there lived a beautiful and vain woman who was married to a jealous
and violent man, a samurai in most stories. The woman was unfaithful to her
husband and, after discovering her infidelity, the man took a sword and slashed
her mouth from ear to ear, asking “Who will think you are beautiful now?”</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Now her
vengeful spirit wanders the streets of Japan, hiding her mutilated face and
seeking to take her misfortune out on anyone unlucky enough to come across her.
So the legend of Kuchisake Onna, the slit-mouth woman, was born.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In the
1970s, stories began appearing in Japan about a woman with a surgical mask
covering the lower half of her face (not uncommon in Japan) who appeared to
people at night. She would ask the traveler if they thought she was beautiful (“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watashi kirei?</i>”). If they answered in
the negative, she would immediately kill them with a long pair of scissors.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Due to her
unearthly beauty, the victim would usually say yes. The woman would then rip
off her mask, revealing the horrible, gaping wounds marring her face. “How
about now,” she would ask the horrified traveler.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Saying no
resulted in death by scissors, as you would expect. However, the terrified
victim would hardly want to offend this nightmarish creature, and most would
assure her of her beauty. But it would not save them. The Kuchisake Onna would
slit their mouth from ear to ear, making them look just like her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The only
way to be saved was to answer the second question with “so-so” or “average”.
This would confuse the Kuchisake Onna, giving the victim time to escape while
she was lost in thought. Trying to run without this distraction was pointless –
the spirit would simply reappear in front of them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Rumors and
sightings of the Kuchisake Onna chasing children first began to spread in 1979,
which caused real scares in many towns. Police patrols were increased in some
places, and some schools began sending children home in groups escorted by
teachers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The legend
seems to have a basis in reality. In 2007, a coroner found records about a
woman with a torn mouth chasing children. She was hit by a car and killed
during one such chase. This woman was likely the origin of the 1979 panic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The legend
of Kuchisake Onna has survived to the the 21st century, with many variations
popping up in Japan and other countries. For example, in South Korea she
appears with a blood red face mask.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
Kuchisake Onna appears in film in <i>Carved</i> aka <i>A Slit-Mouthed Woman</i>
aka <i>Kuchisake-onna</i> (2007) and its prequel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carved 2</i> aka <i>Kuchisake-Onna 2: The Scissors Massacre</i> aka <i>A
Slit-Mouthed Woman 2</i> aka <i>Kuchisake-onna 2</i> (2008).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-GB">Image by
<a href="http://netjeret.deviantart.com/">Netjeret</a> </span></span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-53556020816657476552012-06-08T03:55:00.000+03:002012-06-08T03:55:13.756+03:00Domovoi, the Hairy Old House Spirit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jPM7amk44XI/T9FMYzn4l6I/AAAAAAAAAIE/UFg0alRmPBI/s1600/domovoi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Domovoi, the Russian house spirit" border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jPM7amk44XI/T9FMYzn4l6I/AAAAAAAAAIE/UFg0alRmPBI/s320/domovoi.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
A Domovoi is a house spirit in Russian folklore, usually
making its living place at the threshold under the entrance, under a stove or
in the attic. It is usually said to resemble a tiny, hairy old man, though it
can sometimes take the appearance of the current or the former owner of the
house - there are stories of neighbours seeing the master of the house out on
the yard tending to his land, when in reality he was asleep in his bed. <span lang="EN-US">The Domovoi can take on other forms
as well, such as a cat, a dog or a snake.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite the vivid descriptions, a Domovoi rarely shows
itself. <span lang="EN-US">Instead, it will
announce its presence through bangs and knocks, as well as moving things around
in a helpful or mischievous manner. </span>In fact, legends say that seeing the
Domovoi is a forewarning of death in the near future.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Russian peasants used to try and win their Domovoi’s favor
by making offerings, such as leaving milk and biscuits or bread in the kitchen
overnight. <span lang="EN-US">When moving to a
new house, they would entice the Domovoi to move with them, as there are many
benefits to its presence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A happy Domovoi is a friendly Domovoi. A spirit that is
satisfied and on good terms with the members of the household acts as the
guardian of the house, helping with chores, feeding the animals and protecting
the residence from robbers. Small messes will get cleaned up when you’re not looking,
plants will stay healthy even if you forget to water them, and intruders will
be in for some nasty surprises. A Domovoi also brings good fortune to the
household in other, more subtle means.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, if you are thinking Domovye sound rather like
house-elves from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harry Potter</i>, you
would be wrong. Respect and keeping good care of the house are essential in
maintaining good relations with the spirit; it will not tolerate lazy layabouts
or rude loudmouths. <span lang="EN-US">Profane
language and disrespectful behavior are surefire ways to get you in its bad
books.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">If you lose
a Domovoi’s favor, it will make its displeasure known in nasty ways. Banging
doors and throwing objects around all night long is just the beginning. The
retaliation will soon escalate to blighting the crops and killing livestock,
and even suffocating members of the family in their sleep.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Ignoring
rules a Domovoi sets will also lead to vengeance. One story tells of woman
whose Domovoi braided her hair every night and told her to never undo the
braid. So, the woman went for thirty years without combing or washing her hair,
until she finally decided to undo and clean it on her wedding night. This was a
serious mistake. The Domovoi became so infuriated it strangled her to death
with her own braid.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Today, the
Domovoi, like other beings of folklore, has mostly faded into myth and legend,
though it is possible people in some remote rural areas still pay tribute to
the spirit of the house.</span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-60667381660314699352012-05-26T22:12:00.000+03:002012-05-26T23:48:52.795+03:00Mary Worth and the Origin of Bloody Mary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rN821Z63p74/T8EqBdh3znI/AAAAAAAAAHM/Ba163Ed-4q4/s1600/mary-worth-and-bloody-mary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bloody Mary - possibly a witch named Mary Worth" border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rN821Z63p74/T8EqBdh3znI/AAAAAAAAAHM/Ba163Ed-4q4/s320/mary-worth-and-bloody-mary.jpg" title="" width="292" /></a></div>
Many people in the US have played ”Bloody Mary”, a popular
children’s game and a test of a courage in slumber parties around the country.
The game involves locking yourself into a dark bathroom with nothing but a
candle, standing in front of the mirror and calling out ”Bloody Mary” three
times. In another version, one must whisper ”I believe in Mary Worth.” This
ritual serves to summon the vengeful witch, Mary Worth, who will then rip out
the summoner’s eyes or claw their face.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is uncertain where the legend originates from, but one
possibility is a witch named Mary Worth who, according to local tradition, lived
on the Old Wagon Road in Chicago during the Civil War. It is said that she used
to kidnap runaway slaves and keep them chained in her barn, doing who knows
what to them in her dark rituals.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The locals eventually became furious enough to take the law
into their own hands and burn Worth at the stake. The legend says her body was
buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery. Doubtful, since an infamous witch would have
never been laid to rest in a Christian cemetery. Instead, she may have been
buried on her farm, as one couple learned the hard way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many decades after Mary Worth’s execution, a farmer and his
wife bought her former property and, fully aware of the place’s history, built
their home on the very foundations of the barn in which Worth practiced her
black arts. Apparently not one to be scared by old legends, the farmer set out
to clear the land for an oat field.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During his work, he came across a square stone and moved it
to the door of the house, figuring it to be a good stepping stone. This proved
to be a mistake. Violent and often dangerous events immediately began to plague
the couple, with the wife finding herself locked in the barn or the house on
multiple occasions and plates crashing on the floor by themselves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the activity worsened, the farmer began to wonder if he
had inadvertently disturbed Mary Worth’s real gravesite. He tried to return the
stone to its original place in an attempt to end the disturbing phenomena, but
he never could find the exact spot. After several years of torment, the house
burned to the ground in 1986, supposedly due to arson.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There were later several failed attempts to build on the
property. A developer managed to eventually raise a group of houses, but the
one nearest to Mary Worth’s barn has since burned down once or even twice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image by <a href="http://skyberry-13.deviantart.com/">Skyberry-13</a></span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-55011790111744215212012-05-23T02:35:00.000+03:002012-05-23T06:49:22.681+03:00Gloria Ramirez, the Toxic Lady<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pzfdQRki_IQ/T7whPF_T-VI/AAAAAAAAAGs/2PEU6bsff3A/s1600/toxic-lady.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Gloria Ramirez, the Toxic Lady" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pzfdQRki_IQ/T7whPF_T-VI/AAAAAAAAAGs/2PEU6bsff3A/s1600/toxic-lady.png" title="" /></a></div>
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<![endif]--> The case of the Toxic Lady is a modern medical mystery that
has found its way into several TV shows including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The X-Files</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grey’s Anatomy</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New Detectives</i>. Although
there have been attempts to explain it, none of the theories put forward manage
to satisfy all the experts that have spent time trying to solve the mystery.</div>
<br />
At 8:15 in the evening on 19th February, 1994, a 31-year-old
woman named Gloria Ramirez, who was suffering from advanced cervical cancer,
was rushed to the emergency room at Riverside General Hospital in California.
She was extremely disoriented, had an abnormal heartbeat and was taking
shallow, rapid breaths.<br />
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<br /></div>
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Efforts to stabilize her began quickly, with the medical
staff administering a variety of treatments, including sedatives and drugs to
stimulate her heart. It soon became evident that Ramirez wasn’t responding to
treatment, so the staff tried to defibrillate her heart. At this point many of
the people present started to notice a strange oily sheen covering her skin and
a garlic-like smell coming from her mouth.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When a nurse named Susan Kane drew a blood sample from
Ramirez’s arm, she noticed an ammonia-like odor coming from the syringe. She
handed it to the respiratory therapist, Maureen Welch, who noticed the same
smell. The syringe was then passed to Dr. Julie Gorchynski, and she saw odd,
manila-colored particles floating around in the blood.</div>
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<br /></div>
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That’s when everything began to dissolve into chaos. Kane
turned towards the door of the ER and collapsed, unconscious. Next Gorchynski
began to feel nauseous. She sat down at the nurse’s desk, complaining
light-headedness – and then passed out and started to convulse. As the two
women were rushed out of the room for treatment, Welch was the third to succumb
to unconsciousness.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Several staff members were now feeling ill, and an emergency
was declared. The ER was evacuated into the parking lot, while a skeleton crew
stayed behind to try and save Ramirez’s life. All their efforts failed. At
8:50, she was pronounced dead.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In total, 23 of the 37 staff members experienced symptoms,
and five were hospitalized. Gorchynski was affected the worst, and she had to
stay in intensive care for two weeks.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The Riverside County hazardous materials team was the first
to arrive on the scene and begin the investigation. They searched the ER
thoroughly, testing for every dangerous substance they had the capability for.
They found nothing. There was no sign of any toxin of any kind.</div>
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<br /></div>
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An autopsy, performed in a sealed room by doctors in airtight
suits, revealed that Gloria Ramirez had died of kidney failure due to her late
stage cancer. However, no toxins were found in her body. Nothing at all that
could explain the mass faintings and the very real physical ailments of the
hospitalized staff members.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Baffled officials blamed the whole incident on mass
hysteria, which is apparently political code for ”Hell if we know.” Many of the
victims were understandably angered by this verdict, especially Gorchynski, who during
her two-week hospitalization stopped breathing repeatedly, contracted hepatitis
and pancreatitis, and developed necrosis of the bone marrow in her knees. She
was crippled for months and needed several surgeries to recover. A rather
impressive host of illnesses to have been caused by a mere delusion.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Scientists at the Forensic Science Center at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory came up with a more sensical theory. They found
evidence of a chemical called dimethyl sulfone (DMSO<sub>2</sub>) in Ramirez’s
blood. DMSO<sub>2</sub> is a reaction product of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO),
which is a solvent cancer patients sometimes use to relieve pain. The reaction
could have been caused by the oxygen administered by the paramedics. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Even though neither chemical is dangerous, the scientists
guessed that some unknown mechanism could have converted the DMSO<sub>2</sub>
into DMSO<sub>4</sub>, a powerful nerve gas that could have caused the symptoms
suffred by the ER staff. The coroner’s office swallowed up the explanation
despite criticism by many other chemists, who called the formation of DMSO<sub>4
</sub> a chemical impossibility. As of
yet, the theory remains unconfirmed.</div>
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<br /></div>
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What happened that night in the Riverside General ER? Was it
the release of poisonous gas by some unknown chemical reaction? If not, what
could knock out almost two dozen people while leaving no trace of itself?</div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-90944223651059666242012-05-15T07:17:00.000+03:002012-05-15T07:17:43.108+03:00The Origin of Tarot Cards<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8km-8QFwwGA/T7HYkZCO4tI/AAAAAAAAAFo/d_CMTM7x8qA/s1600/tarot-cards-death.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A Tarot card depicting Death" border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8km-8QFwwGA/T7HYkZCO4tI/AAAAAAAAAFo/d_CMTM7x8qA/s320/tarot-cards-death.jpeg" title="" width="163" /></a>As all are probably well aware, Tarot cards are commonly
used in divination and occultism. Tarot reading is thought to give the reader
insight into the future and present possibilities of the person seeking advice.
Some believe the cards are guided by a spiritual force, while others think they
help the reader tap into their own subconciousness, or even the collective
unconscious – a universal pool of images, ideas and concepts innate to all
humans and theorized by Carl Jung.<br />
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<br /></div>
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However, Tarot cards were not always used for divination.
When they first appeared in Europe in the 15th century, they were used purely
as playing cards, with apparently no mystical connections. It wasn’t until the
18th century that occultists started widely using them and the divination
systems began to develop.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The first proper Tarot cards were apparently created between
1430 and 1450 in northern Italy, although similar cards were used centuries
earlier. They quickly spread throughout northern Italy and became a popular
game for nobles.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Although widespread occult use of the Tarot didn’t begin
until the 18th century, it was connected to divination as early as the 16th
century. A book written in 1540 outlined a simple method of divination, in
which Tarot cards were used to select an oracle, though they didn’t have any
meaning in themselves.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Certain manuscripts in 1735 and 1750 described a simple
divinatory system for Tarot cards, but their real initiation into the occult
can be traced back to Antoine Court de Gébelin in 1781. He believed that their
origin was in ancient Egypt, and that their symbolism contained within them the
lost knowledge of Egyptian mysticism and magic, hidden in a simple game by
Egyptian priests. De Gébelin also claimed that the Tarot was brought to Europe
by the Romani people (Gypsies), who he believed to have been descendants of the
ancient Egyptians.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered, nothing in them
supported de Gébelin’s theories. However, by then the belief in Tarot cards
originating from ancient Egypt had become firmly entrenched in occult practices
and endured to this day.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In the 19th century,
the famous occultist Eliphas Lévi connected the Tarot to the Kabbalah, the
Jewish system of mysticism. This fueled a new belief that the cards were keys
to the ancient mysteries of the Tree of Life – a belief preserved to this day
in Hermetic Qabalah, a Western mystical tradition that includes elements from
Jewish Kabbalah, astrology, alchemy, pagan religions and Enochian angelic
magic, to name a few.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The Tarot is comprised of archetypical symbolism that crosses
the boundaries of culture and time. This is why it has been linked to almost
every mystical system and religion known to man, and many groups have recognized
it as universal body of knowledge, relevant to any path and belief.</div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-31835297470939909432012-05-10T01:17:00.000+03:002012-05-10T01:29:38.537+03:00Durendal: The Holy Sword of Roland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yjf73vy_VRo/T6rqS_Yec_I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/nAKPcFeo87w/s1600/durendal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The alleged fragment of Durendal in Rocamadour, France" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yjf73vy_VRo/T6rqS_Yec_I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/nAKPcFeo87w/s320/durendal.jpg" title="" width="210" /></a></div>
Durendal was a legendary sword wielded by Roland, a heroic knight
serving under King Charlemagne in the 8th century. Nearly as majestic as the
fabled Excalibur, its blade shone white and stainless, and within its golden
hilt were concealed four sacred relics: a tooth from Saint Peter, the blood of Saint
Basil, strands of hair from Saint Denis, and a piece of the robe worn by Saint
Mary.<br />
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<br /></div>
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In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Song of Roland,</i>
Durendal is shown to be preternaturally sharp and indestructible. The poem
describes how Roland cleaved an armored Saracen soldier in half head to groin,
with only a single swing of the holy sword. The strike even cut into the spine
of the soldier’s horse. Later, Roland attempted to break the sword by striking
it against a rock, but no amount of effort would even scratch it. He only
succeeded in breaking off pieces of the stone itself.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Durendal’s origin is somewhat mysterious. One version of its
legend claims that it once belonged to the greatest warrior of Troy, Hector, and was given to Roland
by the great enchanter Maugris. Other works say that the sword was forged by
Wayland the Smith, the legendary master blacksmith of Norse mythology and
creator of the magical sword Gram. It was then brought by an angel of the Lord
to Charlemagne, who gave it to Roland.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Roland and Durendal went on to conquer numerous territories
for Charlemagne, from the shores of Italy to the hills of Scotland. Their story
came to an end when Roland suffered a defeat at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass at
the border of France and Spain, after a fierce battle to delay a Muslim army
400,000 strong with only 20,000 men in order to cover Charlemagne’s retreat
into France.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Heavily wounded from the battle and on the brink of death,
Roland tried to destroy Durendal to prevent the holy sword from falling into
the hands of the Muslims, creating<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Br%C3%A8che_de_Roland"> La Brèche de Roland</a> with
his futile swings. Once he realized the blade could not be shattered by human
strength, he hid it underneath his body, and died facing the direction of his
enemies in Spain.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Local folklore of the Rocamadour town in France claims that
Roland threw the sword instead of hiding it, and that a fragment of it still
exists embedded into a cliff wall in the village (pictured). However, the local
tourist office says it is a fake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabludlow/">Gabrielle Ludlow</a></span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-69544888771414624752012-05-05T10:39:00.000+03:002012-05-05T13:10:07.116+03:00Pontianak - The Vampire of Malaysian Folklore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pPtTBa2ICYI/T6TYw7fUnbI/AAAAAAAAAE8/i0qGlNoSdgM/s1600/pontianak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pontianak" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pPtTBa2ICYI/T6TYw7fUnbI/AAAAAAAAAE8/i0qGlNoSdgM/s320/pontianak.jpg" title="" width="218" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US">When a
woman dies in childbirth or while pregnant, there is a chance an undead
predator, a Pontianak, will be created, says an old Malaysian legend. According
to the myth, the woman’s spirit may rise from the grave as a vampiric ghost to
prey on the living by night, while it resides inside a banana tree during the
day.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The
Pontianak is especially dangerous to men. It takes the form of a beautiful,
pale-skinned, long-haired woman dressed in white to lure its victim close. When
the unwary male comes near the creature, it suddenly turns into an ugly,
sharp-toothed hag, digs its razor-sharp fingernails into his stomach, and
devours his intestines and blood. Those unfortunate individuals the Pontianak
has a particular grudge against face an even more gruesome fate: the demon rips out
their sexual organs with its nails.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The
Pontianak is said to relish the blood of newborn babies. It may kill the
pregnant mother and eat the fetus, or alternatively attack during childbirth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Some
believe the Pontianak seeks out its prey by sniffing clothes hung out to dry.
That’s why some of the more superstitious Malays never leave any of their
clothing outside overnight.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There are a
few of signs that tell a Pontianak is in the area. In folklore, it usually
makes its presence known through baby cries. If the cry is loud, then the
danger is not immediate – the Pontianak is still far away. However, if the cry
becomes faint, it means the Pontianak is very close. Likewise, a howling dog
indicates a Pontianak is far, while a whimpering one warns of the bloodthirsty
creature’s immediate proximity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When the
Pontianak draws near, its presence is accompanied by a sweet, floral fragrance
that quickly turns into a putrid stench.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There is
only one way to stop this violent creature. If an iron nail is driven into its
neck, it turns back into the woman it used to be. However, if the nail is ever
removed, the Pontianak reverts to its monstrous nature, free to continue
preying on humans. Some legends also state that if one were to tie a red thread
from the banana tree the Pontianak resides in to the foot of one’s bed, the
Pontianak would then become bound to that person’s will.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A popular
Malaysian legend tells of a husband and his pregnant wife who are on their way
back from the man’s hometown when their car breaks down. As this is presumably
before cell phones became common items, the husband decides to walk to the
nearest gas station for help, while the wife stays behind in the car.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">For a
while, everything is normal and uneventful. Then a slow, gnawing dread begins
to creep up the wife's spine – not unexpected, considering she is trapped on a
deserted road in the middle of the night. But all of a sudden she feels very
cold, and the scent of sickly sweet incense fills the air before gradually
turning into a rotten stench.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The woman
is suddenly scared out of her wits by a loud banging on the roof of the car.
The banging becomes more and more aggressive, as if something was trying to coax
her out of the car, and the woman is too terrified to move.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then, a
police car pulls over nearby and the officer begins shouting at her to get out
of the car and walk to him, slowly and carefully, and to not look back under
any circumstances. She manages to overcome her terror enough to do as he says.
But the banging persists and, unable to help herself, she turns around to see
what it is. That’s when she sees a bloodied Pontianak leering at her, banging her
husband’s severed head against the roof of the car.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.spi.com.sg/spi_files/pontianak/main03.htm">More stories regarding the Pontianak</a></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: x-small;">Image by
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/akarkayu_d5000/">akarkayu</a></span></div>
</div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-82693449605872983332012-04-28T17:37:00.000+03:002012-05-05T10:39:59.792+03:00The Mysterious Broadcasts of Number Stations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XMGauJFL7b4/T5wAdM9Q9vI/AAAAAAAAAEw/c_NODiLflYw/s1600/number-stations.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Number Stations" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XMGauJFL7b4/T5wAdM9Q9vI/AAAAAAAAAEw/c_NODiLflYw/s320/number-stations.jpg" title="" width="240" /></a></div>
On certain shortwave radio frequencies, anyone with the
appropriate equipment can hear strange, artificial voices reciting endless strings
of numbers, words, letters, or even Morse code that seemingly make no sense.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These broadcasts usually adhere to strict schedules and are
spoken in a variety of languages. The toneless voices reading these messages
are often female, though sometimes men’s or children’s voices are heard as well.
Occasionally the transmissions contain even weirder elements, such as strange
music or intonation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Radio enthusiasts have dubbed the unexplainable broadcasts
”Number Stations”, and they have been observed at least since World War II.
However, according to the Conet Project, a group that distributes recordings of
these stations, the Number Stations’ transmissions have been going on since
World War I. That would make them some of the oldest radio broadcasts in the
world.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite efforts to track these broadcasts down, nobody has
been able to definitively pinpoint their sources. In the few cases that a
suspected site has been found, no one has been there to meet the explorers. No
radio station or government has claimed responsibility for the stations, and
their purpose remains uncertain. Naturally, many theories have popped up, ranging
from the highly viable to the absurdly fantastical.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The most popular and likely theory is that the Number
Stations are used by various Secret Services to relay orders to operatives
inserted into hostile territories. With powerful enough transmitters, the coded
message could be received anywhere in the world with simple equipment, and only
the agent in possession of the key would be able to decrypt it. Even in today’s
age of computer communications, this would be one of the most foolproof ways of
communicating without leaving traces.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some others speculate that the Number Stations are used by
drug smugglers. After all, drug trafficking operations may well be organized
enough to use such means.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many of the Number Stations are likely explained by spy activity.
However, some are just too weird to be unravelled quite so easily. Among them
are the stations known as UVB-76 and the Backward Music Station.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UVB-76 transmits short, monotonous buzzing sounds around 25
times a minute, and it has been heard constantly, without interruption since at
least 1982 – apart from certain occasions, that is. On Christmas Eve in 1997,
the tone was interrupted for the first time by a Russian voice reciting names
and numbers. A few similar interruptions happened on extremely rare occasions
since then, until the activity suddenly picked up in 2010.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As if that wasn’t mysterious enough, it seems the buzzes are
coming from something placed near a live microphone – distant conversations and
other background noises can often be heard behind the tone. Despite much
speculation, the purpose of UVB-76 is unknown.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Backward Music Station broadcasts unearthly high-pitched
schreeching and grinding noises, with occasional distorted voices. These
signals appear to have multiple sources, with one possibly being in the US and
the other in Europe. Theories include that it may be a highly encrypted message
for spies, or possibly just feedback due to faulty equipment. Nevertheless, its
purpose remains a mystery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The <a href="http://archive.org/details/ird059">Number Station broadcasts</a> recorded by the Conet Project are available freely.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image by Oroi at the German language Wikipedia</span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-24221146217524175452012-04-24T06:02:00.000+03:002012-05-05T10:40:35.172+03:00Devil's Stomping Ground<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M-wv89kHaps/T5YXORSbLBI/AAAAAAAAAEk/auk31KxiMaU/s1600/devils-stomping-ground.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Devil's Stomping Ground" border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M-wv89kHaps/T5YXORSbLBI/AAAAAAAAAEk/auk31KxiMaU/s320/devils-stomping-ground.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
According to stories dating back to the 1800s, a spot in the
woods near Bennett, North Carolina is where the Devil can rise from the depths
of hell and come to earth. There he paces in circles on certain nights,
plotting new horrors to unleash upon mankind and bringing evil into our world.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This place, called the Devil’s Stomping Ground, is a barren,
circular patch of land about 15 feet across. Supposedly, the spot is hostile to
life, as nothing can grow in the circle and animals shy away from it – one visitor’s
dog choked itself on its leash trying to get away from the center. Others claim
to have witnessed small animals dying on its edge. Furthermore, the state’s
Department of Agriculture once analyzed a sample of the soil and determined it
to be completely sterile due to a high salt content.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is said that no one can spend the night inside the Devil’s
Stomping Ground. According to the legend, anyone that tries will find
themselves and their belongings moved outside the circle come morning. The same
applies to items – many locals swear that anything left in the circle overnight
is moved by morning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1998, a sceptical journalist named Ethan Feinsilven
decided to disprove the stories by pitching his tent in the spot and spending
the night there. Indeed, he was able to stay in the circle until morning, but the
night was constantly disturbed by ”ghostly”, ”kind of muffled” footsteps, as he
described them. He came out of the experience conviced that there was indeed
something sinister in the area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One alternative theory states that the spot’s phenomena are
caused vengeful spirits. Native Americans were supposedly massacred and buried
there hundreds of years ago, and their spirits now haunt the place, killing
everything that lingers on their graves for too long.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whether the Devil’s Stomping Ground is a mere myth brought
to life by people’s imaginations or a genuinely otherworldly place is quite
uncertain. If you want to find out for yourself, directions are <a href="http://greensboro.greensboring.com/2011/10/devils-tramping-grounds.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/drjason/">opus2008</a></span> </div>
</div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-64263393651441600952012-04-16T23:45:00.000+03:002012-04-17T01:43:15.576+03:00The Cursed Devil's Tree<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5UjRosS1oM8/T4yD8-uNokI/AAAAAAAAAEY/PNECmmWk_3I/s1600/devils-tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Devil's Tree in Bernard's Township, New Jersey" border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5UjRosS1oM8/T4yD8-uNokI/AAAAAAAAAEY/PNECmmWk_3I/s320/devils-tree.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
Standing in Oak Hammock Park in Bernards Township, New
Jersey is an unusual and sinister oak tree, commonly referred to as the Devil’s
Tree. According to local legends, unexplainable things happen near it, and many
deaths and suicides are said to have occurred under its branches.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some people have reported feeling an oppressive, evil
presence near the tree, hearing screams and seeing dark, hooded figures
skulking about. Others claim to have been pursued by a black phantom car that disappears
without a trace as you approach a major road.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Damaging or disrespecting the tree in any way is said to
have severe consequences. Those who so much as make mocking remarks within
hearing range will soon come to harm, possibly by getting into a car accident
or by experiencing a major breakdown.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Strangely enough, when the city ordered the tree cut down to
make way for a public park, the workers’ chainsaws refused to function near it –
but were perfectly fine later. Not about to give up so easily, they brought in
an old-fashioned pull saw made of tempered steel. The attempt failed again; the
teeth broke right off the saw, and the city had no choice but to leave the tree
where it was.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<![endif]-->Why is this innocuous oak such a hub for strange happenings? Some people believe the tree is the property of the Devil
himself and serves as a gateway to hell. It supposedly remains warm to the touch
no matter how cold it is outside, and no snow will fall near it even in the
middle of winter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Others still say that the malevolence around the tree is
caused by the lingering pain and despair of all those who have met their
untimely ends in its vicinity. During colonial times, rebellious slaves may
have been hanged from its branches, and in the Ku Klux Klan’s height of power, the
organization supposedly held meetings and lynchings under it. Yet another
legend states that a man killed his entire family, then walked to the tree and
hanged himself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite the warnings, the Devil’s Tree is scarred by
apparently unsuccessful attempts to cut it down with saws and axes, and it has
at some point been stained by graffiti. What became of those who vandalized
this cursed tree is not known.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownlee/">chrysostom</a></span> </div>
</div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-35394198691341498892012-04-13T04:20:00.000+03:002012-04-15T01:52:04.856+03:00Yuki Onna - Woman of the Snow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HXywlVqaCpU/T4d-TQytyZI/AAAAAAAAADw/-95rDFkC6UU/s1600/yuki-onna-snow-woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Yuki Onna using her icy breath" border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HXywlVqaCpU/T4d-TQytyZI/AAAAAAAAADw/-95rDFkC6UU/s320/yuki-onna-snow-woman.jpg" title="" width="225" /></a></div>
Yuki Onna (literally Snow Woman) is a feminine spirit of
snow and ice in Japanese folklore. Seen in remote areas at night during
snowstorms, she is described as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair
and inhumanly pale, even translucent skin. Some tales depict her as wearing a
white kimono, while in others she appears nude.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yuki Onna floats across the snowy landscape, leaving no
footprints. In fact, in some accounts, she doesn’t have feet at all, a common
characteristic for Japanese ghosts. She might be the ghost of a woman who froze
to death in a snowstorm, or maybe a spirit of the snow itself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite her beauty, Yuki Onna is a deadly entity, ruthlessly
killing unsuspecting humans who cross her path. She often appears to travelers
lost in snowstorms, breathing a gust of frosty air to turn them into frozen
corpses. At other times, she leads them astray to die from exposure. She may
even appear holding a child, and when a well-intentioned individual takes it
from her, they will instantly be frozen solid. Sometimes she tempts men with
sex, only to drain them of life or freeze them to death through a kiss.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yuki Onna does have a softer side. For example, in one
<a href="http://www.pitt.edu/%7Edash/type0703.html#yuki" target="">popular legend</a> she lets a
young boy, Minokichi, go because of his beauty and age, threatening to kill him
if he ever tells anyone about her. A year later, Minokichi marries a beautiful
girl named Oyuki and has many children with her over several years. Strangely,
she does not seem to age at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One night, after the children have gone to bed, Minokichi tells
Oyuki of the time he saw the Snow Woman: "Asleep or awake, that was the only time
that I saw a being as beautiful as you. Of course, she was not a human being;
and I was afraid of her, very much afraid; but she was so white! . . . Indeed,
I have never been sure whether it was a dream that I saw, or the Woman of the
Snow."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oyuki suddenly stands up and bows over him, screaming
"It was I - I - I! Oyuki it was! And I told you then that I would kill you
if you ever said one word about it! . . . But for those children asleep there,
I would kill you this moment! And now you had better take very, very good care
of them; for if ever they have reason to complain of you, I will treat you as
you deserve!"</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then she dissolves into white mist and disappears, never to
be seen again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image by <a href="http://yazukiwolf.deviantart.com/" target="">yazukiwolf</a></span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-9734081440085776292012-04-08T14:38:00.000+03:002012-05-11T11:46:30.366+03:00The Vanishment of Orion Williamson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H6ktFvAie9g/T4F3X4s1-HI/AAAAAAAAADg/_-cRJZEtNnE/s1600/vanishment-of-orion-williamson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Vanishment of Orion Williamson" border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H6ktFvAie9g/T4F3X4s1-HI/AAAAAAAAADg/_-cRJZEtNnE/s320/vanishment-of-orion-williamson.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
Orion Williamson was a farmer who lived with his wife and son in his farmhouse in Selma, Alabama. One sunny July afternoon in 1854, he was sitting on his front porch with his family. As neighbors, Armour Wren and his son James, were passing by, Orion stood up to move his grazing horses to the shade. He briefly stopped to pick up a small stick, which he absently swished back and forth as he walked in the ankle-deep grass.<br />
<br />
Orion waved to his neighbors, took one step, and vanished into thin air.<br />
<br />
Hardly able to believe their eyes, the Williamsons and the Wrens ran to the spot Orion disappeared in and searched for any sign of him. They found none. Most of the grass in the spot was gone too.<br />
<br />
After hours of futile searching, Orion’s shocked family and neighbors went for help. A search party of three hundred men was formed, and they carefully and repeatedly combed every inch of the field. Later, bloodhounds joined the search. No sign of Orion materialized, even though the effort continued well into the night.<br />
<br />
As news of the inexplicable vanishment spread, more volunteers and a team of geologists arrived. They dug up the field to see if the ground was in any way unstable or unusual. There was only solid rock a few feet below the surface. No holes, crevices or cave-ins, nothing that could explain the event.<br />
<br />
Reportedly, Mrs. Williamson and her son could hear Orion’s voice calling for help for weeks afterwards, growing fainter and fainter. Each time they would rush out onto the field, only to find nothing. Gradually, Orion’s voice faded into a mere whisper, then disappeared forever.<br />
<br />
After no amount of searching turned up anything, the judge declared Orion dead.<br />
<br />
The following spring, it is said, a circle of dead grass appeared to mark the spot of the unlucky farmer’s disappearance.<br />
<br />
The German scientist, Maximilian Hern, author of the book <i>Disappearance and Theory Thereof</i>, speculated that Orion walked into a spot of “universal ether”. He believed these places lasted a few seconds and could completely destroy all matter within them. Another scientist theorized a magnetic field had disintegrated Orion’s atomic structure and sent him into another dimension. To me, that sounds even less likely than “goblins did it”.<br />
<br />
Years later, a traveling salesman named McHatten rewrote the Williamson disappearance. In his story, Orion’s name became David Lang, the place changed to Gallatin and the date was moved to 1880.<br />
<br />
Even though the Lang story is fictional apart from the basic facts, it has been presented as true in newspaper aticles and books by authors who didn’t do their homework. Consequently, it is better known than the real vanishment behind it.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-GB">Image by
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/samm4mrox/" target="">Sam T</a> </span></span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-91781388073881273252012-04-06T17:06:00.000+03:002012-04-15T01:52:35.647+03:00Dyatlov Incident<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HXqlxZsx0Mo/T370uc0sWKI/AAAAAAAAACo/Lu6KnAuA4x4/s1600/dyatlov-pass-incident-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Igor Dyatlov, Lyudmila Dublinina and Yuri Yudin." border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HXqlxZsx0Mo/T370uc0sWKI/AAAAAAAAACo/Lu6KnAuA4x4/s320/dyatlov-pass-incident-1.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB">The Dyatlov
Incident is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of modern times. Numerous
theories have been proposed by forensics experts and armchair investigators
alike, but nobody has been able to put forward a satisfying explanation for
what happened in the northern Urals 50 years ago.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">On 23
January 1959, a group of ten people, most of them students or graduates of the
Ural Polytechic Institute, set out on a skiing expedition to the northern Ural
mountains. The eight men and two women arrived by train at the town of Ivdel on
January 25 and continued by truck to the far northern settlement of Vizhai.
From there the group began a trek through the snowy wilderness between them and
their destination, the Otorten mountain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The route
was classed as Category III at that time of the year, which meant the highest
level of difficulty. However, all members of the party were experienced in
cross-country skiing and mountaineering, especially their leader, Igor Dyatlov.
There was nothing unusual in their group undertaking such an expedition. The
plan was for the skiers to return to Vizhai by 12 February and send a telegram
to the Instutute, confirming their safe arrival.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Everything
went as planned until 28 January, when Yuri Yudin suddenly became ill and had
to turn back, leaving the other nine to go on without him. That was the last
time he saw his friends alive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HXJO7ZhlStM/T3703gmbzNI/AAAAAAAAACw/K1XYSY6MDPY/s1600/dyatlov-pass-incident-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The skiers setting up their last camp." border="0" height="217" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HXJO7ZhlStM/T3703gmbzNI/AAAAAAAAACw/K1XYSY6MDPY/s320/dyatlov-pass-incident-2.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB">The
remaining group continued on through the uninhabited lands of the native Mansi
people for the following four days. On 1 February, they began climbing the pass
to Otorten after setting up a base in a woody valley near the river Auspia.
Most likely they intended to make camp for the night on the other side of the
pass. However, worsening weather conditions and decreasing visibility caused
them to deviate west, and they eventually pitched their tent on the slopes of
the mountain Kholat Syakhl.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">It is not
clear why they chose this spot when they could have found shelter from the
harsh elements in a forest just 1.5 kilometers down the mountain. “Dyatlov probably
did not want to lose the distance they had covered, or he decided to practice
camping on the mountain slope,” speculated Yudin later.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The last
diary entries show that the group was in high spirits. They had even produced
their own newspaper, a common Soviet way of bonding.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">When the
telegram failed to arrive on 12 February, no one was overly worried. After all,
a few days’ delay was not unusual on such an expedition. But when there was
still no word from the students several days later, concerned relatives raised
the alarm. On 20 February, the Institute sent out a search party consisting of
teachers and students, followed by the planes and helicopters of the police and
the army.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YKcnVvPgmyM/T371NRuWWcI/AAAAAAAAADA/MAKV_-1Homg/s1600/dyatlov-pass-incident-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The hikers' damaged tent at Dyatlov's Pass." border="0" height="218" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YKcnVvPgmyM/T371NRuWWcI/AAAAAAAAADA/MAKV_-1Homg/s320/dyatlov-pass-incident-3.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB">Rescuers
found the abandoned tent on 26 February. It had been cut open from the inside
with slashes large enough for a person to fit through, and the group’s
belongings were found inside. A set of footprints belonging to nine or eight
people was discovered in the meter-deep snow, leading away from the tent. The
prints had been left by people who had been wearing only socks, a single shoe,
or who were barefoot. No evidence of struggle or the presence of outsiders was
found.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
footprints led 500 meters down the slope toward a nearby forest, where they
disappeared. At the edge of the woods, under a large pine tree, searchers found
two bodies - Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko, shoeless and dressed only
in their underwear - along with the remains of a fire. The branches of the tree
were broken up to the height of five meters, suggesting someone had climbed it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">300 meters
toward the tent, Dyatlov’s body was found lying on his back, looking in the
direction of the camp and clutching a branch. 180 meters further was the body
of Rustem Slobodin, and 150 meters from him lay Zina Kolmogorova. All three
seemed to have been trying to return to the camp.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A criminal
investigation was opened, but authorities failed to find any evidence of foul
play. All five were determined to have died of hypothermia, and while Slobodin
had a small fracture in his skull, it was not considered fatal.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">It was two
months later that the remaining four skiers were found.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The bodies
of Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel, Ludmila Dubinina, Alexander Zolotaryov and
Alexander Kolevatov were found in a ravine 75 meters from the pine tree in the
opposite direction from the camp, covered in four meters of snow. Three of them
had suffered traumatic deaths - Thibeaux-Brignollel’s skull was crushed and Dubunina
and Zolotarev had several broken ribs. Dubunina was also missing her tongue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Despite the
severe injuries, there were no external wounds, and the doctor who examined the
bodies said they couldn’t have been caused by another human. Besides, there was
no evidence of hand-to-hand struggle. Some of the corpses were wrapped in
strips of ripped clothes, apparently taken from the bodies of the first to die.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Initially,
the investigators explored the possibility that the Mansi people had killed the
skiers in retaliation for trespassing on their lands. Such a thing was not unheard
of; in the 1930s, Mansi shamans drowned a female geologist who had climbed a
mountain considered forbidden by the tribe. However, the theory fell flat due
to a complete lack of evidence. The suggestions that the group might have run
into a gang of criminals were also rejected for the same reason.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">No
explanation for the deaths was ever found. Soviet officials determined that the
skiers had died due to an “unknown compelling force”, the investigation was
closed and the files were sent to a secret archive. Access to the area was
restricted for three years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The area
where the group of nine set up their last camp was officially named Dyatlov’s
Pass and the incident became known as the Dyatlov Incident (or the Dyatlov Pass
Incident).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">For over 30
years, there were no new insights into the incident. The case files were
finally declassified in the 1990s. What was found only deepened the mystery.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Tests done
on the bodies and the clothes had revealed a high level of radioactivity, as if
the group had been in contact with radioactive materials or been in a
radioactive area.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Even more
strangely, the files contained reports of “bright flying spheres” in the area
from multiple eyewitnesses, including the weather service and the military. “I
suspected at the time and am almost sure now that these bright flying spheres
had a direct connection to the group’s death,” said the chief investigator, Lev
Ivanov.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Yury
Kuntsevich, who was 12 years old at the time and would later become the head of
the Dyatlov Foundation, an organization based in Yekaterinburg attempting to
solve the mystery, attended five of the skiers’ funerals. Later he recalled: “I
attended the funerals of the first five victims and remember that their faces
looked like they had a deep brown tan.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R7FBn66Bz4M/T372KRdnoxI/AAAAAAAAADY/3GjJJlk39L4/s1600/dyatlov-pass-incident-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="One of the metal fragments Kuntsevich discovered." border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R7FBn66Bz4M/T372KRdnoxI/AAAAAAAAADY/3GjJJlk39L4/s320/dyatlov-pass-incident-4.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB">Yuri Yudin
believed that his friends had stumbled across a secret military testing site
and had either been killed by an experiment gone awry, or been silenced in a
cover-up. Kuntsevich agreed. He led an expedition to the area in 2007 and
discovered a number of metal fragments, which led him to believe the Soviet
military had conducted experiments there at some point. “We can’t say what kind
of military technology was tested, but the catastrophe of 1959 was man-made,”
he said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">What could
have driven nine experienced mountaineers half-dressed to the Siberian winter
and the cold death they must have known would await them? It is likely there
will never be a definitive answer for what really happened to the group in that
remote mountain pass 50 years ago.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">There is a
<a href="http://www.squidoo.com/dyatlov-pass-movie" target="">Dyatlov Pass movie</a> in the works
in which American students return to investigate the incident decades later.</span></div>
</div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-18772400322447047012012-04-03T23:15:00.000+03:002012-05-07T22:29:45.211+03:00Island of the Dolls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZFECVnG8kBA/T3tbA1y2a8I/AAAAAAAAACg/RK_0Bri2l3s/s1600/island-of-the-dolls-La-Isla-de-la-Munecas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Island of the Dolls, called La Isla de la Munecas by locals" border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZFECVnG8kBA/T3tbA1y2a8I/AAAAAAAAACg/RK_0Bri2l3s/s320/island-of-the-dolls-La-Isla-de-la-Munecas.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a>Amid the winding canals of Mexico City’s Xochimilco district,
there is an island with strange inhabitants. So strange, in fact, that they are
quickly becoming infamous worldwide. Hanging from the branches and trunks of
almost every tree on the small island are countless mutilated dolls in various
states of decay, their sightless glass eyes giving visitors the unnerving
feeling of constantly being watched. The place has come to be called La Isla de
la Munecas, the Island of the Dolls.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As you can probably guess, there is a story behind how these
creepy occupants came to the island.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the late 1950s, a man named Don Julian Santana became
weary of his fellow man and began seeking a peaceful refuge away from other
people. At some point, he found a small island south of Mexico City and made up
his mind to settle there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But his solitude was short-lived. The voice of a little girl
who had drowned on the island began whispering to him, he claimed, bearing a
message whose exact contents are up for debate. Soon enough, Julian began
scouring the surroundings for discarded dolls and fishing them from the canals.
People at first thought he was an insane old man, rescuing the dolls in the
belief they were children he could nurse back to health. In truth, he was placing
them all over the island and around his home to appease the spirit he believed
was haunting him. He even traded home grown fruits and vegetables for old
dolls.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2001, Julian’s nephew, Anastasio Velazquez, found him
floating face down in a canal, almost at the exact same spot where the girl who
had been haunting him had died. Julian’s cause of death was determined to be a
heart attack, but some believe he had finally followed the instructions of the
whispering voices and entered the murky waters, never to emerge again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is said that the dolls on the island come to life at
night, moving under their own power and tempting travelers to visit their home
in the dark, deadly waters. True or not, the Island of the Dolls is a peculiar
and inreasingly popular tourist attraction, bringing in daily visitors and the
occasional television program makers.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/esparta/" target="">Esparta Palma</a></span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-40303726828041235602012-03-16T16:29:00.000+02:002012-04-03T23:21:01.202+03:00Nicholas Flamel and the Philosopher's Stone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ku--USCTH_8/T2NIYVGBjvI/AAAAAAAAAB4/Qv_PK-voaJM/s1600/nicholas-flamel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Nicholas Flamel" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ku--USCTH_8/T2NIYVGBjvI/AAAAAAAAAB4/Qv_PK-voaJM/s1600/nicholas-flamel.jpg" title="" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US">Anyone who
has read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone</i> or seen the film based on it knows of Nicholas Flamel, the immortal
alchemist and creator of the Philosopher’s Stone, an alchemical substance
capable of turning base metals into pure gold and granting eternal life. Less
well-known is the fact that Nicholas Flamel was a real historical figure – as was
his quest for the Philosopher’s Stone. This is how his legend goes.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Nicholas Flamel’s Early Life</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Nicholas
Flamel was born somewhere in France in 1330. From early adulthood, he earned
his living as a bookseller, starting from a small </span><span lang="EN-US">stall near the Cathedral of Saint-Jacques la Boucherie in Paris. A
humble trade, but it provided him with the ability to read and write – fairly rare
skills in that day and age.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Flamel’s business grew
over the years, and he bought a house in the old rue de Marivaux. Copyists and
illustrators did their work on the ground floor, and Flamel conducted his business
from there. Somewhere along the line, he met his wife Perenelle, with whom he
would spend the rest of his life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Nicholas Flamel had
acquired some knowledge of the ancient art of alchemy. He dreamed, like many
others, of discovering the Philosopher’s Stone. However, it was not unlimited
gold he was after. Rather, he dreamed of finding the fundamental secrets of nature
through the Stone. In other words, perfect wisdom. He believed the Stone had
already been found and that knowledge of it existed in the hands of unknown
sages. But a small Parisian bookseller had little possibility of getting in
contact with these sages.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The Book</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">One night, Flamel had
a strange dream of an angel appearing to him. The winged and radiant being
presented a book to him and spoke these words: </span><span lang="EN-US">"Look well at this book, Nicholas. At
first you will understand nothing in it - neither you nor any other man. But
one day you will see in it that which no other man will be able to see."
Just as Flamel reached out his hands to receive the book, the dream faded and
he woke up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-bTw_TZ7U8/T20xYY6eb8I/AAAAAAAAACQ/KV5mxfR1Aio/s1600/Nicolas_Flamel_romantique.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Flamel in his study" border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-bTw_TZ7U8/T20xYY6eb8I/AAAAAAAAACQ/KV5mxfR1Aio/s320/Nicolas_Flamel_romantique.jpg" title="" width="189" /></a><span lang="EN-US">Some time afterwards,
Flamel was alone working in his shop when a stranger in desperate need of money
approached him with a book to sell. Flamel immediately recognized it as the
same book the angel had shown him and, without bargaining, paid two florins for
it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The book had a very
old covering of worked copper, engraved with strange diagrams and characters.
Its pages were unlike anything he had encountered before – instead of
parchment, they were made of the bark of young trees and covered with clear
writing done with an iron point. The pages were divided into three groups of
seven and separated by a page containing a diagram unintelligible to Flamel.
The words on the first page named the author of the book: Abraham the Jew,
prince, priest, Levite, astrologer and philosopher. This was followed by
threats and curses against anyone not a priest or a scribe who dared lay their
eyes on it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Due to a combination
of the memory of his vision and his own intuition, Flamel felt strongly that
Abraham the Jew’s book contained secrets of nature, life and death – knowledge he
feared he was not qualified to understand. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Flamel was familiar
with the symbols and writings of alchemists of his day. But the book eluded
him. He copied some of the pages and set them out in his shop, hoping someone
with knowledge of Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah, would be able to help him
understand them. He met with nothing but the laughter and derision of skeptics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The Journey South</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">For 21 years Nicholas
Flamel strove to decipher the mysteries of the book. Unfortunately, no one in
Paris could help him understand it, since parts of it were written in ancient
Hebrew and Jews had recently been driven out of France by persecution. Flamel
knew that many of them had settled in Spain. Traveling was extremely dangerous
those days, however, especially for a solitary person, so Flamel donned a
pilgrim’s attire and made a vow to make a pilgrimage. Pilgrims were ensured a
certain measure of safety in Christian countries, and it also concealed the
real purpose of his journey. Only Perenelle was aware of his true plans.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Unwilling to expose
the entire manuscript to the dangers of traveling, Flamel took with him only a
few carefully copied pages and set out on his quest. After fulfilling his vow
of pilgrimage, Flamel wandered around Spain, trying to make connections with
scholarly Jews. But they were understandably suspicious of Christians. Besides,
he had to remember Perenelle waiting for him, and his shop, which was managed
only by his servants. Finally he was forced to admit defeat and began his
journey home.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At an inn in Leon, he
met by lucky chance a French merchant who introduced him to a Maestro Canches,
an old, learned Jew living in the city. He, too, was reluctant to help the
French bookseller. But then Flamel mentioned the name of Abraham the Jew. It
turned out Abraham was one of the greatest masters who studied the mysteries of
the Kabbalah, and his book had disappeared centuries ago. Tradition said it had
never been destroyed but had been passed from hand to hand, always to those who
were destined to receive it. Maestro Canches had dreamed of finding it all his
life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Canches was able to
translate the few pages Flamel had with him. But they were not enough to reveal
the secret, and Canches immediately made up his mind to accompany Flamel to
Paris. But his extreme age was a problem, and Jews were not even allowed in
France. Regardless, Canches vowed to rise above his physical weakness and to
convert to Christianity. He had been above religions for many years, after all.
And so the two men headed north.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As fate would have it,
Canches’ health became worse and worse the closer they came to Paris. Finally
he fell ill in Orleans and, despite Flamel’s care, died seven days later.
Maestro Canches was buried in the Church of Sante-Croix, and Flamel resumed the
journey alone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The Philosopher’s Stone</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Flamel reached Paris
and found his shop and Perenelle as he had left them. But everything had
changed. Even though Maestro Canches had only translated a few pages, Flamel
was able use that knowledge to decipher the entire book. He spent three more
years completing his knowledge, and at the end of this period he accomplished
something alchemists had been trying to do for centuries – transmutation.
Carefully following the method outlined by Abraham the Jew, he succeeded in
transforming half a pound of mercury into silver, and then into pure gold. It
was accomplished with the Philosopher’s Stone, which involved some strange,
reddish ”projection powder”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Historical records
show that Flamel became inexplicably rich around this time. He and Perenelle
built houses for the poor, founded free hospitals and made donations to
churches. But he didn’t use his newfound wealth to improve his own way of
life. It is said that he achieved the transmutation of his own soul, the
victory of spirit over matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Inevitably, people
became curious about how a humble bookseller could make such generous
donations. Eventually rumors reached the king of France, Charles VI, who
ordered an investigation into the matter. But thanks to Flamel’s cautious and
reticent nature, nothing of interest was found. He never revealed his knowledge
of the Philosopher’s Stone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ma5263Xfgh4/T20wHK2JeII/AAAAAAAAACI/elfHScwtEQc/s1600/flamel-engravings.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nicholas Flamel's tombstone engravings" border="0" height="276" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ma5263Xfgh4/T20wHK2JeII/AAAAAAAAACI/elfHScwtEQc/s320/flamel-engravings.png" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The figures Flamel had carved on his tombstone.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The Death of Nicholas Flamel</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Perenelle died first. Flamel
spent the last years of his life writing books on alchemy and carefully
settling his affairs. He designed his own tombstone, engraved with arcane alchemical
symbols, before dying at the age of 88 – a very old age in the 15th century.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">After Flamel’s death,
rumours of his alchemical powers and discovery of the Philosopher’s Stone began
to spread throughout France and the world. His house was repeatedly ransacked
by greedy opportunists seeking the secrets of his riches, but nothing was ever
found.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
<b><span lang="EN-US">The Fate of Abraham’s Book</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Flamel left his
manuscripts and library to a nephew named Perrier he was very fond of. Nothing
at all is known of Perrier. Some believe he inherited Abraham’s book, learned
the mysteries of the Philosopher’s Stone and spent his life in the obscurity
his uncle prized but wasn’t quite able to maintain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Two centuries passed
before Flamel’s legacy was heard from again. Traces of it resurfaced during the
reign of Louis XIII in the 17th century. A descendant of Flamel named Dubois
reportedly abandoned his ancestor’s reserve and, undoubtedly seeking fame and
prestige,transformed lead balls into gold before the king himself using the
projection powder. As a result of this experiment, the powerful Cardinal de
Richelieu demanded to know how the powder worked. But Dubois, unable to
understand Flamel’s manuscripts or Abraham’s book, could tell him nothing. He
was imprisoned and condemned to death for some past offences, and Richelieu
seized his properties.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It is said that the
cardinal gained possession of the book of Abraham the Jew and built a
laboratory to exploit it. However, the knowledge contained within it proved to
be an insurmountable challenge for him. The book, whose secrets had taken over
20 years of pondering for a sage like Flamel to understand, was not accessible
to a politician like Richelieu. After Richelieu’s death, all traces of the book
were lost, save perhaps for a few illustrations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">The Old Sage</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Later in the 17th
century, Louis XIV sent an archaeologist named Paul Lucas on a scientific
mission to the East. According to his account, while in Broussa, Turkey, Lucas
met a philosopher who spoke almost every known language and who he described as
ageless. The man told him he was a part of a group of seven philosophers who
belonged to no particular country and traveled the world in search of wisdom. According
to him, a man could live for a thousand years if he had knowledge of the
Philosopher’s Stone. He went on to say that there were sages in the world who
possessed such knowledge and kept it to themselves. Nicholas Flamel was one of
them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The man even told
Lucas how Flamel had gained Abraham’s book. Abraham the Jew had been a member
of the group before being betrayed and murdered by a rabbi for his book and
papers. The murderer was sentenced to death not long before the persecution of Jews
in France began, and the book was sold to Flamel by a Jew unaware of its value
and in a hurry to get out of Paris.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Even more amazingly,
the man stated that both Flamel and his wife were alive. They had supposedly faked their
deaths and moved to India, where they still lived.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">True or not, Nicholas
Flamel’s legend certainly excites the imagination. The thought of him still
being alive somewhere in the world along with other ancient sages is an
intriguing one.</span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-7340167766811971662012-03-15T04:43:00.000+02:002012-04-15T01:53:06.704+03:00Dog Deaths on Overtoun Bridge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-084rTvlsCTE/T2FXZnv9lzI/AAAAAAAAABw/CH9dw-1vXpg/s1600/Overtoun_Bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Overtoun Bridge" border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-084rTvlsCTE/T2FXZnv9lzI/AAAAAAAAABw/CH9dw-1vXpg/s320/Overtoun_Bridge.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US">The
Overtoun Bridge, an arch bridge located near Milton, Scotland, over the
Overtoun Burn, has a reputation for strange phenomena. In Celtic mythology,
Overtoun is known as ”the thin place” – a location in which heaven and earth
are reputed to be close. In 1994, a 32-year-old local man named Kevin Moy
unexpectedly threw his baby son to his death from the bridge before attempting
and failing to end his own life the same way. When questioned by the
authorities, Moy said he was sure he was the anti-Christ and that his son was
Satan.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">There is
another mystery related to the Overtoun Bridge: since the 1950s, at least 50
dogs have leapt to their deaths from it. Horrified dog owners have reported
walking their pet over the bridge, when suddenly, without warning, the dog
would jump over the edge to the rocky bottom 50 feet below. Even more
confoundingly, all the deaths have happened at virtually the same spot, and
some surviving dogs are known to have jumped again. Furthermore, most deceased
dogs have been long-nosed breeds, and most deaths have occurred on clear, sunny
days.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">A number of
explanations for the Overtoun Bridge mystery have been proposed. Some have
suggested that the dogs are deliberately committing suicide, maybe due to
picking up on depressed feelings from their owners or the bridge itself. Others
still believe that something only the dogs can sense is spooking them to leap
to their deaths.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In an
attempt to solve the mystery, RSPB researcher David Sexton determined that there
are three main species in the area: mice, squirrels and minks. Canine
psychologist David Sands then conducted an experiment to see which of these scents
dogs find the most attractive. Out of ten dogs, seven went directly for the
mink scent.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Minks have
been breeding rapidly in Britain since the 1950s, which lines up nicely with
the first reported dog deaths. It may be that the dogs are simply driven wild
by the scent of minks and, not knowing of the lethal drop, jump over the wall
in pursuit. This even explains why the incidents have involved long-nosed
breeds on clear, dry days.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But there
is still one thing the scent theory fails to explain. Why do dogs jump from one
specific point? Shouldn’t they be able to smell the minks anywhere on the
bridge? Until this question is answered, the explanation put forward falls short
of being satisfying.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image: <a href="http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/22713" target="">Lairich Rig</a></span></span></div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-9917617275749500432012-03-12T21:29:00.001+02:002012-04-15T01:53:17.562+03:00Aokigahara - The Forest of Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XYXG_hwJ37o/T15O3a7xgII/AAAAAAAAABg/vShg3RiAWkU/s1600/aokigahara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Aokigahara" border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XYXG_hwJ37o/T15O3a7xgII/AAAAAAAAABg/vShg3RiAWkU/s320/aokigahara.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
Aokigahara, or the Sea of Trees, may at first glance seem like a typical forest bordering the famous Mount Fuji. The inside, however, is a completely different story. Described in Wataru Tsurumui’s book <i>The Manual of Suicides</i> as ”the perfect place to die”, Aokigahara has become the world’s second most popular place to commit suicide, right after the Golden Gate Bridge. Over 500 people have already made their last journey into the woods, with 78 bodies discovered in 2002 alone. The problem has reached such magnitudes that the police have mounted signs in the woods urging visitors to reconsider and to think of their families. <br />
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Aokigahara has long been associated with death. Ubasute, the custom of carrying an elderly or infirm relative to a remote location to die, may have been practiced there until the 1800s. Unsurprisingly, the forest is regarded as the most haunted location in Japan, a place where the restless spirits of those who have died in its depths are doomed to howl their suffering forever. It is said that the trees themselves are filled with malevolent energy, seeking to trap unwary wanderers. <br />
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As if the deathly and paranormal associations weren’t enough to unnerve a visitor, Aokigahara’s density and lack of wildlife make it eerily dark and quiet. What’s more, large underground iron deposits render compasses all but useless – there may well be some truth to the stories of travelers being lost in its depths. <br />
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Even in this haunted forest, forest workers have their jobs to do. It’s not very unusual for them come across a partially decomposed corpse hanging from a branch. When this happens, the body is brought to the station and placed into a room with two beds: one for the body, and one for a worker to sleep in. You see, leaving the body alone would unsettle its lonely spirit, causing it to scream through the whole night and move the corpse to the general sleeping quarters. In true Japanese fashion, the unlucky fellow to receive this task is determined through Jan Ken Pon, which English-speakers call rock, paper, scissors.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/54455284@N00" target="">mtzn</a></span>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-61977304622571987432012-03-10T22:12:00.000+02:002012-04-03T23:25:50.735+03:00Jörmungandr, the World Serpent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nlhFGZtr0gM/T14oGHyDUeI/AAAAAAAAABQ/9sar6-bmmLQ/s1600/hel-fenrir-jormungandr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hel, Fenrir and Jörmungandr" border="0" height="238" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nlhFGZtr0gM/T14oGHyDUeI/AAAAAAAAABQ/9sar6-bmmLQ/s320/hel-fenrir-jormungandr.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
In Norse mythology, the serpent Jörmungandr was the son of
Loki, a god of mischief, and the giantess Angrboda. He was once a resident of
Asgard, home of the Æsir, the Norse pantheon. However, he was banished by the
king of the gods, Odin, to the great sea that surrounds the mortal world of
Midgard. Odin had hoped that Jörmungandr would be destroyed by the ocean’s
relentless waves, but instead the serpent began to consume it. The next time he
was sighted, he had grown so large he could encircle the entire planet and bite
his own tail. Consequently, he became known as the Midgard Serpent or the World
Serpent.<br />
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Jörmungandr battled the Æsir many times, and Thor in
particular came to be his hated enemy. The two would clash a total of three
times.</div>
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Thor encountered the World Serpent for the first time while
traveling in Jotunheim, the land of the giants. The king of the giants,
Utgarda-Loki, asked Thor to prove his strength by lifting the king’s cat.
Absolutely confident in his ability to perform such a simple task, Thor
accepted the challenge. To his consternation, however, he couldn’t budge the cat. Even after bringing his full
immortal strength to bear, he was forced to admit defeat having only managed to
lift one of the cat’s paws off the ground. Confronted by the humiliated and
enraged Thor, Utgarda-Loki confessed that the creature Thor had managed to
partially lift was in fact Jörmungandr, disguised by magic.</div>
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The second ecounter occurred when Thor went fishing with the
giant Hymir. Ignoring Hymir’s warnings, Thor rowed out into the open sea and cast his line,
using the head of an ox as bait. Sure enough, Jörmungandr latched on. After a
brief struggle, Thor managed to raise him above the waters and prepared to slay
the great snake. He was evidently still miffed about the cat incident. Fearing the World Serpent, Hymir finally intervened and cut
the line before Thor’s blow could connect, and Jörmungandr sank back into the
depths.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jkkERmsQpDw/T1uyA9r0CjI/AAAAAAAAAAo/8SJixkT4Agw/s1600/thor-and-jormungandr-battle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Thor fighting Jörmungandr during Ragnarök" border="0" height="168" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jkkERmsQpDw/T1uyA9r0CjI/AAAAAAAAAAo/8SJixkT4Agw/s320/thor-and-jormungandr-battle.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a>The third and final meeting between Thor and Jörmungandr is
fated to occur at the apocalyptic battle of Ragnarök, where the Æsir
and their enemies will clash for the final time. Thor succeeds in killing
Jömungandr with his legendary warhammer Mjölnir, but not before being sprayed
by the serpent’s venom. He manages to take nine staggering steps before succumbing
to the poison and falling to the ground, dead.</div>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-56294002944314547752012-03-10T02:46:00.000+02:002012-05-25T01:51:34.747+03:00Bloop - Sounds of a Creature of the Deep?<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gk44VmgxJhA/T1qjYerJU_I/AAAAAAAAAAc/itsus9X1mw0/s1600/bloop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bloop profile" border="0" height="128" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gk44VmgxJhA/T1qjYerJU_I/AAAAAAAAAAc/itsus9X1mw0/s200/bloop.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a>In the 1960s, the US Navy set up an array of underwater microphones around the world to track Soviet submarines. Most of the sounds detected emanate from obvious sources like ships, whales and earthquakes, while some of the more baffling ones can be explained by underwater volcanic activity, ocean currents and the like. However, some signals remain a mystery. Perhaps the most prominent one of those is Bloop. <br />
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In the summer of 1997, the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array recorded an extremely powerful ultra-low frequency sound that ”rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km”. In addition, the nature of the noise made scientists almost certain it came from a living being. The problem was that it was far too powerful to have been made by any creature known on Earth. You can listen to Bloop on <a href="http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/sounds/bloop.html" target="">NOAA’s website</a>.<br />
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The deep, open ocean remains, for all intents and purposes, completely unexplored. It is not much of a stretch of the imagination to think that vast, undiscovered creatures could exist down there. Maybe that’s what Bloop is – sounds of a creature of the deep.Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-45800373063109509162012-03-08T22:30:00.000+02:002012-04-15T01:53:46.389+03:00Mongolian Death Worm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4ALu4N1ObOc/T1kTSlk-pyI/AAAAAAAAAAU/E4xRsVGWMSg/s1600/mongolian-death-worm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Mongolian Death Worm" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4ALu4N1ObOc/T1kTSlk-pyI/AAAAAAAAAAU/E4xRsVGWMSg/s1600/mongolian-death-worm.jpg" title="" /></a></div>
Natives of the Gobi desert have long told tales of the olgoi-khorkhoi, a bright red worm 2 to 5 feet in length resembling a cow’s intestine. The Mongolians fear the creature to the point that merely hearing its name is considered bad luck, which makes gathering information on it difficult. <br />
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The first English mention of the worm, also imaginatively called the Mongolian Death Worm, can be found in Roy Chapman Andrews’ 1926 book<i> On the Trail of Ancient Man</i>. The Mongolian Prime Minister Damdinbazar described it to him in 1922: <br />
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"It is shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor leg and it is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death. It lives in the most desolate parts of the Gobi Desert…" </blockquote>
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After the fall of Communism, the Czech author Ivan Mackerle and his colleagues made friends with a couple of Mongolian nomads who, after a few bottles of vodka, were willing to tell everything they knew about the worm. The nomads said that the worm spits acid that turns all it touches yellow and corroded and that it can instantly kill a person from a distance via electric discharges. They went on to tell a story about a young boy who was followed home by the worm and, upon touching it, died immediately. His parents found the body and saw a trail in the sand leading away. Knowing what had taken their son’s life, they went off to kill the worm. They never returned. <br />
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Many expeditions have been mounted to find the olgoi-khorkhoi. Every one of them came up empty-handed. Its existence remains disputed.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Pieter0024" target="">Pieter0024</a> (at Wikipedia) </span>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1892702822916797889.post-64972305027704385702012-03-07T12:33:00.000+02:002012-04-15T01:54:07.171+03:00Black Eyed Kids<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rff_CXF4xZg/T1c4THsgidI/AAAAAAAAAAM/BLJC18rzAhk/s1600/black-eyed-kids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Black Eyed Kids" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rff_CXF4xZg/T1c4THsgidI/AAAAAAAAAAM/BLJC18rzAhk/s1600/black-eyed-kids.jpg" title="" /></a></div>
Imagine doing whatever it is you do late at night, just before getting ready for bed, when suddenly you hear a knock at the front door. Wary and wondering who it could be at such an hour, you crack the door open and look outside.<br />
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What you see is two or three kids, likely boys, in their early teens or slightly younger – it’s difficult to tell for sure. Their appearances are perfectly nondescript and unremarkable in every way. However, looking at them, you immediately feel that there is something wrong about them, something inhuman that you can’t quite put your finger on.<br />
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One of the kids asks very politely to be let in, maybe to use the bathroom, or the phone, or to have a glass of water. You can’t help but notice that the way he talks seems much too mature and confident for a kid that age. Despite your hesitation, you feel a strange urge to do as the boy tells you. Noticing your increasing apprehension, he becomes more and more insistent, all but demanding to be let in.<br />
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Then you get a look at his eyes. They are pitch black, no sign of irises or pupils. As soon as you realize this, a wave of paralyzing terror hits you. Your instincts are screaming you are about to die. You manage to compose yourself enough to slam the door shut, but the fear and panic stay with you for hours afterwards.<br />
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If you’ve experienced something like this, you may have encountered a phenomenon known as Black Eyed Kids.<br />
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The first report of Black Eyed Kids (or BEKs for short) seems to have been posted on an online newsgroup on January 16, 1998 by a man named Brian Bethel (<a href="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=48b_1208197397">read the original story</a>). Since then similar accounts have shown up on message boards, newsgroups and the like, telling of kids with black eyes asking to be let into houses, cars, even tents. These stories share the same characteristics: the kids’ insistence and need to be allowed inside, and the fear their presence evokes. <a href="http://mythbuster.hubpages.com/hub/The-Black-Eyed-Kids" target="">See here</a> for more accounts.<br />
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What do they want? No one knows. There are no reports on what happens if you let them in. However, I think it is safe to say it’s nothing good.<br />
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What are the Black Eyed Kids? Again, who knows. No one has stuck around long enough to learn of their origins. Anything from vampires to demons and aliens has been suggested. It could very well all be a hoax, a chilling tale that inspired countless others to try their own hand at horror writing. The accounts certainly appear to have elements typical to urban legends. Nevertheless, if I hear knocking at my door at 11 p.m. tonight, I won’t be answering.<br />
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Oh, one more thing. Some reports indicate that BEKs may be more likely to target people who have been made aware of them. So should you find a pair of kids with coal back eyes at your doorstep tonight, do be so kind as to try and keep your body and soul intact long enough to let us know!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/alexanders-world/" target="">luv life</a></span>Delphishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03460652550127120013noreply@blogger.com0