Esoterica: Norfolk Church Ghost, Cry Baby Bridge and Farmer Sees Dead People

Ghostly presence in north Norfolk church

Diane Berthelot pictured in Worstead Church in 1975 with the White Lady behind her

A pub’s name-change in honour of a north Norfolk village’s ghost brought haunting memories flooding back for EDP reader Diane Berthelot.

Mrs Berthelot read about the re-launch of Worstead’s New Inn in the EDP and was thrilled when she saw it was to become The White Lady; celebrating the ghost said to appear in the nearby church every Christmas Eve.

One hot summer’s day 36 years ago, Mrs Berthelot believes she unwittingly had her photo taken with the White Lady while visiting the church, and the EDP article prompted her to get in touch.

While one early account of the ghost’s appearance ends in the witness’s death, Mrs Berthelot, of Hipperson Close, North Walsham, says her own experience was of a healing and peaceful spirit presence.

In 1830 a man is said to have climbed into the church belfry on Christmas Eve, boasting that he would kiss the White Lady if he saw her. When he failed to reappear, his friends followed and found him huddled and terrified. He managed to whisper “I’ve seen her, I’ve seen her,” before dying.

Mrs Berthelot, now 79, says she had never heard of the ghost when she, husband Peter and their 12-year-old son David visited the old weaving village of Worstead on Saturday August 2 1975, during one of their regular holidays in Norfolk from their then home in Essex, and went inside the church to escape the heat.

She had suffered ill health for some time and remembers that she was taking antibiotics for an infection and felt unwell that day. As her husband and son wandered round the empty church taking photos, Mrs Berthelot sat close to the font on a wooden bench and prayed for recovery, unaware that her husband had caught her on camera too. She remembers feeling warm, relaxed and at peace.

Months later, back in Essex, the family and their lodger Barbara decided to have a slide show and view their summer snaps for the first time. They were astounded when Barbara asked: “Who’s that sitting behind you Di?”

Mrs Berthelot said: “I looked up, saw the white figure and my feet started to ‘tingle’. This sensation eventually engulfing the whole of me. It was a pleasant, comforting feeling.”

The following summer Mrs Berthelot says she went back to the church and showed the slide to the late Vicar of Worstead, Rev Pettit, who told them about the legend and said there was talk that the White Lady was a healer who appeared when there was sickness.

For many years Mrs Berthelot said she experienced the same tingling sensation whenever she looked at the photo, although this has since stopped.

“I’ve been back to the church many times since but nothing ever happened again,” she said.

Mrs Berthelot has now presented a copy of her photo to Dennis Gilligan, the new owner of Worstead’s pub, who decided on the name change after finding an ageing newspaper article about the White Lady when he moved into his own home in the village.

Mr Gilligan plans to frame and display Mrs Berthelot’s photo. He suspects the White Lady may have started drifting across to the pub since it was renamed as lights appear to turn themselves on and off without human intervention - and he was recently touched on the shoulder while alone in the cellars. - edp24

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All’s usually quiet on Angelina’s ‘Cry Baby Creek’

We travel to Boxcar Road, where beneath a canopy of shade trees lies Jack Creek and “Cry Baby Bridge.”

According to a column by local historian Bob Bowman, the area is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a woman and her baby who died in an automobile accident after veering off the road and plunging into the creek below.

In the column, Bowman said he was directed to the bridge by a Lufkin woman. She told him visitors who come to the site at night claim they have heard sounds resembling a baby crying. One visitor supposedly found the imprint of a baby’s hand on her auto window after returning from the bridge.

Knowing the legend well, investigator Diane Broussard, who has been hunting ghosts for many years, said she visited “Cry Baby Bridge” one night with her “Ghost Box,” which she said sometimes picks up EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recordings of ghostly voices.

“We sat on the bridge and tried talking to anybody that would talk,” she said. “It was very quiet. The only thing you can hear on the recording is the water running.”

All over the United States, stories similar to Angelina County’s “Cry Baby Bridge” legend circulate today.

A book titled “Cry Baby Bridge,” by Mark Opsasnick, chronicles how the story has been passed around by teens since the 1950s.

In the book, Opsasnick described the most common version of the story known to him as “a horror-filled night from many moons past when a young woman, after engaging in a heated argument with her husband over the nonstop crying of their baby, pulled her car to a stop on the rickety bridge and in one swift, frantic motion inexplicably hurled their newborn child over the bridge railing and into the murky, swirling waters below. In a state of hysteria, the couple drove off, leaving the helpless bawling child for dead in a watery grave.”

Hudson Police Chief Jeff Burns, whose officers patrol the area on occasion at all hours, said they have never reported anything supernatural to him. - lufkindailynews

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Aussie farmer claims property is haunted

Wayne Lund sees dead people. No, he isn’t crazy – or if he is, he isn’t the only one.

He is adamant he has a sixth sense and believes he has discovered the presence of spirits on his Mt Mort property.

It wasn’t until this month, when an Ipswich clairvoyant visited the property, that Mr Lund stopped doubting himself.

“Everyone always tells me I’m nuts – even my wife,” Mr Lund said.

As soon as the psychic, who wishes to remain anonymous, set foot on the property she started trembling and describing the awful fate that she believes met a family on the property in the 1930s.

Clearly disturbed by the images she could see, the clairvoyant claimed a couple, their pregnant daughter and two other young children were murdered.

“Their bodies were dumped. It was horrific,” she said.

Mr Lund was shocked and amazed.

“That’s exactly what I’ve seen and I’ve written it all down,” he told The Queensland Times.

The woman added: “They want to be laid to rest.”

The accused? Well, the clairvoyant believes it was a man of Irish descent who roamed the land and had no motive for the slaying.

Mr Lund said every time he went near the creek on his property he became unsettled, as did the hunters and workers who occasionally crossed the section of his paddock.

“I feel like I’m having a heart attack when I come down here. It’s so real and heartbreaking,” he said.

“No one likes coming down here. They all come back shaking or say it gave them the jeebies.”

Mr Lund has never felt comfortable sharing his story.

That was until a recent request from Ipswich councillor David Pahlke was printed in The Queensland Times, asking for people who have ghost stories from the Ipswich area to come forward.

“I wanted to and still do want to hear from people who have ghost stories so we can start logging them, researching them and talking about them,” Cr Pahlke said.

“Somewhere down the path we might document the ghosts of Ipswich.”

“I’m sure there are many more stories like this out there.” - QT

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This Week On 'Beyond the Edge' Radio - Mark and Debby Constantino

Mark and Debby are a husband and wife paranormal research team specializing in EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena.) They have been married since 1989 and reside in northern Nevada.

They have been blessed enough to have traveled and investigated some of the most haunted locations in the country with some of the most prominent people in the field.

Over the past several years They have been channeling most of our time and effort into receiving EVP on a consistent basis.

Mark and Debby believe there is a process that allows us to reach our loved ones, giving closure to the dead as well as the living. We also believe that EVP is a huge tool that can aid police in crime solving.

They also work with haunted items. Dolls, antiques, almost any object has potential.

Debby has the gift of attracting spirits. She considers herself born with the natural ability to see, feel and hear spirit. She also feels she vibrates on a level to glimpse into the nature realm.

She was born and raised in a haunted house, and to date all the places we reside remain active and will probably stay active. We do believe this is a large reason for our success.

Mark grew up with a strong belief in the Afterlife, but never experienced anything until he met Debby.

Mark and Debby make numerous appearances and lecture at paranormal conferences around the country sharing our thoughts and techniques on how to successfully record for EVP, along with examples of EVP we have recorded over the years. We also participate in live ghost hunts geared specifically to interactive EVP sessions with groups.

Their experience says yes, you can converse with those who have passed on in almost real time.

Our media appearances include the television shows "Dead Famous," “Paranormal State” and "Ghost Adventures" as well as countless radio programs.

Join Eric Altman and Lon Strickler each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go
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Updates: Davie County, NC Cryptid / Arkansas Juvenile Bigfoot

This is a follow up to the Possible Bigfoot Detected - Yadkin River, Davie County, NC post from Thursday, July 28th. I received two emails, one on Friday and the other this morning, that referenced 'something' stalking the same general area. Both witnesses requested to remain anonymous at this time:

Concerning the 'Bigfoot on the Yadkin River in Davie County'. I live several miles up river from where this event took place. I am approximately 4 miles from the Yadkin River but at night on occasion I have heard the tree knocking, the howls but I have never seen one or saw a track. I have a tendency to stay out of the woods at night in the summertime due to copperheads and Poison Ivy.

When I first started hearing the howls it happened on a regular basis from about 10:00P.M. to 1:00A.M. or 2:00 A.M. At first I thought it could have been some type of owl but that didn't match up. One day I was looking at an investigation that had been done in upstate New York when they started to play the howling sounds that had been recorded from a possible Bigfoot encounter and it was exactly like I heard. My dogs also have been at times seriously pissed at something in the woods across the road from my house and keeping them from going after it is almost impossible.

Please do not reveal my name or contact info if you publish this letter. The next time I hear the sounds I will post it on here if you would like for me to.
Best regards.

I received another email today:

I read your piece about an unknown animal or possible Bigfoot in Davie County. I live between Advance, NC and the Yadkin River and I can say that I have experienced related noises that include wood knocking and weird howls. I also caught a glimpse of a large man-like beast in the Eureka Mills area last Fall while canoeing. This thing rose up from the brush in a clearing. I was about 50 ft. from the bank and it was another 50 ft off the shore. It dashed off so quick I barely saw it, but I know it wasn't a deer, bear or human.

I have heard stories of sightings but people around here kind of keep these things quiet. One of my friend's neighbors down the road from me had a heavy metal sliding door ripped off his barn a few months ago. He said that one of his goats was carried off also. He called the local police who came out and saw large footprints in the mud. That incident never made any news. There is something moving up and down the river as far as I'm concerned.

I have received several inquiries from investigators since I posted the original email. The only information I can forward is what I have posted so far. I am not going to release any names or specifics without consent by the witnesses...Lon

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I had also posted the following that referenced a supposed juvenile Bigfoot photographed in Arkansas:

Possible photo of juvenile Bigfoot taken in Arkansas, October 2009

Hello Lon, my name is Louisa Clingan and my cam captured that pic back in Oct of 09. Thank you for posting it on your website. I am including in this e-mail attachments of the enhanced photo using only hue and contrast to bring out more definition. In the inverted pics you can see more structure, ear, hands, fingers and toes. The cam was set in that location to try and catch what was killing the barn cats, chickens and stealing the eggs.

Don't know if you know the background, but the pic was not taken seriously because our bird was in the following pics. You can see that it's not a bird lol. Also I really think that people think that these animals are born 9 feet tall, lol. This is a small juvenile, from what we figured using the reeds, fence line and bottom of the power box for height comparisons, we believe it is no taller than 18" from the top of the head to the ground in the sitting position, hypothetically it would be roughly 36" or 3' in the upright position. The visual that myself and son had on this same property back in 06 was no more that 3 1/2' to 4'.

Well, my friend and associate Sunny Williams thought there was more to this photograph and forwarded the following:

Lon,
I am kind of freaking out over this baby Bigfoot photo. I told you I would do a rendering of what it looks like. Well, the more I sat and stared at the original, the more I realized there was something more to this. I just had a feeling I wasn't seeing it... and then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Working only with shadows and highlights, I found this 'baby face'. Though I have actually seen an adult Bigfoot, this has me blown away.

As I started working on the face, I realized that in the original "enhancements" by someone else, even mine, was completely wrong. It doesn't look like a gorilla baby, nor a chimp baby. It's human! It looks like a human child!

Later....

This is a living being. Now whether it is or isn't a Bigfoot child, I'll leave that up to you.

All I can say is that it wasn't supposed to be there.

I am also working on a colorized version, to enhance and coax out any more details.

Please, please tell me what you think about this. That picture has been prodding me, ever since I laid eyes on it.

NOTE: I have to say, I am speechless as to what this is. Look at the image below and give me your assessment...Lon

Is this an actual juvenile Bigfoot?

Just the Facts? - Anomaly Found On Ocean Floor, Man Drank Wife's Blood and We Don't See Reality

Anomaly Found on Ocean Floor...UFO?

Click for video: Strange anomaly was found during a sonar - UFO or Stonehenge standing on the bottom?

An ocean exploration team led by Swedish researcher Peter Lindberg has found what some are suggesting is a crashed flying saucer. Lindberg's team, which has had success in the past recovering sunken ships and cargo, was using sonar to look for the century-old wreck of a ship that went down carrying several cases of a super-rare champagne. Instead, the team discovered what it claims is a mysterious round object that might (or might not) be extraterrestrial.

Lindberg explained to local media that his crew discovered, on the 300-foot-deep ocean floor between Finland and Sweden, "a large circle, about 60 feet in diameter. You see a lot of weird stuff in this job, but during my 18 years as a professional I have never seen anything like this. The shape is completely round."

Adding to the mystery at the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia, Lindberg said he saw evidence of scars or marks disturbing the environment nearby, suggesting the object somehow moved across the ocean floor to where his team found it.

An ocean exploration team led by Swedish researcher Peter Lindberg has found what some are suggesting is a crashed flying saucer. Lindberg's team, which has had success in the past recovering sunken ships and cargo, was using sonar to look for the century-old wreck of a ship that went down carrying several cases of a super-rare champagne. Instead, the team discovered what it claims is a mysterious round object that might (or might not) be extraterrestrial.

Lindberg explained to local media that his crew discovered, on the 300-foot-deep ocean floor between Finland and Sweden, "a large circle, about 60 feet in diameter. You see a lot of weird stuff in this job, but during my 18 years as a professional I have never seen anything like this. The shape is completely round."

Adding to the mystery at the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia, Lindberg said he saw evidence of scars or marks disturbing the environment nearby, suggesting the object somehow moved across the ocean floor to where his team found it.

It's not clear what to make of this report, or the video of the sonar scan that shows the object, but Swedish tabloids and Internet UFO buffs have had a field day. Some suggest the object is a flying saucer of extraterrestrial origin (and the seafloor scars were dug up when it crashed), though of all the things that might create a round sonar signature, that seems to be among the more outlandish.

It might be a natural feature formation, or possibly a sunken, round man-made object.

Lindberg's claim that the object "is perfectly round" may or may not be accurate; while it looks round from the information so far, the resolution of the sonar image was not high enough to verify that it is indeed round. And while the lines that appear to be leading to (or from) the feature may suggest some sort of movement, it's also possible they have nothing to do with the object. [UFO Battles Captured on Video? Not Likely]

Lindberg himself did not offer an extraterrestrial origin, though he did speculate it might be a "new Stonehenge."

This is not the first time a sunken object has been presented as the solution to a mystery. Take, for example, the famous underwater mystery of the "Bimini Road," a rock formation in the Caribbean near the Bahamas that resembles a road or wall. Many New Agers and conspiracy theorists claimed the rocks are too perfectly shaped to be natural, and either were made by an unknown civilization or are possibly a relic from the lost city of Atlantis.

In fact, geologists have identified the blocks as unusually shaped, but perfectly natural, weathered beach rock.

It's also worth noting that UFOs may not be saucer-shaped. The famous "flying saucer" description of the first UFOhas since been revealed as a reporting error.

Lindberg said his team has neither the interest nor the resources to further investigate the anomaly. Deep ocean research is time-consuming and expensive. If the object were indeed a flying saucer, recovering it could potentially be worth millions or billions of dollars. If it's a natural formation, on the other hand, it would probably be a waste of time and money. - space

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Police reveal details of ‘supernatural’ calls

If you thought the job of a police officer is all about catching the crooks and preventing crime, then think again.

For police are often called to tackle disturbances of a slightly more ‘supernatural’ ilk than your average burglary or bar brawl.

Beds Police have revealed a bizarre list of nearly 40 reports of sightings of UFOs, ghosts, goblins and vampires in the last six years.

The force released details of 39 calls made to its call centre operators since 2006 from its own “X-files” following a Freedom of Information request.

Among the calls logged is one from a Bedfordshire resident claiming that his neighbours are invisible and have been stealing from his flat while another states that there are zombies in his house.

Another called to report strange goings on after claiming to have only six cigarettes left when she had earlier had 15, while one caller wanted officers to help get rid of a ghost called Greg that had been haunting her house for the previous three years and ‘banging around’ every time she wanted to go to sleep.

Among the 13 UFO-related calls was one from a resident concerned that the earth was being invaded by aliens after spotting seven lights in the sky.

And proving that it’s not just police that encounter the supernatural in the course of their duties, a paramedic called for police back-up after encountering a patient rolling around in the middle of the road accusing him of being a ghost.

A spokesman for Beds Police said: “We believe the majority of these were either hoax callers or recorded during the Halloween period about nuisance behaviour.

“Each call has been dealt with on a case by case basis and resourced accordingly.

“Nuisance behaviour is a problem around the Halloween period and can have a detrimental effect on a person’s quality of life. This type of behaviour is cracked down on as it is often the elderly and vulnerable within communities that suffer.

“Anyone caught making hoax calls to the emergency services is dealt with robustly and on occasion they could face a court of law. Anyone who persistently causes nuisance behaviour could also be the subject of a anti social behaviour order.

“Anyone who makes a hoax call is wasting the time of the emergency services who could be dealing with a real emergency where lives could be in danger and also wasting public money. Our advice to hoax callers is simple – don’t make these calls as the police will deal with you through the courts and you could end up with a criminal record which will impact on the rest of your life.” - leightonbuzzardonline

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How long can you live after decapitation?

Imagine yourself with your head in the business end of a guillotine. I know, it’s not the most pleasant of thoughts, but the guillotine was once considered a humane way to kill someone: Just a quick slice and you’re flat-out dead.

But researchers are finding that neurons, the cells that make up the brain, are active even after their blood supply is suddenly cut off. And they may show activity for longer than a minute, according to a Science News report.

So, imagine yourself in the guillotine again. Once that big blade comes swooshing down and your head rolls away, are you still aware? Could you see the world around you? Might you actually experience the horrific reality that is your head removed from your body – for a minute or more?

In an arguably not-so-humane study, Dutch scientists measured the brain activity in mice after slicing off the mice’s heads. What they saw was a quick flash of brain activity immediately following decapitation – then, about 50 seconds later, another ripple of activity, Science News reports.

In a PLoS ONE paper published in January, neuroscientist Anton Coenen and colleagues at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands described this wave of electrical activity in the rat brain occurring 50 seconds after decapitation. The Nijmegen team, which was exploring whether decapitation is a humane way to sacrifice lab animals, wrote that this brain activity seemed to be the ultimate border between life and death. They dubbed the phenomenon the “wave of death.”

But another Dutch scientist, Michel van Putten of the University of Twente, is quite skeptical. He told Science News it’s “completely speculative” that a spike in brain activity is a “wave of death.”

He’s done his own research on nerve cells, which communicate with each other through electrical impulses, and what happens when their oxygen and energy supplies are suddenly disconnected. From Science News:

After an abrupt halt of energy and oxygen supply, the channels stop functioning normally, causing a buildup of positive charge outside the cell. This buildup prompts a big discharge of electrical activity about a minute after starting the simulation — the wave of death.

And, that means the phenomenon is reversible, study co-author Bas-Jan Zandt said.

So, if you got your head chopped off – since your eyes are connected to your brain, and they’re both inside your head – would you have an “off of body experience”? Nobody (alive) really knows. However, if neurons can’t function normally without a blood supply, those sensory signals probably wouldn’t make it from your eyes to your brain.

But you might still be alive. Maybe. And if your head somehow were quickly reconnected to a blood source, you might live to talk about it.

Or, more likely, scream about it.

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Man drank wife's blood for 3 years

This real life incident has the making of a scene from some vampire movie. A 22-year-old woman in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh has told the police that her husband drank her blood for the past three years. "He used to take a syringe and draw blood from my arms," Deepa Ahirwar said. "He would then empty it in a glass and drink it. For three years he did this on a regular basis, threatening me of dire consequences if I revealed this to anyone."

Deepa was married to an agricultural labourer, Mahesh Ahirwar, in Shikarpura village in 2007. A few months after the marriage, Mahesh started drawing blood from his wife's veins and consuming it. He said it made him strong and did not stop even when Deepa was pregnant. It was after she gave birth to a son seven months ago that she started protesting. She told the police that she would feel drained and nauseating after the blood extraction. When she resisted, her husband beat her up.

Earlier this month, Deepa, with the baby in her arms, escaped to her parents' house under the Patera police station area. When she narrated the story to her farmer father, he took her to the local police station to register a case against Mahesh. But the police said that the case was not under their jurisdiction and the matter should be reported to the Hindoriya police station as the victim resided with her husband in that area.

Deepa and her parents took the matter to Hindoriya, where they were directed to the women counseling section. Neither Hindoriya nor Patera registered a case against the absconding Mahesh. When the residents of Shikarpura came to know of Mahesh's deeds, they took up Deepa's cause. The Hindoriya police have now registered an FIR that she was physically tortured by her husband. - timesofindia

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Rare amnesia leaves mother with 17 year memory gap

Naomi Jacobs, 34, woke up in 2008 but believed she was just about to sit her GCSE exams in the summer of 1992.

The last thing she could remember was falling asleep in her bunk bed as a schoolgirl. She was horrified to learn she was living in the 21st century, and was even mother to an 11-year-old boy she did not recognise.

Doctors revealed that Naomi had been under so much stress that part of her brain had simply closed down, erasing many memories of her life.

She was left baffled by the internet, and flummoxed by her mobile phone as she struggled to get to grips with modern life.

Today, three years after waking up in the future, Naomi has finally regained most of her memory, and has written a book about her experiences.

She said: "I fell asleep in 1992 as a bold, brassy, very confident know-it-all 15-year-old, and woke up a 32-year-old single mum living in a council house.

"The last thing I remember was falling asleep in my lower bunk bed, dreaming about a boy in my class.

"When I woke up, I looked in the mirror and had the fright of my life when I saw an old woman with wrinkles staring back at me.

"Then this little boy appeared and started calling me mum. That's when I started to scream.

"I didn't know who he was. I didn't think he was much younger than I was, and I certainly didn't remember giving birth to him.

"I began sobbing uncontrollably.

"To say I was petrified was an understatement. I just wanted my mum. I couldn't get my head around going to bed one night and waking up in a different century."

Naomi, who was a psychology student before her memory loss, was told by doctors that she was suffering from Transient Global Amnesia, a form of memory loss brought on by stress.

The "episodic" part of her memory had completely shut down meaning she had lost all her emotional memories.

However, her semantic memory was still intact so she was able to remember things she had repeated over time such as how to drive.

Slowly she began the difficult task of piecing her life back together by ploughing through years of her diaries and journals.

Naomi added: "At 15, I thought I would have conquered half the planet by the time I was 32.

"It was a massive shock to discover I was just an ordinary, single mum, living in Manchester and driving a battered old Fiat Brava.

"At first, I struggled to leave my home, and venture out into the world - but slowly, with the help of my family, I started to get used to the world again.

"Although it was traumatic, I'm really grateful for being thrown forward through time now.

"I've been able to follow my childhood dream of becoming a writer - and am currently writing my story." - telegraph

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The world we see is not reality

The human brain creates its own version of reality, and the world we see around us is mostly make-believe, according to a top British scientist.

Professor Bruce Hood will explore the limits of the human mind in a series of prestigious lectures for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the oldest independent research body in the world, it was announced yesterday.

The psychologist plans to induce false memories in audience members and use pickpockets to demonstrate how easily people are distracted, in a bid to prove how we have less control over our own decisions and perceptions than we like to imagine.

"A lot of the world is make-believe. We're only aware of a fraction of what's going on," Hood told The (London) Times. "We have this impression of an expansive panorama in front of our eyes, but all we are ever seeing is an area the size of our thumbs at an arm's distance. The rest is filled in, as the brain creates a stable environment."

He added, "Though you might think you're an individual and captain of your ship, a lot of processes are being controlled by those around you and your environment."

Hood will head the talks for the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures, which were started in 1825 by Michael Faraday and have been held every year since then, except for a break during World War II.

"One thing I guarantee is that I will leave the audience wondering if they can ever trust their brain again," he said. - couriermail

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Squonk!

Hey, it's the weekend. Time for a bit of fun...Squonk!

Few people outside of Pennsylvania have ever heard of the quaint beast, which is said to be fairly common in the hemlock forests of that State. (Honestly, I was born and raised in Pennsylvania and I had never heard of this creature.) The range of the squonk is very limited. It has a very retiring disposition, generally traveling about at twilight and dusk. Because of its misfitting skin, which is covered with warts and moles, it is always unhappy; in fact it is said, by people who are best able to judge, to be the most morbid of beast. Hunters who are good at tracking are able to follow a squonk by its tear-stained trail, for the animal weeps constantly. When cornered and escape seems impossible, or when surprised and frightened, it may even dissolve itself in tears. Squonk hunters are most successful on frosty moonlight nights, when tears are shed slowly and the animal dislikes moving about; it may then be heard weeping under the boughs of dark hemlock trees. - "Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods" - William T. Cox - 1910

Mr. J. P. Wentling, formerly of Pennsylvania, but now at St. Anthony Park, Minnesota, had a disappointing experience with a squonk near Mont Alto. Wentling who one fine day at the turn of the century hid near its home after observing it and laying a trap for it, he snatched it up into his bag. As he was returning to the local village to show his friends what he had found in the woods, he noticed the leather bag he was carrying dripping from several cracks in the bottom making it noticeably lighter and of a strange shape. As he set it down on the ground, the legend suggests he suspected some trickery, but as he untied the top a strange liquid very much like water (or tears) spilled onto the soil at his feet. Cursing his bad luck, Wentling returned back to the village with nothing but the tale of his adventure and a soaked bag. - Unexplainable.net

The "scientific name" of the squonk, Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, comes from Latin words meaning "tear", "body", and "dissolve".

The Squonk is probably the world's ugliest animal. So ugly, in fact, that it spends most of its life crying over its cruel fate. Eventually many squonks just dissolve into a puddle of tears. You can read more about this sorry fellow and others like him in Richard Svennson's book "Fearsome Critters."

The Squonk (according to the BBC)

The Squonk (Lacrimacorpus dissolvens) is a legendary creature from the Hemlock forests of north-central and north-western Pennsylvania. The earliest stories about the squonk are lost to history, but the legend probably dates back at least to the late 19th Century, when Pennsylvania's importance in the lumber industry was at its peak, relying heavily on hemlock trees.

Legends

Squonks are very shy, very ugly animals. Their skin is ill-fitting, and covered with warts and moles. Because they know they are so ugly, they weep almost constantly, and try to avoid being seen.

The one well-known story about squonks has to do with how they are hunted. Apparently, squonk skin is valued by some, but they are very difficult to catch, because of their extremely retiring nature. They can be most easily tracked on nights with a full moon, when their tears form glistening trails on the ground.

Sometime around the year 1900, a man named JP Wentling2 was able to successfully catch a squonk. Mr Wentling followed a trail of tears, and when he heard a nearby squonk weeping under a hemlock tree, he lured it by imitating the creature, presumably by weeping. He caught the squonk in a bag, and carried it home, while it sobbed pitifully in his sack. As he carried his prize home, he suddenly noticed that the bag was lighter, and on opening it, found that there was nothing inside but tears and bubbles.

Squonks will apparently dissolve completely into tears anytime they are cornered or threatened; this is the source of their scientific name, Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, from the Latin words for 'tear', 'body', and 'dissolve'.

Squonks in Literature and Music

William T Cox published a book in 1910, called Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber woods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts. In this book, he described the squonk, telling the story related above. The book was an encyclopaedic collection of legendary animals from United States folklore. Sadly, Fearsome Creatures is out of print, and rather difficult to find.

Jorge Luis Borges, the Nobel Prize-winning Argentinean writer, used Mr Cox's book as a source when compiling his Book of Imaginary Beings in 19693. This book has descriptions of 120 fantastic and legendary creatures from many different cultures, mostly European and New World.

Borges opened the preface of his 1969 edition with a sentence that may resonate with some h2g2 Researchers: 'As we all know, there is a kind of lazy pleasure in useless and out-of-the-way erudition.' His book has been illustrated and hypertextualized by students in Greece, and may be found here.

In 1974, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan released their third LP, Pretzel Logic. This album featured the song 'Any Major Dude Will Tell You', a bittersweet acoustic ballad, offering consolation to someone whose world seems to be falling apart. Fagen puzzled his studio musicians with the line:

Have you ever seen a squonk's tears? Well, look at mine.
People on the street have all seen better times.

Exactly why Messrs Fagen and Becker chose this image to use in this song is as mysterious as most Steely Dan lyrics, and as they typically refuse to answer questions about their songs, fans continue to speculate. It seems likely that 'The Dan' learned about squonks from Borges' book.
Genesis

In 1976, the band Genesis released their first LP after Peter Gabriel left the group - the first to feature Phil Collins as frontman. This album, A Trick of the Tail contains the song 'Squonk'. This song is basically a retelling of the story of Mr Wentling, squonk hunter. That Collins is using the story as some kind of allegory seems clear, especially from the final verse:

All in all you are a very dying race
Placing trust upon a cruel world.
You never had the things you thought you should have had
And you'll not get them now,
And all the while in perfect time
Your tears are falling on the ground.

What Mr Collins is actually getting at is left to the reader to speculate. It is not known whether Genesis were inspired to find the story of the squonk by hearing 'Any Major Dude', or whether they discovered it independently, but the story in the song is clearly taken from Mr Cox's work, probably via Borges' book.

Squonks Today

At the time of writing of this entry (October, 2002), people continue to read Borges, and to listen to music from the 1970s. Squonks are being discovered by more and more people. The name turns up, here and there, as a username or domain name on the Internet somewhere, in the name of Squonk Opera, a performing arts troupe in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, and in other unexpected and unrelated contexts. Perhaps we are standing at the threshold of a veritable squonk renaissance!

One shadow looms over this prospect, however. The squonk's habitat, in the hemlock forests of Pennsylvania, is severely reduced. Most of the hemlock trees were logged by 1915, and the species has become just an occasional sight in the area's hardwood forests. It is not known whether squonks rely on hemlock trees, but as their range decreases, it can only mean hard times for any surviving squonk populations. The only hope for the squonk's survival may now lie in the imaginations of dreamers, poets, and those who treasure the legends of the past. - www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2


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Lon Strickler
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Just the Facts? - 'Vampire' Stalks Siberia, Antarctic Humanoid and Loch Ness Monster REAL!

'Vampire' stalks Siberian livestock

A blood-sucking creature is preying upon goats near Novosibirsk. As rational explanations run thin on the ground, the specter of the so-called chupacabra raises its demon head.

Horrified farmers and smallholders are confronted by the drained corpses of their livestock in the morning, bloodless and bearing puncture marks to the neck but otherwise largely in tact.

But local cops are reluctant to record apparent vampire attacks, as they await official recertification, leaving the locals up in arms.

Blood-suckers

“If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk! Only our police force are doing jack-diddly about it,” complaining locals told Komsomolskaya Pravda. “They say that there is no Chupacabra. Come if you will journalists, have a look at what is happening to us.”

Death in the night

Local animal keeper Natalya told of her experiences.

“It all happened on the night of June 10,” she told KP. “I was sleeping, my daughter was sitting at the computer looking at the internet. She says that about 2.00 am she heard a sound in the yard. Some whining.

“The dog which guards the farm screamed for 15 minutes and then quietened down. The dog’s behavior drew the attention of my daughter Natalie, but she didn’t think it was important. She thought that if a stranger had come to the house then the dog would bark. And here it was more like whining, you think of howling at the moon.

“In the morning it became clear why the dog had been howling. I got up and went to the barn to milk the goats. I looked and saw right on the doorstep a goat with its neck thrown back unnaturally. On the neck there was something like a bite mark, the belly was torn, and there were huge claw marks. I came over bad and started screaming, I ran to the house to see the children were alright,” she said.

Whatever killed the goats never tried to eat the flesh, it just drank its victim’s blood.

From the devil

Natalya’s news of a near-mythical chupacabra spread like wildfire among residents of Krasnoginnoe village, then it became clear that nearby Tolmachevskoye and Chick villages had also been afflicted.

The blood-suckers had targeted cattle in Tolmochevskoye. “It’s come from the devil. I’ve seen it. My brother, even when he lived near St Petersburg seven years ago accidently photographed a chupacabra. He took the usual family picture and then saw the demonic face through the kitchen window. Grey-red it was, such an unpleasant face, like a bat with fangs,” Natalie’s uncle Viktor Shushpanov told KP.

“My brother showed me this photograph and upon the advice of his family he burned it,” he said.

Ring the church bells

“All the people are scared, they fear that the creature will move onto children,” the head of the village said. “We have organized night patrols of six people. We walk through the village, on the look out for this wickedness. But so far we have had no results.”

While hopes for speedy retribution are fast diminishing the beast has turned out to be a boon to troubled parents, presenting a very useful threat for naughty children.

The chupacabra is a recent legend, originating from mid 1990s North America. It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail.

But there seems to be a more prosaic explanation: Discovery News reported in 2010 that what were believed to be chupacabra in the Americas turned out to be wild dogs infected with a deadly form of mange. The University of Michigan put forward a similar theory. - themoscownews

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Compose

Mysterious apparition appears in flood victim’s photographs

When Michael Harris was photographing rising water outside his village home he saw nothing unusual. However, when he looked at the images later on his computer, Mr Harris, of Great Saxham, near Bury St Edmunds, noticed a number of orb-like discs on the image. And when he looked at them still more closely, he noticed three of the circular discs had what seemed to be faces. The photographs were taken a few weeks ago during the very heavy rain which left some parts of Bury flooded.

The possibility that the strange discs are the result of debris on either the camera lens or sensor have been ruled out because they only appear in one of the pictures he had taken. And the likelihood they are some form of bokeh – the way in which light spots are rendered out of focus – has been similarly put to rest because his compact camera’s lens does not have the wideness of aperture to make such shapes possible. As a result, Mr Harris, who has lived in the cottage with his wife Julie for more than 20 years, is at a loss to explain the strange and peculiar face-like shapes.

But he is very keen to find out what they might be. He said: “When you change the contrast and put the light levels right down, everything else disappears but you can still see the orbs, though they turn blue. It is very strange. I keep looking at them and every time I sit down to have a look I see something else. There must be something in it.” He has even wondered whether the strange discs might be connected with a ghost he believes shares his timber-beamed 200-year-old cottage.

Called ‘John’, Mr Harris said the ghost in their house had a dog and told how John would occasionally ruffle people’s hair, put his hand over a lampshade to cast a shadow or push a photograph off a ledge in the study. “The truth is,” he said. “We don’t know what these discs are. We would really like to know. They are perfectly circular. One of them has an old-fashioned style beard with big long side-burns.” - eveningstar

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Loch Ness monster is more fact than fiction claims paleontologist

Paleontologist Dr Darren Naish reckons there have been too many sightings for 'Nessie' to be a hoax.

Boffin Dr Naish, who lectures at the University of Portsmouth, said: "The huge number of 'sea monster' sightings now on record cant all be explained away as mistakes, sightings of known animals or hoaxes.

"At least some of the better ones some of them made by trained naturalists and such probably are descriptions of encounters with real, unknown animals.

"Because large marine animals continue to be discovered various new whale and shark species have been named in recent years the idea that such species might await discovery is, at the very least, plausible."

Some experts reckon Nessie is a plesiosaur - a long-necked reptile that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.

But Dr Naish and another dino expert dismissed this idea in speeches at a conference, 'Cryptozoology: Science or Pseudoscience?', in London.

Dr Charles Paxton, of the University of St Andrews, said: "If there are prehistoric animals alive today it would imply that theres something very wrong with our understanding of the fossil record."

Dr Paxton added it could not be assumed all large animals living in the oceans have been discovered.

He said: "If the criteria is solely bigness, then this is not the case.

"In 1995 a benthic ray, which lives on the ocean floor, was found that measured 3.42 metres and eight large marine species have been discovered in the past 20 years."

Cryptozoology is the study of hidden animals or the search for creatures whose existence has not been proved.

There have been hundreds of 'sightings' of the Loch Ness monster since 1933 in the lake, which is 22.5 miles long and up to one-and-a-half miles wide and 754ft deep. - telegraph

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Argentina: More Animal Mutilations

Source: CEUFO (La Pampa, Argentina)
Date: 07.28.11

Argentina: Mysterious Mutilations Continue
By Quique Mario, CEUFO

Animal mutilations remind us of the strange events that rocked the province nearly ten years ago. Pratt, 51, owns a locker manufacturing facility in Alta Italia. He told the El Diario newspaper that “animals mutilated in a similar fashion” were found on his fields just like they did back then.

At the time, the phenomenon was ascribed to extraterrestrial beings and served to nurture peasant superstitions like the “Chupacabras”. SENASA advised at the time that mutilations in over a hundred of these cases could be blamed on the “red-muzzled mouse”. However, this species does not exist in the region and the mystery was never explained.

Pratt did not make his discovery widely known; some friends discouraged him because “they say that these are just fantasies that people make up.” However, the story became known and Alta Italia’s FM radio station broadcasted it this Wednesday morning.

German Schreiber, the officer-in-charge of the Sheriff’s office, traveled on Wednesday noon to the “El Iman” ranch, belonging to the Pratt family. It is located 13 kilometers from town, and he was accompanied by the town’s veterinarian.

“He was unable to determine the cause of death. It’s just like the cases that occurred at that time,” noted the policeman.

In an interview with El Diario, Pratt says that his foreman found two Aberdeen Angus calves, each weighing 350 kilograms, mutilated in a very strange way and without any traces of blood around them. All this in a 60 hectare spread.

“One was missing its scalp completely, all the way from the muzzle to the left. The bone has been peeled away at the carretilla, and the tongue is missing along with skin from its throat. There isn’t a single drop of blood anywhere; the incision of the skin is perfect, as if done with a razor,” he says, astonished.

The other animal is missing its upper teeth. It’s upper lip is burned to a dark blue, and half of its tongue is missing. No other signs are visible.”

The discovery stupefied the employee who came across the animals as he toured the property, and even Pratt himself. “The man has been working in the field for forty years and is used to seeing dead animals, yet he never saw anything like it. I’ve also seen many dead animals, but never under these circumstances,” he added.

“Carrion animals aren’t involved. No way. It isn’t a puma, or a wild boar, or even a carancho,” he noted.

Aside from the dead animals, two gates along the ranch fences were found with their chains broken, and the ox cart was disconnected.

Pratt did not inform the police, nor did he make the case known to any other agency, since he is well aware of the reply offered by SENASA at the time. “They determined that it was either a mouse or a carancho (vulture). I know that. But if you ask me, I’ll say no. This is something that I’ve never seen, something that really attracts attention.”

Along with his son Mauricio, 18, he took photos of the animals, which were left on the field in a state of decomposition.

Pratt is 51 and he is known in town as “an earnest man.” “I know the subject. I was raised in the countryside. I’m not crazy. I’m normal, like any other local,” he jokes, as he recreates the circumstances of time and space in which the surprising animal mutilation occurred. “The kid who surveys the fields left at one o’clock and returned the next day at noon. [The mutilation] must have occurred during the course of that afternoon, night and the morning of the next day. We found no signs or traces that suggested that the death had been brought about by a bullet or something. We don’t know what killed them.”

“The incision is perfect. Completely so. It’s very strange. That’s my definition. I can’t say what it is, but it’s no carrion eater, vulture or puma,” he adds.

The field where the animals appeared is not close to any rural road or route. “I know about livestock, and I’ve seen many dead animals, but never anything like this,” he insists. “I would like to have someone study this so that the matter can be cleared up someday. At the time they blamed carrion animals, and that’s why no progress was ever made. I find that odd.”

“Did you feel fear when you found this?” asks the El Diario interviewer.

“No, bewilderment. The foreman’s been a cattleman for over 40 years. All the more so, it isn’t normal. He’s a man used to seeing all sorts of animals.”

Yet he admits having allowed paranormal phenomena enter his mind: “Some talk about flying saucers because they must be mentioned, if only to say something. The same goes with witches. I say I don’t believe in them, but they exist, they really do. How can I not believe? But I think its something else. Otherwise those weird things would turn un. I’m not saying that a flying saucer is going to come to my house, but this is weird. It’s surprising. It’s not lightning from a storm or anything customary. This is surprising.” - Scott Corrales - Explicata

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Schoolgirl ‘rises from the dead’

A Sixth Form pupil (name supplied) from Mount Pleasant High School in Harare was certified dead at a private hospital in Harare after collapsing at her home on Friday, but miraculously regained consciousness on Saturday after spending a night in a mortuary.

The school authorities had earlier sent the girl home so she could get treatment after she had complained of a severe headache. She reportedly collapsed while at home, resulting in her being rushed to a medical centre in the Avenues.

“It appears she had not died, but had fallen into a comma and she regained consciousness while in the mortuary, perhaps because of the cold. Fortunately an attendant heard her coughing and assisted her,” said a teacher at the school.

“She even came to school yesterday, and initially some pupils were afraid of her, but they later relaxed after the school authorities assured them it (the mishap) was normal. She was also called to the headmaster’s office where she was counselled and congratulated on her escape.”

The school head, who was identified as Chari, refused to comment on the matter or allow the girl to be interviewed referring all questions to her parents. They could, however, not be located.

Cases of people gaining consciousness in the morgue after being certified dead are quite common and in most cases doctors would have erred.

Yesterday, a news report from South Africa said a man spent 21 hours inside a morgue after he was mistaken for dead.

The man from Eastern Cape was last Saturday (the same day the Mt Pleasant girl “rose from the mortuary” placed in a morgue only to wake up screaming the following day, (Sunday afternoon) and demanding to be taken out of the refrigerator.

He was then hospitalised and discharged on Monday. - newsday

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Humanoid sea creatures of the Antarctic?

Over the past few years, rumors have circulated in Japan about the existence of gigantic humanoid life-forms inhabiting the icy waters of the Antarctic.

Reportedly observed on multiple occasions by crew members of government-operated "whale research" ships, these so-called "Ningen" (lit. "humans") are said to be completely white in color with an estimated length of 20 to 30 meters. Eyewitnesses describe them as having a human-like shape, often with legs, arms, and even five-fingered hands. Sometimes they are described as having fins or a large mermaid-like tail instead of legs. The only visible facial features are the eyes and mouth.

According to one account, crew members on deck observed what they initially thought was a foreign submarine in the distance. When they approached, however, it became clear from the irregular shape of the thing that it was not man-made -- it was alive. The creature quickly disappeared under water.

For the most part, the existence of the Ningen is considered an urban legend. Much of the information about this rumored creature can be traced back to a series of posts on the 2channel forums, written by a person describing the experience of a friend employed on a government "whale research" vessel.

The popular thread attracted the attention of many readers from outside the 2channel community, and the November 2007 issue of MU magazine, a Japanese publication devoted to the study of paranormal phenomena, featured an article about the Antarctic humanoids.

The article speculated on the possibility of unidentified creatures inhabiting the southern seas, and it included a Google Maps screenshot showing what looks like a Ningen in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Namibia.

To date, no solid evidence has been presented to confirm the existence of the Ningen. The government is believed to have kept detailed records of the sightings, but they have released no information to the public and have reportedly instructed eyewitnesses to remain silent - pinktentacle

Artist's rendering