The Chicago’s Devil Baby of Hull House

The most famous American Devil Baby has to be the Chicago’s Devil Baby of Hull House. At least, this is certainly the most widespread legend.

Hull House represented the life’s work of Nobel Prize winning philanthropist Jane Addams. It was a place envisioned as a stepping-stone for underprivileged and impoverished members of Chicago’s poor immigrant society. Because of Addams’ particular interest in suffrage and women’s and children’s rights, it was natural that immigrant women and mothers would be attracted to the beacon of Hull House.

Despite Addams’ fervent denials (she dedicated more than 40 pages to the legend and its impact on her life in her autobiography) the story persisted that Hull House was the home of a creature not of this earth.

Originally, the rumor was just a whisper among the large immigrant population of late 19th century Chicago. Mostly superstitious and uneducated, it is certain that they brought with them from their homelands many ethnic and cultural beliefs that shaped their perception of their new foreign world. However, the “facts” were no fabrication: Most sources agree that Jane Addams, out of charity, took in the female who would bear the burden that would plague the good woman for generations to come.

The mother of the Devil Baby, though nameless, is said to have fled to Hull House to escape a brutal marriage. This is a central part of the story and an important one: evidently the young immigrant woman found herself pregnant once again and the husband, already having too many mouths to feed on his meager income, is said to have ruthlessly beat his wife, all the while cursing the unborn child. When the young woman fled to the shelter of Hull House, she found an understanding matron who was prepared to take her in and to protect her through the difficult pregnancy.

And it was a difficult pregnancy, according to the written accounts of Hull House servants who rendered firsthand descriptions of the notorious events. The mother-to-be complained of unusual pains throughout the pregnancy, of hearing voices and of having vivid, frightening nightmares. Jane Addams and the Hull House physicians put this down to the tormented life that the woman had led prior to escaping to Hull House, exacerbated by the continuous efforts of her husband to gain access to her.

As the time of her delivery came due, the horrible nature of what she had carried and nurtured for nine months was finally revealed. A writhing monster child full of scales and reptilian coldness with gleaming, black eyes, clawed hands and feet, and the protrusions of tiny horns on its forehead.

Legend has it that the mother died on the spot, mercifully released from this world. But in an unexpected turn of events, it is said that Jane Addams was overcome with such compassion that it moved her to take the child into her care.

Thus the story grew up over the years, whispered in every quarter, that behind the walls of Hull House an evil was growing.

This infant grew to a child – a monstrous lump of a human-like creature – that prowled the darkness and had full run of the dreaded third storey of Hull House. It is said that the child would peer from the windows, envious of the other children with whom it was not allowed to associate. Children and other residents of Hull House often awoke in the night to strange scrabbling noises and furtive breathing near their faces, only to discover in the lamplight that they were completely alone.

Eventually, Jane Addams died, but the legend of the Devil Baby of Hull House lives on and even today passersby and visitors to the location report seeing the shadow of “something” childlike peering at them from the darkness.

• Facts

A link between ghosts and cemeteries has a certain logic, but a connection between specters and a monument to good works is less explicable. Nevertheless, a demonic spirit supposedly haunts Hull House, site of the most famous settlement house in America.

In 1889, Jane Addams and another social worker took over the Hull mansion at 800 South Halsted and turned it into a community center. The house, now part of the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois, is currently a museum dedicated to Addams and her work.

Addams was a hardheaded, progressive reformer, a proud and determined do-gooder in an age sorely in need of one. She and her colleagues turned Hull House into a community center, supplying shelter, food and practical advice to the huge number of bewildered young immigrant women in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In the winter of 1913, Addams could have used some advice herself to deal with what must have seemed to her no-nonsense mind a case of mass hysteria. Women were streaming into Hull House with a very particular request: They wanted to see the Devil Baby. Stories were circulating throughout the city about a child born with scaly skin, horns, hooves and a tail. Some of the rumors included accounts of the young demon flying about the rooms of Hull House while social workers tried desperately to catch him. “He looks just like Satan himself,” a witness told newspaper reporters.

Depending on who told the story, the infant’s origins varied. Jewish women claimed he was the offspring of an unfeeling father with a large family of daughters who declared that he’d rather his wife give birth to a demon than to another baby girl. Italians said the Devil Baby’s mother was a God-fearing woman who had had the misfortune to marry an atheist. When the woman put a picture of Jesus on her wall, the husband angrily tore it down, saying that he’d rather have the devil himself in the house. And, according to this version, he got his wish. These and other variations ended with a desperate family taking the baby to Hull House and pleading for help.

In the beginning, Addams was furious at the rumors, which she tried to combat with appeals to common sense. Eventually, however, she worked out a sociological explanation that, to her way of thinking, explained the phenomenon. She noted that many purveyors of the Devil Baby story were older immigrant women, isolated in their new country, deprived of whatever domestic power and authority their age might have afforded them in their native villages. “The old women who came to visit the Devil Baby believed the story would secure them a hearing back home,” Addams reported, “and as they prepared themselves with every detail of it, their faces shone with timid satisfaction.”

But despite Addams’ sensible, secular debunking of the Devil Baby as the outcome of a pitiable bid for attention, many Chicagoans still believe that a strange creature of some sort really existed. Some suggest that the Devil Baby may simply have been a horribly deformed child, kept by the Hull House workers to shelter it from an unforgiving world. Other believers still claim to see a devilish little face peering out of one of the House’s second-floor windows.

Addams would doubtless have scoffed at such superstitious claptrap — or maybe not. In her diaries, she reported hearing strange noises coming from the upper rooms of the Hull House. She didn’t know what made the racket, but she habitually put large buckets of water at the top of the stairs to keep it — whatever it was — at bay.

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True story about Atlantis – the Bimini Road

The world is filled with mysterious sites, lost cultures, megalithic structures, sacred palaces and unusual occurrences that have stirred the imagination and led to speculation about our true origin. The Quest for Atlantis and the search for a forgotten ancient mother culture has intrigued and inspired generations of scientists, explorers, philosophers and psychics throughout the ages. The Quest for Atlantis is like the Holy Grail. It lies at the core of our traditions and contains the seed not only of mystery but of challenge. The term Atlantis stands as a metaphor for the human yearning to explore the unknown and to follow the path of truth wherever it may lead. The Atlantis legend credited to the Greek Philosopher Plato has endured and symbolizes a dream of a golden age, a lost paradise, and it could help explain similarities between ancient cultures, legends of worldwide floods, and megalithic construction in the Old and New World.
First accounts of Atlantis were supplied by Greek philosopher Plato in the 4th century BC. In Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias, Atlantis is described as a vast paradise in the great ocean beyond the pi!lars of Hercules.
For generations there was peace and the people were true and noble and they showed gentleness and wisdom. But at the end the Atlantean society began to decay, the divine wisdom began to weaken and fade and it became diluted with lawlessness, ambition and power.
During the last days of Atlantis, about 12,000 years ago, the Atlanteans had lost their virtue and were amassing armies to conquer the world when the Earth shook and the islands disappeared into the depths of the sea. Atlantis was a civilization unequalled before or since, yet it is said it vanished in little more than a single day, leaving not a trace behind.
In 1930, Edgar Cayce, one of America’s most famous and well documented psychics, predicted that the remains of Atlantis would be found near Bimini in ’68,’69. According to Edgar Cayce, many people living today are former Atlanteans, who are drawn back at this time to find Atlantis, to receive enlightenment and to help heal themselves and this ancient site from past turmoil. Edgar Cayce also predicted that a Healing Well could be found and developed into a centre for two purposes, regeneration for those with certain types of ailments, and a centre for archaeological research.
In 1612 an Indian legend was translated that described an island called “Bemene”, where old people could bath and emerge young once more. Spanish explorer, Ponce de Leon, searched for “Bemene” and the fountain of Youth in vain. On “Bimini” a small spring has been discovered that contained some levels of lithium and sulphur, and where some people have reported an increase of well-being, euphoria and alleviation of certain ailments like arthritis.
Bimini glistens like a jewel in the azure Gulf Stream and is an enigma in many ways. Its layer of legends: Fountains of Youth, Atlantean remains, Healing Waters and Megalithic Stones all fuse in a dynamic crucible of energy and lore. Is Bimini part of the lost continent of Atlantis?
In September of 1968, on Bimini, a most exciting discovery was made. Dr Mason Valentine, zoologist, paleontologist, geologist, and underwater archaeologist was guided by Bonefish Sam to shore reef for some diving. When he looked down he saw hundreds of flat rocks eight to ten feet square arranged in regular patterns about a thousand yards from shore in about 10 feet of water. Today his discovery is called the „Bimini Road¾ and it is approximately 300 feet wide and 1600 feet long.
I was amazed to discern an extensive pavement of rectangles and occasionally polygonal flat stones of varying size and thickness, obviously arranged and accurately aligned to form convincing engineering courses. These stones had evidently been submerged over a long span of time for the edges of some had become rounded giving the blocks the appearance of giant loaves of bread or pillows. My personal feeling is that the whole fantastic complex represents the intelligent utilization by ancient man of material provided by nature and appropriate for the creation of some sort of ceremonial center.¾
After researching the area, Dr. Valentine has refuted the scientific claims that the road site is natural beach rock by explaining that many of the stones are of flint-hard micrite, unlike soft beach rock; that the stones do not follow the curving beach rock lines; that some of the enormous flat stones are propped up at the corners by pillar stones like dolmens and one end of the complex swings into a beautiful curved corner before vanishing under the sand. Dr. Valentine has studied the Bahamas for 30 years and has numerous sites for potential investigation. Dr. Valentine¼s discovery occurred precisely the time that Edgar Cayce had predicted that the remains of Atlantis would be found near Bimini.
Since that time many others have studied this amazing complex. Veteran French engineer, diver and pilot Dimitri Rebikoff, a pioneer of underwater photography and inventor of the Pegasus, an underwater platform, has carried out underwater and aerial photomapping of the Bimini Site. From 1969 to 1978, Dimitri Rebikoff has compiled a stereoscopic mosaic survey of the Bimini Road and continues to investigate the support pillars under some of the huge blocks.
In 1974 Dr. David Zink, prehistorian, and explorer came to Bimini to investigate the mysterious stones. Dr Zink has conducted extensive underwater surveying and archaeological work on Bimini that has included professional surveys, use of side-scan sonar and nuclear activation analysis. His scientific approach of exploring ancient mysteries has utilized U.S. Navy divers, as well as psychics in conjunction with standard archaeological practices. Dr Zink has led 10 expeditions to Bimini and is author of The Ancient Stones Speakand The Stones of Atlantis. More of Dr. Zink¼s discoveries are discussed in his revised 1990 edition of The Stones of Atlantis. Dr Zink has concluded the site was built by man as a megalithic temple similar to Stonehenge.
It has been 22 years since the discovery of the Bimini Road Site and much has happened. In the last two decades advances in technology, breakthroughs in consciousness and the greater understanding of the sophistication of prehistoric civilizations has occurred.
In 1989, Dr. Joan Hanley, founder of the Gaea Project, Dr David Zink and myself, came together and created Quest for Atlantis. We developed a conference with a multilevel approach that included on-site investigation, underwater exploration, aerial fly-bys and Healing Well experiences.
During the project, our group headed out for Paradise Point looking for the ancient stones in the vast ocean. Visibility was unlimited as our diving boat stopped and the divers and snorkelers entered the water. We were amazed at the incredible site we saw. Large regular boulders far more impressive than we had imagined, all fitted neatly in rows extending beyond our sight. Later during the conference while conducting aerial fly-bys with Dimitri Rebikoff as pilot, members of the flight observed a mysterious fish like mound over 500 feet long in the mist of the mangrove swamp. Although there were reports of a fish mound before it does not appear on any maps.
Enthusiasm was high as the group pondered the significance of a possible man made mound similar to the earthen works of the American Mound Builders on this remote island in the Bahamas. Later in the week we headed out for the Legendary Healing Well or possible Fountain of Youth. The ocean shimmered in various colors of unbelievable hues of blue as we left for the Northeast tip of the island. We arrived at a dense mangrove area and anchored in shallow water. A narrow path had been cut and we carefully waded through the root tangled path that led to a small pond.
The surface was warm sea water floating over that cool spring below. The water was abnormally buoyant and we floated effortlessly in the small pond. After getting used to the greenish water and the initial giggles, a peaceful feeling came over us. We meditated allowing the sense of well-being to spread and enfold our bodies. We left feeling emotionally balanced, and with a sense of profound peace.
After the conference, Raymond E. Leigh, a land surveyor commissioned a Miami aerial surveying firm to take infrared aerial photographs over Bimini at various heights. In the process of exploring the fish-mound from the air he discovered a rectangular mound and a cat mound. By conducting an in depth study of the mathematical data on Bimini, Raymond feels he has found similarities between ancient units of measurement. The fish fin has an east-west orientation. Calculations of the various dimensions of the mounds and painstaking analysis of the aerial photos revealed a recognition Golden Section (1 to 0.618) in the geometry of the Bimini Mounds.
In May 1990, Quest for Atlantis II again brought diverse expertise together. Dr. Joan Hanley, Dr. Doug Richards, zoologist and Director of Research for Atlantis University and myself created the second conference. Various explorers with diverse expertise attended. The conference focused on investigating mounds, a search for other wells and interviews with the elders of the island to preserve their stories and experiences.
The Quests were filled with adventure and opportunities in mind body and spirit to assimilate and integrate greater wholeness. The Quest is to touch something of the Divine and move from seeking to deep inner knowingness. The Quest stirs each generation. It asks us to remember and bring forth the truth about our spiritual and historical heritage. The time of revealing ancient records is dawning.
Old forms are giving way to new possibilities and the key to the new forms is in personal and group empowerment that include freedom and self-expression, integrity, interdependence, partnership, trust and action. We are all learning to understand the process of shared vision and right human relationship with ourselves, others and Mother Earth.
Mystery still surrounds the discoveries man made in ancient times and by others to be natural formation of beach rock, the Bimini Road Site has launched a multitude of questions and the controversy continues to this day. If these sites are not part of the sunken continent of Atlantis, they are very likely remains of some other ancient Old World Civilization and when identified will shed more light on our ancient past and who discovered the New World.
I know in my heart that the Healing Well is real and there is definite evidence of a very ancient culture in Bimini. There are many who have dedicated their lives and resources to research the evidence on this small island and there are many more to follow. The people drawn to Bimini and these projects are drawn together by a deep bond and a love of prehistory and Atlantis lore. The full realization of what the Lost Atlantean wisdom represents contains the seed of hope. Can we live together in harmony with universal energies? I know by bringing diverse disciplines and expertise together in a co-operative spirit we can help solve the mysteries and realize greater peace.
Today the possibilities of new discoveries as we search for the truth are limitless. It seems that mystery and imagination are vital in rediscovering the clues of the past. Paradoxically as science advances its storehouse of knowledge even more imagination and spirit are needed.¾ Albert Einstein in 1930.

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Mary Celeste

Mary Celeste was launched in Nova Scotia in 1860. Her original name was “Amazon”. She was 103 ft overall displacing 280 tons and listed as a half-brig. Over the next 10 years she was involved in several accidents at sea and passed through a number of owners. Eventually she turned up at a New York salvage auction where she was purchased for $3,000. After extensive repairs she was put under American registry and renamed “Mary Celeste”.

The new captain of Mary Celeste was Benjamin Briggs, 37, a master with three previous commands. On November 7, 1872 the ship departed New York with Captain Briggs, his wife, young daughter and a crew of eight. The ship was loaded with 1700 barrels of raw American alcohol bound for Genoa, Italy. The captain, his family and crew were never seen again…

Ship found adrift on December 4, 1872 (some accounts say December 5), by the Dei Gratia, a bark sailing from New York to Gibraltar, and considered by many one of the most intriguing and enduring mysteries in the annals of maritime history.

When it was found, the Mary Celeste was sailing itself alone across the wide Atlantic. The ship was in first-class condition. Hull, masts, and sails were all sound. The cargo-barrels of alcohol were still lashed in place in the hold. There was plenty of food and water. When he examined the ship’s log, the captain of the Dei Gratia found that the last entry was on November 24. That would have been 10 days earlier, when the Mary Celeste had been passing north of St. Mary’s Island in the Azores — more than 400 miles west of where it was found. If it had been abandoned soon after that entry, the ship must have drifted unmanned and unsteered for a week and a half. Yet this could not have been. The Mary Celeste was found with its sails set to catch the wind coming over the starboard quarter: in other words, it was sailing on the starboard tack. The Dei Gratia had been following a similar course just behind. But throughout the 400 miles from the Azores, the Dei Gratia had been obligated to sail on the port tack. It seems impossible that the Mary Celeste could have reached the spot it did with its yards and sails set to starboard. Someone must have been working the ship for at least several days after the final log entry.

No one, from the 10 people that supposedly sailed aboard the Mary Celeste, including 7 crewmen and captain Benjamin Briggs’ wife and daughter, was ever found.

The explanation that seemed most reasonable at the time was the official one put out by the British and American authorities. This suggested that the crew had got at the alcohol, murdered the captain and his family, and then somehow escaped to another vessel. But the story does not really stand up. There were no visible signs of a struggle on board, and if the crew had escaped, some of them would surely have turned up later.

The Dei Gratia sights the abandoned Mary Celeste.

The yawl boat — a small four-oared boat carried over the main hatch — was missing, suggesting that at least some of the missing people could have left the Mary Celeste in it.

Dozens of theories have been put forward since then, ranging from attacking monsters from the deep and aliens kidnapping to nature’s wrath, piracy and mutiny. But no one has ever found any evidence or proof to confirm any of them. The only other evidence to what really happened may be the so called Fosdyk papers.

According to an article written by a schoolmaster named Howard Linford and published in 1913 (41 years after the Mary Celeste was found) in the Strand magazine of London, a well-educated and much-traveled employee of his named Abel Fosdyk, had left some papers and notes after his death explaining not only the fate of the crew but also the curious cut marks that were found in the bows of the Mary Celeste.
Fosdyk claimed that he had been a secret passenger on the ship’s last voyage and the only survivor of the tragedy that overtook it. Being a close friend of the captain, Fosdyk convinced Briggs to give him secret passage because, for some undisclosed reason, he had to leave America in a hurry. During the voyage Briggs had the ship’s carpenter build a special deck in the bow for his small daughter. It was the supporting struts for this deck that were slotted into the cuts in the bow planks.

One day, after a lengthy argument with the mate about how well a man could swim with his clothes on, Briggs leaped into the water and started swimming around the ship, as to prove his point. Couple of men followed while the rest of the crew watched from the deck. Suddenly, one of the sailors swimming around the bow gave a yell of agony. Everyone, including the captain’s wife and child, crowded onto the newly built deck which promptly collapsed under their combined weight. They all fell into the sea, where all were devoured by the sharks that had attacked the first seaman.

Being the only survivor of the shark attacks because of his luck of falling on top of the shattered decking, Fosdyk clung to it as the Mary Celeste drifted away. He floated for days until he was washed up half dead on the northwest coast of Africa.

The Fosdyk papers tell a neat tale. But they offer no solution to the the mystery of how the ship got to where it was found. And they are wrong on details that should not have escaped an educated man. Fosdyk says the Mary Celeste weighed 600 tons. In fact, the ship weighed a third of that. Fosdyk also says that the crewmen were English, when, in fact, they were mostly Dutch. And most of all, it seems highly improbable that anyone would go swimming around a ship that, according to the Dei Gratia evidence, must have been making several knots at the time. Bizarre as it is, no better explanation than Fosdyk’s has so far emerged. And after more than 120 years, it is unlikely to do so. The enigma of the ship that sailed itself seems destined to puzzle us forever (Parts of this text are excerpts from Reader’s Digest’s “Strange Stories, Amazing Facts”).

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Glastonbury Tor

….Did A Portal Open On 26/02/07?…

The Tor at Glastonbury is a natural 520’ conical hill set in the Somerset landscape, its legends and accolades are many ranging from a faerie hill, the Entrance to the Underworld of King Gwyn Ap Nudd, a global energy point where ley lines cross, and tales of people being suddenly levitating whilst up there, as sworn by a group of Buddhist monks in 1969. So many are these stories that it is really difficult to attempt writing anything refreshingly new. A book in 2005 by author Nicholas Mann who lives in the area, ‘The Secret Energies of Glastonbury Tor’ goes some way in trying to explain with a scientific approach electro-magnetic vortices at work. Can this hill justify the wondrous tales of coloured lights seen emanating from it, earth lights that can spiral, the least optical phenomenon associated with any self respecting fairy hill? I personally know of two friends, who individually, on separate occasions have experienced what they describe as a ‘beam’ come down from the sky and pass from their head right through their body. And so it goes on!

If it is an energy point then one fact that people of Glastonbury can’t be denied is that every year the rock music festival that first started in 1970 now draws into the small town approximately 180,000 visitors camping out over its three days in June every year – that’s a lot of energy to soak up! Now, as much as I would like to dismiss all these tales as mere romance and declare the hill simply that – a hill and nothing more – I have to admit on a personal level that I can’t! Since 1984 I have had and have a strange relationship with this hill, like no other place I have visited, it is almost as if it draws me to it…And if that were true in any sense, for what purpose? I first went there at about 4pm on October 30th 1984, approaching the ascension from the far end of the Tor. As I began the steep climb, a small breezy wind came out of nowhere, growing stronger and stronger as I made my way up. By the time I had reached the top, it was blowing a private gale! ‘Some welcoming committee’, I thought to myself, as in those days I was well immersed in Theosophy and how geographical areas can have elemental guardians called Devas, or landscape angels. The Tor is associated with a wind that can whip up and can even blow people from its summit. Accepting this baptism, I returned again that night as had been my original intention, setting off up there at 11.30pm and intending to stay until the hours moved into 31st of All Hallows Eve where we are assured the veil between worlds thin, as far as our calendar is concerned. As an impressionable, young, scientifically minded and intrepid investigator, where better to be at a time where worlds may merge, than upon a faerie hill! With the absence of any wind, I was no sooner up there when a silent silver streak at a height of above four feet above my head flashed from left to right a short distance! Minutes later, along came more phenomena – a speedy bombardment on either side of the top of the slopes of what I must describe as grey ‘ping-pong’ balls, lasting only moments! I have since learned that other people have also used the same term ‘ping-pong balls’ to relate their own similar experiences! A silent silver flash and a bombardment of ping-pong balls, all within minutes of being up there…at the tender age of 28 I was fast beginning to learn that Glastonbury Tor IS more than just an average high mass of land! I stayed a further two hours that cold early morning with naught else to report despite my hopeful and sincere intonations directed at the Archangel Michael whose tower sits upon the very top, calling him by his magical names of Mikaal-Sabbathiel-Beshtar, (everything is worth a try for a more pyrotechnical response!) returning through the wispy streams of mist at 5am in the morning for one last effort. Since that first acquaintance with the Tor, I have visited many times in all seasons, with and without people, all times of the days and in all weathers whenever the opportunity has arisen, with nothing out of the ordinary to report. At the time I would seek so-called paranormal experiences as they seemed to excite me – stationed up hills that can potentially emit sudden strange lights is a lot better than your typical average evening television viewing!
The more I read sensible investigations into ‘earth lights’ and the fine book of that title by Paul Devereux, the more I was beginning to accept this as the rationale behind most if not all of the stories associated with the Tor. Without evidence, you can only listen with wonder at anecdotal stories and should stick to your own direct empirical experiences, as others are perfectly entitled to with my own offerings. Having said that, one story did trouble my comfortably settling in theory. I received an email from a previous Mayor of Glastonbury who one night saw a reddish orange light appear ABOVE the Tor and sink into the summit, not come out of it! He was convinced it had been the usual understanding of a ‘spaceship/UFO’. Sinking INTO the Tor?
Over the years since the sixties and to this current day, there have been a number of UFO sightings associated with above Glastonbury Tor, and amongst the many coloured light sightings this orangey-red does seems to be the most common.

I wondered if this could have anything to do with the fact that high up on the Tower is a carving, I’m not sure why, of the Phoenix, or Fire Bird. Maybe the Collective Unconscious had been at work there influencing the mind of the carver. The Phoenix rises from the ashes, and so I smile at the synchronicity of knowing that at the foot of the tor since the seventies lives the Arthurian author Geoffrey Ashe.

With all this in my mind, I wondered if it could be possible to dare attempt to pick up any aerial phenomenon on film?…and so, after last visiting the Tor in 1997, I returned in 2006; this time, and for the very first time in all my visits, armed with a camera (non digital as I learn this goes against critical analysis of phenomenon on photos).
At this point, let me clarify the situation for you. Here I am on my own embarking up what has to be my favourite spot on earth, having been there numerous times, in all weathers, seasons, and times of the day – it simply doesn’t matter, as nothing can affect that strange awe and respect I have always held for this mound. The notion in my mind was to impress upon the Tor could I possibly ‘be allowed’ something to pick up on camera. This of course would imply that such a thing could happen. How? Well, for an answer to that one you will have to bear with my preferred belief that, in harmony with Gaia Hypothesis, the earth can be a living, thinking organism and biosphere; that Nature can hear and think, and may even respond to an earnest request. Some will find this ‘far out’ to which I respond, what gives people the authority to assume the world to be as they think it? Sometimes the ‘way out’ is the way in! Having made my thoughts known to anything that may exist to hear and respond to them, I was approximately two-thirds up the Tor when something strange happened. I was awash with a great irrational fear that was so strong my reaction was to want to turn back and rush off down the Tor! But what about my attempted photography that I had travelled 223 miles to Somerset to experiment? Who cares, I could only think of resorting to what us British refer to as ‘doing a runner’ – a swift retreat! Now, my ego must inform you, this is NOT my style – I run away from nothing, neither have I ever suffered what are called ‘panic attacks’, and yet this term certainly describes what had happened to me. However, I steadied myself and sat down a while, then eventually continued my way back up the remaining distance to the top, with tourists on either side unaware of how I was still filled with this awful trepidation. Once up there I took my pictures and was content to come away from Glastonbury Tor as swiftly as I could. All the while up there I remained filled with a fear that I have never experienced in my life or ever dreamt I could. What on earth had happened to me? Perhaps a part of the strange answer involves the series of dark aerial dots that were captured on film, moving themselves about. There was nothing in the sky to declare at the time the shutter snapped, no birds, planes, not a thing, but on sensitive film that can be known to capture images beyond the human eye were the dots. Better than that, to the right at the back of the Michael tower, a peculiar cross-shaped object had appeared! Critics who weren’t there will invariably cite a bird or a plane, some have even said an insect (!), but I repeat there was nothing in the clear sky, and this essay is not for the critics, but for those who also suspect there may be more than meets the eye, literally, concerning this famous hill.

In 2007, I returned again in June to the Tor hoping to repeat the experiment, actually having filed the fear-filled attack away as a puzzling ‘blip’ on the radar. It wasn’t even fresh in my fading memory when I began my familiar ascent from the Chalice Lane end – which some may find as hard to believe as the manifestations. Incredibly, and at the EXACT same place point up the winding path as before, it happened to me again, and just as frightening. I repeated my immediate thought of the earlier year, “I’m off!’ having to freeze to the spot in order not to do a runner! As before, I eventually managed some degree of composure to reach the tower and to take more photographs in the clear blue and uninterrupted sky with that horrendous fear of trepidation never leaving me for a moment. The best description I can offer is a feeling that I was just about to drift off weightlessly above! With the camera fulfilling its 27 exposure, I was more than pleased to legitimately retreat. There were more dots appearing on the pix again, but most amazingly, the cross-shaped ‘UFO’ object had re-appeared in EXACTLY the same position!
In 2008 it was a sunny June again, and this time I was more than apprehensive about the twice inexplicable panic that had filled me at the same spot the two years running, and for good reason when in rushed the by now familiar alarm at the same point of ascension, only this time it was worse than the last two combined. I WAS going to run off this time for sure! In what was fast becoming a tradition I didn’t, and continued after a long period to the plateau to use the film up. Now, this time, when eventually up there, I felt rather calmer, quite bearable. Two friends accompanying me knew nothing of my earlier traumas or what I was experiencing now. The developed film heralded no phenomenon. Desperately trying to make sense of this trio of adventures I could only return to a dependency on the Gaia Theory – had my thoughts and intent been received and part of the ‘deal’ was that in order to be granted manifestations I would have to forfeit an ordeal? Or could it not have been avoided? How could I know? …leaving me only to record the incidents and leave it at that.

In August 2009 I ascended the Tor by my usual route, with two relatives who were aware of my previous troubles. In order to change the factors involved, I brought no camera and was seeking no photographs of any nature. Both my daughter and grandson were shocked when I informed them – at the same spot as the prior three years – that I could go no further! Leaving them to continue alone, I sat there looking at the tower in the distance and saying to myself, “I can never reach up there again!’ as that was how my feelings were translating. How could I accept never being able to visit my favourite ever spot, even though I now had to accept that this overpowering apprehension was now part of my equation? After the customary time lapse, angry with myself, I came up with the idea to climb down off the path to the left and along one of the embankments some way and then continue back up the steep side to the path again. I managed this and could continue the remainder of the walk where I again felt quite calm at the top of the Tor. My theory of being ‘granted’ photos for a ‘forfeit’ clearly didn’t fit.

My daughter took a picture of the spot where for consecutive years approaching the Tor from Chalice Well I reached an area that against all probability and rationale forbade me to cross! It’s tempting to suggest this could be some sort of weird Tor energy ‘force field’ that I had now developed a sensitivity to? I have applied all logic to these adventures. Had I suddenly at my age developed acrophobia, a sort of fear of heights? No, my physiology did not meet the criteria anywhere near enough, and there were no physical symptoms at all such as dizziness, heart palpitation or lack of breath. Nothing but that irrational ‘panic attack’. A part of me found this most ironical, as during the 80’s in conjunction with my understanding of the Collective Unconscious I had conducted, with great success, psychological experiments with the archetype of the nature god Pan, whose presence instills instant panic! The rustic image of this half man-half goat Greek god was shamelessly stolen by the Christian Church and used to represent their Satan devil figure. Such echoes of dipping into, arguably, the realm of magick, were far from my mind, but was the archetypical energy of the god – in myth Overseer of the faery realm – awaiting me at the Tor? The following day, again changing the factors involved in the total equation, I ascended from the other available path at the far end of the Tor with my grandson and Glastonbury resident Mike Chenery. This way up is quicker, but much steeper. Apprehensively all the way, I made it up there without a fault!
I had arranged to meet with Mike, for he too has an amazing story to tell, and again, I will tell it for those who can find it a possibility that the Tor is simply more than just a steep hill. However, it is a sad fact that in this world of computer wizardry there is very little that cannot be faked in the way of photographs, which makes it nigh on impossible for people like Mike and myself, with genuine unlikely pix, to be taken seriously. On February 26th 2007 at 4.33pm on a bright day Mike was walking up Well House Lane when his attention was drawn to the fact that all the singing birds had suddenly stopped their song. This stillness and suspension reminds me of what occurs at the time of a solar eclipse when birds become temporarily disorientated. He was now at a gate that provides a vantage point view of one of the un-arched sides of the tower. Casually looking up he saw a dazzling white ‘something’ that, in his words, ‘glided’ a short distance from within the tower. At first it showed itself as thin but then moved its perspective facing Mike’s direction and in doing so widened, rather like at first being as a door seen sideways on and then full frontal. As he always carries a camera during his numerous excursions, he only just found the time to take a picture and then the apparition that had only lasted seconds, simply ‘popped off’!! There had been nobody else up on the Tor at the time. The result on his digital camera confirmed what he had seen with his own eyes, a spectre of some definition, but what could it have been?

For some clues to this mystery I have taken a closer look at the carvings that appear on the front of the Tower. My contention places firm belief that specific works of architecture are often brought about by the Collective Unconscious working through an unsuspecting human agency that if interpreted correctly can afford us clues to something of a hidden value.

I find it intriguing that the highest carving on the tower is that of the Phoenix, a bird of Arabia so called owing to it possession of a scarlet colour – the colour that is most prominent in the weird earth light displays. The Phoenix also represents immortality, life after death and mystical rebirth.

So why should this be above the Tor?
Below it to the left we see St Michael and the devil, weighing souls. To their right is St Bridget milking a cow. Bridget was originally the Celtic, and possibly pre-Celtic, goddess Brighde. Her earliest representations associate her with fire. Why too should she be situated there, is it because both Bridget and Phoenix have this red, fire association? It is said that the Gateway to the Underworld opens only on the days of a fire festival, St Bridget having such a date on February 2nd.

Employing the lost Mother Tongue language, a form of Esperanto that can link up languages and sciences into a cybernetic fashion and revealed to me by my autistic savant wife Avril, when we look at the name ‘Glastonbury’ we can see ‘Glass-stone-bury’ or ‘Glass stone ruby’. Is it that simple – a buried glass stone or buried glass ruby stone is somehow associated with the Tor? Ruby, is of course, a pure transparent (as would be a glass stone) red corundum. The key word here may be ‘transparent’ from Latin ‘parere’ meaning ‘to appear’. Back to Bridget-Brighde, and by consulting the phonetic, visual pun and anagrammatic language of the Mother Tongue, try pronouncing the name ‘Bridget’ without saying ‘Bridge shut’. Are we drawing attention to a shut bridge? Bridge comes from the old English ‘bryg’ and a ‘brig’ is a two masted, square rigged vessel from the word ‘brigantine’. Does this ship have a porthole? Or, does this ‘spaceship’ have a ‘portal’? Looking closer at the word ‘bridge’ we find that it is anything that connects across a gap or makes an electrical connexion between, and its synonyms include; arch, link, connexion, connect. Under enlargement, the dazzling white shape caught on camera shows an outline not unlike a tomb headstone and I wonder if we are seeing the actual archetype and origin for such a structure, something of an arch whereby the soul will pass through to liably voyage beyond. The dazzling bright white reminds me of the descriptions seen down a tunnel in near death experiences. Is this, indeed a time-space Portal, a normally ‘bridge shut’ and place of mystical rebirth of the Phoenix? Can such a Portal exist on Glastonbury Tor and is this what Mike Chenery has photographed physically opening for a few moments of our known time? Is the Michael tower with its two-sided arch you can walk through and out, a physical living unconscious memory of a replica, dimensional Portal? For some reliable confirmation and a startling conclusion, my interpretation returns to the stonework images on the tower that I believe to have been provided by that Collective Unconscious confirming the presence of a Portal. We see Michael and the Pan-like figure of the devil weighing souls on a weighing scale, the devil having a foot on his scale attempting to weigh it down. The key words here are ‘Scales’ and ‘Way’ (phonetic of ‘weigh’). ‘Way’ means ‘passage’, and ‘scales’ in musical composition is a progression of single notes upwards or downwards in steps. The imagery of the devil tipping down his scale is to draw reference to the infamous augmented 4th, or ‘Devil’s Chord’, prohibited by the church in the 12th century. My friend, the Scottish author Brian Allen, has evidenced in his own work ‘Rosslyn, Between Two Worlds’ a belief that there is a Portal contained within Rosslyn Chapel and that this devil’s chord is a key and sound frequency involved in opening the Portal. I smile when I recall how the devil was always represented holding a pitch-fork which I think we now can more correctly view as an acoustic resonating tuning fork which can be used to emit a pure musical tone. The pan pipes, or syrinx, of the god Pan also involve specific acoustic octave properties. As Allen suggests, does a specific frequency or harmonic note, along with this devil’s chord, provide the science that opens a Portal? It should therefore be no surprise that Glastonbury has this entwined musical connexion with its annual festival. We return next to the carved image of St Bridget seen milking a cow into a pitcher, the musical term for pitch means to ‘set in a key.’ With Bridget we are inviting in a ‘bridge’, which in classical music is also known as a ‘transition’, the word meaning ‘a passage from one place’. Through the Portal… the mystical re-birth of the Phoenix allegory?

With the wonder and revelation of synchronicity in mind, a bridge, in music, is formally known as a bridge-passage……

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Band of Holes near Pisco Valley, Peru

These strange holes, stretching for a mile over uneven mountain terrain, were here for so long that the local people have no idea who made them, or why. Funny thing is no one really saw the big picture until the area was seen from the air.

Thousands of man-sized holes are carved into the barren rock near Pisco Valley, Peru on a plain called Cajamarquilla.
Click on the image to enlarge.

Satellite photo of the Pisco Valley with marked location of
the “Band of Holes” . Click on the image to enlarge.

Archeologists have speculated they were dug to store grain in. Two problems with this, say the folks thinking out of the box: there were a lot easier ways to create storage containers than the hard work and decades it must have taken to chip out all of these, and it would have made more sense, if these were to store grain, to build several huge chambers.
Ok, said the archeologists. Perhaps they were used as one-person tombs? Vertical graves of some sort? But no bones, artifacts, scraps, inscriptions, jewelry…not even a tooth or strand of hair has been found in them. They have no covers to seal them as you might a tomb and no sacred history or even myth was passed down to label them as such. Some sections have holes in rigid and perfect precision; some run in rows that curve up in arches, some staggered lines. They vary in depth to about 6-7 feet deep yet some are merely shallow indents as if not completed – though surrounded by those that are. To date, no one has a clue why they’re here, who made them or what they were.

Satellite photo of the “Band of Holes” near Pisco Valley.
Note: The location of the band of holes is highlighted brown.
Click on the image to enlarge.

Even von Daniken’s work begins to take on a realness when one finds an old National Geographic from 1933 corroborating the “Band of Holes,” that he personally inspected a few years ago. Each hole is a meter wide and just as deep. There are eight holes spanning 24 meters in width, marching in repetitive uniform fashion, from the Pisco Valley rolling over a mile through mountain terrain — finally disappearing in the misty mass of Peru. These holes remind this old West Texas boy of the traces left by a massive drilling rig moving along methodically, testing the geology of the Andes for precious metals. Lasers have also left such tracings in the ground. Archaeologists say they represented defensive positions or graves for the ancient ones, except why would you bury anyone on a slope in rocky soil at more than a 45-degree angle? If you look at the most northern part of the band, you will notice that it ends within unnaturally darkened area (it almost looks like a remnants of an explosion)… see the photo below:

Strangely dark area where the “band of holes” ends.
Click to enlarge

Few miles east from the band, satellite photo shows structures that look like a remnants of an ancient settlement (these formations do not look natural and there is nothing similar in the entire area): 13 42’36.80″ S, 75 51’4.07″ W

Remnants of an ancient city?
Click on the image to enlarge

For the reference here is satellite photo of Machu Picchu:

Ruins of Machu Picchu, Peru (click to enlarge).

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The Nazca Lines, Peru

The Nazca Lines are giant sketches drawn in the desert of western Peru by ancient peoples. The drawings were created on such a large scale is such that the shapes can be readily discerned only from the air, leading to a variety of theories about their purpose.

The Nazca Lines were created in the time of the Nazca Indians, who flourished in the area from 200 BC to about 600 AD. Graves and ruins of their settlement have been found near the lines.

The lines would have taken a long time to create, perhaps several generations, and many people contributed to their creation. As to the purpose of the Nazca Lines, see below for some of the theories.

The area of the Peruvian desert in which the Nazca Lines were drawn is called the Pampa Colorada (Red Plain). It is 15 miles wide and runs some 37 miles parallel to the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. The desert is not sandy, but made of dark red surface stones and soil with lighter-colored subsoil beneath. The Lines were created by clearing away the darker upper layer to reveal the lighter subsoil.

It seems incredible that such simply-made drawings have survived for so many hundreds of years, and some have seen a mysterious element to this. But there is also a natural explanation: the surface is made of stone, not sand, and the climate of the area is such that there is practically no erosion. The Nazca peoples chose an excellent place for an enduring monument.

The Nazca Lines include straight lines and geometric shapes as well as stylized depictions of animals, humans and plants. The figures include:

• monkey
• condor
• round-headed, rather friendly-looking human (known as “the astronaut”)
• another human figure
• spider
• hummingbird
• hands
• tree

Theories of the Nazca Lines mainly attempt to explain why these remarkable drawings were created, and some theories seek to address the “how” question as well. Especially in the earlier years of study, it was difficult for many anthropologists to believe that the ancient Nazca peoples could have created the Lines without help from a more advanced society – or species!

Perhaps the most famous theory of the Nazca Lines is that of Swiss writer Erich von Däniken. In his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods, he suggested that the lines were built by ancient astronauts as a landing field. He identifies the pictures as “signals” and the longer lines as “landing strips.”

In 1977, Jim Woodman accepted that the Nazca people made the lines themselves, but puzzled over why they would make them so big that they couldn’t even seen them. He hypothesized that the Nazca people used hot-air balloons for “ceremonial flights” to view their creations.

Woodman attempted to demonstrate the validity of his theory by constructing a hot-air balloon out of the materials that would have been available to the Nazca. Using cloth, rope and reeds, Woodman and his colleagues assembled the balloon then risked their lives on a balloon ride that reached a height of 300 feet. The balloon soon descended rapidly; the balloonists bailed out 10 feet above the desert before it crashed some distance away.

In recent years, the professional skeptic Joe Nickell has demonstrated that the drawings would not have been hard to accomplish with only the tools available to the ancient Nazca. Nickell has also shown that although the size of the figures suggests they were intended primarily for the enjoyment of the gods, the drawings can be appreciated from the ground as well.

The general consensus of archaeologists, anthropologists and scientists is that the Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca people themselves, without help from celestial visitors or aerial views. The figures drawn in the desert correspond with images found in other examples of Nazca art, such as pottery.

It is almost certain that the Nazca Lines had a sacred purpose, because: other artifacts of the Nazca culture show a preoccupation with death; other major monuments of the ancient world are known to be ritual in nature; and no plausible practical purpose has yet been discovered.

The Nazca Lines may have been ritual centers for helping the dead achieve immortality; they may have been an offering to the gods; or they could have been a major pilgrimage site.

We may never know why the Nazca peoples put so much time and care into a project that they could barely see. In spite of all that we have learned about them in recent years, the Nazca Lines remain a fascinating mystery.

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Genghis Khan Tomb

According to legend, Genghis Khan lies buried somewhere beneath the dusty steppe of Northeastern Mongolia, entombed in a spot so secretive that anyone who made the mistake of encountering his funeral procession was executed on the spot.

Once he was below ground, his men brought in horses to trample evidence of his grave, and just to be absolutely sure he would never be found, they diverted a river to flow over their leader’s final resting place.

What Khan and his followers couldn’t have envisioned was that nearly 800 years after his death, scientists at UC San Diego’s Center for Interdisciplinary Science in Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) would be able to locate his tomb using advanced visualization technologies whose origins can be traced back to the time of the Mongolian emperor himself.

“As outrageous as it might sound, we’re looking for the tomb of Genghis Khan,” says Dr. Albert Yu-Min Lin, an affiliated researcher for CISA3. “Genghis Khan was one of the most exceptional men in all of history, but his life is too often dismissed as being that of a bloodthirsty warrior. Few people in the West know about his legacy — that he united warring tribes of Mongolia and merged them into one, that he introduced the East to the West making explorations like those of Marco Polo possible, that he tried to create a central world currency, that he introduced a written language to the Mongol people and created bridges that we still use today within the realm of international relations.

“But as great a man he was, there are few clues and no factual evidence about Genghis Khan’s burial, which is why we need to start using technology to solve this mystery.”

Lin and several colleagues — including Professor Maurizio Seracini, the director of CISA3 and the man behind the search for Leonardo da Vinci’s lost “Battle of Anghiari” painting — are hoping to use advanced visualization and analytical technologies available at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) to pinpoint Khan’s tomb and conduct a non-invasive archaeological analysis of the area where he is believed to be buried. Lin plans to work with Seracini to establish a position at UCSD that will allow him to spearhead the three-year Valley of the Khans project, which will require $700,000 in funding for eight researchers (including all expedition costs).

Khan’s grave is presumably in a region bordered by Mongolia’s Onon River and the Khan khentii mountains near his birthplace in Khentii Aimag, and some experts believe his sons and other family members were later buried beside him. The researchers, however, have little additional information to go on. Directly following Khan’s death in 1227, the area around his tomb was deemed forbidden by the emperor’s guards, and later in the 20th century, by strict Russian occupation, which prohibited Mongolians from even talking about Genghis Khan because they felt it might lead to nationalist uprising. Only since the 1990s have researchers been allowed in the area, and several other research teams have tried unsuccessfully to locate the tomb.

Lin hopes of success are based on his access to unparalleled technology at Calit2 and CISA3 to pinpoint the area where Khan might have been laid to rest, find the tomb itself and then develop a virtual recreation of it using various methods of spectral and digital imaging.

Explains Lin : “If you have a large burial, that’s going to have an impact on the landscape. To find Khan’s tomb, we’ll be using remote sensing techniques and satellite imagery to take digital pictures of the ground in the surrounding region, which we’ll be able to display on Calit2’s 287-million pixel HIPerSpace display wall. But we also want to make this an interactive research project and get the public involved. One of our ideas is to utilize something like the International Space Station’s ‘EarthCam’ program at UCSD, which recruits middle school students to control a satellite camera and take pictures of the earth. We’d have them do the same thing, only they’d be taking pictures of the area where Genghis’ tomb might be located.”

Lin says another approach would be to combine social networking with visualization techniques to replicate something like the online “Find Steve Fossett” project, which enlisted members of the general public to flag anomalous satellite images in the hopes that they could locate the missing adventurer.

“Once we’ve narrowed down this region in Mongolia to a certain area,” Lin continues, “we’ll use techniques such as ground penetrating radar, electromagnetic induction and magnetometry to produce non-destructive, non-invasive surveys. We’ll then work with people in UCSD’s electrical engineering department to develop visual algorithms that will allow us to create a high-resolution, 3-D representation of the site.”

Notably, these computer-based technologies are modern evolutions of moveable type and the printing press — innovations that historian Jack Weatherford argues were spread by way of the Mongols as they conquered parts of Europe (Chinese printing technologies predated Gutenberg’s printing press by several hundred years). Lin speculates that remnants of those international conquests might even turn up in Khan’s tomb, but, he adds, “The process of doing an archaeological dig is up to the Mongolian government.”

Lin says he’s hoping to collaborate with the Mongolian government and national universities, through the help of Amaraa and Bayarsihan Baljinnayam — siblings from what he endearingly calls his “Mongolian family.” They will assist with language interpretation and expedition coordination, and most importantly, local media and political support — connections that will prove very useful as Lin navigates through the often complex arena of international relations.

Noting that his project team also includes San Diego State University Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry William G. Tong, UCSD Field Systems Engineer Nathan Ricklin, UCSD Computer Vision Engineer Shay Har-Noy and Independent Engineering Geologist Charles Ince, Lin says he sees parallels between the collaborative work he’s doing with CISA3 and Genghis’ own push to adapt to new technologies.

“He took the best resources of entire world — whether weaponry or medicine — and adopted those technologies into his own methodology. We’re trying to implement that same adaptation to many disciplines into our own work. We’re taking the great work that’s already been done in archaeology and further developing it by using technologies from other disciplines — computer vision, social networking, electrical engineering — while at the same time never forgetting fundamentals of historical search.

Despite the technologies and expertise available to him, Lin says he is well aware of the great challenges the project poses. “One consistent fact is that there is no fact,” he admits. “It’s a story of secrets upon secrets and myths upon myths.

“If I could meet Genghis Khan today, I would ask how he would have wanted to be remembered in history,” Lin muses. “The fact that he died in his bed surrounded by people who loved him and never had a single General turn his back on him, the fact that the loyalty of his people is so sound it can be heard across the world — these are the marks of one of the most impressive military heroes of all time. This is an example of a leader who was ruthless, strict, disciplined, and in a lot of ways, extremely honorable. If he was able to rewrite his own history, I wonder how he’d want it heard.”

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The Michigan Dog Man

In 1987, as an April’s Fool’s prank, Michigan DJ Jack O’Malley got together with his production director Steve Cook, and made up a song about a half-dog half-man creature that roamed the backwoods of the northern portion of the state.

The creature, which they dubbed the Michigan Dog Man, was created from bits and pieces of creatures from other state legends, including the Bigfoot legend, the legend of the New Jersey Devil, the Boggy Creek Monster, and several other ‘cryptids’ (animals that appear in legend but heretofore have not been found in nature).

Cook was an avid fan of the paranormal and a student of folklore. The two men came up with a history of the Michigan Dog Man, which included a seven year cycle of appearances. The song played on the radio, the joke was a success, and then the reports started coming in.

But that wasn’t the weirdest part.

Turns out there really is an Indian legend unique to the northern part of Michigan about a half-dog, half-man creature that early French explorers claimed to have seen and is referred to in historical texts as the loup garou.The loup garou is a half-man, half-wolf beast that is roughly equivalent to the werewolf of popular fiction and late night horror movies, and was native to the Canadian woodland areas, Michigan, Indiana, and parts of Illinois.

Linda Godfrey, an Elkhart Wisconsin writer, first heard about Dog Man sitings in the greater Chicagoland area, and began to research the phenomenon. Her first book, The Beast of Bray Road, started out as a tongue-in-cheek look at what she assumed would be a totally bogus collection of local lore and dubious anecdotes. However, once Bray got into her research and began interviewing eyewitnesses and collecting evidence, she found herself quickly coverted.

Today, a Dogman blog keeps Dog Man watchers up on the latest sitings, and Bray continues to research and write about what she now believes is an actual creature.

Is there any truth to the legend?

Well, I walk my dog every morning for an hour in a 700 acre nature preserve a mile from my Michigan home. I’ve never seen the Dog Man there. But I can tell you for sure that the woods in Michigan can be damned spooky, and there have been many mornings when if I had indeed run into a Dog Man, it wouldn’t have really surprised me one bit. Seriously.

We are so isolated from nature, most of us, that we really don’t ‘get it’ anymore. So when these legends surface, they become sensational because they are strange to us. For the native peoples of this region, legend and reality were not so sharply separated. They understood that every place also had spirit, and that spirit could change form, or be formless, or invade a human being. Spirit is fluid, shapeshifting. We have no word for that now. We have no concept. ‘Legend’ is as close as we come, and that’s not quite the right word.

Eyewitnesses confirm the shapeshifting quality of the Dog Man, often reporting that at first they thought they were looking at a huge, unnaturally large dog or wolf, but that as they watched, the animal stood on its hind legs and its arms elongated right before their eyes, becoming more humanlike. The Dog Man is often said to have red eyes and a fierce contenance, a detail shared with the New Jersey Devil.

I have a fascination with the paranormal, and the cryptid branch of the paranormal is especially cool. I do believe that there are creatures that inhabit the netherworld between form and spirit, and that can move at will between these worlds.

Is the Michigan Dog Man one of those creatures?

Maybe.

Wanna go for a walk in the woods?

VIDEO

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Adam´s Bridge

Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The recently discovered bridge currently named as Adam´s Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long.

The bridge´s unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge´s age is also almost equivalent.

This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in tredha yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago).

In this epic, there is a mentioning about a bridge, which was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Rama who is supposed to be the incarnation of the supreme.

This information may not be of much importance to the archeologists who are interested in exploring the origins of man, but it is sure to open the spiritual gates of the people of the world to have come to know an ancient history linked to the Indian mythology. Comment From Hugh Joseph (10-12-02) I read the story headlined above with great interest. This is a story of major significance, as understanding its implications will turn the entire world of Science and History on its head. This bridge, according to accounts in the Ramayana and the Srimad-Bhagavatam, was constructed in the age know as Treta, over 2 million years ago.

How did the writers without super space-ranging satellites know about the existence of this bridge? In these ancient accounts, written over 5,000 years ago, we find discussions of, among other things, space travel, inter planetary travel, what we call UFOs and what we mistakenly call ETs. This is not only the History of the planet Earth, but also of this Universe, (a mediocre universe among many millions of universes.)

Here one can also learn the real undisguised and uncontaminated truth about God. Our man-made religions are of little or no value when compared to the stunning and breathtaking revelations found in the pages of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Ramayan, Bhagavad-gita, etc.

Here is the way the “Srimad Bhagavatam” describes the event:

nara-devatvam apannah sura-karya-cikirsaya samudra-nigrahadini cakre viryany atah param

Translation:

“In the eighteenth incarnation (of Lord Krishna), the Lord appeared as King Rama. In order to perform some pleasing work for the demigods, He exhibited superhuman powers by controlling the Indian Ocean and then killing the atheist King Ravana, who was on the other side of the sea”.

The Personality of Godhead Sri Rama assumed the form of a human being and appeared on the earth for the purpose of doing some pleasing work for the demigods, or the administrative personalities, to maintain the order of the universe. Sometimes great demons and atheists like Ravana and Hiranyakasipu and many others become very famous due to advancing material civilization by the help of material science and other activities, with a spirit of challenging the established order of the Lord. For example, the attempt to fly to other planets by material means is a challenge to the established order. The conditions of each and every planet are different, and different classes of human beings are accommodated there for particular purposes mentioned in the codes of the Lord. But, puffed up by tiny success in material advancement, sometimes the godless materialists challenge the existence of God. Ravana was one of them, and he wanted to deport ordinary men to the planet of Indra (heaven) by material means without consideration of the necessary qualifications. He wanted a staircase to be built up directly reaching the heavenly planet so that people might not be required to undergo the routine of pious work necessary to enter that planet. He also wanted to perform other acts against the established rule of the Lord. He even challenged the authority of Sri Rama, the Personality of Godhead, and kidnapped His wife, Sita. Of course Lord Rama came to chastise this atheist, answering the prayer and desire of the demigods. He therefore took up the challenge of Ravana, and the complete activity is the subject matter of the “Ramayana”. Because Lord Ramachandra was the Personality of Godhead, He exhibited superhuman activities which no human being, including the materially advanced Ravana, could perform. Lord Ramacandra prepared a royal road on the Indian Ocean with stones that floated on the water. The modern scientists have done research in the area of weightlessness, but it is not possible to bring in weightlessness anywhere and everywhere. But because weightlessness is the creation of the Lord by which He can make the gigantic planets fly and float in the air, He made the stones even within this earth to be weightless and prepared a stone bridge on the sea without any supporting pillar. That is the display of the power of God.

Here’s the account from the “Ramayana” of Sage Valmiki:

“At Rama’s command, those lions among the monkeys entered the mighty forest with alacrity in hundreds and thousands on every side and those leaders on the simian tribes, tearing up the rocks, which in size they resembled, and the trees also dragged them to the sea and they covered the ocean with Sala, Ashvararna, (list of tree names).Those foremost monkeys transported those trees, with or without roots, bearing them like so many standards of Indra (the king of heaven) and they heaped (list of tree names) here and there. With the aid of mechanical devices, those powerful colossi dug up stones as big as elephants and rocks, and the water suddenly spouted into the air only to fall instantly. Thereafter those monkeys churned up the sea by rushing into it on all sides pulling on the chains.

“That immense causeway constructed by Nala in the bosom of the sea was built by the arms of those monkeys of formidable exploits and it extended over a hundred leagues.

“Some brought trunks of trees and others set them up; it was by hundreds and thousands that those monkeys, like unto giants, made use of reeds, logs and blossoming trees to construct that bridge, rushing hither and thither with blocks of stone resembling mountains or the peaks of crags, which, flung into the sea, fell with a resounding crash.

“The first day those monkeys resembling elephants, or immense energy, full of high spirits and exceedingly merry, erected fourteen leagues of masonry. The second day, those highly active monkeys of formidable stature set up twenty leagues. Bestirring themselves, those giants threw twenty-one leagues of structure over the ocean on the third day and on the fourth, working feverishly, they built up twenty-two leagues in extent. The fifth day, those monkeys, industrious workers, reached to twenty-three leagues distance from the further shore.

“That fortunate and valiant son of Vishvakarma (architect of the demigods), leader of the monkeys, constructed a causeway worthy of his sire over the ocean and that bridge erected by Nala over the sea, the haunt of whales, dazzling in its perfection and splendor, was like the constellation of Svati in space.

“Then the gods, Gandharvas, Siddhas (living beings superior to humans) and supreme Rishis (great sages) assembled in the sky, eager to see that masterpiece, and the gods and Gandharvas gazed on that causeway, so difficult of construction, that was ten leagues in width and a hundred in length built by Nala.

“Those monkeys thereafter dived, swam and shouted at the sight of that unimaginable marvel that was almost inconceivable and caused one to tremble! And all beings beheld that causeway thrown over the ocean and by hundreds and thousands of kotis (millions), those monkeys, full of valor, having built that bridge over the immense repository of waters, reached the opposite shore.

“Vast, well-constructed, magnificent with its wonderful paved floor, solidly cemented, that great causeway like unto a line traced on the waves, resembled the parting of a woman’s hair.

“Meanwhile Bibishana (brother of Ravana who joined Rama), mace (club) in hand, held himself ready at his post with his companions in case of an enemy attack. Thereafter Sugriva addressed Rama, who was valiant by nature, saying “Mount on the shoulders of Hanuman and Laxmana (brother of Rama) on those of Angada. O Hero, vast is this ocean, the abode of whales; those two monkeys who freely range the sky will transport you both.”

“Then the fortunate Rama and Laxmana advanced thus and that magnanimous archer was accompanied by Surgriva. Some monkeys strode forward in the center, some threw themselves into the waves, some sprang into the sky, others marched on the bridge, some ranged through space like birds, and the terrific tumult of the trampling of that formidable army of monkeys drowned the roar of the ocean.

“When those simian troops had passed over the sea by the grace of Nala’s causeway, the king ordered them to camp on the shore which abounded in roots, fruits and water.

At the sight of that masterpiece that had materialized under the command of Raghava (another name of Lord Rama), despite the difficulties, the gods, who had drawn near with the Siddhas and Charanas as also the great Rishis, anointed Rama in secret there, with water form the sea, and said: “Mayest thou be victorious over thy foes, O Thou, who are a God among men! Do Thou rule over the earth and the sea eternally!”

Thus in various auspicious words, did they acclaim Rama in the midst of the homage offered to him by the Brahmins.

Note: The monkeys mentioned here as comprising Rama’s army, were not ordinary monkeys. They were in fact greatly powerful demigods who appeared on this earth to assist the Lord in his pastime of subduing this atheistic demon, Ravana. Note: There are 4 ages, or yugas, rotating through time like the 4 seasons: Satya, 1,800,000 yeas long; Dvarapa, 1,200,000 years long, Treta, 800,000 years long and Kali, 432,000 years long. In this most recent yuga cycle, the Dvarapara and Treta yugas were reversed. This event took place about 2 million years ago. Ram Sethu: Scientific evidence of ancient human activity Ram Sethu ( called Adam’s Bridge by the British ) which is seen as one of Hinduism’s holiest sites, is an ancient chain of shoals that once linked India’s southern areas to Sri Lanka’s northwest. It is being destroyed by the Sethu Samudram Shipping Canal Project (SCCP) to create a navigable waterway in the narrow sea dividing the two countries. By S. Kalyanaraman copyright© 2004 Bharat Prakashan(Delhi) Ltd. Scientific evidences point to human activity in ancient times on both sides of Ram Sethu as found by Deptt. of Earth Sciences and ocean technologists of Bharatam. This area should be declared a protected monument under the Protection of Monuments Act and declared as a World Heritage site by the Government of India and advised to UNESCO.

The Geological and geophysical survey of the Sethu-samudram Project clearly reveal that Rama’s bridge appears to be a major Geological feature. The surveys reveal that to the north of Ram Sethu on the Palk Bay side, the formation have undergone down faulting and the Ram Sethu came up as an up thrown block. This geomorphic feature is seem to be continuous and verified both by bathymetry survey and NASA land image.

One could clearly see that this is but a continuous feature with minor depressions upto about 100m width. In consonance with these things there are inter tidal marine sandy islands. These depressions and the islands appear to be neotectonic feature resulting in changes in bathymetry.

It is a well established scientific phenomenon that there has been a major glaciation period (ice age) with glacial maxima at about 18,000 years BP. This feature has been observed and studied in several parts of the world with the help of submerged Corals. During the glacial Maxima, the sea level was about 130m lower than what is today. This is evidenced both on the east and west coast of India, where submerged Corals occur around 1 to 2m water depths and they are clear indicators of near coastal zone.

The Ram Sethu ridge is a major marine divide. It separates the furious Bay of Bengal sea and sediments in the Palk bay and the very calm placid waters of the Gulf of Mannar. This ridge like feature is similar to the “Allaband” that was formed after a major earthquake in Arabian Sea in the early 19th century. In the Allaband, a long stretch of about 90km length and about 0.5 to 4km wide zone got uplifted because of a major tectonic event that was responsible for the earthquake. Since this event occurred in the recent past and such huge track of land was raised, people called that it is happened due to the will of Allah and named it Allaband.

The Ram Sethu is a similar feature but formed much earlier due to tectonic causes that were prevalent in these areas. However, during the last ice age (18,000 year BP) the entire area from India to Sri Lanka and further south and southeast were contagious land due to the highly lowered sea level. As and when there were major melting of glaciers both from the mountains as well as from the Antarctic area, the sea level was rising. These features were well recorded and studied by several submerged Coral formations all over the world. About 7,300 years BP the sea level in the southern part of India was about 3.5 m above the present level. This has been deciphered by Dr. P.K. Banerjee, who studied Corals that found in the land part as of Pamban, Rameswaram, and Tuticorin etc. Subsequently the sea level went down and rose +2m above than what is today between 5000 to 4000 years B.P.

The Geological logging of the bore holes drilled by NIOT in the inter tidal areas of Ram Sethu reveals very interesting details. In all the bore holes the top portion is seen to be occupied by recent marine sands. In almost of all the boreholes between 4.5 and 7.5m the borehole intersected hard formations, which have been found to be calcareous sand stones and corals. It is to be pointed out here that Corals are comparatively less dense, compact and somewhat easy to carry. The Corals normally grow atop compact to hard formations for the purpose of stability, and as the sea level rises, the Coral colony grows up vertically to maintain water depth of 1 to 2 m, which is essential for their survival. It is always observed that these Corals have continuous vertical growth like Lakshadweep, Andaman’s, and Gulf of Mannar Natural Park. These have always been found to grow on hard rock bottom. In the case of Ram Sethu area, we observe that the Coral formations hardly occur 1 to 2.5m in length and resting on loose marine sands. Most of these coral rock pieces are seem to be rounded pebbles of corals. These things appear to point these coral rock pieces and pebbles have been transported and placed in these areas.

Since the calcareous sand stones and Corals are less dense than normal hard rock and quite compact, probably these were used by the ancients to form a connecting link to Sri Lanka, on the higher elevations of the Ram Sethu ridge and this is analogous to modern day causeway.

In support of these observations there are many archaeological and geoarchaeological evidences on the south east coast of India around Rameswaram, Tuticorin and the western coast of Sri Lanka. There are raised Teri formations that supported a rich assemblage of mesolithic—microlithic tools indicating the presence of strong human habitation and activity in these areas as early as 8000 to 9000 years B.P and as recent as 4000 years B.P. On Sri Lanka side there are indications of human habitation extending to late Pleistocene (about 13,000 B.P) based on bone and fossils of human and animal form.

All these point to a flourishing human activity on both side of Adams Bridge and probably when the sea levels were just right the link between India and Sri Lanka could have been established.

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Ghosts of Bar Harbor, Maine

Bar Harbor is one of America’s favorite vacation spots. It also has a rich history, between its magnificent coastline and the colorful people who have chosen Mount Desert Island for their summer homes.

However, many of Acadia’s residents close ranks rather than expose their many “visitors from the past” to the public. They would like their ghosts left alone, thank you very much.

We have just a few stories that we can share right now, and hope to expand this list in the future.

According to reader Jarrod, CleftStone Inn is haunted by two women who perished in a fire there, in 1947. These exhibit poltergeist-like manifestations: slamming doors, vases being thrown across the room, and so on.

In addition, the air feels heavy there, like you’re in a slow-motion time warp. We’ve heard this kind of description before, and experienced it ourselves. Usually, this suggests ghosts more than poltergeists.

Jarrod also reports that, next door to the CleftStone Inn, the Blue Nose Inn is reportedly “cursed.” It’s burned to the ground three times so far.

Sure, it’s almost a cliche, but we’re informed that there’s a haunted corner in the Bar Harbor Funeral Home. It has a white orb of light, and you can almost see it in your mind as well, if you step into that corner. The maids avoid dusting near it.

The site around Jesuit Springs is supposedly haunted by the eight Jesuit missionaries who were killed there in 1613, by English artillery. Their white shapes are seen at night, boats disappear (last reported: 16′ skiff of the Colby family, 1975), and a man in brown robes carrying a cross has been seen in a ghostly boat nearby.

Not everything in Bar Harbor, Maine is as it appears; when the spooky shadows of the night roll in the undeceased appear. Some of the departed won’t stay underground in this settlement. Doubters don’t have faith in the local spirit reports, but creepy things sure occur here in Bar Harbor during the moonlight hours.

These are some of the spooky things that have happened here recently.

The ghost of a bound up gentleman can be spotted very frequently looking for a woman right by Acadia National Park. Regardless of what folks exclaim, it’s a chilling ghost that is preferably not disturbed.

The phantom of a street bum has once in a while been perceived standing by a wild road close to Bar Harbor.

The ghost of a youthful woman drenched in blood is from time to time noticed sobbing by Great Meadow.

The ghost of an old witch has been said to have been witnessed on numerous occasions riding on a bicycle on a shady road near Bar Harbor.

A gentleman with a sizeable hole through his upper body can once in a while be noticed on the water’s edge of Beaver Dam Pond gazing. A woman who lives here alleges that this ghost gets pleasure from startling foolish folks who have the courage to disturb the calm in Bar Harbor.

A female’s body having a horse’s head is regularly perceived studying Bald Rock Ledge in detail late in the night. One thing’s for guaranteed, it in all certainty is a scary ghost that you wouldn’t wish to bump into before sunrise.

A semi rotten human dead body has supposedly been witnessed on a handful of occasions attempting to grip something by The Bluffs.

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