A collection of intriguing topics and fascinating stories

about the rare, the paranormal, and the strange

Volume 9




Journey into the mysterious realm of cryptids.
Uncover mysterious cases of psychic phenomena, ghosts and UFOs.






Pablo C. Agsalud Jr.
Revision 6







Foreword

In the past, things like television, and words and
ideas like advertising, capitalism, microwave and
cancer all seemed too strange for the ordinary
man.

As man walks towards the future, overloaded with
information, more mysteries have been solved
through the wonders of science. Although some
things remained too odd for science to reproduce
or disprove, man had placed them in the gray
areas between truth and skepticism and labeled
them with terminologies fit for the modern age.

But the truth is, as long as the strange and
unexplainable cases keep piling up, the more likely
it would seem normal or natural. Answers are
always elusive and far too fewer than questions.
And yet, behind all the wonderful and frightening
phenomena around us, it is possible that what we
call mysterious today wont be too strange
tomorrow.

This book might encourage you to believe or refute
what lies beyond your own understanding.
Nonetheless, I hope it will keep you entertained
and astonished.

The content of this book remains believable for as
long as the sources and/or the references from the
specified sources exist and that the validity of the
information remains unchallenged.











Psychic Phenomena



The brain is a complex organ that controls every part of our body.

With its immeasurable potential and enigma, one is left to assume that
there is no end to what the human mind can achieve
or make itself believe.

Alien abduction
Wikipedia.org


The terms alien abduction or abduction phenomenon describe "subjectively real memories of
being taken secretly against ones will by apparently nonhuman entities and subjected to
complex physical and psychological procedures." People claiming to have been abducted are
usually called "abductees" or "experiencers." Typical claims involve being subjected to a forced
medical examination that emphasizes their reproductive system. Abductees sometimes claim
to have been warned against environmental abuse and the dangers of nuclear weapons.
Consequently, while many of these purported encounters are described as terrifying, some
have been viewed as pleasurable or transformative.

Due to a lack of any substantial physical evidence, most scientists and mental health
professionals dismiss the phenomenon as "[d]eception, suggestibility (fantasy-proneness,
hypnotizability, false-memory syndrome), personality, sleep phenomena, psychopathology,
psychodynamics [and] environmental factors." Skeptic Robert Sheaffer also sees similarity
between the aliens depicted in early science fiction films, in particular, Invaders From Mars,
and those reported to have actually abducted people.

The first alien abduction claim to be widely publicized was the Betty and Barney Hill abduction
in 1961. Reports of the abduction phenomenon have been made around the world, but are
most common in English speaking countries, especially the United States. The contents of the
abduction narrative often seem to vary with the home culture of the alleged abductee.

Alien abductions have been the subject of conspiracy theories and science fiction storylines
(notably The X-Files) which have speculated on stealth technology required if the phenomenon
were real, the motivations for secrecy and that alien implants could be a possible form of
physical evidence.

Overview

Mainstream scientists reject claims that the phenomenon literally occurs as reported.
However, there is little doubt that many apparently stable persons who report alien abductions
believe their experiences were real. As reported in the Harvard University Gazette in 1992, Dr.
John Edward Mack investigated over 800 claimed abductees, and "spent countless therapeutic
hours with these individuals only to find that what struck him was the 'ordinariness' of the
population, including a restaurant owner, several secretaries, a prison guard, college students,
a university administrator, and several homemakers ... 'The majority of abductees do not
appear to be deluded, confabulating, lying, self-dramatizing, or suffering from a clear mental
illness,' he maintained." "While psychopathology is indicated in some isolated alien abduction
cases," Stanley Krippner et al. confirmed, "assessment by both clinical examination and
standardized tests has shown that, as a group, abduction experients are not different from the
general population in term of psychopathology prevalence." Other experts who have argued
that abductees' mental health is no better or worse than average, include psychologists John
Wilson and Rima Laibow, and psychotherapist David Gotlib.

Some abduction reports are quite detailed. An entire subculture has developed around the
subject, with support groups and a detailed mythos explaining the reasons for abductions: The
various aliens (Greys, Reptilians, "Nordics" and so on) are said to have specific roles, origins,
and motivations. Abduction claimants do not always attempt to explain the phenomenon, but
some take independent research interest in it themselves, and explain the lack of greater
awareness of alien abduction as the result of either extraterrestrial or governmental interest in
cover-up.

History

As noted below, the Antonio Villas Boas case (1957) and the Hill abduction (1961) were the
first cases of UFO abduction to earn widespread attention.

Though these two cases are sometimes viewed as the earliest abductions, skeptic Peter
Rogerson notes this assertion is incorrect: the Hill and Boas abductions, he contends, were
only the first "canonical" abduction cases, establishing a template that later abductees and
researchers would refine, but rarely deviate from. Additionally, Rogerson notes purported
abductions were cited contemporaneously at least as early as 1954, and that "the growth of
the abduction stories is a far more tangled affair than the 'entirely unpredisposed' official
history would have us believe." (The phrase "entirely unpredisposed" appeared in folklorist
Thomas E. Bullard's study of alien abduction; he argued that alien abductions as reported in
the 1970s and 1980s had little precedent in folklore or fiction.)

Paleo-abductions

While "alien abduction" did not achieve widespread attention until the 1960s, there were many
similar stories circulating decades earlier. These early abduction-like accounts have been
dubbed "paleo-abductions" by UFO researcher Jerome Clark.

In a 1897 edition of the Stockton, California Daily Mail, Colonel H. G. Shaw claimed he and a
friend were harassed by three tall, slender humanoids whose bodies were covered with a fine,
downy hair who tried to kidnap the pair.
Rogerson writes that the 1955 publication of Harold T. Wilkins's Flying Saucers Uncensored
declared that Karl Hunrath and Wilbur Wilkinson, who had claimed they were contacted by
aliens, had disappeared under mysterious circumstances; Wilkins reported speculation that the
duo were the victims of "alleged abduction by flying saucers".

Contactees

The UFO contactees of the 1950s claimed to have contacted aliens, and the substance of
contactee narratives is often regarded as quite different from alien abduction accounts.

Two landmark cases

An early alien abduction claim occurred in the mid-1950s with the Antonio Villas Boas case,
which did not receive much attention until several years later. Widespread publicity was
generated by the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case of 1961, culminating in a made for
television film broadcast in 1975 (starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons) dramatizing
the events. The Hill incident was probably the prototypical abduction case, and was perhaps
the first in which the claimant described beings that later became widely known as the Greys,
and in which the beings were said to explicitly identify an extraterrestrial origin.

If fictional sources such as science fiction movies and pulps are taken into consideration, the
phenomena might be traced back to the 1930s.

Later developments

Dr. Ronald Sprinkle (University of Wyoming psychologist) became interested in the abduction
phenomenon in the 1960s. For some years, he was probably the only academic figure
devoting any time to studying or researching abduction accounts. Sprinkle became convinced
of the phenomenon's actuality, and was perhaps the first to suggest a link between abductions
and cattle mutilation. Eventually Sprinkle came to believe that he had been abducted by aliens
in his youth; he was forced from his job in 1989. (Bryan, 145fn)

Budd Hopkinsa painter, sculptor and raconteur by professionhad been interested in UFOs
for some years. In the 1970s he became interested in abduction reports, and began using
hypnosis to extract more details of dimly remembered events. Hopkins soon became a
figurehead of the growing abductee subculture. (Schnabel 1994)

The 1980s brought a major degree of mainstream attention to the subject. Works by Budd
Hopkins, Whitley Strieber, David M. Jacobs and John Edward Mack presented alien abduction
as a genuine phenomenon. (Schnabel 1994)

Also of note in the 1980s was the publication of folklorist Dr. Thomas E. Bullard's comparative
analysis of nearly 300 alleged abductees. The mid and late 1980s saw the involvement of two
esteemed academic figures: Harvard psychiatrist John Mack and historian David M. Jacobs.

With Hopkins, Jacobs and Mack, several shifts occurred in the nature of the abduction
narratives. There had been earlier abduction reports (the Hills being the best known), but they
were believed to be few and far between, and saw rather little attention from ufology (and
even less attention from mainstream professionals or academics). Jacobs and Hopkins argued
that alien abduction was far more common than earlier suspected; they estimate that tens of
thousands (or more) North Americans had been taken by unexplained beings. (Schnabel
1994)

Furthermore, Jacobs and Hopkins argued that there was an elaborate scheme underway, that
the aliens were attempting a program to create humanalien hybrids, though the motives for
this scheme were unknown. There were anecdotal reports of phantom pregnancy related to
UFO encounters at least as early as the 1960s, but Budd Hopkins and especially David M.
Jacobs were instrumental in popularizing the idea of widespread, systematic interbreeding
efforts on the part of the alien intruders. Despite the relative paucity of corroborative
evidence, Jacobs presents this scenario as not only plausible, but self-evident. Hopkins and
Jacobs have also been criticized for selective citation of abductee interviews, favoring those
that support their hypothesis of extraterrestrial intervention.

The involvement of Jacobs and Mack marked something of a sea change in the abduction
studies. Their efforts were controversial (both men saw some degree of damage to their
professional reputations), but to other observers, Jacobs and Mack brought a degree of
respectability to the subject.

John Mack

Matheson writes that "if Jacobs's credentials were impressive," then those of Harvard
psychiatrist John Edward Mack might seem "impeccable" in comparison. (Matheson, 251) Mack
was a well known, highly esteemed psychiatrist, author of over 150 scientific articles and
winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of T. E. Lawrence. Mack became interested in the
phenomenon in the late 1980s, interviewing over 800 people, and eventually writing two
books on the subject.

In June 1992, Mack co-organized a five-day conference at MIT to discuss and debate the
abduction phenomenon. The conference attracted a wide range of professionals, representing
a variety of perspectives. (In response to this conference, Mack and Jacobs were awarded an
Ig Nobel Prize in 1993).

Writer C. D. Bryan attended the conference, initially intending to gather information for a short
humorous article for The New Yorker. While attending the conference, however, Bryan's view
of the subject changed, and he wrote a serious, open-minded book on the phenomenon,
additionally interviewing many abductees, skeptics, and proponents.
Abductors

Many abductees describe aliens as grey humanoids, known as greys.A variety of types of
abductors are proposed, including Greys, Nordic aliens almost indistinguishable from humans,
humanoid reptiles, energy beings and more.

Motivations

A variety of motivations are attributed to alleged abductors. These include:

Numerous reports that form a loose narrative around long-term surveillance and interaction
with humans. The entities state that the abductee has a unique characteristic, resulting in
repeated abductions, implanting information subconsciously for later "activation". Sometimes
this is related to major changes affecting the Earth and the entities' desire to help.

When abductees ask why they are being studied or undergoing surgery, the entity may
answer with a statement like "We have the right to do this."
Abductees

CUFOS Definition of an Abductee
A person must be taken:
Against his or her will
From terrestrial surroundings
By non-human beings.

The beings must take the person to:
An enclosed place
Not terrestrial in appearance
Assumed or known to be an alien spacecraft by the witness.

In this place, the person must either:
Be subjected to an examination,
Engage in communication (verbal or telepathic),
Or both.

These experiences may be remembered:
Consciously
Or through methods of focused concentration such as hypnosis.

The precise number of alleged abductees is uncertain. One of the earliest studies of abductions
found 1,700 claimants, while contested surveys argued that 56 percent of the general
population might have been abducted.

As a category, some studies show that abductees have psychological characteristics that
render their testimony suspect. Dr. Elizabeth Slater conducted a blind study of nine abduction
claimants and found them to be prone to "mildly paranoid thinking," nightmares and having a
weak sexual identity.

According to Yvonne Smith, some alleged abductees test positive for lupus, despite not
showing any symptoms.

Paranormal

Alleged abductees are seen by many pro-abduction researchers to have a higher incidence of
non-abduction related paranormal events and abilities. Following an abduction experience,
these paranormal abilities and occurrences sometimes seem to become more pronounced.
According to investigator Benton Jamison, abduction experiencers who report UFO sightings
that should have been, but are not, reported by independent corroborating witnesses often
seem to "be 'psychic personalities' in the sense of Jan Ehrenwald."

After what has been reported to be extensive poling and research, IFHRAA of London has
postulated that the incidence of paranormal activities either contributing to, or resulting from,
alien abduction/contact is significantly higher than previously imagined owing to a strong
reluctance to fully disclose the facts and thereby inviting exposure. Further, it is believed that
such alien contributed paranormal activity is frequently initiated by an interest in, and practice
of, a learned paranormal activity such as Remote Viewing. In such instances, the subject often
finds that the scientific endeavor quickly strays beyond its prescribed boundaries and entices
the subject into a new arena where contact can more freely utilize the potency of the science.
While there have been few verifiable examples of this, the most notable remains the extensive
communication experienced over four decades by SUBJECT 9. During his prolonged and
occasionally painful contact experiences, he was given three lengthy, complex, and baffling
manuscripts that have yet to be decoded., and,and CESG Paper.

Demographics

In a study investigating the motivations of the alleged abductors, Jenny Randles found that in
each of the 4 cases out of 50 total where the experiencer was over 40 years of age or more,
they were rejected by the aliens for "what they (the experiencers) usually inferred to be a
medical reason." Randles concludes "The abduction is essentially a young person's
experience." Given the reproductive focus of the alleged abductions it is not surprising that
one man reported being rejected because he had undergone a vasectomy. It could also be
partially because people over the age of 40 are less likely to have "hormonic" or reproductive
activity going on.

Although abduction and other UFO-related reports are usually made by adults, sometimes
young children report similar experiences. These child-reports often feature very specific
details in common with reports of abduction made by adults, including the cirumstances,
narrative, entities and aftermaths of the alleged occurrences. Often these young abductees
have family members who have reported having abduction experiences. Family involvement in
the military, or a residence near a military base is also common amongst child abduction
claimants.


The abduction narrative

Although different cases vary in detail (sometimes significantly), some UFO researchers, such
as folklorist Thomas E. Bullard argue that there is a broad, fairly consistent sequence and
description of events that make up the typical "close encounter of the fourth kind" (a popular
but unofficial designation building on Dr. J. Allen Hynek's classifying terminology). Though the
features outlined below are often reported, there is some disagreement as to exactly how
often they actually occur.

Bullard argues most abduction accounts feature the following events. They generally follow the
sequence noted below, though not all abductions feature all the events:

Capture. The abductee is forcibly taken from terrestrial surroundings to an apparent
alien space craft.
Examination and Procedures. Invasive physiological and psychological procedures,
and on occasion simulated behavioral situations, training & testing, or sexual liaisons.
Conference. The abductors communicate with the abductee or direct them to interact
with specific individuals for some purpose.
Tour. The abductees are given a tour of their captors' vessel, though this is disputed
by some researchers who consider this definition a confabulation of intent when just
apparently being taken around to multiple places inside the ship.
Loss of Time. Abductees often rapidly forget the majority of their experience, either
as a result of fear, medical intervention, or both.
Return. The abductees are returned to earth, occasionally in a different location from
where they were allegedly taken or with new injuries or disheveled clothing.
Theophany. Coinciding with their immediate return, abductee may have a profound
sense of love, a high, or "mystical experience", accompanied by a feeling of oneness
with God, the universe, or their abductors. Whether this is the result of a metaphysical
change, Stockholm Syndrome, or prior medical tampering is often not scrutinized by
the abductees at the time.
Aftermath. The abductee must cope with the psychological, physical, and social
effects of the experience.

When describing the "abduction scenario", David M. Jacobs says:

The entire abduction event is precisely orchestrated. All the procedures are
predetermined. There is no standing around and deciding what to do next. The beings
are task-oriented and there is no indication whatsoever that we have been able to find
of any aspect of their lives outside of performing the abduction procedures.

Capture

Abduction claimants report unusual feelings preceding the onset of an abduction experience.
These feelings manifest as a compulsive desire to be at a certain place at a certain time or as
expectations that something "familiar yet unknown," will soon occur. Abductees also report
feeling severe, undirected anxiety at this point even though nothing unusual has actually
occurred yet. This period of foreboding can last for up to several days before the abduction
actually takes place or be completely absent.

Eventually, the experiencer will undergo an apparent "shift" into an altered state of
consciousness. British abduction researchers have called this change in consciousness "the Oz
Factor." External sounds cease to have any significance to the experiencer and fall out of
perception. They report feeling introspective and unusually calm. This stage marks a transition
from normal activity to a state of "limited self-willed mobility." As consciousness shifts one or
more lights are alleged to appear, occasionally accompanied by a strange mist. The source
and nature of the lights differ by report, sometimes the light emanates from a source outside
the house (presumably the abductors' UFO), sometimes the lights are in the bedroom with the
experiencer and transform into alien figures.

As the alleged abduction proceeds, claimants say they will walk or be levitated into an alien
craft, often through solid objects like walls or a window. Alternatively, they may experience
rising through a tunnel with or without the abductors accompanying them into the awaiting
craft.

Examination

The examination phase of the so-called "abduction narrative" is characterized by the
performance of medical procedures and examinations by apparently alien beings against or
irrespective of the will of the experiencer. Such procedures often focus on sex and
reproductive biology. However, the literature holds reports of a wide variety of procedures
allegedly performed by the beings. The entity that appears to be in charge of the operation is
often taller than the others involved.

Miller notes different areas of emphasis between human medicine and what is allegedly being
practiced by the abductors. The abductors' areas of interest appear to be the cranium (see
below), nervous system, skin, reproductive system, and to a lesser degree, the joints.
Systems given less attention than a human doctor would, or omitted entirely include
cardiovascular system, the respiratory system below the pharynx and the lymphatic system.
The abductors also appear to ignore the upper region of the abdomen in favor of the lower
one.

There are also differences in procedure as well as emphasis between human medicine and that
claimed to be practiced by the entities. The abductors do not appear to wear gloves during the
"examination." Other constants of terrestrial medicine like pills and tablets are missing from
abduction narratives although sometimes abductees are asked to drink liquids. Injections also
seem to be rare and IVs are almost completely absent. Dr. Miller says he's never heard an
abductee claim to have a tongue depressor used on them.

Subsequent abduction procedures

After the so-called medical exam, the alleged abductees often report other procedures being
performed with the entities. Common among these post-examination procedures are what
abduction researchers refer to as imaging, envisioning, staging, and testing.

"Imaging" procedures consist of an abductee being made to view screens displaying images
and scenes that appear to be specially chosen with the intent to provoke certain emotional
responses in the abductee. "Envisioning" is a similar procedure, with the primary difference
being that the images being viewed, rather than being on a screen, actually seem to be
projected into the experiencer's mind. "Staging" procedures have the abductee playing a more
active role, according to reports containing this element. It shares vivid hallucination-like
mental visualization with the envisioning procedures, but during staging the abductee interacts
with the illusionary scenario like a role player or an actor.

"Testing" marks something of a departure from the above procedures in that it lacks the
emotional analysis feature. During testing the experiencer is placed in front of a complicated
electronic device and is instructed to operate it. The experiencer is often confused, saying that
they do not know how to operate it. However, when they actually set about performing the
task, the abductee will find that they do, in fact, know how to operate the machine.

Child presentation

Abductees of all ages and genders sometimes report being subjected to a "child presentation."
As its name implies, the child presentation involves the abduction claimant being shown a
"child." Often the children appear to be neither human, nor the same species as the
abductors. Instead, the child will almost always share characteristics of both species. These
children are labeled by experiencers as hybrids between humans and their abductors, usually
Greys.

Unlike Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, folklorist Thomas E. Bullard could not identify a child
presentation phase in the abduction narrative, even after undertaking a study of 300
abduction reports. Bullard says that the child presentation "seems to be an innovation in the
story" and that "no clear antecedents" to descriptions of the child presentation phase exists
prior to its popularization by Hopkins and Jacobs.

Less common elements

Bullard also studied the 300 reports of alien abduction in an attempt to observe the less
prominent aspects of the claims. He notes the emergence of four general categories of events
that recur regularly, although not as frequently as stereotypical happenings like the medical
examination. These four types of events are:

The conference
The tour
The journey
Theophany

Chronologically within abduction reports these rarer episodes tend to happen in the order
listed, between the medical examination and the return.

After allegedly displaying cold callous disregard towards the abduction experiencers,
sometimes the entities will change drastically in behavior once the initial medical exam is
completed. They become more relaxed and hospitable towards their captive and lead him or
her away from the site of the examination. The entities then hold a conference with the
experiencer, wherein they discuss things relevant to the abduction phenomenon. Bullard notes
five general categories of discussion that occur during the conference "phase" of reported
abduction narratives: An interrogation session, explanatory segment, task assignment,
warnings, and prophecies.

Tours of the abductors' craft are a rare but recurring feature of the abduction narrative. The
tour seems to be given by the alleged abductors as a courtesy in response to the harshness
and physical rigors of the forced medical examination. Sometimes the abductee report
traveling on a "journey" to orbit around Earth or to what appear to be other planets. Some
abductees find that the experience is terrifying, particularly if the aliens are of a more
fearsome species, or if the abductee was subjected to extensive probing and medical testing.

Return

Eventually the abductors will return the abductees to terra firma, usually to exactly the same
location and circumstances they were in prior to being taken. Usually, explicit memories of the
abduction experience will not be present, and the abductee will realize they have experienced
"missing time" upon checking a timepiece.

Sometimes the alleged abductors appear to make mistakes when returning their captives.
Famed UFO researcher Budd Hopkins has joked about "the cosmic application of Murphy's
Law" in response to this observation. Hopkins has estimated that these "errors" accompany 4
5 percent of abduction reports. One type of common apparent mistake made by the abductors
is failing to return the experiencer to the same spot that they were taken from initially. This
can be as simple as a different room in the same house, or abductees can even find
themselves outside and all the doors of the house are locked from the inside.

Realization event

Physician and abduction researcher John G. Miller sees significance in the reason a person
would come to see themselves as being a victim of the abduction phenomenon. He terms the
insight or development leading to this shift in identity from non-abductee to abductee the
"realization event." The realization event is often a single, memorable experience, but Miller
reports that not all abductees experience it as a distinct episode. Either way, the realization
event can be thought of as the "clinical horizon" of the abduction experience.

Trauma and recovery

Most people alleging alien abductions report invasive examinations of their bodies and some
ascribe psychological trauma to their experiences. Alleged abductees claim their memories of
the abduction events have caused posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). "Post abduction
syndrome" is a term used by abductees to describe the effects of abduction, though it is not
recognized by any professional treatment organizations. The difference between PAS and
PTSD is described as the recurrence of the phenomenon and the inability to identify when the
disorder started; furthermore, the medical community considers PTSD to be a severe and
debilitating ailment whereas "PAS" has been promoted only by fringe researchers.


Support groups

Support groups for people who believed they were abducted began appearing in the mid-
1980s. These groups appear throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Their
members are primarily white married females with some college education.

Therapeutical Hypnosis

Many alien abductees recall much of their abduction(s) through hypnosis. Because of this, it is
claimed by some skeptics that the vast majority of evidence for alien abduction is based on
memories 'recovered' through hypnosis. Due to the extensive use of hypnosis, the abduction
narratives are frequently explained by skeptics as false memories and suggestions by the
hypnotherapist. Alleged abductees seek out hypnotherapists to try to resolve issues such as
missing time or unexplained physical symptoms such as muscle pain or headaches. This
usually involves two phases, an information gathering stage, in which the hypnotherapist asks
about unexplained illnesses or unusual phenomena during the patients lives (caused by or
distortions of the alleged abduction), followed by hypnosis and guided imagery to facilitate
recall. The information gathering enhances the likelihood that the events discussed will be
incorporated into later abduction "memories".

Seven steps are hypothesized to lead to the development of false memories:

A person is predisposed to accept the idea that certain puzzling or inexplicable experiences
might be telltale signs of UFO abduction.
The person seeks out a therapist, whom he or she views as an authority and who is, at the
very least, receptive to this explanation and has some prior familiarity with UFO abduction
reports.
Alternatively, the therapist frames the puzzling experiences in terms of an abduction narrative.
Alternative explanations of the experiences are not explored.
There is increasing commitment to the abduction explanation and increasing anxiety reduction
associated with ambiguity reduction.
The therapist legitimates or ratifies the abductees experience, which constitutes additional
positive reinforcement.
The client adopts the role of the "victim" or abductee, which becomes integrated into the
psychotherapy and the clients view of self.

Perspectives

There have been a variety of explanations offered for abduction phenomena, ranging from
sharply skeptical appraisals, to uncritical acceptance of all abductee claims, to the
demonological, to everything in between.

Some have elected not to try explaining things, instead noting similarities to other
phenomena, or simply documenting the development of the alien abduction phenomenon.

Others are intrigued by the entire phenomenon, but hesitate in making any definitive
conclusions. The late Harvard psychiatrist John Mack concluded, "The furthest you can go at
this point is to say there's an authentic mystery here. And that is, I think, as far as anyone
ought to go." (emphasis as in original) (Bryan, 269)

Putting aside the question of whether abduction reports are literally and objectively "real",
literature professor Terry Matheson argues that their popularity and their intriguing appeal are
easily understood. Tales of abduction "are intrinsically absorbing; it is hard to imagine a more
vivid description of human powerlessness." After experiencing the frisson of delightful terror
one may feel from reading ghost stories or watching horror movies, Matheson notes that
people "can return to the safe world of their homes, secure in the knowledge that the
phenomenon in question cannot follow. But as the abduction myth has stated almost from the
outset, there is no avoiding alien abductors." (Matheson, 297)

Matheson writes that when compared to the earlier contactee reports, abduction accounts are
distinguished by their "relative sophistication and subtlety, which enabled them to enjoy an
immediately more favorable reception from the public."

Skeptical perspectives

Skeptical perspectives assert that reports of people being kidnapped and subjected to forced
medical examinations by extraterrestrial creatures do not occur literally as reported. Although
being only one of many competing explanations for the phenomenon, it is the only one that is
widely accepted by mainstream scientists and historians.

Various hypotheses have been proposed by skeptics to explain reports without the need to
invoke non-parsimonious concepts such as intelligent extraterrestrial life forms. These
hypotheses usually center on known psychological processes that can produce subjective
experiences similar to those reported in abduction claims. Skeptics are also likely to critically
examine abduction claims for evidence of hoaxing or influence from popular culture sources
such as science fiction. One example of a comprehensive, skeptical analysis that focuses on
the effects of mass marketing is art historian John F. Moffitt's 2003 book Picturing
Extraterrestrials: Alien Images in Modern Mass Culture

Examples

Proposed psychological alternative explanations of the abduction phenomenon have included
hallucination, temporary schizophrenia, epileptic seizures and parasomnianear-sleep mental
states (hypnogogic states, night terrors and sleep paralysis). Sleep paralysis in particular is
often accompanied by hallucinations and peculiar sensation of malevolent or neutral presence
of "something," though usually people experiencing it do not interpret that "something" as
aliens.
It is possible that some alleged abductees may be mentally unstable or under the influence of
recreational drugs.
In The Demon-Haunted World astronomer Carl Sagan points out that the alien abduction
experience is remarkably similar to tales of demon abduction common throughout history.
"There is no spaceship in these stories. But most of the central elements of the alien abduction
account are present, including sexually obsessive non-humans who live in the sky, walk
through walls, communicate telepathically, and perform breeding experiments on the human
species. Unless we believe that demons really exist, how can we understand so strange a
belief system, embraced by the whole Western world (including those considered the wisest
among us), reinforced by personal experience in every generation, and taught by Church and
State? Is there any real alternative besides a shared delusion based on common brain wiring
and chemistry?" (Sagan 1996 124)
It has also been noted that Terence McKenna described seeing "Machine Elves" while
experimenting with Dimethyltryptamine (also known as DMT). In a 1988 study conducted at
UNM, psychiatrist Rick Strassman found that approximately 20 percent of volunteers injected
with high doses of DMT had experiences identical to purported Alien Abductions.

Paranormal and conspiratorial

Some have argued that alien abduction is a literal phenomenon: extraterrestrials kidnap
humans to conduct studies or experiments. This is a well-known popular explanation, but has
seen very little support from most mainstream scientists.
Various authors, including Jacques Valle and John Mack, have suggested that the dichotomy
'real' versus 'imaginary' may be too simplistic; that a proper understanding of this complex
phenomenon may require a reevaluation of our concept of the nature of reality.
Testimonials

Abduction researcher Brian Thompson claims that a nurse acquaintance of his reported that
during 1957 in Cincinnati she encountered a 3-foot-tall (0.91 m) praying mantis-like entity
two days after a V-shaped UFO sighting. This mantis-like creature is reminiscent of the
insectoid-type entity reported in some abduction accounts. He related this report to fellow
researcher Leonard Stringfield. Stringfield told him of two cases he had in his files where
separate witnesses reported identical circumstances in the same place and year.

While some corroborated accounts seem to support the literal reality of the abduction
experience, others seem to support a psychological explanation for the phenomenon's origins.
Jenny Randles and Keith Basterfield both noted at the 1992 MIT alien abduction conference
that of the five cases they knew of where an abduction researcher was present at the onset of
an abduction experience, the experiencer "didn't physically go anywhere."

Brazilian researcher Gilda Moura reported on a similar case, the Sueli case, from her home
country. When psychologist and UFO researcher Don Donderi said that these cases were
"evidence of psychological processes" that did not "have anything to do with a physical alien
abduction," Moura replied "If the Sueli case is not an abduction, I don't know what is an
abduction any more." Gilda Moura noted that in the Brazilian Sueli case during the abduction
UFOs were observed. Later, she claims the experiencer had eye burns, saw lights and there
seemed to be residual poltergeist activity.

Attempts at confirmation

It has been argued that if actual "flesh and blood" aliens are abducting humans, there should
be some hard evidence that this is occurring. Proponents of the physical reality of the
abduction experience have suggested ways that could conceivably confirm abduction reports.

One procedure reported occurring during the alleged exam phase of the experience is the
insertion of a long needle-like contraption into a woman's navel. Some have speculated that
this could be a form of laparoscopy. If this is true, after the abduction there should be free gas
in the female's abdomen, which could be seen on an x-ray. The presence of free gas would be
extremely abnormal, and would help substantiate the claim of some sort of procedure being
done to her.

Notable abduction claims

1956: Elizabeth Klarer (South Africa)
1957: Antonio Villas Boas (Brazil)
1961: Betty and Barney Hill abduction (USA)
1967: Schirmer Abduction (USA)
1973: Pascagoula Abduction (USA)
1975: Travis Walton (USA)
1976: Allagash Abductions (USA)
1978: Valentich disappearance (Australia)
1979: Robert Taylor incident (Scotland)
1970s1980s: Whitley Strieber (USA)
1997: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (Russia)


Apportation
Wikipedia.org

See Materialization

Astral projection
Wikipedia.org

Astral projection (or astral travel) is an interpretation of out-of-body experience (OBE) that
assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of
traveling outside it. Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving the physical
body to travel in the astral plane.

The idea of astral travel is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in
which the consciousness' or soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an...out-
of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in
his/her subtle body (or dreambody or astral body) into higher realms." It is therefore
associated with near death experiences and is also frequently reported as spontaneously
experienced in association with sleep and dreams, illness, surgical operations, drug
experiences, sleep paralysis and forms of meditation.

It is sometimes attempted out of curiosity, or may be believed to be necessary to, or the
result of, some forms of spiritual practice. It may involve "travel to higher realms" called astral
planes but is commonly used to describe any sensation of being "out of the body" in the
everyday world, even seeing one's body from outside or above. It may be reported in the form
of an apparitional experience, a supposed encounter with a doppelgnger, some living person
also seen somewhere else at the same time.

Through the 1960s and 70s, surveys reported percentages ranging from 8 percent to as many
as 50 percent (in certain groups) of respondents who state they had such an experience. The
subjective nature of the experience permits explanations that do not rely on the existence of
an "astral" body and plane. There is little beyond anecdotal evidence to support the idea that
people can actually "leave the body".

BeliefsThe theme is treated in anthropological or ethnographic literature on witchcraft and
shamanism, in classical philosophy and in various myths and religious scriptures.

Western philosophies

According to classical, medieval and renaissance Neoplatonism, and later Theosophist and
Rosicrucian thought, the astral body is an intermediate subtle body linking the rational soul to
the physical body while the astral plane is an intermediate subtle world between Heaven and
Earth. These astral spheres were held to be populated by angels, demons and spirits.

The subtle bodies, and their associated planes of existence, form an essential part of the
esoteric systems that deal with astral phenomena. In the neo-platonism of Plotinus, for
example, the individual is a microcosm ("small world") of the universe (the macrocosm or
"great world"). "The rational soul...is akin to the great Soul of the World" while "the material
universe, like the body, is made as a faded image of the Intelligible". Each succeeding plane of
manifestation is causal to the next, a world-view called emanationism; "from the One
proceeds Intellect, from Intellect Soul, and from Soul - in its lower phase, or Nature - the
material universe".

Often these bodies and their planes of existence are depicted as a series of concentric circles
or nested spheres, with a separate body traversing each realm. The idea of the astral figured
prominently in the work of the nineteenth-century French occultist Eliphas Levi, whence it was
adopted and developed further by Theosophy, and used afterwards by other esoteric
movements.

The Bible

A common belief is that the subtle body is attached to the physical body by means of a
psychic silver cord. The final chapter of the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes is often cited in this
respect;

"before the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be
shattered at the fountain, or the wheel be broken at the cistern"

Paul's second letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 12, verse 2) is more generally agreed to refer
to the astral planes;

"I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I know not, or out
of the body I know not, God knows) such a one caught up to the third heaven..."'
This statement gave rise to the Visio Pauli, a tract that offers a vision of heaven and hell, a
forerunner of visions attributed to Adomnan and Tnugdalus as well as of Dante's Divine
Comedy.

Islam

There are passages in the Holy Quran that may be intepreted as instances of astral projection,
for example Muhammed's night flight to Heaven in sura 17, Isra and Mi'raj. Another is this:

It is Allah that takes the souls (of men) at death; and those that did not die, during their
sleep: those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back, but the rest He
sends (to their bodies) for a term appointed. Verily in this are Signs for those who reflect.
[Holy Quran 39:42]

Ancient Egypt

Similar concepts of "soul" travel appear in various other religious traditions, for example
ancient Egyptian teachings present the soul as having the ability to hover outside the physical
body in the ka, or subtle body.

China

Taoist alchemical practice involves creation of an energy body by breathing meditations,
drawing energy into a 'pearl' that is then "circulated". "Xiangzi ... with a drum as his pillow fell
fast asleep, snoring and motionless. His primordial spirit, however, went straight into the
banquet room and said, "My lords, here I am again." ... When Tuizhi walked ... with the
officials to take a look, there really was a Daoist sleeping on the ground and snoring like
thunder. Yet inside, in the side room, there was another Daoist beating a fisher drum and
singing Daoist songs. The officials all said, Although there are two different people, their faces
and clothes are exactly alike. Clearly he is a divine immortal who can divide his body and
appear in several places at once. ..." ... At that moment, the Daoist in the side room came
walking out, and the Daoist sleeping on the ground woke up. The two merged into one.

India

Similar ideas such as the Lin'ga S'ari-ra are found in ancient Hindu scriptures such as the
YogaVashishta-Maharamayana of Valmiki. Modern Indians who have vouched for astral
projection include Paramahansa Yogananda who witnessed Swami Pranabananda doing a
miracle through a possible astral projection, and Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) who
practiced it himself.

The Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba described one's use of astral projection:

In the advancing stages leading to the beginning of the path, the aspirant becomes
spiritually prepared for being entrusted with free use of the forces of the inner world of
the astral bodies. He may then undertake astral journeys in his astral body, leaving
the physical body in sleep or wakefulness. The astral journeys that are taken
unconsciously are much less important than those undertaken with full consciousness
and as a result of deliberate volition. This implies conscious use of the astral body.
Conscious separation of the astral body from the outer vehicle of the gross body has
its own value in making the soul feel its distinction from the gross body and in arriving
at fuller control of the gross body. One can, at will, put on and take off the external
gross body as if it were a cloak, and use the astral body for experiencing the inner
world of the astral and for undertaking journeys through it, if and when
necessary....The ability to undertake astral journeys therefore involves considerable
expansion of ones scope for experience. It brings opportunities for promoting ones
own spiritual advancement, which begins with the involution of consciousness.

The Yogic tradition is an elaborate system of meditation and astral projection and most other
Chino-Tibetan systems are derived therefrom through Buddhist channels. Astral projection is
one of the Siddhis considered achievable by yoga practitioners through self-disciplined
practice.

Japan

The ikiry as illustrated by Toriyama Sekien.In Japanese mythology, an ikiry (also read
shry, seirei, or ikisudama) is a manifestation of the soul of a living person separately from
their body. Traditionally, if someone holds a sufficient grudge against another person, it is
believed that a part or the whole of their soul can temporarily leave their body and appear
before the target of their hate in order to curse or otherwise harm them, similar to an evil eye.
Souls are also believed to leave a living body when the body is extremely sick or comatose;
such ikiry are not malevolent.

Inuit

In some Inuit groups people with special capabilities are said to travel to (mythological)
remote places, and report their experiences and things important to their fellows or the entire
community; how to stop bad luck in hunting, cure a sick person etc., things unavailable to
people with normal capabilities.

Amazon

The yaskomo of the Waiwai is believed to be able to perform a "soul flight" that can serve
several functions such as healing, flying to the sky to consult cosmological beings (the moon
or the brother of the moon) to get a name for a new-born baby, lying to the cave of peccaries'
mountains to ask the father of peccaries for abundance of game or flying deep down in a river
to get the help of other beings.

"Astral" and "etheric"

The expression "astral projection" came to be used in two different ways. For the Golden Dawn
and some Theosophists it retained the classical and medieval philosophers' meaning of
journeying to other worlds, heavens, hells, the astrological spheres and other imaginal
landscapes, but outside these circles the term was increasingly applied to non-physical travel
around the physical world.

Though this usage continues to be widespread, the term, "etheric travel", used by some later
Theosophists, offers a useful distinction. Some experients say they visit different times and/or
places: "etheric", then, is used to represent the sense of being "out of the body" in the
physical world, whereas "astral" may connote some alteration in time-perception. Robert
Monroe describes the former type of projection as "Locale I" or the "Here-Now", involving
people and places that actually exist: Robert Bruce calls it the "Real Time Zone" (RTZ) and
describes it as the non-physical dimension-level closest to the physical. This etheric body is
usually, though not always, invisible but is often perceived by the experient as connected to
the physical body during separation by a silver cord. Some link "falling" dreams with
projection.

According to Max Heindel, the etheric "double" serves as a medium between the astral and
physical realms. In his system the ether, also called prana, is the "vital force" that empowers
the physical forms to change. From his descriptions it can be inferred that, to him, when one
views the physical during an out-of-body experience, one is not technically "in" the astral
realm at all.

Other experients may describe a domain that has no parallel to any known physical setting.
Environments may be populated or unpopulated, artificial, natural or abstract, and the
experience may be beatific, horrific or neutral. A common Theosophical belief is that one may
access a compendium of mystical knowledge called the Akashic records. In many accounts the
experiencer correlates the astral world with the world of dreams. Some even report seeing
other dreamers enacting dream scenarios unaware of their wider environment.

The astral environment may also be divided into levels or sub-planes by theorists, but there
are many different views in various traditions concerning the overall structure of the astral
planes: they may include heavens and hells and other after-death spheres, transcendent
environments or other less-easily characterized states.

Notable practitioners

Emanuel Swedenborg was one of the first practitioners to write extensively about the out-of-
body experience, in his Spiritual Diary (174765). French philosopher and novelist Honor de
Balzac's fictional work "Louis Lambert" suggests he may have had some astral or out-of-body
experience.

There are many twentieth century publications on astral projection, although only a few
authors remain widely cited. These include Robert Monroe, Oliver Fox, Sylvan Muldoon and
Hereward Carrington, and Yram.

Carrington, a psychical researcher, and Muldoon, who professed ease with astral projection,
jointly published The Projection of the Astral Body in 1929. Techniques they felt facilitated
projection included visualizing flying or ascending in an elevator just before going to sleep and
trying to regain waking consciousness while in a dream state (lucid dreaming) by habitually
recognizing apparent incongruities in one's dream such as a different pattern of wallpaper in
one's home. Such recognition, they said, sometimes resulted in the feeling of being outside
the physical body and able to look down on it.

Robert Monroe's accounts of journeys to other realms (19711994) popularized the term
"OBE" and were translated into a large number of languages. Though his books themselves
only placed secondary importance on descriptions of method, Monroe also founded an institute
dedicated to research, exploration and non-profit dissemination of auditory technology for
assisting others in achieving projection and related altered states of consciousness.

Robert Bruce, William Buhlman and Albert Taylor have discussed their theories and findings on
the syndicated show Coast to Coast AM several times. Michael Crichton gives lengthy and
detailed explanations and experience of astral projection in his non-fiction book "Travels".

Waldo Vieira, a physician and dentist, claims to have had his first OBE at the age of 9 and
has gone on to write numerous articles and over 20 books, including Projectiology. Wagner
Alegretti, president of and researcher at International Academy of Consciousness, is another
out-of-body experiencer, featured on the Discovery Channel en Espanol and New York's New
Realities series.

"Soul Travel", is the soul's ability to leave the body(s) consciously, or when sleeping
(unconsciously) and seek spiritual lessons in the various planes of heaven. Soul travel is a
secret teaching in the religion of Eckankar. Its practitioners attempt to visit temples in higher
planes to gain spiritual wisdom and learn the ways of divine love.

In occult traditions, practices range from inducing trance states to the mental construction of a
second body, called the Body of Light in Aleister Crowley's writings, through visualization and
controlled breathing, followed by the transfer of consciousness to the secondary body by a
mental act of will.


Aura and Aura reading
Wikipedia.org

In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous
radiation surrounding a person or object (like the halo or aureola in religious art). The
depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes,
however, it is said that all living things (including humans) and all objects manifest such an
aura. Often it is held to be perceptible, whether spontaneously or with practice: such
perception is at times linked with the third eye of Indian spirituality. Various writers associate
various personality traits with the colors of different layers of the aura. It has also been
described as a map of the thoughts and feelings surrounding a person.

Skeptics such as Robert Todd Carroll contend that auras may be seen for reasons such as
migraines, synesthesia, epilepsy, a disorder within the visual system, a disorder within the
brain, or due to the influence of psychedelic drugs such as LSD. Eye fatigue can also produce
an aura, sometimes referred to as eye burn.


LEFT: An old Iranian Shi'a Muslim impression of
Jesus and Mary shows an aura after the style of the
farrIn Iran the aura is known as farr or "glory": it is
depicted in association with Zoroastrian kings.

Spiritual traditions

Ideas of the aura are well represented in Indian
religions. The Buddhist flag represents the colours
seen around the enlightened Buddha. In Jainism the
concept of Lesya relates colours to mental and
emotional dispositions. To the Indian teacher Meher
Baba the aura is of seven colours, associated with
the subtle body and its store of mental and
emotional impressions. Spiritual practice gradually
transforms this aura into a spiritual halo. Hindu and
Buddhist sources often link these colours to
kundalini energy and the chakras.

In the classical western mysticism of neoplatonism
and kabala the aura is associated with the lustre of
the astral body, a subtle body identified with the planetary heavens, which were in turn
associated with various mental faculties in an elaborate system of correspondences with
colours, shapes, sounds, perfumes etc.

The symbolism of light found in The Bible is at times associated with the idea of the aura or
"body of light": similar interpretations are found in Islamic traditions.


LEFT: A statue of Vishnu, in which light effects
are given in backside to symbolize a round
shaped Aura, in yellow color, which actually as
per Hindu scripts is of golden yellow color.

According to the literature of Theosophy,
Anthroposophy, and Archeosophy also, each
colour of the aura has a meaning, indicating a
precise emotional state. A complete description
of the aura and its colours was provided by
Charles Leadbeater, a theosophist of the 19th
century. The works of Leadbeater were later
developed by Palamidessi and others.

The British occultist W.E. Butler connected
auras with clairvoyance and etheric, mental and
emotional emanations. He classified the aura
into two main types: etheric and spiritual. Auras
are thought to serve as a visual measure of the
state of the health of the physical body. Robert
Bruce classifies auras into three types: etheric,
main, and spiritual. According to Bruce auras
are not actual light but a translation of other
unknown sensory readings that is added to our
visual processing. They are not seen in complete darkness and cannot be seen unless some
portion of the person or object emitting the aura can also be seen.


RIGHT: A stylised aura surrounds the figure of Shakyamuni
Buddha in this Buddhist Thangka.

Glenn Morris, grandmaster head of the Hoshin Roshi Ryu
lineage, included perception of the aura in his training of
advanced martial artists. His experience was that it consisted
of multiple layers. He described the most easily visible of
these as being "light and denser than the air in which the
body is immersed", typically half to quarter of an inch thick
and correlating with the etheric body of an individual. Around
this he described a yard thick egg-shaped layer reflecting
hormonal state that he linked to the emotional body, and
outside this, other barely perceptible layers corresponding to
the mental body and beyond. Recalling the aura of another
ske, he wrote, "The first time I saw Hatsumi, he was
running continuous bright, lime, neon green a foot wide and
was so easy to see he would flash in bright sunlight".

For holistic healers, aura reading is the art of investigating
the human energy field, or the energy fields of other sentient
beings. It is a basis for using techniques of holistic healing,
and includes such practices as bioenergetics, energy
medicine, energy spirituality, and energy psychology.

Automatic writing
http://www.unexplainedstuff.com

On the evening of July 8, 1913, "Patience Worth," who claimed to be the spirit of a
seventeenth-century Englishwoman, became a spirit control for Pearl Leonore Curran, a
young woman in St. Louis, Missouri. Curran was not a practicing medium, nor did she have
any interest in Spiritualism, yet
during a period of three years,
Patience Worth dictated through the
process of automatic writing a stream
of proverbs, lyric poetry, and plays,
and a number of intricately
constructed novels.

LEFT: Stella Horrocks in an automatic
writing session.
(FORTEAN PICTURE LIBRARY)

Curran's formal education had ended
with the eighth grade. She seldom
read, had never traveled, and was
completely unfamiliar with literary people or people of a scholarly bent. At no time in her life
had she ever given any indication of a latent creative gift. Yet, of one of the spirit-dictated
novels, a reviewer for the New York Times wrote that the plot was fashioned with such skill,
deftness, and ingenuity that such talent would be envied by many a novelist "in the flesh." In
an anthology of the "best" poetry for the year 1917, Patience Worth had five poems selected,
as against three of Amy Lowell's (18741925), three of Vachel Lind-say's (18791931), and
one by Edgar Lee Masters (18691950)all highly respected American poets, critics, and
novelists.

Was Patience Worth a spirit or a secondary personality of Curran's? Whoever she was, the
large body of literary works that bears her name was transmitted through the process of
automatic writing, wherein a medium produces a script without the control of the conscious
selfbut allegedly under the control of a spirit entity.

The vast majority of those men and women who practice automatic writing on a regular basis
do so because they believe that they receive spiritual and material guidance from intelligences
in the spirit world or from a higher aspect of their own mind. Most of these individuals cherish
this information as highly personal and seldom to be shared with others. Few practitioners of
automatic writing seek to channel another "Patience Worth" and produce extensive literary
works.

Those who practice automatic writing seat themselves comfortably at a table, a piece of paper
before them, a pen or pencil held in their hand in the manner in which they normally write.
The tip of the pen or pencil rests lightly on the paper. The writer's wrist and arm are kept
loose, the wrist preferably in such a position that it does not touch the table at all. No direct
light is allowed to shine on the paper. If necessary, it will be shielded with a piece of
cardboard or something similar.

Automatic writers must learn to wait quietly and patiently and then give in to the slightest
impulse to move the pen or pencil, keeping the paper smooth with the free hand. It is not
necessaryand not even desirable that the writers concentrate on their hand and what it is
doing. If the writers do not wish to keep their eyes closed, they may even read a book while
experimenting, just to keep their thoughts occupied.

With practice and patience, messages begin coming through. Those individuals who are
successful at automatic writing say that it usually takes three or four sittings before the first
intelligent results are achieved. They advise beginners that the length of the sittings should
not be prolonged unduly, even after meaningful messages have begun to appear.


Bilocation
Wikipedia.org

Bilocation, or sometimes multilocation, is a term used to describe the ability/instances in
which an individual or object is said to be, or appears to be, located in two distinct places at
the same instant in time. The term has been used in a wide range of historical and
philosophical systems, including early Greek philosophy, shamanism, paganism, folklore,
occultism and magic, the paranormal, Hinduism (as one of the siddhis), Buddhism,
spiritualism, Theosophy, the New Age and mysticism in general, as well as Christian mysticism
and Jewish mysticism.

In religion and mysticism

Several Christian saints and monks are said to have exhibited bilocation. Among the earliest is
the apparition of Our Lady of the Pillar in the year 40.

In another instance, in 1774, St. Alphonsus Liguori is said to have gone into a trance while
preparing for Mass. When he came out of the trance he reported that he had visited the
bedside of the dying Pope Clement XIV. His presence is then said to have been confirmed by
those attending the Pope despite his being four days travel away, and not appearing to have
left his original location.

Other Christian figures said to have experienced it include:

St. Anthony of Padua
Ursula Micaela Morata
St. Gerard Majella
Charles of Mount Argus
St. Pio of Pietrelcina
St. Severus of Ravenna
St. Ambrose of Milan
Mara de greda
St. Martin de Porres
Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria.

In the 17th century, persons accused of witchcraft were reported to appear in dreams and
visions of witnesses. The trials at Bury St. Edmunds and Salem included this "Spectral
evidence" against defendants. Matthew Hopkins described the phenomenon in his book The
Discovery of Witches.

The English occultist Aleister Crowley was reported by acquaintances to have the ability, even
though he himself was not conscious of its happening at the time.

* Biofield energy healing

* Clairvoyance

See Psychic senses


*Death-warning


*Lucid Dreaming



Dreams and Dream interpretation
Wikipedia.org

Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams. In many ancient
societies, such as those of Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural
communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be unravelled by
people with certain powers. In modern times, various schools of psychology have offered
theories about the meaning of dreams.

Early history
Eastern Mediterranean

One of the earliest written examples of dream interpretation comes from the Babylonian Epic
of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh dreamt that an axe fell from the sky. The people gathered around it
in admiration and worship. Gilgamesh threw the axe in front of his mother and then he
embraced it like a wife. His mother, Ninsun, interpreted the dream. She said that someone
powerful would soon appear. Gilgamesh would struggle with him and try to overpower him,
but he would not succeed. Eventually they would become close friends and accomplish great
things. She added, "That you embraced him like a wife means he will never forsake you. Thus
your dream is solved." While this example also shows the tendency to see dreams as mantic
(as predicting the future), Ninsun's interpretation also anticipates a contemporary approach.
The axe, phallic and aggressive, symbolizes for a male who will start as aggressive but turn
into a friend. To embrace an axe is to transform aggression into affection and camaraderie.

In ancient Egypt, priests also acted as dream interpreters. Hieroglyphics depicting dreams and
their interpretations are evident. Dreams have been held in considerable importance through
history by most cultures.

The ancient Greeks constructed temples they called Asclepieions, where sick people were sent
to be cured. It was believed that cures would be effected through divine grace by incubating
dreams within the confines of the temple. Dreams were also considered prophetic or omens of
particular significance. Artemidorus of Daldis, who lived in the 2nd century AD, wrote a
comprehensive text entitled Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams). Although
Artemidorus believed that dreams can predict the future, he also presaged many
contemporary approaches to dreams. He thought that the meaning of a dream images could
involve puns and could be understood by decoding the image into its component words. For
example, Alexander, while waging war against the Tyrians, dreamt that a satyr was dancing
on his shield. Artemidorus reports that this dream was interpreted as follows: satyr = sa tyros
("Tyre will be thine"), predicting that Alexander would be triumphant. Freud acknowledged this
example of Artemidorus when he proposed that dreams be interpreted like a rebus.

In medieval Islamic psychology, certain hadiths indicate that dreams consist of three parts,
and early Muslim scholars also recognized three different kinds of dreams: false dreams,
patho-genetic dreams, and true dreams. Ibn Sirin (654728) was renowned for his Ta'bir al-
Ru'ya and Muntakhab al-Kalam fi Tabir al-Ahlam, a book on dreams. The work is divided into
25 sections on dream interpretation, from the etiquette of interpreting dreams to the
interpretation of reciting certain Surahs of the Qur'an in one's dream. He writes that it is
important for a layperson to seek assistance from an Alim (Muslim scholar) who could guide in
the interpretation of dreams with a proper understanding of the cultural context and other
such causes and interpretations. Al-Kindi (Alkindus) (801873) also wrote a treatise on dream
interpretation entitled On Sleep and Dreams. In consciousness studies, Al-Farabi (872951)
wrote the On the Cause of Dreams, which appeared as chapter 24 of his Book of Opinions of
the people of the Ideal City, was a treatise on dreams, in which he was the first to distinguish
between dream interpretation and the nature and causes of dreams. In The Canon of
Medicine, Avicenna extended the theory of temperaments to encompass "emotional aspects,
mental capacity, moral attitudes, self-awareness, movements and dreams." Ibn Khaldun's
Muqaddimah (1377) states that "confused dreams" are "pictures of the imagination that are
stored inside by perception and to which the ability to think is applied, after (man) has retired
from sense perception."

China

A standard traditional Chinese book on dream-interpretation is the Lofty Principles of Dream
Interpretation compiled in the 16th century by Chen Shiyuan (particularly the "Inner
Chapters" of that opus). Chinese thinkers also raised profound ideas about dream
interpretation, such as the question of how we know we are dreaming and how we know we
are awake. It is written in the Chuang-tzu: "Once Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a
butterfly. He fluttered about happily, quite pleased with the state that he was in, and knew
nothing about Chuang Chou. Presently he awoke and found that he was very much Chuang
Chou again. Now, did Chou dream that he was a butterfly or was the butterfly now dreaming
that he was Chou?" This raises the question of reality monitoring in dreams, a topic of intense
interest in modern cognitive neuroscience.

Modern Europe

In the 17th century the English physician Sir Thomas Browne wrote a short tract upon the
interpretation of dreams. Dream interpretation was taken up as part of psychoanalysis at the
end of the 19th century; the perceived, manifest content of a dream is analyzed to reveal its
latent meaning to the psyche of the dreamer. One of the seminal works on the subject is The
Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.


Psychology

Freud

It was in his book The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung; literally "dream-
interpretation"), first published in 1899 (but dated 1900), that Sigmund Freud first argued
that the motivation of all dream content is wish-fulfillment, and that the instigation of a dream
is often to be found in the events of the day preceding the dream, which he called the "day
residue." In the case of very young children, Freud claimed, this can be easily seen, as small
children dream quite straightforwardly of the fulfillment of wishes that were aroused in them
the previous day (the "dream day"). In adults, however, the situation is more complicated
since in Freud's submission, the dreams of adults have been subjected to distortion, with the
dream's so-called "manifest content" being a heavily disguised derivative of the "latent"
dream-thoughts present in the unconscious. As a result of this distortion and disguise, the
dream's real significance is concealed: dreamers are no more capable of recognizing the actual
meaning of their dreams than hysterics are able to understand the connection and significance
of their neurotic symptoms.

In Freud's original formulation the latent dream-thought was described as having been subject
to an intra-psychic force referred to as "the censor"; in the more refined terminology of his
later years, however, discussion was in terms of the super-ego and "the work of the ego's
forces of defense." In waking life, he asserted, these so-called "resistances" altogether
prevented the repressed wishes of the unconscious from entering consciousness; and though
these wishes were to some extent able to emerge during the lowered state of sleep, the
resistances were still strong enough to produce "a veil of disguise" sufficient to hide their true
nature. Freud's view was that dreams are compromises which ensure that sleep is not
interrupted: as "a disguised fulfilment of repressed wishes," they succeed in representing
wishes as fulfilled which might otherwise disturb and waken the dreamer.

Freud's "classic" early dream analysis is that of "Irma's injection": in that dream, a former
patient of Freud's complains of pains. The dream portrays Freud's colleague giving Irma an
unsterile injection. Freud provides us with pages of associations to the elements in his dream,
using it to demonstrate his technique of decoding the latent dream thought from the manifest
content of the dream.

Freud described the actual technique of psychoanalytic dream-analysis in the following terms:

You entirely disregard the apparent connections between the elements in the
manifest dream and collect the ideas that occur to you in connection with each
separate element of the dream by free association according to the psychoanalytic rule
of procedure. From this material you arrive at the latent dream-thoughts, just as you
arrived at the patient's hidden complexes from his associations to his symptoms and
memories... The true meaning of the dream, which has now replaced the manifest
content, is always clearly intelligible. [Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1909);
Lecture Three]

Freud listed the distorting operations that he claimed were applied to repressed wishes in
forming the dream as recollected: it is because of these distortions (the so-called "dream-
work") that the manifest content of the dream differs so greatly from the latent dream thought
reached through analysisand it is by reversing these distortions that the latent content is
approached.

The operations included:

Condensation one dream object stands for several associations and ideas; thus
"dreams are brief, meagre and laconic in comparison with the range and wealth of the
dream-thoughts."
Displacement a dream object's emotional significance is separated from its real
object or content and attached to an entirely different one that does not raise the
censor's suspicions.
Representation a thought is translated to visual images.
Symbolism a symbol replaces an action, person, or idea.

To these might be added "secondary elaboration"the outcome of the dreamer's natural
tendency to make some sort of "sense" or "story" out of the various elements of the manifest
content as recollected. (Freud, in fact, was wont to stress that it was not merely futile but
actually misleading to attempt to "explain" one part of the manifest content with reference to
another part as if the manifest dream somehow constituted some unified or coherent
conception).

Freud considered that the experience of anxiety dreams and nightmares was the result of
failures in the dream-work: rather than contradicting the "wish-fulfillment" theory, such
phenomena demonstrated how the ego reacted to the awareness of repressed wishes that
were too powerful and insufficiently disguised. Traumatic dreams (where the dream merely
repeats the traumatic experience) were eventually admitted as exceptions to the theory.

Freud famously described psychoanalytic dream-interpretation as "the royal road to a
knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind"; he was, however, capable of expressing
regret and dissatisfaction at the way his ideas on the subject were misrepresented or simply
not understood:

The assertion that all dreams require a sexual interpretation, against which critics
rage so incessantly, occurs nowhere in my Interpretation of Dreams ... and is in
obvious contradiction to other views expressed in it.

On another occasion, he suggested that the individual capable of recognizing the distinction
between latent and manifest content "will probably have gone further in understanding
dreams than most readers of my Interpretation of Dreams".

Jung

Although not dismissing Freud's model of dream interpretation wholesale, Carl Jung believed
Freud's notion of dreams as representations of unfulfilled wishes to be simplistic and nave
(Freud returned the favor by publicly opining that Jung was fine for those who were looking for
a prophet [Freud, "Introductory Lectures"]). Jung argued that Freud's procedure of collecting
associations to a dream would bring insights into the dreamer's mental complexa person's
associations to anything will reveal the mental complexes, as Jung had shown
experimentally[19]but not necessarily closer to the meaning of the dream.[20] Jung was
convinced that the scope of dream interpretation was larger, reflecting the richness and
complexity of the entire unconscious, both personal and collective. Jung believed the psyche
to be a self-regulating organism in which conscious attitudes were likely to be compensated
for unconsciously (within the dream) by their opposites.

Jung proposed two basic approaches to analyzing dream material: the objective and the
subjective. In the objective approach, every person in the dream refers to the person they
are: mother is mother, girlfriend is girlfriend, etc. In the subjective approach, every person in
the dream represents an aspect of the dreamer. Jung argued that the subjective approach is
much more difficult for the dreamer to accept, but that in most good dream-work, the
dreamer will come to recognize that the dream characters can represent an unacknowledged
aspect of the dreamer. Thus, if the dreamer is being chased by a crazed killer, the dreamer
may come eventually to recognize his own homicidal impulses. Gestalt therapists extended the
subjective approach, claiming that even the inanimate objects in a dream can represent
aspects of the dreamer.

Jung believed that archetypes such as the animus, the anima, the shadow and others
manifested themselves in dreams, as dream symbols or figures. Such figures could take the
form of an old man, a young maiden or a giant spider as the case may be. Each represents an
unconscious attitude that is largely hidden to the conscious mind. Although an integral part of
the dreamer's psyche, these manifestations were largely autonomous and were perceived by
the dreamer to be external personages. Acquaintance with the archetypes as manifested by
these symbols serve to increase one's awareness of unconscious attitudes, integrating
seemingly disparate parts of the psyche and contributing to the process of holistic self
understanding he considered paramount.

Jung believed that material repressed by the conscious mind, postulated by Freud to comprise
the unconscious, was similar to his own concept of the shadow, which in itself is only a small
part of the unconscious.

Jung cautioned against blindly ascribing meaning to dream symbols without a clear
understanding of the client's personal situation. He described two approaches to dream
symbols: the causal approach and the final approach. In the causal approach, the symbol is
reduced to certain fundamental tendencies. Thus, a sword may symbolize a penis, as may a
snake. In the final approach, the dream interpreter asks, "Why this symbol and not another?"
Thus, a sword representing a penis is hard, sharp, inanimate, and destructive. A snake
representing a penis is alive, dangerous, perhaps poisonous and slimy. The final approach will
tell you additional things about the dreamer's attitudes.

Technically, Jung recommended stripping the dream of its details and presenting the gist of
the dream to the dreamer. This was an adaptation of a procedure described by Wilhelm
Stekel, who recommended thinking of the dream as a newspaper article and writing a headline
for it. Harry Stack Sullivan also described a similar process of "dream distillation."

Although Jung acknowledged the universality of archetypal symbols, he contrasted this with
the concept of a signimages having a one to one connotation with their meaning. His
approach was to recognize the dynamism and fluidity that existed between symbols and their
ascribed meaning. Symbols must be explored for their personal significance to the patient,
instead of having the dream conform to some predetermined idea. This prevents dream
analysis from devolving into a theoretical and dogmatic exercise that is far removed from the
patient's own psychological state. In the service of this idea, he stressed the importance of
"sticking to the image"exploring in depth a client's association with a particular image. This
may be contrasted with Freud's free associating which he believed was a deviation from the
salience of the image. He describes for example the image "deal table." One would expect the
dreamer to have some associations with this image, and the professed lack of any perceived
significance or familiarity whatsoever should make one suspicious. Jung would ask a patient to
imagine the image as vividly as possible and to explain it to him as if he had no idea as to
what a "deal table" was. Jung stressed the importance of context in dream analysis.

Jung stressed that the dream was not merely a devious puzzle invented by the unconscious to
be deciphered, so that the true causal factors behind it may be elicited. Dreams were not to
serve as lie detectors, with which to reveal the insincerity behind conscious thought processes.
Dreams, like the unconscious, had their own language. As representations of the unconscious,
dream images have their own primacy and logic.

Jung believed that dreams may contain ineluctable truths, philosophical pronouncements,
illusions, wild fantasies, memories, plans, irrational experiences and even telepathic visions.
Just as the psyche has a diurnal side which we experience as conscious life, it has an
unconscious nocturnal side which we apprehend as dreamlike fantasy. Jung would argue that
just as we do not doubt the importance of our conscious experience, then we ought not to
second guess the value of our unconscious lives.


Hall

In 1953, Calvin S. Hall developed a theory of dreams in which dreaming is considered to be a
cognitive process. Hall argued that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts
that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual representations of personal
conceptions. For example, if one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a
manifestation of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which requires a cultural
metaphor, is that a cat within a dream symbolizes a need to use one's intuition. For English
speakers, it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there is "more than one way
to skin a cat," or in other words, more than one way to do something.

Faraday, Clift, et al.

In the 1970s, Ann Faraday and others helped bring dream interpretation into the mainstream
by publishing books on do-it-yourself dream interpretation and forming groups to share and
analyze dreams. Faraday focused on the application of dreams to situations occurring in one's
life. For instance, some dreams are warnings of something about to happene.g. a dream of
failing an examination, if one is a student, may be a literal warning of unpreparedness.
Outside of such context, it could relate to failing some other kind of test. Or it could even have
a "punny" nature, e.g. that one has failed to examine some aspect of his life adequately.

Faraday noted that "one finding has emerged pretty firmly from modern research, namely that
the majority of dreams seem in some way to reflect things that have preoccupied our minds
during the previous day or two."

In the 1980s and 1990s, Wallace Clift and Jean Dalby Clift further explored the relationship
between images produced in dreams and the dreamer's waking life. Their books identified
patterns in dreaming, and ways of analyzing dreams to explore life changes, with particular
emphasis on moving toward healing and wholeness.


Primitive instinct rehearsal theory of dreaming

Two researchers have postulated that dreams have a biological function, where the content
requires no analysis or interpretation, that content providing an automatic stimulation of the
body's physiological functions underpinning the human instinctive behavior. So dreams are
part of the human, and animal, survival and development strategy.

Prof Antti Revonsuo (Turku university, Finland) has limited his ideas to those of "threat
rehearsal," where dreams exercise our primary self-defense instincts, and he has argued this
cogently in a number of publications.

Keith Stevens extends the theory to all human instincts, including threats to self, threats to
family members, pair bonding and reproduction, inquisitiveness and challenges, and the drive
for personal superiority and tribal status. He categorizes dreams, using a sample of 22,000
Internet submissions, into nine categories, demonstrating the universal commonality of dream
content and instinct rehearsal. It is postulated that the dream function is automatic, in
response to the content, exercising and stimulating the body chemistry and neurological
activity that would come into play if the scenario occurred in real life, so that the dream does
not have to be remembered to achieve its objective.

It is argued that, once a dreamer has experienced a threat in a dream (either to self or a
family member), his/her ability to confront and overcome a real life threat is then enhanced,
so that such dreams, in both humans or animals, are an aid to survival. The threat rehearsal
can be specific, for instance, an attack from a savage dog, but it can also be general, in that
the threat response physiology is activated and reinforced whilst dreaming.

For human reproduction, the theory states that dreams of pairing, bonding and mating
stimulate the reflex to reproduce the species, with an emphasis on dreams that promote the
principle of selection; the desire of the individual to find the best mate and to achieve the
optimum genetic mixing. In that respect, the dream function conflicts with human values of
fidelity and mating for life. Specifically, young women dream often of being pregnant and
giving birth, overwhelmingly positive dreams that directly stimulate the urge to reproduce.

Regarding status, dreams about being superior or inferior to others are thought to stimulate
the dreamer's determination to improve his status within the immediate human hierarchy,
either through the positive physiology of success or the negative physiology of failure. Hence,
dreaming is believed to promote competition and the reproductive success of those best suited
to the environment.

Finally, other dreams stimulate the determination to explore and inquire, through the
extremes of exhilarating dream achievements (positive physiology) or frustrating obstructions
and barriers. The latter stimulates a determination not to give up in a quest, so that, in life,
the individual and the species move forward. For the dreaming wildebeest, it may be a rich
pasture over the hill; for the human dreamer it may be splitting the atom.
Dowsing
Wikipedia.org

Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to
locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones,
oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials, as
well as so-called currents of earth radiation (Ley lines),
without the use of scientific apparatus. Dowsing is also
known as divining (especially in reference to
interpretation of results), doodlebugging (in the US) or
(when searching specifically for water) water finding,
water witching or water dowsing.

A Y- or L-shaped twig or rod, called a dowsing rod,
divining rod (Latin: virgula divina or baculus
divinatorius) or witching rod is sometimes used during
dowsing, although some dowsers use other equipment or
no equipment at all.

Dowsing appears to have arisen in the context of
Renaissance magic in Germany, and it remains popular
among believers in Forteana or radiesthesia although
there is no accepted scientific rationale behind the
concept and no scientific evidence that it is effective.

History

Dowsing as practiced today may have originated in Germany during the 15th century, when it
was used to find metals. As early as 1518 Martin Luther listed dowsing for metals as an act
that broke the first commandment (i.e., as occultism). The 1550 edition of Sebastian
Mnster's Cosmographia contains a woodcut of a dowser with forked rod in hand walking over
a cutaway image of a mining operation. The rod is labelled "Virgula Divina Glck rt" (Latin:
divine rod; German "Wnschelrute": fortune rod or stick), but there is no text accompanying
the woodcut. By 1556 Georgius Agricola's treatment of mining and smelting of ore, De Re
Metallica, included a detailed description of dowsing for metal ore.

In 1662 dowsing was declared to be "superstitious, or rather satanic" by a Jesuit, Gaspar
Schott, though he later noted that he wasn't sure that the devil was always responsible for the
movement of the rod.


An epigram by Samuel Sheppard, from Epigrams theological, philosophical, and romantick
(1651) runs thus:

Virgula divina.
"Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod,
Gather'd with Vowes and Sacrifice,
And (borne about) will strangely nod
To hidden Treasure where it lies;
Mankind is (sure) that Rod divine,
For to the Wealthiest (ever) they incline."

In the late 1960s during the Vietnam War, some United States Marines used dowsing to
attempt to locate weapons and tunnels.

Dowsing rods

Traditionally, the most common dowsing rod is a forked (Y-shaped) branch from a tree or
bush. Some dowsers prefer branches from particular trees, and some prefer the branches to
be freshly cut. Hazel twigs in Europe and witch-hazel in the United States are traditionally
commonly chosen, as are branches from willow or peach trees. The two ends on the forked
side are held one in each hand with the third (the stem of the "Y") pointing straight ahead.
Often the branches are grasped palms down. The dowser then walks slowly over the places
where he suspects the target (for example, minerals or water) may be, and the dowsing rod
supposedly dips, inclines or twitches when a discovery is made. This method is sometimes
known as "Willow Witching."


Many dowsers today use a pair of simple L-shaped metal
rods. One rod is held in each hand, with the short arm of
the L held upright, and the long arm pointing forward.
When something is found, the rods cross over one
another making an "X" over the found object. If the
object is long and straight, such as a water pipe, the rods
will point in opposite directions, showing its orientation.
The rods are sometimes fashioned from wire coat
hangers, and glass or plastic rods have also been
accepted. Straight rods are also sometimes used for the
same purposes, and were not uncommon in early 19th
century New England.

In all cases, the device is in a state of unstable equilibrium from which slight movements may
be amplified.
Other equipment used for dowsing

A pendulum of crystal, metal or other materials suspended on a chain is sometimes used in
divination and dowsing. In one approach the user first determines which direction (left-right,
up-down) will indicate "yes" and which "no" before proceeding to ask the pendulum specific
questions, or else another person may pose questions to the person holding the pendulum.
The pendulum may also be used over a pad or cloth with "yes" and "no" written on it and
perhaps other words written in a circle. The person holding the pendulum aims to hold it as
steadily as possible over the center and its movements are held to indicate answers to the
questions. In the practice of radiesthesia, a pendulum is used for medical diagnosis.

Suggested explanations

Early attempts at a scientific explanation of dowsing were based on the notion that the
divining rod was physically affected by emanations from substances of interest. The following
explanation is from William Pryce's 1778 Mineralogia Cornubiensis:

The corpuscles ... that rise from the Minerals, entering the rod, determine it to bow
down, in order to render it parallel to the vertical lines which the effluvia describe in
their rise. In effect the Mineral particles seem to be emitted from the earth; now the
Virgula [rod], being of a light porous wood, gives an easy passage to these particles,
which are also very fine and subtle; the effluvia then driven forwards by those that
follow them, and pressed at the same time by the atmosphere incumbent on them,
are forced to enter the little interstices between the fibres of the wood, and by that
effort they oblige it to incline, or dip down perpendicularly, to become parallel with the
little columns which those vapours form in their rise.

Such explanations have no modern scientific basis.

A 1986 article in Nature included dowsing in a list of "effects which until recently were claimed
to be paranormal but which can now be explained from within orthodox science." Specifically,
dowsing could be explained in terms of sensory cues, expectancy effects and probability.

Skeptics and some supporters believe that dowsing apparatus has no power of its own but
merely amplifies slight movements of the hands caused by a phenomenon known as the
ideomotor effect: people's subconscious minds may influence their bodies without their
consciously deciding to take action. This would make the dowsing rods a conduit for the
diviner's subconscious knowledge or perception.

Soviet geologists have made claims for the abilities of dowsers, which are difficult to account
for in terms of the reception of normal sensory cues. Some authors suggest that these abilities
may be explained by postulating human sensitivity to small magnetic field gradient changes.

Evidence

A 1948 study tested 58 dowsers' ability to detect water. None of them was more reliable than
chance. A 1979 review examined many controlled studies of dowsing for water, and found that
none of them showed better than chance results.

In a study in Munich 1987-1988 by Hans-Dieter Betz and other scientists, 500 dowsers were
initially tested for their "skill" and the experimenters selected the best 43 among them for
further tests. Water was pumped through a pipe on the ground floor of a two-storey barn.
Before each test the pipe was moved in a direction perpendicular to the water flow. On the
upper floor each dowser was asked to determine the position of the pipe. Over two years the
dowsers performed 843 such tests. Of the 43 pre-selected and extensively tested candidates
at least 37 showed no dowsing ability. The results from the remaining 6 were said to be better
than chance, resulting in the experimenters' conclusion that some dowsers "in particular tasks,
showed an extraordinarily high rate of success, which can scarcely if at all be explained as due
to chance ... a real core of dowser-phenomena can be regarded as empirically proven."

Five years after the Munich study was published, Jim T. Enright, a professor of physiology and
a leading skeptic who emphasised correct data analysis procedure, contended that the study's
results are merely consistent with statistical fluctuations and not significant. He believed the
experiments provided "the most convincing disproof imaginable that dowsers can do what they
claim," stating that the data analysis was "special, unconventional and customized." Replacing
it with "more ordinary analyses," he noted that the best dowser was on average 4 millimeters
out of 10 meters closer to a mid-line guess, an advantage of 0.0004%, and that the five other
good dowsers were on average further than a mid-line guess. The study's authors responded,
saying "on what grounds could Enright come to entirely different conclusions? Apparently his
data analysis was too crude, even illegitimate." The findings of the Munich study were also
confirmed in a paper by Dr. S. Ertel, a German psychologist who had previously intervened in
the statistical controversy surrounding the "Mars effect", but Enright remained unconvinced.

More recently a study was undertaken in Kassel, Germany, under the direction of the
Gesellschaft zur Wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) [Society
for the Scientific Investigation of the Parasciences]. The three-day test of some 30 dowsers
involved plastic pipes through which water flow could be controlled and directed. The pipes
were buried 50 centimeters under a level field, the position of each marked on the surface
with a colored strip. The dowsers had to tell whether water was running through each pipe. All
the dowsers signed a statement agreeing this was a fair test of their abilities and that they
expected a 100 percent success rate, however the results were no better than chance.

Some researchers have investigated possible physical or geophysical explanations for alleged
dowsing abilities. One study concluded that dowsers "respond" to a 60 Hz electromagnetic
field, but this response does not occur if the kidney area or head are shielded.

Commercial and "hi-tech" dowsing devices

A number of devices resembling "high tech" dowsing rods have been marketed for modern
police and military use: none has been shown to be effective. The more notable of this class of
device are ADE 651, Sniffex, and the GT200. A US government study advised against buying
"bogus explosive detection equipment".

Devices:

Sandia National Laboratories tested the MOLE Programmable System manufactured by
Global Technical Ltd. of Kent, UK and found it ineffective.
The ADE 651 is a device produced by ATSC (UK) and widely used by Iraqi police to
detect explosives. Many have denied its effectiveness and contended that the ADE 651
failed to prevent many bombings in Iraq. On 22 January 2010, the director of ATSC,
Jim McCormick was arrested on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation. Earlier, the
British Government had announced a ban on the export of the ADE-651.
SNIFFEX was the subject of a report by the United States Navy Explosive Ordnance
Disposal that concluded "The handheld SNIFFEX explosives detector does not work."
Global Technical GT200 is a dowsing type explosive detector which contains no
scientific mechanism.

List of well-known dowsers

Well-known dowsers include:

Otto Edler von Graeve
Uri Geller
Frank Glahn
Thomas Charles Lethbridge
Karl Spiesberger
Ludwig Straniak
Hellmut Wolff

ESP
Wikipedia.org


Extrasensory perception (ESP) involves reception of information not gained through the
recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. The term was coined by Richard Francis
Burton, and adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities
such as telepathy, clairaudience, and clairvoyance, and their trans-temporal operation as
precognition or retrocognition. ESP is also sometimes casually referred to as a sixth sense,
gut instinct or hunch, which are historical English idioms. The term implies acquisition of
information by means external to the basic limiting assumptions of science, such as that
organisms can only receive information from the past to the present.

Parapsychology is the scientific study of paranormal psychic phenomena, including ESP.
Parapsychologists generally regard such tests as the ganzfeld experiment as providing
compelling evidence for the existence of ESP. The scientific community rejects ESP due to the
absence of an evidence base, the lack of a theory which would explain ESP, and the lack of
experimental techniques which can provide reliably positive results

History
J.B. Rhine

In the 1930s, at Duke University in North Carolina J. B. Rhine and his wife Louisa tried to
develop psychical research into an experimental science. To avoid the connotations of
hauntings and the seance room, they renamed
it "parapsychology". While Louisa Rhine
concentrated on collecting accounts of
spontaneous cases, J. B. Rhine worked largely
in the laboratory, carefully defining terms such
as ESP and psi and designing experiments to
test them. A simple set of cards was
developed, originally called Zener cards (after
their designer) - now called ESP cards. They bear the symbols circle, square, wavy lines,
cross, and star; there are five cards of each in a pack of 25.

In a telepathy experiment, the "sender" looks at a series of cards while the "receiver" guesses
the symbols. To try to observe clairvoyance, the pack of cards is hidden from everyone while
the receiver guesses. To try to observe precognition, the order of the cards is determined after
the guesses are made.

In all such experiments order of the cards must be random so that hits are not obtained
through systematic biases or prior knowledge. At first the cards were shuffled by hand, then
by machine. Later, random number tables were used, nowadays, computers. An advantage of
ESP cards is that statistics can easily be applied to determine whether the number of hits
obtained is higher than would be expected by chance. Rhine used ordinary people as subjects
and claimed that, on average, they did significantly better than chance expectation. Later he
used dice to test for psychokinesis and also claimed results that were better than chance.

In 1940, Rhine, J.G. Pratt, and others at Duke authored a review of all card-guessing
experiments conducted internationally since 1882. Titled Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty
Years, it has become recognized as the first meta-analysis in science. It included details of
replications of Rhine's studies. Through these years, 50 studies were published, of which 33
were contributed by investigators other than Rhine and the Duke University group; 61% of
these independent studies reported significant results suggestive of ESP. Among these were
psychologists at Colorado University and Hunter College, New York, who completed the studies
with the largest number of trials and the highest levels of significance. Replication failures
encouraged Rhine to further research into the conditions necessary to experimentally produce
the effect. He maintained, however, that it was not replicability, or even a fundamental theory
of ESP that would evolve research, but only a greater interest in unconscious mental processes
and a more complete understanding of human personality.

Parapsychological investigation of ESP

The study of psi phenomena such as ESP is called parapsychology. The consensus of the
Parapsychological Association is that certain types of psychic phenomena such as
psychokinesis, telepathy, and astral projection are well established.

A great deal of reported extrasensory perception is said to occur spontaneously in conditions
which are not scientifically controlled. Such experiences have often been reported to be much
stronger and more obvious than those observed in laboratory experiments. These reports,
rather than laboratory evidence, have historically been the basis for the widespread belief in
the authenticity of these phenomena. However, it has proven extremely difficult (perhaps
impossible) to replicate such extraordinary experiences under controlled scientific conditions.

Proponents of the ESP phenomena point to numerous studies that cite evidence of the
phenomenon's existence: the work of J. B. Rhine, Russell Targ, Harold E. Puthoff and
physicists at SRI International in the 1970s, and many others, are often cited in arguments
that ESP exists.

The main current debate concerning ESP surrounds whether or not statistically compelling
laboratory evidence for it has already been accumulated. The most accepted results are all
small to moderate statistically significant results. Critics may dispute the positive
interpretation of results obtained in scientific studies of ESP, as they claim they are difficult to
reproduce reliably, and are small in effect. Parapsychologists have argued that the data from
numerous studies show that certain individuals have consistently produced remarkable results
while the remainder have constituted a highly significant trend that cannot be dismissed even
if the effect is small.

Extrasensory perception and hypnosis

There is a common belief that a hypnotized person is able to demonstrate ESP. Carl Sargent, a
psychology major at the University of Cambridge, heard about the early claims of a hypnosis
ESP link and designed an experiment to test whether they had merit. He recruited 40 fellow
college students, none of whom identified themselves as having ESP, and then divided them
into one group that would be hypnotized before being tested with a pack of 25 Zener cards
and a non-hypnotized control group that would be tested with the same cards. The control
subjects averaged a score of 5 out of 25 right, exactly what chance would indicate. The
subjects who were hypnotized did more than twice as well, averaging a score of 11.9 out of 25
right. Sargent's own interpretation of the experiment is that ESP is associated with a relaxed
state of mind and a freer, more atavistic level of altered consciousness.

Faith Healing
Wikipedia.org

Faith healing is healing through spiritual means. The healing of a person is brought about by
religious faith through prayer and/or rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine
presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in
illness or healing is related to religious belief. In common usage, faith healing refers to notably
overt and ritualistic practices of communal prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands)
that are claimed to solicit divine intervention in initiating spiritual and literal healing.

Claims that prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure
illness have been popular throughout history. Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to
many techniques commonly lumped together as "faith healing". It can involve prayer, a visit
to a religious shrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being.

The term is best known in connection with Christianity. Some people interpret the Bible,
especially the New Testament, as teaching belief in, and practice of, faith healing. There have
been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, AIDS, developmental disorders,
anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis,
and various injuries.

Unlike faith healing, advocates of spiritual healing make no attempt to seek divine
intervention, supporting an underlying belief system concerning Humanity's access to divine
energy. The increased interest in alternative medicine at the end of the twentieth century has
given rise to a parallel interest among sociologists in the relationship of religion to health.

The American Cancer Society states "available scientific evidence does not support claims that
faith healing can actually cure physical ailments." "Death, disability, and other unwanted
outcomes have occurred when faith healing was elected instead of medical care for serious
injuries or illnesses.

Christianity

One use of the term faith healing is in reference to the belief of some Christians that God
heals people through the power of the Holy Spirit, often involving the laying on of hands. It is
also called supernatural healing, divine healing, and miracle healing, among other things. In
the Old Testament, Jehovah-Rapha, translated "I am the Lord your Physician" or "I am the
Lord who heals you", is one of the seven redemptive names for Jehovah God. Healing in the
Bible is often associated with the ministry of specific individuals including Elijah, Jesus and
Paul.

Christian physician Reginald B. Cherry views faith healing as a pathway of healing in which
God uses both the natural and the supernatural to heal. Being healed has been described as a
privilege of accepting Christ's redemption on the cross. Pentecostal writer Wilfred Graves, Jr.
views the healing of the body as a physical expression of salvation. Matthew 8:17 says, "This
[Christ's ministry of healing] was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, 53:5
(NKJV): 'He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.'" "Faith" in this context is based
on biblical uses of the term. Faith has been called "the very nature of God." A classic definition
of faith appears in the New Testament: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) Charisma writer Larry Keefauver considers it
important to distinguish between the faith aspect in seeking a cure and the divine source of
the healing. Exodus 15:26 points to God as the source: "I am the Lord that heals you." "The
truth is that God is the God who heals. Faith is trusting the God who heals. Faith is a radical,
absolute surrender to the God who heals. Faith is not holding on for your healing but holding
on to the God who can do the impossible."

Some Christian writers believe it extremely rare that God provides a supernatural intervention
that actually reverses the natural laws governing the human body. Keefauver cautions against
allowing enthusiasm for faith healing to stir up false hopes "so that a sufferer stakes all his or
her faith on belief in miraculous healing at this level. We cannot build a water-tight theology
promising physical healing, surely, for the most 'miracle-ridden' Christian will die in the end,
yielding to the natural processes of senescence." Those who actively lay hands on others and
pray with them to be healed are usually aware that healing may not always follow
immediately. Proponents of faith healing say it may come later, but that it may not come at
all.

Some biblical examples

In the four gospels in the New Testament, Jesus cures physical ailments well outside the
capacity of first-century medicine. Most dramatic perhaps is the case of "a woman who had
had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians,
and had spent all that she had, and was not better but rather grew worse."[Mk 5:26-27] After
healing her, Jesus tells her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace! Be cured
from your illness."[Mk 5:34] At least two other times Jesus credited the sufferer's faith as the
means of being healed: Mark 10:52 and Luke 19:10.

Jesus endorses the use of the medical assistance of the time (medicines of oil and wine) when
he praises the Good Samaritan for acting as a physician, telling his disciples to go and do the
same thing that the Samaritan did in the story.

The healing in the gospels is referred to as a "sign"[Jn 6:2] to prove Jesus' divinity and to
foster belief in him as the Christ.[Jn 4:48] However, when asked for other types of miracles,
Jesus refuses some[Mt 12:38] but grants others[Lk 9:38-43] in consideration of the motive of
the request. Some theologians' understanding is that Jesus healed all who were present every
single time. Sometimes he determines whether they had faith that he would heal them.

Jesus commands his followers to heal the sick and states that signs such as healing are
evidence of faith. Jesus also commands his followers to "cure sick people, raise up dead
persons, make lepers clean, expel demons. You received free, give free."[Mt 10:8] [Mk 16:17-
18]

Jesus sternly orders many who received healing from him: "Do not tell anyone!" Jesus did not
approve of anyone asking for a sign just for the spectacle of it, describing such as coming
from a "wicked and adulterous generation."[Mt 12:38-39]

The apostle Paul believes healing is one of the special gifts of the Holy Spirit,[1 Cor 12:9] and
that the possibility exists that certain persons may possess this gift to an extraordinarily high
degree.

In the New Testament Epistle of James,[5:14] the faithful are told that to be healed, those
who are sick should call upon the elders of the church to pray over [them] and anoint [them]
with oil in the name of the Lord.

After Jesus' death, Peter and Paul heal the sick and cast out demons, make a lame man walk,
and raise the dead.



Research of beliefs about miraculous healing

A study of beliefs about miraculous healing among the more religiously committed has
indicated that there are significant differences in belief about miraculous healing even among
people within the same denomination (Anglican). Researchers found that positive belief in faith
healing was mainly a characteristic of conservative Christians, most especially those with
charismatic experience. Belief about miraculous healing was seen as a subset of belief about
health and well-being in general. Older people had less belief in miraculous healing or the
sovereignty of God over illness, while those with experience of higher education had more
inclusive beliefs about miraculous healing and saw human input as less important in the
healing process. The study further showed that people with degrees or post-graduate
qualifications can and do believe in the possibility of miraculous healing. No significant gender
differences were noted.
Pentecostalism/Charismatic movement

At the beginning of the 20th century, the new Pentecostal movement drew participants from
the Holiness movement and other movements in America that already believed in divine
healing. By the 1930s, several faith healers drew large crowds and established worldwide
followings.

The first Pentecostals in the modern sense appeared in Topeka, Kansas, in a Bible school
conducted by Charles Fox Parham, a holiness teacher and former Methodist pastor.
Pentecostalism achieved worldwide attention in 1906 through the Azusa Street Revival in Los
Angeles led by William Joseph Seymour.

During the Azusa Street meetings, according to witnesses who wrote about them, blind,
crippled or other sick people would be healed. Some of the participants would eventually
minister extensively in this area. For example, John G. Lake was present during the years of
the Azusa Street revival. Lake had earned huge sums of money in the insurance business at
the turn of the century but gave away his possessions with the exception of food for his
children while he and his wife fasted on a trip to Africa to do missionary work. Certain people
he had never met before gave him money and keys to a place to stay which were required to
enter South Africa at the dock. His writings tell of numerous healing miracles he and others
performed as over 500 churches were planted in South Africa. Lake returned to the U.S. and
set up healing rooms in Spokane, Washington.

Smith Wigglesworth was also a well-known figure in the early part of the 20th century. A
former English plumber turned evangelist who lived simply and read nothing but the Bible
from the time his wife taught him to read, Wigglesworth traveled around the world preaching
about Jesus and performing faith healings. Wigglesworth claimed to raise several people from
the dead in Jesus' name in his meetings.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Aimee Semple McPherson was a controversial faith healer of
growing popularity during the Great Depression. Subsequently, William Branham has been
credited as being the founder of the pos-World War II healing revivals. By the late 1940s, Oral
Roberts was well known, and he continued with faith healing until the 1980s. A friend of
Roberts was Kathryn Kuhlman, another popular faith healer, who gained fame in the 1950s
and had a television program on CBS. Also in this era, Jack Coe and A. A. Allen were faith
healers who traveled with large tents for large open-air crusades.

Oral Roberts's successful use of television as a medium to gain a wider audience led others to
follow suit. His former pilot, Kenneth Copeland, started a healing ministry. Pat Robertson,
Benny Hinn, and Peter Popoff became well-known televangelists who claimed to heal the sick.
Richard Rossi is known for advertising his healing clinics through secular television and radio.
Kuhlman influenced Benny Hinn, who adopted some of her techniques and wrote a book about
her.
Catholicism

Faith healing is reported by Catholics as the result of intercessory prayer to a saint or to a
person with the gift of healing. According to U.S. Catholic magazine, "Even in this skeptical,
postmodern, scientific agemiracles really are possible." Three-fourths of American Catholics
say they pray for miracles. According to Notre Dame theology professor John Cavadini, when
healing is granted, "The miracle is not primarily for the person healed, but for all people, as a
sign of God's work in the ultimate healing called 'salvation,' or a sign of the kingdom that is
coming." Some might view their own healing as a sign they are particularly worthy or holy,
while others do not deserve it.

The Catholic Church has a special Congregation dedicated to the careful investigation of the
validity of alleged miracles attributed to prospective saints. Since Catholic Christians believe
the lives of canonized saints in the Church will reflect Christ's, they have come to actually
expect healing miracles. While the popular conception of a miracle can be wide-ranging, the
Catholic Church has a specific definition for the kind of miracle formally recognized in a
canonization process.

Among the best-known accounts by Catholics of faith healings are those attributed to the
miraculous intercession of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary known as Our Lady of
Lourdes at the grotto of Lourdes in France and the remissions of life-threatening disease
claimed by those who have applied for aid to Saint Jude, who is known as the "patron saint of
lost causes".

The Catholic Church has given official recognition to 67 miracles and 7,000 otherwise
inexplicable medical cures since the Blessed Virgin Mary first appeared in Lourdes in February
1858. These cures are subjected to intense medical scrutiny and are only recognized as
authentic spiritual cures after a commission of doctors and scientists, called the Lourdes
Medical Bureau, has ruled out any physical mechanism for the patient's recovery.

Christian Science

Christian Science claims that healing is possible through an understanding of the underlying,
spiritual perfection of God's creation. The world as humanly perceived is believed to be a
distortion of the underlying spiritual reality. Christian Scientists believe that healing through
prayer is possible insofar as it succeeds in correcting the distortion. This is not "intercessory"
prayer, but recognition of the good believed to be already present behind the illusory
appearance and gratitude for that good.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

With claims of being the true and restored Church of Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints has had a long history of faith healings. Many members of the LDS Church
have told their stories of healing within the LDS publication, the Ensign. The church believes
healings come most often as a result of priesthood blessings given by the laying on of hands;
however, prayer oftentimes accompanied with fasting is also thought to cause healings.
Healing is always attributed to be God's power. Latter-day Saints believe that the Priesthood
of God, held by prophets (such as Moses) and worthy disciples of the Savior, was restored via
heavenly messengers to the first prophet of this dispensation, Joseph Smith.

According to LDS doctrine, even though members may have the restored priesthood authority
to heal in the name of Jesus Christ, all efforts should be made to seek the appropriate medical
help. Brigham Young stated this effectively, while also noting that the ultimate outcome is still
dependent on the will of God.

If we are sick, and ask the Lord to heal us, and to do all for us that is necessary to be
done, according to my understanding of the Gospel of salvation, I might as well ask
the Lord to cause my wheat and corn to grow, without my plowing the ground and
casting in the seed. It appears consistent to me to apply every remedy that comes
within the range of my knowledge, and to ask my Father in Heaven, in the name of
Jesus Christ, to sanctify that application to the healing of my body. But suppose we
were traveling in the mountains and one or two were taken sick, without anything in
the world in the shape of healing medicine within our reach, what should we do?
According to my faith, ask the Lord Almighty to heal the sick. This is our privilege,
when so situated that we cannot get anything to help ourselves. Then the Lord and his
servants can do all. But it is my duty to do, when I have it in my power. We lay hands
on the sick and wish them to be healed, and pray the Lord to heal them, but we
cannot always say that he will.

Most LDS members believe that healing is one of the signs of the true church of Christ, as
Christ told his disciples to heal the sick as one of their duties(Matt 10:8 KJV); however, they
also believe that healing is not just restricted to the true church. It is believed that faith in
Jesus Christ is the most important thing in a faith healing; however, it is also believed that
even the devil has some ability to heal and work other miracles (Matt 7:21-23 KJV, Rev. 16:14
KJV).
Spiritualism

Spiritualism is a system of belief which holds as a tenet the belief that contact is possible
between the living and the spirits of the dead. For this reason, death, as an outcome of
disease, may not seem as frightening to Spiritualists as it does to those who practice other
religions. According to the 20th-century Spiritualist author Lloyd Kenyon Jones, "This does not
mean that sickness is unreal. It is real enough from the mortal viewpoint. The spirit feels the
pain, senses the discomfiture of the flesh-body, even though the spirit is not ill." Spiritualism
does not promote "mental" cures of the type advocated by New Thought; however, help from
the "spirit world" (including advice given by the spirits of deceased physicians) is sought and
may be seen as central to the healing process. As with practitioners of New Thought,
Spiritualists may combine faith healing with conventional medical therapies. As Jones
explained it, "We are not taught to put the burden on our minds. We do not 'will away' illness.
But we do not fear illness. [...] When we ask the spirit-world to relieve us of a bodily ill, we
have gone as far as our own understanding and diligence permit. [...] We have faith, and
confidence, and belief. [...] If medicine at times will assist, we take it not as a habit, but as
a little push over the hill. If we need medical attention, we secure it."
Scientific investigations

While faith in the supernatural is not in itself usually considered to be the purview of science,
claims of reproducible effects are nevertheless subject to scientific investigation.

A Cochrane review of intercessory prayer found conflicting evidence for claims of a positive
effect, but there was a conclusion that "evidence presented so far is interesting enough to
justify further study." A recent study not included in the review also found inconclusive results
for the effect of intercessory prayer on the outcome of heart surgery.

A group at Johns Hopkins published a study in 2011 reporting no significant effects on pain,
mood, health perceptions, illness intrusiveness, or self-efficacy, but a small improvement in
reported energy in a double-blind study to test the efficacy of spiritual exercise in chronically
ill adults.

Criticism

According to the American Cancer Society:

Available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can cure cancer
or any other disease. Even the "miraculous" cures at the French shrine of Lourdes,
after careful study by the Catholic Church, do not outnumber the historical percentage
of spontaneous remissions seen among people with cancer. However, faith healing
may promote peace of mind, reduce stress, relieve pain and anxiety, and strengthen
the will to live.

The American Medical Association considers that prayer as therapy should not be a medically
reimbursable or deductible expense.

Skeptics of faith healing offer primarily two explanations for anecdotes of cures or
improvements, relieving any need to appeal to the supernatural. The first is post hoc ergo
propter hoc, meaning that a genuine improvement or spontaneous remission may have been
experienced coincidental with but independent from anything the faith healer or patient did or
said. These patients would have improved just as well even had they done nothing. The
second is the placebo effect, through which a person may experience genuine pain relief and
other symptomatic alleviation. In this case, the patient genuinely has been helped by the faith
healer or faith-based remedy, not through any mysterious or numinous function, but by the
power of their own belief that they would be healed. In both cases the patient may experience
a real reduction in symptoms, though in neither case has anything miraculous or inexplicable
occurred. Both cases, however, are strictly limited to the body's natural abilities.

There have been case studies of claims made. Following a Kathryn Kuhlman 1967 fellowship in
Philadelphia, Dr. William A. Nolen conducted a case study of 23 people who claimed to have
been cured during her services. Nolen's long-term follow-ups concluded there were no cures in
those cases. Furthermore, "one woman who was said to have been cured of spinal cancer
threw away her brace and ran across the stage at Kuhlman's command; her spine collapsed
the next day, according to Nolen, and she died four months later." In 1976, Kuhlman died in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, following open-heart surgery.

There are also some cases of fraud (faking the condition) or ineffective healing (believing the
condition has been healed immediately after the "healing" and later finding out it has not).
These are discussed in following sections.

Negative impact on public health

Reliance on faith healing to the exclusion of other forms of treatment can have a public health
impact when it reduces or eliminates access to modern medical techniques. This is evident in
both higher mortality rates for children and in reduced life expectancy for adults. Critics have
also made note of serious injury that has resulted from falsely labelled "healings", where
patients erroneously consider themselves cured and cease or withdraw from treatment. It is
the stated position of the AMA that "prayer as therapy should not delay access to traditional
medical care."

Christian theological criticism of faith healing

Christian theological criticism of faith healing broadly falls into two distinct levels of
disagreement.

The first is widely termed the "open-but-cautious" view of the miraculous in the church today.
This term is deliberately used by Robert L. Saucy in the book Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?.
Don Carson is another example of a Christian teacher who has put forward what has been
described as an "open-but-cautious" view. In dealing with the claims of Warfield, particularly
"Warfield's insistence that miracles ceased," Carson asserts, "But this argument stands up
only if such miraculous gifts are theologically tied exclusively to a role of attestation; and that
is demonstrably not so." However, while affirming that he does not expect healing to happen
today, Carson is critical of aspects of the faith healing movement, "Another issue is that of
immense abuses in healing practises.... The most common form of abuse is the view that
since all illness is directly or indirectly attributable to the devil and his works, and since Christ
by his cross has defeated the devil, and by his Spirit has given us the power to overcome him,
healing is the inheritance right of all true Christians who call upon the Lord with genuine faith."

The second level of theological disagreement with Christian faith healing goes further.
Commonly referred to as cessationism, its adherents either claim that faith healing will not
happen today at all, or may happen today, but it would be unusual. Richard Gaffin argues for
a form of cessationism in an essay alongside Saucy's in the book Are Miraculous Gifts for
Today? In his book Perspectives on Pentecost Gaffin states of healing and related gifts that
"the conclusion to be drawn is that as listed in 1 Corinthians 12(vv. 9f., 29f.) and encountered
throughout the narrative in Acts, these gifts, particularly when exercised regularly by a given
individual, are part of the foundational structure of the church... and so have passed out of the
life of the church." Gaffin qualifies this, however, by saying "At the same time, however, the
sovereign will and power of God today to heal the sick, particularly in response to prayer (see
e.g. James 5:14,15), ought to be acknowledged and insisted on."
Fraud

Skeptics of faith healers point to fraudulent practices either in the healings themselves (such
as plants in the audience with fake illnesses), or concurrent with the healing work supposedly
taking place and claim that faith healing is a quack practice in which the "healers" use well
known non-supernatural illusions to exploit credulous people in order to obtain their gratitude,
confidence and money. James Randi's The Faith Healers investigates Christian evangelists
such as Peter Popoff, who claimed to heal sick people and to give personal details about
their lives, but was receiving radio transmissions from his wife, Elizabeth, who was off-stage
reading information that she and her aides had gathered from earlier conversations with
members of the audience. The book also questioned how faith healers use funds that were
sent to them for specific purposes. Physicist Robert L. Park and doctor and consumer advocate
Stephen Barrett have called into question the ethicality of some exorbitant fees.

There have also been legal controversies. For example, in 1955 at a Jack Coe revival service
in Miami, Florida, Coe told the parents of a three year old boy that he healed their son who
had polio. Coe then told the parents to remove the boy's leg braces. However, their son was
not cured of polio and removing the braces left the boy in constant pain. As a result, Coe was
arrested and charged on February 6, 1956 with practicing medicine without a license, a felony
in the state of Florida. A Florida Justice of the Peace dismissed the case on grounds that
Florida exempts divine healing from the law. Later that year Coe was diagnosed with bulbar
polio, and died a few weeks later at Dallas' Parkland Hospital on December 17, 1956.
*Hallucination


Hypnosis

Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened
imagination." It is a mental state (according to "state theory") or imaginative role-enactment
(according to "non-state theory"). It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic
induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary instructions and
suggestions. Hypnotic suggestions may be delivered by a hypnotist in the presence of the
subject, or may be self-administered ("self-suggestion" or "autosuggestion"). The use of
hypnotism for therapeutic purposes is referred to as "hypnotherapy", while its use as a form of
entertainment for an audience is known as "stage hypnosis".

The words hypnosis and hypnotism both derive from the term neuro-hypnotism (nervous
sleep) coined by the Scottish surgeon James Braid around 1841. Braid based his practice on
that developed by Franz Mesmer and his followers ("Mesmerism" or "animal magnetism"), but
differed in his theory as to how the procedure worked.

Contrary to a popular misconceptionthat hypnosis is a form of unconsciousness resembling
sleepcontemporary research suggests that hypnotic subjects are fully awake and are
focusing attention, with a corresponding decrease in their peripheral awareness. Subjects also
show an increased response to suggestions. In the first book on the subject, Neurypnology
(1843), Braid described "hypnotism" as a state of physical relaxation accompanied and
induced by mental concentration ("abstraction").

Characteristics

It could be said that hypnotic suggestion is explicitly intended to make use of the placebo
effect. For example, in 1994, Irving Kirsch characterized hypnosis as a "nondeceptive
placebo," i. e., a method that openly makes use of suggestion and employs methods to
amplify its effects.

Definitions

The earliest definition of hypnosis was given by Braid, who coined the term "hypnotism" as an
abbreviation for "neuro-hypnotism", or nervous sleep, which he opposed to normal sleep, and
defined as: "a peculiar condition of the nervous system, induced by a fixed and abstracted
attention of the mental and visual eye, on one object, not of an exciting nature."

Braid elaborated upon this brief definition in a later work:

[...] the real origin and essence of the hypnotic condition, is the induction of a habit
of abstraction or mental concentration, in which, as in reverie or spontaneous
abstraction, the powers of the mind are so much engrossed with a single idea or train
of thought, as, for the nonce, to render the individual unconscious of, or indifferently
conscious to, all other ideas, impressions, or trains of thought. The hypnotic sleep,
therefore, is the very antithesis or opposite mental and physical condition to that
which precedes and accompanies common sleep [...]
Braid, Hypnotic Therapeutics, 1853

Therefore, Braid defined hypnotism as a state of mental concentration that often leads to a
form of progressive relaxation, termed "nervous sleep". Later, in his The Physiology of
Fascination (1855), Braid conceded that his original terminology was misleading, and argued
that the term "hypnotism" or "nervous sleep" should be reserved for the minority (10%) of
subjects who exhibit amnesia, substituting the term "monoideism", meaning concentration
upon a single idea, as a description for the more alert state experienced by the others.

A new definition of hypnosis, derived from academic psychology, was provided in 2005, when
the Society for Psychological Hypnosis, Division 30 of the American Psychological Association
(APA), published the following formal definition:

New Definition: Hypnosis

The Division 30 Definition and Description of Hypnosis

Hypnosis typically involves an introduction to the procedure during which the
subject is told that suggestions for imaginative experiences will be presented. The
hypnotic induction is an extended initial suggestion for using one's imagination, and
may contain further elaborations of the introduction. A hypnotic procedure is used to
encourage and evaluate responses to suggestions. When using hypnosis, one person
(the subject) is guided by another (the hypnotist) to respond to suggestions for
changes in subjective experience, alterations in perception, sensation, emotion,
thought or behavior. Persons can also learn self-hypnosis, which is the act of
administering hypnotic procedures on one's own. If the subject responds to hypnotic
suggestions, it is generally inferred that hypnosis has been induced. Many believe that
hypnotic responses and experiences are characteristic of a hypnotic state. While some
think that it is not necessary to use the word "hypnosis" as part of the hypnotic
induction, others view it as essential.
Induction

Hypnosis is normally preceded by a "hypnotic induction" technique. Traditionally this was
interpreted as a method of putting the subject into a "hypnotic trance"; however subsequent
"nonstate" theorists have viewed it differently, as a means of heightening client expectation,
defining their role, focusing attention, etc. There is an enormous variety of different induction
techniques used in hypnotism. However, by far the most influential method was the original
"eye-fixation" technique of Braid, also known as "Braidism". Many variations of the eye-
fixation approach exist, including the induction used in the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility
Scale (SHSS), the most widely used research tool in the field of hypnotism. Braid's original
description of his induction is as follows:

James Braid's Original Eye-Fixation Hypnotic Induction Method

Take any bright object (I generally use my lancet case) between the thumb and
fore and middle fingers of the left hand; hold it from about eight to fifteen inches from
the eyes, at such position above the forehead as may be necessary to produce the
greatest possible strain upon the eyes and eyelids, and enable the patient to maintain
a steady fixed stare at the object.

The patient must be made to understand that he is to keep the eyes steadily fixed
on the object, and the mind riveted on the idea of that one object. It will be observed,
that owing to the consensual adjustment of the eyes, the pupils will be at first
contracted: They will shortly begin to dilate, and, after they have done so to a
considerable extent, and have assumed a wavy motion, if the fore and middle fingers
of the right hand, extended and a little separated, are carried from the object towards
the eyes, most probably the eyelids will close involuntarily, with a vibratory motion. If
this is not the case, or the patient allows the eyeballs to move, desire him to begin
anew, giving him to understand that he is to allow the eyelids to close when the
fingers are again carried towards the eyes, but that the eyeballs must be kept fixed, in
the same position, and the mind riveted to the one idea of the object held above the
eyes. In general, it will be found, that the eyelids close with a vibratory motion, or
become spasmodically closed.

Braid himself later acknowledged that the hypnotic induction technique was not necessary in
every case and subsequent researchers have generally found that on average it contributes
less than previously expected to the effect of hypnotic suggestions (q.v., Barber, Spanos &
Chaves, 1974). Many variations and alternatives to the original hypnotic induction techniques
were subsequently developed. However, exactly 100 years after Braid introduced the method,
another expert could still state: "It can be safely stated that nine out of ten hypnotic
techniques call for reclining posture, muscular relaxation, and optical fixation followed by eye
closure."[12]

Suggestion

When James Braid first described hypnotism, he did not use the term "suggestion" but
referred instead to the act of focusing the conscious mind of the subject upon a single
dominant idea. Braid's main therapeutic strategy involved stimulating or reducing
physiological functioning in different regions of the body. In his later works, however, Braid
placed increasing emphasis upon the use of a variety of different verbal and non-verbal forms
of suggestion, including the use of "waking suggestion" and self-hypnosis. Subsequently,
Hippolyte Bernheim shifted the emphasis from the physical state of hypnosis on to the
psychological process of verbal suggestion.

I define hypnotism as the induction of a peculiar psychical [i.e., mental] condition
which increases the susceptibility to suggestion. Often, it is true, the [hypnotic] sleep
that may be induced facilitates suggestion, but it is not the necessary preliminary. It is
suggestion that rules hypnotism. (Hypnosis & Suggestion, 1884: 15)

Bernheim's conception of the primacy of verbal suggestion in hypnotism dominated the
subject throughout the twentieth century, leading some authorities to declare him the father
of modern hypnotism (Weitzenhoffer, 2000).

Contemporary hypnotism makes use of a wide variety of different forms of suggestion
including: direct verbal suggestions, "indirect" verbal suggestions such as requests or
insinuations, metaphors and other rhetorical figures of speech, and non-verbal suggestion in
the form of mental imagery, voice tonality, and physical manipulation. A distinction is
commonly made between suggestions delivered "permissively" or in a more "authoritarian"
manner. As Harvard hypnotherapist Deirdre Barrett describes in the book Tales from a
Hypnotherapists Couch, most modern research suggestions are designed to bring about
immediate responsesan arm rises immediately, whereas hypnotheraputic suggestions are
usually post-hypnotic ones are intended to trigger responses affecting behavior for periods
ranging from days to a lifetime in duration. The hypnotheraputic ones are often repeated in
multiple sessions before they achieve peak effectiveness.

Consciousness vs. unconscious mind

Some hypnotists conceive of suggestions as being a form of communication directed primarily
to the subject's conscious mind, whereas others view suggestion as a means of
communicating with the "unconscious" or "subconscious" mind. These concepts were
introduced into hypnotism at the end of 19th century by Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet. The
original Victorian pioneers of hypnotism, including Braid and Bernheim, did not employ these
concepts but considered hypnotic suggestions to be addressed to the subject's conscious
mind. Indeed, Braid actually defines hypnotism as focused (conscious) attention upon a
dominant idea (or suggestion). Different views regarding the nature of the mind have led to
different conceptions of suggestion. Hypnotists who believed that responses are mediated
primarily by an "unconscious mind", like Milton Erickson, made more use of indirect
suggestions, such as metaphors or stories, whose intended meaning may be concealed from
the subject's conscious mind. The concept of subliminal suggestion also depends upon this
view of the mind. By contrast, hypnotists who believed that responses to suggestion are
primarily mediated by the conscious mind, such as Theodore Barber and Nicholas Spanos
tended to make more use of direct verbal suggestions and instructions.

Ideo-dynamic reflex

The first neuropsychological theory of hypnotic suggestion was introduced early on by James
Braid who adopted his friend and colleague William Carpenter's theory of the ideo-motor reflex
response to account for the phenomenon of hypnotism. Carpenter had observed from close
examination of everyday experience that under certain circumstances the mere idea of a
muscular movement could be sufficient to produce a reflexive, or automatic, contraction or
movement of the muscles involved, albeit in a very small degree. Braid extended Carpenter's
theory to encompass the observation that a wide variety of bodily responses, other than
muscular movement, can be thus affected, e.g., the idea of sucking a lemon can automatically
stimulate salivation, a secretory response. Braid, therefore, adopted the term "ideo-dynamic",
meaning "by the power of an idea" to explain a broad range of "psycho-physiological" (mind-
body) phenomena. Braid coined the term "mono-ideodynamic" to refer to the theory that
hypnotism operates by concentrating attention on a single idea in order to amplify the ideo-
dynamic reflex response. Variations of the basic ideo-motor or ideo-dynamic theory of
suggestion have continued to hold considerable influence over subsequent theories of
hypnosis, including those of Clark L. Hull, Hans Eysenck, and Ernest Rossi. It should be noted
that in Victorian psychology, the word "idea" encompasses any mental representation, e.g.,
including mental imagery, or memories, etc.

Post-hypnotic suggestion

It has been alleged post-hypnotic suggestion can be used to change people's behaviour after
emerging from hypnosis.

Susceptibility

Braid made a rough distinction between different stages of hypnosis, which he termed the first
and second conscious stage of hypnotism;[citation needed] he later replaced this with a
distinction between "sub-hypnotic", "full hypnotic", and "hypnotic coma" stages.[citation
needed] Jean-Martin Charcot made a similar distinction between stages named
somnambulism, lethargy, and catalepsy. However, Ambroise-Auguste Libeault and Bernheim
introduced more complex hypnotic "depth" scales, based on a combination of behavioural,
physiological and subjective responses, some of which were due to direct suggestion and some
of which were not. In the first few decades of the 20th century, these early clinical "depth"
scales were superseded by more sophisticated "hypnotic susceptibility" scales based on
experimental research. The most influential were the Davis-Husband and Friedlander-Sarbin
scales developed in the 1930s. Andre Weitzenhoffer and Ernest R. Hilgard developed the
Stanford Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility in 1959, consisting of 12 suggestion test items
following a standardised hypnotic eye-fixation induction script, and this has become one of the
most widely referenced research tools in the field of hypnosis. Soon after, in 1962, Ronald
Shor and Emily Carota Orne developed a similar group scale called the Harvard Group Scale of
Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS).

Whereas the older "depth scales" tried to infer the level of "hypnotic trance" based upon
supposed observable signs, such as spontaneous amnesia, most subsequent scales measure
the degree of observed or self-evaluated responsiveness to specific suggestion tests, such as
direct suggestions of arm rigidity (catalepsy). The Stanford, Harvard, HIP, and most other
susceptibility scales convert numbers into an assessment of a person's susceptibility as 'high',
'medium', or 'low'. Approximately 80% of the population are medium, 10% are high and 10%
are low. There is some controversy as to whether this is distributed on a normal bell-shaped
curve or whether it is bi-modal with a small blip of people at the high end. Hypnotizability
Scores are highly stable over a persons lifetime. Research by Deirdre Barrett has found that
there are two distinct types of highly susceptible subjects, which she terms fantasizers and
dissociaters. Fantasizers score high on absorption scales, find it easy to block out real-world
stimuli without hypnosis, spend much time daydreaming, report imaginary companions as a
child and grew up with parents who encouraged imaginary play. Dissociaters often have a
history of childhood abuse or other trauma, learned to escape into numbness, and to forget
unpleasant events. Their association to daydreaming was often going blank rather than
vividly recalled fantasies. Both score equally high on formal scales of hypnotic susceptibility.

Applications

There are numerous applications for hypnosis across multiple fields of interest including
medical/psychotherapeutic uses, military uses, self-improvement, and entertainment.

Hypnotism has also been used in forensics, sports, education, physical therapy and
rehabilitation. Hypnotism has also been employed by artists for creative purposes most
notably the surrealist circle of Andr Breton who employed hypnosis, automatic writing and
sketches for creative purposes. Hypnotic methods have been used to re-experience drug
states, and mystical experiences. Self-hypnosis is popularly used to quit smoking and reduce
stress, while stage hypnosis can persuade people to perform unusual public feats.

Some people have drawn analogies between certain aspects of hypnotism and areas such as
crowd psychology, religious hysteria, and ritual trances in preliterate tribal cultures.

Many famous sports figures like Tiger Woods have used hypnosis to gain an edge on their
competition. This is accomplished by accessing an athlete's altered conscious state and
incorporating a different way of processing information.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. It is used by licensed physicians,
psychologists, and others. Physicians and psychiatrists may use hypnosis to treat depression,
anxiety, eating disorders, sleep disorders, compulsive gaming, and posttraumatic stress, while
certified hypnotherapists who are not physicians or psychologists often treat smoking and
weight management.

Modern hypnotherapy has been used in a variety of forms with varying success, such as:

Age regression hypnotherapy (or "hypnoanalysis")
Ericksonian hypnotherapy.
Fears and phobias
Addictions
Habit control
Pain management
Psychological therapy
Relaxation
Skin disease
Soothing anxious surgical patients
Sports performance
Weight loss


In a January 2001 article in Psychology Today[52] Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett wrote:

A hypnotic trance is not therapeutic in and of itself, but specific suggestions and
images fed to clients in a trance can profoundly alter their behavior. As they rehearse
the new ways they want to think and feel, they lay the groundwork for changes in
their future actions...

and she described specific ways this is operationalized for habit change and amelioration of
phobias. In her 1998 book of hypnotherapy case studies, she reviews the clinical research on
hypnosis with dissociative disorders, smoking cessation, and insomnia and describes
successful treatments of these complaints.

In a July 2001 article for Scientific American titled "The Truth and the Hype of Hypnosis",
Michael Nash wrote:

...using hypnosis, scientists have temporarily created hallucinations, compulsions,
certain types of memory loss, false memories, and delusions in the laboratory so that
these phenomena can be studied in a controlled environment.

Irritable bowel syndrome

Hypnotherapy has been used to treat irritable bowel syndrome. Researchers who recently
reviewed the best studies in this area conclude:

The evidence for hypnosis as an efficacious treatment of IBS was encouraging. Two of three
studies that investigated the use of hypnosis for IBS were well designed and showed a clear
effect for the hypnotic treatment of IBS.

Hypnosis for IBS has received moderate support in the National Institute for Health and
Clinical Excellence guidance published for UK health services. It has been used as an aid or
alternative to chemical anesthesia, and it has been studied as a way to soothe skin ailments.

In one study conducted at the Frenchay Hospital, thirty-three patients with IBS were given
four separate sessions of hypnosis over the course of seven weeks, each session lasting 40
minutes. Of the thirty-three patients, twenty reported an improvement in their symptoms
while eleven were shown to be cleared of all symptoms. However some skeptics have claimed
this sample size too small to be a meaningful result.

Pain management

A number of studies show that hypnosis can reduce the pain experienced during burn-wound
debridement, bone marrow aspirations, and childbirth. The International Journal of Clinical and
Experimental Hypnosis found that hypnosis relieved the pain of 75% of 933 subjects
participating in 27 different experiments.

In 1996, the National Institutes of Health declared hypnosis effective in reducing pain from
cancer and other chronic conditions. Nausea and other symptoms related to incurable diseases
may also be managed with hypnosis. For example, research done at the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine studied two patient groups facing breast cancer surgery. The group that received
hypnosis reported less pain, nausea, and anxiety post-surgery. The average hypnosis patient
reduced treatment costs by an average $772.00.

The American Psychological Association published a study comparing the effects of hypnosis,
ordinary suggestion and placebo in reducing pain. The study found that highly suggestible
individuals experienced a greater reduction in pain from hypnosis compared with placebo,
whereas less suggestible subjects experienced no pain reduction from hypnosis when
compared with placebo. Ordinary non-hypnotic suggestion also caused reduction in pain
compared to placebo, but was able to reduce pain in a wider range of subjects (both high and
low suggestible) than hypnosis. The results showed that it is primarily the subject's
responsiveness to suggestion, whether within the context of hypnosis or not, that is the main
determinant of causing reduction in pain.

Other medical and psychotherapeutic uses

Treating skin diseases with hypnosis (hypnodermatology) has performed well in treating
warts, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis.

The success rate for habit control is varied. A meta-study researching hypnosis as a quit-
smoking tool found it had a 20 to 30 percent success rate, similar to other quit-smoking
methods,[70] while a 2007 study of patients hospitalised for cardiac and pulmonary ailments
found that smokers who used hypnosis to quit smoking doubled their chances of success.

Hypnosis may be useful as an adjunct therapy for weight loss. A 1996 meta-analysis studying
hypnosis combined with cognitive-behavioural therapy found that people using both
treatments lost more weight than people using CBT alone. The virtual gastric band procedure
mixes hypnosis with hypnopedia. The hypnosis instructs the stomach it is smaller than it really
is and hypnopedia reinforces alimentary habits.

Controversy surrounds the use of hypnotherapy to retrieve memories, especially those from
early childhood or (alleged) past-lives. The American Medical Association and the American
Psychological Association caution against repressed memory therapy in cases of alleged
childhood trauma, stating that "it is impossible, without corroborative evidence, to distinguish
a true memory from a false one." Past life regression, meanwhile, is often viewed with
skepticism.

Military applications

A recently declassified document obtained by The Black Vault Freedom of Information Act
archive shows that hypnosis was investigated for military applications. However, the overall
conclusion of the study was that there was no evidence that hypnosis could be used for
military applications, and also that there was no clear evidence for whether 'hypnosis' actually
exists as a definable phenomenon outside of ordinary suggestion, high motivation and subject
expectancy. According to the document,

The use of hypnosis in intelligence would present certain technical problems not
encountered in the clinic or laboratory. To obtain compliance from a resistant source,
for example, it would be necessary to hypnotise the source under essentially hostile
circumstances. There is no good evidence, clinical or experimental, that this can be
done.

Furthermore, the document states that:

It would be difficult to find an area of scientific interest more beset by divided
professional opinion and contradictory experimental evidenceNo one can say whether
hypnosis is a qualitatively unique state with some physiological and conditioned
response components or only a form of suggestion induced by high motivation and a
positive relationship between hypnotist and subjectT.X. Barber has produced
hypnotic deafness and hypnotic blindness, analgesia and other responses seen in
hypnosisall without hypnotizing anyoneOrne has shown that unhypnotized persons
can be motivated to equal and surpass the supposed superhuman physical feats seen
in hypnosis.

The study concludes:

It is probably significant that in the long history of hypnosis, where the potential
application to intelligence has always been known, there are no reliable accounts of its
effective use by an intelligence service.

Research into hypnosis in military applications is further verified by the MKULTRA
experiments, also conducted by the CIA. According to Congressional testimony, the CIA
experimented with utilizing LSD and hypnosis for mind control. Many of these programs were
done domestically and on participants who were not informed of the study's purposes or that
they would be given drugs.

The full paper explores the potentials of operational uses.

Self-hypnosis

Self-hypnosis happens when a person hypnotises oneself, commonly involving the use of
autosuggestion. The technique is often used to increase motivation for a diet, quit smoking, or
reduce stress. People who practice self-hypnosis sometimes require assistance; some people
use devices known as mind machines to assist in the process, whereas others use hypnotic
recordings.

Self-hypnosis is claimed to help with stage fright, relaxation, and physical well-being.

Stage hypnosis

Stage hypnosis is a form of entertainment, traditionally employed in a club or theatre before
an audience. Due to stage hypnotists' showmanship, many people believe that hypnosis is a
form of mind control. Stage hypnotists typically attempt to hypnotise the entire audience and
then select individuals who are "under" to come up on stage and perform embarrassing acts,
while the audience watches. However, the effects of stage hypnosis are probably due to a
combination of psychological factors, participant selection, suggestibility, physical
manipulation, stagecraft, and trickery. The desire to be the centre of attention, having an
excuse to violate their own fear suppressors and the pressure to please are thought to
convince subjects to 'play along'. Books by stage hypnotists sometimes explicitly describe the
use of deception in their acts, for example, Ormond McGill's New Encyclopedia of Stage
Hypnosis describes an entire "fake hypnosis" act that depends upon the use of private
whispers throughout.

The state versus non-state debate

The central theoretical disagreement is known as the "state versus nonstate" debate. When
Braid introduced the concept of hypnotism, he equivocated over the nature of the "state",
sometimes describing it as a specific sleep-like neurological state comparable to animal
hibernation or yogic meditation, while at other times he emphasised that hypnotism
encompasses a number of different stages or states that are an extension of ordinary
psychological and physiological processes. Overall, Braid appears to have moved from a more
"special state" understanding of hypnotism toward a more complex "nonstate" orientation.

State theorists interpret the effects of hypnotism as due primarily to a specific, abnormal, and
uniform psychological or physiological state of some description, often referred to as "hypnotic
trance" or an "altered state of consciousness." Nonstate theorists rejected the idea of hypnotic
trance and interpret the effects of hypnotism as due to a combination of multiple task-specific
factors derived from normal cognitive, behavioural, and social psychology, such as social role-
perception and favorable motivation (Sarbin), active imagination and positive cognitive set
(Barber), response expectancy (Kirsch), and the active use of task-specific subjective
strategies (Spanos). The personality psychologist Robert White is often cited as providing one
of the first nonstate definitions of hypnosis in a 1941 article:

Hypnotic behaviour is meaningful, goal-directed striving, its most general goal being to
behave like a hypnotised person as this is continuously defined by the operator and
understood by the client.

Put simply, it is often claimed that whereas the older "special state" interpretation emphasises
the difference between hypnosis and ordinary psychological processes, the "nonstate"
interpretation emphasises their similarity.

Comparisons between hypnotised and non-hypnotised subjects suggest that if a "hypnotic
trance" does exist it only accounts for a small proportion of the effects attributed to hypnotic
suggestion, most of which can be replicated without hypnotic induction.

Hyper-suggestibility

Braid can be taken to imply, in later writings, that hypnosis is largely a state of heightened
suggestibility induced by expectation and focused attention. In particular, Hippolyte Bernheim
became known as the leading proponent of the "suggestion theory" of hypnosis, at one point
going so far as to declare that there is no hypnotic state, only heightened suggestibility. There
is a general consensus that heightened suggestibility is an essential characteristic of hypnosis.

If a subject after submitting to the hypnotic procedure shows no genuine increase in
susceptibility to any suggestions whatever, there seems no point in calling him hypnotised,
regardless of how fully and readily he may respond to suggestions of lid-closure and other
superficial sleeping behaviour.

Conditioned inhibition

Ivan Pavlov stated that hypnotic suggestion provided the best example of a conditioned reflex
response in human beings, i.e., that responses to suggestions were learned associations
triggered by the words used. Pavlov himself wrote:

Speech, on account of the whole preceding life of the adult, is connected up with all the
internal and external stimuli which can reach the cortex, signaling all of them and replacing all
of them, and therefore it can call forth all those reactions of the organism which are normally
determined by the actual stimuli themselves. We can, therefore, regard suggestion as the
most simple form of a typical reflex in man.

He also believed that hypnosis was a "partial sleep" meaning that a generalised inhibition of
cortical functioning could be encouraged to spread throughout regions of the brain. He
observed that the various degrees of hypnosis did not significantly differ physiologically from
the waking state and hypnosis depended on insignificant changes of environmental stimuli.
Pavlov also suggested that lower-brain-stem mechanisms were involved in hypnotic
conditioning.

Pavlov's ideas combined with those of his rival Bekhterev and became the basis of hypnotic
psychotherapy in the Soviet Union, as documented in the writings of his follower K.I. Platonov.
Soviet theories of hypnotism subsequently influenced the writings of Western behaviourally-
oriented hypnotherapists such as Andrew Salter.

Neuropsychology

Neurological imaging techniques provide no evidence of a neurological pattern that can be
equated with a "hypnotic trance". Changes in brain activity have been found in some studies
of highly responsive hypnotic subjects. These changes vary depending upon the type of
suggestions being given. However, what these results indicate is unclear. They may indicate
that suggestions genuinely produce changes in perception or experience that are not simply a
result of imagination. However, in normal circumstances without hypnosis, the brain regions
associated with motion detection are activated both when motion is seen and when motion is
imagined, without any changes in the subjects' perception or experience. This may therefore
indicate that highly suggestible hypnotic subjects are simply activating to a greater extent the
areas of the brain used in imagination, without real perceptual changes.

Another study has demonstrated that a color hallucination suggestion given to subjects in
hypnosis activated color-processing regions of the occipital cortex. A 2004 review of research
examining the EEG laboratory work in this area concludes:

Hypnosis is not a unitary state and therefore should show different patterns of EEG activity
depending upon the task being experienced. In our evaluation of the literature, enhanced
theta is observed during hypnosis when there is task performance or concentrative hypnosis,
but not when the highly hypnotizable individuals are passively relaxed, somewhat sleepy
and/or more diffuse in their attention.

The induction phase of hypnosis may also affect the activity in brain regions that control
intention and process conflict. Anna Gosline claims:

"Gruzelier and his colleagues studied brain activity using an fMRI while subjects completed
a standard cognitive exercise, called the Stroop task. The team screened subjects before the
study and chose 12 that were highly susceptible to hypnosis and 12 with low susceptibility.
They all completed the task in the fMRI under normal conditions and then again under
hypnosis. Throughout the study, both groups were consistent in their task results, achieving
similar scores regardless of their mental state. During their first task session, before hypnosis,
there were no significant differences in brain activity between the groups. But under hypnosis,
Gruzelier found that the highly susceptible subjects showed significantly more brain activity in
the anterior cingulate gyrus than the weakly susceptible subjects. This area of the brain has
been shown to respond to errors and evaluate emotional outcomes. The highly susceptible
group also showed much greater brain activity on the left side of the prefrontal cortex than the
weakly susceptible group. This is an area involved with higher level cognitive processing and
behaviour."

Dissociation

Pierre Janet originally developed the idea of dissociation of consciousness from his work with
hysterical patients. He believed that hypnosis was an example of dissociation, whereby areas
of an individual's behavioural control separate from ordinary awareness. Hypnosis would
remove some control from the conscious mind, and the individual would respond with
autonomic, reflexive behaviour. Weitzenhoffer describes hypnosis via this theory as
"dissociation of awareness from the majority of sensory and even strictly neural events taking
place."

Neodissociation

Ernest Hilgard, who developed the "neodissociation" theory of hypnotism, hypothesised that
hypnosis causes the subjects to divide their consciousness voluntarily. One part responds to
the hypnotist while the other retains awareness of reality. Hilgard made subjects take an ice
water bath. They said nothing about the water being cold or feeling pain. Hilgard then asked
the subjects to lift their index finger if they felt pain and 70% of the subjects lifted their index
finger. This showed that even though the subjects were listening to the suggestive hypnotist
they still sensed the water's temperature.

Mind-dissociation

This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed facts
are reliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on the talk page. (June 2011)

This theory was proposed by Y.D. Tsai in 1995[96] as part of his psychosomatic theory of
dreams. Inside each brain, there is a program "I" (the conscious self), which is distributed
over the conscious brain and coordinates mental functions (cortices), such as thinking,
imagining, sensing, moving and reasoning. "I" also supervises memory storage. Many bizarre
states of consciousness are actually the results of dissociation of certain mental functions from
"I".

There are several possible types of dissociation that may occur:

the subject's imagination is dissociated and sends the imagined content back to the
sensory cortex resulting in dreams or hallucinations
some senses are dissociated, resulting in hypnotic anesthesia
motor function is dissociated, resulting in immobility
reason is dissociated and he/she obeys the hypnotist's orders
thought is dissociated and not controlled by reason, hence, for example striving to
straighten the body between two chairs.

A hypnotist's suggestion can also influence the subject long after the hypnosis session, as
follows. In a normal state of mind, the subject will do or believe as his reason dictates.
However, when hypnotized, reason is replaced by the hypnotist's suggestions to make up
decisions or beliefs, and the subject will be very uneasy in later days if he/she does not do
things as decided or his/her belief is contradicted. Hypnotherapy is also based on this
principle.

Social role-taking theory

The main theorist who pioneered the influential role-taking theory of hypnotism was Theodore
Sarbin. Sarbin argued that hypnotic responses were motivated attempts to fulfill the socially
constructed roles of hypnotic subjects. This has led to the misconception that hypnotic
subjects are simply "faking". However, Sarbin emphasised the difference between faking, in
which there is little subjective identification with the role in question, and role-taking, in which
the subject not only acts externally in accord with the role but also subjectively identifies with
it to some degree, acting, thinking, and feeling "as if" they are hypnotised. Sarbin drew
analogies between role-taking in hypnosis and role-taking in other areas such as method
acting, mental illness, and shamanic possession, etc. This interpretation of hypnosis is
particularly relevant to understanding stage hypnosis in which there is clearly strong peer
pressure to comply with a socially constructed role by performing accordingly on a theatrical
stage.

Hence, the social constructionism and role-taking theory of hypnosis suggests that individuals
are enacting (as opposed to merely playing) a role and that really there is no such thing as a
hypnotic trance. A socially constructed relationship is built depending on how much rapport
has been established between the "hypnotist" and the subject (see Hawthorne effect,
Pygmalion effect, and placebo effect).

Psychologists such as Robert Baker and Graham Wagstaff claim that what we call hypnosis is
actually a form of learned social behaviour, a complex hybrid of social compliance, relaxation,
and suggestibility that can account for many esoteric behavioural manifestations.

Cognitive-behavioural theory

Barber, Spanos, & Chaves (1974) proposed a nonstate "cognitive-behavioural" theory of
hypnosis, similar in some respects to Sarbin's social role-taking theory and building upon the
earlier research of Barber. On this model, hypnosis is explained as an extension of ordinary
psychological processes like imagination, relaxation, expectation, social compliance, etc. In
particular, Barber argued that responses to hypnotic suggestions were mediated by a "positive
cognitive set" consisting of positive expectations, attitudes, and motivation. Daniel Araoz
subsequently coined the acronym "TEAM" to symbolise the subject's orientation to hypnosis in
terms of "trust", "expectation", "attitude", and "motivation".

Barber et al., noted that similar factors appeared to mediate the response both to hypnotism
and to cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), in particular systematic desensitization. Hence,
research and clinical practice inspired by their interpretation has led to growing interest in the
relationship between hypnotherapy and CBT.

Information theory

An approach loosely based on Information theory uses a brain-as-computer model. In
adaptive systems, feedback increases the signal-to-noise ratio, which may converge towards a
steady state. Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio enables messages to be more clearly
received. The hypnotist's object is to use techniques to reduce interference and increase the
receptability of specific messages (suggestions).

Systems theory

Systems theory, in this context, may be regarded as an extension of Braid's original
conceptualization of hypnosis as involving a process of enhancing or depressing nervous
system activity. Systems theory considers the nervous system's organization into interacting
subsystems. Hypnotic phenomena thus involve not only increased or decreased activity of
particular subsystems, but also their interaction. A central phenomenon in this regard is that
of feedback loops, which suggest a mechanism for creating hypnotic phenomena.
Levitation
Wikipedia.org

Transvection is the supernatural act of levitating, floating or more specifically flying through
the air. While levitation and magical flight can equate to acts of stage magic or astral
projection through the use of psychoactive entheogens, transvection usually refers to the
experience of bodily movement in defiance of gravitational laws.

Witches in medieval Europe were frequently depicted flying up chimneys and in the air by
means of broomsticks, various wild animals, or even during acts of sexual intercourse;
however the consensus of modern Neo-Pagans is that these images remotely alluded to the
practice of entheogen use, either for folk shamanic purposes surviving from the stone age, or
perhaps even as a form of recreational drug use.

Flying saints and Hindu and Buddhist mystical practitioners known as Siddhis and Iddhis are
known for acts of spontaneous levitation, reported during times of intense or particular
religious or meditative devotion.

Materialization
Wikipedia.org


In spiritualism, paranormal literature, and some religions, materialization (also referred to as
manifestation) is the creation or appearance of matter from unknown sources. It is the
transformation of something abstract or virtual into something concrete and tangible. The
existence of materialization would contradict the generally accepted law of conservation of
energy.

History

Accounts of materialization in Christianity include the biblical story of the multiplication of
bread and fish by Jesus to feed a hungry crowd (John 6:1-15 & Mark 6:35-44) and Genesis
where everything came out of nothing.

Contemporary Indian gurus Sathya Sai Baba and Swami Premananda claim to perform
materializations and spontaneous vibuthi (holy ash) manifestations are reported by Baba's
followers on his pictures at their homes and once in diwali a festival of Hindus he transformed
water into oil for lighting fire lamps (diva).

Scientific views

The existence of materialization was not confirmed by laboratory experiments. Confirmation
would falsify the generally accepted law of conservation of energy.

Mediumship
Wikipedia.org

Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious
beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candombl, Voodoo and Umbanda.

Concept

Mediumship is the claimed ability of a person (the medium) to experience contact with spirits
of the dead, angels, demons or other immaterial entities. A medium is defined by the Oxford
English Dictionary as "a person believed to be in contact with the spirits of the dead and to
communicate between the living and the dead". The role of the medium is to facilitate
communication with spirits who have messages to share with non-mediums. Mediums claim to
be able to listen to, relay messages from, and relate conversations with spirit, to go into a
trance (it is not necessary to go into a trance, it all depends on the medium's control and
knowledge) and speak without knowledge of what is being said, to allow a spirit to control
their body and speak through it, perhaps using a writing instrument (as in automatic writing or
drawing).

Mediumship is also part of the belief system of some New Age groups. In this context, and
under the name "channelling", it refers to a medium (the channel) who is said to receive
messages from a "teaching-spirit". In some cultures, mediums (or the spirits to whom they
are connected) reportedly produce physical paranormal phenomena such as materialisations of
spirits, apports of objects, or levitation.

History

Attempts to communicate with the dead and other spirits have been documented back to early
human history. The story of the Witch of Endor, tells of one who raised the spirit of the
deceased prophet Samuel to allow the Hebrew king Saul to question his former mentor about
an upcoming battle, as related in the First book of Samuel in the Jewish Tanakh (the Old
Testament).

Mediumship became quite popular in the 19th-century United States and the United Kingdom
after the rise of Spiritualism as a religious movement. Modern Spiritualism is said to date from
practices and lectures of the Fox sisters in New York state 1848. The trance mediums Paschal
Beverly Randolph and Emma Hardinge Britten were among the most celebrated lecturers and
authors on the subject in the mid-19th century.

Allan Kardec coined the term Spiritism around 1860. Kardec claimed that conversations with
spirits by selected mediums were the basis of his The Spirits' Book and later, his five-book
collection, Spiritist Codification.

After the exposure of the fraudulent use of stage magic tricks by physical mediums such as
the Davenport Brothers and the Bangs Sisters, mediumship fell into disrepute. The practice
continued among people who believed that the dead can be contacted and tried to do so.

From the 1930s through the 1990s, as psychical mediumship became less practiced in
Spiritualist churches, the technique of "channelling" gained in popularity. Books by channellers
who claimed to relate the wisdom of non-corporeal and non-terrestrial teacher-spirits became
best-sellers amongst believers.

Terminology

Spirit guide

In 1958, the English-born Spiritualist C. Dorreen Phillips wrote of her experiences with a
medium at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana: "In Rev. James Laughton's sances there are many
Indians. They are very noisy and appear to have great power The little guides, or
doorkeepers, are usually Indian boys and girls [who act] as messengers who help to locate the
spirit friends who wish to speak with you." Then, describing the mediumship of Rev. Lillian Dee
Johnson of Saint Petersburg, Florida, she noted, "Mandy Lou is Rev. Johnson's guide She
was, on earth, a slave to Rev. Johnson's grandmother."

Spirit operator

A spirit who uses a medium to manipulate energy or energy systems.

Demonstrations of mediumship

In old-line Spiritualism, a portion of the services, generally toward the end, is given over to
demonstrations of mediumship through contact with the spirits of the dead. A typical example
of this way of describing a mediumistic church service is found in the 1958 autobiography of
C. Dorreen Phillips. She writes of the worship services at the Spiritualist Camp Chesterfield in
Chesterfield, Indiana: "Services are held each afternoon, consisting of hymns, a lecture on
philosophy, and demonstrations of mediumship."

Today "demonstration of mediumship" is part of the church service at all churches affiliated
with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC). Demonstration links to NSAC's
Declaration of Principal #9. "We affirm that the precepts of Prophecy and Healing are Divine
attributes proven through Mediumship."

Mental mediumship

"Mental mediumship" is communication of spirits with a medium by telepathy. The medium
mentally "hears" (clairaudience), "sees" (clairvoyance), and/or feels (clairsentience) messages
from spirits. Directly or with the help of a spirit guide, the medium passes the information on
to the message's recipient(s). When a medium is doing a "reading" for a particular person,
that person is known as the "sitter."

Trance mediumship

"Trance mediumship" is often seen as a form of mental mediumship.

Most trance mediums remain conscious during a communication period, wherein a spirit uses
the medium's mind to communicate. The spirit or spirits using the medium's mind influences
the mind with the thoughts being conveyed. The medium allows the ego to step aside for the
message to be delivered. At the same time, one has awareness of the thoughts coming
through and may even influence the message with one's own bias. Such a trance is not to be
confused with sleepwalking, as the patterns are entirely different. Castillo (1995) states,

Trance phenomena result from the behavior of intense focusing of attention, which is the key
psychological mechanism of trance induction. Adaptive responses, including institutionalized
forms of trance, are 'tuned' into neural networks in the brain.
In the 1860s and 1870s, trance mediums were very popular. Spiritualism generally attracted
female adherents, many who had strong interests in social justice. Many trance mediums
delivered passionate speeches on abolitionism, temperance, and women's suffrage. Scholars
have described Leonora Piper as one of the most famous trance mediums in the history of
Spiritualism.

In the typical deep trance, the medium may not have clear recall of all the messages
conveyed while in an altered state; such people generally work with an assistant. That person
selectively wrote down or otherwise recorded the medium's words. Rarely did the assistant
record the responding words of the sitter and other attendants. An example of this kind of
relationship can be found in the early 20th century collaboration between the trance medium
Mrs. Cecil M. Cook of the William T. Stead Memorial Center in Chicago (a religious body
incorporated under the statutes of the State of Illinois) and the journalist Lloyd Kenyon Jones.
The latter was a non-medium Spiritualist who transcribed Cook's messages in shorthand. He
edited them for publication in book and pamphlet form.

Physical mediumship

"Physical mediumship" is defined as manipulation of energies and energy systems by spirits.

Physical mediumship may involve perceptible manifestations, such as loud raps and noises,
voices, materialized objects, apports, materialized spirit bodies, or body parts such as hands,
and levitation. The medium is used as a source of power for such spirit manifestations. By
some accounts, this was achieved by using the energy or ectoplasm released by a medium,
see Spirit photography. The last physical medium to be tested by a committee from Scientific
American was Mina Crandon in 1924.

Most physical mediumship is presented in a darkened or dimly lit room. Most physical
mediums make use of a traditional array of tools and appurtenances, including spirit trumpets,
spirit cabinets, and levitation tables.

The term "physical mediumship", should not be construed as implying that any induced apport
is confined to the physical plane. The apport ("ectoplasm", or whatever) may be composed of
"etheric", "astral", "mental", or "causal" substance (i.e., a substance naturally residing on one
of those planes and only temporarily transported into the physical plane). Instead, the term
"physical mediumship" is employed to imply an effect manifested upon [objects naturally
existing on] the physical plane, by means of interaction (merely physical, not chemical) with
substance transported out (temporarily) of another plane of existence.

Direct voice

Direct voice communication involves spirits extracting ectoplasm from living persons (not
limited to the medium) to create a spirit voice-box, which enables the spirits to communicate
with the living during seances. This form included the medium Leslie Flint.

Channeling

In the latter half of the 20th century, Western mediumship developed in two different ways.
One type involves psychics or sensitives who claim to speak to spirits and then relay what
they hear to their clients. Clairvoyant Danielle Egnew is known for her alleged communication
with angelic entities.

The other incarnation of non-physical mediumship is a form of channeling in which the
channeler goes into a trance, or "leaves their body". He or she becomes "possessed" by a
specific spirit (spirit possession), who then talks through them. In the trance, the medium
enters a cataleptic state marked by extreme rigidity. As the control spirit takes over, the
medium's voice may change completely. The spirit answers the questions of those in its
presence or giving spiritual knowledge. A widely known channeler of this variety is J. Z.
Knight, who claims to channel the spirit of Ramtha, a 30 thousand-year-old man. Others
claim to channel spirits from "future dimensional", ascended masters, or in the case of the
trance mediums of the Brahma Kumaris, God.

Other notable channels:

Barbara Marciniak, and Wendy Kennedy both for the Pleiadian Collective
Darryl Anka for Bashar
Esther Hicks for Abraham
Jane Roberts for Seth
Lee Carroll for Kryon
Margaret McElroy for Maitreya
Serge J. Grandbois for Kris

Books and channeled texts:

A Course In Miracles said to be from Jesus, channeled by Helen Schucman
The Cosmic Tradition of Max Theon and Alma Theon
The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ said to be transcribed from the Akashic
Records by Levi H. Dowling
The Indigo Children said to be from Kryon, channeled by Lee Carroll
Toward the Light
The Book of the Law channeled by Aleister Crowley
Oahspe channeled by John Newbrough
Works by Edgar Cayce
The Disappearance of the Universe: recorded discussions said to be from two
materialized beings, transcribed by Gary Renard
The Law of One said to be from "Ra" by Carla Rueckert
Conversations with God said to be from God, channeled by Neale Donald Walsch
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro claims to speak for Michael

Seth material

A series of books attributable to Jane Roberts, said to be speaking for "Seth".

The Coming of Seth (1966) - Not a Seth book but contains Seth quotes.
The Seth Material (1971) - Not a Seth book but contains many Seth quotes.
Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul. (1972)
The Nature of Personal Reality : Specific, Practical Techniques for Solving Everyday
Problems and Enriching the Life You Know (1974)
The "Unknown" Reality Vol 1. (1977) and Vol. 2 (1979)
The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression reprinted (1996)
The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events: reprinted (1994)
Dreams, 'Evolution', and Value Fulfillment (Volumes 1 & 2)
Seth Dreams and Projections Of Consciousness
The Magical Approach: Seth Speaks About the Art of Creative Living
The Way Toward Health: A Seth Book
The Personal Sessions: (Volumes 1-7) : (The Deleted Seth Material).

Entities and mediums:

Abraham (group of entities), channeled by Esther Hicks
Arten and Pursah, appear to Gary Renard
BapDada (combined form of "God" and Lekhraj Kirpalani), channeled by BK Gulzar
BKWSU
Jesus channeled by Helen Schucman
Kryon entity, channeled by Lee Carroll
Michael (The Michael Teachings), written by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Various psychic surgeons, such as Z Arig, claim to work as channels for deceased
surgeons.
Oahspe, channeled entity
Pleiadeans entity, channeled by Barbara Marciniak
Ramtha: Ascended Master, channeled by JZ Knight, Ramtha claims to have coined
the term channeling in the late 70's.
Seth entity, channeled by Jane Roberts
The Guide, channeled by Eva Pierrakos
God (Shiva Baba) said to be Supreme Soul, channelled by Lekhraj Kirpalani BKWSU
The Akashic Records or The Universal Mind, channeled by Edgar Cayce and by Levi
H. Dowling

Psychic senses

In Spiritualism, psychic senses used by mental mediums are sometimes defined differently
than in other paranormal fields. The term clairvoyance, for instance, may be used by
Spiritualists to include seeing spirits and visions instilled by spirits. The Parapsychological
Association defines "clairvoyance" as information derived directly from an external physical
source.

Clairvoyance or "Clear Seeing", is the ability to see anything that is not physically
present, such as objects, animals or people. This sight occurs "in the minds eye".
Some mediums say that this is their normal vision state. Others say that they must
train their minds with such practices as meditation in order to achieve this ability, and
that assistance from spiritual helpers is often necessary. Some clairvoyant mediums
can see a spirit as though the spirit has a physical body. They see the bodily form as if
it were physically present. Other mediums see the spirit in their mind's eye, or it
appears as a movie or a television programme or a still picture like a photograph in
their mind.
Clairaudience or "Clear Hearing", is usually defined as the ability to hear the voices
or thoughts of spirits. Some Mediums hear as though they are listening to a person
talking to them on the outside of their head, as though the Spirit is next to or near to
the medium, and other mediums hear the voices in their minds as a verbal thought.
Clairsentience or "Clear Sensing", is the ability to have an impression of what a spirit
wants to communicate, or to feel sensations instilled by a spirit.
Clairsentinence or "Clear Feeling" is a condition in which the medium takes on the
ailments of a spirit, feeling the same physical problem which the spirit person had
before death.
Clairalience or "Clear Smelling" is the ability to smell a spirit. For example, a medium
may smell the pipe tobacco of a person who smoked during life.
Clairgustance or "Clear Tasting" is the ability to receive taste impressions from a
spirit.
Claircognizance or "Clear Knowing", is the ability to know something without
receiving it through normal or psychic senses. It is a feeling of "just knowing". Often,
a medium will claim to have the feeling that a message or situation is "right" or
"wrong."


Notable mediums

Notable deceased mediums include:
Andrew Jackson Davis
Arthur Ford, the Fox sisters
Chico Xavier
Clifford Bias
Dada Lekhraj
Daniel Dunglas Home
Doris Stokes
Edgar Cayce
George Chapman
Elizabeth "Betty" Grant
Emma Hardinge Britten
Eusapia Palladino
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Jane Roberts
Jeane Dixon
Leonora Piper
M. Lamar Keene
Marquis de Puysgur (1784)
Paschal Beverly Randolph
Paul Solomon
Ruth Montgomery
Stanisawa Tomczyk

Notable living mediums include:
Allison DuBois
Char Margolis
Chip Coffey
Colin Fry
Danielle Egnew
Darryl Anka
David Wells
Derek Acorah
Divaldo Pereira Franco
Esther Hicks
Gary Spivey
James Van Praagh
J. Z. Knight
John Edward
John of God
Lisa Williams
Marisa Anderson
Neale Donald Walsch
Rosemary Altea
Sally Morgan,
Sylvia Browne
Tony Stockwell

Research

In Britain, the Society for Psychical Research has investigated some phenomena, mainly in
connection with telepathy and apparitions. According to an article in the Journal of the Society
for Psychical Research, in some cases media have produced personal information which has
been well above guessing rates. One of the more noteworthy recent investigations into
mediumship is known as the Scole Experiment, a series of mediumistic sances that took
place between 199398 in the presence of the researchers David Fontana, Arthur Ellison and
Montague Keen. This has produced photographs, audio recordings and physical objects which
appeared in the dark sance room (known as apports). According to paranormal researcher
Brian Dunning the Schole experiments fail in many ways. The seances were held in the
basement of two of the mediums, only total darkness was allowed with no night vision
apparatus as it might "frighten the spirits away". The box containing the film was not
examined and could easily have been accessible to fraud. And finally, even though many years
have passed, there has been no follow-up, no further research by any credible agency or
published accounts.

The VERITAS Research Program of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health
in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona, run by Gary Schwartz, was
created primarily to test the hypothesis that the consciousness (or identity) of a person
survives physical death. Studies conducted by VERITAS into mediumship have been approved
by the University of Arizona Human Subjects Protection Program and an academic advisory
board. Schwartz claimed his 2005 experiments were indicative of survival, but do not yet
provide conclusive proof.

Criticism

While advocates of mediumship claim that their experiences are genuine, the Encyclopdia
Britannica article on spiritualism notes in reference to a case in the 19th century that "...one
by one, the Spiritualist mediums were discovered to be engaged in fraud, sometimes
employing the techniques of stage magicians in their attempts to convince people of their
clairvoyant powers." The article also notes that "the exposure of widespread fraud within the
spiritualist movement severely damaged its reputation and pushed it to the fringes of society
in the United States."

In 1976, M. Lamar Keene, a medium in Florida and at the Spiritualist Camp Chesterfield in
Indiana, confessed to defrauding the public in his book The Psychic Mafia. Keene detailed a
multitude of common stage magic techniques utilized by mediums which are supposed to give
an appearance of paranormal powers or supernatural involvement.
Near-birth Experience
Wikipedia.org


A near-birth experience most commonly refers to a parental encounter which involves some
form of intelligent communication with an offspring not yet born, either during the pregnancy
or before conception. This experience may reveal the forthcoming child's gender, name,
character or similar traits.

Less commonly, the term near-birth experience can refer to one's own recollection of an event
which occurred immediately after one's own birth, or during the pregnancy, or even also
before conception. Under this usage, the term "near-birth experience" is analogous to the
term "near-death experience."

Otto Rank explored birth trauma's importance (Rank, 1929), and psychoanalyst Donald
Winnicott provided clinical evidence, from regression sessions, on ego observation to its being
regressed as far as prenatal life. Later, clinical data from psychedelic drug studies revealed the
importance of the birth trauma in human psychology, like ketamine drug which produces rapid
regression to perinatal events. Psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, in 1954 researched LSD in Prague,
and after 1967 he explored ketamine, and other methods for exhibiting non-ordinary states of
consciousness like holotropic breathing. Grof concluded that some near-death experiences are
virtual recollection of birth memories, actual re-experiencing of parts of the process in
symbolic form, and "movement towards the light tunnel being a memory or symbolic re-
experience of being born : a memory of the 'near-birth experience'."

Grinspoon and Bakalar (1981) submitted: "Another lesson from psychedelic experience is the
apparent inter-changeability of birth and death in the unconscious..It may be that the fear of
dying is in part a projected memory of birth and that what Freud called the death instinct is
also related to a desire to return to the womb. If the birth agony is experienced as a death
agony, this life is in a sense already life after death, and its beginnings might provide our
images of a future life. That would suggest reasons for the visions of tunnels, brilliant white
light and godlike (parental) figures in near-death experience. The experience of birth may also
be reflected in myths of cyclical death and resurrection...the doctrine of reincarnation may
have roots in a deep feeling that the introduction of new life to this world through birth implies
death and oblivion for something that went before."


Near-death Experience
Wikipedia.org


A near-death experience (NDE) refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated
with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from
the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the
experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light. These phenomena are usually
reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or otherwise very close to
death, hence the term near-death experience. Many NDE reports, however, originate from
events that are not life-threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation
techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased.

Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as hallucinatory, while paranormal
specialists and some mainstream scientists regard them to be evidence of an afterlife. Popular
interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Raymond Moody's 1975 book Life
After Life and the founding of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in
1981. According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a
near-death experience. Some commentators, such as Simpson, claim that the number of
near-death experiencers may be underestimated. People who have had a near-death
experience may not be comfortable discussing the experience with others, especially when the
NDE is understood as a paranormal incident. NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the
fields of parapsychology, psychology, psychiatry, and hospital medicine.

Gustave Dor's depiction of the highest heaven as described by Dante Alighieri in the
ParadisoA near-death experience (NDE) refers to a broad range of personal experiences
associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including
detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or
warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light. These phenomena
are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead or otherwise very
close to death, hence the term near-death experience. Many NDE reports, however, originate
from events that are not life-threatening. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation
techniques, the number of reported NDEs has increased.

Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as hallucinatory, while paranormal
specialists and some mainstream scientists regard them to be evidence of an afterlife. Popular
interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Raymond Moody's 1975 book Life
After Life and the founding of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in
1981. According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a
near-death experience. Some commentators, such as Simpson, claim that the number of
near-death experiencers may be underestimated. People who have had a near-death
experience may not be comfortable discussing the experience with others, especially when the
NDE is understood as a paranormal incident. NDEs are among the phenomena studied in the
fields of parapsychology, psychology, psychiatry, and hospital medicine.

Characteristics

The earliest accounts of NDE can be traced to the Myth of Er, recorded by Plato's The Republic
(10.614-10.621). In this story, Plato describes a mythical soldier telling of his near-death
experiences about an afterlife and reincarnation.

Researchers have identified the common elements that define near-death experiences. Bruce
Greyson argues that the general features of the experience include impressions of being
outside one's physical body, visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and
transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries. The experience may also follow a
distinct progression, as illustrated below.

The traits of a classical NDE are as follows:

A sense/awareness of being dead.
A sense of peace, well-being and painlessness. Positive emotions. A feeling of being
removed from the world.
An out-of-body experience. A perception of one's body from an outside position.
Sometimes observing doctors and nurses performing medical resuscitation efforts.
A "tunnel experience". A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.
A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light.
Communication with the light.
An intense feeling of unconditional love.
Encountering "Beings of Light", "Beings dressed in white", or other spiritual beings.
Also, the possibility of being reunited with deceased loved ones.
Being given a life review.
Being given a "life preview" in the cases of George Ritchie and Betty Eadie which Ring
calls an NDE "Flash Forward".
Being presented with knowledge about one's life and the nature of the universe.
A decision by oneself or others to return to one's body, often accompanied by a
reluctance to return.
Approaching a border.
The notice of a very unpleasant sound or noise (Claimed by R. Moody).
There also seems to be a link between the cultural and spiritual beliefs where one
lives. These seem to dictate what is experienced in the NDE or how it is interpreted
afterwards (Holden, Janice Miner. Handbook of Near-Death Experiences. Library of
Congress Cataloging in Publishing Data, 2009.).

Kenneth Ring (1980) subdivided the NDE on a five-stage continuum. He stated that 60%
experienced stage 1 (feelings of peace and contentment), but only 10% experienced stage 5
("entering the light").

Clinical circumstances associated with near-death experiences include cardiac arrest in
myocardial infarction (clinical death), shock in postpartum loss of blood or in perioperative
complications, septic or anaphylactic shock, electrocution, coma resulting from traumatic brain
damage, intracerebral hemorrhage or cerebral infarction, attempted suicide, near-drowning or
asphyxia, apnea, and serious depression. In contrast to common belief, Kenneth Ring argues
that attempted suicides do not lead more often to unpleasant NDEs than unintended near-
death situations.

The distressing aspects of some NDEs are discussed more closely by Greyson and Bush. Karlis
Osis and his colleague Erlendur Haraldsson argued that the content of near death experiences
does not vary by culture, except for the identity of the personages and religious figures seen
during the experiences; however Yoshi Hata and his team reported NDEs with substantially
different contents than those described above.

Research

Contributions to the research on near-death experiences have come from several academic
disciplines, among these the disciplines of medicine, psychology and psychiatry. Interest in
this field of study was originally spurred by the research of such pioneers as Elisabeth Kbler-
Ross, George Ritchie, and Raymond Moody Jr. Moody's book Life After Life, which was
released in 1975, brought a lot of attention to the topic of NDEs. This was soon to be followed
by the establishment of the International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS) in 1981.
IANDS is an international organization that encourages scientific research and education on
the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual nature and ramifications of near-death
experiences. Among its publications are the peer-reviewed Journal of Near-Death Studies and
the quarterly newsletter Vital Signs.

Later researchers, such as Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring, and Michael Sabom, helped to
launch the field of Near-Death Studies and introduced the study of near-death experiences to
the academic setting. The medical community has been somewhat reluctant to address the
phenomenon of NDEs, and grant money for research has been scarce. However, both Greyson
and Ring developed tools that can be used in a clinical setting. Major contributions to the field
include Ring's construction of a "Weighted Core Experience Index" to measure the depth of the
near-death experience, and Greyson's construction of the "Near-death experience scale" to
differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced an NDE. The
latter scale is also, according to its author, clinically useful in differentiating NDEs from organic
brain syndromes and nonspecific stress responses. The NDE-scale was later found to fit the
Rasch rating scale model. Greyson has also brought attention to the near-death experience as
a focus of clinical attention, while Morse and colleagues have investigated near-death
experiences in a pediatric population.

Neurobiological factors in the experience have been investigated by researchers in the field of
medical science and psychiatry. Among the researchers and commentators who tend to
emphasize a naturalistic and neurological base for the experience are the British psychologist
Susan Blackmore (1993), with her "dying brain hypothesis", and the founding publisher of
Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer (1998). More recently, cognitive neuroscientists Jason
Braithwaite (2008) from the University of Birmingham and Sebastian Dieguez (2008) and Olaf
Blanke (2009) from the Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Switzerland have
published accounts presenting evidence for the brain-based nature of near death experiences.

In September 2008, it was announced that 25 UK and US hospitals will examine near-death
studies in 1,500 heart attack patient-survivors. The three-year study, coordinated by Dr. Sam
Parnia at Southampton University, hopes to determine if people without heartbeat or brain
activity can have an out-of-body experience with veridical visual perceptions. This study
follows on from an earlier 18-month pilot project. On a July 28, 2010 interview about a recent
lecture at Goldsmiths, Parnia asserts that "evidence is now suggesting that mental and
cognitive processes may continue for a period of time after a death has started" and describes
the process of death as "essentially a global stroke of the brain. Therefore like any stroke
process one would not expect the entity of mind / consciousness to be lost immediately". He
also expresses his disagreement with the term 'near death experiences' because "the patients
that we study are not near death, they have actually died and more over it conjures up a lot of
imprecise scientific notions, due to the fact that itself is a very imprecise term".

Researcher Lakhmir Chawla George Washington University medical centre in Washington DC
argues that near-death experiences are caused by a surge of electrical activity as the brain
runs out of oxygen before death. Levels were similar to those seen in fully conscious people,
even though blood pressure was so low as to be undetectable, and could generate vivid
images and feelings. The gradual tailing off of brain activity had occurred in the hour or so,
before death, and was interrupted by a brief spurt of action, lasting from 30 seconds to three
minutes. Sam Parnia refuted this explanation, claiming that Lakhmir Chawla had not provided
proof that the electrical surges he recorded were linked to near death experiences, saying:
"Since all the patients died, we cannot tell what they were experiencing."

Among the scientific and academic journals that have published, or are regularly publishing,
new research on the subject of NDEs are Journal of Near-Death Studies, Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease, British Journal of Psychology, American Journal of Disease of Children,
Resuscitation, The Lancet, Death Studies, and the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Variance in NDE studies

The prevalence of NDEs has been variable in the studies that have been performed. According
to the Gallup and Proctor survey in 1980-1981, of a representative sample of the American
population, data showed that 15% had an NDE. Knoblauch in 2001 performed a more
selective study in Germany and found that 4% of the sample population had experienced an
NDE. However, the information gathered from these studies may be subjected to the broad
timeframe and location of the investigation.

Perera et al., in 2005, conducted a telephone survey of a representative sample of the
Australian population, as part of the Roy Morgan Catibus Survey, and concluded that 8.9% of
the population had experienced an NDE. In a more clinical setting, van Lommel et al. (2001),
a cardiologist from Netherlands, studied a group of patients who had suffered cardiac arrests
and who were successfully revived. They found that 62 patients (18%) had an NDE, of whom
41 (12%, or 66% of those who had an NDE) described a core experience.

According to Martens the only satisfying method to address the NDE-issue would be an
international multicentric data collection within the framework for standardized reporting of
cardiac arrest events. The use of cardiac-arrest criteria as a basis for NDE research has been a
common approach among the European branch of the research field.

Biological analysis and theories

The first formal neurobiological model for NDE was presented in 1987 by chilean scientists
Juan Sebastin Gmez-Jeria and Juan Carlos Saavedra-Aguilar from the University of Chile. In
the 1990s, Dr. Rick Strassman conducted research on the psychedelic drug
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) at the University of New Mexico. Strassman advanced the theory
that a massive release of DMT from the pineal gland prior to death or near-death was the
cause of the near-death experience phenomenon. Only two of his test subjects reported NDE-
like aural or visual hallucinations, although many reported feeling as though they had entered
a state similar to the classical NDE. His explanation for this was the possible lack of panic
involved in the clinical setting and possible dosage differences between those administered
and those encountered in actual NDE cases. All subjects in the study were also very
experienced users of DMT and/or other psychedelic/entheogenic agents. Some speculators
consider that if subjects without prior knowledge on the effects of DMT had been used during
the experiment, it is possible more volunteers would have reported feeling as though they had
experienced an NDE.

Critics have argued that neurobiological models often fail to explain NDEs that result from
close brushes with death, where the brain does not actually suffer physical trauma, such as a
near-miss automobile accident. Such events may however have neurobiological effects caused
by stress.

In a new theory devised by Richard Kinseher in 2006, the knowledge of the Sensory
Autonomic System is applied in the NDE phenomenon. His theory states that the experience of
looming death is an extremely strange paradox to a living organismand therefore it will start
the NDE: during the NDE, the individual becomes capable of "seeing" the brain performing a
scan of the whole episodic memory (even prenatal experiences), in order to find a stored
experience which is comparable to the input information of death. All these scanned and
retrieved bits of information are permanently evaluated by the actual mind, as it is searching
for a coping mechanism out of the potentially fatal situation. Kinseher feels this is the reason
why a near-death experience is so unusual. Because people who experience NDEs report the
experience of memories long considered lost, this theory necessarily depends upon a theory of
memory in which all memories are indefinitely retained.

The theory also states that out-of-body experiences, accompanied by NDEs, are an attempt by
the brain to create a mental overview of the situation and the surrounding world. The brain
then transforms the input from sense organs and stored experience (knowledge) into a
dream-like idea about oneself and the surrounding area.

Whether or not these experiences are hallucinatory, they do have a profound impact on the
observer. Many psychologists not necessarily pursuing the paranormal, such as Susan
Blackmore, have recognized this. These scientists are not trying to debunk the experience, but
are instead searching for biological causes of NDEs.

According to Engmann, near-death experiences of people who are clinically dead are
psychopathological symptoms caused by a severe malfunction of the brain resulting from the
cessation of cerebral blood circulation. An important question is whether it is possible to
"translate" the bloomy experiences of the reanimated survivors into psychopathologically basic
phenomena, e.g. acoasms, central narrowing of the visual field, autoscopia, visual
hallucinations, activation of limbic and memory structures according to Moody's stages. The
symptoms suppose a primary affliction of the occipital and temporal cortices under clinical
death. This basis could be congruent with the thesis of pathoclisisthe inclination of special
parts of the brain to be the first to be damaged in case of disease, lack of oxygen, or
malnutritionestablished eighty years ago by C. and O. Vogt. According to that thesis, the
basic phenomena should be similar in all patients with near-death experiences. But a crucial
problem is to distinguish these basic psychopathological symptoms from the secondary mental
associated experiences which may result from a reprocessing of the basic symptoms under the
influence of the person's cultural and religious views.

Research released in 2010 by University of Maribor, Slovenia had put near-death experiences
down to high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood altering the chemical balance of the brain
and tricking it into 'seeing' things. Of the 52 patients, 11 reported NDEs.

An article by Netherlands researchers Pim van Lommel et al., argues, "With a purely
physiological explanation such as cerebral anoxia for the experience, most patients who have
been clinically dead should report one." Accordingly, a lack of predictable experiences should
cast doubt on wholesale explanations of NDEs. According to Southampton University
researcher Dr. Sam Parnia, "Death starts when the heart stops beating, but we can intervene
and bring people back to life, sometimes even after three to four hours when they are kept
very cold. It could be that a far higher proportion of people have near-death experiences but
don't remember them."

REM state

It is suggested that the extreme stress caused by a life threatening situation triggers brain
states similar to REM sleep and that part of the near death experience is a state similar to
dreaming while awake. People who have experienced times when their brains behaved as if
they were dreaming while awake are more likely to develop the near death experience.
Further stimulation of the Vagus nerve during the physical and/or psychological stress of a life
threatening situation, or the product of the imperiled brain, and may trigger brain conditions
where the person is in a dream-like state while awake.

Lucid dreaming

Some sleep researchers, such as Timothy J. Green, Lynne Levitan and Stephen LaBerge, have
noted that NDE experiences are similar to many of the experiences reported during lucid
dreaming. Lucid dreaming occurs when the individual becomes lucid and realizes he is in a
dream. Often these states are so realistic as to be barely distinguishable from reality, even
including the ability to feel very realistic textures.

In a study of fourteen lucid dreamers performed in 1991, people who perform wake-initiated
lucid dreams operation (WILD) reported experiences consistent with aspects of out-of-body
experiences such as floating above their beds and the feeling of leaving their bodies. Due to
the phenomenological overlap between lucid dreams, near death experiences, and out-of-body
experiences, researchers say they believe a protocol could be developed to induce a lucid
dream similar to a near-death experience in the laboratory.

Other similarities include seeing oneself from the outside (an out of body experience), floating
or flying, heightened awareness, and feelings of joy or peace. Some researchers believe this is
caused when the mind is deprived of the majority of its main five senses and relies on the
expectational processing. In this regard one experiences what one would expect to happen in
their current circumstance. This could explain experiences caused by mental trauma such as a
near miss accident in which the mind may close itself off at least partially to the senses and
ones caused by physical trauma in which again the mind closes itself off to the world. At
present, there exists no clear physiological or psychological basis for any relationship between
lucid dreaming and NDEs.

Computational psychology

Modeling of NDEs using artificial neural networks has shown that some aspects of the core
near death experience can be achieved through simulated neuron death. In the course of such
simulations, the essential features of the NDE, life review, novel scenarios (i.e., heaven or
hell), and OBE are observed through the generation of confabulations or false memories, as
discussed in Confabulation (neural networks). The key feature contributing to the generation
of such confabulatory states is a neural network's inability to differentiate dead from silent
neurons. Memories, whether related to direct experience, or not, can be seeded upon arrays of
such inactive brain cells.

Effects

Near-death experiences can have a major impact on the people who have them, and they may
produce a variety of after-effects. NDE subjects have increased activity in the left temporal
lobe. NDEs are also associated with changes in personality and outlook on life. Kenneth Ring
has identified a consistent set of value and belief changes associated with people who have
had a near-death experience. Among these changes one finds a greater appreciation for life,
higher self-esteem, greater compassion for others, a heightened sense of purpose and self-
understanding, desire to learn, elevated spirituality, greater ecological sensitivity and
planetary concern, and a feeling of being more intuitive. Changes may also include increased
physical sensitivity; diminished tolerance to light, alcohol, and drugs; a feeling that the brain
has been "altered" to encompass more; and a feeling that one is now using the "whole brain"
rather than just a small part. However, not all after-effects are beneficial and Greyson
describes circumstances where changes in attitudes and behavior can lead to psychosocial and
psychospiritual problems. Often the problems have to do with the adjustment to ordinary life
in the wake of the NDE.

Afterlife viewpoints

Ascent of the Blessed by Hieronymus BoschMany view the NDE as the precursor to an afterlife
experience, claiming that the NDE cannot be adequately explained by physiological or
psychological causes, and that the phenomenon conclusively demonstrates that human
consciousness can function independently of brain activity. Many NDE-accounts seem to
include elements which, according to several theorists, can only be explained by an out-of-
body consciousness. For example, Michael Sabom states that one of his contacts accurately
described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as a conversation that
occurred while she was under general anesthesia. In another account, from a prospective
Dutch NDE study, a nurse removed the dentures of an unconscious heart attack victim, and
was identified after his recovery as the one who removed them. This surprised him, as that
patient had been in a deep coma and undergoing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation at the time.

Dr. Michael Sabom reports a case about a woman who underwent surgery for an aneurysm.
The woman reported an out-of-body experience that she claimed continued through a brief
period of the absence of any EEG activity.

Many individuals who experience an NDE see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife.
This includes those with agnostic/atheist inclinations before the experience. There are
examples of ex-atheists, such as the Reverend Howard Storm, adopting a more spiritual
viewpoint after their NDEs. Storm's NDE may also be characterized as a distressing near-death
experience.

Likewise, individuals who do not experience an NDE after going into cardiac arrest frequently
lose any preexisting belief in an afterlife. Both processes, like most of the psychological
transformations associated with a close brush with death, take place gradually over several
years.

Greyson claims that: "No one physiological or psychological model by itself explains all the
common features of NDE. The paradoxical occurrence of heightened, lucid awareness and
logical thought processes during a period of impaired cerebral perfusion raises particular
perplexing questions for our current understanding of consciousness and its relation to brain
function. A clear sensorium and complex perceptual processes during a period of apparent
clinical death challenge the concept that consciousness is localized exclusively in the brain."

Another account by a student nurse named Jeanette Atkinson from Eastbourne, who
experienced a near-death experience, says that, "There is no doubt in my mind that theres
life after death because Ive seen the other side. I dont believe in a benevolent God. Ive seen
too much suffering for that but Im very spiritual." A recent study by Dr. Sam Parnia, shows
that such patients are "effectively dead", with their brains shut down and no thoughts or
feelings possible for the complex brain activity required for dreaming or hallucinating;
additionally, to rule out the possibility that near-death experiences resulted from
hallucinations after the brain had collapsed through lack of oxygen, Parnia rigorously
monitored the concentrations of the vital gas in the patients blood, and found that none of
those who underwent the experiences had low levels of oxygen. He was also able to rule out
claims that unusual combinations of drugs were to blame because the resuscitation procedure
was the same in every case, regardless of whether they had a near-death experience or not.
According to Parnia, "Arch sceptics will always attack our work. Im content with that. Thats
how science progresses. What is clear is that something profound is happening. The mind
the thing that is you your soul if you will - carries on after conventional science says it
should have drifted into nothingness."

A few people feel that research on NDEs occurring in the blind can be interpreted to support
an argument that consciousness survives bodily death. Dr. Kenneth Ring claims in the book
Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind that up to 80% of his sample
studied reported some visual awareness during their NDE or out of body experience.

There are many religious and physiological views of near-death experiences. The NDE is often
cited as evidence for the existence of the human soul, the afterlife, and heaven and hell, ideas
that appear in many religious traditions. On the other hand, skeptical commentators view
NDEs as purely neurological and chemical phenomena occurring in the brain. From this
perspective, NDEs are the result of purely physiological and neurobiological mechanisms. The
imagery in the experiences also varies within cultures.

There has been recent research into afterlife conceptions across cultures by religious studies
scholar Dr. Gregory Shushan. The study analyzes the afterlife beliefs of five ancient
civilizations (Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt, Sumerian and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia,
Vedic India, pre-Buddhist China, and pre-Columbian Mesoamerica) in light of historical and
contemporary reports of near-death experiences, and shamanic afterlife "journeys". It was
found that despite numerous culture-specific differences, the nine most frequently recurring
NDE elements also recur on a general structural level cross-culturally. This suggests that the
authors of these ancient religious texts were familiar with NDE or something similar (e.g.
shamanic-type experiences). Cross-cultural similarity, however, can be used to support both
religious and physiological theories, for both rely on demonstrating that the phenomenon is
universal. Others dispute that there are cultural similarities.


Personal experiences

Return from Tomorrow by George G. Ritchie, MD with Elizabeth Sherrill (1978).
George G. Ritchie, MD held positions as president of the Richmond Academy of
General Practice; chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital; and
founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps, Inc. He lived in Virginia. At the
age of twenty, George Ritchie died in an army hospital. Nine minutes later he returned
to life. Ritchie's story was the first contact Dr. Raymond Moody, PhD (who was
studying at the University of Virginia, as an undergraduate in Philosophy, at the time)
had with NDEs. It inspired Moody to investigate over 150 cases of near-death
experiences, in his book Life After Life, and two other books that followed.
Embraced by the Light by Betty Eadie (1992). One of the most detailed near-death
experiences on record.
Saved by the Light by Dannion Brinkley. Brinkley's experience documents one of the
most complete near death experiences, in terms of core experience and additional
phenomena from the NDE scale. Brinkley claims to have been clinically dead for 28
minutes and taken to a hospital morgue, but that claim and other claims by him are
disputed.
Placebo by Howard Pittman (1980). A detailed record of Mr. Pittman's near-death
experience.
The Darkness of God by John Wren-Lewis (1985), Bulletin of the Australian Institute
for Psychical Research No 5. An account of the far-reaching effects of his NDE after
going through the death process several times in one night.
Bah' Reinee Pasarow has presented her experiences and an extended talk which
was filmed Part 1, Part2, with a partial transcript, and analyzed from a religious point
of view in a commentary and analyzed as part of the paper The Exploration of Life
After Death. Pasarow was interviewed by Dr. Kenneth Ring.
Anita Moorjani, an ethnic Indian woman from Hong Kong, experienced a truly
remarkable NDE which has been documented on the Near Death Experience Research
Foundation (NDERF) website as one of the most exceptional accounts on their
archives. She had end-stage cancer and on February 2, 2006, doctors told her family
that she only had a few hours to live. Following her NDE, Anita experienced a
remarkable total recovery of her health.
Goldie Hawn, while giving a speech at the Buell Theater in Denver, Colorado,
reflected upon her near-death experience. When she was younger, and starting out as
an actress, she and a group of friends were in a severe car crash together. While she
was unconscious, she remembers looking over herself while the paramedics were
trying to revive her. She also mentioned seeing a bright light and being told it was not
her time soon before she awoke.
Kiki Carter, a.k.a. Kimberli Wilson, an environmental activist and singer/songwriter,
reported a near-death experience in 1983. The day after the experience, her mother,
Priscilla Greenwood, encouraged her to write it down. Priscilla Greenwood published
the story in September 1983 in a local metaphysical journal. For 24 hours after the
experience, Kimberli had an aftervision which was a catalyst for her interest in
quantum physics and holograms.
90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper, is Piper's account of his own near-death
experience. EMTs on the scene determined Piper had been killed instantly after a
tractor-trailer had swerved into his lane, crushing his car. Piper survived, however,
and later claimed that he saw loved ones and friends as well as magnificent light; he
felt a sense of pure peace. Piper had a very difficult and painful recovery, undergoing
34 surgeries.
Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo, is a father's account of his son, Colton Burpo, and
Colton's trip to heaven and back. After discovering that Colton's appendix has
ruptured, he was rushed to the hospital. Unconscious, Colton alleges to have met
Jesus, God, his great-grandfather whom he had never met, and his older sister lost in
a miscarriage.

The Case of Durdana Khan


The Garden in the Stars was painted in 1980 by Durdana
Khan years after her "visit to the stars" where she found
herself in a beautiful paradise following her clinical death
when she was two and a half years old in 1968.

The word paradise' came from the original Persian and
was later adopted by the Greeks. It literally means, "land
of the blessed" and was thought to represent a place of
beautiful gardens.

By age two and a half, Durdana had been partly
paralyzed, intermittently blind and in constant pain
without much hope for survival. Her father who was a
physician was heart broken about her condition. When she passed from this life on that fateful
autumn morning in the Himalayan foothills, she had been technically and scientifically dead for
15 minutes when she suddenly revived claiming to have visited a beautiful garden in the stars
where apples, grapes, and pomegranates grew and where there were four streams of white,
brown, blue and green. Concepts of this type of heavenly garden are depicted in the Koran but
Durdana was not raised as a Muslim nor had she ever attended a mosque.

Durdana underwent extensive questioning about her experience to which she vehemently
acknowledged that she not only visited the beautiful garden but was also in the company of
her deceased grandfather, great grandmother and another woman who she claimed resembled
her own mother. She further stated that she told her relatives that she needed to leave the
garden because she heard her father calling her saying, "Come back, my child, come back!"
Her grandfather replied to her that they would have to ask God if she could return to her
father. She claimed that God then asked her if she wanted to go back to which she replied, "I
have to - my Daddy is calling me." After God told her to "go", the child said she came down,
down, down from the stars and back to her parents. When her parents repeatedly questioned
her about what God looked like the only answer she would give was that He was "blue" and
formless.

Shortly after her experience, Durdana underwent an operation and during her convalescence
she and her mother visited one of her father's uncles. While at the uncle's home, Durdana
correctly identified a photo of her great grandmother who she had never seen except for her
visit to the stars. According to the family there were only two photos of the great grandmother
both of which were kept at the uncle's house. This was Durdana's first visit to her great uncle's
home and her first experience in viewing the photo.

Later Durdana's family moved to London and in the 1980's Durdana appeared on British
television with pictures she had painted of the garden in the stars. The day after the broadcast
Durdana's father was contacted by one of his patients, Rachel Goldsmith who told him that
she had a similar experience of death when she was in a German concentration camp. She
claimed to have visited the same garden with the four streams. Rachel and Durdana
eventually met to discuss their experiences which were identical. Rachel was also able to fill in
and describe details that Durdana had remembered but left out of her paintings.

Is there proof from beyond? Since time began humankind has held fast to the belief that
individual identity survives after the death of the physical body. Although no one can possibly
know exactly what this entails, there are those who claim they have seen glimpses of a
hereafter. Are these glimpses merely reflections of human desires or are they something
more?


The Case of Carl Gustav Jung

Distinguished psychologist Carl Gustav Jung made no secret about his interest in the concept
of an afterlife. Jung believed that the immortality of the soul could never be proven however
he also believed that telepathy between this earthly world and the next could take place. Jung
did in fact have his own personal experiences to support this belief.

One night while lying in bed, Jung was thinking about a friend's funeral he had attended the
day before. Suddenly he envisioned his deceased friend standing at the foot of his bed looking
down at him. The friend then went to the door and beckoned Jung to follow. In his mind's eye
or imagination, Jung complied and followed the vision out of the house, into the street, and
finally into the friend's house where he was directed into the library. The friend then climbed
on top of a stool and pointed to a specific book that sat on the second shelf to the top of a
bookcase. The vision abruptly ended at this point.

Jung consumed with curiosity paid a visit to the friend's widow the next day asking to be taken
into the library. Jung had never seen the library but once inside he recognized everything -
just as he had seen in the vision. Stepping on to the stool, he located the book his friend had
been pointing to ... The Legacy of Death by Emile Zola. Was this a message to Jung letting
him know that Death is not the end but just part of the legacy of the eternal circle of life? Jung
had other similar experiences in his lifetime but did not speak about them claiming, "I prefer
not to communicate too many of my experiences. They would confront the scientific world with
too many problems."


OOBE
Wikipedia.org

An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is an experience that typically
involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's
physical body from a place outside one's body (autoscopy).

The term out-of-body experience was introduced in 1943 by G.N.M Tyrrell in his book
Apparitions, and adopted by, for example, Celia Green and Robert Monroe as a bias-free
alternative to belief-centric labels such as "astral projection", "soul travel", or "spirit walking".
Though the term usefully distances researchers from scientifically problematic concepts such
as the soul, scientists still know little about the phenomenon. Some researchers believe they
have managed to recreate OBE in a laboratory setup by stimulating a part in the human brain.
One in ten people has an out-of-body experience once, or more commonly, several times in
his or her life. OBEs are often part of the near-death experience. Those who have experienced
OBEs sometimes claim to have observed details which were unknown to them beforehand.

In some cases the phenomenon appears to occur spontaneously; in others it is associated with
a physical or mental trauma, dehydration, sensory deprivation, sensory overload, use of
psychedelic drugs, dissociative drugs, or a dream-like state. Many techniques aiming to induce
the experience deliberately have been developed, for example visualization while in a relaxed,
meditative state. Recent (2007) studies have shown that experiences somewhat similar to
OBEs can be induced by electrical brain stimulation (particularly the temporoparietal junction).
Some of those who experience OBEs claimed to have willed themselves out of their bodies,
while others report having found themselves being pulled from their bodies (usually preceded
by a feeling of paralysis). In other accounts, the feeling of being outside the body was
suddenly realized after the fact, and the experiencers saw their own bodies almost by
accident.

Some neurologists have suspected that the event is triggered by a mismatch between visual
and tactile signals. They used a virtual reality setup to recreate an OBE. The subject looked
through goggles and saw his own body as it would appear to an outside observer standing
behind him. The experimenter then touched the subject at the same time as a rod appeared to
touch the virtual image. The experiment created an illusion of being behind and outside one's
body. However, both critics and the experimenter himself note that the study fell short of
replicating "full-blown" OBEs.

Types of OBE

Spontaneous

During/near sleep

Those experiencing OBEs sometimes report a preceding and initiating lucid-dream state,
though other types of immediate and spontaneous experience are also reported. In many
cases, people who claimed to have had an OBE reported being on the verge of sleep, or
already asleep shortly before the experience. A large percentage of these cases referred to
situations where the sleep was not particularly deep (due to illness, noises in other rooms,
emotional stress, exhaustion from overworking, frequent re-awakening, etc.). In most of these
cases the subjects then felt themselves awake; about half of them noted a feeling of sleep
paralysis.

Near-death experiences

Another form of spontaneous OBE is the near-death experience (NDE). Some subjects report
having had an OBE at times of severe physical trauma such as near-drownings or major
surgery. OBEs due to medical trauma only occur when the patient's heart stops beating and
patient stops breathing. In the case of motor vehicle accidents, they are able to recall the
accident as if observing it from a location outside the vehicle.

Other

Along the same lines as an NDE, extreme physical effort during activities such as high-
altitude climbing and marathon running can induce OBEs. A sense of bilocation may be
apparent, with both ground and air-based perspectives being experienced simultaneously.

Induced

Consciously controlled and pre-meditated OBE methods (examples of which are widely
available in many popular books on the subject) are also reported. Some people have
attempted to develop techniques to induce OBEs.

Mental induction

Falling asleep physically without losing wakefulness. The "Mind Awake, Body Asleep"
state is widely suggested as a cause of OBEs, voluntary and otherwise. Thomas Edison
used this state to tackle problems while working on his inventions. He would rest a
silver dollar on his head while sitting with a metal bucket in a chair. As he drifted off,
the coin would noisily fall into the bucket, restoring some of his alertness. OBE pioneer
Sylvan Muldoon more simply used a forearm held perpendicular in bed as the falling
object. Salvador Dali was said to use a similar "paranoiac-critical" method to gain odd
visions which inspired his paintings. Deliberately teetering between awake and
asleep states is known to cause spontaneous trance episodes at the onset of sleep
which are ultimately helpful when attempting to induce an OBE. By moving deeper and
deeper into relaxation, one eventually encounters a "slipping" feeling if the mind is still
alert. This slipping is reported to feel like leaving the physical body. Some consider
progressive relaxation a passive form of sensory deprivation.
Waking up mentally but not physically. This related technique is typically achieved
through the practice of lucid dreaming. Once inside a lucid dream, the dreamer either
shifts the subject matter of the dream in an OBE direction or banishes the dream
imagery completely, in doing so gaining access to the underlying state of sleep
paralysis ideal for visualization of separation from the body.
Deep trance, meditation and visualization. The types of visualizations vary; some
common imageries used include climbing a rope to "pull out" of one's body, floating
out of one's body, getting shot out of a cannon, and other similar approaches. This
technique is considered hard to use for people who cannot properly relax. One
example of such a technique is the popular Golden Dawn "Body of Light" Technique.

Mechanical induction

Brainwave synchronization via audio/visual stimulation. Binaural beats can be used
to induce specific brainwave frequencies, notably those predominant in various mind
awake/body asleep states. Binaural induction of the "body asleep" theta brainwave
frequencies characteristic of dreaming REM sleep was observed as effective by the
Monroe Institute (and corroborated by others). Simultaneous introduction of "mind
awake" beta frequencies (detectable in the brains of normal, relaxed awakened
individuals) was also observed as constructive. Another popular technology uses
sinusoidal wave pulses to achieve similar results, and the drumming accompanying
native American religious ceremonies is also believed to have heightened receptivity to
"other worlds" through brainwave entrainment mechanisms.
Magnetic stimulation of the brain, as with the God helmet developed by Michael
Persinger.
Electrical stimulation of the brain, particularly the temporoparietal junction.
Sensory deprivation. This approach aims to encourage intense disorientation by
removal of space and time references. Flotation tanks or pink noise played through
headphones are often employed for this purpose.
Sensory overload, the opposite of sensory deprivation. The subject can for instance
be rocked for a long time in a specially designed cradle, or submitted to light forms of
torture, to cause the brain to shut itself off from all sensory input. Both conditions
tend to cause confusion and this disorientation often permits the subject to experience
vivid, ethereal out-of-body experiences. This tends to happen when the subject
believes he or she is in a particular position, whereas his or her actual body is either
rocking in a cradle actively, or still lying down. Consciousness suddenly transfers to
the mental body.

Chemical induction

OBEs induced with drugs are sometimes considered to be hallucinations (i.e., purely
subjective), even by those who believe the phenomenon to be objective in general.
There are several types of drugs that can initiate an OBE, primarily the dissociative
hallucinogens such as ketamine, dextromethorphan (DM or DXM), and
phencyclidine (PCP). It has also been reported under the influence of tryptamine
psychedelics including dimethyltryptamine (DMT) from ayahuasca. Salvia divinorum
has been known to produce symptoms in which the user is said to be able to leave his
or her body and travel to many places at once. Many users also claim that they feel as
if their "soul" falls out of their body.
Methamphetamine has also been known to cause OBEs, not in itself but through lack
of sleep. It has been reported that it felt like the person was talking above and behind
them and, being under the influence of the drug, had no idea what was happening.
Galantamine is a nootropic that can increase the odds of success when using along
with out-of-body experience or lucid dream induction techniques.

Phenomenology

Perceptions of environment

OBEs tend to fall into two types, categorized by Robert Monroe as Locale 1 and Locale 2
experiences.

In Locale 1 experiences the environment is largely consistent with reality; other common
labels for this form are etheric, ethereal or RTZ (Real Time Zone) projections. The onset of this
type can be frightening as intense physiological sensations may be perceived, such as
electrical tingling, full body vibrations and racing heartbeat. Confusion is common in
spontaneous Locale 1 experiences; the person can believe he or she has awakened (or died)
physically and panic can be caused by the realization that one's limbs appear to be penetrating
other objects.

Locale 2 experiences are less overtly physical in nature and have much subjective overlap with
lucid dreaming. The subject is immersed in unrealistic worlds, modified forms of reality
exhibiting physically impossible or inconsistent features. Bright and vivid colors are a common
feature of this form. Robert Bruce considers this type of OBE to be an astral projection.

Progression

In surveys, as many as 85% of respondents tell of hearing loud noises, known as "exploding
head syndrome" (EHS), during the onset of OBEs.

An archetypal, classical OBE unfolds through perceptually distinct stages.

Withdrawal stage: Conscious interaction with the physical environment ceases.
Attention is elsewhere, with sensory inputs going unnoticed; the body is on auto-pilot.
Sleeping is an example of this stage.
Cataleptic stage: Movement is totally impaired. Alternative sensory information may
suddenly seem present, such as intense vibrations, noises and sight through closed
eyelids.
Separation stage: With effort, the perceptual viewpoint can be pulled away from the
physical body location. Still subject to intense sensation, pull back towards the body
obstructs progression.
Free movement stage: Beyond a certain radius, movement becomes unimpeded, with
control increasing markedly. Visual and mental clarity can vary greatly, from barely
functional to exceptional.
Re-entry stage: Perceived need to return increases, leading either to voluntary
reversal of separation or extremely fast involuntary snap-back. Alternatively, a
transition to waking or sleeping may occur.

In practice, the absence of one or more of the classical stages is not unusual. Some (notably
Robert Monroe) have claimed these stages become considerably less applicable with extreme
familiarity with OBE, eventually finding just a deliberate mental shift to the feeling of the state
equivalent. Monroe likened this to tuning a radio away from one station and towards another,
and termed the process "phasing".


End-of-OBE perceptions

The OBE may or may not be followed by other experiences which are self-reported as being
"as real" as the OBE feeling; alternatively, the subject may fade into a state self-reported as
dreaming, or they may awake completely. The OBE is sometimes ended due to a fearful
feeling of getting "too far away" from the body. Many end with a feeling of suddenly "popping"
or "snapping" and sometimes a "pulling" back into their bodies; some even report being
"sucked back" into physical form. A majority describe the end of the experience by saying
"then I woke up". However, some report returning the physical body and senses consciously.
Transitioning from the "dream body" in an OBE back to the physical body has been compared
to using a camera to slowly unfocus on a distant object (the dream or OBE body) while
refocusing on a much closer one (the physical body). The distant object blurs out at first and
eventually disappears completely as the new object comes into focus.

However it's worth noting that even those who describe the experience as something fantastic
that occurs during sleep, and who describe the end of the experience by saying "and then I
woke up", are very specific in describing the experience as one which was clearly not a dream;
many described their sense of feeling more awake than they felt when they were normally
awake. One compared the experience to that of lucid dreaming, but said that it was "more
real".

NDE phenomenology

The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes additional physiological, psychological and
transcendental factors beyond those of typical OBEs (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001).
Near-death experiences may include subjective impressions of being outside the physical
body, visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of ego and
spatiotemporal boundaries. Typically the experience includes such factors as: a sense of being
dead; a feeling of peace and painlessness; hearing of various non-physical sounds, an out-of-
body experience; a tunnel experience (the sense of moving up or through a narrow
passageway); encountering people of Light; God-like figures, helpers, spiritual guides, or
similar forces; being given a "Life review", and a reluctance to return to life.

Studies of OBEs

The first extensive scientific study of OBEs was made by Celia Green (1968). She collected
written, first-hand accounts from a total of 400 subjects, recruited by means of appeals in the
mainstream media, and followed up by questionnaires. Her purpose was to provide a
taxonomy of the different types of OBE, viewed simply as an anomalous perceptual experience
or hallucination, while leaving open the question of whether some of the cases might
incorporate information derived by extrasensory perception.

Previous collections of cases had been made by Dr Ernesto Bozzano (Italy) and Dr Robert
Crookall (UK). Crookall approached the subject from a spiritualistic position, and collected his
cases predominantly from spiritualist newspapers such as the Psychic News, which appears to
have biased his results in various ways. For example, the majority of his subjects reported
seeing a cord connecting the physical body and its observing counterpart; whereas Green
found that less than 4% of her subjects noticed anything of this sort, and some 80% reported
feeling they were a "disembodied consciousness", with no external body at all.

In 1999, at the 1st International Forum of Consciousness Research in Barcelona, International
Academy of Consciousness research-practitioners Wagner Alegretti and Nanci Trivellato
presented preliminary findings of an online survey on the out-of-body experience answered
by internet users interested in the subject; therefore, not a sample representative of the
general population.

1,007 (85%) of the first 1,185 respondents reported having had an OBE. 37% claimed to have
had between two and ten OBEs. 5.5% claimed more than 100 such experiences. 45% of those
who reported an OBE said they successfully induced at least one OBE by using a specific
technique. 62% of participants claiming to have had an OBE also reported having enjoyed
nonphysical flight; 40% reported experiencing the phenomenon of self-bilocation (i.e. seeing
one's own physical body whilst outside the body); and 38% claimed having experienced self-
permeability (passing through physical objects such as walls). The most commonly reported
sensations experienced in connection with the OBE were falling, floating, repercussions e.g.
myoclonia (the jerking of limbs, jerking awake), sinking, torpidity (numbness), intracranial
sounds, tingling, clairvoyance, oscillation and serenity.

Another reported common sensation related to OBE was temporary or projective catalepsy,
more commonly known as sleep paralysis. The sleep paralysis and OBE correlation was later
corroborated by the Out-of-Body Experience and Arousal study published in Neurology by
Kevin Nelson et al. (2007). Also noteworthy, is the Waterloo Unusual Sleep Experiences
Questionnaire that further illustrates the correlation.

William Buhlman, an author on the subject, has conducted an informal but informative online
survey as well.

Neurology and OBE-like experiences

There are several possible physiological explanations for parts of the OBE. OBE-like
experiences have been induced by stimulation of the brain. OBE-like experience has also been
induced through stimulation of the posterior part of the right superior temporal gyrus in a
patient. Positron-emission tomography was also used in this study to identify brain regions
affected by this stimulation. The term OBE-like is used above because the experiences
described in these experiments either lacked some of the clarity or details of normal OBEs, or
were described by subjects who had never experienced an OBE before. Such subjects were
therefore not qualified to make claims about the authenticity of the experimentally-induced
OBE.

English psychologist Susan Blackmore suggests that an OBE begins when a person loses
contact with sensory input from the body while remaining conscious. The person retains the
illusion of having a body, but that perception is no longer derived from the senses. The
perceived world may resemble the world he or she generally inhabits while awake, but this
perception does not come from the senses either. The vivid body and world is made by our
brain's ability to create fully convincing realms, even in the absence of sensory information.
This process is witnessed by each of us every night in our dreams, though OBEs are claimed to
be far more vivid than even a lucid dream.

Irwin pointed out that OBEs appear to occur under conditions of either very high or very low
arousal. For example, Green found that three quarters of a group of 176 subjects reporting a
single OBE were lying down at the time of the experience, and of these 12% considered they
had been asleep when it started. By contrast, a substantial minority of her cases occurred
under conditions of maximum arousal, such as a rock-climbing fall, a traffic accident, or
childbirth. McCreery has suggested that this paradox may be explained by reference to the
fact that sleep can supervene as a reaction to extreme stress or hyper-arousal. He proposes
that OBEs under both conditions, relaxation and hyper-arousal, represent a form of "waking
dream", or the intrusion of Stage 1 sleep processes into waking consciousness.


Van Lommel studies

The first clinical study of near-death experiences (NDE's) in cardiac arrest patients was by Pim
van Lommel, a cardiologist from the Netherlands, and his team (The Lancet, 2001). Of 344
patients who were successfully resuscitated after suffering cardiac arrest, approximately 18%
experienced "classic" NDE's, which included out-of-body experiences. The patients
remembered details of their conditions during their cardiac arrest despite being clinically dead
with flatlined brain stem activity. Van Lommel concluded that his findings supported the theory
that consciousness continued despite lack of neuronal activity in the brain. Van Lommel
conjectured that continuity of consciousness may be achievable if the brain acted as a receiver
for the information generated by memories and consciousness, which existed independently of
the brain, just as radio, television and internet information existed independently of the
instruments that received it.
Olaf Blanke studies

Research by Olaf Blanke in Switzerland found that it is possible to reliably elicit experiences
somewhat similar to the OBE by stimulating regions of the brain called the right temporal-
parietal junction (TPJ; a region where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe of the brain come
together). Blanke and his collaborators in Switzerland have explored the neural basis of OBEs
by showing that they are reliably associated with lesions in the right TPJ region and that they
can be reliably elicited with electrical stimulation of this region in a patient with epilepsy.
These elicited experiences may include perceptions of transformations of the patient's arms
and legs (complex somatosensory responses) and whole-body displacements (vestibular
responses).

In neurologically normal subjects, Blanke and colleagues then showed that the conscious
experience of the self and body being in the same location depends on multisensory
integration in the TPJ. Using event-related potentials, Blanke and colleagues showed the
selective activation of the TPJ 330400 ms after stimulus onset when healthy volunteers
imagined themselves in the position and visual perspective that generally are reported by
people experiencing spontaneous OBEs. Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the same
subjects impaired mental transformation of the participant's own body. No such effects were
found with stimulation of another site or for imagined spatial transformations of external
objects, suggesting the selective implication of the TPJ in mental imagery of one's own body.

In a follow up study, Arzy et al. showed that the location and timing of brain activation
depended on whether mental imagery is performed with mentally embodied or disembodied
self location. When subjects performed mental imagery with an embodied location, there was
increased activation of a region called the "extrastriate body area" (EBA), but when subjects
performed mental imagery with a disembodied location, as reported in OBEs, there was
increased activation in the region of the TPJ. This leads Arzy et al. to argue that "these data
show that distributed brain activity at the EBA and TPJ as well as their timing are crucial for
the coding of the self as embodied and as spatially situated within the human body."

Blanke and colleagues thus propose that the right temporal-parietal junction is important for
the sense of spatial location of the self, and that when these normal processes go awry, an
OBE arises. In August 2007 Blanke's lab published research in Science demonstrating that
conflicting visual-somatosensory input in virtual reality could disrupt the spatial unity between
the self and the body. During multisensory conflict, participants felt as if a virtual body seen in
front of them was their own body and mislocalized themselves toward the virtual body, to a
position outside their bodily borders. This indicates that spatial unity and bodily self-
consciousness can be studied experimentally and is based on multisensory and cognitive
processing of bodily information.

Michael Persinger studies

Michael Persinger has undertaken similar research to Olaf Blanke using magnetic stimulation
applied to the right temporal lobe of the brain, which is known to be involved in visuo-spatial
functions, multi-sensory integration and the construction of the sense of the body in space.
Persinger's research also found evidence for objective neural differences between periods of
remote viewing in two individuals thought to have psychic abilities. Persinger undertook his
research on Sean Harribance and Ingo Swann, a renowned remote viewer who has taken part
in numerous studies. Examination of Harribance showed enhanced EEG activity within the
alpha band (812 Hz) over Harribance's right parieto-occipital region, consistent with
neuropsychological evidence of early brain trauma in these regions. In a second study, Ingo
Swann was asked to draw images of pictures hidden in envelopes in another room. Individuals
with no knowledge of the nature of the study rated Swann's comments and drawings as
congruent with the remotely viewed stimulus at better than chance levels. Additionally, on
trials in which Swann was correct, the duration of 7 Hz (alpha band) paroxysmal discharges
over the right occipital lobe was longer. Subsequent anatomical MRI examination showed
anomalous subcortical white matter signals focused in the perieto-occipital interface of the
right hemisphere that were not expected for his age or history.

Ehrsson study

In August 2007 Henrik Ehrsson, then at the Institute of Neurology at University College of
London (now at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden) published research in Science
demonstrating the first experimental method that, according to the scientist's claims in the
publication, induced an out-of-body experience in healthy participants. The experiment was
conducted in the following way:

The study participant sits in a chair wearing a pair of head-mounted video displays. These
have two small screens over each eye, which show a live film recorded by two video cameras
placed beside each other two metres behind the participant's head. The image from the left
video camera is presented on the left-eye display and the image from the right camera on the
right-eye display. The participant sees these as one "stereoscopic" (3D) image, so they see
their own back displayed from the perspective of someone sitting behind them.
The researcher then stands just beside the participant (in their view) and uses two plastic rods
to simultaneously touch the participant's actual chest out-of-view and the chest of the illusory
body, moving this second rod towards where the illusory chest would be located, just below
the camera's view.

The participants confirmed that they had experienced sitting behind their physical body and
looking at it from that location. The experiment fits a three-point definition of the out-of-body
experience (OBE). The OBE as reported in spontaneous cases can be phenomenologically more
complex as commented in Slate and elsewhere.

University of Southampton study

In the fall of 2008, 25 UK and US hospitals began participation in a 3 year study, coordinated
by Dr. Sam Parnia and Southampton University. Following on from the work of Pim van
Lommel in the Netherlands, the study aims to examine near-death experiences in 1,500
cardiac arrest survivors and so determine whether people without a heartbeat or brain activity
can have documentable out-of-body experiences.

OBE training and research facilities

The Monroe Institute's Nancy Penn Center is the oldest and most established facility
specializing in out-of-body experience induction. The Center for Higher Studies of the
Consciousness in Brazil is another large OBE training facility. The International Academy of
Consciousness in southern Portugal features the Projectarium, a spherical structure dedicated
exclusively for practice and research on out-of-body experience.

Olaf Blanke's Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience has become a well-known laboratory for
OBE research.


Past life regression
Wikipedia.org


Past life regression is a technique that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are
memories of past lives or incarnations, though others regard them as fantasies or delusions.
Past life regression is typically undertaken either in pursuit of a spiritual experience, or in a
psychotherapeutic setting. Most advocates loosely adhere to beliefs about reincarnation,
though religious traditions that incorporate reincarnation generally do not include the idea of
repressed memories of past lives.

The technique used during past life regression involves the subject answering a series of
questions while hypnotized to reveal identity and events of alleged past lives, a method similar
to that used in recovered memory therapy and one that similarly misrepresents memory as a
faithful recording of previous events rather than a constructed set of recollections. The use of
hypnosis and suggestive questions makes the subject particularly likely to hold distorted or
false memories. The source of the memories is more likely cryptomnesia and confabulations
that combine past experiences, knowledge, imagination and suggestion or guidance from the
hypnotist than recall of a previous existence. Once created, the memories are
indistinguishable from memories based on events that occurred during the subject's life.
Memories reported during past life regression have been investigated, and revealed historical
inaccuracies that are easily explained through a basic knowledge of history, elements of
popular culture or books that discuss historical events. Experiments with subjects undergoing
past life regression indicate that a belief in reincarnation and suggestions by the hypnotist are
the two most important factors regarding the contents of memories reported.

History
Mythology

Past life regression is mentioned in the Upanishads of ancient India, but is discussed in greater
detail in the Yoga Sutras of Patajali. Writing during the second century BC, the Hindu scholar
Patajali discussed the soul being burdened with an accumulation of impressions that were
part of the karma from previous lives. Patajali called the process of past life regression, prati-
prasav (literally "reverse birthing"), and involved addressing current problems through
memories of past lives. Prati-prasav is used today as a practice in some types of yoga. In the
religious mythology of China, souls are prevented from remembering their past lives by the
deity Meng Po, also known as the "Lady of Forgetfullness", who gives them a bittersweet drink
that erases all memories before they climb the wheel of reincarnation.

Modern era

In the modern era, it was the works of Madame Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical
Society, which brought it a new found popularity, especially in the West. French educator Allan
Kardec also researched into past life regression in The Spirits Book and Heaven and Hell. Past
life regression therapy has been developed since the 1950s by psychologists, psychiatrists and
mediums. The belief gained credibility because some of the advocates possess legitimate
credentials, though these credentials were in areas unrelated to religion, psychotherapy or
other domains dealing with past lives and mental health. Interest in the phenomenon started
due to American housewife Virginia Tighe reporting and recounting the alleged memories of a
19th-century Irish woman named Bridey Murphy; later investigation failed to support the
existence of such a woman and the memories were attributed to Tighe's childhood during
which she spent time living next to an Irish immigrant.


Technique

In the West, past-life regression practitioners use hypnosis and suggestion to promote recall in
their patients, using a series of questions designed to elicit statements and memories about
the past life's history and identity. Some practitioners also use bridging techniques from a
clients current-life problem to bring "past-life stories" to conscious awareness. Practitioners
believe that unresolved issues from alleged past lives may be the cause of their patients'
problems, The technique is not taught as part of any medical internships. Luis Cordn states
that this can be problematic as it creates delusions under the guise of therapy. Memories can
vary from harmless to actually increasing suffering in the patient or their families. The
memories are experienced as vivid as those based on events experienced in one's life,
impossible to differentiate from true memories of actual events, and accordingly any damage
can be difficult to undo.

Chinese numerologists use the Buddhist/Taoist text the Three Lives Book to describe details of
past lives. Teachers of Eastern religion claim to be able to use siddhi or abhijna abilities to
regress other's lives.

Sources of memories

Scientific consensus is that the memories are the result of cryptomnesia, narratives created by
the subconscious mind using imagination, forgotten information and suggestions from the
therapist. Memories created under hypnosis are indistinguishable from actual memories and
can be more vivid than factual memories. The greatest predictor of individuals reporting
memories of past lives appears to be their beliefs about the existence in reincarnation -
individuals who believe in reincarnation are more likely to report such memories, while
sceptics or disbelievers are less so.

Examinations of three cases of apparent past life regression (Bridey Murphy, Jane Evans and
an unnamed English woman) revealed memories that were superficially convincing. However,
investigation by experts in the languages used and historical periods described revealed flaws
in all three patients' recall. The evidence included speech patterns that were "...used by movie
makers and writers to convey the flavour of 16th century English speech" rather than actual
Renaissance English, a date that was inaccurate but was the same as a recognized printing
error in historical pamphlets, and a subject that reported historically accurate information from
the Roman era that was identical to information found in a 1947 novel set in the same time as
the individual's memories, with the same name reported by the person regressed. Other
details cited are common knowledge and not evidence of the factual nature of the memories;
subjects asked to provide historical information that would allow checking provided only vague
responses that did not allow for verification, and sometimes were unable to provide critical
details that would have been common knowledge (e.g. a subject who was unable to provide
the name of the Emperor of Japan during the 1940s despite describing a life of a Japanese
fighter pilot during World War II).


Experimental studies

A 1976 study found that 40% of hypnotizable subjects described new identities and used
different names when given a suggestion to regress past their birth.[4] In the 1990s a series
of experiments undertaken by Nicholas Spanos examined the nature of past life memories.
Descriptions of alleged past lives were found to be extremely elaborate, with vivid, detailed
descriptions. Subjects who reported memories of past lives exhibited high hypnotizability, and
patients demonstrated that it was the expectations conveyed by the experimenter that were
most important in determining the characteristics reported by the patients during their
'memories'. The degree to which the memories were considered credible by the experimental
subjects was correlated most significantly to the subjects' beliefs about reincarnation and their
expectation to remember a past life rather than hypnotizability. Spanos' research leads him to
the conclusion that past lives are not memories, but actually social constructions based on
patients acting "as if" they were someone else, but with significant flaws that would not be
expected of actual memories. To create these memories, Spanos' subjects drew upon the
expectations established by authority figures and information outside of the experiment such
as television, novels, life experiences and their own desires.

*Precognition

*Psychic Surgery


*Psychokinesis, Telekinesis

*Psychometry


*Remote Viewing


*Retrocognition


*Schizophrenia

*Scrying

*Telepathy


Third Eye

The third eye (also known as the inner eye) is a mystical and esoteric concept referring in
part to the ajna (brow) chakra in certain spiritual traditions. It is also spoken of as the gate
that leads within to inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness. In New Age spirituality,
the third eye may alternately symbolize a state of enlightenment or the evocation of mental
images having deeply personal spiritual or psychological significance. The third eye is often
associated with visions, clairvoyance (which includes the ability to observe chakras and auras),
precognition, and out-of-body experiences. People who have allegedly developed the capacity
to utilize their third eyes are sometimes known as seers.

Symbolism


Chakra Third eye
Color indigo
Primary Functions
Direct perception, intuition, imagination,
visualization, concentration, Self-
mastery, Extra Sensory Perception
Associated Element time / light
Location Between the eyebrows. (Pineal gland)
Open or Balance Meditation, guided visualization
Foods
Dark bluish colored fruits, Liquids,
Spices
Symbol


In Hinduism and BuddhismIn Hinduism and Buddhism, the third eye is a symbol of
enlightenment (see moksha and nirvana). In the Indian tradition, it is referred to as the
gyananakashu, "the eye of knowledge", which is the seat of the "teacher inside" or antar-guru.
The third eye is the ajna chakra (sixth chakra) also known as brow chakra or brow center. This
is commonly denoted in Indian and East Asian iconography with a dot, eye or mark on the
forehead of deities or enlightened beings, such as Shiva, the Buddha, or any number of yogis,
sages and bodhisattvas. This symbol is called the "Third Eye" or "Eye of Wisdom", or, in
Buddhism, the urna. In Hinduism, it is believed that the opening of Shiva's third eye causes
the eventual destruction of the physical universe.

Many Hindus wear a tilaka between the eyebrows to represent the third eye.

In the Upanishads, a human being is likened to a city with ten gates. Nine gates (eyes,
nostrils, ears, mouth, urethra, anus) lead outside to the sensory world. The third eye is the
tenth gate and leads to inner realms housing myriad spaces of consciousness.




In the Western Wisdom Teachings

According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings, called Western Wisdom Teachings, the third
eye is localized in the pituitary body and the pineal gland. It was said that in the far past,
when man was in touch with the inner worlds, these organs were his means of ingress thereto,
and they will again serve that purpose at a later stage. According to this view, they were
connected with the involuntary or sympathetic nervous system and to regain contact with the
inner worlds (to reawaken the pituitary body and the pineal gland) it is necessary to establish
the connection of the pineal gland and the pituitary body with the cerebrospinal nervous
system. It was said that when that is accomplished, man will again possess the faculty of
perception in the higher worlds (i.e. clairvoyance), but on a grander scale than it was in the
distant past, because it will be in connection with the voluntary nervous system and therefore
under the control of his will.

Gnostic teachings

According to the gnostic teachings of Samael Aun Weor, the third eye is referenced
symbolically and functionally several times in the Book of Revelation, which as a whole is seen
as a work describing Kundalini and its progression upwards through three and a half turns and
seven chakras. This interpretation equates the third eye with the sixth of the seven churches
of Asia detailed therein, the Church of Philadelphia.

Elsewhere

The third eye is used in many meditation schools and arts, such as in yoga, qigong, many
Chinese martial arts, Zen, and in Japanese martial arts such as Karate and Aikido.

In terms of Kabbalah, the Ajna chakra is attributed to the sphere of Chokmah, or Wisdom,
although others regard the third eye as corresponding to the non-emanated sephirah of da'ath
(knowledge).

Technique

In Taoism and many traditional Chinese religious sects such as "chan", "third eye training"
involves focusing attention on the point between the eyebrows with the eyes closed in various
qigong postures. The goal of this training is to allow students to have the ability in tuning into
right vibration of the universe and gain solid foundation into more advanced meditation levels.

In theory, the third eye, also called the mind's eye, is situated right between the two eyes,
and expands up to the middle of the forehead when opened. It is one of the main energy
centers of the body located at the sixth chakra (the third eye is in fact a part of the main
meridian, the line separating left and right hemispheres of the body). In Taoist alchemy the
third eye is correlated with the upper dantian

The pineal gland

Some writers and researchers, including H.P. Blavatsky and Rick Strassman, have suggested
that the third eye is in fact the partially dormant pineal gland, which resides between the two
hemispheres of the brain. Various types of lower vertebrates, such as reptiles and amphibians,
can actually sense light via a third parietal eyea structure associated with the pineal gland
which serves to regulate their circadian rhythms, and for navigation, as it can sense the
polarization of light.

Expanded clairvoyance

C.W. Leadbeater claimed that by extending an "etheric tube" from the third eye, it is
possible for one to develop microscopic vision and telescopic vision. It has been asserted by
Stephen Phillips that the third eye's microscopic vision is capable of observing objects as small
as quarks.





Ghost Sightings and Apparitions


Are they real or are they just hallucinations and physical
manifestations of the mind?

Angels of Mons
The Encyclopedia of Angels
By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Incident during World War I in which Allied soldiers reportedly were aided by heavenly
soldiers and Englands patron saint, St. George, mounted on horseback. The visions were not
limited to British and French troops. Several captured Germans allegedly asked about the
horsemen or the leader on a white horse. Whole battalions apparently retreated in fear.
According to some German reports, the soldiers fell back against what appeared to be
thousands of troops, not the two small Allied regiments.



Angels at the Battle of Mons

The incident occurred during the battle of Mons, Belgium, on August 2627, 1914. The Allies
had only two regiments posted there, while surrounded by the better-equipped Germans.
Outmanned and outgunned, the Allies expected to be slaughtered, but, although they suffered
numerous losses, the numbers were many fewer than expected. Many in the companies
believed their retreat was saved by hundreds of mounted, armored soldiersspirits of the
English victors at the battle of Agincourt in 1415who came between them and the
German army. Others saw or heard St. George, described as a yellow-haired man riding a
white charger.

Public interest in the stories was tremendous, despite the fact that they sounded suspiciously
like the plot of a fictional story, The Bowmen, written by novelist Arthur Machen and
published in the London Evening News barely a month after the battle, on September 29,
1914. In Machens story, a British soldier, overwhelmed at Mons, recalls a Latin motto he once
read on a plate in a vegetarian restaurant. The motto read, Adsit Anglis Sanctus Georgius,
May St. George be a present help to the English. No sooner had the desperate soldier
invoked the motto than he heard voices roaring the same plea and adding other medieval calls
for courage and preservation. The soldier looked beyond his trench and saw long lines of
mounted bowmen, who shot swarms of arrows at the advancing Germans. The enemy fell by
the thousands, but the German staff found no wounds on their fallen comrades.

Although Machen belatedly took credit as the only source of the angelic stories, claiming they
could all be traced to his fictional tale, his protestations could not stem the increasing flood of
accounts that God had taken an active stand on behalf of the Allies. Indeed, in his field notes
of September 5, Brigadier-General John Charteris of the British Expeditionary Force referred to
stories among his men about angelic sightings at Monsat least three weeks before the
publication of Machens story.

Reports of angelic intervention at Mons died out about October 1914 but revived later the
following spring. On April 30, the Roman Catholic newspaper The Universe printed an
anonymous account from a supposedly reputable Catholic officer about an experience of
another officer at Mons. It seemed that this second officer and about 30 of his men were
trapped in a trench when they decided to make a run for it rather than be slaughtered by the
advancing Germans. Yelling St. George for England! the men were met by a large company
of bowmen who led them in a charge on the enemys trenches. Later, a captured German
prisoner asked who was the officer seated on a great white horse. The officer who told this
story to the first Catholic officer said he did not see St. George but did see the archers. Again,
the German dead showed no wounds.

In the May 15, 1915, issue of the parish magazine of All Saints Parish, Clifton, England, a Miss
Marrable, daughter of the canon, was reported to have met two officers (although she did not
know their names) who claimed they had witnessed the angelic intervention. One officer said
that when the angels appeared, the German cavalry horses reared in fright and ran in all
directions, no matter how determinedly the riders tried to force their horses to continue the
charge. In the same month, the Spiritualist newspaper Light ran a piece recounting a sermon
reportedly preached by the Reverend Fielding Ould, vicar of St. Stephens in St. Albans.
Reverend Ould heard a story from three sources whom he believed reputable, as follows: A
sergeant had often visited a branch of the Young Mens Christian Association, in which hung a
picture of St. George slaying the dragon. Later, during the battle of Mons, the sergeant
repeated the legend of St. George to his beleaguered men, telling how St. George was the
patron saint of England and the war cry of English soldiers for centuries. Facing the advancing
Germans, the men shouted Remember St. George for England! Shortly the Germans
hesitated in their charge, then turned around and fled. One of the prisoners left behind told his
captors of the horsemen in armor who led the Allies chargeand that they could not have
been Belgians.

On June 9, 1915, Bladud, The Bath Society Paper ran several accounts, always anonymous, of
other soldiers who witnessed the same phenomenon. One officer wrote that his soldiers had
fled to a place where they could stand against the Germans, even though they expected
death. But instead of seeing the advancing German cavalry they saw a troop of angels and the
German horses stampeding in terror. A captain in charge of German prisoners said that the
Germans felt there was no use in fighting the English, for the Germans had seen angels
fighting above and in front of the Allied lines, both at Mons and Ypres. Another group of
German prisoners attested that they had surrendered because of the hosts of soldiers in the
Allied ranks, but in truth there were only two English and French regiments.

In an interview published August 12, 1915, in the London Daily Mail, a wounded lance corporal
told that he and his battalion were in retreat from Mons on August 28, 1914. The weather was
hot and clear, and the Allied forces were waiting for the Germans to charge. While the corporal
was standing guard with some others, an officer ran up to them in great agitation and asked if
theyd seen anything. The guards thought he meant German soldiers, but instead the officer
took the men to see something in the night sky. There was a strange light in the sky that was
distinctly outlined and separate from moonlight. As the men watched, the light became
brighter and more clearly defined, revealing three shapes. The one on the center had
outstretched wings, and all three wore long, loose golden garments. These spirits hovered
above the German lines for about an hour then disappeared.

Phyllis Campbell, a nurse who served behind the lines at Mons, contributed the following to the
Occult Review in August 1915, a year after the battle. Campbell reported that many of the
wounded, particularly the French Catholics, requested pictures of saints and angels to comfort
them. Following the retreat at Mons, many of the soldiers were in an exalted state, and one
British soldier, a fusilier from Lancashire, asked for a picture of St. George. The fusilier
claimed he had seen St. George on a white horse leading the British troops at Vitry-le-
Franois. Another soldier, injured in the leg, corroborated the fusiliers claims and said that St.
George had led the charge at Vitry with his sword upraised. French troops maintained the
figure was St. Michael or JOAN OF ARC. Campbell claimed to hear the story again later from a
priest, two officers, and three Irish soldiers.

In her booklet Back of the Front, Miss Campbell reported that many severely wounded
soldiers, who should have been screaming in pain, were strangely calm, saying that theyd
seen a great man on a white horse fighting on their behalf. Miss Campbell claimed that shed
submitted her accounts of the visions at Mons to the Occult Review before Machens story
appeared in late September 1914, but no record exists of any submission.

In a letter written by an unnamed lieutenant colonel to Machen, which ran in the Daily Mail
September 14, 1915 (the lieutenant colonels name was supposedly known to editors of the
Daily Mail but withheld), perhaps the most believable account appeared about the angelic
archers. The officer wrote that after the battle of Le Cateau on August 26, 1914, he and two
other officers were riding along the column of their division during the night of August 27.
Although weary, the officer did not believe that he nor the others had lost their mental
faculties. While talking and joking to keep awake, the lieutenant colonel became conscious of
two large bodies of cavalry riding in squadrons in the fields on both sides of the road. The
lieutenant colonel did not remark on the horsemen but watched them for about 20 minutes.
They marched in step with his horse and were going in the same direction. The other two
officers had also stopped talking, and at last one of them asked the lieutenant colonel if hed
seen anything in the fields. All three saw the same sight and determined to take a small party
out to reconnoiter. But as soon as the men approached the cavalry, the night grew darker and
the horsemen disappeared. The lieutenant colonel admitted to exhaustion, but he said that
several witnessed the same phenomenon, a situation he believed unlikely due simply to
fatigue.

On August 24, 1915, the Daily Mail printed what it believed was the first account of angels at
Mons that could be substantiated by a named witness. Private Robert Cleaver, of the First
Cheshire Regiment, supposedly signed an affidavit in the presence of a G. S. Hazlehurst
stating that he had seen the angels of Mons with his own eyes. Private Cleaver described the
angels as a flash of light that confused the German cavalry and caused their lines to crumble.
Unfortunately, when Hazlehurst checked with the headquarters of the Regiment at Salisbury,
he found that Private Cleaver had not joined the regiment until August 22, 1914, and did not
post out to France until September 6. He therefore never fought at Mons.

Private Cleavers story ran along similar lines to previously reported accounts about
mysterious clouds and lights. As early as February 14, 1915, Light had run an account by
another unnamed officer about the strange cloud that rose up between the German and
English lines. In the May 5 Light, a General N. stated that while his rearguard was under
heavy German fire, a luminous cloud or bright light appeared between the armies. Within the
cloud he saw moving shapes, but he could not tell if they were figures. Again the German
horses reared and fled, saving the English from certain death.

The paper reported that another young officerstill anonymoussaw the cloud as well,
convincing him that the Allies were destined for eventual victory. In a fourth story, a soldier
saw a golden cloud appear between the English and German lines, enabling him to save a
child who was trapped by the gunfire. In this case the cloud was accompanied by a man on a
big horse, similar to the reports of St. George.

Other accounts of divine intervention included the appearance of a great cloud as well, either
black or luminous, which came between the Allies and the Germans. Some of these clouds
appeared to have bright beings within them. Some witnesses reported seeing true angels,
with wings and flowing robes, either coming between the two sides or fighting beside or
above the British and French. Other reports told of the Comrade in White, a figure who
walked the battlefields in complete calm and safety to bring aid and comfort. In some
accounts the comrade was identified as Jesus Christ.

In the May 15, 1915, Light, a Mrs. F. H. Fitzgerald Beale of Mountmellick, Ireland, wrote that a
soldier of the Dublin Fusiliers, who had returned home wounded, had seen a black cloud at
Mons. The cloud was so thick that it shielded the English lines completely. Mrs. Beale also
reported that every soldier who had returned home had told her that a crucifix placed on a
home or building was always saved even if everything around it burned.

For some, aid and comfort did not come with a host of angels but through the offices of one
man. In the June 9, 1915, issue of Bladud referred to above, a Dr. R. F. Horton wrote that
several wounded soldiers had told him of a Comrade in White who walked the battlefields,
even during shelling, to rescue and heal the injured. Then a Miss Stoughton wrote about the
experience of her sister, who was an army nurse. The nurse said many soldiers had related
seeing the Comrade in White, whom they believed to be the Lord Himself.

Perhaps the most moving story was printed in the June 1915 issue of Life and Work magazine.
An unnamed soldier wrote that after an especially heated battle a man in white walked
among the wounded completely unfazed by sniper fire and shells. He seemed to be
everywhere at once. The soldier said that later that day he was shot in both legs while
charging the German trenches, and lay in a shell-hole until after dark. As night fell, he heard
quiet, firm footsteps and saw the gleam of the mans white clothing. The Germans opened fire,
but the stranger stretched out his arms in entreaty and then bent over and lifted the injured
soldier. The soldier said he must have fainted, for when he awoke he had been carried to a
little cave by a stream. The man was tenderly washing his wounds. Then the soldier slept;
when he awoke, he looked to see what he could do to help his rescuer. He found him kneeling
in prayer, and was surprised to see that his hands were injured and bleeding. The man said
they were old wounds that had been bothering him lately. When the soldier saw that the
mans feet were bleeding as well, he realized with a shock that he had been saved by Christ.

In August 1915, Machen published a compendium of his war tales entitled The Bowmen and
Other Legends of the War. In the introduction, Machen carefully explained the development of
the Angels at Mons as his own fiction. A little later, Harold Begbie published On the Side of the
Angels: The Story of the Angels at MonsAn Answer to The Bowmen. Begbie collected all the
accounts he could find and tried to show that no matter whether the visions were true or false
they were not simply creations of Machen.

But the strangest twist on the stories of Mons came from the German side in an article
published by the London Daily News on February 17, 1930.

According to a colonel Friedrich Herzenwirth, a former member of the Imperial German
Intelligence Service, the soldiers actually witnessed visions of soldiers and angels. But instead
of heavenly intervention the images were movies projected upon the foggy white cloudbanks
over Belgium. Colonel Herzenwirth said the object of the mission was to create mass hysteria
and terror. He admitted that if the kaisers officers had foreseen that the visions would
strengthen the Allies resolve, rather than weaken it, they would have tried other propaganda.
He believed some of the British forces realized the trick but used it to their advantage. The
next day, the Daily News reported that a highly placed member of the German War
Intelligence Department had told the papers Berlin correspondent that he knew of no Colonel
Herzenwirth and that the entire story was a hoax.

The last firsthand account of angels on the battlefields of World War I appeared in Fate
magazine in May 1968. The magazine reported on a letter from Reverend Albert H. Baller of
Clinton, Massachusetts, who had spoken about UFOs to a group of engineers in New Britain,
Connecticut, in the mid-1950s. Reverend Baller reported that during the lecture, one of the
engineers said that hed been in the trenches near Ypres in August 1915 when the Germans
launched the first gas attack. At that time none of the soldiers knew of this new, deadly
weapon and were unprepared to defend themselves. The troops panicked and ran, with many
overtaken by the gas. Suddenly a figure came walking out of the gaseous mist wearing a
uniform of the Royal Medical Corps but without any protection from the poison. He spoke
English with a French accent. Around his waist the man had a belt with hooks holding tin cups,
and he carried a bucket of what looked like water. He slid into the trench and began removing
the cups, dipping them into the liquid and telling the soldiers to drink quickly. The engineer
received one of the cups, and remembered that the drink was almost too salty to swallow. But
anyone who did drink the liquid was saved from any lasting effects from the gas. Reverend
Baller regretted that he did not remember the engineers name.

Was Machen responsible for the Angels of Mons, or did all these people really experience an
angelic visitation? Nearly anyone who could corroborate the stories of angels at Mons is now
dead, and accounts from the time are anonymous and unproven. In any case, if the tales did
no more than boost the morale of the wounded, they served their purpose.


FURTHER READING

Cavendish, Richard, ed. May, Myth & Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of
Mythology, Religion and the Unknown, Vol. 11. New York: Marshall Cavendish
Ltd., 1985, p. 2963.
McClure, Kevin. Visions of Bowmen and Angels: Mons 1914. St. Austell,
Cornwall, England: The Wild Places, ca. 1992.


Mysterious Stranger
The Encyclopedia of Angels
By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

An angel who appears in the form of a human being to intervene in the affairs of mortals,
usually those who are in distress. The mysterious stranger is one of the more common and
more dramatic manifestations of angels. Characteristics of angelic mysterious strangers vary,
though there are common elements that occur in most episodes. Mysterious strangers can be
male or female, and of any race. Most often they are maleusually a fresh-looking, cleancut
youth. They are invariably well dressed, polite, and knowledgeable about the crisis at hand.
Often they are calm but they can be forceful, and they know just what to do. They do speak,
though they talk sparingly, and they will even take hold of the people in distress. They eat
food. They are convincingly real as flesh-and-blood humans. However, once the problem has
been solved, the mysterious stranger vanishes. It is that abrupt and strange disappearance
that makes people question whether they have been aided by a mortal or an angel. Upon
reflection, the arrival of the mysterious strangersuddenly, out of nowhere, or in the nick of
timeadds credence to the angel-asstranger belief.

Perhaps the first notable mysterious strangers of record are the three angels, disguised as
men, who visit ABRAHAM, as reported in Genesis 18. The angels have been dispatched by God
to destroy the wicked cities of SODOM AND GOMORRAH. En route, they visit Abrahams tent
on the plains of Mamre. He welcomes them and gives them water to wash their feet, the
shade of a tree for rest, and food. He stands by while the angels eat a meal of curds, milk,
cakes, and the meat of a calf. The angels tell Abraham, who is 99, that his 90-year-old wife,
Sarahwho had been barren her entire lifewill bear a child the following spring. Abraham
and Sarah do not believe it, but Sarah does indeed conceive and bear a son, ISAAC. The moral
of this tale is to always be kind to strangers, who may be disguised angels and emissaries of
the Lord.

In the apocryphal book of TOBIT, probably written inthe second century B.C.E., the archangel
Raphael appears as a mysterious stranger to guide Tobias on a journey.

An example of a modern mysterious stranger and a medical rescue is the following story from
Angels of Mercy by the author. The story concerns a woman who lives in California:

I was in a hospital suffering from some rare throat virus that caused me to cough so
violently, I would begin to strangle. During one of those fits in the middle of the night,
I called for a nurse. No one came right away, and I began to panic, for I couldnt
breathe.

Suddenly the door flew open and a short, stocky nurse came bursting in, and with a
voice of authority said, Close your mouth and breathe through your nose. When I
gestured that no air would come through my nose, she clamped her hand over my
mouth and shouted, Breathe! And, breathe I did and I stopped choking. Her next
words were, Just cant understand why they havent taught you that. And out she
went.

Because I wanted to thank her, the next morning I asked the nurse who was it who
was on night duty. When she asked me to describe her, she looked puzzled and said
that description didnt fit anyone on their staff, but she would check on it.

Later, the head nurse came in and asked me to describe the nurse again. She said
there was no one employed there who came close to my description. When I asked
why they hadnt instructed me on what to do when I began to strangle, they said they
had never heard of the method.

The doctors response to the experience was interesting. He knew about the method,
but why he hadnt told me, Ill never know. But he whispered in my ear, I think you
met an angel. By then, I was convinced I had.

A frequent type of mysterious stranger intervention is the roadside rescue, in which a
mysterious stranger arrives to help a motorist stranded on a lonely road at night, or injured in
an accident in an isolated spot.

Not all people who say they are aided by angels report mysterious strangers. Some hear clear
but disembodied voices, feel invisible hands, or sense unseen presences. It is not known why
angels manifest as humans in some cases and not in others. Modern angelologists hypothesize
that the appearance of a mysterious stranger may in fact be the least unsettling form of
angelic intervention. Many persons undergoing stress are more likely to respond to the aid of
what appears to be a friendly fellow human being. Perhaps the shock of an obviously
supernatural intervention would only serve to intensify the crisis.



FURTHER READING

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Angels of Mercy. New York: Pocket Books, 1994.
Howard, Jane M. Commune with Angels. Virginia Beach, Va.: A.R.E. Press, 1992.
Smith, Robert C. In the Presence of Angels. Virginia Beach, Va.: A.R.E. Press, 1993.

Bleeding Statues

*Sacred Heart of Jesus in Texas
http://miracles.mcn.org
*Madonna icon in Toronto
http://miracles.mcn.org

*Other
Canada (1996)
Virgin Mary in Montreal, Canada, in 1985
Cyprus (1997)
India (1998)
Lebanon
Nigeria
Russia
Italy
Potenza (May 1991)
Nocere Inferiore (June 1992)
Subiaco (January 1994)
San Chirico, Raparo (May 1994)
miracles attributed to Padre Pio (August 1994)
Bergamo and Laziso in the north of Italy
Holy Virgin in Tivoli, east of Rome
Taranta Peligna in the Abruzzi mountains
Castrovillari, Calabria (1995?)
USA
California (1995)
Chicago (1984, 1994, 1997)
Louisana (1997)
Michigan (1998)
New York (1997)
Ohio (1992, 1997)
Texas (1991)

Australia (1994)
http://miracles.mcn.org

Every day, dozens of people visit a small home in Australia to witness tears flow from the eyes
of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Sixteen year-old Sam Scevola from Rooty Hill, a town
near Sydney, bought the statue in an antique shop. Shortly after bringing it home, he and his
mother discovered drops of liquid rolling down the statue's face. "It took us a while to realize
it was the statue that was sobbing," says Sam. "My mother and I both collapsed when the
truth sank in."

The statue's crying has since been so constant it has forced the Scevolas to place cotton balls
between the lady's praying hands and her body to collect the moisture. Church officials are
aware of the crying statue, but have no comment until an investigation can be completed.

(Source: The Sun, USA)



Benin (1997)
http://miracles.mcn.org

On 1 April 1997 a statue in the community of the Franciscan Sisters in Gebegamey in Benin,
Africa, began weeping tears of blood. Vincent Metonnou, a journalist for the weekly Le Forum
wonders why there are now so many similar "signs of sorrow" appearing all over the world:
"Has the world lost the way?" He concluded that the Son of Man is probably saddened by
mankind's villainy.

(Source: Le Forum, Benin)



Ireland

Ireland (1994)
http://miracles.mcn.org

In just three weeks, 3,000 visitors from all over the world have travelled to the County
Wicklow village of Grangecon, Ireland, to witness a statue of the Madonna which weeps
blood. In early May, Mrs Murray, a retired postmistress, and her daughter noticed that their
statue's eyes had filled with tears, and drops of blood had trickled from the left eye, leaving a
brown stain. Many visitors claim to have seen the eyes water. Most say a sense of peace
radiates from the statue. With people flocking to see the statue, Mrs Murray had welcomed
travellers from 8am to 11pm every day. Recently, to cope with these crowds, the statue has
been moved and placed in the village.

(Source: Daily Mail, UK)

Ireland (1995) Update
http://miracles.mcn.org

In a back room of the Post Office in the tiny Southern Ireland village of Grangecon, County
Wicklow, Post Mistress Mary Murray keeps her statue of the Virgin Mary. The painted statue
stands about 12 inches high and is housed in a sealed glass case. BBC2's 40-minute TV
programme Everyman of 18 December 1994 told how the statue had been found to be "crying
blood". The statue, with its blood-stained cheeks, was clearly shown to BBC2 viewers.

When the phenomenon was first discovered, Mary Murray was persuaded to call the local radio
station and tell listeners that "a miracle was happening in Grangecon". At 3pm every day, the
glass case with its holy contents is taken in procession, to the accompaniment of Hail Marys,
to be placed beside the outdoor shrine of the Madonna nearby. Pilgrims from all over the world
have been to see the weeping statue, and pray. Many believe that the Madonna is using the
phenomenon of tears to stimulate prayer and devotion, and small groups of believers meet
regularly in Mary Murray's back room in the presence of the statue to say the Rosary and give
each other spiritual support.

The manufacturers of the statue say that the adhesive used to fix its eyes can become moist
in certain temperatures and this could explain the happening. The Vicar of the local Catholic
church is non-committal - he says he looks for God, not in statues, but in people - but he does
not condemn. Mary herself has not yet agreed to have the tears chemically tested, being
unwilling to open the case and disturb the statue; she would not wish it to be tampered with,
as, she asserts, happened with the Turin Shroud.

(reported in Share International, March 1995)




Israel (1996)
Christmas Miracle : Weeping Icon at Jesus' Birthplace
http://miracles.mcn.org


According to hundreds of eyewitnesses, a painting of Jesus
is weeping red tears. The painting is no ordinary icon for it
hangs in the Bethlehem Church of the Nativity, above the
very spot where Christ is said to have been born.

Many hundreds of Christian pilgrims, of all denominations,
together with Jews and Muslims, say they have seen the
tears. The weeping was first noticed by the 60 year old
Muslim woman who cleans that part of the church every
morning.

Sadika Hamdan told reporters that she was working alone in the shrine when suddenly " a
light came from the column and the picture of the Messiah Jesus, peace be upon him, began
to cry. It was beautiful, beautiful. He opened and closed his eye and later tears fell, red tears.
At first, I was very frightened, and I wondered why Jesus was speaking out to me, a Muslim.
But I went and got the brothers, and they saw it too, and we realised it was a miracle. I have
been coming to this church for 22 years and it is the first time in history that I have seen such
a sight."

At the time of the report about 600 people were visiting the shrine each day, and thousands
were expected to attend the Sunday services. As well as the tears, pilgrims have also been
reporting that the painting of Jesus was winking at them. There are of course no shortage of
sceptics dismissing the whole story, but Stephanie Nolen, writing for a Canadian newspaper,
had this to say :

"This reporter went to Bethlehem armed with the double protection of lapsed Catholicism and
journalistic cynicism, and joined a crowd of about 100 kerchiefed Cypriot women clutching
candles and videorecorders. 'Tears, tears,' they were whispering, some with tears in their own
eyes. So I looked up - and Jesus winked at me."

(Source - Reuter 28 Nov, 1996; The Globe and Mail, Canada, 4 Dec, 1996 ; CNN )

Italy

Italy (1987)
http://miracles.mcn.org

The National Enquirer of America reported that between July and October of 1987, blood has
flowed several times from the heart of a statue of Christ in the Italian city of Parma. Among
the witnesses was a police officer and a journalist, the paper stated. Professor Vittorio Rizolli,
a haematologist who examined the blood, is said to have confirmed that it was fresh human
blood though very unusual as it contained no platelets. To the police officer, Giuseppe
Melchiorre, the event was a turning point in his life. The National Enquirer quoted him as
saying that he saw with his own eyes how blood streamed from the wooden heart of the
statue. "I felt a shiver run up my spine and broke into a cold sweat. I staggered out of the
abbey and, for the first time in my life, I prayed. I am now a firm believer and attend Mass."

( Source : National Enquirer, 1988 )


Italy (1994)
http://miracles.mcn.org

Italian Catholics regard it as a 'miracle': from a statue of Christ found by a policeman on the
refuse belt of Sant'Antonio Abate near Naples, a red fluid streams. It first appeared in the eyes
and then from head, hands, breast and feet. After a report about the statue by the Italian TV
station RAI-2, thousands of people curious to see it went to Sant'Antonio Abate, creating a
traffic jam. All for nothing, as the Bishop of Castelimare di Stabia had taken the statue away.

(Source: Salzburger Nachrichten, Austria)


Italy (1995) - Civitavecchia
http://miracles.mcn.org

The latest in a long line of growing miracles connected with the Virgin Mary is a statue which
weeps tears of blood in Civitavecchia, not far from Rome, Italy. The statue was brought back
to Italy from Medjugorje for a family whose son suffered from poor health. A shrine was built
for it in the family garden and the young daughter brought an offering of flowers and prayers
to the Madonna daily. The child was the first to notice the Virgin's tears. The village priest was
soon informed and the statue was taken away to be tested. The church is traditionally very
sceptical and cautious about such miraculous events and as yet no pronouncement has been
made. But the tears of blood have been analysed by Vatican scientific experts. Their findings:
the blood has been found to be human blood, from a male - the DNA structure confirms this.

Other similar incidents have taken place and been reported on and investigated. The church
remains silent while ordinary people continue to flock to the scenes of the miracles (although
in some instances the statue or icon has been removed by church authorities for verification)
to pray and offer thanks.

Miraculous signs, such as weeping or bleeding statues of the Virgin Mary, have appeared in
the following places in Italy in recent years (the Vatican has yet to announce authentication):
Potenza (May 1991); Nocere Inferiore (June 1992); Subiaco (January 1994); San Chirico,
Raparo (May 1994); miracles attributed to Padre Pio (August 1994). Further sightings have
taken place in Bergamo and Laziso in the north of Italy. A bas-relief of the Holy Virgin in Tivoli,
east of Rome, has begun weeping. In Taranta Peligna in the Abruzzi mountains, a statue
bought by a pilgrim in Lourdes has developed bloodstains on its face, throat, breasts, and
hands.

Since this report was compiled, a new weeping statue of the Virgin Mary has been discovered
at Castrovillari, Calabria. Tears of blood from this statue were also analysed and found to be
human, belonging to the O-positive blood group.


Italy (1997) Civitavecchia Updates
http://miracles.mcn.org


"God can still heal if you pray to him to do so," said Pope John Paul II recently in his Sunday
angelus message, which turned into a call to solidarity with the sick, the old and children.
According to the Pope, "all of them are in danger of being regarded as a burden".

In Italy, this invitation from the Pope to pray for a miracle brings back into the public arena
the claimed miracle of the Madonna in Civitavecchia, a village near Rome, where a small icon
brought from Medjugorje weeps tears of blood.

A theological commission appointed by the Vatican has now accepted this as a miracle,
according to an unconfirmed report. The statue was first seen weeping tears of blood, which
was found to be human, in early 1995. The second anniversary of this miracle was attended
by about 10,000 pilgrims. The local bishop surprised those present by blessing the occasion.
He said that at least two people had been miraculously cured of cancer, one in Turin and the
other in Toronto. In addition, political extremists, previously dedicated to violence, had been
converted to peace and Christianity. Civitavecchia is now attracting thousands of pilgrims.

Observers have recalled the tears of blood of another statue of the Virgin Mary in Montreal,
Canada, in 1985. They say this was followed by a near-epidemic of such phenomena in the
case of other statues, as well as icons and crucifixes, in the city. Laboratory tests,
commissioned by the Canadian Bishops Conference, found the tears to be blood mixed with
fat, which melted when slightly warmed.

(Source: The Tablet, UK; El Pais, Spain)


Bishop Girolano Grillo of Civitavecchia, 45 miles north of Rome, has appealed for priests from
outside his diocese to join those already on duty at the makeshift shrine of the "Madonniana",
a statuette of the Virgin Mary which is believed to have wept tears of blood.

He said that during recent weeks, the number of pilgrims had doubled, to more than 20,000
on some days, and was continuing to increase rapidly. He welcomed this, because he believed
beyond doubt the phenomenon to be supernatural. The Virgin's blood-tears were shed for the
ills and faithlessness of contemporary society, he said. The existing team of 10 priests was
overwhelmed, not only by the need to distribute 2,000 hosts each at Mass, but by almost as
strong a demand for confession beforehand. "They are hearing confessions in the open air,
under the trees, wherever a space can be found."

Most of the pilgrims are arriving in fleets of coaches from the south of the country, but
growing numbers are coming from abroad.

(Source: The Tablet, UK)




Mexico (1992)
http://miracles.mcn.org

Thousands of people are flocking to a remote Mexican village to receive healings from a
weeping statue of the Madonna. The healing powers of the three-foot Madonna statue in San
Tomas were discovered this summer by a 12-year-old girl praying for her mother who was
dying of cancer. The girl discovered tears flowing down the statue's cheeks. "I thought it was
the morning dew, so I touched the droplet," said Ana Avila, a sixth-grader. "It tasted salty,
like a real tear." When Ana returned home, she found her mother in the kitchen preparing
dinner and singing. The woman had not been able to get out of bed for three months. Word
quickly spread throughout the town, and other healings were reported. The story of the
Miraculous Madonna was published in the Mexico City daily newspapers, and elsewhere
throughout the world. "People have come from South and North America, from Europe and
from Asia," says Father Amoros, the local priest. "And all have been healed." He says, "People
arrive on stretchers and crutches, then walk away under their own power after praying to the
Madonna and touching her tears. No one can explain the tears or the miracles. They've sent
scientists from Mexico City and from the US. All say the tears are real, but no one knows
where they come from or how they heal."

(Source: The Sun, USA)


Puerto Rico (1994)
http://miracles.mcn.org

On a Sunday in June 1994, churchgoers at the Santa Rosa de Lima church in Rincon, Puerto
Rico, saw tears falling from the cheek of the Virgin Mary statue. Since then, according to the
priest Edgardo Acosta, tears regularly emerge from the statue's left eye and roll down her
cheek to her neck. The event has created a large group of believers, and Acosta has had to
rope off the area to keep people away. Church attendance has increased noticeably.

Those who believe in the Madonna miracle say the tears bring a message. One churchgoer,
Maria Hernandez, said: "I believe this is a message from God." Another church attendee, Ada
Perez, said: "I believe these tears are telling us we should change our life." Father Acosta
said: "Some say this event has transformed their lives. Some say they have been cured of
physical or psychological illness -- others say they have changed their way of life. But in the
town of Rincon, you will still find sceptics who believe that this is a sign of the dark forces. I
think heaven is giving us a very clear message: Change your life. Go back to God. Find
yourself. Go back to the foundation of peace and happiness which is God. This is the
foundation and wellspring of love."

(Source: Primer Impacto Television, USA)


Santiago (1992)
http://miracles.mcn.org


"A six-inch-high porcelain statue began weeping tears of blood.
The liquid staining the image is genuinely blood, and human at
that. The Santiago coroner's office pronounced the substance is
type O-4 human blood. The statue weeps regularly, particularly
in the presence of children."

( Source: The Guardian, UK, 4 December 1992 )


It was confirmed by doctors attached to the police Criminal
Investigation Department that the mysterious red liquid, which
flows from the eyes of a statue of the Virgin Mary belonging to
a Chilean woman, is indeed human blood. It was stated by Dr
Inelia Chacon that three samples of the liquid examined in a
laboratory were shown to be blood.

The small blue and white porcelain statue belongs to Olga
Rodriguez, a housewife from the working class La Cisterna
district in the south of Santiago. Since 14 November, when the tears of blood were seen for
the first time, the modest home of Mrs Rodriguez has become the main attraction for residents
of the district. The Church has refused to take up a position concerning this strange
phenomenon.

(From: L'Impartial, Switzerland)


Spain (1998)
http://miracles.mcn.org

The quiet life of the small and secluded village of Mura, 50km north of Barcelona, was shaken
when, on 16 March 1998, the local priest Llus Costa discovered that a 70cm-tall white marble
Madonna statue looked as if she had been crying tears of blood. The statue had been
brought from Medjugorje and exhibited on a square outside the village church on a pedestal
2.5 meters high. From one corner of each eye drops of blood had poured down her face until it
coagulated, and the blood wasnt completely dry.


Trinidad (1996)
http://miracles.mcn.org

A statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in a Carmelite sisters' convent in Diego Martin, west
Trinidad, is weeping tears of blood. According to the local press, the tears first appeared on 15
February, 1996. Professor Courtenay Bartholomew, a local medical consultant who has written
a book on Marian apparitions, is said to have tested the blood and found it to be human.
People from all parts of the country have been going to the convent to see the statue,
although the Sisters only allow a few to enter at a time. The Archbishop of Port of Spain,
Anthony Partin is to carry out an investigation of the phenomenon.

( Source: The Tablet, UK, 1997 )




USA
Las Vegas, (1998)
http://miracles.mcn.org

In the backyard shrine of Pablo Covarrubias stands a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe
brought from the Basilica in Mexico City. The Virgin regularly weeps real tears that are then
harvested in little cotton balls and distributed to the faithful. According to Pablo, many
supernatural healings have been documented, and on one very windy day, an apparition of
Mary appeared in the sky above the shrine.

(Source: Los Angeles Weekly, USA)

Kansas (1996)
http://miracles.mcn.org

An egg-shaped plaster image of the Madonna, six inches high, had hung for a year in the
trailer home of Thomas and Margarita Holguin in Lewis, Kansas, without incident. But in the
pre-dawn hours of 12 December 1996, Margarita Holguin turned on the lights and saw what
looked like tears in the eyes of the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The phenomenon lasted
throughout the following day, and then the tears turned blood red, the couple said. "I don't
know what to think about it all," said Mrs Holguin. "I have never seen anything like this
before."

The phenomenon has drawn the attention of hundreds of people who have visited the
Holguins' home. December 12, the day Mrs Holguin first noticed the tears, is the day on which
the appearance of the Guadalupe Virgin in Mexico in 1531 is commemorated. The Holguins'
pastor, Father William Vogel, said: "There is no doubt that there were tears, and it seemed as
if blood was coming out of her eyes. I do not know what kind of natural explanation we can
give to this."

(Source: El Pais, Spain, Associated Press)
Virginia (1992)
http://miracles.mcn.org

A Catholic parish priest in Virginia has attracted national media attention, as well as thousands
of visitors to the local Catholic church, because of eyewitness accounts that he causes statues
of the Virgin Mary to weep tears or blood, and that he has stigmata on his wrists and feet
mirroring the wounds of Christ. The Rev. James Bruse, an unassuming associate pastor at St
Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Lake Ridge, Virginia, began experiencing these phenomena last
December, and told his superior, the priest who heads the parish. The priest, Father Daniel
Hamilton, reportedly saw the wounds on Bruse's wrists and a statue in Bruse's room producing
blood. Since then he has seen the crying and bleeding statues, as well as Bruse's stigmata,
numerous times, and says, "Of course I doubted it in the beginning ... And then... I saw some
of this stuff he'd been talking about. It's true. That's all I can tell you. It's true. It's true."

According to parish officials and church parishioners, many times during, before, or after a
church service, hundreds in attendance have seen the church's statue of the Virgin Mary cry.
Other statues on the parish grounds have been seen to weep as well. After Bruse celebrated
Mass at a nearby church, water reportedly began dripping from the church's wooden statue of
the Virgin Mary. The phenomena occur irregularly, and Bruse sometimes has only to be in the
statue's vicinity for the crying to begin. A Washington Post reporter who covered the story,
and personally witnessed a crying statue while interviewing Bruse, wrote, "There's gotta be a
trick here. It's as if the water is just appearing right out of the plaster and then rolling
downward. Proof positive you can be seeing something and still not believe you're seeing it."
Some church parishioners, however, are in no doubt. Tom Saunders, a local church-goer, has
photos of a weeping statue, and says one statue "cried in my hand". Saunders says he's seen
at least a dozen statues cry. "When you see it, it's hard to believe at first," he says. "But it's
there."

(Source: Washington Post; USA Today)

Louisiana (2012)
Faithful flock to witness 'bleeding' Mother Mary statue in Louisiana front garden
PUBLISHED: 22:24 GMT, 17 July 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

The faithful are flocking to a small Louisiana neighbourhood to witness a statue of Mother
Mary which they believe is bleeding.

The statue of the Mother Mary holding baby Jesus [Madonna] is in the front garden of a home
in Baton Rouge.

The home's owner, Hai Nguyen, was cutting his lawn when he looked up and saw blood on the
statue which seemed to be coming out of Marys temple, his family explained.




A neighbour, Kim Pham, told WLOX Channel 13 that the blood was dripping down the statue's
face.

Nguyens daughter translated to the news station for her father, 'He don't know how to explain
it. He just know that maybe God sent a message through Mary.'

Believing it was a real message from God, the family called everyone they knew to come and
see the bleeding Mary with their own eyes.

As news spread and more believers arrived, the family erected a gazebo for the faithful to
keep an overnight vigil in front of the statue.

Pham explained, 'So everybody come over and we pray all night last night. All night.'

Local priests have taken samples of the substance from the statue's face to determine what it
is, local stations reported.

A religious studies professor from Louisiana State University told CNN that the observation
demonstrates the devotion of these believers.

'One way to think about it is to see how this is real to those who devote themselves to Mary
and what that means to them as a kind of prayerful way to contemplate the role Mary in their
lives or Jesus in their lives and for many people it's empowering and it's a way to return to a
devotion.'

Michaelian Apparitions
The Encyclopedia of Angels
By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Numerous apparitions of Michael have been reported over the centuries, especially in the first
millennium of Christianity as he supplanted pagan gods of protection, battle, and healing.
These apparitions usually occurred on or near mountaintops or rocky outcrops, which became
the sites of healing springs and miracles. Shrines, churches, and even great abbeys were built
at these places and were dedicated to Michael. They have attracted countless pilgrims.

Some of the most famous Michael sites and their legends are:

Michaelion, Constantinople

The Michaelion church near Constantinople was built in the fifth century C.E. by the Emperor
Constantine because of an apparition of Michael. At the command of Mary, Queen of the
Angels, Michael came to the aid of Constantine in his battle against the pagan emperor
Maxentius. Constantine built the church for Michael in gratitude. After its completion, Michael
appeared there to the emperor and said, I am Michael, the chief of the angelic legions of the
Lord of hosts, the protector of the Christian religion, who while you were battling against
godless tyrants, placed the weapons in your hands.

Miracles attributed to Michael have been reported at the Michaelion over the centuries.

Eusebios, Constantinople

The church of Michael at Eusebios, Constantinople, acquired its importance from an apparition
of Michael that occurred during the reign of Emperor Michael III (842867) under the regency
of his mother, Theodora. Since the use of icons had recently been restored in Byzantine
worship (see IMAGES OF ANGELS), the story may have served to help reestablish the
importance of sacred images.

The story concerns a candlemaker named Marcianus, who was a pious servant of the shrine of
Michael. Marcianus was never ill. If he felt the slightest discomfort he would go into the church
and immediately recover. On one occasion when he felt poorly he went into the church but
took with him a medicinal poultice because doctors had convinced him it was necessary to do
so. As he slept that night in the shrinea customary practice at healing centershe had a
terrible dream vision. The doors of the church suddenly flew open and in rushed a fearful man
as out of the heaven, descending on a white and terrible steed. The man dismounted and
entered the church, escorted by men dressed in the garb of court officials. The church became
filled with a strange unworldly odor.

The mysterious man walked to where Marcianus lay on his cot. He examined him and asked
Marcianus about the poultice. He demanded to know who had dared to bring such medicine
into his house thus identifying himself as the namesake of the shrine, Michael. Marcianus told
him about the doctor who had insisted on the poultice and Michael ordered his assistants to
find him. Michael then led Marcianus to an icon of himself, which had a lit candle and small
dish of oil beside it. Michael dipped his finger in the oil and made the sign of the cross on
Marcianuss forehead. He then got back on his horse and rode off into the sky, the church
doors closing by themselves behind him. The next morning, Marcianus had a cross on his
forehead, which proved to the deacon the truth of his vision. The deacon learned that the
offending doctor had become mysteriously and seriously ill during the night. Marcianus visited
the doctor and then brought him on his bed into the church and told him to beg Michael for
forgiveness and mercy. He then imitated his own healing by dipping his finger in the icon oil
and drawing a cross on the forehead of the doctor. The doctor was miraculously healed, thus
establishing the model for successful healing.

Chonae, Phrygia, Asia Minor

The most important center of Michael devotion in the Byzantine world developed in Phrygia in
a syncretic mix of pagan, Jewish, and Christian angel cults popular in the early centuries after
Christ. The apostles Philip and John came to the town of Colossae (Chairetopa) and prophesied
the appearance of Michael there. Michael caused a medicinal spring to appear; anyone who
bathed there and invoked the Blessed Trinity and Michael was said to be cured. The miracles,
conversions, and baptisms at the spring aroused the jealousy of the pagan Hellenes. They
gathered a mob and dammed two rivers to combine them. The waters were directed onto
Colossae and the church at the spring. But Archippus, a God-fearing hermit who had settled at
the spring when just a boy, heard the roaring waters and called upon Michael (the
Archistrategos) for help. Michael appeared immediately in a clap of thunder, in the appearance
of a pillar of fire reaching from earth to heaven. He told Archippus to leave before he is
covered by water. But the sight of the awesome angel caused the hermit to fall on the ground
as though lifeless. Michael then told him to stand firm and witness the power of God. He
commanded the waters to stop, and they formed a wall as high as 10 persons. He struck the
rock with his staff, which sounded like thunder and shook the entire land. The rock opened.
Michael commanded the water, Funnel yourself into the funnel, and the water funneled into
the chasm. Thereafter, the town was called Chonae (funnels). Michael promised to guard the
place, and the waters were sanctified forever.

Monte Gargano, Italy

Apparitions of Michael appeared to the bishop of Siponto near Monte Gargano in Apulia, near
Naples, Italy, during the reign of Pope Gelasius (492496), leading to the establishment of a
healing shrine. Versions of the events, which resemble the Chonae story, date to the eighth
and ninth centuries.

One day a bull belonging to a wealthy man named Garganus became lost on a mountainside.
After a long search, Garganus found it inside a cave. Irritated at the bull, he shot an arrow at
it, but it turned in mid-air as if breathed upon by the wind and hit him instead. He went back
to the town of Siponto and told the story. The bishop undertook a fast of three days and three
nights to learn the cause of this mysterious event.

Michael came to the bishop in a dream and said, Let it be known to you that it occurred
because I willed it. For I am the Archangel Michael, he who always stands in the presence of
God. The bishop fasted a second time to be worthy of Michaels aid and presence. He had a
second vision.

On the third night, Michael appeared in a dream and identified himself. He said he had
intervened because he wished to dwell in this place on earth and guard all. The next day, the
bishop and some townsfolk visited the mountain and found two doors cut into its face.

In another dream, Michael told the bishop that the Sipontini and their allies, the Beneventi,
would win in a war against their heathen enemies, the Neapolitans. The next day, the
mountain was full of thunder, lightning, and darkness, which so frightened the Neapolitans
that they fled. The locals went up to the doors in the side of the mountain and entered a cave
where they found traces of the presence of Michael: a small trace, as if the footstep of a man
struck there in the marble. A shrine was begun there and was called the place of the
footprints.

The shrine was completed after a visit by Michael to the bishop. The bishop was uncertain how
to consecrate the chapel and was told by Michael in another vision not to consecrate it at all.
Michael told him, I myself have put it in order and consecrated it. You need only come and
approach with your entreaties since I am attending as master in that place. Michael told him
to return the next day and he would show the townspeople how the place would guide them.

The bishop did as instructed and found a chapel ready made and carved out of the living rock
as if by the hands of the archangel. He knew the angel had made it because it was too
irregular, rough, and full of corners and angles to have been made by human hands. A red
cloak covered the altar. A spring erupted nearby and became known for its healing properties.

The site attracted hordes of pilgrims. In the seventh century, the shrine was at a peak of
popularity, due in part to a Lombard victory over the Saracens in 663 that was attributed to
the help of Michael. According to lore, the Lombards, who went to the shrine to pay thanks for
their victory, found the imprint of Michaels foot near the south door of the temple.

St. Michaels Mount, England

In 495 in Cornwall, England, fishermen saw Michael standing on a ledge of rock atop a small
mount off the coast near Penzance. St. Michaels Mount, as it became known, was already an
important trading market and port. It took on new significance with its association with
Michael and became a hallowed place. In the sixth century it was visited by St. Cadoc, one of
the principal saints of Wales. According to legend, the saint needed water for his traveling
party, and he struck his staff into the rock, whereupon water sprang forth.

A Benedictine priory was built atop St. Michaels Mount in 1135 by Bernard Le Bec. The
community was enriched by the earls of Cornwall. But on September 11, 1275, an earthquake
destroyed the church. It was rebuilt in the 14th century. Between 1349 and 1362, the
religious community was nearly wiped out by the Black Plague. In 1649, the property passed
into private hands, the St. Aubyn family.

From the Middle Ages, St. Michaels Mount was a favorite pilgrimage. Pilgrims came to seek
answers to prayer, discharge vows, do penance, and seek healing. Many were spurred by the
incentive that all those who came to St. Michaels Mount with alms and oblations would receive
an indulgence of one-third of their penance. The indulgence was credited to Pope Gregory VII,
though probably it was a tradition started by the monks.

A goal of many pilgrims was to prove their faith by sitting on St. Michaels chair, a craggy
spot with a precipitous drop to the sea. Monks built a stone lantern chair atop the church
tower, not only to serve as a lighthouse but also perhaps as a more suitable substitute for the
unsafe outcropping. According to lore, the first of a married couple to sit on the chair will gain
mastery in married life.

Pilgrims also were attracted to the jawbone relic of Apollonia, a martyr and patron against
toothaches. Many miracles of healing were reported at St. Michaels Mount and credited to the
intercession of Michael.

The former priory is now a private residence, but much of the priory is open to public tours.
The church is active and is free from episcopal jurisdiction. A stone pillar marks the spot where
Michael appeared. When the tide is low, St. Michaels Mount can be accessed on foot across a
sand bar.

Mont St. Michel, France

In France, a similar but grander Benedictine abbey was built on Mont St. Michel, a huge quasi-
island rock 1 kilometer wide and 80 feet high, off the Normandy coast. Its isolation made it a
natural locale for pagan cults and hermits.

The story of Michaels apparitions bears similarities to the Monte Gargano lore, and, in fact, it
serves as a continuation of that story line.



The abbey of Mont St. Michel, Normandy, France

In 708, Michael appeared three times in dream visions to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches (a
nearby town), and instructed him to build a chapel there. The bishop did not believe Michael
and asked him to prove his identity. The angel pushed his finger through the bishops skull.
The bishop asked for more proof. Michael told him a stolen bull would be found at the top of
the rock. It was, but still Aubert was skeptical. Michael told him to send two messengers to
Monte Gargano, where they would be given the red cloak that Michael wore when he appeared
there and had left upon the altar, as well as a fragment of the altar on which he had set his
foot. The messengers were sent and they returned with the promised items. Convinced at last,
Aubert founded an oratory.

In 966 an abbey was founded there by Richard I, duke of Normandy. Construction of the
church began in 1020 and was finished in 1136. By the 12th century, Mont St. Michel was
called the City of Books and was a great center of learning. Many of the manuscripts kept by
the monks were lost during the French Revolution when the monks were expelled. In the late
18th and early 19th centuries, the abbey was used as a prison.

Between 1155 and 1424, Mont St. Michel had jurisdiction over St. Michaels Mount in Cornwall.
Access to the abbey was treacherous until the late 19th century. A slim land bridge connected
the rock to the mainland. But travelers could be taken unawares by swift and terrible tides,
and by constantly shifting quicksands. A causeway was built in 1879.

Mont St. Michel is now one of Frances greatest tourist attractions. The spiraling road up to the
abbey once walked by pilgrims is now lined on both sides by shops and restaurants. Inside the
entrance to the abbey is a large marble frieze depicting Michael pushing his finger through the
skull of the dreaming Aubert.

Spain

In Spain, where the cult of Michael peaked in popularity in about the 13th century, one of the
best-known apparitions is the 1455 appearance to a shepherd about halfway between
Navagamella and Fresnedillas, in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama. The sighting was
investigated in 1520, when some of the witnesses were still alive, and also in 1617.

According to testimony, Michael appeared late one afternoon in 1455 on a holm-oak tree and
a rockrose plant to shepherd Miguel Sanchez. Michael told the shepherd not to be frightened,
but to tell others that a shrine should be erected on the site and a brotherhood founded, both
in honor of the angelic messengers. Sanchez protested that no one would believe him, but
Michael insisted that he tell his employer. I will make them believe you so they build a shrine
here to the holy angels, he said. He then made an imprint of his hand on the tree.

However, Sanchez did not tell the story. A few days passed, and one morning he awakened
crippled. His legs were folded in a bizarre manner so that the backs of his calves touched his
thighs and his heels touched his buttocks. His employer, Pedro Garcia de Ayuso, tried
unsuccessfully to cure him with herbs and oils. At last Sanchez told of his vision. Garcia de
Ayuso consulted with authorities, and they carried the shepherd to the site of the apparition.
There they found the handprint on the tree trunk. It was considered proof, and plans were
made immediately for construction of a chapel. A mass was said there for the shepherds
health; when it was completed, he was cured and he stood up. Sanchez was named keeper of
the shrine.



Marian Apparitions
Wikipedia.org


A Marian apparition is an event in which the
Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have
supernaturally appeared to one or more people.
They are often given names based on the town in
which they were reported, or on the sobriquet
which was given to Mary on the occasion of the
apparition. They have been interpreted in
religious terms as theophanies.

Marian apparition at Reus, Spain

Marian apparitions sometimes are reported to
recur at the same site over an extended period of
time. In the majority of Marian apparitions only a
few people report having witnessed the
apparition. Exception to this includes Zeitoun and
Assiut where thousands claimed to have seen her
over a period of time.



Apparitions and appearances

The term "appearance" has been used in
different apparitions within a wide range of
contexts and experiences. And its use has
been different with respect to Marian
apparitions and visions of Jesus Christ.

LEFT: A photostatic copy of a page from
Ilustrao Portuguesa, October 29, 1917,
showing the crowd looking at the miracle of
the sun during the Ftima apparitions
(attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary)

In some apparitions such as Our Lady of
Lourdes or Our Lady of Ftima an actual
vision is reported, fully resembling that of a
person being present. In some of these
reports the viewers (at times children) do not
initially report that they saw the Virgin Mary,
but that they saw "a Lady" (often but not
always dressed in white) and had a
conversation with her. In these cases the
viewers report experiences that resemble the
visual and verbal interaction with a person
present at the site of the apparition. In most
cases, there are no clear indications as to the
auditory nature of the experience, i.e.
whether the viewers heard the voices via
airwaves or an "interior" or subjective sense
of communication. Yet, the 1973 messages of
Our Lady of Akita, which were approved at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in
1988 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) are due to Sister Agnes Katsuko
Sasagawa who had been totally deaf before 1973 (and remained deaf until 1982 when she
was cured during Sunday Mass as foretold in her messages), suggesting means of
communication other than airwaves.

In some apparitions just an image is reported, often with no verbal interaction, and no
conversation. An example is the reported apparitions at Our Lady of Assiut in which many
people reported a bright image atop a building, accompanied by photographs of the image.
The photographs at times suggest the silhouette of a statue of the Virgin Mary but the images
are usually subject to varying interpretations, and critics suggest that they may just be due to
various visual effects of unknown origin. However, such image-like appearances are hardly
ever reported for visions of Jesus and Mary. In most cases these involve some form of
reported communication.

And apparitions should be distinguished from interior locutions in which no visual contact is
claimed. In some cases of reported interior locutions such as those of Father Stefano Gobbi a
large amount of text is produced, but no visual contact is claimed. Interior locutions usually do
not include an auditory component, but consist of inner voices. Interior locutions are generally
not classified as apparitions.

Physical contact is hardly ever reported as part of Marian apparitions, unlike in cases of
interaction with Jesus Christ. In rare cases a physical artifact is reported in apparitions. A well
known example is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe which is reported to have been
miraculously imprinted on the cloak of Saint Juan Diego.

Catholic belief

According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the era of public revelation ended with the
death of the last living Apostle. A Marian apparition, if deemed genuine by Church authority, is
treated as private revelation that may emphasize some facet of the received public revelation
for a specific purpose, but it can never add anything new to the deposit of faith. The Church
will confirm an apparition as worthy of belief, but belief is never required by divine faith. The
Holy See has officially confirmed the apparitions at Guadalupe, Saint-tienne-le-Laus, Paris
(Rue du Bac, Miraculous Medal), La Salette, Lourdes, Ftima, Portugal, Pontmain, Beauraing,
and Banneux.

As a historical pattern, Vatican approval of apparitions seems to have followed general
acceptance of a vision by well over a century in most cases. According to Father Salvatore M.
Perrella of the Marianum Pontifical Institute in Rome, of the 295 reported apparitions studied
by the Holy See through the centuries only 12 have been approved, the latest being the May
2008 approval of the 17th- and 18th-century apparitions of Our Lady of Laus. Other
apparitions continue to be approved at the local level, e.g. the December, 2010 local approval
of the 19th-century apparitions of Our Lady of Good Help, the first recognized apparition in the
United States.

An authentic apparition is believed not to be a subjective experience, but a real and objective
intervention of divine power. The purpose of such apparitions is to recall and emphasize some
aspect of the Christian message. The church states that cures and other miraculous events are
not the purpose of Marian apparitions, but exist primarily to validate and draw attention to the
message. Apparitions of Mary are held to be evidence of her continuing active presence in the
life of the church, through which she "cares for the brethren of her son who still journey on
earth".

Not all claims of visitations are dealt with favourably by the Roman Catholic Church. For
example, claimed apparitions of Our Lady, under the title of "Our Lady of the Roses, Mary,
Help of Mother's", , Jesus Christ and various saints at Bayside, New York have not been
condoned or sanctioned in any way, nor those at the Necedah Shrine in Necedah, Wisconsin.
The behavior of Ms Veronica Lueken and Mary Ann Van Hoof, who claimed these heavenly
favors, was deemed not to compare favorably with the "quiet pragmatism" of St. Bernadette
Soubirous Church authorities are said to use Bernadette as a model by which to judge all
who purport to have visitations. Indeed, both women seriously criticized the Roman Catholic
Church hierarchy, allegedly even harshly, and Mrs. Van Hoof is said to have subsequently left
Roman Catholicism for an independent local Old Catholic Church.

Possibly the best-known apparition sites are Lourdes and Ftima Over sixty spontaneous
healings, out of thousands reported at the Lourdes Spring, have been classified as
"inexplicable" by the physicians of the Lourdes Bureau, a medical centre set up by the Church
in association with local medical institutes to assess possible miracles. The Three Secrets of
Ftima received a great deal of attention in the Catholic and secular press.

Criteria for evaluating apparitions

In 1978 the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly of the Holy Office)
issued "Norms of the Congregation for Proceeding in Judging Alleged Apparitions and
Revelations" containing the following provisions:

The diocesan bishop can initiate a process on his own initiative or at the request of the
faithful to investigate the facts of an alleged apparition. The bishop may refrain from
looking into it if he chooses, especially if he thinks that not much will come of the
event.
The national conference of bishops may intervene if the local diocesan bishop refers it
to him or if the event becomes important nationally or at least in more than one
diocese.
The Apostolic See (the Vatican) can also intervene at the request of the local bishop
himself, at the request of a group of the faithful, or on its own initiative.

The steps of the investigation are mandated as follows:

1. An initial evaluation of the facts of the alleged event, based on both positive and
negative criteria:

Positive Criteria

moral certainty (the certainty required to act morally in a situation of doubt) or at
least great probability as to the existence of a private revelation at the end of a
serious investigation into the case
evaluation of the personal qualities of the person in question (mental balance,
honesty, moral life, sincerity, obedience to Church authority, willingness to
practice faith in the normal way, etc.)
evaluation of the content of the revelations themselves (that they do not disagree
with faith and morals of the Church, freedom from theological errors)
the revelation results in healthy devotion and spiritual fruits in people's lives
(greater prayer, greater conversion of heart, works of charity that result, etc.)

Negative Criteria

glaring errors in regard to the facts
doctrinal errors attributed to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or to the Holy Spirit in
how they appear
any pursuit of financial gain in relation to the alleged event
gravely immoral acts committed by the person or those associated with the person
at the time of the event
psychological disorders or tendencies on the part of the person or persons
associated

2. After this initial investigation, if the occurrence meets the criteria, positive and
negative, an initial cautionary permission can be granted that basically states: "for the
moment, there is nothing opposed to it". This permits public participation in the
devotion in regard to the alleged apparition.
3. Ultimately, a final judgment and determination needs to be given, giving approval or
condemnation of the event.


Local diocese approval

If the local bishop authorizes devotion inspired by an apparition to proceed, based on an initial
assessment, that permission is to be distinguished from formal approval, which recognizes an
event as being supernatural in origin. Such approval may follow years or even centuries later.
A recent example of such a delay is the case of Our Lady of Laus, in which devotion was
approved by the local diocese in 1665, but which obtained formal recognition as a
supernatural event only in 2008.

Moreover, Marian apparitions often involve complications at the local diocese, and a letter of
approval or disapproval from a local bishop, does not automatically signal approval or denial.
A recent example is the apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho in the 1980s in Kibeho, Rwanda. In
1982 the teenagers who saw the visions reported truly gruesome sights and said that the
Virgin Mary asked everyone to pray to prevent a terrible war. Some today regard the visions
as an ominous foreshadowing of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, and particularly in that
specific location in 1995, where some teenagers died a decade after their vision. The
apparitions were accepted by the local bishop (accused by many of complicity in the genocide
himself), but have not been given final approval by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith.

Apparitions and statues

Marian apparitions are sometimes reported along with weeping statues of the Virgin Mary.
However, to date only one single example of a combined weeping statue and apparition
(namely Our Lady of Akita) has been approved by the Vatican and the rest have usually been
dismissed as hoaxes.

Impact of apparitions

While Marian apparitions may at times seem like fanciful tales even to devout Catholics,
factual analysis indicates that the effect of apparitions on the Roman Catholic Church has been
significant.

Marian apparitions have led to, or affected, the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Mariology and
the lives of millions of Roman Catholics in several ways:

The conversion of millions of people to Roman Catholicism.
The construction of some of the largest Roman Catholic Marian churches ever.
The formation of the largest Marian Movements and Societies ever.
The spread of Marian devotions (such as the rosary) to millions of people.
The declaration of specific Marian dogmas and doctrines.
Hundreds of millions of Marian pilgrimages.

A few cases can illustrate these items.

Conversions and shrines



Above: Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

By all accounts, when Juan Diego, age 57, reported the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe
on Tepeyac hill in Mexico in 1531, he did not receive a lot of attention in Rome, since the
Church was busy with the challenges of the Protestant Reformation of 1521 to 1579 and
perhaps very few Cardinals in Rome had ever heard the details of Mexico and its environs. Yet,
just as a large number of people were leaving the Catholic Church in Europe as a result of the
Reformation, Our Lady of Guadalupe was instrumental in adding almost 8 million people to the
ranks of Catholics in the Americas between 1532 and 1538. The number of Catholics in South
America has grown significantly over the centuries. Eventually with tens of millions of
followers, Juan Diego had an effect on Mariology in the Americas and beyond, and was
eventually declared venerable in 1987. Juan Diego was declared a saint in 2002. Furthermore,
the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill in Mexico is now the third largest
Catholic Church in the world, after Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome and the Basilica of the
National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil. Recent reported apparitions such as
Medjugorje have also attracted a large following.

Societies and devotions

The Marian apparition of Our Lady of Ftima on a remote mountain top to three young
Portuguese children in 1917 also seemed fanciful and the local administrator initially jailed the
children and threatened that he would boil them one by one in a pot of oil. However, over the
years the effect of Ftima has been undeniable. With over 25 million registered Catholic
members, the Blue Army of Our Lady of Ftima (which was approved by Pope Pius XII in
1947) is the largest Marian Society in the world. And the message of Ftima has inspired the
spread of other devotions. An example is Our Lady's Rosary Makers formed by Brother Sylvan
Mattingly in 1949 with $25 to distribute free rosaries, based on his devotion to Ftima. Our
Lady's Rosary Makers has since distributed hundreds of millions of free rosaries to Catholic
missions worldwide.

Mariology

Marian apparitions such as Our Lady of Lourdes (which
promoted Immaculate Conception) have also
influenced the direction of Roman Catholic Mariology,
as illustrated by the ex cathedra exercise of Papal
infallibility on the dogma of Immaculate Conception.
This also illustrated that unlike most Roman Catholic
theology which originates from the upper levels of the
Church, Mariology has quite often been driven from the
ground up by the tens of millions of Catholics with a
special devotion to the Blessed Virgin. As Marian
apparitions create strong emotions among large
numbers of Roman Catholics, they lead to sensus
fidelium. This strong response among Catholics in turn
influences the higher levels of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy as sensus fidei gains strength.

LEFT: Murillo's Immaculate Conception, 1650


To this end, the official Vatican website Agenzia Fides stated in 2004 that:

"The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was defined by Pius IX not so much
because of proofs in Scripture or ancient tradition, but due to a profound sensus
fidelium, a century-old sense of the faithful, and the Magisterium".

The Vatican quotes in this context the encyclical Fulgens Corona, where Pius XII supported
such a faith. In several Marian teachings, the "theology of the people" such as the immaculate
Conception, the profound and century-old sense of the faithful has taken precedence over
academic theology.

Pilgrimages

Marian apparitions are also responsible for tens of millions of Marian pilgrimages per year.
About 5 million pilgrims visit Lourdes every year and within France only Paris has more hotels
than Lourdes. And about 10 million pilgrims visit Our Lady of Guadalupe each year, where
each mass can accommodate up to 40,000 people. Thus each decade, just Lourdes and
Guadalupe amount to over one hundred million Catholic pilgrimages, based on Marian
apparitions to two people on two remote hilltops.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ftima also attracts a large number of Roman Catholics, and
every year pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the shrine with crowds that approach one
million on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of Fatima apparitions. Overall, about
four million pilgrims visit the basilica every year.

In Canada, millions of Americans and Canadians have visited the national shrine of Our Lady
of the Cape, in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, where the first pilgrimages began in 1888.

Historical feasts

A number of feasts based on historical traditions involving apparitions are celebrated in the
Roman Catholic Church. These apparitions do not technically fall in the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith approved category, since they generally predate the formation of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1542. They are recognized based on the papal
declaration of the feast day rather than formal analysis by the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith.

Our Lady of the Pillar

LEFT: Our Lady of the Pillar statue, Zaragoza, a key
piece of Marian art.

In the year 39 AD, according to tradition, the Virgin
Mary appeared to Saint James the Great, in
Zaragoza, Spain. The vision is now called Our Lady of
the Pillar and is the only reported Marian apparition
before her Assumption. The Basilica of Our Lady of the
Pillar was built in Zaragoza, Spain and a key piece of
Roman Catholic Marian art, the statue of Our Lady of
the Pillar, refers to this apparition.




Our Lady of the Snow

Our Lady of the Snow is based on a legend that during the pontificate of Pope Liberius, during
the night of August the 5th, snow fell on the summit of the Esquiline Hill in Rome. And based
on a vision that same night a basilica was built in honour of Our Lady, on the spot which was
covered with snow.

The church built there is now the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and the feast was
celebrated at that church for centuries on August 5 each year. However, there was no of
mention of this alleged miracle in historical records until a few hundred years later, not even
by Pope Sixtus III in his dedicatory inscription, and it may be that the legend has no historical
basis. However, in the 14th century the feast was extended to all the churches of Rome and
finally it was made a universal feast by Pope Pius V.

Our Lady of Walsingham

According to the tradition of Our Lady of Walsingham, the Virgin Mary appeared in a vision to
Richeldis de Faverches, a devout Saxon noblewoman, in 1061 in Walsingham, England,
instructing her to construct a shrine resembling the place of the Annunciation. The shrine
passed into the care of the Canons Regular sometime between 1146 and 1174.

Late in 1538, King Henry VIIIs soldiers sacked the priory at Walsingham, killed two monks
and destroyed the shrine. In 1897 Pope Leo XIII re-established the restored 14th century
Slipper Chapel as a Roman Catholic shrine. The Holy House had been rebuilt at the Catholic
Church of the Annunciation at King's Lynn (Walsingham was part of this Catholic parish in
1897).

Today there are two shrines at Walsingham: the Roman Catholic shrine centered on the
Slipper Chapel and the Holy House maintained by the Church of England. There are also two
separate feast days: September 24 in the Roman Catholic Church and October 15 in the
Anglican Communion.
Our Lady of the Rosary

The apparition of Our Lady of the Rosary is by tradition attributed to Saint Dominic in 1208
in the church of Prouille, in France. According to the attribution, the Virgin Mary appeared to
Saint Dominic and introduced him to the rosary.

Some sources suggest that Alan de Rupe (rather than Saint Dominic) was the major
influence on the rosary in the 15th century, while other sources seek a middle ground to these
two views. For centuries, Dominicans became instrumental in spreading the rosary and
emphasizing the Catholic belief in the power of the rosary.

In 1571 Pope Pius V instituted "Our Lady of Victory" as an annual feast to commemorate the
victory of Lepanto, the victory being attributed to Our Lady. In 1969, Pope Paul VI changed
the name of the feast to Our Lady of the Rosary.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to Saint Simon Stock, who was Prior
General of the Carmelite Order in the mid 13th century. The earliest reference to the tradition
of his Marian apparition, dating from the late 14th century, states that "St. Simon was an
Englishman, a man of great holiness and devotion, who always in his prayers asked the Virgin
to favor his Order with some singular privilege. The Virgin appeared to him holding the Brown
Scapular in her hand saying, This is for you and yours a privilege; the one who dies in it will
be saved." A scapular is an apron-like garment that forms part of the Carmelite religious habit,
and in the original context the Blessed Virgin Mary's promise was an assurance that religious
who persevered in their vocation would be saved; beginning in the latter half of the 16th
century the small devotional scapular became very popular as a sacramental.

The historicity of Saint Simon Stock's vision is disputed, and as a result today neither the
liturgy for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (which originally had no association with
scapular devotion, but began to be strongly connected with Saint Simon Stock's vision in the
17th century), nor that of Saint Simon Stock make any reference to the vision of Mary or the
scapular. The Brown Scapular itself remains warmly approved and recommended by the
Catholic Church. Various devotional sources quote an interview with Lucia Santos in which she
speaks about the Brown Scapular, saying "Our Lady wants all to wear the Scapular", especially
when praying the Rosary, because "the Rosary and Scapular are inseparable".

Approved apparitions

A Roman Catholic approved Marian apparition is one that has been examined by the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith either based on the criteria listed above (or internal
procedures in place before that) and has been granted approval either through the local
Bishop based on the direction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or received a
direct approval from the Holy See.

Although a local bishop may provide a preliminary assessment (and allow the devotion to
proceed forward), formal approval can only be provided after detailed analysis by the Holy
See. For instance, although the apparitions at Our Lady of Laus were recognized by the local
diocese in 1665, they received approval from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
centuries later, in 2008.

Apparitions favored by the Holy See usually:

Become the site of major Roman Catholic Marian churches such as Lourdes, France or
the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill in Mexico.
Receive papal visits such as Popes Paul VI's, John Paul II's and Benedict XVI's visits to
Ftima, Portugal and Beauraing, Belgium.

However, a papal visit does not amount to a formal approval.

Some apparitions such as in Assiut, Egypt have been approved by the Coptic Church and can
be called approved but not Roman Catholic approved.


Vatican approved


Our Lady of Guadalupe

The 1531 apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe was
reported by Saint Juan Diego. He said he saw an early
morning vision of the Virgin Mary in which he was
instructed to build an abbey on the Hill of Tepeyac in
Mexico. The local prelate did not believe his account and
asked for a miraculous sign, which was later provided as
an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe permanently
imprinted on the saints cloak where he had gathered
roses. Over the years, Our Lady of Guadalupe became a
symbol of the Catholic faith in Mexico and the Mexican
diaspora.


Our Lady of Laus

The apparitions of Our Lady of Laus
between 1664 and 1718 in Saint-
tienne-le-Laus, France by Benote
Rencurel, a young shepherdess are
the first Marian apparitions to be
approved in the 21st century by the
Roman Catholic Church. The
apparitions were recognized by the
diocese of the Roman Catholic Church
on September 18, 1665. They were
approved by the Vatican on May 5,
2008. Currently, the site where the
apparitions took place receives more
than 120,000 pilgrims a year.



Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

The vision of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal is said to have appeared to Saint Catherine
Labour in 1830 in the convent of Rue du Bac, Paris. She reported that one night in the
chapel, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her and asked that a medallion be made to a
design that she dictated. The lady added that, "All who wear this medal will receive great
graces." After spending two years examining her claims, her priest eventually took the
information to his archbishop. The medal eventually produced came to be referred to as the
Miraculous Medal. The front of the medal
displays a picture of the virgin as she
appeared to Catherine Labour. The
design on the reverse includes the letter
M and a cross. Pope John Paul II used a
slight variation of the reverse image as
his coat of arms, the Marian Cross. This
is a plain cross with an M underneath the
right-hand bar, to signify the Blessed
Virgin standing at the foot of the Cross
while Jesus was being crucified.

Sister Justine Bisqueyburu is said to
have also had an apparition in 1840
within the same chapel at Rue du Bac as
Saint Catherine Labour. These
visitations instituted the Green Scapular which involves a very simple devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary and is associated with healing. The Green Scapular has its own
association but has not yet been approved by the Holy See and does not have an associated
confraternity.

Our Lady of La Salette

The apparitions of Our Lady of La Salette were reported in La Salette in France in 1846 by two
shepherd children, Mlanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, followed by numerous accounts of
miraculous healings. The Roman Catholic Church investigated the claims and found them to be
basically credible. However, in the late 19th century controversy surrounded the claims of one
of the seers, Mlanie Calvat in a France hostile to religion. Recent releases from the Vatican
Secret Archives may have clarified the situation to some extent, but some controversy still
remains attached to this apparition.

Our Lady of Lourdes

In 1858 Saint Bernadette Soubirous was a 14-year-old shepherd girl who lived near the
town of Lourdes in France. One day she reported a vision of a miraculous Lady who identified
Herself as "the Immaculate Conception" in subsequent visions. In the second vision she was
asked to return again and she had 18 visions overall. According to Saint Bernadette, the Lady
held a string of Rosary beads and led Saint Bernadette to the discovery of a buried spring, also
requesting that the local priests build a chapel at the site of the visions and lead holy
processions there. Eventually, a number of chapels and churches were built at Lourdes as the
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes - which is now a major Catholic pilgrimage site. One of
these churches, the Basilica of St. Pius X can accommodate 25,000 people and was dedicated
by the future Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France.

Our Lady of Hope

The apparitions at Our Lady of Pontmain, France, also called Our Lady of Hope, were
reported in 1871 by a number of young children.

The final approval for the apparitions of Our Lady of Hope was given in 1932 by Eugenio
Cardinal Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII.

Our Lady of Ftima


The visions of the Virgin Mary appearing to
three shepherd children, Lcia dos Santos
with her cousins Jacinta and Francisco
Marto, at Our Lady of Ftima in Portugal in
1917 were declared worthy of belief by the
Catholic Church in 1930. Five popes Pope
Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope
John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have
supported the Ftima messages as
supernatural. Pope John Paul II was
particularly attached to Ftima and credited
Our Lady of Ftima with saving his life after
he was shot in Rome on the Feast Day of Our
Lady of Ftima in May 1981. He donated the
bullet that wounded him on that day to the
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ftima. Pope
Benedict XVI, in May 13, 2010, pray and
gave the second Golden Rose to Our Lady of
Ftima and also had pronounced in front of
more than 500,000 pilgrims a reference to
the Ftima prophecy about the triumph of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

LEFT: Lcia dos Santos with her cousins
Jacinta and Francisco Marto, at Ftima,
Portugal, 1917.




In 1925, eight years after the Ftima events, Sister Lcia reported another set of
apparitions, which became known as the Pontevedra apparitions. Also Blessed
Alexandrina of Balasar reported several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary (following
the Our Lady of Ftima request of World Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary).

Our Lady of Beauraing

The 33 apparitions of Our Lady of Beauraing were reported in Belgium between November
1932 and January 1933 by five local children ranging in age from 9 to 15 years. From 1933
to World War II, pilgrims flocked to the little village of Beauraing. The final approbation for the
apparition was granted on July 2, 1949 under the authority of the Holy Office by the decree of
Andre-Marie Charue, Bishop of Namur, Belgium. These apparitions are also known as the
Virgin of the Golden Heart.

Our Lady of Banneux

The apparitions of Our Lady of Banneux were reported by a young child, Mariette Beco, a
native of Banneux, Belgium in the 1930s. They are also known as the Virgin of the Poor. The
apparitions were approved by the Roman Catholic Church in 1949.

Beco reported eight visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary between January 15 and March 2, 1933.
She reported seeing a Lady in White who declared herself to be the Virgin of the Poor and
told her: "Believe in me and I will believe in you". In one vision, the Lady reportedly asked
Mariette to drink from a small spring and later said that the spring was for healing. Over time
the site drew pilgrims. Today, the small spring yields about 2,000 gallons of water a day with
many reports of miraculous healings.

Our Lady of Akita

The apparitions of Our Lady of Akita were reported in 1973 by Sister Agnes Katsuko
Sasagawa in the remote area of Yuzawadai, near the city of Akita in Japan. For several
decades, Agnes Sasagawa had encountered many health problems but her health reportedly
improved after drinking water from Lourdes. After going totally deaf, she went to live with the
nuns in the remoteness of Yuzawadai. In 1973 she reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary, as
well as stigmata and a weeping statue of the Virgin Mary which continued to weep over
the next 6 years on 101 occasions. According to EWTN, in June 1988 Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, gave definitive judgement on Our Lady of Akita events and messages as reliable and
worthy of belief.

Roman Catholic approved by a local ordinary
Our Lady of Kibeho

The apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho began on November 28, 1981 in the African college of
Kibeho, Rwanda. The Virgin Mary repeatedly appeared to Alphonsine Mumureke, Nathalie
Mukamazimpaka, and Marie Claire Mukangango. The apparition identified herself in the
native Rwandan dialect as Nyina wa Jambo", ("Mother of the Word") which is synonymous
to "Mother of God. The apparitions communicated various messages to the schoolchildren,
urging the people to love each other, and warning of an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda
descending into violence and hatred, foretelling the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. In 2001 the
Holy See released a declaration approving the apparitions. The Marian sanctuary at Kibeho
was named "Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows" in 1992, two years before the genocide. An
estimated 500,000 pilgrims visit the site every year.

Our Lady of Good Success

The apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success began on the 2nd of February 1594 at the
Conceptionist Convent in Quito, Ecuador. The Virgin Mary repeatedly appeared to Venerable
Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, identifying herself as 'Our Lady of Good Success'. The
apparition requested that a statue be made in her likeness and made several predictions
concering a crisis in the church specifically a fall in vocations, a lack of availability of the
sacraments and a fall in moral standards in the 20th century. The apparitions were approved
by the local Bishop, Salvador de Riber on the 2nd of February 1611. In 1991 The Vatican
granted the canonical coronation of our Lady of Good Success as 'Queen of Quito' after being
petitioned by the Archbishop of Quito.

Our Lady of Good Help

One year after the apparitions in Lourdes, In Robinsonville (now called Champion) WI, a young
Belgian immigrant woman named Adele Brise was walking through a wooded area when she
saw a beautiful woman standing between a maple and a hemlock tree. She saw the lady again
on her way to Mass, and walked past her again. After Mass she told her priest about the
apparition, and he told her to ask the Lady "In God's name, who are you and what do you
want of me?" When Adele walked past the spot again, the Lady was there, and Adele asked
what she was told by the priest. The Lady replied, "I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for
the conversion of sinners." She gave Adele the mission to teach the children of the area their
Catechism, which Adele did faithfully. Soon after, Adele's father built a small chapel between
the trees, and later two more churches were built on the spot before the present brick church,
built in 1942. The apparitions were approved on December 8, 2010, by Bishop David Ricken of
the Diocese of Green Bay.

Coptic approved

Some apparitions taking place within the Coptic Orthodox Church have been approved by
Coptic authorities. For an apparition to be approved, the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church
sends an official delegation made of bishops and priests, all of whom must witness the
apparition and document miracles associated with it.

Our Lady of Zeitoun

Our Lady of Zeitoun was a mass Marian apparition that occurred in the Zeitoun district of
Cairo, Egypt, over a period of 23 years beginning on April 2, 1968, in the period after the six
day war. It was reportedly witnessed by many thousands of people, including Egyptian
President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and captured by newspaper photographers and Egyptian
television. According to witnesses, the Virgin Mary appeared in different forms over the Coptic
Orthodox Church of Saint Mary at Zeitoun for a period of 23 years. The apparitions lasted
from a few minutes up to several hours and were sometimes accompanied by dove-shaped
luminous bodies. The sick and blind are said to have been cured, and many people converted
to Christianity as a result. In a statement dated May 4, 1968, the Patriarchate of Cairo and
Kyrillos VI stated that they considered the events at Zeitoun as valid, and that they had
received many reports of immediate healings during the reported apparitions.

Our Lady of Assiut

The apparitions of Our Lady of Assiut were also mass apparitions in Assiut, Egypt during 2000
and 2001 and many thousands of witnesses produced photographs of them, which were
reprinted in several newspapers. Video clips of the apparition have been posted on the
internet. The reports state that during mass, pictures hung on the wall inside the altar, which
show St Mary with a dove above her started to illuminate first, then the light from the dove in
the pictures started to flow down. The lights thereafter appeared above the church as well and
were seen by thousands of people. The coptic church approved of the apparitions.

Anglican approved


The Anglican Communion has officially recognized the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes and
has built an Anglican Marian Shrine on the location, relatively close the Roman Catholic shrine.
In September 2008 Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury made a pilgrimage to
Lourdes and preached at the shrine.

Our Lady of Walsingham

Father Alfred Hope Patten OSA, appointed as the Church of England Vicar of Walsingham in
1921, ignited Anglican interest in the pre-Reformation pilgrimage. It was his idea to create a
new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham based on the image depicted on the seal of the
medieval priory. In 1922 the statue was set up in the Parish Church of Saint Mary and regular
pilgrimage devotion followed. From the first night that the statue was placed there, people
gathered around it to pray, asking Mary to join her prayers with theirs. In the United States
the National Shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham for the Episcopal Church is located in Grace
Episcopal Church, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Our Lady of Walsingham is remembered by Roman
Catholics on 24 September and by Anglicans on 15 October. A parish of the Pastoral Provision
named for Our Lady of Walsingham is in Houston, Texas. A Western Rite Antiochian Orthodox
parish named for Our Lady of Walsingham is in Mesquite, Texas.
Not Approved or Approval is Undocumented

A list of some of the notable reports of Marian apparitions is provided below. The apparitions
discussed here do not have approval, and only those apparitions listed and explained in the
sections above have received either Roman Catholic or Coptic approval, and the others shown
in the table here are simply based on legend, reports of individuals or are still awaiting
approval. There are hundreds of other reported apparitions around the world without major
references or church investigations and they can not be included in this section, due to their
lack of notability.

Our Lady of Walsingham

A number of claimed apparition sites which have yet to be fully approved continue to gather
pilgrims and become the site of major Marian basilicas. The apparitions at these sites are often
the subject of legends. An example is Our Lady of Walsingham where according to legend the
Blessed Virgin appeared in a vision to a noblewoman in 1061 and her son built a simple
wooden structure there which later became an abbey. No details of the content of vision have
been preserved, but pilgrims continued to arrive at Walsingham for centuries until 1st Earl of
Sussex destroyed it in 1538.


Our Lady of Guardia

The 1490 apparition reported by Italian
peasant Benedetto Pareto regarding Our
Lady of Guardia is somewhat similar, but has
a happier ending. Pareto also reported that
the Virgin Mary appeared to him and asked
him to build a church atop the mountain.
Pareto at first refused, saying that he was
just a poor man, but he eventually built a
small wooden structure which in time
gathered many pilgrims. The Shrine of Our
Lady of Guardia is now a thriving basilica atop
Mount Figogna, near Genoa, Italy.

Our Lady of Aparecida

Some major Marian basilicas and traditions
are based on legends that do not involve any
specific apparitions, but sacred objects that
are assumed to have been associated with
apparitions. The key example is the Basilica
of the National Shrine of Our Lady of
Aparecida in Aparecida, Brazil. It is the
second-largest Catholic place of worship in
the world, second only to St. Peter's Basilica
in Vatican City, and the largest Marian Church
in the world, receiving over 6 million pilgrims
a year. There is no specific vision or
apparition associated with Our Lady of
Aparecida, and it is based on a simple wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin (found by
fishermen) which over the centuries drew millions of pilgrims, based on its reported healing
powers. The festivals surrounding Our Lady of Chiquinquir in Venezuela are based on a piece
of wood which according to legend grew luminous with the image of the Blessed Virgin in
1709. In the case of Our Lady of Kazan, legend holds that the Blessed Virgin revealed the
location of the precious icon to a 10 year old girl in 1579.

Our Lady of Good Health

The Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Tamil Nadu in southern India does however have a
legend that involves a number of apparitions. There is no historical record of the apparition of
Our Lady of Good Health but the oral tradition suggests that there was an apparition to a
Hindu boy in mid 16th century and later Portuguese sailors were saved by another
apparition. Also another one major Marian apparitions in India is of Korattymuthy at Koratty
in Kerala.

Our Lady of La Vang

Similarly, the legend Our Lady of La Vang is based on an apparition to a group of
Vietnamese Catholics in the rain forest in 1798, and the site of a basilica.
Our Lady of Siluva

The Basilica of Our Lady of Siluva in Siluva, Lithuania is also based on a legend of an
apparition to four children in 1608, and houses a famous painting (perhaps based on Salus
Populi Romani) called Our Lady of Siluva, usually considered Lithuania's greatest treasure.

Our Lady of China

Although both She Shan Basilica in Shanghai, China and Our Lady of China in Donglu, near
Beijing, were popular pilgrimage sites at one time, with the arrest and imprisonment of the
Catholic bishops in the 1950s by the communists and with the establishment of the Chinese
Patriotic Catholic Association against the Vatican, these pilgrimages have slowed down.

Our Lady of Lichen

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lichen, the largest church
in Poland (and the 11th largest in the world) is based on
legends on the Virgin Mary appearing to different people
in the Lichen area in the early 19th century.


Our Lady of Good Help

The apparitions of Our Lady of Good Help were reported by Adele Brise in 1859. In December
2010, Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin approved the apparition as worthy of
belief, as the first Marian apparition to be approved in the United States at the local level.


Our Lady of Knock

The Basilica of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland is based on a
reported appearance of the Virgin Mary along with Jesus
Christ and other saints in Ireland in 1879.


The Lourdes of Slovakia

Between 1958 and 1962, Mathew Lashut reported several apparitions of the Virgin Mary on
a forest near Turzovka, a town in north-western Slovakia. This apparition was predicted to
come about as a second Lourdes" or "the Lourdes of Slovakia by the German Catholic mystic
and stigmatic Therese Neumann.

Our Lady of Kibeho

The reported apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho in 1982 included exceptionally long and
dramatic visions lasting eight hours. According to the teenage visionaries, in 1982 the Virgin
Mary asked everyone to pray to prevent a terrible war. A war and genocide eventually took
place at the same location in 1995 and claimed the lives of some of visionaries. The
apparitions were accepted by the local Roman Catholic bishop, Bishop Misago, but have not
been given final approval by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The bishop himself
went on trial for nine months on charges of involvement in the genocide but was not
convicted.

Our Lady of Kibeho has received recognition from the local diocese, but there has been no
formal approval from the Holy See.

Our Lady of America

The reported apparitions of Our Lady of America in 1956 in Rome City, Indiana, did receive a
positive response from the local bishop and have been Canonically-approved by several
Archbishops and Bishops, but no decision has been rendered with regard to the supernatural
origin and characters of the reported apparitions. Pilgrims arrive daily to pray and offer their
devotion in the Our Lady Mother of Mercy Chapel which sits on the grounds of what is now
called Sylvan Springs.

Our Lady of Pellevoisin

The fact that pilgrims continue arriving at a reported apparition site and the fact that church
figures a continent away may be sympathetic towards the apparition does not mean that
approval has been obtained. For instance, although the Village of Pellevoisin in France does
receive pilgrims, and there is a small shrine of Our Lady of Pellevoisin in St. Paul's church in
New York, according to the University of Dayton Marian Library, archbishops of Bourges have
never pronounced on the subject of Pellevoisin and have been very reserved on the topic.
However, various independent (and colorful) lists of apparitions websites declare Pellevoisin as
approved, with no clear reference for the approval.

The Lady of all Nations

The apparitions reported between 1945 and 1959 by Ida Peerdeman in Amsterdam as The
Lady of all Nations include a short prayer called the Amsterdam Blessing. In May 2002,
Bishop Jozef Marianus Punt of Haarlem-Amsterdam issued a letter that declared this apparition
as having a supernatural origin. However, this apparition has not been officially approved by
the Holy See, and has approval only at the local bishop level.



Our Lady of Litmanov

Between 1990 and 1995, two young girls -
Ivetka Korcakova (born 1978) and Katka
Ceselkova (born 1977) - reported several
apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary under
the title of The Immaculate Purity on the
Zvir Mountain, in Litmanov, a village of
northern Slovakia. During these religious
events, the visionaries were accompanied by
many priests and now there is a Marian
shrine on the place of apparitions. Many
people, not only Slovaks, make pilgrimages
to this location to celebrate the Divine Liturgy
and obtain water from a holy stream.

Virgin of the Eucharist

Since 1992, some reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Virgin of
the Eucharist in Manduria, south of Italy, are also receiving much attention worldwide, in
particular by the Catholic youth. Debora Marasco, the visionary, founded a Catholic
Movement for the young people named "Manduria for Young People".

Several apparition-related sites on the internet exist, often with detailed messages that sound
pious, accompanied by testimonies from local witnesses, and even local priests and bishops.
However, these representations do not always amount to authenticity or Vatican approval. An
example is the website for the apparitions of Our Lady of the Eucharist in Rome since the year
2000. The website for Our Lady of the Eucharist includes a clear letter and a photo from
Bishop Claudio Gatti who approved the apparition. Yet a more detailed search of the same
website produces a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reducing the said
Bishop to lay rank following a series of meetings at the Vatican on this and other matters (e.g.
the Bishop's position of marriage for priests). The Bishop now uses the title ordained by God
rather than Catholic Bishop.

Mother of Goodness

A similar phenomenon with Catholic youth is ocurring near So Marcos da Serra, in Algarve,
Portugal, were other reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Mother
of Goodness attract, since 1999, many young people and priests to the place of apparitions.
The Holy See has never officially approved or disapproved this apparitions.

Soufanieh apparitions

At Soufanieh, a suburb of Damascus, a series of apparitions have reportedly been observed
between 1982 and 2004, without any approval to date.

*Tre Foontane apparition

LEFT: The grotto of the Marian apparition in
Tre Fontane, Rome, Italy.



Condemned by an Ordinary of the Catholic Church
Elyria apparitions

Not all reports of visions and apparitions can be taken seriously, even if they sound truly
pious. For instance, the messages reported by Catalina Rivas were later found to correspond
to exact pages of books written by others, and published instructional literature for Catholic
seminarians. Claimed apparitions and miracles at Holy Love Ministries in Elyria, Ohio were
denounced by local Bishop Richard Lennon as "not supernatural in origin" and "forbid
members of the clergy of any ecclesiastical jurisdiction" to celebrate the Sacraments on the
site. He also declared "that the Confraternity of the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary is not an
approved association of the Christian faithful in the Diocese of Cleveland and may not
legitimately use the name 'Catholic' or represent itself as a Catholic group.


Garabandal apparitions


LEFT: Parish church of San Sebastian de
Garabandal village, north of Spain.


The reported Garabandal apparitions from
1961 to 1965 were examined by the local
Bishop and were declared as not having
evidence of being of supernatural origin.
However the apparitions were not declared
as a hoax and the possibility of future
approval was left open. At Garabandal, an
apparition by Saint Michael, the Archangel
was reported first, announcing the arrival of
the Virgin Mary (under the title of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel).



Our Lady of Meugorje

Among recent visions, the reported apparitions
of The Virgin Mary to six children in Meugorje
in 1981 have received much attention despite
official condemnation by the local Bishop. The
Our Lady of Meugorje messages are published
and distributed worldwide and often emphasize
five key elements: Daily prayer of the Holy
Rosary, Fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays,
Daily reading of the Bible, Monthly Confessions
and Holy Communion. On March 17, 2010, the
Vatican announced it was beginning a formal
investigation of the apparitions at Medugorje.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini is to head the commission
that will study the matter.

The visions at Medjugorje have been condemned
by Bishop Pavao ani. The Bishop affirms his
complete certainty that Our Lady did not appear
in Medjugorje. The Commission to investigate
the apparitions has continually underlined the
theological and disciplinary difficulties posed by
the events and the messages of Medjugorje. The
Holy See had not overturned the ruling by the
Bishop at this time. In 1991, the Zadar
document declaired, "On the basis of the investigations so far it can not be affirmed that one
is dealing with supernatural apparitions and revelations."



Brooklyn apparition

Purported locutions received by the late Veronica Lueken from 1968-1994 were declared
invalid by Bishop Francis Mugavero, then Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.

Our Lady of Surbiton

Similarly, reports of Our Lady of Surbiton claiming that the Virgin Mary appeared every day
under a pine tree in England were flatly rejected by the Vatican as a fraud.

Emmitsburg apparition

Some reported apparitions attract negative publicity at the location of the apparition. For
instance, the latter parts of the reported messages from Gianna Talone were disapproved by
the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore and a group of Emmitsburg, Maryland residents
started a campaign against Talone and accused her of running a cult. To date, the Holy See
has let the Talone matter rest at the local level of the archdiocese.


Unapproved apparitions claimed by schismatic groups

Some purported Marian apparitions initiated events which led to schism of Catholics forming
their own independent churches as a result of Rome's disapproval of them. Notable examples
include the revelations of Feliksa Kozowska between 1893 and 1918 which led to the
founding of the Mariavite and the Old Catholic Mariavite churches. Others include the
Palmarian Catholic Church which began after a series of purported apparitions in Palmar de
Troya, while Fraternite Notre Dame, a Traditionalist Catholic church traces its origins to
apparitions that were reported in Frechou, France, and is led by Bishop Jean Marie Kozik who
was consecrated by Vietnamese Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc.

Criticism

Some Protestant Christians and non-Christians regard claims of Marian apparitions as being
hallucinations encouraged by superstition, and occasionally simply as deliberate hoaxes to
attract attention. Many such apparitions are reported in economically depressed areas,
attracting many pilgrims who bring trade and money into the region. For instance, some
sources dispute the very existence of Saint Juan Diego.

Some spontaneous healings reported at apparition sites such as Lourdes are also disputed by
some scientists. Other scientists have claimed that a handful of unexplained cures have
occurred; the Lourdes Medical Bureau has recorded sixty "inexplicable" healings which match
its requirements. Critics maintain that some other healings are incomplete, leaving the
sufferer with disabilities or chronic illness, and that other claimed healings are likely to be the
relatively rare but unmiraculous spontaneous remission of illness or injury. Such remissions
might be expected to occur in a few of the large numbers of ill (and perhaps credulous) people
who visit such sites. That viewpoint is debated by religious people and by some in the medical
profession. The Lourdes Medical Bureau will not review cases of claimed healing involving
illnesses known sometimes to go into remission by themselves, or incomplete healings, or
those which take place gradually.

Doppelgnger
Wikipedia.org

In fiction and folklore, a doppelgnger (German "double walker") is a paranormal double of a
living person, typically representing evil or misfortune. In the vernacular, the word has come
to refer to any double or look-alike of a person.

The word also is used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision,
in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. Doppelgngers
often are perceived as a sinister form of bilocation and are regarded by some to be harbingers
of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgnger seen by a person's friends or relatives
portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgnger is an omen of death.

In Norse mythology, a vardger is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen
performing their actions in advance. In Finnish mythology, this is called having an etiinen,
i.e., "a firstcomer". In Ancient Egyptian mythology, a ka was a tangible "spirit double" having
the same memories and feeling as the original person. In one Egyptian myth titled "The Greek
Princess," an Egyptian view of the Trojan War, a ka of Helen was used to mislead Paris of
Troy, helping to stop the war. In some myths, the doppelgnger is a version of the Ankou, a
personification of death.

Origin

The word doppelgnger is a loanword from German: Doppel (double) and Gnger (walker).
The singular and plural forms are the same. It was first used by Jean Paul in the novel
Siebenks (1796), and explained by a footnote.

As is true for all other common nouns in German, the word is written with an initial capital
letter. In English, the word is conventionally uncapitalized (doppelgnger). It is also common
to drop the diacritic umlaut, writing "doppelganger."


Scientific and philosophical investigations

Left temporoparietal junction

In September 2006, it was reported in Nature that Shahar Arzy and colleagues of the
University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland, unexpectedly had reproduced an effect strongly
reminiscent of the doppelgnger phenomenon via the electromagnetic stimulation of a
patient's brain. They applied focal electrical stimulation to a patient's left temporoparietal
junction while she lay flat on a bed. The patient immediately felt the presence of another
person in her "extrapersonal space." Other than epilepsy, for which the patient was being
treated, she was psychologically fit.

The other person was described as young, of indeterminate sex, silent, motionless, and with a
body posture identical to her own. The other person was located exactly behind her, almost
touching and therefore within the bed on which the patient was lying.

A second electrical stimulation was applied with slightly more intensity, while the patient was
sitting up with her arms folded. This time the patient felt the presence of a "man" who had his
arms wrapped around her. She described the sensation as highly unpleasant and electrical
stimulation was stopped.

Finally, when the patient was seated, electrical stimulation was applied while the patient was
asked to perform a language test with a set of flash cards. On this occasion the patient
reported the presence of a sitting person, displaced behind her and to the right. She said the
presence was attempting to interfere with the test: "He wants to take the card; he doesnt
want me to read." Again, the effect was disturbing and electrical stimulation was ceased.

Similar effects were found for different positions and postures when electrical stimulation
exceeded 10 mA, at the left temporoparietal junction.

Arzy and his colleagues suggest that the left temporoparietal junction of the brain evokes the
sensation of self imagebody location, position, posture etc. When the left temporoparietal
junction is disturbed, the sensation of self-attribution is broken and may be replaced by the
sensation of a foreign presence or copy of oneself displaced nearby. This copy mirrors the real
person's body posture, location and position. Arzy and his colleagues suggest that the
phenomenon they created is seen in certain mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia,
particularly when accompanied by paranoia, delusions of persecution and of alien control.
Nevertheless, the effects reported are highly reminiscent of the doppelgnger phenomenon.
Accordingly, some reports of doppelgngers may well be due to failure of the left
temporoparietal junction.

Notable reports

Percy Bysshe Shelley

On July 8, 1822, the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in the Bay of Spezia near
Lerici. On August 15, while staying at Pisa, Percy's wife Mary Shelley wrote a letter to Maria
Gisborne in which she relayed Percy's claims to her that he had met his own doppelgnger. A
week after Mary's nearly fatal miscarriage, in the early hours of June 23, Percy had had a
nightmare about the house collapsing in a flood, and

... talking it over the next morning he told me that he had had many visions lately
he had seen the figure of himself which met him as he walked on the terrace and said
to him "How long do you mean to be content" No very terrific words & certainly
not prophetic of what has occurred. But Shelley had often seen these figures when ill;
but the strangest thing is that Mrs Williams saw him. Now Jane, though a woman of
sensibility, has not much imagination & is not in the slightest degree nervous
neither in dreams or otherwise. She was standing one day, the day before I was taken
ill, [June 15] at a window that looked on the Terrace with Trelawny it was day
she saw as she thought Shelley pass by the window, as he often was then, without a
coat or jacket he passed again now as he passed both times the same way
and as from the side towards which he went each time there was no way to get back
except past the window again (except over a wall twenty feet from the ground) she
was struck at seeing him pass twice thus & looked out & seeing him no more she cried
"Good God can Shelley have leapt from the wall? Where can he be gone?" Shelley,
said Trelawny "No Shelley has past What do you mean?" Trelawny says that she
trembled exceedingly when she heard this & it proved indeed that Shelley had never
been on the terrace & was far off at the time she saw him.

Percy Shelley's drama Prometheus Unbound (1820) contains the following passage in Act I:
"Ere Babylon was dust, / The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, / Met his own image walking in
the garden. / That apparition, sole of men, he saw. / For know there are two worlds of life and
death: / One that which thou beholdest; but the other / Is underneath the grave, where do
inhabit / The shadows of all forms that think and live / Till death unite them and they part no
more...."

John Donne

Izaak Walton claimed that John Donne, the English metaphysical poet, saw his wife's
doppelgnger in 1612 in Paris, on the same night as the stillbirth of their daughter.

Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone, in that room in which Sir
Robert, and he, and some other friends had dined together. To this place Sir Robert
returned within half an hour; and, as he left, so he found Mr. Donne alone; but, in
such ecstasy, and so altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him in so
much that he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare befallen him in the short time of
his absence? to which, Mr. Donne was not able to make a present answer: but, after a
long and perplext pause, did at last say, I have seen a dreadful Vision since I saw
you: I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with her hair
hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms: this, I have seen since I
saw you.

To which, Sir Robert replied, Sure Sir, you have slept since I saw you; and, this is the
result of some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now
awake.

To which Mr. Donnes reply was: I cannot be surer that I now live, then that I have
not slept since I saw you: and am, as sure, that at her second appearing, she stopped,
looked me in the face, and vanished.

This account first appears in the edition of Life of Dr John Donne published in 1675, and is
attributed to "a Person of Honour... told with such circumstances, and such asseveration,
that... I verily believe he that told it me, did himself believe it to be true. "At the time Donne
was indeed extremely worried about his pregnant wife, and was going through severe illness
himself. However, R. C. Bald points out that Walton's account

"is riddled with inaccuracies. He says that Donne crossed from London to Paris with
the Drurys in twelve days, and that the vision occurred two days later; the servant
sent to London to make inquiries found Mrs Donne still confined to her bed in Drury
House. Actually, of course, Donne did not arrive in Paris until more than three months
after he left England, and his wife was not in London but in the Isle of Wight. The still-
born child was buried on 24 January.... Yet as late as 14 April Donne in Paris was still
ignorant of his wife's ordeal." In January, Donne was still at Amiens. His letters do not
support the story as given.

Abraham Lincoln

Carl Sandburg's biography contains the following:

A dream or illusion had haunted Lincoln at times through the winter. On the evening of
his election he had thrown himself on one of the haircloth sofas at home, just after the
first telegrams of November 7 had told him he was elected President, and looking into
a bureau mirror across the room he saw himself full length, but with two faces. It
bothered him; he got up; the illusion vanished; but when he lay down again there in
the glass again were two faces, one paler than the other. He got up again, mixed in
the election excitement, forgot about it; but it came back, and haunted him. He told
his wife about it; she worried too. A few days later he tried it once more and the
illusion of the two faces again registered to his eyes. But that was the last; the ghost
since then wouldn't come back, he told his wife, who said it was a sign he would be
elected to a second term, and the death pallor of one face meant he wouldn't live
through his second term.

This is adapted from Washington in Lincoln's Time (1895) by Noah Brooks, who claimed that
he had heard it from Lincoln himself on 9 November 1864, at the time of his re-election, and
that he had printed an account "directly after." He also claimed that the story was confirmed
by Mary Todd Lincoln, and partially confirmed by Private Secretary John Hay (who thought it
dated from Lincoln's nomination, not his election). Brooks' version is as follows (in Lincoln's
own words):

It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and
fast all day and there had been a great "hurrah, boys," so that I was well tired out,
and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite
where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it (and here he got up and placed
furniture to illustrate the position), and looking in that glass I saw myself reflected
nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed had two separate and distinct images, the
tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little
bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion
vanished. On lying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than
before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler say five shades
than the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the
excitement of the hour forgot all about it nearly, but not quite, for the thing would
once in a while come up, and give me a little pang as if something uncomfortable had
happened. When I went home again that night I told my wife about it, and a few days
afterward I made the experiment again, when (with a laugh), sure enough! the thing
came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though
I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about
it. She thought it was a "sign" that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and
that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through
the last term.

Lincoln was known to be superstitious, and old mirrors will occasionally produce double
images; whether this Janus illusion can be counted as a doppelgnger is perhaps debatable,
though probably no more than other such claims of doppelgngers. An alternate consideration,
however, suggests that Lincoln suffered vertical strabismus in his left eye, a disorder which
could induce visions of a vertically displaced image.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Near the end of Book XI of his autobiography, Dichtung und Wahrheit ("Poetry and Truth"),
Goethe wrote, almost in passing:

Amid all this pressure and confusion I could not forego seeing Frederica once more.
Those were painful days, the memory of which has not remained with me. When I
reached her my hand from my horse, the tears stood in her eyes; and I felt very
uneasy. I now rode along the foot-path toward Drusenheim, and here one of the most
singular forebodings took possession of me. I saw, not with the eyes of the body, but
with those of the mind, my own figure coming toward me, on horseback, and on the
same road, attired in a dress which I had never worn, it was pike-gray [hecht-
grau], with somewhat of gold. As soon as I shook myself out of this dream, the figure
had entirely disappeared. It is strange, however, that, eight years afterward, I found
myself on the very road, to pay one more visit to Frederica, in the dress of which I had
dreamed, and which I wore, not from choice, but by accident. However, it may be with
matters of this kind generally, this strange illusion in some measure calmed me at the
moment of parting. The pain of quitting for ever noble Alsace, with all I had gained in
it, was softened; and, having at last escaped the excitement of a farewell, I, on a
peaceful and quiet journey, pretty well regained my self-possession.

This is a rare example of a doppelgnger which was perceived by the observer to be both
benign and reassuring.

George Tryon

A famous Victorian apparition was the strange appearance of Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
He walked through the drawing room of his family home in Eaton Square, London, looking
straight ahead, without exchanging a word to anyone, in front of several guests at a party
being given by his wife on 22 June 1893 whilst he was supposed to be in a ship of the
Mediterranean Squadron, manoeuvering off the coast of Syria. Subsequently it was reported
that he had gone down with his ship, HMS Victoria, that very same night, after it had collided
with HMS Camperdown following an unexplained and bizarre order to turn the ship in the
direction of the other vessel.

Ruskin Bond

The owner of Penguin India Mr Ravi Singh is reported to have seen the double of Ruskin Bond
at Writer's Meeting Point in Savoy Hotel of Mussoorie while the author himself was having his
afternoon nap.
Ghosts
Wikipedia.org

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal
that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the
apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible
wispy shapes, to realistic, life-like visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a
deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a sance.

The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or
ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practicesfuneral rites, exorcisms,
and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magicare specifically designed to appease the
spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular
locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of the phantom
armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.

Terminology

The English word ghost continues Old English gst, from a hypothetical Common Germanic
*gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North and East Germanic (the
equivalent word in Gothic is ahma, Old Norse has andi m., nd f.). The pre-Germanic form was
*ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting "fury, anger" reflected in Old Norse geisa "to
rage". The Germanic word is recorded as masculine only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem.
The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been an animating principle of
the mind, in particular capable of excitation and fury (compare r). In Germanic paganism,
"Germanic Mercury", and the later Odin, was at the same time the conductor of the dead and
the "lord of fury" leading the Wild Hunt.

Brown Lady of Raynham Hall ghost photograph,
Captain Hubert C. Provand. First published in
Countrylife magazine, 1936

Besides denoting the human spirit or soul, both of
the living and the deceased, the Old English word is
used as a synonym of Latin spiritus also in the
meaning of "breath" or "blast" from the earliest
attestations (9th century). It could also denote any
good or evil spirit, i.e. angels and demons; the
Anglo-Saxon gospel refers to the demonic
possession of Matthew 12:43 as se unclna gast.
Also from the Old English period, the word could
denote the spirit of God, viz. the "Holy Ghost". The
now prevailing sense of "the soul of a deceased
person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form"
only emerges in Middle English (14th century). The
modern noun does, however, retain a wider field of
application, extending on one hand to "soul",
"spirit", "vital principle", "mind" or "psyche", the
seat of feeling, thought and moral judgement; on the other hand used figuratively of any
shadowy outline, fuzzy or unsubstantial image, in optics, photography and cinematography
especially a flare, secondary image or spurious signal.

The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spk (of uncertain etymology);
it entered the English language via the United States in the 19th century. Alternative words in
modern usage include spectre (from Latin spectrum), the Scottish wraith (of obscure origin),
phantom (via French ultimately from Greek phantasma, compare fantasy) and apparition.
The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek , or Latin umbra, in reference to
the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld. "Haint" is a synonym for ghost used in regional
English of the southern United States, and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern
oral and literary tradition. The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost",
for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects.

Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost", "spectre" or "apparition". It came to be used in
Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent"
or "omen". In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits.
The word has no commonly accepted etymology; OED notes "of obscure origin" only. An
association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien's use
of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the Ringwraiths has influenced later
usage in fantasy literature. Bogie is an Ulster Scots term for a ghost, and appears in Scottish
poet John Mayne's Hallowe'en in 1780.

A revenant is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a
disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated ("undead") corpse. Also related is the
concept of a fetch, the visible ghost or spirit of a person yet alive.

Typology

Anthropological context

A notion of the transcendent, supernatural or numinous, usually involving entities like ghosts,
demons or deities, is a cultural universal. In pre-literate folk religions, these beliefs are often
summarized under animism and ancestor worship.

In many cultures malignant, restless ghosts are distinguished from the more benign spirits
involved in ancestor worship.

Ancestor worship typically involves rites intended to prevent revenants, vengeful spirits of the
dead, imagined as starving and envious of the living. Strategies for preventing revenants may
either include sacrifice, i.e., giving the dead food and drink to pacify them, or magical
banishment of the deceased to force them not to return. Ritual feeding of the dead is
performed in traditions like the Chinese Ghost Festival or the Western All Souls' Day. Magical
banishment of the dead is present in many of the world's burial customs. The bodies found in
many tumuli (kurgan) had been ritually bound before burial, and the custom of binding the
dead persists, for example, in rural Anatolia.

Nineteenth-century anthropologist James Frazer stated in his classic work, The Golden Bough,
that souls were seen as the creature within that animated the body.

Ghosts and the afterlife

Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically or literally depicted in ancient cultures
as a bird or other animal, it appears to have been widely held that the soul was an exact
reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to clothing the person wore. This is
depicted in artwork from various ancient cultures, including such works as the Egyptian Book
of the Dead, which shows deceased people in the afterlife appearing much as they did before
death, including the style of dress.

Fear of ghosts

While deceased ancestors are universally regarded as venerable, and often imagined as having
a continued presence in some sort of afterlife, the spirit of a deceased person which remains
present in the material world (viz. a ghost) is regarded as an unnatural or undesirable state of
affairs and the idea of ghosts or revenants is associated with a reaction of fear. This is
universally the case in pre-modern folk cultures, but fear of ghost also remains an integral
aspect of the modern ghost story, Gothic horror and other horror fiction dealing with the
supernatural.

Common attributes

Another widespread belief concerning ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, or
subtle material. Anthropologists link this idea to early beliefs that ghosts were the person
within the person (the person's spirit), most noticeable in ancient cultures as a person's
breath, which upon exhaling in colder climates appears visibly as a white mist. This belief
may have also fostered the metaphorical meaning of "breath" in certain languages, such as
the Latin spiritus and the Greek pneuma, which by analogy became extended to mean the
soul. In the Bible, God is depicted as animating Adam with a breath.

In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for
vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of a
ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death. Seeing one's own ghostly
double or "fetch" is a related omen of death.

White ladies were reported to appear in many rural areas, and supposed to have died
tragically or suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common
to many of them is the theme of losing or being betrayed by a husband or fianc. They are
often associated with an individual family line or regarded as a harbinger of death similar to a
banshee.

Legends of ghost ships have existed since the 18th century; most notable of these is the
Flying Dutchman. This theme has been used in literature in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Coleridge.

Locale

A place where ghosts are reported is described as haunted, and often seen as being inhabited
by spirits of deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property.
Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events
in the building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide sometimes in the recent
or ancient past. But not all hauntings are at a place of a violent death, or even on violent
grounds. Many cultures and religions believe the essence of a being, such as the 'soul',
continues to exist. Some philosophical and religious views argue that the 'spirits' of those who
have died have not 'passed over' and are trapped inside the property where their memories
and energy are strong.

Haunted Places around the World
Wikipedia.org


This is a list of locations in the world that are reportedly haunted by ghosts or other
supernatural beings including demons. Reports of haunted locations are part of ghostlore,
which is a form of folklore.

Australia

The Alkimos is a shipwreck of a former U.S. Navy ship from World War II that occurred off
the coast of Western Australia in 1964.

Ararat Lunatic Asylum or "Aradale" is the largest
abandoned Lunatic Asylum in Australia. Opened in 1867,
Aradale was reserved for many of the incurable Lunatics
in Victoria during the 1800s. An estimated 13,000
people died here in 140 years of operation.


Beechworth Lunatic Asylum in Beechworth, Victoria is reportedly haunted by several ghosts
of departed patients. The asylum was open from 1867 to 1995. It has appeared in several
books, television shows, and documentaries, including A.C.T. Paranormal. Ghost tours run
nightly.

Monte Cristo Homestead in Junee, New South Wales was the site of seven deaths in the
1800s and is reported to be the most haunted house in Australia. Various ghost groups have
reported sightings there.

Thirteen people were executed at the Ballarat Gaol in Ballarat. The remains of seven
criminals are still in the grounds. The Ballarat Ghost Tours operate nightly.

Port Arthur in Tasmania operate nightly ghost tours. However, no mention is made of the
Port Arthur massacre there and they like to keep that respected by the public.

Princess Theatre in Melbourne has reported several ghosts since the building opened in
1886. The theatre's best known 'inhabitant' is Frederick Baker, stage name 'Federici', a
talented bass-baritone singer who died in March 1888 whilst singing Mephistopheles in Faust
and who was seen by the rest of the cast taking his bows with them shortly thereafter. For
years the theatre kept a seat vacant in the dress circle for Federici (only ceasing the practice
on economic grounds), and his appearance in the dress circle during rehearsals for a new
show is considered a good omen.

Lalor House in Richmond, Victoria is reportedly haunted by the ghosts of the family of Peter
Lalor.

"Gawler house" in Gawler, South Australia is reportedly haunted by past tenants. One visitor
has reported feeling a choking sensation when he entered the house. The house is almost
destroyed, missing its roof.


Brisbane City Hall in Brisbane, Australia has several stories of deaths spanning the eras
before and after construction of the impressive structure. During the building's construction
workmen were said to have died while placing the foundations, which were on top of a former
swamp. It is also said that the area was once a significant Aboriginal site either a meeting
place or camp ground. One story relates to the death of a maintenance man or lift attendant
who either fell to his death down the lift well or was crushed by the lift in his daily duties this
story likely results from an unfortunate suicide from the clock tower that occurred in 1935
(Haunts Of Brisbane). Another story claims an American soldier was stabbed to death during
the war after a fight over an Australian girl turned ugly. Staff are said to have reported the
sounds of an argument from the Red Cross Tea Room, and there are many reports of sounds
and unusual activity throughout the hall relating to the areas surrounding these deaths. A
third story claims the apparition of a woman is regularly seen traversing the main stairs in the
lobby & looking out over the foyer a story which likely results from yet another suicide from
City Hall's Clock Tower in 1937, although recent photos of the stairwell exhibit a possible
apparition. (Haunts Of Brisbane)

Whepstead House in Wellington Point, Queensland is rumoured to have a number of ghosts
Gilbert Burnett's wife Martha who spreads the scent of lavender perfume; the daughter of
Gilbert & Martha, who apparently disappeared without trace; Gilbert & Martha's son who had a
withered leg & haunts the stairwell; & the ghost of an elderly servant who is seen around the
house in a bowler's hat & suit. Whilst not one of these stories has any historic basis, the house
itself acted as a private hospital for a number of decades, during which time well over a dozen
people passed away it's likely that its haunted atmosphere & unusual events result from this
period of use. (Haunts Of Brisbane)

Victoria Park Railway Tunnel in Brisbane, Australia played host to one of Brisbane's most
famous ghosts in 1965, after a group of local children overheard rumours suggesting a ghost
had been observed within the tunnel. The following night, the intrepid ghost hunters crept
down in the hope of spotting the spook. One boy, lagging behind the rest of the group as they
passed through the tunnel, was apparently accosted by a misty green, armless, legless,
headless apparition that seemed to materialise from the wall of the tunnel. Seemingly
"mesmerised" by the spectre, the boy was dragged by his friends to the nearby Royal Brisbane
Hospital his companions feared he had been possessed by the ghost. The ensuing tale, as
related by the children to hospital staff, made sensational newspaper headlines the next day
and within a short time, thousands of local residents were lining both sides of the tunnel in the
hopes of catching a glimpse of the ghost. For the next week, the Victoria Park ghost became
the major talking point of Brisbane, & numerous suggestions to its identity were put forward,
although the spectre may very well have resulted from one of the numerous suicides that took
place in Victoria Park in previous years. (Haunts of Brisbane)

St. John's Orphanage in Goulburn, New South Wales is suspected to have some ghosts in
the building.

http://socyberty.com

999 Springbrook Road along the Gold Coast, Queensland is rumoured to become haunted
by the spirits of WWII veteran whom struggling with the effects of the Traumatic Stress
Disorder, he killed his family inside a granny flat positioned alone in the primary house.


Barbados

Chase Vault is a burial vault in the cemetery of the Christ Church Parish Church in Oistins,
Christ Church, Barbados best known for a widespread but unverified legend of "mysterious
moving coffins". According to the story, each time the heavily sealed vault was opened in the
early 19th century for burial of a family member, all of the lead coffins had changed position.
The facts of the story are unverified, and skeptics call the tale "historically dubious." The tale
appears to have originated from anecdotes told by Thomas H. Orderson, Rector of Christ
Church during the 1800s, and subsequently repeated in James Edward Alexander's 1833
Transatlantic Sketches.
Brazil

The Joelma Building in So Paulo is allegedly haunted by victims of the fire that started on
February 1, 1974, after an air conditioning unit on the twelfth floor overheated. The building is
famous for the "Mystery of the Thirteen Souls", individuals who died within an elevator when
they were trying to escape the fire, and are allegedly haunting the building today.


Cambodia

Sihanoukville: The Independence Hotel has been
rumored to be haunted by a poltergeist.


China

Beijing: The Buma Inn has been reported to have a ghost walking throughout corridors
looking for the chef that poisoned his food. The chef stabbed himself on the same evening of
the poisoned patron's death.

The Huguan Huiguan Opera House was built in 1807 it was originally a home for the poor.
Although, it was supposedly built on top of an ancient graveyard, it is now a small opera house
and museum holding regular performances. Legend has it that if a stone is thrown into the
courtyard, a loud scolding will be heard, but no one will be seen.

Chengde: The Yun Shan Fan Dian hotel is supposedly haunted with a man in western
clothing and a woman in ancient Chinese imperial attire, who always lurks at the end of the
eighth story corridor. There have been a few occasional sightings of others dressed in ancient
Chinese clothing as well.

Forbidden City: Located in the heart of Beijing and home to the Palace Museum. For 600
years the Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of
the Qing Dynasty. It was the home of the country's all-powerful imperial family along with a
nest of concubines and servants willing to betray and murder one another for influence.
Thousands have lived and died within its blood red walls. As a result, many visitors and
workers have claimed to have seen ghosts there, such as a group of ladies-in-waiting or
eunuchs walking by.

Great Wall of China: The Great Wall has many reports from strange apparitions as well as the
sounds of marching footsteps from the reports of local tourists and employees. Many local
villagers will try not to go up the Wall alone, believing something very unfortunate will happen
if they do. The TV series Destination Truth sent an expedition to spend the night investigating
these supernatural reports near "The Wild Wall."

Shanghai: The Normandie Apartment was named after the World War I warship Normandie
and was designed by the famous Hungarian architect Ladislav Hudec. The building has a
French Renaissance style similar to a large ship. Built in 1924, the building was the first
apartment house in Shanghai with an outside gallery. Over the years the apartments were
home to many film stars. Sounds of footsteps running up the stairs, loud voices from empty
rooms, and even the sounds of breaking glass are rumored to be heard from this apartment
building. The seventh floor corner apartment especially is believed to be haunted by a former
tenant, this tenant supposedly was an actress who committed suicide by jumping out of the
window.

The Qiu Mansion was built by two brothers who were peasants turned millionaires during the
beginning of the 20th century. They lived a lavish lifestyle with a garden around the mansion
complete with peacocks, tigers, and crocodiles. During the prime of their life they both simply
disappeared. Since then workers who have come in contact with the closed mansion complain
of bizarre animal bites and sightings.

Tuen Mun Road: Over the years many claim that this highway is haunted, which is though to
be the direct cause for the many car-accident deaths that occur. The accidents are said to be
the result of drivers trying to avoid hitting ghosts that suddenly materialize in the middle of
the road. Some drivers have reported to officers that they had lost complete control of their
vehicle as if someone else were driving.

Yu Shan Fan Dian: built in the city of Chengde, China which is north of Beijing. It is a 220-
room hotel beside the Yangtze River which is popular with summer vacationers. The ghost of
the Dowager Empress Cixi has been reportedly sighted by guests, still tending her former
gardens. Sightings occur both inside the hotel and on one of the balconies.

Colombia

La Candelaria: Famous for its rich history and because it was there where Bogot was
founded, and also because of its reputation for being haunted. There are a lot of stories and
testimonies of apparitions in almost all of the houses around the neighborhood. One of the
most famous apparitions is the Green Jacket Ghost, which haunts Rufino Jos Cuervo's House.
Rumor has it that the ghost is Jos Manuel de Ezpeleta, 1st Count of Ezpeleta de Beire,
governor of Nueva Granada who lived at the end of 18th Century.

Lievano Palace: Home of Bogot City Hall. Light lumps have been reported in offices,
typewriters operating by themselves, an unusually giant owl flying over the parking lot, and
lights turning on and off with no one around are some of the phenomena that the staff from
the city hall report happening during any time of day.

Barranquilla: The General Hospital is a place where the ghost of a nun who worked there
during the 50's is rumored to appear. The ghost has been reported to walk around Maternity
Wing.

Denmark

Dragsholm Castle in Zealand is said to be haunted by the ghost of James Hepburn, 4th Earl
of Bothwell, who was imprisoned there for about five years until his death in 1578.

Egypt

Baron Empain Palace: Tourists have reportedly heard voices throughout the palace during
tours late at night. Guards and police have reportedly seen ghostly apparitions of people who
were once residents of the palace, wandering the outside lawn at midnight.

Farafra Desert: The ghost of Akhenaten is said to wander the Farafra Desert (also known as
the White Desert) of Egypt and has been reported to have been seen by dozens of tourists and
nomads. Legend has it it is because Akhenaten abolished the Egyptian gods when he become
pharaoh, thereby angering the religious followers and priests of Egypt. When Akhenaten died,
the priests are believed to have cursed him to wander the deserts forever as punishment for
banishing their polytheistic beliefs.

Pyramids of Giza: A man in early 20th century clothing has been seen by visitors, and
rumors have reported him to be the ghost of Howard Carter. Various employees and tourists
have reported seeing an orb figure that appeared to be an apparition of an Egyptian Pharaoh,
float away from the pyramids, and head south toward the Valley of the Kings.

Valley of the Kings: Eyewitnesses have reported seeing the vision of an Egyptian Pharaoh in
the Valley of the Kings, wearing his golden collar, headdress, and riding a fiery chariot with
black phantom horses at the front.


France

Chteau de Brissac: The story says that Jacques de Brz caught his wife, Charlotte, with
another man and in a fit of rage, Brz murdered them both. Tourists have reported a sense
of an eerie feeling and slight touches. Reports of ghostly sightings abound and wailing
throughout the halls.

Chteau de Chteaubriant: This castle in Brittany is
said to be haunted by the ghost of Franoise de Foix, a
mistress of King Francis I. According to the legend, she
was locked in her bed chambers by her husband, Jean
de Laval-Chteaubriant, Governor of Brittany, because
he was jealous of her relationship with the King. She
died on 16 October 1537, and rumors said that she was
either poisoned or bled to death. Since then, a ghostly
procession would visit the chteau every 16 October at
midnight.



Chteau de Trcesson: There are various legends attached to this castle. The best known is
that of the White lady, but there are also those of the Headless curate, the phantom card
players and the Manoir du Pied d'non .

Chteau de Versailles: Was once home to the French royal family between 1682 and 1789.
A few tourists and employees have reported seeing people in 18th century clothing. There
have been reports of numerous sightings of the beheaded Queen Marie Antoinette. Claims of
orbs and ghostly presences seen in tourists' photos have been made, and descriptions of being
touched by ghosts are often recounted. Some have reported supernatural experiences
throughout the gardens, seeing a different landscape than what people would see today.

Mont Saint-Michel: Ghostly sightings of monks wandering the area have been reported.

Paris: The Catacombs of Paris are said to be haunted by strange orbs, and standing human
figures from different centuries. Reports of voices being heard through the walls, and the
feeling of a presence or a touch by someone not there have also been made.

Pre Lachaise Cemetery: The largest cemetery in Paris, France; it is the most visited
cemetery in the world and is said to be one of the most haunted cemeteries in Europe. Some
people have experienced overwhelming shivers and a sense of unease, although some have
experienced a feeling of calmness. Claims have been made of photos from visitors and
investigators revealing orbs and ghostly apparitions, as well as EVPs being recorded
throughout the cemetery.


Germany

Berlin: The Reichstag building has been reported to be haunted by numerous ghosts of
famous German political figures.

Heidelberg: The Hexenturm Witches Tower and the Nazi Amphitheatre are both said to
be haunted by various ghosts.

Lichtenegg Castle: The ghost of a lady in a white dress is said to be seen standing in front of
the entrance of the ruins at midnight, stepping down into the ditch. She will, usually, sit down
on a flat rock covered with moss.

Rosenheim: The Rosenheim Poltergeist In 1967, it is claimed that strange phenomena began
to occur in the office of lawyer Sigmund Adam.

Schloss Nordkirchen:The Nordkirchen Castle was built between 1703 and 1734. There used
to be a large water tower in its place in the 1600s. Being surrounded by two water ditches the
castle, thus, sits on a square island with four pavilions located on the island, one in each
corner. The architecture is a baroque style constructed by Johann Conrad Schlaun. According
to the legend, at full moon and on certain foggy nights, a few people have reported seeing a
luxurious carriage with stallions running through the grounds during the night.

Wolfsegg, Bavaria, Wolfsegg Castle: This 14th-century castle was supposed to be a
sanctuary for travellers . The folklore of this haunting originated from the 1500s. During this
time, Klara von Helfenstein and her husband Ulrich von Laaber were living in the castle. Ulrich,
a knight, did not stay at Wolfsegg very often at that time; so his wife Klara needed a man in
the castle to support her, and for protection if problems occurred. Her choice ended up being
"Georg Moller" who owned the Hammermuehle in Heitzenhofen. Klara did not only take
advantage of Georg's support and protection, but also started an affair with him there closely
after hiring him. Georg Moller was also the arch enemy of Klara's husband. Upon learning of
this, Ulrich von Laaber did not waste any time in hiring two young farmers to kill his wife
immediately. Not much later, Ulrich and his sons also suddenly died. There have been reports
of strange noises coming out of a cave area, which have been described as being very
haunting. There were several expeditions into the cave, where many skeletons were found,
including the cadaver of a cave bear and many other animal skeletons. Locals decided that the
noises coming out of the cave were from hunters who were hiding their prey. Still, people
avoided going near the cave area. The strange noises coming out of the cave may have been
solved by the findings of the expeditions; but this has not been the case of the haunting of the
"White Woman" who is still restlessly making her rounds.

Wrzburg: There is supposedly the ghost a dead nun walking through the halls of
Praemonstratenser Abbey. The ghost is said to be that of Maria Renata Von Mossau. She
was accused of mixing herbs into everybody's food so that she could bewitch them. The nun
was taken to be executed only three days after her sentencing in court. She was first
decapitated, and then burned and her ashes scattered. To this day, there are reports of her
walking down the hallways and holding a bouquet of roses while picking off the petals, leaving
a trail across the grounds. According to legend, this is the sign of death for a holy man
originating from Wrzburg.


Hong Kong

Tuen Mun Road: an expressway in Hong Kong that has recorded an astounding number of
road accidents since 1978. Drivers claim that the high number of accidents are due to ghosts
who suddenly appear in front of cars, which then violently swerve to avoid hitting them.

India

Bhangarh, Rajasthan: Bhangarh was purportedly brought to ruin as a consequence of the
curse of Baba Balanath. Another legend attributes it to the curse of a sorcerer Singha Sevra

Bhangarh Fort: located in Rajasthan, India, this fort is claimed by some to be the most
haunted place in India. Legend says a Tantra placed a curse on the area to create a place of
"death without rebirth". True or not authorities have banned everyone from staying inside the
fort after sunset.

Dow Hill, Kurseong, West Bengal: A number of murders have taken place in the Dow Hill
forest that has left an eerie feeling in the atmosphere. Many locals have reported hearing
footsteps in the corridors of Victoria Boys School during the December/March vacations.
Woodcutters claim to have seen a headless young boy walking, and then disappearing, into
the trees. All of these legends help this place to be considered one of the most haunted areas
in India.

Grand Paradi Towers, Mumbai: is said to be the most famous haunted building in Mumbai.
Because it was the site of several suicides and deaths it is believed by the management to be
haunted.

The Lambi Dehar Mines, Mussoorie: Many unexplained accidents have been associated with
paranormal activity in this place. The presence and sound of a screaming witch has often been
felt by visitors.

The Savoy Hotel: In Mussoorie the hotel offers not only luxury, but reports of hauntings as
well. Its former owner, Lady Orme who allegedly died of poisoning, is said to be haunting the
opulent hotel. The ghost has reportedly been seen aimlessly wandering the halls of her former
hotel.


Indonesia

Jeruk Purut Cemetery A cemetery in Jakarta is said to be haunted by the ghost of a
decapitated pastor which carries its head around with it, among other spirits, and is followed
by a large black dog. The story was used as the inspiration for the 2006 film Hantu Jeruk
Purut.

Lawang Sewu literally meaning a 'thousand doors' in
Javanese, is a former Dutch colonial building located in
Semarang, in central Java. The building gains its name
from having many doors, and tall windows which look
like doors. Many ghost sightings have been reported in
the place, including a ghost of a Dutch lady as well as
headless ghouls. It has been reported that during one of
the ghost hunting programs on television, a ghost was
purportedly caught on camera.

The basement of the Building B of Lawang Sewu, a
former prison. It is one of the rooms where ghost
sightings have been reported.

Pelabuhan Ratu Legend says that Nyai Roro Kidul (Nyai is a Javanese honorific for
Madame), the daughter of King Prabu Siliwangi, who was the Queen of the South Sea is
supposed to have committed suicide by jumping off the cliff and into the sea. Rumors say that
if someone wears green when swimming (the Queen's favorite color), he or she will be pulled
by her ghost into the sea. Room 308 at the Samudra Beach Hotel is set aside for the Queen's
ghost.


Ireland

Drumbeg Manor Drumbeg Manor Inver, Donegal is considered to be one of the most
haunted places in all Europe. Apparitions and strange events are reported to have taken place
within the manor, and on its grounds. Stories say that a screaming woman can be heard, as
well as the appearance of a man in a white suit walking the halls.

Ducketts Grove: The mansion was owned by the Duckett family for 300 years, and is said to
be haunted by a Banshee Ghost. On March 17, 2011, the SyFy show Destination Truth
featured a four-hour live investigation for the season finale to find out the mystery of the
ruins.

Kinnitty Castle:This stunning Gothic castle sits on a plot that once housed Druids and Bards.
It has witnessed a long and turbulent history, and is reportedly the home of many ghosts, the
most popular of which is the Phantom Monk of Kinnitty.

Montpelier Hill: The Stewards House or as Killakee
House was built around 1765 by the Conolly family as a
hunting lodge. Over the years, it has served as a dower
house and as a residence for the agent who managed
the Killakee Estate. To its rear is a belfry; this was once
a common feature of large farmhouses and was used to
call in the workers for meals. The Hell Fire Club held
meetings here for a time following the fire that
damaged Mount Pelier lodge. The house has a
reputation for being haunted. Stories tell of a particularly large ghostly black cat. The best
documented account of these hauntings occurred between 1968 and 1970. The Evening Herald
and Evening Press newspapers carried a number of reports regarding a Mrs. Margaret O'Brien
and her husband Nicholas, a retired Garda superintendent, who were converting the house
into an arts centre. The redevelopment had been a troubled affair with tradesmen employed
on the work site began leaving complaining of ghosts. One night, a friend of the O'Brien's,
artist Tom McAssey, and two workmen were confronted by a spectral figure and a black cat
with glowing red eyes. McAssey painted a portrait of the cat which hung in the house for
several years afterwards. Although locals were skeptical of the reports, further apparitions
were reported, most notably that of an Indian gentleman, and of two nuns called Blessed
Margaret and Holy Mary who had taken part in black masses on Mountpelier Hill. There were
also reports of incorpreal ringing bells and poltergeist activity. In 1970 an RT television crew
recorded a documentary about the house. In the documentary a clairvoyant called Sheila St.
Clair communicated with the spirits of the house through automatic writing. In 1971, a
plumber working in the house discovered a grave with a skeleton of a small figure, most likely
that of a child or, perhaps, the body of the dwarf alleged to have been sacrificed by the
members of the Hell Fire Club. The house operated as a restaurant in the 1990s before closing
in 2001; it is now a private residence.

Leap Castle: Many people were imprisoned and executed in the castle, and it is supposedly
haunted by several spectres.


Japan

Amiidaji (Temple of Amida) in Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait, is the location of a
legendary haunting. It is said that the blind Biwa hshi Hoichi, a resident of the temple, was
visited every night by the ghost of a dead samurai and made to play the biwa in the cemetery,
but the priest of the temple soon found out and had the heart sutra painted on every part of
Hoichi's body apart from the ears. When the samurai returned one night to take Hoichi to the
cemetery, he could only see Hoichi's ears, so he took them instead and Hoichi was left earless.
Hoichi is commonly known as "Mimi-Nashi Hoichi", "Hichi the Earless", due to this event. This
legend was famously retold by Lafcadio Hearn in his Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange
Things which was later adapted as part of Masaki Kobayashi's film Kwaidan.

Aokigahara, the forest at the bottom of Mt. Fuji, is a popular location for suicide. This gives
rise to a widespread belief that it is haunted. It was once featured on an episode of
Destination Truth on the SyFy Channel.

Okiku's Well at Himeji Castle is often said to be haunted by the ghost of Okiku. She is
supposed to rise from the well at night and count to nine before shrieking and returning to the
well.

Malaysia

Tambun Inn: The Tambun Inn of Ipoh, one of the top tourist destinations in Malaysia is
reported to be haunted by many ghostly apparitions. Many reports of the apparition events
have been documented at the inn. Some of these accounts mentioned lights turning on and
off, sounds of whispers and eerie cries heard in the inn, as well as a report about the ghost of
an old woman that was spotted within the vicinity of the inn.

Victoria Institution a famous school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was turned into a torture
chamber for captured soldiers and civilians by the Japanese during World War II. Apparitions
are occasionally sighted during both night and day, and violent possessions among the
students have been recorded.

Pudu Jail - A jail in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, near Berjaya Times Square believed to be
haunted by a Spirit of a soldier of the Japanese army from the Second World War.

Lormalong Primary School - A school at about 2.5 Kilometers north of Kunak. Reported to
be haunted by a spirit from the Lormalong Islamic Cemetery.


Mexico

Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel in Tijuana. This former casino which is now a high school is
allegedly haunted by a female singer who poisoned her lover after stealing money from him in
the 1930s. According to legend, the man pursued her in an attempt to get the antidote, but
she refused to give it to him and he shot her to death in his frustration.

Casa de Aramberri in Monterrey is reputed to be haunted by a man's wife and daughter
who, according to legend were tortured to death by three male robbers in 1933.

Guanajuato: Le Casa de las Brujas or The House of the Witches, was built in 1845, and
was owned by a Dutch mine owner by the name of Juan Carson. He was imprisoned for the
murder of a man, and his daughter Susan was left in the custody of her aunts in the house.
She was supposedly found beaten and starved to death in the cellar after a year. According to
legend, Susan's ghost is said to haunt the house and odd sounds, and cold spots have been
reported here.

Hotel Finnestera in Cabo San Lucas. The ghost of a maid as well as voices are allegedly
encountered.

Hotel San Diego in Guanajuato. According to legend, there is a room on the hotel's top floor
where sounds of doors slamming and furniture moving around can be heard.

San Carlos Nuevo Guaymas: Los Estralios Mines is alleged to be inhabited by a demon or a
werewolf called "Neuale".

San Juan Teotihuacn: The Pilar Hacienda was built by the Spaniards who came to Mexico in
the 16th century. It was one of the many ranches built by these explorers. On the top floor of
the building there is a large cut on the window which is believed to be the mark of Miguel
Aritztia who was a Spanish hidalgo. It is thought that he died from falling off of the balcony,
and while he fell he grabbed at the window and created a long scratch. The ghost of the wife
of Miguel has been reported to be seen on the balcony crying "oh, my husband." She was
there at the time of his death and tried to save him. Mr. Aritztia has been reported to be seen
hanging from the window, and also seen in a window. It is said that at times the scratch
disappears from the window.

Swamp South of Mexico City: The Island of Dolls is rumored to be one of the most haunted
sites in Mexico. Don Julian Santana was a man who lived as a hermit on this island for over
fifty years, where he is believed to have lost his mind. The tragic accident of a girl who
drowned on the island while visiting caused further madness in Julian. Some people believe
that he started fishing dolls out of the river because he believed that the dolls were real
children. Whatever it was that motivated him, the island was turned into a shrine for that little
girl. Dolls by the hundreds hang in the trees and the house. Don Julian Santana was found in
the same part of the river that the little girl drowned in by his nephew. He said that he heard
voices beckoning to him from the river. Each of the dolls is believed to be fused with the
energy of the little girl. Candles, hard candy, and dolls are occasionally brought as offerings to
appease the spirits. The dolls are said to move, beckon, and speak to those who come. The
man's specter also roams this place. Orbs, loud sounds, and reports of doll eyes opening
abound.

Villa de Santiago, Puerto Genovevo: These mountainous roads have been the site of many
car accidents. Among the numerous crosses, there is a set of ten crosses which are there for
the remembrance of a family who were the tragic victims of a truck accident. If one stands
next to the crosses, it is rumored to be possible to see a truck moving very fast through the
trees. Also, it is said that at midnight the screams and pain of those in the accident can be
heard.

Monaco

A former yacht belonging to Errol Flynn, the USS Zaca is berthed here and is supposed to be
haunted. Witnesses have reported seeing the visage of Errol Flynn's frustrated ghost pacing on
board. Others have described the sounds of voices and laughter as if a wild party was
happening on board.

Nepal

Mount Everest: the tallest mountain on land is reported to be haunted by the ghost of
climber Andrew Irvine, who died in his attempt to reach the top back in 1924. His spirit is said
to visit the tents of other climbers, giving confidence in their ascent.

Oman

Bahla is a town located in Oman. In neighboring Gulf countries and Oman itself, there are
rumours of Bahla accommodating jinns which is same as genies in English.

Pakistan

The Koh-i-Chiltan peak in Balochistan is described, according to a local myth and legend
associated with it, as being haunted by the "spirits of forty babies."

The Mohatta Palace in Karachi is said to be haunted by ghosts of the British Raj era. Museum
guides have reportedly acknowledged having seen various incidents where objects have been
moved from their original place, or shifted about while guards have claimed to have "felt" the
presence of certain spirits during the night.


Philippines

Baguio City itself is considered highly haunted. Aside from the military academy, there are
other haunted places scattered throughout the city, such as cemeteries, old hotels and sites
where populated buildings and structures used to stand until the 1990 earthquake brought
them down, injuring and killing the people inside.

Balete Drive, a residential area in Cubao, Quezon City, is famous for the apparition of a white
lady. It is told that there was a teenage girl who was raped by a cab driver in the '50s in that
area. It is possible that the lady of Balete is seeking revenge.

The Manila Film Center was the site of a construction accident in the early '80s. When
construction of the center was rushed for a film festival, the ceiling scaffolding collapsed,
killing several workmen who fell to the orchestra below. Rather than halt construction to
rescue survivors and retrieve the bodies of dead workmen, Imelda Marcos, the First Lady and
the main financier of the project, was believed to have ordered cement to be poured into the
orchestra, entombing the fallen workmen. Some of them were even buried alive in the
orchestra. Various ghostly activities were reported on the site including mysterious sounds,
voices and poltergeist activity. In the late '90s, a group called the Spirit Questors began to
make visits to the film center in an attempt to contact and appease the souls of the workmen
who were killed in the building. Some of these spirits claimed to have moved on, but a few
allegedly remain. Previously abandoned for its haunted reputation, the building is now
currently in use.

The Ozone Disco was a disco in Quezon City that caught on fire. Due to mass panicking,
nobody was able to get out. Some people near the location hear ghostly disco music in their
houses at night and see faint people dancing.

Romania

Hotel Cismigiu, in Bucharest, is reportedly haunted by the ghost of a female student who
accidentally fell down an elevator shaft in the early 1990's. She is said to have died there after
a few hours, when no one came to her aid.

Hoia Baciu Forest, near Cluj-Napoca, has a reputation for paranormal activity. Reports have
included, among others, folk ghost stories, apparitions, faces identified in photographs that
were not visible with the naked eye, and, in the 1970s, UFO sightings. Visitors to the forest
report anxiety and the feeling of being watched, and the local vegetation is often bizarre
(strangely shaped trees, charring on tree stumps and branches).

Iulia Hasdeu Castle (Prahova County) is included in the list of haunted places, after a man
said that it was built on the basis of sketches that the writer received in sleep from his dead
daughter. Years ago, newspapers reported that in the castle, by night, Iulia piano could be
heard singing and Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu clapping.

Hunyad Castle, Bonida Bnffy Castle, Bran Castle, and Poenari Castle, are all said to have
significant amounts of unexplained activity. The places have included reports of ghostly
apparitions, poltergeist activity, shadowy figures, orbs, spirit possessions, EVP's, and other
unusual phenomena.

Russia

The Kremlin: is said to be haunted by the Soviet leaders, Lenin & Stalin.
Singapore

Old Changi Hospital once a military hospital in Singapore before being closed down some
years ago, this hospital is the most haunted spot in Asia's most ghost-ridden city. The morgue
is a particular hot spot for ghost sightings of the headless and feetless kind. In 2006, there
was a plan to convert it into a spa-resort by the first half of 2008. The plan was scrapped for
unknown reasons.

South Africa

The Nottingham Road Hotel: A hotel in KwaZulu-Natal, the ghost of a former barmaid is
said to still wander the hotel moving pots around the pub, moving light fixtures, moving
sheets, and ringing the service bell.

Sri Lanka

Borella Kanatte Cemetery: Borella is home to Borella Kanatte Cemetery, the main burial
ground for all faiths within the city of Colombo. It is located where Narahenpita Road
(Elvitigala Mawatha), Bullers Road (Bauddhaloka Mawatha), and Baseline Road (D S
Senanayake Mawtha) meet at a large roundabout. There have been various reports of
parnomal activities inside and near the cemetery at night. The cemetery was also featured in a
reality show called Venasa in channel ITN.

Sweden

Toftaholm Herrgrd: The story from the hotel began between a commoner and a baron's
daughter. However, the baron had his daughter married to someone else . On the day of the
wedding, the commoner hanged himself from the rafters. The spirit of the commoner is said to
wander Room 324 where the rafters once were.

Borgvattnets prstgrd: the rectory of the small village of Borgvattnet in Jmtland,
northern Sweden. There has been reports of hauntings since early 1920s. The rectory is today
open to the public, and people are allowed to spend up to two nights for a price. The Swedish
TV Show Det oknda once went to the old rectory for a visit and were unable to leave and
were forced to spend the night, due to their GPS constantly directing them to narrow roads in
the forest, and eventually back to the rectory; even though they were driving for the city of
stersund, which is a 1.5 hour drive. There is also an infamous rocking chair, which tells
stories of throwing a priest who once lived there on the floor multiple times.

Sources (sites are in Swedish): http://www.borgvattnet.eu/meraomprastgarden1.htm &
www.borgvattnet.eu & http://www.paranormal.nu/borgvattnet.htm

Thailand

Lipe Island, Thailand located in the Andaman Sea, Lipe is inhabited by the Chao-Le, an
ethnic group that are nicknamed the Gypsies of the Sea. The Chao-Le still cling to animist
beliefs, and say their island is full of rowdy spirits which they call ha-too. Tourists also claim
feeling the presence of invisible forces during their visit there. Residents are said to be able to
appease these spirits with offerings of cupcakes and cold strawberry softdrinks.
Haunted Places in the United States
Wikipedia.org


There are numerous reportedly haunted locations in the United States.

Alaska

Dimond Center in Anchorage. This mall is allegedly haunted by spectral Native Americans.

Arizona

Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone. There have been reports of ghostly laughter, yelling and
strange music. These reports date back to the 1880s. It was investigated on the TV series
Ghost Adventures. It was also investigated by TAPS on Ghost Hunters.

Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee. It "is haunted, or at least that is what the owners claim
and what numerous guests have affirmed over the years with stories about mysterious voices,
odd sounds and smells and even levitating objects."

Gadsden Hotel in Douglas. It is reportedly haunted by a few specters, including a cowboy,
and two "shoppers". This place is also home to a few stories, such as those of a woman being
pinned to her bed, another having her hair pulled, and yet another having someone lay down
next to her in bed.

Lee Williams High School in Kingman. Part of the football field lies atop the old Pioneer
Cemetery. Women in prairie gowns and men wearing suits from the 19th Century have
reportedly been sighted during outdoor graduation ceremonies. A man in a bowler hat and
long coat is rumored to roam the hallways, and at night a little girl is said to shout that she
"just wants to go out and play."

Monte Vista Hotel in Flagstaff is reputed to be haunted. A phantom bellboy is said to
knock on the door of room 210 and announce "room service." John Wayne reported seeing a
ghost in his room while staying at the hotel in the early 1950s.

Vulture Mine in Wickenburg. It is reportedly haunted by the ghosts of prostitutes in the
bordello, children in the school house and silver miners that were killed in this area.

Arkansas

The Crescent Hotel is a historic hotel in Eureka Springs. Built in the 1880s, it is still in
service today and reported to be haunted.

Fort Chaffee in Western Arkansas, which is near Fort Smith, is reportedly haunted. It was
featured in episode 10 of the 4th season of the TV series Ghost Adventures on Friday,
November 19, 2010.

The King Opera House is a historic live performance venue in Van Buren. Opened in the
late 19th century, the opera house is purportedly haunted by a young Victorian man who was
whipped to death by the father of his lover when they attempted to elope.

In El Dorado, Arkansas, there is an old theatre building called the Rialto that is claimed to
be haunted and has been investigated by a local group of ghost hunters called the Spirit
Seekers.

Colorado

The Hotel Jerome in Aspen is claimed to be haunted by several different ghosts. The most
frequently reported is that of a young boy who supposedly drowned in the hotel pool in 1936.

Osgood Castle in Redstone is claimed to be haunted by the ghost of its builder, John C.
Osgood. A caretaker says she smelled his cigar smoke when she knew there was no one else
on the property.

Pioneer Park, also in Aspen, is reportedly haunted
by the ghost of Harriet Webber, wife of its builder, who
died of what was ruled to be an accidental strychnine
overdose in 1881, four years before it was built.



The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, near Rocky Mountain National Park, is purportedly
haunted by several spirits, including that of its founder, F.O. Stanley, and served as the
inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining. It has also been featured in several episodes of
various supernatural series, like Ghost Hunters and "Ghost Adventures".

Connecticut

Bara-Hack is a ghost town in the northern part of the state that is reportedly haunted.

Dudleytown is an abandoned town founded as a settlement in the mid-1740s. It lies in the
middle of a forested area in Cornwall. The original buildings are gone and only their
foundations remain. Footage has purportedly been captured of restless spirits in the area and
hikers have reported seeing orbs in the area. Visitors claim that the area is unusually quiet
and without wildlife. It is on private property and is closed to the public.

The Remington Arms factory in Bridgeport was once a weapons factory. It was closed in
the 1980s after countless accidents and fatalities. Afterward, the place was abandoned and
was the site of many crimes. People have reported shadow figures, voices, yelling, and
residual working sounds. It was investigated on the TV series Ghost Adventures.

Union Cemetery in Easton (also Bridgeport), which dates back to the 17th century, is
touted as "one of the most haunted cemeteries in the entire country" by authors of
paranormal books who report that visitors have photographed orbs, light rods, ectoplasmic
mists, and apparitions. A spirit known as the "White Lady" has also been reported.

Florida

Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine is allegedly haunted by the Spanish soldiers who
once inhabited the fort. It was investigated on the TV series Ghost Adventures.

The Riddle House in Royal Palm Beach is reputedly haunted by the spirit of Joseph, a
former employee of the original owner Karl Riddle, who hanged himself in the attic after being
falsely accused of a crime. Shortly after, people began reporting physical attacks, possessions,
and objects moving mysteriously. Moved from its original location in West Palm Beach, the
house was investigated on the TV series Ghost Adventures.

The Saint Augustine Lighthouse is allegedly haunted by two little girls, the daughters of
the engineer responsible for building the lighthouse. A drifter is also said to have hung himself
in the lighthouse in the 1800s and a couple of ghosts are reportedly past lighthouse keepers.
Investigated by many ghost investigators, it was also featured in one episode of Ghost
Hunters.

The Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables is reportedly haunted by the ghost of
Thomas "Fatty" Walsh, a mobster who was murdered on September 7, 1929 during a
gambling dispute. Claims include that his ghost haunts the hotel elevator, from which reports
of doors opening and closing and lights blinking on and off, as well as the 13th floor on which
he was killed. Reports also include that of a woman who was said to have jumped out of a
window to save her child. Guests have reported seeing a woman in white clothing in their
rooms.

Georgia (U.S. state)

The Moon River Brewing Company in Savannah is allegedly haunted by angry spirits.
Staff members have reported physical attacks, possessions, and mysterious dark figures. It
was investigated on the TV series Ghost Adventures.

The Hampton-Lillibridge House in Savannah has been referred to as the "most haunted
house" in the US. During renovations construction had to stop several times due to reported
poltergeist activity.

The Masquerade Nightclub in Atlanta is known for several apparitions and footsteps of
unknown origins often seen or heard after closing by the staff. It is thought that the
occurrences are due to a fire and tuberculosis outbreak that claimed the lives of several
members of staff.

The McDonough Square is reported to be haunted due to the Camp Creek train wreck in
1900. As many of the victims were brought to the McDonough Square for medical treatment
and most died within hours it is believed they haunt the area. Many local citizens report seeing
apparitions in the older buildings surrounding the square and train sounds are reportedly
heard near the tracks.

Hanging Grounds off Padgett Road in Senoia were used for capital punishment by
hanging. It is told that during one of the hangings the convicted broke free and killed the
executioner. The executioner is believed to still roam the grounds around the hanging tree and
nearby train tracks.

The Warren House in Jonesboro was used as a hospital during the Civil War. There are
many carved names in the wall from the soldiers. At night a figure of a soldier can be
reportedly seen holding a candle and looking out the window. There is supposedly a bloodstain
still on the floor in the attic.

Ebos Landing (Igbo Landing) in Dunbar Creek, St. Simons Island, Glynn County is
reportedly haunted by the souls of Igbo slaves who committed mass suicide by drowning there
in 1803 in protest against slavery in the United States.

Hawaii

'Iolani Palace is purported to be haunted.

Idaho

Old Idaho State Penitentiary in Boise is reputed to be haunted by former prisoners.


Illinois

Ashmore Estates is a former almshouse and current haunted attraction in Coles County. It
has appeared in several books, television shows and documentaries, including Soul Catcher
and an episode of Ghost Adventures.

Bachelor's Grove Cemetery has been the location of several ghost sightings including a
famous photograph. The cemetery was featured on Ghost Adventures

Crenshaw House, Gallatin County Also known as The Old Slave House has been the
reported site of much paranormal activity. Once a "station" of the Reverse Underground
Railroad, Crenshaw's taxes amounted to one-seventh of the revenue of the entire state.
Crenshaw owned thousands of acres of land, in addition to the 30,000 acres (120 km) he
leased from the state, and more than 700 slaves. There have been various reports of
moaning, cries, rattling of chains, and singing coming from the attic while the site was an
open tourist attraction. In the 1970s a local news reporter won a contest to stay the night in
the attic.

Music Administration Building, Northwestern University The music administration
building on the Northwestern Campus is the location of reported sightings of "Young Cliff," the
ghost of a former student and musical prodigy, Clifford E Walsh. Reports of paranormal
activity began as early as 1928.

Manteno State Hospital is an abandoned mental hospital in Manteno. In recent years,
much of the former hospital has been reclaimed as an industrial park and as low-income
housing. Tunnels under the hospital are reportedly haunted, and visitors claim to have seen
phantom nurses and patients.

The McPike Mansion in Alton is a mansion that was constructed in 1869. There have
numerous reports of paranormal activity occurring in the mansion, including reports of hearing
children laughing and sightings of apparitions moving around the halls. These hauntings are
somewhat unusual in the sense that they are not linked to a murder or suicide.

Pemberton Hall is the oldest all-female dormitory in the state of Illinois. It is home to the
legend of Mary Hawkins, a former dorm mother who reportedly haunts the hall. Other
students living in Pem have told stories reminiscent of the urban legend "The Roommate's
Death."

Peoria State Hospital is an abandoned mental hospital in Bartonville. This hospital was
the scene of the ghost of "Old Book," who haunted his gravesite. Trespassers have long come
away with stories of eerie encounters.

The Polish Museum of America in Chicago is believed to be haunted by the ghost of the
famous pianist Ignace Paderewski. The staff recounts a number of incidents related by a
number of people, including the cleaning crew who have claimed to experience ghostly-related
phenomena late at night. The Ghost Research Society was even brought in by the museum
staff to investigate these claims.

The Stickney House in Bull Valley has a unique design due to Stickney's belief in
spiritualism. It is thought that he and his wife wished to communicate with their dead children.
Today the house is the local police department, and it is claimed that police report strange
sounds, objects moving around, lights turning off, and door knobs turning and doors opening
by themselves. Other homes in the area are also rumored to be haunted. The nearby
Holcombville cemetery includes tombs of the Stickney children and a person killed in the crash
of American Airlines Flight 191.

Hundley House in Carbondale, Illinois is a house near the campus of Southern Illinois
University Carbondale in which several murders took place during the 1920s. Bullet holes are
still visible in the walls near and on the staircase. Many have reported hearing screams inside
the house while no one else was present and it has been reported on numerous occasions that
the porch swing moves by itself when there is no wind or anything else that can explain its
movement.

Geneva House: This is part of tour where the ghosts of Geneva in Geneva, IL. Ghosts of
Geneva books by Kate Hoyland . This will features in Haunted Collector on April 17. 2013.

Indiana

At the Story Inn in the town of Story a guest room is supposedly haunted by a ghost
known as "the Blue Lady". Little is known of who she might be, or why she might haunt that
room, but her alleged presence is mentioned in many separate guestbook entries. According
to some, she seems more likely to appear if a certain table-lamp is turned on.

Willard library, a public library in Evansville, is reportedly haunted by the ghost of a
woman called "the Grey lady". Willard Library was started building in 1876 but due to a
depressed economy, was halted in 1877, it was finally completed in 1885. Policemen who
responded to a security alarm in the library thought they saw "two ghosts" in an upstairs
window of the library. A number of unexplained occurrences have happened at Willard such
as, water turned on or off, smell of perfume, feeling of cold, noises, books and furniture found
moved, feeling of touch on hair, and odd items found in the library. Every October, ghost tours
are held at Willard library where people look for the Grey Lady.

Black Moon Manor, a home in rural Greenfield, Indiana, is reportedly haunted by the
spirits of those who lived and died in the home.

Whispers Estate, a home in Mitchell, Indiana, was ranked 4th in the Travel Channel
presentation "Most Terrifying Places in America" which aired on Oct 29, 2010.

Plymouth, Indiana, The place is haunted along with surrounding towns.

Iowa

Brick building in Farrar that housed the middle school until 2002 and has been a private
residence since 2008: the owner felt an unseen hand steady him when she was about to lose
her balance on the stairs and later saw a young boy's apparition in the stairwell; a photo taken
in the former auditorium shows the outline of a young boy sitting on the edge of the stage;
digital recorders have picked up EVPs of children conversing and giggling. A soccerball has
been moved on command.

The Villisca Axe Murder House is home to some of the most notorious murders in
history. It is said that the family that was murdered there in 1912 still lingers in the house. It
was investigated on the TV series Ghost Adventures.

The Jordan House in West Des Moines is said to be haunted by the ghost of Eda Jordan,
the three year-old daughter of Iowa abolitionist James C. Jordan. She broke her neck and died
in 1893 when she fell off the bannister which she was sliding down. She supposedly walks the
halls of the house while carrying a white cat.

The Ham House in Dubuque, IA is Matthias Ham House is located in northern part of the
city of Dubuque, Ia. It is thought that at least 2 ghosts haunt this mansion.

Kansas

The Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia has stories of a ghost that haunts the theatre,
especially during the opening season.

The Oxford Middle School (Also Known As the 5th & 6th grade center) in Oxford, Kansas
is supposedly haunted by a ghost named Anne Marie, though the school has closed, the legend
lives on. Multiple sightings of Anne Marie have been reported, she supposedly resides in the
storage area in the balcony of the Gym.

Louisiana

Magnolia Plantation (Derry, Louisiana) is a former plantation in Natchitoches Parish,
Louisiana. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001. Included in the Cane
River Creole National Historical Park, Magnolia Plantation is also a destination on the Louisiana
African American Heritage Trail. Reportedly haunted by spirits of residents of the main house
and of slaves who practiced Voodoo, Magnolia Plantation has been featured on the Travel
Channel series Ghost Adventures. Scariest Places on Earth also sent two families to spend the
night here.

The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville is reportedly haunted by a slave known as
Chloe. Chloe was put to death by the other slaves after she intentionally or unintentionally
killed at least some members of her master's family with oleander leaves put in a cake. The
other slaves possibly killed her to prevent punishment by their master. It has been called by
some one of the most haunted homes in America.

Maine

Fort Knox, Prospect, Maine A 19th Century seacoast fortification located on the banks of
the Penobscot River. Investigated by numerous paranormal groups, including SciFi Channel's
Ghost Hunters. Numerous reports of apparitions, sounds, EVPs, touching and film/photo
evidence.

Maryland

Chestnut Lodge in Rockville was a private facility treating mental patients for over one
hundred years. Closed in 2001 and now under renovation for resale as upscale condominiums,
separate recent investigations claim paranormal activity. The building was burned down in
June 2009.

Engineered Piping Products is a Baltimore-based reseller of industrial pipe, valves and
fittings. The building is located upon the site of an old residential neighborhood. All of the
activity tends to happen at the site of the old Deboser home. A local paranormal group,
Pasadena Paranormal, has cumulatively logged over 100 EVPs from this location. They have
experienced buzzing sounds that fly by their heads, and one employee had his coat tugged
from behind when he was in the building alone. This site has been submitted to the Syfy's
Ghost Hunters Great American Ghost Hunt for their consideration.

Point Lookout Lighthouse, at the southernmost tip of Maryland's western shore of
Chesapeake Bay, has seen numerous shipwrecks, bodies washed ashore, and plenty of
paranormal activity, as documented over the centuries.

Massachusetts

The Boston Athenum is said to be haunted by the scholarly Rev. Harris, who was seen
there by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The Houghton Mansion in North Adams, where North Adams' first mayor, A.C. Houghton,
and his family, lived, is supposedly haunted by the family's chauffeur, who committed suicide
after a car accident that led to the deaths of Mrs. Houghton and the Houghton's only daughter.
It is now used as a Masonic temple. It was investigated on the TV series Ghost Adventures.

The Joshua Ward House in Salem is associated with the Salem witch trials. Sheriff George
Corwin and witchcraft victim Giles Cory are said to haunt this place.

The Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, which is now a bed and breakfast, is said to be one
of the most haunted houses in the US. It is the site of a double murder, one of the most
famous in US history, claimed ghost sightings and noises.

The USS Salem (CA-139) in Quincy, which now serves as a museum ship open to the
general public. Though never seeing combat, the ship has seen its fair share of life and death.
Notably after the 1953 Ionian Earthquake serving as a hospital ship. The ship is home to the
Fore River Paranormal Society, hosts ghost tours on a regular basis, is converted to a haunted
ship open to the public during Halloween and was even featured on the show Ghost Hunters.

Michigan

Big Bay Point Light is reputedly haunted by the red-haired ghost of its first keeper, Will
Prior.

Nagoon Park, located almost four miles away from the town of Manistee is reputed to be
haunted by something. The park is closed at night.

The Mission Point Resort (formerly Mackinac College), located on Mackinac Island, is
reported to be haunted by many ghosts including a little girl in the auditorium as well as those
who drowned in lagoons, pools, and from jumping off cliffs. Syfy's Ghost Hunters investigated
the phenomena in 2011.

Historic Fort Wayne is a part of Haunted Historic Fort Wayne Tour in Detroit, Michigan.
Its will be featured on Haunted Collector on April 17, 2013.

Missouri

Town of Avilla on historic route 66. Known haunts of large numbers of Shadow Folk
throughout village. Also haunted by a Revenant Civil War-era bushwhacker nicknamed "Rotten
Johnny Reb", from a gruesome historical event now called the "Legend of the Avilla Death
Tree".

Vaile Mansion in Independence, Missouri is reputed to be haunted.

Town of Lebanon on East 32 Highway. Known haunts of large numbers of Shadow People
throughout property.

Reports of a woman calling out the name "Peggy." Several people have reported that they
have heard voices too. Ozark Visions is open to the public year-round.

At Kemper Arena in Kansas City there are said to be sightings, sounds, and lights
flickering on and off in the arena late at night from a former WWE wrestler named Owen Hart
who died in 1999 by falling 78 feet (24 m) to his death from the ceiling of the arena. There
are also said to be sightings of him still in his Blue Blazer suit at the top of the arena looking
down with the cable hooked up to him.

Pythian Castle was haunted. The castle was originally built by the Knights of Pythias as an
orphanage & senior citizens home for its members and their families in 1913. It was called the
Pythian Home of Missouri.


Montana

Bannack, a ghost town that was one of the
first-settled towns in its county, is reportedly
haunted. It was founded in 1862 and named after
the Bannock Indian tribe. Several reports of
hauntings have been made there, including the
apparition of a woman in a blue gown named
Dorothy who drowned in Grasshopper Creek. A
gang of outlaws were also executed in the town
and their ghosts are said to haunt the area. There
were several epidemics of illnesses there as well,
and a reported 8 to 14 infants died in the town;
visitors have often reported hearing babies crying.



Carroll College, in Helena, supposedly has a ghost in the men's bathroom in St. Charles
Hall, where a drunken student died of a cerebral hemorrhage after falling and smashing his
head against a sink in the middle of the night. The bathroom was closed for a period after the
death, but was later reopened for student use. Several maintenance men and students have
reported coming into the bathroom and seeing blood in the sink where the student hit his
head. St. Albert's Hall is also said to be haunted by a nun who died of influenza in the college's
early days.

The Copper King Mansion in Butte is said to be haunted by its original owner, Senator
William A. Clark. Owners have reported a warm and welcoming presence in the house, but
have reported witnessing unexplained shadows and footsteps, as well as cold spots. The
mansion also served as a Catholic convent in the early 1900s.

Garnet, a ghost town nestled in the Garnet Mountain Range about 40 miles outside of
Missoula, is said to be haunted by several ghosts, including gold miners and a woman
executed for murder there. People have often heard voices and loud music when nobody is
there.

Little Bighorn National Battlefield, a battlefield in Big Horn County, Montana, is said to
have recent claims of paranormal activity at the park from visitors as well as employees.
These include taps on shoulders, rangers seeing apparition movement out the corner of their
eyes when no one is around, orb spectacles throughout the fields, a Native American war cry,
as well as moans and screams. Lt. Benjamin Hodgson was a member of Company B who died
in the battle and has been claimed to have been seen a couple times near the Stone House.

Montana State Prison Museum, located in Deer Lodge, is reportedly haunted and had a
history of extremely violent criminals, countless executions, and several riots. Built in 1871
and in operation until the 1970s, the prison is now a museum open to the public, and guests
have reported disembodied voices and footsteps in all areas of the prison. An underground
solitary confinement sect of the prison, known as "the hole", which housed prisoners in total
darkness, is said to be haunted, and guests have reported being pushed and touched while in
the cells.

Virginia City, a ghost town-turned-tourist-attraction, is said to be haunted. The saloon and
theatre are two areas of reported ghost sightings. The town had a violent past and was home
to many outlaws. Calamity Jane lived in the town as a child.

Nevada

Abraham Curry House in Carson City is a historic
residence reportedly occupied by the spirit of its namesake
builder Abraham Curry, the founding father of the city and
state capital, who died in 1873 with only one dollar in his
pocket.



Goldfield Hotel in Goldfield, Nevada has been reportedly haunted, both the Ghost
Adventures crew and Ghost Hunters have investigated there.

The Madame Tussauds wax museum in Las Vegas is said to haunted by famous
celebrities.

The Redd Foxx's home in Las Vegas. It is said that the famous American comedian is
playing pranks on the current tenants as a ghost.

The Nevada Governor's Mansion in Carson City was first occupied by the family of
Governor Denver S. Dickerson in July 1909. Guests and staff have reported seeing a woman
and child on the premises, thought to be Dickerson's wife Una and daughter June, the only
child to have been born in the residence.

The Yellow Jacket Mine in Virginia City, Nevada has been reported to be haunted by the
spirits of eleven miners who were trapped underground during the Yellow Jacket Mine fire. The
television series Ghost Adventures sent three investigators to discover the mystery of the
numerous hauntings in the mines.

The Mackay Mansion in Virginia City, Nevada is reported to be haunted by the former
residents of the mansion. The television series The Dead Files aired an episode of The Mackay
Mansion to investigate the many haunting occurrences.

New Hampshire

Huntress Hall, a dormitory at Keene State College, is supposedly haunted by its
namesake, Harriet Huntress. Students often report strange noises coming from the building's
attic, where Huntress' wheelchair remains to this day.

The Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods. Room 314 is allegedly haunted by the
wife of the original owner. It has been investigated on Ghost Hunters.

Pine Hill Cemetery (also known as "Blood Cemetery") in Hollis is allegedly haunted by a
family murdered in the 19th century. People have reported orbs, EVPs, and a mysterious little
boy running out onto to the road to stop cars.

New Jersey

Burlington County Prison in Mount Holly is reportedly haunted by a legless, floating spirit
that moves from the entrance to the yard, a tall male in a uniform in the basement, and the
third floor is claimed to have a flurry of paranormal activity.

The Devil's Tree in Bernards Township is said to be one of the old headquarters of the Ku
Klux Klan in New Jersey. An area surrounding the tree is said to give off unnatural warmth
where snow doesn't seem to stick in the dead of winter. They say that the tree has a branch
that still hangs low from where the KKK would lynch people. People who have tried to cut it
down or do harm to the tree have allegedly met an untimely death.

Domani's Restaurant in Roselle Park is reportedly haunted by its former owner who died
in the building.

The Essex County Hospital Center in Verona is believed to be haunted by full-body
apparitions of nurses and patients. Some have even claimed a demonic presence. The sound
of a rolling gurney can frequently be heard.

Poltergeist incidents and other ghost sightings have been claimed at the Union Hotel in
Flemington since its upper floors were closed and it was converted into a restaurant.

New Mexico

Boyd's Sanatorium in Dripping Springs. Apparitional former patients and staff roam this
defunct location. People camping nearby have reported nightmares of what life was when it
operated as a mental asylum. Feelings of being watched and of general unease are reported
by witnesses. Other paranormal activities include unexplained cold spots, feeling of touched by
unseen presences, light anomalies, disembodied voices and shadowy figures.

Chino Mines Creek in Bayard. There is an older woman by this creek who cries for her
son. The story is that she and her son were wiped away in a flood. She was a beautiful
Hispanic woman who was poor and married a rich handsome man. It seems that this man
changed after they got married. He would go away a lot and wouldn't come back for long
periods of time. It seems that he was cheating on her. She was very upset but didn't seek
revenge in the usual way. Instead of murdering him, she decided the thing that would get him
most is to not see the children ever again. That is when she drowned her children in the river.
At the last minute she realized what she was doing but by that time it was too late and they
were dead. While running down to rescue them she fell and cracked open her head. This ghost
is called "Llorna" which means crying lady. Since that had happened it is said that you can
hear her crying all over searching the riverbeds for her children.

Highway 666. Paranormal activities include a large gasoline truck driving up the center of
the road (some have seen it as being on fire) at high speeds and tries to run other vehicles off
of the road, two female apparitional hitchhikers (one who disappears from your car when
picked up and another who will run out into the highway in front of cars disappearing when
she is about to be hit), cars passing travelers with no driver behind the wheel, disembodied
dogs running across the highway and mysterious lights appearing in the sky.

Holy Cross Sanatorium in Deming. It started out as a military base in World War I and as
a TB ward in World War II. Then a Satanic cult used it as an animal sacrificing place at a later
date. There is only one building left now. The rest have been destroyed and this place is most
certainly haunted. Noises come from the top stories. Also there is a shadowy apparition in "the
alter room" not to mention a pretty disturbing cemetery nearby in which a cross has been
knocked down. Murders occur here quite often. There was a lover's quarrel with a drainpipe
and a gang killing a peer for sacrifice.

Insane Asylum in Albuquerque. Reports by paranormal investigators include black clouds,
light anomalies, mysterious mists, disembodied voices, apparitional former patients and the
feeling of being watched by spirits.

Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe. The most paranormal activity areas of this
former prison are Cell Block 4 as well as Cell Block 3, which housed the maximum security
prisoner, the tool room and the tunnels underneath the prison including the laundry room as
well as the gas chamber.

St. James Hotel and Saloon in Cimarron. It was the site of numerous murders during the
19th Century and is reported to have a paranormal activity in one of its rooms.
New York

112 (now 108) Ocean Avenue, Amityville. Based
on the 1977 book The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson.
Scene of a tragic mass murder of a family on November
13, 1974 committed by Ronald DeFeo, Jr., the next
inhabitants of the home claimed that it was haunted and
fled after 28 days. Their experiences were portrayed in
Anson's bestselling book, which was followed by a hit
movie The Amityville Horror which in turn spawned a
cottage industry. Despite accusations of a fraud, the
family maintains that they experienced paranormal
phenomena while living in the Amityville house.


Big Moose Lake. Grace Brown's apparition is seen by witnesses in the cabin where she
stayed until Chester Gillette murdered her. Witnesses have reported to the media about
seeing her both from the outside and the inside of Covewood Lodge. She is also seen by
visitors in the lake as she reenacts her tragic drowning. Her presence is also associated by a
feeling of wet chills descending over witnesses and her face has been seen staring up from the
lakes depths.

Cherry Hill, a late 18th-century farm manor house in southern Albany, was the site of a
murder in 1827 that led to Albany's last public hanging after a controversial trial. An
unidentified ghost has been seen on the property.

The Church of St. Barnabas in Irvington reportedly has some ghosts of former occupants.
In 2000 workers installing a new organ left the church in haste after seeing one.

The Farnam Mansion in Oneida is said to be haunted by human and animal spirits alike.
Research conducted by the current owners, Gerri and Brian Gray, found seven known deaths
had occurred in the mansion. The Farnam Mansion has been investigated by such paranormal
groups as the New York Shadow Chasers and New York State Paranormal Research, all of
whom have reported paranormal phenomena.

The New York State Capitol building in Albany is said to be haunted by the ghosts of a
night watchman who died in a 1911 fire, artist William Morris Hunt, and others.

The Smith-Ely Mansion in Clyde is said to be haunted by the ghosts of not only its historic
inhabitants but also more recent victims of suicide. The house has since been converted into a
bed and breakfast. The B & B now draws patronage from casual tourists and ghost hunters
alike.

SUNY Geneseo's Erie Hall dormitory (room C2D1) is alleged to have been haunted in
1985 and popularized in the media as the "C2D1 Haunting".

Durand-Eastman Park on the waterfront in Irondequoit is known for the legend of the
"White Lady", said to be a local mother whose daughter was murdered by her boyfriend. The
story was voted "Best Local Urban Legend" in City Newspaper's '2008 Best Of' Awards.

North Carolina

Shouting by disembodied voices was heard during a paranormal investigation of the stone
building that formerly housed the Ashe County Hospital in Jefferson. The investigators also
heard an elevator in the building "ding" even though the structure had no electricity. Also in
Jefferson, the Museum of Ashe County History occupies the century-old building that had been
the county courthouse. In the summer of 2010, a college intern working alone in the building
on the main floor heard a telephone ring on the second floor and a person walk across the
floor to answer it.

The Attmore-Oliver House in New Bern has been the scene of some poltergeist-like
activity stemming possibly from either deaths in the house during a smallpox epidemic or the
spirit of the last private owner.

Brown Mountain in Burke County is reputed to have ghostly orbs of light radiating from
the mountain. The Brown Mountain Lights date back as far as the year 1200, according to
local Cherokee legend. This was the year of a great battle, and the Cherokee believed the
lights to be the spirits of Indian maidens who still search for lost loved ones. There also has
been speculation of alien activity. Wiseman's View on Linville Mountain is the best vantage
point for viewing the Brown Mountain Lights. The lookout was used by German Engineer
William de Brahm in 1771 while studying the phenomenon. He attributed the lights to nitrous
gases emitting from the mountain and combusting upon collision. His theories were later
disproven.

The Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, NC was set ablaze on July 1, 1981 by a woman who
was assumed mentally disturbed. Ms. Melba Frey went up to the upper balcony and started
the fire, which burned the entire balcony and lobby. Her body was found in the stairway by
firefighters, and she is now believed to haunt the area in which she died, flipping the folding
seats up and down.

The Devil's Tramping Ground near Bennett, North Carolina is a 40 foot ring in the middle
of a forest devoid of any growth for at least a century. Legend has it that this a site where the
Devil rises to the surface of the earth to plot his misdeeds against mankind. A United States
Geological Survey team could uncover no scientific explanation for the lack of growth within
the ring.

An older woman in 18th-century dress is said to haunt the second and third floors of the
Harvey Mansion Historic Inn and Restaurant in New Bern. A North Carolina State
University professor reported seeing her glide by his table while dining in the second-floor
restaurant.

Lydia's Bridge is located in Jamestown, just outside of Greensboro, NC. According to the
story, in the early 1920s Lydia and her date were headed home from a dance. It was a foggy
night, and in a hurry to get home by Lydia's curfew, her date lost control of the car and hit the
Southern Railroad Underpass Bridge head-on. Her date died on impact, but Lydia, badly
injured, managed to escape the car. Trying to flag down a passing car for help, she was
mistaken as a hitchhiker, and died by the roadside. There have been accounts of people
picking up a hitchhiker in white, who says her name is Lydia. She gives an address and says
she doesn't want her mother to worry and she needs to be home by curfew. Then she
disappears before she reaches her destination. Lydia is also known as The Phantom
Hitchhiker; The Lady in White; and The Vanishing lady. Lydia's Bridge is now abandoned, but
U.S. Highway 70 used to run under it. Now High Point Road, it was straightened and a new
underpass was built a few feet away in an effort to make the road safer.

Fayetteville hosts ghosts such as "The Lady in Black" who haunts the Sandford House
(formerly called the Slocumb House). Her apparition first appeared in the late 19th century
and has been sighted by members of The Woman's Club of Fayetteville.

The Tar River, near Tarboro in Edgecombe County, is associated with a legend of a
banshee. The legend speaks of a Patriot miller who was killed by a small group of British
soldiers during the American Revolution. Before they drowned him in the river, he warned the
soldiers that if he were killed, they would be haunted by a banshee. After his death, she
appeared and caused the deaths of the soldiers and supposedly still haunts the river.

North Dakota

The Liberty Memorial Building in Bismarck, according to former employees was said to
be haunted by a ghostly presence nicknamed the "Stack Monster." When the building housed
the State Historical Society of North Dakota, an archivist reported hearing a voice call him by
name. A superintendent of the Historical Society claims he stepped off the elevator in the
basement and thought he saw a man in a white shirt walk into a storage room. Archivists
working at night say they were "suddenly overwhelmed with the sensation" that they should
immediately leave the building. One employee speculates the "Stack Monster" vacated the
building. Another assistant says they observed the heavy entrance doors on the building's
south side slowly open and close as if someone was going outside. Employees humorously
created an ID badge to invite the "Stack Monster" to "check into newer quarters" at the
Heritage Center.

Ohio

Cincinnati Music Hall is a theater that was built over a potter's field. Reports of spirits on
the property date back to 1876 and continue through modern times. In 1988, during the
installation of an elevator shaft, bones of adults and children were exhumed from under the
hall.

The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield is a defunct prison that was shut down in 1990.
Now, people report cell doors slamming, yelling, physical attacks on women, and shadow
figures. It was investigated on the TV series Ghost Adventures.

Ohio University is known in state folklore as one of the most haunted college campus in
the United States. Established in 1804, the university is old by Ohio standards, which adds to
its ghostly reputation. A large number of places on campus are said to be haunted, and
numerous other popular tales are told about the university in Athens county. The British
Society for Psychical Research claims that Athens, Ohio, is one of the most haunted places in
the world. Fox filmed an episode of its Scariest Places on Earth at the university. Many of the
ghost stories associated with Athens and the University center around the former Athens
Lunatic Asylum and the horrors that supposedly went on there.
Prospect Place in Trinway. Satanic rituals were allegedly performed on the site, and many
people were supposedly killed during its time as a stop on the underground railroad. It was
investigated on the TV series Ghost Adventures.

Spring House Gazebo in Eden Park, Cincinnati. In 1927, Imogene, wife of George Remus,
was shot at the gazebo. Her ghost has been reported at the site wearing a black dress.

Emmitt House in Waverly, Ohio. Some reported sightings and human remains found.

Oklahoma

Dead Women Crossing is a community in Custer County, Oklahoma.
Oregon

Bagdad Theater, located in Portland, is a theater built by Universal Studios in 1927 that
was used as a cinema as well as a theatre stage for plays and vaudeville shows. A theater
maintenance man hanged himself behind the stage, and the women's bathroom is reportedly
haunted by a spirit. It is now operated by McMenamins as a cinema and pub.

Hot Lake Hotel is a supposedly haunted hotel in
eastern Oregon. The hotel is known for a massive fire
that occurred in 1934, as well as suicides and hauntings
from ghosts during its days as a sanatorium. Countless
people died on the property, including a doctor who
killed himself in an operating room, as well as a nurse
who died after falling in the scalding hot springs. The
building served as a hotel and resort for its homeopathic
mineral waters, as well as a hospital and elderly home,
and housed a restaurant in the late 1980s. It was in
disrepair by the early 1990s, but was restored for the public in 2003 by a private family. In
2001, the hotel was featured on the television show The Scariest Places on Earth.

The Multnomah County Poor Farm, also known as the Edgefield Poorhouse and Edgefield
Power Station, located in Troutdale, Oregon, is supposedly haunted. The construct, built in
1911, operated as a poorhouse, and also housed the mentally challenged, the disabled, and
the elderly; since death was common in poorhouses, many people were buried on the property
in unmarked plots. The property later served as a sanitorium and a reform school for troubled
kids before falling vacant in 1990. It is now a hotel operated by McMenamins restaurant and
brewery, and has several restaurants and bars on the property as well as an outdoor stage for
concerts. Hotel guests have frequently reported hearing a woman's voice reciting nursery
rhymes, as well as unexplained crying in the building. A woman dressed in white is also often
seen roaming around the property.

Pittock Mansion, located in Portland, is reportedly haunted by its original owners, Henry
and Georgiana Pittock, who built the house and died there.

Rhododendron Village, located near the town of Rhododendron along the Barlow Trail, is
a campsite that was used by pioneers on the Oregon Trail in the mid-1800s, and is reported to
be haunted. The site, which houses several log cabins and mess halls, is near Laurel Hill, the
steepest hill along Barlow Trail. Conestoga wagons were often hoisted up the hill by ropes, and
many deaths occurred there; the Rhododendron Village served as a gravesite for many of
these people. Volunteer workers there have reported doors slamming open and shut as well as
lights turning on and off, and several graves have been discovered around the property.

The Shangai tunnels located in Portland are part of an underground city located in the Old
Town/Chinatown district. The tunnels were often used during prohibition, as well as to kidnap
and smuggle immigrants, laborers, and prostitutes who would be sold to ship captains passing
through on the Willamette River. The tunnels are reportedly the most haunted place in the city
of Portland.

The Welches Roadhouse is a two-story house in Welches, Oregon on Mount Hood that is
supposedly haunted by a woman who killed herself on the property. The woman purportedly
jumped from a second-story door used for snowdrifts after the man whose child she was
bearingan escaped convict whom she had taken inleft her.

Rhode Island

Belcourt Castle, a French Renaissance-style chteau in Newport, is alleged to be the
location of numerous paranormal phenomena and events, including moving chairs, moving
armor, ghostly apparitions, a possessed statue and various other sightings.

In Exeter, there are a few buildings formerly known as the Ladd School, a school for the
mentally disabled that was founded by Dr. Joseph H. Ladd in 1907 and officially closed in
1994. The school reportedly mistreated students, and there are stories today of ghost
sightings of the children who suffered, noises, and electronic malfunctions. The Exeter Job
Corps Academy was built over the Ladd School's ground, with many of the older buildings still
intact and reportedly "haunted."

Harrisville, Rhode Island, is a ghostly spirit in farmhouse of The Parron Family.

South Carolina

The Jacksonboro Light is a phenomenon that has been reported by many witnesses in the
vicinity of Jacksonboro, approximately 30 miles west of Charleston. In the late 19th century, a
preacher in search of his missing daughter was struck by a train while searching for her by
lantern at night. Witnesses report seeing the swaying lantern light and the outline of the
deceased preacher along Parkers Ferry Road at night when a train whistle is sounded.

South Dakota

Canton Indian Insane Asylum in Canton. This mental hospital is reputedly haunted by
former patients.

Tennessee

The town of Adams, TN was the site of the Bell Witch haunting, as well as the Bell Witch
Cave. Townspeople (even in modern times) have reported seeing strange occurrences,
including seeing a little girl in a green dress who disappears shortly after being seen. This is a
common apparitional state in which the Bell Witch chooses to be seen.

The Carnton Mansion in Franklin, Tennessee was used as a hospital for Confederate
Soldiers during the Civil War. Many of the deceased here were buried in mass graves. Several
of their apparitions have been seen, heard and even felt here. Among them is the white
apparition of a woman who appears on the back porch.

Back in the Sixties and Seventies when it was still known as Hendersonville High School,
Ellis Middle School was haunted by ghostly footsteps and random apparitions. Students once
described the apparition of a dark coachman on the location. The Seventies TV-Series "That's
Incredible" once considered a segment on the hauntings but passed it over for other projects.

The Isaac Franklin Plantation in Gallatin, best known as Fairvue, is reported as haunted
by the ghost of a Union Officer and a little girl on a tricycle. Three families have lived here and
it was once used as a Civil War Hospital.

The Loretta Lynn's Plantation House and the area surrounding Hurricane Mills,
Tennessee are both said to be haunted by the founders of the plantation and its town. There
have been unexplained reports of Civil War soldiers walking and camping around the town and
near the plantation. In 2011, the Ghost Adventures crew conducted an investigation inside the
house, and aired the episode of the Loretta Lynn Plantation House, during which the crew
observed a significant amount of unusual activity.

The Orpheum Theatre in Memphis is haunted by the ghost of a small girl who was killed in
a car accident in front of the theater. She appears in Seat C5 watching the performances and
around the structure. In 1979, a parapsychology class from the University of Memphis found
evidence of six more ghosts on the location.

Built in Kingsport, Tennessee in 1818, Rotherwood Mansion is haunted by the ghost of a
"Lady In White." She's believed to be Rowena Ross, the daughter of the builder of the house.
She supposedly returns looking for her true love who drowned on the Holston River.

Also known as the Grand Ole Opry House, Ryman Auditorium was originally built as a
church, but years of music concerts here made the location the home of Country Music in the
United States. Many believe the location is haunted. Footsteps have been heard, doors close
and the voice of Hank Williams Sr. has been heard singing his old songs. Others have
described the image of a Confederate Soldier on the premises.

The Sheraton Read Hotel in Chattanooga is reportedly haunted by the ghost of Lisa
Netherly, who was murdered by her husband as she was meeting her lover for a secret tryst.
She is said to haunt her former room and to jump into bed with male guests who check in
alone.

Tennessee High School in Bristol, TN is haunted by former students and a phantom
locomotive that roars over the gym and down the hall. Part of the school was reportedly built
over forgotten railroad tracks.

Tennessee State Prison is supposed to be haunted. A former warden describes odd
voices, strange sounds and disembodied footsteps. The location was used in the movie The
Green Mile and also elaborated on in the TV-Series, "Celebrity Paranormal Project."

The Woodruff-Fontaine House in Memphis is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Molly
Woodruff. She has been seen and felt in the Rose Room which was once her bedroom. The
location is now a museum, and one docent once heard Molly's voice say, "My bed doesn't go
there." Others have sensed cigar smoke in the old mansion they can't explain.

Texas
The Alamo in San Antonio

The Alamo in San Antonio is reportedly haunted by
many spirits of those who died during the Battle of the
Alamo. The site has been the scene of many ghostly
sightings, starting shortly after the battle and continuing up
to modern times. It is also said to be haunted by monks in
the cathedral portion of the original building.



The Devil's Backbone in Texas Hill Country is allegedly haunted by Spanish monks, Native
Americans, Confederate soldiers on their horses, and a wolf's spirit.

Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston has long been a popular spot for local ghost hunters.
The existing building was completed in 1925, allegedly on the site of a mid-19th century
cemetery, and has been remodeled into apartments.

Marfa lights In May 2004, students from the Society of Physics Students at the University
of Texas at Dallas spent four days investigating and recording lights observed southwest of the
view park using traffic volume monitoring equipment, video cameras, binoculars, and chase
cars. The conclusion was that all of the lights observed over a four night period southwest of
the view park could be reliably attributed to automobile headlights traveling along U.S. 67
between Marfa and Presidio, TX.

Miss Molly's Bed & Breakfast, Fort Worth. It's rumored that every building in the
legendary Stockyards of Fort Worth is haunted. But none is quite as haunted as Miss Molly's
which is considered by most to be one of the most haunted places in Texas. The hotel was
built in 1910 and it's gone through several different transformations. Everything from a
"speak-easy" named The Oasis during prohibition to a bordello in the 1940s named Gayatte
Hotelwhich was operated by a Miss Josie. Today the Star Caf is on the bottom floor and
Miss Molly's Bed & Breakfast is on the top floor. The building has been confirmed to be
haunted by-way of apparitions to spirits not knowing that they're dead.

Presidio La Baha in Goliad is a fort that was the site of numerous conflicts before and
during the Texas Revolution, including the Battle of Goliad and most notably the Goliad
Massacre in 1836. Many South Texas locals have claimed the spirits of massacred soldiers can
be found on the premises, and some have even claimed during the night their cries of agony
can be heard from time to time.
Catfish Plantation Restaurant in Waxahachie is a restaurant that has been featured on
television shows as being one of the most haunted places in America. This house was bought
and turned into a restaurant but the paranormals have come along for the ride. There are
reports of apparitions, various aromas, objects being moved, and people being touched.

The Grove (Jefferson, Texas) is an 1861 home that has been called "The most haunted
home in the most haunted city in Texas." There are footsteps heard in the house, but no one
can be found to account for the phantom steps, and apparitions ranging from a lady in a white
dress to a man in the garden have become commonplace on the property.

The Littlefield House in Austin, Texas.

The University of Texas at Brownsville in Brownsville, Texas.


Vermont

Bennington College students in the Jennings Hall music studies facility have reported
hearing voices and footsteps, particularly after dark, and have reportedly seen the image of a
woman coming down the main staircase, allegedly the spirit of Mrs. Jennings, who died in the
house. It was the inspiration for the Shirley Jackson novel "The Haunting of Hill House".

Virginia

Aquia Church in Stafford is said to be one of the most
haunted churches in Virginia. Legend says that the church
and the church graveyard, which has graves dating back to
1738, are both home to paranormal activity that has taken
place for over 200 years.



Ball's Bluff in Leesburg was the site of a Civil War battle in October 1861 and is said to be
haunted by those who died during the fighting here.

Bremo Historic District in Bremo Bluff, where a house at Bremo Recess is reportedly
haunted by Anne Blaws Barraud Cocke, the wife of John Hartwell Cocke, brigadier general in
the War of 1812 and builder of the plantation estate.

Ferry Plantation House in Virginia Beach, a colonial and plantation era house, with 11
reported ghosts, including: people who perished in an 1810 ship wreck at the ferry landing,
former slave named Henrywho still considers this his home, Sally Rebecca Walkeeternally
mourning the loss of a lover, former resident/artist Thomas Williamson, and the Lady in White
from 1826, who reportedly died from a broken neck falling down the stairs.

Manassas National Battlefield Park has many reports of paranormal activity. An
unfinished railroad located within the battlefield which was ordered by Robert E. Lee to be
constructed during the Civil War is said to be a hot spot for paranormal activity.

Monticello in Charlottesville was the home of Thomas Jefferson, and employees have often
heard him whistling on the grounds, as he was known to do during his living days. It has been
reported that there has been seen an apparition of a 10 year old boy wearing a uniform and a
tri-cornered hat peering out a 2nd floor window.

The Rosewell plantation in Gloucester County is a mansion constructed in 1725 that has
been home to numerous accounts of paranormal activity.

Washington

Kells Pub / Butterworth Building located in Seattle, Washington's downtown Pike Place
Market area, is said (by employees, customers and ghost hunters) to be haunted. It was once
a mortuary, currently converted into a pub. This located was featured on Travel Channel's
Ghost Adventures

Montgomery House Bed and Breakfast in Kalama was once a hospital, bordello, and
medical clinic, built on land formerly occupied by the Cowlitz Indian Nation. The land was site
to tens of thousands of Native American deaths, and full-body spectres are reported both in
the establishment's back yard and within the home. This location was the subject of the 2009
feature film documentary Montgomery House: The Perfect Haunting, directed by psychic
Danielle Egnew.

West Virginia

The Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg is a grand hotel that was built in the late 19th
century and is reported to be haunted by several ghosts.

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, formerly Weston State Hospital, is
purported by its owners and visitors to be haunted by the spirits of patients who died there.
Ghost Hunters, televised by SyFy has investigated the facility for their television series. Ghost
Adventures did a live event on October 30, 2009, where they performed an overnight
paranormal investigation on the Travel Channel.

The West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville was built in 1867 and has been
called one of the "most haunted places in America." SyFy's "Ghost Hunters" and Travel
Channel's "Ghost Adventures have both televised paranormal investigations of the facility.

Wisconsin

Summerwind Mansion, formerly known as Lamont Mansion, is a ruined mansion on the
shores of West Bay Lake in Vilas County, Wisconsin. It is reputed to be one of the most
haunted locations in Wisconsin.


Winchester Mystery House
Wikipedia.org

Location: San Jose, California
Coordinates: 37196.10N 121572.74W
Built: 1884


The Winchester Mystery House is a
well-known mansion in California. It
once was the personal residence of
Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun
magnate William Wirt Winchester. It
was continuously under construction
for 38 years and is reported to be
haunted. It now serves as a tourist
attraction. Under Winchester's day-to-
day guidance, its "from-the-ground-
up" construction proceeded around the
clock, without interruption, from 1884
until her death on September 5, 1922,
at which time work immediately
ceased.


The cost for such constant building has been estimated at about US $5.5 million (if paid in
1922; this would be equivalent to over $71 million in 2010).

The Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion is renowned for its size and utter lack of any master
building plan. According to popular belief, Winchester thought the house was haunted by the
ghosts of the people who fell victim to Winchester rifles, and that only continuous construction
would appease them. It is located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, California.

Inspiration

Although this is disputed, popular belief holds that the Boston Medium told Winchester that
she had to leave her home in New Haven and travel west, where she must "build a home for
yourself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon, too. You must never
stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live forever. But if you stop, then
you will die."

Winchester left her New Haven home and headed for California. In 1884 she purchased an
unfinished farm in Santa Clara Valley, and began building her mansion. Carpenters were hired
and worked on the house day and night until it became a seven story mansion.

The June 1937 issue of Modern Mechanix relates the story from then-current accounts as
follows: "Winchester and the baby girl died suddenly and Mrs Winchester, stunned by the
tragedy, fell into a coma so serious that physicians despaired of her life.

"Finally she recovered and, at a friends suggestion, visited a medium. During a sance,
according to those familiar with her story, she received a communication from her dead
husband in which he said: 'Sarah dear, if our house had not been finished, I would still be with
you. I urge you now to build a home, but never let it be finished, for then you will live.' "

Another version of the story says that after the deaths of her daughter and later her husband,
she consulted a medium who told her that she must build a house and never cease building it,
otherwise the spirits that killed her family members would come after her, too. After that she
began construction on the maze-like house full of twists, turns, and dead ends, so that the
spirits would get lost and never be able to find her.

One version states, "She believed her only chance of a normal life was to build a house, and
keep building it. If the house was never finished, no ghost could settle into it. The house
contains many features that were utilized to trap or confuse spirits. There are doors that are
small or lead nowhere and windows that look into other parts of the house. The mansion may
be huge but there are only two mirrors in the whole place. This is because Sarah believed that
ghosts were afraid of their own reflection."

Winchester inherited more than $20.5 million upon her husband's death. She also received
nearly 50 percent ownership of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, giving her an
income of roughly $1,000 per day, none of which was taxable until 1913. This amount is
roughly equivalent to about $22,000 a day in 2010. All of this gave her a tremendous amount
of wealth to fund the ongoing construction.

The house today

Before the 1906 earthquake, the house had been seven stories high, but today it is only four
stories. The house is predominantly made of redwood, as Mrs. Winchester preferred the wood;
however, she disliked the look of it. She therefore demanded that a faux grain and stain be
applied. This is why almost all the wood in the home is covered. Approximately 20,500 gallons
(76,000 liters) of paint were required to paint the house. The home itself is built using a
floating foundation that is believed to have saved it from total collapse in the 1906 earthquake
and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. This type of construction allows the home to shift
freely, as it is not completely attached to its brick base. There are roughly 160 rooms,
including 40 bedrooms, 2 ballrooms (one completed and one unfinished) as well as 47
fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys (with evidence of two others), two
basements and three elevators. Winchester's property was about 162 acres (650,000 m)
at one time, but the estate is now just 4.5 acres (24,000 m) the minimum necessary to
contain the house and nearby outbuildings. It has gold and silver chandeliers and hand inlaid
parquet floors and trim. There are doors and stairways that lead nowhere and a vast
array of colors and materials. Due to Mrs Winchester's debilitating arthritis, special "easy riser"
stairways were installed as a replacement for her original steep construction. This allowed her
to move about her home freely as she was only able to raise her feet a few inches high.

The home's conveniences were rare at the time of its construction. These included steam and
forced-air heating, modern indoor toilets and plumbing, push-button gas lights, Mrs
Winchester's personal (and only) hot shower from indoor plumbing. There are also three
elevators, one of which was powered by a rare horizontal hydraulic elevator piston. Most
elevator pistons are vertical, as this takes up less space, but to improve its function, she
discarded the norm and included this model for its function over fashion. Though the home
was built with the strangest of intentions, Mrs. Winchester never skimped on the many bizarre
and nasty adornments that she believed contributed to its architectural beauty. Many of the
stained glass windows were created by the Tiffany company. Some were designed specifically
for her, and others by her, including the renowned "spider web" window. This piece features
her favorite shape, the spider's web, and features repetition of the number 13, which was
one of her preoccupations. This window is not installed, but rather featured in the so called
"$50,000 storage room". The room is so named because its contents were originally appraised
at a value of $50,000. Their value today is inestimable, but thought to be at least $55,000. A
second famed window was designed by Tiffany himself for Mrs Winchester. This window was
carefully designed so that when the light hits the crystals just so, the room will be filled with
thousands of rainbow prisms. However, due to the poor placement of the piece, this will never
be seen. It is located in a room with no direct light, as well as being built facing a wall.

When Mrs Winchester passed away, all of her possessions (apart from the house) were
bequeathed to her niece and personal secretary. It took only 6 days to remove all of the
furniture from the home. Miscellaneous items were kept, and her niece sold the rest. Mrs
Winchester made no mention of the mansion in her will, and appraisers considered the house
worthless due to the damage caused by the earthquake, the unfinished design and the
impractical nature of its construction. It was sold at auction to a local investor for $135,000,
and in February, 1923, five months after Mrs. Winchester's death, was opened to the public.
Harry Houdini toured the mansion in 1924, and the newspaper account of his visit, displayed
in the rifle museum on the estate, called it the Mystery House.

Today the home is owned by Winchester Investments LLC and it retains unique touches that
reflect Mrs Winchester's beliefs and her reported preoccupation with warding off malevolent
spirits. These spirits are said to have directly inspired her as to the way the house should be
built. The number thirteen and spider web motifs, which had some sort of spiritual
meaning to her, reappear around the house. For example, an expensive imported chandelier
that originally had 12 candle-holders was altered to accommodate 13 candles, wall clothes
hooks are in multiples of 13, and a spider web-patterned stained glass window contains 13
colored stones. The sink's drain covers also have 13 holes. In tribute, the house's current
groundskeepers have created a topiary tree shaped like the numeral 13. Also, every Friday
the 13th the large bell on the property is rung 13 times at 1 o'clock p.m. (13:00) in tribute
to Winchester.






Mysterious Lights and UFOs


Are they real or are they just military experiments?

Lights

The Phoenix Lights
Wikipedia.org


The Phoenix Lights (sometimes referred
to as the "lights over Phoenix") were a
series of widely sighted unidentified
flying objects observed in the skies over
the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada,
and the Mexican state of Sonora on
March 13, 1997.

Lights of varying descriptions were seen
by thousands of people between 19:30
and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300
miles, from the Nevada line, through
Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson. There
were two distinct events involved in the
incident: a triangular formation of lights
seen to pass over the state, and a series
of stationary lights seen in the Phoenix
area. The United States Air Force identified the second group of lights as flares dropped by A-
10 Warthog aircraft that were on training exercises at the Barry Goldwater Range in southwest
Arizona. Witnesses claim to have observed a huge carpenter's square-shaped UFO, containing
lights or possibly light-emitting engines. Fife Symington, the governor at the time, was one
witness to this incident; he later called the object "otherworldly."

The lights were reported to have reappeared in 2007 and 2008, but these events were quickly
attributed to (respectively) military flares dropped by fighter aircraft at Luke Air Force Base
and flares attached to helium balloons released by a civilian.
Timeline

Initial reports

At about 18:55 PST (6:55 PM PST), (19:55 MST [7:55 PM MST]), a man reported seeing a V-
shaped object above Henderson, Nevada. He said it was about the "size of a (Boeing) 747",
sounded like "rushing wind", and had six lights on its leading edge. The lights reportedly
traversed northwest to the southeast.

An unidentified former police officer from Paulden, Arizona is claimed to have been the next
person to report a sighting after leaving his house at about 20:15 MST (8:15 PM MST [7:15
PM PST]). As he was driving north, he allegedly saw a cluster of reddish or orange lights in the
sky, comprising four lights together and a fifth light trailing them. Each of the individual lights
in the formation appeared to the witness to consist of two separate point sources of orange
light. He returned home and through binoculars watched the lights until they disappeared
south over the horizon.

Prescott and Prescott Valley

Lights were also reportedly seen in the areas of Prescott and Prescott Valley. At approximately
20:17 MST, callers began reporting the object was definitely solid because it blocked out much
of the starry sky as it passed over.

http://www.phoenixlightsufo.com/
[Tim Ley, eyewitness, in his own words.]

John Kaiser was standing outside with his wife and sons in Prescott Valley, when they noticed
a cluster of lights to the west-northwest of their position. The lights formed a triangular
pattern, but all of them appeared to be red, except the light at the nose of the object, which
was distinctly white. The object, or objects, which had been observed for approximately 23
minutes with binoculars, then passed directly overhead the observers, they were seen to
"bank to the right", and they then disappeared in the night sky to the southeast of Prescott
Valley. The altitude could not be determined; however it was fairly low and made no sound
whatsoever.

The National UFO Reporting Center received the following report from the Prescott area:

While doing astrophotography I observed five yellow-white lights in a "V" formation
moving slowly from the northwest, across the sky to the northeast, then turn almost
due south and continue until out of sight. The point of the "V" was in the direction of
movement. The first three lights were in a fairly tight "V" while two of the lights were
further back along the lines of the "V"'s legs. During the NW-NE transit one of the
trailing lights moved up and joined the three and then dropped back to the trailing
position. I estimated the three light "V" to cover about 0.5 degrees of sky and the
whole group of five lights to cover about 1 degree of sky.

Dewey

At the town of Dewey, 10 miles east of Prescott, Arizona, six people saw a large cluster of
lights while driving northbound on Highway 69.

First sighting from Phoenix

Tim Ley and his wife Bobbi, his son Hal and his grandson Damien Turnidge first saw the lights
when they were above Prescott Valley about 65 miles away from them. At first they appeared
to them as five separate and distinct lights in an arc shape like they were on top of a balloon,
but they soon realized the lights appeared to be moving towards them. Over the next ten or
so minutes they appeared to be coming closer and the distance between the lights increased
and they took on the shape of an upside down V. Eventually when the lights appeared to be a
couple of miles away the witnesses could make out a shape that looked like a carpenter's
square with the five lights set into it, with one at the front and two on each side. Soon the
lights appeared to be coming right down the street where they lived about 100 to 150 feet
above them, traveling so slowly it appeared to hover and was silent. The lights then seemed
to pass over their heads and went through a V opening in the peaks of the mountain range
towards Squaw Peak Mountain and toward the direction of Phoenix Sky Harbor International
Airport. Witnesses in Glendale, a suburb northwest of Phoenix, saw the object pass overhead
at an altitude high enough to become obscured by the thin clouds; this was at approximately
between 8:30 and 8:45 pm.

Arriving in Phoenix

When the triangular formation entered the Phoenix area, Bill Greiner, a cement driver hauling
a load down a mountain north of Phoenix, described the second group of lights: "I'll never be
the same. Before this, if anybody had told me they saw a UFO, I would've said, 'Yeah, and I
believe in the tooth fairy'. Now I've got a whole new view. I may be just a dumb truck driver,
but I've seen something that don't belong here". Greiner stated that the lights hovered over
the area for in excess of 2 hours.

After Phoenix

A report came from a young man in the Kingman area who stopped his car at a payphone to
report the incident. "[The] young man, en route to Los Angeles, called from a phone booth to
report having seen a large and bizarre cluster of stars moving slowly in the northern sky".

Reappearance in 2007

A repeat of the lights occurred February 6, 2007, and was recorded by the local Fox News TV
station. According to military officials and the FAA, these were flares dropped by F-16
aircraft training at Luke Air Force Base.

Reappearance in 2008

On April 21, 2008, lights were again reported over Phoenix by local residents. These lights
appeared to change from square to triangular formation over time. A valley resident reported
that shortly after the lights appeared, three jets were seen heading west in the direction of the
lights. An official from Luke Air Force Base denied any United States Air Force activity in the
area. On April 22, 2008, a resident of Phoenix told a newspaper that the lights were nothing
more than his neighbor releasing helium balloons with flares attached. This was confirmed
by a police helicopter. The following day a Phoenix resident who declined to be identified in
news reports stated he had attached flares to helium balloons and released them from his
back yard.

Photographic documentation

Imagery of the Phoenix Lights falls into two categories: images of the triangular formation
seen prior to 10 pm in Prescott and Dewey, and images of the 10 pm Phoenix event. Almost
all known images are of the second event. All known images were produced using a variety of
commercially available camcorders and cameras. There are no known images taken by
equipment designed for scientific analysis, nor are there any known images taken using high
powered optics or night vision equipment.

First event

There are few known images of the Prescott/Dewey lights. Television station KSAZ reported
that an individual named Richard Curtis took a detailed video that purportedly showed the
outline of a space craft, but that the video had been lost. The only other known video is of
poor quality and shows a group of lights with no craft visible.

Second event

During the Phoenix event, numerous still photographs and videotapes were made, distinctly
showing a series of lights appearing at a regular interval, remaining illuminated for several
moments and then going out. These images have been repeatedly aired by documentary TV
channels such as the Discovery Channel and the History Channel as part of their UFO
documentary programming.

The most frequently seen sequence shows what appears to be an arc of lights appearing one
by one, then going out one by one. UFO advocates claim that these images show that the
lights were some form of "running light" or other aircraft illumination along the leading edge of
a large craft (estimated to be as large as a mile in diameter) hovering over the city of Phoenix.
Other similar sequences reportedly taken over a half hour period show differing numbers of
lights in a V or arrowhead array. Thousands of witnesses throughout Arizona also reported a
silent, mile wide V or boomerang shaped craft with varying numbers of huge orbs. A
significant number of witnesses reported that the craft was silently gliding directly overhead at
low altitude. The first-hand witnesses consistently reported that the lights appeared as
"canisters of swimming light", while the underbelly of the craft was undulating "like looking
through water". However, skeptics claim that the video is evidence that mountains not visible
at night partially obstructed views from certain angles, thereby bolstering the claim that the
lights were more distant than UFO advocates claim.

UFO advocate Jim Dilettoso claimed to have performed "spectral analysis" of photographs and
video imagery that proved the lights could not have been produced by a man-made source.
Dilettoso claimed to have used software called "Image Pro Plus" (exact version unknown) to
determine the amount of red, green and blue in the various photographic and video images
and construct histograms of the data, which were then compared to several photographs
known to be of flares. Several sources have pointed out, however, that it is impossible to
determine the spectral signature of a light source based solely on photographic or video
imagery, as film and electronics inherently alter the spectral signature of a light source by
shifting hue in the visible spectrum, and experts in spectroscopy have dismissed his claims as
being scientifically invalid. Normal photographic equipment also eliminates light outside the
visible spectrum (e.g., infrared and ultraviolet) that would be necessary for a complete
spectral analysis. The maker of "Image Pro Plus", Media Cybernetic, has stated that its
software is incapable of performing spectroscopic analysis.

Cognitech, an independent video laboratory, superimposed video imagery taken of the
Phoenix Lights onto video imagery it shot during daytime from the same location. In the
composite image, the lights are seen to extinguish at the moment they reach the Estrella
mountain range, which is visible in the daytime, but invisible in the footage shot at night. A
broadcast by local Fox Broadcasting affiliate KSAZ-TV claimed to have performed a similar test
that showed the lights were in front of the mountain range and suggested that the Cognitech
data might have been altered. Dr. Paul Scowen, visiting professor of Astronomy at Arizona
State University, performed a third analysis using daytime imagery overlaid with video shot of
the lights and his findings were consistent with Cognitech. The Phoenix New Times
subsequently reported the television station had simply overlaid two video tracks on a video
editing machine without using a computer to match the zoom and scale of the two images.
Explanations

There is some controversy as to how best to classify the reports on the night in question.
Some are of the opinion that the differing nature of the eyewitness reports indicates that
several unidentified objects were in the area, each of which was its own separate "event". This
is largely dismissed by skeptics as an over-extrapolation from the kind of deviation common in
necessarily subjective eyewitness accounts. The media and most skeptical investigators have
largely preferred to split the sightings into two distinct classes, a first and second event, for
which two separate explanations are offered:

First event

The first eventthe "V", which appeared over northern Arizona and gradually traveled south
over nearly the entire length of the state, eventually passing south of Tucsonwas the
apparently "wedge-shaped" object reported by then-Governor Symington and many others.
This event started at about 8:15 over the Prescott area, and was seen south of Tucson by
about 8:45.

Proponents of two separate events propose that the first event still has no provable
explanation, but that some evidence exists that the lights were in fact airplanes. According to
an article by reporter Janet Gonzales that appeared in the Phoenix New Times, videotape of
the v shape shows the lights moving as separate entities, not as a single object; a
phenomenon known as illusory contours can cause the human eye to see unconnected lines or
dots as forming a single shape.

Mitch Stanley, an amateur astronomer, observed the lights using a Dobsonian telescope giving
43x magnification. After observing the lights, he told his mother, who was present at the time,
that the lights were aircraft. According to Stanley, the lights were quite clearly individual
airplanes; a companion who was with him recalled asking Stanley at the time what the lights
were, and he said, "Planes". His account is contradicted by several thousand Phoenix residents
without high powered telescopes, however, and no military or civilian aircraft formations were
known to have been flying in the area at that time, which isn't unheard of.


Second event

The second event was the set of nine lights appearing to "hover" over the city of Phoenix at
around 10 pm. The second event has been more thoroughly covered by the media, due in part
to the numerous video images taken of the lights. This was also observed by numerous people
who may have thought they were seeing the same lights as those reported earlier.

The U.S. Air Force explained the second event as slow-falling, long-burning LUU-2B/B
illumination flares dropped by a flight of four A-10 Warthog aircraft on a training
exercise at the Barry Goldwater Range at Luke Air Force Base. According to this explanation,
the flares would have been visible in Phoenix and appeared to hover due to rising heat from
the burning flares creating a "balloon" effect on their parachutes, which slowed the descent.
The lights then appeared to wink out as they fell behind the Sierra Estrella, a mountain range
to the southwest of Phoenix.

A Maryland Air National Guard pilot, Lt. Col. Ed Jones, responding to a March 2007 media
query, confirmed that he had flown one of the aircraft in the formation that dropped flares on
the night in question. The squadron to which he belonged was in fact at Davis-Monthan AFB,
Arizona on a training exercise at the time and flew training sorties to the Barry Goldwater
Range on the night in question, according to the Maryland Air National Guard. A history of the
Maryland Air National Guard published in 2000 asserted that the squadron, the 104th Fighter
Squadron, was responsible for the incident. The first reports that members of the Maryland Air
National Guard were responsible for the incident were published in The Arizona Republic
newspaper in July 1997.

Military flares such as these can be seen from hundreds of miles given ideal environmental
conditions. Later comparisons with known military flare drops were reported on local television
stations, showing similarities between the known military flare drops and the Phoenix Lights.
An analysis of the luminosity of LUU-2B/B illumination flares, the type which would have been
in use by A-10 aircraft at the time, determined that the luminosity of such flares at a range of
approximately 5070 miles would fall well within the range of the lights viewed from Phoenix.

Dr. Bruce Maccabee did an extensive triangulation of the four videotapes, determining that the
objects were near or over the Goldwater Proving Grounds.

Public response

News media

There was minimal news coverage at the time of the incident. In Phoenix, a small number of
local news outlets noted the event, but it received little attention beyond that. But on June 18,
1997, USA Today ran a front-page story that brought national attention to the case. This was
followed by news coverage on the ABC and NBC television networks. The case quickly caught
the popular imagination and has since become a staple of UFO-related documentary television,
including specials produced by the History Channel and the Discovery Channel.

Governor

Shortly after the lights, Arizona Governor Fife Symington III held a press conference, stating
that "they found who was responsible". He proceeded to make light of the situation by
bringing his aide on stage dressed in an alien costume. (Dateline, NBC). But in March 2007,
Symington said that he had witnessed one of the "crafts of unknown origin" during the 1997
event, although he did not go public with the information. In an interview with The Daily
Courier in Prescott, Arizona, Symington said, "I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine
that flies. It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen. It remains a great mystery. Other
people saw it, responsible people. I don't know why people would ridicule it". Symington had
earlier said, "It was enormous and inexplicable. Who knows where it came from? A lot of
people saw it, and I saw it too. It was dramatic. And it couldn't have been flares because it
was too symmetrical. It had a geometric outline, a constant shape.

Symington also noted that he requested information from the commander of Luke Air Force
Base, the general of the National Guard, and the head of the Department of Public Safety. But
none of the officials he contacted had an answer for what had happened, and were also
perplexed. Later, he responded to an Air Force explanation that the lights were flares: "As a
pilot and a former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any
man made object I'd ever seen. And it was certainly not high-altitude flares because flares
don't fly in formation". In an episode of the TV show UFO Hunters called "The Arizona Lights",
Symington said that he contacted the military asking what the lights were. The response was
"no comment". He pointed out that he was the governor of Arizona at the time, not just some
ordinary civilian.

Frances Barwood, the 1997 Phoenix city councilwoman who launched an investigation into the
event, said that of the over 700 witnesses she interviewed, "The government never
interviewed even one".


The Brown Mountain Lights near Morganton, North Carolina
Wikipedia.org

The Brown Mountain Lights are a series of ghost lights reported near Brown Mountain in North
Carolina. The lights can be seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks at mile posts 310
(Brown Mountain Light overlook) and 301 (Green Mountain overlook) and from the Brown
Mountain Overlook on NC Highway 181 between Morganton, NC and Linville, NC. Additionally,
good sightings of the Lights have been reported from the top of Table Rock, outside of
Morganton, NC. One of the best vantage points, Wisemans View, is about 4 miles from Linville
Falls, NC. There is also a Brown Mountain Overlook on North Carolina Highway 181 that was
recently improved with help from the city of Morganton for the purpose of attracting those
who visit the area to see the lights. The best time of year to see them is reportedly September
through early November.

History

One early account of the lights dates from September 24, 1913, as reported in the Charlotte
Daily Observer. A fisherman claimed to have seen mysterious lights seen just above the
horizon every night, red in color, with a pronounced circular shape. Soon after this account, a
United States Geological Survey employee, D.B. Stewart, studied the area in question and
determined the witnesses had mistaken train lights for something more mysterious.

Research

Reports of odd lights continued, and a more formal US Geological Survey study began in 1922,
which determined that witnesses had misidentified automobile or train lights, fires, or
mundane stationary lights.[1] However, according to a marker on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a
massive flood struck the area soon after the completion of the USGS study; all electrical power
was lost and trains were inoperative for a period of time thereafter. Several automotive
bridges were also washed out. The Brown Mountain lights, however, continued to appear.

The Gurdon Light near Gurdon, Arkansas
Wikipedia.org

The Gurdon Light is an unexplained light located near railroad tracks in a wooded area of
Gurdon, Arkansas. It is the subject of local folklore and has been featured in local media and
on Unsolved Mysteries. The location is still in use by the railroad and is one of the most
popular Halloween attractions in the area. The light has been ascribed various colors, ranging
from blue, green or white, to orange, and has been described as bobbing around. Its exact
location is said to vary and witnesses have described it appearing at various times of day or
night.

Folklore

According to Wes Boulden, the light originates from a lantern of a railroad worker who was
killed when he fell into the path of a train. The legend states that the man's head was
separated from his body and was never found, and that the light that people see comes from
his lantern as he searches for it. In another variation, the light is a lantern carried by railway
foreman William McClain, who was killed in the vicinity during a confrontation with one of his
workers in 1931. The lights are believed by some to be from passing cars on the highway in
the distance (which looks like small floating lights that flash off in the distance). However, this
highway opened in 1974. The light has been reported seen and spoken of since the Great
Depression.

The Cemetery Lights of Silver Cliff Colorado
[source]

Silver Cliff Cemetery is a cemetery established in the early 1880s outside Silver Cliff,
Colorado, about half a mile south of Colorado State Highway 96 on Mill Street.

The cemetery is noted for unexplained "dancing blue lights" seen on occasion around the
cemetery at night. The lights, which according to reports look like blue lantern lights or white
spheres, are said to float through the cemetery and bounce on the headstones. The lights
were featured in the August 1969 National Geographic Magazine, Volume 136, No. 2. These
lights were seen for first time by a group of miners that took the cemetery as a shortcut to get
to the town more quickly. But the miners got lost and later saw the lights appearing. Word of
the lights spread, and as the lights became famous more people became more interested in
the cemetery. Some people say that this lights are a normal phenomenon called "Wildfire",
which normally appears at swamps and wet places.

*The Marfa Lights
[source]

[Text]
*The Tri-State Lights near the borders of Oklahoma, Kansas and
Missour
[source]

[Text]

*The Hebron Light in Maryland
[source]

[Text]
*The Hornet Light in Southwest Missouri
[source]

[Text]
*The Peakland Lights in Britain
[source]

[Text]



Unidentified Flying Objects

09-1961, Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Story
Written By tap taru on Sunday, September 18, 2011 | 5:10 PM
http://www.cosmostv.org/

LINCOLN, N.H.Fifty years after Betty and Barney Hill reported seeing a flat, cigar-shaped
craft hovering over them in New Hampshire's White Mountains, the state has put up a
historical marker noting their close encounter with a UFO.

Returning from a vacation in Canada on Sept. 19, 1961, the Hills arrived home in Portsmouth
puzzled by stains and tears on Betty's dress, scuffs on Barney's shoes and shiny spots on their
car. Their watches weren't working.

When they got home, they realized they had "lost" about two hours of time. They called family
and reported the event to Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth the next day.

Barney, who had binoculars, later told science investigators that he could see figures on the
craft. The couple also reported seeing a fiery orb. In 1964, they underwent a series of taped
hypnosis sessions -- recalling they had been abducted and physically examined by "men" who
did not appear to be human. Paintings and a sculpture of their descriptions depicted them with
large, bald heads, slanted eyes and gray skin.

"They dragged me, kicking and screaming," Betty told The Associated Press in a 1986
interview.

In 1965, their story, known to only a small circle of investigators, close friends and family,
was leaked to the Boston Traveler, which published it. Their UFO experience was described in
a best-selling book in 1966, "The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours Aboard A Flying
Saucer," by John Fuller; a 1975 television movie starring James Earl Jones and Estelle
Parsons, "The UFO Incident"; and numerous speaking engagements. Last week, Hollywood
writer-producer Bryce Zabel, who developed the UFO conspiracy series "Dark Skies" in the
1990s, said he is planning to make a new film about the couple's experience.

In July, the state erected a historical marker to the "Betty and Barney Hill Incident" in Lincoln
near some cabins at the Indian Head Resort on Route 3, one of the last places the couple
recalled seeing that night.

The resort is the site of a conference Sept. 23-25 devoted to what the state marker describes
as "the first widely-reported UFO abduction report in the United States." Kathleen Marden, the
Hills' niece, will give a guided tour of places they stopped at during their encounter.

"How many states have courage enough to do something like that? Even the state of New
Mexico hasn't put up a plaque for Roswell," asked Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist who
was the first civilian investigator of the Roswell incident, a purported UFO crash on a ranch in
July 1947. The military later declared it was a top-secret weather balloon.

Friedman has authored papers and books on his UFO research, including one co-authored in
2007 with Marden, "Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO

"I started off kind of neutral," Friedman said when he first heard of the Hills' story back in the
1960s. "After meeting with them, I was very impressed with them. ... I saw no enlargement at
all, no attempt to make more of the story than was there."

Friedman, another conference speaker, said the state marker gives some credibility to UFO
sightings and research.

Michael Stevens of Farmington, who started a petition for the marker in 2008, said the state's
Division of Historical Resources was "very clear from the get-go that they weren't necessarily
backing that the event happened.

"What they could back up -- the report and the cultural effect it had -- was in and of itself
historical, and that's what they could go on to get the marker through," he said.

Stevens said he had no connection to the case or to the Hills; he said he's just always been
interested in their story. "I just thought it was one of those important things that history was
going to overlook because it didn't fit into society's little box of `normal." The one-paragraph
marker was backed up by 20 footnotes and 28 references that Marden provided to the state.

The Indian Head Resort is dedicating its own bronze plaque to the Hills next weekend. It's also
having fun with the event -- the gift shop has alien-themed green golf balls, lollipops, "UFO
Crossing" signs -- even a juicer shaped like a flying saucer.

"One of the things we're hoping to do with this event is to explore the potential for this being a
UFO `destination,' similar to the area around Roswell," said Stew Weldon, resort marketing
manager.

The Irving Notch Express gas station on Route 3 in Lincoln also pays tribute with a mural of an
alien and a flying saucer. Inside, it sells alien-themed hats and balloons -- and summarizes
what happened in what it claims is the "First Rest Room Museum Dedicated to Alien
Abduction."

The gas station is at the site of what used to be a farmer's field and apple orchard where
Barney had said the UFO descended, hovering less than 200 feet above him and his wife.
Chris Berlo, a gas station cashier, said some people who have dropped by have full knowledge
of the Hills' story. Others ask, `What's with the aliens?'"

Marden, who was 13 at the time, recently put together a self-guided tour of the places where
her aunt and uncle stopped that night, in response to a number of queries. She was a teacher
and social worker before beginning research on the story in 1990.

"I think I had always secretly harbored the desire to investigate this for myself, to attempt to
determine whether or not it was real or fictitious -- not that they would have made it up, but
that perhaps the abduction was more of a fantasy event than a reality," Marden said.

"I believed, I always believed, that they had a close encounter with an unidentified flying
object," she said. She believes her aunt and uncle were telling the truth about their capture.

Marden, who grew up in Kingston but now lives in Clermont, Fla., said the couple weren't
seeking attention.

"They never wanted this to be released to the public. It would be the worst thing that could
have happened to them. They were prominent citizens in the state of New Hampshire and in
their community."

The interracial couple -- he was a U.S. Postal Service worker, she was a social worker -- were
actively involved in civil rights causes. "They were both members of the NAACP, the state and
regional board." She said the governor appointed him to serve on the New Hampshire advisory
committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

Marden said they were afraid of losing their jobs -- which didn't happen -- not to mention their
reputations. But after meeting with family members, they decided to speak publicly.

Betty died in 2004 at age 85; Barney died in 1969 of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 46.

In 2009, the University of New Hampshire held an exhibition and seminars devoted to the
Hills. Betty's dress and other artifacts are part of UNH's special collections. Betty was a 1958
UNH graduate.

"I think that she wanted to make sure the materials were available for serious study," said
David Watters, director of UNH's Center for New England Culture. "She said to me that she
wanted the dress to be preserved, so that when our science caught up with alien science that
it would be able to determine what the chemicals were on her dress, for example. Or the star
chart that she made under hypnosis -- some day she thought it would be possible to have that
confirmed through astronomy."

In 1991, Betty told The Associated Press she was retiring from making public appearances
because of her age and her "disappointment in the way the UFO field is headed." She said too
many people with "flaky ideas, fantasies and imaginations" were making UFO reports.

"If you don't know the answers to something, you can always dream them up, whether they
are true or not," she said. "A lot of the UFO field certainly is not sticking to the facts."
09-1974 Edwin Fuhr UFO Encounter Saskatchewan, Canada
Written By tap taru on Sunday, February 27, 2011 | 8:35 AM
http://www.cosmostv.org/

In Septerber 1, 1974,
Canadian farmer Edwin
Fuhr was tending to his
crops on a clear
September afternoon. At
around 11:00 AM as he
was inspecting his fields
he noticed a bright
metallic object a few feet
away. What he perceived
at first to be some
practical joke that
someone might be pulling
on him, quickly developed
into fear as he noticed
that the object was
hovering a few feet off the
ground and spinning at
tremendous speeds.

Mr. Fuhr, just 36 years of
age, had never seen
anything like it. He
described the object as a worn out metallic looking bell. It had been hovering above some
grass and seemed to have deep grooves carved on its side. Below is the sketch Mr. Fuhr
provided for the investigators after they arrived at the scene to investigate the aftermath.

This object was not alone. In utter amazement, he then realized that there were at least 4
more of these objects. Hovering and spinning, these objects started to gain elevation before
zipping off into the sky.

Terrified, Fuhrs reaction was to
immediately inform the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police. When the
RCMP arrived, they instantly noticed
some weird patterns pressed onto the
grass. The patterns, resembling
miniature crop circles, were measured
and photographed. The RMCP
determined that there were no tracks of
anyone wheeling in any equipment that
could be responsible to producing
these. Within days, as newspapers
picked up the story, the Center for UFO
Studies in Illinois sent a representative
in order to investigate.

Not finding any signs of a hoax, both the RCMP and the Center for UFO Studies released a
statement saying that they believed that whatever Mr. Fuhr encountered that day was
something real.


12-1980, The Rendlesham Forest incident
Uploaded Tuesday, February 8, 2011 | 11:26 AM
http://www.cosmostv.org/

The Rendlesham Forest Incident is the name given to a series of reported sightings of
unexplained lights and the alleged landing of a craft or multiple craft of unknown origin in
Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, in late December 1980, just outside of RAF Woodbridge,
used at the time by the U.S. Air Force. Dozens of USAF personnel were eyewitnesses to
various events over a two- or three-day period. Some ufologists believe it is perhaps the most
famous UFO event to have happened in Britain, ranking amongst the best-known UFO events
worldwide. Along with the Berwyn Mountain UFO incident, it has been compared to the Roswell
UFO incident in the United States, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's Roswell".

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) denied that the event posed any threat to national security,
and stated that it was therefore never investigated as a security matter. One notable to take
sharp issue with this statement was Admiral Lord Hill-Norton, the former Chief of the Defence
Staff, who stated an incident like this at a nuclear weapons base was necessarily of national
security interest. Eyewitness and Deputy Base Commander Colonel Charles Halt (see below)
has also disagreed and insists the event was covered up by both the U.K. and U.S. intelligence
services. Later evidence indicated that there was a substantial MoD file on the subject, which
led to claims of a cover-up; some interpreted this as part of a larger pattern of information
suppression concerning the true nature of unidentified flying objects, by both the United
States and British governments (see the UFO conspiracy theory). When the file was released
in 2001 it turned out to consist mostly of internal correspondence and responses to inquiries
from the public. The lack of any in-depth investigation in the publicly released documents is
consistent with the MoD's earlier statement that they never took the case seriously.Included in
the released files is an explanation given by defence minister Lord Trefgarne as to why the
MoD did not investigate further.

Location
Map of local areaRendlesham Forest is owned by the Forestry Commission and consists of
about 5.8 square miles (15 km2) of coniferous plantations, interspersed with broadleaved
belts, heathland and wetland areas. It is
located in the county of Suffolk, about 8
miles (13 km) east of the town of Ipswich.

The incident occurred in the vicinity of two
former military bases - RAF Bentwaters,
which is just to the north of the forest, and
RAF Woodbridge which extends into the
forest from the west and is bounded by the
forest on its northern and eastern edges.
At the time, both were being used by the
United States Air Force and were under the
command of wing commander Colonel
Gordon E. Williams. The base commander
was Colonel Ted Conrad, and his deputy
was Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt.
Halt's memo to the Ministry of Defence on
the incident, and his personal involvement
in the second night of the sightings, has
given the case credibility.

The main events of the incident, including the supposed landing or landings, took place in the
forest, which starts at the east end of the base runway or about 0.3 miles (.5 km) to the east
of the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge, where guards first noticed mysterious lights appearing to
descend into the forest. The forest extends east about 1.0 mile (1.6 km) beyond East Gate,
ending at a farmer's field, where additional events allegedly took place.

Orford Ness lighthouse, which sceptics identify as the flashing light seen off to the coast by the
airmen, is along the same line of sight but 5 miles (8.0 km) further east of the forest edge.

All these locations are shown on the adjacent map. Commentators have published more
detailed maps of the location and a modern aerial view of the region can be found on Google
Maps.

Date
Retired Sgt. John Burroughs (LE) states that the events took place over three successive
nights (pm into am); 2425, 2526 and 2627 December 1980. One of the key pieces of
primary evidencethe "Halt memo", described belowsuggests that the first sightings were
on the 26th, rather than 25th. The memo was written almost two weeks after the event and
its author later agreed that he had probably made a mistake in his recollection of the dates.
This discrepancy in dates has not only confused subsequent researchers but also led to
confusion at the time, for example in the MoD's investigation and analysis of contemporaneous
radar records.
Main events

26 December
Around 3 a.m. on 26 December 1980 strange lights were reported by a security patrol near
the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge apparently descending into nearby Rendlesham Forest.
Servicemen initially thought it was a downed aircraft but, upon entering the forest to
investigate, they saw strange lights moving through the trees, as well as a bright light from an
unidentified object. One of the servicemen, Sgt. Jim Penniston, later claimed to have
encountered a "craft of unknown origin" and to have made detailed notes of its features,
touched its "warm" surface, and copied the numerous symbols on its body. The object
allegedly flew away after their brief encounter. Penniston also claimed to have seen triangular
landing gear on the object, leaving three impressions in the ground that were visible the next
day. While undergoing regression hypnosis in 1984 Penniston subsequently claimed that the
"craft" he encountered had come from our future, and was occupied by time travellers, not
extraterrestrials. An alleged copy of Sgt. Penniston's report of the incident contains no
mention of physically encountering an unknown craft, nor of interacting with it. This report
and associated sketches are neither signed nor dated, nor are they representative of AF Form
1169, Statement of Witness.

Shortly after 4 a.m. local police were called to the scene but reported that the only lights they
could see were those from the Orford Ness lighthouse, some miles away on the coast.Some
reports claim that local farmyard animals had been behaving in a state of fear and panic.

After daybreak on the morning of 26 December, servicemen returned to a small clearing near
the eastern edge of the forest and found three small impressions in a triangular pattern, as
well as burn marks and broken branches on nearby trees. Plaster casts of the imprints were
taken and have been shown in television documentaries. At 10.30 a.m. the local police were
called out again, this time to see the impressions on the ground, which they thought could
have been made by an animal.


28 December
The servicemen returned to the site again in the early hours of 28 December 1980 with
radiation detectors, although the significance of the readings they obtained is disputed.The
deputy base commander Lt Col Charles I. Halt investigated this sighting personally and
recorded the events on a micro-cassette recorder (see "The Halt Tape", below). The site
investigated by Halt was near the eastern edge of the forest, at approximately 52 05 20 N,
1 26 57 E.

It was during this investigation that a flashing light was seen across the field to the east,
almost in line with a farmhouse. The Orford Ness lighthouse is visible further to the east in the
same line of sight.

Later, starlike lights were seen in the sky to the north and south, the brightest of which
seemed to beam down a stream of light from time to time.
here are claims that the incident was videoed by the USAF; but, if so, the resulting tape has
not been made public.

Primary and secondary sources

The first public report of the incident was published in the tabloid newspaper News of the
World, on 2 October 1983, beneath the sensational headline UFO lands in Suffolk and that's
official. The story was based on an account by a former US airman, using the pseudonym Art
Wallace (supposedly to protect himself against retribution from the USAF), although his real
name was Larry Warren.

The first piece of primary evidence to be made available to the public was a memorandum
written by the deputy base commander, Lt. Col. Charles I. Halt, to the Ministry of Defence
(MoD). Known as the "Halt memo", this was made available publicly in the United States
under the US Freedom of Information Act in 1983. The memorandum (left), was dated "13 Jan
81" and headed "Unexplained Lights". The two-week delay between the incident and the
report might account for errors in dates and times given. The memo was not classified in any
way.Dr David Clarke has investigated the background to this memo and the reaction to it at
the Ministry of Defence.His interviews with the personnel involved confirmed the cursory
nature of the investigation made by the MoD, and failed to find any evidence for any other
reports on the incident made by the USAF or UK apart from the Halt memo.

Statements from eyewitnesses on 26 DecemberThe Scottish researcher James Easton
succeeded in obtaining the original witness statements made for Col. Halt by Fred A. Buran,
81st Security Police Squadron, Airman First Class John Burroughs, 81st LE, Airman Edward N.
Cabansag, 81st Security Police Squadron, Master-Sergeant J. D. Chandler, 81st Security Police
Squadron and Staff-Sergeant Jim Penniston, 81st Security Police Squadron. These documents
are now in the public domain and scans of them are available on Ian Ridpath's website.

These documents describe the sightings of strange lights. Penniston, for instance, states that
"directly to the east [of East Gate] about 112 miles [2.4km] in a large wooded area...a large
yellow glowing light was emitting above the trees. In the center of the lighted area directly in
the center ground level, there was a red light blinking on and off 5 to 10 sec intervals. And a
blue light that was being for the most part steady." Burroughs, Penniston and Cabansag drove
into the forest in search of the source of the lights.

They heard strange noises, too. Burroughs reported a noise "like a woman was screaming"
and also that "you could hear the farm animals making a lot of noises". Halt heard the same
noises two nights later. In a CNN interview in January 2008 he said: "The livestock around the
barn seemed to be going crazy". Such noise could also have been made by Muntjac deer in
the forest, which are known for their loud, shrill bark when alarmed.Cabansag said: "We
figured the lights were coming from past the forest since nothing was visible when we passed
through the woody forest. We would see a glowing near the beacon light, but as we got closer
we found it to be a lit-up farmhouse. We got to a vantage point where we could determine
that what we were chasing was only a beacon light off in the distance. Burroughs' statement
also states that "We could see a beacon going around so we went towards it. We followed it
for about two miles [3 km] before we could it was coming from a light house."

Penniston's statement is the only one that positively identifies a mechanical object as the
source of the lights. He states that he was within 160 feet (50 m) of the object and "it was
defidently mechaniclal [sic] in nature". Penniston has subsequently claimed that, contrary to
his statement at the time, he actually encountered a landed craft in the forest which he
circled, touched and made notes of for 45 minutes, although there is no corroborating
evidence of this from other witnesses. Penniston has shown on television a notebook in which
he claims to have made real-time notes and sketches of the object. The notebook is headed
with the date 27 December and the time 12:20 (00:20 GMT), which does not accord with the
date and time given by the other witnesses for the incident.Penniston claims that he saw the
object at a different landing site from the one investigated by Halt, much closer to RAF
Woodbridge. This is inconsistent with his initial assessment that the light lay a mile and a half
from East Gate.

The witnesses were unnerved by their experience and believed that they had witnessed
something, as Buran expresses it, "out of the realm of explanation".

The Halt Tape
Also, in 1984, a copy of what became known as the "Halt Tape" fell into the hands of
researchers. Unfortunately, because of static and the fact that the tape had been dubbed on
an old machine, much of its background conversations could not be discerned. The US Sci Fi
Channel acquired the original recording, which documents Halt and his patrol investigating a
UFO sighting in Rendlesham Forest in December 1980. This tape not only reveals much more
of the background conversations but features names that could not be heard on the poor-
quality 1984 dub. The tape has also been transcribed by researcher Ian Ridpath, who includes
a link to an audio download.

The Halt Affidavit
In June 2010, retired Colonel Charles Halt signed a notarized affidavit, in which he again
summarized what had happened, then stated he believed the event to be extraterrestrial and
it had been covered up by both the US and UK:

"I believe the objects that I saw at close quarter were extraterrestrial in origin and
that the security services of both the United States and the United Kingdom have
attemptedboth then and nowto subvert the significance of what occurred at
Rendlesham Forest and RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of
disinformation."

Halt also dismissed claims that he and his men had confused a UFO with a lighthouse beam:

"While in Rendlesham Forest, our security team observed a light that looked like a
large eye, red in color, moving through the trees. After a few minutes this object
began dripping something that looked like molten metal. A short while later it broke
into several smaller, white-colored objects which flew away in all directions. Claims by
skeptics that this was merely a sweeping beam from a distant lighthouse are
unfounded; we could see the unknown light and the lighthouse simultaneously. The
latter was 35 to 40-degrees off where all of this was happening."

Contradictions between this affidavit and the facts as recorded at the time in Halt's memo and
tape recording have been pointed out.

In an interview, Halt's superior officer, Col Ted Conrad, criticized Halt for the claims in his
affidavit, saying "he should be ashamed and embarrassed by his allegation that his country
and England both conspired to deceive their citizens over this issue. He knows better. Conrad
also acknowledged the events remained unexplained.

Suffolk Police log
Suffolk Constabulary have a record, dated 26 December 1980, of a report from the law
Enforcement Desk of RAF Woodbridge, stating that "We have a sighting of some unusual lights
in the sky, we have sent some unarmed troops to investigate, we are terming it as a U.F.O. at
present". The police investigated this report and the result is recorded as follows: "Air Traffic
Control West Drayton checked. No knowledge of aircraft. Reports received of aerial
phenomena over southern England during the night. Only lights visible this area was from
Orford light house. Search made of area negative." Skeptic Ian Ridpath has speculated the
reported "aerial phenomena" refers to the re-entry of the Soviet Cosmos 749 satellite's final
stage rocket, which was widely seen over southern England shortly after 9 p.m. on the
evening of 25 December. A letter in the police file notes that one of the PCs returned to the
site in daylight in case he had missed something. "There was nothing to be seen and he
remains unconvinced that the occurrence was genuine. The immediate area was swept by
powerful light beams from a landing beacon at RAF Bentwaters and the Orfordness lighthouse.
I know from personal experience that at night, in certain weather and cloud conditions, these
beams were very pronounced and certainly caused strange visual effects." A scan of the report
is available at Suffolk Constabulary's website.

Other military installation involvement
Some researchers have claimed that personnel from Porton Down visited Rendlesham in 1980
after the Rendlesham Forest Incident.No evidence has been presented and there seems to be
confusion with other alleged UFO incidents.

As a member of the House of Lords, Admiral Lord Hill-Norton, the former UK Chief of the
Defence Staff, asked Her Majesty's Government: "Whether they are aware of any involvement
by Special Branch in the investigation of the 1980 Rendlesham Forest Incident". Baroness
Symons of Vernham Dean gave the reply that "Special Branch officers may have been aware
of the incident but would not have shown any interest unless there was evidence of a potential
threat to national security. No such interest appears to have been shown."Hill-Norton
commented, "Either large numbers of people were hallucinating, and for an American Air Force
nuclear base this is extremely dangerous, or what they say happened did happen, and in
either of those circumstances there can only be one answer, and that is that it was of extreme
defence interest."

In 2001 the British Government released its file on the incident to researchers following a
request from Dr David Clarke under the Code of Practice for Access to Government
Documents, a precursor to the Freedom of Information Act.The Ministry of Defence has since
made these documents available online.The United States continues to remain silent despite
the SciFi Channel-sponsored investigation entitled "UFO Invasion at Rendlesham", the History
Channel's "UFO Files Britain's Roswell" and Coalition for Freedom of Information inquiries.

Scepticism
The Orford Ness lighthouseJim Penniston and John Burroughs went to investigate the craft
together. In an interview with Larry King on 9 November 2007, Jim Penniston claimed that he
did a 45 minutes full investigation of the craft on the ground, touched the craft and took
photos of the craft.John Burroughs apparently contradicts this in a separate interview in
Robert Stack's Unsolved Mysteries. He states that after suddenly encountering the craft on the
ground, "we all hit the ground, and it went up into the trees". The interviews with Jim
Penniston and John Burroughs have subsequently been made available on Youtube.

Science writer Ian Ridpath investigated the incident in 1983, initially for BBC TV's Breakfast
Time news programme,and on 5 January 1985 wrote an article for The Guardian which did
much to discredit the accounts of the UFO sightings at Rendlesham.Ridpath asked local
forester Vince Thurkettle about the flashing light, and he indicated that it originated from a
nearby lighthouse, which as seen from the forest edge appears to hover slightly above the
ground and would appear to move as the witnesses moved. Also, if a UFO was present, the
airmen should have reported a second source of light (the lighthouse) in the same line of
sight. In the Halt tape (mentioned above), one can hear an unidentified airman call out "There
it is again ... there it is" with an interval of 5 seconds, the same frequency at which the Orford
Ness lighthouse flashes.Video footage of the lighthouse as seen from Col Halt's vantage point
at the edge of the forest shows it flashing at this rate.

Thurkettle saw the alleged "landing marks", as did the local police, and believed them simply
to be old "rabbit diggings" covered with pine needles.USAF photographs of the marks
discovered by researcher Georgina Bruni were sent to the MoD by Lord Hill-Norton in 2001
and released under the Freedom of Information Act in 2007.Moreover, the supposed burn
marks in the trees were actually axe cuts made by foresters that indicated the trees were
ready to be felled. To give further pause to accepting the alleged UFO sighting, a meteor
"almost as bright as the full Moon" was spotted over southern England at exactly the time of
the initial reports of a bright object "landing" in the forest, according to Dr John Mason, who
collects reports of meteor sightings for the British Astronomical Association. "Nothing came
down in Rendlesham Forest," concludes Ridpath.

Crucial amongst the evidence is the interpretation of the levels of radiation in the area (clearly
heard on the "Halt tape"). Experts at the UKs National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB)
have pointed out that the equipment used for this measurement was not intended to measure
background radiation and therefore the readings at the low end of the measurement scale are
meaningless.

Steuart Campbell proposes an alternative explanation. He agrees with the standard
explanation that the incident began with the sighting of a fireball (bolide) which was
interpreted by guards at the base as an aircraft falling in flames in the nearby forest. In fact it
would have been hundreds of miles away over the North Sea. Campbell argues that the object
subsequently seen by Halt and his men on their nocturnal expedition was the lightvessel
Shipwash and that the supposed "spacecraft" were actually bright planets, such as Venus.
Campbell is critical of the USAF's abilities with their equipment.

Another theory is that the incident was a hoax. The BBC reported that a former US security
policeman, Kevin Conde, claimed responsibility for creating strange lights in the forest by
driving around in a police vehicle whose lights he had modified.Conde has since withdrawn the
claim that he was responsible for the incident. "It is my impression that I pulled my stunt
during an exercise. We would not have had an exercise during the Christmas holiday [when
the UFO sightings occurred]. That is a strong indication that my stunt is not the source of this
specific incident". It remains possible that the coloured lights seen in the forest on the first
night of the incident were due to a hoax by a perpetrator who has never come forward.

Other explanations for the incident have included a downed Soviet spy satellite or a nuclear
incident.

Researchers and commentators
Some of the first people to examine the event in detail were the British Ufologist Jenny
Randles in her book "Sky Crash", and Nick Redfern in his books "Cosmic Crashes" and "A
Covert Agenda".

Georgina Bruni has researched the subject and in her book You Can't Tell the People publishes
a photograph of the supposed landing site taken on the morning after the first sighting.The
late Lord Hill-Norton, (Admiral of the Fleet and former Chief of the Defence Staff of the UK)
also believed that a UFO landed at Rendlesham and repeatedly questioned the UK Government
on the issue.

Larry Warren who was the source of the original News of the World article has written
extensively on the subject and is a firm believer in an extraterrestrial explanation. Warren was
certainly a USAF airman at the Woodbridge base, but his own claims that he was a witness to
the incident are disputed by others, notably by Col. Halt.

Bruni and Warren do not agree on the details and have clashed publicly over the supposed
inaccuracies of their respective accounts.

Prominent amongst the sceptics is Ian Ridpath (mentioned above). Much of his research is
available on his website,which also includes much of the raw evidence, including the original
eyewitness statements.

Jenny Randles, who originally brought the case to prominence, wrote an extensive article in
her book with David Clarke and Andy Roberts, (The UFOs That Never Were) entitled "Rendle
Shame Forest" where she came to the conclusion that "While some puzzles remain, we can
probably say that no unearthly craft were seen in Rendlesham Forest. We can also argue with
confidence that the main focus of the events was a series of misperceptions of everyday things
encountered in less than everyday circumstances."

One of the most prominent believers in the extraterrestrial origin of the Rendlesham UFOs is
Nick Pope who worked for the MoD, researching and investigating UFO phenomena between
1991 and 1994. He discussed the Rendlesham Forest Incident in his various books and in his
articles: "Selected Documents",which relates to the MoD documents on the Rendlesham Forest
incident, "Rendlesham The Unresolved Mystery","The Rendlesham Files Reviewed"(a detailed
commentary and analysis of the MoD documents) and "Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident".He
has gone on record as saying that "the Rendlesham Forest Incident is bigger than Roswell"
(quoted on Sci Fi Channel see TV documentaries below).

Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Charles I Halt, the former Deputy Base Commander of USAF
Bentwaters and Woodbridge, who was a major witness to these events, is also a firm believer
and contributor to books and documentaries. As stated in his recent affidavit above, Halt
believes he witnessed an extraterrestrial event that was then covered up. Halt was also a
speaker at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on 27 September 2010, one of half a
dozen former Air Force officers testifying on the subject of "U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been
Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects."

Rendlesham Forest today
Forest clearing in the UFO Trail at Rendlesham ForestToday, the forest looks quite different:
the Great Storm of 1987 (winds equivalent to a category 3 hurricane) caused extensive
destruction of trees, and the Forestry Commission undertook a massive replanting programme
in its aftermath. Some of the locations associated with the supposed incident are still
identifiable and the Forestry Commission have marked a trail (the UFO Trail) for walkers,
which includes the principal locations such as the small clearing where the object allegedly
landed.

At the start of the UFO trail, there is a large triangular shaped metal information board. It
features a map of the forest, clearly marking the UFO trail and gives a basic account of what
happened in 1980, although with an erroneous date for the initial sighting:

"In December 1980 several sightings of UFOs were reported in Rendlesham Forest. Many think
these mysterious events are the most significant UFO incident to have occurred in the UK.

"During the evening of 26 December a resident of Sudbourne, a village approximately 6 miles
(10 km) to the North East of Rendlesham Forest, reported a mysterious shape (like an
upturned mushroom) in the sky above his garden. Later that night two USAF patrolmen at the
East Gate of RAF Woodbridge spotted unusual lights in the forest, and were given permission
to investigate. What they reported was very strange.

"This was the time of the 'Cold War' and because of the sensitive military situation at the time,
the incident was officially reported to the Military Authorities by the Deputy Base Commander
Lt. Colonel Charles Halt, USAF.

"There is, of course, no tangible evidence of a UFO on the ground no debris was found apart
from some broken tree top branches. We can, however, piece together, from transcripts and
recordings which were taken at the time, an intriguing picture."

Official government sources
MoD Documents covering the UFO incident at Rendlesham Forest in 1980 were first released in
May 2001 to Dr. David Clarke of Sheffield University who had requested them under the Code
of Practice for Access to Government Information (which preceded the UK's Freedom of
Information Act). Dr Clarke discusses them on his website In 2008 the files were transferred
from MoD to The National Archives (TNA) and removed from the MoD website.
As of August 2009, all documents relating to the incident are available on the National
Archives UFO section under reference DEFE 24/1948. These documents include the request
above, along with details of the Ombudsman judgment which followed. For the next few
months, access to this file, and other files released on the same date will be free to view and
download. As of January 2011, these documents are available for a fee of 3.50.



Sources:

The Halt Memo
TV documentaries, Lifetime Television's Unsolved Mysteries: "Bentwaters UFO" First
broadcast in the US on 18 September 1991.
London Weekend Television's Strange But True? First broadcast in the UK on 1994
December 9.
BBC3's Britain's Closest Encounter First broadcast in the UK on 2003 March 15.
SciFi Channel's UFO Invasion at Rendlesham First broadcast in the US on 12
December 2003 and in the UK on 1 December 2005.
British UFO Files First broadcast on Five (TV) in 2004.
National Geographic Channel's Naked Science: "Close Encounters" First broadcast in
the US on 17 December 2005.
History Channel's UFO Files: "Britain's Roswell" First broadcast in the US on 17
December 2005 and in the UK 22 January 2006.
History Channel's UFO Hunters First aired 27 February 2008.
History Channel's "I know What I Saw" First aired December 2009

11-1989, The Belgian UFO wave
Wikipedia.org


The Belgian UFO wave refers to a series of sightings of triangular UFOs in Belgium, which
lasted from 29 November 1989 to April 1990.

The main picture of the Belgian UFO Wave is the Petit-Rechain picture. For 20 years, the
ufological organisation Socit Belge d'Etudes des Phnomnes Spatiaux (SOBEPS) claimed
that this picture was genuine, and to this day it remains so. On 26 July 2011, in an interview
for RTL, a Belgian TV channel, a man who took a different picture, Patrick M. confessed that
his was a hoax. however, the actual sightings (E.G. Military Observations) were not faked.

The sightings

The Belgian UFO wave peaked with the events of the night of 30/31 March 1990. On that night
unknown objects were tracked on radar, photographed, and were sighted by an estimated
13,500 people on the ground 2,600 of whom filed written statements describing in detail
what they had seen. Following the incident the Belgian air force released a report detailing the
events of that night.

At around 23:00 on 30 March the supervisor for the Control Reporting Center (CRC) at Glons
received reports that three unusual lights were seen moving towards Thorembais-Gembloux
which lies to the South-East of Brussels. The lights were reported to be brighter than stars,
changing color between red, green and yellow, and appeared to be fixed at the vertices of an
equilateral triangle. At this point Glons CRC requested the Wavre gendarmerie send a patrol to
confirm the sighting.

Approximately 10 minutes later a second set of lights was sighted moving towards the first
triangle. By around 23:30 the Wavre gendarmerie had confirmed the initial sightings and
Glons CRC had been able to observe the phenomenon on radar. During this time the second
set of lights, after some erratic manoeuvres, had also formed themselves into a smaller
triangle. After tracking the targets and after receiving a second radar confirmation from the
Traffic Center Control at Semmerzake, Glons CRC gave the order to scramble two F-16
fighters from Beauvechain Air Base shortly before midnight. Throughout this time the
phenomenon was still clearly visible from the ground, with witnesses describing the whole
formation as maintaining their relative positions while moving slowly across the sky. Witnesses
also reported two dimmer lights towards the municipality of Eghezee displaying similar erratic
movements to the second set of lights.

Over the next hour the two scrambled F-16s attempted nine separate interceptions of the
targets. On three occasions they managed to obtain a radar lock for a few seconds but each
time the targets changed position and speed so rapidly that the lock was broken. During the
first radar lock, the target accelerated from 240 km/h to over 1,770 km/h while changing
altitude from 2,700 m to 1,500 m, then up to 3,350 m before descending to almost ground
level the first descent of more than 900 m taking less than two seconds. Similar manoeuvres
were observed during both subsequent radar locks. On no occasion were the F-16 pilots able
to make visual contact with the targets and at no point, despite the speeds involved, was
there any indication of a sonic boom. Moreover, narrator Robert Stack added in an episode of
Unsolved Mysteries, the sudden changes in acceleration and deceleration would have been
fatal to one or more human pilots.

During this time, ground witnesses broadly corroborate the information obtained by radar.
They described seeing the smaller triangle completely disappear from sight at one point, while
the larger triangle moved upwards very rapidly as the F-16s flew past. After 00:30 radar
contact became much more sporadic and the final confirmed lock took place at 00:40. This
final lock was once again broken by an acceleration from around 160 km/h to 1,120 km/h
after which the radar of the F-16s and those at Glons and Semmerzake all lost contact.
Following several further unconfirmed contacts the F-16s eventually returned to base shortly
after 01:00.

The final details of the sighting were provided by the members of the Wavre gendarmerie who
had been sent to confirm the original report. They describe four lights now being arranged in a
square formation, all making short jerky movements, before gradually losing their luminosity
and disappearing in four separate directions at around 01:30.

Photograph

In April 1990, a photo was taken of a
triangular object upon which 3 lights are
visible at each corner. Some people claim it
to be an important UFO picture. Others are
more sceptical, claiming that the photograph
is a hoax.

LEFT: A supposed black triangle, 15 June
1990, Wallonia, Belgium. Claimed to have
been taken during the UFO wave. A similar
photo taken in Petit-Rechain on April 4,
1990.

Sceptics say there is no background in the
photograph and that there is no element
which would allow the calculation of the object's size or distance from the camera. Wim van
Utrecht, a Belgian sceptic, has reproduced a copy of the photograph with devices. A computer
graphics simulation method to reproduce the photograph was developed by a Belgian
mathematician, Thierry Veyt at The University of Lige Laboratory of Astrophysics, wherein
the apparent "shake" motion that results in the lights of the craft appearing blurred or out of
focus in the photograph contradicts eye-witness statements. This, along with the anonymity of
the photographer and fact that the image was not produced publicly until 4 months after the
alleged event brings the authenticity of the image into question.

For 20 years, the ufological organisation Socit Belge d'Etudes des Phnomnes Spatiaux
(SOBEPS) claimed that this picture was genuine. Recently, Patrick Ferryn, president of
COBEPS, given an interview broadcasted by RTL-TVI, admitted that the photograph was a
forgery.

Skeptical explanations

Very early on (in 1992), the Belgian skeptic Marc Hallet wrote an essay about the Belgian UFO
wave criticizing the work done by the SOBEPS: La Vague OVNI Belge ou le triomphe de la
dsinformation, arguing that this UFOlogical organisation was spreading misinformations in the
media. Marc Hallet's thesis is that the Belgian UFO wave was mostly a mass delusion, boosted
by the work done by the SOBEPS. One year later, in 1993, Pierre Magain & Marc Remy
published an article in Physicalia Magazine, in which their conclusions don't match those from
the SOBEPS. They also state that the Belgian UFO wave would be better studied by people in
the human sciences than by phycisists.

In The Belgian UFO Wave of 19891992 A Neglected Hypothesis, Renaud Leclet & co.
discuss the fact that some sightings can be explained by helicopters. Most witnesses reported
that the objects were silent. This report argues that the lack of noise could be due to the
engine noise in the witnesses' automobiles, or strong natural wind blowing in the direction of a
witness, combined with the wind due to driving a vehicle.

In his article The Beginning of the Belgian UFO wave, Jean-Michel Abrassart argues that the
beginning of the wave doesn't contradict the psychosocial hypothesis, contrary to what the
SOBEPS claimed in his work. In an article published on his website in 2011, The Belgian Wave
and the photos of Ramillies, Auguste Meessen replied to several skeptical criticisms (by Roger
Paquay and Jean-Michel Abrassart) and still argues that, according to him, the belgian UFO
wave is completely unexplained. Roger Paquay and Jean-Michel Abrassart both wrote rebuttals
to the belgian physicist's article.

08-1883, The Jose Bonilla Report
August 12 1883,Jose Bonilla-Mexico
http://famous-ufo.blogspot.com/
Written January 13, 2011 | 10:52 AM

Zacatecas Observatory's boss, leading astronomer Jose Bonilla and an assistant were
preparing to study the Sun's corona when he saw distant objects crossing his field of view.

During the next 36 hours the two worked
continuously (through daylight hours when Sun
was visible) to record the transits of those "disks"
across the solar face, using the Observatory's new
camera equipment.

One of Bonilla's images said to be the `first UFO
photographs'.


Early on, they counted 283 of the `craft' in two
hours, but, due to the bulky photographic plates'
awkward set-ups and removals, they must have
seen less than the true total passing the face of the
Sun during their vigil. In total they counted 447
disks crossing the Sun.

Bonilla said some craft showed as almost perfectly circular shadows when seen silhouetted
against the Sun, that they [often] traveled side by side in pairs, and [often] in groups of up to
20, and that they moved across the Sun's face in a perfectly straight line, from West to East -
ie. from right to left.


Translation of Bonilla's Report
[ an `equatorial' is a telescope mounted in a mechanism that moves equatorially to track a
star, like this early Chinese `naked-eye' mechanism does ]

"The passsage over the solar disc of a swarm of bodies, seen at the Observatory of Zacatecas
(Mexico)".

By: Jos rbol y Bonilla (Director of the Observatory of Zacatecas, Mexico).

"I pursue, at Zacatecas Observatory, located two thousand 502 meters above sea
level, the daily observation of the state of the solar surface; drawing, through direct
and projection, sunspots and granulations, as well as the protuberances of the solar
chromosphere, through the spectroscope.

To this end, I have adapted to the equatorial 0.16 m aperture, a projection device that
receives on a sheet of paper a picture of Sol 0,250 m in diameter, as the field of the
lens is not projected rather than on its surface 0,260 in the clear form. When the solar
disc offers some interest I take photographs of 0,067 m in diameter, with plates of
instantaneous gelatinobromuro silver

The dome of the observatory has small windows and thick black curtains, so that
nothing penetrate the objective but the image of the Sun. This provision always
allowed me to note, with precision and clarity, the details of sunspots and the
granulations, thanks to the transparency of the atmosphere and the height at which
the observatory is located, under a tropical sky. (22 46 '34 "north latitude 9).

On August 12, 1883, at 08:00 am, I began to draw sunspots when I suddenly saw a
small light entering the field of the lens, seen on the paper that I used to reproduce
sunspots, and, crossing the solar-disc, it then looked like a shadow almost circular.

I had not recovered from my amazement when the same phenomenon was
reproduced again, and then again, so often that in a space of two hours I could count
up to 283 bodies across the solar disk.

Little by little, the clouds hampered observation, which could not be restarted until
after noon, and then only for 40 minutes. During that period I counted 48 other bodies
again. The paths followed by these bodies indicate a direct shift from west to east,
more or less inclined to the north or south of the solar disc. During this short
observation I noticed that those bodies that appeared dark-black and perfectly round
and some other more or less elongated when seen against the solar disc, became
bright images as they left its edges and moved across the outer field of the lens.

Their time intervals were variable, a body passing through would not take more than
one third, half a second, or at most one second to cross the disc, and a minute or two
passed before others appeared - some passed as 15 or 20 at once, so that was
difficult to count them. I drew the trajectory of many of these bodies on the solar disc,
marking their `entrances' and `exits' on the paper that I used to draw sunspots; as
the lens of the equatorial moved, through a system of clockwork gears, following the
apparent movement of the Sun on the celestial sphere.

The figure 118 is a small copy of the drawing I did of the solar disc that day (of 250
millimetres in diameter) with the trajectory of the bodies and sunspots.

Taking photographs of the Sun frequently, when its image shows sunspots and
remarkable facula, I was already in a position to photograph this equally rare and
interesting phenomenon: the passage of these bodies across the solar disc.

On this occasion I replaced in the same equatorial the objective of 0.16 m by another
of equal intensity, but with a chemical focus (suitable for photographic work), which
could be used optically and for the camera. After various tests to focus correctly, I
managed to take some photographs, of which I have chosen I think the more
interesting to send to the magazine 'L'Astronomie'.

While I took these photographs an assistant counted the bodies using the 'finder-
scope' of the equatorial. The photograph was taken at Collodion process to 1 / 100
second. This speed gave me no time to properly prepare the filter and (chemical)baths
but also the negative is somewhat veiled by the developer. The image of the Sun is
not in focus, but that of the bodies, to which I gave at that time greatest interest.

Although in projection and to the naked eye all the bodies appeared round or
spherical, it is observed in the various photographs that this is not true and that the
majority have irregular shapes.

I said that, in the field of projection lens, the bodies appeared bright and left a bright
trail, but across the solar disc they seemed opaque. Examining carefully the
photographs and the negatives, one sees each is surrounded by a body like a dark
cloudiness and a track (trail) out in the field of the lens, and, on going outside of the
solar-disc, they are bright. That would make me believe that the bright trails of the
bodies crossing the solar-disk absorb sunlight radiation or diminish its power,
photographically.

In the afternoon the clouds prevented me from observing. Then I took certain
measures and established a monitoring plan if the phenomenon were to be reproduced
the next day.


On August 13, the sky was overcast until eight a.m., then the clouds cleared a bit and
I was able to observe. Quickly the phenomenon was seen again, and during the 45
minutes of observation allowed us by the state of the sky, 116 bodies crossed the
solar disk.

Following the observation made the previous day, I had telegraphed the observatories
of Mexico and Puebla to ask them to observe the phenomena, but they were invisible
to them.

In order to verify indirectly the approximate distance to the `swarm' of bodies, I had
carefully prepared the `finder', the equatorial and a silver mirror lens (Eddy) 0.10 m in
diameter and focussed them on the Solar-disk and then on the bodies, while at night I
was able to steer this system also towards the planets and the moon, which had been
in the first quarter over the past two days. Without changing the focus of the system,
only the Moon was seen with sharpness.

This fact, coupled with the invisibility of the phenomenon in Mexico [City] and Puebla
or elsewhere, makes me think that these bodies were close to Earth, at least at a
lesser distance than the moon, and that the parallax was significant. For that reason
Mexico and Puebla would not have seen them, as they would be projected outside the
solar disc."

Bonilla had noted that the objects were `luminous' and left a bright `trail' (or exhaust?) and
that both object and trail were seen as `dark' or opaque when actually crossing the Sun's
face.

He also saw the significance of this fact - that is, the luminosity of each object changed to a
dark surrounding blur when seen against the Sun, which could be caused by a field of some
sort - (even intense heat has a similar but lesser effect) whereas its bright track or trail
became a dark line when silhouetted and therefore must have consisted of `matter', say a jet
of gas or even of ions.

A beam of light, say, would disappear when seen against the Sun: light consists of photons,
which don't generally block or interfere with other photons.

N.b. - the photographic `speed' of Bonilla's plates being fairly `slow', it's no surprise that his
photographs didn't show the true shapes of extemely fast-moving objects.

As an astronomer Bonilla was well qualified to mathematically work out the direction of motion
and angular `speed' of the objects, and his equipment had sufficently precise focussing for
him to estimate their distance - he is reported at first as saying "not more than 300,000 kms"
ie. approx 3/4s of the distance to the Moon

He later said they were about 242,000 kms away - approx. two thirds of the Moon's average
distance. But there is no reported statement as to their trajectory. That is, were they
departing or approaching the Earth - Moon system?

Are They Alive?

Without a specimen in hand to examine, it's impossible to determine whether or not skyfish
are living organisms, but it's Escamilla's best guess that they are. The video evidence certainly
makes them seem so. They move through the air like insects or birds, sometimes darting
around objects with a kind of animal intelligence - but at a speed far greater than any known
insect or bird. How fast? Analysis of film and video of skyfish from around the world indicate
that they can be moving as fast as 150 to 1,000 miles per hour - faster than the speed of
sound.

How big are they? The same analysis indicates that they might range in size from just a few
inches to perhaps over a hundred feet in length! How could something that large be unknown?
That's part of the skyfish mystery, yet there they are on video.

Although most skyfish have been seen in the air outdoors, they have also been photographed
and videotaped indoors and even underwater. A photograph displayed on Kitty's Kitchen
website appears to show a skyfish in mid-flight ready to pass through a doorway in her home.
And a TV news report on Escamilla from KCOP Channel 13 includes clear footage of a skyfish
swimming in a stream, indicating that they are equally at home in the water.

Identified Flying Objects

Skyfish
[unknown source]


Skyfish and Solar Entities

Skyfish were first documented by filmmaker Jos Escamilla,
who discovered them by accident. In 1994, Escamilla had
videotaped a "conventional" UFO near Midway, New Mexico.
Fourteen days later, while seeking to photograph the UFO
again, he instead captured a flying object that was not a
vehicle of any kind. At first he thought it was just an insect or
bird. When he examined the film frame by frame, however, it
became clear that what he had captured on film was something
unknown. Later, more distinct images were captured while
Escamilla was filming cliff jumpers at a deep cave in Mexico.
When he developed the film, small flying things could be seen
zipping around the divers at a high rate of speed - so fast that
they weren't seen with the naked eye.

The enhanced frames of film revealed that the flying thing
appeared to be rod-shaped with two undulating wings or
appendages along the length of the body and which gave it the
appearance of swimming through the air. Escamilla dubbed
them "rods" and has since filmed and videotaped them dozens
of times. And after introducing them to the public through his
website, roswellrods.com, he has received further reports and video and photographic
evidence from other parts of the US and around the world. The strange flying enigmas have
also turned up in documentary footage, TV news shots and even feature films.


Debunked
Wikipedia.org

Rods (sometimes known as "skyfish" or "solar entities") are elongated artifacts produced
by cameras that inadvertently capture several of a flying insect's wingbeats. Videos of rod-
shaped objects moving quickly through the air were claimed by some to be alien life forms or
small UFOs, but subsequent experiments showed that these rods appear in film because of an
optical illusion/collusion (especially in interlaced video recording)
Optical analysis


LEFT: Long exposure photograph of moths showing
exaggerated rod effect

Various paranormal interpretations appeared in the
popular culture, and one of the more outspoken
proponents of rods as alien life forms is Jose
Escamilla, who claims to have been the first to film
them on March 19, 1994 at Roswell, New Mexico,
while attempting to film a UFO. Since then, Escamilla
has made additional videos and embarked on lecture
tours to promote his claims. After attending one such
lecture, UFO investigator Robert Sheaffer wrote "Some of his rods were obviously insects
zipping across the field at a high angular rate." Others appeared to be appendages which
were just birds' wings blurred by the camera exposure.

Investigators have shown that rods
are mere tricks of light which result
from how images (primarily video
images) of flying insects are recorded
and played back. In particular, the fast
passage before the camera of an
insect flapping its wings has been
shown to produce rodlike effects, due
to motion blur, if the camera is
shooting with relatively long exposure
times.

On August 8/9, 2005, China Central
Television (CCTV) aired a two-part
documentary about flying rods in
China. It reported the events from May to June of the same year at Tonghua Zhenguo
Pharmaceutical Company in Tonghua City, Jilin Province, which debunked the flying rods.
Surveillance cameras in the facility's compound captured video footage of flying rods identical
to those shown in Jose Escamilla's video. Getting no satisfactory answer to the phenomenon,
curious scientists at the facility decided that they would try to solve the mystery by attempting
to catch these airborne creatures. Huge nets were set up and the same surveillance cameras
then captured images of rods flying into the trap. When the nets were inspected, the "rods"
were no more than regular moths and other ordinary flying insects. Subsequent investigations
proved that the appearance of flying rods on video was an optical illusion created by the
slower recording speed of the camera.