The Most Haunted

When this phrase comes up, I'm sure many places come to mind for those who are familiar with the topic of hauntings.  The one place which comes to mind for me would be the Borley Rectory in Essex, England.  The history of the rectory is fairly long and full of legend, so I won't recount that on this post, but you can find all of the information concerning that portion of it both here at Wikipedia and here from the Essex Ghost Hunters.

Before the Rectory itself was destroyed in a fire in 1939, there were many manifestations including spectral lights, figures, (especially that of a nun), levitated and thrown objects, (even at people), moved objects, and conversations with a spirit using in essence the "knock once for yes, knock twice for no" methodology.  One of the most compelling pieces of evidence documented was a picture which supposedly shows the nun figure walking along the churchyard.

Even this however, was not the most startling thing found.  Writing would commonly appear on the walls without cause.  Even stranger, was that the writing was entreating one of the owners of the rectory for help.

The vast majority of these occurrences were witnessed by multiple people as well, which helps to show something above the norm was going on.  The most famous witness, (and who provided many of the later witnesses during his investigation), was the famous ghost hunter Harry Price.  He would later write a book concerning his study of the happenings at Borley Rectory.  I have read his book and honestly can find no fault in any of his methods as he was exceedingly thorough.  I find it hard to believe any form of trickery available during this time period could have possibly escaped his notice for long.  If you wish to read his book yourself, (which I recommend you do), you can pick it up here at Amazon.

Even though the Rectory itself is gone, activity apparently still continues to this day.  The Essex Ghost Hunters are some of those who have witnessed it.

They have witnessed many orbs, which I personally do not put much stock into, but also shadowy figures and have had things thrown at them.  You can read their experiences here.

So what do you think?  Does the Rectory deserve the title of the Most Haunted House in England?  I certainly think it does.  Honestly, I have not heard of any place really which can compare worldwide, however, if any of the readers wants to suggest a place, please do so as I am always willing to change my mind with sufficient evidence.    

Dreams Updated

So, I may have jumped the gun slightly, but in my defense I didn't quite believe it anyway.  The site I linked to previously was talked about again on the next episode of my podcast and shown to belong to a marketing firm.  So, obviously this is some kind of viral marketing deal.  From now on, I"ll check domain registrations.  On a sidenote, I am fascinated by the idea of viral marketing, but in cases like this it simply gets frustrating.  The idea of the post remains though.  Have any of you ever had a dream which later came true?  I have had a few, although nothing of any importance whatsoever.  Let me know of your experiences and I'll post them here if you would like.

Dreams

There are few things which have captured the thoughts of people for centuries than dreaming.  The topic in itself would be rather broad, so I will leave information on dream theory to a google search which will bring up all the information you would possibly need.  This post will simply cover recurring elements in a dream spanning many people.  I had heard of this, but never gave it much thought until a podcast I listen to frequently mentioned this website in one of their episodes.

In essence, this site is posting a study of people who have seen this man in their dreams in order to study the phenomenon and provide support for the dreamers.

Browse through the site, there are posted stories from those who have dreamed about him as well as posters in many languages to hang up to gather information.  I'm not going to discuss the theories listed on the site as they seem to be pretty generic for dream theories.  What I'm interested in the truth in this site.  Which brings to mind a few questions.  Things such as this have happened before, but it's odd there aren't more case studies or stories on the site.  Also, the site has been running for a few years now but no updates have really been made in all that time.  No results on studies, nothing.  Also, for a study, the site itself isn't very well done whatsoever.  Initially, I would think this would have been a viral campaign, possibly for an alternate reality game, but I have not heard anything concerning this either.  All I can say for certain is that I have never dreamed of this man.  So, what do you think?  Fact or fiction?

Paranormal Encounters

So, while I am gathering information for a new post, I thought I would share this.

Since the paranormal is becoming more and more, well, let's say popular for lack of a better word, many people wish and want to know how they can have a paranormal experience.  This comes up very frequently on the internet and in real life.  So, here is my response.

I don't think how is a question which can be answered.  If experiences could be set up at will, we wouldn't have nearly as hard a time showing any such phenomenon exist.  The questions I can answer are, should you want an experience or do you really want one?

I was very interested in these topics way before they started becoming more mainstream.  One thing I discovered before I ever had any major experience was, truth is much scarier and stranger than any movie.  This I learned quickly from my research.  I know how that sounds, but please bear it in mind.  There are some doors of knowledge which, once opened, can be hard to shut.

Also, make no mistake about it, a paranormal experience can and will change your life.  Maybe not for the better.  Different people react in different ways when they see things they thought they knew since birth suddenly turned upside down.  It really starts a questioning process of what exactly we do know about our world.  Then, there's the question of sanity, embarrassment of talking about the experience, plus coming to terms with what just happened.  These are not easy things.

In essence, keep this in your thoughts.  The rabbit hole may certainly look inviting, but inside it can be a very scary place to be.

The Missing

Okay, back again for hopefully what will be more normal updates.  So, recently two new books by David Paulides has caused quite a stir.  They are collectively titled "Missing 411" and detail unexplained disappearances in National Parks and Forests.  So, what is odd about this?  I asked myself the same question.  A lot can happen in the wilderness.  The books' website includes two examples of the cases included to which I'm going to try to go over the possibilities.  Here is the site itself with the example cases:

http://www.canammissing.com/case_spotlight.html

The first concerns a man who disappeared in Glacier Bay National Park.  His name was Robert O'Keefe and he was not a novice to the area, nor an inexperienced hiker.  His tent was pitched on Wolf Point fairly close to the water as rangers found the tide line close to the tent when they first started to investigate.  Most of Mr. O'Keefe's possessions were still present at the campsite, there were no signs of a struggle, nothing to give any indication that he would not be returning within the next few hours from a day hike.  Obviously, this was not the case.  Even as disturbing as this sounds, there were no tracks, animal or otherwise.  Dogs could not pick up a scent whatsoever.  What was perhaps the strangest thing of all, is that about 100 yards away from the campsite Mr. O'Keefe's boots were found, but nothing else.

So, let's step through this...  inclement weather was not the cause, nor an animal attack.  Remember, undisturbed campsite, no tracks.  He didn't intend to be gone long, as you'll see if you read the entire first case, he didn't pack anything for a long haul.  Drowning definitely does not seem likely as he was above the tide line and was not known to be suicidal.  By the same token, the body should have washed up.  Where would he have gone without boots?  As silly as it may sound to some, these would have been a necessity.  Finally, it's much harder to shake a dog with your scent than the movies would have you believe.  So, the fact that the dogs could not find anything, not even decomposition makes this even stranger.

The next case is similar, but occurs at Mt. Rainier, in Washington.  The man was Chet Hanson, 27 years old who was an avid hiker and photographer.  He was on his way to a lake he had been to before to take photographs and simply disappeared.  Some other hikers saw him, but didn't really speak to him.  He passed by where they were having lunch on a lookout, stayed for a bit, then walked back down the trail.  He was sweating a bit, but nothing really seemed odd.  So, obviously from this, he didn't get lost, and why would he?  This was an area he was very familiar with.  Even though he had exerted himself, (his camera setup weighed 35 pounds), he wasn't suffering from exhaustion, as he was not dropping items as he went.  Just like before, dogs could not find any scent at all.  Seems odd that a trained dog could find no trace of a man who was sweating heavily doesn't it?

From here, Paulides made a map of disappearances and noticed a pattern of sorts.

Most of the disappearances tend to center around certain areas.  The reason for this I can't fathom, and neither can he.  It has been noticed that many of these areas are the same ones in which bigfoot sightings typically occur, but, once again, no tracks, no scent.  Nothing that would signify a bigfoot had been around from what we have seen of previous sightings.  So, what's the explanation?  Maybe someone out there can tell all of us because frankly, I'm stumped.

For more informaton, here is the website for the books, which also includes links to purchase them.  I have not yet done so, but intend to as soon as I can.

http://www.canammissing.com/page/page/8396197.htm

Finally, here is a news video which also gives a bit more info:
8 News NOW

So, what are your opinions?

Mystery Mound Update

So, originally I had hoped to post a map of the area where the mound was likely to be.  Granted, I had never studied geology or fault lines so, when googling a map of the fault line I quickly realized that instead of a distinct line on a map, fault lines appear to be generally mapped according to an area, instead of a straight line.  In other words, that makes pinpointing an exact location from Teague's vague directions in relation to the fault line as a daunting task.  Added to the fact, yes, he did mention a waterway, however in a national forest there will be plenty of those.  Depending on the size, some of them will not be shown on any but the most detailed local area map.  This I know from my own hiking experience.  So, without more exact directions, this would be an almost ridiculous task.

During my time off, I have had some time to think about this a little bit deeper as well and I have ran into some issues with Teague's account past the ones I had mentioned earlier.  Teague never mentions staying overnight.  Which means, the Mound is close to whereever it was they had parked at.  This confirms my own conclusion and experience that Teague could not have hiked more than 5 miles into the forest.  This doesn't sound like much, but for someone not used to hiking and doing so over rough terrain, this is an arduous task.  I know this from my own experience.  So, even being generous and saying 5 miles in maximum, that still leaves a hike of 10 miles each day for a there and back trip.  Seems a bit farfetched that something that close to a parking area, etc., in a national park would not have been found by rangers.  Finally, for all the people Teague took with him, how come he's the only one who has ever said anything concerning the Mound?

It is now my theory that the Mystery Mound more than likely does not exist, but there are still questions.  Teague obviously went somewhere, as the pictures were not faked.  So, where did he get them?  Why even go through this much trouble?  What about the other witnesses which would definitely lend more credibility to the story?  I guess these questions could only be answered by Teague or an associate, if any would answer questions or come forward.

On my next post, I may  have some information on stuff in my local area, plus some information on an area in Siberia called Tunguska, which is a very interesting place for being taiga.

Still alive and kicking

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while but I've been really busy and so took a short break.  Rest assured I will have more updates soon, including any indication if I can find the Missouri Mystery Mound area using simple maps.  Be patient and I will be back soon!