Lost Civilizations & Secrets of the Past

Edited by Michael Pye and Kirsten Dalley

This book of essays by such luminaries as Erich von Däniken, Micah Hanks, William Bramley, Nick Redfern, and others is a splendid read.

The essays include:

Archeological Scandals by Frank Joseph

The Cosmology of the Afterlife: Hamlet’s Mill, the Star-Strewn Path, and the End of Days by Adrian G. Gilbert

Atlantis: The Lost Walhalla by Philip Coppens

Oppenheimer’s Iron Thunderbolt: Evidence of Ancient Nuclear Weapons by Micah A. Hanks

From the Pyramids to the Pentagon: The U.S. Government and Ancient Mysteries by Nick Redfern

The AB Intervention Hypothesis: The Truth Behind the Myths by Paul Von Ward

The Time Machines by Erich von Däniken

And eight others.

I like to think I’m well-read and surfeited with information that is esoteric, but right off the bat, Frank Joseph’s Archeological Scandals showed me just how much I do not know about such interesting topics as the Kensington Rune Stone or the Bat Creek Stone and how the Smithsonian and establishment archeologists dismissed those artifacts for reasons that had nothing to do with science or truth-searching.

The iconic John Wesley Powell is uncovered as a bigoted fraud; Ivan Sanderson is lauded.

Mr. Joseph doesn’t spew vile accusations; he substantiates his views with details and facts that have been hidden from public view.

The Chapter is an eye-opener, indeed. [Page 7 ff.]

Philip Coppens provides a wealth of information about the Megalithic Civilization (Vikings, Celts, et al.) influenced and were influenced by Egypt and the fabled Atlantis in his Atlantis: The Lost Walhalla. {Page 75 ff.]

Mr. Coppens doesn’t just trot out the clichéd Atantis myths but, rather, provides material that links some Norse tales and activities (viz: Stonehenge) using the research and hypotheses of Belgium historian Marcel Mestdagh and English writer John Michell.

Oberon Zell allows that Atlantis was part of Paradises Lost, which included Lemuia, and the Garden of Eden. [Page 31 ff.]

Following the Atlantis theme, Pat Chouinard presents his account, Clash of Giants: The Untold Story of the Lost Atlantean Race[Page 163 ff.]

Paul Von Ward takes readers into the Ancient Astronaut world with his Chapter on The AB [Advanced Being] Intervention Hypothesis: The Truth Behind the Myths [Page 181 ff.]

PVW doesn’t offer the usual schlock about extraterrestrial intervention of humanity and human evolution. He uses ancient texts, DNA remnants and the fossil record to support his view that Earth was colonized by advanced beings [ABs].

Nick Redfern, as usual, uses his research into government archives and secrets to tell readers that governments are intensely interested in the arcanity that this book deals with.

Mr. Redfern’s From the Pyramids to the Pentagon…[Page 131 ff.] elaborates, by citation and fact, on government intrusions into the world of Fortean mysteries and the lives of those who study such things.

It’s a chilling resumé, and one that buffs of the topics in the book would do well to heed.

William Bramley covers UFO Cults [Page 211 ff.] and Thomas A. Brophy lays out A Symbolic Landscape: The Mystery of Nabta Playa and our Ancient Past [219 ff.], both essays offering unique appraisals of topics covered not so well by others.

I’ve merely touched on the many gems and goodies in this book.

I’m not a devotee of many of the topics but I did find them intriguing, and interesting, to say the least.

The writers are superb, intelligent and cautious with their hypotheses and thoughts.

You won’t find the hysteria that the topics are immersed in elsewhere.

The paperback sells for $15.99, has 254 pages of fascinating thinking, and much information that you didn’t know.

It’s a New Page Book, which is a Division of The Career Press, Inc., Pompton Plains NJ.

You can read more about it and find other books of like character at:

http://www.careerpress.com

http://www.newpagebooks.com

And the book can be purchased online at Amazon.com, Powell’s, Anomalist.com, and Barnes and Noble of course, as well as at offline bookstores.

RR

Zombies scare James Clark?

Our friend from across the seas, James Clark, has posted a new article for The Morton Report about zombies.

Click HERE to read Mr. Clark's latest foray into the scaranormal.

10 Things that might Indicate your house is haunted

October 17, 2011 (Monroe, Ct)

For over 50 years, Lorraine Warren and her late husband, Ed, have been nationally recognized as America's foremost experts of the supernatural realm.

The Warrens have investigated over 5,000 hauntings and have written 10 books on their findings, including their highly acclaimed work The Demonologist. National television credits include Good Morning America, Today Show, 20/20, Entertainment Tonight and Primetime.

Their more famous cases have been dramatized in such movies as The Amityville Horror and A Haunting in Connecticut. The film rights to Ed and Lorraine's life story have been acquired by Newline Cinema for production into a major motion picture.

Additionally, Lorraine and fellow psychic researcher and son-in-law, Tony Spera, are featured regularly in advisory roles on such shows as A&E's Paranormal State, Unsolved Mysteries, A Haunting,Ghost Adventures and most recently, Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum.

As Halloween approaches, our minds tend to wonder about those things that go bump in the night. Are ghosts actually real? If so, how do we know the difference between an overactive imagination and something truly otherworldly? Tony and Lorraine offer some useful indicators to aid paranormal novices in figuring out if spirits are present in their homes:

1. You are being watched. You have an uneasy feeling that somebody or something is watching you. This could be an indication that a spirit may have set up residence in your home.

2. Cold temperatures. There are definite "Cold Spots" in the home. Areas that suddenly feel as if the temperature has dropped 20 or 30 degrees.

3. Peripheral sighting. You catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye. It's almost as if a shadow or a mist has suddenly darted by.

4. Dramatic dreams. You begin to have unusually strange dreams and thoughts that you never had before. This could be the beginning sign of spirit oppression.

5. Unexplained noises. Unusual noises, knocking, scratching or pounding sounds. You might hear footsteps in another room and then, rush in only to find no one there.

6. Offensive odors. Putrid smells or odors appear suddenly, and then vanish just as quickly. This could be an indicator of something more sinister in nature.

7. Person-associated odors. A familiar odor, such as a deceased loved one's perfume or smoke from their cigar may appear suddenly and then, just as suddenly, vanish.

8. Audible whispering. You hear voices but can't quite make out what they are saying. This phenomenon is known as "magic whispering."

9. Physical contact. You are touched, groped, or shaken by an invisible hand and are not able to come to an alternative rational explanation of how this might have occurred.

10. Visual occurrence. You actually see a materialization of a spirit. It may appear as a fog-like substance, or as a full materialization, as solid as you.

About Lorraine Warren and Tony Spera:

For over half a century, Lorraine Warren and her late husband, Ed, have been the unquestioned leaders of supernatural and occult investigation. Their son-in-law, Tony Spera, has worked with the Warrens for over 30 years, and as a former police officer, he looks at possible haunting phenomena with a critical and skeptical eye. Lorraine is best described as a clairvoyant and light trance medium, which means she can sense, hear and feel things through a "sixth sense". She also has the ability to see a person's "aura".

Lorraine has been tested at UCLA under the watchful eye of Dr. Thelma Moss, and her abilities are well documented. After Ed's passing in 2006, Tony Spera took the reins as Director of The New England Society of Psychic Research, founded by the Warrens in 1952. Tony and Lorraine routinely travel across the country and around the world leading investigations, lectures and other events that facilitate the Warrens' continued mission of delivering their esteemed knowledge and assistance to those in need.

Provided by (and contact information):

Jessica Hoy
NeuProfile
Jessica@neuprofile.com
646.842.0438

The World’s Creepiest Places by Dr. Bob Curran

A book that might have been better titled The Worlds’ Creepiest Stories is by Dr. Bob Curran, a writer and world traveler who seeks out those places where horrible things happen to people, mostly children.

Dr. Curran’s 203 page book is replete with tales and histories that present the worst in humanity and how the evil actions they committed afflicted their locale or venues, such as:

Bachelor’s Grove in Chicago, Illinois
Capuchin Cemetery in Palermo, Sicily
Dragsholm Castle in Denmark
Gore Orphanage Road in Cleveland, Ohio
Leap Castle in County Offaly, Ireland
Mortemer Abbey in Normandy, France
Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky
Yumbulagang in the Yarlung Valley, Tibet
And seventeen other sites.

If you’re a reader who seeks after human depravity and/or spooky places created by awful inhumanities, Dr. Curran’s book is for you.

A story about children injected with fluids, by a Dr. Kroh, that swelled their heads, creating grotesque monsters who end up killing the insane scientist, will put you off your lunch. [Page 65 ff.]

A story about wayward magic at a rectory in Warleggan (Bodmin Moor, England) is a bit more tepid than others, but is still spooky enough to give a reader chills. [Page 155 ff.]

A story about a phantom wagon, driven by a skeletal being, who when asked where he was going in such a hurry said “To Hell” is recounted in a Chapter about ghosts and hauntings in Africa. [Page 136 ff.]

The book is chock full of tales that indicate the world is full of spooks, and bad people.

Such stories aren’t this readers cup o’ tea but we have friends who feast on such ghastly offerings, and this book will serve their needs for fright more than adequately.

The book is $15.99 and may be purchased at fine bookstores, and at internet venues such as Amazon.com or Powell’s and Barnes and Noble.

The book is published by New Page Books, a division of The Career Press, Pompton Plains, NJ.

RR

James Clark notes paranormal credibility

James Clark, one of our favorite international writers about things strange, notifies his fan base that a paranormal group has gotten an imprimatur from the British government.

Click HERE for James' column/blog for The Morton Report

Ghosts Everywhere!

Two books about ghosts and haunted places have landed on my desk, and I have no idea why or where from.

I’m not a ghost-guy, although I have had a few run-ins with ghosts at our Fort Wayne operation.

But that’s neither here nor there.

I have Jim Harold’s Campfire: True Ghost Stories and Jeff Belanger’s The World’s Most Haunted Places to suggest to you ghost hunters and ghost aficionados.



Mr. Harold’s spicy accounts of ghost encounters replicate what others have bumped into on those rare occasions when a ghostie-thing is cavorting around.

Mr. Harold provides 256 pages, give or take, of personal accounts with ghosts, related to him by his podcast listeners. (Mr. Harold has two very popular webcasts: Campfire and The Paranormal Podcast.)

Each Chapter, there are 71, is a ghost tale, from listeners of Mr. Harold’s podcasts.

As I read them, I got chills from many – and I’m not a guy who chills easily.

Chapter 9 (Page 37), The Girl in the Attic, was particularly spooky; a Lindsay from North Carolina tells that she and a playmate ended up playing games with a girl who turned out not to be there. (The account is much better, of course, than my paraphrase.)

Chapter 22 (Page 77), The Shadow Knows, from Jeff in Indiana, tells about a shadow that had no source, but appeared to him, his wife, and others, while they were pursuing anomalist activity in an old building.

Chapter 33 (Page 116), The Thing in the Woods, related by Tim in Nevada, presents an incident that UFO aficionados might find intriguing, along with those who think the woods harbor strange and mysterious entities, of which Tim’s is one: a small light that transmogrified into a ten by fifteen foot tall Predator-like (from the movies) creature.

Chapter 53 (Page 180), Mr. Synchronicity, from Steven in California, provides a slew of events that go beyond coincidence.

Mr. Harold closes the listener-offered stories with what he “says” is the spookiest story of all – offered by LeAnn in Utah, involving an Ouija board, a Lava lamp, and Lucifer, the devil. (Page 247-8)

I’m not, as I wrote above, a big ghost story fan, but I liked this book and found the stories given to Mr. Harold by his fans to be credible and charming, in an “I’m not there” way; that is, I was spooked, like a person who visits a carnival’s haunted house, but knew I was safe, as the ghosts and spookies were just in the book, and not in my bedroom, where I read the book.

(Although at 4:30 a.m. I was awakened by a bump in the night which, after reading Mr. Harold’s book, brought my covers over my head. Yep.)

The book is published by New Page Books, a division of The Career Press, Inc., Pompton Plains, NJ and can be found at Amazon.com or Powell’s (online) and other book venues, or via www.newpagebooks.com.

Jeff Belanger’s The World’s Most Haunted Places [Revised] lists thirty-three places or sites where ghosts haunt humans, continuously, places such as The Queen Mary (ship), Hibbing High School, The Alaskan Hotel, Empress Theater, Suicide Forest (in Japan), The Tower of London, and more.



Mr. Belanger supplements his tales with historical references and citations, making his 285 page book a fount of certified ghost episodes.

Mr. Belanger is a superb writer, scholarly in his approach, which weighs heavily with me.

I was entrapped in the stories, and found that ghosts, or whatever they are, show up in the oddest places and the usual places where one might expect to find ghosts: The Catacomb Museum, The White House, The Skirrid Mountain Inn, Muncaster Castle, and the Waverly Hills Sanatorium.

Mr. Belanger writes that Boggo Road Gaol, in Brisbane, Australia has had occasion to experience ghosts – prisoners and guards alike.

”A guard killed in 1966 has been spotted in the jail by guards and visitors alike.” (Page 201)

And Ernest Austin, a convict who murdered an 11-year-old girl, went to the gallows, in 1913, even chuckling as he swung at the bottom of the 13-foot rope that killed him.

His laughter is said to be heard in the early mornings in the jails cellblocks. (Page 199)

The Skirrid Mountain Inn also had many hangings, promulgated by Protestant Squire John Arnold who emulating an Anti-Papist Judge working at the behest of King James II in 1685, hanged many Catholic and Catholic sympathizers at the Inn, many of whom still haunt the place to this day. (Page 157).

Big Nose Kate’s Saloon in Tombstone, Arizona has ghosts breaking drinking glasses on a regular basis. (Page 87 ff.)

And the Whaley House (museum) in San Diego, California, where the Whaley family, in 1856, built their dream house, on the site of hangings of ne’er-do-wells, suffered family tragedies of their own: child-deaths, a child suicide, child poisoning.

The ghosts of the family and some of those ne’er-do-wells continue to haunt the premises to this day. (Page 241 ff.)

Mr. Belanger presents a plethora of ghost accounts, all bolstered by historical notes that provide credibility for the tales imparted.

I found myself as intrigued by the historical asides as much as the ghost tales, maybe more so.

The book is awash in interesting stories, human-interest stories as news-media might put it.

It’s a good read, but also a nice reference book for those who like the outskirts of history.

It can be found at Amazon.com, of course, Powell’s.com, and other book sellers, plus online at www.newpagebooks.com, the publishers site.

For more information, about the authors and the books, you might access www.warwickassociates.net

If you like ghost stories, these two books will please you (and maybe scare you) plenty.

RR

Freudian or Jungian UFOs?

Matthew J. Graeber’s “article” from Magonia 52, May 1995 about UFO mother-ships or airships posits the idea that the cylindrical ships spotted since early times right up into the modern era may have a sexual psychical component.

You can access Mr. Graeber’s thesis by clicking HERE

As readers here know, or should, we do not think UFOs are psychical projections or quantum creations, although we have conjectured that quantum mechanics seem to have a bearing on the ‘tangible” objects we designate as “flying saucers” and quantum theory may help explain UFOs, as they appear today.

(Triangular UFO craft, for us, are military prototypes, and don’t factor into our conjectural observations here and elsewhere.)

As for Mr. Graeber’s sexual symbolism for airships, the idea is not anathema to us, but it is a psychological stretch, just as Carl Jung’s hypothesis was in his book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of things Seen in the Skies [Princeton University Press, 1978].



And even though the current thrust in many UFO circles is toward the concept that UFOs are projections of the human psyche or mental impressions coming into the minds of select individuals (from extraterrestrials supposedly), for purposes as yet unknown, we think that persons who imagine UFOs or see them mentally when they don’t exist in any tangible, real form are in need therapy of a serious psychological kind.

However Mr. Graeber would disagree:

Although we might expect to make little headway towards resolving today’s UFO enigma by comparing it to past mysteries, we may, nevertheless, examine both present and past UFO events as being comprised of optically perceived images or imagery that occasionally have an extraordinary effect upon the individual(s) who either observe or come into close proximity with them.

Mr. Graeber’s views are both Freudian and Jungian.

But if UFOs or mother-ships resonate as a sublimated sexual symbol with someone, as Mr. Graeber delinates in his piece, we think that that person should hie themselves off to a psychiatrist immediately. They have serious terrestrial problems.

Nonetheless, Mr. Graeber’s views should have a hearing or reading; they are pondered sensibly and unsensationally.

He closes with this:

Perhaps we have discovered enough about the mythical, sexual, and marked psychic background of the god-ships to determine that their origin is most likely the human unconscious, and not some alien planet situated at the edge of the cosmos. For it seems highly unlikely that a visiting alien intelligence would be so human-like as to possess similar intrapsychical processes regarding the development of their technology, their exploratory aspirations, and their myth-making tendencies.

Not a view we espouse necessarily, but a cogent suggestion by Mr. Graeber.

RR

Are Alien Abductions a kind of Spiritual Reverie?

Allogenes is a Sethian Gnostic text from the New Testament apocrypha. The main surviving copies come from the Nag Hammadi library…A small fragment also survives in the more recently discovered Codex Tchacos…[Wikipedia]

The passages presented here are two of many, in the Allogenes text, which mimic some alien abduction scenarios, if not in exact wording, at least in an imagined or real emotional sense:

My soul went slack and I fled and I was very disturbed. And [I] turned to myself and saw the light that [surrounded] me and the Good that was in me, and I became Divine. And the all-glorious one, Youel, contacted me again and empowered me…

When I was seized by the eternal light, by the garment that was upon me, and was taken up to a pure place whose likeness cannot be revealed in the world…Allogenes (XI, 3)

While the abduction phenomenon is controversial, I do know people, credible persons, who have experienced what they consider an abduction but, maybe, what they really experienced was a transcendental event, not unlike that enumerated in Richard Bucke’s work, Cosmic Consciousness.

Yes, there are multiple accounts which are hardly transcendental, horrifying actually.

But those accounts may be tempered by the physical and psychological vicissitudes that accompany transcendent events, which would be traumatic for some individuals, those with shaky morals, much like those who have Near-Death experiences that take them to Hell rather than a more pleasant place, which most NDExperiencers relate.

Abductions, per se, have little to do with the UFO phenomenon, to my way of thinking, but it has become a peripheral element in many ufological circles, and will always remain connected to UFOs and the discussion of UFOs.

That aside, it might be time for those who have experienced an “abduction” to weigh the possibility that they’ve had a spiritual crisis or moment of enlightenment, which have occurred to saints and sinners alike; e.g. Saul of Tarsus (St. Paul). Thomas Aquinas, and Malcolm X.

RR

James Clark on ghosts and ghost-hunting

Journalist James Clark provides an article on the papranormal activity of ghost hunting for The Morton Report.

Click here to access his article

Is Earth an alien zoo?

A new study says that Earth is home to (approximately) 8.7 million species.

Click her for news-story

There has, almost from the beginning of the modern UFO era (1947), been a few hypothetical thrusts saying that Earth might be a zoo where species have been brought or created and dispersed for extraterrestrial purposes which remain totally hidden.

The idea may seem fanciful at first glance, but isn’t outside the realm of possibility,

The idea, along with the penal colony thesis, can be elaborated upon and made sensible when one examines the idea that an alien species from other worlds, should there be any, could very well use the Earth as a laboratory or park containing animals, plants, humans, insects, reptiles, and other elements of life.

This would explain the vast array of UFO visitations over the years, and supports the hypothesis that alien beings have taken a particular interest in the Earth as regards atomic or ecological devastation, both of which having the potential to destroy eons of lab work or eliminating an extraterrestrial “vacation venue.”

Earth could be the lab-source for species meant to be seeded throughout the galaxies or, at least, one of the lab-sources.

Wikipedia has a succinct review of the Alien zoo hypothesis ,which may be read by clicking HERE.

For me, the zoo idea is not as zany as many other hypotheses which have pummeled UFO devotees of the years.

What do you think?

RR

Nick Redfern reviews Paul Screeton's book John Michell: From Atlantis to Avalon

Click here for Nick's review

Snake in Rome

Some time ago I found this passage in a book about the Shroud of Turin by Ian Wilson.



The passage fascinated me, but I couldn't find anything more about the snake incident, searching everywhere for something more definitive.

I even had several journalists look for something thta might elucidate the episode.

Recently I submitted a query and the book excerpt to Chris Aubeck's Magonia Exchange, and got (only) this reply:


The reference from Magonia might be the incident, but the time-frame is wrong, unless Wilson's date of 846 A.D. (or CE if you prefer) is wrong.

So, I'm asking if any one of our intrepid readers knows more about the alleged panic in Rome by a snake -- any date, any place in the city?

N.B. Chris Aubeck has provided what appears to be the answer to my query above. I thank him profusely for that and offer the link HERE that clarifies.

However, a member of Chris Aubeck's Magonia Exchange provides this:

I don't think the passage above (Regulus and the snake) has any relation to the episode mentioned by the original poster, the date is way too early (3rd century BC) and I doubt such a confusion is possible.

However a quick check in all the relevant medieval chronicles I could think of, didn't bring anything either. Even though the date of 846 AD is quite eventful for Rome which suffered that year an attack by the Saracens, no chronicle mentions an incident with a snake. Should it have happened that same year, I doubt the chroniclers would have missed mentioning it, if only to put in perspective with the invasion.
Thus, unless the incident is mentioned in a single obscure source, I would tend to believe that the date mentioned by Wilson is wrong.

It might be worth mentioning though that Gregory of Tours mentions in his Historia Francorum (book X) a somewhat similar incident which happened in 589 A.D. (Source: Guadet, J. (ed.) Histoire ecclesiastique des Francs..., vol. 4, Paris, 1838, p.4):

Anno igitur quinto decimo Childeberthi regis diaconus noster ab urbe Roma sanctorum cum pigneribus veniens, sic retulit, quod anno superiore, mense nono, tanta inundatio Tiberis fluvius Romam urbem obtexerit, ut aedes antiquae deruerent, horrea etiam eclesiae subversa sint, in quibus nonnulla milia modiorum tritici periere. Multitudo etiam serpentium cum magno dracone in modo trabis validae per huius fluvii alveum in mare discendit; sed suffocatae bestiae inter salsos maris turbidi fluctus et litori eiectae sunt. Subsecuta est de vestigio cladis, quam inguinariam vocant.

In the fifteenth year of [the reign] of king Childebert [note: 590 A.D.], our deacon returning from the city Rome with relics of the saints reported that in the ninth month of the previous year the river Tiber so flooded the city of Rome that ancient buildings were destroyed and the store­houses of the church were overturned ; several thousand measures of wheat in them were lost. A multitude of snakes, and among them a great serpent [draco] like a big log, passed down into the sea carried away by the waters of the river, but these creatures, smothered among the stormy and salty waves of the sea, were rejected on the shore. Immediately after came the plague named inguinaria.

I don't know whether the two incidents are related but Gregory of Tours' story is the closest I could get to Wilson's mention. I'll keep looking though.

Best,
Y.D.

-------

RR

Nick Redfern lightens the "darkness"

Nick Redfern's new blog has fun with things strange.

Click here to visit

The Master Game by Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval

Noted authors Graham Hancock [Fingerprints of the Gods] and Robert Bauval [The Egypt Code] have written a new, 636 page book in which they “document” the influence of the Freemasons on human society, almost from time immemorial.

This reviewer is not inclined to put much stock into most theses that small groups of persons, banded together for purposes of controlling society or elements of society, are rife and accomplished.

The early Christians pulled off a kind of societal coup, with the help of a rabid psychotic, St. Paul and an emperor of Rome, Constantine. And Martin Luther, with the help of a king, Henry the Eighth created a blemish that removed the Catholic Church from its almost total domination of religious culture in Western Civilization.

But a small group of men, a sect or cult of secrecy, such as the Freemasons, ruling society, the World? The idea is fraught with incredulity.

But Hancock and Bauval make a more-than-circumstantial case for exactly that.

The Master Game is surfeited with little known facts and tidbits that enlighten, without forcing readers to adhere to the book’s primary raison d’être; that is, Masons and Freemasonry created cities and sites around the world as symbols of their purpose to control mankind.

The sub-title of the Hancock/Bauval book is “Unmasking the secret rulers of the world” – a sub-title that mimics previous hypotheses and theories, about such groups as the Illuminati, the Templars, the Rosicrucians, Opus Dei, and even the mafia.

Joel Levy’s “The Secret Societies Bible” [Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY, 2010] is a preamble to the Hancock/Bauval book, and covers most of the same material with as many or more illustrations as those found in The Master Game.

Yet, Hancock and Bauval provide details from ancient history and connect dots that others have missed or ignored, such as the Hermetics with the [Christian] Gnostics and later on, Giordano Bruno and Napoleon, on to the Founding Fathers of The United States of America.

The book culminates in a raft of accusations that Al Qaeda and the Arab World are primarily attacking the Freemasonry-oriented nation of Israel and Zionists, using the odious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as the mandate for terrorism, ostensibly against Masonic-Zionism and those who adhere to the hidden Masonic practices that underlie Western governments.

The thrust of the book is this, according to the marketing materials: Iconic cities, Paris, Rome, Washington D.C., New York, London, were designed and created as giant temples with the intent of immersing residents in Masonic ideals.

Is such a thing possible, credible? You can read the book to see if the case has cachet. I remain skeptical, but have to admit that the supporting material and information make a believable case, if you are a person inclined to think that machinations by minority groups can control the bizarre vicissitudes of humankind, in toto.

The book is published by The Disinformation Company, Ltd., NY, 2011, Softcover, $24.95, and can be found at most bookstores, or online at Amazon, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, et cetera.

RR

What on Earth? Inside the Crop Circle Mystery – A Suzanne Taylor film

I’m not an avid follower of the crop circle phenomenon, but I have to admit that the “constructions” have a kind of rarified, transcendental even, beauty.

The DVD we received...



is a splendid introduction to the crop circle phenomenon and some of the people who are enthralled by the constructs.

The film-maker, Suzanne Taylor, pictured here…



has created an artful, objective documentary, about her search for the truth about crop circles.

The DVD/film is replete with images of crop circles:







It’s also replete with people who are absolutely fascinated by the things.

And Ms. Taylor takes into account the blokes who tried to say they were responsible for crop circles – making them in the dead of night. (They are loony.)



The DVD has a tribute to the late John Mack (whom I had the pleasure of communicating with by phone and e-mail a few weeks before he was killed in an automobile accident in England).



The documentary may be accessed and/or bought by going to:

http://passionriver.com/titles.php?id=539

RR

Lamont Wood’s Out of Place in Time and Space

Lamont Wood, a journalist and freelance writer presents “inventions, beliefs, and artistic anomalies that were impossibly ahead of their time” as the cover of his new book indicates.

The litany of “anomalies” Mr. Wood provides intrigue and fascinate.

His premises for those “anomalies” are based in anachronisms, which he lists this way:

1. The first kind involves objects, beliefs or practices from our present that show up in the past.

2. The second kind involves objects, beliefs, or practices from our future that show up in our past.

(The explanation of what he means shows up in his Introduction, but was, in my estimation, a bit abstruse, and his encouragements “to read on” or “to read the book” were redundant, not annoying, but slightly excessive. After all, I had the book in hand and got it to read, didn’t I?)

As Mr. Wood presents many weird happenstances and bizarre items, such as a painting of the baby Jesus and his mother, with Jesus holding a toy helicopter – the painting done in 1460, well before Leonardo’s drawings of proto-helicopters and, obviously, much before helicopters became a part of modern aircraft [Page 17 ff.] -- one rushes to read his other finds.



He gives readers accounts of death rays, used by the Romans in 214 B.C., during the siege of Syracuse. [Chapter 4], the use of modern-like surgery practices on England’s Prince Hal (King Henry V) from a war wound in 1402 [Chapter 15], the Voynich Manuscript – that bizarre book of strange, unearthly drawings and an unknown language, from [circa] 1420 [Chapter 11], and UFOs in 1350 A.D. as depicted in a fresco from that date [Chapter 37].



He discusses Saturn’s mystery moon [Chapter 38], a paintings from the Middle Ages that have what-seem-to-be images resembling UFOs, as described by modern witnesses [Page 161 ff].

He shows a 1602 map from China that pre-figured map renderings not used until 1906 [Chapter 16].

I could go on, about The Internet in 1945 [Chapter 31] or a 19th Century French cartoonist, Albert Robida, whose 1882 book, Le Vingtième Siècle (The Twentieth Century) presented prescient images and mentions of flat-screen televisions, cell phones, and nations that declare bankruptcy(!), among other modern items and services:



But you might want to discover this wealth of intriguing anomalies yourself, by getting the 220 page book from bookstores or internet venues such as Amazon, Powells, and the book publisher itself, New Page Books, a division of The Career Press, Pompton Plains, NJ – www.newpagebooks.com or www.careerpress.com



Lamont Wood is a facile writer who wishes to enlighten and entertain. He has done so with this book.

RR

Bigfoot: What to do with the thing when it's caught

What happens when Bigfoot is found?

Nick Redfern provides comments -- Click here to read them

Nick Redfern is "haunted"

Nick Redfern provides a chapter in Ghosts, Spirits, & Hauntings, a New Page book about things that go "clank" in the night and at other times too.

Click here for more about Nick's contribution

What on Earth? Inside the Crop Circle Mystery

A new documentary about the crop circle phenomenon is available.

Click here for more information

A full review will follow, upcoming.

Nick Redfern on Men in Black (once more)

Click here for Nick's latest on the MIB....

Must reading material? Maybe....maybe not....

Visitors here are well-read (sometimes), but not completely so, as comments indicate.

So we continue to provide what we think are some pertinent papers that impact the interests of those visitors.

Here are two (PDFs) -- click to access:

UFO Abduction Reports: The Supernatural Kidnap Narrative Returns in Technological Guise Author Thomas E. Bullard

The Origins of the Space Gods Ancient Astronauts and the Cthulhu Mythos in Fiction and Fact By Jason Colavito

Are we a simulation?

In John D. Barrows book “One Hundred Essential Things you Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know: Math Explains the World” [W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., N.Y. 2008], Barrow presents a chapter [19] Living in a Simulation, from which I’ve culled these passages:

“Once you take seriously the suggestion that all possible universes cab (and do) exist then you have to deal with another strange consequence. In this infinite array of universes there will exist civilizations far more advanced that ourselves, that have the capability to simulate universes…the would be able to watch the evolution of life and consciousness within their computer simulations.” [Page52/53]

“With in these universes, self-conscious entities can emerge and communicate with one another.” [Page 53]

The physicist Paul Davies suggests that there is a high probability that we are living in a simulated reality, and is there a way to find out the truth? [Page 53]

“Even if the simulators were scrupulous about simulating the laws of Nature [in their created world or universe], there would be limits to what they could do.” [Page 54]

“They may know a lot about the physics and programming need to simulate a universe, but there will be gaps or, worse still, errors.”[Page 54]

“…gradually…little flaws will begin to build up.” [Page 54]

“…logical contradictions will inevitably arise and the laws in the simulations will appear to break down…The inhabitants of the simulation…will occasionally be puzzled by the observations they make.” [Page 54, italics mine]

“Mysterious changes would occur that would appear to contravene the very laws of Nature…” [Page 55]

“…if we live in a simulated reality, we should expect to come across occasional ‘glitches’ or experimental results that we can’t repeat or even very slow drifts in the supposed constants and laws of Nature that we can’t explain.” [Page 55]

Don’t these observations by Dr. Barrow resonate – when it comes to quantum theory and the UFO mystery (or even paranormal events themselves)?

Dr. Barrow’s musings were the province of Mac Tonnies blog and interest, and are the pressure points for persons who visit here, such as Bruce Duensing.

That we may be a simulation doesn’t grab this writer but it's an imaginative hypothesis that can’t be dismissed out-of-hand.

Plato, Descartes (somewhat) thought, and many current physicists accept the possibility, that we do live as a simulation.

The UFO phenomenon seems to provide a substantiation for Dr. Barrow’s method(s) to discern if we live as a simulation or not.

The possibility intrigues, but that is all it does….(for me).

RR

Nick Redfern reviews Monsters of Wisconsin

Nick Redfern reviews Linda Godfrey's new book, Monsters of Wisconsin.

http://www.mania.com/lair-beasts-monsters-wisconsin_article_130422.html

Paul Kimball's state of mind...

We consider Paul Kimball a friend, and we follow his blog and Facebook musings regularly.

Lately he has been absorbed by what he sees as synchronicity-like happenings that afflict him.

We think he and his followers might like to see an alternative view.

Click here for a precis on Apophenia

Nick Redfern responds to Cryptomundo readers

Drawing from http://www.nataliedee.com

Nick Redfern is a controversial bloke, as you know.

Click here to see one of his back-and-forths about Bigfoot and other monsters of the ID.

Nick Redfern's The REAL Men in Black: A Paranoiac's Handbook

Nick Redfern’s latest effort is one of his best; he never fails to satisfy or enlighten, and
he doesn’t this time either.

The RMIB, as I’ll call it, takes readers through the mystery commonly known among UFO aficionados and paranomalists as “the men in black” – a term derived from weird circumstances involving a UFO “researcher” – Albert Bender – and a cohort of his, Gray Barker in the 1950s.

Mr. Redfern provides exquisite details about the Bender/Barker “affair” which is a textbook case about paranoia and madness more than anything else.

But Mr. Redfern doesn’t stop there. He presents a host of other MIB episodes, which also, to this reader, showcase mental aberrations of various kinds, all psychotic in nature.

Chapters 4 through 12 provide a litany MIB cases or related events that psychiatry would have a field day with:

“It was a blistering hot day when Jane’s attention was drawn to three tall, golden-skinned, bearded men. They were dressed in black suits, black hats, black shoes, and very heavy, woolen full-length coats that…were also black in color…

A few weeks later…Jane was listening to a radio talk show…when one particular caller related her own…UFO experience…The caller’s encounter was followed by a visit from three men dressed completely in black clothing…This story gave Jane a jolt…[and she] wondered if she hadn’t been ‘marked or implanted’ by the aliens and if she was being followed.” [Pages 113-114]

Then in Part II of the book, Mr. Redfern gives readers all, and I mean all, the theories that have been proffered for the MIB phenomenon, including hallucinations, hoaxes, archetypal “tricksters,” G-men, and time-travelers among others.

The deep mental disfigurations are implied by Mr. Redfern, but he refrains from going so far as to say that MIB experiencers are nuts.

Mr. Redfern, if I’m reading him correctly, leans towards the “paranormal” aspect of MIB visitations, which makes sense even to those, like me, who think MIB events are products of the ill-mind.

Paranormality can account for some MIB instances, since a few persons visited by the black-clad personages have a semblance of sanity about themselves.

What always surprises me about Mr. Redfern’s forays into the unknown is his encapsulating accounts of demons and devils, since he is non-believer in things with a religious patina. (And I don’t think he believes in God.)

Mr. Redfern, in The Real Men in Black, gives readers, as is his wont in all his writings, between-the-lines insights and details, not minutiae necessarily, that can take readers to other areas of paranormality, which are touched on, and subliminally relevant to the whole panoply of the fringe reality.

So, if you’re a seeker of truth, and want a manual about one element in the weird world of UFOs and the paranormal, get Mr. Redfern’s book.

You will not be disappointed.

The book is published, nicely, by New Page Books, a Division of Career Press, and can be found at Amazon, among other booksellers, and can be had via NewPageBooks.com I surmise.

RR

Nick Redfern searches for Elusive Monsters....

Nick Redfern may search for elusive monsters of the ID or paranormality, but doesn't expect to find them

Click here to see why

Nick Redfern's New Book: The REAL Men in Black

Nick Redfern's new book, The REAL Men in Black, is about to appear on internet and store book shelves....get it when it does.

Nick has provided a publicity-offered page from the book. Click HERE for that page.

(Image from UFO Era)

Nick Redfern on Richard Thomas' book, Para-News

Nick Redfern wrote the foreward and also a review of this book -- not a conflict of interest, if one knows Nick Redfern.

Click here for both the review and the foreward

Wallaby?

Nick Redfern addresses wallaby sightings that occur in odd places.

Click here for his take

Nick Redfern and the Hounds from Hell!

Nick Redfern addresses the (present day) phantom black-dog phenomenon, in his inimitable way.

Click here for his take on the dogs from hell

Nick Redfern reviews an old, eye-opening book

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in things at the fringe of reality, writes Nick Redfern.

Click here for Nick's "review" (if you want to find insights that you missed and need).

Nick Redfern lauds Bart Nunnelly's The Inhumanoids

Nick Redfern provides the Foreword for the book pictured here.

And also provides the publicity information,which you can reasd by clicking here

Frankenstein's Monster and Roswell

Christopher Allen [CDA], a Roswell skeptic and the story’s most intellectual debunker, often points out that Roswell was dead almost immediately after it came to light in 1947.

And he’s right, of course.

The headline(s), touting a captured flying disk, moved from the front pages of newspapers to those newspapers’ morgues, within hours of the original outing.

Roswell’s flying saucer incident remained moribund for thirty years, until it was resurrected by a few opportunistic writers and UFO “researchers” – including Stanton Friedman, Charles Berlitz, William Moore, Kevin Randle, and a few others.

The story was dead until those mad men raised it from the grave in the late 1970s.

And ever since, the original story has been accreted or enhanced by a slew of UFO mavens, among them David Rudiak, a full-blown Roswell extraterrestrial supporter/believer.

Christopher Allen’s scenario of a dead story brought to life by men with an agenda to “prove” extraterrestrial visitors crashed near Roswell reminds this writer of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s gothic tale Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus.



In the Shelley story, as you know, a body is created by Dr. Frankenstein putting together a creature from dead body parts, some human, some not.

Frankenstein comes to loathe his creation, just as some UFO investigators [Kevin Randle?] have come to loathe their initial Roswell ET support.

But the creature – Roswell – lives on imbued with a life that isn’t easily snuffed out, no matter how hard intelligent people like CDA try to kill it.

The Roswell creature is composed of all kinds of mouldering additions, each with a history and one-time life, but none salient as a living, true experience, only alive now because of their creative addition to a form that was dead but is now alive by alchemical-like machinations.

Killing Roswell is as daunting as it is in the original story and every film or story that has followed Ms. Shelley’s 1818 tale.