Simulacrum in Eagle Nebula

Simulacrum in Eagle Nebula

One of the strangest photos that has ever been taken of space is that of the Eagle Nebula. The photo itself is supposed to show the birth of a star from the gaseous clouds. However, when the photo was shown on CNN, hundreds of calls came in from people reporting they could see a face in the cloud. When the color of the photo was adjusted, a large human form seemed to appear within the cloud. Scientist have not been able to explain this phenomena,

Zana

Zana

In the mid-eighteenth century, hunters in the Ochamchir region of Georgia (a Province of Russia on the edge of the Black sea) captured a ‘wild woman’ who had ape-like features, a massive bosom, thick arms, legs, and fingers, and was covered with hair. This ‘wild woman’, named Zana by her captors, was so violent at first that she had to spend many years in a cage with food being tossed to her. Eventually, she was domesticated and would perform simple tasks, like grinding corn. She had an incredible endurance against cold, and couldn’t stand to be in a heated room. She enjoyed gorging herself on grapes from the vine, and also had a weakness for wines, often drinking so heavily she would sleep for hours. As Colin Wilson points out in The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries, this is likely how she became the mother of many children to different fathers. These children usually died when she tried to wash them in the freezing river. The villagers started to take her children away from her and raise them as their own; unlike their mother, the children developed the ability to communicate as well as any other villager. Zana died in the village about 1890; the youngest of her children died in 1954. Her story was researched by Professor Porchnev who interviewed many old people (one as old as a hundred and five) who remembered Zana, as well as two of her grandchildren. The grandchildren had dark skin, and the grandson, named Shalikula, had jaws so powerful that he could lift a chair with a man sitting in it. It is believed that Zana may have somehow been a surviving member a previous evolutionary state of man.

The Devil’s Footprints

The Devil's Footprints

The Devil’s Footprints was the name given to a peculiar phenomenon that occurred in Devon, England on 8 February 1855. After a light snowfall, during the night, a series of hoof-like marks appeared in the snow. These footprints, measuring 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide and eight inches apart, continued throughout the countryside for a total of over 100 miles, and, although veering at various points, for the greater part of their course followed straight lines. Houses, rivers, haystacks and other obstacles were travelled straight over, and footprints appeared on the tops of snow-covered roofs and high walls which lay in the footprints’ path, as well as leading up to and exiting various drain pipes of as small as a four inch diameter. Reports of similar anomalous, obstacle-unheeded footprints exist from other parts of the world, although none is of such a scale as that of the case of the Devil’s Footprints.

The Fire of Jeannie Saffin

The Fire of Jeannie Saffin

There are many famous cases of people who seem to have spontaneously caught fire (Spontaneous Human Combustion) but there is a lesser known case of a woman who suffered this fate in front of witnesses. At approximately 4 p.m. on Wednesday, September 15, 1982, Jeannie Saffin aged 61, burst into flames while sitting on a wooden Windsor chair in the kitchen of her home in Edmonton, London, England. Her father, eighty-two-year-old Jack Saffin, was seated at a nearby table and said he saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye and turned to Jeannie to ask if she had seen it. He was astonished to find that she was enveloped in flames, mainly around her face and hands. Mr. Saffin said Jeannie did not cry out or move, but merely sat there with her hands in her lap. Her father pulled her over to the sink, badly burning his own hands, and started trying to douse the flames with water. Jeannie went in to a coma and died 8 days later. The policeman who conducted the investigation into possible murder reported to the coroner’s court that no cause for Jeannie’s combustion could be found. There was no charring or signs of burning anywhere in the room except on Jeannie’s body. The image above is from another case of Spontaneous Human Combustion as none could be found of Jeannie Saffin.

Red Rain in Kerala

Red Rain in Kerala

From 25 July to 23 September 2001, red rain sporadically fell on the southern Indian state of Kerala. Heavy downpours occurred in which the rain was colored red, staining clothes with an appearance similar to that of blood. Yellow, green, and black rain was also reported. According to locals, the first coloured rain was preceded by a loud thunderclap and flash of light, and followed by groves of trees shedding shrivelled grey “burnt” leaves. Shrivelled leaves and the disappearance and sudden formation of wells were also reported around the same time in the area. A study commissioned by the Government of India found that the rains had been colored by airborne spores from a locally prolific terrestrial alga. Then in early 2006, the colored rains of Kerala suddenly rose to worldwide attention after media reports of a conjecture that the colored particles were extraterrestrial cells. The origin of the rain is still unknown today, despite worldwide efforts to discover the cause and true nature of the rain.

The Grooved Spheres

The Grooved Spheres

Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian – and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

Ark Of The Covenant

Ark Of The Covenant

The Ark is considered the greatest of all hidden treasures and its discovery would provide indisputable truth that the Old Testament is hard fact. Its recovery remains the goal of every modern archaeologist and adventurer. Its purpose was as a container for the ten commandments given on stone tablets by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. According to the book of Exodus, the Ark is made of shittim wood (similar to acacia) and gold-covered inside and out. It was topped by a mercy seat comprising two cherubs also made of gold. It was believed to have supernatural powers due to several events, including causing the death of a man, who attempted to steady the Ark as the oxen hauling it stumbled, bringing down the walls of Jericho in one battle, and showering misfortune on the Philistines after they captured it in another. There are several speculations around the final resting place of the Ark, and whilst it would take a shrewd operator to find it, it would need a brave or even foolhardy person to open it!

The Tarim Mummies

The Tarim Mummies

An amazing discovery of 2,000 year old mummies in the Tarim basin of Western China occurred in the early 90s. But more amazing than the discovery itself was the astonishing fact that the mummies were blond haired and long nosed. In 1993, Victor Mayer a college professor collected DNA from the mummies and his tests verified that the bodies were all of European genetic stock. Ancient Chinese texts from as early as the first millennium BC do mention groups of far-east dwelling caucasian people referred to as the Bai, Yeuzhi, and Tocharians. None, though, fully reveal how or why these people ended up there.

Who Was Robin Hood?

Robin Hood

The historical search for the legendary thief Robin Hood has turned up masses of possible names. One candidate includes the Yorkshire fugitive Robert Hod, also known as Hobbehod or Robert Hood of Wakefield. The large number of suspects is complicated further as the name Robin Hood became a common term for an outlaw. As literature began to add new characters to the tale such as Prince John and Richard the Lionheart the trail became more obscure. To this day no one knows who this criminal really was.

The Bog Bodies

The Bog Bodies

This mystery may even be a problem for those legendary investigators from CSI and the like! The bog bodies are hundreds of ancient corpses found buried around the northern bogs and wetlands of Northern Europe. These bodies are remarkably well preserved, some dating back 2,000 years. Many of these bodies have tell-tale signs of torture and other medieval “fun”, which have made some researchers postulating that these unfortunate victims were the result of ritual sacrifices.

Nibiru Collision

Nibiru Collision

This theory ties in with the 2012 Doomsday theories. It claims that there is a planet the size of Jupiter, named Nibiru or Planet X, currently as far from us as the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and that it is on a collision course with Earth in 2012. The theory goes that the IRAS infrared satellite launched in 1983 took a photograph of this object, which was finally leaked to the Internet in 2009. The photograph was explained away by NASA as showing 9 galaxies and some intergalactic cirrus, but no other objects.
The theory goes on to claim that the U. S. government funded the construction of a very powerful telescope at the South Pole to take pictures of Nibiru and track it. This telescope is claimed by NASA to be a radio telescope which cannot take pictures, but the theory ignores this to go on: Nibiru cannot currently be seen because it is behind the Sun.
It is impossible to debunk this theory, not because it may or may not be true, but because conspiracy theories don’t have to respect the authority of a government, especially that of the U. S. Any “debunking” of evidence in support of Nibiru is immediately denounced as a lie. Nibiru is on its way, and its impact will obliterate Earth.

Grand Grimoire

Grand Grimoire

This one is based on the fact that the so-called “Grand Grimoire” exists, and it does. It is a book, also called “The Red Dragon,” and the “Gospel of Satan.” The book is real because the Roman Catholic Church officially claims ownership of it, but has never let the public glimpse it. It is fact that it was discovered in Jerusalem in 1750, in the tomb of Solomon, written in either Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic. The manuscript has not been dated to an earlier time than this, or else the Church has not said, but the book itself is inscribed with the date of 1522 AD. Theorists claims it was copied in that year from a manuscript written in the 1200s AD or earlier.
The earliest known proof of it comes from the writings of one Honorius of Thebes, whose existence has not been undeniably proven. He may have been Pope Honorius III (1148-1227). Honorius of Thebes is believed to have written something now referred to as the “Sworn Book of Honorius,” from which the Grand Grimoire was derived, or which is, in fact, the Grand Grimoire itself.
The theory claims that Honorius was either Satan himself, or possessed by Satan for the purpose of writing the book. It contains instructions on summoning Satan at any time, at any place on Earth, for various insidious intentions. The word “grimoire” denotes a textbook of magic. Any kind of magic, whether good or bad. A great deal of so-called copies are in circulation around the world, but none of these, the conspiracy theory claims, contains the true words of the actual Grimoire. It is very popular in the voodoo culture of Haiti, and practitioners there claim to use the book all the time, like a cookbook for spells and hexes.
Theorists claims the Grand Grimoire is itself supernatural in that it permanently resists burning, cannot be cut, pierced, penetrated, torn, or in any other way damaged or destroyed. It is the only book with the knowledge of how to summon Satan (all others being fakes that don’t work), with a precise ritual to be performed, and in addition to this, it can summon any number of named demons (Pazuzu, from “The Exorcist” among them). Being written by Satan, it details proofs of various supernatural miracles of the Bible, the precise locations of biblical relics, and even contains Satan’s personal sketches of the faces of Judas Iscariot and Jesus Christ. Because it is in the Catholic Church’s possession, the theory goes on to claim that every Pope starts out a human, and then becomes possessed by Satan once he is elected.
The 1989 film “Warlock,” starring Julian Sands as the prospective Antichrist, uses the Grimoire as a major plot device, and goes even further, claiming that the Grimoire contains the secret name of God, which, when uttered backward, will annihilate the Universe. This lister paused the film and inched it forward at the climax to read the secret name, and it is “Roaisha.” Help yourselves. Think it just couldn’t possibly get any better? Well, this last quality of the Grimoire was most likely invented by David Twohy, who wrote the story for the film. But conspiracy theorists have championed the idea ever since, claiming that everything in this entry is based on provable facts, and that these facts are in the Grand Grimoire itself.

Ararat Anomaly

Ararat Anomaly

Theories surrounding the Ararat Anomaly arose from a single black and white photograph taken in 1949 by a USAF recon plane performing routine intelligence gathering of the Ararat massif, which was in an area of military interest at the time. This famous photo shows a shoulder of Mount Ararat, only 1300 feet from the summit, covered in snow, with an odd-looking object on the very precipice of a steep slope.
Conspiracy theorists, many of them Biblical literalists, claim that the odd-looking object if Noah’s Ark, which the Bible states “came to rest on the mountains of Ararat” after the Great Flood. Since the Bible pluralizes “mountains,” the question still stands, “Which mountain of the area?” Mount Ararat is the tallest of the Armenian Plateau, but the whole area of Eastern Turkey and Western Armenia is mountainous, and Mount Ararat is actually two peaks, with the main peak a prominence for miles around.
The anomaly appears to be a very rounded elongation teetering on the edge of a slope, buried under ice and snow, and it has so roused the curiosity of the U. S. government that planes and satellites have been used to take numerous photographs of it, not all of which, the theory claims, have been made public. The best public views of it can be found on the Internet for free, and the anomaly does look very much like a big boat, approximately 1,000 feet long and 200 to 300 feet wide, which roughly matches the Bible’s description of the Ark.
A close-up of it appears to show two sets of three “prongs,” one set on each end, and this close-up does look very man-made. Why the U. S. government will not divulge anything further than what is available is not universally established, but the theory claims that in order to do so, the government would have to declassify top-secret spy satellites, which would set a lot of unwanted media against them in terms of invasion of privacy. The U. S. does have satellites that can photograph a postage stamp from 600 miles overhead, but there are no such photographs of the anomaly.

Was the Titanic Tragedy Foretold

Was the Titanic Tragedy Foretold by a Book Written 14 Years Before?

Perhaps one of the strangest cases of foreshadowing the world has ever known was a novel written in 1898 by Morgan Robertson about a ship called Titan that crashes into an iceberg. And, of course, in 1912, the RMS Titanic crashes into an iceberg as well. Although the novel was written as a work of fiction, it strangely foretold the events of what would come to be one of the most famous disasters of all time.

The Miracle of the Sun

Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto holding rosaries.

The miracle was told by Lúcia Santos and her cousins, siblings Jacinta and Francisco Marto. in the area that it would arrive on the above date at noon who were given this information by Our Lady of Fatima, one claim that most newspapers claimed was ridiculous, however, people flocked to the area on the off chance that the miracle did occur.
According to tales of the time, Our Lady of Fatima came to the three children on May 1, 1917 telling the children that she was Our Lady of the Rosary, which is another name that Our Lady of Fatima goes by, as well as a combination of the two. The woman told the children of the coming events and urged them to go tell the others. It was believed that this was a sight of the holiest of those that people believed in and instantly many people believed the children. In order to illiterate the point, the children said that Our Lady of Fatima came to them every month up until the miracle occurred.
Some newspapers of the time claiming that it was a made up story to get people to believe that the children were lying and had never seen Our Lady of Fatima. Still, despite the criticism, people still believe that the Miracle of the Sun occurred.

Canadian Crop Circles

Crop circles have become a well known phenomena all across the globe.  Of the 10,000 documented cases, 80% have been proven to be hoaxes.  But what about the other 20 percent?

Two farmers from outside of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Rusty Manuel and Thelley
Whitman, woke up one day to find a crop circle formation on their land -- seven precise circles pressed into a field of thistle and barley.  Thelley was stunned:

“The grain was all flattened down. It almost looked liked a pattern, like petals, the way the grain came out and then the heads turned back in towards the center again.  It was just amazing.”

The Canadian Crop Circle Research Network, a volunteer organization that documents such cases, wasted no time getting to the site.  Judy Arndt is one of the group’s field researchers:

“It looked like the place had been electrocuted.  It was just amazing.  Looked like there had been a huge force of some sort.”

Shroud of Turin

The shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who had apparently died of crucifixion. Most Catholics consider it to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. It is currently held in the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. Despite many scientific investigations, no one has yet been able to explain how the image has been imprinted on the shroud and despite many attempts, no one has managed to replicate it. Radiocarbon tests date it to the middle ages, however apologists for the shroud believe it is incorrupt – and carbon dating can only date things which decay.

Prior to the middle ages, reports of the shroud exist as the Image of Edessa – reliably reported since at least the 4th century. In addition, another cloth (the Sudarium) known even from biblical times (John 20:7) exists which is said to have covered Christ’s head in the tomb. A 1999 study by Mark Guscin, a member of the multidisciplinary investigation team of the Spanish Center for Sindonology, investigated the relationship between the two cloths. Based on history, forensic pathology, blood chemistry (the Sudarium also is reported to have type AB blood stains), and stain patterns, he concluded that the two cloths covered the same head at two distinct, but close moments of time. Avinoam Danin (a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) concurred with this analysis, adding that the pollen grains in the Sudarium match those of the shroud.

Mary Celeste

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

The new captain of Mary Celeste was Benjamin Briggs, 37, a master with three previous commands. On November 7, 1872 the ship departed New York with Captain Briggs, his wife, young daughter and a crew of eight. The ship was loaded with 1700 barrels of raw American alcohol bound for Genoa, Italy. The captain, his family and crew were never seen again. The ship was found floating in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar. There were no signs of struggle on board and all documents except the captain’s log were missing.

In early 1873, it was reported that two lifeboats grounded in Spain, one with a body and an American flag, the other containing five bodies. It has been alleged that these could have been the remains of the crew of the Mary Celeste. However, the bodies were apparently never identified.

The taos hum

The ‘Taos Hum’ is a low-pitched sound heard in numerous places worldwide, especially in the USA, UK, and northern europe. It is usually heard only in quiet environments, and is often described as sounding like a distant diesel engine. Since it has proven indetectable by microphones or VLF antennae, its source and nature is still a mystery.

In 1997 Congress directed scientists and observers from some of the most prestigious research institutes in the nation to look into a strange low frequency noise heard by residents in and around the small town of Taos, New Mexico. For years those who had heard the noise, often described by them as a “hum”, had been looking for answers. To this day no one knows the cause of the hum.

Comte de Saint Germain

The Count of St. Germain (allegedly died February 27, 1784) was a courtier, adventurer, inventor, amateur scientist, violinist, amateur composer, and a mysterious gentleman; he also displayed some skills with the practice of alchemy. He was known as ‘Der Wundermann’ — ‘The Wonderman’. He was a man whose origin was unknown and who disappeared without leaving a trace.

Since his death, various occult organizations have adopted him as a model figure or even as a powerful deity. In recent years several people have claimed to be the Count of St. Germain. (Note that St Germain was never regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church – the “st.” before his name refers to his alleged home).