Phantoms and Monsters

Film Maker's New Approach For Finding Bigfoot
Photo: Is This 'Mabel' Or Another Ghostly Wench?
New Drug Being Developed to Curb Shock in Critically Injured
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Psychic Connection

Film Maker's New Approach For Finding Bigfoot

Posted: 30 Jan 2010 01:28 PM PST

humboldtbeacon - A resident of Nevada City, Calif., William Barnes is a modern-day explorer whose strong sense of wonder fuels his drive to uncover age-old mysteries that have haunted humankind for centuries.

While some have written off Big Foot as a corny hoax after the Roger Patterson film of 1967 was widely discredited, many go on in search of the allusive man-beast, undeterred in their quest for cryptozoological truth.

Having seen the creature with his own two eyes, Barnes is convinced there is something to the stories, and is determined to set out in July to capture photographic proof of the creature. To help rally support around the investigation, Barnes set up a website (www.bigfoot24-7.com) and described his search as "the most penetrating search for Sasquatch/Bigfoot ever conducted in North America."

From his website, Barnes wrote, "As a weekend goldminer in Northern California, I had such a creature walk up to my tent, so close I could have touched it, and then walk past me and up the side of the hill. Since that night by the creek, I have pondered for years, about how one could be filmed for any length of time, and how it could be studied in it's own safe habitat."

When Barnes arrives in mid-July, he will be focusing on areas that have a history of sightings, "including the area around the Klammath River, and yes, I would be using historical sighting maps and documentation that has been deemed credible. I would not stop in one place for long durations, since there have been many sightings on the entire West Coast," Barnes explained.

Barnes added that a great deal of preparation would be in order to make the study possible. "I would want residents of each area I plan to be in, to know what the blimp is doing there. It would be unfortunate if a pot grower, who didn't understand my intentions, shot down my expensive blimp."

And yes, Barnes plans on using a unique, one-of-a-kind 35-foot blimp that will hover over areas of special interest.

"Mine is being custom-made for the job it has to do. It is a remote control and is being made to go up to five hours fly time," Barnes said. Meanwhile, his RV will act as a control center during the flyover and film investigation.

Barnes explained that it took him roughly 12 years to develop his unique method of filming Big Foot in the wild. Christened the "Falcon Project," Barnes said that he is "the first person ever to do it this way." Not going into great detail to reveal his procedures, Barnes said that his system is all run by electric, and all high-tech. "I can see up to 2,200 feet in the dark, and this will be almost all night work."

Barnes acknowledges that films can be easy to fake, especially short ones. His plan therefore, is to film a documentary following the building of the blimp, installation of infrared cameras, and volunteers at work.

"The thermal-imaging cameras are the newest in today's technology, and are the same as the ones being used by the military. The infrared camera can portray an image in the dark, as clearly as though it were in daylight," Barnes added.

To assist Barnes in the endeavor, the Big Foot stalker will employ a five-person crew who will be alert to the creature's presence around the clock.

Not afraid of skeptics or naysayers, Barnes explained that the reason why his project was conceived is to prove that the creature is real, and is not something fabricated to sell books and movies.

"Because it is controversial, human curiosity drives us to investigate further. Think about this: why do people buy tabloids in grocery stores, and why do celebrities allow their "secrets" to be exposed? Human curiosity."

Barnes ended by saying that he would like our readers to know that his story isn't "just a myth or publicity stunt."

Other areas of interest to Barnes include Oregon, Washington, Texas, Arkansas, and Florida. (In Florida, there is a regional creature known as the Skunk Ape.)

The search for Big Foot will surely incur a Yeti-sized price tag, so Barnes is also in search of fellow believers and investors "who are as interested in discovering this elusive creature as I am. There is also a need for volunteers, hobbyists, and financial backers."

Eddie Diaz is a team member of the Falcon Project, and added that he has always been interested in the Big Foot phenomenon.

"I was told of a theory along with the Bearing Strait. That Humans were not able to cross due to two factors, a Sasquatch like beast and a big cat with a saber tooth," Diaz said.

"Those closed-minded folks are entitled to their opinions. What really intrigues me, and I bring up the question. How is it they all have steered away from people. A secret society that knows that if one is caught, there lives will change forever. Maybe they learned by watching their neighbors the Native American Indian vanish when they mingled with the whites. Lots of questions. And should we leave them alone for that reason alone?"

According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, a total of 416 sightings in California have been reported since people began seeing the hirsute ape-men. Although last year, it seems that the creature took a respite from Humboldt County, as more recent sightings have been reported in Del Norte, Kern, and Shasta counties than anywhere else lately.

NOTE: this plan intrigues me...the use of a RC blimp with an IR camera that can stay aloft for 5 hours is interesting and may actually provide results. Take a look at Barnes' website www.bigfoot24-7.com ...Lon

Photo: Is This 'Mabel' Or Another Ghostly Wench?

Posted: 30 Jan 2010 12:43 PM PST

Rob Spacey sent ForteanTimes this photo of what appears to be a ghostly female lurking in a pub after closing time.

Here's Rob's account:

"A friend of mine works in the Old Bell Hotel pub on Sadlergate, Derby. The pub is renowned for being haunted, so much so that local ghost walker, Most Haunted's Richard Felix, often uses it on his ghost walks.

There is a story that a particular corner of the pub is haunted by a ghost of a '17th-century wench'. My friend was telling this story to a friend of hers at 3am, after their shift had finished. The pub was closed and they were the last to leave and lock up. Her friend, for a laugh decided to get his phone camera out and photograph the haunted corner, not believing he would catch anything.

I'm in absolutely no doubt this is a genuine ghost picture, you can make out everything on the ghost: dress, face etc. This picture came straight off my friend's phone, which came off her friend's. There is no way this can have been manipulated.

There was no one in that corner or anything either. I have since been to this pub and had a look round. The room itself is shut off from the public, with all doors behind the 'woman' being barricaded up, seemingly for a few years."

NOTE: well, what do you think? Is it an apparition of a 17th century wench or a means to publicize the pub? The account above may or may not describe the pub ghost known as 'Mabel'. Below, is an account written by an eyewitness...Lon
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THE GHOST OF THE OLD BELL HOTEL - Eyewitness Account

The Old Bell is listed as one of the haunted Pubs of England. Moreover Janet and I used to drink there regularly, and soon became familiar with the story of the ghost of the Old Bell Hotel. Apparently there are two ghosts that haunt the Old Bell. The main ghost, if you like (do ghosts have a pecking order?) was the ghost of a young woman called Mabel, a linen maid at the time when the Old Bell was still a coaching Inn. Her job was to strip the beds then take the sheets away to be washed, replacing them with fresh ones. One day some passing solders on a recruitment drive were buying drinks for the young men in the bar, and Mabel's lover got drunk and took the Kings shilling. He was taken away to fight in some war or other never to be seen again and whether he was killed or not we will never know.

Fortune was to throw Mabel another blow, as she found that she was pregnant. What this meant back in those days heavens only knows, but as a result of her circumstances Mabel committed suicide, hanging herself in room six.

Mabel's spirit did not rest easy, and over the years the Pub got the reputation of being haunted and things would apparently move on their own. One of the waitresses told me that after laying out all the cutlery, napkins, china etc. in the restaurant on the first floor, she left the room for a moment and when she returned she found that every thing on the tables had been moved into a different order. There is only one door in and out of the restaurant, and she swore that no one had entered the room as they would have had to have passed her.

This sort of thing is quite a common event in the Old Bell. Guests that booked in for the night would find their clothes neatly folded at the bottom of their bed, and thinking that someone had been in their room when they were asleep, would complain to the landlord only to be told that the staff were a lazy lot, and if any body was in their room in the dead of night they were was supernatural.

I remember one such incident. It was a New Year's eve, and after the usual Auld Lange Syne, the Landlord, Janet and myself, plus a handful of local characters got blind drunk, and the talk turned to the ghostly goings on. We decided that we would make our way up to room six to challenge the ghost. The Landlord picked the keys up off the board behind the bar, and everyone followed him up the winding stairs and corridors of the Old Bell Hotel. Inserting the key into the Yale lock we all shuffled into room six, with all the stealth a bar room of drunks could muster. The only light in the room was that which managed to filter in from the corridor, and in the gloom a grey figure rose up in the bed. There was a stunned silence, then "What the bloody hell's going on?" shouted the ghost. We all nearly shit ourselves. The Landlord ushered everyone out of the room, apologising to the guest to whom he had let the room when sober.

We sheepishly returned to the lounge bar only to find that the beer-mats had been mysteriously placed over the beer pumps, and all the remains of the party poppers were piled neatly on one of the tables. Not one shred of paper streamer was left on the floor, and if anyone had tried to clear them up without using a vacuum cleaner, it would have taken ages. The Landlord looked ashen. More of Mabel's work, and no more drinks were served that night.

The Old Bell Hotel is a busy pub and has taken its fair share of knocks, and some of the rooms needed redecorating from time to time, especially the lounge bar, where most of the action took place. I was making a living painting and decorating, and the Landlord asked me if I could paint the lounge bar for him. He was careful to ask me after I had drunk a few pints. Not surprisingly there was a lot of shuffling of feet by yours truly. It's not every day you are asked to spend the night alone in the bar of one of the most haunted pubs in Britain. Being a "lick penny" he did not want to close the bar so we came up with the idea of painting the lounge through out the night, starting after the last of the punters had gone home.

I duly turned up a few nights later with all my painting gear, had a few drinks with the locals and waited for the bar to clear. The landlord helped by closing the bar on time and as he escorted the last person through the door, apologising for throwing him out on time, he came back in and locked the till, and said to me, "You can help yourself to anything out of the pumps, but don't touch the top shop." (The top shop refers to the bottles of spirits that line the upper shelf). Then he said good night and went to bed.

I moved the tables to the centre of the bar, and sheeted them up. I opened a couple of gallon tins, flicked about a bit with my trusty dusting brush, then began painting. It wasn't long before I had the eeriest feeling that I was not alone. Behind the bar the wall is mirrored, a feature used in many old hotels and Inns to make the room look bigger. In addition, when customers are standing at the bar, instead of looking straight at a wall some six feet in front of them, they will be looking at all the atmosphere of the bar captured in the magic of the old smoke-kissed glass.

The lighting in the lounge bar was provided by wall lights; two upward branching brass tubes supporting little red lamp shades, like upturned flower pots, which were stained with nicotine and dust, and threw very little light. Every time I moved across the floor I caught my own reflection in the mirror out of the corner of my eye, which made me jump until I got used to it. This put the wind up me a bit and as a result the story of Mabel and her ghostly goings-on kept pushing its way to the front of my thoughts. As you can imagine that's the last thing I wished to be thinking of all alone in the middle of the night in a building listed as haunted.

As the night grew older things started to get really creepy. I could swear something, or should I say someone, kept lightly brushing my hair with unseen fingers each time I turned my back to the mirror. I thought, right, I know it must be Mabel, keep calm, you're a big boy now and a witch to boot... So standing up straight I looked long and hard into the heart of the mirror. To my relief my own reflection gazed back at me from the gloom of the room, then the hair on the back of my neck stood up as the shadow of a figure materialised behind me.

The image behind me was of a woman dressed in an apron of red and white stripes, and a cream blouse. Her hair appeared to be tied back behind her ears and her garments were not of this period. Well, this put the wind up me good and proper. I instinctively threw a banishing Pentagram at the apparition as I tried to focus on the figure behind me in the mirror, and it faded as it moved to the left and then disappeared.

Calming down a little with a few deep breaths, I regretted using a banishing Pentagram on poor Mabel and thought to myself, why not try and communicate with Mabel? As it happened it was a lot easier to communicate with Mabel than I thought it would be. After all, I was in her domain; she was one with the fabric of the Old Bell Hotel. Therefore, as I carried on painting a bit of the wall, I could quite easily ask Mabel questions and she would answer. It appears that Mabel like to be called May bell, and she was unhappy that the man she loved did not return to her, so that she just had to be patient and wait. She said she had strange dreams and consequently thought she may have gone mad. In one dream she thought she was dead.

One more question I asked myself about this strange business was that if she was pregnant when she hung herself, would the spirit of the unborn child also haunt the Old Bell Hotel? Maybe a child's spirit in these dire circumstances would just return to the spirit world, or perhaps it would cling to its mother, thus sharing her fate to haunt the Old Bell Hotel for generations to come. As the night wore on I thanked Mabel for her company and blessed her in the name of the Goddess of the night who looks after witches, ghosts and fairies,and bid her depart, which thankfully she did.

Sources:
www.twistedtree.org.uk
www.forteantimes.com
www.timetravel-britain.com

New Drug Being Developed to Curb Shock in Critically Injured

Posted: 30 Jan 2010 11:05 AM PST

newscientist - A lucky few seem to be able to laugh in the face of death, surviving massive blood loss and injuries that would kill others. Now a drug has been found that might turn virtually any injured person into a "super-survivor", by preventing certain biological mechanisms from shutting down.

The drug has so far only been tested in animals. If it has a similar effect in humans, it could vastly improve survival from horrific injuries, particularly in soldiers, by allowing them to live long enough to make it to a hospital.

Loss of blood is the main problem with many battlefield injuries, and a blood transfusion the best treatment, although replacing lost fluid with saline can help. But both are difficult to transport in sufficient quantities. "You can't carry a blood bank into the battlefield," says Hasan Alam of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "What we're looking for is a pill or a shot that would keep a person alive for long enough to get to them to a hospital."

When the body loses a lot of blood, it tries to compensate by going into shock. This is a set of emergency measures to raise blood pressure and conserve energy, such as increasing heart rate and shutting down expression of some proteins. However, if the body stays in shock for more than a short time, it can lead to organ failure, and death soon follows.

Recent studies have suggested that around 6 or 7 per cent of genes change their expression in response to shock, via the removal of "epigenetic", chemical additions to the genome called acetylations. As histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors can prevent the removal of such acetylations, Alam wondered if these drugs might improve survival after blood loss.

His team previously showed that valproic acid, an HDAC inhibitor already used to treat epilepsy, increased survival rates in rats that had lost a lot of blood. It seemed to be doing this by preventing acetylation, causing certain "survival pathways" to remain switched on.

Now Alam has repeated the study in pigs. He anaesthetised the animals, drained 60 per cent of their blood, and subjected them to other injuries before giving them a saline transfusion. He then injected some of the pigs with valproic acid, gave others a blood transfusion and left the remainder untreated.

Just 25 per cent of the pigs receiving only saline survived for 4 hours - the typical time it takes to get hospital treatment - while 86 per cent of those injected with valproic acid survived. All those that had a blood transfusion lived (Surgery, DOI: 10.1016/j.surg.2009.04.007).

Alam is currently repeating the trial to make sure valproic acid does not hinder survival in the longer term. If so, he will apply for permission to do human trials by the end of the year.

"It's exciting," says John Holcomb of the Center for Translational Injury Research at the University of Texas in Houston. "They're looking at resuscitation in a different way."

Earlier studies by Alam's team showed that rats that naturally survive traumatic blood loss also experience fewer changes in gene expression than those that die or suffer complications. He thinks the same might be true in humans. "Every person has this capacity to survive a huge insult, but most of the time it's dormant," he says. "That's why the same insult kills some people while others laugh and move on. What we're trying to do is make you super-resistant using the pathways and proteins that already exist."

However, Graham Packham of Southampton General Hospital, UK, who is investigating the use of HDAC inhibitors to treat cancer, says it isn't yet clear how valproic acid, which reacts with a wide range of molecules, is actually prolonging survival. "It's not clear whether this is driven by valproic acid's epigenetic activity," he says.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Psychic Connection

Posted: 30 Jan 2010 10:52 AM PST

Chris Holly's Paranormal World - I think many of you will agree with me that one of the most abused subjects considered paranormal would be psychic ability.

Over the years I have visited many Internet chat systems to find out what people are thinking and talking about. I have come across numerous chat rooms devoted to psychic readings that are filled with people waiting for the psychic of the day to give them a free reading.

Although this is a form of fun entertainment many people would sit and wait for hours for it to be their turn as the self-titled psychic went about the sad attempt of psychic fraud. To most thinking adults the ability of the so-called psychics in the public chat rooms is obviously not real or being done by anyone with any ability. It is just a place where wannabe psychics practice the con of portraying a knowing intuitive giving laughable drawn out attempts of readings to those waiting on line. If it were not so silly it would be sad.

I will say I have been in psychic reading rooms where one of these fake psychics has said dangerous things to people who were in need of help. I find this to be unforgivable behavior by those acting out the self-agenda need to pretend to have psychic ability.

As in all things in life especially on the Internet you need to understand danger lurks under many different rocks. It was clear as a sunny day that many of the so-called psychics on the Internet are practicing the old profession of con artist nonsense giving generic answers to willing people. It is a prime example to what happens to a subject like psychic ability when thrown into the soup of confusion and chaos known as the World Wide Web.

Since all of this goes on for free and no one seems to take it too seriously I do not feel it is too dangerous or immoral. I do think the second someone takes what these Internet carpetbaggers say seriously or forms a life decision by way of a reading- a line then gets crossed. Until that occurs the psychic chat rooms continue to be fun entertainment and little more.

Like many who use the paranormal as a stage for selling their goods or filling personal agenda's psychic ability has sadly also been dragged into the mud. I truly dislike those who dirty the path to understanding. It is as I always say the main reason we stay clued in the Dark Ages with subjects considered paranormal. That is what I consider the bad and ugly not only of the paranormal world but of the psychic world too.

Despite all that turmoil psychic ability is a real and powerful gift. It is a tool I wish we all could nurture and learn to use. I have no doubt about the fact REAL psychics walk among us. During my lifetime I have been able to know and watch real psychics with real ability use their gifts to do amazing things. That is why I so dislike the bad and ugly side of this subject.

I am sure we all have the ability to use our intuition far more then we do. I think it is a born sense we somehow lost along the way. The noise of life as we now live it may have suffocated our natural sense of how to bring our natural abilities to a usable place. The need to concentrate, meditate or simply stop and listen as the animals do to our surroundings has been lost to the fast and furious life style of modern man.

This is not the case however in those who have maintained the use of this ability. I think we are over looking and losing out on a powerful and useful ability in exchange for the loud cluttered day-to-day living that happens on a surface level. Depth of emotions and abilities within us all have been stifled and lost.

I had a very unusual experience while surfing the net. While passing along the never-ending assortment of psychic reading rooms I came across a room on the Pal talk chat system called Little flower's Reading Room. I was extremely surprised at what I found going on in this room.

A woman was giving the people in the room readings by way of what she was being told by her guides. I knew at once this was not the average nonsense. This woman was quick. She would say what she had to say and then move on to the next person. If she did not have anything for them she would tell them. The interesting thing to me was the truth of her readings. It was not the typical prodding for information or general could be anyone type of drivel.

This lady would go directly to a subject with personal insight to each person knowing somehow real things about the people she read. She would hit facts and give advice the people may not have actually wanted to hear. This was a real psychic doing real readings.

I had to laugh, as she would become lost into what she was seeing and become very direct with the people. If they were lazy or selfish she would tell them. If the love they seek was not around the corner or with the one they wanted she would tell them. If they were wrong she told them, and if they were looking for someone to blow smoke up their reading skirts they were in the wrong room!

This was the first psychic I came across who seemed to have real ability on the Internet. I quickly went about the task of convincing Littleflower to allow me to interview her.

Littleflower told me about her life of being born into a family of psychics who from the start nurtured her abilities. Littleflower lived with those who knew how to develop and incorporate her psychic keen ability into her everyday life.

As Littleflower grew up she learned to understand and communicate with those she calls her guides. She explained to me that we all have guardian angels, guides, or spiritual counselors. The difference clearly is that Littleflower has taught herself to tap into hers and knows to listen to their knowledge and advice. We could do the same. Maybe some of us do- do the same but not on the advanced level that Littleflower is capable of.

We all have been pushed, sensed that little voice that warns us or lean us towards certain decisions in our life. Some of us may even ask for guidance and try to feel the answers when making our own way on the road of life. Littleflower has crossed that line of division between her guides or angels and has an open door relationship where she asks them advice and understands when they reply. I am sure many will have doubts about what I am saying. I simply chose to believe in Littleflowers ability by way of watching her work as well as talking to her about my own private matters.

I talked to Littleflower about my feelings concerning the frauds and fakes of the Internet. She agreed with me and explained that she was retired but was being pushed by her own guides to return to the public and to do her work while she can as the world is truly in need of all the help it can get.

Littleflower once again is using her ability to answer what questions she can or help people however she can. She continues to open her room on Pal talk when she is able and is thinking about being a guest on a few of the Internet Radio shows where people can call in and ask for her advice on a subject. Littleflower is one of those I consider the good of the psychic world.

Of course I cannot write about this subject without mentioning two of the best psychics I have personally ever seen or known.

Bridget is a woman I went to years ago who is extremely gifted. Bridget would sit at her dining room table and ask you to count out cards or shuffle cards. While the person being read would be doing as she asked with the cards Bridget would seem to go into sort of a trance.

While in the trace you could not talk or ask questions. She would just start to talk. If she wanted to ask you a question she would however most of the time she would simply talk a non-stop stream of information.

Bridget knew names, would describe in detail a person down to what they wore. She would give you exact events that were due to happen be it good or bad and she was always right. Bridget told me names, events, and my future with an amazing degree of accuracy.

She had an amazing gift that seemed to flow through her like water. Bridget helped me to understand that seeing with our minds eye is possible and made a believer out of me. I did not like some of the predictions, warnings and information that Bridget gave me over the years. I did not always leave her happy or hearing what I had hoped to hear. I will tell you that what Bridget did tell me happened far too many times and exactly as she predicted for me to ever doubt her ability.

Lastly on my list of people of proven psychic ability would be Mildred or her preferred name Millie.

During my life experience Millie is one of the best psychics I have ever known. Millie is an unwilling psychic. Her visions are extremely detailed and complete allowing Millie to witness events fully before they happen. Millie has a lifetime of visions that have shown her catastrophes and situations that she was able to prevent or act upon in time to change the outcome.

I wrote about Millie's experience with two murder attempts in past articles. Millie will be going along her day when suddenly she will be over taken by a powerful vision. She explains it as being at the sink in your home doing dishes one second and BAM the next your standing in the middle of a movie watching what is going on around you.

This happens to Millie often. During three of these events Millie watched as people she was acquainted with in her life were in mortal danger. Millie has watched in horror as she witnessed people she knew being murdered.

During two of the visions Millie was able to immediately call for help and did prevent two of the murders from happening. Millie was able to call for aid for one friend as the friend was in struggle with her murderer. Sending neighbors to the scene the attempted murder was stopped. The victim in this case was saved with only wounds not her life being the outcome.

Millie was able to intervene in another event just as it started by getting the police to the home of the victim by calling in a murder attempt knowing it was just about to happen. This action by Millie saved the woman in this case.

Sadly the last vision Millie had involved a relative close to Millie. The vision was a bit confusing and Millie was not able to stop the murder from happening. The horror for Millie is she watched in her vision while her relative was killed and was not able to do anything about it. She did know the location of the event. Millie also knows who committed the murder. Without direct evidence other then Millie's word this murderer walks free to this day. Millie is at ease however as she has told us his day of judgment is soon to arrive. I know Millie will be right about this as well.

Although Millie is extremely gifted she does not enjoy or want to develop her ability because it has become a burden to her during her life. The times she was able to act in time and prevent a happening still do not out weigh the agony for Millie of when she is not in time or misses a piece of information that could have made a difference. Millie may be the most gifted psychic I have ever known yet she also is the most reluctant.

I have no idea what life must be like for Millie. I can only hope she knows that she has made a huge difference in those who lives she saved and hope she continues to use her precious ability to the side of good with the strength to continue to fight against the side of evil.

So there you have it, my thinking on the good, the bad and the ugly of the psychic connection.

One day we may all develop that which we may have lost or will soon be able to connect with our full potentials. I am sure the abilities labeled psychic are tools we will one day use as we continue on our never ending journey along the roads of our universal adventure.

If you are interested in contacting Littleflower to find out her upcoming plans you can email her at littlefloweronthelake@hotmail.com

Thanks to Chris Holly at Chris Holly's Paranormal World
Copyright © 2008-2010 Chris Holly all Rights Reserved
chrishollyufo@yahoo.com

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