Phantoms and Monsters

The Dechmont Woods Encounter - Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland - 11/9/1979
Roaming House Cat Causes Alarm
Stone Age Engravings Discovered on Ostrich Shells
Human Remains Found Buried in Rosslyn Chapel
Surfing the Severn River Bore Wave

The Dechmont Woods Encounter - Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland - 11/9/1979

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 11:59 AM PST

Robert Taylor was sixty-one-years-old at the time that he had the most unusual encounter of his life. He was an unassuming man, steady, phlegmatic, with a thick brush of white hair and a craggy outdoorsman's face. He liked a pint, and a dram too, but not when he was working. He smoked, but not too many. He had worked as a forester all of his adult life in the Dechmont woods located in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. On the morning of Friday, November 9, 1979, Mr Taylor set off that morning, with his red setter Lara, to check the woods on Dechmont Law for stray sheep and cattle. It was a damp day and, after he had parked the van and set off down the forest track, even the noise of the Edinburgh-Glasgow motorway was muffled by thick, dark fir trees. The dog ran, and Mr Taylor's trudging wellingtons made the only sound. Then he turned a corner into a clearing filled with light, and saw it...a UFO!

The object was a dark gray color, and its texture was like an emery board: small brighter highlighted areas against a darker background. The appearance of the exterior seemed to change from time to time. Taylor thought that the UFO was attempting to camouflage itself. He estimated the size of the object as 18-20 feet around, and about 12 feet high. It looked to be mounted on a ring, making the object look like a hat with a brim. There were also protruding from the outside of the craft stems topped by propellers. Nothing at the time moved on the object.

Suddenly, two small spheres rushed at him. They were like the large craft, only a much smaller version. They made a sound as they moved toward him, as spikes on the outside made ground contact. They stopped by his side, and attached themselves to his trousers. They began to drag him back to the UFO. He also was sickened by an extremely strong smell which caused him to pant for air. He soon lost consciousness.

When Taylor came to, the UFO and the smaller spheres were gone. His red setter was still with him. The dog was unsettled, running around the area, and barking madly. Trying to holler at the setter, he had no voice. He could not stand either. Eventually, he crawled back the way he had come for about 300 feet. In time, he was able to stand up and walk back to his pick-up. He attempted to contact the forestry headquarters with his two-way radio, but found his voice was still not back.

Taylor tried to go back home in his pick-up truck, but only got stuck in the mud. He then began the long walk back to his house, approximately a mile distance, and finally arrived at 11:15 AM. His entire experience had lasted just over an hour. His voice had now returned. He had developed a headache, and a great thirst by the time he came to his home. It took some two days for his thirst to abate, though he could still smell remnants of the awful odor from the small spheres. He generally felt ill.

Arriving at this house, his wife was stunned to see his condition. He was covered with mud, and his pants were torn. He began to tell her the story of his experience. His wife wanted to call the police, but Taylor was against it, considering the subject of the matter. He did allow her to call his job supervisor, and the head of the forestry department, Malcom Drummond. He took a bath while she made the calls.

Drummond called a physician, and drove straight to Taylor's house. He was so anxious to find out what happened that he questioned him while he was still in the bathtub. Taylor and Drummond agreed that there must be some kind of physical evidence left on the ground by either the craft or the small spheres, and Drummond headed to the area to check it out, but he was unable to find the exact location.

Dr. Gordon Adams arrived and began to check out Taylor's condition. He found a grazed area on Taylor's left leg, and another graze under his chin. There were no apparent head injuries. At this time, anyway, Taylor's body temperature, blood pressure, and other body functions seemed normal. Adams called in for an ambulance to transport Taylor to the hospital for a head X-ray and an interview with a counselor. Taylor refused to make the hospital visit until later.

After Drummond came back to Taylor's house, the two men set out to return to the scene of the UFO, and attack of the small spheres. They found the ground markings, and called the police. Shortly thereafter, Taylor, accompanied by his wife, went to the hospital for the X-ray, but he was kept waiting so long, he decided to leave unattended. He was anxious to make a planned trip to see relatives on the weekend.

Soon, the press heard about the encounter in the woods, and by Sunday, it was known about all over the United Kingdom. News of the event was known all over the world within a week. The story would be the subject of television documentaries, magazines, and books. The company that Taylor worked for even erected a plaque at the site, commemorating the event. It was later stolen.

The local police department had no experience in dealing with UFO cases. Because of this, at least they never discounted Taylor's description of the incident. They did take testimony from Taylor, his wife, and Dr. Adams. Because an assault was involved, the police were required to send his clothing of that day for forensic examination. A cursory overview showed that both of his pant legs were torn at the hip area. Also found by the exam were traces of a powder.

This powder turned out to be nothing more than a maize starch which was transferred to the trousers by the bag they were sent in. The police also checked for any flights that might have occurred that day of planes, helicopters, or any other equipment that might have been in the area. Nothing was found, and none of the forestry equipment matched the marks found at the scene.

There were two types of ground markings found at the scene. The first marks were two parallel ladder-like tracks, each about 2.5 meters long, and the same distance apart. There were also 40 holes around the tracks. They were 10 centimeters across. To cut to the chase, there was ample physical evidence to prove that "something" had been on the spot that Taylor indicated. Taylor was known by many people in the area, and they all viewed him as honest and responsible. There is nothing to indicate that he would hoax an incident of this nature. He did have a history of several illnesses, and surgeries, but there was nothing in his medical history that would indicate he had any type of head injury or psychosis.

There would also be a timeline done by an investigator to determine the length of time that Taylor was unconscious. This accounting indicated that he was probably out of it for about twenty minutes, give or take.

"I know what I saw," said Mr Taylor. So stringently did he stick to his tale (and kept a camera with him ever after, to take the aliens' pictures if they ever came for him again) that the police opened a criminal investigation for assault, the only one in Britain to arise from a UFO "sighting". It remains open.

Mr Taylor's neighbors proving much more skeptical, he eventually moved away to an undisclosed address. But he also became the most famous "witness" to aliens in Britain. His trousers were taken to spiritualist meetings to be analyzed by psychics ("I feel pain from these trousers"), and on anniversaries of the sighting UFO-spotters would gather in the clearing, just on the off-chance.

The aliens, meanwhile, did not give up. Since that November day they have filled the skies of West Lothian with glimmering discs, strange lights and bouncing balls of fire. The "Falkirk Triangle" now registers more UFO sightings, around 300 a year, than any other spot on Earth. A good many happen outside the Forge restaurant in Bonnybridge, where fireballs sail over the trees and "wingless planes" are seen in the fields. Some experts say West Lothian may be a "thin place", offering a window from the Earth into another dimension.

If we take Taylor's account as is, he was abducted by something "other-worldly" on November 9, 1979 for about twenty minutes. There has been no evidence presented to discount his story. By all accounts Taylor was well respected by friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc., and never attempted to make money from his alleged experience.

Robert Taylor passed away on March 14, 2007, aged 88.

Click for video

Sources:
www.ufoevidence.org
ufos.about.com
www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk
www.ufosandconspiracytheories.co.uk
en.wikipedia.org
www.factfictionandconjecture.ca
www.supernaturalufo.com
thelosthaven.co.uk
Edinburgh Evening News - Scotland, Dec. 12, 1998

NOTE: all the accounts I read on this encounter were fairly similar. It is regarded as the most renown alien abduction case to occur in Scotland but beyond Great Britain it doesn't seem to garner as much attention as other reported occurrences. The West Lothian area continues to experience a great deal of UFO activity...Lon

Roaming House Cat Causes Alarm

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 11:01 AM PST

thisissomerset - The mystery of big cats on the Mendips deepens as photographs have come to light which show an enormous cat taken at the time of a series of mysterious livestock killings last year.

Andrew Highfield, of West Pennard, photographed this big cat last year, but after failing to identify it thought no more of the matter.

However, after seeing reports in the local paper of sightings of a "wild cat", Mr. Highfield decided to share his picture.

Andrew said: "I showed the picture to a vet and he said it might be a Russian Blue or a Maine Coon. If you look at the picture, you can compare the cat to my cat – it's much bigger. And this picture was taken from 35 metres away or so!" Mr Highfield had seen the cat a number of times before and after the photograph was taken, often darting between houses at night or wondering into gardens during the day. This wild behaviour led him to believe it was not domesticated.

Max Blake of the Centre for Fortean Zoology said: "Though this is a very large cat, it's clearly a large breed of domestic cat, possibly a Maine Coon. Despite its unusual size, it is highly unlikely this cat is responsible for the sightings and killings last year."

This time last year, there were reports of a big cat in farms near Dulcote quarry slaughtering sheep.

Max attempted to track down the animals at the time.

Based on descriptions of the animal, along with the size and nature of its kills, Max suspected it of being a type of leopard, which fits the description of a cat which is black, low to the ground and with a curved end to its tail.

However, when he set up motion sensing cameras to try and catch the animal entering the farms, they were stolen and no pictures could be obtained.

Max said: "It's irritating to think that there could be some people out there with a stunning photo of a big cat!"

Footprints, most of which turned out only to be those of a dog, and eyewitness testimony were the only pieces of evidence. As the year went on, the killings in the area stopped and the case went cold.

Recently there have been sightings of big cats in the area around Langport. Four weeks ago, Bob Underwood, 61, of Keinton Mandeville, saw a cat a similar size to a border collie dog.

Two weeks later, Emma Atkins of Langport saw a large feline cross the Langport Road.

Stone Age Engravings Discovered on Ostrich Shells

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 10:33 AM PST

wired - Long before human communication evolved into incessant tapping on computer keys, people scratched on eggshells.

Don't laugh—researchers say a cache of ostrich eggshells engraved with geometric designs demonstrates the existence of a symbolic communication system around 60,000 years ago among African hunter-gatherers.

The unusually large sample of 270 engraved eggshell fragments, mostly excavated over the past several years at Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa, displays two standard design patterns, according to a team led by archaeologist Pierre-Jean Texier of the University of Bordeaux 1 in Talence, France. Each pattern enjoyed its own heyday between approximately 65,000 and 55,000 years ago, the investigators report in a paper to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers already knew that the Howiesons Poort culture, which engraved the eggshells, engaged in other symbolic practices, such as engraving designs into pieces of pigment, that were considered to have been crucial advances in human behavioral evolution. But the Diepkloof finds represent the first archaeological sample large enough to demonstrate that Stone Age people created design traditions, at least in their engravings, Texier says.

Evidence of intentionally produced holes in several Diepkloof eggshells indicates that ancient people made what amounted to canteens out of them, a practice that researchers have documented among modern hunter-gatherers in southern Africa.

The engraved patterns probably identified the eggshells as the property of certain groups or communities, Texier proposes.

"The Diepkloof engravings were clearly made for visual display and recognized as such by a large audience comprising members of a community, and probably members of related communities," comments University of Bordeaux 1 archaeologist Francesco d'Errico, who was not involved in the new study.

D'Errico participated in the recent unearthing of 13 pieces of engraved pigment at South Africa's Blombos Cave dating to between 100,000 and 75,000 years ago. Along with perforated sea shells and other personal ornaments previously excavated in Africa and the Middle East, these discoveries show that items holding symbolic meaning were made more than 60,000 years ago by both modern humans and Neandertals.

Even more exciting, according to archaeologist Curtis Marean of Arizona State University in Tempe, is the presence of drinking spouts in the South African eggshells. Water containers opened a new world of travel across arid regions for ancient people, he notes.

"The ability to carry and store water is a breakthrough technological advance, and here we have excellent evidence for it very early," Marean says. "Wow!"

Human Remains Found Buried in Rosslyn Chapel

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 08:46 AM PST

stv - Workers have discovered what are thought to be human remains at Rosslyn Chapel - the world-renowned religious site made famous by The Da Vinci Code.

STV News can reveal the bones were discovered at the chapel in Midlothian by workers carrying out conservation work at the world-famous heritage centre.

A spokesperson for Lothian and Borders Police confirmed the discovery, but said it was not being treated as a crime.

The famous building, built in 1446, has long been linked with a role in the history of the Freemasons and the Knights Templar. Most notably, it has also suggested as the burial place of the Holy Grail – the cup used by Christ at The Last Supper – or even the resting place of the mummified head of Jesus Christ.

Following the release of Dan Brown's hit book The Da Vinci Code in 2003, the chapel was thrown into the worldwide spotlight. The work was then made into a film starring Tom Hanks, who filmed at the chapel for some scenes in the film. The Hollywood legend subsequently made a cash donation to the restoration and conservation of the chapel.

The bones, which were found on February 19, have now been removed from the site to be examined by archaeologists to discover their age, type and if they are human or animal. They were discovered under a slab while a new heating system was being installed inside the chapel. There is no record of a burial site in this particular area of the chapel.

Rosslyn Chapel has declined to comment on the discovery.
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ROSSLYN CHAPEL AND THE TEMPLARS

As with many other aspects of this mystery, the importance of Rosslyn Chapel is unclear and seems to have been obfuscated, unfortunately. Its owners, the Sinclairs, claim to be the hereditary patrons of Scottish Freemasonry, to have explored the New World (particularly Nova Scotia and Oak Island) a century before Colombus, and to be connected to the Templars through marriage and descent. Some of this appears to be in doubt, because it's based on the work of Jacobite historian Father Hay, who used documents that were lost in a fire... in any case, we do know William Sinclair did build Rosslyn in the 1400s, it does contain very unusual carvings (particularly people who look like Templars engaging in things that seem like Masonic rituals), and it does incorporate unusual geometry. (SOME say that this geometry replicates the Temple of Solomon.) Pierre Plantard seems to have changed his name to "de St-Clair" in order to claim affiliation with the Sinclairs of Scotland.

Rosslyn, Gisors, Rennes-les-Chateau, Rennes-les-Bains, and Mont St. Michel are some places mentioned in the documents by name. Stenay (Satanicum) was Dagobert II's capitol, and the current home of Le Cercle Dagobert. Guidebooks suggest it is infamous for falling frogs. Mont St. Michel, according to the "prieure documents," was where "Et in Arcadia Ego" was first uttered, by Abbot Robert de Torigny in 1210. Author John Michell claims a "St. Michael Ley" runs between Mont St. Michel and St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall. St. Michael's Mount is surrounded by the sea but the "Atlantis" legends of Ys and Lyonesse claim that it is sitting in a place where there was once dry land, which has now become submerged.

NOTE: there have been reports over the years of the 'White Lady', an apparition that frequents the chapel...Lon

Source: www.fiu.edu

Surfing the Severn River Bore Wave

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 08:07 AM PST

Click for video

timesonline - A once-in-a-decade tidal wave surged down the River Severn yesterday carrying a horde of surfers relishing the rare natural phenomenon.

The Environment Agency classified the wave as a top-rated five star event on the stretch of river that boasts the second highest tide in the world.

Joanne Hillman, of the British Surfing Association, said board enthusiasts had been competing to take the longest ride on the Severn Bore since the 1960s.

"It's pretty dangerous with trees and debris in the water so only skilled surfers take on the Bore," she told The Times.

"It must be one of the toughest surfing challenges in the world because they key is to ride the wave for miles. Most surfers would struggle to last the distance."

Steve King, a father of three from Saul, near Gloucester, mastered the Bore in 2006 to regain the Guinness World Record for Britain by staying on his board in the Severn estuary for 7.6 miles.

He snatched back the title from Serginho Laus, a Brazilian, who had surfed for 6.3 miles along the Araguari river in northern Brazil.

Mr King's feat was accomplished in an ordinary year on the Severn where only four-star tidal waves were recorded. A surge the size of today's wave, around two metres high, was last recorded on Saturday March 30, 2002.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said the most powerful waves were seen roughly once every ten years. The phenomenon is caused by the funnel shape of the estuary, which narrows as it moves inland from the Bristol Channel thereby forcing the water level to rise.

"Large spring tides come a couple of times a year but when Atlantic tidal levels combine with the right river conditions you have these more powerful Bores," she said.

The Bay of Fundy, located between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada is the only place in the world to have recorded a larger rise between low and high tide. On the Severn the difference in any one day can be more than 14.5 metres.

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