Phantoms and Monsters

'Most Haunted' Once Again Under Scrutiny
MUFON Report: UFOs, Ghostly Figures and MIB
The Vatican's Exorcist
Invisible 'Death Star' May Be Orbiting the Sun

'Most Haunted' Once Again Under Scrutiny

Posted: 14 Mar 2010 01:26 PM PDT

Medium Chris Conway has left 'Most Haunted' and posted the following statement on his website:

"I'd like to start by thanking you guys for all the love and support you have given me since the start of my Most Haunted adventure :-) However, I feel I can no longer continue as Most Haunted resident medium. I appreciate the chance given to me to work in television and I plan to continue to do so in some other show.

I had the decision to make between fame/money V's My beliefs and principles. I won't go into details but I couldn't be a part of something I didn't trust. Too many things were happening contrary to what I was picking up or at times picking up no spirit activity at all.

I thought it wrong to agree with the fans criticisms of the show while picking up a pay cheque from Antix Productions. I feel that we were either the luckiest paranormal investigation group in the world or the tapping's, stone throwing etc wasn't paranormal. This is of course my opinion and is in no way any accusation of fraud on my part. My decision was made for me when I realised that on receiving my call sheet on a Friday the venue was being written on it for this series. I am strongly against any advanced knowledge of where I'm investigating (unless it is made clear I know). I opened the files and looked up my hotel whilst having to ignore the rest of my call sheet. This meant I felt like I wasn't fully involved.

I also feel that I wasn't involved enough in the actual investigations. If I didn't manage to pick up all the information in the first 15 minutes I'd lost my chance. Even bringing stuff through at the hub wasn't being aired. This I felt was not fair on myself or the fans.

I understand that many people don't believe in mediumship and feel we should not have been used on the show. I respect this viewpoint and I feel that every belief system has to have a balanced argument. If everyone was a believer it would be open to abuse. However, if everyone was a sceptic it would mean that we may miss some important phenomena.

I realise that this statement may invite some mud slinging from Antix Productions but it is my opinions and the truth as I see it. I feel my fans (and Most Haunted fans in general) deserve to hear my truthful reasons for leaving the show. I refuse to walk away with an excuse of why I left, in the hope it will prevent my name being tarnished by others."

Blessings

Chris

NOTE: 'Most Haunted' has once again been accused of shenanigans. A few years ago, the team and crew were in the USA in nearby Gettysburg, PA for a week prior to the broadcast of their live show. I was able to 'sneak' around during that time and witnessed a few things that raised my suspicion of this production...especially after I talked to a few of the staff behind the scenes. Also, the local paranormal expert used by the team was an amateur at best....there were far better people available who were either not asked or refused to participate. The complete lack of historical facts of Gettysburg and the battle also irked me and many others. There have also been other show guests who have made comments concerning the authenticity of the show including regular guest parapsychologist Dr. Ciaran O'Keeffe. As well, clairvoyant/medium David Wells left to 'concentrate on writing' and other ventures...but there was speculation that he had also tired of how the things were conducted. Here's is a link to an ongoing Bad Psychics website thread referencing the show...Lon

'Most Haunted' Once Again Under Scrutiny

MUFON Report: UFOs, Ghostly Figures and MIB

Posted: 14 Mar 2010 11:14 AM PDT

MUFON witness report - Idaho 1952 (unedited): One winter night as I was fast asleep in the west bedroom near the stairs, I was awaken by a strange pulsating hum. Sitting straight up, I turned to the left to see three ghostly figures materialize in the next room as they were approaching my bedside. Please remember that we had no electric and I had never been to a movie or heard a radio show to that point. Two of the creatures looked just like the gray aliens you see in the movies and the one in the center was much taller and looked different. As they got closer they told me to relax and go back to sleep telepathically. The floating sensation I felt helped stop my nervous shaking as I blacked out. The next morning my grandmother met me half way to the kitchen and asks if I was all right. She said that I had sunburn on the left side of my face and looked very tired. in the back seat of the new Buick on our way to the farm I felt compelled to lay down on the floor with my back to the front seat. The telepathic message was like the one I received from the three ghosts. Moments after laying down we t-boned another car on route 13 near Blackbird. Everyone except I was seriously injured and taken to the hospital. The year I believe was 1959 while at the park I noticed about 12 flying saucers to the west of the park. To my great surprise I had a visit the next day while at my friends home that lived around the corner from my grandparents home at 806 Brown St. John's father answered the door to find two Air Force people in uniform asking to speak with me in private. My mother stood with the Air Force officer to my left and the sergeant stood in front as another man entered the room dressed in black wearing a hat and dark sunglasses. I was asked to tell what I saw as follows: I saw bright round objects mostly in triangular groups of three flying in a manner not like any aircraft known.

They were able to stop and turn on a dime and when they departed to an altitude near space they took off so fast that they appeared To vanish at about a 30 degree angle into space. For the next hour the Air Force guys tried to get me to change my story and I was growing tired of repeating myself. I then parroted back one of the officer's stories as a way to make them leave. I noticed the officer look up at the guy in black for approval, as I could see the guy in black shake his head left and right. Now I knew I had to convince the guy in black and realized that the officer was taking his orders from him. So I came up with a better idea that got the approval from the big boss in black. The man in black never said a word to me even after asking him direct questions. He then folded his notebook and left followed by my mother and the officer. There are many other strange stories about hard to believe events, but either you believe or not will make no difference.

This is my recorded statement so others like me will take some comfort in knowing that they are not alone?

NOTE: interesting early UFO/MIB account...Lon

MUFON Report: UFOs, Ghostly Figures and MIB

The Vatican's Exorcist

Posted: 14 Mar 2010 10:48 AM PDT

"Are you afraid of the Devil?" The world's most famous exorcist levels his gaze at me and then smiles.

"No, it is he who is afraid of me. I work in the name of the Lord. Poor Satan."

Poor Satan?

"Oh yes. The Evil One shouts and makes noises, but we are made in God's image, we have the Holy Trinity on our side. There is no need to be afraid of the Devil unless we give in to his temptations."

We are in the infirmary of the Society of St Paul, the order of Father Gabriele Amorth, in the shadow of St Paul's Basilica, Rome. The Vatican's chief exorcist was taken to hospital last autumn with a blood infection and is now convalescing — "they found nothing serious". Perhaps it was the Devil who laid him low. "Oh no — just an illness. He has more serious evil to perform."

Father Amorth made headlines this week by suggesting that those who had "given in to Satan's temptations" included paedophile priests and even some cardinals and bishops who paid only lip service to the Gospels.

The growing crisis over the clerical sex abuse now engulfing Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican, he said, was the work of Satan, who had even "infiltrated the Vatican corridors".

Is the sex abuse crisis really due to the Devil? "Oh yes. All evil is due to the intervention of the Devil, including paedophilia."

And the Vatican? "Legions of demons have lodged there. The majority of those in the Vatican do good work. But Pope Paul VI talked about the 'smoke of Satan' infiltrating the Vatican as long ago as 1972. Satan sets out to damage the leadership of the Church — and of politics, industry and sport, for that matter."

And although all manner of incidents, scandals and misdemeanours in Italy and abroad leap to mind as potential evidence of diabolical intervention, he declines to give examples. Father Amorth — or Don Gabriele, as he is universally known — has just published The Memoirs of an Exorcist, a book of interviews with Marco Tosatti, the Vatican journalist. In a style that is somewhat reminiscent of a medieval chronicle, he describes his often hair-raising experiences over the past quarter of a century in the front line against the Evil One and his minions.

Father Amorth, aged nearly 85, is honorary president of the International Association of Exorcists. He fought for the Resistance in the Second World War, took a law degree but then entered the Church. He began conducting exorcisms shortly after his ordination 60 years ago; in 1986 he was appointed by Cardinal Ugo Poletti, then the Vicar of Rome, as assistant to Father Candido Amantini, the chief exorcist, eventually succeeding him.

Now frail, he becomes animated as he describes his life-long struggle with demons who possess the bodies of their victims, at one stage spreading his arms wide to show me the length of one particular demon occupying the body of a woman he had "liberated".

He talks to Lucifer and his demons, he says, and knows their names. On the writing table in his room he keeps pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, "who came into the world to fight the Devil and return us to God". But the modern world, he says, has "given in to the Evil One. You see it in the lack of faith, the empty churches, the collapse of the family."

"Compare the world of today to when I was a boy in Modena: families and parish communities were strong, women did not go out to work. Now they have to because one income cannot support a family. So young people are left to their own devices, they get into bad company, they have lost their roots and replaced them with the negative influences of television and the internet, or the occult."

What about those who believe in neither God nor Satan? "The Devil is only too happy to take advantage of those who do not believe in his existence. It means he can operate with complete freedom, even inside the Church. He exploits lust and power."

The Devil tries to reach all of us, Father Amorth adds, and "the possessed are those who listen to him most. Mind you, they are a minority. If you read my book you might get the impression the whole world is possessed, but I am describing a small number of cases, comparatively speaking."

His claim to have carried out 70,000 exorcisms seems incredible. "But I was talking about the number of exorcisms, not the number of people exorcised. You often have to exorcise someone dozens, even hundreds, of times, and an exorcism ritual can take anything from a few minutes to several hours."

Exorcism can only be done with the approval of the local bishop, usually after medical or psychiatric tests show no rational explanation for the symptoms, which include vomiting, violent headaches and stomach cramps but also superhuman strength, fits and extreme aversion to holy symbols. He is adept, he says, at distinguishing hysterics from the real thing. There are more women than men among the possessed, "but we don't know why. There are various explanations: Satan taking revenge on the Virgin Mary, or using women as a means of reaching men. None of them is convincing."

The possessed talk in languages they do not know, including ancient tongues such as Aramaic, the language of Christ. "Sometimes the language is incomprehensible. I once asked a demon what it was and he said, 'Satanic language'." The victims often react so violently to the ritual of prayers, incantations, holy water and the sign of the Cross that they have to be held or tied down while the priest touches the possessed person with his stole and places his hand on his or her head.

In many cases, he says, they vomit objects such as nails or glass. Father Amorth has a collection weighing two kilograms. "You get used to being vomited over. I once performed an exorcism on a woman who managed to hit me in the face with a stream of vomit from the other side of the room — physically impossible."

The Devil, he says, is humourless but does sometimes play tricks. He and his demons speak through the victim, sometimes using their normal voice but sometimes in hoarse, raucous tones. He imitates the unnerving low growl for me. They are not, however visible, any more than angels are.

"Angels exist, and how, but they are not as depicted in art — they are pure spirit. We all have guardian angels. Demons are, of course, fallen angels who rebelled against God; that is why they are so intelligent, and so arrogant."

He does not believe in ghosts, which are "an invention of the human mind".

Father Amorth has no designated successor, and complains that even now the Church hierarchy does not take exorcism — or the Devil — seriously enough. But "the Lord has made use of me" and his example has inspired many other priests — as did the 1973 film The Exorcist, which although "exaggerated" was "substantially true".

At his age does he still have the stomach for the battle with Satan? "Oh yes. I have work to do."

The Vatican's Exorcist

Invisible 'Death Star' May Be Orbiting the Sun

Posted: 14 Mar 2010 09:49 AM PDT

news.au - An invisible star responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs may be circling the Sun and causing comets to bombard the Earth, scientists said.

The brown dwarf - up to five times the size of Jupiter - could be to blame for mass extinctions that occur here every 26 million years.

The star - nicknamed Nemesis by NASA scientists - would be invisible as it only emits infrared light and is incredibly distant. Nemesis is believed to orbit our solar system at 25,000 times the distance of the Earth to the Sun.

As it spins through the galaxy, its gravitational pull drags icy bodies out of the Oort Cloud - a vast sphere of rock and dust twice as far away as Nemesis.

These "snowballs" are thrown towards Earth as comets, causing devastation similar to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Now NASA scientists believe they will be able to find Nemesis using a new heat-seeking telescope that began scanning the skies in January.

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer - expected to find a thousand brown dwarf stars within 25 light years of the Sun - has already sent back a photo of a comet possibly dislodged from the Oort Cloud.

Scientists' first clue to the existence of Nemesis was the bizarre orbit of a dwarf planet called Sedna. Scientists believe its unusual, 12,000-year-long oval orbit could be explained by a massive celestial body.

Mike Brown, who discovered Sedna in 2003, said: "Sedna is a very odd object - it shouldn't be there.

"The only way to get on an eccentric orbit is to have some giant body kick you - so what is out there?"

Professor John Matese, of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said most comets come from the same part of the Oort Cloud.

He added: "There is statistically significant evidence that this concentration of comets could be caused by a companion to the Sun."

Invisible 'Death Star' May Be Orbiting the Sun

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