Phantoms and Monsters

Esoterica: Ozark Ghost Photo, Djinn Attack Saudi Man and Near-Death Survivors

Posted: 07 Aug 2011 09:32 AM PDT

Paranormal Team Claims It Caught Photo of Ghost

The Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team has explored some of the areas most haunted homes.

Their skeptical team members always take hundreds of pictures in the dark.

But their most recent trip brought back a shocking image that is making believers out of the biggest of skeptics.

"The first thing I want to do is disprove it." says Robert McCall, skeptic and co-founder of the Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team.*

Robert spends a lot of time disproving apparent haunting in the region. "A lot of times people think there is a presence in the room and it turns out the room is where the breaker box is. Or your meters on the outside of the wall and there is a lot of energy there. Sometimes people think they are hearing things and it turns out they are just hearing things."

But something that happened during his latest ghost hunt left Robert with no explanation. A family in north Springfield contacted the group because of some odd things that were happening.

"All the lights were shut off and the doors were locked," says Robert. " I came around to lock up the front door and as soon as I turned the corner I heard a growling disturbance on my EVP and seen something darker then dark move around in the hallway so I just started taking pictures of a completely dark hallway with nobody there."

There was no one in the hallway but something else showed up on camera.
"When I first seen the picture, I saw a reaper," says McCall. "Typical of what you would think." Now it almost looks like a mother and child."

"First I thought that maybe he took a picture of himself in the mirror," says Courtney Cunningham, co-founder of the Ozark Mountain Paranormal Investigation Team. "But when we switched it to black and white and filtered out some of the contrast I was terrified. And I was a huge disbeliever at first that picture changed my mind."
And now this team of skeptical ghost hunters has a few less skeptics.

"Ghosts are real - ghosts are very real," says Courtney. "You just got to believe in something bigger then yourself."

Robert says the photo has been sent off to a paranormal investigative organization in the St. Louis area for authentication. - ozarksfirst

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Djinn claim man in spooky valley

A Saudi man is believed to have been gripped by jinn (ghosts) during a picnic with his friends in a valley which is reputed to be haunted. But he was later treated in an exorcist-style session by the Gulf Kingdom's religious police.

The unnamed man and seven friends from the western town of Makkah were vacationing in the nearby Taif city when they decided to descend into Wadi Al-Amak (the deep abyss) despite warnings by local people.

After a short evening trip in the valley, the colour of the man's began to change and his behavior became aggressive before he lost balance and fell down.

When his friends tried to talk to him, he shouted and pushed them away while his eyes were fixed at an area deep in the valley.

"Friends then overpowered him and washed his face with cold water…it was clear the man was haunted by a jinn," Sabq Arabic language daily said.

"They then decided to carry him back to town…they were told that the valley is haunted and that there were two similar cases in the past."

The paper said the man was taken to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential Islamic law-enforcement authority in the conservative Moslem Gulf nation.

"The Commission brought experts in such cases and subjected the man to a session of Koran recitation and incense burning until the jinn was forced to get out of the man through his hand…once the session was over, the man began to restore his strength…after a while he fully recovered and started to ask his friends why he was brought to that place." - emirates247

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Near-death survivors describe life on other side

It's one of life's biggest questions: What happens when you die?

An increasing number of near death experiences, or NDEs, are being reported thanks to advances in medical science and increased resuscitations of the dead.

And several survivors have come forward to share their glimpses of what they believe is a realm beyond this life.

Houston therapist Mary Jo Rapini is among the group interviewed for ABC News programme Beyond Belief: Near Death Experiences, which follows several survivors who were clinically pronounced dead or were near dead when their encounters occurred.

Ms Rapini, who says she heard God tell her to go back after she suffered a brain aneurysm in 2003, remembers being engulfed in a pinkish glow, which prompted her to write Is God Pink? Dying to Heal.

'All of a sudden it just came over me and I was in it. I was in that light, and I came to this beautiful area.

'It's not human so it's difficult to express it humanly but the room was beautiful,' she said.

Ms Rapini rejects scientific reasoning as an explanation for her NDE.
Message to share: Reverend Don Piper of Pasadena, California believes he was sent back to spread the message that 'heaven is a real place'

Message to share: Reverend Don Piper of Pasadena, California believes he was sent back to spread the message that 'heaven is a real place'

'I had such a sense of knowingness there everything made sense... Unlike a dream that was never clear, this was so clear,' she continued. 'Scientists who say it's a dream, or - I beg to differ. It's not that.'

But her story is not uncommon.

News anchor Bob Woodruff recalls a similar experience that occurred after he was severely injured in Iraq in 2006. After his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device, Mr Woodruff remembers seeing his body floating below and seeing a bright white light during the minute he was unconscious.

Reverend Don Piper, of Pasadena, California, was travelling in a car when it was crushed by an 18-wheeler in a head-on crash in 1989. Paramedics declared him dead.

He was without a pulse, he says, for 90 minutes before he came back to life after a passer-by began to pray and sing hymns over his body.

'(The) steering wheel impaled me in the chest and then the car's roof collapsed on my head so there's just no way you could survive this accident,' he said.

But the experience he had before rejoining the living he says could not be explained as anything other than life after death.

He says he remembers music that was 'beyond spectacular' and aromas he'd never smelled before. His grandfather was there to greet him alongside several others who had died before him.

They all stood in front of a magnificent gate, with lights that were 'pulsating with life,' he said.

Mr Piper, who endured dozens of surgeries to fix his bones, had to learn to walk again. He wrote about the trauma in New York Times best-seller 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life.

'You know, if I was having a dream about it, this wouldn't be in it,' he said. 'Some of these people who met me at the gates, I haven't thought of in decades.'

Near death experiences (NDEs) are defined as as feelings that sometimes occur when a person is nearly dead or has been clinically declared dead.

Many survivors report out-of-body experiences, seeing flashes of light, having awareness of being dead and meeting deceased relatives, and describe an overall feeling of calmness and lack of pain.

Scientists offer different theories as to why they occur, the most popular being the 'dying brain hypothesis' - the idea that when the brain is under stress, it releases a flood of neuro-chemicals that create flashes of light, peace and calm.

In April 2010, researchers in Slovenia reported cardiac arrest patients who had NDEs also had much higher carbon dioxide levels than those patients who did not.

Another study conducted in 2009 by University of Kentucky researchers credited their occurrence with 'blurring of sleeping and waking states.'

But often, survivors say their experiences cannot be explained by scientific logic.

He believes he was sent back to spread the message that 'heaven is a real place'.

That was also the case with twelve-year-old Colton Burpo, the Nebraska boy whose near-death experience at age four is recounted in the current best-seller Heaven Is for Real; gunshot victim Erin Smith of Montgomery also talks about her experience at age 17.

Jane Seymour famously described her near-death experience during an interview with Larry King in 2005.

An allergic reaction caused Seymour to go into anaphylactic shock. Ms Seymour said she saw light and believes 'there is some spiritual entity that's greater than us,' although she said she does not follow a specific religion.

Perhaps surprisingly, NDEs have a relatively frequent rate of occurrence - in one study reported by the Huffington Post, one in ten cardiac arrest survivors reported having them. Medical advances have led to an increased number of resuscitations, scientists say, contributing to a rise over recent years.

But debate continues over whether NDEs are spiritual or scientific in nature.

While many say their journeys through dark tunnels, flashes of light, awareness of being dead and meetings with deceased relatives cannot be explained by science, many researchers credit simple biological responses for the bizarre experiences.

The most common explanation is the 'dying brain hypothesis,' the idea that when the brain is under stress, it releases a flood of neuro-chemicals that create flashes of light, peace and calm.

In April 2010, researchers in Slovenia reported cardiac arrest patients who had NDEs also had much higher carbon dioxide levels than those patients who did not.

Another study conducted in 2009 by University of Kentucky researchers credited their occurrence with 'blurring of sleeping and waking states.'

Still, very little is known about the mysterious phenomenon.

Dr Sam Parnia, an expert on consciousness and death, launched the world's largest study on near death experiences in 2008 by deciding to interview nearly 1,000 survivors of cardiac arrest.

The results are expected to be released next year. -

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Spirit Rescue International Needs A Few Good People

"Many small people, in many small places, do many small things, that can alter the face of the world." - Anonymous

Spirit Rescue International is looking for a few good people to join the team. First, we need a team member who lives in the Carmarthen / Drafech area of south Wales. You must have a vehicle and will assist Irene on local on-site cases. We also need a new team member or two in the USA / Canada to help with our worldwide cases. You must be trustworthy, committed to detail and open minded. As well, Skype is a MUST! Please go to the website and read about Spirit Rescue International.

Spirit Rescue International is not a regular spirit rescue / entity clearing service. We are a non-profit group that combines the resources of our affiliates worldwide in order to achieve a successful entity clearing. Our mission is to provide professional, confidential and ethical spiritual relief, including continued personal support and guidance at no cost to the client. Spirit Rescue International is an innovation of Irene Allen-Block, a true spirit rescuer with unique distance clearing abilities.

As associates of Spirit Rescue International, we value a team approach. Each individual brings something special to the case. Once all the information has been collected from the client, the case will then be transferred over to Irene Allen-Block and Lon Strickler to remote view and perform the clearing. All cases will remain confidential; no cases will be published without the written authorization of the client. To date, all rescues and clearings have been successful. There is always that chance of failure of which the client will be made aware of fully. Following the clearing an after care program will follow. This is where the client and their home will be monitored with a sequence of report emails inquiring on how well the client and the feel of the home are. Alongside the after care program, the clients also receive appropriate advice and education on how to maintain a positive energy within their home and how to protect against attracting negative energy to themselves or within their home.

All participation is voluntary and there is no compensation. The only reward we ever want for the work we do is the look of joy, relief, and peace in the clients' face. The feeling of love, freedom, and gratitude from the spirit as it finds its way home is truly satisfying. The feel inside at that moment can never be explained in words. Let us know if you are interested. You can contact me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com or use the SRI contact at mail@spiritrescueinternational.com

"In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us." - Flora Edwards

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Can Physics Explain Mysteries of Crop Circles?

Science and UFOs, as a rule, generally don't go together.

UFOs and crop circles, however, go together like the Illuminati and the dark side of the moon. Crop circles and science? Again, not so much. But that doesn't mean the ever-increasing sophistication of corn circlework isn't beyond impressing top physicists.

In this month's edition of Physics World, Richard Taylor, director of the Materials Science Institute at the University of Oregon, claims every summer brings with it more mystery as to how the produce-punishing pranksters ply their trade.

"Crop-circle artists are not going to give up their secrets easily," Taylor wrote.

"This summer, unknown artists will venture into the countryside close to your homes and carry out their craft, safe in the knowledge that they are continuing the legacy of the most science-oriented art movement in history."

While that might be a bit of a blow for those think there's a better place out there, Taylor says the technology behind the global crop-circle phenomenon is still well-deserving of admiration.

Today's designs are more complex than ever, he says, with some featuring up to 2,000 different shapes.

Mathematical analysis has revealed the use of construction lines, invisible to the eye, that are used to create the patterns.

The difference today is that where crop-circlers once used ropes, planks of wood and bar stools, high tech has taken over: GPS helps a lot, he says. Lasers also have their place.

But the most innovative modern technique involves using microwaves to force corn stalks to fall over and cool horizontally. One research team claims to have reproduced damage inflicted on crops by using a handheld magnetron ripped from a microwave ovens and a 12V battery.

The microwave technique could explain the speed and efficiency of the artists and the incredible detail that some crop circles exhibit, Taylor says.

Hang on -- bar stools?

And another question -- why does an academic feel the need to get caught up in the world of alien landing conspiracies?

Matin Durrani, editor of Physics World, said Taylor was "merely trying to act like any good scientist -- examining the evidence for the design and construction of crop circles without getting carried away by the side-show of UFOs, hoaxes and aliens." - foxnews

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