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| Posted: 27 Jun 2011 01:41 PM PDT        |
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| Spiritual / Paranormal Activity: Documented Demonic Possession and Ghost Hunting With Dogs Posted: 26 Jun 2011 01:19 PM PDT Documented Case of Real-Life Demonic Possession  An American woman who levitated, demonstrated paranormal psychic powers and spoke foreign languages unknown to her was clearly demon possessed, according to a board-certified psychiatrist and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College.The unnamed woman, with a long history of involvement with Satanic groups, was observed by a team of priests, deacons, several lay assistants, psychiatrists, nuns, some of whom also had medical and psychiatric training, levitating six inches off the ground while objects flew off shelves in the same room, according to Dr. Richard E. Gallagher, who documented the case in the New Oxford Review. "Periodically, in our presence, Julia would go into a trance state of a recurring nature," writes Gallagher. "Mentally troubled individuals often 'dissociate,' but Julia's trances were accompanied by an unusual phenomenon: Out of her mouth would come various threats, taunts and scatological language, phrases like 'Leave her alone, you idiot,' 'She's ours,' 'Leave, you imbecile priest,' or just 'Leave.' The tone of this voice differed markedly from Julia's own, and it varied, sometimes sounding guttural and vaguely masculine, at other points high pitched. Most of her comments during these 'trances,' or at the subsequent exorcisms, displayed a marked contempt for anything religious or sacred." The subject would have no recollection of speaking these phrases upon recovering from the trance-like state, according to Gallagher. "Sometimes objects around her would fly off the shelves, the rare phenomenon of psychokinesis known to parapsychologists," reports Gallagher. "Julia was also in possession of knowledge of facts and occurrences beyond any possibility of their natural acquisition.  "She commonly reported information about the relatives, household composition, family deaths and illnesses, etc., of members of our team, without ever having observed or been informed about them," he said. "As an example, she knew the personality and precise manner of death (i.e., the exact type of cancer) of a relative of a team member that no one could conceivably have guessed. She once spoke about the strange behavior of some inexplicably frenzied animals beyond her direct observation: Though residing in another city, she commented, 'So those cats really went berserk last night, didn't they?' the morning after two cats in a team member's house uncharacteristically had violently attacked each other at about 2 a.m."Julia requested a Roman Catholic exorcism ritual, convinced from the beginning of her consultations that she was under demonic attack. "The exorcism began on a warm day in June," Gallagher recollects. "Despite the weather, the room where the rite was being conducted grew distinctly cold. Later, however, as the entity in Julia began to spout vitriol and make strange noises, members of the team felt themselves profusely sweating due to a stifling emanation of heat. The participants all said they found the heat unbearable. "Julia at first had gone into a quiet trance-like state. After the prayers and invocations of the Roman Ritual had been going on for a while, however, multiple voices and sounds came out of her. One set consisted of loud growls and animal-like noises, which seemed to the group impossible for any human to mimic. At one point, the voices spoke in foreign languages, including recognizable Latin and Spanish. (Julia herself only speaks English, as she later verified to us.) "The voices were noticeably attacking in nature, and often insolent, blasphemous and highly scatological. They cursed and insulted the participants in the crudest way. They were frequently threatening – trying, it appeared, to fight back – 'Leave her alone,' 'Stop, you whores' (to the nuns), 'You'll be sorry,' and the like. "Julia also exhibited enormous strength. Despite the religious sisters and three others holding her down with all their might, they struggled to restrain her. Remarkably, for about 30 minutes, she actually levitated about half a foot in the air." The purpose of Gallagher's paper, he says, is to "document a contemporary and clear-cut case of demonic possession." He explains that even those who doubt such a phenomenon exists may find this case "rather persuasive." "Possession is only one and not the most common type of demonic attack. Possession is very rare, though not as exceedingly so as many imagine," he concludes. "So-called 'oppression,' or 'infestation,' is less rare, though hardly frequent either, and sometimes more difficult to discern accurately." - WND **********  New Gettysburg attraction explores town's paranormal past Rene Staub believes in spirits. During his 14 years as a ghost tour guide at the Historic Farnsworth House Inn property in downtown Gettysburg, Pa., he said he's experienced enough peculiar events to believe that otherworldly beings are present. He's smelled the scent of blooming flowers in February, listened to screaming women who could feel the presence of ghosts nearby and watched surveillance videos indicating the presence of spirits. Staub is also a realist. He knows many of his Historic Farnsworth House Inn ghost tour guests do not believe in ghosts and no amount of evidence will convince them. And that's why he said he's so excited about the grand opening of Gettysburg's Haunted Address from 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday. Regardless of whether his visitors believe in ghosts or not, he said the new indoor attraction he designed will help educate those who pass through it. Gettysburg's Haunted Address is located next to the Historic Farnsworth House property, where ghost tours have been taking place for 25 years. "This was the battlefield," said Staub while standing outside along the sidewalk next to Gettysburg's Haunted Address. "On the first day of the battle, Union soldiers were pushed right up through here. ... A lot of soldiers were stuck in backyards." Staub created Gettysburg's Haunted Address in a 20th century building that used to house shops. The walk-through attraction features scenes from past haunting events and uses mannequins, sounds and special effects to tell the stories. York, Pa.-based theater technical director Joe Kress used hydraulics and electronics to make the exhibit's mannequins seem more lifelike. Gettysburg's Haunted Address features rooms dedicated to historical accounts, with no gory detail left unturned. One exhibit tells the story of an injured soldier, assumed to be dead, who awoke in a pile of bodies. Another portion of the house discusses how Confederate soldiers, accused of desertion, were hanged. In between, visitors are jolted to attention by moving mannequins and sound effects designed to scare visitors who pass through the dimly lit rooms. Gettysburg's Haunted Address is located just a few feet away from the Historic Farnsworth House, which is now a restored restaurant and inn. One of the Farnsworth House exterior brick walls is riddled with bullet holes, a testament to the blood shed in the town during the July 1863 Civil War battle. "It's history in full view," Staub said. "It's a real testimony of what happened here." When Loring and Jean Shultz purchased the property in 1972, their daughter Patti became so convinced that otherworldly beings were present that she became the first ghost tour guide in Gettysburg, Pa. She told stories in the cellar of the Farnsworth House along Baltimore Street, where the Battle of Gettysburg waged. Loring Shultz said most of his family members have encountered spirits. "Everybody except for me," he said. Shultz, much like Staub, is a history buff who relishes finding Civil War-era bullets and telling stories about the battle. "They don't know the stories," Shultz said of tourists who pass through. "That's what we try to do is to educate them on what happened here." - carrollcountytimes ********** Ghost hunting goes to the dogs A new ghost hunting dog, Maddie, joined the cast of "Ghost Hunters" at the Alex Johnson Hotel. This dog, which is trained to hunt ghosts, senses things that are there and cannot be seen. As the newest member of the TAPS "Ghost Hunters" cast, Maddie has senses that are so much better than humans and proves to be a great asset in alerting the team when she feels a ghostly presence around. The hotel that they visit has had so many ghostly occurrences, that workman have left the hotel and would not come back. Maddie makes her debut at this hotel and proves to be a new viable member as she does act up as she senses things that cannot be seen. The team investigates growling sounds that come out of a crawl space in the ceiling. In room 812, the most active room for paranormal occurrences, two of the team members kept getting touched on their head. The EMF readings spike high in the area they feel someone touching them. This hotel looks like it is haunted, as they also catch a lot of evidence on film. What the different is with this show, "Ghost Hunters," is that the TAPS team actually set out to disprove, or debunk claims being made that a place is haunted. They try to recreate the occurrences that people are reporting as a haunting and explain it with something of a scientific nature instead of the paranormal. This doesn't always work and it looks like the Alex Johnson Hotel is one of these places to really have paranormal activity going on. The "Ghost Hunters" catch images, voices and movements at this hotel that cannot be explained from any other natural source. This is a frequent occurrence with this show, paranormal activity is alive and well today in many of the locations that this show has visited. Now with Maddie, the dog, on board, she might be able to lead them in the right direction more quickly than it takes to explore the entire building they are investigating. Jason Hawes created The Atlantic Paranormal Society, or TAPS, with friend and fellow plumber Grant Wilson. While Jason has never revealed what his personal paranormal experience was that prompted him to start investigating haunting, it was vivid enough to make him a believer. Both Jason and Grant are part of a small, blue-collar Rhode Island community which is the same place that many of the TAPS members were born and raised. His own highly personal paranormal experience made him set out to discover all he could about the after-world. These experiences in the form of ghost hunting, are shown in a reality show on the Sci-Fi Network. The show "Ghost Hunters" has single handed changed many peoples opinion on ghosts. One of the biggest pieces of evidence ever caught on film that would point to ghosts as being the real thing, happened during their investigation at a light house. This is when the camera actually picked up a chair moving on its own. Their investigations have turned up recording voices, things moving on their own, as well as ghostly apparitions. NOTE: Though I have always been highly skeptical of paranormal TV (especially the Roto-Rooter guys), I would really like to know your opinion on dogs being used for ghost hunting...Lon ********** THIS WEEK'S SPIRITUAL / PARANORMAL ACTIVITY LINKS Psychic archaeology Shared Death Experiences One, Two, Three and Awake: The Esoterica of Hypnotism Ghosts of the Stockbridge bypass Non- physical or paranormal forms of healing Springbrook house Coast's spookiest haunt Ghost trackers hunt history, spirits Stymied by animal psychic Psychic called to help solve mysterious death Shrouded Deathbed Vision Ghost Towns Springing Up Across US Are Snakes a Sign of a Haunting? Lurking in the Darkness: Black Eyed Beings of Old (and Owl) Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane...Why would this place be haunted? Deeper Understanding: The Unexplained and the Unimaginable Self-induced Spiritualism: Can Some Psychedelics Change our Outlook for the Better? Human Magnetoreception and Paranormal or Etheric Perception Digging up Howard-Dickinson House's secrets Learn the ghostly history of the West Investigation produces unusual video capture St. John's Eve 2011 - Ritual Voodoo in New Orleans Paranormal Kids TV Shows from the 1970s Ghosts, flies and scratches Psychic, aroma therapist combine forces to heal, rejuvenate Haunted House in Volos  Spirit Rescue International™ Providing no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind  The Spirit Rescue International™ Haunted Help Forum *Join Our Group On Facebook*  Join Eric Altman, Lon Strickler and Sean Forker LIVE each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go Beyond the Edge!  ANOMALIST BOOKS Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog  The 'C' Influence Actualizing Esoteric Discussion   "The latest news from beyond the mainstream" Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast! Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!  Astral Perceptions - Discussing ultraterrestrial and multidimensional phenomena and the proficiency of remote viewing   Click here to check out Stan's most recent book! The Social - Paranormal Network  A NETWORK OF INVESTIGATORS, ENTHUSIASTS AND THOSE SEEKING THE TRUTH THROUGH PARANORMAL EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION  (410) 241-5974   Phantoms and Monsters Now Available on Kindle      |
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| Posted: 25 Jun 2011 11:36 AM PDT  I received a request from a reader who has an interest in personal experiences with 'Shadow People'. I decided to peruse my archives and post the most interesting accounts I've received from other readers over the years: Shadow people are some of the most menacing and frightening entities around. I believe they are of a demonic nature. Not only do these dark shadowy figures cause anxiety and terror but often enjoy terrorizing people in their beds. Most shadow people are not alone but have partners in crime. The shadows that terrorized me were never alone. Sometimes my bedroom would be filled with dozens, big and small. Some could touch me. These shadows would pinch me. It wasn't till I was maybe about age 9 that I finally told my parents about these entities and it caused quite a stir in my family. As usual my parents thought I was suffering from nightmares and suggested I eat less before bed time. Without fail these Shadows returned every night. It wasn't until one night I couldn't stand hearing their laughter that I resisted their powers to make people catatonic or in a paralyzed state that the reality of the situation was no longer a joke to my Mother as my bed began to shake violently as if a giant hand was shaking it. I jumped out of bed and ran so fast that I don't even remember running to my Mom's room. I jumped on her bed in the dark and her bed started shaking too. She held me in her arms as she prayed out loud to God and slowly the shaking resided. By the end of the month we moved out of that home. Now this is what I gathered from that experience. One; That house was extremely old. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. But there was a bad vibe there from day one. A lot of crazy things happened there with my family fighting all the time. Never in the history of my family had there been soo many arguments and cases of domestic violence and abuse. Two; besides fights and arguments there was a vibe of mischievousness. When I played in that house it was almost as if all of us were in some kind of altered state, like some kind of dimensional trance. A good example of this was the movie ET where the kid gets aroused in the class room and he starts releasing the frogs. Yeah! I can't remember the whole thing. Let's just put it this way, I guess I went through intense puberty there. I remember having bad thoughts all the time. I remember my best friend Diana flirting with me and acting mature, but only in the house. When we played outside she was a normal kid. I swear this house had some effect on people's feelings and whatnot. The strange thing is that I don't remember much of my childhood in the house as I remembered most of my childhood in school or playing outside. I remember being cruel to my pets. I was never like that but I became a bad kid in the house. Outside I was quite normal. The strange thing is that we moved about 5 blocks away from that house into a new apartment and I thought things were back to being normal for almost half a year with no incidents. No fights between Mom and Dad, when we all got together it was fun again. I noticed it right away the vibe change. I noticed that the old house was really dark inside. Half a year passed when I had my last incident one night. It was early, maybe 2:30am I had woke up to use the restroom and I was maybe about 10 years old. I remember laying down in the bed and getting comfortable when I felt my bed got shoved from one side. At first I stood still as I thought maybe it was an earthquake. It passed and I played it off as just my imagination. As I began to fall asleep I had the sensation of being cold and clammy so I covered up. I felt feverish and I felt a small pinch on one of my toes. I became frightened as I looked around in the dark and saw 3 black outlines around my bed. The Shadows were back!  I became paralyzed as I screamed for help, I'm still not sure if I did try but nothing came out or if I imagined screaming out. The point is, I was freaking screaming! I felt some cold weight on my chest as I became face to face with one of these entities. Still paralyzed it looked me right in the eye and this is what I saw. It's eyes were black as black velvet and evil looking, but the outside rim of it's eyes was black line yellow line, black line yellow line all around the outside perimeter of it's eye in a pattern and it moved counter clockwise motion. It's two other Shadow friends had red and the other full yellow eyes. It was unreal as they all burst out in this wicked laughter and vanished and never bothered me like that again. Shadow people can move objects and touch people. I believe they can physically hurt people. There are theories that Shadow people are alien beings. Some claim they are travelers from a different dimensional plane. Professor Stephen W. Hawkings has talked about shadow people being a real possible phenomena. Millions of people have had similar experiences and even video footage, photos of this phenomena. You are not alone, but the best we can do is share our experience and hope to learn as much as we can about this. I'm sorry about the sloppiness of my writing and spelling but hope that you can have a heads up to this strange phenomena. Good luck..Carlos ----- Shadow People, Poltergeists or Demons?  My experiences took place in the early 80's in Toronto, Canada, and just like the fellow writing of his experiences on your site, mine also took place in a very old house. The house then was at least 75 yrs old and has since been razed to the ground and a brand new structure built in its place. When my family moved in there we experienced the same sort of events, arguments, abusive situations, strange phenomena but not to the point where we all noticed it right away. In fact my younger brother was a skeptic up to the point where things began happening to him as well. I think he took this attitude to allay the fears he must have had. Our father moved out of the house after the first year and away to another part of the country so just the three of us were left. At one point we had family come and live with us before they too departed.My experiences began with an event I will never forget when I was 16. It was summer and I had difficulty sleeping. This went on for one month approximately. Then one night I had fallen into a light sleep when I was violently awakened. I recall hearing a sound that I thought was an explosion and thinking that our stove must have exploded in the kitchen below me. I opened my eyes and looked around the room in the darkness but saw nothing to indicate anything was happening. Suddenly my bed began to shake violently up and down and it felt as though I was being electrocuted through my solar plexus. I couldn't move but I could see my feet moving as the bed was jumping up and down. Some objects rose up off my dresser and shot towards the bed I thought they would hit me as they approached with such speed. In fact they stopped suddenly and began to swirl around in a counter clockwise direction above me and from the center of this swirl a bright white light appeared and some voices which were like high pitched shrieks or nails on a black board said quite clearly. "The message we bring is to tell the people he is still alive." And then everything stopped suddenly. I was terrified and basically thought I would end up in a nut house. I remember shaking from fear so much I could barely get out of bed. I made my way to my mom's room to tell her about it at which point she assured me I was having nightmares. Say your prayers and go back to sleep she said. I returned to my room after an hour or more but I couldn't sleep. It was a long time before I could sleep there in fact. The next event happened the following January. I was coming home very late one night and decided to take the short cut through the alley way by our street. I passed a parked van with windows all around and I saw a movement in the van which made me feel somehow by its shape, size and response that it was doberman someone had left outside in their van. I kept walking but the thought pestered me that someone should leave their dog out in mid winter in the night. So I went back to the van cautiously peering in but there was nothing at all. Not even a cushion or anything hanging from the ceiling. Ok I thought I guess I imagined it. I happily kept walking home and when I was in the alley I suddenly heard footsteps behind me in the snow. I got a little freaked out and when I turned my head I didn't see anyone there. As I got to the end of the alleyway and turned onto my street I looked back to the entrance to see if anyone was following me. What I saw shocked and terrified me. There was a streetlight right at the corner and in the pool of its light was standing this enormous creature. It was at least 8 feet tall and huge. What struck me was that its form was completely black, there were no reflective surfaces on it whatsoever. In fact the light was shining directly on it and it seemed to absorb that light. It had large things on its head which I took to be horns or ears and its fingers ended in points like claws and the feet as well. Its eyes were red completely and staring right at me. I don't think my feet touched the ground I ran so fast. After that experience I had a few others with the same creature. Another night I came home late again and I fell onto my bed after shutting the door just wanting to fall asleep. My cat was in the bed with me when we both heard a voice laughing in the room. A masculine voice. My cat freaked out and ran to the door scratching and miaowing loudly to get out ,I opened the door and she took off. I just didn't want to believe anything was in there with me so I pointedly turned my back to the rest of the room and went to sleep. Another night I turned over and opened my eyes early in the morning and there was the same creature , smaller though, standing in front of my closet staring at me. I recall I got really mad and told it to eff off and turned around and went back to sleep. Meanwhile my brother had seen the exact same creature but his had yellow eyes. He confided the story to me years later when we had left the house and had no knowledge of my experiences. He told me he had awakened early one morning and found that he had left the light on in his room, thinking that he should get up and turn it off he turned onto his back and opened his eyes and there sitting on his bed's headboard was the same creature, talons on feet and hands, completely black with no reflective surfaces, but his was he said about 4 ft tall and squatting on the headboard staring at him with yellow eyes. He said he was terrified and decided not to turn off the light after all. I don't remember if he said it vanished quickly or if he shut his eyes and when he opened them it was gone. He said he never saw it again but had other strange experiences in that house. One day we decided that we should trade rooms. So I moved all my stuff out to his room and vice versa. I teased him and said he'd have to share my room with a visitor but he was disbelieving. After I had moved to his room I had my last experience in that house that was in the shadow people realm. I woke up one night to a sound in my room like rustling. I was wide awake because I thought it might be a mouse. I switched on my lamp and looked toward the other end of the room but seeing and hearing nothing I lay down again with the light still on. I turned to look at the clock and saw that it was 2:20 am then I saw these two large globes of light beyond my night stand. I was frozen up on one elbow because I had been about to turn out my light again. They moved in a way that reminded me of balloons falling. The larger of the two was golden yellow in colour and the smaller was blue. They looked like spheres lit from within and emanating a misty light from their forms. I somehow could sense that they were intelligent. They knew that I was looking at them and they wanted me to see. The larger golden one floated almost majestically to the door whereupon it flattened to a pancake shape in under half a second and slipped under the door. The second smaller one followed along and did the same. I was very nervous and scared at that point but only because I had to go to the bathroom and this meant I had to go out into the hallway where they had vanished to. Our hallway was very dark and without a proper light as the house was old and not renovated very well. I waited for as long as I could which was about 15 minutes and then I cautiously opened my door and went. The hallway was pitch black so my plan was to inch my way to the bathroom with my back to the wall so nothing could sneak up on me and once I got there I could turn on the bathroom light to illuminate the hallway. I followed my plan through and as it turned out when I turned on the bathroom light it shone down onto the stairs and the first landing. In the light were two shadow people. I've only ever thought of them that way because there was no other way to describe them. They looked like shadows, only they were in the light. They didn't look like the other creatures I had seen, in fact they looked like people in the sense that they had a head and arms and legs and torso and hands. They threw up their hands as though in surprise, like I'd caught them unexpectedly and then they flew down the stairs without a sound. It took me a long time to come out of that bathroom as I didn't want to encounter any of these things again. Unlike your other poster, these creatures never touched me, at least to my knowledge and never tried to hurt me. Although they did scare the dickens out of me. I recall telling these stories to people years later in other parts of the world and hearing similar tales and wondering just what they could be. Somehow we don't seem that much closer to knowing. I would conjecture though that as is the case with plant and insect life here we certainly haven't got all the facts in yet. Perhaps these creatures share the world we live in but in a different way and we have learned to ignore them or pretend they don't exist. Maybe they are trying to tell us they do exist. Perhaps like us there are those with good intenetions and those with not so good intentions. Its my opinion that we are getting closer to the truth everyday. A side note here: I read a book a year ago called 'Initiation' by Elizabeth Haich in which she distinctly mentions the shadow people and the effects they caused in the lives of people she knew including her own son prior to WWII. If this is true then perhaps these are beings who've been with us for a very long time. Then again if they are time travellers then all things are possible. Sincerely, Pema     |
| Fortean / Alternative News: Ancient Bone Art, Pareidolia Mahatma Gandhi and Fresno Thunderbird Posted: 25 Jun 2011 11:10 AM PDT  13,000-Year-Old Bone With Mammoth Or Mastodon Carving May Be First In Western Hemisphere Some of the earliest Americans turn out to have been artists. A bone fragment at least 13,000 years old, with the carved image of a mammoth or mastodon, has been discovered in Florida, a new study reports. While prehistoric art depicting animals with trunks has been found in Europe, this may be the first in the Western Hemisphere, researchers report Wednesday in the Journal of Archaeological Science. "It's pretty exciting, we haven't found anything like this in North America," said Dennis J. Stanford, curator of North American Archaeology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, who was a co-author of the report. They hunted these animals, Stanford explained, and "you see people drawing all kinds of pictures that are of relevance and importance to them." "Much of the real significance of such finds is in the tangible, emotional connection they allow us to feel with people in the deep past," said Dietrich Stout, an anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta, who was not part of the research team. The bone fragment, discovered in Vero Beach, Fla., contains an incised image about 3 inches long from head to tail and about 1 3/4 inches from head to foot. "There was considerable skepticism expressed about the authenticity of the incising on the bone until it was examined exhaustively by archaeologists, paleontologists, forensic anthropologists, materials science engineers and artists," lead author Barbara Purdy of the University of Florida said in a statement. The bone was found by a fossil hunter near a location, known as the Old Vero Site, where human bones were found side-by-side with the bones of extinct Ice Age animals in an excavation from 1913 to 1916. It was heavily mineralized, which prevented standard dating, Stanford explained. But mammoths and mastodons had died out in the Americas by 13,000 years ago, so it has to be older than that. "It could be quite early," he added. But the researchers wanted to be sure it was not a modern effort to mimic prehistoric art. They compared it with other materials found at the site and studied it with microscopes, which showed no differences in coloration between the carved grooves and the surrounding material. That, they said, indicated that both surfaces aged together. In addition, the researchers said, there were no signs of the material being carved recently or that the grooves were made with metal tools. "It either had to be carved from direct observation when the animals existed or has to be a modern fake" and "all indications are that the carving is the same age as the bone," said anthropologist Christopher J. Ellis of the University of Western Ontario, who was not part of the research team. The only other report of an ancient bone in North America carved with the image of a mastodon came from Mexico in 1959, but questions were raised about that object and it subsequently disappeared. It does appear to be the first American depiction of a mammoth or mastodon, said anthropologist David J. Meltzer of Southern Methodist University. "I think the authors did a reasonable job making the case for the piece being genuine," added Metzger, who was not part of the research team. The new discovery was made by James Kennedy, a fossil hunter, in 2006 or 2007. Kennedy noticed the image in 2009 when he was cleaning the bone and he then contacted researchers who began their study of the artifact. The newly found North American image is similar to some found in Europe, raising the question of whether this is merely coincidence or evidence of some connection between the two, the paper noted. Stout said the suggestion that the similarities between this and ancient European art might imply some cultural contact or movement of people across the Atlantic very early is controversial. That idea has previously been proposed by Stanford and others, but has attracted a lot of criticism and skepticism from other archaeologists, he said. Metzger, too, said he doesn't "for a moment, think the specimen begs any questions about the larger issue of the peopling of the Americas. It's just one specimen - albeit an interesting one - of uncertain age and provenance, so one should not get too carried away." - huffingtonpost ********** The Fresno Thunderbird Last week while attending the monthly Fresno Filmmakers Alliance mixer, a friend of mine approached me and asked me if I knew of any thunderbird sightings in the Fresno area as his wife and young son had recently spotted a large bird-like creature with a wing span estimated to be more than 12 feet in width. For those who don't know what a thunderbird is, it's a term used in the cryptozoological world to describe large bird-like creatures that are associated with the Thunderbird of Native American mythology. Most thunderbirds sightings are of the feathered type, although some sightings have reported the creatures to have lizard-like features similar to a pterosaur. Modern thunderbird sightings go back over 100 years with one of the first stories reportedly occurring in April 1890 in Arizona where two cowboys killed a giant bird-like creature with a huge wingspan. It was described as having smooth skin, featherless wings similar to that of a bat and a face that looked like an alligator. They are said to have taken the carcass back to town where they pinned it on the outside of barn with its wings outstretched the entire length. Sightings continued into the 20th Century when in the 1940's several sightings occurred in Illinois where witnesses at first thought they were seeing a plane flying overhead until they saw the "plane" flapping it's wings. A few weeks later in another part of the state a man and his son saw a large bird creature flying at a height estimated to be around 500 feet and the shadow it cast was the size of a small passenger airplane. One of the more stranger occurrences, and one I wanted to share, happened on July 25, 1977 in Lawndale, Illinois. A group of boys were playing in their back yard when two large birds approached and chased the boys. Two escaped unharmed, but the third boy, 10 year old Marlon Lowe, did not. One of the birds clamped it's talons around his shoulders and lifted the now terrified boy about two feet off the ground and carried him some distance before Low was able to fight off the bird, getting it to release him. Most viewed this as some sort of tall tale made up by the boys, but given the description of the birds one has to wonder. The description matched that of an Andean condor; a large back bird with a white ringed neck and a wingspan of 10 feet. There's a problem though, the condor's talons are said to not be strong enough to lift that of a heavy object (i.e. a 10 year old boy). So what then did the boys see? So this leads me back to the Fresno sighting. What exactly did the two see? Was it just a normal bird (say a hawk or crane) mistaken for something else? Someone mentioned a Californian Condor, but that is highly unlikely as the habitat for this species is in Southern California. Could a large bird like creature, one that was the inspiration for the Native American Thunderbird myth, be in the Fresno area skies? If there have been more sightings, hopefully those witnesses will hear of this article and share their stories. - fresnofamous ********** Head on over to Rick Phillips' site UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock and read OMG High Strangeness - Orbs Follow Car, Then, Man Sees HUGE `Rabbit' - MUFON Report. I believe the title is self-explanatory...Lon ********* Circus offers 'clown-selling' for people's big-top fear A circus in Worcestershire is offering people "clown-selling" to get over their fears of the smiley entertainers. Paul Carpenter, who performs as Popol the Clown, will be offering the therapy at John Lawson's Circus when it visits Studley from 24 to 26 June. He said he had noticed an increasing number of people telling him they suffered from coulrophobia - fear of masks and disguises. He said he thought horror films with clowns could be the source of the fear. Mr Carpenter said characters such as Pennywise, the murderous clown in Stephen King's novel It, and the evil criminal mastermind the Joker in Batman, had contributed to the view of clowns as "scary". He said: "We want to say to people 'give us a chance' - we're not all crazed psycho killers. "We had more and more people saying to us 'keep away, we're scared', so we decided to do something positive about it." Mr Carpenter said the people coming to the sessions were adults with a "very genuine" fear of clowns. He said the therapy began with people meeting him without his clown make-up on. He then gradually puts on the make-up and costume so they can see him become Popol before being invited to join him in the ring to interact without a show going on. "We try to get people to confront their fears," he said. "We have to treat them very gently, that's been the most effective way for them to get comfortable with us." - BBC **********  Mahatma Gandhi's face seen on Mars! An Italian space enthusiast, while going through pictures of Mars, claims to have found a structure on the face of the planet that resembles Mahatma Gandhi. Matteo Lanneo was scanning through the latest images sent by the Mars Express probe when he came across the uncanny resemblance to India's father of the nation, the Daily Mail reported. The head appears to have a moustache and shaven, and has prominent eyebrows. Experts say it is not the first time that a face has been seen on Mars's soil. In July 1976, the American Viking 1 Orbiter took a photograph that appeared to show a hill in the shape of a human face. Space enthusiasts speculated that the structure was built by aliens. However, an image taken with NASA's HiRISE camera in 2010 showed the face was just a large, rocky hill. The phenomenon of seeing faces is called "pareidolia" – where a stimulus is perceived as having significance, be it a symbol seen in a cloud or a face on a piece of toast. Scientists say the phenomenon occurs because humans tend to recognise familiar objects as a survival technique. - discoveryon Spirit Rescue International™ Providing no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind The Spirit Rescue International™ Haunted Help Forum *Join Our Group On Facebook* Join Eric Altman, Lon Strickler and Sean Forker LIVE each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go Beyond the Edge! 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