There are an infinite number of universes existing side by side and through which our consciousnesses constantly pass. In these universes, all possibilities exist. You are alive in some, long dead in others, and never existed in still others. Many of our "ghosts" could indeed be visions of people going about their business in a parallel universe or another time -- or both.

                                                                                   - PAUL F. ENO, Faces at the Window

There are a few alternative explanations for the alien abduction phenomenon, the most prevalent being that the experience does not involve actual aliens at all but is instead a complex, human-driven tool used for purposes of mind control. It is said that the alien abduction approach is actually a cover story intended to conceal something even more disturbing than aliens, that being an encroachment on the very souls of those chosen to be victims of government and military experiments that seek to control the workings of the human brain itself for purposes of psychological warfare and for intelligence operations requiring a "zombie" type agent who has no idea he is carrying out a covert mission at all.

This idea is not exactly new. It entered into the pop culture zeitgeist as early as the 1962 thriller "The Manchurian Candidate," in which a team of soldiers fighting the Korean War are brainwashed by their Chinese captors into various heinous acts, with one victim in particular charged to assassinate a candidate for president. The assassin is merely responding to post-hypnotic suggestion as he goes through the motions of his role in some dark political intrigue indeed.
    
But a lot has happened since, and Timothy Green Beckley of Global Communications has recently released two new books that deal with the subject from a decidedly 21st century perspective, including the fascinating overlap between mind control technology and alien abduction.
    
The new release "Nightmare Alley: Fearsome Tales Of Alien Abduction" begins with capsule histories of some of the better-known abduction cases, such as the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill encounter that became a kind of template for the thousands of cases that came later. The cases in the book were compiled by Beckley, his editorial and art consultant William Kern, and B.J. Booth, a researcher known for his website www.ufocasebook.com. The team has gathered cases that stretch from the Hills to Betty Andreasson Luca on to the 2004 Francis Family abduction and the Clayton and Donna Lee event of 2005. As an easily digestible overview of the abduction phenomenon, it has few peers in the field.
    
But in the later sections of the book, the alien factor is moved to a backburner and the all-too-human quest for control of the individual's mind is given an excellent scholarly and detailed treatment by researcher and writer Martin Cannon. Cannon begins by attempting to shine a light on what alien abduction is said to be.
    
"Among ufologists," Cannon writes, "the term 'abduction' has come to refer to an infinitely confounding experience, or matrix of experiences, shared by a dizzying number of individuals, who claim that travelers from the stars have scooped them out of their beds, or snatched them from their cars, and subjected them to interrogations, quasi-medical examinations, and 'instruction' periods."
    
He goes on to say that these sessions are said to occur within alien spacecraft and include terrifying details "reminiscent of the tortures inflicted in Germany's death camps."
    
The abductees often, though not always, lose all memory of these events, and find themselves back in their beds or cars unable to account for "missing time." Hypnosis or some other trigger can bring back these "haunted hours" in an explosion of recollection, and the abductee often begins to recall a history of similar experiences stretching all the way back to childhood. Cannon also expresses amazement that abductees, in spite of their vividly-recalled agonies, claim to "love" their alien tormentors.
    
Cannon quickly shifts gears and begins to offer his own theories about the abduction phenomenon.
    
"I posit that the abductees have been abducted," he writes. "Yet they are also spewing fantasy - or, more precisely, they have been given a set of lies to repeat and believe. If my hypothesis proves true, then we must accept the following: The kidnapping is real. The fear is real. The pain is real. The instruction is real. But the little grey men from Zeti Reticuli are not real; they are constructs, Halloween masks meant to disguise the real faces of the controllers. The abductors may not be visitors from Beyond; rather, they may be a symptom of the carcinoma which blackens our body politic. The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves."
    
There is substantial evidence, according to Cannon, that links members of this country's intelligence community, to include the CIA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Intelligence, with "the esoteric technology of mind control."
    
"For decades," Cannon continues, "'spy-chiatrists' working mostly behind the scenes - on college campuses, in CIA-sponsored institutes, and (most heinously) in prisons - have experimented with erasure of memory, hypnotic resistance to torture, truth serums, post-hypnotic suggestion, rapid induction of hypnosis, electronic stimulation of the brain, non-iodizing radiation, microwave induction of intra-cerebral 'voices,' and a host of even more disturbing technologies. Some of the projects exploring these areas were ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, PANDORA, MKDELTA, MKSEARCH and the infamous MKULTRA."
    
Cannon said his research includes reading nearly every available book on the subject, as well as all the relevant congressional testimony, plus spending much time in university libraries reading relevant articles. He also conducted numerous interviews and was allowed to see the files of John Marks, the author of "The Search For 'The Manchurian Candidate,'" which included some 20,000 pages of CIA and Defense Department documents, interviews, scientific articles, letters, etc.

Cannon has certainly done his homework, which leads him to conclude that striking advances have been made in the field of brainwashing despite false and perjured claims made before Congress that these efforts had met with little success and had been discontinued. He also restates his belief that UFO abduction may be a continuation of clandestine mind control operations.
The next section of Cannon's report is a fascinating overview of the known technology so far and introduces the reader to the term "wavies," or people who claim to be victims of clandestine bombardment with non-ionizing radiation, or microwaves.

"They report sudden changes in psychological states, alteration of sleep patterns, intra-cerebral voices and other sounds, and physiological effects. Are these troubled individuals seeking an exterior rationale for their mental problems? Maybe. Indeed, I'm sure that such is the case in many instances. But the fact is that the literature on the behavioral effects of microwaves, extra-low-frequencies and ultra-sonics is such that we cannot blithely dismiss all such claims."

When did this research really begin? Cannon says that in the early years of the 20th century, Nikola Tesla seems to have stumbled upon certain of the behavioral effects of electromagnetic exposure, and Cannon also cites a report from the 1930s in which two scientists claimed to be able to electrically stimulate the human nervous system by remote control. Meanwhile, who knows what has been achieved over the last few decades or what is the current state-of-the-art in mind control technology?
 
Cannon returns to his basic thesis, writing, "The abduction enigma contains within it sub-mysteries that slide into the mind control scenario with surprising ease, even elegance. As we have seen, the MKULTRA thesis explains the reports of abductee intra-cerebral implants (particularly reports involving nosebleeds), unusual scars, 'telepathic' communication (i.e., externally induced intra-cerebral voices) concurrent with or following the abduction, allegations that some abductees hear unusual sound effects, haywire electronic devices in abductee homes, personality shifts, 'training films,' manipulation of religious imagery, and missing time. Needless to say, the thesis of clandestine government experimentation readily accounts for abductee claims of human beings 'working' with the aliens, and for the government harassment that plays so prominent a role in certain abductee reports."

Another new release from Global Communications, "Mind Stalkers: Mind Control Of The Masses," covers some similar ground. The authors, Commander X and Tim R. Swartz, also offer some interesting history of what is known about mind control technology as well as some scientific background on how the various devices actually work. Chapters on secret experiments with drugs, subliminal seduction, electronics, microwaves, implants and "mind machines" in general are stuffed with frightening information on the potential enslavement of the human mind to those who can covertly manipulate it. The drive to create a "super soldier" quickly devolves into the search for an iron grip on mass consciousness that has been sought by every totalitarian leader throughout human history, only now such a nightmarish possibility may be terrifyingly within reach, with the mere flick of an "on switch."

Swartz and Commander X also tackle the thorny subject of human mind control as the true origin of UFO abduction.

"UFO literature is filled with hundreds of cases," the two authors write, "in which observers have been subjected to continuous harassments following an encounter with a UFO. Some witnesses report strange, ghost-like phenomena in their homes. In other cases, weird, mechanical-sounding voices, purported to be 'messages' from extraterrestrials, begin emanating from their phones, radios and televisions."
The authors point out that scant research has been done into this view of the phenomenon, and investigators are loathe to touch the subject, believing that the witnesses who complain of such harassment are most likely mentally ill. It is a kind of Catch-22 that victims must suffer through: after a prolonged period of skilled mismanagement of their brains, they are hardly credible witnesses who can coherently PROVE their stories. But the authors say that cases of UFO mind control are almost always identical.

"The eyewitness goes through a period of anxiety," the authors explain, "during which he is unable to consciously remember certain aspects of the incident. Within months, the personality of the observer actually changes. Eventually, it may change to the point where he finds it impossible to get along with coworkers, friends or even family. Personal tragedy seems to strike many of those who have had UFO experiences."

The person may also develop certain "gifts" or abilities, such as powers of ESP, precognition or psycho-kinesis, as well as a heightened intelligence level or an unusual increase in physical strength. These abilities may manifest themselves shortly before a person is about to be controlled. Soon he may begin slipping into a kind of trance, and it will appear an alien intelligence has taken over his body and is using his brain.

But nevertheless, we could still be dealing with human "controllers," the authors insist, as they cite the research of Dr. Helmut Lammer, who recounts the stories of how   some UFO abductees have been kidnapped by military personnel and taken to hospitals and/or military facilities, some of which are described as being underground.

"Especially disconcerting is the fact that abductees recall seeing military intelligence personnel together with alien beings," Commander X and Swartz write, "working side by side in these secret facilities. Researchers in the field of mind control suggest that these cases are evidence that the whole UFO abduction phenomenon is staged by the intelligence community as a cover for their illegal experiments."
The authors go on to say that Lammer's research suggests that abductees are often harassed by dark, unmarked helicopters that fly around their houses. The mysterious helicopter activity goes back to the late 1960s and early 1970s, when they showed an apparent interest in animal mutilations, but not, at the time, in alleged UFO abductees. Still, UFO researcher Raymond Fowler reported some helicopter activity in connection with UFO witnesses during the 1970s, so the phenomenon is not without an earlier precedent.

(Meanwhile, the idea that the black helicopters are sent to "spy" on UFO witnesses is called absurd by Martin Cannon, who says if the military were seeking information on abductees they would certainly go about it in a much more subtle manner. The late abduction researcher Budd Hopkins once similarly stated that if the intelligence community wanted to spy on abductees, they could probably stand two blocks away and point a cufflink at their intended targets, so far advanced was their espionage technology. In any case, the true mission of the black helicopters remains unknown.)

Abductee Debbie Jordan reported in her book "Abducted!" that she was at one point kidnapped, drugged and taken to a kind of military hospital where she was examined by a medical doctor. This doctor told her he was going to remove a "bug" from her ear and proceeded to take out an implant that resembled a BB. Also, some of author Katharina Wilson's experiences are reminiscent of reported mind control experiments. She writes of a flashback from her childhood in which she remembers being forced into what appeared to be a Skinner Box that may have been used for behavior modification purposes. In some military abduction cases military doctors searched for implants and sometimes even implanted the abductee with what may have been a manmade implant.

"Mind Stalkers" also includes an "Index Of Secret Mind Control Projects" that provides a quick rundown of the often confusing military codenames and the "alphabet soup" by which some of the various programs came to be called.

So if you're interested in this particular approach to alien abduction or want to read the accounts of others who may share your "paranoia" about such things, then you're definitely the right sort of reader for "Nightmare Alley" and "Mind Stalkers." It is an interesting irony that what makes the whole complex of the abduction mystery so sinister and shocking is not the presence of aliens from another planet but the dark machinations of a completely human enemy of mankind - which may be our own government and military.  

[If you enjoyed this article, visit Sean Casteel's "UFO Journalist" website at www.seancasteel.com to read more of his articles or purchase his books.]

Source: UFO Digest
http://www.ufodigest.com/article/disturbing-world-alien-abduction-and-mind-control

In the early to mid 1950s, numerous people, all across the planet, claimed contact with human-looking ETs from far-away worlds. The aliens in question were usually seen attired in one-piece-outfits, while sporting heads of long blond hair. Not only that: the cosmic visitors assured those of us who they deemed worthy of contact that they were deeply concerned by our warlike ways. They wished us to disarm our nuclear arsenals, live in peace and harmony with one another, and elevate ourselves to whole new spiritual levels. The aliens in question became known as the Space Brothers; while those whose lives were forever changed by their encounters with such alleged extra-terrestrial entities were an elite body of people known as the Contactees.

It was against this background of high-strangeness that many of the Contactees found themselves watched closely and secretly by none other than J. Edgar Hoover’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI. Indeed, I wrote about many of the now-declassified FBI files on the Contactees in my 2006 book On the Trail of the Saucer Spies. But, just recently – and thanks, specifically, to good mate and fellow Fortean, Greg Bishop – I obtained a copy of the Bureau’s file on a certain friend of the Space Brothers who still provokes controversy years after his death, and whose FBI dossier I had previously not seen: George Hunt Williamson.

Williamson – also known, at various times, as Michael (or, according to the FBI, Michel) d’Obrenovic, Ric Williamson, and Brother Philip – was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1926, became entranced by the occult in his teens, and evolved into a significant player on the flying saucer scene of the 1950s. Indeed, in 1954 he famously combined his fascination with the occult and flying saucers by trying to contact extraterrestrial-intelligences with a home-made Ouija board.

It was also in 1954 that the FBI sat up and took notice when Williamson planned to speak at an event in Ohio with yet another Contactee, Truman Bethurum. Beyond any shadow of doubt, the number of people who can claim aliens wrecked their marriages is infinitely small. But, such claims have been made – the most memorable being that of construction-worker Bethurum. His idea of a close encounter was very different to those of other UFO witnesses: his alleged liaisons in the summer of 1952, atop Mormon Mesa, Nevada with Space Captain Aura Rhanes, a supposed citizen of the planet Clarion, ultimately led his outraged wife to file for divorce!

As for why the FBI took so much interest in the Bethurum/Williamson gig, the answer is very simple. The government was already keeping tabs on Bethurum, for one particularly interesting reason: he had made certain statements linking his experiences with Aura Rhanes to matters of a communist nature. In Bethurum’s own words:

“Two or three fellows who had sons in Korea and who read a lot in the newspapers about the Communist underground in this country, were convinced in their own minds that I was, if making contact with anyone at all, making it with enemy agents. They even went so far as to tell me belligerently that they intended to get guns and follow me nights, and if they caught up me having intercourse with any people from planes, airships of any kind, they’d blast me and those people too.”

And, as an amusing aside, it also led the FBI to refer to Aura Rhanes in its files as a “ravishing woman commandant”! Even the Bureau, it seems, was infected by Aura’s hotness!

Next on the cards for the FBI was a development that occurred in March 1955. Hoover’s agents noted in secret memoranda that, along with one Henry Maday, Williamson had then-recently established The Flying Saucer Council of America, which – the FBI also noted – was championing and promoting a new documentary-style film on flying saucers titled We’ve Seen the Saucers.

More alarming to officialdom: Williamson had apparently got his hands on priceless film-footage of UFO activity that appeared in the film. Reportedly, the footage showed “the astounding sighting at White Sands, New Mexico when two saucers trailed an experimental rocket to an altitude of one-hundred ten miles above the earth, and then speed off at the incredible speed of 7,200 mph.”

Of this matter, the FBI carefully recorded that the film at issue “was procured in California by Ric Williamson,” one of the man’s several pseudonyms.

Also in 1955, the FBI noted in its file on Williamson: “…according to an article in the Detroit Times on March 10, 1949, Ray L. Dimmick, a Los Angeles businessman, had seen a wreckage of a flying saucer which he said crashed near Mexico City. Dimmick reportedly inspected the wrecked saucer at a secret military installation at Mexico City and was escorted there by Mexican business associates. Dimmick described the saucer as being forty-six feet in diameter. He reported that Mexican officials and some scientists believed it was from Mars or another planet. He was reportedly told by Mexican officials that the Saucer was piloted by a strange type of man twenty-three inches tall. He said the pilot was killed in the crash. Dimmick stated that military and government officials from the United States inspected the Saucer.”

The FBI then immediately thereafter turned its attentions to Williamson and matters of a crashed UFO nature: “Ric Williamson and Henry Maday while in Saginaw, Michigan, prior to conducting a Flying Saucer Council program, met a prominent photographer of Saginaw, who stated that his son had revealed to him the following: The photographer’s son was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Base about the time of the incident described in the March 10, 1949 Detroit Times above and while at Wright-Patterson Air Base, a huge semi-truck came to the Air Base with heavily canopied material jutting out, of immense size.”

Echoing the claims that Wright-Patterson AFB is home to the legendary Hangar 18 – a supposed secret storage-area on-base where crashed UFO materials are held – the FBI noted of the “canopied material” that: “…no one seemed to know anything about it except that it was driven to a far hangar where no windows or accessible doors could be discerned.”

As far as the declassified files are concerned, the next entry in the FBI’s dossier on George Hunt Williamson dates from 1962. Its subject matter: the possibility that Williamson had been involved in the smuggling into the United States of priceless Mexican artifacts of an historic and archaeological significance.

For a while the FBI deeply pondered on whether or not they should get further involved in the pursuit of a potential crime that had occurred outside of its jurisdiction and in another country – Mexico – but finally dropped the matter; rather fortunately, it must be said, for Williamson. There is one particularly curious aspect of this particular affair: a number of the relevant documents are heavily censored according to category B1 of the Freedom of Information Act. Intriguingly, B1 covers nothing less than matters that may have a potential effect on US national security.

Williamson might have overstepped the line to a degree with his Indiana Jones-style escapades in Mexico in 1962, but they hardly seem like matters that would have had a bearing on issues relative to the national security of the United States. Unless, of course, there are additional files on Williamson that the FBI has still yet to declassify, and which remain behind closed doors for reasons tantalizing and unknown.

And there, so far as we can tell at least, ends the FBI’s surveillance of George Hunt Williamson. Enigmatic, controversial and shrouded in mystery until the very end, he died in 1986, a figure by then largely forgotten by, or completely unknown to, the UFO research community of the day. But, maybe, not forgotten by the FBI.

And if you want to find out more about what the FBI thought of the man himself, you can do so in a new edition of Williamson’s book, Road in the Sky, which has just been republished by Timothy Green Beckley and which includes a 22-page article from me on this strange saga of Space Brother-based spying in the early years of the Cold War…

Source: Mysterious Universe
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/10/secret-spying-and-a-contactee/

The Italian scientists convicted of manslaughter for falsely reassuring the public about the risk of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake have a "case to answer", according to some earthquake experts.

The comments come in the face of an outpouring of concern from the scientific community claiming the scientists are being unfairly treated and the decision will inhibit scientists from expressing their views.

Four scientists, two engineers and a government official were this week sentenced to six years in prison for criminal manslaughter and causing criminal injury, with the prosecution arguing they gave "unclear, inconsistent" advice in the lead up to the big quake.

Australian earthquake expert Professor Paul Somerville believes the prison sentences are not appropriate, but he is concerned about the actions of the scientists.

"The scientists do indeed have some serious questions to answer for," says Somerville, of the insurance industry-sponsored Risk Frontiers Natural Hazards Research Centre at Sydney's Macquarie University.

Somerville says in the four months leading up to the large quake there were a series of smaller quakes in the region.

He says most experts believe such a swarm can increase the likelihood of a larger quake, but this is not what was communicated to the residents.

Somerville says residents of the area had been sleeping out in their cars for fear of a large event after the smaller quakes started.

But, he says they stopped doing this after being reassured by messages coming from a panel, made up of the convicted scientists and others, who met in the days leading up to the big quake.

"The problem is people were reassured it was not necessary to take the precautions they had been taking," says Somerville.
Uncorrected errors

Somerville points to a number of scientific errors that were present in statements made publicly by the convicted experts including Dr Bernardo De Bernardinis, a senior official in the Civil Protection Authority.

"Dr De Bernardinis, who is an expert in floods, not earthquakes, incorrectly stated that the numerous earthquakes of the swarm were releasing stress and thereby inhibiting the occurrence of a larger earthquake."

According to the journal Science, convicted seismologist, Giulio Selvaggi said this information was incorrect at the trial, but three weeks before the quake he was quoted in a newspaper as saying: "A swarm, of whatever kind and of whatever duration, is never, and I underline never, a precursor of large seismic events."

Somerville says none of those participating in the press conference after the crucial panel meeting included seismologists or earthquake engineers from the panel.

He says these experts could still have publicly corrected the scientific errors made by their colleagues, but they did not.

"It seems to be an extraordinary lapse of scientific discipline here," says Somerville.
Defence of scientists

Meanwhile the case has drawn condemnation from international bodies including the American Geophysical Union, which says the risk of litigation may deter scientists from advising governments or even working in seismology and seismic risk assessments.

Others say the Italian experts gave "scientifically accurate information" and the problem is this was not communicated properly.

"The best estimate at the time was that the low level seismicity was not likely to herald a bigger quake, but there are no certainties in this game," says Dr David Rothery, a Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences at Open University, in the United Kingdom.

"Maybe the message came across rather too complacently, but six years in jail for, at worse, poor communication skills seems to me totally disproportionate

"Earthquakes are inherently unpredictable," he says. "I hope they will appeal."

But Somerville says he is "astonished" by such comments.

He says the scientists were never on trial for failing to predict the quake.

"The scientists cannot be blamed for not being able to predict the earthquake because the risk was always very low, even after the beginning of the swarm," says Somerville.

"But they should have said clearly that the swarm ... elevated [the] risk."
Risk communication

The question therefore is how do scientists communicate the significance of the risk of an earthquake?

Somerville says seismologists at the time estimated the probability of a large earthquake in the next three days increased from 1 in 200,000 before the earthquake swarm began to 1 in 1,000 following two large foreshocks of the L'Aquila earthquake.

These are still very small numbers in an absolute sense. So, it's true to say that a large quake is "unlikely". Yet, it is also true to say that the swarm increased the risk of a large quake several hundred fold. One way of communicating calls for calm, another calls for alarm.

Somerville points to the recent article in Science that suggests "scientists were used, or allowed themselves to be used, to bring calm to a jittery town" after a maverick geologist "predicted" a big quake would happen.

Chair of the International Commission on Earthquake Forecasting Thomas Jordan told Science he does not believe anybody is guilty of manslaughter.

De Bernardinis made statements that were scientifically incorrect, but he and colleagues had a hard job balancing the communication of seismic risk while trying to counter baseless predictions, argues Jordan, an earth scientist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

"I think with hindsight they didn't get that balance right, but I know from personal experience that it's very tricky in those situations to say the right kind of things," Jordan told Science.

Whether or not a small risk is something worth being alarmed about will be influenced by all kinds of factors. But when the stakes are high, is it up to scientists alone to make the call on how we respond to uncertain risks?

Somerville suggests earthquake scientists should stick to better communication of the numbers and leave it to society at large to decide their significance.

"The experts have to learn how to make carefully constructed probabilistic statements and then it's up to the decision makers to use them as they see fit," says Somerville.

Source: ABC Science
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/10/24/3617785.htm

---

From harmless lake monsters to aggressive lizard men, Bigfoot isn't the only unidentified creature rumored to live in the United States.

You've likely heard of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Perhaps you're even familiar with tales of blood-sucking chupacabras and West Virginia's Mothman. But there are numerous other creepy creatures and mythical monsters throughout the world that cryptozoologists and thrill-seekers are eager to find. Here's a look at 10 lesser-known cryptids right here in the United States.
 
Skunk ape1. Skunk Ape (Florida)
This large, hairy bipedal mammal is said to inhabit the Southern United States, but it's most often spotted in Florida. It gets its name from its unpleasant odor, which is said to be similar to rotten eggs or methane. Although reports of the creature were most common in the 1960s and 1970s, sightings continue today, but the most famous one took place in 2000.
 
That year, two photographs of an animal alleged to be the Skunk Ape were mailed to the Sarasota Sheriff’s Department in Florida, along with a letter from a woman who said she’d photographed the creature in her backyard. She said that the cryptid had entered her yard for three nights and taken apples from her porch. She was convinced the animal was an escaped orangutan, but the police dispatched to her house several times never saw the animal. The National Park Service says the Skunk Ape is a myth that developed from Native American legends, but according to the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, the creature might be part of the same species as Bigfoot.
 
2. Tahoe Tessie (California and Nevada)
Stories of this aquatic creature in Lake Tahoe can be traced back to members of the Washoe and Paiute tribes in the mid-19th century, who said the cryptid lived in an underwater tunnel beneath Cave Rock. Sightings of Tessie — who got her nickname from the famous Nessie of Loch Ness fame — continue today, with witnesses describing the creature as being between 10 and 80 feet long, having a serpentine body and coloration ranging from black to turquoise.
 
There are several theories surrounding Tessie, the most popular being that the animal is a Plesiosaur, Icthyosaur or Mosasaur because fossils of these creatures have been found in the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains. However, scientists say this is unlikely because the lake formed in the last Ice Age, long after those animals went extinct. Other Tessie theories say she could simply be a large sturgeon or an unidentified species of freshwater eel, but believers point to a quotation from undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau who’s alleged to have emerged from a submarine expedition in Lake Tahoe and said, "The world isn’t ready for what’s down there.”
 
Pope Lick Monster3. Pope Lick Monster (Kentucky)
This legendary human-goat hybrid has a deformed human torso, goat legs and a horned head, and it’s said to haunt the railway trestle over Pope Lick Creek in Louisville, Ky. Numerous urban legends exist about the creature’s origins. Some stories say the monster is a circus freak who vowed revenge after his mistreatment, while others claim it’s a reincarnated farmer who sacrificed goats in exchange for Satanic powers. Stories of how it claims its victims are equally diverse. May believers think it uses voice mimicry to lure trespassers to their deaths before oncoming trains. Some say it slays its victims with an ax, while others say that simply the sight of the Pope Lick Monster is so terrifying that people jump to their deaths. These legends have turned the Pope Lick Train Trestle into a destination for thrill-seekers, and there have been a number of deaths at the location despite the 8-foot fence meant to keep visitors out.
 
4. Ozark Howler (Ozark Mountains)
Witnesses describe this creature as a large black cat with horns and glowing eyes, and it gets its name from the loud, eerie howl it emits throughout the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Cryptozoologists have suggested that the creature could be an unrecognized big cat, while anthropologists have speculated that the stories of the cryptid were simply inspired by the black dogs of death found in British folklore. However, evolutionists who believe in the Ozark Howler say it could be a mutated mountain lion breed or a hybrid of a mountain lion and another animal.
 
5. Iliamna Lake Monster (Alaska)
The locals call her Illie, and reports of the cryptid have been around since the indigenous Aleut people lived on the shores of Alaska’s Iliamna Lake. However, the lake monster wasn’t brought into the public eye until the 1940s when pilots reported seeing a large fish swimming in the waters below. By the 1950s, there were consistent reports of large, aluminum-colored fish in the lake, and in 1979 the Anchorage Daily News offered $100,000 to anyone who could provide conclusive evidence of Illie’s existence. So far no evidence has been found, but sightings of the fish continue today, and Illie was even featured on Animal Planet’s show “River Monsters.” But scientists say there’s no monster in Lake Iliamna — many have suggested that what people are seeing are actually sleeper sharks. These fish can exceed 20 feet in length and swim into rivers and lakes to find food, and scientists say that Illie sightings are often consistent with the sharks’ shape and colors.
 
Lizard Man of Scape Ore swamp6. Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp (South Carolina)
This reptilian humanoid cryptid is described as being 7 feet tall, bipedal and having scaly lizard skin, and it’s said to live in the swamplands in Lee County, S.C. The first reported sighting of the creature was in 1988 when 17-year-old Christopher Davis saw the creature running toward him while he was changing a tire beside Scape Ore Swamp. Davis got in his car to escape, but the Lizard Man jumped onto the roof and clung to it as the teen tried to throw it off. When he returned home, Davis found that his side-view mirror was damaged and there were deep scratch marks across the car’s roof.
 
For the next month, there were further reports of an aggressive lizard-like creature and more reports of unusual scratches and bite marks on cars parked near the swamp. Police were skeptical, but stated that a sufficient number of sightings by reliable people led them to believe that something was being seen — although they thought it was likely a bear. The sheriff’s department made plaster casts of what appeared to be large three-toed footprints to send to the FBI, but decided against sending them after the S.C. Marine Resources Department said they were unclassifiable. Reports of the Lizard Man declined over the next few years, but in 2011 a couple reported that their car had been mauled and the former Lee County sheriff said the damage was similar to the 1988 incidents.
 
7. Altamaha-ha (Georgia)
Although no physical evidence of this aquatic creature exists, stories of a large snake-like animal swimming in the waters of Georgia’s Altamaha River date back to the 18th century. The Tama Indian tribe has legends of such a creature, and alleged sightings of Altamaha-ha continue to be reported today, with most reports involving swimmers bumping into the creature. It’s been described as looking like a sturgeon, but having the head of a crocodile, and cryptozoologists have speculated that Altamaha-ha may be an ocean cryptid that spawns in the freshwaters at the mouth of the river.
 
Jersey Devil8. Jersey Devil (New Jersey)
Since the 1700s, there have been thousands of reported sightings of this cryptid in the New Jersey Pinelands. Described as a kangaroo-like creature with the head of a dog, bat-like wings, horns and a forked tail, the animal is said to prowl through the marshes of Southern New Jersey and spook people with its hideous appearance. Although there are many stories about the creatures origins, the most commonly accepted is that in 1735 there was a woman called Mother Leeds who had 12 children. She stated that if she gave birth to another child, it would be the Devil, and when her 13th child was born, it transformed into the Jersey Devil, killed its mother and flew screaming into the woods. To this day, residents of cities near the Pinelands have reported hearing the devil’s screams late at night. However, skeptics say the creature is nothing more than a story created by English settlers.
 
9. Loveland Frog (Ohio)
This humanoid creature with the face of a frog was first spotted in Loveland, Ohio, in 1955. A businessman said he saw several creatures with green skin, webbed hands and wide mouths squatting under a bridge, and one of the creatures reportedly held up a bar-like device that emitted sparks, leaving a strong odor of alfalfa and almonds behind. There were no further sightings of the Loveland Frog until 1972 when police, including Officer Mark Matthews, said they saw a frog-faced man jump over a rail and into the Little Miami River. Weeks later, a farmer reported seeing the creature riding a bicycle, and then officer Mark Matthews saw the Loveland Frog for a second time. This time it was lying in the road, and Matthews shot at it but it escaped. However, in 2001, Matthews retracted his story, saying it wasn’t a monster and was probably just a pet lizard that got too large for its aquarium.
 
10. Chessie (Maryland and Virginia)
Chessie is another sea monster named in the style of legendary Nessie, but this cryptid reportedly lives in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. There have been numerous sightings of the creature, which witnesses describe as 25 to 40 feet long, serpent-like and finned. There were a rash of Chessie sightings in the 1970s and 1980s, but an alleged photograph of the creature turned out to be a manatee. A 1982 videotape of the creature shows a brownish object moving from side to side like a snake, but the video hasn’t been substantiated. The last notable sighting of Chessie was in 1997.

Source: Mother Nature Network
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/10-lesser-known-us-monsters-and-cryptids

---

A Bradford housewife has claimed she spent five years as a child being raised by monkeys in the Colombian jungle.

Marina Chapman said she was kidnapped for ransom in the 1950s when she was just five years old and abandoned in the jungle, with her captors believed to have botched the abduction. For five years, she lived a Tarzan-style existence with a colony of Capuchin monkeys - learning to catch prey, including birds and rabbits, with nothing but her bare hands.

Her daughter Vanessa James told The Sunday Times: 'She obviously learnt to fend for herself and only once got very ill when she ate some poisonous berries.'

Chapman's life in the jungle was said to have ended when she was discovered by hunters and sold to a brothel in the northern city of Cucuta, where she was regularly beaten. She escaped and was taken in by a Colombian family as a teenager, choosing the name Marina Luz.

When Chapman was in her twenties, she travelled to the UK with her neighbours - who worked in the textile trade - and remained in the country after meeting her future husband John Chapman. The couple have two children and live in Yorkshire. Chapman, who says she never cries, only told her husband, a former church organist and bacteriologist, about her bizarre claims after they were married.

James added: 'When we wanted food, we had to make noises for it. All my school friends loved Mum as she was so unusual. She was childlike, too, in many ways.

'I got bedtime stories about the jungle, as did my sisters. We didn't think it odd - it was just Mum telling her life. So in a way it was nothing special having a mother like that.'

James is helping her mother write a book - The Girl With No Name, which is due to be published in April - about her experiences, while Blink Films is planning to make a television documentary about her childhood.

Monkeys are known for accepting humans into the fold, according to experts on feral children. Ugandan orphan, John Ssebunya, lived for more than a year with monkeys at the age of four and adapted well to life with humans after he was rescued more than 20 years ago.

Source: The Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220998/Bradford-housewife-claims-spent-
years-raised-monkeys-Colombian-jungle-kidnapped.html

---