1/13/13  #705
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Who can it be knocking at my door? Make no sound, tip-toe across the floor. If he hears, he'll knock all day. I'll be trapped, and here I'll have to stay. Who can it be now? It's the Conspiracy Journal, here once again to bring you joy and information and a bit of fun as well.

This week, Conspiracy Journal takes a look at such hip-busting stories as:


Were the Nazis Building Super Weapons? -
-
A Special Look at a Pioneer in UFO Research -
- Flame Retardant Chemical Found in US Soft Drinks -
- Brad Steiger on 'Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places' -
AND: Something Definitely Going 'Boom' in the Night
 
All these exciting stories and MORE in this week's issue of
CONSPIRACY JOURNAL!

~ And Now, On With The Show! ~


THE SHOCKING REALITY ABOUT TIME TRAVEL!


Time Slips, Real Time Machines, And How-To Experiments To Go Forwards Or Backwards Through Time


EINSTEIN ONLY HAD PART OF THE EQUATION DOWN PAT! ORDINARY PEOPLE HAVE TRAVELED BACKED AND FORTH THROUGH THE CORRIDOR OF TIME AND SPACE – AND THIS COULD BE YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO AS WELL.

Up until recently it was thought that Einstein had revealed all there ever was to know about time and space and how we could never travel forward or backward in time without reaching the speed of light. Today those that have adopted the “string theory” of Physics have come to believe that everything in the universe exists at one time simultaneously.

Retired Intelligence Operative Commander X and Emmy Award winning Tim R. Swartz have declared in this valuable book – written in easy to read terms – that we are not prisoners of Time and Space, but rather are prisoners of our physical bodies and the learned behaviors of existing in the material world.

The Universe and its many mysteries await those who are not afraid to throw off the shackles of unawareness and begin the quest of exploration and learning.

In TIME TRAVEL – FACT NOT FICTION!, a vastness of relevant topics are reviewed and discussed logically, including: Spontaneous Cases of Time Travel -- People Caught In The Eddies Of Time -- An Encounter With Spirits -- Or A Brief Visit To The Past? -- The Mystery of Time Slips -- Doorways in Time -- People, Buildings and Towns From Beyond Time -- The Restaurant At The Edge Of Time -- Flight Into The Future -- Is Death a Jump in Time? -- Are UFOs Time Machines? -- The Philadelphia Experiment and the Montauk Project – Working Time Machines -- Nikola Tesla's Time Travel Experiments -- Human Time Machines -- Techniques for mental time travel -- UFOs and Time Distortion.

Here also are actual cases of people who have traveled through time and space and returned to the "present" to relate their experience. We are on the cusp of a great new discovery of benefit to all of humankind if "powerful forces" do not prevent this vital information from being distributed to everyone.

For subscribers of the Conspiracy Journal Newsletter this book is on sale for the special price of only $18 (plus $5.00 shipping).  This offer will not last long so ORDER TODAY! 


You can also phone in your credit card orders to Global Communications
24-hour hotline: 732-602-3407

And as always you can send a check or money order to:
Global Communications
P.O. Box 753
New Brunswick, NJ  08903



Be sure to tune in to Unraveling The Secrets Saturdays at 11:59PM EST
with your hosts, Wm. Michael Mott, Rick Osmon and Tim R. Swartz
on the PSN Radio Network.

www.soupmedianetwork.com/unravelingthesecrets/


Maria D' Andrea on Coast to Coast Jan. 18

Our good friend Maria D'Andrea, author of such books as: "Secret Magical Elixirs Of Life," "How To Eliminate Stress And Anxiety Through The Occult," and "Occult Grimoire And Magical Formulary," will be a guest on Coast to Coast this Friday Jan. 18.  Be sure to tune in for what will no doubt be a fascinating show.

Maria's website: mariadandrea.com

Biography:

Maria D'Andrea is an internationally known professional psychic from Budapest, Hungary. Since early childhood she has demonstrated high spiritual awareness and psychic ability. Over her lifetime and as a spiritual leader, she has provided psychic guidance and enlightenment to many people, assisting them on their own personal path of spiritual self discovery. Maria is known for a unique form of divination called Rune Casting. This method was used by Vikings and Europeans to unlock information about the past, present and future by tapping into the Universal Mind.


- UFOs AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION DEPARTMENT -

Were the Nazis Building Super Weapons?
By Micah Hanks

There are an entire host of conspiracy theories out there that involve the Third Reich and whatever supposed technologies the Nazis may have been designing during the Second World War. Ranging from nascent physics and aeronautics capable of producing flying saucers and elaborate underground bases, to the possibility that the Nazis had been planning their own design for a WMD on par with the Manhattan Project, there are a number of theories as to what, precisely, Hitler and his minions may have had in the works.

In 2010, the Daily Mail reported on alleged sighting of a “mysterious flying disc” seen in 1944 as it flew at low altitude over the River Thames, which was reported in prestigious sources that included the New York Times. Interestingly, there were said to have been photographs that accompanied the NYT story, detailing the craft’s path as it proceeded “at high speeds over the city’s high-rise buildings.”

Could such strange technologies really have been utilized by the Nazis prior to the end of the War? Surprisingly, while there is at least some anecdotal evidence that supports this, there may have been far more destructive technologies than supposed “flying discs” that the Nazis may have been developing.

The Mystery of the Nazi Discs

According to the Daily Mail article from 2010, the Germans had supposedly been developing plans for putting their flying discs in the airspace over Europe:

    “[T]he Germans destroyed much of the paperwork on their activities but in 1960 in Canada UFO experts managed to recreate the device which, to their amazement, ‘did actually fly’.

    The project was called the Schriever-Habermohl scheme. Rudolf Schriever was an engineer and test pilot, Otto Habermohl an engineer. It was based in Prague between 1941 and 1943.

    Initially a Luftwaffe plan after Hitler ordered his airforce chief Hermann Goering to come up with a super-weapon, it was eventually taken over in 1944 by [Hans] Kammler.”

KammlerHans Kammler (right), a high-ranking officer of the SS, had been placed directly in charge of the Nazi’s V-2 missile program toward the end of the War, though by 1942 he had already had a hand in the majority of the secret engineering projects the Nazis had been undertaking. These included advanced aviation projects, as well as Nazi underground bases, concentration camps, and other facilities for which clearance levels had been ultra-sensitive.

Opponents of the Nazi–UFO connection have argued, however, that if the Nazis had indeed been developing super weapons during the war, it is strange that their field-tested aircraft, captured by Allied forces following the War, were often inferior in terms of their structural integrity, employing wooden structures within cockpits that could have benefited greatly from the sturdiness that metal framework would provide. Of course, the reason for such material deficiencies had much to do with the fact that Nazi resources had been dwindling greatly toward the end of the conflict; arguably then, it would have been difficult for the Nazis to construct anything as advanced as the flying discs many purported to be seeing.

In large part, albeit curiously, the stories of Nazi flying discs appearing during wartime (and even those featured by more credible sources for such claims) would only be published following World War II. As researcher Kevin McClure had written of this angle to the mystery, there is literally “not one claim of flying Nazi discs [that] pre-dates 1949 and the increased US media interest in reports of flying saucers.” While this could suggest that the technologies underlying such craft had been regarded as highly secretive–especially during the War–the very fact that such stories of Nazi UFO technologies remain conspiracy theories today seems to warrant the idea that these technologies would still be considered highly secretive even in the present day. Thus, it would have been odd that mainstream media sources would be providing commentary on the alleged appearances of such craft.

On the other hand, what if the “appearances” of Nazi flying discs during the War Years had never really occurred, but instead these reports were fabricated for purposes of propaganda? How better to evoke paranoia from an enemy nation than to have a major media source carry stories about the alleged appearances of Nazi secret weaponry which, arguably, had seen a continuance with the ongoing reports of flying saucers throughout the late 1940s and into the height of the Cold War years. Nothing might be of greater concern to any major superpower than to create a public impression that the Nazis may have harnessed secretive technologies… and that someone else might have captured these technologies after the War, improved them, and was now putting them to good use.
Hitler’s Atom Bomb

While the debate over whether Nazi scientists were building flying saucers remains inconclusive, it is without question that the Reich had their sites on another potentially devastating technologies. In fact, while it is widely understood that the development of atomic weaponry by the United States had been the key technological development that turned the tides in favor of the allies, there is some evidence that suggests the Nazis were working on developing their own devastating nuclear technology.

Nazi-SubOn April 15, 1945, a German submarine Type XB U-boat known as U-234 departed from Kristiansand on a course for Japan, carrying along with their German crew a pair of Japanese Lieutenant commanders and two aircraft specialists. But of greater interest than their unique “guest” passengers had been the half ton of uranium oxide later recovered by Allied forces, upon the submarine’s surrender off the coast of Newfoundland one month later. (Radio contact with the captain of a sister vessel, German U-873, had resulted in a message confirming that Adoph Hitler had been killed, hence the decision of the crew of U-234 to surrender to America).

While the discovery of the large amount of uranium oxide aboard U-234 suggested that the Nazis may have intended to use it for a super-weapon, this information was suppressed throughout the majority of the Cold War years; it is nonetheless suspected that the recovered uranium stock contributed to the atomic weapons being developed in the states under the Manhattan Project. Researcher Joseph P. Farrell has taken the theory a bit further, developing a hypothesis that involves scenarios such as the spiriting of Nazi uranium out of Germany, which was deliberately handed off to American forces in an agreement that could have promised immunity to some of the compliant German officers. Other information that has appeared over the years in various affidavits and official testimony suggests that at least one test of a high-powered explosive device over the Baltic Sea may have occurred before the end of the War, further lending to the fire under the theories of a Nazi bomb.

So had the Nazis actually managed to build a functional WMD? Again, the notion seems remote… at least when we look at a conventional interpretation of history. Somehow, the obvious facts have managed to elude most, but certainly not all. In an article from the British Daily Mail dated July 13, 2011, the discovery of 126,000 barrels of nuclear waste material in an abandoned salt mine 2000 feet below the Earth’s surface led to new evidence regarding the extent of the Nazis’ supposed nuclear program:

    “A statement by a boss of the Asse II nuclear fuel dump, just discovered in an archive, said how in 1967 ‘our association sank radioactive wastes from the last war, uranium waste, from the preparation of the German atom bomb.’

    “This has sent shock waves through historians who thought that the German atomic programme was nowhere near advanced enough in WW2 to have produced nuclear waste in any quantities.”

This new information, paired with the discovery of data that alleges a bomb had actually been detonated, does seem to point toward the historical accuracy of theories that propose the Nazis had taken the necessary steps toward weaponizing their nuclear program:

    Although the war hampered their work, by the fall of the Third Reich in 1945 Nazi scientists had achieved a significant enrichment in samples of uranium.

    Mark Walker, a US expert on the Nazi programme said: ‘Because we still don’t know about these projects, which remain cloaked in WW2 secrecy, it isn’t safe to say the Nazis fell short of enriching enough uranium for a bomb. Some documents remain top secret to this day.

    ‘Claims that a nuclear weapon was tested at [the Baltic island of] Ruegen in October 1944 and again at [the Ohrdruf underground bunker complex in Thuringia] in March 1945 leave open a question, did they or didn’t they?’

Today, the history of the Western World as we know it certainly remains incomplete, and with a large amount of secrecy still appended to various clandestine programs the Nazis may have been undertaking, it stands to reason that far more may have been going on behind the scenes than many today even realize. This almost certainly had to do with weapons of mass destruction that could have been on par with what the United States used to end the conflict with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But in all likelihood, there are other facets of the Nazi intelligence that still remain hidden from public view… one can only guess what elements have managed to keep safely out of view of our mainstream history up until now; but despite remaining hidden, it is also likely that these innovations–whatever they may have been–have continued to have their technological influence on society, albeit in secretive fashion, since the end of the last great global conflict in modern history.

Source: The Gralien Report
http://gralienreport.com/ufos/ufos-and-wmds-were-the-nazis-building-super-weapons/

- A BIT OF UFO HISTORY DEPARTMENT -

A Special Look at a Pioneer in UFO Research
By Gene Steinberg

Although considered very controversial in science fiction circles, I wonder how many of you remember Ray Palmer, and his now mostly forgotten contributions to UFO research.

But first let’s look at his history in the sci-fi field.

Palmer, the editor of the famous sci-fi magazine, Amazing Stories, from the late 30s to the late 40s, published the first story from Isaac Asimov, and the final John Carter of Mars tale from Edgar Rice Burroughs.

But Palmer became infamous for introducing yet another writer to the magazine, who came to define, or undermine his career for the rest of his life, and that was Richard S. Shaver. In the early 1940s, Palmer received a letter from Shaver containing what was supposed to be a source language for humankind, from which other languages emerged.

There’s a fascinating story how an Amazing Stories editor thought it was a bunch of hooey and just threw the letter out, but Palmer overheard that editor’s comments, and promptly retrieved the letter, which he decided to publish in Amazing Stories to see how readers would react.

It’s truly fascinating how a single action can define one’s life. So that letter, and its publication, began an odyssey that consumed much of his life and led to Palmer taking on entirely new writing and publishing pursuits.

At first, Shaver’s stories, heavily edited by Palmer, were presented as fiction. Palmer soon startled (and irritated) the sci-fi world by stating that it was all true, that Shaver had really come into contact with a race of advanced beings who lived in caverns beneath the surface of the earth, known as deros, for the bad guys, and teros, for the good guys.

As you might expect, such seemingly outlandish claims caused heated debate among the magazine’s readers during the years in which Shaver’s material was published. Some suggested Palmer was just exploiting Shaver to build a high circulation. Perhaps that was so, in part, but the two became close personal friends, although they had a sort of falling out years later for other reasons.

Without going into detail, part of the conflict was that Shaver believed his experiences in the subsurface world were real, physical encounters, while Palmer said it was all very much in Shaver’s mind, when he was in a sort of trance state. But he nevertheless said he believed Shaver regardless of the source of his incredible experiences.

Palmer claimed, in fact, that Shaver predicted the arrival of the flying saucers when he wrote about advanced circular aircraft that had to fly in a zig-zag fashion to travel through the caves. Just a few years later, on June 24, 1947, businessman Kenneth Arnold observed nine objects flying in formation, in a sort of skipping motion, while traveling in his private plane in the state of Washington.

Thus began the modern flying saucer era.

Arnold and Palmer became friends, and the two wrote a controversial book, “The Coming of the Saucers,” part of which dealt with Arnold’s attempts to investigate, at Palmer’s behest, a UFO sighting at Maury Island.

Not long thereafter, Palmer teamed with a fellow editor, Curtis Fuller, to launch Fate magazine, which published a wide range of material that included flying saucer reports, ghost stories, and other articles about the strange and the unknown. Even though it passed through other publishers, Fate is still appearing in print and, now, in digital form.

In the 1950s, Palmer and Fuller went their separate ways, as Palmer established his own publishing operation in Amherst, WI, a tiny community that, today, has a population of slightly over 1,000. One of Palmer’s more popular magazines, Flying Saucers, was used by many young people as a vehicle to launch their own UFO research clubs. I know that many of my long-term friends in the field, including Allen Greenfield, Rick Hilberg, and others, were all introduced to me courtesy of a listing in Flying Saucers.

All of this social networking came decades before Facebook was a glimmer in the eyes of its founders.

In 1965, I had the pleasure of interviewing Palmer for the first time. The text of the interview was later published in “Caveat Emptor,” a magazine my first wife, Geneva, and I launched in 1971. I interviewed Palmer on two more occasions for all-night paranormal talk shows in the Philadelphia area.

Just as a side note: Palmer’s name has become famous in yet another way. A DC Comics character, Atom, created by sci-fi writer Gardner Fox, is known by his secret identity, Ray Palmer. And that is no coincidence.

Palmer died in 1977, but his influence is still being felt in the UFO field. On this weekend’s episode of The Paracast, Chris and I will be interviewing his son, Raymond B. Palmer, who offers some amazingly detailed remembrances of his father’s amazing career, and his ongoing impact. Tim Beckley, who also knew the Palmers, will be on board to offer his own memories.

When you hear about some of the things Palmer wrote about over the years, you’ll see that many of his theories and, frankly, thought exercises, are just as apt today as they were decades ago. Indeed, one point I often make is that UFO research hasn’t advanced all that much beyond the early days. Most people still believe the unexplained sightings to be visitors from other planets.

Yes, that seems to make perfect sense, considering that we are coming to realize that there may be untold numbers of inhabited, or potentially inhabited planets in our galaxy. Assuming even a small number of these worlds have advanced civilizations, I suppose it’s quite possible some of these races have visited us from time to time.

But if you probe the wide range of unusual activities that occur in an around the vicinity of UFO sightings, you’ll see that the mystery is a lot more complicated than it seems. That, in fact, is what Raymond A. Palmer was telling you over 50 years ago. What he said then is still topical in the 21st century.

After recording this weekend’s episode, during which I suggested to Ray’s son that someone needs to write a biography of his dad, I found out that two authors have, in fact, been doing just that. I hope to have more information about these potential books in the near future.

The Paracast Copyright 1999-2013 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

www.theparacast.com

- THEY WALK AMONGST US DEPARTMENT -

The UMMO Affair: Are Extraterrestrials Living Among Us? Part II
By Sean Casteel

One particularly interesting chapter in the Global Communications book “The Secret Space Program: Who Is Responsible?” includes an interview with Richard Dolan, the hugely respected author of “UFOs and the National Security State,” in which he puts forth the idea of a possible “Breakaway Civilization,” a secret cabal of highly advanced humans who possess new technologies the mainstream world has yet to dream of and who also have no intention of sharing their knowledge with the rest of the world, at least for now. Dolan theorizes that this breakaway civilization most likely took shape in the years after World War II, which would be consistent with the UMMO aliens claiming to have come to Earth in 1950. It is a given that the breakaway civilization may include aliens among its membership, especially human-looking aliens.

These same human-looking aliens most likely congregate in groups together, perhaps even building cities of their own and establishing small colonies throughout the Earth.

“At the beginning of their history,” Antonio Ribera writes, “they would have to live in burrows, like rabbits. Later, they would have to build a complex underground architecture.”

As they arrived on Earth, they quickly chose to locate in a semi-wild region, to avoid being discovered too soon. They found a hill near the small town of Digne in the south of France. At first, seeing the local buildings, they assumed them to be part of a scientific complex and were very surprised to learn the constructions were just for people to live in. During their first days on Earth, the UMMO aliens were extremely anxious, expecting immediate attack from Earth’s inhabitants and fearing they would have to rush out from their underground habitations and flee if their presence was somehow made known to the nearby earthlings.

Another group of UMMO aliens was located in Australia, near the town of Adelaide. One of the interlopers attempted to drive a car in their new home Down Under and died in an accident. The aliens are also said to be “hemeralopic,” meaning they have impaired vision during the daytime, so they live essentially during the night. In the day, they simply sleep, like owls.

“UMMO and the Extraterrestrial Papers” also includes some exchanges between a Canadian – given the pseudonym “Tony” to protect his privacy – and his UMMO correspondent, who calls himself “Mr. X.” It began when Tony was spending a particularly hot night in the summer of 1993 sleeping outside his home under the stars.  Around 2 to 3 AM, he was awakened by a high-pitched humming sound. After first thinking a high tension line near his house had snapped, he saw something that made his hair stand on end: about 50 to 100 yards away, a remarkably bright light was hovering in the sky. Then the object dimmed and headed out over a nearby clearing directly behind his house. Soundlessly, the UFO took off straight up into the sky and Tony never saw or heard it again.

Tony received his first UMMO letter two days later. The letter writer said that he knew all about Tony’s low-level UFO sighting and that he had been onboard at the time of the encounter. The letter writer also said that he and his fellow aliens had examined Tony’s “vibrations” and concluded that he posed no threat to their continuing operations in the vicinity of Tony’s home and that basically he was a kind person at heart who really cared about other people and wished to see those around him be prosperous and live in harmony.

The letters Tony received were all delivered by his friendly rural mail carrier, but his case was different in one important aspect: he was invited to ask Mr. X direct questions by return mail. Tony is told to send his letters to an address that is “checked every day,” but the address is withheld from readers, like Tony’s real name. What follows is a fascinating dialogue between a typical earthling and a correspondent claiming to be from the planet UMMO.

One of the first replies from the UMMO letter writer addresses Tony’s question, “What is the future of the human race? Are we destined to die on this planet? Please be specific, and please, no vague prophecies.”

Mr. X says, “The future of the human race is unfolding on many worlds throughout this galaxy. The true human race, that is. You see, Tony, Earth is like the black sheep of the family. The immediate concern is for mankind to become civilized. To be honest, quite a few up there believe the particular breed of human on this planet has been too badly damaged by genetic interference to ever achieve true civilization.”

As with the works of Zechariah Sitchin, Mr. X explains that man was created 52,000 years ago to be a slave race working the mines of the Earth for precious metals. The aliens genetically altered the indigenous pre-human animals existing here at the time. Mr. X admits it was an evil thing to do, but pleads that he and his alien race were “only human.” War broke out between two factions of the alien group, with the female side being the victors.

The alien females then resolved to train the Earth people in the art of civilization. Various teachers were sent throughout history to introduce a progressive system of moral and social guidelines, to mixed results. Currently, there is a rapid deterioration in mankind. A small percentage appears to be trying to advance while the majority is rapidly digressing.

“If left unchecked,” Mr. X warns, “the world would soon be inhabited by two species. Potential human beings and animals that walk on two legs and have the power of speech. Tony, if this sounds callous, remember they see mankind as a whole. They look down and see five hundred million people slowly starving to death when there is enough to feed everybody twice over. They do not consider this civilized behavior, do you? So what to do? If they do nothing, mankind will suffer by his own hand. If they interfere again, the karmic debt would be heavy indeed. It is at this particular juncture that we find ourselves.”

The focus of Mr. X then moves on to discussing the Gray aliens, who are said to be conducting a cross-breeding program in order to create a species that is a bridge between them and Earth humans.

“The intent is to create an interface being,” Mr. X says, “which will help in bringing the two races together. The Earth will be their joint home.”

There is a downside, however. The Earth is too populated and the genetic pool must be stabilized before the merging can take place.

“The current strategy,” according to Mr. X, “is to reduce the population by a minimum of two thirds. This is to be accomplished by the introduction of certain genetically engineered behavior and mutation-specific viruses. As a safeguard, the viruses will be easily prevented by correct responsible behavior. In other words, it will be easy for a human being to prevent contraction.”

When this process is complete, the Grays will arrive. What do you have to do to ensure your survival?

“Act like a human being,” Mr. X says. “It’s as simple as that. Stop killing each other over the most trivial of matters. If you survive, then the future you asked about is more wondrous than you can imagine.”

Tony angrily replies to Mr. X’s statements, saying, “I’m not sure I like the idea of us ‘black sheep’ changing into ‘hybrids.’ Yes, we’re violent, but, Christ, who said anything about merging genetically with ETs? Who agreed to this? What agreement are you talking about? Did the White House sign documents with these Grays, or the Elohim people? I like to think of myself as a decent person and I like to stay human. If I want to see the universe, must I become a hybrid?”

In taking this adversarial attitude, Tony actually pleases Mr. X.

“Some people would have viewed my statements,” he says, “as a fulfillment of their most dark and hidden desires. They could easily accept the annihilation of any amount of people if they believed the cause to be a just one. Others would feel outrage at the very thought of it. One is a HUMAN response and the other isn’t. Had you chosen the other, we would not continue this discussion. Compassion is a higher order emotion not found in the animal kingdom. Congratulations.”

Perhaps it is appropriate to mention at this point some verses from the book of Zechariah in the Old Testament. Chapter 13, verses 8 and 9 say: “In the whole land, says the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and only one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them.”

Like Tony, we shudder and grind our teeth at the thought this prophecy might be fulfilled, the “eradication” of two thirds of mankind, but it is nevertheless significant that Mr. X’s statements are matched by a Biblical passage that Tony himself was most likely not familiar with. When the Lord speaks of “refining and testing” his one third remnant, this can be seen as a metaphor for the Grays’ process of evolving chosen humans to a level closer to themselves.

All of which does indeed paint a morally complex picture that can’t be taken in with a single glance. Along with the dialogue between Tony and Mr. X, “UMMO and the Extraterrestrial Papers” contains the complete text of Antonio Ribera’s book, “UFO Contact From Planet UMMO: Fourteen Light Years Away – A Perfect Case?” Also included is “The UMMO Dictionary,” a listing of 403 UMMO words and their English translation. Never before has such complete and exhaustive information about the alien presence been put on offer. Even if the alien information is not genuine, then Ribera and the other UMMO correspondents have still somehow conjured a completely new world and provided lessons on physics and philosophy that were many years ahead of their time.

While the UMMO phenomenon continues to be relatively obscure, even within the UFO community, it is in any case a necessary component to add to one’s general education on the subject of extraterrestrial life.

[If you enjoyed this article, please visit Sean Casteel’s “UFO Journalist” website at www.seancasteel.com to read more of his articles and to purchase his books.]

Source: UFO Digest
http://www.ufodigest.com/article/ummo-affair-are-extraterrestrials-living-among-us-part-ii


- BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY -


Flame Retardant Chemical Found in US Soft Drinks

A substance patented as a flame retardant and banned as a food ingredient throughout Europe and in Japan is present in 10% of all soft drinks in the US. The December 12, 2011 issue of Environmental Health News reviews the history of this toxic ingredient, including the fact that "extreme soda binges - not too far from what many video gamers regularly consume" have resulted in skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders.

Fruit-flavored flame retardant
Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, Squirt, some flavors of Gatorade and Powerade, as well as other fruit-flavored beverages contain brominated vegetable oil (BVO). On the Nutrition Connection page of its website, the Coca-Cola Company, which manufactures Fanta, defines BVO's as "stabilizers to prevent the citrus flavoring oils from floating to the surface in beverages." In other words, as Environmental Health News explains, BVO weighs down the citrus flavoring so that it mixes with the other soda ingredients, just as flame retardants slow down the chemical reactions which can cause fires.

FDA says safe?
Brominated vegetable oil is derived from soybean or corn and contains bromine atoms. BVO was removed from the FDA's "Generally Recognized as Safe List" for flavor additives in 1970. The Flavor Extract Manufacturers' Association subsequently petitioned to get BVO re-approved, this time as a stabilizer rather than a flavor additive. Following the submission of industry-generated studies showing that BVO was harmless when present in soft drinks within "safe limits." The FDA in 1977 granted "interim approval" for use of the substance, limiting it to 15 parts per million. That interim has so far lasted 30 years. The Environmental Health News article quotes an FDA spokesperson as saying that re-examining the status of BVO "is not a public health priority for the agency at this time."

Many critics in the past have likened the reliance of governmental watchdog agencies like the FDA on industry studies to "the fox guarding the henhouse." One therefore might have cause to wonder about the scientific accuracy of those 1970s industry-generated data which persuaded the FDA to re-approve BVO. Even if those studies were accurate, toxicity testing has improved significantly in the past three decades.

Recent Research
Both animal research and human studies of bromine have demonstrated its toxicity, finding links to lowered fertility, early puberty onset and impaired neurological development. Studies have also shown that bromine builds up in the heart, liver and fat tissue. The accumulation may also appear in breast milk. Because of this evidence, some health safety experts are concerned about bromine's use even as a flame retardant which can be present in many household items.

Given the high levels of soda many people consume in the US, its presence in soft drinks is alarming. Health experts point in particular to the gamer culture where people may play video games for hours, drinking soft drinks throughout an extended session of gaming. Some soft drink companies, such as Mountain Dew, even offer game tie-ins, awarding players bonus points for drinking more of the soda.

Chemicals, Dollars and Health
The perspective of other countries on this US public health concern offers some interesting perspective. Wim Thielemans, a chemical engineer at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, points out soda manufacturers use natural hydrocolloids to perform BVO's emulsification function in countries where BVO is banned. Since there are viable alternatives to BVO's, Thielmans speculates that "the main driver for not replacing them may be cost."

BVO's are another in a long list of reasons to avoid drinking sodas, and to teach your children to appreciate healthier beverages. In addition to the high fructose corn syrup of "regular" sodas or aspartame in diet drinks, both of which bring a host of health risks, these are one more poison in the cocktail of chemicals contained in soda.

(Thanks to James Haarp for bringing this story to us!)

Source: Natural News
http://www.naturalnews.com/034448_brominated_vegetable_oil_soft_drinks_
chemical.html#ixzz2HawmlWIC

- SPOOKY STUFF DEPARTMENT -

Brad Steiger on 'Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places'
By Jeffery Pritchett

Most assuredly great to have Brad Steiger back with us at Examiner. In this interview we discuss his book "Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places". Delving into haunted locales around the world and knowledge regarding the spirit realm. A haunting of a time for sure when it comes to walking the corridors of Brad's mind. I hope you enjoy this interview.

1. Could you give us some background history wise on the Second edition of Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places?

BS: Since the book was first published by Visible Ink Press in 2003, I have received dozens of emails and letters from men and women who have recounted their own encounters with real ghosts and restless spirits and from those individuals who expressed their mixed emotions when they found themselves residing in haunted places. Although numerous readers commented on the enormous size of the First Edition and joked about how they could use the book to do bicep curls, this new edition, in addition to retaining the accounts of the earlier edition, contains many new accounts of hauntings and firsthand interactions with paranormal manifestations that can only be identified as ghosts, as well as many new and compelling illustrations.

2. What are your thoughts on ghosts? I am curious to hear your perspective on this? Like for instance if someone sees a ghost dressed in Civil War attire and once I saw Native Americans dressed in complete attire in spirit form. Do you feel these are glimmers from the past from our now moment or actual beings caught in limbo or spirits and they get to choose their wardrobe? Some thoughts on ghosts please.

BS: To answer your first question regarding the sighting a ghost in attire representative of an earlier time period, I would respond that you may well have a glimpsed a glimmer from the past or a combination of phenomena. To answer your second question, What are ghosts?, I offer the following theories:

1. Spirit Residue--After 60 years of research, I have found the largest number of haunted houses are due to what I term “spirit residue.” In these cases a powerful human emotion--fear, jealously, hate, pain--has been somehow impressed into the environment of the house or place. It is my contention that the sounds and sights of the haunting may be perceived by the psyche of the sensitive as if they were images on a strip of motion picture that keeps being fed through a projector again and again. The percipients of these kinds of hauntings cannot interact with the ghosts any more than one can speak with the images on a motion picture or television screen and have the pre-filmed images of the actors respond.

2. Spirits of the Dead--For many years I held stubbornly to the hypothesis that all ghosts were bits of psychic residue. I strictly separated evidence of survival of the spirit after death from accounts of ghosts. As my on-site investigations increased in number, I encountered spirit manifestations that clearly seemed to be the result of identifiable intelligences that wished to communicate messages from the Other Side to loved ones or to interested parties. Other haunting phenomena appeared to be caused earthbound spirits of deceased humans that were unable to detach them­selves from the people, places, and things of the physical world and had not progressed to the light of a higher dimension.

3. Poltergeists: --In common parlance, any violent and disruptive haunting is said to be caused by poltergeists--raucous entities that toss objects about the room. In the view of many psychical researchers, such phenomena is born not in the machinations of a ghost or spirit entity but rather in the psyche of a living being who is undergoing some kind of stress, psychic upheaval, or severe and dramatic psychologi­cal adjustment. Such an individual (most often an adolescent) expresses unconscious aggression toward others through dramatic manifestations of psychokinetic power (mind over matter). In some cases I have investigated, poltergeist phenomena have interacted with the haunting manifestations that already existed in the home, thereby producing intensely negative and disruptive energy.

4. Spirit Parasites: I used to be as dogmatically opposed to the concept of demonic possession. Many years of research and encounters with entities that are unabashedly evil have convinced me that homes in which murders or other violent physical deeds have been committed may become repositories for nonphysical leeches of the soul that I prefer to call "spirit parasites." These beings are hideous and grotesque in appearance, often manifesting as reptilian-like entities.

5. Spirit Masqueraders: I believe this class of pseudohauntings to be the machinations of another order of beings that in the past we may have called fairies, elves, or nature spirits. These beings are more nonphysical than they are physical. Indeed, they may be paraphysicaI interlopers from other dimensions. They are "in-between" beings, posing from time to time as ordinary humans, disguising the fact that they are really phantoms, creatures that have materialized from some haunted dominion unknown to us. In some benign instances, they may be angels in disguise that have come to give comfort, aid, and inspiration. In some of the more frightening cases, they may be fallen angels that aim to deceive, lie, and enslave. Theoretical physicists now speak freely about paral­lel universes; perhaps from time to time these entities intrude into our world from a universe that may almost be a mirror image of our own. Or perhaps, as the ancient philosophers suggested long ago, the appearance of spirits is evi­dence that we are part of a larger community of intelligences, a complex hier­archy of powers and principalities, a universe of interrelated species, both physical and nonphysica1.

3. Being a Stephen King avid reader I saw Shawshank was mentioned in the book as the Ohio State Reformatory? Is this the same Shawshank in the film? And could you give us some information about the hauntings going on there?

BS: The old Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield, Ohio, made famous by the motion picture based on Stephen King’s novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, is said to be haunted by the ghosts of inmates and guards alike, all of whom seem to be seeking some kind of spiritual redemption and peace.

When the reformatory was constructed in 1886, the architect Levi T. Scofield intended that his prison would fulfill the ideals of the mid-19th century-- to teach the incarcerated individuals a skill, instill within them a fear of God, and return to society as contributive citizens. The prison has the largest freestanding steel cellblock in the United States, with cells stacked six tiers high, 593 cells designed for 1,200 inmates.

The State of Ohio abandoned the old reformatory in 1990. In 1995, the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society convinced the state to rehabilitate the sprawling, castle-like prison. In 1999, the Society was permitted to purchase the reformatory and 17 acres for one dollar.

After the motion picture The Shawshank Redemption was released in 1994, the reformatory became popular both with movie fans and with ghost hunters. Among just a few of the restless spirits reported in the Ohio State Reformatory are the following:

*The inmate in Cell 17,who killed himself by dousing himself with light fluid, then lighting up his own body.
*The wife of warden Arthur Glattke, who died under suspicious circumstances in 1950.
*Arthur Glattke, himself, whose spirit has been seen in numerous spots in the reformatory.
*Urban Wilford, a guard who was killed during a prison break attempt in 1926.

In my book, I quote the October 13, 2002 issue of the Detroit Free Press, in which travel writer Gerry Volgenau described the spirit manifestations of the reformatory: “Ghostly images appear. Faces emerge in the shadows... Visitors hear voices, sometimes singing...Most unnerving of all, people say they’ve been touched: a flick to the ear, a finger poke in the shoulder, a push from behind, an ankle grabbed on the stairwell. And...they were utterly alone. Or were they?”

4. I am curious to the story of Abraham Lincoln consulting mediums? I really wanna see the film Lincoln. Would you share it with us?

BS: Abraham Lincoln was constantly chided by the newspapers of his time for his consultations with the spirit world. The Cleveland Plain Dealer lashed at him shortly after his election to the presi­dency for "consulting spooks." The president-elect's candid reply was: "The only falsehood in the statement is that the half of it has not been told. The article does not begin to tell the wonderful things I have witnessed."

Openly and admittedly, Abe Lincoln consulted me­diums and spiritualists of his day. Historians and bi­ographers have recorded that he had a strong spiritual heritage from his mother and her family. His consultations varied from those received from “granny women,” (backwoods fortune tellers) when he was in his youth, to sittings with the most famous mediums of the day during his tenure as president. Reared in an atmos­phere where people hearkened to advice from the spir­it world, he was never a skeptic.

In times of great crisis, the president's wife would arrange seances to calm her husband. Some of the gatherings took place in the White House itself. Nettie Colburn, a favorite medium of Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, as well as other Spiritualist channels would relay information from the spirit world which the thoughtful president would consider with all the intensity of his serious nature. Lincoln admitted that the messages he received from the spirit world enabled him to come through crisis after crisis. His influence extended to other figures of the time, and even the hard-nosed Union General and future president, U.S. Grant, later turned to Spiritualism.

5. What is a story in the book that you can share with us that you personally found to be the most perturbing?

BS: The old lumber baron’s home in Wisconsin contained elements of the paranormal that continue on occasion to haunt my dreams. The manifestations in that home constituted a persis­tent living nightmare for its occupants. The lady of the house appeared almost to be suffering psychic battle fatigue from her constant confrontation with the paranormal inci­dents in her home. We explored the basement, wherein she had so often heard heavy footsteps, thuddings, and scrapings.

We visited each of the upstairs rooms and discovered two additional “cold spots” to the ones we had discovered elsewhere.We ventured up to the attic where the family had so often heard the sound of heavy objects being dragged across the dusty floor. As we opened the door, we caught sight of a wispy something retreating to a darkened comer of the cluttered storage area.

Irene Hughes ( the late famous medium/seeress) gave many psychic impressions as we walked from room to room. As we toured the house, we were treated to an occasional object that suddenly became airborne without any apparent physical cause for its levitation. These were small objects, mostly children’s toys, such as an alphabet block, a plastic dish, and a little doll that had been made from a stocking.

The phenomena seemed to be centered in the second floor and the attic, and the family reported that they often heard the sounds of something heavy being dragged across the floor. Although the house was quite large, the entire family circle, which was composed of father, mother and three children, aged nineteen to six, slept in two rooms downstairs. No one slept upstairs.

The other center of the haunting appeared to be located in the basement, and the phenomena in the eerie area under the house consisted primarily of knockings, thumpings, and the sound of footsteps running down the stairs and shuf­fling across the floor.

According to family members, the ghostly manifestation of the haunting that terrified the family the most was the materialization of four skeletons in one of the upstairs bedrooms. After appearing in startling blood-red color, the skeletal figures would slowly manifest themselves in what appeared to be solid, three-dimensional representations of a man, two women, and a little girl. Each of the images appeared in period dress of what appeared to be fashions in vogue around the time of the 1890s.

Once the entities had fully materialized, a bizarre ethereal drama would unfold before any witness who might be present to observe the phenomenon. As the ghost of a lovely, long-haired blonde girl sat playing idly with her dolls, the man in the spectral re-enactment strangled one of the women while the other stood by with a pleased expres­sion of immense satisfaction. Over the years, various prior inhabitants of the house and other individuals who had witnessed the grim spirit portrayal had assumed that the haunting might very well have been set into motion by a tragic playing out of the eternal triangle. The ghastly re-enactment seemed to be telling those shocked persons who had witnessed the grisly performance that at some time in the past the man of the house had strangled his wife to please his mistress.

6. How about a positive story involving ghosts like a spirit appearing and bidding farewell to a loved one etc?

BS: I have so many in the book that it is difficult to select just one; however, here is one that is quite moving:

Feeling sad and depressed, Ken Lehmann had left the bedside of his mother, who was dying of cancer. The ordeal had been a long and painful one for his poor mother, as well as an emotionally exhausting one for him. Ken’s father had passed away four years before, and his mother had been in ill health since that time. His mother told him to go home and get some rest, Kenny. She said that he must not stay here another night worrying over her. She pleaded with him to goo home to see his wife Audrey and their children.

Ken said that he would go home and look in on his wife and kids, but then he would come back to the hos­pital in a few hours to be at her side. When he arrived at home, he saw that the kids were already tucked in their beds, so he sat and talked with Audrey and told her that he was certain that Mom was soon to pass. “I really didn't want to leave her alone,” he said softly, trying to hold back the tears.

Audrey urged him to get a little rest before he returned to his vigil at the hospital. She told him that she had a sales presentation to finish before she went to bed, so she would be up if the phone rang. Ken checked his watch and decided that he would nap for a bit before he returned to his mother’s bed­side.

“I couldn’t have slept more than thirty minutes when I felt what I knew to be the touch of my mother’s lips on my cheek,” Ken said. “It was a kiss of such sweet­ness and love that it could only have come from my mother. “I opened my eyes and sat up. I had left a small lamp on in the room, and there, in the dim light, I could distinguish a kind of mist that had assumed hu­man shape. Although I could not make out any distinct features, I knew that it was Mom. I felt the strongest emanations of pure love flowing to me from that vaporous form. Then it floated out of sight through the ceiling.” When Ken called the hospital a few moments later, he was not surprised to learn that his mother had just died. The night nurse said that she had been about to call him.

“The kind nurse spoke a few words to console me,” Ken said. “But I had just received the greatest sort of consolation from my mother, who had come to show me that there is life beyond physical death. And no one will ever be able to convince me that it was not my mother who gave me that wonderful good-bye kiss!”

7. Let's get into Shadow beings and poltergeists and spirit parasites and things of the negative persuasion. What are your thoughts on this phenomenon and how does one protect themselves from beings with negative intentions?

BS: Sherry and I try always to remember that negative entities and spirit parasites cannot achieve power over anyone unless they are somehow invited into someone’s private space or unless they are attracted to an individual by his or her negative thoughts and actions. A person will become especially vulnerable to such spirit invasion if he or she should abuse alcohol or drugs or exploit someone mentally, physically, or emotionally.

Evil or negativity is an imbalanced, chaotic, destructive en­ergy, the opposite of growth and productivity. When an individual is negative, depressed, and discordant, he or she opens the psyche to an invasion from a parasite from the lower frequencies of the spirit world.

One should be wary of an indiscriminate exploration of the occult or of “ghost hunting” in haunted houses or places. Without the proper discipline, study, and discernment, the ill-prepared will be liable to interact only with those entities who will seek to de­ceive and entrap them.

Experienced psychical researchers understand that the physical world is closer to the realm of the lower, more negative, spiritual fre­quencies of the spirit world than it is to the dimension of higher beings. Because we exist in a material world, our psyches will always contain more aspects that are similar to those of the lower vibratory realm than the higher spiritual planes.

If you should have an encounter with a negative being from the more chaotic regions of the spirit world, you will quite likely experience a prickling sensation that will seem to crawl over your entire body. You will instantly be filled with an awareness that you have entered into a very dangerous liaison. If you continue the contact, you will experience a mounting sense of terror or a distinct sensation of unease, depending upon the strength of the discordant vibrations emanating from the spirit parasite. If you should find yourself seem­ingly locked into such an encounter, utter prayers of love and harmony and ask that higher spiritual guidance be manifested around you.

Those who have accumulated many years of experience researching and exploring the unseen world have come to understand that the spirit world is populated by all manner of discordant entities as well as more benevolent and benign beings. Those psychic investigators who have spent many years perfecting their knowledge regarding the unseen world have also become very much aware that many of the inhabitants of other dimensions of reality have never been human. While some of these discarnates envy human flesh and their human experiences, other such beings hold the human species in the greatest contempt and will seek devious ways to humiliate and destroy their victims. The best way to avoid a negative encounter with a spirit parasite is to seek always to elevate one’s thoughts, works, and deeds to the highest levels.

8. What about the orb phenomenon? What exactly are orbs in your experience?

BS: I pretty much agree with George Michael who states In his e-book Colors of the Soul & Colors of the Web, that when people come into contact with true orbs, they are viewing real, interdimensional vehicles, known to the Egyptians as “sun boats” and referred to in the Bible as “Merkabah.” In the Kaballah and in certain schools of Jewish mysticism, the Merkabah (Merkavah) is the Divine Throne Chariot described in the prophet Ezekial’s mystical experience and is associated with the heavenly realms. In George Michael’s view the orb or Merkabah is how the soul gets around in the earthly dimension after its physical, material, life has ended.

Real orbs, Michael says, can be sensed or heard. The sound they make is a super-high tone, chiefly heard inside the head, beyond normal hearing. Many individuals who have encountered true orbs have experienced the orb speaking telepathically to them.

According to Michael, orbs have many appearances, including globes, globules, balls of light, and hovering round balls, and they range in degrees of illumination from bright and glowing to faded and barely-visible. There is great diversity among the erratic, fast-moving objects, Michael states, because there are many different types of orb phenomena. Some may even be separate life forms or nature spirits. The human spirit or ghost type, he says, are usually seen at about eye-level to about ceiling height and are often filmed in graveyards and haunted locations. The human spirit type may appear larger than some of the other types of orbs.

Hardly a week goes by that Sherry and I do not receive photos taken by sincere individuals who believe that the dust motes, water droplets, and insects are true orbs that they have captured on film.

9. What is the story of the Minotaur of Clearwater Florida by Azhran? I live in Florida and saw that story and thought it would be a weird way to depart this interview.

BS: I have corresponded with Azhran for quite some time and find his explorations into the unknown contain both mystical, as well as psychics, elements. The frightening encounter with the Minotaur seems an example of what he terms a “blend of harmonic inharmonies” that somehow manifest to form an image of a monster from the darker levels of the collective unconscious.

Quoting from his account:

Across the bridge [in the cemetery], the energies there are both very enticing, and heavy, lingering with the essence of damnation. It is here that this Minotaur reigns. Once you come back from the other half of this area, you are overcome with a peace and a more calming effect, in essence without realizing it you feel “safe” again, even though consciously (most times) you never felt like you were in danger to begin with.

I will never completely cross the bridge on the nights of the eerie fog because of what happened on this night I took five friends who were intrigued by my descriptions and wanted to explore. I still occasionally awaken screaming out of terror and guilt.

The night we went happened to be a very foggy evening. Once we spanned the bridge we could see the sidewalk how it curved around in all sorts of ways an eerie labyrinthine yellow brick road so to speak. Close to the ground was the eerie fog, a kind not seen too often in the humid climate of the summer in Florida.

Around a bend in the sidewalk we all saw the ghostly image of a man hanging from a branch at the top of one of the strangest looking trees I have ever encountered. We froze, the fog moved away from the tree as several spirits emerged all surrounding the tree, and then from behind the Minotaur emerged. The spirits were herded into a strange quasi circle as they moved around the tree and behind this creature. I hadn’t encountered something like this before, this was uncharted territory for me, and I was bothered because I had friends with me, who I now felt responsible for their safety, and wasn’t sure what to do. A passing train blew its horn, which snapped us out of it, as we screamed and bolted down the sidewalk, the only destination in mind was “Away”-- except for my friend Jack, who for whatever reason, charged the Minotaur, and the scene faded.

Azhran describes a harrowing time as he and his friends recover Jack and make their way out of the cemetery. Azhran and his five friends part, and it is several days before they make contact and he finds that most of them refuse to discuss the frightening encounter. Three weeks later, he finds that Jack has been taken to the emergency room. Later, Jack’s family flew him to his native home in Connecticut where two days later Azhran received a call telling him that Jack had crossed over. He died at the age of twenty-three, surrounded by his family.

10. What can we expect book wise in the future from the Steigers?

BS: In February, our Four-Legged Miracles: Heartwarming Tales of Lost Dogs’ Journeys Home. Sherry and I are currently completing Real Encounters, Different Dimensions, and Otherworldly Beings.

Thanks Brad.

Purchase this book and many other greats through Visible Ink Press.

Source: The Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/article/brad-steiger-on-real-ghosts-restless-spirits-and-haunted-places?cid=db_articles

- A HAUNTING WE WILL GO DEPARTMENT -

Darkness Abides: A Tour of Haunted Structures
By Scott Corrales

Haunted houses run the gamut from Great Britain's Borley Rectory, studied in the early days of paranormal research by the legendary Harry Price, to lesser known places like Madrid's Palacio de Linares. However, there are thousands of others that occupy the vast middle ground in between. The ones examined in this article belong in this category.

Mexico's rich and varied paranormal history (see "Ghosts of Old Mexico" in the February 2000 issue of FATE) includes places in which the shadows of the past still exert an uncomfortable grip on the present. One of these places is the city of Morelia in the state of Michoacán.

In 1984, a group of high-school students who had embarked upon a photographic tour of the Morelia's colonial past made a startling discovery: a photo taken in the City Library's stacks revealed--upon developing--an eerie silhouette projected on the neat rows of books. At first the students thought it was a trick of the light, or a prank played by a member of their group. But when Library employees were shown the image, they were able to identify it all too well as the outline of a "nun in blue" which has haunted the repository of knowledge for untold generations. Many of the City Library's holdings, it is said, once belonged to one of Morelia's convents.

Nor is identifying the deceased religious woman an easy task: Morelia's library is housed in an ancient stone building that dates back to the 16th century. Burials took place in the structure's floors and walls, and even the librarian's desk is located on top a slab covering an early 20th century burial.

"When I leave the building," stated library director Rigoberto Cornejo in an interview to the El Norte newspaper, "I feel the sensation of someone following me. In fact, I can even hear the footsteps." Although this sober-minded professional refuses to believe in the supernatural, he is hard pressed to find logical explanations for his experiences, or for those of his subordinates.

In 1996, library worker Socorro Ledezma requested a transfer from her work area in the colonial structure after an uncanny experience. "The time must have been seven o'clock in the evening," she told reporters from El Norte, "and it was getting dark outside...that's when I suddenly felt the presence of someone standing behind me, blowing in my ear. I was unable to turn around, and my body was gripped by a chill."

The haunted Mexican convent has a counterpart across the Atlantic: the ancient convent of the Arrecogidas (cloistered sisters) in Madrid, located at 86-88 Calle Hortaleza, has steadily gained the reputation of being a haunted location ever since the labor union known as U.G.T. (Union General de Trabajadores) established its headquarters at said location. A number of union leaders who remained into the wee hours of the night hammering out collective bargaining agreements claim felt cold chills upon hearing strange voices, murmurs and the sounds of doors opening and closing all by themselves.

One of the more remarkable agreements involved the office of Antón Saracibar, one of the labor union's former directors. Every morning, his staff would arrive at work to find hand prints on the leather sofas and sunken areas suggesting someone had been sitting in them overnight--despite the fact that the executive office was carefully locked every evening. The incidents caused no-nonsense labor officials to request the aid of prominent parapsychologists.

Historical background checks soon attested to the building's tormented past. Centuries ago, the nuns had turned their fortress-like building into a home for "wayward girls and fallen women," toward whom they behaved more like jailers than helpers. The building's popularity as a place of torment was such that the renown filmmaker Pedro Almodovar used it as the scene for one of his projects, Entre Sombras ("Among Shadows").

The hauntings appear to be circumscribed to the former convent's lower floor, where the cemetery used to bury deceased nuns was located. When the U.G.T took over the building as its main office, the convent's chapel was turned into the main room in which press conferences were to be held, and the choir area became the office of another union executive. Serious consideration was given to the removal of mortal remains from niches in the crypt to make way for computer servers, but wiser heads prevailed and a door was built to bar access to the old convent's lower levels.

Have efforts been made to contact the deceased occupants of these old structures, ridden with memories? The answer to this question is apparently affirmative. In 1995, Father José María Pilón of the Society of Jesus delivered "The Ata Report" on the subject to the board of governors of the Reina Sofía Museum of Art in Madrid, which had formerly been the San Carlos Hospital. The controversial aspect of Father Pilón's effort was that contact had allegedly been made through a Ouija board.

According to Sebastián Rodríguez Galindo's report on the subject in April 1996 issue of Mundo Paranormal, a team of paranormal experts composed of Sol Blanco Soler, Paloma Navarrete, Jose Luis Ramos, Piedad Acevedo, Lorenzo Plaza an Jaime de Alvear, looked into the "psychic presences" in the former hospital, which were allegedly responsible for activating elevators that had been shut down, opening locked doors, and perhaps more chillingly, "processions of entities wearing religious garb moving down the hallways." The majority of the witnesses in these cases were members of the buildings custodial and security staff.

Among the entities contacted by means of the Ouija board were "Malé", a Jewish woman who had lived at the site in 1594; "Aldonza de los Angeles", who claimed having been the prioress of the building's religious community in 1750, and last but not least "Ataulfo" or "Ata" (who gave the report its name): a dangerous, psychopathic patient of the hospital who confessed to having committed five murders while alive.

The Watchman's Story

In 1995, a night watchman known only by the initials "M.A.P." was on duty at the RENFE (Spain's national railway) station in the town of La Cañada in the province of Avila where the events took place. The 25 year-old watchman was accompanied in his rounds by his dog Yeny, who began to issue pitiful howls shortly after ten o'clock on February 8th. Fearing that vandals were on the premises, the watchman left his shack only to find his dog running toward him for protection. When he looked toward the right, he was further amazed to see a slight young woman dressed in white, with long black hair, advancing slowly along the platform. Although her face was covered by a thin veil, "M.A.P." would later tell researcher Carmen María Porter that the woman in white was "quite a looker."

But his enjoyment of her unearthly beauty came to a sudden end when he realized the figure stood some fifty centimeters above the surface, while drawing symbols on the ground with what appeared to be some sort of cane or staff.

Gripped by fear, the watchman abandoned his post and ran to a nearby bar, where patrons were startled by his sudden entry and the deathly pallor on his features. After drinking some soothing tea, the watchman was able to explain what happened and was escorted back to La Cañada Station by the bar's owner and some patrons. The enigmatic figure was long gone, but the symbols she had drawn were there for all to see.

Witnesses said that the letters S,T,N,D and L , plus the word "BEL" had been placed within a double circle containing a Star of David. Renown paranormal expert Juan García Atienza noted that the symbol found at La Cañada was "a magic circle designed for protection against evil."

Many of the townspeople refused to believe that a mere ghost had drawn the strange sigil, and word soon spread that "Our Lady of La Cañada" had appeared to affirm her protection of the community and the railway platform soon became a minor place of pilgrimage.

Mansions of Darkness

The abandoned house at Calle Aramberri 1026 received national attention when a Monterrey, Mexico newspaper ran an article about it, citing the strange screams, supernatural manifestations and other unusual events surrounding it. It wasn't long before the structure became a minor tourist attraction--grownups would photograph it during the daylight hours and raucous gangs of teenagers would break into it at night, hoping for a chance encounter with the ghost that has supposedly haunted it since the 1930's

"We went in last night and let me tell you, when we noticed one of the windows in the back, we saw a woman's face, a woman dressed in white, who appeared and disappeared," explains one of the nightly visitors interviewed by the newspaper.

A murder took place within the house in 1933, when a woman and her daughter were brutally slain one evening by her husband. The story goes that it was the family parrot who gave away the culprit: so terrible had been the screams that night that the words had become imprinted in the animal's brain: The bird shrieked "Don't kill me, Gabriel, don't kill me!" and this evidence was deemed sufficient to arrest the murderer.

The house, built in the early 1900's, has remained empty ever since that tragic night out of a fear that a "curse" weighs heavily on the structure.

Ricardo Zavala told reporters that when he learned of the haunted house's existence, he decided to come from a remote part of the state of Nuevo Leon to share in the mystery. He added that the evening he chose to visit had been particularly eerie, since when a group of youngsters went in, one of the last windowpanes that remained whole shattered without any apparent cause.

The newspaper story added that groups of four to five people have entered the house at different times to pray for the wandering souls to rest, or else to invoke them and ask them to disclose the reason for their remaining in this world...

As compelling as the story surrounding the Monterrey house may be, few accounts involving haunted edifices can compare to the one described by French paranormal author Robert Touquet in his book Le Bilan du Surnaturel ("Inventory of the Supernatural" ). Even if the case involving the occupants of the grand old structure known only as Le Prieuré --The Priory-- should ever be proven to be a hoax, it would nevertheless rank among the finest Gothic stories ever put on paper.

On July 6, 1955, a wealthy French matron known only as "Madame V." moved into the magnificent 17th century monastery which had once housed a nameless religious order. The French Revolution had expelled the monks and turned the building over to private hands. Madame V. and her two sons, Jean, 20 and Gaston, 30, were more than delighted to live in the huge, rambling structure. But Madame V.'s enjoyment of her new property was to be short-lived: on July 10th, while sleeping in the sprawling chamber that had once been the Prior's room, she woke up to see "a thin shadow formed of opaque fog, behind which there seemed to be a light." As her eyes adjusted, she saw that the human figure wore long robes and its head was covered by a cowl. Frozen in terror and unable to scream, there was little she could do as the figure progressed to the room's fireplace and knelt before it three times, its shadowy hands clenched in a prayerful manner. The hooded figure rose and vanished into another room, from which the terrified woman heard the sound of a body falling on the tiled floor.

Daybreak could not come fast enough, and in the warm summer morning, Madame V. wondered if she had been the victim of some kind of delusion or nightmare. Her sleep was troubled some weeks later by a repetition of the same scene, and she cursed her inability to overcome the overwhelming fear that kept her from taking any action. Having grown up with the stereotypical concept of ghosts--a skeleton covered by a sheet--she could not believe that the shadowy figure could be anything other than an elderly monk doing his devotions.

But things changed dramatically during the third nocturnal encounter: the hooded figure appeared to shake, as though convulsed by weeping. A voice could be heard, coming not from the figure but from an uncertain location: "Mercy, dear Lord, have mercy on me! Forgive me, Jesus!"

As Madame V. would tell Touquet, these words emboldened her to address the specter. It turned toward her, and the same disembodied voice demanded: "Why are you here? No one has the right to disturb the peace of a house that was built for the greater glory of God."

The exchange between the frightened homeowner and the otherworldly figure suggested that the long-dead monk was well aware of the affairs of the living, and of its own plight--no mindless ghost repeating senseless behavior. It made certain apocalyptic prophecies before asking Madame V. two questions: why hadn't she fed the prisoner in the basement, and why had she left the statue of the Blessed Virgin to lie among the rubble?

According to Touquet, Madame V. made up an excuse the following morning to have her sons go down to the extensive aumbries beneath the monastery. Both men reported finding what appeared to be prison cell and a religious statue, which was cleaned off an placed in the old monastery's oratory.

This should have satisfied the departed monk, but it only prompted the specter to reappear eleven more times on consecutive nights. Jean and Gaston began to notice the physical toll on their mother, who was becoming gaunt and unable to eat. Madame V. made the decision to abandon her bedroom and relocate to a smaller one which would hopefully not be visited by the supernatural presence.

The night she did so, a series of loud banging sounds shook the walls, loud enough to cause Jean and Gaston to wake up and conduct a thorough inspection of the premises, even the attic, thinking that an animal had somehow gotten into the house. Madame V.'s thoroughly Cartesian sons (who did not believe in God, Devil or supernatural events, according to Touquet) were at a loss to find a ready answer to the loud sounds. The violent blows continued for a number of nights, causing the men to believe that an intruder had gotten into the house through the extensive underground level.

It would not be long before Jean, the youngest son, began seeing things as well. "It's odd," he reportedly told his mother. "I notice as though something was following me. I've turned around yet can't see anything." He added having caught glimpses of a "black thing" floating beside him, but scoffed at the notion of ghosts.

Peace reigned at Le Prieuré for a while, until a new phantom entered the scene: a tall menacing figure, wearing what appeared to be a bishop's miter and cassock. Madame V. felt herself weaken and break into a cold sweat as the figure ordered her to leave the house, which had been "wrongfully seized from a religious order."

Skeptics Gaston and Jean were now beginning to hear clanging metallic sounds coming from behind the old stone walls and could not find any hidden chambers or passageways to account for them. One morning, while Madame V. and Gaston were sitting down to breakfast, Jean barged in shouting that "the ghost has crossed the main hall and gone into the library." A skeptic no more, the younger of Madame V.'s two sons would begin experiencing his own series of encounters with the unknown, some of them so unnerving that on October 28, 1956, he phoned his mother, who was staying in Paris, and asked her to return to Le Prieuré, since "he was beginning to go crazy." Upon her return, Madame V. sent Jean away to the city and remained in the old monastery all by herself.

Photographs of one of the ghosts were taken on two separate occasions, according to Touquet: October 18 and 26, 1956. The images show a dense light-grey vapor. But something even more important occurred on the second of these dates.

Having dropped off Gaston at the local train station, Madame V. returned home with great sadness only to find the ghost standing on a small landing on the staircase. Angrily, Madame V. charged up the stairs, uttering angry words. She thrust her hands into the mass of grey vapor. A sensation of glacial cold and shock washed over her as the figure vanished. Fortunately, Jean had seen her rash action and ran up to aid her, helping her to her room. Her hands swelled up and burned as though frostbitten; it was necessary for Jean to carefully saw his mother's jewelled rings off her hands. The swelling remained for two months, leaving small burn and scratch marks as a result of the experience.

The woman told Touquet that for a long time she had wanted to discover "if there was a skeleton" under the ghosts' shroud of grey vapor, but had felt nothing more than cold, viscous vapor.

But Madame V. would have a further encounter with the ghost on the landing, and a rather lengthy conversation, on the last sunday in March, 1960: She was alone at Le Prieuré with her dogs, when the animals began howling. The phantasm stood on the small landing on the staircase, holding its hands imploringly: "Release me from my chains!" it begged.

When asked how she could help, the entity told her he had died without having received the sacraments, and was punished for having allowed a man to starve to death in the cell beneath the monastery. He was slain and buried with his fellow monks under the building, and needed to have "the sign of the Cross and holy water poured over him".

In 1975, moved by this thoroughly compelling story, Spanish paranormalist Salvador Freixedo contacted Robert Touquet and inquired as to the possibility of visiting La Prieuré and conducting research. The author replied that Madame V., unable to cope with all of the manifestations, had sold the property to a construction company, which had in turn knocked it down to build a housing development. Freixedo speculated that "it would not be surprising for the monk to reappear in the houses which coincide with the exact location of the old monastery."

Haunted Buildings, New and Old

Literature and cinema have conditioned us to envision haunted houses as looking very much like the aforementioned monastery of Le Prieuré or the dark tezontle stone of the Mexican library in Valladolid. We often forget that more modern edifices can be just as haunted...and some have fiery stories to tell.

Researcher Bruno Cardeñosa interviewed a flight attendant for Aviaco, a major Spanish airline, whose flight crew had been booked into one the Meliá Corona, one of the city of Zaragoza's upscale hotels. "I knew nothing about the room [I was staying in], but the fact is that one night I felt the oppression of another presence. I could feel it at the window, as if trying to open it but unable to do so," she reported. "Nor could I sleep, since I felt that someone was looking over me just as I was drifting off. I thought it must be my nerves, or that my imagination playing tricks on me, but when I mentioned it to one of my colleagues, she told me immediately: "you must've spent the night in room 510. There's something going on there. You aren't the only one who's felt it."

Apparently no one in the Aviaco crew knew that the posh Meliá Corona had been the ill-fated Corona de Aragon hotel, which had been devastated by one of the most terrible hotel fires in history: seventy-nine guests died in 1981, unable to escape from the raging flames. Room 510's reputation precedes it: many guests have been unable to spend the night there, having heard the terrifying voices and cries of those who tried to open the window to hurl themselves to their deaths rather than burn.

Five years later and half a world away, a similar fate befell the Dupont Plaza hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, destroyed by an arson fire on New Year's Eve 1986. Although the death toll did not rise to the numbers of the Corona de Aragón conflagration, repair crews reported hearing screams and voices during the ten year span of the restoration effort.

The tragedy of human-initiated fires is awful enough; but what are we to make of fires of unknown (read paranormal) origin?

In April 1996, a series of strange fires took place in a farmstead near Sillobre, Spain. The small, random fires became an understandable source of concern to the owners, who asked officials for advice and assistance. Officialdom limited itself to recommending "a thorough cleaning of the septic tank" on the chance that an accumulation of gases could be the source of the small blazes. But despite the sanitizing effort, the phenomenon returned yet again to trouble authorities of the Xunta de Galicia, who steadfastly maintained that the problem stemmed from nothing more than a gas pocket and was "a phenomenon which lacks any scientific explanation at the moment."

Curiously, Carlos Muñoz, the environmental delegate in the nearby city of La Coruña, averred that the source of the problem were unknown "energies" which concentrate in the region and start the fire. The exact nature of the energies involved remained a mystery (CIPNO# 12, November 1996).

A 1995 report from Spain discussed a strange "poltergeist" case from the town of Coslada, a suburb of Madrid, which was so severe that it forced the embattled family to desert it. A succession of bizarre knocking sounds, unexplained crashing noises, sudden fires and odd shadow on the wall caused the building's occupants to contact a clairvoyant. The anonymous seer said that whatever the source of the paranormal infestation was, "it was too much for him": the forces possessing the house were apparently stronger than the psychic's ability to remedy the situation.

Worse than the poltergeist phenomenon was the fact that the family's son acquired an unusual blood disease which medical experts described as being hereditary in nature--the only problem was that such an illness had never been recorded on either sides of the family. The report concludes by stating that the structure's weary residents tore down the wallpaper in an effort to reduce possible fuel sources for the spontaneous fires, and were startled to find "weird symbols" on the wall which no one could identify.

An epidemic of phantom fires broke out in Chile in April 2001 and soon achieved international attention.

The modest home of Miguel Ulloa, his wife Irma, and their two children, Jesús, 2, and nine month old Moisés, became the focus for this most fearsome type of paranormal event. Spontaneous fires were erupting simultaneously, even setting the edges of a leather-bound Bible on fire shortly after a priest had said the Lord's Prayer within the structure.

Unlike most instances of paranormal "firestarting", there were plenty of witnesses to this one. Reporters from Chile's La Cuarta newspaper and other print media were present to witness--and photograph--the unholy blazes as they erupted along a wall and the home's ceiling.

Miguel Ulloa told the media that he was convinced that his family's unity and the religious assistance received would "get the devil out of the house once and for all. We want it to leave us alone."

On April 10, 2001 and in another neighborhood of Santiago de Chile, apartment dwellers Luis Torres and Carmen González were astonished beyond words after returning home and witnessing smoke and flame emerging from a hand towel in their bathroom. Shortly after, the plastic shower curtains were aflame. "The plastic shower curtains were burning. I threw water on them and my wife started to become hysterical", Torres would later tell reporters from the evening newspaper "La Segunda".

After a few minutes, the couple noticed how the right side of their bed, the blanket and the quilt started to burn. They methodically began to remove clothing and combustibles from the apartment in order to pour water over them, only to find that the bathtub itself, despite being full of water, was also blazing. Smoke poured from the closets as a startling discovery was made: the clothes hangers were aflame, but the clothes themselves were not.

Christian Chereau, a veteran lieutenant with the Santiago Fire Department and an expert in chemical fires, told the media that the fires in the Torres González household were beyond belief. "There really isn't a logical explanation, therefore, I believe that the next course of action that the Fire Department will have to take involves an exorcism."

Although neither the EFE newswire nor the Chilean newspapers provided any follow-ups on each couple's experiences, it is interesting to read what authors Fátima Machado and Wellington Zangari have to say about these incidents in their book Conversando Sobre Casas Mal-Assombradas (Sao Paulo: Ediciones Paulinas, 1995). Discussing cases of spontaneous psychokinesis, the authors suggest a double approach: first, determining that the case is clearly paranormal and not a hoax, and second, determining if a human agent is responsible for a "psychic hemorrhage" or spontaneous PK in a 50 meter radius, or if a discarnate being is involved. Machado and Zangari are convinced that family psychotherapy is especially helpful in these cases (an avenue suggested in the case of both Chilean families by parapsychologist Juan Pardo, who insisted that both families were "unable to control their energies" and that the source of the fires was "within their unconscious"), and that important distinctions must be made between a haunted house and a location in which a poltergeist outbreak has occurred: apparitions remain in the haunted house, observe the authors, while poltergeists trail along with the affected family no matter where they happen to go.

Within the Walls of Stone

The reason for hauntings, on certain occasions, is more often than not of a grisly nature. This is the case of Venezuela's "House of Stones" (la casa de las piedras) in Ciudad Bolivar.

The unwholesome location would have gone ignored by the rest of the world had it not been for an article appearing in Nueva Prensa (nuevaprensa.com.ve) describing the experiences of one Esteban González (pseudonym) on a rainy evening in May 1998. González was driving down Ciudad Bolivar's Libertador Avenue when every system in his car -- a Chevy Chevette -- went dead, forcing the driver to coast to a halt, much like occurs in UFO cases. Surprised by the unexpected occurrence, González got out of the car and looked under the hood, unable to find anything wrong. At that moment, he heard the howling of dogs coming from within a stone structure not too distant from his car. The driver had no idea that his car had gone dead in front of the "Casa de las Piedras" -- also known as "la Casa del Diablo" (the Devil's House).

A noxious odor wafted through the air, unexpectedly, causing González to feel fear. He would later tell reporters for Nueva Prensa that he felt the presence of "something supra-normal" at the location. He admitted to having heard of the legend, but having paid little attention to it. His experience was merely one of many involving the abandoned house whose back yard --as was discovered in 1968 -- was a charnel pit containing the bones of children and dogs alike.

The newspaper article characterizes the structure as "a building of European influence, with part of its walls made of stone, as well as the enclosing perimeter. It has a chimney inside it and strange spots cover the walls." As if this didn't suffice to put off curiosity-seekers, the entry adds: "[it] is similar to castles found in a horror movie, or the cloisters of a forsaken abbey."

"Casa de las Piedras" has been abandoned for years, and those who pass in front of it claim having had strange experiences. Stranger still are the experiences of those who have tried to occupy the old structure, usually vacating it within days.

In the 1960s - or so the story goes - the grim structure was the home of a tall Trinidadian gentleman, dressed in somber clothing. His presence was a cause for concern among the locals, as he was know for his irrational attachment to dogs - mainly Dobermans and Rottweilers, which followed him everywhere as he bestrode the streets of Ciudad Bolivar, always wearing an outsized black hat.

"It was then," says the Nueva Prensa article, "that reports of strange disappearances of 10-year-old boys and girls began to circulate. Police inquiries eventually lead to the place in question: Casa de las Piedras. A pit containing the remains of children and dogs was found in 1968, while Satanic symbols were found on the walls along with the so-called "Black Bible" (Anton La Vey's Satanic Bible, perhaps?). The Trinidadian - allegedly responsible for the slayings - vanished and was never seen again.

In the mid-1970s, according to the feature, a couple from Bolivar moved into the house, unmindful of the dark lore that surrounded the stone structure. The unexplained sound of howling dogs did not appear to deter them either, but having their their bed "supernaturally and inexplicably" shaken with savage force one night prompted them to move out the next day. Twenty years later, the local government arbitrarily housed a group of wandering natives in the abandoned house. That very same night, the natives were seen running down Avenida Libertador, shouting for help. In broken Spanish, one of the indians (possibly a Warao tribesman) said that the ghost of "a tall woman, dressed in white and with eyes blazing like hot coals" appeared. Even more disturbing was the description of the entity making "the sound of clacking bones" as it walked.

Religious authorities in this predominantly Catholic country, when consulted as to the possibility of performing an exorcism on the old house, replied that there were no plans for a face-off with the supernatural forces generated by the worship of evil at that location. "Better to leave it unoccupied, and keep things as they are."

Conclusion

Believing in ghosts or haunted houses appears to require very little suspension of disbelief for most people. Even the most hardened skeptic is willing to entertain a story about a haunted house or the unexpected apparition of a long-deceased relative rather than deal with UFO cases, for example. Since nothing human should be alien to us, according to the ancient Roman philosophers, the presence of departed humans in old buildings should hardly constitute any surprise.

But few among the living actively enjoy these fleeting brushes with the afterlife, as can sometimes be experienced in a structure heavy with the past. Popular television programs have lead us to believe that most of these locations are in cold, damp Northern European locations that are better suited to ghostly activity. However, Southern Europe and Latin America can hold their own when it comes to haunted places.

Source: Inexplicata
http://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2013/01/darkness-abides-tour-of-haunted.html

- SICK BUILDINGS DEPARTMENT -

Unknown "Fumes" Sicken Wal-Mart Customers and Employees


A "mysterious illness" that caused nausea, vomiting, and upper respiratory issues caused the evacuation and shut down of an entire Wal-Mart shopping center in Pennsylvania on February 12, 2013, and officials still have no idea what caused the strange event.

Firefighters from Center Township were called to the store at around 7:00 PM after both employees and customers began vomiting and having trouble breathing. Wal-Mart employees believed the cause of the odd event was emanating from the grocery section, roping it off from customers before the sickness began overtaking the rest of the store.

Center Twp. Fire Chief Bill Brucker mentioned feeling his airways close up when called to investigate, but couldn't explain it.

"I wasn't back there long before I started to feel something in my throat," Brucker told the Beaver County Times. "I couldn't pinpoint a smell or a cause, though."

At least two customers were affected so badly that they were rushed to the hospital in ambulances, with at least another three driven by car.

When the firefighter's own air quality tests didn't turn up anything odd, they called in the county's hazmat team who also came up empty handed, though Brucker wondered if that might have anything to do with the fact that the store's air conditioning had been reversed to filter the air by the time the team had arrived.

Not too long afterwards the store re-opened without any further incidents of unexplained sicknesses. Wal-Mart did not issue a statement, and no medical test results from those who fell ill were ever released.

"I don't know if we'll ever find out the cause," Brucker said.

Source: Beaver County Times
http://www.firehouse.com/news/10853043/source-of-pa-walmart-illnesses-still-a-mystery


- BIG BOOM DEPARTMENT -

Something Definitely Going 'Boom' in the Night

EVANSVILLE — One thing's for sure: Something keeps going boom during the night around the Evansville, Indiana area.

But authorities have yet to determine what is responsible for the loud sounds.

Local residents, mostly on Evansville's East Side and in Warrick County including Boonville, started reporting the mysterious sounds late Monday night. Additional reports of similar noises were also logged Tuesday night.

Caleb Donahoo, 24, said he has heard the booms each night at his home, which is in the Lynch-Green River roads area, with Monday night definitely being the loudest.

"The first night, it was about 11:45-ish. That was the loudest one we've heard so far. I was asleep, and it woke me up. It rattled the windows and the house and everything," Donahoo said Wednesday evening.

The incidents have spawned much speculation on social media, with theories ranging from a blown power transformer to a meth explosion or a sonic boom from some sort of aircraft, but so far nothing has been conclusive about the sounds' origins.

Vectren Corp. has no record of any blown transformers in any of the areas where the sounds were reported either night, according to spokeswoman Chase Kelley, though she said several of the company's own employees had asked a supervisor if a blown transformer was a cause of any of the sounds.

Others speculated it could be a mine blast, but Evansville-based Vigo Coal, which operates in Boonville, said its permit prohibits blasting work from dusk to dawn.

Sherman Greer, director of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency, said authorities from several agencies have investigated, but all of them have been dead ends.

"We checked with (Department of Homeland Security) in Indianapolis, we checked with the Indiana University Geological Survey, and they didn't have any specific evidence or anything like that," said Greer.

Though he said he has no idea what could have caused the booms, Greer said the phenomenon has certainly sparked conversation.

"We've been more or less listening to the chatter over the radios and what's going on Facebook and Twitter and everything else to see what other people are saying," he said.

Greer declined to offer any guesses of his own about the sounds' cause, saying he wouldn't want to "put fear in anybody or anything like that."

Other than thunder, a group of National Weather Service meteorologists at the Paduach, Ky., office couldn't offer any weather-related explanations for such an occurrence.

Donahoo simply hopes a source is located soon.

"Somebody out there knows. Now it's just who is going to step up and say 'Yeah, we know what's going on,' or 'Yeah, it's our fault.'"

One thing's for sure: Whatever caused the sounds is becoming a discussion topic that seems to be growing as the mystery remains unsolved.

"I had a deputy ask me about that (Wednesday) morning," Gibson County Sheriff George Ballard said, "he said, 'Have you been hearing about these booms that have been going on around?' ... but I'm not aware of any reports here."

Interestingly, there have been reports of unexplained booms from Arizona to Rhode Island. No one has been able to explain them.

Source: The Courier Press
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/jan/09/nighttime-booms-have-area-residents-puzzled/

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