The Occult Section

I know I usually tackle the UFO and monster sides of the paranormal and leave the ghostly stories to Laura, but I had to comment on this story after watching the accompanying video. Being a professional paranormal investigator for the past four years, I have seen many things, and many of those things have been extremely strange. But many of those extremely strange things, upon closer examination, could be explained rationally. And perhaps the biggest thorn in the side of any serious paranormal investigator with half a brain is the orb phenomena. Orbs are little round objects, usually semi-transparent, that show up in pictures. This basically happens when the flash of the camera illuminates tiny objects that usually can’t be seen by the naked eye, like dust, water droplets, pollen, bugs, etc. But there is a certain segment of people out there, and many of them calling themselves serious paranormal investigators, who think these are ghosts. So they’ll take a picture in a cemetery at night, or in a building where lots of construction is going on, and see all the little dust particles or raindrops and say “Look at all the ghosts we caught! I can see faces!” These people are seeing what they want to see. And the media is not doing anything to help. Witness this story from WHNT News:

TUSCUMBIA, AL – Something eerie may be lurking in the Colbert County EMA office. On the surface, his office appears normal, but EMA Director Mike Melton is convinced that he may be sharing his office space with the paranormal.

“It appears that there’s some type of dimension or something that a flash of the camera can pick up that we might not be able to see,” said Melton.

That’s because of a photo taken of Mike’s office during it’s renovation several years ago. The original image is covered in blurry white spots with faint outlines of human figures in the background. EMA employees agreed it looked peculiar.

John McWilliams, a local historian, enhanced the clarity of the image, revealing what appears to be a line of ghostly figures.

“When I saw it, I didn’t realize it was a saloon scene,” said McWilliams, of Tuscumbia. “I could just see the people. It was not until I started processing it that I saw that it was a saloon scene.”

That prompted McWilliams to do a little homework on the building. After looking at old maps, he determined what’s now the Colbert County EMA office was a saloon and bowling alley back in 1884.

“I have records here to find out what was in those buildings at that time during that period,” said McWilliams. “The picture meets that criteria.”

He said that explains why the figures appear to be waiting in line, while others appear to be perched at a bar.

Photos snapped at the EMA console reveal what appears to be three figures in the foreground, wearing microphone headsets. Mike suspects they once worked in the building.

“Evidently, we’re sharing their space and they’re not sharing ours,” said Melton.

Photos taken since the construction work suggest there could still be some sort of supernatural activity in his office.

We wanted to check it out for ourselves, so we posed for the camera after our interview with Melton. John processed the image for us and revealed nine ghostly figures after enhancing the photo clarity.

Ghosts or not, Melton and other EMA employees aren’t spooked.

“It is something to be lighthearted about,” said Melton. “It’s just an unknown, something creepy you can try to figure out and try to understand what it’s about.”

Melton and McWilliams both joke they know it sounds crazy, but can’t help what they see.

Again, the fact that these pictures were taken during renovations to the office says a lot. Tons of dust and debris is bound to be kicked up during those times, and that is going to be captured on camera as “orbs.” But it’s just dust and particulate matter. And are they serious about the “faces” wearing headsets? They look like the ghosts of Muppets, if anything. I’m all for investigating the paranormal, but people need to do their homework first, and remember to always look for rational explanations before jumping to ghostly conclusions. Unfortunately, even paranormal investigators who claim to be scientific don’t always stick to that philosophy.

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Usually cryptozoology (defined as the study of unknown animals) deals with phenomena like Bigfoot, lake monsters, chupacabras, and other such mystical beasts. But an offshoot of cryptozoology is “out of place animals,” animals that are scientifically known to exist but showing up in very unusual places. There are thousands of reports of out of place animals, from elephants in Brooklyn, kangaroos in the midwest, and black cats in Great Britain. Some of these reports have been explained, usually as an escaped exotic pet or circus animal. But many more of these can never adequately be explained. The UK in particular has a long history of reports of large black cats and dogs. This mythology has even made it into popular literature, most notably the Sherlock Holmes adventure “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” It is somewhat hard to believe that thousands of black panthers have been escaping from circuses in England for hundreds of years. The Daily Mail reports on a very recent incident:

A 15-year-old schoolgirl has told of her terror after being chased by a big cat she claims was a ‘black panther’ in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.

Kim Howells & Sofie Gwynne

Kim Howells was enjoying a walk through the woodland on her 15th birthday with her cousin Sophie Gwynne, eight, when they came across the animal lying beneath a tree.

Ms Howells, who described the ‘panther’ as about the size of a Great Dane dog, with big eyes, paws and a long tail, said the creature began following them after they spotted it at around 8.30pm on Monday night.

She said: ‘I saw something out of the corner of my eye and at first I thought it was a log or something.

‘We carried on walking but then I looked back and it was sitting up looking at me.

‘It was definitely a big cat. I’ve seen wild boar and deer in the Forest before and it definitely wasn’t one of them.

‘What makes me sure is that it was still light so I could see it really clearly.’

Ms Howells added: ‘Sophie was asking what it was and then we looked behind us and it was about five metres away, following us.

‘I didn’t know what to do so we cut through the brambles and just started running.’

The pair then ran all the way back to Ms Howells’s family home in nearby Ruspidge

The girls ran all the way back to Kim’s home in Ruspidge, near Cinderford.

Ms Howells’s mother Cathy said: ‘They were in a real state, their feet were all cut and Sophie was in tears.

‘Kim is a very sensible girl and if that’s what she says she saw, that’s what it is.’

Not many cryptozoologists go looking for this kind of black panther...

Mrs Howells later showed her daughter a picture of a panther on the internet for her to confirm that was indeed what she had seen.

Mrs Howells said she now has doubts about letting her daughter and niece play in the nearby woods.

She added: ‘I used to think that they were much better off there than a public park or somewhere but now I’m not sure, it is a real worry.’

It is not the first time a big cat sighting has been reported near Ruspidge.

In June 2007, milkman Robert Brinton got an early morning wake-up call when he encountered a big cat in Railway Road.

Earlier the same year, firefighter Peter Bishop reported a black cat sighting in Cinderford and a lorry driver from Lydney also saw one on Valley Road.

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If you’ve ever looked up into the sky and saw a plane overhead leaving a trail of smoke, then you know what a contrail is. “Contrail” is short for condensation trail, which is the term given to the frozen water vapor that comes off of airplanes at high altitudes and forms into ice crystals that we all see as clouds or “smoke.” But there are some conspiracy theorists out there who think that these are chemical trails, or “chemtrails,” spewed out by the government for a variety of dastardly reasons. Fox 12 Idaho has the story:

Treasure Valley, Idaho –  Weather modification.  Russian defense.  Asian mafia.  Those are just some of the many theories behind why some say “chemtrails” are real. 

They claim some planes are spraying chemicals in the air that then fall to the ground, hurting our environment, our crops, and our health.  Others say no, they don’t exist.

Some Treasure Valley residents say we need to look up, and keep a closer eye on what we’re seeing in the skies. A local man known as “Mr. Smith” says normal condensation trails are ice crystals that come of jet aircraft engines, and only last in the sky for 16 seconds or so.  Meanwhile, chemtrails don’t dissipate quickly, and end up spreading out in the sky, and Smith is worried about potential health effects. 

“It’s a composition between barium salt and aluminum and also polymer fibers. These chemicals, they’re being sprayed on us every other day and we’re breathing them in,” said Smith.

Another big question is if chemtrails exist, why? Some point to weather modification or communication systems, while others say more sinister acts could be at work. 

“They also use it for defense. I don’t want to get too deep into that. I’ll leave it up to the viewer to kinda look into that themselves,” said Smith.

Smith is not alone in his concerns. The Internet is filled with thousands, if not millions, of articles, websites, blogs and videos on chemtrails.  Smith says one person in particular adds credibility to the issue. 

“If you google A.C. Griffith, he’s a former N.S.A. employee, had C.I.A. top clearance, and he was one of the few people who made it inside this program to live and talk about it,” said Smith.

FOX 12 checked in with the Idaho Division of Air Quality and officials told us their monitors measure what’s in the air at low levels, not high altitudes.  But even if what’s up there made it down here, the agency says it doesn’t have the technology to pinpoint just where it all came from.  So the particulates could come from cars, or factories, or any source.  Air quality leaders add there are traces of metal in the air, but that’s common in cities of industry, and levels here are not alarming. 

Smith’s reaction? 

“It’s baloney. I mean clearly we never have experienced this. People know, the ones who pay attention know.” 

According to him, chemtrails last longer in the sky, spread out, and block the sun. 

“I’m just angered. I wanna be able to look up and see the blue sky, and enjoy the sunshine on my face,” said Smith. 

Amazingly, I can still see the sky.

So my first question here is why should we trust a guy who won’t identify himself? Mr. Smith indeed. Secondly, how does he know the exact composition of these supposed chemtrails? Does he have the time, money, equipment and other resources to test the chemical composition of the air, and also determine exactly where those chemical elements came from? I somehow doubt it. And seriously, is this guys seeing so many contrails that it’s blocking out the sun for him? And I took the liberty of googling (funny how that is a verb now) this A.C. Griffith, and his background is shady at best. Like most conspiracies, this one doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on.

The photos in this post were taken by me, last night, as I watched the sunset. Amazingly, the awesome sight of the sunset was not blotted out by the contrail.

Technorati Tags: chemtrail, conspiracy, conspiracy theory, contrail, cover-up, media, News, people, thoughts

As a follow up to my story from Monday, apparently the man responsible for the Canadian Spiral UFO hoax has come forward. Is this a surprise to anyone? I’m wondering if he honestly thought his hoax was believable, or if he purposely made it hokey-looking on purpose, to bait the nutjobs who actually buy into these sorts of things.

He can't even take a good picture of himself.

What looked like numerous photographs and videos of a ship entering the cosmos was actually put together by not a team, but one person.

Kevin Martin, a Southern California Weatherman has come forward as the hoaxer to what is likely the biggest hoax ever created. 

Martin claims he e-mailed the material to TheWeatherSpace.com in an effort to test a theory of his out.

“Who is more gullible, Americans or Europeans?”, asked Martin. “A growing number of conspiracy theorists are American, while Europe seems to have their head on straighter to the facts. I decided to test it out with a half done CGI video and photoshop photo stills, sending it to Betty Morgan at TheWeatherSpace.com Space News section.”

Martin claims that his theory was correct, Europeans have a better handle on reality than Americans. 

Upon further investigation it seems like Martin is a master at marketing, graphics, and even manipulation. TheWeatherSpace.com was fooled and I apologize for that.

“Here, to prove I did the hoax I made one of an alien ship going by, another emerges from the ground and chases it. The craft drops a large atom device and it explodes on Earth. Oh yeah, and I even made the trees move from a still photograph.”

Europeans have a better handle on reality than Americans? Does he realize how popular that abomination of a TV show “Most Haunted” is across the pond?

Technorati Tags: canada, hoax, media, News, people, thoughts, ufo

Ok. I know that there is a lot of photographic and video evidence out there of supposed UFOs. Some of those pictures and videos are intriguing, and some of them are frightening in what they show. Even if they are hoaxes, they are extremely well done, and makes you wonder about what can be done with video editing software on home computers these days.

Then I came upon this story in RT, and the accompanying video. Read the story, view the video, and see what you think about this footage.

A demo of Adobe's UFO Hoaxer 1.0

An Internet video of what some claim to be an unidentified flying object is creating a stir online. The footage shows a spiraling light coursing through the sky over western Canada. Some argue the videos are fake.

“The objected swooped down and then exploded. To the unaided eye the object vanished in a brilliant array of patterns but on camera the object was seen going through a “tunnel”, pointed on the leading end as if zooming out of the atmosphere away from the planet,” one of the witnesses, Nathan Varney, was quoted by website beforeitsnews.com as saying.

According to the website, numerous photos and videos keep coming from the area. However, critics have branded the pictures a hoax, arguing the images are computer generated.

Some say the website which broke the story is simply trying to boost its popularity.

However, alien theorists have jumped to the defense of the video’s creators arguing there are numerous witness statements from around the world describing similar incidents.

Last December, a spiral light appeared in the skies of Norway prompting talk of unearthly powers. At the time, that Spiral was explained as a misfired Russian missile launched from a submarine in the White Sea.

How can anyone who views this video seriously think that this is in any way real? I’m not disputing the possibility that maybe people are seeing strange things in the skies. But to claim this video is actual footage? I mean it looks like a cartoon. I would like to meet some of these supposed “alien theorists” who actually think this video is authentic. I’d like to personally thank them for continuing to set the field back.

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