The Occult Section

I love when stories like this make the news. It’s great blog fodder, and is always a good indicator of when the press is experiencing a slow news week. The L.A. Times is reporting that someone has made off with a Bigfoot statue from a couple’s driveway in Vermont. Read on to learn the chilling details of this egregious crime…

So much cooler than a garden gnome…

Authorities on the East Coast are searching for Bigfoot. No, really.

Vermont State Police are hunting for a Sasquatch sculpture reportedly swiped from a Westford couple’s driveway over the weekend.

The couple purchased the 8-pound, 15-inch-tall Yeti from a SkyMall magazine.

Police say the statue is valued at around $100, the Associated Press reported, and the owners would be satisfied if it was simply returned to their front lawn.

In addition to police efforts, the couple is using community network Front Porch Forum to search for the sculpture.

Anyone who spots the missing Sasquatch need not approach the beast, but instead should contact the Vermont State Police barracks in Williston.

I’m not trying to belittle having something stolen, but when I first saw the headline for this article, I though someone had stolen some huge, 8-foot tall sculpture of Bigfoot. It sucks that it was stolen, but I just feel like even if it were stolen from me, I’d rather the police use their time more efficiently…

Technorati Tags: bigfoot, humor, media, News, paranormal, people, sasquatch, skymall, thoughts, Vermont, yeti

I’m pretty convinced I could put a photograph up of anything on our paranormal website, draw a red circle around some random spot in the photo, and people would swear to God that they could see all manner of things in the red circle. I actually don’t need to be convinced, because it happened to us about two years ago. We put an image up on our Facebook page about how random patterns can look like meaningful things, like an apparition, and people swore they saw a ghost, even though we knew it was just our flashlights bouncing off the side of the building. But people still swore they saw all sorts of things. So of course I saw this story and had to blog about it, because it has the little red circle, and otherwise, I doubt I ever would have seen the alleged ghost.

A red circle around anything means it’s paranormal.

GOOGLE images of a village that was destroyed in 1946 appear to show the ghost of a man hovering over an abandoned farmhouse.

The aerial shots show Charlton on the outskirts of Bristol, which was demolished in 1946 to make way for Filton airfield.

Now all that remains of the old pub, pond and few cottages are roads overgrown with grass and the shell of a farmhouse – which the ‘ghost’ calls home.

Fiona Powell, from Bristol, spotted the dark figure – who appears to be wearing a 1940s style flat cap — when she was scouring aerial views of the local area on the internet.

The mum-of-two said: “I was looking around the Brentry and Pen Park area, as it’s near where I work, and went on to look at Filton Airfield.

“Then suddenly in the right hand corner I noticed the dark figure of a man with a cap on above the site of an old building.

“It looked quite spooky so I called my husband over — we zoomed in again and again and couldn’t believe it.

“I’m quite open-minded about ghosts and this could be one.

“If it had been just anywhere in Bristol I wouldn’t have found it so interesting, but because it was on the site of an old farmhouse in a village that was abandoned, I thought it was fascinating.”

Again, this is clearly matrixing, something we’ve discussed in this blog many, many times. And let’s just assume for a moment that this really is a ghost. Why would it tower over the village?

Technorati Tags: bristol, Charlton, debunking, england, ghost, ghost hunting, ghosts, google. google earth, great britain, haunted, haunted house, haunting, media, News, paranormal, picture, supernatural, thoughts, UK

Ah, New Jersey. The nation’s perpetual punchline and punching bag. The Garden State (named for all of the factories and freeways, I guess) is in the news again, because of some vicious, alien-looking creature that was photographed there recently (the Snooki jokes are just way too easy here, so I will avoid them. Dammit!). Anyways, here’s the latest Jersey celebrity.

Yet one more thing in New Jersey that sucks.

Forget all this chatter about exploding meteors and some asteroid making a dauntingly close pass to earth: There are aliens among us! Or so some might think after inspecting the image of a bizarre-looking denizen pulled from the waters of New Jersey.

The photo, containing no information other than the New Jersey reference, has gone viral on Reddit, garnering nearly 400,000 views in the first six hours after being posted on Friday.

Apparently, the creature, whose days of terrorizing other creatures are over thanks to the sharp point of a spear, is a very large sea lamprey.

Sea lampreys only measure to about three feet, so the specimen in this image must appear gigantic because of the camera angle. It also could be photoshopped.

A spokeswoman for New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, when asked for a positive ID, stated via email: “The photo doesn’t allow counting of gill openings (seven per side for sea lamprey), but based on size alone, this does appear to be a sea lamprey.”

“It sucks the life out of fish,” reads one of hundreds of comments.

According to the DEC, sea lampreys are eel-like jaw-less and boneless parasites, boasting mouths full of rasping teeth and a file-like tongue.

Juveniles latch onto other fish and drain them of bodily fluids.

Most often, the prey, or host fish, dies as a result of either blood loss or infection.

Sea lampreys spend their egg and larval stages in fresh water. Once their bodies form and they become parasitic, they move out to sea to live off of a host fish.

In the Northeast, lampreys prey on other species of fish, including game fish, and are considered a nuisance species.

Therefore, in this instance, perhaps it’s good that the fisherman did not choose to practice catch-and-release.

“Because of the economic importance and profound effects of the sea lamprey on fish communities, its life history has been studied intensely,” states a U.S. Fish and Wildlife document on sea lampreys. “In the Bight, sea lampreys ascend to coastal streams in Long Island, New York, the New Jersey shore, and the Hudson River.”

Thankfully, if this image is an indication, there seems to be one less parasitic monster in our midst.

Ok, so it’s not an alien. But to me, the photo definitely looks PhotoShopped or altered in some way. The edges of the lamprey look almost too sharply defined compared to the rest of the picture. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: alien, aliens, cryptozoology, debunking, extraterrestrial, garden state, hoax, humor, jersey shore, lamprey, long island, media, monsters of new jersey, new jersey, new york, News, nj, paranormal, people, photoshop, picture, reddit, sea lamprey, snooki, thoughts

Normally we are pretty snarky and mean here, especially when it comes to anything that has to do with any of the ten bazillion paranormal reality TV shows out there right now. However when I bumbled across this story I knew there would be no place for snark (especially because of the whole, y’know, cancer thing). Ryan Buell, star of “Paranormal State,” will be speaking at his alma mater in February about the struggles with being Catholic, bisexual, and on TV.

Ryan Buell

Ryan Buell, founder of the Paranormal Research Society, director of the A&E show, Paranormal State, and Penn State alum, will be coming back to Dear Old State to give a presentation as a keynote speaker for the College of Communications’ Office of Multicultural Affairs.

His presentation will be entitled, “Faith, Spirituality, God and Sexuality: Coming Out While Starring in a TV Show,” and will discuss his feelings about coming out as a bisexual man and the struggle he had trying to balance his feelings with his Catholic faith. His 2010 memoir, Paranormal State: My Journey Into the Unknown also goes more in-depth with his feelings.

Carmen Frost, event coordinator with the Office of Multicultural Affairs, invited Buell to speak with the Penn State community, and to help them gain a better understanding of what LGBT people go through.

“Regardless of our different beliefs — Republicans, Democrats, Independents — we are all human beings with feelings, hopes, and dreams for our future,” she said.

She also hopes that with Buell’s presentation, the community will come out with a greater understanding and empathy towards the LGBT community, as well as towards “all human beings who have different beliefs or lifestyles than what they are accustomed to.”

Buell’s presentation will take place at 8 p.m. in the auditorium of 100 Thomas on Thursday, February 21. There is a suggested donation of $5 for students, and $10 for the general public, which will benefit the LGBT Resource Center and Multicultural Affairs. Seating for the event will be on a first come, first serve basis. The Facebook event can be found here.

image Karolina Wojtasik

Technorati Tags: a&e, bisexual, Catholic, celebrity, debunking, ghost, ghost hunters, ghost hunting, ghosts, haunted, haunted house, haunted houses, haunting, hoax, humor, media, News, paranormal, paranormal research society, Paranormal State, people, Ryan Buell, supernatural, thoughts, tv show

There’s a lot going on here, so I’ll just cut to it. A woman in Georgia claims that a ghost stole her resume, which she valued at $5,000, a print out of her criminal history (which she valued much more conservatively, at $10), and a blouse (with no apparent value assigned to it, causing me to therefore assume it must be priceless). Naturally, with such valuable items disappearing from under her nose, she did the most logical thing and called in the police.

The official police sketch of the culprit.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Police in Georgia may need some supernatural help to solve the case of a missing resume that a woman claims was stolen by a ghost.

Debbie Michelle Zamacona, 40, reported to police that her resume, a list of her criminal history and blouse were taken from her home last month, the Augusta Chronicle reported.

When asked who she believed may have items, Zamacona told police she suspected the thief was one of two ghosts.

She said the spirit of her late mother often visits her, but that she occasionally also sees a black spirit roaming near her home.

Zamacona estimated the value of her resume at $5,000, and her criminal history list at $10.

A man who said he was Zamacona’s husband told the Huffington Post that he was able to find a copy of her resume on her computer. He said she suffers from bi-polar disorder.

From another related article:

She had a bit more trouble figuring out the value of the items taken, telling police she “wasn’t good at math” when she rattled off the $5,000 estimated value of her resume.

Technorati Tags: augusta, cv, Debbie Michelle Zamacona, debunking, georgia, ghost, ghosts, haunted, haunted house, haunted houses, haunting, hoax, humor, media, News, paranormal, people, resume, supernatural, thoughts