The Occult Section

A big story floating around the interwebs this week has been the alleged discovery of giant crystal pyramids beneath the Bermuda Triangle. Now, of course there’s no proof (yet), and there’s no real mainstream media coverage of this story (yet), and the articles out there all seem to be the same article, verbatim (see below). Most of the sites covering this story seem to be weird fringe websites and conspiracy theorists (e.g., MSNBC). So I figured hey, we might as well get in on this too. We’re not really weird enough to be in the same category as those other sites, thankfully, but, behold: the story of the crystal pyramids of the Bermuda Triangle. Or something.

We had the underwater Millennium Falcon, so I guess this is the underwater Jedi Temple?

‘The Bermuda Triangle: mysterious, unworldly, sometimes deadly. For decades intrepid researchers delved into the maze of mysteries hidden deep within this most enigmatic place on Earth.

Some speculate the bizarre time anomalies, disappearances and weird phenomena can be explained by natural occurences. Others are insistent that relics of an advanced, unknown culture left behind fantastic technology…great energy machines that literally warp spacetime and open portals to other realities.

Now American and French explorers have made a monumental discovery: a partially translucent, crystal-like pyramid rising from the Caribbean seabed— its origin, age and purpose completely unknown.’

A gigantic structure, perhaps larger than the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, and initially identified by a doctor in the 1960s, has been independently verified by diving teams from France and the U.S.

The discovery has rocked scientists around the world. Will they rush to investigate it? No, they’re more likely to studiously ignore it. If pressed, they’ll officially position themselves as highly skeptical—especially in light of the potential ramifications.

The pyramid could confirm some engineers’ contentions that pyramids were originally created as massive power sources, support the claim that the ancient city-state of Atlantis did exist, or even provide answers to the mysterious goings-on that have been recorded since the 19th Century in the region of the Atlantic dubbed the Bermuda Triangle.

According to the history, the pyramid was accidentally discovered during 1968 by a doctor of naturopathy, Ray Brown of Mesa, Arizona.

Brown was in the Caribbean on vacation and making dives with friends in a region off the Bahamas known as “the Tongue of the Ocean.” The area acquired that name because a tongue-shaped portion of the seabed extends out from the island before sharply dropping off into much greater depths.

When relating his discovery, the doctor explained he became separated from his diving friends underwater. While attempting to rejoin them he came upon a massive structure rising from the ocean floor: a black, hulking object silhouetted against the lighter sun-filtered water. The object was shaped like a pyramid.

Because he was low on air, he didn’t spend much time investigating the pyramid, but did find a strange crystal sphere.

He brought it to the surface with him and later when the ancient crystal was studied researchers were astonished by its properties.

Blah blah blah bling bling bling blah.

The article goes on, at some length, talking about how these pyramids might be the cause of the strange anomalies and energy fluctuations in the Bermuda Triangle. And how this might be proof of Atlantis. I think it’s still too early to tell, but this story is really reminding me of the whole Baltic Sea UFO that looked like the Millennium Falcon that turned out to be nothing. Of course, it would be really interesting if it turned out to be real, but as always, I won’t be holding my breath.

Thanks to my brother Keith for letting me know about this story

Technorati Tags: bermuda triangle, conspiracy theory, cover-up, crystal pyramids, debunking, hoax, humor, media, News, paranormal, ray brown, supernatural, thoughts, ufo, ufos

Isn’t it funny how psychics, and their defenders,  always have excuses ready to go when the “psychic” turns out to be utterly wrong? Actually, it’s not funny, especially when people’s lives are at stake, or when families are grieving over loved ones. Here’s yet another example of how blowhard Sylvia Browne made a huge mistake in declaring someone to be dead, when she really wasn’t.

There’s a special place in Hell for you, Ms. Browne. My psychic powers told me so.

One of the world’s most recognizable self-proclaimed psychics was wrong yet again about the fate of a missing child, and her followers on social media are taking her to task.

Browne’s prediction about the fate of Amanda Berry was not her first attempt to explain the fate of a child, but her fans on social media demanded acknowledgment from the self-proclaimed spiritual leader.

On Wednesday, Browne released the following through her Facebook page:

For more than 50 years as a spiritual psychic and guide, when called upon to either help authorities with missing person cases or to help families with questions about their loved ones, I have been more right than wrong. If ever there was a time to be grateful and relieved for being mistaken, this is that time. Only God is right all the time. My heart goes out to Amanda Berry, her family, the other victims and their families. I wish you a peaceful recovery.

On Facebook and Twitter, Browne sends inspirational messages to hundreds of thousands of fans, often advertising her latest appearances or one of 45 books she has published (most recently Afterlives of the Rich and Famous). She reached a high level of visibility after years appearing as a regular guest on Montel Williams’ television show, a long-running daytime talk program that subsisted on paternity test results, cheating spouses and half-baked psychic predictions before it stopped production in 2008.

Browne’s Facebook followers are using her most recent post to ask for a better answer about Amanda Berry. Photograph: Facebook

“I remember you on Montel Williams telling the family of Amanda Berry she was dead,” wrote one commenter on Browne’s Facebook page. “What do you have to say for yourself? What a horrible horrible thing to say to a family holding on to nothing but hope and faith.”

“Can you admit that you’re a hack now?” asked another.

“I hope todays events seal it for you and everyone else who take advantage of those in mourning,” wrote another.

Not likely.

Browne announced the death of Amanda Berry in 2004, when she appeared on Williams’ show to tell Berry’s mother, Louwana Miller, that her daughter was “in heaven and on the other side” and that her last words were “goodbye, mom, I love you”. Miller would die a year later, of heart failure.

In fact, Berry escaped Monday from a Cleveland home where she had been held captive with two other women for more than a decade. A child who is hers was also removed from the home, according to police.

As Jon Ronson wrote in his 2007 profile on predatory psychics, Browne has spoken face-to-face with many distraught parents and wrongly forecasted life or death. Shawn Hornbeck was a missing child whose parents were told by Browne that their son was buried between two boulders. When he was found alive after four years in 2007, Browne’s publicist told CNN in a written statement: “She cannot possibly be 100% correct in each and every one of her predictions. She has, during a career of over 50 years, helped literally tens of thousands of people.”

For her part, Browne told Montgomery Media in Pennsylvania in April that she’s exceptional at spotting imposters:

“You can always see when they start doing guessing games.”

On Facebook, some of Browne’s fans are defending her predictions. “everyone makes mistakes. Even doctors, lawyers … Psychics,” wrote one.

“Sylvia you were right on for me, you have my support,” added another.

The Guardian has asked Browne for comment.

Are there people who are really psychic? Who knows. I don’t discount the possibility. I’ve had things happen to me that made me think perhaps I was able to see something that was going to happen before it did. But it’s far more likely that it was just a coincidence, and our minds just want to link these things when we’re right. We don’t remember the times we were wrong, because that’s not “freaky.” Hell, statistically speaking, you can take a multiple choice test in a subject you know nothing about, guess every answer, and still average about 65% correctness. I feel that’s pretty much what every single psychic averages. So yeah, they’re bound to be wrong sometimes. Because they don’t have super powers. They are making educated guesses. That’s all. And once again, I’m glad Sylvia Browne was wrong.

Thanks to my brother Jeff for letting me know about this story

Technorati Tags: abduction, amanda berry, celebrity, Cleveland, debunking, hoax, media, montel williams, News, ohio, paranormal, pennsylvania, people, psychic, supernatural, sylvia browne, thoughts, tv show

I’m intrigued by this article. There’s a house for sale in Montreal, right, and people are already assuming it’s haunted. Why? Cuz paranormal stuff is so hot right now. But seriously, it’s an old house and apparently hasn’t been renovated much, if at all, since being built almost 100 years ago.

An eerie house for sale in Montreal’s Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie area is still in search of a buyer nearly a year after going on the market, according to CTV News.

The listing says a building contractor built the house with his employees in 1919 and 1920. Judging from the images posted online, nothing has changed since.

The house looks like a time capsule from the 1920s; its well-worn furniture and dusty floors contributing to a sense that something of its past owners lingers on inside the empty rooms.

“Probably the first Victorian house to be built in the area of Petite Patrie and certainly the last to be renovated,” the listing says.

It adds that the floors, doors and paneling are all original, made from oak. The floor was only ever covered with beeswax, it says. The walls bear the marks of items that once hung there and the bedroom still contains a bed.

A visitor told CTV News the house had a feeling to it, as though it was haunted.

The listing includes a warning that there is no legal warranty for the house’s quality.

In this day and age, it’s totally acceptable to presume everything you come across is paranormal, full of ghosts, possibly demonic, and definitely soon-to-be on TV.

Technorati Tags: canada, debunking, ghost, ghost hunters, ghost hunting, ghosts, haunted, haunted house, haunted house for sale, haunted houses, haunting, media, montreal, News, paranormal, supernatural, thoughts, tv show

I’ll admit, I’m totally jealous of these two – they get to look for all the famous ghosts, while most of us are reduced to searching for the “normies.”  I suppose someone’s gotta do it though, and why not Robbie Williams and Meat Loaf? Also, can we just talk about how this article informally refers to Meat Loaf as just “Meat.” AWESOME.

Yeah…this kind of happened….

SUPERNATURAL nut ROBBIE WILLIAMS would do anything to spot ghosts and UFOs.

Now he’s got a new pal to help him do that – MEAT LOAF.

The pair have known each other for years and Meat is planning to take Rob on a hunt for CHARLIE CHAPLIN’s poltergeist.

He said: “Robbie should absolutely come ghost-hunting with me. There are so many places to go – we could head to the old A&M recording studios in LA. They think Charlie Chaplin’s down there.”

Meat, who starts his farewell tour in Newcastle on April 5, believes his body acts as a ghost doorway.

He said: “There are people they say are conduits, who are more open to it, and so this stuff’s been going on since I was a kid.

“I’ve seen my mother after she died and my grandmother. I talked to my mother, and she talked back.

“And I’m not crazy, but people would think, ‘He’s crazy’.”

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I can’t even keep track anymore and I don’t even pretend to try. Shortly after announcing the renewal of “Ghost Mine,” Syfy has announced its also renewing “Haunted Highway,” a critically acclaimed paranormal reality TV show starring Jack Osborne (son of Mumbles McGee). “Haunted Highway” will be shoehorned in premiering on July 24 with six new episodes, with “Ghost Mine” returning in September.

Proof that Syfy will pretty much give anyone a TV show.

JACK’S BACK!

SYFY RENEWS HAUNTED HIGHWAY FEATURING JACK OSBOURNE, JAEL DE PARDO, DANA WORKMAN AND DEVIN MARBLE FOR A SECOND SEASON

NEW SIX EPISODE SEASON OF THE PARANORMAL REALITY SERIES TO PREMIERE WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 AT 10PM ET/PT

NEW YORK – April 22, 2013 – Syfy has ordered a second season of its hit paranormal reality series, Haunted Highway. The new six episode season will premiere, on a new night, Wednesday, July 24 at 10PM (ET/PT). The hour-long series follows two teams, Jack Osbourne & Dana Workman, and Jael de Pardo & Devin Marble, as they conduct their own first-person investigations into some of the most frightening claims of paranormal activity in some of America’s most remote regions.

Fueled by eyewitness interviews and evidence collected with state-of-the-art equipment, the two teams will self-document their harrowing face-to-face encounters with the paranormal. The new season features examinations and investigations that will take the teams off the beaten path in places like the Arizona desert, the Sierra Nevada mountains and bayous of New Orleans as they seek werewolf-like creatures, the Black Angel of Death, the ghosts of the famous Donner party and other paranormal phenomena.

This season, in a first for the series, all four cast members will join together for a special investigation of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. One of America’s largest and most remote coastal bases, Fort Jefferson is located in the Gulf of Mexico, 68 miles from Key West. Built in 1846 to protect one of the most strategic deep water anchorages in the United States, Fort Jefferson quickly became a horrifying prison fortress. The most famous prisoner of Fort Jefferson was Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth and was allegedly an accomplice in the assassination of President Lincoln. Many report that Dr. Mudd’s angry spirit has never forgiven those who wrongly imprisoned and tortured him. Though the island on which Fort Jefferson sits looks beautiful and tranquil, it is still known as “Death Island” for the number of fatalities among both soldiers and prisoners.

In its first season, Haunted Highway averaged 1.12 million total viewers, 538,000 Adults 18-49 and 618,000 Adults 25-54 – ranking #10 in Adults 25-54 during its Tuesday, 10-11PM (ET/PT) time period.

Haunted Highway is produced by BASE Productions. John Brenkus and Mickey Stern serve as executive producers.

I can’t wait for the premiere of “Haunted Antarctica.” You know it’s coming.

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