Nurses relate ghostly encounters

I don’t really know what to make of ghost stories. Or rather accounts of actual ghosts and not like campfire tales. Some of them are really interesting, while others are quite dull. Are people actually encountering the spirits of the departed? Is it all just in their minds? Are some people more prone to see them than others? Ultimately I’m not sure. I haven’t really made up my mind yet on this particular paranormal phenomenon. What I bring to your attention today are some rather interesting stories of ghostly encounters that nurses have reported. 

Much like Albert Rosales’ “Humanoid Reports” the following is probably nothing more than paranormal porn, adding nothing really substantive to the body of “paranormal research”, but they are interesting in and of themselves. Besides sometimes it’s fun to just read of other’s encounters with things that I haven’t (thankfully?) experienced yet. I offer no further opinion on the following other than they seem interesting and want to know what you all think. I’ve selected only a few of the stories as there are pages and pages of accounts to go through.

Member stidget99 reports the following:

I used to work in a state inst for developmentally disabled. We were temp relocated to another building for remodeling of our bldg. Anyways...I was working one nite, 2nd shift. We had a locked pica unit. I saw one of the residents walking down the hall. Very distinct gait and very distinct yellow t-shirt w/ a happy face on it. I went into the ward to let staff know that they had an escapee.

This was a serious situation because this particular resident, Larry, would ingest absolutely anything (from clothing to pens to belts to *ugh* a bird's head)...literally anything. He was also very reluctant to go back to his home ward (hence why I didn't bring him back myself...he needed two escorts). When we got back into the hall, less than 15 secs later, Larry was gone!!

We searched the entire building! Outside, downstairs, all wards...he was NO WHERE to be found!!! This whole search lasted last than 10 mins because I had all extra staff looking for him. I was just about to call the house supervisor to let her know that we "lost" someone when out from the bathroom walks Larry w/ one of the staff. He had been getting his bath in the bathroom for the last 30 mins or so. Kind of freaky! I absolutely, without a doubt, saw Larry in the hallway. I never would've short-staffed the wards like I did if I hadn't seen him! Like I said, very distinctive gait, look, clothing. I took a lot of razzing that nite!

They all thought that I was crazy. Anyways, come to find out the next day, after the story goes around that I am crazy (haha, giggle giggle, funny funny)..............Larry had an identical twin brother who died in that building 10 yrs previously.

Member Chad_KY_SRNA shares:

We have a white figure that has been seen in the medicine room, sometimes the carts are moved down the hall while you are in a room giving meds, etc. One of the male CNAs reported seeing a very tall black figure going from room to room several times. We have all seen balls of light floating around. From what we have been able to gather from old pictures of the property that the nursing home is on there was a mobile home park at one end and a cemetary at the other end of the building. Everyone has seen a little boy walking around but the freakiest part was when they saw wet childrens foot prints coming down the hall and followed them to the wall and there were footprints in the snow outside that came right to that place in the wall.

Member ZASHAGALKA

We had a patient, chronic CHFer, always on the call button, hated being on fluid restrictions. you know the type: the nurses have to take turns during the shift answering the call button so the primary can actually do other work.

And this was a frequent flier cause he was very chronic, very borderline, and the hospital was the only place he wouldn't fluid overload.

I work 7p-7a. He died about 8pm. Oh the look on his face, like, "how could you let me die!" - Like it was our fault.

Anyway, family came and gone by 9pm, funeral home gone at 930pm.

About 10pm, the call button starts going off. I was there - call button going off every 5 minutes.

One of the nurses was a very spiritual girl. At about 2am, after like 4 HOURS OF THIS, nurse Mary snaps, 'Enough!'

She walks down to the room, and, practically screams into the empty room, "Mr X, you have died. You can't be in here bothering us anymore. Move along. In the name of Jesus, I'm exorcising you from this plane of existence. Go to the light and be happy!"

And I kid you not, the call button stopped going off then and there.

~faith,

Timothy.

Member gms1976:

Hi! I am a South African Nurse who is currently living and working in California. The weirdest thing happened to me one night when I was working Night Shift back in SA. I had a patient whom I thought was playing with his IV causing me no end of headaches - As we have all experienced. I eventually confronted him after having to open the clamp for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. He got really irate with me and said he had done no such thing but blamed it on a young nurse in a white dress whom he said had fiddled repeatedly with it . I was confused as while we wear specific uniforms in South Africa, they were not white at this specific hospital. Needless to say I was really irritated and I think we both ended the conversation feeling exasperated.

I didn't think about the young nurse for several weeks until one night in a totally different room with a totally different patient. The call light rang and when I went to answer it the patient said he had a problem with one of my staff. Curious, asked what. He said a young nurse in a white uniform was standing quietly in the doorway of the dark bathroom staring at him and it was freaking him out. At this my hair stood on end but I reassured him that he must have been dreaming and checked the bathroom just to be sure. There was nothing there but I will never forget it.

Another instance, there was a patient who was terminally ill with liver cancer in a private room. I was working days but the night shift people said they hated going into the room because something would blow on the back of their necks and shadows would move where shadows shouldn't be. The man was a christian, as was his wife and his wife said she saw this black prescence descend above him and his breathing would become labored. She asked myself and a friend to pray for her which we gladly did being christians ourselves. We anointed and blessed the room and prayed with the family and asked the Lord to seal the room. From that time on the room was filled with peace and love and the man breathed so much more easier. People had no more problems with going in there. This gentle little man eventually passed away, but it was in a place of peace and love.

I think I have a few more stories but I can't remember them right now as I have just gotten home from a crazy night in a wild med/surg unit and I am truly beat!

Again the above stories really only scratch the surface,  I recommend readers to go and check out all 225 (!) pages of reports from the website itself. Considering that my mother is also  a nurse, and was a hospice nurse as well for a number of years, I should really go and ask her if she too has encountered anything. What was it that these folks experienced? The actual souls of the dead? Some sort of psychic projection left on the environment?

Truthfully I can’t say. At the moment I’m leaning towards these experiences being externally created realities, rather than something internal. What the source of these encounters is anyone’s guess. I do enjoy reading these kinds of stories though. Somehow people’s ghost encounters are much more enjoyable to me than their UFO reports, or at least the garden variety “Light’s in the sky” reports. Give me humanoids any day. I’m beginning to ramble at this point.  I suppose that’s all for today, be sure to follow the link and read some more of the encounters and drop me a line via email or the comments section below if you have anything to add.

Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, “Booooooooooooo!!!!!”

Black-Eyed Kids: Monster or Meme?

You’re home alone, it’s late at night. As you’re watching TV you hear a knock at the door. Puzzled, you think to yourself, “Who could that be at this hour?” Confused you make your way to the front door. Turning on the light, you see two children. One looks older than the other, perhaps a teenager, but what strikes you as odd is their dress. Never mind the fact that they’re perhaps out much later than children should be, their dress looks slightly old-fashioned. The last thing that you notice about the children that almost sends you running away in terror is their pitch-black eyes, soulless and dark like a shark or other predator. The children began demanding to be let in, they need to use the phone, or perhaps want a drink of water. Or they want to collect you?

Please sir, won't you let me in?

If the above story, or a slight variation of it, sounds familiar to you then that means you’ve been on the Internet at some point in the last decade. The above is a fictionalized amalgamation of the basic “Black-Eyed Kids” meme that you’ve probably seen pop up on a number of various paranormal sites or even Reddit. Yesterday as I was working (read surfing reddit from my phone) I came across a very recent version of this worn out tale. The story comes from Redditor kyuss534. I’m not going to go into the whole account, but I will link it here. Suffice it to say, my little fictionalized account above isn’t too far from what kyuss534 related.

And I think that’s what my problem with this whole “Black-Eyed Kids” meme, every account of them that I’ve seen is identical. Maybe a little too identical? I dunno, perhaps I’m being a bit cynical about the whole thing, but it reeks to me of an Internet urban legend. Not entirely unlike the “Slender man” meme. The key difference is that we can trace back the origin of Slender man directly to an Internet contest. A few year’s back the gang over at Something Awful held a competition to see if they could create, from nothing, a new paranormal entity. The winning entry was Slender man. If you want to know more about Slender man, I suggest checking out this entry of Know Your Meme.

No, trust me. I'm good with kids!

In my mind, at least at the moment, there is no reality to the Slender man aspect (tulpas and thought forms not-withstanding I suppose). And I guess that’s where I’m at with the Black-Eyed Kids stories as well. Prior to Brian Bethel posting his own account of interacting with the Black-Eyed Kids to a newsgropu in 1998, the Black-Eyed Kids were seemingly non-existent. I’m sure you can find stories that claim to have occurred before 1998, but I doubt you’d find evidence of any stories being recounted before Bethel started the trend.

Frequent readers of this blog, the few of you left after my almost year hiatus, will likely be aware that I don’t tend to state things in definite terms too often. Preferring rather to keep the possibility open for more information in the future. So too it is with my opinion of the Black-Eyed Kids. For the moment I’m leaning towards them being an Internet urban legend, and they do make for great “campfire” ghost stories, but I doubt very much they have any basis in reality. As always I leave the door open for future information that will prove me wrong and I would love to know your thoughts and opinions on the topic. Or, for that matter, if you have a personal account of your own interaction with a Black-Eyed Kid please let me know in the comments or drop me an email.

Until next time (which may actually be this year!), this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, “Good night and for the love of god don’t let the children in!”

New writing gig

It's been a few days since my last post, so I wanted to take an opportunity to give you readers an update on what I've been up to. Never fear I have a few projects in the pipeline that will return us to your regularly scheduled Forteania postings that you've all come to love so much. As many of you are already aware, in addition to blogging here at Forteania I also write a column for Tim Binnall at his Binnall Of America website that's entitled Fortean Ramblings. Well you can add another url to your list of places to find my writing. As of Monday August 6, I began writing for Disinfo.com. My first (and so far only) post went live Monday evening in celebration of Charles Fort's birthday. What better way to celebrate not only my new gig at Disinfo, but also Fort's birthday? Below I'll give you a snippet of that post, but you should really follow the link below to check out the whole thing.

Happy Birthday Mr. Fort!

August 6, 2012 marks the 138th birthday of the great cataloger of the strange and unusual Charles Fort. Writing in the early 20th century, Fort would pen a total of seven books in his lifetime. Two early works, X and Y, were sadly never published as the author burned them during one of his many bouts of depression. Another title, The Outcast Manufacturers, was a fiction book that enjoyed some moderate success. The works that have made him rather famous (or infamous depending upon who you ask) are The Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo!, and Wild Talents. Through the use of the New York Public library, Fort set about to dig up the data he felt that science had too long neglected. Almost right from the beginning Fort laid out his intentions pretty clearly. In his first work, The Book of the Damned, Fort wrote:

“A Procession of the damned. By the damned, I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded”

Follow this link in order to read the whole thing. Also be sure to keep checking back on Disinfo for more of my writing. That's all I have for now, tonight should see normal posting resume here. Until then, Stay Classy internets!

Interview with some Forteans (no garlic required)

This past Saturday (Oct 2, 2011) I had the distinct honor and privilege to talk for an hour and a half with the always entertaining and enlightening Greg and Dana Newkirk of Who Forted? mag. The topic of the interview was essentially; Why Forteana? But more than that, it was a chance to get to know some fellow Forteans that are fighting the good fight against the way too serious Believers and Skeptics who, more often than not, muddy the proverbial waters with all of their posturing and ego stroking. While we had an amazing talk, due to some technical difficulties, I was unable to actually record the conversation that we had. But fear not dear readers for I took copious, at times confusing, notes of the interview. So if are willing to stay with me, come as we journey inside the minds of some “Gen-x debunkers”.

Both Greg and Dana's interest in paranormal phenomena grew out of the 'Ghost Hunting' craze that struck television in the late 90's early 00's. Greg's group GHI (Ghost Hunters Incorporated) came about through the efforts of a prank on a friend and contributor to Who Forted? Nick Foust. Meanwhile Dana was busy with a ghost hunting group of her own, the Kitchener-Waterloo Paranormal Research Society, which would eventually become known as The Girly Ghost Hunters. Under this incarnation Dana's group went on to have an internationally syndicated TV show. After a fallout between the two groups, I know shocking that in the paranormal field people can't get along, Greg along with members of GHI and Dana joined forces to create the Who Forted? that we all know and love. (For those of you at home keeping, it was Dana that came up with the amazing name “Who Forted?” rather than Greg's “The Knights of the New Fortean Right”)

Greg's interest in the paranormal grew out of a desire to scare one of his friends in a graveyard, but quickly became more than that. For Greg, even today, there exists a reality to the Ghost phenomena. What that reality may ultimately prove to be exactly? Well, Greg is the first to tell you that he remains unconvinced that “ghosts” are in fact the disembodied souls of Aunt Linda or Uncle Keith. Yet something is still going on in some of these cases. Going quickly from  this, Who Forted?  became (in)famous for their not always so serious approach to the paranormal. But honestly that's what I find so refreshing about them .While they realize that there is some reality behind the phenomena they investigate, they don't get bogged down by being too serious. Nor do they have any time or patience for all of the posturing and grandstanding that many in the field have made their livelihood off of. Best of all they are still looking for the story behind the story, or the human element that comprises it.


One of the topics that we spent a good amount of time discussing is the height and popularity of the so-called “Paranormal Media”, i.e. Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters International, et al. The show that dominated this portion of the conversation, wasn't one of these however. It was Paranormal State. The show has definitely been a polarizing entry into the paranormal world. As both Greg and Dana were quick to point out it definitely lead the way in the possible exploitation of persons who were likely dealing with serious issues, paranormal reality aside. Many of the people whose homes the investigator's entered needed some actual help, but from psychological professionals and not some undergrads from a college.

The main topic, however, was what exactly is important in paranormal research or the Fortean field. The shows that we discussed and the “field” in general, all seem to suffer this need for proof and perhaps, most depressingly, a lot of it is politics or a “pissing contest”. But they may be missing the most important part, namely the person at the heart of the incident. All too often people in this field are more worried about catching Bigfoot, seeing ghosts, or stroking their own egos, when maybe what's equally (if not more) important are the people involved. After all when I asked how much they thought any of these things were real, Greg said that the event is a real as the effect it has on the person. More often than not the story is the only thing that investigators have to work with. Hard evidence is often just as elusive as the phenomena itself.

At the end of the day, the time I spent with Greg and Dana was equal parts riveting, entertaining, and at times downright hilarious. They are some of the most level-headed people that I've had the pleasure of interacting with in this crazy field. I asked about their plans for the future; for the site, for their group, and ultimately for themselves. They want to continue producing better and better products, and most importantly continue entertaining other's and themselves. Before the conversation was over, Greg and Dana left a few words of wisdom for the rest of us. For Dana, success in this community is to always continue being curious. Greg wanted us all to remember that something is only paranormal until someone explains it.

The interview with Greg and Dana of Who Forted? was a nice change of pace. It's good to know that there are still some people out there who can walk that thin line between looking at something humorously, while not outright mocking it. Be sure to check out their site daily for some of the best commentary on the Fortean this side of Charles Fort himself. Additionally, be sure to check out their latest project that will be debuting soon, “The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching”. You can find my review of the film here, but be sure to head over to the Facebook page to keep up to date with all of the latest news about the film. 

Promotional movie poster.

 

Working on a 'secret' project tonight

Sorry folks no new post tonight, I am busy working on a Super Secret project with the people over at WhoForted? Speaking of which check out their site. Just to give you an idea of their shenanigans, here is a youtube video of their work.

What I've learned from the Phil Imbrogno fiasco

As I mentioned the other night, a then new thread had appeared on Above Top Secret that was authored by David Beidny. Rather than going back through it all, you can follow this link for my post about it or go to the thread at ATS for more info, I would like to spend a little bit of time telling you what this has taught me about the ufological 'field'. For the most part they are a bunch of bratty kids in a sandbox. All I have seen in that thread on ATS, is a good portion of veiled insults and misquotations and other such immature behaviors. I would say that I am shocked by this, but really I'm not.

Regardless of what comes of the Phil Imbrogno degree fiasco, I now have even less desire to be involved in the ufological issue. (Wonder why I prefer the moniker 'Fortean Philosopher'? It's not just that I identify with Charles Fort's world view) Now to be fair there are a good number of reasonable people that participated in (and are still participating in) that thread at ATS. But some bigger name people have been really just fighting back and forth about the issue. Not too shocking I know. I can't understand why people can't just disagree and still be civil.

The Imbrogno thing, one way or another, is certainly gonna be an opportunity for Ufology to reassess itself. As I stated in the post the other day, if Imbrogno has or doesn't have the degrees that he claims to this doesn't make him any more or less qualified to go running around looking for UFOs. People, both inside and outside of the field, fail to keep in mind the fact that at the moment there is no 'Degree in Ufology'.

This will probably be the last time I bring this up until I see more information one way or another, because it ultimately doesn't change anything for me. In my reality tunnel, there still exists an actual, external and quite possibly Non-Human, element behind some UFOs. Whether Phil Imbrogno has  a degree doesn't change this for me.

Magazine article updates!

I've mentioned a number of times on this blog in the past that I had been working on an article for a UFO magazine. If published, it would be my first article in such a medium. Needless to say I was pretty excited to get it finished. In addition to writing the article I was requested to get some illustrations made, so I roped Ashley into doing those for me. Well last night (finally!) I was able to send off the article and illustrations, and at this point I am only waiting to hear back from the editor if it will indeed be published. If it does I will certainly let you guys know which one it is, also if this works out (and even if it doesn't) I have to say that the process has certainly been a learning experience.

Much like this blog and of course my article over at Binnall of America, I have been trying to both improve my writing skills (which I hope have gotten better) and perhaps learn a thing or two. Hopefully we will hear back, sooner rather than later about the article. If not, I will simply try again. Also I have recently taken the plunge back into the dreaded 'facebook'. You are more than welcome to friend me if you wish. I suppose that's about all I have for tonight.

Oh before I forget one last little thing, I'm just about half-way through reading Steve Volk's Fringe-ology (which I can't recommend highly enough) so expect a review here in the next couple of days. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, stay classy Internet!

Lizard Man Strikes Again!

Not too sure how I didn't hear about this one sooner: (found via The Anomalist)

New Lizard Man Scuttlebutt In South Carolina

On Ida Lane in rural Lee County, they’re struggling to explain what took place Monday morning.
“I ran into the house and told my wife to call the police because something happened to the car,” explained Leon Marshall.
“The tooth marks went completely through the fender,” added his wife Ada.
Early that morning the Marshall’s woke up to find their car mauled by something.
“That’s metal! And it just bent it up. Like it was a piece of tissue paper,” said Ada.
The question is by what?
“We have no idea. No idea. No idea what-so-ever.”

Visit the link for the full news article.

The best thing about this is that I don't live all that far from Lee County. Perhaps this is a chance for yours truly to do some actual in the field research. Which will hopefully turn out better than Messie.

-Tony

Odds and Ends

Tonight is a very slow night for me. I had a test earlier in my religion class and then I had to come home and start work on my presentation for my psychology class. We have to give a 5 to 7 minute presentation on a disease, in my case I will be presenting on Alzheimer's Disease. It doesn't sound like a lot, the 5 to 7 minutes part, but I almost always end up having stage fright right before I get up to do a presentation. Which is funny because people tend to think that I am quite naturally happy in front of a group. And depending on the location, and my familiarity with the topic I can be. But I just have a bad feeling that I will get nervous and mess up somehow. Inevitably I will just sike myself up and get it over with as early as possible. Luckily I have to present on the first day, so I will probably go like 2^nd or 3^rd (never first because I like to gauge the classes reactions to other people's presentations first).

The start of the summer semester coincided almost perfectly with my decision to begin blogging again. I had originally started blogging back in October of 2010, which was also when I tried my hand at podcasting (which if you really want to you can find those episodes here). For one reason or another though I quit working on the blog and didn't really think anything more about it until earlier this year when Tim Binnall gave a call for new writers for his site, Binnall of America. As I was sitting at work listening to the podcast, I suddenly said 'Fuck it, why don't I try to write for BOA'. This caused many curious stares from my coworkers that apparently had never heard of 'BOA' before. Long story short after I wrote my first couple of columns for BOA, I sorta put it all out of my mind and went on about my

business as usual. But for some reason on a Sunday in May, May 8^th to be exact, I decided to start blogging again. I figured a couple of things; 1) that people must obviously care what I have to say, 2) my insights would be unlike any other ever in the history of the Fortean, 3) it can't be that hard to blog.

I was wrong on literally every single one of those points. Well not entirely wrong, rather I was just naïve about the whole process. The first thing I learned was that blogging was not nearly as easy as I had originally assumed it to be. Especially because I set the bar fairly high for myself. I was going to have new quality posts every single night. After all the sites that I like to frequent are the ones that, you know, update daily. To top it off, I couldn't have picked a worse time to start blogging. Less than a week into the venture, I started back at school. That would be night classes of course. And so most evenings I have to juggle between homework, the blog, reading (my ever growing reading list is evidence I can't spend much time with books). Typically I manage to get out a fairly decent post every now and then. But it can be pretty tough sometimes.

But if it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm not. Really I have enjoyed working on this blog. It's been a crazy experience over the last couple of months. Watching the readership grow, seeing my blog listed on other people's sites. Especially sites of those that I admire and have a lot of respect for. Plus I've gotten a chance to talk with people I probably wouldn't have otherwise. So while it can sometimes be a huge pain in the butt to work on this blog, it's definitely a labor of love. It's come pretty far in just the two months that I have been posting at it, I can't wait to see were it will be by the end of the year. Or even the next year. It's success is thanks to you, whoever you are reading this right now. Maybe this is your first time here at Forteania (and if so let me say thanks for stopping by!) or you have been here for a little while. Thanks for sticking around and thank you to those that have commented.

In the end however I'm really doing this blog for selfish reasons. I think that I am hoping to learn something by doing this. Other wise whats the point right? Well that's all for tonight, this post was a bit rambling and I apologize for that. I just had to get these thoughts out, you know how it goes. I need to get going, because I actually have some down time so I can try and make a dent into my ever-expanding reading list. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying “Where's the beef?” (That can't still be copyrighted can it?)

First impressions of Fringe-ology

 As noted in last nights post here I was able to finally tracked down a copy of Steve Volk's Fringe-ology. I had first heard of this book about a month ago from one of the numerous sites I frequent (honestly I can't seem to remember at the moment which one it was). Then I heard him on a couple of podcasts that I listen to, first he was on Open Minds Radio and then he made an appearance on Mysterious Universe. After listening to him on these interviews I was pretty excited to read his book. It seemed like maybe finally someone else had woken up and realized that we just don't know anything.  What I mean is that in his book Volk explores all many of Fortean, or as he calls it paranormal, phenomena with as unbiased of an opinion as you could hope to have.

Volk seems to realize that while debunkers may believe they have science on their side, at times they can be just as quick to believe as those that are true believers. Volk argues that the truth is probably somewhere between the two extremes, in the 'Excluded Middle' if you will. It's very refreshing to hear people coming to this conclusion. After all in many aspects of life we are dealing with too many unknowns. I don't think there is anything wrong with admitting that we simply don't know what something is or where it comes from.

The problem that we run into is that instead of searching for whatever evidence may exist out there, we simply find evidence that backs up our preconceived notions. Volk points this out in his book to the chagrin of both True Believer's and the Debunkers. I'm not very far into the book but I am already enjoying it very much and look forward to it only getting better as I go along. So with that if you will excuse I have to get back to finishing the book. Look for a full review of it to come soon, in the mean time I highly recommend you get yours hands on it. Trust me, as long as you remain an open minded as you can you will not be disappointed. Who knows, perhaps you may even learn a thing or two. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, Have a Happy 4th of July!

Next on my reading list!

Finally got the last two books that are on my current to read list.

Fringe-ology by Steve Volk

So it will definitely be a busy next couple of weeks for your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ..... a city?

Never fear dear readers, my apparent funk from last night has finally lifted. Today is a normal day for your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher. And as is often my habit, I scanned news sites today hoping to find more modern occurrences of Fortean phenomena to share with you, because I figure that the phenomena didn't just go away with the passing of Charles  Fort. And I am happy to report that I was able to do just that.

As reported earlier today by the Daily Mail, an apparition of a city appeared over the Xin'an River in Huanshan City in East China. Here is a little blurb from the article along with some photos, follow the link for the whole article and the accompanying video as well.

Residents in a Chinese city have been stunned after a giant mirage of a 'ghost city' towered across the skyline.

The apparition appeared earlier this month after heavy rainfall and humid conditions along the Xin'an River in Huanshan City in East China.

Tall buildings, mountains and trees appeared to rise up through the ghostly mist that had descended over the river at dusk. There is usually nothing buy sky across the horizon.

Link to the article.

Look out below!

This phenomena should be familiar to my fellow Forteans out there. Charles Fort in his book New Lands published in 1925. The book mostly dealt with Fort's expansion of his 'Sargasso Sea' theory and his theory behind anomalous falls ( i.e. fish falling, blood, giant blocks of ice, etc) that basically there were 'obviously' floating islands in the sky. His evidence for this were stories not unlike the one from China. Where people have, for centuries, reported sightings of cities in the skies. Often many of the cities didn't match the descriptions of any towns nearby, leading one to question just where they were originating from.

It almost goes without saying at this point that if you found this article interesting (and I highly recommend you go read more and check out the cool videos that are posted up at the Daily Mail site) then you should definitely read Fort's books. For my review on Fort's work, you can check this post. Until next readers, watch out for falling cityscapes.

Turn on, tune in, drop out!

A few months back I read two very fascinating books on the subject of psychedelics; Inner paths to Outer Space by Rick Strassman (and others) and Supernatural by Graham Hancock. Both books bring to the table the idea that through the use of psychedelics, humans beings are able to access other realms of 'reality' (there's that loaded word again) and perhaps gain new insights. Some years ago studies had actually been performed in the United States on the therapeutic uses of psychedelics for the treatment of all manner of conditions. But like most reactionary institutions these substances, especially LSD, where outlawed in the United States. And so they have been until recently. (The notably exception to this being Dr. Rick Strassman's work with DMT in the early 90's).

Over the last few weeks news articles have been appearing on a variety of websites indicating that the taboo on the use of psychedelics, or the sometimes preferred term of entheogens, is perhaps being lifted. And that we may soon see medical research again head down this path. I for one am quite excited about this prospect. On the medical side, the research that was done seems to indicate that the substances have the capability of; helping alcoholics stop drinking, helping terminally ill patients deal with anxiety, or helping people with OCD handle their compulsions.

All of these are great and reason enough, I think at least, for the US to allow research back into to the medicinal benefits of these substances. However this is not the only reason that I find these substances fascinating. No there is a much more Fortean reason for that. During his research with DMT, Dr. Rick Strassman had participants that were reporting what sound similar to alien abduction experiences. The participants would often report being taken to white rooms in order to be examined by alien beings. The examinations would some times end with some sort of insight being given to the individual. This is really fascinating, but as with most of these topics we are left with more questions than answers.

If, as Dr. Strassman speculates, we produce DMT internally; can the alien abduction phenomena be written off simply as yet another function of the human body? I don't know the answer to that unfortunately, but let's play a little 'What if?' game for just a moment. Suppose that the alien 'Other' that interacts with us from time to time is aware that we have DMT inside our bodies. And they know that DMT can cause humans to have psychedelic experiences. So what if when they wish to interact with us, and in order to keep the experience just outside the realm of 'reality', they induce the DMT experience and then use this to do whatever it is they are doing to us? I don't know if this is the case or not, but I do think that it can make for some interesting speculation. Obviously this couldn't explain all abduction events, as some have physical traces. Unless of course the 'Others' use a combination of physical and psychedelic tools to interact with us for their own purposes.

To learn more about some of the research that has been done into these topics I highly recommend checking out the two books I mentioned earlier; Inner paths to Outer Space and Supernatural. Both are extremely fascinating books that I think you would enjoy. Also to read more about some of the recent murmurings about psychedelic research follow this links for recent news articles on the topic.

The Economist; LSD: Acid Tests, Mother Jones; Geeky stats about Magic Mushrooms, WebMD; Magic Mushrooms show promise as therapeutic tool

Well thats all for now readers, until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, 'Don't have a bad trip!'

Bigfeet (or whatever the plural of Bigfoot is, Bigfooti?)

As I noted in one of yesterday's post, tomorrow evening on the east coast and earlier in the afternoon pacific time, Sanger Paranormal Group is set to release their 'evidence' of Bigfoot. Before the actual event, however, I would like to take a moment to point something out.

In their press release that Sanger Paranormal Group sent out to media outlets, I guess to stir up interest, they mentioned that their 'evidence' was the best the Cryptozoological community has seen since the Patterson Gimlin Film. So dear readers what I will be doing tonight is giving you access both to the Sanger Paranormal Group's 'evidence' and the classic Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot footage. My question to you will be, which do you find more convincing?

All I will say is this, if both are hoaxes at least Patterson and Gimlin put far more effort into their video. Without further ado here are the respective evidences. Let me know what you think!

First up is the Patterson Gimlin footage originally shot in 1967.

"Face print" of Bigfoot found by Sanger Paranormal

OK Forteans that is all for now, like I said let me know what you think about these two pieces of 'evidence'. 

Fortean Philosopher

-Tony

Obsession or Passion? (and is there really any difference?)

In my younger days as a Fortean philosopher, the only thing that seemed to be able to occupy my mind was reading or talking about aliens, UFOs, or ghosts. I was an ardent reader, but you would have been hard pressed to find a non-paranormal book in my hands at any given time. By the time that I was in high school, this trend didn't show any signs of stopping.

It had gotten to a point where my mother was afraid that I was obsessed with the paranormal, something she thought was quite detrimental to me.  Her biggest concern was the kind of people that I had begun hanging around with. They weren't criminals or anything like that, however they did like to cut class and smoke pot. Also they were, or at least considered themselves to be, Satanists and pagans. My mother was concerned that my interest in the paranormal had led me to associate with these people. Sadly nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact the paranormal never came up while I was hanging out with this group of people (I guess even then I was Closet Anomalist).

Nothing could convince my Mom that my interest (obsession) with the paranormal would not somehow end up with me truly becoming one of 'those' kids. So reacting as only parents can react, my mother  took all of my paranormal books away from me. Maybe I was obsessed because, and I guess I should feel embarrassed by this but strangely I don't, I actually cried when she took my books away from me. It was as though she was taking my identity or my foundation away. I suppose in high school, kids are trying to figure out who they are. Or at least they are beginning that process, because the same thing is said of college.

So there I was at the tender age of 14, crying because my world was literally shattering around me. No longer did I have the books that I could turn to in order to read about paranormal things, nor did I have those cool alien figures I showed off here. Luckily I still had the Internet, so I could at least stay up to date with some of the happenings in the paranormal world. But it felt so strange not having that aspect in my life. Because at that time in my life really all I had were my books on the subject. I walked around like a shadow of my former self.

Of course as time moved on I quit hanging around those kids, not so much because the 'influence' of the books were gone but because like most kids my taste in friends changed. And besides just because I didn't have the books didn't mean that I had quite thinking about the paranormal, quite the contrary actually. All during this time I was still running the PSA with my friends and brother; where each weekend we would go off looking for Bigfoot in the woods near our home, or looking for Chupacabra in the sewer systems below our subdivision.

Eventually my Mom would give me back my books, although she probably still thought that I was obsessed. Unfortunately I don't disagree with her too much. As a kid I definitely was obsessed. Not longer after I got the books back, I moved out and went to school for awhile. Eventually I dropped out and had to start life in the 'real world'. So there wasn't much time for Fortean stuff. In fact I was out of the 'field' for quite a few years as a matter of fact. I (un)fortunately missed out on the 'CARET' Drones fiasco and the equally amazing (simply because of its sheer audacity for story-telling) the 'Project Serpo' document releases.

It wouldn't be until about 2008 or so that I really picked back up on the paranormal. I've been at it ever since, but with a huge distinction from when I was a child. Unlike my younger days, now I spend time doing other things. Don't get me wrong, nothing fascinates me more than Fortean topics. But I take more time now to make sure that I have other hobbies as well. It's like my dad used to say 'everything is fine in moderation'. I think that's what happens to a lot of the personalities in this topic, they let the subject get to them too much.
Really it is OK to take a break every now and then and do something else. Hell as a perfect example, I was off Twitter and this blog for the majority of the day because I was busy playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. That is just one of my other hobbies. I do think Fortean topics are important and likely could hold the answers for some of the questions that we have as a species, but you know sometimes its OK to just play a game. So if there is a moral of this story I suppose it would be this; don't spend all day everyday reading this or any other paranormal blog. Go outside for a walk, watch a movie with friends/family, or hell just go out for a beer every now and then.

Well that's all I have for you tonight, until next time this is Tony Morrill the Fortean Philosopher saying, “ Take a break from the Fortean!”

Older and hopefully wiser

I was a pretty young child when I got interested in Fortean topics; although at the time I had never really heard that word. That story has already been told here and here. When I first began to read about aliens, UFOs, ghosts, and Bigfoot; I was hooked. I mean who wouldn't be right? The thing is at that young age (I was around 8 or 9 I think) I was positive that I was going to prove the existence of these things, scientifically, to the world. That's right, yours truly was going to go down in history as the guy that brought the reality of the paranormal to the average Joe on the street.

I know, its pretty funny even to me now as I am typing it. But keep in mind I was, like most kids I guess, kind of naïve about well life in general I suppose. Certainly I was naïve about Fortean topics. In order to 'solve' the problem of the paranormal; my friend at the time (again I was about 8 or so) Billy and myself created the PSA or Paranormal Society of America. The aim of this organization was to scientifically investigate claims of the paranormal. Soon we would recruit our younger brothers and the four of us proceeded to 'investigate' paranormal activity. We never really saw anything, nor for that matter did we ever really investigate anything, but we had a blast doing it. And through it I was slowly introduced to many of the concepts that I kept for years. Concepts that I have discussed many times, mostly about the ETH.

What's funny about all this, well OK there is a lot funny about this but I mean in a hindsight sort of way, is that I still have our 'Case Files' in my paranormal notebook (which I may share with you guys one day). My hope was that each PSA investigator was going to have their own notebook. Of course eventually the PSA kind of faded away as most things in childhood do. But still I held out the goal, I guess, or maybe desire to one day somehow 'prove' the paranormal. In a lot of ways I suppose that I was looking for some kind of validation. As I have recounted on this blog previously; when I was younger, other kids would often make fun of me for my interests in these paranormal topics. So, my reasoning went as a child, if I could prove the paranormal to these people they would have to apologize  to me.

But as I got older I began to start questioning that motivation. It definitely seemed like a selfish perspective to take. I mean my interest in the paranormal lead me to really think about life in really cool and exciting ways, so why couldn't I just share that with people? Why did it have to be in an 'I told you so' kind of way? That didn't really seem to work out too well either though, as I quickly discovered that people pretty much have accepted into their reality tunnel as much as they are willing to. The more that I tried to talk with people about these topics, especially about UFOs for some reason, the more they would act like the kids did back in elementary school.

This brings me to where I am at in this stage of my life. I have come to the conclusion, at least temporarily because as a Fortean I am always ready to cast this ideal aside for a better one, that I will just learn what I can from people that are older/wiser in these topics than I am and to share what  I learn with whoever is willing to listen. It seems that if there is some kind of 'point' to studying Fortean phenomena; it's simply to allow us the chance to evolve. At least on an individual basis. I know for sure that my life has never been the same since the day that I picked up my first UFO book. I think it's definitely for the better as well.

So for the foreseeable future the best that I can hope for is to continue having a conversation with those that are teaching me things. Greg Bishop has mentioned on his show Radio Misterioso more than once, that he does the show so that he can learn something. Because he wants to talk to the guests and if other people like it then thats great. I really like that philosophy a lot, so I freely admit that I have taken it and adapted it to my own life.

Besides, who knows maybe one of these days you will see me on the news having finally 'proven' a paranormal event. And if not, well hell you'll be able to find me here at Forteania. That's all for tonight, thanks for listening guys and gals.

                                    Fortean Philosopher
                                            Tony

Put your money where your mouth is! I did.

It is likely painfully clear to any regular reader of Forteania, that I am not the world's biggest fan of so called, with no apparent sense of irony, 'mainstream' Ufology. I mean one only has to look at literally any of the posts I have made on this blog to figure that much out. Along those lines I am constantly on the lookout for anything that can offer a sliver of hope for the quagmire that is Ufology. As I have pointed out ad nauseum, we need to move past the "UFOs=aliens" paradigm we have been saddled with for the past 60 plus years.

With all of this in mind, I was extremely happy to hear that Paul Kimball was working with Tim Binnall in order to produce a 'sequel' to his amazing Best Evidence documentary which, as I have pointed out a number of times on Twitter, is one of the best UFO documentaries that I have ever seen. Best Evidence, which Paul Kimball has put up for free on Vimeo (find it here, seriously watch it then come back and finish this post), is an excellent film that through ten amazing UFO cases does a superb job of demonstrating that there is, in fact, an objective (hah that's not a loaded word) reality to the UFO phenomena.

Once we understand that there is a reality to the UFO subject, which probably most of you reading this have come to that conclusion already, where do we take it from there? The main answer for years has been the ETH, which contrary to what I may sometime indicate on this blog, is a valid hypothesis. But it is not the only one, and this is the problem that the newest project that Kimball and Binnall are working on seeks to solve. In Beyond Best Evidence, they seek to give the viewer all of the different options for what is behind the UFO enigma. ETs? Yep they are gonna be in the film with the respective ETH guys, like Kevin Randle and Stan Friedman. Ultraterrestrials/Interdimensionals? You bet. Hell even the Cryptoterrestrials will make an appearance.

Essentially the hope is that this documentary will allow you the viewer, to understand that the UFO problem is far more complicated (in an exciting way) than just alien visitor's from Zeta Reticuli. So what can you do, oh loyal readers of Forteania? I'm glad that you asked. As it stands Paul Kimball and Tim Binnall are trying to raised $25,000 in order to help fund this project. As of this posting they have only reached $1580, but you can help. If you, like me, are ready to make a change for the positive in Ufology or just to get people to be more open to a myriad of possibilities, please support this cause in anyway you can. Unfortunately the fund-raising part only has 3 days left at this moment, but I think we could do it if we all pitch in.

So like the title says, I put my money where my mouth is will you? If so head to the Indie GoGo page for the film to donate whatever you can! For more information on the project from the gentleman running it, check out the latest Binnall of America podcast up now to learn more about this film. And after that seriously go watch Best Evidence. Hopefully together we can make this documentary a reality, sooner rather than later. Well that's all I have for now, check back later for more Fortean shenanigans.

Messie Investigation (with pictures!)

As stated earlier today in another post here at Forteania, your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher got out of his armchair in order to do some honest to goodness on the scene investigation. The Barnes & Noble that I was at earlier when I posted on here at Forteania,  was only about 15 minutes away from the home of Messie at Lake Murray. And as promised we headed to the lake in order to see if we could capture some footage of the creature.

Of course first we went to Chili's to have some lunch, I mean you can't hunt for cryptids on an empty stomach right? So after that little detour we headed straight for the lake. Upon arrival we found that the electric company that maintains the dam at Lake Murray charges $3 dollars for parking. That wasn't a huge deal, but it kind of bummed me out that we couldn't just park for free. Oh well. Once we finally found a parking spot, the damn place was packed. You would think it was like the middle of summer and 100 degrees outside or something. 

Not Pictured: Messie

There were plenty of people out enjoying the lake, unlike Ashley and I who were not exactly properly attired for this expedition. Still we trudged through for you loyal readers who were sitting on the edges of your seats in anticipation. We next happened upon a placard that explained some of the history of Lake Murray.

Front of the placard

Back of placard

 We made it about 100 ft down the walk path of the dam, you know where people can run or ride bikes, when we were overcome by the tremendous heat. I mean it was unbearably hot. We were able to take one last photo. You know just in case we could catch Messie. Because sometimes that's how ghost photos work someone will try to take one last photo and then later they will say, "I didn't see the form when I took the photo, but later when the photo was developed it was there!". 

Still no Messie, I did find an Ashley however

So with that we decided to turn around and call it a day. Unfortunately we found no Messie, we did see a lot of boats and jet skis. Although today I was able to, if only for a few hours, stop being an 'armchair' investigator to an honest to goodness field investigator. That's all for now loyal readers. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Field Investigator Tony saying have a great night.