Jordan Maxwell & Other Paranormal Stories

[Frances]

Source:-http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/37

Link to the full article.

Sir Victor Goddard, The Ghost Photo by Herb Kugel.

The Smirking Airman.
Goddard’s first venture into the world of the unexplained involved a photograph. In 1975, the seventy-eight year old retired Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard published the story of a photograph that he had kept for many years. It was a group photograph of his squadron. It was taken in early 1919 at the end of World War I and portrayed some 200 men and women who survived the fighting. It was an official RAF photograph. Nobody could have tampered with either the photograph or its negative at any time.

When the photo was developed, it was placed on the squadron bulletin board so that those who wanted copies could sign up for them. There was one thing wrong, though. There was an extra face in the photograph, a face belonging to the late Airman Freddy Jackson. Jackson was a mechanic, who died by heedlessly walking into a spinning propeller two days before the squadron, which was to be disbanded, posed for the photo.



In fact, his funeral took place on the day the squadron gathered for the photo. In the photo (above), everyone is wearing a hat but Jackson. Everyone is looking grim except Jackson, who is smiling enigmatically. The others had reason to look grim-they had just returned from Jackson’s funeral.

Is the face in the photo really that of Jackson’s spirit? Goddard and others of the squadron were convinced that it was. Goddard, in his book Flight Towards Reality, suggests that Jackson’s expression seemed to say: “My goodness me-I nearly failed to make it-They didn’t wait, or leave a place for me, the blighters!”
Frances.

[Frances]

Source:- http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/37

Link to the full article.

Sir Victor Goddard. A Flight Through Time by Herb Kugel.

A Flight Through Time.
Goddard’s second trip into the unexplained involved an airplane flight. This was a much more personally harrowing experience. In 1935, while a Wing Commander, Goddard flew a Hawker Hart biplane to Edinburgh, Scotland, from his home base in Andover, England, for a weekend visit. On the Sunday before flying back, Goddard visited an abandoned airfield in Drem, near Edinburgh, this location being closer to his final destination than the airport at which he landed. The Drem airfield, constructed during the first World War, was a shambles. The tarmac and four hangars were in disrepair, barbed wire divided the field into numerous pastures, and cattle grazed everywhere. It was now a farm, and completely useless as an airfield.

On Monday, Goddard began the flight back to his home base. The weather was dark and ominous, with low clouds and heavy rain. Goddard was flying in an open cockpit over mountainous terrain without radio navigational aides or cloud flying instruments. Rain beating down on his forehead and onto his flying goggles badly obscured his vision. He thought he could climb above the clouds, but he was wrong. He made it to 8,000 feet, looking for a break in the clouds. There was none.

Suddenly Goddard lost control of his plane. It began to spiral downward. He struggled with the controls. He could speed up or slow down, but he could not stop the spin. He was unsure of his location, but knew he was falling rapidly and might smash into the mountains before coming out of the clouds. The sky became darker, the clouds turning a strange yellowish-brown. The rain came down even more heavily. Goddard’s altimeter showed he was only a thousand feet above the ground and dropping rapidly. At two hundred feet and still spiraling downward, he began to see a bit of daylight through the murky gloom, but his spiral toward seemingly inevitable death was far from over.

Goddard was now flying at 150 miles per hour. He emerged from the clouds over “rotating water” that he recognized as the Firth of Forth. He was still falling. Suddenly, he saw directly before him a stone sea wall with a path, a road, and railings on top of it. The road seemed to be slowly rotating from left to right. The cloud cover was down to forty feet. Goddard was now flying below twenty feet and was within an instant of tragedy. A young girl with a baby carriage ran through the pouring rain. She ducked her head just in time to avoid Hart’s wingtip. Goddard succeeded in leveling out his plane after that. He barely missed striking the water after clearing the sea wall by a few feet.

He was now flying only several feet above a stony beach. Fog and rain obscured all distant visibility, but Goddard somehow located his position. He identified the road to Edinburgh and soon was able to discern, through the gloom, the black silhouettes of the Drem Airfield hangars ahead of him, the same airfield he had visited the day before. The rain became a deluge, the sky grew even darker, and Goddard’s plane was shaken violently by the turbulent weather as it sped toward the Drem hangars-and into a different world.

Suddenly, the sky turned bright with golden sunlight. The rain and the farm had vanished. The hangars and the tarmac appeared to have somehow been rebuilt in a brand-new condition. There were four planes lined at the end of the tarmac. Three were standard Avro 504N trainer biplanes; the fourth was a monoplane of an unknown type-the RAF had no monoplanes in 1935. All four airplanes were bright yellow. No RAF airplanes were painted yellow in 1935. The airplane mechanics were wearing blue overalls. RAF mechanics never wore anything but brown overalls when working in hangars in 1935.

It took Goddard only an instant to fly over the airfield. He was only a few feet above the ground-just high enough to clear the hangars-but apparently none of the mechanics saw him or even heard his plane. As he sped away from the airfield, he was again engulfed by the storm. He forced his plane upward, flying at 17,000 feet and then, for a time, at 21,000 feet. He managed to return to his home base safely.



Goddard felt elated when he landed. He then made the mistake of telling fellow officers about his eerie experience. They looked at him as if he were drunk or crazy. Goddard decided to keep silent about what had happened to him. He did not want a discharge from the RAF on mental grounds.

In 1939, Goddard watched as RAF trainers began to be painted yellow and the mechanics switched to blue coveralls. The RAF introduced a new training monoplane exactly like the one he had seen in his flight over Drem. It was called the Magister. He learned that the airfield at Drem had been refurbished.

Another twenty-seven years went by, but Goddard never forgot what had happened. He played it through over and over in his mind. It was not until 1966 that he wrote of this experience. Over the years he had become convinced that there was no way he could have known that the RAF would change the colors of their trainers and their mechanics’ overalls four years before these changes took place. Goddard finally concluded that he must have glimpsed the future-or even traveled into it-for a brief moment in time.

Was this conclusion so unreasonable? Our senses determine our reality. Goddard was under extreme stress, and thought he might die. Perhaps the bonds controlling Goddard’s senses cracked for an instant, in the face of mortal danger, freeing him to glimpse another reality.
Frances.

[Frances]

http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/37

Link to the full article by Herb Kugel.

Father of Ufology?

Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard had a long and successful career. He joined the Royal Navy in 1910 when he was 13 years old, later transferring to the RAF in 1918. He is thus considered one of the founders of the RAF. As Deputy Head of the RAF Delegation to the United States, he was stationed in Washington, D.C., from 1946 until 1948.

He represented the RAF on the combined Chiefs of Staff Advisory Committee and coined the word ufology in 1946 when there was an outbreak of UFO sightings. During this period, he was convinced that UFOs were a hoax. He was instrumental in convincing President Harry Truman (through USAF Chief of Staff Carl A. Spaatz) to halt the US Air Force search for UFOs, a search Truman had ordered to help investigate the rumors of prowlers in American air space.
Goddard later regretted this decision and changed his mind about UFOs after his retirement from the RAF in 1951.

In his 1975 book, Flight Towards Reality, he wrote of his belief in the existence of UFOs and speculated that they might come from a psychic or spiritual world parallel to ours.
After his retirement from the RAF, Sir Victor spent twenty years in research in psychology, psychical research, and healing. He died in 1987 at the age of 90.
Frances.

[Frances]

source:- http://www.messagetoeagle.com/threeo...p#.VfVuLcSkqrU

Link to the full article.

A Highway To The Past by Ken Meaux.

A remarkable time travel case was published in Strange Magazine 2, Spring, 1988. The article "Time Traveler" written by Ken Meaux is about a man who calls himself L.C. (his real initials) and who experienced one the most amazing events of his life, something the could never forget.

Meaux writes: "L.C. and a business associate, Charlie, (fictitious name) had just finished lunch in the small Southwest Louisiana town of Abbeville. Still discussing their work, they began their drive north along Highway 167 towards the Oil Center city of Lafayette about 15 miles away.

The date was October 20, 1969, and the time was about 1:30 in the afternoon. It was one of those picture-perfect days in Fall--clear blue skies and a nippy 60 degrees, just right conditions for cruising along with the car windows rolled down.

The highway had been practically traffic-free until they spotted some distance ahead what appeared to be an old turtle-back-type auto traveling very slowly. As they closed the distance between their vehicle and this relic from the past, their discussion turned from their insurance work to the old car ahead of them. While the style of the auto indicated it to be decades old, it appeared to be in show room condition, like it might have just been serviced by some which evoked words of admiration from both L.C. and Charlie.

Because the car was traveling so slowly, the two men decided to pass it, but before doing so, slowed to better appreciate the beauty and mint condition of the vehicle. As they did so, L.C. noticed a very large bright orange license plate with the year "1940" clearly printed on it.

This was most unusual and probably illegal unless provisions had been made for the antique car to be used in ceremonial parades.

As they passed the car slowly to its left, L.C., who was in the passenger's seat, noticed the driver of the car was a young woman dressed in what appeared to be 1940 vintage clothing. This was 1969 and a young woman wearing a hat complete with a long colored feather and a fur coat was, to say the least, a bit unusual. A small child stood on the seat next to her, possibly a little girl. The gender of the child was hard to determine as it too wore a heavy coat and cap. The windows of her car were rolled up, a fact which puzzled L.C. because, though the temperature was nippy, it was quite pleasant and a light sweater was sufficient to keep you comfortable. As they pulled up next to the car, their study turned to alarm as their attention was riveted to the animated expressions of fear and panic on the woman's face. Driving alongside of her at a near crawl (no traffic in either direction allowed this maneuvering) they could see her frantically looking back and forth as if lost or in need of help. She appeared on the verge of tears.

Being on the passenger's side, L.C. called out to her and asked if she needed help. To this she nodded "yes," all the while looking down (old cars sat a little higher than the low profiles of today's cars) with a very puzzled look at their vehicle. L.C. motioned to her to pull over and park on the side of the road. He had to repeat the request several times with hand signs and mouthing the words because her window was rolled up and it seemed she had difficulty hearing them. They saw her begin to pull over so they continued to pass her so as to safely pull over also in front of her.

As they came to a halt on the shoulder of the road, L.C. and Charlie turned to look at the old car behind them. However, to their astonishment, there was no sign of the car. Remember, this was on an open highway with no side roads nearby, no place to hide a car. It and its occupants had simply vanished.

L.C. and Charlie looked back at the empty highway. As they sat in the car, spellbound and bewildered, it was obvious to them that a search would prove futile. Meanwhile, the driver of a vehicle that had been behind the old car pulled over behind them. He ran to L.C. and Charlie and frantically demanded an explanation as to what had become of the car ahead of him. His account was as follows.

He was driving North on Highway 167 when he saw, some distance away, a new car passing up a very old car at a slow pace, so slow that they appeared to be nearly stopped. He saw the new car pull onto the shoulder and the old car started to do the same. Momentarily, it obstructed the new car and then suddenly disappeared.

All that remained ahead of him was the new car on the shoulder of the highway. Desperate to associate logic to this incredible sight, he immediately assumed an accident had occurred. Indeed, an accident had not occurred, but something more haunting, perhaps as tragic, and certainly more mysterious had.

After discussing what each had seen from his perspective, the three men walked the area for an hour. The third man, who was from out of state, insisted on reporting the incident to the police. He felt that it was a "missing person" situation and that they had been witnesses. L.C. and Charlie refused to do so as they had no idea where the woman and child along with the car had gone.

They were missing alright, but no police on this plane of existence had the power to find them. The third man finally decided that without their cooperation he could not report this on his own for fear his sanity would be questioned. He did exchange addresses and phone numbers with L.C. and Charlie. For years he kept in touch with them, calling just to talk about his incident and to confirm again that he had seen what he had.
Frances.

[sandancer]

Fascinating stories Frances , thank you .

We are doing an overnight investigation at the North East Land Sea And Air Museum formerly the North East Aircraft Museum on the 25th , I'm sure the old gentleman who opens the museum for us has told us before they have heard what sounds like old wartime aircraft flying over ! I'll have to ask him .

It was an airfield in both W.W1 and W.W.2.

[Frances]

Hope your investigation goes well Sandancer, I know you and your team get good results.
Please keep us informed of how it goes.

When my grandson is next here, I might consider taking him to the Land Sea & Air Museum, that is if he can get over his love of animals and dinosaurs, ha ha.

Good luck with the investigation, glad you like the stories.
Frances.

[sandancer]

Animals and Dinosaurs , oh yes been there !

Aircraft, trucks, motorbikes , jeeps , old blackpool trams . Watch out for opening doors and finding figures standing behind them

I think your grandson would love it

[Frances]

Source:- http://www.yourirish.com/folklore/banshees

The Banshee In Ireland.

Banshee (bean-sidhe) means ‘Faerie woman’ or ‘woman of the Faerie mound. Many legends exist surrounding the Banshees and just how evil is she meant to be.

The first is that she is the ghost of a young woman who was brutally killed and died so horribly that her spirit is left to wander the world watching her family and loved ones warning them when a violent death is imminent.

This particular type of Banshee appears as an old woman in rags with dirty grey hair, long fingernails and sharp pointed rotten teeth. Her eyes are blood red and filled with so much hatred and sorrow that to look into them will cause instant death. The Banshees mouth is permanently open as she emits a long and painful scream to torture the souls of the living.

According to legend there are a few Banshees that relish in taking a life and will stalk their victim wailing and screaming at them to the point that the victim goes insane or die. It has been told that the Banshee has ripped many a brave man to death with her bare hands. This is the type of Banshee portrayed in Hollywood ‘horror’ films.

Here in Ireland we have a much less gory view of the Banshee. She does attach herself to families usually with an O or a Mc in the surname such as O’Brien or McNeill etc, and she does indeed foretell a death in the family.

The Banshee does not ‘bring’ death but warns that death is near and this gives the family a chance to prepare and it is not necessarily a violent death it may be of a family member that has lived to 106 years of age! She is there as an escort to ensure that the loved one passes safely to the other side.

Stories have been passed down through generations of families of ‘O’s and ‘Mc’s of their personal experiences with their own Banshee and my family are no different.

I remember being told of an uncle who was walking home one cold blustery night (probably three sheets to the wind after partaking of a snifter to keep the cold out!) and on arriving home told my grand-mother that he had tried to comfort an old woman, dressed in black with a veil over her face, who was crying and wailing outside the house but every time he went over to her she moved away and kept pointing at the house.

My grand-mother knew straight away what this old lady represented and sent my uncle to bed telling him she would have a look. Needless to say she didn’t dare look herself. Three days later my grand-mothers brother died peacefully in his sleep. As children we used to plague my uncle to recount the story of the night he tried to invite the Banshee in for tea!

The Banshee may sometimes only be heard keening (an Irish word used to describe the wailing that women used to do over the body of a deceased person to ward off evil spirits) but when the Banshee decides to appear she may take the form of the following:

An old woman dressed in black with long grey hair and covering her face with a veil.
An old woman with long white hair, red eyes and dressed in a green dress.
A deathly pale woman with long red hair dressed in a white dress sometimes a shroud.
A beautiful woman wearing a shroud.
A beautiful woman with silver-white hair wearing a long shimmering silver dress.
A headless woman naked from the waist up and carrying a bowl of blood.

Of course no-one wishes a visit from a Banshee no matter how alluring she is but she does serve a purpose to the family by letting them know that they should start making preparations for a traditional funeral.
Frances.

[Dreamtimer]

Frances, I didn't know the origin of the name Banshee. Thank you. That's a fantastic image you provided. It's nice to know the full story and not just the most awful aspect.

[Frances]

Source:- http://beforeitsnews.com/paranormal/...n-2465142.html

Link to the full article by Theodore White.

Is John Keel’s Indrid Cold The Grinning Man?

When famed paranormal researcher John Keel went to West Virginia to investigate the now famous Mothman case, he found far more strange activity in the area than just the 7 ft flying bat creature.
While there, Keel received a phone call from a man who identified himself as ‘Indrid Cold.’
Keel said that the Indrid Cold calls were, cryptic and prophetic.

During his time in West Virginia, Keel interviewed dozens of people and many reported seeing UFOs, Men in Black, and “a strange man who seemed to come from nowhere”, that man was Indrid Cold.
Many believe that the Grinning Man and Indrid Cold are, in fact the same person.
Interestingly, the Keel phone call from Indrid Cold, was not the first contact with someone using that name.

Near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where the Mothman was seen, is the town of Parkersburg.
While driving home from work on Interstate 77, a man named Woodrow Derenberger, reportedly came face to face with Indrid Cold.
Derenberger said, he heard a loud crashing sound, he looked in his rear view mirror, but just as he looked back, a vehicle sped past him.
The vehicle moved over in front of him, and began to slow until the vehicles came to a stop.

Derenberger gave a bizarre description of the vehicle that had cut him off:
“It looked like an old fashion kerosene lamp chimney, flames coming out both ends, with a big bulge in the middle.”

Then the door opened, and out stepped a man about 6-foot tall, with a dark tan, dark hair and wearing a one piece, blue shiny suit.
The man approached Derenberger and spoke.
Derenberger said the stranger used telepathy to communicate told him that they meant no harm and that he would be in contact with Derenberger in the future. The man identified himself as “Cold.”

With all the strange things that are reported in West Virginia, and all along the Ohio River, its hard to know if Indrid Cold, Mothman, Grinning Man and the collapse of the Silver Bridge are really connected or just a coincidence.



Many see the Mothman as a harbinger of death and disaster, because it was reportedly seen on or around the Silver Bridge shortly before it fell.
Also Mothman was never seen again after the bridge disaster, at least according to some.

It also seems like the mysterious Indrid Cold has also vanished.
While there may continue to be reports of the strange Grinning Man, the name Indrid Cold is rarely attached to the stories.

It would seem that Indrid Cold has entered the realm of urban myth, under the general name of ‘Grinning Man.’
So who was Indrid Cold?
Some say that Indrid Cold was, in fact the Mothman himself.

I’m not really sure why. Maybe just because they seemed to appear and disappear at about the same time.
After all, Mothman was a bizarre creature and anything but human in appearance.
I think Woodrow Derenberger saw something very strange, told the story, and it has now become an urban legend.

There is that strange phone call that the journalist John Keel received though. I don’t know if that was the “real” Indrid Cold or someone who had heard the story and decided to prank Keel.
Whatever the case may be, Indrid Cold is here to stay, under the name Grinning Man.

Here is the 1966 interview with Woodrow Derenberger who described his encounter with the ‘Grinning Man.’

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZujqvezWB7c

Video 7:38
Frances.

[jimmer]

keel wrote about one incident of this 'grinning man.'
it had to do with two boys who were walking along a street
at night and saw the grinning man standing behind a fence.
after that, I'd have to re-read for more.

oh, here we go...

"On that night two young boys, Martin Munov and James Yanchitis
were walking home along a road that ran adjacent to the elevated New Jersey Turnpike.
As they walked along the dark street, Yanchitis noticed a strange looking man standing
in the darkness at the top of the treacherous incline, trapped by a chain link fence..."

http://martinjclemens.com/the-many-f...rger-incident/

I don't believe keel considered indrid cold to be the grinning man.
at least, I've never read anything about keel connecting the two.
he did believe that all high-strangeness emanates from the superspectrum
and it's inhabitants, the ultralterrestrials.

like the howard menger and george van tassel cases, keel believed derenberger was touched by the ultras.
as usual, at first the contact is friendly, seemingly insightful, even helpful.
as the contacts continue, the information and experience become false,
leaving the contactee confused and disbelieved by his contemporaries.

[Frances]

Source:- http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishn...ors-charm.html

Link to the full article by Imogen Crawford-Mowday.

Caul: A Sailor's Charm

1917.14.33 Rolling pin from Sunderland, said at one time to contain a caul.

Birth is a fraught and dangerous time and objects associated with it often take on deeply symbolic meanings. No object could be more imbued with superstitious potential than a piece of birth-associated human tissue.

The Pitt Rivers Museum has several such objects including an object described as a 'Glass rolling-pin, painted and dated 1855; said to have contained a child's caul as a sailor's charm, Sunderland' [1917.14.33] which is described in our public web-based catalogue as a "food accessory, amulet and human body part". For me this object encapsulates the diversity and complexity of the Museum's English Collections. The object is located in a drawer in the Museum Court, amongst other amulets and charms, and takes the form of a hollow smoky-glass rolling pin painted with a picture of a ship in full sail. I have been fortunate enough to closely examine the rolling pin and it is painted with a ship in dark brown with light tan sails on a green sea and associated green floral designs plus what may have been an image of an anchor. Now badly worn, the paintwork on the rolling pin includes the phrase "a gift from Sunderland 1855" (or 1856).

It is thought to have once contained a child's caul but is now open at one end and clearly hollow and empty - however the association with a child's caul remains and it is that which I explore herein.

Babies born 'in the caul' (when their amniotic sack, or amnion, has not burst and remain intact on the babies head or face like a circular crown) are in many instances worldwide thought to be lucky, special or protected, and according to Wikipedia, children born in the caul are rare, occurring less than one in every thousand births. It may be both the rarity of occurrence and the watery symbolism of the amniotic fluid that led to both the children born in the caul, and those subsequent bearers/wearers of the caul as a charm, to be deemed, specifically in English folklore, as subsequently unable to drown.

References to children being born with the caul as being special occur in literature from the bible onwards, with the most notable English citation occurring in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens where David's own caul is auctioned off as a talisman to protect against drowning. David Copperfield describes how he felt at being present at the auction of his own caul thus "...I remember to have felt quite uncomfortable and confused, at part of myself being disposed of in that way. The caul was won, I recollect, by an old lady with a hand-basket...It is a fact which will be long remembered as remarkable down there, that she was never drowned, but died, triumphantly in bed, at ninety-two" (Quoted in the Lancet 2002: 359:2209). However, reference to such cauls being kept as protective amulets, and not just as charms against drowning, also occurs both in English oral and written traditions.

The date of the particular object in our collection is given as around 1855 (based on the date painted on the rolling pin's exterior) and this was when it seems such beliefs were at their apex in England with several references in the press, such as this example from the London Times in 1835: "A Child's Caul to be disposed of, a well-known preservative against drowning, &c., price 10 guineas" (Moore, 1891).



As I have outlined, throughout Europe, but especially in the U.K and Iceland, such cauls were believed to protect their owners from drowning and in some instances other forms of danger. For example, In Iceland the guardian spirit of a child was supposed to reside in the caul, which was carefully preserved after birth and kept. In France, the expression "etre né coiffé" is used to denote that a person is singularly lucky.

A related object in our Museum Objects collection ( 1907.1.13) is described as a 'child's caul (or 'kell' as they are called in Scotland)". This particular caul has been rolled out and is presented flat in a small frame pressed to paper behind glass, where it can clearly be seen to be human tissue, as it is a strong but thin membrane of a circular shape with a small hole on the upper right-hand side. This particular example was acquired by Henry Balfour for the Museum in 1907 and came from the birth of a John Simmons in Oxford on November 22 1906. This object was lent by Mr Lovett on October 2 1916 for an exhibition at the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum exhibition, when it was noted in The Observer Newspaper on the 1 of October 1916 : "Before the war Mr Lovett was able to buy a child's caul for his collection for 1/6. Today owing to the submarine peril, the price for this charm against drowning is £2 or more." (Catalogue Record for PRM1907.1.13). In another source it is stated that 'when the submarines got to work' the price of such cauls increased to reach 3 guineas for a time (About £3.3 modern pounds) (Fairfax-Blakeborough, 1923).

The belief has not long died out in Oxfordshire - as late as the 1950s people still believed in the powers of such cauls. In 1954 in Banbury a midwife offered a new mother the high price of £10 for her child's caul as the Midwife wanted it for a sailor (Bloxham, C 29/11/07 and Hole, 1957). Such beliefs were not restricted regionally as Henderson, in his volume on the "Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties" of England, also describes a sailor paying fifteen pounds in the early 19th century and how that sailor then kept the caul as a preventative talisman for 30 years. In addition, Henderson also describes an instance, from the North of England, where a servant kept the caul from her birth and consulted it in an oracular fashion all her life, fearing that loosing it would bring about her own death.

The beauty of this object for me is its complex symbology and associations with the sea. Sailors highly prized cauls for their protective powers against what was often their greatest fear - drowning. Seamen also started presenting glass rolling pins to loved ones on their return home from far-flung lands and they also saw rolling pins as charms in their own right. Glass rolling pins, such as this example, were easily suspended by their knobs at either end from hooks and also provided good materials with which to inscribe or paint sentiments. Our example probably originated in the Tyne and Wear/Sunderland Area and this seems to be paralleled by other examples from Newcastle in the 19th Century, as this area was then a centre of industry and shipping.

As a gift to a loved one such a rolling pin, if it contained a caul, would have been a gesture of a deeply protective nature. In summary this object, for me, engages with human fears and wonder surrounding the mysteries of birth and I imagine that as a sailors talisman it would have seemed a rare and precious charm against the terrors of the sea.
Frances.

[Frances]

Edgar Cayce in 1910.

Source:- http://www.theparanormalguide.com/bl...eeping-prophet

Link to the full article.

The Sleeping Prophet by Matt Sweeney put together by Ashley Hall.

Many prophets have made extraordinary claims and predictions about the fate of humanity and our world. Edgar Cayce, also known as 'The Sleeping Prophet', is believed by many to be one of the most gifted seers of all time...

... but there was more to Cayce than just predictions.

For nearly a thousand years, different tribes and native civilisations have foreseen and recorded prophecies, foretelling the future and changes to humankind. From the Mayans and Incas to the Native American Indians, indigenous people have looked to the sky and seen a mixed bag of possibilities and realities of years to come.

When we think of famous seers, clairvoyants or "Men of Prophecy", we immediately perhaps first think of Mother Shipton, Uri Geller and Saint Malachy, who is said to have had visions regarding the number of Pope's and possibly the demise of the Catholic Church and Christianity. Of course there is also Nostradamus, the French astrologer and physician, now famous for his prophetic visions and their interpretations, which have stumped and amazed many for the last four centuries.

But a man from Hopkinsville in Kentucky (where in 1955 a bizarre encounter with strange beings would take place at a farmhouse, see a recent article) would, at the turn of the 20th century, earn a place in the annuls of the mysterious world of Prophecy and Foresight. However, it must be acknowledged that this man was not only a brilliant visionary - he was a multi-gifted individual who, like Nostradamus, was interested in healing and the health of his fellow man, and although he had only an 8th grade education, would astound many a medical professional by diagnosing, recommending treatment and healing the most incurable diseases and ailments of his time.

He would do all of that and more... while he slept.



Edgar Cayce and his reading bed.

Edgar Cayce was born in a small town near Hopkinsville, Kentucky in 1877, which was known as a tobacco farming site. Coming from a middle-class rural family who attended Church every Sunday, it is said as he grew up the young boy would be seen everywhere with his Bible, and it is claimed he had many visions, with many seeing him as a strange, odd boy. After his grandfather drowned in a pond, Edgar claimed to have seen him on multiple occasions afterwards on the family farm, and he had the bizarre ability to memorise the contents of books while he slept on them.

The Man with the x-ray eyes.

While many in the community may have seen this as the work of the Devil, he was completely loved and fiercely protected by his family.

While working in his early twenties as an insurance salesman, he was afflicted with a severe bout of laryngitis, and lost his ability to speak. He took a job as a photographer and as his condition worsened, sought treatment from a homeopathic physician and hypnotist, who suggested Cayce try to correct the condition by inducing himself in a self-hypnotic state. Learning how to do so, it was on the 30th of March 1901, at the young age of 23, that a number of people witnessed Cayce take his destiny in his hands and watched as he, in a clear voice, diagnosed his ailment and prescribed treatment for it. All while lying on a couch, presumably asleep.

People flocked to him from afar, wanting an appointment with "the man with the x-ray eyes", and amazingly would use a variety of medical terminology to describe what was occurring inside his "patients" body. Soon he would tell doctors how to heal the wounded and crippled, and his own wife would use his guidance to heal herself from a severe case of tuberculosis.

When awake he seemed to be an illiterate man with no medical knowledge, but when asleep... Newspapers ran regular articles on him and he would continue to amaze and astound surgeons and pharmacists with his diagnosis. In most of his "readings", he would simply lie down on a couch, loosen his tie if needed, and lay with his arms folded across his chest. After 30 seconds, he would appear to be fluttering his eyes, and it is at this point that a client could ask him questions about anything. He was so gifted that sometimes he read for people who were not even in the same room as him, but in another building, state, or even in another country! All he had to know was a name and where they were.



Gladys Davis.

Soon though he began to have severe migraines and he and his family moved to a town in Alabama, where he sought to leave his past behind. However, an incident would propel him to once again use his unique abilities to help others, and it's here that he started to make some of his most terrifying predictions during his sessions on a sofa.

Celebrities were now seeking his advice; people such as Thomas Edison and the U.S. President were also clients, as well as oil companies seeking his knowledge on where they could find the locations of oil.

From 1923 onwards, Cayce hired Gladys Davis, a young stenographer who would go on to record every word he uttered in each of his trance sessions. She would make copies of the sessions for the client/s and Cayce, and it is because of her we know of what transpired in those years.

During 1925 he moved to Virginia and opened a hospital where he consulted up until 1931. It is during the '20's and 30's that Davis was to record the most perplexing, astonishing and accurate information from Cayce. Not only is it claimed he saw and described terrifying images of a future bleak in its vision, he would describe things from the past, and make claims that would be partially, if not correctly accurate, which would astound archaeologists, geologists, oceanographers and scientists.
Predictions.



Cayce Hospital building in 1927

Cayce accurately foretold of the Great Depression, and during one session, described the events leading up to WW2, in which he saw an alliance between Austria, Japan and Germany, accurately pinpointing dates and locations of significant events in the war, and even saw its end and that date. He also said during that session that "unless there is intervention by the Divine, the world will burn!"

He would see and make comments on social upheavals and affairs, changes to society, and foresaw President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. He, as well as other seers and visionaries, would see further down the track to weather and climate changes, make terrifying claims of cities and landmasses collapsing into the oceans, and talk about a shifting of the poles, possibly in the period between 1958 and 1998.

He also described in some sessions things to do with ancient times, of lands and civilisations, especially the Egyptians.

Years after his death in 1945, science would prove that some of his "retro-musings" would perhaps have some merit, and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 would be an integral part in bringing about the discovery that some of his information was indeed accurate.

He is perhaps known though for bringing about the believed existence of the mythical city of Atlantis. In sessions during the 20's, he described a large continent that existed in the Atlantic ocean that was inhabited by an intelligent and wise civilisation who knew about science and used flying machines, used the energy from crystals and were peaceful. But the Atlanteans abused their power over Nature, he said, and Atlantis was struck, perhaps by an earthquake or tsunami, and vanished without a trace 10,000 years ago. He went on to predict that portions of Atlantis would re-surface in the late 1960's, but to date that has not occurred.

So far all of Cayce's predictions of Atlantis and its inhabitants have not been substantiated by science. Cayce up until his death believed, as well as some of his "visionary" peers, that not only were we all capable of, and, with practice, able to harness and use the same abilities, but that the future as he saw it, was not set in stone, and actively said that he played a small role in perhaps shaping people's ideas and thoughts in a more positive and open minded way, and that we all had the power, as individuals and as a mass community, to shape the destiny of our world and what happens to it.

He maintained that during his healings he was inside of his client’s subconscious mind and was in fact seeking answers from within the client.

Today the "Sleeping Prophet" has been dead nearly 70 years, and 14,306 of his readings, all typed and recorded by Davis, are archived and catalogued at the Association for Research in Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Virginia and they are the biggest collection of recorded material by a single individual. He conducted readings at least twice a day for 43 years until his death. He remains one of the last century's most intriguing people, and his insight and predictions may have played a part in shaping the destiny of our civilisation and planet.
Frances.

[Frances]

Source:- http://www.theparanormalguide.com/bl...es-lycanthropy

Link to the full article by Matty Sweeney.

Werewolves- Lycanthropy.

Since medieval times, the concept or idea of the werewolf - said to be a person with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf / human hybrid, after being placed under a curse or being bitten by another werewolf - has terrified and intrigued generations of people all over the world.

Transformation.



Zeus turning Lycaon into a wolf.

In a Greek mythological story, Arcadian King Lycaon wanted to see if the supreme god Zeus was all-knowing, so he murdered a small child and served the roasted, dismembered pieces on a dish to the Olympian ruler. A furious Zeus, upon discovering the ruse, turned Lycaon into a wolf and killed his fifty sons with lightning bolts, restoring the slaughtered child to life. This story is said to be an origin tale of a now worldly-known mythological creature, one that has permeated through the legends and fairy tales of many cultures, especially European folklore.

Since medieval times the concept or idea of the Werewolf - said to be a man with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf-man hybrid after being placed under a curse or being bitten by another werewolf - has terrified generations of people all over the world. From movies in the 20th century such as 'Werewolf of London', 'The Howling' and its numerous sequels and 'An American Werewolf in London', the creature has been depicted as being of a malevolent nature, needing to satisfy a thirst for human blood. In more recent times, the creature has been depicted in more heroic or romantic roles, such as characters from the television series 'True Blood', and 'Twilight' and the 'Underworld' series of films, who are all able to be more "in control" of their wolf selves and instincts.

However, do werewolves exist, or have they existed at one point?
And what is the reality of such creatures, away from the stories attributed to it in pop culture?

In some ways, the werewolf perhaps did exist. For example, in the Scandinavian Viking Age, the first king of Norway, Harald I, was said to have had an army of men who wore wolf coats. They were called the Úlfhednar, and were said to be vicious in their killings - some attributing their victories due to the possibility they were "channelling" the spirits of wolves in order to enhance their effectiveness in battle.



Woodcut of a werewolf attack in 1512.

During the 14th and 15th Centuries, accusations of werewolvery became just as common as accusations of witchcraft, and the two have become entwined together since then, as it was believed the two (witches and werewolves) were agents of Satan. On October 31st, 1859, a German farmer was executed after a trial lasting many months, which was one of the most famous werewolf trials in European history. His name was Peter Stumpp (or something similar), and he was a well respected, wealthy farmer in his local community. However, he had hidden a dark secret, one that came out after hours of relentless torture inflicted upon being caught.

Stumpp is said to have confessed that, when he was 12, he began practicing black magic, and one day apparently successfully managed to summon the Devil himself. He further claimed the Dark One gave him a "magic belt" that allowed him to change into "the likeness of a greedy, devouring wolf, strong and mighty, with eyes great and large, which in the night sparkled like fire, a mouth great and wide, with most sharp and cruel teeth, a huge body, and mighty paws."

Since that fateful day it was said that over the next two decades Stumpp became known as the "Werewolf of Bedburg", and was responsible for the gorging of flesh of a number of animals, including humans. He finally confessed to the murders of 14 children and 2 pregnant women and their fetuses. He also killed his own young son.

He was charged with murder, incest and cannibalism,and along with his teenage daughter (who had also been his lover), was sentenced to death. He was put on a Breaking wheel (a torture device used for capital punishment during the Middle Ages) and flesh was torn from his body. Several limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axehead and then he was decapitated. He was not the first so-called Werewolf to be executed during the next few years, and perhaps was one of the first to be labelled with the condition called Lycanthropy.

Lycanthropy is the name given to the mythical condition of supernatural origin where a man can physically transform, or shapeshift, into a wolf. Clinical Lycanthropy, however, is a psychiatric disorder that involves delusions that the sufferer has, or will, or is, a non-human animal. It is very rare, and the disorder is believed to be a "cultural manifestation" of Schizophrenia, as many of the symptoms, including delusions and hallucinations, fit the DSM-IV Criteria for schizophrenic behaviour. Strangely, the condition is not only limited to delusions of being a canine-like animal, such as a wolf or dog. In some instances sufferers are transforming into cats, hyenas, foxes, horses, birds and insects. On rare occasions, reports have been made of patients claiming to be multiple animals at different times, and sometimes reports of an "unspecified"animal are made.

This, however, has not stopped many accounts, especially over the last century or so, of people having encounters with real-life wolf-men or werewolves. Many of these reports are made in North America, but can these accounts be just the result of the observation of possibly an abnormally sized wolf or canine, or are some men really able to transform and shapeshift into giant bi-pedal wolves, with a bloodthirsty appetite?
(Interested in more,? - look up ergot and lycanthropy)
Frances.

[Frances]

Homer & Langley Collyer.

Source:- http://www.theparanormalguide.com/bl...llyer-brothers

Link to the full article by Ashley Hall.

Buried In Junk. The Collyer Brothers.

Homer and Langley Collyer were reclusive brothers who lived in a four storey brownstone building in Harlem.
They were also hoarders, paranoid, yet very inventive.
Eventually their hoarding, reclusive ways would kill them both and their deaths would become a public spectacle.

Beginnings.

In November, 1881, Homer Lusk Collyer was born to his first cousin parents Herman Collyer and Suzie Frost. Herman was a gynaecologist at Bellevue Hospital, Manhattan and Suzie an Opera Singer. A few years later in 1885, Langley Wakeman Collyer was born. Although not an entirely 'normal' family, the two boys were greatly educated, both attended university with Homer gaining a degree in law and Langley degrees in Engineering and Chemistry.

The family would later move into a four storey brownstone 'mansion' in Harlem, but in 1909, Mr and Mrs Collyer separated and the boys, now in their mid twenties, chose to stay with their mother in their Harlem home.
By 1929, both the Collyer brothers parents had passed away, everything was left to them, including the brownstone home.

Things seemed to be going well for the brothers, Langley became a concert pianist and Homer practised law. However, in 1933, Homer lost his eyesight so Langley quit his job to care for him. This care came in the form of Langley feeding Homer 100 oranges a week, lots of peanut butter and rest. He would also play piano for his blind brother.
The two distrusted doctors, fearing that medicine will just make Homer worse.

Reclusive and Paranoid.



The Collyer brownstone 'mansion'.

As Harlem started to fall into poverty during the great depression, the Collyer brothers began to get paranoid. They became reclusive, with Langley venturing out only at night looking for food. Their phone had been disconnected and their services shut off because they did not pay their bills... not for lack of money, they just didn't pay them.

Children began to throw rocks at the house as they passed by, shattering the windows. In response the brothers boarded them up, and placed grills over the lower floor windows. After several break ins due to rumours of fabulous wealth located in the residence, Langley began to build a myriad or passageways complete with traps through the house.

And what did he build these passageways with?



One of many tunnels through the Collyer home.

Stuff... lots of stuff. During their seclusion from the outside world the brothers had become hoarders. At first it was all the possessions of their mother and father back in the one house. Then it was things that took the brothers interest. Soon it was whatever they found they could salvage from off the street. After Homer lost his eyesight, Langley began to collect and keep newspapers and books for when his brothers eyesight came back. Eventually their hoarding filled every space in the house, floor to ceiling so Langley began to construct his tunnels and traps from the hoarded items and trash.

Homer never left the house, never saw anyone else, and was completely reliant upon his brother. Langley would crawl the tunnels with food for Homer, travelling through the house, typically on hands and knees, between the two 'nests' the brothers lived in.

Langley would not completely avoid human contact and he would speak to people if he came into contact with them on his nightly walks. He was well spoken but shabbily dressed, this was because he feared that if he wore nice clothes he would be robbed. The brothers had plenty of money and after several years of not paying their mortgage and facing forced eviction, in 1942 Langley wrote a check for the remainder of the house payments in full. They also purchased a neighbouring property just so they would not have any prying neighbours.

The brothers were totally reclusive now, having only each other for company... and one completely reliant on the other for everything.

Lonely Deaths.



One of Langley's traps?

On March 21, 1947, the police received a phone call saying their was the smell of human decomposition coming from theCollyer Brothers brownstone home. An officer was dispatched but he had difficulty entering the home as there was no answer to door knocks and no way in through doors and windows.

Eventually, failing all other options, police began to pull the junk from the home in attempt to gain access and investigate the horrid odour. As items were pulled from the house they were thrown out into the street. This scene attracted thousands of onlookers who lined the opposite side of the road. Everyone knew of the 'crazy' Collyer brothers and all wanted a peek at what mysteries lay within.



The investigation and clean up drew a lot of onlookers.
After many hours of digging, Homer Collyer was discovered in a bathrobe, sitting with his head resting on his knees. He was dead. Official cause of death was starvation. What had happened to his carer, Langley?

It was rumoured that Langley had left his brother to starve to death and police received reports of Langley being sighted all over the US. Although these reports were investigated they all turned up nothing. Homer Collyer's funeral was held but Langley never showed.

The clearing of the Collyer house continued and eventually 120 tons of junk was removed. The collection of items was quite varied ranging from a gun collection to bowling balls, Fourteen pianos and a model T Ford chassis. More than 25,000 books were removed as were tons of old newspapers. Human organs were discovered pickled in jars and several pet cats. There was also a lot of garbage.



Langley Collyer is found...

Eventually the mystery of the missing brother was solved. On April 8, Langley Collyer's body was discovered in the brownstone home under a pile of newspapers. It was theorised that Langley was bringing his brother some food when he had tripped one of his home made traps causing a pile of newspapers to fall on him and suffocate him to death. After this, Homer would have slowly starved, as he waited for his brother to come and feed him.

Langley died within ten feet of where his brother waited.
It was actually Langley Collyer's decomposing body that caused the stench, alerting police to the situation in the house.
Homer and Langley Collyer were buried next to their parents at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn. They lay in unmarked graves.

As for the house... after it was cleared out it was found to be in terrible condition. Several walls had fallen in, the roof leaked, and there was a lot of hazardous mold. Being condemned it was soon demolished and the area where it sat is now a small park named after the Collyer Brothers. If you would like to visit it is found on the corner of 5th Avenue and 128th Street.
Frances.