Cougar Sighting in Cayuga County, NY

auburnpub - A close encounter with wildlife on a road in Mentz startled a driver last week, and she's sure it wasn't a deer that had dashed across the road.

Just south of Port Byron, at about 1:20 p.m., an animal that the driver believes was an Eastern cougar, an endangered species commonly referred to as a mountain lion, surprised the driver and her passenger as they were on their way to the village in the vicinity of the Mentz water spout on Route 38.

Cougar sightings are rare in New York, but Cheri Emmi-Stebbins said she just saw one.

Emmi-Stebbins, a real estate broker, was heading north on Route 38 with her agent, Amanda Rossbach, to meet with a client when something leapt across the road from the east side about 50 feet ahead of her car and disappeared into the swampy wooded area to the west.

“We both saw it and thought ‘What was it?'” she said. “It was just as clear as could be.”

She described it as very muscular and a grayish color with short hair and estimated its weight between 100 and 120 pounds by comparing it to her 90-pound Rottweiler.

“It was as if it had springs on its feet,” she said, describing its motion as pouncing or leaping rather than running. The creature didn't look at the car but straight ahead.

“It was on a mission,” Emmi-Stebbins said. “We had clear vision. It went straight across, and it was moving.”

She slowed down the car and saw that it went into the gulley, but she continued on as there was traffic and she had an appointment in Port Byron.

She said if she had been alone she probably wouldn't have reported the incident because no one would have believed her.

Emmi-Stebbins called her father and reported it to Cayuga County Sheriff's Office Undersheriff James Stowell. She also called New York state police.

Stowell said he contacted state Department of Environmental Conservation officer Chris Nielsen.

Nielsen said that when big cats are spotted, it's usually because they escaped from captivity on private refuges.

Nielsen said people didn't necessarily have to take photos before the department would investigate a reported sighting of a wild animal.

“If it was immediate and fresh and we had somebody nearby, we would go and investigate,” Nielsen said.

In the case last week, though, the agency wasn't able to get someone to the site in time to investigate, so the siting could not be confirmed. Cougar sitings have been a challenge for wildlife officials.

Kurt Armstrong, an environmental biologist at the DEC's Wildlife Office in Cortland, said, “We try and secure verification of any sightings. Documentation is woefully non-existant.”

For people who believe they've seen a cougar, Armstrong suggested providing his department with photos of the animal or animal tracks to determine just what kind of animal it was. He said in his whole career since 1980, there have been only 3 or 4 cougars confirmed, none in this area. Among them one animal was an import from South America, he said, so it was probably kept on a private game preserve, while a couple were found in Region 5 in the Adirondacks.

One was shot by a hunter who thought it was a bobcat until he saw its tail. It was a young mountain lion of South American origin. That was determined by DNA analysis, Armstrong said.

The Eastern Cougar Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides public education on the animal, said its common for people to mistakenly believe they've seen a mountain lion when they had actually spotted the more common bobcat, which in the east can have faint spots or none at all.

One method for securing evidence of a siting would be to find the tracks and put something down to indicate the measurement. Cougars have big feet, and if it was springing, the distance between the tracks could possibly be six feet. Pictures should contain a ruler or something to indicate the scale. Footprints could be between 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter.

Armstrong said if there really was a cougar spotted in Mentz, in all probability it escaped from captivity. If so, it will show up in the area again.

“Somebody probably turned it loose or it escaped. It wouldn't stay alive long,” he said.

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Lady in Blue, Tortured Souls Haunt Victorian Hotel

peninsuladailynews - Sorrow lies buried in the basement of the Tibbals Building on Water Street, said the Port Angeles star of Mystic Radio.

Robin Alexis said that the halls of the former brothel -- now a popular hotel and restaurant -- echo with the cries of prostitutes who became pregnant and delivered their children into this world, only to see them dispatched to the next.

She and a team of investigators from PIHA, Paranormal Investigations of Historic America of Monroe -- spent Friday night at what is now the Palace Hotel at 1004 Water St., which is believed to be haunted by the Lady in Blue.

Tiny bodies in basement

Alexis, who has a radio talk show and a Web site on psychic phenomenon, said that the tiny bodies were buried in the earth-floor basement, where a priest walks, believing that the baptisms he performed for their souls were inadequate because he was a sinner.

Now, after Alexis chanted Friday night, there is one less tortured soul, she said.

Investigators discovered not just one lingering spirit, they said, but a whole host.

"There is so much life here, so much death here," Alexis said. "This place is rich with life."

The building known as the Palace Hotel was built in 1889 by a retired sea captain Capt. Henry Tibbals, and was restored between 1976 and 1988.

No bodies have been reported found in the building, but guests have reported seeing a woman in Victorian dress, the Lady in Blue, whose portrait hangs in the hotel.

Alexis, who lives in Port Angeles, volunteered to help the PIHA team with the investigation -- which asked to bring its equipment to the hotel -- as did a man whose avocation is scientific analysis of electronic voice phenomena and who gave his name only as Dave, saying that he does not provide his full name for professional reasons.

Kathy Gavin, president of the Lewis County Historical Museum, led the investigation for PIHA, assisted by the nonprofit's founder, Vaughn Hubbard.

Hubbard's grandson, Christian Wells, operated an infra-red camera, and Debbie Knapp, manager of the historical museum, used earphones and a parabolic dish to capture spirit voices.

Cheryl Heller, the hotel's head housekeeper, was invited to participate, as was the hotel manager, Gary Schweitzer.

Arriving in town in the PIHA Command Central vehicle, the PIHA team set up a Web cam in Room 3, considered one of the two most haunted rooms in the hotel.

Then they did a sweep of the building, including the basement.

In the basement

Going down to the basement on Friday evening, Alexis said she encountered a spirit who said he used to sleep in the basement, and knew about Katherine, the famed Lady in Blue.

Until last week, when Alexis made a preliminary visit to Port Townsend, she had never been inside the Palace Hotel, or seen the painting.

When she did, however, she said she recognized the figure in the painting as the woman she saw in the window when she was standing outside the hotel.

"I saw her image in front of a window," Alexis said. "She had her hands pressed against the window, and said 'Please help me.'"

On Friday, Alexis said she also encountered a priest in black robes wearing a large cross in the basement, and a Native American woman, who said her name was Grouse Women.

Mysterious chairs

Returning to the basement later that evening, Alexis and Gavin found two chairs placed in the passage near the front foundation wall, farthest from the basement entry in back of the building.

The chairs, next to an old dresser and broken mirror, had not been there before, they said.

Taking it as invitation, they sat down.

Once the rest of the team joined them and set up the equipment, the lights were turned out.

Dave, the electronic voice expert, asked questions, while Alexis relayed answers.

Asked if there were any infants who the priest was not able to baptize, Alexis said, "He said he felt his blessing wasn't adequate because he was seeing a woman living there, "and that one of the children that was born was his."

Alexis said the priest's name may have been Patrick, and began to chant to invoke healing and forgiveness, she said.

Afterward, she said she saw two priests coming to get him, a church glowing red with stained glass windows and a dazzling bright image of Christ on the cross-- and felt that he had accepted he had been forgiven, and was at peace.

Knapp, wearing the headphones, said that while Dave was asking for the ghost of Katherine to speak, she picked up a voice saying, "It's me."

When Dave asked "How many of you are here?" Knapp said she picked up a voice say "eleven."

Second floor lobby

Back on the second floor lobby, the team set up the monitoring equipment, including motion sensors, on the staircase between the second and third floor.

Alexis said that Capt. Tibbals, whose family originally lived in the building, was there, describing him as a stately gentleman.

She said she had also seen a boy between 6 and 8 years old at the top of the stairs looking through the railing. She knew he could see her. He asked where his mother was, she said.

Dave invited boy to come down the stairs, stooping down so the recorder could pick up his voice.

"He's here," Knapp said.

Knapp said she picked up a voice saying "nice," and sensed a curious spirit around her.

Dave said that, while Knapp can listen to what is said and respond, he has to wait until he gets home to see what his recorder picked up.

He downloads the sounds onto a computer using a program that charts the sound waves. Most are whispers, he said.

"There is a lot of breath, and very little volume," he said. "You don't get more than three or four words."

Heller said everyone who works in the hotel, along with many of the guests, have experiences that can't be explained. She has had many, she added.

She said her granddaughter has also seen and felt spirits, including those of children, and also seen a shadow on the third-floor wall. None are frightening.

Ghosts are friends

"I enjoy it," she said. "I consider them my friends."

Once the film and recordings have been edited, Hubbard will create a compact disc which he will present free to the hotel owners, who are free to make copies and sell them. The investigation also is free. Investigators pay their own expenses.

The idea is to encourage people to travel to historic sites in Washington state, creating revenue for the site and the community, Hubbard said.
________________________

PALACE HOTEL HAUNTED - Witness Account


When I took the family up to Port Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival I had booked two nights at the Palace Hotel, a beautifully restored Victorian Hotel in the the Captain Tibbals Building. Well, as soon as we checked in everyone was starting to feel intensely uneasy about the place, despite the excellent service from the friendly innkeeper. My daughter became very anxious, and said that the place was "creepy" and that she didn't want to stay there (I guess it didn't help when I suggested that a little girl probably died from scarlet fever in the tiny bed she was going to sleep in, ha ha). Other than the decor which was a cross between junk store chic and Disney's Haunted Mansion the place didn't bother me a bit, but then again my wife says that I'm "about as psychic as a rock".

They had free WiFi at the hotel so we immediately got online and discovered that the place used to be a brothel. In fact, the rooms are named after some of the women who worked there! It's haunted too: people have reported seeing the ghost of woman dressed in a blue Victorian dress on the second floor, especially rooms 3 and 4. In fact, one of the guests reported to have a conversation with her, and thought that she was all just part of the Victorian hotel experience like she was some Disney castmember!

That night my daughter had a nightmare about people chasing and trying to kill us. I slept like a log, but apparently no one else got much sleep that night. Later on the next day they said that they absolutely refused to stay another night. After a lot of discussion (meaning me trying to convince them it was silly to leave when we already paid festival rates for this room, and saying "what bad things could possibly happen? Besides, we've stayed in plenty of old haunted hotels before so I don't know what was so different about this haunted hotel") we just checked out that evening and drove home.

Sources:
dashpointpirate.typepad.com
www.peninsuladailynews.com
www.komonews.com

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USO Still Mystery to Taiwan Navy

etaiwannews - The Navy said Monday the unidentified object spotted under water near its top base last week was not a Chinese submarine or a sea mammal.

A newspaper reported Sunday that an anti-submarine helicopter found a submarine within Taiwanese territorial waters near the naval base of Tsoying during military maneuvers on January 27. As soon as the Navy called on the submarine to identify itself, it fled out of the area without responding, leading to suspicions it came from China, the reports said.

The Navy denied the report, saying sonar showed up an unidentified object which could not have been a submarine.

On Monday, 168th Fleet Commander Lee Tung-fang said the object did not dive rapidly to escape detection, but continued on its course at a speed of 2 nautical miles an hour. The data told the Navy that there were no submarines, whales or dolphins involved, Lee said.

The 168th fleet had originally been patrolling off Taiwan’s east coast, but was called to the area off Kaohsiung’s Tsoying base to participate in anti-submarine drills, he said.

The area in the Taiwan Straits was difficult terrain for finding submarines, the senior officer told reporters. His unit had previous experience with locating underwater objects inside Taiwanese territorial waters which later turned up not to be submarines, according to Lee.

Over the past few years, Chinese spy ships have often appeared around Taiwanese waters. Taipei has requested to buy diesel-electric submarines from the United States, but they were not included in a US$6.4 billion weapons package for Taiwan announced by the Obama Administration last Friday.

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Poor Women in Nepal Subjected to Horrific Witch Hunts

google - Kalli Biswokarma was tortured by neighbours in her village in Nepal for two days and forced to eat human waste before she finally gave in and confessed to practising witchcraft.

Those who beat, punched and kicked the 47-year-old mother of one accused her of casting evil spells on a schoolteacher who had fallen ill.

"I was victimised because I am a poor woman," said Biswokarma, who belongs to the Dalit community -- the "untouchables" on the lowest rung of Nepal's rigid Hindu caste hierarchy.

"Around 35 people came to my home and took me away. They trapped me in a cow shed and forced me to eat faeces and drink urine," she told AFP in the village of Pyutar, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Kathmandu.

"The next day they cut my skin with blades. I could not bear the torture and I confessed to being a witch just to save my life."

Hundreds of Dalit women are thought to suffer a similar ordeal every year in Nepal, where superstition and caste-based discrimination remain rife and where most communities still operate on strict patriarchal lines.

Human rights campaigners say the perpetrators of such crimes are rarely brought to justice, with police viewing the persecution of Dalit women as a matter for the community to sort out itself.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has pronounced 2010 the year to end violence against women as Nepal makes the transformation from traditional Hindu monarchy to modern secular state.

But authorities in the impoverished South Asian nation admit they face an uphill struggle.

"Superstitions are deeply rooted in our society, and the belief in witchcraft is one of the worst forms of this," said Sarwa Dev Prasad Ojha, minister for women and social welfare.

"Such traditional practices cannot be wiped away overnight."

The Women's Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC), a local pressure group that campaigns for women's rights, says it has documented at least 82 cases in two years in which women who were tortured by neighbours on charges of witchcraft.

But coordinator Sarita Dahal believes this was only the tip of the iceberg.

"We believe many more women are going through the physical and mental pain that these superstitions cause," she told AFP.

"Many don't come to our attention because the women fear they will be abandoned by their families and ostracised from their communities if they come forward."

Nepalese law prohibits violence against women, but Dahal said it was rarely enforced, particularly when the victims were from marginalised groups.

Experts say superstitions about witchcraft are often merely a pretext for victimising women, and sociologist Suraj Kafle points out that it is almost always low-caste women who face such accusations.

"It is always socially and economically vulnerable women who suffer," said Kafle.

"This is simply an excuse to torture poor women who lack support from the rest of the community. Poverty and lack of education make them an easy target."

Nainakala Thapa, head of the government's National Women's Commission, called the practice a "national shame".

"Women who belong to low-caste groups are made scapegoats because they cannot defend themselves," said Thapa.

Thapa pointed out that when a person dies or falls sick it is often spiritual healers looking for someone to blame who are the first to make accusations of witchcraft.

"It is easy to identify a low-caste woman and brand her a witch," she said.

For Biswokarma and her family, now back in their home village after a stay in a women's refuge in Kathmandu, the stigma of being accused of witchcraft persists.

"I am still afraid because some of the people who tortured me are still in the village," she said.

"I have lost my dignity, but I have not given up hope. I will fight for justice."

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The Thetis Lake Monster Legend

As we have seen in some movies, the deep lakes are sometimes the home of some ghastly and terrifying creatures. Thetis Lake in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is not an exception. Many cryptozoology advocates have claimed that the mentioned lake houses a man-sized, silvery-scaled, gill-bearing humanoid.

The Victoria Daily Times reported that the creature attacked two teenagers on the lake on the 19th of August, 1972. The two boys, namely, Robin Flewellyn and Gordon Pike, were standing next to the recreation center on Thetis Lake when they saw a scaly creature emerge from the lake and move unto the shoreline. It was, as they had described, roughly triangle shaped, with dark, large, bulging fish-like eyes and mouth, and a razor-sharp spike on the top of its head. Its weight is estimated to be 120 lbs, and measures around 5 feet tall, and 5 feet wide. The two teens were terrified at the sight of the huge scaly amphibious monster and they ran for their lives.

With its sporting webbed extremities, the creature chased the two teenagers until a few distance from the lake. The voracious predator was able to catch up with one of the young men, lacerating his hand with its razor-pointed head.

The two lads, still filled with terror after narrowly escaping the grisly creature, rushed to the nearest Royal Canadian Mountain Police station and told the officers about the incident on Thetis Lake. They showed them the cut that was claimed to have been caused by the razor-sharp fin of the lake monster. The authorities felt sincerity on the story of the two boys, hence they immediately launched a manhunt, or should I better say, “monsterhunt”, on the said lake. However, nothing turned up during that time of investigation.

The case was almost taken for granted until four days after, August 23 of the same year, at around 3:30 in the afternoon, Russell Van Nice and Mike Gold claimed to have seen the same creature from the opposite side of the Thetis Lake. But unlike the report of the two teens that were pursued by the creature, this time, it only emerged from the lake, looked around, and submerged itself back into the water.

Gold and Nice described the monster-faced creature as having a human-like body, of at least 5 feet tall. It has silver-colored scaly skin, a sharp point protruding on its head, and very big ears and horrifying eyes. Today, even if there were no more sightings reported since the 23rd of August, 1972, many cryptozoology fans still consider the Thetis Lake Monster as a real Canadian Cryptid.
_________________________

SIMILAR THETIS LAKE MONSTER ACCOUNT

First brought to international attention in the early 1970's, this grisly aberration of natural selection has been described as being nearly 5-feet tall and weighing approximately 120 lbs., with an epidermis consisting soley of silver scales. This animal's horrifying visage is made complete by the six, razor-sharp spikes - connected to one another by a thin, membranous webbing - which are said to protrude from its amphibious skull.

With it's dark, bulbous eyes, fish-like mouth and webbed hands, feet and ears, the Thetis Lake Monster bears more than a passing resemblance to the iconoclastic image of "The Creature From the Black Lagoon". What lends credibility to these reports however, is the fact that for centuries North Americans natives have reported numerous - and oft times fatal - encounters with various creatures which they describe as being carnivorous, aquatic-humanoids.

These man-like anomalies purportedly lurked in the mist shrouded lakes and rivers of the Pacific northwest. One of the beasts chronicled in these Native American legends was the Pugwis, which reputedly tormented the Kwakiutl Indians of the Puget Sound region for years. These accounts, of course, vastly pre-date the Thetis Lake Monster as well as its cinematic companion.

On August 19, 1972, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched a brief investigation into this phenomenon after two teenage boys - Robin Flewellyn and Gordon Pike - claimed to have been attacked by the creature on the shores of Thetis lake. According to the two witnesses, as they were standing on the beach near the Thetis lake recreational center when they both saw a spontaneous surging of water just off the shoreline.

Suddenly, the monstrous head and silver-scaled, torso of the creature rose from the lake and - with an almost preternatural speed - shot from the churning surf. According to their reports, this vicious creature pursued the young men almost back to their car.

Narrowly escaping this voracious predator, Flewellyn and Pike made their way to the nearest RCMP station, where one of the teens displayed a laceration across his hand, which he claimed was the result of contact with the spike-like fin that adorned the monster's skull. The officers on duty were so impressed by the sincerity of the boys' tale that an immediate manhunt (or monsterhunt, as the case may be) was Launched.

Nothing was turned up on that occasion, but just four days later, at approximately 3:30 pm. on the 23rd of August, the monster reared its head again. This time the creature - which perfectly matched previous descriptions - was seen by Mike Gold and Russell Van Nice on the opposite side of the lake.

Unlike the Flewellyn and Pike encounter of the previous week, these witnesses claim that the creature merely rose out of the water, looked around, then submerged. The men further claimed that they did not linger long enough to see whether the beast would manifest its previously displayed tendency towards aggressive behavior.

HOAX?


On 26 August 1972, The Province received a call from a man claiming to have lost a pet Tegu lizard in the area the previous year. Tegus, indigenous to Latin America and mostly carnivorous, can grow up to four feet in length. They are commonly kept as pets. The investigating police officers believed the lizard matched the description the creature and the case was closed.

Despite the sensational claims, repeated in some cryptozoology literature which portray it as a genuine cryptid and relative of the Loveland Frog, no other sightings have been reported since leading the monster sighting to be "a fact widely unknown among swimmers." Local historian Ross Crockford remarks that the advice given in Haden Blackman's 1998 Field Guide to North American Monsters to carry a flaming torch to defend oneself from the monster is probably more dangerous than any monster, given the tinder-dry nature of the park.

One of the original "witnesses," Russell Van Nice has said, "it was just a big lie," his friend [Mike Gold] was, "trying to get attention." According to Van Nice, his friend was "famous" for being a habitual liar.

Sources:
www.unknown-creatures.com
www.americanmonsters.com
en.wikipedia.org
forum.paranormalborder.com
www.pararesearchers.org

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Owner of Ghostly Racton Ruins Seeks Permit to Restore as a Home

portsmouth - Plans have been submitted to turn a 238-year-old ruin into a modern-day home.

The proposals seek renewed consent to transform Racton Ruins, which is a striking tower that was built on a hill in 1772 and close to the village of Funtington, near Emsworth.

The tower was built as a folly as part of the Stansted Estate and many believe was used by the then owner to see his trading ships berth at Emsworth, then a major port.

Mark Talbot, who has owned the tower for 30 years, has applied for planning permission to turn the tower into a home.

He has already been granted planning permission before, but wants to renew the consent to keep the refurbishment plan alive.

He said it would cost in excess of £500,000 to convert.

'It's just a renewal of permission which you have to do every three years, if you have not done the work,' he said.

'It's going to take an awful lot of money. We could start next year, or this year even, we just don't know. We just have to keep the planning consent.'

Mr Talbot said he has no qualms about living in the building if it is haunted as rumours suggest.

'I don't believe in it being haunted,' he said.
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THE RACTON FOLLY


Click for video

Near the village of Walderton in West Sussex stands an 18th century ruin known as Racton Monument or Racton Folly. Completed in 1772, it belonged to the Stansted estate of the Earl of Halifax and is thought to have been designed by Henry Keene, an architect who was involved in the building of Uppark, a large country house nearby. Little is known about the building's history or its purpose, it may have been intended as a summerhouse or viewing point — the story goes that from the top of the tower Lord Halifax could watch the return of his merchant ships in the Solent.

Constructed of brick and flint, the monument consists of a two-storey, triangular structure with a tower at each corner and a large tapering, circular central tower rising to approximately 25 metres. The three floors of the central tower and its original conical roof are no longer extant.

IS RACTON FOLLY HAUNTED?

The spooky tower of Racton Monument may or may not be haunted but it's certainly one of the spookiest places in Sussex. Some referred to the folly disparagingly as Stansted Castle, assuming it to be an act of grandeur, rather than just a celebration of individuality.

Others went further, deriding the style of the Tower for its undoubted ugliness. But many other people love Racton Tower.

Many think that Racton Ruins is one of the most frightening haunted places in West Sussex. Others disagree.

Let's consider the evidence.

The myths surrounding the use of the tower by smugglers and the general decay of the ruins add to the Blair Witch project type feel of the place. Graffiti adds to the sinister atmosphere.

But the ruins have been a well known place for raves, drinking and drug taking and many of the reports of ghosts come from people who were, by their own admission, not exactly sober at the time of their brush with the undead. Practical jokes are probably not unknown for the same reason. That's not to say that everyone who has ever reported ghostly goings on at the tower was as high as a kite, but it certainly weeds out a few accounts from the ghost hunters' case book.

From a birds eye view it looks like a triangle symbol (that was used by devil worshipers) The folly has been reported to have been used by cults and devil worshipers for over 100 years. The last report we found of this was in 2009.

There is also found reference to it being used as a brothel back in the 1800's.

There are many reports of paranormal activity at the folly. There have been reports of bricks being thrown from the top of the tower and a ghostly woman walking around the building. Also of a ghostly face looking out through a window of one the top floors. And the most disturbing of being physically grabbed and pushed. But oddly the most popular story is that of a ghost tractor in the fields that comes right up to you then disappears.

Racton has also been a place for suicides.

What isn't in doubt is that the site is evocative, atmospheric and definitely spooky, if not actually haunted.

There are plans afoot to restore the Monument - it badly needs it as the brickwork is in a very precarious state.

Sources:
www.portsmouth.co.uk
www.westsussex.info
totallyhaunted.co.uk

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Mysterious Image Appears In New Zealand Post Office Window

stuff - An Invercargill, NZ man has taken a photograph that could be proof of the afterlife, or it could be a cloud – who knows?

Andrew Watters travelled to St Bathans, near Alexandra, with his partner Kim Ward during the weekend in search of the spirits that reputedly haunt its buildings.

"I'd always been nagging my Kim to go and have a look at the Vulcan Hotel and its supposed ghost, hoping we would find something."

That search turned up short.

"I had a beer at the pub and got goosebumps but I think it was just the excitement."

The pair took plenty of photos and didn't think they had anything until a friend spotted a shape with an uncanny resemblance to a woman in the window at the post office, he said.

"It's freaked me out a bit. The shape is very close to a human figure."

The photograph did not make him any more or less sceptical about the existence of ghosts but it was bizarre, Mr Watters said.

Vulcan Hotel leasee Jude Cavanagh said it was the first she had heard of a ghost sighting at the post office.

"It's a very spirited town, so who knows?"

The post office, which was managed by the Department of Conservation since the 1950s, had been vacant for about a year, at least in the bodily sense, she said.

"It all adds to the legend of the place."

The department's Alexandra community relations programme manager Amanda Ware said she had no knowledge of any phantom presence at the post office.

The building, opened in 1909, was a category two historic place and had been vacant for about a year, she said.

The interior largely remained unchanged from its days as a working port office and the second floor, where the mysterious shape was seen, was the postmaster's living quarters, Ms Ware said.

"Maybe it was him coming back for a visit."

She would tread carefully the next time she stopped by, she said.

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UFO Encounter, Lost Time - Near Wichita, Kansas - 10/23/1973

MUFON witness statement (unedited): near Wichita, Kansas - 10/23/1973 - We were riding my Harley to a party at Cheney Reservoir around 8:30pm on or about October 23, 1973, in any case, it was a Friday night. We were headed west on 21st Street North barely outside of Wichita, Kansas. I stopped my bike on a dirt road intersection to relieve myself. I was a flight-line mechanic at the Cessna Aircraft Factory at Mid Continent Airport (ICT) in Wichita, and a student pilot, so I was watching incoming planes. That night there must have been a slight south wind, because the aircraft were headed south to land on runway 19 left. Donna and I saw an orange ball just sitting there, seemingly in the way, or the approach path to land. We both watched for a few moments and shrugged it off. As I swung a leg over the seat to start the sportster Donna waited to get on until I kickstarted the bike. She then told me that as she watched me start it, it got darker around me, as if the UFO had somehow lit the area around us, as if watching us. Again, we shrugged it off and rode on toward the party, not knowing we would never get to that party. As we continued down the two lane blacktop, we looked over our shoulders to the east, and it kept the same relative position to us. It was following us. TO MAKE A LONG story short, the ordeal lasted until we thought it was midnight, it was three am. I could think a question, and it would move west for yes, east for no, and north and south if it didn't understand or want to answer. A few days later, a local radio station, KEYN, had a call in talk show on UFO's. A woman from El Dorado, KS. called in and reported that she had had almost the exact same experience a few days before we did, but we did not hear her story until after we had also experienced the same self-explanatory telepathic orange sphere. (With at least one three foot smaller "scout" UFO. It changed our lives. Hers for the worse, and I have had some terrible nightmares over the years, but I feel lucky to have had the experience. One question it answered positively, was that I would see it again someday. Since Donna and I grew up together, and I knew she was our Senior Valedictorian, and I was the Senior Class President, we had some credibility, but did not want to tell anyone. I am now on disability and plan to write a book about the whole story. I thought the UFO was here for her, due to her high I.Q., until about five years ago when we got together for the first time in years, when she told me she knew all along that it was here for me. I guess I am the one that it suggested telepathy to and with. We both always sort of doubted what happened, a sort of denial, but every few years we go out to eat and see a movie, but the conversation inevitably ends up with us reliving that night and talking for hours about it. I am sending this report to MUFON now because I recently had cancer and want to tell it before I die. I'm cancer free now, but I had a taste of mortality, and it sucks.

___________________________

.....I HATE SNOW!


Click for video
NOTE: Uh...try 30+ inches as I write...Lon

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Humanoid / Cryptid Encounter Reports 6

The following are previous humanoid / cryptid encounter reports received by various agencies worldwide:


BIZARRE WHITE WINGED CREATURE

Location/Date: Lajas, Puerto Rico - January 14 1998 - 5:30 AM

An employee at a cow ranch that belonged to the University of Puerto Rico, Carlos David Vargas Montalvo was doing his usual morning chores of rounding up the cows from the feeding lot. Like usual and without any apparent fright the animals responded to his call and lined up, except for what he thought was one white cow that remained back in the field without moving. Curious he called the “cow” again but again there was no response, he decided to walk over thinking that the animal could be hurt or sick.

As he approached the white form on the ground he kept calling it, when suddenly the supposed cow began to twist and turn on the ground and took out two huge white wings. At this point the stunned Montalvo realized that it was not a cow but a bizarre winged bird-like creature, totally white in color. Stunned the witness watched the creature rise up on his wings and disappeared quickly towards the nearby Laguna Cartagena. A heart patient, Montalvo was in shock for the next several hours.

Source: Terra Clubs Ovni

NOTE: there have been other similar reports throughout Puerto Rico for a number of years. Some of these other witnesses described this cryptid as a 'white winged humanoid'.
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THE DOUBLED-FOOTED BEING

Location/Date: Knox, Indiana - November 8 1988 - 11:00 PM

The 12-year old witness had gotten up to get a drink of water when a flash of multicolored light attracted his attention to the yard. He turned the lights on and walked over to the large picture window in the living room. Looking out he saw a large diamond-shaped object resting on the lawn. It had flashing multi-colored lights around its edge and appeared to be made out of a copper like metal. An escalator like device now appeared from the object's left rear edge and slid down to the ground. A small humanoid now appeared and walked down the escalator and disappeared behind the object.

Moments later the being re-appeared and began walking towards the house. The humanoid was described as a bit over 5-foot tall with normal arms with what appeared to be claws and strange "double feet." The being wore a belt and a buckle and appeared to have some type of symbols across its chest. It had a large nose, large square mouth, and huge dark brown eyes. The skin was lizard like green with scales and wrinkled.

The witness became frightened as the being approached, suddenly the neighbor's dog began barking, and the being stopped turned its head around and looked directly at the witness. The next thing the witness remembered was seeing the object lift off silently and disappear into the sky. Ground traces were reportedly found the next day.

Source: MUFON Journal #262
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EL CHUPACABRAS?

Location/Date: Viluco, Chile - January 5 2004 - 5:15 AM

40-year old driver Juan Berrios was on his on an errand on Santa Filomena Street on his way to Las Vertientes terminal. At about 70 meters in front of his car he noticed a strange figure standing on the middle of the road. He rubbed his eyes and then saw nothing and kept on driving, at about 5 meters away the bizarre figure again appeared. Stunned at what he was seeing Berrios almost lost control of his vehicle as he swerved around the figure almost upending the vehicle.

The strange creature had what appeared to be the carcass of a bloodied dog clutched in his jaws. The creature suddenly jumped and disappeared into the brush. Berrios described the creature as about 1.50m in height, with large hind legs like a kangaroo, small curved front arms that ended in claw like protrusions, a spiked dorsal fin and a tail resembling that of a rattler on a snake. The facial features were also bizarre; it had a wolf-like snout, several sharp rows of teeth, and fierce-looking red eyes. It jumped a height of about 5 meters and disappeared from sight.

Source: local La Cuarta newspaper
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THE NAKED COUPLE

Location/Date: Dalby Forest, Yorkshire, UK - May 2001 - mid-afternoon

On a beautiful sunny day John Peterson, his wife Jean, and their two children, Peter 9-years old and Laura 7 years old were picnicking in an isolated area among the trees. As they prepared the table with food and drinks the children were busy playing nearby, John and his wife became aware of two figures approaching them from across the field. As the figures got closer they saw a man and woman who both appeared to be naked.

John and Jean were furious and John, unable to contain himself, shouted to them to cover themselves up in the presence of the children. The two figures did not acknowledge the man shouting at them and did not alter their pace, but walked past the front of the two angry parents about 30 ft away.

At this time John and Jean realized that the two figures were not normal people; they looked strange and almost transparent. John shouted to his wife, "I must get a picture of this" and ran to the nearby car where he hurriedly grabbed his camera. He ran back just in time to see the two figures walk into the open side of a derelict barn. John ran into the barn, camera in hand, but was startled to find that there was no sign of the couple, but to his amazement he saw a perfect picture of them etched onto the wall of the barn.

He immediately took some photographs and then the family hastily left the area because his wife and children were terrified. Strange occurrences have been reported in the forest before, including animal mutilations.

Source: local authorities

NOTE: A British friend, who works in the Forestry Service, referred this story to me a few years ago. He stated that there were several reports of unknown creatures roaming the North Yorkshire Moors and the Dalby Forest. As well, the area has a deep mythical history.

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Chasing the Thylacine

independent - On a bright summer morning in the back end of Tasmania's north-west, I wandered into an office of Forestry Tasmania for advice about a forest dirt road. The sketch map the official offered was expected; not so his story. On that same track a decade or so ago, he had seen a creature that was not supposed to exist. And not just him; loggers and surveyors, an old-timer shacked up in the bush, all had glimpsed the animal before it slipped away into one of the most ancient rainforests on Earth.

Foresters are generally a practical bunch who measure life by certainties such as sawlogs and stray limbs lost to heavy machinery. When they swear to a sighting, you begin to wonder if there's truth after all to the Tasmanian tiger.

There are really only two things you need to know about the world's largest carnivorous marsupial. The first is that it looks nothing like its namesake except for the sandy orange coat and stripes that extend down to a stiff tail. The tiger – or thylacine as it is usually known because of its scientific name, Thylacinus cynocephalus, which means "pouched dog with a wolf's head" – is an evolutionary concept-creature that bolts the back half of a kangaroo on to a rangy dog the size of an Alsatian. The second is that it has been extinct for seven decades. Or it has unless you ask around. Then it turns out they're everywhere.

The first one I saw was in Hobart, the state capital. In the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, a small crowd gathered around footage of a restless creature in the city zoo with a slender snout that opened to a snake's gape and a stiff gait that another believer later compared to a dairy cow. When "Benjamin" became history one chilly September night in 1936, he is thought to have taken the species with him.

Start to look, however, and a tiger will be there staring back at you. It gazed coolly from the label on my bottle of Cascade beer. It slinked into grass on the number plate of every car in front. And tigers rampant flanked the heraldic crest on state buildings – who needs unicorns when you have a home-grown fabulous beast?

No wonder tiger-hunters become obsessed. To the newcomer, Tasmania is the surprise of Australia. It is an island of hidden secrets in a nation of infinite space; a place where real-life devils utter banshee wails and moss-bearded giants stand silently in forests that predate mankind. In this Middle Earth of lost myths, a legendary tiger is just part of the scenery, and there's a lot of that to cover in a state that's one-quarter wilderness.

Many otherwise eminent people have suffered ridicule and nights cooped up in a chicken shed with a camera in their pursuit. The government's Parks and Wildlife Service mounted its own two-year hunt in 1984 before it pronounced the species extinct and devoted its energies to finding feral foxes instead. That only upped the ante.

"Parks don't want to say anything publicly to attract attention," Ned Terry confided. We were drinking coffee in Deloraine in the state's north, where farming villages were scattered over my map like seed and the landscapes are so vivid that the first pioneers christened their settlements Eden, Paradise and Promised Land. Hard to believe that the Alpine wilderness of Cradle Mountain lay an hour's drive south. "The bush was full of tourists after a national park fellow reported a thylacine on the central east coast a few years ago. But those blokes got a lot of cameras out there to look for foxes. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some skulduggery going on."

In this zoological X-Files, the 80-year-old bushman plays Mulder. Every couple of months he listens patiently to an excited witness, asks a few questions to weed out the fakers, then follows up whoever is left. His latest credible lead in half a lifetime's tiger-chasing came from Lake Peddar in the south-west wilderness.

"Fellow camped out there says he heard one for three weekends in a row; that yapping noise they make when hunting. Says it ran so close he could smell it."

Many witnesses mention the smell – a sharp, hot, animal stink that electrifies the air. "Smelled it myself once," Terry said. "Makes the hairs on your neck stand on end, I can tell you."

The truth is out there, somewhere. Probably (I dragged out of Terry) in the remote northern corners of the state. So, in the late afternoon I rolled east over swells of grass bound for Scottsdale. Every so often a timber farmhouse heaved aloft on a crest then vanished into the rear-view mirror. Beyond lay the high country of the north-east.

Around seven thylacine sightings a year, more than anywhere else in Tasmania, were made up there in the half-century after Hobart Zoo lost its star attraction. A few tiger-hunters still came to shoot blurry images, stalking the edge of old-growth rainforest that had barely changed since Tasmania ripped away from the global supercontinent of Gondwanaland.

In the pub I met a farmer who yarned about a wolfish head that had poked through the bracken fern. "When he comes out he sits up like a kangaroo, then starts sniffing the air like one. I thought: 'What the hell's that?'" A stray dog, perhaps, I suggested. "No dogs up there," he bristled.

It turned out the area was swarming with rumours. Craig Williams, Tasmania's premier wildlife guide and a fourth-generation bushman, kept up a rumble of anecdote and oath as we skirted the forest, stopping occasionally to practise an arcane element of bushcraft or stare after a furry backside that disappeared into the scrub. He indicated a farmstead as we swerved around one corner. "You know the last thylacine died in 1936? An old bloke shot one there in 1946. Said it was killing his chooks [chickens]."

Later, after a meal that belonged to a Sydney restaurant rather than a remote mountain shack, Craig told tiger tales around the campfire. There was the thylacine witnessed by four people on a logging road just over that ridge, and the waxy scat found late last year by the manager of a wilderness lodge. Or there was his mate whose car had broken down up here one night: "He said he heard these high-pitched yaps following him as he walked."

Apparently Craig's grandfather and great-grandfather used to trap thylacine on the mountain behind us. I tried and failed to reconcile the mysterious thylacine with the plantation forest that now striated its flanks. Could it really survive here?

As the sky deepened to a velvety black, Craig strobed the treeline with a torch. There were secrets as well as possum eyes in the dark spaces between eucalyptus trunks. Suddenly, at the edge of our clearing, something twitched. A stoat-like animal froze in the torch's beam then skittered into the bush – a spotted-tailed quoll.

"Amazing killing machines; the ultimate predators," Craig said with admiration. "They're only a few kilos, but they can pull down a wallaby." With jaws that opened to 90 degrees and overlapping teeth, it was a distant relation of the thylacine colloquially known as a tiger quoll. "Been quite a few tiger sightings by quite a few people made around here."

I'd lost my bearings way back on the unmarked dirt roads. "Good," said Craig. "I don't want loads of people running around with traps and cameras. If the tiger's up here, let him be. That's what I reckon." Another Tasmanian secret was safe.
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Originally posted 7/4/07

Tasmanian Tiger: Not Extinct!


Australian wildlife scientists have re-opened the cryptic case of the Tasmanian tiger, a marsupial carnivore that resembled a striped coyote and which was last seen alive more than 70 years ago.

Scientists think chances are slim that Thylacinus cynocephalus still roams remote areas of Tasmania, the large island just south of Australia, but they can't help but turn over every possible leaf for evidence.

The last wild Tasmanian tiger was killed by a farmer around 1930, and the last captive died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania's capital. Fifty years later, the species was declared extinct.

The extinction marked the end of the family Thylacinidae, and of the world's largest marsupial carnivore. The Tasmanian tiger weighed about 65 pounds, had a nose-to-tail length of six feet and had several vertical stripes running across its lower back and tail.

Despite the official extinction, rumored sightings of the creature have continued to emerge from Tasmania's temperate forests.

Zoologist Jeremy Austin of the Australian Center for Ancient DNA and his colleagues are examining DNA from animal droppings, or scats, found in Tasmania in the late 1950s and 1960s, which have been preserved in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Eric Guiler, a thylacine expert who found the scats, told Austin the droppings probably came from a Tasmanian tiger rather than a dog or two common related marsupial carnivores — the well-known wolverine-like Tasmanian devil and the cat-like spotted quoll.

"If we find thylacine DNA from the 1950s scats it will be significant," Austin said. "This would prove that either the thylacine produced the scat or a [Tasmanian] devil ate a thylacine and dropped the scat. Either way, that is proof that the thylacine was there at the time."

If they were to find evidence the Tasmanian tiger was still extant in the 1950s, that would mean the beast was able to stay hidden from humans for at least 20 or 30 years.

"If they could survive this long with no real physical proof, then it does add a little more hope to the possibility that they could survive another 50 years without ever being caught, killed [or] hit by a car," Austin told LiveScience. "This chance is of course not great, but the glimmer of hope is ever so slightly brighter."

NOTE: The search for the thylacine has interested me for a long time. Here are a few links to other postings...Lon

On the Hunt for the Elusive Tasmanian Tiger

Are There Thylacines In Victoria?

Nick Mooney: We Still Receive at Least Two Credible Thylacine Sightings a Year

Thylacine DNA Restored To Life

New High-Tech Search For Thylacine, Large Cats After Recent Sheep Maulings

Resurrecting the Thylacine: Does it Exist or Will Science Help?

New Tasmanian Tiger Sighting Reported

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Video: Hominid Captured by Thermal Camera in North Carolina

Click for video
Commentary with video: Note by Matt Moneymaker:

The full video is roughly 3.5 minutes long. This clip shows only the highlights, and in lower resolution than what is possible. You can pay a few bucks to see the entire clip online at www.bushloper.net or you can wait a few weeks for the full version in better resolution (not a whole lot better resolution though). Mike Greene will make the whole clip available for download, eventually, so you can rewind and watch it multiple times.

The download will cost a few bucks also, but it's still much cheaper than a DVD.

Greene feels he deserves something in return for the intermittent two (2) year effort he made to get this footage. We can't argue with him. It's his footage.

It is very important footage though, because it was gotten with the new technique that others should try:

Get up and drive away from the camp at the first indication of a stalking sasquatch. Leave the camp unattended for at least one hour with the camera rolling, and aimed at the food pile near a treeline, near some big trees.

There is great potential in this method for daylight footage, and it has not been tried anywhere else. It should be tried a lot more, in a lot more places. It may be the easiest and most practical way to obtain clear, close-range footage in daylight, and it can be done easily with a newer hard-drive camcorder and an extended battery. Sony makes several High-Def hard-drive camcorders nowadys that can accommodate extended batteries that will give you 10 hours of continuous recording.

Tape camera or disc camcorders are not ideal for this because they don't record long enough before the media needs to be swapped.

The camcorder must be hidden among other camping gear so it is not conspicuously aiming at the food. This is where most people will fail, because they will underestimate the intelligence of these animals.

No one can remain hidden near the camp either. Squatches seem to know that trick and won't come near if they think someone is left behind to possibly ambush them. That is why Squeaky was so very cautious approaching the stump. It didn't know if someone was still in the tent.

For that reason it will be best to have no tent at all, rather just tarps, airmats, and sleeping bags, like a backpacker.

If you have a vehicle nearby, leave the camp and drive far enough away so your engine cannot be heard by anything up on elevation acting as a whistling sentry.

Mike Greene made sure no one could steal the expensive thermal camera by parking on the only road into the camp, but some distance away. For that reason, a camp at the end of a small spur off a desolate forest road, would be ideal for car campers, if good equipment were to be left there for several hours

If your camp is somewhere where no one can possibly spot it from a driveable road, then just stay far away for an hour or two. Let the camera do the work.

Don't be obvious about the camera when you return to the camp. Assume you are being watched and don't approach the food pile til morning.

That's the "Greene Method." Give it a try and make him proud.

NOTE: I've circled the food pile (red), the hominid first appearance(yellow) and the hominid second appearance(teal). Compelling evidence if proven to be have taken as advertised...Lon

UPDATE...

Click for video
BFRO researcher Mike Green describes the circumstances wherein he obtained the thermal clip called the "Squeaky Footage". This footage was obtained in North Carolina in 2009.


Click for video
A recreation and comparison of Mike Greene's thermal video.

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Confused on the Facts May be the Key to Our History

Chris Holly's Paranormal World - With so many events coming concerning the uproar of the 2012 era we seem to give a great deal of credit to the warnings of those in past history who supposedly left us messages for our future.

I do not give too much credence in the warnings of our fore fathers past the knowledge that they lived through some tough times and did try to warn us that the same hard times will occur again. I believe they understood that cycles dominate life. I think they understood the earth as well as our solar system and universe ran in cycles and that modern man the children of their children would one day face the trying times of natures cycles again. They also may have known that our way of spiritual growth would be in question and that many changes would be coming as they had come to them.

I also know that much of what we could have learned from those who lived before us was destroyed. So much information was lost or hidden from being passed down along with most of our true history.

We have a history of being a violent species we also have been a species of holding ourselves back for small reasons keeping our growth slow and painful.

I wonder what we would be today if we had not spent so many years in war and darkness. Can you imagine the knowledge we would have today if we had not destroyed due to war or ignorance the great libraries and advances made by those before us. It seems mankind spends much of its time on earth taking five steps ahead and then four steps backwards. The recording of our factual or actual history is a perfect example.

We have small hints, little pieces of what went on before recorded history. We also suffered from leaving hints instead of fact even with the development of the written word by using myths or story form instead of truth and fact. This often occurred due to the whim of a King or Power in control that liberally changed the facts to fit personal desire. Real history recorded as it happened has only been around for a relatively short time. With that said we find we have many large gaps of knowledge concerning what truly went on before us.

It is obvious we are in a period on earth where mankind is dealing with many extreme issues. It also seems we are deeply embedded in a time of serious change. I think the one statement we all can agree on past the pain of politics, religion and globalization of this planet is that times are changing like it or not!

It would be wonderful if we had a exact past history to reflect to in order to look back to the past to help prepare for the future but sadly that is not available for us so we must do what we can with the information we have been left and try to decipher what happened to the best of our ability.

I have read many articles about history and art .You cannot deny the obvious references left by those who walked this earth before us towards the sky and many different creatures all who come from the sky or heavens.

If you think of this logically it seems odd that the people who lived during the time of the Mayans and other civilizations of that period gave so much effort and time to the idea that their gods came from the sky or heavens. This is odd to me as the very day-to-day survival of the world’s population during that point in history came from the earth and water sources on earth.

It is strange to me that the people at that time in history were not more focused on the earth, the interior of the earth and its water. I would think they would worship that which gave them life. Mother Earth was what nurtured and gave them the ability to survive. It is curious to me their focus of worship was pointed sky bound. I understand many humans did give worship to the power of the earth however many also worshiped the Gods of the Heavens above.

Since their food, shelter, water in fact all life giving material including fire are earth given it is difficult to imagine what must have occurred to turn the populations across the world to turn their attention and god worship to the heavens. It also is curious that the art work and artifacts left by those populations seem to equally point to visiting beings as well as heavenly deities.

I believe all things are possible as far as what really happened on this earth before clear written history. I believe there are many different answers to all these questions. I am not willing to discount what seems obvious as we move deeper in to understanding what may have happened in history.

Recently I have found interesting articles that update the knowledge we have on what was taking place during the time of the Mayans.

The find of artifacts and tombs newly discovered have given us new insight into what was going on at the time.

Interestingly as we find new insights to what went on in history we uncover facts that seem to ask questions as well as give us answers

Two areas in which this is evident concern the Mayans. I often wondered what started the practice of deforming the shape of human skulls. Archaeologists recently found a new Mayan Tomb that contained pottery urns and the bones of what they believe is a woman. Her skull appears to have been intentionally deformed, a practice common among the Maya.

I have to ask why this practice would develop among people who were earthbound and consumed with the details of daily survival. How and why would the idea to change the shape of the human skull enter into the picture of life in the jungle? The only answer I can think of was to please or imitate that which they worshiped or feared. Could seeing beings that were in some way more powerful have influenced these odd practices? Could the Maya have tried to please those who wore odd headpieces or protective helmets or even had differently shaped skulls? Could a visiting alien have been the Maya inspiration to these practices? It may be a bizarre idea but it is one to contemplate.

Adding fuel to the fire of what really was going on before recorded history is the practice of Mayan bloodletting.

Before I discuss the Mayans let us think about all the cattle and animal mutilations found in our present time all over the world. We read article after article where farmers find dead animals drained clean of every drop of blood. Often Alien interaction is looked at as a possibility to these mutilations as well as many other theories. I could not help but think about the customs of the Mayans when I read about the on going animal mutilations of our time.

I often wondered why those who worshiped heavenly beings became obsessed with human earthly qualities like blood. Why would this become connected to and given as a gift to non-earthly entities?

Mayan Bloodletting, although considered a controversial subject by many still today, did seem to take place in the Mayan culture. It is thought that Mayans not only sacrificed in group many of their own population, they also would offer small bleedings of those who governed from the top of their holy temples to their gods. I find this all to be very strange especially by those so connected to the earth for their day-to-day survival. Would it not make more sense for them to pray to the earth, waterways or animals?

I was thinking about the Mayans and how they practiced this odd on going offering of their blood to the Gods and had a stunning thought. What if the Mayans also found animals drained of blood. What if the Mayans found people drained this way also. Would that not be the basis of reason, a fear that started the Mayans offering blood to the Gods above?

Could the Mayans have been sacrificing in this fashion in hopes of keeping a step ahead of a blood thirsty Gods? Was offering up what they witnessed their way of appeasing in hope of being spared and in good grace with their skyward Gods? It is something to think about.

I look at the artwork left over the centuries and cannot deny that odd objects and actions were being left in the art for us to see. I also know you can only use the available knowledge and surroundings you do understand to describe that which you are trying to explain to others. If I was trying to describe a new Ferrari convertible with a glass-covered motor to a man living in 1790 I may use terms like wagon, horseless, and thunder like in sound. I may talk about a moving part machine covered with a window and a roof that moves with magic to appear and disappear.

I think many paintings, carvings, even dress including odd head coverings were possibly drawn by the same method of explaining by what they had - what they were seeing.

I have no idea what truly went on in history. None of us do. All we can do is keep looking and try to understand that we have to consider all things known and unknown before coming to conclusions.

It certainly clears up many reasons we find artwork with objects painted into the skies or beings with strange helmet style headsets being shown as heavenly gods. I cannot dismiss the idea some of our past did include the possibility of visiting beings from a more advanced civilization. It may explain some of the incredible structures that were built during that time in history that remain a mystery as how the buildings were constructed during such a primitive point in our development in earths civilizations.

As we learn and discover more facts about our past we seem to become more confused as to what and who was moving and shaping our own past. Adding in other factors such as finding species that have become extinct for unknown reasons can only confuse the issues of our past instead of connecting them to a defined history.

I think as we look with logic at the above facts and add the on going new finds we have to face the idea that we may have been mistaken and confused at what took place in history. Who was involved in the shaping of our species as we walk the earth today in my mind remains a mystery.

I recently read that we have found skeletons showing surgeries that not only took place but also enabled the patient to survive and live as a productive person 7000 years ago. Understanding that things were not as we thought is becoming more obvious with each and every new discovery.

I have no answers to the mysteries of the Mayans or for that matter most of what went on in history before mankind started to record it in a factual written form. Even once we were able to leave written history we did not do it well. Much or what was written was destroyed by generations before us. Much of what did survive was that written in myth form or contrived by the powers that ruled at the time rather then the actual history or fact.

I can only hope we can keep open minds and understand our history is really unknown. I do not discount any theory or finding that fits in with logic or possibility of the many options that may be the history of this earth.

For now I watch and wait with every new find for another part of our human earth history. One day we may all know not only what happened, we may also find out exactly who we are. Until then I can only wonder what happened and with whom we share history? Confused on the facts may be the key to the answers.

Thanks to Chris Holly at Chris Holly's Paranormal World
Copyright © 2008-2010 Chris Holly all Rights Reserved
chrishollyufo@yahoo.com

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Newly Discovered Letters Uncover Lost Silbury Hill Theory

gazetteandherald - Letters that lay undiscovered in national archives for more than 230 years suggest that Silbury Hill, the enigmatic man-made mound that stands between Marlborough and Beckhampton, may have originally be constructed around some sort of totem pole.

Historians have uncovered in the British Library in London letters written in 1776 that describe a 40ft-high pole which once stood at the centre of Silbury Hill. Europe’s largest man-made mound.

The letters detail an 18th century excavation into the centre of the man-made mound, where archaeologists discovered a long, thin cavity six inches wide and about 40ft deep.

A separate excavation found fragments of oak timber within the cavity leading historians to believe that the mound was built around the pole dating from around 2,400 BC.

David Dawson, director of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes, said: “This is important, lost information dug out of the library, rather than through field work.

“It tells us that in one of its earliest phases some kind of totem pole was erected on the mound, then subsequent additions to build the hill up were piled up around that timber.”

The 18th century letters, written from Edward Drax to Lord Rivers, described excavations Drax had supervised at Silbury Hill.

He oversaw the digging of a vertical shaft from top to bottom that is sometimes claimed to be the work of the Duke of Northumberland.

Drax, a wealthy landowner who lived in Bath, had hired a team of miners to dig a shaft from the top of Silbury Hill, to the centre of the hill, 125 feet below.

To begin with the miners found little but chalk and pieces of deer antler, but 95 feet down - some 30 feet above where they expected the base of the mound to be – they stumbled upon a deep, narrow cavity.

The hole was six inches across but Drax noted: “We have already followed it already about 20 feet, we can plumb it about eleven feet more.”

In his letter he wrote that “something now perished must have remained in this hole to keep it open”.

Together with a later, independent account of fragments of oak timber found at the centre of the mound, the evidence adds weight to the totem pole theory.

Last year English Heritage completed a £2 million restoration programme on the mound to prevent it from collapsing after previous excavations, including the one by Drax, had left the structure weakened and prey to erosion.

Drax’s letters have been published for the first time in the new volume of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine.
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SILBURY HILL


Radiocarbon dating indicates that the earliest phase of construction on Silbury Hill began about 2660 BC. It has been estimated that 18 million man-hours went into the building of Silbury Hill, which is the equivalent of 700 men working for 10 years.

Recent excavations (1968-69) have revealed three phrases of construction. Unlike at Stonehenge, these phases occurred relatively close together. Thanks to ancient ants trapped in the lowest level of turf, archaeologists know that the mound was started in late July or August, perhaps after the harvest. "Silbury 1" was a small mound made of layers of muddy gravel and dark layers of turf and soil. The turf layer was held in place with wooden stakes and covered with four layers of soil. This first mound was 120 feet (37 m) in diameter and 18 feet (5 m) high.

Silbury 2 was built soon after, over the first mound. It was made of chalk rubble dug from a ditch around the mound and arranged in a complex series of reinforced walls. This mound was 50 feet (17 m) high, 350 ft (110 m) in diameter, and incorporated 1 million feet (28,325 cubic meters) of chalk and soil.

During the third and final phase, "Silbury 3," the first ditch was filled in and a new one was constructed, enclosing a further 2.5 acres. The chalk was again built up in a precise manner, with six horizontal steps to maintain the 60-degree slope of the pyramidal structure. Only the top step was not filled, which can still be clealry seen today. Overall, Silbury Hill is notable for its advanced design — the prehistoric builders had excellent knowledge of soil mechanics.

In later times, Silbury Hill was used by the Romans and Saxons as a military lookout and possibly for burial. Related artifacts have been found dug into the surface of the mound. The hill was also used for fortification in the 11th and 12th centuries, which is when the terrace near the top of the hill was created.

Over the years, many legends have developed concerning the purpose and contents of the mysterious ancient mound. The most well-known legend, dating from at least the 17th century, is that it is the final resting place of King Sil, who was buried here on horseback.

By the 18th century, the legend had been embellished and the king and his horse were said to have become life-size figures of solid gold. A further tradition has it that the Devil was carrying an apron of soil to drop on the inhabitants of Malborough, but was prevented by priests at Avebury and he dropped it here instead.
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Originally posted 7/9/09

Three Strange Beings Reported at Crop Circle - Silbury Hill, Wiltshire


ColinAndrews.net is reporting an event that occurred 7th July 2009, Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, England, near the crop circle located south west of the hill off the A4 highway.

This is the same location where on the 23 May 1994, four researchers (including one nuclear scientist) visiting a crop design in this field, witnessed intense military presence moments before they each experienced 45 minutes missing time and within a short while a further period of missing time. Each had red marks appear on their necks and had severe nose bleeds hours later.

This is also the site of a secret military stake out which took place during the 1990 Operation Blackbird, where over these fields a large unidentified white orb was filmed by the army.

The latest bizarre event took place yesterday morning (7th) at approximately 5:00 AM local time, when a off duty Wiltshire Police Sergeant was driving towards Marlborough on the A4 highway and about to pass Silbury Hill on his left. He looked to his right and witnessed three exceptionally tall beings inspecting the new crop circle which appeared there on the 5th July. He stopped his vehicle and watched them for several minutes because they stood out as odd. Each of them were well over six feet tall, each had blond hair and also they all were wearing one piece white suits, with hoods that had been dropped onto the back of their heads.

After a few minutes watching them, he said they appeared to be examining the crop in the circle, he shouted at them from a distance of about 400 yards but they ignored him. As soon as he entered the field, they became aware of him and ran at an amazing speed to the south, away from Silbury Hill. He said "I recognized that I could never catch up with them since they were exceptionally fast." He glanced away for just a few seconds and looked back to find that they had completely vanished. He became very uneasy and left the scene.

The police officer was very aware of hearing a static crackling sound in the field and around him. He said as the plants moved around, he could see the movement coincided with the level of sound, as if the static was effecting the plants by moving them.

He also started to experience a headache in the field, which became worse as the day went on and he could not shake it off all day.

ColinAndrews.net is reporting new information and more sightings of strange beings in Wiltshire, UK.

Following the report on July 9th (Three Strange Beings Reported at Crop Circle - Silbury Hill, Wiltshire) by a police sergeant of three extremely tall beings he witnessed in a field near Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, England and the posting on this website, I have received several other reports, and I encourage others who have information to also please contact me.

One report is extraordinary and allegedly received the immediate attention, of a government organization to the home of the witness. I asked for written details about this exceptional (and some what scary) case and received those details last night. I will not be making any further public statement about the details until they can be fully verified, only to say this:

I trust my source in Washington DC implicitly and he trusts the originating source but to get to the bottom of it, I am going to have to do some leg work, best done quietly. The witness claims to have had a very close encounter with a 8-9 feet tall being, north of Silbury Hill, in Wiltshire, England.

He was visited by three government officers (details with me) who produced a book of sketches of different ET beings and ask the witness which one he had seen. At least two agencies were allegedly involved which should help verify this case. Full details later.

A second report was sent to me also yesterday by a woman driving the A4 (the highway that runs east-west next to Silbury Hill), and was driving on the east side of Marlborough, Wiltshire when she estimates a 7-8 feet tall being came out of a gateway from a field and jumped back as the car passed - his head appeared triangular shape. The latter incident took place three years ago. I have details of the exact location etc, which will be posted as part of a much more extensive report including other similar reports later.

I will pursue the first incident that involved several government agencies when I arrive in England next week. On the face of it, the three officers from one of these agencies revealed by their actions, that the government knows much more about these beings than they have so far declared under the new open policy surrounding the UFO subject.

Sources
www.sacred-destinations.com
www.telegraph.co.uk
www.britannia.com
www.gazetteandherald.co.uk
ColinAndrews.net
www.cropcircleconnector.com

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