phaedrap1

Author Archive

Encounters with Gnomes – Part 1

Posted: April 20, 2013 by phaedrap1 in Occult
Tags: Paranormal happenings

A storm raged outside the 100-year-old farmhouse in New York State’s Hudson Valley. Lightning flashes filled the bedroom, followed seconds later by booming thunder, dragging 10-year-old Dave Barsalow from sleep. As the boy lie in bed on the first floor, his parents and sister asleep upstairs, he realized in terror there was something outside his window.

“With the wind there came this other sound,” Barsalow said. “It made goosebumps race over my body. It was an ungodly howling. A wailing that didn’t – couldn’t – have come from human lips. No animal I knew could wail like that.”

This noise, from what Barsalow later called “the Howler,” drove him out of bed, sending him down the hall to his grandmother’s bedroom. He climbed into bed next to her. “What is that, Grandma?” he asked.

Barsalow’s grandmother said the noise was just the wind. “I knew it wasn’t the wind,” he said. “And I knew she knew it wasn’t the wind.” The wailing came around the house, closer to him. “Grandma put an arm around me and held me tight,” Barsalow said. “The howling was right outside her window now, just a few feet away from us. I buried my face in her shoulder.”

darkroomlightwhite

The sound finally died with the storm and Barsalow dropped into sleep. When he woke, sunlight streaming through the window, his grandmother was gone. He found her outside with a mop and bucket cleaning the front porch. “I could see what my grandma was cleaning,” he said. “There were muddy footprints all over the floor.” The muddy footprints were small, like those of a toddler.

“They were little, tiny footprints,” Barsalow said. “I got goosebumps again. I asked Grandma what made the footprints. She didn’t answer and she kept cleaning.”

muddyfootprints

The Mohegan, Pequot, Mohawk and Iroquois tribes that lived in and around the Hudson Valley all had legends of little people, some of which were tricksters associated with storms.

“I never did ask my grandmother about the Howler again” he said. “I think part of me was afraid to know what it really was outside the window that night.”

Legends of little people dance at the periphery of societies around the world. Elves, gnomes, goblins, trolls, ebu gogo, makiawisug, menehune; some of these entities are said to help humans, others kidnap, rob and devour.

Dr. Scott A. Mellor, professor with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaches Scandinavian Mythology, and said there’s a rich history of little people in Scandinavia. The tomte, small, white bearded, pointed hatted gnomes, lurked around farmhouses and were troublesome, often tying cows tails together if they were angered. “One did not want to be too nice or too mean to a tomte,” Mellor said. “If too nice, it would no longer help you, if too mean it would perform mischief.”

gnomehand Like many cultures, Sweden is populated by more than one diminutive human-like creature. “They are one of several creature in Swedish folklore, along with trolls, näcke, water spirits, and elves,” Mellor said. “Mostly they are demonic creature, probably due to the church, that explain phenomenon here on Earth, often etiological stories.” In Sweden, at least, Mellor said these stories are no longer given much credence.

However, there are modern tales of these little people that come from places like Iceland, Hawaii, the United States, New Zealand and Colombia, South America, and the people who encounter them consider them all too seriously.

Dan Bortko’s family moved from Wyandotte County, Kansas, to Liberty, Missouri, in 1948 when he was about nine months old. His family didn’t know it, but something already lived in the house on High Street. The house, a stucco bungalow built atop a hill in the 1920s, wasn’t the only structure on that site. A old barn still sat outside the two-bedroom house when the Bortkos moved there.

In that house in 1952, Bortko saw something that has haunted him since. “I’ll call him a troll because that’s what he reminded me of,” Bortko said.

Bortko, 4, napped in the same room as his two younger brothers, both in cribs, when something brought him from sleep. As his eyes slid open, he realized he and his little brothers weren’t alone. “I had just awakened form a nap and was rubbing my eyes and saw (it),” Bortko said. “It was an old man with a long beard, large nose, about three feet tall standing at the foot of my bed. And I was astounded.”

evilgnome

The little old man wore German lederhosen and held a pipe in his hand, smoke rising from the bowl. As the troll stood looking at Bortko, he smiled through his beard, winked and disappeared through the closet door.

Although Bortko doesn’t think he saw the little man again, later in life his mother told him he often talked about someone no one else could see. “As a child my mother said I had an imaginary friend and I called it by its name,” he said. “My mother said it sounded like a science fiction movie name.”

gnomeillustration

During this time Bortko remembers looking out his bedroom window at night and seeing people near the old barn in the backyard; little people. “That’s what scared me,” he said. “There were fairy tales pictures on my wall. There was a man on the mountain smoking a pipe. And this reminded me of him.”

As a child, Bortko, now an artist with a master’s degree in photography from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, once tried to capture his little man on paper. “I remember doing a drawing of a picture of a man’s face with large dark eyes,” he said. “And my brother Bill started crying. Every time he saw it he was out of his wits.”

Bortko and his brother weren’t the only ones to see the “troll.”

David Schwab, 54, grew up in Orange, New Jersey, and is familiar with tales of a similar entity. His friend Jerry saw one of these “trolls” in the early 1960s. “I remember Jerry always talking about some kind of troll/elf/leprechaun-type critter with a rather long beard being on his steps,” Schwab said.

Schwab met with Jerry in December 2009 before his friend moved to the Philippines and asked him about the story. “He said that when he was a kid, he was in his backyard and was startled by a small gnome-like man with a long beard, standing by his back porch,” Schwab said. “He said he had funny clothes on and a pointed hat and all.” The entity, about two or three feet tall, just stood at the steps, staring at him. This wasn’t the last time the gnome made an appearance at Jerry’s house.

When Jerry was in his 20s, his five-year-old nephew took a nap in an upstairs bedroom when he the boy suddenly screamed and ran downstairs, crying. “He said that he was woken by a small man with a long white beard that stood and looked at him,” Schwab said.

Sightings of these entities aren’t that uncommon, nor, as we will see in Part 2, are they as benign.

Feature artwork is by Daniel Dystedt.

Read Part 2 of Encounters with Gnomes

By Jason Offutt

Mysteriousuniverse.org

Sacrifice and Supernatural Cats

Posted: April 20, 2013 by phaedrap1 in Occult
Tags: Nick Redfern, paranormal

catrafice

Sacrifice and Supernatural Cats

Now and again, I’m asked for my views on the so-called Alien Big Cats – or ABCs as they are also known – of the UK. Britain, of course, is not home to any sort of indigenous cat of the exotic and large kind. Yet, people report seeing such creatures all the time, and usually of the black or tan-colored variety. I’m convinced that some of these beasts are flesh and blood in nature. Others, however, I’m not quite so sure about, since I have more than a few reports on record of ABCs vanishing in the blink of an eye, or even seen in association with strange lights in the sky.

So, what might these other ABC’s be, if not wholly flesh and blood? For a possible answer, we have to turn to an old and sinister tradition known as the Taigheirm. Merrily Harpur, a British big cat researcher and the author of Mystery Big Cats, said of the Taigheirm: “This was an infernal magical sacrifice of cats in rites dedicated to the subterranean gods of pagan times, from whom particular gifts and benefits were solicited. They were called in the Highlands and the Western Isles of Scotland, the Black-Cat Spirits.”

The rites in question, Harpur added, “involved roasting cats to death on a spit, continuously for four days and nights, during which period the operator was forbidden to sleep or take nourishment, and after a time infernal spirits would appear in the shape of large, black cats.”

abcat

Without doubt the most detailed description of this archaic and highly disturbing rite can be found in the pages of J.Y.W. Lloyd’s 1881 book, The History of the Prince, the Lord’s Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog and the Ancient Lords of Arwystli, Cedewen, and Meirionydd. Since Lloyd’s words are vital to understanding and appreciating the weird story that will soon unfold in its unsettling entirety, I make no apology for quoting the author at length:

“Horst, in his Deuteroscopy, tells us that the Highlanders of Scotland were in the habit of sacrificing black cats at the incantation ceremony of the Taigheirm, and these were dedicated to the subterranean gods; or, later to the demons of Christianity. The midnight hour, between Friday and Saturday, was the authentic time for these horrible practices and invocations; and the sacrifice was continued four whole days and nights, without the operator taking any nourishment.”

On this matter, Horst himself said of the cruel rite: “After the cats were dedicated to all the devils, and put into a magico-sympathetic condition, by the shameful things done to them, and the agony occasioned to them, one of them was at once put alive upon the spit, and amid terrific howlings, roasted before a slow fire. The moment that the howls of one tortured cat ceased in death, another was put upon the spit, for a minute of interval must not take place if they would control hell; and this continued for the four entire days and nights. If the exorcist could hold it out still longer, and even till his physical powers were absolutely exhausted, he must do so.

“After a certain continuance of the sacrifice, infernal spirits appeared in the shape of black cats. There came continually more and more of these cats; and their howlings, mingled with those roasting on the spit, were terrific. Finally, appeared a cat of a monstrous size, with dreadful menaces. When the Taigheirm was complete, the sacrificer [sic] demanded of the spirits the reward of his offering, which consisted of various things; as riches, children, food, and clothing. The gift of second sight, which they had not had before, was, however, the usual recompense; and they retained it to the day of their death.”

balinese mask

Lloyd took up the story from there: “One of the last Taigheirm, according to Horst, was held in the island of Mull. The inhabitants still show the place where Allan Maclean, at that time the incantor, and sacrificial priest, stood with his assistant, Lachlain Maclean, both men of a determined and unbending character, of a powerful build of body, and both unmarried. We may here mention that the offering of cats is remarkable, for it was also practiced by the ancient Egyptians. Not only in Scotland, but throughout all Europe, cats were sacrificed to the subterranean gods, as a peculiarly effective means of coming into communication with the powers of darkness.

“Allan Maclean continued his sacrifice to the fourth day, when he was exhausted both in body and mind, and sunk in a swoon; but, from this day he received the second-sight to the time of his death, as also did his assistant. In the people, the belief was unshaken, that the second-sight was the natural consequence of celebrating the Taigheirm.” [15]

At this point in his narrative, Lloyd elected to quote Horst: “The infernal spirits appeared; some in the early progress of the sacrifices, in the shape of black cats. The first glared at the sacrificers and cried ‘Lachlain Oer’ [Injurer of Cats]. Allan, the chief operator, warned Lachlain, whatever he might see or hear, not to waiver, but to keep the spit incessantly turning. At length, the cat of monstrous size appeared; and, after it had set up a horrible howl, said to Lachlain Oer, that if he did not cease before their largest brother came, he would never see the face of God.

Fire Cat

“Lachlain answered, that he would not cease till he had finished his work, if all the devils in hell came. At the end of the fourth day, there sat on the end of the beam, in the roof of the barn, a black cat with fire-flaming eyes, and there was heard a terrific howl, quite across the straits of Mull, into Morven.”

Lloyd himself then continued: “Allan was wholly exhausted on the fourth day, from the horrible apparitions, and could only utter the word ‘Prosperity.’ But Lachlain, though the younger, was stronger of spirit, and perfectly self-possessed. He demanded posterity and wealth, and each of them received that which he has asked for.

“When Allan lay on his death-bed, and his Christian friends pressed round him, and bade him beware of the stratagems of the devil, he replied with great courage, that if Lachlain Oer, who was already dead, and he, had been able a little longer to have carried their weapons, they would have driven Satan himself from his throne, and, at all events, would have caught the best birds in his kingdom.

“When the funeral of Allen reached the churchyard, the persons endowed with second-sight saw at some distance Lachlain Oer, standing fully armed at the head of a host of black cats, and everyone could perceive the smell of brimstone which streamed from those cats. Allan’s effigy, in complete armour, is carved on his tomb, and his name is yet linked with the memory of the Taigheirm.

“Shortly before that time also, Cameron of Lochiel performed a Taigheirm, and received from the infernal spirits a small silver shoe, which was to be put on the left foot of each new-born son of his family, and from which he would receive courage and fortitude in the presence of his enemies; a custom which continued till 1746, when his house was consumed by fire. This shoe fitted all the boys of his family but one, who fled before the enemy at Sheriff Muir, he having inherited a larger foot from his mother, who was of another clan. The word Taigheirm means an armoury, as well as the cry of cats, according as it is pronounced.”

In 1922, Carl Van Vechten commented on this particularly nightmarish ritual in a footnote contained in his book The Tiger in the House. It reads: “The night of the day I first learned of the Taigheirm I dined with some friends who were also entertaining Seumas, Chief of Clann Fhearghuis of Stra-chur. He informed me that to the best of his knowledge the Taigheirm is still celebrated in the Highlands of Scotland.”

Could it be the case that the Taigheirm still exists today? Certainly, I have heard such rumors, which makes me wonder deeply about the true nature of at least some of those ABCs of the UK…

By Nick Redfern

Mysteriousuniverse.org

Mysterious Ancient Relics That Still Baffle Archaeologists

Posted: April 20, 2013 by phaedrap1 in Monuments, News, Science
Tags: Archeology

MessageToEagle.com – Four mysterious disk-shaped copper plates were discovered by archaeologists conducting excavations close to a necropolis of the ancient archaeological site just east of the Sea of Galilee, Israel.

Recently, from the fascinating region of the Sea of Galilee (also known as Lake of Tiberias), near the Golan Heights, in the Jordan Rift Valley, northeast Israel, archaeologists reported the discovery of a submerged cone-shaped structure.

Now, the four copper plates – first unearthed during a survey two years ago at Hippos-Sussita – baffle archaeologists working in the area.

Click on image to enlargeThe excavated remains of Hippos, an aerial view. Credits: Michael Eisenberg/Hippos Excavation Project

What was the plates’ true purpose? How old the artifacts are?

Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Israel along with other reseachers of the Hippos Excavation Project asks for help:

The four plates, showing the “inner” sides with decorative incisions and apparent nail marks. Courtesy Michael Eisenberg and the Hippos Excavation Project

“Has anyone encountered such plates and if so, do you know if they were set on wooden coffins?”

“They were found in the Hippos necropolis during several surveys”, says Israeli archaeologist Dr. Michael Eisenberg.

He directs the Hippos Excavation Project, which has uncovered remarkably well-preserved monumental remains and artifacts at this ancient mountaintop Greco-Roman city, a site that overlooks the Sea of Galilee.

“None were found during excavation, but all were found very near to robbed and open graves.

It was Dr. Alexander Iermolin, conservator from the institute of Haifa, who first found the pieces during a metal detector survey. They were totally ignored even by us as at first glance they look rather modern.”

The disk-shaped plates, approximately 20 cm in diameter, were found at the necropolis hill located 300 m south of Hippos, feature what appear to be incisions in a decorative pattern on what has been interpreted as their inner sides, with clear marks of nails and a hole in the middle of each.

As the necropolis has not yet been systematically excavated, the age and specific context of the plates could not be determined.

Click on image to enlargeHippos, the main excavation areas. Above and below, aerial views. Credits: Michael Eisenberg/Hippos Excavation Project

Hippos – The temenos south wall. Credits: Michael Eisenberg/Hippos Excavation Project

Credits: Michael Eisenberg/Hippos Excavation Project

According to Dr. Eisenberg, the necropolis is probably dated to the broad Hellenistic-Byzantine time range, as does the nearby Hippos-Sussita polis, which has been extensively excavated.
However, the plates were found outside of graves, not inside, so it is difficult to determine the provenance as they could not be associated with surrounding artifacts and human remains within the internments.

“The plates seemed to have been thrown out of the graves by ancient robbers,” says Dr. Eisenberg, who suspects that the relics were first exposed as a result of looting.

They may not be the only extant examples. “One similar plate was located recently in the Israeli treasury department, but without any context”, says Eisenberg.

The mystery surrounding the relics still remains.

Rosemary Aroma May Help You Remember to Do Things

Posted: April 16, 2013 by phaedrap1 in Science
Tags: Herbs

The aroma of rosemary essential oil may improve prospective memory in healthy adults.

This is the finding of a study conducted by Jemma McCready and Dr Mark Moss from the University of Northumbria. The findings presented today, Tuesday 9 April, at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society in Harrogate, suggest that this essential oil may enhance the ability to remember events and to remember to complete tasks at particular times in the future.

Dr Mark Moss said: “We wanted to build on our previous research that indicated rosemary aroma improved long-term memory and mental arithmetic. In this study we focused on prospective memory, which involves the ability to remember events that will occur in the future and to remember to complete tasks at particular times this is critical for everyday functioning. For example when someone needs to remember to post a birthday card or to take medication at a particular time.”

Rosemary essential oil was diffused in to a testing room by placing four drops on an aroma stream fan diffuser and switching this on five minutes before the participants entered the room. Sixty-six people took part in the study and were randomly allocated to either the rosemary-scented room or another room with no scent.

In each room participants completed a test designed to assess their prospective memory functions. This included tasks such as hiding objects and asking participants to find them at the end of the test and instructing them to pass a specified object to the researcher at a particular time. All the tasks had to be done with no prompting. If the task was not performed then different degrees of prompting were used. The more prompting that was used the lower the score. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing their mood.

Participants’ blood was also analysed to see if performance levels and changes in mood following exposure to the rosemary aroma were related to concentrations of a compound (1,8-cineole) present in the blood. The compound is also found in the essential oil of rosemary and has previously been shown to act on the biochemical systems that underpin memory.

The results showed that participants in the rosemary-scented room performed better on the prospective memory tasks than the participants in the room with no scent. This was the case for remembering events and remembering to complete tasks at particular times.

Jemma McCready explained: “There was no link between the participants’ mood and memory. This suggests performance is not influenced as a consequence of changes in alertness or arousal.”

The results from the blood analysis found that significantly greater amounts of 1,8-cineole were present in the plasma of those in the rosemary scented room, suggesting that the influence of aroma was mediated pharmacologically.

Jemma McCready said: “These findings may have implications for treating individuals with memory impairments. It supports our previous research indicating that the aroma of rosemary essential oil can enhance cognitive functioning in healthy adults, here extending to the ability to remember events and to complete tasks in the future. Remembering when and where to go and for what reasons underpins everything we do, and we all suffer minor failings that can be frustrating and sometimes dangerous. Further research is needed to investigate if this treatment is useful for older adults who have experienced memory decline.”

Science Daily

Trees Call for Help—And Now Scientists Can Understand

Posted: April 16, 2013 by phaedrap1 in News, Science
Tags: environment, National Georgraphic

Single tree on hillside, late afternoon.

When drought hits, trees can suffer—a process that makes sounds. Now, scientists may have found the key to understanding these cries for help.

In the lab, a team of French scientists has captured the ultrasonic noise made by bubbles forming inside water-stressed trees. Because trees also make noises that aren’t related to drought impacts, scientists hadn’t before been able to discern which sounds are most worrisome. (Watch a video: Drought 101.)

“With this experiment we start to understand the origin of acoustic events in trees,” said Alexandre Ponomarenko, a physicist at Grenoble University in France, whose team conducted the research.

This discovery could help scientists figure out when trees are parched and need emergency watering, added Ponomarenko, who presented his team’s results last month at an American Physical Society meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

Listening to Trees

To figure out how to listen to trees, the French scientists drew on their knowledge of how trees take in water—essentially by drinking from a really long “straw.”

Inside tree trunks are bundles of specialized tubes called xylem, which rely on the attractive forces between water molecules as well as those between water and plant cells to lift liquid to the highest leaves and branches. (See National Geographic’s tree pictures.)

Because trees are so tall, the liquid in the xylem can be under intense pressure—many times that of the atmosphere around us—but the attractive forces between neighboring water molecules keep the water column intact.

Imagine using a straw to slurp the last few drops from the bottom of your glass: You have to increase the pressure even more. In drought-stricken trees, this increased pressure can cause the water column to break, allowing dissolved air to form bubbles that block water flow.

These events are called cavitations, and while trees can withstand some, too many can be deadly.

Since cavitations can kill trees, scientists and forest managers want to know when they are increasing. (Also see “Pictures: Saving and Studying Tasmania’s Giant Trees.”)

Scientists have known for decades that microphones can pick up the noises that cavitations make. But because they couldn’t see inside the tree, they weren’t certain of the origins of these sounds, which could have resulted from wood creaking or breaking or xylem cells collapsing.

To answer the question, the team put a thin slice of pine wood into a liquid-filled gel capsule to mimic conditions inside a living tree.

The scientists then evaporated water from the gel, simulating a drought. As the wood began cavitating, the scientists filmed bubbles forming while recording with a microphone.

The scientists found that around half the sounds they picked up were associated with cavitations. The rest were from other processes, such as bubbles invading neighboring cells. Most important, the sound waves from each type of event made a distinct pattern. All of them are above the range of human hearing.

The researchers think they can compare sounds from living trees with these patterns, and determine which processes are creating the sounds.

Helping Thirsty Trees

According to Ponomarenko, the findings could lead to the design of a handheld device that allows people to diagnose stressed trees using only microphones.

Such a device may be particularly important if droughts become more common and more severe, as many global warming models predict they will. (Read “The New Dust Bowl” in National Geographic magazine.)

In fact, a study published in Nature last fall suggested that trees in many places—from tropical rain forests in South America to arid woodlands in the U.S. West—already “live on the edge,” meaning their cavitation rate is almost as high as they can sustain.

Ponomarenko’s method could provide an early warning that cavitations are increasing.

For instance, he envisions a device that would attach to a tree and constantly listen for sounds of thirst. If needed, the device could then trigger an emergency-watering system.

Ponomarenko’s research is promising, added Cornell University’s Abe Stroock, whose lab designed the gel capsule the French team used. He said the result “opens a new mode of observation” into cavitation. (See pictures of the 2012 drought that parched much of the United States.)

But he also noted that the wood samples used in the team’s study had to be “excised and abused,” so they don’t necessarily behave exactly like wood in a living tree.

“Translating [these findings] to a living plant and into different species is a lot of work, potentially,” he said.

National Geographic

World’s oldest harbour, hieroglyphic papyri found

Posted: April 16, 2013 by phaedrap1 in News, Science
Tags: Ancient Egypt, hieroglyphics

World`s oldest harbour, hieroglyphic papyri found Cairo: A team of archaeologists in Egypt has unearthed what are believed to be the world’s most ancient harbour and a set of hieroglyphic papyri dating to the third millennium B.C..

“The port of Wadi el-Jarf located on the Red Sea, 180 km south of Suez, dates to around 2,600 B.C. and the reign of King Khufu,” Minister for Antiquities Mohammed Ibrahim said.

It is considered one of the most important ancient Egyptian ports because it was used to transport copper and other minerals from the Sinai Peninsula, Ibrahim said.

“The papyri, which provide detailed accounts of daily life and traditions at the time of the Old Kindgom, are considered the oldest ever found,” he said.

The papyri are currently being studied by experts at the Suez Museum.

The team of French and Egyptian archaeologists also discovered stone anchors at Wadi el-Jarf that were marked with ropes used to tie the ships inside the port.

A collection of stone tools used for cutting ropes, some wooden remains and ropes as well as remains of ancient houses for port workers and 30 caves whose entrances were closed with stone blocks bearing inscriptions of King Khufu were also discovered at the site.

The pharoah King Khufu is credited with building the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

IANS

Music Activates Same Pleasure Center In The Brain As Sex

Posted: April 14, 2013 by phaedrap1 in Science
Tags: music

Image Credit: Accord / Shutterstock

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Listening to good music can trigger the same reaction in our brains as eating a good meal, taking a psychoactive drug or enjoying an evening of passion, researchers from McGill University in Montreal claim in a new study.

The research, which was published in the journal Science, reported the nucleus accumbens is the part of the brain that is most closely associated with the enjoyment a person experiences when listening to a pleasant song for the first time.

The nucleus accumbens, which is described by The Telegraph as “the rewards region” of the brain, is located near the center of the organ and is operated by the chemical dopamine. Furthermore, the more the listener enjoyed what he or she was hearing, the stronger the connections in this region of the brain became.

Lead researcher Valorie Salimpoor recruited 126 volunteers, polling each about their musical preferences, and then compiling a list of 60 songs that were unfamiliar to the test subjects. Each participant listened to the first 30 seconds of each song while Salimpoor and her colleagues measured their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), explained National Geographic’s Virginia Hughes.

“To specifically look into brain activity exhibited while people listened to new music they liked, though – rather than any new music at all – the researchers introduced a twist: Each of the 19 study participants were able to buy any of the songs afterward, with real money,” Joseph Stromberg of Smithsonian.com said. “By including this step, the scientists had an objective measure of which songs each of the participants truly enjoyed and deemed worth purchasing.”

The purchase program was set-up like an auction in that study participants were allowed to place “bids” as to how much they would be willing to pay for each tune – essentially linking a dollar value to how much pleasure they derived from each piece of music. The more a person was willing to spend to buy a song, the greater the level of activity in the nucleus accumbens when it was first played, Stromberg said, suggesting this particular region of the brain was vital for the pleasure a person experiences when hearing good music for the first time.

“When people listen to a piece of music they have never heard before, activity in one brain region can reliably and consistently predict whether they will like or buy it, this is the nucleus accumbens which is involved in forming expectations that may be rewarding,” Salimpoor told The Telegraph. “What makes music so emotionally powerful is the creation of expectations. Activity in the nucleus accumbens is an indicator that expectations were met or surpassed, and in our study we found the more activity we see in this brain area while people are listening to music, the more money they are willing to spend.”

The inspiration for the study, Salimpoor told Hughes, was an experience she had while driving a vehicle and listening to the radio. The researcher said she was feeling uncertain about her future, particularly the type of career she wanted or how she would use her undergraduate training in neuroscience, when she heard Johannes Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5 for the very first time.

“This piece of music came on, and something just happened. I just felt this rush of emotion come through me. It was so intense,” Salimpoor told National Geographic. She said she pulled over and listened to the song, and once it was over, she then began to wonder about the impact that listening to the song had on her mood. “I was thinking, wow, what just happened? A few minutes ago I was so depressed, and now I’m euphoric. I decided that I had to figure out how this happened – that that’s what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”

Unique Ceremony Reveals How Your Brain Can Control Your Body Temperature – G-Tummo Meditation Works!

Posted: April 10, 2013 by phaedrap1 in Science, Spirituality
Tags: Meditation

MessageToEagle.com – The g-tummo meditative practice controls “inner energy” and is considered by Tibetan practitioners as one of the most sacred spiritual practices in the region.

Monasteries maintaining g-tummo traditions are very rare and are mostly located in the remote areas of eastern Tibet. Now, a group of researchers can show for the first time that it is possible for core body temperature to be controlled by the brain.

The scientists, led by Associate Professor Maria Kozhevnikov from the Department of Psychology at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences found that core body temperature increases can be achieved using certain meditation techniques (g-tummo) which could help in boosting immunity to fight infectious diseases or immunodeficiency.

Published in science journal PLOS ONE in March 2013, the study documented reliable core body temperature increases for the first time in Tibetan nuns practising g-tummo meditation. Previous studies on g-tummo meditators showed only increases in peripheral body temperature in the fingers and toes.

The researchers collected data during the unique ceremony in Tibet, where nuns were able to raise their core body temperature and dry up wet sheets wrapped around their bodies in the cold Himalayan weather (-25 degree Celsius) while meditating.Using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings and temperature measures, the team observed increases in core body temperature up to 38.3 degree Celsius. A second study was conducted with Western participants who used a breathing technique of the g-tummo meditative practice and they were also able to increase their core body temperature, within limits.

Applications of the research findings

The findings from the study showed that specific aspects of the meditation techniques can be used by non-meditators to regulate their body temperature through breathing and mental imagery.

The techniques could potentially allow practitioners to adapt to and function in cold environments, improve resistance to infections, boost cognitive performance by speeding up response time and reduce performance problems associated with decreased body temperature.

The two aspects of g-tummo meditation that lead to temperature increases are “vase breath” and concentrative visualisation.

“Vase breath” is a specific breathing technique which causes thermogenesis, which is a process of heat production. The other technique, concentrative visualisation, involves focusing on a mental imagery of flames along the spinal cord in order to prevent heat losses.

Both techniques work in conjunction leading to elevated temperatures up to the moderate fever zone.

Assoc Prof Kozhevnikov explained, “Practicing vase breathing alone is a safe technique to regulate core body temperature in a normal range. The participants whom I taught this technique to were able to elevate their body temperature, within limits, and reported feeling more energised and focused. With further research, non-Tibetan meditators could use vase breathing to improve their health and regulate cognitive performance.”

MessageToEagle.com

A Giant Mystery: 18 Strange Skeletons Found in Wisconsin

Posted: April 7, 2013 by phaedrap1 in Uncategorized

Here’s one for your “Forbidden Archaeology” file.

Scientists are remaining stubbornly silent about a lost race of giants found in burial mounds near Lake Delavan, Wisconsin, in May 1912.

The dig site at Lake Delavan was overseen by Beloit College and it included more than 200 effigy mounds that proved to be classic examples of 8th century Woodland Culture. But the enormous size of the skeletons and elongated skulls found in May 1912 did not fit very neatly into anyone’s concept of a textbook standard.

They were enormous. These were not average human beings.

Strange Skulls

First reported in the 4 May 1912 issue of the New York Times, the 18 skeletons found by the Peterson brothers on Lake Lawn Farm in southwest Wisconsin exhibited several strange and freakish features.

Their heights ranged between seven and nine feet and their skulls “presumably those of men, are much larger than the heads of any race which inhabit America to-day.”

Above the eye sockets, “the head slopes straight back and the nasal bones protrude far above the cheek bones. The jaw bones are long and pointed, bearing a minute resemblance to the head of the monkey. The teeth in the front of the jaw are regular molars.”

Mystery of The Wisconsin Giants

Was this some sort of prank, a hoax played by local farm boys or a demented taxidermist for fun and the attention of the press? The answer is no.

The Lake Delavan find of May 1912 was only one of dozens and dozens of similar finds that were reported in local newspapers from 1851 forward to the present day. It was not even the first set of giant skeletons found in Wisconsin.

On 10 August 1891, the New York Times reported that scientists from the Smithsonian Institution had discovered several large “pyramidal monuments” on Lake Mills, near Madison, Wisconsin. “Madison was in ancient days the centre of a teeming population numbering not less than 200,000,” the Times said. The excavators found an elaborate system of defensive works which they named Fort Aztalan.

“The celebrated mounds of Ohio and Indiana can bear no comparison, either in size, design or the skill displayed in their construction with these gigantic and mysterious monuments of earth — erected we know not by whom, and for what purpose we can only conjecture,” said the Times.

On 20 December 1897, the Times followed up with a report on three large burial mounds that had been discovered in Maple Creek, Wisconsin. One had recently been opened.

“In it was found the skeleton of a man of gigantic size. The bones measured from head to foot over nine feet and were in a fair state of preservation. The skull was as large as a half bushel measure. Some finely tempered rods of copper and other relics were lying near the bones.”

Giant skulls and skeletons of a race of “Goliaths” have been found on a very regular basis throughout the Midwestern states for more than 100 years. Giants have been found in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and New York, and their burial sites are similar to the well-known mounds of the Mound Builder people.

The spectrum of Mound builder history spans a period of more than 5,000 years (from 3400 BCE to the 16th CE), a period greater than the history of Ancient Egypt and all of its dynasties.

There is a “prevailing scholarly consensus” that we have an adequate historical understanding of the peoples who lived in North America during this period. However, the long record of anomalous finds like those at Lake Delavan suggests otherwise.

The Great Smithsonian Cover-Up

Has there been a giant cover-up? Why aren’t there public displays of gigantic Native American skeletons at natural history museums?

The skeletons of some Mound Builders are certainly on display. There is a wonderful exhibit, for example, at the Aztalan State Park where one may see the skeleton of a “Princess of Aztalan” in the museum.

But the skeletons placed on display are normal-sized, and according to some sources, the skeletons of giants have been covered up. Specifically, the Smithsonian Institution has been accused of making a deliberate effort to hide the “telling of the bones” and to keep the giant skeletons locked away.

In the words of Vine Deloria, a Native American author and professor of law:

“Modern day archaeology and anthropology have nearly sealed the door on our imaginations, broadly interpreting the North American past as devoid of anything unusual in the way of great cultures characterized by a people of unusual demeanor. The great interloper of ancient burial grounds, the nineteenth century Smithsonian Institution, created a one-way portal, through which uncounted bones have been spirited. This door and the contents of its vault are virtually sealed off to anyone, but government officials. Among these bones may lay answers not even sought by these officials concerning the deep past.”

Sources:

Anon. “Strange Skeletons Found: Indications that Tribe Hitherto Unknown Once Lived In Wisconsin,” New York Times, 4 May 1912

Anon. “The Wisconsin Mounds: Interesting Relics of Pre-Historic Civilization” New York Times, 10 August 1891

Burlington News, “The Princess of Aztalan” (Photos), Mound Builders page

Dahly, Terje “Old Newspapers Are Serious About Giant Skeletons” from the “Giants: Did They Live?” website

Deloria Jr., Vine. Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact (Fulcrum Publications, 1997)

Hamilton, Ross. “A Holocaust of Giants: The Great Smithsonian Cover-Up” Xpeditions Magazine website.

Sutherland, Mary. “Giants . . . Giants . . . Giants . . . Giants” A Big Page About Giants, BUFO Radio / Burlington News website

Unknown. “Greater Humans” page. Greater Ancestors World Museum website

Wikipedia, “Aztalan State Park” Wisconsin

by Mark Shernick

Three Fascinating Old Time Travel Cases – These People Say They Saw The Future

Posted: April 6, 2013 by phaedrap1 in Occult
Tags: Time travel

MessageToEagle.com – Time travel is a popular topic and the idea that we might be able to visit the past or the future keeps fascinating scientists just as much as the public.

This time we will discuss some interesting old time travel cases.

As we have previously seen, there are serious scientists like for example Dr. John Cramer, professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Washington who thinks we must think about time travel but we should take it in baby steps. Dr. Cramer believes it is possible to send messages through time and he is working this project.

We try to find ways to travel back in time, but by doing that we are affecting a very important part of our physical Universe, called causality. If we want to travel back in time, we must find a way to prevent causality from being violated,” astrophysicist Charles Liu explained.

Yet, as we have previously written in our article Two Astonishing Cases Of Men Who Say They Traveled Through Time, there are those who even claim to have proof of time travel!

It really doesn’t matter whether you believe in time travel or not, there will always be stories of people who say they are from a different time.

Whether we should believe them or not is up to each and one of us, but it cannot be denied these stories are interesting.

Air-Marshal Sir Victor Goddard visits the future

In his book Time Travel: A New Perspective, J. H. Brennan tells a curious story of a time slip experience that happened to Air-Marshal Sir Victor Goddard.

Brennan writes: “In 1935, while still a Wing Commander, he was sent to inspect a disused airfield near Edinburgh at a place called Drem. He found it in a very dilapidated state with cattle grazing on grass that had forced through cracks in the tarmac.

Later that day, he ran into trouble while flying his biplane in heavy rain and decided to fly back to Drem to get his bearings.

As he approached the airfield the torrential rain abruptly changed to bright sunlight.When he looked down he saw the airfield had been completely renovated and was now in use.

There were mechanics in blue overalls walking around and four yellow planes parked on the runway.

One of these was a model which, for all his aviation experience, he completely failed to recognize.

It was a very puzzling experience, not alone because the instant renovation was quite impossible, but also because mechanics were supposed to wear khaki and Air Force planes were painted with a silvery aluminum paint.

Four years later, Goddard solved the mystery. With war now raging in Europe, he happened to visit Drem again… to find it exactly as he had seen it in 1935, completely with blue-overalled mechanics and yellow planes. He even found the plane he had been unable to identify earlier – a Miles Magister. ”

Had Goddard somehow flown four years into the future, and then shortly returned to his own time?

A highway to the past?

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, 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.

High strangeness points to ponder over: what if–she was from the past, and went forward in time, and she is now an old lady still living today, and what if on that same day it had been her instead of L.C. and Charlie behind the “old car,” that same now old lady would have met herself.

What if–the Earth itself has a super mentality and it creates as a cosmic joke all these anomalies of life on its surface just for its amusement or some other esoteric reason.

What if–and this is the final and most depressing of the “what ifs”–she had come from the past, popped into the future and did not return to her past. The newspapers of 1940 would puzzle over a disappeance of a mother and her child one cold October day, foul play suspected, the search continues–while she and the child continue traveling in and out of various time zones forever.”

They saw a future air raid

The third odd time travel case is mentioned in the book The Little Giant Book of Eerie Thrills and Unspeakable Chills written by Ron Edwards, C. B. Colby, John Macklin

According to the authors “In 1932, newspaper reporter J.Bernard Hutton and photographer Joachim Brandt were assigned to do a feature story on the Hamburg, Germany, shipyard. They drove to the huge complex, interviews several executives and workers, and completed the assignment by late afternoon.

As they were leaving, the two newsmen heard the unmistakable drone of aircraft engines and looked up to see the sky filled with warplanes. Then they heard the city’s antiaircraft batteries opening fire as bombs began exploding around them.

Moments later, the area was a raging inferno as fuel tanks were hit. Warehouses were collapsing from high explosives and dock cranes were twisted into pretzels.

Hutton and Brandt realized this was no drill.

They rushed to the car as antiaircraft gunners began scoring hits on the bomber formation overhead. At the gate, Hutton asked a security guard if there was anything they could do to help but was told leave the area immediately.

Hutton and Brandt were confused when they drove into Hamburg. The sky had turned dark during the attack, but now it was clear and the city was serene. They busy streets were not indented with craters and the buildings were intact. No one seemed concerned as they went about their daily business.

Hutton and Brandt stopped the car and looked back toward the shipyard. Now they received another shock because they saw no black ribbons of smoke rising into the sky and no damaged buildings. What was happening?

Back at the newspaper office, Brandt’s pictures were developed and the two men got another surprise. Brandt had continued shooting film throughout the air raid, but his photographs showed nothing unusual. The shipyard looked as it did upon their arrival that morning. There was no evidence that a rain of bombs from enemy planes had destroyed the area, as they had witnessed.

The editors studied the photographs and wondered why Hutton and Brandt insisted they had been involved in an air attack. He dismissed their story and decided that they had probably stopped at a tavern for a couple of drinks on the way back to the office.

Just before World War II began, Bernard Hutton moved to London. In 1943, he saw a newspaper story about a successful raid by a Royal Air Force squadron on the Hamburg shipyard. He felt a cold shiver along his spine as he studied the photos. The scene of destruction was exactly as it appeared during his visit with Brandt in the spring of 1932.

There was only one thing different – Hutton and Brandt had witnessed the event 11 years before it happened. ”