Photos Reveal Evidence of INVISIBLE CREATURES: Sky Fish, Rods, Solar Entities

By Epoch Times

Wherever a camera may appear, the Rods may lay in silent wait. The jury’s out on whether they are the product of photographic illusion or genuine unidentified organic entities.

Fast, elusive, and virtually invisible. Beings that fly, in some cases even swim, and that surround us if only we could see—they are as ethereal as the air itself. Known as “Rods,” “Sky Fish” or “Solar Entities,” these photographic anomalies have been a mystery since the Mexican film director José Escamilla presumably discovered them in 1994.

While Escamilla was recording a documentary in Midway, New Mexico—just outside Roswell—he discovered what looked like strange life-forms appearing frequently throughout the film. They were off-white in color and oblong in shape, dashing through the picture and interfering with the artistic goal of the director.

Later, Escamilla employed a more detailed analysis—a specially developed filming protocol—to produce “smoking-gun” video evidence. Escamilla believes that the insects were a heretofore-unknown form of organic life, only perceptible through cameras.

Thus, the phenomenon of the Rod was born.

 

Around the World

With news of Escamilla’s finding, film aficionados around the world quickly set out to discover their own Rods in photographs and videos. The purported life-forms seemed to appear with regularity, in contrast to the majority of orbs (which are often dismissed as dust) or other pseudo-cryptoids that enthusiasts had been accustomed to. Rods were uniquely photogenic and filmed extensively, but not one of them could be seen with the naked eye.

New Mexico, Indiana, Connecticut, in the films of the Iraq War—when pictures were examined closely, every camera seemed to have discovered more and more of these strange creatures. Even during the filming of Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart,” it is said, the Rods seemed to have left their mark.

 

Rods, Quasi-Beings

As the years passed, the Rod phenomenon began to catch more attention from Ufologists as scientific skeptics showed an interest. As evidence of these specimens grew, a catalog of their anatomy, “physiology,” flying strategy, and countless other details became an obsession for hundreds of Rod investigators around the world.

Based on their proximity to other elements in the images, the creatures were found to be from a few inches to 3 feet in length. All possessed a fine membrane on both sides of the body that facilitated their travel through the air like a cuttlefish; and they all moved at apparently “supersonic” speeds, such that they could only be captured on certain grades of film, at velocities not visible to the human eye.

Some people even alleged to understand the secrets behind these miniature shooting stars, affording them supernatural powers, with origins from parallel universes. The History Channel added to rod lore earlier this year as the channel’s “Monster Quest” program labeled the phenomenon “creatures from the fourth dimension.”

As the Rod fervor continued, even Escamilla himself, once believing that the strange shapes were simply insects or birds, began to re-examine whether these creatures could really be something otherworldly.

 

Fall of the Rod, Rise of the Moth

Yet despite so much film of these flying creatures, much of the evidence was unable to prove that Rods were anything more than optical phenomena caused by the cameras themselves. Skeptics argued that the photos and videos were merely a product of optical illusions, and insisted that the phenomena failed to materialize any concrete proof of existence.

Some debunkers demonstrated how the rapid passing of large insects in front of cameras produced a union effect among two, three, or more trajectories of the same insect, giving the optical impression of a long body with various pairs of wings. In 2005, investigators in Jilin, China, unmasked numerous Rods they had monitored on a security camera, which turned out to be nothing more than run-of-the-mill moths.

However, not all of the evidence from the Rod phenomenon can be so easily explained. In fact, many cryptozoologists and Ufologists say that other footage that features rods taken from ultraviolet or infrared cameras can’t be so easily dismissed as being optical illusions or common insects.

As evidence continues to be collected and reviewed, many await the proof that will either legitimize the existence of these mysterious creatures or reveal a photographic fluke that made imaginations run wild.

BIZARRE Storms: Raining FROGS, SPIDERS, and FISH!

By Liwei Fu, Epoch Times

Since ancient times mankind has recorded several strange sightings of animals—frogs, fish, or insects—that fall from the skies.

In the emotionally charged 1999 P. T. Anderson movie, Magnolia, the characters witness an unusual event—the sky rains frogs. Perhaps referring to the biblical passage in which God casts down a rain of frogs on the Egyptians for their refusal to free the Israelites, the shower of frogs proves a bizarre, yet effective, plot device in a film that explores themes of forgiveness and redemption. "And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs," Exodus 8:1-15.

Since ancient times mankind has recorded several strange sightings of animals—frogs, fish, or insects—that fall from the skies. While many might consider this biblical legend to be merely mythical meteorology, this mysterious phenomenon was actually documented earlier this year by Argentine photographer, Christian Oneto Gaona

During a visit to Argentina's Salta province on April 6, 2007, Christian and his friends were hiking up San Bernardo peak when they discovered that the ground around them was covered with spiders. As they looked up they saw hundreds of spiders falling from the sky. Suddenly remembering that he had a camera, Christian snapped several shots of the falling arachnids. Although such occurrences have been noted for centuries, Christian's pictures represent the first documented evidence of this phenomenon.

A few years ago, strange rains of live frogs, fish, and many other animals were periodically reported throughout the country, but up to now nobody had the opportunity to photograph them. Because the past events happened so fast, and the rains were so heavy, photo documentation proved difficult to obtain. The conditions Christian experienced were different in that the spider rain occurred on a cloudless day, and involved a comparatively lighter subject, where the spiders fell slow enough to be captured on film.

 

Strange Rains in History

The majority of animal rains throughout history involve frogs. The first case recorded by the scientific community was in 1873 when Scientific American reported that Kansas City was covered with frogs after a storm. In July 1901, witnesses in Minneapolis recounted a similar story. After the storm, they discovered that four streets were covered almost three inches deep in frogs, making it impossible to walk.

The most recent case was on July 26, 2005, when a newspaper in Belgrade reported that millions of frogs fell in Odzaci, a northeast village of Serbia. After a strong wind, the sky was covered in clouds—as before any storm—but what fell was not water.  Instead, a countless number of frogs not indigenous to that area fell across the entire village.

"I don't know where the cloud came from, it had a strange color and shape," said villager, Caja Jovanovic. "Just as I was looking at it, frogs started to fall. I thought that a plane carrying a cargo of frogs had exploded."

In May 1981, residents of Naphlion, Greece woke up to a shower of small green frogs. The local weather service explained that frogs had merely been lifted by strong winds. They must have been quite severe since that type of frog is only found in North Africa!

Rains of Fish

Aside from frogs, the most common animal rain involves fish—a frequent occurrence in both India and Australia. A study done by Australian zoologist Gilbert Whitley found that in 1972 it rained fish some 50 times.

The Honduran province of Yoro has a history of raining fish going back so far that it has become part of the culture of this region. Each year between May and July, witnesses see what starts out like a normal storm—black clouds, thunder, lightning, and hard rain— but when the rain stops, the ground is covered with live fish that the villagers cook and eat. Since 1998, the Yoro people have held an annual "Rain of the Fish" festival to mark this miraculous occurrence. On July 16, 2006, Honduran television gave a special report on this phenomenon since it now rains fish there up to two times per year.

In 1970, National Geographic sent specialists to Honduras to investigate this curious weather. They found that the falling fish were all the same size—less than 6 inches— and were all blind. Researchers identified the species, but could not find a record of it in the surrounding region. Finally, they proposed that these fish must have lived underground, and were blind due to never having been exposed to light. Even so, actual proof of this theory has yet to materialize.

Scientific Explanation

When science does acknowledge this occurrence, the explanation often centers on a storm or hurricane lifting creatures out of the water and through the air where they finally fall in remote areas. However, this does not explain how such a powerful storm could be discriminating enough to select only animals of the same species, and careful enough not to touch surrounding plant life. Tornadoes and hurricanes are known to scatter and destroy everything in its wake.  Evidence of their presence differs quite a bit from the vast majority of animal rains concentrated in relatively small areas.

Another problem with this theory is that the animals that fall are alive—suggesting that little time has passed between the moment the storm collected them and when they fell.  How does this happen when there are no known bodies of water nearby? There are even occasions, like with the Salta spiders, in which the animals appear on clear days, without wind or precipitation.

So why do these animal rains occur? There have been several theories, but nothing has yet been suitably explained or proven. It appears that Mother Nature still holds some mysteries in this modern age.

30-Year-Old Chinese Man Trapped in 2-Year-Old Body, Mother Heart-Broken

A rare and unknown condition has kept this 30-year-old Chinese man trapped inside his child-size body for decades. He stopped growing at just two years old and his mother has been lovingly taking care of him all these years. 

His name is Wang Tianfang and was born in 1987 in rural eastern China's Wangfan Village of Yuexi County in Anhui Province, according to state-run CCTV.com. He stands only 2 feet 7 inches tall and needs constant attention to care for him.

Opposite of what one might expect, Tianfang cannot talk and his 52-year-old mother, Chu Xiaoping, is heart-broken longing to hear him call her "mama." She said his intelligence stopped developing with his body. 

The boy's father is gone, so his mother has been picking tea leaves in the mountains and working as a part-time cleaning lady in town to earn a living while having time to dress him up and feed him during meal times. Despite neighbors telling her to abandon him and have another child, she hasn't given up on her only son. 

Tianfang's skin cracks in cold weather.

"I will look after Tianfang no matter what. All I wish is for his life to extend. I do not wish to see him die."

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Sources:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5076989/30-year-old-looks-like-toddler-unkonwn-condition.html#ixzz4yM4yWHoT 

Russian Boy Reveals Past Life Experience on Ancient Mars

Boriska Kipriyanovich was discovered in 2003 at age 7 during a camping trip when he revealed memories he had from a past life on Mars and Lemuria long, long ago. He also warned of a catastrophic event, like a global flood, that he believed would happen on Earth in 2009 and 2013. He was featured in Russian media until news spread to the west. 

Boriska's parents say he remarkably began speaking when he was just a few months old. He could read, write, and draw when he was just 2 years old, and he talked about alien civilizations. Boriska began reading latin astronomy books when he was 4 years old. 

According to him, when he lived on Mars it was damaged by nuclear war and he was a spaceship pilot but not the cliche disk-shaped flying saucers powered by plasma turbines.

They were "airplane type. They were triangular. There were ships like a drop," said Boriska. Ships with plasma engines were limited to travel only in the solar system on high speed. The ships in a shape of a drop were carrying other ships."

He even used space portals. "Portal is the same like teleport. It slows down time and opens a kind of portal where time is speeding up fast... I can't say exactly. It opens on one side and in a few seconds or even minutes if the transfer is far away, it opens in another area of space.

Martians were 7 feet tall, live underground, breathe carbon dioxide, and are immortals that stop aging at 35 years old. There were different Martian races that fought against each other with different weapons and developed cultural differences since they stopped communicating and trading with each other. 

Supposedly, the ancient Martians had strong relations with Earth's ancient Egyptians and traveled between the two. He believes there's Great Sphinx of Egypt can be unlocked from behind an ear, which can change the world. 

There was a Jupiter Project to turn Jupiter into a second sun by sending capsules of some kind of energy or bombs but the wars on Mars interrupted this. During this war, everyone on Mars was killed and their souls were saved into special crystal Merkabas that could transport the souls to Earth and elsewhere, but some were broken. Boriska learned some of these things from a kind of Martian internet. 

...WOW! No wonder Elon Musk is trying so hard to get to Mars. This is a fascinating story with lots of information truth-seekers can cross-checking with other known information, such as pyramids and face monuments on Mars. What do you think about this? Let us know with your comments below. 

'Ghost Car' Appearing Out of Nowhere, Causes Crash in Singapore

Dash cam video footage shows car crashing into a mysterious 'ghost car' that appears out of nowhere. 

• The clip shows a white car waiting at an intersection and then turns right, hitting a gray car that we could not see anywhere before. 
• This video is confusing viewers around the world. Where did this car come from? Was it hidden from the camera behind the white car or has this video been edited to cover who's really at fault? 

 

Watch video and comment

Who Are The Mysterious Sea People?

In the region of the eastern Mediterranean between the 13th and 12th century BCE, records of ancient history spoke of a powerful confederacy of naval warriors known as the “Sea People.” According to one ancient inscription, this band of sea-faring raiders “came from the sea in their war ships” and that they were such a force to be reckon with that “none could stand against them.”

They launched attacks against several ancient civilizations that resided in the Mediterranean and wreaked havoc on nations and empires like Egypt, the Hittite Empire, Syria, Palestine, and Turkey. But despite their legendary place in human history for supposedly being a fierce force that contributed to the catastrophic collapse of several Aegean and eastern Mediterranean civilizations during the Late Bronze Age, not much is known about who these Sea People really were and where they actually came from.

Scholars and experts have presented several theories about the potential origins of the mysterious Sea People, but there’s hardly a consensus on which is the better theory that answers the enigmatic identity of these ancient maritime warriors. This is why the extensive discussion over their main homeland and nationality continues to spark controversy to this day.

Ancient Records About the Sea People

Most of the limited information that historians and experts have about the Sea People came from the ancient civilizations that fought against this mysterious naval confederacy once or in several occasions. The ancient Egyptians, in particular, were in conflict with them on many instances. In fact, three of the great pharaohs of Egypt – such as Ramesses II, Merenptah and Ramesses III – recorded their encounters with the Sea People. Not only did these Egyptian leaders boasted in their inscriptions about their victories against their formidable adversaries, they also provided the most detailed narratives referring to this mysterious civilization of sea-faring raiders.

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Ramesses II’s Inscription

The existence of the Sea People was first revealed and described in the middle of the 19th century by a man named Emmanuel de Rougé, who served as the Louvre’s curator at the time. His interpretations about the Sea People came from the famous Medinet Habu inscriptions, which is considered as the main source as well as the basis of various discussions about the sea-faring confederacy in the Mediterranean region. But it has been agreed on by various experts that the earliest possible record of the Sea People is traced all the way back to the reign of Ramesses II, the third pharaoh of the 19th Egyptian Dynasty.

Early in the reign of Ramesses the Great, the Egyptians came into conflict with the Hittites when, in 1274 BCE, the latter seized the trade site of Kadesh - which is now located in modern-day Syria. Ramesses utilized his army and attempted to expel the Hittites - an effort which he claimed resulted to a great victory for the Egyptians although this is disputed by the account of the Hittites.

But regardless of whether or not Ramesses II defeated the Hittites during this clash, what really makes his inscription so valuable is what the pharaoh said about the Sea People. Based on his account, the Sea People were the allies of the Hittites who were also mercenaries that served under his own forces. He also mentioned how he thwarted the naval attack of the Sea People by sinking their war ships and how after their defeat, many of them joined Ramesses’ army and even became a part of his elite group of guards. However, the pharaoh made no mention of their nationality or where they came from, and experts suggest that this implies that the Sea People required no introduction to those who would have heard the pharaoh’s story as the citizens of that time probably already knew a lot about them.  

Merenptah’s Inscription

It was Ramesses II’s successor Merenptah who encountered the Sea People again during the fifth year of his reign in 1209 BCE. During Merenptah’s rule, the Egyptians battled against the Libyans when they tried to invade the Nile Delta. The pharaoh wrote about the conflict and mentioned in his writings that the Libyans brought allies during their invasion and they were naval forces that came “from the seas to the north.” He listed their territories which included Teresh, Ekwesh, Sherden, Lukka and Shekelesh.

While many scholars have tried to figure out where these lands were located in terms of the modern world we live in today, they did not achieve much success in answering this mystery. What is known for certain is that Merenptah was particularly proud of his feat of suppressing these sea-faring adversaries that he made sure that tale of his army’s triumph was immortalized in his inscriptions which were found on the walls of the Temple of Karnak as well as on the famed Merenptah Stele from his funerary temple at Thebes.

Ramesses III’s Inscription

Despite Merenptah’s success in securing the Egyptian borders from the members of the Sea People who were trying to establish permanent settlements in the country, the naval confederacy returned once again to mount another invasion during the reign of Ramesses III, the second pharaoh of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty. The Sea People allied themselves once again with the Libyans, and this time, they launched an attack at the trading center in Kadesh and raided establishments along the coast. They also attempted to occupy and take control of the Delta but failed to do so when Ramesses III’s forces managed to thwart their efforts in 1180 BCE.

In his victory inscription, Ramesses III listed several countries that united to form the maritime confederation, and they included the Peleset, Shekelesh, Tjeker, Weshesh and Denen. It is believed that Peleset occupied approximately the same region as today’s Palestine, and that Tjeker is located somewhere in Syria. Ramesses III also noted in his inscription that the Sea People were confident in “coming forward toward Egypt” as they had already brought the Hittite state to its knees in 1200 BCE.

In order to defend Egypt from the occupation of the naval confederacy and the Libyans, Ramesses III formed a strategy that avoided engaging the Sea People in the battlefield. Instead, he resorted to guerilla tactics and utilized archers to shower the enemy’s war ships with flaming arrows. This led to the destruction and sinking of the invaders’ vessels. The remaining forces of the Sea People that managed to reach land were also defeated, and the battle to protect Egypt officially concluded with the fall of enemy forces in the city of Xois in 1178 BCE.

Members of the Sea People suffered from various fates. Some died from the conflict while those who survived were either imprisoned, sold as slaves, or forced to join Egypt’s army and were subsequently assimilated into Egyptian culture.

Speculations About the Identity of the Sea People

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For almost a century, the Sea People were probably the most feared naval warriors in the Mediterranean region around three thousand years ago. But for some reason, they eventually vanished from the face of the earth, leaving very few traces behind. Historical evidence we have today are only enough for us to be aware that they once existed, but do not give us much to go on in determining where they came from and what happened to them after their several invasion attempts that tested the might of Egypt.

As for who they really were, there are probably dozens of theories and hypotheses presented by scholars that claim to answer this mystery. Some have suggested that the Sea People could be related to the Philistines, the Etruscans or the Trojans, the Minoans as well as the Mycenaeans.

There is even a speculation that the enigmatic Sea People could be connected to the little-known Luwian civilization of that time, a coalition of kingdoms believed to have brought the downfall of powerful ancient civilizations by the end of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean region. Not only did the Luwians supposedly destroy the Hittite Empire, they also weakened and destabilized the Egyptians. It purportedly took the Mycenaeans to band together and form a coalition of their own to successfully topple the Luwians and destroy their key cities, which included Troy. However, as the last civilization standing, the Mycenaeans eventually fought amongst themselves, and their civil war led to the total collapse of the Mediterranean area.  

There are just too many blanks for us to fill before we could accurately determine the real identity and origin of the enigmatic Sea People who once raided the Mediterranean region in ancient times. Perhaps the day will come that we will finally get to answer the most basic questions of who they were and were they came from, but for now, it looks like this is one of those many mysteries in this world that may never be resolved within our lifetime.

Some historians even say that there is no longer a necessity for mankind to passionately pursue the uncovering of the identity of the Sea People since it’s a venture than can never come into fruition. Nevertheless, as curious creatures of Earth, we just can’t help ourselves. We are drawn to all things mysterious, and the enigma of the ancient Sea People is one mind-boggling puzzle that modern man will always dare to solve.

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SOURCES:

1.http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-were-the-sea-peoples

2.http://www.ancient.eu/Sea_Peoples/

3.https://www.newscientist.com/article/2087924-world-war-zero-brought-down-mystery-civilisation-of-sea-people/

4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Peoples

5.http://listverse.com/2016/06/06/10-theories-regarding-the-sea-peoples/

6 Unsettling Visions of Hell from Near Death Experiences

The mystery of what happens after death is one that scientists, philosophers, and religious people have tried to understand.

It seems the only way to find out what really lies beyond the veil of death is to experience death itself, but purposefully dying to be brought back to life, like in the new movie Flatliners, is one of the biggest risks one can take. 

We do have collections of stories from people who have had close calls with the grim reaper called a Near Death Experience. Many of these stories talk about a bright and shining light that beckons to them to the great beyond. Some even hear angelic singing welcoming them to the Pearly Gates. However, there are those who have experienced the opposite. Dark visions of torment and evil are amongst the most common stories told when people describe their visit to Hell. A number of them even claim that they have seen the face of the Devil himself.

In today’s video, we are climbing down the ladder to the dark abyss to explore these nightmarish stories about the underworld. From fire and brimstone to demonic entities, here are 6 Unsettling Visions of Hell from Near Death Experiences.

7. The Pit of Despair and Isolation

A man named Matthew Botsford was at an Atlanta restaurant when the last thing he heard before falling into a coma was two shots from a gun. With a bullet in his head, Botsford was put in a medically induced coma for 27-days, and in that coma, he had the most terrifying vision of the underworld that may have jolted him back to life.

In his near-death experience vision, Botsford found himself in a nightmarish situation where his hands and legs were shackled, and his body was suspended high above a gaping pit or volcanic material. On the floor directly below, he could make out shapes of creatures that were scuttling to and fro and around the pit.

What terrified him even more was the overwhelming feeling of isolation while hanging atop the smoky and fiery pit. He recalls hearing tortured screams echoing, but no other person was to be seen.

Every so often, a team of demons and creatures would come “visit” him and rend his flesh from his bones; flesh that would grow back instantly for these demons to feed on again as a form of eternal torment.

He was then, luckily, spared from this eternal anguish when he saw a giant hand reaching from a wall near him, breaking him free from his chains and taking him away. Before he woke up from his coma, the last thing he heard from his vision were the words “It’s not your time.”

5. The Not-so-Pearly Gates

Our image of what happens after we die is dictated by what we believe is true by the standards of media and popular culture: a brightly lit place in the clouds where there is a large, ornamented gate made out of solid gold; and at the gate is a lectern where a man with a beard as white as his robes – supposedly Saint Peter – is waiting for us with a large book looking like a heavenly Maître D’.

On the flip side, for people unfortunate enough to have a glimpse of Hell, the scene is a lot less appealing. Where there is a golden gate waiting for the righteous, Hell had its own version of a welcome gate but filled with ominous threat and terror pretty much like what the Black Gate of Mordor in Lord of the Rings may look like. Many who have almost crossed over to the other side reveal that it got hotter and hotter as they approached the gate; too hot that they could feel their skin burning by just standing in front of the gate.

Their helpless and hopeless souls are then welcomed to the underworld as the gate swung open, rolling out the red carpet for their arrival into eternal suffering. A vision that may very well be directly lifted from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, complete with the inscriptions at the gate: “Abandon All Hope, You Who Enter Here.”

4. The Infernal Invitation

The life and faith of a devout atheist named Howard Storm were put to the test when a perforated stomach sent him on his way to the doorstep of Hell.

After being rushed to the hospital, Howard Storm woke up in a daze and noticed that the people in his room could not hear him when he started asking what was going on. He even tried to stop someone walking towards him but he was ignored, and the person walked right through him. It was clear that he was already dead and was now a ghost walking around the hospital aimlessly.

Towards the end of the hall, he narrates, he noticed a large group of figures standing in front of a door who were calling out to him as if inviting him to join their group. Confused and clearly having nothing else planned for his lifetime, he decided to join the group and walked through the door with them.

On the other side, he entered a completely different world enveloped in thick fog. The figures from earlier urged him to walk on, their playful demeanor making the invitation a lot more pleasant. Storm would turn to look back and would see his hospital room shrinking into the distance as he walked farther – but the farther he walked, the smaller the fog-filled place became like an eerie Willy Wonka corridor.

Soon after, the figures who were with him turned sinister and began shoving and pushing him deeper into the hallway. They became more violent and began tearing him apart with their teeth, greedily eating his flesh.

In his panic, Storm cowered and tried to shield himself from his demonic attackers and heard his own voice in his head asking him to do something completely out of character: pray.

With his flesh being ripped from his body, the hard-lined atheist began screaming phrases like “One Nation Under God” and “Our Father who art in Heaven.”

As if some kind of Divine Intervention was invoked by his screaming and shouting, Howard Storm was pulled out of his nightmare and woke up in his hospital bed in one piece.

3. Worse than War

The story of George Ritchie was one of the first, most widely circulated stories about Near Death Experiences in Hell. His experience even led him to publish a book called Return to Tomorrow in 1978.

After coming down with pneumonia during the Second World War, Ritchie recalled being brought to an Army hospital in Virginia where he was later on pronounced dead. He narrates that he had an out of body experience and claimed that he was able to wander around town unhindered. On one of his floating about, he met a strange figure who took him on a guided tour of another dimension.

Like a scene from Dante Alighieri, the mysterious figure showed Ritchie various scenes of people and their spirits struggling in the alternate plane. One scene was at a bar where people tried their hardest to drink and smoke their cigarettes but to no avail. The deeper Ritchie went on tour; the more terrifying the scenes began to unfold. One of these scenes took place in a wasteland where he saw gigantic figures locked in a wrath-fuelled skirmish.

Ritchie goes further into describing what he’s seen, “Even more hideous than the bites and kicks they exchanged, were the sexual abuses many were performing in feverish pantomime. Perversions I never dreamed of were being vainly attempted all around us.”

Soon after, when Ritchie woke up from his feverish sleep, he would become a psychiatrist and publish several books regarding the phenomenon of Near Death Experiences, books that would become popular sources for other people who are into the study of the subject.

2. A Taste of Damnation

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Many of us picture hell as a place of torture and eternal damnation. It has been, in fact, depicted perfectly by the 15th Century artist named Hans Hemling in a painting called “The Last Judgment.”

To many people who have had a near-death experience, Hemling’s painting brings terrors that are all too real. Some of these people recount stories of their pleading and begging to return home but were swiftly given a dose of pain and torture; some even recall being shoveled into fiery pits by demons.

In some cases, some people who woke up from a near death experience would describe a place of confinement and isolation that it was utterly mind-numbing and emotionally crushing. There have also been stories where people are allowed to witness damned souls work and slave away nonstop doing deeds like torturing other souls or keeping the furnaces going, some even helping out Lucifer himself carry out his evil deeds whether they like to or not.

While the stories and individual experiences may vary, there is a common thread among all of them: that Hell is, according to them, a place of eternal torment and pain for any unlucky soul who gets sent there.

1. Total Recall

In 1991, a woman named Angie Fenimore attempted to take her own life but instead got a dose of what may come had her suicide become, in a word, successful.

The first thing she recalled after losing consciousness was that she was subjected to a “Life Review” of basically everything that she did and has gone through up until the point where she attempted suicide.

A Life Review is common among people who have gone through a near death experience, and they relive the events of their life through the eyes of people they interacted with in some sort of a Freaky Friday scenario.

After her own life review ended, Fentimore recalls that she was surrounded by a heavy blanket of darkness that seemed to stretch on to eternity. She thought she was completely alone when she heard voices around her saying,  “Oh, we must be the suicides.” Fentimore also realized that these words were being spoken directly into her head and that she, too, could communicate using her mind. However, no matter how hard she tried, she did not elicit any form of response from anyone around her.

Later on, according to her story, she was thrown into a different part of hell that resembled an open field filled with lost souls aimlessly walking around. They seemed to be free to communicate with each other, but Fentimore noticed that misery had fully consumed all of them that they could not look past it and make any effort to interact with anyone around them.

Fentimore’s experience earns the top spot on this list because what’s more harrowing than an infinity of torture and fiery pits is the fact that after you have died, you will have to relive everything you have done in your life, the good and the bad only to be thrown into a wasteland, later on, to be silenced by the crushing weight of your grief and guilt for all eternity, voiding you completely of any kind of will.

And there you have it. 6 unsettling visions of hell from Near-Death Experiences! Let us know what you think in the comments section below! 

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SOURCES:

1.http://www.therichest.com/shocking/15-tales-of-hell-by-survivors-of-near-death-experiences/

2.http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-people-who-died-went-to-hell-then-came-back/

3.http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/05/to-hell-and-back-the-dark-side-of-near-death-experiences

Towns And Villages You Didn't Know Were Cursed

Haunted or cursed places where strange supernatural phenomena take place are typically the foundation of a vast assortment of novels and movies in the horror genre that exists today. From novels like Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” to the film classics like Sam Raimi’s “The Evil Dead,” the plots of scary fictional tales with this kind of common theme are sometimes even set in towns and villages that actually exist in the real world. These existing locations are believed by many to be haunted by ghosts or cursed by powerful and malevolent unearthly beings. Because there are many chilling accounts of allegedly real hauntings and tragic events involving these old towns and villages, it is not surprising that they are used in fiction to maximize a story’s potential to horrify and terrorize its audience.

1. The Al Jazirah Al Hamra

Once a prosperous fishing village located on the northeastern edge of the United Arab Emirates, Al Jazirah Al Hamra used to be filled with antiquated houses that date back to the ancient times and was once an active coastal area where various trade transactions took place. For some reason, around 1968, the residents of the village collectively abandoned their homes. Today, while many of these previous inhabitants still have ownership over some of the land in the village, very few of their descendants continue to live there.

It was around the 1960s when rumors of Al Jazirah Al Hamra being haunted started to gain ground among UAE citizens. Many believe that the village is home to several “djinns” or genies – supernatural creatures in Arabian and Islamic mythologies. These djinns, in particular, are malevolent beings that feed on human flesh. Because of the dark tale surrounding the village, it is a popular tourist spot for those who enjoy ghost hunting and thrill-seeking. While some residents in the area discourage the nocturnal visits of strangers, many locals have also reported sightings of these djinns and have shared their stories with others.

2. The Cinco Saltos

Located in the rural region of Rio Negro, the City of Cinco Saltos is also notoriously known as the “City of Witches” due to reports of the rampant presence of black magicians, necromancers, and witches in the area. One infamous story about this old city involves its large cemetery where a body of a 12-year-old girl was supposedly found while workers renovated the area. Despite the fact that the girl was dead for around 70 years, the girl’s body is well-preserved due to mummification. Some even say that her body was tied to her coffin, leading superstitious residents of the city to suggest that the girl was used as a sacrifice in an occult ritual conducted by one of the hidden covens in the city. There are also reports of seeing a ghost of young girl roaming around the cemetery.

Another terrifying tale said to have taken place in Cinco Saltos involves the Pellegrini Lake where many child sacrifices were purportedly performed by the resident witches. This is supported by reports from visitors of hearing eerie shrieks of young kids when they pass through the lake’s crossing at night. Some people tried to locate the source of these unnerving screams but they always ended up unsuccessful.

3. The Dargavs

This village is more popularly known as the “City of the Dead” and is regarded as among the most enigmatic locations in Russia. Hidden somewhere in the Caucasus Mountains in North Ossetia of southern Russia. Looking at the site from a distance, it may seem like a regular hill village with crude houses, but in reality, Dargavs is no ordinary village. It is actually an ancient necropolis built around the Middle Ages. People of the Ossetian or Alanian tribe erected these house-looking crypts to bury their family members in, and today, there are currently around 100 stone crypts in the area and some of them contain scattered bones.

Today, many of the residents residing on the mountains steer clear of the necropolis due to a local legend warning that those who would visit the tombs in Dargavs end up receiving a curse that supposedly drives them to an early grave. It also doesn’t help that the area is covered with fog most of the time, adding a spookier feel to the grave site.

4. The Canewdon

Located in East Anglia, Canewdon is often referred to as the “witch country” of England as there are a lot of unverified superstitious tales surrounding the village, particularly about witchcraft. There was once a prophecy made by a famous “cunning man” from the 19th century named James Murrell about Canewdon, saying that the area would be doomed to be infested with witches forever. This makes sense in a way since the village has been the subject of witch lore since the 16th century. There is also a legend which states that each instance that a stone drops from the tower of St. Nicholas Church, a witch will perish only to have another take her place. Another legend claims that should a person run counterclockwise around the church or one of the tombs found in its courtyard during Halloween, ghosts, witches or even the Devil would appear.

More than the legends, what’s really tragic about the village of Canewdon was the fact that it was the site of many witch trials and executions that resulted in the suffering and demise of many people during the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the more notable magicians who came from Canewdon include George Pickingill, a black magician heralded as one of the world’s primary authority on witchcraft and Satanism during the early 20th century.

5. The Yarumal

The municipality of Yarumal in the Antioquia Department of Colombia has the unfortunate reputation of having an alarmingly large portion of its population suffer from the neurological curse of dementia. Out of 5,000 of its villagers, it has been determined that half of them will develop early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, with some of them getting afflicted with the neurological disease even before they hit 40 years of age.

As for the reason why so many of the residents in Yarumal are fated to suffer the affliction of dementia early in their lives, scientists have determined that a genetic mutation causing the disease can be traced back to a Spanish conquistador who arrived in the region sometime in the 17th century. The mutation is referred to as E280A and can be found on the 14th chromosome of a gene. While suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease is not fate that should be wished on anyone, there is a silver lining to the fact that many of the residents in Yarumal have this particular genetic mutation. Researchers believe that the people of Yarumal are the key to finding a permanent and effective cure to dementia, which is why the mountain village today is also serving as a large laboratory where the conditions of the villagers are thoroughly studied.

6. The Bhangarh

Regarded as the most haunted site in India, the ruins of the city of Bhangarh in the Rajasthan, India was once a stronghold of the Mughal Empire during the 16th century until the empire weakened by the early 19th century. However, it was the famine of 1783 that drastically diminished the human population in city and since then, Bhangarh has remained largely uninhabited.

The fort of Bhangarh is full of temples and palaces but despite its breathtaking sites, the city today is nothing more than an abandoned “ghost” town. In fact, even now, entry to the city between sunset and sunrise is prohibited and outsiders are warned against entering the city by the Archaeology Survey of India. There is even a legend circulating in the region that anyone who dared to visit the ghost city at night is fated to remain trapped inside the city’s ruins for eternity. Nevertheless, thousands of people have visited Bhangarh at night every year, either because they don’t believe in the curse or they want to see for themselves if it’s real.

As for why the city is cursed, one story tells of a holy man called Baba Balnath who gave his permission for the people to construct the town so long as the buildings they erected did not cast a shadow over his residence. If they did, he would punish the people by destroying the city. A descendant prince, however, violated this rule leading Balnath to curse the entire town.

Another tale speaks of a wizard called Singhiya who fell in love with the princess of Bhangarh named Ratnavati. To make the princess love him, Singhiya cast a spell on a fragrance purchased by one of the princess’s attendants. However, the princess saw through the plan and caused the magician’s death. Before he took his last breath, Singhiya cursed Bhangarh, prophesizing that people would soon abandon the city completely.

There is no way to tell if all these old towns and villages from different parts of the world are actually cursed. What we can say is that the spooky tales and legendary curses connected with these old sites are what makes these places all the more interesting for many of us. This is why many of us go out of our way to see them for ourselves – because they infuse a little fear, strangeness, and mystery into our normal lives.

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 Sources: 

http://listverse.com/2016/04/29/10-cursed-villages-and-towns/
https://moviepilot.com/posts/3895720
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazirah_Al_Hamra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_Saltos
http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/city-dead-mysterious-village-dargavs-russia-003436/page/0/1
https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=nDdcVt9-jnMC&pg=PA50&dq=canewdon+witches&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=canewdon%20witches&f=false
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28514-conquistador-brought-early-onset-alzheimers-to-colombian-town/
http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/ghost-city-bhangarh-and-curse-holy-man-002380?nopaging=1

Modern Armies that Tried to Win Wars with Magic

They say that to win a war, you must be willing to do whatever it takes. The use of threatening words and brute force are all necessary for winning battles, but you’re going to need to take the extra mile if you want an assured victory. If you take a good look at our history of modern warfare, you’ll see just how much science has had a hand in the victory of one military force and the defeat of another. From coming up with the most effective means for gathering intelligence in times of conflict and fragile peace to developing weapons of mass destruction that put an end to a devastating global war and thwarted a powerful and influential empire, it cannot be denied just how many military groups have benefited from the bright minds of scientific experts.

But even in our supposedly technologically-advanced and scientifically-enlightened world, you might be surprised to know just how far our modern armies have gone all in the name of victory. Some have approached magicians and illusionists for tips and tricks in the art of deception while others have attempted to expand the abilities of the human mind beyond the boundaries of conventional science. There are also those that dared to construct weapons of mass destruction that you probably only heard of in literary materials of the science fiction genre. Others, however, have sought out the rumored ancient items mentioned in myths and legends that promised unlimited powers to those who manage to find them and possess them.

And so, let us enumerate five (5) cases of when modern armies and governments have tried to resort to magic or the supernatural to win real wars and achieve supremacy over their enemies.

#1 – The United States Government and the CIA Manual of Trickery & Deception

You’ve watched the movies and the TV shows - from the Bourne Identity films to 24 to Alias and more – and you’ve probably wondered if any of what they have shown in these entertainment pieces are anything like how actual spies and CIA field agents operate in the real world. As it turns out, some of what many actors have done in these spy films are not so far from what real intelligence agents have done in reality. In fact, there’s even an official manual for it.

Back in 2010, the Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception was declassified and released for the perusal of the general public. The manual was written during the Cold War by an American magician named John Mulholland. The book was essentially used in training intelligence agents of the CIA on how to use misdirection and deception in completing their assigned missions. The manual also teaches these CIA operatives on the best ways to conceal weapons, how to use sleight of hand to discreetly pass information, take items or put drugs in people’s drinks, and how to assassinate their targets using only a poisoned pen.

#2 — The Allied Forces and the Disappearance of the Suez Canal

Perhaps the most popular real case of an army using a magician to win a war is that of British stage magician Jasper Maskelyne and his alleged large-scale concealment of the Suez Canal during the Second World War.

In 1949, Maskelyne published a ghostwritten memoir titled “Magic – Top Secret,” in which he detailed his exploits in aiding the Allies during World War Two. The British magician was allegedly a part of a special unit focused on the war effort along the Suez Canal. Using his extensive experience and knowledge in the art of illusion, he devised a large-scale illusion system to conceal the Suez Canal and to misdirect the German flying bombers in the sky. To do so, he built an equipment referred to as “dazzle lights,” which was made of a revolving cone of mirrors. It produced a spinning light that was around nine miles wide, and it dazzled and disoriented German pilots, which consequently, made them drop their bombs off-target.

#3 — The British Government and the Use of Astrology

World War II was not an easy time from either side of the war effort, and every military strategy was explored, even the most absurd ones. It would have been easy for the British government to defeat the Nazis had they known everything that was running in Adolf Hitler’s unpredictable mind. And so, they tried to do so by hiring an astrologer to write horoscopes for Hitler and several other Nazi leaders.

In 2008, declassified documents released to Britain’s National Archives catalogs revealed that the British forces assigned an astrologer named Louis de Wohl to create fake astrological reports about the Nazi leaders and distributed them throughout Nazi Germany to demoralize the public. However, Wohl took a step further by offering his services to predict Hitler’s advisers' advice. And so, Wohl typed out a report titled “A Survey of 1943,” which was a seven-page guesswork of when Hitler’s major attacks will take place, and the possible fortunes of important figures from both sides of the war.

Wohl was also sent off by Winston Churchill to convince the United States to join the war, but following the events of Pearl Harbor, his convincing powers and astrological abilities were no longer required. And as disclosed in the declassified documents of the MI5, the British government came to regret their decision to involve Wohl in their military efforts, as many of them eventually led to the conclusion that he was nothing more than a charlatan that liked to boast of his secret role in the war.   

#4 – The Soviets and Their Extensive Study on Psychokinesis

During the Cold War, the Americans and the Soviets tried to outdo the other in many things, the most popular of which is probably the space race that resulted in the first of many successful missions that landed mankind on the moon. For both sides, it became necessary to explore every avenue to win the Cold War, including the paranormal. And so, both the Americans and the Russians raced against each other to be the first one to figure out how to harness the unknown by expanding the human mind and exploring individuals’ potential abilities in telepathy and psychokinesis.

So far, there has been no widely-accepted evidence that confirms the possibility that humans can be trained to read other people’s minds or move objects without lifting a finger. But between the United States and the Soviets, it seems the latter’s research about the paranormal was more on point than those done by the Americans. Amid the Cold War, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – also known as DARPA – wanted to evaluate and compare the milestones achieved by the United States and the Soviets in researching about the paranormal. And so, they granted RAND Corporation the authority to conduct a study about it, the results of which was published in the early 1970s. The organization reached the conclusion that the Soviets’ research on the supernatural was more specifically geared towards biology and physics in comparison to what the United States came up with, which was largely based on psychological theories.

The Soviets did not only consider using telepathy as a means of communicating with submarines without the aid of electronic equipment, but they also explored the possibility of training their cosmonauts to tap on their precognitive powers to foresee potential accidents in space. They were also interested in using mental imagery or psychokinesis to move objects, which would be helpful in disrupting the guiding system of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Given the specificity in how the Soviets handled their paranormal research, they were the ones more likely to harness what the paranormal world had to offer if it really existed.

#5 — The Nazi and The Search for the Holy Grail and the Spear of Destiny

You’ve probably watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in which the Nazis were on the hunt for the mythical and magical Holy Grail. And while we can’t say for certain if they did encounter an immortal knight or solicited the expertise of an archaeologist with a dashing appearance equal to that of Harrison Ford, the Nazis did look for the Holy Grail in real life, along with other religious ancient artifacts like the Spear of Destiny.

According to the book “The Desecrated Abbey” written by Montserrat Rico Góngora, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi SS, embarked on a top-secret mission during the Second World War to acquire the Holy Grail at an abbey in Spain. The book claims that the Reichsführer-SS believed that Jesus Christ was not the King of the Jews, and was in fact of Aryan blood. And so, Himmler allegedly thought that if the Nazis gained possession of the Aryan Holy Grail, the ancient artifact would grant him supernatural powers and help the Germans win the global war. Unfortunately for the Nazi leader, no such magical cup was found, and if he did find one, it was never disclosed to the public.

There are also stories and historical records claiming that Hitler himself acquired the Spear of Destiny – the lance that pierced the body of Jesus to confirm his death – back in 1938 following his annexation of Austria. According to legend, whoever gains possession of the Spear also gains the power to decide the fate of the world. However, once he ceases to be its owner, he meets his death and is refused entry to the gates of Heaven. While what he found may very well be a very expensive knock-off of the Holy Lance, Hitler brought this Spear to Nuremberg for safekeeping.

In 1945, U.S. soldiers under the leadership of General Patton got a hold of the spear Hitler thought was the real Spear of Destiny. Interestingly, Hitler died soon after he lost ownership of the lance, having committed suicide in his bunker. It seems to confirm the legend that losing possession of the spear results to the owner’s death, but we won’t be able to test this theory again unless we’re hoping to encounter another tyrannical global leader, so perhaps it is better that the spear Hitler discovered is being safely kept inside the Weltliches Schatzkammer Museum in Vienna instead.

People at war live in violent and uncertain times, which is why it is not that surprising that even in the modern world, opposing sides of a conflict are desperate to find ways to turn the tides of these bloody battles in their favor. To some of us, the idea of using magic, exploring psychic defense or searching for lost ancient artifacts all for the sake of winning a war seems an absurd waste of time. However, to the leaders of these modern armies, it is a factor that they could not discount so easily.

After all, they could not risk not giving magic and the supernatural the time of day when their enemies were spending resources to possibly utilize them as weapons. What if their enemies succeeded? How could they outsmart an enemy that has mastered the art of deception and misdirection? How could they fight against thousands of troops that can easily kill their opponents and predict the future using only their minds? How could they win against a colossal army in possession of a powerful ancient artifact that pretty much made them invincible?  

As commanders that lead thousands, if not millions, of soldiers, these military and intelligence leaders chose to exhaust all possibilities to end the conflict in their favor, even if it meant resorting to magic or the supernatural. Perhaps, from their perspective, they would rather have their pursuit for such things end up as a fruitless endeavor rather than neglect that option and allow their enemies to use it against them later on.

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SOURCES:

http://listverse.com/2013/03/05/10-attempts-to-use-magic-and-the-supernatural-to-win-wars/

http://www.cracked.com/article_24722_6-modern-armies-who-tried-to-win-wars-using-magic-sci-fi.html

https://www.thrillist.com/vice/10-secret-lessons-from-the-cia-manual-of-trickery-and-deception

https://archive.org/stream/cia-manual-trickery-deception-2009/cia-manual-trickery-deception-2009_djvu.txt

https://www.magictricks.com/war-magician.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23456119/#.WWjSIIiGPb1

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/revealed-how-mi5-recruited-an-astrologer-in-plot-to-outwit-hitler-790876.html

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/us-and-soviet-spooks-studied-parano-2008-10-29/

https://www.wired.com/2007/12/rand-russians-t/

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5889471/what-is-the-spear-of-destiny-and-where-can-you-get-it

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/04/relic_hunter_a_missing_christian_relic_the_fall_of_nazi_germany_and_a_mystery_that_flummoxed_historians_for_centuries/

The Mysterious Dark Watchers

The Santa Lucia Mountains or the Santa Lucia Range is a rugged mountain range located in the coastal area of central California. Named in 1602 by a Spanish cartographer as the Sierra de Santa Lucia, the mountain range stretches for 105 miles or 169 kilometers from Monterey County in the north all the way south to San Luis Obispo County. Among its southern peaks stands the famous Hearst Castle. The Santa Lucia Range is the coast north of Ragged Point, forming a 100-kilometer wall of wave-dashed cliffs known as the Big Sur, to which the Pacific Coast Highway clings. 

It is a land of immense beauty and tranquility, where California Condors fly high above its mountains, and sea otters and elephant seals populate the turbulent waters at their base. 

But lurking within these mountains is the strange and mystifying phantoms that stand motionless in long black cloaks. Surveying the crags and peaks of the mountains of Santa Lucia, these unfathomable creatures have been spotted by travelers to be looking out to the sea, often wearing broad brimmed hats, and sometimes carrying either a staff or a walking stick. But what is consistent in the description of those who have seen them is that they are always still, silent and featureless. Those who try to get a good look at these fantastical beings fail because, by the time that they attempt a second glance, they have already vanished. 

What Are Dark Watchers?

These mystical entities are believed to reside in the misty hillside of Big Sur in the Santa Lucia Mountains. The early Spanish explorers and Mexican ranchers that came after referred to these creatures as “Los Vigilantes Oscuros.” In modern times, they came to be known as “The Dark Watchers.”

The Dark Watchers are a group of migratory entities that have appeared in California Folklore for supposedly the past several hundred years and are purportedly stalking travelers along the Santa Lucia Mountains. They are apparently giant human-like phantoms that are only seen at twilight, and they are usually spotted standing silhouetted against the night sky along the ridges and peaks of the mountains. These beings are believed to possess incredible hearing as well as impeccable eyesight. They are also immune to high-tech detection and prefer to only reveal themselves to travelers or trekkers who are equipped with simple items like hats and sticks. 

Origins, References & Accounts

Tales about the Dark Watchers appear in many books, and many personal accounts of encounters with them can also be found online. A description of the Dark Watchers can be read in many books about California’s famous supernatural stories, but these descriptions always referred to the writings of Pulitzer Prize-winner John Steinbeck and poet Robinson Jeffers as literary sources that mention this phenomenon. 

In 1938, John Steinbeck was living near Monterey at the northern end of the Santa Lucia Mountains when he published his book of short stories titled “The Long Valley.” One of the stories included in the book is the short story “Flight,” which most famously mentions the Dark Watchers specifically. The Dark Watchers had notoriety in the area at the time because of poet Robinson Jeffers – who also lived in Big Sur – published the poem “Such Counsels You Gave to Me” in 1937. In his poem, Jeffers described the Dark Watchers as “forms that look human… but certainly are not human.”

Steinbeck and Jeffers writing around the same time in the same region and drawing inspiration from the same local traditions implied that some form of Dark Watchers lore predated both of their literary creations. But what was it?

Original accounts of the Dark Watchers date all the way back to the Chumash - a native American tribe which has lived along the central coast of California and among the Channel Islands for around 13,000 years. These Chumash natives have included stories of The Dark Watchers in their oral legends and traditions since the Pre-Columbian era.

Validity of Origin Story

One of the most detailed and authoritative accounts of Chumash beliefs is arguably the 1974 1200-page doctoral dissertation by Thomas Blackburn, which was later on published as “December’s Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives.” Blackburn’s principal source in writing his dissertation about Chumash beliefs was the massive archive collected by American linguist and ethnologist John Peabody Harrington between 1912 and 1928, including 111 oral narratives of the Chumash native tribe. Harrington’s body of unpublished research was housed at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives, and Blackburn went through it all, compiling virtually all there is to know about the Chumash beliefs. 

With an expert having researched extensively on the subject matter, we are now left with a very important question: Did the Chumash really tell stories about the Dark Watchers? If we are going to base our answer to this question on Blackburn’s work about the Chumash beliefs, then we can conclude that there were no creatures anything like the Dark Watchers mentioned in the oral narratives of this native American tribe. 

The closest thing that can be connected to these watchers was a creature called nunašīš. The Chumash believed that the Earth, as we know it, is the Middle World, which is an island surrounded by the ocean. The sun and other celestial bodies are a part of the Upper World, and down below are a Lower World. Among the dwellers of this Lower World are the Nunašīš, which are monstrous and misshapen animals who come up to the Middle World at night and spread bad luck, illness and other negative things. These creatures can also be shaped like humans, but they are neither dark nor cloaked. They are also not known for standing still against the night sky along mountain peaks.

The Chumash also believed in shape-shifting animals and humans, which is a belief widely held by many Native American cultures. However, so far, claiming that the Dark Watchers can actually be linked with any Chumash tradition cannot be done without casting doubts on its validity. Hence, it is also just as likely, if not more so, that the supposed connection of the Dark Watchers with Chumash oral stories could be just an invention of the 20th-century ghost story authors. After all, what better way to lend credibility to an urban legend than to tie it to an ancient culture?

Possible Explanations Behind the Dark Watchers

So, if the mysterious dark watchers are not at all a supernatural or mystical phenomenon, why are there people claiming to have seen one while hiking in the Santa Lucia Mountains in the fading twilight? 

We do not need to be an expert to know that our minds and eyes can sometimes play tricks on us, especially when we are in spooky environments where we are on edge, and our senses are on high alert. According to psychologists, illusions, hallucinations or misrepresentation of natural stimulus can be brought on by either exhaustion or isolation - conditions that are prevalent when you are traveling alone on the mountain trails of the Santa Lucia Range. 

Infrasound, which can be generated by the wind, can also cause feelings of uneasiness and anxiety in some people, which is why it is often connected to paranormal sightings. Studies show that infrasound between 7 and 19 Hertz can cause feelings of fear and panic in human beings. Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire conducted an experiment where they played music with and without tones of 17 Hertz frequency in the background. Results of the study showed that when the participants heard or felt the music with the 17 Hertz tones, they felt nervous, anxious and fearful. They also felt some pressure on their chests and chills crawling down their spine - feelings which are described by most people when they experience a paranormal event. 

An optical illusion known as the Brocken specter could also be a plausible explanation for the legend of the Dark Watchers. “Mountain Specter” can occur in certain atmospheric conditions when the sun is shining at a particular angle. A person’s shadow can be cast onto a cloud bank around them, which could create the illusion of a large shadowy humanoid figure. 

No one knows for sure who or what these Dark Watchers are. Where they come from or where they go when they disappear remains an unsolvable mystery to this day. As we have explained, it is likely that these creatures are nothing more than fictional legend, but even if they are real, these Dark Watchers were wise enough to have left no footprint behind that would have served as tangible proof of their existence. 

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Watchers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Lucia_Range
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4522
http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=179
http://www.independent.com/news/2014/nov/13/search-dark-watchers/
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/mysterious-dark-watchers-one-of-americas-greatest-ancient-riddles/
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/03/exploring-american-monsters-california/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound#Suggested_relationship_to_ghost_sightings
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2013/06/ghost-of-the-machine-sounds-in-the-paranormal/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocken_spectre
https://www.britannica.com/science/Brocken-specter
http://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-the-brocken-spectre
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/globrock.htm