9 Strange Acts of Nature Science still Can't Explain

Nature is beautiful but it's also a cruel mistress that can be scary, completely unpredictable and in some cases defy explanation. Although we get why the sky is blue, how the Grand Canyon formed and why birds poop on our heads (they hate us) here are some events of nature that continue to elude explanation.

1.    Animal Migration

I’ll admit, I love road trips but I’m really bad at them. I tend to get lost a lot and I get sleepy 30 minutes in. I’ve splashed water on myself, I've stuck my head out the window like a dog, nothing works. Although I still can't figure out how to stay alert on long trips in the car I am very thankful for GPS, but now I feel that I’m too reliant on them. Once I followed my GPS through a college campus, another time the GPS took me through a cemetery in nowheresville Pennsylvania at night, and that’s where I draw the line. I mean, take me through a college campus I may get a ticket, take me through a graveyard in the middle of the night? that’s some silent hill stuff! My point is I NEED a GPS especially on long trips, but have you ever noticed that many animals migrate thousands of miles across land and sea, and they never have a Garmin attached to their necks.

So How do animals make these long treks without getting lost? No one really knows, though there are many theories. For example, an article in The Independent that focused on pigeon migration, mentioned that the birds navigate the Earth using visual landmarks or their sense of smell to determine their location. More bizarre-sounding theories include the concept that pigeons use magnetism to determine if they’re north or south of home; another is that the pigeons use morphic resonance, a theory by Rupert Sheldrake, to refer to what he calls the "the basis of memory in nature basically the idea that there are collective memories that are shared within species.

2.     The Naga Fireballs

Every year, around late autumn on the night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent going back as far as anyone can remember. Hundreds of fireballs explode randomly out of Thailand’s Mekong River. This phenomenon is known as “Naga fireballs,”  Locals believe the balls come from the breath of Naga, a mythical serpent that haunts the river. Many scientists believe that the fireballs are nothing more than pockets of methane bubbling up from the river, others argue that whatever is sailing through the air has mass, and "must have been propelled physically. So the question is, what is propelling these fireballs. You guys ever hear of a watermelon seed spitting contest? maybe the river serpents gather together every year for the annual Mekong River Fireball Spitting Contest.

3.    The Tunguska Event

A ball of fire exploded in a remote area of Russia In June 1908, the explosion was so powerful it shook the ground and instantly flattening 770 square miles of forest. The blast reached 15 megatons of energy, about a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Because this event occurred near a river called Tunguska, it was Known as the Tunguska event. 

Researchers suggests that a meteor was to blame because there is a lake nearby and scientists believe that it was created by a meteor. But others say the lake was there before the event, so if not a meteor, then what cause the most powerful natural explosion in recent history.

4.    Earthquake Lights

Earthquake lights are white or bluish flashes that occur right before a large earthquake and last for several seconds. These lights have been documented for hundreds of years, but it wasn't until the 1960s, when people took pictures of this phenomenon during the Matsushiro earthquakes, that scientists started to take it seriously.

There are many theories for the origin of the lights, such as piezoelectric and frictional heating to gas emissions and electrokinetics. Recently scientists believe that the lights are caused by the natural electrical charge of rocks which are awakened by pre-earthquake elements.

5. Blue Jets and Red Sprites

Blue Jets and Red Sprits occur above clouds during a lightning storm and are only visible from space or an airplane. They basically looks like fireworks falling from the sky. Sprites are red most of the time and happen as high as 50 miles off the surface of the ground, while jets shoot directly out of the tops of storm clouds, sometimes traveling as far as 30 miles up into the Ionosphere.

Scientists think the phenomena has something to do with whatever is causing the lightning we see in every storm and that is basically all they know. The sprites seem to occur as a result of a lightning strike on the ground, but the jets seem to occur randomly.

6. Raining Animals

Throughout history random things has been documented raining from the sky including Frogs, Fish, Worms, and even blood. The prevailing theory is that waterspouts or tornadoes scoop random things up like a whole lot of fish and then transport them sometimes hundreds of miles in the sky then rain them down.

But this theory does not explain why often only a single species is in the rain. Like if a waterspout sucked things up from a lake, it should not just be raining fish, it should be raining fish, turtles, frogs, lake monsters.

7. Spontaneous Human Combustion

Spontaneous Human Combustion or SHC means just that, it refers to when a person bursts into flame for no apparent reason.

The first known accounts of spontaneous human combustion date all the way back to 1641. More recently, cases of SHC have been suspected when officials have found corpses burned to ashes but the furniture surrounding them were completely undamaged. For example, an Irish coroner ruled that spontaneous combustion caused the 2010 death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, whose badly burned body was discovered near a fireplace in a room with virtually no fire damage.

Many scientists dismiss the theory, because of course the human body is composed mostly of water and they argue that an undetected flame source such as a match or cigarette is the real culprit in suspected cases. Others claim that because it takes a temperature of around 570 degrees to burn a body to ashes, it’s impossible that the body would be the only thing that burns.

There are many theories of course that try to explain this phenomenon. Some say the victims are alcoholics and consumed so much alcohol that their blood became flammable, other say the combustion is caused by gamma rays. 

8.    Fairy circles:

Fairy circles are strange formations of grass-less earth surrounded by grass. Almost perfect circles and researchers have no idea what causes them. What’s also strange is that these circles start off small and grow large and the circles lie regularly spaced from one another forming the same pattern across the landscape.. They are commonly found in Namibia and parts of South Africa. Fairy circles vary 7 and 49 ft in diameter and since the 1970s, when researchers first started investigating the phenomenon, there has been no viable theory that was able to satisfy the scientific community.

There are some guesses that involve termites and patterns that arose naturally from competition between grasses. There is also the local belief that the fairy circles are footprints of the gods or made by a dragon that lives within the earth and I'm gonna go ahead and throw Colosseum arenas for little fairies into the discussion. 

9.     The Marfa Lights

The Marfa lights are mysterious glowing orbs that appear in the desert outside the West Texas town of Marfa.

The lights, which are roughly the size of basketballs and vary in color. reportedly hover, merge, split, twinkle, float or quickly dart around. There seems to be no way to predict when the lights will appear; they're seen in various weather conditions, but only a dozen or so nights a year.  and of course no one has been able to figure out what these lights are.

The first mention of the lights comes from 1883, when a cowhand Robert Reed Ellison claimed to have seen flickering lights one evening while driving a herd of cattle near Mitchell Flat. During World War II, pilots from nearby Midland Army Air Field tried to locate the source of the mysterious lights, but were unable to discover anything.

Possible causes of the lights has been attributed to cars, optical illusions, ghosts and of course aliens.

The Mystery of the Piri Reis Map

Several existing theories about unknown ancient civilizations are often largely based on  speculation and not on physical evidence, which is why many of them are greatly discredited by conventional academics and In order to shake the basis of our knowledge of history, most would require hard evidence such as artifacts.

An example of such an artifact is the Piri Reis map. This special, historical map is only one of several anomalous maps drawn during and prior to the 16th century, and is argued by some people to represent better information about the shape of the planet’s continents than what should have been known at the time.

This claim led to even more extraordinary allegations that the geographical information provided by the Piri Reis map may have been obtained at a very distant time in the past and was based on information drawn by an advanced yet still-unknown ancient civilization.

Discovery of the Piri Reis Map

source: abebooks

The Piri Reis map was discovered on October 9, 1929 by a German theologian named Gustav Adolf Deissmann while he was cataloguing items in the Topkapi Palace Library in Istanbul. He happened upon a curious parchment and on its gazelle skin, he found a map that was drawn and signed by Turkish cartographer Hagji Ahmen Muhiddin Piri, who was also known as Piri Reis.

Aside from being a cartographer, Reis was also an experienced sailor and served as an admiral in the Turkish navy. The map bears the date of 919 in the Moslem calendar, which correspond to 1513 CE in the Western calendar. In constructing the map, Reis claimed to have used as many as 20 source maps and charts, including 8 Ptolemaic (TOLO MAY IC)maps, 4 Portuguese maps, an Arabic map, and a map supposedly constructed by Christopher Columbus.

Aside from its significant historical value, the Piri Reis map has been alleged to contain details no European could have known in the 16th century, and therefore is believed by some to be a tangible evidence which proves the existence of ancient technological civilizations, extraterrestrial visits, or even both.

Controversy Surrounding the Piri Reis Map

source: wikipedia

The Piri Reis map has been the subject of much controversy in academic as well as non-academic circles, sparking a long and intense debate regarding the attribution of its source materials, and the significance of the map’s extraordinary detail of the coastal outlines.

The great debate was sparked by Dr. Charles Hapgood when he published his theory on the Piri Reis map in his 1966 book “Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings.”  Dr. Hapgood was a Harvard-educated historian whose theories about geological shifts earned the admiration of the likes of Albert Einstein.

Dr. Hapgood along with a team of students at the University of New Hampshire studied the Piri Reis map and claims to have found many anomalies, one of which is the alleged representation of the continent Antarctica on the map. The inclusion of the continent’s Queen Maud Land area on this map is particularly interesting because Antarctica was supposedly first discovered in the 19th century, hundreds of years after the construction of the Piri Reis map.

The controversy surrounding the Piri Reis map is not just about how the 16th century Turkish cartographer managed to draw an accurate map of the Antarctic region 300 years prior to its supposed discovery, but also on how the map shows the land mass and coastline of the Antarctic region before it was covered in ice, over 6000 years ago.

In 1961, Captain Lorenzo W. Burroughs, a U.S. Air Force captain working in the cartographic section, wrote a letter to Dr. Hapgood and stated that the “Antarctica” depicted on the Piri Reis map seems to accurately depict the coastline of Antarctica as it is under the ice. The captain based his evaluation on the seismic profile of the Queen Maud Land area made by the Norweigan-British-Swedish Expedition of 1949.

Because of this alleged anomaly, Hapgood proposed that the Piri Reis map was actually based on source materials that pre-date 4000 BCE, thousands of years before the earliest known progressive civilizations with developed languages are known to have existed.

With Hapgood’s extraordinary theory, one glaring and compelling question is raised: “Which unknown civilization had the technology and the need to map the Antarctic region 6000 years ago?”

Hapgood’s theory implies that a prehistoric civilization possessed the technology to navigate major seaways and chart the globe with some level of accuracy. He also suggested that the topographic depiction of the interior of the continents required aerial capabilities. This implies that a prehistoric “super” civilization with aerial and nautical capabilities was the origin of the Piri Reis map’s geographic information on the pre-ice Antarctica.

In his book titled “Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings,” Dr. Hapgood said this about the possibility of ancient voyagers exploring the Antarctic:

“It becomes clear that the ancient voyagers travelled from pole to pole. Unbelievable as it may appear, the evidence nevertheless indicates that some ancient people explored Antarctic when its coasts were free of ice. It is clear too, that they had an instrument of navigation for accurately determining the longitudes that was far superior to anything possessed by the peoples of ancient, medieval or modern times until the second half of the 18th century.”

In short, for Hapgood and his supporters, the Piri Reis map could indicate advanced knowledge passed down from a prehistoric sea-faring civilization which could either Atlantean or alien.

Standpoint of Mainstream Science

source: wikimedia commons

While mainstream scientists are equally intrigued by the mysteries of the Piri Reis map, many of them have vehemently refuted Hapgood’s implication that the map’s accuracy is the handiwork of mythical Atlanteans or out-of-this-world aliens.

To the skeptics, for a map that was constructed in 1513, the Piri Reis map shows an astonishing amount of detail. While it is clearly an impressive map for its time, it is not without flaws. More than anything, the map is a top-notch example of naval intelligence gathering and cartography, containing very specific details which were possibly derived from tightly-guarded secrets of enemy maps.

Some of the critics’ of Hapgood’s theory claim that the Piri Reis map is a representation of the South American coastline based on the modern physical features of the coast and the interior featured on the 16th century map.

On the other hand, Gregory C. McIntosh - another leading expert on the Piri Reis map - claimed that the southern continent depicted in the map is one produced by imagination. According to him, the idea of a southern continent had already been discussed as early as the time of the ancient Greeks, and many old maps have since shown a southern continent in various forms. Hence, it should not be so surprising that a southern continent also appears on the Piri Reis map.

Is the southern landmass depicted in the Piri Reis Map by a 16th century cartographer only a misguided depiction of South America? Or is it just an imagined representation of a mythical southern continent? Or, is it possible that this map is an astoundingly ancient depiction of Antarctica’s coast, hinting at the existence of an advanced sea-faring civilization several millennia ago?

In the end, we may never really know the truth for certain. After all, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. But if we’re lucky, only time and perhaps several extensive research efforts on the subject matter would be able to tell. And should that time come, all evidences that have been brought forward in the past and shall be discovered in the future should all be re-examined with an open mind.

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Sources:

http://www.ancient-origins.net/antarctica-ancient-technology/piri-reis-map-evidence-ancient-technology-00276
http://old.world-mysteries.com/steven_dutch1.htm
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/piri-reis-map-at-topkapi-palace
https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=O1TJmqti-TsC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fil
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1165572-piri-reis-map-evidence-of-a-very-advanced-prehistoric-civilization/
http://sacred-texts.com/piri/index.htm
https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/PiriRies.HTM

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Enochian: The Mysterious Lost Language of Angels

source: spencer alley

Some people believe in a higher power that controls all things and all beings existing in the universe, and in celestial and supernatural creatures – like angels and demons - possessing abilities beyond our capacities and understanding. And among them, there are those who have attempted or are continuing to attempt to make contact and interact with whatever or whoever lies on “the other side.” In fact, during the 16th century, it was believed that if one could speak with angels, one gains the ability to directly interact with them. Hence, it is not surprising that the concept of an Angelic language was quite common during this time.

One such language that was introduced during the 16th century was the mysterious Enochian language, which was allegedly discovered by occultists John Dee and Edward Kelley.

John Dee’s Background

source: wikimedia commons

John Dee – who lived from 1527 until 1609, was an occultist, mathematician, astronomer and astrologer who lived in Mort Lake, West London. Dee was an extremely well-educated and respected intellectual during his time. He graduated from the elite St. John’s College in Cambridge, and was renowned for his intelligence and wit. Eventually, he was accepted into influential circles of the ruling elite and served as scientific advisor and confidant to Queen Elizabeth I. He is also associated with coining the phrase “British Empire.”

During the early part of his life, Dee had little interest in the supernatural. However, he eventually got bored with science, and turned his attention to the occult and magic. Dee wanted to discover lost spiritual knowledge and recover the wisdom he believed was hidden in books of antiquity. Among these books was the then-fabled “Book of Enoch,” which he thought contained description of the magic system used by the Patriarch Enoch in the Bible.

In 1581, Dee began performing a long series of magical research. Earlier that year, at the age of 54, he had written in his journal that God had sent “good angels” to communicate directly with human beings. And so, he had set himself up to make contact with these angels. Dee’s only problem was that he was not a medium, and so he had no ability to “see” the other side. Therefore, he set out to find a gifted medium that would help him in his attempts to make contact with these supernatural beings.

Dee and Kelley’s Alleged Spiritual Contact With Angels

source: s. haines 2010

It was in 1582 that he met Edward Kelley, a little-known son of an apothecary who claimed to be a gifted medium and was very passionate about the occult. And so, the two created a partnership and began conducting sessions together to establish contact with the angels. Almost immediately, they claim to have established spiritual contact, and in their hundreds of sessions from 1582 until 1587, they allegedly communicated regularly with these angels.

During these spiritual sessions, Dee would act as the orator and supplicant. He would direct prayers to God and his Archangels and then, he would invoke them to manifest themselves in a scrying stone – which is a black obsidian mirror. Kelley, on the other hand, would act as the scryer. His job was to see the visions projected in the obsidian mirror and describe them to Dee so he could write them down.

For several years, the two managed to record several supernatural visions, incantations and even prophesies.

Discovery of Mysterious Ancient Language of Angels

source: encyclopedia satanica

In the year 1582 or 1583, John Dee and Edward Kelley claimed to have received communication from angels, who allegedly provided them with the foundations of a language which they can use to communicate with “the other side.” This mysterious “angelic” language had its own alphabet, grammar and syntax, which they recorded in their journals. The new language was called “Enochian,” which springs from John Dee’s assertion that the Biblical Patriarch Enoch was the last human to know the language. But Dee preferred to call it “Angelical,” the “Celestial Speech,” the “First Language of God-Christ,” and particularly “Adamical,” because he claimed it was the language spoken by Adam in the Garden of Eden in naming all of God’s creatures.

According to Dee and Kelley, these angelic beings they communicated with told them that being able to speak the language would unlock the doors to unlimited knowledge, wisdom and power. The language is believed to be helpful in executing the 19 Enochian Calls – a series of incantations which could supposedly summon powerful celestial beings.

The Enochian Language & Its Alphabet

source: wikiwand

Enochian is a language composed of a 21-letter alphabet. The Enochian script is written from right to left, and may also include diacritical marks. The alphabet is used in the practice of Enochian Magic on Angelical or Enochian Keys

There are two different versions of the Enochian Alphabet, with one script slightly different from the other. The first version is contained in Dee’s manuscript, the first five “Books of the Mysteries.” The second version – which is the more widely accepted version – is from “Liber Loagaeth” and is said to be based on Kelley’s original drawings.

The “Liber Loagaeth” contained the initial messages received by Kelley during his visions and contact with the angels. The book consists of 49 great letter tables or squares made of 49 by 49 letters, and is said to be the first corpus of texts in the purported Angelic language. However, Dee and Kelley said the angels never translated the texts in this book.

The other set of Enochian texts was received through Kelley around a year later. This time, the texts came with English translations, and has, therefore, provided the basis for the Enochian vocabulary. The texts contain 48 poetic verses, which Dee called in his manuscripts as “Claves Angelicae” or “Angelic Keys.” Each Key are assigned a specific function within the magical system. And Dee was apparently planning to use them to "open the 49 Gates of Wisdom or Understanding" represented by the 49 magic squares in ‘Liber Loagaeth.’”

Although these texts contained most of the vocabulary of the Enochian language, dozens of other words are found hidden in Dee’s journals, while thousands of undefined words are found in the “Liber Loagaeth.”

Skepticism Over the Enochian Language

Because of the loss of parts of John Dee’s original manuscripts, various interpretations have arisen regarding the meaning, validity and authenticity of the Enochian language. However, ever since its initial publication, the language has also been met with suspicions, skepticism and even hostility.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Enochian was widely considered to be the language of demons. This belief arose from the anti-Christian doctrines that the angels have supposedly told Dee and Kelley. For example, the angels that spoke with the two occultists denied the Godship of Jesus by telling them that nobody should pray to or through Jesus. They also discredited the existence of the Holy Ghost. Such claims shook the foundations of Christianity, which caused some people to conclude that the “good angels” that Dee and Kelley contacted are actually demons. And therefore, Enochian was not the language of angels but was a demonic one.

People that followed the Christian faith were not the only ones who questioned the authenticity of Enochian. Linguists and scholars had a two-fold basis for their skepticism over the language. First was Edward Kelley’s questionable character. Since he had previously been jailed for forgery, it was not impossible that the supposed Angelic language they discovered was just another one of his fabrications. The second was the fact that the so-called prophecies proclaimed by the angels they supposedly spoke with did not materialize. For example, the angels prophesized that Dee would be tried for treason. But in real life, that never actually happened.

Linguistic Evaluations

source: sixwingedangel, deviantart

Enochian has also been extensively analyzed by modern linguists, both enthusiasts and skeptics alike. However, until now, the results from any linguistics analysis have yet to be 100% conclusive. The conclusions drawn from their evaluations typically depend on whether the analyst is a believer or a skeptic.

Some magicians have asserted that Enochian is the oldest language in the world that predates all other human languages. In some circles, the language is also considered among the most powerful strains of magic, and is also a method of contacting beings from other dimensions.

Detractors and skeptics, on the other hand, have pointed out that the syntax of Enochian bears a strong similarity to the English language – which is Dee and Kelley’s natural language. For example, the word “lucifitias,” an Enochian term that translates to “brightness,” bears a connection to Lucifer, whose name translates to “Light Bringer.” Another example is “londoh,” the Enochian word for “kingdom,” which may have just been a representation of Dee’s connection with his royal patron, the Queen of England.

Computer analysis have reportedly shown Enochian to share a grammatical relationship to English. Aside from this, the texts found in the “Liber Loagaeth,” are found to have demonstrated phonetic features that do not appear in natural language. In fact, the Enochian language’s phonetic features are more closely related with “glossolalia,” or speaking in tongues.

Although the authenticity of Enochian as the language of angels remains heavily disputed until now, its current impact in our religious and spiritual communities cannot be denied. Even in modern times where science and technology is accepted by many to be the real key that will unlock the secrets of the universe, there are still many believers of the Enochian language’s supernatural association and magical power. In fact, many modern occultists have created a functional system of magic using the Enochian language, and to some of them, they consider it an extremely powerful magical language that should only be used by experienced occultists.

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Sources:

http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-writings/enochian-mysterious-lost-language-angels-003100?nopaging=1
http://www.crystalannecompton.com/registers/everything-psychic-membership/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian
http://ensemble.va.com.au/tableau/suzy/TT_ResearchProjects/Hexen2039/JohnDee/JohnDee.html
http://www.kondor.de/enoch/sprache_e.html
http://usminc.org/enochian.html