'Twilight: Breaking Dawn' Causing Seizures In US Cinemas

Picture is copyright to Summit Entertainment

By Alex Winehouse

Of all the criticisms 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn' has had thrown at it, surely nothing has been as bizarre as the latest storm - being blamed for causing a number of epileptic seizures in its male audience.

Brandon Gephart, from Roseville, California, was rushed to hospital having been taken ill during the scene in which Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan gives birth to her half-vampire baby.

His girlfriend Kelly Bauman told CBS Sacramento: "He was convulsing, snorting, trying to breathe. He scared me big time."

Also in the US, an unnamed man from Salt Lake City, Utah, suffered a similar fit whilst watching the film, telling ABC4: "I didn't really remember what happened after that. I think I blacked out. According to [my wife] I was shaking and mumbling different noises."

His wife added: "I was kneeling in front of him and slapping his face," with the man unwilling to reveal his identity for fear that he would lose his job if his bosses found out.

Doctor Michael G Chez told CBS: "It's like a light going off because it hits your brain all at once. The trouble with theatres is that they're so dark, the light flashing in there is more like a strobe light."

Gephart was at pains to point out that he only attended the movie to please his girlfriend, and has no plans to return to the cinema to see how it ends.

[Click here to read full article]

China job ads discriminate against Scorpio and Virgo

Chinese managers have placed job advertisements that tell people born under certain zodiac signs not to apply.

A Chinese firm has decided Scorpios and Virgos are too moody and critical, telling job seekers with those star signs they need not apply. Capricorns, Pisces and Libras, on the other hand, are welcome.

The unusual requirements are part of a job ad posted at a university in the central city of Wuhuan by an English language training company, and have generated a storm of online controversy since they were uncovered this week.

"We don't want Scorpios or Virgos, and Capricorns, Pisces and Libras will be prioritised," the job spec reads, according to the Chutian Metropolis Daily, a local newspaper in Wuhan.

The report quoted a woman in charge at the unnamed firm as saying she had done research and found Scorpios had strong personalities and were moody, while Virgos were hugely critical and did not stay in one job for long.

[Click here to read full article]

Hong Kong's hot market in haunted houses

By Peter Shadbolt for CNN

For sale: Hong Kong apartment with sweeping sea views and three rooms, all signs of a recent grisly murder in the bathroom eliminated, will take offers between 15-20% below market value.

In Hong Kong, where superstitions can make or break a property deal, a real estate advertisement like this is not beyond the realms of the fantastic.

With the local property market showing signs of cooling, almost every angle is worked to increase yields, and a trade in so-called haunted houses is now a visible feature of the market.

"There are a group of people that go around and bid on them," explains Eric Wong, a realtor with Hong Kong's Squarefoot.com.hk. "Chinese people, especially in Hong Kong, don't like houses where something unfortunate has happened.

"This means they can sell for less, which makes the rental yields greater. The normal yields are between 3-4%, but an apartment where there's been a murder can get a yield of about 7%," he said.

The apartment is then rented to someone who does not share the same set of beliefs -- normally a foreigner -- although some realtors say there are Chinese clients who don't care and one even identifies doctors and nurses 'who are used to working around the dead' as potential tenants.

"It often depends on the circumstances of the death and what stories and rumors are attached to it," says Wong. Particularly gruesome murders or harrowing deaths can affect the market price of the whole floor of apartments; in some cases, the entire building.

"There was a bad murder in an apartment block in Quarry Bay in Hong Kong," he says. "A wife killed her husband, cut the body into pieces and placed the parts in dustbins on every floor. Even 15 years later, apartments in that block are still difficult to sell."

[Click here to read full article]

Proof that Leonardo da Vinci faked the Turin Shroud?

Does The Saviour of the World prove that Leonardo da Vinci faked the Turin Shroud?

British researchers reveal the art history sensation that may end decades of controversy.

Most liveable alien worlds ranked

Scientists have outlined which moons and planets are most likely to harbour extra-terrestrial life.

Among the most habitable alien worlds were Saturn's moon Titan and the exoplanet Gliese 581g - thought to reside some 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.



The international team devised two rating systems to assess the probability of hosting alien life.

They have published their results in the journal Astrobiology.

In their paper, the authors propose two different indices: an Earth Similarity Index (ESI) and a Planetary Habitability Index (PHI).

EARTH SIMILARITY INDEX

1) Earth - 1.00
2) Gliese 581g - 0.89
3) Gliese 581d - 0.74
4) Gliese 581c - 0.70
5) Mars - 0.70
6) Mercury - 0.60
7) HD 69830 d - 0.60
8) 55 Cnc c - 0.56
9) Moon - 0.56
10) Gliese 581e - 0.53

"The first question is whether Earth-like conditions can be found on other worlds, since we know empirically that those conditions could harbour life," said co-author Dr Dirk Schulze-Makuch from Washington State University, US.

"The second question is whether conditions exist on exoplanets that suggest the possibility of other forms of life, whether known to us or not."

As the name suggests, the ESI rates planets and moons on how Earth-like they are, taking into account such factors as size, density and distance from the parent star.

The PHI looks at a different set of factors, such as whether the world has a rocky or frozen surface, whether it has an atmosphere or a magnetic field.

It also considers the energy available to any organisms, either through light from a parent star or via a process called tidal flexing, in which gravitational interactions with another object can heat a planet or moon internally.

[Click here to read full article]

2 Angels are taking away the soul of the dead child

This amazing video were sent by pastor Igor Shvedov.

Amateur video has unexpectedly photographed angels. On the screen, visiting angels of one of the apartments of an apartment house is visible. Afterwards, we found out it appeared at the time in the house a child has died. Angels are behind the soul of the child.

Video is taken in the city of Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan).

Is this an alien skull? Mystery of giant-headed mummy

By Paul Milligan


Image is copyright to Cesar Zapata

A mummified elongated skull found in Peru could finally prove the existence of aliens.

The strangely shaped head - almost as big as its 50cm (20in) body - has baffled anthropologists.

It was one of two sets of remains found in the city of Andahuaylillas in the southern province of Quispicanchi.

The skeletal sets were discovered by Renato Davila Riquelme, who works for the Privado Ritos Andinos museum in Cusco in south-eastern Peru.

He said that that the eye cavities are far larger than normally seen in humans.

There is a soft spot in the skull - called an open fontanelle - which is a characteristic of children in their first year of life, yet the skull also has two large molars, only found in much older humans.

Davila Riquelme said three anthropologists, from Spain and Russia, arrived at the museum last week to investigate the findings and agreed it was ‘not a human being’ and would conduct further studies.

He added: ‘Although the assessment was superficial, it is obvious that its features do not correspond to any ethnic group in the world.’

The remains of an eyeball in the right socket will help determine its genetic DNA - and clear up the controversy if it is human or not.

The second mummy is incomplete and is only 30cm (12in).

It lacks a face and seems to be wrapped in a layer as a placenta, fetal position.

The remains bear a striking resemblance to the triangular crystal skull in the 2008 Indiana Jones film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - which turned out to be of alien origin and have supernatural powers.

[Click here to read full article]

Doctors pull 28 nails from girl's body

Doctors in eastern Indonesia have removed the last of 28 nails found embedded in a three-year-old girl's legs and back in a horrific case some residents and officials blamed on witchcraft.

The doctors in Makassar on Sulawesi island had already removed more than two dozen 10-centimetre rusty nails, broken syringe needles and aluminium rods from the girl's legs before removing a nail lodged dangerously close to her spine.

"The girl is recovering from the operation and is generally in good condition. She is already playing again," the girl's surgeon Kamaruddin said.

X-rays in September revealed the foreign objects in the girl's legs and back, prompting suspicions among local residents that they had been inserted magically.

[Click here to read full article]

UFO sigthings - (near ABS-CBN) Philippines, Nov 22, 2011

Mount Doom: Don't say we didn't warn you

by Sarah Simpson

One of today’s most dangerous volcanoes is one you’ve probably never heard about. The North Koreans call it Paektu; the Chinese call it Changbai. In a headline Friday, Science called it Mount Doom.

The picturesque, lake-topped peak, which straddles the border between North Korea and China, “explodes to life every 100 years or so, the last time in 1903,” reports Science’s Richard Stone, who visited Mount Doom in September with two volcanologists from the U.K.

The volcano’s most dramatic eruption rivaled the famous 1815 Tambora eruption in Indonesia, Stone writes, and it could unleash more of the same:

“Around 1000 years ago, the volcano rained tephra—pumice and ash—across 33,000 square kilometers of northeast China and Korea, dumping 5 centimeters of ash as far away as Japan…. Because Changbai's silica-rich magma is viscous and gassy, allowing pressure to build, the next eruption should be explosive.”

If a similar eruption occurred today, 100,000 people would be vulnerable to avalanches of superheated gas, rock and ash called pyroclastic flows. Even a much smaller eruption could catastrophically drain the deep lake that now sits atop the mountain. Mixed with rocks, mud and vegetation, all that water would become a soupy stew called a lahar, which would hurtle down the lake’s single outlet, a narrow valley on the Chinese side where 60,000 people reside.

University of Oregon supervolcano expert Ilya Bindeman has had his eye on Changbai-Paektu for some time. “It’s not quite a supervolcano, but close,” he told Discovery News. Like Tambora, Changbai-Paektu is a 7 on the scale of known eruptions; a true supervolcano is an 8. Bindeman says only five regions have experienced supereruptions in the past two million years: Yellowstone and Long Valley in the western U.S., Toba in Sumatra, Taupo in New Zealand and Kamchatka in Russia, which Bindeman and his colleagues only recently discovered.

[Click here to read full article]

10 Cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion

Some people say that spontaneous human combustion is just a regular fire that people can't be bothered to find the cause for, that could have been avoided through basic fire safety. Others say that it's just a peculiar shift of our internal chemistry, that can happen to anyone at any time.

Take a look at ten actual cases of spontaneous human combustion, and decide for yourself.

1. The Latest Case

The latest case made headlines in September of this year as the first Irish case of spontaneous human combustion. People found the burned body of an elderly man lying with his head near the furnace of his apartment. Coroners determined, though, that the furnace was not the source of the conflagration, nor was there any accelerant on the body, nor was there any evidence of foul play. This case was typical of spontaneous human combustion in that there were burn marks on the floor and ceiling directly below and above the body, but no other burn marks anywhere in the room.

2. The First Case

The first mention of spontaneous human combustion in the history books is Polonus Vorstius. Polonus was just a regular Italian knight in the late 1400s who liked wine, women, and song. He consumed 'two ladles' of very strong wine one night, and it disagreed with him. People say that he immediately vomited flame, and then burst into flames entirely. No one else seemed to have any problem with the wine, and people were baffled as to how this happened. They're still baffled now.

3. The Gruesome Details

Spontaneous human combustion has claimed the life at least one member of the nobility; Countess Cornelia Di Bandi. The Countess, who lived in the 1700s, was found half way between her bed and her window one morning, with everything except her lower legs and three fingers burned. She had apparently calmly risen from her bed to open the window in the middle of the night, but combusted before she could reach the window. In the room, two candles had been burned - or at least the tallow had been burned. The wicks were left, completely unburned. Soot covered the room, including some bread on a plate that she had left on a table. Just as a indication of how strange the 1700s were; the bread was taken from the plate and offered to a dog. The dog refused to eat it, making it the most sensible player in that incident.

4. Two Disappearances

Ginette Kazmierczak lived with her husband and son in France in the 1970s. When her husband disappeared mysteriously, Ginette contacted the authorities to try to find them. They couldn't find anything. A few days later, while her son was out with some friends, a neighbor found Ginette's body, except for her legs, reduced to ash in an otherwise undisturbed apartment.

5. The Fire Inside

In 1967, a passenger on a bus in England noticed blue flames in the window of an apartment building hallway. She thought it was a gas jet and called the fire brigade. When they got to the place, they supposedly found the body of Robert Francis Bailey, a homeless man. A fireman reported seeing a slit in the man's abdomen from which blue flames were issuing.

6. When spontaneous combustion won a court case

Nicole Millet, the wife of a Parisian innkeeper in 1725, was found after her husband roused the entire inn when he smelled smoke. What was left of her was in the kitchen, almost completely reduced to ash, with the wooden utensils around her unburned. Other accounts have her burned on her straw pallet, with the straw only a little damaged. That looked suspicious, and so her husband was tried and found guilty of murder. On appeal, though, he used the 'spontaneous human combustion' defense, and was exonerated. Nicole's death was found to be due to 'a visitation of God.'

7. A flaming, shrinking skull takes America by storm

In St. Petersburg, Florida, a landlady was making the rounds in her apartment building when she noticed one doorknob was incredibly hot. The tenant, Mary Reeser, did not respond to her calls, and so she called for people to open the door. Inside, she found Reeser's remains, in the middle of a six-foot scorched area of carpet. A chair and an end table in the middle of the scorch mark were upright, indicating that there was no activity. Nearby on the floor, a pile of newspapers were untouched by the flames. The body, on the other hand, was reduced to ash except for a skull and a completely undamaged foot. Some reports, which just may be exaggerated, say that the skull was shrunk down to the size of a teacup.

8. When spontaneous combustion lost a court case

Jack Angel, who had been hospitalized with severe burns, brought a court case against the manufacturer of his hot water heater for three million dollars. He said that he went to check the malfunctioning heater and it blew and scalded him. However, a doctor noted that his body had burned from the inside out, not the outside in. Shortly afterward, he changed his story and said he fell asleep only to wake up with terrible burns all over his body, and sold his story as a survivor of spontaneous human combustion. Was he one of the only people to survive spontaneously combusting?

9. The Twilight Zone could be in an episode of The Twilight Zone

A gentleman in Crown Point, New York actually seemed to spontaneously combust when he was watching an episode of The Twilight Zone television show. There is no report on which episode of The Twilight Zone it was.

10. The witnessed case

There is only one case of human combustion for which there is a witness. A mentally disabled woman lived with her father, who cared for her. One day he saw a flash out of the corner of his eye, and turned to find her on fire. Despite the flames, she continued to quietly sit in a chair, not reacting and not giving any indication she was in pain. The man's attempts to put the fire out left him with burned hands. The woman lived through the combustion, but slipped into a coma and died shortly afterwards. This indicates one of the strangest parts of human combustion. It takes a very hot flame to reduce a human body to ash. Crematoriums have special chambers designed for it. However, in almost all combustions, there's no burns in the room around the body, indicating that the person simply stayed in one place. Whatever the cause of this combustion, it seems to knock people out first.


[Click here to read full article]

Is the Hope Diamond Really Cursed?

Legend has it that the infamous Hope diamond brings misfortune to whoever owns it. Well, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History added the magnificent sky-blue gemstone to its collection 53 years ago today (Nov.10), and the institution has fared just fine so far.

As the museum states on its website, it "appears to have maintained the Hope curse-free."

So what's the evidence that the Hope diamond is cursed?

There are plenty of stories of the stone's owners meeting horrible fates, but scholars tend to believe that many of these tales were cooked up or embellished on, at one time or another, by the gem's various owners, in hopes that an incredible history would fetch the diamond a better price in a sale. The diamond has changed hands many times, and for a few periods in its life, the name of the owner is lost to history.

Here, we'll focus on the people who owned the rock for the most significant chunks of time, and whose fates historians can confirm.

The most commonly accepted origin of the curse dates back to 1653, when a French merchant named Jean Baptiste Tavernier obtained the original 115-carat blue diamond in India. The story goes that Tavernier plucked the gem from one of the eyes of a Hindu idol and, for this sacrilege, was later mauled to death by dogs. In fact, the story is a myth: Tavernier returned to France and sold the gem to King Louis XIV for a pretty penny, after which he retired to Russia and died peacefully there. Scholars even question how Tavernier came upon the gem, as a second diamond never turned up, and no one else ever found the statue in question.

[Click here to read full article]

A list of Japanese Ghosts, Monsters, Demons

Possible UFO spotted in Singapore

by Joan Seth

One of our readers, who has chosen to go by the anonymous name of SpidermanX, has sent us an photograph, which he claimed to be an UFO.

At first glance, it seems to be an UFO in the air. This photograph was said to be taken from SpidermanX's office.

It does seem to be from a office building in the city area of Singapore. We have circled the object in red for our readers to identify it easier.



Our team members are undecided upon the authenticity of this photograph. Our IT specialist uses photoshop to manipulate the photograph.

First, he adjusts the contrast. Thus, it seems that this UFO is part of the background of the sky in the photograph, not edited into it.



Next, he sharpens the colors and image. This is the result. The UFO seems to be in a grayish color.



Lastly. he zooms in and enlarges the photograph. This is the enlargement of the UFO.



Does it look authentic to you?

Firstly, although it does seem to be a real object, it can easily be a aircraft. This is a common mistaken identity in spotting UFOs.

Secondly, it could also be a meteor logical effect, either a cloud, shooting star or meteor. Although these are quite uncommon in Singapore, it is still a possibility.

Thirdly, we can conclude that the photograph is real, but no matter what, photoshop editing is still very possible. Furthermore the reader did not divulge his name nor any more details of this photograph he took, thus leading us to believe it could be a faked.

Finally, Team Asia Paranormal decides that this photograph is inconclusive.

Dear Readers, please form your own conclusions. We hope to hear from you.

What’s the Fascination With Ghosts?

by Deborah Hughes

There’s a lot of controversy about spirit communication and ghost hunting. Some say it’s evil to engage in such activities. Others say it’s all a load of crap. Lots of people fear it while many others embrace it. As for me, I feared it AT FIRST. And I still do at times. After all, there are bad spirits just as much as there are good ones. The ghosts we lived with for seven years fell into both categories (see Tales of a Haunted Farmhouse). We had good spirits there, meaning they did us no harm and never meant to frighten us. But there was a bad spirit there as well. I know this because of the negative feelings it always generated when it was around. And it bothered our poor little dog Tippy quite often (see Paranormal Activity and Ouija Boards). When the bad one was around, Tippy would growl and snarl and charge at it. Or, he’d run yelping with his tale between his legs. When the good spirits were around, Tippy would watch it carefully and with great interest. Sometimes he’d bark at it but only in a way dogs bark at strangers they don’t know. How often I wished I could see what he saw. But, I am also grateful I could not. I think the bad one would have frightened me beyond reason.

The world is full of ghost stories and tales and superstitions. Since the beginning of recorded time, there is evidence of spiritual belief. Are the millions of us who believe all wrong on this issue? What makes the non-believers right? Are ghosts just a figment of over-active imaginations? No. I think not. And if you disagree, well, that’s your prerogative. However it doesn’t change the facts. And the fact is, unexplained things do occur on a regular basis. We are spiritual beings in physical bodies and when we operate outside the confines of the physical…our feelings, extra-sensory perceptions, intuition etc…we KNOW there is more around us than what we physically see. As to that…sometimes we physically see things that are “not real”. So how’s that? Paranormal activity and supernatural occurrences are pretty darned fascinating and worth studying. Really.
[Click here to read full article]

The King of the East from the Bible

Source: THE PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RISE OF CHINA AS A WORLD POWER
by Dr. Tim La Haye

(The Battle of Armageddon has been thought and interpreted by some that will be more or less of a World War 3 led by China. Hence with the Rise of China, this Dragon, it had some fears struck in certain group of christ believers and people in the western nations.)

"Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the East might be prepared." (Rev 16:12)

These "kings from the east" have befuddled Bible prophecy scholars for many years, for few mentioned anything about them. That is, until the communist take-over of China during World War II. Since then it has become apparent that this la
rgest of all countries in the world has a prophetic role, however minor it may be, in end time events.

We can readily understand that,for China has been content to stay within its vast borders for thousands of years and live pretty much to itself. Their communist dictators have changed all that for they seem to have the same obsession that characterized communists before them - world conquest.

One hundred eighty years ago Napoleon Bonapart said, "When China awakens, the world will tremble." You don't have to be a prophet to recognize that time of trembling has already come to Asia and within one decade will probably come to the whole world

Very little is said about China in the Bible. In fact, what is said includes more than just China, for the term "kings of the east" really means "kings of the rising sun" which would include Japan and possibly other Asian countries. As Dr. John Walvoord, considered the dean of prophecy scholars living today, writes of this expression;

There has been some tendency to take the expression "the kings of the east" literally, "the kings of the sunrise'-as referring specifically to Japan where the rising sun is a symbol of its political power. However, it is more natural to consider the term, "rising sun" as a synonym for east…2

Some Bible teachers suggest that "the Smite" referred to in Genesis 10:17 and again in the prophecy of Isaiah 49:12 is where the "land of Sinim" is located. These "Sinites" along with other peoples evidently settled in the east in what we know today as China, after God scattered them from the Tower of Babel, and became isolated from the rest of the world.

There is little doubt that those earliest settlers carried with them after the great flood the stories of creation and the one true God. One of the things early missionaries to China pointedout is the truth of God in the Chinese pictographic language. My brother-in-law was a missionary to Taiwan for over twenty years and shared with me that the Chinese name for God is "Shang Ti," which is made up of two pictographic symbols, "above" (or heavenly) and "emperor."

The Chinese name for God is Heavenly Emperor. In a country that worships many gods it is interesting that the earliest of Chinese characters (going back as some suggest, 4,500 years ago) means they recognized one that is above all emperors, or gods, as the "Heavenly Emperor."


In the May 21st 1965 issue of TIME Magazine the author of an article on China threw a hand grenade into the laps of prophecy preachers by stating that The Chinese had the potential of yielding an army of "200 million troops."

That specific number, coincidentally identical to the one found in Revelation 9:16, predicting that during the Tribulation period at the blowing of the sixth Trumpet judgment, 200 million horsemen would be unleashed and would go out to slay "one third of men."

This similarity in number of troops triggered an outbreak of speculation that found many suggesting that the two hundred million would come with the kings of the east to do battle with Christ at the consummation of the end of this age known as The Battle of Armageddon.

While there is no question that the armies of the Orient, which come to that bathe, at the very end of the Tribulation, will be enormous, due to the incredible population of those countries. It definitely is not the 9:16 army.

[Click here to read full article]

The strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion

An intriguing article has just been published in the journal Perception about a never-before-described visual illusion where your own reflection in the mirror seems to become distorted and shifts identity.

To trigger the illusion you need to stare at your own reflection in a dimly lit room. The author, Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo, describes his set up which seems to reliably trigger the illusion: you need a room lit only by a dim lamp (he suggests a 25W bulb) that is placed behind the sitter, while the participant stares into a large mirror placed about 40 cm in front.

The participant just has to gaze at his or her reflected face within the mirror and usually “after less than a minute, the observer began to perceive the strange-face illusion”.

The set-up was tried out on 50 people, and the effects they describe are quite striking:

At the end of a 10 min session of mirror gazing, the participant was asked to write what he or she saw in the mirror. The descriptions differed greatly across individuals and included: (a) huge deformations of one’s own face (reported by 66% of the fifty participants); (b) a parent’s face with traits changed (18%), of whom 8% were still alive and 10% were deceased; (c) an unknown person (28%); (d) an archetypal face, such as that of an old woman, a child, or a portrait of an ancestor (28%); (e) an animal face such as that of a cat, pig, or lion (18%); (f ) fantastical and monstrous beings (48%).

Caputo suggests that the dramatic effects might be caused by a combination of basic visual distortions affecting the face-specific interpretation system.

The visual system starts to adapt after we receive the same information over time (this is why you can experience visual changes by staring at anything for a long time) but we also have a system that interprets faces very easily.

This is why we can ‘see’ faces in clouds, trees, or even from just two dots and a line. The brain is always ‘looking for faces’ and it is likely that we have a specialised face detection system to allow us to recognise individuals whose faces actually only differ a small amount in statistical terms from other people’s.

According to Caputo’s suggestion, the illusion might be caused by low level fluctuations in the stability of edges, shading and outlines affecting the perceived definition of the face, which gets over-interpreted as ‘someone else’ by the face recognition system.

More mysterious, however, were the participants’ emotional reactions to the changes:

The participants reported that apparition of new faces in the mirror caused sensations of otherness when the new face appeared to be that of another, unknown person or strange `other’ looking at him/her from within or beyond the mirror. All fifty participants experienced some form of this dissociative identity effect, at least for some apparition of strange faces and often reported strong emotional responses in these instances. For example, some observers felt that the `other’ watched them with an enigmatic expression – situation that they found astonishing. Some participants saw a malign expression on the ‘other’ face and became anxious. Other participants felt that the `other’ was smiling or cheerful, and experienced positive emotions in response. The apparition of deceased parents or of archetypal portraits produced feelings of silent query. Apparition of monstrous beings produced fear or disturbance. Dynamic deformations of new faces (like pulsations or shrinking, smiling or grinding) produced an overall sense of inquietude for things out of control.

If any Mind Hacks readers try the illusion out for themselves, I’d be fascinated to hear about your experiences in the comments.

[Click here to read full article]

Thai Ghost at a party video

This discussion took place on a popular Thai TV morning programme in which they play a clip of a karaoke party. Nothing strange about that as it happens everyday in Thailand, but what is weird about this clip is that the video reportedly captured a ghost.

As the party is in full swing the camera captures one guest that is sat towards the door and is circled in red on the video, a young man who appears to be just another guest enjoying the party until you find out more about him.

The presenter of the programme goes on to disclose that the young man had tragically died on the way to the party however his spirit was captured enjoying the event. None of the guests saw him at the party and were unaware of his fate but he appeared on the video when it was reviewed later.

The programme goes on to show pictures taken at the accident scene, the young man was struck whilst riding his motorcycle to the party by a pickup and died due to injuries.

This video is curious to say the least, if this is a picture of a real ghost then maybe the young man did not know he had died and continued on his journey to the party as planned.

CFZ Orang Pendek Hunt 2011

Cryptophasia: The secrets of twin speak

By Jon Lackman

When I was 6, my 2-year-old brother started speaking, but in a language of his own devising. I was eager to enlist him in games (my favorite: "Slave") and so quickly mastered his lexicon. My parents never managed to, despite their advanced degrees, and so our dinner table came to resemble a Camp David summit—two sides forced to use a translator to argue for their conflicting philosophies of life. "Eat peas!" "Throw peas!" "Feet on the floor!" "Feet in the tuna casserole!"

Siblings, and especially twins, have been inventing private languages since time immemorial, to little fanfare, but recently such ingenuity has captured the public's imagination. This spring, a YouTube video of jabbering twins went viral, and even made it into the New York Times' Well blog. The Washington Post recently celebrated a new play that revolves around a similar pair of girls and their "secret twin-speak." Scientists, meanwhile, have spent the last few decades quietly building up a body of research into what they call "cryptophasia" or "twin language," and they are of two minds about it. They find it fascinating, as a window onto the origins of human language, but they also worry that it hampers children's development.

Twins are especially likely to maintain an invented language because they spend so much time together and are on the same developmental schedule. They imitate and reinforce each other's early inventions, weakening each other's incentive to learn the mother tongue. They spend less time communicating with parents and other adults, on average, than do nontwins, because they always have a ready playmate and because their parents are especially busy. Twin parents must change more diapers, sleep less, earn more, and parry the brilliant questions forever tripping off other parents' tongues like, "Is it true that twins only have half a brain each?"

[Click here to read full article]

Eating People Isn’t Wrong (in Tibet)

A crisis of sorts tonight in the Beachcombing household. Mrs B is leaving the family home to go and organise an academic conference in the heart of darkness (aka Brussels). This means that Beach – a better husband than a father – and the Beachcombing’s au pair are being left on their own to look after little Miss B and tiny Miss B for three days. As Kurtz put it: ‘the darkness, the darkness’ ,which in blogging terms means that service may be spotty for the next 72 hours.

In these difficult times Beach thought that he would offer up a peculiar Tibetan version of cannibalism that he recently stumbled upon: regular readers will know that this blog has, after all, sometimes examined questions of homophagy.

Now one evening this same Choga Tsang [a drunk lama, a kind of Tibetan rasputin] unexpectedly called up one of his trapas. ‘Saddle two horses, we are going’, he ordered him. The monk remonstrated with the Lama saying that it was already late and that it would be better to wait the next morning. ‘Do not answer back’, said Choga Tsang laconically, ‘let us go’. They start, ride in the night and arrive at some spot near a river. There they alight from their horses and walk toward the river bank. Though the sky is completely dark a spot on the water is ‘lighted by sun rays’, and in that illuminated place a corpse is floating up-stream, moving against the current. After a while it comes within reach of the two men. ‘Take your knife, cut a piece of flesh and eat it,’ commands Choga Tsang to his companion. And he adds ‘I have a friend in India who sends me a meal every year at this date. Then he himself began to cut and to eat. The attendant is struck with terror, he endeavours to imitate his master but does not dare to put the morsel into his mouth and hides it in his ambag [breast pocket]. Both return to the monastery where they arrive at dawn. The lama says to the monk. ‘I wished you to share the favour and the most excellent fruits of this mystic meal, but you are not worthy of it. That is why you have not dared to eat the piece which you have cut off and hidden under your dress.’ Hearing these words the monk repents of his lack of courage and puts his hand into his ambag to ake his share of the corpse, but the piece of flesh is not longer there.’

This appears in an early twentieth century work on Tibet and almost as interesting as the flesh-eating is the Blavatsky-style blather about it. Never has eating human flesh been made to seem so civilised. Think Hannibal Lecter in tails and a top hat:

‘There exist, so they said, certain human beings who have attained such a high degree of spiritual perfection that the original material substance of their bodies has become transmuted into a more subtle one which possesses special qualities. Few people can discern the change which has come over these exceptional men. A morsel of their transformed flesh, when eaten, will produce a special kind of ecstasy and bestow knowledge and supernormal powers upon the person partaking of it.’

So there you are.

[Click here to read full article]

Why Fingernails on Blackboards Sound So Horrible

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK

Much time has been spent, over the past century, on working out exactly what it is about the sound of fingernails on a blackboard that’s so unpleasant. A new study pins the blame on psychology and the design of our ear canals.

Previous research on the subject suggested that the sound is acoustically similar to the warning call of a primate, but that theory was debunked after monkeys responded to amplitude-matched white noise and other high-pitched sounds, whereas humans did not. Another study, in 1986, manipulated a recording of blackboard scraping and found that the medium-pitched frequencies are the source of the adverse reaction, rather than the the higher pitches (as previously thought). The work won author Randolph Blake an Ig Nobel Prize in 2006.

The latest study, conducted by musicologists Michael Oehler of the Macromedia University for Media and Communication in Cologne, Germany, and Christoph Reuter of the University of Vienna, looked at other sounds that generate a similar reaction — including chalk on slate, styrofoam squeaks, a plate being scraped by a fork, and the ol’ fingernails on blackboard.

Some participants were told the genuine source of the sound, and others were told that the sounds were part of a contemporary music composition. Researchers asked the participants to rank which were the worst, and also monitored physical indicators of distress — heart rate, blood pressure and the electrical conductivity of skin.
[Click here to read full article]

Ghosts or Monsters?

by Nick Redfern

People often ask me: why aren’t we ever able to secure hard, physical evidence of the presence and existence of such beasts as Bigfoot, lake-monsters, the Yeti etc? Well, it’s a very good question! Some might argue that given such creatures may be so few in number, this explains their overwhelming elusiveness. Fair enough. But what about those reports where people have seen Bigfoot vanish in a flash of light, or a werewolf-style beast do likewise? Like it or not, such cases most assuredly do exist. So, this suggests another possibility: maybe some of these “things” are not flesh-and-blood animals, after all. Perhaps, incredibly, they are the ghosts of long-dead creatures from equally long-gone eras.

Yep, the scenario sounds manifestly strange in the extreme. And, of course, it’s very much dependent on the theory that ghosts (in some form) are a reality. But, I have a number of reports in my files that are eerily suggestive of just such a possibility. And, one in particular stands out as being highly relevant to this controversial theory.

Jill O’Brien contacted me in January 2009, and had a somewhat creepy tale to tell, too, of a creature she claimed to have encountered only days before in a particularly dense area of Seattle woodland. It was, she assured me, nothing less than a fully-grown Saber-Tooth Tiger. Yes, you did read it right. But, the kicker was that Jenny’s Saber-Tooth Tiger seemed far more spectral than physical.

Just like the Mammoth, the Saber-Tooth Tiger – a massive creature that weighed up to 900 pounds, and which roamed both North and South America as far back as 2.5 Million B.C. – is widely assumed to have become extinct around 10,000 years ago. In other words, no-one – anywhere on the surface of the planet – should be seeing such a beast, at all.

Of course, in the world of on-screen fantasy, this marauding and ferocious killing-machine is a regular player, and one for who extinction plays absolutely no role at all. For example, there was the movie, Sabretooth, that made its debut on the Sy-Fy Channel in November 2002, and in which a scientist uses fossilized DNA to bring the beast back to life. Unsurprisingly, it goes on a murderous spree, slaughtering pretty much all of the cast of the movie one by one.

[Click here to read full article]

Man found dead after complaining apartment is haunted

A 38-year-old salesman was found dead on the ground floor of a car park of a high-rise residential building in Georgetown, Malaysia. Since moving into the apartment, Khoo Kim Bee had been suffering from insomnia, began behaving “oddly,” and soon began contemplating suicide.
“We were disturbed by an unfriendly spirit,” his wife Xue Lin told The Star Online while at the Penang Hospital mortuary. “Last week, Khoo had allegedly wanted to hang himself and even threatened to stab me with a pair of scissors.”

Xue told The Star that her husband had an appointment to undergo an exorcism, under the advisement of a Siamese Buddhist Temple master monk who had inspected the apartment.

The night before the appointment, Xue claimed that her husband woke her up twice in the wee hours and whispered to her that he wanted to take his own life before he apologised to her. In a groggy state, Xue said she “pacified” her husband “and told him to go back to sleep.”

The morning of his appointment, he was found dead by a neighbor.

Malina Ayub, 45, who stays in a unit opposite the couple’s home, said she heard a loud thud and went to investigate. “I thought someone had thrown rubbish from the upper floors but I was shocked to see a man lying in a pool of blood at the car park,” she said.

Assistant Commissioner of the Georgetown PD, Gan Kong Meng, said initial investigations revealed that the deceased had no financial or personal woes. “We have classified the case as sudden death. Foul play is ruled out,” he said.

[Click here to read full article]

What are these mysterious lines in China's desert?

A strange tangle of white lines in the Chinese desert has people scratching their heads and wondering who made them—and why. According to a Gizmodo post “Why Is China Building These Gigantic Structures In the Middle of the Desert?”

New photos have appeared in Google Maps showing unidentified titanic structures in the middle of the Chinese desert. The first one is an intricate network of what appears to be huge metallic stripes. Is this a military experiment? They seem to be wide lines drawn with some white material. Or maybe the dust have been dug by machinery. It's located in Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Gansu, north of the Shule River, which crosses the Tibetan Plateau to the west into the Kumtag Desert. It covers an area approximately one mile long by more than 3,000 feet wide. The tracks are perfectly executed, and they seem to be designed to be seen from orbit.

In examining this mystery there are a few things that should be cleared up. First of all, contrary to the Gizmodo headline, it's not clear that the image depicts “structures” at all. Because of the angle at which the image is photographed, the lines may simply be flat, like roads. In fact a close look at the image reveals that the lines appear to have sand blown over them in places, suggesting that they indeed have a smooth surface and are low to the ground.

The suggestion that the lines were created to be seen from space is dubious at best. An identical claim is often made for the Nazca lines, in the Atacama desert of Peru. Those lines, also, are sometimes said to have been designed to be seen from space (one favored—and thoroughly discredited—theory was that the lines were created for visiting extraterrestrials).

[Click here to read full article]

Do Einstein's Laws Prove Ghosts Exist?

by Benjamin Radford

Every night, amateur ghost-hunting groups across the country head out into abandoned warehouses, old buildings and cemeteries to look for ghosts. They often bring along electronic equipment that they believe helps them locate ghostly energy.

Despite years of efforts by ghost hunters on TV and in real life, we still do not have good proof that ghosts are real. Many ghost hunters believe that strong support for the existence of ghosts can be found in modern physics. Specifically, that Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientific minds of all time, offered a scientific basis for the reality of ghosts.



A recent Google search turned up nearly 8 million results suggesting a link between ghosts and Einstein's work covering the conservation of energy. This assertion is repeated by many top experts in the field. For example, ghost researcher John Kachuba, in his book "Ghosthunters" (2007, New Page Books), writes, "Einstein proved that all the energy of the universe is constant and that it can neither be created nor destroyed. ... So what happens to that energy when we die? If it cannot be destroyed, it must then, according to Dr. Einstein, be transformed into another form of energy. What is that new energy? ... Could we call that new creation a ghost?"

[Click here to read full article]

Woman With No Fear Intrigues Scientists

A 44-year-old woman who doesn't experience fear has led to the discovery of where that fright factor lives in the human brain.

Researchers put out their best foot to try to scare the patient, who they refer to as "SM" in their write-up in the most recent issue of the journal Current Biology. Haunted houses, where monsters tried to evoke an avoidance reaction, instead evoked curiosity; spiders and snakes didn't do the trick; and a battery of scary film clips entertained SM.

The patient has a rare condition called Urbach–Wiethe disease that has destroyed her amygdala, the almond-shaped structure located deep in the brain. Over the past 50 years studies have shown the amygdala plays a central role in generating fear responses in various animals from rats to monkeys.

The new study involving SM is the first to confirm that brain region is also responsible for experiencing fear in humans. "This is the first study to systematically investigate the experience or feeling of fear in humans with amygdala damage," lead author Justin Feinstein told LiveScience.

The finding, the researchers say, could lead to treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers and others. "My hope is to expand on this work and search for psychotherapy treatments that selectively target and dampen down hyperactivity in the amygdala of patients with PTSD," said Feinstein, who is a doctoral student studying clinical neuropsychology at the University of Iowa.

Over the past year, Feinstein has been treating PTSD in veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, seeing first-hand the effects.

"Their lives are marred by fear, and they are oftentimes unable to even leave their home due to the ever-present feeling of danger," Feinstein said. In contrast, SM is immune to this stress. "Traumatic events leave no emotional imprint on her brain," he said.
[Click here to read full article]

School 'sends away' 52 residents of the spooky kind

A SCHOOL in Kuantan performed a ritual to "send away" 52 ghost residents in the school, reported China Press.

The spirits included a female ghost which had been "living" in a mango tree for 200 years, it reported.

The two-hour ceremony was conduct- ed by seven people at about 11pm on Sept 7.

The school headmaster confirmed the ritual was held after some students encountered mysterious occurrences, including fans being switched on and off automatically.

"Some students spotted the spirits at certain corners and the school's park.

"CCTV recordings also showed the spirits wandering at staircases," he said.

The school decided to conduct the ritual to calm the students and teachers, the headmaster said.

However, the headmaster said some spirits refused to leave.

"The female ghost which hid in the tree wanted to continue staying there as she did not harm or disturb the students.

"However, all the spirits were told to leave," he said.

He said the teachers and students had peace of mind now.

[Click here to read full article]

Henan's 'Noah' builds an ark

By Wang Qingchu

A man from central China's Henan Province who is convinced the world will end in 2012 has hired workers to build his own 'Noah's ark.'

The 20,000 yuan (US$3,130) ark is being built from an 8-meter-long oil tank with a diameter of 2.5 meters by a resident of Luohe City. It has three vents, several small windows and is equipped with six wheels so that it could be attached to a truck and moved around, Dahe.com reported today.

When the doomsday floods strike, the tank would float on the water as its doors and windows can seal tightly, the report said.

The tank, which will be able to hold over 20 people, is divided into three compartments. The first is a restroom and the second is a storage room that will hold one month's food supplies and daily necessities. The last compartment is the bedroom.

The workers said they would also install air-conditioners, power generators and kitchen appliances in the ark.

[Click here to read full article]

Celebrities who have seen ghosts

By Stephen Wagner, About.com Guide

Nicholas Cage - This Oscar-winning actor (Leaving Las Vegas) refused to stay in uncle Francis Ford Coppola's home after seeing a ghost in the attic. (Cage was also cast as Superman in director Tim Burton's film project, which was never made.)

Keanu Reeves - The star of The Matrix films and Devil's Advocate was just a kid in New Jersey when he saw a ghost that took the form of a white double-breasted suit come into his room one night. He wasn't imagining it; his nanny saw the phantom, too.

Neve Campbell - She's been in more than her share of paranormal-themed movies (The Craft, Scream), but she's had real-life encounters as well. A woman was murdered in the house she now lives in, and friends have seen her ghost walking around.

Matthew McConaughey - This popular actor (Contact) says he freaked out the first time he saw the ghost of an old woman, whom he calls "Madame Blue," floating around his house.

Tim Robbins - Robbins, who was nominated for an Oscar in Mystic River, didn't see ghosts, but strongly felt their presence when he moved into an apartment in 1984. Following his instinct, he moved out the next day.

Hugh Grant - British romantic comedy lead Hugh Grant (Love Actually) says he and friends have heard the wailing and screaming of some tormented spirit in his Los Angeles home. He even speculates it might be the ghost of a former resident - Bette Davis.

Dan Aykroyd - The Ghostbusters star (and Oscar-nominated for Driving Miss Daisy) has long had a fascination with the paranormal. He believes his home, once owned by Cass Elliot of The Mamas and The Papas, is haunted. "A ghost certainly haunts my house," he said. "It once even crawled into bed with me. The ghost also turns on the Stairmaster and moves jewelry across the dresser. I'm sure it's Mama Cass because you get the feeling it's a big ghost."

Sting - Rock star Sting (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and his wife Trudie have seen ghosts in their home. "I was absolutely terrified," he said. "I now believe those things are out there, but I have no explanation for them."

Jean Claude Van Damme - The Belgian action star (Timecop), also known as "Muscles from Brussels," swears he saw a ghost in his bathroom mirror while he was brushing his teeth.

Richard Dreyfuss - He won an Oscar for The Goodbye Girl, but at one time had a cocaine problem. Visions of a ghost, he said, helped him kick the habit. "I had a car crash in the late 1970s," Dreyfuss said, "when I was really screwed up, and I started seeing these ghostly visions of a little girl every night. I couldn't shake this image. Every day it became clearer and I didn't know who the hell she was. Then I realized that kid was either the child I didn't kill the night I smashed up my car, or it was the daughter that I didn't have yet. I immediately sobered up."

Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman - This Hollywood couple was forced to flee their "dream home" in Sneden's Landing, N.Y. when it became all too apparent that it was haunted. They still are reluctant to talk about their frightening encounters.

Belinda Carlisle - This pop singer and founding member of The Go-Gos, who appeared in Swing Shift and She's Having a Baby, says she saw a "misty shape" hovering over her as she lay in bed one night. She also says that when she was 17, while nodding off to sleep in a chair in her parents' home, she levitated and had an out-of-body experience.

Elke Sommers - This German-born actress, who appeared in the 1966 film The Oscar, claims to have seen the ghost of a middle-aged man in a white shirt in her home in North Beverly Hills. Guests in her home have also seen the specter. So much paranormal activity was reported in the house that the American Society for Psychical Research was brought in, and which verified the unexplained events. The severely haunted house was bought and sold more than 17 times since Sommers vacated it, and many have reported ghostly phenomena.

Paul McCartney - Ex-Beatle and Oscar-nominated songwriter ("Live and Let Die") says that he, George Harrison and Ringo Starr sensed the playful spirit of John Lennon when they were recording Lennon's song, "Free As A Bird" in 1995. "There were a lot of strange goings-on in the studio - noises that shouldn't have been there and equipment doing all manner of weird things. There was just an overall feeling that John was around."

[Click here to read full article]

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Dreams

by Robert T. Gonzalez

If we're to believe some of the latest scientific research on sleep (or even just viral YouTube videos), the effects of dreams have likely bewildered Earth's creatures for hundreds of millions of years. But humankind, in particular, has fostered a unique and lasting fascination with dreaming.

Yet for all our interest, there remains much about dreams and their underpinnings that we simply don't understand — and we're learning a lot more all the time. Here are ten things you probably didn't know about dreams.

1) There is a science dedicated to the study of dreams

First things first, let's get one thing straight. When many people think about the study of dreams, what they're actually thinking of is the practice of dream interpretation; but interpretation is very different from the scientific study of dreams, known as Oneirology.

The difference? Oneioroloists aren't necessarily concerned with the meaning of dreams, so much as they are with the mechanisms and processes that give rise to them.

2) Dream Interpretation has been around for a long, long time

A lot of people associate dream interpretation with modern psychological analysis, but by the time the likes of Jung and Freud got around to it, the practice of dream interpretation had been in full swing for thousands of years.

Some of the first evidence of dream interpretation dates all the way back to the to the 3rd millennium BC, to the ancient cultures of the Mesopotamian. These early civilizations were not only among the first to develop writing, they also practiced dream interpretation regularly, collecting the accounts of dreams (especially those of royal figures) into dream books, complete with interpretations.

3) Everyone tends to dream about the same things

In a study conducted in 2004, scientists from the Sleep Laboratory at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany administered a "Typical Dream Questionnaire" to 444 participants in an effort to characterize the variability of dream content across their test population. The test subjects were asked to identify how many of 55 "typical dream themes" (like being chased, having your teeth fall out, flying, running in place, etc) they had experienced.

The findings indicated that most of the 55 dream themes occurred at least once in most of the participants' lifetimes. In addition, the correlation coefficients for the rank order of the themes were very high; that is, the relative frequencies were stable.

4) And yes, pretty much everyone dreams about sex

A study conducted in 2007 by psychologist Antonio Zadra concluded that, for men and women alike, sexual dreams account for roughly 8% of all reported dreams.

Sexual intercourse was the most common type of sexual content, followed by sexual propositions, kissing, and fantasies... masturbation accounted for approximately 6% of both male and female sexual dreams and an orgasm was experienced in approximately 4% of all sexual dreams.

5) Dreams can be a sad, scary place

The findings made by the German scientists in number 8 built upon those of many others, most notably psychologist Calvin Hall's. Over the course of several decades, Hall collected over 50,000 dream reports, and found that the vast majority of them contained similar thematic elements. They were so similar, in fact, that he and his colleague, fellow psychologist Robert Van de Castle, developed a system of dream classification called "the Hall/Van De Castle system of dream content analysis."

Since its publication, the Hall/Van De Castle system of dream content analysis has been used by many different investigators in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, and Japan. Hall himself applied it to dream reports collected for him in four Latin American countries and by anthropologists in many different preliterate societies. All of these studies, incidentally, showed there was more aggression than friendliness, more misfortune than good fortune, and more negative emotion than positive emotion in dream reports from all around the world; when these dream reports were compared to those from industrialized nations, the similarities far outweighed the differences.

6) Not everyone dreams in color

While it's believed that the majority of us dream in color, its estimated that roughly one person in eight is limited to black and white dreamscapes. But this wasn't always the case. Research on dreams from the first half of the 20th century suggests that the vast majority of people actually used to dream in black and white. But beginning in the sixties, the balance began tipping in the direction of color dreaming. What accounted for this shift? According to Dundee University's Eva Murzyn, the advent of Technicolor (i.e., color movies and television):

"It suggests there could be a critical period in our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed."

But here's the real kicker: according to Murzyn, if one looks even further back in history — back before even black and white television came on the scene — all evidence suggests we were dreaming in color.

7) Vivid Dreaming

People trying to kick a smoking habit tend to experience more vivid dreams
Regular smokers who suddenly kick the habit are likely to experience a number of pretty rough withdrawal symptoms, but one that you don't hear about very often is the effect that quitting has on a person's tendency to dream. A study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology reports:

Among 293 smokers abstinent for between 1 and 4 weeks, 33% reported having at least 1 dream about smoking. In most dreams, subjects caught themselves smoking and felt strong negative emotions, such as panic and guilt. Dreams about smoking were the result of tobacco withdrawal, as 97% of subjects did not have them while smoking, and their occurrence was significantly related to the duration of abstinence. They were rated as more vivid than the usual dreams and were as common as most major tobacco withdrawal symptoms.

The tendency to experience more vivid dreams as a withdrawal symptom has been demonstrated for numerous drugs, and is thought to be the result of a poorly understood phenomenon called "REM rebound," wherein the time spent in a state of rapid-eye-movement sleep increases (and the likelihood of dreaming along with it).

8) You are paralyzed during dreaming

Your motor neurons cease to be stimulated during REM sleep, leaving you paralyzed
Speaking of rapid-eye-movement sleep, when you're in a state of REM sleep, your body's release of neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, serotonin, and histamine—all of which play an important role in stimulating motor neurons—is completely suppressed.

The result is a condition known as REM atonia, wherein your muscles enter a state of relaxation that borders on physical paralysis. It is thought that this loss of mobility helps keep you from reacting to your dreams in ways that might result in physical harm. In fact, people who don't experience REM atonia may suffer from what is known as REM behavior disorder, and unconsciously act out their dreams in a way that results in injury to themselves or others.

9) Animals dream, too

Several other species experience complex brain activity during sleep
Many of the patterns of brain and physiological activity that humans experience during sleep—including REM sleep and its associated brain states—have been observed in a number of animals, including other mammals, birds, and reptiles.

10) Our understanding of dreams remains very limited

Consider how much we've already talked about REM-sleep. And yet, for all the research that's been done on REM sleep and its role in a person (or animal's) dream state, our understanding of sleep's deeper mechanisms remain muddled, and there still exists no clear biological definition of the phenomenon.

Consider, for example, that the link between REM and dreaming was only made as recently as the 20th Century (read the first paper to describe this connection, published in a 1953 issue of Science, here). For decades it was assumed that REM sleep was necessary for dreams to occur. It took until 2001, and the publication of this study in the Journal of Sleep Research for us to prove that REM sleep is, in fact, not necessary for dreams to occur.

[Click here to read full article]

Commentary on the Feng Shui of Bedok Reservoir

by Master Orthodox Occultist Oregon Chang

With the recent happenings at Bedok Reservoir, many Feng Shui masters, paranormal investigators have been visiting the place.

There are 2 different types of Feng Shui. One is for the living and the other is for the dead.

From what people have been discussing in forums, websites and other hearsay, certain group of people had believed that indeed Bedok Reservoir has very good Feng Shui but however the problem and biggest mistake could have just been that it is a good Feng Shui location for the dead and not for the living.

If this location is a Feng Shui location for the dead, to use this place to sustain life for the living by turning it into a reservoir and creating activities and life such as water sports on the reservoir will only make things worse.

The Shape of the Reservoir both by the Feng Shui master of team Asia Paranormal and Lucia Lu as well as a few more other had mentioned that it has a shape of a human skull or head.

Please do kindly refer to our earlier postings to refresh yourself a little:
1) Is Bedok Reservoir cursed with bad Feng Shui?
2) What is wrong with Bedok Reservoir?
3) Is Bedok Reservoir Cursed



To make things worse it appears to be a human skull or head in some blinding position and it also trapped in the middle surrounded by roads with no where to go to. This trapped human is very confused, having blurred vision, sad, having agony and stressed as a result of such. Some of the new buildings that blocked the horizons of this human line of sight make it even worst and not forgetting the sharp object pointing to the eyes which makes this person feeling very threatened !

Take a look at some good Feng Shui in comparison, the Jurong Lake near to the Lakeside and Chinese Garden MRT:



Are you able to see a hidden Chinese unicorn in the Lake, itself? This should be auspicious.

Next let's take a look at the Chinese Garden Map:



Are you able to see a close or similar resemblance of the Chinese TAO or DAO (道) symbol ? Within the Yin there is a Yang and Within the Yang there is a Yin in it. This place is very well balance. There is good circulation of the Yin and Yang.

In fact, Chinese Art of Feng Shui has always played a very important role in many cases and event as well as people.

Next, we look at some places with bad Feng Shui:



The one on the left is a palace of the Choson dynasty (Joseon Dynasty) of Korea. Due to a mistake in Feng Shui of the new location of the palace as the Red Phoenix is running away which was being overlooked by the Feng Shui masters engaged by the King, the Dynasty began to decline and came to an end.

The One in the Middle is the famous Taj Mahal of India in which too many feng shui masters has already spoke of how bad the Feng Shui is which it had affected the king's health and lead to fall of the King eventually.

Finally the one on the Right is the map of the Ming dynasty tomb. The tomb of one of the emperors is being placed wrongly and it lead to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

Lastly, not everything in this world in due to Feng Shui.

Feng Shui can only be part of it.

This article itself is only but just a commentary on the Feng Shui of Bedok Reservoir and not a conclusion.

As whether to believe or not, is it pure superstition, occult, coincidence or others, this we the Team of Asia Paranormal leave for you as the readers to decide.

Kim Noble: The woman with 100 personalities

by Amanda Mitchison

There's Judy the teenage bulimic, devout Catholic Salamoe, gay Ken and over 100 more. Artist Kim Noble talks about living with multiple personality disorder.

The painter Kim Noble is a niblet-sized woman with long, auburn hair and startlingly blue eyes. She lives in a small terrace house in south London with her 14-year-old daughter Aimee, two dogs and more than 100 separate personalities.

Kim, 50, has dissociative identity disorder (DID). She is, in effect, scores of different people – the exact number is uncertain – wrapped up in one body. These personalities are all quite distinct, with their own names and ages and quirks of temperament. Some are children. Some are male.

For a journalist, this presents certain problems. Kim Noble herself is merely a name on a birth certificate – a portmanteau of identities. So which version of her do you interview? Do you talk to whomever pops up? Hayley? Judy? Ken?

It turns out there's a protocol: you meet Patricia, the dominant personality among the many alter egos in Noble's head. With the help of regular support workers, Patricia looks after Aimee and makes sure there's milk in the fridge. It is Patricia who answers the door and welcomes me in.

The house is freshly painted, clean and tidy. Patricia appears urbane and at ease. She is well turned out, full of energy, just back from a holiday in Tenerife. Not a smidgen of psychiatric inpatient about her: no carpet slippers, no sad cardigans.

The photographer is setting up in the living room, so we go upstairs into Aimee's bedroom. I'm unsure how to address the person sitting on the bed opposite me. Do I call her Kim, or Patricia?

"I'm Patricia," she says equably. "I don't like being called Kim, but I have got used to it now."

How often does she change personality?

She shrugs. "There are about three or four switches a day."

What has happened so far today?

"This morning Spirit of the Water had a bath. And one of them was painting – it might have been Abi. And then the vacuum cleaning, another person was doing that before you came."

An alter ego who cleans! That's handy.

"Yeah, I have got my own cleaner," she says. "But nobody will do the garden."

The strangeness of Kim's story and something of what she has endured is revealed in her autobiography, All Of Me. The book, ghostwritten by Jeff Hudson, is a terrible tale. Kim was born in 1960. Her parents, stuck in an unhappy marriage, were factory workers, and the care of their daughter was farmed out to friends and local acquaintances. The details of what happened are hazy, but it seems that from an early age – somewhere between one and three – Kim suffered extreme and repeated abuse. And at this point her mind, traumatised beyond endurance, shattered into fragments, forming myriad separate identities. The breaks were clean: most of the principal personalities had no memories of abuse and no flashbacks. Thus she was protected from what had happened.

Kim scraped her way through childhood. Home life was fraught and she performed poorly in school. Her memory lapses and erratic behaviour were noticed but never understood. Abnormally poor memory is a classic symptom of DID. When there is a "switch", the new personality taking over does not know what has happened before they emerged. Young Kim demonstrated just such mental lacunae, and when she denied having said or done something, she was usually taken for a liar.

Did her parents never clock that something was very wrong? Patricia gives a slow blink and says, "My parents were busy."

In adolescence everything came apart. After repeatedly overdosing, Kim was placed on suicide watch in a psychiatric hospital. It was the first of many internments – each time she was released she would try to kill herself and would be readmitted. She developed anorexia and bulimia.

In her late 20s came a period of relative stability. With the immensely capable Hayley personality predominant during work hours, Kim was able to hold down a job as a van driver for five years. But one day something must have caused a switch and a disturbed personality called Julie suddenly found herself driving the van. She ploughed straight into a line of parked cars. This led to another mental health section, and a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Eventually Kim re-emerged from hospital, and her story took another dramatic twist: somehow she found herself exposed to the activities of a paedophile ring. In the book we are told that when she reported it to the police, she received anonymous warnings to be quiet: "Threats of retaliation escalated until one day a man threw acid in her face and someone tried to set light to her bed with her in it." Kim got out, but the house was gutted.

Patricia can't remember either of these events. The first she knew of the arson attack was standing outside watching flames engulf the house. After the fire, Kim spent six months in a women's refuge. Here she became aware of the crucial, terrifying difference between her and the other residents: everyone else knew who they were hiding from. Kim could have passed her assailant in the street without realising. Something had to be done.

During this time, a new branch of mental health specialists took over Kim's care. In 1995 she was finally diagnosed with DID and began the therapy she still undergoes, without any medication. DID treatment is usually long-term and laborious – it can take years for there to be any progress. The therapist has to tease out the separate personalities and treat them individually, trying to help each come to terms with what happened in their past.

Initially – like so many of the personalities – Patricia considered the idea of DID absurd. But after six years of therapy, she finally accepted the diagnosis – and the puzzling aspects of her life slotted into place. She now understood why she always felt she was losing time, and why she had continually ended up in hospital: some of her alter egos – particularly the younger ones, frozen in time and retaining memories of abuse – were highly traumatised. Judy was bulimic. Rebecca was behind the suicide attempts. As for the acid and arson attacks, Patricia discovered they were to intimidate Hayley. She had been the informer.

Patricia cannot determine when or how often she changes into someone else. But there are triggers that are likely to set off a switch: Judy comes out at meals, Spirit of Water takes the baths. Last October Patricia and Aimee appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and beforehand, they were filmed at home. There are some clips on YouTube: Patricia is sitting in front of a plate of food when her shoulders give a tiny jolt and she turns into Judy, a truculent 15-year-old who believes she is fat.

Each time there is a switch of personality and Patricia re-emerges, she has no notion of what has happened in her absence. So daily life is beset with lost keys, unrequested pizza deliveries, the car mysteriously parked miles from home. "I don't ever know if I am coming or going," she says. "I could switch at a door, like at the doctor's surgery, and think, 'Have I just been in?'" She shrugs wearily. "You can't ask, so I just walk off."

The other personalities have independent lives. They have their own email addresses – Patricia doesn't know their passwords; they buy clothes. Patricia shows me a large silky tent of a dress. "Does it look like me? Size 14! That'll be Judy."

Patricia is dependent on benefits, supplemented by the occasional sale of a painting. How does she – how do they – manage money? "I have control of the card and they don't know the pin number."

And what about sex? Patricia laughs. "Oh, I gave that up years ago. Any relationship like that is just too complicated."

But life hasn't always been sexless. In 1997 Kim gave birth to Aimee. The baby was immediately taken into care by social services. For years Patricia remained unaware she had a daughter.

How can a woman not realise she's had a baby?

Patricia shrugs and holds up her hands. "It was so bizarre. But there was barely a bump."

But what about the scar from the caesarean?

Patricia gestures to her flat stomach. "It doesn't show. It's mind over matter."

This might sound unbelievable but it can, in part, be explained by the fact that Kim's dominant personalities have changed over the years. Around pregnancy and Aimee's birth, Patricia was an occasional subsidiary presence. Years later, once Patricia accepted Aimee was her daughter, she instantly knew who the father was – an on/off boyfriend she'd met during her driving days. In the book she writes, "I may not have been there to give birth to Aimee, but I did conceive her." Patricia contacted the father to tell him, but he has never been involved in Aimee's upbringing.

During the pregnancy, a personality called Dawn was in charge. But following the trauma of the baby being taken away, Dawn retreated and super-efficient Hayley returned to the forefront. It was Hayley who began legal proceedings to claim Aimee back; then Bonny, a more excitable personality, took the fight through the courts.

It seems surprising that someone with multiple personalities should be trusted with the care of a baby, but Patricia says "the body" – the collective personalities of Kim Noble – would never allow Aimee to be harmed. And Kim's mind does, on occasion, possess a certain instinct for self-preservation. When eventually she was allowed to meet Aimee, only Bonny and Hayley and the other responsible front-line personalities came to the fore. After months under observation in a mother and baby unit, Aimee was allowed to live with her mother under a care order.

Everything has gone well. Two years ago, the care order was lifted, and the success of the parenting can be seen in Aimee: clever, pretty and popular, she was head girl of her primary school and is magnificently imperturbable. "It's exciting," she observes. "With other mums you have got one person. That is a bit boring." Does her mother's DID make things difficult? "There aren't many disadvantages, apart from the fact that she can't really cook, because if the oven was left on and she switched, that could start a fire."

Is the DID ever exasperating? "It can be. When I am talking to other personalities and the main personality comes, I think, 'I haven't finished what I was going to say!'"

Among the frequent personalities, Aimee can identify which is which at a glance. Some are very easy – Ken wears his hair up and has a blokeish way of pulling his shoulders back; with others the body language is more subtle. Are there any personalities she doesn't like? "There are some that come out more often, so I know them better. Judy, because she's 15, talks to me in a friendly way, like a mate. But I like them all."

The ultimate aim with DID therapy, which is not always possible and sometimes too risky to attempt, is for the patient's mind to reintegrate and become whole. Does Patricia want to integrate? She shakes her head. "My attitude is: how can I get a memory? I wasn't there, I was not in that room when that happened."

She takes me to her tiny, paint-spattered art room. It's a revelation. Since Patricia began art therapy in 2004, more than a dozen personalities have started to paint regularly and prolifically. The styles, palettes and skill levels vary enormously. Some paintings are abstract, others more representational. The paintings of Ria Pratt, a very disturbed personality, are naive little cameos with whips and cages and wispy stick figures, with the children being raped or abused painted in lighter colours.

The first of Ria's pictures was a horrible shock for Patricia. "Aimee was very little then and I had to put it away because it was quite graphic. But when I see their paintings I get excited. This is the nearest I am ever going to get to being integrated."

Dr Valerie Sinason, the psychotherapist who initially treated Kim, describes DID as "a brilliantly creative survival device". She is full of admiration for how some of her patients' personalities, having hived off the traumatised parts of their mind, can forge ahead. She believes that, like people with Asperger's, they can sometimes demonstrate exceptional powers. "They can go further than normal people because they are not held back."

Kim is a case in point. By any measure she – or rather Patricia – represents a very successful adaptation. She's managed to turn her life around, gaining considerable professional success and recognition. Patricia beams. "I am happy with everything."

[Click here to read full article]

Microterrestrials vs Malaysia!

In what must be ranked as one of the weirdest UFO flaps in modern history, citizens of the Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia were besieged by a plethora of miniature flying saucers occupied by even more diminutive, tunic clad, antenna bearing occupants who were armed with searing ray-guns!

Covering an area of over 127,300 miles, Malaysia is a country that occupies two regions. The first borders Thailand on the Peninsular Malaysia and is separated from its sister country — Malaysian Borneo — by the South China Sea. The country has a rich tradition of legends and folklore, but few are as intriguing as the bizarre ufological phenomenon, which plagued this nation during the 1970s and into the 1980s.

In one of my previous articles for Mysterious Universe: “Close Encounters of the Weird Kind,” I reported on all sorts of strange run-ins that people have claimed to have had with some of the wackiest aliens ever chronicled. These odd visitors ranged from elephant-skinned robots to steel-toothed assailants to giant space brains, but between 1969 and 1985, Malaysia played host to an utterly unique breed of alien invader, which I‘ve hastily dubbed: “micro-terrestrials.”

These micro-terrestrials were said to be clad in one piece suits or gaudily decorated tunics and purportedly stood between 3 and 6-inches in height (though there have been encounters with beings that measured a mere 1-inch high.)

Some reportedly had bigger heads and larger, more rounded eyes than average human beings, and most were said to be armed with what the witnesses described as “ray-guns.”

Intriguingly, the 3-inch humanoids were specifically said to have two antenna-like structures protruding from the heads and in almost every case they were accompanied by — what, at least to human eyes, must have seemed to have been — miniature flying saucers, measuring no more than 3-feet in diameter. Even more disturbing was the fact that the nexus of their presumably nefarious activities tended to be schoolyards!



The first reported case of a micro-terrestrial encounter in Malaysia occurred in Johor Bahru, the densely populated capital city of Johor, on July 2nd, 1969. In a scene which must have been evocative of the 1994, Ariel School Aliens encounter in Ruwa, Zimbabwe — four schoolboys ran into their headmaster’s office and excitedly informed him that they had just seen a tiny silver UFO (reportedly no larger than a dinner plate) on school property.

Even more astoundingly they claimed to have seen five, 6-inch tall humanoid figures in red uniforms emerge from the craft. According to the boys, the moment these creatures noticed the growing audience they scuttled out of sight down a nearby hole as their flying saucer seemed to vanish into thin air.

Of course, it wasn’t long before word of these doll-sized, crimson clad creatures spread throughout the school. In no time both students and teachers were scouring the vicinity in search of the enigmatic entities and their miniscule vehicle. Sadly, the search turned up nothing more than a small patch of burnt grass where, presumably, the UFO landed.

The second significant encounter with these lil’ folk — and the first known report of these creatures being armed — occurred on August 19th, 1970, near the playground of the Stowell Primary School in Bukit Mertajam. Eyewitnesses claimed that they saw five, 3-inch tall humanoids march in a military fashion down the gangplank of a miniature flying saucer into the schoolyard.

Four of the beings wore identical blue uniforms while the fifth, who carried himself with the aura of one who seemed to be in charge, wore a bright yellow tunic decorated with stars and had a pair of “horns” or antennas on his head. A first the unusual entities seemed to ignore the onlookers and proceeded to climb a nearby tree where they erected an “aerial-like device” in its branches. The purpose of this device or even if it was recovered were facts that remain frustratingly unrecorded.

In no time a cluster of six boys advanced on the unexpected guests. The bravest of the bunch, one K. Wigneswaran, made a grab for the garishly clothed leader, but the alien astronauts were quick to defend themselves and wasted no time in drawing their “tiny laser pistols” and opening fire on the inquisitive children. The kids scattered in a panic and once the hubbub died down Wigneswaran would discover a scar on his thigh where he had been hit by the laser pistol.

This case would come to be indicative of a wave of encounters — wherein a curious kid would try and capture one of the “spacemen” resulting in said spaceman defending itself vigorously — which would quickly spread throughout Malaysia in the coming years.

It’s worth noting that in most of these cases there is a disturbing lack of specific names, dates and places on which to base further research. This is likely due to the fact that the primary source of these sightings is one Ahmad Jamaludin, who published his report on these strange occurrences in the November, 1979 edition of the MUFON UFO Journal, No. 141.

Jamaludin claimed that the facts in these cases are so scarce due to his inability to contact the primarily youthful witnesses: “The following alleged encounters, the full stories of which are incomplete since the principle witnesses cannot be located, are listed below.”

[Click here to read full article]

Is Bedok Reservoir cursed with bad Feng Shui?

by Oregon Chang with team members



Within the past few months, several incidents occurred in Bedok Reservoir where several bodies were pulled out of the water. A total of 6 accidents occurred in the waters, where at total of 7 people were recovered. Only 1 of these people was lucky to have survived. The others perished in the waters.

There is a saying among the Chinese that: One is an incident, two is an accident, three is a coincidence and if there is four or more then there absolutely must be more than to meets the eye! It is not so simple any more.

Do you believe in this saying?

In our first article, Bedok Reservoir Cursed?, we had discussed whether this place is cursed.

In our follow up posting What is wrong with Bedok Reservoir?, we have proposed that the incidents in Bedok Reservoir are very much likely of a coincidence and convenience. But unfortunately, another case occurred over the past weekend!

As the situation seem to somewhat becomes more serious, Team Asia Paranormal decided to take a look and explore the place itself.


A map of the reservoir


Life buoys can be found quite easily throughout the reservoir

We had in mind this time that there could be a possibility of Feng Shui problems; hence we brought along our Feng Shui equipments and some gadgets to check if what we suspect is indeed really the case.


A Feng Shui compass and a "Ghost Radar" app on iPhone

If you can still remember, we had previously mentioned of some sharp object blinding the eyes of the human, base the map of Bedok Reservoir.

It had somewhat seem that Lucia Lu the China geomancer had that 1 or 2 point in common with team Asia Paranormal's own geomancer, which is about the human head.

In fact there is even an old rumour that we had learnt in which the source and validity cannot be traced and confirmed. This old rumour speaks of that several years ago some Feng Shui master mentioned before that bedok is not suitable for humans accommodations. So is everything coming true now? That we leave it to you.


The so called "Dragon Throat" and "Sharp object"

When we arrived, the reservoir does indeed seem to be convenient as there are bus stops and residential areas nearby.

But however, we do notice that there were many life buoys available at many points. The place overall does seem to be well lighted up.

We also spotted a petrol car patrolling the reservoir. There were many night joggers in the place even up to the wee hours. There were people fishing, having picnic and all sort merry making activities at the place. We even saw quite a few couples having a stroll, and dating there.


A view of the reservoir at night. Notice the orb we captured circled in red

Even though it was late at night, the place was still peaceful, beautiful and quite busy. Hence to really commit suicide totally unseen, unknown, unheard and undetected, it really does not seem too possible, even though and despite that the place is too accessible and convenient.

We didn't really detect anything wrong with the place in the beginning. This was based on our gut feeling though. It was just a ordinary park and reservoir.


A platform. More orbs captured.

We later proceeded to put our Feng Shui stuffs to a test, it does somehow seem to have a little problem on the place. The architecture is not really built to Feng Shui concepts and theory, generally as to speak.










The team members using the Feng Shui measuring tape

This measuring tape measures whether a certain length, width or height is according to good or bad Feng Shui. We measured the fence and barriers of the platform and found out they did not really indicate good Feng Shui.

We had even tried to match it with western technology with the use of Ghost Radar, an iPhone app. This app supposedly tries to detect any electromagnetic signals in the surrounding areas; however it is up to your own conclusions about what the signals really are.


The Ghost Radar detecting a weak signal (Green)

We eventually reach to the sharp object area that we had mentioned in our earlier posting.


The "sharp object" area. Directly opposite is Temasek Poly

Perhaps a coincidence or perhaps not, the negative energy or the so called Yin was really too strong over there. We have received a lot of readings in that area. The Ghost Radar indicated a strong signal while the compass indicated negative energy.


Very strong signal detected (Red)


Something wrong with the energy in this area?

It seems that the possibility of accidents taking place at that spot had a very high chance. Even without our equipments and gadgets, at a glance, the place does not feel right. The place was rather deserted and dark, compared to the other areas.

To make things worst, we had discovered some unusual offerings in that area. The usual way of how Chinese make offerings to the dead had a lot of similarities and it is not like what we had seen. There were bowls of cookies and cups of what we think are soft drinks. However, something was missing and that was joss sticks and candles.

There is something too wrong about the offering and it very difficult to explain and elaborate. It is just very unusual.

We also spotted a floating object in the water nearby. To us, it seems like a ball or a floating buoy. However, the weird thing is that there was only one in the water alone. We were still not certain of what exactly is that object we saw.


Pic of this weird area. The first circle in the middle is where the weird offerings are located. The other circle to the top right is where the weird floating object is.


The weird floating object


The weird floating object

We also took a close up photograph of the weird offerings, but mysteriously the photo did not show up on our cameras later. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide that here.

As we were examining the place closely, suddenly we heard noise in that area which sounded like something had fallen or jumped into the water. Although we looked deep and used all our flashlights to light up that dark area, there was nothing we could see.

Was it someone just threw something into the water? One of the team members suggested it could be a frog jumping into the water. But she later pointed out that we had walked quite a distance round the reservoir, and it was the first time we heard frogs splashing into the water.

Or was it the incident somewhat “repeating itself”? Did the spirit of the suicide victims decided to repeat the process of jumping into the water? The feeling of the place is too problematic and wrong. Finally we had decided to leave the place.

At the carpark area, I then revealed to my team that I thought the floating object in the water looked like a head from a certain angle, but I was not too sure about it.

Team Asia Paranormal then packed up and left the reservoir.

Currently, the number of bodies pulled out from that reservoir totals 7 and we definitely do not wish that there will be 8 body or even more than that from this reservoir. This is definitely not anything good for Singapore.

Team Asia Paranormal do not support or encourage people to end their lives.

No doubt the stress and pressure level in the daily lives of the working class in Singapore is among the highest in the world. But ending your life will not solve anything. If you at your wits' end, depressed, troubled, please seek help. There are many hotlines, organizations and associations in Singapore that can help you with your problems. You are never alone and never alone to face anything. There are people around who love you.

As we end this article, we would like to once again strong advise and emphasize to everyone, treat life seriously. Life is full of meaning and purpose and it is just too precious. Live life to your fullest and make every best out of it.

Hotlines to call in Singapore

Samaritans of Singapore
Tel: 1800-211-4444

Singapore Association of Mental Health
Tel: 1800-282-7019

Care Corner Mandarin Counselling Center
Tel: 1800-353-5800

UNIFEM Singapore (For Woman & Children)
Tel : 62386761

Family Protection and Transformation Unit
Tel : 64355077

Hypnotherapy (Quit Gambling)
Tel : 62727118

One Hope Centre (Loan Shark Problems)
Tel: 65471011 (9am to 6pm)

Depression Understood
Tel : 18002214444

Pregnancy Crisis Service
Tel : 63399770

Tinkle Friend (Children below 12)
Tel : 18002744788

Teen Challenge (For Teenagers)
Tel : 18008292222