Egypt teen cries tears of blood, says touched by jinn

CAIRO: An 18-year-old Egyptian girl who shed ‘blood tears’ claimed she had been touched by jinn, which are ghosts and spirits popular in Upper Egyptian folklore. According to a report in the Arabic language quotidian, Sabea’a, a girl named Dawa’a appeared on Al Nahar Television, to share her experience. She said she had been touched by tribe of about one-thousand jinn. Amr Al-Laithi, a Muslim scholar, recited verses from Qur’an as the teenager fell unconscious. When she woke up after about 20 minutes, she claimed she could not remember anything but was suffering an intense headache. The Muslim scholar explained that the jinn in this case, thankfully, were merely an external influence on the girl. And that this was because there was no change in her voice, and too, that she did she suffer from physical convulsions. Those frightening symptoms, he asserted, are only seen in cases when jinn are internal and the victim has succumbed to total control. Neither person was available for comment at press time. Nor did the jinn offer a motive in their attempt to seize the girl. [Click here to read full article]

Titanic and the Paranormal

It’s a sad and historic anniversary, yesterday was the the 15th of April, the 100th anniversary of sinking of the Titanic. Amid the 3d showings of the movie and the wild commercialism that seems endless, I wondered what else might be lurking in the Titanic story within my own field of interest. The Paranormal.

As it turns out, there’s quite alot. Firstly are the prophetic circumstances surrounding the wreck itself. In 1898 an author named Morgan Robertson published a short story entitled ‘Futility’ that bore striking resemblances to the Titanic disaster of 1912. Everything from striking an iceberg on it’s maiden voyage, it’s home port of Southampton, claimed unsinkability due to watertight compartments and a lack of sufficient lifeboats were all eerily similar. Perhaps the most creepy aspect is that Morgan’s ship was named The Titan.

Another paranormal tidbit in Titanic lore are the artifacts. Owned more or less by a single company, and the whole lot coming up for auction soon, there are numerous accounts of the exhibit being haunted. Stories abound from people touring the exhibit seeing things, a famous television investigation team capturing EVP’s, and employees emphatically claiming paranormal activity. Claims range from an employee feeling hands in her hair, shadowy figures walking the corridors, and even an elderly woman haunting a replica of a cabin.

[Click here to read full article]

I could crush you

Source: Michael Hesemann, UFOS: The Secret History

Bourgata, Israel - May 30, 1993 - 3:00 a.m.

Hannah Somech woke up when she heard her dog barking. She got up and went downstairs from her bedroom to the kitchen and looked out the garden through the glass door when she saw her dog literally flying through the air and slam against a wall. Shocked and terrified she bravely opened the door but was confronted by an invisible wall: she could not go any further. Then she saw an eight-foot tall giant in bright coveralls.

A thief, she thought. “You think I am a thief?” she heard inside her head. “What did you do with my dog”, she asked furiously. “He disturbed me, as you do now,” the giant spoke telepathically, without moving his lips. “I could crush you, but I don’t want to. Just leave me alone, I am busy.” The woman ran back to the bedroom to wake up her husband, but when both came down, the giant had disappeared.

In the garden, they found huge footprints, 1 foot, 4 inches in length. Later, circles appeared too, again covered by the reddish cadmium based liquid. After the encounter Hannah suffered severely from fatigue, headaches and muscle pain.

Actual MIB Footage

I work with the Aerial Phenomenon Investigations Team based in MD. One recent UFO investigation yielded actual footage of MIB on a hotel lobby camera. This video has a voice over of the person these MIB came for. --M. Barnharrt

Russians test a gun that turns people into zombies

It’s been widely speculated that the U.S. military has been developing weapons with the capacity to scramble brain activity and basically turn your mind into mush. If so, we might be seeing a new kind of arms race as a new report claims that the Russia government has been testing a gun that does exactly that.

The weapon in question uses electromagnetic technology, such as microwave beams, to disrupt the central nervous system. Indeed, previous research has shown that certain kinds of low-frequency radiation can cause “a sensation of buzzing, clicking or hissing in the head,” according to a report by MSNBC. So along that line of logic, taking it up a few notches would lead to weapons that can potentially fry eyeballs, stop the heart from beating and even turn people into zombies.

Right now there’s no indication that anyone’s perfected anything close to an actual “zombie gun,” although the Australian publication The Herald Sun reports that Russia’s main man, President Vladimir Putin, plans to have them ready within a decade as a defensive measure against enemies of the state or unruly dissidents, such as protesters.

According to their report:

Plans to introduce the super-weapons were announced by Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov. While the technology has been around for some time, Mr. Tsyganok said the guns were recently tested for crowd control purposes.

“When it was used for dispersing a crowd and it was focused on a man, his body temperature went up immediately as if he was thrown into a hot frying pan,” Mr Tsyganok said. “Still, we know very little about this weapon and even special forces guys can hardly cope with it,” he said.

But the effort to come up with something that can enable bona fide mind control has proven immensely challenging, despite decades of work by some of the brightest mad scientists. For instance, while the U.S. military has harnessed similar technology to produce a heat ray that creates a burning sensation hot enough to break up crowds, it still takes hours to power up and is a lot less effective when it rains.

[Click here to read full article]

UFO sighting near Korean Demilitarized Zone

UFO Caught From Airplane - Seoul, South Korea

April 07, 2012

Haunted Hollywood: The 'Poltergeist' Curse

One of the scariest movies ever made is also considered one of the most cursed films. Written by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper (though many involved with the production say that Spielberg in fact took the helm more often than Hooper. A clause in Spielberg's contract prevented him from taking any other directorial work while prepping E.T. The films were released a week apart), Poltergeist was one of the highest-grossing films of 1982.

It was the movie that scared my brother off of horror films for ever (he caught 20 minutes of it on television, and didn't sleep for weeks. To this day, nearly 20 years later, he still can't watch scary movies). And with a string of deaths that span all three Poltergeist films (some premature; others less so), many believe the Poltergeist films to carry with them a curse.

But it is not just the deaths that lead people to believe in a Poltergeist curse. A string of incidents that, on their own, most would consider coincidence, are often used to point to a curse.
In the first film, Jobeth Williams was anxious about filming the swimming pool scene because of so much electrical equipment around so much water. Spielberg got in the pool with her to put her fears to rest. The scene went off without a hitch, except for the fact that the skeletons in the pool with Williams were real human skeletons, not props. Real skeletons were cheaper than plastic ones at that time, but Williams was not happy when she found out.

Superstitious people believe that this was the start of the curse. It turns out that real skeletons were also used in the second Poltergeist. Will Sampson, the actor who played a shaman in that film, was a real-life medicine man. He performed an exorcism on the set one night after shooting. This did not seem to help the curse, as Sampson died less than a year later after complications from a kidney transplant.

While his own curse began way before his role in Poltergeist, Richard Lawson faced not one, not two, but five separate near-death experiences (not including his own premature birth). Lawson served in Vietnam, and though every day was fraught with danger, he was involved in a violent firefight in which he narrowly avoided a bullet. It was his 21st birthday. A few years later, while in Australia for TV show, he was nearly hit by a car while crossing the street. Next up was another car accident. Lawson was driving and hit by another car.

His body folded in half and had his window not been rolled down, his head would have gone through the glass and likely killed him. In 1983, not long after the release of Poltergeist, Lawson nearly died of a cocaine overdose. He became sober shortly thereafter. In 1992, he was on a commercial flight that crashed into a lake minutes after takeoff. Before getting on the flight, the ticket agent recognized Lawson as an actor and upgraded him to the first class cabin. Lawson survived; the man who ended up in his seat died.

[Click here to read full article]

Sorcery-Related Violence on the Rise in Papua New Guinea

KUNDIAWA, Apr 9, 2012 (IPS) - An increase in sorcery-related violence and fatalities over the last decade in Papua New Guinea is generating awareness about the lack of development, economic opportunities, inequality and under-resourced health services in rural areas.

In late March, 70-year-old Seni and his 32-year-old son Konia (not their real names) were accused of sorcery following the sudden death of their granddaughter and niece whom they had accompanied to the nearest hospital in the town of Kundiawa for medical attention.

"We brought her to the hospital on Saturday and on Sunday she died and we took her back to the village," Konia recounted. "We don’t know what the cause of her death was."

They were then violently attacked by members of their family and community in a small village in the rural district of Gumine, Simbu Province.

"When we went to the funeral in the village, we went to where the body was," Konia continued. "Then the people started coming out and attacking us."

Konia and his father sustained serious physical injuries.

"They used bush knives. They cut me with a bush knife on my back and shoulder," Konia said. "Then they took me to the (village) toilet, tied me up and pushed my head down into the toilet."

Seni, the elderly father, was beaten until he fell to the ground face-down.

"They then used their boots to kick me on my sides, my back and on my neck until I was unconscious," Seni remembered. "If I had laid face-up, I would have been dead."

The following morning, both father and son were rescued when Konia’s sister Eva (not her real name) telephoned a friend living in Kundiawa who subsequently alerted the police. IPS fears that Eva’s efforts to save their lives have placed her own in danger, as attempts to contact her by mobile phone since the incident have failed.

[Click here to read full article]

Archaeologists hit 'gold' at Mansuli

KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia - The Mansuli Valley in Sabah's east coast Lahad Datu district houses the oldest human settlement in east Malaysia, archaeo­l­ogists claim.

Tucked inside a forest reserve and accessible only by a dirt road, researchers stumbled upon a treasure trove in 2003, finding more than 1,000 stone tools that are believed to date back 235,000 years.

The research was jointly carried out by Universiti Sains Malaysia and Sabah Museum, which are also currently looking at other potential sites in the state's interior Apin-Apin district in Keningau.

USM Centre for Global Archaeo­lo­gical Research director Prof Dr Mokh­tar Saidin said the evidence showed people settled in Sabah during the Paleolithic period (also known as the Stone Age), 27,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Before this, it was claimed the oldest human settlement, dating back about 40,000 years, was in the Niah Caves, near Miri, Sarawak.

Dr Mokhtar said this in a talk to mark the launch of the Archaeology in Malaysia exhibition by state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun at Sabah Museum here yesterday.

The professor said the new evidence showed that humans from the South-East Asian mainland came to Borneo when the Sunda Plain still existed.

(Also known as the Sunda Shelf, it is geologically an extension of the continental shelf of South-East Asia with the major land masses being the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Madura, Bali and their surrounding smaller islands. It covers an area of approximately 1.85 million square kilometres.)

[Click here to read full article]

Saudi Arabia: Beheadings for ‘witchcraft’

A Sri Lankan woman is currently facing decapitation by sword on a witchcraft charge in Saudi Arabia, in accordance with Wahhabism, a strict form of Sunni Islam. The UN reports executions tripled in the kingdom in 2011. ­A Saudi man complained that in a shopping mall his 13-year-old daughter “suddenly started acting in an abnormal way, which happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman,” reports the daily Okaz. After the local man denounced the Sri Lankan for casting a spell on his daughter, police in the port city of Jeddah found it sufficient cause to arrest the woman. Witchcraft and sorcery imply only one measure in Saudi Arabia – beheading. And it works this way in practice: last year in the kingdom at least two people – a woman in her 60s and a Sudanese man – were beheaded on witchcraft charges. In the absolute monarchy that Saudi Arabia is, a criminal code does not exist per se. Court sentences are based on Islamic Sharia law on the interpretation of judges. ­No sticking your neck out under Sharia law ­Capital punishment is applied regularly and indiscriminately to locals and foreign citizens. [Click here to read full article]

We prefer living with the dead

Living with the dead.

That's what a 50-year-old housewife does. Not that she has supernatural powers and communicates with the nether world as part of her hobby.

The woman, who wants to be known only as Madam Chen, said that living near the dead seems to be better than with the living.

She told The Star: "I've never experienced anything supernatural in my years of living here. Even if I live with ghosts, it's better than living with people because it is not noisy and there is no pollution in this area."

Also, there is the advantage of being secure.

She said: "I feel secure living here. Most of the time, I only close my door grille and leave my wooden door wide open."

Madam Chen said she has been living next to a graveyard at Mount Erskine in Georgetown for the last 30 years.

Mount Erskine is one of Penang's many Chinese cemeteries and is located at the north-eastern part of the island.

For the past few days, Chinese cemeteries there were crowded with people visiting the graves of relatives as it was the Qing Ming Festival.

The crowds may throng the cemeteries during this period, but for the rest of the year, Madam Chen's life is peaceful.

She told The Star that she will not move away from the place even if she could afford a bungalow. She is not the only person who loves to be with the dead. There are other families who are living within the cemetery grounds, and they have been living there for decades, the report said.

Growing up in the area gives a sense of belonging to Mr Yuen Kah Moon.

[Click here to read full article]

China: UFO hovers over busy expressway

Date of sighting: April 1, 2012 7:37 AM
Location of sighting: Beijing, China

This was reported this morning in Asia. Also Know China time is a day ahead of USA. The person posted this from their cellphone directly.

Eyewitness states: "This UFO was in Beijing CBD Jingxian. Today I shot it in the morning from the CTS overpass. I was too interested in the traffic and the main road, when I pushed the shutter I actually had a UFO!"

[Click here to read full article]

A curious case of Mass Hysteria in Malaysia

More than 30 secondary school girls were struck Monday by an unexplained hysteria for almost four hours during a routine morning assembly in a Malaysian school, the Sun reported Tuesday.

Some 1,100 students, both boys and girls, at Puchong Perdana National School in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur had gathered in the school field for a weekly Monday assembly at 7.30 a.m. when suddenly a 15-year-old girl started screaming, then collapsed.

This led to a chain reaction.

The rest of the students ran to the their class rooms in panic when at least 30 girls began acting violently, throwing objects and screaming.

The school headmaster, Aris Ahmad, teachers and state education department officers took four hours to calm down the affected girls.

No one was injured in the incident.

State education officer Mohamed Ghazali Hamzah, whom according to the Sun had experienced similar incidents many times before, said the case is ''more psychological than supernatural.''

Most of the affected girls were believed to be suffering from stress due to domestic problems and were due to sit for an important examination.

Aris said the school would be closed for a short period ''to allow the situation to settle down.''

Both the affected and unaffected students are being given counseling.

One of the victims, Nor Hasni Hassan, 16, told the Sun, ''I only remember staggering for a distance after hearing the screams of my schoolmates before collapsing.''

[Click here to read full article]

Has science explained life after death?

by Josh Clark

In 1991, Atlanta, Ga. resident Pam Reynolds had a near-death experience (NDE). Reynolds underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm, and the procedure required doctors to drain all the blood from her brain. Reynolds was kept literally brain-dead by the surgical team for a full 45 minutes. Despite being clinically dead, when Reynolds was resuscitated, she described some amazing things. She recounted experiences she had while dead -- like interacting with deceased relatives.

Even more amazing is that Reynolds was able to describe aspects of the surgical procedure, down to the bone saw that was used to remove part of her skull [source: Parker].
What's remarkable (although not unique) about Reynolds' experience is that it is the combination of an NDE and an out-of-body-experience (OBE). HowStuffWorks has braved this territory on the edge of reality, explaining how near-death experiences work and how a person can have an out-of-body experience. Science, too, has made its own headway toward explaining these weird phenomena. Two studies on the separate aspects of Reynolds' experience were conducted in 2007. Each seems to explain how a person can have an OBE or a NDE, but do they hold up in explaining experiences like Reynolds'? ­­

As many as 18 percent of people brought back from death after a heart attack said they'd had a NDE [source: Time]. While many religious adherents might not be surprised by these accounts, the idea that human consciousness and the body exist distinctly from each other flies in the face of science. A brain-dead person should not be able to form new memories -- he shouldn't have any consciousness at all, really.

So how can anything but a metaphysical explanation cover NDEs?
A study from the University of Kentucky has quickly gained ground among scientists as possibly the best explanation for NDEs. Researchers there theorize that the mysterious phenomenon is really an instance of the sleep disorder rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion. In this disorder, a person's mind can wake up before his body, and hallucinations and the feeling of being physically detached from his body can occur.

The Kentucky researchers believe that NDEs are actually REM intrusions triggered in the brain by traumatic events like cardiac arrest. If this is true, then this means the experiences of some people following near-death are confusion from suddenly and unexpectedly entering a dream-like state.

This theory helps explain what has always been a tantalizing aspect of the mystery of NDEs: how people can experience sights and sounds after confirmed brain death. The area where REM intrusion is triggered is found in the brain stem -- the region that controls the most basic functions of the body -- and it can operate virtually independent from the higher brain. So even after the higher regions of the brain are dead, the brain stem can conceivably continue to function, and REM intrusion could still occur [source: BBC].

This sounds like a good explanation for NDEs, but what about OBEs? Are they the same thing? Read the next page to discover the distinctions between near-death and out-of-body experiences.

[Click here to read full article]

5 creepy Paintings That Predicted Real World Events

Source: Nostradamus Predictions

Predicting real world events has been a fixation for not only Nostradamus. Many individuals have seen through the fog of uncertainty to predict some of the world’s major events through either paintings or images. Whether you believe in seership or not, it is not difficult to see some form of foresight in these images.

1. Claire Fearon’s “Evolution 4” and the Japanese Earthquake



Major similarities can be seen between the shape of the nuclear reactor and its relation to the explosion when compared to the photograph below.

Henfield-based artist Clair Fearon does not normally paint scenes of disaster and destruction; she more commonly focuses on cheerful images of the natural world. However, a year before the disaster took place, the artist was compelled to paint the desolate and evocative “Evolution 4”, a painting that, in her words, was totally unlike her.



Even without the specific details, Evolution 4 still manages to evoke this particular image of the disaster.

Noted similarities include the shape of the reactor and the classic nuclear mushroom cloud, the wave of water at the bottom-left of the painting and the city on the horizon slipping into a crack in the earth.

Japanese Quake Was Predicted By an Artist One Year Ago


2. Alex Grey’s “Gaia” and the September 11 Attacks



Only a specific part of Grey’s painting are reminiscent of the attacks.

Painted in 1989 by Ohio-born artist Alex Grey, Gaia was based upon a vision the painter had on the day his daughter was born. Grey has said how the painting was both hopeful and terrifying, with hope being represented by the blossoming left side of the canvas and desolation being represented by the right side.



On closer inspection, we can see two passenger planes headed towards the twin towers with smoke and flame nearby. In the other close up, we can see a man in a suit in league with a foreign solider.



Second close up of painting; this time just right of the center

[More Info]

3. The Adventures of Superman and the September 11 Attacks



The first panel shows a building similar to the Twin Towers partially destroyed.

During a story arc that involved aliens invading Metropolis, this image was painted to show the destruction the attacks had caused to the infrastructure of the city. The image in this panel is not actually the famous New York landmark, but the shape of the building is certainly evocative of the tragic event.



Later in the issue, damage to the actual Twin Towers can be seen. (Source)

What’s even more amazing is that this particular comic was released on September 12 2001, one day after the attacks on America. The publishers could do nothing about the timings and declared it a huge coincidence.

6 Eerily Specific World Events Predicted by Comics

4. Max Beckmann’s Falling Man and the September 11 Attacks



Beckmann’s painting resembles the hugely evocative photographs of those who jumped from the Twin Towers as the fires raged inside.

Many of the attributes in Beckmann’s Falling Man mirror the terrible events that took place in New York in 2001. The burning buildings, the plumes of smoke and, of course, the falling body all make up a fairly reasonable account of that day.



The image remains one of the most memorable and startling photographs taken that day.

It has been noted that Beckmann’s Falling Man is a very figurative image, and that the character in his painting is representative of something else. Despite explanations, it is still shocking to see something so perfectly suited to highlighting the terror and tragedy portrayed in the actual photograph.

[More Info]

5. Willie Gardner’s Untitled Chalk Drawing and the September 11 Attacks



The drawing hung for 13 years in a Scottish back office.

Created by amateur artist Willie Gardener, this chalk drawing has many elements that link it to the terror attacks on New York. Two planes can be seen, as well as twin skyscrapers and the child depicted in the center of the picture has a definite look of uncertainty about her as she looks up towards the buildings.



A photograph showing a plane about to hit the second tower.

Mr. Gardener’s daughter has subsequently noted that her father showed no precognitive powers before he died, but she admits that the similarities between his picture and the events of that day are quite clear.

Whether you believe in the power of visions and seership or you think mass coincidence is at play here, it is impossible to deny that the works of art featured do bear an uncomfortable similarity to horrific and emotional world events. With that in mind, now could be a time to look to current artists who may have inadvertently predicted the future with their gift. You never know, the future might already be mapped out on a canvas somewhere near you.

Picture that predicted 9/11 Chilling Twin Towers image was hanging in office from 1988

The Dream of Reality

By: Sandra Carrington-Smith

Someone once asked me how I can tell the difference between reality and fantasy. What if—this person asked—what we perceive as “reality” is indeed a dream, something made out by our subconscious, and we aren’t really living it after all but only believing we are?

That question got me thinking. Indeed, is it possible that we aren’t living at all, and we are just dreaming our lives? Could we be caught in a very sophisticated dream state science hasn’t been able to identify yet, a state of the art virtual life our spirit is “living” to understand certain concepts? After all, dreams are a tool our minds use to organize thoughts.

Of course, this would be a discussion, which could go off in many different tangents, but one of the things that are interesting to ponder is what we perceive as reality and what we perceive as illusion. Since early childhood, we are taught that ‘real” things must be measured through the five senses, and nothing which can’t be confirmed in a controlled environment should be considered real. Nothing is further from the truth. Physical attraction, for example, can be analyzed through physical signs, but true love can’t; connecting hands can be seen by others, but spiritual or emotional connection—although just as real and powerful as holding hands with someone—cannot be fully proven.

Very often, what we perceive as real through our taught patterns of rational thinking is in fact just something we have learned in our environment; if we were raised by different people, in a different society, or with different values, we would likely rationalize events differently. In the western world especially, we have come to associate our identity with what we have. The more we physically “own”—beauty, financial affluence, friends—the better we feel about ourselves. We perceive the golden ones as having everything they desire because they deserve it; if we don’t have those things, then we aren’t worth our own self-love or the love of others.

Having is not as important as being. Each of us is a unique aspect of creation, and as such we are indispensable, regardless of what we have or don’t have. Jesus himself had nothing, yet His passage on earth is still touching people two thousand years later. By the time we leave this earthly plane, what will count will be whatever we have done for others, not what we have done for ourselves. We can’t aspire to elevate our souls until we are able to detach from the rational illusion of being what we have.

We can certainly joke around and say we are living a dream, but unfortunately, for many, the dream is a nightmare; at least until they awaken, and realize that reality can only be found at the core and Armani isn’t the one who designed it.

[Click here to read full article]

The Man of the Sea

Source: Phantom and Monsters Blog

For several years, residents of coastal areas around the southern and southwestern Caspian Sea have been reporting of an amphibious creature resembling a human being. In March 2005 an eyewitness account from the crew of the Baku, an Azeri trawler, was published by Iranian newspaper Zindagi: “That creature was swimming parallel course near the boat for a long time,” said Gafar Gasanof, a captain of the ship.

“At the beginning we thought it was a big fish, but then we spotted hair on the head of the monster and his fins looked pretty strange... the front part of his body was equipped with arms!” said the captain. Back in Azerbaijan, nobody took his story seriously. It sounded ridiculous to those who thought that the guy must have been drinking while on board.

On the contrary, shortly after the publication of his interview, the offices of the Iranian paper got flooded with numerous letters of the readers who claimed that the story was yet another piece of evidence proving the existence of the so-called “man of the sea.” The readers pointed out that many fishermen had repeatedly seen the strange creature at sea and on shore after the seabed volcanoes in the area of Babolsera had come to life in February and offshore oil production operations had intensified in the Caspian.

All the eyewitness accounts provide a similar description of the marine humanoid. His height is 165-168 cm, he has a strong build, a protruding ctenoid stomach, his feet are pinniped and he has four webbed fingers on either of his hands. His skin is of moonlight color. The hair on his head looks black and green. His arms and legs are shorter and heavier than those of a medium-built person. Apart from his fingernails, he has nails growing on the tip of his aquiline nose that look like a dolphin's beak. No information as to his ears. His eyes are large and orbicular. The mouth of the creature is fairly large, his upper jaw is prognathic and his lower lip flows smoothly into the neck, his chin is missing.

Iranians dubbed the creature Runan-shah or “the master of the sea and rivers.” The name is partly based on stories about large shoals of fish accompanying the creature at sea. Other stories refer to the waters that would turn crystal clear and stay that way for two or three days after the creature was seen swimming in those areas. Fishermen claim that fishes that stay alive for a while in the net can feel the creature coming out of the deep blue sea. Fishes were reported producing barely heard gurgling sounds as the monster came near. He was said to answer the call of the catch by making similar throaty sounds.

Some researchers believe that there is no smoke without fire and the stories circulating in Iran can be true. Besides, Runan-shah was seen by Azeri fishermen living in the villages located between the cities of Astara and Lenkoran. According to a theory, the creature is not alone; there is a family of underwater humans who are on a mission ... to tackle environmental problems of the Caspian.

The Caspian Runan-shah is not the only species of underwater humans on record. Both Herodotus and Plato believed that original human beings were amphibious and might have founded an underwater state.

A book of collected scientific articles titled “The Universe and Humankind” that was published in St. Petersburg in 1905 contains a story of “marine female” caught in the Caribbean. It also has stories about dead bodies of the amphibious humans washed ashore in the Azores in 1876. Their descriptions largely correspond with the reported description of Runan-shah.

An amphibious humanlike being was reported in Karelia in 1928. The creature was repeatedly seen in the lake of Vedlozero by local residents. A group of researchers from the Petrozavodsk University arrived to investigate the case on location. Unfortunately, the findings were classified and the members of the research party eventually perished in the Gulag.

According to latest reports in the media, Iranians have already started their research of the Caspian phenomenon. The international scientific community might as well help unravel the mystery if politics do not get in the way of science this time around.

The Baku Trawler Reports

Source: Phantom and Monsters Blog

Master Oregon note: The creature described in this reports are what said to be a type of humanoid fish-like entity, i.e. a fish-man. Such creatures have been commonly reported being seen in the Caspian Sea area. Such sightings of similar creatures also occur throughout the world - Goat Man, Lizard Men, Dog headed Men, etc.

Location/Date: Caspian Sea, Astara & Lenkoran Azerbaijan - March 2005 - Afternoon

Residents of a few towns on the Caspian shores in Iran and Azerbaijan say they have seen an amphibious man, he was reported to be swimming amidst huge shoals of fish. Rumor has it that the waters where he swam were becoming sparkling clear. Recently eyewitnesses onboard the Azeri trawler, “Baku” reported seeing the creature.

According to Gafar Gasanof the captain of the trawler, the creature was swimming in a parallel course near the boat for a long time. At first they thought it was a large fish, but then they spotted hair on its head and his fins looked very unusual. And incredibly the front part of his body was equipped with arms. Shortly after this report was published in an Iranian newspaper, numerous readers came forward describing their own sightings. The readers pointed out that numerous fishermen had repeatedly seen the strange creature at sea and on the shore after seabed volcanoes in the area of Babolsera became active in February and offshore oil production operations intensified in the Caspian.

All the eyewitness accounts provide a similar description of the marine humanoid. His height is about 165cm to 168cm, it has a protruding stomach, his feet are pinniped and he has four webbed fingers on either of his hands. His skin is pale white in color. The hair on his head looks black and green. His arms and legs are shorter and heavier than those of a medium-build person. Apart from his fingernails, he has nails growing on the tip of his aquiline nose that resembles a dolphin’s beak. There is no information as to his ears. His eyes are large and orbicular. The mouth of the creature is fairly large, his upper jaw is protruding and his lower lip flows smoothly into the neck, his chin is missing.

Iranians have dubbed the creature, “Runan-shah” or “Master of the seas and rivers”. Other stories report that the waters remain crystal clear for days in the area where the creature has been spotted. Fishermen report that the fish that are caught in their nets seem to sense the creature when it approaches and produce a barely audible gurgling sound. It is said that the creature answers the call of the catch by making similar throaty sounds. According to a theory the creature is not alone and that there is a family of underwater humans, who are on a mission.to tackle environmental problems in the Caspian.

The reproduction of flora and fauna in the Caspian has significantly deteriorated due to a surge in offshore oil production operations and underwater volcanic activity. The Astrakhan fishermen have long complained about the decrease in the stock of sturgeon.

Location/Date: Caspian Sea territorial waters of Azerbaijan - end of March 2005

Azerbaijani fishermen from the trawler “Baky” (Baku) were stunned to see a weird entity in the water. The entity swam for a long period of time near the trawler, parallel to it, reported Gafar Gasanov Captain of the ship to the local newspaper “Zindagi” when he arrived at the Iranian port of Enzeli. At first the crew thought that the entity was some type of unknown large fish, but soon they noticed that the entity’s head had distinct hairs on it and the front fins were not fins at all but webbed hands. They acknowledged that the entity looked more like a humanoid than any kind of known fish. They all concluded that they had never seen something like it in the waters.

The amphibian entity then plunged deep into the waters and disappeared from sight. When Captain Gasanov returned to Azerbaijan people there refused to talk to him about the incident alleging that he and his crew had all been drunk. But the Iranians took the report seriously because of numerous rumors about “a man from the sea” were circulating in Iran long before this report. After publication in the local newspaper “Zindagi” local Iranian residents wrote numerous letters to the newspaper reporting their own encounters with a similar entity.

The common opinion was that underwater volcanic activity in the area of Babolser and the intensification of oil extraction in the Caspian Sea has somehow caused unknown deep water dwellers to venture up to the surface. The entity is shorter than that of the average height, about 165-168cm, thickset, with a protruding belly, feet with flippers, and 4 fingered webbed hands. The skin is pale yellowish gray in color and it has stiff black-green hair. Arms and legs are slightly shorter and thicker than that of humans. Sharp nails grow on its hands and also at the tip of its hump-shaped nose, forming something like a dolphin’s beak. The ears are not visible. The eyes are big and round and the mouth is quite big with a protruding upper jaw, smoothly connected to the neck, without chin, the smaller lip is similar to that of a shark’s jaw.

In Iran this amphibian humanoid is called “Runah-Shah” which means, “Sovereign of waters and rivers”. Interestingly the fishermen have noticed that the fish seemed to react when the entity appears, like if there were some kind of distant, extra sensory communication between the entity and the fish. Other witnesses reported seeing the same or similar entity in May between the small fishing villages of Astara and Lenkoran.

Bigfoot Call

Master Oregon Note: The noises recorded are definitely non-human nor artificial. However, which animal does it belong to remains a mystery. Perhaps some of our readers can solve this mystery?

Uploaded by irvinyork on Mar 27, 2012

Recorded September 2011

While camping on the Saco River just outside Conway New Hampshire. While I don't believe in bigfoot, many have told me that is what this is. I decided to post it and maybe someone who can identify the call will know it.

India’s Stonehenge discovered in K’taka

ndia may have its own version of Stonehenge, England’s prehistoric monument with astronomical associations, in Karnataka. Researchers from the Mum-bai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Manipal University have discovered 26 megalithic constructions at Byse, 140 km

from Mangalore, which were probably used as an astronomical observatory by its inhabitants.
The three-member team has claimed that the menhirs or stones, dating prior to 1000BC, are the first strong evidence of a monument with intentional solar and possible stellar alignments among Indian megaliths.

Using computer simulations, the team found that the standing stones are aligned to the north, east, south and west directions and also match the two solstices and equinoxes. While the two solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year, an equinox occurs when the sun is in the same plane as the earth’s equator.

“The megaliths may have helped inhabitants know the various seasons; helping them carry out agriculture and other trade,” said Mayank Vahia, astrophysicist, TIFR. “The study establishes that India had a strong intellectual tradition of precise astronomical observation not copied from any other civilisation.”

The study ‘Stone alignment with solar and other sightlines in South India’ is published in the latest issue of Current Science, published by the Indian Academy of Sciences based in Bangalore.

“Although the site was discovered in 1975, we went back to literature and found that nothing more of them was studied,” said professor Srikumar M Menon from the Manipal School of Architecture and Planning, Manipal University.

[Click here to read full article]

Reincarnation of Shanti Devi

In 1930, aged 4, Shanti Deva from Delhi, India, told her parents that she had once lived in a place called Muttra (now known as Mathura), that she had been a mother of three, who died in childbirth, and that her previous name was Ludgi. Because the girl continually related the story, her parents investigated. It turned out there was a village called Muttra, and that a woman named Ludgi had recently died there. They took Shanti to the village where she began to speak the local dialect and recognized her previous-life husband and children. She even gave twenty four accurate statements matching confirmed facts about Ludgi’s life. An impressive feat for a four year old.

One of the earliest and best-known documented cases of children who claim to recall a past life, that of Shanti Devi (studied by K.S. Rawat), also includes statements about her experiences after death and before her reincarnation.

Shanti Devi

In the 1930s when the idea of successive lives was not shared by the educated elite, the case of a 9-year-old girl Shanti Devi of Delhi attracted much public attention throughout India and soon its reports travelled far and wide in the entire world (Rawat, 1997). For the first time in history, a committee of fifteen persons, including journalists, was constituted to investigate the veracity of the statements made by the girl, claiming to be a Chouban (member of the Choubey family) of Mathura in her past life. Mathura, a town 145 kilometers from Delhi, never visited by the girl or her parents. Spiritualists and rationalists, scientists and laymen visited Delhi and Mathura either to investigate dispassionately or to support their religious beliefs or to entirely expose what they saw as a hoax. One such critic, Sture Lönnerstrand, came all the way down from Sweden to expose the ‘fake’ case. After completing his investigations he issued the statement: ‘This is the only fully explained and proven case of reincarnation there has ever been.” (Hunt, 1971.)

Shanti Devi was born in a middle class family of Delhi on December 11, 1926. She was just like any other ordinary girl, excepting that till the age of four she did not speak much. From the age of four, when she started speaking, she ceased to be an ordinary girl and her behaviour changed a lot. She started talking about her ‘husband’ and ‘children’. She would repeatedly describe her home and her husband’s shop at Mathura. She said she was a Chouban (member of the Choubey family) of Mathura and her name was Lugdi.

She would talk of the food and clothing she enjoyed in a former life. Her parents ignored her, but she persisted. Her parents got puzzled but she insisted on a visit to Mathura. For five years her parents tried to distract her mind but to no avail. At last, a sympathetic granduncle came to her aid. He asked her to give him the name and address of her ‘husband’ at Mathura. A friend, Lala Kishan Chand, wrote a letter to the address given by the girl. Soon a reply came, attesting that the statements of the girl were substantially correct. It was suggested that a relation of Choube Kedar Nath, Pt. (Pundit) Kanji Mal of Delhi might be allowed to interview the girl.

An interview was accordingly arranged. Shanti Devi is reported to have correctly recognized Pt. Kanji Mal as the younger cousin of her alleged husband. She gave convincing answers to the questions put to her by Pt. Kanji Mal. “After this conversation”, he wrote, “I was convinced that the girl was really my own relation, now personating in another body.” On November 13, 1935, Kedar Nath Choubey, along with his third wife (he had one prior to Lugdi) went to Shanti Devi’s house in Delhi.

Shanti Devi recognized her husband and expressed motherly affection towards her son Nitlal who was now her elder. She burst into tears and sobbed for about an hour. Late at night Kedar Nath Choubey took Shanti Devi in a separate room, and put her some intimate questions. He was satisfied by her answers and moved to tears.

Shanti Devi continued insisting on a visit to Mathura. She added many more details about her house and other events related to her former life. On November 24, 1935, she was taken to Mathura by the committee of fifteen eminent persons appointed on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi to investigate the veracity of the claim made by the girl.

She was: “kept under close observation and all her movements and remarks were carefully noted” by the committee. Shanti Devi is reported to have recognized a number of persons, answered all the queries put to her and spotted out the significant places connected with her past life.

[Click here to read full article]

Rihanna reveals UFO spotter past

Rihanna used to be a UFO spotter.

The 24-year-old singer says her father Ronald Fenty used to have her sit on the doorstep of their home in Bridgetown, Barbados, and monitor the skies for signs of extra-terrestrial activity.

She said: 'My dad used to make me sit outside on the steps all night long looking for UFOs flying by, and I had to do that for years.


'I didn't see any but I saw a falling star once and I was like, 'Yessss, Dad! Come and see, it just darted'.'

The 'We Found Love' hitmaker - who goes to war with aliens in new movie 'Battleship' - admits her role as Navy gunner Raikes has deepened her admiration for those who fight for their country.

She told The Sun newspaper: I have so much respect for soldiers.

'They dedicate their lives to saving other lives and saving their countries and a lot of times they don't even get recognised for it, even when they come back. Sometimes they don't have a place to go.

'It's really sad but they put themselves on the line out there and I admire them so, so much.
'It really takes a certain character and person with a certain discipline to be a soldier.'
Rihanna admits her acting debut has given her a taste for the big screen, but insists she won't be turning her back on music any time soon.

She said: 'Doing movies and getting into acting is something that I always wanted to try and I never knew whether I would like it, hate it or love it but I just wanted to try it.
'It ended up being a really awesome experience. But I don't see why I can't do both acting and music.'

[Click here to read full article]

Saudi couple blames jinn for their poverty

Passers by in a busy street in the Saudi capital Riyadh look with curiosity at a man and his wife who turned a building corner on the pavement into their house. The two, looking poor and untidy, blame the jinn (spirits) for their ordeal.

Their open-air accommodation does not have any of the modern life facilities except for their mattress, blankets, pillows and a few cups and water bottles.

As if to underscore their problem, the two Saudi citizens chose to squat a corner which is just across the road from the government grievances court, which is daily flooded by hundreds of people seeking justice.

The unshaven Mansoor looks as if he has not had a bath for weeks while his wife’s sight is weakening almost every day and she will eventually become blind in the absence of medical care, according to a Saudi newspaper.

“I am under magic spell because of what has befallen me,” said the lean, brown man, quoted by the Arabic language daily Sabq.

Mansoor said he had a house before he was sacked “without any reason” from his job at the ministry of finance. He now has no house and has been deprived from his pension “for some reason.”

Although his wife kept interrupting him to shut up, he went on:”I have a son from another wife and he is now 20 years old…but I don’t see him….I also have 16 brothers but they are useless as they never tried to help me…I have been to many government departments for help but they refused to help,” he said.

“I then got a job as a security man but they later sacked me…I then got a job as a school bus driver but again they sacked me shortly later saying I am no good…I then decided to sell fruit and vegetable but government inspectors came and impounded my stuff…one day, a person I don’t know came to me and said he would help but he never come back…I am sure I am haunted with jinns.”

[Click here to read full article]

Dancing Down an Indian Hallway in Darkness

Source: xpost from nosleep

My cousin recently moved here from Secunderabad, India. On a recent road trip exploring America, we were shootin shit and exchanging ghost stories and laughing at similarities and differences between American ghost stories and Indian ghost stories when I asked her if she's ever experienced anything supernatural. Her eyes widened as she averted her eyes to the window. Just when the silence was about to be too much for me, she softly responded "Yes. A few. One is troubling."

"When I was a second year in college, I stayed at in an all-girl hostel [dorm]. I made many friends. We were all very happy to be in school away from our conservative parents. The hostel was so much fun, but it was a very very old building. Electricity was only put in the rooms. Sometimes, candles were placed along the windows if a watchman was present, but normally once you left the rooms, you were faced with complete darkness. It's common to wake up someone if you needed to walk down to the restroom at the end of the hall. We all had a childish fear of being alone in the dark.

One night, I had to use the restroom. It was about 4am. I went to my friend's bed and tapped her on the arm. She immediately opened her eyes as soon as I touched her. I apologized for bothering her, and told her I needed to pee. She smiled at me and hopped out of bed. All the way down the hallway, she laughed and danced. I could not see her at all, but her bangles clanked together loudly and the bells on her anklets jingled softly. It was very calming. I laughed and sashayed my hips down the hallway with her, too tired to match elaborate arm movements. She said nothing to me, though occasionally I heard her hum one of our favorite bollywood songs. The same thing happened on our return. I fell back asleep easily.

I awoke fairly late the next morning to the sound of men in our room. They surrounded her bed. I bolted from my bed, prepared to protect my friend, when I realized they were administrators of the college. I peered over closer. My friend's lifeless eyes were fixated on my bed; the same smile on her face. Suicide. Her time of death was 11:30pm, almost 5 hours before I woke her."

Does discovery of this 1st Century coffin lid prove the resting place of Jesus is under Jerusalem tower block?

Archaeologists exploring a 1st century Christian burial chamber have discovered an ancient inscription on a coffin lid which they believe could prove the site is the final resting place of Jesus.

Using a remote-controlled camera connected to a robotic arm to probe below a tower block in Jerusalem, the archaeologists were staggered to discover a set of 1st century 'bone boxes'.
The lid on one of these limestone boxes, also known as ossuaries, carries an inscription in Greek which could be translated as 'Divine Jehovah, raise up, raise up'.

Another carries a drawing of a fish with a stick figure in its mouth which is believed to refer to the story of Jonah and the Whale - one of the very first biblical stories.

The find is 200ft away from an earlier discovery known as the Jesus Family Tomb, which caused a huge amount of controversy after it was uncovered in the 1980s.

Archaeologists then claimed it contained ossuaries inscribed with names associated with Jesus's family.
That discovery sprouted amazing theories including one that maintained Jesus had been buried there alongside Mary Magdalene who he had married and raised a family with.

However many leading theologians and archaeologists rubbished such claims as being completely unfounded.

The Jesus Family Tomb was only examined briefly before protests by Orthodox Jews, concerned about the disturbance of a grave site, ended the excavation.

It was then sealed up, and a tower block built over it.

However James Tabor, a scriptural scholar at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici were determined to continue the research.

The pair obtained permission from the Israeli government in 2010 to use the robotic arm to drill holes allowing them to explore the surrounding area.

This led to the discovery of a separate chamber which they named the 'Patio Tomb', as it sits almost directly below the patio of the building.

[Click here to read full article]

Haunted Bhangarh Fort : The Ghost Town of Rajasthan

Bhangarh is a deserted town with some 10000 dwellings established in 1613 by Madho Singh, younger brother of great Mughal general, Man Singh of Amber. Bhangarh was abandoned soon after being built and supposedly after it was cursed by a magician. Bhangarh fort offers an intact view of the medieval past. Apparently, the Bhangarh town had been desolated by an old mughal invasion, and is just reverting back to being habited again.

Bhangarh premises are enclosed by a partially ruined wall. Other than dwellings, ruins of Bhangarh also include gardens, havelis, banyan trees and temples of Lord Someshwar, gopinath, mangla devi and Keshava rai. But the enigmatic attraction is a secluded chhatri on the hill top which catches attention of all the travelers. In entirety, the random placement of all these sites within Bhangarh premises may look freighting and mysterious at the same time.

There are some other forts near Bhangarh those were also built in the same era and share the related history. Ajabgarh is a picturesque garrison fort between Bhangarh and Pratapgarh, with a lovely reservoir nearby. Ajabgarh fort was built by Ajab Singh Rajawat, The grandson of Madho Singh. Ajabgarh fort is in good condition, and offers an incredible panoramic view of the eponymous walled town and the well –preserved, but less visited temple of Shri Raghunath ji and old chhatris, all nearby. Pratapgarh is a remarkable fort situated on hill top which dominates the region. Pratapgarh and its vicinity are famous for its natural surrounding and scenic countryside. Pratapgarh town has two temples and a mosque

[Click here to read full article]

Medieval medallion found in baby shark in Malaysia

Source: Phantom and Monsters Blog

A baby shark being prepared for lunch gave a Malaysian family a big surprise - an ancient artifact believed to be dated long before the Portuguese conquest of Malacca. Housewife Suseela Menon, from Klebang, made the priceless discovery while filleting the fish for lunch.

It is believed to be a medallion worn by the Portuguese soldiers, presumably as a divine protection, during their conquests in this part of the world in the 16th century. One side of the medallion is a profile of a woman's head with a crown and encircled by a halo and an inscription that is unclear. The other side is a crucifix with an engraved inscription that reads ANTONII.

Checks with a local historian revealed the head engraving could be that of Queen Elizabeth, the consort of King Denis I of Portugal during his reign from 1271 to 1336. Suseela said she immediately cleaned the medallion and preserved it in a box. “I bought two sharks from the wet market and was taken aback upon discovering the object inside the stomach of one of the fishes,” said the 47-year-old mother-of-two.

Suseela had wanted to prepare shark curry for her husband. “Finally, my husband decided not to eat the fish as the object seems to be a religious item,” she said. The medallion is 7.4cm long, 6cm wide and weighs 10g. “My husband feels it is a blessing for the family to have the medallion coming to our home from beneath the sea. We will always cherish it,” said Suseela.

Mystery cloud spotted on Mars

Amateur astronomers are puzzling over a seemingly anomalous cloud that has shown up on images of Mars taken over the past few days. Is it really a cloud, or a trick of the eye? Does it really extend 150 miles up from the surface, as some of the observers suggest? And what churned up all that stuff, anyway? The amateurs and the pros will be trying to resolve those questions before the phenomenon fades away.

"It's not completely unexpected," Jonathon Hill, a member of the team at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, told me today. "But it's bigger than we would expect, and it's definitely something that our atmosphere guys want to take a look at."
Hill and his colleagues will be looking at the area where the cloud was spotted using the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, which is one of the instruments on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.

"In the command upload we're preparing to send today, we've included observations that will hopefully capture some of these recent clouds," Hill wrote in an email. "Our THEMIS camera on Mars Odyssey is capable of acquiring simultaneous visible and thermal infrared images, so our atmospheric researchers are pretty excited about the possibility of not only getting a good look at the cloud structures, but also their temperatures."

THEMIS will be checking out heightened cloud activity around Mars' shield volcanoes as well as around the southern site spotted by the amateurs. Pictures from a camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, called the Mars Color Imager, or MARCI, might provide further clues about the southern cloud feature. And amateur astronomers are sending out the alert for observers to keep a close watch on the Red Planet over the coming days.

There's been lots of buzz about the high-altitude cloud on Cloudy Nights and other online discussion forums for skywatchers. Sky & Telescope's Sean Walker says the puff of white was first noticed on March 20 by Wayne Jaeschke, an amateur astrophotographer from Pennsylvania. Since then, other observers have identified the feature in images going back as far as March 12.

[Click here to read full article]

The Red Mask Girl

Source: Seoul List Mag

This happened to a friend of a friend. I swear to God it’s true. One night, he was riding on a subway in Seoul…or maybe it was Busan, I don’t exactly remember, but anyway, it was late, he was alone, and there weren’t many other people on the train. A woman got on, and took the seat next to him. He said she wore her hair long, down to the middle of her back, and it shone in the lights of the train. Her figure was good, and he couldn’t stop staring at her beautiful eyes. But she wore a red surgical mask. They rode for a few stops, he’d catch her looking at him, she’d catch him looking at her. Finally he smiled at her. He couldn’t tell, because of the red mask, but her eyes looked like she was smiling back. His stop was coming up, so it was now or never—he had to say something if he was going to.

But she spoke instead: “Am I pretty?”

What a stupid question! Of course she was pretty! So he said: “Yes.”

The girl reached up behind her head, her slender, white fingers untying the mask. She let it fall to her lap.

“How about now?” she asked.

The girl’s mouth was slit open from ear to ear. You could see her teeth, her gums, she looked like she was grinning! She started to scream at him, but, lucky boy, the subway stopped, the doors opened, and he ran, never looking back.

No, wait, that’s not how the story goes. The real story is that the girl had plastic surgery, but something went terribly wrong; she went insane, and now she wanders the streets, asking men whether they think she’s pretty. If they answer no, she holds them down, pulls out a surgical scalpel, and cuts their mouth to match hers. If they answer yes? Then she screams at them that they’re a liar, and uses her scalpel to cut their throats! Or…maybe that’s not it either? Maybe she cuts you based on your blood type? If you’re a type A, it’s just a little cut. Only a centimeter or so. Type B is a little longer, maybe two or three centimeters. But, oh man, type AB or O? She’ll cut all the way to your ears.

This story is an urban legend. It is called The Red Mask Girl, the Ripped Mouth or Slit Mouth Woman, or the Kuchisake-onna. Like any urban legend, there are a hundred variations, different twists that evolve in different regions. It seems to always be a woman, hiding her mouth with a surgical mask. Nothing odd there, we see it all the time on the streets of Korea. Sometimes she targets children, sometimes men. Sometimes she uses a scalpel, sometimes scissors. But she always asks some variation of “am I pretty?” or “am I beautiful?” Some stories say there is no right answer, some say that if you tell her she looks average or so-so she will let you go. As to how she became disfigured? It could have been plastic surgery gone wrong, perhaps it was a car crash. Or maybe she’s so crazy that she did this to herself, hoping for a more beautiful smile.

This legend originated in Japan, as far back as the Edo period. Legend has it that a jealous man accused his beautiful, vain wife of adultery, and slit her smile with his sword. “Who will think you are beautiful now?” he asked, assured of her faithfulness from then on.

The story resurfaced with a vengeance in 1970’s Japan. It is said—this is, remember, an urban legend, so any information can be passed along with a clear conscience—that in the late 70’s, a woman who attacked and killed children was hit by a car while chasing a child, and as a result, her face was split into a macabre grin. It is theorized that this real woman’s death was the catalyst for the story’s resurfacing and spreading.

Around 2004, the legend hopped to Korea, which added the detail of the red surgical mask. It seems to be more prevalent here these days than Japan, but these stories come in waves.

The facial deformity that the Red Mask Woman has is commonly called a Glasgow Grin, because the practice is said to have originated there (clearly not true, as they were doing it in the Edo period of Japan). In the much publicized murder of Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia) in America in 1947, her mouth was slit in a Glasgow Grin. Victor Hugo, in 1869 France, wrote The Man Who Laughs, a novel about a man whose mouth had been cut in a similar fashion. More recently, and perhaps most famously, Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight sported this mutilation. Clearly the idea, one of being hurt so much you’ll never frown again, rings true in cultures world-wide. The juxtaposition of pain and the image of a smile, of a smile made out of scars is a jarring one.

The moral of the story? If you’re riding the subway in Seoul and the pretty lady with the red masks asks if you think she’s pretty? Just run. There are no right answers to that question. Happy Halloween.

Kuchisake Onna

Source: Scaryforkids

Kuchisake Onna, also known as The Slit-Mouth Woman, is a scary Japanese urban legend about a disfigured Japanese woman who brandishes a large scissors and preys on children. She has an enormous slit mouth, which extends from ear to ear in a horrible, permanent smile.

The Slit Mouth Woman walks the streets of Japan, wearing a surgical mask and hunting for children. If you cross her path, she will stop you and ask you a question. If you give her the wrong answer, there will be horrible consequences.

Picture the scene. You are walking home from school and your path takes you down a deserted city street. Suddenly, you hear a faint noise coming from the shadows. You glance over and see a beautiful woman standing there. She has long black hair and is wearing a beige trenchcoat. A surgical mask covers the lower half of her face. In Japan, wearing a surgical mask is not uncommon during flu season, to prevent spreading germs.

She steps out of the shadows and blocks your path.

“Am I beautiful?” she asks.

Before you can answer, she tears off her mask, revealing a hideously deformed face. Her huge mouth is sliced from ear to ear and gapes open revealing rows of sharp teeth and a big red disgusting tongue twisting and twirling inside.

“Am I beautiful NOW?” she screams.

Terrified, you struggle to answer her. If you say “No”, she pulls out a huge pair of scissors and kills you immediately, chopping off your head. If you say “Yes”, she takes her scissors and slices your mouth from ear to ear, making you look just like her. If you try to run away, she will hunt you down and kill you, by slicing you in two.

The only way to escape from Kuchisake Onna is to give a non-committal answer. If you say “You look average” or you look normal, she will be confused, giving you just enough time to run away.

There are many rumors about how Kuchisake Onna got her horribly disfigured mouth. Some say that her slit mouth is the result of plastic surgery that went horribly wrong. Others say that she was injured in a terrible car crash. Some even believe she is an escaped mental patient who was so demented that she cut her own mouth apart.

According to one legend, years ago, in Japan, there lived a very beautiful woman who was extremely vain and self-absorbed. Her husband was a very jealous and brutal man and he became convinced that she was cheating on him. In a fit of rage, he took a sword and slit her mouth from ear to ear, screaming “Who will think you’re beautiful now?” She became a vengeful spirit, and began wandering the streets of Japan, wearing a surgical mask to hide her terrible scars.

The Slit Mouth Woman’s reign of terror began in the spring and summer of 1979, when rumors began to spread throughout Japan about sightings of the Kuchisake-onna hunting down children. The story spread like wildfire and actually created scares in many towns. Police increased their patrols and schools sent teachers to walk students home in groups.

In 2004, South Korea was plagued by reports of a red-masked woman who was chasing children.

In 2007, a coroner found some old records from the late 1970s about a woman who was chasing little children, but was hit by a car, and died shortly after. Her mouth was ripped from ear to ear.

The USA has its own version of Kuchisake Onna. There were rumors about a clown who appeared in public bathrooms and accosted children, asking “Do you want death or happy smile?” if they chose “happy smile”, he took out a knife and slit their mouths from ear to ear.

The Invisible People

In the early 1990s I worked in a large plantation in the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The plantation was situated south of Lake Toba, and was in hilly terrain.
All the executives' houses were constructed in a straight line on top of a low hill. My house was the second one in the row. In the front of our houses were a few rows of oil palm trees. After this the hill sloped off into a valley. As it was too steep to plant on this slope, it became covered over with undergrowth and small jungle trees. The valley itself was a riot of all sorts of tropical creepers, weeds and larger trees. On the other side of the valley, the slope was terraced and planted with rubber trees.

As I was new to the country then, and just learning the language, I kept mostly to myself after work and pored over an Indonesian dictionary every night. Other than satellite TV, we had no other entertainment. On weekdays we hit the sack early as we had to get up at five the next morning for work.

Even from my first week there, I noted that there was some sort of celebration or prayer meeting every Wednesday evening straight opposite my home. Although I saw no one, I concluded that this must be the case, as precisely at half past six, I heard the sound of metal drums. This sound went on for about half an hour or one hour, and then stopped as suddenly as it began. When I asked my house help as to what was going on there, she just shrugged her shoulders and did not reply. I thought it was impolite or improper to ask about such matters, and did not bother to question her about it anymore.

As I got to know the plantation better, my curiosity about this drumming became deeper. I knew that there were no houses or buildings in the valley in front of my home. On the hill beyond the valley too there were no homes or other buildings. Yet every Wednesday, the drumming appeared to be coming from somewhere very close- almost as if from the valley!

Finally, as tactfully as possible, I asked some of my assistants as to what the sound was and from where it was coming. They just smiled at me and said, ' Itu orang Bunian ' ( It's the Bunian people ). I did not wish to look silly by asking them what the Bunian people were, and so I just said, ' Oh ' and nodded in agreement.

There was an assistant there who was particularly close to me. I asked him in confidence as to what these Bunian people were. He replied that they were invisible people, somewhat similar to the gnomes and fairies of Western folklore. They liked living near humans and sometimes got friendly with some of them. There were stories about how some human males married Bunian females and went on to be accepted in the Bunian community. They however became invisible to other humans as soon as they entered the Bunian community. Humans could ask for help from the Bunians. If a person was having a feast and did not have enough cutleries for the occasion, plates could be borrowed from the Bunian people. Great care however must be taken that not a single plate is broken.

I asked this assistant as to how he could prove that the drumming was made by the orang Bunian. He replied that on one Wednesday, two other assistants determined to find out once and for all from where the sound issued. Armed with torchlights and long knives, they proceeded to look for the source of the sound as soon as it started. They descend all the way into the valley and travelled up quite a distance on the hill on the other side, and still the sound appeared to be coming from just a short distance in front of them. As it had already gotten dark by then, they abandoned their quest and hurried back home.

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2012 Apocalypse date wrong?

Achí Rabinal, an professor of ancient Mayan studies at the National University of Tultitlán, says the true end is now nearer. The original date was off by five months, he says; the real day is July 21st.

This was the results of research conducted in conjunction with NASA and the FBI to assess the possible risks caused to humankind by the apocalypse.

"There was an error used in the original calculations based on the ancient Mayan manuscripts; our modern calculators were too fast and furious to calculate ancient numbers, thus the dates were off by five months," said Professor Rabinal.

When asked what can mankind do in the event of this latest update, he said: "Sell off all your worldly possessions; seek enlightenment and hope for the best on 20th July."

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Filipino Gnomes

Source: Phantom and Monsters Blog

After my grandpa died, I think it was about four years ago at the Philippines, my older cousin was with us out side talking and we had toy guns that shoot out little plastic rubber bullets. When we were talking about going to the megamall, my cousin looked at the bushes and he saw a little tiny foot. When he said that, we had been shooting our toy guns at the bushes. A lot of little people's heads started to come out staring at my cousin, trying to tell us to stop shooting at them. I couldn't see anything - no feet or no little heads of a gnome.

Finally, he told us to stop. After that we got really scared, so we ran inside and told our parents. One hour after that happened, we went to my grandma's house and my cousin that saw a gnome that was really sick. So a couple of days later they called a witch doctor to come and heal him. My cousin said they had pointy hats they were small and dressed in green and they had a skinny little stick that they use to play as a flute.