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A barren desert, frigid temperatures, and stinging winds are just a few features of the environment to be found in parts of Peru.  This relatively small country seated on the pacific coast of South America is divided into five provinces, the largest of which is Nazca, which is home to one of the great wonders of the world – the Nazca Lines.

The Nazca Lines are an ancient mystery linked to religious undertones and maybe even ancient aliens. Though standing on the ground at the plateau on which these intricate shapes lay, one can only scarcely see what all the fuss is about.  It is from the air that the real sights can be seen.

Made by overturning the red rocks and pebbles and exposing the white sand below, the Nazca Lines were constructed somewhere between 400 and 650 AD by the ancient Nazca peoples.  These geoglyphs, which number in the hundreds, depict many animals from in and around Peru, such as monkeys and birds and even human figures.  Others are simple geometric shapes and lines.

Experts can hardly agree on the purpose of the glyphs, let alone how the were made.  Some of the more obscure theories suggest that the Nazca people had mastered low altitude flight and that they used the lines as landing strip guidelines, while others suggest that the Nazca had other worldly help, but not all are convinced.  The prevailing theory proposes that the geoglyphs were constructed as a part of religious rituals, paying homage to the gods whom the Nazsca believed were responsible for water and rain.

Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky replicated a geoglyph of his own, demonstrating that lines could have been constructed without flight or aerial assistance.  Using only simple ground based surveying techniques Nickell’s geoglyph was surprisingly consistent with the original Nazca Lines.

The Nazca Lines cover an area of nearly 500 square kilometres, with some of the geoglyphs measuring up to 270 meters across.  It is the dry and windless environment of the Nazca desert that keeps the lines preserved.  The Nazca desert is perhaps the driest location on earth, and this has helped to keep the geoglyphs undisturbed for nearly 1500 years.

In 1985, the archaeologist Johan Reinhard published archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data demonstrating that worship of mountains and other water sources predominated in Nazca religion and economy from ancient to recent times. He theorized that the lines and figures were part of religious practices involving the worship of deities associated with the availability of water, which directly related to the success and productivity of crops. He interpreted the lines as sacred paths leading to places where these deities could be worshiped. The figures were symbols representing animals and objects meant to invoke the gods’ aid in supplying water. But, the precise meanings of many of the individual geoglyphs remain unsolved as of 2011.

As mentioned above, others still believe the Nazca Lines are a part of a greater landscape of mystery. One Eric von Däniken believes that the lines could not have been constructed by the people of Peru, and maintains that the lines are runways for extraterrestrial craft.  Others yet believe that the lines demonstrate an astronomical knowledge that should not have been present during the period of the lines construction.

In any event, the area has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the hope of preservation into the foreseeable future, though pollution and deforestation threaten to change the environment, to the detriment of conservation.  The lines themselves are delicate, most averaging only 10-30cm deep, which means that a single heavy rainfall could wipe the geoglyphs off the face of the Earth altogether.

Evil, A Primer, is exactly what it is held to be, a neat little book that discusses Evil in all its forms. It is definitely an introduction only. though as the title says, it is just a primer.

William Hart treated this subject with the style of a poet and the mind of a scientist and the result is a highly readable introduction to one of humanities deepest philosophical debates.

“[Mankind] is fueled by a kind of existential rage that itself explodes forth from the cold knowledge that, though we humans have been bred to play among he planets and gaze upon eternity, we still are fated to die like any insect.”

So succinct a commentary of the human condition has scarcely been seen before. For my part I offer a 4 out of 5 rating and would recommend this book for anyone who wishes to delve into the philosophies of humanity

An immense and somewhat overstated book. A Short History of Nearly Everything is heralded as imminently readable and I beg to differ. This is not a book for those less well versed in the natural sciences. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it, and I tell you now, the title is not inaccurate. This is, quite literally, a history of nearly everything, from physics, cosmology, meteorology, geology, biology, and everything in between. I come away feeling a slight bit smarter for the experience, though I wonder if such a book would be better written in multiple volumes.

Bill Bryson, the eminent travel writer has impressed with his comprehensive research and universal approach. Bryson is, if not slightly misanthropic, a gifted author, and I recommend this book to anyone who wishes an in-depth review of the humanities, though the layman might find it to be more a sleep-aid than a learning experience.  Bravo Mr. Bryson.

Discovered in 1968 by deep-sea explorer -J. Manson Valentine, Bimini Road’s is an oddly compelling story.  Not really a road by any means, Bimini is actually an island in the Bahamas’ archipelago.  Just off the north end of the island is what some believe is ancient evidence of the famed lost city of Atlantis.

Approximately 3500 years old, the underwater structure consists of hundreds of rectangular slabs of limestone, laid in a line running northeast-southwest, and forming what resembles a road or a wall.  Recent dive expeditions have yielded interesting results, bringing large odd shaped stones to the surface.  Some adventurers have found what they believe are ancient nautical anchors, some dating as far back as 3000 years, which makes them an enigma in-and-of-themselves.  If they truly are nautical anchors, then they are evidence of a nautical culture some 2000 years before the first record of such activity.

What makes Bimini doubly interesting is the reason why some think this site is related to Atlantis.  None other than the Sleeping Prophet, Mr. Edgar Cayce, predicted that Atlantis would again rise from this location in 1969.  This prediction is eerily prescient as word of Valentines discovery came in the early part of that very year.

Located just more than 84 kilometres off the coast of Miami, Bimini rests just inside the north-western border of the Bermuda Triangle, though mainstream geologists contend that the structure of Bimini is entirely natural.  It is claimed that the Bimini Road stones are beach rock that has been shaped by the tides and left strewn along the seabed.  Though not everyone believes the mainstream conclusion; as you read this, there are several competing explorers trying to raise funds for future expeditions at Bimini, all in an attempt to answer the puzzle that is Bimini Road.

A Bronze Statue of a Mermaid at Copenhagen

Flaxen hair and fair skin, she sings a melody that enchants the soul, listen too closely and she’ll ensnare your mind, dragging you to the depths of the ocean.

She is a mermaid and her legend runs back well beyond written history.   The legend of the mermaid is always thought of with the most beautiful women imaginable, the kind of beauty that comes from taking krill oil everyday or the kind of beauty that only cosmetic surgery can make.

The first known account of a mermaid comes out of Assyria (an ancient kingdom centered on the Upper Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia) circa 1000BC.  The goddess Atargatis, mother of Assyrian queen Semiramis, loved a mortal shepherd and unintentionally killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake to take the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her divine beauty. Thereafter, she took the form of a mermaid—human above the waist, fish below.

But the Assyrians do not hold a franchise over the mermaid.  Mermaids may be the most common cross-cultural legend around, with stories of their treacherous song and awesome beauty found in the traditions of old world places all around the globe – from Britain and Scotland, to Russia, Africa, Japan and China, and even both the east and west coasts of Canada and the US.

Of course, the most familiar depiction of a mermaid is through Hans Christian Anderson’s unforgettable fairytale The Little Mermaid, as has been made popular by Disney in their 1989 interpretation.  Probably largely due to that mainstream familiarity with cartoon characters and sing-a-long lyrics, the mermaid has moved out of favour in cryptozoology circles, taking a back seat to more believable candidates, though there are still a few believers out there.

Scientifically there’s nothing to talk about, most, if not all so-called mermaid encounters are written off as a case of mistaken identity, laying the blame squarely at the feet, or flippers as the case may be, of salt water dugongs and manatees.  These lumbering giants are known to be misleadingly comely at a distance, though up close they’re definitely nothing to write home about.  Even so, the prevailing story in maritime tradition is that mermaids are real creatures who use their song to lure men into the depths of the sea, whether by coaxing deck hands overboard or by making captains run aground.

Of course, anyone who’s ever trolled through YouTube annals for weird and wonderful videos has surely come across an odd picture or two, depicting what appears to be either the worlds ugliest fish (which is saying something) or a genuine merman (the male version of a mermaid).  Though as I’ve warned in the past, be careful what you believe, as your eyes have been fooled.  Dating back at least as early as the Renaissance, people have been hoaxing mermaid remains and skeletons and passing them off as the real thing.  In the late 19^thcentury P.T. Barnam had on display a half-human half-fish monstrosity in his museum called The Fiji Mermaid.  Unfortunately for those he conned, this mermaid was just a clever trick of creative taxidermy, and such are the modern hoaxes as well.

Any way you slice it, the mermaid legend has its charm, and despite the glaring lack of evidence for its existence, there are many fishermen the world over who believe without a doubt, that the sirens are singing their song to them.

Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little weirdo hails from Madagascar and is able to boast to being the largest nocturnal primate on record, which I suppose is saying something, considering the size of its cousins. Named after French naturalist Jean-Louis-Marie Daubenton – who, incidentally, also gives his name to the island on which this creature is found – the Aye-aye is characterised by the odd way that it searches for food.  It knocks on the door and takes what it wants, though far be it for me to mislead you, what it actually does is rap its knuckles on tree limbs to find grubs.  It then uses its elongated middle digit to extract the grubs for a fine meal indeed.  Though all this is overshadowed by the fact that the Aye-aye is one of the ugliest primates to exist, possibly excepting certain members of the homo-sapien genus; it kindly tops our list of 7 Seriously Strange Animals.

 

Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus)

 

 

 

 

 

In a world where the neigbours are some of the oddest creatures around, the blobfish takes the cake for the weirdest thing to come out of the ocean since our earliest ancestors.  This deep sea fish get its name, quite obviously, from its gooey-gelatinous body, which, while certainly a hindrance with the ladies, is actually how it’s able to live out its life in the depths of the ocean and remain largely out of our reach.  Where most fish use gas-bladders to regulate their depth, the blobfish lives at a depth that requires a little ingenuity, enter is silly putty like flesh.  Blobfish flesh is only slightly more dense than the water it lives in, it is almost entirely without muscle tissue – I’m guessing that makes it the target of much ridicule amongst its social circle.

 

Yeti Crab (Kiwa hirsuta)

 

 

 

 

 

A relatively new addition to weird animal lists, the Yeti Crab was found in the South Pacific in 2005 by a group of marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Its name pays homage to a cryptid that is near and dear to my own heart and characterises the odd hair-like fur that covers all of its appendages.  Researchers believe the fur serves to detoxify poisonous minerals from the water that are emitted by hydrothermal vents in its habitat.  The Yeti Crab is also, among other things, a blind albino, which is an unusual characteristic to say the least.

 

Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An oldie but a goodie, the platypus has long been one of the weirdest animals on the planet.  For years it defied classification, this semi-aquatic, egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal confounded European naturalists upon its discovery in 1799, with some considering it to be an elaborate fraud.  The “unique” features of the platypus make it an important subject in the study of evolutionary biology and a recognisable and iconic symbol of Australia.

 

Halibut (Pleuronectidae Hippoglossus)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, some of you may be wondering why I would include such a delicious and wildly popular menu item…err fish, but I’m going to bet that nearly all of you have no idea how weird this fish really is.  Halibut is a flatfish, from the family of right-eye flounders, and that should give you a clue to my reason for including it.  A bottom feeder, the halibut starts life like any other fish, hatched from an egg and swimming with a vertical body structure.  Though what you might not expect is that this fish is a real life transformer.  When this fish reaches the ripe old age of six months, one of its eyes spontaneously migrates around to the other side of its head (so that both eyes are on one side) and it simply…lies down.  Spending its adult life laying on its side, halibut are farmed by housing them in underwater shelving units, literally stacking them on top of the other.  I bet you’ll never look at fish & chips the same way again.

 

Dugong (Dugong dugon)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dugong, as mentioned in my recent piece titled A Mermaid’s Song, is both strange and wondrous.  A member of the order sirenia, dugongs are basically…Sea Cows, mammoth and lumbering, it’s an odd thing that they’re famous for having been mistaken as mermaids by lonely fishermen.  Their days consist of lazing about in the shallow coastal waters of 37 different nations, munching on kelp and other goodies found on the seabed and watching out for marine predators like sharks, killer whales and crocodiles.  One look at the picture and you have to wonder how anyone could mistake that mug for beautiful woman.

 

Rock Climbing Catfish (Lithogenes wahari)

 

 

 

 

 

 

People were shocked to find the fish with “hands” – and now scientists are even more shocked to find a fish that happens to be a skilled rock climber. It would seem the march of evolution is indeed inexorable. The newfound catfish, Lithogenes wahari, shares traits with two different families of fish — Loricariidae (armoured catfishes) and Astroblepidae (climbing catfishes). It has bony armour that protects its head and tail, and a grasping pelvic fin that helps it to climb vertical surfaces such as rocks.

Driving through busy downtown streets, you approach an intersection governed by a traffic light, the signal is green for you, but for some reason you have the urge to stop or slow down. At the time you haven’t the slightest idea why or where this urge comes from, but in a split second the answer is revealed when a speeding truck careers through the opposing red light, creaming a delivery van that was in the very spot you would have been had you not slowed down.  Are you psychic?  Possibly, though there may be another explanation.

You sit quietly in your favourite reading chair, enjoying a new novel, when suddenly you’re hit by the worst feeling that something has happened to a dear friend, someone you’re very close to.  Seconds later the phone rings, it’s that friend and you hear, tragically, through the sobbing, that her beloved husband has just had a heart attack.  Is this ESP? Perhaps, though we might be able to define it a bit more narrowly.

What I’m referring to here is a little known but supremely interesting phenomena called Presentiment Effect.  A term coined by Dean Radin, PhD and Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Psychology at Sonoma State University, and author of Entangled Minds; Extrasensory Experiences in an Quantum Reality.  Dr. Radin has been working for more than two decades to provide answers to some of the more difficult questions regarding consciousness, and in that field there are many difficult questions.

Presentiment Effect is the term used to describe anticipatory responses to emotionally significant events prior to the occurrence of the event.  Quite simply, it is a confirmation (of sorts) of precognition.

Dr. Radin and others have been conducting experiments for nearly 20 years in an attempt to isolate and define the effect, and what they’ve learned is quite impressive.  Most of these experiments consisted of double-blind studies wherein subjects were exposed to emotionally significant visual stimulus (whether positive or negative), while a skin-conductance measure and a photoplethysmograph for fingertip blood volume (an indicator of autonomic arousal) were monitored to look for reactions to the media being presented.[1]

The results of these experiments were intriguing to say the least.  What Dr. Radin and his colleagues found was that a significant incidence of test subjects showed a premonitory ability for visual media that would generate an emotional response.  His subjects would be isolated in a room and asked to look at a series of images on a computer screen.  The images would be displayed at regular intervals of sixteen seconds (later revised to an acceptable period of time as to ensure the subject had returned to baseline physiology).  The images were randomised and included both emotionally significant and insignificant material.  As it turned out with the majority of subjects, milliseconds before the image was displayed, both a galvanic skin response and blood flow responses were recorded prior to the image appearing on the screen.  This only happened when the image was emotionally significant, with the highest positive result correlating to erotic images.

In short, the test subjects were able to react to the content of the image before it was presented to them, and this is a fascinating idea indeed.

Further study has Dr. Radin working to determine if calm stimuli results in a calm premonitory reaction, as compared to arousing pictures eliciting an aroused reaction.

Now, what we’re talking about here is milliseconds of precognition on a subconscious level, but the basic facts of the issue are clear; there is a certain incidence of people in the general public who have precognitive ability.  I don’t necessarily think that this makes them psychic, though I can see how some might jump to that conclusion.  I personally see a connection between Dr. Radin’s work and the Akashic Record or Zero Point Field phenomenon, as I’ve discussed in previous articles.

According to philosopher of science Erwin Laszlo[2], the akashic records are not confined by the boundaries of time.  Information has no past or future, it has only the present, and so it should be possible to access “records” from our future, accounting, at least in part, for the results of Dr. Radin’s experiments.  It would appear that zero point field research is bound to converge with studies into the presentiment effect.

Speaking to real world applications or uses for such ability, in our distant past, those who were able to anticipate danger first survived longest, and thus their genetic material was pushed forward through the evolution of the species.  And as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, through the study of the work of French biologist Rene Peoc’h and his robot loving baby chickens[3], premonitory or extra-sensory talents may have been far more prevalent in prehistoric times, with the incidence and effectiveness of those traits waning like a vestigial tail among the population.

The facts are that presentiment effect appears to be a real and measurable phenomenon, and that it appears to be congenital among our entire population.  Whether there is cause to connect it with any higher form of psychic aptitude remains unanswered, but the research is ongoing, and I suspect that we’ll be seeing some interesting conclusions in the near future.

What is it with conspiracy theorists and their authority arguments?  They’re almost as bad as religious extremists; dealing in absolute terminology and finding evidence for absurd ideas in all those empty spaces that our knowledge has yet to illuminate.

This isn’t to say that I disagree with all of their theories.  I’m actually somewhat of a believer in a great many of their speculations, but I wish they would realise that their ideas are just that, speculation and conjecture.  Take the History Channel’s hit show, Ancient Aliens, hosted by Giorgio Tsoukalos[1], David Childress[2] and George Noory[3] among several others.  They present some compelling arguments, though that’s really all they have; authority arguments.

Now, if all you’re interested in is producing a popular television show, then authority arguments will do you just fine, but if you’re looking for the truth, then you’ll have to delve a little deeper than terms like, “must have been”. “could not have been”, “impossible” and “had to have extraterrestrial help”.  The basic assumption made by pretty much everyone on the show is simply that ancient peoples (our ancestors), were incapable of doing any of the things that history records them doing; from the building of megalithic monuments and henges, to more complex construction projects (such as Angkor Wat or Machu Picchu).  I don’t pretend that I know any more than they do about these ancient sites, or about the people who built them, but my ignorance will not be punctuated by an acceptance that they could not have been built by our ancestors.

But I get ahead of myself too easily.

As most everyone should know by now, the Ancient Astronauts theory (or theories, as the case may be) is a collection of unanswered questions surrounding the origins of some of the world’s most mysterious places, artefacts and traditions.  It says, quite simply, that aliens are responsible for all things relating to those unanswered questions.  And to my own chagrin, they use the same straw men and authority arguments as creationists do.  The only difference between them is the name that they give to the mysterious being that fills our gaps of knowledge.  Instead of “God did it”, they offer “aliens did it”.

The Ancient Astronaut theory can be evoked any time there is a mystery presented throughout our history, but some make more sense than others.  There are too many different theories and questions to cover in this forum, but they tend to break down into a few manageable categories: buildings, legends and art (cave art and petroglyphs).

The theories surrounding buildings pretty much all maintain that ancient humans could not have built the things that they did without the assistance of greater, alien technology.  The problem enters where the absolute terminology these theorists use crosses paths with examples and demonstrations of simple construction techniques that can prove that those peoples would most definitely have been able to undertake and complete such projects, without help from aliens or gods.

The legend theories tend to be an attempt to replace God with extraterrestrials, and as Arthur C. Clark put so eloquently “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”, this is the basic premise of the ancient alien theory in this regard.  The theorists typically point to any angelic or divine interaction noted in either the bible or in other religious texts as evidence not for God, but for the interference of aliens on our ancient ancestor’s development.

The art theories, which admittedly tend to comingle with the legend theories, are largely finger pointing exercises.  The theorist simply points to any disc like object found in any ancient artwork, and says “see, there they are!”

Though as I said above, I’m on board with a lot of what they say, these theorists, I’m just uncomfortable with the language they use. Absolutes are unforgiving, and when dealing with places, artefacts and ideas that are so old, absolutes have no place in the discussion.  If there is even the slightest chance that our ancestors could have done the things that were done, without the help of an other-worldly or divine power, then we must give them the benefit of our doubt.  Consider the advances in technology that have been experienced since the mid 19^th century up to present day.  Our world has changed so much that it would be unrecognizable to our ancient ancestors, and yet we know that all this technological savvy is the product of our own ingenuity and perseverance.

In any event, I would be prone to accept an ancient astronaut theory over a divine theory pretty much any day, but that’s just me, the decision is really for you to make, not me.

Urban legends used to be the kind of thing that was shared around campfires, the stories told by school kids at sleepovers and the warnings offered to freshman by sophomores.  Urban legends are supposed to be the juvenile and hyped up generational lies that we all assimilate through a lifetime of trials and tribulations.  Their role is to make it difficult for anyone to discern what is real and what is fantasy, especially in the realm of paranormal exploration…but today is a different day.

Today is a day of unsubstantiated rumour and bold face lie being redressed in the form of credible testimony through internet chat rooms, discussion forums and blog comments.  Even now, the powerful networking tool Twitter is being used to disseminate wholly untrue stories of encounter, abduction, affect and abuse.  Everything from horrific encounters with snarly beasts in the dark, to alien abduction, to the weird effects of psychic influence, and still we crave more.

Among this growing mountain of anecdote, hearsay and prejudice are some legends that warrant a little closer scrutiny though, something about them endears their story to the eye of the sceptical observer (namely me), and makes them stand out from the crowd.   One such story is something I hesitate to mention; to a former me this would have been the stuff of ridicule and disbelief, but something today causes me to take notice of the common theme in the many accounts I’ve witnessed on this strange topic.

On January 16^th 1998, Texas Journalist Brian Bethel submitted a blog post to a newsgroup recounting a tale of supposed terror and mystery.  Brian claims that he was approached by a pair of children, who asked for his help, and in a fit of panic, he fled to the safety of…well, anywhere but there.

Ok, so you probably don’t buy that a grown man would be so intimidated by a couple of young children, but then, you don’t know the whole story, and neither did I until I went digging.

The story Brian submitted to the news groups (and I’m not entirely certain if the story was submitted on the above date, or if the event occurred on that day, but that date is often referred to when the story is discussed) described a rather innocuous situation in which he found himself in the Winter of 1998.[1]  Mr Bethel, while spending time in a park somewhere in Texas, was approached by two young boys, often said to have been somewhere around 14 years of age, the boys allegedly asked for Bethel’s help in getting home from the park.  The accounts generally agree that the boys were both confident and insistent in their request for Bethel to drive them home in his nearby car.  Bethel claims that he was inclined to help, until the children began acting strangely.

Accounts vary greatly on the specific turn of events that let up to Bethel making the decision to leave the park, and not in the company of the children, but all are quite clear on the point that Bethel’s fear piqued when he finally noticed the children’s eyes.  He said in graphic detail that the children’s eyes were black as coal; no pupils, no iris, no sclera, nothing but cold solid blackness.

Brian Bethel’s account is intriguing, in so much as it is entertaining, but there is little supportive information to back up his claim, and one might be inclined to think that a journalist (as he has been confirmed to be) would be aware of the “evidence factor” in such a story.  The critical observer would ask such questions as, ‘why were you at that particular park on that day?’, ‘were there any other witnesses?’, ‘what were the children doing prior to approaching you?’, and maybe ‘what did you do following this encounter?’  I personally might have had a field day poking holes in his story, though after the fact, I’ve come to find a surprising number of similar reports flooding those same message boards in recent years, and this leads me to a much broader look at the Black-Eyed Kids phenomenon (also known as B.E.K.).

The first black mark in the record against the Black-Eyed Kids is the fact that Brian Bethel’s encounter is the first ever recorded.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that there were no encounters prior to January 1998, but if there were, those people have yet to speak up.  Without exception, every BEK account I’ve read or heard about has taken place after 1998, and most have been in the last few years.  This also doesn’t necessarily discount the phenomenon as fantasy or hoax either, as there are potential explanations that might account for the rather sudden appearance of these Black-Eyed children.

One such account, is a compelling, albeit second hand (or actually third-hand) telling of a fairly recent BEK encounter via Jason Offutt on his blog titled ‘From the Shadows, True Tales of the Paranormal’.[2]

Bill was driving through Afton, Okla., a town in the northwestern part of the state on historic Route 66 just south of the Will Rogers Turnpike, when he stopped to see some old friends.

“I saw they had a new dog; a very stout dachshund,” Bill said. “I asked them about it and Michael said, ‘The weird kids left her when they left town.’”

Bill asked Michael and his wife about these “weird kids.” They told him a group of young people had knocked on their door and begged to come in and talk. The “weird kids” were driving an old van, but Michael thought it was in good shape because it didn’t make noise.

“However, he and his wife felt uneasy and didn’t let them in,” Bill said. A few of the kids left the van and walked the dachshund Michael and his wife ended up with. “But they didn’t seem too attached to (the dog).”

Bill asked Michael if these young people were Mormons.

“Hell, no,” Michael said. “They didn’t dress right and they were junkies.”

“Junkies?” Bill asked.

“Yeah,” Michael said. “Their pupils were huge.”

The kids’ eyes were solid black. Looking into their eyes was like staring into a void.

Turned away at the door, the black-eyed kids eventually left, to the relief of Michael and his wife. Some time later, Michael saw the dachshund wandering around town, felt sorry for it, and brought it home. Michael and his wife are thankful the black-eyed kids never returned for it.[3]

 

 

Bill, which is a pseudonym given to the “victim” in this case by Offutt, it would seem was the unwitting prey of a group of young hippy punks, or was he in fact a narrow escapee of a horrible fate at the hands of the Black-Eyed Kids?  I am obligated to reveal that this story is not supported by any facts, dates, locations or actual names, so I’m inclined to believe Offutt is spinning a bit of a yarn at our expense.

There are other accounts though; some more and some less compelling than Bill’s narrated experience, one message board in particular offered seven BEK testimonials on a single page of discussion. [4] Though I do warn before you dive into that content, I found the whole thing to be a demonstration of internet one-up-manship, and even though each individual encounter may have its own merits, they don’t seem any more credible than the possible fiction above.

The reason I present these various tellings of Black-Eyed Kid encounters is not only to illustrate the many discrepancies found throughout the accounts, but more so to illustrate the glaring similarities that run through every encounter I’ve studied.

There are three main characteristics of a BEK encounter, 1) the children appear normal in dress and behaviour until they begin to interact with the witness, 2) the children’s eyes, which are normally noticed late in the encounter or possibly only in retrospect, are completely black, and 3) there is a feeling of overwhelming foreboding and terror associated with contact.

When I consider these characteristics, I’m stricken with the notion that there is another such phenomenon that elicits that same sense of fear and panic in witnesses; Schattenwesen.

More commonly known as Shadow People, or even the Hat Man; Schattenwesen is marked by the single trait that every report of a Shadowman encounter contains a highlighted sense of fear and panic, and of a definite sense that the entity meant harm to the witness.[5]  I have long theorised that this effect may actually be a defence mechanism by, what many claim, is the physical manifestation of an inter-dimensional being.

In-so-far as I am sceptical of these Black-Eyed Kid reports and aside from some anecdotal evidence gleaned from a few trusted sources, I suggest that, were these beings to exists, as described by our anonymous witnesses, they might actually be further incarnations of IDB incursions into our reality.

If Schattenwesen are a real phenomenon, and I admit that this is a stretch, then is it much more of a stretch to correlate them with these Black-Eyed Kids?  I will continue to seek credible accounts of the BEK phenomenon, and in turn to present the most complete picture I can create of the reality we may be facing, as it pertains to creepy kids who ask for help from strangers.

 

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[1] I have not been able to find an original copy of the post submitted by Mr. Bethel, though there are several versions of it to be found on popular message boards, usually in paraphrased content and with subtle variation to the details.

[2] Here though, is the unfortunate disclaimer I must include, Jason Offutt it seems, is much more of a novelist and fiction author, than a researcher, investigator or even a paranormal pundit, so in that spirit his telling of this story may not be entirely above board.

[3] Source: http://from-the-shadows.blogspot.com/2009/02/encouter-with-black-eyed-kids.html

[4] See: http://www.haunteddiary.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000132

[5] See Paranormal People’s Article: Bringing Shadow People Into the Spotlight

131_BlackHoleMiniature black holes, cosmic rays, “God” particles, time travel and maybe even the end of the world.  This is the myriad of doomsday predictions and complaints being aimed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, otherwise known as CERN.  Some of these predictions are superstitious fear mongering, others are misinterpretation of facts and others still are the foundation of pure ignorance, or are they?

To be clear, the above list is more like a to-do list for CERN researchers than a prophetic outlining of end-of-the-world propaganda (with the distinct exception of that last item on the list).  In fact CERN’s nuclear physics department, the team heading up the construction and operation of the Large Hadron Collider are hoping to do exactly what the ‘Dooms-day-ers’ are warning about.  They want to create a few miniature black holes, they want to reproduce the effect of cosmic rays on earth bound particles, and they want to shake hands with this so-called God particle (otherwise known as the Higgs Boson particle).

Quick, everybody run for the bunker, before we’re all sucked into oblivion by CERN’s crackpot scientists.

Or…pick up a few science journals, browse a few reputable physics websites, have a look at the Wikipedia entry on the LHC project, and I assure you, you’ll find out a few things that may be both surprising to you and much less disheartening than the fear mongering agenda would have you believe.  You’ll find that this collection of the greatest minds in nuclear and astrophysics the world has to offer, is actually not funded and controlled by Doctor Evil and his spandex wearing henchmen.

They have taken and will be taking every possible precaution, in planning, execution and control of the potential dangers of this project.  They have calculated the effects of these various phenomena to a degree that most of us laymen can’t even comprehend.  They know, with as much certainty as is theoretically possible, exactly what will happen should they be able to create a mini-black hole, they know precisely what dangers to expect from creating Higgs Boson particles and they want to assure us that they know what they’re doing.[1]

However, some of these learned men do not agree with the public position of CERN officials; some of these respected and intellectually powerful men are quite nervous with what is about to happen along this 18-mile underground proton race track on the Franco-Swiss border of Geneva.

The most obtuse point I wish to make here, is that there is no high level government conspiracy in this particular issue, which is trying to create some planetary weapon or universal ray gun to supplant our galactic enemies on the grand stage of the universe.  The science is simply too complex for government egos to manipulate, and the truth of it is, CERN is in the business of expanding our collective knowledge through honest and transparent research, not political conspiracy and arms dealing.

But I am not one to speak so highly of the infallibility of men, whether for religious purposes or for scientific ones; and herein may lay the most profound problem we, as the inhabitants of this spinning blue ball will face in the cumulative history and potential of our species.  Are we smart enough to contain and control the powers that created the universe?

It is a fantastic and amazing thing that human evolution has brought us to this point of understanding.  That we can understand and observe the particle components that contributed to the creation of matter in our universe is an achievement worth celebrating on a most fundamental level.  It is a wondrous achievement and one in which we should all share, especially if our greatest minds are able to create and study the fruits of that labour.

But what if they’re wrong? What if, as Holger Beck Neilson and Masao Ninomiya have postulated, there are unseen effects and forces at play, forces that could prove disastrous for the project, for humanity and even for Earth itself?  Think that’s unlikely?  Well, in the name of science and technological advancement, I give you Chernobyl.[2] Unlikely or not, it can and usually is, the simplest and most innocent oversight that causes the greatest human suffering in the name of science.  That is, when our collective brainpower isn’t already focused on human suffering, ala Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Physics is the study of stuff, weird stuff, stuff that makes up the stuff we can see and the stuff we can’t see, and quite often, that stuff holds the potential to both create and to destroy, but in the case of the physics being studied via the LHC, it is the stuff that is little understood and which can all but erase our existence under the right circumstances.

Black Holes; these massive and terrible (or beautiful) intergalactic consumers, caused by the collapse of giant stars and feeding on the wastes of galaxies, are arguably the most powerful and destructive force in the universe.  And you may now be asking, why, exactly, these scientists want to create that force here on Earth.  It’s all in the name of progress, and is basically an exaggerated sense of “just because we can-ism”.  They want to study the decay rate, and in turn, confirm or deny the existence of Hawking Radiation (the invisible stuff said to be emitted by full size black holes, in a weird sort of self-regulating strangeness), and in all fairness, the black holes they’re talking about are both microscopic and expected to decay in a fraction of a second.[3]

Though there’s always a ‘what if’; what if their cute little pet black hole doesn’t behave as expected? What if it doesn’t decay, what if it holds some heretofore unknown property that makes it the biggest mistake ever conceived of by man?  Well, we’ll likely never find out, since if this part goes wrong, the results could be catastrophic, to the degree that the black hole could devour the entire planet in the blink of an eye, as well as everything else in our galaxy, and ultimately wipe our existence off the radar of anyone or anything in the universe.

The next item in CERN’s little bag of tricks is the Higgs Boson particle, which, for lack of a better understanding, is the “God” particle in question above.  In an effort to dispel any misunderstandings of that unfortunate term, coined by popular (or unpopular) media, we are not talking about revealing the power of God, we are talking about understanding a small part of how matter came to exist following the Big Bang.  I’m not in a position, intellectually, to give you a run down on the physics of Higgs Boson particles, since this is the stuff of cutting edge physical science, but for the lack of my own understanding, I can offer you a somewhat diluted explanation of what the science means in everyday terms.  It is believed that Higgs Boson particles are the root of all matter in the universe, that they have , in effect, created everything we can see and touch in our reality (hence the unfortunate term, the “God” particle).  The process by which these particles create matter is highly complex, and, I might add, entirely theoretical at this point, since they haven’t yet been proven to exist.

A fairly easy to understand explanation of how the Higgs Boson’s work (as found on the Exploratorium website) is as follows:

“Imagine you’re at a Hollywood party. The crowd is rather thick, and evenly distributed around the room, chatting. When the big star arrives, the people nearest the door gather around her. As she moves through the party, she attracts the people closest to her, and those she moves away from return to their other conversations. By gathering a fawning cluster of people around her, she’s gained momentum, an indication of mass. She’s harder to slow down than she would be without the crowd. Once she’s stopped, it’s harder to get her going again.” [4]

In this explanation, the Higgs Boson particles begin to cluster around the particle of matter (known as Higgs Clustering), providing mass to the central particle, (the Celebrity), in turn lending its own collective mass to any other particle coming into contact with it.  It is this study of mass that intrigues CERN’s physicists, and through that study, they hope to confirm certain portions of String Theory.

We may already have seen some repercussions of this endeavour however, as renowned Physicists from the Niels Bohr Institute, Dr. Holger Neilson, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics have attempted to show through their own independent mathematical theories.  There may be a temporal paradox in play, suggesting that the LHC is capable of creating a theoretical vehicle for time travel.[5]

On the surface that seems entirely fantastic and even a little more like science fiction than anything else, but as Neilson points out, recent setbacks –deemed to be sabotage by media outlets- point to a partial corroboration of his theory.  The LHC construction project, like many other mega-building projects, has been plagued with accidents and technical set backs, and Neilson contends that these set backs may actually be the result of a temporal effect, reaching backward through time to prevent the creation of the Higgs Boson particles.

He suggests that there seems to be some future force that seeks to protect its own existence from some cataclysmic effect brought on through the Higgs Boson experiments.

“While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus. In the case of the Higgs and the collider, it is as if something is going back in time to keep the universe from being hit by a bus.”

I don’t for a second pretend to understand the extremely complex mathematical theory put forward by Neilson and Ninomiya, but their arguments have been supported by others in the field of theoretical physics.  Neilson’s chief point is simply that we (meaning the science of physics) do not understand the ramifications of creating such a particle, that there could be and likely is some unseen effect or attribute of the particle that could be catastrophic.  In pursuit of answers to this predicament, Neilson has suggested a relatively simple test for determining if there is any appreciable impact of a backward-causation effect, essentially a card trick, but it seems that CERN officials have rejected the idea of restricting experimentation at the outcome of a card game.[6]

“Since LHC will produce particles of a mathematically new type of fundamental scalars, i.e., the Higgs particles, there is potentially a chance to find unseen effects, such as on influence going from future to past, which we suggest in the present paper” – Holger B. Neilson

So, when physicists disagree about the potential dangers involved what should we, as bystanders, believe?

Neilson suggests that the LHC project will remain “jinxed” as it moves ahead, and that the backward-causation effect may become stronger, more aggressive and/or deadly as we march ever closer to the creation of these particles.  It isn’t difficult to see that through the ingenuity of mankind, and with our dogged determination, we will achieve our goals on this front, regardless of the drive and motives behind it, and one viewing this turn of events from the outside might be given cause to wonder if this determination will ultimately be our undoing.

The timeline of events here seems coincidental as well; the original commencement of LHC testing was to begin in mid September of 2009, the “jinxing” of the project caused (apparently) a number of set backs which pushed that start-up to mid November 2009.  As the schedule of experimentation begins, the pursuit of Higgs Boson particles and of miniature black holes could extend into the future as far as mid 2012.  And even as I type that number, I am stricken with a sense of foreboding.

The year 2012, of course, being significant through the ancient Mayan calendar as a time of great change and transition for the world; some claim it to be the end of the world; others claim it to be a time of ascendance and transformation for humanity.  Others yet pass it off a just another apocalyptic fantasy, derived from pseudoscience and presented as a means of control over the populous.  In light of the above however, I’m given pause to wonder if there is some merit to the idea that there will be a great transformation of reality at the end of this wild and wonderful roadway.

Is there any reason to fear the work of honest science?  No, not intrinsically.  Is there cause to rally against CERN and their ground breaking research in the name of scientific advancement?  Probably not.  Is there any connection between the LHC experiments focused on “God” particles and black holes, and the end of our world at the close of 2012?  Who knows, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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[1] See: The Safety of the LHC; http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/en/LHC/Safety-en.html

[2] For information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

[3] Detailed commentary on the effect of miniature black holes can be found at: http://physics.aps.org/articles/v1/14

[4] See: http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/cern/ideas/higgs.html

[5] Story via New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/space/13lhc.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

[6] Holger B. Neilson’s proposed test is outlined here: http://arxiv.org/abs/0707.1919