Friday, August 17, 2012

Vacation: Derry ,Maine

Got a pic of these kids playing with some clown. Wait a minute. The clown was in the picture a second ago......

The Top 5 Scariest Supernatural Clips

Real scares? Naaaaaaaaa but entertaining none the less. Good amateur effort with some creepy results.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Treadmill prisons. Torture?

Getty Images

Exercising on a treadmill often feels like torture, and that’s not exactly a coincidence.

In 1818, an English civil engineer named Sir William Cubitt devised a machine called the “tread-wheel” to reform stubborn and idle convicts. Prisoners would step on the 24 spokes of a large paddle wheel, climbing it like a modern StairMaster. As the spokes turned, the gears were used to pump water or crush grains. (Hence the eventual name treadmill.) In grueling eight-hour shifts, prisoners would climb the equivalent of 7,200 feet. The exertion, combined with poor diets, often led to injury and illness (as well as rock-hard glutes), but that didn’t stop penitentiaries all over Britain and the United States from buying the machines. In 1824, prison guard James Hardie credited the device with taming New York’s more defiant inmates. He wrote that it was the treadmill’s “monotonous steadiness, and not its severity, which constitutes its terror…”

Over the years, American wardens gradually stopped using the treadmill in favor of other backbreaking tasks, such as picking cotton, breaking rocks, or laying bricks. In England, the treadmill persisted until the late 19th century, when it was abandoned for being too cruel. The machine was all but lost to history. But when Dr. Kenneth Cooper demonstrated the health benefits of aerobic exercise in the 1960s, the treadmill made a triumphant return. Today, well-paid personal trainers have happily taken the place of prison wardens.

Grave robbers- Victim, Charlie Chaplin

In one of history’s most famous cases of body-snatching, two men steal the corpse of the revered film actor Sir Charles Chaplin from a cemetery in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey, located in the hills above Lake Geneva, near Lausanne, Switzerland, on this day in 1978.

A comic actor who was perhaps most famous for his alter ego, the Little Tramp, Chaplin was also a respected filmmaker whose career spanned Hollywood’s silent film era and the momentous transition to “talkies” in the late 1920s. Chaplin died on Christmas Day in 1977, at the age of 88. Two months later, his body was stolen from the Swiss cemetery, sparking a police investigation and a hunt for the culprits.

After Chaplin’s widow, Oona, received a ransom demand of some $600,000, police began monitoring her phone and watching 200 phone kiosks in the region. Oona had refused to pay the ransom, saying that her husband would have thought the demand “ridiculous.” The callers later made threats against her two youngest children. Oona Chaplin was Charlie’s fourth wife (after Mildred Harris, Lita Grey and Paulette Goddard) and the daughter of the playwright Eugene O’Neill. She and Chaplin were married in 1943, when she was 18 and he was 54; they had eight children together.

The family had settled in Switzerland in 1952 after the controversial Chaplin--whom his enemies accused of being a Communist sympathizer--learned he would be denied a reentry visa to the United States en route to the London premiere of his film Limelight.

After a five-week investigation, police arrested two auto mechanics--Roman Wardas, of Poland, and Gantscho Ganev, of Bulgaria--who on May 17 led them to Chaplin’s body, which they had buried in a cornfield about one mile from the Chaplin family’s home in Corsier.

That December, Wardas and Ganev were convicted of grave robbing and attempted extortion. Political refugees from Eastern Europe, Wardas and Ganev apparently stole Chaplin’s body in an attempt to solve their financial difficulties. Wardas, identified as the mastermind of the plot, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years of hard labor. As he told it, he was inspired by a similar crime that he had read about in an Italian newspaper. Ganev was given an 18-month suspended sentence, as he was believed to have limited responsibility for the crime. As for Chaplin, his family reburied his body in a concrete grave to prevent future theft attempts.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The UAE’s Ghost Town, Jazirat Al Hamra: Beware The Djinn

Added by Alexander McNabb

We happened to mention Jazirat Al Hamra on the radio yesterday and it caused quite a conversation. The whole thing was triggered by the unlikely news that there is to be a newWaldorf Astoria Hotel* in Ras Al Khaimah.

It appears that few people these days know about Jazirat Al Hamra, the little deserted village south of Ras Al Khaimah town. It’s the ancestral home of the Zaabi family (or tribe) who left Ras Al Khaimah following an ongoing dispute with the ruler and were given housing in Abu Dhabi by Sheikh Zayed. Living in Abu Dhabi, the family still retained title to their houses, which stand today in the middle of the huge Al Hamra tourism and leisure development, surrounded by big hotels, golf courses and man-made lagoons. It’s a sort of Freej moment, the little single-story houses surrounded by towering development.

Jazirat Al Hamra is a delight to wander around, old style coral and adobe houses with their rooms all leading off a central courtyard, often with a henna tree at its centre. When we first went there, you could still find ledgers with grocery entries and three figure telephone numbers, bric a brac and old electrical fittings in the houses, many of which were already descending slowly and elegantly into ruin. There’s an old mosque there, too, its minaret a dumpy little thing in which the muezzin would stand and sing out above the rooftops – but only just, it’s not very high.

The beach at Jazirat Al Hamra, now cut off from the village, used to be one of the few places where, after the first storm of the year, it was possible to find paper nautilus egg-cases, amazingly delicate little pieces of fractal beauty. The village was always on our list of tourist destinations for visitors, a little piece of the UAE’s history and heritage that hadn’t been tarted up, rebuilt, copied or otherwise ‘updated’.

When I was talking about it on Dubai Eye, one listener, a UAE National chap called Rashid, texted in to say that everyone stayed away from Jazirat Al Hamra because of the djinn. We brought him on the phone line to talk a little more about this aspect of the village’s story and he told of how the locals would tell spine-chilling stories, goading each other into a high state of fear and the young men who would stay overnight in the village as a dare. I know of other locations that enjoy a similar reputation – there’s ‘Swiss Cottage’ in Sharjah, just across from the Al Owais Majlis by Green Park. Apparently no local would ever dream of renting the place as it has a rich reputation for housing powerful djinn. Villas here are lit around their boundaries, again apparently part of the same tradition of warding off djinn.

Across the Arab World people wear and own the blue talisman against the evil eye, nazar bonjouk in Turkish, part of a rich and deeply rooted belief in the supernatural around the region. It did rather strike me that the departing Zaabi would have seeded the rumour in their wake to ensure their village was left alone.

You don’t want to mess with djinn, see.

Djinn

Fear one thing in all there is...fear the djinn.

The holy Quran says that God made humans from mud and clay, angels from light, and djinn from smokeless fire. In the western world, many people readily accept the idea of angels and demons, but most have no knowledge of the djinn, called “God’s other people.”

In Arabian lore, djinn (also spelled jinn) are a race of supernaturally empowered beings who have the ability to intervene in the affairs of people. Like the Greekdaimones, djinn are self-propagating and can be either good or evil. They can be conjured in magical rites to perform various tasks and services. A djinni (singular) appears as a wish-granting “genie” in folk tales such as in The Book of 1001 Nights collection of folk tales.

In Western lore djinn are sometimes equated with demons, but they are not the same. They are often portrayed as having a demonic-like appearance, but they can also appear in beautiful, seductive forms. The djinn are masterful shape-shifters, and their favored forms are snakes and black dogs. They also can masquerade as anything: humans, animals, ghosts, cryptids, and other entities such as extraterrestrials, demons, shadow people, fairies, angels and more.

The djinn are not confined to the Middle East, or to the past. They exist in their own realm, probably a parallel dimension, and they have the ability – and the desire – to enter our world and interact with us. The djinn have been among us in antiquity and they are among us now.

According to legend, the djinn were the first inhabitants of this world, where they lived for thousands of years before humanity arrived. In order to make room for humans, angels took the djinn out of this world and placed them in a dimension that parallels our own. There they stay hidden from our view. They have the ability to see and interact with us, but we have difficulty seeing them. They are cloaked in mystery, and it suits their covert purpose.

The goal of most djinn is to retake this world, which they feel rightfully belongs to them. In order to succeed, they must make humanity give up stewardship of this reality. They are accomplishing this by stealth and disguise. They have great powers and plenty of time, for they live for centuries.

Shape-shifting djinn may be responsible for many forms of paranormal phenomena and experience, such as UFOs, shadow people, ghosts, poltergeists, and demonic possession. In such ways, they gain access to us that enables them to steal our life force and information about us, and to manipulate and use us without revealing their true form and purpose. These negative experiences are on the rise.

The social organization of the jinn community resembles that of humans; e.g., they have kings, courts of law, weddings, and mourning rituals.
A few traditions (hadith), divide jinn into three classes: those who have wings and fly in the air, those who resemble snakes and dogs, and those who travel about ceaselessly. Other reports claim that ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mas‘ūd (d. 652), who was accompanying Muhammad when the jinn came to hear his recitation of the Qur’an, described them as creatures of different forms; some resembling vultures and snakes, others tall men in white garb. They may even appear as dragons or a number of other animals. In addition to their animal forms, the jinn occasionally assume human form to mislead and destroy their human victims. Certain hadiths have also claimed that the jinn may subsist on bones, which will grow flesh again as soon as they touch them, and that their animals may live on dung, which will revert to grain or grass for the use of the jinn flocks.

Ibn Taymiyyah believed the jinn were generally "ignorant, untruthful, oppressive and treacherous," thus representing the very strict interpretations adhered by the Salafi schools of thought.

Ibn Taymiyyah believes that the jinn account for much of the "magic" perceived by humans, cooperating with magicians to lift items in the air unseen, delivering hidden truths tofortune tellers, and mimicking the voices of deceased humans during seances.

A related belief is that every person is assigned one's own special jinnī, also called a qarīn, of the jinn that whisper to people's souls and tell them to submit to evil desires. The notion of a qarīn is not universally accepted amongst all Muslims, but it is generally accepted that the Devil whispers in human minds, and he is assigned to each human being.

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Monday, August 13, 2012

The Black Dahlia murder

On the morning of January 15, 1947, a housewife named Betty Bersinger was walking down a residential street in central Los Angeles with her 3-year-old daughter when something caught her eye. It was a cold, overcast morning, and she was on her way to pick up a pair of shoes from the cobbler.

At first glance, Bersinger thought the white figure laying a few inches from the sidewalk was a broken store mannequin. But a closer look revealed the hideous truth: It was the body of a woman who'd been cut in half and was laying face-up in the dirt. The woman's arms were raised over her head at 45-degree angles. Her lower of half was positioned a foot over from her torso, the straight legs spread wide open. The body appeared to have been washed clean of blood, and the intestines were tucked neatly under the buttocks. Bersinger shielded her daughter's eyes, then ran with her to a nearby home to call the police.

Black Dahlia's (Elizabeth Short) body found in vacant lot

Two detectives were assigned to the case, Harry Hansen and Finis Brown. By the time the duo arrived at the crime scene — on Norton Avenue between 39th and Coliseum streets in Los Angeles — it was swarming with reporters and gawkers who were carelessly trampling the evidence. The detectives ordered the crowd to back off, then got down to business.

From the lack of blood on the body or in the grass, they determined the victim had been murdered elsewhere and dragged onto the lot, one piece at time. There was dew under the body, so they knew it had been placed there after 2 a.m., when the outside temperature dipped to 38 degrees.

The victim's face was horribly defiled: the murderer had used a knife to slash 3-inch gashes into each corner of her mouth, giving her the death grin of a deranged clown. Rope marks on her wrists and ankles indicated she'd been restrained, and possibly tortured.

LAPD Detectives Harry Hansen and Finis Brown with Elizabeth Short's Body

By measuring the two halves of the corpse, the detectives estimated the victim's height to be 5'6 and her weight to be 115 pounds. Her mousy brown hair had been recently hennaed, and her fingernails were bitten to the quick.

In the Black Dahlia case, detectives gave the Los Angeles Examiner fingerprints lifted from the dead woman and reporters used their "Soundphoto" machine — a precursor to a modern fax machine — to send enlargements of the prints to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

FBI technicians compared the prints with 104 million fingerprints they had on file, and quickly made a match to one Elizabeth Short. Short's fingerprints were taken for a mail room job she'd had at an army base in California — and for an arrest record for underage drinking in Santa Barbara.

Elizabeth Short embodied the feminine ideal of the 40s, with her meaty legs, full hips and a small, up-turned nose. She was drama personified. She dyed her mousy brown locks raven black, painted her lips blood red and pinned white flowers in her hair. With her alabaster skin and startling light blue eyes, she looked like porcelain doll.

The provenance of her nickname is unclear. Some say her friends started calling her the "Black Dahlia" because of her fondness for the color black and in reference to a 1946 movie called "The Blue Dahlia." Whatever its genesis, the press ran with it, and doing so, made Elizabeth Short a legend.

Phoebe Short (left) with Beth

The FBI also sent the paper Short's government application photo. When reporters saw how attractive the 22-year-old victim was, they knew they had a sensational tale on their hands.

This was news noir at its best. To juice up the story, Examiner reporters resorted to an unethical ploy; they called her mother, Phoebe Short, and told her that her daughter had won a beauty contest. After prying as much personal information about Elizabeth from Mrs. Short as possible, they informed her that that her daughter was actually dead.

Suspects

The LAPD has refrained from speculating on the identity of killer. The truth is that Elizabeth Short's killer is most likely dead if not of disease, of old age and will never be brought to justice. This fact hasn't stopped a large group of amateur sleuths from picking up the torch in an attempt to solve the case. Their conclusions range from fanciful to downright risible:

Mary Pacios pins the blame, incredibly, on movie director Orson Welles, who once did a magic act where he "sawed" a woman in half.
In another book, "Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer," a public relations specialist named Janice Knowlton blames her father for the murder. She writes that therapy helped her recover childhood memories of her father forcing her to watch him torture, murder and hack up Short. Knowlton goes on to accuse her father of nine such killings, including that of a son he engendered with her. Her book was a flop, but Knowlton harassed anyone writing about the case who did not support her claims until she committed suicide in 2004 with a drug overdose.�

Book cover: Daddy was the Black Dahlia Killer

�

Here are some of the suspects who've topped the list as the could-haves the last 60 years:

Robert Manley
Manly was the last known person to see Short alive. He was initially booked as a suspect, but released after he passed a polygraph test. Beset by a long history of mental health problems, in 1954, his wife committed him to a psychiatric hospital after he told her he was hearing voices. That same year, doctors gave him a shot of sodium pentothal aka the "truth serum" in another attempt to glean information about the Black Dahlia murder from him. He was absolved a second time. He died in 1986, 39 years to the day after he left Short at the Biltmore. The coroner attributed his death to an accidental fall.
Mark Hansen
Hansen's name was embossed on the address book that was mailed to the Examiner; it's unclear how the item fell into Short's hands. The 55-year-old Denmark native was the manager of the Florentine Gardens, a sleazy Hollywood nightclub featuring burlesque acts. Many of the young women working for Hansen lived at his home, which was located behind the club. Short was his guest�for several months in 1946, and the aging lothario is rumored to have tried to bed her - unsuccessfully.
George Hodel
In 2003, a retired LAPD detective named Steve Hodel published another daddy-did-it tract, but this one became a national bestseller.� According to the "Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder" Hodel Jr. depicts his dad as a tyrant and misogynistic pervert who held orgies at the family home and was put on trial for raping own his 14-year-old daughter (he was acquitted). After his father died in 1999, Steve Hodel acquired his father's private photo album, which contained two snapshots of a dark-haired woman. Hodel claims the woman was Short, but Short's family has refuted his claims.

Steve Hodel and book cover: Black Dahlia Avenger

Jack Anderson Wilson
In "Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder," actor-cum-crime writer John Gilmore fingers an alcoholic drifter named Jack Anderson Wilson. When Gilmore interviewed him in the early 80s, Wilson purportedly divulged details about the murder that only the killer would have known, including knowledge a supposed vaginal defect which would have prevented Short from having sexual intercourse. A few days before his pending arrest, Wilson died in a hotel fire. The book's validity has been questioned by other Dahlia devotees who have failed to track down many of Gilmore's primary sources - leading them to question the sources' very existence.

Jack Anderson Wilson

Walter Alonzo Bayley
In 1997, a Los Angeles Times writer named Larry Harnisch suggested yet another suspect: Dr. Walter Alonzo Bayley, a surgeon whose house was located one block south of the lot where Short's body was found. Bayley's daughter was a friend of Short's sister Virginia. Harnisch theorizes that Bayley suffered from a degenerative brain disease that made him kill Short. While the police believe Short's killer was affiliated with a cutting profession a surgeon or butcher, say Bayley was 67 at the time of the murder and had no known record of violence or crime. Neither is it known whether he ever met Short.

None of these suspects have been endorsed by the LAPD.

Spurs- The story that inspired the movie "Freaks"

Click here for the short story, Spurs http://www.olgabaclanova.com/spurs.htm

Freaks is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film about sideshow performers, directed and produced by Tod Browning and released byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival (funfair) performers. The film was based on Tod Robbins' 1923 short story "Spurs". Director Browning took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow "freaks," rather than using costumes and makeup.

Browning had been a member of a traveling circus in his early years, and much of the film was drawn from his personal experiences. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who conspire to murder one of the performers to obtain his large inheritance

Spooky Brazil, IN

Brazil, Indiana has been called both the most haunted and the strangest place in the state. Because of the pure strangeness (and unlikeliness) of many of the stories we found we have elected to post the entire area as a strange place rather than posting a set of articles on the different locations.

1) 100 Steps Cemetery (Carpenter's Cemetery)

This cemetery is so named because of the large number of stairs leading up to it - most of which are now broken in some way. It is said that if you count the stairs going into the graveyard there will be 100 but if you count them on the way out it there will be 99.

Something invisible here is also said to push people down to the ground. It is rumored to be the Devil himself and that once you have been pushed a large red hand print will appear on your back that will not fade away for several days.

It is also said that if you come to the cemetery at night and wait until the sun rises the ghost of the first caretaker will appear. He will tell you the exact moment of your upcoming death.

2) Bloody Stop Sign Mary

Rumored to be the paranormal after effect of a fatal car accident. It is said that if you stop your car on a particular (but unidentified) road a nearby Stop Sign will begin to run with and drip blood.

3) The Shadow Beasts

These see through shadowy figures run alongside cars on the roads of the town at night. However, when people stop their cars the forms suddenly disappear and nothing can be found. Once the witness gets back into their car and begins to drive the shadow beasts appear again.

4) Haunted Church

People have seen strange lights moving about in this abandoned church after nightfall. The apparition of a broken body has also been seen strapped to the steeple.

5) Gateway To Hell

This a former railroad tunnel which is said to be haunted by two teenagers who killed themselves by hanging themselves from a nearby tree. It is said that if you flash your car headlights before entering the tunnel you will see blood running down the walls of the tunnel and then something will knock loudly on the side of your car. If you're really lucky you may see the apparitions of the teenagers as you leave the tunnel.

6) Indian Burial Ground

A legend says that a Native American warrior once buried himself alive here - although details are rather sketchy as to how this was done. There are reports of the phantom sound of drums and dogs howling here and a few reports of seeing the apparition of the warrior himself.

7) Spook Light Hill

Some years ago a young girl was decapitated, seemingly accidentally. Today people see an unexplained light traveling the roadway over this hill. The light is said to be either the girl searching for her missing head of her father searching for her. Perhaps it is both

Hell's Door, Darvaza

History

History says that in the early 1970's a team of Soviet prospectors opened this cavern looking for natural gas pockets. Their investigative hole quickly collapsed into a large cavern some 25 metres deep and filled with natural gas from a deeper source. Fearing poisoning the local population or a large explosion they ignited the gas and it has burned ever since. The heat coming from this cavern is so intense that people can only stay at the edge for a few seconds.

Strangeness

First of all it is is a little odd that it has burned for about 40 years without any signs of stopping. Odd but still possible with a constant source of fuel. The locals say that this is a completely natural phenomena and has been burning for much longer than the 40 years. It is claimed that this hole is a direct doorway to Hell itself.

Photo

Location

Deep in the Kar-Kum Desert near Darvaza

Buried Alive-The horrifying truth of the 19th century

By Mrs Amy Ritchie

I bring you to the 19^thcentury, where electricity was not only being invented but were still refining the technology…Where the popularity of railroads and steamships were growing to such extremes they became an industrial flourish all on their own…A century where wonderful inventions such as the light bulb, typewriters, and telephones were being invented only to make everyone’s lives easier. Scientists were starting to become a popular professions, and so were Dr.’s and physicians…While Dr.’s were highly intelligent and few and far from many places they weren’t far from discovering some horrifying truths to their professions. Many Dr.’s were called to certain burial sites only to find certain victims that have been thought to have been dead were actually buried alive!

Sure I know what you’re probably thinking, “What? That’s just an urban legend…” Well it might be an urban legend but it’s true. There have been several recorded events of people being buried alive. Many people who realized they were buried alive tried to scratch their ways out of the coffins…For example:

In the year 1837, a man by the name of Cardinal Samolgia had apparently fallen ill. And when they presumed him dead they went to embalm him. While doing the embalming he woke up trying to push the knife away but was killed because of the flesh wound.

In the 1850’s when the disease diphtheria was taking its toll a young girl had caught the disease. Her name was unknown but she was visiting Edisto Island of South Carolina. For fear that the disease would spread the family forced her into their mausoleum alive.

To provide even further evidence on January 20^th, 1885 a man by the name of Jenkins lived in Asheville, N.C. was unfortunately buried alive. The man had gotten sick with a fever and was sick for several days. By the time they thought he was dead and had prepared him for burial. By the time they went to bury him they found scratch marks on the coffin and he was lying face down…

In order to prevent from having people be buried alive, Count Karnice-Karnicki had patented in 1897 a coffin that had a long tube. The tube was connected to a box about 3.5 inches in diameter and was attached to the top of coffin. The tube was attached to a ball with a spring inside that would rest on the bodies chest. There was a flag attached to the box. If the ball moved light and air would signal the flag and the person would be removed from the casket. Also to prevent people from being buried alive people would take mirrors to people’s faces that they thought weren’t alive and hold the mirrors near the nostrils that way of the person was still alive they would see the steam coming out of their nostrils and be able to rest as ease knowing they were still alive.

Being buried alive still happens today but luckily it is very rare and hardly happens at all. So you don’t have to worry about anything happening like that any time soon!

Buried alive- Robert E. Lee's Mother

by Gail Jarvis

by Gail Jarvis

One of Edgar Allan Poe's most hair-raising tales is The Premature Burial, in which Poe relates a story of a young wife of a prominent member of Congress, who is incorrectly pronounced dead. The lady's funeral took place three days later, at which time the young woman's coffin was deposited inside the family vault. A few years later, when the vault was opened to receive another coffin, the woman's husband was horrified when a shrouded skeleton collapsed into his arms. Examination disclosed that his wife had revived after burial, and her intense struggle to escape from her coffin caused it to fall from the shelf were it had been placed and break open. Violently shaking and banging the door of the vault, her shroud became entangled with the top arch of the door. There she hung suspended, until she eventually died.

In the 1800s, when this story takes place, the chance of being buried alive was not so remote. The state of medical knowledge at the time — some doctors didn't have medical degrees — could easily lead to an erroneous verdict of "death" simply because attending physicians were unable to detect breath, pulse or heartbeat. Also, the possibility of being buried alive was heightened because modern embalming techniques were not used. In fact, many people were so afraid of being buried alive, they had special coffins constructed with elaborate apparatuses including bells that protruded above the grave and could be rung by a device inside the coffin. Indeed, the fear of being buried alive was so prevalent that it earned a medical classification: Taphophobia

Edgar Allan Poe set his story in Baltimore, Maryland, in the year 1844. But, because of striking similarities, it is probably based on a widely reported incident that took place in Stratford, Virginia, 40 years earlier. The Stratford premature burial also involved the young wife of a famous member of Congress.

Ann Hill Carter was a refined young woman from one of the wealthiest and oldest families in Virginia. She spent her girlhood at the famous Shirley Plantation on the James River, which the Hills' and Carters' had inhabited since the 1600s, shortly after the establishment of the Jamestown Colony. During Ann's childhood, most, if not all, of the Virginia signatories to the Declaration of Independence had been guests at Shirley Plantation.

But Ann did not enjoy good health, and even harbored fears of becoming an invalid; fears that eventually were realized. She is reported to have suffered from narcolepsy, a sleep disorder that was little understood at the time. Victims of this disease experience frequent daytime sleepiness and sometimes fall into "sleep paralysis." An extreme attack of sleep paralysis, a deep trance-like state, could cause the cessation of normal reflexes and sensations.

Ann Hill Carter was only 20 years old in 1793 when she married the celebrated Henry Lee III, then Governor of Virginia and soon to become a member of Congress. Lee's skilled horsemanship had earned him the nickname "Lighthorse Harry" and he was esteemed for his combat heroics in the Revolutionary War where he served under General George Washington. Seventeen years Ann's senior, Henry was a widower with three children by his first wife who died in 1790. With her marriage, Ann became mistress of Stratford Hall and during the first decade of her marriage to Henry, she bore him four children.

Still, Ann continued to be plagued with poor health, and in 1804 she was taken with a severe fever — possibly dengue fever, and bedridden for months. One day, while in the grip of her illness, the family became alarmed that Ann was not responding to external stimuli. They hastily summoned physicians who conducted lengthy examinations of Ann's inert body. Finally, the grim-faced physicians were forced to advise her husband that they could not detect a heartbeat. The grief-stricken husband reluctantly accepted the verdict of death and Ann's body was placed in a coffin. Three days later, the coffin was put to rest in the family vault.

Some time later a sexton, bringing flowers for the deceased wife, thought he heard a noise emanating from the casket. As he listened intently, he was sure that he heard a faint voice calling for help. The sexton quickly unfastened and removed the lid from the coffin and Ann Carter Lee looked up at him with wide eyes as she tried to raise herself into a sitting position.

Over the next several months Ann Carter Lee slowly regained her health. Eventually she was able to become a fully functioning wife and mother. On January 19, 1807, fifteen months after her narrow escape from premature burial, she gave birth to a son who would be her last child to survive into maturity. The infant was named Robert Edward after Ann's two brothers.

January 19, 2005

Gail Jarvis [send him mail], a CPA living in Beaufort, SC, is an advocate of the voluntary union of states established by the founders.

Witches Castle, Utica, IN

Site of the brutal torture killing of 12 year old Shanda Sharer

Article from Indiana Ghost hunters site.

The Legend:

You can hear a little girl laughing in the woods and loud thumps.

People have seen a white mist moving very fast in what looked like the living room, but only the foundation and a fire place remain of the main house.

Up the hill just behind the main house is a small shack surrounded by a ditch and a cliff. In this shack there is a fireplace with one window on each side. You can hear many different voices and see people peeking out of the windows.

There used to a basement to the main house, but it has been filled in now with dirt and rock. You cannot miss where the steps used to be. There's a small door on each side of the room also in the room with the fireplace.

A small girl about 7-8 years old has been seen by many people. She was wearing a white dress. She had long black hair, but her hair is covering her face.

Legend also states witches originally occupied the house, until it was destroyed by the townspeople, and they haunt the remains of the house to this day.

History: The Witch's Castle was a ruined stone house, also known as Mistletoe Falls, located on an isolated hill overlooking the Ohio River.

Directions: Located on Upper River Rd, just past the rock quarry (now Quarry Bluff) on the left side of the road. The stone fence and the stairs leading into the castle should be visible from the road.

The Clown (Le Queloune)

Wednesday just LOVES clowns. I found this one in her closet

Little movies

Short Indie films full of heart.....and scares

Coming soon

Just in time for Halloween

I will be posting tutorials on how to use latex for the best gruesome halloween looks EVER!!!

All of the following is just latex, toilet paper and grease paint.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Saint Germain: The Immortal Count

He was an alchemist who, it is believed, discovered the secret of eternal life

By Stephen Wagner

IS IT POSSIBLE that a man can achieve immortality - to live forever? That is the startling claim of a historical figure known as Count de Saint-Germain. Records date his birth to the late 1600s, although some believe that his longevity reaches back to the time of Christ. He has appeared many times throughout history - even as recently as the 1970s - always appearing to be about 45 years old. He was known by many of the most famous figures of European history, including Casanova, Madame de Pampadour, Voltaire, King Louis XV, Catherine the Great, Anton Mesmer and others.

Who was this mysterious man? Are the stories of his immortality mere legend and folklore? Or is it possible that he really did discover the secret of defeating death?

ORIGINS

When the man who first became known as Saint-Germain was born is unknown, although most accounts say he was born in the 1690s. A genealogy compiled by Annie Besant for her co-authored book, The Comte De St. Germain: The Secret of Kings, asserts that he was born the son of Francis Racoczi II, Prince of Transylvania in 1690. Other accounts, taken less seriously by most, say he was alive in the time of Jesus and attended the wedding at Cana, where the young Jesus turned water into wine. He was also said to be present at the council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.

What is almost unanimously agreed on, however, is that Saint-Germain became accomplished in the art of alchemy, the mystical "science" that strives to control the elements. The foremost goal of this practice was the creation of "projection powder" or the elusive "philosopher's stone," which, it was claimed, when added to the molten form of such base metals as lead could turn them into pure silver or gold. Furthermore, this magical power could be used in an elixir that would impart immortality on those who drank it. Count de Saint-Germain, it is believed, discovered this secret of alchemy.

COURTING EUROPEAN SOCIETY

Saint-Germain first came into prominence in the high society of Europe in 1742. He had just spent five years in the shah of Persia's court where he had learned the jeweler's craft. He beguiled the royals and the rich with his vast knowledge of science and history, his musical ability, his easy charm and quick wit. He spoke many languages fluently, including French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and English, and was further familiar with Chinese, Latin, Arabic - even ancient Greek and Sanskrit.

It might have been his extraordinary learnedness that led acquaintances to see that he was a remarkable man, but an anecdote from 1760 most likely gave rise to the notion that Saint-Germain could be immortal. In Paris that year, Countess von Georgy heard that a Count de Saint-Germain had arrived for a soiree at the home of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France. The elderly countess was curious because she had known a Count de Saint-Germain while in Venice in 1710. Upon meeting the count again, she was astonished to see that he hadn't appeared to age, and asked him if it was his father she knew in Venice.

"No, Madame," he replied, "but I myself was living in Venice at the end of the last and the beginning of this century; I had the honor to pay you court then."

"Forgive me, but that it impossible!" the perplexed countess said. "The Count de Saint-Germain I knew in those days was at least forty-five years old. And you, at the outside, are that age at present."

"Madame, I am very old," he said with a knowing smile.

"But then you must be nearly 100 years old," said the astonished countess.

"That is not impossible," the count told her matter-of-factly, then continued to convince the countess that he was indeed the same man she knew with the details of their previous meetings and of life in Venice 50 years earlier.

EVER PRESENT, NEVER AGING

Saint-Germain traveled extensively throughout Europe over the next 40 years - and in all that time never seemed to age. Those who met him were impressed by his many abilities and peculiarities:
He could play the violin like a virtuoso.
He was an accomplished painter.
Wherever he traveled, he set up an elaborate laboratory, presumably for his alchemy work.
He seemed to be a man of great wealth, but was not known to have any bank accounts. (If it was due to his ability to transmute base metals into gold, he never performed the feat for observers.)
He dined often with friends because he enjoyed their company, but was rarely seen to eat food in public. He subsisted, it was said, on a diet of oatmeal.
He prescribed recipes for the removal of facial wrinkles and for dyeing hair.
He loved jewels, and much of his clothing - including his shoes - were studded with them.
He had perfected a technique for painting jewels.
He claimed to be able to fuse several small diamonds into one large one. He also said he could make pearls grow to incredible sizes.
He has been linked to several secret societies, including the Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Society of Asiatic Brothers, the Knights of Light, the Illuminati and Order of the Templars.

The renowned 18th philosopher, Voltaire - himself a respected man of science and reason - said of Saint-Germain that he is "a man who never dies, and who knows everything."