Religion & Spirituality – Page 2

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Guest Blogger

ANCIENT VAMPIRES UNEARTHED IN BULGARIA

Could the legends and tales of old be true?

All the recent news stories of “zombie attacks” recently have gotten people wondering if the creatures from our darkest nightmares and classic horror movies are becoming a reality. Well, the signs don’t look so good when you throw in finding a couple of people that were buried 800 years ago with stakes in their hearts! Sounds like one classic horror movie monster I think we’re all familiar with, the vampire!

Bela Lugosi as Dracula, the original vampire!

Discovery News writes:

Two medieval “vampire” skeletons emerged near a monastery in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Sozopol, local archaeologists announced.

Dating back 800 years to the Middle Ages, the skeletons were unearthed with iron rods pierced through their chests — evidence of an exorcism against a vampire. The ritual was aimed at preventing potentially dangerous people, such as enemies, murderers or individuals who died suddenly from a strange illness, from turning into vampires after death.

“The practice was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th century,” Bozhidar Dimitrov, chief of the National History Museum in Sofia, told reporters.

The newly discovered skeletons are the latest in a series of finds across Europe. According to Dimitrov, over 100 skeletons, buried in the same manner, had been unearthed in Bulgaria only.

‘GREY LADY’ HAUNTS NEW ZEALAND COLLEGE AND CASTLE

If going to college on your own isn’t scary enough for most people, imagine having that same school haunted by an ancient ghost!

Otage Daily Times writes:

Ghostly sightings may have left Cumberland College students spooked, but now a tourist has reported being bullied by a ghost at Larnach Castle.

Sightings of the ghost known as the “Grey Lady” at the college earlier this month have sparked a media frenzy, says the author of a soon-to-be-published book about Dunedin’s haunted spots.

HairRaiser Tours owner Andrew Smith said well-known spots included Larnach Castle, the Fortune Theatre, Stafford Gables and a specific area around Moray Pl.

The college was in “lock-down” when he visited with other media yesterday. Students and staff were spooked by the latest sightings, he said. “Whether or not the students have known the history and they have talked themselves into believing something – that could be a possibility … but they are genuinely freaked out.”

MYSTERY TRIBE LEAVES BEHIND BODY-FILLED JARS

Human remains nside a log coffin at Phnom Pel. Photograph courtesy Nancy Beavan

A research team has been uncovering burial sights of a mysterious tribe that vanished a long time ago, since 2003. Even though they found up to 10 such spots in the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia, some with humans remains that date back almost 4,000 years, there’s still little information on the ones who left the creepy, bone-filled jars made from wood, behind.

National Geographic writes:

Perched in some cases on precarious cliff ledges, centuries-old log coffins—such as this one, pictured alongside researcher Nancy Beavan—and “body jars” are the only known traces of an unknown Cambodian tribe. Now new dating studies are beginning to assure the unnamed culture a place in history.

Ten such burial spots have been found in the Cardamom Mountains since 2003, and at least one is at least 160 feet high (50 meters)—the intention apparently being that “anyone trying to disturb the burials would break their neck,” said Beavan, who led the new study.

Beavan’s team has radiocarbon-dated wood, teeth, and bones from four of the sites to between A.D. 1395 and 1650, placing them smack-dab in the decline of the Khmer Empire, based in Angkor. However it’s unclear what, if any, influence the empire had on these mountain people, said Beavan, of the University of Otago’s Department of Anatomy in New Zealand. “Until now, experts had no idea when the sites had been established or how long they’d been in use.”

Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Guest Blogger

ANGEL, ALIEN, OR CGI?

A new video has been circulating recently that claims to be evidence of an angel, or possibly an alien, making a quick stop down on Earth, then flying away in an instant. It all happens pretty quick and was caught on a security camera nearby, even a few people ran over to inspect where the thing had landed. Is this footage of something we’ve never seen before, or another person trying to pass off a fake video as the real deal?

What do you think this video shows?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDubUuplR5g

The Huffington Post writes:

Is it the work of a holy being, or a homely prankster?

A security video taken on Sept. 11 last year — reportedly at the Cilandak Town Square in Jakarta, Indonesia — appears to show what YouTubers describe as an“angel-like spirit” flying into view and leaving in a burst of light seconds later.

People with flashlights then storm the area where the winged being appeared, seemingly to investigate the strange occurrence.

Some are saying that the video shows an angel — others think the “humanoid” figure might be a visit from another dimension.

“You can see the pulsating. … I think it’s an extraterrestrial,” says the narrator ofanother YouTube video who dissected the images.

United Press International is reporting this week that the video could be a hoax, basing its findings on YouTube comments.

“First of all, we have one static picture, on which picture of alleged ‘light being’ is mounted,” the news site quoted a commenter as saying. “Nothing in that lobby moves except it. And then suddenly, after it disappears, we see a man in lower right quadrant of video who is walking by, who has suddenly appeared in almost middle of frame, coming from nowhere, apparently un-baffled by appearance of huge winged light creature in front of his undisplayed path. And creature illuminated entire floor of that building. Eh.”

FANTASY NO MORE! WORLD’S FIRST WIZARD ACADEMY OFFICIALLY OPEN

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, 68, has opened the Grey School of Wizardry.

You can’t make this stuff up, people! Life is just too strange and weird, all on it’s own.

The man pictured above, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, 68, has opened the world’s first actual wizard’s academy, the Grey School of Wizardry in California and, it’s an officially recognized academic institution to boot!

Daily Mail writes:

He is the real-life wizard headmaster giving Harry Potter’s Dumbledore a run for his money.

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, 68, has dedicated his life to studying the Dark Arts – even doing the shopping in his wizard costume and wand.

Now the magic master has opened the world’s only registered wizard academy, the Grey School of Wizardry, as he prepares to make Hogwarts and the world of Harry Potter a reality.

‘If you’ve ever read Harry Potter and wondered if wizards really do walk among us, perhaps behind a secret train platform, or in secret communities, I can tell you that we are absolutely real,’ says Oberon, from Catoti, California.

Today, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart’s Grey School of Wizardry is the first wizard school to be officially recognized as an academic establishment.

Like Hogwarts, the Grey School teaches 16 departments, including Alchemy, Beastmastery, Horse-whispering, wand-making and spell casting.

FUNERAL TURNED PARTY WHEN DEAD MAN ‘WOKE UP’

These stories are all too common in the world of the weird. You’d think people would be a little more sure and positive that their loved one is dead and gone before planning a burial.

I guess I would believe he was gone too after being in this vehicle when it crashed.

9 News writes:

A man pronounced dead following a car crash by Australian paramedics who then left the scene has been discharged from hospital after making a remarkable recovery, a report said Friday.

Daniel Huf, 30, was trapped upside down in the wreckage of a Porsche in a Melbourne suburb and was declared dead after being treated at the scene on April 1.

He was reportedly left in the car for up to an hour as police began their investigations until emergency services officials began removing what they thought was a corpse and discovered a feeble pulse.

MAYAN CALENDAR EXTENDS WELL BEYOND 2012

The Mayan Calendar doesn't end in 2012 after all.

Have no fear, for the end is not-so-near!

Scientists and researchers have made another fascinating discovery recently. It seems the Mayan Calendar that predicts the end of the world in 2012 doesn’t, in-fact, predict anything another than over another 7,000 years of exactly the same thing that’s been going on; boring ,old, everyday life.

BBC News writes:

… Perhaps most intriguing among the finds were several finds related to astronomical tables, including four long numbers on the east wall that represent a cycle lasting up to 2.5 million days.

The east wall is mostly covered by tabulations of black symbols or “glyphs” that map out various astronomical cycles: that of Mars and Venus and the lunar eclipses.

The wall also features red marks that appear to be notes and corrections to the calculations; Dr Saturno said that the scribes “seem to be using it like a blackboard”. The Xultun find is the first place that all of the cycles have been found tied mathematically together in one place, representing a calendar that stretches more than 7,000 years into the future. The Mayan numbering system for dates is a complex one in base-18 and base-20 numbers that, in modern-day terms, would “turn over” at the end of 2012.

But Dr Saturno points out that the new finds serve to further undermine the fallacy that this is tantamount to a prediction of the end of the world. “The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue, that 7,000 years from now, things would be exactly like this,” he said. “We keep looking for endings. The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It’s an entirely different mindset.”

GRANDMOTHER AWAKES FROM THE DEAD, 9 DAYS LATER!

Well, at least one person is thankful for the current strike in Africa against the removal of fuel subsidy, and she’s alive because of it too!

67-year old mother of three, Mama Victoria Gbemisola Babatunde, was pronounced dead on January 7th of this year, due to a long battle with an illness. Fortunantly for her, the burial ceremony that would’ve normally been set just a day after, was delayed while travel was prohibited due to the ongoing fuel strike in mid-west Africa.

All of a sudden, on the 9th day after her official death was announced, she sneezed herself to life and awoke from what was said to be a deep coma, scaring the mortuary attendant so much she ran out of the room!

Vanguard writes:

A 67-year old mother of three resurrected 12 days after being pronounced clinically dead! Stranger than fiction you might say.

But this is the story of Mama Victoria Gbemisola Babatunde (née Bolarinwa) who was certified dead on January 7, this year but is now back to life, hale and hearty.

She would have been buried almost immediately she was certified dead.

But something delayed the burial: The nationwide strike against the removal of fuel subsidy made it impossible for the children to gather to arrange her burial.

A date was eventually fixed and the children were on their way for the burial when they learnt that she had resurrected!

‘GRASPER’ THE NOT-SO-FRIENDLY GHOST

Queen's Arms Pub frequent guest, Ashley Beland.

Well here’s one ghost, named ‘Grasper’, has been getting a little too friendly for the owners and customers of a bar in Birmingham.

It seems this spirit that lingers around is always in a frisky mood and pinches guests and staffs behinds all the time!

Not a bad way to spend the afterlife, I suppose.

The Sun writes:

Terrified regulars at the Queen’s Arms have been keeping their backs to the wall since they realised the randy ghost was stalking the bar.

And it has become so bothersome that the exasperated owners have had called in a team of ghostbusters to give the saucy spook the bum’s rush.

Staff at the Birmingham city centre boozer have nicknamed the ghost Grasper after they described feeling a “firm pinch” to the buttocks.

Assistant manager Paula Wharton, 41, initially believed the tweaks on her body were muscle spasms.

She said: “One night three of us were talking and I mentioned that I’d felt this pinch on my bum, and everyone else said that it had happened to them too.

HOMEOWNERS SUE TO GET OUT OF HAUNTED HOUSE

Michele Callan and Josue Chinchilla's and their haunted house in New Jersey. (image credit abc news)

Now, I’ve heard plenty of ghost stories about homes so spooky and ‘haunted’ that terrified residents flee the house the house in horror, never to return again. Never have I heard of said residents actually taking it a step further like Michele Callan and her fiance, Josue Chinchilla have by suing their landlord for the trouble and stress they’ve had to endure, with their children, since moving into the home in New Jersey and living with the unseen and troublseome housemates.

ABC News writes:

A New Jersey couple is suing their landlord for a refund after they said paranormal activity caused them to flee their rental home.

Michele Callan and her fiance, Josue Chinchilla, moved into the home in Toms River, N.J., with Callan’s two children on March 1 and were immediately spooked…

At first they chalked it up to the adjustment period of moving into a new home. But things only got spookier, they said. Doors opened and closed. The family even claimed they recorded strange voices whispering, “Let it burn.”

The new tenants said that between the menacing voices, flickering lights and clothes mysteriously flying from their closets, they couldn’t take it anymore. They fled the three-bedroom home and checked into a hotel, where they said they have been living since March 13.