england – Museum of the Weird

Posted on September 10, 2015 by MOTW Admin

Stonehenge outdone

Photo of Stonhenge against a dark, stormy-looking sky. — Stonhenge, located in Wiltshire, England,
is probably the most famous henge in the world.
Photo by Diego Delso [CC BY-SA 4.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

Stonehenge is one of the world’s most mysterious places. The ancient structure, located in a field near Wiltshire, England, brings to mind images of druids and mysterious rituals. What if Stonehenge is really just an overture? What if there was something bigger…much, much bigger?Researchers have recently uncovered a series of standing stones that dwarfs Stonehenge. It’s called the Durrington Walls, and lies about 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) northeast of Stonehenge. People have been aware of the structures, but it’s not until recently that underground imaging helped us to see the scope of it all. This dramatic video by the Irish Times shows how the full structure might look if it was all unearthed and restored.

Some people take these sorts of mysterious sites pretty seriously. A story from the Irish Examiner tells of a grave warning given by local lorekeeper, Eddie Lenihan, if the West Pharmaceutical Services factory destroys an ancient fairy fort in Waterford. He portends a run of horrible luck that will bring the new facility to ruins, along with all who work there. With that on the line, perhaps the construction could account for a little fairy park? It would be a nice place to have lunch!

Very little is truly known about the origins and uses of these structures. Perhaps we will never know. In the mean time, we look forward to learning more about the Superhenge.

Posted on April 28, 2013 by MOTW Admin

OF DEMONS AND DREAMS

The correlation between demons and dreams is a complex and highly debated discussion amongst the metaphysical and psychological worlds. Certain camps of thought stalwartly believe in the physical manifestation of these entities existing independently of humanity, without a true spiritual connection to any particular religion, though they are inextricably linked to us through their need to feed from our energies. Other schools of research remain true to the religious concept of demons as “spawn of the Devil” and punishment for our “sins,” while those rooted in pure science and logic claim that they are products of our own chemical imbalances and psychological scars inflicted over time by our fellow humans and ourselves.

The link between visions of demons and other malevolent entities during a sleep disorder known as “sleep paralysis” is explored in a new short film and multi-platform art project, entitled simply “The Sleep Paralysis Project”, by Carla MacKinnon. Based on her own personal experiences struggling with the disorder, the project aims to explore the eerie psychological phenomena in which one’s mind becomes conscious while their body remains in a state of deep relaxation. However, this form of consciousness is not akin to being “awake” for the mind is still in the grips of whatever dream it is processing, thus creating the sensation of a “waking dream” or illusion. This disorder affects between five and sixty percent of the population, according to surveyors.

The strangest part about the documented cases of sleep paralysis is perhaps the consistency of the form of the waking dreams. If they are a part of one’s dream, the hallucinations should be as varied as the individual, taking on a multitude of different scenarios and creatures. However, it appears that the most common hallucinations involve entities with “demonic” appearances, crones, or unseen “malevolent presences” somewhere within the room where the person is sleeping. These creatures are often the perpetrators of an attack in which the victim believes they are being suffocated and in some cases this suffocation takes the form of a supernatural rape by an incubus, succubus, or other supernatural creature. The concept of demonic entities stretches back as far as humanity itself with myths and legends as varied as the peoples who gave birth to them.

This could largely be due to the battle between their engaged/conscious mind and the terrifying sensation of being trapped in their own body, paired with a variety of repressed psychological and emotional issues buried within the subconscious. The link between sleep paralysis and these haunting, iconic symbols begs the question of whether or not this may be a sign of our vaster interconnected “human consciousness” as a sentient species existing in one plane of reality, or perhaps merely a shared understanding of mythology and our own capacity for evil as it represents? Or is it something more sinister that pierces the veil between this world and another during sleep?

MacKinnon’s research to discover the origins of her own waking nightmares has allowed her to explore the gamut of these disturbing tales, as well as interview fellow sufferers for their own intimate accounts. Her artistic short film and corresponding art project are set to debut in May at the Royal College of Arts in London. According to the official website: “The film uses stop motion animation, live action film and projection mapping techniques to evoke and explore the worlds experienced between sleeping and waking. The film is Carla MacKinnon’s graduation piece for the Royal College of Art’s Animation Masters course, created in collaboration with arts and technology studio seeper with music by Dominic de Grande.”

For additional information visit http://www.thesleepparalysisproject.org/ or the project’s blog at http://sleepparalysisproject.wordpress.com/.

Posted on July 26, 2012 by MOTW Admin

MAN CLAIMS TO HAVE AN ALLERGIC REACTION TO TECHNOLOGY

A man in England has diagnosed himself with a rather rare allergy, technology.

Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity, apparently, is a real thing. This disorder has even plagued some rather notable people in the past but, whether or not this man, Phil Inkly, truely has the extreme reactions of nosebleeds and migraines to wifi signals and cell phone use that he claims to have, is still up for debate.

CNET News writes:

Imagine if you were a food critic and suddenly developed a wheat/dairy/corn/carb/fat allergy.

Or what if you were a car mechanic and the smell of gas brought you out in itchy purple hives and then made you have convulsions?

This is the fate of computer technician Phil Inkly. Or, rather, former computer technician.

Inkly, you see, claims to be allergic to pretty much everything to do with, well, technology.

You name it and it affects him. If it’s some kind of gadget, if it’s even a battery, it might give him nosebleeds, burning headaches, sleep problems, or even blackouts.

These symptoms have caused him to move into the woods, as far away from technology as he can be.

And yet, as the Daily Mail reports, no doctor has diagnosed his condition. Instead, Inkly himself diagnosed it as Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity.

He lives in a small caravan in rural England and says his life has been completely destroyed. He has no friends, no love, and he doesn’t even know how seriously ill he might be.

“I’m always ill and can only handle being in remote areas with little radiation so because of this, money is tight,” he told the Mail.

Inkly was not some reluctant techie.

He told the Mail: “I’ve been passionate about technology from childhood, previously working as a sound engineer and tutor of music technology. I frequently repaired computers for family and friends — all was fine until things started going wireless.”

He says he began to notice that things weren’t quite right when he was around computers and cell phones.

Then he moved near to a former Army base. Since then, the symptoms have become only controllable by fleeing to the wilderness.

“Now I suffer from extreme pain on the side of my brain that I used to hold my phone to, and when I get nosebleeds it comes from the nostril on that side of my head too so I believe it’s linked,” he told the Mail.

Even when he moved into the woods, he felt pain that he says was caused by a nearby office that used phones. So he bought them phones that turn off the radiation when they’re not being used.

It’s not as if he’s avoided doctors. The problem is that the doctors can’t use modern technology to examine him.