THE HOLY SHROUD OF TURIN

The Shroud

The picture from scripture

The Shroud of Christ....Is it True or just a co-incidence...???

Hoax or Holy Grail? That is the question every one wants to know. No body has been able to prove that The Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Christ. Yet the holds the haunting image of a man's wounded body, fitting the description of Christ.
The shroud is undoubtedly old. Its history is known from the year 1357, when it surfaced in the tiny village of Lirey, France. Until recent reports that most of the scientific world accepted the findings of carbon dating carried out in 1988. The results said the shroud dated back to 1260-1390, and this is much to new to be Jesus' burial linen.
It is said that the carbon dating is inaccurate. One Dr. Maria Grazia Siliato, Who has studied the shroud for 16 years says the reason that the carbon dating is wrong, is that the fragment tested was a corner of the cloth that had been repaired five times since 1400. Another Dr, Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valdez, after months of examining microscopic samples, concluded in January that the shroud is centuries older than it's carbon date. Dr. Garza said the shrouds fibers are coated with bacteria and fungi that have grown for centuries. He said that the carbon dating had sampled the contaminants as well as the fibers' cellulose.
In May 1993, Dr. Garza traveled to Turin, and examined a shroud sample with the approval of Catholic authorities. "As soon as I looked at a segment in the microscope, I knew that it was heavily contaminated, and I knew what had been radiocarbon dated was a mixture of linen, and bacteria, fungi, and bioplastic (A plastic-like coating that is a byproduct of bacteria and fungi.) " Dr. Garza enlisted Dr.Mattengly. Together they are working with an enzyme process to cleanse the contaminated samples.
Practicing science with the shroud of Turin puts Drs. Garza and Mattingly in a charged atmosphere. Moving the shroud's origin back several centuries would place it closer to the time of Jesus' death. Adding to that a third member of their team has identified a part of the Shroud's markings as that of blood from a human male. No one has been able to determine exactly how the markings got there, but they appear in bas-relief in a perfect negative image. Testing has proved that there is no way that the image is forged.
Major findings: No significant trace of paint, Ink, dye, or stain. It is not the product of an artist. Image becomes life like when their light values are reversed by a photographic negative. The Blood is real blood that has been confirmed by Dr. John Heller. The Wounds are consistent with the Gospel account of Christ's ordeal. A) Crown of thorns. B) Bruising of face. C) Shoulder abrasions D) Knee abrasions E) scourage marks F) nail wounds in hands and feet G) wound in side. H) Legs NOT broken!
The shroud has been damaged in a fire, restored, repaired, and has passed through many hands. These things all make it harder to get an actual dating on it. There are many things about the shroud that would prove that it was the burial cloth of Christ, such as a Roman coin over the both eyes minted between 29 to 33 AD. Which says, if these coins were dated at the time of Christ, then the shroud's carbon dating may be wrong, and The Shroud of Turin is the Shroud of Christ. Testing is still being done. Scientist are still skeptic, they are saying that this shroud is ether the shroud of Christ and the physical proof of Jesus existence... Or the most unbelievably clever products of the human mind and hand. It's ether one or the other; there is no middle ground.

PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT

The Imaginary pics of Philadelphia Experiment

Philadelphia Experiment Or Project Rainbow...Truth or Legend??????

Project Rainbow was allegedly an experiment conducted upon a small destroyer escort ship during World War II, both in the Philadelphia Naval Yard and at sea; the goal was to make that ship invisible to enemy detection. The accounts vary as to whether the original idea was to achieve invisibility to enemy radar or whether the prize sought after was more profound: optical invisibility. Either way, it is commonly believed that the mechanism involved was the generation of an incredibly intense magnetic field around the ship, which would cause refraction or bending of light or radar waves around the ship, much like a mirage created by heated air over a road on a summer day. The legend goes on to say that the experiment was a complete success... except that the ship actually disappeared physically for a time, and then returned. They wanted to "cloak" the ship from view, but they got de-materialization and teleportation instead..
It has been claimed that the Philadelphia Experiment was partly an investigation into how Albert Einstein's "Unified Field Theory for Gravitation and Electricity" might be used to advantage in the development of electronic camouflage for ships at sea. Einstein allegedly published his Unified Theory around 1925-27 in German, in a Prussian scientific journal, but it was later withdrawn as incomplete. This research was aimed at using intense electromagnetic fields to mask a ship from incoming projectiles, mainly torpedoes. This was later extended to include a study of creating radar invisibility by a similar field in the air rather than in the water.
The story begins in June of 1943, with the U.S.S. Eldridge, DE (Destroyer Escort) 173, being fitted with tons of experimental electronic equipment. This included, according to one source, two massive generators of 75 KVA each, mounted where the forward gun turret would have been, distributing their power through four magnetic coils mounted on the deck. Three RF transmitters (2 megawatt CW each, mounted on the deck), three thousand '6L6' power amplifier tubes (used to drive the field coils of the two generators), special synchronizing and modulation circuits, and a host of other specialized hardware were employed to generate massive electromagnetic fields which, when properly configured, would be able to bend light and radio waves around the ship, thus making it invisible to enemy observers.
The experiment, said to have taken place at the Philadelphia Naval Yard and also at sea, took place on at least one occasion while in full view of the Merchant Marine ship S.S. Andrew Furuseth, and other observation ships. The Andrew Furuseth becomes significant because one of its crewmen is the source of most of the original material making up the PX legend. Carlos Allende, a.k.a. Carl Allen, wrote a series of strange letters to one Dr. Morris K. Jessup in the 1950's in which he described what he claims to have witnessed: at least one of the several phases of the Philadelphia Experiment.
At 0900 hours, on July 22nd, 1943, so the story goes, the power to the generators was turned on, and the massive electromagnetic fields started to build up. A greenish fog was seen to slowly envelop the ship, concealing it from view. Then the fog itself is said to have disappeared, taking the Eldridge with it, leaving only undisturbed water where the ship had been anchored only moments before.
The elite officers of the Navy and scientists involved gazed in awe at their greatest achievement: the ship and crew were not only radar invisible but invisible to the eye as well! Everything worked as planned, and about fifteen minutes later they ordered the men to shut down the generators. The greenish fog slowly reappeared, and the Eldridge began to dematerialize as the fog subsided, but it was evident to all that something had gone wrong.
When boarded by personnel from shore, the crew above deck were found to be disoriented and nauseous. The Navy removed the crew, and shortly after obtained another. In the end, the Navy decided that they only wanted radar invisibility, and the equipment was altered.
On the 28th of October in 1943, at 17:15, the final test on the Eldridge was performed. The electromagnetic field generators were turned on again, and the Eldridge became near-invisible; only a faint outline of the hull remained visible in the water. Everything was fine for the first few seconds, and then, in a blinding blue flash, the ship completely vanished. Within seconds it reappeared miles away, in Norfolk, Virginia, and was seen for several minutes. The Eldridge then disappeared from Norfolk as mysteriously as it had arrived, and reappeared back in Philadelphia Naval Yard. This time most of the sailors were violently sick. Some of the crew were simply "missing" never to return. Some went crazy, but, strangest of all, five men were fused to the metal in the ship's structure.
The men that survived were never the same again. Those that lived were discharged as "mentally unfit" for duty, regardless of their true condition.
So, what had begun as an experiment in electronic camouflage, ended up as an accidental teleportation of an entire ship and crew, to a distant location and back again, all in a matter of minutes!
Although the above may seem fantastic, one must remember, that in the 1940’s the atomic bomb was also being invented.
That is the composite Philadelphia Experiment (PX) legend as it has stood up until very recently, when certain new details were added by a few sources who claim to be "remembering" their own participation in the project after years of brainwashing to remove such memories.

YETI--THE LEGEND OF HIMALAYAS...TRUTH OR MYTH....!

Footprints of Yeti

The imagination of an artist

The Himalayan Yeti mystry or legend???

The Himalaya Mountains, the highest range on Earth, have been referred to as the “roof of the world.” If that is so, there is a mystery called the Yeti in our attic. In Tibetan the word means “magical creature” and truly it is a seemingly supernatural enigma in the shape of a hairy, biped creature that resembles a giant ape.
The Himalayas lie on the border between India, Nepal, and Tibet (now part of China). They are remote and forbidding. Large stretches around these rough valleys and peaks are uninhabited. The tallest mountain in the world, Everest, 29,028 feet high, lies half in Nepal, half in China. It is from Nepal, though, that most attempts to climb Everest, and the surrounding mountains, are made.
In Katmandu, the capitol of Nepal, a visitor finds himself immersed in the Yeti legend. He is a commercial money maker for the tourist industry (there’s even a Hotel named the “Yak and the Yeti”) as well as legend, religion and fantasy to some of the Neplaese people.

The first reliable report of the Yeti appeared in 1925 when a Greek photographer, N. A. Tombazi, working as a member of a British geological expedition in the Himalayas, was shown a creature moving in the distance across some lower slopes. The creature was almost a thousand feet away in a narea with an altitude of around 15,000 feet.
“Unquestionably, the figure in outline was exactly like a human being, walking upright and stopping occasionally to uproot or pull at some dwarf rhododendron bushes,” said Tombazi, “It showed up dark against the snow and, as far as I could make out wore no clothes.”
The creature disappeared before Tombazi could take a photograph and was not seen again. The group was descending, though, and the photographer went out of his way to see the ground were he had spotted the creature. Tombazi found footprints in the snow.
They were similar in shape to those of a man, but only six to seven inches long by four inches wide at the broadest part of the foot. The marks of five distinct toes and the instep were perfectly clear, but the trace of the heel was indistinct…”
There were 15 prints to be found. Each was one and one half to two feet apart. Then Tombazi lost the trail in thick brush. When the locals were asked to name the beast he’d seen they told him it was a “Kanchenjunga demon.” Tombazi didn’t think he’d seen a demon, but he couldn’t figure out what the creature was either. Perhaps he’d seen a wandering Buddhist or Hindu ascetic or hermit. As the years went by though and other Yeti stories surfaced, Tombazi began to wonder if he’d seen one too.
Yeti reports usually come in the form of tracks found, pelts offered, shapes seen at a distance, or rarely, actual face-to-face encounters with the creatures. Face to face encounters never come with researchers looking for the Yeti, but with locals who stumble into the creature during their daily lives.
Some of the best tracks ever seen were found and photographed by British mountaineers Eric Shipton and Micheal Ward in 1951. They found them on the southwestern slopes of the Menlung Glacier, which lies between Tibet and Nepal, at an altitude of 20,000 feet. Each print was thirteen inches wide and some eighteen inches long. The tracks seemed fresh and Shipton and Ward followed the trail for a mile before it disappeared in hard ice.
Some scientists that viewed the photographs could not identify the tracks as from any known creature. Others, though, felt it was probably the trail of a languar monkey or red bear. They noted the tracks in snow, melted by the sun, can change shape and grow larger. Even so, the bear/monkey theory seems unlikely as both of these animals normally move on all four feet. The tracks were clearly that of a biped.So was it Hoax or Truth …hope time unfolds it.

BABA HARBHAJAN SINGH....LEGEND OR TRUTH

Baba Harbajan Singh's Temple

Baba Harbhajan Singh...is he Truth or is he the Imagination of the soldiers of Nathu La..??
He has defeated dead. Believe it or not but it is true, one of its kind of story in the world- a man from an Indian army in a Nathula border is still doing his duty even after his death some three decades back. 60 km from Gangtok towards the panoramic view of the Nathula landscape a road leads towards the valley of Kupup. Here is the shrine of Baba Harbhajan popularly known as Baba Mandir. Baba Harbhajan has been guarding the international boundary of the two Asian giants the China and India over the last three decades. But believe me he does it alone. Even the army men on the other side of the international wall confirm that they had seen a man riding a horse all alone patrolling the border.
Born in Brondal village of Kapurthala, Punjab Harbhajan Singh joined the 23rd Punjab Battalion on February 1966 as sepoy. The year of 1968 when the states of Sikkim and North Bengal was under the rage of great natural catastrophic where landslides, floods and heavy rain had taken thousands of lives across the two states. On October 4, 1968 sepoy Harbhajan Singh was escorting a mule caravan from his battalion headquarters in Tekula to Dengchukla, he fell into a fast flowing stream and drowned. Search for Sepoy Harbhajan was made with no results. It was on the fifth day of the missing, his colleague Pritam Singh had a dream of Harbhajan Singh informing him of his tragic incident and his dead body being under the heap of snows. Harbhajan Singh desired to have a samadhi made after him. Pritam Singh ignored the dream as just as an imagination but later when the body of Sepoy Harbhajan Singh was found at the spot where Harbhajan Singh had informed the army official was taken aback and to mark respect and towards his wish a samadhi was constructed near Chhokya Chho
Baba Harbhajan Singh warns the dangerous activities on the border through the dreams of fellow army men. Even Chinese army men believe to have seen a human figure doing patrolling in the night across the border. Baba Harbhajan Singh is today honoured the rank of Honorary Captain and his samadhi reconstructed at the junction of Kupup Gnathang road and the pathway leading to Menmoichu Lake as apart of the watershed memorial complex.
Baba used to get his salary for the defense funds that were send to his family but due to some reason it has been stopped now and the donation collected from the offerings made by the devotees are send to his home by the army official. Over the years the shrine of Baba Harbhajan has obtain huge devote across all frontiers. Baba is respected and worshiped by every army men in Sikkim. They believe Baba would forecast accident in the valley much ahead of the happening.
Baba Mandir is of three rooms, the central room has a large portrait of the Baba along with other Hindu deity and Sikh Gurus. To the right of the central room is the room of Baba. The room has every household belongings required for daily activities, from clothes, shoes, slippers and a neat sleeping bed, it is all well maintained. The uniforms are neatly ironed and shoes polished ready for use. Opposite to this room is a small room that has an office cum store room. The room is filled with water bottles, unused slippers, tooth brushes and other items offered to Baba. The followers believe that the water kept in the Mandir after a week would turn into holy water and cure every ailment. People believe that the slippers kept here would help patients with gout and other foot problems and so on. That devotee who cannot visit the shrine sends letters to Baba that is opened by the associate of Baba. These letters usually have the request for the Baba to help solve personal problems and the gratitude for being helped.
Every October 4 a special ceremony is organized by the Indian army out here to honour the role of Baba Harbhajan Singh as well as for those soldiers of Indian army who laid their lives for the safeguard of the country. Every Sunday and Tuesday throughout the year puja is observed at Baba Mandir where free meals are distributed among the devotees. These are the best days to visit Baba Mandir for any visitors.
Despite the blessing of the Baba the army at Nathula border is in high alert when Baba goes on an annual leave from September 15 to November 15 every year. Even leaves for other army men during the months are cancelled and extra cautions are sought after. This year Baba Harbhajan left for his hometown accompanied with two soldiers on Amritsar Express where his family would receive him. Believe it ort not but this true legend of Baba Harbhajan is only next to the importance of Lord Kanchenjunga for the people of Sikkim.

THE MYSTRY OF BERMUDA TRIANGLE?????

Bermuda Triangle---Mystry solved or is it still a mystry baffling millions???
The Bermuda Triangle (sometimes also referred to as the Devil's Triangle) is a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean bordered by a line from Florida to the islands of Bermuda, to Puerto Rico and then back to Florida. It is one of the biggest mysteries of our time - that perhaps isn't really a mystery.
The term "Bermuda Triangle" was first used in an article written by Vincent H. Gaddis for Argosy magazine in 1964. In the article, Gaddis claimed that in this strange sea a number of ships and planes had disappeared without explanation. Gaddis wasn't the first one to come to this conclusion, either. As early as 1952, George X. Sands, in a report in Fate magazine, noted what seemed like an unusually large number of strange accidents in that region.
In 1969 John Wallace Spencer wrote a book called Limbo of the Lost specifically about the Triangle and, two years later, a feature documentary on the subject, The Devil's Triangle, was released. These, along with the bestseller The Bermuda Triangle, published in 1974, permanently registered the legend of the "Hoodoo Sea" within popular culture.
Why do ships and planes seem to go missing in the region? Some authors suggested it may be due to a strange magnetic anomaly that affects compass readings (in fact they claim Columbus noted this when he sailed through the area in 1492). Others theorize that methane eruptions from the ocean floor may suddenly be turning the sea into a froth that can't support a ship's weight so it sinks (though there is no evidence of this type of thing happening in the Triangle for the past 15,000 years). Several books have gone as far as conjecturing that the disappearances are due to an intelligent, technologically advanced race living in space or under the sea.

Kusche's Theory
In 1975 Larry Kusche, a librarian at Arizona State University, reached a totally different conclusion. Kusche decided to investigate the claims made by these articles and books. What he found he published in his own book entitled The Bermuda Triangle Mystery-Solved. Kusche had carefully dug into records other writers had neglected. He found that many of the strange accidents were not so strange after all. Often a Triangle writer had noted a ship or plane had disappeared in "calms seas" when the record showed a raging storm had been in progress. Others said ships had "mysteriously vanished" when their remains had actually been found and the cause of their sinking explained. In one case a ship listed missing in the Triangle actually had disappeared in the Pacific Ocean some 3,000 miles away! The author had confused the name of the Pacific port the ship had left with a city of the same name on the Atlantic coast
More significantly, a check of Lloyd's of London's accident records by the editor of Fate in 1975 showed that the Triangle was no more dangerous than any other part of the ocean. U.S. Coast Guard records confirmed this and since that time no good arguments have ever been made to refute those statistics. So many argue that the Bermuda Triangle mystery has disappeared, in the same way many of its supposed victims vanished.
Even though the Bermuda Triangle isn't a true mystery, this region of the sea certainly has had its share of marine tragedy. This region is one of the heaviest traveled areas of ocean in the world. Both small boats and commercial ships ply its waters along with airliners, military aircraft and private planes as they come to and from both the islands and more distant ports in Europe, South America and Africa. The weather in this region can make traveling hazardous also. The summer brings hurricanes while the warm waters of the Gulf Stream promote sudden storms. With this much activity in a relatively small region it isn't surprising that a large number of accidents occur. So is the mystry solved or still the experts are lying in order to prove their points???

PLANCHETTE & OUIJA....THE TALKING BOARD OF SPIRITS

The Ouija Boards

The Planchettes
The ancient Planchette & Ouija talking Boards ..... Is it just a Game or the Dangerous spirit rising tools????
As an invention it is very old. It was in use in the days of Pythagoras, about 540 B.C. According to a French historical account of the philosopher's life, his sect held frequent séances or circles at which 'a mystic table, moving on wheels, moved towards signs, which the philosopher and his pupil, Philolaus, interpreted to the audience as being revelations supposedly from the unseen world.' (- Encyclopedia of Psychic Science )
Writers of occult literature love to talk about the Ouija board's ancient roots. Ouija boards, they tell us, were in use in ancient Greece, Rome, China, or whatever other cultures the authors deem important. They steadfastly maintain that modern Ouija boards are the direct descendants of its more primitive ancestors. If the ancestor wasn't a Ouija board exactly, it was "Ouija-like." This can mean that almost any early divination device qualifies. Few question this and new writers repeat the words of the old without thinking very critically about it. Ancient Ouija boards: fact or fiction? Let's take a look.
The statement between the twin lamps at the top of this page comes from Nandor Fodor's, Encyclopedia of Psychic Science (1934). Fodor takes it word for word from Lewis Spence's earlier book, An Encyclopedia of Occultism (1920). This is the one recurring quote found in almost every academic article on the Ouija board. Spence claims that Ouija boards are ancient and, according to a French historian, a "mystic table on wheels" was in common use among the Pythagoreans. An interesting claim, but is it accurate? Apparently not. Of all the oracles and divination methods mentioned in the writings about Pythagoras and his followers, this "mystic table" isn't among them. Who was the French historian in Spence's account? Spence doesn't say. His description is the first and only one of this ancient Ouija board in any historic record. Spence is also the first to write: "In 1853, a well known French spiritualist, M. Planchette, invented the instrument to which he gave his name." Not only is there no record of a French Spiritualist, well known or otherwise, named M. Planchette, but the word "planchette" means, "little plank" in French. French Spiritist Allan Kardec explains in detail how the planchette evolves in his The Medium's Book (1861). Before it was the little plank (board) it was the little basket. Before that, it was the little table. Neither Kardec nor any other writer of the period credits the planchette to a person with the same name. Perhaps there is something intriguing about these two oft-repeated Ouija legends that keeps them alive. Or, it may be that writers repeat them simply because they believe them to be true. You may draw your own conclusions.

Edmond Gruss describes an ancient Roman Ouija-like board in his, The Ouija Board, A Doorway to the Occult (1994): "Fourth-century Byzantine historian Ammianus Marcellinus records one of the earliest forms of divination, which used a pendulum and a dish engraved with the alphabet." This is an interesting and creditable account from Ammianus Marcellinus' The Later Roman Empire (A.D. 354-378). In his narrative, two sorry individuals, Patricius and Hilarius, under arrest for creating an oracle to define who would succeed the emperor, plead before the court:
My lords, in an unlucky moment we put together out of laurel twigs in the shape of the Delphic tripod the hapless little table before you. We consecrated it with cryptic spells and a long series of magical rites, and at last made it work. The way in which it did so, when we wished to consult it about hidden matters, was this. It was placed in the middle of a room thoroughly fumigated with spices from Arabia, and was covered with a round dish made from the alloys of various metals. The outer rim of the dish was cunningly engraved with the twenty-four letters of the alphabet separated by accurate intervals. A man dressed in linen garments and wearing linen sandals, with a fillet around his head and green twigs from a lucky tree in his hand, officiated as priest. After uttering a set prayer to invoke the divine power which presides over prophecy, he took his place above the tripod as his knowledge of the proper ritual had taught him, and set swinging a ring suspended by a very fine cotton thread which had been consecrated by a mystic formula. The ring, moving in a series of jumps over the marked spaces, came to rest on particular letters, which made up hexameters appropriate to the questions put and in perfect scansion and rhythm, like the lines produced at Delphi or by the oracle of the Branchidae.
Unfortunately for Patricius and Hilarius, things did not go well after their inquisition: "both the accused were fearfully mangled by the torturers hooks and taken away unconscious."
We should mention, in case you didn't read it clearly, that the tripod in the story has everything to do with the Greek oracle at Delphi and nothing to do with the three-legged planchette, as modern writers sometimes mistakenly report. The oracle is clearly a pendulum dish and not a talking board, an important distinction, but why quibble? Could this be an early ancestor of the modern Ouija board? Historically, pendulum devices like this must have been rare since there is little record of common use from Roman times to the 1850's. If we are speaking of evolution, a process in which something passes by degree to a different or advanced state, it's hard to make the connection to modern day Ouija boards. 1500 years is a big leap, even for the spirits to make. It is an ancient alphabet oracle, but it is not a relative of the Ouija board.
Stoker Hunt in his, Ouija the Most Dangerous Game (1985), writes about Ouija boards in ancient China: "In China, centuries before the birth of Confucius (551?-479 B.C.), the use of Ouija-like instruments was commonplace, considered a nonthreatening way to communicate with the spirits of the dead." He is speaking of a well-known form of Chinese spirit writing (Fu Chi, Fuji, Fuluan, or Jiangbi). Some Chinese mystics believe that a divine spirit can take possession of a writing brush or a writing tool similar to the western planchette. Opinions vary among historians about the age of this practice, but it doesn't matter here. This "Ouija-like" instrument is a Ouija-like board without the board, letters, numbers, or sliding message indicator. In other words, it isn't a Ouija board at all.
Hunt goes on to say, "In thirteenth-century Tartary, the Mongols used Ouija-like instruments for purposes of divination and instruction." Although not referenced, this comes directly from Epes Sargent's book, Planchette; or The Despair of Science (1869): "According to Huc, the Catholic missionary, table-rapping and table-turning were in use in the thirteenth century among the Mongols, in the wilds of Tartary. The Chinese recognize spiritual intervention as a fact, and it is an element in their religious systems." It is fun to ponder where Huc the Catholic missionary got the information that table rapping and table-turning were in use in the thirteenth century among the Mongols. That paints quite a mental picture, but the message is clear: Huc is talking about table-turning. Almost all scholars agree that table turning originated in 19th century America. All scholars except for Huc the Catholic missionary, Stoker Hunt, and others who repeat such unsubstantiated ideas. And, need we say it? There is absolutely no historical evidence that American spiritualists were influenced by 13th century Mongols.
To be an ancestor of something, there must be some connection, some evolution, some influence. The instrument has to have been in wide enough use to connect to the popular imagination. As relationships go, the talking boards of today most likely grew out the use of the alphabet and alphabetic pasteboards during 19th century spiritualistic séances and not from pendulum oracles or other devices used many centuries earlier.
In 1848, the Fox sisters realized immediately that calling out the individual letters of the alphabet, and having the spirits knock accordingly, was easier than asking lengthy "yes/no" questions. The use of alphabet pasteboards became common among table-tippers who came to the same conclusion. And there were mediums who didn't wait for the spirits to knock but instead relied on a kind of divine intuition: "During a communication between the medium and the supposed spirit, the former passed his hand over the alphabet, until he found his finger sensibly and irresistibly arrested at a certain letter, and so on, until the word, the sentence, was completed." -The Rappers (1854).
Starting in the 1850's, alphabet boards made the transition to the dial-plate instruments, also known as psychographs, first in the United States and then in Europe. The first talking board with a detachable sliding message indicator appeared around 1886. That's a short thirty-eight year time frame. If the Ouija board has relatives they are the devices of this period: the talking tables, the alphabet pasteboards, and the early dial-plate instruments.So the question still hovers what is it Truth or Fable?

THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS...TRUTH OR LEGEND

The map of the lost city

The city of Atlantis
Atlantis....The lost city....was there any such city....or just a legend???

The Legend of Atlantis
The legend of Atlantis has to be one of the oldest and most spellbinding of all the world's mysteries. It has puzzled both skeptics and believers alike. Where exactly was Atlantis and where is it now? What caused its destruction? Exactly how advanced were the Atlanteans? I hope someday everyone will know the answers to those questions.

Plato, a Greek philosopher, gave us the first known account of Atlantis. Plato was said to have lived from about 428 to 348 B.C. He was a student of Socrates. After studying with Socrates, Plato opened up his own philosophy school. There he began to write his philosophies in a play-type form. These dialogues always featured Socrates as the main character. In the dialogues Timaeus and Critias, he wrote about an amazing place called Atlantis. In Critias, Plato wrote of Atlantis' architecture, engineering, and ceremonies in great detail. Many people, even Plato's own students, thought this place was Plato's own creation, but he argued that Atlantis was real, and filled with more splendors than anyone could imagine.
All races share the story of a great flood that destroyed an entire civilization. The name Atlantis appears in various forms throughout the world. The Canary Islands have a legend involving Atalaya. The Basques of Northern Spain have Atlaintica. The Vikings told the tale of Atli. Northern Africa called it Attala. The Aztecs have Aztlán, and the North American Indians called theirs Azatlán.
Plato said Atlantis was a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules (the Rock of Gibraltar). This description has lead to many people believing that Atlantis could have been the Aegean Island of Thera (Santorini) which suddenly blew up. Atlantis was also identified as part of an ancient series of land bridges that stretched across the Atlantic and even out into the Pacific as far as New Zealand. Others say that the Canary Islands are the tops of Atlantis' tallest mountains. Some say that the Bermuda Triangle is the result of Atlantis sinking. The discovery of blue eyes and blondness among some of Africa's Berbers soon led some people to place Atlantis in the Atlas Mountians of modern Morocco and Tunisia. Still others claim that Atlantis was not even on this planet.
According to the continental drift theory, all the continents fit together, like a jigsaw puzzle. If you look at a map, you will see that the continents really do fit together- with the exception of the USA in North America and Western Europe. Could Atlantis be the missing piece?
According to Plato, one of the best splendors of Atlantis was the palace compound located in the heart of its capital. It was ringed by three canals. Plato remarked, "As each king received it [the palace] from his predecessor, he added to its adornment and did all he could to surpass the king before him, until finally they made of it an abode amazing to behold for the magnitude and beauty of its workmanship. The visitors passed through a wall of brass, a wall of tin, and a wall of copper. White and black and red stone quarried from the native rock." He also wrote that the wealth they possessed was so immense that the like had never been seen before in any royal house, nor will ever easily be seen again. This, of course, lead to Atlantis' destruction.
He stated that the Atlanteans appeared to be superlatively fair and blessed, yet they were filled with lawless ambition and power. The Atlanteans started valuing material wealth above goodness-that's where they went wrong. Plato said, "The portion of divinity within them was now becoming faint and weak through being oftentimes blended with a large measure of mortality." The Atlanteans were unable to bear the burden of their possessions. So, "There occurred portentous earthquakes and floods, and one grievous day and night befell them, when...the island of Atlantis...was swallowed up by the sea and vanished." Plato doubted that any sign of the lost land would ever be found. "The ocean at that spot, has now become impassable and unsearchable." This contributes to the Bermuda Triangle theory above.
Even though it seems that no one could survive such a tragedy, it is believed that many Atlanteans escaped. One example of this is Edgar Cayce. In April of 1939, he fell into a trance and spoke about Atlantis. "In Atlantis, when there was the breaking up of the land came to what was called the Mayan Land or the what is now Yucatan-entity was the first to cross the water in the plane or air machine of that period." In support of the escape, Atlantis has been hailed for spawning civilizations such as Hellenic Greece, the Mayas & Incas of the New World, and ancient Egypt.
Atlantis has had an impact on every culture. In 1675, Olof Rudbeck, a Swedish scholar, used Homeric sailing directions to Ogygia and located Atlantis in Sweden. English poet William Blake, believed that the Atlantean King, Albion lead the last of his subjects to Britain, where they became Druids. Charles-Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a French scholar, translated a Mayan manuscript in 1864, that described the story of an ancient land that had sunk into the ocean after a great catastrophe. In 1882, Philadelphian politician, and avid reader, Ignatius Loyola Donnelly published his book Atlantis: The Antedefuvian World. The world's reception of his writings was so great, Donnelly was elected to membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Atlantis, The Lost City

Atlantis, the Lost City everyone is talking about. Where is it, is it real? Why are there rumors if it's not true? Here we will explore the myths and realities of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. Sit back, relax and take a wonderful ride!
The city of Atlantis, if you hear about it, one would think that it would be located in the Atlantic Ocean, hence the name. But researchers have been looking for this continent for years. The continent was mentioned in many religions and folklores, that it became a possibility that it truly does exist. But if it does, where is it and has it been found by scientists yet, or have they think they have found the Lost City or Continent of Atlantis?
The great philosopher, Plato, wrote in his Critias, that he believed that a great continent was extremely technologically advanced, and that this continent had been destroyed and lost by a rush of ocean covering the evidence to us to this day. Plato had believed that Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere. In fact, the reason why the Atlantic Ocean is called such today, is because of the Atlantean theory. Plato believed that Atlantis was a sunken continent approximately the size of Libya and Asia put together. That would be about 5 to 10 million square kilometers hidden below a large oceanic surface!
Monoliths, similar to the monoliths in Easter Island, supposedly are a "signature" of the Atlantean culture. Some believe this culture survived on to Islands and lands such as Easter Island and other various areas still leaving scientists and archeologists befuddled. Pyramids, such like those found in Egypt and other ancient sites, are also a supposed "signature" of the Atlanteans.
Plato believed that Atlantis had a great army, probably of around 1.2 million armed men. He also believed that the army had a vast number of chariots. Horses were definitely used. This was the theory that had caused many to believe that the horse that evolved from Asia became domesticated in Atlantis. This remains a striking detail, because scientists and archeologists cannot determine precisely when the domestication of the horse occurred.
Elephants are supposedly also a very big part of the Atlantean culture. Plato even writes himself:
"There were a great number of elephants in the island, for there was ample provision of food for all sorts of animals...including for the animal which is the largest and the most voracious of all."
The strange part about the elephants, is that the epoch in when the continent of Atlantis was supposedly alive and flourishing, mastodons and mammoths were abundant, and the elephant did not come about until approximately the supposed time when the continent of Atlantis was believed to have "fallen" into the ocean, the same time when mastodons and mammoths became extinct.
It must be remembered, that Plato had written Critias in 360 BCE. This was where it all started, with Plato's words:
"Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Hercules and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various nations of barbarians and families of Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must describe first of all Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with them, and then the respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us give the precedence to Athens."
Where did Plato's revelation of the continent of Atlantis come from? Plato's revelation was told to him by a man named Solon, who in turn received the information about Atlantis from the ancient Egyptians. If it's just a story, it is one heck of an intriguing one! A thrilling reality to this wonderful piece of writing, is that the end of the transcript has been lost. What was at the end of the transcript...we will never know. He talked of Gods and spirits that made the islanders what they were. An ancient influence that could have come from anywhere. Could it have come from the stars? And is it just plain mythology, or is there a glimpse of truth in the evidence?
What is interesting, is that what Plato described is also described in the Bible as the "Great Flood". Could the continent of Atlantis be the true "Garden of Eden?"
Some scientists believe that the sinking of Atlantis was caused by a great "Ice Age." Pillars are abundant on the oceanic floors, but are these pillars naturally made or manmade?
The "Sleeping Prophet", also known as Edgar Cayce, had believed he was an Atlantean himself. He was a prophet that believed that spirits spoke to him in his dreams. The dreams revealed revelations of great extent for his own life and many others. His prophetic visions attracted many people, which in turn made many seek out his help in life through his "seeing eye." Cayce believed that he was being told his clairvoyances from Atlantean gods and spirits.
One prophecy that Edgar Cayce had made, did not come to pass, this was regarding the lost continent of Atlantis. Cayce prophesized that the lost island of Atlantis would emerge from the ocean in 1968 or 1969. Cayce also suggested that the island was located near the Bermuda island of Bimini.
The lost continent to this day, has many possibilities of where it could "be," however, no scientific evidence that is strong enough to prove Atlantis had existed has been yet found. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist!

ROBIN HOOD FOLK FORE OR TRUTH

The grave of john Little

The imagination of Artist
Robin Hood...Was he Legend or Historical figure???
Who was Robin Hood? Was he actually a historical fact or simply a medieval fiction? Why has the Robin Hood Legend become so loved and well known across the world and through the generations captivating audiences from young children, to teen, men, and of course…women.Most of the knowledge concerning the Robin Hood legend derives from the early ballads and tales which have passed through the centuries.Of these, the most significant are: A Gest of Robin Hood, Robin Hood and the Monk,Robin Hood and the Potter, Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar, and Robin Hood's Death. All of these tales were written down before 1550.Despite the “legend” status of Robin Hood, there are many reasons to believe that he could have been an actual man. Many researchers have uncovered evidence about this period in Nottingham, and points to the reality of everyone’s favorite outlaw.We have always read that Robin Hood is a gallant hero, robbing the rich to feed the poor and constantly fighting injustice. Everyone immediately recognizes the names: Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, Will Scarlett, and of course…the Sheriff of Nottingham.The legend portrays Robin as a fearless bandit, leading his “merry men,” into victory after victory. We read that Robin was an excellent archer, and lived his life in Sherwood Forest, poaching deer from the King.Most people don’t realize that the earliest Robin Hood tale was about a yeoman, who haunted Barnsdale Forest, not Sherwood. Robin he didn't become some sort of English nobleman fighting oppressors until Sir Walter Scott added a few touches to him in Ivanhoe. The original outlaw supposedly was a once a ragged vagrant moving from place to place, trying to just “make it.”There is something very interesting about this story. A document of court records was found in the London public records office dating from 1226. It states that a man named Robert Hod fled the jurisdiction of the king's justices, and his possessions were seized by the Sheriff of York. (In the Middle Ages, the name Robert was synonymous with Robin.) The document reads that this sheriff "owes 32 shilling 6 pence of chattels of Rob Hod, fugitive." The Sheriff of York later became the Sheriff of Nottingham. In 1227, the sheriff still owed the court the money for Robert Hod's belongings. Eventually Hod was found and hanged.Forty years later, another fugitive was nicknamed Robyn Hod in court records. Rolls of Parliament in 1437 show a petition for the arrest of Piers Venables of Derbyshire who had resorted to violence and robbery and taking refuge in the Forest.Other possibilities of the origins of Robin Hood have been tossed out as well. The name Robin Hood could have come from the title to Grandmasters in a witch coven, who wore hoods. The name Robin was one of the names given to the gods they worshiped, and so the name "Robin with a Hood" could have come about. Fairies and forest elves wore hoods, and one fairy name was Robin Goodfellow, and so the name Robin could have been combined with Hood in mythology. Others think that forest bandits adopted the name, with Robin being a generic form of “thief’s.” Supposedly, Little John's grave is at a church cemetery at Hathersage in Derbyshire, as quoted from a 17th-century text about a Robert Lockesley who met up with a Little John. The Little John grave is 13 ft. 4 in. long, and in 1795 it was written that the grave was exhumed and the bones were of an extremely large man. There is a grave for a “Robin Hood,” in the area of Kirklees Priory at Yorkshire, England. The story of the epitaph is very interesting. In 1665 a drawing of the grave was made and was published in 1786, when the words on the grave marker were no longer completely legible. The grave read "Here lies Roberd Hude, William Goldburgh, Thomas." It is unclear who William Goldburgh and Thomas are A man named Thomas Gale was dean of York from 1697-1702, and he left in his papers the words that were supposedly on Robin Hood's grave. The date of death was recorded as 12-24-1247. A similar epitaph was published at the end of The True Tale of Robin Hood by Martin Parker, which gives the death date as 12-4-1198. The Parker epitaph reads: Robert Earle of Huntington/Lies under this little stone./No archer was like him so good;/His wildnesse named him Robbin Hood./Full thirteene yeares, and something more,/These northerne parts he vexed sore./Such out-lawes as he and his men/May England never know agen Researchers have agreed on the likelihood that the man who became Robin Hood was alive under the reign of Richard I around 1193. Most believe that this man who was deemed an outlaw around the end of the 12th century, and from there, the name became Robin Hood and was used to refer to other outlaws. And so the legend grew .

THE SEA LEGEND CALLED MARY CELESTE--GHOST SHIP

Mary celeste

The remains of Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste--was it the most haunted ship on the sea or was it just frigment of imanigation???

HALIFAX, N.S.- Known throughout history as the fabled Ghost Ship, the MARY CELESTE was found sailing off the Azores in 1872 ghost-like with no one aboard. The MARY CELESTE sailed into oblivion when a boarding party from a passing ship found that her captain, his wife, two-year-old daughter and entire crew had inexplicably vanished.
Clive Cussler, best-selling novelist and adventurer, representing the National Underwater & Marine Agency, (NUMA) and John Davis, president of ECO-NOVA Productions of Canada, announced August 9th, 2001, that they had discovered the remains of MARY CELESTE on a reef off the coast of Haiti.
"With so many stories written about MARY CELESTE," Cussler stated, "it was time to write the final chapter, although the true story of her missing crew may never be solved."

"After her eerie abandonment," explained Davis, "the ship sailed under different owners for twelve years, until her last captain loaded her with a cargo of cheap rubber boots and cat food before deliberately sinking her, and then filing an exorbitant insurance claim for an exotic cargo that never existed. Unfortunately, for the captain his plan fell apart after running the ship onto Rochelais Reef in Haiti, the ship hung up on the coral and refused to sink. Insurance inspectors investigated and found the worthless cargo. The captain and his first mate were later convicted on charges of what was then known as barratry."
Allan Gardner, skipper of the survey boat, pointed out that the ship left a large trench after she rammed the coral. "The 120 natives, who now live on the reef after building an island of conch shells," he said, "use the old MARY CELESTE's groove as a channel to launch their boats."
Master Diver, Mike Fletcher, quickly found artifacts of the ship's presence that were carefully removed from the sand and coral. Their location was videotaped and they were cataloged for study and conservation. "Very little of the ship is visible," Fletcher reported, "She is covered by some of the most beautiful coral I've ever seen."
Archaeologist James Delgado, comparing the remains of the wreck with historical accounts and carefully studying the fragments, was confidently able to identify the wreck as MARY CELESTE. Detailed research shows no other ship is known to have wrecked on Rochelais Reef, and a systematic survey of the reef revealed only one shipwreck. Other evidence cited by Delgado identifying the wreck as MARY CELESTE were:
* A survey of the wreck revealed its dimensions to be 100 by 25 feet: MARY CELESTE's recorded dimensions at the keel were 99.3 by 25.3 feet.
* The wreck was fastened together with iron "drifts" and bronze spikes commonly used in ships built in the mid-19th century: MARY CELESTE was constructed in 1861.
* The wreck was sheathed with "Muntz metal," also known as "naval brass," which began to replace copper sheathing on ship's hulls after 1850. By the 1860's it had nearly completely replaced copper sheathing.
* Detailed analysis of twelve samples of wood by Dr. David Etheridge, a wood scientist from Victoria, British Columbia, showed the ship was built either in Northern New England or the Maritime Provinces of Canada. MARY CELESTE was built at Spencer's island, Nova Scotia.
"We can safely say the final resting place of the infamous MARY CELESTE has been found," concluded Delgado.
"We were lucky," admitted Cussler, who has found nearly 70 historic shipwrecks, including the Confederate Submarine HUNLEY and the ship that rescued the TITANIC survivors, CARPATHIA, in between writing 20 best-selling novels. "Everything came together for a crew of dedicated people focused on preserving maritime history."
Footage of the MARY CELESTE expedition will be featured in a new National Geographic Channels International television series called "The Sea Hunters," set to air in 2002. Based on Clive Cussler's best-selling novel, the series follows modern-day adventurers as they attempt to solve ancient maritime mysteries and will air on the National Geographic Channels International in at least 129 countries around the world. In Canada, the series will premiere on History Television.
A news conference was held August 9th, 2001 at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Cussler, best-selling author and Founder of the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA), and Delgado, Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, displayed artifacts and answered questions concerning the search and discovery of MARY CELESTE.
Then Cussler added, "The enigma of the MARY CELESTE will continue to haunt us all for generations to come. She is a tale of the sea that will never be forgotten."