If it’s drama you’re looking for then the continent of South America seems to be the place to look. The Latin American experience of UFOs is somewhat different to that of the rest of the world in that sightings here can take a very serious turn, often resulting in serious injuries or even death. If you don’t believe that UFOs are dangerous these incredible stories might change your mind…

Almiro Martins de Freitas (Brazil)

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In August 1970, Almiro Martins de Freitas was working as a security guard for the Funil Dam in Itatiaia, Brazil. Patrolling the area he encountered a hump-shaped object with a row of flashing red and orange lights sitting atop a small hill. As de Freitas approached the object it began to make a ‘terrible noise’, so loud that it scared the bejesus out of him. Scared, de Fretas’ first instinct was to draw his revolver and take a shot at the strange object, invoking a defensive response; a bright red flash blinded the gun toting security guard and he felt a simultaneous wave of intense heat. This apparently rendered de Freitas immobile. A colleague found him frozen to the spot waving his gun in the air and shouting “don’t look at the light!” By this point, however, the object has disappeared leaving no trace.

De Freitas was taken to a nearby hospital where he was submitted to a battery of physical and psychological tests, all of which confirmed that he was fine. Both the paralysis and loss of sight he suffered were attributed to shock.

The Valle de Elqui Crash (Chile)

Chile’s Valle de Elqui is a hotbed of paranormal activity. Not only is this remote valley a UFO hotspot, it’s also the location of a Roswell-type UFO crash and government cover-up.

Early in the evening of October 7, 1998 residents of Paihuano, a small village in Valle de Elqui, spotted a strange object hovering over a nearby hill. The object was described as being metallic, elongated and about 15 metres across. Its reflective surface and its position overlooking the village ensured that it was noticed by almost everybody in the vicinity. As the baffled villages stared in amazement the object began to increase its altitude and turned as if to leave. But something seems to have gone very wrong aboard the UFO; instead of flying off into the unknown it broke in two, scattering wreckage across the hilltop.

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A detachment of Carabineros (Chilean militarized police) quickly arrived on the scene. They made several attempts to reach the remote crash site on horse-back, eventually returning with absolutely nothing to report. They claimed to have found nothing of interest but proceeded to call in the military and cordon off the area. Over the next few days the area around Paihuano was a hive of activity, with military vehicles coming and going at all hours. A goatherd working in the area claims to have seen unmarked helicopters attempting to hoist a large metallic object into the air using nets. Later, large tire-prints were seen leading out of the area, leading UFO researchers to conclude that something very heavy had been taken away by truck. Did the Chilean government retrieve the crashed UFO? It certainly looks that way.

Varginha (Brazil)

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about UFO sightings from South America is the frequency with which they are accompanied by reports of strange creatures in the same area. In some cases animals are also found dead in the vicinity of reported UFO sightings, after suffering what is now widely known as a Chupacabre attack. Are Chupacabre flying the UFOs? Are aliens visiting the Earth to drink the blood of our livestock? It’s a chilling thought. While most of these creature attacks occur in rural areas it would seem that even the city streets are not safe as this tale from Varginha, Brazil demonstrates.

On the night of Friday 16 January, 1996 a satellite picked up a large UFO heading towards the small industrial city of Varginha in central Brazil. The Brazilian Air-force are famous for taking the UFO phenomenon very seriously and in this case scrambled fighter jets to intercept the object. The local military was placed on high alert, anticipating the chaos that was about to erupt. A media blackout was enforced in Varginha but that did not stop countless residents witnessing the strange lights in the sky. Some had video cameras and recorded what appear to be white object drifting through the streets. One resident said that one of the UFOs was as big as a minibus and ‘almost transparent’. Others described visibly solid objects passing right in front of their houses.

But the disturbing thing about the Varginha story is that the drama did not stop with the UFOs. By the following morning a new panic was beginning to grip the city; residents had reported seeing strange creatures wandering the streets. The most prominent sighting was made by two young girls who ran home claiming to have seen the devil. They described a short demon-like creature with red eyes and three horns on it’s head. They also said that it seemed to be in pain and smelled terribly of urine.

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Earlier that day, the police and fire department had been called to the scene of another sighting where they apparently shot and captured a dwarf-like creature. The creature was seen being taken away in a sack.

The military were called into Varginha to restore order and help in the hunt for the strange creatures. Late in the evening they captured a second creature, which appeared to be suffering from some kind of illness. It was taken to a local hospital where it was pronounced dead on arrival. According to one anonymous witness an autopsy was performed on the body before it was removed to a nearby airbase. Claiming to have been present during the autopsy (as a nurse) the witness stated that the body gave off an overpowering smell of ammonia. However, doctors working at the hospital refused to comment, saying only “ask me again in ten or fifteen years time.”

It’s an incredible story and to top it all off, one of the soldiers involved in the capture of the creatures died several weeks later of an unidentifiable bacterial infection. Coincidence? Perhaps not. Perhaps he contracted whatever illness the creatures themselves were suffering from, or perhaps the ammonia smell the creatures secreted was actually evidence of a chemical defence mechanism.

Caracus, Carora and San Carlos del Zulia (Venezuela)

In 1954 a string of bizarre attacks took place across northern Venezuela, the assailants: hairy alien dwarves.

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In the early hours of November 28, Gustavo Gonzalez and Jose Ponce were driving along a lonely road near the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, when they encountered a small glowing orb hovering in the middle of the road. Getting out of the car to investigate (which is never advisable) Gonzalez was pushed to the ground and set upon by a dwarf-like creature. Gonzalez pulled a knife and lashed out at the creature but later said that it had simply bounced off the creatures skin without causing any harm. Three more creatures arrived on the scene carrying rocks and so Jose Ponce jumped out of the van to help in the fight. At this the three creatures fled into their glowing space ship and flew away. As luck would have it a doctor had witnessed the scuffle from a distance and rushed to the scene, treating Gonzalez injuries.

On December 10 that same year, two hunters encountered the same four dwarf-like creatures and their hovering mini-UFO near Carora. One of the hunters struck an attacking dwarf with the barrel of his gun but the gun simply snapped in two. They headed straight for the nearest police station to report the incident, their skin scratched and bruised and their clothes ripped to shreds.

The third incident took place one week later near the town of San Carlos del Zulia. Jusus Paz was urinating at the side of the road when he was set upon by the gang. He suffered serious lacerations. As he lay bleeding in a pool of his own fluids he looked up to see the small UFO heading off into the night sky.

Inacio de Souza (Brazil)

In 1967, ranch worker Inacio de Souza spotted three ‘beings’ apparently ‘playing’ on the landing strip of a ranch near Pilar de Goaias. At first he thought they were children but thought it odd that they were wearing skin tight clothes. When a UFO arrived on the scene and hovered over the beings he realized that they were not children at all. He fired his rifle at the trespassers, eliciting an equally violent response from the UFO. A green light knocked the ranch-hand to the ground, allowing the aliens to board their ship and escape.

The story does not end there. Over the next few days Inacio de Souza experienced extreme nausea and headaches. It became apparent that he had also suffered burns to his head and upper body, which were apparent as circles on his skin. The ranch owner took him to a doctor who determined that he was in the final stages of leukaemia. De Souza died roughly two months after his alien encounter, apparently the victim of a malicious and slow acting alien weapon. His body was covered in strange yellow and white blotches.

The Colares UFO Flap (Brazil)

During 1977 the Brazilian island of Colares was literally besieged by UFOs. Panic gripped the area as the unidentified craft began attacking the civilian population, firing what have been described as laser beams and causing serious physical injuries. Over 80 people reported having been attacked, at least 35 of whom suffered symptoms akin to radiation sickness (nausea, fatigue, headaches etc.). Burn marks were also visible on their bodies with small central puncture wounds and permanent hair loss occurred around the affected area. Two of Colares residents are thought to have died as a direct result of these attacks.

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The Brazilian Air-force responded to the attacks in Colares by sending a team to the island to investigate. The ‘Operation Saucer’ team took photographs of the UFOs, recorded their trajectories and interviewed witnesses over a period of four months during which the attacks continued. Some of the results of this investigation were made public in 2004 but the events of 1977 still cannot be conclusively explained, with some materials still being held by the Brazilian Air-force. However, the official reports do tell us one interesting fact that the UFOs routinely arrived from the north, sometimes travelling by air and sometimes underwater.

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The Colares UFO flap is one of the most famous UFO cases from South America and, interestingly, it can also be linked to other sightings, even to the Chupacabre. Victims reported that when they were targeted by the UFOs they became paralysed, held in a powerful shaft of light. Some also reported that they felt as though their blood was being sucked out by the light beams, earning the UFOs the name ‘chupa-chupa’ – literally ’sucker-sucker’.

Author: Mark Ball Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com

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Shades of Gray

Each individual person is unique in personality, experience, and countless other factors. Therefore, the imprint of a deceased human (their spirit or ghost) retains these specialized factors if they are unable to move on after death. These unique characteristics mean that each story attached to each ghost and thereby haunting locale is different. Many different factors exist to explain how a place becomes haunted because of the natural ability of humans to vary from each other on numerous levels. Do not expect each haunted location to be haunted for the same reasons since they are all haunted by different spirits and therefore different people with their own stories to tell the living.

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Common Factors

Even though no background for a haunting will be exactly the same as another, some common themes do pop up in the majority of haunted places. The history of the building or area is always a primary factor. A very old place that has a long history of human use and habitation is more likely to be haunted than a newer one as the chances increase dramatically that bad things have happened there as the likelihood of at least one person experiencing something very negative at the locale is rather high. Bad events or situations always increase the probability of a place being haunted as well because spirits who have not been affected by ill fated happenings generally have no problem crossing over to the other side or moving on while those who are the center of such an occurrence feel bound to this world until they receive some form of justice, retribution, or simply someone knowing their personal stories of sorrow. Violent deaths, cruelty, and abuse are some of the most prominent events that bind a ghost to the earthly realm. Yet, other happenings like severe unhappiness, betrayal by someone dear to their hearts who they trusted implicitly, and even intense sickness can all act as a negative situation that makes a ghost feel they cannot move on even after the death of their mortal bodies. All of these attributes seep into the location whether in the walls of the building or the soil of the ground itself to leave a certain ghostly energy or impression. Battlegrounds in particular can be a place where actual blood seeping into the ground can create a spiritual residue where unsettled ghostly beings can manifest and linger on the land itself and even on buildings or houses that are later built on the historically blood stained ground. Overall, human pain and suffering are the major factors that tend to dictate whether a location will become haunted or not. It is not like many stories exist about ghosts who haunt sporting arenas or theme parks like Walt Disney World, and this rarity in spirit haunting examples links to the fact that those places tend to lack pain and in fact the locations are filled with happiness and high, excited emotions. Many spirits are considered to haunt places where their own personal pain was thought to be the greatest, but occasionally spirits will reside in places of general pain and suffering that was a part of their lives in some fashion. Ghosts basically tend to keep in places that they considered to be their own during their former lives and areas that was once very closely linked to themselves as a living human being.

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Why Though?

Many ghost hunters believe that spirits haunt places that are filled with strong negative emotions in order to tell the story of that area to living humans—which is why these deceased entities tend to haunt places that are the source of their personal pain and sufferings since they want others to know of their own story in that location. These spirit professionals know very well that a ghost makes noises or movement to let their presence be known to the living beings or because they are particularly upset at the time, linking to the very human aspect of mood swings. Most ghosts really try to make themselves known in a form that resembles the figure that they held in life so that living people could see them as they once were and hopefully impress the vivid memories that are holding them to the physical plane. The combination of their former selves (both in semi appearance, actions, and mannerisms) will generally be a way for them to let others know who they were and lead those individuals into an investigation of the spirit’s personal past since their mere presence indicates that their previous life was not average, normal, or significantly filled with happiness. This desire to let the living know of their past hardships and uncommon problems or issues mean that the ghosts really will reveal themselves to all kinds of people from various age groups, walks of life, and most importantly whether these people who visit the haunted locale believe in the presence of spirits or not.

Avoidance of Homes

Some of the most vivid ghost haunting examples that the majority of people can easily recall upon demand take place in a haunted house. However, there are several reasons why these home based tales are the most intense even though statistical investigations show that houses are very low on the list of places which can be frequently haunted by spirits. Our homes are our hearts. They are the safe retreat of the living as their own personal refuge, meaning that having an angry or upset spiritual entity invading our private and fortified spaces obviously makes us very scared and intimidated. That fact of being extra scary in addition to the major shock of even hearing about someone having a haunted home is enough to make anyone remember incidences of house haunting. Yet, pure numbers tell us that ghosts actually tend to avoid homes in preference of other locales. Ghosts need a great deal of energy in an area in order to materialize, and personal houses do not have enough to make manifestation easily possible for most spirits. Larger places that attract a greater number of people (hotels, cemeteries, museums, churches, ships, or even dance and music clubs) supply more emotional energy in the air for ghosts to use, which make them a better choice that the homes of living humans.

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Author: Brooke Windsor Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com

The story of the Bell Witch has been a mainstay around campfires in the Tennessee area for many years. It is considered to be the most well documented haunting in American history. In 2005 the story received national attention when it served as the basis for the movie An American Haunting starring Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland. The movie, unfortunately, was not an accurate retelling of the story. It took the basics of the story and shoehorned it into a Japanese style ghost-revenge flick. The real story of the Bell Witch is far more interesting and frightening than the movie ever thought about being.

In the early 1800s a man by the name of John Bell decided to follow the lead of many other Americans at the time and seek opportunities out west. He uprooted his family from the Carolinas and moved to the Red River community in Tennessee, present day Adams, Tennessee. John was very successful in Tennessee. He acquired a large amount of land and a large house in Tennessee to raise his family. He also became a high-ranking official at his local church. His success would unfortunately come with an unbearable price.

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The haunting did not start until 1817, after the Bells had been settled in their new house for several years. One day John was inspecting his crops when he spotted something strange in his field. He slowly approached the animal armed with his gun. The creature was an abomination of nature. It seemed to have the body of a large dog, but with an unusual head that resembled a rabbit. John took several shots at the animal before it got away from him. John thought nothing more of the incident, as guns in that time period were not known for being accurate, so he just assumed he had missed the strange animal.

Side note: Why do you think wars in this time period were fought where people stood in line and took turns taking shots at each other? It was to increase the chances they would hit something. This is not a joke, but the truth. This is how inaccurate weapons were.

That same night the Bells began hearing strange noises outside of their home. Sometimes it would sound as if someone was beating on the house from the outside. Other times it sounded as if an animal was loudly gnawing on something. As time went by the Bells frequently began experiencing these noises. The Bell men would often rush outside when the noises would start and try to find the source of the disturbances but to no avail. One day the noises moved to the inside of the house. The children began claiming that they were hearing the gnawing noises coming from within their rooms and were having trouble sleeping. The activity became more intense when the children began complaining that something was jerking the covers off them and taking their pillows while they tried to sleep.

As time passed the entity appeared to gain strength. Soon the family started hearing a faint voice in their homes at night. What the voice was saying was impossible to determine, but it appeared to be the voice of a feeble old woman. The voice eventually become more clear and would sing church songs, quote scripture, and sometimes even took part in conversations, though the voice was always cynical in these discussions. The entity even began identifying itself as the “witch” of Kate Batts, a former neighbor who John had several verbal altercations with after a slave purchase between the two ended badly.

Part 2: Old Hickory Stops By For A Visit

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Three of John Bell’s eldest sons served under General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. Jackson at the time (1819) was mayor of Nashville and was considered a family friend of the Bell’s. While passing through the Red River area, the future President of the United States decided to visit his old comrades and also satisfy his own curiosity of all the rumors he had been hearing of the witch of the Bell house.

Jackson arrived on the Bell property in a horse pulled wagon accompanied by a group of several war hardened personal soldiers. While approaching the house the carriage suddenly halted. The horses struggled to move the wagon, but some unseen force was preventing its progress. Jackson was initially angry. He yelled at his men and cursed at his lazy horses. After a prolonged period of trying to rally his horses into moving the carriage, Jackson finally proclaimed “By the eternal, boys! That must be the Bell Witch!” Suddenly Jackson and his men heard a loud voice laughing and proclaiming that they could proceed. Jackson was startled and cautiously approached the Bell estate.

Side Note: Those who know their history would know that if a human had stopped Jackson’s carriage he would have shot him, so this entity startling a man as hardened as Jackson is indeed impressive.

Jackson eventually made it into the home of John Bell in which the two friends began chatting. They discussed the pressing matters of the time period, like what to do about the violent Indians protesting westward expansion and the economic collapse of 1819, when suddenly one of Jackson’s men jokingly stated that he was a witch hunter and could rid John bell of his ghost. The Bell witch did not take kindly to this and physically beating the man before all who was present.

Jackson’s men were now terrified. They begged and pleaded with Jackson to leave the Bell estate and find a different place to camp for the night. Jackson, instead of being frightened by the situation, seemed to be intrigued and insisted that they stay the night. The next morning Jackson and his men were spotted in the next town over from Red River. It is unclear whether or not any other paranormal activity was inflicted upon Jackson and his men.

Part 3: A Family’s Torment

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John Bell was a prominent figure in the south. He did not want word to get out that he and his family believed that a ghost was haunting them, but he soon had no choice but to confide in someone when the ghost became brutally violent toward his youngest daughter Betsy. The entity would often pull the poor girl’s hair and slap her repeatedly leaving welts and handprint marks on her face and body. One night the witch even tied Betsy’s hair to the bedpost. This caused Betsy a tremendous amount of pain and distress. John, unable to bear the stress of the situation alone, eventually told his close friend James Johnston what was happening to him and his family.

Johnston was skeptical of his friend’s claim, but he volunteered to come and stay at the Bell home to see what he could make of the so-called ghost. Johnston and his wife arrived at the Bell home late one evening and preparations were made for them so they may stay the night. As it turns out the Bell witch was not shy. Johnston and his wife experienced the same abuse that was bestowed upon the Bell Family. Their covers were repeatedly torn off them and they were beaten by the invisible entity.

The witch was the cause of much anguish not just for the family but also those associated with the family. When Betsy got old enough to marry she took interest in a man named Joshua Gardner. The two began dating and eventually became engaged. For whatever reason the witch despised Gardner. Anytime that Gardner and Betsy were on the Bell property together the ghost would verbally taunt the couple and even physically assault them. The ghost would also pester Betsy about the marriage while Gardner was not present, warning her that marrying Gardner would end badly. This would eventually lead to Betsy Calling off the Engagement. As much as the witch hated Gardener, her worst enemy was undoubtedly John Bell.

Part 4: John Bell’s Death

The witch’s favorite person to torture in the Bell house was John Bell. In his old age John would often fall ill, but the ghost would not let John rest. She would poke, scratch, and hit John so he could not sleep when he was in these states of illness. All of this occurred while she would gleeful express her contempt for John loudly enough for the whole house to hear.

On the morning of December 20, 1820 John Bell was found dead in his bed. A couple nights before John had complained of feeling ill and went to bed and never recovered. The morning of his death a strange vial containing an unknown black liquid was found in a cupboard near his bed. One of John’s sons gave a drop of the liquid to the family cat and it died instantly. Upon the cats death the witch’s disembodied voice laughed and exclaimed, “I gave Ol’ Jack a big dose of that last night, which fixed him!” In a fit of rage, John’s son immediately threw the container in the fireplace. The fire roared and shot out a large puff of smoke.

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John Bell was a very prominent figure in the south during the 1800s. His funeral was one of the largest that the small Tennessee county that John called home had ever hosted. As John was placed in the ground mourners began hearing laughing and singing that had no explainable source.

After John’s Death all was quiet on the Bell for a little while. A few months past and the ghost returned. She began speaking to John’s wife proclaiming that she would return in seven years. She kept her promise and again began tormenting the bell family, particularly focusing on John Bell Jr. She again would soon announce her departure and vow to return in 107 years to torment those who remained of the Bell family. That year would have been 1935 and the closet living descendant was a physician named Dr. Charles Bailey Bell. It is undocumented whether or not Dr. Bell received his visit.

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Part 5: The Legacy

Today not much is left of the old Bell estate. The popular spot to go and search for the witch is a cave on the bell property. Cameras and other electronic equipment are known to malfunction in this area. Cameras particularly will return photos that have mists, orbs, or humanoid shaped splotches that appear in the foreground of the pictures. Many claim that the Bell witch never really left the Bell estate but instead dwells in this cave.

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One story goes that a group of paranormal thrill seekers attempted to visit the cave, but had an experience similar to Andrew Jackson’s. As the group got near the mouth of the cave a heavy weight began to burden the group and they began to feel as if they could not move. The group eventually began moving again, but instead of trudging on toward the cave they decided to get the hell out of there.

In another startling incident in the cave, a group of young kids decided to take a tour of the cave led by then owner of the property Bill Eden. Bill escorted them a little ways into the cave while telling them the story of the Bell witch. One of the members of the group, a young girl, began questioning the authenticity of the Bell witch story. While in mid-sentence she suddenly stumbled backwards. She grew very angry and began claiming that someone in the group had slapped her. Everyone denied the accusation. Eden, thinking that the loud mouth girl was perhaps lying, shined his flashlight on the girls face to discover a red welt across her cheek in the shape of a hand.

Apparitions are also seen in the cave. Some claim to see a strange mist in or around the cave that will mysteriously dissolve when it is approached. Another person claimed that they had seen the shape of a human, but described the material it was made up of like the “heat waves” that one would sometimes see in the summer time off in the distance. One former owner claimed to see the full body apparition of a women gliding along through the cave.

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What was the Bell witch? It is very well documented that John Bell, his family, and many other third party witnesses truly believed that a violent and angry spirit haunted the Bell estate. Some believe that this malevolent manifestation still remains on the old Bell property and dwells in a cave on said property to this day. The current owner of what was once the Bell estate allows visitors so perhaps if you ever find yourself in Adams, Tennessee you should go see if you cannot catch a flitting glimpse of the witch or perhaps even get into a physical altercation with her and make up or own mind on what the Bell witch is.

Author: Brooke Windsor Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com

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Sasquatch

The story of the sasquatch has been spread all over wooded areas of the entire North American continent. While Americans typically refer to this creature as “Big Foot,” the majority of Canadians use the name sasquatch which comes from the Native American Salish word for “hairy man” or even “wild man.” The physical depiction of this creature does not seem to change much over the very large span of the nation of Canada—which happens to be the second biggest country on the entire globe as far as land mass goes. These extremely hair creatures that tend to resemble large apes seem to be very reclusive and even timid when it comes to interacting with humans. Only a few photographs or videos or even hard core evidence of the creature (like foot prints or trails) exist. Some of the most widely known pieces of evidence for the presence of sasquatch in the Canadian wilderness are hoaxes though, which discredits real monster hunters and scientists who try to be honest and clear with their information on the sneaky creature.

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Ogopogo

Deep in Okanagan Lake, a water monster by the name of Ogopogo is said to dwell in mystery. For well over a century, this creature has been drawing on the imaginations and hiding from both locals and visitors to the lake. Okanagan Lake is actually very small as far as physical space and water volume. It is approximately 5 kilometers wide and 135 kilometers in length. The native peoples who used to live near the lake were the first to give it a name. They dubbed the beast Naitaka, which translates to “Lake Devil.” Yet the name Ogopogo did not come about and gain a great amount of popularity until it was included in a dance hall song of 1924 which states the now famous moniker of “His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale. A little bit of head and hardly any tail. And Ogopogo was his name.” The creature was first reported as being seen in 1872. Yet, since then he has been spotted in the lake numerous times—despite his normally acknowledged bashful and rather shy demeanor. People who still live near the Okanagan Lake have become very fond of their lake monster which is generally described as a serpent like creature with multiple humps throughout its body which is topped with a horse like head.

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Loup Garou

Loup garou is actually the French name for a werewolf. Therefore it is easy to guess that this is a Canadian legend that was brought over from the French settlers in the area know as Quebec. Very old French folklore clearly was fascinated by wolves in generally and especially men who transformed into wolves. The natural increased population of wolves in the New World turned these random stories into something more coalesced. There are a multitude of Native American werewolf stories in this wolf playground throughout Canada as well. All of these aspects combined to make the legends of the loup garou even more well known and popular in Canada than in original continental Europe. Even today, very rural areas in Quebec still have a few scarce reports of man like wolves that attack farm livestock and even sometimes humans themselves. The more traditional loup garou stories are still favorites to tell around the campfire and to pass down to younger generations from family elders who may even claim to have seen the wolf men personally!

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Cadborosaurus

Cadborosaurus willis is a sea serpent that has been reported to live along the Pacific Coast of the North American continent. The “saurus” part of its name is linked to the Greek word for reptile or lizard like all of the prehistoric dinosaurs found by paleontologists. The beginning of its name though actually comes from Cadboro Bay that is located in Victoria, British Columbia. Cadborosaurus has been described as being similar in appearance and behavior to other mysterious lake serpents around the world like Scotland’s Loch Ness monster dubbed Nessie or the previously stated Okanagan Lake’s Ogopogo which is also located in British Columbia. The only primary difference is that Cadborosaurus has been see with a set of rather long webbed hind flippers which fuse together to create a big fan like tail that is perfect for powerful forward propulsion. Over the past 200 years there have been roughly 300 sightings of Cadborosaurus in various coastal areas on the western edge of North America—primarily near British Columbia in Canada but as far down as San Francisco Bay in California.

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Champ

Canada certainly is fond of its lake monsters. This is not much of a shock as the country actually has the largest fresh water supply on the globe with tons of lakes that mysterious creatures can live in and confuse locals as well as visitors of the lake. Reportedly swimming in the deep waters of Lake Champlain between the Canadian province of Quebec and the American states of New York and Vermont is a serpent like creature that has been playfully named Champ after the lake in which it lives. He was first spotted in the mid 1800s, but a short film by two local fishermen that captured the creature as it moved through the water in early 2008 really made his well known on the world stage and caused quite a commotion in the area of people scrambling to get a look of their own.

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Author: Brooke Windsor Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com

Why is this? Well, comedians have been having fun with that one for some time, but all joking aside there are some very obvious reasons. Firstly, North America (again, the US especially) has what is referred to as ‘a UFO culture’. There are more UFO enthusiasts watching the sky and a cultural obsession with the phenomenon. People living in the U.S and Canada are also far more likely to report a sighting – emergency services in the U.S receive hundreds of phone calls from UFO witnesses each year – whereas those of us living elsewhere are more likely to wait a week or two before telling our friends down the pub or maybe blogging about it. The perfect example of this cultural difference is China, where until recently it was against the law to publish or broadcast any information pertaining to UFOs. Now that the curtain has been lifted, however, and with the Chinese connecting to the internet in their billions, Chinese UFO sightings are soaring.

Another obvious reason for a high number of UFO sightings is that the U.S and Canada are very big countries. Other large countries, such as Russia and new entrant to the scene – China, also have a high numbers of sightings.

Many Americans would have you believe that aliens are drawn to their country because it is the most advanced civilization on the planet. Those of us living outside the U.S will no doubt have conflicting opinions and want to beat them over the head for being so arrogant. Nevertheless, the fact remains that North America has not only the highest number of recorded UFO sightings but also some of the best UFO sightings, with the largest numbers of witnesses and most compelling evidence.

Here are some of the best UFO sightings from the big three ‘alien nations’ – Mexico, Canada and the United States of America.

The Roswell Incident (U.S.A)

The Roswell Incident is without a doubt the most famous UFO encounter in history. If you don’t know at least the basics of what happened, or is said to have happened near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 then you must have been living under a considerable amount of crashed alien debris for the past few decades. Unfortunately, this is one UFO mystery that has pretty much been solved.

It turns out it was a balloon after all – not a weather balloon but rather a top secret spy balloon created as part of ‘project Mogul’. Reports that the wreckage contained strange materials adorned with alien hieroglyphics stems from the fact that the balloon was cobbled together using patterned children’s tape and tinfoil.

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Yet the belief that alien entities were captured, put into huge jars and experimented on by Brent Spiner and the cast of ‘Independence Day’ remains strong. This is largely based on witness testimony and the fact that the released project Mogul files are incomplete. It’s also clear that some form of cover-up did take place, but probably to protect the secrecy of project Mogul.

There are so many levels of secrecy and intrigue involved in the Roswell case that the myth will probably never be put to bed; sheer fanaticism turning it into a modern-day legend.

The Kecksburg UFO Crash (U.S.A)

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Kecksburg is Roswell’s less famous, often overlooked younger brother. Witnessed by thousands in both the U.S and Canada as it streaked across the skies of the Great Lakes area in 1965, the Kecksburg UFO was widely presumed to be a meteor. It caused sonic booms in Western Pennsylvania and dropped hot metal debris, starting grass fires in Michigan and Ohio. The object crashed down about 30 miles south east of Pittsburg, near the small village of Kecksburg. Villagers saw wisps of blue smoke coming from the woods and the local volunteer fire department was dispatched to investigate. What they found was no meteor. The object was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, shaped like an acorn and was adorned with hieroglyphics. Fans of the TV show Stargate might recognize it as a Goa’uld cargo ship.

As you might expect, it wasn’t long before the U.S military arrived to secure the area. They searched the woods and reportedly found nothing. However, locals have claimed that a large object was recovered and taken away on the back of a truck.

The Kenneth Arnold Sighting (U.S.A)

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The Kenneth Arnold sighting is often said to be the first ever UFO sighting. While this could not be further from the truth, it can be considered the first UFO sighting of the modern era. In 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted a fleet of nine UFOs while flying in the vicinity of Mount Rainier, Washington. He described the craft as being crescent-shaped but also noted that they “flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” spawning the term ‘flying saucer’.

The Shag Harbour Incident (Canada)

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Canada had it’s own ‘mini-Roswell’ event in 1967 when an unidentified object crashed into the waters of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. At least eleven people saw a low-flying object heading towards the harbour and several more saw it hit the water, hearing a whistling sound and and a loud crash. A search and rescue operation was launched but no debris was found. Only an orange foam was visible on the surface. The Canadian military was baffled and the object was officially classified as a UFO.

But the story doesn’t stop there. It has been alleged that the U.S Navy, in conjunction with the Royal Canadian Navy, conducted further search operations in the vicinity of HMCS Shelburne – a top secret submarine detection facility located several miles up the coast. An anonymous witness claiming to be one of the U.S divers involved in the search has since given a detailed account of what happened at Shelburne. In his version of events there were two alien craft in the waters near Shelburne and one seemed to be repairing the other. A Russian submarine was also spotted in the vicinity and the naval forces moved to intercept it. When they returned to Shelburne both UFOs had disappeared.

Harbour Mille Incident (Canada)

On January 25, 2010 three UFOs flew over Harbour Mille on the island of Newfoundland. A photograph taken by a local resident revealed that one of these unidentified objects looked like a missile but it’s origins remain unknown. It has been suggested that this was a test missile launched from the nearby French island of Miquelon, although the French Ministry of Defence has denied launching any missiles from the islands. A missile was launched from a base in northern France but this was two days after the UFOs were sighted.

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An investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has apparently revealed the true nature of the objects but this information has not yet been released to the public. The Office of the Prime Minister has stated that they were definitely not missiles.

The Cash-Landrum Case (U.S.A)

The Cash-Landrum case is famous in UFOlogy circles, largely because of the extreme physical symptoms suffered as a result of the sighting.

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On the evening of December 29, 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and seven year old Colby Landrum were driving towards Huffman, Texas when they saw a diamond shaped UFO hovering at tree level. The object expelled bursts of flame from it’s underside, apparently to keep itself airborne, and the three reported that they could feel intense waves of heat. The dashboard of the car became so hot that when Landrum touch it she left a hand-print in the softened vinyl. After hovering for a while the UFO moved to a higher altitude where, according to Cash and Landrum, it was met by a number of Chinook helicopters. A police officer from Dayton also saw several Chinook helicopters moving towards the vicinity of the sighting but did not witness the UFO itself.

Following the encounter, all three witnesses suffered the effects of radiation sickness, experiencing a burning sensation in their eyes, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. The symptoms persisted for several days. For Betty Cash the effects were even worse; she developed large blisters on her skin and lost large amounts of hair. She was hospitalised for several weeks.

Cash and Landrum later tried to sue the U.S government using the helicopters as proof of military involvement. However the military denied all knowledge of the incident and the case was dismissed.

The Phoenix Lights (U.S.A)

Witnessed by thousands of people across the U.S states of Nevada and Arizona, and the Mexican state of Sonora, the Phoenix lights are the United States’ largest ‘mass sighting’.

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Five lights in a triangle formation (usually presumed to be one large craft) were first seen above Henderson, Nevada at 7:55 PM (MST) on March 13, 1997. Subsequent sightings have the object moving over Prescott, Arizona heading south-east. From this trajectory it is safe to assume that it travelled from the vicinity of the Groom Lake Facility in Area 51 and went unnoticed in the skies over Las Vegas (hardly surprising).

By 8:30 PM the lights had reach the city of Pheonix, Arizona where literally thousands of people witnessed the phenomenon. Among them was state governor Fife Symington, a former Air Force pilot, who has publicly stated that the lights did not resemble any man-made object he’d ever seen.

After hovering above Phoenix for over an hour the lights again moved south-east. They were seen near Tucson, Arizona heading towards the Mexican border.

The U.S government has issued an official explanation for the Phoenix lights, stating that they were flairs dropped by U.S Warthog aircraft. This is frankly too pathetic to even consider.

Guadalajara (Mexico)

Guadalajara is Mexico’s second largest city and also holds the record for the highest number of reported UFO sightings in the country. In June 2004, it was also host to the largest concentration of UFOs ever sighted. A swarm of bright lights gathered over the city and hung around for several hours. Could these be birds or perhaps helium balloons? Guadalajara residents and UFO experts say no.

2004 Mexican Air Force Video Release (Mexico)

In 2004, the Mexican Air Force released this video of a fleet of UFOs declaring it a mystery. The video was shot using infra-red cameras and shows eleven spherical heat sources above Campeche, southern Mexico. The spheres were not visible to the naked eye.

Skeptics have suggested that these heat sources are nothing more than the burn-off from off-shore oil platforms. Could the Mexican Air Force really be that incompetent? Further UFO sightings from the ground and the reported strange behavior of these UFOs would seem to suggest otherwise.

Washington UFO Flap (U.S.A)

1952 saw the largest number of UFO sightings ever recorded over the east coast of America. The largest concentration of UFOs occurred in July that year, with literally dozens of UFOs sighted in the skies over Washington DC. While a large number of these sightings were made by members of the public, an alarming number of reports came from commercial pilots, air traffic controllers and even from within the air force itself.

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On the evening of July 19, the Washington UFO flap exploded into an all out invasion of the capital. At midnight, the radar tower at Washington Nation Airport picked up eight unknown objects travelling at 120 mph and heading straight for the Whitehouse. Staff at the nearby Andrews AFB witnessed a glowing ball of orange flame in the sky. It had a revolving tail which zoomed around with unbelievable speed. At the same time a Capital Airlines pilot spotted a further seven UFOs. By 2:00 AM flaming objects were seen all over Washington and it was clear to all observers that something was seriously amiss.

So what did the American military do about this invasion of their most protected airspace? Nothing. Unbelievably, the Air Force are said to have been unconcerned by the events that took place that night. In fact, the Combat Officer at the Air Force Command told one air traffic controller that “somebody else was supposed to handle it.” Does this mean that the Air Force had advanced notice of the UFOs’ arrival, or were they simply being criminally incompetent?

Some have suggested that the night of July 19, 1952 was when the U.S President met Alien officials for the first time in the Whitehouse. Others blame bizarre weather conditions for false radar blips and optical illusions. As always, the truth remains a mystery.

Author: Mark Ball Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com

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Mythology and Religious Ideas

Various cultures and religions in modern times and even throughout history have felt that our present incarnation in this world might not have necessarily been what our lives were before this one. Buddha is one of the most well know past life visionaries. He reportedly was able to access and remember all of his past live once he became fully Awakened. Some texts claim that he remembered as few as 500 but many more say that he recalled several thousand. However, Buddhism does not think of past life regression as a way to heal the soul though. It is merely a way to finish the path toward Awakening by knowing past incarnations of your soul. They do possess a special prayer that requests forgiveness for all deeds performed in a past life that were destructive or harmful whereby the individual can be released from the effects that the negative deeds caused. Yet, the idea of reincarnation has been around long before Buddha even though its true origins are a bit murky. During the first millennium BCE, discussion of reincarnation appears in the philosophical writings from both Greece and India.

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Modern Perceptions

The concept of past life regression whereby the idea of reincarnation is so strongly acknowledged and believed that people believe they can reach back into the history of their souls to try to remember past lives. The New Age Movement during recent decades that combined a few traditional Western values with many of the philosophic ideas from the East where modern ideas of past life regression are still so prominent today. Also, past lives are a key foundational pillar of the practices conducted by the Church of Scientology. Other areas of the modern Western belief systems do not put much stock in past life regression, but the avid belief in it by others leaves the door open to the possibility of former reincarnations of a person’s soul.

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Techniques

In the past several decades, regression therapy was performed by an actual therapist. However, these professionals were hard to locate in many places. Even if you found one, the procedure was so intense that a combination of meditation, therapy, hypnosis, additional therapy, and even potentially damaging drugs were required for the patient to eventually break through the barrier that was keeping him or her from achieving wisdom from past lives—not to mention the requirement of months or years of invested time and hundreds to thousands of dollars paid to a professional. You do not have to commit yourself that way though if you want to access your past lives. Many meditative techniques can help you properly regress if you dedicate the time and keep your mind open to any experiences you have during these private sessions. One of the most common meditative practices is listed below:

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First, find a quiet place that is free of distractions or anything to lead you into false past life visions.
Adjust lighting, temperature, and clothing to be the most comfortable you can be.
Then, you can either lie down or sit down.
Do not start trying to reach back until you have quieted your mind and stilled your thoughts.
Slowly and steadily relax parts of your body (face, jaw, arms, legs, feet) until you are totally at ease.
Focus on your breathing to join your relaxed body with a settled mind in a peaceful union.
Inhale deeply and slowly through your nose, holding in the air for as long as it is comfortable.
Then, exhale completely and gently through your mouth.
Repeat this breathing exercise as needed until you feel peace completely take over your mind and body.
In your thoughts, envision a clock in front of you.
It can be any type of clock that you want to suit your personality.
Instead of numbers one through twelve on its face though, this clock marks dates and times in the past.
Picture the hands on the clock slowly moving backward until they actually start to do that in your mind.
The further the hands spin back, the faster they will move.
Just continue to relax and watch the clock.
When you suddenly feel your soul wanting the clock to stop, mentally think of the clock stopping.
The clock will begin to slow down until it finally stops with your command.
Picture yourself stepping through the clock into the time the stopped hands have landed on.
Look around and try to figure out where you are based on simple observations of the surroundings.
Try to sense the history period you have just entered.
You can remain in this single place to learn and experience more or go back to your magic clock.
Once you clear your mind again and re-enter the present, be sure to make notes of what you have learned so that you can reflect back on it at a later time when the vision is not so intense to cause interference with the logical portion of your brain.

Why Do It

Pulling in the added wisdom of the time and experiences belonging to another lifetime would certainly help your view of the world. Also, you might even be able to figure out why you are here in this particular life and maybe even discover what you need to do in this lifetime in order to progress. You do not need to repeat the mistakes of a past lifetime if you know what they are! Learning what you have done wrong in a former life can help your current life be free of the same or similar mistakes. This cycle of looking into your past lives in order to make your present life be free of mistakes so that your soul will progress.

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Author: Brooke Windsor Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com

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What Is It?

Strictly speaking, stigmata are marks on someone’s body that correspond to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus as stated in Christianity’s bible—with particular emphasis on marks that occur on the person’s hands or feet. Stigmata is actually the plural form of a Greek word “stigma” which literally translates as a brand or mark that was used in the identification of a domesticated animal or slave. The word stigmata as applied to marks or wounds associated with those of Jesus actually comes from Paul’s letter to the Galatians at the end line of the writing where he stays that he bears “on (his) body the marks of Jesus.” The reported cases of stigmata show some, a few, or all five of the “holy wounds” that were inflicted on Jesus according to writing of his crucifixion in the bible, which include a wound in the side of a torso from a lance and ones in the hands and feet from nails. Occasionally, the wounds associated with Jesus’s torture before the actual crucifixion such as the crown of thorns or back lacerations have been associated with stigmata as well. In some claims of the odd happening, the stigmatics declare extreme pain accompany the wounds. Sometimes though people claim to experience the pain of stigmata like wounds without any visible wounds on the outside of the body. These cases are referred to as invisible stigmata. However, a portion of people who have stigmata have wounds that appear to not clot while staying uninfected and fresh. A handful of cases even declare that the blood from the wounds has a pleasant or perfume type odor which is generally referred to as the Odor of Sanctity. The causes of this strange occurrence tends to vary from case to case when investigated by doctors, scientists, or religious officials. However, stigmata is mainly associated with the Roman Catholic faith and most of the reported stigmatics generally are participants of Catholic religious orders.

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Scientific Research Into Stigmata

Most of the modern research into the causes of stigmata claim that it is probably hysterical in nature, particularly because the majority of claimants tend to be extremely emotional at the time of occurrence. It might also be linked to dissociative identity disorders in the context of a deep religious belief—especially when looking at the link between self starvation dietary restrictions, self mutilation, and dissociative mental states. People who suffer from anorexia nervosa can often display self mutilation which is part of a ritualistic action from a obsessive compulsive disorder that greatly resembles stigmata. Psychological studies of stigmatics also show a general link of stigmata cases and post traumatic stress disorders that are severe enough to result in unconscious self mutilation, particularly if the person has an abnormal level of suggestibility from previous life experiences or outside sources. Sometimes the wounds are clearly made by outer means such as people who wish to suffer along the lines of Christ as a form of deep religious piety or even accidental markings that were mistakenly thought to be stigmata by a random witness.

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Non-Christian Stigmata Incidents

Even though stigmata is most commonly associated with Christianity and Roman Catholicism in particular, bodily stigmata have actually been reported in several religious traditions. Among the Waraw tribe who live in the Orinoco Basin of Venezuela, people who meditate with tutelary spirits may mystically bring about open wounds in the palms of one’s hands. Forms of stigmata are frequently portrayed in Buddhist art as a common aspect of some journeys in Buddhism.

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Famous Cases of Stigmata

The first specifically recorded incident of Christian stigmata was Saint Francis of Assisi. Two years before his death in 1224, he set off on a journey to Mount La Verna in order to fast for forty days. As Francis prayed one morning near the celebration time of the Exaltation of the Cross, an angel reportedly came to his side. Francis was able to see that the angel was crucified as he came closer. Upon seeing the form of the crucified angel, Francis was humbled by the vision while his heart filled with great elation for being specially chosen for an angelic visit and both saddened as well as put through great pain at the horror of seeing a mutilated angel. Once the angel left Francis’s presence, he reportedly had wounds in his feet, hands, and side as though he had been pierced by the same lance that had been driven into Christ’s side. An image of nails appeared in his hands and feet right away, and his side wound frequently seeped out blood. The first biographer of Saint Francis of Assisi, Thomas of Celano, reported the entire incident in his 1230 publication entitled The Life of Saint Francis. However, modern doctors have looked back on the symptoms of Saint Francis to report he most likely had quartan malaria with the complication of purpura—a purple hemorrhage of blood into the skin which could have easily been punctured in the wilderness to appear as an open wound similar to those of Christ.

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Another famous case of stigmata occurred during the 20th century and therefore was studied by several physicians of that era. For over fifty years, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina reported his personal case of stigmata. The wounds were reportedly unexplainable and never became infected. It is noted that his wounds did heal at one time but then suddenly reappeared. Even though blood tests, examinations, and even x-rays were performed on Padre Pio’s hands, no conclusive diagnosis was ever made.

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Author: Brooke Windsor Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com

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Ancient people often suspected and feared that deceased loved ones would return from the dead and become a vampire. Vampire killing rituals became common all over the world from the 15th century all the way up to the 19th century. In Venice, ancient corpses are sometimes found with bricks shoved into their mouths, this was part of an ancient vampire slaying ritual. In Germany lemons were placed into the mouths of suspected vampires. In Romania garlic cloves were shoved into the mouths of corpses to prevent them from rising from the dead, this being the source of the popular myth that vampires hate garlic. In America, as recently as 1892, a young man’s corpse was dug up and his heart was cut out and burned because he was a suspected vampire.

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While vampires are usually thought of as fiction today there are still some sects of human society that have a strong belief in real vampires. In the African country of Malawi people began reporting being attacked by vampires all through out 2002 and 2003. The hysteria grew so much that many suspected vampires were stoned to death. A Governor, Eric Chiwaya, was stoned by a mob that claimed that the government was colluding with vampires. Chiwaya barely survived the attack.

In some small communities in Romania, a country that many believe to be the source of many modern vampire myths, the fear of vampires is still very real. In 2004, Toma Petre was suspected to be a vampire by his family. His family dug up his corpse, cut out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it. This ritual is an ancient technique used to destroy vampires.

There are two types of vampires prevalent in world culture. There are the primitive killers and the suave aristocratic vampire. Often times serial killers are dubbed vampires due to their ingestion of their victim’s blood. These cases can be related to the common idea of the primitive vampire. The aristocratic vampire popularized by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and perhaps more recently by Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, has their sources in real life historical figures.

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Vlad III Dracula, or more commonly referred to as Vlad the Impaler, was the Prince of Wallachia (modern day Romania) and is best known, historically speaking, for his fierce resistance of the Ottoman Empire into his territory. In Eastern Europe and Romania Vlad is often looked at as a hero who resisted an empire, in Western Europe word spread of Vlad’s affinity to torture his enemies and he became more a villain than a hero. Vlad’s numerous purported tortures included burning people alive, skinning the feet of criminal offenders and putting salt on the wounds, skinning people alive, boil people alive, and of course impaling. One story says that an invading Ottoman army planned to storm Vlad’s castle, but instead fled the area in fear when they came across a forest of impaled corpses. It is often thought the Bram Stoker borrowed the name of Dracula from this historical figure to be used in his novel of the same name.

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Another historical figure that contributes to this aristocratic vampire is Countess Elizabeth Báthory. Often called the “Blood Countess”, Elizabeth Báthory has become one of the most prolific female serial killers in history. Báthory was a Countess in the Kingdom of Hungary (modern day Slovakia) in the 14th century and early 15th century. It is said that she is responsible for the death of over 600 people. It is said that Báthory would bite the flesh off the face and hands of her victims and sexual tortures would also occur. Perhaps, the most bizarre of all her atrocities is that she would bathe in the blood of virgins in hopes of retaining her youthful beauty. Historian disagree on what crimes if any the Countess Elizabeth Báthory was actually guilty of, but popular culture has taken the idea of the Blood Countess and ran with it.

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There are also biological and psychological sources for the vampire myth. For example, today many scientists believe it was ancient people’s misunderstanding of decomposition that resulted in many being accused of being vampires. As the body decomposes and the skink withers away it can create the illusion of growing hair or fingernails. Also, as the body decomposes it can become filled with a gas causing it to swell. This swelling has resulted in many vampire hunters thinking a corpse looks well nourished and must be rising from the dead at night to feast upon the blood of the living. If someone were to stake a cadaver swollen with this gas it could cause the gas to look for an escape route due to the newfound pressure. If the gas passes out of the mouth it can come into contact with the vocal chords and make a groaning sound or it could pass through the anus and make a sound similar to flatulence. Both of these could be confused with signs of life after death for the corpse.

Some doctors have also established a link between the disease Rabies and the belief in vampires. They suggest that the “vampires” that ancient people fiercely believed in were merely people in the late stages of Rabies. Rabies can cause hypersexuality, disruptions in sleep patters (causing someone to become nocturnal for example), cause a bloody foaming at the mouth, and cause someone to have the urge to bite another.

There are also psychological aspects entangled in the vampire myths. Many historians have noted that the belief in vampires rises when ancient communities are going through times of mass outbreaks of disease. Perhaps the only way that ancient people knew how to explain these disease epidemoics that were killing them were through the folkloric tales of vampires. Some of the psychologists of the Freudian field of thinking believe that vampires represent the darker side of human nature and these myths and legends are manifestations of secret human desires.

Regardless of the reason, vampires have become a mainstay in world culture, and to some they are very real. In the modern world, there is an entire subculture dedicated to the vampire. These groups of people often partake in the drinking of blood or sometimes they feed off the supposed life energy of another. This life energy feeding is often refereed to as psychic vampirism in the vampire community.

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There is something that undoubtedly draws us to the vampire, both the primitive and frightening vampire and the equally frightening but also charming aristocratic vampire. Why do we have such a desire to associate with these fictitious or perhaps nonfictitious creatures? Perhaps it is our own fear of death. Perhaps we are drawn to these legendary immortal beings, because when we identify with them we stop fearing death. In this regard, perhaps we all secretly wish that we could be vampires.

Author: Jonathan Kaulay Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com

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John “Babbacombe” Lee

One of the most infamous execution stories of all times that still causes shock, awe, and several question marks even 100 years later is that of John “Babbacombe” Lee. The story of why he was convicted surrounds a suspicious and very brutal murder. Miss Emma Anne Whitehead Keyse lived alone in “The Glen” which was near the small hamlet of Babbacombe in Devon with two home servants (Jane and Eliza Neck), a cook (Elizabeth Harris), and the cook’s half brother—John Henry George Lee. On November 15, 1884, Emma Keyse was found savagely murdered. Her throat had been slit, she had three additional wounds to her head, and it seemed that the murderer had also tried to burn the body.

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Evidence Against Lee

John Lee’s history contributed to him being considered as a suspect. After leaving school, he was a servant at “The Glen” before he joined the navy in 1879. He was later deemed to be an invalid candidate and was forced out of the service. This led him to Torquay where he worked as a footman for a while until his employer accused him of stealing. Lee was convicted of the crime and sent to prison for a short while as was sentenced by the court. In 1884, John Lee was released from prison and returned to work at “The Glen” since other employers looked down on his time in prison and especially his reason for being there. Since Lee was the only male in the house at the time of the murder, he was automatically the initial suspect for the crime. He also had a cut on his arm that he could not sufficiently explain. While this collection of evidence is completely circumstantial in the eyes of modern society, it was enough to send John Lee to trial for murder and then convict him for it at the time. Lee publicly declared to the judge of his trial and all witnesses that he was innocent of the crime and never admitted to anyone that it might have been him.

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The Hanging

John Lee continued to profusely state his innocence and even loudly announced that God knew of his innocence which would inspire the Lord to save him. A divine intervention during the hanging does seem to be a reasonable possibility. Lee was sentenced to be hung by the neck until dead on the 23th of February in 1885 at Exeter Prison. James Berry was appointed to be the executioner. Before the actual hanging, Berry tested the trap door on the scaffold multiple times to make sure it was functioning. He verified it opened successfully each time he tried it before John Lee was brought to the platform. Three times the executioner attempted to make the trap door drop in order to hang Lee. Berry failed three times at forcing the door to drop. This rather odd happening created a postponement of the hanging which was almost as rare as the scaffold trap door not working even though it had been thoroughly tested before the execution.

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After the Hanging Event Issues

Once the third drop had failed yet again, the execution was officially postponed. Sir William Harcourt who was the Home Secretary at the time of Lee’s trial and hanging decided to change the original sentence to life in prison rather than go through with another execution. Harcourt said his reasoning behind this choice was that “it would shock the feeling of anyone if a man had twice to pay the pangs of imminent death,” which basically translates to the fact Harcourt felt that the horror of almost dying several times was enough to alter the course of the punishment to imprisonment instead of actual death through another execution ploy again. However, after twenty-two years of service behind bars, John Lee was officially released from prison. Once he was a free man again, rumors started to pop up everywhere about what happened to him next in 1907. Many people believe that Lee ran away to another country to begin a new life abroad as an anonymous stranger. Other individuals who have looked into Lee’s life after he was released from prison claim that he moved to London where he lived to survive the blitz bombings to escape imminent death yet again, making it the second time he should have been killed but was not. While Lee spending time in a foreign nation is certainly a possibility, the idea that he ended his days on Earth in south west England at a workhouse could also be an accepted theory since a death certificate was discovered in that area around an acceptable time that Lee would have died. The certificate itself specifically states the man’s name as John Lee and says that was a journeyman and painter who died of myocardial degeneration—which is muscular degeneration of the heart itself. An unmarked grave near the former workhouse is supposedly all the real evidence that remains of John Babbacombe Lee. His unmarked grave has been long forgotten and lost, but his story of escaping an execution by hanging multiple times by mere chance, luck, fate, or the divine hand of God lives on to this very day as a mystery that will probably never be officially solved or have all the loose ends tied up.

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Author: Brooke Windsor Copyrighted © paranormalhaze.com