Friday, June 18, 2010

Big Foot, El Chupacabra and Monsters in the Popular Culture - Why We Love Monsters

Monsters lurk in the dark places, in the shadowy forests at twilight. They run along a lonely desert road, pursued by frantic monster hunters. They dive down into the depths of a cold, dark lake and appear in our peripheral vision.

Photographs and films document monsters like Sasquatch, El Chupacabra, and the Loch Ness Monster in blurring images. They are seen as a slithering shadow amongst other shadows, or heard as a strange sound in the night.

People who see something that they do not understand may claim to see a monster. We like to be comfortable with our surroundings. We can usually identify the things we see in or around where we live. A herd of deer dart across a field JA dolphin leaps out of the sea. A bunny rabbit hops through the garden.

But, when you catch sight of that oddly shaped form that you can not identify, something larger that you expect to see, something unusual, and you ask yourself, "Did I just see a monster?"

Several years ago, strange creatures began to appear in suburban settings. They showed up on YouTube and in blurry newspaper photographs. People claimed they were some kind of weird hybrid between a hyena and a dog. Nobody wondered how a hyena and a dog could cross breed. And what was a hyena doing, roaming around in North Carolina anyway? But they were called monsters, even though they were small. It turned out that the p0oor creatures were foxes suffering a bad case of mange.

Human beings, or some of them anyway, seem to want to see monsters. Why else would anyone believe that ridiculous creature in the famous 1970's film was actually Big Foot? Why else would people see a dead dog and think it was El Chupacabra? How could you see a sick fox and call it a monster?

But monsters add a little mystery to our lives. They can pop up at any moment, terrifying us with the 'Boo' factor. We can focus our fears on the monster instead of the real terrors in this world. After all, how many people have been torn limb from limb by Big Foot? How many people have actually had the blood sucked out of them by El Chupacabra?

Have there ever been actual documented cases of people being harmed by what we call monsters? Maybe we need monsters to get our minds off our real troubles: The threat of impending poverty, disease, or cruelty at the hands of our fellow human beings. We understand the possibility of disease, poverty, and violence. We see it on the news or experience it in real life. But a monster puts a different face on our fear.

Monsters are ugly and misshapen. They are secretive. Sometimes, they smell really bad.

Monsters provide our boring lives with a bit of a thrill. Face it, real fears of real threats grow tiresome. They weigh us down with anxiety. There is some amusement when we think that we hear something snarling outside the window at night, or catch a glimpse of an oddly shaped creature in our peripheral vision.

Suddenly, life is exciting! Something new and unexpected could be thrashing around out there in the garden. Bored with plodding through the ruts of life, we come upon the suggestion of novelty. That sound in the darkness might be El Chupacabra! The shifting shadow in the forest could be Big Foot!

In memory, the sounds become magnified, the shadows loom larger, our memory distorted. Suddenly, life is so much more exciting and fears more colorful. Maybe that creature was a bear that wandered away from its usual home. Maybe it was a crippled dog, or a sick fox. Or, maybe, it was a monster!

A hilarious article where the tables are turned. Why some people love monsters - they are delicious! http://hubpages.com/hub/ChupacabraDeliciouslyDecadentChupacabraRecipes.

An article on how we see unusual creatures and assume they are monsters. http://hubpages.com/hub/Strange-Creatures---TheMonsterofManorRoad.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Inez_Calender

Bigfoot - It Always Stays Just Outside the Range of Scientific Proof

One of the most widespread and controversial creatures of dubious existence is Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, in reference to a hairy, bipedal hominid being. This being is usually described as 8' to 10' tall, sighted in remote wilderness areas of the United States and Canada, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Northwest, and the Rocky Mountains, mainly over the last 300 years. It is said, that this humanoid creature has been seen in the forests of northeastern New England and the southern United States. Contrary to other monsters, this being is not a single specimen, but researchers have found at least a few thousand of them reported in different places during all the time, including nearby military areas.

There is a slight misconceptions between Bigfoot or Sasquatch, and Yeti, who lives in the Himalayas, and the Abominable Snowman, a Tibetan primate-like popularized by the Western press in 1921 after a visit of the reporter Henry Newman to the Himalayas. However, there is a controversy related to Bigfoot, with some researchers and witnesses claiming that this creature can be found in most countries around the world, but known regionally under various names, otherwise, it is believed that creatures like Yeti, are closely related species.

There are many reports describing a Sasquatch as the American being, but seen in China, Russia, Malaysia, Hawaii., Australia, and even in the mountains of South America. Like the other creatures of cryptozoology studies, scientists reject the possibility of the creature's existence. Unsubstantiated folklore and hoax is usually the verdict given for skeptics, due to the lack of bones, body or other evidence, in addition to the widely divergent descriptions by witnesses. They describe the monster as a 7 to 10 feet tall bipedal creature; this is 2 to 3 meters, but looking like an ape, and sometimes like a man.

It is said that Bigfoot is of a strong build and broad-shouldered, whose body is covered with short shaggy fur or well defined black or dark brown hair, although some other witnesses report the creature having rust, reddish, sandy or silver fur, with large eyes and a pronounced brow.

Recently, some cryptologists claim to have found evidence of the Yeti in the Himalayas, after the bones of a hand were discovered in a Tibetan temple, preserved as relics. This discovery brings back the alleged relationship between Yeti and Bigfoot, in which case if the Yeti exists, Bigfoot should exist as well. In fact, scientists say there is no evidence of such a creature in the United States, but various Native American artifacts has been presented as circumstantial evidence for the existence of Sasquatch, including some dated between 1500 BC to 200 AD, as described in a text from 1877.

Sasquatch is the American Indian name for the "Big Foot" creature that so many people throughout the United States have seen. All scientific data put aside, mostly everyone that has seen a glimpse of Big Foot remembers an odor some described as the smell of rotten eggs or sulphur.

There is a website that describes this and numerous other creatures of Cryptozoology in detail. The website is called: Unknown Creatures, and may be found at this address =>www.unknown-creatures.com

Copyright © 2006

You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter or on your web site as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and without modification except for formatting needs or grammar corrections.

Robert W. Benjamin has been in the software business on the internet for over 5 years, and has been producing low-cost software for the past 25+ years. He first released software on the AMIGA and C64 computer systems in the late 1970's-80's.

RB59 Software
http://www.rb59.com/software

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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Different Types of Ghosts

First step in any new hobby or job is to learn the theory. And one of first steps in learning theory regarding paranormal investigations is the need to learn about the types of phenomena we might encounter during our investigations. I would like to focus on ghosts - there are different types of phenomenon we're usually calling "ghosts" - each person interested in paranormal should know these types no matter if he or she is investigating paranormal activities, or just focusing on theory as pure hobby.

Records (Residual Energies)

Sometimes you might encounter Records - a phenomena when you will experience an event from the past, appearing like a recorded 3D movie. Witnesses have encounter a wide range of such Records, starting from single shadow moving across the room, ending on whole armies on the battlefield. If we would like to explain this phenomenon, we could think about psionic signatures - they have custom to left on different objects or in different places such as house or chair...

Intelligent Haunting

This is a spirit of a person that died yet stick in our physical world. These ghosts might hang around flats or houses, or even big castles and streets and they are trapped in our world. Paranormal investigator's job is to identify the problem and help the spirit "move into the light", as psychics use to say.

Stick Ghosts

Stick to what, you will ask - stick to objects, such as urns or favourite chairs etc. Such ghosts appear to move from one location to another along with the object they're stick to (of course object is moved by those who still lives, not on its own).

Bi-locations

Two persons in the same place - its a well know phenomena between people studding lives of saints. Sometimes person don't know he or she is present in two different places in the same time, sometimes bi-location might be caused unintentionally as a result of stress or fear, sometimes intentionally (Remote Presence, a psychic skill).

Ghosts of pass

When a person is passing from our world to the "other side", sometimes a spirit of this person is paying a visit to its relatives or friends - at least some people believes this is happening.

Poltergeist

I belong to a group of people who strongly believe that 98% of poltergeist activity is not ghosts, but uncontrolled psychokinesis and it's caused by living people. Even so, there is still this 2% of activities that we can't explain by psychokinesis, so we have to assume there are some spirit stuff included. Poltergeist is nothing more than objects moving on their own - flying, falling etc. If you can't find natural explanation of such phenomena, then it might be caused by person causing psychokinesis effects, or by a ghost manifestation.

Orbs

Some people says Orbs are first steps of ghost manifestation - but mostly probably orbs will be nothing more than a specks of dust or drops of different kind - so if you were able to take a picture of orb, treat it as natural phenomena, not as proof of paranormal activity. But if you're seeing orbs on real, and they're glowing and flying around, then it's definitely not a speck or drop.

Pseudo-Fakes

I'm using this term to describe situations in which people are faking stuff in order to please investigator, but there is something paranormal going on indeed. Sometimes activity might stop when investigator arrives on site, and witnesses don't want to look like fools so they're trying to fake activity - that's why even when you're suspecting a fake, you should keep your mind open as maybe something is happening on real.

Fakes

World isn't perfect - people are faking stuff. Mostly probably 98% of all your investigations will be faked and you can't do anything about it. If you think that each and every paranormal site you'll visit will be real, you're simple wrong - paranormal investigator job in most cases is not to prove paranormal activity to be real, but to prove someone is faking. Sound strange? No one told this is going to be normal...

Now you know some basic theory and you can learn more about paranormal investigations. But that's subject for another article.

Nathaniel is a psychic, energy worker and paranormal investigator, grab his ebook and learn how to develop psychic abilities.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nathaniel_Webb

Basic Candle Magick Spell For Protection From Negativity

Alexandra has been dating a man named Robert for two months. At first, everything was great between the two of them. He was romantic, kind, gentle, and easy to get along with. Additionally, he had a natural leadership quality about him which really drew Alexandra in. Now, though, things aren't so great. Alexandra feels that Robert has become very controlling. Additionally, he always seems so depressed and negative every time she ends up around him. Alexandra wants Robert to either leave her alone or, minimally, be in a better mood when the two are around each other. Additionally, Alexandra would like to end their relationship, but she wants to do so as peacefully as possible. The question is, what can Alexandra do to help this manifest in her life?

The previous is but one of many examples of time periods in our lives where we find ourselves desiring to keep negative people away from us or, even better, work to help them help themselves.

Here is a simple and safe candle spell ritual a person can do to help protect from negativity generated by other people. Though simple, this is still a powerful spell. As with all magick, it's important that one is in the right frame of mind prior to working with it. The easiest way to get into the proper state of mind is to mediate or relax without interruptions for five to ten minutes before beginning this spell.

You'll need a white candle, some aluminum foil, and a knife.

Step One: Begin by carving into the white candle the name of the person whom you want to defend against. As you carve, make sure you place your intent into the candle by focusing your mind on the idea that this person will have no further effect on you.

Step Two: Wrap the candle in the aluminum foil, shiny side facing in. This puts a protective shield around the person. The aluminum foil will reflect whatever energy the person puts out right back toward them. This is a white magick approach to protection as the person still has free will to decide if they want to put out positive or negative energy.

Step Three: Hold the candle in your right hand and send white light through the top of your crown center (head) down through your arms and into the candle. As you do this, visualize the person not being able to come around you when they are in a negative mood.

Step Four: Put the wrapped candle into the freezer and leave it. Do not remove it until you're ready to break the spell. This action "freezes" the person with the protective shield reflecting their own energy back to and around them.

This is a great spell for beginners. Not only will the person putting out negative energy be zapped by their own negativity, but when they choose to give off positive energy they will be zapped with that as well. Done properly, this spell can actually serve as a means of training another person to have only positive thoughts when within your presence.

Alexandra tried this spell and she found she didn't have to deal with negative and controlling Robert any longer. This enabled her to breakup as peacefully as possible and move forward with her life. Other people have used this spell to keep annoying relatives away from weddings, birthday parties, etc. Still, there are other people that have used this spell to bring added protection from those whom they feel are a danger to themselves or others.

John Culbertson is a Mason and Rosicrucian who actively helps people to achieve success and happiness. He is an accomplished New Age teacher, writer and motivational speaker who has taught courses in psychic development and protection, numerology, astrology, tarot, and many other aspects of the New Age field. His recent book "Psychic Self Defense and Protection: An Energy Awareness Guide" can be found at amazon.com or at http://www.outskirtspress.com/psychicselfdefense.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Culbertson

Do You Know What is an Alien Baby?

Alien Baby

From as early as the 1950's there have been accounts of persons discovering alien babies both dead and living and there are quite a few websites on the world wide web dedicated to suspected alien existence. These sites feature a lot of pictures thought to be images of actual aliens that have been found throughout the years.

There are many persons who believe unconditionally that these images of grown up and infant aliens are real while others believe that they are elaborate pranks. Others say the babies are malformed, while still others think that they are normal human children with diseases or deformities.

Whatever they are, the reality is that some movies and images cannot be explain like the video of the alien baby found in 2007 by a farmer in Mexico known as Marao Lopez. He is said to have found the alien infant breathing and drowned it in a ditch out of panic because it looked so strange. Lopez claimed that it took 3 tries to drown the alien and that he had to keep it under water for several hours before it finally stopped breathing.

The remains was handed over to university scientists who ran DNA examinations and scans to try and make out the carcass. Two years afterwards the scientists publicized the outcome of their test which they argued revealed that the animal is not human. They say the bones of the creature has lizard-like features but its teeth do not contain any roots like humans, it has some similar joints like humans, and it would be able to stay beneath the water for an extended period.

The creature's eyes, ears and cranium were said to be larger than that of other primates and it was protected in a thin coating of skin. The back section of the animals brain especially was huge and therefore researchers concluded that it was very clever. However, by the time the remains of the animal was given over to scientists they claimed it had decomposed too much to generate any coherent DNA results.

To further add to the mystery surrounding the extraterrestrial infant, Lopez was later found scorched to death in a parked vehicle on the side of the road. It is said that the fire was a far hotter temperature than that of regular fires and it is thought that the parents of the alien infant are the ones accountable for Lopez' death as reprisal because he drowned the creature.

It is reported that there are many UFO sightings and crop circles in the area where the alien baby was found and that there was a another alien there when Lopez discovered the creature but that the other alien ran away. Some think that the child was left behind deliberately by extraterrestrial but there is no explanation as to why.

While there are a few who strongly believe that the extraterrestrial baby exist, others are doubtful and do not consider the evidence to be sufficient. Check out the pictures and videos and you decide on your own.

Please visit these links for more information on Alien Baby.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sharon_Grean


What is the History of Witchcraft in Scotland?

What is the image that appears in your mind when you think of the word "witch"? I'm guessing you're picturing an ugly, old women with a big nose and a wart on her face, armed with a broom and wearing a black dress? If that's how you do imagine witches, you are not a minority. But you are wrong. Read this article to see how the story of witchcraft actually unfolded.

Such outward projections of medieval witches are common whenever they are pictured in movies or theatre, and it is actually quite an exaggerated image. In actuality, however, all it took to be accused of and executed for being a witch was a peculiar birthmark or freckle, or simply dancing and singing outside where you could be seen, or eventually, simply someone's suspicions or an accusation. Times were rougher back then.

Stories relating to witchcraft have been going around since the dawn of time. However, it was not until the 16th century that persecution of witches started. It was in 1563 that the Witchcraft Act was ratified and this made it illegal for anyone to be a witch or to consort with one. Thirty years later, the first major persecution took place. In 1590 King James I and VI started the North Berwick Trials. Having recently returned from Denmark with his bride, he had almost gotten killed by a powerful storm. This, the king believed, was a conspiracy against him by the witches. He had a hundred people arrested, most of which were tortured and burned alive.

Major persecution again took place in 1661 and 1662 with the Forfar Witch Hunt and the Auldearn Trials respectively. These were prolonged by accusations made by so-called witches in order to save themselves. Especially strange were the Aberdeen Trials where seven women were accused of using mystical powers to murder people, and using body parts from their victims for making potions. And it gets stranger - in 1704 the Trials of Pittenween were based only on the words of a 16-year old boy, and all of the accused were tortured heavily. Only later was it discovered that everything had been made up by the boy.

Another curious case which deserves mention are the Renfrewshire Trials of 1695. An 11-year old girl called Christian Shaw witnessed a housemaid drinking forbidden milk and threatened to tell her mother this, but the housemaid told the girl that if she did this, the devil would take her to hell. And the little girl, the story goes, started having visions and tempers, accusing the maid of torturing her. Some accounts say she was throwing up feathers, wax, stones, hay, even a hot coal. The most extreme descriptions are of her floating in mid-air, throwing things around in the room without touching them. As a result, over 20 people were examined and also tortured. Several of them were found dead. Six of these people were found guilty and burned alive.

The Witchcraft Act was abandoned only in the year 1736. According to some estimates, around 4000 people were executed in Scotland alone as a result of this persecution.

If you want to read about a book on witchcraft called the Witchcraft Exposed Book, then click here now: Witchcraft Exposed Book.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniel_Powell

The Shocking Truth on Differences Between Magick Vs Magic

When discussing witchcraft magick, is it a misspelling to use the word magic, instead of adding a k and spelling it magick? I don't think so. Traditionally speaking, the word magick was meant to mean ceremonial or high magick, which leaves just plain old magic (with a c) to mean practical magic.

Some think it's a matter of opinion. It's like spelling names. One man might traditionally spell his name Jeff, while another might think its cooler to spell it Geoff. So, if you're going to experiment in magic, why not make it mystical and more fun by using ceremonial Magick Spells.

But there really is a difference, and it's not as easy as one being cooler than the other. Magic (without the k), is the common spelling for magicians and optical illusion entertainment. While magick is better known for spells and is usually associated with witchcraft spells and spells cast to change our lives for the better.

For example, there are magick love spells, as well as magick spells for luck, money, finding lost items and more. It was actually Aleister Crowley who decided to add the k to the word in order to distinguish illusionary magic from self-help type witchcraft magick spells.

And by the way, the word witchcraft is just another cool word that's used for those who cast spells. It gives the mind an image of a woman in a tall pointed black hat and black dress stirring up a bubbly pot of witchcraft magick. But how many times have you run across that situation? Although, that image is commonly thought up when discussing those who used to do black magick in the dark ages. But today, more and more people are turning to white hat witchcraft magick to get what they want.

It doesn't really matter how you spell it. It's what you THINK that counts. After all, thinking is believing, and your thoughts will determine your actions.

But still, in order for your mind to concentrate on the task at hand, it's helpful to use a variety of objects that help your mind focus. These spell casting objects usually consist of candles, chakras, oils, crystals, incenses, herbs, colors, magick circles, etc.

So, if you're interested in the illusionary magic, go to the hobby shop and get yourself an instructional book, a deck of cards, a hat and a rabbit. But if you really want to learn how to use witchcraft magick spells to change your life, there is an entirely different book of spells that you'll want to study. Although, you may still be able to use the hat!

Learn how to launch into a new life of love, health, riches and immediate fun with white hat witchcraft magick spells at: WitchCraftMagickSpells.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_O'Mally