Does the Soul exist?

Do we have a Soul, and is there proof that it exists?

This question recently has gripped me. I believed very much in a Soul, a life giving essence that each person, maybe even extending deep into the animal kingdom, as far down as the single cell, has. This notion was recently challenged, as I was presented with what seemed to be a series of scientific explanations in sequence to establish a checkmate of sorts, against the notion of the soul. This of course was… annoying, and deeply unsettling. So, I embarked to find myself proof of it’s existence.

I think that I should start this off by saying, I have not yet found evidence for the soul.  In this post I am merely laying out of the conditions I believe that if the soul exists, should meet at least on some level.  I really do hope the soul exists, and I hope I find proof that the soul exists.  I find the idea that we just pop up here, get a nice taste of what life is like, being aware, getting to experience, to laugh, love and live, only for it all to be yanked out from under you, to be not only insulting, but pointless.  That all of our chemistry, biology, mathematics, astronomy, geometry, history…. Pretty much everything you can think of, came about through sheer happenstance.  A lucky roll of the dice.

When you think about it, each item in the list above represents order and design, yet these things came about according to the same scientists that use them, by random chance.  So I can’t help but notice an issue with the same logic that demands evidence for the soul.  Nevertheless, many of the questions raised about the soul and when/where it comes into play, are good questions, and if at all possible, should be answered.  So let’s begin with the very sequence of events that forced me to question my belief in the soul.

Check!

In order to understand why my belief in the soul has waned, it is probably important to first note I believed it to be a life giving and sustaining part of you that carried on after death.  If it was removed from you, you would die.  It also carried most of who you are, personality-wise, or at least a soul personality, which I guess would mean the you beyond your  physical ego.

Anyways, there was this youtube series I like to watch called “Stuff they don’t want you to know”, and as I watched a few videos, I ran across a two-parter titled ‘The Walking Dead’.  The first part was mostly fluff, talking about stuff I had already heard about, the second part however is where the first and second hit came from.  At about 1:32 into the second video, they begin talking about a Doctor by the name of Sergei Bryukhonenko, who began doing experiment to revive dead organisms.  One of his experiments involved severing a dog’s head, then through an artificial lung and heart, resuscitate the dead dogs head.

Here are links to part 1 and 2 of the video I am talking about, “Stuff the don’t want you to know”.





If that scene was real, then it presents a small problem for the soul.  I believed that the soul resided in the heart, but this changed when I discovered heart transplants.  Couldn’t be in the heart if we can trade-up hearts and stay alive and the same person.  I think after that I settled on the heart region, being the heart is what is physically there, and the soul is what is metaphysically there.  Well, as you can guess, that too went out the window when I saw that footage.  Can’t bring the head back to life if the soul is resting in the body, more then 10 feet away… can it?

Given that I was resting on the premise that the soul was a life giving and sustaining source, the head shouldn’t be able to revive if the soul isn’t present, right?  So at this point, I had to move that location from the heart region to the head region, or more specifically, the brain.  The head could be revived if the soul of a person resided in their head, because the soul would still be present.  If the soul exists, it being located in the brain would seem pretty logical, as most of who we believe ourselves to be, comes from our minds, and it is also the most important organ in the body, and also the most naturally protected.

Check again!

The second hit, if you watched the video, comes at about 2:15 into it, when they talk about Cryogenics, the act of freezing the body shortly after death.  The purpose, as mentioned, is to sustain the body’s condition in hopes that advancements in medical science will progress enough in the future to cure certain diseases, illnesses, damage to the body or maybe even conquer death.  The important part to note is the ’shortly after death’ part.  What struck me here was, the soul is supposed to leave the body after death.  We know that it must not leave immediately, or at least go that far from the body, as there are stories of people having been clinically dead for roughly thirty minutes to several hours, and still been successfully resuscitated.

Maybe it’s just me, but when I sat down and thought about the track record of science, and placed it next to Cryogenics, I figured it was highly probable that at some point in the future, successfully reviving the dead would happen.  I can easily picture the future, where the success of resurrecting the cryogenically frozen is plastered all over the news headlines.  It would be a sensation.  But what does that mean for the soul?  The body was clinically dead when it was frozen, and it remained so for a series of decades, and potentially hundreds of years.  If the soul leaves the body at death, or shortly after death, then how did it stick around for so long after death, to be there when the person was finally brought back?

Another thing this really hurts is reincarnation (which I did believe in that too).  So here we have potentially, a hundred year gap between recent death and returning to life, and we must account for where the soul was.  The first I want to address here is reincarnation.  If reincarnation is real, then wouldn’t the soul have left behind the frozen body after a length of time to reincarnate?  If it does, then only one of two things could happen.  1.) upon revival of the frozen person, the soul is ripped from the current incarnation of the soul, and dragged back to the reawakened person.  2.) nothing happens, because again you can’t bring back someone without a soul, and that soul is currently occupying another body.

If we don’t include reincarnation, then again one of two things could occur.  1.) the soul is hanging around in the spirit world, not doing anything really in particular, therefore it isn’t busy when the scientists come knocking for revival. 2.) the soul is actually anchored or tethered to the body in some way, and can’t actually leave until that tether is broken.

I actually liked number 2.  A tether.  It would fit wouldn’t it?  It could potentially answer the two questions, three if you count reincarnation.  If it exists then it would be in the brain, given the dogs brain experiment.  It would allow for those cryogenically frozen to be resurrected, because it would preserve the anchor as well.  And because the anchor is intact, and the soul is still around, it would prevent the soul from leaving and cheating on the old body with a new one.  It fits, yay!

That’s when my memory kicked in and hurt more then helped.  ‘What about hemisperectomies?’ some deeper part of my mind inquired.  Damn!  It made a good point.  If half the brain can be removed through an operation, and it can be either half, then where does that leave the tether?  I asked some of my friends this very question, and their response was, ‘that the brain as a whole was a receiver, and so long as enough of the brain is intact, it could continue it’s connection with the soul’ (I paraphrased).  This actually seemed like a decent answer.

Maybe it was bad luck, or maybe I was trying to sew up some minor issues that were left, but whatever the reason, I went and searched to see if there was maybe a part of the brain that couldn’t be removed, or else it would cause instant death.  More or less I was looking for some part of the brain that could potentially be the tether I was talking about.  The first thing that came to mind was the Pineal Gland.  It is famously said to be the seat of the soul after all, so it seemed like an excellent place to begin.  So I searched to see if it was possible to remove the Pineal Gland and live.  My hopes were quickly dashed as the results turned back a series of yeses.

Apparently 1% of all tumor based surgeries deal with the pineal gland.  Many people claimed that people have had their pineal gland removed and lived, they just needed a special doctor afterwards to replace artificially what the gland did naturally.  This was troubling.  Again I was soul-blocked.  When I thought about it, I didn’t know of any part of the brain that couldn’t be removed.  Sure it may cause some issues, but short of the entire brain being removed, you could probably live.  I was quickly running out of options.

Checkmate!

Maybe it was the brainstem or something.  I remembered hearing that the pineal gland first appears in the a baby fetus at 49 days.  I thought maybe if I can find out what part of the brain develops first, maybe I can get a clue as to what the tether might be.  It would have to be a very important part and maybe irremovable, and maybe when that part develops, it’s also when the soul enters the body.  I was never able to find out exactly what part of the brain develops first, instead, I was met with a new question.

As I searched for what part of a newly conceived baby’s brain develops first, certain pictures of sperm ganging up on an egg (I thought they were trying to end bullying?) was on every page.  After that were picture after picture of different stages of the baby’s development.  I was reminded of biology, and some of what I had learned about the inherent intelligence of a single cell, especially how cells from our bodies can be taken out, and still function and live without us.  We are made up of trillions of these cells, I noticed that many different things begin to develop at the same time, such as the beginning stages of the brain, spine and heart, and it doesn’t take long after that for the other organs and limbs to begin to appear.

Further and further back I delved to see what prenatally there was to indicate some sign of a soul, until finally, I again arrived at the sperm bullying the egg.  It felt like a dead end.  How can the soul be involved in insemination?  The act itself could be completely random, and logic really weighed in against it.  To break it down a little further, we have 1 egg, and how many tiny little swimmers all fighting to join the world of the living?  Even on a 1 to 1 basis, that still equals 2 lives, that make 1 again?… to grow back into 2 again, and then a trillion or so more… to end up with 1 soul?  My head hurts.

Too many questions arise at this point.  Do single celled organisms have souls?  Then what happens to the thousands of sperm that didn’t make it into the egg?  Do they go to sperm heaven?!  Do they reincarnate into someone’s….. ok, moving along.  If they do have souls, then what does that make us?  A collective soul?  Made up of trillions of cellular souls, even though on a daily basis, thousands of our cells die and are replaced each day.

On the other hand, if they don’t have souls, and they are alive, or at least can function much the same way we do, then wouldn’t it be possible that we can be alive, and not have a soul?  We are after all made up of cells, it wouldn’t be that far of a leap.  Does life really need a soul?  Or maybe all that is alive, is a manifestation of soul, or maybe spirit?  It doesn’t have one, because it is one.  But does that concept leave room for an afterlife I wonder.

All this pondering, looking for the tiniest of loopholes, and I realized something.  Science is pretty air-tight.  From conception to birth, through life and death, the cycle is pretty complete.  There are still a lot of different angles that can be looked at, and maybe I will for another post.  But for now I will rest.

I still believe there is more out there.  A lot more infact.  Science is notorious for omitting things that they don’t like or can’t explain.  Perhaps left in the vastness of spaces still unexplored, there lies irrefutable proof that this life that we first open our eyes to, and shut them when we go, did infact have meaning.

So in the end here, I can’t say that I believe in the soul still, but I’m not completely convinced that it doesn’t exist either.  I hold hope with some unturned stones.  I took a pretty hard look at many different fields of science in hopes of finding some clues, and I couldn’t help but notice this very strong sense of order to it all.  Nature seems pretty smart to incorporate all that we know and more so beautifully.  So, if the soul exists, and science is willing, I think they will find that the soul was right up their alley all along.

Till next time!

OBE, NDE and Life After Death?

Is it possible to have Experiences outside of your Body?

An Out of Body Experience is the distinct sensation of the conscious part of one’s self separating and leaving the physical body and perceiving the world from the outside.

An Out of Body Experience (OBE) is a fairly common experience that occurs, most notably with Near-Death Experiences (NDE), in-fact in many ways, it is a defining feature of it.  About 1 in 10 people believe they have had an OBE in some form during their life, and many believe it won’t be their last.  Throughout history, and spanning multiple cultures, these phenomena have occurred and been reported.  One of the earliest stories related to NDEs can be traced back to ‘The Myth of Er’ by Plato, which dates back to 380 B.C.

Though many NDEs include and are closely related to OBEs, there are some differences that should be pointed out.  OBEs can occur at anytime, not only from stress or trauma, but also deep relaxation can trigger it as well.  Often times the experiences you have while Out of Body stay within the immediate area, with you experiencing the world with your five senses (sometimes to a heightened degree) around your body or somewhere not far.

NDEs are like OBEs, except they are a bit more broad, and dramatic.  NDE often are caused by close-calls with something that could have caused death.  Leading the person to have something similar to an OBE, but with the added sense of being dead, or on the verge of death.  During this time, the experience often take place far away from the body, and in place of religious connotation, such as seeing a bright light or tunnel, a sense of peace and love, encountering spiritual beings, and being given special information about your life, etc,.

These experiences obviously suggest life after death, with consciousness or the soul surviving beyond the body and having experiences apart from the physical five senses.  In many cases as stated above, the five senses used to perceive the world from the outside, were actually stronger and keener then of their physical counterparts.  Many accounts of both OBEs and NDEs share similar experiences, varying only slightly across culture and beliefs.  This of course caught the attention of mainstream science, and soon after, the race was on for an explanation.

One of the most intriguing details that drew science to investigate these experiences was some reported cases had people return to their bodies with detail about what went on when they where unconscious and out of body.  Knowledge about things they shouldn’t have been able to know, such as discussions that went on around them while the person was in this state, or even things said or done, or even details about a distant location, down the street and sometimes much further.  This should not be possible according to our currently accepted views of consciousness and the brain.  The current consensus is that consciousness arises from the infinite complexity of the brain, and stays there unable to move out of or away from it’s source.

Because these phenomena hang so heavily on the Paranormal and even on the fringe side of science, it was difficult to investigate this without dragging into the mix certain other closely associated concepts such as ‘Astral Projection’, ‘Spirit Walking’ and ‘Etheric Travel’, as they each describe roughly a similar phenomena and are closely related to religious belief systems.  They needed a neutral term to describe this experience and in 1943 the term Out of Body Experience, or ‘OBE’ for short, was created.

Another hurdle they had to jump was addressing similarities it had with a few other particular phenomena which are related to Extrasensory Perception, or ‘ESP’, such as Clairvoyance, Bi-location and Apparitions.  ‘Clairvoyance’ is a psychic phenomena where one can see distant places within the mind with startling accuracy.  ‘Bi-location’ is the incidence or ability to be in two seemingly separate locations at the same time.  ‘Apparitions’ are things or even Ghostly beings that appear out of thin air.  Though not strictly limited to those I have listed here.

After examining the connections it has with already existing phenomena, the task then was to determine if in-fact Conscious in some form could leave the body, or, what physiological or neurological function is to blame for such an experience, or is there one to blame at all?

Because OBEs in some form a prominent part of NDEs, I have decide to focus on them a bit more.

Here are some of the theories put forth by science to explain OBEs and NDEs.

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In 1968, the first serious study on OBEs was conducted by Celia Green.  Her aim was to arrange and classify the many types of OBEs people experience as mostly perceptual illusions; although she kept an open mind that some cases may be genuine.

Psychologist and well renowned skeptic Susan Blackmore put forth the theory that Out of Body experiences can be explained.  Leaving room for the possibility that OBEs could be real, Susan likely suspects that the cause of an OBE is when the person loses sensory input from the body while remaining Conscious.  This would put the person in a vivid, Lucid Dream-like state in which the Out of Body Experience would be manufactured by the mind.

Olaf Blanke, director at the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience in Switzerland, demonstrated that the perception of self within the body is dependent on multiple senses collaborating with one another in the temporal-pariental junction in the brain.  If one or more of these sense falter or are fed false information, then an OBE-like experience could emerge.  Blanke also demonstrated this by electrical stimulation.

Michael Persinger, a Cognitive Neuroscientist, also demonstrated that OBE/NDE-like states could be induced, not just with electrical stimulus, but with magnetic fields.  He did so using the ‘God Helmet’; a device created by Stanley Koren to study the effects of ‘complex magnetic fields’ on the temporal lobes of the brain.  This helmet is able to induce all kinds of spiritual experiences, and because of it, many skeptics point to this device as a example of how many of these experience can occur scientifically.  On the other hand though, Persinger has also published papers supporting evidence for a slightly different area of paranormal phenomena, and his work with famous remote viewer, Ingo Swann, and his accuracy with his skill.

If you like, you can watch a video on YouTube about Michael Persinger’s experiments on OBEs, featuring the God Helmet, Here.

Henrik Ehrsson, a Neurologist, demonstrated with a experiment in 2007 how our senses are to blame for our experience of self within our body is not only derived from out senses, but more specifically, our eyes.  The participants sit in a chair wearing a two little video screens over their eyes, one for each eye.  Roughly two feet behind them sit next to each other two video cameras that record the back of the participant.  The camera on the left sends its video to the left eye-piece, and the right camera does the same for the right eye piece, creating a 3D image of the participant from behind.  Someone would then enter within view of the cameras and use rods to touch them on either the chest or back.  Many of the participants noted the feeling of being out of body.

The Pineal Gland located near the center of the brain was also looked at as a possible explanation for both NDEs and OBEs in the 1990s by a Dr. Rick Strassman.  A naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in the Pineal Gland known as Dimethyltryptamine (DMT).  DMT can cause vivid hallucinations and severely alter the mood and emotions of the person that it is effecting.  Whether or not DMT is an adequate explanation for NDEs is still up for debate.

Dutch Cardiologist and Scientist, Pim van Lommel was one of the first to do a clinical study of NDE, on those who were resuscitated after cardiac arrest.  Almost 20% of the patients in the study had in fact had a NDE.  Van Lommel concluded that consciousness could exist outside of the body, and the brain merely acted as a receiver for consciousness.  His conclusion came about when patients rendered details of what happened during their cardiac arrest, even though some patients at the time were clinically dead and had flatline brain activity.

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Those listed above are the most noted theories on the source and function of the Out of Body Experience Phenomena.  All of the theories listed revolve around the senses, or manipulation of the parts of the brain that are connected to our perception and senses.  Between them they describe areas of the brain that act as highways for the signals our senses pick up, which then collect together and render a mapping of the world around us, and our location in that world.

The last one listed was less about explaining the phenomena, and more about Dr. Van Lommel’s patients and their inexplicable means upon resuscitation of cardiac arrest to remember details about what was going on around them, or elsewhere in the world (Often near-by somewhere) with spectacular detail.  Enough detail that it wasn’t written off as chance or memory.  At least a few of his patients where clinically dead, and had zero brain activity during the time of their NDE.  This would suggest that this experience did Not take place within the mind of the patient, as they would have registered brain activity as their mind created this imaginary world that many of the explanations suggest.

Here is a interview with Dr. Van Lommel about Near-Death Experiences if you would like to watch.

Consciousness Beyond Life





They mention someone seeing during a NDE who was blind since birth, then able to see for a short time during the experience.  I found a short video highlight this woman that I figured I would share.  There is another 5 part documentary featuring her as well as Dr. Van Lommel, where they go a little more about her experience, but I didn’t want to bog down this post with a lot of videos.

NDE - Blind woman sees while OBE



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It’s always inspiring to see a scientist acknowledge that there is something more to us, and something beyond the scope of our conventional science and understanding.  I personally have never had a NDE, but I may have had a OBE.  I floated up above my house, and looked down on my neighborhood, and it was all shimmering, almost like it reflected light a little like a metal surface, and almost like it actually emitted light.  It was interesting.

But between recalling details about people, places or things while Out of Body.  Or, being able to see for the first time during a Near-Death Experience.  And in some cases, being able to do these things while no brain activity registered.  It all shouldn’t be possible… but it is.

Perhaps there is a life waiting for us, after death.

Until Next Time I leave you with another lolcats!

Strange Rains

Mysterious things that fall from the Sky

Recently I began reading ‘The Book of the Damned’ by Charles Fort.  So far I have found it to be a very interesting read.  I had previously heard of weird things falling from the sky before, but after only a few chapters in, I found myself blown away.  The shear number of weird and strange things that rain from the sky over these many years was mind boggling.  Rocks, Fish, Frogs, Crabs, Lizards, Corn Husks, Snakes, Alligators, Mana, Candy, Flesh and Blood, to name a few.  This obviously sparked my interest to look into this a little more.

                                                                              Star Jelly

The following is a timeline I put together of some of these Mysterious Rains.  This timeline is by no means complete.  I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

1833 November 13th, Rahway, New Jersey - Had a very mysterious rain occur on the morning of November 13th 1833 that the citizens described as “Raining Fire”.  Upon investigating this strange phenomena, they came across a translucent yellow, jelly-like substance.  Weirder still is later when they went to retrieve some of this jelly, it had seemingly dried into a clump of particles resembling sand.  When touched, it is said to have disintegrated and disappeared.

1851 February 15th, Simpson County North Carolina - Citizens of Simpson County had one of the most disturbing rains of them all.  They had flesh and blood rain on them.  It was only over a small area, but it was also far from the last of it’s kind.

1851 July 24th, San Francisco - In the same year, blood and flesh again fell, this time on Benicia Army Base.  It was believed to be beef, and after some testing was shown evidence of it being tainted by a disease of some kind.

1857 January 17th, Ottawa Illinois - Speaking of Fiery Rains, Cinders or even ash fell upon a farm in Ottawa Illinois.  Though it only landed in a small area, the larger cinders burnt themselves into the ground.

1857 September 11th, Lake County California - The kids in Lake County California had a nice treat befall them as candy rained from the sky on two separate nights.  It is rumored that some of the sweets that fell from the sky where turned into syrup among other treats, and seemed fine to consume.  Whatever is causing these strange phenomena seems to not only have a sense of humor, but a sweet tooth.

1869 August 1st, Los Nietos California - Another rain of blood and flesh showered several acres of a farm in Los Nietos.  The rain only lasted a few minutes and then stopped.  The event was blamed on Buzzards whom might of regurgitated mid-flight.

1870 August, Sacramento California - Thousands of Lizards only a few inches in length rained over a small area in Sacramento California.  They where alive when the hit the ground and houses, and many survived the impact, living for several days after in the water drains.

1876 March 3rd, Bath Kentucky - Flakes of meat fell on Bath Kentucky.  The meat was believed to beef, as it couldn’t be properly identified as any other meat.  These flakes of meat averaged about 3 inches long and wide.  It fell over an area about 45,000 square feet

1877, South California - Several Alligators rained from the sky over a small area in South California.  They, like the lizards, where still alive upon impact and continued to move around.

1877, Memphis Tennessee -  Thousands of snakes about 15 inches in length fell on the southern part of Tennessee.  They again where still alive when they hit the ground.   It was theorized that a hurricane is what lifted and dropped off these snakes, but a lingering and unanswered question remained that put a stupor in the theory, which was how could so many of the same species of snake, collect together, then be lifted and dropped off by a hurricane in a particular location, without other debris tagging along.

1881, Worcester England - A strange storm poured tons of crabs, identified as the Periwinkle Crab upon Worcester in England.  Not much else seems known about this.

1881 October, Milwaukee Wisconsin - An interesting change of pace of strange things that fall happened in Milwaukee.  Long ribbons of what appeared to be spider webs fell in blankets.  Some where as long as 60 feet in length.  There was no mention of seeing spider before, during or after the event.

1886 September 4th, Charleston South Carolina - Stones rained from seemingly no where in the sky on a building in Charleston.  The stones where reportedly warm to the touch, and came down with a lot of force.  This stone rain repeated itself two additional times that day.

1896 November, Baton Rouge Louisiana - Baton Rouge experienced something that we recently have experienced.  A flurry of dead birds fell from a clear blue sky, cluttering the streets.  There where no discernable reason as to the bird’s deaths, but it was believed a storm drove them inland, in which they where struck by a sudden temperature change that caused the death shortly before plummeting.

1947 October 23rd, Marksville Louisiana - The same year as the famous crash of Roswell, New Mexico, Louisiana had it’s own little crash, of fish.  The conditions in the sky where fair, but not perfect.  Though there were no storms in the sky, there may have been fog at the time.  Fish then suddenly began falling from the sky over 300 meters long and 30 meters wide.  The falling fish also struck many pedestrians on the street.

1950 September 26th, Philadelphia - Two Philadelphia police officers on the night of the 26th spotted what appeared to be a luminous object falling from the sky into an open field in the distance.  Upon investigation, their flashlights illuminated what appeared to be a six foot mass of pulsating, purplish jelly.  Soon two other officers joined them and they tried to move the mass of jelly.  When they tried to lift it, it broke apart in their hands.  A half and hour later, the jelly mass had evaporated and was gone.

1953 September 7th, Leicester Massachusetts - A hailstorm of Frogs and Toads rained from the sky in Leicester.  This swarm of Frogs cluttered the streets and congested the storm drains.

1961 July 12th, Shreveport Louisiana - Green Peaches began raining from a single dark cloud looming in the sky above Shreveport.  The peaches where about the size of golf balls, rained down on some workers on a roof July 12th.  This strange event only lasted a few moments before passing.

1981 May, Nafplion Greece - One morning in May, Nafplion, a city in Southern Greece, awoke to a tiny, yet very large rain.  Little tiny frogs, weighing only a few ounces and native to North Africa, began raining from the sky.  These small frogs seemed unharmed by their fall, and continued hopping around after landing in the streets and some trees.

1994 August 7th, Oakville Washington - The little town of Oakville had a peculiar rain one evening when little drops of jelly-like substance rained from the sky.  After the rain, the townspeople began to fall ill, which lasted for several weeks.  This strange rain occurred at least five more times there, and after some testing on the goo, they found the jelly to be a living substance.

2001 August, Wichita Kansas - Residents of Wichita witnessed Corn Husks falling from the sky.  These sheathes fell in the thousands over east Wichita, and measured about 25 inches long.

2007 April 6th, Argentina - A man from Argentina and his friends decided to take a hike up a mountain for their Easter vacation.  At about 3:00 in the afternoon, the strangest, and probably creepiest thing occurred, it started raining spiders.  The sky had some clouds, but nothing beyond that, other then the spiders.  Several even landed on them as they preceded to hike up the mountain.  This event is widely recognized as one of the hikers managed to take several photos of this freaky rain.

2009, Scotland - Jelly again rained from the sky, this time in Scotland.  The small globs of jelly, dubbed ‘Star Jelly’, where investigated by scientists commissioned by National Geographic.  They have yet to find any DNA in this Jelly, and no adequate explanation as to the Star Jelly’s origins have been accepted yet.  It remains a mystery.

2010 December 31st, Beebe Arkansas - One of the most recent events to occur made it into the media across the country.  Blackbirds, presumably dead, began falling from the sky late New Year’s Eve, 2010.  Thousands of birds fell on houses, in roads and fields of the area.  The cause of this is unknown, but many theories are out there ranging from Fireworks that startled the birds into plummeting to their deaths, to a sudden change in temperature where they were flying which might have caused them to go into shock, and fall to their deaths.  The theories don’t end there, but the mystery remains in the air.

2012 January 26th, Bournemouth United Kingdom - Blue jelly-like spheres fell from the sky, along with a hailstorm on a man's yard. These spheres, about 3 cm in diameter, where near impossible to pick up by hand because of it's sleek coating, and had to be scooped up instead. They were found to be incredibly fragile, yet did not dissolve in water. It was also noted that they did not have a smell to them.

These are far from the only accounts of strange rains that have peaked our curiosity or plagued our imagination.  The more I looked into these rains,  the more I ran into additional events, too many to list here sadly.  But it seems throughout our history, strange, weird or even supernatural things continue to fall right out of the sky at us.

Some of the most popular theories as to how and why these mix of things pour down on us, range from Tornados to Hurricanes, or Volcanoes blowing something away or that they never rained in the first place, they either where there all along and we didn’t notice them, or in the case of animals, they came in on there own, and we assumed they fell from the sky.

The only real issue I have with these theories is in many cases, there is almost always something very specific about what, or how it rains.  Some cases involving animals would rain only a specific species of animal, or family.  Others it was the pin-point accuracy of these rains that was the anomaly, or that in many cases, the animals where unharmed, or even the shear number of animals in the rain.  My favorite is the Jelly, because it is just strange, and it’s origins and substance can’t be identified.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did researching it.

I now leave you with another lolcats!

Till Next Time!


Sources:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/falls_sky.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/433325/mysterious_rains_the_strange_things.html?cat=34
http://www.weirdworm.com/8-strange-things-that-fell-from-the-sky/

‘The Book of the Damned’ by Charles Fort:

http://www.resologist.net/damnei.htm

Is Exorcism Real?

Demonic and Spirit Possession

We’ve all seen the movies:  The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Last Exorcism, among many others, like BeetleJuice.  It’s a pretty big topic in Hollywood, and people flock to theaters to see these movies.  A new one coming out is The Rite, and a new show coming out I hear is The Exorcist Files, which will be a show that recreates actual Exorcism cases, with the help of the Vatican itself, or so the rumor goes anyways.

The topic of Exorcism here was surprisingly difficult to research.  There wasn’t a lot of information out there to really take from, at least from sources I felt where credible.  I did manage to get some information on it for the most part, but a lot of it is spread out, bits and pieces here and there.  Not surprisingly, when I started looking it up, what I mostly got was listings and information on the movies above.  Beetlejuice surprised me the most as an exorcist movie, I had to stop and remember for a moment, and I was like “Oh yeah, I guess it is…”.

Most of us are subjected to Exorcism through movies, but history is full of Demonic and Spirit Possessions dating back to as far as 1000 B.C.  From Ancient Persia, to Ancient Mesopotamia, to the Ancient Babylonian.  Almost every culture, at one point in time or another, recognizes this phenomena, including, Buddhism, Muslim and Christianity, and each developed their own form of Exorcism to remove unwanted entities from a person.  Each tailoring the ritual or rite to their specific beliefs and culture.

Though Demons are most often credited for possessing someone, Spirits have also been known to do so as well.  Some cultures, such as Shamans, both African and Native American, Balinese Animists and Haitian Voodou Practitioners, voluntarily invoke Spirits for possession,  in order to access knowledge, or information about the future.  Though they do this willingly, they do not do it foolishly, as they understand the risks involved.  Some spirits once in, don’t wish to leave, and others, don‘t need an invitation at all.  This has been found true in many cultures, even the ones that don’t voluntarily invoke spirits, and this is the basis and reason for Exorcism in it’s many forms.

A couple of the more famous cases had movies based on them:

Robbie Mannheim - Is the famous boy who was possessed (or allegedly, as some believe it may have been faked) back in 1949.  A book was published in 1971 titled “The Exorcist”, which would then go on to be a movie with the same title in 1973.

Anneliese Michel - Is the famous girl who was possessed and underwent exorcism starting in 1975, it ended in 1976, when Michel died.  Two movies where roughly based on this event.  The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and Requiem.

These are only two of the more famous cases, mostly because movies where made after them, and now have a fan base.  But there are many more cases of exorcisms.  I was unable to find even a rough number of how many exorcisms are performed each years.  But, from what I’ve found, the number of both exorcisms and exorcists are on the rise, and have been since 1999.

On September 11th, 2000, Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism on an Italian girl who began screaming in St. Peter’s Square.  He apparently was unable to fully cure the girl.  However, this was not his first, nor his last.  In 1982 his first exorcism was performed on a woman who was stricken with pain from the exorcism, and his last was in 2001, on a 20 year old girl.

But Pope John Paul II, nor any other Pope, is the most famous exorcist known, in fact it’s Jesus Christ (was it really that surprising?), the bible has more then 20 references of him casting out spirits or demons from people.

Speaking of the bible, according to it, there are 3 types of Possession.

Oppression - Demonic influence (I’m assuming) puts pressure on someone, preventing them from doing things by creating hindrances and blocks.

Obsession - Creating trouble in the mind.  The person becomes infatuated with an idea, desire or emotion, so much so that the mind can not be taken away from it.

Possession - The Demon (Or Spirit) takes total control of the person.

According to the types of possession above, I have 2 out of the 3, and that scares me a little…

Some of the Symptoms said to be attributed to Possession are:

Convulsions; Seizures; Changes in personality; Lewd or Obscene behavior; Swollen Stomach; Rapid Weight Loss; Strange changes in the Voice; Horrible Smells emanating from the person; Sexual Thoughts; Speaking in a different Language; Having Knowledge of the Future; Superhuman Strength; Levitation.

So if you’re an under-weight, multi-lingual, psychic male, with epilepsy and gas problems, you may be in some serious trouble.  Oh and you may be possessed….

Looking at it from the medical perspective, Sexual thoughts would indicate most men are possessed.  Swollen Stomach might be due to Malnutrition.  Lewd or Obscene behavior could be caused by many Mental disorders.  Personality changes could by caused by Hysteria or Schizophrenia.  Seizures and Convulsions as stated might be Epilepsy.  Speaking in a different Language could be Glossolalia.  Knowledge of the Future could be Clairvoyance, and I would hold on to that one…. And go to a Casino.

A couple of my favorite theories though are.  Multiple Personality Disorder; Altered States of Consciousness; and Personality Thought Forms derived from the Subconscious mind to express itself much in the same way of Poltergeist Activity.  But these are only theories.

It would seem that Medical Science has all but completely mopped up the theory of Possession.  But, in light of the medical discoveries that share many of the symptoms of a demonic possession, the Catholic Church has taken the precaution of medically examining potential patients in order to determine if the person is actually possessed, or if it’s just an untreated medical condition.  But, even with the screening in place, the Church still performs exorcisms.  That says that some are believed to be actually possessed.

So, if it is just some Medical Conditions, how come both Exorcist and Exorcisms are on the rise?  I do believe in many things dealing with the supernatural or paranormal.  I may have taken the stance of a Skeptic here, but after reading what I read in order to research it, some good questions have been raised, on both sides of the topic.  If nothing else, I’m open to the possibility.

Believers of the Phenomena however are not convinced by the explanations provided by the medical community.  Claiming that many of the explanations don’t actually fit, or the odds of having all of these conditions in a single person is too large.  Some even say you have to be there, or experience it to believe it (Which I don’t think was a suggestion).

I guess I’ll let anyone who reads this decide.

Oh and here’s a video I found on it.  Oddly enough there weren’t a lot of videos on Exorcism, at least not many that didn’t cost money.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!



Ok, that’s all I got for now.  But here’s some lolcats again!

Hope you enjoyed!

Till next time!

The Ghost Post

Ghosts

Everyone’s heard of Ghosts.  Many even believe they have had a Ghostly encounter of some kind in their life.  A temperature change, a sudden feeling of unease, a light touch or breathing on the back of your neck.  A sense of another presence in the room, just staring at you, as if it had intentions for you, intentions you aren’t quite sure of, but something you're sure, you wouldn’t like.  Shadows moving in your peripheral vision.  Strange noises like foot steps or voices coming from places when you know no one is there.

In the darkness, from the shadows, they watch you, planning new ways, to hide your favorite bunny slippers.  Devious and mischievous beings, their only purpose seems to be, to annoy the living crap out of you…  Or scare the living crap out of you, which ever one comes first...

Bad/Failed jokes aside, the Phenomena attributed to Ghosts is a very real phenomena.  Though science, and it’s predictability can’t rest until it has abolished such things from the world, it has come up with several possibilities to challenge Ghosts and the activity closely associated with them.

I personally believe in Ghosts, but I also believe that some phenomena aren’t Ghost related.  I find myself at a crossroads when it comes to Ghosts.  I have had things happen to me that I can’t explain, but maybe the videos listed below can.  First I will share a few of my tales.

Some basics things, I stay up fairly late at night, sometimes (Most the time) I play my video game.  It’s the only time of day I get a chance to.  There is usually only one light on, and it’s just behind and above me.  At night, I will begin to see shadows on the wall, almost always in the same spot to my right.  Or things moving always to my right, and as I look over to see what it causing the shadow or movement, it stops or goes away.  When this started happening, I didn’t attribute it to Ghosts, and I still don’t.  To me, it is the unfocusing of my eyes, specifically my peripheral vision that turns a light shadow, into a darker one, which makes it look like weird shadows on the wall.

Doesn’t sound spooky, does it?  Because it’s not.  Infact I’m pretty certain it’s not a Ghost, and if it is, it’s lame, and needs a better bag of tricks.  This is sort of my control of sorts.  Now, back up in time a little and we come to my old home, bout 5-6 years ago.  At that time, I was sleeping in the basement (I don’t want to hear any jokes) because no one else wanted to.  The basement was unfinished at the time, and we had a washing machine and dryer, a hot water tank, the furnace, and an old, kind of creepy desk that the original owners left behind, and no one seemed to toss out.

To cut to the chase, things happened down there.  Every person in my family, including all my friends, had experiences in that house.  Most of which was localized down stairs and at night, when I was trying to sleep, hence the annoying or scaring the crap out of you comment above.  The lightest of activity would just be weird or incoherent noises that I usually attributed to the furnace or hot water tank, or something else down there.  The less frequent, but a little more creepy experience was when I started to hear little girls giggling down there, just on the other side of my wall.  It wasn’t always distinct, and I kept wondering if it was just in my head, so I let it go.

It began to get more intense.  It came to a point where it would take most of the night just to fall asleep, as this figure, which I could see in my mind very clearly, came into my room, fists clenched, breathing heavily and just staring at me from the corner of my bed.  I could draw this guy perfectly the image was so clear.  His presence was clearly felt, and his intentions felt far less then peaceful, like he wanted to do physical harm to me or something.  He scared the crap out of me.  I actually had to sleep with a nightlight for a while because of how frequently I checked to see if something was there.  It was a very disturbing feeling.

Some nights (Very few) nothing would happen, and I could fall asleep with no problems, but he was most of the time there.  This persisted for the better part of a year before I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to move upstairs to the couch.  Eventually I managed to trick my sister into trading rooms with me, hers which was upstairs from mine which was downstairs.  My conscious got the better of me and I ended up telling her its creepy down there, to which she replied, “I don’t care”.  Anyways we switched rooms, and since then I didn’t have another experience.  Except one time upstairs.  Same guy, just for one night, sitting at the end of my bed, huffing and puffing for the little piggy with the new upstairs room.

After that though, it was over, and my sister started talking about her experiences.  Besides the basic creepiness, some of my friends had some alarming experiences.  One of my friends would frequently come over to play video games with me, since he didn’t own the game.  One night he stayed over and up late playing.  He said that when he was playing, he saw a shadow form to his left, right in front of the front door, when he looked over he could see this transparent old man, kind of tall and skinny.  The reason why this story is so interesting, is because on occasion, my family and I all saw this old man (He seemed nice and didn’t cause any trouble, except for when loud music was playing, but I’ll get to that).

We began to get curious and looked into the house’s previous owners a little and found the man who first owned (Or maybe built, can’t remember) the house, fit the description of my friend.  He said he only saw it for a moment before it faded away.  Another experience one of friends had (Different friend) was when my bedroom was downstairs, and me and my friend where down there talking, and I had to go to the bathroom.  The bathrooms upstairs, so I headed up.  I went and did my duty, and as I came down, I noticed the light was off.  I figured he was going to try and scare me, but as soon as I hit the bottom of the stairs, I heard him get up and quickly switch on the light.  When I looked at him, he had a bewildered face, so I asked “What’s wrong?”.

He proceeded to tell me that when I was in the bathroom, the light switch flipped off.  He said he thought it was me trying to play a joke on him until he saw me coming down the stairs, at which point he got up and quickly turned on the light.  When I asked him about the light switch, he said he thought it was me because he distinctly heard the light switch flip off.  I was actually kind of jealous, it was my room after all, why couldn’t that have happened to me!

The last one belongs to my sister.  After I tricked her into moving downstairs, she, after her own experiences, moved back upstairs and into the living room.  She would frequently listen to music far to loud (And still does, thankfully she doesn’t live with me anymore).  One day she began to complain about us touching her stereo, as every time she would turn it on, the volume would be to low to hear anything.  We told her it wasn’t us, (And it wasn’t), but she didn’t believe us until one day she came flying out of her room screaming and babbling about her volume.

Once we calmed her down, she proceeded to explain that while she was listening, the volume turned down all by itself.  I didn’t really think much of it, I mean, if the power goes out inexplicably, I don’t chalk it up to Ghosts.  I figured it was just some weird occurrence, and we reassured her it was nothing to worry about.  A few more days passed and she came running back all a sudden, panicked, like she saw a spider… or a ghost, and said, she actually witnessed the dial on her stereo turn down.  She said it moved all by itself.  I sort of chuckled and thought it was my fault.  After a while we began to tease her saying it was the Ghost in the house turning her music down because he didn’t like it.

We never could really tell if it turned down by itself or if she did, as we generally weren’t around to verify it.  Except one time when I was in the kitchen, which was right next to the living room she was staying in.  I started to hear the volume change so I turned around thinking “Finally, she turned it down”, (It was loud and annoying).  But, she wasn’t touching it.  I literally listened to the volume turn down as she just sat there looking at me.  I was a little shocked at what just happened.  All she said was “See!”, and I replied “Well, I guess you were right”.  It wasn’t creepy or anything, it was actually more cool then scary.

Ghosts don’t generally scare me.  To me their often not trying to be scary though, except that one douche-bag Ghost, if it was a Ghost.  Hell, we get our family and friends together on Halloween night and sneak into graveyards just for things like that to happen.  Nothing ever happens in a graveyard though, and I always think to myself, ‘Oh yeah sure!  On the one night of the year when it matters, you all get tired and don’t do anything… Lazy-ass Ghosts’.

Moving along, finally.  Yes folks, it’s going to be a long post.  Grab your favorite bunny slippers and settle in, if Ghosts haven’t hidden them from you, we still have videos to watch!

Many of the experiences in my stories above could likely be explained scientifically.  It may be true that other natural phenomena can cause many of the same experiences that occurred.  But just because there are natural forces in the world that can do the same thing, doesn’t mean all the phenomena related to Ghosts are therefore not real.  We as people replicate a lot of natural forces in the world, so, why couldn’t Ghosts?

Try to keep that in mind when watching these videos.











I kind of thought the story about the faces at the end was a very heartwarming.

The videos above are from a scientific viewpoint, in an attempt to explain away Ghosts.  I personally believe it is important to know what other things could cause Ghostly Phenomena so I don’t misdiagnose an event.  Based on some of their theories, many circumstances in my stories lost somewhere far above could be explained by one or more of their explanations.  Magnetic Fields, Infrasound  or Darkness and Imagination.  We did have electronics in the house, often going, and all appliances give off an electromagnetic field, so maybe that’s the cause?  We did have a ceiling fan in the house, maybe Infrasound?  It was often dark downstairs and I was known for having a wild imagination, possibly one or more of these?

Maybe… But then again, the electromagnetic fields that come off of appliances are very small, and usually don’t have enough impact on a person to influence them one way or another.  Infrasound may be coming from the fan, but we usually had it off since it wasn’t bolted well to the ceiling and would shake and wobble pretty violently, so when we had it on, it was on low.  Darkness and imagination on the other hand, may explain the huffin and puffin, wanna-be, big bad wolf guy.  But nevertheless, the experience did feel very real, so I guess it may never be known for sure.

But there are things that these explanations can’t explain…

 

Magnetic Field?  Infrasound?  Darkness and Imagination?  These explanations don’t explain objects moving, at least to this degree.

Poltergeist means “Noisy or Restless Spirit”.  Often moving things around or causing disturbances to express it’s presence.  Some can get fairly violent though.  Besides the common, dishes flying around, or things being knocked over, strange noises and electronic malfunctions, there are other things they can do.  Scratches are one of them, or being pulled or jerked in different directions, or other bodily harm.

To me the evidence stacks in favor of Ghosts being real.  When you take everything as listed here, and probably more elsewhere, you get much of these phenomena in a Ghost, whereas you need several separate explanations to explain each occurrence of the same phenomena with science, with some of the phenomena still unexplained.  So when you look at places where Ghost activity seems to be high, and many different seemingly supernatural events occur in the same place, then I got to ask myself, if it’s a bunch of different scientifically explainable circumstances, which all managed to be present and in effect at a given time? Or is it a single, possibly supernatural presence which is known to produce the same phenomena, but can’t quite be explained?

Ultimately the choice is yours.  This is just my opinion.

In the end, I will say I’m pretty sure, some, if not most of the phenomena attributed to Ghosts can be summed up to people scaring themselves.  I even scared myself a few times while writing this post, and I felt like a complete idiot.  But, there are some things that do happen in this world that I feel are no less then supernatural phenomena, and can’t be easily explained away.

I can probably list a lot more videos and add a few cases to this post, but I think this post is a bit long, and I may have repeated myself a few times where it wasn’t needed.

Rate and comment if you like, you're always welcome to.

Until next time, I leave you with another picture!

Wait… what’s that behind you?!

Bet you didn't see that coming...

SHC - Man vs Fire!

Spontaneous Human Combustion.

Everyone has heard of spontaneous human combustion or SHC for short.  "The Burning of a living body without an apparent source of Ignition".  Well, that's because they didn't find the Match!

Kids, don't light your farts...


There are over 200 recognized cases dealing with SHC.  We as people inherently try to explain everything.  If something can't be explained, we hide or deny it.  Some of the Possible explanations for SHC are...

Unverified natural phenomena

    * Since every human body contains varying strengths of electrical field and the human body also contains flammable gases (mainly methane in the intestines), an electrical discharge could ignite these gases.

    * SHC victims are sometimes described as lonely people who fall into a trance immediately before their incineration. Heymer suggests that a psychosomatic process in such emotionally-distressed people can trigger off a chain reaction by reacting nitrogen within the body and setting off a chain reaction of mitochondrial explosions. This theory has been criticized on the basis that Heymer "seems to be under the illusion that nitrogen exist as gases in the blood and are thus vulnerable to ignition, which is, in fact, not the case." (Mitochondria are organelles found within cells.) The theory also fails to take into account the fact that nitrogen is an inert, non-flammable gas.

    * Another theory suggests high-energy particles or gamma rays coupled with susceptibilities in the potential victim (e.g. increased alcohol in the blood) triggers the initial reaction. This process may use no external oxygen to spread throughout the body, since it may not be an oxidation-reduction reaction. However, no reaction mechanism has been proposed, nor has a source for the high-energy particles.

    * The victim is an alcoholic and has been smoking while drinking or shortly after drinking a strong spirit. There are claims that this raises the blood alcohol level to a point where it ignites; however, this theory is implausible, since ethanol typically burns only if the concentration is greater than about 23%, whereas a fatally toxic level is about 1%. However, this does introduce the probability that the victim will fall asleep while holding a lit cigarette.

    * A suggested possibility is that both clothing and the person are caused to burn by a discharge of static electricity. A person walking across a carpet can build up sufficient charge and voltage to create a spark. It is unlikely that this could start a clothing fire, as although the voltage can be high (several thousand volts), the stored energy is very low (typically less than a joule).

    * The controversial phenomenon of ball lightning has also been proposed as one of the causes of spontaneous combustion.

Natural explanations

    * Cigarettes are often implicated as the source of ignition. Usually, the victim is alone at the time of death, and it is thought that natural causes such as heart attacks may lead to the victim dying, subsequently dropping the cigarette. Embers from cigarettes and pipes may also ignite clothes. Additionally, cigarettes smoulder at a temperature too low to trigger a flare up of most otherwise combustible materials. Typically if a person drops a lit cigarette on an article of clothing, it will create a burn-hole, but not ignite into an open flame and spread.

    * The "wick effect" hypothesis suggests that a small external flame source, such as a burning cigarette, chars the clothing of the victim at a location, splitting the skin and releasing subcutaneous fat, which is in turn absorbed into the burned clothing, acting as a wick. This combustion can continue for as long as the fuel is available. This hypothesis has been successfully tested with animal tissue (pig) and is consistent with evidence recovered from cases of human combustion.

    * Scalding can cause burn-like injuries, including death, without setting fire to clothing. Although not applicable in cases where the body is charred and burnt, this has been suggested as a cause in at least one claimed SHC-like event.

Source - Wikipedia

As you can see, so many people have stepped up with so many explanations to try and take it from "Supernatural" to "Nothing but Science, People!".  Why do we feel so compelled to strike the Magical and Unknown from the world?  For me it makes the world far more fun when it's Mysterious.

The explanations above sound logical.  Some sound fitting.  But there are some things involved with at least some of the cases of SHC that don't exactly line up with the theories above...











As you can see from the videos, the theories listed above from Wikipedia, are nothing more then theories.  Certain details about SHC stand out from these theories as mentioned in the videos, such as:  The time frames of each Incineration, the degree of Incineration, the source and ignition seems at best guessed at.

In my opinion, there is more to the phenomena of Spontaneous Human Combustion, then can be explained away.  But that is just my opinion...

What do you think?

Anywho... until next time.

For now, I leave you with another lolcat's picture... their so funny, and cute!