Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Phenomena X –Things Strange And Sinister: UFOs
In 1947, businessman Kenneth Arnold observed a group of
crescent shaped object flying over Mount
Rainier, Washington
state. He described their movement as being
akin to a saucer skipped across water.
The press coined the term “flying saucer”
for many, this was the “birth of UFOs.”
However, on the 24th January, 1878, farmer John
Martin, living a few miles north of Dennison, Texas, described the object he saw
approaching his position and moving overhead as “the size of a large
saucer.” The brightness from the object
slightly blinded Martin – in the same way as looking at a powerful light or the
sun does. All it would have taken was
for some newspaperman to write Martin had seen a “flying saucer”!
There are those who claim that UFOs –a term coined by the
United States Air Force to define a sighting of an “unidentified object”- were
around long before that. The likes of
Erich von Daniken have made a great deal of money out of books, articles and TV
shows about “Ancient Astronauts.”
The good thing is that if you are so minded you can call
anything “proof of ancient visitations by extra-terrestrials” –you don’t really
need proof. Stone Henge built by aliens?
Of course it was –why look at all the archaeological discoveries of the last 15
years? Pyramids built by aliens –because
humans just could not lift the stones used –of course. It just needs our
ignoring the many, many years of archaeological discovery work. Around 3100 B.C., the Pharaoh Narmer crashed
his chariot into a landed flying saucer.
Prove he did not.
Who is going to argue with you? Historians and
archaeologists? Well, we all ‘know’ they are part of the cover-up, don’t we?
Ancient and Medieval and other accounts of “flaming
chariots”, “shields of bright flame” and so on are probably down to meteorites
since we know these were common names.
“Writhing serpents in the sky” were undoubtedly aurora. Accounts of aliens emerging from crashed UFOs
and actual UFO sightings in the 18th and 19th century
suddenly vanish when you go to the actual source quoted.
It was during World War II that Allied and Axis pilots
observed “Foo-fighters” (“foo” from the French for fire –“le Feu”),
“Kraut-balls” and, amongst other names the Luftwaffe gave them was “Feuerbälle“
(fire balls). All sorts of theories have
been given over the years from static electricity to actual alien craft. Although those in charge at British Technical
Intelligence dismissed these incidents, intelligence officers in the field
still recorded and reported sightings.
The Germans did like-wise. Each
side suspected a secret weapon from was involved.
Then there were the so called “Scandinavian Ghost Rockets“
of 1946-1948. In fact, reports came from
Europe, North Africa and even the Soviet Union. Royal Air Force Intelligence was greatly
interested in reports of cylindrical objects because of the V1 and V2 rockets
of WW II –the possibility of the Soviets having captive German scientists building
rockets for them was scary. Even Field
Marshal Smuts warned about the “rockets.”
There are interesting reports from the period but many were
not thoroughly investigated though official reports were, incredibly, destroyed
after a few years because these reports might be scientifically interesting but
had no real defence significance. This practice continued for many years with
some reports only surviving because they were hidden in other files by
personnel who thought they ought not be burnt.
In the early 1950s there was a rise in alleged Contactees.
These were women and men who claimed to have come across a flying saucer
that had landed, or one of its occupants.
There were trips into space on board flying saucers and one of the
biggest hoaxsters, who achieved international notoriety, George Adamski even
claimed to have photographs taken of him and aliens looking out through
portholes.
Venusians, Martians, Neptunians and others of the
“interplanetary brotherhood” were here to observe and guide Earth. Messages extolling peace abounded. The fact that these planets could not support
humanoid life often received the response that our space brothers lived in
cities under the ground or at a “different time-phase” to us. Dumb explanations
that proved profitable on the tour circuit or amongst New Age publishers.
While all this was going on groups of interested people set
up groups to look into and discuss the phenomena. In the UK the Flying Saucer Club was the
first such group which later merge with the British Flying Saucer Bureau in
1952. Manchester Flying Saucer Research
set up by, amongst others, David Cowdy followed.
And while the bogus contactees drew everyones attention and
made it far too easy for scientists to scoff much more was going on. Dr. J. Allen Hynek was the United States Air
Force scientific consultant and noted astronomer. While he played off every UFO as marsh gas,
ball lightning and misidentification, he was well aware that there were sightings
that could not be explained –in 1978 he gave several TV and press interviews
declaring that he could do little else: even if he could not explain away a
sighting, if it was labelled “unidentified” his USAF bosses expected him to do
so.
Hynek later went on to set up the Centre for UFO Studies in Illinois.
But are UFOs real?
Well, they are real in the sense that observers cannot explain what they
see. However, there are a number of
reports of objects of unknown type being sighted by unconnected multiple
witnesses and where there has been damage caused to trees, houses, people and
the ground. When combined with radar
returns from local airfields those UFOs are
real but just what they are we have no idea.
Civilian pilots see these objects but usually only report
them if they think that there is a danger to air traffic but there is no
regulation demanding they report UFOs.
In the case of military pilots there are a few regulations and if you
are flying the latest fighter and something runs rings round your aircraft and
shoots off at incredible speed well, yes, you need to report that.
Reports of abductions by aliens began to rise during the
1950s, though few realised they had been abducted until much later when they
realised that their sighting of a flying saucer landing and occupants getting out,
walking about and then returning before the craft took off did not last just
“two or three minutes”. On getting home
these people found that an hour or two had simply gone missing from their
memory.
What suddenly made investigators and others take these
accounts of what, in 1977, I termed Time Lapse cases, was the hypnotic
regression of Betty and Barney Hill who
encountered a UFO close-up in New
Hampshire in 1961.
The Hills were confronted with all sorts of problems both physically and
mental stress-wise. Under hyptnosis the
Hills revealed that they had been involuntarily taken aboard the craft they had
seen. There followed a medical type exam
–a common theme in these cases- aqnd a certain degree of communication with the
crew. From her memory, Betty Hill later
drew a “star map” she had seen on the craft –the actual star system in question
was not discovered until many years later.
All sorts of theories abound as to what UFOs are. Time-travellers, inter-dimensional
intelligences and, naturally, extraterrestrials. These theories are good if you are dealing
with alleged craft that obviously have to be constructed, however, no matter
how big the strange light seen it is still just that –a big light that cannot
be labelled a “craft”.
In the “old days” we used to test new investigators by
showing them photographs of alleged UFOs.
The good ones were those who could spot the fakes straight away:
“cut-out stuck on a window frame,” “a model” or even a light from inside the
room pointed at the window and then photographed. Today we have computers and photo-shop and
the number of fakes (some quite glaringly obvious) photographs and video
footage on You Tube is a nuisance if you seriously investigate these things. It also acts as a deterrent –investigators
not wanting to be caught up in hoaxes ignore these things and so genuine
footage of a UFO gets ignored.
But there are many out there who still persist in the
investigation to get to the truth. For many months those “in the know” stated
that 2011 was the UFO Disclosure year.
The year when the U.S.
government finally revealed all it knows about UFOS: it was the year to make
history. Now, in 2012, the time for this
disclosure has been given a little more time.
I seriously doubt that there will be any major governmental
disclosure on UFOs in 2012 and, even if there was, there would be many still
calling it part of a cover-up.
A4
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After more than 30 years as an
investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened
some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as..
The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints
Church,Dead Aquatic
Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all
exclusively presented for the first time and with new
added research previously unseen.
PLUS a vastly expanded section on
Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings
and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and
Sinister.
Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this
book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!
A4
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327pp
Price:
£10.00
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Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.
And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs
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From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid)
Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine
and ships crews encountering true leviathans.
Extinct animals at sea
that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other
Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases
that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.
All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird
Phenomena X –Things Strange And Sinister: “UK Big Cats”
I corresponded and spoke to the man on the telephone a good
few times but he still insisted that, on his way to Cheshire, having taken the
wrong turning onto a quiet dual carriageway, he had stopped his car to observe
a large cat start crossing the road, stopping and then continuing on its way
for a good minute. He got out of his car and quickly took measurements and made
notes so that everything was recorded on the spot.
Why should I believe him?
Well, for one thing this man was a professor of and senior lecturer in
zoology with many years of field work in the UK and overseas to his credit. He was also used by governmental departments
as an advisor on wildlife. Above all
else he was totally familiar with the cat species he had seen: a puma. He was dumbfounded since, a few months
earlier in Wales, he had almost run over another exotic cat –a Jungle or Marsh
cat; these have been killed on British roads and photographed.
For over thirty years, since 1977, I acted as an exotic
wildlife consultant to UK
police forces. I saw the plaster casts,
the photographs and even hair samples that proved non native cats were spread
from the Scottish Highlands to the Isle of Wight.
Most police wildlife officers who gather this evidence or speak to witnesses in
these cases do not doubt the existence of these cats either.
.jpg)
I once spoke to a former government minister in a radio
studio and during the on air conversation he poured scorn on the whole
subject. Off air we were talking and the
photograph of paw prints from a certain incident fell from a folder I was
carrying. He picked it up and looked at
it before handing back to me. “That’s
from the Derby
sheep killing site last month, isn’t it?”
I was stunned. It turns out that he had seen my report that went to
Derbyshire police. “I think you are
right that it was a puma” he said. Why had he been so negative on air, I
asked? “Oh, well, you can see the
headlines of ‘government minister admits UK big cats are real!’ and my job
would be gone.”
In fact, the continued claim by the government of whichever
day that UK
big cats do not exist is a public one.
Would people panic if they were told there were large, non native cats
in the countryside? There would be calls
for the government to do something about it –but what? These are elusive wild cats that have not, in
well over a hundred years –and more- of sightings have never seriously injured
or killed a human being –alleged attacks in the past have all been proven
hoaxes. Compensate farmers for live
stock killed by a large cat (if proven) but there is little else that can be
done.
It needs to be made clear that there is only one member of
the Big Cat family recorded in UK
incidents and that is the leopard –melanistic (black) and regular light
coloured. We have plaster casts of their
pawprints, their droppings and even DNA testing on hairs by laboratories that
identify them as “leopard species”.
The other cats most often reported in the UK are the puma –a native, normally, of North
and South America. This cat is a member of the Medium sized cat
family and its colouring ranges from sandy, grey, dark brown, reddish and, yes,
even black.
The next cat species is the Lynx –found in North America and
Europe and was, at one point, a native to the UK.
Some argue that, because of the centuries of reports from the UK, the lynx
may have never died out in the wilder parts of the country. Again, we have good lynx prints as well as
analyses of hairs proving their existence in the UK.
Then come the Jungle cats and what are very likely Golden
cats.
John Aves was driving his van through the quiet Somerset countryside
during good, clear sunny weather in June, 1999. Some 100 metres ahead of him he
saw “the hugest black cat I’ve ever seen in my life –I just braked!” The description given by John was perfect for
a large male leopard. The cat had walked
past a fence that meant John could later estimate its height accurately. But at
the time John could not believe his eyes as the cat moved over the grassy verge
and disappeared by hedgerows. Hoping to
see more of this animal, he got out of the van and then onto the roof. He saw
the cat looking at something through the hedgerow. It was then that he saw a woman riding her
horse through a field was the object of the cats curiosity. Rider and horse seemed oblivious though John
did note the rider correcting the horse when it acted a bit skittish. The woman
rode by and glanced up at John. He
decided to say nothing about the cat.
In Scotland,
during 2002, a couple were returning from church on a sunny morning when the
wife told her husband to stop the car they were in. She thought that she had seen a stray dog in
the tall grass of a field next to forestry.
Then she realised that it would have to be a very big dog. The couple got out of the car and looked into
the field –the road they were on was slightly elevated above the field. “Nothing” said her husband who then
froze. A huge black cat got up from
where it had obviously been lying and “slowly and cautiously” moved to a
specific spot where it then stopped and looked around. The couple were even more flabbergasted by
what happened next. The cats head went
down and then rose, having grabbed the neck of a dead deer and started dragging
it off into the forestry. “We will swear
on the Holy Bible that this is the truth” they told me.
In certain areas the local cat is well known. I was amazed time and again when I began to
advise people on the obvious precautions to take if a cat was seen only to be
told “Oh, we know all that –most of our parents told us when we were
kids.” In some areas cats had been seen
and known about from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Everyone locally knew about them including
the police and everyone behaved with not the slightest hint of panic “its just
out there doing what it needs to survive” I was told more than once.
I remember a nice lady from Ireland
who had moved to the UK
and loved the countryside of Derbyshire.
On several occasions while walking her dogs she had encountered a large
black cat –her description fitted a black leopard and size she could estimate
by later measuring a wall and so on the cat had been against. Eventually it all unnerved her and so she
moved to Cumbria. Three nights after moving to her new home she
was walking along in the dark, torch in hand, when she saw two large things
reflecting light from the torch. She aimed the torch at these to see that it
was a large black leopard sat on a wall –she made her way home quickly. This cat was far from a figment of her
imagination –it was seen about thirty minutes later by a motorist. The woman eventually moved back to Ireland.
The one thing I find interesting is that people in a
particular area will report large cat sightings confidentially and some will
even say “I wish I wasn’t the only one seeing them here!” Restrained by promises of confidentiality
regarding witness name and location I could never tell them they weren’t or
that their neighbour had actually already made a report. All I could say was “Oh, there are reports
from the general area in the past.”
Seriously, in one month I had seven reports from one Wiltshire village
of the same cat, a puma, but not one of the witnesses had told anyone else
because “I don’t want people thinking I’m mad!”
.jpg)
In one case the old farm lady had taken to walking around
with a pitchfork having seen a puma a good few times around her property. On one occasion she rounded a corner and
stopped. She was face-to-face with the puma which turned an ran “faster than I
did!” In encountering such cats you
should never turn and run. I then got a
phone call about a puma crossing a road by a farm. The couple involved had only moved to the
village a few months before so regarding location all they could tell me was
“It’s right next to a farm, no idea what its called but it’s owned by this
eccentric old lady that walks around with a pitchfork.”
Another plus point in accounts is that people absolutely
insist that they have seen the puma
even though they are clearly and accurately describing a black leopard or lynx.
They have seen on TV items or in
newspapers that “the big cat at large is a puma” so what they saw was the puma. If they wanted to hoax a cat sighting they
would declare it to be a black leopard or whatever.
Then you get the real gems.
People who want to report an odd cat but describe perfectly a juvenile
puma. They do not expect young pumas
after all there is “only” the one black one reported! And mother and cubs have been documented in
the UK, particularly in Wales.
But where do they come from?
Those not doing their research all claim that this all started after the
1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act when people keeping these cats dumped them in
the wild. There was the odd one or two
escapees before that.
In fact, these sightings, escapes and even hunts go well
back to the start of the 19th century and before. Anyone could buy or keep a tiger, puma,
leopard –even, incredibly, polar bears- or other exotic to keep in the house or
to roam the estate and even be kept in little private zoos –menageries. And escapes and dumping of animals from
travelling menageries seemed quite common –and in many cases breeding pairs.
The funniest account I received was over the telephone by a
zoologist from Canada.
He had been involved in work on pumas in Canada but told me that, apart from
the odd call or paw-print he and his colleagues had yet to see one in the
wild. In 1997 he saw driving to the home
of relatives in the Scottish Highlands. It was a beautiful, warm and clear day
and he was enjoying the open countryside and taking in the air through the open
window. At one point he saw a “clearly
adult male puma, reddish-brown in colour walking about twenty feet away in an
open field.” He made a mental note to
tell his colleagues later. A hundred
yards or so up the road he screeched to a halt “This is Scotland!” he said out loud. He had not seen a wild puma in Canada but on holiday in Scotland he
had. What made him angrier was the fact
that he had a still camera fully loaded and a video camera on the seat next to
him.
So, if someone jokes about “big cats” in the UK the joke is
on them. These cats do exist and have
been here a very long time.
© 2012 T. Hooper
Follow-up to the hugely
successful Some Things Strange & Sinister. For those interested in
Ufology,cryptozoology,hominology,unusual natural history,ghosts and
mysteries in general.
The secret history of gorillas -before they were 'discovered'.
Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.
And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html
A4
Paperback
358pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
After more than 30 years as an
investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened
some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as..
The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints
Church,Dead Aquatic
Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all
exclusively presented for the first time and with new
added research previously unseen.
PLUS a vastly expanded section on
Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings
and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and
Sinister.
Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this
book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!
A4
Paperback
327pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.
And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html
A4
Paperback
223pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid)
Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine
and ships crews encountering true leviathans.
Extinct animals at sea
that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other
Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases
that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.
All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird
Phenomena X Things Strange And Sinister –Ghosts
It is one of the oldest questions Man has asked: is there
life after death? Oddly, you might think
it a bit morbid as a subject for a dinner party conversation but it does crop
up.
It tends to shock many when you quote the Church dictum on
the subject –“de occultis non judicat
ecclesia” or, if you don’t read Latin; “The Church has not decided about
ghosts and the ghostly.” After more than two thousand years you might think
they would have –particularly since there are an endless number of the clergy
who have, over the centuries, seen and even claimed to have spoken with the
departed.
Over the years there have been many famous ghost incidents
such as the Samford Ghost of 1810 which attracted a lot of publicity but eventually
was proven a hoax. But what of others such as the Cock lane Poltergeist in
1762. Cock Lane was near to Smithfield
Market and St. Paul’s
Cathedral. After the death of a William
Kent’s wife, Elizabeth, during childbirth, he became romantically involved with
her sister, Fanny. However, ecclesiastical laws prevented the couple marrying
so eventually they moved to London and took the
apartment in a three storey house in Cock
Lane, owned by Richard Parsons –his daughter, Elizabeth also lived in
the property.
There are several accounts of ghostly apparitions and loud
and “strange” knocking sounds. The
couple moved out and things “went quiet.”
Kent
was not very lucky in marriage and, like many others of the time, Fanny
contracted smallpox and died. Kent
did, however, get lucky in his legal action against Parsons over a small debt.
Now the haunting began again and Parsons claimed that Fanny was haunting his
property. There were regular séances to discover what “Scratching Fanny” wanted
and these no doubt pulled in a few shillings.
At times Cock Lane
was blocked by the curious wanting to “take a peek.”
It seemed that “Fanny” claimed in séances that her husband
had killed her using arsenic and so Kent was publicly suspected of
murder. Someone smelt a rat. A commission, including the famous Samuel Johnson,
looked into the matter and declared the haunting a hoax: Elizabeth Parsons
admitted that it was a scam she had been forced into by her father –resulting
in Richard Parsons being pilloried and serving two years in prison.
There was money to be made in hauntings. But the motives for
the poltergeist events at the Lamb Inn, Bristol
between 1761-1762 are a bit vague.
Investigators held out fingers in their pockets so that they could not
be seen by the two young girls at the centre of events. Raps and voices told how many fingers were
extended. Objects were also seen to rise
into the air in front of investigators –all in a small room which excluded a
hoax using string, etc.. Also, the two
poorly educated daughters of the inn-keeper responded to questions in Greek and
Latin –understood by the investigators but not the girls.
And the inn-keeper himself died after observing a “evil old
witch” appear close to him one day. Even today, you can argue both for and against
the case being genuine for hours. Was a
fraud involved? Certainly the educated
investigators could find none.
Historical accounts are full of people seeing loved ones who
are many miles away (some times hundreds of miles) appearing before them before
vanishing. Those who note the times of
such events are later shocked to learn that their loved ones died at around the
same time.
And then there are the ghosts who help living relatives
recover documents or hidden treasures.
Such is the case of the Reverend
Dr. Blomberg, who was rector at Shepton Mallet and later a Canon at St. Paul’s. Blomberg’s father, a major serving in the
army during the Seven Years War (1756-1763), died of a violent fever in Martinique. Not unusual in those days but what followed
was. Resplendent in his “Regimentals”, the late Major appeared before a Colonel
Stewart and Captain Mounsey and asked them to take care of his “little boy”
back in England.
Blomberg told the duo about his estate in England
and said that the papers necessary for his son to inherit the estate were in a
certain old chest in Yorkshire.
Mounsey Stewart could hardly refuse such a request from
beyond the grave. The papers were
located and, after legal action, Blomberg’s son won the estate. But there was
an extra “gift” due to this curious ghost story because, when it reached the
ears of Queen Charlotte, she “became interested in the youth and took him into
the Royal household,where he was ‘educated in intimate association with
the children of George the Third.’
All Saints Church in Bristol
is situated right next to the St. Nicholas covered market just off the city
centre and there are thousands of others who also pass it on the way to work or
while on shopping trips. Surrounded by
businesses and narrow streets it looks rather “snug”. Snug but with “a history”.
All Saints dates
from the 12th Century with
enlargements and alterations such as the 15th Century aisles and
East nave and in 1716 the NE tower was designed by William Paul and eventually
completed by George Townsend, The
Chancel was rebuilt in the mid-19th Century.
The church
contains memorials and graves to a number of 18th Century
businessmen and merchants not to mention the tomb of Edward Colston
(1636-1721); Colston helped to fund the restoration of the All Saints Church's
tower in 1716.
The Church itself is said to be haunted by
a “black monk” of the Kalendars Order, who supposedly hid the treasures of the
place from Henry VIII. How the monk
died, whether killed by Henry’s men or having committed suicide is
uncertain. However, at that period the
act of suicide was to damn oneself so it’s rather unlikely a religious man
would resort to this. As for the treasure….never
been found.
In 1846 the local talk was of poltergeist activity in the
house associated with the church.
Strange lights crossed the room of the servant-maid whose honesty was
strongly attested to. She had the
unenvied honour of seeing this restless night visitor;
she declared she had repeatedly had her bedroom door
unbolted at night, “between the hours of 12 and 2 o’clock” by something in
human semblance. This was a whiskered man whose clothing was that of the
Kalendars –something the maid knew nothing about.
My personal experience on so called “ghostly matters” are
not very spectacular. Back in
1966/1967,I was living in Dalborn,Germany. One overcast,slightly drizzly but very
oppressive thundery day,along with two of my cousins,I headed for a stream that
had become flooded –we had much fun crossing the stream using the trunk of an
old tree placed there by someone months before.
We watched as soldiers in trucks drove by and waved but the
horrible,smokey brown low cloud made little difference –we were having fun!
Not far from the stream, in easy view, was an upward sloping
path near to a reputedly haunted mill [though we never knew that at the
time]. The entire length of the path was
covered in an arch of tree branches with the far end allowing in light. At one point, all three of us turned to look
up this path. At the very end of the
path stood a tall, misty grey figure devoid [seemingly] of any facial or
clothing features. The figure moved
forward.
Three kids ran like Hell!
Of course, in the prevailing weather conditions it is
possible any normal person might have seemed grey and featureless. That would explain it away to my
satisfaction. But why did all three of
us turn at the same time and run without speaking to each other?
In my grandparents home in St Werburgh’s, Bristol, we had a typical terraced house
situation for the mid-1960s. The old tin
bath has on a hook outside the back door for bath nights and the toilet was
outside the house. The row of houses
looked out onto Mina
Road Park
and there was a stream, an off-shoot of the River Frome which ran under
houses. On more than one occasion, while
seated in “the throne room” I heard voices quite distinctly, though what
exactly was being said I couldn’t tell you.
I was not the only person to hear these voices –my mother dreaded having
to use the outside toilet but just said, in a thick German accent “it’s
spooky”.
There was a small back bedroom that over-looking the garden,
privy and park and there was definitely something “odd” about it. The room had been given over to my mother and
father on returning from Germany. Within the week my mother would not even
venture into the room alone and rooms were swapped around. It is odd but, thinking about it years later,
I recall my grand mother never ventured into the room by herself either and
never used it for a bedroom. Two later
lodgers did complain about “something wrong” with the room.
There are many thousands of such accounts and even a few
photographs. Some of these photographs
are proven hoaxes or even misidentifications –optical effects caused by shadow
and light. There are some interesting
images, though, but not having looked into those cases personally it is hard to
say “genuine.” It was the advent of
digital video recorders and cameras that brought us the “orb” phenomena.
Unlike old cameras, digital ones pick up every small detail
and the big thing back in the 1990s were “ghost orbs” –the alleged
manifestations of the departed. Orbs
were everywhere and said to be the “final evidence” that ghosts existed. In fact, particles of dust, hair and even
insects were being picked up by the digital camera. Even today, when this has been proven, orbs
are still cited as evidence –as are camera flashes reflected off camera straps,
cobwebs and even the photographers thumb!
But with increased use of infra red and night vision cameras
some interesting things have been filmed and photographed.
EVP –Electronic Voice Phenomena- are recordings of,
allegedly, the departed at haunting sites.
In the old days investigators used reel-to-reel tape recorders or dictaphones
but today, again, digital sound recorders and other pieces of equipment are
recording odd sounds but in many cases you really do have to use your
imagination to accept that some of the EVPs are not just noises that “sound
like” words.
Maybe the Church knows what it is doing by sitting on the
fence but to those having items move around the house, sees strange figures and
are some times chased out of their dream homes, the ghostly undoubtedly exist.
© 2012 T. Hooper
Follow-up to the hugely
successful Some Things Strange & Sinister. For those interested in
Ufology,cryptozoology,hominology,unusual natural history,ghosts and
mysteries in general.
The secret history of gorillas -before they were 'discovered'.
Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.
And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html
A4
Paperback
358pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
After more than 30 years as an
investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened
some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as..
The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints
Church,Dead Aquatic
Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all
exclusively presented for the first time and with new
added research previously unseen.
PLUS a vastly expanded section on
Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings
and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and
Sinister.
Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this
book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!
A4
Paperback
327pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.
And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html
A4
Paperback
223pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid)
Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine
and ships crews encountering true leviathans.
Extinct animals at sea
that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other
Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases
that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.
All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird
Phenomena X –Things Strange And Sinister -Sasquatch
They are the sub-humans of Central and Eastern Asia known as
the “Almas.”
The proto-pigmies of Asia, Africa and South America
–the “Teh-Ima,” “ Duende,” “Orang-Pendek” and the “Agogue.” They are also the neo giants of Indochina,
Asia, North and South America such as the “Dzu-teh” of the Himalayas and Tibet.
You may be mystified but three Western names for some of
these creatures will probably be more familiar to you: “Yeti”, “Sasquatch” and
“Bigfoot.”
The old days of calling the sightings of these creatures a
misidentification of a bear or a more familiar primate such as an orang-utan
under poor lighting conditions are gone.
Naturalists, anthropologists and biologists have been drawn
into the study of these reports of what are collectively known as Hominids, and
those researching them Hominologists.
For over 50 years scientists in Russia have conducted expeditions and studied
reports and physical evidence concerning the Almas.
In China
the Yeren has been the subject of official investigations and expeditions by
scientists. In China there are written historical
accounts along with illustrations of the Yeren going back thousands of years.
But there are also early records of sightings of these creatures
and their activities going back to the early settlers and explorers of both
North and South America –all centuries before
any “popular mythology” on Bigfoot began.
In fact, some of those early explorers went so far as to dismiss what
they saw with their own eyes and one was prepared to believe he had found
mammoth footprints in snow rather than believe his native guides insistence
that they were tracks of a huge hairy man.
It is not only the historical accounts that hominologists
have to study. Ancient native rock art
in North America has revealed images of known
animals but also tall, hairy hominids.
Then there are the footprints. Over the years various people have come
forward claiming that they faked Bigfoot tracks using carved wooden templates. These are very easy to spot because the
tracks they leave have no flexibility in them.
Today, there are anthropologists specialising in anatomy who
study genuine Bigfoot track casts. The later Grover Krantz pioneered this work
and D. Jeffery Meldrum, Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State
University, has taken
this further. Meldrum has, probably, the largest collection of Almas, Bigfoot, Yeti and Orang-Pendek casts
in the world. Meldrum has access to
digital scanning equipment that picks up fine details in casts –some unseen
with the naked eye. Fakes and
misidentifications are easily dismissed.
A study of casts shows not just how the alleged Bigfoot walks (completely
different to a man) but even its weight and height –it is the science used in
criminal cases to secure convictions.
And genuine hominid tracks have something else. Dermal ridges. Take a look at your hand and you’ll notice
they are covered by large and small lines and you’ll find these are also on
your feet –in the US
and other countries babies have their footprints taken in hospitals to
positively identify them if required.
Former police latent-finger-print examiner Jimmy Chilcutt has prints
from every type of primate kept in captivity so has a unique record. Chilcutt has examined Bigfoot cast dermal
ridging and states that they are not like any of the primate prints he has
–they are from an unknown animal. It
needs to be noted that Chilcutt is using the same methods that get convictions
of criminals in court.
The famous Patterson-Gimlin footage of a Bigfoot (known as
“Patty” today) taken in 1967 is often mimicked in hoaxes or jokes. For years I joked about it and called it a
fake. It was shaky footage and not great quality. But in forty years technology
has moved on. Not only have digital
image scans been taken on the location of the incident but microscopic digital
photographs have been taken of each frame of the footage to reveal detail no
one could ever have guessed at in 1967. The
“costume” needed could not be produced in 1967 even by Hollywood and anatomical analysis has shown a
man could not have fitted into any such item. The walk has been examined and
using a very tall athlete covered in sensors in a lab. There are a lot of hoaxers claiming they wore
the ‘costume’. Not only could the athlete not duplicate the walk but after the
tests were concluded the experts agreed that “Patty” did not walk like a human
and neither did it walk like a gorilla.
There is also another fact that could not have been
faked. While checking the cleaned up
footage it was noted that something odd appeared on the creature’s upper right
leg. It turned out to be a muscle that had obviously been damaged that kept
popping up during walking. Now just how
did Patterson and Gimlin fake that.
It is the only piece of film evidence that has stood the
test of time and been attacked by every critic going who discovers “this” or
“that” in the footage. They all get shot
down in flames. The Patterson-Gimlin
footage could well be the most
important piece of wildlife footage ever.
There are the tracks, the footage and reports from the area
before and after this event. Try as I might I can no longer cry “hoax” on this
one.
But what are these hominids?
The general concensus of opinion is that in some cases they are an
unknown primate. In the case of the
Almas and Orang-Pendek it is thought that they may be relic populations of
ancient Man still living, endangered, in the wildest places on Earth.
© 2012 T. Hooper
Follow-up to the hugely
successful Some Things Strange & Sinister. For those interested in
Ufology,cryptozoology,hominology,unusual natural history,ghosts and
mysteries in general.
The secret history of gorillas -before they were 'discovered'.
Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.
And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html
A4
Paperback
358pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
After more than 30 years as an
investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened
some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as..
The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints
Church,Dead Aquatic
Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all
exclusively presented for the first time and with new
added research previously unseen.
PLUS a vastly expanded section on
Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings
and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and
Sinister.
Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this
book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!
A4
Paperback
327pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.
And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html
A4
Paperback
223pp
Price:
£10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid)
Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine
and ships crews encountering true leviathans.
Extinct animals at sea
that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other
Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases
that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.
All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird
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