STRANGE LITTLE HAIRY MEN

Circa 1998 Kane and his friend were driving from Sydney to the snow. As they turned onto the federal highway near Goulburn around 2am, the driver got a sudden urge....to answer the call of nature. As they got close to the Lake George area they pulled over to the side of the road. The driver got out to relieve himself and Kane got out to stretch. "It was sooo cold..." Kane said "and all of a sudden my mate swore and told me to get in the car". What had caused the swearing was the sudden appearance on the other side of the fence of two 4-5 feet tall 'men' who had long hair "like good luck troll's". He did not recall if they were clothed or not as he was stunned that people would be in that place, at that time time, in that temperature. He also felt very uneasy, considering how far they were from any civilisation - and thought back to 'whether they might have needed help - but then I'd feel really uneasy and were glad we kept going".Anyone else have any experiences on this stretch of road? 


Baz

A quick follow up on the "keeping an open mind" story

The same friend confided in me a dream which she had recently. A couple of years previously she had lost a baby with her boyfriend. She fell asleep and was talking in her sleep.
In this dream she was at her own funeral. She dreamed she spoke to her boyfriends deceased father who told her "I was hoping you two would name the baby after me but don't worry I'm looking after the little guy." He left her with a message to his son to tell him he had been forgiven and was not to blame (she is unsure what this refers to). And during this, in her sleep she was telling her boyfriend to answer the door as his father was there.


Obviously this freaked them both out and when she woke up he asked her what his father had looked like. Apparently she described him in a way she would not have known as she has never seen a photo of him.


She confided in me and is wondering whether the activity around the home is no longer her friends father but her boyfriends father now instead?


Previous story can be read here.

Keeping an open mind

When I was back in England, a friend told me a story. She lived in a share house and occasionally strange things would happen. The TV would change channel by itself, the volume would go up and down. Things would crash in the kitchen with no obvious cause and cold spots and breezes would be felt when no windows would be open.
The housemate confided in my friend it was likely to be their deceased mother as a friend of there's who has psychic abilities had been in contact with the housemates father. The psychic was telling them that the father just wanted to watch over his child.
In circumstances such as these, I can't understand the theory that all ghosts are demons masquerading as the deceased. I don't understand how that theory came about and is being preached as gospel when it clearly isn't.  Who are we to try and guess what happens after we die anyway?
In the bible God allows us to know some things but not all.  Thus, I try to keep an open mind, an open but focused mind. What I mean by that is that I can have an open mind that is focused on God.
Does this make sense? Please join me in this discussion either here or on our facebook page.

Sasquatch Game Cam Photo?

Bizarre In The News - What's human? What's animal? And what of the biology inbetween?

Nik Brown of the Guardian

Friday's report by the Academy of Medical Sciences on the increasingly fuzzy boundaries between the human and the animal is the latest in a long series of policy reflections on how to keep pace with developments in the biosciences.

It can justly be said that politics and regulation have not dealt well with our newfound capacities for muddying the boundaries between us and other species. And yet the last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented growth in bioscientific techniques that increasingly call into question what it means to be human. Take the human genome project: many of us may have intuitively suspected that we might have more genetically in common with the chimpanzee than even Darwin had envisaged, only then to be told of our cousinly closeness to the fruit fly, maize and the zebra fish.

Casting a glance back to the 1990s, trans-species transplantationseemed to promise a new era of limitless animal organs and tissues. Who knows, it may still. But that dream slowly sank from view amid concerns about potentially catastrophic trans-species disease, and increasing evidence of its poor performance in preclinical trials with primates. Move forward a decade and we have the trans-species embryodebate, resulting in legislative changes permitting a whole new class of research embryos incorporating animal DNA. So to the classical question of "what is an embryo", has been added the equally vexing puzzle "what is an animal".

Bioscientific hybrids are difficult to categorise, disorderly, existing on the fringes of the humanised animal and the animalised human. And yet policymaking has arguably had a poor track in getting to grips with and understanding trans-species innovation. Trans-species biologies present acute difficulties especially in terms of regulation because they confuse and traverse regulatory institutional boundaries.

In the UK, as elsewhere, regulatory agencies have tended to regulate humans on the one hand, and animals on the other, with little consideration for what might lie between. The tendency has been to deal with all things animal through the Home Office and its Animal Procedures Inspectorate, and to deal with all things human through the Department of Health. There are good and disturbing grounds for suspecting this division has become increasingly naive and meaningless, as the biosciences enter their trans-species future.

PLEASE READ THE REST HERE

Buyer beware: Ghost tours‏

I'm reflecting on a "ghost tour" I went on two years ago.  I'm not much of a consumer, but I imagine from what I have seen, read and discussed on numerous occasions with others that it was not that much different than most of the ghost tours being conducted all around the world and I have had time to reflect on it from a more critical perspective - I think it's helpful to look back.

 

My conclusion: It was an extremely interesting night but was flawed by the consistent use of false positives by the operator to the clients. What I mean by that is that at every location we were set up by being told of others experiences on other tours, and the sights, sounds, smells, feelings and phenomenon etc that we would experience. In hindsight, I feel that this either sets the operator up for both sides of the spectrum - the skeptic who writes it all off as a hoax and suggestion and the more easily influenced person who experiences things that are not there. There is a middle ground which I will discuss as well.

 

By being told we would see spirit faces in orbs, that angry ghosts would manhandle us in the jail, that strange forces would tug on our clothes, that we may feel weak, sick, sad or tired, we were being manipulated - operating out of the power of suggestion.

 

That's fine for a ghost train ride at a carniva or a kids campfire session, but it's not ok to manipulate people paying for a research experience, a search for the truth and in an emotionally charged environment tied to history, society, spirituality and culture - and we all know that people from all sorts of religious backgrounds use this type of thing on followers - even creating an emotional environment that is more conducive to offerings, imaginary healings and salvation experiences. That does not discount the fact that people genuinely want to be generous, do get healed and make decisions to really follow Christ as Lord.

 

And it was the same on the ghost tour.

 

There were a number of experiences that I did not expect that were difficult to explain:

 

1) When the tour operator cracked a cat'o'nine tails whip in an old courthouse, a white mist like shape with form moved straight at me from the adjacent corner and literally went through me, blurring my vision and numbing my arm on my right hand side.

 

Also, when the whip was cracked my EMF meter went all the way to the top after each crack, and I can't understand why that happened or what could have caused it.

 

2) There was an orb of light in the graveyard that in my opinion and observations was not conjured up by any type of mechanical or digital light source, it bounced around of it's own accord and behaved in a manner I would describe as sentient and reactive to the audience.

 

3) Even though I believe that we were being set up with a story to heighten the experience, I cannot deny that the back of my trouser leg was "snagged" by something which made me snap around quickly with my torch, only to see nothing but grass and no sticks, branches, wire or snaggable items.

 

4) We were told that on the Highway that the "Black Lady" inhabited a certain bend and when we hit that spot - you guessed it - the EMF meters went off the dial. Now something set them off at exactly the spot we were told they would. Unless there was a way that the operator could have triggered it with a device, there were no overhead lines or other devices noticeable enough to set them off. But that does not mean that something "supernatural" set them off, it simply means that on cue, they went off, which I think is interesting.

 

The whole time I was on the trip I remained in a highly prayerful state, at every location spending time seeking the Lord and praying protection over the people who were there. I often found myself drawn into the false positives that were being sown. That doesn't mean that the operator lacked integrity, it just meant that he valued experience over facts, emotions over rationale and probably a rollicking good time over a scientific analysis of the events. Which is fine, that's what I expected anyway.

 

But I don't think that should define what is counted as evidence. A couple of weeks after I got home I came to a lot of conclusions:

 

1) Orbs are a natural phenomenon, to promote them as supernatural evidence is just silly. The only exception was the one that was visible to the naked eye which moved of seemingly its own accord. It was too high to be a natural "ghost light" phenomenon in my opinion but I could easily be proven wrong.

 

2) The faces that we were "shown" or "asked to investigate" in our images was simple matrixing.

 

3) The feelings that we experienced of fear, fatigue and other feelings usually followed an explanation that we "may experience thesde feelings" in the areas we were in. That is manipulation, pure and simple.

 

4) There was a number of experiences that defied the false positive environment as mentioned in point form above.

 

5) That when people realised I was a Pastor, a number asked me to pray and felt more peaceful, which can be attributed to a number of things but one was it made people feel like there was a more powerful force present than any 'spirits'.

 

I think ghost tours which use the manipulative fasle positive techniques could have a very negative impact on people who are susceptible to fear or have an anxiety disorder or any obsessive/compulsive disorder as it could set them up for fears and attachment to fears that were needlessly placed in their life. They may also bring people into contact with a demonic force that they would have not opened the door too otherwise. But for the person who is strong in their faith, prayerful, discerning, skeptical, and emotionally detached from the environments, feeling healthy in their souls, it is certainly an interesting experience, although far too expensive and fraught with exaggeration to make it a regular event.

 

God bless you - Pastor Baz.

 

From around the campfire: Pastor Baz talks to the community

Tales from around the campfire

All my life I've been involved in sport from Tae Kwon Do to Ballroom Dancing to Boxing to Surfing to Rugby league and Oztag. Right now I type this short article with a badly sprained thumb from attempting to score a try last night  - try typing without your right thumb for a while!!! You keep missing the space bar.

 

And around sports you meet lots of people from various backgrounds, experiences and belief systems. You just have to be willing to ask - "Have you ever had a supernatural experience"

 

This week I was talking to my major sponsor, a sports warehouse and I asked that question "Do you guys have any stories".

 

And this is the story I heard from the manager - which was turned on its head  two hours later when another person (a missionary raised in the occult) gave me an interesting perspective on what I'd heard.

 

The first part starts in an old house, which was built between the world wars. The lady who owned the house was named Minnie. Minnie died in the house and then it was sold as a deceased estate and snapped up by a young family.

 

Not long after, conversations could be heard in the oldest childs room - a child who had no understanding of the history of the property. One night, when the father of the house heard the talk, he walked in, saw no-one but the child and turned off the bedroom light. As he walked away the light turned back on. He walked back into the room puzzled and as he went to flick it off again he noticed his child sitting up in bed.

 

"Are you ok" He asked?

 

"I was talking to the old grannie of the house - she comes and sits on my bed. She said her name was Minnie. I told her to go away, so she did".

 

The same man went on to share with me stories of his wife working as a nurse at various Sydney hospitals, where similar stories - including that of an old lady who rummages through peoples belongings looking for cigarettes - but who is the same person who died in the hospital years before - for half an hour.

 

An hour later I had a meeting with a potential sports chaplain who shared with me his stories of being raised in Wicca, life as a missionary in Indonesia and the incredible supernatural stories from that country and deliverance ministry that followed them wherever they went. Stories of incredible demonic oppression of the local people and the freedom they encountered in Jesus Christ as they were set free.

 

I shared with him the story about Minnie and he added his own to it.

 

"We lived in a house in Sydney, and there was the ghost of an old lady in it. One night my mother saw her sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the room and she said that the kids room was this room and we should be moved into here. My mum, being a person who was involved with many seances trusted the spirit and moved us into the room as indicated. One night I was walking past the room and saw the old lady pulling the bedsheets over my brother. I always thought this was a benevolent spirit who cared about us until I had a dream".

 

He then started to unpack the reality of the situation. 

 

"In the dream the old lady was knitting in the room, smiling at me. Then the facade of who she was started to unravel - literally. Her skin started to unravel and I saw the most diabolical monster underneath - it had sharp teeth and claws and eyes full of hate. As her real form was revealed, she leapt at me from the chair and I cried out 'Jesus save me' and she dissapeared in a puff of smoke. I believe that when people tell me they see ghosts, especially of the departed, it is usually a mimic, trying to get the person to focus on the phenomenon and to lose their focus on God - which if you look at the increase in shows on this subject has worked. People aren't interested in God, their focus in on working out what this phenomenon is, and it draws them deeper and deeper in until they are snared in it".

Old Hag Syndrome

Old Hag Syndrome or sleep paralysis as its now called is a type of sleep disorder where the person who is suffering it feels as though they are awake but cannot move.  All other senses are awake except they are paralysed. That is in very simple terms. There is a tonne of different things people can experience in sleep paralysis. One of the main experiences is a vision of an old ugly hag that sits on your chest preventing you from moving or breathing.  Thus it used to be called Old Hag Syndrome.
Accompanying the paralysis is usually a sensation of immense evil, a sinister presence etc.
From About.com The current explanation of sleep paraylsis is that it is a problem with the regulation of REM.  In this phase of sleep the body is relaxed so we do not act out the dreams, if this carries on when we wake up, it can cause temporary paraylsis. 


This seems a pretty good explanation but what baffles me is the similarities of what people experience. Why do they all experience the same feelings? The feeling of dread, a heavy chest, seeing eyes, hearing footsteps, feeling a presence etc?


Do you believe in the REM theory for Old Hag Syndrome? Or do you believe its something else? Ever experienced anything similar?

For further watching....

The Science of Sleep Paralysis

Real Life Stories: The Bleeding Monster of Tweed Heads

This week Pastor Baz wants to discuss the bleeding monster of Tweed Heads on our FB page, so go to our page and read the story, then in that thread work together to assess what the encounter could have been or how it could be followed up.

Thanks!

Will There Ever Be Enough Evidence?

Recently I blogged about Sanger Paranormal and their up coming press release that was penned as the most significant bigfoot evidence since the Patterson-Gimlin film.

They presented what they see as pretty significant findings which can be found here.  The basic gist of the story is they had to abandon their car in remote forest and when they went back they found face imprints on the truck. They are looking for a lab to process the DNA and they are convinced its not a bear, mountain lion or gorilla.





But from what I have seen there has been pretty much negative feed back. Most say it is most definitely a bear.
Here's a pretty convincing picture from Ghost Theory that says its possibly proves it is a bear.

 

And from Sanger Paranormals website they have tried to prove its NOT a bear or any other animal:





Now I am hoping that someone will test the DNA and this can be settled. I won't comment either way as to what I think this could be. My question is, will there ever be enough evidence to satisfy the masses?

What would convince you to the existence of Bigfoot?

Bizarre In The News - 'It's real': Priest reveals exorcism rituals

ABC.net.au

Apart from heads spinning in 360-degree circles and streams of flowing green vomit, real-life exorcisms are remarkably similar to what you see in the movies, an Australian exorcist says.

Father Barry May - an Anglican priest, exorcist, author and former police chaplain - has performed dozens of exorcisms in his 40 years of ministry.

The 73-year-old Perth man says more Australians are seeking exorcisms, and as such, over the past four years he has dedicated his life solely to ridding people of their demons.

Father May tells anyone sceptical about the ancient Catholic ritual to "get real" and psychologists have backed the man, saying exorcism "has its place" in society.

"I've been spat at, yelled at, grabbed at, sworn at, had people trying to rip my crucifix off my throat, gouge my eyes out, fighting, assault. I get all that stuff and you tell me it's superstition?" Father May said.

Read the rest here

Revisiting the ghost child of Bundeena

*New Information*

You don't need to look far to find stories of the supernatural. You just need to hang with people and give them space to share their stories.

 

If you can recall way, way back, we published a story about a house in the sea side town of Bundeena where the little girl kept telling her parents of a 'ghost boy" who would appear at her window. The boy shared with the girl that he had drowned. Of course, that information freaked the parents out even more than a boy appearing at the window. And when you hear of cases like that you often think "could it be an overactive imagination or is something really going on"? Also, the owner didn't know if there had ever been a drowning in the area.

 

Well this morning I got an SMS that said "Baz give us a call ASAP very Interesting news I have".

 

And it went something like this:

 

Two older ladies visited the house last weekend where the little boy had been appearing. They informed the owner that one of them was a previous resident in years gone by and was now in the process of buying a house on that street again. They asked if they could look at the house and yard, which bordered a creek that ran into the estuary. As they looked around they walked out and looked at the creek. "It's a shame" one of the ladies commented "that the little boy drowned in that creek, that was very sad for the family and the community".

 

So what is going on here? Having not seen the boy with my own eyes it's still an issue of taking the owners word for it.

But if they are conducting themselves with integrity and the story is true - then how does that effect our views on the afterlife? A dominant view in Christianity is that children go "straight to heaven" as they are too young to sin in their own free will. So that leaves us with a couple of possibilities - someone is playing a prank - one is that it's a spiritual mimic  - and the other is that the spirit of a child still hangs around Bundeena.

 

The family is not very keen to be investigated but add that to your own list of "understanding the afterlife".

 

God bless you - Pastor Baz.

 

The Phantom of the Housing Comission Labyrinth‏

In the 1960's the NSW government built masses of housing for low income earners. They envisaged communities who would thrive in communal spaces so they built common play areas, interconnecting pathways that ran alongside and behind blocks of adjoined houses and their common walls. These were known as Housing Comission projects.

 

It was a grand idea in theory that was a monumental failure in practice terms of building the community in a unified manner. Whilst there were many low income earners or people in need who genuinely benefitted from affordable rents, after the introduction of the 'dole' in the 1970's they often became a hub intergernerational welfare dependancy - to the point where we are now seeing up to four generations of families in the housing commission environment who had never worked by the 2,000's.

 

And in those graffitied labyrinth like pathways that weave around and behind those housing blocks is where our first investigation this year begins to take place in our series of 'real life stories' on the border of the Sutherland Shire and St George area's in Southern Sydney.

 

The young man knew he was not allowed out so he did what all teenagers do - lied to his parents - about where he was. He was not meant to be visiting friends in this housing commission block, nor did anyone know he was zipping around on his Razor scooter on those pathways, alone at 10:30pm on a cold, drizzly and misty night in Sydney.

 

As he headed home along the pathway between the houses he heard something that wasn't overly  odd - the sound of someone calling out. He stopped and looked and realised that the odd thing was that someone was calling out to him - was it a cry for help? He stopped and looked back at the source of the sound - no one was there. He was aware of a story whispered around this block in hushed tones - that a mother and baby had been run down accidentally in a terrible automobile accident many, many years ago. Not only had something terrible happened but there was a grisly reminder - people often saw the mother pushing the child in the pram around the block and vanishing in plain sight.

 

He pushed these thoughts out of his mind. He was Aboriginal and his family had grown up with many spiritual experiences - why would something like this faze him. He continued on his way.

 

As he came around the corner of a tiny cul-de-sac he heard the cry again. This time he looked and there not 20 metres from him - a lady pushing a baby in a pram - in the freezing cold night in the peak of a blustery southerly wind. He watched as they walked toward him and then dematerialize before his eyes. He kicked his scooter as quick as his feet would push it along with the echo of the racing wheels bouncing off the buckled and scribbly tagged colourbond walls.

 

"Sir, you should do an investigation eh" He said to me as he recounted the story.

 

And so, the investigation begins - with the search for the details of the mysterious lady and child. Is this story rooted in fact or another urban myth. Is there another darker force at work here, mimicing a dead person. Checking with Births, deaths and marriages, newspaper articles and questions for long time residents are our starting point. It's time for us to take a walk down those dark alleys, past groups of young men in hoodies dealing in danger to find out what is really going on.

 

God bless you - Pastor Baz.

Upcoming Real Life Stories

We have spent the last month looking at the subject of Dragons covering areas from the mythology of in dragons primordial chaos  and end times eschatology to real life encounters people may have had with dragons or dragon like creatures throughout history.

And now, thanks to simply hanging out with people and asking them for their stories, we have a new series of weekly. real life stories, that will stun you. These stories come from discussions with indigenous and pacific Island teenagers who have one foot in western materialism and the other in their cultures and the spirit world that surrounds it.

Imagine if your house was circled by a black figure dripping with blood with glowing red eyes - In suburban Tweed Heads.

What if you were swimming in a water hole and had your foot gripped by the icy hand of the thing you believed was a tribal myth. And what if it tried to pull you to your death?

Moari hunters alseep when they are attacked by a white mist with malicious intent.

Running down a trail when your sister is grabbed by an invisable force and carried away into the bush - who is released instantly when you cry out "Help me Jesus".

Discovering a beautiful white horse which circles you and then dissapears before the whole families eyes.

A floating man that taps on the second story window who is seen by all the occupants.

And thats just the start.

I asked a man who is a psychologist who lived in Ireland for two years why he thought that people in rural places or had ancient beliefs experienced so many encounters. After his stories - real life stories - of people encountering elementals, leprechauns, gnomes, faeries, trolls and all sorts of strange creatures - he described these creatures as the "fallen kingdom" all created by God but somehow fallen. "Seventy percent of the universe is dark matter" he said "I would expect 70% of our world to be dark matter that needs to come into the light - the light of redemption - which is Jesus' plan to restore a fallen universe". People who live close to these primeval spirits understand they exist - we who are so busy and so connected to technology - the virtual universe - miss it and when we get glimpses its terrifying".

Join us for these stories in the weeks to come.

Pastor Baz.

Did Sanger Paranormal Society Find Evidence Of Bigfoot?

Press Conference Info From Jeffrey Gonzalez of Sanger Paranormal Society:

"Potentially the Most Convincing Evidence of Bigfoot, Since the Patterson Film of 1967.
We have an full upper body impression including half of its face.  On the passenger side window of a pickup truck and on the drivers side window, the Nostrils, Nose and Lips of a Bigfoot.
Who: World Media - Please RSVP to SangerParanormal@aol.com
We will contact you to confirm your attendance.
What: No, it’s not a Bigfoot in a Freezer and we are not affiliated with those guys in any way. This evidence was captured during an expedition in the High Sierra’s of California during the Memorial Day weekend of 2011. There were a total of 5 people in attendance who made the discovery. Three of those people are…
1. Is an award winning High School Principal with a Masters Degree, Formerly a Science Teacher and a former investigator for www.BFRO.com. 
2. Correctional Officer for 19 years and is Employed at a prison in California. Was featured on a Episode of Monster Quest titled" the Sierra Sasquatch”.
3. Is a Employee at AT&T Telephone. Associates Degree in Electronics. Founder of the www.SangerParanormalSociety.com 
Also, a 14 year Forensic Specialist who is friends with 2 of the people mentioned above was called out to come and take photos and swab 
For DNA......
This location where the evidence was captured is known for heavy Bigfoot activity and has been regularly visited by the investigators mentioned above.
When: June 23, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Where: Piccadilly Inn, Banquet Hall 5115 E. McKinley Ave, Fresno, Calif. 93727 Ph: 559-251-6000 fax-559-251-6956 
Directly across from Fresno Yosemite National Airport."

______________________________________________________________________________

I saw the photo on Jeffreys profile before he had to take it down in order to do a press conference.  I will be interested to hear more details about the photo and see what the world has to say.

Bryony.

Dragons In Celtic Culture

According to Wikipedia The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages. Language wise they survive in the modern Celtic speakers of Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. But that is slowly dying out unfortunately.

In Celt mythology the dragon had influence over the land (like the Japanese and Chinese dragons in my previous blog post). On the website dragonorama areas frequented by dragons had special power and the regular paths taken by dragons would turn into ley lines.  They are strongly associated with water and unlike many depictions of dragons these tended to have no legs...


Like in Japanese and Chinese culture they were seen as representing power. They also could represent the circle of life as depicted with their tail in their mouth.

Since the introduction of Christianity into Ireland, the dragons have been portrayed as devils or satan.  The story of Saint Patrick (The patron saint of Ireland) is about him converting the Irish. Many people see the dragons/serpents that were chased out of the country as actually just a representation of paganism and not ACTUAL dragons/serpents.  What do you think?

The dragon is in the Welsh flag.  From Wikipedia "The flag incorporates the Red Dragon of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd, along with the Tudor colours of green and white. It was used by Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 after which it was carried in state to St Paul's Cathedral. The red dragon was then included in the Tudor royal arms to signify their Welsh descent. It was officially recognised as the Welsh national flag in 1959." 


So why are they still so prolific in Celtic culture today? Is it to acknowledge heritage and history? Do Dragons exist today? What are your thoughts?

Dragons in Eastern Culture

I don't know if its the same for you but when I think of Eastern culture, especially Japanese and Chinese I think of dragons.


These creatures generally look different to a western dragon. Eastern dragons don't have wings for example.
Dragons in western culture are said to be a representation of evil, but in eastern culture they are benevolent and are revered. According to about.com the Chinese dragon is a symbol of imperial power.  The dragon was a symbol of the emperor,  a 5 toed dragon represented the emporer and 3 toed dragons were commoners. Also dragons are considered symbols of good luck.





According to about.com "Traditionally the dragons are considered as the governors of rain falls in Chinese culture. They have the power to decide where and when to have rain falls."  The chinese dragons are associated with water, lakes, oceans, storms, floods etc.


The japanese dragon is also associated with water. It was considered a water deity.  There are a lot of similarities between the japanese and chinese dragons, according to wikipedia "Japanese dragons are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and India. The style of the dragon was heavily influenced by the Chinese dragon"


The eastern dragon fascinates me more than the western style dragon. Maybe because the eastern dragon is more associated with peace and nature where as the western dragon is fierce and fiery.


I find it interesting though that dragons feature in both western and eastern mythology. Does that lend credability to the existence of such a creature? Or are these no more real than the loch ness monster? 

What are YOUR thoughts on dragons? Personally, I think they belong to myths and legends but its interesting to have a look into. There is A LOT of information on dragons in different cultures but I don't want to just copy and paste a tonne of information. I encourage you to look into this yourselves and share your discoveries. 


Share your thoughts below. 

Bizarre In The News - Another Bigfoot video

Is this Bigfoot caught on video?








Dailymail

A woman hiker got the fright of her life after she went walking with a friend in Spokane, Washington, and stumbled across what she claims is Bigfoot.

Samantha, who has not revealed her surname, caught the footage in Downriver Park with her iPhone camera and posted the video on YouTube.

After capturing the mysterious creature, also known as a Sasquatch, on film, her YouTube video has become a hit and has already been viewed almost 8,000 times within four days.

In her post, Samantha said she didn’t realise Bigfoot was there until she replayed her video after the hike at home.

She wrote an email to KXLY news website in the US, and said: ‘Someone asked me in the comments section if I believed in Bigfoot before the video.

‘I have never given it much thought, but now I’m not so sure. Seem real enough to me.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1391825/Is-Bigfoot-caught-video-Hiker-swears-really-HAS-caught-time.html#ixzz1Nnpw1b56


Why i doubt this is bigfoot: 


"Bigfoot" wasn't noticed until she watched the video back later. Surely someone in their group would notice Bigfoot walking in front of you?  


I looked up the park and its near a quite populated area. Next to a college, golf course etc. Isn't it a little too populated/busy for a Bigfoot to be walking around in broad daylight?

It seems to me that it is just someone taking a short cut through the park. Admittedly they are walking in quite a hunched/odd way. Could it be a hoax? Someone in costume? What are your thoughts? 


Who am I to say if its been faked, case of mistaken identity or what? I just offer my humble opinion and would love to hear yours.

Dragons in Middle Ages Mythology

Dragons - Where does the myth end and real life begin? 


There are stories from all over the world that involve dragons. This week i'll focus and show you two stories from around the middle ages in the western world and then in a couple of weeks I'll focus on tales of dragons from the East.


The two stories that stick out in regards to medieval times are The Lambton Worm and St George and the Dragon.


Both written off as fiction, the stories themselves are pretty interesting.

The Lambton worm is a strange tale about John Lambton who finds this bizarre creature and is warned its a bad omen. He's told "It bodes no good for you but you must not cast it back into the river, you must keep it and do with it what you will."

Of course as all these stories go, Lambton ignored this advice and through the worm in a well that was on the way home.

Years went by and John was away fighting the crusades.  The worm grew and grew, the well became unstable and released toxic vapours. The villagers said the well was cursed and surmised that something otherwordly had residence in the well. The truth came out one day when they saw the worm "had slipped out of the well and wrapped itself three times around a rocky island in the middle of the river, a trail of black slime outlined its path from the well."

The worm is described as follows: 

"The dragon had no legs or wings, but a thick muscled body that rippled as it moved. Its head was large and its gaping maw bristled with razor sharp teeth, venomous vapours trailed from its nostrils and mouth as it breathed."

The worm eventually went to the Lambton Hall and was abated by warm milk. This went on for a few years, when John Lambton returned from the crusades, heard the plight of teh village and decided he needed to kill the worm.

He went to see a wise woman who advised him "You and you alone can kill the worm, go to the blacksmith, and have a suit of armour wrought with razor sharp spear heads studded throughout its surface. Then go to the worm's rock and await its arrival. But mark my words well, if you slay the beast you must put to death the first thing that crosses your path as you pass the threshold of Lambton Hall. If you do not do this then three times three generations of Lambtons will not die in their beds."

The story goes that he killed the worm and as he was returning to Lambton hall his father rushed out to greet him.  John panics and asks the servants to bring the dog which he kills. But he hasn't fullfilled his oath and for generations the Lambtons didn't die in their beds.


The "worm" described in the story is how dragons are said to look like. The above story according to Wikipedia "is a legend from North East England in the UK. The story takes place around the River Wear, and is one of the area's most famous pieces of folklore, having been adapted from written and oral tradition into pantomime and song formats."


Now, for George and the Dragon, the tale comes from around the same time as the Lambton Worm story. 

There are a few different ways this story is told. The basis of the story is of a dragon in a lake that required sacrifices in order to be appeased. First of all it was cattle, then when that wasn't enough it was children (picked by a lottery),  One day in the lottery the kings daughter was picked out and the King begged the kingdom by saying he'd give them all the gold and silver but the people of his kingdom refused the bribe. So the daughter decked out in a bridal gown went out to the lake.
At this point Saint George happened to be riding passed and spoke to the scared princess. She tried to make him go away but Saint George was having none of it and refused to leave her. Whilst they were talking the dragon appeared.  Saint George did the sign of the cross and thrust his lance into the dragon, wounding it.  He then put a girdle around the dragon and the dragon meakly followed the girl by a leash.
As they neared the kingdom, the people became terrified.  Saint George then said "Convert to Christianity and then I will slay the dragon".  They converted and Saint George killed the dragon.


According to some, this tale is an adaptation of Perseus and Andromeda due to similiarity in events and location.   Others say the dragon was controlled by Satan "The creature blocked the city's water supply and would only move if given a virgin sacrifice. Over time, all of the virgins were sacrificed except for the noble's daughter, and even she was sent to quench the castle's thirst. However, Saint George arrived at the last moment on his white horse, striking down the dragon with a spear between its eyes".


Like St Patrick and the snakes, many think that these stories about dragons/snakes etc represent paganism and the saints that went around and converted people to Christianity.


What do you think? Are dragons mythical representations of satan? Are dragon stories just ways of telling stories about the conversion of pagans to Christianity? Real life animals that are now extinct? Or a case of mistaken identity? 

Bizarre In The News - Maori activists slam Ghost Hunters International as 'gauche'.

Hawkes Bay Today

The international crew of ghost hunters secretly filming at Napier Prison have been condemned as "gauche" by local Maori activists.

The prison is the site of several hangings, including that of famed Maori warrior Kereopa Te Rau, who hanged the missionary Reverend Carl Volkner outside his Opotiki church, and ate his eyeballs.

Denis O'Reilly, a close observer of iwi affairs in Napier, said the television series ghost-hunting at the Napier Prison, a Government-owner property landbanked for possible use in treaty claim settlement, was inappropriate. "Maori history and Kereopa should be treated with respect and that's not what's being done with the ghost busters here, there's no need for cheap thrills. It's the lowest common denominator of a reality TV show, it's gauche in the extreme, and not where we should be positioning Hawke's Bay tourism."

However, Mr O'Reilly said Peter Wells' new book, Sparrow on a Rooftop, which was this week awarded the $100,000 Michael King Writers' Fellowship, had a strong following and was exactly how the situation should be treated. "It's great that someone is doing some research into the story of Kereopa Te Rau, it's an important story."

The group of about 20 Ghost Hunters International staff were reportedly attracted to the prison, which was open between 1862 and 1993, after reports of "strange sights and sounds", said co-manager of the prison, Marion Waaka.

She said the decision to let ghost hunters film was not taken lightly.

"We have to be respectful and we take our guardianship very seriously...


Read the rest here