The Paranormal

[martin wilson]

I subscribe to the Fortean philosophy that, whilst I am always open to the possibility of a genuinely paranormal event , I think in the vast majority of cases the explanation is more mundane.
Take the 'Valleygator'. Claims that an alligator was swimming around in Swan Pool in Sandwell back in the 80's. Iirc there was a photograph taken of the eminent cryptozoologist Dr Karl Shuker in his combats at the site.And mighty fine he looked too.
As to the actual alligator, this came as some surprise to anglers like myself who regularly fished Swan Pool. I would never describe myself as the most observant of people but I'm fairly sure I would have noticed something like that.
Fast forward to two years ago, and a hospital stay. I got talking to this bloke Rob. now a good mate and for whatever reason I mentioned the Valleygator.
"That was my brother" he said "and it was a snapping turtle, it got too big so he put it in Swan Pool".
So there you go.
All the best.

[Batman]

Quantum fluctuations, a unified force splits into the strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational forces. These inflate into the known universe with hydrogen fusing with hydrogen to produce helium. As it cools helium fuses with hydrogen and so on until we get the periodic table of elements. Gases condense, supernovas blow more chemicals. Gravity captures particles bringing them together in large accretion disks revolving around burning balls of gas we can suns. The chemical clumping results in planets. Eventually a planet is formed in a goldilocks zone where complex chemicals don't break down quickly. All it takes is for a catalyst to keep restructuring a complex chemical compound and it can be reproduced. Natural selection leads to amino acid sequences that combine to form a precursor to RNA which is a precursor to DNA. Cells grow, organisms become multicellular, swimming in the ocean, crawling onto land, dinosaurs, mammals and us... But a blip on the cosmic calander.

We just don't live in a universe that allows for the suspension of physics or biology. If there is going to be magic, its going to technological, not natural.


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.- Arthur C. Clarke.

[Beowulf]

I've seen several ghosts in my lifetime. I have no idea why but I truly have. Thing is every time but the first I was with someone who also saw them.

Three of those people absolutely did NOT believe in ghosts.

They do now.

[caz]

I would be very sceptical if I hadn't had a few impossible-to-explain experiences of my own.

I once felt a hand on my shoulder while I was hoovering in the early afternoon. I assumed my husband (now ex) had popped in from work, so I told him off for startling me then turned round to find nobody was there. I had been working that morning on the family tree my father compiled, so I wondered if that had had an effect on my imagination, but I can feel that hand to this day and it was firm and very real.

Shortly after my Mum died in 1993 we went on holiday. Not long after we got back I went to use my stapler and was annoyed to find it wasn't in its usual place downstairs with my stationery. My ex swore he hadn't touched it and there was no reason why he should have done. Eventually it turned up - on top of the wardrobe in our bedroom. He said I must have put it there without thinking, but I never put anything else there and needed the steps to reach it. I still think it was my dear departed Mum's way of making her presence felt.

A similar thing happened only last week with the alarm clock on my bedside table. Being a bit OCD about things always being in their place, I would never move it from its appointed spot. Anyway, in the night I noticed it was missing, but went back to sleep and in the morning put it down to a dream. But the clock was still not there so I asked my partner about it. He shrugged his shoulders, looked round the room then pointed to one of the bookshelves, where my clock was now sitting. (He has his own clock on his side of the bed and denies moving mine.) During the previous afternoon, I had added a book to my 'to read' pile - This House is Haunted, the investigation into the Enfield Poltergeist.

Cue spooky music...

Love,

Caz
X

[Batman]

Isn't that the one with the kids jumping around the beds?

Clarke did this expose where some supernatural investigators released tapes where kids are actually responsible for chucking things about the room at night and then telling mum it was a ghost. We never get to see all those ones.

Obviously someone was also just chucking stones at the house and having a laugh I think. Probably... Drum roll... Kids.

[caz]

Isn't that the one with the kids jumping around the beds?

That's the one, Batman.

No kids around when those things happened to me. I was distinctly unamused by them too.

Love,

Caz
X

[Amanda]

That's the one, Batman.

No kids around when those things happened to me. I was distinctly unamused by them too.

Love,

Caz
X

Hi Caz,
Just had a weird conversation with my sister about a similar experience.
Last night she was reading a book about a girl who was mentally disturbed, tied her brother to a tree & set fire to him. As it was based upon a true story it gave her shivers & she stopped reading when she got to a particularly gruesome part. When she woke up this morning, that page was torn out of the book.
She was alone & can't find the page anywhere.
Amanda

[caz]

Hi Amanda,

Knowing what I know from personal experience, I could perhaps imagine a semi-rational explanation for the page being torn out, but not for it disappearing!

Love,

Caz
X

[Amanda]

Hi Amanda,

Knowing what I know from personal experience, I could perhaps imagine a semi-rational explanation for the page being torn out, but not for it disappearing!

Love,

Caz
X

Exactly! We even looked in the dustbin & in the dog's poop! Nothing...

Amanda

[martin wilson]

Hi all.

One rather nice and literally Fortean coincidence happened about 7 or 8 years ago.
I was talking to a mate at work called Mark about the Aston Venusian (for those unfamiliar with the incident, in 1957 Cynthia Appleton from Aston Birmingham claimed she had been impregnated by a man from Venus)
He said, "I remember that!, load of rubbish, I wrote a letter to the local paper about it and they sent a photographer round to take a picture of me."
Scroll on a few months and the iirc the December issue of the Fortean Times arrived, (I was a subscriber in those days)
Behold! they covered the Aston Venusian case, and there was Mark's letter and the photograph of him!
Of course I took it into work and gave him the mag, gobsmacked doesn't even begin to describe his reaction.
Good fun.

[Beowulf]

Hi all.

One rather nice and literally Fortean coincidence happened about 7 or 8 years ago.
I was talking to a mate at work called Mark about the Aston Venusian (for those unfamiliar with the incident, in 1957 Cynthia Appleton from Aston Birmingham claimed she had been impregnated by a man from Venus)
He said, "I remember that!, load of rubbish, I wrote a letter to the local paper about it and they sent a photographer round to take a picture of me."
Scroll on a few months and the iirc the December issue of the Fortean Times arrived, (I was a subscriber in those days)
Behold! they covered the Aston Venusian case, and there was Mark's letter and the photograph of him!
Of course I took it into work and gave him the mag, gobsmacked doesn't even begin to describe his reaction.
Good fun.

Pretty interesting story.

[Steadmund Brand]

Good day everyone...let me start out by saying I am a skeptic... I even worked for CSICP: (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) for a bit (not as an investigator.. but knew them all.. including the oft mentioned late James Randi) but I too have an unusual ghost story.

When I was around 27 or 28 years old I "woke up" one night in my room and my Grandfather (who died when I was 2 by the way) was sitting on the edge of my bed shaking his head....funny thing was I wasn't scared at all and even knew who he was (even thought I had no real memory of him in life) I asked what was wrong and he said "you have to place the bet.. it's a sure thing, why even think twice" (my grandfather in life was a big gambler) I asked him what bet? and he said " the horse...running in the 5th... with your name silly" then he got up and walked out my bedroom door...I woke up that morning and thought what a weird dream I had....anyway a little after I woke up my mother called, like she did most mornings, anyway we were talking and she said " I had the weirdest dream last night...my father came to see me and he said that you'll be ok now, he spoke to you" I was a bit shocked and I told her about my dream... we both kind of chuckled a bit...then I went and got a paper and I swear in the 5th race at Fort Erie racetrack was a horse with my name in his name.... now I was freaked out.. but I had to go bet it....and I did and the horse came in 4th.... (this was not a joke punchline or anything.. it really did happen and the damn horse lost!!!) I called my mother and told her I went to the track and did what he told me to do and I lost... she laughed and said he always was a lousy gambler.....

Again... I swear this is a true story.. I don't think he really came to see me, I am pretty sure I must have seen the race form and it stuck in the back of my brain.. and i knew he was a gambler, and my mother has dreams all the time about her father.. so that part is understandable... just thought I would share my "Ghost Story" it didn't make me a believer... but was odd


Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

Interesting story, Stead. But why do you think James Randi is late? He's still alive as of the present, as far as I know....unless you have had some weird psychic experience....

[Steadmund Brand]

He is still alive... I actually meant to write great not Late...brain hiccup I guess....or the "spiritualists" moved my hand to bring about doom on the Amazing Randi hahahah (he would love that answer)

He is really an interesting guy... I havent seen him in more than 15 years ( when I last worked for CSICP ) but it was a pleasure to meet him, and so many other wonderful people I got to meet thru that orginization.....I remember him always joking about my height when I saw him ( he is rather short.. and I am 6'5 )

Steadmund Brand

[martin wilson]

Hi Beowulf

That was a fun coincidence, incidentally, I only live a stones throw away from Dr Shuker, although I must stop throwing stones at his house. I've never spoken to him but by all accounts he is a very nice man.
Some people, not all, attribute more significance to coincidence than others, it is also my personal belief that they are more likely to interpret what upon investigation is seen to be a mundane cause to being 'paranormal'
Going back to Swan pool. Nick Duffy of the West Midlands Ghost Society informed me that an early morning jogger had seen a Bigfoot walking across the adjoining fields.
Ok. A Bigfoot, in the West Midlands of England?
An alternative explanation is that the jogger had seen an angler, perhaps coming back from his ablutions, There is a corner of Swan Pool where the wind is constantly in your face, it's good fishing though, so anglers wear olive drab one piece quilted suits, moon boots and balaclavas.
The distance of the sighting wasn't known, but it's the interpretation of it that interests me, where I would think fisherman the jogger thought Bigfoot?
Who knows?
All the best.