Monsters and Myths

Rocking gently on the waves, a small fishing boat watches the swell of the seas, waiting for the day’s catch to willingly swim into the waiting trap. A fog closes in and the day turns dark before it’s time. Suddenly, they feel a thud against the boat. The waters stir and a creature like nothing they’ve ever seen before emerges from the depths. Petrified, they look up, up a long neck to see bright flashing eyes, the head of a sea-turtle and the lithe, smooth body of a snake. And they forget about their catch of the day, for this is the dreaded sea serpent.

Sea serpents have been sighted for centuries, there are a number of records in Europe dating back to the mid 16^th century, at least. The secretive creatures were known to ancient cultures in the Near East; Aristotle was aware of them, and they make an appearance in the Bible. Most sea serpents are reported as large and reptilian; many types have been seen in lakes (‘Nessie’ in Loch Ness, Scotland) and oceans.

Assuming that most sightings are ‘real’ and not hoaxes created for publicity purposes, precise identification is a difficult and fascinating problem. We can set aside theories that rest upon improbable events such as the survival of a small breeding population of marine dinosaurs (plesiosaurs). A few sea serpent sightings may be mis-identifications of rare, very large, unusual fish such as the oar fish, that can only be accurately identified by a professional ichthyologist, but this still leaves the majority of sea serpents mysterious and without precise identification. To add to the challenge, excitement, fascination and fear will cause many observers to exaggerate the size of a sea serpent that is only seen for a few minutes.

If Not a Sea Serpent, What Then?

Many sea serpent sightings can be matched to sightings of either a giant octopus or giant squid by people unaware of these very rare creature’s complete body form and habits. It is impossible to obtain a view of the entire body of these giant cephalopods unless the observer is underwater or a dead animal washes up on a beach. The known giant octopus of temperate oceans reaches 23 ft in length and can weigh up to 157lbs. The largest octopus species is the seven armed octopus, which can reach 4 m in length and a weight of 75kg. A large octopus has tentacles that it might raise into the air when swimming just below the surface of the ocean. These tentacles might then look like the long neck of a large reptile with a small head. Although early prints of the Kraken, which have allegedly been seen off the coasts of Norway and Iceland, often depict the creature as a giant octopus, it is now believed to be the giant squid of the North Atlantic.

Squid tentacles make up more than half the total body length, and, like the octopus, could easily be mistaken for something more ominous. The writhing limbs of a giant quid can reach up to 43 ft in length and weigh a whopping 610 lbs, and as with many species in the animal kingdom, the female is larger than the male.

Closely related is the largest squid species of all, the colossal squid. They can be found in Antarctic oceans and the deep Southern Pacific Ocean, and, as with the giant squid, is preyed upon by sperm whales. The largest known specimen weighed more than half a ton.

Nonetheless, there are sea serpent sightings that cannot be easily attributed to giant cephalopods. The next time you are walking on a beach, sailing or on a cruise ship, keep your camera ready. You might have a chance to contribute to the sea serpent legend that has fascinated the world for many centuries, and whose mystery has yet to be completely solved.

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Hairy bipeds are reported from all over the world. North America has its Sasquatch and Skunk Apes, the Himalayas its Yeti, Southeast Asia its Orang Pendek. Could there be a similar such creature inhabiting the remote mountains of Japan?

The “Japanese Bigfoot” is commonly referred to as the Hibagon, said to lurk in the forests of Mt. Hiba in Northern Hiroshima, from which it gains its namesake, as well as its surrounding areas.

The Hibagon is a reddish brown or black in color, sometimes reported as having a patch of white fur on its chest or arms.It is said to be a foul smelling creature, with a face covered in bristles, a snub nose, and glaring, intelligent eyes. The face is sometimes said to be long and somewhat protruding rather than flat like a human’s, and the head is often reported as proportionately large, and shaped somewhat like an inverted triangle.

The Hibagon is much smaller than its North American counterpart, being most commonly reported as around 5 feet in height and estimated as weighing about 180 pounds. In many respects, the Hibagon is more ape-like than the Sasquatch as well. It is often described as looking like a gorilla or giant monkey, and although it is most often seen moving bipedally, many reports tell of the creature moving about on all fours quite easily. Some eyewitnesses even claim the animal was hopping along “like a monkey.” Other notable features are the Hibagon’s apparent lack of fear of people and the absence of any sort of vocalizations in the reports.

The Hibagon is mostly known from a series of sightings lasting from 1970 to 1982. Probably the first Hibagon sighting account occurred in early 1970, when a group of elementary school students out picking wild mushrooms in the forests of Mt. Hiba were terrified to come across an ape-like creature crashing through brush nearby.

That same year, in July 1970, the creature was spotted again by a utilities truck driver. The driver reported seeing a gorilla-like creature on two legs stride across a field near a dam, run across the road, and disappear into the forest. Several days later, on July 23rd 1970, the creature appeared again, this time out of brush and long grass in front of a surprised farmer, who described the Hibagon as being as tall as an average man, covered in black fur, and having a grotesque face with piercing, intelligent eyes. The Hibagon was also sighted walking through a rice paddy in the town of Saijo around the same time. In December of that same year, strange tracks of the alleged creature measuring 21 centimeters in length were found in the snow of Mt. Hiba. More tracks would be uncovered in the following years, and one of the longest trackways stretched on for 300 meters.

By this time, the reports were becoming well-known and well publicized in the media, while at the same time the rural residents of the area were growing increasingly uneasy about the strange animal being seen in their forests. Sightings continued, and area residents became so uneasy that the county now known as Saijo Shobara actually set up a department to deal with the phenomena. In addition to documenting eyewitness accounts and trying to get to the bottom of what was going on, the department also launched patrols around the area in hopes of finding whatever was causing the reports. Kobe University conducted an investigation of the area in 1972 to try and find physical evidence of the Hibagon, and police managed to make plaster casts at a construction site of some tracks allegedly made by the creature. No evidence was turned up by the University, and the tracks were found to be inconclusive.

Sightings continued through 1972 and 73, almost always during summer months, and in 1974 there was a significant spike in the amounts of reports. One such sighting occurred on August 15, 1974 when a motorist spotted a large, blackish animal walking near the road on four legs. When the creature sensed the approaching vehicle, it is reported as standing up and walking along on two legs. The shocked driver then stopped the car and snapped a photo of the creature trying to hide itself behind a persimmon tree. The photo is of poor quality, a blobsquatch in every sense, yet it received wide publicity and became probably the most famous photo of a Hibagon.

Other sightings in 1974 include a Hibagon that was spotted crossing a road on June 20, 1974. The driver described it as moving along in a series of hopping leaps. On July 15, 1974, a woman saw one near her house and described it as very ape-like, like a gorilla walking around on two legs, and about 1.6 meters tall. There was even video footage taken of one walking along a remote mountain road, however the footage is blurry and of poor quality. Many tracks were also discovered in the year of 1974, including a series of prints found on August 21 in a mountain valley. The footprints were 30 cm long, which is not large for a sasquatch but some of the biggest prints found for an alleged Hibagon.

After the surge of eyewitness accounts in 1974, sightings of the Hibagon dropped off almost completely until 1980, when one was seen fleeing across a river with a bounding gait near the town of Yamano, where it became known as the “Yamagon.” It was spotted in the same area again in 1981 on a road near a health center, but perhaps the most remarkable sighting of the time occurred in 1982 in Mitsugi, which is located about 30km west of Yamano. In this report, the Hibagon was described as being more along the lines of sasquatch in size, estimated at 2m tall, but the most bizarre feature of the account was that it was said to be holding what looked like some sort of stone tool like an axe. This is the only account of a Hibagon being that large or wielding any sort of tool or weapon.

After 1982, sightings abruptly stopped, and the Hibagon seemed to just fall off the face of the Earth. There are practically no reliable reports of the creature after this time.

So what was it that people were seeing?

Theories abound about what the Hibagon could be. Perhaps the most common such theory is that the culprit was an elderly or infirm Japanese macaque that had lost its group and gone solo. This would fit in with the reddish brown coloration of some of the reports, as well as the oft mentioned tendency for the Hibagon to walk along on all fours and its ape-like appearance. This might even explain a limping shuffle mentioned in a few accounts, which would fit in with an injured animal. One of the problems with this idea is that Japanese macaques do not get nearly as large as the Hibagon is reported as being, and macaques would not match the black coloration reported by some eyewitnesses. Japanese macaques are also fairly common in Japan, and would likely be recognized by the locals as such.

Another idea is that the creature was an escaped Asiatic black bear. This species of bear has a swath of white fur on its chest, a feature noted in some Hibagon reports, and of course bears are able of stints of bipedal locomotion. The Asiatic black bear is also a bit different in appearance than the naturally occurring black bears of Japan, and the long face described in some Hibagon reports would fit in with a bear.

There is also speculation that an escaped great ape, such as an orangutan, could be the culprit. This would fit in many ways appearance-wise, and there is one old newspaper report that I know of concerning smuggled orangutans escaping into the wild. However, orangutans are very arboreal creatures, and there are no reports of Hibagon in trees. Orangutans would also not find it easy to survive in the wild there, since the temperatures can be very cold there in this area.

Yet another theory is that what was seen was not animals at all, but rather “Yajin”, feral humans or mountain men who have shunned society to live alone in the wilderness. Perhaps the sightings were even caused by a mix of all of the above.

Or was the Hibagon something else entirely? Is it possible that a new type of hairy bipedal creature once lived, or maybe even still lives, in the remote mountains of the area? Some proponents have speculated that the rash of sightings that occurred during the 70s coincided with an increase of hunting in the area, which could have driven some of the creatures down from their habitat. The animals that were seen could also have been sick or wounded individuals that had wandered from where they usually live, perhaps in search of food. A few reports describe the animal as moving along with a shuffling gait or a limp, which has lead to speculation that at least one of the alleged creatures was injured, so?this could possibly explain these reports. Some have even suggested that the Hibagon that were sighted could have represented the last of a very rare species and that they are now extinct. Could the Hibagon been a new, undocumented creature?

Whatever the Hibagon was or is, it still lives on in the memory of the area’s residents. There are many regional, Hibagon related goods such as “Hibagon eggs” (which are actually Japanese sweet bean cakes), Hibagon “donburi” (a type of Japanese food), Hibagon company mascots, signs announcing the presence of Hibagon in the area, and even a giant Hibagon statue near one highway. The Hibagon’s image can be found everywhere and is a fixture of the local culture in some towns of the area.

A sign advertising “Hibagon-don,” a type of “donburi” which is a Japanese dish.

What was the Hibagon? Where is it now? Perhaps we will never know.

cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/hibagon

If you were a nine-foot tall animal covered in dense fur – say, Bigfoot – you would probably seek cooler climes if temps began inching up. That’s the hypothesis one Queens College biologist posed to me last night – without, I should note, acknowledging that such an animal exists at all.

First, a bit of background on why I would have found myself in a bar in Manhattan’s Alphabet City talking about Sasquatch. The biologist in question – Mike Hickerson, who studies “biogeographic shifts, speciation, extinction and determinants of community assembly,” a.k.a. phylogeography – and I had just been to Bigfoot Night. Bigfoot Night, if you don’t know, was the latest installment of Kevin Maher’s Sci Fi Screening Room. (In the interests of full disclosure, Bigfoot Night’s co-host was M. Sweeney Lawless, a friend.)

Bigfoot Night was not quite a scientific conference, but it was entertaining nonetheless. We were treated to a number of videos: A 1984 CNN segment on a town in Washington State that became alarmed after a group of Vietnam vets there decided to hunt Bigfoot in the woods. (There was potential risk to “nocturnal agricultural pursuits” and “nocturnal distillation.”) An episode of TV’s The Six Million Dollar Man in which bionic hero Steve Austin fought Bigfoot. (Spoiler alert: Austin ripped Sasquatch’s arm off.) An episode of Bigfoot and Wildboy.

Performers also read dozens of Bigfoot “eyewitness” accounts, many of which ended with some version of “This was not a bear.” And we were treated to a truly awful movie called Skunk Ape?! featuring a punk band whose leader was hell-bent on killing a Florida swamp creature in Chicago using a harpoon.

But I digress. The night’s science quotient went up later, when several of us from the audience went out for drinks. There, Hickerson told me about his research into what’s called environmental niche modeling. The basic idea is that you correlate sightings of any organism, or evidence of that organism, with geographical and climate data, to try to figure out where you might find other such organisms.

That’s the idea behind this study of species shifting across Yosemite, led by Hickerson’s postdoctoral advisor, Craig Moritz. You can see how such work would be useful not only in trying to forecast where animals and plants might move, but also in predicting places we might find endangered species where we previously have not. Combine that with new tools like Google Earth, and it’s understandable why the field has taken off.

Hickerson told me that evolutionary meetings now feature hundreds of papers on the subject, compared to practically none just two or three years ago. He uses it to study a number of plants and animals, in particular those such as seaweed and barnacles that live in rocky intertidal regions.

But such modeling could also be used to study Bigfoot. So as a joke, Hickerson, who spent about eight years in Washington State working in forests (where, he says, he heard “some weird stuff” at night), and his colleagues are taking all of the Bigfoot footprint and sighting data to try to figure out where the creatures might be found. That is, if they exist, which Hickerson says is an incredibly big if. (Note to believers: He’s a open-minded skeptic, not one of you.)

Tongue planted firmly in cheek, he then told me that they still need more data, particularly from Canada, but his preliminary read is that there have been more sightings in northern parts of Sasquatch habitat lately.

“Maybe Sasquatch is moving up north,” Hickerson suggested sarcastically.

Watch out, Canada.

sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/

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A Kalamazoo native’s story helps to debunk the myth of Bigfoot tomorrow on TV Land.

It was 1967 when costume-maker Philip Morris got an unusual phone call from a guy asking about a gorilla costume. “We had been advertising our costumes in a lot of trade magazines, so I was used to getting phone calls, but this was different,” said Morris, whose costume company Morris Costumes in Charlotte, N.C., is one of the largest in the nation.

“The man on the phone, who said his name was Roger Patterson, wanted to buy a gorilla suit and asked if it looked like a real gorilla,” said Morris, a Kalamazoo Central graduate. “I told him that it looked like a Hollywood gorilla, but he said he wanted something that looked more like a Neanderthal. What he wanted was Bigfoot.”

Intrigued, Morris asked Patterson what the costume was for. “He said the costume was for a prank, but I thought that was pretty odd because these were expensive suits,” said Morris. “Our customers were movie studios and famous magicians, the suits cost $450 back then. That is like over $1,000 today. I thought it was odd to spend so much on a prank, but I sent him the costume.”

Two weeks after sending out the costume, Morris got another phone call from Patterson. “He asked me to send him some extra fur and asked how to hide the zipper in the back and how to make the person in the costume look larger,” Morris said. “I told him to brush the fur over the zipper and use hair spray to hold it, and then get some football shoulder pads and sticks for the arms to give the illusion of being taller, and use stuffing to get more bulk.”

Two months later, Patterson was all over the news with a video he “captured” of Bigfoot while hunting in northern California. “I was watching TV when I saw Patterson and his film on the news,” Morris said. “I called my wife from the other room and said, `Look it’s our gorilla costume.”’

The film has since become the most famous footage of Bigfoot and has ignited a controversy over its authenticity. With a large clientele of magicians, Morris decided not to tell anyone that it was his gorilla costume in the film.

“As a costume and special-effects producer, I have an ethical code I have to uphold,” Morris said. “I couldn’t go out telling secrets and expect magicians to trust me with their props. That is why I didn’t say anything. Plus I thought he would come clean in a few weeks.”

Patterson never admitted it was a hoax, but after his death in the 1980s Morris decided it was OK to tell people it was his suit in the film.

“Most people believe me, but there are people that are very hostile to me when I tell them it is a hoax,” Morris said. “It is like telling them Santa Claus doesn’t exist. They grew up believing it was true and do not want to admit to themselves it’s fake.”

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For anyone that has delved into any sort of crypto-history, the world is a wonderfully mysterious place. It seems natural that those interested in delving into underground streams, will eventually come across a litany of Fortean type phenomena. Psychics, ghosts, clairvoyants, mediums, past lives, synchronicity, and all other things mystical seem to float on the edge of many topics outside the “generally accepted”.

Trying to discern the validity of these events that fall outside of our everyday reality is something we all have pondered. What is even more curious to me is that there is a wedge between those that believe these phenomena are real and any talk of science. When one brings up a scientific reason for an unexplained event, the mystic tends to feel marginalized because there is a possible scientific explanation. Much in the same way a creationist gets a sour look on their face when one tries to link the Big Bang with God speaking the universe into existence with “Let there be light”.

I tend to be one that looks for a bridge between the mystical and scientific. Just as the scientist cannot explain the entire “why” for every normally occurring events, the mystic has faith in the unexplained. So why is there an invisible wedge between the two? Both groups are faced with the evidences of the unknown, but there seldom seems to be an attempt to come to a common solution.

Think about the reaction most have when learning that the Vatican operates an observatory. The tendency in most is to question why the world’s largest religious organization would have any interest in astronomy. The answer is as old as the true purposes of the alchemists. The true reason behind turning lead into gold was the search for the base material that God used to create the universe. Thus, the underlying search was for the divine itself. While the Vatican Observatory was created to create an accurate calendar for Easter, the underlying purpose is simply to seek evidences of God in the natural world.

The disconnect runs in the opposite direction as well. At a gathering a couple of years ago, I had a conversation with a friend that does tarot readings. The conversation wrangled its way around to past lives. She fully believed that in some regression sessions she had taken part of, that she could get in touch with those who had made up her past lives. She believed that this was possible because she had been reincarnated from those souls the regression sessions had shown her.

My question was how could she be so sure that these were reincarnated souls and not some form of genetic ancestral memory? One would have thought I had slapped her. I had introduced a possibility of giving a concrete explanation into her mystical experience. Her answer was firmly, “No the window I have is into those who have been reincarnated in me.”

The topic of genetic memory is simply a theory; and one not ascribed by many geneticists. The prevalent argument against memories being passed along ancestral lines is that DNA changes little over a person’s life span. The problem is that science has few clues into how memories are captured and stored within an organism. A recent study has shown that certain memories can be “erased” by blocking a certain protein in mice. If memories are electro-chemical reactions, why couldn’t they be replicated? Furthermore, there has been little work done in with “junk DNA”.

These are DNA strands that have no protein-coding functions. This week a study was published that this “junk DNA” could be more important to the evolutionary process than anyone had ever considered. Could a genetic memory lie here?

The question is not if genetic memory is real or if reincarnation is spiritually valid. The finer point is that is there any less wonder attached to a phenomena if there is an explanation? Conversely, is there any reason not to try to explain the mysterious simply because it does not fit into a belief system? If the answer is yes, then we stymie our ability to grow both science and understanding of the mystical.

unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=140791

CANNOCK Chase’s very own Bigfoot has been with us since 1879, documents have revealed. And as sightings of the creature continue to flood in, prominent cryptzoologist Nick Redfern declares: “It has paranormal origins!”

Dozens of eyewitness accounts of Bigfoot have been recorded in the area in recent years.

As recently as September, a sighting was reported by a local resident, who described being chased by a terrifying beast whilst driving through Cannock Chase at 2am.

“This thing was the shape of a human, but stood about seven to eight foot tall.

As soon as it realised we had seen it, it stood up straight and ran towards us.

This thing was definitely not human, it was huge! It wasn’t just tall, but broad and stocky, too. I don’t know whether it was flying or jumping or what.”

However, far from this being a modern phenomenon, local documents telling of a ghostly apeman have been uncovered dating back as far as 1883.

In ‘Shropshire Folk-Lore’, Charlotte Sophia Burne writes: “A very weird story of an encounter with an animal ghost arose of late years within my own knowledge.

“On the 21st of January 1879, a labouring man was employed to take a cart of luggage from Ranton in Staffordshire to Woodcock, beyond Newport in Shropshire.

“He was late in coming back. His horse was tired, and could only crawl along at a foot’s pace, so that it was ten o’ clock at night when he arrived at the place where the highroad crosses the Birmingham and Liverpool canal.

“Just before he reached the canal bridge, a strange black creature with great white eyes sprang out of the plantation by the roadside and alighted on his horse’s back. He tried to push it off with his whip, but to his horror the whip went through the thing, and he dropped it on the ground in fright.”

According to Mrs. Burne, when the man recovered from the fright, he returned home and excitedly spread the story.

A few days later, a policeman appeared and told the man: “That was the Man-Monkey sir.”

Nick Redfern, a notable expert in the field who grew up in Staffordshire, insists that the Cannock Bigfoot is real - but not just a flesh-and-blood animal.

Mr. Redfern said: “I think the Cannock Chase Bigfoot has paranormal origins and is linked with the large amount of paranormal activity in the area.

“If this creature was flesh-and-blood, there would have to be more than one to ensure reproduction.

“!If there was a colony of them on the Chase, we would be seeing massive evidence of them feeding on the local animal population.

“But the amount of deer kills that have taken place are not anywhere near enough to feed a colony of these creatures.

“However, I am in no doubt that the reports people have made are genuine. I have spoken to a number of witnesses to the creature myself and I am convinced of their honesty.

“The Cannock Chase Bigfoot has to be a ghostly, paranormal-type thing, and not a large, physical ape.”

Writing online, Mr. Redfern says he agrees with the conclusion that “ancient man - who certainly constructed the Castle Ring - had mental abilities that extended far beyond our own, and was able to essentially tap into other realms of existence, and construct ‘from the mind’ images of bizarre and monstrous beasts that inhabited those same realms.

“The purpose of these beasts? To act as guardians to prevent any harm being done to the areas that ancient man deemed to be of spiritual significance.

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PARK officials have denied a bigfoot-like creature is on the loose in Wanstead’s woods after a “strange and hairy” bear-like animal was spotted by a fisherman.

Trainee fitness instructor Michael Kent said he was “stunned” when he saw the “hairy, dark creature” during an evening fishing trip in the Hollow Ponds area of Epping Forest, on the border between Wanstead and Leytonstone.

Mr Kent, 18, said: “I was there with my dad and brother. I was walking over to where my brother was when I heard this rustling sound.

“I looked over and saw this strange, dark figure that resembled a bear. It was hunched over and I could see it had a really hairy back. I think it must have heard me and scampered off into the bushes after a couple of seconds.

“It was getting dark but I still managed to get a good look at it. It was about 4ft tall, so it was too small to be human, but not the right shape to be a deer, it didn’t have long legs or anything like that.

“I’ve been fishing in the area since I was five years old, and I’ve seen deer, dogs and even a cow before but never anything like this.

“It definitely looked like a bear. My dad and brother weren’t so sure they just laughed but I really do believe I saw one.”

He added: “It would be good if there bears around here because it would mean we’d have some other wildlife round here to enjoy, as long as they didn’t go around attacking people.

“I’m going to keep my eye out for it and perhaps i’ll see it again.”

But not everyone is convinced by the sighting.

Ian Greer, a park keeper in Wanstead’s Tarzy Woods said: “I doubt he saw a bear. The biggest animals we’ve got in the woods are foxes.

“Sometimes we get deer but there are no bears around here.”

guardian-series.co.uk/news/

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Reality Films announces the November 15th DVD release of two new documentary films chronicling groundbreaking discoveries in both cryptozoology and ancient knowledge.

The Wildman of Kentucky: the Mystery of Panther Rock: A team of explorers investigating a rash of Bigfoot sightings encounter a mysterious creature and strange phenomena during an expedition into the area known in Kentucky lore as “The Frazier Land.” Indian legend refers to the area as, “The dark and bloody ground.” After documenting a series of unexplainable sightings and chilling experiences by area residents, the team set out on a multi-night expedition that deeply affected several of the crew members.

This team of paranormal explorers not only encountered a mysterious creature while on expedition in Kentucky, but also observed anomalous lights and other phenomena in the dense Kentucky forest. “It was as if it was toying with us,” says team leader Philip Spencer. “It could traverse dense brush and move long distances like a ghost. As soon as we gained position on it, it would flank us from the rear, it was very unnerving and I must admit, rattled a crew of grown men as we realized that we were in the middle of nowhere with this very real situation.” This expedition resulted in The Wildman of Kentucky: the Mystery of Panther Rock, a documentary film from Reality Entertainment. This two hour film takes the viewer on the investigative team’s journey and features eyewitness testimony of Bigfoot sightings throughout Anderson County, KY.

The Viking Serpent, Secrets of the Celtic Church of Norway, Their Serpent Worship and Sacred Pentagram Geometry: What do the three most evil symbols for Christianity (the number 666, the pentagram, and the snake) have in common? Quite possibly one of the most amazing and important discoveries of all time. In this unprecedented film, The Viking Serpent, authors Harald Boehlke and Philip Gardiner reveal a startling discovery of ancient knowledge encoded into the vast landscape of the region.

“The scope of this discovery is on par with the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China,” says Gardiner, a best selling author on esoteric subjects. Boehlke adds, “For centuries, we were led to believe that pentagrams, 666 and other symbolism was evil, but what this really tells us is that ancient knowledge has actually been hidden under the guise of something Satanic or nefarious to conceal its true purpose and meaning. Now we have the opportunity to set the record straight.”

The Viking Serpent reveals an ancient and incredible legacy placed upon the landscape of Norway. While journeying to key places along Norway’s breathtaking landscape, this film delves into the heart of ancient serpent worship, while unraveling the sacred language of our ancestors. See Norway’s amazing Stav churches up close; walk with us along the sacred pathways of the Celtic Church and discover their unique and amazing symbolic devices. Journey by boat to the Holy Island and enter a landscape virtually untouched by the ravages of time.

americanchronicle.com/articles/81107