Monsters and Myths

The object was spotted by the pilot of Olympic Airways flight 266 from Athens, and the sighting was corroborated by staff at Athens Airport and a nearby Greek air force base. Pilots of two other passenger jets also reported seeing the body.

The eyewitnesses described it as looking like a large star, although it was moving erratically and constantly changing shape.

Two fighter jets were sent to investigate the sighting over the Greek capital in November 2007 but the object shot up into the sky and vanished before they could get a clear view.

The incident was kept secret by the Greek authorities for more than a year, but is now generating huge interest after official documents and recordings of the conversation between the pilot and control tower were released.

An Olympic Airlines spokeswoman said: “I can confirm the incident. It is the first of its kind involving our pilots.”

Greek officials say that the object, which was not detected on any radar, was probably a mistaken sighting of the planet Venus in the Autumn night sky.

This is not the first time that a passenger jet has had a close encounter with a UFO. Documents released by the Ministry of Defence last year disclosed that an Alitalia flight had a near miss while landing at Heathrow in 1991, with the pilot describing an object “similar to a missile – light brown or fawn – about three metres in length but without any exhaust flame”.

telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4577717/

Fighter-jets-scrambled-after-UFO-follows-plane-over-Athens.html

As a boy growing up in Arkansas, Rob Stone thought the old woman he saw at his grandparents’ farmhouse was just an “imaginary friend” - until a photograph of his dead great-grandmother revealed a strikingly similar appearance between the two.

As a teenager in Fort Wayne, Paul Walter had a similarly weird experience: the vision of a woman wearing rimless glasses and a dress, who he at first thought was his grandmother - who was in another room at the time. Both got goose bumps when the dress Walters described turned out to resemble his great-grandmother’s burial gown.

Youthful fantasies? Memories twisted by time? Bad dreams? Stone and Walter can’t say for sure, which is why they and several other local “ghost hunters” have formed an organization designed to disprove or verify the existence of things that go bump in the night.

In the process, they hope to help save one of Fort Wayne’s unique but endangered architectural treasures that may - or may not - have ghost stories of its own to tell.

“All of us are active in our community; one guy is an engineer, some of us are in manufacturing or own (a) business. We want people who want to get to the bottom of these experiences,” said Stone, 41. As spokesman for In Nomine Paranormal Research, he doesn’t want his 7-month-old organization’s serious, methodical search for answers to be hijacked by thrill-seekers whose knowledge of paranormal research is limited to movies like “Ghostbusters.”

“It’s neat to try to document the unexplainable. It’s a debunking process,” said Walter, 28, explaining that group members use technology to search for answers that often defy human senses and reason.

The group, which was created when like-minded people discovered each other on the Internet, uses devices to detect abnormal electro-magnetic levels and also uses audio and visual equipment in an attempt to record … well, something.

Stone, who administers the information technologies network at Lincoln Foodservice in Fort Wayne, said the quest has taken the 10-member group to an old house in Sturgis, Mich., an old hotel in Sandusky, Ohio, and, more recently, to Fort Wayne’s Masonic Temple, which has been the scene of several unexplained events and will host the group’s first paranormal conference in May.

The conference will feature sessions on demonology, exorcism and ghost-hunting; presentations of personal paranormal experiences; a four-hour ghost hunt in the Temple; and other lectures. Proceeds will go to the Temple’s preservation fund.

As Masons, Stone and Walter are very familiar with the eight-story temple that has stood at 216 E. Washington Blvd. since 1923 but has fallen on hard times in recent years because of soaring maintenance and utility costs and declining membership.

They have also become familiar with several oddities they cannot yet explain, including shadowy forms moving through doorways and elevated electro-magnetic levels, especially near a fifth-floor conference room and trophy case.

As with the group’s other investigations, the existence of paranormal activity has not been conclusively documented at the Temple. But Stone said many “rational” explanations for the odd energy readings have been refuted, such as the presence of electrical wires and circuit boxes - a potentially disappointing but necessary step toward proving the existence of paranormal activity.

Stone said his group’s ghost-hunting, counseling and related services are free to anyone who has experienced the inexplicable and is seeking answers.

The group also plans to explore local ghostly legends such as the story of the so-called “Waynedale Witch,” a 27-year-old woman murdered in 1965, doing whatever is possible to separate fact from fancy.

What drives the 10 members of In Nomine (Latin for “In the name of”)?

“For me, it’s mostly scientific,” Stone said. “But it’s also religious. Most of our members are Christian, but we also have one pagan. They taught us in Sunday school that you die and go to heaven. Why are (spirits) still here?

“We feel like we’re meeting a need. Not everybody takes this as seriously as we do.”

As Stone, Walter and I spoke in the Temple’s partially darkened, cavernous social room, a series of loud clanks came out of nowhere.

Ghosts?

“The furnace,” Stone said.

news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/

20090205/NEWS/902050316/0/FRONTPAGE

Officials have admitted the number of UFO sightings more than doubled last year - including one spotted hovering over Parliament.

A total of 285 unidentified flying objects were reported in 2008, compared to just 135 in 2007, according to a Ministry of Defence document.

The mystery craft spotted hovering opposite Parliament was reported on February 12.

According to the document: ‘There was a craft that had green, red and white lights. It was still and static in the sky. It was seen for about half an hour.’

The rise in the number of sightings - the biggest since 1998 - was described as ‘phenomenal’ by experts.

The MoD only investigates reports of unidentified flying objects that it considers may pose a risk to national security, and most of the incidents seem just to have been logged and ignored.

Many of the sightings appear to be the products of somewhat fevered imaginations. For instance, on May 6 someone reported a ‘fast moving green object’ on the M6 motorway.

On June 28, near Cobham in Somerset, the document notes that someone reported seeing ’something interesting’ in the sky.

A few days earlier, it states: ‘Twenty-five amber lights were seen leaving the Heathrow area. They were seen travelling West at 45 degrees, 200-300 knots’.

In July, on the A6 road near Buxton in Derbyshire: ‘There was a distant bright light, like a star’.

On October 30, above Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the document records: ‘There was an orange object in the sky. It was the size of an aircraft.’

And a UFO the size of a 747 was reported above Leeds, West Yorkshire, in February.

That craft was described as a ‘jumbo jet sized object which was flat and round with a blue ripple underside. It made no sound and then disappeared.’

The dossier was published just one week after it emerged the RAF has tried to shoot down UFOs under instructions from the MoD.

Pilots have took aim at UFOs several times but failed to bring them down, former MoD employee and UFO expert Nick Pope claimed.

Mr Pope, who worked on the MoD’s UFO section for three years, said the ’shoot down’ directive had been in place since the 1980s.

‘We know of cases where the order has been given to shoot down - with little effect to the UFO,’ Mr Pope said.

Firing at UFOs was ‘not automatic but happens when something in our airspace is deemed to be a threat’ he said.

‘In the case of UFOs, whether the object is causing a threat is very much a (pilot’s) judgment call.’

And last month it was claimed that a UFO ripped a 60ft blade off a wind farm turbine.

Hundred of witnesses reported hearing an earsplitting bang at 4am.

One saw orangey-yellow spheres skimming across the sky, while another reported a ‘massive ball of light’ with ‘tentacles going right down to the ground’.

But MoD insiders claimed the craft that wrecked the turbine could have been a secret unmanned stealth bomber on test flights.

The personnel reportedly said that a black delta-wing craft called Taranis was making test runs on the coastal bombing ranges at Donna Nook and North Coates in Lincolnshire, near to the site of the damaged turbine.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1136085/

The-truth-UFO-sightings-Britain-double-single-year.html

Have you ever wondered why the yeti and Bigfoot rumors continue to stay around? So did I until I spent over a year researching the field of Crypto zoology which is the study of animals which fall outs ide of contemporary zoological catalogs. This is the first article of many to come, in later articles I will go into detail on different well known specimens and others that haven’t cracked pop culture yet.

Why do humans love to believe things are real, is it our fascination with the unknown or our fear of not knowing something in the world around us? Crypto zoologists study what is often referred to as cryptids which was coined in 1983 by john Hall. This field is often given little to no attention by the scientific community because of the fact that crypto zoologists study animals that aren’t scientifically proved. Most of the time there isn’t a single photo to go along with these accounts just stories from local natives or eyewitnesses.

Most experts on the matter consider the Bigfoot legend to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes. Although occasionally of the crypto accounts aren’t left as stories. The Mountain gorilla was once thought of to be local folklore of native African peoples living among the mountainous region of Africa until it was physically discovered in 1902. This is a rare case where a previous cryptid was found to be a living breathing animal in the eyes of zoologists. Other examples include the coelacanth, the okapi and the giant squid.

It may be just our human instinct to question our surroundings but is there truth to these tales or have some previously thought extinct animals made their way back from the evolutionary graveyard. We fear what we don’t know and what we can’t understand and for many these animals or legends pose a challenge for our human instinct. We cannot allow our thoughts and opinions to shroud our judgment. When we allow our minds to freely think we obtain a greater amount of enlightenment.

associatedcontent.com/article/1406046/

crypto_zoology_the_study_of_the_unknown.html?cat=2

A COUPLE enjoying a romantic weekend in the Highlands believe they may have had a close encounter with the Loch Ness Monster.

Experts are now investigating this latest photograph, which was taken by accident, to establish if it is in fact the Loch’s most famous resident.

Ian Monckton, from Solihull, took his fiance Tracey Gordon to a cottage in Invermoriston on the shores of the loch to celebrate her 30th birthday.

On their way back to the village at about 11pm they pulled into a lay-by. The driver’s window was wound down and before the couple stopped their car they heard a commotion in the water.

Using the car headlights and the flash from his camera to check their footing on the rocky shores of the loch, data analyst Ian unwittingly recorded this picture which he hopes could be the elusive monster.

“There is clearly a very large shape in the water that looks aquatic a few metres out from where I was standing and you just see the tips of the trees lower down the slope to the loch in the photo,” said Ian who has passed the picture to naturalist Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness Project to get his expert opinion.

“Myself and Tracey were always quite sceptical about Nessie but after having had this experience I would say we now have a very open mind on the matter.

“It was the highlight of our trip. We’ll definitely be back and we are struggling to get an explanation for what we caught on camera.”

Ian said the pictures were taken from a small cliff overlooking the loch. But it was only when they got back to their country retreat and checked the images they realised they significance of the what they had on their digital camera.

Ian said it was his first visit to Loch Ness and the weather was reasonably clear with only a light breeze.

“We decided to get away for a few days to celebrate Tracey’s birthday and because it was off season we headed up to Drumnadrochit for a meal.

“On our way back to Invermoriston we stopped off at Urquhart Castle to take a few photos, but the lights that illuminate the castle were turned off, so there were no photo opportunities there.

“Then we pulled over at a parking point to let a car pass, as my fiancé doesn’t drive as fast as the locals in the dark.

“I had the passenger window open as I was smoking at the time and as we pulled into the lay-by there was an rustling and a splash. It sounded as if a Mini had landed in the water. That’s how loud it was.

“We both looked at each other and I said ‘What the hell was that’? It wasn’t a small splash like a piece of debris or a stone falling into the loch. It sounded like a car or a motorbike had rolled into the loch.

“I got out of the car and walked up to the edge using the light from the car headlights to see where the edge of the loch dropped away and taking snaps with the camera so the flash let me see we where to tread.”

The couple called out to see if anyone was there, or in trouble in the loch but couldn’t hear anything apart from the water splashing around in the loch.

“After a while we continued back to Homewood, both wondering what the hell we had heard and joking about Nessie,” Ian added.

“However, when we looked back at the photos I had taken up to and looking over the cliff we now genuinely believe there is something in this, there is clearly a very large shape in the water that looks aquatic a few metres out from where I was standing and you just see the tips of the trees lower down the slope to the loch in the photo.”

Mr Shine, who has spent years researching the natural history of the Loch and the Great Glen and is the leader of the Loch Ness Project, commented: “We have been sent material and will be doing some on site investigations. There’s not enough information on the image to hazard a guess what it could be. However, the account sounds not inconsistent with an animal such as an otter going into the loch.”

Mikko Takala, who runs a webcam network for Nessie watchers worldwide, receives thousands of “Nessie sightings” every year as photos and videos.

He too has analysed the photograph and concludes it may be a dead fish.

“Obviously this photo is taken in the dark and camera flashes can accentuate details that would otherwise be barely noticeable in daylight conditions.

“I think this is probably a dead fish – maybe a flatfish.”

highland-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/5121

David Cameron has vowed to publish any secret files that may exist on UFOs if he becomes prime minister.

Speaking at one of his regular Cameron Direct public meetings, he pledged to be “open and frank” with any government knowledge about close encounters.

The Conservative leader was responding to a question about apparent government cover-ups of UFO activity.

Mr Cameron joked: “I’m convinced we’ve been visited by aliens - one of them is trade secretary Peter Mandelson.”

Intelligent life

At the meeting in Tynemouth, North Tyneside, he was questioned about a spate of mysterious incidents.

A member of the audience asked: “In July last year the respected scientist and astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell, who was the sixth man to walk on the moon, spoke on a British radio station.

“He said the American government had had contact with extra terrestrials on multiple occasions and that these were ongoing.

“He spoke about the Roswell event in 1947 where wreckage of a downed UFO was recovered and found to contain alien bodies.

“He said this event was real but was covered up by the government for many years.

“Do you agree with me that the British people have a right to know if we have been visited, and if so, when you become prime minister will you seek to lift the veil of secrecy and give the public the truth that they deserve?

UFO guarantee

Mr Cameron replied: “I have no idea there is intelligent life out there and no idea whether any of the sightings which have taken place or whether any incidents which have taken place have any basis in truth.

“When people have looked at the Roswell incident, or when people have looked at pictures… a rational explanation tends to be produced to try and show what has happened is not what those who believe in UFOs suggest.

“But I think we should be a open as possible, so I would be quite happy to give you a guarantee that if I became prime minister I would always be entirely open and frank about these things.

“I don’t think any of us have any clue whether there’s intelligent life out there and it is certainly not something that any government should seek to hide from anyone.”

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7854018.stm

Sweden’s legendary Great Lake Sea Monster (Storsjöodjuret) remains the focus of photographers hunting for its image despite a jamtland county council order banning cameras on the shores of Storsjön in Östersund in northern Sweden.

Svenstavik local business association has continued its surveillance of the lake in the hope of the spotting the famed ‘monster’ without permission from the Jämtland County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen).

Pictures from cameras set up on the lake’s shores have been published on the association’s homepage and have raised the interest of the council who have issued fines.

“When we found out about the camera surveillance undertaken without a permit we immediately conducted a review. The association has since been encouraged to apply for a permit,” said Åsa Johansson at Jämtland County Administrative Board.

After completing a review of the case the board has agreed to permit four cameras to watch for the legendary beast but they are to be located under the water surface of the lake.

Any camera surveillance above the water’s surface has been ruled in breach of regulations.

The Local reported in August that a film crew had made claims to have captured an image of the monster.

Their film clip broadcast on Sveriges Television showed a blurry, long and narrow silhouette moving in the lake’s nether regions.

The hunt for the monster dates back to 1635 when the first witnesses testimony emerged. In 1894 a Swedish sea captain named Dedering created a listed company with the express purpose of tracking the animal.

In 1986, Jämtland’s county administrative board banned anyone from “killing, injuring, or trapping a live animal such as the Great Lake Sea Monster” or from “removing or injuring the Great Lake Sea Monster’s eggs, roe, or dwelling”.

Most of the reported sightings of the monster have occurred in the southern areas of the lake.

thelocal.se/17282/20090131

SERIES OVERVIEW

From Bigfoot to Swamp Beast, MonsterQuest reveals the truth of legendary monster sightings around the world. Deploying the latest in hi-tech equipment, each episode scientifically examines the best evidence available, from pictures and video, to hair and bones, as well as the eyewitness accounts themselves. From pilots to policemen to ship captains, a number of seemingly credible people have seen things they can’t explain. One part history, one part science and one part monsters, MonsterQuest discovers the truth behind these legendary creatures.

DEATH OF LOCH NESS

The search for the Loch Ness Monster has captivated the world for decades, but now a startling realization about “Nessie” might shatter this age-old myth. Could the Loch Ness Monster be dead? And do its remains lie hidden at the bottom of the lake? Robert Rines, a world renowned inventor and explorer has spent much of his life searching for Nessie.

He believes he may have seen the remains of this mythical beast while mapping the lake floor with sonar. Now he is on a mission to find scientific evidence to prove it. Rines, who says he saw the creature surface in the lake in 1972, now believes that the images explain the recent decrease in sightings, and that they can only mean only one thing. Nessie is dead. MonsterQuest’s search team travels to the lake looking for evidence and deploying the latest technology including remote operating vehicles (ROVs), sonar and specialty cameras as we search for Nessie’s remains.

CATTLE KILLERS
Something mysterious and violent is killing cattle of the North American plains, but what is behind these gruesome attacks: satanic cults, an unknown predator, or something previously unknown to man? For forty years, there have been thousands of cases of cattle found mutilated under abnormal circumstances; these livestock are found dead, often with their blood drained and organs or body parts removed from their bodies.

Abnormally high radiation levels have been detected in the soil near the dead animals when they are found, and the deaths often do not match the pattern of known scavengers. With no apparent footprints or tracks leading to or from the carcases and strange circles near the site, the mystery only deepens. A MonsterQuest team will gather samples and head to a laboratory to scientifically analyze the most compelling evidence.

SWAMP STALKER
In the marshy swamp land of Texarkana a legendary beast has hunted the residents of a small Arkansas town. Their story was immortalized in a well known movie, “The Legend of Boggy Creek”. The real events were a series of violent nocturnal attacks that left behind not only fear and panic, but also remarkable tracks.

But the evidence is not just confined to history. Scientific clues continue to this day, and point to a malevolent monster that stalks the Deep South, with physical encounters by trained trackers and discoveries of tracks and scat. The strongest evidence will be examined using the latest scientific testing and two MonsterQuest teams isolate the search area using both kayaks and horse-back, penetrating deep into territory that may be the hold the swamp stalker.

DEVILS IN AMERICA
For over two hundred and fifty years a frightening winged beast has been menacing the residents of New Jersey. The Jersey Devil is described as a winged half-bird half-horse, with hoofed feet and reptilian tail and a penetrating scream that echoes through the forests of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.

During one phenomenal week, over a thousand individuals were terrorized: a trolley car was attacked, schools were closed and panic gripped the area. Wildlife experts claim however, that misidentification with a known animal may be responsible for the encounters, but recent witnesses who see the beast are scared for their lives – and say the scientific evidence will prove there is a monster. MonsterQuest launches an unprecedented expedition for the Jersey Devil and sends sixty men into the forbidding forest while detectives meet the witnesses to discover the truth behind the Jersey Devil.

GATORS IN THE SEWERS
What if one of the most famous and terrifying urban legends was not a legend but a frightening fact? History tells us that Alligators lurking around in the sewers of New York City is based in truth. In the mid 1930s three teenagers pulled an eight-foot alligator from a storm drain. Reports persisted until a skeptical Superintendant of Sewers, Teddy May, was forced to investigate for himself. What May found shocked even him - swarms of alligators alive beneath the busy main street of America’s biggest city. Crews were sent in to kill the deadly reptiles, but the stories of the gators in the sewers lived on.

Experts, however, are divided over whether it is scientifically possible for alligators to continue to exist in the sewers, so a MonsterQuest team sets out to search for modern evidence of these monsters and prove that they could not only survive but also thrive. Herpetologists and underground explorers join forces and use the latest in remote-operated camera technology to delve into the depths of New York’s sewers.

cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/death-ness

The existence of the Loch Ness Monster has been debated for centuries. Does it really exist or is it mostly some sort of mass hallucination or hope? The debate about the monster is similar to discussions about Big Foot and UFOs; there are multiple sightings by sane, intelligent people but there is no positive proof; and any photographs taken are grainy and unrecognizable.

A creature similar to what is believed to be the Loch Ness Monster was first seen in Pictish cave drawings from the 1st century. There are numerous drawings of what has been described as a “swimming elephant,” it is the only creature unrecognized in the drawings as a known animal. The first written record of a viewing of the Loch Ness Monster was by St. Columba in 565 AD. He supposedly witnessed and prevented an attack on a man by a large beast on the shores of Loch Ness. The first sighting in modern history was in 1933. A couple driving along the new road that was build alongside the loch noticed something huge on the surface of the lake. There have been over 4,000 sightings since then. There are many photographs of something on the loch but none are clear enough to say if it is or is not the Loch Ness Monster.

Loch Ness is a deep loch in the Scottish Highlands, near Inverness. It is overlooked by the magnificent ruins of Urquhart Castle. It is the second largest loch in Scotland next to Loch Lomond, but is the deepest loch. It reportedly has large caves or chasms in which a creature like the Loch Ness Monster could hide and remain hidden over the centuries.

The Loch Ness Monster has become a huge tourist draw with numerous bed and breakfasts and tours. There are books, movies, and numerous souvenirs in relation to Nessie (as the sea monster if affectionately known). It would be nice if Nessie really did exist. The idea that a beast could make its home in a loch in Scotland and go undiscovered for centuries is very romantic. However, it would be sad if Nessie’s existence was proven or disproven by science. Nessie is Scotland’s answer to the mythical water-horse or to the dragon. The idea of Nessie is what keeps many people coming back to Loch Ness and adds to the charm and wonder that Scottish culture has to offer.

bellaonline.com/articles/art16141.asp

The Monsters of Philadelphia

This week’s Weirdness is a little different, but then again, isn’t it always?

Instead of actually talking about Philly monsters, we’d like to discuss with you, dear readers, a new book out which features an article by this particular Phillyist, Neil Arnold, on the strange creatures which haunt Philly folklore.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology , based in Devon (UK) is the world’s biggest organization that not only investigates reports of “monsters,” but four times a year publishes a magazine called Animals & Men, which features numerous articles, news on newly discovered species, thought extinct but rediscovered animals, and hunts for strange beasts across the world, whilst also organizing expeditions across the world in search of elusive beasts.

Once a year the CFZ not only puts on a Weird Weekend, where speakers, researchers and the general public alike can share their info, but the group also also publishes books, and this year their Yearbook features an article by this Phillyist, on the monsters of Philadelphia. The article is a culmination of his weekly episodes for Phillyist, and features bizarre tales of man-beasts roaming the outskirts of Philly, with sightings dating back several decades. The article also chronicles sightings of large, mystery cats seen around town, as well as giant snakes on the loose.

Of course, Philly just wouldn’t be that weird if it wasn’t for the “zooform” monsters, creatures that simply haven’t escaped from zoos or private collections, but must surely come from some ethereal void. Neil talks about the time when Spring-Heeled Jack came to Philly. This entity resembling the cloaked, fiery-eyed phantom leaper of Victorian London folklore. There is also the mention of a Philly Goatman, a bogey-type creature said to haunt Lancaster County, home of the Albatwitches.

So, if you’re interested in phantom hounds, winged beasties, and other weird creatures of Philly lore, be sure to check out the Centre For Fortean Zoology 2009 Yearbook,. It is available from Amazon.

Centre for Fortean Zoology Yearbook 2009

phillyist.com/2009/01/28/philadelphia_weirdness_27.php