Plasma Physics - A New Science of Heaven and Humankind? (Pt 1)

‘Robert Temple is a brave man … it is going to be a difficult job for anyone to shoot him down in flames.’ - The Times

Unless you happen to be part of the eminent plasma physics research community, which includes Nobel laureates, senior academics and major research centres, it is highly likely that you would be as unaware as I once was of the truly revolutionary, enlightening and wondrous world of plasma – the fourth state of matter.

Plasma physics captured my full attention in early 2023 thanks to an interview with sage, scientific scholar and prolific author, Professor Robert Temple.His latest knockout book A New Science of Heaven, became an instant must read.

A New Science of Heaven reveals how over 99% of the universe is made of plasma and how there are two gigantic clouds of plasma, called the Kordylewski Clouds, hovering between the Earth and the Moon, only recently discovered by astronomers in Hungary...Other revelations not previously known include evidence that, in certain circumstances, plasma exhibits sentience, a sense that it may be alive... Temple believes that intelligent entities can be inorganic and non-biological, and thus do not have to live on planets.

A New Science of Heaven, Press Release, Hodder and Stoughton

Plasma Physics will cause us to reassess many ways of understanding the world

Professor Robert Temple was interviewed by Heather Ensworth PhD, an illuminated psychologist, shamanic astrologer, author and founder of the Rising Moon Healing Center. Their deeply resonant, hour long discussion catapulted me onto a new and exciting research trajectory.

The New Science of Heaven Interview

(Scroll down for Transcript Excerpts)

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The New Science of Heaven Book Review

As soon as I began reading Temple’s book, I knew I was in the right place when he described himself as having a roving eye for anomalies, always on the lookout for things that don’t fit with present scientific understanding and his view that a shift in perspective caused by the new physics of plasma will cause us to reassess many ways of understanding the world previously dismissed as discredited or cranky.

Temple is also gifted with the literary ability to simplify expansive, complex concepts. An artful weaver of facts, personal experiences and compelling points of view. This is no mean feat when writing about significant scientific research that has the potential to bust some pretty big holes in standard narratives that obediently fail to challenge the proverbial status quo. Compliments also, to Temple’s editor.

I am also pleased to report that there is nothing stilted, long winded or over-analytical about Temple’s meticulous, in-depth research and understanding of plasma physics. His relaxed, engaging, straight-shooting, nonsense-free writing style is certain to satisfy the expectations of vintage academics, open minded scientists and fledgling physics students, to inquisitive, creative souls like me who have a deep interest in life, death, esotericism, consciousness and the mysteries of the universe. I would also highly recommend this book for parents who take the time to educate their children at home about exciting topics that will one day be taught in schools all over the world.

Writes Professor Robert Temple:

“I will be arguing that life in its basic state is organic and not made out of atomic matter – but pre-atomic matter, namely the atomic particles, electrons, and protons, and ions – the plasma. That we and all living things in the Universe, whether organic or inorganic, arise from the plasma and that the organic state is secondary to our fundamental nature as plasma beings. I believe that we can begin to articulate a new science of heaven.”

Temple is also of the view that many spiritual experiences reported throughout human history are really encounters with plasma phenomena or plasma entities and that his primary purpose is to reconcile the spiritual with the material and thereby to show that the dispute between them is false. “There is in fact, no contradiction between them when one digests the teachings of the New Science.”

How do you write a book review with so many points of interest vying for attention?

As I drafted my review of A New Science of Heaven in my our favourite angophora forest that overlooks eastern Australia’s ever alluring Pacific Ocean, I found myself continually distracted by the ridiculous amount of ‘point of interest’ page markers vying for their special mention.

I eventually decided to to change course and include some key transcript notes from Temple’s book interview instead. Even that proved difficult to contain but the resonant impact of his conversation with Heather about ‘cosmic physics’ was just too expansive, strengthening and thought provoking not to share. The interview also revealed additional research topics that didn’t make the journey into his published book.

Please gift yourself the time and space to either watch the interview or enjoy the following transcript notes as much as I enjoyed listening to and transcribing them, with slight edits here and there for a smoother reading experience.

Interview Transcript Excerpts - A New Science of Heaven

Heather: How extraordinary it is that we are realizing that 99% of the universe is composed of plasma.

Robert: That’s right, and I’m sure it will surprise anyone who doesn’t know, which is just about everybody, including most scientists, actually. Astronomers and astrophysicists do know by now, although they don’t necessarily say so, that the universe is not made of atoms. This is a big shock because we all grew up believing what we were told. I long ago gave up believing what I was told. But we are all trusting souls and when our teachers told us it was true that the universe was made of atoms, that made sense, didn’t it? But I’m afraid it’s not true. 99.9% at least, of the universe, is not made of atoms.

So, what does this mean? It’s made of plasma.

What is plasma and plasma science? I will be as simple as I can. Plasma is basically atomic particles and incomplete particles called ions, but not complete atoms. Different laws of physics apply to plasma than apply to atoms, so the physics that we have on our planet earth that we learn at school and at university, and all the people that get their PhD in it and so on, they are dealing with earth physics. They are not dealing with cosmic physics. The fact that everything is made of plasma and the small rocky planets like ours are made of atoms…means that everything of real importance, apart from the things in our daily lives, that are all made of atoms, is the plasma science phenomenon.

We are bio plasma beings and our bodies are ‘smart overcoats’

Robert:...We are plasma beings, now known as bio plasma and our physical bodies are temporary vehicles. I call them smart overcoats. The important thing to remember is that physical death is not extinction. The good news is that nobody dies. But the bad news is that nobody dies. Think about what that means. It means that you are stuck with yourself forever. If you are a bad person, you are going to be in bad company because you are going to be faced with yourself.

So, the only thing you can do to have a better experience in what we call the afterlife, which is when we go back to the plasma world, which is parallel with our own physical one, except you can’t see it with your optic nerves – sensitive people can sense it – is to become better people. If you become a better person, then you will be in the company of somebody pleasant when you die on earth because you can actually live with yourself and you will be with other people of your own standard of goodness. But if you are horrible, you won’t. It will be awful.

Heather: So, we return to that plasma field but retain that individual consciousness that we then can then work with, and work on our own evolution across many incarnations into the physical form.

Robert: And the incarnations into physical form are to help us learn and grow. And improve. To evolve into better people. Really, fame, riches and all that, is complete nonsense and means nothing. You can be intelligent as you like and still be a bad person, and that’s no good. The only thing that matters is are you good, are you kind, are you unselfish, do you help others and do you have compassion for all living things? Only if we develop those qualities can we really grow and go into the higher levels of being.

Heather: So, it’s really about coming from the heart.

Robert: Yes.

Confirmation that the Kordylewski ‘Superbrain’ Clouds do exist

Robert: Kordylewski clouds don’t emit any light and are pretty much transparent. They were discovered in 1961 by a Polish fellow Kordylewski…he wanted to study them more but his great grandson told me that the Polish (communist) government with whom he didn’t get along, stopped his research because they didn’t like it. People tried to confirm the existence of these clouds which were so difficult to detect but they lacked the sensitive instruments of today.

In 2019, I discovered that some Hungarian observational astronomers confirmed the existence of the Kordylewski clouds which had been hanging in the balance since 1961. Nobody was quite sure if it was Kordylewski’s fantasy, was he mad? …I contacted the woman who headed the astronomy team in Hungary through ResearchGate and asked if they were studying the plasma aspects of the cloud. She said they were only studying the celestial mechanics aspect and didn’t appear to know what I meant about the plasma aspects. I contacted my colleague Chandra Wickramasinghe, a retired professor of Astrophysics and told him about the cloud and that we had to go into print about their plasma aspects and intelligence. We published a paper (Kordylewski Dust Clouds: Could They Be Cosmic “Superbrains”?) in Advances in Astrophysics in 2019.

The earth moon system is a 2 cloud system

The clouds are between the earth and the moon but are not in a direct line of sight. They are 60 degrees to the right and 60 degrees to the left as you look at the moon. They are at two points known as the Lagrange points… between the earth and the moon where the gravitational pull of each is negligible. It comes to zero because they balance each other out. The moon can’t pull you towards it and the earth can’t pull you towards it. They are often just known as L points. L4 and L5, as a matter of fact. Each of these clouds are 9 times the size of the earth, so the 2 clouds together are 18 times the size of the earth, and they are between us and the moon.

So… the earth moon system is not an earth moon system. It is a 2 cloud system with an earth and a moon thrown in. We have to realize this. We are far too ethnocentric…earth centric. We still think…that the earth really is the center of the universe. We have crazy scientists saying that we are alone in the universe. There can’t be anyone else out there. Of course, those are all the people who belong in asylums. The idea that the universe doesn’t have any other intelligence in it, and anybody pretending to be in their right mind can even speculate that it is possible, just astounds me... Never mind, the world is full of lunatics.

Heather: But it’s also reflective of how we are all so focused on visible matter as primary in terms of scientific exploration whereas part of what you are reframing is how much this intelligence and life in the universe, is this inorganic plasma.

Robert: You are absolutely right. You have grasped the whole thing, fortunately. In fact, most people who read the book do say that they understand it all although they find the information a bit overwhelming and have to read it a second time.

Only plasma physicists know about dusty, complex plasma

Robert: The clouds are gigantic…and made of plasma, a special type of plasma called dusty complex plasma, which are a species of their own. But only the plasma physicists know about them. Ask any ordinary physicist, and he’ll say, ‘What’s a dusty complex plasma? I know what plasma is.’ And he will give you the old 1950s incorrect definition of plasma as a charged cloud of gas where the positive and negative charges are balanced.

Well, nothing could be more ridiculous because dusty complex plasmas are never balanced. It’s impossible for them to be balanced. And they contain modules within themselves called plasmoids which were discovered in the 1950s by a brilliant man Winston Bostick – what a hero. They are surrounded by sheaths and sheaths are double layered just like membranes that surround cells but made of different things that protect these little sub divisions inside a giant plasma.

So, you can have a very cold interior next to another plasmoid with a very hot interior. But surrounded by their sheaths, they can’t affect each other…you can have the most immensely complex interior structure to these dusty complex plasmas. All the dust particles are charged and the charges are vast – a single dust particle can have 10,000 electrons clinging on to it…

It’s now been established by the most advanced researchers that any… plasma body the size of our physical body, will have a more complex interior structure than our physical bodies do. That’s how complex our bio plasma bodies are, which are slightly larger than our physical bodies…some people call them auras and very sensitive people can detect that sort of thing. I have never seen an aura myself but the whole thing that’s going on is plasma phenomena.

Plasma Physics Suggests that Dusty complex plasma can spontaneously self organize

Robert: Russian researchers were a bit more freewheeling in their physics because they weren’t tied up in the religious sanctity of conventional opinions in the west. That’s just my speculation about why they were able to go so far in their plasma research. They have worked out and demonstrated in the lab that a dusty complex plasma can spontaneously self organise... through a process called…emergence. And this was even stated in the mid-50s by Bostick with his plasmoids. By emergence, they could develop intelligence.

We are talking about an AI type of intelligence. We don’t know whether such entities can have feelings and emotions…but they would have fantastic computing power. These clouds, 18 times the size of earth, would have computing power trillion and trillions and trillions of times more than we can imagine… the whole history of the planet and every person that ever lived, is in the Kordylewski clouds.

Was Metatron the Angel of the Lord or one of the giant entities between earth and the moon?

Robert: I also do a lot of research into ancient stuff…there was a sect of the gnostics known as the Marcosians…We know enough to know that the Marcosians believed that there were 2 gigantic superhuman entities above the atmosphere between the earth and the moon of immense size and that they were super entities…we know the name they used for one of them was Metatron.

We know the name Metatron from elsewhere because it was the name used by Samaritans who were a sect of Judaism up in the north, who didn’t get along with the Jews at all. They were hostile toward each other. They speak of Metatron and say that the Angel of the Lord described in the bible... the voice that came from the burning bush to Moses up on the mountain top, was Metatron’s voice. It was Metatron, the Angel of the Lord. It wasn’t the Lord.

The Samaritans named the Angel of the Lord, who in the bible isn’t given a name...The Samaritans said the name was Metatron. But the Marcosians say that Metatron is a giant entity between the earth and the moon…figure that one out.

In ancient times, people were really into psychic perceptions – they had shamans, seers, sibyls, priestesses and people going into trance and communing with the higher entities…they knew a lot of stuff that we are only just discovering with our modern science now in 2023.

(End of transcript text.)

The wondrous world of psychic perceptions and communing with higher (and lower) realms is alive and well

I don’t have a scientific background but thoroughly enjoy learning from independent, scientific researchers, writers and scholars. If plasma ‘cosmic’ physics was taught at Adelaide High School, South Australia, I’m sure I would have chosen it as a subject. Back in those ancient days, I used to admire my friends who studied ‘physics, mathematics and chemistry’ in Year 12, but couldn’t figure out what the attraction was. But they may not have understood why I loved English and History so much, either.

Plasma Physics And Spiritual Foundations

I do, however, have a strong spiritual background. One of those lucky people who was dealt ‘death, loss and grief’ cards in my teen years that propelled me on a journey that partly explored the many theories and belief systems attached to the afterlife. That said, I can confidently report that the wondrous world of psychic perceptions and communing with spirit is alive and well, and has been for a long time. However, sorting the wheat from the chaff can be a challenge these days because of the internet’s booming and highly competitive spiritual and metaphysical ‘industry’. But when you educate yourself about what to look for, the initial problem of identifying authentic practitioners is easily solved.

I have also been blessed to connect with some incredibly advanced practitioners, most of whom prefer to fly under the radar. But with a little coaxing, I’m confident that their enlightening and deeply nourishing stories will one day be told and contribute toward strengthening the exciting, existing bridge between science and spirit in the process.

End of Part 1

Article: Plasma Physics Part 2

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Additional Links

Heather Ensworth’s interview with Professor Robert Temple – A New Science of Heaven

Professor Robert Temple’s website

Heather Ensworth’s Rising Moon Healing Center website

Image Credits: Canva, Pixabay, Linda Summer

Finding Inspiration from “The Handbook of Tests in Parapsychology” by Betty M. Humphrey

As a librarian, I love connecting folks with resources. And as a person interested in the paranormal and Parapsychology, I especially love connecting folks with resources on spooky topics. Often, the two mix. I never get tired of hearing someone approach the reference desk and ask, “Do you have books about ghosts?” or “I need to write a research paper and I want to write about the paranormal - can you help?”

I especially love reminding people of all the ways they can freely access all sorts of books, articles, newspapers, and journals. This is partly because I suspect people often feel pressured to buy the things they want to read. To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with purchasing your reading material. It is, however, a privilege. And even if you do have the privilege of disposal income to spend on books or subscriptions, it’s not possible to buy everything that you want. And sometimes you may not even be able to find what you want in print.

But another reason why I love showing people the different things they can access freely is because people just don’t know the breadth of what’s out there or where to go to access it. You may not know, for example, that the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) allows you to freely access scholarly articles and journals on a wide variety of topics. Fun fact: you can find 190 articles in DOAJ just by typing the keyword “parapsychology.” Or maybe you didn’t know that there are entire scholarly journals dedicated to anomalous phenomena, like the Journal of Scientific Exploration.

I love connecting people with resources, because it’s not only fun to read about the paranormal - it’s also a great way to get inspiration for your own spooky shenanigans. Take, for example, the freely accessible textbook Handbook of Tests in Parapsychology by Dr. Betty M. Humphrey. Written in 1948, this textbook offers detailed methods for conducting various psychical experiments. Organized into three parts, Humphrey’s book outlines in detail experimental designs used to test for extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis, and even a combination of both.

This book also helps the reader understand the difference between the phenomena of clairvoyance, telepathy, general extrasensory perception (GESP), and precognition. For example, in the introduction, Dr. Humphrey tells us that “In a simple clairvoyance test the subject is asked to name the top card of a shuffled deck when no one knows what that card is.” This is different from a test of telepathy, which she tells us is “when the experimenter merely thinks of a symbol and asks the subject to call it.”

But the thing I love most about this book is that it offers explicit designs for those who want to conduct experiments themselves. Part 1, for example, is dedicated to experiments involving ESP. One chapter in this section is titled “Card-Calling Tests of Clairvoyance.” The first paragraph of this chapter tells us that “in the clairvoyance tests the subject tries to name the symbols on cards when no one knows in what order the symbols are arranged.” The chapter then proceeds to give detailed descriptions of various experimental designs.

One design is called the BT (broken technique) method in which one person holds a card behind a screen while another person attempts to guess the symbol on that card. The BT method is just one option, though. Dr. Humphrey goes on to describe others like the DT (down through) method in which a person attempts to guess the order of a stack of cards - called ‘down through’ since the goal is to guess the symbols down through the stack. In this method, no cards are separated as they are in the ‘broken technique’ (hence the name) and are instead kept together as an entire stack.

There are detailed photos and even sample scoring sheets, all of which you can replicate or even modify for your own experiments!

A sample sheet for recording ESP experiment results.

You don’t have to be a literal scientist in order to replicate the designs in this book. And you don’t need to have an end goal of publishing your work in a journal. Maybe you want to test out your ESP abilities with a friend. Maybe you just want to get weird and have some fun. Maybe you want to adapt these experiments in different settings - like if you are investigating a haunted location and want to see how that environment might impact an ESP or clairvoyance test.

Whatever the reason, you should feel empowered to find inspiration in the pages of Dr. Humphrey’s textbook. Know that you deserve access to this information too. And it’s freely available! Why shouldn’t you boost your weirdness with the wide world of freely accessible weird resources?

References:

Humphrey, Betty M. Handbook of Tests in Parapsychology. (Durham: Duke University, 1948).

The Creepy Haunted Doll Of Finedon

Finedon is a picturesque, semi-rural village that sits quietly amidst the county of Northamptonshire, England. The village is famous for its quaint public houses, breathtaking hillside views, and cobbled streets that have awed people for centuries. Residents and visitors alike enjoy the wonders of grassy knolls, peaceful trickling rivers, and the gentle bleating of sheep, but the town has not always dwelled in such calmness. The rise of the Black Death plague in 1348 saw the once-thriving and bustling village slowly deplete of everything that gave it character. Children’s laughter that once graced the lush green pastures slowly began to fade, and the clunking sound of horse hooves on the cobbled streets became no more. Illness and death cast their sticky web of destruction over every home, forcing many to flee. An orchestra of silence was all that echoed in the tragic streets and hopeless homes for many years.

New Beginnings

Fortunately, the Black Death eventually succumbed to nature. Resettlement began sometime in the 17th century and life returned to Finedon. Inns were again filled with laughter, farming began to flourish and the once death-infested homes became occupied by young and happy families. The town continued to develop into the 20th century with no further signs of misfortune. Until a young school teacher was appointed the village school’s headmistress in 1901. Her name was Mary Ozier and curiously, our tale begins with nothing other than a kind gesture from this professional lady.

A Commemorative Oddity - A Haunted Doll

Proud of her appointment and seeking to christen her new status, Mary pondered greatly. She also needed something unique to commemorate the Finedon school’s upcoming anniversary, something that reflected the unique and quirky character of the village and school. She chose a beautifully crafted wooden doll and strategically positioned it in a small alcove above the school's main entrance, where it could be admired by all and keep watch over everything!

Very little is known about the origins of the doll. It is believed that it was made by a mysterious merchant who Mary allegedly met on a quiet country walk one afternoon. After conveying her ideas for the commemoration, the merchant gifted Mary the doll. Conveniently, it lay inside a sack upon his back. He took no payment, walked away, and was never seen again.

Dressed to Impress

The doll was deemed peculiar from day one by all who saw it. Mary’s sentiment was appreciated by the locals but there was something about the doll’s aura that emitted an uncomfortable, eerie feeling. Standing at approximately three feet in height, the figure was so intricately carved that the dark brown flowing dress looked almost real. Equally impressive was the carved white Dutch cap that adorned the head. The face appeared emotionless with dark staring eyes and tightly closed lips. These features were a strange contrast to the cherub cheeks upon which they sat. The doll’s attire closely resembled the fashion of the modern-day Puritan woman, complete with dark boots with a slight heel, also carved from wood.

The Dutch headpiece became the doll’s most famous and defining feature. It also resembled the hat worn by the children of the school at the time. As curiosity and uncertainty grew, the strange figure eventually became known as the ‘Dutch Doll of Finedon’. Finally, and probably the strangest feature of all was what sat tightly grasped in its hands. On the right was a bible, and on the left was a scroll that bared the writing ‘ Search the scripture-John-verse 39’...

Sinister Happenings

Days after the doll’s arrival, inexplicable events began to unfold. The once tranquil and carefree vibes of the school turned to anxiety and dread. One morning, a chastised student was sent to the school's front lawn to spend her break alone while others played in the yard at the rear. As she moped, a startling gust of wind appeared from nowhere, knocking her backward with great force. The girl grazed her head as she fell against an old tree. Within seconds, the wind was gone and the calmness of that June morning returned. As the girl composed herself, she saw something that chilled her to the marrow and contested until her dying day. Peering down from its concrete throne, the doll waved its left arm, scroll in hand, and juddered violently. The tight wooden lips were puckered, and its eyes glared with sadistic pleasure. Within seconds, the face returned to normal and the arm to its original position. Shocked and shaken by what had happened, the girl ran home, never to return to the school.

Since that horrifying incident, many students recounted witnessing the doll move on its own accord and the school record book reportedly possessed pages of daily occurrences depicting many traumatizing accounts. In the dead of night, the students who lived as boarders could often hear the sound of tiny pattering feet scurrying through the hallways. Dormitory doors would open on their own and scratching sounds could be heard on the floors. Some students claimed to see ‘tiny wooden hands’ and ‘beady wooden eyes’ peering around open doors before they were violently slammed shut. Piercing and blood-chilling cackling could also be heard around the school. Quite often, the shrill cries disrupted lessons and caused panic among teachers and students alike.

Was it a Haunted Doll or Not

Concerned for the student’s welfare, staff and parents decided to examine the doll during a school holiday. Convinced that the doll possessed a mechanical feature that could explain the phenomena, it was brought down from its cove above the door. After a thorough search, nothing was found. It was suggested that the doll may have been used in witchcraft rituals or even acted as a vessel for a malevolent spirit. Taking no chances, the now haunted doll was permanently removed from the cove. It was tightly locked in a chest and placed in the school’s dank, dark cellar.

For a short while, calmness settled upon the school. During this period, poor behavior would often be controlled with ‘tongue in cheek’ threats of detention in the cellar. Students trembled at the thought of being at the mercy of the wooden demon. It was the perfect deterrent. As time passed and incidents lessened, students began to believe the stories had been nothing more than a hoax. That was until a young student was sent to the cellar to retrieve more slates.

Haunting Crash

As the student gathered the resources, she heard an almighty crash behind her. The chest that housed the doll had fallen from a shelf and hit the floor with a deafening thud. Slowly, the chest started to rattle and vibrate furiously. A series of violent thumps followed and the chest edged toward the girl. Groans and gasps could be heard from inside the chest, each one more penetrating and violent than before. The student fled the cellar immediately. Terrified and shaken by the incident, she too left the school, never to return.

Eventually, the cellar was permanently closed, leaving the haunted doll entombed and alone for many years. Although the phenomenon decreased, a lingering and anxious atmosphere engulfed all who walked through the school. And despite the cellar being deep below the classrooms and far from the dormitories, strange laughter and voices could still be heard. The chilling echoes pounded through the school in the dead of night for many years.

A Mysterious Twist

Decades passed but the phenomenon and unrelenting feelings of dread persisted. A new headteacher, determined to alleviate the school of its supernatural reputation, had the doll removed. It was taken to the local St Mary’s church, and fixed tightly to the west wall. Locals hoped this would eliminate further troubles and suppress whatever strangeness lurked inside. As a result, the school returned to a state of calm that had not been felt for almost a century. Years passed and the memory of the Dutch doll began to diminish. All that remained were the frightening tales that once plagued the school, passed down through the generations. That was until an alarming and unexpected event took place...

Haunted Finedon Doll Vanishes

On the 24th of January, 1981, the parishioner unlocked the church to prepare for his daily duties. Upon walking to his alter, he noticed something unusual on the west wall. Further inspection revealed that the Dutch doll was no longer there. The hooks and bolts that kept it secure were strewn on the floor. Confused and unnerved by what had happened, the parishioner immediately visited the local police. Fears of supernatural forces being responsible resonated with him more than the idea of a potential thief. The parishioner knew that he had locked and bolted all the church doors the previous evening. All windows had also been locked, and only he possessed the key. It hadn’t been possible for anybody to gain entry without his permission. As a result, homes, fields, shops, and even the school were aptly searched. Locals were questioned but to no avail and restlessness returned to the town.

Tales of the haunted doll and superstition began to resurface, causing some parents to remove their children from the school amid the fear that the doll had returned. Fears of misfortune and miscellaneous activity repeating themselves grew at an alarming rate, forcing the town’s hierarchy to act. The townsfolk were reassured that the doll would be found and returned to the church. Despite everyone’s efforts, the haunted doll was never recovered. No further progress has since been made, and its disappearance remains Finedon’s biggest mystery. Is the Dutch doll residing in your home? It might be wise to check all those dark places before going to bed...

Photo Credits

St Mary’s church

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Finedon (Public domain)

Haunted Doll photo

https://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/b983998b-1e60-4476-8ee6-20cf35bb3213/9259919c-06c0-4e43-8055-c804e1a8b96f.jpg

Two new paranormal TV shows are changing the landscape of ghost-hunting shows

A few months ago, I joined a team of paranormal investigators, visiting haunted locations for the first season of a brand-new indie ghost-hunting show called Inhuman Beings. This month, we launched a Kickstarter to finish Inhuman Beings and a paranormal documentary series called New Blood. The two shows aim to present a new outlook on the supernatural, showcasing the esteemed specialist in the occult, Michelle Belanger. Her expertise has been previously displayed on several publications such as Paranormal State, Portals to Hell, Conjuring Kesha, among others. Locations have been chosen for the first season of a brand-new indie ghost-hunting show called Inhuman Beings. This month, we launched a Kickstarter to finish Inhuman Beings and a paranormal documentary series called New Blood.

Inhuman Beings

Each episode of Inhuman Beings features a different location with a reputation for high strangeness. Rather than trying to banish ghosts or uncover demons, we approach the unknown with a sense of curiosity, keeping an open mind and looking into ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, the fae, and more.

We use some traditional paranormal investigation techniques, experimenting with REM pods, spirit boxes, a Kinect SLS camera, and an Ovilus. But we also get weird, trying out remote viewing experiments, using dream sigils to communicate with entities, and following our curiosity as far down the rabbit hole as we can go.

That led us to some strange places. During production, we found ourselves crossing a remote river to visit land ruled by the fae, exploring a strange castle with a mysterious past, and investigating the most haunted building in a small town.

As the team’s paranormal researcher, I dug into the locations before filming and was floored by how many anomalies had been reported in each spot.

In one episode, we venture to the area of the original Loveland frogman sightings, along the banks of Ohio’s Little Miami River. While doing preliminary research, I couldn’t believe how much lore was concentrated in one small area and how interconnected the different paranormal phenomena were there.

I had heard the famous 1950s story about a man encountering strange, frog-like humanoids—one of whom carried a wand emitting sparks—but the more research I did, the more reports I found about local sightings of UFOs, cryptids, aliens, and ghosts.

That was my first hint that things were going to get a lot stranger than I had expected. However, I was not fully prepared for the firsthand experiences we had when we arrived at the site and engaged in conversations with the locals, conducted our own experiments, and gained a true understanding of what the place was truly like.

New Blood

Much of the cast and crew of Inhuman Beings are also in New Blood, a longform docu-series about modern-day vampires.

In New Blood, a series of synchronicities leads witch and host of paranormal podcast Follow the Woo Fen Alankus (she/they) to move from LA to the spooky Midwest. There, she conjures an investigative film crew to document a secret society of vampires.

They delve into the mysterious world of vampires while staying in a haunted Airbnb. The experience, which involves visiting sacred vampire ritual spaces, braving the creepy woods of Ohio, and performing out-of-the-box psychical experiments and spells, changes all of them. Season one was a wild ride, and the next phases of initiation have already begun for the team.

The Kickstarter and team

Michelle Belanger (he/she/they) and Fen Alankus (she/they) have gathered a top-notch crew of film professionals and paranormal investigators. That includes historian and medium Stephanie Bingham (she/her), who has been featured on the CW’s Mysteries Decoded, Destination America’s Paranormal Lockdown and SyFy Channel’s School Spirits; tarot/oracle reader Tigresse Bleu (they/she); filmmaker, forager, and hedgewitch Aubrey P. Archer (they/them); and photographer and skeptic-turned-believer Taylor Brown (she/they), and me.

More than 100 hours of footage have already been shot for these shows, and both shows are slated for release in Fall/Winter 2023.

With the Kickstarter funding, the team will finish up the first seasons of both shows, start pre-production on the next seasons, and more. Backers get rewards like magically imbued Ouija planchettes, Bigfoot and Pride Demon T-shirts, subtle-body portrait readings, bonus and behind-the-scenes content, executive producer credit, guest spots on their shows, and more. Spread the word and help bring this fresh paranormal project into the world!

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

Urban legends are a type of modern folklore that typically circulate through word of mouth or online media. These stories are often presented as true accounts and usually involve a shocking or mysterious event or circumstance. One of the most popular urban legends is the Disappearing Hitchhiker.

Imagine driving down a dark road and seeing a man (or woman) standing on the side of the road. There is light rain. You pull up and ask him where he is going. He asks for a ride to his girlfriend’s house, which isn’t far from where you are heading. You tell him to hop in the passenger side. Then you make some small talk about the weather and the town. Furthermore, you drive for a few minutes, but when you look over again, the mysterious hitchhiker is gone.

Variations of a Classic Urban Legend

The vanishing hitchhiker is a classic urban legend that has been circulating for decades. The story typically involves a driver who picks up a hitchhiker on a dark and lonely road. The hitchhiker is often described as being a young woman dressed in white or a soldier in uniform. The driver talked to the hitchhiker while driving, but when they arrived at the hitchhiker's place, the hitchhiker was no longer there.

Traced back to the early 20th century, this legend has retold and adapted in many different forms, with variations depending on the location and culture. Most accounts involve supernatural or paranormal elements, such as the hitchhiker being a ghost or spirit.

There are different narrative versions about the hitchhiker's identity, including a young woman who perished in a car accident on the very road she's hitchhiking on and a soldier seeking a ride back home after dying in combat. Sometimes the hitchhiker leaves behind a physical object, such as a scarf or a piece of jewelry that the driver later returns to the hitchhiker's family, or the driver goes to the address given by the hitchhiker only to discover that the person they picked up has been dead for years.

Image: Coco Parisienne, Pixabay

Hitchhiking Horror Stories

While the vanishing hitchhiker story is often presented as true, there is little evidence to support the idea that it is based on actual events. Instead, it may be more likely that the story evolved as a cautionary tale, warning people about the dangers of picking up strangers on the side of the road.

Hitchhiking was a common mode of travel in the 1960’s, especially during the hippy movement. People opted for hitchhiking to travel long distances without the high cost. Commercial air travel was still quite new and expensive in that era and generally reserved for businessmen and wealthy people while bus and train travel were more common but also quite pricey.

Unfortunately, hitchhikers made for perfect victims. Usually alone and far from home, they made excellent targets for violent crime. Multiple serial killers reportedly targeted young female hitchhikers; one of the most famous stories being that of 15-year-old Mary Vincent. She was attacked by Lawrence Singleton after accepting a ride in his van to her grandfather’s house. Singleton assaulted her multiple times then cut off her arms cut off with an axe, leaving her for dead. She managed to survive the ordeal after walking three miles with her bloody stumps raised above her heart to decrease blood loss.

Men are not any safer. The movie There is Something About Mary uses humor to show that even a man can be in danger when picking up strangers off the side of the road. By the late 1980s, hitchhiking had all but vanished. So why is this still one of the most popular urban legends?

New Stories Continue To Emerge

In recent years, the disappearing hitchhiker legend has continued to evolve and adapt to changing cultural norms and technologies. For example, there are now versions of the story that involve ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, with passengers reporting picking up a hitchhiker who vanishes from the back seat.

While hitchhiking is no longer used as a common mode of transportation, we can now order our own stranger to bring our intoxicated selves home. As children, we were told to not get in a car with a stranger. Uber and Lyft now allow you to order your own stranger to pick you up and there have been many incidents of assaults stemming from ridesharing. In 2019, Samantha Josephson, a student from University of South Carolina, was raped and murdered after she got into a car that she believed was her Uber driver.

There are several theories about why the vanishing hitchhiker legend has persisted for so long and become so popular. Some suggest that the story taps into deep-seated fears and anxieties about death and the unknown, while others argue that it serves as a warning about the dangers of picking up strangers.

Despite there being little evidence to support the idea that the vanishing hitchhiker legend is based on actual events, it remains a popular and enduring urban legend, with new variations and adaptations continuing to emerge.

Urban legends commonly play on people's fears and anxieties, such as fears of strangers or the unknown, and can spread rapidly through social media and other online platforms. While many urban legends are generally harmless, some can be harmful or even dangerous if they inspire people to take unnecessary risks or engage in harmful behaviors.

References

Student killed after taking car she mistook for Uber was victim of 'heinous' acts, prosecutor says (nbcnews.com)

Brunvand, Jan Harold. (1981). The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-95169-3

Vanishing Hitchhiker - Oxford Reference

How Mary Vincent Survived A Horrific Abduction While Hitchhiking (allthatsinteresting.com)

Further Reading

Tsunami Ghosts - Tales of Loss and Grief

The Curse Of Bhangarh Fort

India is a beautiful country with a vast array of historical achievements. The medieval history, cuisine, religion, and influential leaders of this place are truly fascinating. Their rich tapestry of remarkable feats is difficult to measure. The allure of architecture, the enchantment of romance, and the saga of barbaric and breathtaking tales. The customs, and traditions of India should, if they are not already, be envied the whole world over. Bhangarh Fort certainly fits these criteria. Despite the wonders, India is also rich in paranormal phenomena, curses, and weird events. As a result, this enigmatic cocktail of supernatural blend should catapult India to the forefront of every paranormal enthusiast’s watch list.

Macabre Silence

At night, it is said that silence lies heavily against the wood and stone of Bhangarh Fort, and for good reason. Misfortune, unbearable terrors, and even untimely death are said to be the price for disturbing whatever dwells there. Scores of evidence, in both recent times and years gone by, show that egos and heroism are fiercely chastised. Visitors are warned to take heed of the sunset threshold. Begone by nightfall or you will have to contend with the treacherous forces that bitterly wait and skulk within this unforgiving, embodiment of evil. Make no mistake: the curse, whatever its desire, will engulf you. It will strike with a venomous bite. Instantly or slowly. There is no escape.

Naturally, within the aged walls of the world’s most majestic structures, whatever their purposes were, lie oceans of residual emotion. Euphoria, love, exasperation, and dejection, to name but a few, will forever be rife within these blood-drenched and tear-stained places. India's historical architecture is no exception when it comes to eerie stories and superstitions that are still being told today. These tales continue to circulate in communities daring enough to listen.

The History Of Bhangarh Fort

Photographer: Deepak Kosta | Source: Unsplash

The construction of the Bhangarh Fort dates back to the 16th century under Bhagwant Das, the 23rd ruler of the Amber kingdom. The fort's purpose was to serve as a dwelling place for his second son, Madho Sing, along with his family. The fort was built in Rajasthan, India, near the Sariska reserve. It was strategically placed at the base of the Aravali range hills to protect the important family who lived there.

The location was strategically chosen to make invasion plans and escape routes for rebels and mercenaries difficult to operate. The fort sat, as it does today, eagle-eyed, watching everyone and everything, ready to chastise all who dare to oppose it.

The Curse Of Bhangarh Fort

Historical landmarks that survive over time often have fascinating stories that show important moments of change or development that shape their current traditions. The Bhangarh Fort manages to emulate this and remains atypical, for it boasts not one, but two possible reasons for the dark curse.

Guru Balu was regarded as a great man of wisdom, who was knowledgeable of all things supernatural. Upset by the fort’s building, he warned that bad things would happen to the community and anyone linked to the fort and its family. When mockingly questioned about when this would happen, Guru Balu Nath coldly warned that the great wrath would engulf the town the second the shadows of the fort should touch him or his home.

As the fort was being built, it started to cast shadows over the Guru's house and the town. The fort looked more and more imposing as it grew taller. Before long, the inevitable clash between the shadow and the mystical man reared its ugly head and catastrophe unfolded.

As the Bangargh Fort legend goes, the city of Bhangarh was destroyed instantly. Sickness befell the healthy and businesses that once thrived, suddenly collapsed, ruining so many people. The once delightful and caring personalities that brought resilience, hope, and joy to the city became despondent and emotionally crushed. With nothing left but despair and emptiness, the residents slowly vacated, leaving the city baron and desolate. All that remained was the eerie howling of the wind, empty sandy roads, and the echos of wind-swept homes.

A Cursed Love Story

The next story, and equally unnerving, is of Sinhia, an occultist and mythical expert who regularly visited Bhangarh. With great stage presence and an ocean of magical and mind-boggling tricks, the mysterious magician would rack up crowds in their hundreds. He could grip the hearts and minds of all who watched him.

People were always left baffled and in awe of his physics-defying skills and manipulation of the natural world. Naturally, it wasn’t long before he would notice the presence of the beautiful Princess Ratnavati. She watched his performances with a great degree of reservation, unlike the locals, from one of the fort’s tower windows.

Sinhia was enthralled by her radiating beauty and regal presence. Knowing that such things would forever stand as a broken bridge between them, the occultist, becoming more smitten by the day, had other plans. The princess was known for using special oils that were regularly brought to the city from afar. So exotic and costly were these majestically aromatic oils, that the magician knew only she would have the privilege of using them.

Magic and Mystery

Knowing this, the magician, dressed in his finest, intercepted a weekly batch delivered to the city. Whilst pretending to inquire about a purchase, he quietly enchanted the oil with a hypnotizing love spell. When the oil arrived at the palace, the princess would, after using the oil, fall deeply in love with Sinhia. She would fall helplessly into his arms, or so he hoped.

Unfortunately for Sinhia, a passerby who happened to witness his sly actions with the oil merchant, shuffled quickly to the palace. Immediately, they informed the princess of his unsavory intentions. When the oil arrived a short while later, the Princess ordered that it be burned and the intricately decorated bottle in which it was stored, be buried. However, the tale takes a drastically darker turn...

During the burning of the oil outside the palace walls, a small drop of the oil was gathered up by a gust of wind as it was poured on the fire. It landed on a huge boulder near the dirt track next to the fortress.

Shortly after, Sinhia made his way triumphantly back toward the palace, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his princess after bathing in the oil. All of a sudden, the boulder that caught the oil, cracked and groaned like a demonic entity. It appeared to loosen itself from the wall and charged at Sinhia like a raging bull. Lost in his lustful thoughts, the occultist failed to see the destructive mountain-sized rock hurtling towards him and within seconds, was crushed beneath its powerful impact.

In agonizing pain, distraught, and knowing death was imminent, the heartbroken and crippled Sinhia cursed the palace and all who dwelled there, including the townsfolk. Within a year, a destructive war unexpectedly broke out between Bhangarh and the nearby village of Ajabgarh. Atrocities befell the Bhangarh townsfolk and the princess was mercilessly killed, leaving behind a soulless maze.

What lurks within the fort’s walls?

Naturally, something disturbing lurks within Bhangargh Fort’s dark walls. After all the glamour, hope, excitement, horror, love, and tragedy, it should bare no surprise.

Could it be the angry soul of the princess seeking revenge for the demise of her town and people? Perhaps it could also be the love-sick devastated spirit of the occultist desperately trying to execute his love-sick plan for the rest of eternity? Maybe it’s the sadistic nature of the Guru bestowing misfortune on anybody who dares enter the town or fort to this very day? Let’s take a look at the reported phenomena and you can decide for yourself.

Strange disappearances

Interestingly, the government has imposed a warning that all visitors to the town and fort should vacate the premises before sunset and not return until sunrise the following morning. This message is relayed by a never-ending display of notice boards all over the town and on the outskirts. There are many tales of people who have ignored such warnings and have never been seen again.

One tragic tale involves two curious young boys who decided to hide in one of the fort’s desolate rooms as night fell. The boys hid from security officers who nervously completed their evening checks, before quickly leaving the premises themselves. Shortly after, the boys were left all alone as darkness and silence engulfed the town and its foreboding fort. They were never seen again. Not a single trace of life, clothing, or struggle was left behind. It was as if the boys had simply vanished into thin air. To this very day, there are no further answers to this tragic and confusing tale.

Well of tragedy

Similarly, upon hearing of the disappearance of the two boys, another boy decided to challenge the wrath of Bhangarh. Arming himself with lighting equipment, the boy paraded around the fort and surrounding town in the dead of night. Curiously, he slipped and plummeted to the bottom of a well, where he unwillingly and badly injured, spent the rest of the night.

The next morning, in agonizing pain, the boy was discovered by staff and rushed to the local hospital. However, tragically and unsurprisingly, as stated by locals, the car in which the boy was being transported suffered a head-on collision with an oncoming lorry. The driver and everybody else in the car, including the boy, were instantly killed.

The mysterious boy

Another less tragic incident involved a large group of ghost-hunting enthusiasts. They managed to persuade the keeper of the fort to allow them inside just before midnight. Despite the keeper’s warning, the enthusiastic team went inside. After anxiously parading the premises, they entered the fort. Within one of the rooms, looming in the darkness, was the figure of a young boy. When questioned about how he had entered the fort or why he was there, the figure quietly moved back into the darkness and was never seen again. Not a sound was made, and the team was left alone again, unnerved by what they had seen.

Upon further investigation, the team realized that there were no windows, doors or any other entrance that the boy could have used to enter the fort. It had been locked and bolted at sunset. The security team, upon completing their evening checks before closing up, had not seen a boy in the area.

An orchestra of unnerving sounds

Despite not being allowed anywhere near the town or fort after sunset, some folk possess a strong disposition. Although not brave enough to go inside, they lurk as close to the boundary lines as possible. Many have reported an array of strange wailing sounds coming from the town in the dead of night and ghastly groans and wails emanating from the towers of the fort.

Sometimes, simultaneous noises create what is often described as ‘an orchestra from hell’. Although there are claims that the sounds could be from animals, they appear to have been refuted as the sounds bear no resemblance to the local wildlife. According to many people who live near the town and fort, animals, for some reason, appear to stay away...

Apparitions, broken roofs, and mysterious parties

Again, those who choose to venture past the many sign-posted warnings claim they can hear the delicate sounds of distant partying. Although people never get close enough to hear the dialogues, it is evident that some sort of ‘ethereal’ celebration is taking place. In addition, from a distance, have identified strange white and bright glowing mists standing on what appear to be the roofs of buildings. Oddly, many of the fort’s roofs collapsed centuries ago.

Speaking of roofs, there also appears to be a never-ending cycle of ‘continuous collapsing roofs’. After some roofless buildings have been renovated or restored, they collapse again. Despite the work, investigation and efforts of professional builders, no rational explanation is has ever been conveyed. Could it be that the Guru and Occultist, who bestowed such devastation on the town and fort, intended it to last for an eternity?

The Bhangarh Fort certainly has a catastrophic and unusual history that suits the tales associated with it. True or not, people clearly enjoy the ancient architecture and remnants of the past when they come to visit. As for staying after nightfall, it seems that remnants of a different kind are waiting to be accessed. Proceed with caution!

The Dormant Horrors of Beach Army Hospital

Those in the paranormal community are a thorough bunch. They leave no stone unturned, no forest unsearched, and no dark corner of any state unexplored. They’ve outed every ghost, documented every haunt, explored every rumor and shrapnel of mythical lore, and yet, here I find myself, alone in the damp and crumbling halls of a building for which no record exists and no investigator has ever truly set foot in. Here, on the periphery of the Mineral Wells city limits, abandoned in the barren fields of this dreary town; I am alone in the Beach Army Hospital.

Beach Army Hospital Researched

I’ve done my research, and the only indisputable fact I can spew about this building is that in the eyes of the world, it might as well not even exist. There are no videos of overnight hunts, no independent publications or blogs that have been written, and no record of it’s past with the Mineral Wells Chamber of Commerce. It once served as an installation of the Fort Wolters Military base. It was a hospital devoted to treating active-duty military personnel, but when Fort Wolters shuttered its doors at the end of the Vietnam War, so too did this facility. So here it has sat since the early 1970s, and here I stand in 2020. The first paranormal investigator ever granted access to the structure in nearly half a century.

I stumbled upon this enigmatic situation at the behest of Brett Hobson, the owner of Beach Army Hospital, LLC. In an effort to help fund the hospital's renovations, Hobson wants to open the doors of Beach Army Hospital for the world to see and wants to do so by allowing private overnight ghost hunts of the facility to any team brave enough to venture to its location.

The dark Past

The site of countless deaths, due to the building's operation as a hospital. There is also the looming threat of something sinister. Hobson and his family had the misfortune of discovering the building had been used as the destination for numerous satanic rituals. They discovered pentagrams and upside-down crosses painted on the walls of a former patient's bedroom. According to Hobson, the energy inside the room was so strong “the family dog nearly jumped out of the second-story window when brought in there.”

While there is no doubt in my mind that Beach Army Hospital will quickly prove itself to be amongst the most haunted locations in Texas, if not the country, it’s the spotlight in the paranormal community that will be short-lived. With construction on the building set to begin later this fall, there will only be a few months open for investigators to explore the inside of the building. Then it will close and at that time it will become the Perfect Technician Academy - a local trades training school catering to the veteran community - has announced they will be leasing the building for their own use. What’s more, with the spirits inside having had no interaction with the living in decades, those few months of investigations are poised to yield some utterly groundbreaking evidence of spirits who are eager to make themselves known.

Voices Heard

The disembodied voices of men and women linger in the stairways and halls. The blackened apparitions of former patients can be seen lurking in shadowed corners. The shuffling of phantom footsteps can be heard all around you, and the resident poltergeists are quick to move objects before your very eyes. All of this evidence and more deserve to be captured, and it will be up to you and your team to do so. Visit The Haunted Historian (@haunted.historian) on Instagram for a link to the locations website for bookings, and prepare to conduct an investigation unlike any you’ve ever done before. Happy hunting!