Top 10 Paranormal Events of 2005
From Stephen Wagner, Your Guide to Paranormal Phenomena.
Another year of strange events and unknown entities
ANYONE WHO doubts the existence of the paranormal, or at least the idea that there?s more to life on this planet than meets the eye, isn?t paying attention. Every year, fringe and mainstream news sources alike report on the many strange things that take place in this world with surprising regularity. There are so many events that go unexplained and cause us to wonder.
2005 was another banner year for the unknown. Here are 10 of the top paranormal events.
1. Animals? Sixth Sense
After the devastating tsunami struck the coastlines of the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, reports began to filter in that although many human bodies were recovered, virtually no animal carcasses were found. Why? Did the animals sense the impending disaster? A full hour before the waves struck, it was reported, elephants became agitated and began to wail. As the disaster neared, many broke their chains and headed for higher ground. Flamingos left their breeding grounds and flew to the safety of the forests. Leopards, tigers, wild boar, deer, water buffalo, monkeys and smaller mammals and reptiles all escaped unharmed. All this suggested that animals might possess a ?sixth sense? or ?sense of doom? ? a heightened instinct ? that saved their lives. French zoologists, seeking a scientific explanation, suggested that it was a more advanced acoustic system that allowed the animals to hear the approaching giant surges of water.
As further evidence that dogs, at least, have remarkably keen senses, CBS News reported on certain canines that have the uncanny ability to sniff out cancer in people.
2. Paranormal TV
The abundance of television shows with paranormal themes in the 2005-06 season was itself news. The public, it seems, is craving entertainment with overtones of the unknown. Series such as Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer, Invasion and Night Stalker all made their debut, with Ghost Hunters and Most Haunted returning for loyal viewers. The breakaway hit, however, was the well-written and acted Medium, based on the real-life psychic medium Allison Dubois. The show?s popularity helped turn the media spotlight on other mediums and psychics, such as Janna Excell and Jo'Ann Ruhl , Nancy Myer and Mary Ann Winkowski, who is said to have inspired Ghost Whisperer.
Kelsey Grammer, former star of Frasier and current producer of Medium, claims to have his own contact with the dead, including a 2,000-year-old ghost he knows as Alex. And he?s not the only one in Hollywood to admit that ability in 2005. Pop singer Olivia Newton-John says she received signs from her deceased mother, and in February Keanu Reeves told reporters he has seen ghosts on at least two occasions.
3. Technology and the Paranormal
Believing in ghosts, the afterlife and other things unseen is one thing, proving their existence is quite another. While ghost investigators around the world continued to experiment with electronic voice phenomena (EVP) ? alleged voices of the dead ? inventors were busy creating gadgets that they claimed could detect or even contact the dearly departed. In January, a German inventor unveiled his Phone Angel, a cell phone device he said would allow the mourning to contact the recently deceased. Meanwhile, Japanese manufacturer SolidAlliance presented GhostRadar, which they said blinked its lights and beeped its tones in the presence of the unseen. And in December, mechanical engineer Steve Watson announced his spirit sensor that similarly flashes and chimes when ghosts are near, he says.
But the top story, in a more serious vein perhaps, was that mainstream scientists continued to experiment with how the mind alone can affect machines ? essentially proving that psi exists. In July, a new article reported on the 26-year-old project at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program, which has measured the effects of human consciousness on random number generators. And a black box in the basement of Edinburgh University in Scotland, as well as other locations around the world, are part of the Global Consciousness Project, a network of machines that has shown how human consciousness has reacted to such events as the Sept. 11 attack. (Also see ?The Consciousness of the World?.) Other scientists were proving that blind people can ?see? with a sixth sense, that people can subconsciously sense trouble, and that certain stimuli to the brain can trigger (or mimic) what some people have reported as supernatural religious experiences and out-of-body experiences.
4. Chupacabra Sightings
The fearsome ?goat sucker,? so-named because it drains its victims of blood, made the news several times in 2005. In February, KOBTV reported the discovery of a strange corpse on Albuquerque?s West Mesa. Although the creature did not really resemble the eyewitness reports of chupacabra, reporters hung the label on it anyway. In June, residents in South Texas wondered if they caught a chupacabra sighting on videotape. Most researchers believe, however, it was merely another case of a coyote with mange, as in the Elmendorf case of 2004. In August, a Texas farmer actually caught and killed one.
The top story was in December, when the real thing might have struck in Uruguay. Researcher Scott Corrales reported strange deaths of deer in a hunting preserve; they were mutilated and their genitalia and reproductive organs were removed.
5. Exorcisms on the Rise
With the screening of the film The Exorcism of Emily Rose, based on the true experiences of 19-year-old Anneliese Michel, came a new wave of interest in demonic possession and exorcism. The Vatican, it was revealed, now provides a course for priests on conducting exorcisms and casting out demonic spirits. Bob Larson, a controversial American preacher, took his ?deliverances? to Australia, where he said Melbourne's demons are ?the most vicious in the world? because its society is in a religious vacuum. And people continued to be possessed, including a 43-year-old mother in Arizona, who claimed to have been possessed by as many as 10 demons over the last 23 years. The popularizing of such rituals became so offensive that in February a British television station came under public attack for planning to broadcast a live exorcism.
The top story in this category is quite different, however. Understandably, the scientific and medical community spoke out against exorcism practices, saying that they can do more harm than good, as in the case of Anneliese Michel. Whatever afflicts these people should be treated by psychiatrists. Misguided exorcisms can go horribly wrong, as in the case reported in June when a Romanian Orthadox priest faced murder charges after crucifying a young nun that he believed was possessed by the devil. There are other similar cases.
6. Bigfoot Sightings
Despite the claims of recent years that many Bigfoot sightings and footprint evidence were hoaxed, the large, smelly biped made several appearances in 2005, and new expeditions were launched to find good proof. William Dranginis investigated Virginia sightings, Jason Valenti and John Andrews searched Washington State, the beast was sighted in LeFlore County, Oklahoma, and Floridians hunted for Bigfoot?s cousin, the Skunk Ape.
Some tantalizing new evidence came to light. Ferry operator Bobby Clarke thought he might have videotaped a Bigfoot in Northern Manitoba, Canada back in April. Unfortunately, the creature was too far away and the image too blurry for any definitive conclusion. Then in July, a hair sample was recovered in the Yukon after a claimed Bigfoot sighting. DNA analysis, however, proved that the hair was from a bison. More controversial video footage came out of New York State, where those who taped it say it could show a baby Bigfoot clambering up a tree.
The top Bigfoot story consists of two new photos. In November, a backpacker snapped photos of a hulking creature on a ridge on Silver Star Mountain in Washington, where other sightings of Bigfoot have been claimed in the past. And in early December in West Virginia, a motion-triggered camera captured the image of an unidentified bipedal creature dubbed the Braxton Beast.
7. Ghosts
Ghost were hunted and sighted in 2005, of course, and sometimes even photographed. A family in Kingston, New Hampshire was tormented by levitating objects, disembodied voices and apparitions, seemingly brought about by digging on the property. The staff and customers of a lighting shop in Lincolnshire, England reported mysterious footsteps, slamming doors and shades thrown about. Soldiers in guard towers in Afganistan reported the haunting of a little girl. The Andrew Bayne Memorial Library in Bellevue, Pennsylvania is haunted by a presence that turns lights and fans off and on, fools with the computers and makes shadows in the hallways; an apparition in Victorian dress has also been seen. A former lunatic asylum in Chester, England is home to a mysterious ?woman in black.? In Des Moines, Iowa, a security guard was fired because he reported seeing a ghost. And ghosts were exorcised from Hamlet?s castle in Denmark.
Good evidence was collected also. A closed-circuit security camera in a store in Gloucester, England recorded video of what may be an apparition knocking over a stack of boxes. The shop was built on the grounds or an old theatre that had a reputation for being haunted.
The top story took place in March when steeplejacks were commissioned to investigate the nesting of some lovebirds in the spire of Halifax?s Square Church in Halifax, England. Using a long zoom lens, they attempted to photograph the nest, but what they captured was most unexpected: the ghostly image of a woman in a maroon cloak.
8. Sea and Lake Monsters
Loch Ness seemed to be quiet in 2005, but water monsters appeared elsewhere around the world. Jan-Ove Sundberg, who had been hunting the monster in Norway's Lake Seljord for years, reported in August that he had seen ?two large objects on sonar; they were four to five meters (13-16.5 feet) long, and this was no fish.? At Lake Massawippi in Quebec, an innkeeper snapped a photo of what he believes in that lake?s legendary monster, Whippy. And in some extraordinary photos, Japanese scientists captured the very first images of a living giant squid.
Champ, the monster of Lake Champlain, was the top story here, when it may have been videographed in August. Dick Affolter, Pete Bodette and Affolter's stepson were fishing for salmon on the New York side of the lake when they noticed something unusual and large on the surface of the water, moving in a serpentine manner. Bodette got video of the creature, and as they got closer to it, it slowly submerged.
9. Atlantis Found ? Yet Again
Every year brings new theories and ?evidence? for the true location of Atlantis, and 2005 was no exception. First of all, 2004?s tsunami gave scientists plausibility for the sinking of a large land mass ? possibly even an entire island. In fact, a sunken island lies 60 meters beneath the surface in the Gulf of Cadiz, right "in front of the Pillars of Hercules," (the Straits of Gibraltar), as stated by Plato. Researchers say a large earthquake and tsunami hit the island about 12,000 years ago, roughly the time indicated in the Greek philosopher's writings for the destruction of the city. But another researcher proposes that South America could be the lost continent. Jim Allen says the continent, with its magnificent pyramids and other structures, could be evidence of the advanced Atlantean civilization.
Cyprus has long been suggested as the site of the great Atlantis, and is again the top story here. In May, Robert Sarmast, head of the Cyprus/Atlantis Expedition, presented new evidence in the form of new sonar scans that show manmade structures one mile below the water?s surface off the southeast coast of Cyprus.
10. Popes and Prophecy
The death of Pope John Paul II caused many to mourn and others to wonder about the prophecies regarding the papacy? and possibly the end times. In 1139, St. Malachy O?Morgair, Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland had a vision in which he gave specific clues about the identities of every Pope from his time to the end of time. John Paul II, for example, he named De labore Solis, or ?from the labor of the sun.? John Paul II was born during a partial solar eclipse (May 18, 1920), and there was also a rare "hybrid" eclipse on the day of his funeral.
There are only two Popes named by St. Malachy after John Paul II. The first he names Gloria olivae or "The Glory of the Olive." It was long thought that this prophecy meant that this Pope would come from the Benedictine order of priests because the order is also known as the Olivetans. Although Cardinal Ratzinger is not a Benedictine, he chose the name Benedict XVI.
The second will be named Peter, and he may be the last Pope. Then what? Does it signify the end of life as we know it?
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