Paranormal

Paranormal! WooHoo! Now here is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, obviously.
So let's get a bit of an explanation before we get to the fun stuff.

Paranormal events are phenomena described in popular culture, folklore and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described to lie beyond normal experience or scientific explanation.

A paranormal phenomenon is different from hypothetical concepts such as dark matter and dark energy. Unlike paranormal phenomena, these hypothetical concepts are based on empirical observations and experimental data gained through the scientific method.

The most notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to ghosts, extraterrestrial life, unidentified flying objects, psychic abilities or extrasensory perception and cryptids.

As my followers know, I have a big interest in all things paranormal. It affects my everyday life, therefore I have become somewhat obsessed in finding answers to these many mysteries.
I am a Ghost hunter, a paranormal researcher, a Cryptid Tracker, and a Paranormal Author. It is these things that keep me writing my paranormal books. http://www.melissageorge.net/

Orang Pendek

Orang Pendek (Indonesian for "short person") is the most common name given to a cryptid, or cryptozoological animal, that reportedly inhabits remote, mountainous forests on the island of Sumatra.

The animal has allegedly been seen and documented for at least one hundred years by forest tribes, local villagers, Dutch colonists and Western scientists and travellers. Consensus among witnesses is that the animal is a ground-dwelling, bipedal primate that is covered in short fur and stands between 80 and 150 cm (30 and 60 in) tall.

hree possible explanations of Orang Pendek's identity are prominent: that all sightings can be explained as the mistaken identification of local animals; that witnesses of Orang Pendek are describing a previously undocumented species of primate; and that a species of early hominid still lives in the Sumatran jungle.

Mistaken identity
Many locals say Orang Pendek's feet look like those of a child, evidenced by foot prints they have found while walking through the forest. However, another local animal, the Sun Bear, is a possible source of these sightings. Bears in general are known for having feet that look quite human-like, and the size of a Sun Bear's are similar to those of a child. In addition, gibbons populate the forests in this area and are known to occasionally descend to the ground and walk for a few seconds at a time on two legs. Witnesses could possibly be seeing orangutans; however:
 1) this species has long been thought to have died out in all but the northern regions of Sumatra and
 2) witnesses almost never describe the animal as having orange fur.

Undocumented primate
Orang Pendek's reported physical characteristics differentiate it from any other species of animal known to inhabit the area. All witnesses describe it as an ape- or human-like animal. Its bipedality, fur coloring, and southerly location on the island make orangutans an unlikely explanation, and its bipedality, size, and other physical characteristics make gibbons, the only apes known to inhabit the area, unlikely as well. Many therefore propose that Orang Pendek could represent a new genus of primate or a new species or subspecies of orangutan or gibbon.

Surviving hominid
As far back as Mr. van Heerwarden's account of Orang Pendek, people have speculated that the animal may in fact be a hominid. In October 2004, scientists published claims of the discovery of skeletal remains of a new species of human (Homo floresiensis) in caves on Flores (another island in the Indonesian archipelago) dating from as recently as 12,000 years ago. The species was described as being roughly one meter tall. The recency of Homo floresiensis' continued existence and the similarities between its physical description and the accounts of Orang Pendek have led to renewed speculation in this respect.

Mothman

Mothman is a moth-like creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, titled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something".

Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker in 1970,later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claiming that Mothman was related to a wide array of supernatural events in the area and the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere, was based on Keel's book.

On November 12, 1966, five men who were digging a grave at a cemetery near Clendenin, WV claimed to see a man-like figure fly low from the trees over their heads. This is often identified as the first known sighting of what became known as the Mothman.

Shortly thereafter, on November 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a " large flying man with ten-foot wings following their car while they were driving in an area outside of town known as 'the TNT area', the site of a former World War II munitions plant.

During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature.Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the sandhill crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.

There were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people, giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were connected.

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand notes that Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman's "home". Brunvand notes that recountings of the 1966-67 Mothman reports usually state that at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more "afraid to report their sightings" but observed that written sources for such stories consisted of children's books or sensationalized or undocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers.

Claims of later sightings
Ufologist Jerome Clark writes that many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of times, " sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you. "

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman claims that sightings of Mothman continue and told USA Today he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they fled from it.

Lizard Man

The Lizard Man is generally described as being 7 feet (2.1 m) tall, bipedal, and bulky, covered in dark hair with scaly lizard-like skin on its hands, feet and face. It is said to have three toes on each foot and three fingers on each hand. The creature has an incredible degree of strength, more than capable of ripping into a car. A few witnesses have reported seeing a tail, although in the majority of cases, a tail was not seen.

Davis sighting
The first reported sighting of the horrifying creature was made by Christopher Davis, a 17 year old local, who said he encountered the creature while driving home from work at 2 AM on June 29, 1988. According to his account, Davis stopped on a road bordering Scape Ore Swamp in order to change a tire which had blown out. When he was finishing up he reported having heard a thumping noise from behind him and having turned around to see the creature running towards him.

Davis said the creature tried to grab at the car and then jumped on its roof as he tried to escape, clinging on to it as Davis swerved from side to side in an effort to throw it off. After he returned home, Davis' side-view-mirror was found to be badly damaged, and scratch marks were found on the car's roof, though there was no other physical evidence of his encounter.

"I looked back and saw something running across the field towards me. It was about 25 yards away and I saw red eyes glowing. I ran into the car and as I locked it, the thing grabbed the door handle. I could see him from the neck down – the three big fingers, long black nails and green rough skin. It was strong and angry. I looked in my mirror and saw a blur of green running. I could see his toes and then he jumped on the roof of my car. I thought I heard a grunt and then I could see his fingers through the front windshield, where they curled around on the roof. I sped up and swerved to shake the creature off."
Chris' father, prompted by a story that ran in the newspaper of a strange car mauling, brought his terrified son to the Lee County Sheriff's Office on July 16, 1988, at which time he told his story to Sheriff Liston Truesdale.

Kingstie

Kingstie was a cryptozoological hoax invented in 1934 as an echo of the 1904 Lake George Monster hoax. It was reported as "a strange creature with the head of a dragon and eyes of fire" in Lake Ontario near Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

It is explained in the book Mysteries of Toronto as follows: "As a prank, they had fabricated a semblance of the creature using a barrel filled with empty bottles for buoyancy and fitting it with a dragon-like head, rope and anchor to keep it in one place, and twine attached to the rope that ran underwater to the shore of Cartwright Bay to permit them to bob its barrel body and head up and down". (As quoted by Joe Nickel, writing for the Skeptical Inquirer.) On May 16th, 2004 two individuals from the Kingston area witnessed a large unexplained animal underneath the water while fishing for carp in Little Cataraqui Creek. This was later named Kingstie, for it was spotted in Kingston Creek, Ontario.

Jersey Devil

The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many different variations. The common description is that of a kangaroo-like creature with the head of a goat, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, cloven hooves and a forked tail. It has been reported to move quickly and often is described as emitting a "blood-curdling scream.

The Lenape tribes called the area "Popuessing". meaning "place of the dragon". Swedish explorers later named it "Drake Kill" ("drake" being a word for dragon, and "kill" meaning channel or arm of the sea (river, stream, etc.) in Dutch).

A popular origin of the story is as follows: "It was said that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after finding she was pregnant for the 13th time, stated that this one would be the Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the Devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a goat's head, bat wings and a forked tail. It growled and screamed, then killed the midwife before flying up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740, a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn't seen again until 1890."

"Mother Leeds" has been identified by some as Deborah Leeds,on grounds that Deborah Leeds' husband, Japhet Leeds, named twelve children in the will he wrote in 1736, which is compatible with the legend. Deborah and Japhet Leeds also lived in the Leeds Point section of what is now Atlantic County, New Jersey, which is commonly the location of the Jersey Devil story.

Infrared (IR)

Infrared (IR) is invisible radiant energy, electromagnetic radiation with longer wavelengths than those of visible light, extending from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers (frequency 430 THz) to 1 mm (300 GHz) (although people can see infrared up to at least 1050 nm in experiments. Most of the thermal radiation emitted by objects near room temperature is infrared.


Infrared is used in night vision equipment when there is insufficient visible light to see. Night vision devices operate through a process involving the conversion of ambient light photons into electrons that are then amplified by a chemical and electrical process and then converted back into visible light.Infrared light sources can be used to augment the available ambient light for conversion by night vision devices, increasing in-the-dark visibility without actually using a visible light source.

The use of infrared light and night vision devices should not be confused with thermal imaging, which creates images based on differences in surface temperature by detecting infrared radiation (heat) that emanates from objects and their surrounding environment

Hauntings

H - Haunting.
A Haunting is when a place contains an energy that is either malevolent, mischievous or malicious.

This word is easy for me to define but also puts a lump in my stomach.
As some of you know, our home has paranormal activity.Some people would call this a "haunted house". Over the years, I have come to realize that there is some kind of doorway here that opens and closes just as frequently as anyone's front door would. We have no control over this and can't estimate when it will happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V-MjGG32mU

Ghost

Ghost
G - Ghost In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Wikipedia

This is a word that is tossed around a lot in the paranormal community. But in actuality, there have been few ghosts ever photoed or recorded.Ghost is a word that most people use for any paranormal activity. Sometimes we get a call that someone has a ghost in their home and things are being moved around. Activity like this may have nothing at all to do with a ghost and could just be energy from the environment. However, there are documented cases of Ghosts actually haunting an area. YouTube is full of "Ghost" videos. But as with anything else, use a good bit of common sense when watching such videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XoCWZG2emc

Frightening

F - frightening

Being cast into the paranormal world at a very young age. Frightening is a word I am very familiar with. But this word also bleeds over into the Cryptid world as well. I have found myself in some strange situations in both fields and have been truly frightened many times. These experiences are what have pushed me into becoming an Indie writer.I have journaled my whole life, but now instead of journaling I share my frightening experiences with you

Existence

E - Existence. The fact or state of being.
 Being both a paranormal investigator ( HOPE Hunters of Paranormal Existence) and a Cryptid tracker (Carolina Cryptid Crew) I spend a lot of my time hunting for the existence of many things. We search for the Existence of paranormal energy as well as the existence of cryptids.
Whether I am on an Investigation or an expedition I am actively searching for the existence of all things paranormal.

Dogman

D - Dogman.
Dogman is said to be a canine that is around to be dark in color, six to eight feet tall and walks on two legs.It has been spotted in areas that are said to also have Bigfoot activity. It is assumed but unknown if these two travel together.There are many videos of these "creatures" on YouTube as well as eyewitnesses that claim to have seen them.

https://www.youtube.com/user/DogmanEncounters

Cryptids

C - Cryptids
Now this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart as my family founded the Carolina Cryptid Crew three years ago.

Cryptids are the yet-to-be discovered animals or recovered supposedly extinct zoological species that are being sought by cryptozoologists, zoologists, anthropologists, and other researchers through fieldwork in the wild, reexaminations of specimens in zoological collections, and searches of archival materials.

I find myself fascinated with these "mythical Creatures". And while spending countless hours out in the woods in search of these elusive legends I have come across many things that I cannot explain.

Bigfoot

B-Bigfoot

I was searching for a way to explain exactly what a Bigfoot is, I came across this post online and I think it sums it up perfectly.

I claim no credit for this writing, it was borrowed in full or part from,
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/bigfoot1.htm

There have been numerous reported sightings, and sasquatch researchers have found hair, footprints and body prints, but there is still no conclusive evidence that such a creature exists.
When considering the sasquatch scientifically, the first question is whether or not such a creature could exist, given what we know about zoology. This is an easy one, because fossil evidence shows that such a creature did exist, 1 to 9 million years ago. This animal, which scientists call gigantopithecus, was native to what is now central and southeast Asia. On the evolutionary tree, gigantopithecus is most closely related to the orangutan, the only modern Asian ape (gorillas and chimpanzees live in Africa).
The most likely explanation of both yeti and sasquatch (if they do exist) is that they are direct descendants of gigantopithecus. There is no evidence of primates evolving in the Americas, so presumably, descendants of gigantopithecus got here the way many humans did: by crossing an ice bridge between northern Asia and northern North America.
We don't know much about gigantopithecus, except that it was larger than a gorilla and had teeth similar to a human's. It is compelling that the closest living relative of gigantopithecus, the orangutan, shares some of the characteristics that eyewitnesses attribute to sasquatch. Orangutans are covered in long, reddish-brown hair, are highly intelligent and exhibit a great deal of curiosity about human behavior. They are not particularly vocal, but will on occasion make loud, howling calls to alert other orangutans of their presence.Orangutans are remarkably different from other primates in how they live. While most apes and monkeys form tight-knit communities, orangutans are solitary creatures. After childhood, they gather with other orangutans only to reproduce. Orangutans are so widely dispersed in an area that they only rarely run across one another.
This sort of behavior might account for the rarity of sasquatch sightings, as well as the lack of skeletal remains. It makes sense that an intelligent animal that prefers to be alone would retreat into the deep woods (or up into the mo­untains) as human civilization encroached on its territory. And if it were smart enough, it could conceivably hide from humans for hundreds and hundreds of years. If the population were widely dispersed, as with orangutans, and the animal had a fairly long life span, as do orangutans and other apes, skeletal remains would show up only once in a while. Most bones decay in a relatively short period of time (as few as 5 to 10 years), so it is possible that scientists wouldn't come across them at all. Believers in sasquatch suggest that it is not only possible, but quite likely that the bones would go undiscovered, since there has never been a full-blown, scientific search for them.
The gigantopithecus-descendant theory is the most likely explanation of where sasquatches might come from. But to skeptics all over the world, there is a much more likely explanation: They say the sasquatch phenomenon is a product of hoaxes, misidentifications and basic human nature. In the next section, we'll look at some of the arguments for and against this hypothesis.

Anomalies

Blogging from A-Z

I am currently doing the A-Z blog challenge. I missed yesterdays letter, so I will have two posts today.

A- Anomalies =  Something that deviates from what is standard, normal or expected.

As a paranormal investigator, this is a subject I love hearing about. If you should call our team to your home or workplace, we will come in to look for anomalies.Let's say, for instance, you may be hearing voices or things may get moved from place to place, a door may close on its own. These are all anomalies because they are out of the realm that we call normal.These are the things that we as Investigators hope to capture on film or audio