Article Courtesy of: The Examiner

Article Courtesy Of: Reuters

Charles Hickson, the Mississippi man who claimed he was abducted and probed by aliens while he was fishing with a friend in 1973 and never backed off the story despite the ridicule he endured, has died.

Hickson, 80, died last Friday of a heart attack, his family said on Tuesday.

Hickson, then 42, was fishing with 19-year-old Calvin Parker Jr. on a pier near Pascagoula, Mississippi in October 1973 when they said a cigar-shaped UFO with flashing blue lights suddenly appeared above them.

A door opened up, the two men later told authorities, and they were pulled into the craft by aliens, who paralyzed them, examined them on a table and then let them go.

Although Hickson was reluctant to share the story -- he said all he and Parker wanted to do "was go fishing" and he feared people would "laugh me out of Jackson County" -- he and Parker eventually went to local police and reported the incident.

"They weren't lying," the chief investigator for the Jackson County Sheriff's Department told reporters at the time. "Whatever it was, it was real to them."

As word of their claims leaked out, Hickson and Parker became minor celebrities, celebrated by believers in extraterrestrial life but derided by skeptics.

In 1974, after wire services picked up the story, Hickson appeared on a number of national TV programs, including The Dick Cavett Show.

In 1983, Hickson wrote a book about the incident called "UFO Contact at Pascagoula" with William Mendez.

The term “cryptozoology” is said to have been coined in 1959 by Lucien Blancou, a former game inspector in Likouala, a department of the Republic of the Congo, but Blancou used the term in reference to the work of Belgian-French zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans. Cryptozoology is defined as the science of hidden animals, combining three words: kryptos for hidden, zoon for animal and logos for discourse.

In his 1999 book, Unexplained: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena, author Jerome Clark quotes Heuvelmans as saying he originated the term himself, that he wanted to “give a name to the totally new discipline in zoology my research implied. That is how I coined the word 'cryptozoology,' the science of hidden animals.” To further complicate the matter, in his book, In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents, Heuvelmans credits Scottish explorer and adventurer Ivan T. Sanderson with originating the term.

Sanderson, who earned a B.A. in zoology from Cambridge University, as well as a Masters degree in botany and geology became well known during the 1960s, for his eye-witness account of a Kongamato, a reportedly pterodactyl-like creature. Sanderson shot a fruit bat over water, went to retrieve it and was attacked by something he called “the Granddaddy of all bats.” He described the creature as being the size of an eagle and with a “lower jaw hung open and bore a semicircle of pointed white teeth set about their own width apart from each other.” Heuvelmans reported that Sanderson use the term cryptozoology in a 1948 Saturday Evening Post article, “There Could be Dinosaurs.”

Whatever the true origin of the term, Heuvelmans earned his title, "the father of cryptozoology,” writing many books and articles on the subject. In 1975, he created the Center for Cryptozoology in France, where his own library is currently housed. He helped found the International Society of Cryptozoology in 1982. A donation to the Museum of Zoology in Lausanne in 1999 contained over 50,000 specimens, photographs and documents.

The International Society of Cryptozoology maintains the possibility of known animals existing in areas where they are not generally believed to inhabit, and that presumed extinct animals persist in the present or the recent past. Cryptozoologists point to cases where species that are now accepted were initially disbelieved, such as the mountain gorilla, giant squid and American tapir. The komodo dragon, koupey and coelacanth are other cited examples.

Henry Gee, editor of the journal Nature, stated that the 2003 discovery of Homo floresiensis fossil remains was possible evidence that famous cryptid like yetis were founded on grains of truth, adding that cryptozoology could now “come in from the cold.”

The popularity of the Discovery Channel television series “Sasquatch Odyssey” and “Monster Hunters” indicate that cryptozoology is attracting more attention. While some people will may be too easily swayed into believing anecdotal accounts, others will never be convinced, no matter what amount of scientific evidence is put before them.

Article Courtesy Of: MSNBC News

An ocean exploration team led by Swedish researcher Peter Lindberg has found what some are suggesting is a crashed flying saucer.

Lindberg's team, which has had success in the past recovering sunken ships and cargo, was using sonar to look for the century-old wreck of a ship that went down carrying several cases of a super-rare champagne. Instead, the team discovered what it claims is a mysterious round object that might (or might not) be extraterrestrial.

Lindberg explained to local media that his crew discovered, on the 300-foot-deep ocean floor between Finland and Sweden, "a large circle, about 60 feet in diameter. You see a lot of weird stuff in this job, but during my 18 years as a professional I have never seen anything like this. The shape is completely round."

Adding to the mystery at the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia, Lindberg said he saw evidence of scars or marks disturbing the environment nearby, suggesting the object somehow moved across the ocean floor to where his team found it.

It's not clear what to make of this report, or the video of the sonar scan that shows the object, but Swedish tabloids and Internet UFO buffs have had a field day. Some suggest the object is a flying saucer of extraterrestrial origin (and the seafloor scars were dug up when it crashed), though of all the things that might create a round sonar signature, that seems to be among the more outlandish. It might be a natural feature formation, or possibly a sunken, round human-made object.

Lindberg's claim that the object "is perfectly round" may or may not be accurate; while it looks round from the information so far, the resolution of the sonar image was not high enough to verify that it is indeed round. And while the lines that appear to be leading to (or from) the feature may suggest some sort of movement, it's also possible they have nothing to do with the object.

Lindberg himself did not suggest that it was of extraterrestrial origin, though he did speculate that it might be a "new Stonehenge." This is not the first time a sunken object has been presented as the solution to a mystery. Take, for example, the famous underwater mystery of the "Bimini Road," a rock formation in the Caribbean near the Bahamas that resembles a road or wall. Many New Agers and conspiracy theorists claimed that the rocks were too perfectly shaped to be natural, and that they were either made by an unknown civilization or left behind by the lost city of Atlantis. In fact, geologists have identified the blocks as unusually shaped but perfectly natural weathered beach rock.

It's also worth noting that UFOs may not be saucer-shaped. The famous "flying saucer" description of the first UFO has since been revealed as a reporting error. Lindberg said his team has neither the interest nor the resources for further investigation of the anomaly. Deep ocean research is time-consuming and expensive. If the object were indeed a flying saucer, recovering it could be worth millions or billions of dollars. If it's a natural formation, on the other hand, it would probably be a waste of time and money.

Article Courtesy Of: The Inquirer

Psychic perception may come to us through any of our five senses. If through the sense of sight, it is called “clairvoyance,” which literally means “to see clearly.” If through the sense of hearing, it is “clairaudience.” If through the sense of touch or feeling, it is “clairsentience.” If through the sense of smell, it’s called “clairolfaction.”

I don’t know what it’s called if the psychic information comes through the sense of taste, if there’s such a thing.

However, I have come across at least two persons who receive psychic information through the sense of smell. They discovered such a gift or talent in my class on ESP. Since they attended my seminars many years ago, I have never heard of anybody else with the same psychic ability. It seems this is not a very common one.

Interesting letter

But recently, I received a very interesting letter about this rare psychic ability from a reader named Karen Padayhag.

Here’s her letter:

“After reading your book “Understanding The Psychic Powers of Man,” containing the different psychic manifestations, I was amazed. I remembered that I usually smell something different in places that are considered to be haunted or in funerals.

“During my father’s funeral, I smelled this unusual smell—and I continue to smell this in every funeral I go to.

“I also smell it in my school building for my class in home Economics (H.E). At first I didn’t think it was something important. However, one day, in the same building, we gathered there to eat. We brought food to our H.E room. When I got near the table, the unusual smell in that room became more intense. Again, I did not bother with it.

“After the gathering, I became very sick. Getting sick after smelling that unusual smell usually happened to me. I also smell the same smell when the death anniversary of my father is near.

“I do not know what it means. I can’t describe it except that it is unusual and not normally smelled by people.

“Here’s one other thing. Every time I would reminisce or imagine things, they would be accompanied by certain smells. For me, everyday would be a different smell and I clearly sense them when I remember those events.”

Highly developed

Karen, you are definitely one of those rare individuals who receive psychic information through the sense of smell. As mentioned earlier, yours is a very rare psychic gift or ability. Your sense of smell is so highly developed that you can even smell things that you merely imagine, and that you can associate each day with a different smell.

Others can see people as “beings of light” and in color. They can see the human aura that is not normally visible to everybody. These are people with a highly developed sense of sight, that’s why it is commonly called “The Third Eye.”

Try to experiment with this rare psychic ability of yours, so that you can use it in a practical way. One of the students I mentioned above can smell sickness in people, even if he has a cold. That’s why he is able to diagnose or tell what’s wrong with a person simply by being aware of that smell.

Can you imagine the tremendous possibilities this rare ability of yours can have? People with this psychic ability, when meeting a friend, will not say, “You don’t look well today.” They are more likely to say, “You don’t smell good today!”

Note

A special thanks to Angela Moore for bringing this article to my attention. Her site on how to get a good psychic reading is one of the best reads on the subject as well as how to avoid getting ripped off my unscrupulous psychics. Lots of good customer reviews listed here for the most popular psychic phone services online.