| Year in
Review: The Top Paranormal Events of 2001 | |
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Despite our expanding knowledge and advancing technology, the world seems to grow stranger and more mysterious with every passing year. There was no shortage of paranormal and otherwise remarkable and unexplained events in 2001, reminding us that there is still much to life on this planet that we do not understand. Here are some of the top paranormal stories of 2001:
January 2001
• Researchers on an expedition in Washington state, sponsored by The Bigfoot
Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), discovered what they believe is good
evidence for the existence of Bigfoot: the imprint
of his buttocks on the ground.
• A team of Swedish
explorers joined the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster and
developed plans to capture it with a net.
• In what was being hailed as a miracle by some, a small statue of the
Virgin Mary
in Beirut, Lebanon began to ooze
an oily substance.
• The painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe was found to have
microscopic, detailed
images of people in the irises of both eyes. Scientists could not explain
their presence.
• The furor
over twin babies who were adopted by a Welsh couple over the Internet took
an even stranger turn when they claimed their farmhouse was plagued by ghosts
and hired paranormal investigators.
• The staff of the Boot
and Slipper pub in Amerisham, U.K., claimed that the establishment is
haunted by a ghost that they can feel brush past them and hear muttering
to itself. They have even felt its hands on their shoulders.
February
2001
•
In one of the most important
and spectacular cryptozoological stories of the decade, clear and detailed
photos of an unidentified ape creature were revealed. Known as the Myakka
Skunk Ape, the creature was photographed by a resident of Sarasota, Florida,
who caught the animal taking food from her property. Some experts concluded that
it very well may be an as-yet-undiscovered large anthropoid.
• Adding to a long list of human mysteries, a 104-year-old woman in
Russia suddenly started
growing new teeth. She said she could now once again enjoy her favorite
ginger cookies.
• International
students who won a chance to use a NASA spacecraft to photograph
the surface of Mars turned up a Martian mystery that stumped
scientists. One of the images shows a region in the middle latitudes of Mars
carpeted with dunes and valleys. In one corner of the image, an isolated cluster
of dark boulders peppers the landscape.
• A researcher claimed
to solve the mystery of Mokele
Mbembe, a creature of the African Congo that has long been suspected of
possibly being a surviving dinosaur. The researcher says the pygmies of
the area identified a rhinoceros as Mokele Mbembe.
• A Congo African gray parrot owned by Aimee Morgana was tested for its psychic
abilities. Hailed for its ability to read
its owner's mind, the parrot was tested by researcher Rupert Sheldrake and
was found to make 23 accurate comments out of a possible 123 during the sessions
- a one in a billion chance.
• Hundreds of people flocked to a hot
springs in Thailand temple where miracle cures were claimed. The
temple's monks said five paralyzed people were cured.
March
2001
• A Time magazine article openly called TV medium John Edward a
fraud. Edward, host of the highly popular "Crossing Over" show,
was accused of using strategically placed microphones to pick up audience
conversations that he then uses as part of his spiel on his TV show.
• A series of experiments at the University of Arizona produced evidence that
researchers say could indicate that some "mediums" might indeed be
able to communicate with the dead. Gary
Schwartz, a professor of psychology at the university's Tucson campus, said the findings
suggest the mediums studied seemed to possess an uncanny ability to state
facts about the deceased relatives of complete strangers, with as much as 93%
accuracy.
• An autistic
two-year-old boy, who suddenly and mysteriously became speechless, just
as suddenly regained
his voice four months later when he began singing the song "Mulder and
Scully" word for word - a mystery worthy of "The X-Files."
• The National Post in Canada reported that investigators
in Ontario and Quebec were baffled by strange "ice rings"
found in ponds and fields across the country. Though they seemed to be similar
to crop circles, nobody knows if the rings were actually related to their
better-known cousins.
• An international team of
explorers began a
new search for Ireland's Lough Ree monster, a large, serpent-like
creature that is said to dwell in the Irish lake. Sightings date back hundreds
of years.
• In what became a bizarre ongoing battle
between witchcraft and science,
Kevin Carlyon, a High Priest in the British Coven of White Witches, cast a
protective spell over Loch Ness to save the legendary monster from Jan
Sunberg, a member of the Global Underwater Search Team who hoped to capture the
creature and get samples of its DNA.
• In a project they
call "The Second
Coming Project," a group of scientists in the Philippines said they
aimed to clone Jesus by taking an incorrupt cell from one of the many
Holy Relics of Jesus’ blood and body that are preserved in churches throughout
the world.
April 2001
• Thirty-seven years after
his death, the body of Pope John XXIII was discovered to be remarkably
well-preserved.
• A team of international scientists carried out the
world's biggest ghost investigation in Edinburgh, Scotland. About 200
people were invited to stay
overnight in Mary King's Close, a disused underground street off the Royal
Mile, that is said to be haunted by plague victims. The hunt was followed up by
a scientific
investigation.
• In Portugal, a mule
- a horse-donkey hybrid animal that science says cannot conceive - broke all
the rules and gave birth to healthy
offspring.
• An icon of the Madonna in Greece was said to start
bleeding about a month before Pope John Paul II was scheduled to visit.
Thousands of Orthodox Christians gathered to witness the alleged miracle.
• A team from the International Society of Cryptozoology began a new
search for information on the Missouri Monster - Momo. One sighting
of the Bigfoot-like creature described "a monster about 10 feet tall,
standing on two legs like a man, with long black hair all over and holding the
body of a dog, still bleeding, in one of his arms."
• Swedish monster hunter Jan
Sundberg continued to stay in the news with his ongoing attempt to capture
the Loch Ness Monster in a 12-day mission called Operation Cleansweep.
• René Dahinden,
the world's leading authority on Sasquatch, died after spending nearly 50
years searching for the legendary beast.
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