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?
