I will speak on behalf of the Bear Lake Monster, since my brother isn't here to do it. The 24th of July issue of The Tribune featured a front page story "Myths of the Pioneers" that debunked a half dozen or so of the Beehive State's favorite faith-promoting rumors. Among those cherished notions torpedoed by The Tribune was the existence of the Bear Lake Monster. In 1863 Joseph Rich of Bear Valley was the first to claim sighting the beast. The Tribune stated that Rich later boasted of foisting "a first class lie." Monday's article conclusively declared that there is "probably" nothing to the stories…
Psychic healing or pie in sky?
Adam, a 20-year-old. Vancouver resident, refers to himself as "a gifted distant energy healer" on his Web site, www.dreamhealer.com, and credits Mitchell for helping him see his healing gifts as "being explained within the realm of quantum physics and quantum holograms." Adam is said to have cured rock 'n' roll legend Ronnie Hawkins of terminal pancreatic cancer and to have healed dozens of other sick people. He conducts group healings that are successful both in the money he receives and the numbers of people he draws…
That's the spirit, folks!
Are you one of those who have been rattled by too many ghost stories of the olden-day kind - and other tales of the supernatural - told by your grandparents and other elderly relatives in the best storytelling traditions, as a result of which you have spent many a sleepless night? Here is an opportunity to keep a date with genies, ghosts, flying coffins and other such objects that are associated with the supernatural…
A field guide to cryptozoological hoaxes
There are plenty of field guides on the market to help folks identify birds, mammals, trees, flowers and so on, but I've never seen a Field Guide to Cryptozoological Hoaxes, so I thought I'd take a shot at writing one. It's not very comprehensive, and only illustrates some of the more obvious hoaxes, but at least it's a start…
Scientists say Erie mirage could be real
Scientists say it's a mirage, but others swear that when the weather is right, Clevelanders can see across Lake Erie and spot Canadian trees and buildings 50 miles away. Eyewitness accounts have long been part of the city's history. "The whole sweep of the Canadian shore stood out as if less than three miles away," a story in The Plain Dealer proclaimed in 1906. "The distant points across the lake stood out for nearly an hour and then faded away"…
Bad TV on the Science Channel: The Apollo 11 "UFO"
Opening the door on the paranormal
The three ghost hunters knew who to call. They just didn't know what they'd unearth once they got there. "We're not here to try and find a ghost. We're here as skeptics as well." So said Justin Yates, paranormal investigator and co-founder of the Havelock-based North Carolina Ghost Hunting Society, speaking Monday before a panel of impromptu spirit stalkers assembled after hours in New Bern Historical Society's administrative offices on Pollock Street…
Museum tells Earth's history with Bible
Like most natural history museums, this one has exhibits showing dinosaurs roaming the Earth. Except here, the giant reptiles share the forest with Adam and Eve. That, of course, is contradicted by science, but that's the point of the $25 million Creation Museum rising fast in rural Kentucky…
Artist claims he has decoded ET art in Arecibo signal
In 1974, a signal was detected by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The broadcast consisted of a transmission of a pictorial message, and in 2001, it was approximated in a crop circle. Another signal from the same star cluster was picked up 30 years later, in 2004. Both times, astronomers initially decided that the transmissions were of interest, then concluded that they must be meaningless, despite their seeming structure…
