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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark–Humdrum Horror
Before I begin, let me address the elephant in the room—I am not the target audience for this movie. The source material became popular long after my school days. While I was growing up, there was precious little available for mid-level horror—it went from Scholastic collections of ghost stories to Stephen King, with nothing in between. I read The Shining when I was 12, and will forever have ‘roque/stroke’ burned into my memory. I mention this for a couple of reasons—first, because I WISH I’d had horror that was tailored for my age group, and that I went into this movie without any expectations. There’s no nostalgia factor here to…
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You Got Some Murder in my Pop Culture! Here’s How It Happened.
Murder, of course, could be thought of as an infamous human institution—in Judeo-Christian culture, its importance goes all the way back to Cain. In ancient history, it goes back to the Egyptians and Mesopotamians. In practice, it probably goes back to that fateful dinner when Og wanted the hunk of wooly mammoth Ug was still chewing on, and Og was really, really hungry. However, in more recent times, murder has become an industry. There are murderabilia shops, biopics and documentaries, and any number of true crime tomes in circulation at any given time. Volumes upon volumes have been penned about Jack the Ripper, Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson, and more. The…
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Into the Mystic? My Recent Encounter With Numerology
For someone who is fascinated by all things Fortean, from ghosts to UFOs to psychic phenomena and things that go bump in the night, I’ve had precious few experiences in my own life. Sure, there was the time when some compatriots and I heard something running around a loft when we knew there was no one up there. Or the time when a few of us, driving late at night, saw a weird, unnatural glow emanating from a draw a few miles from the main road. But those are extreme outliers in what has been a mundane life, as least as it pertains to Forteana. About two weeks ago, though,…
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EDITORIAL–The Need for Standardized Data in Paranormal Research
Over the past couple of decades, I’ve noticed a commonality among paranormal researchers. (For today’s purposes, I’ll use the term ‘paranormal’ to mean anything outside of the ordinary, even though the different communities might be at odds with one another. This includes, but is not limited to, the study of ghosts, cryptids of all sorts, UFOs, Ancient Alien theory, abductions, and out-of-place artifacts.) The commonality is a simple one–the odd university department or study notwithstanding, there is no set of agreed-upon data that sets the bar for what is or isn’t acceptable evidence. In other words, one investigator may count an abnormal cry or shriek in the darkened woods as…
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Mandela Effect, Part II–Why Do So Many People Experience It?
Last week, I posted an overview of the Mandela Effect–what it is, and why I think it’s mostly a collective case of faulty memory. While I haven’t completely discounted the idea that the world is changing around us, or that some people flit back and forth between dimensions of the multiverse, I strongly believe that the vast, vast majority of Mandela Effects can be explained by the fact that our memories are not as reliable as we’d like them to be. So, why do people continue to believe? I think there are two main reasons, which I’ll detail here. It’s not just memory that’s subjective, but our perception, as well.…
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Mandela Effect Thoughts, Part 1
Today, I caught myself thinking about the Mandela Effect. For those of you who don’t know, the Mandela Effect occurs when a large minority of people remember something happening in a certain way, only to find it slightly altered (or completely different) in the historical record. It derives its name from Nelson Mandela, who many thought had died in prison, or at least, years before his actual death in 2013. Believers in the theory feel that either the world has changed around them, or that they’ve slipped through to an alternate universe in which things are slightly different. Detractors say that it’s possible to mistakenly remember things on a large…
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Observation and Paranormal Videos
Last night, as is my wont, I spent the last hour or so before bed watching YouTube videos. I often watch a funny take on politics (Seth Meyers or Stephen Colbert), or movies, or unexplained phenomena…ordinary, average stuff. I also like to indulge in channels that post curated ‘ghost videos.’ As most open-minded people do, I look first to debunk for natural causes, then to debunk for potential hoaxing, and if neither of those pan out, I file it away in my mental save file labeled ‘Hmmm’ (filed under ‘I’ for ‘Interesting’). One of my favorite channels for this type of video is Nuke’s Top 5. While his titles are…
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The Five–A Long-Overdue Recognition of Jack the Ripper’s Victims
Picture this—it’s night in the city. Fog rolls off the Thames, its tendrils penetrating the deepest alley, the darkest corridor, shrouding the dark and creating halos around the gas lamps that line the dingy, cobblestone streets. Revelry can be heard from a nearby pub—singing, shouting, laughing…a glass breaks. Framed against this backdrop, a woozy woman steps from the pub and wanders alone, down the street, singing softly to herself. A male figure, shrouded in mist and darkness, approaches her, his coat billowing behind him, top hat perched on his head…we see a glint of sharp metal in his hand… What comes to mind? Jack the Ripper has become a major…