You gotta admit there’s something creepy about old dolls.  You know, the ones that have been abandoned by their child owners long ago, their porcelain or plastic bodies cracking, eyes missing, hair in disarray.  The movie Child’s Play played on this fear and had the spirit of an executed killer possessing a Good Guy doll. 

Until eBay’s recent policy changes that prohibits the sale of haunted items, haunted dolls were common on the auction website.  The internet is full of stories of dolls sold on the website that were said to wreak havoc on the homes of the buyers who purchased them.  Many of these dolls were resold on the site, some gaining the cult popularity associated with the Dybbuk Box.

Are these dolls haunted?  Are the just being manipulated by regular ghosts?  Is there a spirit created for the dolls, like with the creation of a voodoo doll?  Magic practitioners may be creating golem-like creatures and bringing them to life with the dolls as their homes.  Or maybe actual ghosts decide residing in a doll is as close as they’re gonna get to being back in a body.  There are as many theories about haunted dolls as there are claimed-to-be haunted dolls themselves.


Here's a look at some of the most famous haunted doll stories:

Robert the Doll

Perhaps the most famous "haunted doll" is Robert the doll.  Robert was given to 5 year old Eugene Otto in 1906 by a Bahamian servant employed by his family, who was said to be well versed in voodoo.  The family hired her after moving to Key West, and fired her shortly after she gifted their son with the doll.  Eugene immediately fell in love with the doll and took it with him everywhere he went.  Soon after Eugene's parents grew concerned when they would hear him talking to the doll, and another voice talking back.
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Robert the Doll
Neighbors would claim to see Robert appear in different windows and move from room to room while the family was out.  Eugene's parents would hear screams at night and rush to thier son's room to find the furniture tossed about, their son terribly frightened, and Robert sitting at the foot of the bed. Eugene would always claim, "Robert did it."

Eventually Robert was locked away in the attic where he stated for 20 years.  Eugene's parents passed away and he inherited the house.  He and his wife were rummaging through the attic and came across Robert.  He was taken back downstairs and before long the strange occurances began again.  Following loud noises Robert would often be found sitting in a rocking chair, the chair rocking.


Eugene insisted on keeping the doll until his death in 1974.  It was then left in the attic until the house was sold. The new owners had a ten year old daughter who soon began to scream out in the night and claim the doll not only moved but was trying to kill her.

Robert is now on display at the Fort East Martello Museum According to legend, visitors to the museum wishing to take a picture of Robert must first ask him permission (which he apparently grants by tilting his head).  If they do not receive permission and take the photo anyway, they are cursed.   Staff claims that giggling is often heard and the doll sometimes inexplicably changes positions slightly.


Joilet the Cursed Doll

Joilet the doll has been passed down through four generations in the same family, from mother to daughter.  A curse attached to the doll caused each of the women to have a son who died at 3 days old.  The family believes the spirits of the boys are cursed to live within the doll until Judgement Day.
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Joilet the Cursed Doll
The sound of several babies crying at once can be heard coming from the doll at night.  The doll was originally given to the great grandmother of the family by a jealous friend when she was pregnant with her second child, a boy.  One would think that getting rid of the doll couldn't hurt in trying to break the curse, but the women refuse to do so because they feel the souls of their children live within the doll and care for it as if it were a real child.


Pupa

Pupa's original owner had the doll from the 1920s until her death in 2005. With her it had survived World War II, and came with her from Italy to the United States.  Over the years it traveled with her back to Italy and across Europe.
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Pupa in her original blue felt dress
The family who now owns Pupa says objects in the display case where she is kept are frequently moved around.  Since the passing of her original owner the doll has became more active, perhaps wanting to be released from her showcase.

They often find the doll positioned differently than where they left her.  On several occasions they have heard a tapping on the glass of the case.  Upon hearing the noise, they look to find Pupa's hands pressed against the glass.


Haunted Barbie

I'm not sure if this story quite fits the haunted category, but it definitely deserves a mention.  The town of Pulau Ubin in Singapore is the home to a shrine that holds a Barbie doll where a statue of a deity usually resides. Instead of the usual offerings worshippers leave her creams, makeup, small combs, and mirrors.
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A German couple and their daughter moved to Pulau Ubin to start a coffee plantation.  World War I broke out.  Being a British colony, any Germans were thought to be possible spies.  British soldiers came to take the family.  They captured the parents but the daughter managed to flee.  However, her fate was not to be a happy one.  Alone on the property she fell from a cliff and died.

Locals built the temple to pacify the girl's spirit.  According to the temple's keeper, the alter originally held a porcelain idol and a lock of the girl's hair.  Years later an Austrailian immigrant had a recurring dream in which a little girl would ask him to take her to a toy shop, then ask him to buy a Barbie doll and take it to the Lady Na Tuk Gong Shrine.  In an effort to stop the dreams the man went looking for the shop in his dream, and to his surprise found it along with the doll the girl had described to him.  He bought the doll and took it to the temple.  Today people come from all over to worship and say their prayers for safety and health are answered.

Annabell the Demon Doll

I've saved the best for last.  In 1970 a mother purchased a vintage Raggedy Ann doll for her daughter, Donna.  Donna was a nurse and lived with a roommate who was also a nurse.  She loved the gift and sat the doll on her bed.  The two soon noticed something wasn't quite right with the doll.  At first it would appear to move slightly while they were away, then they would come home to find it in a completely different part of the house.

After about a month they began to find notes in the house written on parchment paper with a pencil that would say "Help Us" and "Help Lou."  Lou was a mutual friend of the roommates.  After coming home to find the doll on her bed covered in a red blood-like substance the friends contacted a medium to hold a séance.  They were told the spirit of a 7 year old girl named Annabell Higgins lived in the doll.  She had once lived there and been found dead on the property.  Feeling sympathetic for the child spirit the roommates allowed her to stay there with them.
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Annabell as she currently resides
It soon became apparent that Annabell wasn't what she seemed.  Lou had recurring nightmares about the doll.  He awoke from one of these dreams to see the doll at the foot of his bed.  He couldn't move and watched helplessly as the doll climbed up on his bed and strangled him.  He blacked out, and woke the next morning sure the incident hadn't been a dream.  He urged the roommates to get rid of the doll.

Days later Lou was at Donna's planning a trip.  They heard a loud crash from Donna's room.  Fearful an intruder had broken into the house, Lou went to inspect.  He found Annabell tossed on the floor.  He felt a presence behind him.  When he turned to look, fearing a (human) intruder, he was met with a pain in his chest.  Looking down he saw blood coming from what appeared to be 7 claw marks.

Donna was now convinced Annabell wasn't the spirit of a little girl and consulted a priest who referred her to groundbreaking paranormal investigators Ed and Loraine Warren.  (If you're not familiar with paranormal history you may recognize Loraine from her appearances on A&E's Paranormal State.)  They concluded an evil spirit had attached itself to the doll.  It could not, however, possess an inanimate object and was looking for a human host to possess.  The demonic entity had moved the doll hoping to get a medium in to convince the girls it was the spirit of a little girl so they would sympathize with it, according to the Warrens, which it had accomplished. They concluded that if left to go on another week or two the demonic spirit would have accomplished its goal of possessing a human and possibly even killing everyone in the house.

The Warrens had an Episcopal priest come and bless the house and took the doll with them when they left.    Ed claimed to have seen the doll levitate from the chair it sat in several times and when they would go out and return home they would often find the doll in a different part of the house than it had been left.  Neither of them were ever physically attacked by the doll.  Annabelle currently resides in Loraine Warren’s Occult Museum in Moodus, Conneticut.

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Loraine Warren leaving with Annabell
This short video clip from YouTube shows a girl with a doll she was given as a present.  Real or fake? Definitely creepy:
 
The first (legal) hanging here in Letcher County was connected to one of it’s most famous murder cases which also happens to be one of our most famous hauntings.  Floyd Frazier was hanged on the gallows where the old Whitesburg High School now stands on May 19, 1910 for the murder of Ellen Flannery.  For the last century Ellen is said to be spotted occasionally near where she was killed, seeming to try and get back home.

On May 21, 1907 Ellen Flannery, the widowed mother of five children, sent her two eldest children to town on errands and went out to pick greens for supper.  The children returned from town to find that their mother had not returned.  When night fell, they were still alone.  They spent the night by themselves and the next morning neighbors learned of Ellen missing and a search party sat out to look for her. 

Among the search party was 21 year old Floyd Frazier.  Frazier was said to have been mildly mentally handicapped and had been sweet on Ellen.  Taking the lead, he led the party to a creek bank, then announced their was no need to check down in the creek, she wasn’t there.  Other party members insisted on checking, and there they found the body of Ellen Flannery.

Several large stones, some weighing up to 65 pounds, were piled on top of her in an effort to conceal her body.  Her throat had been slashed and their was bruising on her head.  Also her skirt had been torn off and placed beneath her body.

Nearby lay the mess of greens she had collected along with a blood trail leading away from the scene.  A fence close by had bloody handprints on it from someone climbing over it.  Following the trail, large footprints were found in the mud with an unusual number of tacks in the heel. Following the footprints they found a knife, and under another pile of rocks, Ellen’s bonnet.

Suspicious of Frazier who had led them straight to the body, police went to his home where a shirt was found with blood on the sleeve that had been scrubbed.  He had several scratches on him as well. When a pair of shoes belonging to him were found that contained an unusual number of tacks in the heel that matched the footprints, Frazier was arrested for the murder. 

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Floyd Frazier
Sentenced to be hanged, his mother and several others testified at the trial that Floyd didn’t have the mind of an average person and was known to fly off in a rage for no apparent reason.  Word spread around town that Frazier’s mother disapproved and was even jealous of his love for Flannery, and some said she even told him to kill her.

Ellen Flannery’s ghost has been seen walking in the head of Pert Creek and along Pine Mountain that joins the hollow.  Witnesses have seen her apparition walking near the spot where she was killed, perhaps trying to get back home to her children.  I’ve visited the site where Ellen was killed, as well as her gravesite on ghost hunting trips.  While we didn’t capture any concrete evidence, we did hear strange sounds like gravel crunching but there were no cars. Was Ellen or Floyd walking down the road by us?  There are many stories of drivers seeing a woman in white while crossing Pine Mountain.  Maybe this is the spirit of Ellen Flannery, eternally searching for her way back home.


To view the lyrics to an old mountain ballad about Floyd and Ellen, hit this jump.

For an old Mountain Eagle article on the hanging, check out this link
 
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Google has got me leaning toward the side of conspiracists who say the corporation is out to take over the world.  It may very well be the secret cover for the Illuminati.  They offer a program to users called AdSense.  They place ads on your blogs and such. For every ten clicks you get half a penny, or something like that.  They don't send you a payment until you reach $100, which takes a lot of half pennies. 

Take the case of this blogger.  It took them a while to catch on, figure out how to promote their stuff.  They notice their earnings are finally starting to get somewhere. They're motivated to continue their hard work.

Imagine that blogger's surprise when they wake up one morning to find a notice from Google that their account has been suspended because of "suspicious ad clicks,"  You can't click from your own IP address. They agreed to that, checked the little box. 

The case is under review but as a reaction we've decided to pull up stakes and move the Medicine Show to a new home. All the old blogs will be archived here, and new ones are on the way.  Perhaps Google is Big Brother-type corporation that has every search you've ever queried filed away.  And all they're waiting on is the anti-chrst to come forth and take the CEO reins.  If I end up dead, Google did it for $63 they stole from me.

 
On top of a mountain along the border of Virginia and Kentucky lies a dirt path that shoots off the Appalachian Trail. This isolated stretch was once the only way to get from one state to the other, long before US23 and its four lanes of asphalt.  It is along this path that the Killing Rock is located, the scene of an ambush that left several people dead, others on the run for their life, and possible paranormal activity.

Let’s start with the Killing Rock’s history.

On May 14 1892 this desolate stretch witnessed a horrific massacre that seems to have left a psychic impression on the land.  Ira Mullins was a moonshiner on his way to the coal mining camps of Jenkins to sell a load of unstamped illegal liquor.  His party of seven, including his wife and some children as well as hired hands, had just begun their descent into Kentucky when a shot rang out.  A horse fell dead.  Three men with veils partially hiding their faces emerged from their hiding place upon the rocks where they had camouflaged themselves with branches.  When the smoke cleared, Ira Mullins’ sister-in-law and his 15 year old son were the only survivors of their party.

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Ira Mullins, moonshiner

The massacre is just part of this story that has been handed down from generation to generation.  There was bad blood between a US Marshall, Doc Taylor, known as the “Red Fox,” and Ira Mullins.  Taylor was a former soldier and local doctor who had declared war on moonshiners when he was deputized.  On a previous run Mullins ran into Taylor in Wise, VA.  Over 250 shots were fired.  The wagon driver was killed and Mullins himself was left partially paralyzed.  Soon after Taylor lost his government affiliation, but the hatred between the two intensified.  Out of fear Taylor decided to take action first and went to the Mullins home one night, shooting through the windows. Afterward Taylor fled to Kentucky, fearing a return attack.

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The Red Fox, Doc Taylor

There he caught wind of Mullins’ next scheduled trip to deliver illegal liquor and enlisted the help of two brothers, Heenan and Cal Fleming.  The trio laid in wait among the rocks as noon approached on the scheduled day.  They fired mercilessly on the travelers. 

Ira’s wife, Louranze, was shot several times in her chest and knees.  She had been wearing a leather pouch tied underneath her clothes containing about $1,000, the family’s entire savings.  Her skirt was tossed up and the pouch had been cut off.  It had been cut to pieces and parts of it were found a few hundred yards away.  The money was never recovered.

When the shooting broke out 15 year old John Harrison Mullins took off running back toward Wise.  The suspenders he was wearing were shot through by passing bullets but he was unharmed and made it back to town. 

Jane Mullins had married Louranza's brother.  He was riding at the front of the procession and was among the first shot.  She was also riding on horseback and was thrown from her horse.  She scrambled to where her husband lay dying.  Louranza yelled out for Jane.  Despite bullets continuing to fly Jane hurried over to Louranza, who was fatally wounded and had propped herself up against the back of the overturned wagon.  She looked Jane in the eyes and uttered her last words, "They have killed me."

The shooting died down. The gap hung thick with smoke from the gunfire.  Jane chanced a look and saw the three men upon the rocks, the bottom half of their faces visible.  She called out to them,” Boys, for the Lord's sake, don't shoot anymore, you have killed them all now. Let me stay here with them till someone finds us." They yelled and cursed at her.  Jane thought she recognized one of the voices as being Cal Fleming’s, and another to be Doc Taylor.  Some accounts hold that Heenan Fleming had been sweet on Jane and convinced the others to spare her life.  He yelled to her,”Goddamn you, take to the road and leave or we will kill you, too."  Jane took them at their word and made haste down the mountain towards Jenkins.  Her clothes were riddled with bullet holes but she herself was not shot. 

Fingered for the murders, Doc Taylor and the Fleming brothers went into hiding. The Fleming brothers made it to a logging camp in Boggs, West Virginia where they found work.  Big Ed Hall and a posse after the reward being offered for them intercepted a piece of mail that told them where they were.  The posse traveled to Boggs and confronted the brothers when they came to the Post Office to check their mail. A gunfight ensued, with Cal killed, several of Hall’s posse members dead, and Hall himself wounded. Heenan was brought back to Wise to stand trial.

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Heenan and Cal Fleming
By this time Jane, who had been kept in the jail as a form of witness protection since she believed she could identify the men, had passed away.  Heenan was set free due to a lack of evidence.  He returned to West Virginia, took a wife, and eventually became a law officer himself.

Taylor hid in the attic of his son’s home.  He was attempting to board a train in Bluefield that would have ensured his escape, but was captured by a railroad company detective.  He was taken to the Wise Jail where his trial and conviction were quickly accomplished.  His appeals failed to help, and he was scheduled to be hanged on October 27, 1893.Taylor was quite the character, subscribing to the Swedenborgianist Christian faith, a movement that followed a Swedish man who claimed God had revealed secret meanings of the scriptures and the second coming of Jesus.  They believed followers needn’t have faith to get into heaven, only do good works in life.     During his years of practicing medicine he would often come in and talk with the ill person.  He would ask them a few questions, then ask them to concentrate on him.  He would lay his hands on them and recite prayers and incantations.  Following this he would go outside and hold his hands up to the sky, continuing his prayers and incantations. He would return and tell the patient the ‘spirits’ had told him what was wrong with them and how to treat them.  

On the day of his hanging Taylor’s request to preach his own funeral was granted.  He spoke to a large crowd that had gathered outside the courthouse for the hanging, speaking for an hour and a half, citing Revelations 3:20 and appeared to be drunk on wine that had been smuggled into him.  He asked the crowd to join him in singing “How Firm a Foundation,” and all but one old widow declined.  

At 2:00 pm he was led up the scaffolding dressed in white as he had requested. He also asked that his body not be buried, because to prove his innocence he would rise from his coffin on the third day and continue to preach the word.  After saying another prayer, he trembled and had to be aided to remain standing.  The noose was placed around his neck, the trapdoor dropped, and he was pronounced dead 18 minutes later.  His body was taken to his home and laid out, but after nothing occurred three days later it was interred at a Wise County cemetery, where it remains unmarked to this day.

This sign marks the spot along the trail where the massacre occurred.  With so much emotional energy being expelled in one spot, it’s no wonder that for decades visitors to the Killing Rock have reported paranormal activity.  Phantom horses can be heard trotting along the path both in the daylight and in the dark. Dark or black shadowy apparitions have been reported.  

I was part of a local ghost hunting team and after learning the hard way that private property wasn’t always a good place to go hunting.  On Halloween night I came up with the idea to go hunt at the Killing Rock.  We split up and did some EVP recordings and took hundreds of pictures.  Some strange orbs and flashes of light were showing up in some of our pictures.  I sat my flashlight on one of the rocks.  I asked the spirits if they were hanging around to turn my flashlight off.  After a few seconds of nothing I went back to taking pictures.  About a minute later I looked back to see that my flashlight was now indeed off.  Thanking who or whatever had manipulated the flashlight, I asked them to do it again. We all watched for the next 20 minutes as the flashlight came on, went off, dimmed, and grew brighter.  After a few minutes with no more activity I retrieved the flashlight to find that the batteries, brand new when I put them in that night, were dead as a doornail.

A lot of pictures I got that night had strange light anomalies in them. The following pictures are a few examples:

The strangest photo evidence from that night came while I was standing on the path. I randomly snapped this shot:
Wondering if i had some kind of lens flare going on or something paranormal in nature I asked it to come closer if it was a spirit.  This is what i got:
A camera malfunction?  In case it was paranormal in nature I said, “That’s good, keep coming,” and got this photo. 
Almost looks as if the main concentration of energy is passing to the left.  In the next one it’s completely gone.  Did something come toward and past me?

With its history of a lot of bloodshed, mass murder, and killers claiming to come back from the dead the Killing Rock is a relatively undiscovered paranormal treasure. I'm excited about returned and seeing what we capture next.  I highly recommend the Killing Rock if you're in the area.
For more on the Killing Rock Massacre check out these links:
From the Kentucky Explorer
The Pound Gap Massacre
The Hanging of the Red Fox
 
The David Rocks used to be a local gathering place to build a bonfire, bring a cooler full of the beverage of your choice, and hang out with friends.  Strip mining and companies sucking the natural gas out of the mountains have changed the landscape of the area.  They have literally moved mountains, but were nice enough to leave the David Rocks and an area of a hundred yards or so around them untouched.

A friend a fellow paranormal enthusiast recently sent me a picture her brother had taken. He had went up to the David Rocks to take some shots of the scenery and didn't realize what he had captured until he was sharing the photos with some family members. 

That was when they noticed what appeared to be a man peeping out from behind a tree.  Those who have viewed the photo (the original is below) have theorized that it is an apparition of a civil war soldier, others saying he's a coal miner.  Even the most hardened mountain skeptics agree there seems to be something here.



Often with supposed photos of apparitions, something we call matrixing occurs, in which the brain automatically tries to make connections with the information it is given, such as seeing faces in tree branches.  I do not think this is the case with this photo, as matrixing is usually just a face or single body part, and what we have here seems to be a ghost hunters dream, a complete full bodied apparition.  

Who is the man looking out from behind the tree?  To some he appears to be holding something. Some say it looks like a gun, a knife, a various other objects.  Restless civil war soldier, coal miner with unfinished business, or perhaps a moonshiner shot down by the revenuers?  I'm hoping to get back to the David Rocks soon and do some further investigating.  For now, just had to share this photo.
 
With the final episode of MTVs Jersey Shore airing Thursday night we will say goodbye to Snookie, JWoww, blowouts, GTLing, juiceheads, and a dictionary full of new terms the cast has brought to our culture.

Here at the Medicine Show we got in contact with the guidos and guidettes to pitch  a new season of the Jersey Shore, right here in the mountains.  Following is a promo for the new season:
I did this primitive video a while back and figured with all the hype over the series finale I'd pull it off the shelf for inclusion in the Medicine Show. If the cast gets back in touch a we are able to negotiate a deal, we'll let you know when the next season of the Jersey Shore in the Hills will air.
 

…or is it?  The world is abuzz with theories of impending doom scheduled for December 21, 2012.  Schoolchildren are expressing fear to their teachers and doomsday preppers have spent tens of thousands of dollars stockpiling supplies and fortifying shelters in anticipation of an apocalyptic event.  So what’s going to happen, and why would it?
Believers cite countless ways they think the world is gonna end in a couple weeks.  Their theories come from countless sources. I thought it’d be a good idea to take a look at them and see if we should all  be running scared.

Mayan Prophecy

The most commonly cited reference to the world (or world as we know it) ending specifically on Dec. 21 comes form the ancient Mayan calendar.  The Mayans were a civilization that lived in Central America from about  250 to 900 AD and were very advanced for their time in the fields of astronomy and mathematics.  Their record keeping was ahead of it’s time.  They developed an intricate system for keeping track of time.  For a more thorough explanation than I can offer, follow this link.
The Mayan doomsday “prophecy” comes from a stone carving found in Guatemala.  They actually used several different calenders to keep track of time, and the all coincided with one another like interlocking gears.  The calendar that kept track of the longest period of time was called the Long Count Calendar, which lasted for a period of 5,125.36 and they called a Great Cycle.  The current Great Cycle comes to an end on Dec. 21 which happens to coincide with the winter solstice.  According to some on this day an alignment between the sun and the center of the Milky Way will also occur. While many have interpreted this to mean the end of the world, Mayan scholars and natives believe that the Great Cycle will end quietly, with the next Great Cycle simply starting.  They view it as a super New Year’s-like time for celebration. In actuality the Mayan calendar does not run out on Dec. 21, as references by them have been found to dates all the way through 4772 A.D.  The fact of the matter is there is no actual prophecy, just an ancient calendar that seems to rollover at it’s end like the mileage on your car and begin anew.

Nostradamus 

Another popular source for the belief that the end is near is from the 16th century French seer Michel de Nostradamus.  A little research tells us that while he did write quite a bit about the end of the world, he didn’t specifically predict a date.  Actually, he didn’t SPECIFICALLY predict anything.  Nostradamus wrote his predictions in poetic lines of four called quatrains.  The ambiguous prophecies have been interpreted as having predicting everything from the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich to the 9/11 attacks. 
In his writings Nostradamus predicted that three different Antichrists would each take us closer to the destruction of the world, with the 3rd one heralding the actual end.  Nostradamus scholars contend that the first two have already came, the first being Napoleon and the second being Hitler.  They are on the lookout for the third and everyone from Sadam Hussein and Osama bin Laden to Barack Obama have been contenders for the title.  He even gives us a name for him, Mabus.  They claim he spoke of Hitler by name too, citing a reference to “Hister.”  Close enough? Who knows.  What we do know is that the prophecies of Nostradamus in no way says the world is going to end on Dec. 21.
WebBot predictions
The WebBot program was developed in the 1990s to predict stock market trends.  The software monitors keywords mentioned all over the internet.  The program’s creators, Clif High and George Ure, soon began to claim their program could actually predict the future.  They claim a world-changing event was predicted for 2001, and the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks would seem to match up to this.  Since then they’ve claimed it’s predicted events ranging from Hurricane Katrina to Dick Cheney accidentally shooting his hunting buddy.  


The bots seem to predict a cataclysmic event for our Dec. 21 date.  Claims are made that after the date there is simply no more information.  As the program monitors internet chatter, could it be possible that all the hype over Dec. 21 could be responsible?  The problem with the WebBot program is that all of their claims of predictions weren’t made until after the fact.  When they tell us beforehand that a major disaster is going to occur and it actually does, I may start to put some store in it.

Planet X Collision

Some fringe astronomers believe that a previously hidden planet, known as Planet X or Niburu is on a direct collision course with the earth and the impact is scheduled for, when else, Dec. 21.  The Planet X hypothesis goes back to the mid 20th century.  Astronomers were having problems accounting for discrepancies in the orbits of Neptune and Pluto, and theorized that there could be a previously undiscovered planet to blame.  Turns out they were overestimating Neptune’s mass.   
Nancy Leider founded the website ZetaTalk and based on the Planet X theory predicted the end of the world in 2003. When that date came and went with no apocalypse she changed her prediction to coincide with the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar.

Geomagnetic Reversal

Others believe the end of the world will come as a result of a shifting in the earth’s magnetic poles.  Scientists agree that the poles WILL shift, but assure that it is a process that happens over thousands of years and has no effect on humans.  This last happened 780,000 years ago.  Experts agree that it is impossible to predict changes in the earth’s magnetic field and that it is impossible for the earth to reverse its rotation.
Solar Flares
When none of the above possible doomsday scenarios convince them, some doomsdayers look to solar flares as bringing an end to the world.  It is true that the sun operates on a 11-year cycle and 2012 is when its at its solar maximum.  Some believe this means that a huge solar flare unlike any we’ve ever seen will occur causing unparalleled havoc and possibly the end.  It is true that in 1859  a strong solar flare caused telegraph wires to short out.  Other solar storms in 1989 and 2003 caused failures in the power grid for large sections of the US and Canada.  Solar flares have been happening forever and scientists say the worst that could happen as a result of a particularly powerful one is an interruption in satellites orbiting the earth.  

Hopi Blue Star Prophecy

The Hopi Indians have a 9-step prophecy that seems to almost be at it’s conclusion.  It states that the world (as we know it) will end when the 9 prophecies have been fulfilled and the Hopi people will be transported to other planets in ships without wings.  While open to interpretation, a lot of people agree that it would seem that at least 8 of the prophecies have already come to pass.

The first one involves men who strike their enemies with thunder.  This has been interpreted as guns coming to America.  Secondly, they would witness spinning wheels filled with voices.  Most agree this refers to the covered wagons that transported settlers across the country.  Third is the introduction of strange beasts like buffalo but with long horns.  This could be the introduction of longhorn cattle into the land the Hopi’s called home.  The fourth prophecy says the land will be crisscrossed by snakes of iron.  This could be the railroads that were laid across the country.  The fifth one talks about a giant spider’s web covering the land.  This has been interpreted as both telephone lines and the internet.  Sixth is that the land will be crisscrossed by rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.  Is this paved roads and the mirage effects?  The seventh prophecy says that the sea will turn black and many living things will die.  This has been interpreted as oil spills in the waters surrounding the US.  The eighth prophecy is the least convincing for me personally.  It says that youth will wear their hair long like the Hopi people and come to learn their ways.  Some believe this represents the hippie movement of the 1960s. 

The ninth and final prophecy that marks the end of the world happens when you hear of a dwelling place in the heavens that will appear as a blue star.  It will fall with a great crash and very soon after the ceremonies of the Hopi will cease.  The prophecy goes on to say that the world will rock to and fro (recent earthquakes here in Appalachia and Japan?), and the white people will battle against those in other lands who possessed the first knowledge (war in the middle east?).  

What will you be doing on December 21?  I can’t wait to see the social network status’ of everyone, some sure the end is coming and others berating them for it.  After diving in and finding out as much as I could about various doomsday scenarios, I now feel relatively safer.  However, I don’t think few drinks would hurt anything.  Should the world (or world as we know it) come to an end, I suppose the medicine show will too.  Barring an apocalypse, we’ll be bringing you more so stay tuned!!!

To make yourself feel safer, visit this link to read about other end of the world prophecies that didn't come to pass.
 
Yesterday Washington became the second state to legalize marijuana, following Colorado’s legalization of weed last month.  Under the new laws it is legal to possess up to an ounce of pot.  It’s still illegal to grow and sell it, but you won’t get busted for having it on you.  In the past decade several states have approved medical marijuana use.  Despite it’s illegal status, marijuana is the nation’s number one cash crop.  Advocates for weed legalization have proposed taxing pot as a way to pull our economy out of the gutters. 

To change the future we have to understand the past.  Why is weed illegal?  Studies have proven time and again that it is much less harmful than alcohol, which is legal.  Many support it’s medicinal use.  If you ask a random person on the street why marijuana is illegal, they most likely can’t tell you.  Let’s find out.

Marijuana became illegal in the United States in 1937.  When we start to dig into the history books, we quickly find that more than questionable motives and unethical avenues were used to make this happen.  The star of the show was Harry J. Anslinger, an ambitious man who was appointed as the first head of a new division of the treasury department, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.  Thinking that a war against cocaine and opiates wouldn’t be enough to secure his job for the long run, Anslinger declared an all out war on marijuana.  He was responsible for outrageous anti-marijuana propaganda.  

One of Anslinger’s pals and supporters was newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.  His daughter Patty made her own headlines later after first being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, and then appearing to join them.  Hearst was a racist who especially hated Mexicans.  He had invested heavily in the timber industry and saw hemp cultivation as dangerous competition.  A large area of land he intended to log had been lost to Pancho Villa, which further fueled his racist hatred.  When Hearst and Anslinger joined forces, newspapers were filled with outlandish tales of people trying marijuana, immediately becoming maddeningly addicted, and going on murderous rampages.  Big money further came into the picture when the DuPont company sided with Hearst and Anslinger.  They had recently patented nylon and wanted the hemp competition out of the way. 
Before we go on, let’s back up some more and look at marijuana further back in history.  It’s known use goes back 7,000 years.  Queen Victoria was prescribed tincture of cannabis for menstrual cramps.  Marijuana made it’s way to the New World when Christopher Columbus came over in 1492 and brought in along on his ships.  The first law here regarding marijuana was in stark contrast from the laws today.  It was mandated in the Jamestown colony that every farmer grow a certain amount of hemp, and they could be jailed for failing to comply. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington grew huge fields of the plants. Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in the US, which produced hemp paper.  When Rudolph Diesel came up with the diesel engine we still use today, he originally intended it to run off hemp seed oil.  

Anslinger spent two years secretly drawing up his plan to outlaw marijuana.  He relied on newspaper stories like those Hearst was publishing to start a public outcry against the dangers of marijuana.  The popularity of weed among Mexicans and black jazz musicians fueled their fires.  Stories flew off the presses about the satanic jazz music of the devil, and how black men who smoked pot couldn’t help but to rape the first white woman they saw.  Countless stories were also printed about school children losing their minds and other users taking axes to their families after the first time they smoked.  Although there were no actual cases of any of these instances happening, Anslinger picked up speed and in 1937 brought his plan to Congress.
In an absurdly short hearing Anslinger came armed with editorials from Hearst’s newspapers and speeches in which the bulk was one long racial slur.  The one opponent Anslinger encountered was Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical Association.  Woodward pointed out that Anslinger had distorted previous AMA information to support his stance.  He pointed out that the proposed legislation only referred to marijuana, which the common man didn’t realize was the same as hemp, which was a large industry, so that those who had reason to oppose the bill wasn’t even aware of it.  He outright stated that the AMA was opposed to the criminalization of marijuana and even accused Anslinger of misconduct and abuse of power.

Woodward was berated by the committee, who cited the outlandish newspaper articles with no factual basis as evidence that marijuana was the biggest danger to society.  When the bill went up for a vote, it was asked on the floor what the position of the AMA was.  Despite Woodward’s defiance of the movement, a congressman stood up and stated that the AMA had sent their representative there, and he had supported it 100%.  On the basis of that lie marijuana became illegal at the federal level on August 2, 1937.
In 1972 Richard Nixon commissioned a study on marijuana use.  The study found that the prohibition of cannabis was constitutionally questionable and should be subject to serious review.  The Nixon administration took no further action.  In 1973 Oregon reduced the penalties for marijuana related arrests, separating weed from other illicit drugs.  Alaska, Ohio, Colorado, and California followed suit in 1975.  By 1978 North Carolina, Mississippi, New York and Nebraska had taken action to decriminalize marijuana.  In recent years Massachusetts and Connecticut amended laws so that possession only results in a civil fine.
Here’s a few quick weed facts:

  • At one time in America you could pay your taxes with hemp.
  • The oldest relic in human history is a piece of hemp fabric from Mesopotamia dating back 8,000 years.
  • You’d have to smoke 15,000 joints in 20 minutes to get a lethal dose of THC.
  • The paintings of Rembrandt and Van Gough were on hemp canvases, with hemp seed based paint.
  • Hemp is 8 times stronger than cotton and more air-permeable.
  • One acre of hemp can produce as much raw fiber as 4.1 acres of trees, which take much longer to grow back.
  • Paper made from hemp lasts centuries longer and doesn’t yellow.
  • For thousands of years nearly all ships’ canvases and ropes were made from hemp.  The word canvas comes from the Dutch for cannabis.
  • Betsy Ross’s flag, and the first drafts of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were made of hemp.
  • Henry Ford’s Model T was built to run on hemp gasoline and used hemp plastic panels that were 10 times stronger than steel. 
Here's a short clip from the propaganda film "Reefer Madness":

Now that we know the history of the marijuana laws, why haven’t they been overturned?  The answer is much the same as it was when these shady goings-on were taking place.  Too many big industry companies have anti-marijuana interests and can afford to payroll lobbyists to ensure it stays illegal.  It has been proven that marijuana is not addictive and has medicinal uses, the two main reasons cited for it’s initial criminalization.  The potential profits from taxes imposed on legal pot could pull us out of the economic slump we’re languishing in, especially here in the hills of Kentucky where weed is a major industry despite the laws against it. Recent law changes show that the public's attitude toward marijuana is changing.  It has taken nearly a century, but it seems as though Anslinger's unbelievable smear campaign may have cracked enough for the truth to shine through.


For more information on the history of marijuana an it's legality see the following links:
Why Is Marijuana Illegal? 
NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) website 
Wikipedia page on legal history of cannabis in the US
 
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Artist depiction of Mothman from witness accounts

West Virginia’s Mothman may be making a comeback.  As paranormal enthusiasts know the creature dubbed Mothman spent a couple years in the late 1960s around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, some say terrorizing residents, others say benevolently warning residents of impending doom.  The creature was seen on the town’s Silver Bridge shortly before it’s collapse, which killed 46 people. 

A new photo has came to light that claims to be a shot of the Mothman.  Sharon Davis contacted a Portland radio show because she was terrified of a creature she said was stalking her home.  The radio show host told her to take a picture and send it in.  Too scared to open her door or go outside, Davis snapped the shot below with a friend’s cell phone through her peephole. 
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Mothman? Shadow figure standing behind car

This isn’t the first time the Mothman has been sighted since the late 1960s.  Sightings are still reported from time to time.  It would seem that the winged creature, which was said to have kept pace flying alongside a car traveling in access of 100 miles per hour, has done some traveling outside of West Virginia.  It was reported that the Mothman was seen in the Ukraine before the Chernobyl disaster.  Below is a picture taken 9/11 that purports to show Mothman flying away from the one of the World Trade Center towers. 
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WTC 9/11
Whether Mothman is simply sightseeing or fulfilling his destiny of warning us about impending disasters, he has been sighted from the east coast, in the Midwest, and on the Pacific coast.  He hasn’t restricted his travels to inside the US.  Mothman has reportedly been sighted in countries ranging from Brazil and Argentina to England and Russia.
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Mothman in Chicago? 2011
For the uninitiated the Mothman story began in November of 1966. Five men were digging a grave when they witnessed a brown human-like being take off flying from a nearby tree.  Days later on November 15 two young married couples were planning on enjoying some quiet time together at an abandoned TNT plant outside of Point Pleasant.  Upon arriving their headlights first caught sight of a steel door that had been ripped from its hinges.  The lights then fell on a human-like creature that appeared to be six or seven feet tall and had wings folded into it’s back.  But it were the eyes that scared them the most.  They described them to the local Sheriff as being red and as big as bicycle reflectors.  In terror they fled the plant, only to see the same creature on a hillside.  It spread it’s wings and took to the air, flying towards their car. In fear, they floored the accelerator and as they raced away at speeds over 100 miles an hour, the thing kept pace and flew beside them. 
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Front page of the Point Pleasant Register
Numerous other sightings of the Mothman were reported in and around Point Pleasant over the next year.  The creature was said to make a terrible screeching sound at times and caused interference with radios and televisions.  In total over 100 reports were made before the collapse of the Silver Bridge.  Some residents hold the Mothman somehow responsible for the tragedy, while others believe he was attempting to warn them.    
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Silver Bridge collapse aftermath
There is no shortage of theories about the Mothman’s origins.  Popular in theaters at the time were films depicting biochemically-altered animals and insects, usually growing to absurd sizes and always hungry for human flesh.  Early theories suggested that chemicals had leaked from the abandoned TNT plant and caused a mutation that resulted in the Mothman.  Strange lights in the sky were often reported in Point Pleasant at the same time the Mothman was being seen, leading some to believe they were from UFOs and the Mothman was extraterrestrial in origin. 

Another popular theory refers to the Cornstalk Curse.  Chief Cornstalk reigned over a tribe of Shawnee Indians in the mid 18th century.  He sought to reclaim land for his people, but his methods were sometimes ruthless, mass murder being in his repertoire.  As a result he found himself along with his son and several other tribesmen imprisoned by soldiers in a fort at Point Pleasant.  After his people carried out a particularly bloody raid, enraged soldiers went to the prisoners with their muskets drawn.  Cornstalk rose and faced them calmly, causing them momentary pause.  After seeing the others killed and suffering no less than eight gunshots himself, Chief Cornstalk lay dying.  His final words were, “For this, may the Curse of the Great Spirit rest upon this land. May it be blighted by nature. May it even be blighted in its hopes. May the strength of its peoples be paralyzed by the stain of our blood."  A mining disaster that killed over 300 people and a tornado that claimed over 150 lives before the Silver Bridge collapse are said to have been the result of the curse.  
Perhaps the chief conjured up a Native-American Golem-type creature, to carry out his perceived justice.  While primarily associated with Plains Indians, Algonquin-speaking Native Americans of New England and those further south knew of the Thunderbird.  The Thunderbird’s description is similar to that of the Mothman.  It resembles a winged man, strikes fear in those who see it, and was said to actually kill and eat humans.  

Scientists attempting to explain away the sightings most commonly hypothesized that what people were seeing was actually a Sandhill Crane.  The problem with that explanation is that type of crane is not native to the area, nor has ever been documented as straying there.  Some of the more out-there theories include that the Mothman is an angel, which is why he would try to warn people of impending doom.  It’s been theorized that the winged creature could be the result of the mating of a human with a nephilim.  According to the Old Testament when God cast Satan out of heaven, several angels who were on Team Devil were cast out with him and sent down to earth where they mated with humans.  According to the Bible this resulted in all kinds of wickedness which displeased God so much he flooded the earth sparing only Noah, his family, and a boat load of animals.  Could one of these hybrids have stowed away on the ark?

An interesting and mysterious side note to the Mothman story is that of The Grinning Man, or Indrid Cole.  Days before the initial sightings began a man named Woodrow Derenberger was driving home when a strange vehicle sped up behind him and passed him.  He described it as looking like “an old fashioned kerosene lamp chimney, flaring at both ends, narrowing down to a small neck and then enlarging in a great bulge in the center."  The strange vehicle came to a stop blocking the road.  A door in the middle of it opened and a man emerged.  He described him as being around six feet tall, well-tanned skin, wearing a shimmering green suit, and always grinning.  He spoke to Derenberger telepathically and told him his name was “Cold,” he was from a planet called Lanulos, and that he would be back to visit him again. On subsequent visits Cold asked Derenberger strange questions and told him about his home planet, which is similar to ours.  Witnesses passing by that first night confirmed that Derenberger was talking to someone on the side of the road.

Some theorize that Indrid Cold was a MIB.  Men In Black, again for the paranormal uninitiated, are thought to be highly classified government agents whose primary purpose seems to be to cover up UFO and alien evidence.  Taking it a step further, some purport that the ETs have their own MIBs, disguised as humans and on reconnaissance missions.  Cold has been said to also be an inter-dimensional being and a time-traveler.  Several other people in and around Point Pleasant encountered this grinning man during the Mothman craze.  Writer John Keel, who came to town to investigate and wrote the book The Mothman Prophecies on which the movie was based, received a series of phone calls from someone claiming to be Indrid Cold.  During the calls Cold would relate prophecies of future events to Keel.

With just days left before the December 21 2012 date that has been interpreted to be the predicted end of the world, is this new Mothman sighting another warning?  Could the mysterious creature be tirelessly trying to fulfill his fate of warning humans of impending doom?  We won’t have to wait long to see if there is a correlation….two weeks to go……
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Mothman statue in Point Pleasant
 

When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph he noted that when played backwards, music sounded novel but all together different.  Fast forward a hundred years later and experimental musicians began to purposely include backward recordings, or backmasking, on their albums.  Artists like the Beatles inserted these clips and teenagers everywhere began searching their record collections for hidden messages.  Today every new pop song that comes out is scrutinized in reverse in search of possible satanic references, allegiance to the Illuminati, or any random string of possible words.

Technically backmasking is the process of reversing an audio track and placing it in another track meant to be played forward.  When played normally the message will sound like gibberish, but when reversed is clear.  Some of the classic examples that follow were intentionally done this way, while other artists contend that if there is any meaning to be found when playing their music backwards it is purely coincidental.

The Beatles were among the first artists to incorporate backmasking into their music.  Following rumors that member Paul McCartney had been killed in a car crash and replaced with a lookalike fans scoured their White Album for clues to confirm this.  The legend grew as they seemed to find what they were looking for.  During the song "I'm So Tired" John Lennon can be heard speaking but not plainly.  When played backwards, it sounds like he says "Paul is dead man. Miss him, miss him, miss him."  You decide:

YouTube is full of videos purporting to be evidence of unmasked backmasking.  While a lot of the 'backwards translations' sound more like gibberish to me (the example that comes to mind being Brittney Spears' "Hit Me Baby One More Time" being "sleep with me I'm not too young" in reverse), we can find among them the classics.  Listening to the backmasked tracks is a lot like listening for EVP evidence while ghost hunting.  What you hear isn't usual talking or singing.  The pronunciations and inflections are skewed, but with a little push (such as including the backward interpretation on screen) listeners may hear alternate messages.

The connection between backmasking and Satanism can be traced back to the grand magician himself, Aleister Crowley, who stated in a 1913 book that those wishing to practice the dark arts would do well to learn to speak backwards.  Sixty years later Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page moved into what used to be Crowley's mansion.  Is it a coincidence, then, that the most often cited backmasked message, which also fits into the category of seeming to promote satanic worship, appears in Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven?"
The band denied claims that they put the hidden message in their lyrics.  It would take a lot of work to come up with words that would sound cohesive both backward and forward.  This is a psychedelic rock band we're talking about, though.  But if too much free time and hallucinogenic drugs aren't the answer, did they perhaps make a pact as legendary guitarist Robert Johnson was said to have done and made a pact with the devil, selling their souls for music mastery?  Is the reverse message a side effect of such a Faustian deal?  

Another often cited song when talking about backmasking is Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust."  When played in reverse, some say "It's fun to smoke marijuana" can be heard.  The band denies an intentional message.  This is often cited as an example of phonetic reversal, where a word sounds similar to another word when reversed and similar connections are made by the brain, as with matrixing when looking at photos of "ghosts."  Judge for yourself:
In 1990 Judas Priest was taken to court by the angry parents of a teenager who had committed suicide after repeatedly listening to their song “Better by You, Better than Me."  The parents filed a civil action, alleging the song encouraged listeners to commit suicide and urging them to "Do it" when played in reverse.  The case was dismissed after being deemed unfounded.    

The Eagles were also targets of the Christian movement to expose satanic music.  When "Hotel California" is played backwards, they claim to hear an allegiance to the devil. Listen to it below and decide:

Did you hear anything like "Satan hears me, he had me believe in him?"

A quick YouTube search for backmasking will turn up these classics, as well as what seems to be every song released by Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Jay-Z, and Nicki Minaj, all who seem to have either sold their soul to the devil and are announcing it to the world or have secretly embedded clues that they are part of the New World Order and the Illuminati.  A list of admitted intentional backmasking, sometimes for comedic purposes, can be found here.  All the others out there are unintentional, or not being admitted to because of the artists' secret allegiance with the dark powers that be.

Here's one more, just for fun.  This YouTube user has taken Nirvana's grunge-ground breaking "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and found an entire song in reverse. I found it uncanny that the listener managed to translate the whole song, with the better part of it sounding like rock song lyrics.