Events that defy logical explanation.
A man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion, an Irish coroner has ruled.
Michael Faherty, 76, died at his home in Galway on 22 December 2010.
Deaths attributed by some to “spontaneous combustion” occur when a living human body is burned without an apparent external source of ignition.
See here for the full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15032614
Over the years there have been frequent reports of a variety of unusual phenomena experienced between 3-4am, particularly heightened at 3:33am. Such phenomena as individuals waking up at this time for no logical reason, reported experiences of ‘sleep paralysis’ and more frequent reports of paranormal activity are associated with this time frame.
3am is often referred to as “Dead Time” or the “Devil’s Hour” as it is the time when paranormal activity is at its peak. Demons are said to be more active at this time rather than spirits. The popular Christian theory is that Jesus Christ died at 3pm, the opposite of 3am, and so 3am is the most active time for demons who wish to defy Christ and mock the Holy Trinity.
3:33am is thought to be the time for the ultimate mockery of the Holy Trinity with it also being half of 666; the number of the Beast. It is said at this time the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is at its thinnest, allowing demons and spirits to communicate or cross over more easily than at other times.
Those who research the field of the paranormal state that spirits can be active 24/7 and that there is no concrete evidence to indicate that 3am is more active than any other time. However, paranormal activity may appear to occur more often at night as conditions of darkness are more suitable for conducting paranormal research. It is easier to see light anomalies or apparitions in the darkness and many items of paranormal research equipment are better able to pick up on activity in dark conditions. The senses are also intensified at night, which may give the impression that there is more paranormal activity occurring at that time due to everyday noises and tricks of the light creating mistaken paranormal experiences.
It has also been noted that many deaths occur between 3-5am as it is at this time that the body’s immune system is more vulnerable. Those who are terminally ill or very elderly are more likely to pass away at this time due to the body being weakened. Some researchers cite this as a theory as to why more spirits are active at this time, correlating with their times of death.
333 phenomena has also been reported by individuals who recognise repeated patterns of these numbers in their daily life such as waking up at 3:33am or seeing these numbers everywhere. Due to the theory that these numbers are a mockery of the Holy Trinity, individuals may have assigned religious meaning to these numbers causing psychological suggestion and leading the subconscious to pick out these patterns. This can go as far as subconsciously programming the body to wake up at this time.
It does seem naive for anyone to be able to claim that 3pm was the exact time of the death of Jesus, as at present religious scholars still disagree on what date this even took place. Therefore it seems imprudent for the number 3 to be ascribed mystical and religious meaning. Historically many people believed that midnight, the ‘witching hour’, was a period of greater activity for witches, demons and ghosts, with people avoiding going out at night due to this. It seems likely that our primeval fear of the dark, when early humans were more vulnerable to predators, has been retained and as a consequence superstition and religion has been used to apply meaning to our fear of the dark and the unknown.
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Paranormal beliefs are often portrayed as less rational and credible than religious beliefs. Even worse are conservative and fundamentalist believers who often regard paranormal claims as having to do with the forces of evil.
Religious and paranormal beliefs do share a number of important things in common, both have the view that the world is not just matter and energy, but presume the added presence of immaterial forces that influence or control the course of our lives. There seems to be a desire to provide meaning and coherence to otherwise random and chaotic events. If we suddenly are aware of a distant event that we should not know about we might attribute that to clairvoyance or psychic powers. How is this so different to believing it could be angels or God?
Paranormal belief systems are very similar to religion; they can provide meaning to our lives as well as the events in our lives. They can provide a social structure and comfort at different times. Paranormal belief systems do however lack some of the critical characteristics of religions. We do not necessarily base moral codes upon paranormal beliefs.
Religious beliefs are often based on cultural conditioning; most beliefs are inherited from the family unit and taught in institutional settings or absorbed through contact with society at large. Spiritual and paranormal beliefs on the other hand are most often based on personal experience; they can go hand in hand as they sometimes serve the same purpose. They both provide a moral foundation upon which to base behavior.
The paranormal community has exploded maybe due to the lack of faith in religion. And with all the controversy with abuse allegations that has come to light it is no wonder people are looking for alternative means of belief and faith.
On 1st May 2010 Steve was driving towards Goleen from Bantry with Susan and another passenger. It was around 5am in the morning and the road was clear. Steve was driving past Kilheangul Burial Ground at around 40 miles per hour and noticed in his peripheral vision that the gravestones appeared to be ‘glowing’. He saw a large looming, glowing white shape that he took to be a very tall Celtic cross, also glowing. Steve felt eerie and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, although the other passengers did not notice the cemetery. The moon was almost full so Steve puts this experience perhaps down to the moon reflecting off the gravestones.
On 6th May 2010 Susan drove me to Kilheangul Burial Ground at around 11pm to take photos of the location in order to find a possible explanation for the ‘glowing gravestones’. Susan stayed in the car while I got out to take photos. While Susan was backing up the car into a nearby lay-by she turned her head towards the cemetery and saw what she believed to be a very tall glowing white statue of a man or angel. She thought nothing of it at the time, as this is the kind of sight expected in a cemetery. Susan describes the figure as that of a tall, solid looking man with curly hair. The figure was glowing white, which she took to be moonlight reflecting off granite. However it was a cloudy night with no moonlight. The figure appeared to be turned towards the direction of myself taking photos. Meanwhile I took several photos and saw no such figure amongst the stones. I did however notice a quick flash of light amongst the gravestones which I put down to being a reflection from the car headlights.
Upon returning home Susan asked me if I had taken a picture of the ‘statue’. When I reviewed the photos taken there was no such figure and I had not seen any figure with my naked eye. Susan felt rather emotional following the experience. The next day they returned to the burial ground in the hours of daylight in order to find the ‘statue’ that Susan had seen. However there was no such statue. Susan does not believe it was the nearby tree or the white Celtic cross. She believes it was taller and in a different position to these. Upon reviewing the photos Steve also believes the thing he saw was much taller than the Celtic crosses present and in the same area as Susan’s sighting.
Both Steve and Susan would like to pass off what they saw as having natural origins such as tricks of the light. However, it is unusual that what they saw seems to be similar: a large figure of some kind glowing white. Steve, Susan and I also do not have any knowledge of Gaelic, but upon researching the name of the Gaelic name of the cemetery found that ‘Aingeal’ means ‘angel’. Could this have been an angel or guardian spirit watching over the burial ground?
Ouija boards as we know them came into existence as a game in the mid-1800’s, when spiritualism and channeling were fashionable. Previous to this the first historical mention of something similar to a Ouija board is found in China at around 1100 B.C.[The word “Ouija” is a mix of the French and German words for “yes.” Adolphus Theodore Wagner first patented Ouija boards, or “talking boards,” in England in1854. In the patent, Wagner called his invention a “psychograph” and it was supposed to read people’s minds. By 1861, Frenchman, Allan Kardac, was describing the Ouija board as a tool with which to open communications with the spirit world.
Modern Ouija boards were then developed by inventor William Fuld, who sold his patent to Parker Brothers in 1966. The Ouija boards sold by Parker Brothers consist of a rectangular game board that is covered with a woodcut-style alphabet, the words yes, no, and good-bye, and the numbers 0-9. Also included is a heart-shaped plastic planchette. The planchette is the ‘pointer’ that glides over the board under the direction of supernatural forces and form comments and questions by pointing them out.
Although marketted as a toy, there are people who believe they can be harmful. Some people believe that “evil demons” pretend to be cooperative ghosts in order to trick players into becoming spiritually possessed. Some Ouija board users claim to have had bad experiences related to their by being haunted by “demons,” seeing apparitions of spirits or hearing voices after using them. Some paranormal researchers claim that the majority of the worst cases of demon harassment and possession are caused by the use of Ouija boards.
How does a Ouija Board work? Believers claim that humans are a channel through which the spirit can alter the world. Sceptics believe that it is all down to small and subconscious movements of the hand. This is known as the ‘ideomotor effect’. Some would also argue that mediums communicate on a deep near unconscious level so it is also likely that a spirit could direct the users of a Ouija Board in a similar manner.
Although I have never used a Ouija Board myself, my mother dabbled with them as a teenager. I would probably try using one once, but having been strongly warned off them by my mother, I would not want to make a habit of it. Here is an experience my mother once had with a Ouija Board:
“Many years ago when I was about 13, I used to go out with a lad from a local town. One evening we were in his bedroom with four other friends, and we decided to play with the Ouija Board. One of the other lads was against it and refused to take part, so he sat on a chair by the wardrobe and as we asked the spirits questions he took the mickey, saying we were pushing the glass etc.
We contacted a spirit whose name was Jack and he had been a sailor. The lad by the wardobe laughed and took the mickey again, saying he knew what sailors were like and making bad comments. My boyfriend and I were amazed by the contact and asked lots of questions of this Jack, but it became difficult because of my boyfriend’s mate taking the mickey. We began to lose track of what we had said and started to ask silly things. I think the spirit became annoyed because a moment later there was a loud bang and the lad by the wardrobe had blood trickling from the side of his mouth. Well, we got out of the room and ran downstairs like hell. Once we had calmed down in the kitchen the lad told us what had happened: the bang we had heard was his head going back and hitting the wardrobe. He said that something or someone had hit him in the face, hence the blood and the cut lip. Well it was not any of us that did it! To this day I will never forget it and the look on the lad’s face. We never played with the Ouija Board again in that house and my boyfriend burnt all the letters and the board. Very strange indeed.”
Ouija – By Sylvia Plath
It is a chilly god, a god of shades,
Rises to the glass from his black fathoms.
At the window, those unborn, those undone
Assemble with the frail paleness of moths,
An envious phosphorescence in their wings.
Vermillions, bronzes, colors of the sun
In the coal fire will not wholly console them.
Imagine their deep hunger, deep as the dark
For the blood-heat that would ruddlr or reclaim.
The glass mouth sucks blooh-heat from my forefinger.
The old god dribbles, in return, his words.
The old god, too, write aureate poetry
In tarnished modes, maundering among the wastes,
Fair chronicler of every foul declension.
Age, and ages of prose, have uncoiled
His talking whirlwind, abated his excessive temper
When words, like locusts, drummed the darkening air
And left the cobs to rattle, bitten clean.
Skies once wearing a blue, divine hauteur
Ravel above us, mistily descend,
Thickening with motes, to a marriage with the mire.
He hymns the rotten queen with saffron hair
Who has saltier aphrodisiacs
Than virgins’ tears. That bawdy queen of death,
Her wormy couriers aer at his bones.
Still he hymns juice of her, hot nectarine.
I see him, horny-skinned and tough, construe
What flinty pebbles and ploughable upturns
As ponderable tokens of her love.
He, godly, doddering, spells
No succinct Gabriel from the letters here
But floridly, his amorous nostalgias.
Ghost Catcher Isles 