Ghostly Encounters

When five successful British writers revealed their belief in ghosts they based their stories on personal experience. Did they open themselves to ridicule? Apparently not. Studies reveal that 48% of Americans believe in ghosts. Given that Britain is more ghost-friendly than the US I would expect Britain's percentage of believers to be higher.

I never had a problem coming to terms with apparitions or the supernatural. As a child, mother would say, "it is the living, not the dead who harm you."

An Ordinary Seaman on the freighter Grecian I recall a night time passage approaching Gibraltar. Entering the tool room far below the waterline two engineers chanced upon an Arab sitting cross-legged on an oil drum. Presuming the youngster to be a stowaway the pair approached the character. It was then they realized that the figure was an apparition. Horrified, both men fled to the upper deck. I can testify to their extreme shock. Only when the ship reached London did the captain reveal that the specter was evident during earlier voyages. The ghostly figure was that of a youngster who, on stowing away in Tripoli, was fatally sealed in a hold.

A ship's lookout will ring the bell that situated on the bow of a ship if a vessel is seen to starboard; it is rung twice if another ship is to port and three times if there is danger ahead. Through the stormy night the bell constantly tolled accurately as our ship approached the English Channel. As dawn broke it was realized the lookout was nowhere near the bell but was on the upper bridge. Sent to tie the maverick bell the lookout returned to say that the bell had been disabled the previous night. Who or what then had been tolling the warnings?

Before retiring to Spain I lived in an old manse. The apparition in that old house made no secret of her presence. We accepted each other and I christened her Casperette. Rarely did I mention her to visitors but many guests were startled by her unexpected presence. One night, a lady colleague stayed overnight and would use the spare bedroom. Just as we settled down for our night's slumbers we were shocked by an atrocious banging on both our bedroom doors. Running to the landing we found it to be empty. Neither of us made a big deal of it. However, I am convinced that Casperette was consumed by jealousy at the presence of my female guest.

On several occasions I stayed at Widdecombe Manor in Chagford, Devon. The R. D Blackmore's classic, Lorna Doone, was based on the manor's 17th Century romantic tragedy. My experiences whilst a guest would make your hair stand on end as they did mine. I have never questioned life on a spiritual plane. Some are attuned to it, some are not. As the great scientist Nikola Tesla revealed: "My brain is only a receiver. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know it exists."

The author, Michael Walsh, before retirement, was voted 'Writer of the Year' by the editorial board of Euro Weekly News. This English language weekly is read by 550,000 readers each week. A broadcaster and author of over thirty titles he is a regular contributor to U.S online media.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9255544

Closer To Reality: Those Little Grey Aliens

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The concept of the 'Greys' as a 'flesh-and-blood' complement to the metallic UFO is associated with the Roswell UFO event (July 1947) but that aspect only surfaced over thirty years later. The Roswell event, with or without 'Greys' had been buried and forgotten until resurrected in the early 1980's. Meantime the 'Greys' came to the fore independently with the UFO abduction phenomena that post-dated Roswell but pre-dated the renewal of the Roswell event as a major UFO case. Though IMHO Roswell is significant even without the 'Greys', the 'Greys' nevertheless remain a major facet of the modern UFO debate. Speaking of debates, what follows are extracts I had in debating a UFO ETH (ExtraTerrestrial Hypothesis) sceptic about the 'Greys'.

Regarding the Origin of the 'Greys'

The story of the Roswell incident only resurfaced after just two days in the public eye (minus alien bodies) in July 1947 with the publication of "The Roswell Incident" by Charles Berlitz* & William Moore in 1980, meaning that the powers-that-be nearly got away with the Roswell cover-up and deception. But they didn't count on eye-witnesses coming out of the closet when they already had one foot in the grave and therefore had little to fear from Uncle Sam and violations of their security oaths.

Now the really interesting thing is that the first alien abduction case in the USA to get publicity - the Betty and Barney Hill case - came to light in 1966 ("The Interrupted Journey" by John G. Fuller). Betty and Barney Hill did not know about Roswell, and certainly not about any possible Roswell alien bodies. Yet, their description of the aliens who allegedly abducted them for over two hours match perfectly with the post 1980 revelations and descriptions of the Roswell aliens. Mr. Sceptic may not have observed this as "serious evidence" but the Roswell witnesses and Betty & Barney Hill certainly did. Please explain this curious coincidence! Sceptics will counter that the "Greys" are engrained in our pop-culture, therefore no coincidence need be entered into.

Calling all sceptics, please name me one movie, one TV show, one comic book, one sci-fi novel, one anything which featured the classic 'Grey' alien prior to the Betty and Barney Hill encounter and subsequent publicity in 1966. Sure, pop-culture featured many an extraterrestrial, but not the 'Greys', at least not prior to 1966. Betty and Barney Hill's 'Greys' were not influenced by pop-culture. Perhaps if there had been such an influence the Hill's would have reported Gort or Robbie-the-Robot or The Blob or the Martians from the first film version of "The War of the Worlds".

*I should point out for the sake of accuracy that Stanton Friedman was an un-credited co-author of the 1980 tome "The Roswell Incident". The Berlitz name was basically tacked on for its public recognition and PR value. Berlitz contributed virtually nothing to the contents that required leg-work and chin-wagging.

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In terms of the public perception, yes, the Betty and Barney Hill 1966 abduction event saw the first real association of aliens or extraterrestrials or ET as being something akin to what we now call the 'Greys'. That does NOT negate the testimony of Roswell witnesses that what they observed were 'Grey' aliens. But that association didn't surface in the public's eye until 1980. So, all I'm saying is that Roswell could NOT have had any influence on the Betty and Barney Hill case. The Betty and Barney Hill event was not contaminated by any previous perception of aliens in the form of the 'Greys'.

Let's examine this further. I've looked through all my sci-fi in film and on TV books and I can't find one illustration of a cinema 'Grey' prior to 1966, just extraterrestrials who are nearly always human in appearance or actors in 'alien' rubber suits. 1966 was of course when the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case became public knowledge, albeit the abduction was in 1961. In fact even the 1975 telemovie of that event, "The UFO Incident" obviously featured actors in costume and didn't look very much like the 'Greys' at all. There were no 'Greys' in either Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. I can't recall a single 'Grey' on "The Outer Limits" or on "The Twilight Zone" or on "Science Fiction Theatre".

Perhaps had Betty and Barney Hill been British, then no doubt their encounter with alien abductors would have been Triffids or Daleks or Cybermen or the Ice Warriors or Sontarans, the Zarbi or one (or more) of those Quartermass alien beasties. Or maybe not.

Actually the Hill's weren't conversant with sci-fi at all. If you have to pick a stereotype least likely to come up with an alien 'Grey' abduction scenario it would akin to that represented by Betty and Barney Hill.

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My sceptical 'friend', Mr. Sceptic, suggested that the concept of the 'Greys' extended back to the earliest days of science fiction and thus humankind were already saturated with that image. Wow. Alas, that's pure bovine fertilizer. Does Mr. Sceptic really think some cited minor references he came up with from 1893 and 1901 (albeit one by H.G. Wells) so saturated the sci-fi world that the "Greys" became the be-all-and-end-all of what it was to be an extraterrestrial?

I quite agree that H.G. Wells, along with however Jules Verne, were the fathers of modern science fiction. Perhaps Mary Shelley of "Frankenstein" fame was the mother, or great grandmother since she pre-dated Wells and Verne by many decades. Anyway, I'm sure the cited 1893 article and the 1901 novel "The First Men In The Moon" by Wells were required reading in all English literature classes for all American students and thus American culture was saturated with all things 'Grey'. Or perhaps not. A British essay, even from H.G. Wells from 1893 is hardly going to expand its influence and permeate American culture in 1947 - really now; let's get real.

By the way, the film version of "The First Men in the Moon" features aliens which bore no similarity to the 'Greys' in any shape, manner or form.

Sure, H.G. Wells is famous, but not overly for the two works Mr. Sceptic cited. "The War of the Worlds" and "The Time Machine" and "The Invisible Man" rank heads and shoulders above in the overall perception of the reading and cinema going public, none of which features the classic 'Greys'.

The bottom line however is that 1947 America was not consumed with the 'Greys' or even with issues of bug-eyed-monsters ravishing terrestrial women as oft seen on the covers of the pulps, or of the future evolution of the human species, or of anything overly extraterrestrial, this being many years before the start of the "space race". There is no logical reason for military personnel (Roswell) nor an average middle-aged couple (the Hills) to have all of those alleged defining characteristics Mr. Sceptic noted as part and parcel of aliens on the brain; even in their subconscious.

Even if you read all of the works of the mainstream sci-fi authors from 'The Golden Age' of science fiction (1920's - 1950's) - Asimov, Clarke, Burroughs, Simak, Heinlein, etc. you won't find descriptions of aliens that resemble the 'Greys'.

The bottom line is that American society was not consumed with encounters with the 'Greys' or aliens of any kind prior to 1947. The 1938 radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" that scared the pants off of some listeners had long since been forgotten and consigned to history and war nerves. Roswell could not have influenced the Hill's event and obviously the Hill's event could not have had any bearing on the Roswell incident, yet both have 'Greys' as their EBEs (Extraterrestrial Biological Entities). Coincidence? I think not. Rather it's another bit of evidence for the UFO ETH (ExtraTerrestrial Hypothesis).

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Regarding pop-culture, I checked with three of my books about aliens in sci-fi, which were:

"Alien Creatures" [in cinema and literature] by Richard Siegel & J-C Suares (1978);

"Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature" by Wayne Barlowe & Ian Summers (1980); and

"Science Fiction Aliens" [a Starlog Photo Guidebook] by Ed Naha (1977).

Alas, the closest I came to a 'Grey' other than the films "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) and "The UFO Incident" (the 1975 telemovie of the Hill's abduction), was with the 1978 film "Laserblast". Clearly that could not have been an inspiration either for the Roswell 'Greys' nor the Hill's 'Greys'.

When is the first time the 'Greys' achieved an awareness within the conscious mind of Mr. & Mrs. Joe & Mary Public? It was no doubt after 1966 assuming they heard/read about the Betty and Barney Hill incident; after 1980 if they heard/read about the resurrection of the Roswell event. However, I'd argue that there were two other later and far more important defining moments in terms of public awareness about the 'Greys'.

The first was the conclusion to the film CE3K, or "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) - which contained no reference to Roswell at all for obvious reasons though it probably would have had it been made after 1980 - which was seen by multi-millions.

The second was the cover dust jacket image on Whitley Strieber's book "Communion: A True Story" (1987). Apparently no other book cover image has ever had the effect, the resonance with the public that that image (of a 'Grey' alien) had. It had a resonance far beyond anything that a Jung archetype image (if there really is such a thing) could have had. The great unwashed identified with it in spades, which speaks volumes about the reality of the 'Greys' and their association, even subconsciously, with the general public. I'd be very surprised if some Ph.D. student(s) in cultural anthropology, psychology or sociology didn't focus on that as his or her thesis.

Of course neither the CE3K film nor the Strieber book could have had any bearing on the Roswell 'Greys'.

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The image of the 'Greys' is certainly ingrained in our (western civilization) culture now, and I've given examples of why, although that was not the case just prior to Roswell (1947) and the Betty and Barney Hill encounter (1961) which occurred five years prior to the subsequent publicity (1966). Now the question is, are the 'Greys' an archetype ingrained within our mental facilities like many phobias, or, are they really real?

Mr. Sceptic's interpretation of the 'Greys' is that they are ingrained in our subconscious, perhaps a relatively recent development, perhaps something way more ancient. They are an archetype. My interpretation is that they are not all-in-the-mind but that they are something real of structure and substance. Mr. Sceptic unfortunately fails; I succeed. Why? Because Mr. Sceptic cannot appeal to anything sociological or cultural or anthropological or psychological to explain away the Roswell 'Greys' since they had a physical slab-in-the-lab reality that required the Roswell base personnel to arrange for child-sized coffins be sent to the base by the local Roswell funeral home prior to transport to "higher authority". Mr. Sceptic could no more do that by way of explanation than you could appeal to a feline archetype and mythology to explain away that cat sitting and purring its little heart out on your lap.

The most popular image of the extraterrestrial or the alien in 1947, assuming that the great unwashed kept such an image in their consciousness or even their subconscious, would have been the BEM - Bug-Eyed-Monster - bent on conquest and ravishing young women. The image of the nasty 'alien' would have been re-enforced by the very recent perceptions of how 'alien' Imperial Japan was and the 'alien' culture/philosophy of Nazi Germany and the now 'alien' communistic society of the Soviet Union, which was now the Cold War 'enemy' and you had to beware not Martians invading but reds-under-the-bed. In 1947 America anything that was not White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant (WASP) and speaking English was 'alien' and probably nasty. 'Greys' never entered their mind. They had enough else to worry about and keep them awake at night and provide nightmares when they did fall asleep. Yet it was the 'Greys' that surfaced and in a military setting no less (Roswell). Therefore, the 'Greys' are not a product of the mind. Even the USAF was forced to try and explain away the 'Greys' of Roswell as something prosaic (i.e. - crash test dummies), yet again something else with physical reality.

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The 'Greys' cannot be an archetype product generated by the mind since 1) in the case of Roswell the RAAF had to order in child-sized coffins to ship the 'Greys' out in and 2) in the case of the Hill's encounter, well that happened in open countryside while they were wide awake. Sceptics have not adequately explained any sort of pop-culture connection and its all-in-the-mind explanation for the 'Greys', so IMHO that's yet another case of sceptics, including Mr. Sceptic, who just talk-the-talk.

Regarding Films of 'Alien Autopsies': Those Roswell 'Greys'

Anyone and everyone remotely familiar with the Roswell 'Greys' knows about those famous or infamous 'alien autopsy' film featuring the Roswell 'Greys' - or actually 'Grey'. Fact or fiction?

Much as it pains me to say this, you can't always believe everything you see on TV. For that matter, you can't always believe everything you read either. One basic reason is this. Television (like publishing) tends to be a for-profit enterprise. The name of the game is MONEY and PROFIT. The name of the game is to pull in the viewers. If viewers aren't watching there's no advertising revenue forthcoming and so the show gets the boot. It's a cut-throat business. One way of course to pull in the viewers is to sensationalize the subject matter way beyond what the actual evidence justifies. If the program doesn't offer up some alternative or sceptical points of view then the presentation is biased and one-sided. Whenever you see sensational stuff like this, do some independent research and fact-finding and fact-checking. Many a sensational claim dissolves into nothingness when put under the independent investigative microscope.

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The current state-of-the-art when it comes to computer-generated imagery (CGI) is that it is impossible for the average viewer to be able to distinguish reality from CGI. In the last five or so years I've watched many a movie, even a TV series, where it was impossible for me to tell what was obviously special effects from reality. I'm really in awe of the special effects industry. They can simulate just about anything, if not everything. I'm just not convinced by that 'alien autopsy' footage. But as I've already said, Roswell is an extremely significant UFO event even without any 'Grey' connection.

Science librarian; retired.

Sounds From a Lost Cemetery

While growing up, as a teenager it was not unusual to hide in the local cemetery and await the passage of some innocent person heading to the store or somewhere else in the early evening darkened hours. I still to this day remember the creepy thrill of jumping out from behind to tombstone and scaring the unsuspecting individual. To a young teen in those days this was a means of entertainment that actually hurt no one. However, as I grew older the cemeteries became places of potential fear.

I was in the United States Air Force and stationed in Nebraska while in the service. A friend and his wife lived away from the base and to get to their home we would need to travel a long house-less road. After traveling several miles on this road one would come upon a deserted cemetery out in the middle of nowhere. There were no churches near it, no houses to be found anywhere but just the cemetery alone.

We visited our friends one evening and during our visit the wife began to relate her experience on the road as she neared the cemetery. She informed us that as she was traveling home late one evening she took note of a young girl of about seven or eight standing in the middle of the highway with her arms stretched out in front of her as if she was asking for help. Immediately she stepped on the brakes of the car and stopped her vehicle. As she looked around the area the little girl was nowhere to be found. My friend looked all around her car for the youthful child but was unable to find her. Finally confused and somewhat scared she continued on her journey to her home.

After she had finished relating her experiences to my wife and me, a thought passed my mind. Why not place a tape recorder within the cemetery confines and record what takes place when the living is not present. Perhaps nothing will happen and the tape will remain blank but then again one never knows unless they try it. Our friend's husband and I drove pass the cemetery towards my home to retrieve a small, battery operated cassette recorder and on the way back we made a brief stop to buy a fresh, new, unused tape for it and a supply of new batteries. As we got near to the cemetery we un-wrapped the new tape and placed it into the recorder along with the fresh set of batteries. We stopped near to the gate entrance and slowly made our way around the graves to the center of the graveyard where we set the recorder on top of one tombstone and turned it on. And that was our cue to quickly depart and that is what we hastily did.

While we were leaving both of us had chills running up and down our spine as if some unknown number of eyes were following our every step. We finally approached the car, got inside and immediately left the area heading to my friend's home. Upon arrival we laughed with our spouses at what we had done. We looked at the issue as nothing more than fun and games. It was similar to our scare tactics as young kids in the cemetery. None of us actually expected to hear anything usual or strange on the tape after we played it back. We could at least in the end have a good laugh and experience something unusual to relate to our children as they grew up.

As midnight approached we decided to retrieve the recorder and the cassette tape and see what "ghostly events" we had captured on it. Once again as we made our way to the center of the cemetery we experienced the same chilling feelings and felt that someone or something was still watching us as we moved around. We finally picked up the recorder and as quickly as we could we made our way out of the graveyard and into the safety of our car. Off we went to my friend's house to see what interesting sounds we had accumulated on the tape.

We got to their home and went immediately inside to sit at the table. As our host was providing fresh hot coffee, I rewound the tape to the very beginning and started to play it. On the first play of the cassette it did not appear that anything was recorded other than a lot of static similar to that which you hear when the TV goes off the air late at night. We next decided to give it a fair chance and played it a second time. Our ears we getting used to the static now and during the second play we could faintly hear distant voices on the tape unfortunately it was impossible to decipher what was being said. We assured ourselves that it was not our voices as we came and went from the cemetery and since there were no houses in the area we knew it was not some sort of echo from a distant home. This left only the disembodied souls who resided at the cemetery. As we fine tuned our ears to the recording we could hear the sound of a train traveling in the background and clearly hear it sounding its horn every now and then. Fact of the situation was that there were no trains for many miles from this cemetery.

In view of what we had heard on the tape we concluded that there was in fact a lot of activity taking place in that graveyard. Perhaps in the future I may try the same experiment again in Delaware as we have an abundance of forgotten family graveyards with but a few graves within its enclosed gates. I might just hear some additional voices that could be made out and understood. Only time will tell.

Copyright @2016

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9294624

Every Man Must Find His Own Way Home

The following is an untold account of an incident pertaining to my father and his friend Tommy Burns. It was in the summer of 1970 and it was an unusually dreadful year for my father as his health was progressively deteriorating and he was hastily realizing that death would soon come knocking at his door in the near future. In view of the fact that I was married and had a family of my own, I lived at a distance from my parents and by no means could spend as much time with them as I would have desired.

It was a quiet evening when Tommy came knocking at our door and declared that he had just arrived in town and sought to visit with us. This did not present a dilemma in view of the fact that I had known Tommy for numerous years. My father had always been an admirable and honest man, and the affectionate familiarity which he expressed in Mr. Burns was to me satisfactory verification that Tommy was in every way creditable and of high regard. It was at breakfast the following morning when Tommy related to us a strange and unusual pact that was formed. He stated that it had been soberly established among my father and him that the one who died first would attempt to communicate with the other from beyond the confines of the grave, a concurrence that was comparable to that arrangement between the great magician Houdini and his wife upon his death.

A few weeks after our dialogue in which Mr. Burns spoke of this alleged agreement, I met him walking gradually down High Street in Millville, apparently preoccupied in deep contemplation, as he greeted me impersonally providing a skimpy nod of his head and continued on his way while I in absolute puzzlement was left standing on the sidewalk, staggered and as you may well expect somewhat irritated. The following day I encountered Tommy again, this time in the City hall office as I was paying my yearly taxes, and seeing him about to duplicate yesterday's unpleasant performance I intercepted him in the entrance hallway with a gracious acknowledgment, and directly requested an explanation of his behavior. He hesitated for an instant then looking me forthright in the eye and said.

"I do not foresee that I may relate to you as a friend any further in view of the fact that your father has dissolved our friendship even though I know not why he has elected to do so." I quickly protested, "I have not heard from my father recently so I can not respond to your comments concerning his behavior."

"You have not heard from your father". he repeated, with evident astonishment. "Why, he is here in Millville. I encountered him yesterday only a mere ten minutes prior to meeting you. I met him for a second time not even a quarter of an hour ago, and I might add his manner was precisely the same as previously, he merely nodded and passes on."

At this point I would like to enlighten you, my reader that for all practical purposes I shall explain at once that my father was now dead. He had died in the Millville hospital four days prior to this conversation. Calling on Mr. Burns, I informed him of my father's demise, presenting him the commentary as it appeared in the Millville Daily Newspaper announcing the calamity. "It seems incredible", he said, following a period of reflection. "I suppose I must have erroneously approached someone else mistaking them for your father, and that accounts for the icy welcome I received. It was purely a stranger's response to someone they didn't know. I now remember, yes indeed, he lacked your fathers' usual mustache."

"Doubtless it was another man," I assented and the subject was never subsequently mentioned between us. But I had in my pocket a photograph of my father which had been provided from his remains attended to by my mother. It had been taken a week before his death, and was in fact without a mustache.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9321710

EduNation Malaysia – Free Online Video Tuition For Malaysian School Students

EduNation Malaysia is a volunteer driven non-profit educational initiative started to ensure that every Malaysian student has all the educational resources he/she needs to succeed academically in school. This initiative has been putting the Malaysian school syllabus online by mapping the Khan Academy videos and creating their own videos. Their work is in

constant progress and will continue to be in progress for many years to come.

EduNation Malaysia is like a free online video tuition that you can use and learn at your own pace and convenience.

What to expect from EduNation Malaysia?

Here are the 3 things that you can look forward to in the coming weeks, months and years: –

Learning Videos:

They are focused on creating learning videos in maths, science, physics, chemistry, accounts, economics and languages for Malaysian public school students. This year they will have a majority of the maths and sciences videos up and ready to use and will begin working on accounts and economics and English learning videos.

Practice Problems and Test Papers:

The practice problem and test paper platform will allow students to practice their understanding of key concepts. As a student, you can also track your progress.

Social Media Platform:

What if you can get free tutoring help, powered by the Malaysian community? If you’re like one of the many Malaysians students who want academic help, then stay tuned.

- See more at: http://www.malaysiacentral.com/education-directory/edunation-malaysia-free-online-video-tuition-for-malaysian-school-students/#sthash.R6n8eb94.dpuf