Mysterious Universe

The very idea that the green and pleasant British countryside may well be playing host to hidden populations of wild baboon sounds manifestly bizarre and unlikely in the extreme, which, for the most part anyway, it surely is! And, yet, sightings of baboon-like animals certainly do surface from time to time, and from across much of the entire nation. That these same sightings, of what are actually African and Arabian Old World monkeys, are comprised of encounters with both flesh-and-blood entities and beasts of a distinctly spectral and paranormal nature, only adds to the mystifying strangeness, as you will now come to firmly appreciate.

In 1913, Elliott O’Donnell penned the classic title Animal Ghosts, which included in its pages the decades-old story of a ghostly baboon seen in a large, old, imposing country-house-style abode near the English town of Basingstoke, Hampshire. In O’Donnell’s own words:

“A sister of a well-known author tells me there used to be a house called The Swallows, standing in two acres of land, close to a village near Basingstoke. In 1840 a Mr. Bishop of Tring bought the house, which had long stood empty, and we went to live there in 1841. After being there a fortnight two servants gave notice to leave, stating that the place was haunted by a large cat and a big baboon, which they constantly saw stealing down the staircases and passages.

“They also testified to hearing sounds as of somebody being strangled, proceeding from an empty attic near where they slept, and of the screams and groans of a number of of people being horribly tortured in the cellars just underneath the dairy. On going to see what was the cause of the disturbances, nothing was ever visible. By and by other members of the household began to be harassed by similar manifestations. The news spread through the village, and crowds of people came to the house with lights and sticks, to see if they could witness anything.

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The short answer to the title of this post is “yes.” Obviously, anything capable of causing devastating illness among large portions of the world’s population should be quite concerning to all of us. However, as is the case with a particular circumstance at present regarding the creation of a new kind of synthetically engineered super-flu, experts are advising that we not break out into a panic just yet.

Indeed, new experimental procedures have successfully created what scientists call H5N1, which amounts to being a synthetically-mutated form of the H1N1 virus that has caused great concern (and legitimate harm) around the world. This is already old news, since the first mention of the new “mutated” form of the virus came out late last year; but experts who have attempted to qualm the fears of the public have had little success in dampening the worry associated with how such a potential killer might escape into the world at large.

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The ancient Hindu epics are rife with tales of the strange and fantastic. Elements described within consist of elaborate tales of massive wars, superheroes, and gods that walk alongside common mortals. And yet, perhaps no subject hailing from the Sanskrit fables has captured the minds of ancient mystery proponents better than the flying vehicles of ancient India, known today as vimanas.

Vimanas are, without question, mentioned throughout many of the ancient Vedic texts, proving they certainly are not a concept that originates entirely from recent times; but if not sophisticated avionics of the modern variety, what then might they have been? Could it be possible that some elements regarding the vimana mystery–specifically our interpretation of these objects as technologically advanced aircraft that existed in ancient India–could be a result of our own desire to superimpose modern themes and ideas into the framework of the ancient Indian epics?

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“I believe nothing,” wrote Charles Fort, the late and much revered chronicler of anomalies, in his 1931 book Lo! “I have shut myself away from the rocks and wisdoms of ages, and from the so-called great teachers of all time, and perhaps because of that isolation I am given to bizarre hospitalities. I shut the front door upon Christ and Einstein, and at the back door hold out a welcoming hand to little frogs and periwinkles. I believe nothing of my own that I have ever written. I cannot accept that the products of minds are subject-matter for beliefs.”

While the statement above continued in the original text, going on to reference a manna-like edible substance that fell from the sky over parts of Asia, this excerpt defines the essence of Charles Fort’s unique philosophy. While he was best known for being a collector and compiler of strange facts related to anomalous happenings, throughout his life and many written works, he boasted not only a curiosity for the unexplained with interest in documenting such happenings, but also exemplified a unique brand of rational thought that many of us could still benefit from studying today. And perhaps among the most important of all the lessons we could hope to gather from Fort, studying his writings makes it easy to see that the man never seemed to take himself too seriously.

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One of the most bizarre, not to mention flat out terrifying, mysteries of the modern age concerns the enigmatic deaths of nine Russian mountaineers whose cross-country skiing trip ended in a tragedy so ghastly and perplexing that it has mystified experts for over half a century.

Excursions into nature can be serene for some and exhilarating for others, but for an unfortunate few these sojourns into the untouched wilds of our world can be tragic. Still other such journeys into the unknown end in such unfathomably frightening circumstances that they become the stuff of legend. Such is the destiny that befell nine ill-fated skiing enthusiasts in the late 1950s.

Unlike so many of the most intriguing mysteries of the 20^th Century — including the fate of the crew of the Ourang Medan or the whereabouts of the missing Anjikuni Villagers of Canada — What makes the so-called “Dyatlov Pass Incident” so fascinating is the fact that there is absolutely no doubt that these events actually occurred… and dreadfully little doubt that one of the last sensations experienced by these poor souls was one of abject terror.

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When people ask me about my favorite books, I’m often met with surprise when I tell them that most of them have very little – and, more often than not, absolutely nothing – to do with the realms of Ufology, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the many and varied similar topics that occupy much of my time. Amongst my most cherished of all titles are Keith Waterhouse’s Billy Liar; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles; and Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur.

But, if I was put on the spot and asked to name my all-time favorite, it would have to be Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary, which tells – in a definitively-masterful, and definitively-Gonzo style – the entertaining story of Thompson’s early years and journalistic adventures on Puerto Rico, a place for which I have a great affinity, having worked there on a number of occasions. I eagerly devoured the book when it was first published in 1998, decades after it was actually written, and which is now a fine movie starring Johnny Depp.

And, it’s perhaps because – having spent more than 20-years in the field of freelance-journalism myself – I can deeply relate to Thompson’s literary romps in and around San Juan, that I immensely enjoyed Tabloid Man & the Baffling Chair of Death by Paul Bannister, which is a new book written very much in the spirit of the Gonzo-master’s own work. And a fine piece of work Tabloid Man is, too, being equal-parts illuminating, hilarious, insightful and adventure-driven.

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In anticipation of the coming New Year (and perhaps more specifically, what the New Year will bring so far as new films), I’ve been brushing up on old episodes of Dark Shadows, the famous gothic horror soap from the 1960s that featured the likes of Katherine Leigh Scott, Alexandra Moltke, Joan Bennett, and of course, Canadian actor Jonathan Frid in his portrayal of the nefarious blood-sucker of Colinwood, Barnabas Collins.

2012 could very well be bringing with it the end of the world, as many doomsday theorists have suggested already. But hopefully before that happens we’ll have a little time to enjoy the all new film rendition of Dark Shadows, which will star Johnny Depp in the role of Barnabas Collins (and hence part of my reason for brushing up on this unique series of sixties soaps). But in addition to a renewed enjoyment of the old television series and its cast, my anticipation for this film has also spurred in me a sense of… well, could we call it “monsterphilia”? Hey, if you’re like me, and you enjoy watching old horror movies, you probably aren’t just watching them for the set designs or the music; no, you too must be a monsterphile!

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