Over the past few decades, Halloween celebrations have gained in popularity, not only with children and families but with all those fascinated with the spooky and scary. As a scholar of myth and religion in popular culture, I look at Halloween with particular interest – especially the ways in which today’s Halloween tradition came to evolve. Many practices associated with Halloween have origins in the pre-Christian, or pagan, religion of the Celts, the original inhabitants of the British Isles, as well as parts of France and Spain...CONTINUE READING
A British newspaper received a mystery call minutes before the assassination of John F Kennedy. This is one of the most astonishing revelations from the JFK files, released on Thursday. The revelation was made in papers relating to the killing, which happened on November 22 1963. A memo to the director of FBI revealed that a call was made to the senior reporter at the Cambridge News at 6.05pm on the day Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas. The document, from deputy director James Angleton, said: "The British Security Service (MI-5) has reported that at 1805GMT on 22 November an anonymous telephone call was made in Cambridge, England, to the senior reporter of the Cambridge News. "The caller said only that the Cambridge News reporter should call the American Embassy in London for some big news and then hung up." More strange revelations came from the memo, including that just 25 minutes after the call ended, the President was shot. It continued: "After the word of the President's death was received the reporter informed the Cambridge police of the anonymous call and the police informed MI-5. "The important point is that the call was made, according to MI-5 calculations, about 25 minutes before the...CONTINUE READING
We don’t put much stock in Halloween anymore. It’s fun for kids and a fine time to snuggle up for a scary movie, but the truly scary aspects climbed on a ship with our silliest superstitions and sailed for Valinor long ago. But witches and ghouls aren’t the only haunts of a hallowed eve—some nights will make monsters of men, and whether by chance or design, these monsters chose the Halloween season to bring their evil to light...CONTINUE READING
Robert was donated to the East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida in 1994. He has been dubbed the most haunted doll in the world - and is believed to be the inspiration for Chucky. Robert the Doll was gifted to Robert Eugene Otto in 1904 by his family’s Bahamian maid, who is believed to have practiced black magic and voodoo. The sailor-suited bear stands at 40-inches tall, is stuffed with wood chippings and once bore painted features, not unlike those of a jester. He is a one-of-a-kind, handmade by the Steiff Company of Germany around the turn of the century. It is believed Robert was part of a set fabricated for a window display and was never supposed to be sold as a toy.
Legend has it that Robert – who went by the name ‘Gene’ – told his parents the doll destroyed his other toys and would knock furniture over during the night. Gene’s parents often heard him talking to the bear. At first, they assumed their son was simply answering himself in a changed voice but later claimed to believe the doll was actually speaking. Neighbours claimed to have seen Robert moving from window to window when the family was out. Others reported seeing the bear’s facial expressions change. Robert was the inspiration for Chucky, the two-foot high murderer made famous in horror film, Child’s Play. In the movie, the notorious serial killer's spirit inhabits a 'good guy' doll. He continuously tries to transfer his soul from the doll to a human body. When Gene grew up and left the family home, he left Robert behind in the attic. The new owners converted the building into a bed and breakfast and claimed to have heard Robert moving around at night. Some even reported hearing him laughing. Robert was donated to the East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida in 1994 – and the controversy around him has not ended. Cameras and electronic devices are said to malfunction in his presence. Many have also blamed their post-visit misfortune – everything from car accidents to job losses and divorce – on failing to respect the bear. Staff say Robert gets one to three letters a day from visitors apologising for acting rudely around him and asking to lift evil voodoo curses. Discussing Gene’s close relationship with Robert, museum curator Cori Convertito told Atlas Obscura: “What people really remember is what they would probably term as an unhealthy relationship with the doll. “He brought it everywhere, he talked about it in the first person as if he weren’t a doll, he was Robert. As in he is a live entity.” In 2015, a horror movie called Robert was created telling the vintage plaything’s terrifying history. Real-Life Chucky Doll Said To Cast Evil Spells
Halloween is regarded as the Witches' Sabbat, the equivalent of their New Year's Eve. Its roots lie firmly in the old pagan holiday of Samhain, which - along with May 1, Beltane - was regarded as one of the most important days of the year. On Samhain, it was believed that the veil lifted between the worlds of the living and the dead, allowing spirits, demons and other mythical creatures such as faeries a chance to walk amongst us. But the reality of Halloween through the eyes of the Celts and Druids is scarier than any horror film. According to old documents, in its most primitive guise, Samhain would have featured many sacrifices to the Celtic gods of death, with both animals and humans thrown into huge firepits as offerings. People claimed the ancient Druids ate their firstborn children on Samhain, or collected the blood of their sacrificial humans in cauldrons and drank it. The stories get gorier, claiming that hollowed out pumpkins and turnips would be filled with fat from previous sacrifices and lit. It was the arrival of the Romans in 55 BC that signaled the start the end of Druid culture in the UK. Julius Caesar even commented about the ancient Brits that in times of danger, "unless the life of a man be offered, the mind of immortal gods will not favour them." It was traditional to light a candle and place it in the window to guide the spirits of ancestors and loved ones home, and apples were buried alongside roadsides for spirits who were lost or who had no descendants to provide for them. However, present-day Pagans' Samhain celebration is a much safer affair, and focus on the night's origins as 'Feast of the Dead'. Focusing on the belief that it is easier to communicate with dead relatives and loved ones, ghosts are firmly at the centre of proceedings. It's not uncommon for Pagans to hold a Dumb Supper, where a feast is prepared with an empty place at the table for the spirits of dead ancestors. A portion of each food and drink served must be placed onto their plate or in their cup throughout the meal, which must be eaten in total silence. It's also crucial that no one looks at the empty chair for the spiritual diner - looking at the ghost over the dinner table brings bad luck on the household. At the end of the feast, the Pagans will place the uneaten food and drink outside in a wooded or other natural areas as an offering for the dead. Dead scary Samhain is the pagan origin of Halloween
According to a new groundbreaking study, when you die you know you’re dead. A person’s blood supply to the brain is immediately cut off once the heart stops working, which marks the official time of someone’s death. But now, studies have revealed that the dead person’s mind and consciousness continue to work – even for a short period of time – which means they can recognize their own death. And there is evidence to suggest the “dead person” may even hear their own death being announced. This new study mirrors the...CONTINUE READING
Alleged sightings of Bigfoot have baffled and enthralled for decades, with numerous people claiming to have captured photographic evidence of the giant, ape-like creature in the wild. Here's what you need to know about the mythical creature and all the alleged sightings. The mystery of Bigfoot has been causing a stir for hundreds of years. The mythical beast is thought to stand seven to 10 ft tall and weigh more than 35 stone, with footprints 17 inches long. One of the first discoveries of Bigfoot was back in 1811 when British explorer David Thompson found large footprints that have been attributed to the creature. In October 2017, a farmer claimed he had seen a whole FAMILY of Bigfoot, carrying a pig while running through his Californian ranch. Paranormal expert Jeffrey Gonzalez said he spotted five or six of the beasts running past his van's headlights. Jeffrey added: "One of them, which was extremely tall, had a pig over its shoulder." The investigator claims to have...CONTINUE READING
The tongue-in-cheek suspicion has gathered traction over the last few days, leaving some observers convinced the First Lady has a decoy. Social media users have a theory that Melania Trump has been replaced by a body double. While the tongue-in-cheek suspicion has been circulating online for a while, it has become a full-blown conspiracy theory in the last few days. Actress and comedian Andrea Wagner Barton shared a status on Facebook on Friday, questioning if the First Lady had been replaced by a lookalike. She wrote: "Is it me or during his speech today a decoy 'stood in' for Melania??" She shared a video, filmed in the White House garden on Friday October 13, in which Trump appears to go to great lengths to emphasize it IS his wife. The President is heard to say "my wife, Melania, who happens to be right here..." The post has been shared more than 100,000 times, sending conspiracy theorists into a frenzy...CONTINUE READING
Stargazers who allegedly found evidence of the mythical Planet X system have died in mysterious circumstances, it's been claimed. The shocking theory says the deaths are part of a “cover-up to prevent the truth about the system, also known as Nibiru, getting out. David Meade, author of Planet X - The 2017 Arrival, claims it will pass us next month, triggering the apocalypse. NASA insists the Nibiru theory is an online hoax, and there is no proof it exists. However, members of the so-called Nibiru Cataclysm movement say this is a cover-up to prevent panic and reserve space in underground bunkers for the world elite, according to Dailystar.co.uk. Mr Meade claims any scientists who have broken the code of silence have “disappeared”. He suggests Dr Robert Harrington, supervising astronomer US Naval Observatory – who claimed to have found proof of Planet X – and Australian astrophysicist Rodney Marks – who was working at a South Pole telescope – both died in mysterious circumstances...CONTINUE READING
The gigantic volcano in Yellowstone National Park has been dormant for 70,000 years. A recent flurry of earthquakes at the “ticking time bomb” site in the US state of Wyoming has provoked fears of an apocalyptic eruption. It has the potential to kill 90,000 people with the initial blast and trigger a nuclear winter for the entire world, experts have warned. A mystic hailed as the “new Nostradamus” has now offered a chilling insight into the supervolcano. Susan De Vere has worked as a spirit medium for five decades and successfully predicted a number of major world events. Before the world watched in horror as the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001, Susan had already received a vision of the tragedy. She has also foreseen natural disasters and political phenomena like Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. When asked about the possibility of an eruption in the national park, she told Daily Star Online: “There is a lot of stuff going on with Yellowstone. “The military has placed something in it – like a bomb – to try and make it...CONTINUE READING
Religion as we know it will be a thing of the past when artificial intelligence creates a new form of collective consciousness, US author Dan Brown believes. Technological advancement and the development of AI will transform the concept of the divine, according to the Da Vinci Code author. Speaking at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Mr Brown he admitted his prediction may not be welcomed by clerics, but called for greater harmony between the world's great religions and those who profess no faith. He said: "Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all share a gospel, loosely, and it's important that we all realise that. "Our religions are much more similar than they are different. "We will start to find our spiritual experiences through our interconnections with each other. "Our need for that exterior god, that sits up there and judges us ... will diminish and eventually disappear." He forecast the emergence of...CONTINUE READING
Isaac Newton predicted when the end of the world will occur and has been revealed in notes he wrote at the time of explaining the laws of gravity. The godfather of physics wrote, in his findings from 1704, the world is set to end on 2060 – exactly 1,260 years after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire. The famous scientist reached his apocalyptic conclusion by analyzing the Bible’s Book of Daniel according to his note, but how he reached the conclusion exactly is still a mystery more than 300 years later. His work on the matter, which was kept in a trunk in the house of the Earl of Portsmouth for 250 years, read: "It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. “This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.” In his notes, Sir Isaac wrote that “wicked nations” will be in ruins and...CONTINUE READING
An asteroid set to skim past Earth next week will mark the start of the end of the world on Friday 13, Christian theorists have sensationally warned. Next Thursday, the asteroid – known as 2012 T4C – will pass between the Moon and the Earth at a distance of just 4,200 miles from our planet. And now, Christian conspiracy theorists believe that the asteroid's arrival will mark the beginning of the end of the world. A blog ran by poet Mel Brake says the passing of the asteroid will be a sign in the sky that Mother Mary is to return and the end of the world will begin. The website says that October will mark the 100 year anniversary of “Our Lady of Fatima”. In 1917, between May and October, three young Portuguese shepherds were said to have been visited by Mother May who provided them with visions of the apocalypse. And now a century on, some believe this asteroid will ...CONTINUE READING
A biblical relic “engraved by God” in legend and lost for at least 500 years has been uncovered by cops. Police are claimed to have found the Seal of Solomon, a ring claimed to have belonged to the mythical king, in a raid in Turkey. Officers are reported to have seized the object in an operation on Tuesday. Cops raided the home of an illegal tomb raider who was stashing and smuggling large numbers of relics. The Seal of Solomon, according to legend, has magical powers that allow its wearer to command demons and talk to animals. Its original holder – King Solomon – features in both Christian and Jewish traditions as a prophet and ruled Israel around 1000-years before the birth of Jesus...CONTINUE READING
Donald Trump and his predecessors have not admitted to the world that aliens exist and are HERE on Earth because it would "breach the US Constitution" and risk the "collapse of the global economy", it has shockingly been claimed. Aliens have been working alongside the US and other world governments since at least 1947, when the infamous Roswell UFO crash happened in New Mexico, according to conspiracy theorists. Steve Bassett, chief executive of the Paradigm Research Group (PRG), is the only registered lobbyist in the US on the issue of "alien and UFO disclosure". He and many others are convinced the US government has been secretly working with alien visitors since 1947 on developing new technologies, but it has been kept hidden under a worldwide "truth embargo". He believes this is...CONTINUE READING
French President Emmanuel Macron looks perplexed as German Chancellor Angela Merkel makes her infamous hand sign that some conspiracy theorists have suggested could be linked to the alleged Illuminati. Mr Macron appeared to make his own unidentified hand sign back as the pair met during a working dinner for European leaders on the reform of Europe in Tallinn, Estonia. Today, Mrs Merkel was seen to make the gesture again at a table opposite British Prime Minister Theresa May, as the talks continued. The "diamond" hand gesture, Mrs Merkel, is often seen making, is described by conspiracy theorists as a secret code to other members of the alleged Illuminati. It is alleged by believers of the Illuminati that it is a secret organization made up of world government and business leaders and celebrities, which actually run all world governments from behind the scenes, and plan to introduce a New World Order which will see just one government running the entire world...CONTINUE READING
