Eerie outpost unnerves US Marines with strange lights and whispers in the night

The Marines found the bone as they scraped a shallow trench. Long, dry and unmistakably once part of a human leg, it was followed by others. They reburied most of them but also found bodies. Three of the graves were close together; in another was a skeleton still wearing a pair of glasses. The Marines covered the grave and told their successors to stay away from it.

Observation Point Rock sits a few hundred metres south east of Patrol Base Hassan Abad, where a company from 2/8 Marines has been stationed for the past seven months. It is a lonely and exposed outpost 20 metres (65ft) above the surrounding landscape, which has been in Nato hands since it was captured from the Taleban in 2008.

Groups of Marines are posted to guard it, usually for a couple of months at a time, and “the Rock” has acquired a peculiar reputation. American troops widely refer to it as “the haunted Observation Point”.

It is hard to say how much the 100F (38C) heat, round-the-clock guard shifts and months spent living in trenches and peering out of sandbagged firing points have gilded the legend of OP Rock. The only break from the tedium, apart from dog-eared magazines and an improvised gym, has been small-arms or rocket-propelled grenade attacks from the Taleban, usually on a Sunday morning.

But as Sergeant Josh Brown, 22, briefed his successor when a detachment of men from Golf Company was swapped for an incoming contingent from Fox Company, he warned of the strange atmosphere and inexplicable phenomena that plagued OP Rock. “The local people say this is a cursed place,” he said. “You will definitely see weird-ass lights up here at night.”

Others in the outgoing unit had reported odd sounds. “It is weird what you hear and don’t hear around here,” he added.

Each successive detachment that guards the Rock appears to add its own layer to the legend, which has spread through the Marine units pushing into southern Helmand.

There is talk of members of the Taleban entombed in caves below; the bodies buried on the summit are identified confidently as dead Russian soldiers from the ill-fated Soviet invasion.

Corporal Jacob Lima’s story is the latest addition. One night he was woken by the sound of screaming. It was Corporal Zolik, a Marine who has since been moved to a unit farther south. “He was yelling and begging me to go up to the firing point he was guarding,” Corporal Lima, 22, told the men taking over from him. “When I got there he said that he was sitting there when he heard a voice whisper something in his ear. He said it sounded like Russian. He begged me to stay in there with him till he was relieved from guard duty. After that he really didn’t like standing post up there.”

The Marines’ predecessors, a unit of Welsh Guards, also produced tales of the unexpected. “The Brits claimed to see weird things, hear noises,” Corporal Lima said. “Lots of them said it’s creepy at night, especially from midnight till 4am. You see a lot of unexplained lights through night-vision goggles.”

Its elevation has clearly made the Rock a natural defensive position for centuries. It is not a rock, though it resembles one. Medieval arrow slits and the remains of fortified turrets on its eastern flank show that this was once a large mud fort that collapsed in on itself and was probably built upon in turn. The locals say that it dates back to Alexander the Great, and another similar structure is visible in the distance to the south, part of a supposed line of such forts built at some point in Afghanistan’s history of invasion and war.

When US Marines seized the post last summer they dropped a 2,000lb (900kg) bomb on one side, collapsing part of the structure on to what its current occupants claim was a cave where Taleban fighters were sheltering.

“This place really sucks,” said Lance Corporal Austin Hoyt, 20, putting his pack on to return to the main base. “The Afghans say it’s haunted. Stick a shovel in anywhere and you’ll find bones and bits of pottery. This place should be in National Geographic — in the front there are weird-looking windows for shooting arrows. You know, they say the Russians up here were executed by the Mujahidin.”

He looked meaningfully at his successors and prepared to leave.

via Times Online

Haunted Hassayampa Inn

I came across this ghost story today and thought you guys might enjoy it:

The four-story Hassayampa Inn in Prescott, AZ was named after a nearby river. It has an exterior of red brick trimmed in white, and its own bell tower. The bell tower seems to be the source of a well known haunting at the Hassayampa.

Shortly after the Hassayampa Inn opened on November 20, 1927, they say a newlywed couple checked into the hotel to spend their honeymoon. The husband stepped out to buy ‘a pack of cigarettes’ and never returned to his bride. ‘Faith’ as they call her, waited restlessly for three days. Depressed and all alone, the deserted woman hung her self in ill-fated bell tower.

Now guests and employees see her wandering in the halls wearing an off-white wedding gown. They report feeling her presence in Room 426—which has been named ‘Faith’s Room’. Lights turn on and off –objects seem to move or fly by—and sometimes her apparition has appeared sobbing near the doorway to the balcony.

I had my own encounter with Faith a few years ago when I was up in Prescott on business. The hotel staff knew I was a paranormal investigator and was eager to see what would happen when I stayed in ‘Faith’s Room’. I noted that every time I put my key in the door (they since have gone keyless) a spark of static electricity would shock me. EMF readings maintained a steady 2.9 in the room throughout the evening. At midnight, I turned off the lights and TV. I crawled into bed and settled in for a good night’s sleep.

Suddenly, about 1:00am I woke from a sound sleep to the TV blaring. All the lights in the room were turned back on. I hopped out of bed, turned everything back off and laid back under the covers. Then I felt someone—presumably Faith—sit down on left side of the bed. I slid my foot under the covers and pushed her off the bed. She sat back down in the same spot. Again, I pushed her off with my foot.

I felt a supernatural battle about to unfold. To my right, I could hear ‘someone’ in the bathroom filling a glass with water. Then, there was a presence hovering over me with the glass. I covered my face expecting to be drenched—yet peeking thru the cracks of my fingers—as I didn’t want to miss what was about to happen. I saw the glass tip, but nothing poured out! As soon as it tipped over, it faded away and disappeared. There was no sign water or the glass. Faith had her revenge and all was quiet in the room once more.

Other staff members speak of a tall man dressed in a long brown coat they call the ‘Night Watchman’. He has been seen sitting in the hotel lounge reading a newspaper. A staff member spoke to him, but he did not respond. When she turned to speak to him again, he was gone. The lonely looking man has also been seen in the lobby, and witnesses say they have watched him walk through the lounge to shake and secure the entrance doors.

So, next time you are headed up to Prescott, reserve a room at the Hassayampa Inn. Check into ‘Faith’s Room’—if you’re lucky, you might have a ghostly encounter of your own. And don’t worry, the night watchman will make sure you are locked in safely for the night.

Examiner

Mysterious creatures and UFO sightings baffle Pennsylvanians

Pennsylvania Ufologist Stan Gordon is reporting that UFO and other unusual strange incidents came in during 2008 from 50 counties - up from 37 counties the previous year. Giant birds - also known as Thunderbirds - Bigfoot and UFOs continue to be reported in the Keystone state.

Motorists in Wasgington County traveling along a major route in May pulled over to watch as a ''huge dark colored flying creature that looked more like a giant bat than a bird'' was low flying as it passed over the cars.

A Warren County woman reported in May that a Bigfoot-like creature climbed onto her home deck as she watched from inside.

While a major increase in UFO reports were coming from the eastern end of the state this year, Gordon reports that many unusual stories from the western end of the state include spherical, disc-shaped, luminous objects and triangular-shaped objects. Multiple witnesses from several locations reported a glowing whtie object on Sept. 5. Two Elk County hunters first saw glowing lights in the woods on Oct. 5, and soon discovered a glowing human-like form standing about 3 feet tall. On the same date in Tioga County, a cigar-shaped object was spotted approaching from the north.

Read Gordon's full report here.

Examiner

DNA Stimulation

DNA damage is a major topic of research within cancer biology. Damage not only causes cancer, it is used as a means to cure certain cancers through radiotherapy or chemotherapy and is also responsible for the side effects of these treatments. DNA damage can occur from many sources. Attacks by reactive oxygen species produced from normal metabolic byproducts, Ultraviolet Radiation from the Sun, X-ray's, Thermal Disruption, Plant Toxins, Chemicals, and other means.

Damage to DNA alters the spatial configuration of the helix and such alterations can be detected by the cell. Once damage is localized, specific DNA repair molecules are summoned to, and bind at or near the site of damage, inducing other molecules to bind and form a complex that enables the actual repair to take place.

Over 74,000 damage incidences occur in DNA per cell per day. Repairing damaged DNA is vital for your survival and physical well being. Research has found that Delta Frequencies stimulate your DNA and promote recovery. The body repairs DNA Damage when you are in the deep sleep Delta state. While deep sleep is effective, many times the brain does not reach the correct Delta levels to unleash the brain's full healing potential.

DNA Stimulation Binaural Beat is broadcast in a specific Mid Delta Frequency that is shown to help DNA Recovery.

How Does It Work?
Sine wave generators were used to create two separate frequency waves which were introduced to each ear independently. The brain reacted by creating a third tone which was the difference between the two. This allowed the brain to directly tune into a frequency that the ear can not hear!

Using this technology it is possible to bring the frequencies of the brain to a Low Delta State that will promote DNA Healing. With the use of headphones, we guarantee your brain's operating frequencies will be lowered, and you will feel the physical and mental effects within minutes.

Not only does this recording help repair DNA Damage, but it will make you feel refreshed upon completion. This recording mimics a Deep Delta Sleep State, and it is within this state that the body's energy levels are restored.

Easter Island

Photo by timmah

Easter Island, with its carved birdmen and its rows of huge statues on platforms beside the sea, is an extraordinary case of a human civilization that was born and died in almost complete isolation. When the first Europeans visited the island during the 18th century, they wondered at the purpose of the hundreds of altar platforms around its shores. What beliefs inspired the islanders to sculpt the giant carvings and drag them from their hillside quarries to the coast? Why did each rank of stone heads face inland from their long altars, as if they had just landed from the sea? And why was there a taboo, or tapu, on the area surrounding some altars, but not others?

By 1860 the culture of Easter Island had almost disappeared after a protracted civil war had all but wiped out the inhabitants while the survivors were taken by slavers. So even today questions remain unanswered, though scholars and archaeologists have pieced together some bits of the puzzle.

Legend says the island was given its present form when Uoke, a supernatural giant, ranged across the Pacific Ocean. He levered up the islands with a vast pole, it is said, and pitched them inot the deep. But when he came to Te Pito o Te henua--the island at the center of the world--he found that one part of it was of a rock too hard for his pole. So this triangular land formed by three volcanoes was left at the remotest eastern end of the Polynesian Islands, 1200 miles beyond Pitcairn and 2500 miles from Peru.

Uoke is perhaps an expression of the destructive forces--typhoons, tidal waves and erupting volcanoes--which beset the Polynesian people. The god who made the people themselves in the first place, known as Makemake in Easter Island, was a more benevolent but surprisingly fallible deity. Makemake is said to have created man because he was lonely. He saw his own reflection in water and thought how handsome he looked. A bird perched on his shoulder and Makemake was pleased by the combination, so kept his reflection and the bird together. Then he thought he would like to be able to talk to another creature more similar to himself. First of all he fertilized a stone with his semen, but that was unproductive. Then he fertilized water, but the result was fishes. At last he fertilized the earth and was delighted when mankind was the progeny of the union.

Makemake is probably the Easter Island equivalent of a more widespread Polynesian god called Tane, though their characteristics are not exactly the same. This remoteness from the rest of Polynesian culture is typical of Easter Island, for it seems that the community was the result of one settlement by boats in the years between A.D. 400 and 500, and perhaps a second around 1200, with only very occasional hints of outside influence after that.

There are two main theories about the origins of the Easter islanders. The holder of one was part Polynesian himself--from the largest of the scattered islands, New Zealand. In his Maori persona, named Te Rangi Hiroa, he was a dedicated scholar and advocate of Polynesian culture. As Sir Peter Buck--his father was Irish--he was a distinguished Member of Parliament and doctor of medicine. Later he gave up his career in New Zealand and devoted himself to Polynesian studies, holding the directorship of a museum in Honolulu until his death in 1951.

Buck's views about the origin of the Polynesians are still generally accepted. He believed that they were a Caucasian people who moved through the broad-faced people of negroid type who inhabit Melanesia and much of Australia. Moder archeology suggest that the Polynesian migrations from the west into the central Pacific began around 2000 BC. Later arrivals of Mongol colonists from Asia brought about the mixture which can be seen in the typical Polynesian face today, most numerous in Hawaii, Samoa and Tonga.

The other important theory has been propagated by one of the most remarkable men of our time, Thor Heyerdahl--a Norwegian scholar and explorer gifted with insight and sweeping imagination. In 1936, soon after they were married, Heyerdahl and his wife lived for a year with the Polynesians in the Marquesas Islands, over 2000 miles west of Easter Island. He was told the legend of how the first inhabitants hand come from the east, from the direction of the American continent, with a king called Tiki. Later, in Peru, Heyerdahl heard of a pre-Inca legend there about a prince called Kon Tiki who was expelled from his domain near Lake Titicaca and sailed westwards with his people across the Pacific on a great raft. Soon after the end of World War II, Heyerdahl built a raft of the Peruvian type of sailed to the Polynesian Islands. The voyage and his book--Kon Tiki--made Heyerdahl famous, but he was careful to point out that it only proved that emigrations could have been made that way.

Read more about Easter Island:




Technorati tags: easter island, lost worlds, kon tiki, Thor Heyerdahl, Te Rangi Hiroa

Woman's Amazing Ability Wreaks Havoc On Street Lamps And Appliances

Debbie Wolf from Britain claims to be one of a growing number of "sliders," - people who believe that their very presence wreaks havoc on household appliances, radios, light bulbs and street lamps. The term was coined by paranormal writer, Hilary Evans, who says Miss Wolf's abilities bring on unusually strong effects.

When Debbie is feeling stressed or excited, she claims these emotions cause street lamps to go out, digital clocks to scramble, and even her refrigerator's freezer to defrost itself! She says she has no control over her power, and that she has to be in the right mood in order to have any effect on her surroundings. "I have to be completely lost in my thoughts - usually thinking deeply about something that is troubling me."

Miss Wolf's unexplained ability has been dubbed Street Lamp Interference syndrome, or SLI by experts, and she has been compared to characters in the hit series, "Heroes," a program about ordinary people who develop superhuman abilities.

Miss Wolf says her work has never been affected by her ability, and it's a good thing because she works as a pathology support officer at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Professor Richard Wiseman, who studies paranormal phenomena at the University of Hertfordshire, suspects SLI is caused by "observer bias". He said: "Street lamps are going on and off all the time because they are faulty or because their timers aren't set properly. People only have to walk under a couple of lamps going off to think that they might be the cause."

Source


Technorati tags: sliders, SLI, street lamp interference syndrome

Stargates Are Real

I spent the better part of yesterday reading this thread at AboveTopSecret. It had me so captivated, I didn't do a bit of work and was glued to my PC screen for about 12 hours! The author of that thread is extremely intelligent and she has done extensive research on the Annunaki, Elohim, the Nephilim, stargates, etc., has read many historical texts, and has written three e-books on these subjects, which I intend to read ASAP and I encourage you to do the same. I haven't made it all the way through the thread at ATS, yet, though. I think I'm on page 17, or something like that, and I guess I'll get back to it later on today, after I get a little work done.

Here's an excerpt from one of the first posts she made:

"Nearly every ancient civilization refers to a place called the "underworld" and a place called the heavens, both of which appear to be more than simply metaphors for the planets and stars rising and setting into and over the horizon. The ancient Hindus and some of the Buddhists, said the only way to access the upper levels of heaven was via Mt. Meru (also called Mt. Sumeru), which wasn't an actual mountain but a reference to a ziggurat in ancient Sumer (this is the pivotal point, but I don't want to overload your circuits with too much information if you aren't aware of any of these ancient stories). The ancient egyptians also believed in an entrance to the underworld and a boat which travelled on heavenly waters (et.al, a mode of transportation) which carried them into the heavens. The ancient sumerians referred to otherworldly places which were accessed via gateways into the underworld, and gates up to the heavens."

I have always been fascinated with ancient civilizations, and I wish there was enough time in a day to study some of the historical texts like "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and "The Book of Enoch." The thing is, I have these texts in my library, but have never even opened them. Such a shame. But I will make the time soon, because all this stuff is just so fascinating!


Technorati tags: stargates, annunaki, nephilim, ancient civilizations, ancient texts, history, historical texts, ziggurat, sumer, elohim, sumerians, underworld

Feline Grim Reaper?

Oscar the Cat seems to know when patients in the nursing home where he lives are about to die. He visits their bedside in their final hours, providing comfort. Richard Schlesinger reports. (CBSNews.com)




Technorati tags: oscar the cat, oscar, cats, nursing home, comfort

Extremely bizarre skin condition in Eastern Europe

While I was surfing, I stumbled upon WFMU's Beware of the Blog, where I found this strange story of a missionary that encountered a bizarre skin condition in Eastern Europe. That poor, poor man! Can you imagine having this kind of condition throughout your entire life?

A friend of mine has a relative who is a missionary in Eastern Europe. He recently shared photographs and the story of a man he is caring for, who has an extremely bizarre skin condition. The man has keratin-like matter growing out of the skin on hands and feet, which started when he was young, and very slowly continues to spread and grow. The areas begin as skin lesions, and the matter sprouts from those spots. The growths are very difficult to remove, and the man has so far just had to learn to live with it. There are a few medical precedents to this man's case, but nothing is certain until more tests are done. In the meantime, the missionary is helping to make life easier for the man. Click "continue" below for more photos. The missionary writes...

"I found this man, and other than his hands and feet, he looked and seemed in good health. As best as I could gather these growths began when he was 14 years old, and began in the area of his wrists. The skin on his wrists and the back of his hands resembles that of a hedgehog - hundreds of spike like growths. The problem is much more severe on his palms and fingers where the growths resemble very much that of nails infected with a fungus. The growths have that same texture, smell and feel. I cut a number of the largest growths off, most of witch did not bleed. Some of the smaller growths did bleed a small amount and he seemed much more sensitive to the cutting of the smaller growths. I soaked his hands first in 3 WEA (phenyl mercuric nitrate) and then began. The 3 WEA did help to soften the growths but they still took time to cut through, or sand down, but it worked just as it does with these types of nails on normal hands or feet. I was able to pull many of the smaller growths off applying steady pressure and slowly pulling. But after 1.5 hrs there was not a noticeable change as there are hundreds and hundreds of growths. There was also quite a bit of dissolved material in the bucket of 3 WEA after we finished.

On his feet I did not cut anything, but tried two different solutions of salicylic acid, one a bit weaker than the other, and also a freeze spray wart remover.

I met his mother and brother (they all live together) and their skin looked very normal. They all eat the same foods and he and his brother sleep in the same bed.

It has grown slowly but steadily but has not spread to other parts of his body, just a bit below his knees on his legs. He has other skin growth (many would be skin tags) on his face, and some moles on his chest. The growths are not as bad on his feet but I was told that more than 10 years ago many we cauterized off his feet, and they did not return. I think with repeated soaking and cutting most could be removed but other parts will I think need to be burned away in some form."

I emailed the missionary a few more questions:

Is there a medical term for this man's condition?
Doctors here have called it Lewandowsky-Lutz, though I have not been able to find any pictures of this condition to compare.

Has any analysis of the matter growing off of his skin been done?
There was 18 years ago, when they came up with the name of what they thought it was. He has not been treated since then.

When do you understand that this started with him?
He is now 38 and it started when he was 14, on one wrist. He never returned for treatments as he felt the first cauterizing was effective in that the growths did not return to that area, but felt they grew more quickly in other areas.

Does the man have any other unusual symptoms?
He appears healthy other than the growths. He has 15 skin tags on his face, and a wart in one ear.

Have there been any theories about this man's past, something he might have done, ingested, or places he's been to... that may have caused it?
As he says he did not do or eat anything his brother did not do or eat, and his brother appears to be perfectly normal, not yet. I am currently showing the pictures to veterinarians, as I am also considering that maybe this is something he got from an animal (pig, sheep, cow).

Does it look like the man's condition is treatable or curable?
Curable, I don't know. But with ongoing thorough cleaning, creams, soaking and cutting - it will be much better for him.

More photos (click for larger view):

Liar paradox

From Wikipedia

In philosophy and logic, the liar paradox encompasses paradoxical statements such as:

• I am lying now.
• This statement is false.

These statements are paradoxical because there is no way to assign them a consistent truth value. Consider that if This statement is false. is true, then what it says is the case; but what it says is that it is false, hence it is false. On the other hand, if it is false, then what it says is not the case; thus, since it says that it is false, it must be true.

To avoid having a sentence directly refer to its own truth value, one can also construct the paradox as follows:

The following sentence is true. The preceding sentence is false.

Versions through history

Epimenides and Eubulides

In the sixth century BC the philosopher-poet Epimenides, himself a Cretan, reportedly wrote:

The Cretans are always liars.

The Epimenides paradox is often considered an equivalent or interchangeable term for the "liar paradox" but they are not the same. It is unlikely that Epimenides intended his words to be understood as a kind of liar paradox and they were probably only understood as such much later in history. Moreover this statement is not a paradox when false, because no proof exists that all Cretans really are liars.

The oldest known version of the liar paradox is instead attributed to the Greek philosopher Eubulides of Miletus who lived in the fourth century BC. It is very unlikely that he knew of Epimenides's words, even if they were intended as a paradox. Eubulides reportedly said:

A man says that he is lying. Is what he says true or false?

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell formulated the liar paradox in terms of set theory. He discovered this form of the paradox, known as Russell's paradox, in 1901. First, he conceived of a set that included other sets. An example of this is the set of all sets. By definition, all sets, including this set, are members of the set of all sets. He then conceived of the set of all sets that do not include themselves. He pondered if this set included itself, and realized that it does if it does not, and it does not if it does.

Alfred Tarski

Alfred Tarski discussed the possibility of a combination of sentences, none of which are self-referential, but become self-referential and paradoxical when combined. As an example:

1. Sentence 2 is true.
2. Sentence 1 is false.

He resolved this "liar cycle" by arguing that when one sentence refers to the truth-value of another, it is semantically higher. The sentence referred to is part of the 'object language,' while the referring sentence is considered to be a part of a 'meta-language' with respect to the object language. It is legitimate for sentences in 'languages' higher on the semantic hierarchy to refer to sentences lower in the 'language' hierarchy, but not the other way around. This prevents a system from becoming self-referential.

Variants of the paradox

The problem of the liar paradox is that it seems to show that common beliefs about truth and falsity actually lead to a contradiction. Sentences can be constructed that cannot consistently be assigned a truth value even though they are completely in accord with grammar and semantic

rules.

Consider the simplest version of the paradox, the sentence:

This statement is false. (A)

If we suppose that the statement is true, everything asserted in it must be true. However, because the statement asserts that it is itself false, it must be false. So the hypothesis that it is true leads to the contradiction that it is true and false. Yet we cannot conclude that the sentence is false for that hypothesis also leads to contradiction. If the statement is false, then what it says about itself is not true. It says that it is false, so that must not be true. Hence, it is true. Under either hypothesis, we end up concluding that the statement is both true and false. But it has to be either true or false (or so our common intuitions lead us to think), hence there seems to be a contradiction at the heart of our beliefs about truth and falsity.

However, that the liar sentence can be shown to be true if it is false and false if it is true has led some to conclude that it is neither true nor false. This response to the paradox is, in effect, to reject a common beliefs about truth and falsity: the claim that every statement has to abide by the principle of bivalence, a concept related to the law of the excluded middle.

The proposal that the statement is neither true nor false has given rise to the following, strengthened version of the paradox:

This statement is not true. (B)

If (B) is neither true nor false, then it must be not true. Since this is what (B) itself states, it means that (B) must be true and so one is led to another paradox.

This result has led some, notably Graham Priest, to posit that the statement follows paraconsistent logic and is both true and false. Nevertheless, even Priest's analysis is susceptible to the following version of the liar:

This statement is only false. (C)

If (C) is both true and false then it must be true. This means that (C) is only false, since that's what it says, but then it can't be true, and so one is led to another paradox.

Another interesting variation is:

The writer of this statement cannot verify it to be true

In this version, the writer of the statement cannot verify it to be true, because in doing so he makes it obviously false, but at the same time cannot verify it to be false, as this would make it obviously true. Anybody else except the writer, however, can easily see and verify the statement's truth.

Not a paradox

The statement "I always lie" is often considered to be a version of the liar paradox, but is not actually paradoxical. It could be the case that the statement itself is a lie, because the speaker sometimes tells the truth, and this interpretation does not lead to a contradiction. The belief that this is a paradox results from a false dichotomy - that either the speaker always lies, or always tells the truth - when it is possible that the speaker occasionally does both.

Possible resolutions

A.N. Prior

A. N. Prior asserts that there is nothing paradoxical about the liar paradox. His claim (which he attributes to Charles S. Peirce and John Buridan) is that every statement includes an implicit assertion of its own truth. Thus, for example, the statement "It is true that two plus two equals four" contains no more information than the statement "two plus two is four," because the phrase "it is true that..." is always implicitly there. And in the self-referential spirit of the Liar Paradox, the phrase "it is true that..." is equivalent to "this whole statement is true and ...".

Thus the following two statements are equivalent:

This statement is false

This statement is true and this statement is false.

The latter is a simple contradiction of the form "A and not A", and hence is false. There is therefore no paradox because the claim that this two-conjunct Liar is false does not lead to a contradiction. However, this argument is fallacious due to a semantic subtlety: The referents of the statements changed when they were conjoined. Neil Lefebvre and Melissa Schelein present a similar answer^[1].

Saul Kripke

Saul Kripke points out that whether a sentence is paradoxical or not can depend upon contingent facts. Suppose that the only thing Smith says about Jones is

A majority of what Jones says about me is false.

Now suppose that Jones says only these three things about Smith:

Smith is a big spender.

Smith is soft on crime.

Everything Smith says about me is true.

If the empirical facts are that Smith is a big spender but he is not soft on crime, then both Smith's remark about Jones and Jones's last remark about Smith are paradoxical.

Kripke proposes a solution in the following manner. If a statement's truth value is ultimately tied up in some evaluable fact about the world, call that statement "grounded". If not, call that statement "ungrounded". Ungrounded statements do not have a truth value. Liar statements and liar-like statements are ungrounded, and therefore have no truth value.

Barwise and Etchemendy

Jon Barwise and John Etchemendy propose that the liar sentence (which they interpret as synonymous with the Strengthened Liar) is ambiguous. They base this conclusion on a distinction they make between a "denial" and a "negation". If the liar means "It is not the case that this statement is true" then it is denying itself. If it means This statement is not true then it is negating itself. They go on to argue, based on their theory of "situational semantics" that the "denial liar" can be true without contradiction while the "negation liar" can be false without contradiction.

Gödel's theorem

The proof of Gödel's incompleteness theorem uses self-referential statements that are similar to the statements at work in the Liar paradox.

In the context of a sufficiently strong axiomatic system A of arithmetic:

This statement is not provable in A. (1)

The statement (1) does not mention truth at all (only provability) but the parallel is clear. Suppose (1) is provable, then what it says of itself, that it is not provable, is not true. But this conclusion is contrary to our supposition, so our supposition that (1) is provable must be false. Suppose the contrary that (1) is not provable, then what it says of itself is true, although we cannot prove it. Therefore, there is no proof that (1) is provable, and there is also no proof that its negation is provable (i.e., there is no proof that it is also unprovable). Whence, A is incomplete because it cannot prove all truths, namely, (1) and its negation. Statements like (1) are called undecidable. We take for granted that all the provable statements of logic and arithmetic are true; Gödel showed that the converse, that all the true statements of a system are provable in that system, is not the case. (This does not mean that all true statements are not provable in some system or other. Additionally, there are systems, such as first-order logic, in which all true statements of the system are provable.)

Tarski's indefinability theorem, closely related to Gödel's Theorem, is a more direct application of the Liar Paradox, though there is no actual paradox involved; instead, the "paradox" simply demonstrates that all the true sentences of arithmetic are not arithmetically definable (or that arithmetic cannot define its own truth predicate; or that arithmetic is not "semantically closed").

Dialetheism

Graham Priest and other logicians have proposed that the liar sentence should be considered to be both true and false, a point of view known as dialetheism. In a dialetheic logic, all statements must be either true, or false, or both. Dialetheism raises its own problems. Chief among these is that since dialetheism recognizes the liar paradox, an intrinsic contradiction, as being true, it must discard the long-recognized principle of ex falso quodlibet. This principle asserts that any sentence whatsoever can be deduced from a true contradiction. Thus, dialetheism only makes sense in systems that reject ex false quodlibet. Such logics are called paraconsistent.

In popular culture

In the episode "I, Mudd" (Episode #41) of the original Star Trek series, Captain Kirk and Harry Mudd use the liar paradox to confuse and thus incapacitate an android who is holding the landing party captive.

In the 1973 Doctor Who serial The Green Death, The Doctor temporarily stumps the super-computer BOSS using the paradox.

A similar event to the above occurs in the anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, when a mischievous Tachikoma think tank fools an admin drone using the paradox. The admin drone, which has a much simpler AI, is utterly confused and left stymied, allowing the Tachikomas to steal a piece of equipment left in the drone's care.

Another anime that features this paradox is Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid, in which the paradox is briefly mentioned during the mission briefing. The Commanding Officer references the paradox again during the mission once he realizes that their communications were being intercepted and uses it to subtly tell his crew to do the opposite of his instructions.

Gregory House from House frequently says "Everybody lies". However, in the season one finale, he remarked that he was lying when he said that. Of course, there is no paradox here since he doesn't assert anything the first time except that everyone lies at least once in their lives. The second time, he says he was lying but he doesn't really have any way of knowing one way or another and neither do we. Is he lying if he believes he's lying, or is he lying if what he says is in reality false? Is he lying if he isn't one hundred percent certain that what he says is true? If the first statement was "Everybody lies all the time", then it by itself would constitute a liar paradox. The second statement would be another paradox. Actually, everything he said after the first statement would be a paradox if you accept that there is an implicit assertion of truth with every statement made.

A character from Disney's Timon and Pumbaa television series is called the "no good lying Toucan Dan", who never tells the truth. In the episode he first appeared in, Timon briefly probes into the liar paradox saying that if Toucan Dan never tells the truth and he's saying he did not steal anything, then he did steal it so to make him confess his crime, they'd have to trick him into thinking he didn't steal it, because he would lie and say he did. Toucan Dan hears all the muttering, so it doesn't work anyway.

In the book The Giver, the main character is given permission to lie upon becoming of age. He wonders about asking other adults if they received the same instruction. He then reasons that if they didn't, they'd be obligated to say "no"; yet if they did, they could always lie and say "no", so he'd never know even if he asked them.

In Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, there is a passing reference to an old man who "claimed repeatedly that nothing was true, although he was later discovered to be lying."

On the George Carlin album A Place for My Stuff, Carlin says "The following statement is true. The preceding statement was false." His 2004 book When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? also included the sentence "This statement is untrue," as well as "Ignore these four words."

A similar version of this phrase forms the title of a 2001 album by Sheila Chandra: "This Sentence Is True (The Previous Sentence Is False)". Note that this isn't actually a version of the liar paradox in that the two sentences merely need to have opposite truth values for the pair to be consistent.

In the animated television show Family Guy, star Peter Griffin tells his son, "Chris, everything I say is a lie. Except that. And that. And that. And that. And that. And that. And that.... And that."

In the video game Knights of the Old Republic, a liar's paradox is used as a riddle.

In the Deltora Quest book, The Lake of Tears, Lief is asked a riddle by a guard crossing him and his companions' path. The guard asks him to say one thing, and one thing only. If what Lief says is true, the guard would strangle him. If what Lief says is false, the guard would cut off his head. To this Lief says, "My head will be cut off". The guard does nothing, knowing that if the statement was true, he would have to strangle Lief, thus making the statement false. However, if the statement was false, he would have to cut off Lief's head, thus making the statement true. (Though he could strangle Lief and then cut his head off.)

In The Simpsons episode 'Itchy & Scratchy Land' (2F01), one of the deleted scenes (contained in the Sixth Season Box Set) shows Lisa trying to incapacitate a group of approaching homicidal robots by proposing to them the Liar Paradox. The ploy succeeds only in confusing Homer.

In the book Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School, (part of the Sideways Stories From Wayside School series), one of the students, as punishment, must answer the two question version of the liar paradox.

In Werner Herzog's "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" the logician asks the idiot for a single clever question that can distinguish a liar from the truth teller. The idiot says to ask the liar/truth teller "Are you a tree frog?" which drives the logician into a state of apoplexy trying to prove that that is not the right approach.

Technorati tags: liar paradox, liars

Edgar Cayce Prophecies - Seven prophecies that came true

1. Edgar Cayce Foresees the Stock Market Crash of 1929
Edgar Cayce gave many readings on world affairs. The following warns of the impending stock market crash of 1929, months before it occurred: "These were given as to how the changes and how breaks. At the same time there was given that there was a division in the money conditions and positions. That fight has hardly begun. When this is an issue we may expect a considerable break and bear market, see? This issue being between those of the reserves of nations and of individuals, and will cause - unless another of the more stable banking conditions come to the relief - a great disturbance in financial circles. This warning has been given, see? Mind these are all in the position of being an influence in market conditions, and may turn either way, as the conditions come." Edgar Cayce reading 900-425 -- March 6, 1929

2. The 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean
Perhaps the most amazing example of Cayce's predictive abilities was his prediction of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. This event occurred on December 26, 2004, but Cayce saw it in April of 1941: "Watch for [strife] . . . in the Indian Ocean... Ye say that these are of the sea; yes-, for there shall the breaking up be . . ." Edgar Cayce reading, 3976-26 -- April 28, 1941

3. The Shifting of the Earth's Poles Has Begun, as Predicted by Edgar Cayce in 1936
In 1936 the following Cayce reading was given: "(Q): What great change or the beginning of what change, if any, is to take place in the earth in the year 2,000 to 2,001 A.D.? (A): When there is a shifting of the poles. Or a new cycle begins." Edgar Cayce reading 826-8 – August 11, 1936

NOVA recently reported startling discoveries about our planet's electromagnetic poles and fields in a program titled "Magnetic Storm." Scientists explained: "Two thousand miles beneath our feet is the Earth's molten core. Here a vast ocean of liquid iron generates an invisible force, the Earth's magnetic field. It's what makes our compasses point north. But it does a lot more: it helps to keep the Earth a living planet. Our neighbors, Venus and Mars, have only weak magnetic fields, which means they're unprotected from the deadly radiation sweeping through the solar system. The Earth, on the other hand, exists within a vast magnetic cocoon, a force-field that for billions of years has sheltered us on our journey through space."

But now scientists have made a startling discovery: it seems there's a storm brewing deep within the Earth, a storm that is weakening our vital magnetic shield. Peter Olson at Johns Hopkins University explained that "the Earth's magnetic field has been our protector for millennia, and now, it appears, it's about to go away." John Shaw of the University of Liverpool explains: "Pottery acts just like a magnetic tape recorder. It records the Earth's magnetic field when the pottery is first made." The intense heat in the kiln erases all the magnetic regions. But as the pot begins to cool, new magnetic regions form in the magnetite. As the regions re-form, they align with the Earth's magnetic field, just like compass needles. With millions of tiny magnets all pointing in the same general direction, the pot itself becomes slightly magnetic. Once it has cooled, the magnetism is locked in. "So if we take an ancient pot, when it cooled for the first time, it cooled in the Earth's ancient magnetic field and it became magnetized in that field. And of course, if the field's very strong, then the pot's strongly magnetized, and if the field's very weak, then the pot's weakly magnetized," Shaw explained. By examining pottery from prehistory to modern times, Shaw has discovered just how dramatically the field has changed in the last few centuries. "When we plot the results from the ceramics, this is what we see: gentle changes as we come forward in time over twelve thousand years – a gentle rise – and then a rapid fall, as we come towards the present day. The rate of change is higher over the last three hundred years than it has been for any time in the past five thousand. It's going from a strong field down to a weak field, and it's doing it very quickly." In three hundred years the field has fallen 10 percent, and the rate of decline is increasing. In just a few centuries it could be gone altogether.

In reading 826-1, Cayce indicated that the pole shift would become apparent in 2000 to 2001. The NOVA show revealed that the shift has indeed begun in the South Atlantic Ocean region, between Africa and South America. Here the north-south polarity is fluctuating back and forth, weakening the shield against solar radiation.

4. Convergence of Communications Companies
The following reading, given in 1929, is an interesting one on the convergence of large communications companies. These mergers did indeed occur. Also, Cayce's description of how varied channels of communications working in a more cooperative and structured manner has come to pass.

"(Q) Will the consolidations take place of the Communications company as given in 1928, American Tel & Tel - Int. Tel & Tel? (A) These combinations in communicative forces, as has been given will take place. As to when, and how, consider the conditions as prevent such a coalition at this time. Not only are there some of the laws as concerning same to be changed, but many of the larger holdings are to be won over by death even. In these changes, then, these are to be a gradual change, and will come about much in the same way and manner as the various Express companies came under the direct correlation physically in one form. Not that wars alone are to produce same, but the rumors of many of same, making the necessity of communications in the varied fields to come under one supervision, will make physical coalition. As to when, in time - it may be years, but all of the varied channels of communication will work one with another, and thus the varied commodities in their various divisions - as has been given - will offer an opportunity of investments as for holdings; and as for speculative interest - both those of the air and of physical contact, meaning those of Telegraph, Telephone, as well as Radio or Radial Operative Forces - including International American, Western Union, Westinghouse, and Radio. Edgar Cayce reading 257-36 -- April 7, 1929

5. There Was a Community of People Called the Essenes – and Cayce Described Them in Detail Years Before the Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947 – 1956)
The first texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947- attributed to a then little- known sect called the Essenes. Cayce mentioned the Essenes in 171 different readings years before the first of the scrolls were unearthed. Here are a few excerpts:
"Before this we find the entity was during those periods when there was much turmoil in the land of Judea, when there was the announcing of the prophet, of the new teacher, and all Judea had gone out to John. The entity then was among those that had been of the students of the Essenes, and in direct connection with many that had been prophesying, had been searching the records of or for the coming of the new light to those that had been hemmed in by tradition and by the acts of peoples in a political and religious purpose in the land." Edgar Cayce reading 489-1 –January 17, 1934

Another: "In that experience we find the entity was a soul seeking through those associations and activities that brought the entity into the environ of the Grecian-Syrophenician surroundings; and in the activity in Palestine grew into womanhood there as one - that would be termed in the present - in the household of the counsellor of those that traded with the peoples in that land. With the advent of the Roman rule, the activities of such people became much more important; for there was the necessity of keeping a balance with both the Jew, the Greek and the Roman. When the ministry of the forerunner began, that of itself brought into the association of the entity many of those that were in that particular sect of peoples to whom the entity then was joined - the Essenes . . . [the city] then became a refuge or hospital for those that might become the teachers, the ministers, for the activities of the Essenes or teachers of which the Master was a member during the sojourn in Palestine." Edgar Cayce reading 489-3 – May 24, 1934

Finally, "In giving the biographical life of the entity Josie, much of those activities might be indicated that brought about those later relationships with Mary, the mother of Jesus. As has been outlined from here, there were those special groups of individuals who had made some preparations for the expected activities that were to come about during that particular period; especially those of the Essenes who had chosen the twelve maidens to indicate their fitness. This choice was to be made by those selections indicated by the spirit, and Josie was the daughter of Shem and Mephibosheth that was among these. This entity, Josie, was close to Mary when the selection was indicated by the shadow or the angel on the stair, at that period of consecration in the temple. This was not the temple in Jerusalem, but the temple where those who were consecrated

orshiped, or a school - as it might be termed - for those who might be channels. This was a part of that group of Essenes who, headed by Judy, made those interpretations of those activities from the Egyptian experience - as the Temple Beautiful, and the service in the Temple of Sacrifice. Hence it was in this consecrated place where this selection took place. Edgar Cayce reading 1010-17 –June 21, 1942

6. Blood as Diagnosis Tool
Cayce's prophetic gift was exhibited in many ways, including an ability to foresee developments in the field of medicine.

"(Q) Does the blood still show traces or effects of my bodily condition? (A)This is bettered, though there are still evidences of same in blood. For, as is seen, there is no condition existent in a body that the reflection of same may not be traced in the blood supply, for not only does the blood stream carry the rebuilding forces to the body, it also takes the used forces and eliminates same through their proper channels in the various portions of the system. Hence we find red blood, white blood and lymph all carried in the veins. These are only separated by the very small portions that act as builders, strainers, destroyers, or resuscitating portions of the system - see? Hence there is ever seen in the blood stream the reflections or evidences of that condition being carried on in the physical body. The day may yet arrive when one may take a drop of blood and diagnose the condition of any physical body." Edgar Cayce reading 283-2 -- November 10, 1927

7. La Niña and El Niño
Amazingly, on May 28, 1926, Edgar Cayce made a connection between temperature changes in deep ocean currents and weather changes in reading 195-29: "As the heat or cold in the various parts of the earth is radiated off, and correlated with reflection in the earth's atmosphere, this in its action changes the currents or streams in the ocean..." This reading was concerning the future of wheat crops and weather patterns, and Cayce's comments may be his version of what we've all come to know today as La Niña and El Niño. These are weather patterns that are a result of temperature changes in the deep currents of Earth's oceans. These changes in the temperature of ocean currents have had dramatic effects on our weather, as Cayce foresaw.

For more information on Edgar Cayce, go HERE.

Technorati tags: edgar cayce, prophecies

Spontaneous Human Combustion

Spontaneous Human Combustion is a phenomenon in which a human body purportedly catches fire as a result of heat generated internally by some type of chemical reaction. This phenomena has been reported for hundreds of years. Indeed, belief in the past was that if a person possessed too much anger or drank too much brandy, he or she might burn to death internally - literally combusting into ash within a matter of minutes!

In 1996, several of the world's top fire experts came together to investigate some of the most renowned spontaneous human combustion cases. The most amazing factor in these cases was the fact that though of the bodies of the victims were burned almost completely (give or take a few intact limbs), the items surrounding them were left untouched and undamaged.

In a crematoria, where temperatures reach from 700 to 1,000 degrees, human bones are not destroyed - making cases of spontaneous combustion an even more mind-boggling phenomena. In the 1980's Dr. John de Haan reported that this phenomena is likely caused by the melting of body fat. This is known as the "wick effect," which makes human body fat literally burn like a candle. Because pigs have similar fat content to humans, Dr. Haan experimented by using a dead pig, wrapping it in a blanket with a small amount of petrol poured onto it, and placing it in a controlled indoor environment. He then set fire to it to simulate a human body being burned. Within 5 hours, the charred remains were identical to those in the spontaneous human combustion cases, with items placed in the same room untouched, other than a nearby television, which was warped from the heat - but not from the fire itself.

Dr. Haan's experiment revealed that a small flame can indeed consume a body through the help of burning fat. This study purportedly demonstrated how a person who has been knocked unconscious, unable to extinguish a flame, could be burned almost entirely through natural processes without attracting any attention to passersby or igniting anything else in the vicinity. The remaining limbs that may be left were reported to be due to the fat content in them not being as rich as the rest of the body, thereby making them less likely to burn.

The problem with this experiment - though it was quite innovative - was the fact that it completely disregarded the cases in which people have actually witnessed these types of events. There are records of people who experienced them first-hand and lived to tell their stories! These stories completely contradict the scientific explanation of the wick effect, in essence leaving this bizarre phenomenon an unsolved mystery! We LOVE unsolved mysteries at Mystical Blaze!!!

Pursuant to this, the rest of this section will be devoted to documented cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion, possible explanations, eyewitness reports, and any other pertinent facts that might shed some insight into this weird phenomena. If you or anyone you know has had any involvement in a case of Spontaneous Human Combustion, please feel free to contact us via the Message Board link below, or privately by E-Mail. As always, this site is a work in progress, so do Bookmark now and return soon, as pages are added daily.

1998 - SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

August, 1998

On August 24 1998, Agnes Phillips mysteriously caught fire while unattended inside her daughter's car. Several people witnessed this event, and amazingly, the victim lived for a short time afterwards.

Agnes, who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and lived in a nursing home, had been picked up that day by her daughter, Jackie Park, for a routine visitation. Jackie parked the car and left her sleeping mother inside while she quickly went into the store to pick up a few items. Shortly thereafter she noticed smoke billowing from the car, followed by an explosion of flames.

As the car became engulfed, a passerby managed to drag Agnes out of the car and extinguish the flames. Though she remained remarkably calm throughout the whole ordeal, Agnes did manage to utter the words "It's too hot... It's too hot!"

Agnes suffered severe burns to her chest, abdomen, arms, and legs, and died in the hospital a week later. Upon further investigation, Fire Inspector Donald Walsh claimed that he could not determine where the fire had originated, since the car had not been running. There was no trace of liquid accelerants, no faulty wiring, and neither Agnes or Jackie smoked. Inspector Walsh ruled out Spontaneous Human Combustion, and believed that this fire was the result of the "wick effect," totally disregarding the fact that this process takes a matter of hours to burn a human body.

The documentation in this case reveals that Agnes's body was severely burned within a matter of minutes, essentially eliminating any possibility of this event being caused by a "wick effect" type of fire, thereby making this a likely candidate for a true Spontaneous Combustion case in modern times.

1982 - LONDON, ENGLAND

September, 1982

In 1982, Jean Saffin, a 61 year old handicapped London woman, mysteriously burst into flames while resting on a wooden chair in the kitchen of her Edmonton home. Her father was nearby and witnessed this event.

Jean's father claims that he saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, turned to inquire, and was shocked to see that Jean was on fire. The flames engulfing Jean centered mainly around her face and hands, according to her father, who also reported that Jean never cried out or reacted, but rather remained calm while he frantically dragged her to a sink to try and stop the fire. With the help of a son-in-law, Jean was kept alive until the paramedics arrived.

Upon their arrival, the paramedics observed that despite the level of the fire and degree of the burns, the flames had done little damage other than to a relatively small area on Jean's red nylon cardigan. She was conscious and seemed to be aware of what was going on when first hospitalized, but she gradually deteriorated, and unfortunately never spoke again. Her burns were severe, and after 8 days, she lapsed into a coma and died.

The coroner held an inquiry into Jean's death, and no cause could be found for the fire. The officer in charge reportedly told Jean's family that he believed the cause to be Spontaneous Human Combustion due to the circumstances, i.e. the very rapid ignition and burning of human tissue, but that he would look ridiculous if he reported this as a matter of permanent record.

Source

Technorati tags: spontaneous human combustion, mysteries

Piri Re'is Map

Introduction

In 1929, a group of historians found an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin.

Research showed that it was a genuine document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century.

His passion was cartography. His high rank within the Turkish navy allowed him to have a privileged access to the Imperial Library of Constantinople.

The Turkish admiral admits in a series of notes on the map that he compiled and copied the data from a large number of source maps, some of which dated back to the fourth century BC or earlier.

The Controversy The Piri Reis map shows the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica. The northern coastline of Antarctica is perfectly detailed. The most puzzling however is not so much how Piri Reis managed to draw such an accurate map of the Antarctic region 300 years before it was discovered, but that the map shows the coastline under the ice. Geological evidence confirms that the latest date Queen Maud Land could have been charted in an ice-free state is 4000 BC.

On 6th July 1960 the U. S. Air Force responded to Prof. Charles H. Hapgood of Keene College, specifically to his request for an evaluation of the ancient Piri Reis Map:

6, July, 1960
Subject: Admiral Piri Reis Map
TO: Prof. Charles H. Hapgood
Keene College
Keene, New Hampshire


Dear Professor Hapgood,
Your request of evaluation of certain unusual features of the Piri Reis map of 1513 by this organization has been reviewed.

The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctic, and the Palmer Peninsular, is reasonable. We find that this is the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map.

The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949.

This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap.
The ice-cap in this region is now about a mile thick.

We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographical knowledge in 1513.

Harold Z. Ohlmeyer Lt. Colonel, USAF Commander

The official science has been saying all along that the ice-cap which covers the Antarctic is million years old.

The Piri Reis map shows that the northern part of that continent has been mapped before the ice did cover it. That should make think it has been mapped million years ago, but that's impossible since mankind did not exist at that time.

Further and more accurate studies have proven that the last period of ice-free condition in the Antarctic ended about 6000 years ago. There are still doubts about the beginning of this ice-free period, which has been put by different researchers everything between year 13000 and 9000 BC.

The question is: Who mapped the Queen Maud Land of Antarctic 6000 years ago? Which unknown civilization had the technology or the need to do that?

It is well-known that the first civilization, according to the traditional history, developed in the mid-east around year 3000 BC, soon to be followed within a millennium by the Indus valley and the Chinese ones. So, accordingly, none of the known civilizations could have done such a job. Who was here 4000 years BC, being able to do things that NOW are possible with the modern technologies?

All through the Middle Ages were circulating a number of sailing charts called "portolani", which were accurate maps of the most common sailing routes, showing coastlines, harbors, straits, bays, etc. Most of those portolani focused on the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas, and other known routes, just as the sailing book which Piri Reis himself had written.

But a few reported of still unknown lands, and were circulating among few sailors who seemingly kept their knowledge about those special maps as hidden as they could. Columbus is supposed to have been one of those who knew these special sailing charts.

To draw his map, Piri Reis used several different sources, collected here and there along his journeys. He himself has written notes on the map that give us a picture of the work he had been doing on the map. He says he had been not responsible for the original surveying and cartography. His role was merely that of a compiler who used a large number of source-maps. He says then that some of the source-maps had been drawn by contemporary sailors, while others were instead charts of great antiquity, dating back up to the 4th century BC or earlier.

Dr. Charles Hapgood, in his book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings (Turnstone books, London 1979, preface), said that:

It appears that accurate information has been passed down from people to people. It appears that the charts must have originated with a people unknown and they were passed on, perhaps by the Minoans and the Phoenicians, who were, for a thousand years and more, the greatest sailors of the ancient world. We have evidence that they were collected and studied in the great library of Alexandria (Egypt) and the compilations of them were made by the geographers who worked there.

Piri Reis had probably come into possession of charts once located in the Library of Alexandria, the well-known most important library of the ancient times.

According to Hapgood's reconstruction, copies of these documents and some of the original source charts were transferred to other centers of learning, and among them to Constantinople.

Then in 1204, year of the fourth crusade, when the Venetians entered Constantinople, those maps begun to circulate among the European sailors.

Most of these maps - Hapgood goes on - were of the Mediterranean and the Black sea. But maps of other areas survived. These included maps of the Americas and maps of the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. It becomes clear that the ancient voyagers travelled from pole to pole. Unbelievable as it may appear, the evidence nevertheless indicates that some ancient people explored Antarctic when its coasts were free of ice. It is clear too, that they had an instrument of navigation for accurately determining the longitudes that was far superior to anything possessed by the peoples of ancient, medieval or modern times until the second half of the 18th century. [...]

This evidence of a lost technology will support and give credence to many of the other hypothesis that have been brought forward of a lost civilization in remote times. Scholars have been able to dismiss most of those evidences as mere myth, but here we have evidence that cannot be dismissed. The evidence requires that all the other evidences that have been brought forward in the past should be re-examined with an open mind." (Ibid.)

In 1953, a Turkish naval officer sent the Piri Reis map to the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Bureau. To evaluate it, M.I. Walters, the Chief Engineer of the Bureau, called for help Arlington H. Mallery, an authority on ancient maps, who had previously worked with him.

After a long study, Mallery discovered the projection method used. To check out the accuracy of the map, he made a grid and transferred the Piri Reis map onto a globe: the map was totally accurate. He stated that the only way to draw map of such accuracy was the aerial surveying: but who, 6000 years ago, could have used airplanes to map the earth??

The Hydrographic Office couldn't believe what they saw: they were even able to correct some errors in the present days maps!!

The precision on determining the longitudinal coordinates, on the other hand, shows that to draw the map it was necessary to use the spheroid trigonometry, a process supposedly not know until the middle of 18th century.

Hapgood has proved that the Piri Re'is map is plotted out in plane geometry, containing latitudes and longitudes at right angles in a traditional "grid"; yet it is obviously copied from an earlier map that was projected using spherical trigonometry! Not only did the early map makers know that the Earth was round, but they had knowledge of its true circumference to within 50 miles!

Hapggod had sent his collection of ancient maps (we will see the Piri reis map was not the only one...) to Richard Strachan, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hapggod wanted to know exactly the mathematical level needed in order to draw the original source maps. Strachan answered in 1965, saying that the level had to be very high.

In fact Strachan said that in order to draw such maps, the authors had to know about the spheroid trigonometry, the curvature of the earth, methods of projection; knowledge that is of a very high level.

View Piri Reis map with projected latitudes and longitudes:

• Diagram 1

• Diagram 2

The way the Piri Reis map shows the Queen Maud land, its coastlines, its rivers, mountain ranges, plateaus, deserts, bays, has been confirmed by a British-Swedish expedition to Antarctic ( as said by Olhmeyer in his letter to Hapggod); the researchers, using sonar and seismic soundings, indicated that those bays and rivers etc, were underneath the ice-cap, which was about one mile thick.

Charles Hapggod, in 1953, wrote a book called "Earth's shifting crust: a key to some basic problems of earth science", where he made up a theory to explain how Antarctic had been ice-free until year 4000 BC. (visit the Bibliography )
The theory summing up is as follows:
The reason Antarctic was ice-free, and therefor much warmer, it is to be found in the fact that, at one time, its location wasn't the south pole. It was located approximately 2000 miles further north. Hapgood says this "would have put it outside the Antarctic Circle in a temperate or cold temperate climate".

Read more information about Pole Shifting.

The reason why the continent moved down to its present location has to be found in a mechanism called "earth-crust-displacement". This mechanism, not to be confused with the plate-tectonics or the continental drift, is one whereby the lithosphere, the whole outer crust of the earth "may be displaced at times, moving over the soft inner body, much as the skin of an orange, if it were loose, might shift over the inner part of the orange all in one piece". (Charles Hapgood, "Maps of the ancient sea-kings", cited, visit the Bibliography for more info).

This theory was sent to Albert Einstein, which answered to Hapgood in very enthusiastic terms. Though geologists did not seem to accept Hapgood's theory, Einstein seemed to be as much open as Hapgood saying:

"In a polar region there is a continual deposition of ice, which is not symmetrically distributed about the pole. The earth's rotation acts on these unsymmetrically deposited masses, and produces a centrifugal momentum that is transmitted to the rigid crust of the earth. The constantly increasing centrifugal momentum produced in this way will, when it has reached a certain point, produce a movement of the earth's crust over the rest of the earth's body...." (Einstein's foreword to "Earth's shifting crust" p.1)

Anyway, whether Hapgood's theory is correct, the mystery still thrills.

The Piri Reis map is something which is not supposed to exist. I mean that by no means there was supposed to be anyone that far back in time able to draw a map of such precision; in fact the relative longitudinal coordinates are totally accurate, as stated by Official studies on the map that we saw above.

And this is a demonstration of impossible technology: the first instrument to calculate the longitude in a approximately correct way has been invented in 1761 by the english John Harrison.

Before there was no way to calculate the longitude in an acceptable way: there could be errors of hundreds kilometers....

And the Piri Reis map is just one of several which show supposedly unknown lands, impossible knowledge, precision which still today would surprise........

In fact Piri Reis himself admitted he based his map on way older charts; and those older charts had been used as sources by others who have drawn different maps still of great precision.
Impressive is the "Dulcert's Portolano", year 1339, where the latitude of Europe and North Africa is perfect, and the longitudinal coordinates of the Mediterranean and of the Black sea are approximated of half degree.

An even more amazing chart is the "Zeno's chart", year 1380. It shows a big area in the north, going up till the Greenland; Its precision is flabbergasting. "It's impossible" says Hapgood "that someone in the fourteenth century could have found the exact latitudes of these places, not to mention the precision of the longitudes..."

Another amazing chart is the one drawn by the Turkish Hadji Ahmed, year 1559, in which he shows a land stripe, about 1600 Km. wide, that joins Alaska and Siberia. Such a natural bridge has been then covered by the water due to the end of the glacial period, which rose up the sea level.

Oronteus Fineus was another one who drew a map of incredible precision. He too represented the Antarctic with no ice-cap, year 1532.

There are maps showing Greenland as two separated islands, as it was confirmed by a polar French expedition which found out that there is an ice cap quite thick joining what it is actually two islands.

As we saw, many charts in the ancient times pictured, we might say, all the earth geography. They seem to be pieces of a very ancient world wide map, drawn by unknown people who were able to use technology that we consider to be a conquer of the very modern times.

When human beings were supposed to live in a primitive manner, someone "put on paper" the whole geography of the earth. And this common knowledge somehow fell into pieces, then gathered here and there by several people, who had lost though the knowledge, and just copied what they could find in libraries, bazaars, markets and about all kind of places.

Hapggod made a disclosure which amazingly lead further on this road: he found out a cartographic document copied by an older source carved on a rock column, China, year 1137. It showed the same high level of technology of the other western charts, the same grid method, the same use of spheroid trigonometry. It has so many common points with the western ones that it makes think more than reasonably, that there had to be a common source: could it be a lost civilization, maybe the same one which has been chased by thousands years so far?

Summary

The Piri Re'is map is often exhibited in cases seeking to prove that civilization was once advanced and that, through some unknown event or events, we are only now gaining any understanding of this mysterious cultural decline. The earliest known civilization, the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, appear out of nowhere around 4,000 B.C. but have no nautical or maritime cultural heritage. They do, however, speak reverently of ancestral people who were like the "gods" and were known as the nefilim.

Here is a summary of some of the most unusual findings about the map:

• Scrutiny of the map shows that the makers knew the accurate circumference of the Earth to within 50 miles.
  
  
• The coastline and island that are shown in Antarctica must have been navigated at some period prior to 4,000 B.C. when these areas were free of ice from the last Ice Age.
  
• The map is thought to be one of the earliest "world maps" to show the Americas. Early scholars suggested that it showed accurate latitudes of the South American and African coastlines - only 21 years after the voyages of Columbus! (And remember, Columbus did NOT discover North America - only the Caribbean!) Writing in Piri Re'is own hand described how he had made the map from a collection of ancient maps, supplemented by charts that were drawn by Columbus himself. This suggests that these ancient maps were available to Columbus and could have been the basis of his expedition.

• As can be seen below, an azimuthal projection ( looking at the globe from a point above the globe), from the point above Cairo, Africa (Egypt) shows that the Piri Reis map corresponds more or less with the lower right quarter of this map if one rotates it some 20 degrees counter clockwise.

The contours from the Piri Reis map (top image),
and an azimuthal projection of the real globe (bottom image),
show very similar distortions.

• Piri Re'is own commentary indicates that some of his source maps were from the time of Alexander the Great (332 B.C.).

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_1.htm

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