The Paranormal – Fact, Fiction or Unexplained?

Written by Max Barber.

Introduction.

In this world, human beings have such a drive for knowledge, discovery and a chance to progress our civilisation through new breakthroughs in physics, engineering and micro-biology. We as a species discover new things all the time – yet there is so much we can’t explain or account for when it comes to paranormal science or the supernatural in general. Things we’ve yet to understand may still be years ahead in our future, to truly understand it – we must discuss and investigate it to the best of our ability. It was Mahtama Ghandi who once said: “There is an indefinable, mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses.” With that being said, do all paranormal cases have a straight answer? Some do and others are simply beyond comprehension – I present some of those said cases to you.

Las Vegas investigative reporter George Knapp has been very active in this big investigation, also working with filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, to get certain declassified photos out to the public. The connection between nuclear missile bases and UAP’s has been one such common trend which has happened more than once since the 1960s. One of these government documented experiences occurred in Montana – March 24th, 1967. Malmstrom was a nuclear facility that stored ICBM’s, one of the main locations that held the trigger during an ever-brewing Cold War. Nuclear weapons operator, Robert Salas, was the man who would push the button when given the order, the power life and death in his hands alone – hoping the phone wouldn’t ring. On March 24^th, the phone did ring – this time exchanging the fear of nuclear war, for a technology that we have yet to understand. Salas was stationed in the missile bunker, 60 feet below the surface with his commander – in control of ten minuteman missiles. In the early morning hours, the phone rang with Robert hearing a guard shouting down the line to him: “Sir! I’m standing at the front gate watching this glowing red object!”.

The objects movements were said to have defied our known laws of physics, rapidly darting from one part of the sky to another with no extra momentum, “stopping on a dime” Salas said on the Science Channel. He urgently woke his commander, who had been napping in the next room, reporting on the occurrence that was causing mass panic above ground. Next, the impossible takes place – the underground lights switch from green to red which meant that the stored ICMBs were completely offline and un-launchable. This is only possible if someone with the nuclear access codes enters them directly and can only be done one at a time, but in this case – all 10 went off in sync, leaving the US exposed against attack from a foreign adversary. While desperately attempting to get the missiles back online, Salas and his commander learnt that a week before the incident, another crew at Malmstrom also saw the red lights and had the same shutdown occur for all 10 missiles.

From these two identical incidents, one week apart from the other with the exact same lights, we can only assume these objects were taunting the military capabilities of one of the world’s greatest superpowers. It wasn’t just the US however, after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 – information from what was then the Soviet Union, was easier to obtain from behind the dissipated iron curtain. Reporter George Knapp went to Moscow and met Colonel Boris Sokalov during the 1990s, a high-ranking official in the Russian military. Sokalov told Knapp that the Russian’s had also had a huge incident over one of their primary nuclear facilities in Ukraine. A massive object appeared over the base, performing an incredible display by separating into separate pieces before reforming, except instead of turning the missiles off (as experienced by the US) – the object turned on the launch protocols by somehow entering the nuclear codes before vanishing.

These stunning and unexplainable breaches have occurred in multiple nations around the world, including the United Kingdom. Usually, I would class this as unexplained if it wasn’t for the fact that these are government documented cases and part of the reason the investigation into aerial phenomena began by world superpowers. For this reason, UAPS showing interest in our nuclear facilities is an enigmatic fact.

The Falling Body Photo.

A lot of these cases always seem to have a short but sweet story to them, and maybe the ones with the least detail seem the most mysterious to us. The falling body case is one of those stories – but with a relieving twist.

Our Lady Of Akita.

Statues are part of every city, every architectural aesthetic and place of prayer. One thing you wouldn’t expect them to do is perspire, bleed or cry. Well in 1973, this phenomenon occurred at the Yuzadawai convent in Akita, Japan.

A sample of the mysterious liquid was taken and examined at a leading Japanese University by Bishop Ito to see if a natural cause could be to blame. The results concluded that the substance which had streamed down the face of the statue were in fact, human tears. The Virgin Mary also bled and sweat with some bleeding caused by two small lines on the hands, described as “a blackish mark” by one nun. To make things even stranger, the blood was also tested and turned out to be types B and AB. Some of the activity was caught on tape by the ‘TV Tokyo Channel 12’ news crew.

For those who are not particularly religious, it may be tough to believe such an account – although having evidence and eyewitness accounts of such an event, there is still no explanation for how the hand-carved wooden figure of the Virgin Mary was able to bleed, cry and sweat out of thin air. After 11 years of investigation, Bishop Ito officially declared ‘Our Lady Of Akita’ as a “supernatural event”, or maybe a warning performed by Mother Mary herself perhaps? But who is to know? The incident of the Akita statue can only be deemed as unexplained.

Tombstone, Arizona.

Based in Cochise County, Arizona – Tombstone is a historic time capsule frozen in the Old West, which originally thrived from the local silver mines. Founded in 1877 by a prospector called Ed Schiefflin, Tombstone was the site of one of the most notorious and legendary gunfights of the Wild West by lawmen Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp with their friend, the famous Doc Holliday – known as one of the fastest pistols in the Wild West. The conflict had been influenced politically and personally by a family feud with Billy Clanton, Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne as well as Tom and Frank McLaury – all being killed by the Earp group near the legendary O.K Corral on 26th October 1881. Outside of the iconic shootout, Tombstone has a record of many other cowboy gunfights and especially murders; with all this history it remains to be said that people throughout the decades have reported seeing, hearing, and capturing strange phenomena which is believed to be associated with the violent history of Tombstone.

‘The Bird Cage Theatre.

Arguably, the most popular location in Tombstone was the Bird Cage Theatre. The theatre was a saloon, gambling hall and den of sin, making it the elite nightspot of the red-light district. The building itself remains intact, with a total of 120 original bullet holes made by drunken and rowdy cowboys. The current co-owner of the Birdcage is Billy Hunley who’s great, great grandfather purchased the property and has passed it down through generations with words of chilling encounters from staff, visitors, and owners.

People have reported seeing full-bodied-apparitions inside the theatre along with sudden smells of cigar smoke and knocking on the walls. Hunley recalled experiences with a mannequin of Wyatt Earp when entering the building some mornings, as the cowboy hat worn by the dummy would somehow appear on the table – on one occasion it even went further with the hat, bowtie and shirt safety pin all being neatly placed beside the figure. Another experience was caught on a recorder that was left in the theatre overnight, staff listened back to hear a woman screaming for a man to ‘let her out’ to which the male voice chillingly replied: “Sit back down, it’s happening”. The man and woman were nowhere to be found.

The Birdcage Theatre has also been investigated by many popular investigative TV shows, such as Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files. The crew were doing a night-time investigation at the Birdcage, with many cameras placed throughout the halls and rooms, picking up many odd noises along the way. One of their camera’s was placed with a light inside the room of Sadie Jo, a lady of the night who is said to appear in photographs after 11 snaps – except the light placed inside the room suddenly went dark and was strangely found outside in the corridor with the door to her room still closed. It goes without saying, whether you believe in the great beyond or not – something isn’t right at the Birdcage Theatre.

The chase went on for several miles before they managed to close the gap and be within firing range, applying damage to the flying anomaly after a few rounds; killing it as it attempted to lunge at the ranchers. The creature, as we’d know it today – could be seen to be an extinct species of Pterodactyl, which was assumed to have lived (at the earliest) 136.4 million years ago.

The two men measured the span of the ‘bird’, lengthwise it was 92 feet and one of the wings measured up to 160 feet. The article published by the Epitaph, despite all the rumours, never included a photo which was said to have existed of the creature – mere fake recreations is all we have, and the supposed original has never been found nor has anyone come forward with knowledge of the photo being taken. Though this wasn’t the first time an alleged Thunderbird had been seen either, as reports of an amphibious creature had also been claimed from 1881 – 86 near Lake Elizabeth, California.

However, it is important to remember with this story – in 1890, Tombstone wasn’t the thriving town of silver mines that it had been 10+ years prior, with a dwindling population. The Thunderbird story is part of ancient-Indian folklore, a massive, winged bird that roamed the desert. A ploy by the Tombstone Epitaph could have been used to play upon the reports and legends of the Thunderbird to attract attention back to Tombstone for economic purposes.

Concluding on Tombstone as a reported hotbed of unexplained events, some stories have credibility thanks to the investigations provided by television and social media shows – who’ve captured some frankly odd and remarkable things. As reasonable as it may be to settle the Thunderbird encounter as nothing more than a legend, the supposedly inhabited locations by long-gone gunslingers remains to be discussed, as something unseen is most definitely active in Tombstone, Arizona. The phenomena is simply unexplainable but has evidence to suggest that strange occurrences are frequent, meaning part of history in Tombstone is alive and well – I’m deeming this side of the case as fact.

The Face of Hyde Park Corner.

Barry Oakley was a station supervisor working at Hyde Park Corner underground station in 1978. His responsibility was to close and empty the station, as well as shutting down the escalators for the night. The underground escalators are prevented from moving by taking out a device called a ‘breaker’ that cuts the power once it’s removed. Barry and his colleague had returned to their office once all their duties had been completed, ready for the night shift.

At around 2:30am, there was a strange “commotion” coming from the Booking Hall outside, naturally investigating to check nothing serious was taking place, Barry and the other staff member on shift discovered that one of the escalators was switched on again. Barry made an appearance in the 2005 documentary ‘Ghosts On The Underground’, he explained that “once the breaker was out, there is no current to that escalator” which was bizarre as the breaker was not in place.

After having reset the breaker, Mr. Oakley returned to the supervisor’s office around 3:20am with his co-worker – as he was making tea for the pair, Barry received what he described as a “terrible sensation in the back of my neck that someone was watching me and was there”. The room had apparently turned extremely cold to the point where Barry could see his own breath, and as he looked up at his colleague – the man was up against the wall with a pale colour in his face. It took 10 minutes before the staff member was able to snap out of his shock, before he told Barry: “Did you see the face?”. His co-worker explained that he’d allegedly seen a head come through the solid wall and stare at the pair before vanishing. Barry Oakley’s colleague would shortly go home after the encounter and never returned to Hyde Park Corner station.

This has led many to suggest that Karen Collett captured an advertisement for this section of Madame Tussauds, except the famous museum came out and officially said they have no record of any campaign or poster which featured Bruno Hauptmann on the front. Further down the timeline, a friend of Karen’s had sadly lost her mother and wanted to try and contact her through a medium (someone who is said to be able to contact those on the other side). Karen sat outside to wait while her friend was speaking with the medium privately, before the session soon finished. As the pair were about to leave, the medium suddenly came outside and said to Miss Collett: “I have a message for you. It’s about your photo – the man said, ‘I am accused of something that I did not do, but I did something else’”. This would be the closure for Karen’s experiences in relation to the photo, but the mystery of how this enigma found its way into, what was meant to be, an innocent holiday snapshot will forever be unexplainable.

The Screams of Bethnal Green.

It is best to introduce this strange, and quite frankly chilling incident with the tragic backstory of Bethnal Green Underground station. On 3^rd March 1943, the worst English civilian disaster of the Second World War occurred at the Bethnal Green tube station. The British RAF had started a raid on Berlin that evening, which was reported by the media – sounding an air-raid Civil Defence Siren, alerting the public to find the nearest bomb shelter, Bethnal Green being one of many underground stations that provided refuge for the public during bombing raids (which by this time had stopped in 1941). On this particular night in 1943, 1500 people had gone to the shelter – the panic being started by new anti-aircraft guns in Victoria Park being mistaken for German bombs. The rush down the stairs caused one young woman, clutching her child, to lose her footing and grab on to an elderly man who went down with her. As a result, there was a mass pile up of people causing a fatal crush – 173 men, women and children sadly lost their lives due to asphyxiation. There is a special plaque outside the station commemorating the 173 who passed away in the disaster.

Overall, the London Underground seems to be teeming with activity once the stations fall silent, and these aren’t even half the cases that have occurred. I recommend watching the 2005 documentary ‘Ghosts on the London Underground’ if you would like to hear more of them – the link is included in credits. Hearing and seeing the evidence on display from regular working people and unsuspecting members of the public provides credibility for me, maybe not every story under the sun but of those who are adamant about what they experienced. The haunting of London’s tube tunnels and stations is a mystery – however with the scale of historical phenomena, it is surely a fact.