A WEREWOLF IN GERMANY?

Two hikers in Germany came across and photographed what they believed to be a werewolf in the fabled Harz mountains.

Looking more like the missing link rather than a lycanthrope, it stared them down for ten minutes while they looked on in a startling "confrontation". Is is just another staged cryptid shot -- a 60's throwback? Read on and you decide!

The existence of an apocryphal individual rumored to live in the forests of a German mountain range has seemingly been confirmed after a pair of hikers stumbled upon the so-called 'wolf man' and actually managed to photograph him. The remarkable picture (seen below) was reportedly taken this past Tuesday evening in the town of Blankenburg as Gina Weiss and a friend were en route to explore some popular sandstone caves on the country's Harz mountain range. The excursion took an astounding turn when the pair arrived at their destination and quickly realized that they were not alone. "When we reached the sand caves, we saw the wolf man," she later recalled, "he stood up high on one of the caves and held a long wooden stick like a lance in his arm."

According to Weiss, the ten-minute-long sighting saw the 'wolf man' and the hikers locked in an eerie stare down wherein "he wouldn't take his eyes off of us." She went on to note that the mysterious stranger "said nothing" and "looked dirty like a Stone Age man from a history book." Despite the undoubtedly unsettling circumstances, Weiss was quick-witted enough to snap two photographs of the individual who first popped up on the radar of local authorities around five years ago when bewildered residents began reporting a person dressed as a wolf roaming around the mountain range.

Something of an urban legend in the area, it is suspected that the peculiar figure has lived in the forests of the Harz mountains for at least the last five years as previous searches by authorities have yielded fairly well-crafted camps believed to have been created by the 'wolf man.' Be that as it may, the presence of the enigmatic individual has largely been a matter of conjecture since reports of the 'wolf man' were limited to only eyewitness accounts. However, thanks to Weiss' photos, it would appear that the tales are indeed true. To date, authorities have expressed little interest in forcing him out of his forest dwelling, though that may change now that there appears to be no doubt that he exists.

[SOURCE: Coast 2 Coast AM.]

"THE WORLD REMAINS STUCK IN AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS MOMENT"

The 2022 update to the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic assessment of how close humanity may be to destroying itself, saw the metaphorical time remain where it has been for the last three years at 100 seconds to midnight. Created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), the ominous-sounding annual evaluation of the pressing issues facing the planet is announced each January. In 2020, the organization raised eyebrows when they moved the clock closer to midnight than it had ever been before and, as with last year, 2022's appraisal found that the planet is still in that rather perilous state.

In a press release detailing this year's assessment, the BAS stressed that their determination for 2022 "does not, by any means, suggest that the international security situation has stabilized" and, instead, they cautioned that "the clock remains the closest it has ever been to civilization-ending apocalypse because the world remains stuck in an extremely dangerous moment." According to the group, the factors that informed their evaluation were "continuing and dangerous threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, disruptive technologies, and COVID-19." They also lamented that these issues have been "exacerbated by a corrupted information ecosphere that undermines rational decision making."

As the group does every year, they offered an expansive list of potential steps that could be taken by world governments to help 'turn back the clock.' The recommendations largely mirror what the BAS has suggested on multiple occasions in the past, including that the United States and Russia should establish new agreements concerning "limits on nuclear weapons and delivery systems," a global commitment to accelerating decarbonization, and increased efforts from technology companies to thwart online misinformation. Unfortunately, if the 2022 assessment is any indication, it's likely that these proposals will once again fall on deaf ears and that 2023 just might see the clock tick even closer to midnight.

SOURCE: Coast 2 Coast AM

SPOOKIEST GHOST STORIES OF 2021

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MONSTER LOVERS! Hope you're not suffering from the Mother of All Hangovers and can remember the good time you had last night!

For me it was the usual quiet evening at home in front of the fire, my wife reading Tarot cards and me the 24-rune Futhark, both interpreting what's ahead for us this year.

A new year generally entails looking back at the last one and remembering the events that affected our lives. It's also the time when we see a lot of "best of", "worst of", etc. lists from the year.

The following news items are collected from Coast 2 Coast AM, that venerable radio show about everything from the paranormal to politics. This is their compilation of the "spookiest" ghost stories of 2021.

'Ghost Pants' Caught on Film?

A truly bizarre piece of footage circulating online appears to show a pair of pants running down a sidewalk seemingly without anyone wearing them! The very weird video was posted to YouTube by the paranormal channel Hidden Underbelly, which noted that the circumstances surrounding the strange scene are unfortunately unknown, although the setting would appear to suggest that it took place outside of the United States. The lack of details notwithstanding, the footage is undeniably odd and rather hard to decipher.

In the all-too-brief footage, a young child can be seen playing with a rabbit in the middle of a desolate road at night. Suddenly, out of the corner of the screen, a pair of pants can be seen dashing down the sidewalk before disappearing into the shadows. Eerily, features of the building in the background that should be obscured by an upper torso of the 'being,' for lack of a better term, are clearly visible, suggesting that the baffling sight is not merely a trick of light and shadow.

As for what, exactly, was captured on the video, some viewers have suggested that the 'ghost pants' were connected to some kind of spirit while others have posited, perhaps jokingly, that it is an invisible person who forgot to put on a shirt. Others have likened the notorious cryptid known as the 'Fresno Nightcrawler.' And, of course, more skeptical observers have put forward the prosaic explanation that the scene is somehow the result of a camera error or, failing that, simply a clever hoax.

Ghost Removes Collar From Dog's Neck

An eerie home security video that has gone viral online shows a dog's collar inexplicably being removed by an invisible force that many viewers suspect could be a ghost. The unsettling footage was posted to TikTok by shannyfantg on Sunday and has amassed a staggering 12.5 million views since being shared on the site. The spooky video begins with her two crated dogs furiously barking for around 20 seconds until they both fall silent for no seemingly apparent reason before things take a truly strange turn.

The pair of pooches remain completely still for approximately twenty seconds, during which it appears that the footage briefly freezes, until the collar around the black dog's neck begins to slightly move. Suddenly, the unfortunate animal is violently pulled towards the corner of its crate until the collar falls from its neck. As one might imagine, many of the millions of viewers believe that a ghost is to blame for the peculiar scene.

For her part, shannyfantg echoed that assessment, arguing that some kind of spirit removed the collar from her dog and indicated that "this happened about a year after moving into this house, nothing happened for almost two years, now things are happening again." Meanwhile, skeptical observers argue that the footage could be a clever fabrication using CGI. 

Jogger Encounters Ghost Sitting on Bench at Haunted Park in Singapore

A woman out for a jog at a purportedly haunted park in Singapore encountered an eerie figure sitting on a bench and some suspect that the mysterious stranger may have been a ghost. The eerie incident reportedly took place at around 9:40 in the evening this past Sunday as Nur Umairah was running through the Pasir Ris Park, where local legend states that vampiric female spirits, known as pontianaks, reside. Although it initially seemed that the area was deserted, the jogger was taken aback when she noticed what appeared to be a woman sitting on a bench staring out at the water of the nearby Api Api River.

The strange sight was particularly perplexing to Umairah because it was pitch black where the stranger was located. Although she assumed the curious individual was merely another visitor to the park, despite the late hour and weird behavior, the jogger decided to snap a quick photo (which can be seen below) of the person. Upon resuming her run, Umairah says, she suddenly began hearing a voice that was saying "Mai," which is the shortened form of her name.

This understandably unnerved Umairah recalled that "I had goosebumps and the hair at the back of my neck stood." As to the source of the voice, she mused that "I know it wasn't a human because there was no one else around." Now considerably frightened by what she was experiencing, Umairah phoned her husband in order to have some sense of comfort and distraction from the situation, while also reciting prayers in her head in the hopes of warding off whatever sinister force she may have encountered.

Fortunately, Umairah made it home safely and subsequently uploaded the picture to social media. Adding one final layer of creepiness to the entire affair, friends who looked at the image noted something rather strange about it: the woman's legs could not be seen. Coupled with the location's reputation as a haunted hot spot, it has been suggested that the mysterious stranger sitting on the bench may have been a pontianak or perhaps some other kind of ghost. 

Ohio Cop Encounters Ghost Girl

In an odd story out of Ohio, a police officer may have encountered a ghost as he was responding to a report of a seemingly out-of-place little girl wandering around late in the evening. According to a local media report, people living in the city of Mentor have been captivated on social media over the last few weeks as multiple residents have shared home security camera footage of an anomalous white form that could be seen quickly traveling along a sidewalk. As one might imagine, speculation in the community has centered around whether or not it was an apparition and, it would seem, an appearance by the curious figure ultimately wound up prompting a call to the police, but their investigation only made matters all the more mysterious.

A concerned resident phoned the Mentor Police Department back on March 10th at around 11:40 PM with a rather weird report. "I was surprised by what I saw," they said," explaining that they noticed a person near an area elementary school who resembled a small girl, but was "running rather erect and too quickly for a child." Eerily, when cops arrived on the scene to investigate, one officer actually saw a youngster matching the description provided by the puzzled caller. However, when he exited his patrol car to tend to the tot, the child was gone. Certain of what he had seen, the cop continued looking for the little girl, but she was nowhere to be found.

To their credit, the Mentor Police Department took the matter very seriously and enlisted the help of several other officers as well as a K9 unit and even a drone to search the area looking for the child, but the exhaustive effort proved futile. Chillingly, when the cop who had originally seen the little girl went back and checked his dashcam video from the encounter, the youngster did not appear on the footage. The perplexing incident would appear to bolster the belief of some residents that there is a ghost child roaming the streets of the city, however other people in Mentor are not as convinced, insisting that the apparition is merely the case of mistaken identity or perhaps the work of a prankster.

Haunted' Doll Terrifies Australian Town

Residents of a small town in Australia say that their community is plagued by an unsettling presence in the form of a haunted doll that brings bad luck to those who get too close to it. The eerie object, which can be seen below, reportedly sits on a swing located in a mangrove swamp in the tiny town of Lucinda. Among the mere 406 people living in the community, tales about the creepy doll and its unnerving 'powers' have spread by way of whispers from residents seemingly afraid of 'upsetting' the odd object.

Parliamentarian Nick Dametto, who represents Lucinda and several other nearby towns, indicated that "everyone seems to know about the doll, but nobody really wants to talk about it." Be that as it may, local legend states that anyone who comes too close to the object winds up suffering some sort of bad luck. The most frequent 'victims' of the doll, Dametto said, are people who are boating or fishing in the nearby waters and it is claimed that even saying "hello" to the object can unleash its ire.

"This might be pure circumstance or just a modern wives' tale," Dametto mused, "but it's something I'm definitely not willing to toy with." Although the origins of the doll appear to be shrouded in mystery, one business owner in Lucinda claims that the 'little girl' and her swing were created by a local couple as something of an art installation with the goal of adding some color to the community. Should that be the case, their mission has proven to be a strange success as the town has now become infamous for being the home of a haunted doll that curses anyone who dares go near it.

Ghost Pulls Girl Under Bed

An unsettling piece of footage circulating online shows what appears to be a little girl being pulled under her bed by an unseen force as she cries out to her mother for help. The chilling incident reportedly occurred this past Sunday evening just before midnight and the video was subsequently shared on TikTok the next day by the toddler's dad, Josh Dean. In captioning the post, the unnerved father simply wrote "my daughter being pulled under the bed ... wife thinks she crawled, but she was pulled by something."

In the truly creepy footage, the youngster can be seen clambering off of her bed and looking underneath it as if something had drawn her attention. She then begins to slowly disappear under the bed while bellowing "mommy" over and over again in a moment that is pure nightmare fuel. The girl can then be heard wailing from beneath the bed until her mother comes into the room and lifts the furniture up to free her.

Unsurprisingly, the eerie video quickly went viral, amassing nearly a million views in just a few days. In an update posted by the girl's mother a few days later, she insisted that the incident was not staged and conceded that "I can't explain it." She went on to explain that she had initially thought that her daughter had simply crawled under the bed and gotten stuck, but seeing the footage made her suspect that perhaps something paranormal had taken place.

Ship's Security Camera Films Ghost

An eerie piece of footage purportedly captured by a ship's security camera shows what appears to be a full-bodied apparition manifest out of thin air. The rather fantastic video was posted to Reddit last week by an individual who explained that the incident occurred while he was working aboard a vessel that was sailing near the coast of Somalia. As a preventative measure to avoid drawing the attention of pirates, he explained, the lights on the ship were turned off and all of the crew members were ordered to stay in their rooms.

During that brief period in which the ship was devoid of activity, the security camera aboard the vessel spotted something truly strange. The jaw-dropping video initially shows an empty room aboard the ship and then a rather bright orb whisks passing through the scene. Shortly thereafter, a mist-like substance wafts towards a spot in the room where what appears to be a full-bodied figure slowly manifests. The startling anomaly stands in the location for a few seconds before simply dissolving.

As one might imagine, many viewers believe that the oddity seen in the footage is some kind of spirit, perhaps a ghost that resides on the ship and made a brief appearance during the lockdown in a curious attempt to find out why the vessel had gone quiet. More skeptical observers will, of course, argue that the 'apparition' is merely some kind of video artifact or, failing that, a hoax with a well-crafted backstory attached to it. 

Colombian Mayor Shares Video of Ghost Attacking Security Guard

The mayor of a city in Colombia left his constituents scratching their heads when he shared a video of what he claims is a ghost attacking a security guard. The peculiar footage, which was reportedly captured by a security camera in a government office building, was posted to Facebook on Tuesday evening by Jose Manuel Rios Morales, who presides over the community of Armenia. In the odd video, a guard can be seen walking down a hallway before seemingly being violently thrown into a wall by an unseen force. The startled man falls to the floor and then slowly crawls away from the point of impact until two of his coworkers quickly arrive on the scene.

In the surprising Facebook post, Morales wrote "I want to share this video with you today, stressing that as mayor I have the conviction that faith has unbeatable power." He goes on to assure residents that, upon learning of the eerie incident, he enlisted a bishop and other religious figures in the city to bless "every corner of this workspace" and asked his social media followers to join in a prayer to help ward off whatever sinister spirit struck the security guard. Alas, it would seem that his constituents were not as concerned about the potential ghost haunting the building as he might have imagined as many of the comments dismissed the entire affair as foolish and a waste of government resources.

ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTER

The lore of Cryptozoology has a long and colorful history, and with the advent of video more evidence is revealed regularly. Whether or not these critters are real or just a figment of an imaginative filmmaker's mind is open to debate.

The latest example is this report from Coast 2 Coast AM's newsletter that shows a video of an alleged human-like crab scuttling about on a road in Costa Rica. Adding realism is a dog barking at the strange animal. Real, or just another hoax? You be the judge!

From Coast 2 Coast AM:

A bizarre piece of footage circulating online purportedly shows a humanoid entity scurrying down a road in a crab-like fashion. The very weird video was reportedly captured by a home security system in Costa Rica and was shared on Reddit by a resident of the country earlier this month. Alas, beyond that bit of background information, little is known concerning the circumstances by which the scene unfolded. Be that as it may, the footage is rather compelling by way of its sheer strangeness.

In the video, a dog lurking on a dimly lit road is being taken aback by something approaching it from off-screen. When the oddity comes into view, it appears to be a human-sized creature walking on all fours in a manner akin to a crab. The bizarre beast (or being) simply scrambles down the road and vanishes into the night. In the original footage that was posted to Reddit, several dogs can be heard reacting in an agitated fashion to the curious interloper.

As for what it could have been, some have speculated that it could be a legendary Latin American entity known as 'La Mona.' This being is said to be a witch that can transform into an animal and stalks unsuspecting and unfortunate individuals at night. Another theory offered by some viewers is that the 'crab humanoid' is merely an eccentric or possibly intoxicated individual having a bit of fun. And, of course, one cannot rule out the possibility that the footage is a well-crafted hoax.

APOCALYPSE SOON . . .

I have read over the years that scientists and other experts claim that insects and rodents may one day be the predominant life on our planet. I find it hard to disagree. They both have an uncanny knack for survival, as well as unimaginable reproduction capabilities. Notwithstanding the cicada horde that is expected to hit the south this year, here's a video showing a literal wave of mice that have eaten their way through Australian farmer's crops. Text source is Coast 2 Coast AM website.

Millions of mice have invaded rural farms and towns across New South Wales, Australia, drawn by this season's bumper grain harvest. Record rainfall, usually a boon for farmers, has boosted crop production but also attracted a plague of rodents to the region. Video footage from local news media shows innumerable mice running rampant across the area and damaging everything in their wake. Businesses including motels, supermarkets, and shops have also been effected by the rodent invasion, and several people have been hospitalized for bites.

And, again from C2C, word has it that Arnold Schwarzenegger would be the best person to handle an alien invasion of Earth. Here's the 4-1-1:

An odd survey asking which celebrity would be the ideal person to handle an alien invasion found iconic actor Arnold Schwarzenegger taking the top spot. The weird poll, reportedly conducted by the British TV station Blaze as part of their forthcoming 'UFO week,' asked 2,000 residents of the country which star they felt would be most equipped to deal with the arrival of hostile ETs here on Earth. Perhaps in light of his dual status as both action hero and politician, the Terminator star came in first place, followed by Will Smith, who famously fended off fictional invading aliens in the film Independence Day.

Coming in at 8th place, former president Donald Trump ranked highest among world leaders, besting British prime minister Boris Johnson, who was 12th, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris (19) and current president Joe Biden, who was at the bottom of the top 20 list. Asked how they would personally handle an alien invasion, 26% of the respondents indicated that they would gather supplies to hopefully survive the situation while a mere 10 percent said that they would try to broker peace with the extraterrestrials, likely making them the cautionary first victims of the space siege. In response to his first place showing, Schwarzenegger took to Twitter and declared, "I want to thank the people for putting their faith in me. I am ready to serve."

I feel safer already!

OUIJA BOARDS BANNED IN BRITAIN!

AS REPORTED BY COAST 2 COAST AM, an inexpensive line of Ouija Boards has been pulled from the shelves of a chain of UK stores equivalent to our Dollar Stores here in the US. The concerns, including those raised by a member of Parliament (!) and a minister claim that marketed this way, the Talking boards are too accessible to children who may be the unwilling agents of open up the Gates of Hell! The stigma of the board has persisted since the 1800's, when they were used widely by spiritualists for "communicating with the other side" and the public for entertainment.

COAST 2 COAST news editor Tim Binall explains:

In response to a growing furor surrounding their decision to sell Ouija Boards at an incredibly low price, a chain of discount stores in England have pulled the controversial items from shelves. The British equivalent to an American dollar store, Poundland made headlines last week when it was discovered that their seasonal offerings for Halloween included a Ouija Board. The problematic product priced at merely a pound quickly sparked concerns among people online who feared that children could easily get their hands on the cheap Ouija Boards.

While it would seem that the Ouija Board backlash simply served as some good publicity for Poundland this Halloween season, the company was finally forced to take action when the issue went beyond the world of social media and a number of prominent figures, including a high profile religious figure and a member of Parliament, spoke out against the spirit boards. Announcing that they would no longer sell the items in stores, a spokesperson for the chain reportedly explained that "we had a message from the spirits to make the handful that were left vanish."

As one might imagine, the company's critics applauded their decision to no longer sell Ouija Boards. Specifically, well-known Free Presbyterian minister Rev David McIlveen opined that the 'game' is "an introduction to a world that is very satanic and takes control of a person's mind." Meanwhile, Parliament member Gregory Campbell, who had once actually argued that there needed to be regulations surrounding the sale of Ouija Boards, mused that the kerfuffle is "a lesson for retailers to examine the product they put on their shelves before they have actually made it for sale."

The news will also likely lead to a sigh of relief from members of the British ghost hunting community, who have been sounding the alarm ever since the story broke last week. One particularly perturbed paranormalist, Paul Marsters, warned that the spirit boards could unleash demons upon the world and, as such, declared that he was "profoundly shocked and just fuming really" when he learned that Poundland was selling the 'game.' Fortunately, it would seem that the collective fears of Ouija-wielding children inadvertently opening a doorway to Hell has been averted for now.

BLACK RAIN, CEMETERY PICNICS, AND WAS THE CORONAVIRUS PREDICTED?

Did Psychic Sylvia Browne Predict the Coronavirus Pandemic Back in 2008?
By Tim Binall | March 12, 2020 | coasttocoastam.com

Amid the ceaseless news coverage of the worrisome coronavirus crisis, a surprising name has emerged from the past to capture the attention of people online: the late psychic Sylvia Browne, who is being credited by some for predicting the pandemic twelve years ago. This strange turn of events came about in recent days as an excerpt from the self-described medium's 2008 book End of Days has gone viral online due to its uncanny description of what has been unfolding in America and around the world.

Specifically, Browne wrote that "in around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments." As one can imagine, the matching date and general description of the coronavirus has led many to conclude that the self-proclaimed psychic correctly foresaw the current crisis. The eerie excerpt was even amplified by Kim Kardashian, of all people, when she shared the odd prediction with her enormous audience of social media followers on Tuesday evening.

While we'll likely never know for certain if Browne's prediction was a genuine forecast informed by some kind of supernatural skill or just a lucky guess, for those keeping score at home, she did provide some indication as to how the crisis would culminate. According to the psychic's purported vision, "almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely."

However, before one breathes a sigh of relief thinking that the coronavirus crisis will soon be over, it's important to note that a cursory search via Google Books shows several times when Browne's predictions in End of Days were pretty far off the mark. For example, she forecast that 2010 would see the development of a cure for the common cold, in 2015 all newly-built homes would be solar powered, and that aliens would begin revealing themselves to the world in 2018. As such, it would probably be wise to stay vigilant and keep washing your hands.

Eerie Black Rain Falls on Japanese Cities
By Tim Binall | March 10, 2020 | coasttocoastam.com

Residents in several Japanese cities were left fearing the worst when an eerie black rain fell from the sky. The unsettling incident reportedly occurred in the city of Hasuda and a number of nearby communities last week. People living in the impacted areas quickly took to social media to express their concern over the spooky phenomenon and authorities acknowledged the strangeness by announcing that they had received reports of "black puddles in roads and on cars."

As is often the case when a weird mystery captures the imagination of people online, various theories were offered for what could have caused the black rain which was described as resembling oil. While some worried observers wondered if the phenomenon could have the result of some kind of radioactivity, officials were quick to dismiss this explanation, saying that tests indicated that this was not the case.

Others postulated that perhaps the unnerving rain was caused by a North Korean missile launch and, in a testament to the pandemic panic that has gripped the globe, some put forward the macabre suggestion that the phenomenon was the result of officials secretly burning the bodies of coronavirus victims. Ultimately, it was discovered that a massive fire had erupted in the city at around the time that the rain fell, leading many to conclude that the inferno was likely the cause of the phenomenon.

Torture Museum Bruges
Inside this former medieval prison is a collection of objects designed to inflict unbelievable pain and suffering on the human body and mind. 
By Marjolein | March 2, 2020 | Atlasobscura.com

Located underneath one of the oldest stone buildings in Bruges, dating from around the 10th or 11th century, is a collection of medieval torture devices. 

The Torture Museum of Brugge is located in a former fortress that was designed to protect Bruges. During the 14th century, the building became known as “the Old Stone” as it became the site of a medieval prison. The museum now plays host to more than 100 different torture devices, all displayed in chronological order.   

As visitors wander through the rooms of the former prison, they also journey through a time where torture was a widespread form of punishment and public executions were the norm. The various devices on display range from the 13th century to the 18th century. It’s a wonderfully dark journey with tons of intriguing information. Many of the devices are equipped with mannequins displaying how they were used, which creates a lurid atmosphere. A few of the items on display are the wooden horse, chair of torture, and a device designed to compress the stomach known as the caretaker’s daughter. 

The building itself leaves a strong impression on all who venture inside. It displays the harsh realities of life during the Middle Ages, where crimes, heresy, or a simple accusation of wrongdoing could result in a few hours on the rack. 

I've heard of a corkscrew, but this?

Remembering When Americans Picnicked in Cemeteries
For a time, eating and relaxing among the dead was a national pastime.
By Jonathan Kendall | October 24, 2018 | Atlasobscura.com

A small group picnics on ledger-style tombstones in Historic St. Luke's Ancient Cemetery. The photo is not dated but is believed to have been taken prior to St. Luke's 1957 Pilgrimage Service. COURTESY HISTORIC ST. LUKE'S

WITHIN THE IRON-WROUGHT WALLS OF American cemeteries—beneath the shade of oak trees and tombs’ stoic penumbras—you could say many people “rest in peace.” However, not so long ago, people of the still-breathing sort gathered in graveyards to rest, and dine, in peace.

During the 19th century, and especially in its later years, snacking in cemeteries happened across the United States. It wasn’t just apple-munching alongside the winding avenues of graveyards. Since many municipalities still lacked proper recreational areas, many people had full-blown picnics in their local cemeteries. The tombstone-laden fields were the closest things, then, to modern-day public parks.

In Dayton, Ohio, for instance, Victorian-era women wielded parasols as they promenaded through mass assemblages at Woodland Cemetery, en route to luncheon on their family lots. Meanwhile, New Yorkers strolled through Saint Paul’s Churchyard in Lower Manhattan, bearing baskets filled with fruits, ginger snaps, and beef sandwiches.

A historic image of the Woodland Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio. COURTESY WOODLAND CEMETERY AND ARBORETUM

One of the reasons why eating in cemeteries become a “fad,” as some reporters called it, was that epidemics were raging across the country: Yellow fever and cholera flourished, children passed away before turning 10, women died during childbirth. Death was a constant visitor for many families, and in cemeteries, people could “talk” and break bread with family and friends, both living and deceased.

“We are going to keep Thanksgivin’ with our father as [though he] was as live and hearty this day [as] last year,” explained a young man, in 1884, on why his family—mother, brothers, sisters—chose to eat in the cemetery. “We’ve brought somethin’ to eat and a spirit-lamp to boil coffee.”

The picnic-and-relaxation trend can also be understood as the flowering of the rural cemetery movement. Whereas American and European graveyards had long been austere places on Church grounds, full of memento mori and reminders not to sin, the new cemeteries were located outside of city centers and designed like gardens for relaxation and beauty. Flower motifs replaced skulls and crossbones, and the public was welcomed to enjoy the grounds.

Sausages are served at a picnic at the Greve Cemetery in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. COURTESY OF ROGER MEYER FAMILY AND THE SCHAUMBURG TOWNSHIP DISTRICT LIBRARY

Eating in graveyards had, and still has, historical precedent. People picnic among the dead from Guatemala to parts of Greece, and similar traditions involving meals with ancestors are common throughout Asia. But plenty of Americans believed that picnics in local cemeteries were a “gruesome festivity.” This critique, notably from older generations, didn’t stop young adults from meeting up in graveyards. Instead it led to debate over proper conduct.

In some parts of the country, such as Denver, the congregations of grave picnickers grew to such numbers that police intervention was even considered. The cemeteries were becoming littered with garbage, which was seen as an affront to their sanctity. In one report about these messy gatherings, the author wrote, “thousands strew the grounds with sardine cans, beer bottles, and lunch boxes.”

Though the macabre picnics were considered “nuisances” in some communities, they did give participants a sort of admired air. One reporter lauded the fact that the picnickers looked “happy under discouraging circumstances,” and even said it was a trait “worthy of cultivation.” The fad of casual en plein air dining among the crypts would soon come to an end, though.

Cemetery picnics remained peripheral cultural staples in the early 20th century; however, they began to wane in popularity by the 1920s. Medical advancements made early deaths less common, and public parks were sprouting across the nation. It was a recipe for less interesting dining venues.

Today, more than 100 years since Americans debated the trend, you’d be hard-pressed to find many cemeteries—especially those in big cities—with policies or available land that allow for picnics. Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, for example, has a no picnic rule.

But the fad isn’t entirely dead in the United States. The country’s immigrant population includes families carrying on traditions that call for meals with departed loved ones, and cemeteries will hold occasional public events in the spirit of this era. There are still scattered graveyards where you can picnic among tombstones, too, particularly if you know someone with a sizable family lot. In those cases, all you need is a picnic basket filled with treats, and you and your undaunted party can partake in an old American tradition. Just remember to clean up after yourselves. The penalties for doing otherwise may be grave.

Meet the Cryptids Haunting Ohio’s Imagination
A new exhibition pays homage to some of the Buckeye State’s beloved—and infamous—legends.
By Jessica Leigh Hester | March 11, 2020 | Atlasobscura.com

The Loveland Frog.

ONE EVENING IN AUGUST 2016, Sam Jacobs and his girlfriend were playing Pokemon Go near the inky shore of Lake Isabella, in Loveland, Ohio. The lake is regularly stocked with catfish, bluegill, trout, and perch (to the delight of local fishers). But the couple saw something that struck them as more than a little odd—and it wasn’t a creature roaming their phone screens.

“We saw a huge frog near the water,” Jacobs told Cincinnati’s WCPO television station. “Not in the game,” he added. “This was an actual giant frog.”

Jacobs paused his play and snapped some grainy photos. They’re tricky to decipher, but appear to show a dark figure standing in the gently rippling water, light bouncing off its enormous, saucer-shaped eyes. Jacobs was convinced he was seeing a frog rearing up on its hind legs.

“I realize this sounds crazy,” he told WCPO. “But I swear on my grandmother’s grave this is the truth: The frog stood about four feet tall.”

Jacobs wasn’t the first person to claim to see a monstrous amphibian roving Loveland. In 1972, a local police officer named Ray Shockey said he crossed paths with an enormous frog near the Little Miami River. Shockey kept it pretty quiet, Dayton’s Journal Herald newspaper reported that year; he didn’t want to spook anyone.

Soon after, however, his partner, Mark Matthews, was scouting the same spot when he encountered a creature that fit Shockey’s puzzling description. It hopped toward him, he told the Journal Herald—and while it wasn’t aggressive, exactly, it was unusually, almost unbelievably, large. Keen to get a closer look and preserve the evidence, he landed four shots with his .357 magnum. He told the Journal Herald that he suspected the thing was a hefty iguana that had lost its tail—but that it was hard to say for sure, the paper noted, because “the animal gave one last hop, fell into the river and was washed away.”

There’s no reason to suspect that Rutherford B. Hayes, America’s bookish and extravagantly bearded 19th president, ever laid eyes on the giant, bipedal Loveland Frog (or Frogman), as it’s come to be known. Or that he was scared by an unsettlingly oversized iguana. He probably never made the acquaintance of the Mothman either. Or the Grassman (Ohio’s answer to Bigfoot). Or South Bay Bessie, the Loch Ness–style monster said to patrol the waters of Lake Erie.

But Hayes’s presidential library and museum, in Fremont, Ohio, has recently mounted a show called “Ohio: An Unnatural History,” about the legendary creatures that go bump in the Midwestern night.

The museum, which normally traffics in tangible objects and measurable facts, doesn’t view its dalliance with the paranormal as anything unusual. “Not only do we cover presidential history, but also local history,” says Kevin Moore, associate curator of artifacts. “And we view local folklore as part of Ohio’s local history.”

South Bay Bessie.

Hayes had a personal library of thousands of books, Moore says, and was a history buff to boot, with an interest in the legends of local Native American cultures. “We want to appreciate the folklore just being part of Ohio culture—not get into any effort to validate or disprove it,” Moore says.

Tall tales, however dubious, don’t spring from nothing—and that makes folklore a useful window into local history, says Esther Clinton, a folklorist at Bowling Green State University, in a video accompanying the exhibition.

“The stories that become folklore are the stories that are repeated often, and not just by the same person,” Clinton says in the video. “What that means is that these are stories that make emotional and intellectual sense to people. If we look at folklore, that tells us a lot about what are people thinking about, what are they worried about?”

To bring the creatures in the exhibit to life, the library tapped Dan Chudzinski, a historian, special-effects artist, and animal-anatomy aficionado who doubles as the curator of the Mazza Museum at the University of Findlay.

The child of an anatomist-cum-biology-professor, Chudzinski has always been drawn to both known anatomy and the creatures that wander the foggy, gray margins of our imagination. He cut his teeth on taxidermy as a teen, and volunteered at the Toledo Zoo. At the Mazza Museum, which is rich in children’s book illustrations, he strung a 40-foot-long sculpture of Bessie, made from urethane foam and custom hardware, from the ceiling. It has a massive skull, studded with 200 teeth, and is roughly the size of a bus—a fact that Chudzinski uses to playfully taunt schoolkids, saying, “If you all fit into one bus, theoretically you could all fit into one really hungry lake monster.”

Though he often creates sculptures so uncannily lifelike that you expect to see the eyes blink or the chest rise and fall, Chudzinski’s work for the cryptid show mainly consists of 2D images. He wanted them to feel as informed and convincing as paranormal portraits can possibly be—thoughtful and unique, yet recognizable, sporting the iconic characteristics.

To research one of his subjects—the Headless Motorcyclist, said to roam the roads after a gruesome accident—Chudzinski visited local libraries to look for reports of a vehicular decapitation. He also interviewed people who claimed to have encountered the various creatures he portrayed—and did a little fieldwork of his own.

The Grassman.

For Grassman inspiration, he visited creatures including Kwisha, a silverback western lowland gorilla who lives at the Toledo Zoo; artist and ape have known each other for about 18 years. To compile characteristics for the Loveland Frog, Chudzinski tromped to the pond near his house, where he observed the pickerel frog’s speckled skin and the tree frog’s ability to conceal itself up in the canopy. (He figured it would be superlatively creepy if the Loveland Frog could scale trees and conceal itself while spying on the humans below.)

To capture the moods he wanted to convey in the background, Chudzinski says he went “to locations that people wouldn’t wander around at times when people definitely wouldn’t go out.” There, he asked himself: “What sounds do I hear? How am I feeling?” To up the eeriness even further, he depicted most of the creatures at dawn or dusk, surrounded by wisps of fog.

The Pukwudgie.

Some of the legends, like the Loveland Frog, have local or regional roots. Stories of the Mothman have flitted around West Virginia as well as Ohio. (The two states were linked by the Silver Bridge until 1967, when it collapsed, resulting in dozens of deaths.) The Pukwudgies—little troll-like creatures spiked with quills—are hallmarks of Wampanoag and Algonquian stories, Chudzinski says. Others are Midwestern twists on other, established creatures. The Grassman, Moore says, is clearly a relative of Bigfoot or Sasquatch (though the Ohio version is said to be surlier than its Pacific Northwest counterpart).

Many have spawned local traditions or swag. The Loveland Frog earned its own musical (Hot Damn! It’s the Loveland Frog), and the Great Lakes Brewing Company sells a beer called the Lake Erie Monster, a seasonal Imperial IPA it markets with a logo of a menacing, wave-riding serpent.

These creatives are elusive, and the stories about them have an element of shapeshifting too. The legend of the Loveland Frog may actually be a mangling of the telling of an extraterrestrial encounter, said to have occurred in the 1950s, according to the exhibit.

The Mothman.

The Mothman story has changed too. In November 1966, the Associated Press reported alleged sightings of the Mothman in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, just across the bridge from Gallipolis, Ohio, and described the creature as a “gray and white ‘thing’” that looked like a “man with a 10-foot wingspan who flies after cars at 100 miles per hour.” The AP noted that the creature was winged, but didn’t mention anything about the searingly red eyes that would figure into later accounts.

Even as cryptids evolve in the popular imagination, the people who helped stoke their stories sometimes wind up recanting. After Sam Jacobs claimed to see the Loveland Frog in August 2016, Mark Matthews—the gun-slinging patrolman from 1972—got in touch with WCPO to call bull on the whole thing. He hadn’t seen a creature standing on its hind legs, he clarified—it had scuttled under a guardrail. And the body wasn’t lost to the river—he had put it in his trunk, certain that it was just a very large iguana. “It’s a big hoax,” he said.

The new exhibition doesn’t adjudicate the tales it tells. But it does make a curiously compelling case that murky accounts belong in the annals of history, shoulder to shoulder with real-world artifacts. They all help us understand the stories a place shares about itself.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2020?

Psychics, mediums and astrologers gave up their predictions for this year to Coast 2 Coast AM radio host George Noory on the New Year's Day 2020 show. Following is the summary of prognostications. You can hear the whole show by subscribing to the show archives HERE.

A New Year's Day tradition on Coast to Coast AM, George Noory checked in with psychics, seers, and sages about their visions for what's in store for the new year. Psychic Joseph Jacobs kicked things off in the first hour, declaring that 2020 will be an excellent year for infrastructure and building, though he does see a bit of a market slowdown between March 26th and May 16th. Aggression from Russia will continue, he said, primarily via the Internet. Between August 25th and October 16th, he predicts substantial flooding problems in the United States, which could affect the economy. There could be some delays in voting results in November, he added, and Trump may face health problems from January 9th onward. Rather than making New Year's resolutions, he suggested that people say affirmations beginning with the words "I am" in order to instigate positive changes.

Next up, psychic medium Vincent Genna, MSW, shared his insights about 2020, which he believes will usher in a lot of fresh energy as the start of a new decade. Numerologically, 2020 is a "4" year, which is an indication of balance, but people need to get rid of their psychological baggage to take advantage of this, he said. The new year will bring more UFO disclosure, he enthused, not just via the government but from significant witnesses as well. We will continue to see strong storms, fires, and volatile weather, Genna warned, and this reflects the accumulative emotional mood of humanity. In the field of health, there will be medical advancements, he reported, but if people don't flow with positive energy this year, they may be more susceptible to hard-hitting disease and illness.

Astrologer Linda Schurman presented her forecast in the third hour, suggesting that 2020 will be a year of comeuppance. The economy has been inflated with massive debt, she commented, and with a Pluto-Saturn conjunction following a lunar eclipse, and a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, we could see a kind of financial "face the music." There will be extreme swings during 2020, but by the end of the year, we'll know we're in a recessionary economy, she stated. In the 2020s, "we will have to reform the International Monetary System by creating an international reserve currency, no longer the dollar," she added, indicating it could be a digital format based on the blockchain. Also in the new decade, she foresees a new energy infrastructure using hydrogen boron nuclear fusion that will go online by 2026 and crash all the oil-based economies.

Featured in the last hour, mystic author Elizabeth Joyce noted that the solar eclipse on January 10th will set the tone for the year. In 2020, pressing problems will need to be resolved, she continued, and the decisions we make will affect the whole decade. While the planet and weather remain out of kilter, she believes this will be a good year for the stock market. The Democrat candidate is likely to be either Biden or Sanders, with a woman (possibly Elizabeth Warren) as the running mate, she suggested. Yet, she does not believe they will run against Trump-- Joyce had a vision he will be felled by a serious illness in March, and Pence will take over for five months. All four of the guests provided personal readings for callers in the latter portions of their interviews.

A CHILDREN'S BOOK OF DEMONS -- WTF?

Still looking for that last minute stocking stuffer for the kiddies? Look no further! Your local bastion of capitalism, WalMart, is stocking a controversial children's book of black magic from Koyama Press that makes Harry Potter magic look like a cheap sideshow trick. As much as I am interested in the subject, I know well enough that this could easily become a "gateway" book that could lead to some outrageous behavior. Beware, parents! Don't step on that toad -- it could be your kid! Coast 2 Coast covers the story:

A group of exorcists are sounding the alarm over a children's book that teaches youngsters to summon demons. The troubling tome, titled A Children's Book of Demons, was published back in July, but only captured the public's attention a few weeks ago when Walmart began selling the book. As one can imagine, this sparked a considerable outcry online from people concerned about exposing kids to the proverbial dark arts, despite the fact that the 'spells' contained in the book are fictional and center around things like avoiding chores or besting bullies.

The furor surrounding the book has now reached all the way to Rome by way of a scathing statement from an organization known as the International Association of Exorcists. Group president Father Francesco Bamonte wrote on their website that "you don't mess around with demons. Whoever invites a child to summon a demon is like a person who puts a grenade in their hands to play with. Sooner or later the child will pull the pin and the bomb will explode in their hands."

Bamonte specifically took issue with how the book presents a number of symbols that children are encouraged to draw in order to summon different demons. According to the exorcist, these sigils are remarkably similar to the ones found in genuine magical manuals, known as grimoires. As such, Bamonte chastised the book's author for "simplifying a grimoire as much as possible" and "transforming it into a fun game: the demonic seals act as a 'telephone number,' to contact the spirits of evil."

Ultimately, the exorcist lamented that the book represents the latest development in what he sees as a gradual "project" aimed at making demonic entities more palatable to the public and, eventually, culminating with "the explicit proposal to worship the devil." While Bamonte's lament may have merit, one can't help but imagine that the publishers of the book are probably thrilled at all the free publicity his group is giving to the 'demonic' guide.

From the publisher:

A Children’s Book of Demons
By Aaron Leighton

Don’t want to take out the trash tonight? Maybe you’re swimming in homework? Perhaps that big bully is being a real drag? Well grab your coloured pencils and sigil drawing skills and dial up some demons! This paranormal parody is filled to the brim with funny spirits more silly than scary!

AARON LEIGHTON is an award-winning illustrator and art director. His first book with Koyama Press, Spirit City Toronto, was published in 2010.

ISBN: 978-1-927668-66-5
$12.00
6.5 x 8”, 48 pages, full colour, paper over board

July 2019

FISH WITH A HUMAN FACE!

Fish With Human Face Stuns China!

A bizarre piece of footage out of China shows a fish that seems to sport the face of a human. The eerie video was reportedly filmed by a tourist visiting the city of Kunming earlier this week. While stopping a popular pond in the area, she caught sight of a strange fish, said to be a carp, in the water that appeared to possess the eyes, nose, and mouth of a person. The astounded witness mused to someone nearby "the fish has become a fairy, it has a human-like face."

The video quickly went viral in China after it was posted to the social media site Weibo with viewers offering all manner of opinions on the odd creature. Fortunately, there was nothing sinister or supernatural about the fish's unique 'condition' as the spooky visage was merely the result of markings on its body coincidentally resembling a face, likely 'enhanced' by the water. The phenomenon, so to speak, is actually not altogether rare for this particular species of fish as 'human-faced' carp spotted in England and Taiwan made similar headlines in recent years.



[SOURCE: Coast2Coast AM.]

Caught On Tape: Howl of a Bigfoot?

A chilling piece of footage from Canada features what appears to be a series of haunting howls coming from a forest and some suspect that the eerie screams could have come from a Bigfoot. The strange scene reportedly occurred earlier this month as Stargell Blackstar was grouse hunting with his wife and grandson at a rather remote wooded location around 30 miles Sioux Lookout, Ontario.

In a subsequent post of the video to YouTube, the bewildered witness says that the odd sounds lasted for around five minutes, but they were only able to film around 2 minutes of the weird event. In the footage, Stargell can be heard marveling "oh my God" as a number of unsettling howls repeatedly erupt out of the nearby forest.

At one point in the video, Stargell's grandson starts crying, which we imagine was a worrisome moment as the family probably would have preferred that whatever creature was behind the screams did not know they were there. To that end, some observers have suggested that the animal in question was the legendary Sasquatch. However skeptical viewers argue that the howls could have come from a moose or some other prosaic animal. 



[SOURCE: Coast2Coast AM.]

Canadian Professor Lost Her Job for Telling the Truth About ‘Endangered’ Polar Bears
James Delingpole | 27 Oct 2019

A Canadian university has frozen a zoologist out of her adjunct professor post as punishment for saying the unsayable about polar bears: that populations are thriving; that they are not endangered; that stories about how they are being caused to starve by melting summer sea ice are junk science #FakeNews.

Dr Susan Crockford is one of the world’s leading experts on polar bears and had held her post as Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada for 15 years.

But by speaking the truth about polar bears she fell foul of environmental activists who have long treated Ursus maritimus as one of the poster children for their “the Earth is doomed and it’s all our fault” narrative. As a result, without explanation, Crockford was ousted from her position at the university.

In an interview with Crockford this week for Breitbart News, I ask: ‘Do you think you’ve been blacklisted for telling inconvenient truths?’

She replies:

“Oh I absolutely do.”

Crockford’s “crime” was to point out that contrary to environmentalists’ computer projections, polar bear populations have increased, not decreased — despite “global warming”.

“What happened was that in 2007 there was a prediction that when sea ice declined to about 42 per cent below what it would have been in 1979 that two-thirds of the polar bears in the world would be gone. That would be 10 out of the 19 sub populations that exist.

But what has happened, we find from research, is that bear numbers have not gone down but in fact have gone up by at least 16 per cent and probably more. So the bears are thriving despite the fact that sea ice has declined dramatically.”

The “polar bears starving because of melting sea ice” story has been a staple of the green scare narrative.

In 2017, for example, footage of an emaciated polar bear rummaging pitifully through trash cans became a huge international story.

The video for National Geographic attracted over two million views. It was set to tear-jerking music and accompanied by the utterly dishonest and misleading message “This is what climate change looks like.”

In fact, as Crockford explains, this was the purest green #FakeNews.

“Starving is the leading natural cause of death for polar bears. It just happens.”

If the polar bear was starving to death, it was likely the result of its being old or sick — not because of melting summer sea ice.

Crockford says:

“Polar bears do most of their feeding in the spring time, not the summer. Starving polar bears don’t tell us anything about populations.”

[SOURCE: Breitbart.com]

"Blob" Creature Mystifies Scientists

A fascinating new exhibit at a zoo in Paris showcases a mysterious and bizarre creature dubbed the 'Blob.' The strange slime mold, which will reportedly be unveiled to the public for the first time this coming Saturday at the Paris Zoological Park, boasts an array of odd and rather wondrous characteristics that have left scientists scratching their heads. "The blob is really one of the most extraordinary things on Earth today," marveled museum director Bruno David, "it's been here for millions of years and we still really don't know what it is."

What makes the blob remarkable is that it lacks eyes, a mouth, a stomach, a brain, and a nervous system, yet it can accomplish a number of things which should seemingly be impossible. For example, the creature was stunningly able to navigate its way through a maze in order to find food, which it subsequently somehow consumed. Noting that the weird slime is apparently capable of memory, adapting its behavior, and solving problems, David observed that it seems to behave "like a little animal."

To that end, however, David noted that "we don't really know if it's an animal, if it's a fungus, if it's in between." The creature is made all the more confounding by the fact that it also boasts incredible healing powers and, if merged with another of its kind, can inexplicably share information with its counterpart. And, amazingly, in one experiment, scientists cut the creature into multiple pieces and it managed to reconstruct itself in a manner akin to what one might expect from a science fiction film.

Named after the 1958 Steve McQueen film The Blob, this particular form of the perplexing organism has been known to scientists for nearly 50 years, yet continues to astound researchers by what it is capable of doing and how it appears to defy classification. Ultimately, David mused that "the blob is a living being which belongs to one of nature's mysteries." And, adding one more achievement to the list, the creature is likely to become a star attraction at the zoo, despite resembling nothing more than a small puddle of goo.


.
[SOURCE: Coast2Coast AM.]

A Cultural Historian Explores an Old Mental Hospital, and Why They Scare Us
They are haunted, but not by ghosts.
By Troy Rondinone | 31 October 2019

RISING 200 FEET OUT OF the hills of rural West Virginia, a clock tower looms over a vast and empty collection of buildings that once housed thousands of people diagnosed with mental illness. After being shuttered for more than 20 years, since 2007 the Weston State Hospital has been open for business again under its original name—the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum—and caters to tourists interested in some combination of history and the paranormal. Some buildings are off-limits and most of the site is without electricity, but a considerable portion of it awaits the curious and the brave. As I pulled in to the vast, park-like grounds, the imposing, cut-stone main building leered in the late afternoon sun. The architecture is Gothic-inspired, and the windows dark—like it was made to evoke a sense of dread and mystery. But this is precisely not what the builders wanted to inspire.

I’m an academic historian of American culture at Southern Connecticut State University, and my trip to the Trans-Allegheny began years earlier, when I saw it featured late one night on a ghost-hunter television show. What was it that made this place so scary? Was it always that way? (According to the Travel Channel, the hospital is one of the 10 most haunted spots in the country.) I spent the next five years tracking the dark narrative of mental hospitals through fiction, memoir, film, media, and art. I watched hundreds of movies, read scores of novels, and pored over heaps of periodicals. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that Americans have always been deeply invested in what goes on within the walls of these institutions, and I began to understand why. The term “asylum” itself, which has negative connotations today, was originally used to evoke confidence, safety, and security. How and why this changed is part of this longer story of stigma, fear, and horror. A “ghost tour” through the Trans-Allegheny is the logical end of the story. Or perhaps, more precisely, the opening of another chapter.

THE TRANS-ALLEGHENY WAS ONCE AMONG the most expensive buildings in the United States. Ground broke on this massive collection of sandstone buildings in 1858, with the forced work of incarcerated African-American laborers, and continued on and off through the 1950s. Situated on over 300 acres, it was designed to evoke optimism and the spirit of reform that gave birth to similar mental hospitals around the country, beginning in the 1830s.

These public works were sold as monuments to healing, mansion-like and airy, with cutting-edge medical treatments and scientific architecture. Inside, a person committed there was said to encounter occupational therapy, medication, hydrotherapy, even hypnotherapy. Superintendents boasted that the older methods—chaining up the “mad” in basements—had been abolished. Straitjackets and strong rooms, it was said, would be used only sparingly. Clean air, baths, simple food, and healthful activities were considered cures for disorders of the mind, and the reported “cure” rates were—at least at first—terrific.

These “asylums”—the word in common use at the time—were meant to feel like a refuge, but were also products of a very different understanding of mental illness. As such, they also employed high doses of opium, bleeding, harsh purgatives, and devices such as the “Utica Crib” and the “phrenological hat.” Still, the institutions were not operated as though they had something to hide. Tourists were encouraged to visit, and postcards and even patient newspapers were printed for public consumption. In 1842, Charles Dickens called on a number of mental facilities during his American tour. He was famously unimpressed by Blackwell’s Island Asylum in New York, but found the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane in Hartford “admirably conducted” and the Boston Lunatic Asylum to be a place embodying “enlightened principles of conciliation and kindness.”

But even in those years, exposés, novels, and short stories began to cast America’s asylums as mysterious, even sinister. In 1833, one Robert Fuller called the McLean Asylum for the Insane in Massachusetts a “tyrannical Institution” and a “dungeon.” Isaac Hunt’s 1851 description of the Maine Insane Hospital told of a “most iniquitous, villainous system of inhumanity, that would more than match the bloodiest, darkest days of the Inquisition or the tragedies of the Bastille …” Pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft locked her protagonist up in an asylum for her controversial 1798 novel Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman. Edgar Allan Poe set a dark comedy, “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether,” at the fictional Maison de Santé hospital, where the protagonist encounters a mad doctor who lords over a topsy-turvy world ruled by the patients.

Without a firm understanding of the causes of mental illness, or more advanced pharmaceutical or therapeutic options, these places were never going to achieve their goal of humane treatment of mental illness—a goal we still grapple with today. By the end of the 19th century, the hospitals were clearly overwhelmed. Stays grew longer, treatments were revealed as ineffective, and conditions worsened markedly. And thanks to a widely copied 1890 New York state law that made the state wholly responsible for the care of people with serious mental illness, patients kept flooding in. Overworked doctors tried dangerous new drugs and treatments, or simply neglected their charges. Things were even worse in the segregated, “colored” hospitals for African Americans, which typically had much lower budgets and fewer treatment options. In an effort to reverse the bad publicity, superintendents started renaming their institutions “hospitals.” It made little difference.

The demise of these big state hospitals began in the late 1960s, spurred by the widespread availability of thorazine (called the “chemical lobotomy”), a new Medicaid provision that funneled federal mental health funds to nursing homes, and a new emphasis on outpatient care. Deinstitutionalization of mental illness emptied many struggling hospitals, but also put many former patients, damaged by their institutional quarantine, on the streets and in prison.

This larger historical arc is mirrored, beat for beat, in the history of the Trans-Allegheny. Inspired, like many of the large state hospitals, by physician-reformer Thomas Story Kirkbride, it was designed for “moral treatment.” Kirkbride’s animating idea was that space, air, and rest would cure most cases of mental illness, hence the wings were set back in a staggered pattern to facilitate maximum light and air into each ward, and the grounds were planned with pleasant walkways, lawns, and fish ponds. Renamed the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane by the new state government of West Virginia in 1863, it welcomed its first batch of 20 patients in fall 1864. By 1881, the massive clock tower and the fourth wing of the main structure were completed, at significant cost to the state. It was touted as the largest hand-cut stone building in America.

The hospital was designed for 250 patients, but by the end of the century there were nearly 500 in residence. Intake diagnoses included “hereditary,” “epilepsy,” “menstrual,” and “masturbation.” By that time the cure rate was reported as 26 percent, much lower than earlier levels. Another name change, to Weston State Hospital in 1915, reflected a lack of confidence in the operation of the hospital, and within a couple of decades, the patient population was more than 2,000. New treatments, such as electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomies, were introduced. The crowding increased and conditions further declined.

By the time the hospital closed, at the tail end of nationwide deinstitutionalization, in 1994, it had lived through the lifecycle of just about every American mental hospital: early optimism, local boosterism, poor results, declining conditions, overcrowding, and finally desperation and closure. As with other hospitals, Weston shut its doors after years of diminishing support and patient numbers.

The grand old abandoned asylums carry the weight of a heavy past. Many are Kirkbride structures: massive faces, extended bat-like wings, tall ceilings, and extensive facilities. Cupolas and towers top many of them, which look castle-like. Nature has reclaimed many of the forgotten ones, which makes them alluring and hazardous. Hydrotherapy tubs, ventilation pipes, broken toilets, empty bed frames, and rotting dance floors: The mental hospital has become core to the idea of “ruin porn.” And for good reason. These features that these sites are known for, frankly, have long been associated with hauntings in popular culture.

Some states have declared their abandoned hospitals strictly off-limits, citing health hazards, including asbestos. Some hospitals have been repurposed. Fairfield State in Newtown, Connecticut, for example, has recycled and updated some of the buildings for municipal functions, and added a large youth sports complex to the site. Others, such as Blackwell’s Island (on what is now called Roosevelt Island) combined demolition with extensive refurbishment to create luxurious private living and commercial spaces. And then there are the hospitals that have entered the paranormal tourist trade.

In 2007, a contractor purchased the derelict Weston building from the state at auction for $1.5 million. The new owners revived its original, more frightening, less socially acceptable name, and began a program of limited restoration and courting of audiences interested in history or that like a good scare. The employees at Trans-Allegheny report that the site, as an attraction, has been a great boon to a local economy, which calls to mind the civic optimism that came along with its construction in the 19th century.

I arrived at Trans-Allegheny in the afternoon, and my experience began with a historical tour led by a docent dressed as a nurse. She explained the history of the buildings in great detail and related the stories of some of the patients with sensitivity and a modern understanding of mental illness. We meandered through a section of the central building, including a small museum, medical facilities, and the parklike courtyard in the back. A few spaces, such as one well-appointed hallway section, have been renovated to their midcentury splendor, with period furniture, fresh paint, and carpeting. In other places peeling paint and grimy floors spoke to the fact that most of the building has been untouched since 1994, and in many cases much earlier.

BUT I HAD SIGNED UP for more than the history experience. I was to return that night for the “Ghost Hunt,” in which about 30 visitors were allowed to see much more of the hospital between 9 pm and 5 am. I arrived that evening with a thermos of Starbucks, some snacks, a notepad, a headlamp, and a Ghost Meter EMF sensor (purchased online for $39.95). I wanted to understand the place that the old asylums have taken in the modern American imagination.

The large group was broken up into teams of 10 or so, and each was led through tours of different floors within the massive central building and its attached wings. The guides related history and legend and then let us wander freely for an hour or so in each new area. Walking through such a dark space is disconcerting and disorienting by itself. With my headlamp on a subdued setting, I could make out objects and doors but little else until I got close up. There were many times that I found myself alone. The hallways were staggered, and opened onto bedrooms, offices, bathrooms. One section had a row of cells. Wheelchairs seemed to have been strategically placed. My EMF device remained quiet.

In one area, a guide told me about Big Jim, who, it is said, murdered another patient with a bedpost. Here was the process for contacting him. Sit in the dark room and unscrew the head of your flashlight until bulb and battery lead are just disconnected. Then ask Big Jim a question and wait to see if his spirit would make the connection to make the light flicker on. There was some flickering, which means that it was at least a very good story to tell your friends later. I returned there later, after the tour, and sat in the dark room across the hall, my headlamp off, curious if something would happen—some noise or creak or visual artifact of the kind that tends to inspire ghost stories.

There was nothing, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying.

As the night went on, I continued patrolling the dark halls, sometimes away from the group, and I heard the sounds and thought I saw things in the shadows (though nothing that couldn’t be explained a dozen ways by animals, architecture, and the psychology of the unknown). I entered rooms and sat as still as I could. I checked that ghost meter. If there was a sensation that stuck with me, it might be the smell of old cigarette smoke—a direct sensory connection with the departed residents, it seemed. I’m a scholar, a skeptic, someone who knows how, over the years, a drumbeat of movies, rumors, horror stories, and more have made the classic American state mental hospital into an object of terror—maybe the most haunted class of buildings in the country. I know all that. But it’s impossible not to be affected by this.

These abandoned hospitals still have a lot to teach us. And sometimes that’s what’s most scary about them. None of us visitors slept that night, but rather spent the whole time exploring. I left in the light of the morning, tired but glad that I had had the experience. I neither saw nor heard any evidence of the supernatural, but I recalled all the stories and films from my years of research and started to see them in a new way. We, as a society, created these horrors, in allowing the overcrowding and decline of places of healing, in the stigmatization of people with mental illness, in the mistreatment of even the staff. Something about spending the night in the facility let me trace this path of hope and despair for myself.

[SOURCE: Atlas Obscura.]

How Mexico’s Most Sorrowful Spirit Became a Cultural Phenomenon
As America’s immigrant population grows, so does La Llorona’s cultural stature.
By Winnie Lee | 30 October 2019

DURING THE MAKING OF THE 2019 horror movie The Curse of La Llorona, some of the cast and crew were convinced that the spirit of La Llorona—Spanish for The Weeping Woman—lurked about. They were spooked by inexplicable cold chills and exploding jewelry on set, unexplained flickering lights and screaming dreams.

“We did have some creepy supernatural occurrences,” the director, Michael Chaves, told the Los Angeles Times. “Half the crew actually does believe the house that we shot in was haunted, and there might have been something to that.” Actress Patricia Velasquez added, “I think she was there just making sure we were doing right by her.”

In the film, the titular character is the ghost of a mother from 17th-century Mexico who drowned her sons and now haunts the living with her inconsolable crying. Dressed in white, she spends her days looking for other children to steal.

Off the screen, La Llorona is a well-known and pervasive legend who serves as a cautionary tale for multiple generations in Latinx households, often invoked to scare kids and stop them from misbehaving. Known throughout Central and South America but most often associated with Mexico, her story varies according to who tells it.

In some versions, she’s an indigenous woman who’s so enraged by her husband’s infidelity that she vengefully murders their children in a nearby river, then drowns herself in grief and remorse. In other versions, she blames her offspring for her lover’s desertion and throws them to their death in the river.

Regardless of which version is told, each tale results in her being doomed to wander the earth, always near water, wailing for her little ones (and thus earning her sad name). What earns her a scary reputation, is that La Llorona doesn’t just kidnap youngsters. She also brings woe and death to those who hear her cries or get in her way.

“The versions of the story we see today—including movies (The Curse of La Llorona, Mama, and La Leyenda de La Llorona) and television shows (the series Grimm)—all emphasize the spooky or frightening aspects of the story,” says Domino Renee Perez, author of the book There Was a Woman: La Llorona from Folklore to Popular Culture and associate chair of the English department at the University of Texas at Austin. “That this wandering woman who weeps will get you if you don’t watch out.”

Other, more complex versions of the grieving woman exist. She’s sometimes associated with Doña Marina, or La Malinche—the Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast who served as an interpreter, adviser, and mistress to Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, bore his child, and was then deserted by him (to compound her misery, she’s sometimes portrayed as a traitor for siding with the Spanish).

Other times, the mourning lady is thought of as an Aztec goddess whose weeping was an omen that predicted the Spanish arrival and ensuing slaughter of indigenous groups—an aggrieved deity who continues to weep to this day.

In Xochimilco, a section of Mexico City that’s called the Venice of Mexico, during an open-air theatrical spectacle that bears her name, La Llorona is portrayed as a woman warrior who kills herself and her baby to avoid leaving her land and people, swearing vengeance against the Spaniards. The performance—which has taken place each year on the water since 1993, to coincide with the Day of the Dead—was created to promote the history, ancient cultural traditions, and natural beauty of Xochimilco’s water canals, which date back to pre-Hispanic times.

Ultimately, what ties all these different stories together is the thread of overwhelming grief. “It’s a story about loss,” says Perez, “and the many ways that the woman at the center of the story chooses to respond to that loss. It’s also about how a community responds to her actions.”

Though her actions can be interpreted in a variety of ways, La Llorona has recently become more visible outside the Latinx population—not just in the arts and media but in mundane items such as cocktails and towels. Her myth may date back centuries, but her growing popularity today is a sign of the times, says Perez: “I think that as the Mexican-American and Mexican-immigrant populations continue to grow [in the U.S.], more and more of our stories, cultural practices, and customs are finding their way into the mainstream.”

For the Latinx community, The Weeping Woman is such a familiar and subjective subject, says Perez, that she’s malleable enough to be more than just a tool to discipline naughty kids. In fact, she can be—and is fast becoming—a potent and enduring cultural symbol.

“The story also has a timelessness to it,” says Perez, “dating back to pre-conquest portents foretelling, for some, the fall of the Aztec Empire and extending into the present, where thousands of women are being separated from their children at the border. La Llorona remains relevant, and as long as she does, her story will continue to be told.”

[SOURCE: Atlas Obscura.]