Paranormal Magazine

Ron Halliday has spent the last 30 years of his life trying to explain the unexplained. The author, whose books include UFO Scotland and Edinburgh After Dark, believes Scotland is now a haven of UFO activity.

In an exclusive interview with STV, Ron – a 60-year-old retired assistant registrar at Stirling University – said: “I think Scotland is like a world hot spot. All the UFO sightings. All the ghost sightings. All the monster sightings. Poltergeists.

“There is just so much that goes on in Scotland, it is absolutely incredible. It is very hard to explain why Scotland has all these reported incidents.”

Ron became interested in UFOs from a young age and started to research it seriously when he was 30. But what is it about the unexplained which interests him and millions of others around the world?

“The whole mystery of it. People claim all these strange experiences which are at odds with our everyday reality. You don’t walk down the street and expect to see an alien. The whole thing just seems completely bizarre.

“Things like Independence Day and The X-Files have stimulated people’s interest in the whole subject. It the media show interest in UFOs then it definitely generates more UFO reports because people come forward and say they have seen things.

“There are so many people taking photos these days, but there is also greater scepticism. It is very easy to fabricate a UFO picture. The thing that people interested in UFOs find hard to accept is why aliens don’t just land in George Square in Glasgow so TV crews can come and film them?

“I am sceptical too. But when you speak to people who have had these experiences, get their perspective on the thing – there is no particular reason why they would make this up.”

Read on at news.stv.tv for a run down of Halliday’s top ten paranormal happenings in Scotland.

Genealogists have traced the heritage of ‘Twilight’ star to supposed Dracula inspiration, Vlad the Impaler…

Robert Pattinson isn’t the only famous vampire in his family.

Genealogists said the 24-year-old “Twilight” star is related to Vlad the Impaler, widely cited as the inspiration for the main character in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”

Researchers at Ancestry.com discovered that Pattinson and the Transylvanian leader (real name: Vlad III Dracula) are connected through their relationship to the British royal family. Prince William and Prince Harry are Pattinson’s distant cousins; Vlad the Impaler was their distant uncle.

“Tracing Pattinson’s family back to Vlad was difficult research, but the pieces that unraveled created the perfect accompaniment to the Twilight Saga,” said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com. “Without any myth or magic, we find royalty and vampires lurking in Pattinson’s life — making his story just as supernatural as the one he’s playing on screen.”

Also connected to the prince’s lineage and therefore to Dracula? Stephenie Meyer, the author of the “Twilight” series.

The latest big-screen installment in the popular vampire saga, “Eclipse,” opens July 8.

[via: fox5vegas.com]

FOLLOWING A period of intense prayer during which he knelt on damp grass as he gazed heavenwards at Knock shrine yesterday, self-proclaimed visionary Joe Coleman claimed he had been imparted a “fantastic message” by Our Lady.

Jabbing his finger at a cloudy sky, Mr Coleman said: “I seen her there and I seen her there. She did make herself known.”

Although reluctant to go into any details about the “message” he had received, Mr Coleman did say the Blessed Virgin had been angry about the way he had been treated by shrine authorities.

He complained that he and his followers had not been allowed to pray as they had wished in the Apparition Chapel, “part of the largest shrine in the world dedicated to Our Blessed Lady”.

About 200 people attended yesterday’s event, a much smaller turnout than previous “visions”.

[via: irishtimes.com]

A New Zealand man claimed he was bitten by three people who allegedly drank his blood during a vampire-style attack in the dark.

Details of the bizarre late night incident on Mount Victoria, an unlit beauty spot that overlooks the capital, Wellington, emerged after two people appeared in court jointly charged with wounding with intent to render a man unconscious.

James Phillip Brooks, 22, and Xenia Gregoriana Borichevsky, 19, were both remanded on bail without entering a plea.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of a third accused, James Eric Orr, 19, who failed to appear at Wellington District Court.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail.

It is believed the victim, whose name has been suppressed by the court, passed out after being bitten on the night of February 20.

Outside the court, Mr Brooks said he understood there was blood drinking during the incident but added: “That wasn’t me.

“Do I look like a vampire? I’m out during the daytime,” he told the city’s Dominion-Post newspaper.

Mr Brooks, who has a number of facial piercings and a mohawk haircut, said: “I may look like a punk but I’m not a punk. I’m just different.

“Yeah, I bit a guy. He hit on my missus. My girlfriend and my mate were biting him.

“If I’d hit him, I’d have really hurt him, so I thought I’ll bite him seeing as they’re already biting him.”

He said drinking blood “wasn’t my agenda”.

Police refused to discuss the case because it is before the courts.

Ms Borichevsky’s bail conditions were relaxed by the court after her lawyer asked the judge to lift a night-time curfew on her.

Dr Marc Wilson, a senior lecturer in psychology at Wellington’s Victoria University, who specialises in studying paranormal beliefs, said drinking human blood was “incredibly unusual”.

He said human teeth were not designed for breaking skin and sucking blood.

“You could do it but you would have to really want to.”

[via: telegraph.co.uk]

A mystery beast that resembles a chupacabra (”goat-sucker”), a legendary, fearsome and possibly mythical beast said to inhabit parts of the Americas and Puerto Rico, is seen shortly after its capture in a village in Suining, Sichuan Province on March 24.

In this case, the gray colored animal wasn’t attacking goats, but chickens and it was the fowls’ cries that alerted village Ke Suying to find the mystery predator tearing into his birds. He tried to drive it away with a stick but failed, though later with the help of neighbors caught it in a steel net.

It resembles a large rat or a mutant mix of kangaroo and dog, with large claws. It is about 60 centimeters long, with a 30-centimeter tail. Villagers describe it as “quite fierce” and said it ravenously consumes both meat and vegetables fed to it.

Most of its brown fur has fallen out, with only a little left on its back and a front foot.

The creature has been given to the Sichuan Province forestry department for further examination.

[via: life.globaltimes.cn]

When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go on then — kill me,” he said.

Mr Edamaruku had been invited to the same talk show as head of the Indian Rationalists’ Association — the country’s self-appointed sceptic-in-chief. At first the holy man, Pandit Surender Sharma, was reluctant, but eventually he agreed to perform a series of rituals designed to kill Mr Edamaruku live on television. Millions tuned in as the channel cancelled scheduled programming to continue broadcasting the showdown, which can still be viewed on YouTube.

First, the master chanted mantras, then he sprinkled water on his intended victim. He brandished a knife, ruffled the sceptic’s hair and pressed his temples. But after several hours of similar antics, Mr Edamaruku was still very much alive — smiling for the cameras and taunting the furious holy man.

“He was over, finished, completely destroyed!” Mr Edamaruku chuckles triumphantly as he concludes the tale in the Rationalist Centre, his second-floor office in the town of Noida, just outside Delhi.

[via: timesonline.co.uk]

US police are searching for a man who bit a taxi-driver on the neck like a vampire.

Officers in New York are currently searching for the male who threatened the driver with a semi-automatic handgun and attempted to rob him.

When the driver refused to hand over his takings, the man lunged at the taxi driver’s neck, back and arms and bit down hard.

The attempted burglar was being driven near the Bronx Community College, when the driver refused his requests and he eventually ran from the scene with empty hands.

[via: entertainment.stv.tv]

The Vatican has announced a commission to investigate claims that the Virgin Mary appears on a daily basis in a town in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Six children first reported the apparition in the town of Medjugorje in June 1981.

However, the sightings have not yet received official recognition from the Catholic Church.

The 20-strong commission will report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the top doctrinal body.

For almost 30 years, the Virgin Mary has been said to appear daily in Medjugorje, dressed sometimes in a grey dress and veil and sometimes in gold, crowned with stars and floating on a cloud.

It is said she speaks in Croatian, uttering the words: “I’ve come because there are many true believers here. I wish to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world.”

It is also said that three flashes of light precede her apparitions, during which the voices of the visionaries can no longer be heard.

But the Catholic Church has long debated the credibility of the sightings.

There was a recent visit by a cardinal from Vienna, Christoph Schoenberg.

But the bishop of neighbouring Mostar has frequently criticised unquestioning belief in the claims.

Until the commission reports back to the Church’s top doctrinal body, believers are likely to continue to flock to this small Bosnian town.

Around 30 million are estimated to have visited since the first sighting of what they call “Our Lady”.

[via: news.bbc.co.uk]

Devotees of a Miami man claiming to practice a traditional African religion say they had to ingest the mucus of a Giant African Snail that made them ill in the process.

Federal authorities in January raided Charles L. Stewart’s home after receiving complaints.

Stewart has not been criminally charged, but prosecutors and state and federal wildlife agencies are investigating. The Giant African Snail is prohibited in the U.S. without special approval.

Experts say it devastates new ecosystems. The snail grows up to 10 inches long, can reproduce on its own and can even eat plaster.

Stewart says he means no harm, and his religion uses the snails in healing ceremonies.

Followers said they got violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their stomachs.

[via: cbsnews.com]

Archaeologists have begun the search for an ancient civilization in southern Spain that some believe could help pinpoint the legendary lost city of Atlantis.

A team of researchers from Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Study (CSIC) are examining a marshy area of Andalusian parkland to find evidence of a 3,000-year-old settlement.

They believe that Tartessos, a wealthy civilization in southern Iberia that predates the Phoenicians, may have had its capital in the heart of what is now the Donana national park.

Until now historians had dismissed the region as a possible site believing that it had been submerged since the ice age. But it is claimed new evidence suggests the waters may have receded in time for the Tartessians to build an urban centre, which was later destroyed in a tsunami.

The Hinojos marshes, an area close to the mouth of the Guadalquiver river where it meets the Atlantic, have now been pinpointed as the site most likely to provide evidence of a lost city.

Archaeological findings have already proved the existence of Tartessian culture at sites on the opposite bank of the river.

“If they existed on the other side, they must also have been here (in Donana),” Sebastian Celestino, the archaeologist leading the project told the newspaper El Pais.

“There were earthquakes and one of them caused a tsunami that razed everything and which coincided with the era in which Tartessian power was at its height.”

Aerial photos show the existence of large circular and rectangular forms that could not have been produced by nature.

The images, together with literary accounts by ancient Greek geographers have given weight to the theory that a great Tartessian city once existed within the park.

The Tartessian civilization, which developed in southern Spain between the 11th and 7th centuries BC and became rich trading gold and silver from local mines, has long been linked by mythologists to the Atlantis legend.

While the Spanish researchers refuse to speculate on whether they are on the brink of discovering Atlantis others believe their research could be a breakthrough in a centuries old quest.

“Evidence is mounting that suggests the story of Atlantis was not mere fiction, fable or myth, but a true story as Plato always maintained,” said Georgeos Diaz-Montexano, a Cuban archeologist who has spent the last 15 years searching for the submerged city.

“Atlantis is not exactly where the CSIC is looking, but it is close,” he claimed.

The theory is just the latest in a long list of suggested locations for Atlantis, including various Mediterranean islands, the Azores, the Sahara desert, Central America and Antarctica.

[via: questfornews.blogspot.com]

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