The most extraordinary and credible research into the ghost phenomenon ever documented is the so-called "Ghosts of Flight 401."
On December of 1972, an Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401,
crashed into a Florida swamp. The pilot, Bob Loft (on the left), and
flight engineer Don Repo (on the right), were two of the 101 people who
perished in the air crash. Not long after the crash, the ghosts of Loft
and Repo were seen on more than twenty occasions by crew members on
other Eastern Tri-Stars, especially those planes which had been fitted
with parts salvaged from the Flight 401 wreckage. The apparitions of
Loft and Repo were invariably described as being extremely lifelike.
They were not only reported by people who had known Loft and Repo, but
their ghosts were also subsequently identified from photographs by
people who had not known Loft and Repo.
The strange tales of the ghostly airmen of Flight of 401
circulated in the airline community. An account of the paranormal
happenings even appeared in a 1974 US Flight Safety Foundation's
newsletter. John G. Fuller, the best-selling author of The Ghost of Flight 401,
carried out an exhaustive investigation into the hauntings with the aid
of several cautious airline personnel. A mass of compelling testimony
was produced as a result. The website Flight 401 – The Black Box Story
provides an account of the crash as told using material from the Black
Box. It highlights how poor cockpit resource management caused a tiny
light bulb to distract the pilots and bring down a Tristar jetliner.
The cause of the crash was found to be a couple of minor design faults
in the controls, and Lockheed rapidly corrected them. However, it was
after some of the undamaged parts of the aircraft were subsequently
recycled onto other planes that the mysterious incidents began to be
reported. Although Eastern Airlines refuses to discuss the matter,
researchers have interviewed numerous individuals claiming to have
encountered the ill-fated pair on L-1011s. As the reports would have it,
Loft and Repo have devoted their after-lives to watching over the
passengers and crew of these Lockheed passenger planes.
Many of the testimonies are extremely persuasive. Many come from people
in highly responsible positions: pilots, flight officers, even a vice
president of Eastern Airlines, who allegedly spoke with a captain he
assumed was in charge of the flight, before recognizing him as the late
Loft.
Ghosts of Flight 401 - The official airline of the paranormal
The
Great Train Robbery is the name given to a £2.6 million train robbery
(the equivalent of £41 million today) committed on 8 August 1963 at
Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire,
England. The bulk of the stolen money was not recovered. Three robbers
were never found, two convicted robbers escaped. One convicted was most
likely never involved, and died in prison. Though there were no firearms
involved, the standard judgment was 30 years.
Planning the robbery
The robbery was planned by several parties with no overall mastermind.
Although the robbery operation itself was planned and executed by the
late Bruce Reynolds, the target and the information came from a still
unknown individual dubbed the "Ulsterman". The key field organisers were
Gordon Goody, Buster Edwards and Charlie Wilson, with Brian Field being
the key link between the robbers and the informant.
At 6:50 PM on Wednesday 7 August 1963 the travelling post office (TPO)
"Up Special" train set off from Glasgow Central Station, Scotland en
route to Euston Station in London. The train was hauled by an English
Electric Type 4 (later Class 40) diesel-electric locomotive numbered at
the time as D326 (later renumbered 40 126). The train consisted of 12
carriages and carried 72 Post Office staff who sorted mail during the
journey.
Mail was loaded onto the train at Glasgow and also during station stops
en route, as well as from line-side collection points where local post
office staff would hang mail sacks on elevated track-side hooks which
were caught by nets deployed by the on-board staff. Sorted mail on the
train could also be dropped off at the same time. This process of
exchange allowed mail to be distributed locally without delaying the
train with unnecessary station stops. One of the carriages involved in
the robbery is preserved at the Severn Valley Railway.
The second carriage behind the engine was known as the HVP (High Value
Packages) coach, which carried large quantities of money, as well as
registered mail for sorting. Usually the value of the shipment was in
the region of £300,000, but because there had been a Bank Holiday
weekend in Scotland, the total on the day of the robbery was £2.6
million (equivalent to about £43 million in 2012 RPI terms).
The Great Train Robbery - Unsolved Mystery
Please Don't Touch - Unless You Want a Baby!
More than 2,000 women have reported that they became pregnant shortly after touching the wooden fertility statues.
Many of them had been told by doctors they would never be able to
conceive. Some are very serious about touching the statues, believing in
their powers to help them conceive. Others want to avoid touching the fertlity statues
- for the very same reason! The five-foot tall wooden statues were
acquired from the Ivory Coast of West Africa in 1993 and were placed in
the lobby of Ripley Entertainment's corporate headquarters in Orlando.
Within months, 13 women, including staffers and office visitors were
pregnant.
A Little History
The five foot tall wooden statues were acquired from the Baule people of
the Ivory Coast of West Africa and within a year of going on display at
Ripley Entertainment’s head office in Orlando, Florida, 13 office staff
and visitors became pregnant.
The
idea of fertility statues appear in a variety of cultures. Fertility
statues serve both as a tribute to whatever fertility gods that the
locals believe in, as well as often a mystical totem which helps the
women of a given tribe to conceive and bear healthy children. These
fertility statues may resemble people, or they can look like some
particular animal that is associated with fertility in that culture.
Archaeological digs have turned up a variety of these sorts of statues,
from the Norse goddess Freya riding a boar to the statue of a fat woman
found in the ruins of the Tarxien temples on the island of Malta.
The Legend of the African Fertility Statues
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According to legend, Pope Joan was a woman who concealed her gender and
ruled as pope for two years, from 853-855 ad. Her identity was exposed
when, riding one day from St. Peter's to the Lateran, she stopped by the
side of the road and, to the astonishment of everyone, gave birth to a
child.
Pope Joan was a legendary female Pope who allegedly reigned for a few
years some time during the Middle Ages. The story first appeared in
13th-century chronicles, and was subsequently spread and embellished
throughout Europe. It was widely believed for centuries, though modern
religious scholars consider it fictitious, perhaps deriving from
historicized folklore regarding Roman monuments or from anti-papal
satire.
The first mention of the female pope appears in the chronicle of Jean de
Mailly, but the most popular and influential version was that
interpolated into Martin of Troppau's Chronicon Pontificum et
Imperatorum, later in the 13th century. Most versions of her story
describe her as a talented and learned woman who disguises herself as a
man, often at the behest of a lover. In the most common accounts, due to
her abilities, she rises through the church hierarchy, eventually being
elected pope. However, while riding on horseback, she gives birth, thus
exposing her gender. In most versions, she dies shortly after, either
being killed by an angry mob or from natural causes. Her memory is then
shunned by her successors.
Mysterious Woman Pope Who Just Won't Go Away
