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| Are you bemused by Bigfoot? Perplexed by Pyramid Power? Confused about crop circles?Here's my top 10 unexplained mysteries of the world - explained. |
1. The Unexplained Mystery of The Out of Body Experience
WHERE? For thousands of years, countless individuals from cultures around the world have reported what we now term as out of body experiences. Because it feels so real, it's interpreted as a literal separation of a mind or soul from the physical body.
WHAT'S THE STORY? Such an event appears to be strong evidence for a spirit world, afterlife, and even alternate dimensions in which other intelligent beings exist. Could the OBE really prove the existence of life after death?
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| OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES EXPLAINED |
OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES EXPLAINED. As a lucid dreamer I'm familiar with the out-of-body state. It all takes place inside the grand theater of your mind. Just practising a Wake Initiated Lucid Dream can induce an OBE, which exists on a spectrum of sleep-wake borderland experiences, near sleep paralysis.Instead of projecting your awareness into a fanciful dreamworld (as in a WILD) you find yourself aware of the sleep paralysis which prevents you from acting our your dreams. You're in a replica of your bedroom, floating above your "body". This is spurred by diminishing bodily sensations as you fall asleep physically.
TELL ME MORE? So convinced that the experience is real, out of body explorers have long tried to prove its validity by trying to obtain data from faraway locations. Unfortunately nothing definitive has emerged under the necessary scientific conditions to lend credence to the true OBE state.
WHERE? The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt really are something special. We still don't really know how the Egyptians built the largest pyramid of all, known as the Great Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu), some 5,000 years ago. Remember, this was even before the invention of the wheel.The Pyramid of Cheops is the size of a 40-storey building and covers an area big enough to fit 10 football fields in it. More than 2 million stone blocks were used to make the pyramid, each weighing 2-5 tons and cut from a distant limestone quarry on the other side of the Nile. Experts reckon it took 400,000 men some 20 years to complete.
WHAT'S THE STORY? Engineering feats aside, these structures are claimed by some to possess the unexplained phenomenon of Pyramid Power. In the 1940s, a Czech radio engineer named Karel Drbal claimed that small pyramids of the same relative dimensions as the Great Pyramid (on a 1:1,000 scale) could sharpen razor blades. His explanation was that the pyramid shape focuses cosmic energy when precisely aligned on the north-south axis, which can renew the crystalline structure of steel.
2.The Unexplained Mystery of Pyramid Power
WHERE? The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt really are something special. We still don't really know how the Egyptians built the largest pyramid of all, known as the Great Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu), some 5,000 years ago. Remember, this was even before the invention of the wheel.The Pyramid of Cheops is the size of a 40-storey building and covers an area big enough to fit 10 football fields in it. More than 2 million stone blocks were used to make the pyramid, each weighing 2-5 tons and cut from a distant limestone quarry on the other side of the Nile. Experts reckon it took 400,000 men some 20 years to complete.
WHAT'S THE STORY? Engineering feats aside, these structures are claimed by some to possess the unexplained phenomenon of Pyramid Power. In the 1940s, a Czech radio engineer named Karel Drbal claimed that small pyramids of the same relative dimensions as the Great Pyramid (on a 1:1,000 scale) could sharpen razor blades. His explanation was that the pyramid shape focuses cosmic energy when precisely aligned on the north-south axis, which can renew the crystalline structure of steel.
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| Does the pyramid shape tap into supernatural cosmic powers? |
PYRAMID POWER EXPLAINED.Despite the claims of Drbal and others, there is no scientific evidence that Pyramid Power exists. It is a cut and dry myth, presumably driven by the compelling nature of pyramids and their ancient, unexplained origins.
But as the Skeptic's Dictionary enthusiastically points out: "That almost anything in the universe can be found to have interesting mathematical proportions or be related to several interesting mathematical formulae is of little interest to pyramidiots."
TELL ME MORE? As the neurologist Terence Hines wrote: "Pyramid Power became quite a craze in the world of pseudoscience for a brief time in the mid-1970s. The idea was that the pyramidal shape itself was magical and filled with a mysterious energy and power."
"Pyramid Power claims have actually been tested. In 1973, Alter and Simmons showed that pyramid-shaped containers were no more effective than any other shape at preserving organic matter (flowers or meat) placed in them. Nor did putting dull razor blades in a pyramid-shaped holder restore them to sharpness."
3.The Unexplained Mystery of The Belmez Faces
WHERE? In 1971, in the small Spanish village of Belmez, Maria Pereira claimed a human face spontaneously appeared on her cement kitchen floor. It wasn't long before she destroyed the floor and replaced it - and a new face promptly appeared.
WHAT'S THE STORY? More and more faces continued to appear on the floor of Pereira's kitchen, attracting thousands of visitors every day. Some were male, some female, some large, and some small. In time, she discovered that the house, built around 1830, apparently stood above a graveyard used by the Romans, Spanish Muslims and then Medieval Christians.
Paranormal fans suggest that the faces were manifested on the floor by telekinesis. This notion was based on claim that the expressions on their faces used to change with the mood of Maria Pereira.
THE BELMEZ FACES EXPLAINED. For a long time, skeptics suspected that Maria Pereira painted the faces herself. But this didn't really add up - because she never benefited financially from all the attention. She lived a simple life in that same house and eventually died in 2004.
TELL ME MORE? It wasn't until recently that technology could explain this mystery. Scientific analysis of the molecular changes in the whitewash proved that some fakery was involved. Many now believe that the paintings were actually created by Maria's mischievous son, Diego Pereira, who dedicated years to spooking his long-suffering mother.
4. The Unexplained Mystery of The Mayan Prophecy
WHERE? According to some, the Mayan prophecy states that the entire world as we know it will end on December 21, 2012.
WHAT'S THE STORY? The prophecy is based on the idea that when the ancient Mayans plotted our position in the Milky Way, they created an astrological calendar. They predicted that at the Winter Solstice in 2012, the Earth would pass into a new astrological phase. New Agers interpreted this as news that something dramatic would happen - namely, a global Apocalypse, or end of times, Biblical style.
THE MAYAN PROPHECY EXPLAINED. Mayan scholars report that there is no evidence to show that the Mayans ever made any kind of doomsday prophecy. Calendars keep track of the passage of time; they do not predict the future. The Mayan calendar had to end somewhere. Not only does it end, but it begins again in a new cycle, just as your calendar ends on December 31 and begins again on January 1.
TELL ME MORE? This is not a new phenomena: as landmark dates draw near, end-of-the-world theories creep out of the woodwork with astonishing popularity. People love this Armageddon stuff.
Unfortunately for fans of the Mayan Prophecy, there is no evidence to support the idea that the alignment of planets in relation to distant star constellations viewed from our Earthly perspective has anything to do with life on Earth. It's about as scientifically reliable as reading your horoscope.
WHERE? Stonehenge is a legendary neolithic monument made using stones transported to the Wiltshire countryside from Wales and built for unknown purpose.
WHAT'S THE STORY? Stonehenge is truly one of the great unexplained mysteries of the world. It's no hoax - estimated to be more than 5,000 years old - and is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain.
5.The Unexplained Mystery of Stonehenge
WHERE? Stonehenge is a legendary neolithic monument made using stones transported to the Wiltshire countryside from Wales and built for unknown purpose.
WHAT'S THE STORY? Stonehenge is truly one of the great unexplained mysteries of the world. It's no hoax - estimated to be more than 5,000 years old - and is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain.
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| How - and why - was Stonehenge created? |
STONEHENGE EXPLAINED. For thousands of years, Stonehenge has stood silently, giving away few clues as to the meaning of its existence.However, excavations have revealed that Stonehenge was built in four stages:In 3100 BC, a series of holes were dug for religious ceremony.
More than 1,000 years later, the most dramatic stage of building took place. Huge bluestones from mountains in Wales were lugged more than 240 miles to the Stonehenge site. (Why would anyone do this in the age before the wheel? And how would they accomplish such a feat? These remain true unexplained mysteries, because it really wouldn't have been hard to find rocks closer nearby.) The stones were then set up to form an incomplete double circle, aligned perfectly with the midsummer sunrise.
The third stage, in 2000 BC, saw the arrival of more stones, transported by land from the Marlborough Downs some 25 miles away.Finally, after another 500 years and numerous generations had passed, someone felt the need to rearrange the massive Welsh bluestones into the familiar horseshoe and circle we see today.
TELL ME MORE? Actually I can't. One of the great unexplained mysteries of ancient man, the meaning of Stonehenge is still not clear today. Was it a temple, a burial ground, an observatory, or an ancient calendar? We may never know.
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