Yearly Archives: 2017

Anti-globular convictions: Flat Earth belief explodes in popularity

By | November 22, 2017

The flat earth idea vies for the most alternative geological idea out there. But the spookiest part may be the suggestion that the church, scientists, the government, the media, and private businesses are all conspiring to hide the truth from the rest of civilization. Flat earth ideas have gained traction as they have become political.

Strange lights and levitating rocks at Arkansas crystal mine

By | September 21, 2017

Examining the claims from the owners of a crystal mine tourist site in Arkansas who say that strange anomalies, including balls of light and levitation, occur on the site.

Confessions about Confessions of Ghost Hunters

By | July 22, 2017

There are three books that are explicitly titled “Confessions of a Ghost Hunter” – from 1928, 1936 and 2002. There is also one called “Confessions of a Reluctant Ghost Hunter” by Von Braschler (2014) that I confess I didn’t read. A defunct Facebook page and website also of the same name appears to be related. Several… Read More »

The manufactured, badly-behaved Ouija demon: Zozo (Book Review)

By | July 2, 2017

In the classic book Psychology of Superstition, Gustav Jahoda writes that beliefs are not just in our heads, they affect our behavior, and that self-fulfilling prophecy is not uncommon in human affairs (p. 8). Many events seem trivial and unspectacular, but when placed into a paranormal context, they take on a new and enhanced meaning.… Read More »

Misbehaving lakes: Three water bodies that exhale death gas

By | June 12, 2017

In August 1986, approximately 1800 people living in a 15-mile radius of Lake Nyos in Cameroon didn’t live to see the morning, dying by suffocation from toxic gas exhaled from the bottom of the lake.

Haunted rocks: The Stone Tape theory

By | May 11, 2017

The “stone tape theory” is frequently used as a sciencey-sounding explanation to explain residual hauntings – appearances of images, sounds, and apparitions that do not interact directly with people. The premise is that the rock or building materials somehow record the event and play it back like a film. But they never asked a geologist about it.

Arrogant and confused, ghost and ghoul (Book Review)

By | April 7, 2017

I’m still doing research on the Stone Tape idea, as a paranormally-curious geologist does. I was interested in obtaining a book by T.C. Lethbridge because his name comes up repeatedly as a promoter of the concept. It’s been a tricky thing to trace the origin without having easy access to the literature in print. I’ll… Read More »

Dowsing: Witching for water

By | March 19, 2017

Dowsing (water divining or water witching) doesn’t work any better than chance or through use of surface clues. So why does it still spark heated arguments and create once-skeptical converts even today? Does it still have a place in modern well drilling?

Confusing speculative “language of stone” (Book Review)

By | March 17, 2017

I’m researching the history of the Stone Tape “theory” of haunting for Spooky Geology. It’s something I’ve been working on in bits and pieces for several years now. I’ve watched the teleplay/movie The Stone Tape and have keyed into any mention of the idea from various paranormalists. One website mentioned that some paranormalists may have… Read More »

Monster tales of the southern swamps (Book Review)

By | March 6, 2017

Beyond Boggy Creek: In Search of the Southern Sasquatch, by Lyle Blackburn (2017) This is Blackburn’s third book in a semi-series of volumes on southern bipedal creatures. I reviewed the other two books as well: Chronicle of the Lizard Man (Book Review) Definitive guide to the Fouke monster – Beast of Boggy Creek (Book review)… Read More »

Monsters (and sciencey-sounding nonsense) Among Us – Book Review

By | March 3, 2017

I feel I should preface this book review with an explanation of why I, a person that rejects paranormal explanations (for good reason), would be interested in reading books about cryptozoology and strange accounts. I think stories are valuable and people like them. I have no problems with authors collecting and relating stories from history… Read More »