Teen cries blood

(CNN) -- Calvino Inman had just stepped out of the shower one evening in May when a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror caused him to panic. "I looked up and saw myself, and I thought I was going to die," says the 15-year-old from Rockwood, Tennessee. His eyes were streaming tears of blood.

Inman's mother, Tammy Mynatt, says she immediately rushed him to the emergency room, but by the time they arrived, the bleeding had stopped. Doctors couldn't see what the family was trying to explain. They returned home completely perplexed. When the bloody tears returned a few days later while Inman was on a camping trip, he was rushed back to the hospital.

Mynatt hoped that once doctors finally witnessed the phenomenon, there would be answers. But that wasn't the case. "The people at the hospital said they had never seen anything like it," Mynatt recalls. She says her son underwent an MRI, a CT scan and an ultrasound, but none of the tests had abnormal results. "'We don't know how to stop it,'" Mynatt remembers being told by doctors. "It just has to run its course."

Dr. Barrett G. Haik, director of the University of Tennessee's Hamilton Eye Institute, says there is an answer, sort of. He says "crying blood," a condition called haemolacria, is common in people who have experienced extreme trauma or who have recently had a serious head injury. But a case such as Inman's is still a medical mystery. "What's really rare is to have a child like this," Haik says. "Only once every several years do you see someone with no obvious cause."

[Read More via BoingBoing.net]

Key of Solomon: King Solomon's grimoire

The Key of Solomon, in Latin Clavis Salomonis or Clavicula Salomonis, Hebrew Mafteah Shelomoh, is a grimoire, or book on magic, attributed to King Solomon, probably dating to the 14th to 15th century Italian Renaissance and presenting a typical example of Renaissance magic.

It is possible that the Key of Solomon inspired later works, particularly the 17th century grimoire also known as Clavicula Salomonis or "The Lesser Key of Solomon", although there are many differences between the books.

Manuscripts and textual history

The text dates to the Late Middle Ages or the Italian Renaissance. Many such grimoires attributed to King Solomon were written in this period, ultimately influenced by earlier (High Medieval) works of Jewish kabbalists and Arab alchemists, which in turn hark back to Greco-Roman magic of Late Antiquity.

Several versions of the Key of Solomon exist, in various translations, and with minor or significant differences. The archetype was likely a Latin or Italian text dating to the 14th or 15th century.[1] Most extant manuscripts date to the late 16th, 17th or 18th centuries, but there is an early Greek manuscript, dating to the 15th century (Harleian MS. 5596) closely associated with the text. The Greek manuscript is referred to as The Magical Treatise of Solomon, and was published by Armand Delatte in Anecdota Atheniensia (Liége, 1927, pp. 397-445.) Its contents are very similar to the Clavicula, and it may in fact be the prototype on which the Italian or Latin text was based.

An important Italian manuscript is Bodleian Library Michael MS 276. An early Latin text survives in printed form, dated to ca. 1600 (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Memorial Library, Special Collections). There is a number of later (17th century) Latin manuscripts. One of the oldest extant manuscripts (besides Harleian 5596) is a text in English translation, entitled The Clavicle of Solomon, revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian and dated to 1572. There are a number of French manuscripts, all dated to the 18th century, with the exception of one dated to 1641 (P1641, ed. Dumas, 1980).

[Read More]

Da Vinci Code Fans Targeted By Real International Conspiracy

It’s the shocking mystery hidden for a millennium: What will Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s next book be about? But, beware, truth seekers: Chasing the latest clues to the upcoming novel The Lost Symbol could expose you to a vast and secret conspiracy that’s been manipulating Google search results to push malicious software.

On Tuesday, NBC’s Today show kicked off a week-long promotion for Brown’s Da Vinci sequel by airing the first of a series of clues to the thriller’s plot, in the form of a tour of a real-life biological research facility nicknamed the “Death Star” because it houses dead animal specimens. Host Matt Lauer challenged viewers to identify the research site and its location, and thereby acquire vital information about the novel. “Suffice it to say, that this facility is a big part of the book,” said Lauer. “So, if I’m in a place called the Death Star, where am I?”

But on Wednesday morning the top Google search result for “death star research” — the logical query — would bring you no closer to unraveling the Lost Symbol mystery. Instead, it produced a malicious website that uses pop-ups, mouse-trapping and a well-executed fake virus scan to trick you into installing a Windows executable that will screw up your computer pretty badly.

The software is a scareware product called Smart Virus Eliminator that pesters you with false virus reports and urges you to pay anywhere from $59 to $79 for a “registered” version of the program. The code does other bad things as well, and is a well-known scam linked to an Eastern European cybercrime group. What’s impressing experts is the rapidity with which those black hats are able to use search engine optimization techniques to plant their flag atop a trending search like “death star research.”

“They stay glued to the news — they’re quick,” says Sean-Paul Correll, a threat researcher at Panda Security, and an expert on the scam. “This gang is basically the biggest cybercrime organization on the internet right now.”

Correll says incidents like the Death Star attack have reached a fever pitch in the last two weeks. Searches on the California wildfires, Ted Kennedy’s death or Hurricane Danny, among others, have all turned up high or top-ranking scam pages delivering the same slick extortion code. Keeping up with the trends mean the attackers are rapidly setting up or reconfiguring networks of thousands of web pages that all link to one another — and the scam sites — using the hot keywords of the moment, thus gaming Google’s page rank algorithm. But apparently it’s worth the effort. A analysis by Panda concludes the rogue business is making as much as $34 million a month through the tactic.

Google, of course, has been working with StopBadware.org to try and warn users about malware-loaded sites. It also generally tries to counter rogue search engine optimizers of all stripes. But as it speeds up its indexing to keep pace with a real-time web, the countermeasures are clearly falling behind.

“These are real timely events,” says Correll. “So if it takes more than 24 hours to take care of, it’s not an effective means of blocking. People are searching today because they want to know what Dan Brown’s next book is going to be.” Tomorrow it’ll be something else.

[Wired.com]

Clone of Jesus in Dan Brown's next novel?

Is Dan Brown, author of "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons", going to use a clone of Jesus as a plot point in his next book, "The Lost Symbol"?

"Could he go in the direction of human cloning?" Burstein wonders. "Could some Freemasons . . . could they have known something about the cloning? And now we hear that Dan Brown is interested in the Rosicrucians," a secret society of mystics formed in medieval Europe. "So what does that mean? Some theories say the Rosicrucians had a piece of the cross. Maybe if you had bloodstains on some pieces of the cross, you could clone Christ."

[Read More]

Book Review- Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies

After a public lecture in 2005, I was buttonholed by a documentary filmmaker with Michael Moore-ish ambitions of exposing the conspiracy behind 9/11. “You mean the conspiracy by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to attack the United States?” I asked rhetorically, knowing what was to come.

“That’s what they want you to believe,” he said. “Who is they?” I queried. “The government,” he whispered, as if “they” might be listening at that very moment. “But didn’t Osama and some members of al Qaeda not only say they did it,” I reminded him, “they gloated about what a glorious triumph it was?”

“Oh, you’re talking about that video of Osama,” he rejoined knowingly. “That was faked by the CIA and leaked to the American press to mislead us. There has been a disinformation campaign going on ever since 9/11.”

Conspiracies do happen, of course. Abraham Lincoln was the victim of an assassination conspiracy, as was Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, gunned down by the Serbian secret society called Black Hand. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a Japanese conspiracy (although some conspiracists think Franklin Roosevelt was in on it). Watergate was a conspiracy (that Richard Nixon was in on). How can we tell the difference between information and disinformation? As Kurt Cobain, the rocker star of Nirvana, once growled in his grunge lyrics shortly before his death from a self-inflicted (or was it?) gunshot to the head, “Just because you’re paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you.”

[Read More via BoingBoing.net]

"Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies" is available at Amazon.com

Rare tongue-eating parasite found

A rare parasite which burrows into host fish before eating and replacing their tongues with itself has been found off the Jersey coast.

Fishermen near the Minquiers - islands under the jurisdiction of Jersey - found the isopod, a type of louse, inside a weaver fish.

Marine researcher Paul Chambers, from the Société Jersiaise, was one of the fishing party and identified the find.

He said he was surprised to find the isopod away from the Mediterranean sea.

Isopods are normally about 2cm (1in) long and live in fish, surviving on the animal's blood, in warm waters.

'Quite vicious'

Mr Chambers told BBC Jersey: "When we emptied the fish bag out there at the bottom was this incredibly ugly looking isopod.

"Really quite large, really quite hideous - if you turn it over its got dozens of these really sharp, nasty claws underneath and I thought 'that's a bit of a nasty beast'.

"I struggled for weeks to find an identification for this thing until, quite by chance I stumbled across something that looked similar in a Victorian journal.

"Apparently there's not too much ill effect to the fish itself except it's lost its tongue."

Experts at the University of Southampton confirmed that the creature was an isopod and that there had been several sightings of them in Cornwall in 1996.

Mr Chambers added: "It doesn't affect humans other than if you do actually come across a live one and try and pick it up - they are quite vicious, they will deliver a good nip."

[BBC News]

Ghost-hunter plunges to death in Toronto

TORONTO - In a bizarre incident, a woman fell to her death here while hunting for ghosts in a Toronto building that is said to be haunted. Police said the 29-year-old woman fell three stories to her death Friday morning at a building not far from the city centre while she and a man were hunting for ghosts. She fell while trying to jump from one level to another level in the building in the wee hours. The 134-year-old building is said to be haunted by ghosts.
Nine years ago, 50-year-old artist, Professor David Buller was stabbed to death in his studio in the building. Buller, who was an arts professor at the University of Toronto, was repeatedly stabbed Jan 19, 2001 in his second-floor studio in this Gothic building.

Ghost hunting is very common among thrill seekers in North America.  The woman, a former Paranormal Searchers member, had just recently moved there from New Orleans.  She had been involved the ill-fated investigation of Stuart House in 2009.

In fact, the Toronto Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society, which is dedicated to investigating paranormal activities, has listed dozens of buildings in Toronto city which are haunted.
Commenting on the death of the woman, the society said in its blog: “Although we’d heard stories about (the building at) 1 Spadina Crescent, they are mostly about a ‘curse’…apparently, the building is considered ‘bad luck’ to departments housed there… but this is rumour and is not ‘ghostly’ related.
"Again, we cannot stress that our thoughts and prayers are with the woman’s friends and family during this sad time, and again, there is no reason for anyone at any time to trespass, break any laws, or put their safety or the safety of others at risk in pursuit of looking into ghostly lore and legend."
[More information about 1 Spadina Crescent]
[Exploring SpadinaCrescent]
David Bueller's murder is still unsolved and the killer remains at large.

Willard Library Ghost Cams

More than 110 years old, Willard Library is the oldest public library building in the state of Indiana. The library, housed in a beautiful Victorian Gothic building in Evansville, is nestled gloriously near the downtown area of this southwestern Indiana city of 130,000 people, providing a sharp contrast with the modern high-rises and six-lane freeways.

The Willard Library Ghost Cams were inspired by the question "Is Willard Library Haunted?" It has become a fascinating, and somewhat credible, legend that drives thousands of people to search the library for remnants of lost spirits. The site is a virtual ghost hunting mecca. Take a virtual tour of the library with Greg Hager, Willard Library Director, and see if you can locate the cams hidden in the building. Libraryghost.com offers three cams for your ghost hunting pleasure. The Children's Room cam , Research Room cam , and the Basement Cam refresh every 20 seconds. According to reports from visitors, some of the most frequent encounters with the legendary Lady in Grey have occurred in the children's reading room in the basement of Willard Library.

The library has been investigated by several organizations including MESA (multi-energy sensor array), TAPS, and other teams looking for ghosts. Check out their findings and results in the slideshow.

The first reported incident happened sixty years ago to a library employee who trekked through the snowy cold for his nightly duty. Since then, countless other employees and patrons have reported seeing this apparition, each giving an eerily similar description. Is the legend true? We'll leave that for you to decide. Click here to see the rest of the legend.

Ghost Hunting Software

This is the perfect computer program for anyone into Ghost Hunting or any other types of hauntings.

This program lets you record detailed information such as: Date Of Occurance, Time Of Occurance, Location, GPS Info, History Location, Telephone Numbers, Notes, Comments, Sighting Info, Sounds, Odors, Temperature Anomalies, And More.

This program features: Unlimited number of records (investigations), Print Charts, Print records, Search, Sort, Built-In Help File, Import and Display Photo's for each investigation and more.

[Link]

Lost Book Of Nostradamus

Occult Profiles: Rosicrucianism (symbol: the Rose Cross)

Rosicrucianism (symbol: the Rose Cross) is the theology of a secret society of mystics, allegedly formed in late medieval Germany, holding a doctrine "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm."^[1]

Between 1607 and 1616, two anonymous manifestos were published, first in Germany and later throughout Europe.^[2] These were Fama Fraternitatis RC (The Fame of the Brotherhood of RC) and Confessio Fraternitatis (The Confession of the Brotherhood of RC). The influence of these documents, presenting a "most laudable Order" of mystic-philosopher-doctors and promoting a "Universal Reformation of Mankind", gave rise to an enthusiasm called by its historian Dame Frances Yates the "Rosicrucian Enlightenment".^[3]

In later centuries many esoteric societies have claimed to derive their doctrines, in whole or in part, from the original Rosicrucians. Several modern societies, which date the beginning of the Order to earlier centuries, have been formed for the study of Rosicrucianism and allied subjects.

[Link]

Planes of Existence

by Michael Lewis

As shown in this diagram, planes of existence should not, as they commonly are, be thought of as discreet states but rather as a continuous scale.

As we distinguish between body, mind and soul, we must equally distinguish between physical, mental, and spiritual. In this way we can see our bodies, our minds, and our souls as the states in which we exist in each of the respective planes of existence. The body is our physical form, the mind is our mental form, and the soul is our spiritual form. However, we should not think of the physical, mental and spiritual planes as discreet states, rather we should think of them as bands along a continuous scale of infinite divisions (planes).

The intermediary states, astral and ethereal, are most easily explained in relation to their neighbour states. The astral shares properties of the physical and the mental, and the ethereal shares properties of the mental and the spiritual. However, as should already be clear, these are not discreet states, and so any given thing may exist at any point, or between any points, on the scale. An 'ordinary' object exists only in the physical plane (or more accurately, the physical band of planes), a thought-form exists in the mental plane, and depending on the nature of the thought-form, its existence may also reach partially into the astral or ethereal planes, a person exists across the entire spectrum, and so on. Everything has its place on the scale, existing within a range of planes.

This suggests that it is possible that ghosts, demons, or other controversial entities do exist, occupying planes that are not normally used by people. Imagine that you are driving on a colossal roadway (marked into an infinite number of lanes) and that you can only see straight ahead of you. Imagine what you must pass without ever realising. Let us imagine a thought-form existing within a particular narrow band of planes in the mental band of planes. It is a malicious thought-form, a demon. It is entirely impossible for a person to encounter it physically, since it does not exist on the physical plane. It may only be encountered within the narrow band of mental planes within which it exists. A person may only encounter this demon, therefore, as a thought, and it will appear to the person just as any other thought in their mind would appear. Although it will be a malicious thought, there may be nothing to clearly identify it as a foreign body within the mind, something that the mind has picked up, rather like a radio scanner, scanning specific frequencies (planes). The person will never realise that they have encountered a demon, and they will not be aware of its effect upon them, which may be permanent, although it is unlikely to be significant. We may encounter such loose thoughts every day, and each one may influence our thoughts. This would explain inspiration, both positive and negative, the 'voices' heard by schizophrenics and other 'mentally ill' people. This also has implications for the way we understand the mind and the nature and process of thought, and the way we monitor and evaluate our own thoughts.

This theory of a continuous scale of planes of existence has one very significant implication. Physical dimensions (height, width, and depth) apply in the physical plane but not in the spiritual plane - where everything exists in one point with no spatial dimensions. The mental plane has spatial dimensions in its lower band (near the astral) but not in its higher band (near the ethereal). This means that at different levels of thought, different spatial rules apply. At the lower levels, thoughts are restricted within the mind of the thinker, but at the higher levels, thoughts exist regardless of spatial dimensions, and may therefore be shared by any number of minds that are on the same plane, and therefore on the same mental frequency. This would explain telepathic abilities and contribute to an explanation of the psychological phenomenon known as 'contagion', where a crowd of people all reach the same mental state. This also has profound implications for the way we understand the mind and the nature and process of thought.

Recently I have found it useful to think of the planes of existence in a tri-form as depicted in the above image. This image shows how the planes can be thought of as equal and balanced forms emanating from a central point, rather than as a linear scale. In this model, the focal point can be thought of as God/Chaos/Reality - the central focus point of reality where existence is pure, whereas in the perceived world, which is created from this focal point as matter, thought and spirit, existence is impure. The fractal boundaries created using Newton's Method show, in this context, how each plane overlaps with the others. Between any two planes is the third.