I recall an episode of The Twilight Zone where a little girl tumbles
out of bed and falls through a portal into another dimension that had
opened up in the wall of her bedroom. Her rescuer reached through and
pulled her back. Of course, that is fiction. Or is it? Legend is full of
stories just like this where people are here one minute and gone the
next, never to be seen or heard of again.
In recent history, science has provided enough evidence of space
holes and other dimensions that this Twilight Zone scenario is much more
believable. We pretty well accept that a worm hole can lead to either
another time or place in the galaxy. Why is it, though, that mankind has
suspected this was true even before anyone knew about the science
behind it? Probably because history is laced with strange
disappearances.
Keep in mind that the following information may or may not be authenticated and all fall into the category of Legend.
Take the case of the Eskimo Village, for example, where the entire
population of over 2000 vanished in 1930. A tracker who had been camping
in the wilderness returned home to find everyone was gone. The village
was still there as if the people could have returned at any moment.
Cooking pots simmered on the stoves and rifles and kayaks remained where
they always were. Would the whole community have walked away? And why?
But there were no tracks leading away from the village and none of the
missing tribe could be located anywhere. Only two mysterious clues
remained. All the sled dogs were found buried deep in a snow drift in
the area. They had all starved to death. Also the graves of the tribe's
ancestors had been opened (which would have been extremely difficult
with the ground frozen in ice) and the bodies had been removed.
In Bennington, Vermont, during the period of 1920 and 1950, several
unexplained disappearances took place. A Mr. Tetford, who lived in the
Soldier's Home in Bennington, disappeared from inside a bus where he was
sitting with 14 other passengers. They all had seen him sleeping in his
seat, but when the bus arrived, Mr. Tetford was nowhere to be found.
All his belongings remained as they were, including his bus timetable
lying open on the adjoining seat.
Other Bennington disappearances included an 18-year-old student who
vanished off a trail in Glastenbury Mountain and an 8-year-old who went
missing suddenly off his parent's farm. Neither were ever found.
Dozens of disappearances like these around Bennington caused the area
to become known as the Bennington Triangle. Native Americans in the
18th and 19th centuries, believed this Glastenbury wilderness to be a
haunt of evil spirits, and they only used it for a burial ground.
According to their legend, this spot was a place where all four winds
met and an enchanted stone would swallow anything that passed by. But
the strange disappearances in this so-called Bennington Triangle have
ceased since the last one in 1950.
One of the most well-known disappearances in history is the case of
David Lang. On September 23, 1880, David was walking in a field near his
home in Sumner County, Tennessee. He was in full view of his wife and
two children. His brother-in-law and a local attorney were approaching
nearby in a horse-drawn buggy. Suddenly, David Lang vanished before
their very eyes. It was said that a circle marked the spot where he
vanished. Nothing would ever grow there and animals and insects avoided
going into it. It was also reported that his children claimed to hear
their father's voice once when they ventured into the center of the
circle.
Another disappearance on the order of David Lang's was reported in
"The Difficulty of Crossing a Field" written by Ambrose Bierce in 1909.
This disappearance occurred in July, 1854, involving Orion Williamson
who vanished, like David, while walking across a field.
Quite the reverse of disappearing from our realm is the story of the
Green Children of Woolpit who are said to have appeared from somewhere
else. Sometime between 1135 A.D. and 1154 A.D., two children were found
near a pit at Woolpit, England. Huddled together, the boy and girl were
terrified and screamed in an unknown language. Their clothing was made
of an unknown material and the children's skin was green. They were
taken to the home of Richard de Calne where by trial and error, it was
found the only thing they would eat were fresh bean pods which they ate
exclusively for quite sometime. However, the boy died soon after they
were found. The girl thrived and lost the green hue in her skin when she
started eating the local food. She learned English and finally was able
to say where she and the boy had come from. She described a land with
no sun where the people were all green and lived in perpetual twilight.
The two children had heard bells, then found themselves in the pit and
emerged into the light of our world. The girl lived long and eventually
married, but was never able to explain her origins.
Two accounts of the Green Children of Woolpit were written around
1200 A.D., nearly 60 years after the time it is said to have happened.
The names of these writings are 'Historia Rerum Anglicarum' by William
of Newburgh, and 'Chronicon Aglicanum' by Ralph of Coggeshall Abbey.
These were not eyewitness accounts of the green children but merely
included in these collections of stories the authors had heard.
Of course, I cannot fail to mention the most notorious place of
disappearances and that is the Bermuda Triangle, an area of 750,000
square miles in a triangle shape from Florida to Bermuda to Puerto Rico
and back to Florida. It is said that the first report of a strange
occurrence in that place was recorded by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
He saw a ball of fire fall into the sea, then his compass did not work
properly. Over 50 ships and 20 airplanes have been known to disappear
there.
One reference found in the Bible, Acts 8:39-40, could fall into the
category of a strange disappearance. Philip may have disappeared from
the sight of the eunuch he had just baptized. Then he reappeared at the
city of Azotus.
Strange disappearances and appearances are found throughout
historical records. Are they based in fact or fiction? Urban legend?
Hard to say, but at least the freight train that may be running through
your living room in another dimension does not keep you awake.
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