Star of Bethlehem

Star of Bethlehem - While the faithful accept the New Testament Gospels as fact, religious scholars and scientists often seek a scientific basis for many of the events they describe. One that resurfaces every year at Christmas is the Star of Bethlehem. According to the gospel of Matthew, maji (otherwise known as the Three Kings) arrived in Jerusalem looking for the newborn "King of the Jews," saying they had followed a moving "star" to get there.

The faithful say this was a certainly a miracle that proclaimed the birth of the Messiah, but other researchers say the "star" could have been something else: a comet, a planetary conjuction, the planet Jupiter, a supernova, or even a UFO. Many are familiar with the Biblical Star of Bethlehem – the bright star that the wise men followed to reach the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. But – what was the historical, astronomical event that initiated this story? What was the Star of Bethlehem? What did the wise men see?

These are questions that have puzzled biblical scholars and scientists alike. And every year, audiences can explore the latest archaeo-astronomy research into this fascinating topic. In the video below, go behind-the-scenes with Adam, one of our Planetarium astronomers, as he updates the film for this year.

The Amityville House

Did you ever watch Amityville House movie? The movie of the novel written by George and Kathy Lutz is a very creepy horror movie. Did you know that the movie is a true story? Many people believed that the authors are the couple who experienced the incident.

The story of the haunted house was revealed in 1975 when the couple moved into a house in Amityville, New York. This new couple did not know that at 13 years ago in this house, dreadful massacre ever happened. Son of the homeowner shot and killed all his family (total 6 person). When arrested, he confessed he killed all his family because of a buzzing sound in his head told him to do it.

But strangely, the six victims were found face down in their beds. They seem to sleep calmly, there is no sign that they were previously taking tranquilizers. This is indeed a strange mystery. While the murderer, Ronald DeFeo stayed in jail until the end of his life.

Back to the matter of the new family that moved into the house of horror. During 28 days there, a lot of mysterious and terrible things experienced by these couples. Not just about the stench, or noise, but also physical attacks that they didn’t know who was responsible. In fact, one of the family member seeing visions of sinister figure with glowing red eyes. Kathy discovered a small room, the dog did not want to get closer to there. Strange isn’t it?

The Out of Body Experience

Unlike lucid dreaming, the out of body experience (OBE) has yet to be proven under laboratory conditions. And yet the two phenomena are strangely linked.

An out of body experience happens when your awareness is transferred beyond your physical body. When it happens during severe bodily trauma, it's often called a near death experience (NDE). And when it's induced at will and used to travel to other planes or dimensions, it's called astral projection (AP).

Many people write to me asking if their experience was astral projection or a very vivid dream. I'm hardly qualified to answer this being a pure lucid dreamer, but I know a lady who is. Erin Pavlina - a lucid dreamer, astral projector and intuitive counselor - explains the three conditions surrounding this phenomena:

1. It's a normal dream. You can tell if you are only dreaming that you are in an astral state because you won't experience the separation process.

2. It's a lucid dream. You can consciously induce an out of body experience from within a lucid dream, but it's still only a dream inside your mind.

3. It's a real OBE. You know that you are awake in your real bedroom when the separation process begins. There are no dream characters or constructs. There's a strange, unearthly quiet about it and you feel a bit like a ghost.

Dr Robert Monroe famously documented his out of body experiences in his groundbreaking book, Journeys Out of the Body. He was at first incredulous when he began having OBEs against his will but soon traveled to places far removed from the material and spiritual realities of life on earth.

The concept compels us to rethink our ideas about life and death - and maybe even induce an out of body experience for ourselves.

The Mayan Prophecy

According to an increasingly large number of people, the Mayan Prophecy states that the world as we know it will change on December 12, 2012. This is not a new phenomena; as landmark dates draw near, end of the world theories creep out of the woodwork with astonishing popularity. However, this particular theory has been around for more than 5000 years. It began when the ancient Mayans plotted our position in the Milky Way and launched the Mayan calendar.

The Mayans believed that in the year AD 1999, mankind would have 13 years to recognize our own patterns of self destruction. Then, starting December 12, 2012, our entire lives would be tested and only those most in touch with their spiritual sides would survive (as some interpretations have it). Many people take this as a sign that a natural or manmade disaster will occur, tearing apart the civilized world and taking us back to hunter-gatherer days.

There are other interpretations too: from sun storms to the eruption of a super volcano; from a magnetic field reversal to a meteor impact. Some people even point to the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland as the bringer of doom. While the world may come to an abrupt end any time, any day, without warning - one thing is for sure: our modern society, like all civilizations before us, is geared to postulate over end-of-the-world mysteries with gusto.

Death of Marlyn Moroe

Marilyn Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood home by her psychoanalyst Ralph S. Greenson after he was called by Monroe's live-in housekeeper Eunice Murray on August 5, 1962. She was 36 years old at the time of her death.

Her death was ruled to be "acute barbiturate poisoning" by Dr. Thomas Noguchiof the Los Angeles County Coroners office and listed as "probable suicide". Many individuals, including Jack Clemmons, the first Los Angeles Police Department officer to arrive at the death scene, believe that she was murdered.

No murder charges were ever filed. The death of Marilyn Monroe has since become one of the most debated conspiracy theories.

Puma Punku

Puma Punku, truly startles the imagination. It seems to be the remains of a great wharf and a massive, four-part, now collapsed building. One of the construction blocks from which the pier was fashioned weighs an estimated 440 tons and several other blocks laying about are between 100 and 150 tons.

The quarry for these giant blocks was on the western shore of Titicaca, some ten miles away. There is no known technology in all the ancient world that could have transported stones of such massive weight and size. The Andean people of 500 AD, with their simple reed boats, could certainly not have moved them. Even today, with all the modern advances in engineering and mathematics, we could not fashion such a structure.

Just out of the aerial picture to the bottom left is the site of the Puma Punku. This is another 'temple area' with many finely cut stones some weighing over 100 tonnes. Its position to the south of the Akapana may have been important because it gave a good view to a sacred mountain far to the east.

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Sinking of the Titanic Premonition

One of the most famous cases of apparent premonition involves the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic. In 1898 an author named Morgan Robertson wrote a novel about an ocean liner named Titan that, on its maiden voyage one April night, strikes an iceberg while steaming at twenty-five knots in the northern Atlantic Ocean, then sinks with three thousand passengers aboard—even though people had thought it was unsinkable. Fourteen years later, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank at 2:20 the following morning, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

Morgan Andrew Robertson (September 30, 1861–March 24, 1915) was a well-known American author of short stories and novels, and the possible inventor of the periscope. Nowadays he is best known for the short novel Futility, first published in 1898. This story features an enormous British passenger liner called the Titan, which, deemed to be unsinkable, carries insufficient lifeboats. On a voyage in the month of April, the Titan hits an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic with the loss of almost everyone on board. On April 14, 1912, the supposedly unsinkable ocean liner Titanic, on its maiden voyage, struck an iceberg while steaming at twentythree knots in the northern Atlantic Ocean, and on the morning of April 15 it sank, resulting in the deaths of over fifteen hundred people.

Other parallels between the events depicted in the novel and the actual event exist. For example, Robertson described the Titan as being 800 feet (244m) in length, with a tonnage of 75,000, three propellers, and twenty-four lifeboats; the Titanic was 882.5 feet (269m) in length, with a tonnage of 66,000, three propellers, and twenty lifeboats. Both ships were said to be the largest and most luxurious of their kind.

The similarities between the fictional sinking of the Titan and the real-life sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 attract attention even today although there are significant differences: for example, the fictional Titan capsized and sank almost immediately (rendering the number of lifeboats moot), and the Titan was on its third return trip from New York, not her maiden voyage to New York.

Skeptics say that such similarities were coincidental, but given their number and specificity, believers in extrasensory perception say that Robertson’s ideas for the novel had to have come from subconscious glimpses of the future.

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The Wild Canines of Egypt

Cats and dogs have a special history in Egypt, and both were considered manifestations of gods. The principal cat goddess was Bastet, while the principal dog god was Anubis. Other canine deities included Input, who was the female counterpart of Anubis, Wepwawet, one of Egypt's oldest jackal gods, and of course, Seth, who could take on the appearance of a dog at times.

Dogs and Foxes, in the family Canidae, number thirty five species worldwide, with six of these in Egypt. They differ widely in Egypt, ranging from the Fennec Fox to the Wolf. In general, wolves are relatively larger than foxes.

Wolves are much more difficult to distinguish from Jackals, and according to one expert, the best distinction in the field is their gait. Wolves lope while jackals trot. At one time there was also a seventh species of dog in Egypt, the African Wild Dog, but it became extinct from the country during the early Dynastic Period.

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Sacsayhuaman

Not far from the famous Inca city of Machu Picchu lies , a strange embankment of stone walls located just outside of Cuzco. The series of three walls was assembled from massive 200-ton blocks of rock and limestone, and they are arranged in a zigzag pattern along the hillside. The longest is roughly 1000 feet in length and each stands some fifteen feet tall.

The monument is in astonishingly good condition for its age, especially considering the region’s propensity for earthquakes, but the tops of the walls are somewhat demolished, as the monument was plundered by the Spanish to build churches in Cuzco. The area surrounding the monument has been found to be the source of several underground catacombs called chincanas, which were supposedly used as connecting passageways to other Inca structures in the area.

Most scientists agree that Sacsayhuaman served as a kind of fortress of barrier wall, but this has been disputed. The strange shape and angles of the wall have led some speculate that it may have had a more symbolic function, one example being that the wall, when seen next to Cuzco from above, forms the shape of the head of a Cougar. Even more mysterious than the monument’s use, though, are the methods that were used in its construction. Like most Inca stone works, Sacsayhuaman was built with large stones that fit together so perfectly that not even a sheet of paper can be placed in the gaps between them. Just how the Incas managed such expert placements, or, for that matter, how they managed to transport and lift the heavy hunks of stone, is still not fully known.

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Newgrange

Considered to be the oldest and most famous prehistoric site in all of Ireland, Newgrange is a tomb that was built from earth, wood, clay, and stone around 3100 BC, some 1000 years before the construction of the pyramids in Egypt. It consists of a long passage that leads to a cross-shaped chamber that was apparently used as a tomb, as it contains stone basins filled with cremated remains.

The most unique feature of Newgrange is its careful and sturdy design, which has helped the structure remain completely waterproof to this day. Most amazing of all, the entrance to the tomb was positioned relative to the sun in such a way that on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the rays from the sun are channeled through the opening and down the nearly 60 foot passageway, where they illuminate the floor of the monument’s central room. Archeologists know Newgrange was used as a tomb, but why and for who still remains a mystery. The painstaking design needed to guarantee that the yearly solstice event occurs suggests that the site was held in high regard, but other than the obvious hypothesis that the sun featured prominently in the mythology of the builders, scientists are at a loss to describe the true reason for Newgrange’s construction.

The Megalithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange was built about 3200 BC. The kidney shaped mound covers an area of over one acre and is surrounded by 97 kerbstones, some of which are richly decorated with megalithic art. The 19 metre long inner passage leads to a cruciform chamber with a corbelled roof. It is estimated that the construction of the Passage Tomb at Newgrange would have taken a work force of 300 at least 20 years.


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Weeping and Bleeding Icons

Weeping and Bleeding Icons - Statues, paintings and other likenesses of Jesus, Mary and saints that appear to weep or even bleed are routinely reported around the world; there are numerous claims every year.

One is a painting of Jesus hanging in the Bethlehem Church of the Nativity above the spot where Christ is said to have been born; it seems to be weeping red tears.

Others include: the Weeping Madonna in Toronto, Canada; the weeping icon of Mary at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, Illinois; the life-sized icon of the Christ exuding pure olive oil in the Antiochian Orthodox Church of St Mary in Syney, Australia; and many, many others. Skeptics suspect fraud in all of these cases, and tests invariably are "inconclusive," making them a matter of faith.

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The Cohokia Mounds

Cahokia is the name given to an Indian settlement that exists outside of Collinsville, Illinois. Archeologists estimate that the city was founded sometime around 650 AD, and its complex network of burial grounds and sophisticated landscaping prove that it was once a thriving community. It has been estimated that at its peak the city was home to as many as 40,000 people, which would have made it the most populous settlement in America prior to the arrival of the Europeans.

The most notable aspect of Cahokia today are the 80 mounds of earth, some as high as 100 feet, which dot the 2,200-acre site. These helped create a network of plazas throughout the city, and it is believed that important buildings, like the home of the settlement’s chief, were built on top of them. The site also features a series of wooden posts that archeologists have dubbed “woodhenge.” The posts are said to mark the solstices and equinoxes, and supposedly figured prominently in the community’s astronomical mythology.

Although scientists are constantly discovering new information about the Cohokia community, the biggest mystery that remains is which modern Indian tribe is descended from the residents of the ancient city, as well as just what it was that caused them to abandon their settlement. Cahokia Mounds is NOT in the city of Cahokia. It is located in Collinsville, Illinois.

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Amazing UFO filmed near Moscow

A UFO was allegedly seen by a number of witnesses hovering above a shopping mall in a satellite town of Moscow in Russia early last year. One lucky witness managed to film the craft with astonishing results. The footage below shows the very clear outline of a disc shaped craft that suddenly vanishes towards the end of the clip.

The sighting took place in the town of Kashira, on the outskirts of Russia's capital city Moscow. The UFO was spotted above the well-known Kisharsky Shopping Mall, leading some local UFO researchers to speculate that it may have been tapping into the Mall's substantial energy system.

UFO sightings and footage have never been more frequent in Russia and many local ufologists believe that aliens will soon be openly revealing their presence on our planet.

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End of the World

• The orbit of Nibiru, also known as "Planet X", is on a potential collision course with earth and will pass within a few miles in 2012, bringing destruction in its wake.
• "Global Coastal Phenomena" will begin gradually, but by April 2011 the situation will get much worse. Unusual movements of the Moon brought on by anomalies in the magnetosphere could cause severe coastal disruptions.
• A massive crisis begins in late 2009 or early 2010. Israel may bomb Iran, or H1N1 "Swine Flu" could mutate into a level of extreme lethality. Following this crisis, the Obama administration will be immediately thrown into chaos.
• An asteroid will collide with the earth, making the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004 look like a pond ripple by comparison!
• The earth's core will cease to rotate, due to a natural or manmade phenomenon. The result is the total breakdown of this planet's protective magnetic shield against the deadly solar radiation that constantly pounds the atmosphere.

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The Tunguska Event

Forget Fox Mulder tripping through the Russian forests, this isn’t an X-Files episode. In 1908, the Solar System threw something at us… but we don’t know what. This has been an enduring mystery ever since eye witnesses described a bright flash (that could be seen hundreds of miles away) over the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Russia.

On investigation, a huge area had been decimated; some 80 million trees had been felled like match sticks and over 2,000 square kilometres had been flattened. But there was no crater. What had fallen from the sky?This mystery is still an open case, although researchers are pinning their bets of some form of “airburst” when a comet or meteorite entered the atmosphere, exploding above the ground.

A recent cosmic forensic study retraced the steps of a possible asteroid fragment in the hope of finding its origin and perhaps even finding the parent asteroid. They have their suspects, but the intriguing thing is, there is next-to-no meteorite evidence around the impact site.

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Unsolved Mysteries of Past Life Recall

Under hypnosis, numerous people recall the details of previous lives, even to the point of taking on the personalities of their former selves - and speaking in foreign languages!

In 1824, a nine-year-old boy named Katsugoro, the son of a Japanese farmer, told his sister that he believed he had a past life. According to his story, which is one of the earliest cases of past life recall on record, the boy vividly recalled that he had been the son of another farmer in another village and had died from the effects of smallpox in 1810. Katsugoro could remember dozens of specific events about his past life, including details about his family and the village where they lived, even though Katsugoro had never been there. He even remembered the time of his death, his burial and the time he spent before being reborn. The facts he related were subsequently verified by an investigation.

Past life recall is one of the most fascinating areas of unexplained human phenomena. As yet, science has been unable to prove or disprove its genuineness. Even many who have investigated claims of past life recall are unsure whether it is an historical recollection due to reincarnation or is a construction of information somehow received by the subconscious. Either possibility is remarkable. And like many areas of the paranormal, there is a propensity for fraud that the serious investigator must watch out for. It's important to be skeptical about such extraordinary claims, but the stories are nonetheless intriguing.

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4000-year-old Aryan city discovered in Russia

Spiral cities built on remote Russian plains by swastika-painting Aryans. Russian archaeologists have unearthed some ancient and virtually unknown settlements which they believe were built by the original Aryan race about 4000 years ago.

According to the team which has discovered 20 of the spiral-shaped settlements in remote part of Russia steppe in southern Siberia bordering Kazakhstan, the buildings date back to the beginning of Western civilisation in Europe.

The Bronze-age settlements, the experts said, could have been built shortly after the Great Pyramid some 4000 years ago by the original Aryan race whose swastika symbol was later adopted by the Nazis in the 1930s.

Massive fireball reported across Midwestern sky

Authorities in several Midwestern states were flooded with reports of a gigantic fireball lighting up the sky, the National Weather Service said. The fireball was visible for about 15 minutes beginning about 10 p.m., said the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin, just west of Milwaukee.

"The fireball was seen over the northern sky, moving from west to east," said the NWS in the Quad Cities area, which includes parts of Iowa and Illinois. "Well before it reached the horizon, it broke up into smaller pieces and was lost from sight," the service said. "Several reports of a prolonged sonic boom were received from areas north of Highway 20, along with shaking of homes, trees and various other objects including wind chimes," it said.

It said the fireball was seen across parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. CNN affiliate WISN-TV said that people in Ohio also saw it. Video from WISN showed a massive ball of light exploding across the sky. The Doppler Radar from the Quad Cities weather service appeared to capture a portion of the smoke trail from the fireball at just after 10 p.m., the NWS said. It appears as a thin line extending across portions of Grant and Iowa Counties in Wisconsin.

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'Vampire' discovered in mass grave

A SKELETON exhumed from a grave in Venice is being claimed as the first known example of the "vampires" widely referred to in contemporary documents. Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence in Italy found the skeleton of a woman with a small brick in her mouth (see right) while excavating mass graves of plague victims from the Middle Ages on Lazzaretto Nuovo Island in Venice.

At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by "vampires" which, rather than drinking people's blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them doing this, Borrini says.

The belief in vampires probably arose because blood is sometimes expelled from the mouths of the dead, causing the shroud to sink inwards and tear. Borrini, who presented his findings at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver, Colorado, last week, claims this might be the first such vampire to have been forensically examined. The skeleton was removed from a mass grave of victims of the Venetian plague of 1576.

However, Peer Moore-Jansen of Wichita State University in Kansas says he has found similar skeletons in Poland and that while Borrini's finding is exciting, "claiming it as the first vampire is a little ridiculous". Borrini says his study details the earliest grave to show archaeological "exorcism evidence against vampires".