Science Special News

[Rasputin]

Lourdes wants to create new miracle category

Lourdes wants to create new miracle category

The Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes may introduce a "miracle lite" category for sudden unexplained recoveries because modern medicine increasingly refuses to declare any disease incurable. Every year, dozens of seriously ill people leave the town in southwestern France convinced they have been cured, but the Church does not rate their cases as miracles because its rules say doctors must attest their ailments could not be remedied.Jacques Perrier, Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, said the Vatican need not change the rules for declaring miracles, but could create a new category of "authentic healings" so those who recover can share the story of their physical and spiritual experiences with others.The Church teaches God sometimes performs miracles, including cures doctors cannot explain. Skeptics reject this as unscientific and explain sudden recoveries as psychological phenomena or the delayed result of treatment.Unlike in the past, the Bishop said, doctors are now reluctant to say a disease is incurable -- one of the strict requirements laid down in the 1700s for recognizing miracles. Uncertainty is a key element in modern thinking, he noted."Doctors today speak in statistical terms, saying, for example, that the chances of recovery are very slim," he said. "They have a very hard time saying a disease is completely incurable."Most healings may fail to meet this or that criterion for a miracle," he added."We want to get recognition for a category of authentic healings linked to Lourdes."Bishop Perrier said he was working on a proposal for the new category of Lourdes healings to put to the Vatican for approval.

He insisted Catholicism's leading miracle shrine was not considering the change in order to boost pilgrimages to the grotto where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a peasant girl in 1858. "There's been no decline in visits," he said.Rather, it sensed a lost opportunity since those said to be cured during a Lourdes visit but not declared miracle cases do not get Church approval to share their story in public -- at retreats or meetings with other Catholics.Six million people flock annually to the town in the Pyrenees. About 7,000 have claimed to have been cured since the shrine's medical bureau began keeping records in 1883, but only 66 have been declared miraculously healed.Bishop Perrier says a shrine committee examines possible miracle cases and rejects most of them. The last official miracle -- a man said to be cured of multiple sclerosis -- was declared in 1999 after 12 years of inquiries.

[Rasputin]

Serpents reveal China, Australia myth links

The rainbow serpent, a mythical creature widespread throughout the continent of Australia, is said to live in water. A closer look at it reveals that these great serpent-like creatures, usually associated with the rainbow, seem to bear the closest resemblance to the Chinese mythical dragon. The rainbow serpent is commonly depicted in its terrifying animal form, with a serpent-like body, kangaroo or horse-like head, crocodile teeth, ears or crown of feathers, long, spiked body and fish tail. Similarly, the form of the Chinese dragon is also a compound of species: the body of a serpent with the scales of a fish, the claws of an eagle, and the horns of a deer. There are also much deeper connotations of the two figures which suggest the links between myths in Australia and China. The Aborigines have inhabited the continent of Australia for at least 40,000 years. Human evolution could not have taken place separately in Australia because there is no evidence of the existence of the ape-like predecessors of Homo sapiens. Therefore, the first Aborigines must have come from elsewhere. No authority disputes that the Australians came from Southeast Asia, arriving somewhere on the northwest of the continent. It is even argued that the ancestors of the Australian Aborigines could have arrived in Australia from mainland Asia, especially China, as the Australian Encyclopaedia described in its fifth edition. This hypothesis that there must be close historical connections between these two peoples is strengthened by some parallels between the myths from the Australian Aborigines and those of the ancient Chinese people. The rainbow serpent, for example, is strongly associated with water, life, and of course the arching rainbow in the sky.

[Rasputin]

UFO photo contest wants you to fake it

This month, The Center for Inquiry and The Tallahassee Skeptics are seeking creative photographers and computer artists who can concoct the most convincing UFO photo that uses a Tallahassee landmark or building as a backdrop. The winner will receive $250 in cash. The faux-UFO photo also will be published in the Tallahassee Democrat. It's one contest that actually encourages faking it. "Nowadays, with Photoshop and other computer programs, it's really pretty easy to come up with credible-looking photos that are completely fake," said Bruce Thyer, a Florida State University professor and member of the Center for Inquiry. "We want (the contest photos) to look seamless - not a couple of kids with a fishing pole and a hubcap." The Tallahassee Center for Inquiry and the Tallahassee Skeptics are interlocking groups that seek to expose hoaxes, quackery and urban legends. Thyer used the example of a photograph that circulated on the Internet almost immediately after Sept. 11, 2001. The image depicted a smiling, waving tourist on top of a World Trade Center Tower at the moment the hijacked jets were crashing. It later proved to be a Photoshop-ed sham.

"There was a whole story going around about how they found a camera in the ashes and processed the film," Thyer said. "It was very touching at the time but ... none of it was true." The UFO competition is intended to be more lighthearted. "I thought it could be a fun way for a Boy Scout troop or a fraternity to pick up a little extra money," Thyer said.

[Rasputin]

Restaurant on the edge of time

Ken Korczak: Many of us have a favorite restaurant where we love the food, the atmosphere, and the special feeling it gives us. Today I bring you a story of one of my favorite restaurants — but I can only get to it through the process of lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is a dream in which you know you are dreaming. For several years, I experimented with advanced lucid dream inducement techniques, including using the NovaDreamer developed by The Lucidity Institute at Stanford University.The NovaDreamer is a kind of “dream mask” which you wear over your eyes at as you asleep at night. It uses motion detectors to discern when you have entered the REM state — Rapid Eye Movement — which is an indication that you are dreaming.Once REM is detected, the NovaDreamer signals you to “come awake” within your dream. The following story tells of a fantastic restaurant I disocovered in the “dream world.” I call it: The Restaurant on the Edge of Time."

One night as I was going to sleep I was very hungry, but I was too tired to get up for a snack.After a few minutes — and after using my favorite lucid dream inducement technique – I found myself in an exhilarating dream in which I was flying through a high, craggy mountain pass. I instantly realized I was dreaming, and tried not to get too excited. I didn't want to collapse the dream and wake up.After a time of thrilling soaring through the mountains, there was a sudden “whump”! I found myself looking down at a bright red carpet. Lifting my head, I found that I was in a bright room. I recognized it as some kind of large restaurant, furnished with heavy tables and chairs fashioned from oak, blackened with age. One entire side of the place, an entire wall, was a gigantic window — it was about 25 feet high. The room was like a big solarium.Outside the window was a vast, snow-covered vista. Huge black-gray mountains with jagged toothy peaks loomed nearby. In front of the mountains was a frozen glacial landscape, broken only here and there by a few gray rocky outcroppings. The sky was vibrant blue and full of sun.It was a breath-taking sight. I stood where I had landed, gaping out the big window.Suddenly, I felt somebody touch my elbow. Startled, I whirled and saw a petite woman, about five feet tall, and of astounding beauty. She had luxurious chocolate-brown hair tumbling to her shoulders. Her skin was pale ivory, and she had stunning green eyes. Her lips were like red pillow cushions. She was the most profoundly lovely woman I had ever seen! Her radiant smile was competition for the bright sunshine streaming through the giant window. She was achingly lovely!

[Rasputin]

Is red rain evidence of alien life ?

There is a small bottle containing a red fluid on a shelf in Sheffield University's microbiology laboratory. The liquid looks cloudy and uninteresting. Yet, if one group of scientists is correct, the phial contains the first samples of extraterrestrial life isolated by researchers. Inside the bottle are samples left over from one of the strangest incidents in recent meteorological history. On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months. All along the coast it rained crimson, turning local people's clothes pink, burning leaves on trees and falling as scarlet sheets at some points. Investigations suggested the rain was red because winds had swept up dust from Arabia and dumped it on Kerala. But Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, after gathering samples left over from the rains, concluded this was nonsense. 'If you look at these particles under a microscope, you can see they are not dust, they have a clear biological appearance.' Instead Louis decided that the rain was made up of bacteria-like material that had been swept to Earth from a passing comet. In short, it rained aliens over India during the summer of 2001. Not everyone is convinced by the idea, of course. Indeed most researchers think it is highly dubious. One scientist who posted a message on Louis's website described it as 'bulls***'. But a few researchers believe Louis may be on to something and are following up his work. Milton Wainwright, a microbiologist at Sheffield, is now testing samples of Kerala's red rain.

[Rasputin]

Revisiting Rendlesham forest

The Ministry of Defence’s UFO Project has its roots in a study commissioned in 1950 by the MOD’s then Chief Scientific Adviser, the great radar scientist Sir Henry Tizard. As a result of his insistence that UFO sightings should not be dismissed without some form of proper scientific study, the Department set up arguably the most marvellously-named committee in the history of the civil service, the Flying Saucer Working Party. The committee’s conclusions were sceptical; UFO sightings were misidentifications of ordinary objects, or hoaxes. They recommended no further action. But in 1952 there was a series of high-profile events where UFOs were tracked on radar and seen by RAF pilots, and this forced the MOD to think again. UFO sightings were to be collated and sent to the Department for investigation, so that a determination could be made as to whether anything of any defence significance might have occurred. Since then, over 10,000 UFO reports have been received. From 1991 to 1994 I worked in the department responsible for this bizarre subject. It was among the most fascinating of my postings in 20 years in the Department.

[Rasputin]

Investigators keen to present Bigfoot cast

Investigators who found what is believed to be a clear footprint of Malaysia's own 'Bigfoot' are waiting to meet the Johor Chief Minister. They want to present him with a cast of the print found in the rainforest and get his permission to carry out further investigations. They came from across the world, drawn by a common attraction - the prospect of finding Malaysia's very own Bigfoot. The paranormal investigators from Singapore, USA and the UK were invited by their Malaysian counterparts, a group known as the "Uncle Seekers." At Endau-Rompin National Park in the state of Johor, they ventured deep into the forest with the help of local guides. And after a daylong search - success! Mr Syed Abdullah Al-Attas, "Uncle Seekers", says: "Actually we saw 10 footprints … but they are not clear. At about 6.15pm, George from Destination Truth, and Jenny from Independent Paper found it. "Yes Uncle! We found it! It's not myths!" An entire Bigfoot colony is said to have moved there from the jungles of Perak in the North during the 70s. Also known as the tropical Yeti or Mawas, the huge creatures reportedly have dense growth of hair on several parts of their body. Mr Eugene Toh, Singapore Paranormal Investogator, says: "We have this department called Crypto-zoology. It is actually the study of hidden animals, which is like Bigfoot, and all those mythical creatures, like the unicorn and stuff like that." The clearest footprint found by the team had a four-inch depth.



Going by that, and the height of broken tree branches overhead, the investigators believe an adult Bigfoot can reach a height of three and a half metres, and weigh more than 200 kilogrammes! Ms Lee Qing Yu, Singapore Paranormal Investigator, says: "I brought along some crime scene investigator kit. So I went there and made some solution, pour into the footprint and made the cast." The team now wants to present a cast of the footprint to Johor authorities and get permission to carry out further investigations. Eversince this expedition, the Johor State Government has banned all foreigners from going into the area. It is still opened to Malaysians but they have to pay 5 ringgit, or the equivalent of US$1.50 just to go in there and try their luck at finding Bigfoot.

[Rasputin]

British Rail flying saucer plan

A Channel Tunnel or tilting train may once have seemed far-fetched, but these plans were grounded compared to British Rail proposals to use flying saucers. Recently uncovered plans show bosses filed for a patent in 1970 for a spacecraft powered by "controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction". With a passenger compartment upstairs, it would have been cheap to run and super-fast, according to its inventor. The proposals were recently found on the European Patent Office website. The original patent application said the reaction would be "ignited by one or more pulsed laser beams". The application was made on behalf of the British Railways Board and the patent was granted in March 1973. A patent document reads: "The present invention relates to a space vehicle. More particularly it relates to a power supply for a space vehicle which offers a source of sustained thrust for the loss of a very small mass of fuel.



"Thus it would enable very high velocities to be attained in a space vehicle and in fact the prolonged acceleration of the vehicle may in some circumstances be used to simulate gravity." But, it seems, the patent later lapsed because of non-payment of renewal fees, while the spaceship - the invention of Charles Osmond Frederick - clearly never materialised.

[Rasputin]

Buddha on the brain

The 14th incarnation of the Living Buddha of Compassion approaches the podium, clears his throat, and blows his nose loudly. "So now I am releasing my stress," he says. The audience dissolves into laughter.The Dalai Lama is here to give a speech titled "The Neuroscience of Meditation." Over the past few years, he has supplied about a dozen Tibetan Buddhist monks to Richard Davidson, a prominent neuroscience professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Davidson's research created a stir among brain scientists when his results suggested that, in the course of meditating for tens of thousands of hours, the monks had actually altered the structure and function of their brains. The professor thought the Dalai Lama would make an interesting guest speaker at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting, and the program committee jumped at the chance. The speech also gives the Tibetan leader an opportunity to promote one of his cherished goals: an alliance between Buddhism and science. But the invitation has sparked a noisy row within the neuroscience community. To protest the talk, some scientists set up an online petition, which was immediately hacked by the pro-Dalai Lama faction. Others are boycotting the event or withholding their conference papers. Still others have demanded - unsuccessfully - time for a rebuttal.

All of which may explain the lama's ailment. "His Holiness' cold is a manifestation of the opposition of some scientists to his coming to the conference," a young Chinese Buddhist explains to me.The protesters complain that the Tibetan leader isn't qualified to speak about brain science. They fret that he'll draw media attention away from important findings presented at the conference. Worst of all, his presence muddles the distinction between objective inquiry and faith. "We don't want to mix science and religion in our children's classrooms," says Bai Lu, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, "and we don't want it at a scientific meeting."

[Rasputin]

Saturn moon 'may have an ocean'

Saturn's moon Enceladus could harbour a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust, according to data sent back by the Cassini spacecraft. Until Cassini reached Saturn, the tiny moon had received little attention. But Enceladus is now the focus of intensive study following the discovery that it is geologically active. Enceladus may possess reservoirs of near-surface liquid water that erupt to form geysers - and where there's water, there may be life, scientists argue. These jets have been observed erupting from a "hot spot" in the moon's south polar region. Scientists on the mission have likened them to the kinds of geysers found in Yellowstone National Park in the US. "We realise that this is a radical conclusion - that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold," said Dr Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, US. "However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of Solar System environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms. It doesn't get any more exciting than this." Dr Jeffrey Kargel, from the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona, US, believes that shifting, glacier-like tectonic plates and tidal forces could generate and trap heat to produce the activity seen on Enceladus. His modelling also allows for a deep liquid water ocean saturated with gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2).

[Rasputin]

Overlooked Billy Meier photo sparks interest

Since the mid-1970s, UFO investigators worldwide have been bewildered by the many hundreds of clear daytime UFO photos and the movie films taken by the Swiss contactee, Eduard “Billy” Meier. Many rejected Meier’s abundant photographic (and other hard physical) evidence as being too good to be true. Heavy debunking of the case ensued, despite all the evidence from the primary investigators from 1975-1986, and authentication by various scientists and experts, that the case could be no hoax. But the photo from which the image on the left was recently cropped went largely overlooked. Meier took it, along with many other shots, in the hills of Switzerland some 15 miles southeast of Zurich, in 1981, long before personal computers and photo-manipulation software were readily available.Regarding the tree in front of the craft’s right side, Professor Emeritus D. A. Brodie of the College of Forestry, Oregon State University, said: "The tree is one of the European true firs -- Abies species. The picture has only a portion of the top of the crown, 10 to 15 feet. There could be anywhere from 10 to 50 feet of tree bole below the picture." The extent of the tree above the UFO is estimated by Professor E. C. Jensen, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, to be between 6-10 ft.

[Rasputin]

"Fuzzy lobster" discovered

Submitted by Marvy: A team of American-led divers has discovered a new crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster and is covered with what looks like silky, blond fur, French researchers said Tuesday. Scientists said the animal, which they named Kiwa hirsuta, was so distinct from other species that they created a new family and genus for it.The divers found the animal in waters 7,540 feet deep at a site 900 miles south of Easter Island last year, according to Michel Segonzac of the French Institute for Sea Exploration.The new crustacean is described in the journal of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.The animal is white and just shy of 6 inches long — about the size of a salad plate.In what Segonzac described as a "surprising characteristic," the animal's pincers are covered with sinuous, hair-like strands.

It is also blind. The researchers found it had only "the vestige of a membrane" in place of eyes, Segonzac said.Submitted by Marvy: The researchers said that while legions of new ocean species are discovered each year, it is quite rare to find one that merits a new family.The family was named Kiwaida, from Kiwa, the goddess of crustaceans in Polynesian mythology.The diving expedition was organized by Robert Vrijenhoek of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.

[Rasputin]

Mystery of vanished "Buddha Boy" grips Nepal

The weekend disappearance of a Nepalese boy whom supporters hail as a reincarnation of the Buddha has sparked a nationwide search. Supporters have showered 16-year old Ram Bahadur Bomjan with money and gifts for allegedly sitting in motionless meditation in the roots of a pipal tree without taking food or water, or using the toilet, since May 16 last year. The youth, dubbed "Buddha Boy" by the media, left the site in southern Nepal because the thousands of devotees who flocked there had disturbed his meditation, media reported Sunday. "He left as there was a lot of noise in the meditation area," his friend Prem Lama told the Kathmandu Post. A search using plain-clothes police and civilians failed to find the boy, but he had been glimpsed in the jungle surrounding the meditation site at Bara district 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Kathmandu, the Himalayan Times reported. Inspector Kamal Acharya told AFP he was "90 percent sure" the boy disappeared voluntarily. "It does not seem likely that it was an abduction," said Acharya. a police inspector from Bara. Police believed the youth had left the site with a close friend Sahila Tamang, who was also missing, Acharya said.

"The boy disappeared at around three in the morning Saturday while the people who guard the site were sleeping," Shankar Acharya, a journalist from Bara, told AFP. The thousands of visitors who have flocked to see the boy were kept at least 15 metres (50 feet) away. The boy's followers did not permit visitors to see him during the night, raising scepticism about claims that he had been surviving without food and water. Ram's meditation spawned a mini-industry with the site jammed with food and souvenir vendors. Rupees were stuffed in collection boxes around the site and a member of a committee looking after the site said foreign Buddhist groups had donated 40,000 dollars for its upkeep.

[Rasputin]

Politics and religion

T. Stokes: Many years ago, the church exorcist for the Diosces of Chelmsford in England, told me over dinner that as a child, he was told never to discuss the twin subjects of politics or religion, and strangely, years after as a Catholic priest he still largely adhered to this. While it is true that both topics will cause argument from long entrenched viewpoints, they are still fascinating subjects, and while I was running my paranormal radio slot, it would irritate me that while people were phoning to should discuss spiritual matters, many would constantly bring up politics.This made me think in depth that why should they be separate topics ?The diseased and corrupt state of British and U.S politics would certainly benefit from more concern and care for the voters, many politicians sail under false colours.In one instance during the last British election saw the birth of a new party called the “Referendum party” led by banker James Goldsmith, now on the face of it this was advertised as a genuine attempt for a vote from the British public on choice of whether to go more into Europe or America, and this policy was specifically designed to split the Conservative votes to allow in more New Labour seats, which it did.

The falsity and corruption comes in because, James Goldsmith was part of the Rothschild group behind Tony Blair’s New Labour and a war on Iraq,as Tony Blair and co. are perceived Rothschild puppets.With any politician look at who the financial backers are, the upshot to this is that the huge Muslim communities in Britain seeing the success of the Israeli backed candidates for the wars in Muslim states such as Afghanistan, Serbia, Palestine and Iraq, are looking to fund an equally corrupt number of British politicians to implement their views, and Arab oil moneys go a long way.British people are sick and tired of the lies and manipulations of politicians, and want someone who will actually represent their country and people, they may have a long wait, because as Shakespeare said; “even the devil crossed himself when he gave man politics” so maybe it is time we should bring a religious dimension into politics.

[Rasputin]

The reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln

About fifty years ago a great master of yoga, Paramhansa Yogananda, declared that Abraham Lincoln had been a Himalayan yogi in a past life, and that he was reborn as the famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh. But what do the histories show? Is there anything in the lives of these two men that validates Yogananda’s statement? In his new book, Soul Journey from Lincoln to Lindbergh , Richard Salva presents hundreds of similarities in the personalities, characters, and life circumstances of these two American icons. The connections span every aspect of the human condition—from the physical to the mental, emotional, spiritual and interpersonal—and provide convincing evidence that Lincoln reincarnated as Lindbergh.By drawing parallels to the life and words of Lincoln, the author explains how past-life experiences influenced Lindbergh—thus presenting answers to questions about the aviator that have puzzled historians for decades: such as why Lindbergh fought so hard to prevent America from entering WW II.

More than one out of every five Americans today believes in reincarnation—yet few are aware of how past-life patterns affect them. Soul Journey fills this gap, by offering a vicarious experience of reincarnation. Through clear and persuasive parallels between the lives of Lincoln and Lindbergh, the reader discovers how the hidden laws of karma and reincarnation impact the events of his or her daily life.