Sunday, October 4, 2009

In The News...





September 1974: In a case of synchroncity or life imitating art; folks in the United Kingdom woke up on the morning of 4 September to learn that Prime Minister Edward Heath's yacht had been hit by a freak wave in the English Channel and sunk. Two of the crewmen were swept overboard and drowned. In a photo taken at a book launch five days before the yacht sank, P.M. Heath is shown holding a book with a timely theme. The photo was a publicity shot for a thriller by John Dyson called The Prime Minister's Boat is Missing set in the English Channel.FT7:17


October 1978: One of the most important cases in UFOlogy took place on the 21st of this month. 20 year old Frederick Valentich flew his Cessna aircraft from Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne towards King Island. At 7:06 pm he radioed: "DSJ Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet, is there any known traffic below five-thousand?" Valentich was told there was no air traffic in that area. Valentich then commented that he could see what looked like four bright landing lights. A few minutes later Valentich reported that the unknown 'object'..."seems to me that he's playing some sort of game." When asked to describe the object the young pilot said: "It's got a green light and sort of metallic like. It's all shiny on the outside." Then Valentich said the object was getting closer and reported: "The engine [of the Cessna] is rough idling..the thing is coughing." Continuing to describe the object Valentich stated: "It is hovering and it's not an aircraft." Shortly after this, with Valentich's microphone still open the word "metallic" was heard. Then Melbourne lost contact. A massive search and rescue operation was begun, but neither Valentich nor his aircraft was ever seen again.


We, of course, don't know exactly what happened to Frederick Valentich, the young man was declared legally dead several years after the incident. Just the fact that he is presumed dead and his aircraft missing underscores how serious the study of the UFO phenomenon is. Society needs to pressure governments and science to take the phenomenon seriously. The Valentich case is not the only UFO case by any means where death or serious injury occurred as a result of contact with the phenomena. This fact alone is reason enough to keep asking questions whether we are dealing with some unknown natural phenomena, secret government testing, actual extraterrestrials, interdimensional beings or maybe a combination of these or some phenomena we can't even conceive of as yet.


September 1984: Some odd encounters took place in the tiny French town of Montpinchon in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France in the middle of the month. Some said it was the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) paying a visit. The first encounter happened to two youths and a young girl on a dark lane. They saw streaks of white light coalesce into a female figure. They said the hands moved as though pointing but the light was too bright to see many details. The girl threw a stone at it that seemed to be deflected by the light, almost as if it were a force-field. News of the strange occurrences spread and people flocked to the town, roaming the thicket-lined lanes in hopes of having their own sightings. Four days after the original sighting, a group of six women found their way blocked by a "shining white lady." The "lady" appeared to be dressed in a long robe and "flapped her arms about." The apparition disappeared as one of the women fainted and the others cried out in terror. If these episodes were indeed BVM sightings, the Queen of Heaven wasn't sending out her usual soothing vibes! Perhaps she was still upset at having a stone thrown at her!FT44:16-17


December 1995: 10 year-old Vicky Wilmore, of Manchester, England bumped her head on a coffee table. The surprise effect of this was that the young lady's reading and writing returned to normal after the accident. Before the accident, for more than a year she had been fluently reading and writing backwards and upside down, following a period of intense headaches. Vicky had been examined by a number of specialists because of the difficulties this caused her at school, but none could make a diagnosis. Directly in the few months before she bumped her head, her reversed writing had degenerated into illegible lines and squiggles. Dr. Isabella Tweedie of the Community Health Trust said: "I've never come across anything like it before." FT86:6


September 2002: Dashi Dorzho Itigilov was born in 1852 in Buryatia, a Mongolian region of Siberia next to Lake Baikal. At 16, he studied to become a lama and served in several monasteries. In 1911 he became the 12th Pandito Hambo Lama, the spiritual leader of Russia's Buddhists. He was influential and united many of the religion's factions. Unlike Tibetan lamas, who are thought to be reincarnations of previous lamas and made the supreme religious leader for life, Pandito Hambo Lamas are elected by other lamas, serve comparitively short terms and are free to step down if they wish. At the age of 75 in 1927, Itigilov announced his plans to die, he was retired by now. He instructed those gathered around him to "visit and look at my body in 30 years. He then got into the lotus position, began meditating, and chanting a prayer for the dead-and then he died. By the 1930s, Stalin had hundreds of lamas put to death and destroyed 46 Buddhist temples and monasteries. However, after World War II, Stalin allowed the Buddhists to rebuild their supreme monastery outside Ivolginsk. Religious practice was still tightly restricted and discouraged.


Between 28 and 30 years passed, and Itigilov's followers exhumed his corpse from a cemetery in Khukhe-Zurkhen. He was still in the lotus position and his remains were absolutely incorrupt. Stalin was dead by this time, but Soviet power was still absolute and religion frowned upon, so the Buddhists reburied their former lama in an unmarked grave and packed his wooden coffin with salt. Once again on 11 September 2002, Itigilov's body was exhumed and found to be in a state of perfect preservation. The current Pandito Hambo Lama, the 25th, Damba Ayusheyev, had the body brought back to Ivolginsk, where it was greeted by Buddhist worshipers with ringing bells and chants. He ordered the body placed on the second floor of one of the monastery's four temples, where it remains today, behind heavy curtains and locked doors. The former lama has been dressed in a golden robe with a blue sash laid across his lap. His features are blurred, but the shape of his face and nose definitely resemble a 1913 photograph taken of him. His hands are flexible, and his nails perfectly manicured. His skin is leathery but soft. His head is still covered in short-trimmed hair. The monastery's 150 students keep a vigil on the first floor, praying around the clock, though only the lamas may see the body.


In Moscow, Vladislav I. Kozeltsev, an expert at the Center for Biomedical Technologies, the institute that maintains Lenin's body in his Red Square mausoleum, has suggested that the lama's incorruption is due to peculiar soil conditions or " a defect in the gene that hastens the decomposition of the body's cellular structure after death," adding that: "You cannot rule out some secret process of embalming." Hambo Lama Ayusheyev, takes the view that Itigilov's body was preserved because he achieved a higher state of existence through meditation known as shunyata, or emptiness.FT 184:26-27, New York Times, 1 October 2002. The first image is of the Buddhist monastery at Ivolginsk. The second image is of Frederick Valentich. The third image is of the village church at Montpinchon, France. I decided to do another one of these Fortean news articles because I think they are fun, and I am completely stuck on the newest series I am working on. Peace and best to anyone stopping by! More on Valentich case HERE

13 comments:

nolocontendere said...

Life is infinately more fascinating than most people in their sleepwalking state ever realize, isn't it?

Perhaps Itigilov followed the ritual of self mummification?

Sharon Day said...

I love these stories! Keep them coming. Why can't they make women's facial lotions that can preserve us while we're alive like that corpse was when he was dead? That pilot running into something metallic was creepy. My father told me once that one of his best buddies in the military in the 40s was in that squadron and my father confessed he felt horrible because he'd convinced his friend to go ahead on the exercise and take his time off to see his family at the holidays instead of taking off then to visit them. My father made a huge deal about Christmas, so I guess he felt his friend should go home for Xmas, which meant he was on the exercise. He didn't speak of it often, but he always seemed upset about it. He truly believed in the Bermuda Triangle and he wasn't the type to believe in such things, but a lot of his buddies in the Navy had a lot of stories about it and then losing his friend...shivers!

Devin said...

I so agree with you there nolo!! I think-myself included we sleepwalk through 90 percent or more of our lives-thanks for keeping us up to date on the news at your place and for stopping by and the link-I will check it out! best to you as always!!

Autumnforest I love these too-I am trying to work on something and came to a complete standstill (brainfart:-) finally I had to stop thinking about it completely as I was getting so frustrated-haha dontcha know people would kill to have that lotion (some men I know too!) Thanks for relating the story about your family history with your dad's buddy-that does give you the shivers to say the least! Thanks so much for stopping by and I am really enjoying seeing your Halloween plans -best to you as always!!

Alex Robinson said...

Yes they are indeed fun & add a much needed shot of the non-mundane to a Monday night :)

Many thanks & I hope all is well with you

Devin said...

Hi Alex!! thanks for stopping by and I am sorry I am just now getting to your comment!! I hope your monday wasn't too mundane:-) I know it is Tuesday in your neck o the woods so I hope you are having a beautiful Tuesday my friend-all the best to you!!

Unknown said...

Wow the woman in the white robe thing sounds crazy.

And the guys remains didn't decay after 30 years!?!?! That's some serious embalming going on there.

Very Strange.

Devin said...

Hi Ricardo! thanks so much for stopping by and I am sorry I didnt post your comment for a bit-I was offline yesterday and must have missed it time wise on the 5th-altho that is strange because I thought I was online til about 10 or 11pm AZ time that night! best to you as always my friend-and yes a lot of these little sideline news bits are very strange!!

Michael Skaggs said...

Those were VERY cool Devin!

Nice change of pace!

Be well bro.

Devin said...

Hiya Michael-so glad you enjoyed these! you may be seeing more of them in the near future-best to you as always and thanks for stopping by!!

Chris said...

Well, i've just been searching around the net and come accross this. The Vicky Wilmore story (10 year old from Manchester) that's my sister :)

Devin said...

Chris thanks so very much for stopping by and I think your sister's story is very fascinating! I hope you dont mind me putting it here and are doing well-all the best to you!!

Chris said...

Thanks :) it's very fascinating her story. I don't mind you posting it on here. May I ask where you are from, and how you heard of her story?

Thanks,
Chris.

Devin said...

Hi Chris-thanks for coming back -her story is indeed fascinating!!
I only heard of it from Fortean Times magazine issue number 86
the magazine is wonderful -can't afford to buy it anymore especially as the buck is so worthless against the pound sterling (it is published in the UK which i was lucky enough to visit on two occasions in my life!)
I am originally from Colorado USA but now live in "hell" haha Arizona-you are more than welcome to my actual address if you know any or are a handsome gay man haha (joke-or not im desperate:-)
please tell your sister I wish her (and you) a long and happy life -all the best to you!!