Tag Archives | Superstition

Has ‘Curse Of The Iceman’ Caused Seven People To Die Within One Year?

By JacobSloan on August 2, 2013 in News 5

curse of the iceman

Call it superstition, but I would refuse to have anything to do with the Iceman at this point. Via Deutsche Welle:

A 63-year-old man dying of natural causes would normally raise few eyebrows. But when that man was a scientist connected to the discovery of a 5,300-year-old frozen corpse known as Oetzi the Iceman — and the seventh such person to die within a year — talk about a curse is inevitable.

US-born molecular archaeologist Tom Loy was found dead in his Brisbane home two weeks ago as he was finalizing a book about Oetzi, according to The Australian newspaper.

The director of the University of Queensland’s archaeological sciences laboratories had suffered from a blood-related condition for about 12 years. The condition was diagnosed shortly after he became involved with the Iceman.

Oetzi was discovered high in the Italian alps near the Austrian border in 1991. The rumor of the curse began a year ago when the German tourist who discovered the mummy, Helmut Simon, 67, fell to his death during a freak blizzard while hiking near the same spot where he saw Oetzi through the ice.

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Miraculous Bleeding Communion Wafer Draws Crowds In Mexico

By JacobSloan on August 1, 2013 in News 5

communion wafer

The obvious question is, if this indeed is Jesus’s blood, would lab testing identify it? Via Brazil Weird News:

In the parish Maria Madre de la Iglesia (city of Guadalajara), the priest José Dolores Castellanos Gudiño revealed a transcendental experience: in prayer, a voice told him: “My dear apostle Dolores, today is a great day…I will pour out blessings for those who will be present.”

In a Eucharistic miracle, when he opened the shrine (where communion wafers are stored), inside the goblet of Consecration, was a communion wafer dipped in a dark red liquid.

The chalice with the communion wafer were removed from public display and duly forwarded for analysis to determine if the red liquid is, in fact, hematic – blood and if is human blood. The case also has been duly registered according local legal proceedings.

After Mass on Thursday, many reporters and onlookers crowded outside the church in search of news about “the communion wafer that bleeds”.

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Elderly In Florida Town Swear By Radioactive “Fountain Of Youth”

By JacobSloan on July 27, 2013 in News 9

fountain of youth Eternal life or no, drinking this water daily is bound to have some interesting results. Via National Geographic:

Thanks to the myth of Ponce de Leon’s trip, Florida—known for its large population of retirees—is now awash in “fountains of youth.” Only one, however, is known to be radioactive.

In Punta Gorda, a town on Charlotte Harbor, a blocky, green-tiled fountain abuts an empty lot near the harbor. A spigot juts out near the top to release water from the artesian well below.

On the side facing away from the street, a public health notice warns that the water “exceeds the maximum contaminant level for radioactivity.” The water from the well is also heavy in sulfates, which give it a smell of rotten eggs. This hasn’t stopped the locals from drinking from it regularly. “I drank out of that well every day,” said Gussie Baker, a resident of Punta Gorda for all of her 78 years.

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London To Host Academic Conference On Spirit Possession

By JacobSloan on July 21, 2013 in News 9

Curious for some tips on curing demons? In September the Ethnic Health Initiative will present a conference for social workers, psychiatrists, therapists, and other professionals on allmatters of supernatural possession:

Spirit possession is recognised worldwide across many cultures and by several religions. Spirit possession is often seen as an idiom of distress causing a change in behaviour and mental well being. Spirit possession is also included in the ICD 10 and DSM IV classifications of mental disorders, yet the extent to which it is recognised and discussed in clinical practice is less than we would expect, even in UK cities where there resides a diverse population.

This one day event will consider the critical themes and debates on spirit possession from an anthropological, social, psychological, medical and religious perspective using a range of illustrative case study, clinical practice and research. This conference will be relevant to all professionals in the field of Mental Health and Social Care.

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Witches And The Creation Of Western Capitalism

By JacobSloan on July 21, 2013 in News 5

witches Via The End of Capitalism, Alex Knight offers a fascinating take on the powerful meaning of witches in European history:

For Silvia Federici, it’s no accident that “the witch-hunt occurred simultaneously with the colonization and extermination of the populations of the New World, the English enclosures, [or] the beginning of the slave trade”. She instructs that all of these seemingly unrelated tragedies were initiated by the same European ruling elite at the very moment that capitalism was in formation.”

During the late 15th through 17th centuries the fear of witches was ever-present in Europe and Colonial America. The author recounts, “for more than two centuries, in several European countries, hundreds of thousands of women were tried, tortured, burned alive or hanged, accused of having [given themselves] to the devil and, by magical means, murdered scores of children, made potions with their flesh, caused the death of their neighbors, and performed many other abominations.”

So where did this tidal wave of hysteria come from that took the lives so many poor women?

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In Japan, Getting Plastic Surgery On Your Palms To Influence Your Destiny

By JacobSloan on July 18, 2013 in News 3

palm reading

Hazards of the procedure: the surgeon misunderstands palm reading, and inadvertently puts a curse on you. Fox News reports:

Japanese intent on changing their fate have begun having plastic surgery to alter their palms. The new trend relies on the ancient art of palm reading, or palmistry, the belief that you can tell a person’s future based on the lines on their palms.

Plastic surgeons have reported an increase in patients asking for operations to extend or add lines associated with luck or marriage. The surgeries cost around $1,100 and are performed with an electric scalpel.

Takaaki Matsuoka, a surgeon at the Shonan Beauty Clinic’s Shinjuku branch in Tokyo, said: “You have to use the electric scalpel and make a shaky incision on purpose, because palm lines are never completely straight.” Around 40 palm plastic surgeries have been performed at the Shonan Beauty Clinic alone in the last two years.

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Vampire Burial Ground Unearthed In Poland

By JacobSloan on July 17, 2013 in News 5

vampire burial ground Thenews.pl reports on what lies beneath:

Archaeologists in Gliwice, southern Poland have discovered a burial ground where the dead were laid to rest in accordance with practices for alleged vampires. Four skeletons were found at the site, where mandatory digs were being carried out prior to the construction of a ring road.

In each case, the deceased had been buried with the head between the legs. According to folk beliefs, this prevented a possible vampire from finding his or her way back to the land of the living.

“It’s very difficult to tell when these burials were carried out,” archaeologist Dr. Jacek Pierzak told the Dziennik Zachodni newspaper. However, it is believed that they took place in the early modern period.

The last recorded instance of a vampire burial within current Polish borders was in Stare Mierzwice, Masovia, in 1914. A corpse was dug up in the village [with] its head cut off and placed between the legs.

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Chinese Wizard Makes Nearly $2 Million In A Year Selling Magic Spells Online

By JacobSloan on July 16, 2013 in News 15

spells When is someone going to found a metaphysical eBay? Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

A Chinese magician’s online “spell” emporium that is reportedly earning him more than one million yuan ($180,000) each month from clients who hoped to find love, atone for sins or improve relations with their mothers-in-law.

University dropout Luo Shun, 31, began working as a freelance feng shui consultant, charging for advice on auspicious dates and names, in 2002. He opened an online store on Taobao, China’s answer to Amazon, in the hope of reaching some of the country’s 538 million-plus internet users, last October.

Mr. Luo’s site offers more than 160 spells or products. Last month it sold 2,825 spells, the most popular a $53 love charm. Mr Luo declined to discuss how much money he was making but promised to channel his wealth into philanthropy.

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Kazakhstan To Rebury Ancient Warlord, Fearing Curse

By JacobSloan on July 4, 2013 in News 2

ancient warlord

Call the reburial a case of superstition triumphing over rationality, but, frankly, the Golden Man gives me the creeps too. RIA Novosti reports:

Ever heard about the curse of the pharaohs? Well, how about the curse of a 2,500-year-old chief of a nomadic Scythian tribe that brings about floods, droughts, and livestock decimation?

The Scythian curse is real, say locals in a remote area of eastern Kazakhstan where the chieftain’s remains were discovered – and where they will be reinterred this weekend to appease his spirit, to the chagrin of archeologists.

In 2003, an archeological expedition dug up a burial mound in the Shiliktinskaya Valley to find a Golden Man – a presumed leader of the Saka tribe, a branch of the Scythian nomads that populated Central Asia and southern Siberia in the 1st millennium BC.

Since the mound was excavated, the area around it has been hit by several floods, a drought, a mass loss of livestock and an increase in births of children with learning disabilities, locals said, Kazakh television KTK reported.

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Belief In Science Increases In Stressful Situations

By JacobSloan on June 7, 2013 in News 23

belief in science Belief doesn’t have to be superstitious or irrational to give us comfort. e! Science News reports:

A faith in the explanatory and revealing power of science increases in the face of stress or anxiety, a study by Oxford University psychologists suggests. The researchers argue that a ‘belief in science’ may help non-religious people deal with adversity by offering comfort and reassurance, as has been reported previously for religious belief.

‘It’s not just believing in God that is important for gaining these psychological benefits, it is belief in general,’ says Dr. Farias. ‘It may be that we as humans are just prone to have belief, and even atheists will hold non-supernatural beliefs that are reassuring and comforting.’

The researchers say their findings are consistent with the idea that belief in science increases when secular individuals are placed in threatening situations. They go on to suggest that a belief in science may help non-religious people deal with adverse conditions.

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