New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
Anyone who has treated themselves to the pleasure of reading Bram Stoker's 1897 masterpiece Dracula will notice something rather curious. For most of the novel, although his menacing presence is felt, the Count himself is nowhere to be seen. The book, the greatest gothic horror novel of all time, is supposed to chronicle the dark deeds of the vampire. However, after the first section in Transylvania, the Count only makes a few "guest appearances." Dracula dominates the early chapters, when Jonathan Harker visits him to conduct a real estate transaction. In this sequence, his evil and menace is overwhelming from the first description: "Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a ...
Richard Palmisano's Paranormal Toolkit. Photo courtesy of Richard Palmisano. I often see, on social media, paranormal investigators and various groups proudly displaying their equipment: piles of cameras, digital recorders, REM pods, various EMF meters, and a wide assortment of other communication-related gadgets. Thousands of dollars' worth of equipment is quite the commitment to searching out answers from the great beyond, and I tip my hat to them, because while on an investigation one never knows exactly what piece of equipment you are going to need. What I rarely see in these grand displays is the equipment that could prove that the reputed haunting has nothing to do with ...
I began investigating Mothman sightings in the spring of 2017, when reports started coming out of Chicagoland. Folks were reportedly seeing weird, winged creatures in populated areas; creatures apparently able to appear and disappear without a trace, sticking around just long enough to scare the hell out of people. Reports flooded out of northern Illinois and soon were coming from every part of the state, followed closely by southern Wisconsin and western Indiana. By now, almost a decade later, I've received reports not only from all over North America but the world. Whatever this phenomenon represents, it is pervasive across human culture. When the initial deluge of sightings came in ...
I love a good monster story. Big, small, hairy, scaly, passive, aggressive (maybe even passive-aggressive..."I want to eat you, but I'm worried about cholesterol"), it doesn't matter. The things that lurk in the dark corners of your bedroom, just behind the tree line, or in the dank depths of the lake are eerily fun. But, are monsters real? Of course. Haven't you ever watched Sesame Street? Throughout the centuries, people have reported encountering thousands of monsters across North America, some ridiculous (the Slide-Rock Bolter comes to mind, a land whale with a tail hooked to a mountain that releases the hook to slide over its prey) and some that make a whole lot of ...
