Posts

Showing posts with the label Death

The Ghostly Handprint of Francis Leavy

Image
Stock Image, not actually Francis Leavy's Hand Francis Leavy & The Tragic Fire Ghostly handprints are something that is quite regularly referred to when talking about paranormal mysteries and ghosts overall. This specific mystery is of that sort but adds on an interesting and confusing twist to that. It is about a firefighter who was able to predict his own death as well as leave a handprint that was never removed for many years after his death. The mystery starts off on April 18th, 1924 when Francis Leavy, a firefighter ranked 'pipeman' from Chicago, Illinois was in his department going through quite a normal day. As the day progressed his colleagues started to notice that he was behaving strangely and seemed to be depressed but it wasn't very alarming at the time. That changed when Francis went to clean a window and while doing so stopped while leaning his hand against it. He suddenly turned to his colleagues garnishing a serious expression and sa...

The Mystery of Spontaneous Human Combustion

Image
Just a Stock Image of Fire Spontaneous Human Combustion Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the process through which a living or recently deceased body goes through combustion at such a rapid pace that the body self ignites or explodes usually without any external source of ignition. As insane as it does sound, there have actually been a few reported cases of SHC happening in real life and leaving grim and burned sites with little to no explanation as to how or why it happened. This phenomenon has also been seen in pop culture and literature such as in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens and these depictions also share similar characteristics with actual reported cases. The first known use of the phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion dates all the way back to the 17th century but it was really due to the novel “Bleak House” wherein one of the characters is killed off by SHC that it gained popularity. After this, there were a large number of cases recorded in the...

The Mummified Bog People

Image
Image of the Tollund Man, the most well-preserved bog body What is a Bog Body? This mystery is more of a creepy one and involves human corpses and mummies. A bog body is a human corpse that has been mummified in a peat bog through natural and environmental elements present in the bog. It is caused by the unique physical and biochemical composition of the bogs. While it's difficult to exactly say how many bog bodies there are, the number is surely in the hundreds. These bodies, sometimes known as bog people, have been found all over the world as well as dating back to different periods, for example, some have been dated to around 8000 BCE while some near the Second World War. While there is such a level of differentiation between these bog bodies, the unifying factor among them is that they have all been found in peat bogs and preserved to a decent extent. Due to the effect of peat, these bog bodies are preserved in a very unique and different way, they often maintain their...

The Piri Reis Map

Image
The Piri Reis Map What is the Piri Reis Map? The Piri Reis Map is a map of the whole world that was created in the year 1513 and encompasses a great mystery within it.  The map is drawn on a gazelle skin parchment and is roughly 35 by 24 inches in size.  It is one of the most interesting and important maps from its time due to the extent of the world shown and its use and display of things beyond its time. While the map is in decent condition, sadly, what we have today seems to only be  approximately one-third of the original and nobody knows where the rest is. The map was found in Istanbul, Turkey by a theologian named Gustav Deissmann who was in the process of cataloging the contents of Istanbul’s Topaki Palace Library. During this, he and the palace director found many bundles of maps and charts hidden within unrelated documents. They went through all the documents and discovered a map that seemed important to them at first glance. After verification by an e...

Mary Celeste, The Abandoned Ship

Image
Stock Photo of a Ship The Mary Celeste This tale of an abandoned ghost ship has been told and dramatized many times in books, documentaries, films, etc. and the name of the ship has become one known by enthusiasts as a famous and unnerving tale. Before the actual mystery, here is a summary of the actual ship and its history. The Mary Celeste was a two-masted sailing vessel that was built in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1861 and served under the name Amazon for 6 years. In 1868, the ship was transferred to American Ownership and was subsequently given its name, "The Mary Celeste." The ship remained in American ownership until 1885 when her captain deliberately wrecked her near the coast of Haiti in an attempt to claim the Insurance claim money and after that, the ship's story ends. Now, this was all basic stuff but the real mystery related to this ship begins in a voyage in 1872 that made it a mystery unsolved till this date.  The 1872 Voyage On November 7th, 187...

Road Trolls

Image
Stock Image of a Troll road sign What is a Road Troll? To start off, What exactly is a troll? A troll is a creature birthed in tales from Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. Their characteristics vary based on different accounts but they do share some distinct features. Trolls are said to be giant, monstrous beings, who sometimes have the power to control magic. Some sources claim that their appearances very ugly and grotesque looking, usually with warts and a green skin tone while others say that they look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristics about them. All trolls are said to usually be Hostile to men, and also connected to landmarks which the "haunt", killing trespassers and other people at night. Their haunting of landmarks and leaving at night is also backed by claims that if they are exposed to sunlight they burst or turn into stone. Over the years, the depiction of trolls has changed drastically and in more ...

Ro-Langs, The Zombies of Tibet

Image
Stock Photo of the Himalayas looking creepy and perfectly zombie-like. Zombies & The Ro-Langs Zombies are supposedly undead creatures born from the infection and/or reanimation of a human body. Zombies are very popular in movies and pop culture and have been portrayed in many different ways. The most popular thought of the creation of zombies is that they pass on a virus or pathogen through biting a healthy human being which makes them a zombie as well. Some other types are also said to be formed through magic or a curse of sorts. This process of their rapid multiplication continues making them very hard to stop. On the plus side, zombies seem to lose most of their cognitive abilities and become very close to mindless creatures who have just a single goal, to find other healthy humans and bite them. Today's mystery is about real-life zombies in the scary heights of the Himalayan mountains and Tibet. A Ro-langs is a sort of zombie-like being that originated from Tibetan...

The Unsolved Tunguska Event

Image
Stock Image of a Burning Forest The Tunguska Event This strange phenomenon, known as "The Tunguska Event," is one of the greatest mysteries of all time if judged on the scale of the event. The Tunguska Event was a large explosion that occurred near the Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia which was at the time, a part of Siberia known as Podkamennaya Tunguska River. The explosion took place in the early hours of 30th June 1908 and reports suggest that the initial sight was a fireball that would have been 50-10 0m wide. It depleted 2,000 sq km of the Taiga forest in the area, flattening a whopping 80 million trees. The shock wave from the explosion has been estimated to have been about a 5.0 on the Richter scale w hich would have been capable of destroying a large metropolitan area. This event has been classified by most scientists to have been an asteroid impact and also the largest "impact event" (collision between 2 astronomical objects causing an impact) in recorde...

The Unknown Mysteries of Pokaini Forest

Image
Stock Image of a kinda creepy forest. Pokaini Forest & its History Pokaini forest is a forest (obviously) located in Latvia, near a small town named Dobele. This forest has been shrouded in legends and mysteries for many years and is a place that many consider being a strong anomalous zone to the point where even NASA satellites discovered inexplicable radiating energy. An anomalous area is one in which strange and unexplainable occurrences, usually perceived to be paranormal occur often or even regularly. In the case of Pokaini Forest, there are a few reports of strange things happening as far back as the 1930s but nothing was really solid or documented up until the 1990s when the forest was investigated by a researcher which then lead to many more people going to the forest as well as discovering strange occurrences. The forest was allegedly first studied in 1996 by Ivar Viks who was a researcher from Riga. He was supposedly intrigued by the forest and the va...