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Douglas Chapman's
POSSESSED EX-POLICEMAN
Anthony Cooper--who lived in Waterdell, Leighton Buzzard, Beds, England and was the head of security at the Asda supermarket--admitted that his physical self made lewd phone calls from his office. However, he claimed that someone else, from the same area over a century ago, was actually spiritually responsible: the late Peter Wilson.
Alan Sanderson, a psychiatrist, testified in court on November 15, 1995 that former policeman Cooper, 43, was a victim of "spirit attachment." Sanderson maintained that other psychiatrists would likely have considered Cooper a liar. Sanderson, however, had treated 70 victims of what he deemed spirit attachment.
According to an article in the November 16, 1995 Daily Telegraph, the chairman of the magistrates at Watford, Herts., Malcolm Barker, said that Sanderson's evidence would not be admitted, since it was not reliable knowledge
THE DEATHS RUN ON TIME
The same train, operated by the same driver, accidentally killed two family members, four years apart.
In January 1991, Cristina Veroni, 19, was killed when her car was hit by a train at the Via Cartoccio crossing of the Guastella-Reggio line. The driver of the train, Domenico Serafino, was not disciplined. This probably had to do with the problematic visibility in the area.
On November 8, 1995, the young woman's father, 57-year-old Vittorio Veroni, drove onto the same crossing in his Renault 21 car. The train's operator, again Domenico Serafino, saw the automobile, but the train could not brake in time, and the car was smashed and dragged.
This incident as well was deemed an accident, reported the November 10, 1995 Daily Telegraph.
POLO A PERJUROR?
Dr. Frances Wood's book, Did Marco Polo Go to China?, published on November 13, 1995 by the English publisher Secker & Warburg, may create an impact and even destroy a long-cherished legend.
In the classic Polo book Description Of The World, ghostwritten by Rusticello from tales heard while sharing a prison cell with Polo, the latter's tales are plausible so far as in the prologue they describe Constantinople and the Near East, claims Wood. But, according to her thesis, the China represented in the work is based upon second-hand information. Wood finds it suspicious that nowhere in the work are any references to tea, porcelain, bound feet, pictograms or even the hard-to-ignore Great Wall.
According to the October 20, 1995 The Times, fellow expert Peter Hopkirk takes Wood's contention seriously. A formidable authority on the history of Central Asia, he points out a supporting point unmentioned by Wood: that Chinese writings of the period indicate no visits to China by anyone from Europe.
IN JAPAN, PEOPLE LOOK FOR OTHERS OF THE RIGHT TYPE--SOMETIMES TYPE O
What astrology is to Americans as a categorizer of character, blood type is to the Japanese, reported the December 29, 1995 The Washington Post. Blood types are requested on job applications as a clue to personality. Political candidates make their blood type known to the voters.
According to the theory, people with type A blood can be orderly and fastidious, but at worst can be inflexible and picky. People with type B are expected to be more flexible and independent, but some can be loose cannons. Type ABs tend to honesty and rationality, or can be unforgiving nitpickers if their negative side is to the forefront. The idealism, sexiness and health of typical Type Os can in problematical cases be overbalanced by overtalkativeness and pursuit of status.
Thirty books about the subject have been written by Toshitaka Nomi. One of these is You Are Your Blood Type. In one cited example of the alleged phenomenon, Al Capone, Queen Elizabeth and Ronald Reagan all possessed type O blood--indicating powerful leadership qualities.
The present obsession dates to 1971, when Nomi's father, Masahiko Nomi, published a best seller.
BUNCHES OF BATS
Sandi and Terry Dowdy were not happy about the mammal infestation in their house by the Guadalupe River in Tivoli, which is some 135 miles from Houston. Thousands of bats had made their home inside the Dowdy's Texas residence.
The Tivoli county office of pest control was uncertain how to proceed, as of late January 1995. Walter Dowell of that office lacked knowledge of how so many bats could be eliminated, since the animals were not in one place, but instead in every nook and cranny of the house.
THE TRANSLUCENT SWISS BIGFOOT
Bruno Minder, Switzerland's Sweat House Chief for the past 23 years, consulted his neighbors near Bern about some unusual occurrences, including one that he takes to be the first known case of a Swiss Bigfoot.
One night, a family observed a UFO, and the father refused to tape the thing on his camcorder, for fear of ridicule. Next, the father observed a three- meter-tall, "cloudy," "gray translucent" Bigfoot standing in the shadow of a big tree. The man's children observed the creature's reddish eyes repeatedly glow then dim, reported Bruno Minder via Craig Carpenter on September 17, 1995 in a piece made available through the October 1995 Bigfoot Co-op.
VOICES THAT HEAL
Among the approaches to health care once tried out was the hypnotism of patients using audiotapes, reported the New York Times on August 16, 1977. At Kaiser Hospital in Walnut Creek, California, Dr. Robert Collins used recorded hypnotic suggestions so that his patients could use mind power to help themselves heal.
Officials claimed those who heard the doctor's voice on tape the night before surgery recovered quicker and needed less medication.
Almost two decades later, a report from the Religion News Service, circa June 3, 1995, told of other voices that had an even more startling effect.
Shin, one of seven snow leopards at the San Francisco Zoo, had ceased eating for about fourteen days and not responded to medicine. But eleven singing Tibetan monks, on a mid-1995 performance tour of the western states, heard of Shin's predicament and offered to chant a healing puja.
The monks, who were from India's Gyuto Tantric University, started a drone outside Shin's enclosure. The large cat, who had been on a 15-foot-high perch, came down and, apparently fascinated, sat and listened to the monks.
When the monks finished their performance, Shin strolled away, reported Nancy Chan, a zoo spokesperson. On that same day, the leopard returned to her customary diet of horsemeat.
COPING WITH THE CURSE
A ritual incantation was performed before rehearsals commenced for the 1992 Washington Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth. While the director of the company, Brian Hemmingsen, was skeptical, he did not stand in the way of troupe member Richard Mancini's idea for the ritual, which employed olive oil and water.The "jinx" play Macbeth is ritualized enough, quite full of sorcery, and has been associated with lots of misfortunes--large and small--in many productions. Thus, actors tend to avoid referring to it by name.
Norrie Epstein's book, The Friendly Shakespeare, reveals that the play's premiere, on August 7, 1606 was the first such scene of tragedy when Hal Berridge, who had performed Lady Macbeth, expired backstage. And, during one week in 1934, Britain's Old Vic went through four Macbeths. They were Michael Kim, Alastair Sim, Marius Goring and John Laurie. (The first two got sick, and the third got fired.)
Returning to present-day disasters, the October 29, 1995 edition of the Washington Post reported that one other District of Columbia troupe, the Shakespeare Theatre, in 1995 put on a bloody version, starring Stacy Keach. The actor who played the Porter in this production, Wallace Acton, was cut by a sword during a rehearsal, and took action to avoid further injury. He lit candles around the backstage "shrine to Elvis" and was, as of late October 1995, not again injured.
But, according to a D.C.-area actor, Stacy Keach was, on the last night of the run.
PSYCHIC SPYING TODAY
Jack Anderson and Michael Binstein have updated their 1984 account of the United States's team of "psychic spies." Published on November 2, 1995 in the Washington Post, the column was headlined: "Psyched Up for Spies' Crystal Ball."In April 1984 the project was titled Project Grill Flame, but later was changed to various others. Earlier, in the '70s, it had been instituted to try to keep up with Soviet research in the field.
Prior to present, still secret, endeavors, a "remote viewing" project had been assembled with the participation of the noted team of Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ. At one point the institute had a contract with the CIA and administered the program.
For the program, initially called Project Scanate, psychics were recruited, placed in dark rooms, provided with longitude and latitude, and queried on what they "observed."
Enough striking successes occurred to convince important people both within and without the intelligence community of the psychics' usefulness. One such success was the remote viewing of an airfield, initially regarded with doubt until subsequent satellite photos showed certain details true. Additionally, a Soviet bomber was once found in Africa through remote viewing. And Sadam Hussein's location in Iraq during the Gulf War was never found by normal means, but remote viewers identified a location.
Once stationed at Fort Meade, the program now exists in a smaller version elsewhere.
500-YEAR-OLD LIVING ORGANISMS FROM INCA SACRIFICES
According to an Associated Press report out of Arequipa, Peru, an amazing discovery took place on Mount Ampato in the Peruvian Andes. In September and early October 1995, a Peruvian-American archeology team found the mummified bodies of a man and two young women. Two were partially frozen, and on October 24 scientists claimed that these could contain living organisms aged 500 years.Johan Reinhard, the expedition leader, was excited about finding the first known frozen Incan mummies, and looked forward to a greater understanding of the Incas.
The three corpses were sacrificial victims, said to have been sacrificed to the gods of the sacred mountain.
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