For open minds
It may look like a monster designed for the purpose of hunting and killing others but the Vampyroteuthis infernalis (aka the vampire squid) is a vegetarians. At least, scientists now know that the vampire squid eats plant matter and there is no evidence they eat flesh.
In Pure Spirit
What do you make of the vampire squid? A horror from the depths or a clever and ancient animal?
This animation is fun and easy to watch. It’ll teach you about vampires; real vampires. Okay, this educational video talks about where, why and how the stories about vampires came into being and how they spread.
One to watch? You bet your life it is.
In Pure Spirit
Did you know all these myths and folklore legends? Which is your favourite?
In the 60s a group of youngsters with a growing interest in the occult began to explore Highgate Cemetery in London. One of them, David Farrant, spent a night there. He mentions this in the book he wrote on the subject in 1991.
A few months later, in February 1970, Farrant wrote to the local newspaper to describe a figure in grey he had seen while passing the cemetery. By the 13th of that month, several other people had responded to the newspaper piece, with differing accounts but tails of ghosts in the cemetery or the nearby Swains Lane. The ghosts included a tall man, a cyclist, a white lady, a white form drifting between the graves and a shadowy figure wading into the pond.
Sean Manchester, also a local, revealed that local Satanists had awoken a Wallachian vampire who had been carried from Europe to Highgate in his coffin. He cited reports of dead foxes, with no clear cause of death, in the Highgate cemetery as proof.
The two men were not friends and competed on theories and media attention. Farrant and Manchester both claimed they would lead a vampire hunt and dismiss the vampire.
On the 1st of August, 1970 a headless and burnt body was found not far from a catacomb. Police suspected the body had been used in a black magic ritual. Shortly afterwards Farrant was found by police by the churchyard carrying a crucifix and wooden stake, he was arrested but later released when court dismissed the case.
Manchester claims that a sleep walking psychic woman led him through the graveyard, to (perhaps the same) catacomb. They couldn’t open the door, so climbed down through a hole in the roof and placed garlic and holy water in the empty coffins they found there.
The story of the Highgate Vampire is now a fairly common one for in books. It is even suggested that the Hammer Horror film Dracula AD 1972 was inspired by the Highgate Vampire.
In Pure Spirit
Do you believe there was ever a vampire or a mystery in Highgate Cemetery or has the whole drama been created by the feud between Farrant and Manchester? This December will be the 43th anniversary of Farrant’s first, reported, sighting.
Dyfed Powys Police in Wales has reported a list of supernatural and paranormal events they have been called out to investigate.
The list includes 26 ghosts, 20 UFO sightings, 11 witches, two vampires and two zombies. In none of the cases did Dyfed Powys Police find any evidence of supernatural or paranormal activity. In one case a zombie was a character in a horror film.
The list comes from the police force in response to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. Over the last five years, there have been more than 3,300 requests of information and Dyfed Powys Police say that it has cost more than £500,000 to provide this information.
The revelation comes at a time when we are beginning to see reports in British media that ghost hunters are costing councils hundreds of thousands of pounds with paranormal-based Freedom of Information act. Earlier this month the BBC reported that Cornwall Council had spent £340,000 responding to ghost hunters and others.
Dyfed Powys Police were also asked how many of their officers were Pagan but could not respond as they do not record Pagan or any derivative (Druid, Wiccan, etc) as a religion.
In Pure Spirit
Do you think paranormal investigators need to exercise self-restraint when it comes to invoking the Freedom of Information Act? Or are these queries exactly the sort of public insight that the Act is designed to protect?
Photo Credit: Rodolpho Reis, released under Creative Commons.
