; Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Friday, August 12, 2011

Just the Facts? - 1st US Vampire Bat Victim, CIA Collects UFO-ET Data and Holy Water Miracle


US reports first death from vampire bat

A 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Mexico became the first person in the United States to ever die from a vampire bat bite, according to U.S. health authorities.

The man, who was not identified by name, was bitten July 15 while sleeping in his family's home in Michoacán, Mexico. He did not seek out medical treatment for the bat bite and instead crossed the border into the United States en route to work in a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana. But after working one day in the fields, he developed pain in his shoulder, as well as numbness in his left hand and a drooping left eye accompanied by a high fever. He died on Aug. 21.

According to a weekly health status report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this case marks the the first reported death from a vampire bat rabies virus variant in the United States.

Health officials pointed out that the man's roughly two-week incubation period was far shorter than the median of 85 days reported in other human rabies bite cases in the United States.

Another oddity: Vampire bats have traditionally only been found in Latin America. The CDC suggested that the bats might now be moving north because of changes in the climate.

"Expansion of vampire bats into the United States likely would lead to increased bat exposures to both humans and animals (including domestic livestock and wildlife species) and substantially alter rabies virus dynamics and ecology in the southern United States," it reported. - cbsnews

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Blow the Whistle on the CIA's Collection of UFO-E.T. Data

(from Larry Bryant of UFOview) - After decades of protesting that it has no formal investigatory role vis-a-vis UFO-E.T. reality, is the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency still collecting evidence of UFO encounters reported in foreign press accounts? Count on it! You see, the agency's Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) continues to cull from various news media abroad any number of cases (particularly military-connected ones) for . . . what - covert analysis and clandestine response?

Historically, the agency grudgingly has granted freedom-of-information access to some of those cases. But - get this - the agency has yet to routinely publish them on its public web site; wouldn't this be a simple, pro-active task to undertake inasmuch as the high popularity of UFO-related web sites remains undisputed? What will it take for this paradigm shift to occur in our lifetime - an act of Congress? (Stay tuned.)

Meantime, I'm FOIA-requesting that the agency send me a photocopy of all its FBIS-collected UFO-encounter reports during the UFOhot period of May 1, 2011, through August 12, 2011. - classifiedads

FOIA Request to CIA re FBIS-collected UFO-encounter Reports

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Foot Hooked by Boy Fishing in Lake Turns Out to Be Prop

Crews searched a north suburban lake after a boy fishing hooked what he thought was a human foot, but after several hours, a search determined that the foot came from a Halloween prop.

Divers and sonar teams spent nearly nine hours searching Lake Marie, near Antioch, a release from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.

Authorities said the boy hooked the foot and reeled it to within three feet of his boat before it fell back into the murky lake water.

Gurnee Fire Department Battalion Chief John Skillman said the search was launched because the boy was considered a reliable source.

The fake foot was found Wednesday evening with the use of sonar.

“Needless to say everyone involved is relieved that the foot turned out to be a fake one,” Lake County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Christopher Thompson said in the release. - foxphilly

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Holy water miracle?

Lucy Hussey-Bergonzi was expected to die after she collapsed from a brain haemorrhage.

Her parents called in a Catholic priest to baptise her as they prayed and prepared to say their goodbyes.

But as the water touched Lucy’s skin, her arm shot up in air, the family said.

Within a day, she was off life-support machines and showing signs of recovery, leaving experts baffled.

‘Doctors were saying it was a miracle – people who have brain haemorrhages usually don’t survive them,’ said Lucy.

‘I think it was a miracle. I can’t think of another explanation.’ Mother Denise, 41, added: ‘It could be she was recovering anyway but the way it happened, even the nurses said it was a miracle.’

Child actor Lucy, of Hackney in east London, was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital when she collapsed days after filming a small scene for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince.

She was on life-support for five days before her parents were told she would not make it.

Despite her comeback from death’s door in 2009, Lucy still had to learn how to talk, walk and even eat again.

Today, aged 16, she is rebuilding her life, despite suffering severe headaches and numbness down her right side. - metro

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This Week on 'Beyond the Edge' Radio - Paranormal Investigator/Entertainer Jason Gowin

Jason Gowin was one of the stars of the hit TV series on A&E and Biography Channels "Extreme Paranormal" and Sci Fi Channels "The Paranormals". Jason has over thirteen years in the field of paranormal investigation after being mentored by George Lutz, the man whose family was the basis for the Amityville Horror book and movies.

A lifetime fan of all things supernatural and ghostly, Jason Gowin started his interest in the paranormal as a mere child watching Scooby-Doo and Ghostbusters. The seeds these shows planted would later sprout him going to the local library as a kid and picking up every book he could on ghosts, demons and strange occurrences. But it wasn’t until meeting his former teammates from Ghost Hunters, Incorporated that he began to look for the spooks that spooked in the night.Jason Gowin began his actual trek into the unknown back in the fall of 1998 with the infamous paranormal investigation group Ghost Hunters, Incorporated, where he spent the better part of 10 years causing chaos wherever and whenever they could. Upon meeting George Lutz, the man who was the basis for the Amityville Horror book and movies, and being shown a new path; changed his mind about certain things in the paranormal and sought out a new way in which to search for it that suited the not quite so blood thirsty (not literary) methods that he had become famous along with his GHI buddies for dishing out. While his convictions about the state of the paranormal remain the same, He’s taken along with former GHI Alum and friends Bill Angove and Matt Ulkins, along with new comer to the paranormal Kyle Haggerty to continue bringing you an alternate source of paranormal information with the same brand of humor he’s always been known for...he just can’t be jumping into dumpsters and riding shopping carts into curbs anymore...his body says no more or it will no longer allow him to get out of bed in the morning, it made this very clear.

Although he left the group in 2007, GHI will always have a fond place in his heart and since that time he has been searching out proof of the afterlife and finding it in haunted houses, storied battlefields and long forgotten graveyards. Jason has appeared numerous times on Ghostly Talk Paranormal Radio and the Ghostman and Demon Hunter show. His investigations have been published in the Encyclopedia of Haunted Places by Jeff Belanger. He has also been the basis for several widely released documentaries including New Gil Pictures “The Graveyard Shift” and Fight or Flight Films award winning “GHI vs BIGFOOT” amongst other videos about paranormal phenomenon. In 2008, Jason was asked by longtime friend and mentor in the paranormal Tim Yancey to become a co-host of the Encounters Paranormal Radio Program.

Jason is currently working on several projects which we will be discussing on the show.


Join Eric Altman and Lon Strickler each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go
Beyond the Edge!