The Rapture is coming… Thank You Chicken Little

The Rapture conjurors up visions of hell on earth and things happening in biblical proportions; to quote Dr. Peter Venkman “Dogs and Cats living together, mass hysteria.” The Rapture is believed to be by many the day when Jesus will call the chosen up to Heaven with him, they will all just disappear and be in heaven while leaving the rest of the world to hopefully get onto the next wave of ascension or be blinked out of existence for the rest of eternity to never be thought of again, pretty scary/creepy no matter how you look at it.

Now why am I brining up the whole Rapture topic, well on May 21sr, 2011 the Rapture is supposedly going to take place. That’s right folks the Rapture is about to happen and you can’t stop it, so run up those credit card bills because you won’t have to pay them off, so long as this date is correct…which it isn’t. That’s right, there is no way this can be accurate, I say this for a number of reasons and not just because I’m selfish and want to see the entire season of Mythbusters before the Rapture happens.

Let’s look at the most convincing evidence of them all, in the bible, Matthew to be exact, it states: Matthew 24:36: "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only" Now to me it would seem nobody really knows when the Rapture is supposed to take place, not even Jesus himself and last time I checked he and God were pretty tight with one another. So if not even Jesus knows the date then how in the world can we? The answer is that we can’t known and won’t know until the day it happens, plain and simple.

Now there have also been quite a number of Rapture dates through out history, some dating as far back as March 21^st, 1844 and even dates predicted as far into the future as 2060, which was calculated by Sir Isaac Newton. These dates are based off the biblical time line of events presented to us through the good book. I also hate to be the bearer of bad news, but trying to figure out exact time lines in the bible is pretty much impossible, the calendar is not the same as it was back then. Many scholars have tried with great effort to figure out true dates and times within the bible and each time there are so many different answers because most of the things are based on interpretations as to when the events actually occurred.

Now the May21st Rapture has been pushed really hard by Harold Camping who is the president of Family Stations, Inc. which is a religious based radio broadcast company. He has been criticized for his teachings and this Rapture date for a number of years. May I also add that this is the 3^rd or 4^th Rapture date he has come up with over the years, so as each one passes he revises his statement with quoting miscalculation on his part. Do I care really if he says the Rapture will happen on a certain date at a certain time? No I do not, however I do mind if people start to really buy into and in the process hurt themselves and others. His group has been compare to the Branch Dividian incident involving David Koresh and the Heaven’s Gate group, which if we all remember how these two groups ended it wasn’t good.

I am not saying you can’t have opinions and speculations as to the time and date of the Rapture, but make sure express it is presented as such. If you start to predict the future end of the world then in essence you are going against the teaching of the Bible. The Bible wants us to be kind and good to our fellow man/woman, not to work them up into a anxiety filled stressful frenzy based upon a date and time you made up just to try and prove how “Godly” you are. Just be good and just enjoy life while helping out where you can along the way, that’s the true message when you boil it all down. Take what is said with a grain of salt and do your own research and draw your own opinions because you may find out more about yourself than you realized.

 
Be safe and be happy; it’s the best way to make it though life,

Jon Bolton

 

Carbon County Jail…the handprint that wouldn’t go away.

Legends, lore and curses surround many paranormal and supernatural phenomena and stories of the past. From glowing tombstones to patches of grass that won’t grow on the a grave to bloodstains that will never wash away all are connected to a death of the unjustly accused and either killed to hide something or killed while they were proclaiming their innocence. These stories have been around for many years and in fact I am sure we must have heard stories such as these around camp fires or in books of strange but true stories. This is simply just one of those type of stories that involve a man, a crime he didn’t commit and a type of curse to prove his innocence for all eternity.

Located in the mountains of Pennsylvania there is a small little town called Jim Thorpe. This town as small as it is, is very buys now a days with the upper class establishing it as the best place to be and the local wineries given the upper crust snobs a place in the mountains to call their own. Now I enjoy going to Jim Thorpe because it is peacefully and actually very relaxing. There is a small little bar there called Molly Maguire’s where you can get a pint of Guinness and a fantastic crab dip. Now through all the stores and tourist traps up there, there is a old run down jail known as the Carbon County Jail that boasts a story of innocence and cursed legend. You see there is a hand on the wall of one of the cells that will never go away.

In the 1800’s a group of local Irish coal miners known as the Molly Maguire’s were imprisoned here because of false accusations of the wealthy and powerful to remove them and claim the mines for their own profit and greed, it was very union based as well. This group that was currently imprisoned at the Carbon County Prison at the time included a man who stated over and over again that he was innocent of all charges that had been filed against him by the untrustworthy wealthy and lying fellow prisoners, who had testified just so they could be released whether their accusations were true or not. This man was named Alexander Campbell was on 1877 was sentenced to “hang from his neck until dead”. As Alexander was being led away from his prison cell he placed his hand on the wall and stated that his hand print shall remain there for all eternity no matter what, he was then hanged only a few minutes later.

Now while Alexander’s life had ended, his curse/legend and his handprint had just begun for his handprint had in fact remained there and would continue to remain there to this very day.

You can take a tour of the prison and see this handprint on the wall, this handprint to mark the innocence of a man unjustly hung, with your very own eyes. Now the story goes that the prison has tried to paint over it, wash it away and even tear down the wall and build a new one, but to no avail the hand print returns each and every time. Now there are other fanciful ghost stories connected to the prison, but none such as the handprint.

Do I believe that this handprint legend to be true??? To be honest Im not sure, I would love to have a team of actual scientists investigate the handprint to see if there is any basis behind the legend. Could the stone itself be able to hold the oils from the hand like a photography, but then since the wall had supposedly been replaced could it just be a fake in order to keep the tourists and legend of the Molly Maguire’s alive. It’s a good story and the town of Jim Thorpe is a good one to visit to get a way and you can enjoy the local Ghost Tour as well.

Be safe and remember that finger painting is always fun,

John Cannon

Follow me on twitter  @JohnCannonTBS for up-to-date randomness and odd crazy adventures I have along the way.

Sea Monsters of the Lake… Not Just for Oceans Anymore.

There are many stories of monsters that roam the seven seas as told by the sailors who venture out in those waters. The tales of mega sharks, giant squid, mermaids and even temptress sirens of the sea that date all the way back to Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey. The sea is a vast amount of water and is not easily explored both on the surface and most especially below. Most of the world’s oceans have yet to be explored and identified and that’s just the surface if we go below then there might just in fact be those sea monsters of legend and lore. Now that makes total and complete sense for the oceans of the world, but what about lakes?

It seas that lakes go through the same amount of legend and lore in relation to sea monsters as the oceans do. Through out the world there are reports of many lake monsters. Some of these lake monsters are more famous than others, but they still all come down to the same thing, monsters in a lake.

Some of the most commonly known lake monsters are tow in particular one being the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland and then Champ located in Lake Champlain near New York. Loch Ness is truly the granddaddy of all lake monsters and thrives in tourism just from its legendary status. Now there have been expeditions of the lake to try and hunt down the elusive creature. If you look at all the experiments that have taken place to find the Loch Ness Monsters I think you would have to agree that the chances of us finding something in there is slim to none. Well through all the experiments they have found nothing, and people to this day are still spotting the great lake monster. Could all these people be lying or could their eyes be playing tricks on them? In a world where everyone wants that 15 minutes of fame I would venture to guess that a fair bit of them are lying and the rest have seen something that looked odd, but can easily be explained.

A lesser known lake monster is that located in Pennsylvania and is billed as PAs own loch ness monster. The lake is located in Raystown Pennsylvania and in the Raystown lake is said to exist a lake monster. Now being from PA I am particularly drawn to this because there haven’t been all that many sightings and they are all fairly recent. Now being the scuba diver that I am would love to venture into the lake and take a look for myself, but I highly doubt I would find anything.

The exploration of lake and the eco system that live within them should be a fairly easy task to accomplish. So long as there are no rivers or underwater lines to other bodies of water there should be no reason why we couldn’t drop a side-scan sonar, comb the lake and find these supposed monsters? One reason is because nobody wants to waste the time, effort and money on such an expedition because it is chasing a legend that doesn’t exist. Are there things living in lakes that people don’t know about? Sure there are and we find things everyday but if we can find the smallest of items in a lake then why wouldn’t we be able to find a giant lake monster? Do you think the lake monster is smarter than us and messing with us? If you do then I feel bad for you, there are no such things as lake monsters as for sea monsters I would be willing to believe that much more easily.

Be safe and don’t feed the lake monsters,

Jon Bolton @JohnCannonTBS

The Labyrinth…was it bull(aka Minotaur)???

When you were a young child did you ever take graph paper and create your own maze on it??? Did you enjoy doing the mazes found in random children’s magazines??? Have you ever spent a good amount of time getting lost in a corn maze around the fall season of Halloween??? I know I am guilty of all three of these things. I remember doing the mazes and having to erase the pencil lines I drew because I ran into a wall and then had to retrace my path till I found the correct route through…because somehow it mattered if I erased the incorrect lines, but I know I wasn’t the only one guilty of this. So we are all aware of mazes and in fact most video games are just a giant maze in which you have to make it through without getting killed by whatever evil presence there is. Again, we are very familiar with what a maze is and we have all had some sort of a run in with them. Oh and apparently there is a dispute as to what the difference between a maze and a labyrinth, but we will call it a maze because my spell check hates when I try and spell labyrinth.

Now picture being in a maze, a real life maze, made of stone that stretched for as far as the eye could see, in fact you were put in this maze to prove your innocence or courage. Ok no big deal, I mean what could be so bad about it. Other than the maze being made of concrete and not corn and being very long so you could possibly get hungry or thirsty during the event what else and how bad could it be. Well how about if there was a monster in the maze that was half man and have bull called a Minotaur and its only goal was to kill you and eat you…yeah now sort of sounds something like its out of the Running Man.

This myth of a labyrinth and Minotaur is from Greek and Roman mythology. Mythology is full of fanciful tales to help explain the unexplainable and to show the trials and tribulations of common man in regards to the Gods above. This maze of death was commissioned by the King of Minos and it held his Minotaur which ultimately within mythology was killed by a man named Theseus.

So there is your quick cliff note version of the labyrinth, now what if I were to tell you that this may not be a myth after all??? What if I were to tell you that this great large labyrinth was in fact a real and genuine place??? There have been four ancient labyrinths discovered located in Cretan, Egypt, Lemnian and Italy. The labyrinth in question that was said to hold the minotaur was the Cretan labyrinth. Now we know for a fact that this labyrinth existed, we know for a fact that King Minos had it constructed..so now what about the Minotaur???

Well the story is that King Minos pissed off the God of the Sea Neptune, yeah never do that, so Neptune then had the king’s wife sleep with a savage bull which in turn she then bore the Miotaur…way to go beastiality. So the labyrinth was created to house the half man half bull and thus is the story. So is there any truth to a half man half bull creature running around a psychotic concrete maze eating people and was the result of a pissed off God??? If you seriously asked yourself that question then slam your head into the wall. Of course there is no such thing to have ever existed. Hell you might as well say that there was a Bigfoot running around the maze…damn now cryptozoologists are going to be claiming that now, Im sure I’ll be seeing that on Searching for Bigfoot soon. You see the reason for the bull theory was that there were a number of artifacts found with bulls paint on them and one of the famous ones of a man jumping over a bull…try and pull that one off you rodeo clowns. Now I enjoy watching pro bull riding and I couldn’t imagine a thinking pissed of savage bull coming at me, try and ride that one for 8 seconds you cowboys.

This story as fanciful as it is, is just that…it is a story. Would I love to see evidence of a half man half bull that ran around killing people n some giant labyrinth…you’re damn right I would, but unfortunately it never existed. It all stems to people creating stories t scare one another and I would definitely consider this to be one of the original “campfire horror stories” that people would tell.

 

Be safe and if you mess with the bull you’ll get the horns,

John Cannon

Follow me @JohnCannonTBS for up to date writings and ramblings

Psychic Surgery…as quack as quack can be

Medical doctors go through years of training, years of studying, years of tests and trials in order to be called a doctor…they also have giant bills from their schooling to pay back. Now this is just to be considered a medical doctor and this doesn’t count the extended number of years in which these men and women study to be experts in their profession of expertise as well. These people train very hard and very diligently, especially those who ultimately become a type of surgeon within their field. They must practice on cadavers and mannequins, they must know the proper technique in which to surgically and precisely cut into a patient while holding the scalpel carefully and accurately so in order not to do more damage then they intended to do while making the incision.

Once these trained people have made the incision they begin to precisely and accurately explore through the human body looking for the item they are looking for. They could be looking for a tumor, a ruptured appendix, a hernia…any part of the internal human body that is not working as the way it should and that only surgery and the removal or fixing could help the patient survive and live another day. Surgery should only be performed by those people who are trained…those people who know the human body…those people who know what they are looking for…those people who know how to fix and cure what they are looking for within the human body.

With having said all that and talking the importance of surgery and the skill and craft and training in which doctors, both men and women, must go through I now want you to look at psychic surgery.

Psychic surgery has been around for many years and its first documented occurrence being that of the mid 1900’s. It was said to have become evident of the spiritual community within the Philippines and Brazil and then it began to creep across the world.

The basis of psychic surgery is for the person or “patient” to have a strong spiritual faith in what the so  called doctor was doing and to have faith and believe the “doctors” hands were being led by God to search out and remove or fix the afflicted area within the human body. The basic principal is that the patient lays on a table in the room and the “doctor” preps by washing the area with iodine and washing his hands like that of a normal surgery prep…now this is where it stops being anything legitimate, well that and the fact that the room in which they are conducting this quack science is not sterile in any capacity. Now the “doctor” places his hands on the patient and presses down only to have blood and the disappearance of the doctors hands supposedly into their body. The hands then reemerge with bits of tissue or organ covered in blood. The “doctor” then rubs the area with water and the area is clean and clear of any incision or damage from the “doctors” hands. See to good to be true that the “doctor” simply puts his hands into the body of a person and pulls the bad parts out…well then you would be correct because this is total and complete 100% bullshit.

Psychic surgery is nothing more than a cheap magic trick of sleight-of-hand conjured up to prey on those people of weak mind to believe such crap. Now I don’t really blame the people who goes to these quacks, they are looking for cures, they have a disease and their back is against the wall…they are scared and don’t know where else to turn except to faith…and there is nothing wrong with that. What I do have a problem with is the people spewing such false prophesies of healing and surgery. In fact Andy Kauffman fell victim to this and ultimately died because of his belief in a quack psychic surgeon who claimed to have removed the cancer from his body. The Amazing Randi has discredited these people time and time again along with other magicians and those people who wish to protect the innocent. These psychic surgery quacks need to be shut down and put out of business as well as face some sort of criminal mischief charge while being fined so bad they can barely rub two nickels together.

Am I to harsh in my opinion and statement??? I doubt it… if you saw innocent people being taken of their money and ultimately dying because of these quacks I think you would feel the same.

So don’t believe these people, seek true medical help for your illnesses. Now I am a huge fan of holistic medicine and natural healing, but when it comes to something serious please consult a doctor.

Be safe and don’t give into quacks,

John Cannon

Follow me @JohnCannonTBS for more randomness

Beneath Loch Ness…a story of a loch and a monster

The story of the Loch Ness Monster is one I am sure we have all heard about at some point in our lives unless you were just born or have lived under a rock for your life which then I will write a blog about you because to live under a rock your entire life is pretty damn interesting. So there have been numerous stories in print and a number of documentaries produced about the lake and the monster that supposedly dwells in its dark murky waters. The legend has been around for many many years and even the infamous photo taken that really sparked the interest was proven to be a forgery as admitted to on a death bed admission.

In all of this there really hasn’t been a movie let alone a horror movie made about the infamous monster of the loch…surprising the Syfy hasn’t done one considering they have done movies about stuff that have no basis of reality aka octo-shark. Seriously Im surprised they haven’t done one and put a bunch of former 80’s stars in it like the entire cats of Saved By The Bell…now that would be funny to see Screech eaten by the loch ness monster. Considering they made one where Alice Cooper gets smashed by Bigfoot its not a farfetched idea.

So I stumbled upon the movie called Beneath Loch Ness about a research team and they happen to discuss the existence of the monster Nessie. And this may be off topic but since the Loch is located in Scotland why is it every single accent sounds like its Irish and not Scottish…oh well. Now a series of events have been occurring in the town that surrounds the Loch and a TV channel is coming to do a documentary about the lake as well….oh and the towns people hate the research scientists who are seeking out the legendary creature and want them to leave.

So as the movie continues on its merry way we discover that the Loch Ness Monster is in fact spawning and the loch is a pre-historic spawning ground. And of course they try to alert the authorities to close the loch however its tourist season and wont close the loch…hmmmm Jaws plot line anyone??? So its not a matter of time for the researchers to find Nessie and do whatever it is to prove to the people the legend is real. So eventually a scientist gets stuck in the breading cave of Nessie and well Ill let you watch the rest to finish the end of this story.

The movie wasn’t all that bad and the special effects were pretty good as well. If I had to give this a rating I would give it a 3 out of 5 star rating just because it was a good watch and didn’t have to think too much about it. So check it out on Netflix and relax and enjoy the legend hunting movie watching experience.

Be safe and some legends are real,

John Cannon

Follow me on twitter @JohnCannonTBS

Edgar Cayce…not quite a quack, but looks and sounds like a duck.

In the world of psychics and mediums there are those who have the gift to see and communicate with the unseen, they have the ability to truly help those in need of advise, reasoning And understanding fo what is going on in their life and to communicate with those who have passed on. These people seek nothing, but the ability and chance to help those people without any monetary gain or fame. Now of course there are those who turn out to be charlatans, those are people who care about themselves and want to be something bigger than they are whether or not they have a true gift or not. Now these types of fake people have been around since biblical times and in fact the great Harry Houdini spent the end of his career debunking such people and the amazing Randi and Penn & Teller have spent countless hours going after these people as well. In fact the amazing Randi has offered one million dollars to that person who can prove without the shadow of a doubt in a controlled environment their ability to communicate or produce great miracles…to date nobody has collected this reward and you would think people like Sylvia Brown and others would be willing to get this money to help the less fortunate or heck even prove their true fame they so think they deserve.

Now I would like to talk about one person in the past that may or not be a quack, this man believed he was a true psychic and could heal those with incurable illnesses and speak to past on loved ones. This man was named Edgar Cayce and he was definitely one of those people who were and are considered to be one of the king of the quacks or one of the originators…the true king of quacks would be John Edward, come on Edwards please read this and say something. Anyways, Mr. Edgar Cayce has some connection to my family which is how I found about him originally and researched him. Apparently my great grandmother was very heavily into the odd, strange, paranormal and mysteries of the world, yeah I never had a chance to avoid this one, and believe this man to be able to help one of my family members. Now I learned of this story at a family dinner and I had then learned that both sets of grandparents at different times had gone down to see him years ago. Now I really had to find out about this guy and thus why I am here today discussing him.

Mr. Cayce founded  a cult, I mean “association”, called the Association for Research and the Enlightenment located in a number of states, but finally settling in Virginia, which is where my family members had met with him. It was also said he gave some sort of a reading about the lost continent Atlantis and its people and where we were able to locate this forgotten world of wonder from so many years ago…yeah and nobody went to look for it, wonder why they didn’t believe him…I have my ideas, maybe because he was a quack??? Oh wait, he also said the United States would discover the Death Ray that had been used to destroy Atlantis in 1958…maybe they have it stored with the Ark of the Covenant in the Indiana Jones films, wow talk about a discovery.

He was said to be able o help cure those with diseases that were deemed incurable. It was said with his concoctions and remedies that he could make diseases that baffled doctors become a disease of the past…sounds a bit like psychic surgery to me, which we will cover later in another writing of quackery medicine. Yet there was no documented evidence that he really did any of these feats of great miracles and wonderment. There was no evidence that his premonitions ever came true, There was no evidence that he had great powers to heal, talk to the dead, predict the future or hell even tie his shoes. You would think a man with such great supposed abilities would have been able to produce such evidence in order to appeal to the masses that doubted his abilities. I would have loved for Houdini to take him on I would have loved for Randi, or Penn & Teller to take him on and shut him down. He had numerous people convinced of his abilities and to give him money because of their belief in him, just like Benny Hinn.

He swindled these people and had them believe in his false preaching’s and teaching’s and preyed on the weak minded and innocent. These people are the type that need to be shut down and put out of business and exposed as the fakes they are. Now some people may think I am being a bit harsh, but let me explain this to you, I have a family tie to his quackery and his false hope and preachings and teachings. The family member my great grandmother brought to meet with him and heal, was in fact never healed, they never got any better and unfortunately my great grandmother got disheartened and lost some faith. So yeah, am I a bit one sided in this…sure, but prove that this guy wasn’t a quack, if you do I will retract everything I have written with a full apology.

So please be aware of those people who claim to be psychics and have paranormal abilities. Learn and research and go with your gut.

Be safe and don’t buy the bridge they have for sale,

John Cannon

Follow me on twitter: @JohnCannonTBS