Cemetery photo of the week

In keeping with our "animal" theme this weekend, this week's photos were taken at Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Petaluma, California in the Pet Cemetery wing on May 1st, 2011.















Judging by the "162 years" on Jeebz stone I'd say he lived his 9 lives to the fullest...

Synchronicity

Hello everyone,

We apologize for the delay since our last update. Both Ben and I have been going through significant life changes, as well as each of us moving to new locations in the country.

Today I want to bring up a personal tale of synchronicity, as it does relate to Cemetery Gates overall mission of anything and everything paranormal.

I don't believe in coincidence, the universe is smarter than that. We are given messages and signs frequently and it is up to us to use our intuition and notice them.

My Uncle, Gary Bogue is a columnist for the Contra Costa Times newspaper in California. He has been employed there for decades and writes quirky, fun feel good stories about animals and wildlife. Nothing whatsoever to do with the paranormal.

As you are aware, The Cemetery Gates has an RSS feed in our right sidebar for Paranormal News, provided by Bonnie Vent, the Spirit Advocate. Upon logging in to our site this AM there in the RSS feed to my astonishment was the following:

The bottom most feed is an article my uncle Gary Bogue wrote in 1982 about cats and the strange things they see, but we humans can not. The odd thing about this popping up on our site besides the fact that as mentioned my uncle does not write about the paranormal is that I was just speaking of my uncle, whom I have not spoken with in some years, this very day. Also, much to my surprise at the very moment I was reading the article my cat Georgie was intently bouncing around the room chasing some hidden bogie, spirit or something else I didn't see.

Maybe I am reading too much into the whole incident, maybe coincidence does exist and there is no higher beings injecting little signs into our lives, but that isn't what I believe. I bet if you take the time you will start to notice things like this happening in your life. Magic is out there, you just have to open your mind up to accepting it.

Part 2 of Predictions for 2011

Predictions for 2011, Part Two:

Ian Punnett hosted the second part of the Annual Predictions Show. He asks callers to predict an event that could happen in 2011. The following is a list of the highlights predicted for the coming year.

•Janet in Slipknot, Iowa predicted that the United States will normalize relations with Cuba, allowing for President Obama to have a photo op on Cuban soil.
•2011 would be the "year of the floods," warned Joe in Pittsburgh, who foresees the central US being ravaged by such disasters.
•A prominent MMA fighter will reveal that the UFC is fixed, said Rich.
•George in Kansas City envisions that, due to the eruption of an undersea volcano near Italy, the Vatican will uproot and move back to Avignon, France.
•Butch predicted that Tiger Woods will connect with a Hollywood starlet, which will result in an improvement to his floundering golfing career.
•Harold foresees an impact on the moon, possibly from a meteorite, throwing dust in the air and creating "a pretty nice light show in the sky."
•The latest fashion trend to emerge from the hip hop world will be skirts for men, predicted Jenny.
•Osama Bin Laden will finally be captured by the United States, thanks to the help of an informant, said Tony in Bethlehem, PA.
•Nathan in Davenport, Iowa said that Wikileaks will reveal that President Obama is really a reptilian.
•Attempting to go 2-for-2 (see below), Cornelius predicted a Super Bowl victory for the New Orleans Saints.
•Tornadoes will hit Los Angeles, warned Zacharia.
•James in Topanga Canyon, California predicted that a scandal will cause Vladamir Putin's ouster from the Russian government, resulting in new Russian leadership which will align the nation with China.
•The end of reality TV will happen in 2011, said Bill in Santa Cruz.
•Citing health concerns, Joe Biden will remove himself from the next presidential ticket, paving the way for Hilary Clinton to take his place as Obama's running mate, predicted Tom in Minneapolis.
•Michael in Oregon foresees Coast to Coast becoming the #1 talk show in the world in 2011.
Ian also reviewed callers' predictions made for 2010. Here is a sample of the hits and misses.

Misses:

•Major celebrity will admit to being abducted by aliens.
•Nuclear reactor will mysteriously detonate on its own in North America.
•Newly discovered comet will be visible to the naked eye.
•A tsunami in California will reveal an underwater reptile species.
•Undeniable proof of Bigfoot is found and it is revealed that the government is breeding the creatures at 'Area 52.'

Hits:

•New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl (as predicted by the same Cornelius who called in this year).
•Google will be rocked by scandal.

The source of this article is from the CoastZone newsletter. To sign up for the newsletter click here.

Strange Phenomenons of 2010

These are just a few of the strange events that happened over the year. If you know more, feel free to comment and we will add them. There are at least ten UFO sightings in China this year alone. I wonder how many are just a hoax, enhanced by Photoshop, accidental camera effects or CG fakes. I guess we'll never know.

February 23, 2010
Guatemala Sinkhole

Three people are missing after a sinkhole appears on the streets in the San Antonio neighborhood. Possibly due to a sewer pipe breaking. Over 130 feet in diameter.













March 21, 2010
First sighting of UFO in China this year in ChongQing City



July 7, 2010
Sightings of a UFO in China



August 15, 2010
Another sighting over the Airport in China



October 13, 2010
UFOS over Manhattan and New York City





October 15, 2010
Strange Lights over El Paso

I thought this was an interesting story. A fireball falling from the sky then splitting into small crafts. The use of X Files music is priceless.



November 9, 2010
Missile launched off the coast of California

Was it a missile test launched from a submarine? No one has a clear answer, not even the spokesperson from Point Mugu Naval base. It's believed to be a contrail from a plane. You can be the judge.




Crazy stuff this year. Looking forward to what next year brings.

Happy 2011 everyone!

Coast to Coast AM Releases 2011 Predictions

Predictions for 2011, Part 1:

On Thursday night, Ian Punnett and his always popular Annual Predictions Show released the first part of their list for next year's predictions. He opened up the phone lines to have callers share their predictions for 2011. The following list is just part of what callers predicted for the coming year.

•Cal predicted a military coup in North Korea, which will lead to an improvement of that country's relationship with the West.
•Tom in Salem, Oregon foresees a major discovery at CERN that will relate to the heaven dimension, where souls go when people die.
•Cornelius said George Noory will marry in 2011; Jim in Dallas specifically said George will marry on November 11, 2011.
•Nancy predicted an 8.1 earthquake will hit along the San Andreas fault in mid-March.
•A subterranean tunnel will be found under the North American or Asian continent which could lead to Bigfoot's discovery, stated Charles of North Hollywood.
•AJ in Fort Meyers envisions the two big wrestling divisions, WWE and TNA, having serious money problems.
•An Illuminati sex slave scandal will be revealed, said Simon from Baltimore.
•Robert in Bloomington, Ill. foresees nanotechnology being used to heal people.
•Charles in Riverside, CA predicted a collapse of the music industry, with several large labels filing for bankruptcy.
•'Synchronized walking' becomes very popular, said Greg in Iowa.
•Barb in Ohio predicted the largest sale of flowers ever, from mid February through early May.
•Stone in Kansas City, MO said that Yellowstone will "stretch its jaws," with increased earthquakes, but no major eruption in 2011.
•A major cruise ship will disappear in the Bermuda Triangle, predicted Seth.
•Shane shared a vision of a small military conflict that will take place on January 14th that will lead to a larger conflagration.
•John in California said the Zodiac Killer will finally be identified in 2011.
•A private research company will begin cloning people for organ donations, said Alex.

Ian also reviewed caller predictions from 2010. Here are just a few of the hit or misses from this year.

Misses:

•The Dollar will crash. We are going to go to another financial currency.
•President Obama goes on live TV to announce that aliens do exist, and has a green alien speak on camera.
•Ground opens up, sky is bright orange, massive earthquakes.
•Edgar Cayce's Hall of Records will be found in the Grand Canyon.
•The disappearance of sea lions in San Francisco after Thanksgiving is a prelude to an explosion in Yellowstone.
•In the wake of recent terrorist attacks, it will force the government to tip its hand and reveal what has up until now been a secret form of teleportation.
Hits:

•Deadly attack on a freighter off coast of Somalia; international military force will launch attack on bases of Somali pirates.
•35% of pest control operators in the United States will use non-toxic chemicals in their businesses.

Part 2 of Ian Punnett's Predictions for 2011 continues tongight, so have you predictions ready to call in!

The source of this article is from the CoastZone newsletter. To sign up for the newsletter click here.

Happy Halloween from the Cemetery Gates!

May your day be filled with ghoulish delight!

Don't forget to listen to Coast to Coast AM as Art Bell hosts his annual Ghost to Ghost evening where he opens the lines to listeners to share their tales of ghostly encounters! You may even here Cemetery Gates call in with a spooky tale of our own!

Halloween Facts: Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each others fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Head over to History.com for the complete article as well as other interesting Halloween facts and videos!

Halloween Facts: History of the Jack O'Lantern!

If you've ever wondered where the roots of the Jack O’ Lantern come from, this story from History.com tells of the origin of the pumpkin-carving tradition, from Ireland!

People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks.

Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o'lanterns.

Cemetery Photo of the Week

In honor of it being Halloween week, today's cemetery photo comes from the ultimate American spooky tale...The Legend of Sleepy Hollow author Washington Irving!

Photo Taken at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow New York on Halloween 2007.

The Walking Dead Coming to AMC

It's about time we had a television series about zombies. The first episode is directed by Frank Darabont of The Mist and Shawshank Redemption, Executive Produced by Gale Anne Hurd of Terminator and Aliens. Based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman.

Cemetery photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cememtery, Oakland, CA in August 2009.

Cemetery Photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cemetery, Pasadena, California in March 2008.

Cemetery Photo of the week

Photo taken at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York in October 2007.

Paranormal Events at Eastern Airlines

The Tuscon Citizen released an interesting article on strange events in connection to the once bustling Eastern Airlines which closed back in 1991. Pilots, crew members, passengers, even shareholders have seen apparitions, ghosts and unexplained phenomena in conjunction to this airline. Established in 1926, the thriving Pitcairn Aviation won a government contract to deliver mail between New York and Atlanta. In 1938, the airline was purchased by a well known World War I dog fighting ace named Captain Eddie Rickenbacker with the help of a major financial backer; third generation Laurance Rockefeller.

Numerous reported events witnessed by highly credible people have no rhyme or reason to what they saw. From fireballs flying through the plane during a routine flight of EA 539, ghostly sightings of downed plane flight 401 when salvaged parts were used again for current planes in service and UFO sightings during flights.

“I was seated near the front of the passenger cabin of an all-metal airliner (Eastern Airlines Flight EA 539) on a late night flight from New York to Washington. The aircraft encountered an electrical storm during which it was enveloped in a sudden bright and loud electrical discharge (0005 h EST). Some seconds after this, a glowing sphere a little more than 20 centimeters in diameter emerged from the pilot’s cabin and passed down the aisle of the aircraft approximately 50 centimeters from me, maintaining the same height and course for the whole distance over which it could be observed.” – Physicist Richard Jennison, published in Nature, 1971

In 1993, Laurence Rockefeller and his niece Anne Bartley created the UFO Disclosure Initiative in which they submitted it to the Clinton White House calling for all UFO classified files and information from the CIA to the Air Force be declassified, including the famous Roswell UFO Incident. In 1994, the Clinton White House declassified files from the National Archives without any reference to UFO phenomena. The Air Force still denied that there was any UFO relation to the Roswell incident.

Below is an interview with Paul Davies; Arizona State University professor, cosmologist, astrobiologist and author of the book Are We Alone?: Philosophical Implications Of The Discovery Of Extraterrestrial Life. Davies is questioned about the meeting between Laurance Rockefeller and Hillary Clinton in which Rockefeller gives Clinton a copy of Paul Davies' book emphasizing Rockefeller's interest in UFOs.

Cemetery Photo of the Week

Photo taken at Highgate Cemetery, London, England in April of 2008.

If you happen to be in London I highly recommend visiting this cemetery.

Swain's Lane
London N6 6PJ, United Kingdom
020 8340 1834

Cemetery photo of the Week

Photo taken at Etna Cemetery, Etna, California in January of 2010.

New structure found at Stonehenge

Exciting news out of England this morning!

"Archaeologists have discovered a wooden version of British prehistoric monument Stonehenge at the same site, the project's leader told Reuters on Thursday. Using radar, the archaeologists found a circular ditch less than one kilometre away from the iconic stone circle, which is thought to date back to the Neolithic period 2,000 to 4,000 years ago.

"This finding is remarkable," said project leader Vince Gaffney, professor of archaeology at the University of Birmingham.

"It will completely change the way we think about the landscape around Stonehenge."


Head to MSNBC for the complete article entitled Archaeologists find new structure at Stonehenge

Story courtesy of MSNBC.

Cemetery photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California in August of 2009.

The Creeper: Wall Sculpture

The folks over at Design Toscano are selling a creepy wall sculpture titled The Creeper, designed by artist Liam Manchester.

"Drawing upon the rich stories of the ancient druids who once lived near his English manor home, British artist Liam Manchester created this sculpture to appear as if it is floating mid-air! What you don’t see is as important as what you do with the stunning effect of “negative space” balancing the matte black, textured interior. Cast in quality designer resin and ingeniously hand-painted exclusively for Toscano."

Check out Design Toscano for this and other spooky sculptures!

I-Dosing: The New Teen Digital Drug

Wired Magazine online reports of a concern in Oklahoma on teens getting high from MP3 digital audible tones. This was first reported from Oklahoma News 9.

Music tracks purchased from online dealers are believed to offer the same affects as marijuana, cocaine, peyote or opium. The report explains that the sounds are bi neural or two-tone technology designed to alter brain waves and mental conditions. Oklahoma officials are more concerned that it could lead teens into looking for an even greater high and actually try real drugs. "Kids are going to flock to these sites just to see what it is about and it can lead them to other places,” Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward informed News 9.

One track is available on YouTube titled, Gates of Hades (Listen at your own discretion.) I listened to the first few minutes through my computer speakers to the sounds of vibrating tones suddenly varying high and low. I would think such possible effects could be due to being enveloped in the sounds (when wearing headphones) while the mind wonders what's going on around them, possibly causing paranoia or other mental reactions.

This subject reminds me of the classic psychological moment in A Clockwork Orange when Alex played by Malcolm McDowell is being rehabilitated. That's something I don't want to experience.