19: Not of this Earth

America in the mid-nineteenth century was still a very young nation in the process of finding its own identity, its states not yet fully or harmoniously united. Differing ideas on what methods of production and government its inhabitants should employ were fomenting into a house divided and would lead to one of the bloodiest and devastating civil wars any country could experience. Leading up to America's Civil War, various factions were coalescing into numerous political parties and regional movements, with ideological lines drawn largely on the issue of slavery. The struggle for America's southern states' self-determination gave rise to a secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, whose members were determined to gain power, wealth and influence for their cause either within the Union, or if necessary as their own autonomous territory. The birth of the United States as a nation would indeed be a painful and traumatic experience, the pangs of which would be felt and remembered to this day, and the hopes for the rise of the South kept alive perhaps more than the average American knows. Tonight's Quote: “No matter what secrets may be given to me by a 57, if given as the secret of a 57 and because I am one, I will hold the same sacredly in my own knowledge, and never re-communicate it, even to a 57, unless authorized so to do by the brother whose secret it is.” KGC Initiation rites for their 3rd degree, within which membership was kept from all other members of the organization. (Published anonymously in 1861) Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URL's, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URL's next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! Knights of the Golden Circle on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/1NjC5aa Article on the KGC from the Texas State Historical Association http://bit.ly/1XjMJNt "An Authentic Exposition of the Knights of the Golden Circle" by a Member of the Order http://bit.ly/1OaGZ8m Report of the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army on the Order of American Knights, from 1864 http://bit.ly/1kP9A87 "Solving Lincoln's Assassination" - a blog posting by Steven Hager http://bit.ly/1ScpjbM Albert Pike, Freemasonry and the KGC http://bit.ly/21c7zTJ Albert Pike http://bit.ly/1QCVbIJ Clement Vallandigham http://bit.ly/1PIYQ7K Robert Rhett http://bit.ly/1I9xO1r John A. Quitman http://bit.ly/1jf5rIL Benjamin McCulloch http://bit.ly/1NKI81Y William Walker http://bit.ly/1PUzDFS Copperhead political faction http://bit.ly/1QZ59U9 The Young America political movement http://bit.ly/1HheKUa The Fire-Eaters political faction http://bit.ly/1P1GQW5 For more information on this episode visit our website! Credits: Episode 027 - "Knights of the Golden Circle" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle. Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.

23 Nov 20151h 2min

They watch us. They wait. Lurking in the shadows or in bright daylight, from afar, in the corners of our eyes or in our very own bedrooms, staring directly at us, sometimes with eyes of red fire. They observe us and learn our behavior or they try to choke the breath and souls from our bodies. But why are they here and what do they really want with us? Or are their sightings and interactions just a physiological or psychological anomaly, Hypnogogic or Hypnopompic Isolated Sleep Paralysis, a trick of the light, perhaps a wayward spark causing an electrical stimulation of the brain's left temporoparietal junction? Maybe this phenomenon is only one of the many unfortunate side-effects of a methamphetamine bender, but then why do sober and healthy people also see them? Join us tonight as we explore what these uninvited paranormal intruders might be, perhaps either interdimensional or bioelectrochemical and why they seem to enjoy the abject terror they instill in us in our 2nd Annual Halloween Special. If these spectral watchers are real, one thing is certain: they feed off our deepest, darkest fear. Tonight's Quote: “The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and the other begins?” Edgar Allen Poe Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URL's, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URL's next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! A very general overview of Shadow People on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/1jH5sGz Induction of a Shadow Person via local electrical stimulation in the brain http://bit.ly/1kDGEPX Art Bell radio episode on YouTube about Shadow People http://bit.ly/1jHfGqs The Daily Mail Article Scott Referenced on the Documentary, 'The Nightmare' http://dailym.ai/1Ly2QDW The Film, The Nightmare http://bit.ly/1MPGDiz An article from the website Odd Xtreme on Black Eyed Kids http://bit.ly/1NteSz5 "Floaters" in the eye's vitreous humour http://bit.ly/1PK7PFq The Grinning Man and Indrid Cold http://bit.ly/1bX3Y0f The Tulpa - a Tibetan Buddhist thoughtform creature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpa The Golem http://bit.ly/1kDKRD8 David Weatherly's books "Strange Intruders" and "Black Eyed Kids" http://bit.ly/1LUTSSA Ghost Hunters International star Susan Slaughter describes her encounter with a Black Eyed Kid to David Weatherly. http://bit.ly/1Rw4qaD The Slender Man http://bit.ly/1OOrbsI Jason Offutt's Shadow People Blog http://bit.ly/1OT5vfk Shadow People article by author Jason Offutt http://bit.ly/1O0iaNa Accounts by 15 people on their encounter with the "Sleep Paralysis Demon" http://tcat.tc/1qflsNu Interesting letter from a scientist named "Alex" on his SP encounters http://xfin.tv/1KxCzS8 Shadow People and the Djinn from Psychology Today website http://bit.ly/1MiutV3 A critical look at the Shadow Person phenomenon from SKEPTOID http://bit.ly/1Miv2y7 reddit thread about a current encounter possibly with Indrid Cold http://bit.ly/1Miv2y7 Webpage on how to deal with Shadow Person encounters http://bit.ly/1Wbmgqf The Horla - a short horror story by Guy de Maupassant http://bit.ly/1LQlIMf For more information on this episode visit our website! Credits: Episode 026 - "Shadow People" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle. Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.

27 Okt 20151h 15min

Some tales are tall tales, and some tales involve an ape-like creature that stands over 7 feet tall and weighs around 700 pounds. Such was the tale of Albert Ostman, who claimed that in 1924, while on a leisurely prospecting trip in British Columbia, Canada, he was kidnapped in the middle of the night by a Sasquatch, or what is more commonly known as "Bigfoot." While some folks might be quick to dismiss Mr. Ostman's story as a stretch of the truth by no small means, it's hard to deny the folksy charm and curious wonder his tale invokes, whether tall tale or sober testimony. Tonight's Quote: “ I have learned from experience that a modicum of snuff can be most efficacious.” Fictional Character Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Münchhausen on escaping from a monster. Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URL's, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URL's next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! The Original Ostman Article - http://bit.do/OstmanArticle Albert Ostman's tale as told to author John Green, on a great site with other "Bigfoot Classics" - http://bit.do/ostmanstory An Actual Interview with Ostman on YouTube - http://bit.do/ostmanyoutube Russian Yeti at Dyatlov? - http://bit.do/dyatlovyeti Snowboarder Bigfoot Incident - http://bit.do/snowboarderbigfootincidentbc The Story of Muchalot Harry (also kidnapped!) - http://bit.do/muchalotharry Mike the Dog, Bowser Hotel Barmaid - http://bit.do/mikethedog A Mike the Dog Bowser Geocache - http://bit.do/mikethedogGEOCACHE Bowser, BC - http://bit.do/bowserbc Bowzer from Sha Na Na - http://bit.do/bowzer Toba Inlet, BC - http://bit.do/tobainletbc Baron Munchausen - http://bit.do/munchausen Gigantopithecus - http://bit.do/Gigantopithecus Why Bigfoot CAN'T Be Gigantopithecus - http://bit.do/ArgumentAgainstGigantopithecus Grover Krantz Talks About Cripplefoot - http://bit.do/KrantzCripplefoot Great Berkeley Museum Exhibit of Cripplefoot Casting - http://bit.do/CripplefootCast Patterson-Gimlin Shoot Location - http://bit.do/PattersonGimlinGoogleMaps Patterson-Gimlin Coordinates (not clickable, cut and paste to Google Earth): 41.4402000°, -123.7019167° Patterson-Gimlin Film Stabilized (The BEST one) - http://bit.do/PattersonGimlinStabilized Bad Bob the Albino from Judge Roy Bean (Adult Concepts) - http://bit.do/BadBob For more information on this episode visit our website! Episode 025 - "Kidnapped by Bigfoot: The Albert Ostman Story" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle. Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.  #bigfoot

9 Okt 20151h 34min

Background: Part 2 of our Special on Dyatlov Pass:  On January 27, 1959, a group of outdoor enthusiasts, known as "tourists" in Russia, consisting of seven men and two women, mostly students and graduates of the Ural Polytechnical Institute (which is now the Ural Federal University) left the village of Vizhay in the northern Ural Mountains on a two-week ski trek, through a region called Sverdlovsk Oblast, the "gateway to Siberia" in Russia.  In Russia a "tourist" is a serious outdoorsman. The goal was to reach Otorten Mountain at the end of their journey.  Their planned route would rank as a "Category III," the most difficult classification for a hiking expedition in winter, which if successful, would qualify them as "Masters of Sport."  On February 1st as they started to move through a mountain pass on their last leg of the trip, bad weather and decreasing visibility forced them off course, and the group decided to make camp on the eastern slope of a small mountain called Kholat Syakhl by the indigenous Mansi peoples, which translates to "Dead Mountain" due to the area's lack of wild game.  Sometime during the night of February 2nd, the group suffered an unimaginably terrifying ordeal, sealing their fate.  When they hadn't been heard from by February 20th, a search party was formed to look for the missing youths.  On February 26th the search party reached their camp and what they found would bring more questions than answers.  It appeared as though something had scared the hikers so badly, that they panicked and ripped a hole in the side of their tent in order to escape, shoeless, into - 20º F (-29º C) snowfall.  It was determined by Soviet authorities that the group had met with a "compelling unknown force" causing them all to flee and ultimately die of exposure with some also suffering significant internal injuries such as broken ribs and fractured skulls.  There have since been many theories put forth as to what this force actually was, but we may never know what was so horrific that it caused this group of experienced adventurers to take leave of their senses and take their chances in the deadly wilderness.  Following the incident, the mountain pass was named "Dyatlov Pass" in honor of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. Tonight's Quote: "An unknown compelling force should be considered the cause of the hiker's deaths." - Lev Ivanov, Lead Prosecutor, Dyatlov Pass Incident Show Links: (Links work best in iOS on iTunes or on our webpage at astonishinglegends.com) Archive of a very comprehensive website about the whole Dyatlov story Supplemental documentation and analysis of the incident Dyatlov Pass on Wiki Terrific archive of all the photos from the group, in English and Russian Forum on the Dyatlov incident - in Russian - you'll need a browser that can translate Donnie Eichar's "Authors at Google" interview about his book, "Dead Mountain" Book Review of "Dead Mountain" Song: Pixies "Wave of Mutilation" from the album, "Doolittle" YouTube vid about Dyatlov - text pulled from Wiki entry but has good photos Interesting story about a family living isolated for 40 years in Siberia Russian Yeti at Dyatlov? Snowboarder Bigfoot Incident Nazi UFO's Foo Fighters More on the Foo Fighters Even more on Foo Fighting The Actual Foo Fighters (Because you were expecting that right?)  For more information on this episode visit our website! Credits: Episode 024 - "Dyatlov Pass (Part 2)" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle.  Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.

18 Sep 201559min

Background: On January 27, 1959, a group of outdoor enthusiasts, known as 'tourists' in Russia, consisting of seven men and two women, mostly students and graduates of the Ural Polytechnical Institute (which is now the Ural Federal University) left the village of Vizhay in the northern Ural Mountains on a two-week ski trek, through a region called Sverdlovsk Oblast, the "gateway to Siberia" in Russia.  In Russia a 'tourist' is a serious outdoorsman. The goal was to reach Otorten Mountain at the end of their journey.  Their planned route would rank as a "Category III," the most difficult classification for a hiking expedition in winter, which if successful, would qualify them as "Masters of Sport."  On February 1st as they started to move through a mountain pass on their last leg of the trip, bad weather and decreasing visibility forced them off course, and the group decided to make camp on the eastern slope of a small mountain called Kholat Syakhl by the indigenous Mansi peoples, which translates to "Dead Mountain" due to the area's lack of wild game.  Sometime during the night of February 2nd, the group suffered an unimaginably terrifying ordeal, sealing their fate.  When they hadn't been heard from by February 20th, a search party was formed to look for the missing youths.  On February 26th the search party reached their camp and what they found would bring more questions than answers.  It appeared as though something had scared the hikers so badly, that they panicked and ripped a hole in the side of their tent in order to escape, shoeless, into - 20º F (-29º C) snowfall.  It was determined by Soviet authorities that the group had met with a "compelling unknown force" causing them all to flee and ultimately die of exposure with some also suffering significant internal injuries such as broken ribs and fractured skulls.  There have since been many theories put forth as to what this force actually was, but we may never know what was so horrific that it caused this group of experienced adventurers to take leave of their senses and take their chances in the deadly wilderness.  Following the incident, the mountain pass was named "Dyatlov Pass" in honor of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. Tonight's Quote: "I wonder what awaits us in this hike? Will anything new happen?" - Zina Kolmogorova from her last diary entry. Show Links: (Links work best in iOS on iTunes or on our webpage at astonishinglegends.com) Archive of a very comprehensive website about the whole Dyatlov story Dyatlov Pass on Wiki Terrific archive of all the photos from the group, in English and Russian Russian website about Dyatlov Forum on the Dyatlov incident Donnie Eichar's "Authors at Google" interview about his book, "Dead Mountain" Book Review of "Dead Mountain" Song: Pixies "Wave of Mutilation" from the album, "Doolittle" YouTube vid about Dyatlov - text pulled from Wiki entry but has good photos Interesting story about a family living isolated for 40 years in Siberia Russian Yeti at Dyatlov? Part 1 of "Golden Symphony" Ellorsith on BandCamp For more information on this episode visit our website! Credits: Episode 023 - 'Dyatlov Pass (Part 1)' Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle.  Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.

12 Sep 20151h 16min

Background: While having lunch near the Los Alamos National Laboratory one day with the likes of Edward Teller, "father of the nuclear bomb" Nobel Prize winning physicist Enrico Fermi wondered out loud (after the topic of recent UFO sightings came up) "Where is everybody?"  Basically what he meant was, if the universe is so seemingly infinite and old, and it's mathematically probable that other star systems have developed intelligent life like ours has, and it's also theoretically possible that an alien civilization with tens or even hundreds of thousands of years of technological advancement could have made it to our galaxy by now, even with sub-lightspeed travel, why haven't we seen any aliens yet?  Tonight, in one of our more conversational shows, we take a broad look at the paradox that bears his name.  By the way, supposed UFO sightings are commonly reported around atomic activities. Tonight's Quote: “It is surely unreasonable to credit that only one small star in the immensity of the universe is capable of developing and supporting intelligent life. But we shall not get to them and they will not come to us.”― P.D. James, The Children of Men Show Links: Jon Stewart Interviews Elizabeth Kolbert In a Nutshell – Kurzgesagt's YouTube video on "The Fermi Paradox" Enrico Fermi The Fermi Paradox Frank Drake The Drake Equation Arecibo Message Song: Frank Black - "Parry the Wind High, Low" (WARNING - F Bomb!) Jill Tarter The Hubble Deep Field Image The TED Blog: "Peering Into Space" The TED Radio Hour featuring Jill Tarter and Brian Greene Jill Tarter's full TED Talk regarding SETI Space Travel in Ancient Art (Site is in German so visit with a browser that does translation.) "Why Aren't The Aliens Here Already?" - an article by Adam Frank on NPR's 13.7 blog Former Lockheed "Skunkworks" director Ben Rich and some interesting confessions Tardigrades/Water Bears Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny The CARET Documents Ezekiel and the Wheel The Nuremburg UFO Battle The Basel Switzerland Incident Seth Shostak's Piece in the NY Times about Contacting Other Civilizations For more information on this episode visit our website! Credits: Episode 022 - 'The Fermi Paradox' Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design.   Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.

29 Aug 20151h 8min

Legend: Pirate treasure?  English, French or Spanish military plunder? The secret Rosicrucian works of Sir Francis Bacon and therefore also the possible original missing folios of Shakespeare?  Or perhaps the greatest sacred antiquities lost to history, such as the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the Spear of Longinus or the menorah from King Solomon's temple?  Or maybe it's all just natural geological processes forming a sinkhole, plain and simple?  These are just some of the theories of what could be down in the infamous and mysterious "Money Pit" on Oak Island, Nova Scotia -- thought by many to be one of the greatest archeological mysteries of North America, and possibly the world. Background: Now that you've heard Parts 1 through 3 (hopefully!) covering the entire history and timeline of the Oak Island Money Pit, Part 4 covers most all of the theories out there of who could've built it, what they put down there and why. Tonight's Quote: "...I’ll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book." ~ Prospero, from William Shakespeare's (or Sir Francis Bacon's?) The Tempest; Act 5, Scene 1, Page 3 If you can't click on these links, visit our website. Apologies for this show being late, our computer died. In an effort to get it posted asap, we've published it even though we are still adding links to the show notes. Visit our webpage for this episode in a few hours for more links than you see listed below! For more information on this episode visit our website! Captain William Kidd The Knights Templar Pope Clement V The Kensington Runestone Nicolas Poussin The First Nations tribe of the Mi'kmaq of Canada's Atlantic Provinces A skeptical investigation of Oak Island by Joe Nickell Christian Rosenkreuz Rosicrucianism The pillars of Solomon's Temple, Boaz and Jachin Robert Fludd Lecture on Spiritual Alchemy and The Great Work Sir Francis Bacon Credits: Episode 021 - 'Oak Island Money Pit Part 4' Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess, Ryan McCullough Sound Design , Special Thanks Tess Pfeifle  Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.

12 Aug 20153h 1min

Legend: Pirate treasure?  English, French or Spanish military plunder? The secret Rosicrucian works of Sir Francis Bacon and therefore also the possible original missing folios of Shakespeare?  Or perhaps the greatest sacred antiquities lost to history, such as the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the Spear of Longinus or the menorah from King Solomon's temple?  Or maybe it's all just natural geological processes forming a sinkhole, plain and simple?  These are just some of the theories of what could be down in the infamous and mysterious "Money Pit" on Oak Island, Nova Scotia -- thought by many to be one of the greatest archeological mysteries of North America, and possibly the world. Background: Part 3 of our series picks up from where we left off in Part 2, which covered the years between 1867 and 1965.  Part 3 starts after the tragic accident that befell the Restall crew on August 17, 1965 and continues with the history of the Money Pit up until the present day.  Now that you'll know the entire timeline of the events of the Money Pit's mysterious history, Part 4 will cover all of the major theories of what is or was, down there. Tonight's Quote: "This project, when we get through with it, may or may not make us rich.  But at least we will have solved one of the world's greatest mysteries." ~ David Tobias, one of the founders of the Triton Alliance, Ltd. in 1969 along with Dan Blankenship. For more information on this episode visit our website! Nova Scotia Ashley Morgan's website that covers the main points of the Oak Island story Oak Island Treasure website Google Maps Location of Oak Island The Reader's Digest Article that Inspired the Current Treasure Hunters Ken Polsson's Chronology of the Oak Island Treasure Hunt In Search Of on Oak Island Is Oak Island A Hoax? Credits: Episode 020 - 'Oak Island Money Pit Part 3' Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess, Ryan McCullough Sound Design   Copyright Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess 2015, All Rights Reserved.

4 Aug 20151h 15min