But seriously. There are lots of ghost stories floating around. Not to mention Alien and Bigfoot sightings. Urban legends. Elections.
I would like to compile a list in honor of this time of year. Here are the specifics:
I want a top ten list of supernatural/horror/extaterrestrial sightings/events/rumors that have the most scientific evidence to support them. I’ve always wondered if there were any of the stories out there that had enough meat to them to make cynics like me stop and think “…well, maybe…”
I’ve not come across one yet.
So in the spirit of the holiday, can we give us a celebration of what might start to make some of us believe? Cites appreciated.
Oh, and since I don’t want to start a debate, let’s leave religious phenomenon out of this one.
Well Loch Ness Monster has lots of sightings, but no good evidence of existance.
The ergot poisoning - lycanthropy link is mentioned here
Just recently, the little people have been discovered, all beit 18,000 years dead. (see several SDMB threads about real hobbits).
But the best realistic stuff is about people being horrible to other people. Vlad the Impaler, The Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory, etc.
Once a cemetary, it was converted to a residential area and people who live there report seeing and hearing strange things in and around their homes.
Reportedly, this is the place that the movie Poltergeist was based on. The headstones were moved, but not all of the bodies. I have read accounts that estimate that there are still some 2,000 bodies buried there…right under the housing development. Ewwww.
If you were ever to travel to Chingle Hall in the UK, you might start thinking that there was something pretty damn freaky going on.
A weird sensation - which of course could be the power of suggestion - but I definitely experienced a physical sensation at one point. There was one corridor on which one couldn’t walk straight. The guide told us nothing about this particular corridor beforehand - just told us to walk up and down it. She even put a spirit level (no pun intended) on the floor to show there was no funny business, but there was a definite sensation of unbalance.
Half the house is open to the public, and half is privately owned. I met the guy who lived there. He was a retired physicist, and he said he was totally and utterly skeptical until he moved in. Within three months, he believed in ghosts, though he told me he had a theory as to what they are - he said he had a theory that would explain weird phenomena using our current understanding of physics, and he was writing a book about it. Sadly it seems he died before publication, so we shall never know…