# Mysteries that defy conventional reality... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903 "2003-05-08T14:46:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SwimmingwithChickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@SwimmingwithChickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingwithChickens)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/1 "2003-05-08T14:46:04Z")
I’m looking for websites or books that detail real mysterious phenomena; note the usage of the word real… The problem is I keep finding stuff like: “UFO’s abducted me and told me that lizard people are running the government to keep the general populous from knowing about a gigantic brown dwarf that is set to smash into earth on March, er, May 31st, and thereby prevent the people of earth from escaping to their sister planet which revolves around the star Nemesis (only known by physics who speak with dead remote viewers).” I want a source for real mysteries of physics, logic, reality or whatever. Not a site pitching a book about “black ops” or “government conspiracy.” Perhaps I’m deluding myself. For example, I have heard there is a gigantic spherical bolder in New York State that may have been a prayer ground of sorts for ancient Native Americans. One rumor said that the bolder is pink. I’m seeking the truly unknown but hypothesized about… ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/2 "2003-05-08T14:48:51Z")
Consider looking into some of the autistic savants. There are some that have allegedly played incredibly difficult pieces the first time they ever touched a piano. ---
**Author:** ![SwimmingwithChickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@SwimmingwithChickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingwithChickens)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/3 "2003-05-08T15:00:57Z")
Very interesting Kid, do you have a starting point for me? When I put in savant or idiot savant I got all kinds of stuff ranging from the medical description to IMDB’s Rainman… ---
**Author:** ![bradwalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@bradwalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradwalt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/4 "2003-05-08T15:50:11Z")
Read all of Cecil’s books ! Some of my favorites which Cecil has written about include “spontaneous human combustion”, the mysterious “short-wave radio numbers broadcasts” and Nova Scotia’s “pirate treasure pit.” Nobody has been able to explain these three mysteries despite the ample evidence they exist, and they make great campfire stories! ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/5 "2003-05-08T15:56:42Z")
I thought SHC was pretty well nailed down by the ‘wick effect’ explaination. I don’t see it as a mystery. How about mysterious underwater cities off the coast of Japan. Jury seems to be still out on that one from what I’ve read (though personally I think its geology). ---
**Author:** ![SwimmingwithChickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@SwimmingwithChickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingwithChickens)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/6 "2003-05-08T15:58:02Z")
Mysterious underwater cities? Do tell… Do you have a link/book??? That is exactly what I’m talking about! ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/7 "2003-05-08T16:05:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Music is a big part of Patrick Farley’s life. One piece he loves to play is Beethoven’s Hymn of Joy, but Patrick is no ordinary musician. He first played Hymn of Joy with perfect melody and both hands when he was 15-months-old. > > He’d never had a single piano lesson. What’s just as extraordinary is that Patrick is severely intellectually disabled. At 19, he can’t talk, nor can he read or write, because he’s profoundly autistic. [http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s326781.htm](http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s326781.htm) just put in autistic (not idiot), savant, and piano and/or music and you’ll get alot. I can’t remember the name of the kid that played some complicated piece the first time he even touched a piano but the above is pretty amazing. ---
**Author:** ![NFlanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@NFlanders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NFlanders)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/8 "2003-05-08T16:18:31Z")
For more on the weird underwater Japanese pyramids see: [http://www.morien-institute.org/yonaguni.html](http://www.morien-institute.org/yonaguni.html) ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/9 "2003-05-08T16:19:49Z")
[Blind Tom](http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/blindtom.cfm) reportedly played the piano at age four, without formal lessons. More recently, [Leslie Lemke](http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/lemke.cfm) — “She (May Lemke) thought Joe had left the television on. She went to turn it off and there was Leslie, playing flawlessly from beginning to end, having heard it but once, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.” Fifteen more examples [here](http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/profiles.cfm). That mysterious, pirate-treasure island? [Oak Island](http://www.oakislandtreasure.com/), or [here](http://pws.prserv.net/djoltes/oakisland/index.html) if you prefer fewer exclamation points and a more critical approach. In the second site, Richard E. Joltes says > [@](#): > > In general it must be remembered that no careful, scientific study of the island or the Pit has ever been performed. All material currently available has been generated by treasure seekers who have a vested interest in maintaining the legend, or by conspiracy theorists who wish to link Oak Island to everything from the Grail Legend to Egyptians! Too bad; Oak Island has intrigued me since childhood. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/10 "2003-05-08T16:21:32Z")
Here’s a thread about it on this board [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=177702&highlight=Mysterious) ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/11 "2003-05-08T16:31:47Z")
Don’t know much about physical, geological offities. You might enjoy Oliver Sacks’ books. **The Man Who Mistook His Wife For His Hat** is probably his best known, but others are quite interesting/entertaining as well. He’s a neurologist - the movie **Awakenings** is based on his patient histories. His books discuss wierd neurological conditions like a patient who has constant amnesia, and what it is like. How an artist’s life changes when he loses his color perception. Has some info on savants. Interesting to think of the difference between what our senses take in, and what the mind perceives. And how we are influenced by things we often take for granted - until we lose them. Like proprioception… ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/12 "2003-05-08T17:11:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SwimmingwithChickens \* > \*\*For example, I have heard there is a gigantic spherical bolder in New York State that may have been a prayer ground of sorts for ancient Native Americans. One rumor said that the bolder is pink. \*\* What you’re referring to is the Oneida Stone. [http://www.oneida-nation.net/tour/councilhouse.html](http://www.oneida-nation.net/tour/councilhouse.html) That it qualifies as a ‘mystery’ is rather debatable. After all, it was not exactly unusual for local inhabitants in many cultures to invest striking natural formations with religious significance and then develop myths to go with them. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/13 "2003-05-08T17:33:23Z")
There’s a story that shows up in a number of “Strange Occurences” type books about a (sorry can’t find a cite, so this is from memory) a Spanish soldier on guard at the Governor’s mansion in the Phillipines in the late 1500’s who mysteriously disappeared, and reappeared in Mexico City a very short time afterwards (way faster than someone could travel between the two spots at that point in history), still in uniform… and very confused. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/14 "2003-05-08T17:38:46Z")
Dinsdale, I loved “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat”. Sacks is a wonderful writer, and an even greater human being. I defy anyone to read that book and not be moved. ---
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/15 "2003-05-08T17:47:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kalhoun \* > \*\*Dinsdale, I loved “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat”. Sacks is a wonderful writer, and an even greater human being. I defy anyone to read that book and not be moved. \*\* My wife has used that book as supplementary reading in a psychology class, and I guarantee some students were not just unmoved but downright resentful of the outside work. As far as I’m concerned, one of the biggest mysteries which defies conventional reality is how many college students are apathetic or actually antagonistic toward learning. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/16 "2003-05-08T17:57:28Z")
Hmm, how about the “Lost colony” with the mysterious “croatan” inscribed on the tree? That is a legit mystery. hen, there are very real mysteries about the Great Pyramid- but they are buried under mounds of crap about paranormal stuff, UFOs, and coincidences that aren’t so odd. But- was Cheops even buried there in the first place? Why the odd construction? Then there is “ball lightning”. They now have some scientific theories, but nothing concrete. ---
**Author:** ![SwimmingwithChickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@SwimmingwithChickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingwithChickens)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/17 "2003-05-08T18:08:07Z")
Ball lightning? I just had a rather obscene image pop into my head… What is ball lightning? What is “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat” about? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/18 "2003-05-08T18:57:55Z")
> [@](#): > > What is ball lightning? > What is “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat” about? Flip answers: 1) It’s lightning, in the shape of a ball. 2) It’s about a man who mistook his wife for a hat. Actually, 1 is closer to the truth than 2. [Here](http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/tesla/ballgtn.html) is a page about ball lightning, and [here](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684853949/qid=1052420462/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/002-3912257-9432837?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is Amazon’s summary of TMWMHWFAH. It’s a good read, about neurology and what happens when bits of the brain malfunction (hence being unable to distinguish between one’s spouse and one’s headgear). ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/19 "2003-05-08T19:18:10Z")
Along the same lines as Sacks’ book is _Phantoms in the Brain_ by V.S. Ramachandran. ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903/20 "2003-05-08T19:36:32Z")
_xtisme: personally I think its geology_ Agreed; it looks frightfully like columnar jointing side-on. Is it basalt? I’m more impressed by the [Chinese earth pyramids](http://www.earthquest.co.uk/china/china.html), which may be the kind of thing **SwimmingwithChickens** is looking for (ignore the associated pyramidology and Martian-face cr\*p). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-that-defy-conventional-reality/173903.md?page=2)