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Scientists have recreated the face of a 16th-century woman with a brick jammed into her mouth, an object apparently wedged there to stop her from eating the dead — as Italian locals believed she was a vampire. The spooky story begins at a mass grave discovered on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo, a location used as a bubonic plague quarantine in the late 1500s and 1600s. In 2006, archeological studies found some bodies that were buried centuries ago. “When they supposedly identified a vampire, one of those responsible for the plague according to popular myth at the time, they...

أبو عمّار @MaajidNawazSymbolism in Islamic historic tradition: "When the black flags come from Khorasan (Persia/Central Asia) go to them, even if you have to crawl on snow, among them is the Caliph of Allah, the Mahdi"

The world’s leading psychiatric authority on demonic possession delves into the hidden world of exorcisms and his own transformation from cynic to believer over the course of his twenty-five-year career. Successful New York psychiatrist Richard Gallagher was skeptical yet intrigued when a hard-nosed, no-nonsense Catholic priest asked him to examine a woman for a possible exorcism. Meeting her, Gallagher was astonished. The woman’s behavior defied logic. In an instant, she could pinpoint a person’s secret weaknesses. She knew how individuals she’d never known had died, including Gallagher’s own mother, who passed away after a lengthy battle with ovarian cancer. She...

To history experts, the scenario goes something like this: A Union officer stationed on enemy Southern soil drops a handful of iron nails into a bottle, adds some personal effects — clippings of his hair or fingernails, maybe some urine — corks it up and buries it near his hearth. He likely offers up a fervent prayer that he’ll survive the Civil War and return home to Pennsylvania. And the bottle of nails was his good luck charm. A century and a half later, in 2016, archaeologists excavating the remains of a Civil War outpost on a broad highway median...

[Deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, a community of Druids is reviving Celtic rites. They might seem hokey or outlandish, but maybe, just maybe, they’re the ones who have it all figured out.] The priest raises his arms, palms upturned. “Lord Taranis, hear our prayer!” he bellows, voice bouncing off the stone pillars and into the darkening fields beyond. The fire’s crackle fills the stone circle. We stare through the flames, past the boundary of our sacred space, to the patina of white looming over the white sky – Mount Adams, close and huge. It is high summer,...

Full title: Rare spectacled bear being 'driven to extinction' by penis bone poachers brewing 'magical sex potion' Penis poaching of the spectacled bear could result in the species going extinct if demand grows for the special 'sex potion' that people make with its private parts. ..." According to National Geographic, some people in South America claim the 'sex drink' can cure sexual performance problems if it contains just a scraping of a spectacled bear's penis bone. Some people also believe that the beverage can give you the strength of a whole bear if you put the entire penis bone in...

Numerologist David Meade, the author of the conspiracy book Planet X – The 2017 Arrival says that planet Nibiru is going to smash into Earth in a matter of weeks. According to Meade’s theory, the apocalypse will take place between September 20-23, and the clues are written on the pyramids and in the Bible.Nibiru, sometimes referred to as Planet X, is a hypothesized planet on the edge of our solar system. Nibiru has been predicted to end the world several times since 2003. Scientists have refused to acknowledge the existence of Nibiru, and NASA has repeatedly assured the public that...

Beating a rock statue of Buddha to wish for a good new year and an abundant harvest, villagers in China's eastern Fujian province have a unique way of worshipping the deity. The religious ceremony held Friday in Yuxi village is one of many in the run-up to the traditional Lantern Festival, which falls on February 11 this year. It is a time for colourful ceremonies in the coastal province, where the Hakka people have maintained folk traditions.

Growing up in a Latino household meant that there were a lot of hardcore superstitions running rampant throughout daily life. Superstitious beliefs go together with Hispanic homes in the way that rice and beans and chanclas do. They just fit. From purses on the floor to itchy palms, we've gathered the top eight superstitions every Latino grew up with, and put them in a list, of course. And here they are. Don't Put Your Purse on the Floor Listen, you like your money, right? Well you won't have any if you put that purse on the floor. So pick it...

If the Redskins Rule holds, Mitt Romney will be elected President on Tuesday. (Getty Images) Months after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney joked about rising oceans and suggested FEMA should be privatized, he got some much-needed good news Sunday, two days before the nation goes to the polls to decide the next Commander-in-Chief: The Carolina Panthers won. Romney, who was born in Michigan and was once the governor of Massachusetts, doesn't have any ties to the Charlotte area. But he's certainly well aware of the Redskins Rule. Specifically: Going back to 1940, a Redskins victory in their last home game...

A six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine. Albinos in the region have been targeted because of a belief peddled by witchdoctors that their body parts can be used for magic potions. The girl, who was attacked on Sunday, was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September. There have also been a number of attacks in neighbouring Tanzania. ...The head of the Burundi Albinos' Association, Kasim Kazungu, says people with albinism had not suffered any discrimination until other Burundians...

Are you superstitious? I would like to tell you that I'm not superstitious but I can't. Although I wish I could pooh-pooh superstitions because of my utterly rational mind, I am forced to admit that I have too many cases of superstitions being proved correct in my life. The first time I really noticed how strong superstitions can be was when I was back in high school. This is what happened: I used to take a bus to my high school. Anyway, in the 10th grade I became aware of a strange pattern. Whenever I had a test later in...

LOME (Reuters) - Six grisly murders in Togo in which the victims were decapitated and drained of their blood have raised fears of a resurgence of ritual killings ahead of parliamentary elections in the West African state next month. The serial killings occurred last weekend in the southern Vo and Lacs prefectures, east of the capital Lome. The victims included a 12-year-old boy and a 63-year-old woman and their severed heads were carried off by the killers. The discovery of the headless corpses has shocked Togolese and triggered a wave of speculation that the killings were ritual murders. This is...

A superstitious Society Compare to modern society, the Romans seem extremely superstitious. But then today's major religions have all throughout their past discouraged, even combatted, superstitions. Also our sciences and our technological world allows little room for superstition. The Romans lived in an era previous to this. Their world was full of unexplained phenomena, darkness and fear. To Romans these superstitions were a perfectly natural part in the relationship between gods and men. The Roman habit of interpreting natural phenomena as signs from the beyond stemmed from the Etruscans. The Etruscans, who developed reading omens and auspices into a form...

Mayan leaders announced that priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after US President George W. Bush visits next week. "That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a national association of indigenous people and peasant farmers, said Thursday. Bush's seven-day tour of Latin America includes a stopover beginning late Sunday in Guatemala. On Monday morning he is scheduled...

IRVING -- Bill Parcells may share similarities with Vince Lombardi, Paul Brown or other old-school coaching icons, but he also shares a characteristic with Ichabod Crane."Is he superstitious? Oh, my God, was it bad," former New York Giants receiver Phil McConkey said. "We're talking really bad."When Parcells was the Giants' coach, players who walked into his office would see elephant totems. That's plural, as in at least 25, McConkey says. Elephant totems are supposed to keep bad luck out, and good luck in. So the trunks of the elephants faced into Parcells' office. "The few times we were allowed in...

ne day, after speaking to a group of high school students about the dangers of dabbling with occultic activities, such as Ouija boards, I asked if they had any questions or comments. In a subdued voice — and without a hint of sarcasm or levity — one boy raised his hand and said, “I had something . . . happen . . . to my friend and me when we used a Ouija board.” The room of teenagers was hushed as he explained what happened. They had used the board “just for fun” and didn’t expect anything to happen....

An examination board at the centre of a storm surrounding the teaching of creationism in UK schools has committed to re-visit its guidance to avoid the threat to science teaching that many feared, and to issue strict guidance to trainee teachers on their exam programme. The 'Gateway Science' specification had caused controversy because teachers were asked to “explain that the fossil record has been interpreted differently over time (e.g. creationist interpretation).” But now the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR) exam board has said they are “happy to commit to reviewing the wording of this part of the Gateway Science (Biology)...

Baptists are caught up in controversy again. This time conservative Southern Baptists are in contention over a new rule approved by the International Mission Board that disqualifies future missionary candidates who admit to speaking in a charismatic "private prayer language." Proponents say the new regulation is needed to emphasize Baptists' long-held position against charismatic practices such as praying and speaking in unknown tongues, or "glossalalia," a practice popular among Pentecostals and other groups. The irony is that Jerry Rankin, the leader of the Richmond, Va.-based foreign mission board, has long used a charismatic prayer language in his private prayers. So,...

SBS TV has "deferred" an episode of the cartoon series South Park that caused outrage in church circles in the US and New Zealand. Dubbed "Bloody Mary", the episode features a statue of the Virgin Mary that bleeds "out her ass". It was screened in the US before Christmas, and its scheduling in New Zealand has caused heated controversy in New Zealand. The Australian reports that the statue sprays blood over everyone who walks behind it, including Stan's father Randy, who declares it a miracle as it stops him drinking. Pope Benedict XVI turns up to investigate and is also...