Necropants, The Pants Made From Human Flesh

Looking for a quick, easy, path to financial prosperity? Of course you are! That’s why YOU, need NECROPANTS! What are Necropants you say, and where can I buy a pair of these miraculous garments?Necropants, or Nábrókarstafur, are pants made from the skin of a dead man’s lower torso; and you don’t buy them silly, you make them!

Here’s how it works:

First, you’ll need to dig up a body from a church yard, but not just any body. Remember, the lower potion of the torso must be FULLY intact in order for this to work, and those dangling man bits tend to deteriorate quickly after decay sets in, so don’t go waiting too long after the body’s been put in the ground before you go gettin’ yer “Gein” on. More importantly, always remember that you must first obtain permission to wear your new Necropants from their previous owner BEFORE he’s done with them in order for them to work their magic.

Once an agreeable doner has been found, and you’ve managed to successfully dig up the body, you’ll obviously need to remove your new pants from the previous wearer’s legs. While there are no special rites or rituals required for this step in the process, you’ll want to avoid damaging the pants during removal, which is why knowing how to properly skin and dress an animal carcass, is an advisable skill set to have. Once that job is done, your new pants will be nearly ready to wear!

All you need now, is a coin stolen from the man’s poor widow, which must be kept in the scrotum of your new Necropants, along with a piece of paper bearing the special symbol displayed to the right.

BUT REMEMBER KIDS:These items must remain in the scrotum of your Necropants at all times in order for the Magic to work. Forget this step, or use your new scrotum as place to carry your keys or cellphone, and you’ll just be wearing another man’s decaying junk over your own, and that’s a fashion no-no, not to mention a possible threat to your manhood- and no one wants that.

On a personal note, when shopping for Necropants, I recommend choosing a partner who’s reasonably close to your own size. Pick someone to small, and all your work could be for nothing when you discover that your new pants wont fit! Even worse, pick someone too big, and you could wind up looking fat! So always remember to shop around.

-CAINE-

Source: The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft VIA: Compendium Of Strange

The Sixsense Academy

What is the "Sixsense Academy" You say? And wouldn't "Sixth" sense be easier to pronounce and make more... um... sense?

Well the answer to your second question is clearly yes, though I suppose we can give them a pass and assume that they were attempting to avoid association with the crappy Shamalamadon movie. As to your first question, think of the Sixsense Academy or the, "International Academy of Spiritual Education", as Dumbledorf's castle, only for cons and the diluted. No really, the website claims the Liverpool academy is based in Leasowe castle, cute huh?

In reality, this is basically a troupe or traveling circus for psychics masquerading as an "educational organization" with no real physical hub anywhere; as far as I can tell from they're website, which seems deliberately vague and misleading on this point. Unless of course you think they might actually own a castle in Liverpool, a concert hall in Ireland, and a sanctuary in Spain. Ya, me neither. But the website does claim they have plans to "open Academies" in the south of England, as well as here in the US, and won't that be fun.

As you would expect, the list of available tutors on the site includes, psychic healers, mediums, life coaches, a "world renowned angel Channeler and soul expert" and a member of the MBE, the Most Excellent order of the British Empire, ya I don't really know what it means either. But for me, there are three tutors who really stand out from this crowd of seven.

First, There's Nina Hall, who is apparently one of the UK's leading, "Aura photographer, Aura Imaging & WinAura Live Consultant's". Now, what makes her most special to me is the "winaura" thing. Cause when I saw that word I thought, "Winaura? What is that, some kind of windows program for reading auras?" Why YES! Yes it is- this will be getting it's own entry. Oh ya, and Nina does psychic surgery too, great.

Next, there's Nicky Whittaker ( no link, she apparently doesn't even rate a profile on the page) , who doesn't do anything particularly special that I know of, since she is listed on the site solely as a, "Spain tutor". Not a Spanish tutor, not a tutor in Spain, but a Spain tutor. You know, in case you need to brush up on your...um... Spain.

But most important by far is the whole reason I found the academy in the first place, Joe "the man who sees dead people" Power. listed on the academy web page as: "International TV, Award winning, Psychic Medium, Author & Teacher".

I've written about Joe before, but in case you missed it; Joe is your standard run of the mill, "I see dead people" (oh the irony), kind of "psychic medium". His favorite pastimes include, pretending to talk to the dead, exploiting the grieving, humiliating himself on TV- with a little help from Derren Brown, and wasting the time of local authorities by claiming some special insight into murder investigations, and missing persons cases. He even managed to find some time just last year to falsely accuse members of the MSS of violent threats. Busy guy that Joe.

But hey, maybe some of the other folks are good at what they do.

Bottom line, while I freely admit that I am completely unfamiliar with most of the people on the list, and perhaps they all manage to fall into the, self-diluted believer category; Joe, in my humble non-liable opinion, does not. Joe knows exactly what he's doing, and it isn't talking to the dead. So weather you believe in any of what this so-called academy is selling or not, it seems fair to assume that any organization willing to include him on their list of trusted experts, not to mention a psychic surgeon who employs a scientifically baseless computer program in her act; knows exactly what they're doing too, and it isn't educating.

-CAINE-

Source:sixsenseacademy.com on Twitter: @SixSenseAcademy

Image credit (In order of appearance): The Sixsense Academy and Joe Power

You should also check out The Merseyside Skeptics' site for more of they're dealings with Joe.

This Week's Compendium

So my hiatus from the net has lasted a bit longer than I had planned and things have been quiet around here for a lot longer than I had hoped. But the good news is that means that I have loads of stories to catch up on once I manage to free up a little more time. In the meantime, I did manage to keep up with Compendium this weekend, complete with a horrible x-mas theme.

I began with Team Unicorn's "Very Zombie Holiday", a field guide to surviving a zombie filled holiday. Next I suggested an alternative source of protein for this years x-mas dinner ( think Soylent Green), we go X-mas caroling with GWAR, hunt for pooping peasants in Spanish nativity celebrations, I introduce your children to the Krampus and more.

So please, if you have not done so before, go and check out Compendium oF Strange on tumblr and if you see something you like help me promote the sight(s) by sharing it with your friends using the tweet and like buttons I have provided on both individual posts as well as for the blog as a whole both here on Geek Blog and on Compendium. Sorry to go all self-promotional on ya from time to time, but while I genuinely enjoy working on the blogs, it's all kind of pointless if no one's reading it. So please help spread the word.

Thanks in advance, and I promise there will be much more science, skepticism and more here in the very near future.

-CAINE-

Weird Things: Room 717

I've been linking back to these guys since I first launched the blog several months ago and have written about both weirdthings.com as well as The Weird Things Podcast several times before. But this week's episode of Weird Things was extra special, and not just because The Godless Geek Blog was one of three listener sponsors.

In this week's special Halloween episode of Weird Things the guys put together an impromptu ghost investigation after Brian checks into not merely a haunted Hotel, but into the very room where the haunting is said to be centered. As always, this episode is loads of good weird fun and in the end, the guys manage to apply their own unique brand of skepticism to the subject at hand. This time through a series of simple experiments involving numbers and random chance to illustrate just how easy it can be to interpret simple chance as the deliberate actions of an unseen hand.

So if you haven't done so before now, then please take the time to check out weirdthings.com, The Weird Things Podcast, as well as the rest of the various forms of entertainment Brian, Justin, and Andrew have to offer. And if you do decide to visit Weird Things for the very first time because of this post, or even if you're here because of my plug on this week's episode, do me a favor and leave the guys a comment letting them know you read about it here.

Thanks!

-CAINE-

Subscribe to the Weird Things podcast on iTunes

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Episode archive

Also be sure to check out Itrick.com, NSFW, and Scam School for more of Brian, Andrew and Justin.

And finally, why not pay Timothy O’Briant's Strips4.com a visit as well, since he also helped sponsor this week's episode of Weird Things.

Cryptids: El chupacabra -The Goat Sucker-

Believed by many to be the end product of a series of government experiments designed to create alien-human hybrids, sightings of the creature began in 1995 in Puerto Rico following a a series of attacks on live stock. The animals which fell victim to these attacks, most typically goats and sheep, were all alleged to have been found with three unexplained puncture wounds in their chests and completely drained of blood, earning the creature it's moniker "El Chupacabra" or " The Goat sucker". There are however those who claim the first Chupacabra attack can actually be traced back to 1975 and a series of similar attacks in a small town called Moca. Though the Moca attacks were first attributed to a satanic cult, they later became known as the alleged work of the "Vampire of Moca" or "El Vampiro de Moca", as the attacks spread throughout the island. Others have attempted to push the Chupacabra's origin as far back as 1960, sighting the apparent use of the phrase ( to describe a creature that sucked the milk from goats rather than blood ) on an episode of the television show bonanza.

As for a physical description of the creature, as always accounts vary. But it's typically described as being three to five feet tall, bipedal but with hind legs like a kangaroo, grey skinned with large round eyes, three clawed fingers on either hand, and possessing at least a single row of spikes running down it's back. In recent years however, the creature being recognized as the Chupracabras has undergone a significant transformation.

Hairless canines like this one have been found in parts of Texas and Mexico where sightings of the Chupacabra have previously been reported, prompting many to identify them as the source of the legend. While it's tempting to note the similarities between the physical appearance of these animals and the eye witness descriptions of Chupacabra in an effort to declare misidentification as the source of the sightings. It's important to remember that these animals are being found in Texas and northern Mexico, not Puerto Rico where the legend of El Chupacabra began. So the true origin of the creature must lie in something else. But What?

After doing a bit of research for his own upcoming book on the subject and taking a trip to Puerto Rico to interview Madelyne Tolentino, who's description of the creature is typically recognized as the first. Ben Radford has found what he believes to be El Chupacabra's true origin.

In 1995 Madelyne Tolentino, was able to give a detailed sketch and description of a strange animal she said she saw through a window just outside her home in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico. It was Madelyne's description of that animal which would become the archetype for the Chupacabra and the most widely accepted origin of the creature. Well, according to Radford's findings, it seems the creature Tolentino described bears a striking resemblance to the creature in the movie "Species", which was released in July of 1995 a month before Madelyne's alleged sighting. While Ben himself suggests only that Tolentino's description of the creature is derived from the movie, I find it worth mentioning that the movie also just happens to be about the escape of a human/alien hybrid created by the Government AND it takes place in Puerto Rico. Sound familiar?

In an interview about her encounter conducted in 1996, Madelyne admits to having seen the film and even remarks about how much the creature in the movie looked like the one she saw outside her home saying,

"I watched the movie and wondered, ‘My God! How can they make a movie like that, when these things are happening in Puerto Rico?

And when asked by the interviewer,

“In other words, does [Species] make you think there might have been an experiment in which a being escaped and is now at large?”

Tolentino answered: “Yes.”

-CAINE-

For even more about the Chupacabra, and Ben Radford's book, check out this episode of the Monster Talk Podcast: "I'm Gonna Get You, Goat Sucker!". And if you have a genuine interest in the subject of Cryptids, myths. legends, and the supernatural, but can't take shows like Monster quest or ghost hunters, You should be listening to this podcast. It's one of my personal favorites, and one of only two podcasts I download specifically for the purpose of listening to them again.

You can read about Ben's trip to Puerto Rico to interview Madelyne himself HERE on Alibi.com. And you can check out Ben's conclusion to the mystery, and the ensuing response from believers, on Cryptomundo. Be sure to check out Ben's website as well for more of his books at: RadfordBooks.com

Cryptids: The Tale of Mothman

One of the more absurd yet persistent modern cryptids, Mothman is described as a large six and a half to seven foot tall, humanoid figure, sometimes headless with eyes in it's chest, brown or grey in color, with large wings, and glowing red eyes.

The tale of Mothman begins in 1966 near Point Pleasant West Virginia where a group of grave diggers first claimed to have seen a dark brown "man-like" creature flying above the trees as they worked. The next day, another man claimed to have seen the creature standing in a field and late the following night, the most well known and most detailed encounter with the creature took place seven miles outside of Point Pleasant at the site of an abandoned WWII TNT factory.

That night, two young couples and their cousin "out for a drive" on a dark country road, claimed to have seen the creature while driving past an abandoned TNT factory. The group claimed they stopped to investigate what they then believed to be two strange red lights by an old generator plant which, Upon closer examination, they found to be the glowing red eyes of a seven foot tall creature with a pair of large wings folded behind it's back. Terrified, the group fled the scene and drove all the way back to the city limits with the creature taking flight and giving chase at speeds exceeding 100mph.

Over the next few weeks a handful of other witness would come forward to describe brief encounters with the creature in fields, or seeing it lurking in the tops of trees, but nothing as spectacular as the account given by the group from the TNT factory. Eventually, the tales of these encounters would make their way to the local papers, where a Batman inspired reporter would first dub the creature described in the encounters as Mothman

This is where the verifiable accounts-by which I mean claimed sightings that can be proven to have been made in 1966 and not years after the fact- come to an end. And even these accounts have been confused and embellished over the years thanks to books and movies on the subject, as well as the general erosion of memory that comes with the passage of time, making it hard to know exactly which version of any one encounter is accurate.

As for a natural explanation, like most cryptids
Mothman's true origin is likely the simple misidentification of some other know animal. The most likely cantidate in this case, as first suggested by Joe Nickell, is the barred owl.

Though admittedly on the small side, the barred owl can appear either brown or grey in color, could easily be perceived as headless with eyes in it's chest, due to the birds shoulderless frame, has large eyes which could be seen as glowing red when reflecting light thanks to the animals night vision, and most tellingly of all, bears an obvious resemblance to this early eyewitness sketch of Mothman. The times and places where the original sightings are said to have taken place also paint the barred owl as a likely suspect for the real Mothman.

The Conspiracies, Cryptids, and Ghost Stories That Just Won't Die

Tales of conspiracies and the paranormal are, to say the least, a mainstay in popular entertainment. But for much of the world the month of October is dedicated to these tales more than any other due to the impending arrival of Halloween. Believers, along with those who aren't about to let the truth get in the way of a good story- or a good scam- seize upon the public's resulting heightened interest in the unexplained as an opportunity to sell more books and DVDs while as always, railing against anyone who dares to question their claims.

While there have certainly been plenty more before me who have turned a skeptical eye to the unexplained and the supernatural. Given the additional attention currently being payed to them, I thought I'd try and add a little extra skepticism to the mix and spend the rest of the month writing about some of the stories that just wont seem to die, no matter how hard one may try to kill them with logic, facts, or reason.

We begin tomorrow with:
Image Credit: "Cryptid" by: Frank Frazetta
"Arthur" by: Ben Edlund