BRIEF REPORTS from INVESTIGATOR MAGAZINE 33 to 39
INVESTIGATOR 33, 1993 November
NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES
Japanese revived from comas do not report "tunnels of light". In one study of 17 who "had shown minimal signs of life" eight remembered dreams. These were mostly gloomy dreams of wading in rivers or ponds and included feelings of fear and suffering. (New Scientist, 1991 November 30 p. 5; Investigator 6, pp 8, 10)
REINCARNATION
The Australian Women's Weekly has a regular segment on "Your Past Lives". People write in, supply their name at birth, name-changes and date of birth. They are told who or what profession they were in a previous life and about experiences and characteristics in the previous life influencing the life they have now.
One would imagine that examples of numerous people remembering they were, say, Julius Caesar, would be evidence against reincarnation or against their memory. Instead we're told: "It is possible that many people reincarnate with memories of a segment of a particular person's past life as that segment relates to something the person will experience at some point in this life."
However, we're not given any scientific reasons for the claim that "It is possible".
URBAN MYTH
A popular belief is that a hedge or plants in the front garden will stop traffic noise if you live next to a busy road. Actually this method won't work unless you have a small forest FIVE or more metres deep and have it along the sides of your property as well.
More practical, if local laws permit, is a brick fence, two metres high along the front and sides.
SMART FRED FRANZ
Following the Investigator biography of sect leader Frederick W Franz last March, reader Frank Russo phoned the University of Cincinnati.
Franz studied there from 9/1911 to 12/1913, completed 36 "classes" scoring 23 A's, 8 B's and 5 C's. He did 90% of the studies for a degree before discontinuing
INVESTIGATOR 34, 1994 January
BABY BOOM
Each year of the 12 year Chinese calendar is symbolised by an animal. The year of the sheep, which 1991 was, is believed by many Chinese to be unlucky.
The year of the monkey — 1992 — was supposed to be a lucky year and therefore a good year for having babies,
The monkey is believed to be a clever animal and the result is a "baby boom" in China in that year. China's population of about 1,150 million is growing at 16 million per year and, in the opinion of some, is already 400 million more than the land can sustain indefinitely.
EXPERT AUTHORITY
Remember the words: "Wives should always be lovers too; run to his arms the moment he comes home to you?" The writer was at the time, a 42 year old bachelor accountant who lived with his mother.
CURSE
New Zealand Prime Minister Mr Jim Bolger was associated with a curse according to which any head of government he met with lost his job.
When the Japanese Prime Minister fell from grace in mid 1993 after meeting Mr Bolger a New Zealand newspaper reported the curse: "…continues to cut its dreadful swathe across world politics."
The "cursed ones" were said to include George Bush and Bob Hawke as well as prime ministers of France and Turkey. However, Mr Keating of Australia and John Major of Britain seem to be curse resistant.
CANCER CURE
According to an article in Australasian Post, Gold Coast mother Helga Steele cured herself of a large tumor by drinking her own urine. She advised: "drink every drop."
Appropriately Post added a disclaimer that drinking urine increases the concentrations of salt and urea which the body expels through urine.
Urine drinking was advocated in The Water of Life (1940) by John Armstrong but there is no scientific support for the practice.
PREMATURE POST-MORTEM
Railway worker Johann Kovacs of Bihar, Hungary, collapsed while lifting a trunk on July 21, 1907. Doctors in hospital declared Kovacs dead.
A post-mortem was organized and the medical students prepared to watch and learn. When the scalpel began to cut, Kovacs woke up and assaulted the pathologist.
NATURAL LAW
The Natural Law Party contested 25 of 47 seats in the December elections in South Australia.
Members complained that the media focused more on their claims about yogic flying than on the Party's policies, thereby portraying them as "loonies".
President of natural Law, Peter Fenwick, explained that South Australia could be made crime-free via programs that reduced people's stress levels and led to higher intelligence and creativity.
MARY CELESTE MYSTERY SOLVED
The mystery of the Mary Celeste, discussed in Investigator 31, was solved in 1929.
The book Myth and Mystery by Rupert Furneaux shows that two crewmembers revealed what had happened. The 1872 disappearance was a fabricated mystery to cover up murder, fraud and desertion.
GRAPHOLOGY DEBUNKED?
A short report in The Advertiser revealed: "The British Psychological Society said it has examined international research into graphology and failed to find any evidence that handwriting provides accurate insights into character." (1993 November 20)
OCCULT IN CRIME
At the Institute for Anomalistic Criminology, founded by Marcello Truzzi in Michigan in 1991, the influence of the occult on crime is researched.
Psychopaths who plan murder by the zodiac, psychic investigators, satanic child abuse, vampire murders, lunar influences, spontaneous human combustion, etc, are investigated.
Truzzi is co-author of The Blue Sense.
TRANFUSION ORDERED
From The Advertiser: "LONDON: A British High Court had ordered a four-year-old cancer victim to be given a life-saving blood transfusion against the wishes of his Jehovah's Witness parents. The court ruled the parents' religious beliefs were secondary to the health of the child." (1992 July 31 p. 10)
INVESTIGATOR 38, 1994 September
ASTROLOGY
"Astrology ‘no rip off'" was the heading of an article in The Advertiser (April 18) about astrologer Bernadette Brady who is secretary of the Federation of Australian Astrologers.
Before risking being "ripped off" test whether or not astrology is a "rip off" by a simple experiment. The experiment is this:
Write down as accurately as you can your place and date and time of birth. Next list the dates, times and places, as accurately as you can, of 20 important events in your life. If astrology is a science and can produce information which supporters claim it can produce then the astrologer should be able to cast your horoscope and tell you what the 20 important events were.
Ask your astrologer to agree to this experiment before you pay him anything.
WHO KILLED YOU?
Stephen Young, a convicted double murderer, may be released because three jurers allegedly found him guilty by contacting the dead victims via a seance and ouija board and asking: "Who killed you?" (The Advertiser, April 18)
DEMONIC POSSESSION
Two Louisiana (USA) women who believed their sister was demon possessed gouged out her eyes. Doretha Crawford and Beverly Johnson were charged with aggravated assault. (The Advertiser, July 16)
MERMAIDS
Mermaids are mythical marine creatures whose upper body resembles a human female and lower body a fish.
Sightings have been numerous from Roman times to the 19th century. Occasionally it's been argued that mermaid sightings were actually sightings of dugongs, walruses or seals — although you'd have to be at sea quite a long time to make such a mistake.
Further investigation is under way.
DRACULA'S MORMON BAPTISM
The late prophet and president of the Mormon Church may currently be making friends with Dracula.
Ezra Taft Benson, president and prophet of the Mormons, died aged 94, in Salt Lake City, May 30. As President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Benson became the 13th president of the Mormon Church in November 1985.
His successor, former president and senior member of the Council of Twelve, is 86 year old Howard W Hunter.
Steve Benson, the prophet's grandson, recently left the Church after six Mormon intellectuals were excommunicated. His reason for leaving was: "growing intolerance among church leaders" and "the current atmosphere of fear, intolerance and intimidation..."
Among Mormon beliefs is that of proxy baptism for the dead. Vlad the Impaler, also called Dracula, was one of the bloodiest rulers in 15th century Europe. For this reason Bran Stoker used the name "Dracula" for his fictitious vampire.
In 1989 Vlad the Impaler received proxy baptism. If, in the spirit world, he consents to the baptism, "Dracula" will advance to the same exaltation in the afterlife as do good Mormons.
INVESTIGATOR 39, 1994 NOVEMBER
CULT LEADERS GUILTY
Anne Hamilton-Byrne and husband William (now aged 72 and 71) started a cult, The Family, about 1960. Many reports have accused the leaders of child stealing, document falsification, administering drugs including LSD to children, etc.
Following a police raid in 1987 the two leaders fled Australia. Extradited from the USA in 1993 they recently pleaded guilty to false statements in registering the births of three children.
To her followers Mrs Hamilton-Byrne was the reincarnation of Christ.