Mysticholics

MYSTIC CREATURES

2012-08-09T05:50:00.000-07:00

We are currently pursuing our lives based on the scientific beliefs, and we only believe in the existence of those creatures that science forces us to believe.
When it comes to mystic creatures like dragons, hybrids, werewolves ,vampires etc. some of might us react in a positive way, others might think that we are psychos talking about such creatures in a world where science is progressing at such a fast pace. Although everyone has different point of view about such existences, but we cant deny that from centuries generations have been talking about their existence , and is believed that creatures like vampire , werewolves , genies lives in a camouflaged lives in the current society, hiding their true identities, and do not reflect their identities to someone until they truly trust the person.

This blog will help you to discover such creatures and also you can share your experiences.A list of such creatures is mentioned below and you can find about them in detail under the pages MYSTIC CREATURES mentioned on the right hand side of this blog.And Share with your friends if you like the blog

DRAGONS

UNICORNS

GRIFFINS

WEREWOLVES

GOBLINS

GENIES

DEMIGODS

CENTAURS

VAMPIRES

WITCHES AND WIZARDS

OGRES

MERMAIDS

I don't have complete knowledge about all the creatures, whatever i know , i post here, if you have some knowledge about similar creatures, i will be greatfull if you help me improve my blog.

SPIRIT GUIDES

2012-08-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Spirit guides are incorporeal beings that are assigned to us before we are born that help nudge and guide us through life. They’re responsible for helping us fulfill the spiritual contract we make with ourselves before we incarnate. Your higher self helps select these guides, who help us while we are living out our incarnation.

Who are these guides?
Some guides will stay with you throughout your entire life, and others will pop in every now and again to help you with specific areas of your life or goals you are trying to achieve. These guides are at varying levels of consciousness themselves. Some may be highly ascended masters and others might be your average spirit who just happens to be a master in a certain area. They may appear to have a male or female energy, though in reality they are just energy. They may be spirits who have had physical incarnations, or they might be spirits who have never taken corporeal form. You may be the only person they are guiding, or they may be on the “panel” for other people as well. They might be deceased relatives, but that is less likely. When it’s time for your spirit guides to help you, they tune in to your energy and help direct you to fulfill your earthly mission.

Spirit Guides, as former human beings, are well aware of the problems we face in our everyday, mundane lives. They were once concerned with very similar matters. They tend to have their own special areas of expertise, often based on past personal experiences or careers they have had in a past life.
Your Spirit Guide is always there to help you. This is their sole purpose, to offer the living their help and guidance.

However, as spirits, they operate on a higher vibrational frequency than mortals do, so the majority of us cannot see them, cannot hear them, and cannot sense their presence.

METHODS OF COMMUNICATING WITH A SPIRIT OR SPIRIT GUIDES

OUIJA BOARD
One of the first mentions of the automatic writing method used in the Ouija board is found in China around 1100 B.C., and it is first recorded in historical documents of the Song Dynasty. The method was known as fuji “planchette writing”.
One source notes that, according to a Greek historical account of the philosopher Pythagoras, in 540 B.C. his sect would conduct séances at “a mystic table, moving on wheels, moved towards signs, which the philosopher and his pupil, Philolaus, interpreted to the audience as being revelations supposedly from an unseen world.

An ouija board, also known as spirit board or talking board is a flat board marked with letters, numbers, and other symbols, supposedly used to communicate with spirits. It uses a planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit’s message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. The fingers of the séance participants are placed on the planchette, which then moves about the board to spell out messages.

Since its invention in the late nineteenth century, the Oujia board has been associated with the threat of demonic possession. Consequently, mainstream Christian denominations have warned against using Ouija boards. Occultists, on the other hand, are divided on the issue, with some saying that it can be a positive transformation; others echo the warnings of many Christians and caution inexperienced users against it.

MEDITATION
This is the act of disciplined contemplation and reflection. Highly disciplined meditation is set towards the goal of enlightenment and possibly the connection with spirit guides. It is the process of silence and reflection, proper breathing is critical, and finding that peaceful quiet place of the mind is essential.

Until one is experienced with meditation, it is best to start with guided meditations that are available on recordings from many different vendors. In many of these recordings a verbal guide will take one through the steps necessary to achieve balance, serenity, and peace. Once there one may be guided into a secret garden, or a beach, or even a mountaintop.

Then one will attempt visualization techniques to create a world around their mind.Once someone has developed a safe quiet place that is their own it is much easier for the guides to approach. In meditation one is less apprehensive, it is their created space, and they control the environment, so there is a level of safety
that is designed into the creation whether it was subconscious or not. By this time become aware of the subtle messages that abound in the spirit world. It just takes that quiet time to be able to listen.

ASTRAL PROJECTION
A deeper form of meditation. But in this case the person can often travel via spirit form to other places, or other planes of existence, and sometimes very rarely they can travel time. Astral Projection is a method of such deep meditation that one is able to utilize the eternal energy form (spirit) and for a time leave the body. First one should master the meditations, and then slowly move into the Astral Projections. Taking very small steps and learning slowly.

It is unusual but possible to lose oneself in the astral. It can be much like taking a walk in the woods and becoming so involved in the journey that one actually forgets their way. The difference is with Astral Projection the spirit is always connected to the body via a silver cord. Remembering that on astral journeys is essential.

By utilizing astral travel one can learn to ascend or descend the dimensions that exist.By achieving the multidimensional travel among the planes of existence one is able to become aware of lessons and possibilities that exist that never were considered before.

AUTOMATIC WRITING
This is the practice of allowing the spirit guide to control the writing hand and the ability for them to convey written messages. The use of a dedicated folder, binder, or other resource that holds paper is recommended.

Focus, relaxation, and the overcoming apprehension are essential in automatic writing. When a guide takes over and begins to write it is a very symbiotic relationship. It is a relationship that is mutual and giving from both sides. Focus on allowing the pen to write, not what is should write. Automatic writing is not about focusing on the words, it is about allowing the action. I have even known several artists that utilize similar methods for there various mediums. Allowing the paint to flow and become what it is meant to be is a way to think about it. An alternative to writing words is the drawing os symbols or pictures in order to convey a message, that is a method of automatic writing also.

VISION QUOTES
An ancient tradition common with old European, African, and Native American traditions. It is to exercise extreme physical action in order to allow the mind to enter a state of connection with spirit guides. This can include sweat lodges, physical exertion (running in the heat), and some cultures use hallucinogenics to enable the vision quest.

Like meditation and astral projection methods, vision quests take a fair amount of preparation on all three levels. Physical, spiritual, and mental disciplines are essential in order to have an effective vision quest. Take time to prepare, exercise and get the physical body in shape. Focus on cleansing the spirit of negative energies. And take time to contemplate the journey you are going to participate in. These events should not be taken light heartedly, but rather seriously.

INVOKING SPIRITS
A method most commonly utilized by pagans, gypsys, and some mediums to call upon specific spirits and draw them into the presence of the group. Sometimes utilized during seances, but most often during pagan ritual in order to commune with loved ones, diety, fairy, mythology, and the magic of earth herself.

Invoking Spirits most often utilizes a ritual that embraces the elements of the spirit being summoned. The ritual takes into consideration the elements that the spirit prefers, to include; herbs, incense, flowers, stones, and etc. Often it entails the casting of a circle and the recitation of a poem, ode, or song to the spirit. And then it proceeds to commune with the spirit for lessons to be learned or messages to be conveyed. These rituals can be conducted in solitude or group formats.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN HELPED BY YOUR SPIRIT GUIDES ??

Psychological Help
Sometimes you might have noticed , or it may have occurred to you at some instant of your life, that you are about to do an important task, but at the end moment a thought clouds your mind, and you think ' no i should do it this way, it will be far more better ' ,and you change your decisions at the end moment hence directing your tasks to a right path. The change of direction of thoughts in your mind may be caused by your spirit guides, thus helping you in a psychological way.

Physical Help
You might have met a stranger in your life who just came to help you and then disappeared somewhere in the dark corner of the world. That stranger came to you when you needed someone's help, or he/she came to you when you were lost in the darkest corners or when you needed psychological support and when that person came to you, you felt that you have met him before, or you know him/her , or you have a close bonding, however you were meeting that person for the first time in your life, that someone might be your spirit guide, who came to help you in a humanly form, and when he thought that he has directed you to the right path, or has helped you he/she then disappears.

Vampires

2012-08-05T09:11:00.003-07:00

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person/being.

Although a number of people consider vampirism as a plague that spread in prehistorical times.
Vampirism is now registered by the United States Health Department, alongside Werewolves, as a disease. Transmitted only through blood transfusion, Vampirism is essentially a virus.

BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION

A Vampire’s infected body cannot produce Protein and many blood cells, and thus it is forced to absorb this through the blood of others. A Vampire’s body then condenses the blood into a superconcentrated form, leading to Vampire blood becoming distinctly dark colored, almost black. A Vampire who consumes human blood will be endlessly capable of dividing and recovering his already-existent cells, though the loss of transmittable genetic code means that he/she will never grow.

Animal blood, because its composition and genetic codes are distinctly different from that of a human, will yield a far lower energy intake and will cause the vampire to “age,” in fact slowly wasting away.

A vampire can consume food, but the need to activate his digestive system is also very tiring. Vampiric Cells tend to react badly to metals, particularly silver. While they can touch it, dissolution into the body is extremely damaging. Because, unlike demon possession, Vampirism is more an organic condition than a curse, normally effective exorcism methods such as Holy Water, Prayer Chants and Purification salt have very little effect.

VAMPIRE BATS

Although many cultures have stories about them, vampire bats have only recently become an integral part of the traditional vampire lore. Indeed, vampire bats were only integrated into vampire folklore when they were discovered on the South American mainland in the 16th century.Although there are no vampire bats in Europe, bats and owls have long been associated with the supernatural and omens, although mainly because of their nocturnal habits.

Vampire Bat

FAMOUS STORIES ABOUT VAMPIRES

Elizabeth Bathory

She was known as the bloody countess and she lured young women to her castle so she could bathe in their blood. She believed that if she bathed in their blood it would give her eternal youth. She kept a diary and before she was stopped she murdered 612 young women.

The Vampire Monster of Boston

In 1867 a Portuguese sailor named James Brown was caught in the act of sucking the blood from a the neck of a man he had just killed. It was Brown's second blood meal of the day. He was placed in an insane asylum after President Andrew Jackson commuted his death sentence. He attacked other patients in the Insane Asylum and then escaped. He was finally killed in Sacramento California after he fled there after he escaped from the Insane Asylum. He was caught in a prostitutes room after he had killed her and was in the act of sucking her blood when he was shot and killed.

VAMPIRIC ORIGINS

Earliest myths of vampire-like creatures seem to come from India, and other places in the East like Tibet and China. The “Gypsies” or the Roma people, actually began as nomadic tribes in northern India, taking stories of vampire legends with them as they traveled westward.

In India, the vampires were generally viewed as demonic beings that could reanimate the corpse of a human. It would use the body of the human to destroy others and drink their blood. Typically this was a human who was buried improperly or not given the proper funeral rites. These ideas persisted about vampires as the Gypsies spread the legends throughout Europe.

The Gypsies also had some interesting ideas about protecting against vampire attacks. They would drive steel or iron through the corpse, or put steel in the mouth or over the eyes of the corpse of a suspected vampire. They would place hawthorn in the socks of the corpse or drive a hawthorn stake through the body. They would also pour boiling water over the grave or the corpse.

SOME FAMOUS VAMPIRE STORIES

The Legendary Arnold Paole
While you may have never heard of him Arnold Paole was quite famous as a suspected vampire back in the 1700's and he is still remembered in the Serbian areas today. Many people in the area still believe he was a real life vampire even today.

The real life vampire story of Arnold Paole took place during 1727-1728 in the Serbian village of Meduegna. Arnold Paole was a soldier serving in the Austrian Army and he came home to his home village in the spring of 1727. But before he came home he said he was attacked and bitten by a vampire in Greece and he was able to kill it. But he told people in the Serbian village of Meduegna that he had started to feel weird and wake up at all hours of the night after being bitten by the vampire.

He was not back home in his village of Meduegna for long before he fell off a hay wagon and busted his head wide open causing his death. He was buried and before long people in and around the village would claim to have seen Arnold at night in and around the village. It was said he went to many peoples houses and they held their door closed and refused to let him enter their home. Two people in different homes in the village were found dead with puncture marks to their throats. The villagers burnt those bodies and scattered the ashes to make sure they did not turn into vampires.

Forty Days after Paole had died army troops arrived from Belgrade and they dug up Arnold Paole at the request of the village elders. When the casket was opened it is said that Paole was laying on his back but as soon as the sun fell on him he screeched and rolled up in a ball on his stomach. The soldiers fired their muskets over and over into the casket and then they drug him from the casket chopped off his head and burned it and his body to ashes and poured them into the near by river. The vampire problems were then over in the village of Meduegna. Was he a vampire or was he not we can not say for sure. Its up to you to decide. But this is one of many documented tales of a real live vampires.

The Story Of Mercy Brown
About this time every year people in New England tell the story of Mercy Brown. How people in Exeter Rhode Island decided after Mercy Browns death that she had in fact became a vampire and that she was coming out of the grave and feeding on her sick brother.

She herself had followed he mother and sister to the grave and the people of the area were in a panic. So one cold March afternoon Mercy's father and some of his neighbors dug up Mercy's grave to see if she had indeed changed into a vampire.

It was found that she had shifted in her coffin and it was reported her mouth was full of fresh blood as was her heart. Her heart was cut from her chest and burned on a near by large rock to stop Mary from keeping coming out of the grave. Some of the ashes were even fed to her brother as a cure but he still died two months later and when he died he was staked through the chest and tied in his coffin to be sure he didn't turn into a vampire like Mercy.

FATHER OF VAMPIRES / ORIGINATORS OF VAMPIRES

Cain and Lilith

This myth begins at the very creation of man. Lilith, according to Hebrew/ Jewish texts, was the first woman created for Adam.
Lilith was Adam's first wife before Eve.She demanded equality with Adam, When Adam would not relent in his domination of her, she grew so angry that she uttered the holy name of God and vanished. God then had to make Eve for Adam, making her of his rib bone, rather than wholly dust, so that she would be attached to him and not leave as Lilith had done.Lilith went out to the Red Sea, where she made a bargain with the angels who had been sent to fetch her back to Adam. She was allowed to stay out on her own, as a witch, mother of all demons. She was allowed to kill infants up until their naming day , unless they had a charm over their sleeping place with the names of the angels on them.

The theory of Cain is a possibility and this is why. Cain is claimed to be the first born son of Adam and Eve. Cain killed his brother Able in a jealous rage and was thus banished and given a mark.
According to vampire legend, Cain wondered until he found Lilith (Adams supposed first wife) by the Red Sea. Lilith showed him the power of blood which may be considered to be the tree of life. It is said that this is why the Jewish drain all blood from their meat before cooking and eating it. From this union between Cain and Lilith came forth a host of demons and vampires in myths across the globe. Cain is said to have had legitimate children with an unnamed woman. Some of his children are regarded for inventing the harp and metal working. However, Cain’s children are almost erased from further mention in the Bible past Genesis 4:26. Cain is referred to only twice more after in the New Testament as the prototype of wicked man.

JUDAS ISCARIOT

Some theories claim that the original vampire might be Judas Iscariot who is the betrayer of Jesus Christ. Because Judas betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he and his family were cursed for this evil deed. The Bible states that Judas committed suicide because of his guilt. Vampire folklore claims that those who commit suicide are doomed to come back as vampires. Judas is told to have had red hair and this was the identifying trait of his descendents. The Greeks are told to have thought that all who had red hair were vampires. It is also said that vampires may detest silver for this reason also. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Judas tried to return the silver but couldn’t so he threw it away in disgust.

And there is a legend among the Hebrew people that God cursed Judas and said that Judas and his decedents would roam their earth as creatures of the night until the end of time. They believed that Judas Iscariot had red hair in life and that vampires with red hair were directly descended from Judas.

The Hebrew legend goes on to explain that vampires have a aversion to silver because of the fact that Judas was paid with 30 pieces of silver for his betraying Christ. Judas tried unsuccessfully to return the 30 pieces of silver so he cast it away from himself and went and hung himself. And the legend says that God refused to allow Judas to escape that way so he ordered him and his decedents to wander the earth as vampires.

However another legend says that Lucifer ( The Devil ) refused to allow Judas to die from hanging himself so he created a half human , half demon race out of Judas and condemned him and his kind to roam the earth to the ends of time. This legend goes on to say that all vampires have red eyes and fangs and will burn if exposed to direct sunlight.

And in this blog, i wont post, how to identify if someone is a vampire or not because vampires are such mysterious creatures that they wont expose themselves, and their close ones will not expose them , because they will not like to pose any kind of danger to them..

Mermaids

2012-08-01T08:53:00.005-07:00

A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish.Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, China, and India. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transforms herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes depicted as perilous creatures associated with floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drowning. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition) they can be benevolent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

Mermaids are associated with the Sirens of Greek mythology and with the Sirenia, a biological order which comprises dugongs and manatees. Historical sightings by sailors may have been the result of misunderstood encounters with these aquatic mammals. Christopher Columbus reported seeing mermaids while exploring the Caribbean, and sightings have been reported in the 20th and 21st centuries in Canada, Israel, and Zimbabwe. The US National Ocean Service stated in 2012 that no evidence of mermaids has ever been found.

Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature in recent centuries. Danish author Hans Christian Andersen wrote his popular fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" in 1836. They have subsequently been depicted in opera, paintings, books, films, and comics.

Sightings

In 1493 while sailing off the coast of Hispaniola, Christopher Columbus reported seeing three "female forms" which "rose high out of the sea, but were not as beautiful as they are represented". The logbook of Blackbeard, an English pirate, records that he instructed his crew on several voyages to steer away from charted waters which he called "enchanted" for fear of merfolk or mermaids, which Blackbeard and members of his crew reported seeing. These sighting were often recounted and shared by sailors and pirates who believed that mermaids were bad luck and would bewitch them into giving up their gold and dragging them to the bottom of the sea. Two sightings were reported in Canada near Vancouver and Victoria—one from sometime between 1870 and 1890, the other from 1967.

In August 2009, after dozens of people reported seeing a mermaid leaping out of the water and doing aerial tricks, the Israeli coastal town of Kiryat Yam offered a $1 million award for proof of the mermaid. The Mermaid Medical Association, an American mermaid advocacy group, threatened to take legal action against the town in response to their offer, which "badly and outrageously damages the legendary mermaid legacy." In February 2012, work on two reservoirs near Gokwe and Mutare in Zimbabwe stopped when workers refused to continue, stating that mermaids had hounded them away from the sites. It was reported by Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, the water resources minister.

Hoaxes

In the middle of the 17th century, John Tradescant the elder created a wunderkammer (called Tradescant's Ark) in which he displayed, among other things, a "mermaid's hand". In the 19th century, P. T. Barnum displayed a taxidermal hoax called the Fiji mermaid in his museum. Others have perpetrated similar hoaxes, which are usually papier-mâché fabrications or parts of deceased creatures, usually monkeys and fish, stitched together for the appearance of a grotesque mermaid. In the wake of the 2004 tsunami, pictures of Fiji "mermaids" circulated on the Internet as supposed examples of items that had washed up amid the devastation, though they were no more real than Barnum's exhibit.

Facts

Scientists do not think it’s possible for a creature to exist that is half mammal and half fish, the two species are simply too far apart in terms of vertebrate’s evolution. The popular scientific theory is that manatees or sea cows are what some sailors have seen and, due to long voyages at sea and malnutrition, have mistaken them for human-like creatures. The manatees are found in coastal regions and have a fish-like tail, but they could never be described as having a comely face.

Even though we know very little about our oceans, with such a tiny portion of it explored; scientists still believe it unlikely mermaids are creatures yet to be discovered. They agree that there are many animals that we don’t know about yet and sometimes creatures are discovered; like the Coelacanth, ("see-la-kanth"), that 400 million year old "living fossil" fish, pre-dating the dinosaurs by millions of years and once thought to have gone extinct with them, 65 million years ago, the Coelacanth with its "missing link" "proto legs" was "discovered" alive and well in 1938 at the mouth of the Chalumna River on the east coast of South Africa. But the truth is, say the scientists, that the deep-sea areas have only become inhabited fairly recently in geological terms; so the likelihood of anything popping up from mythology is pretty low.

So does this mean that the mermaids of myth and legend have never existed? Some argue that there is a link between the Sirens of Homer’s Odyssey and mythological mermaids; the only problem with this is that the Mediterranean Sea, where the Odyssey is set, completely dried up around 10 million years ago and only started to refill recently during the times of mankind. In early Homer references the sea was as dry as a desert. This means that ancient Western stories from the Mediterranean cannot have creatures of this kind in them brought over from ancient times. But the interesting thing about mermaids is that stories about them come from all over the world, from different countries and cultures; as if they are part of the human collective memory. In West Africa, Mami Wata is a Vodou goddess of the sea who appears in mermaid shape; she is kind to women and often blesses them with children, but has special sympathies for barren women.

The Babylonian God Oannes is said to be the first recorded creature part man, part fish; Lord of the Waters.
There have been links with human women and mermaids for a long time; the pain a mermaid goes through when she wishes to become human has been compared to the pain of menstruation and childbirth. Inthe Hans Christian Anderson story, The Little Mermaid, she has to bear the pain of 8 oysters being attached to her tail at the age of 15 to denote her rank, that she has come of age. Later when the witch grants her wish to become human, she has to bear the terrible pain of her tail splitting in two, becoming legs, with every following step feeling like walking on needles and swords. The tail here seems to be symbolic of the female reproductive system. In Melusine the French Medieval tale, Melusine married Raymond of Poitou, she forbid him to see her in the bath one day out of the week. They had children, and some of them had strange features like big teeth. One day he spied on her in the bath, and saw that she was part serpent or fish. This is thought to parallel men’s feelings of being unable to affect the changes women go through, particularly their menstrual cycle. Stories like these may back up what the scientists say, that mermaids do not exist, they could merely be a way of expressing certain human conditions in stories.

Still others argue that we should not discount the similarities of world-spanning mermaid sightings and myths, pervading so many different cultures who express aspects of life in vastly different ways. Mermaids are said to have fairy-like powers, with the ability to grant wishes; some fisherman have believed that spotting a mermaid is a bad omen, yet spotting them has saved their lives by making them steer clear of their intended paths. It could easily be argued, and well believed, that if something can exist with such prominence in the human psyche, the chances are that it is real; mermaids either exist here on Earth and appear when they wish, or live in some other dimension or plain of existence that our collective consciousness remembers.

How did the myths about mermaids arise?

Legends of half-human, half-fish creatures go back thousands of years. Everyone has seen pictures of mermaids. Sightings were made by the early Arabs and the Greek Pliny in 586 A.D. Many medieval sailors claimed to have seen them and such reports continued right into the 1900's.

Most sightings by sailors were probably normal marine creatures, such as manatees, dugongs, or sea-cows (now extinct). These appear to cradle their young much as a human would carry a baby. It is possible that sailors, seeing these unfamiliar beasts, would assume that they had stumbled across some sort of humanoid species. Mermaids described by the famous explorer, Christopher Columbus, were almost certainly manatees. He reported seeing three mermaids in the ocean off Haiti, in January of 1493. He said they "came quite high out of the water", but were "not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men."

However such descriptions are very different from the usual portrayal of a mermaid and the idea, of a beautiful but dangerous creature, probably arose from the earlier stories of the Sirens of the Aegean Sea. The Sirens were sea-nymphs who had the power to charm by their song all who heard them, so that the unhappy mariners were irresistibly impelled to cast themselves into the sea to their destruction. The Sirens were first mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. This may have shaped the portrayal of mermaids from medieval times onwards. The modern view of mermaids has also been influenced by Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale, The Little Mermaid, written in 1836.

So, are mermaids good or bad?

It seems it would depend on which story you read. However, based on the evidence, you would need to be very careful if you ever encountered one.
In British folklore they can be bringers of bad fortune, capable of causing storms and killing humans.Some of the bad things that mermaids are accused of include telling sailors their ship is doomed and enchanting sailors
and causing shipwrecks. Seeing a mermaid is a sure sign of a violent storm to come. In other stories, they deliberately drag people down in the water and squeeze the life out of drowning men. They also take men down to their underwater kingdoms.

However, on occasions, mermaids can also bring good fortune by giving humans cures or granting them wishes. In some tales, they even marry and live with humans. For example, the Merrow of Ireland and Scotland.
These mermaids are beautiful, gentle, modest and kind. They wear a red cap and, if this is captured and hidden from them, they will shed their skins and stay on land. However, most times they eventually retrieve the cap and return to the sea. They also lure young men to follow them beneath the waves. Here they live in an enchanted state. Merrow music is often heard coming from beneath the waves.

How did this story come about?

The Lizard in Cornwall is a high plateau surrounded by the sea, with numerous hidden little coves and beaches, just the sort of area for mermaid stories.

Many Cornish people, particularly sailors, have claimed to have seen or heard a mermaid and belief in them was once widespread. There are many stories of mermaids seen on the rocks and of mermaids sitting weeping and wailing on the shore.

The mermaids in Cornish stories possess many of the features of mermaids the world over. They are beautiful, often seen combing their golden hair and live for a long time without ageing. Like many British and Irish mermaids, the mermaid in this story has more sympathy, inquisitiveness and interest in humans than other mermaids.

It was often thought that people with a knowledge of healing or a knowledge of the future gained these powers by supernatural means, either from the witches, fairies or, in this case, a mermaid. This is not the only tale passed down the generations, of special powers given to an ancestor from a mermaid. Preparing a vessel of water, which would show the face of a thief, as in the story, is a common means of detection that occurs in many myths.

Mermaids are one of the most famous mythical creatures, depicted regularly in literature and film. The "Mermaid's Rock" can still be seen off the coast and you can visit Kynance cove and the beaches by the Lizard.

Basilisks

2012-08-01T01:10:00.003-07:00

In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power to cause death with a single glance. According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk of Cyrene is a small snake, "being not more than twelve fingers in length,"[2] that is so venomous that it leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its wake, and its gaze is likewise lethal; its weakness is in the odor of the weasel, which, according to Pliny, was thrown into the basilisk's hole, recognizable because all the surrounding shrubs and grass had been scorched by its presence. It is possible that the legend of the basilisk and its association with the weasel in Europe was inspired by accounts of certain species of Asiatic snakes (such as the King Cobra) and their natural predator, the mongoose.

The basilisk is called "king" because it is reputed to have on its head a mitre- or crown-shaped crest. Stories of the basilisk show that it is not completely distinguished from the cockatrice. The basilisk is alleged to be hatched by a cockerel from the egg of a serpent or toad (the reverse of the cockatrice, which was hatched from a cockerel's "egg" incubated by a serpent or toad). In Medieval Europe, the description of the creature began taking on features from cockerels.

MORE ABOUT BASILISKS

The mythical king of the serpents. The basilisk, or cockatrice, is a creature that is born from a spherical, yolkless egg, laid during the days of Sirius (the Dog Star) by a seven-year-old rooster and hatched by a toad.

The basilisk could have originated from the horned adder or hooded cobra from India. Pliny the Elder described it simply as a snake with a golden crown. By the Middle Ages, it had become a snake with the head of a cock, and sometimes with the head a human. In art, the basilisk symbolized the devil and the antichrist. To the Protestants, it was a symbol of the papacy.
According to legend, there are two species of the creature. The first kind burns everything it approaches, and the second kind can kill every living thing with a mere glance. Both species are so dreadful that their breath wilts vegetation and shatters stones. It was even believed that if a man on horseback should try to kill it with a spear, the power of the poison conducted through the weapon would not only kill the rider, but the horse as well. The only way to kill a basilisk is by holding a mirror in front of its eyes, while avoiding to look directly at it. The moment the creature sees its own reflection, it will die of fright.
However, even the basilisk has natural enemies. The weasel is immune to its glance and if it gets bitten it withdraws from the fight to eat some rue, the only plant that does not wither, and returns with renewed strength. A more dangerous enemy is the cock for should the basilisk hear it crow, it would die instantly.
The carcass of a basilisk was often hung in houses to keep spiders away. It was also used in the temples of Apollo and Diana, where no swallow ever dared to enter. In heraldry the basilisk is represented as an animal with the head, torso and legs of a cock, the tongue of a snake and the wings of a bat. The snake-like rump ends in an arrowpoint.

Witches and wizards

2012-08-01T01:10:00.000-07:00

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the use of alleged supernatural or magical powers or spells. A witch (from Old English wicca masculine, wicce feminine) is a practitioner of witchcraft.A "witch" differs from a sorcerer in that they do not use physical tools or actions to curse; their maleficium is perceived as extending from some intangible inner quality, and the person may be unaware that they are a "witch", or may have been convinced of their own evil nature by the suggestion of others.

Bad or Good? In many myths and legends, witches are evil, dishonest, or dangerous. Some cultures do not consider them fully human. If not evil by nature, witches may be possessed by demons or wicked spirits determined to harm humans. Yet ordinary men and women may learn magic for the purpose of hurting others. Such people are sometimes called sorcerers and sorceresses rather than wizards and witches. African tradition distinguishes between good magicians, or medicine men, and bad magicians, or sorcerers. Both types are distinct from the nonhuman witch.
During the Middle Ages in Europe, the belief in witches was widespread. Witches were said to be worshipers of the Devil. Thousands of women and some men were tortured and executed after being accused of witchcraft.
Not all witches and wizards are evil. Some myths and folktales feature good spirits or magicians who help people. These are said to practice "white magic" rather than the "black magic" of the evil witches and wizards.

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF WITCHCRAFT PRACTICES

White Witchcraft
Practiced to provide good intentions to the people around you.
The practitioners are often said to have a Wiccan faith. This is a religion which is guided by modern pagan beliefs. It allows one to look in the earth and aspire for its development.
Practitioners believe in the threefold return. This belief says that for every good action you make, the return of this is three times in magnitude. This also applies in the bad side. However Wiccan practice does not encourage bad practices in life.Practitioners normally utilize prayers and rituals. They use spells to provide luck to the people around them.Practitioners also use objects which are highly useful for witchcraft. Some witches utilize talismans and crystals. They are said to benefit a lot from such objects.

Black Witchcraft
Practitioners perform acts which are spiteful and provide harm to others.
They utilize unnatural acts which inflict danger to a number of people. With this, their enemies can be washed away or banished in a certain place.They conduct negative acts in order to punish spiteful enemies for their selfish gain.Practitioners use black magic. Nonetheless, black magic is not solely used for negative sense. It can also provide best hopes to those people who are hurt and needs to regain strength through fighting back.
People do not take black magic lightly. They tend to fear the practitioners of black witchcraft.
The magic used in this kind of witchcraft is a common source of misconception.
Black magic is commonly practiced in most of the black witches’ covens.
Practitioners sometimes fear the negative consequences of black magic.

WITCHCRAFT AROUND THE WORLD

African Witchcraft
Evans-Pitchard, the author of Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, says that the Zande witches have many beliefs such as magic and sorcery. The Zande witches came from the Zande tribe in Northern Africa. Magic and sorcery plays important roles in the Zande witches' lives.

European Witchcraft
King James of England was very afraid of witches in his time. In the King James Version of the Bible, the Hebrew word "kashshaf" would be translated as witch instead of "old woman" or "sorcerer." In general, many Europeans were afraid of witches and some recorded the information of the trials, tortures, and executions of witches.

Indian Witchcraft

There are two short stories that portray Indian witches. Both stories are based on the Santal tribal areas of India. (Witchcraft still exists in this area). Bandyopadhyay's story is about an old woman living outside a village who believes that she has powers of a witch. Throughout the story, the old woman tries not to contact other people, so she would not harm them. There is another story by Devi that portrays villagers around the Bantal area as witches.

Pendle Witches

The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. All but two were tried at Lancaster Assizes on 18–19 August 1612, along with the Samlesbury witches and others, in a series of trials that have become known as the Lancashire witch trials. One was tried at York Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Of the eleven who went to trial – nine women and two men – ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty.

The trials were unusual for England at that time in two respects: the official publication of the proceedings by the clerk to the court, Thomas Potts, in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, and in the number of witches hanged together: ten at Lancaster and one at York. It has been estimated that all of the English witch trials between the early 15th and early 18th centuries resulted in fewer than 500 executions; this series of trials accounts for more than two per cent of that total.

Six of the Pendle witches came from one of two families, each headed by a female in her eighties at the time of the trials:

Elizabeth Southerns , her daughter Elizabeth Device, and her grandchildren James and Alizon Device; Anne Whittle (aka Chattox), and her daughter Anne Redferne. The others accused were Jane Bulcock and her son John Bulcock, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Alice Gray, and Jennet Preston. The outbreaks of witchcraft in and around Pendle may demonstrate the extent to which people could make a living by posing as witches. Many of the allegations resulted from accusations that members of the Demdike and Chattox families made against each other, perhaps because they were in competition, both trying to make a living from healing, begging, and extortion.

SOME FAMOUS MODERN WITCH STORIES

The Queen from Snow White
Snow White’s stepmother, the Queen was beautiful but very proud and jealous of anyone more beautiful than herself. Unfortunately for Snow White, her beauty far exceeded that of her stepmother’s. The crazy Queen turned herself into a haggard-looking old woman (or better known as the witch) and brought the poison apple for poor Snow White.

Wicked Witch of the West
Her scary green face has kept many a child up at night. This witch is bent on both revenge and power. She seeks revenge for her sister who was accidentally killed by Dorothy as well she is after the coveted magical pair of silver shoes (ruby slippers in the movie). Portrayed by Margaret Hamilton, she also played the evil Miss Gulch who tried to steal poor Toto from Dorothy. The Wicked Witch of the West is best known for the following line: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!"

The Witch of Hansel & Gretel
A witch has got to eat during times of famine in Medieval Germany, right? Alas, she is vilified once again in this Germanic fairytale adapted by the Brothers Grimm. This resourceful and cunning witch constructs her house of yummy candy and ginderbread in order to lure children so as to fatten them and then eat them up. Pretty lurid plot, but it was believed that Hansel & Gretel was a cautionary fable to advocate NOT to abandon your children during tough times! Unfortunately, the witch, or wiccan-practicing folk in those days were smeared and further stereotyped. It would have been best to update Hansel & Gretel and substitute the Nazi's of World War II Germany as witch/villain.

Samantha of Bewitched
The pretty, sweet and benign witch in this American sitcom, airing from 1964-1972 was the most successful of the supernatural sitcoms of its day. Bewitched was about a witch married to a non-witch and all the craziness that can rise from the situation. Samantha used her nose-twitching powers for good and tried to resist the urge to use it for personal benefit. She wanted to fit in. However, the best part of the show was when her witchcraft caused issues and the problems her wiccan-family inflicted on poor "Derwood."

The Bell Witch
Is it a witch or a ghost...or both? The Legend of the Bell Witch, also known as the Bell Witch Haunting occurred in Tennessee from 1817-1821. Major paranormal activity intruded on the lives of the Bell family and some believe the patriarch, John Bell eventually died from it.

Word eventually leaked about the Bell's paranormal activity. It soon attracted and was even witnessed by many townsfolk, even the future President Andrew Jackson! He was later quoted as saying "I would rather fight the entire English Army then to have to face the Bell Witch again." The first haunting occurred in 1817 when John Bell encountered a strange animal in a cornfield on his property. Soon, the Bell's heard threatening voices, especially directed towards John Bell. The witch also focused on the daughter, Betsy who was violently assaulted by the witch.

So who was the Bell Witch? Some think it was the spirit of Kate Batts, a disgruntled neighbor of the Bell's. Apparently she sued John Bell over cheating her in a land deal. However, some believe that the Bell Witch was actually a poltergeist since their home was built over a Native American burial ground. The phenomena was turned into a movie called An American Haunting in 2006.

Cantaurs

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The centaurs of Greek mythology are creatures that are part human and part horse. They are usually portrayed with the torso and head of a human, and the body of a horse. Centaurs are the followers of the wine god Dionysus and are well known for drunkenness and carrying off helpless young maidens.
There are also deer-centaurs, dog-centaurs, and the Gaelic androcephalous or man-headed horse. Both Greeks and Etruscans sometimes painted a centaur-like animal with the entire body of a human rather awkwardly attached in various ways to the lower or back parts of a horse.

The father of Centaurs was Centaurus, who was held in disrepute by both men and gods. Some accounts claim that he was the son of Apollo and Stilbe but, the more interesting accounts say he was fathered by Ixion. He gave birth to the race of Centaurs by mating with Magnesian mares.

Centaurs can live up to 300 years. There are two types of centaurs, civilized and uncivilized. Both centaurs look the same the only difference is how they choose to live. According to myths Centaurs lived in the mountains of northern Greece and in other stories they lived in the forest. Because Centaurs had two stomachs they ate human food and horse food. The uncivilized centaurs would probably attack anything that came into their territory. The civilized centaurs were peaceful smart being that would probably only attack if they felt threatened.

Goblins

2012-08-01T01:07:00.002-07:00

A goblin is a legendary evil or mischievous creature; a grotesquely evil or evil-like phantom.
They are attributed with various (sometimes conflicting) abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin. In some cases, goblins have been classified as constantly annoying little creatures somewhat related to the brownie and gnome. They are usually depicted as small, sometimes only a few inches tall, sometimes the size of a dwarf. They also often are said to possess various magical abilities.

TYPES OF GOBLINS

Hobgoblins
Hobgoblins, with their dark colored shaggy hair, are thought to be one of the most benign forms of goblin, closely related to brownies. They are small tricksters that love to mess with human lives through direct influence or theft when they are really in a mood to pull practical jokes. The main thing that separates them from other goblins though is their close labor relations to humans. They will do toiling work around a human house for a bowl of fresh milk or a spark of fire since they enjoy the warmth but cannot create their own just like other goblins.

Kol'ksu
The Kol'ksu are water goblins. They are very psychic, and they are very carnivorous. They are also beautiful, in an alien sort of way. They have white hair and white irises in their dragon-like eyes. The features are delicate and they might easily be mistaken for mythological mermaids...or sirens.
Kol'ksu never allow themselves to be seen by humans, and woe to the human who might somehow encounter one!

Winged goblin
Winged goblins are very rare, and considered of special omen among the other goblins. They come from a very old line that has mostly died out, but a particular combination of genetics can result in the birth of such a creature among the oldest of goblins.

Bogey
Bogeys tend to be the smallest form of goblin. To make up for their size, they are also very ephemeral, making them the hardest goblin to actually kill. They tend to be completely black in color and live in the dark places of common houses such as attics, cupboards, and closets. These particular dwellings of Bogeys help them in their most common exploits against human beings. They love to pop out from their hiding places to scare children and adults within the house, which where the terms “bogeyman” and “boogieman” came from.

Kobold
The Kobold is a very famous race of goblin with origins in Germanic mythology that continues in German folklore. One of the aspects that make them such a wide-spread version of goblins is their versatility as Kobolds can live on ships, in mines, and even human homes. Their appearance changes to fit their locale of choice. However, most Kobolds choose to be ambivalent household spirits where they can help with chores or can freely perform malicious tricks if insulted or neglected.

Hogboon
The Hogboon, or Hogboy, is a very friendly earth goblin. They are so kindly to humans that many people try to claim that they are not goblins at all.However, many tales show that they have a negative side whereby they can be very fickle if the humans refused to share the outputs of the farm with them—whether it be milk, butter, bread, or ale. They would bring ill luck to the farm, sometimes even making the land barren, or causing the death of a particularly disrespectful human who tries to get into his mound for treasure.

Genies

2012-08-01T01:06:00.002-07:00

Jinn or genies are supernatural creatures as mentioned in the Qur'an and often referred to in Arab folklore and Islamic mythology that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind.In many modern cultures, a Genie is portrayed as a magical being that grants wishes.

TYPES OF JINNS

Aamir (dweller)
If the jinni is one of those who live in houses with people, they call him ‘Aamir (dweller).

Rooh (spirits)
If the jinni is one of those who interact with children, they call them Ruh. We hear a lot from our children seeing cartoons in real life. Ones who are scared of water speak of the same cartoonish things appearing in water to them.

Al-nasnas – Shiqq
Strangest of all, described as a man split into two, having half a body. Al-Jahiz speaks, that if a shiqq encounters a human, it beats him till he dies.

Marid
Large and imposing, the marid are considered the most powerful tribe of jinn. They are the classic genies of folklore, often portrayed as barrelchested men with booming voices.
Originally sea-spirits, they are often associated with water, and thought to take sanctuary in the open ocean.

Effrit
Intelligent and cunning, the effrit are thought to live in complex societies similar to those of humans. They are said to prefer caves and under ground dwellings. Though ostensibly demonic, they are portrayed as changeable in nature, and capable of becoming pious and good.

Ghoul
This tribe of jinn has traveled north and west to become a common English- language term for “undead monster.” This is pretty close to its original Arabic connotation; ghouls are thought to be zombie-like jinn who haunt graveyards and prey on human flesh. They are strictly demonic and incapable of goodness. Often portrayed as nocturnal.

Sila
Talented shape-shifters who are more tolerant of human society than other tribes of jinn, sila are most often portrayed as female. Thought to be extremely intelligent, sila are nonetheless the most rarely seen of all the types of jinn, and appear only sporadically in folklore.

Parallel Universe

2012-07-31T23:58:00.004-07:00

What is parallel Universe ?

A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality.

The term "parallel universe" is more general, without any connotations implying a relationship, or lack of relationship, with our own universe. A universe where the very laws of nature are different – for example, one in which there are no relativistic limitations and the speed of light can be exceeded – would in general count as a parallel universe but not an alternative reality. The correct quantum mechanical definition of parallel universes is "universes that are separated from each other by a single quantum event."

Parallel Universe Theory And Science

A physicist by the name of Alan Guth came up with a parallel universes theory based on many observations. References to his theory are called inflationary universe or inflationary theory of cosmology. Professor Guth is currently the Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Many of Professor Guth’s peers believe that his theory is correct. He believes that when the universe began, instead of a gravitational pull to keep things together, there was a reverse type of gravitation working and instead repelled everything from it, which he coined a “false vacuum.”

As scientists have proven our world is constantly expanding, this theory seems plausible.Another part to Professor Guth’s theory allows that at the time of the big bang, the “false vacuum” began to decay, creating amazing amounts of particles. These particles are the same as those which began our universe. According to his theory, the universe is much larger than anyone had predicted. If this theory is true, these extra particles started as the decay became bubbles, much like the bubble he believes began our universe. The more the “false vacuum” decayed the more bubbles it created. If this astounding theory is true, it would prove the existence of many universes, all of which would appear to have the same properties and abide by the same law of physics. Because this theory can’t fully be proven, there is speculation as to what these other universes hold.

There are two main ideas as to what these different universes may contain. The first is that these universes are the same in matter and physical laws as our universe. The exception being that due the varying degree with which they were created, it allowed for these other worlds to have every possible combination of particles available. In other words, these worlds would operate by the same principles but would have every possible number of combinations there are. For example, the oceans would be where our continents are and vice versa, on and on. The second idea is that the other worlds would potentially be different in that they may not operate in the same way as ours does. A three dimensional world may not be what the norm is.

While both of these ideas are plausible, the first allows for the belief in parallel universes, the idea that any given person can exist at the same time in more than one place. If, as humans, we were able to tap into the power of traveling to these other universes, we would be able to ‘meet’ our other selves. While this is a truly powerful thing to think about, one can imagine the possibilities it holds. If your own individual beings could meet and each one had different experiences, think of the intelligence and knowledge you could pass from one to another. Each one would have different experiences and different outcomes. In one world you could be a doctor, in another world a politician, in another world a drug addict. The options would be virtually limitless.

Hyperspace

Perhaps the most common use of the concept of a parallel universe in science fiction is the concept of hyperspace. Used in science fiction, the concept of “hyperspace” often refers to a parallel universe that can be used as a faster-than-light shortcut for interstellar travel. Rationales for this form of hyperspace vary from work to work, but the two common elements are:
at least some (if not all) locations in the hyperspace universe map to locations in our universe, providing the "entry" and "exit" points for travellers.the travel time between two points in the hyperspace universe is much shorter than the time to travel to the analogous points in our universe. This can be because of a different speed of light, different speed at which time passes, or the analogous points in the hyperspace universe are just much closer to each other.
Sometimes "hyperspace" is used to refer to the concept of additional coordinate axes. In this model, the universe is thought to be "crumpled" in some higher spatial dimension and that traveling in this higher spatial dimension, a ship can move vast distances in the common spatial dimensions. An analogy is to crumple a newspaper into a ball and stick a needle straight through, the needle will make widely spaced holes in the two-dimensional surface of the paper. While this idea invokes a "new dimension", it is not an example of a parallel universe. It is a more scientifically plausible use of hyperspace.
While use of hyperspace is common, it is mostly used as a plot device and thus of secondary importance. While a parallel universe may be invoked by the concept, the nature of the universe is not often explored. So, while stories involving hyperspace might be the most common use of the parallel universe concept in fiction, it is not the most common source of fiction about parallel universes.

Do Parallel Universe Really exist ?

The strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist simultaneously in a parallel universe -- a multi-state condition that has scientists theorizing that traveling through time may be much more than just the plaything of science fiction writers.

And it's all because of a tiny bit of metal -- a "paddle" about the width of a human hair, an item that is incredibly small but still something you can see with the naked eye.
UC Santa Barbara's Andrew Cleland cooled that paddle in a refrigerator, dimmed the lights and, under a special bell jar, sucked out all the air to eliminate vibrations. He then plucked it like a tuning fork and noted that it moved and stood still at the same time.
That sounds contradictory, and it's nearly impossible to understand if your last name isn't Einstein. But it actually happened. It's a freaky fact that's at the heart of quantum mechanics.

How Is That Possible?

To even try to understand it, you have to think really, really small. Smaller than an atom. Electrons, which circle the nucleus of an atom, are swirling around in multiple states at the same time -- they're hard to pin down. It's only when we measure the position of an electron that we force it to have a specific location. Cleland's breakthrough lies in taking that hard-to-grasp yet true fact about the atomic particle and applying it to something visible with the naked eye.

What does it all mean?

Let's say you're in Oklahoma visiting your aunt. But in another universe, where your atomic particles just can't keep up, you're actually at home watching "The Simpsons." That may sound far-fetched, but it's based
on real science.
"When you observe something in one state, one theory is it split the universe into two parts," Cleland told FoxNews.com, trying to explain how there can be multiple universes and we can see only one of them.
The multi-verse theory says the entire universe "freezes" during observation, and we see only one reality. You see a soccer ball flying through the air, but maybe in a second universe the ball has dropped already. Or you were looking the other way. Or they don't even play soccer over there.
Sean Carroll, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology and a popular author, accepts the scientific basis for the multi-verse -- even if it cannot be proven.
"Unless you can imagine some super-advanced alien civilization that has figured this out, we aren't affected by the possible existence of other universes," Carroll said. But he does think "someone could devise a machine that lets one universe communicate with another."

It all comes down to how we understand time.
Carroll suggests that we don't exactly feel time -- we perceive its passing. For example, time moves fast on a
rollercoaster and very slowly during a dull college lecture. It races when you're late for work . . . but the last few minutes before quitting time seem like hours.

Travel To Parallel Universes With These Tips!

Step One: Create a Routine

Get out of your normal daily routine and try something different for a change. This will enable you to see the world in a different light, which will make it easier on you to break subconscious habits as well. You can start out making slow changes: dress differently, fix your hair differently, wear shoes you wouldn’t normally wear, listen to music you wouldn’t normally listen to, etc. Eventually, you will find it easier and easier to break your bad habits, or those over which you feel have no control.

Step Two: Meditate

Start meditating. Meditation is powerful process and when done at the Alpha Level for just 5 minutes a daily, can help tremendously with positive programming.

Step Three: Indulge Your Senses

Smell triggers the ability to connect with other dimensions while meditating. Some scents that may help increase intuition and awareness includes cedar, myrrh, rosemary, and musk to name a few.

Step Four: Subliminal Messages

Hypnosis and subliminal messages can work. You can send little “reminders” to your subconscious mind without worrying about your conscious mind resisting or arguing. Since the conscious mind is always trying to argue, affirmations aren’t as effective as they should be. Affirmations can be powerful, but subliminal messages are even more so. In order for them to be effective, however, you need to listen to hypnosis CDs every single day.Once you truly believe that you can do anything, see anything, be anything, and have anything, you will be able to attract anything into your life!

You are also whatever you can imagine, now; in a parallel universe.

Travelling to Parallel Universes in Dreams

Scientists are slowly finding that we travel in our dreams into parallel universes or oceans of multiverses where different things are happening with us – what and who we know and our environments.

In dreams we migrate to the multiverse and go on an incredible journey.As the world turns, billions of people and perhaps also animals make these interdimensional journeys. These journeys produce traces, be they electrical or of some substance we cannot physically measure. All combined, the traces our journeys make as we pass through billions of parallel universes create a form, a collective shape, giving the multiverse existence.

The similarities in brainwave patterns between waking life and sleep imply that on certain levels the brain may be functioning in similar ways, the most notable similarity being that we are conscious in both states.

In both states we are receiving sensory input, though in the case of dreams, the origin of this input and the organs involved in its reception remain cloaked. We are compelled to dream so that we can be part of this other much greater world which spans and in some way bonds all parallel universes.

Researchers have shown that in early childhood – even in the womb – infants have a very high proportion of REM sleep.Perhaps our consciousness originates from this other existence. That may explain why consciousness is the most elusive and ethereal of forms. An understanding of the chemical and electrical processes occurring in the brain does not add up to an understanding of the nature of consciousness.

Dream research will produce more data to hypothesize about, but it will never give us an insight into the astounding multiverse of which our dreams form a part.

Counter-Earth

The concept of Counter-Earth is typically similar to that of parallel universes but is actually a distinct idea. A counter-earth is a planet that shares Earth's orbit but is on the opposite side of the Sun and therefore cannot be seen from Earth. There would be no necessity that such a planet would be like Earth in any way though typically in fiction, it is usually nearly identical to Earth. Since counter-earth is always within our own universe (and our own solar system), travel to it can be accomplished with ordinary space travel.

Pandora's Box

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At one time the only mortals on the earth were men. Prometheus had made them, Athene had breathed life into them. The chief god Zeus did not like them.

One day Prometheus was trying to solve a quarrel that was raging between the gods and the men. At a festival the men were going to sacrifice a bull for the first time. They asked him which parts of the bull should be offered to the gods and which should be eaten by men. Prometheus decided to play a trick on Zeus. He killed the bull, skinned it and butchered it. He split it into two portions, in one he put the best, lean meat. In the second he put bones followed by a thick layer of fat. Prometheus offered both to Zeus to take his choice. Zeus looked at both portions, one looked good but was rather on the small side, the other was much larger and covered in a layer of fat which Zeus felt must cover the best, tastiest portion of meat. He chose that one. When Zeus realised that he had been tricked he was furious. He took fire away from man so that they could never cook their meat or feel warm again.

Prometheus reacted immediately flying to the Isle of Lemnos where he knew the smith Hephaestus had fire. He carried a burning torch back to man. Zeus was enraged. He swore vengeance and started making an evil plan.

Zeus, set Hephaestos the task of creating a clay woman with a human voice. Hephaestos worked and worked and created a masterpiece. Athene, goddess of wisdom and Zeus' daughter liked the clay figure and she breathed life into it. She taught the woman how to weave and clothed her. Aphrodite the goddess of love made her beautiful. The god Hermes taught her to charm and deceive.

Zeus was pleased with what he saw, but he had made her as a trap. He named the woman Pandora and sent her as a gift to Epimetheus. Epimetheus had been warned by his brother Prometheus that he should never accept gifts from Zeus because there would always be a catch. Epimetheus ignored his brother's warning, fell in love with Pandora and married her. Zeus, pleased that his trap was working gave Pandora a wedding gift of a beautiful box. There was one condition however...that was that she never opened the box.

For a while they were very happy. Pandora often wondered what was in the box but she was never left alone so she never opened it. Gradually over a while she began to wonder more and more what was in the box. She could not understand why someone would send her a box if she could not see what was in it. It got very important to find out what was hidden there.

Finally she could stand it no longer. One day when everyone was out she crept up to the box, took the huge key, fitted it carefully into the lock and turned it. She lifted the lid to peep in but before she realised it the room was filled with terrible things: disease, despair, malice, greed, old age, death, hatred, violence, cruelty and war. She slammed the lid down and turned the key again...keeping only the spirit of hope inside.

To this day sometimes when things are really bad the only thing we have left is hope. Even then some people will say hope deceives us.

ANOTHER VERSION OF THE STORY

PANDORA AND THE GREAT BOX

Long, long ago, when this old world was in its infancy, there was a child named Epimetheus
who never had either father or mother. In order that he might not be lonely, another child,
fatherless and motherless like himself, was sent from a far country to be his playfellow. Her name was Pandora.

The first thing that Pandora saw when she entered the cottage where Epimetheus dwelt was a great box. And almost the first question which she put to him, after crossing the threshold, was
this:

"Epimetheus, what have you in that box?"

"My dear little Pandora," answered Epimetheus, "that is a secret, and you must be kind
enough not to ask any questions about it. The box was left here to be kept safely, and I do not myself know what it contains."

"But who gave it to you?" asked Pandora." And where' did it come from?"

"That is a secret, too," replied Epimetheus.

"How provoking!" exclaimed Pandora, pouting her lip. "I wish the great ugly box were out of the way!"

"0 come, don't think of it any more,!' cried Epimetheus. "Let us run out of doors, and play
with the other children."

It is thousands of years since Epimetheus and Pandora were alive. Then, everybody was a
child. Children needed no fathers and mothers to take care of them; because there was no danger or trouble of any kind, and there were no clothes to be mended, and there were always plenty of things to eat and to drink.

Whenever a child wanted his dinner, he found it growing on a tree; and if he looked at the tree in the morning, he could see the blossom of that night's supper; or at eventide he saw the tender bud of tomorrow's breakfast. It was a very pleasant life indeed. No labor to be done, no lessons to be studied; nothing but sports and dances and sweet voices of children talking or singing.

What was most wonderful of all, the children never quarreled among themselves; neither had they any crying fits; nor, since time first began, had a single one of them ever gone into a corner and sulked. Oh, what a good time was that to be alive in! The truth is, those ugly little winged monsters called Troubles, which are now almost as numerous as mosquitoes, had never yet been seen on the earth. Perhaps the very greatest uneasiness which a child had ever felt was Pandora's vexation at not being able to discover the secret of the mysterious box.

"Whence can the box have come?" Pandora continually kept saying to herself and to
Epimetheus. "And what on earth can be inside of it?"

"Always talking about this box!" said Epimetheus at last, for he had grown tired of the
subject. "I wish, dear Pandora, you would try to talk of something else. Come, let us go and
gather some ripe figs, and eat them under the trees for our supper. And I know a vine that has the sweetest and juiciest grapes you ever tasted."

"Always talking about grapes and figs !" cried Pandora, pettishly.

"Well, then," said Epimetheus, who was a very good-tempered child, "let us run out and have a merry time with our playmates.

I am tired of merry times, and don't care if I never have any more!" answered pettish little
Pandora. "And, besides, I never do have any. This ugly box! I am so taken up with thinking about it all the time. I insist upon your telling me what is inside of it."

"As I have already said fifty times over, I do not know!" replied Epimetheus, getting a little vexed himself. "How, then, can I tell you what is inside?"

"You might open it," said Pandora, "and then we could see for ourselves."
"Pandora, what are you thinking of?" exclaimed Epimetheus.

His face showed so much horror at the idea of looking into a box which had been given to
him on his promise never to open it, that Pandora thought it best not to suggest it any more. Still, she could not help thinking and talking about the box.

"At least," said she, "you can tell me how it came here." "It was left at the door," replied
Epimetheus, "just before you came, by a person who looked very smiling and who could hardly keep from laughing as he put it down. He was dressed in an odd kind of cloak, and had on a cap that seemed to be made partly of feathers, so that it looked almost as if it had wings."

"What sort of staff had he?" asked Pandora.
"Oh, the most curious staff you ever saw!" cried Epimetheus" It was like two serpents
twisting around a stick and was carved so naturally that I at first thought the serpents were
alive."

"I know him," said Pandora thoughtfully. "Nobody else. has such a staff. It was Quicksilver, and he brought me here as well as the box. No doubt he intended it for me; and most probably it contains pretty dresses for me to wear, or something very nice for us both to eat!"

"Perhaps so,' answered Epimetheus, turning away. "But until Quicksilver comes back and
tells us so, we have neither of us any right to lift the lid of the box."
"What a dull boy he is!" muttered Pandora, as Epimetheus left the cottage.

THE KNOT OF GOLDEN CORD

For the first time since her arrival, Epimetheus had gone out without asking Pandora to
accompany him. He went to gather figs and grapes for himself, or to seek whatever amusement he could find with other children. He was tired to death of hearing about the box, and heartily wished that Quicksilver had left it at some other child's door where Pandora would never have set eyes on it.

How she did babble about this one thing! The box, the box, and nothing but the box! It was
really hard that poor Epimetheus should have a box in his ears from morning till night; especially as the little people of the earth in those happy days knew not how to deal with troubles. Thus a small-trouble made as much disturbance then as a far bigger one would in our own time.

After Epimetheus was gone, Pandora stood gazing at the box. She had called it ugly over a
hundred times; but in spite of all that she had said against it, it was a very handsome article of furniture. It was made of a beautiful kind of wood with dark and rich veins spreading over its
surface, which was so highly polished that little Pandora could see herself in it. The edges and corners of the box were carved with most wonderful skill. Around the edges there were figures of graceful men and women, and the prettiest children ever seen. But here and there, Pandora once or twice thought that she saw a face not so lovely, or something or other which stole the beauty out of all the rest. Nevertheless, on looking more closely and touching the spot with her finger, she could discover nothing of the kind. Some face that was really beautiful had been made to look ugly by her catching a sideways glimpse at it.

The most beautiful face of all was carved in the center of the lid. There was nothing else
except the dark, smooth richness of the polished wood, and this one face in the center with a garland of flowers about its brow. Pandora had looked at this face a great many times and
imagined that the mouth could smile if it liked, or be grave when it chose, the same as any living mouth. The features, indeed, all wore a very lively and rather mischievous expression.
Had this mouth spoken, it would probably have said something like this:

"Do not be afraid, Pandora! What harm can there be in opening the box? Never mind that
poor, simple Epimetheus! You are wiser than he, and have ten times as much spirit. Open the box, and see if you do not find Something! very pretty !"

The box, I had almost forgotten to say, was fastened not by a lock but by a very fine knot of gold cord. There appeared to be no end to this knot, and no beginning. Never was a knot so
cunningly twisted with so many ins and outs. And yet, by the very difficulty that there was in it, Pandora was there tempted to examine the knot, and just see how it was made. Two or three times already she had stooped over the box and taken the knot between her thumb and forefinger, but without trying to undo it.

"I really believe," said she to herself, "that I begin to see how it was done. Nay, perhaps I
could tie it up again after undoing it. Even Epimetheus would not blame me for that. I need not open the box, and should not, of course, without that foolish boy's consent, even if the knot were untied."

It might have been better for Pandora if she had had a little work to do so as not to be so
constantly thinking of this one subject. But children led so easy a life before any Troubles came into the world that they had a great deal too much leisure. They could not be forever playing at hide-and-seek among the flower-shrubs, or at blind-man's buff with garlands over their eyes, or at whatever other games had been found out while Mother Earth was in her babyhood. When life is all sport, toil is the real play. There was nothing to do. A little sweeping and dusting about the cottage, I suppose, and the gathering of fresh flowers and arranging them in vases and poor little Pandora's day's work was over. And then, for the rest of the day, there was always the box!

After all, I am not quite sure that the fascinating box was not a blessing to Pandora in its way It supplied her with so many ideas to think of, and to talk about, whenever she had anybody who would listen to her! When she was in good humor, she could admire the bright polish of its sides and the rich border of beautiful faces that ran all around it. Or, if she happened to be ill-tempered, she could give it an angry push, or kick it with her naughty little foot. And many a kick did the mischievous box receive, you may be sure! But certain it is if it had not been for the box, little Pandora would not have known half so well how to spend her time as she now did.

GUESSING WHAT WAS IN THE BOX

For it was really an endless employment to guess what was inside. What could it be, indeed? Just imagine, my little hearers, how busy your wits would be if there were a great box in the
house, which you might suppose contained something new and pretty for your Christmas or New Year's gifts. Do you think that you should be less curious than Pandora? If you were left alone with the box, might you not feel a little tempted to lift the lid? But you would not do it. Oh, fie!

No, no! Only, if you thought there were toys in it, it would be so very hard to let slip an
opportunity of taking just one peep!

I know not whether Pandora expected any toys; for none had yet begun to be made, probably, in those days, when the world itself was one great plaything for the children that dwelt upon it.
But Pandora was certain that there was something very beautiful and valuable in the box, and therefore she felt just as anxious to take a peep as any little girl would have felt.
On this particular day, however, her curiosity grew so much greater than it usually was that at last she approached the box. She was more than half determined to open it, if she could. Ah,
naughty Pandora!

First, however, she tried to lift it. It was heavy; much too heavy for the slender strength of a child like Pandora. She raised one end of the box a few inches from the floor, and let it fall again with a loud thump. A moment afterwards she almost thought that she heard something stir inside the box.

She listened as closely as possible. There did seem to be a kind of stifled murmur within! Or was it merely the singing in Pandora's ears? Or could it be the beating of her heart? The child
could not be sure herself whether she had heard anything or not. But, at all events, her curiosity was stronger than ever.

Her eyes fell upon the, knot of gold cord !

"It must have been a clever person who tied this knot," . said Pandora to herself. "But I think I could untie 'it, nevertheless. I believe I will at least try to find the two ends of the cord."
So she took the golden knot in her fingers and looked into it as sharply as she could. Almost without quite knowing what she was about, she was soon busily trying to undo it. Meanwhile, the bright sunshine came through the open window; as did also the merry voices of the children, playing at a distance, and perhaps the voice of Epimetheus among them.
Pandora stopped to listen. What a beautiful day it was! Would it not be wiser if she were to
let the troublesome knot alone and think no more about the box, but run and join her little
playfellows and be happy?

All this time, however, her fingers were busy with the knot; and happening to glance at the
face on the lid of the enchanted box, she seemed to see it slyly grinning at her.

"That face looks very mischievous," thought Pandora. "I wonder whether it smiles because I am doing wrong! I have a great notion to run away!"

But just then, by the merest accident, she gave the knot a kind of twist the gold cord
untwined itself as if by magic, and left the box without a fastening.

"This is the strangest thing I ever knew!" said Pandora.. "What will Epimetheus say? And
how can I possibly tie it up again?"

She made one or two attempts to tie the knot, but soon found it quite beyond her skill. It had untied itself so suddenly that she could not in the least remember how the strings had been
doubled into one another; and when she tried to recollect the shape and appearance of the knot, it seemed to have gone entirely out of her mind. Nothing was to be done, therefore, but to let the box remain as it was until Epimetheus should come in.

"But," said Pandora, "when he finds the knot untied, he will know that I have done it. How
shall I make him believe that I have not looked into the box?"

And then the thought came into her naughty little heart, that since she would be suspected of having looked into the box, she might just as well do so at once. The enchanted face on the lid of the box looked at her bewitchingly, and she seemed to hear, more distinctly than before, the murmur of small voices within. She could not tell whether it was fancy or not; but there was quite a little tumult of whispers in her ear--or else it was her curiosity that whispered: "Let us out dear Pandora--pray let us out! We will be such nice, pretty playfellows for you! Only let us out.

"What can it be?" thought Pandora. "Is there something alive in the box? Well!--yes!--I will take just one peep! Only one peep, and then the lid shall be shut down as safely as ever! There cannot possibly be any harm in just one little peep !"'

HOW TROUBLES CAME INTO THE WORLD

But it is now time for us to see what Epimetheus was doing. This was the first time since his
playmate had come that he had tried to enjoy any pleasure in which she did not take part. But nothing went right, nor was he nearly so happy as on other days. He could not find a sweet grape or a ripe fig; or, if ripe at all, they were overripe, and so sweet as to be distasteful. There was no gladness in his heart; he grew so uneasy and discontented that the other children could not imagine what was the matter with him. Neither did he himself know what ailed him, any better than they did.

For at the time we are speaking of, it was everybody's nature and habit to be happy. The
world had not yet learned to be unhappy. Not a single soul or body, since these children were first sent to enjoy themselves on the beautiful earth, had ever been sick or out-of-sorts.
At length, discovering that somehow or other he put a stop to all the play, Epimetheus
thought it best to go back to Pandora. But, with a hope of giving her pleasure, he gathered some flowers and made them into a wreath which he meant to put upon her head. The flowers were very lovely --roses and lilies and orange-blossoms, and a great many more, which left a trail of fragrance behind as Epimetheus carried them along; and the wreath was put together with as much skill as could be expected of a boy.

And here I must mention that a great black cloud had been gathering in the sky for some time past, although it had not yet overspread the sun. But, just as Epimetheus reached the cottage-door this cloud began to cut off the sunshine, and thus to make a sudden darkness.

He entered softly; for he meant, if possible, to steal behind Pandora and fling a wreath of
flowers over her head before she knew that he was there. But, as it happened, there was no need of his treading so very lightly. He might have trod as heavily as he pleased, as heavily as a grown man--as heavily as an elephant--without Pandora's hearing his footsteps. She was too interested in what she was doing. At the very moment of his entering the cottage, the naughty child had put her hand to the lid, and was on the point of opening the mysterious box, when Epimetheus saw her.

But Epimetheus himself, although he said very little about it, had his own share of curiosity
to know what was inside. Seeing that Pandora intended to find out the secret, he determined that his playfellow should not be the only wise person in the cottage. And if there were anything pretty or valuable in the box, he meant to take half of it to himself.

As Pandora raised the lid, the cottage grew very dark; for the black cloud had now swept
quite over the sun and seemed to have buried it alive. There had, for a little while past, been a low growling and muttering which all at once broke into a heavy peal of thunder. But Pandora,
unmindful of all this, lifted the lid nearly upright and looked inside. It seemed as if a sudden
swarm of winged creatures brushed past her, taking flight out of the box,. while at the same
instant she heard Epimetheus calling as if in pain.

"Oh, I am stung!' he cried. I am stung! Naughty Pandora! why have you opened this wicked box?"

Pandora let fall the lid, and, starting up, looked about her to see what had happened to
Epimetheus. The thundercloud had so darkened the room that she could not very clearly see what was in it. But she heard a disagreeable buzzing, as if a great many huge flies, or giant mosquitoes, were darting about. And as her eyes grew more accustomed to the imperfect light, she saw a crowd of ugly little shapes, with bats wings, looking very spiteful and armed with terribly long stings in their tails. It was one of these that had stung Epimetheus. Nor was it a great while before Pandora herself began to scream in no less pain than her playfellow. An ugly little monster had settled on her forehead, and would have stung her if Epimetheus had not run and brushed it away.

Now, if you wish to know what these ugly things were which had made their escape out of
the box, I must tell you that they were the whole family of earthly Troubles. There were a great many kinds of Cares; there were more than a hundred fifty Sorrows; there were Diseases, in a vast number of miserable and painful shape; there were more kinds of Naughtiness than it would be of any use for us to talk about.

In short, everything that has since troubled our souls and bodies had been shut up in the
mysterious box and given to Epimetheus and Pandora to be kept safely, in order. that the happy children of the world might never be harmed by them. But by Pandora's lifting the lid of that miserable box, and by the fault of Epimetheus, too, in not preventing her, these Troubles have gained a foothold among us, and do not seem likely to be driven away in a hurry.
For it was impossible, as you will easily guess, that the two children should keep the ugly
swarm in their own little cottage. The first thing that they did was to fling open the doors and
windows in hope of getting rid of them: Sure enough, away flew the winged Troubles all abroad
to torment the small people, everywhere.

And what was very strange, all the flowers and dewy blossoms on earth, not one of which had before faded, now began to droop and shed their leaves, after a day or two. The children who
before seemed always young now day by day grew older and came to be men and women by-and-by.

WHAT HOPE DOES FOR US

Meanwhile the naughty Pandora and hardly less naughty Epimetheus remained in their
cottage. Both of them had been grievously stung, and were in a good deal of pain, which seemed the more unbearable to them because it was the very first pain that had ever been felt since the world began. Besides this, they were in very bad humor, both with themselves and with one another. Epimetheus sat down sullenly in a corner with his back toward Pandora, while Pandora flung herself upon the floor and rested her head on the fatal box. She was sobbing as if her heart would break.

Suddenly there was a gentle tap on the inside of the lid. "What can that be?" cried Pandora,
lifting her head.

But either Epimetheus had not heard the tap, or was too. much upset to notice it. At any rate, he made no answer. "You are very unkind," said Pandora, sobbing again, "not to speak to me!"
Again the tap! It sounded like the tiny knuckles of a fairy's hand, knocking playfully on the
inside of the box.

"Who are you?" asked Pandora. "Who are you, inside of this naughty box?"
A sweet little voice spoke from within: "Only lift the lid, and you shall see."

"No, no," answered Pandora, again beginning to sob, "I have had enough of lifting the lid!

You are inside of the box, naughty creature, and there you shall stay!"

"Ah," said the sweet little voice again, "you had much better let me out." I am not like those naughty creatures that have stings in their tails. Come, come, my pretty Pandora! I am sure you will let me out I"

And, indeed, there was a kind of cheerful witchery in the tone that made it almost impossible to refuse anything which this little voice asked. Pandora's .heart had grown lighter at every word that came from within the box. Epimetheus, too, though still in the corner, had turned half round and seemed to be in rather better spirits than before.

"My dear Epimetheus," cried Pandora, "have you heard this little voice?"
"Yes, to be sure I have," he answered. "And what of it?" "Shall I lift the lid again?" asked
Pandora.

"Just as you please," said Epimetheus. "You have done so much mischief already that perhaps you may as well do a little more. One other Trouble can make no very great. difference." "You might speak a little more kindly!" murmured Pandora, wiping her eyes.

"Ah, naughty boy!" cried the little voice within the box, in a laughing tone. "He knows he
wants to see me. Come, my dear Pandora, lift up the lid. I am in a great hurry to comfort you."

"Epimetheus," exclaimed Pandora, "no matter what happens, I will open the box!"

"And, as the lid seems very heavy," cried Epimetheus, running across the room, "I will help you!"

So the two children again lifted the lid. Out flew a sunny and smiling little person, and
hovered about the room, throwing a light wherever she went. She flew to Epimetheus and laid the lightest touch of her finger on the spot where the Trouble had stung him, and immediately the pain was gone. Then she kissed Pandora on the forehead, and her hurt was also cured.
After performing these good deeds, the bright stranger fluttered over the children's heads, and looked so sweetly at them that they both began to think it not so very much wrong to have opened the box, since otherwise their cheery guest must have been kept a prisoner among those naughty imps with stings in their tails.

"Pray, who are you, beautiful creature?" inquired Pandora. "I am to be called Hope!"
answered the sunshiny figure. "And because I am such a cheery little body, I was packed into the box to make up for that swarm of ugly Troubles which was to be let loose."

"Your wings are colored like the rainbow!" exclaimed Pandora. "How very beautiful !"

"And will you stay with us," asked Epimetheus, "for ever and ever?"

"As long as you need me," said hope, with her pleasant smile, "and that will be as long as you live in the world. I promise never to leave you. There may be times now and then when you will think that I have vanished. But again, and again, and again, when perhaps you least dream of my being with you, you shall see the glimmer of my wings on the ceiling of your cottage."

-NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

OMENS

2012-07-28T03:04:00.001-07:00

Do you believe in omens ?
Well some people might and some people might not. But the fact is that centuries ago when science was in its initial stages, people used to believe in omens, and they had developed a language , and tried to understand the language of nature, to predict their futures. At that time, people used to talk about science in such a way that we are talking about omens now, there were people who used to believe in science, while some other people used to think there is no such thing as science, and there can't be a thing like a light bulb, or a flying plane. But the fact is, we don't believe in things until we see them by our naked eyes. Similarly in the ancient times, people used to believe in omens because it was a language they discovered, and things have happened in the way as it was predicted according to the omen.Now a days, we are so overwhelmed by scientific discoveries that we dont even try to look beyond science. But one will have to belief that in ancient times, when their was no science, people used to believe in omens (good or bad), Kings used to go on wars only after understanding the omens whether it was a good time for them to stand in the battlefield or not. And its not like that we dont have omens now, there are still several signs that the nature is trying to show us, but we are so busy in our lives now that we dont even try to care about them , we dont even believe in them, or we simply ignore them labelling as scientifical methods like, "oh its global warming", "oh its an eartuquake" or such other things. But to understad the nature properly one should first learn to understand the language of the nature.

What an omen is?
An omen (also called portent or presage) is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change.Though the word "omen" is usually devoid of reference to the change's nature, hence being possibly either "good" or "bad," the term is more often used in a foreboding sense, as with the word "ominous". The origin of the word is unknown, although it may be connected with the Latin word audire, meaning "to hear."

In India, where the records of the early ages of civilization go back hundreds of years, omens are considered of great importance.
In Greece, the home of the greatest and highest culture and civilization, we find, too, omens regarded very seriously, while to-day there are vast numbers of persons of intellect, the world over, who place reliance upon omens.

SOME OMENS OF GOOD FORTUNE

When A Butterfly Flies Into Your House
This is commonly interpreted to mean that you are about to receive some important guests. If the butterfly has bright colours, it means the visitor will bring good news relating to your love life. If the butterfly is dark – almost black – the visitor is bringing you good news related to your career or business. Never chase a fluttering butterfly out of your house. They almost always bring good tidings. Do not try to catch it, as inadvertently killing a butterfly causes your good luck to change into bad luck.

When Bats Nest In Your Home
This is one of the most powerful indications that the family is about to become seriously wealthy. The Chinese regard bats as symbols of abundant wealth. The circular pattern of five bats is a very popular design feature found on furniture, paintings and ceramics. The Chinese believe that bats nest only in auspicious places – they have highly developed sensory parts that are able to “smell” out places with auspicious chi. The next time bats come and nest in the eaves of your home, rejoice because this heralds good fortune.

When Your Hands Tingle
It is a sure sign that money is either coming to you or leaving you! The general consensus is that when it is your left hand that tingles, money is coming to you – the 4-digit kind or winning a lottery. When it is the right hand, it means money is leaving you. The same interpretation is also placed on hands that suddenly start to itch. If your left palm starts to itch, mercilessly rejoice. It means you are about to come into a windfall!

When You See A Shooting Star
And immediately make a wish, whatever you wish for will manifest within the next thirty days. If you are sick, you will get well; if your luck has been bad, it will take a turn for the better; and if you have just had a quarrel, you will make up. If you have lost something, you will regain it. Seeing a shooting star can be quite a common occurrence, so always have a wish handy. Close your eyes and wish fervently!

When A Cat Comes Into Your House
It usually means some kind of bad luck. Usually black cats signify treachery and betrayal, so it is better to chase them away. White cats signify death, but some say that golden cats signify good luck hidden in bad luck. In the old days cats were often associated with witchcraft and bad omens.

If You Put On Your Clothes The Wrong Way Round
This is said to be a sign of extreme good fortune. It doesn’t count if you do this on purpose, but if for some reason you wear your clothes the wrong way round, it indicates that you will shortly receive some windfall or some very favourable news. This is a particularly good omen for those who have been suffering a spate of bad luck, as it suggests that your luck is about to change for the better.

When It Rains And The Sun Is Shining
The simultaneous appearance of the sun and the rain is a very good sign indeed. This is when it is most likely for you to see rainbows in the sky. Indeed when the sun is shining brightly and there is also a shower of rain, it means that everything you are working on will be successful. You will receive the support of some very important people. If a son or daughter is born on such a day, it is a wonderful sign of a great life. If you happen to be getting married on such a day, you will enjoy a very auspicious life together.

Dogs howling
A dog howling at night chills the blood , it indicates a portent of approaching death.

SOME OMENS OF BAD FORTUNE

Breaking a Mirror
Our ancestors began this superstition, because they thought the image in a mirror, contained our actual soul. Thus, a broken mirror, represented the soul being pulled from your body and being trapped in all the shattered pieces.The reason the bad luck lasted for seven years, was because the Romans believed that after seven years, the body was physically renewed and the soul could once again return whole.

Black Cats
Black cats have long been believed to be a supernatural omen, since the witch hunts of the middle ages, when cats were thought to be connected to evil. Since then, it is considered bad luck if a black cat crosses your path.
Ironically, a black cat walking towards you is considered lucky, while one walking away is said to be stealing your luck.

Crow
Crows entering the house and cawing often bring bad news. To hear a crow after dark is a sign of bad news to come or some illness in the house,. If crow sits upon your head it is a sign of death or deadly pains.

Salt
At one time salt was a rare commodity and thought to have magical powers. It was unfortunate to spill salt and said to foretell family disarray and death. To ward off bad luck, throw a pinch over your shoulder and all will be well.

Unlucky Number 13
The fear of the number 13 is still common today, and avoided in many different ways. Some buildings still do not have an official 13th floor and many people avoid driving or going anywhere on Friday the 13th.

SUPERSTITIONS IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

CHINA

On the stroke of midnight, every door and window in the house has to be opened to allow the old year to go out is one of the Chinese superstition they adhere to.
If you cry on New Year’s Day, you will cry all through the year. Therefore, children are tolerated and are not spanked, even though they are mischievous.
The number of steps in a staircase should be even-numbered.
It is bad luck to have two room doors face each other.
An improper funeral will bring ill fortune and disaster.
Red is the color of blood or life and will bring happiness, wealth, fame, and good luck
The luckiest number is eight because its Chinese word also means “prosper”
The unluckiest number is four as it sounds like the Chinese word for death

GREECE

Although some of the Greeks believe that it brings bad luck to kill a bat, but keeping a bat bone is considered to protect them from evil eye.
Other Islanders believe quite the opposite. They think that bats are unholy creatures and should be avoided at all costs, and would never dream of carrying a piece of one as a talisman.
Every typical Greek house has a cactus growing near its door – they believe that it saves them from troubles.
Any Greek knows that if he sneezes, somebody thinks about him.
Bread is considered a gift from God.No bread is ever thrown away.
Fish are believed to be wise and knowledgeable. But the Church also sees the fish as a revered symbol of silence. Fish don’t speak or make noise.
It is thought that garlic not only wards off the evil eye but also keeps away evil spirits and demons.
Never hand some one a knife. Set it down and let them pick it up, or else you will get into a fight with that person.
Greeks believe that Money attracts money, so never leave your pockets, purses or wallets completely empty and never completely empty your bank account. Always leave at least a coin or two. It is also considered good luck that when you give a gift of a wallet or a purse, that you put a coin or two in it before giving it to the recipient.
If you have an unwanted guest in your home and you want them to leave. All you have to do is sprinkle salt behind them. The powers of the salt will chase him out.
It is also customary to sprinkle salt in a new home before you occupy it, as the salt will drive any evil out and away from you and your family.

INDIA

when you are going out -these are considered bad—

some one asks you ‘where are you going?’
some body sneeze odd no; of times
a widow, a single Brahman or a man carrying oil or milk or a cat crossing your path.
going below the ladder.
hitting your head or feet on the thresh hold.

the following are considered to be good:

eating curds with jaggery

Bad Superstitions

milk over-flowing except on sankranthi day
spilling of oil, turmeric, kumkum
hair-cutting on Tuesdays or in evenings
lizard falling on head

Smashing of coconut on a stone is considered good
One of the most common rituals in Hinduism is the breaking of a coconut before an activity of any magnitude is undertaken. Coconuts are broken when foundation stones of buildings are laid and are broken again when the building is being put to use.

JAPAN

If you drive past a funeral, you must hide your thumb in a fist. This is because the Japanese word for thumb literally translates as “parent-finger” and hiding it is considered protection for your parent. If you don’t, your parent will die.
There are several unlucky numbers in Japanese. Traditionally, 4 and 9 are unlucky. Four is sometimes pronounced shi, which is also the word for death.
Nine is also sometimes pronounced ku, which can mean suffering.
13 is also occasionally thought of as unlucky, although this is imported from Western culture. Because of these unlucky numbers, sometimes levels or rooms with 4 or 9 in them don’t exist in hospitals or hotels, and particularly in the maternity section of a hospital, the room number 43 is avoided because it can literally mean “still birth.” Therefore, when giving gifts such as sets of plates, they are normally sets of three or five, never four.
If you go to a funeral, you should throw spread salt over yourself before entering your home. This is believed to be cleansing.
You should never sleep with your head in North position or you will have a short life
Chopsticks should not be stuck upright into food, especially rice. Chopsticks are only stuck upright into rice in the bowl on the altar at a funeral.
Cutting your fingernails or toenails at night is bad luck. If you do so, it is believed that you will not be with your parents at their deathbed.
You should never write a person’s name in red ink.