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In 1362, the Norse who had settled in Greenland migrated hundreds of miles across the ice and snow to James Bay at the southern end of Hudson’s Bay in Canada.

This migration was documented in the oral history of the Lenape Indians and rediscovered in the 19th century. Scholars have always felt strongly that readers from high school to adults should know more about this true history of America.

Now author Myron Paine has narrated this fascinating history in two fictionalized accounts called Frozen Trail to Merica. They are Vol. I, Talerman, and Vol. 2, Walking to Merica.

Scholars with previous knowledge of these events are grateful that these books have been written, and many people prefer to learn their history from exciting novels rather than a dry relation of events in a formal textbook.

Every day, more evidence of the Frozen Trail story is turning up. The 1720 Carte Du Canada (Map of Canada) shows the largest Christian settlement in North America was around James Bay, just as the oral histories predicted. Read the rest of this entry »

On the evening of Thursday, June 10, 2010 I went to prison – not as an inmate, but as a researcher. The Huntsville Unit Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas is an ominous red brick structure jutting up from the East Texas hillside. The ‘Walls,’ as it has commonly been called for decades, is the oldest prison in Texas and it still currently processes and houses inmates. Stories of ghostly apparitions and strange noises abound, and it’s no wonder; history has been made here. Texas leads the country in the number of inmate executions every year, and this is where all of them are carried out.

There are two death houses here, though only one currently remains operational. From 1924 to 1964 Texas executed inmates via the electric chair. A total of 361 condemned individuals rode the “thunderbolt” into the afterlife, paying the ultimate price for the crimes they had committed. “Old Sparky” now resides at the Texas Prison Museum, also located in Huntsville. Today, inmates on Death Row are put to death by means of lethal injection.

I will admit that I was initially drawn to Huntsville and the prison museum to see the electric chair, wondering if it held residual energy from its past. As it turns out, the electric chair draws more people to the museum than any of the other displays; this, according to the museum’s director and retired warden of the Walls, Jim Willett.

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In this Issue: How to Create a Portable Altar, Visiting Salem, MA and Fairies.

November 2010

by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

The Halloween season was busier than usual for me this year, with increased travel all over the East and Midwest for lecturing.  I am glad to be home!  I had a real and rare treat this season — Halloween night in Salem, MA.  What better place to be for the Night of the Dead? More than 70,000 people turned out to celebrate, many in eye-catching costumes.  I joined in a Witches Ritual for the Dead on Salem Common, led by Christian Day and Lori Bruno – a very powerful experience.  Christian and I are working on a book on necromancy, and the ritual fit right in with our collaboration.

Upcoming in this month, another rare treat – a 5-day trip to New Orleans with a few of my spookiest friends.  We will stay in the French Quarter, spend time with the Voodoo Queen Bloody Mary, and summon up some spirits.  Vampires, ghosts, witches, spirits, magic and more promise to make this a spectacular trip and some great research as well.

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In the early morning hours of Sunday, October 10, 2010 at the Black Swan Inn (View a short video by Village House) in San Antonio, Texas, something happened to me that will forever impact the way I look at life… and all that lies beyond it. For over half of my life now, I have been actively searching for things most people consider to be ‘on the fringe.’ Every once in awhile in the past, I would catch a glimpse of something I knew I shouldn’t be able to see; hear a voice on a recorder that I shouldn’t be able to hear. I have been chasing after things I believed to be true, but didn’t exactly know beyond a shadow of a doubt to be true. I used to think, Well, maybe I’m crazy. Maybe this is all just a product of my imagination. Maybe I just want to believe something supernatural is occurring when it very well may not be.

Every doubt I secretly harbored no longer exists. Read the rest of this entry »

While some people cringe at the notion that Bigfoot and distinct Fortean high-strangeness might somehow go together, I most certainly do not! Indeed, I have investigated numerous cases that suggest whatever the Bigfoot creatures may be, there seems to be an aspect of the phenomenon that takes us into some very strange, and near-paranormal, realms.

And, in view of this, I’m very pleased to learn that there’s a new book out right now, courtesy of Stan Gordon, that delves into these very areas. Here’s all the data on what looks to be a fascinating book!

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Fate recently had the distinction of a personal interview with renowned physicist Michio Kaku when he visited Minneapolis. Kaku is the author of Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Telepotation, and Time Travel. Kaku is the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Other Dimensions

PG: You are a proponent of string theory, which envisages an 11- or 13-fold dimensional universe. How do you envisage these extra dimensions?

MK: We live in a three-dimensional world. Length, width, height, and we also have the fourth dimension, which is time. But anyone who talks about higher dimensions is sometimes called a crackpot. Now, when I was a child, I used to go to the Japanese tea garden in San Francisco where there are fish swimming in a shallow pond. And I imagined being a fish myself. And if I was a fish, I could travel forward, backward, left, and right, but the concept of “up” made no sense because the pond is the universe. Read the rest of this entry »