 Welcome to Paranormality Magazine. Each week, Paranormality Magazine explores all 40 subjects from phantoms to UFOs and every cryptid creature in between. Each week, you are treated to a collection of well-researched and investigated stories, interviews and reports on cutting-edge paranormal projects and topics they know you crave. And here in the podcast, I share stories from the magazine to give you just a taste of what you receive in every issue. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Paranormality Magazine. Paranormality Magazine's CHAS-CMP brings us an arctic mystery. Rodney Marks was left out in the cold for nearly six months. He was not lost or abandoned, though. He was exactly where he was supposed to be. When someone dies in Antarctica, you leave them outside. All the human structures and buildings are heated, which would lead a corpse to decomposition, but leaving them out in the perpetual below-freezing climate will keep the corpse frozen and fresh for years. Marks had died on May 12th and his body would be left in the snow until the arctic winter subsided in late October. From there, the corpse was sent to Christ Church, New Zealand, where the United States and her allies conduct most of their off-the-ice arctic operations. The body arrived at the coroner's office, the staff of which were expecting a normal day. The National Science Foundation, the body that hires people and manages most of the U.S.'s projects in Antarctica, had already declared that Marks had died of natural causes. The coroner was meant to conduct a routine inspection of the corpse to confirm this, but the opposite occurred. The Christ Church coroner almost immediately found something bizarre. He found that Mark's blood contained 150 milliliters of methanol several times the lethal limit of the substance. He also noted what appeared to be needle marks on one of his arms. These were made especially suspicious because Mark's toxicology showed that no illegal drugs or other substances were found, except the lethal amount of methanol. The press quickly labeled it the first murder in Antarctica. While Marks was working for the Americans, he was actually Australian. He was born on March 13, 1968, due to his parents, Paul and Ray, in Victoria. In many ways, he was a typical Aussie. He liked surfing, football, and rock and roll. But he was also extremely intelligent. For high school, he had attended a prestigious private school on a scholarship before going to the University of Melbourne, where he graduated with first-class honors while studying astronomy. Afterwards, he attended the University of New South Wales, where he earned his doctorate degree in physics. His thesis was focused on the South Pole and how it is a prime location for astrophysical observations. Marks was selected to be part of a research team put together by the University of Chicago to go to the pole. In late 1997, he was sent to spend nearly a year wintering at the southernmost research station in the world, Amundsen-Scott pole station. The station is named after the two explorers who raced against each other to be the first person to reach the southern pole. Norwegian Ronald Amundsen was the first, followed by the Englishman Robert Scott's ill-fated attempt about a month later. During this first season, he was enthusiastic and enjoyed the difficult work. So much so that he was selected to return for the winter season of 2000, this time by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He was enthusiastic both times and wrote this on one of his application forms. Quote, 100 years ago, the Antarctic was a mysterious, treacherous and unforgiving land, the last frontier beyond the edge of the known world. It was a struggle for explorers just to survive. The story of the first expeditions to the geographical south pole of Amundsen and Scott is one of the great dramas of modern times. Its heroic age of exploration remains an inspiration to scientists working in Antarctica almost a century later. The base itself sits around the pole itself, where there is only one sunrise and sunset each year. The summer months in which the sun never sets, the base is occupied by around 200 people. In the perpetual darkness of winter, the size of the base shrinks to about 50. It's also during this time of constant darkness that astronomers of all kinds are sent to the area to do cutting-edge research, looking out a window into space that most people rarely see. This is why Marx was stationed here. Although I'm not nearly smart enough to explain what exactly he was doing, suffice to say it involved his field of astrophysics. All reports of Marx on the base stated that he was a friendly guy who socialized well with everyone. He worked well with his scientific colleagues and was said to drink, smoke and play cards with the workmen in his off-time. He even played in a makeshift band at the base. He was very well liked and almost none of his colleagues knew he had been diagnosed with Tourette's as he never showed outward signs. While playing in the base's band the year before, he met Sonja Walter. She was a maintenance specialist at the station and the two quickly started a romantic relationship. She'd agreed to come back to the base in 2000 so that she could be with him during this time again. The two even dyed their hair crazy colors together before heading back. She went for green, he for purple. On May 11, 2000, he'd met up with Sonja at the galley for dinner after a shift at the observatory. Throughout his meal, Marx began to complain about not feeling well, his stomach and eyes were hurting. He decided it was best just to go to bed and try to sleep it off. He spent a restless night tossing and turning. At 5.30 the next morning, he started to vomit blood and went to the station's medical facility. The station's doctor was one Robert Thompson. He noted that when Marx arrived that he was nervous, anxious and upset. Thompson assumed it to be a stress-based reaction and gave him an injection accordingly. The base's medical lab did have an old blood testing machine but it wasn't working properly and would take hours to set up so it wasn't used. If it had been, it might have been enough to save Marx's life. He would go back to the doctor's office twice more that day. He was experiencing pain all over his body but specifically in his eyes. He was irritable, dizzy and fatigued. Each time he returned to the doctor, it was clear that his condition was worsening. His blood pressure was also getting lower and lower. On his last visit, out of ideas as to what to do, the doctor gave him an anti-psychotic injection. This seemed to work for a moment but then his large pupils shrunk down. He squeezed Sonya's hand and his heart stopped. They would try to revive him over the next hour but this failed. His body would stay in the snow, first on a sled then a makeshift coffin for the rest of the winter. At the time of his death, the National Science Foundation released a statement that there is nothing to suggest that Rodney's death was related to his work, to the environment at the South Pole or to any toxic or infectious agent. This of course was an entirely premature statement as a blood test had not been conducted. As we know, when his corpse arrived back in New Zealand, the opposite was found to be true. That's where the case was taken over by Detective Grant Wormald. Wormald had a challenge. The crime scene was already gone. Someone else was now living in Mark's room and working at his station. The witnesses were gone too. There were about 49 people working at the station but they had all flown home to various countries by now, almost all of which were out of his jurisdiction. Out of these 49 people, only 13 responded to questionnaires sent out by the detectives. These questionnaires were also censored by the National Science Foundation before being sent, further limiting the value of the 13 reports they did receive. In fact, Wormald found that both the NSF and Raytheon Polar Services seemed to be deliberately hindering the investigation. They found the United States government to be equally vague and uncooperative. The investigators thought that all three entities were withholding information. Interestingly enough, Dr. Robert Thompson was not one of these 13. The doctor actually was rushed to a New Zealand hospital for surgery as the winter broke. At one point during his stay he had slipped on the ice and broken a disc, but he did not stay in New Zealand long, almost immediately flying back to the United States without ever speaking to the detectives in the case. The next Arctic season the doctor that replaced him had to be evacuated due to appendicitis. Because of this, Dr. Thompson was contacted by the press for comment, which he happily gave. Through one forum held by CNN, he was asked, Do people get sick there much? What kind of care can a single doctor provide? He responded, quote, First, I'd like to think I provided the best possible care that one doctor can provide. My specialty is family practice and emergency medicine, so I know a little bit about a lot of things. My background for the job was considered ideal by the contractor who hired me. Interestingly, once the base closed down for the winter and we were all used to each other's germs, no one got any infections. That's typical for wintering over at the South Pole. In the summer, when lots of people are coming and going, there are lots of mild infections, such as colds and lots of altitude sickness because the South Pole is at elevation. The practice in the winter was not busy but would be best described as an occupational medicine practice with lots of sprains and strains, unquote. There are no direct mentions of the Mark's case in any of his interviews. After that, Dr. Thompson has seemed to disappear but more likely he's hiding in plain sight behind his particularly common name. While dubbed the first South Pole murder, nothing was found to confirm this conclusion. All were certain that Marks would not have killed himself and his manner in the last few hours was confused and pained, not as someone ready to go. One popular theory is that it was bootleg liquor that he brought with him that had killed him. In Southeast Asia, methanol is often used in illegal booze, but regular alcohol was readily available at the base and Marks would regularly partake in social drinking with others but did not tend to drink to excess. Sonya also did not report seeing him drink from any secret alcohol stash. To this day, no one knows how exactly that methanol got in Marks blood. Whatever the truth is, many entities are hiding it and almost no one who was stationed there wants to talk about it. A mountain on the Arctic Plateau was named after Marks and it will remain as a monument to another one of the mysteries that occurred on the ice. Aside from the death of Marks, one of the most bizarre mysteries to come from Antarctica is the strange story of Carl Dish. Carl was a scientist, an ionospheric physicist to be specific, working at Bird Station, Antarctica in 1965. On May 8, about halfway through the notoriously brutal six months of darkness that make up the winter season, Carl disappeared, never to be seen again. He had been working at the station's Radio Noise Building, presumably partaking in his research. At approximately 9.15 that morning, he left the Radio Building to return to the main base. It was actually quite far from where he was, about a 1.3 mile or 7,000 feet hike back to the main complex. There was a hard line put up leading from the building's door back to the main structures. The line was kept up with a post every few meters and was running downhill. Yet despite all of this clear and easy-to-follow trail marker, he never arrived at the main station. By ten o'clock, a vehicle search party was assembled and set out. Around 11.30 they seemed to have found Carl's track. It was heading west by southwest away from the camp and about four miles out. Unfortunately, the team had to return to resupply and by the time they returned to where the tracks had been, they had been covered by fresh snow. As they searched for the next few hours, the wind increased, the temperatures decreased and the weather worsened. The impending blizzard caused the team to return to the station by 6.15 that afternoon. At 7, a second group went to search along the supply line. Towards the end of the hour, they formed a human chain and searched from the line to the skyway, the area where the tracks had been found in the morning. Despite the thorough search, no signs or tracks were revealed. Floodlights were set up on the perimeter of the camp and flares were set off every half hour to try and increase the station's visibility in hopes that Carl might find his way back. The next day, May 9, another vehicle search team was sent out again, this time at around 6 in the afternoon. What this group found might be considered especially interesting. The report stated, the party found occasional tracks and followed them to about four miles south of the station where they disappeared. There was no noticeable shortening of strides in these tracks. The latter detail is quite bizarre because any person who had been left outside for more than 30 hours on an arctic winter night would be at the very least near death. The team would undoubtedly be looking for tracks of someone crawling or dragging themselves through the snow, not of even placed footprints. Several more search parties were sent out over the next few days, but no more tracks or signs of life were found. By May 12, the weather worsened to the point there was zero visibility and this lasted for two days. During this time, Carl was declared dead as it is impossible for someone to live out on the ice without supplies for more than 48 hours, and he believed this number to be even smaller. To this day, his body has never been found. Some report that about one month after this point, Carl's dog wandered off the base. He too was never found. But, according to some, the pair have been seen and heard from a few times since. Interestingly enough, these two sightings come from the same location, McMurdo Station. This is bizarre because Carl went missing at Byrd Station, which is roughly 1400 km inland from here. Despite this, there have been two separate reports of a crazed-looking man showing up at one of the station's most popular bars, the Arabus Club. Renamed Gallagher's in the late 90s after a long-time quartermaster who died at the station, the club was more of a bar. It had pool tables and a dance floor and a hamburger grill. There are few places to get a drink at the station, but this is the most popular for weekends. There is also a steady morning crowd who come in to drink after the long night shifts. On two separate occasions, people working at the club have seen a figure looming over them. One employee of the club was closing up one night, putting the money in the safe when he saw the figure. This is what he said. Quote, I looked over my left shoulder and saw an old man standing at the end of the bar. He was dressed in old gray, cold weather gear and had a white beard and hair. I turned back to the safe, spun the dial and got up. The guy had gone from the bar. I stepped out into the main room of the club and he was nowhere in sight. There's no way someone could have gotten out of the club that fast. And I'm as certain today as I was then. I had seen a man standing at the end of the bar. Billy Ace told me I'd seen Carl Dish. Whomever it was I saw that night sure sobered me up. Another employee described seeing the same figure except this time with a dog. The pair vanished in the same fashion when he looked away. But perhaps the most interesting account comes from the Billy Ace character mentioned at the end of that quote. Billy is a real person, last name Baker, middle name Penguin. It seems he had his middle name changed to Penguin after ending his long career in Antarctica and a long career it was. Having done 11 tours on the ice during his time with the Navy is a radio operator. He was stationed there for the winters of 63, 67, 71, 75 and the summers of 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79 and 80. Afterward he became an active member in several clubs for former Arctic workers and explorers writing and editing for publications of the same genre. But it was in the winter of 1971 when he reportedly picked up a strange message. According to a story he had written and published online he received a message one night while working at McMurdo. The message was from Carl who had gone missing six years prior. The message was coming from a station that was only manned during the summer months. No one should have been there at this time of year. This is what he heard. Quote, I am Carl Dish. To the world I am dead. They believe that my body is but a pinpoint frozen hard to the surface of this white continent. I say to you, I, Carl Dish, live. Do not for one moment think that it was a mistake. Everything was planned. They pushed me, tormented me and bored me with their shallow lives. I left them behind disowning the race called humans. On a bleak Saturday night six years ago I walked out of the door of the long wire station. I never returned. They searched for me as I knew they would following my straight deliberate steps for several miles. They never found me and not one of them realized they had been tricked. They gave up and I, Carl Dish, was free of them. I, Carl Dish, the most alone man in the world. It has not been an easy task to sustain myself for six years. At times the endless singing of the winds almost drives me mad. I begin to long for human companionship. As quickly as the longing begins, it vanishes, however, for I have been tormented, scorned and betrayed by my fellow humans, even those who I tried to love. Yes, it seems foolhardy to willingly subject myself to such hardship and loneliness when men such as Bird and Shackleton so narrowly escaped the effects, but my story makes theirs pale in comparison. I am a genius. In the early recollections of my childhood I was aware that I was exceptional. They sensed it too, and because of it they were afraid of me. I, therefore, walked away from their insecurities, paranoia and petty jealousies. Born of ordinary folks, I lived a normal life, but only to my first birthday. Now, twenty-five years later, I have regained the tranquility of that first year of my life here in my shack, which shifts slowly with the rest of this continent. Soon after my first birthday, my folks were killed in a vicious Nebraska tornado, and I landed in an adoption home, nameless and without a worldly possession. There in the orphanage I closely watched the others. Even then I saw them drool and shake their senseless rattles. I knew I was above them. I was not to be one of them. Perhaps even then they were plotting against me, and maybe even then Carl Dish was dreaming of getting away from these people. The pink bird flew its painted way across the headboard of my crib. The headboard that tasted vaguely of a substance I would later identify as enamel when I rose up to lick it as all smart one-year-old children tend to do was to be a sign, a sign for the future and my salvation. Years later, bird station was all there was to be seen as I snuck my last look at humanity as I glanced back over my shoulder. When I was fifteen months old, an elderly couple named Dish came, saw and adopted me. We'll call him Carl. Carl Dish, she spoke with great enthusiasm. The agony had begun." Unsurprisingly, this has caused a lot of debate. Naturally, this had been debunked from the sheer fact that it is believed to be impossible that anyone could survive six years on the ice. It also seems this comes from a story where Billy is woven together true fact and fiction. He speaks of real people who were there at the time, but also of others who were not. This has led people to completely dismiss the story. But Billy is still alive, as he had posted a picture of a penguin table on his Facebook page last month, so I reached out to him to see if there was any truth to this supposed message. It took a few weeks for me to hear from him. He actually responded via email to a post I put up looking for information about Dish on an Arctic Explorer's website. He asked for my full name and some other info before asking me what I already knew about Carl. I told him what I knew, what you just read, and asked if there was any legitimacy to the radio transmission. I didn't really get a straight answer. He said, A lot of its fiction, fact and fantasy from Baker's Almanac, but it is all based on stories that have been told and retold over and over and over again. But he followed this up with an eight-page document with the information that he collected over the years of stories about Dish. In it there were quite a few things of interest that could not be found readily available online. First was an alternative version of the radio story where instead of the lengthy radio transmission, the shorter transmission of CQCQDENBNNBNQSPNGDNGD, which translates to any station this is Brockton station passed to McMurdo station, was heard. This message would be received at stations around the ice, usually during the winter months when Brockton was closed. But Brockton is several hundred miles from Byrd where Carl went missing, and in this shorter version of the story, no names are given. Another interesting detail is a letter that was sent by Carl's brother, Walter Dish. The letter's tone is angry and it refutes essentially everything said in the supposed radio message. He states that Carl was not an orphan and ends his letter by saying, Carl was not and is not the weirdo you all have been and continue to be. I asked Billy Ace about this and he said that the letter was essentially a no duh. When I asked about what he thought of Walter's anger towards the legend that has formed, he replied, his brother was upset and I was worried for a long time but later I let it go. It's been a long time so I don't remember all the details. The last intriguing piece of information was two more reports that I couldn't find anywhere online. It was from a pilot who was running relief missions from Byrd station. He wrote that he remembered people telling him how they would find Carl Dish was here scratched into doors in the camp after the season, and when leaving the naval crew instructed him over the radio to padlock the doors to one of the huts. The pilot asked why because this was a precaution not normally taken on a lonely continent. He said the entire crew responded in unison, exclaiming they needed it locked because of Carl. Now it seems the legend has been exaggerated. The reported message is a fabrication but mysterious messages do seem to be heard from time to time. People see ghostly figures on the continent and it seems despite his brother's request the sightings have merged with the story of Carl. They become a legend, perhaps the continent's first urban legend, one that is still believed in by the people who have worked and lived on the ice. So next time you leave your Arctic station, remember to lock up or ol' Carl might stop by and help himself to your supplies. Want more Paranormality? Subscribe to Paranormality magazine and each month get it delivered digitally or via mail in our print version. Paranormality magazine is a collaborative endeavor featuring works from people like you who have a passion for all things mysterious and unexplained. Our goal is the pursuit of knowledge, gathering captivating stories from our own team of writers, researchers and investigators as well as from writers such as yourself. Each monthly issue also includes a list of paranormal, horror, UFO and cryptozoology events around the country, incredible paranormal themed artwork, articles and writing sent in from our readers, suggested books and podcasts to consume and more. Visit ParanormalityMag.com and subscribe today for as little as $3.99 a month. That's ParanormalityMag.com. ParanormalityMag.com The late Dr. John E. Mack Pulitzer Prize winning author and Harvard professor of psychiatry is noted to have said there's a lot of weird science that turns out to be not so weird once it's proven. And one of those weird sciences just might be water-tape theory. Paranormality magazine's Jursty Beth brings us dead in the water. A sister to stone-tape theory, water-tape theory suggests molecular structure within water allows for it to store a memory of its interactions with other molecules and as a natural conductor of electricity can amplify paranormal activity. While water-tape theory continues to be dubbed pseudoscience by many, technological advances of the 20th and 21st centuries have further provided the means for developing new hypotheses on that which is paranormal in nature. The theory suggests the presence of ghostly phenomena could be nothing more than a misunderstood attribute or byproduct of the atmosphere, the geomagnetism of the earth or the untapped powers of quantum physics within our very biology. In the following, I will review several remarkable studies in which water molecules exposed to music, chemical solvents and electromagnetic radiation consistently memorized and stored the information of the things it experienced and discussed the paranormal implications of such discoveries. Properties of Water Laboratory experiments of the 1980s by French immunologist Jacques Benvenista suggested the existence of biological signaling between water molecules via electromagnetic waves. His experiments involved diluting homeopathic remedies in ordinary water. When the water was stirred vigorously to dilute the agent, it developed a brief electromagnetic charge as kinetic energy was released into the water. In one such experiment, the solution was diluted so vigorously that not a single molecule remained of the agent yet test subjects would still suffer an allergic reaction, suggesting some sort of energetic version may remain on a subatomic level. In other words, the absence of a biological agent, i.e. an allergen, still triggered a biological response, that is the emergence of basophiles within the cell. Researchers in four other countries attempted to recreate Benvenista's research with similar results, further puzzling the scientific community. How can a biological system respond to an antigen when no molecules of it can be detected in the solution? writes researcher Yolene Thomas in her article, The History of the Memory of Water. It goes against the accepted lock and key principle, which states that molecules must be in contact and structurally match before information can be exchanged. Something else is going on here. Even Benvenista himself remarked that some kind of phenomena was occurring in the molecular organization of the water, speculating further that electromagnetic fields may have a possible role in the process of cell communication. We will further explore electromagnetic phenomena later. More recently, German scientists identified individual microscopic patterns inherent in magnetized water molecules when exposed to different stimuli like flower petals. Different species of plant life yielded different patterns in the water molecules, similar to the intricate geometric patterns of snowflakes. When salt was added to water, there was an increase in ions or static electricity and additional geometric patterns formed. Is it possible that the vibration of the molecules when exposed to stirring, diluting or external emotional factors can in essence mimic the biological function of a molecule without it physically being present? Does that electromagnetic charge work to implant the memory into the molecule? Dr. Birch Helmut Kropland's 18-year research on the properties of water found that water droplets seemed to have this unconscious communication between one another, even when separated by a distance of around 5 feet. Water's structure changes and mirrors itself in other droplets within the same vicinity in the lab. Whether it was exposed to a mobile phone or X-radiation or even plants, stones and music, water reacts to frequencies and other external influences and stores them, he said, so water has something like a memory. Furthermore, Kropland speculated that water picks up and stores information from all the places that it has traveled through and its molecules talk to one another. Kropland's website, World in a Drop, further suggests that water notes the external influences that have acted upon it and consistently creates new, systematic structures which correspond to whatever agent was added to the water, flower petals, stones, pieces of food, even holy water. Like Benvenista's research, it also suggested that vigorous agitation could fundamentally alter the sub-molecular organization of a water molecule. With over 70% of our body made up of water, this research presents a tantalizing opportunity to ponder how our thoughts and our environment affect our biology and vice versa. Water in and of itself is critical to human life and provides the very foundation of functionality to our cells, our blood and our organs. The implications of water having a memory or some sort of intelligent molecular structure in correspondence with its external environment are nothing short of remarkable. In Dr. Bernd Kropland's own words, beyond its physical and chemical qualities, also memory and information play a significant role in water and they build a bridge from the immaterial to the material world. Indeed, water memory offers an opportunity to discuss the potential paranormal implications of this discovery. Could extreme emotional or heavily repetitive events imprint themselves on the natural environment and be released as the water evaporates? Could bodies of water act as storage powerhouses for this residual energy? We will explore that next. Properties of Earth Several geological studies have shown that bodies of water contain higher levels of electromagnetic fields than the surrounding air and land and these EMF spikes are often noted to be just before dawn or at dusk. The earth's magnetic field lines shrink and surge through the land. Our homes, our bodies and our brains each day writes explorer and researcher Hugh Newman in his book Earth Grids. The field weakens at night, then roars back to life every morning. At some natural places, local geology makes this even stronger due to the effect of rocks or the presence of water. When the ground contains high levels of metal or mineral-rich water, intersecting electromagnetic currents can create a conductivity discontinuity in the surrounding area. Many ancient burial and ritualistic sites are located at these energetic crossroads as well as reports of mysterious balls of light. Additionally, many alleged haunted places are associated with running rivers, lakes or nearby well systems. If such water is located in an area of conductivity discontinuity, this could thereby create an EMF spike which can be detected by scientific equipment as well as provide a visceral, disorienting experience for the person caught in the middle. We'll further explore the effects of EMF on the brain shortly. Atmospheric natural light orbs could be misinterpreted as ghosts manifesting. Could the water in the earth or the atmosphere suddenly charged by this geologic occurrence and whose molecules have recorded a random event in its remote past create a momentary ghost? It is thought that the presence of precise natural elements can facilitate the manifestation of a spirit more easily into the environment. By this assumption, it's no stretch of the imagination to theorize that disembodied voices, footsteps and the sound of doors slamming may not actually be occurring in real time but more of a quantum echo or a type of bioimprint released into the atmosphere when certain conditions are met. Water-tape theory argues the presence of water in the environment is the mechanism behind that releasing of powerful electromagnetic energy. It's interesting to note that the human brain, when exposed directly to a weak field of electromagnetic radiation, has been shown to create a feeling either the presence of God or a oneness with the universe in laboratory test subjects. A field of neurotheology explores the relationship between a spiritual experience and the brain's chemistry. Mystical thoughts and experiences may be part of our neurophysiology, writes author Daniel Pink in his 2006 best-selling book, A Whole New Mind. This artificial creation of a creeping feeling of hauntedness via electromagnetic means is further explained in our Stone Tape Theory article in a previous episode. With the presence of both water and stone, the environment would be twice as likely to be able to not only record the emotional, energetic occurrences of the environment, a miracle in and of itself, but expel an apparition in time. It's no wonder crossroads of these ancient natural energies are known for strange phenomena, balls of light, presences of elementals, and other paranormal phenomena. But is it that simple, relatively speaking, that ghosts are just the perfect storm of a geological electromagnetic echo formed by a combination of perfectly aligned energetic events, or are ghosts merely a hallucination or a cognitive byproduct of exposure to Earth's electromagnetic energies? Speaking of the perfect storm, thunderstorms also contribute to the presence of static electricity in the environment. Rain also adds some natural factors in the environment by adding moisture and humidity to the air, writes paranormal researcher Cherise Williams in her book The Witch's Guide to Ghost Hunting. Elevated moisture, air pressure, and static electricity could all help in the manifestation of a paranormal experience. Mirages, such as the eerie Fatum Organa effect, are nothing more than rays of light passing through layers of air of different temperatures, forming an atmospheric dust of air that acts like a refracting lens producing a mirage. To the untrained eye, a ship floating in the sky may register emotionally as paranormal or supernatural in nature when in fact it is weird science we have only recently understood, an optical phenomenon. Knowing that water can change its molecular structure, that the moon affects the tide flow and water is present in over 70% of our body, and perhaps not coincidentally 70% of the planet, is it any wonder why there is a strong correlation between amped up paranormal activity during a full moon or a thunderstorm versus a new moon and sunny skies? Perhaps paranormal investigators should consider measuring and documenting humidity levels present in purported haunted locations. As we have seen to this point, temperature, moon cycle, barometric pressure, and electromagnetic energy all have shown to have a positive correlation with paranormal activity. While it is still not clear what sort of mechanism can produce and sustain water memory, some recent studies have utilized digital technology to capture an electromagnetic signal from a biologically active water solution. That when played back into untreated water facilitates a reaction as if the original substance was physically present, just like decades earlier research into homeopathic medicine. With the emerging field of digital biology comes the opportunity for additional insight and interpretation into the inner workings of our microscopic and atomic infrastructure. Someday we may begin to fully appreciate that what is considered paranormal is really just regular, beautiful nature at its finest. Perhaps in the future we will be able to digitally project holographic ghosts after artificially manipulating the water vapors around us. Watertape theory argues that natural elements may have the capability to act as quantum conduits from which misguided emotional energies manifest. Such energies are not conscious, not our soul, not us, but a projected wave of a moment in time, recorded into the very environment from which it once resided. Indeed, there is a certain poeticness to the notion that things that go bump in the night may be but random regurgitations of memories imprinted on the very atomic substance of the atmosphere. By that notion, ghosts aren't so scary anymore. They're just weird science waiting to be proven. The Bell Mansion was built in 1893 for Robert and Clara Bell. Robert was a state senator and actually invested in natural gas, which led the way for Fort Wayne, Indiana to have natural gas. The home was constructed at a cost of $50,000, which equates to $1.8 million today. Imagine building this grand mansion with over 15,000 square feet. The home was sold after Mr. Bell's death to the noble family in 1904. The noble family owned a lumber company that operated in three states. The noble family actually lived in the home longer than the Bell family and Clara Bell actually sold the home for a loss to the noble family. Then in 1923 it was sold to the Clayne Funeral Home, which operated until 2018, at which point it stayed abandoned until 2020, when the current owner's parents bought it with the intention of turning it into a bed and breakfast. But that didn't really take off as planned, so in comes their daughter Angie Sturm, the new owner of the Bell Mansion. Pretty sharp from Paranormality Magazine first met Angie back in June of this year during a public investigation, so in its 130-year history it has only had only four sets of owners. We learn about the historic and haunted Bell Mansion. It was June 10, 2023 I was having probably the worst day of my life. My grandmother had passed away earlier in the morning and while scrolling Facebook I saw a post for a public investigation at the Bell Mansion, so my wife, my son Emmett and I went to the Bell Mansion so I could have a distraction. I immediately fell in love with the building. Listening to the history and actually being able to investigate there was amazing, plus it's five minutes from my house. I then later joined in an investigation on July 15th with Paranormal Group above and below Paranormal after being invited by their leader Brandon. It was there I really connected with Angie the owner, pretty much bugging her to allow me to feature her and the Bell Mansion in an article for the magazine. After 17 months of getting event licenses and red tape they finally opened. Paranormal teams kind of just started reaching out asking if they could investigate there and Angie's initial response was like, huh? According to Angie she was a skeptic at first, but it has been a mind-opening experience and it has an awesome personal journey. Angie was a loan officer at a credit union and was like, hey dad, let me just try this. If it fails, it fails. So she quit her job and now two years later here she is with a fully licensed event center that can host weddings, corporate events, birthday parties, you name it. They host many different events like junior paranormal investigations which is actually ran by one of the volunteer's children. Amber's kids, Elysium, Lillian and Olivia actually run the junior investigations and teach other kids how to investigate. There's a yoga studio upstairs, local vendor events, big name paranormal investigators like Taps, Kalani Ghost Hunter, the cast of 28 Days Haunted. It's like everything here is like light, there's no heavy presence. Like I brought my son to his first ever paranormal event back in June, he had a blast and there's, tragically there's a kid spirit up on the third floor but he was interacting with my son and they were playing with each other, like with the cat balls and stuff. I asked Angie about the junior paranormal investigations and she had this to say, that's why we just, again, it's a safe place where anybody, newbies, seasoned vets, anybody can participate and learn and yes, kids' days, we hold them at least once a month. Sometimes the day changes, we try to do the last Sunday of every month but again, with up 10 million other events, you never know what's going to happen. But yeah, it really is a safe, good positive vibe that it's just, you know, they're here but nothing feels malicious or dark or you know what I mean? Like how you said other places, absolutely, there's places I wouldn't want kids around there. Angie went on to talk about how it is ran by all volunteers. Angie is currently 14 volunteers that have just come and never left. Many of the volunteers have said, the bell just saved me. The bell has saved a lot of people and has brought a lot of positivity. Angie always brings up this young woman that is 20, 21 years old. She can see spirits. She has the ability to talk to the spirits but her support system was very anti that and you think you're crazy and that develops a whole other stigma. She came here and now she's just almost, I don't know what you want to call it, like coming out of the closet and now she's such a happier person and I'm like, that's what it's about. When I mentioned getting the community involved Angie brought up how there was initially pushback from the community. Oh my God, it's amazing. So like for instance, at first there was some pushback. I'm not going to lie to you because this was a funeral home for over 90 years. So we're in downtown Fort Wayne, which I'm very proud of downtown by the way, like I'm born and raised here, which I'm very proud of what we've done and accomplished. But it's still some of your more conservative minds saying, hey, you're mocking or disrespecting my family that had their services here. You know, I've had that few of those conversations and I'm like, not at all. I was like, we're trying to talk to them if they're still here, you know, help them and and really honor them and then also honor like honor history. So once I explained to them our intent is to save this building, you know, whether you believe in the paranormal or not big picture of things. Again, it's keeping the doors open. The building has had several notable people come through its doors. Mr. Bell was a very prominent Indiana Democrat and he was close friends with the Democrat nominee for President William Jennings Bryant, who visited the Bell mansion on numerous occasions and once gave a speech from the porch talking about the silver standard. Another famous or rather infamous person was John Dillinger's right hand man, Homer Van Meter. He was actually from Fort Wayne and when he died his funeral was actually held at the funeral home. Angie told me that she had spoke with the old funeral home owners and found out they had done a makeshift service and then hid his body on the third floor and then snuck it out at 2.30 in the morning to go bury him in the Lindenwood Cemetery. My experiences at the Bell mansion are always a good time. I've had quite a bit of activity throughout the house. I've done both private and public investigations, which are both absolutely fun. The two most active areas of the mansion are the third floor and also the basement. While the second floor does have activity, especially in the embalming room, I feel you get more responses in the other two areas. My goal at some point is to actually sleep at the Bell mansion and have cameras set up watching me sleep, maybe even do a live stream. I wonder if I could get Angie to allow me to sleep in the coffin that's in the embalming room. My recommendation, whether you are a new investigator, a seasoned investigator, someone that's looking for a beautiful yet spooky location to host your wedding, birthday party, graduation party, corporate event, fundraiser or whatever your heart desires, the Bell mansion is definitely the place to do that. They have so many upcoming events. Now while I write this at the end of September, they have masquerade balls that are happening in October. They have a winter gala coming up in December and something I'm super excited about, New Year's Eve Great Gatsby style. I also want to say, out of disclosures and integrity, after I had my interview with Angie, I've ended up becoming a volunteer with the Bell mansion just because of how beautiful the building is and how I support the mission of trying to preserve history. If you are a young adult or older in the 80s and 90s, you might remember the Satanic Panic. Did it ever end? Brandon Wills brings us the story. Brandon suggests to fully enjoy this, listen to the song The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden. Not because you have to, but because it's a fantastic song and it does pertain to said events, and also because you should use any excuse to listen to Iron Maiden. Everyone alive in the 80s and 90s remembers the era when the devil was everywhere. Look at the red eyes in our pictures from then. I'm kidding, sort of. Back then, certain groups of people deemed anything they didn't agree with as an affiliation of Satanism or an attempt to convert their innocent children to join their black masses. Every aspect of our culture was affected. Television, music, movies, video games and dungeons and dragons, there are still people today who deem these things as works of the devil himself. You're probably wondering when this started and if it still exists today. This article will briefly examine what started this phenomena and how it still resonates today. For as long as there have been civilizations and religions, people have labeled evil two things they disagree with. This can even be found in the clay tablets written in cuneiform by the Samarians and the cultures contained within. If you jump forward in history, there were literal witch trials held across Europe and even in America to blame witches for bad turns of events. They could be blamed for bad crop seasons, weather and random animal deaths. The Black Plague period also saw witches being blamed for the incredibly deadly bubonic plague, but they also blamed the Hebrew peoples living within Europe leading to the early holocausts. Luckily, things didn't get that bad during the Satanic Panic. Or did they? In June of 1993, one of the most infamous criminal cases of the decade happened. The West Memphis 3 would live in infamy after DNA evidence freed the three men in 2011 as all three had their sentences commuted. During the original trial, they were accused of murdering the children as part of a Satanic ritual. One witness even claimed to witness said ritual and that the Satanists spoke Spanish. The rest of their testimony was deemed dubious because other factors were proven to be untrue. The prosecutors even went so far as to bring in an expert on the occult from the unaccredited Columbia Park University to testify how a ritual could have been the reason. This case is largely said to have signaled the rebirth of the Satanic Panic in the 90s. Other tragedies like the Columbine High School Massacre were also tied to Satanism. One motivation for the shooters was blamed on their fascination with heavy metal music and the occult. Marilyn Manson was repeatedly mentioned as their main influence. Manson eventually decided to postpone their tour to honor the victims and later issued a statement in Rolling Stone magazine regarding the scapegoat tactics of the media. Everything from video games to books and music were attributed to Satan and his little evil minions plotting to take over the world. I could write a book on other examples from that period, but let's jump to the current day. One of the most recent popular conspiracy theories states that government officials are working in a Satanic cabal to murder babies for a hormone called Andrenochrome. This theory is rooted in the old racist claims from the bubonic plague times that Jewish people were Satanists and wanted to kill children for their rituals to take over the world. These old horrific ideals live on today and encompass new facades to share the same truths. Deem your enemies as workers of Satan and everyone will hate them. It seems that every few months it evolves into something else that is baseless and completely illogical. I don't care if I upset anyone with this. How can we stop this? Is it possible to even stop it? Will it ever stop? The real answer is that only time will tell. Education, tolerance and working toward eliminating these old racist ideologies are how we will truly overcome the Satanic panic. Thanks for listening to Paranormality Magazine. Get more information about the magazine and subscribe to our monthly publication at ParanormalityMag.com. That's ParanormalityMag.com or click the link in the show description. And if you're a researcher or investigator, send us your stories. We might feature you in our next issue. If you have a paranormal podcast, you can add it to our website so our readers can find your show. And artists, if you'd like your work to be featured in our magazine or on our back cover, contact us. Again, our website is ParanormalityMag.com. I'm Darren Marlar and I'll have more Paranormal for you next time from Paranormality Magazine.