Interesting

Real-life X-Files that you'd swear I was making up... well I'm not. ; ) So there!

A Real Name for a Fake Disease

Lycanthropy. Say it 5 times fast! It's a mouthful isn't it? Sounds like a funny medical name for a strange disease. It is... but the disease only exists in folklore. Lycanthropy is a fancy way of saying 'werewolf'. That's right, werewolf. I wouldn't be surprised to see an entry for it in the 1778 New England Journal of Medicine. A description would probably read:

Lycanthropy: a condition caused by being bitten or scratched by a person or persons already carrying the disease. Symptoms include: Quick growth of large amounts of 'fur', sudden lengthening of inscisors and ears, the urge to howl at a full moon. Psychiatric symptoms: Uncontrolled anger leading to attacks, murder. Deep remorse later. Similar to, but not, a bi-polar condition.

Children Fool World for Over 70 Years

Back when cameras were a new thing, and their images always to be trusted, two girls from England decided to play a joke. In 1917, ten-year-old Frances Griffiths and her fifteen-year-old cousin Elsie Wright took their new camera to a park. Elsie had drawn fairies on pieces of cardboard, and the two propped them up with hatpins. They posed and took pictures of them. The girls attempted to pass the photos off as real, and, amazingly enough, people believed them. They had started the 'Cottingly Fairies' affair. They became famous in 1920 in an issue of Strand Magazine. The headline read: 'Fairies Photographed. An epoch-making event described by A. Conan Doyle.' That's right, Sir Aurther Conan Doyle. The author of the Sherlock Holmes novels believed the hoax. He claimed that such young girls would not have the 'technical' knowledge to fake the photos. The girls were amazed that so many adults believed in the photographs that they didn't tell a soul that they were faked until 1986. To quote Elsie: "The joke was to last two hours. It has lasted seventy years." I have seen the photographs. It's unbelievable how easily people were fooled by them.

The Search For Bridey Murphy

It started in 1956. Morey Bernstien, a Colorado hypnotherepist wrote the book The Search For Bridey Murphy. It was based on sessions he had with a woman named Virginia Tighe. Under hypnosis, she supposedly regressed into a past life. It was in 19th century Ireland. She spoke with a thick Irish accent during these sessions, described small occurences during her life, named grocers, priests, villagers, and realtives, and, get this: she danced a jig. When she came out of hypnosis, Mrs. Tighe had no idea where she recieved her information from. The book became an instant best-seller. It became an obsession. They filmed a movie. People threw 'Come as you were' parties. One poor boy from Shaunee, Oklahoma killed himself, leaving this note: 'They say curiosity kills a cat and I'm very curious about this Bridey Murphy story so I'm going to investigate in person.' Newspapers were anxious to get stories out proving or disproving Mrs. Tighe's stories. Some were incorrect, but others, including her grocer's name, were proven correct. People began to suspect that others had told her these things and it was all made up. Mrs. Tighe had a childhood friend who's maiden name was Bridey Murphy. Mrs. Tighe lived with her aunt, Marie Burns, and, according to the Chicago American was 'as Irish as the lakes of Kilkenny.' But, Mrs. Burns was born in New York of Scottish-Irish descent. Mrs. Tighe's therepist, Mr. Bernstien wrote in his rebuttal: 'You could say she was as Irish as the lakes of Kilkenny, inasmuch as there are no lakes in Kilkenny.'

The Case of 'Mary' Lurancy Vennum

If you think the stuff before this was weird, well, this is straight out of 'The X-Files'. She was know as 'The Watseka Wonder'( Watseka, Illinois). In 1879, Lurancy Vennum was examined by Doctor E. Winchester Stevens when she was 14-years-old. She had been suffering from fits, possibly due to epilepsy, and now seemed to be suffering from schizophrenia, or multiple personality disorder. She claimed to have spoken with the dead. Dr. Stevens hypnotized Lurancy. She told him that an angel named Mary Roff wanted to possess her and promised to rid her of 'the evil spirits'. The following day, Lurancy told her family that she was Mary Roff, and that she was homesick. Dr. Stevens had known the real Mary. She had died in 1865 at the age of eighteen. It also turned out that the Vennums and the Roffs had been neighbors for a short time in 1871. In something that would seem very strange by today's standards, Dr. Stevens told the Roffs of Lurancy's claims. Mary's mother and sister soon visited her, and were astonished when she called them both by pet names. They had never met Lurancy before, even though they had been neighbors. When the two left, she became inconsoleable and asked to go 'home'. Amazingly, she lived with the Roffs for three months and ten days. The Roffs became convinced that she was really Mary. Her time there ended when she burst into tears and told her 'mother' that Lurancy was coming back. Right after that, she looked around the room, saying "Where am I? I was never here before." Lurancy went home and was no longer troubled by her fits. She would, however, visit the Roffs on occaision, and Mary would 'come back'.

More to come!