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On this edition of Sightings, in 1908, witnesses said it looked like the end of the world.

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Now, Russian scientists believe an extraterrestrial craft exploded over the Siberian countryside.

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Then, did a grisly supernatural force cause these bizarre deaths?

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Within an inch or two of the body, there is virtually no fire damage at all.

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You can't see it.

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You can't touch it.

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But a mysterious ghostly energy has been captured on tape in an exclusive Sightings

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investigation.

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We would probably have to classify this location as a classic hunt.

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And best-selling authors offer a wondrous vision of the afterlife.

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The bottom line of what people can learn is to not fear death.

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Welcome to Sightings.

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I'm Tim White.

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One summer day in 1908, in a remote region of Siberia called Tunguska, 800 square miles

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of virgin forest were flattened in an instant.

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The explosion had the power of 2,000 nuclear bombs and sent pressure waves around the planet

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twice.

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Few people outside Russia have been allowed to investigate Tunguska, but now our Sightings

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team has been granted unprecedented access.

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What they've found is evidence of an otherworldly power that could strike again.

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Imagine a 10-megaton bomb with 2,000 times the power that destroyed Hiroshima.

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Then feeling the shock waves from that explosion, halfway across the globe, and then the next

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day feeling them again.

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Imagine devastation so widespread it would have consumed all of New York City in less

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than a minute.

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Now, know that it all happened in 1908.

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Tsar Nicholas II ruled imperial Russia.

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World War I was still to be fought, and nuclear weapons weren't even a dream.

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And yet the explosion that decimated the remote Tunguska region of Siberia resembled

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a nuclear blast in a number of uncanny ways.

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Some scientists insist the nightmare of destruction was the result of a comet that exploded above

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Earth.

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But other experts believe that an extraterrestrial craft from an advanced civilization is somehow

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responsible.

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For 86 years the debate has continued, but there is still no consensus.

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Comet theorists need a crater.

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Scientists need just one shred of physical evidence.

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But whether the Tunguska blast was a comet, meteor, or an alien craft, scientists are

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worried.

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Will it happen again somewhere else?

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How do we prepare for a cataclysmic event like this when we don't understand its origins?

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Professor Nikolai Vasilyev is a renowned Russian scientist who has made more than 30

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trips to the epicenter.

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This isn't Russia's problem.

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Tunguska affects the whole world and all of mankind.

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It doesn't pose a great danger only to Russia, but rather for mankind as a whole.

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This isn't a fictional tale nor a flight to fancy.

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I base my opinions and facts obtained from my work on Tunguska problems.

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I don't want to scare our viewing audience.

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The situation is to a great extent ambiguous and highly serious.

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Recently, the Shoemaker-Leaving Line comet made a crater on Jupiter the size of Earth.

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50,000 years ago, a meteorite did this in Arizona.

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In Tunguska, whatever happened in 1908 only did this.

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No crater has ever been found.

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Moscow was the first stop for our sightings investigative team.

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There, we met the scientists who support the party line.

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Although they cannot explain why there is no crater at the blast site, they still insist

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it was a comet that hit Tunguska.

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I am a staunch supporter of the comet hypothesis, and I think that there is no serious proof

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to refute it.

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It does have several problems.

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As a geochemist, Professor Kalysnikov is trying to solve these problems using existing theories.

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He admits he isn't getting any closer to a definitive answer.

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Instead, there are just more unanswered questions.

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There was mutation.

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We are researching this.

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It is possible that all objects in the epicenter were exposed to a small dose of X-ray radiation.

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X-ray radiation is one of the known byproducts of a nuclear explosion.

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Did Russia have atomic bomb technology at the turn of the century?

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Highly unlikely.

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Who then had the technology to create this kind of devastation?

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From Moscow, we flew 1,900 miles into the heart of the mystery, into Tunguska itself.

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A journey no American television crew has ever attempted.

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After a six-kilometer hike, our team reached what is believed to be ground zero.

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This rock was placed here by one of the early Tunguska expeditions in 1928.

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Our guide in Tunguska was Vitaly Voronov, a Siberian native whose ties to the areas

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date back three centuries.

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He has collected an oral history of the Tunguska explosion.

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Voronov is a vital link to those who actually witnessed the cataclysm that must have seemed

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like the end of the world.

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One eyewitness told me he was riding a stallion.

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When he heard what sounded like cannon shots, when he looked up, he saw a body glowing like

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the sun.

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It began declining towards the horizon for maybe 15 or 20 seconds.

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There were many small explosions on the object.

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It ended with one heavy explosion.

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The force of the explosion was so strong the man and the horse were knocked to the ground

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15 miles away.

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Sightings also heard the retelling of a first-hand account of the explosion.

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A local spiritual leader, a shaman, said, as a young boy, he was running away from the

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blast when he saw something fly out of the epicenter.

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A cylinder with sparks shooting out of it.

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The cylinder flew over the shaman's hand and into outer space.

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But this cylinder had caused the blast.

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Yuri Lavvin believes he has found evidence to support the theory that Tunguska was the

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site of an alien encounter going awry.

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He has unearthed masses of anomalous matter.

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In the beginning, we found small fragments buried deep in the earth.

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But there was nothing on the surface, no fragments at all.

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All trees collapsed and over many years everything went underground.

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Chemical analysis reveals that these rock-like fragments have a silicon coating, the same

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kind of material used as heat shielding on our space shuttles.

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Lavvin believes these large masses are actually exploded fragments from the exterior of a

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UFO.

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It is possible that this could be a ship from another planet, an intergalactical ship which

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was riveted with silicon.

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And we found its thick walled casing used to protect the craft from the high temperatures

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of the stars.

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Lavvin's most intriguing piece of evidence, however, was not found at the crash site.

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It was discovered months later, embedded in one of the fragments.

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I took pincers and extracted this object.

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Here it is.

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It was surrounded by crystallite, transparent and non-transparent particles.

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This Lavvin found the first physical evidence of an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

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He has compared his sample with metals commonly found on earth and in meteorites.

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So far, there is no match.

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The fragment continues to undergo rigorous metallurgical testing.

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When analysis is complete, sightings will report the findings to you.

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There are so many theories because the Tunguska event has no precedent.

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No-no natural phenomenon can adequately explain this event, so even mainstream scientists

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admit they're looking in a new direction.

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Can we hope to obtain an explanation of Tunguska using classical conceptions?

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Ten years ago, I would have definitely answered yes.

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Now I'm doubtful that it can be explained without resorting to non-classical conceptions.

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Next, should these people profit from the wondrous visions they say they've had on the other

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side?

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People making money off the near-death experience are wrong.

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In 1961, a controversial little book by Jessica Mitford called The American Way of Death

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sent shockwaves across America.

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It was the first popular book about death.

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Today, nearly 35 years later, books about death are one of the fastest growing categories

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in publishing.

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My name is Daniel Brinkley.

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I have a book on the New York Times bestseller list called Save by the Light.

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And for people who don't know about it, it's about me going through two near-death experiences.

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Author Daniel Brinkley believes he's been to heaven and back, and he's not alone.

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According to a recent Gallup poll, 30% of us claim to have had, or know someone who

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has had, a near-death experience.

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More than 100 books have been written about NDE, and some of them are making it onto the

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bestseller list.

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I believe that it's important to get the message out about the near-death experience,

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because there's just too many people afraid of death.

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The near-death experience teaches us to not fear death.

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And if we're not afraid to die, we're not afraid to live.

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The classic pattern of a near-death experience is well documented.

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First, an out-of-body experience leads you through a tunnel towards a bright light.

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Once there, you meet your God.

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I wasn't breathing.

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I had no pulse or known cardiac activity for between 20 minutes and an hour and a half.

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You're helpless.

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You feel helpless.

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For the first time in your life, you're totally helpless.

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Then I felt a tremendous sinking sensation, and then I came out of my chest and rose up

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to the ceiling, and I could look down and see my body lying there on the bed.

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And rapidly, I pulled out of my body and right into a dark, totally dark tunnel with a sensation

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of speed, rapid speed.

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I saw a pinpoint of light in this blackness, and I was attracted to it.

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So I turned and I began to travel very rapidly towards that bright light.

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I was part of the light, and the light was part of me.

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It was not painful.

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It was absolutely wonderful.

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And I was able to ask thousands of questions, millions of questions, and have every one

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of my questions answered.

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Then to my right came a being, a being of light.

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And this being was there to witness or be with me.

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I had a panoramic review of my life.

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I felt every emotion, everything I'd ever done, every word I'd ever said, and every

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experience I'd ever had with anyone I'd ever come in contact with.

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When I went through my life review, I was told that I had not completed my time on

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earth, that it was really necessary for me to return and to do that.

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When I re-entered my body, it was like I'd been in a car crash.

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I crashed back in.

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It was a jolt that I felt right down to the fiber of my spine.

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13 million Americans have had some type of near-death experience.

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I'm just one of them.

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Brinkley's cashing in on his near-death experience, but no one approaches the success enjoyed

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by author Betty Eadie, whose book, Embraced by the Light, has been the nation's number

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one bestseller for more than a year.

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There is absolutely no way to fully describe the beauty that is there.

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They said a good analogy would be that heaven is like the print, and earth would be much

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like the negative.

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All of the flowers and the trees, with their movement, with their mere existence, was glorifying

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God and praising Him.

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The unprecedented success of Embraced by the Light speaks to our nation's hunger for reassurance

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about life's ultimate mystery.

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But Betty Eadie is drawn fire from other experiencers who believe she should not profit from her

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NDE.

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Look, I've experienced near-death, and I know the values that you're given in that

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experience.

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People making money off the near-death experience like Betty Eadie and others are wrong.

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They're not authentic, and they're hurting the near-death experience movement.

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I can't speak for all the authors out making a mint right now, but I can speak for some

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of them because I've known them for such a long time that I know that they wrote books

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to truly try to help people.

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Researchers and medical researchers believe the near-death experience can be explained

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scientifically.

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To them, NDE is simply a hallucination caused by a brain cutoff from oxygen.

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There's nothing magical about a near-death experience.

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The basic themes of the near-death experience are remarkably similar across cultures, the

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reason being that the five billion brains that make up this planet are remarkably similar

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in their structure.

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To prove his point, Dr. Persinger believes he can duplicate a near-death experience in

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the laboratory using a perfectly healthy subject.

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What we attempt to do is to apply safe levels of complex magnetic fields through the brain.

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The frequencies we use and where we place the field induce the experiences that are

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associated with that part of the brain.

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If you stimulate the brain with a different kind of pattern, you make the person feel

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pleasurable, leaving their body.

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In fact, the most common experiences in the chamber are feeling detached, feeling floating,

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feeling as if there's a sense of a presence.

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I believe, along with skeptics, that our brain is related to this experience.

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But there are things that happen in a near-death experience that have yet to be explained by

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the brain.

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Even though you might get a doctor to explain to me my body, they cannot explain to me my

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spirit.

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Their explanations for what happens to a near-death experience are simply weak.

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The fact that we now understand the part of the brain that mediates the experience does

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not demean the experience and does not make it less useful or less important from the

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point of view of our species or the individual.

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Whether near-death experience is physical or metaphysical may be beside the point.

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People who claim to have seen what's behind death's door are finding an audience.

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They tell us there is light at the end of a dark journey we must all take one day.

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We are buying these books because these are the substitutes, powerful substitutes for

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traditional religious beliefs that no longer work.

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Death is the last great mystery.

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And as we start to look at the near-death experience, we have at least a basis by which

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to view the way we leave this earth.

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For one thing that most of us come back with is we're not afraid to die.

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And more importantly, we're not afraid to live.

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The author of Embracing the Light, Betty Eadie, has not been forthcoming about the

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medical details of her near-death experience.

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Her secrecy frustrates researchers who are looking for cases of near-death experience

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that can be scientifically substantiated.

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Next, a bizarre phenomenon defies explanation, yet people continue to die.

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Skin, muscle and bone had been turned into a fine white ash.

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For more than 300 years, there have been strange reports of people who were found dead.

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Reduced ash, while everything around them remains unburned.

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It's called spontaneous human combustion, but that popular term is kind of a misnomer.

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In this phenomenon, people don't suddenly burst into flame.

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Instead, they appear to have been slowly devoured by intense heat from the inside out.

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Some researchers and fire officials believe that these are the victims of the strange,

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misunderstood phenomenon known as spontaneous human combustion, or SHC.

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No one knows how or even if SHC occurs, but mysterious deaths by fire like these have

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been reported throughout history.

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Authors Jenny Randalls and Peter Huff have documented over 70 possible cases of SHC in

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the 20th century alone.

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We're talking about a situation where the fire is so localized that within an inch or

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two of the body, which has turned to ash, apart from a few extremities perhaps, there

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is virtually no fire damage at all.

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So this is a self-contained fire.

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And the implication from that, although of course it's not proven, is that the fire begins

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internally and spreads outward from the body and therefore never goes very far beyond the

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extremities of the body, consequently does defect the room itself.

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Basically speaking, there is no way the human body, which is largely water, can spontaneously

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combust.

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There is no mechanism by which it can happen.

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But there are fire experts who disagree.

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They maintain that the same kind of spontaneous combustion that occurs in nature can also

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occur in humans if conditions are right.

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If you take the human being as just a bulk substance made up of a whole range of materials,

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from water to highly combustible chemicals.

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Heat it sufficiently, give it sufficient oxygen and use the fuel that's within the

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body, then it will burst into flame.

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The same as any other bulk material.

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In this working class district of Chorley in Lancashire, England, Peter Huff has been

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investigating a grisly case of suspected SHC.

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The incident happened on the night of the 4th of March, 1980, in this house here.

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An elderly lady lived in the house at the time alone, and it was the previous evening

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that neighbours last saw her alive.

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Later that night, at around 9.30, they noticed black smoke coming from the chimney but thought

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no more of it.

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And the following morning, when two men called at the house, they got no reply.

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Neighbours forced the way into the house, and what they discovered was grisly to say the

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least.

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From the waist upwards, everything including skin, muscle and bone had been turned into

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a fine white ash.

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SHC investigators point out that turning a body to ash is beyond the scientific possibility

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of even the most sophisticated primatorium.

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In my time working here as a cremationist, I've never seen a body that has been cremated

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to nothing.

281
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There has always been skeletal remains left over.

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Even at 1100 degrees Fahrenheit, human bones cannot be reduced to ash.

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They have to be pulverized with heavy grinding stones before they can be placed inside and

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urn.

285
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So, if a body was reduced to ash in a fire, it would be a mystery to me in how that occurred.

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Comparisons to crematorium are false comparisons.

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It's like comparing a piece of wood that you've set on fire with a match to a piece of wood

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that you put in the oven and baked.

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You may have to bake it at a very high temperature to have any effect on that wood.

290
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But baking and actual fire burning are very different phenomena, and so there is no comparison.

291
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Another baffling element common to most cases is the fact that highly flammable objects like

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furnishings, pillows and carpets near the body don't burn.

293
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This is really remarkable.

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One would think that a fire, a normal fire of the order, which would be necessary to

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burn a human body at all, would have also set the room ablaze.

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Anyone who's had any experience, I think, with a simple thing like a campfire, knows

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that you can get quite close and put things quite close to a fire, laterally, but place

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them over the fire and they burn readily.

299
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So again, these are not mysteries.

300
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These while unusual that the body burns that way without the house burning down, while

301
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:59,520
these may be relatively unusual deaths, they're not unexplainable.

302
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:05,400
To date, no coroner has ever written spontaneous human combustion on a death certificate.

303
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They prefer cause unknown or simply by fire.

304
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Despite skepticism from the medical establishment, Jenny Randalls and Peter Huff continue to

305
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:19,520
document mysterious fire-related deaths that they believe may be the result of spontaneous

306
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human combustion.

307
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Does that warrant a real scientific investigation?

308
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I think it does.

309
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If we had a hundred deaths of a particular unknown disease, I'm sure the medical profession

310
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would like to find out why.

311
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Next is an alien intelligence trying to communicate through these newly discovered crop circles.

312
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There seems to be, in some of the better cases, a definite UFO connection.

313
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A super natural phenomenon is captured on tape during an exclusive sightings investigation.

314
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Crop circles are generally associated with the fields and grasslands of Great Britain.

315
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The formations discovered outside the British Isles have almost all been ruled out as hoaxes.

316
00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:06,800
But in the past year, an intriguing new series of crop circles has been studied along the

317
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:08,800
U.S.-Canadian border.

318
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Well, the first day I saw it, my blood pressure went up.

319
00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:16,120
It's very difficult to describe.

320
00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:18,360
The air is full of electricity.

321
00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:25,040
There was something out there that was watching me that I didn't know about.

322
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They appear at first light, an American icon, amber waves of grain, crushed by an unseen

323
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:32,640
force.

324
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Is it a hoax?

325
00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:35,240
Sometimes.

326
00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:40,200
But here there are no footprints, no tire tracks, no obvious sign of a human hand at

327
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:41,200
work.

328
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:45,080
I believe it's an alien intelligence of some sort.

329
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:51,000
It was just a very eerie, eerie force around me.

330
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Nobody has actually seen a transmission of the formation.

331
00:22:54,360 --> 00:22:58,960
The scientific term is agri-glyph, literally crop picture.

332
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:03,680
Once a predominantly European phenomenon, three new North American agri-glyphs are being

333
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:04,680
studied.

334
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:08,200
John appeared near Portland, Oregon in June 1994.

335
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:13,920
Then in July, two separate designs appeared in the same wheat field in Chahalus, Washington.

336
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:18,840
Two weeks later and 2,000 miles away, this classic pattern was discovered in Windsor,

337
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:20,240
Ontario, Canada.

338
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:25,080
Farmer John Parks was on a routine inspection when he discovered the formation in his neighbor's

339
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:26,080
wheat field.

340
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:29,480
The straw was just bent, just laid over right from the ground.

341
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:36,880
The stalk was still one big long piece of straw, but it was just tipped and laying right

342
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:38,240
flat on the ground.

343
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,800
I find it hard to believe that a human being actually could really go in there and do that

344
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,200
without disturbing any straw.

345
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:50,320
If you went in and pushed it with your foot, the straw would kink, would bend somewhere

346
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:51,920
in the middle and be broken.

347
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:53,800
And this straw wasn't broken.

348
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:58,880
The evening before the crop circle appeared, animals in a kennel less than one mile away

349
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:00,560
were acting strangely.

350
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:02,840
The guard dog was barking incessantly.

351
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The owner of the boarding kennel was puzzled by his dog's erratic behavior.

352
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,280
I don't met night on Sunday night.

353
00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:11,640
She started to make a racket, barking, whining.

354
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,160
And we told her to be quiet and she just wouldn't respond.

355
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,560
An animal sends a lot of things, but we don't.

356
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:20,040
You know, so what turned it on like that?

357
00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:21,480
I don't know.

358
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:25,920
Did the same force that affected the wheat affect local animals as well?

359
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:27,680
He was actually putting up quite a fuss.

360
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,800
He didn't want to go past the circle whatsoever.

361
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,560
And so I just, I, you know, settled him down.

362
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:37,480
He was, his eyes were this big.

363
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:39,240
He had the white was showing around his eyes.

364
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:41,240
He was really nervous.

365
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:46,120
Is there a connection between the nervous energy exhibited by animals and the anomalous

366
00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:48,520
energy that flattened this wheat?

367
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:53,120
That's a possibility being explored by the United States Center for Crop Circle Studies.

368
00:24:53,120 --> 00:24:55,960
There are certain features that you can, you develop an eye for.

369
00:24:55,960 --> 00:25:02,520
And if you keep an open, open mind and not coming in with an expectation of finding this

370
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,840
or not finding, if you stay open, you'll see all kinds of things.

371
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:07,280
The clues are all over.

372
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:16,920
The obvious first thing to do is try to see if there's any entry or exit marks, possible

373
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:20,160
signs of maybe something mechanical being brought in there.

374
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,760
Then I use my eyes and my camera.

375
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:27,520
And before I touch things or lift things or move things or before things get another

376
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,000
couple of seconds older, I photograph it.

377
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:36,560
Then grain samples from the affected areas are isolated and undergo microscopic evaluation.

378
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:41,440
Among those studying the samples, biophysicist Dr. W.C. Levingood and research associate

379
00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:48,560
John Burke, they hypothesize that the crop circles are caused by unusual but natural atmospheric

380
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:49,560
forces.

381
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:58,000
And I came up with a concept based on very unusual natural phenomenon in the atmosphere.

382
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:03,520
At his laboratory in Grasslake, Michigan, Dr. Levingood is currently conducting a comprehensive

383
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,120
biomolecular study of crop circles.

384
00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:11,200
He has discovered that wheat from certain formations have actually become magnetized.

385
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,480
They go through biochemical changes.

386
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,440
They go through cellular changes.

387
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:25,960
This is a control node here, showing you the normal node, very symmetrical.

388
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:34,320
And what we find here is that there are very drastic changes in the formation samples, which

389
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:39,920
cannot be explained by ordinary trampling or hoaxing or any of that.

390
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:46,040
Now in the formation, what we find is that this energy is so intense and so rapid.

391
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:51,040
The heat is so high that it literally blows expulsion cavities.

392
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:57,760
We have an enormous amount of evidence that indicates that the causes of crop circle formations

393
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:01,840
are quite likely ion plasma vortices.

394
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:07,240
And while this may sound exotic, you could picture a slow speed electrified tornado,

395
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:11,920
if you will, because plasma is nothing more than electrified air particles.

396
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,600
It's very similar to trying to deal with the weather.

397
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:18,600
It's on a bigger scale and so complex and chaotic.

398
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:23,200
With all the resources at the command of our weather bureaus, we can't do an accurate

399
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:24,560
five day forecast.

400
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:28,280
That doesn't mean we don't understand the principles of meteorology.

401
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:30,200
And the same thing is true of crop circles.

402
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:35,920
Theoretically, a spiraling ion plasma vortex could create circles in standing crop, but

403
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,760
could a force of nature create these intricate patterns?

404
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:45,600
I believe that the circle makers are non-terrestrial entities and probably non-physical, non-terrestrial

405
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:47,960
entities who don't need UFOs.

406
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:51,960
I don't believe that these are craft landings or pod marks.

407
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:58,040
The National Director of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network Canada, is investigating the suspicious

408
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:00,400
origin of the Ontario Crop Circle.

409
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:05,040
There seems to be in some of the better cases a definite UFO connection.

410
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:11,320
There's also evidence of paranormal activity like psychic effects, physical effects.

411
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:16,640
Strainix theory is bolstered by reports of UFOs cited the night before a crop circle

412
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:17,640
discovery.

413
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:22,000
They are amber lights that are seen coming to the ground and extinguished when they touch

414
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:23,000
the ground.

415
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:28,240
If an alien force is creating these circles, is it random, a cosmic prank, or are they trying

416
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:29,680
to tell us something?

417
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:36,520
This could be the message as well, that we are in trouble here on planet earth.

418
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:44,520
Things have to be changed and we are slowly being told and shown through crop circles

419
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:52,880
and various other phenomena that we are not alone and we may need some outside help.

420
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:57,000
All scientists I think have a love of the unknown, of the mystery of the unknown and

421
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:05,360
there is a beauty in crop formations as well that is rather compelling.

422
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,600
Crop circle investigations are becoming more and more scientific.

423
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:14,440
Advanced technology is helping researchers gather extensive amounts of data.

424
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:19,800
Unfortunately, all this new data still hasn't solved the mystery of how and why crop circles

425
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:24,320
are being created or by whom.

426
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:28,360
Coming up next, haunting sounds captured on tape have experts baffled at San Diego's

427
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:37,000
Whaley House.

428
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:42,960
There is an invisible energy that exists between magnet and metal.

429
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:47,720
You can't see it or touch it but you know that it's there.

430
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:52,460
Some paranormal investigators believe that people generate a similar kind of energy which

431
00:29:52,460 --> 00:29:55,940
remains in the environment even after death.

432
00:29:55,940 --> 00:29:57,620
They call it residue.

433
00:29:57,620 --> 00:30:01,760
These investigators suggest that what many people experience as a haunting may actually

434
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:10,140
be their ability to feel, hear or even see the existence of this spiritual residue.

435
00:30:10,140 --> 00:30:15,340
California 1850, a stagecoach stopped with good food and clean beds.

436
00:30:15,340 --> 00:30:19,700
Today it's an historic landmark with a different kind of reputation.

437
00:30:19,700 --> 00:30:23,740
The Whaley House is considered one of the most haunted places in the West.

438
00:30:23,740 --> 00:30:28,020
Sandy Stokes was a reporter for the San Diego Press Enterprise when she investigated the

439
00:30:28,020 --> 00:30:30,980
Whaley House for a special Halloween story.

440
00:30:30,980 --> 00:30:36,180
So to do a little bit of research to make sure that it was really haunted I called up some

441
00:30:36,180 --> 00:30:39,520
ghost hunters and one of the people I called was Richard Sennett.

442
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:41,020
So I sort of challenged her.

443
00:30:41,020 --> 00:30:46,940
I said well go ahead, go down to the Whaley House, use a tape recorder, use brand new

444
00:30:46,940 --> 00:30:53,300
music quality tape, go from room to room and when you're done play it back and see if there

445
00:30:53,300 --> 00:30:56,600
isn't something that shouldn't be there.

446
00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:03,060
So I took his advice and I came down here and June Redding gave me a tour.

447
00:31:03,060 --> 00:31:08,340
In her 34 years as director of the Whaley House June Redding has experienced all kinds

448
00:31:08,340 --> 00:31:10,020
of haunting phenomena.

449
00:31:10,020 --> 00:31:14,820
She's convinced that Mrs. Whaley, a professional musician at the turn of the century, is still

450
00:31:14,820 --> 00:31:17,020
demonstrating her talents.

451
00:31:17,020 --> 00:31:22,660
And we think perhaps she, her spirit isn't strong enough to return but we have music

452
00:31:22,660 --> 00:31:27,540
coming from the music room, piano and violin music at times.

453
00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:30,380
We have the sound of a music box.

454
00:31:30,380 --> 00:31:33,660
A strain of a music box is not one of ours here.

455
00:31:33,660 --> 00:31:36,900
Would Sandy's tape recorder pick up this anomalous music?

456
00:31:36,900 --> 00:31:42,020
When I got back and played the tape it was very interesting.

457
00:31:42,020 --> 00:31:46,340
I heard some sounds on it that we hadn't heard while we were walking through the house and

458
00:31:46,340 --> 00:31:47,740
I was interviewing her.

459
00:31:47,740 --> 00:31:55,300
EVP's electric voice phenomenon and this first began in the 1970s when people using tape

460
00:31:55,300 --> 00:31:59,820
recorders began to get extra sounds that shouldn't be there.

461
00:31:59,820 --> 00:32:04,380
The tape was digitally analyzed by EVP expert Brian Black.

462
00:32:04,380 --> 00:32:09,340
He discovered background sounds like clacking billiard balls while June was giving Sandy

463
00:32:09,340 --> 00:32:10,340
a tour.

464
00:32:10,340 --> 00:32:14,340
So was that on there when it was a court one?

465
00:32:14,340 --> 00:32:15,340
Yeah.

466
00:32:15,340 --> 00:32:16,340
Oh.

467
00:32:16,340 --> 00:32:18,340
I need to go through the ghost.

468
00:32:18,340 --> 00:32:20,340
This is an interesting one.

469
00:32:20,340 --> 00:32:22,340
Do you feel a ghost?

470
00:32:22,340 --> 00:32:23,340
Oh yeah.

471
00:32:23,340 --> 00:32:26,340
What is it doing?

472
00:32:26,340 --> 00:32:27,340
Hi.

473
00:32:27,340 --> 00:32:32,420
Brian recorded billiard sounds and compared them to the sounds on the tape but it wasn't

474
00:32:32,420 --> 00:32:33,420
a match.

475
00:32:33,420 --> 00:32:39,940
I did some research on the history of billiards and discovered that what they used for billiard

476
00:32:39,940 --> 00:32:42,300
balls has changed considerably.

477
00:32:42,300 --> 00:32:46,180
Brian consulted with Terry Muldenow, an expert on antique billiards.

478
00:32:46,180 --> 00:32:53,660
The ivory balls were used from the early 1800s on up to about the 1930s, 40s, just recently

479
00:32:53,660 --> 00:32:55,620
when we went into the plastics.

480
00:32:55,620 --> 00:33:00,100
When Brian repeated the test with ivory balls, the results were remarkable.

481
00:33:00,100 --> 00:33:06,780
If you put the anomaly as a 10, something that would compare to it, I'd say an ivory

482
00:33:06,780 --> 00:33:09,340
comes in about the seven or an eight.

483
00:33:09,340 --> 00:33:13,660
Phenolic resin, the plastic that they use today, is too sharp and crisp.

484
00:33:13,660 --> 00:33:22,180
When Brian told me that he had proved that it was the actual sound of a billiard game

485
00:33:22,180 --> 00:33:27,940
with balls that had not been in use since the turn of the century, I was really surprised.

486
00:33:27,940 --> 00:33:29,740
I was shocked.

487
00:33:29,740 --> 00:33:33,860
Why were billiard sounds recorded in a part of the house that was once a county court

488
00:33:33,860 --> 00:33:34,860
room?

489
00:33:34,860 --> 00:33:38,620
Soon, Reddiem's historical research turned up a startling answer.

490
00:33:38,620 --> 00:33:42,820
Frank Whaley, who was the oldest boy in the family, organized what he called the Clavel

491
00:33:42,820 --> 00:33:43,900
Social Club.

492
00:33:43,900 --> 00:33:44,900
We have all the records.

493
00:33:44,900 --> 00:33:49,340
As a matter of fact, I think I still have some invitation somewhere.

494
00:33:49,340 --> 00:34:01,260
My ultimate conclusion is that somehow, Sandy picked up a sound of someone practicing billiards

495
00:34:01,260 --> 00:34:03,260
apparently from 1905.

496
00:34:03,260 --> 00:34:10,740
Recital hunting is sort of like a shadow imprinted on the fabric of time.

497
00:34:10,740 --> 00:34:16,740
Somehow leaves an impression, a photograph, if you will, in an environment that replays

498
00:34:16,740 --> 00:34:20,260
and replays over and over again.

499
00:34:20,260 --> 00:34:26,340
And this is perhaps one of the best examples we have of retrocognitive sounds.

500
00:34:26,340 --> 00:34:33,260
It's from the past somehow impressed on the environment to be recorded a century later.

501
00:34:33,260 --> 00:34:40,100
With his results of Brian's study that I'm not skeptical.

502
00:34:40,100 --> 00:34:44,220
And it's kind of eerie to me.

503
00:34:44,220 --> 00:34:50,860
Next, a Florida investigation uncovers a spirited phenomenon known as residue haunting.

504
00:34:50,860 --> 00:34:57,540
The spirit of St. Petersburg High is definitely living here among us.

505
00:34:57,540 --> 00:35:03,300
EVP, electronic voice phenomenon, is believed to be audio residue from the past.

506
00:35:03,300 --> 00:35:08,340
Researchers are also finding evidence of visual residue in the form of ghost-like apparitions

507
00:35:08,340 --> 00:35:10,460
and moving objects.

508
00:35:10,460 --> 00:35:15,260
This kind of residue haunting seems to occur most often in a place of high energy, an emotion,

509
00:35:15,260 --> 00:35:22,500
a hospital, a church, or even a school.

510
00:35:22,500 --> 00:35:25,140
Schools in session at St. Petersburg High.

511
00:35:25,140 --> 00:35:26,740
Kids still run in the halls.

512
00:35:26,740 --> 00:35:29,780
The principal still rules with an iron fist.

513
00:35:29,780 --> 00:35:35,860
Only trouble is St. Petersburg High has been closed since 1926.

514
00:35:35,860 --> 00:35:40,420
The spirit of St. Petersburg High is definitely living here among us.

515
00:35:41,060 --> 00:35:46,220
Today, St. Petersburg High School has been converted into luxury condominiums.

516
00:35:46,220 --> 00:35:51,260
The old school rooms and hallways where teenagers of a distant past once dreamed of the future

517
00:35:51,260 --> 00:35:52,260
are gone.

518
00:35:52,260 --> 00:35:56,940
The people who live here now still see, hear, and feel echoes from the past.

519
00:35:56,940 --> 00:36:02,140
A lot of people here giggling and laughing in the hallways.

520
00:36:02,140 --> 00:36:07,940
People here kids running down the hallways.

521
00:36:07,940 --> 00:36:14,900
I witnessed probably the most spectacular, brightest white light I have ever seen in

522
00:36:14,900 --> 00:36:16,420
my entire life.

523
00:36:16,420 --> 00:36:20,300
We've had lights go on and off in the middle of the night for no reason.

524
00:36:20,300 --> 00:36:24,180
We've had a couple nights where we hear, you know, big band music.

525
00:36:24,180 --> 00:36:29,020
Have the students and teachers of yesteryear left an indelible metaphysical imprint on

526
00:36:29,020 --> 00:36:31,140
this historic building?

527
00:36:31,140 --> 00:36:35,260
Sightings called in Christopher Chacon and a team from the Office of Scientific Investigation

528
00:36:35,260 --> 00:36:40,220
and Research to interview the witnesses and stake out the interior with an array of state

529
00:36:40,220 --> 00:36:41,940
of the art technology.

530
00:36:41,940 --> 00:36:45,940
The goal was to determine if old St. Pete High is the site of what ghost experts refer

531
00:36:45,940 --> 00:36:48,940
to as residue haunting.

532
00:36:48,940 --> 00:36:53,660
It would be possible that the children who went to school here may have in fact left

533
00:36:53,660 --> 00:36:55,780
some type of impression behind.

534
00:36:55,780 --> 00:37:00,780
Among their instruments, this heat sensitive imaging system called thermo vision.

535
00:37:00,780 --> 00:37:05,540
It was this equipment that Chacon believes enabled his team to capture ghostly footprints

536
00:37:05,540 --> 00:37:08,060
on an earlier expedition.

537
00:37:08,060 --> 00:37:12,740
Certainly the possibility is there that the experiences people are having are in connection

538
00:37:12,740 --> 00:37:17,740
to the students in class that were taking place back in the 1920s.

539
00:37:17,740 --> 00:37:22,740
In 1920, St. Petersburg, Florida dedicated a new high school.

540
00:37:22,740 --> 00:37:26,500
The first yearbook had a prophetic dedication.

541
00:37:26,500 --> 00:37:32,100
That the soul and spirit of the whole school could perhaps stay on for years to come.

542
00:37:32,100 --> 00:37:34,460
And which is in fact what could have happened here.

543
00:37:34,460 --> 00:37:38,020
St. Petersburg High was a jewel in the city's crowd.

544
00:37:38,020 --> 00:37:42,500
In 1920, St. Pete's first class president was A.B. Fogarty.

545
00:37:42,500 --> 00:37:45,860
Today he's one of the school's oldest living graduates.

546
00:37:45,860 --> 00:37:54,660
When I picture the school, well I see a large, airy, well-lit building with wide halls, a

547
00:37:54,660 --> 00:37:57,580
nice auditorium.

548
00:37:57,580 --> 00:38:02,780
People busy going to and fro to their different duties.

549
00:38:02,780 --> 00:38:08,380
And they had time to talk and talk to each other in those days.

550
00:38:08,380 --> 00:38:14,380
St. Petersburg boomed so quickly that by 1926 the charming Brick High School was too small.

551
00:38:14,380 --> 00:38:17,660
A larger school was built and old St. Pete was abandoned.

552
00:38:17,660 --> 00:38:22,900
It had a variety of tenants over the next 60 years until it was converted into condos.

553
00:38:22,900 --> 00:38:27,340
When the new residents moved in, they felt an eerie sense that they were not alone.

554
00:38:27,340 --> 00:38:31,780
You feel like you're living in someone else's space and you have the feeling that you should

555
00:38:31,780 --> 00:38:34,180
respect it.

556
00:38:34,180 --> 00:38:38,260
Bobby Brown had just moved into her apartment in the former science wing.

557
00:38:38,260 --> 00:38:44,540
She was watching television when she had her first paranormal encounter.

558
00:38:44,540 --> 00:38:52,700
All of a sudden this huge shining disk that was gigantic, probably six feet across, came

559
00:38:52,700 --> 00:38:55,980
rolling through these windows.

560
00:38:55,980 --> 00:39:00,900
And when it hit the wall, it exploded into this millions of fragments of light and the

561
00:39:00,900 --> 00:39:03,900
light was so bright it nearly blinded me.

562
00:39:03,900 --> 00:39:06,260
I believe there are spirits.

563
00:39:06,260 --> 00:39:13,660
I believe that there's an energy source that comes from an unexplained place and that probably

564
00:39:13,660 --> 00:39:15,900
that energy is here in this building.

565
00:39:15,900 --> 00:39:23,140
The individuals are very credible witnesses and the situations are very simple situations

566
00:39:23,140 --> 00:39:29,980
that suddenly become very extraordinary because of phenomena which cannot be classified.

567
00:39:29,980 --> 00:39:34,860
More than 15 different people who live here have experienced strange haunting phenomena

568
00:39:34,860 --> 00:39:37,060
that they simply can't explain.

569
00:39:37,060 --> 00:39:41,780
First they just heard voices, laughing, giggling, childish shouts and murmurs.

570
00:39:41,780 --> 00:39:48,100
And Rick Caesar, who lives in what was once the science lab, insists he saw a ghost.

571
00:39:48,100 --> 00:39:55,860
I was in the bedroom one morning getting dressed and I saw a tall man with a white shirt and

572
00:39:55,860 --> 00:39:57,660
a thin tie.

573
00:39:57,660 --> 00:40:01,940
He was kind of looking off into the conservatory just kind of like he was looking.

574
00:40:01,940 --> 00:40:07,420
And then I said, whoa, and I backed up to look again and he wasn't there.

575
00:40:07,420 --> 00:40:13,140
They may not in fact be individuals who are dead or passed away coming back to Haunthus

576
00:40:13,140 --> 00:40:14,140
location.

577
00:40:14,140 --> 00:40:18,020
They could in fact be nothing more than impressions that have been left behind in the environment

578
00:40:18,020 --> 00:40:23,940
that certain people are perceiving and sensing under certain extraordinary circumstances.

579
00:40:23,940 --> 00:40:24,940
That sound you hear right now?

580
00:40:24,940 --> 00:40:25,940
Those are your brain waves.

581
00:40:25,940 --> 00:40:31,380
Shacone's investigation here begins with physical and psychological testing of the eyewitnesses.

582
00:40:31,380 --> 00:40:36,140
He monitors their sleep to determine if what they are experiencing could be a dream.

583
00:40:36,140 --> 00:40:41,060
Then he uses highly sensitive equipment to monitor the entire building over a 24 hour

584
00:40:41,060 --> 00:40:44,700
period.

585
00:40:44,700 --> 00:40:49,980
Thermal vision allows us to visually record and document an environment in temperature

586
00:40:49,980 --> 00:40:51,140
variations.

587
00:40:51,140 --> 00:40:56,340
The night vision technology allows us to move around under complete darkness.

588
00:40:56,340 --> 00:41:03,020
All of these instruments work together and then we're able to look at any types of abnormal

589
00:41:03,380 --> 00:41:06,500
or artifacts that we can correlate if something should take place.

590
00:41:06,500 --> 00:41:12,500
While OSIR conducted its scientific investigation, sightings walked the halls with A.B. Fokkerty.

591
00:41:12,500 --> 00:41:17,660
It had been more than 70 years since the former class president had been here.

592
00:41:17,660 --> 00:41:22,660
We hoped he could help us understand why his long departed classmates might still roam

593
00:41:22,660 --> 00:41:23,660
the building.

594
00:41:23,660 --> 00:41:28,980
It's lost its area and its architectural creation.

595
00:41:29,940 --> 00:41:30,940
It's changed.

596
00:41:30,940 --> 00:41:33,180
It's a totally different thing.

597
00:41:33,180 --> 00:41:34,500
Totally different.

598
00:41:34,500 --> 00:41:39,660
There's no reason why if in fact someone had demolished or changed the structure that

599
00:41:39,660 --> 00:41:42,740
they wouldn't have come back and actually become more active because of the fact that

600
00:41:42,740 --> 00:41:43,740
someone altered it.

601
00:41:43,740 --> 00:41:49,060
The spirit can roam anywhere but anybody's can.

602
00:41:49,060 --> 00:41:54,900
The spirit is the thing who we really are.

603
00:41:54,900 --> 00:42:00,980
The OSIR investigation turned up some unusual electromagnetic activity and cold spots in

604
00:42:00,980 --> 00:42:02,340
the walls.

605
00:42:02,340 --> 00:42:05,500
Signs consistent with other reported residue hauntings.

606
00:42:05,500 --> 00:42:10,940
We would probably have to classify this location as a classic haunt and as all the characteristics

607
00:42:10,940 --> 00:42:18,980
as far as its past history and also in regards to the experiences people continue to have.

608
00:42:18,980 --> 00:42:23,780
The current residents of Old St. Petersburg High School take pride in their building's

609
00:42:23,780 --> 00:42:28,060
historic stature and live in peace with the building's past.

610
00:42:28,060 --> 00:42:32,780
Not everyone has experienced the voices and visions but those who have believe that no

611
00:42:32,780 --> 00:42:37,300
matter what happens to this building in the future it will always be filled with school

612
00:42:37,300 --> 00:42:41,940
spirit.

613
00:42:41,940 --> 00:42:45,980
During our investigation in St. Petersburg we had access to some of the most sophisticated

614
00:42:45,980 --> 00:42:51,900
technology currently available but this equipment is still in its infancy.

615
00:42:51,900 --> 00:42:56,860
Researchers have yet to devise some sort of machine to objectively measure a subjective

616
00:42:56,860 --> 00:43:03,980
experience like feeling the presence of a ghost.

617
00:43:03,980 --> 00:43:09,460
If you've had a paranormal experience call the sightings hotline at 1-900-933-SITE that's

618
00:43:09,460 --> 00:43:12,780
1-900-933-7444.

619
00:43:12,780 --> 00:43:16,580
Each call 65 cents a minute, average call last three minutes.

620
00:43:16,580 --> 00:43:17,940
This is also online.

621
00:43:17,940 --> 00:43:23,620
Our email addresses sightings at aol.com.

622
00:43:23,620 --> 00:43:25,220
Next week on Sightings.

623
00:43:25,220 --> 00:43:28,460
We had 200 rescuers, we had dive teams, dog teams.

624
00:43:28,460 --> 00:43:30,860
But the dead man called out to her.

625
00:43:30,860 --> 00:43:33,620
Come get me, the yellow boy, come get me.

626
00:43:33,620 --> 00:43:39,900
Then what if this man's prediction for the year 2000 comes true and new evidence in this

627
00:43:39,900 --> 00:43:42,780
UFO sighting is it real?

628
00:43:42,900 --> 00:43:47,060
This boy's remarkable story of a miracle in medicine.

629
00:43:47,060 --> 00:43:52,740
Until next time remember no mystery is closed to an open mind.

630
00:43:52,740 --> 00:44:00,740
For Sightings I'm Tim White.

631
00:44:00,740 --> 00:44:07,380
Next on Sci-Fi, The Sentinel.

632
00:44:07,380 --> 00:44:08,380
Gary Sinise.

633
00:44:08,380 --> 00:44:09,380
What did you people do?

634
00:44:09,380 --> 00:44:10,380
And Laura Sanjiakomo.

635
00:44:10,380 --> 00:44:11,380
We are dead.

636
00:44:11,980 --> 00:44:15,980
And this is...

637
00:44:15,980 --> 00:44:16,980
Help!

638
00:44:16,980 --> 00:44:22,260
Stephen King's The Stand continues tonight at 9 Eastern and Pacific on Sci-Fi.