Folklore

"If I had let myself be ruled by reason alone, I would surely be lying dead somewhere or another in the Siberian frost.

The Siberian taiga: a massive forest region of roughly 4.5 million square miles, stretching from the Ural Mountains to the Bering Sea, breathtakingly beautiful and the coldest inhabited region in the world. Winter temperatures plummet to a bitter 97 degrees below zero, and beneath the permafrost lie the fossilized remains of mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and other ice age giants. For the Yukaghir, an indigenous people of the taiga, hunting sable is both an economic necessity and a spiritual experience—where trusting dreams and omens is as necessary as following animal tracks. Since the fall of Communism, a corrupt regional corporation has monopolized the fur trade, forcing the Yukaghir hunters into impoverished servitude.

Enter Rane Willerslev, a young Danish anthropologist who ventures into this frozen land on an idealistic mission to organize a fair-trade fur cooperative with the hunters. From the outset, things go terribly wrong. The regional fur company, with ties to corrupt public officials, proves it will stop at nothing to maintain its monopoly: one of Willerslev’s Yukaghir business partners is arrested on spurious charges of poaching and illegal trading; another drowns mysteriously. When police are sent to arrest him, Willerslev fears for his life, and he and a local hunter flee to a remote hunting lodge even deeper in the icy wilderness. Their situation turns even more desperate right away: they manage to kill a moose but lose the meat to predators and begin to starve, frostbitten and isolated in the frozen taiga.

Thus begins Willerslev’s extraordinary, chilling tale of one year living in exile among Yukaghir hunters in the stark Siberian taiga region. At turns shocking and quietly moving, On the Run in Siberia is a pulse-pounding tale of idealism, political corruption, starvation, and survival (with a timely assist from Vladimir Putin) as well as a striking portrait of the Yukaghirs’ shamanistic tradition and their threatened way of life, a drama unfolding daily in one of the world’s coldest, most enthralling landscapes.

"

"Haunted Times Magazine was created by Christopher Moon in 2004. Moon wanted to make the paranormal community (and the rest of the community in general) aware that the paranormal was out there and could not only be found, but could be documented.
Prior to publishing the first issue of Haunted Times Magazine, Moon, seeing a true need for formal paranormal education, opened the first public educational event entitled Ghost Hunter University. These one of a kind events are held at various haunted locations around the United States and include seminars such as “Ghost Hunting 101” and “Ghost Hunting 102”.

Ghost Hunting 101 covers the basics of ghost hunting, from ghost hunting protocol, to equipment used in the field, to definitions and examples of positive and negative evidence. Ghost Hunting 102 allows attendees to learn more about the paranormal, delving deeper into its realm. Shadow people, demons, and elementals are discussed, and how to interpret EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) is also a focus during this seminar.

Some of the more notable locations Moon's events have been held, include Belcourt Castle in Newport, Rhode Island; Hotel San Carlos, in Phoenix, Arizona; the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, in Fall River, Massachusetts; The Whaley House, in San Diego, California; The Carolina Inn, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; the Maison de Ville, in New Orleans, Louisiana; The Villisca Axe Murder House, in Villisca, Iowa; the historic Oxford Hotel, in Denver, Colorado; the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, in Staten Island, New York; Waverly Hills Sanatorium, in Louisville, Kentucky; Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Bellevue Biltmore, in Clearwater, Florida.

Television appearances and interviews:

• truTv Network’s “Door to the Dead”
• NBC’s “Today Show”
• A & E Network’s “Paranormal State”
• Travel Channel’s “Most Extreme Places to Stay”
Nationwide radio program appearances:
• Coast to Coast AM with George Noory
• Coast to Coast AM with Ian Punnit
• Kiss FM’s nationally syndicated morning show with Johnjay and Rich
• Providence’s WPRO FM morning show with Giovanni and Kim
• Long Island’s WRCN morning show with Dave and Glenn
• TAPS Radio Beyond Reality
• KHOW Radio, Denver, with Peter Boyles
• Canada’s Richard Syrett Show
• BBS Radio – Beyond Two Worlds Radio Show
• Clear Channel Radio’s Real Paranormal Talk
• A.P.S.R. Paranormal Talk Radio
• Ghostology Radio Show
• Shadows in the Dark Radio Show
"

"Paper Abstract:
Significant research on apotropaic concealments has been conducted by scholars in Europe and Great Britain, as well as in Australia. Similar research in colonial and post-colonial contexts in the United States, however, is still in its infancy. This paper examines the material culture of magic and folk belief in the eastern United States focusing on magical apotropaia associated with domestic and public structures. In particular, it explores the European origins of these practices, their transformation and reinterpretation in the United States and their continuation into the twentieth century.

Symposium Abstract:
Although it has been twenty-five years since British archaeologist Ralph Merrifield published his seminal work, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, the archaeological study of magic in European contexts is still a relatively new field. Bringing together scholars from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, this session will explore the material culture of magic and folk belief, both above and below ground. Emphasis is on the manifestation of magical traditions in Europe as well in various colonial and post-colonial contexts in Australia and North America, interaction with non-Western magico-religious traditions, and the ways in which archaeologists and scholars in related disciplines engage and interpret material evidence of magical belief and practice."

According to legend, the 7th century abbess and princess Hilda of Whitby had the power to turn snakes into stone. This was said to be supported by the abundant occurrence of 'snakestones', actually ammonites which resemble coiled snakes, in the cliffs below Whitby monastery, where Hilda was abbess. Removing snakes recalls the feat of Saint Patrick, who was said to have expelled the snakes from Ireland. Since in 664 Whitby was the location of a synod that discussed the conflict between Irish and Roman traditions of Christian practice, the fact that this legend is attached in particular to Hilda has probably a political as well as a folk-scientific background. The legend thus appears to have originated by the coincidence of unrelated facts and events rather than by a single cause. This is probably a typical rather than an exceptional case for the evolution of legends, which should raise doubts that in general monocausal accounts can fully explain the origin of narratives.