The Unexplained 10 - Acupuncture, Rennes-le-Chateau, Loch Ness, Toads

The needle and the damage undone. Issue 10 cover.

The traditional Chinese medicine of acupuncture is the cover image and first article in the tenth edition of The Unexplained. The practice of inserting needles into certain points to stimulate the body's energy to relieve pain and treat conditions dates back thousands of years. The article comes with a full length illustration of the main acupuncture points on the human body (see below). 

Chart showing the main acupuncture points on the human body.

The practice also serves other animals, for example the chart for elephant acupuncture points below. 

The elephant's acupuncture points.

The dreary topic of Rennes-le-Chateau continues with an investigation into where the treasure allegedly discovered by Berenger Sauniere may have come from. Cue much Knights Templar chatter and wild speculation. 

A Templar seal.

Still there is nice image of a demon statue illustrating the article. The chap below is generally believed to be Baphomet and he lives at the Templar commanderie at St Bris-le-Vineux. He apparently heavily resembles similar demon statues in the church in Rennes. The article itself goes heavily into Templar history and lore before threatening the reader that the mystery only gets more complex in the next article in the series.

Demon sculpture believed to represent Baphomet.

The highlight of the issue has to be the Loch Ness Photo File which brings together some classic photos of Nessie. 

Is this Nessie?

The image above was taken by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology using a sonar system that triggered cameras and appears to show the head and neck of the lake dwelling creature. In case also be argued that the photo simply shows an inanimate object.

Nessie pictured on 12th November, 1933.

Since the above photo was taken by Hugh Gray it has been a point of controversy among Nessie researchers. Gray estimated the object to be 12 metres long with a dark, greyish flesh which was smooth and shiny. 

One of the more famous Nessie photos.

The above image was taken by R. K. Wilson on 1st April, 1934 and shows what appears to be either a flipper, or a neck, of something breaking the surface of the water. Surely this is the head and neck of a bird?

Nessie smiling for the camera.

Whether the above image is real or not I just love Nessie's cheeky grin. This was one of a series of eight photos taken by Geoffrey Watson in the early afternoon of 3rd September, 1978. It apparently shows the neck and head of Nessie, but you could also say it might be the trunk of an elephant swimming under the surface. 

Toads dancing at a witches' Sabbat.

The Fascination of the Toad describes some of the ancient superstitions surrounding the creature. The article begins with the possible ritual killing of Charles Walton in the Warwickshire village of Lower Quinton on the evening of 14th February, 1945.  The foremost detective of the era, Superintendent Robert Fabian (Fabian of the Yard), led the investigation. He was told by villagers that instead of a dog or a cat he kept natterjack toads and when he visited the deceased's property he found a number of the toads in the garden. Perhaps Walton was murdered because someone had suspected he was a witch?

Isobel Gowdie consorts with the Devil.

A rather surprising (to me) anecdote in the article outlines the association of toads with the traditional training method of horse whispering. In parts of East Anglia, especially in Norwich, horse whisperers were also known as toadmen due to their use of the animal in subduing a horse. "A natterjack toad was taken home, killed, then put on a whitethorn bush for 24 hours until it was dry. It was then buried in an ant hill and left there until the appearance of a full moon. The skeleton of the toad was taken to a stream and watched carefully in the moonlight to see whether the 'crotch bone' floated against the current. If it did it was taken back home, baked, powdered and put in a box; this powder could be mixed with a special oil solution. If you applied this to the horse's tongue, nostrils, chin and chest, the horse would be your servant and do anything you wanted." (The Fascination of the Toad by Frank Smyth, The Unexplained 10, 1980, p.196). 

In Suffolk the ceremony varied slightly with horsemen using the bone whole, wrapped in linen. A horse could be captured by touching it with the bone on the shoulder. It was released by touching the rump. 

The much maligned natterjack toad.

Two odd figures encountered in France in 1954.

The magazine concludes with a couple more UFO Casebooks from Charles Bowen. Curiously the illustrations, which are in the same style as previous features, are now credited to Robert Hunt instead of the magazine's designer Richard Burgess. 

A UFO buzzes a plane on 11th November, 1979 in Spain.

The Unexplained 9 - Rennes-le-Chateau, Origins of Life, Hypnosis, Toads

 

Issue 9. Cover depicts the figure of Asmodeus as seen in the church of Sainte-Madeleine.

A handsome devil figure features on the cover to promote a new series on the mysteries surrounding Rennes-le-Chateau which forms the first article of the issue. The mystery is quite convoluted but basically boils down to a village priest, Berenger Sauniere, who become mysteriously wealthy in the late 19th century following renovations to his church. Stories of the priest discovering hidden treasure soon spread and quickly took in all types of conspiracy lunacy such as the bloodline of Jesus, the Holy Grail and the Priory of Sion.  

The Tour Magdala on the western edge of the ramparts of Rennes-le-Chateau.

When the priest died in 1917 it is estimated that he had spent over a million francs, out of his own pocket, on restoration work without any obvious means of inheriting or earning such an amount. I found this series of texts quite boring on first reading all those years ago and I still struggle with them today. It is a complex web of woven together theories (some of which would later resurface in such material as The Da Vinci Code), but I suspect the truth is a lot less interesting. Sauniere simply conned his parishioners to raise the sums. 

Berenger Sauniere.

Colin Wilson tackles a big subject in a one-off article on the topic of the origins of life. Wilson balances the differing theories of life's beginnings in a stimulating discussion, starting with the theory that the various building block elements (carbon, phosphorous, oxygen, hydrogen, iron), were fused together by lighting to form amino acids. These organic molecules, over millions of years, collided with other molecules to form every size and shape possible until one day a molecule formed that could miraculously reproduce itself. 
 
These molecules formed protein chains, each made up of many different amino acids, with 20 possibilities for each chain in the link. Wilson points out that even if a new combination was tried every millionth of a second it would take more than the entire lifetime of the Earth to form a chain associated with life. The odds against this being one followed by 95 zeros!

Fern like crystals of the amino acid tryptophan, one of the building blocks of life.

Wilson goes on to explain how a 1953 experiment passing electrical charges through a mixture of water, ammonia, methane and hydrogen demonstrated that simple amino acids could be formed in this way. This seemed to confirm that lightning fused building blocks of life together.

Scientist Luigi Galvani (1737-1798).

Galvani's 1762 experiment with frog legs that suggested the brain sends orders by electrical impulse.

Also discussed is Galvani's experiment with electrodes and frog legs which implied that animals and humans are electrical machines. Later experiments also confirmed that trees and plants show a seasonal variation in electrical charge and that all living organisms have an electrical field. Reading the article again after all these years I have to conclude that it is one of the most fascinating, stimulating and entertaining so far published by The Unexplained thanks to Wilson's balancing of the opposing theories and his clear uncluttered writing. 

Automatic painting created by the London housewife Madge Gill under the intervention of a spirit called Myrninerest.

The final article on hypnosis sums up the evidence for and against the possibility of reincarnation. Theories discussed take in race/genetic memory and Edgar Cayce's idea of past life recall coming from a 'universal record' or 'Akashic record' (from the Sanskrit word akasha, meaning the fundamental etheric substance of the Universe). Subconscious role-playing or repressed dissociated personalities coming to the fore under hypnosis are also viewed as possible explanations. The author concludes that hypnotic regression has always, and will always, remain a mystery. 

A witch being burnt at the stake in France in 1680.

The second article about the fortean connections to toads concludes the issue. Writer Frank Smyth details the links to magic and witchcraft such as being used as ingredients in potions possibly due to the poisonous or hallucinatory nature of some species skin secretions. Some witches also kept toads as familiars and 'milked' the creatures for their emissions. 

A popular myth that dates back to the 12th century is the belief that toads carried a gem, known as the toadstone, in the skull. The older the toad, the more precious the stone was. The stones were mounted on a ring and used as a warning against being poisoned. Shakespeare alludes to this myth in As You Like It with the Duke stating:

'Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head'

Extracting the talismanic stone, or toadstone, from a toad's head.

There is no mysterious places photograph for the issue as this is replaced with the debut of a reader's letter page. This initial collection of correspondence has a Cambridgeshire resident take umbrage with the magazine's coverage of spontaneous human combustion and argues the case for a possible cause being a build up kundalini energy.  

Logo for the brand new letters page.