Category: Weird History

10 February 2023

‘Something Wicked this Way Comes’: Witchcraft in Scotland and the Curse of Macbeth

The theatre world is filled with superstitions: always turn the ghost light on before leaving an empty theatre, never whistle backstage, tell an actor to ‘break a leg’ instead of ‘good luck’, keep peacock feathers off the stage, and never — under any circumstance — utter the name ‘Macbeth’ inside a theatre.

Categories Paranormal Encounters/Weird History

1 February 2023

Death in Apartment 85: The Kramatorsk Radiological Accident

After the recent fiasco in Western Australia involving a missing -and now found- eight millimetre radioactive capsule containing Caesium-137, I couldn’t help but wonder if something like this has happened before. Because history does enjoy repeating itself and we often don’t learn from our mistakes. And lo’ and behold, it has happened before… more times than I’m personally comfortable with...

Categories Weird History

16 January 2023

The Murky Truth About the Meowing French Nuns

The idea of an outbreak of nuns trading their hymns for the sounds of wailing felines – especially in a medieval French convent – is not only creepy but it also feels like the premise of a film in the Conjuring universe. But where did this story come from? Do we have any proof that it actually happened?

Categories Weird History

9 January 2023

Akhenaten’s Purgatory: Dissecting the Legend of the Mad Pharaoh’s Cursed Soul

According to legend, the angered priests of Egypt put a curse on Akhenaten upon his death to wander the great expanse of The White Desert of Farafra for all of eternity as punishment for abolishing their jobs, their gods, and the destruction of their temples.

Categories Paranormal Encounters/Weird History

7 January 2023

The Bizarre Tale of Ali Razeghi, Fars News Agency, and the Non-Existent Iranian ‘Time Machine’

A bizarre article from the Iranian news agency Fars reported in April 2013 that a local inventor had created a form of time machine. The article was mysteriously removed almost as quickly as it was posted — but not quickly enough to evade the radar of international press.

Categories Weird History

13 September 2022

Zeitpyramide: A Conceptual Representation of our Perception of Time

Thinking about the concept of ‘time’ and our insignificance in the grand scheme of human history can be both daunting and depressing. Even understanding our complex perception of time is entire field of study within psychology, cognitive linguistics, and neuroscience. So in what ways could your average person understand the passage of time, or begin to perceive future events far outside of one’s own lifetime?

Categories Offbeat Travel/Weird History

18 August 2022

The Chaotic Life of Saint Christina the Astonishing: Levitator, Tomb Dweller, Icon

Christina the Astonishing lived her life in what appeared to be constant, unapologetic chaos. Was she chosen by God? Clinically insane? Deeply eccentric? Possessed by a demon? No one knew what to make of her 900 years ago, and there’s certainly no point trying to make sense of her today. Because as her story shows, she wasn’t called Christina the Astonishing for nothing.

Categories Weird History

27 July 2022

The Monsters and Killers of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico

Ghost Ranch, located in Abiquiú, New Mexico, has it’s fair share of interesting stories. The 21,000 acre retreat was once the home and studio of modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe who was infatuated with the barren landscape featured frequently in her art. The area is also an important palaeontology site with an impressively high concentration of dinosaur fossils. And, Ghost Ranch’s...

Categories Paranormal Encounters/Weird History

22 July 2022

A Deep Dive into the History of Niagara Falls’ Barrel Mania

As far as tourist towns go, Niagara Falls, Canada is well worth the pit stop — there’s really nowhere else like it. The Falls themselves, straddling the American and Canadian border on the southern end of the Niagara Gorge, are made up of three separate waterfalls: the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls, and the Bridal Veil Falls. The largest of...

Categories Weird History

18 July 2022

Himeji Castle, Thoughtography, and the Japanese Ghost Story that Inspired ‘The Ring’

In 2002 the English speaking world was horror-struck by a little girl named Samara who crawled out of a well and murdered her victims when they watched her cursed video tape. The Ring, a Hollywood remake of the hit Japanese film Ringu (1998) would kickstart a popular trend of J-Horror remakes including The Grudge (2004) and One Missed Call (2008),...

Categories Paranormal Encounters/Weird History