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The Agents of F.L.A.S.K.

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11,912
Location
Southern California
Woman has a pet dog who was a loyal companion for almost a decade. The pet passed away in August. Not long afterwards, the couples security camera picks up a picture of the woman with a dog (the dog?) next to her, when there was no dog around. She claims it’s the ghost of her beloved dog...But… do dogs have souls/spirits? Are there other stories that support this? Where do you draw the line? Do most mammals have “spirits”? Cats? (I’m sure Lizzie has an opinion about cats.). How about that cow that contributed to last night’s hamburger? The further you go down this theoretical rabbit hole, the stranger it gets. I suppose I lean towards humans being somehow special in this regard. But why? No good reason. …of course, everything is simplified if there simply are no such things as ghosts.
We have a very good friend (I haven't named names, so I can reveal this) who is a self-proclaimed psychic. Now, I'm normally one of the most skeptical people in any room but, several times over the nearly 30 years that we've known her, "predictions" she has made actually happened. Nothing that would make the evening news, but smaller more personal things like telling a co-worker, "You should have a doctor check on that stomach ache," which turned out to be cancer, or "So-and-so is going to be moving to Las Vegas," two years before it happened. Yes, both of those really happened. And more. Anyway, she says that animals do indeed have souls, but that they're "younger" and "not as developed" souls compared to what most humans have. In fact, our souls currently inhabiting human bodies on this planet were once inhabiting animal bodies as well. That's how reincarnation works--it's like going through school. *Our souls start out in a more primitive body--an animal, for example--and as we learn and grow we "graduate" (or progress) and reincarnate in more advanced bodies with more sophisticated consciousnesses, like going from Kindergarten to College as we pass each grade. So, yes, according to her, cats, dogs, cows, rabbits, humans, and so on, all have souls (as we refer to them).

That photo with the "ghost dog" could be what people who believe in such things call a "visitation"--her dog appearing in the photo just to let her know that, wherever it is, it's okay. It's the same thing as, say, your Grandmother appearing in a dream just to have a casual chat with you a month after she passed away; nothing overly important, just Grandma letting you know she's fine.


*Oh, and the aliens we refer to as "Grays"? She says they keep coming to Earth because they have no souls, but are aware of the concept and are attempting to sort it all out by observing we humans.
 

Fifty150

One Too Many
Messages
1,849
Location
The Barbary Coast
Here's a mystery. No. Not the obvious. "Global Warming" is not causing fires. People are setting fires. The real mystery is how do you collect the bear urine for drinking. A woman in the woods was trying to boil bear urine for drinking. How did she collect it? Does she have a bear trained to urinate into a 5 gallon bucket? Did she tie down a bear, and insert a urinary catheter?

upload_2021-9-30_22-44-14.png
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,172
Location
Oahu, North Polynesia
^^^^ I recall seeing early reports that stated that the Bear-urine-boiling woman was a witch or a shaman. That line of reporting seems to have been dropped (or, at least, I can no longer find It). If you are a reporter, you can’t be too careful these days —you don’t want the Wiccans to call you out.

Re: Stargate. The Russians are apparently in the game too. The official Russian Publication, “Army Digest”, recently published an article saying that special Russian troops can read documents locked in a safe and perform other wonders using ESP.

https://news.sky.com/story/russian-...e-trained-to-use-telepathy-in-combat-11685277

Only a matter of time before we hear that the Chinese are also trying to weaponize the sixth sense.
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Re: Stargate. The Russians are apparently in the game too. The official Russian Publication, “Army Digest”, recently published an article saying that special Russian troops can read documents locked in a safe and perform other wonders using ESP.
Only a matter of time before we hear that the Chinese are also trying to weaponize the sixth sense.

The USSR was long ESP; so too the subsequent capitalist-quazi Bear. He gets his paws in everything.
Russian Special Forces and intelligence utilize remote viewing but I frankly doubt it's a team skill
designate MOS. And anything published out of Moscow for public consumption should always be read
with a salt shaker.
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
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3,172
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Oahu, North Polynesia
So, a sea wolf class submarine hit something in the South China Sea while submerged. Twenty sailors were hurt. So what did it hit? How deep was it? Authorities are not saying beyond that it did not hit another sub and did not run into a seamount. (See update at the end of the article.) was it near the surface and clipped a freighter? If so, why not say so? Happens all the time. My first thought was that they struck a Chinese sub. Apparently not. Maybe they hit a partially sunk cargo container that fell overboard? Maybe they themselves don’t know what they hit. That would be strange. Don’t they have sonar to warn them of nearby objects? Something odd about this story. Maybe only because it happened in the South China Sea, which is contested territory these days.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...bmarines-has-suffered-an-underwater-collision

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/08/1044...ine-collision-south-china-sea-uss-connecticut
 
Messages
11,912
Location
Southern California
^ "...one of the U.S. Navy's highly advanced and secretive..." submarines. They were there to spy on China and, for whatever reason, don't want the world to know. What, like people don't know that goes on all of the time?
 

Tiki Tom

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3,172
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One ex-submariner speculated that they might have been creeping along, just above the bottom, when they hit an uncharted shipwreck or sunken shipping container. I am curious about what type of intelligence can be gathered in this manner.
 

Tiki Tom

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3,172
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Oahu, North Polynesia
Okay, I’ll bite. My excuse is that I’ve been out of the country for a few years and did not watch the History Channel show or anything like that.

The topic: Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. I only bring it up because I read a review of a new book that would have you believe that the U.S. Dept of Defense has been seriously studying Skinwalker Ranch for a few years. It sounds like the ranch is like Disneyland for all things paranormal, from poltergeists to UFOs to cattle mutilation to shape shifters. Then again, it looks like the book was written by properly credentialed and sane people.

https://www.amazon.com/Skinwalkers-Pentagon-Insiders-Account-Government/dp/B09HR54GQF

The book actually got pretty good reviews. But seriously? It all sounds so over-the-top that even “I want to believe” types will roll their eyes.

Any opinions on Skinwalker Ranch? Is it all media hype? Or is there a grain of fact buried somewhere in there?

 
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Lean'n'mean

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,077
Location
Cloud-cuckoo-land
The 'Skinwalker' ranch was sold in 2016 for $4.5 million to a real-estate mogul, who then copyrighted the 'skinwalker Ranch' brand, it's hard to see anything other than a money making enterprise.
Reality TV shows are pretty profitable too, n'est pas ? And we all know how real they are.

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Tiki Tom

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“Final” verdict regarding the family and dog who mysteriously died on a hiking trail in California. The Sheriffs Department says they died of hypothermia.

https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/community/mariposa-and-yosemite/article255157607.html

Although I have no better explanation, I’m not sure this is believable. They were experienced hikers. They brought water with them (although the container was supposedly empty when found). The location of the bodies did not seem to indicate a long, agonizing death. Even the dog hung around and died of hypothermia? Haven’t we established that there was a creek nearby? Seems very odd, to say the least, that all four of them died in this manner. When is the last time that an entire group died of hypothermia?
 
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Harp

I'll Lock Up
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8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
I have seen hyperthermia, which might be probable but for experienced hikers, and local residents
at that, the heat issue should have been known, and, a creek was nearby. Nightfall would have lowered
the temperature, allowing travel, and was the distance from anywhere so great as to be unreachable?
No cacti broken open for its milk? I assume officials have studied the climate issue thoroughly and the lab
and autopsy results lead to this yet it still seems a difficult diagnosis of this tragic episode.
 
Messages
11,912
Location
Southern California
I have seen hyperthermia, which might be probable but for experienced hikers, and local residents at that, the heat issue should have been known, and, a creek was nearby. Nightfall would have lowered the temperature, allowing travel, and was the distance from anywhere so great as to be unreachable? No cacti broken open for its milk? I assume officials have studied the climate issue thoroughly and the lab and autopsy results lead to this yet it still seems a difficult diagnosis of this tragic episode.
I've also read the cause was hyperthermia (abnormally high body temperature), not hypothermia (abnormally low body temperature), but that's pretty much all I've read so anything else I might add to the conversation would be pure conjecture.
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
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8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
I've also read the cause was hyperthermia (abnormally high body temperature), not hypothermia (abnormally low body temperature), but that's pretty much all I've read so anything else I might add to the conversation would be pure conjecture.

Agreed. But this case remains a quandry with unanswered lines of thought.
 

Tiki Tom

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Oahu, North Polynesia
Agreed. Here is some more info. The sheriff says these are the first hyperthermia deaths he has seen in 20 years. The family was only 1.8 miles from their truck. The temp that day could have been anywhere from the 90s to 107 (article quotes various temps). Water container was empty when they were found, but there was still baby formula. Nationally, about 700 people per year die of hyperthermia. No mention of the last time a group of two or more has died at the same time of hyperthermia. Cause of the dogs death is undetermined, but assumed to also be heat related.

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article255212756.html

I’m tempted to leave this case open. By all accounts the couple were seasoned hikers and “locals”. They should have been well aware of the conditions (granted, 8 miles is a long hike on a hot day). It also bugs me that they ALL died, including the dog. Seems that there are no similar cases of multiple deaths while hiking, although maybe we just haven’t heard them yet. Maybe other opinions will be published in coming days. But it sounds like the Sheriffs Department is eager to close the books on this one. I’m not entirely satisfied, but my opinion plus four bucks might pay for a cup of coffee.
 

Tiki Tom

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3,172
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Oahu, North Polynesia
I’m not sure that this is a good idea.

We all know that AI has gotten good enough to quickly and effectively translate human languages in an almost Star Trek manner.

Now a dedicated team of scientists is launching an effort to have AI translate the communications of whales.

https://thedebrief.org/can-we-communicate-with-whales-new-ai-research-is-trying-to-figure-it-out/

Yikes. I’m not sure I want to know what whales are saying. Whales are said to be smart. I keep thinking about the Sperm Whale that sank the whaling ship, Essex, in 1820.

The scientists are hoping this will contribute to solving the riddle of whether or not animals are, in some cases, capable of actual “language”.
 
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11,912
Location
Southern California
Two gorillas, Koko and Michael, were able to learn and use sign language in order to communicate with humans, so that's one non-human species that was able to grasp the concept of language and use it in some capacity. And in recent years I've read a few online articles that stated cat "experts" are now convinced that noises made by the average house cat are strictly for the benefit of "their" humans--the cats are attempting to communicate with us, we merely have to interpret the sounds they make. Speaking as someone who, with his wife, has had six cats as housemates over the last 40 years, I believe in this. My wife and I have actually had conversations with our cats...once we learned their "language", that is.

Some scientists believe whales are extremely intelligent, but I think actual communication between whales and humans could only occur if the two species are able to interact enough to come to an agreed upon understanding of how sounds or motions or signals should be interpreted.
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
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Oahu, North Polynesia
Two gorillas, Koko and Michael, were able to learn and use sign language in order to communicate with humans, so that's one non-human species that was able to grasp the concept of language and use it in some capacity.

I have heard of Koko. Did Koko and Michael have anything interesting to say? Or was it basic survival communication (“I’m hungry”, “I’m cold”, etc.)?
 

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