Unexplained disappearances
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Unexplained disappearance is a neologism describing the reputed unexplainable disappearance of objects, animals or people without apparent reason or cause, or in circumstances that could indicate the involvement of the paranormal. Unexplained disappearances are also known by numerous other titles, including paranormal vanishing, mysterious disappearance and strange disappearance.
In some cases, people have been reported to have disappeared into thin air before witnesses. In other cases, witnesses have reported finding evidence related to a missing person, such as a trail of footprints that suddenly ends, which has not been explained. [1].
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[edit] Hypotheses
There are numerous hypotheses surrounding unexplained disappearances, ranging from the mundane; such as hoaxes and missing-persons, to the extraordinary; including involvement of the paranormal.
According to paranormal writer John Keel, many alleged paranormal disappearances may be the result of tears in the fabric of reality, with people or objects somehow passing through a hole out of our known set of dimensions and into another, causing them to become out of step with our world in terms of time and/or space, and thus causing them to appear to vanish. [1][2] Keel's perspective is shared by Hungarian writer Nandor Fodor, who related the phenomena to alleged incidents of teleportation, and loosely described the process as "falling into the fourth dimension". [3]
In his book Paradox Nicholas R. Nelson proposes that there are certain locations around the globe that are linked to magnetic vortices, or where the boundaries between our set of dimensions and unknown dimensions are thin enough for people to pass through given the right conditions, accounting for disappearances and other alleged paranormal events. Nelson named the Oregon Vortex and the Bermuda Triangle as two such locations.[4]
Others have taken a more skeptical approach. Jerome Clark, for example, notes that many claimed vanishings contain a similar narrative and a similar lack of evidence that those involved ever existed, and can often be dismissed as new versions old known hoaxes or variations on fictional accounts. [1] Clark also notes, that some areas with a reputation for vanishings, do not have significantly more instances than other areas with similar geographic/tidal/meteorological condition. [1]
[edit] Veracity
The existence of the phenomena of paranormal vanishing is debatable and many cases have been shown to have been hoaxes. Other incidents, however, have proven more open to interpretation, such as the case of Mary Celeste, and similar incidents in which people have vanished without trace or rational explanation.
[edit] David Lang and Oliver Larch
Two commonly cited vanishing hoaxes are the stories of the disappearances of David Lang of Gallatin, Tennessee, and Oliver Larch from Indiana.
According to stories surrounding him, on September 23, 1880, Lang was walking across the grounds of his farm to meet Judge August Peck; who was approaching his farm in a horse and buggy, when Lang vanished mid-step and in full view of the judge, his wife and his two children, and the judge's brother-in-law. The ground around where Lang had been walking was searched in case he had fallen into a concealed hole, but no trace was found. This story also states that Lang's children later called out to him, and heard a disembodied voice calling as if from a great distance. [5][6]
The story of David Lang was published in Fate Magazine by journalist Stuart Palmer[7], who claimed that he had been told the story by Lang's daughter. However, no trace of David Lang nor his family (including his apparent daughter) was ever found in record from that period, and the entire article was later determined be a hoax likely inspired by the short story "The Difficulties of Crossing a Field"; published in 1909, by Ambrose Bierce, as part of the book Can Such Things Be?. [1] In 1999, the modern composer David Lang based an opera on Ambrose Bierce's story "The Difficulties of Crossing a Field." [1] (The story has also become a popular urban legend).
The story of Oliver Larch (Sometime known as Lerch or Thomas) follows a similar narrative to that of David Lang. According to his narrative, Larch was on his way to collect water from a well one winter when he vanished; leaving nothing behind but trail of footprints in the snow which terminated abruptly, and a series of cries for help that appeared to come from above. Larch's story was later found to be a variation on Charles Ashmore's Trail, published in 1893 by Ambrose Bierce. In some tellings, Larch's story is set in late nineteenth-century Indiana, in others, it is set in North Wales.[2] One particular recurring citation of this variant was as Oliver Thomas of Rhayader, Radnorshire, mid-Wales and the date is given specifically as 1909.
[edit] The Norfolk Regiment
The story of soldiers disappearing into a strange cloud during the battle of Gallipoli in 1915 is another tale of spurious origin. According to the story, three observers, from the New Zealand Army, claimed that on an almost cloudless, breezy day, a cloud stayed stationary over Hill 60, partly obscuring it. They watched the unit (usually said to be the 1/4th Norfolk battalion, but actually the 1/5th) march into the cloud. The observers waited for almost an hour, and then the mist seem to rise, almost vertically, and joined the rest of the clouds in the sky. The soldiers who entered were gone, leaving no trace of their presence. [3]
However, the truth is more prosaic. The unit that took Hill 60 did not vanish into a cloud, but went on from Hill 60 to attack Turkish positions, and was wiped out behind Turkish lines. Their fate was not ascertained until 1919, when the Graves Registration Unit searched the battle site.[4].
There are other errors in the cloud story: there is no official mention of any kind of strange cloud during the battle; the New Zealand observers, if they were even there, were over four miles from the area; the wrong battalion is named, and called a regiment; the date is given as 21 August instead of the true date nine days earlier; and the story is not even told until 50 years after the war. (Paul Begg: "Lost, Believed Kidnapped" in Out of this World ISBN 0-356-17959-1)
The story probably has its origin in a paragraph from The Final Report of the Dardanelles Commission:
By some freak of nature Suvla Bay and Plain were wrapped in a strange mist on the afternoon of 21 August. This was sheer bad luck as we had reckoned on the enemy's gunners being blinded by the declining sun and upon the Turk's trenches being shown up by the evening sun with singular clearness. Actually, we could hardly see the enemy lines this afternoon, whereas to the westward targets stood out in strong relief against the luminous light.
The "Vanished Battalion" of the Norfolks (including men from Sandringham, the royal estate near King's Lynn) suffered heavy losses but did not entirely disappear when it was cut off and surrounded during an unsuccessful British attack on 12th August 1915.
[edit] The Flannan Isles lighthouse keepers
Not all cases of vanishing have been proven to be hoaxes. One such case is the disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in December 1900, who vanished from their duty stations, cryptic log entries with alleged supernatural overtones, and equipment important to surviving the hostile conditions at that location and time of year. However, the official explanation for the disappearances is far more mundane, and it was concluded that the men were swept out to sea by a freak wave.
[edit] Unexplained Disappearances in folklore
[edit] Fairy kidnapping
There are several tales of people vanishing at the hands of faeries, pixies and other supernatural folk. An example is the tale of Jan Coo, who was said to have vanished after being called away from his Dartmoor home by a mysterious voice [5]. This story would appear to be a warning against wandering away from safety on the dangerous moor, woven into a tale involving the little people to make a better story.
Typical tales of faery kidnapping are told by William Butler Yeats in his book, "Mythologies." [8] Yeats describes how many stories of faery kidnappings involve newborn babies or newlyweds being carried off by the faeries. In one such story, a young newly-wed man met a band of faeries who had stolen his wife for their chief to marry. The faeries appeared at first to be mortal men, but the young man realized the truth when he saw them carry his wife away.
[edit] Mermaids
There are also many tales of sailors and fishermen being seduced or abducted by mermaids. They are said to lure men away from land by singing. The mermaid of legend perhaps dates back to Classical times (c.f. Aphrodite rising from the sea), and the comb and mirror are stated in Anna Franklin's The Encyclopedia of Fairies (Paper Tiger, 2004) to signify the vulva. Thus the sexual nature of the mermaid seems a long-running theme, perhaps linked to the possibilities of temptation while at sea.
A very similar scenario is noted in the modern Egyptian folklore tale Al Naddaha.
Celtic legends exist of the Kelpie. This is a horse which, once harnessed or mounted, leaps into the nearest body of water, taking its human captor with it - never to be seen again. Similar stories appear in Scandinavia.
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[edit] UFOs
A number of disappearances involving UFOs have been reported, including that of Frederick Valentich, a 20 year-old pilot who vanished on a flight to King Island in Australia's Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, on October 21, 1978. Valentich took off in his single-engined Cessna 182 from Moorabin Airport, Melbourne. During the flight Valentich told Melbourne Air Traffic Control that there was a large aircraft below him. In his last transmission he said the "strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again //open microphone for two seconds//. It is hovering and it's not an aircraft." There was a bizarre screech heard by Air Traffic Control after he said this, and then silence. When Valentich’s flight failed to reach King Island a full scale search and rescue operation was launched. After five days there was no sign of the pilot or aircraft, despite the Cessna being equipped with a radio survival beacon.[6]
[edit] Unexplained disappearances in fiction
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The idea of paranormal vanishing has proven to be a popular narrative, and many examples of its use as a plot element can be found in fiction.
[edit] Picnic at Hanging Rock
This book (and its successful film) about a group of schoolgirls who disappear in mysterious circumstances is often claimed to be a true story. However, no evidence of this is forthcoming; for instance, there are no newspaper accounts of the event, nor any record of search parties. Neither had anybody searched for the girls between the supposed disappearance and the book's publication - a gap of over sixty years. Despite this, the story is fervently held to be true:
- [7]; "When hearing the news that the story never really happened, people have broken down in tears and thrown hysterics. "They obviously can't handle the truth," says one website [8]. There is obviously, in some people, a need for mystery."
[edit] The X-Files
The disappearance of the sister of Fox Mulder, one of the central characters in the TV series The X-Files, itself plays a central role in the mythology of the series. Much of Mulder's obsession with the paranormal, particularly aliens, is explained by reference to Samantha's disappearance and his belief that she was abducted by aliens. The mystery of her disappearance is also used as a recurring plot line with Mulder occasionally forming, and then usually rejecting, different theories about the true nature of her disappearance.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Clark, Jerome (1993). Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 0-8103-9436-7.
- ^ Keel, John (1971). Our Haunted Planet. Fawcett Crest. ISBN B000EIKKJY.
- ^ Fodor, Nandor (1962). Mind Over Space. The Citadel Press. ISBN B0007E1Y1I.
- ^ Nelson, Nicholas R (1980). Paradox a Round Trip Through the Bermuda Triangle. New Horizon Printing. ISBN 0-8059-2707-7.
- ^ Wilkins, Harold T. (1958). Strange Mysteries of Time and Space.
- ^ Edwards, Frank (1959). Stranger Than Science.
- ^ Palmer, Stuart (July 1953). "How Lost Was My Father?". Fate Magazine.
- ^ Yeats, William (2003). Mythologies. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 70-76. ISBN 0-7661-4500-X.
