By Tim Binnall
Hauntings that inspired Hollywood films, high strangeness at Mount Shasta, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence were among the fascinating topics featured this past week on Coast to Coast AM. And, here at the C2C website, we told you about mysterious drone swarms over a US military base, a dog spotted atop the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a curious 'doorway' seen in a Google Maps image of Antarctica. Check out our round-up of highlights from the past week ... In Coast You Missed It.
Northern California's Mount Shasta has long been said to be the site of all manner of high strangeness. On Wednesday night's program, hypnotherapist Dr. Bruce Goldberg talked about his research into the location that has become something of a fixture in paranormal lore. To that end, he recounted the tale of geologist JC Brown, who claimed to have discovered a tomb filled with the enormous skeletons of people who once resided in Lemuria. Goldberg also delved into the unique energy associated with Mount Shasta, where multiple people have mysteriously gone missing, spawning theories that there could be some kind of portal there.
A different kind of UFO story made headlines this past week when it was revealed that Langley Air Force Base in Virginia had been plagued by swarms of mysterious drones that appeared over the site for 17 consecutive nights last December. The curious incursions of unidentified craft were worrisome enough to the military that the matter was passed to the White House where officials grappled with how to respond to the weird 'visitors' believed to be from China or Russia. Maddeningly, most of the proposed methods for dealing with the swarms were dismissed due to logistical or legal issues, and, eventually, the drones simply stopped appearing in the skies over the base.
The true stories that inspired popular paranormal films were explored on Thursday night's program as transpersonal hypnotherapist Kaedrich Olsen revisited the real events behind movies like "Annabelle" and "The Haunting in Connecticut." He observed that the Hollywood depictions of these cases are often exaggerated for dramatic effect when, in fact, the incidents are generally far more subtle and sometimes positive. Olsen pointed to "Annabelle" as an example, explaining that the real doll was said to have been inhabited by the spirit of a lost little girl, rather than a demonic force as was the case with the film.
This past week saw stories featuring several videos of rather strange real events that unfolded around the world. First, in India, a security camera filmed the moment when a couple on a scooter came upon a monstrous lion in the middle of the road, sending the pair running for their lives. Meanwhile, in Ohio, the dashcam of a police cruiser documented cops tangling with a massive inflatable pumpkin that had broken free from a front lawn and rolled into traffic. Lastly, a paraglider cruising through the sky over the Great Pyramid of Giza captured footage of a dog that had somehow made its way to the very top of the sizeable ancient structure.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence took center stage on Tuesday night's program with senior astronomer at the SETI Institute Seth Shostak providing an update on the organization's work. While previously focused solely on radio waves, he indicated that they have started to also look for laser signals that may have an alien origin as well. Remarkably, he noted that SETI has been a largely American effort since it launched in 1960 with European countries strangely expressing no interest in launching their own versions of the program aimed at finding life 'out there.' Shostak also argued that the detection of an ET signal would be hard to cover up because the scientists who discovered it would seek confirmation of the find from other experts.
Perhaps the strangest story of the week centered around a Google Maps image of Antarctica featuring a weird anomaly that resembles a doorway. The puzzling picture spread like wildfire online with many offering fantastic theories for what the peculiar shape could be. Among the more memorable suggestions were the entrance to an alien base, a glimpse of a secret government facility, or even a portal to another dimension. Sadly, these proposals proved incorrect as multiple glaciologists who examined the photo indicated that the 'doorway' was merely an iceberg that had gotten stuck in the continent's frozen tundra.
Coast Insiders can check out all this week's shows as well as the last seven years of C2C programs in our enormous archive. Not a Coast Insider yet? Sign up today.