The Chinese Whispers Game

You may not immediately recognize this game by it's title, The Chinese Whisper Game, however, most people have played a version of this game.

It starts with having several people in a circle or line and a sentence or idea composed of a few words is whispered (just once!) by the first person in the circle or line. Each person after repeats, in a whisper, the content heard by the person who whispered to them. The last person, having no-one to whisper the message to, announces, for all what he/she heard, what the statement is at the end of the circle/line. The last person's statement is compared to the first person's whisper and almost always, the sentence/idea is different between the first and last person. Often, when comparing the sentences/ideas, the difference is so great that the result is very funny and players of the game get a big chuckle out of participating in the game.

The video below shows an example of how The Chinese Whisper Game works:


I've mentioned this game on the Urban Legends, Folklore, Myths and Fairy Tales blog because the process and results of this game are very similar to how urban legends work, get passed around, get altered in the telling of tales. As well, Folklore, Myths and Fairy Tales can be changed in a sort of Chinese Whispers Game process.

For those who hear urban legends, particularly macabre and weird tales, and who wonder, "how can this story survive when it seems so unbelievable and ridiculous, so macabre and weird?": well the tales survive because people will pass on details, anyway, if they fit a sort of format. Tales are longer than phrases usually used in any Chinese Whisper Game, but people will pass tales, anyway in the urban legends, folklore, myths, and fairy tales formats because they heard the tale from someone else... weirdness, inconsistencies, obvious blunders can be re-told with the common story-telling statement "this is how I heard the tale."

Sometimes by leaving something spectacular, unbelievable, etc., in a tale, those passing the tale along do so with the intention of leaving a tale intact as it was heard by the tale-teller before... Humans have a need to try and preserve "what came before," and are interested in historical details, nostalgia, remembering, ancestors, etc. We like to be linked to the past as it makes us feel like we belong in the present - but "links to the past" is a whole study and article in itself, so I won't go into this concept further here... It's just helpful to know that stories change with the story tellers and cultures where the tales are being told.

Try this game with some friends and see what happens, how an original statement or phrase changes by being shared with 5-10 people!

Ivan Sanderson's Research - Undervalued, Often Omitted

Something I've learned in a decade or so of delving into Fortean matters is that many Forteans are shunned by mainstream science. In fact, their theories are often pushed right under the rug.

Mainstream science has pretty much validated, in the past few decades, that strange things happen in the Bermuda Triangle - missing aircraft, boats and submarines or the pilots and steersmen of these vessels returning with time lag discrepancies and extraordinary tales of strange experiences. While yet unexplained (sort of - there are "theories" around...), most people - many scientists included - cannot fail to account for the fact that there are so many unexplained events in the Bermuda Triangle region of our globe.

Enter - the theories of Ivan T. Sanderson - which have been floating around but batted away by popular and mainstream science. Sanderson's theories have been around for decades and decades. Sanderson died in 1973, so we can safely assume we're almost FORTY YEARS BEHIND in following up on things he said, studied, wrote, etc.

Now, Sanderson wasn't just some guy who got into unexplained topics and learned "in the field" about things (some Forteans and paranormal researchers ARE filled with knowledge based on just self-study and experience in the field). He held a BA and two MA's from Cambridge University - in the fields of Zoology (BA), Geology and Botany (MA's). This was a guy with feet planted firmly into Science - yet his name isn't very well known unless a person happens to be delving into less popular topics and things the institution of Science calls "pseudo-science."

Very late in his work and life, not long before he passed away, Sanderson put out some of what many Forteans consider absolutely important and pivotal articles (in 1972) based on his research of "vortices" (plural of vortex-es). Sanderson had spent a great deal of time and effort to go into Naval records and Aircraft accident/disappearance records and plotted the events on a map. Almost everything he could get his hands on regarding ship, submarine and plane disasters, disappearances, strange sightings in the air or over water occurred in twelve regions across the globe.

Image SOURCE 

If the map with Sanderson's plotted points is stretched out end to end, the regions (vortices) are in perfect geographical alignment. TWO of the vortices are smack dab at what is called the Devil's Triangle and an even better known area, The Bermuda Triangle. Also, without manipulating any maps of the globe, spreading them out or anything, the vortex points plotted around the globe make a perfect geometrical shape called a icosehedron. This is a 20 sided polyhedron. Gamers would know this as a 20-sided dice shape and may have used such a piece for Dungeons and Dragons and similar games.

Image SOURCE 

The point here is... there isn't altogether as much "mystery" to the Bermuda Triangle as we might think - or at least we no longer have to question steps or stage 1 of "I wonder if something weird is going on in this whole area." (YES already!). Sanderson has mapped out some very important information so these regions of the globe can be studied in greater detail.

There are strange properties in all these vortices (I wonder if they're all, in part, gigantic "fear cage" regions where the magnetic and topographic effects of the region cause the human brain to work differently - as well as magnetic and electronic based equipment on ships and aircraft - just my thoughts). Sanderson's starting point for plotting events on the map was "strange events, accidents, crashes." Basically he started with mapping "weird shyt." However, many scientists are STILL RUNNING AROUND, asking, "is something weird going on?" and still trying to count events and find the same areas geographically that Sanderson plotted almost a full forty years ago!

This research (Sanderson's) has been largely ignored and certainly hasn't been given out to the general public in a "matter of fact" way. THIS SHOULD BE COMMON KNOWLEDGE (and OH, How this, as common knowledge would cut down the crap in beginner's threads of paranormal, science, paranormal and unexplained forums - Hallee-loo-yah!). A lot of mystery and unknowns still surround the Bermuda Triangle but I am weary of hearing - on mainstream science shows on television and what-not, "I wonder if something in the Bermuda Triangle is like a portal or something."

A-hem... Hello!   :)

YES... at the Bermuda Triangle and 11 other known locations of the globe, there are vortices and STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN in those locations that we need to focus on and study. We no longer have to wonder if something strange is a-foot and need to stop trying to take a tally of things in the Bermuda Triangle, move to the next stage of discovery, research, observation and, unfortunately, spending some money to send willing researchers and scientists there.

Just my li'l Fortean rant for today.

:)

Where Did The Visitor From Lanulos Go?

Back in the mid to late 60's a widespread UFO flap happened in the U.S.A. (well, waves of them happened, actually). During the midst of a flap in late 1966, near a town called Parkersburg in West Virginia, a strange being came down out of the sky and out of a weirdly shaped craft - to speak at the side of a roadway (I-77) to one, Mr. Woodrow Derenberger.

The entity gave his name as Indrid Cold. He told Derenberger he was from Lanulos, a planet in the Ganymede galaxy. He told Derenberger that Lanulos was similar to Earth - in that they both have flora, fauna, and different seasons. He also conveyed that there is no poverty, misery, or hunger on Lanulos and that life expectancy is 125-175 years on his planet, as measured in Earth years.

More strangely, when Derenberger came forth with his story, he said the information and conversation didn't happen by way of regular speech. It was a telepathic communication between himself and Mr. Cold!

Source: The Mothman Prophecies (Chapter 5) by John A. Keel

This story didn't end here, however, it became largely unpopular and went out of the attention of mainstream sources. Derenberger was heavily ridiculed after he disclosed details of his experiences. He moved his family a few times to try and get away from nosy and opinionated people, experienced a series of harsh phone calls and other discomforting things that only a non-empathetic public and insensitive groups of people can do to fellow humans. Ultimately the negative attention caused a split in the family and Derenberger lost his wife and kids - only one of whom (his daughter but not his two sons) has come forward in recent years to update or make any statements on this story.

An article with more details on Derenberger and his claims: Indrid Cold

Derenberger died in 1990 and his daugher, Taunia Bowman , has since revised his book, Visitors From Lanulos (originally published, and publishing paid for by Derenberger, in 1971), added some statements and changed some names at the request of other family members.

source

About Derenberger's claims, Taunia has said (in News and Sentinel article June 11, 2011), that she accepted her father's story and had an open mind. She felt that he talked to her about the Indrid Cold/Lanulos topics because he felt he COULD talk to her about it (while he couldn't speak to very many other people, especially the rest of his family about these things).

My final thoughts are that it's a shame that Derenberger was ostracized, ridiculed, to the point of a family split. I am glad that Taunia Bowman, at least, reconciled and spent time with her father so that he didn't miss out on all his family relationships.

Mr Derenberger seems to be the only one who had experiences with Indrid Cold, so now that Derenberger is gone, it looks like there is little hope of understanding the whole Indrid Cold phenomenon better (unless Taunia Bowman still has points to disclose).

It seems the visitor from Lanulos simply is no more.

A True Legend: I Don't Like Mondays

Before the Columbine School Massacre (1999, Littleton, Colorado, U.S.A.), The Ecole Polytechnique Massacre (1989, Montreal, Quebec, Canada), and Virginia Tech Massacre (2007, Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A.), there was Brenda Ann Spencer. It was Miss Spencer who said, "I don't like Mondays" as part of her response when asked by authorities why she opened fire with a .22 calibre rifle upon a school yard populated with Elementary level children. The horrific event happened long before the Columbine, Canadian Polytechnics school and Virginia Tech shootings, on January 29th, 1979. Miss Spencer was 16 years old. The San Diego, California, school-yard that Spencer riddled with bullets was the Grover Cleveland Elementary School.

As the news was breaking on this incident many decades ago, songwriter Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats read about it from a telex report via WRAS, the Georgia State University campus radio station. He was doing an interview at WRAS and was sitting beside a telex machine, so he couldn't help but see the news as it came through. This event so moved Geldof - with its senselessness and the "I don't like Mondays" explanation that he wrote a song related to the shooting. He has explained that he tried to write an equally senseless song for a senseless event, rather than try to exploit the event. In fact, the song wasn't intended to be hyped or promoted heavily and was meant to be a B-side cut, however, The Boomtown Rats began playing it and crowds liked it, and after its release, became a top ten hit. The song was on the Billboard Charts for four weeks, summer 1979.

The Boomtown Rats, "I Don't Like Mondays" - a Live performance, Dominion Theatre in London UK, 1985:



Some lyrics from the 3rd verse:

"And all the playing's stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with the toys awhile
And school's out early and soon we'll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die [...]"

The chorus has background singers asking repeatedly, "Tell me why?"
and Geldof anwering, "I don't like Mondays."

Here's one of the breaking news articles from 1979:
The Milwaukee Journal - Jan 29, 1979 - Page 4 "Sniping Suspect Had a Grim Goal."

Miss Spencer caused the death of two people and injured 9 more, of whom 8 were children. Custodian Michael Suchar and the school's Principal, Burton Wragg died from Spencer's armed assault. Suchar died while trying to pull the school Principle away to safety.

Spencer was tried in the court of law as an adult because her crimes were so awful and severe. She pleaded guilty for murder on two counts and of assault with a deadly weapon. She received the penalty of 25 years to life in prison, and became eligible for parole in 1993.

Don't worry - Spencer is still locked up. At parole hearings, since 1993, she has been denied four times. She's not eligible to sit in front of officials to ask for her freedom again now until 2019. Her last parole hearing was in August 2009.

I found some decent documentary vids on youtube about the Cleveland Elementary School shooting and Brenda Ann Spencer.

Part one shows some clips from TV that were aired on the day of the shootings and shows interviews of some people in the San Diego community who remember the shooting, the victims - including Pricipal Wragg's family. These interviews are a contrast to Brenda Ann Spencer's mother in the filmwork. Part 1 of 5 below:



More details of the school shooting. Eye-witnesses and survivors recall what happened on January 29, 1979 at the schoolyard of Cleveland Elementary School. Part 2 of 5 Below:



Part 3 of 5 Below:



Part 4 of 5 Below:



Part 5 of 5 Below:



This was obviously filmed prior to Spencer's August 2009 parole board hearing because in the film, someone says her case will be heard in 2009, four years or within four years of the time in the documentary. Spencer did NOT get released in August of 2009. She still resides in Chino, California at the California Institution For Women.

Although this story of the Grover Cleveland Elementary School Shooting is from the past and is legendary in proportion - containing mystery and with a history that is hard to believe and take in - this is no urban legend. This one really did happen...

What is a meme?

Perhaps you've been hearing the term, "meme" around and are wondering what it means. I just used a popular meme in the last post, so it's time to explain "meme," beyond casual mention and instead of simply spreading a meme (Chuck Norris Facts meme) further online.

First off, if you've been pronouncing this word as "maim" because of the way it looks, don't worry - I did for a while when I first started seeing the word, too. I had to correct myself to pronounce it properly as, "Meem."

Basically, a meme is an idea or symbol that circulates through culture(s) in a similar manner as a virus. Memes are viral. (I mentioned in a previous post that memes are often inside urban legends... some urban legends are viral, spreading like a virus). So if you imagine how a flu spreads, you'll understand how quickly concepts/ideas and symbols spread, only with a meme, an abstract thing spreads. With a flu virus, an actual living organism spreads - a physical entity. With memes, the symbols, ideas and concepts - the abstract details are infectious.
(source)

Where a physical (flu, for example) virus is limited to physical contact in order to spread, replicate, extend outward and infect multiple times, a meme can probably spread even faster than a flu virus because it can be spread faster than we can walk, touch each other, physically infect each other. Sure, memes contained inside urban legends and urban legends themselves will spread in a similar way as a flu virus if we gather people together for story-telling sessions; each group who hears the meme/legend can walk away from one session and begin another elsewhere with different people and thus spread the meme/legend. This, however, is a rather slow way to physically pass memes, urban legends, a flu virus.

Internet memes spread much more rapidly because they aren't confined to a fully physical environment. One meme can spread to thousands, even millions of internet users from a single source and be delivered electronically in a split second.

Powerful stuff, eh?

Richard Dawkins is credited with coining the word and definition of "meme," and has explained that we need to think of memes in the way we think about genes in order to properly talk about, understand and mentally process the "behaviours" of memes. Discussion about memes is relatively new in society and the study of this information is called memetics. Basically, in 1976, in the book, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, memes are introduced as units of cultural transmission analogous to the gene.

Features/possibilities of a meme:

• it can replicate
• it can spread quickly
• it is not limited to most physical barriers for transmission
• it is a pattern
• it has causal agency (produces an effect/responsible for events or results)
• it can propagate

Memes are pretty powerful units!


Pro/Con about meme units:

• pro - entertainment value can reach a large audience (ie: Chuck Norris Facts)
• pro - can be used to send positive concepts out into society on a mass scale
• con - can be used to send negative concepts out on a mass scale
• pro and con - media can spread negative or positive concepts on a mass scale
• pro and con - memes can 'cycle' ie: have a birth, active time and death
• con - these can be misused, misinterpreted, some memes can be invented, controlled to a large extent (in beginning stages)
• debatable tidbit: many researchers are still discussing the where and whyfor aspects of memes. It is possible that memes continue to circulate while they are "needed" in society and then "die off" when society doesn't need them anymore.

I personally agree with the last tidbit above because I am familiar with urban legends, how they spread, why some of them (not all but some) exist and often - why they exist in one place but not another.

With urban legends, they seem to "stay alive" and circulate in a society that needs the urban legend(s), needs to perpetuate a story, needs to vent out fears and anxieties, etc. Urban legends have a purpose in society - even if many people think most urban legends are just junk, made up stories, fiction, etc (I will always argue that urban legends are NEVER entirely fictitious - in the least, there is something symbolic about an important truth/fear inside each urban legend). In the same way, I do believe that every meme in circulation is active because it is needed and is serving some purpose (not always a good/positive purpose, but a purpose nonetheless).

Check out Dr. Ray Scott Percival's lecture on memes (according to Richard Dawkins' theories):
Part 1 of 3


Part 2 of 3


Part 3 of 3


Each vid is of reasonable length, just under ten minutes long per video.

Enjoy!