SECRETS

There is no such thing as a coincidence. There never has been and never will be.

The most merciful thing in the world is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

The one thing that we truly know absolutely nothing about, is death. Some people may cite religious beliefs of an afterlife, others might claim they just focus on life, but its really something that is totally and utterly foreign to us.

-"EASTER EGGS"

-THE MIRROR BOX

-MEL'S HOLE

-UNIDENTIFIED ANIMALS & ENCOUNTERS

BEKS (BLACK-EYE KIDS)

-BEK ENCOUNTERS

SEPHIRON

-THE HOLDERS

OVERVIEW

A little known fact is that the Eisenhower Interstate system is built over major leylines. Rumor has it, that if specific conditions are met, weird phenomena will occur. Phenomenon the first: Observed while driving westwards on I-80. Two occupants in car, middle of the night, no other cars around. The first sign of this phenomenon is that you will lose ALL radio reception, and devices such as MP3 players, Discmen, tape decks and other music players will cease functioning. Your heater will begin to only dispense cold air, regardless of setting. After the first mile of this, you will notice a fog growing at the edges of the road, and you will see no exits, regardless of whether they were supposed to be there. If you continue on, you will begin to see the occasional pedestrian. Some of them will gesture that they would like to hitch a ride. Under no circumstances should you stop for them, no one has ever stopped and survived. If you see lights approaching from behind, and it is a hearse, do NOT let it pass you. No matter what. After 13 miles, the phenomenon will end, and you will be safe.

There's a small building somewhere in north western America, up along the border between Oregon and Washington. It's just a short, little, old shack in the woods, off the highway. Anyways, inside, there's a spiral staircase made of grating that goes straight down. If you go all the way down, you'll find yourself stepping out into an endless field of tall grass. There are many bones surrounding the bottom step of the stairs, and things move in the near distance. Nobody who has ever seen these things has come back to say what they are.

There's a small, inconspicuous building called "Padraic Willoughsby (Willoughby?) and Co." in the industrial district of Birmingham, UK. Most of the time, its doors are locked and the windows are draped. However, on February 29th of every leap year, there will be a small plastic container outside the front door containing business cards. On the front of the card it says in large capital letters, "PADRAIC WILLOUGHSBY AND CO. ENGLAND'S THAUMATURGICAL SPECIALISTS". On the back, in nearly illegibly small type it says "The blood of the innocent." Any night after midnight one can come to Paidraic Willoughsby and Co. and slide their card through the door, and the door will instantly unlock. Inside there is an empty room with white walls. No light reaches this room, except for a small sliver from the other end of the room. When you approach this room you will find that it is actually another door. When you knock on it, a voice will ask "What makes a man become exalted?" and you must respond with the phrase on the back of the card: "The blood of the innocent." The door will open and you will come into another room, a kind of lounge. Inside it you will find around 5-10 people, depending on the night, sitting around smoking and drinking brandy, all in late Edwardian period dress. There is absolutely no conversation at all in this room and, it is nearly silent except for the phonograph which plays the exact same record over and over, ad infinitum. If you attempt to speak to one of the patrons, they will promptly ignore you and pretend as if you were not there. Towards the south wing of the room you will find a large, round table, slightly different from the others. On it will be a quill pen and a document. The document shows all of your personal information: name, birthdate, place of residence, criminal record, greatest fears, etc. At the bottom of the document is a long line that asks for your signature. No one knows what happens after you sign it.

There is a book that has only been spoken of in terrified whispers behind closed and locked doors. It is said that only seven people have ever seen this book over the course of all of human history and only four have opened it. Only one man has ever read it. The book...isn't really a book at all, but a machine. The binding opens and locks, with a grate in the center where the pages can slide through. When the book is opened, and the pages lie flat, they can be shifted into different positions. Each page is made of metal, the words embossed on it. On each edge of the page is a specially cut design; no two designs are the same. It is said that one must find the proper arrangement of each of the five hundred and thirty six pages and go to the "Rock of Chaos", where time is the only constant. It is a place of madness where lightning moves from all directions and the sky itself burns with an insane blue fire. The Rock is the face of an immense cliff, the bottom of which can never be seen by mortal eyes lest they go blind and mad. Somewhere on the face of the rock there is a single hole, an opening just the right size for the book. Properly aligned, the book must be brought to this "keyhole" at the exact moment specified by the stars and spoken of within the book. One places the book in the hole at the exact moment, and unlocks the Chaos Chain. This is a chain of pure ether, which runs from our world deep into that of the Void, and there, at the Throne of Darkness, the Chain binds that dark soul who rules the Void and would wreak apocalypse on us all: Unenon, the Blind Angel of Darkness. What the book says...well, only one man ever read it, and it is said that he locked himself in his room for thirty days before emerging, tome in hand, and swore to take the book to the ends of the earth before he died. He has never been seen or heard from since.

If you are watching television, and the signal cuts out to static, turn the TV off immediately. If you watch the static on TV for long enough, the static will suddenly pause. All sound in the room will cease; even the white noise of the TV itself will disappear. If this happens you must not look away from the screen. You will probably not notice at the time, before you lose your gaze on the TV, your body will freeze as well. Time around and with you have paused completely. Specks of the black and white dots slowly come to life, creeping slowly in seemingly random directions. Not static as you know it, but organizing themselves into a moving picture again in front of you. As the static returns to normal, and the white noise of the TV comes back, you will regain control of your body. You must never watch that television again. It will only play static, even when unplugged. If you watch the static any longer, these same events will reoccur, but with disastrous results. What exactly happens is unknown, as it is obvious that anyone that has been unfortunate enough to experience this has disappeared. It is rumored that if one continues to watch the static again, or during their experience, looks away, the white and black specs will slowly start to move again, but you will not. Your eyes will then be permanently fixated on the screen as you watch the picture come back to life, and what seems to be your station's signal return. You learn soon this is not the case, as all sound is still absent, and the picture on the TV shows a familiar surrounding: the room in which you sit. The only thing you see next is movement on the TV, as you see yourself from behind, and subsequently, the cause of your disappearance.

In almost every building, there is one corner, one small enclosure that no one ever looks at. It's the corner in the basement that has been blocked by a disused sofa for years; the thin space in the attic between the wall and the stacks and stacks of crates full of junk you never use, but could never throw away. The space that never sees the light of day, or any other kind of light at all. Where darkness does not merely dominate, but practically oozes out from around the edges of its prison. No one knows quite how long a space must remain concealed for it to acquire this particular property, nor if there are any specific conditions it must meet. But it is a far more common occurrence than you might think.
In newer buildings, when this happens, the residents often report feeling cold when passing by, even in attics during the hottest of summers. Whenever contemplating taking a quick peek to see if there is anything actually there, an unnatural dread seizes them, and they leave the room quickly, if not quite running. Once left behind, the feeling passes, and it is quickly forgotten, or laughed off.
What actually happens in these forgotten sanctuaries of the dark? It is impossible to tell. For while many such corners have been exposed to reveal absolutely nothing, some brave souls have lost their sanity through nothing more than an ill-timed glance. The safest thing to do when encountered with such a phenomenon; close your eyes, rip away the area's covering in a single motion, then keep a tight hold on what you've pulled away. No matter what you hear or feel, do not get up, do not look around, and do not try to cover your ears. You might be one of the lucky ones.

Typing in a certain phrase on /b/ with your e-mail address on the second line will cause you to get an e-mail. It won't say what address the e-mail is from, just 'OTHER'. Don't open the e-mail. Delete it. Opening it will give you a clue as to where you should to 'recieve your reward.' This clue will haunt your dreams for eternity unless you follow it. If you ignored my advice to delete it, then don't follow the clue, no matter how bad the dreams get. If you do follow the clue and find the location, then you will find where the person who sent the message lives. If that person asks 'if you want your reward', say no. The 'reward' is heaven and hell contained within your hands. So to speak.

There's a dark forest deep in the heart of the Rockies, surrounded on all sides by mountains. In the center of the forest is a lake on the shores of which you will find a large black stone. If you swim out into the center of the lake, the stone will drag you down into the darkness. You will emerge from shadows in the alley of a frightening dark city of heavily arched roofs and buildings built on stilts. You must not talk to a single citizen of this city, or you shall be trapped there forever. The citizenry is horrid and mutated, and they will leer and curse at you, and their hideous and deformed women shall offer you unknown and horrible lewdnesses. At the edge of this city is a highway. Walk down the left side of the road (yes, against traffic) with your thumb out and a man in a dark truck shall pick you up and drive you back the way you came. The city will be gone, and he will take you to any place on Earth as long as you can name it and there's a road there.

There are seven words in every Gideon's Bible - the one they stuff in every hotel room - that can't be found in any other bible. If you repeat those seven words to yourself while grasping the doorknob to your room, the door will open to any hotel room in the world. Of course, if you want to control where you're going, you'll need to know the Gideon's Key - one more inserted word, unique to each copy, which acts as an index for each room.

There's a movie theater in downtown Phoenix, Arizona that only plays movies from 1987. If you pay for 3 tickets and buy a large popcorn, they will play a film that shows you your future. If you watch the entire film completely, you will have sleeping problems for the rest of your life.

Legend has it that if you come face to face with your doppelganger, it's an omen or warning of death -- for both you and your twin. Because of this, if you see a replica of yourself, run for your life. If you keep seeing your doppelganger, chances are that your days are numbered, because you'll soon see your demise. There are many stories regarding encounters with doppelgangers, none of them pleasant. Often, a person does not actually see their own doppelganger, but someone else does. Can you be two places at once? No, but it's a very strange feeling when someone who knows you very well insists that they saw you just thirty minutes ago -- and you were nowhere in the vicinity. Imagine this happening time and time again and you'll soon go insane. Hence, the myth that a doppelganger will precede the arrival of the real person. Many stories explaining their experiences with these apparitions have this in common. Perhaps he's one step ahead of you?

If you watch every State of the Union Address since it's been filmed and available on tape, you'll see that halfway through--exactly halfway through--the President always says the same word. Most say it under their breath during the standing ovations, but some are forced to work it into the speech itself.

Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean is an island, surrounded by a swamp filled with the carcasses of fish and other, less recognizable things poking out of the mud. The mire extends as far as you can see. Every so often, the mud will dry enough under that you can walk on it; about a days travel from shore is a large mound, at the top of which is an immense canyon, the bottom of which cannot be seen, although if the moon is large enough you will be able to see the slope of the canyon, and eventually the bottom, which is covered by a strange body of water. Rising from the water is a monolith, which is covered in bas-reliefs.

There is a village somewhere in England that has not been inhabited for over 20 years. It has long since been forgotten off of most maps, and only has one road in and out of it. If you manage to find it, it will seem a peaceable enough place, the derelict buildings being overgrown and nature taking back the land for herself. However somewhere within the village is a vending machine which still has power. it will still have it's original look and sell ordinary brands of drink (though with 20 year old packaging) however the one at the very bottom will be marked "E". pay only in 10p pieces to buy this drink. When you recieve it, before drinking it, peer inside the can to check it's colour (do not try to pour some out. it will refuse to
leave the can despite vigorous shaking). if it's green drink heartily, it will give you an unnaturally long lifespan and go luck in everything you do. if it is red, however, it will spread a horrific pestilence over you, claiming one of your senses every 10 years after you drink it.673

At the edge of the Pacific Ocean, on some abandoned beach in the tropics, there is a large, smooth rock that sits just beyond the reach of the highest tides. It is not cracked or marked in any way, and the smooth black stone reflects even the faintest of light. It's curved and formed in just such a way that if you are very careful, you can climb on top of it from the side, and stand on a flat area at the top. If you stand on the rock when the moon is full and shining, and the water is at its highest point, you can see something in the sea below you. A faint shimmer of light, a flash of something you can't quite identify. It gets brighter, easier to see as you kneel down and lean closer, over the edge of the rock. Once you are leaning out further than would probably be safe, your left leg will slip on the slippery stone, and you will fall forward into the light. There is no splash, no sound; you simply disappear into the ocean. No one knows what happens after you disappear. But there are some who claim to have fallen off the same rock, what seems like a lifetime ago. According to the earthly calendar, they were gone for one day, and then washed up on another beach, sometimes half a world away. But their eyes are hardened, and they rarely speak anymore, only occasionally muttering of fiery paths and gibbering demons.

The lottery gives you a three digit number and a four digit number each day. What else has seven digits split into three, then four? It's a phone number. The lottery is a telephone oracle. Whoever is on the end of the line when you call that number knows something that you need to know, though sometimes getting the prophecy out of them can be difficult. It helps if you have a winning ticket, I believe.

If you kill a person at midwinter, and then bathe in its blood two days later you will live as long as the other person would have lived if you hadn't killed him. This only works for people of your own gender, though. Bathing in the blood of another gender will kill you, and bring the person you killed back to life for as long as you would have lived.

Everyone has a ceramic egg that is right for them. It's hard to explain what's 'right' about the eggs, but you'll understand when you find it.

In the most deserted part of Wyoming there is a restaurant. There are no roads leading to it, no signs advertising it. It's just there, in the open. Walk inside however, and you will learn two things. One, it's jam packed with people talking, eating and enjoying themselves. Two, the entire place looks like it's a scene from the 50's including the people, the food, the newspapers, the music, everything. Take a seat, observe the atmosphere, relax. When the waitress comes to get your order, make it a cheeseburger with mashed potatoes. Afterwards, a red-haired lady should ask you to date to a tune on the juke-box. Find the song on it that has the same number as your current age, pick it, then dance you heart out. When the song ends, a flash of light with engulf the whole scene, and you will be standing outside your home the following morning.You now should have the power of clairvoyance for the remaining year. If you did not, then woe is you. For you also missed out on the best fries and shake you'll ever eat.

They say that the olfactory senses (the sense of smell) is the sense closest linked to memory. Go on eBay, or to a high-end antiques dealer. Find an item made a good amount of time before you were born that was hermetically sealed, vacuum packed or tightly packaged in some way. Make sure you are in surroundings of completely neutral smell with little or no wind. Open the package. The smell should hearken back to your collective subconscious or memory of a past life. If you are successful in choosing the right item, with the right smell, you will have at least a memory flash, or likely a memory flood of years before you were born.

Rumor has it that every Halloween during the hours of 2am and 5am, there exists a void. You must stand in front of a mirror in a pitch black room with your gaze fixated on the mirror. If you remain in the room when the moment arrives, you will feel a chill seize your body. Place your right hand on the mirror and whisper "I accept." If done correctly, in the mirror there will be a faint image of a fleshless infant with pitch black eyes. He will stare directly into your soul and you will hear the buzzing of flies and nervous whispering. You will not be able to make out the image in the mirror but you will be filled with unspeakable terror. The infant will ask you five questions about events that have occurred within your life. His voice will sound like the rubbing of sandpaper and will be devoid of all emotion. For each question that you answer incorrectly, one of your five senses will be consumed. For each question that is answered correctly, you will be able to recite the name of someone you know. That person will be found dead the next morning, after a night of unimaginable horror, with their flesh removed and their eyes missing.

At 12:17 am, on any given night, arises the opportunity to awaken an alternate soul. The most common way of viewing them? Through a mirror.
It is through said medium that the process must take place. Begin at exactly midnight. By no light but that of a single candle, stand before the selected mirror. For ten minutes you must concentrate in silence, focused entirely on your reflection. Do not look away from the eyes; for it will be interpreted as weakness and you will be overcome.
After ten minutes have passed you must draw blood to smear in a line across the eyes of your reflection. Doing so will blind it, and you will watch as your own features begin to warp. Slowly, gradually, they will mutate into a frightening creature--one beyond the comprehension of those who have not experienced it. You must not look away through the entirety of the change.
Soon the writhing movements of the image will cease. By now an echoing, inhuman sound will resound all around you--the creature will begin to ease toward the mirror's glass. You must keep watching as it approaches.
If you do not extinguish the candle at exactly 12:17, the creature will escape.
Be warned, should you succeed; through any polished surface--be it mirror, wood, or window--your reflection will always be watching.

A secret society meets once every three years at a small diner in West Virginia. To join, you must come to the American Grill diner located in Cricket at 9:30 PM on September the twenty-first. The only uniform is a heavy overcoat and a green tie. Order an "Eggs and bacon platter with coffee." The waiter will tell you that the breakfast menu is unavailable, reply, "Well, just the coffee then." You'll be allowed to stay after closing time for the meet. The meeting itself is a meeting of minds and philosophy regarding immortality. The society is called "The Socratic Method." They hoist their mugs at the beginning and end of the meeting and say "Death to Socrates." It's rumored a little hemlock is added to the first cup, and an antidote to the last.

They say that somewhere in western America, some say in Utah, others say on the California coast, there's a small motel on the side of the road. When you go inside, it's decorated in very common hotel attire, with the paneling and old fashioned key-lock doors. The thing is, there's a room in there for everybody. Everybody has a reservation for exactly when they show up, and the number of rooms available is always one more than the number of people there. One person to a room, that is the rule.

On the east bank of the Susquehanna River somewhere in central Pennsylvania, there is a small patch of ground where no plants will grow. At the right time of day, at the right time of year, the sun shines directly on this spot. If you stand there at precisely this time, a whirlpool in the river will appear, revealing a trap door leading to a system of identical tunnels. If you can successfully navigate through the maze of tunnels, you will find yourself face down in an alley behind an Irish pub called Kelley's just outside Boston, with no memory of how you got there. In your pocket, you will find a day planner. Important events of the future are described within, but in random order and no dates.

Look behind you. What do you see? Invariably, there will be a wall somewhere in your view. Now stare deeply into the space on the wall that lines up best with your eyes. Nothing will happen, but makes sure you are clear on where this particular spot is. That spot contains all the negativity in your mind. Whenever you are on your computer, reading scary stories or whatever you do, sometimes you will get spooked. what do you do when this happens. You check behind you, thats what you do. As you read this now, a feeling of dread will come over you. Check the spot. Nothing again. Thats because right now, all the evil is locked safely in your mind. Some people, upon learning of this "negative spot" resolve to remove the spot in an attempt to remove the negative energy. This is a grave mistake. You must never let harm come to this spot. If you do, you will have released the energy. Now when you sit at your computer at night, you will feel chills even in the summer time. The feeling of dread that only presented itself when you were genuinely scared will now hang in the air constantly. Within a week you and your loved ones will have a string of bad luck. On the anniversary of the spots destruction, you will dream of your most horrible fears. The dream will seem to go on forever, and when you wake up you will notice your vision has darkened. Every year on the same day, the dream will repeat itself, and your vision will grow darker and darker. After you go totally blind, don't ever turn your back on that spot again. That is if you can still tell where it is.

There is a house somewhere in China, built some time after the First Emperor has unified it. The house is built in treacherous terrain, and has not been seen by human eyes for some time. The architecture is typical of Imperial China, but that's not the strange part. If you stay in the house, you'll notice something very strange. If you take measurements, you'll find that the inside of the house is larger than the outside. First it'll be a fraction of an inch, than an inch, then a foot, then a yard...you'll even notice features from the inside that are impossible to find externally, like extra rooms and hallways. Going within these is safe, and you can see the outside, but strangely enough no one AT the outside can see you or the feature. Most people get out at this point, but their vision is forever altered; the world keeps distorting in dimensions and size in their eyes. Then there are those who choose to stay further, and have never been seen again. It is said that they occupy the parts of the building that only reveal themselves to those who stay longer.

There is a small island in the Mediterranean Sea that does not appear on any map. It cannot be seen from any other island, nor can any other land be seen from it. On this island is a lighthouse, rotting from age and sea water, which is never lit. There is nothing inside it, save for a spiraling staircase that leads to the top, and an ancient, dusty bookcase. The case is filled with unmarked books; bound in ancient leather, save for a single space. If you remove a book from the shelf, it will fling itself open in your hands, and the words inscribed in it shall start screaming to the air. You must wrestle the book closed and shove it back on the shelf, or the immortal evil contained within its pages shall break free, and you will be forced to take its place, with pages, ink and binding crafted from your own flesh and blood. However, if you bring the correct book to the island, and place it in the empty space, the lighthouse will light. As long as it is lit, the world shall enjoy an unending paradise, for all the evil in the world will be contained in the lighthouse. And while it is lit, nothing can go in or out. The only problem; you will be trapped for eternity with all the evil ever known or conceived, by man or god. And the only way to escape is to douse the light.

There is a moment each leap year, at exactly three minutes past three on the morning of February twenty-ninth. If you possess the courage, await that moment in darkened room, with no other present. At that moment, the darkness will deepen. If you were to hold you hand directly before your face, you would not see a thing. But you must not do so. No, for that would be to waste the moment. Instead you must reach out, into that impenetrable darkness. And it will reach out to you. An unseen hand will grasp yours. You must not flinch away, nor tighten your grasp. To do so will only slough away more of the decrepit flesh that covers it, and anger its unseen owner. Remain perfectly still, as the withered fingers move over your palm, tracing unknown patterns. Do not move an inch as it crawls slowly up your arm. And most of all, do not even breathe as it caresses your face, touching what cannot be seen. Should you remain still through this, the hand will be withdrawn and a voice will speak, so close you can feel its breath on your face, smell the scent of decay it carries. It will ask you for one simple piece of information: your name. Answer truthfully. Answer truthfully, and the presence will retreat, leaving only a whisper in the air as the darkness lifts. "It is done." From that day on, untold good fortune will be yours, and mysterious power. You will lack nothing, and have everything. But in a year, perhaps two, you will feel your skin begin to decay, and smell the sweet smell of death upon your breath...

There's a tent in a traveling circus in the India. Inside this tent there's a man who is an expert in poker, you can recognize him because he always bets exactly 2 U.S. dollars and 31 cents. If you beat him after 3 rounds, he will bet his soul on the 4th round. Nobody has ever beaten this man on the 4th round, and if you lose well... You don't want to know.

Somewhere in Ohio, there's a soda-vending machine that instead of selling root-beer, inside the can you'll find the cool, carbonated blood of people who go missing on roads in the middle of the night. It does not take paper money, despite having the apparatus necessary.

In a small suburb of western Detroit, there is a manhole on the road which leads directly down to a dead end. The manhole was originally a large pothole created by two fathers who'd been dared to dig a hole in the middle of the road. They hit a natural shaft leading downwards, and plummeted 200 feet to their death. Sometimes, when homeless people are looking for a warm place, the crawl into the sewers. When the crawl into that manhole, they fall to the bottom, and die.

During the noon of a day of June, a rare, one-in-a-year light phenomena provokes a raindow-colored circle appear around the sun. This phenomenon makes it possible to stare at the sun without harming your vision. The rumor says that if you stare at this circle for exactly 1 minute and 3 seconds, your lifespan will increase for 1 year and 3 days. However it will be followed by 2 months of impotence.

In the town of St. James, Missouri, there is a surplus store where the back room is always kept unlocked. Behind one of the shelving units is another door. Behind that door is the secret of perpetual motion. But this secret would destroy you.

If you bathe naked a whole night under the light of the full moon, you'll be able to attain a 3 hour erection the following day.

There's a band of roving pirates somewhere in the world, it doesn't matter whether you are on the high seas or you're a landlubber, they have been known to be able to plunder anyone, anywhere on the planet Earth. Only their captain knows where they will strike next.

If you go to Montpelier, North Dakota, you will find a small school. If you go into the school, and then proceed to the basement, you'll find yourself in a boiler room. Go into the boiler room, and you'll see blood spattered on the walls. On closer inspection, the blood forms a pattern... Words. Before you can read the blood, the lights turn off. You try to leave, but the door has slammed shut and is locked. It is said that fifty years ago, some punk kids locked the janitor in the boiler room while it was malfunctioning, exploded, and killed the janitor and the children. The spirit of the janitor now haunts the school, and lures children into the boiler room where he murders them in an act of revenge.

There is a Wal-Mart somewhere in Indiana, with a concealed trapdoor in the frozen food section. If you tap on the door three times with your left foot, a voice will ask you for a toll. Open the trap door, put three lemons inside, and close the door. After ten seconds, you will hear a knock on the trapdoor and find a red piece of paper that tells you two of the following three things: the exact location of your death, the manner of your death, or the exact date and time of your death.

Every 23,375 days, exactly at 12:04PM (at exactly 64 equal rotations of the planet) at zero degress latitude, and zero degrees longitude, the tide of the ocean will suddenly drop, a building roughly the size of three city blocks, covered with bas reliefs will rise suddenly from the depths. This building will then begin to sink immediately, and will submerge completely within 2 minutes. According the eyewitness accounts, the reliefs depict certain famous events in human history, including events that had not yet happened.

Every version of the Old Testament contains instructions for creating a real golem hidden in the text. Rumor has it that the principal ingredient is semen spilled during an act of incest-by-marriage, in much the same way that Onan did. This is difficult to research, however, as Israel tracks down and kills anyone who threatens to become too successful and steal their monopoly.

In the hills surrounding the town of Bodega Bay in California, there is a tree, sitting right in the crook of two hills. Scattered 10 paces around it are 7 different fresh-water springs. It is said that one of them cures any disease, another grants immortal life, 4 will kill you instantly and cause your body to dissolve into powder. But the last spring is special. If you bottle water from this one and take it to a small cave hidden in the hills north of the tree, you will find a single large stone at the back of the cave. If you then splash the water on the stone, it will dissolve, leaving you a baseball-sized red stone. As long as you have this stone in your possession, you will always be in the right place at the right time. If you pour water from any of the other 6 springs on the rock, the cave will seal up, and you will be lost forever under the earth.

All mirrors are actually windows to another world. This world cannot be reached, and shouldn't be reached, as all our mirror-selves are extremely malicious. Try watching the edge of the mirror after sneaking into a room. The images we see in the mirror are the pure incarnates of evil. They are only allowed to exist in the area reflected in the glass. They only come to exist, though, once a person has gazed into them. To them, life is like a never-ending hell, rotting away in the same room day after day. The only release from this purgatory is death, and the only way for them to die, is if you die. They are bound by a code, though. You are their master, and they must mirror your every movement and expression. To do otherwise would break an unbreakable law, unraveling existence. However, there is a loophole, and it can only be triggered by you. To force them into error is to free them from their contract; by letting them out of your view. Know this: when you watch them, they're watching you back. They're watching. And they're thinking. There was a time, though, when things weren't always like this...

If you go to New York and order a deli sandwich "with several travesties" (any deli owner worth his salt will know what you are talking about), they will slip an envelope between the turkey and they cheese. If you can remove it without exposing it to any mayonnaise, the secrets within will be yours forever.

There is a certain road near the Everglades in Florida, which, if you drive down it alone in the rain, day or night, you will suddenly have a very real feeling of being completely lost. Your radio will turn to static, your CDs will skip, and your tapes will play slower than normal. If you try to find a map in your car, it will have mysteriously vanished.
If you continue forward down the road for more than a minute, you will find that you can't turn around, and everything behind you is pitch dark. There are no other roads and no other cars.
Continuing down the road, you will come upon a fork with no signposts. In the middle of the fork, there will be a man, covered head to foot in various pieces of clothing. The only skin visible will be around his eyes, which will be bright green.
You must get out of your car, but do not turn it off or close the door after you. You must approach the man, but stop at least three feet away. You must stand there silently, waiting for him to speak first. If you break the silence first, you will find yourself back on a main road, but you will die within 24 hours.
If he speaks first, he will ask you what you require. Tell him that you need to know which road will take you to your destination. He will then ask you what you will offer him in exchange for his assistance. If you offer him a ride, he and your car will disappear, and you will become the new guardian of the crossroad. If you offer him an umbrella, he will take it and stab you through the chest. If you offer him your love, he will take your heart still beating from your chest and eat it, condemning you to walk the earth without a heart, insane from the pain and loss.
You must offer him your loyalty and kneel before him. If you do this, he will close his eyes and bow in return, extending a hand to whichever path will lead you back to safety.
If you try to run from him, you will be dead before you reach your car, and your body will be found back in your car in some random location.

On the farthest point of Long Island, the last scrap of land that still counts as New York, there sits a tremendous, abandoned building. Protected by its own isolated location, there is also at any given time two to three Security Guards there. However, if one approaches the cast iron gates on the night of December 4th, even those few security guards refuse to work. The gates are left unlocked, and the wind will be utterly still, a nearly opaque fog filling the peninsula. Go directly to the main doors and step within, there will be a single long hallway , the end occluded by that fog. If you look to either side upon entering, you will see a modern operating room through a glass door. The farther you walk, the older the equipment will get, the more old fashioned the doctors will be dressed. As you can finally see the end of the hallway, the screams of the patients will be nearly deafening. The hall will terminate in an open door leading to a single wooden table, a man in woolen medical clothing, stained brown from blood, will be bent over a corpse. The body's face will be covered, and the man will turn silently, screwing the top onto a cloudy jar of liquid, filled to the brim. He will hand this abnormally heavy object to you, before turning back to his work. Instantly, you will be outside of those cast iron gates. From that point on, disease and injury will never affect you, but if you ever open that cloudy jar and pull out the contents... you will find a heart, pulsing and beating loudly in your palm. A sudden feeling of horror and revulsion will pass through you as realization strikes, that you have just pulled your own living heart from your chest.

In New York City, there exists a pathway somewhere on the FDR drive that is only accessible at 2:30 A.M on either the winter or summer solstice. During any other day of the year, this pathway does not exist.
Furthermore, the only way you can enter this pathway is mainly, by accident, since consciously thinking about it will prevent it from emerging.

It is said that somewhere in the desert, no one knows which desert but it is within a desert or at least a large place wholly made of sand. There stands a single unwithering red rose. Of course you could just pick it and keep it but that would just give you a never withering rose. The true power lies within the fact that if you bring it ten rose petals (Three from a pink rose, Two from a red rose and Five from a white rose.) on a new moon, a new never withering rose will sprout and you can pick it. You can repeating this trick as long as you like and yes the roses themselves are not fake and they never wither so they make for a great gift, the only problem is that you have to find the right rose in the right desert.  It is said though if you give it a black rose and the blood of a new born goat a black rose will sprout, once that is picked, it is rumored that you will receive a rose whip but no one knows if this has never been tried.

If you wait at any given train station and keep watching a train will show up that isnt on the train schedule. If you get on the train you will find that the inside of the train, despite what the train looks like on the outside the inside will be very elegant and old fashioned.
Have a seat and enjoy the train ride. By this point there is little you can do to save yourself and you should enjoy this short period of luxury that precedes the horrors you will face.
The train is full of other passengers dressed very fancy and in an old fashion. there will be waitresses and waiters that will serve you. When the train makes a stop get off the train. If you do not get off at this stop then the train will continue on but all the passengers will be rotting corpses and the train will never stop, the entrances will be sealed and you will be stuck until you die in that rancid train filled with quietly rotting corpses.
After you get off the train you will be in another train station this one is completely empty and decrepit. A man with a pocket-watch hanging by a chain will come up to you and simply say "you are late."
At this point you must apologize for being late, then blame the train. If you respond in any way other then this, the man's appearance will distort right in front of you: his face will be rotting, discolored flesh and one of his eyes is out and hanging by the optic nerve.
You will find yourself paralyzed where you stand. Slowly, his mouth will begin to open until it is roughly the size of your head.  His head will begin to lean in, and then the mouth will begin to cover your head.  At the point where your head is fully in his mouth down to the neck, his yellowed sharpened teeth will close around your neck and cut it off.  The pain will be excruciating,  and yet you will remain fully conscious until he swallows you.
However, if you responded correctly he will hand you his pocket-watch. By merely holding this watch you will be able to go to any train station.  Once there, a train will arrive that can take you to any train station in any time or location that you desire. However, should you forget to wind the watch and it ever stop, NEVER take that train again.
If you do, you will arrive in the train station once again with that man who gave you the watch--and this time he will not bother asking any questions.

In four different subway stations around the world, there are four different hobos.
If you speak to one for a while, they will start to recount tales of incredible treasure that they accumulated back in the 1800s.
Now, they could just be crazy bums, but...
All of their stories are exactly the same, in every detail.
Except for where they hid it.

If you watch long enough, under certain conditions, shadows grow impatient. When in a room alone with your a small light source, focus on it. The shadow will slowly close in on you, until you move. Of course, it is afraid of the light, as dark cannot snuff out light, but light can indeed destroy the dark. Watch sometime in a room with only internal light. If you stare at them for long enough, the shadows will begin to move. Sometimes you can make out shapes. These things have lived with you your whole life, and will follow you wherever you may go, unless you command them in the proper authority to leave, and ensure they have no legal right to be there. Few know and understand the proper authority, and even fewer know just what to do.
The shadows are always watching.

There is a snake that lives in Burma that is believed to be an actual naga; if one is bitten by it one or two things happen. If the person is kind they themselves become a naga, but if the person is heartless and cruel they die by the venom.

In a private terminal at the Port of Boston there is a houseboat. This houseboat has been anchored there, permanently, for at least 50 years. The eccentric owner has maintained all fees and taxes and is in good standing with the Port Authority.
Still, even if the owner wasn't finacially responsible, no one would ask them to depart. Despite the owner's friendly, hospitable, if odd nature, there is a persistent air of unease around the boat and the area of the Port surrounding.
Very few people have taken the owner up on offers of hospitality, but those who do recount a wholly unbelievable tale:
When you step into the houseboat, it's as if you're sent backwards 50 years in time. Looking out windows depicts a cityscape of antiquity and the television recieves live broadcasts of programs of the era (including news programs). If you look out the open door, you see the city as it stands today. When the door closes, you can see the 50 year old skyline through the port opening.
Some visitors who spend time with the owner notice something particularly disturbing: an almost uncanny resemblance to their host, despite obvious age differences. Though this is odd, the owner is friendly and trustworthy (ignoring the air of unease most feel), so it isn't surprisng if casual friendships build between a guest and the proprietor.
All this would, of course, be very strange and worthy of note, but dismissed as some form of elaborate hoax or illusion, if it weren't for one additional detail.
Whenever someone elects to spend the night in this houseboat after an evening of conversation and a few drinks, they are never heard from again.
When the guest awakens in the morning, the owner is nowhere to be found and suddenly, the city skyline never changes back to its contemporary appearance when exiting the boat.
Under the bed there is a briefcase full of $100 bills with a letter stapled to a list.
The letter simply reads, "You have 50 years to follow these instructions if you wish to free yourself from this hell.
The clock is ticking. Get to work."

There is an abandoned mental hospital at the top of a hill in Worcester, Massachusetts. Once every 5 years an old rusty box spring appears within the courtyard of the hospital. If you can sneak inside and sleep through the night on the bed, in the morning a man with a shirt that reads "Observe and obsolve" will take out his wallet and give you a picture. This picture will show you how you will die. If the picture is of the man standing before you, running won't help.

If you need to get home quick , there's a special bus that only runs a north-south route. Tell the bus driver, "I need to catch the sun before it sets." You won't have to pay fare and he'll make a special stop along his route. Another bus will be waiting for you, heading west. After five minutes and fifty five seconds you'll end up in the town you were born at sunset.

If you wake in the middle of the night, don't move. No matter how uncomfortable you get, you will eventually lose the urge to move.
Soon after, you will be awake, but you will be unable to move. You will not be able to feel the bed against your body, or your own breathing. As you do this, you are watching yourself fall asleep. In your mind, say to yourself: "I welcome the servant and the watcher."
Once your body falls asleep, you will be visited by two people that you know very well. If you have treated these people well, they will bring you a gift. This is a gift of the mind, which you must never misuse, or speak about.
If you have mistreated them, they will bring you something which you have never seen, but will recognize instantly. You will wake up and forget the object. You will see that object one more time.

During the spring of 1902 in the Dry Tortugas islands off of the coast of Key West, a man was shot and the bullet protruded slightly from the back of his skull into a tree (which he had his back against at the time). As time passed and the three continued to grow, his putrefied corpse was lifted into the boughs as his skull was still attached loosely to the tree by the bullet. As time passed, the tree grew around the skeleton. If you can find this tree on one of the Islands, tap it thrice with the heel of a cow hide leather boot, you will be granted the ability to make anyone forget anything at will.

There's a mail box somewhere in the city which can solve your direst problems. Which city? That depends on who you ask. There may even be more than one, who knows? Anyway, this mail box isn't emptied anymore - the mail service has completely forgotten about it. But it clings on. It is located in some relatively unlikely place so you won't spot it immediately. Mail you put inside it won't go anywhere. But the box is special. Write a letter about your most pressing problems to the persons in charge of dealing with it: write to your significant other, your boss, the IRS, and get it all off your chest. Ride yourself into deep shit with that letter. You'll see that the problem will dissolve soon, in some way you hadn't thought likely. Of course, you can't really be sure whether you have found the right mail box until you try it. And if you haven't things are going to get much worse once your letter gets delivered...

There is a child in a hospital in Decard, Tennessee. The child is a quiet toddler that remains in the nursery with all the other newborns. If you ask the staff, they will ignore you, but the tag on his arm is yellowed and marked 1948. He will not cry, only rock quietly. If you speak the name on his tag, his eyes will open, something you don't want to happen.

Remember this -

Should you ever despair of life so much that you want to die, you have the means at hand and yearn to end your life, you have written a suicide note to those you will leave behind and you are prepared to die....at that moment, stop.

Get a pair of scissors. Cut away at the note until you end up with a piece of paper in the shape of a key. Go to a door, any one will do. Push the paper key forward and turn your hand as if unlocking an imaginary lock.

The lock is real. Open the door. There you will find it. The other earth. The one that waits to replace this one when it dies. That death is inevitable, but in the meantime the other earth will belong to you.

Be warned: the other earth is very different from this one.

There is a doorway, one that can be any door, at any time. This door leads nowhere, yet there lies a realm of twisted reality to the opener. This door exists for everyone - some never encounter it in their lives, others unknowingly open it and step through. The problem is you can't tell if the door is open to you, until years after you step through it. You'll see them, and they'll finally see you.

In Council Crest Park in Portland, Oregon, at the top of the knoll there is a large paved circle enclosed by a short stone wall. The area has a couple dedications on it, and there is a massive compass of inlaid marble paved into the area, so you know which way you're looking. Stand on the west compass point and walk over to the wall it is pointing to (this is easy because there's a line in the pavement coming out from the point to the wall). Now look at the stones that the wall is made of. Moving south along the wall, count 10 stones along the bottom row and then give the 11th stone a nice hard kick. As you will easily hear, this stone is hollow. Feel free to kick all the other stones everywhere else in the wall... the 11th stone is the only hollow one. What's hidden inside? As yet, that remains a mystery.

Go into a Subway and tell the clerk you want to order the sandwich they'd always wished a customer would order. They will quickly, quietly, and without expression, craft the sandwich from many different ingredients. The sandwich will be the best thing you've ever tasted. This only works once per clerk. If you ask them to make it again, they will not recollect how. If you attempt to re-construct it, you will fail.

Go to any high traffic bathroom. It must be a high traffic bathroom; otherwise the room won’t have enough latent residual energy to carry out the task. A hotel bathroom room is perfect. Make sure its after 12pm, and make sure you have 2 clove cigarettes. The stronger the cigarette, the higher your success rate. Sit in the dark and begin smoking one of the cigarettes. Make sure there is a mirror present, and that you look at your reflection at all times. The burning cherry should provide just enough light for this. When you’ve smoked the cigarette within a 1/4 in of the filter, the room should be full of smoke. Your eyes will no doubt be watering, but don’t blink. Don’t take your eyes off of the mirror or your reflection whatever you do. To blink will make all you’ve done at this point for naught. You’ll begin to notice that your reflection will begin to fade into black. The reflection of the cherry from your cigarette will begin to separate into two red eyes. The smoke in the room will begin to condense, and before you even realize it’s happened, a shade will be sitting on the ledge of the sink. He’ll ask you for a cigarette, which is why you’re instructed to bring two. Give the shade a cigarette, which will light itself once he brings it to his withered lips. At this point, you can ask the shade any question you want, and he'll answer true. Anything you could possibly think of. Be sure to keep an eye on how much of the cigarette he’s smoked. When it gets to the point where it will only take a few more hits to kill it, the smoke from the other cigarette will begin to define more of his features, making him more material than etheral. At this point, stand up and snatch out his eyes in one sweeping motion. He should still be mostly smoke, so your hands should pass easily through his head. If you let him finish the cigarette he WILL attack you, almost surely taking your life in the process. The shade will begin screaming and cursing you and the hand holding his eyes will be burning intensely. DO NOT OPEN YOUR HAND! Even though the eyes are disembodied, they can see if they are out in the open. Run to the light switch and flip it on. This will banish the shades physical form and send him back into the ether. Leave the room and wait until 3:00 am to open your hand. The burning will be unbearable until then, but to do so will blow all the lights out in your house, allowing the shade to return and seek vengeance. You will have 4 burn marks on your palm when you open it. All cauterized of course, and mostly healed. From then on you can never be in a dark room with a mirror, because the shade will be able to track you through the burns in your hand. He'll have black hell dogs now, given his loss of sight, and they are far more terrible than the shade could ever be. The number of hell dogs depends on the strength of the shade you made contact with. After this, you’ll always be cold, no matter how warm it is, and you’ll be given the ability to perform minor miracles. Your dreams will always be nightmares, but in them, you will be granted a kind of third sight. You’ll never be able to see anything good, only the most horrific future events. And these events will only be known to you at a point where you can’t do anything to stop them. A small price to pay for absolute knowledge.

Get on any passenger bus that travels a long distance; Greyhound is usually a good pick. Anything that's on the road for longer than 24 hours. Get a window seat facing west, then stare at the sun, waiting until sunset. Just before the sun touches the horizon, close your eyes. Hard. Do not turn away, don't look at anything else. Cover your ears if you have to. After a while, you'll notice that the bus has stopped moving. That's the signal that you can open your eyes. When you do, you'll see a gas station, illuminated only by a few flickering flourescent lights. There will be no sun, no moon, no stars in the sky. The convenience store will have its windows boarded up, but the sign will say 'Open.' If you feel you can't go through with it, get back on the bus, return to your seat, and fall asleep. You'll wake up at sunrise the next day, well on your way to wherever the bus was going. If you enter the store, the door will slam shut behind you. You will spend an unknown amount of time there, living out your worst nightmares made real. If you survive the ordeal without going mad, you will awake back on the bus, as it reaches its destination. Nothing will ever scare you again. Some say that after this ordeal, anything else simply pales in comparison. Others say that all that room contains, is all the fear you will ever feel in your entire life, and exposing yourself to it all at once keeps you from feeling any more. This, however, can only be done once. There are some exceptions to the ability, as well...

In the heart of the Rockies, lies a grove of trees growing in a perfect circle. A grove that, aside from this geometric oddity, appears perfectly innocuous from the outside. If one should step foot into this grove however, the inside with be as dark as any moonless night in those mountain woods, even on the brightest summer's day. Those who have mistakenly wandered into the grove are rarely in any condition to say what happens inside, many simply never come out. However, if you are very brave, or very foolish, you can attempt to camp within the grove. Go in with your eyes shut tight, lie down in your sleeping bag, and no matter what you hear, no matter what you feel, do not open them again. If you somehow manage to find your way to sleep before the grove takes your sanity or your life, you will awaken in the middle of the day to the light of the sun on your face in a the middle of a grove; a grove that, aside from growing in a perfect circle, and containing your heart's one greatest desire, is perfectly innocuous. If one should step foot outside this grove however, they will find the outside to be dark as any moonless night in those mountain woods.

Out in the barrens of western Montana, there is a rock shaped like a raven's head with half of the beak broken off. If you use your forearm to complete the beak and hold the position for seven minutes and 26 seconds, you will feel a tingling sensation in your arm. You must then get at least 1 mile away from the rock within the next 66 seconds.
If you do this, you will be able to shape shift into any bird, at will.
If you begin the process and fail, you will turn into a crow and never be able to return to human form.

There is a forest somewhere in the Northeast that takes on a certain quality in the dark of the witching hour. If you go to a certain spot between three granite rocks at precisely midnight, a man in a white suit will appear with a contract written in an unknown arcane tongue.If you sign it, you will lose all your memories, except for one. You will only know the bloodstained path to immortality.

Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival... a survival of a hugely remote period when... consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity... forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts and kinds...

It awoke. A voice of ages.
It had no name but the names men gave it, names held little meaning. Yet, it gave it pleasure to hear those names uttered forth from the lips of men - men who often came to such varied and deliciously painful ends.
It reveled in death for death was its purpose.
An existence without end was wasted without purpose and the one constant without end was death.
Death became its purpose.
It had seen the universe die uncountable times and the inevitable rebirth countless more. Dark unto light, death unto life. This was the way of all things and it gave it immense satisfaction to be part of the grand clockwork of existence.
Throughout its existence and all the varied incarnations of the universe which had been no creature had fascinated it more than man. It seemed they shared a common purpose for man was elevated to the pinnacle of greatness amongst the ecstasy of carnage. For this reason it pleased it greatly to accompany man when he sought perfection.
It presented itself in varied forms, but became tangible only on the rarest of occasions. Periods when its influence was strongest and death and conquest grew heavy on the minds of men, prized jewel of a Trojan female, Roman spear, Mongolian Warlord - amongst others, these were some of its more noted and fruitful forms.
An endless existence yielded many moments for introspection.
It questioned the path it had taken, was death truly the alpha and the omega? For an infinitesimal moment in time it pondered the nature of death and imagined a universe without it, reviewing its actions in turn and assessing the very nature of existence.
Yes.
Death was the only path.

Though written about in fiction occasionally, the mirrored box is quite an old invention. Currently it is an often simulated in computer graphics; however rarely do people try to reconstruct one for a real person under appropriate conditions. The event can be enlightening or traumatizing for the witness who bears its burden.

The procedure is actually simple, though finding and preparing the materials required might take months:

-6 square metal sheets, slightly taller than the witness. The length should never exceed the height of a witness with raised hands. One of them should be larger than the rest by at least the thickness of the sheets themselves. The material should preferably be made of graphite or lead alloy for the most prominent effect (it's unknown why).

-Five nearly perfect aligned mirrors sealed upon the metal plates. Each of the 5 will form the sides and bottom of the inner box. One larger mirror should be attatched to the large metal plate, which will be used for the top.

-A simple lightsource, of pure white or bright yellow. The lightsource should emit in almost all directions (a 90 degree cone may be left for the bottom). Candles can be used, but a few early witnesses died from carbon dioxide and monoxide poisoning. The light source should not be planted upon the mirrors or receive any outside energy. Construction techniques are left up to the witness. It is highly suggested the sides be epoxied with strong L brackets. Though intuition might lead one to believe loose sides to be more "safe", past constructions with collapsable sides have lead to horrific accidents.

-Two or three alarm clocks. It may be digital or mechanical. However, digital clocks should not emit radio waves (some radio noise is OK, but only from natural resistance) and should be battery powered. It's highly suggested the witness bring both mechanical and digital, for redundancy (which will be needed). An extra alarm clock of any kind is also needed. Watches are OK, but not suggested due to the small type face and hands.

- Wear simple clothing. Do not wear anything which does not "breathe" (i.e. NOT leather, plastic, etc.), or contain strong seams. If the witness' light source is a candle, it is highly suggested that clothing is not taken inside.

-Do not bring any other objects. Witnesses have often crowded the box. Such boxes either become highly useless or highly dangerous. This includes jewelery, food, weapons, or religious materials such as beads and crucifixes, etc.

-An assistant is required to help the witness in and out of the box and get help in case of emergencies. The assistant should be trusting and as strong willed as the witness.

-Two 6' (or 2m) ladders

-Several Blankets, water, aspirin, and a first aid kit.

Once the necessary items have been aquired. Prepare the alarm clocks to ring around 10 minutes after the witness' planned entrance. Depending on the material used for the box itself, the time of day will not matter, but a night during a new moon is suggested. Despite intuition, sound does not play a large role in the event. Remove ALL electronics (except the clock or lightsource) before entering. The removal is especially important for radios or cellphones. The witness should use a small unattached ladder to enter the box. The top should already be placed upon the box at a diagonal angle, with a hole large enough for the witness to enter.

Once inside, the witness should be handed the light source and the clocks (one should be kept with the assistant). The outside assistant should ask sincerely whether the witness is OK. Once confirmation is given, the top should be moved to seal the box. The witness may turn on the lightsource once the box is sealed. At any point should the witness ask to leave the box (if soundproof, tapping should be used), ONLY the top should be opened. The witness may do it themselves, since the top of the box should be easily reachable. Again, collapsable sides are not suggested. Once ten minutes are up, ALWAYS remove the top, regardless of what the witness says. Some witnesses may plead to stay inside the box, even suggesting great danger should it be opened. The assistant should never trust those pleas. Suffocation is only one of many concerns should the witness stay too long in the box. Once the top has been slid opened, place the second ladder in the box to allow the witness to leave. Allow the witness to use the blankets, water and aspirin as needed. If the witness is feeling weak and cannot exit the box safely on the ladders, cover two adjacent sides of the inner box wall with the blankets, and allow the witness to use the extra blankets, water and aspirin as needed. If the witness has any serious wounds, or discoloration, call for medical help.

Good luck. Should you happen to meet a true witness, never trust what they say about their experience, and never ask them for the time or where the antumbra meets.

Mel asserts that, for years, locals had known about the "bottomless" nature of the hole, dumping garbage down the hole, including dead cattle, truckloads of old auto tires, and large appliances like refrigerators and TV tubes. When garbage was dumped in the hole, no sound of the object hitting the bottom was heard.

Mel claims he began a series of experiments with the hole on his property, including one where he lowered a roll of Life Savers into the hole, to detect if any water was at the bottom of the hole, at the end of progressively longer lengths of fishing line, up to the 80,000 foot (over fifteen miles) length of the last attempt.

At that point, in 1997, Mel sent a Fax to the Coast to Coast AM show describing the hole, and shortly thereafter appeared on the show.

Soon after the broadcasts, Mel claims that men he identified as government agents told him that there was a plane-crash nearby and that he could not approach the hole. He says that the government then offered to pay him a large monthly stipend to lease the land in perpetuity, which he used to move to Australia and fund a wombat-rescue operation. These alleged payments are said to have continued from March 1997 through the beginning of 2000.

In December 1999, Mel returned to the US. While on a bus to Olympia, Washington, Mel claims he witnessed an altercation between police officers and another passenger, after which he was taken off the bus to sign a police statement. According to Mel, the next thing he recalls is walking around San Francisco, twelve days later. He claims he had been physically beaten and his rear molars were extracted. An alleged IV scar on his arm convinced him that he had been drugged.

Mel claims that he later returned to the hole, at which time he was served with papers indicating that his ownership was now in question, due to modifications that had been made, presumably by the government tenants. Mel alleges that his assets were frozen for unstated reasons and that his wombat rescue facility in Australia was dismantled.

On his appearances on Coast to Coast, Mel Waters described the hole as being roughly nine feet across and at least 80,000 feet deep. He also claimed that it had numerous supernatural powers. According to Mel, a dead hunting dog thrown into the hole by a local was seen much later running through the woods, as if hunting with somebody else.

After his appearance on Coast to Coast in 2000, Mel claimed on a subsequent appearance that he had found a second hole. This second hole is alleged to be on public land in Nevada, under the management of the Federal Bureau of Land Management. According to Mel, the land nearby is used by Native Americans as well as "members of the Basque community" who were using the land for grazing sheep.

Mel described the second hole as being 9 feet in diameter, the same dimensions as the first hole. Unlike the first hole, however, Mel claims that the Nevada hole has a solid metal liner, or "collar" sticking out of the ground, 2 feet high, 2 feet deep, with several notches in it. Mel speculated on Coast to Coast that, "in my estimation... it could possibly be a locking collar... something could be lowered onto it and locked into place."

Mel claimed that the alleged second hole's collar was composed of a substance with the following unusual paranormal properties.

• Mel claims that he dropped a box wrench on the metal collar, but that the impact did not make a noise. He says this implies that the collar absorbs the sound or energy.
• According to Mel, the hole is "solidly lined" with this metal as far as one can see into the hole.
• Mel claims that even in winter, the area around the metal collar is warm to the touch and will keep nearby tents warm. He says the collar is not hot to the touch, however.

According to Mel, local Basques say the hole has been there, in its current state, for their community's entire existence, dating back to the 19th century. He claims one man had personal recollection of the hole since he was young, over 70 years ago at the time of the interview (since around the 1930s). In addition to his claims regarding the Basque community and the second hole, Mel has also speculated about a Basque connection to the second hole: He claims he found a whale bone near the first hole, which he asserts could have Basque origins to a history of whaling in Basque culture.

Mel further claims that the hole occasionally emits a "black beam". He acknowledged that, "this is a contradiction, but a black beam of light, okay, comes from the hole. It lasts a very short time, but it just goes directly up to the sky... if you had a flashlight, and it was capable of throwing up a solid black..." However, Mel admits that he has "never personally witnessed the black beam."

Mel claims that he and assorted Basque locals performed an experiment with the Nevada hole, in which they lowered in a bucket of ice they bought from the grocery store. Allegedly, one bucket of ice was lowered 1500 feet into the hole, and the other bucket of ice was kept at the surface as a control. By the time half the ice on the surface bucket had melted, the bucket in the hole was to be retrieved.

According to Mel, the ice in the lowered bucket had not melted, and additionally, was no longer cold to the touch. He claims that the ice had been changed in an undefined way, and described it as having a texture like silica desiccant found in packaged food.

As a further experiment, Mel claims they placed the alleged bucket of unmelted ice on a cooking fire, and instead of melting, the ice allegedly began to "burn." Mel Waters described the fire as "not so much a flame, as kind of a... have you ever used a gas stove? it was like the barest turning of a gas stove on. It was like that last flicker before you turn it off."

According to Mel, additional trials of the same experiment have resulted in melted ice, unchanged ice, and occasionally (about one out of three times) more of this supposed "burning ice."

Mel goes on to claim that this new substance could be used as a source of heat, saying that "one guy took some stuff home, he put it in his wood stove... and the thing's been keeping his place warm" for over three months (September to January). Mel claims this man also reported that steam from a nearby kettle was absorbed by the burning ice, and that the area surrounding the burning ice was always very dry.

According to Mel, after a few months the stove with the burning ice crashed through the floor of the man's cabin for unknown reasons, and that the man returned weeks later to find the entire cabin collapsed into "wood dust." Mel attributed this alleged phenomenon to all of the moisture being sucked out of the wood by the burning ice. He claims that on a later visit, the stove with the burning ice had sunk 5 feet into the ground.

Mel claims that a team of unknown researchers, which he speculated as possibly being related to the government, appeared later at the site of the cabin and attempted to use construction equipment and metal chains to remove the stove. He alleges that upon pouring water into the hole created by the stove, the metal chains fused with the stove, after which it was successfully lifted by multiple construction cranes, loaded onto a large truck and driven away by the unknown researchers.

Another experiment Mel claims to have performed on the hole involved lowering a living sheep to a depth of 1500 feet, resulting in the death of the animal and the appearance of a mysterious "seal-like" entity.

Mel claims that the sheep was led to the hole, but became agitated when it approached the hole and had to be stunned and placed in a crate. According to him, the sheep awakened as it was being placed over the hole and began trashing around in its crate and making "screaming" noises.

The crate was allegedly lowered to about 700 feet, at which point Mel claims that the vibrations caused by the sheep's agitation could no longer be felt. He claims that when the cable had been lowered to its full length of 1500 feet, the metal collar around the hole began to vibrate. According to Mel, the sheep was left at this depth for thirty minutes before being winched back up the surface, where it was found to be dead.

Mel claims that from an external perspective the dead sheep appeared the same as when lowered, but that inside, "the sheep looked like it had been cooked." In addition, Mel claims that he then observed a jellied blob that filled the body cavity where the internal organs normally would be, which he described as looking like a "huge tumor."

According to Mel, the alleged "tumor" was removed, and the experimenters believed they saw some movement inside it. He claims that when the tumor was cut open, it released a "fetal seal," with human-looking eyes, connected to the tumor with an umbilical cord. Mel explains that the "seal" seemed to have a hold on those present, and that it and the human experimenters viewed each other for over two hours.

Mel claims that the seal seemed to him to be a being "filled with compassion," and that after nodding at the experimenters, it dove back into the hole. The tumor and sheep remains were allegedly bundled in a tarp and thrown back into the hole, thereby removing any evidence of the experiment.

Mel claims that he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer prior to his experience with the seal, but that afterwards the cancer was entirely gone, with no evidence it had ever existed. Mel feels that he was healed by the seal-like entity from the sheep carcass.

In a later interview, Mel claimed the seal entity was now making regular visits to the Basque shepherds camping around the surface of the Nevada hole. He claimed that the seal was able to communicate with the shepherds through a portable radio. However, when recorded, Mel says that the result was only a series of unintelligible sounds, as one might hear in interference on a short-wave transmission.

Mel claims that a new species of bird has been spotted in the area of the second hole shortly after his alleged encounter with the seal. The bird was said to be bright red with a bluish beak and an estimated wing span of 14 inches. He claims that at least six individual birds have been seen in the airspace around the hole since the seal incident, but that no professional can name the species from a distance, and said bird has not been captured as of yet.

It developed into an urban legend, and gained the nickname SunBird. Mel claims that the so-called SunBird never lands, except near the rim of Mel's Hole. He speculates that the bird comes from deep within the hole and he claims that the locals believe that these birds are the cause of the sheep's death, and the tumor that produced the seal entity. Mel professes that he himself has shot at one of the birds, in an attempt to bring it down for possible analysis and perhaps dissection, but that after being hit directly twice, and tumbling twenty feet, the bird pulled out of the fall, and continued flying. According to Mel's story, no birds were seen until three days later. Mel reports finding two crushed bullets in his yard. He says it is inconclusive if they are the same two bullets shot at the bird.

• Mel claims that a local Basque man volunteered to be lowered into the second hole, but that the man was convinced to reconsider by Mel and the other experimenters.
• Mel expressed his wish to have his body thrown into the Nevada hole after his death.
• The Handsome Family recorded a song inspired by Mel's hole called "The Bottomless Hole" on their 2003 CD Singing Bones.
• The description of Mel's 2nd Hole in the Nevada desert bears a strong resemblence to the hole or bottomless pit believed in by The Manson Family and discussed in the various court proceedings. Manson preached that a bottomless pit with mystical powers existed in the Death Valley area. The Manson pit figured prominently in his end times predictions.

Mel Waters initially appeared on Coast to Coast on February 21st, 1997, and again on February 24, 1997. His next appearance was in April of 2000. There was then a hiatus for about two years, until January 29, 2002. Mel last appeared on Coast to Coast on December 20, 2002.