Walmart Wonder

Jacob Simmons and Gentry Lee Sutherland, an engaged couple from Anderson County, South Carolina were shocked to see the face of Jesus looking out at them from a Walmart receipt. They had bought some pictures from the store on June 12^th and left the receipt in Sutherland’s apartment. Three days later, Simmons was leaving the kitchen after the couple had returned from a church service and noticed the receipt on the floor. “I was leaving the kitchen and I just looked on the floor and it was like it was looking at me.” said Simmons.

“We had a message on knowing God, abiding in him,” said Sutherland. “If you know God, would you recognize him if you saw him?”

The couple deny tampering with the receipt and hope that it will show Jesus to everyone who sees it.

This story is similar to many that purport to show images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary and icons from other religions on mundane objects. Assuming that the couple are genuine, they doubtless feel specially blessed to have been singled out as recipients of such a miracle but there are a few questions that are worth raising:

Firstly, many people will see the image of Jesus in this receipt, however, not one of them will know what Jesus actually looked like. There are no useful descriptions of Jesus from Biblical texts and no evidence beyond these texts that he even existed in the first place. No historian living during the alleged lifetime of Jesus gives any mention at all to him. (And, before anyone mentions Josephus Flavius – he wasn’t even born until 37CE and wrote Antiquities in 93CE which is later than the Gospels!). So, no-one knows what Jesus would have looked like but it is very doubtful that he would display the typical European features given to him by Christian artists over the centuries. So this being an image of Jesus is in the eye of the beholder.

Indeed, there are more direct comparisons that can be made of the image. It does bear a resemblance to self-proclaimed Messiah, Charles Manson. Not exactly a person whom any good Christian couple would wish to have staring at them from their kitchen floor.

To me it looks quite like the writer, Alan Moore, author or Watchmen, From Hell, V for Vendetta and many other successful graphic novels. And Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters. In fact, it looks like lots of people to me, but not Jesus – because I don’t know what he looked like.

L to R; Walmart receipt, Alan Moore, Charles Manson, Dave Grohl
Would the real Messiah please stand up..?

As to the miracle of the appearing image – the receipt has been produced on a thermal till printer. This type of printer uses heat to print the characters on the receipt. Exposure to more heat will blacken the receipt. I have seen the result of this from leaving a petrol station receipt in my car on a sunny day. When I returned to the car, the receipt was completely black. So a receipt left in a place with sources of heat, for example, a kitchen, could easily darken through exposure to heat. As patterns form, our natural tendency to look for significance in these patterns, pareidolia, kicks in and we see faces. In this particular case, the image is a very clear formation and I can’t help suspecting that the image has been ‘helped along’.

Even if it hasn’t had human assistance, I do wonder about Jesus’ choice to manifest himself upon a Walmart till receipt. If we take what has been written about Him, I cannot see Him choosing to announce His presence on a product from a company that, amongst other things, practices money-lending. Jesus was very much against this sort of thing and the practice of lending money and charging interest, usuary, was always regarded as a terrible sin. Then there’s all the pork products. And guns.

I don’t think he’d like Walmart very much.

Assuming that Jesus looked like Robert Powell in 'Jesus of Nazareth', had he survived the crucifixion, he would have looked like this in his later years...

Maybe Walmart should start stocking these?

Who Ya Gonna Call Now?

Wales Online

Professor Brian Cox slates believers in ghosts online

TELEVISION scientist Professor Brian Cox has slammed people who believe in ghosts – labelling them “nobbers”.

Now now, lets not over react here! The Smiley Scientist generally calls most people ‘Nobbers’..

The slick scientist, pictured, attracted a slew of complaints from listeners after he repeatedly poked fun at believers with comedian Robin Ince on his Radio 4 show The Infinite Monkey Cage during a discussion of science and the supernatural.

A number of listeners complained to the BBC after the Monday airing of the programme, saying it lacked balance.

Cox – voted one of the sexiest men alive – took to Twitter to blast paranormal believers.

“Just heard we got complaints about lack of BBC balance about ghosts,” he wrote. “There are some utter nobbers out there!”

Another tweet read: “Here is my official statement, which also has the benefit of being a fact. There are no ghosts, so it would be silly to believe in them.”

I like Brian Cox – if he’d been my physics teacher I probably would have learnt physics..

The bit I liked the best was when all the bloody ‘skeptics‘ jumped on the bandwagon.

So,  now the bestower of  nobber nighthoods has spoken – and obviously what he says MUST be true, since he’s a professor and suchlike – what are all you skeptical paranormal investigators going to be skeptical about? Surely, as a true, dyed in the wool skeptic, you should question the reliability of  Sir Brian of  Cox’s statement? Test his theory to breaking point? find out the ‘Troof’??

Evidently not..

No, because he’s famous. Just jump on the bandwaggon and agree, hey? Better to just give up hunting for things that don’t exist – wouldnt want to be labelled a nobber, would you?

I actually had more respect for the believers than the skeptics, at least they had the moral backbone to stand up for their beliefs, regardless of what that made them ( Nobbers in this case, according to the Cox Groupie Brigade). I should imagine that their belief will far outweigh the need to jump on the free publicity bandwagon, and they will continue to seek that which eludes all..

And me? I’m neither a skeptic nor a believer, and I do what I do ‘cos its my passion. I do it for me, not fame and fortune. I’m a realist, wether or not ghosts actually exist  has never been a major part of what I do. And frankly, I don’t need a bandwagon to ride. I’ll keep doing what I do because, regardless of who said what and what they said on some COMEDY radio show, I have no doubt that folk will still truly believe they’ve experienced something paranormal…

I’d like to find out what and why..

and I’d rather be a ‘Nobber‘ than a ‘Cox Suck-Up’

Trying To Be Misunderstood?

I consider myself to be reasonably tolorent…

well, at least of most things anyway. I tolorate other peoples belief systems, for instance. After all, it not my place to go knocking on folks doors or setting up shop to try to get you to believe what I believe, is it? – and also I dislike the infringement of personal choice.
One thing that really pees me off though is when exploitation is involved, especially if the exploitation manifests at the hand of someone who professes to know better.

So, let me tell you a little bit about belief systems as I see them – Keep in mind though that I’m only sharing my opinion here…

Lets start with witches…

These fall into two distinct types. Theres the folk who feel none of the ‘established’ religions really do it for them, and take a more natural path through their lives. They tend to have a liking for sacred spaces, crystal healing, natural healing – that kind of thing. They also don’t generally refer to themselves as witches. They may have a liking for certain signs and symbols which have been associated with witchcraft – but hey – I have a liking for these kind of things too, I also own a black pointy hat, cloak, sword and several grimoires and other items that some of the folk I meet on my travels would need to resort to wearing incontinence pants to even be in the same room as them. Doesnt make me a witch..
Then theres the others. The ones that have proven to be an endless source of amusement to me.

You can generally spot them a mile off – not because of their stripy socks, pointy hats and slightly verdant pallor – but because they keep screaming ‘I’m a witch!!’ at you.
This kind of person has no concept of the Craft in the least. Yes, they’ll refer to themselves as ‘Wiccan’, and go on to tell you its the oldest religion in the world – it isnt, its about sixty years old. I do keep saying I’ll write an article on the history of Wicca but I honestly don’t think it would be very well accepted.
One lady once confided in me that she was a pagan wiccan… (I found that highly hysterical, and if I have to explain why, you wouldnt understand.) she also said that being a pagan wiccan meant that she believed in the power of spells, was a vegetarian and grew her own vegetables…

These ‘Witches’ have a tendency to feel it is necessary to tell you they are psychic, some of them have an even greater need to tell you you are psychic, and that they will help you along your path to enlightenment. They will also offer to read your tarot cards, runes, crystal chakras, auras, cast spells which will help you find the love of your life, financial stability and probably offer to take out any enemies, ghosts or demons you may have around you for good measure. Changing to their way of life, they will inform you, will leave you enlightened and more aware – and you will be too. Or at least your bank account will be…

If you are brave enough to risk the wrath of these witches – for whatever reason… cos you have some kind of religion based bad feeling against them, or even because they ripped you off – they will pretty much start screaming ‘Inquisition!’ at you. (Again, a misinformed or ignorent choice of words, inquisition is a term that covers many things – ‘Witchhunt!’ would be better.)

You may say I’m unenlightened, a religious nutter, probably even use terms like ‘witchhunter general’, inform me that my ilk has persecuted your kind for time immemorial. You’ll waffle about poor innocent women, burned at the stake… and various other claptrap you learned from poorly researched books written and sold to you hundreds of years after the event..

At this point I’m going to ask you if thousands of innocent women (and men) were burned at the stake (bearing in mind that in the UK we hung folk found guilty of witchcraft, and they really were a very small number, not thousands) Then surely if they were innocent, they werent witches at all? Were there ever any people tried who had actually ticked the boxes which meant they could be indicted as having caused death by sorcery? In effect, can the concept of Magick, outside of the stage, screen and psychology actually exist, and do they have proof?

Cos lets face it, if you are selling spells, services and the paraphenalia associated with an ancient craft practiced by INNOCENT folk who were persecuted and killed for it, and that is your ONLY proof that witchcraft exists, are’nt you breaking the UK Consumer Protection Laws?

Just Saying….