M.J. Rose

For some reason nothing gives me the shivers more than ghost ships. Imagine suddenly finding yourself wandering alone on a ghost ship in the middle of sea…

The Unsolved Mystery Of ‘Ghost Ships’

(CNN) — It’s been described as one of the greatest Victorian gothic horror stories of all time. Two ships with 129 men on board and fitted with the latest technology, vanish with barely a trace left behind. One hundred and sixty years of searching — one attempt as recent as last month — have failed to find “HMS Erebus” and her sister ship, the somewhat appropriately named “HMS Terror” — the two vessels lost in the Arctic.

In 1845 British Royal Navy captain Sir John Franklin set out with some of the finest sailors of the time on a mission to map the Northwest Passage. Franklin’s expedition wasn’t the first to the region, but it is the most infamous.

“Why did this fail when all the others didn’t,” asks author William Battersby. “There was something jinxed about the expedition.” Battersby is one of many to be transfixed by the mystery of Franklin’s last voyage. “We love adventure stories, of daring do, win against all odds, but in this story they don’t and we still don’t know why.”…

For the complete story click here.

Another ghost ship story, here.

An idea! If You Blog:  Why not write a post about the mysteries you have encountered recently?  Send a trackback to this blog and leave a comment below so we can share the mystery!

From Parabola Magazine, a deeply though-provoking article about the nature of reality as seen by Zen Master Dogen…

“Seeing” by Zen Master Dogen

Commentary on, and original translation of, the great Zen icon

by Kazuaki Tanahashi

The view on “seeing” by Dogen, a thirteenth century Japanese Zen monk, is rather unique. He uses the word “dream” to describe the enlightenment of the Buddha, and the meditative experience of all practitioners. Counter to the common notion that dreams are unreal and actual phenomena are real, he asserts that the awakened ones’ profound wisdom is concrete, the source of all teaching, while actual phenomena are transient and unreliable.

Dogen presented this short essay titled “Within a Dream Expressing the Dream” to the assembly of the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery in Uji County, south of Kyoto, on the twenty-first day, the ninth month, the third year of the Ninji Era [1242]. The following text is translated by Taigen Dan Leighton and myself. (Excerpted from Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo, Shambhala Publications, 2010, with permission by the publisher.)

Every dewdrop manifested

in every realm

is a dream.

The path of all buddhas and ancestors arises before the first forms emerge; it cannot be spoken of using conventional views…

For the complete piece please click here to go to Parabola.

The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a treasure trove of mysterious things. Here’s an example of one of their many free teleseminars:

“Can mediums talk to the dead? Can you? Why should we care?” with Julie Beischel

Visionary: Julie Beischel, PhD

Dean Radin hosts this discussion with Dr. Julie Beischel, who performs rigorously controlled research investigating the accuracy of the information mediums report and systematic studies of their experiences during ostensible communication with the deceased. But are they really talking to the dead? Dr. Beischel discusses what she has found during her research with mediums and the importance of those findings for each of us.

You may listen to the talk here, as well as download the mp3.

This post was written by Emily, co-editor of the blog.