M.J. Rose

A ghost story from a faraway land.

The waterline from the March 11 tsunami is left on the wall at the barber shop in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan on April 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

Taxi Drivers Say They’ve Picked Up Ghosts of 2011 Tsunami Victims in Japan
By Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times

In Beyond Science, Epoch Times explores research and accounts related to phenomena and theories that challenge our current knowledge. We delve into ideas that stimulate the imagination and open up new possibilities. Share your thoughts with us on these sometimes controversial topics in the comments section below.

“Taxi drivers in Japan say they’ve picked up ghosts of victims of the 2011 tsunami.

At least seven drivers claim passengers have entered their vehicle only to vanish into thin air before they reach their destination.

One driver described a young woman dressed in a coat climbing into his cab near Ishinomaki Station and telling him: “Please go to the Minamihama (district).”

In response, the driver noted that the area was “almost empty,” and asked her if she was sure she wanted to go there, reported the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

The woman replied in a trembling voice: “Have I died?”

When the driver turned around to look at her, no one was there…”

For the rest, click here.

So fascinating! The colors are spellbinding.

MJ posted a link to this show on her Facebook, and wrote:

I can’t wait to see this show at the Met! I ran away from home when I was 8… to the Egyptian wing… it’s been my home way from home ever since. (Don’t worry, it was only 1 block away from where we lived. Only one block to cross.)

Temple of Dendur’s Lost Colors Brought to Life at the Met
By JOSHUA BARONE

“As depicted in popular culture, ancient Egypt is awash with the color beige. A trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art would seem to reflect that notion: The Temple of Dendur, with its weatherworn sandstone, could fit in naturally with the earth tones of “Aida” or “The Mummy.”

But Egyptologists know that this temple, like many others of the ancient world, was painted with vivid colors and patterns. In “Color the Temple,” a marriage of research and projection-mapping technology, visitors to the Met can now glimpse what the Temple of Dendur may have looked like in its original, polychromatic form more than 2,000 years ago.

The Met’s MediaLab has installed a projector that fills in the temple’s carvings with color. Through March 19, one section of the structure’s south side is on view: a scene of the Roman emperor Augustus, dressed as a pharaoh and making an offering to the deities Hathor and Horus. Because the sun would wash out the projector’s light (the gallery has floor-to-ceiling windows), the scene is illuminated on Friday and Saturday evenings, when the Met offers extended hours…”

For the rest, click here to go to the NYTimes.

If you needed one more good reason to visit Prague, here it is!

From Dangerous Minds,

Of Man, myth and magic: Prague’s creepy alchemy museum

“In 1576, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II chose Prague to be his home. More than any other person, Rudolf made Prague a hotbed of alchemical interest. Rudolf lived in the Prague Castle, where he welcomed not only astrologers and magicians but also scientists, musicians, and artists. In addition to noted alchemists Edward Kelley and John Dee, Prague was also home to the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, the painter Arcimboldo, the poet Elizabeth Jane Weston, among others. Rudolf arguably spawned the most intense period of occult activity in history.

If you want to know more about the reign of Rudolf II, you could do a lot worse than Peter Marshall’s The Magic Circle of Rudolf II: Alchemy and Astrology in Renaissance Prague.

Celebrating this alchemical contributions of Rudolf II is the Museum of Alchemists and Magicians of Old Prague, located at Jansky Vrsek 8 on the western side of the Vltava. The museum consists of two levels of displays and tableaux that document Rudolf’s alchemists in Prague, especially Kelley. (There is a sister museum called the Speculum Alchemiae Museum, but that’s on the other side of the river, at Hastalska 1.)

Quoting Altas Obscura,

The main floor has displays and replica artifacts of the trade alongside such fantastical scenes as a failed magician being stolen up into the ceiling by the Devil while cackling sorcerers huddle around the glowing runes beneath. The second floor, which claims to be the actual tower where the real Kelley performed his esoteric experiments if decked out like an alchemists lab, all aged scrolls and stacked grimoires, complete with a half-completed homunculus, the ultimate alchemical achievement. The museum is more than a little sensational in its presentation, but to be fair these alchemists were likely more than a little bit showmen themselves. What better way to remember and learn about their arcane history than with a little bit of magical realism?

Here’s a peek at some of the treasures within…”

For the rest, and many bizarre pictures, click here.