M.J. Rose

There’s something about second hand finds that are exhilarating – but what if those bargain treasures were available to you as a direct result of someone else’s misfortune? Lost airline baggage, for example, which then becomes  eternally unclaimed luggage on a carousel far, far away. If you’ve ever had the displeasure of such a baggage tragedy, you will know that it is pretty much the most irritating thing a traveler can experience other than the stomach flu.

It may seem like a destination on the way to the Twilight Zone, but the Unclaimed Baggage Center is very, very real and it resides in the deep South –

“A bride-to-be slides out of the passenger side of her mama’s car, right next to the businessman who needs gear for his hike on the Appalachian Trail. Across the parking lot, a burst of laughter erupts from a mini-van of women stretching their legs and hedging their bets on the best bargain of the day.

It’s another day at Unclaimed Baggage Center…”

Find out more about this mysterious place, here.

Somehow we missed this last year…

Forgotten fairy tales? Yes please!

The Forgotten Tales of the Brothers Grimm

(The Public Domain Review 2012)

“To mark the 200th year since the Brothers Grimm first published their Kinder-und Hausmärchen, Jack Zipes explores the importance of this neglected first edition and what it tells us about the motives and passions of the two folklorist brothers…

The greatest irony of the numerous world-wide celebrations held this year to honor the 200th anniversary of the first edition of the Grimms’ Kinder-und Hausmärchen, published in two volumes in 1812 and 1815, involves the discovery that most people really don’t know the original Grimms’ tales or much about their lives. That is, most people have no clue that the Grimms’ first edition of 1812/15 is totally unlike the final or so-called definitive edition of 1857, that they published seven different editions from 1812 to 1857, and that they made vast changes in the contents and style of their collections and also altered their concept of folk and fairy tales in the process. Even so-called scholars of German literature and experts of the Grimms’ tales are not aware of how little most people, including themselves, know about the first edition, and ironically it is their and our “ignorance” that makes the rediscovery of the tales in the first edition so exciting and exhilarating…”

See the rest here.

The Ascent of the Blessed, detail from a panel of an alterpiece of the Last Judgement.

A few years ago, we focused on reincarnation related content here, so for old time’s sake let’s revisit that theme. The personal account below was written by blog editor Emily, and below that is an introduction to an interesting article about near-death experiences. Enjoy…

The tunnel and angel image above was on the cover of a book in my mother’s bookshelf when I was a child. I was fascinated by the imagery, not because we were religious and believed in angels, we were not and did not, but because I had what I thought was an out of body experience at the age 12, and my own experience eerily mirrored this painted scene.

While the imagery was not an exact match, the tunnel was there, the enticing light, and the human-like beings paired with their angelic guides. In my memory of the experience, I felt an almost overpowering sense of togetherness and belonging – this is a feeling that is commonly reported by people who have had similar bizarre “dreams”- although I was completely alone. I had no guide. It was just me, or rather, a bodiless version me, floating near the lip of an otherworldly tunnel until I was suddenly joined by two beings – the tall one made entirely of light, and the other, a vibrant and almost beaming version of our family friend David, who had very recently passed away. I was so incredibly happy to be with them and I could imagine staying there forever.

But I was just a visitor. That was made clear by the fact that I was peering in at them as if from the edge of a well, and I was not allowed to dive in.

I spent just a few moments at the edge of infinite light and love, and was utterly packed with euphoria, despite the overwhelming fearsome panic that a person would be smacked with after being inexplicably hurled through space. Where I had been was no purgatory of dark nothingness, in fact, it was so much muchness that mere worldly life seemed a bit like a shoddy miniature at a theme park in comparison. As a result, the experience has a vivid permanence for me, even nearly thirty years later, like a sort of hot brand in my mind, and I have been fascinated with OBEs and near death experiences ever since.

I have no explanation for what happened to me (was it a dream? A loss of oxygen to the brain in my sleep?…) nor have I been able to completely interpret the very matter-of-fact message that was communicated to me by our friend David and his tall being of light: “Be thankful for your head and your lungs,” they said to me, in unison, as if by telepathy.

I am still trying to figure that one out…

But I digress…

Is this proof near-death experiences ARE real? Extraordinary new book by intensive care nurse reveals dramatic evidence she says should banish our fear of dying

By Penny Sartori

“As a nurse, I’m always cheered when I see a patient who appears to be making a good recovery. That certainly seemed the case with 60-year-old Tom Kennard, who’d been suffering from sepsis after surgery for cancer.

After a couple weeks in the intensive care ward, he was well enough to be moved from his hospital bed to a chair. Moments later, however, he suddenly slumped into unconsciousness.

There was no doubt at all that he was out cold. He responded neither to my urgent questions nor to the painful pressure of my Biro on his fingernails. 

Worse still, his skin became clammy, his oxygen levels dropped and his blood pressure plummeted — clear signs that his condition had become critical.

As I quickly gave him extra oxygen, I called out to the other nurses in the intensive care unit. Four of them immediately flocked to Tom’s bedside, and we gently helped return him to his bed as we called for a doctor urgently.

He was still unresponsive when the doctor arrived, followed a few minutes later by a consultant.

Indeed, Tom didn’t regain full consciousness for another three hours.

Yet, during those three lost hours, he had apparently gone on a life-changing journey…”

Read the rest here at the DailyMail.