The Unknown DOWSING A man walking through an empty field holding a Y-shaped stick before him in both hands can be a peculiar sight. What is he doing? Either he's leading some bizarre, solitary parade. or he's dowsing. POINT ME IN THE DIRECTION OF
Dowsing, in general terms, is the art of finding hidden things. Usually, with the aid of a dowsing stick, rods or a pendulum. Also known as divining, water witching, and doodle-bugging, dowsing is an ancient practice whose origins are lost in history. Dowsing has been used to find water for wells, mineral deposits, oil, buried treasure, archaeological artifacts - even missing people. How does dowsing work? The quick answer is that no one really knows - not even experienced dowsers. Some theorize there is a psychic connection established between the dowser and the sought object. All things, living and inanimate, the theory suggests, possess an energy force. The dowser, by concentrating on the hidden object, is able to tune in to the energy force or "vibration" of the object which, in turn, forces the dowsing rod or stick to move. The dowsing tool may act as an amplifier or antenna for tuning into the energy. Skeptics, of course, say that dowsing doesn't work at all. For believer or skeptic, there's no definitive proof either way and until that proof is revealed the truth of dowsing will remain UNKNOWN.
The Unknown - OUIJA Your fingertips lightly touch the edge of the planchette. Your friend does the same on the opposite side. You consciously move the planchette in circles around the board to get it warmed up. Then you ask your question. ANSWER ME THIS
Whats behind the Ouija? Is it a harmless game or is something sinister? In a recent survey, 65 percent believed the Ouija to be a dangerous tool. While a majority of respondents believed the board was controlled by the users subconscious, a sizeable percent believed it was controlled by spirits or under the influence of demonic forces. The Ouija board as we know it dates back to the late 1800s when at the height of the spiritualist movement it was a popular parlour game. Currently, apart from the familiar Ouija board marketed by Parker Brothers (now part of Hasbro), there are about eight other styles of talking boards. There are two prevailing theories on how the Ouija works the automatism or ideomotor response theory and the spiritualist theory. The Automatism Theory suggests you are consciously unaware of moving the message indicator similar to automatic writing. The Spiritualist Theory states that you contact or channel discarnate spirits, ghosts, or other ethereal beings through the board. Other theories include: auto-suggestion, telepathy, telekinesis, and self-delusion. Is the
Ouija a harmless game or a dangerous gateway to the beyond? Answer: Unknown.
The Unknown REMOTE VIEWING It's a scientific method of tapping into the "universal mind," transcending time and space, and bringing the unconscious into the conscious - and advocates of the art say you, too can learn to do it! A VIEW TO A THRILL
Remote viewing is the controlled use of ESP (extrasensory perception) through a specific method. Using a set of protocols (technical rules), the remote viewer can perceive a target - a person, object or event - that is located in the past or future, in the next room, across the country, around the world or, theoretically, across the universe. In remote viewing, time and space are meaningless. During the Cold War, remote viewing was further developed by the US military and the CIA. Although both organizations claim their remote viewing programs have been abandoned, some insiders believe that they are being continued secretly. Some well-known remote viewers claim they were contacted by the US government after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to help locate other possible terrorist activity. How does it work? One theory is that trained remote viewers are able to tap into the "Universal Mind" - a comprehensive storehouse of information of which all people and all things are a part. Advocates assert anyone with a modicum of ESP can develop the talent for remote viewing. Reality or new age jargon? Answer: Unknown.

The Unknown TIME TRAVEL Science says time travel is theoretically possible. And some people say they've already done it, or invented machines that make it a reality. TRAVELLING MADLY THROUGH TIME The notion of traveling backward or forward through time has long been a favourite subject of science fiction writers, films, and television shows from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine to the Back to the Future film series. The idea is tantalizing, of course, because it affords the possibility of not only viewing the truth of history first-hand, but also to interact with it and alter it. Likewise, venturing into the future lets us see the many marvels - or horrors - of future technology and civilization. Time travel has also been the fascination of scientists, both professional and of the basement variety. Many physicists believe that time travel is at least theoretically possible, although there seems to be no evidence that anyone from the future has traveled back in time to visit us today. Unless, that is, you accept the conclusion of some UFOlogists who believe UFOs and "aliens" are actually Earth-resident time travelers. Believe it or not, there are some people who believe that time travel is possible today and those who claim that they have actually accomplished the feat. Travelling through time wishful thinking or scientific possibility? For the moment the answer remains: Unknown!
The Unknown MISSING LINKS Is it possible that ancestors of early humans have survived in isolated areas of the Earth? Have specimens of them actually been captured and studied? Before you answer, consider the incredible story of Oliver. AMAZING MISSING LINKS
It is widely accepted in the scientific community that humans evolved from lower life forms some suggest from small, ape-like creatures. Is it possible that some of those ape-like creatures have survived to the present day? Does information from these primitive ancestors still reside in our genetic makeup and occasionally result in the birth of a genetic throwback? Oliver was one of the most closely studied chimpanzees in history, in large part because of his odd appearance and behaviour. He was so humanlike, in fact, that it was suspected by some that he might actually be a human-chimp hybrid the result of some secret genetic experiment. Although young, he lacked hair on his chest and head. His ears and jaw line were shaped somewhat differently than a normal chimp's. Most astonishingly, Oliver always walked upright with a decidedly human gait. He learned to use a toilet, liked to watch TV, drink coffee and beer, and even took on simple household chores like feeding the dog. Oliver preferred the company of humans to that of other chimps. Exhaustive testing revealed nothing unusual in Olivers genetic makeup. The reasons for his peculiarities remain: Unknown.

The Unknown LEVITATION Great stone structures and megaliths around the world withhold the secrets as to how they were constructed. Is it possible their builders possessed the powers of defying gravity? KEEP LIFTING ME HIGHER
Did ancient civilizations possess knowledge that has since been lost to science? The architects of several ancient civilizations - from Stonehenge to the great pyramids - used massive stones to construct their monuments. A basic question is why? Why use stone pieces of such enormous size and weight when the same structures could have been constructed with more easily managed smaller blocks - much like we use bricks and cinderblocks today? What was the secret these diverse and ancient cultures possessed to manipulate these great stone blocks? A massive supply of slave labour straining human muscle and ingenuity to their limits? Or was there another more mysterious way? Could part of the answer be that these ancients had a method of lifting and moving these massive stones some weighing several tons that made the task as easy and manageable as lifting a two-pound brick? The ancients, some researchers suggest, may have mastered the art of levitation, through sonics or some other obscure method, which allowed them to defy gravity and manipulate massive objects with ease. Fanciful notion or scientific probability? For now the answer remains: Unknown.
The Unknown COULD ANCIENT MAN FLY Models of airplanes thousands of years old. vast works of art that can only be seen from the air. ancient texts that describe aerial battles. Are they proof that ancient civilizations mastered powered flight? ANCIENT FLYERS
According to accepted history, it wasn't until the 1780s that two Frenchmen achieved lighter-than-air flight when they were lifted into the air in a hot air balloon near Paris. Although in the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci designed winged aircraft and a crude kind of helicopter, it wasn't until the Wright brothers made their first successful flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903 that powered flight became a reality. Some researchers and a few rogue scientists believe there's evidence to suggest humans achieved flight earlier in history - much earlier. In 1898, a peculiar six-inch wooden object was found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt that dated back to about 200 BCE. The object had a body or fuselage, seven-inch wings that curved downward slightly, a fixed rudder and a tail. It looked very much like a modern airplane or glider. Since airplanes had not yet been invented in 1898 (never mind ancient Egypt), it was labelled as a model of bird and stored in the basement of the Cairo museum. Was this item a child's toy or in fact a scale model of an aircraft the Egyptians planned to build. or did build? Answer: Unknown.

The Unknown ANCIENTS IN AMERICA Long before Columbus sailed to North America, this hemisphere may have been visited by other Europeans, ancient Romans, Chinese and Japanese even ancient Egyptians! HISTORY MYSTERY
In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Although nothing can be taken away from Columbus' daring voyage, he certainly was not the first to arrive on the shores of the Americas. For one thing, there were already people here many Native American nations inhabited what later became North and South America. Columbus probably wasn't even the first "white man" to make it here. It is generally accepted that Icelander Leif Ericsson successfully sailed to North America in the year 1000 - almost 500 years prior to Columbus's voyage. There is hard evidence of ancient civilizations making their mark in places where, according to traditionally accepted history, they just shouldn't be. Roman coins have been found in Venezuela and Maine in Texas at the bottom of an Indian mound at Round Rock. In 1966, a man named Manfred Metcalf stumbled upon a stone in the state of Georgia that bears an inscription similar to ancient writing from the island of Crete. A fist-sized, round stone was found during the early 1890s in a cemetery near Nashville, Tennessee inscribed with symbols thought to be Libyan, pre-100 A.D. style. It translates as: "The colonists pledge to redeem." Explanation: UNKNOWN.
The Unknown CLOUDS When is a cloud not a cloud? Perhaps when it behaves so strangely - even to the point of attacking people - that it becomes a truly puzzling manifestation. CLOUDS OF SUSPICION
For generations, eyewitnesses have reported weird and astonishing activities from ordinary and sometimes not-so-ordinary looking clouds. Some of these reports were even recorded in prestigious scientific journals. Storm clouds can be foreboding and sometimes dangerous, but it's not often that one appears to be deliberately malicious. It was a summer morning in 1975 that schoolteacher Tom D'Ercole of Oyster Bay, Long Island, had a very bizarre encounter with a cloud that seemed to be after him. D'Ercole was about to get in his car when he saw a small, dark cloud hovering above his house. "The cloud seemed to move and slightly enlarge as I watched it," the science teacher said. "This basketball-sized cloud floated back and forth across the peak of the roof, changing in shape from a small globular mass to a larger ovoid and finally becoming an abstract, multi-curved, dark, vaporous something. It finally measured about six feet in height and one and a half feet in width." Then things got really strange. As D'Ercole watched in fascination and puzzlement, the cloud appeared to inhale, form pursed lips, a spit a stream of water at him and his car - drenching them both. After a few moments, the spray ended and the cloud disappeared. Explanation? Unknown.

The Unknown REVERSE SPEECH Are there hidden messages and meanings in the things we say that can only be understood when heard in reverse? Or is the phenomenon just an interesting illusion? BOB BACKWARDS IS STILL BOB
Reverse speech is one of the areas of strange phenomena that even many extremely open-minded researchers of the unusual find hard to swallow. Essentially, the idea of reverse speech is this: hidden within the ordinary things we say is a deeper meaning - words and phrases spoken unconsciously that are revealed only when our recorded speech is played in reverse. Are proponents of reverse speech just hearing what they want to hear or are they really on to something? David John Oates, an Australian researcher, is most often credited with discovering the phenomenon and for coining the phrase reverse speech. According to Oates, "human speech has two distinctive yet complementary functions and modes. The "overt" mode is spoken forwards and is primarily under conscious control. The "covert" mode is spoken backwards and is not under conscious control. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of reverse speech isn't that one can discern words and phrases within reversed speech, but in the claim that the backward speech unconsciously reveals the true feelings and intent of the speaker. Radical discovery and ridiculous notion? Until solid proof on the matter of reverse speech can be acquired, its validity remains UNKNOWN!