The Occultist's New Robes

I'm Steve Huff. I'm a writer and journalist and have covered crime, technology and cybercrime. My work has been published by the Daily Beast, Esquire, the Crime Library, the New York Observer, Betabeat, Complex and Radar. Occultica is a reboot of my semi-popular weird Tumblr The Occultist, which I deleted for some stupid reason. The coverage here may be a little broader than with the first blog; Occultica, basically is all about whatever I find weird.

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What the everlasting fuck?

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The UFOs could've been floating lanterns; the falling object is more interesting.

UFO Sightings Breaking News Asteroid Near Miss Over Portland Oregon? Special Report 2013 (by thirdphaseofmoon)

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The Voynich manuscript has remained so far as a mystery for linguists and cryptologists. While the text written on medieval parchment -using an unknown script system- shows basic statistical patterns that bear resemblance to those from real languages, there are features that suggested to some researches that the manuscript was a forgery intended as a hoax. Here we analyse the long-range structure of the manuscript using methods from information theory. We show that the Voynich manuscript presents a complex organization in the distribution of words that is compatible with those found in real language sequences. We are also able to extract some of the most significant semantic word-networks in the text. These results together with some previously known statistical features of the Voynich manuscript, give support to the presence of a genuine message inside the book.

PLOS ONE: Keywords and Co-Occurrence Patterns in the Voynich Manuscript: An Information-Theoretic Analysis

This is knotty stuff, but the basics are this: the Voynich Manuscript, one of the most fascinating coded documents in existence, has often been dismissed as a nonsensical artistic hoax. However new research indicates (as you read in the quote above) that the Voynich may contain some kind of true information, after all. 

You can see the actual manuscript here. A plain language article about the study from which the quote above originated is here.

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VANISHED! A VIDEO SEANCE (by Conrad Weiskrantz)

This story is true in that Gef was alleged to be real and a minor news sensation at the time. 

So remarkably weird.

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(via Digital Minot: An On-Line Museum of Local History | Mystery Images : Mystery Images)

This is a fascinating random find. From Digital Minot, an online museum of history run by North Dakota's Minot State University:

The photographs were printed from film negatives found during work on a Minot home after the 2011 flood, and forwarded to the Digital Minot Project by a Minot resident, Mark Hildahl. The address of the flooded home is 314 9th Street NW.

The photographs in the collection appear to be of some sort of ceremonial and/or community event that included games and races. A few images include farming equipment and automobiles. There are representations of at least three cultures: Native Americans, Norwegians, and Scots. The photographs were probably taken during the early part of the twentieth century.

Of course, it's purely my brain being sick, but I kept looking through this collection--particularly the photos made at night--and imagining some kind of terrible thing happening just off-camera, for often the subjects of the shots seem to be looking in that direction. Something involving the opening of Yog-Sothoth or the sacrifice of some hapless community member, a la Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."

But probably not?

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"THE OTHER" (1972) (by svetac gabo)

Oh my God, it's the whole damned movie.

If you don't mind the Spanish subtitles, you should watch this, a delightfully creepy 70s film titled The Other, based on a novel by that name. The IMDB synopsis: "In the summer of 1935, 9-year-old twins Niles and Holland Perry live with their family on a Connecticut farm. Their loving grandmother Ada has taught them something called 'the game.' A number of accidents begin happening, and it seems to Niles that Holland is responsible. It is Ada who begins to see the truth, and she is the only one who can stop this macabre game of murder."

I saw the movie when I was maybe 7 or 8 and read the book a short time after and feel like both had surprisingly long-lasting effects on my creative mind.

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BREAKING!!! UFO ALIEN DISCLOSURE By Canadian Minister of Defence MAY 2013 (by DisclosureTeam)

Either Paul Hellyer, this Minister of Defense in Canada, has broken the biggest news in history or Canada has some crrrrrrrraaaaaaazy politicians in office. 

This is almost 10 minutes long and Mr. Hellyer refers to flotillas of UFOs as well as "four species" of alien that have been visiting our planet for "thousands of years."

Enjoy.

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Even knowing precisely what causes a meteor shower never really dims the sense of wonder you feel when you see one.

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Author: C.J. Burton

Title: Safe travels

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Well, this is fun.

Asteroid 2013 LR6 will pass within 70,000 miles of Earth tonight, making its closest approach over Tasmania at 9:42 Pacific Time. The asteroid is 30 feet in diameter and NASA says it has no chance of striking our planet. What is a matter for concern, though, is that it was just discovered two days ago, on June 6.

And by fun I mean, SHIT. Because you know, one day, it won't innocently pass between the moon and us.

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(via Twitter / thetimebank: Hey @forteantimes ....check ...)

Where do they get Elvis? I see Abraham Lincoln. Come on, guys.

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'The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself. The novel coronavirus is a threat to the entire world,' Chan said on Monday. 'Through WHO and the IHR, we need to bring together the assets of the entire world in order to adequately address this threat. We need more information, and we need it quickly, urgently.'

WHO chief says novel coronavirus 'poses a threat to the entire world' - BNO News

Do you dream of a Dark Man, a Walkin' Dude, or some old woman strummin' a guitar?

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Here's a fun thing: follow this link, find your state of residence, start reading, start asking yourself if there are any patterns in the cases you read about.

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No, seriously. Japan Times suggests that Japanese PM Shinzo Abe hasn't moved in to the prime minister's official residence because there are rumors it may be haunted. 

And if you've seen The Grudge or any Japanese horror flick made in the last 15 years, you know Japanese ghosts ARE NOT JOKING AROUND.

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A Haunting: "The Wheatsheaf Horror"

A Haunting is an allegedly "true" paranormal documentary series that airs on Destination America, a basic cable channel. The selection airing as a I write is "The Wheatsheaf Horror," about an English pub haunted by a young girl who was killed there. In the show, the staff tries to contact the young girl.

And all I can think as I watch is wow, they probably have some really good booze at that pub. 

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Creepy Old Rapture Brainwashing Video (by logicked)

"Housework will be left undone because Christian maids have been promoted to higher realms!"

A 1941 film about The Rapture--one of the more unintentionally creepy things I've seen lately. The juxtaposition of the eschatological dialogue with the classic 1940s newsreel announcer's style. As if it was made in an alternate universe, somehow.

Enjoy. (You can skip the last minute if you want--the video was uploaded by some ardent atheist. Don't really care about his need to make fun of Christianity, was just struck by the eerie vibe of the video itself.)

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LOL Satanists.