- 1 year ago
Documentary television hosted by Jay Robinson focused on exploring great mysteries around the world, from ghost sightings, alien encounters and everything else in between.
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00:00America's Stonehenge sits on a hilltop in southern New Hampshire, surrounded, some say, by an aura of ancient magic that sometimes pulsates as though there is a heart beating inside it.
00:15Yet, on first glance, one sees only stone walls, various chambers, and standing stone monuments, hewn out of solid rock almost 4,000 years ago.
00:28But why, one asks, was it built, and by whom?
00:33Were these fabulous architects the indigenous people of North America?
00:38Or could they have been the very same stone sorcerers who, by using giant stones, also built England's Stonehenge?
00:47Meet Robert Stone, the owner, manager, and researcher of America's Stonehenge.
00:54I think the builders came from Europe.
00:56They were stone masons, they knew how to erect stone.
01:00In this section of the United States, I don't know of any Indian tribes that built out of stone.
01:05There's other sections of the country that did.
01:07They found the hilltop that they wanted, and they were very, very crafted in stone, and they also were involved with astronomy.
01:15There appears to be plenty of substance behind Mr. Stone's theories about the builders' cosmic interests.
01:22Not far from the main site are several stones, some as high as seven feet.
01:28Some people believe they are astronomical markers, signifying the spring and fall equinoxes, and that this stone marks the summer solstice.
01:38And on that first summer day, if one watches the sunrise from the astronomical center circle,
01:46the sun actually aligns with the distant mountain peak, similar to sites found in Europe.
01:52Researchers have also uncovered rock slabs with carved inscriptions, believed to have been etched by Celtic, Iberian, and Phoenician artisans.
02:04Several of the bizarre inscriptions resemble Ogam, a script dating from the 5th to the 7th centuries in Ireland and Britain.
02:14Apparently, the strange magicians who created these fascinating mysteries
02:20believed that New England was the perfect place for their divinely mysterious efforts.
02:27Throughout New England, there are nearly 350 similar megalithic rock structures.
02:35And in a bizarre twist, this bee hut structure faces southwest,
02:41the only one different from the others, oddly similar to Ireland's 5,000-year-old wedge tombs.
02:50Perhaps our story's greatest mystery comes from the voice of God himself
02:56in the secret darkness of an underground tunnel sits the sacred Oracle Chamber,
03:03a priest would hide in the Oracle Chamber, and using the speaking tube,
03:08act as the voice of God, speaking to the ancient believers outside.
03:14We're inside the Oracle Chamber, and inside this chamber, there's a large tube that leads out through five feet of wall,
03:21and that comes out underneath a sacrificial table.
03:25If you speak through this, it sounds, if you're on a ramp opposite the table,
03:29it sounds like the table is actually talking to you.
03:32Imagine what it would have been like to hear the voice of God speaking from the table.
03:37It's believed that this same table was used for blood sacrifice.
03:43What did they sacrifice? We don't know. It's big enough for a human being.
03:47But if it was an animal, and it could have been, we're not sure.
03:51But over in back of me, there's this little chamber it's like,
03:54and we often thought that maybe that area they had is holding pens for animals.
03:59They bring the animal out and put him on here and tie him down or whatever, and there's your sacrifice.
04:05The wondrous mysteries of the Oracle Chambers grow more extraordinary
04:09as one looks deeper into its ancient secrets.
04:13For example, just below the speaking tube is a secret chamber
04:17where it's believed a person could crawl into and through a small opening near the floor,
04:25observe whatever activity was taking place.
04:28There's the roof and its mysterious opening.
04:32At one time, it was covered with two stone louvers that could open and close,
04:37and a larger stone cover to close the opening more securely.
04:42What was it used for?
04:44Perhaps it was a skylight that the ancients used to search the heavens.
04:51The largest boulder on the site is found in the somewhat bizarre L-shaped passage.
04:57Somehow, this 45-ton giant rock was moved several feet by the ancient builders.
05:04How could they have possibly accomplished such a feat?
05:08Without question, this area was a place of importance.
05:12We'll never know what for.
05:15And its ancient rituals or uses will forever remain a lost and intriguing mystery.
05:23Still, the world's foremost professionals study these stone structures.
05:28Is it truly American, or is it European?
05:33Very few Indian artifacts have ever been discovered here,
05:37yet the disagreement continues.
05:42A Native American genius, or a European genius?
05:47There is some evidence which supports both sides of the argument.
05:52But no one truly knows who built these strange structures.
05:56The answers, I'm afraid, lay somewhere in the ancient cosmos.
06:04It has been said that a man's home is his castle.
06:10Soon we will meet a man that took this sentiment to heart,
06:14and who built his own castle, stone by stone.
06:19But first, we will investigate two other bizarre places of residence.
06:24One built of junk, and another made entirely of newspaper.
06:32In all cases, the buildings, and more importantly, the builders themselves,
06:38are considered beyond bizarre.
06:43Most of us are accustomed to the usual variety of traditional homes,
06:48made of wood, stone, and glass,
06:51and built by skilled carpenters, plumbers, and masons.
06:55But the homes we are about to see are quite different,
06:59built of unusual materials,
07:01and created by men driven with strange obsessions.
07:06This interterrestrial craft is called an earthship.
07:10It is actually a bizarre home design that uses disposable materials.
07:17Tires are stacked to form a wall that becomes solid and self-supporting.
07:23This tire-earth combination provides excellent insulation,
07:28and recycles a product that is difficult to dispose of.
07:33There is even a purpose for empty cans.
07:37Interior walls are actually built with empty cans that have been joined with mud.
07:43Finally, the walls are covered with mud, sand, and straw, or adobe.
07:49And what we have might be bizarre to some of us.
07:55The magnificent result of all this muck and junk is a spectacular creation
08:01that, once completed, will be a home that uses solar energy
08:06and is very cheap to maintain.
08:10Combining the new, the old, the discarded, the ancient,
08:15the result is simple, yet slightly bizarre.
08:20The community of Pigeon Cove, Massachusetts looks anything but unusual.
08:25Yet, there was once a character here
08:28whose highly unusual hobby made this hamlet
08:32one of the spots on our beyond-bizarre roadmap of the world.
08:36Ellis Stedman was designing paperclips
08:39when he first became interested in a new form of wordsmithing.
08:44Their grandniece, Edna Beaudoin, explains what this obsession was
08:48that drove her uncle Ellis so compulsively.
08:52Well, basically, he was curious.
08:55He wanted to see what he could do with the newspaper,
08:59and he wanted to experiment with it as an insulating material.
09:04Whatever demons or angels drove him,
09:07he wanted to experiment with it as an insulating material.
09:11Whatever demons or angels drove him, no one knows.
09:16The interior walls are 215 inches, about half an inch,
09:22and the exterior walls are varnished every fall.
09:27Who would have thought of putting a fireplace inside a paper house?
09:33Mr. Stedman found paper to be a building material for almost anything.
09:38The grandfather clock is made up of rolled newspapers
09:42from each of the 48 states.
09:45This desk was made of papers
09:48featuring the cross-Atlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh.
09:52If a picture is worth a thousand words,
09:55how much is this house of words really worth?
09:59The furnishings also include a piano
10:03and ornately folded paper curtains.
10:09People from all over come here.
10:12Rockport's a busy tourist town,
10:14so you get a lot of foreign visitors and families
10:18and basically people who are out to see something odd and unusual.
10:22Mr. Stedman could never have imagined
10:25how long-lasting his strange experiment would be.
10:28Is it a monument to future uses of newsprint
10:32or maybe a first edition of our homes of the future?
10:37And then there is a mountain outside of Pueblo, Colorado,
10:41where stands a castle that is being built single-handedly
10:45by a man with a vision.
10:47If a man's home is his castle,
10:50then what sort of man would build himself a castle all alone
10:55and not live in it?
10:57Meet Jim Bishop, a man who has spent the last 28 years
11:02building a castle totally by himself.
11:05His wife Phoebe takes care of permits and legal issues
11:09as well as lends her support.
11:12When Jim was young, he nearly died of a childhood illness.
11:16He is now, he says, a rugged individualist,
11:19proud of the fact that he has built this castle on his own
11:23with little more than an idea in his own two hands.
11:27I just wanted to be in the mountains.
11:29When I was a young man in Pueblo,
11:31I wanted to come to these blue mountains
11:33So I got up in here with riding bicycles up to the mountains
11:37and camping at Lake Isabel.
11:39This piece of property come up for sale.
11:4138 years ago, I made the down payment.
11:43I was 15 years old, a minor child.
11:45It was in my folks' name.
11:47Start digging a road in here, wheelbarrow and shovel,
11:49and all I wanted was a place in the mountains.
11:52Then I started building the rock cottage,
11:54start out as a stone cottage.
11:56People, just locals, farmers, ranchers, fishermen,
11:59no tourists at the time,
12:01they start comming on how much the rock work looked like a castle.
12:04Jim may have a bizarre hobby with his castle,
12:08but he is, as he proclaims, totally independent.
12:12He has built the castle entirely with his own funds
12:15and from visitor donations.
12:17The castle is, in fact, debt-free.
12:20All extra donations go to the Bishop Castle Foundation
12:25for newborn heart surgery.
12:28What do these visitors, who are no doubt overwhelmed,
12:32think about this man, what he is doing?
12:35For to build something like this,
12:38all by hand, mostly by himself, isn't it?
12:41Yeah, it's all by himself.
12:43It's incredible.
12:44It's hard to imagine that one man could imagine this dream
12:47and then make it come true.
12:49How on earth can just one man build an entire castle?
12:53It looks incredibly difficult,
12:56but its beautiful artistry is its simplicity.
12:59Climbing the scaffolding that he has built
13:02to the precise position of his current project,
13:06he unloads the rock and then mortars it into place.
13:10In this era of technology and complex machinery,
13:15it only takes a few casual moments
13:19to see the artist in Jim Bishop.
13:23The castle is a conglomeration of Colorado granite
13:27put together with concrete, flying buttresses,
13:31arches, towers, chimney towers, staircase towers,
13:36wrought iron roof trusses, wrought iron window frames.
13:41As far as architectural plans,
13:43it's what I got envisioned in my mind.
13:46There's nothing on paper,
13:47no mechanical drawings, no blueprints.
13:49Trial and error, experience,
13:51it just comes to me, and it's meant to be.
13:54Watch him at work, and one can finally understand
13:58that it's the simple, uncomplicated things
14:02that are truly extraordinary.
14:05As we watch over this fantastic project,
14:08we can see the eccentric master at work,
14:11and near to him,
14:12the enduring icon of the environmental structure.
14:18It's made of chimney and a gargoyle
14:23and something that the news media would pay attention to,
14:27and it worked.
14:28It's made out of discarded stainless steel hospital trays.
14:31There's 4,200 pop rivets holding it together.
14:34The lower jaw is seven foot long and hinges.
14:37It breathes fire, propane fire, out the mouth.
14:41The two nostrils is a chimney.
14:44And I got the start, the idea, the inspiration for the castle
14:48from the general public.
14:50Now it's inspirational to everybody else.
14:52It shows what a poor person could do in a free country
14:55if you work and fight for what you're doing.
14:57You can create art around whosoever idea of bizarre there is.
15:02Yeah, it's bizarre,
15:03because you're not going to see it anywhere else.
15:06That makes it bizarre.
15:09Most of us have heard the saying,
15:12I need that like I need another hole in the head.
15:16But in fact, there are some people that believe
15:21they need more than the seven holes normally found
15:25in every human skull.
15:27These same people profess an additional hole
15:31to increase awareness,
15:33perhaps open up a new window
15:36into the human mind.
15:38This story includes bizarre graphic scenes
15:42of an actual modern self-trepanation,
15:46and I must strongly urge you, the viewer,
15:50to never consider attempting this surgery by your own hand.
15:58Trepanation is skull surgery.
16:00It's the opening and generally removing parts of the skull
16:05bone.
16:06Bizarre as it may seem,
16:08it was in fact the first type of surgery ever attempted.
16:12Most patients in modern hospitals enjoy the benefits
16:17of the latest medical advances.
16:20Trepaning, or trepanation,
16:22is a term used by doctors whenever and for whatever reason
16:27a hole is made into the skull.
16:30Using the latest computer-assisted technology,
16:34skilled surgeons are able to pinpoint the exact area
16:38involved in the operation,
16:40and they can literally map out the entire procedure.
16:46Advances in medical equipment,
16:48like auto-cauterizing scalpels
16:51and self-cooling high-speed drills,
16:54also give surgeons the added benefit
16:57of highly sophisticated equipment
16:59to aid them in their task.
17:01Sterile techniques are strictly adhered to
17:04by the entire medical team.
17:06But imagine, if you will,
17:08what it would have been like thousands of years ago
17:11trying to perform a delicate task
17:14of opening someone's head
17:16without any of our modern advances or sterile protections.
17:21Up to 4,000 years ago in Egypt,
17:24ancient practitioners were surprisingly well-versed
17:28in trepaning and its mysterious benefits.
17:31The ancient Egyptians described the procedure in very great detail.
17:36There are medical papyri that date...
17:39date...
18:10Antiseptic techniques were popularized
18:13in the latter part of the last century.
18:16Some cultures have continued a primitive form of trepaning,
18:20and this extremely rare footage
18:23shot 30 years ago in Africa
18:26proves that in remote areas
18:28this bizarre primitive surgery
18:31has barely changed within the last few thousand years.
18:36After purification rites the night before,
18:39the doctor traveled to a village
18:42where his unusual specialty was needed.
18:46In many areas, trepanations seem to have been done
18:50for very rational reasons,
18:52to correct a depressed skull fracture,
18:55to correct the effects of a concussion or a fall.
18:58Some of the trepanations are very large,
19:01three, four inches in diameter,
19:03so exposing a very large part of the skull,
19:06and yet they healed,
19:09and they healed to an amazing degree.
19:12Sometimes trepanations were performed for more esoteric reasons,
19:16to let out the evil demons.
19:19In some cultures, priests underwent trepanation
19:22to let the light of consciousness in.
19:25This patient was operated upon
19:27without anesthesia or sterile techniques.
19:31After completion of the surgery,
19:33the wounds were not stitched,
19:35but merely bound with plant fibers.
19:38Not all patients survived this operation, however,
19:42as evidenced by the lack of healing in this ancient skull.
19:48But some primitive surgeons enjoyed many successes,
19:52and this doctor's talents were widely respected and sought after.
19:57In his many living patients,
19:59attest to his experience and his ability.
20:12Ancient surgical practices still taking place
20:15in remote parts of Africa may surprise us.
20:20But even more surprising
20:22is the strange and bizarre story of Amanda Fielding.
20:27Amanda looks every bit the typical proper English lady,
20:31but there's little about her that is typical.
20:34You see, Amanda is one of a handful of people
20:38who have actually trepaned themselves.
20:43In Hindu philosophy, the god Shiva is often depicted
20:47with a third mystic eye on his forehead,
20:50representing an expanded consciousness.
20:54Amanda believes her own subtle increase in consciousness
20:58is a result of her self-trepanation.
21:01The basis of expanded consciousness
21:04is getting more blood in the brain.
21:07I consider trepanation a measure for health and happiness,
21:12and therefore it should be available to anyone who wants to know about it.
21:16This experience had such an effect on her life and mental state
21:20that she decided to share her rediscovery of this ancient surgical technique
21:25by running for the British Parliament
21:28on the platform of trepanation for the national health.
21:32Self-trepanation is at the least extremely dangerous.
21:38It could easily be fatal.
21:41Although I trepan myself, I'm against self-trepanation
21:45because obviously it's potentially a lot more dangerous
21:49than having it done by a doctor.
21:51Amanda feels strongly about that now
21:54by watching the film she took of the procedure in 1970.
21:58I decided to make a movie of it,
22:01so the day before I bought a Super 8 camera
22:05and set it up so one got a reflected image in the mirror.
22:10This is me looking rather anxious.
22:13It's the morning of the operation.
22:17This is the electric drill with the flexible drive.
22:21It hung in order to make it lighter
22:25and therefore easier to handle.
22:28Here's the flex going to the foot pedal,
22:31which gave a very delicate control.
22:35To sharpen her skills,
22:37Amanda practiced drilling on an acquired human skull.
22:43During the trepanation, there was no pain.
22:46Local anesthetics thought of that.
22:48And after, there's no pain
22:50because I think there's very few nerves in that part of the body.
22:55So it was a completely painless experience.
22:59With the opening of the skull,
23:02an increase in brain blood volume occurs,
23:05and a few people believe
23:07that this restoration of the pulse of blood to the brain
23:11led to an expanded awareness and heightened consciousness.
23:16However, this phenomenon is not well understood by medical science.
23:22The effects of trepanation are very difficult to define.
23:25It's a subtle change,
23:27a certain kind of quietness in the head, a relaxation.
23:31The entire procedure lasted nearly three hours.
23:35The actual drilling took 30 minutes,
23:38during which she lost about a pint of blood.
23:52Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of Amanda's home movie
23:56is her calm demeanour following the trepanation.
24:05Having cleaned up and had a bath,
24:07we went out and had a steak for supper
24:09to make up for the lost blood,
24:11and then went to a party we'd been asked to.
24:17Amanda lost her bid for Parliament,
24:20but she still supports others who seek acceptance
24:23from the medical community
24:25in conducting trepanations for non-medical reasons.
24:29Amanda still feels that in her own life,
24:33trepanation has made a subtle but surprising difference.
24:40Again, we strongly agree with Amanda's conclusion
24:44that self-trepanation is an extremely dangerous
24:48and very likely lethal thing to do to oneself,
24:52so much so that we must label it as even
24:56beyond, beyond bizarre.
25:04We live in a world
25:06where primitive knowledge and unusual behaviours
25:10are able to meet halfway the rapidly changing technology
25:14of our modern age.
25:16There are a myriad of mystical and mysterious elements
25:21to any story featuring a trepanation.
25:25But there is one element
25:29marked on any known map of the world.
25:32Rather, they must be sought out
25:35using a catalysis
25:37able to plumb the depths of imagination.
25:41I'm J. Robinson,
25:43and I hope you've enjoyed our little journey
25:47into the realm of the unusual.
25:49Until next time.
25:59Join me next time,
26:01and I promise you
26:03we'll travel again
26:05to seek the bizarre
26:07and beyond.
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