Can you dig it?

I know I already posted "Welcome to Occam's Broadsword," but welcome again.

My intent with this blog is to explore the fringe area between human reason and imagination. To be sure, I will subject all of you to an occassional post about some of my other obsessions, but mostly I will attempt to confine myself to the vague category of "weird stuff."

So what qualifies as "weird stuff?" Rather than try to define it, let me post a representative list. My list is by no means all inclusive, nor is it in any particular order:

Knights Templar, UFOs, Atlantis, Lemuria, Deros, Hollow Earth Hypothesis, Nazi Fringe Elements (because regular Nazis aren't crazy enough), the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, Yeti, Cthulhu, Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), Aleister Crowley, Isaac Bonewits, Grant Morrison, L. Ron Hubbard, the Philadelphia Experiment, Time Travel, force fields, pan-dimensional travel, Madame Blavatsky, Black Holes, Worm Holes, Out of Place Artifacts (OOPAs), fnords, Sea Monsters, Thunderbirds, the Bavarian Illuminati, the Church of Satan, the Cult of Assassins, The Church of the Sub-Genius, Thuggees, Vimanas, Ancient Astronauts, Ancient Mariners, Antarctic Coast Maps, Society of the Golden Dawn, Church of Thelema, Priory of Sion, The Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Destiny, the Tomb of Genghis Khan, Shambala, the Plain of Leng, Yezidi Devil Worshipers, Sunken R'yleh, Qigong, Vampires, Werewolves, zombies, secret history, Adam Weishaupt, Princess Diana's death, Ultima Thule, Mokele-Membe, the Mothman, the Beast of Gevaudon, Stonhenge, Glastonbury Tor, Ley Lines, Mont St. Michel, Nazca Lines, Pyramids, MJ-12, Men in Black, Faeries, The King on Yellow, Narlathotep, Robert E. Howard, Alien Abductions, Michael Jackson, Chupacapbras (the Goatsucker), Mind Control, clairvoyance, telekenesis, scrying, auras, Tengu, H.P Lovecraft, Hanger 18, Roswell, Shoalin Monks, dragons, wyverns, chimeras, unicorns, Urban Legends, ghosts, poltergeists, demonic possession, miracles, demonic obsession, divine apparitions, relics of saints, the Oak Island Treasure Pit, Black Madonnas, vitrified forts, flat earthers, cargo cults, King Arthur, Roanoke colony, Pope Joan, Gnostic Gospels, mystery radio beacons, cattle mutilations, black helicopters, hantavirus, stigmata, Marburg Virus, Jersey Devil, Spring Heel Jack, Santeria, Pagans, witches, the Bimini Road, Edgar Cayce, Nostradamus, Tarot Cards, imps, the Curse of King Tutankamen, Vlad Tepes, Joseph of Arimethea, Capt/ Kidd's Treasure, Comte de Saint Germaine, Elizabeth Bathory, megalithic walls, Troy, Tir na nog, Mu, Crystal skulls, Necronomicon, Voynich Manuscript, Nemedian Chronicles, Doctor John Dee, Pirates, conspiracies, demonolgy, superstition, cryptozoology, spiritualists...

Whew! That list ought to keep us in topics for a while.

Obviously, my list of "weird stuff" is very broad. A few items are clearly real, but odd. Most items are not real, but share a devoted following who insist otherwise. A disputed few fall into an unlabled "in-between" category. If this blog had a patron saint, it would be Leonard Nimoy in his incarnation as the narrator of "In Search Of," the classic of '70's television that told a good story, and didn't let scientific fact get too much in the way. That's the attitude I'll be taking here. I'm telling a good story, and I don't want too many facts spoiling it. If you have factual knowledge to prove or disprove the topic of a post, by all means -- post a comment!

I don not claim to be the authority on every topic. In fact, many times, I'll be re-packaging someone else's information. I do not intend to prove or disprove anything, although occasionally I might let my logical mind intrude on a story. I do hope your find the forthcoming posts entertaining. I also hope that my approach will help stretch your mind.

A word of warning to true believers who may stumble into this blog by googling keywords: No matter what I say, do not think for an instant that I believe in the phenomena I will post. Sure, maybe I want to believe something, but the fact is: I need hard, empirical proof. I am a skeptic. I need evidence that holds up. The name of the blog is "Occam's Broadsword." For those of you who are unfamiliar with the reference, Occam was a medieval monk who announced a logical investigative method based on the principle that the simplest explanation for any given phenonmenon was most likely to be correct. This methodology was called "Occam's Razor" because it neatly cut through to the answer. To illustrate: If I walk into my kitchen and find a glass of water on the counter, I can be reasonably sure my wife left it there. I do not need to resort to a mischievious poltergeist playing tricks to explain the presence of the glass of water. So when I post a topic, feel free to comment using the "Razor" to explain it all away. Or tell me it's all real. I don't care. Just enjoy the story, and expect someone to contradict you.

A few administrative notes:
1.) I don't know how to post pictures yet. When I learn, I will be illustrating my posts. 2.) At the conclusion of each post, I hope to leave you with some additional information for your own research into the weird. Surf it: (websites to explore) www.forteantimes.com, www.sjgames.com, www.bujinkan.org, www.us.games-workshop.com, Read it: (titles of books or magazines to read) Fortean Times magazine, The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art by Stephen K. Hayes, Watch it: (movies and tv shows) The Mothman Prophecies starring Richard Gere, Lost on ABC 8pm Wednesday nights, Millenium available on DVD.

sit back. enjoy the ride.