PARANORMAL TRIP

The Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid, claimed to inhabit Scotland's Loch Ness, the most voluminous freshwater lake in Great Britain. The creature's "scientific" name, chosen by the late Sir Peter Scott in Nature, is Nessiteras rhombopteryx (Greek for "the wonder of Ness with the diamond shaped fin").

The earliest known report occurred in the Life of St. Columba by Adamnan, written around the 7th century. It describes how in 565 Columba saved the life of a Pict, who was being supposedly attacked by the monster. Adamnan describes the event as follows:

"...(He) raised his holy hand, while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, "Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed." Then at the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes, though it had just got so near to Lugne, as he swam, that there was not more than the length of a spear-staff between the man and the beast. Then the brethren seeing that the monster had gone back, and that their comrade Lugne returned to them in the boat safe and sound, were struck with admiration, and gave glory to God in the blessed man. And even the barbarous heathens, who were present, were forced by the greatness of this miracle, which they had seen, to magnify the God of the Christians"

Sceptics question the reliability of the Life of St. Columba as evidence for the Loch Ness Monster's existence, noting that the book describes implausible events, such as an incident when Columba slays a wild boar by the power of his voice alone. They argue that the monster encounter is said to have occurred on the River Ness, not in the Loch, and that Adamnan reports Columba encountering and conquering assorted "monsters" at various locations in Scotland, throughout his life. Moreover, sceptics assert that there are no other accounts of the Loch Ness monster attacking anyone, as the creature is normally portrayed as shy. In fact, biographies of the early saints were often embellished or invented for purposes of religious persuasion rather than historical record.

The 'Surgeon's Photo'

One of the most iconic images of Nessie is known as the 'Surgeon's Photograph' which many consider to be good evidence of the monster, although doubts about the photograph's authenticity were expressed from the beginning. The image was revealed as a hoax in the 1990s. The photographer, a gynecologist named Robert Kenneth Wilson, never claimed it to be a picture of the monster. He merely claimed to have photographed "something in the water". The photo is often cropped to make the monster seem huge, while the original uncropped shot shows the other end of the loch and the monster in the centre. The ripples on the photo fit the size and circular pattern of small ripples as opposed to large waves when photographed up close. Skeptics in the 1980s argued the photo was that of an otter or a diving bird, but after Christian Spurling's confession agree it was what Spurling claimed - a toy submarine with a sculpted head attached.

Analyses of the original uncropped image have fostered further doubt. Just a year before the hoax was revealed, the makers of Discovery Communications's documentary Loch Ness Discovered did an analysis of the uncropped image and found a white object evident in every version of the photo, implying that it was on the negative. "It seems to be the source of ripples in the water, almost as if the object was towed by something.", the narrator said. "But science cannot rule out it was just a blemish on the negative," he continued. Additionally, analysis of the full photograph revealed the object to be quite small, only about two to three feet long.

Spurling was the son-in-law of Marmaduke Wetherell, a big game hunter who was deceived into searching for the storied Loch Ness monster based on evidence which turned out to be a children's prank. Wetherell was publicly ridiculed in the Daily Mail, the journal which employed him. Spurling claimed that to get revenge, Marmaduke Wetherell committed the hoax, with the help of Chris Spurling (a sculpture specialist), his son Ian Marmaduke, who bought the material for the fake Nessie, and Maurice Chambers (an insurance agent), who would call to ask surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson to display the pictures. Some doubt Spurling's confession because of the involvement of several people not connected to Wilson.

The Taylor film (1938)
In 1938 Mr GE Taylor, a South African tourist, filmed something in the loch for three minutes on 16mm colour film, which is now in the possession of Dr. Maurice Burton. However, Dr. Burton has refused to show the film to Loch Ness investigators (such as Peter Costello or the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau). A single frame was published in his book The Elusive Monster; before he retired. Dr. Roy P Mackal, a respected biologist and cryptozoologist, declared the frame to be "positive evidence."

The Dinsdale film (1960)
In 1960, aeronautical engineer Tim Dinsdale filmed a hump crossing the water in a powerful wake unlike that of a boat. JARIC declared that the object was "probably animate".[2] Others were sceptical, saying that the "hump" cannot be ruled out as being a boat and claimed that when the contrast is turned up too high a man can be clearly seen in a boat. Some have questioned this, because the version they were watching was a pirate copy.[citation needed] This copy may itself have been a fake attempt to imitate the original.[citation needed]

In 1993 Discovery Communications made a documentary called Loch Ness Discovered that featured a digital enhancement of the Dinsdale film. A computer expert who enhanced the film noticed a shadow in the negative which was not very obvious in the positive. By enhancing and overlaying frames, he found what appeared to be the rear body, the rear flippers, and 1-2 additional humps of a plesiosaur-like body. He said that: "Before I saw the film, I thought the Loch Ness Monster was a load of rubbish. Having done the enhancement, I'm not so sure". [24] Some have countered this finding by saying that the angle of the film from the horizontal along with sun's angle on that day made shadows underwater unlikely . Believers (and some nonbelievers) claim the shape could have been undisturbed water that was only coincidentally shaped like a plesiosaur's rear end. But the same source also says that there might be a smaller object (hump or head) in front of the hump causing this. Nonetheless, the enhancement did show a smaller second hump and possibly a third hump.

The Holmes video (2007)
On May 26, 2007, Gordon Holmes, a 55-year-old lab technician, captured video of what he said was "this jet black thing, about 45 feet long, moving fairly fast in the water." Adrian Shine, a marine biologist at the Loch Ness 2000 center in Drumnadrochit, has watched the video and plans to analyze it. It is said to be "among the finest footage ever taken". BBC Scotland broadcast the video on May 29, 2007.

Man says he captured Loch Ness on film

Along with bigfoot the Loch Ness Monster is one the best most well known moster mysteries of cryptozoology. Most scientists and other experts find current evidence supporting the creature's existence unpersuasive, and regard the occasional sightings as hoaxes or misidentification of known creatures or natural phenomena. Belief in the legend persists around the world, however. Local people, and later many around the world, have affectionately referred to the animal by the epithet of Nessie.

There are many speculations as to what the reported lake monsters could be. Many consider them to be purely exaggerations or misinterpretations of known and natural phenomena, or else fabrications and hoaxes. Misidentified sightings of seals, otters, deer, diving water birds, large fish such as giant sturgeons, logs, mirages, seiches, light distortion, crossing boat wakes, or unusual wave patterns have all been proposed to explain specific reports. Skeptics point out that descriptions of these creatures vary over time with the values and mood of the local cultures, following the pattern of folk beliefs and not what would be expected if the reports were of actual encounters with real animals.

This underwater photo, taken in 1972 during the Rines expedition,it aledges to show a plesiosaur-like creature.

The most common eyewitness description of Nessie, is that of a plesiosaur, a long-necked aquatic reptile that became extinct during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. Supporters of the plesiosaur theory cite the survival of a fish called the coelacanth, which supposedly went extinct along with the plesiosaur but was rediscovered off the coast of Madagascar in 1938.

On the other hand, mainstream science does offer plausible reasons why such an animal could not exist in Loch Ness. Apart from its apparent extinction, the plesiosaur was probably a cold-blooded reptile requiring warm tropical waters, while the average temperature of Loch Ness is only about 5.5°C (42°F). Even if the plesiosaurs were warm-blooded, they would require a food supply beyond that of Loch Ness to maintain the level of activity necessary for warm-blooded animals.

According to the Swedish naturalist and author Bengt Sjögren (1980), present day beliefs in loch monsterss such as "Nessie" are associated with the old legends of kelpies. He claims that the accounts of loch monsters have changed over the ages, originally describing a horse appearance, they claimed that the "kelpie" would come out of the lake and turn into a horse. When a tired traveller would get on the back of the kelpie, it would gallop into the loch and devour its prey. This myth successfully kept children away from the loch, as was its purpose. Sjögren concludes that the kelpie legends have developed into more plausible descriptions of lake monsters, reflecting awareness of plesiosaurs. In other words, the kelpie of folklore has been transformed into a more "realistic" and "contemporary" notion of the creature. Believers counter that long-dead witnesses could only compare the creature to that which they were familiar -- and were not familiar with plesiosaurs.

Rumours of a huge animal living in the loch have existed for centuries. Some believers have argued that a lengthy history of monster sightings in the loch provides ample circumstantial evidence of the creature's existence. Others question the accuracy of such tales, and argue that they were generally unknown before the early 1960s when a strong wave of interest focused on the first clear examples of Nessie sightings in the 1930s.[citation needed] For example, an alleged sighting in October 1871 by a "D. Mackenzie", who supposedly described seeing something that moved slowly before moving off at a faster speed, has been repeated in several places, no original 1871 source for this report has been discovered, indicating that it may be an invention.

There have been far too many sightings to list in a single article. Many were questionable because of distance or other poor conditions; some sightings are cases of misidentified deer or boat wakes, and of course, there have been several hoaxes. There are some sightings, however, which cannot be easily explained.