Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Cue the “Twilight Zone” theme.


On April 14th, 1561 the skies over Nuremberg, Germany were reportedly filled with a multitude of objects. Known as the "Nuremberg Event".

Link to the Nuremberg event




Okay, I know that the rest of you sometimes question your own sanity, and have seen things that you don’t talk about because it’s just too weird. Sometimes you get a good explanation and other times you don’t. Like when a few years ago I saw a Roadrunner run down the main street of Garberville, hop over the bank above the Bowling Alley parking lot, and hit the ground running off toward the river. I looked around to see if anyone else saw it, and I didn’t see a soul. So I thought; “This is something that I’m just going to keep to Myself.” And I did.

About a year later I was in a conversation about strange happenings, and a friend of mine said “You’re not going to believe this, but I saw a Roadrunner run through Garberville one time”. Of course, after that, I felt a lot better about my sanity. And cautiously admitted that I saw it too. I still have no idea how it got there, but I was satisfied that there must be an explanation, and at least there was one other witness.

Another time I was hunting on Red Mountain and I saw a Chinese Pheasant fly around the hill. After about a month or two I cautiously asked my hunting buddies if they had ever seen any pheasant on Red Mountain. They answered “nope”, but they had heard a story that the Fish and Game planting some up there a few years ago. Phew, dodged another bullet.

One night after a fire meeting, it was a bright clear winter sky and the stars were shining and sparkling, I always watch the sky at night and pick out the constellations, and I’m fascinated with the stars movement with the changing seasons. There is a beauty in the night sky that I always take the time to appreciate.

As we were leaving the meeting, I was standing outside talking to a fellow firefighter while I was staring at the black, diamond filled, sky. When I saw lights glittering almost straight up and half way off to the west. I watched them for a while and they would glitter in all the colors of the rainbow. The blue would glitter for a while then a yellow would glitter, then an orange, a green and a violet. Then I noticed that the violet glitter was always in the same spot, and all the other colors would glitter in their own respective spots. After watching them for a while and they weren’t moving, I asked the fellow standing with me to look at all the colors in the sky, and what did he think that they were. He glanced up and said “it’s an airplane” and he just starting to leave. I said “no wait, it can’t be, it’s the wrong colors, and it’s not flashing right, and they are all in the same spots.” he went on to leave, and I stood there and watched them another five or six minutes trying to figure it out. Finally I decided that they were going to be there for a while and I called the other guys out to witness my discovery. You guessed it, the minute that they stepped out there, they started to fade away. They didn’t see anything and I had to put up with all the ridicule; “Ernie sees Lights in the sky”, that I normally try to avoid.

Once you see something with your own eyes, you can’t help but believe it, so I set about trying to figure out what they were. They were as bright and distant as pin- pricks. They were all colors of the rainbow and they weren’t moving.

CLUE: rainbow. I found that when a clear cold front abuts a clear warm front it can cause an “Atmospheric Lens” that will distort normal starlight just like a prism would. Bingo, an explanation to what would have otherwise have bothered me to my dying day. I took great joy in chiding my fellow firefighters that they didn’t even know about “Atmospheric Lens”. What a bunch of ignoramuses. Atmospheric Lens, became my new favorite words. And, I got to see something that few people will ever see in their lifetime. I consider myself very privileged.

I have a friend that works for the state highways. One night north of Garberville, in the deep Redwood forest, he saw Bigfoot run across the road right in front of his truck. Of course he didn’t tell anybody, but soon it was eating on him, so he cautiously told his wife about it. She seemed to accept it okay, so he told a few of his closest friends about it, and as you might have expected he got the hardy-har-har horse laugh, and he stopped talking about it.

I have no idea what he saw, and if you’re going to talk about things like that you have to either prove them, or you get to be crazy until you do. So, be’ins I don’t know what he saw, I am quite content to think that he’s crazy. Hey, he’s the one that told on himself.

Okay, now here’s the sticker. I “feel” Earthquakes before they happen. Cue the “Twilight Zone”, start the horse laugh, giggle behind your hand, and have a round of mirth and merriment on me. Just remember, I get even.

Back before we had the series of three earthquakes back in 1992, I was working in the basement of the Benbow Inn and I kept getting this overbearing feeling that I shouldn’t be there. I remember looking around me and reassuring myself that I was perfectly safe and the building had already survived many severe north coast quakes. I put it out of my mind I remember thinking that it was strange that I hadn’t had that feeling before when I worked there. The next day we had the first of three severe earthquakes.

This strange feeling has come over me before, just previous to having earthquakes. But, this time it really made me take notice, I took the hazard of telling my wife about it; that I got a strange feeling before an earthquake. And she reassured me that I was okay by making a noise kinda’ like a horse makes when they blow through their lips, only with a small and wife mouth size noise. I didn’t become reassured.

Sometimes before and earthquake I get the same feeling of disconnectedness, where it feels like your footing isn’t quite solid, and you’re sure that if you look around you things will be swinging and moving but they are not. It’s totally weird. My wife says that it’s easy to prove, that all I have to do is tell her about it before it happens. So several times I’ve told her about them, then pointed out on television that there was an earthquake. She say’s; Well, sure, there’s an earthquake everyday somewhere”. Then other times I get that strange feeling, and it doesn’t pan out. It’s like when you hear a tree popping and cracking, and you know that it is going to fall, but you can’t say exactly say when. I feel something impending, but I’m not certain when.

By now, you are probably wondering what all this is leading up to. The other night, before the China quake, I walked over to the television and was checking the mounts that was holding it to the wall, and it occurred to me that I was feeling that feeling of an impending earthquake stronger than I’ve ever felt it before, and I told my wife. I didn’t tell her I have that feeling again. I told her flat out “There is going to be an earthquake”. The next morning I turned on the television and they were talking about an earthquake that had just happened in China. Her response was “Well there’s an earthquake somewhere all the time”.

I have heard that animals can sense that same feeling of impendingness, that they become restless for no reason just before an earthquake happens.

It is my opinion that there is something tangible that can be sensed before an earthquake. But, like my wife, who I have to agree with: what good does it do to know that there’s going to be an earthquake somewhere sometime? We already know that.

I’d be really relieved to find that I’m not the only one to think that they sense earthquakes. Maybe someone knows of a scientific explanation. Because, I’m big on science, and really weak on superstition. And, I don't like to think that I'm crazy

26 comments:

Cristina said...

You're not crazy. You're attuned. And don't let other people tell you otherwise.

I had a dream about the big Mexico City earthquake a night or two before it happened (in the mid-80's, when I was high school). In the dream, I was in a big city in Mexico - I just didn't know which one.

Rose said...

You are not crazy - Remember the guy who could predict earthquakes, magnitude and geographic location and all - used to get written about in The Arcata Union and probably the TS... Last week, I asked if anyone remembered who he was and if he was still alive, or still around - Carol and Greg remembered...

It is Jerry Hurley, Ryan Hurley's (Captain Buhne) dad. He use to teach at Fortuna High.

Kym said...

My husband and I were traveling along Highway 1 between Fort Bragg and Irish Beach in the late 90's. It was a beautiful dark night. The kids were asleep in the back seat.

A neon green fireball about the size of a basketball streaked out over the ocean. We both saw it but, then it was gone and we never could figure out what it was.

Anonymous said...

You are really raelly special Earnie! This is the best post ever! Suzy has seen a lot of those ohter things,,like bugfoot and chinese bards and when Suzy looks at teh stars they are always changing to all the colors of the raibow... but I only know of one other peep who is so supersinsetive so as to predict earthquakes ..... and that is Billy ... he says the earth is shaking all the time ... he said the earth was shaking on the day of the chinese earthquoake and every other one tooo ... LOL he just told me five minutes ago theat the earth is shoaking and i said no its not silly and but he siad its quivering... he is really raelly sensitive, LOL You are too and a lot of fun when yuo write LOL, yuo musta really raelly been somethin back
in the olden daze
huggles,
S

Anonymous said...

I knew it, your crazy. But if it makes you feel any better I saw a road runner in Garberville back about 1952 and seen a couple out on Long Ridge. Also I saw a bigfoot but never told anybody about it. That was back before I was an OLD drunk driver.

Ernie Branscomb said...

More twilight zone stuff. I started to research Jerry Hurley, and ran across this comment that he made to the Southeast Missourian after the recent earthquake in Missouri.

Quote:
In October, 1983, I found that I could detect some earthquakes before they happened. At first I learned that I got a headache before they happened. Perhaps some of your readers will recall having aches, pains, headaches, vision problems or other physical problems that just went away following the earthquake in Illinois a few days ago.
The earth can shake for other reasons, too. If a mine collapses or if an underground cavity collapses, the earth shakes. There was an underground energy flow before the Illinois earthquake. Those magma flows are much deeper than simple collapses. Earthquakes under the San Andreas Fault are magma generated. The third possible type of earthquake is when the earth's crust moves. This third type is one which we never want to see happen.
For what its worth, I did a deep concentration on my genetic past and felt that I may have inherited my ability from my great great grandmother who was a Cherokee Indian lady living within a few hundred miles miles of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812. My grandfather was born in 1862, reportedly in Arkansas.
I also got the feeling that my great great grandmother was hated because a few simple people believed that she may have caused them to happen.
Following some significant earthquakes that happened after I detected the underground energy flows, I was on Oprah in February, 1993, a few years later on Fox Network's Encounters, CBS Sunday Morning and many TV news programs and in many newspapers, magazines, etc.
At this time I have gone on record saying that I can detect two energy flows, one 35 miles southwest of Redding, California and one about 40 miles southwest of Eureka, California. It seems that about half of the energy flows that I detect generate earthquakes.
I was in the local newspaper following a small eruption of Mt. St. Helens. I had notified the 15 or so people on my e-mail list on the morning of March 19, 2005. Later that day there was a small eruption. The eruption of a volcano happens when magma reaches ground-level air and explodes.
If anyone has a question, send an e-mail to Jerry Hurley: jhurley@shasta.com
-- Posted by Jerry Hurley on Fri, Apr 25, 2008, 11:58 pm CDT
Endquote:

Ernie here,
I did have a headache that lasted two or three days about a week ago, but had no sign of a headache before the China quake. Also I don't seem to have any sense of where, or exactly when. I just get a strong feeling of "Earthquake".

Ernie Branscomb said...

Anon, May 13, 2008 6:33 PM
I saw my roadrunner in the late fifties or early sixties. I thought seriously about posting this post anonymously. But I kinda’ figured that somebody might figure out that it was me, because of the “Ernie’s Place” thing.

Tell me more about “Bigfoot” and how you know that it wasn’t something else. Otherwise you have to be “Crazy” too.

Anonymous said...

I was just teasing you when I said you are crazy. And I didn't see a bigfoot. You said we could tell tall stories. But one time out in the Yolla Bolly's I heard a roar that filled the canyons and it raised the hair on the back of my neck. Nothing in the woods ever scared me except that rattle snakes mess my days up. That's only because just about every one I have run across I almost stepped on or put my hand on. Yuck!!! Well back to big foot, I always wondered for years what that was I heard on that day that kept my finger on the trigger. Then a few years later it was John or Roy telling me this story about Dave H. seeing a big foot and when I ask Dave about it it was the same weekend so whose crazy now? I was North of Shell Mountain and Dave came in on the Covelo side so we were miles apart.

By the way, There's an earthquake evey day in Alaska.

Ernie Branscomb said...

“By the way, There's an earthquake everyday in Alaska.”

Well then, there you go, I get to be right everyday.

The guy that said that he saw a Bigfoot was at Founders Grove by Dyerville. They “Saw One” about two weeks later in Petrolia. Imagine that! But, you still have to be crazy until you prove you’re not, that’s the rules.

It is amazing how many people have something that they find “unexplainable” in their past. Most of the things that I’ve found unexplainable, I’ve been able to figure out. This earthquake thing has me bugged. It is something that is tangible to me, but unexplainable. I thought that it would be a good way to set people at ease in talking about their “unexplained thing”. So, you can stay anonymous. I already outed myself.

Ernie Branscomb said...

“A neon green fireball about the size of a basketball streaked out over the ocean. We both saw it but, then it was gone and we never could figure out what it was.”


Kym, my mother saw some ball lightning that she saw as a kid and she described it to look something like that. Is that Possible?

Ernie Branscomb said...

Suzy thanks for the tune, it moved me!

Ernie Branscomb said...

I added a link to the "Nuremberg Event" at the top of the post.

Kym said...

Well, I guess it could have been but we were looking at the stars so, if so, it came out of a cloudless sky.

Fred Mangels said...

"Kym, my mother saw some ball lightning that she saw as a kid and she described it to look something like that. Is that Possible?".

I wasn't the only one that saw a big bluish green fireball in the sky one night back in the early eighties. I was on the graveyard shift at Humboldt Bay Power Plant. It happened so quick. It was even trailing smoke and it came from directly overhead and dropped to the west, presumably crashing in the ocean.

I figured it was some kind of meteor and the general consensus at the time was that was exactly what it was. The bluish green color was from the copper in the meteor burning up.

Another thing that can get you going are rockets and missiles of various kinds. When I lived in SoCal we used to see all kinds of strange looking stuff in the sky, presumably from Vandenburg AFB. Some of the launches they had were really something. Saw one that seemed to explode in stages- each stage showing a different color.

I'm sure I've seen unexplained things before, but none come to mind right now. I know if I do see something weird, I just remark that "I could have SWORN I saw....". I don't have a problem saying I think I might of seen something strange.

Robin Shelley said...

I remember seeing a Minute Man missle explode over Mendocino Co. in the mid-1960s. It exploded in stages as Fred describes but I don't remember different colors - just white. Bright white!
Also, I have seen the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) over Mendocino Co. on two occasions. The newspapers & radio usually alert the public when the atmospheric conditions are right for this to happen.
Dang, Jim! I didn't know Dave saw Bigfoot. I would love to hear that story! I've never seen a B.F. or flying saucer but I know people who have & I sure do want to believe they're out there!
I don't think it's so unusual for you to be sensitive to the Earth's vibrations, Ernie. I suspect many people are but don't know it... don't pay attention, don't know what it is, whatever. Or, maybe it just means you have your feet firmly planted on the ground.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Meteors: I like Fred’s explanation of the copper meteor being the most likely explanation of Kym’s green basketball. I seem to recall that many people saw that same thing. And there has been more than one sighting through the years of green meteors.

Ball lightning: Ball Lightning is so rarely witnessed that it was once dismissed as superstition. My mother said that when she witnessed it, it was hopping down the power lines. In modern days it has been witnessed by credible people too many times to be ignored, so they now acknowledge that it happens, but they don’t have an explanation for it. And sometimes lightning comes out of a clear sky. Maybe from a cloud over the horizon, some things just happen to infrequently to study.

Bigfoot: The people that I know that say they have seen Bigfoot are credible people that have no reason to lie about it. They all seem to be very firm in their opinion that that it could not be anything else. One person said that it crossed the road right in front of his truck, it was over seven feet tall, It crossed the road in three steps and looked over it’s shoulder at him. He stopped the truck and shined a light in the direction that it took through the brush and he saw no more sign of it. A Bigfoot researcher came to interview him, and had him go to the site with him and describe exactly what he saw. Most of the credible sightings of Bigfoot have happened in places that probably wouldn’t have been a staged event. I don’t know what these people are seeing, but it would have to go down as an unexplained phenomenon. Because, most of them stick to their story. I’ve never seen one and I doubt that they exist, so I get to call the people that have seen one crazy.

Earthquakes: I, at one time thought that I was actually feeling earthquakes themselves, through subtle movements of the ground. But, that doesn’t explain why I feel them ahead of time, and not when they are happening. The only explanation that I can think of for being able to predict earthquakes, that makes sense to me, is that a am usually aware of the things going on around me. I knew that we were having unusual quakes in Illinois, Nevada, and one of the plains states. I knew that we were having unusual eruptions of the Hawaii volcanoes and other volcanoes. That is an indication of huge geological activity, and the logical conclusion would be that there will be a large earthquake. My subconscious told me that we were due for a quake. I know that I have some form of prescience about earthquakes, otherwise why would I have felt so strongly that there was going to be an earthquake that I told my wife about it??? There has to be an explanation. Otherwise I have to be crazy with my UFO and Bigfoot sighting friends.

Ernie Branscomb said...

I sent an e-mail to Jerry Hurley asking him for a comment, This is a his reply.
It is addressed to Janis, because I was using her computer when I e-mailed him.

Quote:
Janis: When something causes the earth to shake it is usually called an earthquake. A falling object, a landslide or a collapsing mine will be recorded on a Richter Scale and will often be called an earthquake. All of these are shallow.
The earthquake in China was 19 km deep (11.9 miles). When earthquakes are deep, usually at least ten miles, they are caused by moving faults. Most of them are triggered by underground magma flows. When the magma causes enough pressure, and if there is enough stress on the fault, the fault adjusts, and thus the earthquake.
For what its worth, I am sensitive to underground magma flows. Some cause earthquakes and a few become volcanoes. The quake in China was far away and was beyond my range.
The shallow earthquakes east of Ely, Nevada; the ones west of Reno; and the ones near Bakersfield are all shallow and are merely collapses of underground cavities caused by mining, or the removal of water or oil. The recent ground collapse in Texas is an example of a collapse, not a fault.
A few people, like me, and some animals are sensitive to underground magma flows. As magma flows begin I become aware by facing the direction of the magma flow. When the pressure increases, I feel the flows more intensely. Frankly, they give me headaches and plenty misery. I prefer to feel good. I like to run a few times a week and I lift weights three times a week. Other people probably are sensitive to magma flows, but have never connected their pains to earthquakes. When we feel good, we seldom know why.
I have gone on record with the local media, saying that I have detected two energy flows that could trigger earthquakes. One is 35 miles southwest of Redding, California and one is 40 miles southwest of Eureka, California.
Yours, Jerry Hurley,
End Quote:

I don’t sense magma flows, I’ve not connected any of my headaches to earthquakes, or where anything might happen. I just get a strong feeling that there will be a earthquake. Ernie

Ernie Branscomb said...

P.S. I've been told that Mr. hurley has a track record of "above average" at predicting Quake occurences.

Anonymous said...

Great post, ernie. I also saw Kym's green baseball whatever it was, from my garden in Piercy; my partner and oldest kid also saw it that night.
As to your quake sensitivity--yes, it makes intuitive sense to me. But then I'm pretty odd myself, and have over my long years seen and felt a number of inexplicable things.
Never Bigfoot, though. And not a roadrunner. Though I did come across a porcupine happily waddling up Maple Lane one quiet night back in the early 70's. And there was the day a pretty black and white cow ended up in downtown G'ville. I was delighted, having been in a previous life somewhat of a city girl, so cows are, like, really exotic.

Anonymous said...

Ernie Branscomb said...Suzy thanks for the tune, it moved me!

im glad... biDillidy is soooooooo kewl hes teh root of the plant and did you dig tha band WoW LOL and but is bodildolee still alive di dee da Bop"?@!!!
but like iwaz just saying earlier to my freind on the phone Suzy went to see these guys live 3times in one weekend in SF LA and Dago ... it sooooooooooo krazy and we saw losts fireballs and stuff in the sky and everywhere we went down there but they are totlally
the toltaly best band alive but there religieaon is thotally insane and i cant levitate to it but you cant argue with the muxic...
and there name is your kinda name too Earnie -- like to the left LOL and makes one dream of fire engines and cadillacs and courvettes ...
Suzy likes to listten to them just before sunrise... when shes hitting the bong === cough == whatch out Billy yr beards onfire! LOL

have a great day everyone :o)
S

Anonymous said...

Kym said A neon green fireball about the size of a basketball streaked out over the ocean. We both saw it but, then it was gone and we never could figure out what it was.

Kym, I remember that very incident.
Although I was playing a gig in Arcata and saw it through a window.
My father and brother were traveling over 299 when it went over. The sky lit up for just about a second, as bright as daylight. They assumed the car in front of them had hit a gas truck. You know the things people think when odd occurances happen.
Later, the news reports said it was a meteor that flew over and burned up when hitting the ocean.

Also, when I was a kid, our family saw a strange orb traveling across the sky. It was cigar shaped and glowed like you can't imagine. My dad phone the Times-Standard and promised that he wasn't drinking. They called us back a few days later and told us it was a staging from a rocket that was launched from the Klamath Falls air base. Whew!

Nope, no bigfoot stories.

Earthquake story? I was the guy who filmed the actual earthquake in Ferndale in 1992. That bit of videotape hit the big time. I still get calls for copies of the footage. I happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Ernie Branscomb said...

So Eko, how'd you know when to be there???? See, you might be just a touch wierd too!

I didn't see the green fire ball, but it was sure was talked about after it happpened.

Anonymous said...

See, you might be just a touch wierd too!

Just a touch, ernie? Just a touch?

Anonymous said...

Suzy is awesom.

Anonymous said...

Ernie,
I believe you have a precognitive ability to feel the quakes. I do too.
My best earthquake story is:
Living in Marin county, worked my morning housecleaning job in Fairfax and just had to NOT go to the one down in Sausilito. But then I Had to buy candles, water, batteries, flashlight and food. I went home and sat in the middle of the floor in my room in San Anselmo..(I never had sat there before).
I wasn't there for more than a few minutes when a very loud CRACK sound happened, and the tv set was sort of laying on my back. I pushed it back into place.. walked (wobbly) out the door and watched my VW van look like it was being shook out like a rug.. the earth was visably rippeling. Neighbors were running around with screaming babies.. people were freaked.
I went back inside and turned on the TV.. the world series was happening in San Fransisco..
the rest is history. It was Loma Prieta. I moved north to Humboldt within the next few months.
I don't know why I knew it was going to happen. But I paid attention to that 'vibe-feeling' and have 'known' when several of the ones here on the north coast have were gonna hit, by about a day or so.
The last couple of years, seems I don't get the warning vibe, or i don't reconize it any more.
Too bad..I think its a good thing to have.
Hope you put out your warning vibe to the rest of us..


~bobbi

Anonymous said...

Ernie,
I'm a former Kicking Mule Records artist, and I'm trying to locate Ed and Mary Alice Denson. A google search led me to your blog--I wonder if you could put me in touch with them. I'd appreciate that very much.

Michael Miles
www.milesmusic.org