Witches?

caseyann

When i was small a friend of mine said they saw a witch flying past the moon on Halloween.Now i thought imagining things or joking.But to this day this person still swears its what they saw.
So was watching this show tonight.Fact paranormal or fiction.
For this video they had to attach balloons to a remote control to get it to look exactly like the image in the video.
They tried the jet pack and a floating balloon and a guy on a rope.None looked like it.Now personally i think if you try to make something look like something you can do it eventually.
So what you think of the video?
Apparently this is a frequent occurrence in many areas of mexico and in the USA near caves etc..
The first video is the story it came from.The second is the footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq7lneU5qrs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aywcr_ef4WU&feature=related

Enjoy

Major Lovechild

It's all fake. Relax!

caseyann

Major Lovechild wrote: »

It's all fake. Relax!

Not much input for an ancient belief and ancient stories.That have been caught on tape.
So you dont believe there are people who practice witch craft?
Voodoo is an ancient witch craft also or do you not believe in that either?

Riamfada

caseyann wrote: »

Not much input for an ancient belief and ancient stories.That have been caught on tape.
So you dont believe there are people who practice witch craft?
Voodoo is an ancient witch craft also or do you not believe in that either?

People practice lots of things but very few fly around on brooms

caseyann

Riamfada wrote: »

People practice lots of things but very few fly around on brooms

why not? Have you proved it cant happen? Have you proved there is no such thing as witch craft that works?

Oryx

caseyann wrote: »

why not? Have you proved it cant happen? Have you proved there is no such thing as witch craft that works?

I'll say it before they do. You cant prove a negative. You can only prove/disprove a positive.

maccored

fact or faked is a great show - some fabulous techniques to fake very realistic UFO phenomena and apparitions on video.

shuffles88

Okay well I always think unless you've seen something yourself you'll never be able to truly prove/disprove it.

You said it was when you were kids then didn't you? So maybe she did think she saw it at that time and it seemed so real that she still believes it but I didn't see so I can't say its hooey or not none of us can. It may have been a very vivid dream. When I was a kid I had a dream at Christmas that I got this kick butt art set and was so convinced the dream was real I searched the house high and low for it. I could prove it wasn't real because there was no art set but your friend couldn't do the same because it was an experience not an object.

As for the videos I think people can try replicate things but unless the conditions are exactly the same as the day the event occurred then you can't rule anything in or out really (something that always bugged me about Mythbusters) like if I was to try make a Chocolate malt like the ones in Eddie Rockets when I was at home, I could buy all the same type of ingredients and try copy what I see them do when they make it in the shop, but if I buy HB ice cream but they use Haggen Daas it just wont work the same. (Sorry for the rambling!) Personally though I think its weird but probably explainable as the object follows a very straight line and the only time the footage gets really bumpy is when you had the opportunity to actually make out some details as It went past the cliffs

caseyann

shuffles88 wrote: »

Okay well I always think unless you've seen something yourself you'll never be able to truly prove/disprove it.

You said it was when you were kids then didn't you? So maybe she did think she saw it at that time and it seemed so real that she still believes it but I didn't see so I can't say its hooey or not none of us can. It may have been a very vivid dream. When I was a kid I had a dream at Christmas that I got this kick butt art set and was so convinced the dream was real I searched the house high and low for it. I could prove it wasn't real because there was no art set but your friend couldn't do the same because it was an experience not an object.

As for the videos I think people can try replicate things but unless the conditions are exactly the same as the day the event occurred then you can't rule anything in or out really (something that always bugged me about Mythbusters) like if I was to try make a Chocolate malt like the ones in Eddie Rockets when I was at home, I could buy all the same type of ingredients and try copy what I see them do when they make it in the shop, but if I buy HB ice cream but they use Haggen Daas it just wont work the same. (Sorry for the rambling!) Personally though I think its weird but probably explainable as the object follows a very straight line and the only time the footage gets really bumpy is when you had the opportunity to actually make out some details as It went past the cliffs

Thanks for the well thought out post.
There is a clearer video but i cant find it on youtube and no shaking.
Well the think is with her i was in the other room and she came running to show me but when i got back into the kitchen no sign of it anywhere,so yes i cant say it was there.But she swears it was even to this day i ask her and she still is sure of what she saw.
Back to the video when i watched it on the tv,i was genuinely what the hell is that.I have tried to find the actual right footage but i couldnt and i think on large screen you get a clearer picture.It really looks like a hat and a cloak and a broom.:p

James G

"Witches" flying around on wooden handles? Sorry, but I find that extremely unlikely.

Especially when the notion comes from a blurry video...

kylith

It is highly unlikely that anyone can fly around on a broom. Even Wiccans say that it's nonsense.

As for your friend having sworn that she saw a witch, well 1) ye were children and children are terribly gullible. I used to work as a swimming teacher and just about any child you asked would tell you that they saw fish in the pool and would even describe them and what they were doing 2) people lie. A few years back, on April 1st no less, a radio station said that due to the alignment of the earth, moon and Pluto people would feel decreased gravity at 9:37am, and people phoned in and reported floating around the room 3) people are easily fooled. Back in the late 90s people called the police in the UK and reported a UFO landing in a field. It was Richard Branson in a hot air balloon.

If your friend really does believe that they saw something and isn't just pulling your leg then it's likely that it was a bird, plane or cloud. She believe it was a witch because she was a child and has not bothered to think more rationally about it since.

enniscorthy

dont worry mate i thought it was good

Urizen

kylith wrote: »

It is highly unlikely that anyone can fly around on a broom. Even Wiccans say that it's nonsense.

Wiccans hardly hold the monopoly on witchcraft. But that's neither here nor there, just a thorn in my paw.

Regardless, 'tis impossible. That show consistently annoys me following obviously pointless leads.

Gotta say though, it'd be awesome if this COULD happen. Goodbye 2 hour commute...

MrMojoRisin

caseyann wrote: »

When i was small a friend of mine said they saw a witch flying past the moon on Halloween.Now i thought imagining things or joking.But to this day this person still swears its what they saw.
So was watching this show tonight.Fact paranormal or fiction.
For this video they had to attach balloons to a remote control to get it to look exactly like the image in the video.

They tried the jet pack and a floating balloon and a guy on a rope.None looked like it.Now personally i think if you try to make something look like something you can do it eventually.
So what you think of the video?
Apparently this is a frequent occurrence in many areas of mexico and in the USA near caves etc..
The first video is the story it came from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq7lneU5qrs

The music in that made me laugh. I don't know why. I also laughed at the sketch at 1:03 and how they said the witch had bird's feet. Lol. Brilliant.

caseyann wrote: »

The second is the footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aywcr_ef4WU&feature=related

Enjoy

God, the policeman in the second video was very shaken by what he saw. I know you said that they tried to recreate the scene using a jet pack, a balloon and a guy on a rope, but honestly, when I first looked at the footage, I was thinking it seemed like a human-shaped balloon in the distance. Even the way it goes in a straight line. If that was a real person/entity thing on a broom or whatever, you'd expect them to waver a bit now and again.

It's cool, but it just looks like a balloon to me.

As for witches and what they get up to. Well, my sister told me the White Witch in Cobh once told her that it's possible to kill someone by getting a rock/stone, writing their name on it and burying it in the ground. Lol. I tried it on myself for the laugh - about 18 months ago - but obviously it hasn't worked, seeing as I'm here typing about it! :pac:

Unless I'm typing from beyond the grave. :eek:

Oryx

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

Unless I'm typing from beyond the grave. :eek:

I see dead people. I see them all the time. They dont know they're dead.

Yikes MrM, you could be onto something.

Darlughda

Oryx wrote: »

I see dead people. I see them all the time. They dont know they're dead.

Really? Do they not know? (Sorry slightly off topic-am just curious)

CaseyAnn, while it is true the practice of witchcraft exists, in many guises,(and as Urizen pointed out, wiccans certainly do not have the monopoly on witchcraft), the notion of a witch with ugly warts and hat flying around on a broom is more to do with children's stories, and a somewhat misogynist tradition in the older tales of demonising the loner women in rural areas who may have practised healing and were considered odd.

Oryx

[offtopic]Its a line from 6th sense. [/offtopic]

Can anyone tell me where the thing about flying on broomsticks comes from?

kylith

Oryx wrote: »

[offtopic]Its a line from 6th sense. [/offtopic]

Can anyone tell me where the thing about flying on broomsticks comes from?

One theory on the origin is that medicinal ointments would be smeared on the handle of a broom which would then be straddled so that the ointment could be absorbed through the sweat gland around the genitals and anus. The ointment may have had hallucinogenic properties.
http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2007/10/on_the_origin_of_witches_and_b.php

Darlughda

Interesting question Oryx.

Off topic-never saw that film-off topic

The broomstick is an important feature for any 'witch' life-the act of shaking out the debris and clearing a space before the time of hoovers means the old fashioned broomstick is the only way to clean.

Then there was the middle ages paranoia and inquisition charges-of flying to consort with the devil - and with all the paraphenalia of the broomstick probably led to the current notions of the witch flying on the broomstick.

Having said that, I bet ya that Disney coined the image at some stage!:pac:

caseyann

Oryx wrote: »

[offtopic]Its a line from 6th sense. [/offtopic]

Can anyone tell me where the thing about flying on broomsticks comes from?

The earliest known confession of a Witch flying on a broom was in 1453, when Guillaume Edelin of St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, stated that he had done so. In 1563, Martin Tulouff of Guernsey said to have seen his aged mother straddle a broomstick and whisk up the chimney and out of the house on it, saying "Go in the name of the Devil and Lucifer over rocks and thorns". In 1598 Claudine Boban and her mother, witches of the province of Franche-Comt, in eastern France, also spoke of flying up the chimney of a stick. The belief of flying off though the chimney became firmly embedded in popular tradition, although only a few people ever mentioned doing so. It has been suggested that this idea was connected with the old custom of pushing a broom up the chimney to indicate the absence of the housewife. The Germanic Goddess Holda or Holle is also connected with the chimney.


Some authors claim that the oldest known source of witches flying on broomsticks is a manuscript called Le Champion des Dames by Martin Lefranc, 1440. This might be one of the oldest images representing a hag on a broomstick, but it is certainly not the first. A wall painting from the 12th century in Schlesswig Cathedral (Germany) shows the Norse deity Frigg riding her staff.
If we really dig a bit deeper into history, we'll find that from the Roman world there are reports that mention witches flying on broomsticks as well as having used ointments, as early as the first century. They were called Straigae (Barnowl) and the Lamiae from Greek culture had similar characteristics. Later in Roman history, the goddess Diana was the leader of the Wild Hunt


Some interesting old saying,not sure anyone ever heard these.I did when small.
A broom should never be used to sweep dust out of the front door, because it sweeps the luck out with it.
Never sweep a house at night. It is an insult to the faeries & the spirits of the dead.

Always sweep dirt out the back door or you will sweep away your best friend.

http://andorshop.webs.com/besomlore.htm

Thanks for your replies.Good night will reply tomorrow

Fuzzy Clam

I want to believe....................................................

Cunning Stunt

Just came across this article on RTE site today. Was not aware there were witch trial in Ireland. It's an interesting read, and fits in with this thread, methinks..
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0330/witches.html

MrMojoRisin

Oryx wrote: »

I see dead people. I see them all the time. They dont know they're dead.

Yikes MrM, you could be onto something.

Well, I'll tell you something (OT) now. I'll be putting my head on the chopping block as well, but... I don't see dead people, or whatever they are, all the time but I've seen a few yokes (for want of a better word) in the past - which is the main reason why I bother to haunt this forum, lol - and, from what I could gather, they weren't aware they were dead. I reckoned one of them communicated telepathically with me and I could tell they were very surprised I could see them. So off he/it scarpered in a flash.

Duh, I can't prove any of this, but those are my own first-hand experiences and that's it. I just think things like that (spirits) have their world/realm juxtaposed with our own and, every now and then, you just 'run into' something unwittingly. But the vast majority of my days throughout the year are very 'normal' and uneventful.

But I do agree that they often don't realise they're dead, as much of a cliche as it seems...

As for witches - IMO, I don't really think they go around on brooms in the sky. Tradition holds that they were often just old ladies who ran these sort of home-run apothecaries. But the backward views and superstition of the church made them suspicious of these women - maybe even 'jealous' of their holistic acumen as well - causing them to demonise and quell them (literally). Especially during the Middle Ages.

MrMojoRisin

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

Just came across this article on RTE site today. Was not aware there were witch trial in Ireland. It's an interesting read, and fits in with this thread, methinks..
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0330/witches.html

'It suggests that Mary Dunbar's symptoms of bewitchment were that of demonic possession: fits, swearing, throwing bibles, vomiting household objects, and trances.'


The academic claims she faked these episodes to break free from the tight social restraints put on her at the time and to become a local celebrity.
'Being possessed allowed her to misbehave without consequence, move from invisibility to notoriety within her community and attack her elders at will,' he said.


'Dunbar chose to blame her possession on the witchcraft of the Presbyterian Islandmagee women because they had reputations locally as witches and failed to meet contemporary standards of female behaviour and beauty.


'Some were physically disabled, others swore and drank alcohol. All were poor. The local male authorities believed Dunbar's version of events because she was beautiful, educated and from a respected family.

Yeah, it's true that most people would be more likely to believe the outlandish claims of a good-looking, well-spoken girl than those of a bit of a plank with a face like a sheperds pie.

meryem

Witchcraft practice do exist, but I can't believe in reality a person can watch them flying on their favorite item.