This sighting took place in Tomsk, Russia sometime around September of last year. At first, I thought it was a test rocket. Then it darkened and expanded into what resembled a meteor before a white, spiraling shape shot out of the top of the dark mass. I’m not about to guess what it is, but will say that it was a spectacular sight to watch.

Robert Anton Wilson wore many academic hats, which included futurology, anarchy, and conspiracy theory research. He was also a prolific American writer, whose career spanned thirty-five years. His best-known work was the Illuminatus Trilogy (co-authored with Robert Shea), a satire about American conspiracy theories. Most of his work covered a wide berth of New Age topics, such as UFOs, crop circles, occult practices, etc.

Wilson didn’t believe in beliefs, but rather in probabilities. “Belief is the death of thought,” he once said.

In fact, he shunned dogmatic beliefs because he felt that they led to fascist behavior. In his book, Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death, he used the example of militant feminism to demonstrate how dogmatic adherence to any belief system can result in intolerant and even dangerous ideologies.

On October 2, 2006, Douglas Rushkoff appealed to the blogosphere for donations to Wilson, who was in severe financial trouble due to ailing health. Slashdot, Boing Boing, and the Church of the Subgenius wrote about Wilson’s plight. By October 10th, their efforts succeeded in raising enough money to support Wilson financially for at least 6 months.

Sadly, this generosity couldn’t help Wilson’s health which continued to deteriorate. Doctors gave him between two days and two months to live. Robert Anton Wilson died yesterday at age 74 from post-polio syndrome. Five days earlier, he closed his final message on his blog by saying, “Please pardon my levity, I don’t see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.”

Sarah Winchester consulted a medium in order to seek solace after her husband’s death. This medium, known as the “Boston Medium” told her that thousands of spirits were angry with her and her husband because of the rifles they built to kill them. The medium then instructed her to move west to build a house for these spirits to live in.

“You can never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live. Stop and you will die.”

Sarah moved to San Jose, California in 1884 and bought a six-bedroom house. She kept a crew of construction workers busy twenty-four hours a day, every day for the next thirty-eight years. By the time she died in 1922, the Winchester Mystery House had grown to approximately 160 rooms. She had succeeded in building a colossal maze in which to confuse the angry spirits that she believed were hunting her. Rumor had it that she slept in a different room every night to avoid capture.

Today, The Winchester Mystery House is one San Jose’s most popular tourist attractions. Most of the people come to take a tour of the old house and listen to the tour guide tell stories about Sarah Winchester and her strange house. Both employees and tourists have experienced strange things while walking through the rooms and corridors, such as the sounds of footsteps and cold spots. Dozens of psychics have claimed that they have seen sightings of Sarah’s ghost, among others, over the years.

Whether the house is haunted or not, it is definitely a sight worth seeing.

Photo Courtesy of Winchester Mystery House
The Winchester House

Bobbie Joe Oberholtzer and Annette Schnee disappeared on January 6, 1982 from the Breckenridge area as they hitchhiked separately. Bobbie Jo was found the next day, shot to death. Annette was found six months later, also shot and possibly raped. The two cases were linked by an orange bootie, but the killer was never caught.

In May of 2006, Discovery Channel filmed a segment about this case for their “Sensing Murder” program, a show which uses the aid of psychics to help solve cold cases for law enforcement. They sent two psychics, Laurie Campbell and Pam Coronado, to the murder scenes with no information about the cases or about each other.

Both psychics felt that Annette Schnee didn’t die where she was found. Coronado led the investigators to an area three miles away, where she felt the shooting occurred. However, the investigators found no evidence to back up her claim.

Then Coronado went into great detail about how Bobbie Jo was found and what she felt transpired during the last moments of the woman’s life. One detail in particular stood out with homicide investigator Charlie McCormick (ret.) because it hadn’t been publicized.

Both psychics came up with the same name for a possible suspect, which also wasn’t publicized. By the time the show ended, authorities had a fresh list of leads to follow up on. In the meantime, the families of the slain women are hopeful that this newfound information will help bring their killer to justice.