The Blood Line

by Ben Yallop

  Entry 87

  Jenny Greenteeth is a kind of hag who lives in water and likes to pull the unwary in to drown them, especially children. Mostly her kind are still in Mu and it is not common for them to cross through the lines but there is evidence that some have arrived in this world. In England they are sometimes given the name ‘Ginny’, ‘Jeannie’ or ‘Peg’ and can also be known as grindylows. In Eastern Europe they are known as the ‘Rusalka’, in Japan they are called ‘Kappa’ and in Australia they are sometimes linked to the bunyip.

  Entry 91

  Angel hair and star jelly are unexplained substances which are said to appear in strange situations. Angel hair is a sticky, fine hair-like, spider-web material which some have said appears when UFOs are spotted. It soon disintegrates after appearing and always after being touched.

  There are many documented sightings of the appearance of angel hair, including at the mysterious celestial phenomenon over Nuremburg, Germany in 1561. Reports of that event describe a mass sighting of numerous UFOs which seemed to engage in some kind of aerial battle. A good quantity of angel hair was left behind.

  Star jelly is a different substance altogether and, as its name suggests, is gelatinous and rubbery. Reports of the appearance of star jelly date back many hundreds of years and is said to appear when a ‘shooting star’ has been seen.

  Entry 95

  I don’t intend to put all the details here but there are many old predictions which can only be explained by people crossing through the lines. Some of these people, mostly women, have been called witches for their prophesies. These include Ursula Sontheil (also known as Mother Shipton), Baba Vanga and Mother Red Cap.

  Entry 100

  I was wondering whether this journal of mine is becoming something of a grimoire in its detailing of what might be considered by earlier people as black magic. So, interested, I looked up grimoires. A grimoire is essentially a textbook of magic which includes instructions on casting spells, the details of magic objects and stories about how to contact spirits and demons. Sometimes the book itself is said to become infused with the magic, although I do not think this humble journal has achieved that!

  Most famous is the Grand Grimoire. This particularly caught by attention. The book is sometimes known as the Red Dragon and I think I have heard that term in a prophecy somewhere. The information it contains supposedly comes from King Solomon himself and it contains instructions on summoning Lucifer. The book is well known in Haiti in particular where practitioners of voodoo apparently make regular use of it.

  As well as containing text on necromancy and other, even darker things, the Grand Grimoire contains details of items which can be used to force the devil to do one’s bidding. I once heard about Solomon’s Seal, a powerful ring. I wonder if the Grimoire contains more information and how much truth lies in the legend.

  Entry 101

  I have been hearing a lot recently about the sudden appearance of sinkholes. These, often perfectly round pits seem to open up with no notice at all and instances of their appearance seem to be increasing. I wonder if they are linked to increased use of the lines. Perhaps there are lines underground that when opened cause a great ball of earth to vanish through them leading to subsidence. Of course, some of these sinkholes may be entirely natural and caused by the movement of water underground, but that some are caused by underground lines seems logical.

  On searching for instances of the phenomenon I read that one large sinkhole opened by Blackheath in London. On April 7 2002 the ground suddenly opened up swallowing a large part of a road called the A2, one of the main routes into London from the south-east. Luckily no-one on the surface was hurt.

  Entry 108

  I have often wondered how the Riven King manages to manipulate people as he does. Obviously we know that ordinary people can be encouraged to do extraordinarily terrible things. Nazi Germany showed us that. But the Riven King seems to be able to go further. I looked up mind manipulation and in amongst the articles about hypnotism and brainwashing I found something called Project MKUltra.

  I was surprised to read that the US Government has admitted, and apologised for, conducting illegal experiments on humans without their knowledge. Project MKUltra was one such group of experiments aimed at uncovering methods of mind-control, mainly through developing drugs such as LSD. The CIA conducted experiments in secret from the early 1950s for twenty years. CIA scientists tried hypnosis and other ways of affecting brain functions and mental states. The homeless were taken in and used as subjects as well as prisoners from the jails. They were experimented on in centres in universities, hospitals and prisons. I wonder if presence was ever used on them. We’ll never know the extent of the experiments undertaken. In 1973 the Director of the CIA, Richard Helms, worried about files being released because of some other scandal, ordered destruction of all the classified documents. In 1975 when President Gerald Ford ordered an investigation there was little left to find, although some documents had survived because they had been misfiled. One of these documents gives an idea on what America was trying to develop. It says they wanted to find:

  Substances which will promote illogical thinking and impulsiveness to the point where the recipient would be discredited in public.

  Substances which increase the efficiency of mentation and perception.

  Materials which will prevent or counteract the intoxicating effect of alcohol.

  Materials which will promote the intoxicating effect of alcohol.

  Materials which will produce the signs and symptoms of recognized diseases in a reversible way so that they may be used for malingering, etc.

  Materials which will render the induction of hypnosis easier or otherwise enhance its usefulness.

  Substances which will enhance the ability of individuals to withstand privation, torture and coercion during interrogation and so-called "brain-washing".

  Materials and physical methods which will produce amnesia for events preceding and during their use.

  Physical methods of producing shock and confusion over extended periods of time and capable of surreptitious use.

  Substances which produce physical disablement such as paralysis of the legs, acute anaemia, etc.

  Substances which will produce "pure" euphoria with no subsequent let-down.

  Substances which alter personality structure in such a way that the tendency of the recipient to become dependent upon another person is enhanced.

  A material which will cause mental confusion of such a type that the individual under its influence will find it difficult to maintain a fabrication under questioning.

  Substances which will lower the ambition and general working efficiency of men when administered in undetectable amounts.

  Substances which promote weakness or distortion of the eyesight or hearing faculties, preferably without permanent effects.

  A knockout pill which can surreptitiously be administered in drinks, food, cigarettes, as an aerosol, etc., which will be safe to use, provide a maximum of amnesia, and be suitable for use by agent types on an ad hoc basis.

  A material which can be surreptitiously administered by the above routes and which in very small amounts will make it impossible for a man to perform any physical activity whatsoever.

  Perhaps inevitably there have been conspiracy theories claiming that world changing events have been caused by people acting under mind control. Some claim that the experiments continue. I wonder if they did and do continue and that somehow they have become enhanced by the use of presence.

  Entry 110

  Another conspiracy theory! The story goes that there is an alien satellite in a near Earth orbit and that it has been there for 13,000 years. There is even a photo of it. NASA, the American Space Agency, has tried to debunk the theory by claiming that the photo is of a thermal blanket dropped by an astronaut during a space-walk. But the conspiracy theorists will not be dissuaded. They believe that Nicola Tesla himself heard the sounds of the Black Knight, as the satelli
te is known, in 1899 and that these extra-terrestrial sounds were again heard in 1928 by an amateur radio operator. As I understand it these sounds have not yet been satisfactorily explained. If the satellite is truly of alien origin then what does it contain and what is its purpose?

  Sam’s additional notes

  Entry 2

  I looked up Pyxidis, the name of the God thought by the people of Mu to have visited their planet. This is what I found.

  T Pyxidis is a binary star with a big, white dwarf star, and a smaller star more like our Sun. The bigger one draws energy from the smaller causing periodic thermonuclear explosions. These have been observed to occur in 1890, 1902, 1920, 1944, 1966 and 2011 and it was thought that the mass of the system might have increased enough to make it go supernova, essentially collapsing under its own weight. Because the stars are relatively close to Earth some scientists thought it might have a big impact on us, even damaging the ozone layer and causing us to be bombarded with radiation. But other scientists have, more recently reckoned that the kind of supernova which would have that effect is unlikely to happen for another ten million years. As the Universe is expanding and stretching apart by then the stars will be too far away to affect us. Anyway, apparently there was a supernova near to the Earth in the year 1054, and we survived that. At the time Chinese astronomers saw a star brighten so much that it was visible during the daytime. The supernova created what we now call the Crab Nebula. It was so big and near that the new nebula was visible to the naked eye for a couple of years after the explosion.

  Anyway, I am getting side-tracked. What is important is that Pyxidis is a binary star, not a god, and it poses no threat to us. The question then, is what – or who – is the threat?

  Entry 3

  The Montauk Project is believed by some conspiracy theorists to be the next stage of the Philadelphia Experiment which has also been known as Project Rainbow and allegedly took place in 1943. The original experiment was based around a theory proposed by Albert Einstein concerning gravity and electromagnetism. The US Navy, having studied Einstein's theory, thought that it might be possible to bend light around objects thus rendering them invisible. Clearly, this was of significant interest in the field of battle. Equipment was developed in complete secrecy and fitted to a ship sitting in the Philadelphia Naval Yard, the USS Eldridge. It is said that when the equipment was switched on there was some success. The entire ship seemed to disappear.

  However, when the USS Eldridge reappeared it was obvious that something had gone horribly wrong. The crew were all terribly badly affected by the experiment, something about the event had affected their minds. Some complained of severe nausea and headaches. Some were so badly affected that they were eventually diagnosed with mental disorders and were never the same again.

  But, the senior military men present had seen the ship disappear. And they would not give up. The crew, or at least those that could still speak, were hushed up. The machine was recalibrated and the experiment tried again. Again, the ship disappeared from view but this time the consequences were even more terrible.

  It seemed that the ship hadn’t just become invisible. It had actually moved to another place entirely. Crew aboard another ship, the SS Andrew Furuseth, 200 miles away in Virginia saw the ship appear. After a short time it disappeared again. When the ship eventually reappeared in Philadelphia the crew were not just affected mentally but physically too. Some men were embedded into the very walls of the ship as though the reappearance had confused what was human and what was metal. Sailors had limbs trapped in and fused to the hull but these were the lucky ones. Some men seemed to have been turned completely inside out. Some were dead for no discernible reason. Some came back mad, psychotic. Some did not return at all.

  The Navy now decided that it was such a disaster that it should not continue and the Philadelphia Experiment came to an end and was hushed up.

  But men cannot resist power. Around ten years later some of the surviving researchers banded together. They had seen what the experiment had done to the minds of those men and they saw that this could be a weapon. Imagine what America could do by blasting a wave of that power at an advancing army. Manipulating minds to make men feel sick so that they could not carry on. Millions of lives could be saved. A war over before it even began. Imagine what could be done if you could fire a gun at a man to make him go insane.

  The project began again, although this time it was not about making ships invisible. It was about making men go mad and it was even more secret than before. Funding allegedly came from ten billion dollars of gold seized from a Nazi train by US soldiers. Those soldiers were killed and the train destroyed. The secret project had its money.

  It began in New York under the name the Phoenix Project but the scientists realised that they needed a large satellite dish so the project was moved to a decommissioned Air Force base called Camp Hero in Montauk and it was there, deep underground, that men began to build. The Montauk Project became a reality. By the 1970s work was really underway and the project had developed in unexpected directions. Originally a project about invisibility, then teleportation, then mental capacity no-one really knows what the work of these secret men and women became but some conspiracy theorists hold that many strange events occurred at the site.

  It is said that mind control was practised on the homeless and young runaways who were abducted for tests. Some people had their psychic abilities developed exponentially to the point where they could move objects and even themselves using their minds. However, this caused madness in some and certainly emotional instability in many. These powers were developed through the use of a special chair which conferred the power to certain men who sat in it.

  Some believe that a link was made with the original Philadelphia Experiment and the USS Eldridge which allowed the experiment which was occurring many years earlier to be stopped. The ship had not been rendered invisible but rather transported through some strange doorway to another place and time.

  Experiments were conducted in teleportation and doorways were created which allowed the scientists to travel to another world where they met aliens and came across strange creatures. Apparently some metahuman or monster came through one of these doorways and destroyed the equipment effectively ending the experiment.

  Other theories, not specific to the opening of these doorways, inevitably sprang up in the following years. It is said that strange animals were created there, that 'men in black' were developed there, that a hole to the centre of the hollow earth is hidden beneath the building and that the hangars were used for the creation and development of 'flying saucers' and strange secretive black helicopters.

  Whatever the truth the area is now mostly open to the public as Camp Hero State Park. It attracts many visitors each year. Many simply go for the natural beauty of the place but some are undoubtedly looking for a clue, a doorway to another place or time or perhaps even the incredible chair which infuses some men with the power of telekinesis; a chair that creates gods.

  Entry 4

  “The Somerton Man Mystery. On 1st December 1948 at 6:30 in the morning a man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.

  When the police arrived they went through the usual process of checking the body for identification and clues as to how the man had died. Unusually, they found neither. The corpse was lying on the sand, with his head resting on the seawall as if he had laid down to sleep. In his pockets were a used bus ticket to the beach, an unused train ticket, a comb, some chewing gum, some cigarettes and a box of matches.

  The police made an immediate plea for witnesses. Some came forward to say that they had seen the man lying in the same spot at around 7pm the previous evening. They had presumed him drunk or asleep and had not checked him closely. No-one seemed to have seen him arrive or could offer an explanation as to how he had died.

  With nothing to hint at the cause of death the police left the body with a pathologist and concentrated on uncovering the man's identity. The
man was thought to be around 40-45, perhaps British in appearance and in top physical condition. He was slim, healthy and had the kind of muscle structure in his legs which one might see in someone who did a lot of running. He was 5 feet 11 inches tall with hazel eyes and fair hair. He was wearing good quality clothes consisting of a white shirt, a blue and red tie and brown trousers. Unusually, given how hot it gets in Australia in December, he had been wearing a brown knitted jumper and a fashionable coat. Also unusually, for a man wearing a suit in 1948 anyway, he was not wearing a hat. It was strange that he was so warmly dressed, almost as though he had suddenly arrived from somewhere colder. But, more strangely, all the labels from his clothes had been removed. The police began to suspect that this was a man who did not want to be identified. They could not have been more right. The mystery was to deepen.

  Whilst the police were making inquiries the pathologist continued his work. Dental records were checked and matched no known individual in Australia. The autopsy offered little by way of evidence. The man seemed to have suffered some kind of internal bleeding. He had eaten a pasty about three or four hours before his death. The pathologist thought it likely that some kind of poison had been used, but he could not say for sure what the cause of death was. Normally, with a poison one can see evidence of vomiting or convulsions. Here neither was present.

  So unusual was the case that the decision was taken to embalm the body to preserve it. This was the first time the police had ever taken such steps. An inquest into the death was postponed for, as it happened, about six months whilst work went on to uncover the man's identity.