The rumor that a mysterious large animal lives in the Scottish Loch Ness has been spreading around the world for more than a hundred years.
The media have repeatedly told about the attempts of both daredevils, lonely, and members of well-equipped scientific expeditions to "personally get acquainted" with the mysterious animal, which received the affectionate name of Nessie. So far, the acquaintance has not taken place. There are photographs and films that allegedly capture Nessie in her native element and, therefore, prove her existence.
First photo - doubts about authenticity
The first worldwide photograph of Nessie, known as the "obstetrician," was taken on April 19, 1934 by Robert Wilson, a London gynecologist. It shows a part of the body protruding from the water with a long neck ending in a relatively small head.
However, in March 1994, two scientists studying the Nessie phenomenon, David Martin and Alistair Bode, declared the image to be a fake, "worked" by Wilson, together with toy model maker Christian Sparling and two of his relatives. The trio allegedly made a model of the animal's neck and head about 35 centimeters high from wood and plastic and installed their structure on a toy submarine with a spring engine.
The structure was launched and then photographed. However, many were not convinced by this attempt to expose, especially in that part of it, where it was said that after filming the "doll" the submarine, along with the model, was flooded in the lake. According to critics of the aforementioned disclosure, it turns out that there is no more evidence of a fake picture than arguments in favor of the existence of a real Nessie.
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New video evidence
The next "material evidence" appeared on April 23, 1960 in the form of a documentary by Tim Dinsdale. It shows a large hump-like brown object moving rapidly through the water and changing direction of movement, and then smoothly going into the depths.
At the Joint Center, British Air Force aerial reconnaissance investigated this film and concluded that the object shown in it was apparently a living creature 4-5 meters long, moving at a speed of 12-15 kilometers per hour. This film seems to be the most compelling evidence of Nessie's existence to date.
And here's another argument in favor of Nessie. The Hungarian magazine Szines UFO No. 10 for 2004 published the article "The latest snapshot of the Loch Ness monster", as well as this photo itself, taken from the ship Susan Hawk on August 12, 2004. From the note it follows that at the time of the shooting, Nessie was at a distance of about 300 meters from the coast. No other information is provided about the circumstances of the shooting. In the photo above the calm surface of the water, the head, part of the neck and part of the back of the mysterious creature are visible. In the distance - the shore overgrown with dense forest.
A strange meeting on the shore
However, in the history of the study of the phenomenon of Nessie and the area around Loch Ness, other events have been attested, giving grounds to classify the vicinity of the reservoir as a paranormal zone and even to doubt the physical nature of the mysterious animal.
On the evening of August 16, 1971, the Swedish writer Jan-Ole Sundberg, who came to admire the beauty of the legendary lake for several days, got lost in the coastal forest during his next walk. Making his way through the thicket of trees, he suddenly saw ahead, sixty meters away, "a very strange apparatus." It was a dark gray cigar-shaped structure about 10 meters long with a slight rise in the middle.
While Sundberg was looking at the outlandish device in surprise, three men emerged from the forest, in wetsuits and with helmets on their heads. Sundberg thought they were the maintenance personnel of a nearby power plant. But the "people" went straight to the apparatus, and when they approached it, the hatch cover opened on the dais, and all three disappeared inside. A few seconds later, the device, without making a single sound, rose vertically upwards about fifteen meters, and then quickly rushed away.
A creature from another world?
Another writer, the Englishman Ted Holiday, who had studied the Nessie phenomenon for a long time and spent more than one year on the shores of Loch Ness, heard about the strange story that happened to Sundberg. Subsequently in his book The Dragon and the Disc, published in 1973. Holiday questioned the biological nature of this exotic and elusive creature, and expressed the idea of its belonging to the paranormal world.
As for the Sundberg incident, Holiday, who actually perceived reports of UFO encounters with great distrust, was less skeptical this time, since he had heard stories that in August 1971 people repeatedly saw them near the shores of the lake. Loch Ness. However, in the story that happened to Sundberg, there was one snag: it turned out that in the place where, according to him, the UFO was located on earth, the trees grew so densely that no apparatus that could accommodate three adults or similar creatures there simply could not be. But there was no reason to doubt the veracity of Sundberg's story. So, in fact, everything did not happen as it seemed to the curious Swede. Most likely, he became an eyewitness and participant in some supernatural phenomenon.
Holiday's point of view about the possibility of Nessie's "otherworldly" origin was also shared by the Doctor of Theology, the Reverend Donald Omand, an Anglican priest who knows the art of exorcism, that is, the expulsion of evil spirits. Omand believed in the existence of Nessie, but was convinced that she not only does not represent a prehistoric animal that has survived to this day, but is not a living being at all, but is a product of evil spirits.
Exorcism ritual
As you know, "a fisherman sees a fisherman from afar," and Holiday and Omand met. Having made sure that they are complete like-minded people, on June 2, 1973, together they went to Loch Ness to expel the devil from its waters and from its shores, that is … Nessie. The rite of exorcism, consisting in uttering special prayers and spells, Omand performed on the shores of the lake in five places.
“O Almighty! he called out in a thunderous voice. - Give strength to Your unworthy servant to manifest the gift you sent down and drive out from the waters of this blessed lake and from its shores all dark forces, all unclean visions, all ghosts generated by the cunning and cunning of the devil! Almighty God, make these demonic obsessions obey the order of Your humble servant not to harm any man or beast in the future and retire to where they are intended to be, in order to stay there from now on and forever and ever!"
Lunges of evil spirits
Two days later, Holiday decided to visit the very place where Sundberg observed the crew landing in the UFO and its takeoff. But before he went to Winifred Carey, who lived nearby and was known as a local psychic. When Holiday mentioned the Sundberg incident in conversation, Carey said that both she and her husband, a British Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, had also seen UFOs in the area several times. She also advised Holiday not to go where Sundberg had seen a UFO.
“After all, you have probably heard more than once,” she said, “that people in such places often disappear without a trace.
Holiday hesitated, for he had heard similar warnings from Omand.
“And at this very moment. - Holiday wrote later in his book The Goblin Universe, - from the street came a powerful, rapidly growing roar, as from an approaching tornado. In the garden outside the window everything was in a frantic, confused movement. There were heavy, dull blows, as if something heavy were pounding on the door or wall of the veranda. Then I saw through the window how a conical whirlwind of black smoke about two and a half meters high rushed past the house, spinning madly. When a rose bush stood in his way, he almost uprooted it from the ground. All this orgy lasted about ten seconds, no more, and then just as suddenly stopped as it began."
After that, Holiday decided not to go to the UFO landing site. The next morning, going out into the street, he saw about ten meters from his temporary shelter a motionless man, dressed all in black.
“It felt like a cold shower,” he later recalled. - A spirit of ill will and hostility was clearly in the air. Despite the unpleasant sensation, I took a few steps forward to get a better look at the strange stranger. He was tall, about two meters tall, dressed in something like a jumpsuit made of black leather or plastic. Gloves on his hands, a helmet on his head, from under which a black mask descended, covering his face to the very chin. It occurred to me that he was dressed like the Invisible Man from the famous novel by H. G. Wells. “Maybe he has emptiness under his clothes too?” I thought.
And then there was a loud sound behind Holiday, like a hiss or a muffled whistle. He turned around, saw nothing and immediately turned back. The figure in black disappeared. Holiday ran out onto a nearby straight road, which could be seen far in both directions. It was empty. Not a single person could hide from sight so swiftly and without a trace.
Dr. Donald Omand, upon learning about this strange incident, pondered, and then said that, apparently, he had not been able to expel all the evil spirits from the shores of the lake at once and that he would certainly return there again soon.
And Ted Holiday, eager to reveal the secret of Nessie, the next year again came to familiar places. But a few days later this perfectly healthy man suddenly had a heart attack, and he was urgently taken to London. In 1979, Holiday was struck by a second seizure from which he died.
Vadim Ilyin