Mysterious Legends: The Bermuda Triangle

Most of us have heard about the legendary Bermuda Triangle where both ships and planes have disappeared with no sign of ever being found again? Some believe there is a mystery in this area that we have yet to discover, others believe it is all nonsense. Either way, there is at least some truth in the loss of the many people, ships, and planes in this area that have never been heard of again. The Bermuda Triangle gets it's name due to the triangular area that it seems to reach in the Atlantic ocean. One point begins at the very tip of the coast of Florida and reaches across covering the entire Caribbean islands, as well as the Bahamas in a triangular fashion. The second tip touches Puerto Rico and the third touches, yes Bermuda! This area is so feared that some even refer to it as the "devil's triangle."

Probably the most outlandish, but most widely believed reason for these strange disappearances is because they believe that the Bermuda Triangle contains an entrance to another dimension. This belief is started due to sightings of peculiar swirling lights. This sighting is also often identified with a sound, and what is referred to as an "electronic fog," that causes electronic equipment to fail.

Some dismiss the other dimension theory, and believe that their is contact from aliens through this area. In fact, some people who were lost at sea or plane in this area than were recovered actually had stories of aliens to share. They would tell how the aliens had told them that they were in a parallel universe, which actually pulls both theories together into one possibility of belief.

A third belief that is similar to the first one is a portal that allows time travel. They believe that something that is happening in this area is called slip streaming. Even Einstein, who was not a dummy, believed that time travel was a possibility through this method. Although whether he had ever heard of the Bermuda Triangle or not is unknown.

One of the most peculiar things that frequently happens in this area is that compasses stop being effective. Some believe the reason for this is because of an unusual magnetic force in this area. The strange part is that many have investigated this area and have yet to find an unusual source of a magnetic field that would explain such confusion to a compass.

The military also has experienced this phenomena several times as they make flights over this area. Not only will their equipment stop detecting the aircraft that flies over this area, but people who are watching the planes flying will also lose sight of them. Then spontaneously, the planes will reappear. The strangest part of the phenomena is that the atomic structure of the aircraft was forever altered after passing through this area.

The Bermuda Triangle is not a relatively new belief, in fact the first experience with possible paranormal experience in this area can be dated back to the logs of Christopher Columbus on his accidental journey to America. In his journals in this area he reports that he had compass failure, as well as seen dancing lights. Here is one excerpt from his journals:

The land was first seen by a sailor (Rodrigo de Triana), although the Admiral at ten o'clock that evening standing on the quarter-deck saw a light, but so small a body that he could not affirm it to be land; calling to Pero Gutierrez, groom of the King's wardrobe, he told him he saw a light, and bid him look that way, which he did and saw it; he did the same to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the squadron as comptroller, but he was unable to see it from his situation. The Admiral again perceived it once or twice, appearing like the light of a wax candle moving up and down, which some thought an indication of land. But the Admiral held it for certain that land was near...

Now days, they believe they may have truly been seeing land, and the compass problem was not really a compass issue. They believe it was an error of the sailors traveling with Christopher Columbus based on a false reading of the stars.

Although Christopher Columbus did not point to the paranormal for the peculiar happenings in this area. The first time paranormal activity was suggested was by George X. Sand in Fate magazine in 1952. He wrote an article entitled, "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door." He wrote about Flight 19 within this area, and that before the flight went missing the flight leader was quoted as saying, "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." This was his last words before they lost all contact with him. Later Vincent Gaddis wrote a book about Flight 19, expanding on some of these paranormal beliefs. It was entitled Invisible Horizon's.

Many who discard the paranormal as a possibility for the frequent loss of planes and ships attribute the loss to more common very natural sources such as hurricanes or methane gas. Apparently, in this area there are areas called Methane Hydrates, and in these areas methane bubbles come to the surface. It has been proven that when a bubble comes to the surface it briefly changes the density of the water and can change the buoyancy of the ship in that area. causing the ship to sink without warning. This same change can disrupt the sky as well, causing planes to suddenly lose lift in the air due to these abrupt changes in the water and airs density.

This being said that in 1981, scientists investigated this possibility and published a journal stating that there have been no large methane releases in this area over the past 15,000 years!

Just like any legend, many of the stories were embellished and few can be believed to be 100 percent truth. As the stories spread they got more outlandish. Truth be told, percentage wise, just as many aircraft and ships have been lost in this area as any other part of the ocean. Since this area is a very heavily traveled area for cargo ships, cruise ships, and planes, there is a lot of reports of missing crafts in this area only because of the large amount that travel this area.

One person who expressed great cynicism towards these beliefs and later wrote a book discussing the embellishments and inaccuracies regarding Flight 19 that were earlier mentioned was that of Lawrence David Kusche. He wrote the book The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved in 1975. He also showed how not only were the disappearances exaggerated, but often times when a boat would be lost at sea that would be reported, but it's eventual recovery would not be posted in the statistics. Then there were some that were completely false such as a 1939 disappearance that occurred in front of hundreds of people. Despite it's amazing occurrence there is no newspaper report of this during that time.

As you can see, I'm quite the cynic, but let yourself be the judge. If you'd like to be a judge on another mystery: check out Mysterious Legends: Bigfoot!

• http://scienceray.com/physics/the-bermuda-triangle/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_Triangle
• http://www.crystalinks.com/bermuda_triangle.html