Maybe you’re sprawled on the sofa, clutching the armrest in terror — yet still unable to tear your eyes away — as Freddy Kruger slices his way across the screen in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Or perhaps you’re tiptoeing through a haunted house at a local amusement park, bubbling with nervous anticipation as you walk around every corner. You might even be sitting in the dark of a movie theater, gasping and shrieking at Hollywood’s latest horror flick in unison with dozens of strangers. ...read more
In folklore, animals are depicted as messengers, symbols, or omens. Many of these stories are similar in cultures throughout millennia and feature folk beliefs brought on by fear of death, illness, and the unexplained. The animals mostly related to symbols or omens of death are scavengers, nocturnal, or associated with negative events. "So generally, in folklore, animals that are associated with death are the ones that are omens of death," says Sabina Magliocco, a folklorist and professor of an ...read more
Ancient Greeks knew that death was the final door they had to cross. After a burial in the Earth, water carried deceased mortals into Hades, the realm of the Underworld. They spent the rest of their existence there until they were ultimately forgotten.The Greeks’ idea of Hades and what it looked like constantly evolved over time, but one thing was certain: Once you were dead, you could not cross back into the living (and vice versa). The guardian of these barriers between life and the afterlif ...read more
While wooden stakes, sunlight that burns and bats come to mind when you think of vampires, you probably wouldn't think of a padlock and scythe. But the findings of an alleged "vampire" in Poland shows there was some paranoia around the paranormal. The remains of a 17th-century woman with a scythe across her neck and a padlock clamped on her toe indicate she may have been accused of being a witch or a vampire. She was buried with these precautions to ensure that she, the ghost or spirit of this ...read more
Breast cancer is one of the world’s most prevalent types of cancer worldwide. It is a tumor that starts in the milk ducts of the breast and then spreads into the surrounding breast tissue and, sometimes, other parts of the body.About 98 percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer at stage 1 will live another five years and more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But just an estimated 25 percent of women survive if their cancer is diagnosed when it’s alrea ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine