June 27, 2022

Alien Appendages

It’s a common fear to be afraid of the unknown, of things that catch us by surprise. Many of us are hypervigilant in areas that we are unfamiliar with, casting glances around corners,  being mindful of what could lurk in the shadows, and jumping at the sound of something as mundane as a creaky floorboard. It’s human nature to be cautious; but what if we told you that danger was sometimes even closer than that? What if sometimes the threat of danger came at the hands of… well, yourself? 

An odd phenomenon has led to many self-inflicted attacks, as the hand strikes out against its owner, acting with a mind of its own. Those who have experienced this tend to explain that it was all beyond their control; that something else had taken command of the harmful limb. At the center of this, is a medical condition linked to the brain and a feeling that one’s hand is no longer their own. 

What is this ailment and how else does it manifest?

https://mysteriouspackage.com/blogs/curators-file/wednesday-weirdness




July 15, 2022

Magic, Madness or Bread?

The Middle Ages were known for a variety of things: gothic architecture, chivalrous knights (and not-so-chivalrous ones), grand castles and cathedrals... and a veritable smorgasbord of terrible endemic illnesses.

You're likely familiar with the infamous bubonic plague or Black Death, which killed 1/3 of all Europeans, and possibly also with more quotidian illnesses like syphilis and cholera. However, there is a lesser-known ailment that is much weirder. An illness that caused extreme convulsions and paranoia and religious delusions, and is caused by eating contaminated grain. 

Why was rye so dangerous?

https://mysteriouspackage.com/blogs/curators-file/wednesday-weirdness-magic-madness-or-bread



July 14, 2022

The Flammable Ballerinas

 Ballet has never been a profession for the faint of heart. The ballerina's grace and delicacy is only achievable by enormous power: endless practice of precision movements, the strength to make acrobatic leaps seem easy, the ability to ignore pain. (Pointe shoes are often ruined not by overuse but by bloodied toes.) And yet, being a ballerina in the 1800s was not just difficult but incredibly dangerous. Because, more frequently than you can even imagine... ballerinas would burst into flames on stage. https://mysteriouspackage.com/blogs/curators-file/tuesday-terror-the-flammable-ballerinas



July 11, 2022

A fictional location that appears in one of HP Lovecraft's stories — and remarkably, there is an almost identical real life location — is the description of the very megalithic and classic ruins appearing in his story "The Moon-Bog." Although the story takes place in the fictional setting of Kilderry, within "The Moon-Bog" Lovecraft describes an Irish landscape where a Greek temple is built upon an ancient megalithic structure. Remarkably, such a place really does exist in Ireland and is hardly known of, even in Ireland.




The Neale, in County Mayo, is the location where there is a Greek Revival temple built upon a 5,000 year old chambered cairn. Located in an area of reclaimed bogland, and even overlooked by an ancestral manor house. Almost identical to how Lovecraft described it. How could Lovecraft have known about such an unlikely setting and then go on to describe it so well? It is very unlikely Lovecraft knew of the real place. Yet his story "The Moon-Bog" has within it a very real landscape in Ireland which mirrors the Lovecraft description so well.



July 9, 2022



July 9, 2022

FROZEN FATES:

The Horror of Dyatlov Pass

Kholat Syakhl is in one of the most desolate mountain ranges in the world. In Russian, it's called "Dead Peak". Not far from the Arctic Circle, it's a lonely, windswept crag - which makes it a beacon for daring backcountry hikers who want the ultimate challenge.

And so, in 1959, a small group of Soviet hikers led by Igor Dyatlov set out with fanfare on a never-attempted hike across the brutal landscape.

They never reached their destination.

Two weeks after the hikers went missing, their bodies were found strewn about their camp. But they didn't seem to be lost. They hadn't frozen to death. Many of them were only half-dressed, in fact -