Va Meng Lee is a shaman who works with spirits to heal people and protect their souls. This sort of work usually gets short shrift by western medicine, but Lee works at a hospital, right alongside doctors. Lee is a shaman and he works at Mercy Medical Center in Merced, … [Read more...]
Millions of Americans admired Sergeant Stubby. His courage under fire was legendary. He was a decorated hero of World War I. He also had four legs and barked a lot. You guessed it - Sergeant Stubby was a dog. The short brindle bull terrier mutt was the first dog ever given … [Read more...]
In 1921, Ada Blackjack sailed to the Arctic’s Wrangel Island. She had no idea it would be a life and death struggle to survive. The petite woman was hired as a seamstress for the risky journey. Her travel companions were four men and a female cat, called Vic. Blackjack was … [Read more...]
In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall announced the answer to one of humankind's most intriguing questions. Do we each have a soul? The answer, according to MacDougall, is yes – and it weighs about 21 grams. He and his team originally set out to determine whether anything … [Read more...]
How close are we to doomsday - the destruction of the planet and the end of life as we know it? The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic way to answer this question. In 1947, a group of scientists who had worked on the world’s first atomic bomb started tracking how close the world is to … [Read more...]
Every August, Klepatan says goodbye to his lover Malena, before going to South Africa where he spends the spring and summer. Every March, like clockwork, he flies back to Croatia to be with his partner. Klepatan and the love of his life, Malena, are birds, storks to be more … [Read more...]
Mamoudou Gassama, a migrant from Mali, has become a household name in France. They call him the Spiderman of Paris. Mamoudou never considered himself a hero. He grew up in Mali, an African country riddled with poverty, famine, and war. Mamoudou sought to find a better life … [Read more...]
Life can be hard when you’re different. Just ask 7-year-old Braedon Monthony from New York. Shortly after he was born, the little boy was dealt a bad hand. He lost both of his legs due to a viral infection. His disability hasn’t prevented Braedon from living life to the … [Read more...]
When Max Montgomery met Andi Traynor for a first date, he had high hopes. They went surfing on a California beach early in the morning and had a great time. Exhausted and happy, the couple left the ocean. Then, out of the blue, 56-year-old Max collapsed. He lay on the sand, … [Read more...]
Elizabeth I was Queen of England for 45 years during the late 1500s. Her nickname was the Virgin Queen. The Queen was highly-intelligent and fluent in six different languages. Despite countless marriage offers, Queen Elizabeth never took a husband. She was the equal of any … [Read more...]
Andrew Carnegie arrived in America as a penniless 13-year-old. He was a stranger in a strange land. As an immigrant, the odds were stacked against him. Through hard work and self-belief, Carnegie would become the richest man in the world. He left a mixed legacy as one of the … [Read more...]
Irena Sendler smuggled children in boxes, suitcases and caskets, saving the lives of more than 2,500 Jewish children. During World War II, she watched in horror as the Nazis forced Jewish people to live in a ghetto in Warsaw, Poland where disease ran rampant. Soon, it … [Read more...]
In 1922, archeologist Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tutankhamun, the boy-king, also known as King Tut. In 1907, Lord Carnarvon hired Carter to search the burial tombs of Egypt for dead nobles. For 16 years Carter hunted for archeological mysteries. His long search … [Read more...]
Daniel Tammet was born in London. His mother spoke English and he grew up in an English-speaking environment. Yet to his ears the English language was an alien language. Words and sentences were a puzzle the young boy could not figure out. Daniel was an autistic savant. He was … [Read more...]
Everything goes black. Tricia Kennedy thinks she is dead. It feels peaceful until the pain sets in. Then it is excruciating. The noise is deafening. The light is blinding. She realizes that she has been shot in the head. Kennedy was in a shooting competition when a bullet … [Read more...]
Ryan Said fell in love at first sight with a beautiful woman named Jasmine Merino. But this was not your run of the mill love story. Ryan was born a female and Jasmine was born a male. Said and Merino met on Instagram, and their connection was instant. When they first met, he … [Read more...]
It was a summer day in July 1976 when 26 kids between five and fifteen years of age boarded an elementary school bus to go home. Many of the children were still dripping with water from the water balloon fight they’d just had. Spirits were high as the bus drove along. None of … [Read more...]
Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the greatest composers of all time. Yet by the time he was writing his last few masterpieces he was completely deaf. Beethoven wasn’t born deaf. He gradually lost all his hearing from the age of 30 onwards. He first had an inkling something … [Read more...]
Hypnosis is a form of direct communication with the unconscious mind. It is a valuable tool for raising self-awareness. It can also help people change negative patterns of behavior. It was accidentally invented by a man named Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer belongs to a small … [Read more...]
At the tender age of five, Ryan Hammons told his mother that he remembered being someone else. He recalled traveling the world, marrying five women, dancing on Broadway, and becoming a successful Hollywood agent. He started opening up to his mother, Cyndi, about his previous … [Read more...]
