Pwdre Ser - Space Blobs

As he whose quicker eye both trace
A false star shot to a mark't place
Do's run apace
And, thinking it to catch,
A jelly up do snatch.
- Sir I. Suckling,
Poems Farewell to Love - 1541.

According to old legends and poetry, luminous bodies that fall from the sky can leave behind a fetid jelly lying upon the ground. These 'jellies' have come to be known by the Welsh term pwdre ser, which is to say 'rot of the stars' (Hughes 1910). Reports of 'blobs', which were sometimes attributed to extraterrestrial sources, continued to occur throughout the twentieth century. Newspaper articles referred to them as 'blobs', and did not always offer rational explanations.

Angel Hair - Cobweb Rains

The English naturalist Gilbert White, described a 'fall' of cobwebs on September 21, 1741. He remarked that the tangled webs formed "perfect flakes or rags" and were "twinkling like stars" as they fell in the sunlight (White 1789). Cobwebs from the sky?

Angel hair is said to be an ephemeral silky substance that falls from the sky. Others have observed that angel hair issues from trees, not from the sky. Angel hair 'rains' occur mostly during the autumn. Angel hair has been attributed to 'psychic' or supernatural causes. It has even been considered a type of 'ectoplasm', an allenged manifestation of the spirit world!

For a time, after 1948, angel hair became associated with UFOs. Only in about half of these reports was a UFO reported on the same day as the angel hair rain. In the remaining reports, UFOs were implicated without any real justification. The first mention of angel hair and UFOs together occurred in Ontario on September 26, 1948. Strangely, this first witness suspected that the material was spider web. He also suspected that the 'flying saucers' were actually glittering globs of spider web carried aloft by the wind (Corliss, 1983).

As odd as it may seem, many species of spiders disperse by ballooning. These spiders use single filaments of thin web as parachutes. The web-lines can be several metres long, the spiders are tiny, hence the slightest breeze can lift the spiders aloft. In temperate climes this ballooning usually occurs during the autumn. Normally launches involve only a few spiders at a time. On rare occasions large numbers of spiders, often siblings from related egg clutches, balloon en masse from trees. Strong updrafts can cause these spiders to be carried away in unison. If this happens the webs can become entangled in the air. The effect can be quite dramatic (Corliss 1983).

This author has witnessed the formation of 'angel hair'. One autumn day in 1999 while hiking along the Scarborough Bluffs, in Ontario, I observed the formation of angel hair. Along the bluff margin there are many hawthorns, Russian olives, and other shrubs. From one group of shrubs, facing into the sun, I noticed hundreds of silky strands glistening in the sunlight. Each thread was nearly horizontal, even though the breeze was slight. A few strands had strung themselves out in the grass. Each strand was definitely issuing from the shrub's crown. I could only find one tiny spiderling, by tracing back a thread. The spider was tiny, pale, and had an oblong abdomen. The rest of the web-fasts were lost, invisible, in the shadow of the hawthorn. Nevertheless, since I found a spider, I presumed that the other hundreds of glistening strands were also ballooning spiders' webs.

References

Corliss, William R. 1983. Hand Book of Unusual Natural Phenomena. Anchor Press. Garden City New York. 248-250, 253-259

Darwin, C. 1860. The Voyage of the Beagle. Natural History Library Edition: 1962. Doubleday & Company, Inc.U.S.A. 160.

Hughes, T. McKenny. 1910. Pwdre ser. Nature. Vol. 83, June 23. 492-494.

Nieves-Rivera, Ángel M. 2003. The Fellowship of the Rings - UFO rings versus fairy rings. Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 27, No. 6, 50-54.

Nieves-Rivera, Ángel M. 2004. Ethnomycological Notes: I. Lightning Bolts and Fungus Lore. Moeszia - Erdélyi Gombász, mikológiai folyóirat. 2: 84-89.

Nieves-Rivera, Á. M. and D. A. White. 2005. Ethnomycological notes. II. Meteorites and fungus lore. Mycologist 20 (1): 22-25.

Scagel, R.F. , Bandoni, R.J. , Maze, J.R. , Rouse, G.E. , Schonfield, W.B. and Stein, J.R. 1982. Nonvascular Plants - an evolutionary survey. Wadsworth Publishing Co. Belmont. 90-123.

White, Gilbert. 1977 (1789). The Natural History of Shelborne. Penguin Books. Harmondsworth. 175-177.

Winchetser, S. 2003. Krakatoa - the day the world exploded: August 27, 1888. Harper Collins Publishers. New York.

Fairy Rings to Crop Circles

-- a little lession in folkore --

Round circles on the ground have mystified people for centuries. Perfect rings of disturbed grass have long been associated, in various traditions, with elves, fairies and sprites. In Breton folklore, such rings are the dancing places of devious elves called corrigans (Hills & Dondo 1927). A Chippeway myth maintained that such rings were stamped-out by dancing star-maidens. The star-maidens fly about in baskets of woven osier (Spence 1994).

Fairy rings are places in fields, meadows or lawns where the growth of vegetation is disturbed in a ring-like pattern. In 1686 the English naturalist Dr. Robert Plott proposed the hypothesis that fairy rings were due to the "circular explosion of lightning". Thus it was that mysterious round circles on the ground were first explained in supernatural terms, and then later by the natural, but still mysterious, power of lightning (Reynolds 1990, Nieves-Rivera 2004). In the 1950s and '60s fairy rings became associated with UFOs. People would sometimes report that they had found circular impressions on the ground after a UFO was sighted in the area (Klass 1974, Peebles 1995).

Nowadays, we know that fairy rings are caused by soil fungi. In certain seasons the fruiting bodies of these fungi, the mushrooms, are visible on the edges of the fairy rings. Marasmium oreades , and other fungi of the Marasmium genus, are the most common cause of fairy rings. When the fungi are less active the rings may be practically invisible. This is why fairy rings may 'appear' as if overnight. Fairy rings can vary in diameter from a few centimetres to tens of metres. The roundness of these marks is due to the fact that the soil fungi grow outward from a centre of origin over a number of years.

An analysis of early examples of "flying saucer nests" has indicated that most non-hoax circles were simply mushroom rings. Other weird things are blamed on UFOs. Several of the more scientific UFOlogists have noticed other organisms contributing to UFO lore. Slime moulds have been reported as being ‘some weird stuff’ deposited by UFOs. Most early flying saucer nests had natural explanations. However, there were soon to be exceptions to this rule. During the 1970s a number of swirled impressions in started appearing in Australian marshes, UFOs were reported in association with these circles. These swirled impressions were not fairy rings. Since pranksters had long caught on to the idea of flying saucer nests, it is possible that some of these original crop circles were hoaxes, although we may never know for sure. In a few years similar impressions appeared in British cereal fields. By the 1980s crop circles were appearing all over Britain, Continental Europe, the Americas and even in Japan (Nickell 1995).

Dowsing - Radiesthesia

Perhaps you have heard about such things as: geomancy, ley lines, telluric energy grids, healthy and unhealthy geopathic zones, geodetic currents and earth dragons. Perhaps you have seen someone dangling a pendulum as they walk through a garden. Tradition holds that oak trees give a 'positive' pendulum response, and holly a 'negative' response. Have you wondered why people believe in these alleged telluric forces? Where do they find justification for declaring one plant 'positive', and another 'negative'? Many of these insights, it is claimed, were determined by dowsers - people who practice dowsing.

Dowsing, also called radiesthesia, is the art of detecting hidden items, or hidden information, by paranormal means. Traditionally water was the substance dowsers sought. Although, other materials were also dowsed for, such as minerals and oil. Some dowsers even claim they can tell authentic crop circles from hoaxes. Some professional dowsers chart out the 'geodetic currents' around people's homes. Others have offered their services to the police. Many have claimed success in solving crimes.

Dowsing is very ancient form of divination that goes back at least to Roman times. Similar forms of divination have long been part of the Chinese art of feng shui. Feng shui is the arrangement of items in living space so as to maximise health, luck and prosperity. Feng shui is more extensive in scope than Western dowsing tradition. (Practical advice and aesthetic considerations also have a role in feng shui.) Nevertheless, many aspects of the two traditions do overlap.

Traditionally dowsers use devices such as a y-shaped rod, angle rod, wand or pendulum. These devices are precarious balances that move at the slightest twitch of the human hand. The old belief that some force actually 'pulls' on the dowsing devices is now considered passé. It is claimed that the mind influences the muscles of the hand that moves the rod or pendulum. A dowsing device is merely a tool to amplify the mind's intuition about the target material. The dowsing effect, it is claimed, is a manifestation of psychic (psi) ability (Webster 2001).

Scepticism

Dowsing apologists commonly write of success stories of such and such a person whom found water, oil or a lost person. A few studies seem to suggest that dowsers score better than chance guessing (Webster 2001). Sceptics maintain that the dowsing response is due involuntary muscle movements invoked by un-conscious mental processes, ie. the ideomotor effect. Dowser's respond to what they believe, not to what they actually know. In other words, the dowsers are responding to subconscious cues. However, sceptics maintain, these cues do not lead to correct insights any more than would educated guesses. Perhaps an experienced dowser can learn were suitable well sites are likely to be by visible non-paranormal clues. This recognition might be sub-conscious, hence it is not so much a fraud as self-deception (Randi 1998, Webster 2001).

The question remains, can dowsing be demonstrated in controlled experiments? Unfortunately, controlled tests of dowsing have not been very reassuring. In 1986 a test by researchers at the University of Munich conducted a controlled study of over 843 trials. In this study, dowsers were tested on their ability to locate hidden water pipes. Even though the researchers were predisposed toward dowsing, the results were very weak. They were so weak that if the dowsing effect existed, it was so faint as to be practically useless. Other, more sceptical reviewers, analysed the same data and concluded than the dowsers fared no better that chance (Enright 1999). Likewise, most published controlled studies have had negative, or at best weak, results. The magician James Randi has tested many dowsers. He has yet to meet a dowser who could actually find hidden items at a rate greater than chance (Randi 1998).

There were no particular reasons why dowsing should not have passed these controlled tests, if the effect really exists. Therefore, the onus is currently on dowsers to supply convincing evidence that the dowsing ability is not an illusion.

End Note:

Perhaps it hardy needs saying, that water occurs most everywhere underground. In fact roughly ninety percent of freshwater is hidden underground. That is, it is within the water table. Pretty much the only places lacking well-water are locals where the bedrock projects above the water table level. Indeed there is also water inside the pores and crevasses of most igneous bedrock. But this rock-water is not easy to access well-wise. Sedimentary rock is more permeable and often has water percolating through it. This is why caverns usually occur in limestone or sandstone. In other words, groundwater is more-or-less everywhere underfoot. For the most part water-witchers do not really ‘find’ anything unexpected.

References

Enright, J.T. 1999. Testing Dowsing - the failure of the Munich experiments. Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 23, No. 1, 39-46.

Randi, James. 1998. The Matter of Dowsing ... Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 6, No. 4, 6-7.

Webster, Richard. 2001. The Art of Dowsing. Castle Books. Edison NJ. xi-198.

Poisonous Toadstools

Most toadstools must be identified to know if they are edible or not. There are very few ‘rules-of-thumb’ for spotting a poison toadstool. Colourful toadstools are slightly more likely to be toxic. The jack-o-lantern, the amanitas, the false-chanterelle, and bitter-boletes, and some brittlegills are brightly coloured. Some like the red Amanita muscaria are in that hazy zone between narcotic and poisonous. These fungi are bitter, or even toxic, which discourages animals from eating them. Probably these bright colours act as ‘warning signals’, such that animals learn by association not to eat them.

No firm rule-of-thumb exists as a guide to toadstool edibility.

Some toadstools are colourful but quite edible. For example, the chanterelles (Cantharellus spp.) are often bright yellow, golden or orange. Despite the bright colours, these trumpet-shaped mushrooms are quite edible. Unfortunately, the poisonous jack-o’-lanterns (Omphalotus spp.) look very much like chanterelles. On the other hand, some dull coloured toadstools may be fatally poisonous. The deadly amanita (Amanita virosa) is quite non-descript. The pale toadstools are too often mistaken for edible species, especially when they are just budding.

Shrooms

Some fungi are hallucinogenic, or are otherwise psychoactive. Probably this is simply due to the fact that the neurotoxins in these fungi are ‘aimed’ at insect or nematode nervous systems, and not ‘aimed’ at mammalian nerves. Our nervous systems are a little bit different from these animals. The end result is that some myco-neurotoxins are psychedelics rather than simple poisons, when ingested by mammals. A further problem with some fungi is that they can contain other kinds of toxins as well. Certain compounds hinder protein synthesis. Sometimes these are called hepatotoxins, because the liver can be injured by these compounds. These toxins can take more than two days to damage a mammal’s vital functions. Probably these toxins function to kill small fungivores before they cause much damage to the fungus. Some hallucinogenic fungi contain these deadly poisons along with the less deadly neurotoxins.

Fly Agaric

Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is an hallucinogenic toadstool with a long history. The fungus grows mostly in boreal and alpine coniferous forests. Hence, it is mostly a northern species. In Eurasia the toadstool tends to be bright red, and very hallucinogenic. In the Americas the fly agaric tends to be orange or yellow, and less hallucinogenic. The fly agaric is therefore a very variable species. It is known that many Uralic, Altaic and Siberian peoples used fly agaric for ritual purposes. The use of the toadstool by Amerindian peoples varied widely. In the west, and in the far east, some First Nations cultures used the toadstool as a narcotic. The actual first known use of the fungus in religion and ritual is rather obscure.

Claims that the fly agaric was the soma of the ancient Aryans is less established than is often claimed. Soma is mentioned in Sanskrit literature (Rig-Veda). But it is not perfectly clear if the drug was fly agaric. Over the centuries different plants have been used in place of the original soma, whatever is was. In the late 1950s, the banker turned scholar, R. Gordon Wasson presented the idea that soma was originally the fly agaric. Wasson is now considerd the pioneer of ‘ethnomycology’ - the study of the cultural uses of fungi.

Amanita muscaria can be deadly in high doses. Amanitas contain: muscazon, ibotenic acid, muscimol and bufotenine. Each compound exists on a scale between psychoactive and poisonous. The concentrations of the safe and dangerous ingredients vary widely with genetic variations, growing conditions, altitude and other factors. The main danger is misidentifying one amanita species for another. Fly agaric has close taxonomic relatives which are deadly look-alikes.

Psilocybe Toadstools

The famous magic mushrooms of the Aztecs are Psilocybe species, not amanitas. These toadstools commonly grow on dung, although there are many saprobic habitats specific to each species. Psilocybe toadstools can contain psilocybin, a potent hallucinogen. It is often not realised that there are many psilocybe species. As a whole the magic mushrooms are probably more common than the amanitas. However, because they are small and non-descript, the psilocybe species are not so easily identified. They are similar in appearance to the slender types of Mycena or Pholiota toadstools which occur on lawns. In other words, one should beware of small toadstools which grow on dung.

Magic mushrooms were officially identified in an 1939 article by a Harvard botanist Richard Evens Schultes. This publication tentatively identified the teonanacatl, the magic mushroom, of the Aztecs. Schultes found that the identification of the toadstool was preserved in Mexican folk traditions. Various psilocybes are still used by diverse native peoples throughout Mexico. Probably teonanacatl was a psilocybe as well.

Recent research has suggested that psilocybin may be among the least toxic of known psychomimetics. Nevertheless, possession of magic mushrooms is illegal in many places. Furthermore, psilocybes do not look very different from some of the other ‘little brown mushrooms’ (LBMs). One could easily mistake a poisonous LBM species for a magic shroom. So some knowledge of toadstool identification is essential - if one dares to experiment with shrooms.

Phellinus igniarius

Among the Inupiaq and Yup'ik Inuit of Alaska there is a peculiar use for the Phellinus igniarius bracket fungus. The brackets are burnt, and the ashes are mixed with tobacco. This mixture when smoked causes a powerful nicotine ‘kick’. In other words, compounds in the fungus cause nicotine to be more readily adsorbed into the bloodstream. Nowadays the Inuit are not the only people who are smoking the fungus! There is evidence that this practice is even worse for one’s health than is ordinary tobacco smoke.

Summary

Anti-narcotic law enforcers in the USA have tended to exaggerate the deleterious effects of certain drugs. Not surprisingly, these exaggerations have met with a counter reaction by the counter culture. Consequently some shroom trippers have vastly exaggerated the safety of the fly agaric. There are websites galore that declare fly agaric to be a safe psychedelic. This claim is an exaggeration. Amanita’s compounds are dangerous past a certain dose. There is no point in pretending that the fungus is totally harmless.

Some careful shroom users have found that small quantities of fly agaric can be injested safely. These people acknowledge that judgement can be impaired during a shroom trip. Also, it is fairly well documented that people on shrooms are more prone to physical injury as the result of accidents during the trip. The moral of this story, if there is one, is this: it is wise to exaggerate neither the benefits nor the dangers of narcotic substances.