Faith Healing: An enduring yet controversial practice

Accounts of mysterious and miraculous faith healing can be found throughout history.

Throughout the history of humans, faith healing has played a major role in the diagnosis and curing of illness.

According to the New Testament, one of the first practitioners use faith healing is Jesus Christ, who healed the blind, the lepers, the deaf, among others. Because of the life of Christ was the other healers who have appealed to God or the Holy Spirit for healing.

Ancient cultures also often invoked higher powers for healing purposes. The Egyptians practiced pseudo-scientific faith healing procedures, and often invoked the power of different gods for different ailments.

A number of rituals and practices are used in faith healing. These include praying, anointing, blessing, exorcisms, religious readings, the use of amulets and laying hands on the sick person. Specific holy book verses are reportedly better for healing, and certain oils are infused with healing power. Some prayers will be made one-on-one with an ill individual, while other types of faith healing advocate large groups of people praying over an individual. Some faith healers using faith healing in conjunction with Western medicine, but others rely solely on faith healing.

Accounts of mysterious and miraculous faith healing can be found throughout history. After being told he could not be cured, a doctor in 1887 was miraculously healed of heart disease. In 1991, an American woman experienced the powers of faith healing when her prayer invoked God to remove a suspicious lump from her breast. The woman, after visiting a doctor on a Friday afternoon, focused her energies on healing over the weekend. When she went back to the doctor, the lump had disappeared completely. A Canadian woman witnessed the power of faith healing by prayer after she came to God and asked for her sister to be healed. Shortly after her prayer, the woman reported feeling “as if a heavy weight” had been lifted from her. Her sister, who had been for 10 years afflicted with mental illness, was miraculously healed by the power of God, according to the woman.

In the present-day Middle East, faith healing is practiced alongside modern medical procedures for both physical and mental illness. Many healing practices in the Middle East are performed by women, and some women make pilgrimages to the shrines of saints who they can invoke for healing. The use of amulets, small pieces of paper, cloth or other materials, is common in the region. Prayer and chanting is also common.

Scientists who have attempted to study faith healing have produced conflicting results. A 2001 study on persons with rheumatoid arthritis concluded that patients who received in-person prayer showed “significant overall improvement” in their condition. A later study, on the other hand, determined no effect of prayer and criticized the earlier study for misinterpreting data. Although many scientists and theologians believe that practices such as faith healing can not be accurately measured by scientific means, others continue to study the phenomena.

Critics of faith healing argue that it is not a reliable form of treatment. Thousands of people have died after relying on faith healing, including a number of children. In the United States there have been numerous cases of children from faith healing households dying as a result of Measles, bacterial infections, diabetes complications and pneumonia, among other diseases. As a result many parents have been charged of neglect and even homicide and manslaughter after refusing treatment for their children.

Despite the controversy surrounding it, faith healing has been an enduring force and will likely exist for many years. Like the mysteries of other metaphysical phenomena, the mysteries of faith healing will very likely remain forever unsolved.

For more information see:

The Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, Ed. J. Wentzel Vrede van Huyssteen, Vol. 2. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003)

Encyclopedia of Religion, Ed. Lindsay Jones, Vol. 6. 2nd ed. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. p3843-3848.)

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Ghost Blimp

In 1942, the final outcome of World War II was still highly uncertain. The United States had every reason to fear that the Japanese launched a frontal attack on the West Coast. Military historian and author Carroll V. Glines sets the stage:

"He was known for Japanese submarines operating off the coast. There had been an attack on an oil refinery near Santa Monica down near Los Angeles. There was great fear that there would be more attacks. "

The Navy responded to the threat by putting together a fleet of twelve blimps to patrol the California coastline.  The mission of Airship Squadron 32 was largely uneventful. That is, until August of 1942, when one of the blimps crashed on a street in Daley City, California.  The two-man crew was not on board. That day, the legend of the Ghost Blimp was born. Historian Ken Gillespie lived in Daley City at the time:

“It was almost impossible for the crew members not have been seen by somebody. But nobody saw them go, nobody saw them jump, and there are no relics of them at all. It’s a real puzzle.”

Actual “Ghost Blimp” crash site

The legend of the Ghost Blimp began in San Francisco on August 16, 1942. It was early on a Sunday morning when Flight 101 prepared to take off.  The pilots were 27-year-old Lt. Ernest DeWitt Cody and 34-year-old Ensign Charles Ellis Adams. Both were experienced and reliable, which made the events of the next five hours even more mysterious. Aviation machinist’s mate Riley Hill was supposed to go with Adams and Cody that morning:

“Adams had flow in the large dirigibles and was thoroughly checked out. But he had never flown in the small blimps. This was an indoctrination flight for him that Sunday morning.”

Just before departure, Riley Hill was ordered off the blimp for some unknown reason. Hill now believes that heavy moisture in the air was weighing the blimp down, making it unsafe to take off with three men on board:

“So I got out, shut the door and locked it, and they took off.”

The flight plan called for the blimp to leave Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, pass over the Golden Gate Bridge, then head to the remote Farallon Islands, 25 miles off the coast. From there, Flight 101 would continue north to Point Reyes, then south along the coastline.

The first leg of the patrol went smoothly. But an hour-and-a-half after take-off, Lt. Cody radioed squadron headquarters and said; “Position four miles east of the Farallones. Standby.” Four minutes later, Cody called again and reported an oil slick on the water.
According to Riley Hill, those were the last words ever received from Flight 101:

“When it came time for further explanation, and we didn’t get it, we just assumed, ‘Well, it was negative and they went on their way.’”

Three hours passed with no word from the crew. Flight commanders became alarmed.  Frantic attempts to contact the blimp went unanswered. Finally, a message was received, but it wasn’t from Flight 101. It was a report that the blimp had somehow drifted eight miles off course and had come ashore just south of San Francisco. Ken Gillespie recalls the event:

“There was a swimmer, a man named Mr. Capulvea, who was standing ready to go in the water when all of a sudden he saw this huge gray mass just coming out of the fog right at him. Remember, this thing is 47 feet wide and it wasn’t too high off the water. And he watched it come in. It dragged its wheel along the sand at the water’s edge, then hit a little sand knoll. It bounced up in the air and then moved up a little bit of a canyon and then hit rather heavily on the side of the canyon. This knocked off what turned out to be a depth charge.”

The collapsing blimp was seen by hundreds of people. Bunny Gillespie was 16-years-old at the time:

“I was on the way home from Sunday school and when I saw this big gray thing coming in through the sky, I was very surprised, as were a lot of other people, because things like that don’t happen in Daly City.”

Flight 101 quickly lost altitude and headed straight for the homes in the hills of Daly City. According to Ken Gillespie, one woman’s house almost became the point of impact:

“It was a Mrs. Appleton. She said that all of a sudden, this huge behemoth had settled and scraped across the top of her roof. She said it sounded like chains dragging. But the entire house was blacked out because of the size of this thing. She raced to the front window wondering what in the world was going on and she saw the rest of it. The gondola hit the cross arm, broke off part of the mechanism there, then it gradually settled down to the ground.”

Miraculously, no one was injured when the blimp landed in the middle of the street.  Almost immediately, Daly City officials were on the scene. When Navy personnel arrived, they were shocked to discover that there was no sign of Lt. Cody or Ensign Adams. The door was latched open, which was a highly unusual in-flight position. The safety bar, normally used to block the doorway, was no longer in place. And a microphone hooked to an outside loudspeaker dangled from the gondola.

Riley Hill, aviation machinist’s mate with the U.S. Navy, had prepped the blimp for flight:

“The ignition switch was still on. The radio was still on and working. Nobody had touched my fuel valves, they were set up just the way that I’d left them. We still had another 6 hours of fuel.”

Lt. Cody’s cap rested on the instrument panel, and two of the three life jackets on board were missing, suggesting the crew had put them on before take off, as regulations required. A locked briefcase containing top-secret codes was still in its place. It was as if Cody and Adams had opened the door and simply stepped out into thin air. Ken Gillespie:

“The machine gun was still there. The expandable life raft was there as well as one more life jacket. There was nothing missing.”

U.S. Navy blimps patrolling the Pacific coast

“Ghost Blimp” pilots

The Navy investigation revealed that Flight 101 was seen by several ships and planes between 7 and 11am. Some of the eyewitnesses said they were close enough to see Cody and Adams in the gondola and everything seemed normal.

Theories emerged almost immediately about what happened to the two men. Some believed that Cody and Adams spotted an enemy submarine.  When they descended to investigate, they were taken prisoner.  According to another rumor, the pilots were involved in a lover’s triangle with an unknown woman. Supposedly, one murdered the other during the flight, then fled when the blimp crashed. 

Naval investigators came up with their own theory. They believed that one of the officers climbed out of the gondola to fix a mechanical problem and had some kind of trouble.  The second pilot came to his aid, and then both men fell overboard. 

A year later, Lt. Ernest Cody and Ensign Charles Adams were officially declared dead.  The blimp itself was repaired. After the war, it became the Goodyear blimp, seen by millions at sporting events across the country. Few were aware that the airship circling overhead was the infamous Ghost Blimp.

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Cannibal woman from the Philippines

A woman from Philippines has killed many people and keep the meat in the refrigerator, who likes to eat human flesh.

He said he has a lot to make a feast for family and friends. He gave them to eat human flesh without their knowledge.

His friends said that she cooked the meat is very tasty, but they do not know if it's meat. some of his friends did not know they will be the next target. The surprise was the husband of the woman also confessed that he killed and ate his flesh.

But luckily the woman's action has been acknowledged by the authorities.

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Doctoral John Clarke, doctorate in psychology from the University of Sydney, Australia, who for years became a criminal psychologist,

remember the day when she was instantly aware that there may be a number of psychopaths in millions of offices around the world. "I'm delivered lectures psychology of crime and provide a list of characteristics of a psychopath. When finished, a woman approached and said "You've just described my boss," he told the German news agency (DPA).

Clarke is also the author of The Pocket Pscyho which contains a brief guide on how to protect themselves from the organizational psychopath states that psychopaths are not only in prisons, in the courtroom, or in the thriller story. Psychopaths, both men and women, is planning sly at work, around the world. The study states that one percent of the adult population who work are in place Chenaniah psychopath. Psychopath like that exist in both large and small office, he was at the council meeting room or on the shop floors.

The psychopath in hiding through the lie, cheat, steal, manipulate, sacrifice, and destroy the co-workers. All without guilt or remorse. Moreover, he judged, they are called organizational psychopaths, developing rapidly in the business world, because of their ruthlessness and lust does not mean they are wrong just as ambition and leadership skills, but also as something that is rewarded through promotions, bonuses and wage increases.

Workplace psychopath will do anything to gain power, status, and the wages they want. "They think like a criminal psychopath. They tried the hardest for the sake of their own. Difference between the two is that criminal psychopaths to destroy the victim physically, while the workplace psychopath destroys its victims psychologically, "he said.

Here are some characteristics that may be a sign of psychopathic personality disorder:

1. At first displays an interesting attitude, tend to artificial, charming, and cast a warm attitude. This is what makes people easy to believe him, and with the belief that they injure or deceive the victim.

2. assume his most important and must be favored, all centered on himself, just for me, mine anyway, just me and mine.

3. Often the treatment showed an impulsive (explosive), hard to delay and control the emotions. If you have the desire be now, if not anger or rage.

4. The relationship of friendship or social relationship is short, frequently changing-changing-dressing couples romance or changing jobs.

5. Often lied, cheated, and betrayed.

6. Less responsibility for his actions, brave and risky decision can not learn from experience, are always repeated over and, although it has been given a punishment or warning.

7. Less able to feel the feelings of others, does not care about other people suffer.

8.Tends to blame others for what he had done.

Five stages of diagnosing psychopaths

1. Matching the personality of patients with 20 criteria established by Prof.. Hare. Matching was done by interviewing the family and those nearest the patient, the complaint the victim, or observation of patient behavior over time.

2. Checking the health of brain and body via scanning uses an electroencephalogram, MRI, and a complete medical examination. This is done because, according to research image PET (positron emission tomography) comparison to normal people, murderers spontaneously, and cold-blooded killers planned to show the differences of brain activity in the prefrontal cortex is low. Frontal lobes of the brain believed to be part of forming a personality.

3. Interviews using DSM-IV (The American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders version IV) that are considered successful to determine the antisocial personality.

4. Noticed symptoms of the patient's personality. Typically 15 years since the age of the patients began to show signs of psychiatric disorders.

5. Conducting psychological test. psychopath usually have a high IQ.

Psychopathic symptoms

1. Often lie, eloquent, and shallow. psychopath often clever funny and articulate, are typically trying to come up with knowledge in the field of sociology, psychiatry, medicine, psychology, philosophy, poetry, literature, and others. Often, clever writing that makes a positive story, and when caught lying they do not care and will cover it.

2. Egocentric and considers himself great.

3. Have no sense of regret and guilt. Though sometimes psychopathic confession, he is very underestimated or denied due to his actions and did not have a reason to care.

4. Glad to violations and problematic behavior in childhood.

5. Antisocial attitudes in adulthood.

6. Lack of empathy. For the psychopath beheading a chicken and chop people's heads, it makes no difference.

7. Psychopaths are also firmly in the act aggressively, challenging the guts and fight, hours slept late and often out of the house.

8. Impulsive and hard to control myself. To psychopaths do not have time to weigh the merits of the action they would do and they do not care what has been done or thought about the future. Sufferers also easily triggered anger will be little things, easy to react to disappointment, failure, criticism, and easy to attack someone just because of trivial things.

9. Not able to be responsible and do things for the sake of mere pleasure.

10. Manipulative and underhand. psychopath also often shows dramatic emotions even though they are not in earnest. They also do not have a physiological response that is normally associated with fear, such as hand sweating, palpitations, dry mouth, tense, trembling for the psychopaths this does not apply. Therefore, the psychopath is often referred to as "cold".

11. Live as parasites because exploit others for his pleasure and satisfaction.

There are differences between psychopathic personality and antisocial behavior. The difference is shown by the intensity. Ongoing psychopath, from childhood to advanced age. While antisocial behavior is only shown at certain moments. Psychopathic patients are usually male, but did not rule suffered by women.

Many reactions occur in society due to ignorance about the healing of a psychopath. Society tries to protect itself through legislation law. In the Netherlands, the Law Antipsikopat launched twice on the 20th century and in the year 2002. Similarly in the United States, law antipsikopat started in the 1930s aimed at sex offenders.

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Giant Skilles

Recent gas exploration activity in the southeastern region of the Arabian desert uncovered skeletal remains of man is an extra dimension. This area of ​​the Arabian desert, "Rab-ul-Khalee". The discovery was made Aramco exploration team. As the Qur'an God reveals that He had created people of phenomenal size of which he has not created then. These were Aad where Prophet Hud people has been sent. Later these people, who have had all the power, turned against God and the Prophet and transgressed beyond all bounds set by God. As a result, have been destroyed.



Ulema's of Saudi Arabia believe these to be the remains of the people of Aad. Saudi Military has secured the whole area and no one is allowed to enter except the ARAMCO personnel. It has been kept in secrecy, but a military helicopter took some pictures from the air and one of the pictures leaked out into the internet in Saudi Arabia. See the attachment and note the size of the two men standing in the picture in comparison to the size of the skeleton !!


Another skeleton was found in India the exploration team also found tablets with inscriptions that stated that our Gods of Indian mythologicalyore, Brahma, had created people of phenomenal size the like of which He has not created since. They were very tall, big, and very powerful, such that they could put their arms around a tree trunk and uproot it. They were created to bring order among us since we were always fighting with each other.


One of his sons of Bhima of the Pandava brothers is also thought of to have been carrying these genes. The Geo Exploration team believes these to be the remains of those people.

This picture below, taken from news helicopter, shows an immense skeleton, of an creature unknown to science, washed up on an Indian Ocean beach after the tsunami of 2004. Further inspection showed the skeleton to be of great age -- possibly thousands of years old.


Is it real or it's just a hoax, many skeptical think that those pictures was a skeleton of a Mastodon manipulated by a computer. But who knows, the truth is out there

(Taken from many sources)

Recent gas exploration activity in the south east region of the Arabian desert uncovered a skeletal remains of a human of phenomenal size. This region of the Arabian desert 'Rab-Ul-Khalee'. The discovery was made by the Aramco Exploration team. As God states in the Quran that He had created people of phenomenal size the like of which He has not created since. These were the people of Aad where Prophet Hud was sent. Later these people, who were given all the power, turned against God and the Prophet and transgressed beyond all boundaries set by God. As a result they were destroyed.


Ulema's of Saudi Arabia believe these to be the remains of the people of Aad. Saudi Military has secured the whole area and no one is allowed to enter except the ARAMCO personnel. It has been kept in secrecy, but a military helicopter took some pictures from the air and one of the pictures leaked out into the internet in Saudi Arabia. See the attachment and note the size of the two men standing in the picture in comparison to the size of the skeleton !!


Another skeleton was found in India the exploration team also found tablets with inscriptions that stated that our Gods of Indian mythologicalyore, Brahma, had created people of phenomenal size the like of which He has not created since. They were very tall, big, and very powerful, such that they could put their arms around a tree trunk and uproot it. They were created to bring order among us since we were always fighting with each other.


One of his sons of Bhima of the Pandava brothers is also thought of to have been carrying these genes. The Geo Exploration team believes these to be the remains of those people.

This picture below, taken from news helicopter, shows an immense skeleton, of an creature unknown to science, washed up on an Indian Ocean beach after the tsunami of 2004. Further inspection showed the skeleton to be of great age -- possibly thousands of years old.


Is it real or it's just a hoax, many skeptical think that those pictures was a skeleton of a Mastodon manipulated by a computer. But who knows, the truth is out there

(Taken from many sources)

http://unmyst3.blogspot.com/2008/09/giant-skeleton.html

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10 More Truly Bizarre Deaths

We have already published two lists of strange deaths, so we thought we should make a trilogy. Initially this new list is that we have an opportunity for the entire group of people as one of the votes. Read all the previous lists before this process and to participate freely in all other documents through the comments.

The Donatists

Donatism was an early Christian heretical movement which was named after Donatus Magnus, Bishop of Carthage, in 313 AD. The Donatists believed that the Church should be a church of saints and not sinners. This view led huge numbers of them to seek out martyrdom – either by suicide, or by asking strangers (often in large groups) to kill them all. This was such a widespread belief that it is surprising to know that they survived (albeit as a very small sect) until the 7th or 8th century.

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Al-Musta’sim

In 1258 the Grandson of Genghis Khan (Hulagu Khan) invaded the Abbasid region (comprising modern Iraq and Syria). The Caliph (Al-Musta’sim) raised no repelling army and consequently fell into the hands of Hulagu who, being a relatively decent man, needed to execute him but didn’t want to spill royal blood. Khan came up with a brilliant idea. He had the Caliph rolled up in a rug and ordered his men to trample him to death with their horses. Such compassion was not shown for Al-Musta’sim’s sons, most of whom were summarily executed.

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Clement Vallandigham

Clement Vallandigham was a member of the US House of Representatives, from Ohio. Vallandigham had not just a bizarre, but rather an ironic death: He was representing a defendant in a murder case for killing a man in a barroom brawl. Vallandigham wished to prove the victim had, in fact, killed himself while trying to draw his pistol from a pocket while rising from a kneeling position. As Vallandigham conferred with fellow defense attorneys in his hotel room, he decided to show them how he would demonstrate this to the jury. Grabbing a pistol he believed to be unloaded, he put it in his pocket and enacted the events as he imagined them to have happened, shooting himself in the process. Vallandigham proved his point, since the defendant, Thomas McGehan, was subsequently acquitted and released from custody.

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Alexander I of Greece

Alexander I, King of the Hellenes, died of sepsis caused by the bites of two monkeys three weeks earlier. The King was taking a walk in the Royal Gardens, when his dog was attacked by a monkey, and the King, attempting to defend it, received a bite by the animal and its mate. His death had, as a result, the reinstatement of his deposed father Constantine I who, being pro-German, changed the fortunes of the Greek nation for the years to come.

6

J G Parry-Thomas

John Godfrey Parry-Thomas was a Welsh engineer, and motor-racing driver, who at one time held the Land Speed Record. He was killed at Pendine Sands in March 1927, while trying to regain his own world land speed record, that had been broken just weeks earlier by Malcolm Campbell on the same beach. He was suffering from influenza and turned down a lucky black cat charm from a little girl, announcing “I will put my faith in my maker!”. His Liberty engined car, Babs, used exposed chains to connect the engine to the drive wheels, while the high engine cover required him to drive with his head tilted to one side – the right. On his final run, the right-hand drive chain broke at a speed of 170 mph (270 km/h), causing a fatal head injury.

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards for his works of drama. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to “Tennessee”, the Southeastern U.S. state, his father’s birthplace. His greatest works are A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He suffered through his life with alcoholism, and had a nervous breakdown in 1969. In 1983, possibly dazed from drug use, he used his mouth to open an eyedrop bottle. He would routinely hold the bottle cap in his mouth while administering drops to his eyes. On this occasion, the lid of the bottle became lodged in his throat and he choked to death.

4

Garry Hoy

Garry Hoy was a lawyer for the law firm of Holden Day Wilson, in Toronto. He is best known for the circumstances of his death; in an attempt to prove to a group of his partners at the firm that the glass in the Toronto-Dominion Centre was unbreakable, he threw himself through a glass wall on the 24th story and fell to his death after the window frame gave way. He had apparently attempted this stunt many times in the past, having previously bounced harmlessly off the glass. For his unusual death, Hoy was recognized with a Darwin Award in 1996.

3

Allan Pinkerton

Allan Pinkerton was a Scottish American detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the first detective agency of the United States. In late June 1884, he slipped on a pavement in Chicago, biting his tongue as he did so. He didn’t seek treatment and the tongue became infected, leading to his death on 1 July 1884 of gangrene. At the time of his death, he was working on a system that would centralize all criminal identification records, a database now maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

2

Frank Hayes

Frank Hayes was a jockey who is most well know for being the jockey to win a horse race whilst dead! Hayes suffered a fatal heart attack in the midst of a race at Belmont Park in New York atop his horse “Sweet Kiss”. Despite carrying a dead weight, Sweet Kiss ran ahead of the field and won the race.

1

Mithridates

Mithridates was a Persian soldier, who accidentally killed Cyrus the Younger (son of Darius II of Persia). For such a blunder he was put to death by scaphism. Here is an ancient account of his grueling 17 day death:

[The king] decreed that Mithridates should be put to death in boats; which execution is made in the following manner: Taking two boats framed exactly to fit and answer each other, they lay down in one of them the malefactor that suffers, upon his back; then, covering it with the other, and so setting them together that the head, hands, and feet of him are left outside, and the rest of his body lies shut up within, they offer him food, and if he refuse to eat it, they force him to do it by pricking his eyes; then, after he has eaten, they drench him with a mixture of milk and honey, pouring it not only into his mouth, but all over his face. They then keep his face continually turned towards the sun; and it becomes completely covered up and hidden by the multitude of flies that settle on it. And as within the boats he does what those that eat and drink must needs do, creeping things and vermin spring out of the corruption and rottenness of the excrement, and these entering into the bowels of him, his body is consumed. When the man is manifestly dead, the uppermost boat being taken off, they find his flesh devoured, and swarms of such noisome creatures preying upon and, as it were, growing to his inwards. In this way Mithridates, after suffering for seventeen days, at last expired. –Plutarch

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Text is derived from Wikipedia.

SOURCE : http://listverse.com

 

 

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The most Bizarre Traditions

Geisha

Geisha tradition has been fully replaced by a modern system. When a Geisha were abundant in number. In 1900 there were more than 25,000 geisha. In the early 1930 was 80 000 geisha. Most were the geisha of Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. Currently, fewer than 10,000 left Geisha. Geisha Tokyo is only 100 behind. But a true geisha is much rarer. Modern geisha are bought from poor families and geisha houses as children. Becoming a geisha is now completely voluntary, and women do not have children can now become a Geisha Geisha. But the training is as rigorous as before. The girls are very involved in learning the art of traditional Japanese dance, song, music and much more.

Geisha do not offer the traditional services of prostitution, although some modern rumor.

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Dueling

As practised from the 15th to 20th centuries in Western societies, a duel was a consensual fight between two people, with matched deadly weapons, in accordance with rules explicitly or implicitly agreed upon, over a point of honor, usually accompanied by a trusted representative (who might themselves fight), and in contravention of the law.

The duel usually developed out of the desire of one party (the challenger) to redress a perceived insult to his honor. The goal of the duel was not so much to kill the opponent as to gain “satisfaction,” i.e., to restore one’s honor by demonstrating a willingness to risk one’s life for it.

Duels could be fought with some sort of sword or, from the 18th Century on, with pistols. For this end special sets of duelling pistols were crafted for the wealthiest of noblemen. After the offence, whether real or imagined, the offended party would demand “satisfaction” from the offender, signalling this demand with an inescapably insulting gesture, such as throwing the glove before him, hence the phrase “throwing down the gauntlet”.

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Eunuchs

First off, in case you are confused, the photograph above is of a male Eunich. A eunuch is a castrated man; the term usually refers to those castrated in order to perform a specific social function, as was common in many societies of the past. In ancient China castration was both a traditional punishment (until the Sui Dynasty) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service. At the end of the Ming Dynasty there were 70,000 eunuchs in the Imperial palace. The value of such employment—certain eunuchs gained immense power that may have superseded that of the prime ministers—was such that self-castration had to be made illegal. The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ had fallen to 470 in 1912, when their employment ceased

Eunuchs castrated before puberty were also valued and trained in several cultures for their exceptional voices, which retained a childlike and other-worldly flexibility and treble pitch. Such eunuchs were known as castrati. Unfortunately the choice had to be made at an age when the boy would not yet be able to consciously choose whether to sacrifice his sexual potency, and there was no guarantee that the voice would remain of musical excellence after the operation.

Concubinage

The photograph here shows a group of concubines standing behind their protectors (usually Eunuchs). Concubinage is the state of a woman or youth in an ongoing, quasi-matrimonial relationship with a man of higher social status. Typically, the man has an official wife in addition to one or more concubines. Concubines have limited rights of support from the man, and their offspring are publicly acknowledged as the man’s children, albeit of lower status than children born by the official wife or wives.

Historically, concubinage was frequently voluntary (by the girl and/or her family’s arrangement), as it provided a measure of economic security for the woman involved. Involuntary, or servile, concubinage sometimes involves sexual slavery of one member of the relationship, typically the woman.

6

Seppuku

Seppuku (Hara-Kiri) was a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate shame. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyo (feudal lords) to commit seppuku. Later, disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to commit seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner. Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one’s honor as a warrior, those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to commit seppuku. Samurai women could only commit the act with permission.

A Samurai was bathed, dressed in white robes, fed his favorite meal, and when he was finished, his instrument was placed on his plate. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem. With his selected attendant (kaishakunin, his second) standing by, he would open his kimono (clothing), take up his tantō (knife) and plunge it into his abdomen, making a left-to-right cut. The kaishakunin would then perform daki-kubi, a cut in which the warrior was all but decapitated (a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body).

Human Sacrifice

Human sacrifice is the act of killing a human being for the purposes of making an offering to a deity or other, normally supernatural, power. It was practiced in many ancient cultures. The practice has varied between different cultures, with some like the Mayans and Aztecs being notorious for their ritual killings, while others have looked down on the practice as primitive. Victims were ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease gods or spirits. Victims ranged from prisoners to infants to Vestal Virgins, who suffered such fates as burning, beheading and being buried alive.

Over time human sacrifice has become less common around the world, and sacrifices are now very rare. Most religions condemn the practice and present-day laws generally treat it as a criminal matter. Nonetheless it is still occasionally seen today, especially in the least developed areas of the world where traditional beliefs persist.

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Foot Binding

Footbinding was a custom practised on young females for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century. In Chinese foot binding, young girls’ feet, usually at age 6 but often earlier, were wrapped in tight bandages so that they could not grow and develop normally; they would, instead, break and become highly deformed, not growing past 4-6 inches (10-15 cm). Today, it is a prominent cause of disability among some elderly Chinese women.

First, each foot would be soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood. This concoction caused any necrotised flesh to fall off. Then her toenails were cut back as far as possible to prevent ingrowth and subsequent infections. To prepare her for what was to come next the girl’s feet were delicately massaged. Silk or cotton bandages, ten feet long and two inches wide, were prepared by soaking in the same blood and herb mix as before. Each of the toes were then broken and wrapped in the wet bandages, which would constrict when drying, and pulled tightly downwards toward the heel. There may have been deep cuts made in the sole to facilitate this. You can read more about the terrible practice of foot binding here.

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Sati

Sati was a Hindu funeral custom, now very rare and a serious criminal act in India, in which the dead man’s widow would throw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre in order to commit suicide. The act of sati was supposed to take place voluntarily, and from the existing accounts, most of them were indeed voluntary. The act may have been expected of widows in some communities. The extent to which any social pressures or expectations should be considered as compulsion has been the matter of much debate in modern times. It is frequently stated that a widow could expect little of life after her husband’s death, especially if she was childless. However, there were also instances where the wish of the widow to commit sati was not welcomed by others, and where efforts were made to prevent the death.

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Self-Mummification

Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who allegedly caused their own deaths in a way that resulted in their being mummified. This practice reportedly took place almost exclusively in northern Japan around the Yamagata Prefecture. Between 16 and 24 such mummifications have been discovered.

For three years the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another three years and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it killed off any maggots that might cause the body to decay after death. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed. You can read more about this practice here.

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Tibetan Sky Burial

Sky burial or ritual dissection was once a common practice in Tibet. A human corpse is cut into small pieces and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements and animals – especially to birds of prey. In one account, the leading mok cut off the limbs and hacked the body to pieces, handing each part to his assistants, who used rocks to pound the flesh and bones together to a pulp, which they mixed with tsampa (barley flour with tea and yak butter or milk) before the vultures were summoned to eat.

In several accounts, the flesh was stripped from the bones and given to vultures without further preparation; the bones then were broken up with sledgehammers, and usually mixed with tsampa before being given to the vultures. In another account, vultures were given the whole body. When only the bones remained, they were broken up with mallets, ground with tsampa, and given to crows and hawks that had waited until the vultures had departed.

The Communist government of China outlawed it in the 1960s so it was nearly a lost tradition, but they legalised it again in the 1980s.

The photograph above was taken by Rotem Eldar and you can see more rare photographs on his site here. WARNING: These photos are graphic.

SOURCE : http://listverse.com

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