"MysteryPoint" - A Point where Gravity works differently...

[mooeypoo]

Guys, you have GOT to help me out here.

 

Today, I went with my grandparents and my little cousin to Santa Cruz, California, where we passed through (and entered) the "Mystery Point" - a place where they claimed the laws of physics are different.

 

Obviously, I was sure everything is an optical illusion, but it sounded like a nice detour and a great experience, so we stopped by and got in.

I am still slightly confused. There is no doubt that optical illusions were part of what we experiences, but it is DEFINATELY wasn't all it was. The forces active in that point were clearly felt and visible, and I have GOT to figure out what the heck it is that happened there. I need your help!

 

First, let me give out some sites that try to explain and show what was there:

 

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa120301a.htm

 

http://www.mysteryspot.com/

 

(btw, look at the people's feet. The pictures weren't taken "diagonally", they were taken relatively straight, even though the door to the cabin is crooked. The people are extremely tilted. WEIRD.)

 

Let me tell you this: The cabin at the hillside is indeed crooked, and something's definately up with its optical-illusion building, BUT, the way people are completely tilted is amazing.

 

We did a little experiment: We stood with our BACK to the bottom of the hill, our feet close together, and we looked down on them; regularly, you would notice you stand relatively straight, only your feet are pointing up. This wasn't the case; our feet were BEHIND us, visibly, about 70 inch. When we turned, and the hill top was to our right, we looked down on our feet and they were visibly to our LEFT. We were completely leaning, as if the gravity of the earth was in the center of the "circle" that they reffer to as the mystery spot.

 

I have to understand what the heck it was in there. Yes, optical illusions sound like a good way to go, but I am telling you - I was there. The optical illusions (lke the crooked cabin) made the entire experience more noticeable, but it was there regardless. One of the things you could obviously see, and these had to be explained, is that in quite a visible circle (around what they call the mystery spot) the trees OUTSIDE of the circle are tall and straight, the trees inside it (even if they are right NEXT to the straight ones) are leaning. As closer you go to the center of the mystery spot, the "worse" of a lean the trees have. One tree even goes on a cork-screw as if it was "confused" with the forces of nature.

 

I am not sure if it was the psychological effect or the optical illusion, or the forces themselves in there (perhaps extemely strong electro magnetic interference.. the magnetic poles are completely reversed in there) but people started feeling weird as close as we got into the phenomena. Some felt slightly light headed. It was very very weird..

 

Many experiments there show extremely weird results. On one experiment, the guide put a group of people on a ledge after SHOWING US (with a measuring tool showing the angle -- bubble in a fluid thing (i am sorry, I dont know its english name) it was going slightly uphill though it LOOKED like it went downhill. She ordered the people from the tallest one (on the bottom part of the ledge) to the shortest one (on the top part of the ledge). We clearly saw height differences.

 

They each looked directly at their sides, and saw the height difference aswell. As they switched sides, though, exactly going the opposite way - tallest being in the high point, and smallest being in the low point -- what we SHOULD have seen was them having even a GREATER difference, but no.. they appeared to be having the same height. They were looking sideways and each was looking at each other's eyes, which meant that regardless of outside optical illusions that may have affected US - who viewed them from a distance - they also noticed the huge difference. It was quite baffling.

 

I noticed that people were visibly leaning towards their left, which would explain why the heights APPEARED to change when they switched places (the lean made them look same height) but i don't get WHY they were all leaning. Visibly. And about 17 degrees.

 

Guys, I need answers. This is freaking me out! Could it be that there was a huge effect from some very stroing electromagnetic field? what would be causing it? how the heck could something like this happen?? or am I the victim of a complete optical illusion hoax? If I am, please provide the ocmplete WAY of this to happen. I tried to disprove everything as I was there, I tried to take pictures and look at them fro different angles, I tried to lean myself back to "straight" position, and I measured the sights I've seen with a scale. I couldnt find any solution to that in the optical illusion section. If i was just fooled, it was one of the BEST ways to optically-fool someone.

 

I need to see exactly how.

 

Thanks in advance, and I recommend everyone to go there, whether it is a trick or not, it's a really awsome experience.

 

~moo

[timo]

I didn´t read all you wrote so sry if I´m completely off here, but there´s an article including a very short explanation on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Spot

[mooeypoo]

Dude.. it felt so REAL..

 

I SAW it was an uphill thing, but they certainly arranged it amazingly, since it felt like it is going the OPPOSITE way of the "uphill" angle..

 

amazing.. I actually thought there was more to it than an optical illusion... wow .. how silly am I?

 

Thanks hehe

 

~moo

[Phi for All]

I remember seeing a little creek like that. Could have been a real tourist attraction if it wasn't in an out-of-the-way location. I stared at that creek for half an hour and couldn't figure out why it looked like it was flowing uphill. I *knew* it was an optical illusion but it still baffled me why. It was pretty weird and I even remember my mind tricking me at one point to make it look like the water was flowing the *right* way. Just for a few seconds and then it went back to flowing uphill again.

[Rocket Man]

optical illusions are cool, i was on a ski feild once, i stopped on level ground then fell over... i only thought it was level because the fence posts etc were perpandicular to the sloped ground.

[YT2095]

LOL, check this out then: http://www.sedgleymanor.com/historical/crooked_house.html

 

this pub is just up the road from me and I`ve had many a cold beer in there, what they Don`t tell you on this site is that back of one of the seating benches a marble or ball placed on it will "roll up hill"!

 

the Guiness is lovely there too

[insane_alien]

i prefer the electric brae which is near me. cars appear to roll uphill

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Brae

 

its damn freaky untill you figure out its an optical illusion

 

looking at the pub YT linked to you have to wonder if it would look right after a considerable number of pints from there

[mooeypoo]

There's one thing I just don't get how they managed to do:

 

The guide seemed to have a tool that shows the degree of the hill/bench (I don't know what it is called, help me out here, uhm.. this bubble inside a tube of liquid..?)

 

When she put it on the bench where the ball rolled "uphill", the bubble was dead-center. Seriously.. if this was all optical illusion (which it MUST have been), how did THAT work??

 

This is one of the coolest optical illusion places I've ever seen, they put a lot of work into confusing the visitors, it was really awsome.

 

~moo

[insane_alien]

its called a spirit level

and umm i'm not sure how it rolled up hill if the spirit level showed it was flat

[mooeypoo]

Oh, hehe another thing, the funniest thing is that they're selling a book (which i purchased for the sake of hilarious-content hehe) that shows how "freaky" the place is, and what kind of experiments their "freaky scientist" pulled out in order to show the 'mystery spot' powers and such.

 

quite amusing, and yet.. seriously freaky. I am betting people actually believe there's something more to the area.. the theories they put there are idiotic at best too, but i overheard people talking about which ones they believe.. i think the popular one (quite amusingly) was that there's a hole in the ozone layer above the place, causing the rays of sunlight to bend and show us weird images.

 

People can be so silly.

 

I was one of 'em, believing there's gotta be more than illusion to it. but heck, at least I couldn't rest 'till i checked !!

 

~moo

[mooeypoo]

insane_alien, that's the only thing i can't figure out how they did.

It was flat.

 

I saw it myself.

 

~moo

[GutZ]

In the Nederlands there is a theme park called Efteling. The coolest park ever! There was this one "ride" that used illusions as well, it was pretty cool, it hardly felt like an illusion at all.

 

Villa Volta - An astounding and amazing sensation in this variation on the spooky swing/haunted house. It feels like you are spinning round, upside down, hanging from the ceiling, but you know it must be an illusion. One of the best practical applications of Einstein's Theory of Relativity: your body cannot tell the difference between you spinning around the room, or the room spinning around you. Good for kids who hate roller coasters but still like to be thrilled.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A738650

 

I totally recommend it. It's like a theme park on acid.

[Phi for All]

The guide seemed to have a tool that shows the degree of the hill/bench (I don't know what it is called' date=' help me out here, uhm.. this bubble inside a tube of liquid..?)

 

When she put it on the bench where the ball rolled "uphill", the bubble was dead-center. Seriously.. if this was all optical illusion (which it MUST have been), how did THAT work??[/quote']The guide must have tweaked the level (tool) somehow. It probably wouldn't be too difficult to knock it a few degrees off so it measured the bench as level. These places do things like stiffen curtains and weld lamp chains so they hang at an angle to fool the eye, so it shouldn't be too hard to rig a tool like a bubble level.

[insane_alien]

yeah it wouldn't be hard to knock the little tube in the spirit level off horizontal by a few fractions of a degree. small enough so its not noticed and big enough to allow something to roll. just thought, if its level how can they say its rolling uphill?

[YT2095]

it would have been interesting to have taken the spirit level used by the guide and put it on a KNOWN level surface

 

or indeed take your own level bought off the shelf from almost any DIY shop.

[Phi for All]

just thought, if its level how can they say its rolling uphill?

Because the perspective around the bench tells you the direction the ball is rolling *must* be uphill. They measure to show you it's level and then the ball seems to defy gravity.

 

The folks who run these mystery spots will even put clear hard resin in lamps and glasses to simulate oil and water which aids the "level" illusion. And as I mentioned before, they'll have curtains stiffened with wire or starch so they add to the feeling that everything is on the level. It's no wonder people get dizzy at these places when the eye, the mind and the inner ear are in conflict.

 

Hey mooeypoo, I'll bet most of these phenomena were viewed while you were more or less stationary, right? The inner ear and your sense of balance work much better when you're moving, so these places want you to stand still and observe.

[Norman Albers]

I built a house with log pole frame and studs filled in. My windows are level and I know that to test a level gauge you simple turn it around to see if it reads the same. Regarding Phi's flowing water, one could imagine a gentle flow having ripples going upstream looking like backflow. Think phase versus group velocities.

[Phi for All]

Regarding Phi's flowing water, one could imagine a gentle flow having ripples going upstream looking like backflow. Think phase versus group velocities.

In the case of the stream I saw, it was next to a road that was going slightly uphill and the banks of the stream started out cut fairly high and tapered lower further down, making it seem like the stream was following the road uphill. I think when I saw the stream appear to reverse itself my mind was just forcing the perspective to adjust to what I knew had to be the right way for water to act.

[Norman Albers]

Ah, yes, 'non-Euclidean' stuff. Remember M.C.Escher and the tower. Does he use converging lines, or only messed-up meeting lines to make things go round and round?

[mooeypoo]

yeah it wouldn't be hard to knock the little tube in the spirit level off horizontal by a few fractions of a degree. small enough so its not noticed and big enough to allow something to roll. just thought, if its level how can they say its rolling uphill?

 

For the "levelled" part they used to show how people appear shorter and then higher when arranged differently. This one I thought about though, and it can be explained with the way the human body is tilted when standing on a steep hill -- so that if u put the lowest on the "top" and the highest on the bottom (but cause people to miss the fact its tilted) then you get the effect that they are all the same height.

 

~moo

[mooeypoo]

Hey mooeypoo, I'll bet most of these phenomena were viewed while you were more or less stationary, right? The inner ear and your sense of balance work much better when you're moving, so these places want you to stand still and observe.

 

True, phi, but I don't really understand how this emphesized the effect..? If I was moving, would I be able to notice the trick?

 

oh, and about the spirit level -- my grandpa actually figured that one out -- they could've shaved off the tip of it, so that when they put it on a non-leveled surface, it is in face tilted in relation to the surface, giving us the impression the surface is straight. Pretty ingenious thinking on their behalf, concidering the fact they probably know their own tilt-degree quite precisely.

 

~moo