AOKIGAHARA - the japanese suicide forest

Aokigahara is a forest of 35,000 square kilometers, stretching from the foot of Mount Fuji. It is a forest that has existed for 1200 years. Since the 50s, the forest became the place causing most cases of suicide by strangulation.

The soil of the forest is composed of lava. In 864, Fuji erupted ten days in a row, forming a large amount of lava. Every year, nearly 400 Japanese put their suicide in the forest. Statistics show that in Japan every year, over 40,000 people commit suicide. We have created many legends about evil spirits that haunt the woods.

Called "the perfect place to die," the Aokigahara forest has the unfortunate distinction of the world's second most popular place to take one's life. (The first is the Golden Gate Bridge.) Since the 1950s, Japanese businessmen have wandered in, and at least 500 of them haven't wandered out, at an increasing rate of between 10 and 30 per year. Recently these numbers have increased even more, with a record 78 suicides in 2002.

However, Japan is not first in suicides. The first place is occupied by Russia, followed by Belarus and Latvia.

Why Japanese choose this place to commit suicide?

Japanese spiritualists believe that the suicides committed in the forest have permeated Aokigahara's trees, generating paranormal activity and preventing many who enter from escaping the forest's depths. Complicating matters further are the common experience of compasses being rendered useless by the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the area's volcanic soil.

In 1956, Japan was a real current, supported even by intellectuals, to die by suicide, a dignified death in Japanese culture.

Forest looks bizarre. Sunlight does not penetrate inside the forest and the forest access roads are true mazes.

Japanese legends speak of spirits of the dead can be seen in the forest. Spirits of the dead by violence do not find peace nor can pass into another world. Spirits remain between the two worlds. In 1990, two guardians of the forests found the body of a hanged. They approached the scene and saw several ghosts that swirled around suicide. Residents of the area who argue that sank in the forest not find the way back.

The compass does not point north in the woods accurately. They say it's a difference of 90 degrees to the true position of the north. Many groups of tourists went in circles for hours, because compass does not work correctly. It took the intervention because these tourists can be recovered. Japanese experts have recognized that a strange phenomenon happens. It is the distortion of orientation to person, but the compass.

The plot apparently seems to be right. In fact, under vegetation pits are up to one meter deep, which is an impractical advance.

Aokihagara awakens a sense of fear among the Japanese. It is considered the most cursed place in Japan.

The evil spirits are called Yure and can come from anywhere. Sounds strange cries and that yureii can not leave the suicide, have made this a cursed forest. Nobody in Japan did not want to invest in this area, arguing that businesses would fail. Those who have ventured into this forest argue that there is a maximum voltage that marks the human body. Panic, exhaustion, headaches, all these experiences have made fewer Japanese to venture into such hikes.

Due to the vastness of the forest, desperate visitors are unlikely to encounter anyone once inside the so-called "Sea of Trees," so the police have mounted signs reading "Your life is a precious gift from your parents," and "Please consult the police before you decide to die!" on trees throughout.

This does not deter determined people from committing suicide in this dense forest. Annually about 70 corpses are found by volunteers who clean the woods but many are forever lost in the very thick woods. Japanese authorities discounted publishing exact suicide numbers in order to not make the place even more popular.

Contemporary news outlets noted the recent spike in suicides in the forest, blamed more on Japan’s economic downturn than on the romantic ending of Seicho Matsumoto’s novel Kuroi Jukai, which revitalized the so-called Suicide Forest’s popularity among those determined to take their final walk. (The novel culminates in Aokigahara as the characters are driven to joint-suicide.)

Locals say they can easily spot the three types of visitors to the forest: trekkers interested in scenic vistas of Mount Fuji, the curious hoping for a glimpse of the macabre, and those souls who don’t plan on returning.

What those hoping to take their lives may not consider is the impact the suicides have with the locals and forest workers. In the words of one local man, "It bugs the hell out of me that the area's famous for being a suicide spot." And a local police officer said, "I've seen plenty of bodies that have been really badly decomposed, or been picked at by wild animals... There's nothing beautiful about dying in there."

The forest workers have it even worse than the police. The workers must carry the bodies down from the forest to the local station, where the bodies are put in a special room used specifically to house suicide corpses. The forest workers then play jan-ken-pon—rock, paper, scissors—to see who has to sleep in the room with the corpse.

It is believed that if the corpse is left alone, it is very bad luck for the yurei (ghost) of the suicide victims. Their spirits are said to scream through the night, and their bodies will move on their own.

OSCAR - the cat who predicts death

Sheltered beside man five thousand years ago, the cat has a troubled history. In ancient times was worshiped, the animal considered sacred, magical, a messenger of the gods. In the turbulent Middle Ages, people began to fear cats, particularly of the black cat, as their devilish incarnations, devoid of wizardly tools. "Sentenced" inquisition processes were tortured with a fierce sadism, drowned and burned at the stake. In the contemporary period, they have become not only cats always present in our house, but researchers give them more attention, assigning them extrasensory qualities such as telepathy or precognition.

Never in any country in the world, the cat was worshiped as in ancient Egypt. It seems that the inhabitants of the pyramids have come to deify this animal early dynastic period of 2900 years BC, Cats saved the Egypt from starvation. Grain reserves had been severely damaged by a terrible invasion of mice and, at the command of Pharaoh, hundreds of cats were brought from throughout the region and placed as sentry against rodents. So the cat began to be loved and then considered sacred animal. Bastet, the goddess with the body of a woman and cat image was the embodiment strange dual admiration born of the Egyptians, this animal clean, affectionate, gentle night, with an incredible ability to disappear and reappear imperceptibly with mystical abilities . Peaceful troubled her personality, but also mysterious Egyptians worshiped a respect mixed with fear.

Throughout the ages, cats have hovered over various superstitions, some auspicious, others, on the contrary, that brings misfortune. For example, according to an Irish popular belief, if you cut way a cat in the moonlight, this means imminent death. Especially the black cat is considered to bring misfortune. Less than England, where even the King Charles the Great had a black cat, which claimed that bears his luck, convinced that she is the "watchman" of his life. His conviction was so firm that the British monarch commanded the cat to be guarded day and night, lest some misfortune run or get hurt. Coincidence or not, the day after the cat died, King was arrested and on January 29, 1649, was beheaded.

Despite the cat's studies, researchers were unable yet to explain what special abilities the little feline fail to anticipate all sorts of events related to their masters.

By staggering, cats presentiment of danger, foreboding, and masters, or plan their approaching death. In 2007, David Dosa, a specialist in geriatric old age home, published an article in a newspaper, the story of Oscar, a cat that had been adopted by employees of asylum and was able to provide patient death. Cat story "Paranormal" Oscar appeared for the first time in 2007, this being continued to fascinate the nursing staff and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island (USA). Why? Because Oscar the cat lives at the rehabilitation center when longer stays with a patient, it is a sure sign that the patient will die within a few hours! The cat came especially for the final moments of the life of the patient ... You may think that a cat announces its presence as one feared death, but Oscar is regarded as a comfortable companion. All day, she walks the corridors of asylum, entering the salon to salon, but remaining only with patients who are approaching the end. Doctors tried several times to chase, pulling it out, but Oscar, to the astonishment of all, does not scramble never gave, struggling to get back near dying.

Intrigued, nurses subjected him, Oscar, finally an "experiment". "The cat was taken and placed on the bed of an old man that I thought would die soon. But soon, Oscar got up, rushed from the salon and went straight to the bed of another patient. A few hours later, I discovered that the cat had known better than us who would die. Besides patient who had been all day he died that evening, while the first lived a few days, "Dr. Dosa story. "There can be no coincidence, for Oscar accurately predicted the death of over 50 patients. The other five are still alive asylum cats, but none of them ever expressed such a skill. I can not give an explanation for this strange phenomenon! The only case that I can think of is that cat, with its highly developed olfactory sense, could perceive the smell released by the cells at the time of death. But amazing is that Oscar knows even a few hours before the man going to die. "

"The door to the patient's room is closed, so Oscar sits and waits. He has important things here, "says Dr. Dosa. "He's watching Mrs. T. She is clearly in the terminal stage of the disease and breathing hard (...) The cat sniffed the air, it concerns finally Mrs. T., jumps out of bed and leaves the room quickly. Today will not die T. (...) Mrs. K. is resting quietly in her bed, having a balanced breathing but shallow. It is surrounded by pictures of her grandchildren. Despite these souvenirs, she is single. Oscar jumps into her bed and again sniffs the air. Make a break assess the situation, and then crouches beside Mrs. K. Once he saw that Oscar is Mrs. K, the nurse called Mrs. K family to come to the center. Also called a priest for last rites. The family was around Mrs. K, and one of her relatives asked why the cat was there. I was told that the cat is there to help Mrs. K to reach heaven. Half an hour later, Mrs. K has died ".

The precision with which Oscar predicts death asylum persuaded employees to adopt a protocol unusual: as soon as it discovers sitting of "standby" next to a dying family members announces its imminent end.

Dr. Joan Teno noted that the dying cat is next 2 hours before dying. He does not think the cat would have paranormal abilities, but simply there is a "biochemical explanation." Joe Nickell, a researcher in the field, gives a possible explanation: "How cells die, carbohydrates degrade more oxygenates, including various types of chemical mixtures ketones known for their fragrant aroma. It's possible to smell Oscar simply a high level of a chemical compound released before his death. Certainly, animals have a more refined sense of smell, which exceeds the average man. "

 Legends say that cats are the guardians of the gates of hell demons are afraid of them. Another name for them would be "glove God" because Noah himself would have thrown his gloves after rats gnawed boat and turned into cat hunting glove. But these are legends. Cats are cats and these animals have developed senses, especially the sense of danger all too.

 Whatever our amazement what capacities have some amazing animals, we humans do not have, although we believe "superiors".