The Oregon Vortexâ and the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot were familiar to me because of previous visits to them five and ten years earlier. I knew what both attractions claimed and I wanted to set up some experiments that would test the phenomena and quantify the results. The attractions claimed the following phenomena:
1. Objects and people would shrink and grow depending on where the individuals stood in relation to the center of the gravitational anomaly. That means a person or object who was closer to the center of the anomaly would be shorter than the object further away or outside the area.
2. A dead weight hanging freely from above would be harder to push towards the center of the anomaly than away from it.
3. The percentage of the shrink and grow phenomenon would vary over time. The change in height would vary from one day to the next and sometimes during the same day.
4. Standing objects would tend to lean into the center of the anomaly.
5. Compasses did not work properly within the anomaly.
6. The Oregon Vortexâ claimed the anomaly was acting like it was a vortex flowing or moving.
7. Some people would get headaches in the anomaly.
8. Some people would have relief of pain in the vortex.
9. Some trees would grow with a noticeable counter-clockwise twist or some branches would grow curved following the vortex lines of “force”.
I had been to the Oregon Vortex five years before and had performed some time tests with a 25 MHz crystal oscillator. The results obtained were very encouraging and warranted a more in-depth study.
There were problems with the three attractions that were to be tested. The Oregon Vortex would let me test the time shift but only from one direction. I would like to have measured the vortex from other directions. I did learn from the other two sites that it really did not matter but it would be better conformation where the center was and if the gravitational field was even throughout the vortex. The staff at the Oregon Vortex was the most knowledgeable about the anomaly and had the best literature describing the phenomena.
The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot was easy to access from the street side but was very difficult from the back hillside of the attraction. We had to approach the anomaly from both sides, so we could locate the center of the vortex. Staffers were really not sure where the center was.
The Confusion Hill attraction had no tour guides and it was on the side of a fairly steep hill. There was very little level ground that we could take the shrink and grow photographs. They also did not know where the center was.
We could not stay longer than one to two days at each site because of our own time constraints. The attractions could not have us stretching the cables for long periods of time. There was some danger that a visitor could trip and fall over the cables or other equipment. I did not want to interfere with them demonstrating and showing the attractions to paying tourists. Hourly and daily fluctuations in frequency were noticed. After these experiments were over I came to believe it is important these sites be tested over long periods of time such as one month.
The one phenomenon that defines these special gravitational anomalies is the observation that objects and people get smaller, as they get closer to the center. This effect is reminiscent of the General Theory of Relativity. As objects get closer to a large mass, its gravitational field warps time and the size of objects in its vicinity. It is because of the General Theory of Relativity that scientists have assumed that there is a meteor or other large massive metal object buried under these sites. The problem with this assumption is the Oregon and Santa Cruz sites are located in areas of sediment probably no older then 36,000 years and all three locations have no evidence of iron or other heavy metals in their regions. Also the size or density of a meteor or other massive heavy metal object would have to be huge to create the size and time changes observed in all the sites and this is just not the case because the size of the anomalies are not greater then 165¢.
All the attractions tested had two room wooden shacks built on them. The first, the Oregon Vortex, had a real mining shack built on it back at the turn of the century, when there was gold discovered on Sardine Creek. The other two attractions were copies of the Oregon site. Looking at the sales brochures of the other gravitational anomalies around the country they all seemed to be built based on the Oregon model. The shacks are built leaning on the side of hills. They are built to confuse the eye and create an optical illusion. I now know the shacks of these sites, really confuse the issue of the gravitational anomaly. It would be better if the site was bulldozed level and then a building was put on it.
All three attractions had photos of the shrink and grow phenomenon, but the photos were useless because the camera was not placed perpendicular at the midpoint between the two subjects. Usually the camera was placed on the side where the larger image was (farther away from the center of the anomaly). The result was the picture accentuated the effect. Sometimes the camera was moved after the first picture and moved back, which would also accentuate the shrink and grow phenomenon. To avoid this a 7¢6² long board was used as a platform with the midpoint marked (Figure 1). Two 6¢3² white polls are attached for reference heights. Three wires were precut to make sure the camera and tripod were placed 15¢ from the center of the board. When the space at the site did not permit 15¢, the camera tripod was measured independently to make sure placement was midpoint and level.
Figure 1: layout
of the measuring board and camera tripod.
The General Theory of Relativity calls for time to slow down as an object approaches a large gravitational mass. Time slows down on clocks placed near a black hole. The clock itself would also get much smaller. This is similar to the Special Theory of Relativity that holds that time slows down and objects get smaller as they approach the speed of light.
My experimental approach was that if there was a time shift associated with the size change, then it would rule out any possibility of optical illusions or trickery. To measure any time shifts I used a 25 MHz freely oscillating crystal powered by a 9 volt battery. I used only Eveready® Energizers® because they started with 9.4 volts and their discharge rate was consistent. The crystals’ frequency output averaged 24,997,980 over eight hours, plus or minus 6 hertz. Table 1 plots the frequency output, in normal time and space, over eight hours. Table 2 shows a more detailed graph covering the first hour and ten minutes. The chart only displays the last four numbers of the frequency. The frequency output was fairly stable for such a simple circuit. It was a simple circuit with no voltage regulating or frequency compensating circuitry. As long as the voltage was above 6 voltage, the crystal operated within the frequency range. I tested and plotted the crystal oscillator in Bellevue, Washington, which I considered “normal” space and time. The 35 MHz frequency counter was able to display single hertz or cycles. This was important because I wanted to measure the slightest change in time. The crystal was connected to the frequency counter by a 113¢ 58 V coax or a 200¢ coax. I was also able to connect the two cables together if extra length was needed. The frequency counter was powered by both line voltage as well as a 12 volt 31 amp gel cell battery. The frequency counter was tested with both power sources and there was virtually no difference in output readings or performance.
Table 1: The frequency output, in normal time and space, over eight hours.
Table 2: The frequency output, in normal time and space, over 90 minutes.
The time measurements used in the experiment are the hours and minutes from when the 9-volt battery was put into the frequency generating crystal source (the crystal).
The procedure was the same for all the locations. First the new 9-volt battery was loaded into the crystal source. The frequency counter was turned on and both were left for over 30 minutes so they would both reach ambient temperature and the frequency would stabilize. Next, the crystal was brought into the anomaly to see where the lowest or highest frequency was indicated so the center could be located. I received some strange frequency readings from all three locations, when we first brought the crystal into the anomaly. I discuss this in-depth in Chapter 7.
Five years ago I did some time experiments with the same crystal and frequency counter at the Oregon Vortex. The observation then was the frequency would shift up. This time I observed frequencies shifting up and down. This will also be discussed in chapters dedicated to each gravitational anomaly and Chapter 7 (The Conclusion). I also discovered that the number of people entering these anomalies also affected the frequency.
All three attractions had iron weights hanging from the ceiling in the wooden shacks. Because all of the shacks were built crooked or were now crooked, it made it hard to measure the force because we didn’t have a flat floor to rest the test equipment on. At the Oregon Vortex I used my own weight suspension system and used it outside on level ground. At Confusion Hill and the Mystery Spot we hung our 25lb. weight from the ceiling and measured the force with our equipment. We were able to get consistent results from all three locations. We did these experiments after we located the center of the vortex and had done most of our frequency or time tests.
The big problem was making sure the camera and tripod were set up equidistant between both individuals and perpendicular to the board they stood on. The center of the anomaly had to be located so the subjects would be in-line with the center. There were problems at the Mystery Spot because the area next to the two-room cabin was not that level and it was not a full 15¢ from our board. At Confusion Hill there was a noticeable shrink and grow phenomenon, but the area was not wide enough to place the 7.6¢ board, so we had to use their platform. The tripod had to be placed inside the shack because of a lack of room.
All attractions claimed that people standing inside the vortex would appear to lean towards the center. We tested this claim by dropping a plum line and photographing one of us standing next to it. For this experiment it was important to first locate the center of the vortex, so we knew where we to stand.
Some places have claimed that a compass does not work properly in the anomaly. We used two compasses to locate true north. We both noticed no problem with our compasses used for direction. To do this experiment properly, I should have had an electronic compass/direction finder but due to cost of such equipment it could not be used. We were told at the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz that a German scientist had brought a magnetometer into the anomaly to measure magnetic fields. He recorded significant changes over very short distances within the vortex. These changes normally occur over many miles, so something unusual was recorded. It would be worthwhile for someone to do a mapping of these anomalies with a magnetometer to see if a grid pattern shows up which is what John Litster claimed at the Oregon Vortex. He used a dowsing rod to locate what he called terralines located 57² apart.
The Mystery Spot and the Oregon Vortex both claimed that pilots notice compass changes many thousands of feet in the air.
The definition of a vortex is a mass of a fluid having a whirlpool or circular motion tending to form a cavity or vacuum in the center of the circle and to draw towards this cavity or vacuum bodies subject to its action. Mr. John Litster is the one who labeled the Oregon anomaly a vortex because he felt the forces within the anomaly were rotating around a center point. He observed people and objects leaning towards the center of the anomaly. He also observed the madrona trees, within the “vortex,” would bend in the same direction. He interpreted the bending to the terralines causing the tree limb to bend, when they came in contact. All of the attractions demonstrate such tree limb bending, as well as trees that grow twisted like a corkscrew counter-clockwise.
The scope of my experiments was not to locate these terralines or to measure any force movement within these anomalies. Since we observed such twisting of trees in all three locations, I will accept the idea that some sort of vortex action is occurring within the anomalies. Throughout this book I will interchangeably use vortex and anomaly as one and the same.
As with most experiments one gets surprises when they are performed in the field. I had made some assumption as to what the frequency reading would be and the amount of shrink and grow that would be observed. When I performed the frequency test five years before I had observed the crystal frequency shifting up as it was placed closer to the center. What was observed was a surprise and further proved that a large meteor buried a long time ago could not cause the anomaly. Chapters 2 through 5 cover what was measured and discovered at the four test locations. I encourage any person, with curiosity, to perform your own tests at these locations and see what you come up with.