| Some debates are everlasting: since the dawn | | | | although this claim has been disputed. |
| of time, people have tried to establish | | | | Visitors to the house assume that its |
| whether paranormal activity exists in the | | | | foundations are normal, and thus the events |
| world. This burning passion for the | | | | that occur in it seem to have somehow |
| unexplained has been enshrined in popular | | | | sidestepped gravity. Yet there are fatal |
| culture: from the Twilight Zone to The X | | | | flaws in this argument: John Litser, a former |
| Files, we have seen alien and unearthly | | | | owner of the property who died in 1959, |
| events being dissected from all sorts of | | | | apparently carried out detailed tests and |
| angles, but we have still reached no firm | | | | investigations on the activities in the |
| conclusions about their origins. However, | | | | Oregon Vortex, and allegedly burned his |
| there are actual sites of so-called | | | | findings, screaming, "The world is not ready |
| paranormal activity where evidence seems so | | | | for this." Some of these notes survive, |
| irrefutable that even the most die-hard | | | | however, and are sold in pamphlets at the |
| sceptics are tested. One of these sites is | | | | House of Mystery gift shop: in them he argues |
| Oregon's House of Mystery.The House of | | | | the existence of an actual vortex in the |
| Mystery is a roadside attraction in Gold | | | | region, which affects a circular area |
| Hill, Oregon, located to the north west of | | | | measuring 165 feet, 4 1/2 inches in diameter. |
| the town of Medford. The house itself was | | | | Proven vortex or not, however, the House of |
| built in 1904 by the Old Grey Eagle Mining | | | | Mystery provides the perfect forum to |
| Company. First used as a gold assay office | | | | demonstrate its quirks and abnormalities to a |
| and then for tool storage, it is situated in | | | | wide audience.The Oregon Vortex is only one |
| the famous Oregon Vortex, a region so | | | | among a variety of mystery spots in the |
| well-known for its paranormal qualities that | | | | world. As well as the Bermuda Triangle, |
| it was featured in an episode of The X Files | | | | perhaps the most legendary example, other |
| in 1999. The Oregon Vortex is renowned for | | | | mystery spots include Pennsylvania's Laurel |
| its unnatural events: it is said that the | | | | Caverns, also known as Gravity Hill, |
| laws of physics are temporarily abandoned in | | | | California's Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, and |
| the area, which first opened to visitors in | | | | the Mystery Vortex in Hungry Horse, Montana. |
| 1939. Objects are said to defy laws of | | | | These sites of paranormal activity are |
| gravity, brooms stand vertically unsupported, | | | | certainly best appreciated in comparison with |
| balls can roll uphill and the laws of | | | | one another; a tour of America's mystery |
| perspective appear dramatically altered. Some | | | | spots, for instance, would be an ideal |
| visitors even claim to find relief from | | | | holiday for the aspiring mystery solver. By |
| backache in the Vortex, and its powers are | | | | joining a hotel honours rewards scheme with |
| said to be strongest when the moon is | | | | wide benefits, such as Hilton Honours, this |
| full.Yet sceptics have found natural reasons | | | | multi-stop travel can still be value for |
| for this so-called paranormal activity. Some | | | | money, and you can extend your mystery |
| critics say that when the House of Mystery | | | | solving impulse to all corners of the |
| was a gold assay office, it slid from its | | | | country. |
| foundations, settling at an odd angle, | | | | |