extraordinary%20encounters

Moody, Raymond A., Jr., 1976. Life after Life: The
Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily
Death. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books.
Ring, Kenneth, 1980. Life at Death: A Scientific In -
vestigation of the Near-Death Experience. New
York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan.
Rogo, D. Scott, 1989. The Return from Silence: A
Study of Near-Death Experiences. Wellingborough,
Northamptonshire, England: Aquarian
Press.
Bermuda Triangle
The three points of the “Bermuda Tr i a n g l e” are
Florida, Bermuda, and Pu e rto Rico. In modern
legend, the Triangle is more than an arbitrary
geometric shape; its three points comprise the
boundaries of a passage into a mysterious othe
rworld. In the Bermuda Triangle, the laws of
n a t u re are suspended, and ships, planes, and
people disappear without a trace.
A key event in the genesis of the legend was
a real-life tragedy off the coast of Florida on
Bermuda Triangle 41
December 5, 1945. That afternoon, five
Avenger torpedo bombers flew out of the
Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale. Flight
19, consisting of fourteen men (thirteen of
them students in the last stage of training),
headed on an eastern course toward the Bahamas,
intending to participate in a practice
bombing at Hens and Chickens Shoals, fiftysix
miles away. After completing that part of
the mission, the aircraft were to proceed to
the east for another sixty-seven miles, turn
north for seventy-three miles, then head westsouthwest
for the remaining one hundred
twenty miles back to their home base. Heading
the mission—the only nonstudent—was
the relatively inexperienced Lt. Charles Taylor,
who did not know the area well.
By late afternoon, the planes were lost. Taylor
thought they were flying over the Keys off
Florida’s south coast, and he made a fatal misjudgment:
he flew north. If he and his men
had been over the Keys, of course, they would
A reward poster at a marina for the yacht Saba Bank, which went missing in the Bermuda Triangle March 10, 1974
(Bettmann/Corbis)