Can anyone explain the height change at Oregon Vortex?

Post by **Winston** » September 4th, 2009, 12:10 am

Hi all,
Have any of you ever been to the Oregon Vortex or Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, CA? It's a tourist attraction that feature anomalies that defy science and logic. Balls roll uphill and heights change on level platforms by simply switching places. I've never been able to figure them out. The staff there say that there is a "gravity anomaly" that NASA investigated and can't explain either. They claim that NASA scientists shot a laser beam there which curved. Skeptics say the whole thing is an optical illusion, but their explanation as to how an optical illusion can explain all this is incomplete, and in fact the visitor center at the Oregon Vortex has a refutation of these skeptical arguments and optical illusion explanations on their walls. lol

Anyhow, I've been to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz several times, but I didn't take pictures there, only of the Oregon Vortex. So here are some pictures I took there, showing you what I witnessed about the height changes on the level plank.

First, here is the plank that I'm talking about. As you can see, the level tool shows that it is level, and I even balanced a coin on it to show how level it is.

Now here are some height comparisons. As you can see, when the people switch sides, their height relative to each other changes by about an inch or so.

Me and another guy trying it. As you can see, there's a noticeable difference in our height comparison when we switch sides.

What do you think? Any explanations?

I have videos of the ball rolling uphill on a plank, but not on the computer. I will see if I can find it on YouTube though.

Post by **Winston** » September 4th, 2009, 12:27 am

Here are some youtube videos about it. This one shows the ball rolling up the plank. It's not a trick ball by the way, cause I've brought my own ball there before and it did the same thing.

And this one shows the level plank demonstrated by the level tool, yet the heights look different when switched.

Any explanations? I could never figure it out.

Post by **Winston** » March 11th, 2012, 2:04 pm

Does anyone have any explanation for the above? Come on now. Or will this forever remain a mystery?

Here is a side by side comparison on the Oregon Vortex website of the same people in both photos after changing places on the plank, showing a noticeable height change.

http://www.oregonvortex.com/photographs-northend.htm

zboy1 · Post by **zboy1** » March 11th, 2012, 2:52 pm

There are a lot of mysteries in the world that can't be explained by regular science. It's either that or certain scientific knowledge has been purposely kept hidden from the public. A few examples I can think of on top of my head include Nikola Tesla, Coral Castle, Kennewick Man, Area 51, etc....

Falcon · Post by **Falcon** » March 11th, 2012, 2:56 pm

I'm not ruling out all the apparently supernatural phenomena that have been reported, but those guys in Santa Cruz are exaggerating just to make more money and get more tourists.

It's called a gravity hill. They're all over the world.

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

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

Post by **Winston** » March 11th, 2012, 2:57 pm

zboy1 wrote:There are a lot of mysteries in the world that can't be explained by regular science. It's either that or certain scientific knowledge has been purposely kept hidden from the public. A few examples I can think of on top of my head include Nikola Tesla, Coral Castle, Kennewick Man, Area 51, etc....

Yeah but those places aren't open to the public or those people were in the past. However, Mystery Spot and the Oregon Vortex are open to the public and can be visited and experienced by anybody.

Post by **Winston** » March 11th, 2012, 3:10 pm

So the gravity hill is an optical illusion? How does it work? The explanations on wikipedia weren't very clear.

Looking at the photos again, I noticed that while the plank is level, indicated by the level and the coin I balanced on it, the ground floor around it seems a bit tilted. Anyone notice that? It's really weird.

How are these places discovered?

ladislav · Post by **ladislav** » March 11th, 2012, 4:00 pm

Hey, that is the place for us short guys to date.

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » March 11th, 2012, 4:04 pm

I have been to several of these places before. It seems that if you have the right combination of gullible tourists gathering at a specific geodesic coordinate strange optical illusions occur and they part with their excess cash.

Post by **Winston** » March 13th, 2012, 6:14 am

If it's just an optical illusion, then why can't anyone explain exactly how it works? All the skeptical articles just call it an optical illusion, and mention something about the background skewing your perspective. But that doesn't hold water, because you can see the height change even if you ignore the background. And plus the height change is easily noticeble from photos and videos. See below.

Check out this news media report from the 90's about the unexplainable height change at the Oregon Vortex. The reporter had no idea how it worked. The plank was level, as you can see. I even balanced a nickel on it. But the height change was too great even if it was a fraction off. In this video, the tour guide said that something there might cause light to bend so that the person at the north end appears shorter. But if so, then you could touch the top of the person's head and have your hand pass through it. lol. At the end, the reporter said that a physicist studied the Oregon Vortex for 40 years, and corresponded with Einstein about it. But before he died, he burned all his research papers, saying that the world was not ready for the secret there. Very spooky. Here it is:

Here is a clip of a man and woman doing the height change there. You can see that their height definitely changes when they switch sides. It doesn't appear to be an optical illusion. Something really unexplainable is going on there.

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » March 13th, 2012, 2:23 pm

This wikipedia article seems to explain it and mentions the Oregon Vortex. Many years ago I went to the one in South Dakota. The optical illusion is created by the surrounding land. Thus the level in the foreground will show that it is even, because the surrounding land is creating the illusion.

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

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

Post by **Winston** » March 14th, 2012, 4:05 am

MrPeabody wrote:This wikipedia article seems to explain it and mentions the Oregon Vortex. Many years ago I went to the one in South Dakota. The optical illusion is created by the surrounding land. Thus the level in the foreground will show that it is even, because the surrounding land is creating the illusion.

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

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

What exactly is a gravity hill and how does it work? Those links above don't explain that. I would image that if a river or ball was rolling uphill, then the ground or foundation underneath must be tilted somehow in a way that you don't notice it, right? That would be the logical explanation.

However, a level plank is another matter. If a plank can be demonstrated to be level by a level tool and by me balancing a nickel on it, then how would heights change from one end of the plank to the other, from any angle you look?

Again, see the video above from the news report. You will see the height change take place. See it for yourself.

I wonder what would happen if I took two cylinder objects of the exact same height (such as barrels) and switched them on that plank, and measured them each time with a tape measure. Or better yet, how about sliding two objects of equal height toward each other on that plank and see if any height changes occur?

I should email the Oregon Vortex visitor center and ask them if they've tried that.

Post by **Winston** » March 14th, 2012, 4:50 am

Check this out. A skeptic and debunker on my forum admitted that after he did some simple tests with the photos, that optical illusion wasn't the explanation.

http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/forum/ ... 9&start=30

Ok, so I did take the pics of scepcop and erased everything around the two guys, and there is definetly a height difference between the two photos. Don't feel like uploading it to image shack or anything but its easy to do yourself. Right click and save the photos. Open in paint or other program and just erase everything around then use a box to draw a straight line from the top of the taller guys head. There is a real difference on the photos between the gap from the bottom of the box and scepcop's head in each photo.

This guy on PinoyExchange had an interesting explanation:

http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/sho ... st61769596

I'm skeptical. Consider these points:

1) Why is the level tool measured only at the center? They should measure from both ends to check whether it is truly at dead level. The coin test is irrelevant if it is only placed in the middle.

2) I suspect that one of the ends are subtly sloped upwards and craftily hidden by the soil to make it look straight and even. You can see this on the first video. The left end is raised higher than the right end. I don't think they covered it properly.

3) Why use people as a measuring tool? They should use a long ruler at the same height measurement to check the level. If the other end is lower, then, no brainer actually. The other end is higher, which I believe can be verified with the level tool.

However, if you superimpose the photos of the same people on both sides, you will still find a height difference, regardless of the slopes or leanings. The leaning only makes a slight difference, but not enough to account for the height difference.

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » March 14th, 2012, 10:37 am

As I said before, the level will show the surface where the people are standing is flat because it IS flat. Its the horizon which is tilted. The surface of the hill is creating the optical illusion - the trees are actually leaning but appear vertical. These places usually also have a house built with angles that creates the same illusion. The house can be built in any location.

This is the Ames room that creates the same optical illusion. The only difference is that the optical illusion of the vortex is actually created by nature.

Check out the video on this link to see the same effect.

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

The human eye constructs its reality from lines and angles and can be tricked. We don't see reality, but rather an interpretation of reality after it passes through hard wired neural networks that put together lines and angles to construct a scene.

Post by **Winston** » April 24th, 2012, 5:49 pm

Could this be how the ball rolling up the plank trick is done? If so, does it explain the height change illusion too?