(#11) The Mystery Spot In Santa Cruz Is Just One In A Series Of ‘Gravity Houses’
The Mystery Spot is hardly a one-of-a-kind location. After WWII, a bevy of "gravity houses," or "tilt boxes," popped up across the US, offering people something to marvel at for a small amount of money. At a time when every other industry was floundering, the "gravity house" industry thrived.
The Mystery Spot was constructed between 1940 and 1941, and since its construction, it has not only become the most successful of these optical illusion houses, but a historical landmark in the state of California.
There are similarly strange places in Virginia, Florida, and Oregon. There are even odd gravitational hot spots outside the US.
(#9) One Psychologist Claims The Entire Attraction Can Be Debunked As An Optical Illusion
Aside from the possibilities of alien influence, fault lines, or swirling pools of magma beneath the Mystery Spot, there is the possibility that the entire attraction is a hoax. Psychologists in Berkeley, CA, based a theory on experimental data that explains the spot as nothing more than a room that's built to incredibly specific angles.
The tilt of the home messes with its visitors' perceptions, which researchers claim changes the immediate context of their experience. Prinzmetal, adjunct associate professor of psychology, explains:
All the visual illusions in the Mystery House derive from the fact that the house is tilted. You know the house is tilted, but you don't know how much. Everything is tilted. You can't look outside and get a horizon, so you think that what you see is right. It's very compelling.
(#5) The Trees Surrounding The Spot Appear To Grow Crooked
There are many visual marvels in the Mystery Spot, but one of the most unsettling occurs when you look outside of the area into the surrounding woods. Rather than growing straight up, the redwood trees grow at confusing angles, sprouting from the ground at various degrees.
Although some consider this a marvel of cursed construction, Prather most likely knew what he was doing when creating the Mystery Spot. There are no blueprints available for the attraction, but William Prinzmetal, adjunct associate professor of psychology, explains that the shack is built on a 20-degree angle from the ground, which makes the trees appear to grow in strange configurations.
(#4) The Area Where People Feel Dizzy And Stand Slanted Is Only 150 Feet In Diameter
Some Mystery Spot origin stories claim that when Prather purchased the land, he found an area on the property that made him so dizzy, he couldn't stand within it for long periods of time. The area is only about 150 feet in diameter.
Despite its relatively small size, the area makes people who stand on it appear slanted and feel dizzy. Mystery Spot employees say they've never been able to operate any kind of measurement instrument on the spot with any accuracy, but they have been able to play a radio in the area, as long as they don't adjust the tuner.
(#6) In 1944, A Seeing Eye Dog Allegedly ‘Went Berserk’ When It Reached The Attraction
Life Magazine reported in 1944 that a Seeing Eye dog was so upset by its visit to the property that it “went berserk and snapped at its master.” The unforeseen response led Prather to ban all animals from the spot.
Whether the Mystery Spot has some strange effect on animals or they just can't handle the odd angles of the shack is still unclear.
(#7) Some Believe An Alien Artifact Is Responsible For The Mystery Spot
No one really knows what makes the Mystery Spot so mysterious. Even the tour guides are unsure of what exactly sits at the heart of the campy attraction. One theory claims that extraterrestrials visited Santa Cruz long ago and buried pieces of technology in the ground that unsettle our equilibrium.
Guides at the Mystery Spot even explain that "cones of metal that aliens secretly brought here and buried deep within our earth as guidance systems for their spacecraft" throw off our navigational instruments.
There are numerous UFO sightings each year in Northern California, so this theory - while outlandish - is in keeping with the area's lore.
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According to information about the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot, this is a gravitational anomaly zone opened to the public in 1940. The tour guide claimed that the laws of gravity and physics had lost their regularity in the mysterious location, and they guessed what might be buried underground. When visiting Mystery Spot, you can see the magic of this world, such as the ball rolling on the hillside, people's height change suddenly, these seem to be unexplainable natural phenomena.
Mystery Spot is one of the many abnormal gravitational zones in the world. In fact, what people see in Mystery Spot is related to optical illusions and reference objects. The Mystery Spot is a very popular attraction. Our random tool displays 11 things that happen in the Mystery Spot.
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