Where's Fox Mulder when you need him?

TiVo Shanan here in the hills above Santa Cruz, California and I am here to solve one of the biggest mysteries of these mountains--The Mystery Spot. (Do you like my Sherlock Holmes costume and Sherlock Holmes hat, by the way?)

First opened in 1939, this small site, spanning about 150 feet in diameter, is a place where the laws of physics and gravity do not apply. At least that's what operators of the Mystery Spot claim. And they do, in fact, provide a number of demonstrations to support such claims. Thus it has attracted many paranormal trackers who seek to uncover the mystery. As the TiVo gal, I've decided to channel some of my favorite detectives from some supernatural TV series, just in case.

So how does one explain this strange phenomena?

One of the Mystery Spot tour guides revealed that most of staff believe there is a large alien spaceship underground with a motor still going in circles, causing a large gravitational pull that makes people lean. The official website speculates the same thing or that extraterrestrials buried unearthly metals. Hmmm, alien sightings and an alien spaceship? I'm pretty sure that would've been national news (and not just one of those supermarket rags!). Another explanation is that the Mystery Spot is a "gravity hill"-type of visual illusion based on tilt-induced effects. In other words, mis-perceptions of the height and orientation of objects is caused by the tilted environment; the brain attempts to adapt to the visual tilt and causes visitors to feel as though gravity does not operate as it should. As a result, everyone looks like they are standing at an impossible angle, leaning effortlessly into space without falling, and even defying gravity by walking up walls. (You know you have some pretty cool optical illusions going on when everyone looks like Spiderman!)

Some say the Mystery Spot is cleverly engineered and that the effects that people see are deliberate, driven by spatial distortion and misdirection, kind of like those optical illusions pictures from science class--but in the middle of a redwood forest!

Everyone experiences the Mystery Spot a little bit differently--headaches, nausea, dizziness or sometimes even improved health. What do you think would happen to you?