Gravity Hills - "illusions or the freaky side of nature?"

Gravity hills and mystery spots have always fascinated people with their ability to seemingly bypass the laws of physics as we know them. When something should be moving downhill, something as heavy as a car appears to move up hill on these mysterious parts of the planet. But are they really all that mysterious? Is it an area of the world where traditional laws don’t go with what we know is true? Or, is there a rational explanation for what we see at these places?

A Michigan’s Otherside Forum member (Uglynrude) explained them like this:

“There are lots of gravity hills around the world. They are actually optical illusions where the lay of the land appears to be uphill. You can take a laser level with you and you will find it’s actually downhill slightly. It’s a lot like the mystery spots that are built at angles (such as the Mystery Spot in St. Ignus). They convince your mind that you’re defying gravity. They are still fun and require a lot of thought when built. The mind is only following what has been programmed into it. While humans also have a sense of balance to determine the inclination of the ground, visual cues can override this sense, especially if the inclination is shallow.”

Michigan’s Otherside has visited the “Mystery Spot” in St. Ignus. The Mystery Spot is supposed to be one of these infamous "gravity areas." After passing what seemed like billboard after billboard advertising “Visit the Mystery Spot!” we succumbed and arrived like all the other curious humans wondering what was so special about it. I can’t remember what we paid to get in, but I do remember it wasn’t worth the amount. We waited for our tour to begin while some guy standing nearby told us about the worlds “largest cross in the woods” somewhere nearby. We pretended to be interested and thankfully our tour number came up.

We approached a tiny shack built on an angle on the side of a hill. By all means, everything inside this shack seemed to defy the laws of physics. Everyone “oooed” and “awwwed” as water poured went uphill and people stood in certain places at what appeared to be impossible angles. The tour was relatively short and you could pay more money to do more semi-lame things nearby. The whole shack itself made me slightly nauseous from the strange angles your mind isn’t used to accepting and I was glad to step out. We really couldn’t think how the whole thing was accomplished and decided it wasn’t worth thinking too hard about.

Years later, after finally reading that these places are just bizarre optical illusions, I feel sort of “primitive” in that I never questioned it before. I just assumed like everyone else that “there was something different with the Earth” at these points. So does Michigan’s Otherside recommend the Mystery Spot or any other type of gravity hills? Of course we do! They still rate high on the strangeness factor so check them out and tell us your story! Did you visit the Mystery Spot? Tell us about it!

 Here is a list of some known gravity hills/areas in Michigan

• Blaine Township, Michigan (near Arcadia, Michigan): Putney Road, at the intersection with Joyfield Road.
•  Calumet, Michigan: Tamarack Water Works Road
•  Rose City, Michigan; at the end of Reasner Road, past Heath Road.
• The Mystery Spot –  St. Ignace, Michigan; just off Hwy. US-2 (Hoax?)

 

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Reader Submission

"Approximately 12 years ago, my family succumbed to the relentless Mystery Spot invitations traveling back from Wisconsin.

I like most tourist traps, but this one really insulted my inteligence. I could see clearly what was going on by the distorted construction of the building. If the science was solid, they would have not needed any structure to prove it."

 

Resources & More Info

Wikipedia - Gravity Hills

About.com - Gravity Hills

 

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