Weird Encounters in Middle Tennessee

The Bunkum Cave Accident


This page refers to a single website which is linked below. The website advertises a DVD, a book and more. The topic of this all is Bunkum Cave, a small karst cave in Tennessee. And what happened there? A family visited this cave with three members taking pictures. Back home, all pictures were somewhat strange, as they contained some sort of anomalies. There were white figures in the pictures which resembled ghosts. They were not visible by the human eye.

The interpretation of the website is simple and straight forward: there is a connection to another dimension in this cave. The truth of this statement is proven by two elementar facts: all cameras show the same or at least similar figures. This makes it unlikely to be a result of a technical malfunction. And second, the result was repeatable on subsequent visits.

This lead to the establishment of the AGF Foundation, which is committed to disseminate evidence of this discovery. They created information material and a website.

Actually we have no idea if this is a hoax, a scam, or simply stupidity. The air in caves is generally below 15 °C, and so the moist in the air we exhale condenses. We all know this, we know the white clouds our breath becomes during winter. But in a cave we can not see those pale clouds. The reason is simple: the white cloud has no colour, the normal light is reflected by transparent and colourless water drops, which form those clouds. So we need light to see the clouds well. Torches are not very bright, but the flash of the digital camera is. And it is coming from the camera, so it is reflected directly back into the lenses. It is a similar effect to the red eyes people often have on pictures, but as far as we know nobody ever stated that people are transformed into vampires by cheap digital cameras in cell phones. Although, thinking about it, we would not doubt this.

The white clouds are simply moist, breath, and if you are sweating the recondensed moist of your sweat. Every book about cave photography describes this effect, which is a big problem if you want to take pictures in caves. And they are simple to avoid: just hold your breath a few seconds, while taking a picture.

We found the website pretty funny, despite the fact that it is sheer nonsense. And we want to close with the same citation they have on their website:


"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
William Shakespeare: Hamlet (1.5.166)