Forteania

Immortals among us

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Wed, 21 May 2014 09:58:00 +0000

A seemingly universal human trait is the fear of death. To some extent we all find ways to deal with the reality that one day, the life we live now, will come to an end. Historically, man has created tales of afterlives and heavens/paradises as a means of coming to terms with the inevitability of death. Another interesting wrinkle in the equation is the idea of immortality. That someone can find a way to completely conquer death and therefore live forever. Within the paranormal/fortean realm, the concept of immortality takes on a few forms which I want to spend some time talking about today.

The Comte de Saint Germain

A few months back, Greg Bishop interviewed the enigmatic Red Pill Junkie (of The Daily Grail, Mysterious Universe, and Intrepid Magazine fame) on Radio Misterioso. During their enlightening conversation (part 1, part 2), which I recommend you give a listen, RPJ mentioned a particular book which he found to be worth reading. I didn’t remember hearing about the book before, so I promptly went to amazon and ordered it. The book is The Morning of the Magicians, which I came to learn is considered a classic work on esotericism from the mid-1960’s. Topics within the book include; the works of Charles Fort, the ‘teachings’ of Gurdjieff, Alchemy, Fulcanelli, and possible ancient advanced civilizations. I haven’t completely finished the book yet as there is a ton of content to digest. However the authors discussion on Alchemy really grabbed my attention and sent me off on a variety of internet web searches. The searches ended with me learning of the bizarre personage known as: The Comte de Saint Germain.

St. Germain is widely believed to have been born in 1690. He claimed to be the son of Francis II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania, although Francis’ will claimed that he only had one heir, a Leopold George who is said to have died at age four. Other more extreme theories hold that Germain was born around the time of Christ and was actually in attendance at the wedding where Jesus is said to have turned water into wine. Regardless, actual historical evidence exists of a person named St. Germain who was often in the company of the aristocracy of 18th century Europe and France. Germain arrived on the scene around 1742 and began courting favor with the rich and famous of the time period. By all accounts Germain was an odd character who seemed to have great deal of knowledge on a variety of topics. Here are some attributed characteristics and facts about St. Germain courtesy of Stephen Wagner from paranormal.about.com:

He could play the violin like a virtuoso.
He was an accomplished painter.
Wherever he traveled, he set up an elaborate laboratory, presumably for his alchemy work.
He seemed to be a man of great wealth, but was not known to have any bank accounts. (If it was due to his ability to transmute base metals into gold, he never performed the feat for observers.)
He dined often with friends because he enjoyed their company, but was rarely seen to eat food in public. He subsisted, it was said, on a diet of oatmeal.
He prescribed recipes for the removal of facial wrinkles and for dyeing hair.
He loved jewels, and much of his clothing - including his shoes - were studded with them.
He had perfected a technique for painting jewels.
He claimed to be able to fuse several small diamonds into one large one. He also said he could make pearls grow to incredible sizes.
He has been linked to several secret societies, including the Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Society of Asiatic Brothers, the Knights of Light, the Illuminati and Order of the Templars.

Another interesting story about St. Germain comes from a 1760 meeting between St. Germain and a Countess von Georgy. Wagner relates the following:

An anecdote from 1760 most likely gave rise to the notion that Saint-Germain could be immortal. In Paris that year, Countess von Georgy heard that a Count de Saint-Germain had arrived for a soiree at the home of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France. The elderly countess was curious because she had known a Count de Saint-Germain while in Venice in 1710. Upon meeting the count again, she was astonished to see that he hadn't appeared to age, and asked him if it was his father she knew in Venice.

"No, Madame," he replied, "but I myself was living in Venice at the end of the last and the beginning of this century; I had the honor to pay you court then."

"Forgive me, but that it impossible!" the perplexed countess said. "The Count de Saint-Germain I knew in those days was at least forty-five years old. And you, at the outside, are that age at present."

"Madame, I am very old," he said with a knowing smile.

"But then you must be nearly 100 years old," said the astonished countess.

"That is not impossible," the count told her matter-of-factly, then continued to convince the countess that he was indeed the same man she knew with the details of their previous meetings and of life in Venice 50 years earlier.

The official record of The Comte de Saint Germain comes to an end on 1784 with his death. The unofficial record of St. Germain was just beginning. If, as he alluded to Countess von Georgy, Germain was an immortal (or discovered the secret of immortality through alchemy) it should come as no surprise that Germain continued to be sighted long after his death. Although it was often under an assumed name. I suppose continuing to use the same name after you’ve “died’ could prove problematic. Stephen Wagner tells of a few encounters with Germain, or persons who claimed to be him, after his “death”:

In 1785 he was seen in Germany with Anton Mesmer, the pioneer hypnotist. (Some claim that it was Saint-Germain who gave Mesmer the basic ideas for hypnotism and personal magnetism.)
Official records of Freemasonry show that they chose Saint-Germain as their representative for a convention in 1785.
After the taking of the Bastille in the French Revolution in 1789, the Comtesse d'Adhémar said she had a lengthy conversation with Count de Saint-Germain. He allegedly told her of France's immediate future, as if he knew what was to come. In 1821, she wrote: "I have seen Saint-Germain again, each time to my amazement. I saw him when the queen [Antoinette] was murdered, on the 18th of Brumaire, on the day following the death of the Duke d'Enghien, in January, 1815, and on the eve of the murder of the Duke de Berry." The last time she saw him was in 1820 - and each time he looked to be a man no older than his mid-40s.

Wagner continues:

After 1821, Saint-Germain may have taken on another identity. In his memoirs, Albert Vandam wrote of meeting a man who bore a striking resemblance to Count de Saint-Germain, but who went by the name of Major Fraser. Vandam wrote:

"He called himself Major Fraser, lived alone and never alluded to his family. Moreover he was lavish with money, though the source of his fortune remained a mystery to everyone. He possessed a marvelous knowledge of all the countries in Europe at all periods. His memory was absolutely incredible and, curiously enough, he often gave his hearers to understand that he had acquired his learning elsewhere than from books. Many is the time he has told me, with a strange smile, that he was certain he had known Nero, had spoken with Dante, and so on."

Major Fraser disappeared without a trace.

Coming full circle back to The Morning of the Magicians, the famed occultist Madame Helena Blavatsky and others of her Theosophical Society claimed many contacts with the still living Comte de Saint Germain as late as the early 20th century. Blavatsky stated that Germain was hard at work helping the spiritual development of the West, which just so happens to have been Blavatsky’s stated goal. A sad final note to the tale of St. Germain is related by Stephen Wagner again. He notes:

The most recent appearance of a man claiming to be Saint-Germain was in 1972 in Paris when a man named Richard Chanfray announced he was the legendary count. He appeared on French television, and to prove his claim apparently turned lead into gold on a camp stove before the cameras. Chanfray later committed suicide in 1983

Who or what was/is Comte de Saint Germain? Could he have actually been an immortal? Could it be that he was just an exceptionally bright individual which has had their legend grow overtime? If he was actually an immortal, he should still be out there somewhere right now. If that is the case, surely he would be doing what I know I would do in his position; Google himself. Assuming he is, if you’re reading this and I’ve misspoke about your history, St Germain, please drop me a line I’d be happy to edit as needed!

Immortal Celebrities

Moving on from more likely candidates who may have achieved immortality, we will now take a look at some less than credible speculation courtesy of everyone’s favorite website; Above Top Secret! A thread I stumbled across entitled Celebrity vampires/Time Travel, reminded me about the strange doppelganger effect some folks have noticed between modern day celebrities and photos from antiquity. This thread collates a variety of the many immortal celebrity stories which have been making the rounds on the internet.

As seen in the photo above, the idea that Nicholas Cage may be immortal first came out in 2011. A Civil War era photo popped up on ebay with the seller claiming that the photo was proof that Cage is immortal, although the seller came at it from the Vampire angle. He was asking a substantial amount of money for the photo, which did eventually sell. Cage refuted the claims on the David Letterman show, because why not?

The thread brings to light some other examples that I wasn’t familiar with previously. Writing for Examiner, Tom Rose discussed the possibility that funnyman Zach Galifianakis too was an immortal, or had time traveled. Rose writes:

On Jan. 22, 2013, another man, Steven Canfield Crowley, posed the same question about the actor Zach Galifianakis after unearthing a tintype photograph from the 1880s which bears a striking resemblance to the comedian.

In a YouTube video, Crowley makes the same claim. What's going on here?

Again, the resemblance is startling. The unidentified man in the tintype is somewhat older, but the two men could literally be brothers. Does time travel work in reverse as well?

Other examples from the thread include; Jay-Z, Keanu Reeves, and Queen Latifah. I highly recommend you take the opportunity to check out the thread and follow the various links you’ll find there to examine the “evidence” for this phenomena yourself. How do we explain the resemblances between the celebrities and their historical doppelgangers? Coincidence? Over-active imagination? Immortality? While it’s fun to look at these photos and imagine “What if?”, I have to say that, at least for the moment, I’m going to say it’s unlikely that these photos show proof of immortality. But like everything else, who knows?

Immortality: Nature vs Science

Our journey through the world of immortality ends with an examination of the possible future scientific breakthroughs in immortality. Could it be that one day, and maybe not that far off, science could effectively “cure” death? Some scientists seem to be hard at work doing just that. A quick Google search for “science of immortality” reveals a plethora of recent scientific articles which deal with this very idea.

A somewhat related idea to this is the “promise” of immortality which is sought by the Transhumanist movement. Believing that they can potentially achieve immortality by transcending the human body by way of technology. This is thought to be achievable by perhaps reconstructing human consciousness in a computer or digital construct. Interesting stuff to be sure, but I’m not quite as optimistic about this technologies arrival as one of it’s main proponents, Ray Kurzweil is.

Along these same lines, I have to wonder if it’s not possible that someone has already discovered the key to immortality. There seems to be a lot about some ancient civilizations which was lost to us. Could it be that they knew this secret and passed it down only to the initiated, many of whom would still be alive today? Alchemical traditions speak of the concept of the Philosopher’s Stone which could, along with transmuting lead into gold, grant eternal life. It’s entirely likely that modern science/medicine is simply retreading well-worn ground.

Conclusions?

Where do we go from here? It’s hard to settle this issue with any finality. It’s likely that as long as we age and die, we will probably always entertain the ideas of immortality. As is often the case our fantasies of living forever don’t deal with the day-to-day issues which might come along with immortality.,We would watching family and friends age and die, dealing with advances in knowledge and technology, etc. So long as we continue to fear death, I imagine we will continue to invent ways to deal with it. Whether this takes the form of building up legends of already extraordinary people, “seeing” modern celebrities in images from the past, or literally making advances to wipe out death, it will go on and on.

Abominable Chicken Man

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Tue, 06 May 2014 13:06:00 +0000

My daily commute takes me straight through downtown Bishopville, SC. If that name sounds familiar to you don’t be surprised. The town was made famous, more or less, back in 1988 with the alleged sightings of the Lizard Man at the Scape Ore Swamp. I’ve written about the Lizard Man in the past here, if you need a refresher. Last week on my way to work, I had to stop my car as a chicken crossed the road.

Recognizing a golden opportunity for a joke, I quickly went to twitter to announce this. I suppose that’s a commentary on our current social media obsessed society, but I digress. Because of my extremely witty joke, Theo Paijmans, linked me to an interesting newspaper report which I had not heard of before. It’s the strange tale of the “Abominable Chicken Man”. A primate of unknown origin which apparently had a craving for chickens and was roaming around the Oklahoma country side in the late 60’s early 70’s.

Probably not what was seen

The story was reported in The Spokesman-Review by Dennis Montgomery on March 1st of 1971. This encounter had occurred the previous December. Montgomery relates how a local farmer located in El Reno, Oklahoma suffered some loss and damaged property at the hands of this “Chicken Man”. Montgomery writes:

An El Reno farmer walked out to his chicken coop one day in December and found its door on the ground, apparently thrown there after being ripped off the wall.

On the surface of the door, and inside the coop on the walls, were a number of strange hand prints - like none he’d ever seen before. They were about seven inches long and five inches wide.

The farmer initially contacted a local game warden/ranger who was also at a loss to explain the origins of the hand prints. So the local zoo was contacted to see if they could offer any insight on what may have attacked the farmer’s chickens. Montgomery tells us:

Zoo Director Lawrence Curtis says the prints appear to be like those of a primate. A primate is an animal like a gorilla or a man that can stand erect. The thumber of the print is unusual. Curtis says it crooks inside, as if it were deformed or had been injured.

‘It resembles a gorilla,’ he said, ‘but it’s more like a man.’

‘It appears that whatever made the prints was walking on all fours. There were some footprints on the ground outside,’ he said. Whatever it was was barefoot. Barefoot in December.

This farmer was not the only one person to have come across similar prints. Montgomery notes several other individuals across Oklahoma who were said to have discovered the same, or similar, hand prints as the original farmer did. As to what this creature could have been, Montgermery relates:

Oklahoma has only for native animals big enough to leave such prints: the black bear, the mountain lion, the wolf and man. Curtis has ruled out all but the last.

‘We’ve shown it to several mammalogists and several wildlife experts in Oklahoma and some passing through. All agree it is a primate,’ he said. ‘These prints were made by some sort of a man, perhaps looking for chickens,’

Check this link in order to read the full article. Montgomery goes on to draw parallels between this “Chicken Man” and other Bigfoot creatures seen throughout North America. The chicken farmer never claimed to have seen the creature, only the devastation it left in it’s wake. There are a number of sightings of bigfoot-like creatures reported in the area in and around El Reno, Oklahoma. Did this famer have an encounter with the Bigfoot? It’s possible. Those hand prints certainly do sound quite large and the fact that the creature got around on all fours could possibly rule out a human culprit. Unless they were up to trickery, a possibility which I can’t deny.

The ‘Abominable Chicken Man’ never seemed to show back up. Maybe he had enough chicken? Maybe he went on a diet? Who knows? Either way, it makes for yet another interesting wrinkle in the Bigfoot story.

Slips in Time

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:59:00 +0000

In August of 1901, two Englishwomen, Annie Moberly and her colleague Dr. Eleanor Frances Jourdain, were on a trip visiting Paris. The first stop on their tour was the capital. After a short visit there, the two then went to Versailles. At Versailles, the women would have a remarkable experience which has become a timeless tale. The two women would later recount the following story. Blogger Naomi tells us the story:

The two Englishwomen visited the palace at Versailles, where after touring the building itself they descended the steps into the gardens, walking toward the Petit Trianon. There they turned off along a track and passed by some deserted farm buildings, in front of which there was an old plough. On the path stood two men in long green coats wearing three-cornered hats. Eleanor Jourdain asked them the way and they replied with dignified gestures, from which the two Englishwomen gathered that they should go straight on. They went on their way without giving another thought to the strangers' period costume, assuming it to be intended as a tourist attraction. They strolled up to an isolated cottage where a woman and a 12- or 13-year-old girl were standing at the doorway, both wearing white kerchiefs fastened under their bodices. As Eleanor Jourdain described the scene, the woman was standing at the top of the steps, holding a jug and leaning slightly forwards, while the girl stood beneath her, looking up at her and stretching out her empty hands.

"She might have been just going to take the jug or have just given it up. I remember that both seemed to pause for an instant, as in a motion picture," wrote Dr. Jourdain.

The two Oxford ladies went on their way and soon reached a pavilion that stood in the middle of an enclosure. The place had a god-forsaken air about it and the atmosphere was depressing and unpleasant.

A man was sitting outside the pavilion, his face repulsively disfigured by smallpox, wearing a coat and a straw hat. He seemed not to notice the two women; at any rate, he paid no attention to them.

Suddenly, a young man in a dark coat and buckle shoes appeared and ran past shouting something like, "You can't go through there." He pointed toward the right and added, "You'll find the house over there."

Although the Englishwomen spoke French they could only partly understand the man's speech. He bowed with a curious smile and disappeared. The sound of his hurrying footsteps hung in the air for a long time.

The Englishwomen walked on in silence and after a while reached a narrow, rustic bridge, which led over a ravine. A small waterfall made its way between stones and fern leaves, down a slope covered in vegetation. On the other side of the bridge, the path wound along the edge of a meadow surrounded by trees. Some way away stood a small country house with shuttered windows and with terraces on either side. A lady was sitting on the lawn with her back to the house. She held a large sheet of paper or cardboard in her hand and seemed to be working at or looking at a drawing. She was no longer in the bloom of youth but looked most attractive. She wore a summer dress with a long bodice and a very full, apparently short skirt, which was extremely unusual. She had a pale green fichu or kerchief draped around her shoulders, and a large white hat covered her fair hair.

At the end of the terraces was a second house. As the two women drew near, a door suddenly flew open and slammed shut again. A young man with the demeanor of a servant, but not wearing livery, came out. As the two Englishwomen thought they had trespassed on private property, they followed the man toward the Petit Trianon. Quite unexpectedly, from one moment to the next, they found themselves in the middle of a crowd--apparently a wedding party--all dressed in the fashions of 1901.

This account is a classic example of what is known as the time slip phenomenon. Simply defined, a time slip is an event where a persona is momentarily, and involuntarily, outside of the normal flow of time. They appear to have traveled either forward, or backwards, in time. Time slips stories have interested me for years. Although, I haven’t quite made up my mind as to what might be causing these events to occur. There seems to be some evidence that time may not be as linear as we perceive it. Is it possible that we can accidently travel through time? The following cases seem to make that suggestion.

Sir Victor Goddard’s Flight

On the Uk Paranormal Events forum page, member Sir JGP relates the following tale involving RAF Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard:

in 1935 Sir Victor Goddard who at the time was a Wing Commander in the British Air Force was flying back to Andover, England from Edinburgh, Scotland, he decided to fly over an abandoned airfield at Drem which is not to far from Edinburgh. The old disused airfield looked battered, its runways were overgrown with foliage, the hangers were all falling down and once where planes stood ready for action was now a grazing area for cows.

Having flown over the old airbase Goddard continued on his way back to Andover, however not long into the continued flight he encountered a strange storm, he reported later that there were high winds and that the storm had strange brown-yellow clouds, the storm took him by surprise and he was unable avoid flying into the storm, he lost control of his plane which started to spiral towards the ground.

Goddard managed to get the plane under control narrowly avoiding a crash, Once he got his bearings again he realised that they were heading back the way they had come and towards the Drem airfield again, as he approached the old airfield the storm suddenly vanished and Goddard's plane emerged into brilliant sunshine.

This time as they flew over the airfield, he noticed how different it looked, the hangers that moments before had been falling down now looked brand new, there were four planes parked on the ground, three of which he recognised as biplanes but the fourth was a monoplane, in 1935 the RAF had not yet acquired a monoplane, the planes were all painted in an unfamiliar yellow, the runways were clear of foliage and he noticed mechanics dressed in blue overalls walking around, He thought it strange that none of the people on the ground appeared to notice him flying over.

Conscious of his fuel level he set course back to Andover, but once again encountered the strange storm this time though he was aware he was approaching it and was ready for it, he made it through the storm

without losing control of the aircraft and made his way safely back to Andover.

The intriguing epilogue to this tale is that it wasn’t until 1939, some 4 yrs after the incident, that the RAF painted their planes yellow, started using the monoplane of the type that Goddard had seen, and the mechanics had their uniforms switched to blue.

The cafe that wasn’t there

Blogger Naomi at the Time Slips Account blog recounts another interesting, almost classic, time slip tale of a woman who visited an antique looking coffee shop. Wishing to bring her husband to this coffee shop on their next trip into town, she discovered it had been closed for years. From the blog:

On the morning of 18th June 1968, and elderly lady, Mrs Charlotte Warburton, went shopping with her husband in the town. They decided to go their separate ways for a while and to meet up later. That morning, unable for find a particular brand of coffee from her usual grocer she went into a supermarket in Calverley Road. As she entered the shop she saw a small café through an entrance in the left-hand wall. She had never before realised that there was a café there. It was rather old-fashioned with wood panelled walls. There were no windows and the room was lit by a number of electric bulbs with frosted shades

There was at the time, she thought, nothing especially odd about the scene. 'Two woman in rather long dresses were sitting at one table and about half a dozen men, all in dark lounge suits, were sitting at the other tables further back in the room,' she said. 'All the people seemed to be drinking coffee and chatting ... a normal sight for a country town at eleven o'clock in the morning.'

When they came to Tunbridge Wells on their next shopping expedition Mrs Warburton decided to take her husband to the café. Or rather, she hoped to take his [sic] there. But, of course, they never did find the place though they searched the street up and down. No, they were told in the supermarket, there was no café there. She must be in the wrong building. It was then that they learned about the Kosmos Kinema which had stood on the site of the supermarket.

They were directed to the Tunbridge Wells Constitutional Club, where the steward told them that at one time the Constitutional Club had owned the premises adjoining the Kosmos, which was now incorporated into the supermarket.

The club had had an assembly room in those days and to the rear a small bar with tables for refreshments. Mrs Warburton's description tallied exactly with the club's old refreshment room.

The bar, the cinema and the assembly room had all vanished years ago, Mrs Warburton was told.

This kind of scenario is a classic example of a time slip. It even has the return visit to the location which is no longer there. It’s possible that the woman had simply gone back to the wrong cafe, that perhaps the one she visited still existed on another street. Still, her description did seem to match exactly with the refreshment room which had not existed for years.

Highway to the Past

The following story comes by way of Stephen Wagner at paranormal.about.com. He relates an account of two gentlemen who were making their way on Highway 167. Here is their story:

In October, 1969, a man identified only as L.C. and his business associate, Charlie, were driving north from Abbeville, Louisiana toward Lafayette on Highway 167. As they were driving along the nearly empty road, they began to overtake what appeared to be an antique car traveling very slowly. The two men were impressed by the mint condition of the nearly 30-year-old car - it looked virtually new - and puzzled by its bright orange license plate on which was stamped only "1940."

They figured, however, that the car had been part of some antique auto show. As they passed the slow-moving vehicle, they slowed their car to get a good look at the old model. The driver of the old car was a young woman dressed in vintage 1940s clothing, and her passenger was a small child likewise dressed. The woman seemed panicked and confused. L.C. asked if she needed help and, through her rolled up window, indicated "yes."

L.C. motioned for her to pull off to the side of the road. The businessmen pulled ahead of the old car and turned onto the shoulder of the road. When they got out... the old car had vanished without a trace. There were no turnoffs or anywhere else the vehicle could have gone. Moments later, another car pulled up to the businessmen and, quite puzzled, said he had seen their car pull off to the side... and the old car simply vanish into thin air.

In this case it sounds more like the driver from the 1940’s had the time slip and had found herself temporarily in the future.

Conclusions

Time slips are fascinating pieces of paranormal literature. They seem to suggest that time may not exist in quite the way we perceive it. By what mechanism are these people slipping through time? In Goddard’s case, there is mention of a “strange storm”, but the others make no mention of anything out of the ordinary. Except for the experience itself. I’m left with so many questions after reading accounts like those listed above.

But there’s one which sticks out in my mind the most. Are their reciprocal time slip accounts? For instance in the case of the woman driving with the young child on Highway 167, did she later go home and tell her husband about the two men in a strange looking vehicle she saw? Or with the Englishwomen at Versailles. Are there reports from the time they were supposed to have visited of people seeing strange-garbed women speaking english?

I’m interested to hear what you readers have to say. Be sure to comment below and tell me your thoughts!

Sources and additional readings:

If you wish to read more accounts of time slips, I recommend you check out the following sites.

Inadvertent Time Travelers

Time Travelers

Bizarre Time Slip Cases

Time Slip Accounts Blog

Haunted Dolls

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 12:19:00 +0000

Few things in the world of the paranormal creep me out more than haunted dolls. Granted, giant killer rabbits are actually my number one fear, but haunted dolls are a close second. Maybe it’s their lifeless eyes. Perhaps it’s their creepy little hands. Whatever it is, whenever I read stories of haunted dolls I get the Heebie-jeebies. So I thought I would share my anxiety with you guys as we explore some of the more famous, or notorious, cases of haunted dolls. Perhaps this will be a cathartic experience for me? At the very least, it’s a chance to share some creepy stories. I leave it to you to decide the validity of these accounts as always.

Robert the Doll

Any discussion of haunted dolls is almost required to mention the most famous example in the United States; Robert the Doll. In the late 19th century, a wealthy family, surnamed Otto, moved with their children to Key West Florida. Their youngest child, named Robert Eugene Otto, was born in 1900. He was better known by his nickname, ‘Gene’. Gene serves as the focus of our tale. The story goes that this family had many servants who looked after the house and the children. Mr. and Mrs. Otto were said to have been abusive towards the servants, particularly a Bahamian girl who was alleged to practice all manner of dark arts including Voodoo. For Gene’s 6th birthday, this Bahamian girl is said to have hand-made the doll pictured above and given it as a gift. After she placed a curse upon the doll as retribution for his parents mistreatment of her. Gene dubbed the doll “Robert” and began carrying the doll around with him wherever he went.

It was said that Gene would often be found talking with Robert. Far stranger than this, his parents were supposed to have heard Gene’s voice and another slightly different voice answering. This was believed to have been Gene playing pretend. Or was it? Not long after receiving the doll, Gene began waking up in the middle of the night, screaming in fright. His parents would rush into Gene’s room in order to check on their son. They would generally discover all of the furniture in his room had been turned over and the room was in disarray. Robert the Doll was said to have been at the foot of Gene’s bed, sitting upright. The parents naturally accused Gene of messing up his room, Gene maintained his innocence. He claimed that it was Robert the Doll who was making a mess of the bedroom.

This would became a pattern throughout Gene’s childhood. Whenever something bad was done around the house, Robert was to blame. As Gene grew, his relationship with Robert never changed. When his parents passed away, Gene was left his childhood home in Key West. Gene moved back into this house with his wife Annette. By this time, or perhaps a bit before, Gene had become known locally as an artist. In reality both he and his wife were involved in the Key West art movement; he as an artist/painter and her as a jazz musician.

Even as an adult, Gene was said to keep Robert around as a constant companion, much to the consternation of his wife. Gene was also said work alone on his paintings with Robert as his sole companion. It’s not hard to imagine that the relationship between Gene and Robert was a source of conflict between Gene and Annette. Annette reportedly felt uneasy around Robert. Really, who could blame her?

Eventually Annette would have enough of Robert. She put her foot down, Robert was to be resigned to the attic, in his own “room”. They lived this way for a time. After a number of years, Gene began to complain saying that Robert was mad. Robert didn’t like being in the attic, Gene would tell Annette. He should have his own room. The guest room overlooking the street was the perfect place.

It was in this room where Robert would come to rest for the remainder of Gene’s life. As time wore on, Annette and Gene’s marriage slowly began to unravel. Gene would scream and shout at his wife. At the end of these episodes, Gene would apologize and blame the behavior on Robert. By the 1970’s Gene became ill and locked himself away with Robert in Robert’s “room”. Gene finally passed away in 1972, with Robert by his side. Annette sold the house and left not too long after Gene’s death. She left Robert behind and never looked back.

A few years later, a new family moved into the house. After they were there for only a few weeks, the stumbled across Robert. Robert had apparently been “buried” beneath a number of boxes in the basement. The couple who moved into this home had a little girl who fell in love with Robert immediately. She soon added him to her large doll collection and all seemed well. Until, much like Gene so many years before her, she started waking up screaming in the middle of the night. The girl told her parents that she had seen Robert running around her bedroom and that it was trying to harm her. The family eventually got rid of Robert the Doll by donating him to a local museum where he resides to this day.

A blogger by the name of Timothy Clax did a great write-up of this case. Clax has the following to say about Robert’s current residence, the Martello Museum:

Robert is still at the museum, in his little sailor suit, holding a little stuffed lion that he, appears to be attached too. Employees always remember to introduce new recruits of the museum to Robert. Some visitors laugh at the stupidity of being afraid of a stupid doll, but many change their mind....when they see Robert's angry look staring back at them.

Others try to take pictures of Robert in his case, and there cameras will not turn on. They replace the batteries thinking that was the solution, but the new batteries are not working either! When they leave the museum, there cameras turn on and the batteries fully charged.

One male visitor, who didn't believe the curse was true, videotaped his entire day at the museum. When they got to the area were Robert was, the sound on the camera turned off and couldn't be turned back on! He turned around to talk to an employee close by, and the sound on the camera was turned up all the way. Blaring in his ears.

There are a number of websites devoted to this case. If you’re feeling brave enough, you can even spend the night with Robert. I’ll personally be sitting out on that one. What are we to make of this tale? I honestly can say. The psych student in me thinks that perhaps it was Gene who had the issues rather than did Robert the Doll. It is interesting that the little girl would report the same kind of strange behavior from Robert that Gene had done. Assuming she had never heard the stories I have to wonder how she would have come up with similar stories.

Spirited Doll Julia

From the website:

Very active lady, In her 40's. Fond of classical music and singing. Very laid back. Would suit a variety of homes as is very adaptable and friendly.

Julia could be yours for the low, low price of £55.00. If you’re in the market for a wider variety of paranormal dolls, AJ’s Haunted Doll Shop is your destination. Everything from haunted clown dolls to spirit children can be yours, for a reasonable price of course. It’s a bit of an understatement to say that I’m skeptical of these items and their validity. Of course, if I ever have the disposable income I’ll certainly try to pick one of these up.

Haunted dolls, while being super creepy and keeping me up at night, exist in that fringe part of the paranormal for me. I’m not entirely sure what to make of these stories. With Robert the Doll it would be easy to explain that as a combination of a child with an overactive imagination and an obsessive / anti-social personality disorder. Of course, I never meet Gene so all I can do is go based off of the accounts of his actions in childhood and later in adulthood.

Annabelle on the other hand is a bit of a different beast. If we assume that Donna, Angie, and Lou are telling the truth about the activity which they experienced, it’s a lot harder to chalk up handwritten messages as being indicative of an “overactive imagination”.

At the end of the day all I can do is keep an open-mind about these kinds of stories. Haunted dolls will probably always creep me out. Yet they also fascinate me. Who knows? Maybe one of these days I’ll break down and buy one of my very own.

The Abduction of Pier Fortunato Zanfretta

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 12:23:00 +0000

The alien abduction phenomena is a tricky, tricky, thing. There are a variety of different proposed explanations for alien abductions. Many feel that they are completely fabricated events within the person's subconscious. Others are convinced that abductions represent a systematic biological program which is being performed by extraterrestrials in order to produce a race of alien-human hybrids. Some believed that these experiences stem from sleep paralysis. Still others see it is as some kind of demonic activity meant to deceive and lead people from the path of righteousness. I haven’t decided where I land on the topic yet.

Today I wish to take a look at an interesting abduction case which isn’t discussed too often. As an added bonus, at least in my mind, it doesn’t involve those pesky Greys. On the night of December 6, 1978 security guard Pier Fortunato Zanfretta was out patrolling his route around Torriglia, a village near Genoa, Italy. An Italian journalist named Rino di Stefano, who has done an extensive amount of research into the case firsthand, tells the following version of events which befell Zanfretta that fateful night:

As Zanfretta approached a client's uninhabited country-house (called "Our Home" by the owner, Dr. Ettore Righi), in the area of Marzano, his patrol car, a Fiat 126, mysteriously stopped dead. The car engine, lights and radio all failed seemingly for no reason. At the same moment he saw four strange lights moving about in the garden of the house and stepped outside of his car to investigate with gun and flashlight in hand.At first he thought that burglars were behind the house. So he walked through the open gate and crept along a wall in an attempt to surprise them. Feeling himself touched from behind, the security guard whirled around and saw something that filled him with terror: only inches away stood what he called: "An enormous green, ugly and frightful creature, with undulating skin, no less than ten feet tall". When he directed the beam of his flashlight on the being's face, he was so frightened that he dropped it, but quickly it up again and run away. While running, he became aware of a large and very bright light behind him. Turning around, he saw a huge, flat triangular form which was blinding in its brilliance.

At this point, I have to commend Zanfretta for keeping his senses about him and getting the hell out of the area. I’d like to think I would maybe stick around and check the situation out some more. Of course I’ve never come face to face with a 10ft tall anything. So who knows how I would actually react. Getting back to the account, Stefano continues:

Zanfretta shielded himself from the light with his arm. This thing which he assured was a flying saucer, ascended from the back of the house. It was bigger than the house itself, and produced a hissing sound. Later, Zanfretta said that he felt an intense heat. He made it back to his car and tried to call his security company's operations center in Genoa. It was 12:15 A.M. Carlo Toccalino, the radio operator, has testified that Zanfretta was speaking in an excited and disconnected way. He kept saying: "My God, are they ugly!". The operator then asked if "they" were human and if they were assaulting him. The answer was: "No, they aren't men, they aren't men". At that point, the communication were abruptly broken off

The radio operator called the chief of the security force and two other security guards were sent out to look for Zanfretta. Arriving at 1:15 am the two guards found Zanfretta lying on the ground apparently frightened and near hysterical. Stefano says:

When he saw them, he jumped up, gun and flashlight at the ready. Eyes bulging, Zanfretta didn't seem to recognize them, nor to understand when they told him to lower his weapon. The other patrolmen rushed and disarmed him. To their surprise, his clothes felt warm even though the December night air was quite cold.

The Italian police were said to have launched an investigation almost immediately following these events. During their investigation, they found that nearly 52 people admitting to seeing strange lights in the vicinity of Zanfretta’s encounter at around the same time it was alleged to have occurred. Stefano tells us the following in regards to the investigation:

Antonio Nucchi, the commandant of the Torriglia station, has stated that he was every confidence in the testimony given by Zanfretta. In fact, he has known the security guard for many years and, when I asked him what he thought about him, he answered: "I can state with certainty that he is a clear thinking man with no strange fantasies in his head. When we went to investigate the scene the next day, he almost didn't want to come, he was so scared. Only something exceptional could have frightened him so."

Per Stefano’s insistence, Zanfretta agreed to undergo hypnosis. According to an Above Top Secret thread:

Zanfretta agreed to be hypnotized by Dr. Mauro Moretti, a psychotherapist and member of the Italian Association of Medical Hypnosis, in Genoa on December 23. During that occasion Zanfretta said that he was abducted by "monsters about 10 feet tall, with hairy green skin, yellow triangular eyes and red veins across the forehead" who brought him to a hot, luminous place where they interrogated and examined him.

During the same session, Zanfretta also indicated that the creatures came from the "third galaxy" and that "they want to talk with us and that they will soon return in larger numbers." The aliens did not speak Italian to the guard, but used a "luminous device" to translate what they were saying.

To my surprise, Zanfretta was back to work only a few weeks after the event. I have to admit, I would probably use this encounter as an excuse for a vacation, but “to each his own” I suppose. Zanfretta may have later regretted this decision to return to work as these creatures from the “third galaxy” were not evidently not finished with him yet. According to Stefano:

At 11:45 PM on that night [December 23rd], Zanfretta was at work as usual, driving a Fiat 127 inside the Bargagli tunnel, near the Scoffera Pass. Suddenly he lost control of the car. On the radio, he reported that the Fiat turned on its own and came out of the tunnel. Terrified, Zanfretta tried to work the brakes and steering wheel, but the car continued on its own along the steep road uphill.

Speaking with the radio operator, the guard said that he was having difficulty with the patrol car, and couldn't see well because of the very thick fog. After going for about a mile, the car finally come to an abrupt stop, throwing Zanfretta's head against the steering wheel. He called the radio operator and this time, in a very controlled voice, said: "The car has stopped. I saw a bright light. Now I am getting out." Zanfretta and his car were found at 1:10 AM by other guards.

The first to see Zanfretta was sergeant Emanuele Travenzoli. Zanfretta was in a field near the road. His clothes were warm and dry, and so was his head, despite the rain. The man was very scared, he was shaking and crying. "They say I must leave with them. What about my children? I don't want to, I don't want to...". Again the Carabinieri were called.

During their investigation they found that, though the car had been in the cold and rain for a long time, the roof of the Fiat was as hot as if it had spent an entire day in the sun. The interior of the car was also said to be as hot as an oven.

All around the car were disproportionately large footprints. As measured by the Carabinieri, the tracks proved were 20 inches long by 8 inches wide, with a distinct empty spot between sole and heel.

In addition, the Carabinieri found that Zanfretta's gun, a Smith & Wesson 38 Special, had been fired five times. But the guard couldn't recall at whom he had fired the weapon.

Zanfretta would go on to have many other abductions and encounters with various “extraterrestrial” denizens, far too many to name here. Instead I invite those curious to learn more to check out the links below. Zanfretta seemed to not be too bothered by the actual encounters themselves, frightening as they may have been. Instead the majority of stress and negativity Zanfretta received was from earthly sources. After Zanfretta’s story got out, he received constant harassment via telephone. People calling him crazy or phony. However Zanfretta always maintained that the events he recalled were real and had truly happened to him.

What are we to make of Zanfretta’s account? According to all who knew him, he was a reliable, stand up guy. Co-workers described him as honest and most seemed to believe that something strange happened to him, if not necessarily an abduction. He never seemed to have profited from these experiences, although he did appear on television and Stefano would eventually write a book detailing Zanfretta’s reports. I’m reserving my judgement on this case for now. I will say that I do believe Zanfretta had a genuine experience. What that experience involved remains a mystery.

Additional Reading:

ATS Thread

UFO Research Network

Rino di Stefano’s site

The Valensole Incident

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 13:14:00 +0000

Stories of humanoid encounters are easily a guilty pleasure of mine. I have written on a number of occasions on this blog about the variety of strange tales of human interactions with non-human, apparently “extraterrestrial” creatures. As I was flipping back through the various bookmarks I’ve made over the years, I came across a particular incident which I wasn’t familiar with and don’t remember seeing it being discussed very often. I thought I’d take a moment today and share with you the story of the Valensole Incident.

Early on the morning of July 1, 1965 at around 5:45 A.M., farmer Maurice Masse was smoking a cigarette before he began working outside his home which is located near the French village of Valensole. As Masse was smoking his cigarette he heard a strange, whistling sound coming from overhead. Masse was apparently standing beside the ruins of a tall wall located on his fields, next to a vineyard, and had to step around the wall in order to find the source of the noise. Lon Strickler, at phantomsandmonsters.com tells us a version of the events which came next:

At the time, he was positioned next to a 7-foot-tall rubble pile at the edge of a vineyard, so he had to step out from around this to view the source of the sound. It was then that he saw something shaped rather like a rugby ball and about the size of a Dauphine automobile, resting on four legs some 200 feet away in his lavender field. Close to the curious looking object were two figures resembling “boys of about eight years.”

Masse was apparently more curious than frightened by this whole encounter and began to make his approach towards the entities. As he came near the creatures Masse could see they were hard at work collecting lavender from his lavender fields. When he got to about 15 or 20 ft away the creatures apparently noticed Masse and immediately stood up from their “work”. Masse described the entities as such:

less than 4 feet tall, as dressed in gray-green overalls with smooth, bald, pumpkinlike heads, large slanted eyes, and with little holes for their mouths. They made grunting sounds between them, although their mouths did not change appearance, and Masse was not sure where on their bodies the noise was coming from. (source)

Apparently upset or annoyed by the interruption to their flower picking, one of the creatures raised up a long, thin, pencil-like object and pointed it at Masse. This brings to mind the countless similar reports that Jacques Vallee discussed of entities waving pencil-like wands at witnesses in order to paralyze them. Here to, Masse found himself completely stricken and unable to move. At this point, the creatures entered their craft and flew away into the morning sky. One can infer that they were “frightened” by Masse’s interruption of their flower picking and had to flee the scene immediately. Personally this whole thing reeks of the “staged event” vibe. This idea was speculated on by researchers like the late Mac Tonnies, in his writings and in his posthumously published work, The Cryptoterrestrials.

Once Masse found himself able to move again, he went to the spot where the craft had landed. The landing spot had impressions in the ground from the craft and some kind of material which allegedly hardened into something like concrete days later. It was said that nothing would grow in the spot for some time. Many researchers, including Jacques Vallee, conducted interviews and investigated this case. They all came to the same conclusion; that the witness was reliable and was reporting what he believed to be a real event. An interesting little note to end this tale on is that Masse would later report to investigators that he had had some kind of communication with the entities, though he would never reveal the details of this communication. Strickler notes that:

Though he hinted that there had been some sort of communication between himself and the beings, he never revealed the particulars to investigators. He told Vallee that one was best off not sharing such encounters with anyone, even family. “One always says too much,” he added.

What are we to make of this incident? Assuming that the witness is telling the truth, and I see no reason to doubt him, why would these creatures go through so much hassle to obtain lavender? Is there more to the flower than we know? Somehow I doubt it. In my mind, this incident seems to lend credence to the idea that someone is staging these events in order to perpetuate a meme. Of course, that’s only how I feel about the case today. Who knows what tomorrow might bring? I’d love to hear your opinions on this case. Was it an expedition from some distant planet to gain specimens? Did Masse have a weird hallucination? Let me know in the comments below!

Mystery of The Black Stick Men

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 09:47:00 +0000

I consider myself to be a fairly skeptical guy. Granted, I tend to take most paranormal encounter stories at face value.I generally believe that people have had an experience which is meaningful to them, whether that included a paranormal aspect is up for debate in my mind, but for the person the encounter was most certainly real. As such, I very rarely come out strongly on the side of paranormal phenomena being imagined or in some sense not “real”. I’m finding it hard to keep my open-mindedness about today’s relatively recent phenomenon which we are going to discuss. The Black Stick Men are paranormal creatures which, not entirely unlike the Black Eyed Kids, seem to have been born on the internet.

The origin or at least the modern fascination with this phenomenon seems to stem from a 2009 Listverse article entitled “Top 10 Modern Paranormal Phenomena”. All the usual suspects of the paranormal world make an appearance on this list; chupacabras, dog-headed men, shadow people, etc. Among the more normal, paranormal, menagerie the author snuck in a strange report of something he called “Black Stick Men”. From the site:

The black stick man is another entity encountered in modern times. Not to be confused with the shadow man, incredibly he is even stranger. Stick men are supposed to look like totally black, thin, stick figure drawings, such as teachers would make in kindergarten. They have been reported as between average height to impossibly tall. Their heads are just a black circle with no facial features being discernible. They are totally two dimensional, without any depth.

Usually they’ve been sighted walking along roads at night, or at transitional times such as twilight or just before dawn. Bizarrely, some have reported them wearing what appears to be a top hat.

Their walk is described as a weird “lolloping” gait. They are surprised when actually seen, and have followed unfortunate witnesses on occasion. Their pace remains leisurely as they approach. Obviously to be pursued by such an otherworldly creature would be anything but pleasant, and those who have encountered them have been understandably terrified. So far however, apart from being bizarrely frightening, they have done no physical harm, and ultimately just disappear.

Attempting to wrap my head around this “phenomena” is a whole lot harder than most of the paranormal creatures I’ve discussed here at Forteania in the past. Regardless of how bizarre the Black Stick Men might be, it doesn’t seem to stop people from having encounters with them. Author Martin J Clemens, at his Paranormal People Online site, has a great write up about this phenomenon which I recommend checking out. In his post, he points out that the comments section of the original Listverse article has a few examples of encounters with Black Stick Men. Clemens points readers to the following comment:

“In 1982, when I was a student nurse at Warley Hospital, Brentwood in Essex, England, I encountered a ‘stick person’ in the grounds of the Hospital as I was walking home one night. It lopped across the roadway having been, seemingly, pressed up against a wall. It stopped when it saw me and raised it’s arms in fright and quickly walked off into the undergrowth. It was very tall with very thin, extremely long arms and legs and a very small oval head. Totally black and no obvious clothing. I saw no face even though it emerged very near a street lamp and so was well illuminated. I was terrified and to this day, no-one believes me…”

Everyone’s favorite website AboveTopSecret, has a thread dealing with this topic. From the thread I was led to a forum posting on the Fortean Times message boards from 2003, predating the 2009 listverse article, where the anonymous poster reports a Black Stick Man encounter which was supposed to have occurred back in 1978. From the forums:

Simon

“The following account is slightly shortened but otherwise unchanged and comes from my diary record for Tuesday, 31st October 1978. Only the names have been changed. We were all aged between 15 and 17 at the time. The Loose Valley referred to is near Maidstone in Kent. My diary record also indicates that there was a new moon on that night.

"I will record a rather unpleasant experience which took place tonight. A group of about ten of us were sitting chatting in the Loose Valley at about midnight. After about 45 minutes Will leapt to his feet slapping his head saying there was a bee in his hair; he looked absolutely terrified. Both Dorothy and I saw the outline of a tall, thin figure wearing a hat dancing behind him. Will said later it was if a terrifically loud buzzing was coming-up through the top of his head. However only Rachel heard any buzzing.

We partially satisfied ourselves that it must have been a bees' nest, and so we moved a little distance away. As we moved away Dorothy and I saw a ring outlined in the grass which enclosed where we had been sitting. Eventually it started raining so we headed for Rachel's house. As we left I turned around and saw the same thin black figure walk across the opening between the trees to where we had been sitting.”

Here is another account from the same Fortean Times forum thread. Another anonymous poster recounts their experience with the Black Stick Men:

This is my first post. I wanted to share an experience that happened to me some years ago, for which I have no explanation but still to this day I'd like to see if anyone out there has any ideas to contribute. The fact that I stumbled across these accounts on the FT website of black silhouette figures confirms a lot to me, namely that myself and a friend are not alone in something we experienced. Please read on!

I was walking from a friend's house to my own, in the early hours of the morning after a night of general chat while I was at university here in London, UK – specifically, a relatively leafy suburb called Brockley in South-east London. I had drunk only everyday tea or soft drinks all night and had consumed no drugs whatsoever. I'd simply gone without sleep. The time was around 6am and dawn was literally breaking when a friend and I found ourselves walking down my street to where my apartment was located, when we saw a figure walking up the street towards us. The word we coined later to describe its movement was 'lolloping' - a kind of up-down bouncy walk. It took a few seconds for the two of us to realise this was no human being. I asked my friend: "See that man?" "Yes," was the reply. "It's not a man, though, is it?" I found myself asking. "No,' said my friend, sounding scared. "It isn't."

The creature was entirely black and like a cardboard cut-out, flat and one-dimensional. It had no features at all, and it had arms that hung down to its knees. It seemed to be ignoring us, then it seemed to realise we could see it and it began to 'lollop' faster towards us.

We ran to my front door and hid in the hallway as quiet and unmoving as possible when we saw the thing - we felt it was male - approach the front door and appear to look through the glass from the way its head moved up and down and around. It then turned away.

We didn't sleep for some time after that, discussing what we saw. It was shaped like many descriptions of 'greys' but both myself and my friend came away with the impression that what we saw was either of this world or from another parallel dimension. To all intents and purposes, it appeared to be sauntering along the road enjoying the walk before it became shocked to see us staring at it in horror. We instinctively felt this was not a creature to try and communicate with, this was not something that it was good to be near. We might have been wrong but neither myself nor my friend would ever like to see this creature or others like it again, though I'd love to get some ideas on what it was. We felt that if this creature had somehow gotten hold of us, we would not be around today to tell the tale to anyone who might believe us or at least give the story open-minded consideration.

The Fortean Times thread is full of other accounts of encounters with these mysterious entities. I highly suggest you check it out for some more creepy tales of Black Stick Men. Just what in the world are these things? Even considering the things I’ve discussed on this blog in the past, these entities seem beyond the realm of the possible. I’m not discounting them, after all reality is far stranger than fiction at times. I can’t even begin to think what these creatures may actually be. Figments of the imagination of the witnesses? Sure, may be in some cases.

A part of me can’t help but be suspicious of their modern appearance. True, most of the stories you’ll read will be from the 60’s or 70’s. Yet people only began to relate these strange encounters recently. Could this be because the events were simply too bizarre for the people to recount. Fearing that they would be at best dismissed or at worst ridiculed? I can certainly see how that might be the case. I can’t help shake the suspicion that these entities might be a modern myth in the making, not entirely unlike our friend the Black Eyed Kids. As always, I’d love to know what you all think. Feel free to post your opinions in the comment section below.

The Elusive Shadow People

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 12:17:00 +0000

The idea that someone, or something, has invaded the sanctity of your house or bedroom is probably the epitome of nightmare fuel. Thankfully I’ve never had this kind of experience. Coincidentally (or maybe not) many denizens of the paranormal have a penchant for visiting people within their bedrooms. Today however I wish to focus your attention today to The Shadow People. Tracking down the origins of these entities is almost as elusive as sightings of them are. The first time I heard them mentioned was on one of a number of Ghost Hunting websites I used to frequent back in the mid to late 90’s, the URLs to which I’ve long since misplaced. At the time they were often described as a kind of haunting that people would experience. And many seemed to be described as emanating evil, if not outright evil in action or deed.

Accounts from Legend

It should come as no surprise that some cultures around the world have reported the same, or similar, creatures within their myths or worldviews. Just one example is of the Choctaw People, a Native American tribe which was originally located in the states of Mississippi, ALabama, and Louisiana, had a few different shadow-like creatures. Nalusa Falaya, which translates roughly to long black being, is a man shaped being which would frighten hunters and prefered to slither on it’s stomach like a snake in some accounts. Additionally, Choctaw believed that every person had both a shilombish (outside shadow) and a shilup (the inside shadow). Upon death, the shilup is said to go to the land of the ghosts. The shilombish, is believed to hang around the earth after the passing of the deceased person. This particular figure seems to be more closely related to our modern concept of The Shadow People.

Examples of Encounters

Here are just a few of the more standard accounts of persons who have claimed to have had encounters with The Shadow People. The following stories come from Shadowpeople.org:

Melissa - I was asleep only to immediately wake up and look to the corner of my bedroom, there I saw the figure of a tall man standing and looking at me, I was scared beyond belief, to make things worse I knew he wasn’t human as not only could I make out his shadowy figure in the dark, but I could also see through him, I threw the covers over my head and screamed out in horror until my father ran in, I cried for him to turn on the lights.

Jonas - one night I woke up late and was just staring at the ceiling of the apartment when I began to feel that something just didn't feel right, or like I was being watched. I scanned the room and to my utter shock there stood a Shadow Hat Man at the end of my bed on the left hand side. I have never been so terrified in my entire life. I seriously thought I was going to die of fear. This black mass was a man and he was wearing a wide brim hat and what looked like a cloak of some sort. I couldn't move or speak because I was totally numb with fear.

unnamed person - Not being able to fall asleep, I opened my eyes and looked towards my open bedroom door. There stood a dark figure, about six feet tall with the build of an average sized man. The shadow seemed to be wearing a pea coat or a trench coat. The silhouette was completely featureless in all other respects. It did not move. It just stood there in the doorway, completely silent. I assumed my eyes were playing tricks on me so I felt rather silly when I called out, "Who's there?" and "Hello?" When I got no response, my confusion turned into the most intense and unexplainable fear that I have ever experienced.

The above encounters are only a few of the dozens you can easily find all over the internet. A great place to read similar encounters is Jason Offutt’s blog, From The Shadows.

Variety of Types

One of the interesting aspects of The Shadow People is the variety of types, shapes, and forms with which they are reported. In his 2009 book Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us, author and journalist Jason Offutt details roughly eight different kinds of Shadow People that had been reported to him by various experiencers. Here are just a few of them:

The Hat Man

Maybe one of the creepier shadow people, at least in my opinion. Why in the world is it wearing a hat?

Hooded Figure

Somehow a figure in a hood just doesn’t instil the same fear or creepy-factor in me as one with a hat does. Maybe I’m just desensitized by years of horror movies?

Black Smoke/Mist

Shadow People which are seen in this variety appear to be comprised of their namesake; black smoke or mist. To be fair, I doubt the veracity of the above photo but Google Image search was not kind to my query for "Black Mist Shadow People"

Science has the “answer”!

Modern science has weighed in on the Shadow People and seems to offer a compelling explanation for many, though not all, of the encounters which people have had. It is believed that Sleep Paralysis, accompanied by hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations may account for some of these bedroom visitors. The idea is that during REM sleep, or the state of sleep in which dreams can occur, the body undergoes muscle atonia or a weakening of the muscles. This is so that the body doesn’t act out what is happening in your dreams. In the sleep paralysis state, the REM cycle has been disturbed or interrupted, so that a person is awake but their body is still paralyzed. During this state has been suggested that individuals might experience hypnagogic hallucinations in which they would then see “Shadow People” and really any other kind of nighttime visitor (such as Greys).

The Paranormal Community has an “answer” too! (well, a bunch of them)

Not to be outdone by scientists, the paranormal community has an opinion on what The Shadow People are. However like everything else in this field, if you ask 10 people for their opinion on The Shadow People, you’re going to get 10 different explanations. The usual suspects show up as you might imagine. For more religious-minded folk the Shadow People are clearly demons; they are literally black, usually described as devoid of light, give off “evil vibes”, and show up late at night. For those who spend their time looking up for all the answers, The Shadow People represent a race of ETs who are scoping out the situation and trying to figure us humans out. Ghost hunters see them as kinds of ghosts. Some think they may be time travelers. The list goes on. As with most paranormal things, your phenomenology or “reality tunnel” clearly colors your perceptions of this phenomenon.

Conclusion?

Given that many of the experiences involving The Shadow People do seem to occur in the bedroom, usually after a person has been woken up from sleep, it’s not hard to see why this explanation is so attractive to scientists or anyone else who wishes to ignore “Damned” data. I could certainly see how some of the encounters with The Shadow People might fall under this explanation, I can’t see it accounting for all of the varied experiences. On the other hand, the paranormal explanations for The Shadow People are as varied as the field is. Aliens, Ghosts, Demons, Time Travelers, you name it, likely someone thinks that what The Shadow People are. Personally I don’t know what to make of these experiences. Regardless of their origin, they are certainly “real” to the people who undergo them. Maybe that’s the only important takeaway from all of this. Until I learn anything differently, I’m going to keep an open mind on The Shadow People. And hope I never encounter one myself, especially The Hat Man! Yeesh.

The Enigma of Demonic Possession

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 13:59:00 +0000

Demonic possession is a fascinating topic for me. To be honest, I feel a bit out of my element when it comes to this topic. I’m agnostic about religion much like I am most things in this world. I wasn’t raised in a particularly “religious” household, so I don’t have a very Christian background. And while I fully admit there is “evil” in this world, the concept of “demons” hasn’t really been one I’ve ever put too much stock into. Additionally I’ve never watched The Exorcist (please don’t judge me, I’ve gotten bored every time I tried to watch it). In my defense, however, I have watched most of the other demon possession films, including the amazing Repossessed starring the late Leslie Nielsen and Linda Blair, somewhat loosely “reprising” her role from The Exorcist which, regardless of what IMDB suggests, I remember being a funny movie. Although I was probably seven when I first watched it, so that probably flowers my perceptions a little. Perhaps more than that though, as a psychology major, I find myself torn when it comes to determining the causal agent behind the phenomenon known as demonic possession. Is demonic possession simply a leftover superstitious term for medical illnesses which were not well understood by our ancestors? Are there evil entities which are taking control of people, wreaking havoc in their lives and causing despair and anguish?

I’m not too interested in really old cases as it’s harder to rule out the possibility of mental illness being the root cause of the experience, though you could argue the same thing for modern examples as well I suppose. Instead I wish to review some of the more (in)famous modern cases below. What makes some of these modern cases more compelling to me is the amount of documentation that exists on some of the cases. Photographs, recordings, and, in one case, video footage, has been secured which gives a unique glimpse into the cases which will follow. As always, I will allow you to come to your own conclusions as to what may, or may not, be happening in these experiences.

Anneliese Michel

Probably one of the more famous modern cases is the sad tale of Anneliese Michel. Born on September 21, 1952, Michel was diagnosed with having temporal lobe epilepsy at the age of 16. Michel was a German Catholic who lived in Leiblfing, Bavaria, West Germany. Her family is said to have been very religious and apparently attended Mass at least twice a week. Not having familiarity with Catholicism I can’t say whether that represents a normal amount or an “extreme” amount. Ido think its worth noting her and her families deeply held religious convictions. I believe these beliefs may have played a part in the events which would unfold in her life. Around the time that Michel had gone off to college, in the 70’s, she suffered a third seizure while at a hospital where she was being treated for tuberculosis. The picture gets a little fuzzy here, though an author( whose name I can’t seem to find on the site) wrote an extensive blog post detailing this case which you should certainly check out here, has much more information than I could possibly provide. Instead I wish to give a thumbnail view of the major points.

Upon her third seizure, Michel was treated with medications which seemed to not have an impact on her symptoms. Around this same time, she began to have severe depression. During these episodes of depression, Michel started to become intolerant towards religious items and reported hearing voices which spoke to her and began tormenting her. Doctors prescribed her medicine which would be used in the treatment for Schizophrenia, largely because auditory hallucinations are one of the hallmarks of Schizophrenia.

Michel and her family believed that she was being targeted by demonic forces. The family sought out an exorcism from their local Priest. By all accounts, the Priests and local Bishops were extremely hesitant to perform the ancient ritual. I don’t wish to speculate too much, but it may be that the Priests were unconvinced that Michel was truly exhibiting demonic possession and not simply suffering from a mental illness. After much persistence, in 1975 two Priests finally relented and agreed to perform an exorcism.

For a period of about 10 months, exorcisms were regularly performed on Michel. Her family stopped seeking medical treatment, instead relying solely on the ritual of exorcism to save their daughter. Eventually, Michel would stop eating and drinking, stating that the demons did not want her to. On June 1st 1976 Anneliese Michel died due to malnourishment and emaciation. Both her parents and the priests who performed the exorcism would later be charged with negligent homicide. Her story would eventually be adapted into screenplay of a not so great “horror” movie in 2005 called The Exorcism of Emily Rose. To read more on the case, including the graphic images and disturbing recordings of the exorcisms, be sure to check out The Entire Case History of Anneliese Michel blog post.

Roland Doe

As I said earlier I’ve not seen The Exorcist movie before. Although it would be hard for me to deny the cultural impact the film has had. Fortean Times just released their April issue which is all about Exorcisms and celebrates 40 years of The Exorcist movie. Besides it being a great film (allegedly), the movie probably stands out to many people because it is said to be based on a true story. The name “Roland Doe”, and later changed to “Robbie Mannheim”, are both pseudonyms for an anonymous Maryland boy who was said to have been possessed by demons and was apparently successfully exorcised. Roland’s story begins with the death of an Aunt, when he was around the age of 14 somewhere around 1949 or so. At this time, strange and unexplained phenomenon began occurring around the home. Objects began moving around the house, unusual noises were said to be heard throughout the hose. Honestly, it all sounds a lot like the child may have been experiencing poltergeist phenomena which fits in nicely with both his age and apparent emotional stress level. The family in this case appears to have been quite religious as well, which appears to be a common trait amongst those who are believed to experience demonic possession and subsequently request exorcisms. They turned to their Lutheran pastor, Rev. Luther Miles Schulze. The child had been examined by both medical and psychiatric doctors, according to what the Reverend told a local newspaper, and neither were able to offer an explanation as to what was happening to the child. It was determined that the best course of action would be to have an exorcism performed.

Eventually, Roman Catholic priests would be called in after the Lutheran Exorcism Rite failed to produce any positive results. By the end of it all, exorcisms were performed on the child over 30 times. Various “demonic” manifestations were said to accompany these exorcisms, all of which are recorded in a diary which was kept by the lead priest in the ritual, Father William S. Bowdern. Some of these include objects flying around the room, the bed shaking and lifting off of the floor, and the child making strange sounds with his voice. During the final exorcism, it was reported that the words “evil” and “hell” actually manifested themselves on the childs body. There is a happy ending to this tale, unlike in Michel’s case. After what would be the final exorcism, no more paranormal activity was reported by either the child or his family. Roland had been cured of whatever had been afflicting him. Once again, our unnamed blogger has written up an excellent post about this case as well. I recommend you read The Entire Case History of Robbie Mannheim.

Anna Ecklund

This case takes us back in time a little to the early part of the 20th century. Born in 1882 in the Midwestern United States, Ecklund was (as our pattern suggests) raised as a devout Catholic. Around the age of 12 she began to display the signs of “possession”, which included the usual aversion to religious icons. It also included what’s referred to as “disturbing thoughts about sexual acts”, which seems fairly normal to me for a teenager but I digress. It’s reported that Ecklund had her first exorcism about this time which was performed by Father Theophilus Riesinger. This exorcism was supposed to have been quite effective. However, around the age of 14, Ecklund was “cursed” by her Father ( an account of which I can’t find, but I can’t imagine what the circumstances were behind this event or what it would have done to her mental state). Because of this curse, Ecklund is supposed to have been possessed by a multitude of demons, chief among them Beelzebub.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley tells of this story in her book, The Encyclopedia of Demons & Demonology. It wasn’t until 1928 that Ecklund would be exorcised a final, and apparently successful, time. Why it took until she was 46 before an exorcism was again performed is a mystery to me. During the exorcism many strange feats were supposed to have manifested themselves. Ecklund was said to have levitated and stuck to the wall above the door, at other times her body would become as heavy as lead threatening to break the bed she was in, and she was said to have been able to expose the sins of those who were present around her. After many long days and nights, Father Theophilus Riesinger was able to free Ecklund from her demonic possession. If you wish to read more on this case I suggest reading Martha Decker’s write up about the case.

Final thoughts

The above cases are interesting food for thought. They represent only a tiny handful of the countless tales of demonic possession, not only throughout time, but even into the 21st century. Only just a few months ago a huge story of alleged demonic possession was reported by the news of a family in Indiana. I still don’t know what to make of these cases. On the one hand, the ages of some of the victims and the attendant phenomenon sound strikingly like poltergeist activity. That’s not to say that the “demons” could not be manifesting this as a form of trickery or deceit, but it’s an interesting parallel to note. Also, some of the less paranormal aspects of these cases sound a lot like mental illness. Again, I can’t say that the “demonic” influence manifests itself in ways which are similar to mental pathology, but it’s hard to rule out that the person’s may not simply be suffering from mental illnesses. Finally we have the fact that, at least in the cases I cited above, there is a history of devout religious beliefs. Could this be influencing or coloring these events? I’m inclined to suspect that it probably is. I’m extremely interested in hearing what you all think about these cases and demon possession in general. Hit me up in the comments section or drop me an email and let me know your thoughts.

Beast of Gevaudan

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 12:18:00 +0000

One of the first books I purchased from the paranormal field was Brad Steiger’s The Werewolf Book. (Technically I purchased an earlier version, the amazon link there is to the latest edition). Within this fascinating book, is a story which I was reminded of while working on yesterday’s post. Our tale begins in the mountainous region of France, called Gevaudan. Clark, in Unexplained!, tells us the following:

One day in June 1764, in a forest in the Gevaudan, a mountainous region of south-central France, a young woman tending cows looked up to see a hideous beast bearing down on her. The size of a cow or donkey, the creature resembled an enormous wolf. Her dogs fled, but the cattle drove the beast off with their horns.

This is the start of the beast’s reign of terror. Steiger offers readers a description:

The creature was described as a hairy beast that walked upright on two legs. Its face was sworn to be like that of Satan, and its entire body was said to be covered with dark, bristly hair. Those who were fortunate enough to escape the beast’s clutches always mentioned an “evil smell” that emanated from its foul hide.

Unlike many other paranormal creatures, the Beast of Gevaudan seemed to have a taste for human flesh. It slaughtered men, women, and children throughout Gevaudan. Though it did seem to have a predilection for women and children. The people, as Steiger writes, were convinced that they were dealing with a ‘Loup-Garou’ or Werewolf. A somewhat typical encounter with this “Werewolf” is told below by Steiger:

On the Night of January 15, 1765, a blizzard raged in the mountains. When his 15-year-old son did not return from tending sheep, Pierre Chateauneuf lit a torch and went in search of the boy. The horrified father discovered the mutilated body of his son near the bawling flock.

The grieving Chateauneuf carried the body down the slopes to their small farm home in the valley….

It was then, Chateauneuf later told the authorities, that he saw the beast staring at him through a window. The werewolf’s eyes were glassy, like those of a wild animal, and its dark face was covered with hair.

The angry farmer dashed to a wall, pulled down a musket, and fired point-blank at the creature. The black, hairy monster had apparently anticipated the man’s attack, for it dropped down before the musket was discharged. Chateauneuf testified later that as he reloaded the musket and ran outside, he saw the beast running across the snow toward his orchard. It looked like a man running in an animal’s skin.

That the people were dealing with something which seemed not to be a typical wolf seems evident from the accounts. Although even at the time some doubted the stories of “Loup-Garous” and believed that there must be a rational explanation for what was occurring. Eventually village petitions would reach Louis IX at Versailles. The King ordered that soldiers be dispatched to search the mountains of Le Gevaudan. The soldiers came up empty-handed, apparently failing to locate any kind of beast, whether normal or paranormal, which could be responsible for the deaths.

The attacks by the creature increased until it all ended in a rather dramatic, and perhaps difficult to envision, scenario. Steiger reports that a posse of several hundred men had succeeded in finally cornering the beast in some trees near the village of Le Surge d’Auvert. He writes:

Jean Chastel was given credit for the kill. According to Chastel's testimony, he had retired a short distance from his companions to read his prayer book. He happened to glance up from his devotions and saw the beast coming directly toward him, walking erect. Chastel said that he had prepared himself according to certain ancient traditions. His double-barreled musket was loaded with bullets made from a silver chalice that had been blessed by a priest.

The bullet from the first barrel of Chastel's musket struck the monster in the chest. It let out a fierce howl and charged its attacker. Chastel aimed the next shot directly for the monster’s heart. The werewolf dropped dead at his feet, the silver bullet in its heart.

With that final shot the end of the three year long wave of horror caused by the Beast of Gevaudan came to an end. A part of me can’t quite move past the almost “mythic” way in which the creature was killed. The ‘holy’ or ‘devout’ man kills the evil creature with a blessed object. I don’t know, perhaps I’m reading too much into the tale. Regardless if we assume Chastel’s account is correct, he successfully stopped a creature which had been terrorizing Gevaudan for nearly three years. What was this creature? By all reports it certainly sounds like it really was a werewolf. The people of the town were convinced, though there were skeptics of this story. Whether it was supernatural creature or some natural predator, it makes for a very interesting, if tragic, tale.

19th Century Chupacabras

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 12:07:00 +0000

While thumbing through one of my paranormal books the other night, I came across a familiar story. A group of sheep farmers were upset because something was attacking and killing their livestock. The creature was not, however, eating the sheep. According to witnesses, it was biting their jugulars and, apparently, draining them of blood. If this sounds familiar to you, hold your assumptions for just a second. The above the story comes not from Puerto Rico in 1995, instead Charle Fort relates the account in his book Lo! (which I of course read in The Book of the Damned) written in 1931. Fort tells readers:

In the month of May, 1810, something appeared at Ennerdale, near the border of England and Scotland, and killed sheep, not devouring them, sometimes seven or eight of them in a night, but biting into the jugular vein and sucking the blood.

As far back as 1810, something was roaming the countryside, draining livestock of blood. Fort goes on to describe how a large “dog” was killed. At which point the killings ceased. That this is anything more than a convenient explanation seems obvious to Fort. He has already spent much of Lo! showing readers how a satisfying answer to a problem, no matter how much data is ignored, is almost always preferable to a real mystery. He tells of more sheep killings in the same manner:

For about four months, in the year 1874, beginning upon January 8th, a killer was abroad, in Ireland. In Land and Water, March 7, 1874, a correspondent writes that he had heard of depredations by a wolf, in Ireland, where the last native wolf had been killed in the year 1712. According to him, a killer was running wild, in Cavan, slaying as many as 30 sheep in one night. There is another account, in Land and Water, March 28. Here, a correspondent writes that, in Cavan, sheep had been killed in a way that led to the belief that the marauder was not a dog.

This correspondent knew of 42 instances, in three townlands, in which sheep had been similarly killed—throats cut and blood sucked, but no flesh eaten. The footprints were like a dog's, but were long and narrow, and showed traces of strong claws. Then, in the issue of April 11th, of Land and Water, came the news that we have been expecting. The killer had been shot. It had been shot by Archdeacon Magenniss, at Lismoreville, and was only a large dog.

Other towns seemed to have encounters with a same, or similar, creature. This time it was a bit different in that no matter how many “dogs”, who were most assuredly the culprit, were shot it did not stop the killings. Fort tells us:

See the Clare Journal, issues up to April 27th—the shooting of the large dog, and no effect upon the depredations—another dog shot, and the relief of the farmers, who believed that this one was the killer—still another dog shot, and supposed to be the killer—the killing of sheep continuing. The depredations were so great as to be described as "terrible losses for poor people." It is not definitely said that something was killing sheep vampirishly, but that "only a piece was bitten off, and no flesh sufficient for a dog ever eaten."

The scene of the killings shifted.

Cavan Weekly News, April 17—that, near Limerick, more than 100 miles from Cavan, "a wolf or something like it" was killing sheep. The writer says that several persons, alleged to have been bitten by this animal, had been taken to the Ennis Insane Asylum, "laboring under strange symptoms of insanity."

It seems that some of the killings were simultaneous near Cavan and near Limerick. At both places, it was not said that finally any animal, known to be the killer, was shot or identified. If these things that may not be dogs be, their disappearances are as mysterious as their appearances.

The creature’s reign of terror was far from over. By 1905, similar attacks were occurring in England. Fort relates:

There was a marauding animal in England, toward the end of the year 1905. London Daily Mail, Nov. 1, 1905—"the sheep-slaying mystery of Badminton." It is said that, in the neighborhood of Badminton, on the border between Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, sheep had been killed. Sergeant Carter, of the Gloucestershire Police, is quoted—"I have seen two of the carcasses, myself, and can say definitely that it is impossible for it to be the work of a dog. Dogs are not vampires, and do not suck the blood of a sheep, and leave the flesh almost untouched."

It’s not hard to see the similarities between the nature of the attacks on these sheep and the later attacks by the ‘Chupacabra’. Is it possible that this could have been done by the same kind of creature? In some of the cases sighted by Fort, the mysterious phenomena went away without the “resolution” of having killed a dog or wolf. Ending as strangely as it began. This habit of mysterious phenomena starting and stopping suddenly is really par for the course. UFOs are often sighted in “Flaps” or “Waves”, so to is Bigfoot. Perhaps we are dealing with some kind of natural phenomena which is cyclical in nature? This idea is certainly not unique to me and in fact I believe I first read it in Keel’s books.

Could the above reports be of an actual Chupacabra in the 19th century? By all accounts it certainly bears a strong resemblance. As with most of this Fortean/Paranormal stuff, we are left only to wonder and marvel at the interesting accounts left to us.

Charles Fort's X-Men

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 09:51:00 +0000

One of Charles Fort’s books which I haven’t spent a lot of time with in the past is his final one; Wild Talents. In this work, Fort collects reports and accounts of human beings with occult or paranormal gifts or powers. If he had been so inclined, Fort might have collected these individuals together and formed his own ‘School for Gifted Youngsters’. For those not aware, the school is the headquarters and training grounds of Marvel’s X-Men. At this school, Charles Xavier (Professor X) recruits mutants, beings with incredible powers, and teaches them to harness and control their powers so that they can live in harmony with human beings.

Though Professor X and his school may be fictional, Fort documents case after case of people in the real world who exhibit similar kinds of amazing feats. OK, so you don’t have a guy with claws coming out of his hands who also has an amazing regenerative abilities, but you get the idea. I’ve picked out a few to highlight, though I highly suggest you read his book for yourself. In some of the instances cited below, it might be more appropriate to label the perpetrators as “super-villains” rather than “super-heroes” as many of the persons used(abused) their “powers” for more material gains.

First up, Fort talks about a bank which was robbed. In broad daylight. In front of multiple witnesses. By an unseen, or invisible, criminal. The story is as follows;

"A bank in Blackpool was robbed, in broad daylight, on Saturday, in mysterious circumstances"—so says the London Daily Telegraph, Aug. 7, 1926. It was one of the largest establishments in town—the Blackpool branch of the Midland Bank. At noon, Saturday, while the doors were closing, an official of the Corporation Tramways Department went into the building, with a bag, which contained £800, in Treasury notes. In the presence of about twenty-five customers, he placed the bag upon a counter. Then the doorman unlocked the front door for him to go out, and then return with another amount of money, in silver, from a motor van. The bag had vanished from the counter. It was a large, leather bag. Nobody could, without making himself conspicuous, try to conceal it. Nobody wearing a maternity cloak was reported.

In the afternoon, in a side street, near the bank, the bag was found, and was taken to a police station. But the lock on it was peculiar and complicated, and the police could not open it. An official of the Tramways Department was sent for. When the Tramways man arrived with the key, no money was found in the bag. If a bag can vanish from a bank, without passing the doorman, I record no marvel in telling of money that vanished from a bag, though maybe the bag had not been opened.

Fort tells of more burglaries committed by person’s who could neither be seen nor apprehended by the police:

New York Evening Post, March 14, 1928—people in a block of houses, in the Third District of Vienna, terrorized. They were "haunted by a mysterious person," who entered houses, and stole small objects, never taking money, doing these things just to show what he could do. Then, from dusk to dawn, the police formed in a cordon around this block, and at approaches to it stationed police dogs. The disappearances of small objects, of little value, continued.

Two more strange thefts before we move on to other display’s of occult power:

Upon the afternoon of June 18, 1907, occurred one of the most sensational, insolent, contemptible, or magnificent thefts in the annals of crime, as viewed by most Englishmen; or a crime not without a little interest to Americans. On a table, on the lawn back of the grandstand, at Ascot, the Ascot Cup was upon exhibition, 13 inches high, and 6 inches in diameter; 20-carat gold; weight 68 ounces. The cup was guarded by a policeman and by a representative of the makers. The story is told, in the London Times, June 19th. Presumably all around was a crowd, kept at a distance by the policeman, though, according to the standards of the Times, in the year 1907, it was not dignified to go into details much. From what I know of the religion of the Turf, in England, I assume that there was a crowd of devotees, looking worshipfully at this ikon. It wasn't there.

About this time, there were a place and a time and a treasure that were worthy the attention of, or that were a challenge to, any magician. The place was Dublin Castle. Outside, day and night, a policeman and a soldier were on duty. Within a distance of fifty yards were the headquarters of the Dublin metropolitan police; of the Royal Irish Constabulary; the Dublin detective force; the military garrison.

It was at the time of the Irish International Exhibition, at Dublin. Upon the 10th of July, King Edward and Queen Alexandra were to arrive to visit the Exhibition. In a safe in the strong room of the Castle had been kept the jewels that were worn by the Lord Lieutenant, upon State occasions. They were a barbaric pile of bracelets, rings, and other insignia, of a value of $250,000. And of course. They had disappeared about the time of the disappearance of the Ascot Cup: sometime between June firth and July 6th.

Within the Marvel universe there are a number of super-powered persons that have fire as their source of power. So too in reality do we have a few accounts of pyrokinetics. Fort tells us about the following cases:

New Zealand Times, Dec. 9, 1886—copying from the San Francisco Bulletin, about October 14—that Willie Brough, 12 years old, who had caused excitement in the town of Turlock, Madison Co., Cal., by setting things afire, "by his glance," had been expelled from the Turlock school, because of his freaks.

His parents had cast him off, believing him to be possessed by a devil, but a farmer had taken him in, and had sent him to school. "On the first day, there were five fires in the school: one in the center of the ceiling, one in the teacher's desk, one in her wardrobe, and two on the wall. The boy discovered all, and cried from fright. The trustees met and expelled him, that night." For another account, see the New York Herald, Oct. 16, 1886.

Another:

New York Herald, Jan. 6, 1895—fires in the home of Adam Colwell, 84 Guernsey Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn—that, in 20 hours, preceding noon, January 5th, when Colwell's frame house burned down, there had been many fires. Policemen had been sent to investigate. They had seen furniture burst into flames. Policemen and firemen had reported that the fires were of unknown origin. The Fire Marshal said: "It might be thought that the child Rhoda started two of the fires, but she cannot be considered guilty of the others, as she was being questioned, when some of them began. I do not want to be quoted as a believer in the supernatural, but I have no explanation to offer, as to the cause of the fires, or of the throwing around of the furniture."

….

Captain Rhoades, of the Greenpoint Precinct, said: "The people we arrested had nothing to do with the strange fires. The more I look into it, the deeper the mystery. So far I can attribute it to no other cause than a supernatural agency. Why, the fires broke out under the very noses of the men I sent to investigate."

Sergeant Dunn—"There were things that happened before my eyes that I did not believe were possible."

We shall end our tour of Fort’s X-Men with his musings on the ‘poltergeist’ phenomena and how it may actually represent a kind of occult power or a re-imagining of the old stories of “witchcraft”. Fort tells us:

My general expression is against the existence of poltergeists as spirits—but that the doings are the phenomena of undeveloped magicians, mostly youngsters, who have no awareness of their powers as their own—or, in the cases of mischievous, or malicious, persecutions, are more or less consciously directed influences by enemies—or that, in this aspect, "poltergeist disturbances" are witchcraft under a new name.

He then provides us with some accounts which seem to suggest that witchcraft may still be alive and well:

New York newspapers reported three cases, close together, in the year 1927. New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 12, 1927—Fred Koett and his wife compelled to move from their home, near Ellenwood, Kansas. For months this house had been bewitched—pictures turned to the wall—other objects moving about—their pet dog stabbed with a pitchfork, by an invisible.

New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 12, 1927—Frank Decker's barn, near Fredon, N. J., destroyed by fire. For five years there had been unaccountable noises, opening and shutting doors, and pictures on walls swinging back and forth.

Home News (Bronx), Nov. 27, 1927—belief of William Blair, County Tyrone, Ireland, that his cattle were bewitched. He accused a neighbor, Isabella Hazelton, of being a witch—"witch" sued him for slander—£5 and costs.

And lastly:

An elderly woman, Mme. Blerotti, had called upon the Magistrate of the Ste. Marguerite district of Paris, and had told him that, at the risk of being thought a madwoman, she had a complaint to make against somebody unknown. She lived in a flat, in the Rue Montreuil, with her son and her brother. Every time she entered the flat, she was compelled by some unseen force to walk on her hands, with her legs in the air.

The woman was detained by the magistrate, who sent a policeman to the address given. The policeman returned with Mme. Blerotti's son, a clerk, aged 27. "What my mother has told you, is true," he said. "I do not pretend to explain it. I only know that when my mother, my uncle, and myself enter the flat, we are immediately impelled to walk on our hands." M. Paul Reiss, aged fifty, the third occupant of the flat, was sent for.

"It is perfectly true," he said. "Everytime I go in, I am irresistibly impelled to walk around on my hands." The concierge of the house was brought to the magistrate. "To tell the truth," he said, "I thought that my tenants had gone mad, but as soon as I entered the rooms occupied by them, I found myself on all fours, endeavoring to throw my feet in the air."

The magistrate concluded that here was an unknown malady. He ordered that the apartments should be disinfected.

As someone who grew up on comic books and various other forms of fantasy, it doesn’t take much to convince me that some people, consciously or unconsciously, have access to abilities or powers beyond what the rest of us have. Could there be more prosaic explanations for these accounts, possibly. I certainly don’t rule it out. But the sheer volume of the reports, many which have similar circumstances, seem to suggest that something else is going on. Perhaps these powers or abilities are vestigial remains from pre-history, as Fort has suggested in Lo!. Maybe they represent the next step in gradual human evolution, not unlike the X-Men comics.

High Strangeness

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 13:04:00 +0000

A good portion of my childhood, and most of the origins for my interest in paranormal/fortean topics, stems from The X-Files. So most weekends while doing homework, I have the show on in the background thanks to it being on Netflix. I watched one of my favorite episodes this past weekend. The episode is called ‘Jose Chung’s From Outer Space’. It centered around an author, Jose Chung played by the late Charles Nelson Reilly, who was sent by his publisher to write a book on an alleged alien abduction event which Mulder and Scully had also investigated. The episode is not only a fantastic example of what makes the X-Files great; it has humor, mystery, celebrity guest stars, but it is also does a great job representing all of the related weirdness which is inexplicably related to the UFO enigma.

In the episode, which I highly recommend you watch, you have military abductions, alien abductions, inner earth new-age religions being founded, military personnel impersonating aliens and flying “UFOs”, and Men in Black! About the only thing not included, probably because it was already a jam packed episode, is the poltergeist or “ghost” activity that sometimes follows or precedes UFO encounters. A good catch-all term for the related phenomena which occurs in tandem with UFO sightings and alien abductions is ‘High Strangeness’.

Dr. J Allen Hynek, of “swamp gas” fame, first used the term in a paper which he presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in December 1969. Hynek assigned cases a “strangeness” index as means of offering some kind of classification for UFO reports. Hynek further clarifies and defines this concept in his 1974 book The UFO Experience wherein he states that high strangeness is “a measure of the number of information bits the report contains, each of which is difficult to explain in common-sense terms.”

Stories and personal accounts which involve “High Strangeness” have always fascinated, especially when it comes to the investigators responses towards this aspect of the phenomenon. I was looking over some specific MUFON case files from the 90’s when I came across a really weird encounter which someone had, related below, but there was a caveat before the report which bothered me. In setting up the witnesses encounters, the investigators note that “Background paranormal events have not been included in this report.” I don’t wish to go off on a tangent, but since we know nothing about what may or may not be behind this phenomena, why not include all points of data? (I suppose that is the Fortean in me coming out).

Anyway, after reading some of the witnesses experiences, I couldn't help but wonder what in the world they had left out? As it stands some of her stories certainly qualify as high strange even with MUFON investigators leaving out the “background paranormal” events. Here’s a link to all of her experiences, but I wish to focus on one really bizarre encounter the witness had with an entity she called “Marcus”. Her account is as follows:

The witness was awakened to see an entity, in the form of a human(oid) male floating to the right side of the foot of her bed. She indicated that when she saw the entity she knew that it was male, and that she knew who he was. She was told, in a nonverbal manner, that his name was "Marcus", and he was there for her. She felt that their relationship was, in some way, very close.

She described the entity as being tall, and approximately human in appearance, but with a catlike face. She described his appearance as "a cross between Worf (on Star Trek) and the beast "Vincent" in the TV show Beauty and the Beast". He appeared to be dressed in a manner that suggested to her a military officer from an earlier time period, with an apparent breast plate arranged in a chevron design.

The entity held his hands out to her, palms up, and she instinctively knew to put her hands in his. She indicated that she then rose up, and he pulled her in closer to him. [CL Note: She indicates that she was under the covers when the entity appeared. If this was a physical movement, it is not clear how the bed covers were removed.]

At that point she felt that they were within a ball of light, and as if they were "dancing". She didn't remember any sound, and was not sure whether or not they were still within the room, but felt that
there was not enough space within the room to have "danced" in the manner which they presently were. Thus, she feels that they must have been somewhere else while this interaction occurred. She indicates that this "dance" felt more like a "complete spiritual union", than physical motion to music (the traditional definition of dance). She did not feel that there was music present.

The witness sketched “Marcus” for our benefits, I admit I do enjoy seeing the person’s representation of the figures they have allegedly seen. Here is here sketch:

I would like to highlight the “aftermath” as the investigators labeled it, because I think it is an important detail which crops up in a lot of these kinds of reports. It’s something which Jacques Vallee pointed out in a number of his books. The investigators relate:

This event appears to be the start of her consciously remembered experiences. She indicates that since that time, she has been very interested in spiritual topics, reading extensively in the area religion and spirituality, with subsequent interest in the field of UFOs and close encounters.

I don’t know what to make of cases such as this one. It wanted to dance with her? Let’s assume for a moment that it was an ET, could it not find a dance partner on it’s home planet? I’m slightly joking of course, I don’t mean to belittle the witness or her account. Honestly, I’m perplexed by what it is she allegedly experienced. Though she is not the only one. John Keel’s books are full of high strangeness encounters which people have purportedly had. I recently spoke about The Case of Indrid Cold, which is but one example of the variety of high strangeness reports which Keel spoke about.

In his book Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places, author Brad Steiger relates another classic example of high strangeness which accompanies a, relatively, mundane UFO sighting. The story is below:

An Iowa farmer named Gary C. saw a UFO one night as he was working late in the field during spring plowing. The next morning over breakfast, he learned that his wife, Melanie, 14-year-old son Jake, and 12-year-old daughter Lisa had also seen the bright object as the kids were getting ready for bed.

That day at school, a man who claimed to be from the state board of education asked to interview Jake. He told the principal of the junior high school that the boy had attracted attention because of his high scores in the state tests and that Jake had been selected to participate in a special educational project ... A call to the state office revealed that they had no one on their staff by the man’s name, and they had no special project for junior high students in progress.

When the principal entered the private room to confront the imposter, he found a puzzled Jake sitting alone. The teenager could only shrug that the special state project must be about space travel, for all the man asked him were questions about UFOS, aliens, and life on other planets. Jake had glanced away from his interrogator for just a moment, and when he looked back at him, he seemed to have vanished.

About the time that Jake was being interviewed by the mysterious stranger at school, out on the farm Gary and Melanie received a visit from two men dressed in black while they were eating lunch. The men identified themselves as agents of a special government task force investigating UFOS and said they had learned that the family had sighted a bright object in the sky on the previous evening.

Melanie and Gary were puzzled, since they had not told anyone of their sighting. The alleged government agents suddenly adopted a threatening manner and demanded that Melanie and Gary turn over any photographs they may have taken of the UFO. The farm couple said that they had taken no photographs, but the two agents refused to accept their denials and threatened that they had better cooperate if they knew what was good for them. “You must cooperate,” the taller of the two men said, “for your own good, the good of your country, the good of your world.”

Later that afternoon, Gary was certain that he saw the two men watching him from the shadows of his machine shed while he fed the cattle on the feedlot. In the farmhouse, Melanie answered the telephone on four occasions to hear nothing but a peculiar static. Finally, on the fifth ring, a voice in a strange accent told her to forget all she knew about UFOs or terrible things would happen to her entire family.

That night, shortly after the children went to bed, Lisa began screaming that some animal had crawled under her covers. When Gary and Melanie investigated, they found nothing, but then Jake yelled that his bed was jumping up and down. As they ran to his room, they could hear the thumping sounds of his bed lifting and slamming to the floor. Such poltergeistic disturbances continued on a nightly basis for nearly a week before dissipating.

What are we to make of these strange tales? Why would strange “government” agents show up after a sighting of a light in the sky? Why would the family see strange creatures and experience poltergeist-like activity following the sighting? It seems obvious that something peculiar is going on. I remain unconvinced that we will ever have an “answer” or solution to the UFO enigma, but I think that by looking into the High Strangeness reports (or the “damned data”) we may come closer to an understanding. Otherwise we will have failed to learn the lesson which Charles Fort attempted to teach. Data, no matter how bizarre or strange, needs to be taken into account.

Airships and Secret Inventors

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 11:55:00 +0000

That the UFO enigma didn’t start in 1947 with Kenneth Arnold’s Mt. Rainier sighting is fairly obvious to anyone who has read any UFO literature. The same, or very similar, phenomena has taken a variety of forms over the past hundred years or so. In the 1930’s Scandinavia was home to the so-called ‘Ghost Fliers’ which John Keel wrote about in his book Our Haunted Planet. These Ghost fliers would perform a variety of maneuvers which would seem to defy conventional wisdom; flying at night with no lights, flying in dangerous weather conditions, or killing their engines and seeming to glide before having the engine turn back on. Some time later you had the Ghost Rockets in Sweden in the mid to late 40’s which were whipping and zipping throughout the skies. Micah Hanks has recently written a book which discusses Ghost Rockets in detail, appropriately titled The Ghost Rocket Mystery.

These mysteries are all well and good, representing strange objects occupying our skies for reasons completely unknown to us. Today however I would like to turn the clock back and look at a mystery which occurred some 30 or 40 yrs before the coming of the phantom planes, when our skies hosted another kind of technology that seemed to be just outside of what conventional technology might have allowed. I’m speaking about the great airship mystery of the 19th century, and some in the 20th century, which flew all over parts of the US, Canada, and eventually made its way to Europe.

Jerome Clark discusses the Airship mystery in his, oft cited by me, Unexplained!. He points out something that I think is worth noting;

An outbreak of airship reports occurred along the border of Germany and Russian Poland in early 1892. As would be the case with later airship scares, the Germans were thought to have developed advanced aircraft that could fly against the wind (unlike balloons) and hover for extended periods of time. No such aircraft existed at the time

This idea that, so far as we are aware, no aircraft like those that were reported existed really fascinates me. It’s an idea which we will return to at the end of the post. For now, let us head to California in 1896 where the great airship flap is about to begin. Clark continues;

Beginning in mid-November 1896, numerous witnesses in both urban and rural portions of the state reported seeing fast-moving or stationary nocturnal lights assumed to be connected to airships. Daylight sightings typically were of a device that “somewhat resembled a balloon traveling end on ... and with what appeared to be wings both before and behind the [bottom] light,” as the San Francisco Call of November 22 put it, or of a “great black cigar with a fishlike tail … at least 100 feet long” with a surface that “looked as if it were made of aluminum,” as the Oakland Tribune of December 1 had it. In some cases, observers reported seeing propellers.

Not surprising to anyone, in his book New Lands (which I read in Steinmeyer’s version of Fort’s The Book of the Damned.), Fort took an interest in sightings of supposed “mystery airships” (as he referred to them) and in one instance he remarked about something which I found rather amusing;

Upon the 28th of April, 1897, Venus was in inferior conjunction. In Popular Astronomy, 555, it is said that many persons had written to the Editor, telling of “airships” that had been seen about this time. The Editor writes that some of the observations were probably upon the planet Venus, but that others probably related to toy balloons, “which were provided with various colored lights”

Evidently, Venus has always been to blame for strange things spotted in the sky! Fort goes on to relate newspaper accounts of an interesting aspect of this phenomena. Fort shows readers;

The first group of our data, I take from dispatches to the New York Sun, April 2, 11, 16, 18. First of April - “the mysterious light” in the sky of Kansas City - something like a powerful searchlight. "It was directed toward the earth, traveling east at a rate of sixty miles an hour."

About a week later, something was seen in Chicago. "Chicago's alleged airship is believed to be a myth, in spite of the fact that a great many persons say that they have seen the mysterious night-wanderer.

A crowd gazed at strange lights, from the top of a downtown skyscraper, and Evanston students declare they saw the swaying red and green lights." April 16—reported from Benton, Texas, but this time as a dark object that passed across the moon. Reports from other towns in Texas: Fort Worth, Dallas, Marshall, Ennis, and

Beaumont—"It was shaped like a Mexican cigar, large in the middle, and small at both ends, with great wings, resembling those of an enormous butterfly. It was brilliantly illuminated by the rays of two great searchlights, and was sailing in a southeasterly direction, with the velocity of the wind, presenting a magnificent appearance."

Along with the reports of these airships were reports of their, mostly human, “secret inventors”. Whenever an airship was sighted, it could almost be guaranteed that someone would step forward having claimed to have met the inventor of these crafts. In his, newly republished, book Operation Trojan Horse John Keel relates a story of one such person who claimed to have met the pilot of the airship. Keel says;

A San Jose, California, electrician named J. A. Heron claimed that the airship pilots enlisted him to make some repairs on the machine. He was taken to a desolate field north of San Francisco for the job and was rewarded by being taken on a flight to Hawaii. He said the craft made the 4,400-mile trip in twenty-four hours. His wife later told reporters that he had been home in bed on the night of the alleged trip.

While I don’t rule out the possibility that people could have made these craft, after all the craft seemed to be just within reach of the technology of the time, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence to support this idea. What are we dealing with in this case then? Are they all hoaxes? Some of them certainly were, it seems that the Aurora, Texas “crash” of an Airship is widely regarded as a hoax. It is also known that there were liar’s clubs and so it’s likely that some of the stories were probably made up. However there seems to be an underlying phenomena that a large number of people experienced at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

One theory for what these “airships” are, is that the Non-Human intelligence which has been interacting with humanity since recorded history (whether they be Ultraterrestrials, Extraterrestrials, or Cryptoterrestrials) have, overtime, adapted their conveyances in such a way as to shape our perception of them. This idea is largely the premise of Keel’s Operation Trojan Horse. The other idea is that perhaps, not entirely unlike a rorschach test, we are projecting our expectations onto a relatively malleable phenomena which is shaped based upon the viewers perception.

I haven’t decided where I land on this issue just yet. I fluctuate between the last two theories I mentioned, and perhaps the reality is somewhere in between the two. The only thing which I can say for certain is that the airship mystery is a fascinating footnote within the overall history of UFOs and Fortean phenomena.

You don't know Jack!

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:00:00 +0000

In the long, varied, history of the paranormal there have been a wide menagerie of strange creatures and humanoids sighted. From hairy dwarves to “michelin men” and just about everything in between. Picking a favorite is sometimes difficult to do, though there is one character which captures my imagination above the rest; Spring-Heeled Jack. There is just something about a man leaping around Victorian England and, in some accounts breathing fire, frightening people, apparently for no reason.

In Unexplained!, Jerome Clark gives the reader an overview of how this whole “Spring-Heeled Jack” thing began:

The figure’s presence was first noted in September 1837, when he assaulted four separate persons, three of them women, at locations in and around London. In one instance he allegedly ripped off the top of victim Polly Adams’s dress, scratching her belly with fingers that felt as if they were made of iron.

What made these incidents different from conventional sexual crimes was the attacker’s appearance. He was tall, thin, and powerful, wore a cloak, and had fiery eyes. On occasion, it was said, he spat blue flames from his mouth and into victims’ face. He also could effect enormous leaps that enabled him to move with such rapidity that it was impossible to escape or catch him.

The attacks by this entity continued with a rampant frequency which eventually led to Sir John Cowan, London’s Lord Mayor, declaring him a public menace. Groups of vigilantes gathered in order to hunt Jack down. Jack had other plans as he evidently eluded the would be captors with his signature leaping or jumping capabilities. In fact, Jack continued his bizarre attacks undeterred. The accounts of his nightly attacks were recorded in many newspapers of the time. Clark reproduces one such attack, calling it a pretty standard one, Unexplained!. The attack occurred on February 28 in a district of London called Limehouse, it was written up in the London Morning Chronicle on March 8. From the article:

Miss [Lucy] Scales stated that…. at about half-past eight o’clock, as she and her sister were returning from the house of their brother, and while passing along Green Dragon-alley, they observed some person standing in an angle in the passage. She was in advance of her sister at the time, and just as she came up to the person, who was enveloped in a large cloak, he spirited a quantity of blue flame right in her face, which deprived her of sight.

They were close enough to the brother’s house that he was able to hear their screams and went out to investigate. Once he had safely escorted his sister’s home, the brother asked the other sister for a description of their attacker. The sister stated the following:

She described the person to be of tall, thin, and gentlemanly appearance, enveloped in a large cloak, and carrying in front of his person a small lamp, or bull’s eye, similar to those in the possession of the police. [As] her sister …. [came] up to the person, he threw open his cloak, exhibited the ;lamp, and puffed a quantity of flame from his mouth into the face of her sister

Throughout his reign of terror, it seems that the police were convinced that they were looking for a human perpetrator of these crimes. Though in my mind the feats are, if not paranormal or non-human, exhibit capabilities that I’ve not found in people. If the reports are to be believed, this figure was jumping some 9 or 10 ft fences. That’s quite a feat.

Whoever, or whatever, Jack may have been. he was never apprehended by the authorities. For all we know he leapt back into whatever strange dimension he escaped from. Although that’s not quite the end of our story, as a figure who shared many of the same characteristics as our man Jack has shown up in other parts of the world since he first arrived on the scene in the late 19th century London. Theo Paijmans back in Oct of 2013 wrote an article for Mysterious Universe which was entitled, “Spring-Heeled Jack in America”. Rather than reprinting the cases which he pointed out, I will instead implore readers to read the article yourself and check out the exhaustive work Paijmans did in exploring the apparent leaping, pardon the pun, of the entity called Spring-Heeled Jack from London to the United States.

While I was researching for this post, I came across another encounter with a figure which sounded very similar to Spring-Heeled Jack, only this time it was back in London. Writing for allvoices.com, Lee Walker shares a story which was related to her from a man named Steven Gee. Walker writes:

A very close friend of mine by the name of Stevie Gee, (who we'll be meeting again a bit later on in this issue, in connection with a UFO sighting in the skies above New Ferry), recently reminded me of a frightening childhood encounter with a mysterious entity near to his former home on Bromborough Road, Merseyside, an incident, which though it occurred over a quarter of a century ago now, he still recalls with near-perfect clarity.

'One bitterly cold winter's evening back in 1975, when I was 11 years old, I raced outside straight after tea in the company of my sister, Pam, who is two years older than me, eager to meet up with a group of mutual friends at our usual hang-out, the line of garages situated at the back of our road. One of these friends was actually a near-neighbour, named Robbie Lyons, who was the same age as Pam, and who, I suppose it's fair to say, I regarded with something akin to admiration, not least because he attended 'The Big School', something that had always commanded wide-eyed respect amongst kids my age, due to him having successfully made the transition from the comparatively carefree, halcyon days of life at Church Drive Primary and Junior Schools, to spending five days a week at the towering Victorian monstrosity that was Bebington Secondary – where, according to local, pre-teen folklore, all manner of dreadful horrors lay in wait ready to pounce the second you stepped through the wrought-iron, rusted gates.

Robbie was, therefore living proof that those brave enough to rise to life's challenges could, like a knight in shining armour on a holy quest, or a hero of ancient Greece, set an impossible task for the cruel amusement of Olympian Gods, not only survive the ordeal in one piece, but emerge all the stronger for having done so…...

I remember Pam and I chose to secrete ourselves behind the back of the garage where my Dad kept his pride and joy; a metallic-brown Hillman Avenger. ….

there we were, my sister and I, crouched low behind the walls of the garage, trying desperately to keep our teeth from chattering, and cupping our hands to prevent the plumes of smoky breath giving us away. when Pam suddenly whispered harshly; 'Steve, what's that up there on the garage roof?'

A strange, dark figure was crouching on the roof of the garage directly above us, and although I couldn't make out any facial features at first, (the bright winter moon was directly behind it, rendering it little more than a cartoon silhouette), still I instinctively knew it was staring intently at us, and I felt what I can only describe as overwhelming malice, radiating from the form in near-visible waves.

And then, as we watched, paralysed with fear, unable even to cry out for help, the figure slowly rose to its full height, with its arms outstretched as if in supplication to the to cruel, diamond-chipped void above.

Eventually Steve and Pam would run for their lives and accidentally bumped in Robbie Lyons. Near breathless, the pair informed Robbie of what they had just witnessed. Walker continues:

Ever the brave, stoic defender of those in mortal danger (although I think his motivations were probably more along the lines of 'the eternally horny protector of the damsel in distress,' given Pam's presence), Robbie took us at our word and raced towards the garages, whilst Pam and I waited anxiously for news in the warmth and safety of our parent's living room.

We didn't have to wait too long.

A couple of minutes later, there was a frantic rapping at the front door, and I opened it to find Robbie standing there, his pale face and the look of wild fear apparent in his eyes, enough to confirm that he had likely encountered the same thing we had.

'He was thuh-thuh-there, juh-juh-just like you said,' he stammered, (and whether it was due to the bone-freezing temperatures or abject terror, it's difficult to say). 'I saw him, all dressed in buh-buh-black, standing on the garage roof..'

'But that wasn't the worst of it,' he added quickly, swallowing a click in his throat. 'As I got near to the figure, it suddenly looked at me over its shoulder, and then, Christ Almighty, it just leaped high into the air and landed on another garage roof, about thirty feet further along. And then in did the same again. And again. And again until it cleared the entire row of garages and jumped onto the roof of one of the houses on Ellen's Lane, and I lost sight of him. I've never seen anything like it. And I hope to God I never do again!'

Be sure to go read the full article here, as I think it’s well worth taking a look at. So, what in the world was, or is, Spring-Heeled Jack? Could it have been a prankster or joker playing a tricky, albeit a cruel one, on folks? If so, not only were they fairly athletic, they also traveled around the world and waited a good number of years before showing up again. I don’t rule out that a bit of hysteria could have played a part in some of the reports and sightings, but taken together they make for an interesting entry in the history of fortean creatures.

Thoughtography

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 10:09:00 +0000

Probably because I’m a huge fan of Spiderman, I was interested in photography from an early age. At one point I had even considered a career in photography, until I realized how bad I am at composition and how much talent is required to be a photographer. In high school I took a photography class and really enjoyed it, but it was obvious that it was not for me. Coincidentally within the realm of the paranormal there is a different kind of photography which I was recently reminded of; (real talk it was because I spent the weekend marathoning The X-Files) Psychic Photography or ‘Thoughtography’.

The origins of this particular psychic expression seems to be with a Japanese Psychologist named Tomokichi Fukurai. Fukurai was an assistant professor of psychology at Tokyo University around the turn of the 20th century, around 1910 or so. He was the first to recognize this phenomenon which he called nesha, spirit photography. Fukurai’s studies into psychic areas were occurring almost simultaneously as the introduction of Western Spiritualism ideas into Japan by Wasaburo(u) Asano. Asano created the Shinrei-Kagaku-Kenkyujyo (Japanese Society for Spiritual Science Research) in 1923, which is apparently still in existence today, although confirming that hasn’t been easy.

Fukurai started out by studying specific mediums and psychics. One in particular was Chizuko Mifune, pictured above. Mifune claimed to have gained her powers at the age of 25 after much breathing and meditative practices. Sadly, Mifune who later took her own life following a demonstration of her ‘powers’ which led to her being discredited. She ingested poison and committed suicide. Of particular interest to today’s post was a psychic by the name of Ikuko Nagao. According to Dr. Fukurai, Nagao was able to transmit her thoughts and project them onto film. This was the start of what was to become “thoughtography”. It wasn’t long before Nagao was also accused of being fraudulent and she too later died.

The third time apparently being the charm for Dr. Fukurai, he met with Sadako Takahashi who was also able to produce thoughtography. With the time spent studying Takahashi, Dr. Fukurai published Toshi to Nensha which was translated and published into English as Clairvoyance and Thoughtography. Critics notwithstanding, Dr. Fukurai was apparently able to have some success in the area of Thoughtography. ALthough not much of it is available on the internet, I was able to track down at least photo which is attributable, allegedly, to Dr. Fukurai’s nensha experiments.

Dr. Fukurai wasn’t the only person who did work in this area, however. A clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Medical school, and a charter member of the Parapsychological Association, by the name of Julie Eisenburd wrote numerous articles on psychiatry and psychoanalysis based on studies he did relating to telepathy. In the 1960’s , Eisenburd discovered a unemployed bell hop by the name of Theodore Serios. Serios, who is better known as ‘Ted Serios’, had an unusual gift. By concentrating on a polaroid camera, Serios claimed that he could project his thoughts on to the undeveloped film. Serios was apparently engaging in thoughtography just as Takahashi had some 30 years before.

As with most paranormal or psychic phenomenon, the thoughtographs produced by Serios didn’t always display something. More often than not they were either completely black, as though they had never been developed, or completely white, as if they were overexposed. On occasion however, strange fuzzy like images could be seen to have appeared on the film. As with Takahashi and Nagao before him, the source of these images were allegedly the mind of Serios.

Probably not surprisingly, skeptics and photographers alike believe that Serios and Eisenburd collaborated together on hoaxing all of the photographs that Serios produced. The claim was that Serios would palm materials that would be exposed onto the photographs and would result in the images which were alleged to be thought projections. Eisenburd seemed to remain convinced of the ability he believed Serios had. He would eventually write a book all about Serios titled The World of Ted Serios: "Thoughtographic" Studies of an Extraordinary Mind.

What are we to make of these claims? I for one remain skeptical, but as always open-minded. Though I couldn’t offer a mechanism which would explain how thoughtography could work, I’m not ready to rule it out either. The evidence which Takahasi, Nagao, and Serios produced isn’t exactly the most concrete, but who can say what we could learn in the future? Perhaps this is an area worth investigating further. I’m also left curious if anyone has attempted to use digital cameras for thougthographic experimentation? In the end, I will leave to the reader to decide for themselves how the feel about these claims. As for myself, I’m going to start trying to figure out how I can take a digital thoughtographic selfie.

Water, Water, Everywhere!

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:58:00 +0000

I was skimming back through my copy of Fort’s The Book of the Damned as I often do, when I happened upon another fascinating phenomena which Fort describes and, in his unique humorist way, theorizes on a possible explanation for. In Lo!, Fort relates tale after tale of water seemingly manifesting within closed rooms with no external source apparent. In almost every case, it seems that great care was taken to attempt to track down where the water might be originating from, but none could be found. In nearly every case of this mysterious water manifestation, there was other strange phenomena occurring as well, and not entirely unlike poltergeist phenomena, young children are often in the vicinity of the water outbreaks. As if that were not enough, Fort also finds reports of water manifesting in isolated spots outside as well, usually focusing on a single tree.

Classic Examples

Fort relates a number of these instances such as the following:

In the Toronto Globe, Sept. 9, 1880, a correspondent writes that he had heard reports of most improbable occurrences upon a farm, near the township of Wellesley, Ontario. He went to the place, to interview the farmer, Mr. Manser. As he approached the farmhouse, he saw that all the windows were boarded up. He learned that, about the end of July, windows had begun to break, though no missiles had been seen. The explanation by the incredulous was that the old house was settling. It was a good explanation, except for what it overlooked. To have any opinion, one must overlook something. The disregard was that, quite as authentic as the stories of breaking windows, were stories of falls of water in the rooms, having passed through walls, showing no trace of such passage. It is said that water had fallen in such volumes, from appearing-points in rooms, that the furniture of the house had been moved to a shed. In all our records openness of phenomena is notable. The story is that showers fell in rooms, when the farmhouse was crowded with people. For more details see the Halifax Citizen, September 13.

In the Chorley (Lancashire) Standard, Feb. 15, 1873, is a story of excitement in the town of Eccleston. At Bank House, occupied by two elderly women and their niece, streams of water started falling, about the first of February, seemingly from ceilings. Furniture was soaked, and the occupants of the house were alarmed. The falls seemed to come from the ceiling, but "probably the most singular feature of the affair is that ceilings were apparently quite dry." See back to Mr. Grottendieck's story of objects that were appearing near a ceiling, or roof, with no signs of penetrating the material. Workmen had been called to the house, and had investigated, but were unable to explain. Openness again. House packed with neighbors, watching the showers.

Over the town of Noirfontaine, France, one day in April, 1842, there was a cloudless sky, but drops of water were falling. See back to data upon repetitions. The water was falling, as if from a fixed appearing-point, somewhere above the ground, to a definite area beneath. The next day water was still falling upon this one small area, as mysteriously as if a ghost aloft were holding the nozzle of an invisible' hose.

New York Sun, Oct. 30, 1892—that, day after day, in Oklahoma, where for weeks there had been a drought, water was falling upon a large cottonwood tree, near Stillwater. A conventionalist visited this tree. He found insects. In Insect Life, 5-204, it is said that the Stillwater mystery had been solved.

In Science, 21-94, Mr. H. Chaplin, of Ohio University, writes that, in the town of Akron, Ohio—about while water was falling upon a tree in Oklahoma—there had been a continuous fall of water, during a succession of clear days. Members of the faculty of Ohio University had investigated, but had been unable to solve the problem. There was a definite and persisting appearing-point from which to a small area near a brickyard, water was falling. Mr. Chaplin, who had probably never heard of similar occurrences far from damp places, thought that vapors from this brickyard were rising, and condensing, and falling back.

As anyone who has read Fort is aware, he often offers “explanations” for the strange news reports he relates. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that he believes that these are the real answer for these events, but he offers them anyway. So how does Fort explain these strange water manifestations?

For all I know, some trees may have occult powers. Perhaps some especially gifted trees have power to transport water, from far away, in times of need.

As to the manifestations that occur near people, inside of closed rooms? Fort offers this interesting hypothesis:

The look to me is that, throughout what is loosely called Nature, teleportation exists, as a means of distribution of things and materials, and that sometimes human beings have command, mostly unconsciously, though perhaps sometimes as a development from research and experiment, of this force. It is said that in savage tribes there are "rain makers," and it may be that among savages there are teleportationists. Some years ago, I'd have looked superior, if anybody had said this to me but a good many of us are not so given to the "tut-tut!" as we used to be. It may be that in civilized communities, because of their storages, a power to attract flows of water, being no longer needed, has virtually died out, still appearing occasionally, however.

Modern example?

While doing research for this post (read: surfing the internet), I came across a curious story of a young man who, amongst other anomalous phenomena, also seemed to experience manifestation of water within a house. The story has most recently appeared on an episode of the SyFy Channel’s Paranormal Witness. It is the strange tale of Don Decker, the “boy who could make it rain”.

Writing for Poconorecord.com, Christina Tatu tells a version of the events which befell 21yr old Don Decker back in 1983 in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. She writes that:

Decker's grandfather had just died, and he was on compassionate leave from Monroe County Correctional Facility, where he was serving time for receiving stolen property.

During his leave, Decker stayed at the Ann Street home rented by family friends Bob and Jeannie Kieffer.

He fell to the floor and had a vision of an old man wearing a crown in a window. Decker also had deep scratches that suddenly appeared on his wrist.

Kieffer noticed the blood when Decker sat down to eat and asked what happened. Decker told him about his vision and attributed the wound to Satan.

Shortly after, the family heard a loud noise from above and noticed water dripping from the walls and ceiling.

The men noticed Decker seemed to be in a trance, so Kieffer decided to call police.

According to reports of the event, Officer John Baujan, who now serves as chief of Stroud Area Regional Police, and Officer Richard Wolbert responded.

Not only was it raining indoors, it appeared to be coming up from the floor, "defying gravity," they said.

You can read the rest of Tatu’s article here, or alternatively the episode of Paranormal Witness which recreates the events and interviews the witnesses is available on Netlfix. She goes on to show how, much like in Fort’s day, Scientists have stepped forward to “solve” this mystery. As for Decker and those who witnessed the events? They’re convinced that he was possessed by a demonic entity.

As for me? Maybe Fort was right, maybe there are some who still have access to a vestigial power to summon water. Or maybe there was an external entity which was causing these manifestations in Decker’s case. I can’t say for sure. Although in the cases Fort reported there didn’t seem to be a suggestion that any kind of entity was involved in all of them. It seemed to be a more natural, albeit heretofore unknown, phenomena.

That’s all for this week! Be sure to come back on Monday and as always, stay dry!

The Case of Indrid Cold

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 22:50:00 +0000

Although Charles Fort’s books were obviously highly influential in developing not only my theories on various paranormal topics, but also how I look at and interpret reality in general, I would be remiss if I didn’t also give John Keel his due credit as well. Though my interest in paranormal phenomena has been a life-long one, it wasn’t until probably 2008 or so that I discovered Fort’s, and a little later, Keel’s works. Their writing styles, the content of the writings, and perhaps most importantly of all the way in which they encouraged a non-dogmatic approach to the topics, helped shape the person you see today. (For better or for worse, I suppose only time will tell). With Keel’s birthday being yesterday, March 25th, it got me to thinking back on some of the stranger tales that Keel related in his works.

One of my favorites is the case of Indrid Cold. While in Point Pleasant, West Virginia digging up information on the various strange occurrences which followed in the wake of the Mothman sighting, Keel meet and interviewed a man named Woodrow Derenberger. Keel tells “Woody’s” story in his famous book, The Mothman Prophecies:

At 7 P.M. on November 2, 1966, he was heading home in his panel truck after a long, hard day on the road. The weather was sour, chill, and rainy. As he drove up a long hill outside of Parkersburg on Interstate 77 a sudden crash sounded in the back of his truck. He snapped on his interior lights and looked back. A sewing machine had fallen off the top of a stereo, but there didn’t seem to be any real damage.

A car swept up behind him and passed him. Another vehicle seemed to be following it. He eased his foot on the accelerator. He had been speeding slightly and thought it might be a police car. The vehicle, a black blob in the dark, drew alongside him, cut in front, and slowed.

Woody Derenberger gaped in amazement at the thing. It wasn’t an automobile but was shaped like, “an old-fashioned kerosene lamp chimney, flaring at both ends, narrowing down to a small neck and then enlarging in a great bulge in the center.”

A door slid open on the side of the thing and a man stepped out. The stranger was about five feet ten inches tall with long, dark hair combed straight back. His skin was heavily tanned. Grinning broadly, his arms crossed and his hands tucked under his armpits, he walked to the panel truck. He was wearing a dark topcoat.

Underneath it Woody could see some kind of garment made of glistening greenish material almost metallic in appearance. "Do not be afraid." The grinning man did not speak aloud. Woody sensed the words. "We mean you no harm. I come from a country much less powerful than yours." He asked for Woody’s name. Woody told him. "My name is Cold. I sleep, breathe, and bleed even as you do."

Cold told Woody to report the encounter to the authorities, promising to come forward at a later date to confirm it. After a few minutes of aimless generalities, Cold announced he would meet Woody again soon. The object descended, the door opened, Cold entered it, and it rose quickly and silently into the night.

You can listen to Derenberger’s account in his own words here, it’s file # 47. Derenberger has been interviewed by a radio station and is offered the chance to tell the story. Derenberger would go on to have other adventures either with Indrid or his kin, visit the planet Lanulos, and eventually write a book called Visitors from Lanulos. Interestingly enough Keel actually wrote the foreword to Derenberger’s book even though he didn’t necessarily believe the man’s story.

The story of Indrid Cold does not end there, however. Keel mentions that a number of times while investigating the Point Pleasant area he received phone calls from mysterious persons claiming to be “Indrid Cold”. Of course Keel was no stranger to mysterious and bizarre phone calls, as many portions of his books dealt with his seeming “harassment” by some informed third-party. This concept is captured in the 2002 Richard Gere film, The Mothman Prophecies, where Gere played a ‘John Klein’. You can see that scene here on YouTube.

In The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings, which has been republished making it easier to come by, Keel discusses the idea of the “Grinning Man”. Within this category he includes the figure of Indrid Cold. Keel also tells another story of a similar type of entity which two young kids encountered. Keel writes:

A blazing white light "as big as a car" nearly scraped the 550-foot-tall television tower outside of Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, site of the large DuPont explosives factory, on the night of October 11, 1966. A policeman and his wife watched the object move slowly northward and disappear beyond the neighboring hills.

On the other side of those hills. Sergeant Benjamin Thompson and Patrolman Edward Wester, of the Wanaque Reservoir Police, observed the same sight at about 9:45 P.M. as it swooped low over the reservoir. "The light was brilliantly white," Thompson said. "It lit up the whole area for about three hundred yards. In fact, it blinded me when I got out of the patrol car to look at it, and I couldn't see for about twenty minutes afterwards."

Forty miles south of Wanaque, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, two boys had a frightening experience that October 11, at approximately the same time that Officers Thompson and Wester were watching the glowing object cavort above the reservoir. There had been a number of aerial sightings in the vicinity of Elizabeth the previous week, apparently clustered around the New Jersey Turnpike which slices through that city. New Jersey newspapers from one end of the state to the other were filled with UFO reports during that period.

The two boys, James Yanchitis and Martin "Mouse" Munov, were walking home along Fourth Street and New Jersey Street when they reached a comer parallel to the tumpike. The tumpike is elevated and there is a very steep incline dipping down from the busy thoroughfare to Fourth Street. A very high wire fence runs along the street, making it impossible for anyone to scramble up the incline to the tumpike. There are bright street lights on that particular comer.

It was on this comer that the two young men encountered "the strangest guy we've ever seen."Yanchitis spotted him first. "He was standing behind that fence," the youth said later. "I don't know how he got there. He was the biggest man I ever saw." "Jimmy nudged me," Mouse reported, "and said, 'Who's that guy standing behind you?' I looked around and there he was . . .

behind that fence. Just standing there. He pivoted around and looked right at us . . . and then he grinned a big old grin."

Yeesh, that Keel tells a good story. I’ve got goosebumps after reading that account. The story of Indrid Cold seems to evaporate around the same time that the Mothman flies back to wherever he had made his home and after the collapse of the Silver Bridge.

There is an interesting postscript to all of this however. A man on reddit claims to have been contacted by “Indrid Cold”. With this being the internet, I’m inclined to be skeptical, but still suggest you follow this link and read about it on Reddit.

After it’s all said and done, I’m not sure what to make of Indrid Cold. Did Derenberger actually encounter a man from Lanulos that night back in 1966? Was the figure the two kids in New Jersey saw Indrid Cold making his rounds and generally creeping people out? I don’t know. I do know that Indrid Cold, as well as the other myriad creatures and spooks which Keel wrote about inspire me to always keep an open mind, to deny belief and dogma, and to always say, “ Forget the answers! What’s the question?”

Enfield Poltergeist

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Stories of poltergeist activity have been an interest of mine, perhaps more so than other kinds of alleged “hauntings”. This stems mostly from some of the evident peculiarities and similarities amongst the cases. This is just a short review, but the phenomenon almost always begins as a tapping or knocking sound that is heard. This is where we get the term from anyway, it roughly translates from German into English as ‘noisy-ghost or spirit’. The phenomenon is usually focused on a pubescent child in the home, almost exclusively a girl. This fact has lead some Parapsychologists to theorize that the Poltergeist Phenomenon may actually originate from the mind of the child in the form of recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis.

The idea is that perhaps as these girls are undergoing the normal process of development, the stress and/or hormones causes the girls to unconsciously act out in less than normal ways (i.e. psychic). Others believe that these stories represent actual entities which are external to the child that seems to be the focus of the phenomenon, perhaps because they are being targeted for nefarious reasons no doubt.

For today’s post I wanted to focus on a very specific reported case of Poltergeist activity which is a very interesting case study in possible genuine phenomenon which occurred alongside trickery or at least an exaggeration of the reported phenomenon by the witnesses. Most of the information that I’ve listed below comes from Colin Wilson’s Poltergeist which, as the name suggests, The reports of what happened here began over 30yrs ago on an August night in the year 1977 in Enfield, England.

40yr-old divorcee Margaret Hodgson lived in a rented home with her four children; Rose aged thirteen, Janet aged eleven, Pete aged ten, and Jimmy aged seven. Pete and Janet shared a room and it was this room that would be the site of much of the alleged phenomena. That night, after Pete and Janet had gone to bed their beds began to move in a strange fashion. They called their mother in, she thought that they were messing around and told them to go back to bed.

Picking up the story Wilson notes (as a note Wilson refers to the family as Harper and not Hodgson for reasons I’m not aware of):

The next evening, the children heard a shuffling noise, like a chair moving. Mrs. Harper came in and asked them to be quiet. The room all seemed to be perfectly normal. But when she switched off the light, she also heard the shuffling noise. It sounded like someone shuffling across the room in slippers.

Then there were four loud, clear knocks. And when Mrs. Harper put the light on again, she saw the heavy chest of drawers moving on its own. It slid a distance of about eighteen inches across the floor. She pushed it back. It slid back again.

At this point Hodgson decided to run to a neighbor named Vic Nottingham. Nottingham and his son ran inside the house and searched around, I assume for some kind of explanation for what the Hodgson’s were experiencing. As the Nottinghams were inside the house, the knocking began again. By this time, Hodgson must have had enough and decided to call the police.

Wilson writes:

They sent for the police. When the lights were switched of, the knocking started. Then, in the light from the kitchen, everyone saw a chair that was wobbling into motion. It slid toward the kitchen for three or four feet.

Evidently they should have called the Ghostbuster (man that was bad) because the police leave seemingly without being able to offer any kind of explanation or solution for the Hodgsons. The family slept that night in the living room.

The following day all was seemingly quiet until night fell. Wilson tells us:

Then the poltergeist began throwing things. Marbles and Lego bricks came zinging through the air as if shot from a catapult. When someone picked up one of the marbles, it was found to be burning hot.

Eventually the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was to get involved with the case. Specifically, Guy Playfair would come in on the case and spend the next two-years investigating this case. This case has a lot of media attached to it. Below is one of the more (in)famous photos from the case that purport to show one of the girls, Janet, being thrown around the room by the alleged entity.

I’m not the first person to suggest this, but to me at first glance this photo appear to show girls jumping around on their bed. That doesn’t mean it’s what’s actually happening, but it certainly looks that way. In the end Playfair was to write a book recounting his version of the events which took place at the Enfield house entitled This House is Haunted. Playfair concludes the following about the case:

When Mr. and Mrs. Harper were divorced, an atmosphere of tension built up among the children and their mother, just at the time when the two girls were approaching physical maturity. They were a very energetic pair to start with, both of them school sports champions, but even they could not use up the tremendous energy they were generating. So a number of entities came in and helped themselves to it.

So many years later, and being so removed from the events, it’s hard to say what may have actually occurred here. Playfair seemed to believe that some genuine paranormal events happened in this case, but at the same time it’s known that the girls were found to be faking some of the events. If there was real weirdness happening here, why did the girls fake some of the experiences? Who knows? Could it be that the girls liked the attention they were receiving, especially from the male investigators as a replacement for their father’s attention and didn’t want for it to end?

If you want to learn more about this case, there have been a plethora of documentaries made about it. Most of which seem to be available on youtube. And if that’s not enough for you, because Ed and Lorraine Warren somehow got involved in the case at some point, you can look forward to seeing a version of the events on the big screen in the form of The Conjuring 2 coming sometime in 2015.

Atmospheric Lifeforms

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:40:00 +0000

As anyone who has visited this blog in the past is likely aware, I’m a fan of alternative theories. Usually the more out there, the better! With this in mind I want to take a look at the old-fashioned (out-dated?) concept of Atmospheric Lifeforms. That is, actual living entities which make their home far above the ground high up in the atmosphere. At first blush this idea sounds a bit preposterous, but let’s look into the history of the concept a bit and reserve judgement until a little later.

Crawfordsville Monster

In Unexplained! Jerome Clark repeats a story which originally appeared in the Indianapolis Journal. The story is as follows; September 5, 1891 at around 2 o’clock in the morning, two men were hitching up a wagon when they sighted a “horrible apparition”. Clark continues:

One hundred feet in the air, twenty feet long and eight feet wide, the headless, oblong thing - apparently some bizarre variety of living creature - propelled itself with several pairs of fins and circled a nearby house.

They were not, however, the only witnesses. A Methodist pastor, the Rev. G. W. Switzer, and his wife also observed the phenomenon.

Clark notes that this creature hadn’t tired of harassing Crawfordsville quite yet. Continuing Clark relates:

The creature was back the following evening, and this time hundreds of Crawfordsville’s citizens saw its violently flapping fins and flaming red “eye”. The creature “squirmed as if in agony” and made a “wheezing, plaintive sound” as it hovered at 300 feet. At one point it swooped over a band of onlookers, who swore they felt its “hot breath”.

The legend himself, Charles Fort, also wrote about this account. One of the things I admire about Fort is that he never takes things at face value and is always questioning events. In this case Fort notes that when he happened upon this story he

“Supposed that there was no such person as the Rev. G. W. Switzer. Being convinced that there had probably never been a Rev. G. W. Switzer, of Crawfordsville - and taking for a pseudo-standard that if I’m convinced that is something to suspect - I looked him up.” (LO! from The Book of the Damned)

Fort would later find that Switzer was real, was still alive at the time Fort was collecting these accounts, and confirmed that he had actually seen the monster. Later a Crawfordsville reporter, and member of the Fortean Society, named Vincent Gaddis interviewed some older residents of the town in 1946. According to Clark, Gaddis wrote, “ All the reports refer to this object as a living thing”. For the witness of this ‘monster’, it was an actual living creature of some kind. Clearly one that was, and is, unknown to science.

Unlike other more elusive crypto animals, these atmospheric lifeforms have reportedly left behind some traces of their existence. However, very much like other things in the paranormal, this potential proof is as ephemeral as the creatures themselves.

Clark relates another story in Unexplained! about a reported “carcass” of one of these atmospheric lifeforms. He notes:

One such incident occurred in Philadelphia on September 26, 1950, when two police officers saw what they thought was a UFO land in a field. When they and two other officers investigated, they found a six-foot-long gelatinous mass that evaporated within half an hour.

This account sounds very similar to a possibly related phenomenon called “Star Jelly”.

Star Jelly

Hopefully you’re not eating while reading this post, that stuff looks pretty gross! Star Jelly, or as it is sometimes known pwdr ser, is a gelatinous substance which sometimes found on grass or trees. The traditional explanation is that it is deposited to the earth during meteor showers, perhaps it is the remains of these atmospheric lfeforms? Or is it as simple as science says; this jelly is the by-product of cyanobacteria?

Atmospheric Amoebas: Full of Orgone

Aviation and military historian, Trevor James Constable is an early UFO writer who was one of the first to theorize that UFOs may actually be what he called “critters”. In Constable’s way of thinking these creatures operated on Orgone energy. Orgone being the ‘life force’ which all living beings have which was proposed by Wilhelm Reich. Constable wrote a book in 1975 outlining his theories on these entities which was entitled The Cosmic Pulse of Life.

Constable is an interesting character who has seemingly done more research into Reich’s Weather Manipulation concepts through orgone, but that’s all a bit outside the scope of this post. You should check out his site linked above for more info on all that.

Science weighs in or towards a conclusion?

The above photo is of a an organism called diatom, which is a single celled algae. This algae was discovered making it’s home about 16 miles up in the atmosphere by Researchers from the University of Sheffield and Buckingham University. The Telegraph relates the following:

Researchers from the University of Sheffield and Buckingham University claim to have found evidence for microscopic organisms living 16 miles up in the atmosphere between Chester and Wakefield.

The scientists used a specially designed balloon to gather samples in the stratosphere during the recent Perseid meteor shower.

They found the fragments of single celled algae known as a diatom.

They argue that this could be the first evidence to show how life may have arrived on Earth from space, perhaps carried here by meteorites.

It is not the first time organisms have been found in the atmosphere and indeed the skies are thought to be teeming with microscopic life.

Though it’s not quite as fantastic as the Crawfordsville Monster, we do seem to have evidence that microscopic life is making its home high up in the atmosphere. Could there potentially be macroscopic life living up there? Could these creatures explain some UFO sightings? After all, UFOs are said to operate unlike conventional aircraft. Could that be explained because they aren’t aircraft at all? Quite possibly. If nothing else, it makes for an interesting thought experiment.

Alien Contact in Human Places

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 11:59:00 +0000

Stories of encounters with extraterrestrials are just about a dime a dozen in Ufological literature. Persons have come into contact with these ET’s outside of their craft, in the woods, out in the desert, or on top of mountains. What seems to be a little less common is encountering those same ET’s at a later date in a more normal or mundane place. For me, these accounts are far more entertaining and, somehow, even more bizarre and surreal than a so-called “CE-3”. Or maybe they’re not so bizarre after all? Could they be clues that some of the UFO’s have bit of a more terrestrial origin? I’ve come across a few such stories which I will relate below and will give links to the sources so that you can read more about these events and let you decide for yourself as to what you make of these accounts.

In Timothy Green Beckley’s The Authentic Book of Ultra-Terrestrial Contacts a story is told of a woman who encountered a group of UFOnauts. It starts off as a “typical” UFO occupant account. Her story is as follow:

A local resident was driving towards town one afternoon when she suddenly saw a strange ship resting on tripod legs. As she approached the craft, she observed a normal looking woman and two men standing near the vehicle. They were talking to each other and eventually walked over to a parked auto and drove off. ….

A few weeks later…. The woman was shopping for the weekly groceries when she noticed, over at the next counter, a familiar-looking face. Edging closer, she was shocked to find that it was the same “person” who was seen months before, driving off from a UFO.

The bewildered woman followed the UFOnaut, the female of the trio, to the check-out counter. Once they were both in line the witness said, “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” With this, the “space woman” bolted from the line, leaving her parcels next to the cash register and disappeared out onto the street….”

What are we to make of this story? Who knows? Why was an “alien” grocery shopping at the local grocery store? Was she out of eggs and milk?

The next account also comes again from The Authentic Book of Ultra-Terrestrial Contacts. I don’t really know how to set it up, I’ll just let the story speak for itself.

This young man, whom I will call Bill, had been sitting in the Greyhound Bus Depot. He was at the end of the line…. an alcoholic. He had only the bus fare over the East Bay Bridge to Oakland. God knows - maybe eh was going to take a leap from the bridge. Well, along comes a wonderful looking man and takes Bill in hand. He took Bill to the hotel Ogden. This beautiful stranger put Bill to bed. And in passing, Bill said that this stranger was just as human as my earth-man. Bill watched this stranger shower and should know.

The ending to this story is perhaps the strangest part. Bill’s life was turned around after spending some time with this “Stranger” and later Bill felt compelled to seek out “Prof” George Adamski. Up on Adamski’s wall, Bill noticed a painting of his “stranger”; it was none other than ‘Orthon’ the Venusian!

In his book Alien Base, Timothy Good relates a story of an early contactee who meet his alien contact in a “traditional” setting and then later in a not quite so traditional one. The story was originally related in the Contactee’s book which was titled The Shocking Truth. Here is Albert Coe’s tale:

In June 1920, then 16 year old Albert Coe was on a canoeing vacation in Ontario with his companion Rod. Alone at the time, Coe heard the muffled cry while clambering to the top of an outcropping of rocks in remote and rough terrain on the Mattawa River. Looking around, Coe could see no one, so he let out a yell. Slightly to his right and ahead came an answer. ‘Oh help me, I’m down here’

As Coe rescued this person, he began to notice some peculiarities. The stranger was dressed in a “silver-gray, jumper type suit”. On this suit was an instrument panel with all manner of knobs and panels upon it. After helping this stranger up from the cliff which he had fallen over, Coe talked the man into allowing him to assist the man in making his way back to the “plane” the stranger had used to make his way into the woods where Coe had found him. Coe’s description of the plane is as followed:

A round silver disc, about 20 feet in diameter, was standing on three legs in the form of a tripod, without propellor, engine, wings or fuselage.

I was musing over its lack of windows and portholes and wondered how he could see out, unless they were over on the other side. Just then, the perimeter edge began to revolve. At first it gave off a low whistling sound, picked up speed mounting to a high-pitched whine, finally going above the audible capabilities of the ear.

With that, the craft flew off. Coe returned to his normal life for a time. About six months after this surreal encounter, Coe received a note from “Xretsim” setting up a meeting at the McAlpine Hotel, Ottawa. (These aliens really seem to have an attraction for hotel rooms). Coe had many more meetings with this stranger, who called himself Zret for short, often with Zret driving a very human car.

Zret would eventually reveal to Coe that he was a part of a group of extraterrestrials who came from both Mars and Venus. This group of aliens had infiltrated every major nation on the Earth. Again, according to Zret, they had some sort of mission here that was dependent upon some event they were hoping to stave off. Coe meet with Zret and others of his kind for many years to come, but seemingly never again saw any more unusual “planes”. You can read more of Coe’s account in Good’s book.

It seems that more often than not I’m at a loss for words when it comes to stories of these nature. I enjoy them from an entertainment standpoint to be sure. As for the inherent validity of the accounts? I can’t say. Why are “aliens” hanging out in grocery stores, hotels, and driving human cars? Have they truly ‘infiltrated’ society to that large of a degree? Or is the fact that they resemble humans, interact in the human world, and have human transportation probably closer to a real explanation for what’s going on in these cases? I think so. These strangers fit in with humans so much because they’re might actually be humans.

Living Dinosaurs!

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:38:00 +0000

As a kid I was extremely fascinated by Dinosaurs and read voraciously on the topic. Every book on the topic I could find I would read. At one point I even thought I would grow up to be a Paleontologist when I was older so that I could spend everyday with these wonderfully fascinating beasts. As with many of my childhood ambitions, my dream of being a paleontologist was abandoned when I found out how terribly boring their day-to-day lives were, and as I discovered the wild and crazy world of Fortean phenomena.

Imagine my surprise when I found that these two seemingly disparate passions found an interesting intersection in the form of modern sightings of living dinosaurs! The current scientific theories suggest that the demise of the dinosaurs began some 65 million years ago, give a take a few years for stragglers to completely die out. This allowed our ancestors, the mammals, to gain a foothold on the planet and for humans to eventually arrive on the scene (thanks to the intervention of the Annunaki of course wink, wink).

Since when has science ever had the final answer on anything? After all, prior to 1938 it was generally believed that the Coelacanth, a close relative to the lungfish, had been extent since the Cretaceous period. This turned out to not quite be the case as fisherman began collecting very-much alive specimens of the species. Who’s to say that some other dinosaurs also didn’t survive the decimation of their fellows and continued flourishing to this very day (aside from conventional wisdom, but who needs that?)

With this in mind I offer to you dear reader the following tales and accounts of interactions with giant terrible lizards who certainly should not be roaming around any longer. As always draw your own conclusions as to the validity of the reports. For myself, I will take these people by their word until sufficient evidence comes in to the contrary.

Mokele-mbembe

Perhaps the most (in)famous of all living dinosaurs is Mokele-Mbembe which translates as "one who stops the flow of rivers" in the language of the people of the Congo river basin. Mokele is a favorite dinosaur of my wife and many others for that matter. Sightings of the creature have been reported in Western sources for a few hundred years. Mokele makes his home in the Congo River basin of Africa traditionally in Lake Tele. Local tradition holds that Mokele is an herbivore which seems to prefer shallow waters. The creature most clearly resembles a Sauropod.

Some sightings:

One of the earlier “modern” accounts comes from just over 100 years ago. Commissioned by the German government, which had a colony in the area of the Congo, Capt. Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz came in the area to do a survey of the land. His writings report the following.

The animal is said to be of a brownish-gray color with a smooth skin, its size is approximately that of an elephant; at least that of a hippopotamus. It is said to have a long and very flexible neck and only one tooth but a very long one; some say it is a horn. A few spoke about a long, muscular tail like that of an alligator. Canoes coming near it are said to be doomed; the animal is said to attack the vessels at once and to kill the crews but without eating the bodies. The creature is said to live in the caves that have been washed out by the river in the clay of its shores at sharp bends. It is said to climb the shores even at daytime in search of food; its diet is said to be entirely vegetable. This feature disagrees with a possible explanation as a myth. The preferred plant was shown to me, it is a kind of liana with large white blossoms, with a milky sap and applelike fruits. At the Ssombo River I was shown a path said to have been made by this animal in order to get at its food. The path was fresh and there were plants of the described type nearby. But since there were too many tracks of elephants, hippos, and other large mammals it was impossible to make out a particular spoor with any amount of certainty

The above was reported by Jerome Clark in his Unexplained! 2nd edition, which as I’ve pointed out previously on this blog has a newly printed 3rd edition.

Expedition after expedition has been mounted to find this creature over time, all clearly unsuccessful. The thing that allows this creature to remain a possibility is the fact that this area is home to the second largest rainforest in the world. This is all to say that it’s not terribly unlikely that a small population of sauropods could have survived to this day.

Pterosaurs

Relatively large-winged reptiles which took the skies some time in the late Jurassic Period. Some of them had wingspans upwards of 16 ft or more, with one of the largest being Hatzegopteryx thambema(having 33-36 ft). Like other dinosaurs, the Pterosaurs died out near the end of the Cretaceous period, or did they?

Writing for paranormal.about.com, Stephen Wagner relates the following accounts of people that claimed to have seen the Pterosaur very much alive.

January, 1976, Harlingen, Texas - Jackie Davis (14) and Tracey Lawson (11) reported seeing a "bird" on the ground that stood five feet tall, was dark in color with a bald head and a face like a gorilla's with a sharp, six-inch-long beak. A subsequent investigation by their parents uncovered tracks that had three toes and were eight inches across.

February, 1976, San Antonio, Texas - Three elementary school teachers saw what they described as a pterodactyl swooping low over their cars as they drove. They said its wingspan was between 15 and 20 feet. One of the teachers commented that it glided through the air on huge, bony wings - like a bat's.

September, 1982, Los Fresnos, Texas - An ambulance driver named James Thompson was stopped while driving on Highway 100 by his sighting of a "large birdlike object" flying low over the area. He described it as black or grayish with a rough texture, but no feathers. It had a five- to six-foot wingspan, a hump on the back of its head, and almost no neck at all. After consulting some books to identify the creature, he decided it most looked like a pterosaur.

These stories are anecdotal to the extreme of course, but as always I’m not sure what more we have to go on besides the stories. The accounts are interesting to say the least, but who knows how much validity there is to them.

Loch Ness ‘Monster’

Plesiosaurs first arrived on the scene, the scene being Earth’s oceans of course, some 205 million years ago during the the Triassic period. They officially lived until about 66 million years ago going extinct about the same time as all of their reptile brethren did. Except that one of them didn’t get the extinction memo and has shown up a number of times over the years in a lake in Scotland. The earliest “sighting” allegedly happened to a Saint Columba in the 6th century, who used his god powers to keep the beast at bay. The modern version of Nessie begins in 1933 with the following account by a George Spicer and his wife who claim to have seen a creature which they described as “having a large body (about 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in) high and 7.6 metres (25 ft) long), and long, narrow neck, slightly thicker than an elephant's trunk and as long as the 10–12-foot (3–4 m) width of the road; the neck had undulations in it. They saw no limbs, possibly because of a dip in the road obscuring the animal's lower portion” (Wikipedia).

1934 brought us the so called “Surgeon’s Photograph” (shown above) which was purportedly captured by Robert Kenneth Wilson and was later to be published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934. The good doctor claimed to have taken the picture after sighting the creature in the Loch, although the photo is generally believed to be a hoax.

As with Mokele, many expeditions have been mounted to capture on film Nessie and all have proven fruitless. The reason for this may be that Nessie isn’t as corporeal as one may assume. A blogger over at the aptly named LOCH NESS MONSTER blogspot page discusses the author, Ted Holiday’s more interesting explanation for the Loch Ness Monster posited in his 1979 work The Goblin Universe.

The blogger writes:

This theory essentially borrowed from the obscure work of a Professor Harold Burr in positing that Nessie was a three dimensional form which could be formed and held by something Burr called Life Fields which were electrical in nature and had some organic organising properties.

Burr proposed this as a biological principle but Holiday took it further in suggesting that a mind could control the process and cause unexpected forms to materialise. Indeed, he proposed a universal mind akin to God as the controller of these phenomemon though the discussion also included the human mind and the collective subconciousness of the entire human race.

I don’t have much more to say on the topic of Nessie, the creature is so iconic at this point I’m not too sure what I could add that hasn’t already been said. Although I do wish to point the reader towards something Greg Taylor wrote up about a Nick Redfern article for the Dark Lore Vol 2 anthology entitled “"What Lies Beneath"

Burrunjor

We come now to our final stop on today’s tour of “living dinosaurs” and what better place to wrap it up than with the ‘king’ himself? At some point during the Cretaceous period our friend the Tyrannosaurus Rex arrived on the scene instilling in all creatures living at the time mixed feelings. On the one hand, T. Rex was one of the largest land carnivores ever known to have lived. On the other, their arms were almost comically tiny. I digress. T. Rex were known to have roamed of much of what is now North America and, as with most of our other friends we’ve spoken about today, to have gone extinct around 65 million years ago. Or perhaps not? Blogger Peter James Theiss, relates the following accounts on his Dinoplaza blog about sightings of a creature in Australia called the Burrunjor. This creature, by all accounts, sounds strikingly like our friend the T. Rex. Here are some of the accounts Theiss shares:

In 1922, north of Cloncurry, stock men saw a "big lizard monster" that was bipedal and moved its tail from side to side when walking.

In 1950, in the Burketown region, two reptile tracks were sighted by ranchers.

Back in 1950, cattlemen lost stock to some mysterious beast that left the mutilated, half-eaten remains of cows and bulls in its wake over a wide area, stretching between the border country and Burketown. At first the cattlemen suspected crocodiles, but, Charles Waterman, a cattleman, described a "fearsome", mottled 20 foot tall beast carrying a cow in its jaws that bounded out of sight as he hid behind a bush.

Searchers on horseback found huge reptilian tracks of some bipedal-walking beast. They followed these three-toed tracks with their cattle dogs through some rough jungle terrain until they entered swampland beyond which was more dense scrub.

However, it was at this point that the cattle dogs became uneasy and ran off. The horses were also uneasy and obviously did not want to cross the swamp. While most of the cattlemen decided their animals knew best, two men set off on foot with their carbines.

The story goes that they soon came across further tracks in an open area beyond the swamp. While his mate searched about, the other man briefly spotted the dark form of an enormous creature, perhaps 30 ft. in height, further off in dense timber. The men left the scene in haste.

Be sure to head over to Theiss’ blog in order to read more of the accounts that he shares. What is going on here? Is there some kind of Dinosaur living in Australia? We all know that the country has all sorts of bizarre and kooky animals, maybe living dinosaurs are just another part of the fauna of the land?

Conclusions?

One of the biggest criticisms of the continued existence of our friends the Pterosaurs, Mokele-Mbembe, T-Rex or Burrunjor, and the Loch Ness Monster are the locations where they are sighted don’t necessarily have a lot of good hiding places for them. Mokele could, at least in theory, hide in the rain forest, Pterosaurs? Not so much. After all, most of them are sighted in the Midwest of the United States. There aren't too many places for a giant flying creature to hide. Honestly the same can be said of the Loch Ness Monster. Yes, Loch Ness is actually quite large and deep. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a big enough population of creatures living in the Loch to sustain a Plesiosaur or family of them. Of course this is working under the assumption that these are actual physical creatures and not phantoms from another time. Which, seeing as this is the world of the Fortean, who can say they aren't?

For all we know these creatures could be slipping temporarily from their own time and invading ours. And really, is this any crazier than their existing currently living dinosaurs? That’s all for now dear readers, be sure to check back in on Monday for more from the strange world of the Fortean!

Devil's Footprints

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:32:00 +0000

The further in time we are from when an event occurred, the easier it is to write it off as fictional or exaggerated. I suppose this is do to some underlying assumption that people of the past, due to their lack of “knowledge” which we modern people possess, were either ignorant or gullible. However as is my usual inclination I take people’s personal accounts and experiences at face value for the most part and tend to believe that they believe what happened to them actually occurred. With this in mind I wish to take a look at an interesting event which occurred in Devon-shire, England.

On the night of February 7th, 1885 a heavy snow fell as the residents readied themselves for another night’s sleep in this quiet town they had no idea that a strange mystery was about to unfold across their rooftops and lawns. Writing in Unexplained! (in the interest of full disclosure I only have the 2nd edition of this book, there is however a newer 3rd edition which I have linked to here), Jerome Clark relates what the Times of London reported on February 16 as having happened that night:

“It appears that on Thursday night last there was a very heavy fall of snow in the neighborhood of Exeter and the south of Devon. On the following morning, the inhabitants of the above towns were surprised at discovering the tracks of some strange and mysterious animal, endowed with the power of ubiquity, as the foot-prints were to be seen in all kinds of inaccessible places - on the tops of houses and narrow walls, in gardens and courtyards enclosed by high walls and palings, as well as in open fields. There was hardly a garden in Lympstone where the footprints were not observed”

The Times goes on to report that “The creature seems to have approached the doors of several houses and then to have retreated”. The residents, it would seem, were mostly convinced that the Devil himself had visited. Have a look at the artists rendering of the “footprints” and see for yourself.

As usual many explanations were offered in order to explain the tracks. The Times noted that a local minister, Rev Musgrave, spoke about the footprints in a sermon and alluded to them having been made by a kangaroo. Which, in and of itself, would be a bit of an interesting tale. Our story doesn't end here however. While doing some internet searching in relation to this Fortean tale, I came across a curious story which the Telegraph ran back in 2009. They report:

"Jill Wade was perplexed to find pointed, hoof-like marks in freshly fallen snow at her home in Woolsery, North Devon.

The marks were similar to those in the original Devil's Footprints which have been shrouded in mystery for over 150 years when it was believed Devon was visited by the devil himself.

Legend has it that on February 8, 1855, a trail of hoof-like marks following straight lines appeared in the snow for more than 100 miles across South Devon.

It was also recorded that the tracks were seen on one side of 14 foot walls, and again on the other side, had passed through locked gardens, and over houses, as if they were no barrier.

Nearly 154 years to the day Mrs Wade a retired local government officer, awoke and looked out of her bedroom window to see the eerie footprints stretching across her garden.

She says the footprints stretched 60 to 70 feet across her garden in an arch shape running from below her window to the other side of her garden."

The marks which Wade found in her backyard bore an uncanny resemblance to those which had been sighted near the same area over 100 yrs in the past. According to the Telegraph, Wade contacted the Center(Centre) for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) who sent out a Zoologist to investigate. His personal opinion was that the footprints were likely caused by a hare or a rabbit. Mystery solved? Perhaps in the case of what Wade sighted, as to the original footprints? Who knows? Could they have been actual footprints of the “Devil”, well personally I doubt it because I’m not convinced such an entity exists.

Still it makes for an interesting story and a good fun read. So long as I don’t wake up to find the same footprints outside of my doorstep. I highly recommend, if you haven’t already, picking up a copy of Clark’s Unexplained! 3rd Edition. It has a great many stories just like the one I related and they make for fun reading. That’s all for now, check back tomorrow for more tantalizing and strange tales from the world of the Fortean! (Or something like that, the closing sentence is always so difficult for me ha ha ha).

ET Pen Pals

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 12:02:00 +0000

I’ve been getting back into the habit of more regular updates here at Forteania and as such I’ve been racking my brain to dislodge various paranormal topics which I haven’t really dealt with before in the past. Today I wanted to talk to you dear readers about a very fascinating topic: Alien/Automatic writing. Personally I’ve lumped these two seemingly disparate topics together because I don’t actually think they’re all that different upon further inspection.

As a bit of a background automatic writing, also known as psychography, is a supposed psychic ability whereby a person produces writing words/symbols without actually physically having written them. Generally this is achieved by an outside, supernatural, force. (Thank you wikipedia!) Automatic writing, or spirit writing as it was also called at the time, seems to have shown up right about the time of the Spiritualism Movement of the late 19th century. This website seems to suggest that women used automatic/spirit writing as a means of breaking out of societal norms, who am I to argue? But that’s neither here nor there for what we’re talking about today.

Alien writing seems to have come around about the same time as the contactee movement, although there maybe some overlap with the earlier spiritual/theosophist writings who technically communicated with what would be called “ETs” which they considered to be Ascended Masters of sorts.

Explanations and origins aside, here follows a few example of the myriad that have been reported by experiencers over time. What little information is available on their accounts is also included. All credit to this information goes to Alien Abduction Experience and Research.

First is from Manuel from Minnesota:

The above script is from Manuel some kind of an abductee from Minnesota. I don’t really know much more about his experiences besides the writing.

I remember that I forgot to reply to you concerning the 'alphabets'. I found a writing from December of 1998. I am including in this note as an attachment. Also am including one more 'circle' actually it is a quarter circle, with an animal-like figure in it.

There are different 'families' and each has its own way. And then there are 'the experimenters' a family unto themselves. The 'experimenters' are what are known as 'greys'. Someone told me they are referred to as the 'Zeta Reticuli'. She wasn't someone I felt comfortable even being in the same room with... as it is with most people who 'enjoy' expounding about implants and experiments and giving birth to hybrid alien babies.

I have this unexplainable urge to get away from them, or ask them to leave. Kinda like the feeling that the energy is not anything I want even near me... unlike those that are clearly upset by the whole thing... do you see what I mean. Like the difference between a propagandist and a victim of the propaganda...?

By the way, in writing all I did in my big note about my experiences I have been freed of a lot of pain and anger. I came to realize in my writing you that I was really quite angry and fearful... I never realized just how scared I really was. I do now. And it has helped me to start looking at the matters in a whole different light. I have pushed people away, in the process of trying to find understanding. I hope I can open even more, at least enough to hold on to discrimination while honestly evaluating and sharing.

Next up is from a man named David:

David from Texas explains, "This writing is very special to me. I use it mostly for sacred purposes. I cannot remember a time when I did not know this language. I write it very fast, but it takes me forever to translate it to English, mostly because it does not lend itself to translation to English very easily."

"Most of the words have no parallel in English. The English language, while having a beauty in its precision, does not contain the depth of meaning and color that this language does. The nearest illustration I can provide is, for example, with the word "love." In Koine Greek, as you know, I studied Greek and Hebrew at Seminary, the word "love" has at least three or four words used to describe it: Eros which is physical love; Phileo which is brother love; Agape-Godly which is also love."

"In English, we have just the word "love." Shades of meaning and depth of color are missing from the English language."

"I sent samples of this writing to a friend who specializes in ancient languages. I also gave a copy to a friend who is in military intelligence, a cryptanalyst and linguist. He thought it was similar to Russian or Greek. Being familiar with Greek, I can see where some of the elements resemble Greek, but they do not fit into the schema as do the Greek letters that would have a linguistic correspondence."

"I can read Russian to some small degree and I can see evidence of Cyrillic in it, but cannot say it is a known Russian language, of which there are over 150 Russian dialects. I have heard at least twice as many conclusions as there have been people analyzing it."

"My earliest memory of writing this language goes back to when I was in the third grade. My older sister tells me that I have been speaking this language since before I went from crawling to walking."

The interesting thing about David’s writing is that it looks somewhat similar to the “Martian” writing of Hélène Thome, who using automatic writing, was allegedly in contact with beings from Mars. Her story was written about in the book From India to Mars which can thankfully be obtained for free on the internets.

Thome's "Martian" writing

One last example I wish to take a look at is from Nathan:

Nathan wrote, "Here is some alien writing. I also speak alien from the home planet of Ethna. I've been doing this all my life. Unfortunately, I stopped for a long time due to people (family) thinking I was crazy and sending me to a psych doc who put me on 22 pills a day, and still did it . . . so I stopped, because they said I was crazy and delusional."

"Recently, I just went off my meds . . . they only made me very ill to the point I could hardly function! This also messed up my mind really bad. But the good news, since I've been of them a few months, I have recovered 100%. I am growing in psychic powers such as telepathy! I also started writing down this writing and channeling. Anyways, take a look, tell me what you think."

That last little bit of information about the medication somehow interfering with the communication channels sounds like something Greg Bishop talked about Dr. Mario Pazzaglini telling him. Here is an excerpt of an interview Bishop did with Dr. Pazzaglini for his now defunct zine The Excluded Middle (an anthology of which you should purchase here). The idea, as I understood it, was that the medication interrupted whatever was allowing the person to have contact with the alien intelligence.

In the end what are we to make of this writing? Does it have any inherent value? I can’t say for sure. I’m interested in the writing as yet another fascinating puzzle piece in the grand scheme of Forteana. Like almost everything else in this arena, I don’t know how real it is. But it’s certainly fascinating. As usual if you’ve got anything to add hit me up in the comments section.

Fairy Tales?

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Morrill) — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:16:00 +0000

Personal encounters are interesting to me even if they are not helpful from any kind of scientific standpoint. At the end of the day, all we really have are the stories which people share. The human experience, such that it is, is comprised largely of the stories we tell one another from day to day. And all of human knowledge is passed down through stories. In the following stories, people are having encounters with Fairy-like creatures. Creatures which, for all that we know, shouldn’t exist. Of course it could be that these fairy creatures are simply the same kind of entities that people are sighting during UFO and abduction reports or they could be something completely different. All I know is that the stories are varied and interesting. I share them with you here in the hope to engender conversation, I make no judgement as to the validity of the encounters.

Story related by Lisa A.

This beautiful encounter with a faery or brownie took place on May 31, 2008 in Wyoming, Pennsylvania. Earlier that Spring, I met two Native American women who have had very vivid encounters with the Faery Realm, but I wasn't sure if these interdimensional beings were real. I prayed that God would let me meet one of these "Nature Guardians" and I forgot my prayer.

On Memorial Day weekend that May, our family got into a huge argument, resulting in my sister cursing out my father, slamming the door and taking my nephew with her. Our home fell into a gloom of sadness and depression that entire weekend, and I wasn't looking forward to being home from work that following Monday. Monday morning came and I dragged myself up from bed and sat by our window with the morning sun pouring in. Listlessly I daydreamed while looking through sections of my hair in the sunlight.

Suddenly, I was aware of a sense of being watched, and at the corner of my eye I saw a small feminine face looking at me with total empathy. She did not seem aware of me staring at her in shock. Her eyes were totally beaming unselfish concern about me, as though she sensed things were not right in our home. Her face was not human, but very "otherworldly" and beautiful. She had soft, light brown, cocoa-colored skin and wide-set eyes that tilted up a bit. And her eyes were totally all dark chocolate brown with no irises. They were not scary, though; they were full of love. She had high brow bones, high cheekbones, a high forehead and delicate nose and lips. She looked very delicate and regal. And there was a sense of innocence and humility about her as well as royalty.

After a good minute of me staring at her hard, she realized I was able to see her and she got this look on her face like, Uh oh... she sees me. I better disappear. And with that she did, but I still feel a connection with her to this day. Seeing her has not only showed me how our Creator really does hear everyone's prayers, and showed me that the Faery Realm really does exist. But it taught me to love and respect Nature and the Environment more, because now I know that there are faeries out there and they see everything we humans do to Nature and the wild animals. They see us dumping trash out of our cars and cutting down trees, etc. I don't think they are very impressed with the humankind.

After my encounter, I started picking up trash in my neighborhood and transplanting maple tree saplings that sprung up in our yard every Spring. I started feeding the wild birds and just plain loving Nature with every opportunity I found.

I’m personally interested in the change in behavior that the witness had after her encounter with the “fairy”. It’s not unlike the kind of spiritual development that some Alien abductee’s or Contactee’s undergo as well.

Faery Friends by Marlene

It was on the 22nd of June, 1999. I remember it so well. It was around 9 p.m. and I was outside under the growing moon. I was facing the east with my arms stretched up too the sky and I was asking for blesings for all the beautiful people upon Mother Earth. I turned around and looked up on top of the roof of the house, and there hovering about four feet above the tiles were two glowing lights! At first I was logically thinking, maybe it's a cobweb and is glowing under the moon's rays. But no, whatever it was was hovering up and down - both of these glowing light's!

Suddennly, I had this feeling come over me that whatever it was wasn't bad but good. I held my left hand out (the hand too receive) and I said, "It's okay, you can come to me. I mean you no harm." The glowing balls of light hovered down. Then I could see quite clearly that they were faeries. The female one landed right on my left hand, and I could see there was a male faerie hovering just back from her about eight inches away! My feelings told me that these beautiful beings were there for me for a special reason.

Just then my eldest daughter came running out the back door; she was having trouble getting the lid off something and needed help. They were scared away. They just dissapeared like that! I was taken aback with awe and wonder what I had just experienced. After my encounter, I did much research into faeries to learn all about them. I feel that these faeries have some connection with me now; I feel them close by even though they have not shown themselves again to me since this night. I leave them gifts.

Anonymous poster to FairyGardens.com

As a little girl around eight about fifty years ago I got awoke about dawn to hear the sound of what I thought was children laughing and playing. I looked out the window and saw about four to six separate individual light glimmering yet almost transparent beings dancing in a circle.

I grew up to be very artistic and since I have begun to explore that sighting some fifty years ago it came to my attention that some of my paintings especially are an almost exact replica of Mary Schulte fairy pictures.

I have led a rather miraculous life i do not seem to age and i would pass for 35 without surgery and there have been events in my life that are rather unique for someone growing up in small town Saskatchewan, Canada.

I am always been gifted with second sight which was passed from my Scottish grandmother which I have always accepted as quite normal. Part of my life's journey was to pursue that of a career in counseling working with all factions of disenfranchised people which I have done very successfully and competently and with much love compassion and empathy. There has been trauma in my life which I recovered from and always feeling very blessed in an innate knowing of the wisdom that the trauma gave me in fact feeling blessed that I was able to survive what I survived.

Needless to say that wisdom has been invaluable and supporting people who are in need of emotional support. I often wonder if that wisdom was not the residuals of seeing fairies and what other lessons I will have and whether or not I need to share this with other people..

It’s intriguing to me that the people who tend to see “fairies” seem to have particular reality tunnel/phenomenology. They give the impression of being very “earth-friendly” or “eco-conscious”. It has been suggested that the paranormal perhaps reflects back to us what we expect to see. Could it be that those who are more concerned with nature and saving the planet are going to encounter “fairies”? Whereas someone else may, instead, see little greys from Zeta Reticuli? As always I find myself with far more questions than answers. Perhaps it’s better that way. I continue striving, and hopefully thriving, seeking out the answers to these questions. And sometimes, in John Keel fashion, seeking the questions themselves. Answers be damned!