Just occasionally a book comes along that I don’t just recommend to people. Sometimes, I tell them they have to get a copy of it, no matter what! And that’s the case with the recently published book, The Black Eyed Children, penned in masterful style by David Weatherly. There can be very few readers of Mysterious Universe who have not at least heard of the phenomenon, but if you haven’t, well, David starts his book with the following, atmospheric words to get you acquainted with the admittedly creepy controversy:

“They just want to come inside. Across the world, there are a growing number of accounts of strange, black eyed children. They appear on doorsteps, at car windows, hotel rooms and even boats. Their skin is pale, their mannerisms odd and they have one consistent request. They want to be invited inside. What exactly is this growing phenomena? Are they demonic entities? Alien hybrids? Perhaps they are some form of spirit seeking passage to another place. Or, are they simply a modern urban legend born of the computer age”

And it’s these questions, and many others, that David addresses at length in his book.

What I particularly enjoyed about The Black Eyed Children is that David not only relates the facts, the history, the rumors, the legends and theories relative to these kids, but he does so in a highly entertaining style. There’s nothing worse than reading a book that is packed with data, but that is as dull as the skies of England on a rainy October morning. Fortunately, David’s book is anything but dull!

I don’t exaggerate when I say that, in my opinion, this is destined to become the definitive study on the puzzle, and for several reasons. Thankfully, and very refreshingly, David details the various scenarios that have been presented to explain the mystery, but he doesn’t force-feed any particular one down the throat of his audience. Rather, he presents the witness testimony, the case-files, and the supporting data and evidence, and then uses this as a springboard to try and determine which theory – or, indeed, theories – might be the correct one when it comes to trying to understand what these “things” are or are not. And, given the macabre nature of some of them, I’m perfectly satisfied in calling them “things.”

The book begins with a number of significant witness reports of encounters that are downright creepy. Yep, I know I used that word – creepy – earlier, but it really is the best way to describe these “Damian-meets-E.T.” type kids. A lot of people view the Black Eyed Children from that torturous “Love and Light” angle and perspective. You know the one: E.T. is dabbling with our DNA and creating half-human/half-alien kids that are super-intelligent and that will play a big, positive role in our future as a species. Well, David most certainly addresses at length the “hybrid” angle, but, for me, I still get the deep feeling after reading his words that the phenomenon is very much self-serving and has its – rather than our – best interests at heart. And that’s probably a black heart, too.

This becomes particularly apparent when David begins to delve into highly alternative areas relative to not just the far more conventional “Nuts and Bolts”-UFO angle, but such realms as demonology; life after death and malevolent, tortured ghosts; Middle Eastern Djinn; definitive Tricksters; and a whole host of other entities that may not exactly be our best buddies in the slightest.

And, I’m pleased to say, David – always balanced and unbiased – doesn’t shy away from addressing the possibility that the whole thing is down to nothing stranger than modern-day urban legend. But, as he makes clear, even if some cases fall into that category, there is still a larger and wider mystery to be resolved. Like any aspect of Forteana, yes there are legends, hoaxes and friend-of-a-friend tales. But, strip them away and there’s still a phenomenon – and that applies to the Black Eyed Children, too.

There’s also an excellent chapter on the way in which certain medical conditions can affect the colors of the human eye – thus demonstrating that David leaves no stone unturned in his quest for the truth.

For me, the most fascinating sections of the book were those that highlighted the undeniable parallels between these eerie kids and the Men in Black, vampires and a host of other historical and horrific things that seem to take so much pleasure in tormenting us with their own, unique brands of evil mischief.

That the BEC reportedly, and specifically, have to be invited into the home of the person in their sights does, of course, evoke imagery of the classic blood-sucker of Eastern Europe and elsewhere. And, with regard to the Men in Black, David notes, intriguingly: “Perhaps the classic image of the MIB became too tame for some situations and a higher force created the black eyed children in order to grab the attention of a jaded, overwhelmed public that is tired of old stereotypes.”

If your main area of interest when it comes to the paranormal is UFOs and aliens, then you won’t want to miss this book. But, by delving deep into the hearts of a host of other supernatural conundrums too, the book will also satisfy, intrigue and inform the student of demonology, mythology, ghosts and specters, succubi, and the age-old phenomenon of changelings, which is so prevalent in fairy-lore.

In conclusion, then, David Weatherly’s The Black Eyed Children is a fascinating, insightful and remarkable piece of work on a subject that has been crying out for the definitive study  - and, now, we have that definitive study. If you thought you knew all there was to learn about these strange characters, you’re about to get a big wake-up call! Maybe a literal wake-up call, too, if “they” come knocking on your door on some dark, chilled night as the witching-hour looms…

It’s not often that a news story pops up that I find so fascinating that I must blog about it. Normally, if something piques my interest it’s passed on in a tweet and soon forgotten. However this week I stumbled across a Daily Mail article about the discovery of a WWII Kittyhawk P40 that disappeared 70 years ago. I was so intrigued by this discovery that I thought I should take a look at some other incredible WWII relics.

First the Kittyhawk P40. On the 28th of June 1942, Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping bravely climbed from the cockpit of his crashed fighter and set out into the Western Desert of Egypt to find rescue. Unfortunately that rescue never came and he, and his fighter were lost to an unforgiving landscape. This is until 70 years later, when the P40 emerged from the harsh monotonous terrain. The site has been described as a “time capsule” with much of the aircraft remaining intact. Aviation historian Andy Saunders has said “It’s the aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun’s tomb.” Check out more of the photos here.

This great find isn’t the first rediscovery of wartime machinery and surely won’t be the last.

On May the 31st 1942, three Midget Japanese Submarines stealthy entered Sydney Harbour and killed 21 brave Australian sailors by firing a torpedo that detonated under the HMAS Kuttabul. The submarines were hunted down and sunk by Allied vessels including the USS Chicago and HMAS Geelong. Two of the submarines were found while one Midget Submarine, the M24 disappeared into the vast wartime crevices of Sydney Harbour. 64 years later in November of 2006, a group of recreational divers discovered the sub tangled in nets in 54 meters of water. The wreck site now falls under Australian Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks law, and a protective zone has been placed around the site. Recovery of the sub was estimated to cost upwards of $60 Million Australian Dollars, so for the moment it will continue its service as an artificial reef.

Speaking of Sydney. The HMAS Sydney was one of Australia’s greatest wartime mysteries. On the 19th of November 1941, the light cruiser engaged the German Raider HSK Kormoran, losing a fierce battle and taking 645 lives with it as it sank below the water. For decades, the location of the wreck was unknown. After the battle, only a single unoccupied lifeboat (damaged by machine gun fire) was found and added not only the mystery but the tragedy of such a disaster. The mystery was solved in March of 2008, when the wreck was found off the coast of Western Australia and it too is now protected under Australian Heritage Law.

Over to France, where a US M5 Light tank used in the D-Day Invasion of 1944 was discovered buried under a street 55 miles south-west of Paris in 2008. According to residents of the time, the tank rolled into town and simply broke down or ran out of fuel. It was then pushed into a hole and buried, only to be rediscovered decades later when the local council initiated routine road repairs.

The M5 wasn’t the only tank to undergo a multi-decade long subterranean slumber. In September of 2000, a Russian tank captured by the Germans in 1944 was pulled from the boggy bank of a lake near Johvi, Estonia. The 27 ton beast had rested there for 62 years.

Uncovering a wartime relic isn’t limited to benign wrecks. Some have been unfortunate enough to come across live and unstable ordinance. I know after my own Grandfather passed away, my grandmother found M16s hidden in the roof cavity. Fortunately it was the 80′s and Australian firearm amnesties were common so little inconvenience was caused. Although this wasn’t the case for 30 families in the UK’s Seaham just last week who evacuated from their homes after a WWII hand grenade was discovered during excavation works. The grenade was determined to no longer be live.

The same cannot be said for a 1,100 pound bomb that was discovered by workers building a sports stadium in Goettingen, Germany in 2010. Sadly, 3 people were killed during the defusing of the bomb.

While the discovery of these relics is exciting and provides endless fascination, it must always be remembered that many servicemen and servicewomen died defending freedom and it is because of their selfless actions that we able to go about our lives with the rights we have today. Lest we forget.

Sometimes, I’m asked – and particularly so at conferences – what’s it like going on an expedition in search of all-things of a supernatural, paranormal, ufological, cryptozoological or Fortean nature? Well, sometimes it goes very much like the following, which gives a good indication of what life is like in the field when pursuing the odd, the eerie and the downright uncanny. It was February 2008, I was on the road with Lance Oliver, of the Texas-based Denton Area Paranormal Society, and we were headed for Lake Ray Roberts, Texas – where something strange and monstrous had reportedly been seen… 

The lake and its surrounding areas are notable: in times past they were the haunt of various Native American Indian tribes, including the Comanche, the Kiowa and the Tonkawa. Before we arrived, Lance told me there had been a number of interesting UFO encounters in the vicinity, and in May 1990 strange roaring and screaming noises of a distinctly animalistic nature were heard in the woods. Not only that, but in the very same time frame nothing less than an approximately eight-foot-tall hairy man-beast was seen late at night by several young guys who were camped on the north side of the lake. Well, of course, with all that going on, we just had to check the place out!

I followed Lance in my car as he drove to a small parking area – that was just about as close as a person could get by vehicle to where all the specific Bigfoot action had taken place. We were then faced with approximately a mile-long trek through the thick woods, up and down several steep climbs, and across a couple of rocky sandbars, against which the lake’s cool waters gently lapped.

But finally we got to the location where all of the hair-raising – and hairy – action had occurred: a steep and wide hill that was packed from floor to ceiling with dense trees and rotting vegetation. In addition, there was a seeming distinct lack of animal life and noise. Indeed, deathly quiet would be a veritable understatement. Even though the Bigfoot encounters had taken place years before, experience on the road has shown me time and again that one should never turn up the chance to conduct a deep investigation of such a mysterious locale – just in the event that something of profound interest might turn up. And it did.

Taking into consideration the fact that the hill was a large one, Lance and I decided that the wisest approach would be to split up and cover as much of the area as was humanly possible. It was a good idea, to say the least. As I have come to learn, in areas where Bigfoot has been seen on regular occasions, it is not uncommon to find what appear to be curious formations of tree branches that appear to be have fashioned into particular designs by something with a high degree of intelligence.

These odd structures are essentially made up of thick branches that, in many cases, look like they have literally been wrenched off of trees and placed into distinct pyramid-style formations. Some researchers have suggested they are made by the creatures as territorial markers; while others have suggested they might very well be connected to Bigfoot mating rituals.

A definitive answer to their construction still eludes us; however, I do not exaggerate when I say that the peak of the wooded hill was infested with such formations. To the left of us, to the right of us, in front of us and behind us: they were everywhere. Of course, out came the cameras to preserve the astounding scene. But there was more. Curious stone structures were prevalent, including what looked like a miniature version of Stonehenge; and strange, almost cave-like, dwellings could be found in the undergrowth on the slopes of the hill.

But perhaps most interesting of all was a discovery that Lance made as our search was nearing its end: a large stone that had a perfect, circular hole running through its length. Interestingly, a Shaman contact of Lance’s had told him such stone-holes were said to be doorways that allowed enlightened souls to peer into other realms and dimensions.

Is Lake Ray Roberts home to a dimensional gateway through which enigmatic Bigfoot-type beasts gain access to our world? Given some of the stranger stories of Bigfoot blinking out in a flash of light, or tracks suddenly coming to a halt as if the beast had vanished in an instant, I wouldn’t bet against it!

And, in expedition terms, it was yet another weird day on the road – just like so many others.

Well, I was kind of expecting to see a bit of a fanfare this month about the infamous MJ12 documents. Why? Simple: this month marks exactly twenty-five years since they surfaced into the public domain in the pages of Tim Good’s acclaimed book of May 1987: Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up. That there hasn’t seemingly been much in the way of commentary on the 25th anniversary of what are, without doubt, one of the most controversial “things” ever to have surfaced within the ufological arena, suggests a few possibilities…

First, maybe whole swathes of Ufology have simply forgotten about MJ12. Second, perhaps the fact that – for many in Ufology – the documents continue to frustratingly languish in that murky stalemate-driven realm of “genuine, disinformation, or hoax?” has led the research community to focus its attentions on what it sees as far more profitable and likely ways to secure the truth behind the UFO phenomenon. And, third,  maybe people just don’t care anymore about the debate surrounding the papers, their content, the way they surfaced, and the attendant analysis of their content.

Whatever the answer(s), the papers did – and, for some, still do – play a significant role in Ufology for many a year. I still very well remember how, when Tim Good’s book surfaced in the U.K. in May 1987, they provoked widespread debate, excitement, fury and skepticism in the British UFO arena of the day. And, hot on the heels of Good’s book was the release – in the United States - of the same documents team from the team of Bill Moore, Stanton Friedman and Jaime Shandera. And, in no time at all, the world of Ufology was faced with its biggest piece of news in a long, long time.

For those not fully conversant with the papers in question, they actually appeared under mysterious circumstances in the mailbox of the aforementioned Shandera back in December 1984, and were carefully and quietly studied for years – not surprising, given that they appeared to be official, highly-classified documents concerning the establishment, in 1947, by President Harry Truman, of a highly classified group of people in government, the military, the intelligence world, and the scientific community, who, collectively, became known as MJ12 or Majestic 12.

And, so the papers made it clear, the group was sitting on just about the biggest secret of all: the recovery of a crashed UFO and dead alien bodies from the New Mexico desert in the summer of 1947. That’s right: Roswell. But, that quiet study came to an end when Above Top Secret was published. The cosmic cat was now out of the bag and everyone knew the story and was on the trail.

For those people reading this who weren’t on the ufological scene back in 1987 – or, maybe, weren’t even born – it’s probably hard to understand the near-hysteria and huge excitement that accompanied the MJ12 papers when they first hit the headlines. There really was a deep sense of “This is it!” And a feeling that “the truth is coming.”

Of course, and as is always the case in Ufology, it wasn’t quite that simple. While some in Ufology championed the documents – and their content – as being utterly genuine, others soon cried “Hoax!” And some claimed this was all a case of government-created disinformation to further cloud the already murky waters of stories relative to Roswell, dead aliens and crashed UFOs. There was forensic analysis of the typeface in the documents, Truman’s signature on the papers became a hugely controversial matter, and extensive research was undertaken into the names, lives and activities of the alleged MJ12 members. In some cases, this all went on for years. And such was the controversy, even the FBI got involved in the MJ12 affair at one point.

But, for all the studies, papers, books, lectures, analyses and more, the MJ12 papers did not resolve Roswell. Nor did they open the floodgates to a revelation that, yes, UFOs are real and the government has secretly had proof ever since aliens had the misfortune to crash in the wilds of Lincoln County, New Mexico in the summer of 1947. What the documents did do, however, was to keep many significant figures in the UFO research community busy – and arguing – for years. And the outcome was pretty much as I expected it to be.

If there is one thing that can be said about the ufological research arena (and this also goes for Cryptozoology, ghost-hunting, and every other aspect of Fortean-based studies, too), it’s that everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a favorite case. And there’s never-ending debate on what’s genuine and what isn’t.

Whether it’s George Adamski’s 60-something-year-old photos, the Gulf Breeze affair, the Bob Lazar-Area 51 controversy, or the truth behind the Men in Black puzzle, the reality is that such issues – and countless more – polarize people into different camps. Some believe, some disbelieve, others doubt, far more than a few don’t know what to think, and many end up exasperated, exhausted and frustrated by their quest for the truth – which always remains a tantalizing step or several ahead of them. And the very same thing can be said about the MJ12 documents.

So, twenty-five years later, where are we at with those pesky papers? If you’re a believer, you’ll say the truth is in, even if we can’t fully prove it. The skeptic would say it’s all a big fuss about nothing, a hoax, a joke, a distraction. Many – certainly me – might say that, as interesting and as exciting as that period was in the summer of 1987, neither the documents nor the era have changed anything at all. But, isn’t that what Ufology is all about: new controversy layered upon new controversy, but never a straight answer that we can nail to the ground and finally say “Gotcha!”?

Of course that’s what Ufology is all about!

So, as much as I find the whole MJ12 controversy as frustrating as it is sometimes intriguing, today I raise a glass of something chilled and potent to those papers of the purloined, leaked, faked or whatever else nature might spring to mind. And, I have no doubt that in another 25 years people will still be asking questions about MJ12, about the Truman signature, about whether or not the brand of typewriter used to prepare the documents was actually in use in 1947, and about…well, the list will go on and on, as will the definitively unanswered questions.

A 50th anniversary for MJ12? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…

New Mayan calendar discoveries lead us onto a YouTube goose chase as we track down the origins of the “Alien Quarantine” conspiracy.

We then move into encounters with little people, both benign and not so benign, before taking a funky WTF trip aboard a green dragon with the Pink Pearl herself.

Read on for show notes, music and books.

This episode is exclusive to Plus+ members. Click HERE to learn more!

Mystery of dolphin and penguin deaths

Nevermind the Apocalypse: Earliest Mayan Calendar Found

The Shift & The End of The ET Quarantine Dec. 21 2012

Little People on a South Texas Dirt Road

The Four Demon Elves

The Little Monk and His Lute

The Troll Battle

The Night Watcher

Worst Best TV Network! Where the wordl watchs VT!

The money shot…

Music

Kill Paris – Shades Of Funk

Kicks N Licks – Time

Kastle – Uh Oh

Vexare – Breathe By Maka & Waeck

Greetings, fellow Coppertops! Our weekly sojourn to the very matrix of reality will show us ancient crimes and modern secrets, monstrous things both big and small —some small enough to burst out of your own chest!— and the light at the end of the rabbit tunnel might signal the dawn of a new era. So pay attention, and stop looking at the woman in the red dress.

(10) The last space shuttle is getting moth-balled at the Smithsonian as we speak, and while many Americans woe at their nation’s apparent loss of their foothold in the final frontier, they forget the fact that there’s always been two space programs: the public NASA-directed space program which has suffered numerous set-backs and cuts; and a secret space program maintained by the Military that doesn’t answer to the Congress, which is very much alive and doing well. Extremely well I should say, now that the USAF robotic X-37B space plane continues to break records with its nearly 430-day mission in orbit. The fact that the Air Force has kept mum about the mission objectives and capabilities of this mini-me unmanned version of the iconic shuttle has stirred all sorts of controversy and speculation: is it a spy drone or a weapons platform? And what has it been doing up there all these months exactly?

Whatever the case, the X-37B seems to be a clear example that all those wild rumors about the incredible capabilities of the secret space program —with the famous ARV and clandestine off-world bases at the extreme end of the spectrum— might still contain a teeny-weenie kernel of truth behind them. A kernel that keeps sucking billions of dollars from the US annual budget…

(9) Arthur C Clarke used to say dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t develop a space program, but a new study suggests that the demise of the mighty lizards was brought up by their mighty farts. British scientists have calculated the methane output of sauropods (giant four-legged behemoths like the Brontosaurs) and estimate that the dino population as a whole produced 520 million tonnes of gas annually; and since methane is one of the most powerful green-house gases, this could have been a key factor in the warm climate of the late Jurassic 150 millions of years ago.

After recovering from that oh-so lovely picture of a Flatu-calypse in Earth’s ancient past, which might or might not have been worsened by the arrival of a big-ass incandescent space rock —like those Youtube clips we’ve all seen… times a trillion!— it occurs to me we should consider this valuable info next time we try to find the elusive Mokele Mbembe. Memo to all monster-hunters visiting the Congo Basin: stop asking the locals or showing them pictures, and just follow your nose.

(8) Farting dinos is a rather colorful image, but not nearly as colorful as the wondrous cave-art paintings in Chauvet, France; which have been confirmed to be the oldest & most elaborate known to-date with an age of about 32,000 years. For a long time scholars believed these dynamically vivid images of bear, rhinos, horses, lions and other fine examples of paleo-fauna could only be 12 to 17,000 years old at the most, because of their great level of sophistication; yet aside from previous radiocarbon dating evidence a new geological analysis has shown that an overhanging cliff began collapsing 29,000 years ago and did so repeatedly over time, definitively sealing the entrance to humans around 21,000 years ago. So once again our pre-conceptions about what the ‘primitive’ ancients were capable of doing come tumbling down like a pile of pebbles.

If time-travel becomes a reality some day in the distant future, then meeting the GENIUS —or group of geniuses— that painted this masterpiece should definitely become a priority mission.

(7) Then again, maybe they were so good at it because they had nowhere else to go? Scientists with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory mission, a space-based telescope keeping tabs on our home star, have detected a massive solar structure mentioned as a “monster sunspot” in a recent Twitter announcement. “With at least four dark cores larger than Earth, AR 1476 sprawls more than 100,000 km from end to end, and makes an easy target for backyard solar telescopes,” the website Spaceweather.com reported last Monday.

For me it’s impossible not to think of all the ancient legends which talk about how a large chunk of the human race took refuge deep underground due to a massive cataclysm long ago, like the Hopi oral tradition describing how they traveled below the Earth seeking shelter with the Ant people while fire rained down upon the world. Is history about to repeat itself?

(6) Monsters come in all shapes & sizes , and one who used to terrorize the streets of London during the Victorian era was the famous Jack the Ripper, with his bloody murders that kept Scotland Yard scratching their heads; or should that be ‘her’ bloody murders? A Birmingham writer’s new book, Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman, has shocked historians by proposing Welsh-born Lizzie Williams as the Whitechapel monster, choosing women as victims out of spite for her own sterility.

Lizzie was wife of royal physician Sir John Williams, himself seen as a prime suspect by many other crime experts; another suspect was Sir William Gull, an eminent physician also along with heavy masonic connections, who was portrayed as the Ripper in Alan Moore’s graphic novel From Hell; but as the old saying goes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Jack or Jackie? the game’s still afoot methinks…

(5) Those dark London alleys were pretty insecure, but now it seems that many individuals can’t even find safety in the sanctity of their own homes, with thousands of people claiming to have suffered painful medical procedures at the mercy of non-human entities, after being removed from their bedrooms under the cover of night. Many skeptics have tried to propose different scenarios which would expound these bizarre anecdotes in purely mundane terms, ranging from plain hoaxes to repressed memories triggered by a sexual assault at an early age; the latest attempt is trying to explain abductions as lucid dreams, and that the surreal imagery of the dreams was fueled by Sci-Fi and other manifestations of pop culture, such as the classic TV program The Outer Limits.

I’m not really sure if little bug-eyed aliens are taking human beings from their homes to perform procedures that may or may not involve genetic experimentation, but frankly I find all these debunking exercises a bit frustrating and, well, annoying even! Sure, you can find plenty of imagery that resembles some of the elements of the archetypal abduction scenario —and even this is deceiving since there doesn’t seem to be something like a ‘typical’ abduction— in the pages of comic books or in the scenes of cheesy B-type movies; it would also be naive to assume that witnesses do not address a hypothetically fantastic experience from the perspective given by their own cultural bias. But there are several authors who think this chicken/egg pursuit is more complex than we realize, and ultimately pointless; like Jeffrey Kripal with his book Mutants & Mystics, in which he shows how Culture and the Anomalous cross-pollinate each other back and forth; and they will keep doing so as long as the Culture keeps churning out new methods of narrative expression.

We shouldn’t really be asking about the intentions and procedures of the aliens behind these events; what we should first be asking is this: “is there an external factor behind the triggering of these accounts?”, and “Is that factor sentient?”. After that the provenance of these factors and the state in which the contact with the abductees takes place might be easier to elucidate. Or not.

(4) Another fascinating mystery that has escalated to apocalyptic proportions is of course the coming end of the 13th Mayan baktun, which has many people in the western world fearing for the worst. But a recent find at the Xultún (Guatemala) archeological site of a 1,200-year-old room filled with wall paintings and astronomical markings will probably help some folks to breathe easier —and stop buying all that damn freeze-dried food from Alex Jones. Along with the richly detailed paintings depicting important figures identified as “Younger Brother Obsidian”, “Older Brother Obsidian”, some scribes and a Maya king seated and wearing an elaborate headdress —although not nearly as elaborate as this other ‘adornment’ IMO— rows of numbers an hieroglyphs denoted lunar cycles of 177 or 178 days, along with calculations related to the periods for Venus, Mercury and Mars. These wide scales of time suggest the Maya were expecting many more baktuns following the end of the 13th:

“It’s very clear that the 2012 date, this end of 13 baktuns, while important, was turning the page,” David Stuart, an expert on Maya hieroglyphs at the University of Texas at Austin, told reporters today. “Baktun 14 was going to be coming, and Baktun 15 and Baktun 16. … The Maya calendar is going to keep going, and keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future.”

Ok, so no end of all life as we know it, but I still think it’s interesting how the Maya considered the coming end of the long-count cycle as having a special significance. I also find interesting the name of the archeologist in charge of this recent finding: William Saturno, from Boston University. Playing a bit of Twilight language here, ‘Saturno’ means Saturn in Spanish; and as we all know Saturn is the name of the Titan that used to rule the Earth and devour his sons as soon as they came out from their mother’s womb, until one day he was defeated by Jupiter who then proceeded to found the Golden Age of the gods —things that make you go Hmmm…

(3) One of the few titans who helped Jupiter was none other than Prometheus, a name that has turned *extremely* popular this year thanks to the piling expectation for Riddley Scott’s upcoming movie. So far all the released trailers & bonus material, along with Scott’s personal disclosures in recent interviews, suggest that Prometheus will turn out to be much more than your usual Summer blockbuster, and it might just transform into the best campaign instrument UFOlogy in general —and the Ancient Alien theory in particular— has had in a very, VERY long time.

The latest evidence of this is a recent featurette in which Scott says:

“The planet where they go is called Zeta(2) Reticuli, and what they find there is an establishment that is not what they expected it to be,” adding, “this story kind of walks around the truth of what there may be out there… It presents some big questions.”

[Video]

Ok, granted: Mr. Scott’s astronomy knowledge is a bit subpar, and Zeta Reticuli is not actually a planet —nor a moon just off Io— but a binary star system 39-light-years away from Earth… but COME ON! Zeta ZOMG! Reticuli. I can already picture Stan Friedman with a beaming smile standing in front of the line in some Canadian movie theater

(2) Alas, we’ll still have to wait a couple of weeks to watch the silver light of Zeta Reticuli projected on  a cinema screen. But the light of a Super-Earth alien planet has already been detected for the first time thanks to NASA’s Spitzer space telescope. The planet, called 55 Cancri, is about twice as big and eight times as massive as Earth. And although the infra-red light emitted by the exo-planet shows it’s sun-facing side is way too hot to support life —at least, life as we know it— this is nevertheless a very exciting achievement, because it means that the day when we’ll finally detect a life-bearing world outside our solar system is getting nearer. And when that day comes, the news will be so huge and shocking it will drown out any other thing happening at that particular moment. A true paradigm shift, just like my buddy Micah likes it.

(1) Paradigm shifts can be brought about with the aid of advanced technology, or sometimes with far simpler means —like a bullet, for instance. Yes, I’m talking about our favorite hirsute wanderer the Bigfoot, and that endless Byzantine discussion among crypto-fans: To shoot or not to shoot.

And now it seems the moral dilemma has been somewhat eased for would-be Sasquatch hunters, if they happen to live in Texas, that is. Oregonian Squatcher John Lloyd Scharf recently contacted the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department inquiring about the possibility of hunting unknown creatures. He received a somewhat dry response from Chief of staff Lt. David. Sinclair, who focused not on the possible existence of the mythic cryptid, but rather on precisely how the government would label it:

“An exotic animal is an animal that is non-indigenous to Texas. Unless the exotic is an endangered species, then exotics may be hunted on private property with landowner consent.”

As far as the law is concerned therefore, if Bigfoot is Texan it can be killed.

But put the safety on for just a minute: what if Bigfoot is a migratory species that travels not only across different states, but maybe even across different sovereign nations? If Bigfoot was to receive protection as an endangered species in Canada, wouldn’t that trigger a nasty diplomatic debate?

Besides, this rationale that you need to kill an animal in order to protect it seems a bit odd and, well… primitive. Although I concede snatching a body might be the only think that would erase the mischievous smirk from another type of bipedal specimen that also happens to dwell in the Texas territory—one with a penchant for The Ramones

Until next time, this is RPJ jacking out & reminding each and everyone: no matter how long they keep telling you, Ignorance is NOT bliss.

Strangely familiar looking Bigfoot photos emerge from Missouri this week along with an interview with the infamous “Bigfoot Killer” Justin Smeja.

After we resist the urge to continue the show entirely in ‘Squatch Speak’ we look at very early attempts at German Rocketry and the occult funding behind them, new huggable robots from the Tokyo design show, and a phantom home invasion.

Read on for show notes, links and music.

Photographs of a Possible Unrecognized Bipedal Hominoid From Oklahoma

Possible Wood Ape Photos From Central Oklahoma

‘To Kill Or Not To Kill’ Interview with Bigfoot killer Justin Smeja

The 6 Ways That Bigfoots Talk To Each Other

Did the Germans launch a crewed rocket into space in 1933?

The secret at the heart of the world – Nazi Cosmology and Belief in the Hollow Earth

Forever Alone 2.0

Plus+ Extension 

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The Abductions Continue by Rick Stokes

I Shot a Ghost

What is the most strangest/bizarre/unexplainable thing that has ever happened to you?

Vengeful teeth-pulling dentist story deemed a hoax

Music

Eplp – Wishes Of You & Me (Square Harmony) via Indie Shuffle

DZA – Finger Snaps ( SHIGETO REMIX ) Pre Order Soon! via 92bpm

Kastle – Stay Forever via EARMILK via Your Music Radar

RackNRuin – Slow Down (Dusky Remix) via Your Music Radar

Clams Casino – Swervin Remix via djnodj

Eliphino – Let Me Love You Forever via Waxhole

Dam Mantle – Rebong via nialler9

Among the quite colorful theories and quips proposed by American author Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn’s creator also was known to have guessed about the origins of of humankind’s most admired and often-stereotyped recessive trait. “While the rest of the species is descended from apes,” Twain wrote, “redheads are descended from cats.”

Indeed, there are an entire host of traditions that involve superstitions associated with redheads (and cats too, for that matter). Red haired individuals comprise less than two percent of the population worldwide, making them the rarest natural hair color among humans. Though we still manage to see red hair quite often despite these percentages–perhaps due in part to the accessibility provided through cosmetic hair dyes–the trait is uncommon enough that odd misconceptions do still crop up from time to time in modern times. Consider, for instance, the popular story that made rounds in 2007, claiming that redheads would become extinct within the next century.

But what is the likelihood, if any exists, that at least some superstitions involving redheads may actually have some factual basis? More specifically, could there be any evidence to support various legends involving the strange paranormal connections red haired people seem to maintain?

“In Greek myth,” it is said, “redheads turned into vampires after they died.” Others have claimed throughout the ages (in the pejorative sense, though largely tongue-in-cheek) that redheads may likely be vampires from birth. It cannot be denied, however, that due to the rarity of red hair among various cultures, the trait has seen both good and ill reception. This certainly has been associated with vampires and various other creatures of the night as well, and not merely among the Greeks. The self-proclaimed vampire hunter Montague Summers wrote in his translation of the Malleus Maleficarum that:

Those whose hair is red, of a certain peculiar shade, are unmistakably vampires. It is significant that in ancient Egypt, as Manetho tells us, human sacrifices were offered at the grave of Osiris, and the victims were red-haired men who were burned, their ashes being scattered far and wide by winnowing-fans. It is held by some authorities that this was done to fertilize the fields and produce a bounteous harvest, red-hair symbolizing the golden wealth of the corn. But these men were called Typhonians, and were representatives not of Osiris but of his evil rival Typhon, whose hair was red.

Red hair has often been stereotyped for being associated with sexual desire, bad temperament, and immoral activity. Aristotle was said to have expressed his similar feeling that redheads were “emotionally un-housebroken.” With little doubt, these sorts of myths were the obvious byproduct of the redhead presence among the cultural minorities; recognition of this aspect alone, however, would do little to qualm the superstitions that have persistently haunted those with red hair and fair skin. Even today, there are still a number of beliefs associated with red haired individuals, among them that gingers may have a greater propensity for harnessing things such as psychic abilities.

I discussed this recently with my friend Marti Marfia, a natural redhead, who had expressed that she, along with most other redheads she had known throughout her life, had claimed to have at least some ability to use such things as intuition. Having encountered stories that were remarkably similar to her own experiences along these lines, Marti began to research the possibility that there might be other stories like hers, or perhaps whether studies might exist that had to do with reasons for such things. Interestingly, at least two studies appear to show a link between red hair and tolerance for pain; this likely results from the fact that redheads have a mutated MC1R gene, and thus an MC1R receptor that is the similar byproduct of rare genetic mutation. These factors my also contribute to the need for larger amounts of anesthesia for redheads undergoing surgery.

In terms of how red hair actually developed among early humans, it is believed that having pale skin may have been advantageous in far-northern climates, and that in the absence of regular sunlight, lighter colored hair–which is typically paired with lighter skin color as well–would have been more conducive to absorbing and maintaining heat. Based on this observation, a 1976 study suggested that the underlying process likely may have to do with higher levels of Vitamin D production, granting redheads a natural ability to ward off conditions such as rickets that stem largely from vitamin deficiencies.

Altogether, what cannot be denied here is that redheads certainly do, without question, operate a bit different from the rest of us, based on their special (and slightly curious) natural physiology.  Could it be that such factors might contribute to a sense of heightened awareness that some redheads claim to sense, or even that such factors might cause them to be likely candidates for experiencing psychic phenomena?

I first heard of the Missouri Mystery Mound at least ten to fifteen years ago on a now-defunct website. The website claimed the Mound was the Hall of Records, although it didn’t specifically say whose hall of records. The Atlanteans? The great mound building cultures of North America? Egyptian? Mayan? Or some race of peoples lost to time? I’m from Missouri, and if an ancient civilization’s hall of records sat under the soil of my state, I needed to know. Trouble is, I couldn’t find the man who said he had discovered it.

Until now.

I tracked down and interviewed Charles Teague, and found the answers to my questions were stranger than I’d ever hoped.

Teague grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and always had an interest in North American archeology; but it wasn’t until one night in the early 1990s listening to radio host Art Bell interview an American Indian shaman, that this interest became almost an obsession.

“(The shaman) was telling this story about how this Indian who had come to him while he was doing some exploring,” Teague said. “This Indian took him to this place back in the back woods to a hall of records under a mountain.”

The shaman told Bell this Indian guide showed him temples and 10,000-year-old artifacts under that mountain, but he didn’t know the location.

“They blindfolded him until they got there, then when he left so he couldn’t get back to it,” Teague said. “But he knew approximately where it was.”

At the time Teague was enrolled in a course on reverse speech technology and recorded this program to see if he could use reverse speech to find this hall of records. He was amazed at what he found.

“It’s just too weird for normal people to understand,” Teague said. “I recorded it, and said hell if this S.O.B. really went to a hall of records in Middle America, in reverse his mind was going to tell me where he went.”

After three hours of listening to that part of the program over and over in reverse, he pulled out words, some intriguing, others curious.

“He said ‘near the fault in America in the forest in the mountains’,” Teague said. “I said it was in the New Madrid fault. It couldn’t be anywhere else.” The New Madrid fault line runs through Mark Twain National Forest, which overlaps the Ozark Mountain range.

Then he caught words like “cactus,” “lake,” and “lizard,” which didn’t mean much. “I said, ‘Jesus, what’s the damn lizard?’ It didn’t make sense,” he said. “Most of it didn’t make sense. But here I was, 100 to 200 miles from it.”

Teague looked over maps, but got only headaches. “I was screwed, so I left it alone for a while.”

It wasn’t until he attended a presentation on historical American peacemakers that the Mound crept back into his thoughts. One peacemaker in particular caught his attention. Colonel George Morgan, who brokered a peace agreement between the revolutionaries and the American Indians during the War for Independence.

“After the Revolutionary War, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson gave him the job of mapping out the Spanish territories from the Mississippi River and Ohio Valley and all that,” Teague said. “He went to southeast Missouri and founded the city of New Madrid. Then he went back to New Jersey, built a fabulous estate, and lived like a millionaire the rest of his life.”

Something about that story bothered Teague, so he read a biography on Morgan. It only offered more questions. “He was a land speculator,” Teague said. “How did he become a millionaire? He didn’t get it from his family. He didn’t get it from the Continental Congress. I figured he must have gotten from the Indians.”

A picture of the Morgan coat of arms in the biography gave him a clue. “I looked at it and said, ‘damn, this ain’t right.’ I noticed in the lower left hand corner there was one box that didn’t make any damn sense. It was offset squares with Xs with something going through the middle. I started looking at it and thought, ‘son of a bitch. This was a grid map.’”

He saw hills, and a river. “I thought, ‘if this was a grid map, this was for one reason and one reason only – for his family. The only thing this could be is the location to where he got his fortune.’ I figured this must be the Hall of Records.”

After spending days pouring over topographical maps at the University of Memphis, he found a spot in hilly region of Mark Twain National Forest near a lake. Forest, fault, mountain, lake. But the hard part of his journey was just beginning.

“Finding something on a grid map and going into the forest and trying to find something are totally different,” he said.

Teague, his wife, and daughter drove to from Tennessee to Missouri and searched a small section of Mark Twain National Forest. “In 100 degrees we went into the backwoods and walked around to find it. We spent most of the day going back in the swamps and we found nothing.” After one fruitless day, they went home. But Teague wasn’t finished.

“I got my brother and a friend of mine and we made another trip up there.”

It took two more trips with his brother and local American Indians, but Teague believes he found it.

“We found a circular path, and as we were walking back along this long gulley, and my brother said, ‘hey look up at that rock formation, it looks like a lizard.’ Damn. That’s what I was looking for. A lizard.”

The ascended the hill and found caves – caves with ancient carvings, one Teague calls The Wall. He was certain he found the location of the Hall of Records. “The main thing was the Wall with the giant skull carved into it,” Teague said. “It has all the esoteric carving in it. An ancient god, (the planet) Saturn. There was an entrance there too, but we didn’t open it, or we’d be dead. Whoever’s watching it was there.”

As the group walked back to their vehicle, two truckloads of men cut them off from the front, and rear. “Everybody was carrying all kinds of guns,” Teague said. “They stopped and looked at us and wanted to know what we were doing. We said we had a Cherokee.” The men allowed Teague’s group to leave, but he got an impression as to who they were. “It’s meth labs and drugs. What else could it be? I don’t think they’re smart enough to know what’s going on back there.”

They didn’t scare off Teague. Much later, after attending a UFO convention in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, he detoured into the Mark Twain National Forest to take a friend to the Mound. “I took him there and showed him around,” he said. “He wouldn’t go now.”

As Teague showed his friend some of the anomalous stone works of the Mound, two men appeared from nowhere and invited them to follow them to explore a nearby cave. Teague agreed, but when the men left, Teague and his friend walked to their vehicle and drove away. He knew if he went to that cave, they would have killed him. “The thing about the Wall. I thought something was important about it. Whatever the Wall is they protect it for some reason. I think that’s where the entrance is.”

Teague says carved depictions of an ape, an elephant, and lion show an African influence at the site, but a carving of a humanoid reptilian points to something from other stars. “It’s a reptilian god. It’s the god they worship,” he said. “You’ve got lions, apes, dragons, aliens, you can’t make heads or tails of this place.”

But the reptilian isn’t the only extraterrestrial carving Teague found. He claims an aerial photograph of the Mound shows a gray alien pointing to a star is carved into the landscape. “That was a cave entrance,” he said. “If you go into that cave you’ll find out the secret of the star where (he) came from. The Corps of Engineers built a new road and the cave is no longer there. I think the other entrance is at the Shaft.”

The Shaft is a vertical stone well shrouded by trees. Once Teague went down into the Shaft fifteen feet, but it was blocked with debris. Unfortunately, the Shaft is no longer accessible. “The next time we went up, they’d built a block over it. Somebody knew we were back there.”

Fearing for his safety, he hasn’t been back. “Before my last trip I’d sent an email to the Army Corps of Engineers and told them of the giant skull and Wall and asked what they knew about it,” Teague said. The man he contacted seemed interested in Teague’s news – too interested. “He said, ‘this thing’s great. Get your family and all your friends and take us up through the forest and take us to this Wall. I said, ‘sure.’ I’ll never go back there again. I know exactly what was planned. I could see the headline now. ‘UFO cult comes into the backwoods of Missouri and commits suicide.’ You could see where that was going.”

Although Teague believes the man he contacted at the Army Corps of Engineers knows of the site, he stops short of claiming it is a government cover up. “Hell, if I know about it, somebody knows about it. I don’t think it’s the government,” he said. “I think the people in the backwoods have been protecting this place since people have been there. I think it may be a pagan cult from long ago.”

That cult may have ancient Christian roots. Teague has found symbols of an elephant, owl, a ram, and a man, in aerial photographs. “There’s a bearded man inside the ram’s head, like a king. It has to do with a lamb and a king and it would make him a shepherd king. The owl is the sign of wisdom,” he said.

Teague is convinced the bearded man is King David. “David, the shepherd king, allowed the Arc of the Covenant to be taken to Ethiopia. In ancient times they took it on a boat in Ethiopia, around the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi River, and buried it in the Hall of Records in the Missouri Mystery Mound. “I believe the Arc of the Covenant is buried at the Missouri Mystery Mound. That’s my theory. In antiquity someone carved out the mounds because that’s where the Arc of the Covenant was to be taken.”

But who carved the Mound? Teague thinks the identity is carved into the landscape of the Mound itself, the gray alien pointing to a star. “Not only did they built it and carve it 20,000 years ago, they go back and re-carve it over and over again,” he said. “Carve mountains and valleys? We couldn’t do that. It’s not natural; it’s alien formed. I’m convinced at that.”

However, the photographs of the Wall, depictions of peoples, animals, and beings carved into the stone of the Mound modern archeology would say are impossible, haven’t attracted the attention of academics.

“To me this is the most sacred mythological site in America that nobody knows about. There’s some sort of energy there that keeps it quiet,” he said. “You’d think there’d be archeologists all over the damn country wanting to investigate the place, but nobody wants to go up there and look at it.”

And they probably never will, even if they ask Teague. He doesn’t plan to go back. “This place is so fantastic, and I am not even seeing anything but the McDonald’s sign. We’re not even seeing the inside of McDonald’s, the inside of the mountain. Good lord. But if I went back in there, I’d be killed,” Teague said. “If you go up there you’d better go with a big-assed guns. You’d better be armed.”

Olympic conspiracies, Sasquatch fireworks, and shape shifting cryptids get us warmed up on this week’s Plus+ exclusive.

Also featured is a look back to a UK mothman-esque encounter, vanishing hairy hominids and a mysterious ancient pyramid like monument in Australia.

Read on for show notes, music and books.

This episode is exclusive to Plus+ members. To learn more click HERE.

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Sasquatch and UFOs and the high strange connection ‘Interview with Stan Gordon’

Three Mysterious Creature Encounters Reported From Pennsylvania

A Mothman 50th… (Kind Of)

New Dawn Magazine May-June 2012

The Gympie Pyramid

Gympie Pyramid Investigation Dig of Tuesday 27th March 2007

The Gympie Pyramid Story

Sarina “Phoenician Wharf”

Royal Monkey Business

Zoo Caretaker Licks Monkey’s Butt To Help It Defecate

I had to explain to my boss that Jewish people can physically consume pork, but choose not to. What is the most ridiculous thing you have ever had to explain to a superior at your job?

Music

Jon Convex – Zero via Truants

Elenika – Want Your Disease via musigh

SBTRKT – Step In Shadows via aerial noise