Archive for the ‘speculation’ category

The Pigman of Vermont!

February 20, 2015

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Men are such pigs, sometimes…or so I’ve been told, and can well believe, especially after seeing a recent episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America which dished up one monster and two mysteries. Season 3 seems to be running a bit short on monsters, and so is plugging in more “mysteries,” which in this trilogy included a ghost story and a paranormal segment. That floats my boat, however, as I like a little variety in my viewing diet!

Now the Pigman of Vermont is described as having a man’s body with a pig’s head; he’s massive, muscular, has claws for hands but human feet, and parades around naked. He makes squealing sounds that also carry a shrieking component, and has been seen in the “Devil’s Washbowl” area of Northfield, a place used as a lover’s lane by local teenagers. In fall of 1971, a group of teens at a dance went outside to the woods where they supposedly saw a kneeling creature eating roadkill. Inside a cave in the Devil’s Washbowl area, a type of nesting area has been found, together with bones that were mostly feline. In another reported episode, a couple were making out in their car when the guy went to answer a “call of nature,” encountered the Pigman, and was physically thrown into the underbrush. Their screams drove the creature away, allowing the couple to escape in their car although the guy bore claw-like scratch marks on his chest.  In yet another reported incident, a group of young people walking through the woods had branches thrown in front of them repeatedly and heard squealing, occurrences which encouraged them to flee the area.

Now stories of a “Pigman” supposedly date back to the 15th century, with one story maintaining that a young man handled his pigs with cruelty, meeting one night with a bad end at the claws of the Pigman.  His body was never found, and in one account had been eaten…I do so love stories with a happy ending!  One accounting for the Pigman’s existence holds that he was a physically deformed child living in a feral way…

A second episode was a kind of ghost story from Jamestown, North Carolina detailing the appearances of “Lydia the Hitch Hiker,” the spirit of a young woman woman killed in a car accident in the 1920’s who is now bound to the underpass where she died, still trying to make her way home.  In one accounting from 1924, a man picked up a woman of beaten appearance who rode silently with him, at one point indicating by gesture the home of her residence.  When the man approached the resident of the house to advise them that he was returning their daughter home, the woman present indicated that her daughter had died years ago.  Returning to his car, the motorist found that his passenger had utterly vanished!  Another appearance of the spirit in 1972 was reported, when two young men traveling in a car saw a girl sitting by the side of the road who appeared to have been in a car accident; they originally bypassed her, but returned to offer aid, at which time the passenger of the vehicle became severely alarmed by the figure, urging the driver to pull away.  As they did so, the figure supposedly shrieked, “Come back!” A song, “Bringing Mary Home,” may reflect the case, and an investigator found that the unfortunate spirit’s name may have been Mary rather than Lydia.– A good spooky tale!

The final segment focused on “Project Stargate” supposedly conducted at Fort Meade during the height of the Cold War in an effort to turn psychics into soldier-spies.  Recruits were supposedly capable of “remote viewing,” a controversial psychic phenomena where an individual can project his consciousness, in this case to spy on our enemies.  Exercises involved discerning a “target” in a sealed envelope.  Subjects were also asked to see into the future, with one participant reportedly foreseeing the attack on the USS Stark.  Research was also done by Stargate into UFO activity, with one participant in 1982 perceiving a 300′ long object.  In 1984 when asked to focus on coordinates, one remote viewer perceived an encounter with a race of aliens in the distant past of which we are supposedly the descendants, a thread often found in science fiction…

Florida Zombie; Dybbuk; Shenango Dog Boy…

February 9, 2015

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According to a trio of terrors presented in S2/Ep03 (2015) of Monsters and Mysteries in America, zombies have been seen in Florida!  On May 26th, 2012 in the Miami area, a Randy Eugene was seen walking incoherently on the highway, attacking a homeless man thereafter and beginning to eat his face.  Police arrived, and dispatched the man with several shots.  Post-mortem blood work failed to reveal any substance that could account for the bizarre behavior.  Then in Delray Beach on February 4, 2014 a teenage girl was attacked by a naked man, her older brother attempting to intervene but faring poorly against the assailant despite inflicting wounds to him with a box cutter. The father of the siblings joined the fray, and finally the zombie backed off.  Police sometime later cornered and shot the zombie, with again no explanation found for his behavior in post-mortem examinations…

The Dybbuk is a powerful demon in Jewish mythology summoned into the world to seek revenge.  A museum director in Kirksville, Missouri acquired a possessed wine cabinet supposedly originating with Polish Jewish women in World War II and spellcast to fight Nazi evil.  The accursed box made its way to Kirksville owing to a former resident there called Laughlin who espoused eugenics, ideas which resonated with Hitler.  Anyways, the museum director brought the box home, at which point strange things started to happen.  Touching the box brought unusual sensations, and black emanations were seen to come from it.  The health of the museum director deteriorated, and the box also seemed to play havoc with light bulbs and other powered devices.  After consulting with a rabbi, the box was buried in a ritual way.  Thereafter, a sinkhole developed near the burial site!

Lastly, the Shenango Dog Boy is indigenous to northwest Pennsylvania, has stories tracing back to German settlers, and may possibly be the product of European folk magic.   Standing three to four feet tall and completely covered in hair, the Dog Boy supposedly lived in an abandoned farm house.  He was reportedly seen by two sisters in 1955, who together with their mother barely escaped from him…heel, boy, heel!

Sabine Thing and Lightning Psychic…

February 2, 2015

 

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The Sabine River borders Texas and Louisiana, and in S2/Ep02 of Monsters and Mysteries in America, we were introduced to the Sabine Thing, an unknown, 8′ tall monster weighing in at about 500 pounds that frequents the waters and has demonic eyes. Hundreds of sightings of the beast extend back to the days of early Native Americans, with the creature often reported to scream and throw things at witnesses. Covered were two recent sightings by fisherman Jeff Stewart in 1986 and again in 1996. In the earlier sighting, catfish guts served to attract the creature which was seen to stand on its hind legs and to leave huge tracks. In the 1996 incident, a submerged fish trap was pulled from the water and plundered, with the theft attributed to the beast.

In December of 1981, hunter Mike Wooley was aloft in a deer stand when he saw the creature approach and felt menaced by him. The arrival of a second creature caused the hunter to flee, escaping in his vehicle while under pursuit by the beasts.

Also covered were attempts by Bruce Densford and his team to set up video and audio recorders to survey for the creature. Raspy screams were heard and recorded in the field which showed no known identity with animals calls.

The second segment of the show on “Lightning Psychics” was more in the category of mystery than monster, detailing how some survivors of lightning strikes apparently develop psychic abilities. Covered was a case where a man hiking in Colorado was struck by lightning, later reporting the ability to see spirits, and communicate with them. He later became a psychic investigator to families traumatized by crime, helping to solve a murder case. The additional case of Sonia Benzer was reported, who in 1952 was struck by lightning on a beach with the result that her intuition was intensified. Approximately 20,000 people are struck by lightning annually, and in some survivors their neural anatomy and chemistry are reportedly affected to an extent causing the acquisition of such paranormal abilities…the science underlying such is sketchy, however.

Tennessee Wildman and Subterranean Reptoids!

January 26, 2015

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In S3/Ep1 of Monsters and Mysteries in America, we are introduced to a “manimal” residing in the eastern border of Tennessee that is a territorial, bipedal creature about seven to nine feet tall with large eyes and black to reddish-orange hair.  Not quite as large as Sasquatch, the beast makes up for its smaller size with attitude, and has been known to throw rocks and shake trees.  Sightings go back to at least 1878, when a doctor reportedly held an exhibition of a captured specimen. 

More recently in December of 1981 following a rash of reports of missing animals, two brothers in Rockwood noted their dog becoming agitated, investigating outside of their cabin to discover a creature holding a dog at the edge of the woods.  They shot twice at the beast, which screamed and they retreated.  In Johnson City, Tennessee in September of 1997, two cousins heard a scream and saw the Wildman in the woods, barely making it back to their car before the creature appeared and then fled.

If you prefer reptilians, Los Angeles supposedly has a sinister and scaly reptilian, reports of which date back to the 1930’s when a mining engineer went in search of them.   In Anaheim, California in November of 2008, a woman walking her dog saw a reptilian creature with fangs and red eyes below a drain gate which seemed to use telepathy.  The woman sought sanctuary in a truck and called her boyfriend as multiple creatures converged on her; he arrived with a bat and chased three off.  In Apple Valley, California a woman made multiple sandwiches for her young daughter to give to an “imaginary friend” who resided in the daughter’s closet.  Investigating, the woman caught a glimpse of something which retreated into a deep hole.

By some accounts prehistoric leftovers, the reptoids by a more sinister accounting are extraterrestrials searching for breeding partners!  A woman reports being pulled off her bed by one and sprayed with some unknown substance.  Military men were later reported to have abducted and examined the woman.  Apparently, not just Mars needs women, and we seem to be off to a wild and wooly start to the Monsters and Mysteries season…

Men in Black on “Monsters and Mysteries”

January 18, 2015

 

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After a long hiatus, Monsters and Mysteries in America is back, with a fresh episode on Men in Black (S2/Ep 13).  Now these men in black have nothing to do with the popular Will Smith movies, but are depending on which account of them you follow either secret deep government operatives, aliens themselves, or supernatural demonic creatures. 

Hundreds of reports of the Men in Black have come in since 1947.  In their conspiracy incarnation, they are government UFO clean-up agents working at a high level of secrecy.  These gents look rather like the Blues Brothers, wearing dark suits, fedoras, narrow black ties, and sunglasses.  An early report of Men in Black from 1947 concerned the alleged explosion of a UFO in Pudget Sound, Washington, an event which supposedly rained debris down into the harbor and a ship there.  Men in Black then appeared to the crew, calling the object seen a weather balloon and threatening the observers.  A wave of UFO activity was reported to have occurred in Pennsylvania in the 1970’s, with an incident focused on happening in August 1973 in Derry, Pennsylvania.  There a woman and her son in a trailer heard scratching and crying baby type sounds, investigating to find a tall humanoid creature apparently attracted to their electrical supply.  The creature vanished, but Men in Black came thereafter, taking evidence in the form of goo left on the doorknob and a Polaroid photograph taken of unusual footprints, the imprints of which were also destroyed…

…in October of 1973 at a Pennsylvania farm, a red saucer about 100′ in diameter was seen from which emerged two huge figures 7′ -9′ tall with self-illuminating eyes.  Of course they were shot at, causing no damage to the figures but causing them and the saucer to disappear.  The ground appeared to glow where the UFO had landed.  Men in Black came soon thereafter, and hypnotized the farmer, who was never the same thereafter.  

In November of 1996 in West Virginia, a salesman called Woody Derenberger was traveling on Interstate 77 when a spacecraft reportedly appeared in front of his truck.  A humanoid was said to appear out of the craft, sporting a spooky grin as if the creature was trying to approximate a human appearance, but not quite mastering it.  He communicated telepathically with the salesman, calling himself a “searcher,” and promising the man, “We will see you again.”  In this version of Men in Black as aliens, the grinning man and companions did appear to the human repeatedly, with such contacts causing him to develop ESP.  The aliens were seen as trying to shape human development.

The most malevolent Men in Black resemble pale-faced ghouls or vampires.  In a 1987 case reported from Lincoln, Nebraska, a psychiatrist investigating UFO cases reported that a Man in Black visited him, and compelled him to burn his records and tapes of UFO investigations.  A Rev. Baeche also reported a manifestation of a demonic or spiritual MIB who seemed to be supernatural, leaving him traumatized.  Lastly, a Clyde Lewis reported seeing a MIB who could not be photographed with a cell phone camera.

Whether they are deep undercover government clean-up operatives, observing aliens, or supernatural entities, visitation from Men in Black leaves those visited feeling disturbed and deeply shaken…so watch the skies!

 

Searching for Bigfoot…

November 5, 2014

 

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It’s hard not to like Georgio Tsoukalos, he of the wild hair who investigates the paranormal.  While Georgio is most interested in aliens, in S1/Ep05 of In Search of Aliens, Georgio goes Searching for Bigfoot, but of course manages to work in possible connections with extraterrestrials.  Unlike too many similar shows, Georgio actually meets with researchers and scientists, but puts his own unique spin on what he learns.  Going out with the Olympic Project Team into Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, Georgio learns of how the team has recorded vocalizations that cannot be matched with any identifiable species, heard “wood knockings,” and made molds of 16″ footprints.  He quickly goes off into wild speculations, however, on possible linkage between UFO sightings and Bigfoot appearances, further seeking to tie both in with animal mutilations in the area.  This in turn is seen to tie in with genetic manipulations by aliens, a favored theme.

After touching on Bigfoot sightings and additional speculations on whether sasquatch is possibly some kind of skinwalker or shape-shifter, Georgio wound up consulting with a biological anthropologist in San Diego, who deemed that undetected subspecies were indeed possible.  Bigfoot after all might be a surviving strain of Gigantopithecus.  Georgio would like to think that aliens manipulated primate genes to create humanity, and since Georgio seems to have tamed his hair a bit since hosting this series, I suppose all things are possible…

SubterAlien on”Monsters Underground”

October 15, 2014

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The Destination America network has become a kind of mecca for shows on cryptic creatures and the paranormal, and a series airing there called Monsters Underground follows in the shoes of such shows as Mountain Monsters.  One episode of the former series covered a creature called the SubterAlien, a reputedly intelligent, armed, and hostile being that is both a kind of alien and a hidden life form as well, providing something for the fanciers of both genres.  

The essential format of the show is familiar, and time-tested on similar series.  An investigative team under the leadership of Bill Brock in the episode mentioned went to the supposed habitat of the SubterAlien, an abandoned mine system in Calaveras County, California.  In the 1840’s, the Shadow Mine was a working gold mine which closed when 13 men perished there.  It has since been believed that the SubterAlien was responsible for a series of bizarre occurrences, including the disappearance of electronic equipment.  This burrowing alien stands upright, has huge black eyes, and likes to tinker with the electronics to make other devices of unknown purpose.  At least this guy recycles and re-purposes human technology, kind of like The Thing.  I like to see aliens keep stuff out of landfills!

Well, the exploratory team set up trail cameras, and went into the depths of the winding caverns armed with radiation detectors as the creature’s presence is said to spike radiation levels.  The team did find electronics inexplicably strewn in the tunnels, and heard strange noises.  Radiation levels appeared to be rising, and an alarm was triggered on one of their trail cameras.  Tremors in their location about 200 feet underground caused the team to fear being trapped in an unstable, collapsing mine, and they accordingly beat a hasty retreat, pausing only to recover their trail cameras.  When safely outside, the alarm-sounding camera was scrutinized, and found to contain a blurry image of something passing before the camera lens and obstructing it…a scenario we’ve again seen repeated elsewhere!

The Russian Yeti…

June 7, 2014

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The Discovery Channel recently presented a two hour investigation on the mysterious deaths of nine Russian students who perished horribly while hiking in the Ural Mountains in January of 1959…the Dyatlov Pass Incident. The deaths were horrendous, involving injuries so severe that Russian investigators later ruled that they could only have been inflicted by something more powerful than a human; there were skull fractures, ribs broken, and damages to internal organs.  Injuries were compared to those which might be suffered in automobile accidents. Bodily mutilations  were also seen; one victim had their eyes gouged out, and their tongue and lips missing. The show inferred that the students were viciously slaughtered by a Yeti, investigating the history and other reported sightings of the creature in that area, and speculating on the last days of the ill-fated hiking party.  It made for compelling if disturbing viewing…

Now reports of the Yeti are numerous in the Northern Ural Mountains of Siberia, with over 5,000 eyewitness testimonies on record.  Yeti/Bigfoot creatures go by many different names dependent on the area, with those in the area of the incident often calling the cryptid the Menk or more simply, the Russian Yeti.  The creature is described as being about 8-1/2 feet high, to have little in the way of a neck, to be hairy, and walk in a bipedal fashion with somewhat of a hunched posture.  They are also reported to make whistling-type sounds that carry and reverberate.  Yeti attacks while rare are alleged to have occurred in 1925, 1945, and 1953, possibly when the Yeti feel cornered or threatened.

Anyways, none of the students returned from what was supposed to have been a two-week hiking trip. Perceiving themselves to being followed several days into the journey, tensions and concerns heightened until on their final night alive, something so frightened the hikers that they abandoned their tent, fleeing only partly dressed into the frigid night to a point almost a mile away where they split into smaller groups, all the individuals in which met with violent ends; some may have been trying to climb a tree to escape, others were found lying face down as if fleeing a pursuit from behind, and still others were found in a group intertwined together as if in hiding.  Their frozen bodies were discovered some time later, and in their abandoned and ruined camp a short note was found bearing the haunting message, “Now we know the snowman exists.”  

Film was also recovered from the doomed expedition, one image of which showed a blurry image of a large, hulking creature (see picture) that was perhaps taken on the run.  The last photo showed distorted bright lights in the sky, which it was speculated may have been some kind of secret Soviet munitions test; this was a remote location in Siberia, after all.  Thinking that this may have scared the Yeti into an attack, the investigative duo and their camera team fired off flares seeking to provoke any Yeti in the area; only one armed hunter had accompanied the group for protection.  An eerie sound was heard from the forest, with the solitary armed man suggesting that they needed to leave at that point, and wisely they did.  The team left with no hard evidence of the Yeti, but a general belief that something unknown was out there, and may well have decimated the Russian hikers in 1959.

The Soviets had closed their investigation of the incident after only several weeks, officially maintaining that overwhelming natural forces such as an avalanche had killed the hikers or caused them to freeze to death.  A surviving member of the Russian investigative team was interviewed, however, saying that a military boot cover was found at the site of the abandoned camp, suggesting that the Soviet military had been there prior to their arrival and orchestrated a cover-up.  UFO theorists also offer the explanation that perhaps the hikers were offed by aliens, with the lights in the skies that fateful evening coming from extraterrestrial craft.  High levels of radioactivity were reported to have been detected in the area, with the skin of the victims reported by one who attended their funerals to have been deeply tanned, perhaps radiation burned.  

Whatever we may choose to believe, the Dyatlov Pass Incident continues to horrify and fascinate over half a century since the event, with many unanswered questions posed that may never find resolution…

 

Werewolf of Wolfe County…

May 8, 2014

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Recently I watched a marathon of Destination America shows, emerging with only a few brain cells intact but catching the original Mountain Monsters show, S1/Ep01 originally airing in 2013.  In it we see the AIMS team uniting for the first time, that standing for the Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings.  The “West Virginian Sons” go in pursuit of the Werewolf of Wolfe County, Kentucky, a bipedal cryptid canine described as being a cross between a bear and a gorilla, standing about 7′ high and weighing around 400 pounds.

Deviating little from their habitual formula, the bearded investigators first interviewed an eyewitness described only as “R,” a marksman who described seeing a large, dark-colored wolf in a wooded area.  On their first night’s investigation, the AIMS team saw claw marks on an overhang, and found a large bone pile or kill site.  “The SOB is a mountain monster, and we’re on his ass!,”  pronounced the team leader.  

A drop-cage trap was constructed out of salvaged junk yard metal, and a second eyewitness, “Turtleman,” was interviewed.  This survival specialist described seeing a wolf-like creature who walked on two legs, and presented a video of a black, hulking creature seen in the distance.  A third eyewitness, a hunter-trapper called “Jasper,” reported hearing the howl of a creature, and saw a large unfamiliar track that he photographed.

Well, the trap was baited with a poor goat called “Daisy,” and the team found additional tracks indicating that whatever made them had a 6′ stride.  On the final night’s hunt, the group split into two, with one contingent finding what appeared to be a lair, where movement was seen and fur.  Thinking that multiple werewolves were involved, team members heard a rather haunting howl, and saw movement on their thermal camera.  They went to their ATV’s and headed to their trap, finding that it was unsprung and that Daisy the goat was safe and well.  Tracks found on the site indicated that the werewolf had circled the area, with a camera left on the site giving some partial images of something having passed the camera’s lens and perturbing the goat.  It was concluded that the trap’s trigger had been set the wrong way, and as for the werewolf, “He plumb out-smarted us,” in the memorable words of one team member.

Little has changed in the episodes which have since followed, but this is how it all began! I only wish that Daisy the goat had been continued as an on-going character, however…she seems to embody the spirit of the series…

 

Aliens and Dinosaurs?!

April 12, 2014

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Pseudoscience seldom gets stranger than when it postulates interactions between aliens and dinosaurs, so hang on, folks, ’cause we’re off to the races!  The viewpoints represented here are as drawn from the Ancient Aliens series, and I hasten to add that such viewpoints do not necessarily represent my own, I do, however, find them entertaining, as I do most science fiction and horror fantasies.

Oddball archaeology and paleontology findings are drawn upon to support the notion that not all dinosaurs suffered a mass extinction about 65 million years ago, with some surviving to be known by ancient humans including the Mayans. The fabled ruined city of Angkor Wat in Northern Cambodia, for example, shows in one relief carving (above) what appears to be a stegosaurus. The carving is not of fossilized skeletal remains, but rather of a fleshed-out, living specimen.  In Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas, human footprints were found alongside dinosaur tracks in the same strata layer.  A collection of carved stones was also found in 1961 in Peru that supposedly depicts dinosaur-human encounters.  

Then in contrast to the notion of dinosaurs surviving into the age of man, the same episode presented the idea that perhaps extraterrestrials directed that infamous asteroid to the Yucatan Peninsula, making the dino demise not an extinction but an extermination event.  Aliens, it was wildly speculated, wanted giant reptiles out of the way so that they could then seed the Earth with smaller creatures generated by their otherworldly genetic manipulations which would in turn lead to humans. If you don’t buy the notion of an asteroid impact triggering global climatic changes too extreme for saurian life, you may wish to consider the alternate proposal advanced that the aliens deployed a nuclear weapon, as iridium has been found in sediment layer from 65 million years ago. 

We thank you for joining us on this flight of fantasy.  Please return your seat backs to their upright position, and thank you for flying Foxsylvania!