Saucers and Sources

My latest Mysterious Universe article focuses on one of those ufological issues that most people have an opinion on - the matter of using sources that (for a variety of reasons) don't want to speak out on the record.

Much of the article focuses on my book On the Trail of the Saucer Spies and how, and why, it's actually not a problem to use unnamed sources...

 

 

 

 

 

Final Events: A New Q&A

A new interview with me (on my Final Events book) at Marie Samuels' Macabre Moments blog.

UFOs: The Immortality Factor

A cool new article from Timothy Green Beckley...

Colorado in Pics

Been working in Denver, Colorado for the last few days, and here are a few shots of what is a very cool place:

 

Mothman High-Strangeness!

There's a new Mysterious Universe article from me, which deals a  degree of "Mothman weirdness" that I encountered last weekend. It starts like this...

"There can be very few researchers of the world of the unexplained who have not experienced, now and again, a sense that the phenomena they  investigate sometimes manipulates them. For some people, it can be an exciting and illuminating experience. For others, it can be downright terrifying, and something which has led people to quit – forever – the world of the paranormal. I have experienced this sense of manipulation more than a few times, but last Saturday night things became downright crazy.

"Right now, I’m working on a new book that includes a small overview of the Mothman mystery, which dominated the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the 1960s. So, over the course of the last week, and even though I’m very clued-in on the subject, I have been doing a bit of additional research into the winged beast made most famous in John Keel’s classic study of the case, The Mothman Prophecies."

MIB Terror: Audio

A couple of years ago, I wrote the foreword for a new edition of Gray Barker's book, Men in Black: The Secret Terror. Well, the good news is that if you like audio-books, it's now available in that very format.

Here's the link.

Did Japan Invade Roswell?

That's the question I ask in my latest Mysterious Universe article...

And here's the opening paragraphs of the article:

"One of the intriguing threads in the never-ending Roswell affair of July 1947 is that which posits a link between the craft and bodies that came down on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico and the activities of the Japanese military. In 1997, Popular Mechanics magazine published an article written by columnist Jim Wilson on the Roswell controversy. In part, Wilson revealed that Popular Mechanics had been told of a looming release of files that could possibly shed more light on what happened at Roswell.

"Not only that, Wilson very specifically stated that the magazine had been informed the paperwork in question would document a Japanese equivalent of the post-Second World War Operation Paperclip. As it transpired, such files ultimately did not surface. The story, however, does not end there.  Sergeant Melvin E. Brown, who claimed to have seen the Roswell bodies shortly after they were recovered, said they had yellowish skin and an Asian-style appearance."

 

Saucers, Soviets, MIB!

My new Mysterious Universe article is on a very odd story, one I uncovered while doing an archival visit a few years back. A mysterious Russian, Flying Saucers, MIB overtones, and weird debris are just for starters. It begins like this...

"A couple of days ago here at Mysterious Universe, I penned an article titled An Extraterrestrial 007? The subject was one of the strangest reports I have ever received of a UFO-themed event in the UK. It prompted one person to email me and ask what is the strangest UFO case I have come across in the United States. Well, I can say for sure that there have been far more than a few of them! But, one that really stands out in the weird stakes is a case that became the subject of an official investigation in the early 1950s, the records on which can be found at the National Archives, Maryland, USA.

"The documentation, declassified under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, dates back to 1952, was prepared by the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations, and is titled “Unconventional Flying Objects Sighted; And Portions Recovered by [Note from Nick: First name deleted] McLean, Friona, Texas.” It’s a deeply weird file that is suggestive of one of three things: (a) that the witness may have been suffering from a degree of dementia; (b) something highly unusual really did occur; or c) maybe it was a bit of both."

John Keel, Mothman, Bigfoot

Just had a parcel delivered, thanks to Andy Colvin: four new books he has published. They are: Praise for the Hairy Man, (a Bigfoot book Andy has co-written with Jeffery Pritchett), The Mothman Shrieks, (written by Andy) and two collections of John Keel's writing: Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind and The Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone. Reviews will appear as soon as I have read them...

Remembering A Great Dog

Ten years ago tomorrow, a great friend was taken all too early. Her name was Charity the Shar-Pei. Noted for being able to knock furniture out of the way and people over when she was on a mission, Charity was a fun, gentle and loyal dog who loved walks and pizza crust, and who is still much missed a decade later. Here's a few pics of her, at rest and play.

 

Not Exactly James Bond...

Are extraterrestrial 007's on the loose on our planet? Just maybe they are...

That's the subject of my new Mysterious Universe article.

Snowy in Texas!

The view outside my apartment today...

Colin Wilson RIP

Jon Downes writes...

"Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism, the paranormal, and other topics. He preferred calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism. It is always strange writing an obituary for a man that I knew. I didn't know him well, but our paths crossed two or three times in the course of my chequered career.

"I first met him at the Exeter University Science Fiction Club conference in 1989, when he gave a fascinating talk on the subject of Peak Experiences, and afterwards he and I spoke for several hours about the philosophy of Abraham Maslow, who - it turned out had been a friend and colleague of his.

"I met him again, many years later, at one of the Fortean Times Unconventions when we stayed at the same hotel and talked existentialist politics late into the night. Together with Mick Farren and John Michell he was one of the few truly great men that I have met, and tonight my heart is heavy with the knowledge that I will not be meeting him again."

Beware of Psychic Backlash

My latest Mysterious Universe article deals with a subject that - as I know, personally - more than a few people in the Fortean world have experienced: psychic backlash. It starts like this...

"While it is certainly true that undertaking research into the collective world of the unknown can be illuminating, stimulating and exciting, it can also be downright hazardous. Sometimes, when a person becomes immersed in an investigation to a very deep and significant degree, the phenomenon under the microscope appears to realize that it is being watched and responds in violent, and sometimes even deadly, fashion. Welcome (if that’s the right word to use) to the world of what is known as psychic backlash.

"A classic example comes from a good friend of mine, Jon Downes, the director of the UK-based Center for Fortean Zoology. For years, Jon deeply investigated the mystery of the Owlman of Cornwall, England – surely the closest thing the nation has to the infamous Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA. But there was something deeply sinister about the winged, glowing-eyed Owlman. Every time Jon dug deep into the heart of the enigma, things would go wrong – as in big time."

Forbidden Bigfoot: Reviewed

"Well, it’s time for me to get on my Bigfoot soapbox again. Or, in other words, get the collective blood-pressure of the “flesh and blood” brigade soaring through the roof. On several occasions here at Mysterious Universe, I have noted the undeniable fact that many people within the Bigfoot research arena will simply not address the theory that the creature is far more than a mere unknown animal. That is, aside from predictably attacking the theory.

"Now, I have no problem – at all – with someone concluding that the high-strangeness angle of Bigfoot has no validity if they actually do the research to prove their point. But, time and again, I come across researchers of the monstrous mystery who openly admit to refusing to even look at such cases, read books on the weirder side of Bigfoot, or engage the witnesses in debate. The reason? Their minds are already made up. And that’s something I do have a problem with."

That's how my new Mysterious Universe article begins, on the subject of Lisa Shiel's new book, Forbidden Bigfoot.

Watching the Abductees...

Are "Alien Abductees" secretly watched by a clandestine group within the world of officialdom? That's the subject of my latest Mysterious Universe article...

Goatman: Flesh or Folklore?

If you have read my books Memoirs of a Monster Hunter, There's Something in the Woods, Wildman, Monster Diary and (with Ken Gerhard) Monsters of Texas, you'll know I have done more than a few investigations into reports of so-called "Goatmen" across the United States.

Well, the good news is that in 2014, a full-length book on this subject will be published. You can find the info here.

PS: The photo above shows the Old Alton Bridge at Denton, Texas, which is home to a Goatman legend.

More JFK Assassination-Related Pics...

And a few more JFK assassination-connected pictures taken this week, while my dad is over here. These were taken at the grave of police officer J.D. Tippit, believed (by some, but not all) to have been shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

 

Creatures for the Kids

Each November, I do a series of lectures for Dallas' Highland Park School District on the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Chupacabras, the Yeti etc. And every year the teachers have the kids (aged around 7) mail me drawings and letters of the things they liked and learned from the lectures. And above are a few of the latest...

Cornwall's Creepiest Critter...

My latest Creature of the Month article at the blog of New Page Books is on the subject of one of the UK's weirdest winged whatsits of all. It starts like this...

"It is a large, humanoid, flying monster with glowing red eyes and huge, powerful wings. It strikes fear into the very heart of all those that encounter it. It’s the infamous Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, right? Nope, wrong. Although it is just about the closest thing that Britain has to the bizarre beast made famous in John Keel’s now-classic book, The Mothman Prophecies. Its name is the Owlman."

The Chaos Conundrum: Reviewed

My latest Mysterious Universe article...

"Aaron Gulyas’ new book, The Chaos Conundrum, is a thoughtful, and thought-provoking, compilation of papers on a wide variety of paranormal phenomena. Or, as it’s collectively known in circles where the unusual is typically the usual: profoundly weird stuff. A cursory glance at the titles of the essays, and their attendant subject matters, might make some readers assume they are stand-alone pieces with no connecting or unifying parts. Well, those souls would be wrong. Actually, they would be dead wrong.

"The connection is not so much the issues and topics that Gulyas places under his supernatural microscope. Rather, it is the fact that the essays all invite us to do one thing: address and consider alternative theories, paradigms, and ideas to those that the established figures of the paranormal would prefer we adhere to."

Oswald's Grave...

 

 

Just got back from taking my dad to see the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald, which is only about 15 minutes drive from where I live.

 

I was surprised to see it covered in flowers - which, depending on who you think really shot JFK, is either a good thing or a bad thing!

 

Here's a few pictures.

 

Note the grave next to Oswald marked "Nick Beef."

 

There is an interesting story behind that which you can find online.

 

Just search on "Nick Beef Gravestone" and you will find it.

 

The interesting thing is that there is no-one buried there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Weekend of the JFK Assassination...

 

 

Well, as my dad came over Thursday night for a 2-week holiday (after a 6-hour delay at Newark, which meant we finally got back to my place at 3AM Friday morning, instead of around 9PM Thursday night!), he arrived right at the time of the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

 

So, on Saturday, we went to the "Arlington Conference 50th Anniversary Conference," the main focus of which was Judyth Vary Baker's book, Me and Lee: How I came to know, love and lose Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

 

 

Here are a few pictures from the day - one of Judyth, one of her book, and one with me and co-organizer and radio-host, Popeye Jefferson.

 

 

A UFO Evacuation...

My latest Mysterious Universe article delves into an aspect of the famous UFO event (or events) at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England in December 1980 that really needs to be investigated to a deeper level. Namely, that at some point during the events, the British Government was planning on evacuating a nearby prison.

Here's the link...

The Chaos Conundrum

The Chaos Conundrum - written by Aaron Gulyas - is a new book for which I have penned the foreword. It's a book I definitely recommend too, as it's definitively refreshing, original, alternative, outside of the box, and guaranteed to get up the collective noses of the closed-minded and the stuck-in-the-mud crowd - which are all very good reasons to buy it!

UFOs, Crop Circles, Exopolitics, Roswell, ghosts, conspiracies (and conspiracy-theorists) and much more all appear in The Chaos Conundrum.

And here's the blurb for the book (published by Paul Kimball's Redstar Books):

"In The Chaos Conundrum, historian Aaron John Gulyas examines how the paranormal has intersected and influenced our culture in myriad ways, from the conspiracy beliefs of William Cooper and Exopolitics to the challenge that the stories of Gray Barker presented to our concept of self and time. He looks at the maelstrom of personalities, agendas, impressions, data, confusion, and contradictions that can be found in the world of the weird, and demonstrates how they have become an integral part of our lives, whether in the form of flying saucers, hauntings, religious revelations, psychic abilities, or dozens of other guises. Gulyas delves into the stories of the people who have attempted to create order out of the chaos. Along the way he recounts his own journey from enthusiastic believer in the 'shadow government' and their underground bases to jaded academic skeptic, and then finally to someone who thinks there might just be something to the paranormal after all...but not what we have been led to expect or believe!"

A review will appear here soon...

Winged Monsters: The Dark Side

There's a new Mysterious Universe article from me, which begins...

"For my first article of this week, I thought I would do something a bit different: namely a review of a lecture I attended just this past weekend. It was given by good friend and fellow seeker of strange creatures, Ken Gerhard. Ken drove up to the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area early Sunday morning – from his San Antonio home – to speak at the monthly meeting of a local group, EPIC, the Extraordinary Phenomena Investigations Council.

"The subject of Ken’s lecture was his latest book, Encounters with Flying Humanoids, which as its title suggests, is an in-depth study of a wide and varied range of bizarre, winged, human-like  creatures – with Mothman being, without any doubt, the most famous example. I reviewed Ken’s book here a couple of months ago, but there’s another reason I want to highlight it today. And that is – and as Ken spelled out time and again in his illustrated presentation on Sunday - the many and disturbing occasions upon which encounters with winged humanoids have seemingly provoked immediate (and sometimes lasting) bouts of ill-health or disaster. Or even both at the same time."

And, with that said, read on...

Forbidden Bigfoot: Just Published

Some time ago, I was interviewed by author Lisa A. Shiel for her new book, Forbidden Bigfoot. Well, it's now available and, if like me, you're into the stranger and more paranormally-themed aspects of the Bigfoot phenomenon, you should definitely pick up a copy!

It's a controversial subject-matter, but - what the hell - there's nothing wrong with controversy!

Here's the publisher's info on Forbidden Bigfoot:

"Mysterious footprints. Eerie screams. For centuries, if not longer, stunned witnesses have reported face-to-face encounters with the bizarre beasts responsible for mystifying us with the tantalizing evidence they leave behind. Countless books and documentaries have offered up the same explanation, that Bigfoot are nothing more than large, bipedal apes that mainstream science has yet to accept as real. But is this the truth, or merely disinformation?

"Now, Lisa A. Shiel--author of the acclaimed Backyard Bigfoot--presents the uncensored facts about Bigfoot in a meticulously researched, no-holds-barred exploration of the phenomenon. Forbidden Bigfoot exposes the startling connections between Sasquatch and other unexplained phenomena, from UFOs and fairies to stick signs and crop-circle-like formations. Shiel strips away the hype about claims of Bigfoot DNA evidence, touted as the ultimate proof, and explores what genetics and the fossil record can really tell us about these elusive creatures."

Wild Wallabies in the UK

That's the strange subject of my latest Mysterious Universe article, which you can find right here...

JFK, UFOs & Penthouse

The new issue of Penthouse magazine includes a 4-page article from me on the JFK assassination (which has it's 50th anniversary next week). The article is written in a "top 10 theories"-style, with those theories ranging from the Russians to the Cubans, Oswald to a secret government group with UFO links, and to much more. And, as it's Penthouse, if you don't like the article, there's always the pictures :)