Robert Goerman reviews "The Black Diary"

 

Robert Goerman's great new review of my latest book, The Black Diary: 

 

 

The Black Diary: M.I.B., Women in Black, Black-Eyed Children, and Dangerous Books

by Nick Redfern

Publisher: Lisa Hagan Books (May 13, 2018)

Paperback: 258 pages

Reviewed by Robert A. Goerman

http://robertgoerman.wixsite.com/paranormal

It is an absolute fact that credible people encounter incredible beings. Some of these entities can rather successfully impersonate the human inhabitants of Earth.

I usually designate these counterfeits as "Mysterious Strangers." This may include those mimics that harass eyewitnesses to so-called "UFO" and "paranormal" events or any that intimidate investigative researchers of unexplained phenomena. Quite often, the "high strangeness" of the stranger is only realized during pensive hindsight. This is after the "enchantment" has broken. Enchantment here refers to the manipulation of human perception, consciousness, and memory. It also refers to their exploitation of our time and space continuum.

I have organized these encounters into three distinct categories based on weirdness: Curious, Bizarre, and Incredible.

The "Curious" level contains those cases where the strangers display an uncanny knowledge of exactly what the witness saw or sometimes appear on the scene before that witness had a chance to report the experience to the authorities or media.

"Bizarre" cases may include these things and more. The visitors may appear odd or act very strangely. They may speak in a monotone "like a computer" or with an unidentifiable accent; try to drink Jell-O; move in a mechanical manner; have no visible body hair; males might wear bright red lipstick and cosmetics; resemble a cadaver; appear to have respiratory difficulties; "run out" of energy... all as if poorly imitating human beings.

"Incredible" cases add an extraordinary touch to the aforementioned categories. For instance, the interlopers may disappear in one of two ways. There is a difference between vanishing in plain sight and disappearing in the blink of an eye. The former indicates that the witness sees the entity vanish during unbroken vigilance. Disappearing in the blink of an eye means that the witness looked away or blinked and the visitor was gone. Irish folklore tells us to never take our eyes off a leprechaun during a pursuit or he will vanish. Our strangers might also walk through a muddy field and leave no tracks. The laws of our spatiotemporal "reality" do not deter certain visitants.

Personally researching encounters with nonhuman beings for more than five decades, it is my distinct honor and privilege to read, review, and recommend the MiB/WiB trilogy by my colleague Nick Redfern. The Black Diary: M.I.B., Women in Black, Black-Eyed Children, and Dangerous Books is his grand finale to the series. To call it "grand" is an understatement.

There are, first and foremost, mesmerizing accounts of meetings with nonhuman beings.

On July 19, 2012, Gloria (a senior citizen from Decatur, Texas) was just minding her own business and reading a book, with her two dogs for company. Both pets began barking at the sky. She looked up in time to observe what can only be accurately described as a classic flying saucer before it suddenly dematerialized, rather than having shot away at high speed. It was a case of "here-one-second-and-gone-the-next-second." Animal reactions are part and parcel of many paranormal mysteries.

Gloria had a brief peek into the unknown. She took no photos or video. She recovered no physical evidence of the "UFO" existence. She did not report her sighting to the media or the authorities.

And yet, there was a knock on her door the following afternoon. It was a pale-faced skeletal woman of about thirty, wearing a long black wig and dressed in a black jacket, a white blouse, and a flowing, black skirt (in July in Texas). She also sported huge sunglasses. The WiB smelled of dirt. This stranger warned Gloria not to talk about the UFO she had encountered the previous day, due to the claim that "the government is concerned." After asking what the time was, the WiB turned, walked down Gloria's driveway and vanished into nothingness.

Nick and I both know that these strangers are not from any government agency. While MiB/WiB visits can turn "ho-hum" UFO sightings into memorable cases, these entity encounters can also be quite hazardous to your health.

Kent Senter described his physical reactions to a visit from three MiB. "I looked up and immediately felt numbness and somewhat of a tingling electric shock in my stomach. I have never felt this sensation before or since. It was similar to a funny bone hit, but in the stomach only... It all seemed so strange and I felt like I was in a stupor."

Could Kent be describing some type of invisible assault to his Solar Plexus? Interestingly enough, the Solar Plexus chakra is associated with the following psychological and behavioral functions: willpower, clarity of judgement, and making decisions. Perhaps these beings, from realms unknown, recognize more than our crude biological vulnerabilities.

Reactions to visits from these strangers may include mind-numbing fear, perceived evil, confusion, electrifying energy racing up the spine, sickness in the stomach, loss of will, and even loss of consciousness. These effects might be a reaction to purposefully directed energies and the localized environment created by the close proximity of these "beings."

One witness summed up his feelings to Nick: "I don't know if you've ever eaten anything that's made you really sick and then afterwards, just the thought or smell or even sight of that food will bring back the symptoms again? That's how it is with these MiB things, pretty much exactly. You know when they're around. You can feel it like the oncoming symptoms of a flu or food poisoning attack." Redfern reports that others have fallen ill after their encounters with these Mysterious Strangers.

It is all here in The Black Diary: M.I.B., Women in Black, Black-Eyed Children, and Dangerous Books. There are strange and threatening telephone calls. There are "phantom photographers" and "grinning men." There are even phantom Black Helicopters that morph into the weirdest things!

The Black Diary (2018) by Nick Redfern joins the honored tradition of The Mothman Prophecies (1975) by John Keel, The Mysterious Valley (1996) by Christopher O'Brien, and Hunt for the Skinwalker (2005) by Colm A. Kelleher Ph.D. and George Knapp. Each of these amazing authors documented, in a chronological journal style of sorts, the mayhem and mystery, synchronicity and "Trickster" phenomena that interacted with their research and the lives of those within the scope of their investigations.

The Black Diary: M.I.B., Women in Black, Black-Eyed Children, and Dangerous Books is a tantalizing and dangerous roller coaster. Ride it at your own risk. For those that do, I offer this advice:

1.) Not every idea in your head belongs to you.

2.) These cosmic forces know what you think and do.

3.) Some synchronous events are orchestrated for your benefit or detriment.