Bigfoot musings

The twitterverse (or at least the very tiny sub-section of people that are interested in weird things) was all a buzz today over the news that Justin Smeja, the guy who claims to have killed a Bigfoot, had successfully passed a lie detector test. According to the person that administered the test, this meant that Justin Smeja was telling the truth. Or at the very least believed that what he was saying was true. For many in the Bigfoot/Cryptid community this brought up a whole host of issues. Guy Edwards, writing on both Bigfoot Lunch Club and Cryptomundo, asked a very pertinent question with his article entitled, “Bigfoot Killer Passes Lie Detector Test. What Does it Mean?”. Personally I'm not sure that it means a whole lot of anything. Allow me to elaborate just a little bit. It seems to me that all the polygraph indicated was that there was “No deception detected” in response to the questions asked of Smeja. This tells met that Smeja certainly believes he killed a Bigfoot. However this is not the same thing as actually killing one. As a background to this whole issue Smeja claims to have shot and killed not only an adult Bigfoot, but also what appeared to be a juvenile Bigfoot. For a more in-depth look at this event you can read Jeffery Pritchett's interview for Examiner.com with Smeja. 

I'm not here to pass judgment one way or the other on this issue. In fact, this news got me to thinking about Bigfoot and the fact that I've never really had a chance to sit down and organize my thoughts on the big hairy hominid. And so I would like to take a moment or two of your time tonight and try to put down in writing were my opinion on Bigfoot is at the moment. As with any of my opinions on fortean topics, this is subject to change anytime, assuming new evidence comes along that causes me to re-evaluate the issue. Without further delay let's get started!

Undiscovered primate or Inter-dimensional traveler?

One last note, my thoughts on Bigfoot actually encompass all hairy hominids from around the world. So, although I will only be referring to 'Bigfoot' or 'Sasquatch', please understand that I also mean any other similar creature you can think of. Including, but not limited to, the following; Almas, Amomongo, Bukit Timah Monkey Man, Yeti, Yowie, Abominable Snowman, and so on. Thank you!

It seems likely that the most basic question to deal with first is whether or not Bigfoot is an actual flesh-and-blood creature or some etheric denizen from some other place. From the many reports I've read (and some of which I will be including below), I'm currently of the opinion that at least some (if not the vast majority) of Bigfoot encounters can best be explained by a creature that is altogether more paranormal than physical. We certainly don't seem to have much in the way of physical evidence for this creatures existence and as I said some of the reports can be quite bizarre. Please understand I said we don't have much physical evidence, not that we don't have any evidence. I know there are cases of hair, scat, and other very physical samples being collected from something that would seem to be quite physical in nature. However, most of these have turned out to be inconclusive at best or mis- identifications at worst.

So for the time being I'm content with having the opinion that there is a paranormal aspect to Bigfoot that is not typically taken into consideration, especially when people make claims of shooting one. As an example, here are just a few of the more bizarre/supernatural Bigfoot encounters that I was able to locate. Both of the following were found from a Google Groups post. The first example is from a Val Power, an anthropology undergraduate from Vancouver who wrote of her alleged Sasquatch encounters.

Too much has been written on too little direct observation. The focus of this report is the phenomenal aspect of the Sasquatch based on my two encounters in British Columbia.

REPORT #1

As we entered the forest via a well worn path, we both noticed and remarked that we could feel a pressure on the top of our heads. It was not uncomfortable but quite noticeable. The trail we were on led to a gulley and I knew this area very well as I was raised only three blocks away from it. Miriam and I would come here often on walks.

Once in the forest we did not walk more than one and a half city blocks. We spent time looking at the variety of vegetation and sitting on a log talking. This is not an area of thick undergrowth.

As we got up to continue our walk along the path, I noticed a log by which appeared suddenly, a Sasquatch laying on the ground facing the log. Its knees were slightly bent. Its fur was black. Miriam didn't seem to notice it and continued down the path. I got on my hands and knees because I wanted to get a good look at this creature.

I was only about a foot away from it at most, and close enough to comfortably reach out and touch it. Between the Sasquatch and myself was a visible, clear barrier. The bottom edge was approximately three to four inches from the ground. I did not look to see the height of the barrier nor the length, nor did it occur to me to see if I could walk around to see its face.

I wanted to reach out and touch its fur but didn't because I was unsure if the barrier would have an affect on my hand or my physical being.

As I knelt on the ground I heard a 'metallic' like 'click-click' and my eyes became as a microscope. Looking through this new heightened lens I could examine with clarity a single hair and how it fit into the light, creamy colored skin. Without touch, I could move aside a hair to examine it and know the thickness of its fur. There was no sound.

As I knelt on the ground, I was given a message or a knowing, "When the barrier touches the earth, the worlds will blend, and chaos will result".

As suddenly as it appeared it disappeared. I stood up and saw Miriam walking towards me. I asked her what she had been doing to which she replied, "Looking at a house in the trees". The house was small, on a branch approximately ten to twelve feet up in a tree. I didn't see the house and she didn't see the Sasquatch.

Later on in the article, Val analyzes what she believes happened to her and her friend during the events. It's a fascinating read and I suggest you check out the link to give it a glance yourself. The same Google Group post also has an excerpt from the book The Psychic Sasquatch by Jack “Kewaunee” Lapseritis.

[p. 27] This story was related to me over a six-year period through a series of letters, numerous telephone calls, and personal interviews. The account took place west of the Rocky Mountains; the names and places are changed to protect the family involved. These events occurred in the latter part of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Mr. Jeffrey and family are well established members of their community.

[p. 29] On the first night, they [the Jeffrey family] decided to walk along the lake after dark thinking they might see a Bigfoot further away from their trailer. After a while, they heard a banging of sticks on a hollow tree. Then loud thumping noises at a distance, as if something with huge feet was carelessly stomping the ground as it ran.

The banging on trees seemed to be coming from different directions, evidently by two separate individuals. The noise was heard repeatedly, which greatly perplexed them.

The Jeffrey family decided to hide in the brush in an effort to catch a glimpse of a Bigfoot. Before long, they were astounded by an ungodly cry [p. 30] unlike anything they had ever heard before.

What they observed in the moments that followed was beyond their wildest imaginations. They reported that the Sasquatch stepped out of the forest holding a flashlight device, and directed the beam up in the air while howling upwardly.

During this time, other unseen creatures hit their sticks against hollow logs making a loud drum-like thud. There were three bangs, then a pause; three bangs, then a pause – always three.

Within minutes, a round, saucer-shaped glowing object appeared on the horizon and hovered over the trees directly above the Sasquatch. The frightened family huddled in the bushes, observing the peculiar ritual.

There is a little bit more to the excerpt to be found on the Google Groups post, but of course to get the full story you'll have to check out the book. This particular account doesn't necessarily rule out a physical creature, but it certainly doesn't sound like an unclassified species of hominid. At least not in the classical sense of some kind of animal. This creature seems to have a pretty healthy grasp of technological understanding. Again, doesn't mean that the beings aren't from around here but that they are certainly stranger than we may know.

Just like any other fortean topic, my mind isn't entirely made up on what Bigfoot is. I do tend towards the explanation that there is some paranormal/supernatural aspect to Bigfoot that makes it far more than just another member of the hominid family. Cases such as the ones sighted above have definitely led me to this tentative conclusion. But like any good Fortean, I haven't completely settled into one camp or the other.

This makes my opinion on this whole Smeja/Bigfoot killing issue a little hard to pin down. Assuming that he isn't lying, as indicated by the polygraph test, then what does that mean exactly? It makes me wonder what he actually shot and killed. If the creature related in the above accounts is indicative of a Bigfoot, then how in the world did Smeja shoot them? Maybe he shot one of the biological Bigfoots (Bigfeet)?

These are just some of my random thoughts on Bigfoot. I realized that this post was getting a bit long so I'll be wrapping it up for now, but rest assured I will be returning to the Bigfoot issue from time to time in the future. As usual be sure to follow the links below for all of the additional information. Also let me know what you think in the comment section below. Do you think Bigfoot is some kind of inter-dimensional traveler or a surviving member of some long thought to be extinct member of the hominid family tree?

Additional Info:

Bigfoot Killer Passes Lie Detector Test. What Does it Mean?

'To Kill Or Not To Kill' Interview with Bigfoot killer Justin Smeja 

Supernatural Bigfoot UFO Connection - Google Groups 

The Psychic Sasquatch

Humanoid sighting reports, not just little Greys!

I'm always fascinated to read humanoid encounters and reports of strange beings that people have had dealings with. Whether or not these accounts are valid is often difficult to determine, but it does seem that many of the people who recount them are sincere in their telling of the stories. If nothing else the stories are fascinating to read about. Some time ago I came across an amazing website which has a massive index of these bizarre humanoid encounters. So tonight I thought I would share with you a just some of the cases that stood out to me as examples of the variety of entities people report seeing. Not unlike my post dealing with the menagerie of Ufonauts, you won't find too many stories of 4-ft tall Grey beings from Zeta Reticuli listed below. All the reports come from Albert S. Rosales' Humanoid Sighting Reports that are posted on UFOinfo.com. Rosales has painstakingly collected these reports from a variety of sources and has tried his best to organize them, both by date and by type of encounter. I love how Rosales approaches this topic in both his willingness to simply take what people say as important and with his attempts to preserve this information for any and all to have. Quoting directly from the website, Rosales says:

I always felt that the study of the "humanoid” itself was more important than any other study ….. I am currently engaged in attempting to catalog most reported encounters with humanoids, entities, beings, little men, giants, MIB, creatures, amphibians, reptilians, grays etc. So far I have over 10000 cases in my files, many known, many not so well known. I have translated many from all corners of the globe . I think this study is vital for future researchers and for UFO historians.

I obviously do not believe every single story, but I believe all stories must be told. Many are first hand reports, others are just anecdotes, but all are included. I am constantly looking for new sources of information and I am willing to assist any serious researcher looking for humanoid cases. I also need help from the numerous groups Worldwide in forwarding humanoid incident reports for my catalog, so it can one day be used by everyone.

With that in mind I will let the cases speak for themselves for the most part. I can't tell you what to make of them. If you wish they could just be what Greg Bishop calls 'UFO porno' or perhaps they might resonate with you as similar to something you or someone you know has sighted. Personally, I take the reports at face value and assume the people involved encountered what they have reported encountering.

First up is a really interesting event where a man was doing some work in his yard when he found himself face to face with some little beings and their pet. It comes from the 1977 year reports.

56.
Location. Near Snohomish Wisconsin
Date: April 1977
Time: 1600

Steven Unzelman was clearing some land behind his property in an area surrounded by tall evergreen trees and brush when he noticed a man like figure standing close by. The man seemed startled and suddenly the witness began hearing a loud buzzing sound and everything around him began to vibrate. The figure appeared to be yelling at him. A second man wearing a blue coverall now descended from the sky inside what appeared to be a half-egg shaped contraption with rotating blades on top. It was creating a strong turbulence all around the area. Both men descended to the ground using this peculiar machine. The two half egg shaped objects then suddenly shot up into the sky and disappeared. Both men were described as bald headed with flat faces. Both had dark brown skin and wore metallic blue uniforms and what appeared to be oxygen tanks on their backs. Both were about 5-feet tall and their heads were slightly larger than normal. Suddenly the witness heard a loud motor sound and saw a disc shaped object descend overhead making the trees whip back and forth. After emitting more sounds the object shot straight up making a siren-like sound. The object was silvery and appeared to have been spinning. The two humanoids then began walking away looking over their shoulders at the witness. He then heard a noise and noticed a huge hairy Bigfoot type creature hiding behind a nearby stump. The two humanoids then seemed to motion at the Bigfoot to come with them. It seemed to obey and left with them. The witness experienced a memory loss after the incident.

HC addition # 2387
Source: Peter Guttilla, The Bigfoot File
Type: C

This is a fairly classic example of the 'soil sample collection' variety of encounters. One has to wonder if perhaps they should hire someone else to do the soil collecting, after all they've only been doing it for a few thousand years or so, but I digress.

7.
Location. Badlands area Montana
Date: July 1913
Time: unknown
J. L. Buick & another prospector were startled by a small brown man saying "Peace be with you, my friends." Sitting on a patch of sand was a silvery round object nearly 100 ft in diameter, with central dome & a small conning tower; no wheels underneath. Around it was other small men in brown picking flowers, pebbles, etc, & some mining a rock outcrop. The occupant told the witnesses they were from another planet, which had secretly been keeping tabs on earth for over a hundred years; they had learned English via spies working in a US circus. The craft rose silently & then took off. Next day it came back, & they were given a tour inside; 5 concentric saucers with diminishing air pressures, the outermost being evacuated. As to lift, "gravity is only a different type of magnetism," so it can be controlled by an electromagnetic drive; they can do 9000 mph, and have artificial gravity inside the saucer. Rockets, they were told, had failed for space travel.

Humcat 1913-1
Source: Letter to Donald Keyhoe
Type: G

This next case is really weird. In a lot of ways it reads almost like a Nazi version of the Roswell incident, especially in some of the details about the living and dead “ETs” which were recovered.

16.
Location. Czernica, Germany (Eastern Part, now territory of Poland)
Date: Summer 1937
Time: unknown
A multicolored ball or globe-shaped UFO was seen to fall in a field (or near a field) belonging to Eva Braun’s parents (this was the future mistress of Adolph Hitler) The area was cordoned off by SS-troops from the town of Jelenia Gora (called Hirschberg at the time). The crashed disk was transported to the Hirschberg SS base and kept under very strong guard and super top security. The disk was 7.6 meter in diameter and 3.8 meters high. It consisted of a large “overwhelming” dome, encircled by a narrow outer rim, and smaller flat dome on the bottom with a flat lower section. The top of the dome was also flat and large. The craft had 6 oval-shaped structures resembling portholes but not transparent, or devices that radiated some type of light, located near the base of the upper dome. On the lower surface of the outer rim the craft had 12 lights. The color of the disk was a dull metal gray. There was an insignia on the dome resembling the letter “T” with 2 props on its sides. The entrance into the disk was found on the top of the upper dome. The general shape of the disk resembled that of a German soldier’s helmet with a small protrusion on the bottom. Inside the circular cabin were 3 small seats, there were control panels around the dome and 3 alien beings were found: one was dead, the other two were alive. One of the live aliens died soon after the crash, and the second live alien remained in custody for about 1.5 months and then died. The aliens were small dwarfs, about 0.9-1.0m in height, with large hairless pear-shaped heads, small dystrophic looking bodies, long narrow hands with 4 fingers, grayish skin and large dark slanted eyes. The Germans were afraid to move the disk to a more distant location, out of apprehension that it might explode during a long trip during transportation. So, a research laboratory had to be constructed nearby. From Hirschberg the disk was removed to a more secured underground location, which most likely, was called “Der Riese” a Nazi complex in the nearby Gory Sowie mountains (now in southwest Poland), which was also a site being used for excavating for uranium ore. This complex had an extensive network of underground hangars, connected by tunnels. The bodies of the occupants and the living extraterrestrial were also moved into this complex. The alien that lived for a little bit over a month apparently supplied the Germans with some type of information and was desperately asking the Nazi medical doctors for help, but they could not help him because of the different biological structure of his body. The alien died from an unknown illness. The origin of the crashed craft was apparently the double star system RA known on earth as 78 mu-1, Cygni, 73.1 light years in distance. Among the information given to the Germans by the surviving alien was that they had built underground bases in the polar region of the Canadian Northern Territories maybe Baffin Island. This data was supplied to Adolph Hitler himself. But no substantial technical data was in fact provided by the alien that could had help Nazi scientists to cope with the alien technology, despite their desperate attempt to obtain such data. The surviving alien also informed the Germans that the crashed was caused by some kind of technical malfunction. The alien was kept and interrogated at the same underground installation as the disk. Adolph Hitler and some other top Nazi figures including Werner Von Braun and Air Marshall Hermann Goring inspected the crashed disk, the alien bodies and consulted Nazi scientists in an attempt to use the object as a super secret weapon. Among those scientist involved in investigating the crashed disc were, Max Von Laue, Otto Hahn (who discovered nuclear fusion) and Werner Heisenberg. Fortunately (and unfortunately for the Nazis) the alien technology was extremely sophisticated and difficult to understand. The disc indeed inspired some Nazi scientists to construct different models of disc-shaped planes and the so-called flying bombs. This crash and possession of the extraterrestrial spacecraft was one of the factors that possibly inspired Hitler with extreme self-confidence to start World War II, hoping to use the craft as a sort of super weapon that would eventually help him conquer the world. Because of the approaching Soviet troops the whole underground complex was blown up, and the disk and the alien bodies was buried in one of the underground tunnels, the entrance was sealed with numerous huge rocks. It is apparently still there, unbeknownst to the Polish Government. The disk apparently still emanates radiation from its power plant, but because of the nearby uranium mines this source of radiation remains undetected.

HC addendum
Source: Robert K Lesniakiewicz, Milos Jesensky “Wunderland, Extraterrestrial Technologies, Anton Anfalov, Lenura A Azizova, Iryna V Volyk & Sergey V Kovalevskiy
Type: H

This next and final report I wish to share reminds me of tales of encounters with Fairies and going to the fairy realm.

5.
Location. Banks of the River Volga, Russia
Date: January 1912
Time: night
Mr. V. Dychkin and his friend were driving during a snowy night in separate sledges along the banks of the river. Dychkin's friend was driving ahead and he was following him. Suddenly they encountered two "strangers" standing alongside of the road, and Dychkin invited them to seat on the sledges. The two strange looking men convinced Dychkin not to continue home because of the storm, but to turn to the nearest town and spend the night there. Though Dychkin knew that there weren't any towns in the area, he drove against his will in the direction where the men told him. One of the men then pointed and yelled out, "Look, there is the town!" Dychkin looked and to his amazement saw a beautiful scene; something resembling a huge strange "city" was located on a flat plateau, illuminated by thousands of lights. The lights were positioned in a "fantastic" arrangement; he had never seen anything like it. Convinced in the reality of his vision Dychkin turned in the direction of the lights without hesitation. His companion followed and soon approached him. Suddenly both men were seized by incredible fear and rushed towards the road, never seeing where the two strangers had gone. Dychkin looked back in the direction of the lights but was surprised to see only the night gloom and darkness.

HC addendum
Source: "Rebus" Magazine, St. Petersburg 1914
German Mikhailov "NLO" Magazine # 50
Type: G?
Comments: The lighted "city" could have been a giant spacecraft but also the possibility of parallel worlds cannot be overlooked.

Are all of these encounters made up or exaggerated? We may never really know. I tend to agree with Rosales in that these incidents are important in our understanding of paranormal or even ufological phenomena. It's true that they also make for some great reading. On that note I can't recommend enough that you visit the UFOinfo site in order to read these and many, many, more reports each just as unusual and bizarre as the last. In addition to the reports available at the site, Rosales also publishes the Journal of Humanoid Studies that can be downloaded as PDFs. Drop me a line and let me know what you think of these reports in the comments, additionally if you come across some other bizarre encounters feel free to post those as well. 

New writing gig

It's been a few days since my last post, so I wanted to take an opportunity to give you readers an update on what I've been up to. Never fear I have a few projects in the pipeline that will return us to your regularly scheduled Forteania postings that you've all come to love so much. As many of you are already aware, in addition to blogging here at Forteania I also write a column for Tim Binnall at his Binnall Of America website that's entitled Fortean Ramblings. Well you can add another url to your list of places to find my writing. As of Monday August 6, I began writing for Disinfo.com. My first (and so far only) post went live Monday evening in celebration of Charles Fort's birthday. What better way to celebrate not only my new gig at Disinfo, but also Fort's birthday? Below I'll give you a snippet of that post, but you should really follow the link below to check out the whole thing.

Happy Birthday Mr. Fort!

August 6, 2012 marks the 138th birthday of the great cataloger of the strange and unusual Charles Fort. Writing in the early 20th century, Fort would pen a total of seven books in his lifetime. Two early works, X and Y, were sadly never published as the author burned them during one of his many bouts of depression. Another title, The Outcast Manufacturers, was a fiction book that enjoyed some moderate success. The works that have made him rather famous (or infamous depending upon who you ask) are The Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo!, and Wild Talents. Through the use of the New York Public library, Fort set about to dig up the data he felt that science had too long neglected. Almost right from the beginning Fort laid out his intentions pretty clearly. In his first work, The Book of the Damned, Fort wrote:

“A Procession of the damned. By the damned, I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded”

Follow this link in order to read the whole thing. Also be sure to keep checking back on Disinfo for more of my writing. That's all I have for now, tonight should see normal posting resume here. Until then, Stay Classy internets!

Tulpas, Tibet, and the Conjuration of Philip

When it comes to possible explanations for fortean or paranormal phenomena, I always find myself fascinated by the concept of the tulpa. Tulpa is a Tibetan word that is typically rendered into English as 'thoughtform'. The idea is that someone can create from their thoughts an actually entity or phantom and give it life. Alexandra David-Neel is credited with bringing the term and concept to the Western world in her 1929 book Magic and Mystery in Tibet. David-Neel had traveled extensively around the globe and was one of the first Westerners to be allowed entrance into Tibet and their religion and culture. David-Neel relates a lot of information to the reader about Tulpas in the Tibetan belief. According to David-Neel:

“A Bodhisattva [David-Neel says this is a person that has attained a spiritual perfection that places them just below the Buddha] is the basis of countless magic forms. By the power generated in a state of perfect concentration of mind he may, at one and the same time, show a phantom (tulpa) of himself in thousands of millions of worlds. He may create not only human forms, but any forms he chooses....” (pg 121)

David-Neel continues by saying:

“The power of producing magic formations, tulkus or less lasting and materialized tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings. Any human, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself” (pg 121)

With this in mind, I wish to take a look at a relatively modern example of the creation of a ghost named Philip. During the 1970s a group from the Toronto Society for Psychical Research, along with a Dr. A.R.G. Owen (who was a mathematician) meet in order to see if they could, in essence, create a ghost. The group was comprised of Dr. Owen, his wife, a former chairperson of Mensa, an industrial designer, an accountant, a housewife, a bookkeeper and a sociology student. Additionally a psychologist by the name of Dr. Joel Whitton would also attend some of their experiments. The original idea was that this group of people could create a ghost seemingly by meditating on the idea of him including the history of the ghost. They would then attempt to make contact with this discarnate entity through séances and gain information from it.

Here is a part of the biography for the spirit the group created in order to flesh out “Philip Aylesford”:

Philip was an aristocratic Englishman, living in the middle 1600s at the time of Oliver Cromwell. He had been a supporter of the King, and was a Catholic. He was married to a beautiful but cold and frigid wife, Dorothea, the daughter of a neighboring nobleman.

One day when out riding on the boundaries of his estates Philip came across a gypsy encampment and saw there a beautiful dark-eyed girl raven-haired gypsy girl, Margo, and fell instantly in love with her. 

He brought her back secretly to live in the gatehouse, near the stables of Diddington Manor - his family home.

For some time he kept his love-nest secret, but eventually Dorothea, realizing he was keeping someone else there, found Margo, and accused her of witchcraft and stealing her husband. 

Philip was too scared of losing his reputation and his possessions to protest at the trial of Margo, and she was convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake.

Philip was subsequently stricken with remorse that he had not tried to defend Margo and used to pace the battlements of Diddington in despair. 

Finally, one morning his body was found at the bottom of the battlements, whence he had cast himself in a fit of agony and remorse.

One member of the group even sketched Philip's portrait

With this back story firmly in mind, the group meet weekly in order to attempt to communicate with “Philip”. As a part of their weekly meetings the group would come together and meditate on both the image of Philip and also his history. The group did this for about a year with no positive results. Some members of the group did claim during this time that they were able to sense a presence, but apparently nothing that was verifiable. The group was quite determined and rather than let the last year be for waste they decided to change up the tactics a bit. In order to have better results with conjuring Philip, the group began to replicate the séances of old.

Candle light, sitting around a table, soft music playing, the whole thing. They even had pictures of castles like the one Philip would have lived in, had he ever actually lived that is. This new method seemed to do the trick. During one of the group's séances, they began to receive communication from an entity. Through a series of rappings (reminiscent of the early Spiritualism movement) the group was able to determine that they were finally talking with Philip. The entity revealed this to the group through a series of raps. Speaking through raps, Philip continued to display his own unique attitude. This was discovered by how long Philip would pause in between answering the questions which the researchers posed to him.

The group never questioned that the entity they were in communication with was Philip because of it's lack of knowledge on many topics. It seems that Philip only knew the answers to questions that someone in the group knew the answer to. If they would ask him a question that the group didn't know the answer to he would be unable to answer. While the Q & A portion of Philip's ability might have been lacking, he completely made up for this shortcoming with his very clear psychokinetic abilities. Overtime as the séances continued, the group discovered that Philip was able to move the rapping table. Often, Philip would even cause the table to rush over to people that were late to the weekly meetings.

The height of the Philip saga came when the group set out to perform one of their weekly séances in front of an audience made up of 50 people or so. Additionally a TV film crew was brought in to record the séance as part of a documentary. Unlike most paranormal phenomena, Philip actually seemed to enjoy the spotlight. The rappings and psychokinetic feats were on display for all the audience to see. At one point during the séance the group was even able to get the entire table to levitate a few inches off of the ground. Sadly, because of the dim lighting that was required as a part of the séance the film crew was unable to record this for posterity. Only a part of the documentary seems to be online and you can check out the few minutes of it that exist here.

Although the groups main objective of having Philip physically materialize (not unlike Rosalie), they were overall satisfied with the results of their experiments. So much so that after their success with Philip, the Toronto Society for Psychical Research went on to conjure other ghosts with similar apparent success. In one instance, using a different group of people, they were able to conjure a new spirit which was called “Lilith”. A few other groups are supposed to have been able to successfully recreate this experiment as well, but finding information on those incidents is rather difficult.

At the end of the day it's hard to say what it was that was actually occurring in this situation. It certainly seems to fit in with the concept of the tulpa, especially as explained by David-Neel in her classic work on the topic. I only wish that more of the documentary existed so that it could be scene. Ostensibly, if this experiment was truly as easy as the group proclaimed I suppose that anyone could conceivably do this at home. Before you do decide to go through with this and conjure your own ghost, I feel I must leave you with a parting warning from David-Neel:

“.....the practice is considered as fraught with danger for everyone who …. is not aware of the nature of the psychic forces at work in the process. Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control.....Sometimes the phantom becomes a rebellious son and one hears of uncanny struggles that have taken place between magicians and their creatures, the former being severely hurt or even killed by the latter.” (pg 313)

Sources and further reading:

About.com article

Unexplained Mysteries thread

Stranger Dimensions article

Conjuring up Philip by Iris Owen (part of the original group that summoned Philip)

Harry Price and the Materialization of Rosalie

In parapsychological research perhaps no phenomenon is more elusive, and most highly debated, than the actual manifestation of a ghost or spirit. While reading through my recently acquired copy of Brad Steiger's Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places I came across a fascinating account of a materialization of a child's ghost that was witnessed and investigated by famed British author and Psychic researcher Harry Price. Price wrote about the events that led up to his coming into contact with Rosalie in his 1939 book Fifty years of Psychical Research. The story that follows is interesting but, like most of the paranormal, is highly controversial. I'll leave it for you to decide what happened that night. Steiger tells us the following:

On December 8, 1937, Harry Price had just concluded a radio broadcast regarding psychic phenomena when a listener contacted him with an interesting revelation. Price was informed that the listener regularly participates in a family séance that was held every Wednesday evening, at which the family materialized the spirit of a child. (pg 234)

Harry Price, Psychical Researcher

Price was offered the opportunity to come and witness one of these weekly investigations on some conditions; according to Price in Fifty years in Psychical Research:

Of course, there were conditions, which I anticipated. But I was genuinely astonished at the simple rules to which I was asked to adhere. In the first place, if I accepted the invitation to attend a séance, I was to promise not to reveal the identity of any of the sitters, or the locality where the séance was held. I could write an account of the séance giving my candid views of it, provided I mentioned no names.

If I were impressed with the proceedings, I was 'not to seek a scientific inquiry', as the mother of 'Rosalie,' who attended each sitting, was 'terrified that her girl might be frightened away.' These Wednesday meetings were in the nature of a sacred communion with the spirit of her daughter, and would be maintained as such.

I was not to bring to the séance any light (such as a torch); I was not to speak to or touch the materialization without permission, and I was not to do anything, or make any experiment, without the sitters' consent. I would not be asked to sign any document embodying these arrangements: it was to be a 'gentlemen's agreement.'

As a part of the conditions, Price would be allowed to fully search the room and home where the séance was to be held. In his own words Price says:

I would be allowed full control of the room and the sitters up to the beginning of the séance. I could search the house from top to bottom, seal all external windows and doors, search the séance room (the drawing-room), all doors and windows of which I could lock and seal,

I could move - or remove - any furniture, ornaments, etc., from the séance room which I thought fit, I could control the room to the extent of sprinkling powdered starch or other substance round doors or windows, or place electrical contacts there (she admitted that she had gathered that this was what I did, from my broadcast from the 'haunted house'),

I could search the sitters or any person in the house immediately before or after the séance.

Price agreed and set a date in which to come see the events of the séance firsthand. When he arrived at the location, Price was given a little more background information about the child's spirit that was going to be manifested. Apparently the child was a little girl named Rosalie. Rosalie had died in 1920 from a case of diphtheria. In his notes, Price simply referred to the mother as a 'Madame Z'. In addition to the background on the child, Price was given some information detailing the circumstances by which the weekly séance began. Price notes:

In the spring of 1925 - according to my hostess - Madame Z. was awakened during the night by the sound of her dead girl's voice crying 'mother.' This occurred so frequently that Madame Z. got into the habit of lying awake at night, waiting for the 'voice.' Gradually, she thought she could see (in the dark) the dim outline of 'Rosalie' and hear her footsteps in the room. Finally, the mother declared, one night she put her arm out of bed and her hand was clasped by that of her little girl.

The séance began sometime after dinner. However it wasn't until around 10 pm that something started to happen. Madame Z suddenly said that she felt the presence of Rosalie that she was here. Rosalie's mother began weeping and sobbing. Price, meanwhile, relates that he heard nor saw anything though he did report smelling something. In fact Price says:

At the same moment I, too, realized that there was something quite close to me. I neither heard nor saw anything, but the sensation was an olfactory one - I seemed to smell something that was not there previously. It was a strange, not unpleasant smell.

Smells aside, Price seemed to infer that Rosalie had made her appearance. Finally curiosity perhaps getting the best of him, Price requested permission to touch Rosalie. According to Price:

Permission was given, and I stretched out my left arm and, to my amazement, it came in contact with, apparently, the nude figure of a little girl, aged about six years. I slowly passed my hand across her chest up to her chin and cheeks. Her flesh felt warm, though (and this may have been imagination) not so warm as one would expect to find normal human flesh. I laid the back of my left hand on her right cheek: it felt soft and warm and I could distinctly hear her breathing. I then placed my hand on her chest again and could feel the respiratory movements.

Going further:

There are no words to express how I felt at the appearance of the form before me - or rather to the left of me. A supreme scientific interest, with a feeling of absolute incredulity, would best describe my reactions. I had not bargained for anything so wonderful (or so clever!) as this.

But if I had been tricked, so had the mother, and that was unthinkable. She, at least, was not acting a part. I asked whether I could hold 'Rosalie.' I was told that I could move my chair nearer to the child and this I did. I was now able to use both hands and again felt every inch of that little form.

If it is a spirit - I argued to myself - then there is no difference between a spirit and a human being. With my right hand, I lifted 'Rosalie's' right arm and felt her pulse. It appeared to be too quick and I estimated a rate of 90 to the minute. I put my ear to her chest and could distinctly hear her heart beating.

I then took both her hands and asked X., his daughter, and Jim to speak in order to prove their presence in their respective seats. They did so. I knew that Madame Z. and Mrs. X. were on either side of me, as I had only to put out my hand to touch them.

After time spent investigating the fact that the materialized child was, at least apparently, flesh and blood, Price didn't want to miss the opportunity to speak with what could very well be an ambassador of the spirit world. So he set about to ask her some questions that he felt could give him some more information about where she came from and what 'life' was like where she resided. Price lists the questions and answers, or lack thereof, in his book as:

'Where do you live, Rosalie?' (No answer.)
'What do you do there?' (No answer.)
'Do you play with other children?' (No answer.)
'Have you any toys there?' (No answer.)
'Are there any animal pets?' (No answer.)

The only question that Rosalie was willing, or perhaps able, to answer was whether or not she loved her mother to which she replied in the affirmative. Not long after the Q & A session had ended, Rosalie began to slowly dematerialize and finally disappeared back to whatever realm she had first come from. A mere two hours after returning home wrote notes on the events that had occurred that night. He concluded with the following paragraph that shows what his opinion on the preceding events was. It reads as follows:

I feel I have not done justice in this report to the amazing events of last night, and I am still wondering if 'Rosalie' was a genuine spirit entity, or whether the whole thing was an elaborate hoax. If the latter, then the 'hoax' has been going on for years and no actress in the world could simulate Madame Z.'s poignant emotion.

And where did the 'spirit' come from? These are questions which I shall have to think about, and answer. If I had witnessed the materialization of 'Rosalie' in my own laboratory, I should not hesitate to proclaim to an incredulous world that survival was proved. It is possible - though very doubtful - that last night's historic (as far as I am concerned) séance may be repeated under better conditions in a laboratory. But Madame Z. is convinced that 'Rosalie would be frightened away.'

The sitting I have just attended is at least distinguished by the complete absence of blasphemous humbug and hymn-singing, which characterize so many pseudo-spiritualist séances run by rogues for profit. Looking at it in retrospect, I can think of several things I ought to have done that I did not do, and one of these is the taking of 'Rosalie's' finger-prints.

I had ample opportunity, but no materials. Another thing I might have done was to have ascertained who the 'medium' was. Madame Z. herself denies that she is mediumistic, but I can think of no one else. Apparently, there was no medium.

I have to say that, all things considered, Price maintains a fair amount of skepticism over what he experienced. I'm not so sure that I would have been able to retain such skepticism after what Price had witnessed. Steiger notes that after Price refused to divulge the information about the identities of those involved in the séance, his already tarnished reputation within the psychical research field was hurt even more. Investigators not only wanted to know who the séance members were, they also wished to perform their own investigations. But Price was nothing if not a man of his word and so, as far as I've been able to determine, the identities have remained a mystery. Let me know what you think of this story, and be sure to follow the links below for more information, including a link to the entire chapter of Price's book that was devoted to the case of Rosalie.

Further Reading:

Rosalie Chapter of Fifty years of Psychical Research

Harry Price website

The Dover Demon

Continuing my cryptozoological kick, I wish to take a look at yet another rather elusive cryptid that made a small splash on the paranormal scene and left just as suddenly as it appeared . Even years later the witnesses are stunned by what they encountered that night. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's take a trip back in time to April 21, 1977 and the town of Dover, Massachusetts.

Around 10:30 pm the night of April 21, 1977 three teenage boys were driving along an area outside of a bar when their headlights illuminated a bizarre creature that appeared to be crawling along a wall near Farm Street. Originally one of the witness, Bill Bartlett, thought that they were looking at what could have been a dog or cat. Yet as he got a better look at IT he quickly realized this was no creature he had ever seen before. Later Bartlett would be quoted as saying

“It was not a dog or a cat. It had no tail. It had an egg-shaped head. It looked like a baby’s body with long arms and legs. It had a big head about the same size as the body, it was sort of melon shaped. The color of it was… the color of people in the Sunday comics.”

Bartlett's sketch

The witness was unable to see anything that resembled a nose, ears, or a mouth on the creature. It's also interesting to note that evidently the driver, Bartlett, was the only one of the three in the vehicle who was able to see the creature as his two friends were too busy laughing and talking to notice it. Once Bartlett had returned home he drew a sketch of the creature that he had seen.

This was not to be the last sighting of the mysterious creature however. About an hour after Bartlett sighted the creature, John Baxter aged 15 was walking home from his girlfriends house when he saw what he at first took to be a child. The thought initially struck Baxter that it could be a local child that he knew who suffered from a disability. He began to follow it seeing if the child perhaps needed help of some kind. As he attempted to catch up to the “child”, he soon lost sight of it. After stopping a moment in order to catch his breath, Baxter looked across at a gully and finally caught sight of the “child” he had been trying to catch up to. The creature that his eyes fell on matched in description exactly that given by Bartlett. The long, slender armed and fingered creature with the giant bulbous head. In his own words Baxter had this to say:

“As I was looking really close there I could see the eyes it was looking at me I just stared at it for another few minutes and then I just got all these thoughts that maybe it was something really strange. ‘Cause, you know, nothing ever happened to me like this before, so I didn’t know what to think.”

Artist's sketch based off of Baxter's description

“So I finally got the thought that maybe it wasn’t as safe as it looked, ’cause the way it was staring at me it just seemed like it was– I don’t know. I got all these feelings that it was thinking to itself, or waiting to spring, or whatever, you know? And so I backed up the bank kind of fast, and my heart started beating really fast!” (Source AmericanMonsters.com)

The final sighting of the creature occurred the following night, sometime around midnight. Will Taintor, 18, was driving his girlfriend Abby Brabham, 15, home when Abby spotted something on the side of Springdale Avenue. According to Brabham:

“As I looked at it… it kind of looked a minute like an ape. And then I looked at the head and the head was very big and it was a very weird head It had bright green eyes and the eyes just glowed like, they were just looking exactly at me”

Abby Brabham's drawing of what she saw

Within a week investigators Loren Coleman, Ed Fogg, Walter N Webb were on the scene investigating the sightings. In fact Loren Coleman, who not only investigated all of the primary witness firsthand, is credited with giving the creature its name “Dover Demon”. After interviewing all of the witness, the investigators came to the following conclusion on the events:

‘‘We have a credible case, over 25 hours, by individuals who saw something. Nothing quite like the Demon has been reported seen before or since. The Dover creature does not match the descriptions of the Chupacabras, or of Roswell aliens, or of the bat-eared (Hopkinsville Goblins) said to have attacked a family in Hopkinsville, Ky., in 1955… it doesn’t really fit any place. It’s extremely unique. It has no real connections to any other inexplicable phenomena. I think the Dover Demon’s mystery lives on. ’’

Loren Coleman also appeared on Animal Planet's Lost Tapes television show that discussed the Dover Demon. Below is a clip of that show for you to check out.

The final piece of information I will leave with is this Boston Globe article from 2006 in which the then 46 year old Bartlett was interviewed about the strange sighting that he had had some 29 years prior. From that article:

Dover--Twenty-nine years later, William Bartlett stands by his story of what he saw on Farm Street that night. It was an eerie human-like creature, he said, about 4 feet tall with glowing orange eyes and no nose or mouth in a watermelon-shaped head.

‘‘I have no idea what it was,’’ Bartlett, now a 46-year-old artist living in Needham, said in a recent interview. ‘‘I definitely know I saw something.’’

The ‘‘Dover Demon’’ that Bartlett and two other teenagers reported seeing over a two-day span in April 1977 has since gained worldwide attention, not unlike Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, and the Latin American goat-sucker, the chupacabra. Internet pages are devoted to the Dover Demon. You can play a video game featuring the creature, or buy a figurine of it as far away as Japan.

‘‘In a lot of ways it’s kind of embarrassing to me,’’ said Bartlett. ‘‘I definitely saw something. It was definitely weird. I didn’t make it up. Sometimes I wish I had.’’

He has made a career as a painter, his work displayed in galleries on both coasts, but a Google search on ‘‘Bill Bartlett,’’ he noted, invariably turns up his teenage encounter with the unknown.

Once, his wife, Gwen, browsing the horror section of a bookstore, flipped open an encyclopedia of monsters — and there was an entry about her husband and the Dover Demon.

‘‘It’s a thing that’s been following me for years,’’ Bartlett said. ‘‘Not the creature — the story. Sometimes I dread every Halloween getting calls about it.’’

Writing in the 1999 2nd edition of his Unexplained!,Jerry Clark notes that Martin S Kottmeyer has a possible explanation for what the teenagers saw those nights. Clark writes:

Martin S Kottmeyer has suggested that the witnesses were seriously mistaken about what they saw, and he knows what the Dover Demon may have been: a young moose .... He notes, “Bartlett's placing o fthe eyes matches the placement just above the hip of the muzzle on a moose's head. The lack of a discernable nose and mouth is easily laid to the fact that nostrils and mouth are very far down on the muzzle. A drawing of a young moose presents ears swept back along the line of the head and would not discernably stick out, thus accounting for the absence of visible ears.” (pg 415)

So what do you think? Was it a misidentified, but still wholly mundane, animal? An alien out for a little recon mission? Personally I'm not sure what to make of it. Unlike many of the cryptid stories that have circulated for years the Dover Demon had a mere 25 hour splash on history. Whereas Bigfoot has been seen for hundreds of years, if not more, to the best of my knowledge the Dover Demon was only sighted over the period of April 21 to 22 and no more. I don't think the kids made it up, after all it seems to have had a profound impact on Bartlett at least. I'm keeping an open mind on this one for now, be sure to let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Momo the Missouri Monster - 40 yrs On

I've been on a decidedly UFO-centric bent the last few weeks of posts and so tonight I thought I would leave that topic behind and head back over to the harried (or hairy pardon the very bad pun) world of cryptozoology. It would seem that no place in the world was safe from large hairy hominids. Australia has their Yowie, the Himalayas their Yeti, and the Pacific Northwest of North America has Bigfoot. Apparently not to be outdone it seems that the town of Louisiana, Missouri also has a hairy hominid that popped up for a time and then seemingly vanished back into whatever ethereal dimension these creatures call home. So let's travel back in time to July of 1972 and meet with Momo, the Missouri Monster. The first reported sighting of the creature occurred on July 11, 1972. According to The Kansas City Star:

The Harrison family lived in a house along what was then known as Marzolf Hill. On a hot summer day, 8-year-old Terry Harrison and his 5-year-old brother, Wally, were chasing their dog through the woods.

Suddenly, 15-year-old Doris Harrison, who was inside, heard her brothers screaming, ran to the window and saw a creature she described as perhaps 7 feet tall with dark hair covering its face. It held a dead dog under its arm and blood – apparently from the dog – flecked the dark hair of the beast. And, ooh, that smell!

“It wasn't a man and it wasn't a bear,” said Doris Harrison Bliss, now 55. “It was something …”

“Something you'd never seen before?” she was asked.

“Exactly!”

Something not seen before

It's at this point that I would like to point out a few interesting details about this case. First, in keeping with the hairy hominid tradition, the creature was quite tall and also had a fairly unpleasant odor to it. Anyone who is even cursorily aware of other sasquatch reports knows that both of these facts are in keeping with the party line, so to speak. However I'm sure many picked up on the fact that Momo was apparently feasting on someone's dog. Now I don't know about you all but I probably would not have stuck around much longer in the presence of an apparently carnivorous 7 ft tall creature. That's just what Doris and her brother's did, they got out the area and fast! This was not to be the last time that Momo would wield it's (probably) blood covered head however. With an apparent attraction to the Harrison family we find this piece of information from Prairie Ghosts:

Everything was quiet until three days later, on July 14. That evening, Edgar Harrison (the children's Father) conducted a regular prayer meeting in his home and about 45 minutes after it ended, heard ringing noises that sounded as though someone was throwing rocks into the metal water reservoir on top of Marzolf Hill. The reservoir was an attraction for neighborhood children but it was unlikely that any of them would have been playing there at that hour. As he listened closely to the sounds, he heard one especially loud ring and then an animal-like growl. The sound came closer and closer and was so loud that his family came running out of the house. They urged him to leave the neighborhood but Harrison wanted to see what was making the sound.

He finally gave in to his family's pleading and as he drove down Allen Street, he met about 40 people, some of them carrying guns, who were on their way to investigate the sounds at the reservoir. For some reason, Harrison shouted "Here it comes!" and the entire crowd turned away and ran. A number of people reported hearing the strange cries and screams that night but by the time that police officers Jerry Floyd and John Whitaker arrived on the scene to investigate, they found nothing out of the ordinary.

Later that evening, Harrison and several friends explored Marzolf Hill and found an old building from which a strong and unpleasant odor lingered. Harrison described it as a "moldy, horse smell or a strong garbage smell." In the days that followed, he and others would experience the same smell around areas where the bizarre sounds were heard.

Once again we have Momo conforming to some of the standard Sasquatch behavior. Many people have reported rocks being thrown around in areas that Sasquatch have allegedly been sighted in. After a few other people in the town began to have run-ins with Momo, the media (both local and national) picked up a whiff of the story (or of Momo, it's hard to tell which). As a small sample of some of the reports, The Kansas City Star says:

Reports of encounters began to pile up. A man claimed he was chased by a big hairy beast with red eyes. School kids said they saw it from their classroom window. Two women picnicking near the river said Momo chased them to their Volkswagen, then displayed the human-like intelligence to try and open the door before a blast of the horn scared it away.

Prairie Ghosts has an account of the last sighting of Momo that has been reported:

During the last week of July, a series of mysterious three-toed prints appeared on the Freddie Robbins farm, about eight miles south of Louisiana. No casts were made of the prints but they were protected until investigators were able to make diagrams of them. They would turn out to be an almost exact match of prints found a few days later. More tracks were discovered on the early morning of August 3 at the farm of Mrs. and Mrs. Bill Suddarth, who lived just northwest of town. In the middle of the night, they heard a high-pitched howling in their yard and ran outside with flashlights to see what was going on. In the middle of their garden, they found four prints from a three-toed creature.

Suddarth quickly called his hunting buddy, Clyde Penrod, who drove over and made a plaster cast of the print. Penrod, who was an avid outdoorsman, was puzzled by the whole affair. With the tracks being 20 feet away from anything else, he couldn't understand how they could have been made. They began abruptly in the center of the garden and ended just as mysteriously. It looked as of the three-toed creature had just appeared in the center of the garden and then vanished. No tracks were found anywhere else on the property and there was no sign that any prankster could have made them either. This was the last encounter with the creature and perhaps it is fitting that the "monster flap" ended on such an inexplicable note.

And with that Momo seemingly vanished back into the woods whence it first came apparently never to be seen again. What exactly did the people of Louisiana, Missouri experience back in the summer of 1972? It's hard to say for sure. The accounts all have the typically bullet points of a sasquatch encounters including; the overwhelming odor, the height, and the rock throwing. I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, at least to my knowledge, this is the only incident I'm aware of wherein a Sasquatch was reported to have killed and eaten something. If I've missed another report or account that I should be aware of please feel free to leave me a comment below.

Before I go I wanted to leave you all with one last piece of Momo-mania. A musician by the name of Scott Cooper composed this amazing masterpiece that was inspired by Momo. It's actually quite a catchy little tune, you can give it a listen here. With that I leave you for another night. Have a good one Forteans!

Further Reading:

The Kansas City Star article

Prairie Ghost Post

Obligatory ATS Thread