High Strangeness

A good portion of my childhood, and most of the origins for my interest in paranormal/fortean topics, stems from The X-Files. So most weekends while doing homework, I have the show on in the background thanks to it being on Netflix.  I watched one of my favorite episodes this past weekend. The episode is called ‘Jose Chung’s From Outer Space’. It centered around an author, Jose Chung played by the late Charles Nelson Reilly, who was sent by his publisher to write a book on an alleged alien abduction event which Mulder and Scully had also investigated. The episode is not only a fantastic example of what makes the X-Files great; it has humor, mystery, celebrity guest stars, but it is also does a great job representing all of the related weirdness which is inexplicably related to the UFO enigma.

In the episode, which I highly recommend you watch, you have military abductions, alien abductions, inner earth new-age religions being founded, military personnel impersonating aliens and flying “UFOs”, and Men in Black! About the only thing not included, probably because it was already a jam packed episode, is the poltergeist or “ghost” activity that sometimes follows or precedes UFO encounters.  A good catch-all term for the related phenomena which occurs in tandem with UFO sightings and alien abductions is ‘High Strangeness’.

Dr. J Allen Hynek, of “swamp gas” fame, first used the term in a paper which he presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in December 1969. Hynek assigned cases a “strangeness” index as means of offering some kind of classification for UFO reports. Hynek further clarifies and defines this concept in his 1974 book The UFO Experience wherein he states that high strangeness is “a measure of the number of information bits the report contains, each of which is difficult to explain in common-sense terms.”  

Stories and personal accounts which involve “High Strangeness” have always fascinated, especially when it comes to the investigators responses towards this aspect of the phenomenon. I was looking over some specific MUFON case files from the 90’s when I came across a really weird encounter which someone had, related below, but there was a caveat before the report which bothered me. In setting up the witnesses encounters, the investigators note that “Background paranormal events have not been included in this report.” I don’t wish to go off on a tangent, but since we know nothing about what may or may not be behind this phenomena, why not include all points of data? (I suppose that is the Fortean in me coming out).

Anyway, after reading some of the witnesses experiences, I couldn't help but wonder what in the world they had left out? As it stands some of her stories certainly qualify as high strange even with MUFON investigators leaving out the “background paranormal” events. Here’s a link to all of her experiences, but I wish to focus on one really bizarre encounter the witness had with an entity she called “Marcus”. Her account is as follows:

The witness was awakened to see an entity, in the form of a human(oid) male floating to the right side of the foot of her bed.  She indicated that when she saw the entity she knew that it was male, and that she knew who he was.  She was told, in a nonverbal manner, that his name was "Marcus", and he was there for her. She felt that their relationship was, in some way, very close.

She described the entity as being tall, and approximately human in appearance, but with a catlike face.  She described his appearance as "a cross between Worf (on Star Trek) and the beast "Vincent" in the TV show Beauty and the Beast". He appeared to be dressed in a manner that suggested to her a military officer from an earlier time period, with an apparent breast plate arranged in a chevron design.

The entity held his hands out to her, palms up, and she instinctively knew to put her hands in his.  She indicated that she then rose up, and he pulled her in closer to him.  [CL Note: She indicates that she was under the covers when the entity appeared.  If this was a physical movement, it is not clear how the bed covers were removed.]

At that point she felt that they were within a ball of light, and as if they were "dancing".  She didn't remember any sound, and was not sure whether or not they were still within the room, but felt that
there was not enough space within the room to have "danced" in the manner which they presently were.  Thus, she feels that they must have been somewhere else while this interaction occurred.  She indicates that this "dance" felt more like a "complete spiritual union", than physical motion to music (the traditional definition of dance). She did not feel that there was music present.

The witness sketched “Marcus” for our benefits, I admit I do enjoy seeing the person’s representation of the figures they have allegedly seen. Here is here sketch:

I would like to highlight the “aftermath” as the investigators labeled it, because I think it is an important detail which crops up in a lot of these kinds of reports. It’s something which Jacques Vallee pointed out in a number of his books. The investigators relate:

This event appears to be the start of her consciously remembered experiences.  She indicates that since that time, she has been very interested in spiritual topics, reading extensively in the area religion and spirituality, with subsequent interest in the field of UFOs and close encounters.

I don’t know what to make of cases such as this one. It wanted to dance with her? Let’s assume for a moment that it was an ET, could it not find a dance partner on it’s home planet? I’m slightly joking of course, I don’t mean to belittle the witness or her account. Honestly, I’m perplexed by what it is she allegedly experienced. Though she is not the only one. John Keel’s books are full of high strangeness encounters which people have purportedly had. I recently spoke about The Case of Indrid Cold, which is but one example of the variety of high strangeness reports which Keel spoke about.

In his book Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places, author Brad Steiger relates another classic example of high strangeness which accompanies a, relatively, mundane UFO sighting. The story is below:

An Iowa farmer named Gary C. saw a UFO one night as he was working late in the field during spring plowing. The next morning over breakfast, he learned that his wife, Melanie, 14-year-old son Jake, and 12-year-old daughter Lisa had also seen the bright object as the kids were getting ready for bed.

That day at school, a man who claimed to be from the state board of education asked to interview Jake. He told the principal of the junior high school that the boy had attracted attention because of his high scores in the state tests and that Jake had been selected to participate in a special educational project ... A call to the state office revealed that they had no one on their staff by the man’s name, and they had no special project for junior high students in progress.

When the principal entered the private room to confront the imposter, he found a puzzled Jake sitting alone. The teenager could only shrug that the special state project must be about space travel, for all the man asked him were questions about UFOS, aliens, and life on other planets. Jake had glanced away from his interrogator for just a moment, and when he looked back at him, he seemed to have vanished.

About the time that Jake was being interviewed by the mysterious stranger at school, out on the farm Gary and Melanie received a visit from two men dressed in black while they were eating lunch. The men identified themselves as agents of a special government task force investigating UFOS and said they had learned that the family had sighted a bright object in the sky on the previous evening.

Melanie and Gary were puzzled, since they had not told anyone of their sighting. The alleged government agents suddenly adopted a threatening manner and demanded that Melanie and Gary turn over any photographs they may have taken of the UFO. The farm couple said that they had taken no photographs, but the two agents refused to accept their denials and threatened that they had better cooperate if they knew what was good for them. “You must cooperate,” the taller of the two men said, “for your own good, the good of your country, the good of your world.”

Later that afternoon, Gary was certain that he saw the two men watching him from the shadows of his machine shed while he fed the cattle on the feedlot. In the farmhouse, Melanie answered the telephone on four occasions to hear nothing but a peculiar static. Finally, on the fifth ring, a voice in a strange accent told her to forget all she knew about UFOs or terrible things would happen to her entire family.

That night, shortly after the children went to bed, Lisa began screaming that some animal had crawled under her covers. When Gary and Melanie investigated, they found nothing, but then Jake yelled that his bed was jumping up and down. As they ran to his room, they could hear the thumping sounds of his bed lifting and slamming to the floor. Such poltergeistic disturbances continued on a nightly basis for nearly a week before dissipating.

What are we to make of these strange tales? Why would strange “government” agents show up after a sighting of a light in the sky? Why would the family see strange creatures and experience poltergeist-like activity following the sighting? It seems obvious that something peculiar is going on. I remain unconvinced that we will ever have an “answer” or solution to the UFO enigma, but I think that by looking into the High Strangeness reports (or the “damned data”) we may come closer to an understanding. Otherwise we will have failed to learn the lesson which Charles Fort attempted to teach. Data, no matter how bizarre or strange, needs to be taken into account. 

Weekend Recommendations

Good evening dear readers. If you are anything at all like me, then you enjoy watching documentaries about Fortean topics. With this in mind I wanted to recommend two very fascinating and entertaining films for you to check out this weekend(or when you can get a chance to).

First up is Bob Wilkinson's Shades of Gray, below is the trailer.

The film tells the story of Gray Barker, an early Ufologist that is perhaps most famous for his involvement in the Albert K Bender saga and for his work on the Mothman sightings in West Virginia. The film is a fascinating look at his life both inside and outside of the Ufological field. Featured in the film are those that knew Barker; Jim Moseley, Jerome Clark, and Stan Friedman (among others).  They story is sad and also enlightening, especially if like me you enjoy learning more about the early days of Ufology. The movie is available for rent through Netflix or Blockbuster. Follow this link to head to the documentaries website.  Really I can't recommend this film highly enough. Also to hear an interview with the film maker, check out this episode of the Paracast.

Speaking of the Mothman events in West Virginia the next film I would recommend you checking out, is Eyes of the Mothman. The trailer is below.

 

This film takes the reader on a whirlwind ride through the events leading up to and surrounding the Mothman sightings that occurred in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the late 1960's. The film makers actually spend a lot of time in the town talking to townsfolk who were alive during the events about what they remember hearing and seeing. If you know nothing about the Mothman legend, or if you think you know everything, you will still likely learn a thing or two by watching this documentary. I did (I had never heard of the Curse of Chief Cornstalk before as an example). This film is available on Netflix instantly if you have the streaming option. Be sure to check out the website for the film. Also the film makers were interviewed on Tim Binnall's Binnall of America podcast, you can find the episode here.

Well that's all for tonight, until next time remember to keep your eyes to the skies

Book Review: Jim Keith's 'Casebook on the Men in Black'

Recently I have mentioned that I have been reading Jim Keith's Casebook on the Men in Black. Just the other day I finally finished reading the book and as promised here is my review. If you don't know who Jim Keith is, and if you have even a peripheral interest in para-politics, you are really doing yourself a disservice by not reading his writings. Keith was very influential conspiracy writer, who had moved past the ETH in reference to the UFO phenomena. As a matter of fact in his equally great book Saucers of the Illuminati, Keith argues that the vast majority of the 'UFO phenomena' is actually the vehicles of the secret government and their psychological operations program (psy-ops). Like I said it's a fascinating book, but this review isn't about Saucers of the Illuminati.

Instead it is a review of Keith's last book before his untimely death following an accident at the Burning Man festival in 1999. The original printing of Casebook on the Men in Black was in 1997. The edition that I have is the newly revised and reprinted 2011 version. It features a new forward by the equally (in)famous para-political guru Kenn Thomas, who along with Keith wrote the classic book on the Danny Casolaro murder titled The Octopus. Within Casebook on the Men in Black, Keith lays out some of the history of the MIB phenomenon (both past and present).

Like any book that I enjoy that deals with Fortean topics, Keith's Casebook realises that there is nothing 'modern' about the concept of the Men in Black encounters. The book opens with Keith leading the reader through the magic lore and how witches and wizards of old seemed to be interacting with entities that bear striking resemblances to what people were reporting in more modern times about the Men in Black. After this Keith leads the reader right were he is most comfortable. With the concept that the MIB encounters, at least the more modern ones anyway, are possibly apart of a psy-ops program being run by some clandestine portion of the American government.

One of the other great things about Keith's work is that even though you can tell that his pet theory is the psy-ops angle, he isn't an 'all or nothing' type of researcher. By this I mean that the last few chapters of the book are spent detailing encounters with MIBs that are, for a lack of a better word 'otherworldly' or ethereal. Now by this word I don't mean to imply that Keith believed that the entities encountered were by any means extraterrestrial, it's more of an interdimensional kind of view. The stories that are recounted towards the end of the book, if true, leave the reader wondering just what in the hell people were seeing.

And like all of the people that I admire, Keith leaves that question for you to answer for yourself. So if you only know of MIBs from the Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones movies, then please do yourself a favour and pick up this newly released version of a classic esoteric book. I promise you will not be disappointed and if like me you do end up enjoying this book by Keith, and you are open to alternative theories about UFOs, then I highly recommend you also check out his Saucers of the Illuminati. OK Forteans that is all I've got for you tonight, be sure to stick around for more fun tomorrow night. Between now and then look out for shady characters that have long slender fingers and claim to work for the US Air Force.