I was working on my Orange Orb column for UFO Magazine last night (wrote a full article on one memory “dream” that I call the “bedroom radiator alien” but followed where that led me, to an earlier memory, of the following “dream.” ) Like my patio alien “dream” I had around the same age (but in a different house) this memory has stayed with me for some fifty years or so, as vivid as the day it happened. It wasn’t a dream and yet, it must have been, since it couldn’t have literally happened:

I’m flat on my back in the dead center of my bed, which I remember as being large, and white; white sheets, and just a white covering. The bedroom is lit up very bright; which I wonder at: if I’m supposed to be asleep why are all the lights on?

I am so full of happiness!!!! I have an expectant joy that is so wonderful; I know “they” are coming. I stare up at the ceiling in anticipation. The ceiling opens up, two halves move up and outwards, revealing the starry night sky.

A giant eagle — so huge it’s almost the size of the open ceiling — swoops down from the sky, to my left, and down into the bedroom, right above me. It’s come to take me up. As the eagle flies into the room I turn and see my parents, my grandmother, and some others, standing in the doorway. They seem to be stuck there; they aren’t coming into the room. They’re just watching. I’m very glad to see my father but am a little confused; he doesn’t live with us and I don’t understand why or how it is he’s here.

The eagle comes, it’s so fantastic!

It wasn’t until last night that I realized there is a Thunderbird and Mothman connection to this experience. At age five or so I didn’t know what Thunderbirds were, nor did I know anything about Mothman of course.

I started doing some research about eagles in terms of UFO accounts and before I knew it, I had found all kinds of interesting things; things that will take awhile to explore.

One thing I found that I haven’t read fully but did skim is an article for the E.L.F. Infested Spaces (ELFIS) ‘zine by Jeffrey Lewis: Idiot Stick – Whitley Strieber’s Encounters. It is very esoteric and I only mention it because of the thinking done by Lewis on the nature of dreams, memories, symbolism and connections in the context of UFOs, aliens and entities. Frankly I don’t know what to make of it but as I say, I haven’t given it the attention needed. (There is much there; this is a site that will take you in many directions. . . )

Mentioned, I think, somewhere on the Elfis site, was something about the myth of Leda and the Swan; I also found a passing reference to the Greek myth in Erik Davis’s 1993 My Favorite Martians: A UFO Epistomology — this myth in context of UFO experiences has been addressed by UFO and esoteric researchers before. The comparison of this theme of a god like being or entity (Zeus), disguised as an animal that is familiar to humans, coming from the skies to have sexual relations with a human female to alien-UFO abduction and contactee accounts is an obvious one to explore in terms of alien-UFO stories.

I am not suggesting my memory had anything to do with anything so literal or sexual — but the comparisons and connections, all those glittering threads that reveal themselves when going tumbling down the rabbit hole of esoterica — are natural ones to follow for Fortean junkies like myself.

All that aside, bird and winged – being imagery is strong in UFO accounts, and that includes Mothman accounts.

Image: Leda and the Swan, painting by artist from the School of Leonardo da Vinci, 1505-1510, public domain.

Visit my blog The Orange Orb

http://orangeorb.blogspot.com

Mothman wasn’t on my mind, just UFOs, but I had the following dream last night:

I’m on my way to Point Pleasant — road trip! A Mothman road trip. A couple of friends are with me. I have an idea to film all this, do a documentary, even though I don’t want to. I keep saying that there are so many documentaries on Mothman what could I possibly contribute, or uncover, that would be new for anyone? Same old same old. There is also the fact I don’t know a thing about making movies or documentaries. (And yet later, when it comes to editing, a tedious process I do not want to do, I can’t trust anyone else, even with years of editing experience, to touch the film. What if they miss something, lose something, or misnterpret my discovery? I’ll do it myself, even though it’s going to be a huge pain.)

We start off in the west; vast, beautiful landscape. Violets and blues and pinks and huge canyons and deserts, just absolutely amazing. Uninhabited by humans. A bit scary too; and suddenly, to my surprise, I realize Mothman is here as well. He, it, has been here. A giangantic shadow appears overhead, gliding silently across the sky. It’s the shadow of a Mothman/Thunderbird, but not the thing itself. I’m surprised we’d find Mothman out here right away, so far from Point Pleasant.

We keep going. Find petroglyphs in the Southwest that are definitely Mothman. Many Naitves are upset with me, accusing me of being a “twinkie” and appropriating and exploiting culture, others don’t and are helpful. We move on.

Make it to Point Pleasant. Turns out it’s the day after the Mothman Festival. Streets are littered with confetti, flyers, etc. I’m a little shocked, and disturbed, at the poverty of the place. A veneer has been set in place but it’ s flimsy; you can see right through things. There is sadness, confusion, loss, and a sense of being lost . . . I really want to leave.

We find a family who own an “antique” shop, more of a vintage, sort of, catch all thrift store. They remember Mothman well and to my surprise, are willing to talk to me. I would have thought everyone in the town would be talked out but they want people to understand, to know, and so they don’t mind me being there. And yet there is such an overall sense of desperation. Not from Mothman, but because of Mothman: because of how the world has responded to them, their town, their story.

I was a little surprised the host, Ian Punnett, didn’t mention Mothman, nor did the caller, but Punnett did reference Thunderbirds.

It was a good story; person walking alone, at night, in a lonely part of Blueberry Lake, and hearing the dsitinct sounds of someone following him, or tracking him, from within the brambly blueberry bushes lining the lake. The caller described the sounds as bare feet slapping down on the pavement. When he ran, the unseen creature ran, when he slowed down, so did the creature. When he got away from the bushes and closer to home, he heard a tremendous whoosing sound of wings above his head.

When I mentioned that some think Mothman was just a giant owl, like uber-debunker skeptic Joe Nickell, who refers to himself as a “paranormal researcher” instead of the skeptic he is, she said she had been in contact with him. I gave her my opinion, that Mothman was no “owl” and that Nickell seems to favor owls; owls are his explanations for the Kelly Hopkinsville UFO entities, and the Flatwoods Monster.

I also mentioned some things about cross-over cases (as Nick Redfern calls them) in crypto research; Mothman (not an owl and all the strange things connected with that) Bigfoot (seen with UFOs, psychic communications, etc.) and so on. As to Mothman, I offered up the idea that the government seems to have been involved; their interest in school children and their statistically out of whack high intelligence, the fact that Charles Manson, when a child, lived in the area, and so on. The producer gave a nervous little laugh and said she “didn’t want to get abducted by the government or anything.”

It was clear the producer was more interested in Mothman as Big Bird; an owl, a crane, rather than the esoteric side, though I got the impression MQ would throw some of that in just for show. After all, like all shows on television, it’s entertainment.

The conversation was amiable; and who knows where this will lead. I gave her names of better people than I to speak to about this subject; Andrew Colvin, Nick Redfern, and others. (all of whom she said she’d been in contact with, or was planning to contact.) I just found the take on Mothman an interesting one, of course, the episode hasn’t aired (if it’s been made yet) so who can say.

In thinking about the episodes of MQ, they seem to shy away from the paranormal/supernatural or Fortean side. They do go there, but it seems they prefer to stay on the “it’s fantastic, but it isn’t weird” side of the fringe fence. Which is fine, I’m making an observation, not a criticism. (Although it would be nice to see more of the strange side.)

I found this image in a couple of places on-line, including the Coast to Coast site, where a listener had sent in this info about the illustration:

Cleveland Press (a now defunct newspaper) printed back in late 1950’s. This was from the “True Life Adventures” (non-fictional) put out by Disney.

I like the fact that Disney put this in the non-fiction, “True Life Adventure” category…

Researcher Stan Gordon (whose site you should visit if you haven’t already) has a lot of interesting articles on his site; here’s one on a sighting in West Virginia of a possible Thunderbird:
Was This A Close Encounter With A Thunderbird?

What is it about those who pathologically debunk just for the hell of it? . . .

We were watching Monster Quest: Birdzilla! last night, when my husband “George” said to me, “Why do some people have this obsessive need to debunk, just for the hell of debunking?”

In particular, George was referring to the segment on the giant bird kite. Disputing the idea there are giant birds (Thunderbirds, dinosaurs, cryptids, condors or wayward monkey eating crowned eagles) a “master kite builder” built a giant black bird kite to show the rest of us we can be fooled.

The kite was very cool. Very cool. As someone who loves kite flying myself, I was enchanted by the kite. It would be great to fly a kite like that! It’d take twenty people, but it looked like great fun.

Before the master kite builder segment, there were the usual witnesses to giant birds, including some interesting footage of a very large bird indeed taken in the 1970s.

Aside from the obvious anti-anomalous perspective — no such thing as giant birds, especially those grabbing up little children — was that tired chronic skeptic refrain about size. We can’t judge things correctly in the sky because … well, we just can’t. Without a reference point, we don’t know how big it is and all the usual excuses.

Except, in the case of the 1970s footage, there were reference points.

Back to Mr. Kite Builder. They go out, fly the kite, and it’s huge. Big black very cool looking bird kite. No reference points, as in trees or buildings; just the black bird agasint the blue sky. Then they asked passersby to estimate how big the bird kite was. The word here is estimate.

And they did, and since they were estimating, responses varied. This, to the pathological debunkers, “proved” that we can’t possibly know what we’re seeing as far as size goes.

Two points seemed to fly right over their heads. (heh) One, all who estimated were in the same ballpark. (Except for one guy, who George laughed at and said “He probably exaggerates about everything.” ) The other point, that was glaringly obvious, was that the bird kite was big. Really, really big. How exactly big? Who knows; unless one can fly and manage to whip out a tape measure while the thing’s flying around, impossible to say. But the obvious fact is that, looking up, that is one big bird up there, and a perfectly reasonable thing to say it was, say, “bigger than a crow.” Or an eagle. Or really, anything most of us in the U.S. has ever seen.

Which should be enough for anyone.

But it’s not enough for those with the pathological need to debunk, who debunk even when there’s no need.

It’s an interesting study in human nature and response to the unusual; observing and musing on why these chronic minded types do what they do. It woudln’t matter much except that it’s often presented disingenuously and so distracts from the real stuff.

By doing mildly interesting things like flying giant bird kites around, no matter how cool they are, the fact of witnesses accounts, of stories, lore, myth and legend, petroglyphs, film footage, and the obvious thing right in front of you (it’s big, damn it) are questioned. In fact, one could say that the reality of the seeming unreality is questioned. Our experiences are questioned. Not only are these things questioned (which isn’t neccesarly a bad thing in itself) but diluted, and reguritated back to us as “nonsense” or “misinterpretations.”

The magicians pulling one over on us aren’t those with tales of the weird, they’re the Pelicanists, the chronic skeptics, the pathological debunkers who pull all kinds of stunts to distract us from what some of us can’t acknowledge.

Some might say “hallucination.” Me? I prefer to think it’s all about opening gateways to other realms…

Of course you can see things that “aren’t there” under those conditions, but, as shamans and indigenous peoples, etc. know very well, the point of taking these “drugs” in the first place is to open those gateways . . .
There’s a lot out there about “aliens,” beings from other dimensions, and encounters with them while in this state by authors such as Terrence McKenna, etc. Anyway…
Looking forward to reading Nick’s book. My only complaint about Redfern is that he has too many books out! I can’t get to them fast enough.
THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE WOODS: A Transatlantic Hunt for Monsters and the Mysterious