UFOs or Earthlights?

May 7^th, 1968.  Sanford, Colorado.

Town Marshal Felix Gallegos and his family witnessed a series of strange, red balls of light shooting up from the ground and into the sky.

Gallegos reported that he after he arrived home on the night of the 7^th, he looked out the picture window and saw a red ball of light streak up from the ground and into the sky.  Seconds later, another similar object followed the same course.

Gallegos called for his wife and children to come over to the window, and they arrived in time to see a third red orb take off.  Gallegos stated that the object was...”in a straight line, headed south about six feet off the ground.”

While the Gallegos family continued to observe the area, they witnessed five more objects leaving the ground in a similar fashion.  Some went straight up into the air, others took off at about a 45 degree angle.

The Marshal believed that the objects were taking off from the Keith Morch farm, located about ¼ mile from the Gallegos home.

He telephoned Mrs. Morch who reported that she had also seen the objects, which appeared, form her vantage point, to originate about two blocks from her house. 

Did the witnesses observe some type of natural phenomena similar to earthquake lights?  While there are similarities, no further reports were made in the region at the time.  Similar glowing orbs have been reported in varied locations over the years, but the jury is out on exactly what they are.

Of note in this case is that none of the witnesses described an actual craft or object.  Additionally, an examination of the ground from which the objects appeared to have taken off yielded no physical evidence.

Also of note is that Sanford lies in the San Luis Valley, an area long known for a wide range of high weirdness including UFO reports and cattle mutilations.

The original report on this case appeared in the A.P.R.O Bulletin for July-August 1968.

The Continued Growth of Slenderman

A horror movie based on the Slenderman web series, Marble Hornets, has been in the works for quite some time but has yet to see the light of day.  With all the attention on the disturbing figure over the past year (much of it the result of an attempted murder involving young girls) it was probably inevitable that more media outlets would jump on the subject.

Entertainment news site, Variety, has reported that Machinima, the Warner Bros. backed digital media company is partnering with horror writer Clive Barker for an upcoming live-action series based on the web series Creepy Pasta. 

Barker is best known for his creation of iconic horror stories such as Hellraiser and The Books of Blood.

The new series, titled “Clive Barker’s Creepy Pasta,” will bring horror fan fiction to live action and feature internet urban legends and memes such as the Slenderman and Ben Drowned from the site Creepy Pasta.

Countless news sites reporting this story are incorrectly listing Creepy Pasta as the origin point of the Slenderman mythos.  He actually had his genesis on “Something Awful” an internet based forum.

Since his creation, the figure has found his way into various forms of media, often, in a thinly veiled disguise, but the new series will portray the figure directly and derive it's story line from the internet tales.

Barker’s not the only writer currently being influenced by the Slenderman though.  The character, or rather, something very similar looks to be coming to Batman comics this fall.  Recent solicitations for upcoming issues reveals the introduction of a new villain, called “Mister Bloom.”  Cover images reveal a tall figure in a dark suit without human facial features.  Obviously we won’t know how similar the character is to the Slenderman until the stories hit the newsstands, but the physical resemblance is clearly present.

Slenderman, it appears, is not quite done spreading his horror.

The Wolf that you Feed

 

Perhaps one of the most valuable lessons I ever learned from one of my Native American teachers, was the importance of maintaining a positive attitude, despite anything occurring in life, or in the world around me.

This is a universal, spiritual concept that many people have trouble putting into practice.  Recently, someone asked how I worked at maintaining such a positive outlook, and I referenced the story of the battle of the two wolves.  After I related it, I was surprised to learn that they had never heard the tale, so I'm posting it here for any readers not familiar with it.

There are many versions of the short piece, most often it is related as coming from a Cherokee elder, but I have no idea what the true origins of the story are.

One evening, a Cherokee elder told his grandson that there is a battle that goes on inside every person:

"My son, inside each of us, there is a battle taking place between two wolves.

One is evil.  This wolf is anger, jealousy, self-pity, resentment, envy, sorrow, and all the negative feelings.

The other wolf is love, peace, serenity, compassion, generosity, kindness and all the positive emotions.

The grandson thought on this for a few moments, than asked the elder,  "which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The wolf that you feed."

It's a simple, yet beautiful lesson.  The wolf you chose to focus on, will dictate the nature of your day to day life.  Feed the negative wolf, and be an angry, bitter, miserable person.  Feed the positive wolf, and be a happy, balanced person who finds enjoyment in each day.

Remember, you're the only one who can feed your wolf.  Which one do you choose?

Thanks Washington!

 

This is much belated due to all my recent travel, but thanks to another sold out lecture, this one in Washington, D.C.  Again, I really appreciate all the support and it was another great group of people.

We canceled the Baltimore lecture due to all the recent strife in that city and prayers continue to go out for all those suffering through the turmoil.

I'll try to post a few of the fantastic accounts that people reported to me at the two lectures.

Monster Week 2015

Animal Planet's annual Monster Week kicks off Sunday, May 17th.

New specials this year include "Serial Killer Tiger at Large," "Killer Hornets From Hell," and "I Was Bitten: The Walker County Incident."

The week is capped off with "The Cannibal in the Jungle."  Sadly, this is another "scripted" feature, apparently in the vain of the network's former programs on Mermaids and Megalodon.

The main focus of the week is once again, the hit show River Monster with Jeremy Wade.  Now in it's 7th season.  A lot of the week will feature repeats of the show, with the season 7 finale airing May 25th to close out the week.

Sadly, Animal Planet seems to be putting less focus on Monster Week over the last couple of years, but many of the programs are still of interest to cryptozoologist.

The schedule for featured programs can be found here:

http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/monster-week/about/monster-week-2015-program-schedule/

Flying Saucer--Sweden 1967

The 1960s were a real heyday for UFO reports, with many sightings of the “classical” flying saucer type of craft being reported.  Since UFOlogy was still fairly new, more often than not, people making the reports had little knowledge or interest in the topic.  Such was the case with Dr. Rindborg from Sweden.  Ridnborg and his wife were both dentists, and, along with their son, they witnesses a flying saucer near their home in Sweden in October of 1967.  Bear with the language, I have not edited it from the original:

“Dr. Borje Rindborg, as well as his wife, Svea, also a dentist, have their practitioner’s offices in Falun, the main city of Dalarna.  While enjoying as their home, a cottage in Hosjo, a village about 5 miles from the city.  On October 19^th, at 7 in the morning, their boy, age 11, had arisen from his bed and peeped out of the window.  His cry: “Look, a flying saucer!” brought the whole family to the windows.  The sunrise had just taken place half an hour before.  Now they all marveled at the object they saw for 3 minutes.

When at first closest to view it seemed large as the moon.  Later its size appeared to measure about one decimeter (4 inches) across at an arm’s length distance.  In the shadow it had a silvery shine, climbing up higher over the woods the sun gave it a golden luster.  Everybody noticed plainly the disc-like form of the craft and the domelike elevation in the center.  There was a hazy glow around the edges that seemed rather grooved or furrowed.  It went rather low over the woods, then climbed to about 30 degrees, hovered motionless for a while; finally it made a sharp turn while tilting on edge, rushed across the nearby lake until lost in view.  Momentarily, it looked as if it was going to land.”

Dr. Rindborg was convinced that he and his family had seen a flying saucer and not something natural or man-made.  In follow up interviews he stressed that the object was definitely not the planet Venus, a cloud formation, or a weather balloon.

Size estimates were difficult without knowing the exact distance, but considering that the craft was fairly close to the observers, Rindborg believes the saucer was between 60 and 90 feet.

Visibility was good that day and the object was first observed to the west, and departed in a west-northwest direction.

 

Thanks Philadelphia!

Thanks to the sold out crowd that showed up for my Philadelphia lecture!  You guys were all fantastic and a perfect example of why Philly is the city of brotherly love!

I also appreciate all the folks who took time to share their personal accounts of strange incidents with me.  I may be posting some of them on the blog in the future.

Next time when I'm back we'll be arranging a ghost hunt at one of the city's famous haunted sites.

UK Vampire

Here's another bizarre humanoid encounter, courtesy of researcher Albert Rosales.  While the account mentions the black eyed children, this particular encounter doesn't have too much in common with those cases.  Rather, the description of the primary figure sounds more like the classical, Nosferatu vampire.  Who says there aren't stranger things out there?

There's no source listed for the account, so I'm not sure where it originally appeared.  So there's no way to follow up on further interviews, details, visit the site etc...but this one was to strange to pass up.  Take it as you will, but it's certainly one for the book of weirdness:

"It all began on a beautiful summer day at the beginning of autumn, 1998.  I live in a small town called Grantham in Lincolnshire, U.K.  I was out with a couple of friends and it was coming up to the end of summer holidays.  I was at my friend's house when I decided to nip home to get a drink.  My two friends walked down with me as it was only around the corner--a five-minute walk to my house.  I went in and they waited outside for me...or so I thought!  While I was inside, I had a real thirst on and drank about  three pints of water before going back out to my friends.  When I went back out, there was no sign of my friends.  I looked up and down the street for them.  Down the street, about four houses down from mine, there were a couple of large conifer trees about 18 feet high and overhanging the fence at the front.  As I looked down, I saw two pair of legs, as if two people were backed up in the tree, hiding.  I automatically thought it was my friends messing around, so I stated walking down, shouting that I could see them and to stop messing around.  As I shouted to them, they sort of jumped up over the fence where the conifers were (a feat on its own, really), came out on the other side of the conifers and weirdly jumped over the next fence into the next door garden.  (I say weirdly as the way they jumped; it was more like a dive than climbing.)  When they entered the next garden, they went to a gate at the side of the property, which was about eight feet high, and proceeded to dive jump that too!

I didn't understand how they had done that, but I still wasn't fazed by it and shouted again for them to stop messing around.  Then I had an idea: I'd go down quickly and catch them when they come out of the next garden!  I proceeded on to the next garden and couldn't believe what I was looking at.  There in the garden stood two "people".  At first they looked really odd.  There was a man of about 50 wearing a large trench coat that went down to nearly his feet.  I could see he had large black boots on.  As my eyes moved up, I saw his hands; they were very pale and I noticed that his fingernails were very long, like claws, and were really dirty, like a yellow colour.  Next I saw its head.  It was bald on top and at the sides had long, black, greasy hair down to its shoulders.  Its mouth was open enough to show sharp yellow teeth, and it had a large pointed nose!  That's when I noticed the eyes--jet black eyes that you would never believe if you hadn't seen them.  I instantly froze to the spot.  It felt like time froze.  No one was around, nothing moved, no wind, and all I could do was stare in its eyes and I knew it was staring right back at me.  I was aware of the other one near it.  "He" was younger and dressed in more modern clothes of the time, as in trainers, popper trousers, a big blue puffa jacket and a baseball cap.  I didn't see that one's face as I was stuck staring into those deep, endless pits there were the eyes of the first thing.  I will tell you now that I have never felt so terrified in my life!  After what felt like hours, I managed to break my gaze and run home.

When I got indoors, I cried my eyes out.  I think it was the shock.  The horror of knowing these things are wandering around in broad daylight!  I never knew what they were until last night when I discovered the stories of black-eyed children.  After reading some of the stories, I realize I was quite lucky that it wasn't a night time door visit and hope I never experience it again!"