Nick Redfern — JimHarold.com

Is Mind Control Real – Paranormal Podcast 531

April 17, 2018 By Jim Harold

Are The Powers That Be controlling our minds? We discuss the possibilities with the prolific Nick Redfern on this edition of The Paranormal Podcast.

You can find his new book on the subject at Amazon:

Control: MKUltra, Chemtrails and the Conspiracy to Suppress the Masses

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Thanks Gaia!

The Slenderman Mysteries – Paranormal Podcast 526

March 15, 2018 By Jim Harold

Has the Slenderman evolved from an innocent meme taken way too far in a tragic crime to something that has subsequently manifested itself? Nick Redfern joins us to discuss this controversial theory.

You can find Nick’s book on the subject on Amazon: The Slenderman Mysteries: An Internet Urban Legend Comes to Life

In part two, Matty Blake joins us to talk about The Curse of Oak Island and his recent special, Drilling Down.

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The Paranormal Podcast is brought to you by Gaia, THE streaming TV service dedicated to exploring the cutting edge of metaphysics, ancient wisdom and the unexplained.

Get your first month for only 99 cents at gaia.com/jim

Thanks Gaia!

Shapeshifters – Paranormal Podcast 502

September 27, 2017 By Jim Harold

Shapeshifters are the topic with Nick Redfern in part one of The Paranormal Podcast this week.

In part two, Jim Willis talks to us about Supernatural Gods.

You can find both of their books on the subject at Amazon.com:

Shapeshifters: Morphing Monsters and Changing Cryptids

Supernatural Gods: Spiritual Mysteries, Psychic Experiences, and Scientific Truths

Thanks Nick and Jim!

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The Paranormal Podcast is brought to you by Gaia, THE streaming TV service dedicated to exploring the cutting edge of metaphysics, ancient wisdom and the unexplained.

Get your first month for only 99 cents at gaia.com/jim

Thanks Gaia!

The Roswell UFO Conspiracy – Crystals For Karmic Healing – Paranormal Podcast 484

May 24, 2017 By Jim Harold

Has Nick Redfern uncovered the truth about Roswell? We discuss on this week’s Paranormal Podcast.

In part two, Nicholas Pearson joins us to discuss the healing power of crystals!

You can find the books we discuss on Amazon.com:

The Roswell UFO Conspiracy: Exposing A Shocking And Sinister Secret

Crystals for Karmic Healing: Transform Your Future by Releasing Your Past

Thanks Nick and Nicholas!

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Immortality Of The Gods – Paranormal Podcast 466

January 17, 2017 By Jim Harold

Did ancient gods on Earth tap into the secret of eternal life? We discuss this and more with Nick Redfern.

In part two, Nicholas Pearson joins us to talk about the spirituality of stones.

You can find their books at Amazon.com:

Immortality Of The Gods

The Seven Archetypal Stones: Their Spiritual Powers and Teachings

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Beware The Bedroom Invaders – Nick Redfern Writes

October 29, 2016 By Paranormal Braintrust

Nick Redfern

Of the many and varied monsters that have plagued and terrified people for countless centuries, there are very few which are more frightening than bedroom-invading things known as Incubus and Succubus.

They are male and female monsters that, in numerous quarters, are perceived as having outright demonic origins. And they are hideous things that have a long history of diabolical interaction with the human race. As evidence of this, reports of these evil entities date back not just decades or centuries, but millennia too. One of those reports comes from Michelle of Corpus Christi, Texas, who had just such an encounter in 1993.

Imagine the scene: it’s around 3:00 a.m. and you’re fast asleep when, suddenly, you find yourself in a semi-awake state. Confusion and terror quickly overwhelm you, as you realize you are unable to move. Even worse, you sense that something dangerous and malevolent is walking, or crawling, towards the bedroom.

You struggle to move, but it’s all to no avail. The thing then enters the room and you see its hideous form. It looms over you, like a monstrous sword of Damocles. Your heart pounds and your breathing becomes shallow as the nightmarish beast jumps onto the bed, straddles you, and forcibly pins you down. The creatures screams at the top of its voice, in a wailing, banshee-like style, and proceeds to have violent sex with you – against your will. You try and fight it off, but your arms and legs are like lead-weights.

And, then, as suddenly as the horrifying encounter began, it’s all over. The oppressive atmosphere is gone, the evil entity has vanished too, and you find yourself shaking, and in a cold sweat, as you wonder if what just happened was the result of a bad dream or something worse: violation at the claws of a supernatural monster. That is precisely what happened to Michelle.

Encounters of the kind I just described extend back to the earliest years of human civilization. Indeed, the term, Incubus, is taken from an ancient, Latin word, “incubare,” which means “to lie upon,” which is a most apt description. As for their appearances, Incubus and Succubus can take on multiple forms. They are forms which range from beautiful women to hideous monsters.

One of the very earliest examples of such a creature is Lilith. Her name is highly appropriate, too: in English it means “night hag.” Not exactly the kind of thing any of us should aspire to cross paths with. Lilith’s dark origins can be found in the ancient mythology and folklore of Mesopotamia, and particularly so within the culture of the Babylonians. Despite the fact that she was described as being a beautiful woman, with long and flowing hair, there was nothing positive about Lilith. She would regularly manifest in the homes of sleeping men, slip into their beds, and have sex with them. The purpose of which, ancient lore maintains, was to allow Lilith to steal sperm from her victims and use it to create hideous, demonic babies.

Almost certainly connected to Lilith were Lilitu and Lilu, who played major roles in the lore of the Sumerian people, thounds of years ago. This paranormal pair, too, was focused on terrifying people in the middle of the night, violating them, and then vanishing back into the darkness from which they came. Joseph McCabe, a noted expert on these two demon-like entities, and the author of The Story of Religious Controversy, described them as “ferocious beings” that were part-animal and part-human.

Martin Baker’s encounter with just such a creature – in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 2007 – led him to conclude that, rather than being a demonic entity, his encounter with an entity that looked like Lilith was actually an alien-human hybrid engaged in gene-splicing experiments.

The people of Newfoundland, Canada have their own tradition of a particular shapeshifter. It is known to the locals as the Old Hag. For most people who have the misfortune to meet the monster, they describe it as a witch-like entity with long black hair and piercing, evil eyes, and dressed in a flowing black gown. She straddles her victims and either forces them into sex, or just sits on them, screaming wildly into their hysterical, wide-eyed faces.

Equally disturbing is the evil imp that squats atop a sleeping, beautiful woman in Henry Fuseli’s 1781 painting, The Nightmare. Combining horror with erotica, the artwork graphically captures the nature of these evil encounters. In Thailand, these creatures of the night are known as Phi Am. For the people of China, it’s the Pinyin that they fear. Mongolia has the Kharin Buu. While, in Tibet, the Dip-non should be avoided at all costs. And Pakistan has centuries-old stories of the Shaitan. All of these things perform the same, stress-filled and sex-based acts; yet, they take on physical appearances that suit the era and the area.

As Halloween comes around, beware of these terrible things.

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One of the most prolific Fortean writers on the planet, Nick Redfern is the author of many books, including Men in Black, Chupacabra Road Trip, and The Bigfoot Book. His latest book is Nessie. He can be contacted at his blog, “World of Whatever,” at nickredfernfortean.blogspot.com

The Strange Saga Of The Sons Of Satan – Nick Redfern Writes

September 23, 2016 By Paranormal Braintrust

Nick Redfern

Since at least 1967, reports have surfaced throughout the United States of animals – but, chiefly, cattle – slaughtered in bizarre fashion.

Organs are taken and significant amounts of blood are found to be missing. In some cases, the limbs of the cattle are broken, suggesting they have been dropped to the ground from a significant height. Evidence of extreme heat, to slice into the skin of the animals, has been found at mutilation sites. Eyes are removed, tongues are sliced off, and, typically, the sexual organs are gone.
While the answers to the puzzle remain frustratingly outside of the public arena, theories abound. They include extraterrestrials, engaged in nightmarish experimentation of the genetic kind; military programs involving the testing of new bio-warfare weapons; and government agencies secretly monitoring the food-chain, fearful that something worse than “Mad Cow Disease” may have infected the U.S. cattle herd – and, possibly, as a result, the human population, too. Then, there is the matter of the Sons of Satan; a secret cult that engaged in the sacrifice of cattle to their lord and master, the Devil himself.

The story dates back to 1974 and an inmate of the Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. The year had barely begun when one of the prisoners at Leavenworth – a man named A. Kenneth Bankston – penned a letter to a well-known UFO investigator, Jerome Clark. Bankston’s reasoning for contacting Clark was simple enough: one year earlier, in 1973, Clark wrote an article on the cattle mutilation puzzle for Fate magazine. So, Bankston was looking for someone with whom he could share his story – a story focused on the aforementioned Sons of Satan.

Given that the cattle mutilation hysteria was at its height in the mid-1970s, it’s not at all surprising that others, besides Clark, were also writing about the grisly mystery. One of them was Kevin D. Randle, a noted UFO authority. Randle’s article, “The Killer Cult Terrorizing Mid-America,” appeared in Saga, just shortly after Clark’s was published. Both men discussed the “cult” angle, which was gaining more and more interest.

Among those who was interested in the cattle mutilation problem – but who was not overly convinced that it had a connection to the UFO issue – was Dr. J. Allen Hynek, of the Center for UFO Studies. Hynek, at the time, was liaising with an agent of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms – Donald E. Flickinger – who had a personal interest in UFOs. Flickinger, when approached by Hynek, agreed to undertake an investigation into the cattle mutilation controversy. While Flickinger did not find any evidence suggestive of a UFO connection to the cattle killings, he did note that “a certain pattern existed” when it came to the nature of the attacks, the removal of organs, and the significant blood loss.

When Jerome Clark heard of Flickinger’s studies, he provided the BATF agent with copies of A. Kenneth Bankston’s correspondence. Bankston’s story was as eye-opening as it was controversial. The Sons of Satan was a powerful, very well hidden group that had seemingly endless funding and manpower and was led by a mysterious character, only referred to as “Howard.” The secret group was determined to provoke “hell on earth.” And the sacrificial rites were a way to ensure that Satan would aid in the group’s efforts to create hellish mayhem.

U.S. authorities did not dismiss Bankston’s story. In fact, the exact opposite was the order of the day. Flickinger wasted no time in calling the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s Office. When the facts were outlined, the office agreed that an investigation should proceed – and proceed quickly. As a result, Bankston and another inmate, a man named Dan Dugan, who asserted he was a member of the Sons of Satan, were moved from Leavenworth to another prison. Whereas Leavenworth was a high-security facility, the situation at the new jail was far more relaxed.

Of course, one could make a very good case that Bankston and Dugan made the whole thing up, primarily as a means to make it appear they were trying to help clear up a very disturbing mystery – a mystery that the government dearly wanted clearing up. In other words, by helping the authorities, the pair hoped that as a “thank-you” they would be moved from the oppressive environment at Leavenworth – which is exactly what happened.

It must be said, however, that this does not mean the story of Bankston and Dugan was without merit. The story was detailed, plausible, and – as far as the police were concerned – was viewed as being far more likely than the sensationalized UFO explanation. Indeed, acting on the words of the two prisoners, law-enforcement officials approached numerous “Satanic cults” in the United States, including Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. Despite such approaches, the secret order of the Sons of Satan were never found or exposed. Today, the cattle mutilation mystery continues – and also remains steadfastly unresolved.

A Case of Supernatural Murder – Nick Redfern Writes

August 24, 2016 By Paranormal Braintrust

Nick Redfern

February 14, 1945 was the date of a very controversial, and still-unresolved, murder in rural England. It was a murder which bore all the hallmarks of death at the hands of a secret society. Some observers of the mystery suggested that a band of witches were the culprits. Others, meanwhile, were of the opinion that it was all the work of a secret sect of druids. The victim was a farm-worker, 74-year-old Charles Walton, found dead with nothing less than a pitchfork sticking out of his chest.

He was a resident of a small, picturesque village in the county of Warwickshire, England called Lower Quinton. Walton had lived in the village for all of his life, in a pleasant old cottage that stood across from the local church. It was a scene not unlike what one might expect to see on Downton Abbey or in the pages of a Jane Austen novel. Until, that is, murder, mayhem, and a secret cult came to Lower Quinton and turned everything on its collective head.

Walton was known to all of the locals. He was viewed as an affable but quiet sort, and – somewhat intriguingly – he had the ability to entice wild birds to eat seeds from his hands. He was also said to have the power to reduce a wild, aggressive dog to a man’s best friend simply by speaking to it. On top of that, he had expert knowledge of local folklore, mythology and legend. Rumors suggest that perhaps Walton’s slightly uncanny “powers” had ensured him a place in a secret witchcraft cult, one which he ultimately fell out of favor with. And, as a result, he paid the ultimate price. Namely, his life.

What is known for sure is that on the day in question – which was Valentine’s Day, no less – Walton was busily trimming hedges on what was known as Hillground: a large field at the foot of the Meon Hill. His tools were a hook and a pitchfork. It was while working on the hedges that someone stealthily intervened and took Walton’s life – and in a distinctly savage fashion, too. When his body was stumbled on by a shocked local, all hell broke loose in the small village. He was lying dead on the grassy ground, with the pitchfork having fatally pierced his chest, and the hook having pierced his throat in what was clearly a savage and violent fashion. On top of that, a large cross had been cut into his chest. Clearly, something distinctly sinister had taken place.

It should be noted that Meon Hill has, for centuries, been associated with supernatural activity: sightings of blazing-eyed black dogs – not unlike the terrible beast in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel The Hound of the Baskervilles – have been reported. And, none other than Satan himself is said to have kicked a large rock from the top of the hill to the bottom of it, with the intention of flattening Evesham Abbey.

Such was the strange and sinister nature of Walton’s death, the investigation wasn’t just left in the hands of the local “bobbies.” None other than Scotland Yard’s finest detectives were soon on the case – which is hardly surprising, when one takes into consideration the extreme weirdness of the entire affair. And they weren’t just on the case; they took over the entire investigation, under the control of Detective Inspector Robert Fabian. Despite an extensive investigation, and suspicions that the guilty party was a man named Albert Potter – who was employing Walton on the day he met his grisly end – the matter was never resolved to the satisfaction of the police and the mystery remained precisely that: a mystery.

It’s worth noting, however, that Detective Inspector Fabian later said of his investigation of the affair: “One of my most memorable murder cases was at the village of Lower Quinton, near the stone Druid circle of the Whispering Knights. There a man had been killed by a reproduction of a Druidical ceremony on St. Valentine’s Eve.”

He also offered the following, memorable words: “I advise anybody who is tempted at any time to venture into Black Magic, witchcraft, Shamanism – call it what you will – to remember Charles Walton and to think of his death, which was clearly the ghastly climax of a pagan rite. There is no stronger argument for keeping as far away as possible from the villains with their swords, incense and mumbo-jumbo. It is prudence on which your future peace of mind and even your life could depend.”

It should also be noted that within Lower Quinton, the village folk are still very reluctant to speak about the decades-old affair. For example, the landlord of the village’s College Arms pub, told the BBC: “I can’t talk to you about that. After 17 years of running this place I know there are some things we don’t talk about. Talking about it would upset people and there’s no sense in alienating people in a small village like this. There are no relatives of Charles Walton left in the village and people that might have known what happened are all dead or gone.”

Another local was equally reluctant to say much to the BBC: “People don’t talk about it; it’s a closed subject. Those that know about it are gone, except one who’s in hospital and another that’s in a nursing home. All the others have gone or passed away.”

And a third spoke in a similar vein and tones: “No one will talk to you about it. The family have all gone now, anyway. There are none of the Walton family left here now. I have no answers to your questions.”

Death by pitchfork, rumors of a witchcraft cult, druids roaming around the landscape, and a village of people still living in uneasy and closed-mouth fashion, decades later. The memories of the murder of Charles Walton show no signs of fading away anytime soon. Indeed, that strange atmosphere of witchcraft, ritualistic murder, and sinister characters still hangs over Lower Quinton. In all probability, that will always be the case.

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One of the most prolific Fortean writers on the planet, Nick Redfern is the author of many books, including Men in Black, Chupacabra Road Trip, and The Bigfoot Book. He can be contacted at his blog, “World of Whatever,” at nickredfernfortean.blogspot.com

The Women In Black – Paranormal Podcast 442

August 2, 2016 By Jim Harold

You’ve heard of Men In Black but have you heard of their female counterparts? Nick Redfern joins us to talk about the mysterious Women In Black.

You can find his new book on the subject at Amazon.com: Women In Black: The Creepy Companions of the Mysterious M.I.B.

On part two, Joshua Shapiro joins us to talk about all things involving crystal skulls.

Thanks Nick & Joshua!

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Weapons Of The Gods and Buried Alive – Paranormal Podcast 433

May 25, 2016 By Jim Harold

Did ancient alien civilizations nearly destroy the earth via nuclear war? We discuss this mind blowing concept with Nick Redfern.

In part two of the program, Dr. Jan Bondeson joins us to discuss the frightening history of being buried alive!

You can find their books on Amazon.com:

Weapons of the Gods

Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear

Thanks Nick and Dr. Bondeson!

–PROGRAMS 90 DAYS OR OLDER ARE AVAILABLE AT JIM’S PARANORMAL PLUS CLUB–

Endangered Species: Cattle Mutilations on the Big Screen – Nick Redfern

May 17, 2016 By Jim Harold

Nick Redfern

The world of Hollywood has always been quick to (a) pick up on what’s going on in the real world of unsolved mysteries of the conspiratorial and supernatural kind and (b) make use of those same mysteries in hit TV shows and mega-bucks movies. Take, for example, the 1994 movie, Roswell, starring Kyle MacLachlan and Martin Sheen. It’s a production that did a pretty good job of fictionalizing the world’s most famous UFO case. Then, there’s 1997’s Men in Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, a movie that brought the dark-suited silencers of Ufology to a new, huge audience. And, of course, there’s The X-Files, which weaved far more than a few well-known enigmas into its plotlines, including the Jersey Devil, lake monsters, and the world’s most famous, secret base, Area 51.

There is, however, one particularly sinister and enduring mystery that, for the most part, falls under Hollywood’s radar. Yes, it occasionally gets touched upon. Sometimes, it will get more than a few minutes of coverage. But, chiefly, it never gets the airtime that many might say it well deserves. You may be wondering what I’m talking about. Well, I’ll tell you: it’s the mysterious matter of so-called cattle mutilations.

There’s a truly awful 1980 movie on the subject titled The Return. Indeed, it’s not even worth commenting on. So I won’t! There is, however, one film which is definitely worth commenting on. Its title: Endangered Species. It’s a well-researched movie that stars the late Robert Urich (of Vegas fame), who finds himself plunged into the heart of a menacing and disturbing conspiracy in the Centennial State, Colorado.

Directed and co-written by Alan Rudolph, Endangered Species focuses on one Ruben Castle (Urich). He’s a Big Apple-based police-officer. He has a major drink problem. And, his relationship with his daughter, Mackenzie (Marin Kanter) is rocky, to say the least. So, something has to give. And it does. Castle decides that the best thing he can do is to get out of New York for a while, quit the bottle for good, and try and mend fences with his daughter. It doesn’t quite work out like that, however.

After arriving in a small Colorado town, specifically one where an old friend in the world of newspapers, Joe Hiatt (played by Paul Dooley) lives and works, both Castle and his daughter cause problems for the local police. And particularly so for the local sheriff, Harriet Purdue – played by actress JoBeth Williams. Indeed, Castle is not a particularly endearing character: he’s a drunk with a hair-trigger temper, and, while in Colorado, he fails to stay on the wagon. But, it’s to the credit of the production team that they chose to make their star a flawed figure, rather than playing things safe and going with the typical Hollywood “hero.” And Urich does a very good job of giving substance to the role of Castle. All of which brings us to the plot: something downright deadly is afoot.

In no time at all, Castle learns that something very strange is going on in town and in the surrounding fields of local farmers. Cattle have been found killed under very strange circumstances. Organs are removed with what appears to be expert precision. Incisions seem to have been achieved by nothing less than lasers. Everyone in town is on edge. Ranchers are angry and outraged. That’s hardly surprising, given that there is talk of UFOs skulking around in the dead of night. There are whispers, too, of satanic cults roaming the area, sacrificing the cows in devilish rituals. And, the audience is given tantalizing glimpses of strange lights in the sky. What’s going on? That’s the question that Castle finds himself pursuing, more by accident than by design.

As Endangered Species progresses we see Castle and Sheriff Purdue hook up in more ways than one. And we see that what begins as a tale filled with accounts of aliens and devil-worshippers, soon becomes something very different. In many ways, it’s something even more deadly and dangerous than beef-loving ETs or devotees of Satan. Particularly deadly and dangerous are Hoyt Axton and Peter Coyote. Or, rather, they should be dangerous.

Axton plays Ben Morgan, a powerful figure in town. He appears to know far more than he’s willing to admit. Whereas, Coyote’s character is someone known only as Steele, a man who definitely knows more than he’s saying. It’s unfortunate, however, that both characters come across like stereotypical, over-the-top, we’ve-seen-it-all-before arch-villains. Indeed, Steele would have been perfectly at home in one of those old, 1920s-era silent movies, in which the black-cloaked villain ties a beautiful blond to the railroad tracks and eagerly rubs his hands (and twiddles his moustache) as a fast-approaching train threatens to end her life.

That quibble aside, however, Endangered Species is not a bad movie at all. As the story continues, we see far less talk about aliens and UFOs, and far more about black and near-silent helicopters, secret biological- and germ-warfare programs, and paramilitary-style operations of a very dark kind. We also see Joe Hiatt killed for poking his nose where it wasn’t wanted. Ben Morgan comes to a grisly end, too. All of which leads us to a solid, suspense-filled conclusion and an answer to the mystery.

In case this article prompts you to delve into Endangered Species for yourself, I won’t spoil things by revealing the outcome, and who – or what – is really mutilating cattle in Colorado and elsewhere. And why. I will, however, say that this is a well-made, largely engrossing, movie. For me, at least, it echoes in many ways the likes of certain classic 1970s-era movies, such as The Parallax View, Capricorn One, and All the President’s Men, in terms of the on-screen paranoia, suspicion of government, and mystery that those movies so skillfully generated. Endangered Species does very much the same. It’s not the greatest movie ever made. But, it is a largely well-acted, and well-made, production. It’s a very thought-provoking film, too, given what we know (or don’t know) about cattle mutilations in the real world.

MORE PARANORMAL BRAINTRUST ARTICLES BY NICK REDFERN

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Albert Bender and the Men in Black: Enduring Influences on Sci-Fi Entertainment – Nick Redfern

April 20, 2016 By Paranormal Braintrust

Nick Redfern

On March 29, 2016, Albert Bender died at the age of 94. Most people with an interest in UFOs will know of Bender’s name. He was the man who thrust the Men in Black – and the mystery surrounding them – into the public domain in the 1950s.

Bender was not the first person to encounter one of the creepy MIB, but there’s no denying it was thanks to him that the enigmatic issue became known widely. When the “modern era” of Ufology kicked off in June 1947 – thanks to the famous encounter of Kenneth Arnold at Mt. Rainier on the 24th of the month – it prompted numerous people to get involved in the study of the phenomenon. One of those was Albert Bender

A resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bender was not just a devotee of all-things ufological. He was also heavily involved in – and interested in – all manner of paranormal, supernatural, and occult phenomena. He even converted his attic-based abode into what he termed his “Chamber of Horrors.” It was a dark and foreboding place filled with paintings of demons, witches, ghosts, and more – even an “altar,” one that was designed to summon up who knows what from who knows where.

As Bender’s interest in UFOs expanded, he established his own journal – Space Review – which attracted a sizeable, worldwide audience. And he created his own group too, the International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB). It wasn’t long, however, before things began to go wrong for Bender. As in very wrong. Quite out of the blue, in 1953, Bender quit Ufology. He closed down the IFSB, stopped producing Space Review, and walked away from UFOs. It might be more accurate to say he fled Ufology.

Gray Barker – an author and publisher on matters relative to UFOs – was an acquaintance of Bender and ultimately became a friend. When he learned that Bender’s exit from Ufology was prompted by a series of chilling, intimidating visits from a trio of ghoulish men dressed in black – and with nothing less than glowing eyes and sporting fedoras – Barker knew this was a story that had to be told. And it was: in Barker’s 1956 book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. It should be noted, however, that Barker omitted most of the really weird material, preferring instead to imply that the MIB were from nothing stranger than “the government.” Then, six years later, Bender came briefly out of “retirement” to pen his own book on the eerie affair, Flying Saucers and the Three Men. After which, Bender left Ufology for good.

The purpose of this article is not to delve into all of the intricacies of the Bender controversy, but to demonstrate the incredible extent to which Bender’s account influenced the world of entertainment. Five years after Flying Saucers and the Three Men was published, ABC aired a short-lived, but well-remembered show called The Invaders. Running for just two seasons, The Invaders told the story of a man named David Vincent (actor Roy Thinnes) who finds himself caught up in a nightmarish battle against hostile aliens. In the show, the ETs are able to take on human form. The only things that give them away are their mutated little fingers. The show is filled with MIB imagery: the aliens on The Invaders often drive black cars (as do the real MIB), they wear dark suits and fedoras, they are very good at dishing out threats and intimidation, and they can control the human mind – something which has been reported in many MIB encounters. In other words, there’s very little doubt that the Bender saga had a major influence on how the brains behind The Invaders chose to present the alien menace. Not as bug-eyed little critters or as tentacle-waving monsters, but as emotionless men in suits.

The Invaders is hardly a solitary example of how the Men in Black have infected the world of on-screen entertainment. Indeed, there are many. Of course, the most visible and obvious example is the incredibly successful trilogy of Men in Black movies starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. In the movies, the primary characters are “J” and “K” (who were named after MIB pursuer and author John Keel, of The Mothman Prophecies fame). Whereas Bender’s MIB were clearly supernatural in nature, in the movies the Men in Black work for a super-secret agency. Nevertheless there’s no doubt that the Hollywood movies – based on Lowell Cunningham’s The Men in Black comic-book series of the 1990s – was, to some degree, inspired by Bender’s experiences.

Nick’s Book On Men In Black

Then, there’s the equally popular and successful Matrix movies, starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Laurence Fishbourne. Those films, too, have their very own Men in Black. They’re known as “The Agents,” computer programs whose job it is to prevent anyone from getting close to the truth of the simulated world of the Matrix of the movies’ titles. The Agents are the Men in Black in all but name. They are emotionless and threatening, and they wear black suits and black sunglasses.

There are also “The Observers” from Fringe, a sci-fi-themed show that ran on Fox from 2008 to 2013. In the show, the Observers dress in dark suits, wear equally dark fedoras and skinny black ties, and have pale skin and emotionless faces and characters. Would they have even existed without Albert Bender’s widely publicized run-ins with the MIB? Probably not. At the very least, not in the form they appeared in the show.

Finally, we come to a 1998 movie that doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. Its title: Dark City. Not unlike The Matrix in many respects, Dark City – which was released in 1998, one year before The Matrix surfaced – is an intriguing production. It stars Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connolly, Richard O’Brien, and William Hurt. As the title suggests, Dark City revolves around a city which exists in perpetual night. We get to meet the people who inhabit it, and we soon learn that the city is not what it appears to be. In fact, reality itself is not what it appears to be. Dark City, too, has its equivalents of Albert Bender’s threatening thugs from beyond. They’re called “The Strangers.” Long black coats and dark hats are their uniforms.

In my view, and based upon my lengthy studies of the MIB phenomenon, the Strangers of Dark City are the closest fictional things to the real Men in Black. Pale-faced, they surface only at night. Threatening and dangerous, they are mind-controllers and manipulators who exude menace. Indeed, Richard O’Brien’s portrayal of one of the anemic-looking Strangers is masterful. Again, the Albert Bender imagery and story are present for all to see.

Dark City, Men in Black, The Matrix, The Invaders, and Fringe – and more – all owe a debt of gratitude to Albert Bender. Had it not been for that strange and sinister series of encounters in Bender’s “Chamber of Horrors” in the early 1950s, it’s highly unlikely any of those shows and movies would have turned out the way they did.

MORE PARANORMAL BRAINTRUST ARTICLES BY NICK REDFERN

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The Mysterious UFO-Helicopter Wave of 1975 – Nick Redfern

March 24, 2016 By Paranormal Braintrust

Nick Redfern

One of the many curious aspects of the UFO phenomenon is that relative to so-called “waves” and “flaps.” Over the years, there have been more than a few occasions upon which UFOs have intruded into our airspace to a significant degree. I’m talking about the likes of the summer of 1947; the Washington, D.C. invasion of July 1952; the wave of close encounters that hit the United States in 1973; and the Belgian “Flying Triangle” encounters of 1989/1990. And then there’s the curious matter of the UFO/ “phantom helicopter” wave of 1975. It’s not only curious, but disturbing, too. Chiefly because a great deal of concern was exhibited by the U.S. military, despite the fact that the Air Force’s UFO program, Project Blue Book, closed its doors six years earlier, in 1969. Notably, and thanks to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, we can see just how seriously matters were taken.

Even a cursory examination of the history of the UFO phenomenon demonstrates that sightings of so-called “black helicopters,” “phantom helicopters,” and even “silent helicopters” abound. They were particularly in evidence during the cattle-mutilation wave of the mid-seventies. Alien abductees report being pursued and intimated by such craft. There are suspicions that at least some of the helicopters originate with so-called “black projects” that operate outside of the regular conventions of the military. There are even claims that the helicopters are “UFOs in disguise,” which is surely the most controversial of all the theories offered to explain the phenomenon! All of which brings us back to that aforementioned wave of 1975.

Official documentation on the encounters has surfaced from the Air Force, the FBI, and the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). One particular document, titled Suspicious Unknown Air Activity, provides the following:

“Since 28 Oct 75 numerous reports of suspicious objects have been received at the NORAD CC. Reliable military personnel at Loring AFB Maine, Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan, Malmstrom AFB, MT, Minot AFB, ND, and Canadian forces station Falconbridge, Ontario Canada have visually sighted suspicious objects. Objects at Loring and Wurtsmith were characterized to be helicopters. Missile site personnel, security alert teams and air defense personnel at Malmstrom, Montana report an object which sounded like a jet. FAA advised there were no jet aircraft in the vicinity. Malmstrom search and height finder radars carried the object between 9500 ft. and 15,000 ft. at a speed of seven knots.”

The odd saga proceeded to get even stranger: “…personnel reported the object as low as 200 ft. and said that as the interceptors approached the lights went out, after the interceptors had passed the lights came on again…Minot AFB on 10 Nov reported that the site was buzzed by a bright object the size of a car at an altitude of 1,000 to 2,000 ft. There was no noise emitted by the vehicle.”

The relevant paperwork makes it very clear that the military was not only concerned about the phenomenon itself, but also by the potential reactions on the part of the media and the public:

“Be assured that this command is doing everything possible to identify and provide solid factual information on these sightings. I have also expressed my concern to SAFOI that we come up soonest with a proposed answer to queries from the press to prevent over reaction by the public to reports by the media that may be blown out of proportion. To date efforts by Air Guard helicopters, SAC helicopters and NORAD F106s have failed to produce positive ID.”

Then there was a notable document titled Defense Against Helicopter Assault. In part, it reads: “The past two evenings at one of our northern tier bases, an unidentified helicopter has been observed hovering over and in the near vicinity of the weapons storage area. Attempts to identify this aircraft have so far met with negative results.” In other words, something intruded upon the most secure part of the base and no-one was able to determine what was afoot or even why.

Of particular note is Unidentified Helicopter Sighted at Low Level Over Loring AFB, a file that adds further weight to the theory that there had been major, serious invasions of secure facilities – facilities that appeared to be not so secure, after all. Consider the following:

“On 28 Oct 75, Lewis…advised that the a/c [aircraft] was first observed by Clifton W. Blakeslee, Sgt. [deleted] and William J. Long, SSgt., both assigned to the 42 SPS, who were on duty at the storage area. The initial sighting took place at approximately 1345. The a/c was observed approximately 1,000 meters north of LAFB. The a/c was subsequently observed by Lewis and others intermittently for the next hour and a half. Subsequent to the sighting by Long and Blakeslee, the a/c did not come nearer to the northern perimeter of LAFB than approximately 3 miles. Lewis observed a flashing white strobe light and red navigation lights on the a/c. The operator of the a/c either turned the lights off periodically or the a/c flew below a point from which the lights could be observed. The a/c disappeared from view and did not reappear. A search of the vicinity of the northern perimeter of LAFB by 42 SPS personnel met with negative results.”

The unsettling affair was nowhere near over:

“On 28 Oct 75, Commander, 42 8W, advised that he responded to the area from which the unidentified a/c was observed. He arrived at approximately 1955. The a/c bore a white flashing light and an amber or orange light. The speed and movement in the air suggested that the a/c was a helicopter. From 1345-2020, the a/c was under constant observation. Subsequent to that time the a/c would appear and disappear from view. The a/c definitely penetrated the LAFB northern perimeter and on one occasion was within 300 yards of the munitions storage area perimeter [emphasis mine]. Efforts to identify the a/c through Maine State Police and local police departments were not successful.”

Log reports from Malmstrom AFB, from November 7, reveal an amazing series of events. It all began at 10:35 a.m.: “Received a call from the 341st Strategic Air Command Post, saying that the following missile locations reported seeing a large red to orange to yellow object: M-1, L-3, LIMA and L-6. The general object location would be 10 miles south of Moore, Montana and 20 miles east of Buffalo, Montana.”

Then, at 1:19 p.m. there was this: “SAC advised K-1 says very bright object to their east is now southeast of them and they are looking at it with 10 x 50 binoculars. Object seems to have lights (several) on it, but no distinct pattern. The orange/gold object overhead also has small lights on it. SAC also advises female civilian reports having seen an object bearing south from her position six miles west of Lewsitown.” The events were never explained.

A NORAD document of November 11 provides the following, which demonstrates even more high-strangeness: “This morning, 11 Nov 75, CFS Falconbridge reported search and height finder radar paints on an object up to 30 nautical miles south of the site ranging in altitude from 26,000 to 72,000 feet. The site commander and other personnel say the object appeared as a bright star but much closer. With binoculars the object appeared as a 100 ft. diameter sphere and appeared to have craters around the outside [emphasis mine].”

FOIA DOCUMENT

The documentation I have cited above is just a fraction of the overall puzzle. Literally hundreds of pages of material on the 1975 wave has now surfaced via the FOIA. While the papers in question definitely suggest that a helicopter (or something that, superficially at least, looked like a helicopter) was the culprit, other reports are not so easy to explain. Such as the NORAD document of November 11, as referred to in the paragraph directly above. And, it’s very important to note that in the Loring AFB encounters of October 1975, it was “…the speed and movement in the air” of the object which “…suggested that the a/c was a helicopter.” In other words, a case can be made that the only reason the object was deemed to be a helicopter was because it moved like a helicopter. That’s to say, it may have flown vertically, backwards, and even hovered. Perhaps, then, the theory that the UFOs were helicopters was not as solid as some assumed.

The mystery of the “phantom helicopter” wave of 1975 was never resolved. Like so many earlier waves (the aforementioned 1947, 1952, 1973, and 1989/1990) the UFOs – or the helicopters – vanished as mysteriously as they first arrived.

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Shape Shifting Black Cats – Nick Redfern

February 18, 2016 By Paranormal Braintrust

Nick Redfern

For decades (some say centuries), the United Kingdom has been plagued by reports of what have become known as Alien Big Cats – or, as they are also termed, ABCs. While there are more than a handful of reports that pre-date the 1970s, it was from the early 1980s onward that the phenomenon really began to take off big-time. We’re talking about mysterious cats – very often black and sometimes tan – the size of mountain-lions. Most people probably don’t need to be told that the U.K. is certainly not the home of an indigenous large, powerful cat of the type that has been reported on literally hundreds of occasions. But, that doesn’t take away the fact that people see such things on a regular basis – and they report them on a regular basis too.

It’s not just people like me – seekers of mysterious animals – who find themselves on the received end of such reports. The nation’s media (regional and national) regularly comments on the ABC puzzle. And, as the U.K.’s Freedom of Information Act has demonstrated, regional police forces have undertaken their own investigations of the phenomenon (sometimes even to the extent of using helicopters equipped with heat-seeking technology). Elements of the British Army have also played significant roles in the quest to resolve the matter.

Unfortunately, and despite intensive quests and investigations, the matter remains largely unresolved. Yes, occasionally, a lynx or a jungle cat is encountered – and caught. But, for the most part, the issue of the very large black cats prowling around the countryside remains enigmatic. Admittedly, one definitive ABC – a puma – was caught in Scotland in 1980. However, she was extremely tame and comfortable around people, was old, was suffering from arthritis, and was almost certainly released into the wild not long before she was captured. She spent the remaining five years of her life living very happily in the Highland Wildlife Park. She was christened Felicity.

But, Felicity aside, we’re still at a loss to explain the massive numbers of ABCs that are said to call the U.K. their home. Most researchers of the phenomenon tend to go with the idea that the cats are escapees from private-zoos and enclosures – or the offspring (of the offspring) of large cats that escaped – or which were deliberately released – decades earlier. It must be said, however, there are some ABC encounters that are not just strange, but which are downright bizarre. I have in my files reports of Alien Big Cats vanishing before the eyes of the shocked witnesses. And when I say “vanishing” I mean as in literally. Dematerializing, in other words. I also have one report of someone who claimed to have seen – on Dartmoor, Devon, England – a large black cat in the company of a werewolf-type beast! And I have two reports of people who state they have seen large black cats exiting landed UFOs (interestingly, both cases came from the English county of Yorkshire, one in 1968 and the other in 1982). And then there’s the matter of shape-shifting. Yes, really.

I have in my files a very strange story of a woman who claimed to have seen, in 1989, in the heart of England’s Cannock Chase woods (a place notorious for its links to paranormal activity), a huge black cat, as she took a stroll on a hot, summer’s day. She almost literally walked into the ABC as she headed along a well-worn track near the village of Milford. Incredibly, the woman claimed that as the two stood staring at each other (she was, unsurprisingly, frozen to the spot in terror), the ABC morphed into the form of a large black dog. It glared at her for a moment and then wandered off and vanished into the undergrowth. Notably, the U.K. has a centuries-old tradition of paranormal black dogs: they’re known as Phantom Black Dogs. One such legend prompted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write his classic Sherlock Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Bizarrely, I also have a story concerning the sighting of a large black cat seen in Suffolk, England, in 1941 that allegedly transformed into a hare! Interestingly, in folklore the hare is perceived as a trickster, and also the form into which a witch can morph. And while we’re on the matter of witches…

In 1984, there was a wave of encounters with an Alien Big Cat which became known as the “Rossendale Lion.” It was an affair investigated extensively by Andy Roberts, the author of many books and articles on Fortean phenomena. People told of seeing the large cat. Sheep were reportedly slaughtered by it. And the local police took the matter very seriously. As Andy noted in his 1986 booklet, Cat Flaps! Northern Mystery Cats: “Rossendale is a collection of valleys on the fringes of the Pennines hill-chain about fourteen miles north-east of Manchester.”

Andy touches on the matter of shapeshifting black-cats in relation to a woman named Barbara Brandolini, a witch. Andy notes that she “…claimed that she was responsible for the sheep killings in Rossendale.” Andy continues that Brandolini stated she “actually became the panther” herself.

Indeed, she proclaimed: “I will appear as a big cat in Hepstonstall. People tend to think it all belongs in books and so on but it does not. It is very real.” Interestingly, although no ABC was seen in Hepstonstall “strange animal noises” were heard in and around the small village in the wake of Brandolini’s statement.

Of course, it’s controversial enough to assert that large black cats are on the loose in the U.K. It’s quite another thing to suggest they might be something more (or something less) than mere flesh and blood. Whatever the truth of the matter, the ABC’s of the United Kingdom continue to be seen – and they continue to perplex, too.

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