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We talk with author, podcaster and UFOlogist Ryan Sprague about where UFO studies are going today.
You can find his podcast at somewhereintheskies.com
Thanks Ryan!
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The stunning UFO revelations featured in the New York Times this weekend are the topic of this special roundtable Paranormal Podcast. Our panelists are Clayton Morris, Micah Hanks and Ryan Sprague. This may be my favorite episode of 2017. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
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Ryan Sprague
The idea of a classic haunting conjures many images of eerie old houses, graveyards, and spirits being forever trapped in the rooms where their life had seemingly ended. But sometimes these often reported hauntings don’t occur on the ground around us but in the skies above. And such was the strange case involving the ghosts of Flight 401.
It was December 29th, 1972. Eastern Airlines Flight 401, holding 163 passengers, broke through the clouds, taking off from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. It was a routine flight, leisurely touching down in Miami. At the helm was Head Pilot, Bob Loft, a thirty year veteran of the skies. He was accompanied by Albert John Stockhill, his First Officer, and Donald Lois Repo, the flight engineer. The rest of the crew consisted of ten top-notch flight attendants. All seemed to be going just as planned as they coasted through the air, their destination of Miami International Airport within reach.
As they prepared for landing, Stockstill noticed that the landing gear indicator light hadn’t turned on when it should have. Alerting the crew of the situation, he tried several times to cycle the landing gear, hoping that this would solve the problem. But it didn’t seem to resolve. Soon, Loft radioed the flight tower of the situation. Soon, the plane was put into a holding pattern over the nearby Everglades. At an altitude of about 2,000 feet, the plane was put into autopilot as the crew hurriedly tried to resolve the situation. Distracted by the supposed malfunctioning landing gear, the entire crew was oblivious to the fact that someone had accidentally turned off the autopilot feature and the plane was quickly losing altitude. By the time the crew was made aware, it was already too late. The plane crashed into an unforgiving swampland at a speed of 227 miles per hour. The fuselage disintegrated almost immediately, jet fuel sending fiery blazes throughout the downed aircraft. It was a tragedy beyond comprehension.
Stockstill perished on impact. Loft and Repo initially survived, but Loft died while being pulled from the wreckage. Repo later succumbed in the hospital due to major complications. In total, 97 out of 163 people died in the crash that fateful day. It was one of the most horrific and deadliest plane disasters in U.S. history. And while the tragedy certainly struck the hearts of many, the lingering spirits of those lives lost refused to fade away.
The aircraft was an Eastern L-1011 Tristar jet. Not long after the deadly events in the Everglades, both passengers and crew of flights flown in the same model aircraft began to report strange occurrences as they made their way through the skies. Many of these reports included sightings of Robert Loft and Donald Repo. They would often stand in the aisles, looking over the passengers. Or sometimes they would even be seated next to passengers, a cold dark stare shooting forward towards the cockpit.
One report, in particular, came from flight attendants who said they saw Robert Loft wandering up and down the aisles of the plane right before takeoff, talking to passengers and warning them to get off the flight before it was too late. It was then said that as they prepared for takeoff, Loft’s supposed spirit vanished into thin air. The crew was so visibly shaken by this event that the flight had to be canceled that day. Another incident involved the vice-president of Eastern Airlines. As he sat in first class during a routine flight, he assumed the man sitting next to him was the Captain and began to speak to him. It wasn’t until halfway through the conversation that the strange truth dawned on him. The man, sitting silent and staring at him was none other then Loft himself. When the realization hit the vice-president, the man that was sitting next to him faded away into thin air.
Another report came from a flight attendant who noticed an engineer fixing an oven in the galley (kitchen) of the plane. When the flight attendant later saw a different engineer who usually worked that shift, she asked who the new guy was that fixed the oven. He insisted that no other engineers had been on that flight and that there was nothing wrong with ovens that had been reported to him. When the flight attendant described the mysterious engineer, it struck a chord with several other crew members. They retrieved several photos of a man to show her, and she insisted that the man in the photos was most definitely the man she saw that day. All of the photos were that of flight engineer Donald Lois Repo.
Repo seemed to be the boldest of the two spirits haunting these flights. During a flight of Tri-Star 318, a flight attendant witnessed an apparition of a man who warned she and several other crew members that they should keep a lookout for possible fires on the plane. The flight engineer knew Repo in life and had no doubt that this apparition before him was indeed the man himself. Soon, the apparition disappeared. Halfway through the flight, the plane suffered major engine issues that caused a fire. The last leg of the flight was canceled.
It is worth acknowledging that almost every report of both Repo and Loft boasted incidents involving what appeared to be flesh and blood individuals, and not spectral entities. The only time that the events seemed supernatural were when an individual recognized Repo or Loft, and they would dematerialize before the witness’ very eyes. Another interesting fact is that whenever they were seen, they would often warn crew members of impending problems on a particular flight. They were almost acting as omens for some sort of disaster or preventing it altogether. The last interesting aspect of nearly every report is that Repo and Loft were never seen together on any flight or in any witness testimony, prompting one to presume that in the lingering spiritual purgatory high in the skies, they were working alone to haunt these flights.
One of the most contentious and intriguing aspects of this entire ghostly affair came to light when rumors began to spread that salvaged pieces from Flight 401 had been recycled and used on other Tri-Star jets. If one is to believe that objects themselves can contain the disembodied spirit of someone, then this most certainly was the case for the ghosts of Flight 401. Almost all reports of Repo and Loft supposedly came from flights that had pieces of the original plane attached to them somehow. This claim of using parts from a tragic disaster was contested for years by airlines who stated that they would never do such a thing. But many who’ve worked on the planes did admit that this was a common practice among airlines to cut corners and save money on construction of their aircraft, even down to the last screw and bolt. There were also rumors that once this notion of recycled pieces of Flight 401 went public, the pieces were swiftly and silently removed from other planes. Immediately, all reports of ghostly activity on Tri-Star flights ceased.
No matter the case, the actual presence of these ghosts had taken a toll on the airline. So many reports were submitted to the US Flight Safety Foundation that they actually published a response in their newsletter, in which they stated: “The reports were given by experienced and trustworthy pilots and crew. We consider them significant. The appearance of the dead flight engineer (Repo) … was confirmed by the flight engineer.” But Eastern Airlines itself did everything they could to distance themselves from these reports, not wanting a reputation of being the “haunted airline,” nor did they want to bring any more attention to the tragedy of Flight 401. No matter the case, the reports of these supposedly haunted flights pales in comparison to the loss of life that fateful day over the Everglades.
Eastern Airlines went out of business in 1991 after extensive labor disputes and a massive strike in 1989. And while the airline itself is long dead, the stories of possible ghostly crew members continue to live on both here on the ground and in the air. Perhaps the next time you find yourself on a flight, you may want to order several of those overpriced mini bottles of bourbon and gin. Because you never truly know if that person you’re sitting next to is an actual passenger or a ghostly tag along to keep you both startled and sober in the skies.
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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon, published by Richard Dolan Press. He is the co-host of the critically acclaimed podcast, Into the Fray, available on iTunes & Stitcher. You can also catch him frequently on Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum. His other work can be found at: somewhereintheskies.com
We talk UFOs with researcher and author Ryan Sprague and in part two of the program we delve into astrology with Trish MacGregor.
You can find their new books at Amazon.com:
Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon
Thanks Ryan & Trish!
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Ryan Sprague
It was more than any young teenager should ever endure, but for Nina, she not only suffered through the nine hundred day siege but excelled in her regiment. She bravely served on the front line as the radio operator of a battle tank. Her endurance led her to climb the ranks, and she eventually became a senior sergeant. But the risk of her bravery and dedication to Russia would catch up to her when she would be seriously injured by artillery fire at the tail end of WWII.
She was left emotionally and physically scarred. Disabled, Nina lived a rather secluded life until she married and had children in the mid-1960s. But what exactly was Nina doing in the time between leaving the war and starting a family? Information is scant, but when she resurfaced, it was certainly in full force. And while her past was full of valor and intrigue, her future brought an entirely new reputation of the most mysterious kind.
Nina recalled, as a child, that her mother was able to move objects with her mind. This seemed impossible to Nina, but she would watch in awe as her mother focussed intently on household objects as they began to spin, drag, and even fly across the room. Many years later, when Nina realized that her motor skills had been hindered during the war, she wondered if this strange ability her mother possessed could be passed on to her. And as she would soon learn, it most definitely could.
For Nina, the objects began to move when she was angry. She had very little control over it. But slowly, she began to harness this ability, and would find herself in periods of deep meditation. Her mind would become crystal clear, and her focus on the object was at its prime. She would feel a sharp pain in her spine, and her vision would blur. This was when she knew that it was now time to move the object. And move it did. She began to harness this power and gained more control over it. Was this something to keep secret? Or was this something that could give her the confidence back that had been stripped of her since the end of the war? This was when she decided to come forward with her amazing abilities.
A noted physicist, V.F. Shvetz, came forward stating that he once observed Nina mentally projecting the letters A and O onto a sheet of photographic paper. She was also capable of transferring an outline of an image she was looking at onto photographic paper as well. These abilities often came with a harsh aftermath. Nina would suffer unexplained burn marks on her hands after demonstrating her powers, her clothes even catching on fire at one point. One European journalist even claimed that Nina had mentally caused a red patch of discomfort to appear on their arm after demonstrating a telekinetic test for them.
As time progressed, more people began to learn of this simple housewife’s fantastic gift. Word eventually spread to members behind the Iron Curtain, and Nina once again found herself in the tight grasp of the Red Army. The Cold War was heating up, and the American public would catch wind of several silent films where a middle-aged woman appeared to move objects on a table in front of her without touching them. These cryptic black-and-white films were allegedly made under controlled conditions by Soviet authorities and were observed closely by over forty scientists, including two Nobel laureates. All had examined Nina, and every single one of them confirmed that her telekinetic abilities were indeed genuine. However, many skeptics at the time believed these videos to be pure fabrication meant as propaganda to show the Russian superiority in right-brain functioning and the possibility of psychic ability control.
One of these curious videos showed a water-filled tank in which an egg was cracked open and poured into it. Using her abilities, Nina was able to separate the egg yolk from the white, spreading them to opposite ends of the tank, supposedly with nothing more than her mind. During this remarkable event, sensors placed on her body showed a highly elevated body temperature and heartbeat. Her electromagnetic field and brainwaves had also intensified to abnormal heights. As if separating the egg wasn’t enough, Nina was also able to meld it back together again with ease.
While this event was truly astounding, Nina would raise the psychic bar in March of 1970 when another video surfaced when she would use her powers not on inanimate objects, but on the heart of an actual creature. Curious if her psychic power could have an effect on cells, tissue and organs, a frog’s heart was placed into a tank filled with saline solution. Using a small amount of electrical current, the heart was kept beating. At this point, Nina was asked if she could change the pace of the heartbeat. Astonishingly, she was first able to make the heart beat faster, then slower, and finally she was able to make the heart completely stop. This came to a huge shock to all, and the Soviets wondered if this peculiar ability could be used on human beings. Could it, in essence, be one of the greatest weapons against an enemy attack? Fortunately, Nina admitted that her abilities couldn’t penetrate the cellular make-up of humans, fatiguing her greatly. It appeared as though the hearts of potential enemies would be safe.
While Nina’s abilities would make her a semi-celebrity, this also attracted the skeptical minds of many debunkers who believed it all to be a hoax. Many argued that the experiments conducted on her were not done in proper scientific conditions. Sleight-of-hand trickery, magnets, and hair-thin string were all culprits thought to be responsible for the objects being moved across tables and floors. Scrutiny over her abilities even caught the attention of well-known stage magician and scientific skeptic, James Randi. Randi backed up these claims that everything Nina was known for could easily have been fabricated and that absolutely none of her actual psychic powers were authentic.
As the tests continued, it became clear that Nina’s abilities were taking a serious toll on her health. Doctors who’d been monitoring her were concerned after several experiments caused her to lose weight, her heart beat would become irregular, and she would spend days in bed suffering severe exhaustion. It appeared that to perform these feats, Nina was somehow converting the matter of her own body into psychic energy. Other symptoms began to appear, including a complete loss of her taste buds, disturbed motor skills, and extreme pain in her extremities. During this deterioration of health, she also suffered a nervous breakdown in 1964 and was put under close observation in a local hospital. While recovering, it was said that she spent most of her time sewing. While this may seem innocent in nature, something strange caught several of her doctors’ attention. Nina was able to reach into a sewing basket, select a specific color of thread, and all without looking. Upon inquiring how she could choose a color without seeing it, she claimed that she could see the colors with her fingertips. This was yet another fantastic ability to add to the list.
The contention and skepticism by the scientific community began to eat away at Nina. She struggled merely to prove that her powers were real. The Soviets welcomed her determination, and would push her to the furthest limits. Unfortunately, this caught up with her when in the late 1970s, she suffered a near-fatal heart attack. It was a clear message to the scientists, doctors, and the military intelligence agencies to finally slow down and give Nina the space she rightfully deserved to recover in peace.
Nina would conduct personal experiments with private institutions for the next two decades, knowing that she couldn’t completely suppress these special abilities. No matter the intentions of the Red Army, she knew that her powers could also be used for good. Many claimed that by merely placing her hands on them, she could heal some ailments and wounds. While this could not be proven, it brought about a whole new level of potential for what Nina could truly do to benefit her country. She was watched very closely for the remainder of her life, never being able to escape the fame and burden of those who believed in her psychokinetic abilities and those who didn’t. This would haunt her until her death in 1990 at the age of 64.
The attention to Nina was not unjustified at the time as Russia was willing to explore any type of alternative warfare in the race to beat the Americans. Remote viewing and anomalous cognition were specific areas that they found of keen interest. While the Americans focussed on the nuclear arms and space race, Russia was digging deep into the mind to create the “psi race.” The Americans wouldn’t truly catch on and take this topic seriously until many years later.
In October of 1978, Maj. Edmund Thompson, then the Army’s top intelligence officer, ordered Intelligence and Security Command to look into Extrasensory Perception, and a Pentagon-wide program, known as Project Grill Flame was set into motion. Another program of note came in 1986, with the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Project Sun Streak, in which psychic abilities were used to find the whereabouts of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi before American planes bombed the country. It was clear that there was potential for such extraordinary abilities in warfare, and thinking outside the box was a beneficial strategy. Could this all have been prompted by the exploitation of Nina’s abilities over in Russia? Did the so-called “propaganda films” actually have more of an impact than once thought? There’s no way of truly knowing, as there is also no way of knowing if her abilities were authentic or not, to begin with. But one thing was certain: the doors of psychic warfare had been opened, and it is doubtful that they will ever truly be closed as top secret black budget projects hide in every corner of both countries’ intelligence and defense agencies.
While the strange life of Nina Kulagina involved abilities that even today have yet to be proven authentic, it wasn’t the psychokinetic aspect of her life that would be most remembered. Even at her funeral, she was praised for her dedication and service to the army earlier in her life, being hailed as the “Hero of Leningrad.” She had fought for her life defending her people and her country, becoming a cultural icon for both soldiers and women everywhere. Whether the fringe-filled aspects to her story afterward hold any true merit will be debated by believers and skeptics alike for many years to come. But for Nina, it surely was a life worth living. And as this article, and many others may suggest, it is most certainly a story worth telling.
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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon”, published by Richard Dolan Press. He is the co-host of the critically acclaimed podcast, Into the Fray, available on iTunes & Stitcher. His other work can be found at somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
In August of 2004, in Savannah, GA, a man was found sunburned and brutally beaten behind a dumpster outside of a Burger King restaurant. He was rushed to the hospital where doctors were able to save his life. But when the man finally awoke, he had no memory of what had happened. But even scarier, he had absolutely no idea where he’d come from or who he was. The man in question, Benjamin Kyle, had been diagnosed with retrograde amnesia, which occurs often after an injury or onset of disease. With very little to go on, Kyle found himself in a purgatory of life, seemingly lacking an identity, family, and a past. Upon recovery, Kyle spent many years on the streets, not being able to obtain employment due to his not being able to remember his social security number.
The entire incident caught the attention of many news outlets and afternoon talk shows, and through the generosity of viewers, and other sources, Kyle was able to find employment at a restaurant in Florida, where he took up residence in a small home. Eventually, Kyle was able to match his DNA through an online resource and found several family members. He was slowly piecing the puzzle back together again by finding relatives, but continued to struggle with who he truly was. But he took solace, knowing there was still hope of discovering the life he’d once led. “Looking at all these names, all these people, kind of gives me a sense of belonging,” Kyle stated in an interview with ABC News. “I have a history. I’m not just some stranger that materialized out of thin air.”
The idea of someone appearing out of thin air is actually more prevalent than one may think. There have been many others who have lived lives shrouded in mystery, drifting in and out of the world in the most obscure of fashion. And as we’ll see, they disappeared into thin air just as mysteriously.
On May 26th, 1828, a teenage boy was found wandering the streets of Nürnberg, Germany. His clothes tattered, he tightly clutched two letters in his hands. One of the letters was addressed to the captain of the cavalry regiment, requesting that the boy be left in his possession, supposedly written by a poor laborer who’d raised the boy but could no longer afford to. The second letter was written by what was apparently the boy’s mother, and this letter stated that her husband had died and she herself couldn’t raise the boy alone. Her hope was that the boy would join the military.
The young boy was asked by local authorities to write down his origins, but he seemed very confused, and couldn’t read or write. The only thing he could recall was his name, Kaspar Hauser, which he scribbled down on paper. When some in the town tried to feed the boy, he requested nothing but bread and water, eventually explaining that these were the only form of subsistence he was given, having been held in a cell all alone for an undetermined amount of time and severely abused by an unknown captor. Pity, generosity, and curiosity led locals to take the boy in and try to educate him.
Astonishingly, within weeks, he’d learned to read and write. Word began to spread about this apparent idiot savant, and the curiosity of his origins only heightened. He became an overnight sensation, and countless books, magazines, films, and plays were eventually written about him. Such theories surrounding the true identity of Hauser ranged from a deranged epileptic who’d been passed on by caregivers to the dramatic theory that he’d been the rightful heir to a royal throne, but was stashed away in a cell so that someone else could take power. While many scholars today refute this theory, it fueled many to find some sort of political intrigue behind the boy’s origins. No matter the case, Hauser’s fame would lead to his untimely death, when in the winter of 1833, he returned to the house of Lord Stanhope, with whom he’d been taking up residence with at the time. He staggered into the home with a deep stab wound in his chest. He eventually died, a police investigation turning up a small violet purse with a note in its contents. The note, having been written in German, was translated as the following:
Hauser will be
Able to tell you quite precisely how
I look and from where I am.
To save Hauser the effort,
I want to tell you myself from where
I come _ _ .
I come from from _ _ _
the Bavarian border _ _
On the river _ _ _ _ _
I will even
tell you the name: M. L. Ö.
While M.L.Ö was never detained, let alone found, the mystery behind the death of Hauser was just as elusive as his life itself. While much contention remains on who this young man was, he has become a legend in the eyes of many, having been buried in the world famous cemetery, Stadtfriedhof, amongst many scholars and even those who’d been granted the Nobel Peace Prize. Hauser’s life was known to no one else except he himself, and it will remain that way for the rest of eternity. It could best be concluded with what was etched on his gravestone, eloquently stated in Latin: “Here lies Kaspar Hauser, riddle of his time. His birth was unknown, his death mysterious. 1833.”
It was the first day of December in 1948. On the beach of Somerton, just south of Adelaide, Australia, the body of a man was found laying on top of the sand. Within his possession was an unused train ticket, a comb, gum, and a few loose cigarettes. The man was in peak physical condition, and no sign of illness or ailments seemed to be the cause of death. He was dressed in a very well-tailored suit, but mysteriously, no labels could be found anywhere on his clothing. In a hidden pocket of the suit, a small piece of paper simply read: “Taman shud”, which in Persian, means: “finished.” No identification of the man could be found.
While the tragedy of this man’s death was obvious, the intrigue behind his possession of the piece of paper is what struck most who had heard about the case. The piece of paper seemed to have been torn from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, an extremely rare 12th century poetry book by the Persian poet. Police soon conducted a search for the book, and came across an anonymous man who said he’d found a copy in the backseat of his car around the same time the body had been found on the beach. When the police examined the book, they noticed that the book was indeed missing the exact words that were found on the man. Even more bizarre, the book had random capital letters throughout the poem circled, prompting investigators to theorize that this was some sort of code, perhaps one that could lead them one step closer to discovering who this man was.
Another big mystery was how exactly this seemingly healthy man had died. The prevailing theory was that he must have been poisoned, yet no trace of any type of poison such could be found in his system. But the pathologist who’d performed the autopsy believed it was possible that some sort of soluble barbiturate could have been responsible, which would have completely dissolved within a day. While this was contentious amongst other pathologists, even more contentious was a theory on breaking the code that the poetry book supposedly held. One theory was that the strong of circled letters, ITTMTSAMSTGAB, actually stood for, “It’s Time To Move To South Australia Moseley Street.” This crack in the code was only strengthened when a phone number was found in the book which belonged to a former army nurse who just so happened to live on Moseley Street. The woman, who also remained anonymous, confirmed that she’s in fact given a copy of this rare poetry book to a lieutenant Alfred Boxall, whom she’d met while in service. Many believed that Boxall was in fact the dead man, but in 1949, the actual Boxall came forward, stating that he held a fully intact version of the book in his possession, and clearly was alive and breathing. But some were suspicious of him, wondering if during his service, he was actually working for an intelligence program, and had in fact discovered the dead man was a Soviet spy, and had poisoned him. This was rather outlandish in the eyes of Boxall himself who once stated that this theory was “quite a melodramatic thesis”, claiming that he was no more than an engineer for a water transport company during his service.
The case remained unsolved for many years. But a possible break occurred in 2009 when Derek Abbott, a professor at the University of Adelaide, theorized that the supposed coded letters in the poetry book were a one time pad code, meaning that it’s based solely on one document being the key, in this case the book itself. But because the book was so rare, and no copies can be found today, the code is in essence, unbreakable, rendering Abbott’s theory unprovable as well. But this didn’t stop him from pursuing the identity of the man. Working off of the frustration of lost autopsy reports and a reluctance by the government in exhuming the man’s body, all Abbott had to go on were grainy photos of the dead man right before the autopsy. This is when Abbott made a very striking discovery. In the photo, the dead man had an unusual shape to the upper half of his ears. This formation could only be found in about two percent of caucasians, and he also had a condition known as hypodontia, in which one or more teeth fail to develop, present in less than two percent of the entire population. Abbott had spoken to the anonymous nurse who’d known Boxall, and discovered that her son had the same ear features and also had hypodontia, the same conditions of the Somerton man. The chances of two unrelated individuals with these conditions were one in ten million, prompting Abbott to postulate that they were possibly biological father and son.
In 2013, in an interview with the television news show, 60 Minutes, the nurse came forward as one Jessica Thomson. Her daughter, Kate, was also interviewed, stating that her mother did indeed know the Somerton man, and that she believed that her mother and the man were both spies, and that her late brother, Robin, was quite possibly the love child of the Somerton man. Kate went so far as to petition the Australian government to exhume the body to collect DNA evidence to make the connection between her brother and the man, but they remain steadfast on that not happening. The reasons remain quite conspiratorial, but the theory of both her mother and the Somerton man having been spies at the time could be one of those many reasons.
The Somerton man case remains unsolved, and hundreds of identities have been presumed of who this man may have been. As time lingers on, it is possible that perhaps a connection could be made to unravel this mysterious death in 1948. But for now, all we have is a modest gravestone that lay in Australia’s West Terrace Cemetery simply stating: “Here Lies The Unknown Man Who Was Found At Somerton Beach.”
He checked in to the Lake Quinault Inn on September 14th, 2001. It had only been three days since the unfathomable tragedy struck the World Trade Center in New York City. And the entire country was on edge. The same could be said on this very day when a young man known as Lyle Stevik checked in to the inn, paying cash. He headed to his room, and didn’t leave for almost two days, requesting no cleaning of the room or any disturbance. He requested extra clean towels being left at the doorstep, and nothing else.
On September 17th, the housekeeper knocked on the door.It was past checkout time, so she needed to clean the room. There was no answer. After a few more knocks, she took it upon herself to open the door. There, she found the young man kneeling in an alcove in the corner of the room. His back was to the door, his arms by his side, and his head tilted back. It seemed as though he were praying, but he was completely unresponsive to the innkeepers entrance and apologies. This is when she phoned the owner of the inn, who made the long trek almost ninety miles away, to come see what was happening. When she arrived, the two approached Lyle hesitantly. Upon closer inspection, the owner noticed a leather belt wrapped snuggly around his throat, the other end attached to a coat rack on the other side of the room. It was now clear that he’d hanged himself. And while this site was gruesome, the events were about to become much more curious.
On the nightstand in the room, a comment card rested innocently with the words, “For the Room” scribbled on it. Inside, eight twenty dollar bills were present, a generous tip included. Soon, law enforcement was brought in and the body brought to the local coroner. Back in the room, police had also discovered, in the trash can, a crumpled piece of paper with the word: Suicide, scribbled on it. Investigators found no identification for Lyle on his person or in the room. For weeks, the police waited to hear any reports of the man missing. None turned up. They also ran Lyle’s DNA, dental information, and fingerprints in every database they could, finding nothing. A home address he’d left at the front desk merely belonged to a Best Western Inn located almost six hundred miles away in Idaho. When the police inquired with the owner of the Best Western, who’d been there for over six years, he could not confirm that anyone under that name or description had stayed there. After searching countless databases, phone directories, and community outreaches, nothing whatsoever turned up on the man known as Lyle Stevik. He, in essence, had never existed.
The search for the man’s identity widened, and many theories were thrown about. In Lyle’s room, two copies of the Daily World News were found, endless articles about the September 11th attacks filling the pages. Many speculated that perhaps he had something to do with the terrorist attack. While absolutely no evidence could solidify this theory, it remains on the table until today. Others believe he was a severely ill individual, as he seemed like he had recently lost a large amount of weight. The front desk clerk had noticed that his belt was much longer than it should have been, assuming it used to fit him much better before he’d at least arrived to the inn.
Many other theories centered around young men who’d been reported missing many years prior, but none of them matched the description of Lyle in the slightest. Perhaps even more intriguing was his name, which most likely was an alias, resembling all too strikingly that of the tragic character, Lyle Stevick in the classic novel, You Must Remember This, by Joyce Carol Oates. In the book, the character took his life as well. This easily could have been a cryptic way of this unknown man wanting to end his life in the shadow of the character of the book. Either way, the case remains unsolved until today, the man’s legacy living on in complete mystery, leaving many indeed remembering him long after his life was cut all too short at his own hand.
The mystery behind each of these men captivated many throughout their almost non-existent lifetimes. But perhaps even more captivating was the fact that even with today’s modern technology, it is quite possible that there are those who can walk through life and leave no identity or past behind, as we saw with Lyle Stevik. And while Kaspar Hauser became a celebrity of his time, the sad thought lingers that he never fully knew who or where he came from before he was murdered. Or did he? Could each of these men, in one way or another, have conducted a social experiment of epic proportions? Hiding their true identities to see if the world could somehow crack the code? Perhaps the most important thing to take away from this all is that each of these men were laid to rest by strangers who barely knew them, and that even in death, humanity and respect for the deceased reigned supreme. And even if they seemed to have no past, a questionable present, their futures cut far too short, their stories remain, whether they truly wanted them to or not.
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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon”, published by Richard Dolan Press. He is the co-host of the critically acclaimed podcast, Into the Fray, available on iTunes & Stitcher. His other work can be found at somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
On December 5th, 1945, five US Navy bomber planes were making their way over the waters of the Atlantic during a training mission. Lieutenant Charles Taylor was in constant communication with the base, updating them on the progress of the mission. Without warning, the line went dead over the radio. The base tried to make contact to no avail. A rescue plane was dispatched to find the bombers, but failed to do so. In fact, the rescue plane, along with the bombers, were never seen nor heard from again.
This is one of many tales surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, an extremely enigmatic area of the Atlantic Ocean, that when viewed from above, creates the shape of a triangle. The first point begins at Miami, Florida. The second traces down to San Juan, Puerto Rico and the remaining point to complete the triangle is none other than the island of Bermuda. The triangle, however, isn’t officially recognized by the United States Board on Geographic Names, nor acknowledged on any maps. The term was coined by author, Vincent Gaddis, in an article he penned in 1964 for the pulp-magazine, Argosy. In the article titled, The Deadly Bermuda Triangle, Gaddis compiles many anomalous events that occurred in the boundaries of this area where many planes and ships in the water seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. Since then, the Bermuda Triangle has been the subject of countless books, television shows, and movies. Theories on what is actually occurring in these waters range from magnetic vortices, space-time warp, electronic fog, UFOs, ancient technology from the lost city of Atlantis, methane gas hydrates, and even more unusual; the souls of slaves.
While these theories all harbor serious debate and controversy, the mystery remains as to why this certain area seems so active with unexplainable disappearances. But what if it wasn’t this particular area that held the answers? What if the mystery actually lay in the shape these areas seem to create. Let’s take a look at several places throughout the world that also boast these three-pointed tales of mystery.
Lake Michigan Triangle
Stretching from Ludington, MI to Benton Harbor, MI, and then all the way to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, this triangular portion of Lake Michigan has inspired many anomalous events. Dating all the way back to 1891, a schooner by the name of Thomas Hume, and seven other men, were making their way across the lake to retrieve a shipment of lumber. As they crossed the waters, they came up against an unusually high wind storm. When locals didn’t hear from the men for a few days, a search and rescue team were sent out for the crew. They found nothing.
The second major incident occurred in 1921. Eleven members of the Benton Harbor House of David were making their way across the lake in the Rosa Belle ship. When they were reported missing some time later, a rescue team was sent out. They found the ship floating in the lake, overturned, yet no bodies were recovered. It appeared as though the ship had been badly damaged by a collision. Even if this were so, not a single shred of evidence turned up any other ship, nor any reports of an accident of any kind. There simply was no conventional explanation for the brutal damage to the ship, and missing bodies.
The legend behind this mysterious triangle began to spread, and more and more stories began to be told of tragic accidents and unexplained phenomena surrounding the waters. Some even claimed that the triangle was some sort of inter-dimensional portal where ships were hopping in and out of time. And while no clear explanation can solve the puzzle, it has become a cautionary tale to steer clear of the Lake Michigan Triangle at all costs.
The Burle Triangle
The Burle Triangle is comprised of Mount Pilat, Mount Mézenc, and the small town of Le Puy, in France. The area was named after the extremely high winds and snow storms in the area, and it holds the French record for unexplained aircraft accidents; surely a record nobody wants to hold. Supposedly, more than sixty people have died in miscellaneous plane crashes throughout the years.
One of the more peculiar aspects of many of these plane crashed were that of UFO sightings in the areas making up the triangle. One in particular occurred in 1943 when a fighter plane plummeted to the ground, leaving a sole survivor. This man went on to claim that he’d witnessed a multitude of small, multi-colored lights surrounding the aircraft before it made its tragic descent. Another similar event occurred in 1965 over Mount Mézenc, where two F-104 planes went down. Witnesses in the area claimed to have seen six spheres, pink in color, surrounding the impact site.
Whatever was happening over the skies of the Burle Triangle, it seemed that some sort of aerial phenomena didn’t want the planes there. Could this area somehow be a portal for UFOs to hop in and out of? Could something more mysterious even be hiding the mountains, making this planes lose control and spiral to a fiery end? Whatever was happening at the Burle Triangle remained a mystery, and continues it’s enigmatic lore even up until today.
The Dragon’s Triangle
Similar to the Bermuda Triangle, this area of water is located in the Philippine Sea off China’s eastern coast. It can be marked off on a map by connecting Japan, Taiwan, and Yap Island. The name, Dragon’s Triangle, comes from a Chinese myth from many centuries ago. According to the myth, dragons live deep beneath the surface and their movement can suddenly churn up waves, whirlpools, thick fog, and sudden storms. These myths became startlingly true between the years, 1952 and 1954, when a total of five Japanese military vessels were lost in the waters of the triangle, racking up over seven-hundred people missing.
These disappearances led the Japanese government to acknowledge the area as a danger zone and to send a team of scientists to study the triangle. Their vessel, the Kaiyo Maru No, also went missing, prompting the Japanese government to abort the study. While may unusual explanations could attribute to the disappearances, seismic events seem to be the main culprit. The Dragon’s Triangle is a very volcanically active area, and were said to be the fault for the disappearance of the vessel of scientists. But could the volcanic activity also have been responsible for the other disappearances?
Many other phenomena have been linked to the Dragon’s Triangle. They include USOs (unidentified submerged objects), time warps, and electromagnetic anomalies. One of the most extensive studies on the area was done by author, Charles Berlitz, who ambitiously connected the Dragon’s Triangle to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. No matter the case, the myth of the Dragon’s Triangle continues, with more answers laying somewhere in the depths of the sea.
The Bridgewater Triangle
Situated in southeastern Massachusetts, the town of Bridgewater sits smack dab in the center of an area whose points stretch from the neighboring towns of Abington, Freetown, and Rehoboth. Unlike the other triangles that encompass mountain ranges or bodies of water, this triangle mostly stretches across land, and is littered with countless claims of paranormal activity.
One particular area is known as the Hockomock Swamp. This is a five-thousand acre area that includes an eight-thousand year-old Native American burial ground. When archaeologists stumbled upon a site of tombs, they noticed that the red ochre around the graves began to bubble, and then mysteriously disappeared. This, and many other unexplainable activity has plagued the swamps for decades. The Wampanoag Tribe, of the Algonquian nation, avoid the area because of many supernatural occurrences, warning others to steer clear because it’s what they consider “the place where spirits dwell”. Another area of Hockomock Swamp is known as Anawan Rock, located along Route 44 in Rehoboth. It is named after named after Chief Anawan, and is the site where he and his tribe had surrendered to the colonists during the First Indian War. The angry spirits of Anawan’s men are said to haunt the area, dancing and starting fires. Many have reported hearing the sounds of the spirits echoing through the swamp, the flicker or fire being witnessed from the roads nearby.
Other areas of the Bridgewater Triangle have boasted high amounts of UFO activity throughout the years, including one in 1760 that could possibly be considered one of the first recorded UFO reports in history. A multi-witnessed event occurred in 1968 when five people claimed to have seen a strange all of light hovering through the trees of Rehoboth. Another major event occurred in 1994 when an law enforcement officer reported seeing a triangular craft with red and white lights ominously floating through the night sky. As the years passed, more UFO reports flooded in, continuing up until today.
Strange sightings of creatures have also been reported within the triangle. In 1970, there were various accounts of a seven foot tall hairy beast wandering through the area. Both Bridgewater and Massachusetts State Police conducted an extensive search for the creature, assuming it was a bear. The search turned up nothing. Similar reports also came in of a hairy creature slowly walking through Hockomock Swamp. But it was reports of an alleged creature in flight that caught the attention of many others. Since the early 70’s, many reports have come in about unusually large black birds, with wingspans stretching well past eight feet.
Perhaps one of the more terrifying aspects of the Bridgewater Triangle were reports of cattle mutilations in the forested areas. They were attributed to Satanic cult members, who were making animal sacrifices. But legend also has it that grisly murders of the human-kind have also taken place in the forest, attributing this to cult members as well.
While some of the activity in the Bridgewater Triangle has been documented, not all of it can be substantiated. But one thing is clear; whatever is going on within the confines of this area is beyond unusual, and many paranormal investigators continue to travel its supposed points of origin, trying to narrow in on one of the most active paranormal hotspots on the planet.
Shaping the Mysteries
While no singular answer can explain the plethora of mysteries in each and every one of these areas, it is interesting to note that they all seem to run the sharp three lined path of a triangle. One can speculate endlessly as to why this may be, but perhaps the symbology of the triangle itself could bring us a bit closer to an answer. Some occultists use the triangle as a summoning symbol. At the culmination of a ritual, the summoning of some sort of spirit or entity is expected to appear within a triangle inscribed upon the floor. The occultist often performs his ritual from the protection of a circle. Could this practice hold some meaning in terms of the Bridgewater Triangle, and the Native American spirits said to haunt the area? And what about the supposed cultist activity? Perhaps the form of the triangle itself has prompted the unusual frenzy of the bizarre and strangeness that occurs there.
According to western culture, the orientation of a triangle can have powerful meaning as well. The elements of earth and water form from triangles that point upward. Could this possibly have something to do with why these triangles seem to form over bodies of water? Even more interesting is that triangles that point downward symbolize the formation of air and fire. This could perhaps have something to do with the fiery plane crashes in the air that brought many pilot’s lives to a tragic end.
One could speculate endlessly as to why such mysterious and terrifying things have happened at each and every one of these locations. But one thing is for certain; we have, throughout many decades, shaped the narrative of these incidents around that of a triangle, almost fearing the word when tragedy strikes. It seems to be a classic “which came first, the chicken or egg?” scenario. In this case however, we are left wondering; what came first, the mystery or the triangle? We may never truly know. And perhaps the best action we can take is to steer, swim, fly, or walk as far away from these areas as we can, knowing that some mysteries are best left unanswered.
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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon”, published by Richard Dolan Press. He co-hosts both the Into the Fray and UFOmodPod podcasts, both available on iTunes & Stitcher. His other work can be found at: www.somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
These were the words of an usher concerning a fellow co-worker of hers. It was my first night working in this particular theater, and I’d heard many stories concerning strange noises, smells, sights, and feelings. But nothing quite like this. The usher would go on to tell me that every night, this usher would be the “closer”. She’d make sure the entire theater was empty of patrons and employees, she’d shut off all the lights, and she’d lock up all the doors. Upon leaving, she would always say goodnight to the original owner of the theater, Mr. David Belasco. Though one night would prove unusual as she completely forgot to do so. She locked the last remaining door and turned to leave. Suddenly, every single door of the front lobby forcefully swung open. The usher stared in disbelief as she knew full-well she’d locked them all. This was long before automatic doors, and not a single gust of wind was felt on that calm night. There simply was no apparent reasoning for the doors to have done what they did. Completely in shock, the usher reported what had happened to the police, and asked for a theater transfer the following morning, never to return.
Through my various jobs working on Broadway, I’d heard many stories of this particular theater being a haven for paranormal activity. The Belasco Theatre; a thousand-seat venue tucked snuggly on 44th Street in New York City, was originally built in 1906, under the direction of its owner, David Belasco. Belasco was a play and musical producer known for choosing unknown actors and elevating them to stardom. He also preferred playwrights whose success depended upon his collaboration. He soon gained a reputation in the theater community for productions that included lavish sets, special effects, and experimental lighting. But perhaps the most interesting thing about Mr. Belasco was that he even took up residence in the attic of the theater, converting it into a ten-room duplex penthouse where he could make work his home. Rumors spread that he’d even had floorboards carved out so that he could see into the theater when rehearsals and performances were going on. His reputation came to an unfortunate halt when he took his final bow of mortality on May 14th, 1931. But it seemed that both his work and presence in the building were far from facing its final curtain.
Immediately following his death, actors and crew members in the theater claimed to see a full-body apparition of Belasco. He would dawn his frequent outfit which included a clerical collar and cassock. These clothes caused many to nickname him the “Bishop of Broadway”. Actors onstage reported that they could often see a figure dressed as such, watching rehearsals from the balcony. Some actors even went so far as to claim that he would shake the hands of the males and would pinch the rear-ends of female performers. It was rumored, that in life, Belasco was very fond of beautiful actresses and may have even had peep-holes in his apartment that led directly into the female dressing rooms. This is, of course, only speculative, as the apartment has suffered much damage throughout time and a lot of the original floors have been renovated. But while this prolific (possibly “Peeping-Tom”) theater owner congratulated performers from the grave, he may have also shown his disapproval. After particularly bad performances, performers would often hear drawn-out moans echoing from the theater wings, and they’d even find their dressing rooms in disarray upon entering them after the show. It was also well known that Mr. Belasco loved smoking cigars, and even today, the staunch smell of cigar smoke sporadically wafts through the balcony seats and beyond.
The story of the usher and the swinging doors was very dramatic in fashion. And as I would soon learn, many of Mr. Belasco’s ghostly activity often came in the form of small pranks. This led me to a rather entertaining story from author, Adam Carpenter, who has written a detective series set in the Broadway community. Aside from his writing, Carpenter is also the head-ticket taker at the Belasco Theater, He would relate the following incident to me:
“The date was July 15th, 2015, and the front of the house staff had gathered to celebrate the 162nd birthday of Mr. Belasco. Having worked there on and off since 1991, I had seen no proof of ghost-like activity. Until that fateful day. Prior to the opening of the doors for ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’, I changed into my black suit, and I happened to be wearing a black shirt and tie as well. Deciding to play a trick on the staff, I waited until everyone was gathered in the house manager’s office—what would have been Belasco’s office back in the day. Before joining them, I took a white napkin and made it into a clerical collar, and attached it to my shirt. I then proceeded up the stairs, from the lobby to the office, where I then flicked the lights, and announced in a spooky voice that “I am the ghost of David Belasco…” I freaked out some staff, but most thought it was funny. Except Belasco. That night, when it came time to activate my scanners to scan tickets, they didn’t work. I had to tear tickets the old fashioned way, which is not the way to get 1,000 people through the door in 30 minutes. When I went to return the scanners to their chargers, I noticed a curious thing. The plug was not in the socket, a phenomenon which had never happened in all my years of working. Belasco, after all these years of ignoring me, had finally announced his presence. And he wasn’t happy.”
David Belasco, “The Bishop of Broadway”
Adam’s story led to several others who may have had a brush with Mr. Belasco’s playful nature. I would speak to Andrew Sanford, the manager at the interior bar at the Belasco theater. He recounted a rather creepy experience he had one night in his office. Here it is in his own words:
“One night I was alone, in the office, counting the money for the night. And the office is room temperature, tops. Suddenly, and I do mean suddenly, a wave of cold air came through the office. It lasted about fifteen seconds and was gone. But it wasn’t just a wave. The room changed and then went right back to room temp. What was weird, is that to my recollection, there are no vents in that office and my door was completely shut tight. There was no where for this cold snap to come from. Needless to say, I put my money in the safe and waited out the rest of the show in the coatroom. Didn’t go back in the office till the next day.”
This experience was intriguing because of its correlation to many who’ve experienced some sort of paranormal activity. In the realm of ghost investigations, this phenomenon is known as a “cold spot”, in which a supposed area of localized coldness or a sudden decrease in ambient temperature that can not readily be explained by other natural or mechanical causes. But as I would soon learn, this wasn’t the only story coming from the bar staff at the Belasco Theater. Vinnie Costa, a bartender, recalled an unusual incident that occurred the week of Mr. Belasco’s birthday:
“That night, there was an odd feeling permeating the theater. Something electric was certainly in the air. I was working the coat room (bartenders often doubled as coatroom attendants), so it was my job to stay until the end and return checked coats. During the actual performance, we’re allowed to leave during the actual performance, so I decided to grab a bite to eat. I unlocked the door, closed it, checked to make sure it remained unlocked, and left for about fifteen minutes. When I got back, the manager had left and the coat room door was locked. Assuming he’d accidentally locked it, forgetting I was coming back, I texted him and he said he never touched the door that night. I asked another bartender, and they too confirmed they hadn’t touched the door. This bartender proceeded to tell me that he thought I’d been locking his cabinets after he unlocked them that night. Not one, not twice, but three times! I later found out that even the House Manager of the theater suffered the same issue, having gotten locked out of her office twice that night! Now, every time I enter the Belasco Theater through the stage door, I greet the spirit of Mr. Belasco, respectively, and with reverence. I’ve yet to be locked out of anything there again.”
Every evening after a Broadway theater is closed and all the lights are shut off, a single light is left on the bare stage to prevent hazardous falls or injuries the next day. But this instrument, aptly named a “ghost light”, is also a tradition that is supposed to ward off any negative spirits haunting the theater. But in the case of Mr. Belasco, it would seem that the “ghost light” in his theater illuminates his presence more than warding it off. So next time you find yourself sipping a cocktail at the Belasco Theater, or sitting in the balcony to watch a play, remember to either say hello or goodbye to Mr. Belasco. And behave yourself. Who knows who may be watching you from the apartment above?
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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon”, published by Richard Dolan Press. He co-hosts both the Into the Fray and UFOmodPod podcasts, both available on iTunes & Stitcher. His other work can be found at: www.somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
He’d taken his first ride in a plane when he was four years old in his hometown of Pecos Valley, New Mexico. It was a happy accident by a barnstormer pilot who’d ran out of fuel. That emergency landing on the farm of Edgar Mitchell’s father led he and the four year old to drive the pilot to get fuel. In appreciation, the pilot gave them a ride in his small plane. But the impact on a young Mitchell was anything but small, and inspired him to eventually become a pilot himself at the age of sixteen.
In 1952, he’d graduated from Carnegie Tech. From there, he enlisted in the Navy, and soon found himself in the seat of a fighter plane during the Korean War. All the meanwhile, he’d been studying Aeronautics in Navy Post-Graduate School, eventually receiving his Doctorate in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. In 1966, Mitchell made the biggest decision of his life, and at the age of 36, began working at NASA, hoping one day to leave the Earth behind for higher altitudes.
His work at NASA was rigorous and time consuming, working tirelessly on the ground for the Apollo 9, Apollo 10, and Apollo 13 missions. His dedication clearly shined through, and he eventually worked his way up to a possible flight in space. After several years of intensive training, he was officially accepted into the Apollo 14 mission as a Lunar Module Pilot, heading for the moon. Along with his commander, Alan Shepard, and Command Module pilot, Stuart Ross, Mitchell prepared for take-off on January 31st, 1971.
Despite a few setbacks, Shepard and Mitchell stepped foot on the moon on February 5th. Mitchell helped collect 94 pounds of lunar rock and soil samples that were distributed across 187 scientific teams in the United States and 14 other countries for analysis. The mission also broke records, having succeeded in being the lengthiest distance traversed on the moon, the largest lunar payload returned from the moon, and also the longest stay on the moon, which lasted about 34 hours.
While these accomplishments were certainly reasons to be proud, they paled in comparison to the profound nature that the entire experience personally had on Mitchell. The nature of walking on the moon would obviously change any individual. But seeing the earth rise just over the horizon completely changed Mitchell’s outlook on humanity itself. He was once quoted as saying: “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’”
These new ways of thinking led him to search deeper within, testing the limits of how space exploration can truly alter the human condition. He would further study these implications through the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which he founded in 1973. The institute currently conducts research on such topics as meditation, consciousness, spirituality, psychic abilities, and even psychokinesis. The institute currently offers thousands of articles pertaining to the possible benefits meditation may have on both physical and mental health.
His search for deeper answers to what many consider fringe topics didn’t end there. Mitchell soon became an advocate for demanding world governments to disclose what they knew about UFOs and the existence of extraterrestrial intelligences visiting our planet. In at interview on Kerang Radio in 2008, Mitchell stated: … “it is a real phenomenon and there are a few of us who know. It’s been covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so. But slowly it’s leaked out and some of us are privileged to have been briefed on some of it… I’ve also been in military circles and intelligence circles that know below the surface of what has been public knowledge that, yes, we have been visited.”
His knowledge on the topic, and passion to search for answers on what really lay beyond our planet only grew, and he soon became a board member for the Foundation of Research into Extraterrestrial Encounters (F.R.E.E), which facilitates scientific investigations into UFO reports and possible contact with extraterrestrial intelligences. Mitchell’s recent death prompted the other members of the organization to directly name the foundation after him. Their work continues today, comprised of members in many different scientific, psychological, and legal fields.
The life of Edgar Mitchell was clearly what many would consider well-lived. His passion for exploration inspired so many to literally reach for the stars, the diversity of those training to become astronauts growing every day. His footprint on the moon spoke volumes for those back on Earth, and with his passing, he leaves a legacy far beyond any mission he could have completed in life. He stared the unknown in the face, and used those revelations to expand the knowledge of each and every person back on Earth in the most ambitious ways he believed he could.
Commenting on his Apollo 14 mission, Mitchell once said, “To me, that spaceflight was the culmination of my being, and what can I learn from this? What is it we are learning? That’s important, because I think what we’re trying to do is discover ourselves and our place in the cosmos, and we don’t know. We’re still looking for that.” As we continue to explore the vastness of space and the possibility of travelling to other planets, we remember Dr. Edgar Mitchell for the true hero he was. Perhaps the answers he sought lay somewhere in the skies of possibility. And as we stare outward, we can take comfort in knowing, that with his accomplishments and contributions to humanity, something will undoubtedly begin to stare back.
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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon”, published by Richard Dolan Press. He co-hosts the podcasts, Into the Fray and UFOmodPod, both available on iTunes. His other work can be found at: somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
Two of the most profound questions we find ourselves pondering when dealing with the UFO phenomenon. The often elusive nature of these mysterious objects, the almost mystical interactions with supposed extraterrestrials, and even the reports of abductions by non-human entities leave us wondering how in the world anything like this could ever be the work of humans. We then find ourselves searching the skies for many of the answers to these deeply complex inquires. But could the answers we seek actually be closer than we think? When we begin to move away from the magical and mystical, we see that maybe science, in all its methodical and unforgiving glory, could bring about proof that aliens do not only exist, but that we may be the aliens we seek.
A Feeling of Alienation
In his recent book, Humans are not from Earth: A Scientific Evaluation of the Evidence, noted ecologist, Dr. Ellis Silver, makes a rather controversial argument that human physiology could perhaps show signs that it isn’t suited properly for this blue planet we call home. Comparing us as human beings to that of most animals on the planet, Silver also says, in an interview with Yahoo! News, that “Lizards can sunbathe for as long as they like, and many of them do. We can just about get away with it for a week or two. But day after day in the sun? Forget it. You might as well just lie down on the freeway and wait for a bus to hit you.”
Going into greater detail, Silver also says that human beings have vastly more chronic illness than that of other mammals. “Indeed, if you can find a single person who is 100% fit and healthy and not suffering from some condition or disorder, I would be extremely surprised.” He also theorizes that because most adults seem to have bad backs or signs of onset scoliosis, this could be an indicator that humans may have evolved on a planet with much lower gravity.
Perhaps his most intriguing theory is that we innately feel almost prisoners to our own world. “There’s a prevailing feeling among many people that they don’t belong here or that something just isn’t right,” Silver continues. “One reason for this, is that the Earth might be a prison planet, since we seem to be a naturally violent species, and we’re here until we learn to behave ourselves.” This is a very interesting theory, and one I personally glean with a skeptical lens. Could there perhaps be a similar race of human-like beings, watching us from afar, shaking their heads at us as we kill, rape, and torture one another? Is this a penal colony of cosmic proportions? Maybe we should begin to entertain the possibility that we are being watched not by big brother in the form of three letter agencies here on Earth, but a perhaps by a galactic federation somewhere beyond the stars.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Ryan Sprague asks, Are We ET?” quote=”Ryan Sprague asks, ‘Are We ET?'”]So the real question is, does Silver have any proof to back up the sweeping claims above? “Recent scientific reports suggest that life itself might not be from Earth,” he explains. “…but might have arrived here on meteors or comets. This primitive form of life then evolved over billions of years into what we find on the earth today. My thesis proposes that mankind did not evolve from that particular strain of life, but evolved elsewhere and was transported to Earth (as fully evolved Homo sapiens) between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago.” Here we have one person’s opinion that we may in fact be alien to our own planet. But is there actual scientific evidence, as Silver suggests, that we stem from somewhere else? It’s actually much more possible than we may think.
Planting the Seeds
“Seeds everywhere.” This is the literal translation of the Greek word panspermia. It states that the seeds of life on Earth exist all over the universe and can be propagated through space. These seeds are mechanisms that include the deflection of interstellar dust by solar radiation pressure and extremophile micro-organisms traveling through space within asteroids, meteorites, and comets. There are several forms of panspermia such as Lithopanspermia (from one solar system to another) or Ballistic Panspermia (from one planet to another). This idea does not set out to explain evolution or the origin of life in the Universe, but it attempts solely to solve the mystery of the origins of life on Earth and the potential transfer of life throughout the Universe.
We see the first variations of this concept through the writings of the Greek philosopher, Anaxagoras, somewhere around 500 BC. Although it differs from what we consider panspermia today, it still remains relevant in terms of this ambitious way of thinking. Anaxagoras states that “All things have existed from the beginning. But originally they existed in infinitesimally small fragments of themselves, endless in number and inextricably combined. All things existed in this mass, but in a confused and indistinguishable form. There were the seeds (spermata) or miniatures of wheat and flesh and gold in the primitive mixture; but these parts, of like nature with their wholes, had to be eliminated from the complex mass before they could receive a definite name and character.”
The theory of panspermia was then touched on in the writings of French diplomat and natural historian, Benoit de Maillet. In 1743, de Maillet wrote that he believed life on Earth was seeded by germs in space that had descended to the oceans rather than ascending from abiogenesis (living cells emerging from chemical evolution on Earth.) Panspermia continued to theoretically evolve throughout the nineteenth century by many scientists such as Jons Jacob Berzelius and Hermann von Helmholtz. Then, in 1973, Nobel Prize winning molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist, Francis Crick (along with British chemist, Leslie Orgel), brought forth the even more ambitious theory of directed panspermia, which consists of possible deliberate transport of microorganisms in space to planets that have no life whatsoever. Perhaps most ambitious in their theories is that an extraterrestrial civilization may have been responsible for our seeding on Earth.
NASA Gets Involved
As the theories on panspermia continued to evolve throughout the scientific community, it soon became clear that the official space program had to weigh in on the topic. This is when NASA eventually got involved. Dr. Michael Callahan, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, once stated that: “People have been discovering components of DNA in meteorites since the 1960’s, but researchers were unsure whether they were really created in space or if instead they came from contamination by terrestrial life.”
But as time progressed, Callahan, along with other astronomers were able to deduce that the building blocks of life were most likely created in space. This discovery came on the tail end of evidence that suggests that the chemistry inside meteorites is capable of producing biological molecules. Therefore, it is also likely that the molecular structure of life on Earth could have been chemically created outside of the planet, and then were seeded when certain asteroids or meteorites crash landed on the planet itself.
Martian in the Mirror
So while many theorize that earth-based life could have potentially started in space, what about the possibility that it perhaps started on another planet? This is one theory brought to the table by chemist, Steven Benner, one of the leading experts on the origins of life. Benner postulates that because meteorites stemming from the planet Mars contain boron and molybdenum, these could be precursors to the formation of RNA, which is in essence, a molecule that takes on many biological roles, including expression, regulation, coding, and decoding of human genes.
Benner’s theories are strengthened by the work of Elizabeth Hausrath and Christopher Adcock, researchers from the University of Nevada. They discovered that Martian meteorites also contained phosphates, which is another vital chemical in the formation of RNA and DNA. They also discovered that proteins in these meteorites are vastly more water-soluble than proteins seen on Earth. They have deduced that since life supposedly began in the presence of water, Mars could have perhaps formed life much more efficiently than on Earth.
Conclusions
While the ambitious claims of Dr. Silver, Dr. Callahan, Elizabeth Hausrath, and Christopher Adcock are enticing, there simply isn’t irrefutable evidence to back up their claims to a point of certainty. But their theories remain in a hopeful state of evolution, resting on the shoulders of the many panspermia theorists before them. Only time will truly tell as we move forward in our exploration of both Mars and the many other planets within our reach.
The explosive budget increase in NASA missions to explore these planets could give us further insight into the possibility that we may have stemmed from somewhere other than this blue, rocky planet we call home. As we draw closer to manned missions to these potential planets, this could unlock many mysteries not only to the universe itself, but where we may lay in the cosmic agenda we call life. The potential to travel from planet to planet was once thought fantasy and science fiction. But as we’ve seen throughout the panspermia timetable, everything we once thought science fiction could slowly, but surely be turning to science fact.
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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon”, published by Richard Dolan Press. He co-hosts the podcasts, Into the Fray and UFOmodPod, both available on iTunes. His other work can be found at: somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
When I was twelve years old, my father brought me to my first magic show. I’d never really paid attention to the act of magic, save a few amateur shows at birthday parties growing up. Suffice to say, I was not entirely impressed. But as I entered the Landmark Theater in my hometown of Syracuse, NY that night, my impression of magic took on a whole new light. I watched as famed magician, David Copperfield, performed feats of the impossible that stunned and astounded. His final illusion of the night included not only levitation, but flying across the proscenium stage and out into the audience. While even a young version of myself was more than skeptical of this seemingly “no stings attached” illusion, it didn’t stop my mouth from gaping wide and my eyes remaining fixated on the flying man above me. And as he seamlessly seemed to soar hundreds and hundreds of feet above, I wondered what would happen, if by some horrible accident, he suddenly fell to the ground. Not only would it most likely be the end of his career, but perhaps even the end of his life. And as my fascination for magicians grew, their death-defying illusions continued to both excite and terrify me, even up until today. This eventually led me to finally face the horrifying aspect that sometimes these illusions didn’t go according to plan. And the illusionists below unfortunately didn’t live to tell the tale.
Karr vs. Car
Charles Rowen was a South African magician known for extremely dangerous stunts. Most notably were his escapes from straight jackets and diving in to piles of broken glass. But it was one single escape that would leave Rowen, better known as Karr the Mysterious, bracing for impact with the last escape of his life.
It was in 1930 when Rowen performed for a large crowd in Springfontein, Orange Free State, in South Africa. In front of stunned spectators, including many young children, Rowen explained to the audience that a car would be traveling towards him from about two hundred yards away at forty miles per hour. Rowen, strapped tightly into a straight jacket, then explained that he would escape from the jacket in time to dodge the oncoming car. Given the distance and speed of the car, he would have as little as fifteen seconds to complete the escape.
The audience looked on as Rowen desperately tried to escape the jacket. The car picked up speed, barreling towards him. And it soon became clear that Rowen was too slow to get the jacket off. He wasn’t able to dodge the car, and it hit him at full impact, completely severing his leg. The head-on collision led to his death. But before he seemingly met his maker, Rowen made it clear that this was his own wrongdoing, and completely exonerated the driver of the car from any responsibility. Karr the Mysterious was now gone. But his legacy, for those who witnessed his demise that day, lived on in grisly detail.
Buried Alive, Exhumed Dead
“I consider myself a master of illusion and escape artist. I believe I’m the next Houdini and greater.” These were the words of Joseph Burrus, or better known by his stage name, Amazing Joe. And as he pronounced these ambitious words to the crowd that night, Burrus had no idea how eerily right he actually was. But it was the last comparison to Houdini that he could possibly have wanted.
It was Halloween night of 1992 in Fresno, California. Burrus was performing at a local amusement park where hundreds of witnesses, including news cameras, watched as he explained his grandiose escape. He was to be buried in a plastic and glass coffin about seven feet down, and then several tons of cement and dirt were to be poured on top of him. Handcuffed, he would have to escape both his restraints, the coffin, and then make way to the surface. Many believed this feet to be impossible. One reporter even mentioned that the cement on the bottom would dry fast, leaving no way for him to break through. With no illusion to be had, Burrus legitimately believed he could survive this great escape unscathed. But logic, physics, and carelessness got the best of him.
After the dirt and cement were poured on, a loud crack and the shattering echoes of glass were heard. It was soon clear that the coffin had caved in, literally burying Burrus alive. By the time rescuers could dig up the dirt and cement, it was already too late. The weight of the cement and dirt had crushed him, leaving no chance of revival. It was on that fateful Halloween night that Burrus had perished, dying on the same night as Harry Houdini almost seventy years prior.
Six Feet Under(water)
It was on July 7th, 1984. Jeff Rayburn Hooper was practicing an escape stunt outside Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the deep waters of Lake Winona. The stunt involved Hooper being handcuffed and submerged into the water. He would then have to escape the restraints and swim to safety. The stunt was to be officially performed at the Winona Lake Bible Conference later that day. But Hooper wanted to attempt a rehearsal by himself to get it right. Unfortunately, the rehearsal would prove deadly, and Hooper would’t make it to the actual performance.
Anxious earlier in the day to get the escape right, Hooper handcuffed himself, jumped into the water, and swam about a hundred yards out, soon sinking to the bottom. Completely submerged, he struggled to get his wrists free of the restraints. Soon, he was able to successfully do so and swim to the surface. He began to yell to his assistant back on land, but the harsh winds muffled his shouts for help. The wind also made it impossible for Hooper to swim to shore. Rescuers weren’t able to make it to Hooper in time, and he drowned about six feet underwater, proving yet again, that sometimes, practice doesn’t always make perfect.
One More Bullet for the Road
The “Bullet Catch” has always been a favorite amongst magicians and audiences alike. The danger and split second anticipation of a human being stopping a bullet after being fired comes with great risk, no matter how prepared the shooter and receiver may be. And for one magician, that risk backfired in the most tragic of ways.
William Elmsworth Robinson, a Brooklyn-based magician, had assumed the identity of an ancient Chinese illusionist, never speaking English during his performances. Known as Chung Ling Soo, he’d cover his face in yellow paint and would speak completely in false Mandarin. He’d have an interpreter “translate” everything to is adoring fans, never once speaking English in front of a crowd. At the peak of his career, being one the most famous magicians in the world at the time, Robinson would perform one of his most enticing illusions on March 23rd, 1918. At Woodgreen Empire, in London, England, he began his version of the bullet catch, in which a blank shot would be fired, and he would “catch the bullet.” However, the gun, having not been properly cleaned from the last performance of the illusion, caused a build-up of gunpowder in the chamber, and the spark of the blank actually ignited the live bullet, and the bullet was actually fired. It hit Robinson straight in the chest, piercing his lung.
In the heat of the moment, and knowing something had gone wrong, Robinson broke character for the very first time, yelling to his assistant, “Oh my God, bring down the curtain. Something has happened.” Robinson was rushed to the hospital, but was unable to be saved. He died early the next day. Many believe that Robinson had this coming, as many who knew he was American found his racist act deplorable. Others believe he was lazy and cheap by leaving one live bullet in the chamber of the gun because he never wanted to replace it with a new one. Either way, Robinson had caught the bullet indeed, but it cost him his life.
A Hard Trick to Swallow
If anyone should know not to stick things in their mouth that isn’t food, it should be a practitioner of dentistry. But this clearly wasn’t the case for Dr. Vivian Hensley, an oral surgeon out of Brisbane, Australia. Little did he know that as he tried to impress his young son one evening, he would be leaving that very son fatherless in doing so.
It was July 6th, 1938. Hensley, an amateur magician, wanted to perform a rather disturbing slight-of-hand trick for his young son. He called it, “Swallowing the Rusty Razor Blade”. The plan was to slyly slip the razor blade into the sleeve of his coat while miming that it went into his mouth. But perhaps moving too quickly, Hensley actually dropped it into his mouth and indeed swallowed the razor blade.
Hensley’s wife, terrified, forced Hensley to swallow cotton balls as they rushed to the hospital. One can only assume she was hoping the cotton would cover the blade, protecting him from any internal lacerations. Despite her quick-thinking, many x-rays, and two surgeries, the doctors were unable to locate the razor blade. And four days later, Hensley died of internal injuries. While scarred from the inside, it was clear that Hensley’s family would also be scarred in the most emotional of ways.
Conclusions
It has been said by many escape artists, magicians, and illusionists throughout time that to “die” on stage is the fullest expression of failure; but to “kill” during a performance is the highest achievement. As we have seen through the lens of these tragic figures, sometimes the ends don’t always justify the means, and when it comes to the art of magic, the figurative death becomes startlingly literal. And although we may be filled with wonder and awe as a spectator, the fear of death also lingers dark in the corner of our minds. And with the cautionary tales above, I’m sure it lingers just as bleak for the magician on stage as well.
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Ryan Sprague is a professional playwright & screenwriter in New York City. He is also an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon”, published by Richard Dolan Press. He co-hosts the podcasts, Into the Fray and UFOmodPod, both available on iTunes. His other work can be found at: www.somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
It is truly the stuff of nightmares when you are nestled in your warm bed with the covers drawn snuggly over your body and the room filled with a comfortable heat pumping from the furnace. But imagine, even worse, the thought that while trapped in this nightmare scenario, your eventual death would never truly be solved. Your legacy would be frozen in a block of both tragedy and complete mystery. A mystery that was all to real for a group of Russian mountaineers who hiked the Ural mountains in 1959, prompting one of the most gruesome and tragic discoveries in the last half century.
Igor Dyatlov
It was January 25th when twenty-three year old Igor Dyatlov assembled the crew that consisted of three engineers and seven students. The students, highly athletic skiers from the Ural Polytechnic Institute, set off on a training expedition, preparing themselves for an even more ambitious trip to the Arctic regions in the coming months. As days passed, the group made modest headway. But it soon became clear that they’d deviated west in the wrong direction for quite some time due to worsening weather conditions and decreasing visibility. It was on February 1st that one of the team members, Yuri Yudin, decided to stay behind in the nearby settlement of Vizhai, due to illness. Little did Yudin know, this decision would ultimately spare his life.
The rest of the team set up camp on a nearby mountain called Kholat Syakhl, or better known to the indigenous Mansi tribe; Mountain of the Dead. The decision to set up camp here has remained questionable for some time now, many questioning why they hadn’t hiked about a mile more to a slightly warmer and less dangerous open space at the face of the mountain. In 2008, in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times, Yudin himself would defend the decision by Dyatlov and the team, postulating that he “probably did not want to lose the distance they had covered, or he decided to practice camping on the mountain slope.”
Yuri Yudin
Either way, the decision to set up in the forested area would prove disastrous as the days trickled by and no one, including Yudin, had heard anything from the team. As more and more time passed, the families of the members became progressively concerned. A few days off course was typical for such expeditions, but when more than a week slipped by with not a single telegram or distress call, family members demanded a search and rescue operation by the Ural Polytechnic Institute be put into action. When they failed to produce any results on the ground, local military helicopters were sent out to search for the team. It wasn’t until February 26th that the first helicopter pilot would spot something on the ground near the campsite in the forest.
What the first set of investigators found was puzzling. The campsite boasted a large tent that the entire team presumably shared, that appeared to have been cut apart from within. One of the members of the Polytechnic Institute, Mikhail Sharavin, accompanied the investigators. He would later explain what he first witnessed when they approached the campsite. “We discovered that the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group’s belongings and shoes had been left behind.” This observation continued with investigators noting at least eight sets of footprints leading from the tent, all the way to the treeline. Two other pairs of footprints, completely barefoot, were followed to a large pine tree some 1,500 feet away from the tent. Under the tree, Sharavin saw the remains of a fire. But what he saw next sealed the fate of at least two of the members. There, in the snow, were the bodies of Georgyi Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko, both naked save their underwear. Investigators would also note later on that the pine tree had fragments of both men’s skin about fifteen feet or so up in the branches and bark, postulating that they’d tried to climb the tree to no avail. What exactly were they attempting to escape from? With no trace of animal prints anywhere, their lack of clothes, and the fact that they’d had time to start a fire under the tree made the investigators even more puzzled. These were only the beginning of never-ending questions as the investigators uncovered more and more gruesome evidence of the remaining team members.
About 1,000 feet from this scene lay another gruesome sight. In the wintry terrain lay the body of Dyatlov himself. One hand clung firmly to a nearby tree, while the other hand, frozen with ice and rigor mortis, was wrapped around his head in a protective manner. Could he have been trying to stop whatever it was that Krivonischenko and Doroshenko were possibly trying to take refuge from? Not far from Dyatlov was the body of Rustem Slobodin, face down, with a large gash in the side of his head. Furthest from the others was the body of Zinaida Kolmogoro. Traces of blood were found around her body, yet no signs of struggle were apparent. The five deaths were all eventually attributed to hypothermia, but it wouldn’t be until two months later, when the terrain thawed out, that the remaining members would be found.
The Ravine
It was now May 4th. About 250 feet away from the camp site, in a half frozen ravine, the bodies of Alexander Zolotaryov, Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel, Alexander Kolevatov, and Ludmila Dubinina were discovered. All four had suffered severe internal injuries, though no outward trauma, bruises, or even tissue damage seemed to be apparent. Local doctors were quoted as saying that the internal damage was “equal to the effect of a car crash.” Perhaps the most disturbing was that of Dubinina, who was found with her head tilted severely back and her mouth gaping wide, her tongue ripped completely out and missing. Things only spiraled further into obscurity. All four seemed to have swapped various items of clothing with one another, including items from the two men found mostly naked under the tree where the fire had been set up.
As if things weren’t strange enough, further investigation would conclude that most of the deceased were found with heavy amounts of trace radiation on their clothes. Several family members, at the funerals of the deceased, would eventually claim that the bodies of the dead bore a rather odd orange color. The hair of the dead has also lost its pigmentation, turning a dull grey. Too many questions circled the mountain in the aftermath of the almost unimaginable discovery of the dead. It was quite clear that something truly tragic had occurred to the team, and as the families began to grieve, the investigators tried desperately to string a timeline together in terms of just what may have happened on the mountain that fateful day. Some hope of doing so came in the form of several rolls of film and diaries that were found in the damaged tent.
The Ill-Fated Mountaineers
The photos developed from the rolls of film revealed that the expedition members had indeed set up their campsite on February 2nd, at approximately 5:00 pm. The first photo showed the members looking very happy and healthy. Taking into consideration the digestion of food in several team member’s bodies, investigators were able to conclude that they’d eaten a meal sometime around 7pm that night and most likely went to sleep some hours later. Because of this apparent meal, forensic pathologists were able to estimate that whatever had led to their deaths happened between 9pm and midnight leading into February 3rd, based on the undigested food found in their stomachs.
Because of the knowledge that the experienced team possessed, whatever happened that night must have sent them into a complete frenzy, fearing their lives were in great danger. While they all fled in several directions, it was also presumed that they all met under the tree where Krivonischenko and Doroshenko had been found. Perhaps they’d all started the fire together, and the two attempted to climb the tree to look for help, eventually failing. This would lead the others to eventually seek other paths for possible rescue from whatever seemed to be the catalyst of the tragic events. With Dyatlov missing at this point, the others had possibly began a trek back towards the tent. This is when they fell into the ravine and were unable to get out
The events of February 2nd would lead officials to close off this pass from any other outdoorsmen, fearing that whatever occurred that night could possibly happen again. It remained closed for almost three years afterwards. The case was suspiciously closed by investigators, and any documents pertaining to the events were shipped off to a Soviet agency that has yet to be uncovered. To this day, no declassified files have ever been released on what happened on the mountain. But that didn’t stop civilians from coming up with their own theories as to what may have sent the team into a panic and caused their untimely deaths.
One theory was that while wandering this certain area the day prior, the skiers had unintentionally run into the indigenous Mansi tribesmen, who in their Siberian native ways, didn’t react too kindly to visitors trespassing on their territory. They took matter into their own hands and attacked the skiers, a brutal game of hunter and prey occurring. But investigators were quick to dispel these rumors, stating that no trauma from humans caused the deaths of the skiers and their leader. This would lead to theories that, if not human, something other-worldly could have had a rather alien hand in the fate of the team.
Lev Ivanov, the lead Soviet investigator on the case, interviewed a group of nearby hikers who were in the area when the incident supposedly occurred. A respectable thirty-two miles away, the hikers reported a cluster of “strange orange spheres” in the sky that night. This was also reported by other witnesses in the area for the next few months after the event. Ivanov, in his later years, admitted that he himself believed that the orange spheres in the sky may have been the cause of the Dyatlov team’s demise, or at least had something to do with it, speculating that one of the skiers may have witnessed the UFOs, panicked, and sent the others into a similar frenzy. Many also theorize that a possibly UFO could have caused the orange color to the skin found on the bodies, the grey hair, and even the trace radiation found on their clothes. And while the alien theory seems to be the most unlikely, some look a bit more in the cryptid realm for a possible answer.
While many areas boast their own version of a hominid-like creature, Siberia reigns as one of the most popular with its own Siberian Yeti knows as an “Alma”. Perhaps the creature had infiltrated their tent and sent them running for their lives. This theory hold very little weight, however, as no clear footprints, other than those of the deceased, had been found anywhere near the scene of the deaths. But one interesting piece of evidence couldn’t keep this theory completely out of possibility. Supposedly, a piece of paper near the campsite was found that simply read: “From now on we know there are snowmen.”
Dyatlov Pass Memorial
Other various theories have been brought forth, involving top secret government projects being tested in the area, and even the possibility that the skiers had mistaken harsh winds and unattributed noises to an avalanche. This would presumably prompt them to frantically escape the tent and seek refuge. However, one would suspect that, once again, these knowledgable skiers and their leader would have been fully aware, as they looked behind them, that no avalanche activity was in sight. As for the government experiments? This can’t be completely ruled out, as many investigators have alluded that teams were sent in to investigate long before the camp was said to have originally been discovered with the grisly scenes of death. An extra pair of skies, and even fabrics from a military-like uniform had been found near the campsite. But just like the other theories before these, none of this can irrefutably be proven, once again leaving us to spin our imaginations into overdrive in terms of a possible answer to this tragedy.
Perhaps the word: tragedy, should be the focus of this entire event, more than the mystery that lay behind it. Besides the memories of friends and family, a rusted plaque and memorial stone remain the only physical remembrance of those who lost their lives that day. It is truly a horrific set of events that caused the deaths of those on the Dyatlov Pass. Perhaps it could best summed up by the late Yuri Yudin, the only member who dodged the terrible fate that night. In the same 2008 interview he took part in about the incident, he stated: “If I had a chance to ask God just one question, it would be, ‘What really happened to my friends that night?’”
Photo Credit: The Dyatlov Foundation
– – –
Ryan Sprague is an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, “Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon”, published by Richard Dolan Press. He is also the co-host of the podcasts, Into the Fray and UFOmodPod, both available on iTunes. His other work can be found at: www.somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
It’s that time of the year again. The time when we drool over pumpkin spiced lattes, wiggle our way into the ‘ol autumn sweaters, and glue our eyes to our televisions to watch countless horror movies under a full moon. But for those of us who find ourselves researching the paranormal, this is just another typical day for our curious minds. And while my previous article for The Hidden Auditorium focussed on the possible crypto cousins of the grays, I thought this time it would be interesting to cover another topic that involves black eyed beings of the human persuasion… or so it would seem.
Imagine sitting in your living room one night, reading a book. You begin to doze off, the strain of the day slowly fading away as your eyes close. Suddenly, a harsh knock on the front door springs you to full attention. It’s so late, you think to yourself. Who could it possibly be? You make way to the door and peer out the peephole. There’s a dark silhouette of a small figure in your distorted view. You open the door, assuming this is a child. You are right. But what you notice next makes this anything but a normal encounter with an adolescent.
Staring back at you are two eyes. But they aren’t the average iris, pupil, or sclera you are used to seeing. They are pure black, from lid to lid. Nothing but the moon bounces light off of these deep pools of nothingness. You shudder, trying to take in this unusual sight before you. That’s when you realize, that standing behind this child are two more figures. They slowly move forward, their eyes identical to the leader. They wear simple clothes. Perhaps a solid black hooded sweatshirt. It falls baggy over their unusually pale skin. The leader finally speaks.
“Can we come in?”
You stare at them dumbfounded. Why would you let a child into your home this late at night? Where are their parents? They unintentionally (perhaps) answer your queries with blunt assertion.
“We’re lost. We don’t have anywhere to go. Please let us come in.”
You are sweating. You tremble. Adrenaline courses through your veins as you take stock of the situation. They continue staring at you with their soulless eyes. The debate wages in your head of whether or not to slam the door on them, or let them inside. They’re just kids, you assure yourself. Aren’t they? As the debate wages on, you can feel your heart pounding harder than ever before. Something about this situation is not only unusual. It’s downright terrifying.
“Please. Let us in.”
Artwork by Sam Shearon
No matter what you do next, it feels like it is the wrong answer. You are left in your doorway, having just encountered what has been coined as an experience with The Black Eyed Children. This phenomenon spans continents. And with each passing encounter, these strange children seem to become more and more aggressive. But what exactly is it that they want? And what happens if you let them in?
While once thought to stem from online urban legend, the BEK’s (Black Eyed Kids) became a dark and disturbing sensation, stories cropping up all over the world recounting terrifying tales of the children and their devious pleads for car rides or invites into homes. It was now harder than ever to separate fact from fiction, the BEK’s soon falling into the same skeptical box as Slenderman and other legends thought to be created online. And it all seemed to have begun with a singular encounter that sparked a phenomenon.
Encounter at the Movie Theater
Brian Bethel was a journalist out of Abilene, Texas. It was believed that the BEK phenomenon had stemmed from a story Bethel recounted to colleagues in a personal email almost two years after the incident had occurred. It was 1996 when he was on his way to pay an internet bill at a local provider’s offices. He pulled over near a movie theater, using the marquee’s light to write a check. It was in this moment when a knock frightened him, a pair of pale knuckles tapping his driver’s side window. Bethel looked up to see two young boys with hooded sweatshirts covering their faces. An immense rush of fear suddenly rushed over him. The fear, as Bethel remembered, was incomprehensible at the time. The boy who seemed to be the leader of the two had curly hair and an olive complexion. The other boy stood in the back ground, red hair a freckles. Their appearance, though average at first glance, soon sent even more fear through his bones. The boy’s both had eyes that lacked any substance. They were just large swathes of pitch black. No life to them whatsoever.
Frozen in his car, Bethel listened as the leader asked if they could have a ride to their mother’s house. They wanted to get money to see a movie at the nearby theater. “ It won’t take long,” the boy assured Bethel. “We’re just kids,” the boy would continue. Though these words were perhaps meant to ease Bethel’s obvious terror, it only made him panic even more. He rolled the window up and put the car in reverse, ready to drive off. The boy yelled to him through the window of the car. “We can’t come in unless you tell us it’s okay. Let us in!” He drove away, quickly glancing one more time for the boys. But he saw nothing. Within seconds, they had completely disappeared out of sight.
I caught up with Bethel recently, hoping that he could shed some more light on his terrifying incident that night, and just exactly what he thought of his story sparking countless tales of the black eyed children. My first inquiry was if the incident had instilled any type of paranoia or follow-up events of high strangeness, as had often been reported in other cases of BEKs. He would tell me: “My sleep was greatly disturbed. I didn’t want to sleep at all, actually. I felt unsafe doing so. I kept having this fantasy of them appearing at the foot of my bed, or waiting outside my door for me when I went outside. It was a rough few weeks, I’ll say, and the effects linger to this day. The use of black eyes to symbolize evil has become a common trope in horror films and other media, and I will tell you that every time I see such an image, especially if I’m not expecting it, I flash back briefly to those terrible, agonizing moments in my car. I legitimately did not know if I was going to die or not. I have never been so terrified.”
So as for Bethel’s leaked email becoming a template for similar stories, both fabricated and real, I wanted to see what his thoughts were on this controversy and just exactly how he felt about possibly creating an accidental urban legend. “It’s easy now to write something quasi-convincing based on the model of kids knocking on a car window, asking to come in, door opener detects something is wrong, terrible revelation, rinse and repeat. I judge each story shared with me on its own merits, but I apply greater skepticism to anything that adheres too slavishly to the basic formula. I look and listen for little variations and details that add more verisimilitude. If it’s just a carbon copy of what I’ve heard or seen, I tend to dismiss it or at least give it less credence. That said, I have heard many, many stories that I’m convinced are true.”
So if true, what exactly are these children? Whether it be aliens disguised as children, hoping to abduct innocent humans, or if they are some sort of soul-sucking demons trying to take over a vulnerable host, the possibilities remain endless. I found Bethel’s answer to this very question most intriguing. “I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that they are predators, and we are the food. I don’t think they eat us in any literal sense, but they do want something from us. Maybe they do just want to kill, but I tend think the design is far more complex than that. Until you’ve been on the receiving end of those terrible, dark eyes, filled with hate and torn from the very depths of night and time, I’m not sure you can understand. The people I’ve spoken with who have truly seen them understand completely.”
In trying to better understand these accounts, assuming there are genuine encounters with these children, my research would soon lead me to perhaps one of the most comprehensive studies on the “BEK” phenomenon to this day. Author, David Weatherly, compiled an extensive list of experiences with these enigmatic youngsters that he aptly titled in a full length book, Black Eyed Children. I spoke to Weatherly about these accounts and his approach to disseminating actual testimony from urban legend. “One of my goals when I wrote the book was to find out if the encounters pre-dated the internet and television,” Weatherly explained. “The trick was, while researching, to eliminate the catch phrases: ‘BEK’ and ‘black eyed children.’ Those terms are very modern. But I was able to find cases that certainly go back through history.”
The Black Eyed Beings of Aisne
One of the more stunning accounts Weatherly came across dated all the way back to 1974 in the Picardi region of Aisne, France. According to an early witness report from the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (N.I.C.A.P), two men known only as Alain and Patrick were making a leisurely drive through a small village, enjoying the autumn weather. It was around 3pm when they decided to turn around and take a different route. Upon turning, Patrick noticed something near the last house in the village that made him hit the breaks. There, in the courtyard of the house, were five small figures. Three of them stood in the background, huddled together. Another was tracing its hands along the home. The last figure stood facing Patrick and Alain. Alain rolled down his passenger side window to get a better look. “He reports that his blood ran cold when faced with the being,” Weatherly would tell me. “The appearance of the five characters was as strange as their behavior. They were all just over four feet tall. They were dressed alike with long garments that almost reached the ground. These garments were decorated with multicolored spots. The beings themselves had earthy yellow skin and long hair that fell down their backs and to their waist. Their noses were compressed inwards, and their eyes were described as enormous, solid black hemispheres, the size of billiard balls.”
Witness drawing. Released by N.I.C.A.P
Soon, the being closest the car began to wave to Patrick and Alain, gesturing to come closer. The motion of the being scared Alain so much that he screamed in terror for Patrick to drive away. Patrick hit the gas pedal and they sped out of the area to a nearby town. They told several locals of what they had witnessed. They returned hours later to find no sign of the small beings anywhere. “Eight months later, an investigator finally made it to the scene and spoke with nearby residents,” Weatherly recounted. “Interestingly, he found a neighbor who had noticed the beings on the road in front of the home. He reported that he thought the beings he saw were ‘children dressed in yellow oilcloth’.”
While this pre-internet account of black eyed beings was intriguing, it didn’t fit the mold of the stories that littered online forums and fringe websites. What about the children who begged to be let inside a home? Weatherly would come across a case slingshotting us back to the 1950s when a young man named Harold would have a startling encounter with a boy with black eyes.
The Screaming Boy at the Fence
Harold was sixteen years old when it happened. He was making the long walk home from a friend’s house. As he made way down the dirt road leading to the entrance, he noticed a small figure leaning against the fence in front of the house. As he approached, he noticed that it was a boy. Being a small town, everyone knew everyone. Harold was puzzled, having never seen this child before. He immediately started talking to the boy, but received no response. He asked if the boy was alright, and after a moment, the boy finally replied. “I wanna go to your house. Take me to your house.”
A chill rushed through Harold. He didn’t know how to respond. It was in that moment that the boy looked up at him, a pair of solid black eyes staring at Harold with a desperate assertiveness. Harold felt glued to the ground, terrified. He looked up the road, planning to run when the boy immediately shot back. “Now don’t you run away from me. You’re gonna walk me to your house.” Harold was now feeling threatened. He made a run for it, sprinting up the road. Too scared to look back, all he heard was a screeching wail, like that of a bobcat. Was it the child? Was this a wail of anger for not listening to his threatening words? He wasn’t about to stick around to find out.
The front door to the home flung open as Harold barreled through the entrance. Startled, his parents asked him what was wrong. Struggling to speak, he finally explained what he had seen to his protective father. Soon, the father grabbed a shotgun and headed down the road, desperately searching for this boy. There was absolutely no sign of him anywhere. The family was left wondering just exactly what it was that Harold had experienced that night. His mother, fearing that it had literally been the devil in disguise, brought Harold to a local clergy and had him blessed. And with that, the encounter with the screaming boy at the fence came and went with more questions than answers.
Conclusions
In the cases of Brian Bethel, Patrick and Alain, and that of Harold, each encounter with these beings brought one singular sensation of pure terror. While strange in scope, these small children, unthreatening in size, more than made up for it with their sinister eyes and unexplainable persuasiveness. In Weatherly’s examinations into countless cases involving these black eyed beings, he was able to find many connections. It was almost as if, feeding off the fear of their victims, these beings were able to read the emotions and minds of those they approached. In turn, they seemed to either try to calm them down, or take the extreme route of threatening them. Either way, their goal of getting closer to the witness, whether in proximity or by literally entering a home or vehicle was clear and threateningly concise. They wanted in. They wanted in to a home. Or perhaps even more terrifying, they wanted in to the soul of those they came into contact with.
There is no arguing that many accounts of these black eyed children are completely fabricated, a digital game of telephone tricking through each online forum, website, and message board. But the research done by David Weatherly proves that black eyed beings can be traced back to even that of ancient China, where accounts of a ghostly black eyed girl were often reported. Angered by her wrongful death, she would haunt local villages, terrorizing vulnerable passersby, also being a supernatural cause for many natural disasters in the area. Other examples of folklore in Asian culture were also brought to the attention of Weatherly and his research. One can look at Japanese horror films that were directly inspired by ancient tales of demons and evil spirits, showing us modern day versions of these apparitions and beings in the form of children with identical black eyes. Weatherly states: “There’s a lot to indicate that these kids may be omens of ill fortune, or, perhaps warnings of coming difficulties. Those who have reported intense and fearful encounters often say that prayer and spiritual protection are what they believed saved them from worse consequences. The tradition doesn’t seem to matter since reports have come from every religion and every walk of life imaginable.”
Weatherly would also tell me of one of the first accounts of a black eyed being. This time, it was in the form of a statue. “I’m very intrigued by the Urfa man found at Gobekli Tepe, a strange humanoid figure carved 13,500 years ago. Whoever made this statue took the time to carve solid black eyes out of obsidian. Countless people who have stood in front of this statue report a creepy, unsettling feeling they get from being in its presence. I think this builds on the evidence that these black eyed beings have been visiting the planet for a long time.” Could this lend more credence that perhaps we are in fact dealing with an alien presence rather than ancient evil or ghostly apparitions? Perhaps it’s a mixture of both. Perhaps it’s neither.
No matter the case, while these beings seem pure in their dark intensions, Brian Bethel would calm my own nerves with these words of warning: “They are dangerous entities, to be sure, but we have something they don’t. Something they desperately want. I believe it is the light within us, the human soul, that they crave. Whether they wish to corrupt it or consume it, I don’t know. But it is that very thing they desire that gives us the edge over them. It is something they apparently can’t just take. Permission has to be given, and in that is our strength. It’s good advice in general, but beware who you allow into your life and don’t open doors for just anyone. Be discerning. Be aware. And most important, be safe.”
[clickToTweet tweet=”Your life as you know it is now in the cold, pale hands of the black eyed children.” quote=”Your life as you know it is now in the cold, pale hands of the black eyed children.”]
We now return to the hypothetical situation we found ourselves in the beginning of this article. A child stares up at you, no emotion whatsoever. Their lifeless eyes pierce so sharply into you that you are left paralyzed. You try to speak, but can’t. The children inch forward, their persistent presence altering the entire world around you. With no knowledge of the phenomenon before hand, you have no conscious warning signs that you may have just sealed your own fate by a simple break of the paralyzation. You open the door a bit wider, stepping to the side. You let the children in. What happens next can only be speculated. But whatever it is, as you close the door behind you, you know that this isn’t right. But for some incomprehensible reason, you are left with a dismal sense that you had no choice in the matter. Your life as you know it is now in the cold, pale hands of the black eyed children.
—
Ryan Sprague is an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon, published by Richard Dolan Press. He is also the co-host of Into the Fray Radio with Shannon LeGro and a frequent contributor to the geek website: RoguePlanet.tv. His work can be seen at: somewhereintheskies.com
Ryan Sprague
While most of us have swiftly moved past the question of whether or not UFOs exist, the troublesome relative of this phenomenon has arguably been that of the existence of said UFOs occupants. According to former Canadian defense minister, Paul Hellyer, in a 2014 interview with RT News, there are over eighty different species of aliens plaguing our planet. While there is no irrefutable evidence proving this ambitious claim, one type of alien species seems to hold the reins as the most frequently reported: the grays.
These spindly entities often include extremely slender bodies, disproportionately large heads, and deep, black eyes. They have been reported in many alien abduction cases, having almost robotic like tendencies, lacking any empathy for the abductee before them. While these beings have been both praised as peaceful visitors and revered as intrusive pests, they remain an iconic figure in the human eyes and minds of those familiar with UFO and abduction literature.
Illustration by Dominika Lizoňová
But what many may not be aware of is that both small and tall gray beings have also been reported in the world of cryptids, monsters, and mythical beasts, enigmatically breaking the myth that we may be dealing strictly with extraterrestrials. I began a search for stories of gray creatures that seemed to bare striking resemblances to the grays, yet held their own lore in the most mysterious of ways.
The Dover Demon
Original sketch by Bill Bartlett
It was in April of 1977 when the small town of Dover, Massachusetts suffered a string of strange sightings involving a small creature roaming the streets. First reported by a group of teenage boys, Bill Bartlett, 17, noticed a small figure huddled next to a stone wall as they passed by it in their vehicle. The figure soon came into sight from the car’s headlights, turning and staring straight at Bartlett. It’s eyes were, according to Bartlett, “glowing brightly like orange marbles. It was about four feet tall and stood upright. It had a pale, gray tone to its hairless body. It had no nose or mouth. It’s head was very large like a watermelon,” he would go on to describe. While the other friends in the car didn’t see anything, they all admitted that Bartlett was extremely distraught after telling them what he had seen. Bartlett would return home that night, visibly shaken, according to his father, and sketched the creature.
It was a few hours later that the second sighting of this creature took place. John Baxter, 15, was walking home from his girlfriend’s house. Thinking it was a friend of his, he approached, stunned when he finally saw the the silhouette of something rather odd. This small creature stared at him, standing upright, with bright orange/red eyes. It had very long toes and fingers which clung tight to rocks on the ground. Baxter would draw a sketch of the creature upon request from local newspapers, which can be seen below.
Original sketch by John Baxter
The following night would include what most considered the final sighting of the Dover Demon. Abby Brabham was being driven home by a friend when she noticed a small creature on the side of the road. She would describe it quite similarly to that of Bartlett and Baxter, however she stated that it was crawling on all fours. Her description of the eyes differed as well, proclaiming a bright green color.
Despite the variances in witness testimony, it seems that something truly strange was wandering the streets of Dover over the span of two nights. Could the fact that as the sightings grew, the creature was becoming more and more desperate to not be seen? Or perhaps, it was somehow ill or injured, starting on two legs, and slowly digressing in strength, having to eventually crawl. Though completely speculative, it seemed that this creature did not want to be seen. But in the eyes and memory of the three witnesses above, the small gray creature dubbed the Dover Demon has all but faded into cryptozoological obscurity, its bright orange (or green) eyes haunting the back roads of Dover up until today.
The Carmel Road Creature
Setting our startled sights a bit west, we find a strange case out of Highland County, Ohio. In the blistering cold Winter in 2014, a local resident was driving up a steep hill on Carmel Road. When he came to the crest of the hill, he looked out his driver’s side window to see a seven foot tall creature, gray in color, with muscular legs that were bent backwards. The witness, who was a retired Marine, took note that the creature didn’t seem to have any arms. He hurriedly rushed home, in shock, and told his wife about what he had seen. Together, they reported the incident to the local chapter of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network).
“My husband saw it,” his wife would tell local MUFON investigators. “He wouldn’t have admitted to seeing it if he hadn’t been in shock. I had him draw it for me when we got to the house (see below). He says it was asphalt gray. It had no jawline, and its legs were bent backward and it leaned forward as it ran.”
ghosttheory.com
Rather than jumping to conclusions that this was some sort of alien or unexplainable creature, the witness admitted that his reasoning for coming forward to a UFO organization was to at least get the word out, in hopes of other witnesses hopefully coming forward to corroborate his story. “I would like to get this information out in the area in hopes that maybe someone else had seen it, or that their giant cross-bred ostrich got loose… or something!”
The Creature of Mortegliano
A rather similar creature was sighted a few years earlier on February 11th, 2012. In the commune of Mortegliano, Italy, Leonard D’Andrea was forced to make a sudden stop on the roundabout he was driving on. A line of cars lay idle in front of him, all the drivers stepping out of their vehicles. “I thought there was an accident,” D’Andrea presumed. “ But when I saw what they were looking at, it was very unexpected.” D’Andrea witnessed a large creature, grey in tone, walking silently along the road. “It had to be at least thirteen feet tall. “Its legs were slightly bent forward with the back formed by very large tendons. The head had a round shape, ending in a conical shape.”
D’Andrea watched as the creature continued walking down the road, seemingly caring very little for anything in its way. He also watched as a mother gathered her children back into their car. Other witnesses attempted calling the police, but all of their phones seemed to have no reception. At this point, D’Andrea attempted to follow the creature, but had very little success as the traffic was too backed up. It soon disappeared out of sight, heading towards the town of Lestizza, where numerous reports trickled in.
Myth vs. Reality
While intriguing, the incidents above beg the question of how so many people saw these creatures and no photos or video had been taken. These along with so many other reports remain missed opportunities for getting clear images of what these gray creatures may or may not be. This is where the narrative of such stories begin to take on an almost mythological aspect, being passed down through oral tradition and through endless amounts of alternative news sources and web sites. We have fallen victim to such claims time and time again with online creatures being created by the collective imagination of phantom online gods. Simply look at such myths as The Rake and Slenderman for clear reference (Although some would argue the actual existence of the latter) We then find ourselves in a delicate dilemma. Just like the grays in alien mythology, we have almost nothing but witness testimony to rely on when dealing with these creatures. This led me to want to speak directly with a witness of one of these gray creatures. Perhaps this would put a more empathetic microscope on the mysteries that lay before our curious minds.
The Los Angeles Wriggler
I reached out to the paranormal community, hoping that someone would have a story to tell about a gray creature that breached the boundaries of alien intrusion. I found a gentleman in Los Angeles who had an incident occur a mere week prior to originally writing this story. Sam Shearon, an artist living out of Hollywood, was working on a project as the morning of August 12th creeped in. At about 3am, he sat on his couch furiously sketching, when he decided to make some tea. As he got up to head to the kitchen, something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Thinking his eyes were playing tricks, he ignored it. But it only intensified. “There was indeed something at my patio door window looking in,” he would tell me. This is when whatever it was came into full view.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Ryan Sprague asks if all grays are really aliens? ” quote=”Are all grays really aliens?”]“It was large. Much larger than a person, though seemingly bent over in some way so that it could look in at me. Its limbs were very long, almost like ropes or tubes. The whole being was thin and tall. It had two arms and two legs, a large round head, dark eyes, and wide mouth. Its limbs were undulating slowly as though it was underwater, much like the movements of an octopus.” This is when Shearon immediately shot up out of his seat. The being quickly reacted. “It climbed up out of view in one movement. Swift and controlled, as though it had been caught spying and quickly recoiled out of view.”
“The Wriggler” Sketch by Sam Shearon mistersamshearon.bigcartel.com
Shearon, though scared, gathered the courage to move to the patio door. He opened it and searched outside for the creature, but saw nothing. “You’re not welcome here!” he yelled. With that, Shearon’s brush with this terrifying and elusive entity seemed to end. But the image of that creature remained. Shearon admitted the following when asked what he thought this creature may have been. “I had been creating vast amounts of artwork in relation to various unexplained or Fortean subjects and my lack of sleep and poor diet and lack of both daylight and exercise initially made me think my mind was merely playing tricks on me.”
Shearon, doubting the experience was real or not, sought advice from a well respected researcher in the world of fortean creatures, David Weatherly. “ After speaking with David. he suggested that my state of being and circumstances are not unlike that of Shaman. That I had perhaps tapped into another state of consciousness, though awake and was able to see past the veil of our dimension into the realm of another, where other life forms may reside. I thought perhaps because of the subject matter I was working on and the level of realism I was bringing to a variety of creatures and entities to an almost photographic level, that I had perhaps attracted one.”
So it could have been possible that Sam had manifested this creature. But I still had to ask if he thought it possible that what he’d seen could have possibly been alien. “On first impression, it certainly had the simple features and large black eyes, though its head was more soccer ball shaped and its mouth was wide. It’s flesh was definitely gray in tone, though its proportions were much too large for a typical gray, and again, its limbs seemed to flow rather than have joints. However, I have read a number of accounts of larger taller greys or praying mantis type alien beings. I do accept that the vastness of the universe and the unknown dimensions are probably host to an infinite variation of life forms. So who knows. Whatever it was, it certainly seemed as though it did not belong.”
Conclusions
After looking at such creatures as the Dover Demon, the Carmel Road and Mortegliano creatures, and the flowing-limbed entity witnessed by Shearon, my eyes were open to the possibility that the grays we once thought so alien, could perhaps come from somewhere much more grounded. And whether that be from the backwoods of Massachusetts, the winding roads of Ohio, the well driven roundabouts of Italy, or the darkness of mid morning in Los Angeles, these gray beings were shattering any sense that we are dealing strictly with one phenomenon. And as they continue to be reported, they have shown us time and time again, that things are not always so black and white, but terrifyingly many shades of enigmatic gray.
—
Ryan Sprague is an investigative journalist, focusing on the topic of UFOs. He is the author of the upcoming book, Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon, published by Richard Dolan Press. He is also the co-host of Into the Fray Radio and a frequent contributor to the geek website: RoguePlanet.tv. His work can be seen at: somewhereintheskies.com
