Friday, January 5, 2024

Why do We Blame Aliens?

Miami, Bayside Marketplace, New Years Day. Only days after a shooting at another Florida mall, shots are believed to be heard and an incredible number of police cars turn up to find people running and teenagers fighting in the streets. Official reports indicate fireworks were mistaken for gunshots and the fighting and rioting was apparently part of the aftermath. Several teens were arrested on charges like burglary, battery, and resisting arrest. 

Of course Twitter/X suspects there's a lot more to it than that. There's audio clips floating around of officials supposedly assuming terrorists were responsible (which would easily explain the large number of police cars that turned up), and more bizarrely, supposed witnesses are reporting that cops were shooting at 8 to 10 foot tall black or grey creatures. This of course brought out speculation of aliens and demons, or demons pretending to be aliens. Why is it never aliens pretending to be demons? 

So what do we know? The presence of a large number of police, we can easily confirm from overhead footage. While people are saying 500 police cars showed up, the official number appears to be 60. Fights were recorded as well (notably outside the mall where 15 teens were kicking at a driver). One blurry still shot from the overhead video is offered as evidence of the supposed aliens, but like a lot of paranormal evidence that's offered, it's really unclear what we're looking at, it basically looks like a bike sized lump near some stairs. Newsweek has suggested it's a small group of officers walking together. 

It's probably not aliens. 

Monday, November 28, 2022

Paranormal in the news - November 2022

I've notice a lot of paranormal/cryptid stories in the news this month. Maybe it's a renewed public or media interest, or maybe it's just me paying more attention to the news. A lot of these I quickly traced back to exemplore, a paranormal focused media outlet I'm going to need to look further into, but either way, let's have a look:

First up on the 12th we have possible footage of bigfoot. Honestly it's kind of hard to see anything, so just have a look and decide for yourself:
https://exemplore.com/news/bigfoot-payson-canyon-utah

Then on the 18th, UFO lights were reported over Oslo Norway, posted as a tiktok video:
https://exemplore.com/news/silent-ufo-norway#tiktok-7163788877730270469

That same day another story involving UFOs was posted. Arnu, who runs an 'Area 51 secrets' website, claimed his house was raided by the FBI, though he wasn't charged with anything:
https://www.insider.com/air-force-fbi-raid-man-who-runs-area-51-website-2022-11

On the 27th we have vague claims of a Rake-like creature attacking someone at a cabin with some very shaky tiktok video:
https://exemplore.com/news/creature-charges-flashlight

And today we have a bigfoot sighting from Upper Michigan,
https://exemplore.com/news/michigan-cabin-bigfoot

And lastly in a particularly vague news story, I read about hairy [probably moss covered] snake found in Thailand. This appears to be recycled from stories and videos released back in March. Here's the top result from the March articles:
https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/mysterious-green-furry-creature-thailand-swamp-7816865/

Stay curious friends!
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Thursday, February 4, 2021

Possible New Cryptid

Oh man, what a year it has been.

This morning, some friends informed me of recent sighting of a mysterious animal just outside the small town of Vernonia Oregon. If you've heard of Vernonia it's probably either because it's been used in cinema (notably, the Twilight saga) or because it has made the news due to devastating floods.

The creature has been described as kangaroo-like, sort of hopping or waddling upright. There's not a lot of bipedal wildlife in Oregon outside of egrets and herons, so that narrows down the possibilities of what it might be if it's simply less commonly seen or misidentified wildlife. Of course, escaped animals and injured/mutated ones are always possible too. But for now, it gets to enjoy the status of local cryptid.

I'm going to try asking around and see if I can A) get better descriptions and even drawings, and B) pinpoint exactly where and when people are seeing this thing. Maybe I'll even get lucky and solve this mystery.

Stay curious, and stay safe friends!
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Sunday, July 5, 2020

The Hat Man, Hatman, Hat men

I'd long known about shadow people, I can even say I might have seen one several years ago (at least seventeen years ago). In broad daylight. I looked up, out the window, and for the briefest moment it appeared that a slender shadowy man was standing on our porch. Of course there's a lot of other explanations for seeing such things; optical illusions, vibration of the liquid in the eye, pareidolia, sleep paralysis, lack of sleep, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc. But a friend of mine suggested that I and other friends might be seeing his late grandfather, a supposedly powerful witch who he believed had become a shadow man when he died. This has never been confirmed, but it's an interesting concept.

I'm not sure if it was before or after that that I first heard of 'The Hat Man', but it was definitely after I'd learned about shadow people. He's supposed to be a stark black entity in a top hat that supposedly stalks and intimidates children and teens for reasons not yet known. Other shadow people seemed largely unconcerned with humans, sometimes wandering past them on parade at night, appearing in the derelict halls of old asylums, or occasionally pranking them in the wilderness of California. But the Hat Man was different, he actively sought out youngsters, to intimidate them. I remember Jason on Ghost Hunters saying something about how lots of kids were seeing him, and how much that bothered him, though I've been unable to locate the actual episode. (Ghost Hunters was good early on, they actively debunked stuff and were reluctant to say the remaining unexplained activity was ghosts. After that, the changing make-up of the team and subsequent shows coupled with accusations of hoaxing and scamming is what becomes 'interesting'.)

But over time I came to notice something, there didn't seem to be one hat man. There were hat men, some wore top hats, or wide brim hats, some wore bowlers, or as I've recently learned, fedoras. Some hat men appeared as the outline of a man in a suit, while others appeared to wear a long coat. Their physical forms were different too, some were exceptionally skinny, some had long spindly fingers like slenderman's, and some had white faces like masks contrasting the uniform black of the rest of their bodies (like No-Face from spirited away). Sometimes their eyes were as dark as their bodies, other times they glowed red. There was also a split in nature, while many were frighten and intimidated by them, other people seemed to derive peace and calm from their presence.

So naturally, I set out to get an idea of what traits seemed most common and just how many Hat Men there might be. And let me tell you, I did not know how deep that rabbit hole goes. I explored a bit on The Hatman Project blog (which unfortunately hasn't seen any action in four years), reviewed a few videos (many of which seem to have something like confirmation bias and only collected hat man accounts that match their aesthetic), and reached out on reddit (where there is a whole subreddit specifically dedicated to The Hat Man, and on chats like discord.

And what I found was interesting. First off, so many articles and videos blame hat man on sleep paralysis, but it seems like about half of encounters happen when the reporter was wide awake. So, it would seem something more is going on there.

And secondly, for those that had seen hat men and other shadow people (including some hooded shadow people), the accounts were as varied as the people that had see him; as though hat men and shadow people in general represented a diverse population similar to the diversity in a human population. AngelFox1's hat man carried a fancy cane and had a long nose. Mjainwitch's had eyes light firefly light, while others have reported black eyes, red eyes, and yellow cat-like eyes.

Some people like SpringIsCancelled, even reported seeing multiple hat man entities who were distinct in height and mannerism. Others have reported hat men alongside other shadow people, almost always in a position of authority or dominance. This is paralleled by many alien abduction/contact encounters, where a tall alien will seem to be in charge of several smaller aliens. It's worth noting aliens are another common sleep paralysis subject, along with hags, ghosts, and demons. Though many who have seen hat men report seeing them during the day while wide awake (despite the top result on google for 'The Hat Man' being about sleep paralysis).

The theories are pretty varied as well, from classical demons to insectoid aliens. Demons makes sense to a certain degree, incorporeal creatures that exist to torment the living or lure them to sin, thus they are dressed to impress and a dark reflection of how we understand angels as beings of light. Other spiritual entities they’ve been theorized to be include loa (intermediaries between man and god similar to angels, but with domains and often acting as patrons - see the wikipedia link in Further Reading/Viewing & Resources below for more), djinn, and human souls. All three of which would account for there being multiple hat men, as well as the fact that some seem to exude evil, while others seem benign, a possible flaw in the demon theory. Well, except for those that claim he seemed benign at first, but now they know better.

Another theory claims they may be death or servants of death, or at least a way we envision death. Similarly, a video piece by Quartz News suggests they may be a reflection of modern horror, such as Freddy Kruger. This fits well for sleep paralysis accounts, which is what the video focused on, but not so well with daytime accounts.

And what of the idea that they could be extraterrestrials, extra-dimensional, or time travelers? Well, as a simple thought experiment, it's hard to see why aliens (from space or another dimension) would feel the need to come all the way to Earth just to spy on us in our bedrooms. Why is this more plausible for time travelers in my mind? Probably because they have a vested interest in specific ancestors and some protocol of non-contact that they're obviously not very good at following. But given how humans treat observing animals, I have doubts extraterrestrial and extra-dimensional beings would worry too much about if we see them. Plus it accounts for the eyes sometimes being insect or cat/reptile-like, and the few cases where UFOs were seen in close proximity to hat men, if you subscribe to the whole idea of UFOs being alien craft in the first place.

There's also the option, which 1divinehamm3r reminded me of, that it doesn't have to be exclusively any of the above. Maybe there is a mixture of different entities that account for the differences in appearance and behavior, the way viceroy butterflies look like monarchs and catsears flowers look like dandelions. And maybe for a few people it really is just all in their heads, which can be both a comforting and discomforting thought. But whatever it is, if you experienced it, your experience is valid. So if you've seen a hat man or shadow person and would like to share, I'm interested in hearing your story.

Further Reading/Viewing & Resources:

Hat Man nightmares and sleep paralysis are happening around the world” Quartz News
(Uploaded 2019-03-15)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYbA6Tjux24

Loa” Wikipedia
(Last Modified 2020-06-04)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loa

San Antonio's Shadowy Hat Man Spooks Residents” San Antonio Current
(Last Modified 2012-09-14)
https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2012/09/14/san-antonios-shadowy-hat-man-spooks-residents

Shadow Person” Wikipedia
(Last Modified 2020-06-29)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_person

The Hat Man” Reddit
r/HatMan

The Hatman Project [Blog]
(Last Modified 2016-02-15)
http://thehatmanproject.com/

The Untold Truth Of Ghost Hunters” Grunge
(Uploaded 2020-01-13)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-W76FrnHBw

Why is Jason Hawes Not on ‘Ghost Hunters’?” TheCinemaholic
(Last Modified 2020-04-07)
https://www.thecinemaholic.com/jason-hawes-ghost-hunters/
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Thursday, June 25, 2020

UFOs and Witches and Stuff. . .

It feels really hard to write a post when I've been away for a year, and only posted once in the previous year. I mean do I apologize? Do I explain what I've been up to as if there's been questions about it? Idk. . . okay. . . so, I'm still alive. And I've not lost my interest in studying the paranormal either, so I don't really have much of an excuse or an explanation. Doesn't help much either knowing that blogs are basically clickbait bot food, so who knows if anyone is really reading this here anyways. I hope they are.

Anyways. . .

There's multiple reports of lights in the sky in the past night or two (and every night if I'm being honest, check out MUFON sometime), some explained and some not. Honestly some the the explained footage is more interesting than the unexplained:
https://abc7.com/houston-mysterious-lights-spotting-in-the-sky-wednesday-june-24-ufo/6269024/

I imagine you've seen the video released by the US Air-force acknowledging 'Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon' (read as UFO), a few months ago. The videos were out there already, this was just confirmation that they weren't hoaxes, 'to clear up misconceptions'. So then, what are they? Well, whether you call them UAPs or UFOs, we still don't know. Popular fantasy is aliens, but why aliens would come all this way to joyride in our mostly nitrogen atmosphere is pretty unclear. Secret weapons and aircraft testing seems more plausible, though you'd think the air-force would be the ones doing the testing. . .

I've been called out before on not mentioning that spirits, demons, and witches are also explanation for UFOs, so let's talk about that too (I was under the impression that this was the explanation for smaller orbs, will-o'-wisp, ball lightning, etc; but it also applies to UFOs and St Elmo's Fire apparently). The idea of demons flying around in bright balls of fire does seem a little farfetched in the modern scientific era, but the lack of explanation for some of this phenomenon does beg the question; what's to say it's not? And would these hypothetical devils profit from modern man's disbelief? Honestly, would they even care? Probably depends which religion you ask. Further, what if we could prove it was demons? What would change if we had tangible evidence of an evil spirit or creature cruising through the air? Could we maybe even catch them, assuming they weren't just intangible? Western religions would be all over that for sure. Definitely would be a big day at the Vatican.

But, I don't have all the answers. And maybe that's okay sometimes. After all, I enjoy investigating the paranormal.

Until next time, stay safe and stay curious.
- VPM
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Friday, June 21, 2019

Cyptobotany - Fern Flowers

So it's the evening of the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and the shortest night of the year. So, why is that significant (other then all the cool scientific implications)? Well, it's the night the Fern Flowers are supposed to bloom.

Hunting for Fern Flowers, aside from being innuendo for young couples that wander off into the bushes (in some areas it's actually part of a ritual to encourage engagement among young adults), is the possibly futile search for something science says doesn't exist. Ferns are non-flowering plants, they reproduce with spores. . . or do they? Legend has it the Fern Flowers bloom just this one night a year, and withers before morning. And also, they're extremely magical, though the exact nature of that magic is somewhat debated. They might bring good luck, or grant wishes, or allow one to speak to animals. But there's usually a catch (because isn't there always?); sometimes the fortune or wishes can't be shared with others, and other times the flowers are guarded by evil spirits.

This bears and interesting resemblance to a magical method of treasure hunting which is of Mormon origins. The treasure hunting party first uses a ritual to summon a ghost, which is supposed to lead them to treasure buried in the woods. The area will be guarded by a devil which can attack if they speak. So they must silently drive metal bars into the ground, draw a magic circle, and finally dig up the treasure, all while the devil tries to scare them into cursing. The reward for both is great, but so is the risk.

However the Fern Flower offers the finder a choice; take the flower with it's riches and curses, or appreciate it's fleeting beauty and leave it be. In treasure hunting that choice was already made, because no one goes looking for buried treasure to not dig it up.


Sources and Further Reading:

Fern Flower” Criptid Wiki
(Last Modified prior to 2019-06-21)
https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Fern_Flower

Fern flower” Wikipeida
(Last Modified 2019-01-28)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fern_flower

The Fern Flower” World Stories
(Last Modified prior to 2019-06-21)
http://worldstories.org.uk/stories/the-fern-flower/

Quinn, D. Michael. Early Mormonism and the Magic World View.
(sorry, I don't know what edition I read from)
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Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Sounds of Terror

Through a series of bad YouTube decisions, I found myself listening to a clip of the WKCR Hijacking (aka The Old Tape) near midnight. I had viewed many cursed image, and listened to some mild to truly horrifying sounds in the preceding hour or so. Horrifying for what they meant, like how a nuclear siren might be the last thing thousands of people ever hear, or the true fear in the voices of 911 callers, or the usually high pitch of some video games' music that many people found so unnerving they wrote creepypastas about them.

But this was different. This sounded like something I should not hear, something I was never meant to hear. To me, this sound was the one that was truly unnerving. The best part; it's one of the few sounds I listened to that was probably a hoax.

The story goes that a 4chan user found a recording they made in 1994 or 1995, of the radio station WKCR 89.9 when the broadcast was suddenly interrupted for five minutes by disturbing sounds including the voice of a woman reading off obituaries of people that died in the 1980's. This list included some higher profile deaths, like Frank Oppenheimer and plane crash victims.

Some people call this the Max Headroom Incident of the radio, while others note the quality seems too good to have been recorded in 1994/1995. Some even claim to hear a 1998 date in the list, meaning it could not have been recorded before then without access to prophecies or time travel. Others believe it was real broadcast, but since the station is college run, it was intentionally broadcast as a prank, experiment, or art project. The host and woman are even said to sound similar. But this, with the fact that no one else seems to have come forward with memories of this hijack, much less a second recording with unique markers, suggests it's probably a hoax.

You can listen to the whole five and a half minutes on YouTube or another site, to decide for yourself, but do you really want to? Even knowing what I know now, I still feel unnerved hearing bits of it. Then again, maybe listening to the whole thing will alleviate some of those feelings?

The audio clip I listened to (and other spooky sounds if you want to listen to the whole video):
https://youtu.be/4dnO1Ky5454?t=300

Full audio (for the brave or stupid):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LlO2MOQK20

Some WKCR Hijacking details (on a blog I'll need to revisit):
https://silentthrill.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/wkcr-hijacking/

Info on the WKCR-FM station itself (in which the incident is not mentioned):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WKCR-FM

Wikipedia's list of Broadcast Signal Intrusions (which does not include it either, how weird):
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