With that heading said, let’s have a look at some creepy, not-quite-human things. prowling around. Gloria is an elderly woman who lives in Decatur, Texas and who I met with on the afternoon of the 22nd. I decided to make the approximately 110-mile-roundtrip, after hearing a bit of her story down the phone the previous evening. I set off early, wondering, as I always do, what exactly I might be in for. It was a typical November day in Texas when I hit the road. It could have been a less than extraordinary experience – as is sometimes the case. But, not this time. On this occasion, the trip was well worth it. I arrived at an old house – probably dating from the 1940s, and which was well kept and that had a welcoming porch, on which were a couple of chairs. I knocked the door and in just a few seconds it opened. In front of me was Gloria, a white-haired lady who smiled broadly. At least, her experience wasn’t affecting her character, I thought. She invited me in and I sat down, as a couple of caged canaries bid me welcome. At least, I think that’s what they did.
On July 19, 2012, Gloria told me – as we drank coffee and ate homemade lemon cake in her living-room – she briefly saw what can only be accurately described as a flying saucer, which hovered over her home as she sat in her backyard, reading a book and with her two dogs for company. In fact, it was the barking of both dogs – which stared intently and rigidly at the sky – that alerted Gloria to the presence of the weird craft. It didn’t stay around for long, however. It was a case of here one second and gone the next second. But that was not all. The next afternoon, that of the 20th, there was a knock at the door. It was a pale-faced, thin woman of about thirty, wearing a long black wig and dressed in a black jacket, a white blouse, and a flowing, black skirt. And then there were the huge sunglasses. And the WIB smelled of dirt – something I have heard before. Gloria felt deeply uncomfortable as, upon opening the door, the Woman in Black proceeded to warn her not to talk about the UFO she had encountered the previous day, due to the claim that “the government is concerned.” Concerned about what was never explained.
Clearly, the WIB was not from the government. Or, from any government. According to Gloria, the woman didn’t even look human. “Skeletal” would have been a far better description. After asking what the time was, the WIB turned, walked down Gloria’s driveway and vanished. Never to be seen again. It was a familiar scenario – one which I knew only too well. I still do. Gloria thanked me for offering some thoughts and advice on the affair – such as try and put it all behind you, as these things thrive on our fears – and gave me a plentiful supply of that delicious lemon cake to take back with me. We still keep in touch. I’m pleased to say that her WIB has not returned. So far…
In 1987, the Maxwell family spent a week vacationing in and around San Francisco, staying with friends in Menlo Park. On their way back home, they traveled along California’s famous Highway 101, which provides a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean, and for mile upon mile. They chose to drive through the night, when the highway would be at its least busy, thinking that it would be to their benefit to do so. How completely and utterly wrong they were. As fate would destine to have it, after a couple of hours of driving, the family of four spotted a strange light in the sky. It was described as a bright green ball of light, about the size of a beach-ball, one which paced their car and that stayed with them for a couple of miles, at a height of around sixty feet. There was nothing frightening about the encounter. Rather, they were all amazed and excited. It wasn’t long, however, before things got very disturbing.
The day after the Maxwell family got home was a Sunday, meaning they had an extra day before returning to work and school. It was while one of the teenaged children was sat on the porch and playing music on an old Walkman that she caught sight of a man on the other side of the road. He was dressed completely in black, aside from a white shirt. He even wore black gloves, on what was a bright, summery day. The girl was particularly disturbed by the fact that the man sported a weird grin and was staring right at her. So unsettled was she that she went back into the home and told her father of what had just happened. He quickly went to the door but – no surprise – the MIB was gone. When Mr. Maxwell told the story to me – down the phone, on January 3 – the anxiety in his voice was as clear as it was eerie to hear. I have seen and heard that kind of anxiety so many times. Too many times, I would suggest. And, regardless of the particular location, almost always in relation to the Men in Black.
Pasadena, California was the site of a strange encounter with a definitive Man in Black, specifically on March 22 1979. The witness, Charlie H., contacted me thirty-six years later to share his story, after I spoke on the MIB enigma on a local, Texas radio show. Charlie, now living in the Lone Star State, had seen a UFO as he drove near to what is known locally as Devil Gate Dam. It’s a place with a great deal of paranormal activity attached to it and at which Jack Parsons, a 1930s rocket-pioneer and a devotee of “the great beast” Aleister Crowley, hung out on a regular basis. The UFO, said Charlie, was not particularly large, and was circular and bright pink in color. Charlie, who was driving home from a shift which ended at 2:00 a.m., added that the UFO came close to his car – around eighty or ninety feet away – then shot away into the sky. Two days later, and as he happened to look out of his living-room window, Charlie saw a man dressed in a black fedora, black suit, black trench-coat, white shirt, and black tie, get out of an old, black Cadillac and quickly take a photo of his home. The MIB then got back into the vehicle and drove away. John Keel termed this particular brand of MIB as “phantom photographers.” A most apt term, to be sure. I shared my thoughts and opinions as we chatted and thanked Charlie for his call. We’ll hear more about those creepy characters with cameras later on.
In 1987, the Maxwell family spent a week vacationing in and around San Francisco, staying with friends in Menlo Park. On their way back home, they traveled along California’s famous Highway 101, which provides a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean, and for mile upon mile. They chose to drive through the night, when the highway would be at its least busy, thinking that it would be to their benefit to do so. How completely and utterly wrong they were. As fate would destine to have it, after a couple of hours of driving, the family of four spotted a strange light in the sky. It was described as a bright green ball of light, about the size of a beach-ball, one which paced their car and that stayed with them for a couple of miles, at a height of around sixty feet. There was nothing frightening about the encounter. Rather, they were all amazed and excited. It wasn’t long, however, before things got very disturbing.
The day after the Maxwell family got home was a Sunday, meaning they had an extra day before returning to work and school. It was while one of the teenaged children was sitting on the porch and playing music on an old Walkman that she caught sight of a man on the other side of the road. He was dressed completely in black, aside from a white shirt. He even wore black gloves, on what was a bright, summery day. The girl was particularly disturbed by the fact that the man sported a weird grin and was staring right at her. So unsettled was she that she went back into the home and told her father of what had just happened. He quickly went to the door but – no surprise – the MIB was gone. When Mr. Maxwell told the story to me – down the phone, on January 3 – the anxiety in his voice was as clear as it was eerie to hear. I have seen and heard that kind of anxiety so many times. Too many times, I would suggest. And, regardless of the particular location, almost always in relation to the Men in Black.
Mac Tonnies was not just known and respected for his work in the field of Martian anomalies: he also had a deep interest in the field of what he personally termed the Cryptoterrestrials. It’s a term he coined in the early 2000s, when his research into this particular arena began. For Tonnies the Cryptoterrestrials fell into two, clearly delineated groups. In essence, it goes like this: for Tonnies at least some UFO encounters and incidents – and particularly so alien abductions – were not the work of extraterrestrials. Rather, they were the work of an extremely ancient race of humanoids that developed alongside us, but who chose to stay away from us, aside from when they needed certain things from us; those “certain things” being our DNA, cells, eggs, sperm and so on – due to the fact that their civilization, today, is degrading and decaying and requires new blood. So, they use us to beef up their race – at least, to the extent that they are able to do so.
Complicating this already controversial scenario, Tonnies also speculated on the possibility that there is another group of Cryptoterrestrials in our midst. Like that other group that he was pursuing, Tonnies suggested they, too, were equally careful to remain hidden whenever and wherever possible. Tonnies suspected that this second group were possibly Martians – nothing less than the descendants of those earlier Martians who fled their world in an ancient, unclear time, when Mars was facing near-destruction, whether due to war, atmospheric collapse or both. Tonnies took things to an even more controversial level when he pondered on the scenario of both groups working together, in tandem, and as a means to save themselves and to protect themselves from us, the admittedly violent and destructive human race. Tonnies wondered what it might be like for the two-tiered Cryptoterrestrials – one of an ancient human type and the other a ragged band of Martians – fighting to live on, and having to share the Earth with us, their worst potential enemy possible. Tonnies concluded that it would make good sense for the two factions to band together and carefully mask their real origins and intents.
Tonnies made a very good point when he noted that the two, primary, dominating types of aliens that are reported by eyewitnesses are (A) the bug-eyed, insect-like Grays; and (B) the very-human-looking Space Brothers of the type that George Van Tassel met out at Giant Rock in the 1950s. Tonnies suggested that the Space Brothers were not aliens, but Cryptoterrestrials. He also opined that the Space Brothers presented themselves in the way they did – as concerned ETs who wanted us to dismantle our weapons of mass destruction – because they knew that if we provoked a third world war, they too, would be annihilated. So, they did what they could to help the situation – and particularly in the 1950s, when there was a great deal of alarm and anxiety about nuclear war – by disguising themselves as something very different to their real form. As for those Martian Cryptoterrestrials, Tonnies felt that they may have been here for so long that they now consider themselves as citizens of the Earth – but, obviously not as humans. At some point, Tonnies speculated, both groups may have agreed to band together; presenting themselves to us as something very different to what they really are: (A) an offshoot of us and (B) a race of stranded Martians whose technology may not be sufficient enough to allow them to return to their home planet of Mars – or what is left of it.
In terms of his theorizing, Tonnies said: “After devouring countless books on the UFO controversy and the paranormal, I began to acknowledge that the extraterrestrial hypothesis suffered some tantalizing flaws. In short, the ‘aliens’ seemed more like surreal caricatures of ourselves than beings possessing the god-like technology one might plausibly expect from interstellar visitors. Like [UFO researcher] Jacques Vallee, I came to the realization that the extraterrestrial hypothesis isn’t strange enough to encompass the entirety of occupant cases. But if we’re dealing with humanoid beings that evolved here on earth, some of the problems vanish. My hypothesis works too when we apply it to Martians stranded [on Earth] and who, I sometimes wonder, are waiting for the day when our world becomes theirs.” Tonnies continued: “I envision the Cryptoterrestrials engaged in a process of subterfuge, bending our belief systems to their own ends. And I suggest that this has been occurring, in form or another, for an extraordinarily long time. I think there’s a good deal of folkloric and mythological evidence pointing in this direction, and I find it most interesting that so many descriptions of ostensible ‘aliens’ seem to reflect staged events designed to misdirect witnesses and muddle their perceptions.”
Although the UFO controversy began in the summer of 1947, it’s a fact that encounters with alleged aliens in that era were all but non-existent. In fact, it wasn’t until the early 1950s when people began to make claims to the effect that they had undergone face-to-face encounters with aliens. In nearly all of the cases, the aliens were very human-like. The only differences were that they sported heads of long blond hair, which, of course, was hardly the style for men in early 1950s-era USA. In that sense, they really stood out. But, trim their hair and they would look just like us. The extraterrestrials soon became known in the field of Ufology as the Space Brothers, while those that encountered the beings from beyond were dubbed the Contactees. Unlike today’s aliens – bug-like, dwarfish, black-eyed things who routinely abduct people in the dead of night and in trauma-filled fashion – the Space Brothers were friendly beings whose main role seemed to be to warn people of the perils of nuclear weapons. Not only that: many of the Contactees claimed that their brothers and sisters from the heavens above were Martians. As a consequence, beings from the Red Planet had been hauled into the growing UFO controversy.
The Contactees claimed that they met the Space Brothers at isolated, lonely locales, such as the deserts of California, New Mexico and Arizona. Not only that, the Space Brothers urged those they targeted for recruitment to go out and spread the words and advice of the aliens. They certainly did that. In no time at all, the Space Brother / Contactee phenomenon became the dominating aspect of early 1950s Ufology. Without doubt the most famous (many would soon say infamous – and many still do) of all the Contactees was George Adamski. His claims of encounters with benign, human-like aliens captured the attention and imagination of the public to a major degree. For example, his first book, Flying Saucers Have Landed, which was co-written with Desmond Leslie, was a huge seller: sales reached no less than six figures.
Following in the footsteps of Adamski were Truman Bethurum, who, in 1954, wrote Aboard a Flying Saucer – an entertaining saga of Bethurum’s alleged encounters with a hot space-babe known as Captain Aura Rhanes. George Hunt Williamson was very much in the style of Adamski, while Orfeo Angelucci was granted flights on alien saucers and became a fixture on the UFO-based lecture circuit. While there were certain differences between the various tales (or the yarns) that the Space Brothers told, there was one theme that really stood out: it was that claim that many of the aliens came from Mars, or had connections to Martians. Regardless of whether or not one buys into the often very tall tales of the Contactees, it was the incredible influence of these admittedly gifted storytellers that led many to look towards Mars for answers concerning the UFO presence on our world. Even certain elements of the the U.S. military found itself “infected” by such stories. In the summer of 1952, one Commander Randall Boyd, of U.S. Air Force Intelligence, quietly advised N.W. Philcox, who, at the time, was the FBI’s liaison with the Air Force, that: “It is not entirely impossible that the objects sighted may possibly be ships from another planet such as Mars.”
All of which brings us to a man named George Van Tassel. As a result of his claimed encounters with aliens in the early part of the 1950s, Van Tassel developed a distinct aversion to nuclear weapons and became the subject of an FBI surveillance file that ran to almost 400 pages. It was while Van Tassel and his family were living near Landers, California in the fifties (in a hollowed out cave, below a giant rock known locally and appropriately as “Giant Rock.” And, no I’m not making this up) that Van Tassel’s encounters with those long-haired extraterrestrials began. The Space Brothers would often meet with Van Tassel late at night and out in the dark desert. Love and peace, nuclear disarmament, and even the secrets of immortality were discussed. Whereas Adamski, Bethurum and the rest were content to write books, Van Tassel did something very different. At the urging of the Space Brothers he put on a yearly, outdoors UFO event at Giant Rock. So successful were the events, at their height Van Tassel’s gigs had audiences in the figure of around eleven thousand, which massively eclipses anything that can be seen on the UFO lecture circuit today. It’s no wonder, then, that all of this talk of getting rid of our nukes and living in harmony was growing and growing. Another type of alien that just might hate us.
Interestingly, Tonnies wondered if the pale-faced, skinny, mannequin-like creeps known as the Men in Black – who also surfaced in the early 1950s – are part and parcel of the Cryptoterrestrials and their agenda. Despite the imagery and storylines that are presented in the phenomenally successful Men in Black movies, the fact is that the real MIB are not from the U.S. Government. They are not ufological 007’s. They don’t even look human – and they don’t act like us, either. Rather, with their black suits, black fedoras and gaunt, plastic-like faces, they are clearly not from anywhere right around here.
The phenomenon of the Men in Black began in the early 1950s, and with a man named Albert Bender – who passed away in 2016 at the age of ninety-four. It was shortly after he created a UFO research group – the International Flying Saucer Bureau – in his home town of Bridgeport, Connecticut in the early fifties, Bender was visited by a trio of menacing men in dark suits. They were not from the CIA, nor the FBI or the Air Force. The three “men” quite literally materialized in Bender’s attic bedroom. They made it abundantly clear that he should leave Ufology behind him. He did: Bender closed down the IFSB and quit ufology; only returning briefly in 1962 to write a book on his experiences. Its appropriate title was Flying Saucers and the Three Men. Bender spent the rest of his life living quietly with his wife and family in Los Angeles, California. Since the days of Albert Bender there have been literally hundreds of reports of disturbing encounters with the MIB. Threats from the Cryptoterrestrials? Tonnies was sure he was on the right track. That Tonnies’ theory was so controversial, alternative, and almost unique – Martians and ancient humans working together to save themselves, and to hell with us when they are done with the human race – inevitably ensured that Tonnies would get some flak. And, guess what? He did. Nevertheless, Tonnies did have more than a few points in his favor. On this particular point, he said to me:
“The cryptoterrestrial theory has met with mixed reactions. Some seem to think that I’m onto something. Most UFO researchers are, at best, extremely skeptical. Others think I’m parroting John Keel’s ‘superspectrum’ [Keel was the author of the acclaimed 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies], a variation on the ‘parallel worlds’ theme that in turn shares memes with Jacques Vallee’s ‘multiverse.’ Both ideas suggest that we somehow occupy dimensional space with our ‘alien’ visitors, doing away with the need for extraterrestrial spacecraft while helping explain the sense of absurdity that accompanies many UFO and occupant sightings. Keel and Vallee have both ventured essentially ‘occult’ ideas in cosmological terms; both the ‘superspectrum’ and the ‘multiverse’ require a revision of our understanding of the way reality itself works. But the cryptoterrestrial hypothesis is grounded in a more familiar context.” He added: “I’m not suggesting unseen dimensions or the need for ufonauts to ‘downshift’ to our level of consciousness.
Rather, I’m asking if it’s feasible that the alleged aliens that occupy historical and contemporary mythology are flesh-and-blood human-like creatures that live right here on Earth. Not another version of Earth in some parallel Cosmos, but on Earth. While I can’t automatically exclude the UFO phenomenon’s ‘paranormal’ aspects, I can attempt to explain them in technological terms. For example, I see no damning theoretical reason why ‘telepathy’ and ‘dematerialization’ can’t ultimately be explained by appealing to cybernetics, nano-technology and other fields generally excluded from ufological discourse.” In finality, Tonnies provided these words: “The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis manages to alienate champions of the extraterrestrial hypothesis and those who support a more esoteric, ‘inter-dimensional’ explanation. It offers no clear-cut reconciliation. It does, however, wield explanatory potential lacking in both camps.” It’s not just Tonnies who has pondered on this particularly intriguing scenario, as you’ll see now.
And, finally: There’s something else very important, too: it has been wrongly assumed that the first encounter with Mothman took place in Point Pleasant. Not at all. The first confrontation – we’re told – was on the night of November 12, 1966. The location was a cemetery in Clendenin, which is close to eighty-miles from Point Pleasant. The grave-diggers, who were on-site at the time, were shocked and awed when they saw what was described as “a brown shape with wings.” The creature vanished into the blackness leaving the men shaking. Three days later a group of amazed kids – Roger Scarberry, Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette – had their night-time encounter; an encounter that just about defined the legend of Mothman. Deputy Millard Halstead said: “I’ve known these kids all their lives. They’d never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night. I took them seriously.” So did many others, too.
In that period of 1966 and 1967, there was a huge amount of strange activity in the area: Mothman; the pale-faced, Men in Black; poltergeist activity; UFOs; and weird and sinister characters that just might not have been quite human. One of them was a “man” who went by the name of Indrid Cold. A man who was known for his terrible, wild grin. In fact, the Grinning Man of today was clearly born out of Indrid Cold. As you can see, over the years, there have been very strange encounters on our Earth, involving entities that are very like us. And, who just might be our worst enemies. So, if you should see a human-like creature on our world, be very careful. It might not be what you think it is.
