The Mothman Prophecies John A Keel
The Mothman Prophecies: The True Story of the Alien Who Terrorized an American City. 1st ed., 1975; ebook, Hodder & Stoughton, 2013.
Author
John A Keel (American, 1930-2009
Sections
The Mothman Prophecies
A snippet of a dramatized recounting of some events that is blurb.
About the Author
Not much here. I looked him up on Wikipedia. Which is much better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keel
Title page
Need I?
Copyright page
Stuff.
Dedication page
After reading some of his letters in the Mothman, the Facts Behind the Legend, I found his dedication of this book to Mary Hyre particularly touching.
Epigraph page
John went with Arthur C Clarke.
1 Beelzebub Visits West Virginia
The gist:
• You’d know John wrote fiction. It’s pulpy. It’d overly descriptive. It’s fun.
• It’s not an MIB, its John with a beard.
• Some beard talk.
• John and Mary Hyre saw lights in the Ohio Valley.
• John makes his case both for and against paranormal activity. And the unreliability of witnesses. He wants to believe. Too smart to commit.
• Walter Gibson; tulpas; Brinsley Trench; Paul Misraki; W Raymond Drake.
• Keel is laying down what he believes to be a universal theory of the paranormal: it’s us.
• Criticism of Von Däniken.
• The strange creatures we are in awe of now appear to have always been with us.
• Charles Fort raises his coiffed head.
Interest:
Oh for sure. This is where John states his place in the paranormal spectrum. How he sees himself in the world. How he sees the world.
Read it?
You have to.
2 The Creep who Came in from the Cold
The gist:
• We open with the bridge gone and the grim image of bodies coming out of the river. And a very tired Mary Hyre.
• First real MIBs come bothering Mrs. Hyre.
• Gray Barker – WV’s beat known UFO researcher is mentioned. We like him, because he brought MIBs to our attention in the 50s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Barker
• MIBs have an early history. I have a feeling the MIBs are going to be a particular theme. John spends a lot of time on them. And why not? They’re freaky.
• hoaxes about ETs also have an early history.
• Connie Carpenter, Mary Hyre’s niece, Connie’s eyeburn and winged man.
• Eddie Webb of Greenville had it too.
• Possible MIB in New York?
• Linda Scarberry joins us at this point.
• Maston A Jacks, Pentagon wingnut.
• Lloyd Mallan and his making liars out of the US Air Force.
• Mort Young, journo acquaintance of John’s, writes about Wright-Patterson.
• George P Freeman, another wingnut, who had a firmer grasp on his own personality.
Interest:
So far, both the chapters I have read so far have been fascinating. The MIBs, which are of more interest to John than anything else. The first edition of this book came out in 1975. It’s full of the irreverent wit of that period of reporting and investigative writing. There’s a dark humour at play that I’m enjoying.
Read it?
Do indeed.
3 The Flutter of Black Wings
The gist:
• The flying man of NY, 1877-1880.
• So begins a lengthy review of man’s attempts at flight over the centuries. Making bird wing movements and rigid wing non-movements.
• Huge white bird of 1905 California seen by JA Jackson.
• A fine review of winged creatures, such as angels, demons, lions etc.
• VK Arsenyev and his dog met a winged man/thing.
• Several other examples given of massive flying birds/things.
• Tiffaney Thayer, founder of the Fortean Society, and their journal, Doubt. I find that a depressing yet hilarious title.
• Winged men appearing since 1947, coinciding with the beginning of the modern day UFO flap.
• There has been a metric fuck tonne of witnesses to these weirdies.
• Sandling Woods, England, UFO coupled with a strange bat creature in 1963.
Interest:
Again, yes. John goes at a good clip through various examples. Plenty there for a researcher to look up and expand upon.
Read it?
Do.
4 Take the Train
The gist:
• After a fashion this chapter is about perception.
• Also: we are now at Point Pleasant, where the UFOs and associated beings are thick and heavy.
• Unlike in other places, no one bothered to report the phenomena. Except to Mary Hyre.
• John rejects outright the idea that any UFO or ET explanation for anything. Expanding his theory.
• He is not rejecting the paranormal. On deeper probing than most, he’s come up with Ultraterrestrials. They live in a state of energy, rather than another planet. They may explain weirdie things, such as dinosaurs seen in 1977.
• John wants us to stop focussing on the mundane, the mediocre, and the material.
• Still alluding to a God like intelligence. He still wants to think that someone is in control and there is a pattern to all this random shit.
• We have brainwashed ourselves into seeing all sorts of things through time. UFOs being the latest.
• It appears that this chapter is John’s beliefs in a nutshell.
Interest:
For most of the reasons listed above. The overall gist of this book is about perception, and John doesn’t pull his punches.
Read it?
Yes, and I have a feeling I might be saying this for most of the book. Previous chapters had some levity in them, but this doesn’t. It’s to the point.
5 The Cold Who Came Down
The gist:
• Our first mention of Woodrow Derenberger, an experiencer of some depth.
• The Native Americans avoided West Virginia. They would even live in deserts rather than live here.
• Except for Chief Cornstalk, but what the heck was going on there before him? Where did the ancient ruins come from?
• Benjamin Smith Barton, New Views on the Origins of Tribes and Nations of America (1798).
• Weird race of white people. They say bulgy eyes, I say Vikings? Or Irish?
• MIBs, as per usual, slinking through gardens, worming their way across thresholds.
• Gray Barker and the first of our missing dogs and aural hijinks.
Interest:
Oh yes. Sometimes, it feels like John is building a case for WV being a place of particular interest. Which might lead to an explanation for why high strangeness is appearing now. While its tenuous at best, its still an intriguing idea. Falls a bit far into predetermination for me. Yet, we get to know Woody.
Read it?
Do.
6 Mothman!
The gist:
• We open to a very brief history of the TNT area, which manages to evoke images of a post-apocalyptic society. Eerie, and a little melancholy.
• Here we have Linda Scarberry, her husband of the time and her friends. John gives us a dramatized version of the story of the first proper meeting with Mothman. We can all come along for the ride.
• Another missing dog, this time dead.
• Their trip to the police was quite sympathetic, after all, it was a small town. These eighteen year olds and the local police all knew each other. Something to be bear in mind. These people knew each other. John gives these contexts that contribute to a wider focus.
• Mothman got its name from an anonymous copywriter.
• The Wamsleys, the Bennetts, and the Thomases appear. Their experiences are unsettling. Reading this account, I got the shivers. Not sure why this one, but from here on in, I find the book spooky in a way I hadn’t before.
• Another Woody and Mr. Cold interlude.
• Lots of birds in this chapter.
• UFO flap all over the country at the same time.
• The Christiansen family enter the fray. With accompanying aural phenomena and surprising calls from the Airforce.
• The Scarberrys were also bothered weird noises.
• We end with John on his way to Point Pleasant.
Interest:
Definitely. There was a lot going on, and John is setting us up well for his arrival into the mix. He makes good points about the dynamics of small towns and how everyone knows each other. The people know each other, have grown up with each other.
Read it?
Do indeed.
7 The Night of the Bleeding Ear
The gist:
• Hello, Jen Stevens, a prominent UFO researcher in New York state.
• There is a lengthy report from Jen in 1968 of an experience of more electronic interference.
• Jen’s husband had a run in with an MIB.
• An interesting investigation into types of heavy breathing.
• Kevin McDee of NICAP.
• Woody is back, and he’s having his head examined.
• All the major witnesses of Mothman in Point Pleasant are in one room to talk to John, including Mary Hyre. Good chance for him to examine dynamics. He finds them honest. I mean, he’s not a human lie detector, but he’s been doing this for a while. He knows how to call bullshit.
• He notes that Connie Carpenter has swollen and red eyes. This is common with people who have looked too long at a UFO.
• Then, after a pleasant afternoon of reliving trauma, they all hop in their cars and go out to the TNT area. To activate their trauma some more. At night.
• They all have an experience.
• One of the people is bleeding from their ear, a concussive injury?
• Everyone goes home, but of course John wants to go back, and he does. On his travels he finds a zone of fear. Which is freaky. He stops to explore that. In the pitch black of night.
• Around the same time in various parts of the country, phenomena occur. The Herns, the Taylors, for instance.
• The Woody saga continues with NASA, who tell him where his alien chums come from. They seem to know a lot about them according to Woody.
Interest:
Well, this is a fun chapter where we get into what really happens with the witnesses. I found the idea of a slew of them in a sitting room telling stories to John rather appealing. As well as all the players going out for an adventure that goes south in a hurry.
Read it?
This is what you came for.
8 Procession of the Damned
The gist:
• This is all about the MIBs, even if some of them are women and most of them are not dressed in black. Regardless, this is an unsettling chapter.
• Marcella Bennett, a run in while with her infant daughter.
• Mabel McDaniel, UFO and tiny man.
• Gwendoline Martino, aural phenomena
• The Chritiansens – and their very strange encounter. Not that any of them are normal, but they got a real good look at theirs.
• Mary Hyre had many experiences with the MIBs. Testament to her fortitude, she didn’t give a shit about them and carried on.
• Tad Jones wasn’t a slack jawed yokel. This impresses John.
• Tad saw a UFO up close, as it was blocking a road. He didn’t mention this to anyone, yet there was a rather childish letter shoved under his door warning him off. So of course, this prompted Tad to go tell someone.
• Ralph Jarrett, phone shenanigans.
• Ivan Sanderson, zoologist, strange animal footprints around UFOs.
• Whole section on mysterious footprints, many seen by John.
• Sometimes, I must push aside my personal irks around John and his writing. I usually write it off to being a man of his time and being a pulp writer in his early career. His comments on people, especially women, are nonsensical and irrational. Also, not relevant. Be prepared when you read this. You’ll read quite pointless attributes to people, and yes, particularly women.
• Connie Carpenter and Keith Gordon. Point Pleasant residents we have met before. Someone tried to kidnap Connie.
• John talks about his travels and accusations of being a CIA agent
• There are some similarities between the CIA's art of intimidation and UFO flaps.
Interest:
The similarities between government apparatus and UFOs suggests imitative patterning going on. I'm taking a lead from John. When it’s all put in a line like that, its hard not to see it. I love this chapter. I do find myself trying not to dive into a conspiracy. Everyone thinks there is, and I’m inclined to agree. Is that me or John, at this point? John Keel believed that there was a higher intelligence at work in the universe. Everything arranged and spun from this intelligence. I don’t believe the same thing. When I read John’s work, and he is saying this all along, I don’t agree with him. When one ascribes to any kind of monotheism, it’s easy to see a conspiracy in other arenas. As it’s all the will of this intelligence.
Read it?
Oh yes. Plenty to chew on here as well.
9 ‘Wake Up Down There!’
The gist:
• Opens with a couple up a sort of lovers’ lane. They encounter a bluish ball of light that leaves them both sunburned and their eyes swollen!
• Lovers’ lanes are a particular preoccupation for our alien chums! Creeps!
• Donald Estrella! Mr U Thant of the UN! John Fuller! Dr J Allen Hynek! Drew Pearson! Harold Harmon! Sr Edward U Condon!
• Don Estrella tells all!
• Phone Phreaks!
• People called and referred to by a number!
• Post hypnotic suggestion!
• Kenneth Arnold!
• There are hundreds of Contactee books by the time of the writing of this book, Woody’s is one of them!
• Woody’s wife hated the visitors!
• Animal mutilation!
• Blood needed for a transmogrification process?!
• Reality manipulation!
• More flaps! More birdmen!
Interest:
Yes! Another full chapter and lots to think about!
Read it?
No doubt!
10 Purple Lights and April Foolishness
The gist:
• James Moseley. Don Drasin. James Lilly. Dr Donald Menze. Mrs Bryant.
• John explains here some of the stranger parts of his life as an investigator. Why he keeps a low profile. Some of his hypotheses were, by his own admittance, controversial to other investigators. So he kept them to himself.
• Asking unusual questions of people and insisting on dismantling phones. Other investigators found his strange for this. He was finding stranger data. His actions and questions based on his observations.
• The Lilly family had the whole lot: doors opening and closing, strange dreams, weird sounds.
• “Bedroom phantoms in checkered shirts are old hat to investigators of psychic phenomena”. They are?
• Phantom planes and helicopters which show up at flaps.
• There were a lot of lookyloos showing up for the flying saucers in Point pleasant. Lots of witnesses.
• John was interviewing around Point Pleasant as well. To get away from the crowds, me thinks.
• Houses in that neck of the woods were being ‘haunted’ by activity.
• John and Mary had experiences in this area that must be read.
• Lots of personal experiences from John here.
• Mrs Bryant and her peculiar interactions with MIBs. They asked the most boring questions.
• Cattle mutilations.
Interest:
Muchly. This chapter is especially good for John’s personal experiences and the Mrs. Bryant story.
Read it?
Do.
11 If This is Wednesday, it Must Be a Venusian
The gist:
• The Kellys of North Park are having ongoing issues with visiting glowing orbs.
• People are camping out in front of James Lilly’s place to do a bit of UFO watching, while losing the use of their cars.
• The Wednesday phenomena.
• Robert Wright. Dr David Saunders. Lieutenant Hoffman. Steve Mallette.
• There’s a table in here of UFO sightings.
• More communication between John, Mary and the UFOs.
• Mary Hyre’s affidavit.
• The red light seen by John and many other witnesses.
• Some of whom are having different experiences at the same time.
• Long journal excerpt from John. Leonard Elmore and his scary building.
Interest:
There is. The Wednesday phenomena is especially interesting.
Read it?
Do. It’s a fast chapter as well.
12 Games Nonpeople Play
The gist:
• We open with Woody and the rumour he’s pregnant.
• John feels like he is being followed and becomes even more secretive.
• He begins dropping in on people who have never reported anything, but Mary Hyre knows them. These visits lead to strange occurrences for the people involved.
• Farmer relates a strange tale about an encounter, a missing dog and strange phones calls.
• Ivan Sanderson.
• Contactees developing heightened perception, ESP and precognition. The story around that line is thought-provoking to say the least.
• Ted Owens and Uri Geller – space derived talents?
• John argues against the existence of UFOs and aliens again using science.
• Maris De Long and Michael Kisner.
• Aliens/entities in this chapter: Ashtoreth, Kronin Ashtar, Aphloes, Indrid Cold, Orthon, Zandark, Xeno.
• Woody is here again; John is questioning his veracity based on Woody’s naming conventions.
• John Mitchell, The view over Atlantis, excerpt.
• There’s an Intergalactic Federation and a United Cosmic Council.
• Brad Steiger, Revelation: The Divine Fire.
• Is it all contact with God?
• John appears angry with the entities. With good reason. Especially as the whole contactee situation is a type of reprogramming. He spends a lot of time on this aspect of the phenomena. He goes from epilepsy to rock music.
• William Sargant, Battle for the Mind, excerpt
• Dr Grey Walter, The Living Brain
• Dr Richard Burke, Cosmic Consciousness.
• Steve Michalak and his UFO disease.
• FW Holiday, British investigator.
• Various recountings of distortions in reality.
Interest:
This is a rather full chapter. There is lots of sources refed which I appreciate. Shows that the author at least dipped into these books. He said at one point that he used to be able to read a book in an hour. So, I would expect him to.
Read it?
If you’re interested in this facet of abductions, contacts, and various encounters, then yes. If you would rather stick to the traditional stories, then you could skip it, as this is more John speculation at heart.
13. Phantom Photographers
The gist:
• Appears that early UFOing was an embarrassing, keystone cops affair. With an added dollop of viciousness.
• John comes in strong with a phantom photographer who snapped him and a lady friend. He was one of the evil looking ones.
• Dan Drasin had one a few days later.
• More MIB and poltergeist phenomena for a UFO witness, ‘Ben’.
• These photographers were al over the country: from Ohio to Seattle, Long Island to New York.
• References to other Contactees we have met on our journey so far.
• Brinsley Le Poer Trench and JB Delair, British investigators re: Bogart family in Maresfield, Sussex.
Interest:
Some. It’s more programming suggestions. These MIBs following people who may or may not have reported any of their encounters.
Read it?
For the first time, I can say no, you can skip this. There’s nothing new in it, except the flash photography by these now familiar MIBs. If you’re deciding to read the whole book rather than dip in and out, I would imagine you’re enjoying it as much as I am and will read it anyway. But you don’t have to.
14 Sideways in Time
The gist:
• Opens with a classic and general dramatic abductee scenario.
• Quick run through of all sorts of abduction phenomena. Goes back a few centuries. UFOs and their pilots are the latest.
• Features three case studies to illustrate this point.
• Long testimony from Eugenio Siragusa about ambassadors from the Cosmic Council.
• John believes that this man experienced classic programming techniques. He is being used by who knows what, some vast intelligence, to disseminate information.
• Second case study is the two fishermen in Mississippi. Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker.
• Believed that this incident was an hallucination.
• Woody is back, and he believes his mates from space are time travellers.
• John is on board with this idea, as the folks they’ve encountered are oddly out of kilt with the time they are visiting.
• Tom, a student in Washington DC, met grinning beings who take him for a spin in their flying egg.
Interest:
Yes, this is a chapter about abduction and that it’s not what it appears to be. We know John’s opinion on it by now. The chapter has no real conclusion, just setting up for the next, which is fine.
Read it?
Yes, for the case studies, which are in several different categories of encounter.
15 Misery on the Mount
The gist:
• Someone robs John’s car, taking a briefcase, tapes, notes. I’m going out on a limb here that this is not random.
• Daniel Drasin was out to film some of the lights, and everything malfunctions.
• Dan discovered even more Mothman witnesses and MIB victims.
• Strange one on Keats Island.
• Again, hopping all over the place with the appearances of these men, and one woman claiming to be a reporter.
• Miss Jaye P Paro, whom John had a bit of a crush on. She is a contactee, but also a hub for people and places of high strangeness. A favoured courtier of Princess Moon Owl.
• There is also a lovely young blonde, whom John also finds very attractive. She was a contactee with all that involves: contact with A Pal, Apol, MIBs, Airforce personnel.
• Mount Misery is purported to be a haunted place.
• Nixon’s maid was gassed and asked to steal dresses. There are a number gassing stories.
• John was talking to these entities as well through the contactees. It appears to be one long conversation.
Interett?
This is a meaty chapter. A clearer view of an overarching narrative. I know where he’s going with it, and it’s fine. I’m enjoying the ride. There are some weird ones in here. The beings are more direct and forceful. The alien/future us/them are getting bolder with their contacts, the more people John talks to. It’s written in a fashion that things a coming at pace now.
Read it?
Yes.
16 Paranoiacs Are made, not Born
The gist:
• James V Forrestal, secretary of defense and the moment when he went a bit psychiatric.
• Other people around this time and place: Capt. Edward Ruppelt, Airforce Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg, Gen. George C Marshall, Gen, Douglas MacArthur, Gen. Nathan Twining.
• The evil sounding Rand Corporation.
• The line, “Paranoia gripped the upper echelons of government,” strikesa nerve. Holy fuck, there’s no ringmaster.
• Sorry, my stuff.
• Coral Lorenzen, Ufologist.
• Good question asked by John. What was happening to the bodies of the contactees while they were mentally loop de loop? Was it a Manchurian candidate type of situation?
• I like his phrase, superspectrum.
• Less so the implication that contactees give off an aura that attracts beings from the superspectrum to come mess with us. Yet another thing to worry about.
• John feels that he is being manipulated.
• A long range game is a foot. Where john gives questions to contactees. The answer would come back by mail, from entities by phone, or via possessed contactee.
• A prophesy from a previous chapter appears to be coming true.
• Penn Jones. A Texas newspaper editor had some of the same UFO type disruptions in his life. He was investigating the Kennedy shooting for years. He was never, to our knowledge, a contactee. A great tie back to the imitative nature of these occurrences.
• Harold Salkin, Washington DC Ufologist.
• No pope attack that year, but in 1970, Paul VI was attacked in the manner described, but was unhurt.
• John got an off date but correct details of Martin Luther King’s assassination.
• At times all the contactees would synch up. Now, lads, reading that is creepy.
• We have a nostalgic visit back to Point Pleasant.
Interest:
This is a stuffed chapter. Lots happens in here.
Read it?
Ah yeah.
17 ‘Even the Bedouins Hate Their Telephone Company
The gist:
• Male contactees often develop a version of gonorrhoea. Barney Hill displayed the same symptoms, I recall. Also, gross.
• Ivan Sanderson had some.
• A visitor on her way to see Ivan had what looked like explosives attached under her car by someone who claimed that her tyre looked dodgy.
• The strange visitors, like Mr. Apol, may be as programmed as the humans.
• The hybrid legend raises its ugly head, and John dismisses it as updated version of an old story. More because he’s equating all these experiences as something other than they purport to be.
• Eventually, their predictions, which were uncannily true, came around to the bridge.
• Dan Drasin’s proposed doco was cancelled. As was later in 1973 Fred Feed’s. Ralph Blum’s the same.
• The phone company does tell John that his phone is being tapped, but not by whom, and also, his phone bills were huge.
Interest:
The sheer volume of harassment that goes on for everyone involved is staggering. It’s worth it for that alone. This chapter reinforces the utter madness of the affair.
Read it?
Yes. Its nuts.
18 ‘Something Awful Is Going to Happen…’
The gist:
• Virginia Thomas, her sighting of a creature and resulting PTSD. She also reported about the amount of strange people in the area. Not strangers, but strange people. Her and her husband would grab the kids and run.
• People were having disaster dreams.
• John and others describe the awful oppressive feeling of Point Pleasant.
• He’s in town 10 minutes and he and Mary Hyre see something.
• Top tip: To stop all the weird shizzle that happens when investigating UFOs is simple. Stop thinking about them. Destroy all your files. Take up another hobby. Madness will retreat.
• The beings were spreading fake news about John's death. So, whatever was controlling them was pissed off with John.
• The beings were also turning on their selected humans. They became hostile and dangerous.
• John is thorough about searching for a rational explanation for his phone shenanigans. His bills were through the roof. He went to the exchange building not far from his apartment and taken on a tour.
• He accidentally discovered that he had two numbers. One went to him, another to someone who would take a message for Mr. Keel.
• The stringing of silver tape!
• John is spending a lot of time on phones in this chapter.
• The event that John was prepping for turned out to be a misdirection. They didn’t want him to warn anyone. It was the Silver Bridge, not a country wide power cut.
Interest:
Oh yes, the madness of what was going on is mind boggling. I would not put myself through this at all. I’m not made of as stern a stuff as John. The shock at the end of the chapter is genuinely spine tingling.
Read it?
I would and did. I think you should as well.
19 ‘Where the Birds Gather…’
The gist:
• John gives us the names of some of the people who were on the old bridge that day. He brings it all to life with survivor stories.
• It took a month to dig everyone out. Reading that is stark.
• A witness said she had seen two men climbing the bridge.
• John had spent a year on an off in Point Pleasant. Investigating and building relationships. Some of those relationships were in his control, and some were not.
• John draws several death, divorce and nervous breakdown stories together. There's no way to prove they are coincidence or not. It's up to us and our beliefs.
Interest:
A melancholic ending to this incredible journey. I’m glad he didn’t spend more time on the bridge fall. To do so would be milking it.
Read it?
Yes.
20 Afterword
Along with John’s broken hearted lament on the state of humanity, we learn that Mothman was still putting in appearances as late as 2001.
There be demons here. I think by 2003, when this afterword was written, this was his new interest. I don’t know, I haven’t read anything else of John Keel. It sounds that way.
Conclusion
This was a wild ride, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. It scared me at some points. I'm taking a break from UFOs and do some ghosts after this. This was intense. John says these are the facts as they occurred. Did this happen to him and his friends as he said they did? I have no reason to doubt him. I find his approach to hunting down the paranormal refreshingly cynical. He wants to believe so bad, he is willing to both be wrong, and consider himself a nutjob. This is a man who does not like to be wrong. This is a man who does not like to question his own sanity. He believes that he observes, analyses, experiences, and draws conclusions in that order. So, when it's thrown out, he is resilient. That's admirable. He's the antihero of his own story, and this is a memoir. If you keep that in mind when you read this book. Acknowledge some self-aggrandisement and move on. He is expounding the world according to John A Keel. But what else can he do, when he directly experiences the paranormal? These are things that happened to him. And he writes well, so it's no hardship, and quite exciting to read his experiences. He's a thinker and a doer. So, he writes like that.
Worth buying?
Yes. It’s a classic. I learned a lot about investigation old school in this book. It’s full of wonder and fear and madness. As well as what to look out for if you catch something strange in the sky.
