Mothman on the Telephone: Collected bloggings of beeping creatures and electronic high strangeness by Regan Lee Introduction This is a sampling of various blog postings and articles I’ve written about Mothman and Bigfoot -- specifically, the beeping, electronic sounds sometimes reported to emanate from these creatures. It’s a “high strangeness” feature of Fortean and crypto phenomena that I find fascinating. I have not personally encountered Sasquatch or Mothman, but find myself particularly drawn to them. I know several people personally who have seen Bigfoot, and have no reason to disbelieve them. I choose to believe them, why not? I know them, I trust them. Many of the witnesses I’ve spoken to have years of experience camping, hunting, or living in rural areas. They know the wildlife, they know what they’re talking about. I doubt very much they mistook a bear or an elk for a Bigfoot. Seeing such a creature had a profound effect on them. I also think the evidence is strong, supporting the idea Sasquatch exists. So, those two things combined: eye witness accounts and physical evidence, gives me enough information to accept its existence. And if it’s somehow proven to not exist? Really, “oh well.” Seriously. “Oh well.” No harm done. Yet of course, how can we discount all those reports, all those encounters, all those casts and other evidence, all that lore? You can’t, as they say, prove a negative. Something has been experienced by witnesses, something defying explanation. Unless, of course, the explanation is: people have seen exactly what they say they saw. As to Mothman, that’s a slightly different situation. I’ve never encountered a Mothman, or even been to West Virginia. (Although my grandfather, stunt man, actor, carny, con man, shooter, cowboy, and hoofer, was born in West Virginia. A Fortean trickster legacy for sure.) Yet something tugs at me regarding Mothman, and I’m not sure why or what that is. I’ve been intrigued by the Mothman story since the 1970s, when I first read John A. Keel’s book The Mothman Prophecies. I’ve watched countless television programs about Mothman and its witnesses, and, after reading the works of researchers such as Andrew Colvin, I am convinced something truly strange has occurred in Pt. Pleasant. And, being a conspiracy fan, following that path to the rabbit hole before tumbling down into its crazy twisting depths, has left no doubt in my mind that the Mothman exists. For the most part, these blog posts and articles appear here as they originally appeared. Minor edits here and there have been made. Images are not included due to Kindle’s limitations, but I’ve included links where those can be found. Regan Lee Willamette Valley January 2012 It’s 3:00 a.m. - Time for Mechanical Sounds From the blog Strange Planet, (dead link) a fascinating post about the author’s experiences involving mechanical voices, where he describes hearing at 3:00 a.m. (a time noted for being a kind of UFO/paranormal, magical time, as he notes) a very strange sound. “Approximately two months ago, I awoke in the middle of the night, roughly within the magical 3 am hour (That in itself is worthy of more study, as it always seems to be at that particular hour. But I won’t veer off course here). What I began to hear, was in fact, as best I can describe, the sound of a LARGE ‘mechanical and metallic’ bird(?) outside of my window. I was stunned by this sound, but not afraid. I didn’t even feel the urge to look, to be honest. I just paid attention to the sound itself. It was fascinating. For the better part of ten minutes, it would ‘squawk’ several times, take a break for about 30 seconds, then resume the vocalization. I heard it that one night, and never again. If I were to match the scope and size of this ‘bird’ with the size of the sound, this thing would’ve been 8 ft. tall. Better I not look after all. “ He goes on to write about synchronicity; contacts with others experiencing similar things, and some of what he’s discovered via research, past experiences, and the movie The Fourth Kind. What struck me as interesting was the immediate “mothy” vibe I got from reading this account. Even though there is no mention of Mothman or indication of any Mothman phenomena, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Mothman. There is the bird like imagery of this encounter of course, but I thought of the electronic voices Keel described in The Mothman Prophecies. 1 Ed Walters, author of The Gulf Breeze Sightings, described hearing weird electronic or metallic voices outside his bedroom windows at night in connection with his UFO experiences. I was also reminded of Greg Taylor’s article Her Sweet Murmur, in DarkLore volume 1, which explores the rushing, roaring, bell clanging/chiming sounds many (including myself) experience during esoteric events. These episodes appear diverse and often unconnected from each other; UFOs, BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) appearances, Mothman, Bigfoot or other crypto sightings, aliens, OOBEs, etc. but, Taylor asks, is there a common source from where these entities emerge? These strange sounds of clicking, clacking, singing, bells and the like are shared by fringe phenomena; possibly pointing to the idea they are related. UFOs, aliens, abductions, contactees, Bigfoot weirdness, BVM sightings, MIBS, fairies, maybe they are kaleidoscopic manifestations of the same thing. As far as Mothman goes, Mothman wasn’t, or isn’t, an isolated and specific event. There’s a whole high strangeness context enveloping Mothman: UFOs, MIBS, telepathic messages, OOBEs, electronic voices, premonitions, heavy dreams laden with messages and communications, curses and legends, synchronicities and a thread of violence that trails Mothman. This is not to say Mothman itself is violent, or responsible for the aura of violence connected with the phenomena, but a response to it. ~ dec 7, 2009 2 D r e a m : C a l l i n g f o r M o t h m a n F u n n y o d d s n i p p e t o f a d r e a m l a s t n i g h t i n v o l v i n g t e l e p h o n e s , b r o a d c a s t s a n d M o t h m a n . N o t m u c h a t a l l t o r e l a t e . D r e a m t t h e p h o n e k e p t r i n g i n g , w h i c h i r r i t a t e d m e . A n d e a c h t i m e I g o t u p t o a n s w e r i t , I c o u l d n t h e a r m u c h m o r e t h a n s t a t i c , w h i t e n o i s e . T h r o u g h t h e b u z z i n g , c r a c k l i n g n o i s e I h e a r d , f a i n t l y a n d b r e a k i n g u p , h u m a n v o i c e s . S o m e t i m e s a w o m a n s v o i c e , s o m e t i m e s a m a n s . T h e y w e r e t r y i n g t o l e a v e m e a m e s s a g e , b u t t h e n u m b e r s a p p e a r i n g o n t h e c a l l e r I D s c r e e n w e r e n t a n y t h a t I r e c o g n i z e d . I k e p t t r y i n g t o t e l l t h e m t h e y h a d t h e w r o n g n u m b e r , I w a s n t w h o t h e y w e r e l o o k i n g f o r . T h e y , o r I , w o u l d h a n g u p , o n l y t o h a v e t h e m c a l l a g a i n . W h a t c a m e t h r o u g h f r o m m a i n l y t h e w o m a n s v o i c e , w a s t h a t t h e y w e r e l o o k i n g f o r s o m e o n e n a m e d C h a r n i e o r C h a r n y ( c h a r - k n e e ) a n d t h a t I w a s h e r , o r , i t , o r , h i m .