The Phenomenon is a term the late John
Keel used to describe the totality of strange occurrences such as
Yeti Sightings, UFOS, Men in Black and other unexplained phenomena
that suggest contact with an unknown order of beings. He devoted
much of his life to this research and ended up wondering about the
nature of the Phenomenon. His speculations are out of fashion
because they upset believers and skeptics alike.
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| Vampire: Edward Munch |
Once upon a time our ancestors lived in
a world that teemed with spirits. Every tree, forest, stream and
river had its spirits, some more than one, and not all benevolent or
neutral to humans. In Russia the Leshy led unwary travellers in the
forests round in circles, the Rusalka seduced man and drowned then
in her river, the Bannik lived in the bathhouse and the Domovoi
looked after the house. In Ireland the Sidhe were called the good
neighbours out of fear. And there were the great spirits: Pan and
Dionysus in Greece, Odin, Thor and Loki in the north, and Zeus, Mars
and Hermes in the south. And there were monsters hostile to humans
and keen on eating human flesh who will form a large part of this
hub. Werewolves, vampires and ghouls were known, hated, and feared
and the evidence for them was good as long as eyewitness accounts
could be taken at face value.
The Banishment of
monsters
When Science became the dominant mode
of intellectual thought the monsters were relegated to status of
superstitious nonsense. Where medieval scholars examined the
evidence as carefully as possible the new Scientific Orthodoxy
dismissed all cases without evidence. In many ways the new
generation of scientists were smart arrogant fools, with an
attitude summarised by Lavoisier's statement about meteors “Stones
cannot fall from the sky because there are no stones in the sky”.
Similar attitudes are shown by groups
of “skeptics” who routinely dismiss anomalous phenomena without
examining the evidence and presenting arguments based on common sense
or 19th century science. This attitude seems to be related
to early negative experiences of a faith-based philosophy ,
generally organised religion[1], much of which validates Richard
Dawkins' claim that raising a child in any religion is a form of
child abuse,or a fear of validating religion[2].
In the process of advancing human
knowledge the Scientific Attitude, which was basically Materialism,
enabled advances in human health to a level not seen since before the
dawn of agriculture, replaced much back breaking human labour with
machines and enabled development of destructive weaponry of a power
unimaginable to previous generations. Overall Science has been a
great benefit to the human race. No one stopped to wonder if, in
dismissing anomalies from an armchair rather then investigating in
the field, the baby was being thrown out with the bath water. In the
process the Sidhe, the Monsters and the entire spirit world was
banished to the land of fantasy.
But nobody told the
monsters.
Humans Versus Monsters
In looking at the strange creatures
that wonder through the world at various times attacking, confusing
or less frequently helping humans we encounter UFOS, Aliens,
Bigfoot, the Yeti, Werewolves, ghouls and a host of other creatures.
And when we look at the extremes of human behaviour, from the
harmless example of the man who was sexually aroused by roads and
finally jailed for attempting to seduce a motorway, to the woman who
killed her lovers and kept them in coffins in the basement where she
would sit in solitary state every night talking to the corpses
perhaps the scariest thing about some of these Unbelievables,
a term invented by John Keel, is that they are non human. In sheer
viciousness humans have them beaten hands down. That alone suggests
these creatures are not projections of the dark sides of our
unconscious minds: they are not scary enough.
A few cases.
856 AD: A giant dog invaded a church
in Trier, Prussia [4 citing Annales Francorum Regum and
Chronicon Saxonus ] during an immense storm which darkened the
sky so much that the congregation could hardly see each other. The
floor seemed to open and the beast rose up to run back and forth to
the altar. The Chronicon reported a similar incident in
867AD.
A monstrous pig like thing reportedly
appeared in a church at Andover, Hants, UK on Christmas Eve 1171. It
dashed round the altar just as the priest was killed by lightning
from within the church.
In 1065 a flying black horse crossed
York, England, during a lightning storm, apparently leaving enormous
prints (how it could do this while flying is unclear, unless the
image was an illusion). According to the Chronicles of Abbot Ralph of
Essex [4] after a horrible electric storm on July 29th
1205 Monstrous tracks were seen in several places of a kind never
seen before and in the period 11189-1199 2 in the time of King
Richard I of England there appeared in a certain grassy flat ground
human footprints of extraordinary length and everywhere the
footprints were impressed the grass remained as if scorched by fire.
In 1810 something was killing sheep
near the Scottish-English border killing 8 to ten animals a night and
sucking out their blood. That September a dog was killed in the area
and the killings reportedly stopped. Ignore the implications of a
vampire dog, but if the animal killed had been named as a domestic
dog called Fang I would suspect the Cosmic Joker had been feeling
bored. Apparently there was another series of similar attacks in 1874
in Cavan in Ireland, where the animal's throats were cut and their
blood sucked out. By April the beast had reached Limerick and
attacked and bit several people some of whom allegedly ended up in a
lunatic asylum “labouring under strange symptoms of insanity”.
Another bloodsucking killer near Badminton, England, in 1905 killed
over thirty sheep and a police sergeant said it could not have been
a dog and that dogs do not suck the blood of a sheep and leave the
flesh alone. An interesting feature is abrupt cessation of the
killings. This could mean the killer was an unknown animal that
died, or maybe it just moved on. Perhaps all these cases, involve
a single creature moving on. Here it is impossible to ignore the
medieval notion that demons fashioned bodies from materials like
blood and semen and that the people Kaplan considered true vampires
claimed to need blood to delay ageing. But there is not enough
evidence to make either demons or vampire humans more than a
speculative explanation.
A “monkey man” has been seen on and
off around Bridge 39 of the UK's Grand union canal in Shropshire.
First seen in 1879 it attacked a horse pulling a barge and when the
owner tried to whip the monkey the whip passed through it and the
horse ran off with the thing on its back. The same creature was seen
in 1980 and mentioned more recently in a cartoon in Fortean Times.
These cases just give a flavour of the
kind of things involved in the Phenomenon. There is a vast primary
and secondary literature and recording the cases and grouping them
appropriately would be an important but necessary task.
Theories
The theories here are largely from
Steiger[3] with added speculations. There is also the strong
possibility that no single theory can explain all the strange events
involved and in any case the theories tend to blur into each other,
and, as stated below, they may all be leading us up the wrong path.
Fantasy resulting from superstition
and ignorance. While a number of anomalous phenomena may be
explained in mundane terms there is a residue of unexplainables
where any explanation raises more questions than answers. Even if
this were true the worldwide uniformity in describing (say)
were-animals would require explanation.
Archetypes manufactured by the
collective unconscious. The
simple form of this theory does not explain the physical traces
sometimes left when humans encounter the Phenomenon. Apparently
towards the end of his life Jung began to believe that Archetypal
energies could manifest in the physical world. One author cited in
[3] defined Archetypes ans “Energetic Thought fields” that could
be accessed when a human is in certain altered states of
consciousness, and that there may be unrecognised dimensions of
physical events that contain highly evolved entities that intrude on
human attempts to reality. Steiger notes that the influence may be
malevolent or benevolent. As stated above, the Phenomenon seems to
be much less evil than humans, and Archetypes are still
controversial.
A paraphysical tribe that coexist
with us and occasionally
interacts with us. If so they are not necessarily friendly.
Unfortunately the term “Paraphysical” is not well defined. And
it does not explain the relative rarity of Bigfoot sightings ( for
example) in major cities.
Supernatural beings:
Angels or demons, malevolent, benevolent or simply playful.
Accepting this theory does not validate any particular religion nor
does it validate religion in general. But the kind of events
involved look a little beneath the dignity of powerful supernatural
beings.
Unknown Terrestrial life:
This theory surfaces time and again, in one form as the idea that
Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster are real creatures ( and Keel [4]
notes droppings attributable to Bigfoot have been found) or the
notion, proposed by Karl Shuker that UFOs are a form of life
largely restricted to the middle and upper atmosphere. Again some
events seem to strengthen this theory but others seem more
paranormal.
Creatures from the Hollow Earth:
This theory says the earth is
honeycombed with vast underground caverns in which these creatures
live. Even those found hundreds of miles from any known caverns.
While there are indeed a lot of underground caverns the vast
majority seem inhospitable to life.
Creatures
misplaced in time and space: Trapped by time warps these creatures
are as out of place as they look. Except some seem to have adapted as
well as if they were from here and now. The Yeti might be the best
candidate for such a creature.
Creatures from other dimensions:
Originating in a parallel space time continuum we can only see these
creatures under extraordinary, but, if the number of sightings is a
guide, not especially rare, circumstances.
A planetary poltergeist:
A particularly weak theory since poltergeist phenomena are generally
very different from the events involving these Unbelievables.
Answers to a Psychic need:
We manufacture the creatures in response to a psychic need using
otherwise inaccessible psychic powers. This would require a level of
PSI far in excess of that seen in laboratories, but Alexandra David
Neel's experiments creating a thought form in Tibet mean it cannot
be ruled out.
Extraterrestrial
Experiments: Perhaps these creatures have been put here so
something can monitor our reaction ( Or conversely it seems to me
that Earth may be a dumping ground for failed experiments).
Programmed
Deceit and Delusion: created for an ulterior and perhaps sinister
motive. Given the ease with which humans deceive themselves this is
over elaborate, all the agency creating this needs is some writing
they can call holy scriptures and a script to target the rubes.
Genetic Misfits
from Atlantis: explains the unbelievables in terms of what
seems to be a myth. Edgar Cayce channeled information about this
claiming that Atlanteans created several new species including pigs
(which were holy in some ancient cultures. We know this from data
about the Celts and the fact that in some cultures the pig is
regarded as evil, a sure sign it was once sacred).
Teaching
Mechanisms: Perhaps some higher agency is creating the phenomenon
in order to change our concept of reality. If so we are slow
learners.
These theories
include unknown animals, para-physical beings, mental phenomena,
poltergeists, thought forms and Atlantis. The fact that a case can
be made for each theory suggests that a multiplicity of Phenomena
are involved.
John Keel pointed
out that in some encounters, such as those with UFOs, there is reason
to believe that the experiencers have had artificial memories planted
in order to disguise what really happened. If this is the case then
when dealing with the Phenomenon we need to look for evidence that
what the witness recalls may be a decoy. Keel also noted that
sometimes armies of monster hunters were coming fields for a monster
of some kind while a few miles away UFOs were landing and... doing
something.
The
Wrap
This
has been a first effort at investigating a vast and disorderly field.
Many investigators simply focus on one detail while ignoring the
bigger picture. Here I looked at the reason why the phenomenon has
been less accepted since Science began to dominate, shown a few cases
and listed various theories, the multiplicity of which shows the
complexity of the subject. It is likely that no one theory fits all
the phenomena involved.
Further reading
[1]
The Pathology of Organized Skepticism L. DAVID
LEITER, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.
125–128, 2002
[2]
Hume’s Syndrome: Irrational Resistance
to the Paranormal MICHAEL GROSSO Journal
of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 22, No.
4, pp. 549–556, 2008
[3]
Monsters among us, Brad Steiger, Para Research 1982, ISBN
0-9149-18-38-9
[4]
Strange Creatures from Time and Space, John Keel, Sphere Books 1975
ISBN 0-7221-5147-0
you may also be interested in the posts on our sister blog such as the post on Satanic Puritan Thomas Wier
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