The Mothman Prophecies: Paranormal Hybrid Vigor
You know what flying saucers are, right? Spaceships
from outer space! They can be big, or small. They can look like clouds, or silent
helicopters, or ice cream cones, or cigars. More commonly, they look like discs,
or spheres, or VW NeuBeetles, something rounded to contrast them with all those
long and pointy missiles and rockets the white(jumpsuited) guys in the Air
Force and NASA send up. If fifty-one years
of flying saucer movies are anything to go by, UFOnauts don't seem to be made
of the "right stuff",
either. Usually
Zeta Reticuli sends us Attila the Hun, who trashes the place but is always
sent packing by super-science,
germs, or more recently, yuppie
hackers. Other times, they send us Jesus
(WWETD?), ready to give us the answer to atomic disarmament, the ozone layer,
or whatever else the cover of Time magazine is trying to scare people
with this week. Since the 1960s, we've been treated to a double-header of Dracula
and Jack the Ripper, as the little gray men walk amongst us undetected, get
their jollies making off with the blood
and genitals of genetically hormone enhanced cattle, and mesmerize abductees
for cold clinical sex. They've even brought their pet chupacabras
along for the ride. Anyway, flying saucers are weird aluminum spaceships full
of illegal aliens waiting to disintegrate, illuminate, or exsanguinate us.
The various Hollywood scenarios above are all variants
of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) for UFOs, or the "nuts and bolts" paradigm.
Simply put, UFO occupants are biological or mechanical, and the flying saucers
are part of their advanced material culture. The Crashed
Saucer legend, most famously the Roswell Incident, is the epitome of this
philosophy. Believer or skeptic, most people around the world think of the ETH
as synonymous with UFOs.
But there are other explanations. Skeptics
cite the "Kook Hypothesis". More charitably, sociologists and anthropologists
propose the psychosocial hypothesis, that these beliefs are a part of human
culture, like religion or folklore (anthropology
is the least religious of all academic fields in the United States). Evangelical
Christians quote Genesis to show that UFO
enthusiasts are actually worshipping demons. Militia members think the UFOs
are all a ruse, which the New World Order will use to throw John Birchers into
makeshift concentration camps in Nevada. New Age-y contactees
remember their former lives as aliens on the planet Zeist.
And then there is John Keel. A freelance reporter and
writer based in New York, Keel conducted some field research on UFOs in the
1960s before combining all of the above into a unique occult stew. He is most
famous for The
Mothman Prophecies
(Keel 1991), a jumpy collection of Keel's ruminations hung upon a framework
of strange happenings in rural West Virginia throughout 1967. The Mothman
of the title is the most unique element of the story, though not the most important.
Alternatively described as a large man with wings, or a huge headless furry
creature with giant glowing red eyes, "Mothman" lived to terrorize young couples
in secluded lover's lanes. But Keel was more interested in UFOs and those who
were contacted by them than in nocturnal winged peeping toms. To hear Keel tell
it, West Virginia, and indeed the world, was crawling with sightings of strange
lights, extraterrestrial visitors with misspelled Biblical or Classical names,
and Men in Black. Particularly Men in Black. Though he didn't invent the concept,
Keel's books and writings solidified the Men in Black as strange beings in their
own right. Flying saucer enthusiasts had reported intimidating visits from men
in dark suits since the 1950's. These strange visitors were interpreted as government
agents sent to intimidate the daring ufologists; more skeptical observers suggested
that these tales made the teller "important" enough to be silenced by Them.
But Keel's MIB's are far stranger. They can have unusual facial features (often
classified as "Oriental", a term which seems to have no meaning the way Keel
uses it), wear all sorts of clothes (not just the Reservoir
Dogs funeral suits), often with strange thick-soled shoes. They may talk
too fast or too slow, often in the same conversation. Simple objects will puzzle
them, yet they seem to have mastered the use of dark-colored sedans and flash
cameras.
Instead of suspecting government spooks, Keel lumps
MIBs with space travelers, mothmen, fairies, hairy monsters, ghosts, devils,
angels, gods, spirits, doppelgangers, and other strange folk. From his perspective,
they act in similar ways, through time and space. There is only a cosmetic difference
between a beam of light striking Saul on the road to Damascus, hastening the
spread of Christianity, and a flying saucer taking George
Adamski or Rael on an interplanetary trip
so that they can spread the word of the Space Brothers. Skeptics and rationalists
would agree with Keel, and label all of these things part of the human tendency
to create a rich supernatural world and populate it with wonderous and terrible
beings. But Keel accepts some kind of reality for these beings, though he has
no idea what they are. Because the same kinds of reports are recorded throughout
human history, Keel proposes that these things have been here as least as long
as we have, that they are a permanent part of life on earth. He calls them ultra-terrestrials,
but I believe my favorite term for them comes from the title of a chapter in
The Mothman Prophecies, "Games Non-People Play". As an all-encompassing
unified field theory, the concept is overwhelming yet simple at the same time.
If accepted, the explanatory power is intoxicating. Aztec
blood sacrifice, UFO sightings, Bigfoot, Fatima,
phone malfunctions, men with thick rubber-soled shoes, deja-vu, and Adam
Weishaupt: IT'S ALL CONNECTED!
And because it touches so much, and encompasses so
much, yet is still unexplained, it can't be disproved. One can question the
behavior of aliens as bizarre, non-scientific, and irrational (what's with all
the abductions?), traits that might not be expected of beings flying in spaceships.
One can also ask why flying ships have changed through time, going in and out
of style. Or why alien messages are always simplistic or pointless, as after
all, an advanced intellect should be able to provide more of a direct clue to
global problems than "Make peace and open your minds." But as Keel describes
the strange behavior reported by eyewitnesses and experienced by Keel himself,
the fragmentary non-logical patterns rule out ET astronauts. Instead, the vague
prophecies and unusual folk are all part of the "Games Non-People Play", for
an end we cannot fathom. God works in mysterious ways, after all.
And so we return to the Mothman. As stated above, the
early focus of The Mothman Prophecies is Mothman. But non-people come
in all shapes and sizes in Point Pleasant, and soon Keel is dealing with Space
Brothers, MIB's, Mothmen, and UFOs of every shape and size (on a clockwork basis
no less). Keel places all of this into the larger 1966 UFO flap (which also
spawned the infamous Project Blue Book explanation
of "swamp gas"), and begins to suspect that big things are on the horizon.
He is prompted by the titular prophecies of local Woody Derenberger, who gets
his information from a long-haired silver-suited spaceman by the name of Indrid
Cold. While other Cold contactees both in and outside West Virginia begin to
come to Keel's attention, Woody is the best source of information. As Keel begins
to get an inkling of what terrible event Cold's messages might be foretelling,
They start to apply pressure. MIB's tail and photograph Keel, his associates,
and acquaintances not even connected with UFOs or West Virginia. Keel's phone
begins to act up, with constant strange sounds and interruptions. People report
calls from Keel that he never makes, and when he calls his own home, an unknown
man answers on his behalf.
Finally, the strange events come to a head, and a horrible
disaster comes to pass, but one only tangential at best to the contactees'
prophecies. Keel counts the dead, and step quietly back into the land of the
living, not much wiser than he had been a year before. There is no resolution,
no hero's journey fulfilled. Unlike many UFO and Forteana books, The Mothman
Prophecies has a setting, a cast of characters, a goody spooky author, and
something of a narrative. But there is no mind-blowing final discovery, no smoking
gun, nothing to show but speculation that perhaps the world is far wilder than
we suspect (or that the author is mad, or just a good storyteller, or all of
the above). Other approaches generally provide some answers: religion illuminates;
science explains. If UFOs are flown by Space Brothers, the author imparts their
wisdom. If a cover-up is found, at least things are under control, and the bad
guys named. Even abduction accounts provide some closure, with memories recovered,
and maybe patterns exposed to reveal an agenda. But no loose ends are tied up
in The Mothman Prophecies, things just end, with no indication they won't
start up again elsewhere or when.